U.S. recruits Japan as side-keck for China war

 

Latest Global Network (GN) video on the expanding imperial plan to take down China.

The Obama-Biden administration began the 'pivot' to Asia-Pacific to encircle China with more airfields, ports for U.S. warships and additional barracks for troops.

Trump is on course to continue these bi-partisan moves toward WW3.

Video produced by GN board member Will Griffin.

NBA 'sports washes' Rawanda human rights abuses

 ESPN Special Full Report: How the NBA got into business with an African dictator

In the spring of 2021, the NBA launched the Basketball Africa League, its first professional league outside North America. The new league represents the latest phase in the NBA’s ongoing global expansion; an opportunity to comb for new talent and recruit new fans on a continent with a population almost five times the United States. But in building its brand in Africa, the NBA has aligned itself with a man who has been called a dictator and a warmonger, crafting a partnership that requires the league to look past the kinds of social justice issues it often champions at home. This is the never-before-told story of the NBA’s alliance with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

ESPN reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada and producer Willie Weinbaum examined the partnership for more than a year, interviewing NBA executives and coaches, Rwandan officials and opposition figures, U.S. government sources, human-rights experts and investors in the NBA's Africa business -- valued at nearly $1 billion as of 2021. ESPN also reviewed U.S. and international human-rights reports and traveled twice to Rwanda.
 
0:00 Introduction: The NBA knows who Kagame is
1:19 Chapter 1: The NBA, Rwanda and Sportswashing
6:38 Chapter 2: Launching the Basketball Africa League
10:00 Chapter 3: We have an authoritarian regime
14:42 Chapter 4: Economic development or sportswashing?
19:06 Chapter 5: Challenging the NBA
23:39 Chapter 6: What should the NBA do?

Content warning: This program contains images of victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Viewer discretion is advised.

Trump & NATO's 'ceasefire' trap for Russia

 

Huge Ukrainian surrender in Kursk inside Russian territory

Simplicius

As one can see, the Kursk adventure is virtually at an end, so it’s not surprising that such a rushed and half-assed ‘ceasefire’ ploy has suddenly been launched to save Zelensky’s hide at the last desperate hour.

But the biggest and most egregious issue of all regarding any talk of ceasefires, has to do with what the European ‘partners’ have been quietly cooking up behind the scenes in the event some ceasefire is reached. The British and French have been busy trying to scrape together a coalition of ‘boots on the ground’.

But the provocative new talks have gone farther than just that, into dangerously threatening territory for Russia. From the above article:

A French military official said the force could include heavy weaponry and weapons stockpiles that could be rushed within hours or days to aid in Ukraine’s defense.

The Western official in Kyiv, offering another idea on the table, said they could incorporate direct and immediate strikes on Russian assets in the event of a violation.

How convenient, save Ukraine’s hide to rearm them just at the point when their army is breaking, and latch it all together with the security guarantee of WWIII-inciting strikes on Russian assets, should Russia see fit to ‘correct’ any of the violations the deal-breaking Ukrainians are sure to make.

Poland’s largest online news platform also reported that military aid to Ukraine never actually stopped coming, contrary to the Trump team’s gaslighting:

Onet’s reporter witnessed a convoy of over 20 trucks leaving Jasionka (next to Rzeszow) towards the border on Friday.

A Russian political scientist and analyst told Tass that Britain will do everything to undermine any peace efforts from the US, because the British have their sights set on Odessa, which they have already begun settling:

"Britain has its own plans for Ukraine. The British have already entered the city of Odessa, which they view as a key location. Their special services are heavily involved there. The British do not conceal their desire to establish a naval base in Odessa. Therefore, they have no interest in seeing a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. They do not benefit from Trump’s call upon all interested parties to come to the negotiating table," Karasev stated.

He points out that recently Zelensky had already made agreements for Ukraine’s minerals with the British, even before Trump—but according to his sources, it goes even further than that:

He further elaborated that the British authorities were also interested in Ukraine's resources, which have been handed over to them by Vladimir Zelensky under a 100-year agreement.

