Make Your Case!

Posted by 26sc on November 02, 2013 · Flag

Updated 2024

here
 

           As the above drawing by Andy Singer  illustrates, think tanks are necessary and we need one on the left as well as on the right. If you have made it this far into our website, you probably agree with us that the United States is off course in several significant ways. Unfortunately, the nicely paid positions are for those justifying we stay off course. Because we do not accept corporate contributions, we cannot afford a formal  “think tank,” but we can try  with this poor man's think tank to give you some ammunition for fighting the good fight.

    Be aware that facts alone are insufficient or we would not be where we are now.  There has to also be some emotional involvement. While I don’t have any magic formulas, it is good to add references to your articles and Facebook or other social media contributions to boost their credibility. (For instance, "Anthony is absolutely correct! -Your comments - See web-link) Start at NPA Weblinks below, other resources are listed below that.

    If anyone has suggestions for additions to these books, videos, or websites, then please email me at [email protected]  

Contents:

1. Make your case with weblinks. (Start here.)

2. Make your case with books and articles.

3. Make your case with the United Nations.

4. Make your case with the Unified Platform.

5. Make your case with art.

6. Make your case with videos, movies,  and memes.

 

 

1. Make your case with weblinks.

A. NPA Weblinks - Start here.

            Start here because these areas are extensive and continuously updated. The big advantage of using these 16 articles is the extensive references (over 12,000) which are continuously updated so readers can see and document a continuing and expanding trend rather than one isolated incident. This also gets the reader on the NPA website.

             In addition to the below 16 areas you may be looking for documentation on a specific person or organization. Here is a resource for that: Don’t Let These People or Organizations Fool You.  For those who think the answer is to reform the democrats from within see The Democratic Party is the More Effective of Two  Evils. 

  • Civil Rights    In addition to documenting other civil rights violations, we have provided specific references documenting torture.

  • Corporate Overreach

  • The Economy -  If you want to advocate about a specific part of the economic problem, I have provided separate references for banks, democrats, employment - including real percentages, the rise of temporary employment without benefits and the demise of retirement; inequality, social security and medicare,  taxes including increasing privatization and our declining infrastructure, and disastrous trade agreements including  the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership).
  • Economic Graphs -  A graph summarizes a great deal of information in a short easily understandable space. This provides various graphs you can use in the following categories: It is that bad, inequality is rising,  The rich pay less, There is enough money and we are not overspending on the poor, education, labor, video, and other insights.
  • Education    In addition to other references, we have provided specific references documenting the anti-education actions of the Democratic Party.
  • Election Reform – one of the ten goals of the Unified Platform
  • Environment - If you want to advocate about a specific part of the environmental problem, I have provided separate references for climate change, coal, cost, Democrats Are Not the Answer, fracking and natural gas, Gulf of Mexico and the BP oil spill, Monsanto and bees, nuclear energy, oceans, transportation of dangerous fossil fuels including the XL and other pipelines, water and the feasibility of going with renewable energy.
  • Health Care

  • Our Crumbling Infrastructure    In addition to other references about our crumbling infrastructure, we have provided specific references documenting education, the internet, the power grid and clean energy, roads and bridges, and the Post Office.

  • Labor
  • Poverty
  • Press    In addition to other references, we have provided specific references documenting the sad fall of the New York Times as a journalistic standard.
  • Diminishing Transparency
  • Continuous Wars   In addition to other references, we have provided specific references documenting Gaza War.
  • The War on Whistleblowers
  • Widespread Police Misconduct and an Expanding Prison Population

 

B. Other  Weblinks

 

C. Weblinks of NPA Allies

            Weblinks of NPA Allies can be found here.

 

 

