Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Non-violence training Nov 10 in Damariscotta



In anticipation of another ‘christening’ at Bath Iron Works (likely the new Zumwalt ‘stealth’ destroyer named ‘LBJ’ after President Lyndon Johnson) peace groups around the state will be offering a Non-Violence training on Saturday, November 10 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The training will be held at the Midcoast Friends Meeting House which is located at 77 Belvedere Road in Damariscotta – just off Hwy US 1. 

 http://midcoastfriendsmeeting.org 

Please bring your own lunch to the training on Nov 10. 

Mattis: US needs ‘offensive weapons in space’



Dominance in space is vital for the American way of life and the Pentagon must be prepared for deployment and usage of offensive weapons there, in order to protect US interests, Secretary of Defense James Mattis said. 
 
The Pentagon is looking at a two-pronged strategy in space, Mattis told an audience at the US Institute of Peace [what a joke that organization is] in Washington on Tuesday. In addition to making US assets in orbit more difficult to destroy and easier to replace, offensive capabilities are under consideration, he said.

“We are going to have to be prepared to use offensive weapons in space should someone decide to militarize it and go on the offensive,” said the retired Marine who took over the Pentagon in January 2017.

In any competitive sport in the world, “you cannot simply play defense and win,” Mattis added. “This is not an area that we want to be second-place in.”

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Random Observations from Russia trip – October 17-29

Beautiful Balaklawa, Crimea was one of the places I was taken to during my recent trip to Russia.  It was the site of secret Russian nuclear submarines during the Cold War period.  Today it is a bristling tourist community.


Moscow (Oct 17-21)

•    Workers were cleaning practically every square inch of new airport terminal in Moscow.
•    Virtually no trash anywhere in subway or on streets and amazingly hardly any trash cans around.
•    Russia has gone capitalist big time.  Many corporate brands from clothes, cosmetics, magazines (GQ & Esquire) and fast food chains (McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King) are all over the place.
•    Not everyone is happy with Putin.  They tend to support his foreign policies but not so much his domestic policies.
•    Some told me they miss the striving for the common good during the days of the Soviet Union but like most people around the world they appreciate the increased material comforts.
•    Outside of Moscow and St Petersburg there is more poverty in the rural areas.
•    The education system in Russia, like in the US, is in decline.  One person I met (a successful filmmaker who has had several of his films on national TV) can’t get his new critical film about education on TV. He and his partner (who also have a rock band together) interviewed me my first night in Moscow for their regular YouTube program.
•    While staying at the Hotel Cosmos in Moscow I witnessed hundreds of Chinese tourists at this historic hotel every day.
•    The subways are quite artistic and the trains run very frequently.
•    The Moscow airport is undergoing major expansion as is most of the city where loads of giant apartment and office buildings are under construction.  Moscow is the largest city in Europe.
•    Virtually everyone here has a cell phone.  I was probably one of the few in Moscow without one.  At the Hotel Cosmos I could not get WIFI unless I had the ability to register online via a phone.  I was frustrated until I found a nice young man who got me online using his phone.
•    I noticed that in the airport shops, restaurants, museums and other places there were ample workers unlike in corporate America where one person does the jobs of 2-4 others.
•    Almost all men have very short hair, only saw a few with longer hair.  People tend to generally dress conservatively.
•    What little I saw of Moscow at night was impressive – they really know how to use colorful lights to brighten up the city.
•    Traffic in Moscow was usually very congested.
•    Much like in Maine pedestrians appear to be given the right-of-way.
•    People don’t acknowledge you when you pass them by – they keep a straight face.  Once they warm up to you in social settings they are very friendly.
•    Generally, it appears that Russians are not fond of Americans.  Considering how the US installed Yeltsin after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and then brought in the ‘Harvard economic boys’ to privatize their economy it is understandable.  Add to that the US sponsored coup d’état in 2014 in Ukraine and expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders it is easy to see whey they are not eager to embrace Americans.  (Don't forget the US and EU sanctions as well.)
•    I saw auto dealers on TV selling Range Rovers.
•    Under pressure the government has changed their pension reform proposal from age 65 to age 63.  Russians presently retire at 55.
•    According to SIPRI the US spends 35% of the global total of military – add NATO members spending and the figure is well over 50%.  Russia spends 3.8% and has cut their military budget the last two years. The numbers don’t lie – it is impossible for Russia to ‘recreate the Soviet empire’ as many in the west claim.
•    It seems that generally people don’t appear to use seat belts in Russia.
•    Tea (Chi) is very popular in Russia.
•    Going thru security at Russian airports is a breeze. I didn’t have to take off my shoes or take out my laptop.  And Russia is hyper-security conscious.
•    The US has recently dangerously orchestrated a split in the Orthodox Church between Ukraine and Russia.  See more at http://thesaker.is/the-empire-splits-the-orthodox-world-possible-consequences/
•    Breakfast buffets in the three different hotels I stayed in come with the price of the room and offer a wide variety of food.
•    I saw several debates on Russian TV about the situation in Ukraine.  I recognized some of the commentators from videos I’ve watched since the US directed coup in Kiev in 2014.
•    Russian people appear to be quite proud of their military – especially since it saved them from Hitler’s Nazi invasion that took the lives of 27 million people in the former Soviet Union.  Today they see their military as defensive as they watch Nazis gain ascendancy in Ukraine and beyond.
•    Russian passengers on planes applaud when they safely land.
•    Russia is very conservative in many ways – proud of their long history.  They wish to maintain their positive traditional values and national sovereignty.  They don’t like people from other nations telling them how they should live.  Who would like that?
•    Out of my hotel window in Moscow I saw eight people raking leaves the old-fashioned way – not with gas driven and loud leaf blowers like here in the US. 
•    While in Moscow I learned that an Islamist terror cell had been apprehended in the city.  This is a key reason why Russia is so strict about their Visa entry process.

