• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

ELECTIONS DON’T SOLVE EVERYTHING

Written by JASON PRAMAS Posted November 2, 2020 Filed Under: Apparent Horizon, COLUMNS, News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS, Politics

nuclear explosion

 

Push the US govt. to sign the nuclear weapons ban treaty. No matter which party wins this week.


As I write this, it is three days until the 2020 election. And during my customary morning scan of world events, I happened upon a notice that would dominate the news cycle for weeks in any sane society. Yet, as I’ve written previously regarding other important but little discussed topics, I know that most Americans heard nothing about it. Which I believe would have been the case even in a slow news period. Since, as has been long observed by journalism researchers, the stories of most importance to ordinary people are largely ignored by major news organizations in the service of global elites.

To my point, the necessary 50-nation threshold allowing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to enter into force was achieved on Oct 25 when the island nations of Jamaica and Nauru ratified it.

Hell, Honduras ratified it on Oct 24.

Seriously. Honduras. Meaning even an oligarchy and perennial dictatorship run by a few rich families—enabled by the likes of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state—is capable of doing the right thing and working to ban nukes the way other weapons of mass destruction have been banned by international accords in the past.

But the US refuses to sign and ratify the treaty. As do all the other nuclear powers.

And what’s that I hear grassroots Democrats say? America would absolutely do so if their party was in power? No no no no. Absolutely false. The Obama administration was engaged in “modernizing” US nuclear weapons stocks when the Trump administration came into office. That is, not eliminating the worst existential threat facing humanity next to global warming. Rather, both administrations have exacerbated that threat. Made it worse. Because every minute we continue to have operational nukes anywhere on the planet means we’re one minute closer to some power or faction doing what America, alone among nations, did in 1945—using those weapons. Their use is inevitable as long as they exist.

Unfortunately, the Democratic position on nuclear weapons remains to keep those weapons in service. To nibble away at US stocks here and there—mostly by taking old weapons offline and replacing them with smaller numbers of more effective ones. To modernize them—that is, making them lower yield, faster, and more accurate. Thus making it ever more likely they will be used, as President Trump has threatened to use them. The latest in a long line of Democratic and Republican presidents to do so over the last 75 years. I can already hear the propaganda leading up to said use: “Using a tactical nuke will save more lives than it takes!” Right right. We’ll only drop a little baby one on the bad-doers, yes?

It will then merely be a matter of course when the nation (or organization) we nuke—or one of its allies—responds with its own little baby one. And then naturally the US would have to respond with another nuke. Which would draw a predictable counterstrike. And soon enough we will have a global nuclear conflagration that could very well wipe out the human race. One that would accelerate quickly over just a few days. Or a few hours. Or, now that computer algorithms are responsible for a lot of war fighting by major powers, and the US, Russia, and China are engaged in building hypersonic delivery vehicles, over merely a few minutes.

So as Chris Faraone and I wrote in a recent editorial, much as we dislike Trump and his minions, we don’t feel like much is going to change for the better for working people should the Democrats take power in January. Unless Americans and immigrants hoping to become Americans—particularly Democrats and the growing numbers of people to their left—put very heavy pressure on both Democratic and Republican leaders alike to pursue policies that will enable all of us to survive the manifold crises of this era. Instead of policies that simply benefit the rich and powerful first and foremost. A sin that both major parties are guilty of.

In the case of pushing both parties to do the right thing—the sane thing—on the subject of this epistle and agree that the US will sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons then eliminate all its nukes, there’s an easy way readers can get involved. Just support the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and help it ensure the treaty is fully enacted and adopted by every nation on the planet. 

Here’s the link: icanw.org. Make some time to plug in after your post-election fury or elation abates a bit. Because the fate of humanity really does depend on it.


Apparent Horizon—an award-winning political column—is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism’s Pandemic Democracy Project. Contact pdp@binjonline.org for more information. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s executive director, and executive editor and associate publisher of DigBoston. Copyright 2020 Jason Pramas. Licensed for use by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and media outlets in its network.

JASON PRAMAS
+ posts

Executive editor and associate publisher, DigBoston. Executive director of Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Former founder and editor/publisher of Open Media Boston. 2018 & 2019 Association of Alternative Newsmedia Political Column Award Winner.

  • JASON PRAMAS
    https://digboston.com/author/jason-pramas/
    BU’s John Silber Did Not Support Free Speech on His Campus
  • JASON PRAMAS
    https://digboston.com/author/jason-pramas/
    The Globe Still Needs to Apologize for Cheerleading the GE Boston Deal
  • JASON PRAMAS
    https://digboston.com/author/jason-pramas/
    For the Latest Pandemic Info, Check Out the ‘People’s CDC’
  • JASON PRAMAS
    https://digboston.com/author/jason-pramas/
    LIST OF JASON PRAMAS COLUMNS ON THE GE BOSTON DEAL

Filed Under: Apparent Horizon, COLUMNS, News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS, Politics Tagged With: Apparent Horizon, ban, Column, Democracy, Honduras, ICANW, international, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Jamaica, Jason Pramas, military, Nauru, news, nuclear weapon, nuke, policy, Politics, treaty, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UN, united nations, usa

WHAT’S NEW

State Wire: Funds Aim To Support Municipalities With Expanded Mail Voting

State Wire: Funds Aim To Support Municipalities With Expanded Mail Voting

Parks & Checks: Wasteful, Opaque Bookkeeping At Two City Of Boston Nonprofit Arms

Parks & Checks: Wasteful, Opaque Bookkeeping At Two City Of Boston Nonprofit Arms

Surf’s Upcycled: Meet The Bay State Surfers Conserving The Oceans Where They Ride

Surf’s Upcycled: Meet The Bay State Surfers Conserving The Oceans Where They Ride

State Wire: Public Supports Changes To High-Stakes Testing For Mass Students

State Wire: Public Supports Changes To High-Stakes Testing For Mass Students

State Wire: White Supremacist Gatherings, Incidents Hit All-Time High In New England

State Wire: White Supremacist Gatherings, Incidents Hit All-Time High In New England

State Wire: Protests, Construction Continue at East Boston Substation

State Wire: Protests, Construction Continue at East Boston Substation

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • Does Massachusetts Underestimate Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
  • The Most Expensive Massachusetts City For Car Insurance (No, It’s Not Boston)
  • If You Find A Mini Felted Animal Around Boston, This Is Where It Came From
  • Photo Dispatch: “Ukraine Day” Rally In Boston’s Copley Square
  • As Prices Soar, Fossil Fuel Industry Looks After Its Interests On Beacon Hill

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com