2. Make your case with books, articles, and documentaries.

  • Addams, Jane  Bread and Peace in Time of War  was first published in 1922 during the "Red Scare." By that time Jane Addams' pacifist efforts had adversely affected her popularity as an author and social reformer. "Peace and Bread in Time of War" is Addams' eighth book and the third to deal with her thoughts on pacifism. Though she was severely criticized for opposing the US entry into World War I and called "the most dangerous woman in America," later historians tend to be much more sympathetic towards her views. Interestingly enough, politicians as diverse as Chris Hedges and Barry Goldwater agree with Addams on World War I. (See writings by Goldwater and Hedges below for an agreement on World War I among this unlikely trio.)
  • Ahabwe, Michael  Tears of Resilience tells real stories from real Female Genital Mutilation survivors, focuses firmly on the realities of Female Genital Mutilation and teaches women how to reclaim their female bodies as a source of power and significance. Female Genital Mutilation survivors, feminists, mothers, attorneys, poets, medical health providers discuss struggles arising from genital mutilation and struggles of reclaiming their female bodies as a source of power and significance. More than recounting horrors, it also describes strategies for stopping it. It will be released and is gathering funding now.
  • Alford, Ryan Permanent State of Emergency: Unchecked Executive Power and the Demise of the Rule of Law  In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched initiatives that test the limits of international human rights law. The indefinite detention and torture of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, targeted killing, and mass surveillance require an expansion of executive authority that negates the rule of law. In Permanent State of Emergency, Ryan Alford establishes that the ongoing failure to address human rights abuses is a symptom of the most serious constitutional crisis in American history. Instead of curbing the increase in executive power, Congress and the courts facilitated the breakdown of the nation’s constitutional order and set the stage for presidential supremacy. The presidency, Alford argues, is now more than imperial: it is an elective dictatorship. Providing both an overview and a systematic analysis of the new regime, he objectively demonstrates that it does not meet even the minimum requirements of the rule of law. At this critical juncture in American democracy, Permanent State of Emergency alerts the public to the structural transformation of the state and reiterates the importance of the constitutional limits of the American presidency. Professor Alford has been a professor at Lakehead University, the University of Victoria, and Ave Maria School of Law.
  • Bacevich, Andrew Twilight of the American Century It has been difficult for the U.S. empire to maintain their facade of goodness for their endeavors after World War II...In Twilight of the American Century, a selection of his own collected writings, Andrew J. Bacevich reveals the contradictions between what is said about U.S. actions...and the results of such actions. In essence, the rationalizations, the hubris, and the arrogance do not match up with the lack of accomplishments...
  • Baker, Dean  The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer  His areas of research include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare and European labor markets. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. His blog, "Beat the Press," provides commentary on economic reporting. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and the OECD's Trade Union Advisory Council. 
  • Bauman, Dr. Yoram and Grady Klein Cartoon Introduction to Economics (2 books, Volume1 Microeconomics, Volume 2 Macroeconomics) This introduces many complex concepts in an illustrated comprehensive way which makes them easier (not easy!) to understand.
  • Bauman, Dr. Yoram and Grady Klein Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change  This introduces many complex concepts in an illustrated comprehensive way which makes them easier (not easy!) to understand.
  • Bauman, Dr. Yoram and Alan Durning Tax Shift: How to Help the Economy, Improve the Environment, and Get the Tax Man Off Our Backs  Dr. Bauman addresses the need to examine our tax system and the undesirable societal results it engenders. Yoram Bauman also campaigns for constructive changes, does stand up economic comedy,  discusses climate change, and wrote other books. See his website here.
  • Blum, William Killing Hope - U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II William Blum serves up a forensic overview of U.S. foreign policy spanning sixty years. For those who want the details on our most famous actions (Chile, Cuba, Vietnam, to name a few), and for those who want to learn about our lesser-known efforts (France, China, Bolivia, Brazil, for example), this book provides a window on what our foreign policy goals really are.
  • Boston, Robert The Most Dangerous Man in America   This book chronicles the personal and political life of televangelist Pat Robertson including his bid for the Presidency on the Republican ticket in the primaries of 1988. Robertson lost the election but he created an influential coalition between the radical religious and the Republican Party that exists to this very day. It is the elephant in the room that neither Democrats nor progressives have adequately discussed and analyzed.
  • Bronowski, Jacob The Ascent of Man (also a PBS series) Not a political book, but a good one that asks – and I think answers - the question, “What is man?” We have been through the fire before.
  • Butler, Smedley D. War Is A Racket (The Profit That Fuels Warfare) a classic book by a life long Marine 
  • Campbell, Sue Ellen Some Climate Basics
  • Campbell, Sue Ellen Weather learning tools - Data visualizations, music, maps, colors, graphs and more (neckties too?) aid in learning about weather.
  • Carter, Dr. Peter and Woodworth, Elizabeth  Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival
  • Carson, Rachel - Rachel Carson is a very competent scientist, but is best known for her prose which brings the consequences of environmental destruction to the general public. She is best known for Silent Spring, but also deserves credit for The Sea Around Us.  It sold well over a million copies, was translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal. Though published in 1951, it is jaw-droppingly accurate in future predictions. Two New Progressive Alliance articles which justify her predictions with more modern references are Cost of Environmental Destruction with over 200 references and Danger to Our Oceans with over 100 references.  
  • Chenoweth, Erica Civil Resistance What Everyone Needs to Know This is a  sweeping academic overview of civil resistance movements around the world that explains what they are, how they work, why they are often effective, and why they can fail. Civil resistance is a method of conflict through which unarmed civilians use a variety of coordinated methods (strikes, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and many other tactics) to prosecute a conflict without directly harming or threatening to harm an opponent.
  • Chomsky, Noam  How the World Works - a mix of history, analysis, economics
  • Churchill, Winston Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill, (edited by Richard M. Langworth) Winston Churchill is not the first name that springs to mind when thinking about progressive heroes and perhaps not even the second. It is shocking how many aspects of western civilization he praises (trial by jury, habeas corpus) that have been eliminated. Many of his eloquent criticisms of Nazis would thus apply to us.
  • Conway and Oreskes Merchants of Doubt:Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming 2011 book, 2014 video documentary, “There can be no science without doubt: brute dogma leaves no room for inquiry. But over the last half century, a tiny minority of scientists have wielded doubt as a political weapon to halt what they did not want said: that tobacco kills or that the climate is warming because of what we humans are doing...It is clear, scientifically responsible, and historically compelling--it is an essential and passionate book about our times.” ―Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps
  • Demarais, Agathe Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests (Center on Global Energy Policy Series) U.S. policy makers see sanctions as a low-cost tactic, but in reality these measures often fail to achieve their intended goals―and their potent side effects can even harm American interests.
  • Dembicki, Geoff The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change This book clearly documents the outrageous lies and bribery of the fossil fuel industry.