"According to my sources, Zelensky has already transferred control over nuclear power plants, underground gas storage facilities, key ports (including eight ports in Odessa), and strategic facilities such as hydroelectric power plants to the British under this agreement.

This may explain why Zelensky is attempting to derail initiatives related to the mineral agreement with [US President Donald] Trump, as he has already made commitments to the British," Karasev added.

We can only assume fighting will continue, and the European deep state will immediately launch into a new large-scale information campaign to decry Russia and Putin as having spurned all peace offers—despite the olive branch being an obvious trap. They will use this to build up a critical mass of hysteria to drum up more “urgent” meetings, emergency conclaves, etc., to browbeat European arms manufacturers and tax payers alike into sacrificing their futures for strengthening NATO, and further weaponizing Europe against Russia.  

2019 GN Russia Study Tour

 

In Moscow three of our friends from Nepal pose with Russian and American Veterans for Peace members.

Russian VFP chairman Alexander Pasechnik (left) spoke to our group in Moscow while Leonid Ilderkin translated.

In Moscow we visited a park full of monuments to each republic during the Soviet Union.  One of them featured various space rockets.

Another of the exhibits in the park of Soviet achievements in Moscow.

A statue of Vladimir Lenin at the Moscow park of Soviet achievements.

Outside the Moscow cosmos museum was this art work honoring the workers who built the Soviet space program - note the first dog in space under the rocket.

We met Irina in a park in Moscow. She is the tandem cycling champion in Russia. She sits in front and steers and brakes and a blind person peddles behind her. They took 5th place in world championships.  Lovely young woman. Russians have been open and friendly and welcoming all along our journey.

 

 

This enormous symbol of space exploration was outside of the cosmos museum in Moscow.  I visited the museum last October when I went to Moscow to do advance work for this current study tour.

An aerial view of the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Crimea where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in 1945. Livadia Palace was a summer retreat for the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family.

Outside the Livadia Palace some of our folks posed in front of statues of the three leaders with VFP flag.

The guide at the 35th Battalion museum in Sevastopol, Crimea explained the Nazi invasion and occupation during WW II.  She told how 30,000 Soviet sailors and soldiers were killed by the fascists at this place as they tried to defend Crimea.  They are still discovering bodies in the area.  She told us not all of the Soviet military personnel were heroes, they were just simply human beings.  This was not a museum to glorify war but to remember the spirits of the dead. 

  

Inside the WW2 history museum in Moscow I was moved by this painting of US and Soviet soldiers embracing near the end of the war. Both nations were allies against the Nazis. These days the US has supported the Nazis in Ukraine that allied with Hitler's forces when they swept through Poland and into Western Ukraine during that war. The Ukrainian nationalists joined Hitler in exterminating tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and Soviet citizens. This painting made me feel that the Russians always wished to be friends with the US but Washington and NATO had other plans. Their ultimate goal was to break Russia up into smaller nations and take the vast resource base of Russia. On it goes....

I'm just now having some time to catch up with a few photos from along the way during our Global Network Russia study tour.  

 
Yesterday we took a professional St Petersburg city tour on a bus with a guide because there is so much to see.  Russian architecture is grand.  During the long reign of the tsars they out did each other building massive palaces and churches.  Following the revolution in 1917 the Communists turned many of the incredibly ornate churches into warehouses for food all across the nation.  Since the fall of the former Soviet Union many of these churches have been restored.

The Soviet Union appeared to continue building grand spectacles but rather than honoring the tsars of course they built them to honor the workers who had constructed the nation but had suffered terribly under the long reign of monarchy.

I remarked to our guide yesterday that if the tsars had spent the wealth of the nation taking care of the people rather than building the palaces and churches then the 1917 revolution might have never happened.  He responded that the tsars were so isolated that they knew very little about how poor their 'subjects' actually were.  It's rather hard to imagine that is true but I guess we could say the same thing today in the US as the 1% live high-on-the-hog while poverty grows across our nation and the rich don't seem to notice or care.

The people in our study tour group are loving this experience.  They like the hotels we've been staying in, they love the food, and they all repeatedly remark how thoughtful and kind the people here are.

