Toxic town meeting in Brunswick, Maine

 

Two nights ago Mary Beth and I attended the Brunswick town hall meeting about the recent major PFAS contamination at the former naval air station in our community. 

The local newspaper reported that the meeting came 10 days after a malfunctioning fire suppression system released 1,450 gallons of AFFF — a toxic firefighting foam that contains forever chemicals as PFAS — into Hangar 4 and surrounding areas. The fire suppression system in the hangar, which is owned by Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA), has since been shut down.

The town hall meeting space was packed with frightened, angry and frustrated citizens who came seeking answers to many questions that so far have gone unanswered in the community.

I was sitting in the back row next to a man who works for the Department of Environmental Protection in charge of remediation. Before the meeting began we talked about the extremely serious situation that one local community activist called our own version of Love Canal. The DEP man told me 'we have no information' and went on to explain that there could be no effective remediation of the massive PFAS spill until serious questions were answered about the toxicity of PFAS, what was an effective clean-up strategy, could the PFAS become aerosolized and many other technical issues.

In the end he was as frustrated as everyone else who attended the packed event. No answers to any of the questions emerged.

 

The town meeting room was full so people had to go upstairs and sit in two overflow rooms that were broadcasting the meeting via the town's public access TV station. People were also watching the meeting via their TV's while at home as well. You can see the entire meeting here

Long before the US Navy closed the Brunswick Naval Air Station in 2011 the site had been declared a Superfund toxic site in 1987 after open-air detonation of ordnance. When the Navy left Brunswick it still was not fully cleaned up and the PFAS problem had begun to rear its ugly head. Hangers 4, 5 and 6 had PFAS foam stored in them. Hanger 4 had the accident and during the meeting we learned that Hanger 6 'may be leaking now' and could have a greater release than at Hanger 4. 

One of the 'experts' on the panel said that there was no current leak in Hanger 6 but Brunswick Landing Restoration Advisory Board member, a retired Bowdoin College Chemistry professor, David Page responded to MRRA representative Jeffrey Jordan that the hanger was 'not, not leaking' which seemed to drift past the other talking heads without further comment.

When the Navy left Brunswick in 2011 the MRRA was commissioned by the state to take over operation of the former base. They were told to get rid of the PFAS foam in Hangers 4, 5 & 6 but they did not do so. Surely they must be held legally liable for this incident.

The former base is now called 'Brunswick Landing' with many large and small businesses in operation. (Day care centers, offices, restaurants, YMCA, senior citizen assisted living centers, homes for working class people, homes for recently arrived African immigrants, and much more.)

Many who live and or work at Brunswick Landing complained that to this day the MRRA had not sent out any communication about the leak to them. They had to learn about it through the media.

The MRRA has had a 'golden boy' image since it took over the former base. They have a board of directors appointed by the state government but there appears to be little state effort made to keep tabs on the operation - especially the various toxic environmental problems. MRRA regularly organizes military airshows that bring lots of cash into their coffers. Maine media have equally been in the MRRA's bag for years - see this one TV spot as evidence here.

 

One man in the audience reported that his environmental organization has organic gardens at the former base which are providing food for the many African immigrants who now live there. He said the PFAS foam landed in the garden and he asked if the food could still be eaten. The audience groaned but the filibustering talking heads didn't have much of a comment.

One young mother said her child is attending a child care center at the Landing and she wondered if it was safe for the kids to play outside on the playground equipment. State Toxicologist Andy Smith suggested they could take a wet wipe and clean the equipment and it should be safe. Another groan.

There were many other questions and concerns like is it safe to ride bikes there, can we drink the water? One man stood up and said he and his wife bought a house at the Landing and now she is pregnant. Forget any chance of selling that house anytime soon.

We've heard that PFAS is already in the nearby Androscoggin River. The fish are likely contaminated. PFAS that gets into the soil can be swept up by the winds and carried as dust. How do you clean that up?

Many asked who will pay for any possible clean-up. Again, no one had any answers.

When I got my chance to speak I said: 

We are all sadly living in a dream world. The US is $35 trillion in debt. The Navy ain't gonna clean this up. I said we are not alone in this as the US has 800 bases around the world and all over this country. All these bases are a toxic stew. Let me give one example. In South Korea the US had a base in the capital city of Seoul for many years. It was contaminating the living hell out of the water and the US military refused to clean it up. So eventually the US closed the base and moved to Camp Humphreys in southern South Korea. The US forced the destruction of 70 farming villages all around that base in order to expand and take in the operations from Seoul. The villagers fought for 10 years but were defeated because the US insisted the base be expanded. Today that base is now becoming contaminated.

I concluded by turning toward US Sen. Angus King (Independent from Maine) who lives in Brunswick and was sitting in the back row. I said that there is only one solution to pay for this cleanup - the US spends $1 trillion a year on the military. If we cut that budget then maybe we could begin to clean up Brunswick and all these other bases around the world. So it's good that Sen. King is here, maybe he will go to Washington and lead the fight to cut military spending, close these bases around the world, return the lands to the people, and clean them up as we should because we are responsible for the mess.

I am not particularly optimistic after witnessing the rather weak 'experts' and local political leaders who were running the meeting. A couple of citizens stated that more of these meetings should be held in the near future and I would second that motion. In fact hold them in a bigger space so that everyone can be in the same room in order to make sure the 'community leaders' can look the public in the eye. It would also be a good idea to form a citizens advocacy group to organize on behalf of the community.