  • Dembicki, Geoff Are We Screwed?: How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change A declaration of resistance, and a roadmap for radical change, from the generation that will be most screwed by climate change. He gives many examples of change which have not yet had time to develop. A small criticism is - like many neo-liberals -  Snyder clearly and correctly sees civil rights wrongs when performed by republicans, but completely misses those by democrats and others such as Trudeau and Sanders.
  • Dorr, Adam Brighter: Optimism, Progress, and the Future of Environmentalism Adam Dorr is an environmental scientist, technology theorist, and Director of Research at the renowned think tank RethinkX. Dr. Dorr explains that technological disruptions are already underway that will radically transform energy, transportation, food, and labor. The clean new technologies will wipe out older, dirtier technologies, foster unprecedented prosperity, and open the door to mitigating environmental impacts and restoring ecological integrity at a planetary scale – including solving climate change.
  • Draper, Robert To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq Bush has yet to be held accountable for taking the United States into two prolonged unnecessary wars. Dr. Cassidy at Wesleyan University in reviewing the book wrote "The reality was that he (Bush) chose one of the most inept and dysfunctional national security teams in history...(and) fabricated the exigency of invading a country with no WMD, no links to al-Qaida, and no role in the 9/11 attacks...This is the best book on the worst war the United States has undertaken."
  • Earle, Sylvia A. The World is Blue, How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One Sylvia is a former NOAA Chief Scientist, a deep sea explorer,  a major force in the establishment and growth of the world's marine sanctuaries, a founder and director of Deep Ocean Research and Exploration, and author of 15 books on the ocean. The final section of this fine book has a list of needed specific actions which were also  part of a TED talk she gave in 2009.
  • Farrow, Ronan  War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence  A harrowing exploration of the collapse of American diplomacy and the abdication of global leadership, by the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. US foreign policy is undergoing a dire transformation, forever changing America’s place in the world. Institutions of diplomacy and development are bleeding out after deep budget cuts; the diplomats who make America’s deals and protect its citizens around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We’re becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth―Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them―acclaimed investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience as a former State Department official affords a personal look at some of the last standard bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan. Drawing on newly unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with warlords, whistle-blowers, and policymakers―including every living former secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson―War on Peace makes a powerful case for an endangered profession. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, shortsightedness, and outright malice―but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.
  • Finkelstein, Norman  Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom    Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein's new book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law.
    But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after Judge Richard Goldstone's humiliating retraction of his UN report, human rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut.
  • Fonda, Jane. What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action.  A call to action from Jane Fonda urging us to wake up to the looming disaster of climate change and equipping us with the tools we need to join her in protest.
  • Foreman, Dr. Amanda  This talented author has written books on historical periods and individuals as well women. She produced an excellent series of videos called "The Ascent of Woman" which traces major civilizations from 10,000 BCE to the present.
  • Frank, Thomas Listen, Liberal  Scott McLarty says, “Thomas Frank's book, "Listen, Liberal," reminds us that President Clinton didn't take the US in a different direction after the Reagan-Bush years. Instead, he fulfilled the Reagan revolution and enacted GOP proposals that the GOP couldn't have on its own. The five "longstanding Republican objectives" that Clinton accomplished were "NAFTA, the Crime Bill of 1994, welfare reform, the deregulation of banks and telecoms, and the balanced budget." Clinton might also have privatized Social Security if his negotiations with Newt Gingrich hadn't been interrupted by the Lewinsky scandal. This should remind us that Obama's biggest accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, was fundamentally a Republican piece of legislation. The individual mandate, requiring the public to purchase health insurance from private companies, was introduced by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and was widely endorsed by Repubs until Obama & Dems grabbed the idea in 2009. I recommend this book as a history of the Democratic Party and liberalism in the last three decades without illusions.”
  • Fucks, Ralf  Green Growth, Smart Growth  We find ourselves at a crossroads between environmental disaster and a new industrial revolution: a shift from the ruthless exploitation of nature toward cooperation with it. Decoupling economic growth from environmental consumption is an ambitious goal, but also an achievable one. ‘Green Growth, Smart Growth’ outlines a way forward in this great transformation, and does so in the conviction that the dangers posed by climate change can be overcome through a new approach to economics, innovation and proactive policy making.
  • Fukuyama, Francis State-Building  – Fukuyama also wrote The End of History. Dealings with other countries are necessary parts of statehood and this book offers insights.
  • Fuller, R. Buckminster  In the 1930’s Bucky Fuller manually made an inventory of all the world’s resources and correctly calculated that we were doing so much more with less resources that we would reach a point when there would be enough to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than anyone has known. He also determined that the paradigm shift would take place in about 1976, later shown to be accurate. The author said,  "Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete." We just need to catch up.
  • Funk, McKenzie Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. New York: Penguin, 2014. Some are trying to profit from climate change.
  • George, Susan Whose Crisis, Whose Future  – Crisis? Whose crisis? Today we are in the midst of a multifaceted crisis which touches the lives of everyone on the planet. Whether it's growing poverty and inequality or shrinking access to food and water, the collapse of global financial markets or the dire effects of climate change, every aspect of this crisis can be traced to a transnational neoliberal elite that has steadily eroded our rights and stripped us of power. And yet our world has never been so wealthy, and we have, right now, all the knowledge, tools and skills we need to build a greener, fairer, richer world. Such a breakthrough is not some far-fetched utopia, but an immediate, concrete possibility. Our future is in our hands.
  • Giroux, Henry A.  has written about our neoliberal direction, education, rising fascism, and the weaponization of ignorance. He has also appeared on Bill Moyers. Information about his books, articles, and interviews are on his website at  http://www.henryagiroux.com/ 
  • Gladwell, Malcolm The Tipping Point  and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants  Perhaps society is going along with little changing and then  suddenly everything changes. Though Gladwell uses other examples, we can hope this might apply to what we are working for.
  • Goldwater, Barry, With No Apologies   Barry Goldwater was a conservative, but not a neocon. He objected against some of Nixon's acts of war, backed Bill Clinton's opening of military service to gays, and - I was amused to note - agreed with Chris Hedges on the role of international bankers in starting World War I. Some of his perceptions were incorrect because he did not recognize how society had changed, but many still are valid. He regarded bankers as second only to communism as a danger to our republic and right now it is hard to dispute him on that point. Before there were neolibs there were neocons and it is interesting to observe the beliefs of real conservatives.
  • Gosztola, Kevin Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange Gosztola documents the immoral case against Julian Assange for being a whistleblower and practicing journalism by reporting a war crime.