For example, yesterday VFP member John Schuchardt from Massachusetts had a piece of a tooth fall out of his mouth.  One of the young people at the hotel desk escorted him to the dentist office (appointment made just the day before) and his total cost for the repair job was $35.  John told us that he, the dentist, and the dental assistant had a great conversation and when he left he was given hugs.  It's been like that all along.

Tomorrow a friend of our guide in Crimea will come to the hotel and take us to the 'Immortal Regiment peace parade' which every May 9 honors the memory of the more than 28 million Soviet citizens who died during the WW II invasion and occupation of the German Nazi Army.

We visited the Political History museum yesterday and learned that prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union a referendum was held asking the public their opinion on the future of the nation.  The vote was 60% wanted to keep the Soviet Union while 40% wanted to dissolve it.  The leaders at the time, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, ignored the voters and broke the nation up.  Today those two former presidents are despised by a vast majority of the Russian people.

We've repeatedly heard that Putin's favorable ratings are dropping from in the mid-80% to just over 50% because last year the government announced they were going to raise the retirement age.  Many protests were held across the nation and a compromise was reached - the retirement age, formerly 55 for women and 60 for men, was changed to age 60 and 65, respectively. People tell us they generally like Putin's foreign policy (which has emphasized Russia's sovereignty and independence from the west) but the public is not so happy about domestic politics which is still largely controlled by the wealthy oligarchs.

By the way, for those neocons in Washington who want to force regime change in Moscow and take over Russia for western corporate interests it looks like they've already achieved some of that goal.  Everywhere one can find KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Subway, Wrangler and Lee Jeans, New Balance shoes and more.

 

(Of course alot of this western influence has changed since the US-EU sanctions on Russia after the February 2022 SMO into Ukraine. Most of these corporate consumer outlets are now gone.)

In the political history museum we noticed a bit of re-writing of the history of the Soviet period that largely ignores the enormous social strides that came as a result of the 1917 revolution and mostly took note of the many mistakes of that period.  Many in our group wondered if this was due to the current growing power and influence of the oligarchs.

We came to Russia to listen and learn in order to stand against the constant demonization of this nation by the western corporate dominated countries - especially the US.  It's really quite sad that most Americans (and westerners) actually know very little about Russian history or the current situation inside this remarkable nation.

Already there have been many requests that the Global Network organize another similar study tour.  

 
It's been a real gift to be here for all of us.

Bruce

~ Photos by Will Griffin & Mary Beth Sullivan (except the aerial shot of the Livadia Palace).  

Blackrock buying up Panama!

 

Blackrock is out of control.

Is Greenland next on their list? 

Or is Canada to be the 51st state? Imagine they join the U.S. and get rid of their national health care system and begin paying massive fees to the 'health insurance companies'. What a joke that would be.

Bruce 

March 29 Palestine solidarity vigil in Topsham, Maine

Protests have been regularly held across Maine each month since 2022. On March 29 we will return to another busy traffic intersection - this time in Topsham at 1:30 pm.

As uncertainty about the Trump 'Gaza plan' grows and the clarity emerges that zionist Israel is now attempting to turn the West Bank into another Gaza, we must more than ever publicly stand in support of Palestine and demand peace and freedom.

Please join us if you can. If you can't make it then send a message to our Maine congressional delegation demanding they vote to stop sending our tax dollars to Israel for genocide!

 Our demands:

Peace in Ukraine - No weapons, no money for the Ukraine War
Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions!
Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
No war with China!
Protect Earth's environment from the deadly insult of war!
End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel!
Fight racism & bigotry not war!
U.S. hands off Haiti!
End AFRICOM

 

 

 Co-sponsors:

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Natural Guard, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Communist Party of Maine, Maine Green Independent Party, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), Party for Socialism & Liberation Maine, Libertarian Party of Maine, People’s Party of Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Veterans for Peace - National, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights (MVPR).

Julian Assange's first hack: Galileo plutonium launch in 1989

I've posted this previously here but with my current trip to Florida (and with Assange having recently being released from the UK hell-hole) it seemed like a good time to share again. ~ Bruce

The leaflet above was advertising a protest we organized at the space center in Florida in 1989. This was during the period from 1987-1997 where we held one large protest after the other against the nuclearization and weaponization of space. Sometimes there were 500 people there, frequently about 1,000 came, and our biggest ever was more than 5,000.