Crimea trip (Oct 21-25)
 
•    After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 the majority of Crimean’s voted to withdraw from Ukraine.  Their vote was ignored.  It was not until after the 2014 coup in Kiev when they voted again (about 96% in favor of leaving Ukraine) that their wish to return to the Russian Federation bore fruit.
•    I spoke to two English classes at a public school in Yalta, Crimea. The students were very sharp and I had fun.  I recognized many students from films by Regis Tremblay.  See his Russia film with the students at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbMArXkJhkQ
•    We ate lunch in the student cafeteria – very healthy fare.  No fried food or soda.
•    While in Yalta I visited the Livadia palace of Czar Nicolas II and the site of the post WW II summit with Stalin, FDR and Churchill.
•    My hotel in Yalta was located on Roosevelt St and there was a statue of FDR just across the street.
•    Russian women tend to dress smartly and fashionably.  When my guide Tanya in Crimea saw my small roll on suitcase she joked that is was the same size as her cosmetics bag.  Once you get to know them Russians have a great sense of humor.
•    On my first day in Simferopol, Crimea Tanya took me to a café where we were met by four women (journalists and activists) who began brainstorming the best activities when our Global Network study tour group comes to Crimea in the spring of 2019.
•    Well-fed cats in Crimea are everywhere as the Communist-era ethic of sharing works for the felines even under capitalism.
•    The first signs of military presence I saw in Russia was in Sevastopol, Crimea primarily because it is the long-time city of Russian Navy and Air Force bases located on the Black Sea.
•    Olga, my Livadia palace guide, in Yalta loves Nicholas II and wants Putin to be a czar.  With a big smile she jokes that she wants Russia to take over Great Britain because she loves the Queen – but only Great Britain – no other nation.
•    Olga and our driver to Sevastopol had a long debate during the trip about two Russian members of the national soccer team that were caught beating up some person.  The driver wants the footballers sent to Siberia to cut trees and Olga thinks the media made too much of the incident.
•    During 1941-44 Nazi Germany occupied Crimea.  This region had the most partisan resistance to the German Army of all the Soviet Union.  Crimean’s take seriously the growing Nazification of Ukraine that is today backed by US-NATO.  They are happy they voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
•    At Sevastopol I attended a 100th anniversary celebration inside a lovely theatre of the Young Communist League – Komsomol.  There was much singing, amazing Russian dances and awards.  During the time of the Soviet Union almost all children were members of Komsomol.  Today about 10% of the youth are members.  It was a fascinating experience.
•    I noticed a massive building all lit up in the night in Yalta and asked Tanya what it was.  She said Ukraine wanted it to be apartments for NATO soldiers but now since Crimea voted to return to Russia it is apartments for the public.  Wow, I said, that would have been a disaster if NATO had got ahold of Crimea.  It wouldn’t have happened Tanya said, we’d have had a civil war.
•    I turned the TV on in Yalta and saw the Russian equivalent of Judge Judy.
•    Yalta is full of trees – a virtual forest in the city.
•    I asked Tanya why the US demonizes Russia so much.  ‘They want our resources’ she replied.  Russia has the largest border with the Arctic Ocean and as the ice melts drilling for oil and natural gas becomes possible there.  Note that just a couple weeks ago US-NATO held massive war games in northern Norway aimed at Russia.
•    One building in Sevastopol has a large picture of Putin painted on it.  A local man told us that the house was built without all the required permits.  Now it is likely that no one will say anything because of the Putin portrait.