  • Grindle, Douglas How We Won and Lost the War in Afghanistan: Two Years in the Pashtun Homeland  Douglas Grindle provides a firsthand account of how the war in Afghanistan was won in a rural district south of Kandahar City and how the newly created peace slipped away when vital resources failed to materialize and the United States headed for the exit. By placing the reader at the heart of the American counterinsurgency effort, Grindle reveals little-known incidents, including the failure of expensive aid programs to target local needs, the slow throttling of local government as official funds failed to reach the districts, and the United States’ inexplicable failure to empower the Afghan local officials even after they succeeded in bringing the people onto their side. Grindle presents the side of the hard-working Afghans who won the war and expresses what they really thought of the U.S. military and its decisions. Written by a former field officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, this story of dashed hopes and missed opportunities details how America’s desire to leave the war behind ultimately overshadowed its desire to sustain victory.
  • Guay, Mary  CLIMATE CHANGE: Our Children Are in Danger  by "Green Granny" about climate changes, its many interrelationships,  and specifics where an individual can make a difference. The cover nicely summarizes by saying “For Lilly (her great Grandaughter), a clueless great-granny goes green.” Is this book really necessary? After all, there are plenty of scientific papers documenting what is happening and what needs to be done. I suggest it is necessary. The fossil fuel companies have been spending huge amounts of money on disinformation for decades focusing on states that are poor and uneducated. Science does not have an equivalent budget. The result is even small reasonable movement has been stalled. Mary Guay presents the human side of the argument, presents the many aspects of the problem in a clear manner, and presents what we can do as individuals. I like that she does not shy away from necessary government action. Individual actions may be necessary, but by themselves they are insufficient.  Mary Guay also has a Facebook Page for current developments.
  • Hallam, Roger Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse
    What can we all do to avert catastrophe and avoid extinction? Roger Hallam has answers. In Common Sense for the 21st Century, Roger Hallam, cofounder of Extinction Rebellion, outlines how movements around the world need to come together now to start doing what works: engaging in mass civil disobedience to make real change happen. The book gives people the tools to understand not only why mass disruption, mass arrests, and mass sacrifice are necessary but also details how to carry out acts of civil disobedience effectively, respectfully and nonviolently. It bypasses contemporary political theory, and instead is inspired by Thomas Paine, the pragmatic 18th-century revolutionary whose pamphlet Common Sense sparked the American Revolution. Common Sense for the 21st Century urges us to confront the truth about climate change and argues forcefully that only a revolution of society and the state, similar to the turn that Paine urged the Americans to take into the political unknown, can save us now.
  • Harvey, Andrew The Hope – A Guide to Sacred Activism  also not a political book, but it does chronicle our decline and offer hope for the future  for whatever path we choose to take.
  • Hawken, Paul editor of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming  This is an excellent well researched book with details of the many solutions available.
  • Hayhoe, Katharine Using emotion in discussing climate change: Climate and social scientists offer suggestions on how - and how not - to discuss climate change.
  • Hedges, Chris American Fascists   Hedges is well qualified to give his international historical perspective on how fascist movements throughout the world have co-opted religion as part of their rise to power, and the reluctance of  intellectual elites to address the issue. This reluctance allowed Hitler and Mussolini to rise to power. It also allowed the coalition of right-wing religious fanatics and the non-religious fiscal arm of the Republican Party to take over the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.  Chris Hedges sees an imminent threat from the false brand of Christianity peddled by the religious-right. Intellectual progressives would do well to heed his warning.
  • Hedges, Chris Death of the Liberal Class  is an excellent book recommended by Anthony Noel describing what went wrong with liberals and democrats. For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class— the press, universities, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions—have collapsed. In its absence, the poor, the working class, and even the middle class no longer have a champion.
  • Hedges, Chris In the Time of Trump, All We Have Is Each Other
  • Heller, Henry The Capitalist University: The Transformations of Higher Education in the United States, 1945-2016   Higher education news today can more or less be boiled down to one sentence: the university is in crisis. Skyrocketing student debt, decreased public financing, the weakening of tenure, the rise of adjunct labor, battles over the value of the humanities, calls for skills focused instruction—all the problems besetting contemporary higher education in the United States are interrelated, and they can all be traced to one fact: campuses and classrooms are now battlegrounds in the struggle between knowledge for its own sake and commodified learning.
                Henry Heller offers here a magisterial account of the modern university that shows exactly how we’ve reached this point. Taking readers from the early Cold War—when support for universities was support for capitalism—through the countless social, political, and educational changes of the ensuing decades, Heller reveals how American educational institutions have been forced to decide between teaching students to question the dominant order and helping to perpetuate it. And they’ve had to do so knowing that all the pressure politics and finance was pushing for the latter.
  • Hotez,  Dr. Peter The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist's Warning There is a real danger of danger of ridiculing science and education.
  • Ice on Fire is a 2019 documentary narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio which explores global warming and the newly developed technologies that could reverse it. The film premiered to a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. 
  • Johnson, Avana Elizabeth and Wilkinson, Katharine K. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis.   This book illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States—scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race—and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future.  Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save. 
  • Katz, Jonathan M. Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire - Butler is a Marine who showed combat bravery but later wrote the book War is a Racket (see above) which expressed his reservations which are still very relevant today.
  • Kerg, Brian A. (Major, USMC) The American War in Afghanistan: A History takes a needed hard look at our most recent 20 year war that ended in the same humiliating failure as Vietnam.
  • Kirk, Karin Climate change science comeback strategies - Steering conversations with people adamantly resistant to accepting climate science.
  • Klein, Naomi  The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism "...while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times." As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days."
  • Klein, Naomi This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate The author shows and illustrates with many references why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the unrestrained “free market”  ideology we are now using. We will need to change or have change forced upon both us and future generations. Climate Change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care nor is it something that can be delayed until other issues - however worthy - are solved. The author also documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process.
  • Kolbert, Elizabeth The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. New York: Henry Holt, 2014. A Hard look at where we are going with the environment.
  • Lansing, Michael J. Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics  offers a new look at the Nonpartisan League and a new way to understand its rise and fall in the United States and Canada. Lansing argues that, rather than a spasm of populist rage that inevitably burned itself out, the story of the League is in fact an instructive example of how popular movements can create lasting change. Depicting the League as a transnational response to economic inequity, Lansing not only resurrects its story of citizen activism, but also allows us to see its potential to inform contemporary movements.

