Portside

Trump's Budget proposal increases military share to 61%.

The President's budget is a reflection of the administration's priorities. And this administration and their GOP co-horts in Congress want to slash over a trillion dollars with cuts to programs for some of the nation's most vulnerable. A massive increase in the military budget and war preparations comes at the expense of slashing all kinds of social programs.

During the Cold War, the supposed threat of Communism was the justification for super-sized budgets and a continuous stream of wars and interventions-some overt, others covert or proxy-none of which had anything to do with defending the United States-and none of which ended in victory. These were sold to the American people as being fought to "defend freedom" or "support democracy." After the Cold War ended it became more difficult to justify such a massive military.

The dominant role played by U.S. corporations in the international arms trade owes a great deal to the efforts of U.S. government officials. “Significant parts of the government,” notes military analyst William Hartung, “are intent on ensuring that American arms will flood the global market and companies like Lockheed and Boeing will live the good life.

On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the author takes aim at the narrative that socialism crumbled in the Soviet Union under its own weight, brought about by inherent weaknesses and contradictions of socialism. Instead the case is made that a concerted and relentless 10-year secret war by the Reagan Administration so weakened the Soviet economy and Soviet psyche, along with missteps by the Soviet leadership, that socialism was overthrown.

How do you spell boondoggle? It's clear, it spells Pentagon and it goes directly to private corporations and much of it is then wasted on useless overhead, fat executive salaries, and startling (yet commonplace) cost overruns on weapons systems and other military hardware that, in the end, won’t even perform as promised.

The militarized Trump White House is pursuing plans for a trillion-dollar rebuild of the entire US nuclear weapons complex.

The peace movement is where realism about U.S. military madness lives. The movement is the main challenger to nationalism and xenophobia, and the main force for internationalism in an interconnected world. It abides in the best political instincts in every other progressive social movement. Restoring it is a collective responsibility for the entire range of forces shocked into motion by the 2016 election.

Reader Comments: White House Explains the Holocaust - Just in time for Passover and Easter; Trump and Syria - What We Know...and Don't - Take Action Now; A Nation Made By War - A Veteran's commentary; the Frayed Alliance Between Unions and Progressives; Sanders Bill To Make Public Colleges Tuition-Free - San Francisco's Example; Free Resources - Resources: Mapping the Left in EU, Canada and USA from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - New York Office; Announcements; and more...

A coalition of leaders in the anti-war, civil rights, immigration, climate, women's, and faith movements have come together to denounce Donald Trump's proposed $54 billion increase in the military budget. The broad-based #No$54BillionforWar Campaign includes city-based resolutions against increased military spending.