Back to Moscow (Oct 25-29)
 
•    While in Moscow, before I left for Crimea, I was invited to attend a weekend conference of The Union of Political Emigrants & Political Prisoners from Ukraine.  So, I extended my trip by several days so I could attend the event after I returned from the Crimea.
•    The Union of Migrant Workers reports that 70,000 people from the former Soviet Union (particularly from Central Asia) are now working inside Russia.  The economic situation in these former republics is quite difficult.  Russia is 2nd to the US in the number of labor migrants. Some of these workers get exploited by Russian employers. Most do menial work.
•    Younger Russians don’t have a feeling of comradeship with those from former Soviet republics as their parents and grandparents do.
•    One conference participant reported that repression in Lithuania is growing as that nation, under US direction, becomes more right-wing.  A Nazi collaborator in Lithuania during WW II (now dead) is being made into a national hero.  He took part in extermination of Jews.  When a member of one city council spoke out against this he was arrested for ‘Crimes against the state’ and remains in jail. Many other such cases abound in the Baltics and in Ukraine. Many thousands have fled the growing Nazi brutality in Ukraine by going to Europe or Russia. 
•    One Communist leader said that unless the current capitalist system in Russia is changed then the nation will face a collapse like in 1991 when the former Soviet Union came apart.

•    Near the conference hotel was a 'Red Bar' whose interior was all Soviet era stuff.  Books, TV's, tape recorder, flags, photos, medals, and even a bust of Lenin.  The food was good and the Russian beer enjoyable.
•   An editor of a well-known political journal told conference attendees that he disagrees with Putin’s government because it follows too closely the western model.  Instead the country should pursue the Chinese economic model of heavy participation of the state and long-range planning.  He stated that ‘We are in a very risky position that could lead to war due to Trump’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty [and previously the ABM Treaty during the George W. Bush administration].  One of the sources of Putin’s weakness is that he refuses to respond to repeated blows by the US.’
•    Three representatives from Brazil reported that the recently elected far-right (fascist) President Balsonaro is being groomed by the US to make Brazil a subordinate agent in the global campaign against Russia and China. An international movement is needed to show solidarity with Brazil’s movement opposing fascism in their country.
•    Steve Bannon (who helped Trump get elected) was engaged to help organize the Balsonaro campaign in Brazil.  He used high-tech methods to identify politically alienated people.  Balsonaro is supported by right-wing Army officers and traditional rich elites.
•    Several remarked during the conference that US corporate oligarchies don’t want to allow any truly independent nations.  They are trying to implement global slavery.  I agree with their analysis.
•    People in Donbass (eastern Ukraine) blame the US-NATO for the ongoing conflict there that has taken the lives of well over 10,000 people.
•    Ukraine is becoming a training base for terrorism to attack Russia and other nations.  Radical Islamist fighters are in Ukraine and will be used to attack Russia via the Caucuses, Central Asia and Ukraine.  They are given Ukrainian passports and can easily enter EU nations Visa free.  


Bruce

Fascism gets elected in Brazil



Brazil has just elected Jair Bolsonaro, a fascist for president!

While on my trip to Moscow I attended a conference last weekend.  There were three activists from Brazil who spoke in fearful terms about the likely (at that moment) election of Bolsonaro for president.

Steve Bannon who helped Trump get elected was instrumental in Bolsonaro's campaign.  Bannon pledges to go international with this movement to elect far-right candidates.

Brazilians are urging an international solidarity campaign with the beleaguered masses in their country.

A key reason the US oligarchies supported Balsonaro is that he will help roll-back efforts by China and Russia to counter reactionary corporate control of Central and South America.

See much more on this story here.

Bruce

Monday, October 29, 2018

Recycled red-baiting falls flat on its face



As Mueller winds down his investigation, the media is warning that there won't be any evidence of Russian Collusion, and worse, we'll probably never even see the report.

It was all a Hollywood production from the start - nothing plus nothing equals nothing.  Simple math.