  • Leggett, Jeremy The Winning of the Carbon War: Power and Politics on the Front Lines of Climate and Clean Energy  Jeremy Leggett is an award-winning social entrepreneur and critically-acclaimed author whose books include The Carbon War, Half Gone, and The Energy of Nations. He is founder and a director of Solarcentury, the UK's fastest growing renewable energy company since 2000, now developing and installing solar in a dozen countries on four continents. He is also founder and chairman of SolarAid, an African solar lighting charity set up with five percent of Solarcentury’s annual profit’s, itself parent to a non-profit social venture, SunnyMoney, that has sold almost two million solar lights in Africa. 

  • Lessig, Lawrence  Republic, Lost -  As with the book Death of the Liberal Class, this book describes what went wrong with our republic and a way back for the individual with a conscience.
  • Lofgren, Mike  The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government   "With echoes of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address warning in 1961 about the military-industrial complex, Lofgren offers a compelling vision of what happens when a democracy becomes a plutocracy, when political dysfunction reigns supreme over democratic deliberation, and when the war on terrorism leads to the militarization of our foreign policy. . . A must-read for anyone interested in the health and sanity of our body politic." – Library Journal

  • Mann, Dr. Michael E. The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet 

    There are many excellent articles, peer reviewed science articles, and books about climate change. What makes this one stand out? Two attributes shine through.

    The first reason this book stands out is it gives the complete context and history of the environmental movement and their fossil fuel opponents. Dr. Mann has devoted his entire life to this and has received many death threats and been the victim of outrageous lies.

    The second reason this book stands out is Dr. Mann clearly identifies the effective strategies fossil fuel companies use. Three are deflection, division, and despair mongering. One which irritates me is how effectively they get environmentalists to fight amongst themselves with division. (For example, unless you are a vegetarian and never fly on airlines you are not helping.) Dr. Mann also identifies strategies to oppose fossil fuel interests.

    This book is both well documented and easy to read. The New Progressive Alliance highly recommends it! Here is an excellent YouTube Introduction. 

  • Mann, Dr. Michael E. Our Fragile Moment – How lessons from Earth’s past can help us survive the Climate Crisis There is a real danger of danger of ridiculing science and education.
  • Mann and Toles, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy,  2018, The award winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of their careers.
  • Marker, Dennis Fifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism: How the Rich Convinced America's Middle Class to eliminate Themselves Dennis Marker provides a step-by- step account of how and why the US middle class has been working harder than ever and is still losing ground. This examination of fifteen specific policies promoted by conservatives and the superrich—and implemented through the vice grip of fear, anger, and greed—reveals that the decline of the middle class is no accident.
    Fifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism

    Fifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism

    How the Rich Convinced America’s Middle Class to Eliminate Themselves

    - See more at: http://thefifteensteps.com/#sthash.YGkiwX6Z.dpufFifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism: How the Rich Convinced America's Middle Class to Eliminate ThemselvesFifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism: How the Rich Convinced America's Middle Class     Dennis Marker provides a step-by- step account of how and why the US middle class has been working harder than ever and is still losing ground. This examination of fifteen specific policies promoted by conservatives and the super-rich—and implemented through the vice grip of fear, anger, and greed—reveals that the decline of the middle class
  • Martin, Isaac Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent  On tax day, April 15, 2010, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets with signs demanding lower taxes on the richest one percent. But why? Rich people have plenty of political influence. Why would they need to publicly demonstrate for lower taxes-and why would anyone who wasn't rich join the protest on their behalf?
    Isaac William Martin shows that such protests long predate the Tea Party of our own time. Ever since the Sixteenth Amendment introduced a Federal income tax in 1913, rich Americans have protested new public policies that they thought would threaten their wealth. But while historians have taught us much about the conservative social movements that reshaped the Republican Party in the late 20th century, the story of protest movements explicitly designed to benefit the wealthy is still little known. Rich People's Movements is the first book to tell that story, tracking a series of protest movements that arose to challenge an expanding welfare state and progressive taxation. Drawing from a mix of anti-progressive ideas, the leaders of these movements organized scattered local constituencies into effective campaigns in the 1920s, 1950s, 1980s, and our own era. Martin shows how protesters on behalf of the rich appropriated the tactics used by the Left-from the Populists and Progressives of the early twentieth century to the feminists and anti-war activists of the 1950s and 1960s. He explores why the wealthy sometimes cut secret back-room deals and at other times protest in the public square. He also explains why people who are not rich have so often rallied to their cause. For anyone wanting to understand the anti-tax activists of today, including notable defenders of wealth inequality like the Koch brothers, the historical account in Rich People's Movements is an essential guide.
  • Martin, Jonathan edited EMPOWERING PROGRESSIVE THIRD PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES: Defeating Duopoly, Advancing Democracy. See this fine book review at Book Review by Sondra Miller: EMPOWERING PROGRESSIVE THIRD PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
  • Mayer, Jane  Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. New York: Doubleday, 2016. The rich control politics to a far greater degree than most suspect.
  • McBay, Keith, and Jensen Deep Green Resistance says there must be both an underground and above ground movement for change and describes strategies and organizations to reach environmental goals.
  • McCoy, Alfred W. In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. In a completely original analysis, prize-winning historian Alfred W. McCoy explores America’s rise as a world power—from the 1890s through the Cold War—and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century through a fusion of cyberwar, space warfare, trade pacts, and military alliances. McCoy then analyzes the marquee instruments of US hegemony—covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and worldwide surveillance. Peeling back layers of secrecy, McCoy exposes a military and economic battle for global domination fought in the shadows, largely unknown to those outside the highest rungs of power. Can the United States extend the “American Century” or will China guide the globe for the next hundred years? McCoy devotes his final chapter to these questions, boldly laying out a series of scenarios that could lead to the end of Washington’s world domination by 2030.
  • Moyn, Samuel Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War   Captain Byron (U.S. Navy retired) in his review of this book said that Moyn presents with considerable evidence that “This country likes war. It relies overwhelmingly on war. Forever War.”
  • Osborne, Erin What They Don't Teach You: Hundreds of teachers reveal what it's like working in public elementary schools today  America’s public school system is under attack. Teachers on the front lines have been battered fighting to protect it and themselves. Years of unrealistic education reforms, a faltering national curriculum roll-out called Common Core, reduction in benefits, pay linked to test scores, the stripping away of professionalism...this is the new new reality teachers face. Teaching has never been an easy job and it’s becoming more difficult. Through exposition and humor, the entire landscape of the education system is revealed, including some shadowy figures that operate behind the scenes. See also Education
  • Pawley, Howard Keep True: A Life in Politics  Howard Pawley, former Premier of Manitoba (1981-88), led the province during one of the most turbulent periods in its history. His government successfully implemented social democratic policies that ran counter to the neo-conservative trends that dominated the period, including job creation, human rights and marital property legislation, and labor reform.
  • Payne, Robert Massacre: The Tragedy of Bangladesh and the Phenomenon of Mass Slaughter Throughout History  February 1973
  • Penner, Roland A Glowing Dream: A Memoir (available as a book or for download to a Kindle reader or other electronic device) We should consider the experiences of the Canadian New Democratic Party which replaced the Liberal Party because it – like our Democratic Party – became complacent and corrupt.
  • Perkins, John Confessions of an Economic Hitman  Tempting (and fitting) as it is to blame Clintonites for the disappearance of America’s manufacturing sector, the United States had sown the seeds of its economic decline long before Robert Reich’s globalization push. We’re reaping that harvest now, as the few companies which remain here cut wages, abuse workers and destroy the environment. You can read a firsthand account of how the U.S. imposed its will abroad through economic blackmail, by a man (John Perkins) who did the deed for years and later came clean. For anyone still convinced that the U.S. is a force for good in developing countries, this book is a real eye-opener.
  • Perkins, John New Confessions of an Economic Hitman   The original version of this astonishing tell-all book spent 73 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 1.25 million copies, and has been translated into 32 languages.New Revelations: Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this expanded edition of Perkins's classic bestseller brings the story of economic hit men (EHMs) up to date and, chillingly, home to the US. Over40 percent of the book is new, including chapters identifying today's EHMs and a detailed chronology extensively documenting EHM activity since the first edition was published in 2004.
  • Piketty, Thomas Capital in the Twenty-First Century The author documents the growing inequality in the United States and ties it to fiscal policy. He illustrates with 200 years of data to show we are on the wrong track.
  • Potter, Will  Green is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege  Like the Red Scare, this "Green Scare" is about fear and intimidation, and Will Potter outlines the political, legal, and public relations strategies that threaten even acts of nonviolent civil disobedience with the label of "eco-terrorism."
  • Power, Samantha A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide  (Pulitzer Prize Winner) Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to stop genocide?
  • Ravitch, Diane Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
    Author Diane Ravitch has written many fine books about education. See also Education
  • Rifkin, Jeremy. The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. New York: St. Martin's, 2015. Jeremy Rifkin outlines a plausible future which is also survivable.
  • Roberts, Paul Craig The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West  This very readable book by a distinguished economist, Wall Street Journal editor, and Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury is a major challenge both to economic theory and to media explanations of the ongoing 21st century economic crisis. The one percent have pulled off an economic and political revolution. By offshoring manufacturing and professional service jobs, US corporations destroyed the growth of consumer income, the basis of the US economy, leaving the bulk of the population mired in debt. Deregulation was used to concentrate income and wealth in fewer hands and financial firms in corporations “too big to fail,” removing financial corporations from market discipline and forcing taxpayers in the US and Europe to cover bankster losses. Environmental destruction has accelerated as economists refuse to count the exhaustion of nature’s resources as a cost and as corporations impose the cost of their activities on the environment and on third parties who do not share in the profits. This is the book to read for those who want to understand the mistakes that are bringing the West to its knees.
  • Ross, Carne  The Leaderless Revolution – describes the coming changes such as the Occupy Movement and helping them along, also the founder of Independent Diplomat
  • Sagan, Carl The Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark  This book seems even more relevant and important now than when it was published. Both factions of the Uniparty seem to believe that strong personal belief  in the case of republicans - or soundbites in the case of democrats - can substitute for science. Cosmos was also an excellent book and series.
  • Scahill, Jeremy  The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program  This book undermines government claims that drone strikes have been precise. Part of the book looks at a program called Operation Haymaker in northeastern Afghanistan. During one five-month period, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. The book is based on articles published by The Intercept and includes new contributions from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and The Intercept’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald.
  • Scheer, Robert “The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street” details the perversion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is particularly relevant to explain the connection between Clinton “progressives” and the 2008 housing meltdown that impoverished millions.
  • Schneider, Mercedes K. A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education  "Corporate reform" is not reform at all. Instead, it is the systematic destruction of the foundational American institution of public education. The primary motivation behind this destruction is greed. Public education in America is worth almost a trillion dollars a year. Whereas American public education is a democratic institution, its destruction is being choreographed by a few wealthy, well-positioned individuals and organizations. This book investigates and exposes the handful of people and institutions that are often working together to become the driving force behind destroying the community public school. See also Education
  • Selfa, Lance  The Democrats, A Critical History (Updated edition) Offering a broad historical perspective, Selfa shows how the Democratic Party has time and again betrayed the aspirations of ordinary people while pursuing an agenda favorable to Wall Street and U.S. imperial ambitions. He examines the relationship between party leaders and social movements, from the civil rights struggle to the movement to end the Iraq war; reveals the unhappy marriage between U.S. labor and the “party of the people;” and assesses the mixed record of attempts to build a third party alternative. Further, Selfa argues that the Democrats’ record of backing the rich and breaking promises to its voting base is not a recent departure from an otherwise laudable past, but results from its role as one of two parties serving the interests of the U.S. establishment.
  • Snowden, Edward Permanent Record Edward Snowden is a whistleblower who is in exile for exposing the US government’s system of mass surveillance. This book tells the story of his life and includes how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to expose it.
  • Snyder, Timothy  On Tyranny - Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century  The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism.  Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. It is frightening to observe how many of Snyder's warnings are very relevant to the present day. Though he correctly sees the danger of republican actions, Snyder - like many neo-liberals - is blind to similar actions by the democrats. Nonetheless, this is a good brief book worth reading.
  • Sowell, Thomas Basic Economics Many make economics look like no more of a science than astrology. An exception is Thomas Sowell who has also written other books.
  • Spencer, Robert Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS 2015. This takes a hard look at ISIS. One should also not forget earlier U.S. support of ISIS. Our record of picking allies and enemies has not been good.