In 2011 my son Julian (a debate coach), who grew up attending these events, sent me an email with a link to a book written by Suelette Dreyfus with research by Julian Assange that was published in 1997. The book was called Underground: Front Page. 

 
Julian told me, "Dad, one of the debate topics for the Harvard tournament is about WikiLeaks and I've been doing a lot of research on Julian Assange. Here's a link to a book he worked on...read the first chapter!!!"

So I dutifully clicked on the link.

Much to my surprise I found that the authors began their book with an account of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice's 1989 campaign to oppose NASA's launch of the Galileo plutonium-238 space probe that garnered international media coverage. This was the first of three major nukes in space campaigns that I led (the others Ulysses in 1990 and Cassini in 1997).

The authors wrote:

For weeks, the protesters had been out in force, demonstrating and seizing media attention. Things had become very heated. On Saturday, 7 October, sign-wielding activists fitted themselves out with gas masks and walked around on street corners in nearby Cape Canaveral in protest. At 8 a.m. on Monday, 9 October, NASA started the countdown for the Thursday blast-off. But as Atlantis's clock began ticking toward take-off, activists from the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice demonstrated at the centre's tourist complex.

That these protests had already taken some of the shine off NASA's bold space mission was the least of the agency's worries. The real headache was that the Florida Coalition told the media it would 'put people on the launchpad in a non-violent protest'. The coalition's director, Bruce Gagnon, put the threat in folksy terms, portraying the protesters as the little people rebelling against a big bad government agency. President Jeremy Rivkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends, another protest group, also drove a wedge between 'the people' and 'NASA's people'. He told UPI, 'The astronauts volunteered for this mission. Those around the world who may be the victims of radiation contamination have not volunteered.'

I'll always remember the 1989 launch of Galileo because it was delayed over and over again for about a week. The international media were gathered at the Kennedy Space Center tourist area with nothing much to do, so each day during that week we assembled as many people as we could get and held another vigil and news conference which helped us tremendously to get the word out around the world about the deadly plutonium space launch program.

In chapter 1 of this book is a whole section about a computer worm that got planted inside of NASA's computers during this very time. Was the Galileo delay due to a hacker trying to help us stop that launch? Was a hacker also trying to symbolically 'sit on the launch pad'? 

 
It just goes to show that you never know who is paying attention to your efforts. Who could have guessed that Julian Assange, who has become such a courageous journalist, would be moved enough to feature it in the first chapter of his book? Maybe it was because it was a classic story about out-of-control technology and the 'little peoples' reaction. Any way you cut it one has to acknowledge that it has a nice twist.

One side story should be told here as well. My son Julian was nine years old in 1989 and one day I came home from a Cape protest and he had my gas mask on. In his most serious voice he told me, "Don't worry Dad, if Galileo blows up I could wear this gas mask for the rest of my life." He was trying to make me feel better. His words cut right to my heart and my soul. Since then I've tried to stay true to the cause because I believe that no child, my own or anyone else's, should ever have to think of living in a radioactive wasteland wearing a gas mask for their whole life.
 

Bruce

    Clip:
   

 "JULIAN Assange has told the story of his childhood and adolescence twice - most recently to a journalist from The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian, and some 15 years ago, secretly but in greater detail, to Suelette Dreyfus, the author of a fascinating book on the first generation of computer hacking, Underground, for which Assange was the primary researcher ...

    ... Nothing about Assange has ever been straightforward. One of the main characters in Underground is the Melbourne hacker Mendax. Although there is no way readers at that time could have known it, Mendax is Julian Assange.

    In the late 1980s, Assange joined the underground subculture of hacking that was forming in Melbourne. By October 1989 an attack was mounted from Australia on America's NASA computer system via the introduction of what was called the WANK worm, in an attempt to sabotage the Jupiter launch of the Galileo rocket as part of an action of anti-nuclear activists.

    In an article he later published in the left-wing magazine CounterPunch, Assange would claim the WANK worm attack was "the origin of hacktivism"...