There was no Russian conspiracy to elect Trump and both parties knew it all along.

It was pushed by the Democrats in order to excuse Hillary Clinton's abysmal election campaign performance and to help demonize Putin and Russia that would justify greater weapons production that only benefits the corporate killing machine.

It's an old song that gets repeated again and again by the corporate dominated media.

What will the liberal Dems do now without this as their 'Trump card'?

How about the liberals figure out how they keep getting lied to and develop a real political analysis? 

Maybe too much to ask for.....

Bruce

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Sunday song




Saturday, October 27, 2018

The U.S. & Nazi post-war relationship

Nazi intelligence officer (anti-Russia specialist) Maj. Gen. Reinhard Gehlen was brought to the US after WW II and helped create the CIA. He later returned to the newly formed West Germany and became the head of the BND (their version of the CIA).


NATO’s Nazi Beginnings: How the West implemented Hitler’s goals

by Robert S. Rodvik


Many writers have documented how British and American elites bankrolled Hitler’s rise to power and not until he turned his forces westward did they begin to mount defensive actions against the Third Reich. In Britain, elite members of The Right Club, often with government collusion, secretly supported Hitler’s actions against the Jews and against communists and socialists. The Duke of Wellington was a noted anti-semite and a member of the Right Club. Edward the VIII, known as "the Traitor King" was close friends with Adolf Hitler and was forced to give up his throne, not because of Wallis Simpson, but because it was discovered that he was passing British war operations documents to the Nazis. The aristocracy, after all, have never submitted to sharing the wealth with the lesser classes and Adolf was equally amenable to those ends, the destruction of the untermenschen being foremost in Plan A of his conquest strategy for Europe and Russia.

The Bank for International Settlements was a joint creation in the 1930’s of the western world’s central banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England was a wholehearted supporter of Hitler and, when the Nazis marched into Austria in 1938 most of the country’s gold was packed and loaded into vaults controlled by the Bank for International Settlements - the main central bank for the western world. One day later the Nazis marched into Prague, took the directors of the Czech National Bank as hostages and demanded they cede control of the country’s gold reserves representing some $48 million. Informed that the gold had already been transferred to London’s vaults, efforts were made to contact Montagu Norman - who immediately transferred the money to the Germans to outfit their war machine. Friends indeed.

The United States of America had not yet arrived at the position of world’s leading imperialist power, but many of its elites were aligned with British elite sentiments. One of the leading lights in furthering the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party was none other than Prescott Bush, father to George Herbert Walker Bush and grandfather to G.W. Bush, both future presidents and G.W. H. Bush as head of the CIA. These war criminals have maintained their popularity among right-wing Americans mostly due to a compliant media that has obscured their Nazi-loving history from the populace at large.

In their book George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin write the following:

In October 1942...Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush. Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the government took over the Union Banking Corporation, in which Bush was a director. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corp.’s stock shares, all of which were owned by Prescott Bush, E. Roland "Bunny" Harriman, three Nazi executives, and two other associates of Bush.

Tarpley and Chaitkin add the following:

President Bush’s family had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany...By deciding that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corp. were legally front men for the Nazis, the government avoided the more important historical issue: In what way were Hitler’s Nazis themselves hired, armed and instructed by the New York and London clique of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager?

Among those supporting the rise to power of Adolf Hitler was industrialist Henry Ford, a noted Jew hater. Among his other crimes, Ford..."refused to build aircraft engines for England and instead built supplies of the 5-ton military trucks that were the backbone of German army transportation."  The list of US industrialists linked to the Nazis is too long to recount here but can be accessed in Charles Higham’s excellent book, Trading With The Enemy: the Nazi-american plot 1933 - 1949.

Clearly the west’s leading financiers were in Hitler’s camp, busy supplying funds for his military buildup and not till he betrayed them by attacking England did the Allies unite to defeat the Nazi forces. In this effort an unholy alliance was formed; that of the western powers and of the Soviet Union, the major force in defeating Hitler’s legions. Yet long before the war ended the Brits and Americans were plotting to redirect their energy against the Soviets, a déjà vu of the 1918 invasion that the west mounted against the Bolsheviks and certainly the most unknown major event of modern history. To this end the British and US rescued the most murderous Nazi war criminals being sought by investigators of the same governments and mingled them into British and US apparatus of terror.