  • Speth, James Gustave They Knew: The US Federal Governments Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis   In 2015, a group of twenty-one young people sued the federal government for violating their constitutional rights by promoting the climate catastrophe, depriving them of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. They Knew offers evidence for their claims, presenting a devastating, play-by-play account of the federal government's role in bringing about today's climate crisis. James Speth, tapped by the plaintiffs as an expert on climate, documents how administrations from Carter to Trump--despite having information about climate change and the connection to fossil fuels--continued aggressive support of a fossil fuel based energy system.

  • Stepnowski, Frank Teaching Sucks - But We Love It Anyway! A little insight into the Profession You Think You Know This is important because public education is under a fierce attack. See also Education
  • Stockdale, James, Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior   Epictetus was a slave born in about 50 C.E. (A.D.) who suffered greatly and became a Stoic philosopher. His philosophy aided James Stockdale as a P.O.W. and it may aid us as we face formidable and perhaps impossible odds to do what is right.
  • Stockdale, Jim and Sybil, In Love and War   There are two reasons this book by a Naval Aviator and P.O.W. is relevant. The first is that the reasons for the Vietnam War were fabricated by the United States. See paged 24-25 and 168. For later fabrications to war see Continuous Continous Wars  The second reason this book is relevant is it illustrates the need for unity, something the "circular firing squad" left is in dire need of.
  • Straus, William and Howe, Neil The Fourth Turning This book could be used for planning a strategy for appealing to voters.
  • Sun Tzu, The Art of War seems to be increasingly relevant.  Written in the 6th century BC, Napoleon, Mae Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap and General Douglas MacArthur all claimed to have learned from it. While the United States may be the most powerful nation militarily in the world, it is decreasingly successful in fulfilling long term stated objectives. Either our objective is perpetual war or we should be more aware of the tactics used against us.
  • Taub, Jennifer Other People's Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business In the wake of the financial meltdown in 2008, many claimed that it had been inevitable, that no one saw it coming, and that subprime borrowers were to blame. This accessible, thoroughly researched book is Jennifer Taub's response to such unfounded claims. Drawing on wide-ranging experience as a corporate lawyer, investment firm counsel, and scholar of business law and financial market regulation, Taub chronicles how government officials helped bankers inflate the toxic-mortgage-backed housing bubble, then after the bubble burst ignored the plight of millions of homeowners suddenly facing foreclosure.
  • Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72  is instructive on how both parties merged.  Thompson is  absolutely brilliant when it comes to uncovering, analyzing, and indicting the structure that has put Big Money in charge. The last 50  pages are the most instructive dissection of what went wrong for McGovern - and how the Democratic Party ultimately killed the peace movement. If you have an interest in learning exactly how far the Democrats have gone in the past - sabotaging the candidacy of their own party's popularly-nominated Presidential nominee - and to remove any hope you might still hold that someone other than the party's pre-ordained candidate will somehow be able to bear the party's standard again, I highly recommend this book which outlines in full, irrefutable detail how the Democrats blocked George McGovern's path to the White House through behind-the-scenes manipulation of his vice-presidential candidate options and outright sabotage. Thompson's book is even today required reading in most journalism schools - it is that groundbreaking. Thompson concluded back then that "There is really no hope of accomplishing anything genuine new or different in American politics until the Democratic Party is done away with."
  • Thurman, Robert  Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Real Happiness It is difficult to maintain a positive mental attitude in these times, but this book helps one maintain a healthy balance.

  • Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara Corporate Citizen?: An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State  (Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is a professor at Stetson Law School.) Over time, corporations have engaged in an aggressive campaign to dramatically enlarge their political and commercial speech and religious rights through strategic litigation and extensive lobbying. At the same time, many large firms have sought to limit their social responsibilities. For the most part, courts have willingly followed corporations down this path. But interestingly, corporations are meeting resistance from many quarters including from customers, investors, and lawmakers. Corporate Citizen? explores this resistance and offers reforms to support these new understandings of the corporation in contemporary society.