As Michael McClintock writes:

It was immediately after the creation of the United Nations that American leaders found it necessary—as a matter of interest—to break the new rules they publicly lauded. In doing so, they developed new systems by which to evade accountability for lawbreaking–including an enormous apparatus for covert intervention–and, by means of extraordinary effort, to present the United States’ actions, whatever their nature, as in accord with international law.

At the same time as the west was planning its covert actions against its WWII ally, it also created the formation of the terror club known as NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Almost in its entirety it was a Nazi enterprise. Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, for example, who had headed the Russia Desk in the Oberkommando der Wermacht (OKW - Hitler’s Supreme Headquarters) and a consultant on the Final Solution, was secretly brought to the United States where he would deliver his vast storehouse of previously hidden files on the Soviet Union and then set up the Russia Desk for the soon-to-be-formed CIA.

Gehlen would then be returned to postwar Germany where he was put in position as head of Germany’s new Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German Secret Intelligence Service. In essence, two Russia desks (at least) now functioned instead of just one; both with the same ultimate aim: destroy the Soviet Union and communism.

Hundreds if not thousands of old Nazis found new life working for the US, Britain, and Canada as the Cold War was cranked up and now the mass murderers were brought into policy making for the same Lords of the Manor who had supported Hitler to begin with. And, with the same old Nazis back in charge, every foul means was employed against the Soviets to prevent any challenge of global capital’s right to dictate the terms of enslavement.

West Germany, now being run by ex-Nazis under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, joined NATO in 1954 and Gehlen liaised with his pro-Nazi mentor Allen Dulles who would become head of the CIA, with brother John Foster as Secretary of State. Soon NATO began appointing the old tried and true Nazis into high positions within the organization.

General Hans Speidel, for example, became commander-in-chief in 1957 of AFCENT (Allied Forces Central Europe). Nazi Admiral Friedrich Guggenberger joined the highly important NATO military committee in Washington and General Adolf Heusinger (Gehlen’s old chief at Hitler’s OKW), became its chairman. At Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE), Gehlen managed to install several Nazi collaborators into vital positions. Amongst these was Col. Hennig Strumpell, who became deputy to British Maj. Gen. Charles Traver, the Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) at SHAPE. Col. Heinz Koller-Kraus was made head of logistics at Speidel’s AFCENT. Many other Gehlen men would soon join NATO to define its policies.

With the same Nazis well integrated into NATO and the CIA becoming an extension of Gehlen’s old Nazi intelligence agency, the Nieue World Ordnung was essentially relocated from the Reichstag in Berlin and dropped into the Pentagon and CIA Langley, Virginia.

Added to the anti-Soviet battle plans, US elites recognized the value of Goebbel’s Ministry of Truth and turned the lessons learned into the world’s most sophisticated propaganda network ever created. All western wars would now be given illusionary titles, such as: "wars for democracy", "wars for peace", "wars for justice", "wars for humanitarianism" and on and on. The corporate funded elites that run the UK and Canada were quick to adopt the same essential elements.

Two of those components of the propaganda wars for the US/UK/Nazi Nieue World Ordnung was the creation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty - both staffed with Gehlen’s old Nazis and funded by the CIA.

These Nazi mass murderers set up an Hungarian Desk, provided arms and assistance to underground pro-Nazi elements in Hungary and together with the CIA, instigated the Hungarian uprising - which the Soviets brutally put down. The prime use of this episode however, had little to do with the dead and dying, rather it was the propaganda value which portrayed an "Evil Empire" that had to be destroyed.

Dr. Eberhardt Taubert joined the Nazi party in 1931 and was soon promoted to the rank of Sturmführer, following Goebbels to the Ministry of Propaganda. After the war Taubert slid down to South Africa where he found comfort among the neo-Nazis in power in Johannesburg busy designing the apartheid system. In 1950 he returned to Germany and joined his old Nazi pal Reinhard Gehlen, becoming a member of the BND. In his new BND/CIA post, Taubert became chairman of the CIA-backed "National Association for Peace and Freedom" becoming also an adviser to German Minister of Defense, ex-Nazi Franz Josef Strauss and was then assigned by Strauss to NATO as adviser to the "Psychological Warfare Department". Goebbel’s Ministry of Truth being recirculated to feed the Christian fundamentalists some newly constructed, yet old and familiar Tales from the Dark, only having different packaging.

NATO has also been closely linked to a series of terrorist bombings in Italy in the 1980s in order to create a "Strategy of Tension" designed to allow the fascist right wing into power and thereby bring "stability" to the country. This program made use of numerous far right terrorists like Stefano Delle Chiaie of Ordine Nuovo and other demented souls who planted bombs in public places that killed hundreds, aided in implementation by Gehlen’s NATO/Nazi terrorists. Though well covered in Europe, thanks to media complicity, the story barely made a blip here.

In essence these and their followers are the people that run NATO, presently killing its way around the world thanks to the likes of Barack Obama, Steve Harper, and the rest of the West’s puppet satraps; while posing as defenders of humanity. It’s all too much to embrace without losing one’s dinner over and over again.

   
~ Robert S. Rodvik is an Internet activist and the author of  "The Balkans: US Covert Activity and American Media Complicity"

Putin comments on U.S. IMF nuclear trreaty withdrawal



President Putin: "Of course, there are certain issues concerning the development of missile technology in the world and the restrictions which only the US and the USSR, then the Russian Federation undertook. But what are we concerned about? We are concerned that the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was terminated. Now we are talking about the treaty on intermediate-range and short-range missiles."

In 1983 Ronald Reagan deployed the Pershing II nuclear missile in Germany (built in Orlando, Florida where I was then living and organizing protests at the plant where they were built called Martin Marietta) and cruise missiles in England and Italy.  The peace movement all across Europe was huge in opposition to these missiles.

Of course the former Soviet Union responded with their own nuclear missile deployments to counter Reagan's move on the chessboard.

By 1987 Reagan backed down and signed the INF Treaty (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) with the Soviet Union and both sides removed their missiles.

This dangerous and arrogant move by the Trump administration (read John Bolton and the rest of the neo-con crew) is a loaded-gun pointed at the head of Russia and Europe.  I can't imagine that European politicians will be happy about this but sadly many of them are in the pocket of the US corporate syndicate.  Let's see what they do in response.

I'd hope that the European people would wake up to this provocative display of  power by Washington.  Maybe NATO member states will decline to keep funding that steroidal military alliance that only works for corporate capitalism.

I'd also wish to see the many Trump supporters in the US realize that their desire to 'shake things up in Washington' is causing us to inch toward a nuclear confrontation that no one can escape from.

Bruce

Friday, October 26, 2018

Pentagon attacks Russian base in Syria



Aleksandr Fomin, Russian Deputy Minister of Defense: “13 drones went in a single battle order, guided by a common command. Meanwhile, an American reconnaissance plane Poseidon-8 has been cruising over the Mediterranean Sea for eight hours."

The US is walking on thin ice now - they are trying to provoke a shooting war with Russia.  This is a bad omen.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Days in Crimea, Russia



Singing about the history of Komsomol's 100 years, construction of new towns, achievements in sports, and other deeds of the former Soviet Union during 100th anniversary celebration of Young Communists League in Sevastopol, Crimea.



Trying my hand at knocking over wood blocks with very heavy steel pole - got them! This was at the Livadia Palace in Yalta where FDR, Stalin and Churchill met to divide up the post-WW II spoils.  If it was good enough for FDR then it was good enough for me.



I spoke with two English classes at a public school in Yalta.  They are very sharp kids and I recognized several of them from Regis Tremblay's film where he interviewed some of these same kids.  I told them they are now famous all over the world!  They are happy to again be part of Russia.  I learned that right after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 the people of Crimea voted to rejoin Russia but it didn't happen until 2014.



This was in the square where the people of Sevastopol, Crimea turned out in 2014 to declare they wanted to vote to rejoin the Russian Federation after the US sponsored coup d'etat in Kiev, Ukraine put in power many of the Bandera Nazi followers who predominate in western Ukraine.  The US is arming, training and directing these death squads to kill Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens in eastern Ukraine (Donbass) today. (Notice the full moon behind me.)

Photos and video by Tanya Bukarina. 

What's Haley's plan?



Just days before she resigned as UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley delivered a private speech to the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of influential right-wing figures.

Journalist Max Blumenthal obtained exclusive access and reveals shocking details -- including Haley's admission that she threatened the Chinese ambassador with a US invasion of North Korea.

Very interesting and important interview.


Saturday, October 20, 2018

Who was Khashoggi?



The murder of Jamal Khashoggi should be denounced.

Professor As`ad Abu Khalil says western media's uncritical praise of Khashoggi is unworthy, he was a loyal member of the Saudi propaganda apparatus and chose the wrong side of the House of Saud.

Sunday song




Politicians won't save us....



Politicians won't save us, only we can.