  • Townsend, Robert Up the Organization  is a management classic I quoted often when I was writing on management strategies for small businesses. Robert Townsend  ran Avis when there was still real competition in the car rental industry and he coined the famous "We Try Harder" slogan. This is just a terrific book and may be the most socialist thing that has ever come out of corporate America. 
  • Turse, Nick  Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (American Empire Project)  Americans have long been taught that events such as the notorious My Lai massacre were isolated incidents in the Vietnam War, carried out by "a few bad apples." But as award-winning journalist and historian Nick Turse demonstrates in this groundbreaking investigation, violence against Vietnamese noncombatants was not at all exceptional during the conflict. Rather, it was pervasive and systematic, the predictable consequence of orders to "kill anything that moves."  Drawing on more than a decade of research in secret Pentagon files and extensive interviews with American veterans and Vietnamese survivors, Turse reveals for the first time how official policies resulted in millions of innocent civilians killed and wounded. In shocking detail, he lays out the workings of a military machine that made crimes in almost every major American combat unit all but inevitable. Kill Anything That Moves takes us from archives filled with Washington's long-suppressed war crime investigations to the rural Vietnamese hamlets that bore the brunt of the war; from boot camps where young American soldiers learned to hate all Vietnamese to bloodthirsty campaigns like Operation Speedy Express, in which a general obsessed with body counts led soldiers to commit what one participant called "a My Lai a month.
  • Ullman, Harlan K. Anatomy of Failure - Why America Loses Every War It Starts  ISBN 978-1-68247-225-5  Why, since the end of World War II, has the United States either lost every war it started or failed in every military intervention it prosecuted? Harlan Ullman's new book answers this most disturbing question, a question Americans would never think of even asking because this record of failure has been largely hidden in plain sight or forgotten with the passage of time. The most straightforward answer is that presidents and administrations have consistently failed to use sound strategic thinking and lacked sufficient knowledge or understanding of the circumstances prior to deciding whether or not to employ force. Making this case is an in-depth analysis of the records of presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in using force or starting wars. His recommended solutions begin with a "brains-based" approach to sound strategic thinking to address onne of the major causes of failure ----the inexperience of too many of the nation's commanders-in-chief. Ullman reinforces his argument through the use of autobiographical vignettes that provide a human dimension and insight into the reasons for failure, in some cases making public previously unknown history. The clarion call of Anatomy of Failure is that both a sound strategic framework and sufficient knowledge and understanding of the circumstance that may lead to using force are vital. Without them, failure is virtually guaranteed.
  • Van Buren, Peter We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project) We Meant Well is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge―that surreal and bollixed attempt to defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy, who fail to realize that you can't rebuild a country without first picking up the trash.
  • Van Rossum, Mary K. The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to A Healthy Environment For decades, activists have relied on federal and state legislation to fight for a cleaner environment. And for decades, they’ve been fighting a losing battle. The sad truth is, our laws are designed to accommodate pollution rather than prevent it. It’s no wonder people feel powerless when it comes to preserving the quality of their water, air, public parks, and special natural spaces. But there is a solution, argues veteran environmentalist Maya K. van Rossum: bypass the laws and turn to the ultimate authority—our state and federal constitutions.
  • West, Cornel and Smiley, Tavis The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto  With 150 million Americans persistently poor or near poor, the highest numbers in over five decades, Smiley and West argue that now is the time to confront the underlying conditions of systemic poverty in America before it is too late. While their conclusions are apt and the book is worth reading, it is unfortunate that neither author can bring himself to hold the Democratic Party accountable.
  • Whitlock, Craig The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War  Captain Byron (U.S. Navy retired) in his review of this book correctly describes “an Army and three presidential administrations more interested in happy talk than honest appraisal.” The United States failed badly in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and we should take a hard look at what happened before we get involved again.
  • Wilkinson and Pickett  The Spirit Level – Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger   This book documents with a series of graphs and explanations why greater equality is good for all – not just the poor.
  • Woodard, Colin American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America  As the culture wars rage on, it seems the America we all learned about in elementary school - the “melting pot” where people of diverse cultures assimilate into a homogeneous, harmonious society - is based more on feel-good propaganda than research-supported fact. Colin Woodard’s exhaustive, engaging study of the eleven cultures which even now dominate our continent sanctions that instinctive conclusion. American Nations is the perfect book for any politics junkie, but it’s much more than that. A guide to understanding “how anybody can think like that,” it explains in a clear, entertaining, and sometimes downright funny style just how untied these "United" States truly are. Perhaps most strikingly it raises the question: Why do we try so hard to look, to the rest of the world, like something we’ve never been?
  • Woodworth, Elizabeth and Griffin, David Ray  Unprecedented Climate Mobilization: A Handbook for Citizens and Their Governments 
  • Yang, Andrew Forward - Notes on the Future of Our Democracy  Andrew Yang who ran for U.S. President in 2020 and is forming the Forward Party wrote an excellent book with a fresh take on U.S. problems and potential solutions.

 

3. Make your case with the United Nations

The New Progressive Alliance  has been in special consultative status with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Council since 2015.  The NPA is a U.N. NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). For the latest link to DESA NGO News see NPA News. If you would like to investigate participating with the New Progressive Alliance in UN activities with meetings or submitting papers, then just email us. See So You Want to Volunteer for the United Nations.  See also Make Your Case with the United Nations on Climate Change.

 

4. Make your case with the Unified Platform.

            The ten goals of the Unified Platform is the basis we use for endorsing candidates or organizations. If either strays from the ten goals we loudly disavow them. Below is a summary.

  • Peace First A world of increasing population, diminishing resources, and unstable climate is a world poised for conflict. 
  • Full Employment at a Living Wage We hold that reordering our national priorities to make peace, the welfare of all people, and the protection of our planet our topmost concerns will result in long-term Economic Sustainability. 
  • Saving the Environment We envision a sustainable society that recognizes our interdependence with the planet and utilizes resources such that future generations will benefit rather than suffer from the practices of past generations. 
  • A Real Social Safety Net We stand firmly in support of strengthening, expanding, and protecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance by any means necessary. 
  • Medicare for All  We support Medicare for All as the single most effective approach to cutting runaway healthcare costs, and providing high-quality health care for all Americans. 
  • Fair Trade We support reformulation of all international trade relations and commerce practices in order to protect the labor, human rights, economy, environment, and domestic industry of this nation, and those of partner and recipient nations.  
  • Human Rights/Civil Liberties We are dedicated to protecting, respecting, and expanding the rights and civil liberties of all people. 
  • Election Reform We support full public financing of elections in order to remove undue influence from political campaigns. Further, we recognize and are committed to ending the myriad opportunities for fraud which now exist in our electoral system. 
  • Corporate Accountability/Reform National and multinational corporations have become too powerful. We must reduce the economic and political clout of corporations, improve corporate citizenship, increase executive responsibility, and require corporations to serve society and democracy while safeguarding the environment. 
  • Infrastructure Investment/Ownership We support the establishment of a publicly funded infrastructure bank to capitalize large-scale physical projects and direct funding toward associated research and development. 

 

5. Make your case with art.

Using strictly logic no matter how persuasive and documentation no matter how extensive sways few. We need to be flexible in using music, plays, and other arts to plant seeds.  Hollywood and sophisticated painters of reality have huge budgets, but while we can't do everything, we can do something. Below are two plays written by Jeff and Rose Roby, a couple that have devoted  a lifetime to changing our world for the better. Also below is a link by our founder, Anthony Noel, to songs. Let us know if you have other suggestions.

 

6. Make your case with videos.

Part 1: http://youtu.be/f1-oyEGEM9A

Part 2: http://youtu.be/-g_L4VxNc5g

Part 3: http://youtu.be/pY8zVwOg3JI

Part 4: http://youtu.be/nNDwzR73Y1Q

 

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