Video by Will Griffin
The Peace Report and board member of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Friday, October 19, 2018

Some perspective on Russia



On September 27, 2018, Yale's Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Poynter Fellowship for Journalism, hosted Vladimir Pozner, the acclaimed Russian-American journalist and broadcaster.

Pozner spoke on the impact of US foreign policy towards Russia after the Soviet Union has been disbanded, and shared his opinions on a range of issues raised by the audience, from the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, to Skripal poisoning, to the state of independent media in Russia and the US. 
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I listened to this entire video last night. I've seen Pozner on American TV over many years.  I don't always agree with every one of his comments but in general I think he is correct that the US has made Putin into the 'bad guy' because the Russian leader dared to stand up to the west as he defended Russian national sovereignty. 

I also found Pozner's concluding answer to the Skripal 'poisoning' question to be quite interesting although he made a joke out of his own wondering if it wasn't the British intelligence agencies that had poisoned the former spy in order to give Putin a black eye.  I think Pozner was correct when he commented that Russia had nothing to gain (and everything to lose) by poisoning Skripal.  I've always believed it was a British-US cloak and dagger operation.  It is their modus operandi for sure.

Bruce

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Remembering my moments with Russian cosmonaut


Just across the road from the Cosmos Hotel is the Russian space museum - a five minute walk through an underground tunnel.  The metro station is right next to the museum.

It was instructive to see how they portrayed their national space flight history and I was impressed with the international character of the museum.  They had several displays of US and other international space missions - something I've not seen in US space museums which only showed American exploration of the heavens - all part of the US domination of space ethic.

Of particular interest to me was the section of the museum that featured the process of cosmonauts returning to Earth in tiny capsules via fiery reentry with a dramatic parachute landing in the far reaches of the nation.

The recent failed Soyuz mission of a Russian rocket to bring a cosmonaut and a US astronaut to the International Space Station (that cost over $100 billion to build) brought this to mind because the crew return capsule parachuted to Earth in an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.  It's spectacular stuff.

NASA currently depends on Russian Soyuz launch systems to ferry crew members to the station. It's one of the few areas where Russia and the US still cooperate.

Another key reason for wanting to go to the museum was to look for a photograph of the cosmonaut Georgy Grechko who flew on several space flights including Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14. Grechko came to speak at a peace in space conference I organized in the early 1980's while working for the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.

Grechko was the only Russian cosmonaut that I am aware of to ever come to such a conference in the US.  He made it known in advance that he wished to take a tour of the Kennedy Space Center while in the area so I called NASA and passed on the request.  They (much to my surprise) approved the visit and told me to bring him to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where the Space Shuttles were maintained in between voyages.

As it turns out we were running a bit late that day so I was speeding as I rushed onto the vast KSC property.  A KSC security car put on his flashing light and pulled my car over.  Grechko told me not to worry that he'd take care of the situation as the officer approached the car.  I rolled down the window and Grechko leaned over and told the cop, "I am Russian cosmonaut."  The cop, rather in an unfriendly way, said "I don't care who you are" and proceeded to write me a speeding ticket. Grechko was shocked.


We eventually got to the cavernous VAB and it was clear that they were expecting us.  As we entered the facility all around us workers stopped what they were doing to see the Russian cosmonaut enter.  It was quite thrilling to see Grechko strut into the middle of the place holding his head high as he represented his country - the enemy during that Cold War period coming into the heart of the competitors secret space program.

I'll always remember the moment with great pride.  One small step for peaceful international relations.

Bruce

Meeting with Russian filmmakers last night


РАДИУС ПОРАЖЕНИЯ from GOOD EMPIRE on Vimeo.

I met with the two men who made this film last night, Konstantin Semin and Nikolay Diakov, for dinner here in Moscow. After we ate they took me to a huge building that used to be the headquarters of the Pravda publishing operation during the former Soviet Union.  Now rooms in the building are rented out for various purposes.

In our case a film studio waited for us. As we entered the room four young men were preparing to film an interview with me.  The hour-long interview was done by Konstantin and Nikolay will work on the translation and editing.  You can see their YouTube channel here.

Three years ago Nikolay came to Bath, Maine and interviewed me and then also got two other Global Network members into their film about US 'missile defense' - Karl Grossman (New York) and Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck (Germany).

Besides making films together Nikolay and Konstantin are also in a rock band that does political music.  I will be eager to get some of their videos to use in my Sunday song.

It was a real pleasure to spend time with these two thoughtful and kind men and I look forward to working with them again in the future.

Bruce

Nazi march in Ukraine - Terrorism in Crimea



  • These are the forces that the US has been supporting since the 2014 US-sponsored coup in Kiev.  Days ago over 8,000 of them marched through the city. American dollars have trained and armed the Nazi death squad battalions to fight against their own fellow citizens in eastern Ukraine who live near the Russian border as a way to create chaos and to draw Moscow into the tar pit.

  • See an excellent article by Diana Johnstone that tells the story about how the coup came into motion here.

  • A US Air National Guard pilot was just killed in Ukraine flying a mission with a Ukrainian pilot in one of their fighters.  What is the US Air Force doing in Ukraine?  See the story here.

  • There are confusing reports about the attack at Kerch College in Crimea that killed 19 and wounded 50 more.  RT has video coverage that clearly reveal shots being fired - see more here.  An article from Fort Russ has more details here.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

U.S. Terrorizing with drones



I'd like to thank the communities in the surrounding areas of Horsham Air Guard Base for standing up against drone warfare. Thank you for your time and dedication to PEACE!

Will Griffin
The Peace Report

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

On way to Moscow


I'm at the Portland, Maine airport preparing to fly to New York where I will catch an overnight flight to Moscow.  I am going on a 10-day trip to Russia to do advance work for a spring study tour that will take Global Network and Veterans For Peace members there.

I'll be staying for several nights in Moscow at the famous Cosmos Hotel ($50 per night) that has 2,000 rooms and was built for the 1967 Olympics.  A statue of Gen. Charles de Gaulle stands outside the hotel.  He was the President of France at the time the hotel was built.

I'll be meeting with several Russian journalists and activists while I am in Moscow to get their assistance in preparation for the 2019 study tour that will be composed of 30 people.  They will come from India, England, Sweden, Holland and the US.

Following my several days in Moscow I will go to Crimea to similarly make arrangements there for the study group's visit to that highly contested place.  The US claims that Russia stole Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 but the facts are clear that the primarily Russian speaking citizens of Crimea voted by at least 96% to request joining the Russian Federation after the US-NATO ran the coup d'etat in Kiev in early 2014.

I've never been to Russia before but have long hoped to make the trip.  Now it is happening.

I'll write more in the coming days.

Bruce

NO MUOS in Sicily!



Flash mob at USA consulate in Palermo, Sicily by No MUOS during Keep Space for Peace Week.

The M.U.O.S. (Mobile User Objective System) is a military telecommunication system of the U.S. Navy. A constellation of five satellites covers the whole world, whereas ground communication is granted by four stations, one of which il located in Niscemi, Sicily. Each ground station hosts three parabolic antennas, about 18.4 metres wide, and two elicoidal antennas about 149 metres high. The MUOS will be used to coordinate and command all USA military systems around the world, especially drones, the unmanned aircrafts that will be hosted in Sigonella, Sicily.


Sicilian citizens and No MUOS activists are worried about consequences of the installation of this system on: human health, the ecosystem of the Sughereta di Niscemi, the quality of agricultural production, right to mobility and to the development of territory, right to peace and security of our homeland and of its inhabitants.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Assorted space week pix: Australia, US, Sicily, & England

At the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon in Australia (Click on the photos for a better view)

At the White House in Washington during the weekly Catholic Worker protest

On the street in Montrose, California

Meeting with students at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India.  There were more events across this city than anywhere else.

Excellent poster from our friends in Sicily.  Says it all.  Wake up America!

Protest sit-in at the gate of the U.S. Naval Radio Transmitter Facility (NRTF) in Niscemi, Sicily. The M.U.O.S. (Mobile User Objective System) is a U.S. Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station. A constellation of five satellites covers the whole world, whereas ground communication is made possible by four stations, one of which is located in Niscemi. Sicilians are worried about consequences of the installation on: human health, the ecosystem, the quality of agricultural production, right to mobility and to the development of territory, right to peace and security of our homeland and of its inhabitants.  Protest was organized by No MUOS.

More of  No MUOS protest outside the US high-tech base in Sicily.

Vigil at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. Although there were no arrests, Lockheed Martin did close their main gate, and route people around to another gate. They closed the gate as activists approached with their banner.

Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale.

One of my favorite signs from the space week protests - this one at the US Croughton AFB in England.


Thanks to everyone who helped make Keep Space for Peace Week a successful effort again this year.