Bruce

The zionist settlers land grab

 

 

The New Arab

 

On July 31, Israeli settlers - escorted by soldiers with the Israeli Civil Administration, the military body governing the occupied West Bank - raided the Kisiya family’s land in Al-Makhrour, a lush valley near Bethlehem, and forcibly evicted the Christian Palestinian family.

On the day of the eviction, the Israeli army had declared an area adjacent to the Kisiya land a closed military zone. While their land wasn’t included in the order, the army used it to bar the family from accessing it.

Community Peacemaker Teams, and international organisation, said that the Kisiya family, who have French and Israeli citizenship, have the necessary legal documents from the Civil Administration to prove they legally own the land targetted by settlers and are entitled to run a family restaurant on the site.

Following the seizure, the family set up a solidarity camp at the site and were joined by members of the Israeli-Palestinian group Combatants for Peace, which supported the family amid attacks by Israeli settlers and their detention by Israeli forces.

The Kisiyas - along with their supporters - have also continuously returned to their land to demonstrate against the forced eviction and to try and reclaim their home.

Alice Kisiya, who has inadvertently become the face of her family's plight, and her mother Michelle were arrested by Israeli forces on Sunday after conducting a sit-in on the land they own. Michelle was subsequently freed and banned from returning to Al-Makhrour for 15 days while Alice was released on Monday. Meanwhile, Israeli officers had detained Alice's brother after he attempted to prevent the raid from Israeli settlers.

On August 14, far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich on August 14 approved the building of a new illegal settlement, named Nahal Heletz, on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem.

In the announcement, Smotrich said that "no anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of settlements".

Ukraine seeks weapons to target deep inside Russia

 

 

 

By Simplicius

 

Now, the central narrative has fully shifted to the question of “long range strikes” on Russia. It’s clearer than ever that this is the final strategic gimmick Zelensky has left in the bag to stoke a conflict between NATO and Russia.

CNN explains how top Ukrainian officials are en route to speak to Biden directly about opening up this final Pandora’s box:

There really is nothing left other than to launch massive provocations by whisking ATACMS and Storm Shadows as deep into Russia as possible.

But here’s the ultimate catch that the vast majority of observers do not understand: U.S.’ hesitancy is not about fear that Russia will lose and what “uncontrollable” chaos that would entail, as Ukrainian commentators keep telling us. No, rather it’s the opposite—the U.S. fears that Ukraine may provoke Russia to go “all out”, which would unfetter Putin from his “soft” approach to wage some kind of all out war that would result in Ukraine either being destroyed or totally subjugated.

You see, the smarter American policy advisors know that the only chance the West has to topple Russia, is to keep this conflict a slow boil such that Putin “sleep walks” into a trap, buying time for the regime to foment opposition against him. But Ukraine stands to accidentally unleash the full extent of the Russian war machine—which could encompass an official declaration of war, or simply the abrogation of all former “rules” against striking civilian objects, government buildings, leadership, Kiev in general, etc. This, Washington knows, would lead to Russia definitively occupying all of Ukraine, which would mean the end of the entire Ukrainian project 70 years in the making by the CIA and co.

In short: they want to bleed the bear slowly by poking it over and over such that the bear doesn’t even realize it’s bleeding out; what they don’t want is puncturing the bear so hard that he erupts into a frothy rage and beheads them with a grisly swipe of his claws.

Interestingly, a new Foreign Affairs piece—from the people of the Council on Foreign Relations—argues that it would be militarily futile to allow deep strikes in Russia:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/false-promise-ukraines-deep-strikes-russia

Career apparatchik Stephen Biddle argues that to have true strategic effect, Ukraine would have to combine such long range strikes with some massively successful maneuver warfare advances—which they simply don’t have the capability for at the moment:

From a strictly military perspective, restrictions never help. Giving Ukraine the means and permission to launch attacks deep into Russian-held territory would surely improve Ukrainian combat power. But the difference is unlikely to be decisive. To achieve a game-changing effect, Ukraine would need to combine these strikes with tightly coordinated ground maneuver on a scale that its forces have been unable to master so far in this war. Otherwise, the benefits Ukraine could draw from additional deep strike capability would probably not be enough to turn the tide.

Italian armoured vehicles invading Russia

 

By Manlio Dinucci (Grandangolo on Byoblu TV, Italy)

The war against Russia has entered a new and more dangerous phase with the incursion of Ukrainian forces into the Russian region of Kursk. The New York Times calls it “the largest foreign incursion into Russia since World War II,” that is, since Russia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies, with Italy at the forefront. 

The political mainstream media presents it as a brilliant strategic move by Kyiv to ease the growing Russian pressure on the Donbas front. It therefore hides the heavy losses that Ukrainian forces are suffering from Russian forces in Kursk, in terms of armoured vehicles and men. 

The incursion of Ukrainian forces into this Russian region was planned and organized by the US-NATO commands with a much broader strategic purpose. They concentrated the attack in a border area manned only by young conscripts and border guards, who could not withstand the sudden onslaught of tanks and artillery. The rapid conquest of about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory, the capture of over 300 conscripts, the destruction of three important bridges with US missiles, and the increasing drone attacks deep into the Moscow region, aim at a goal that is not simply territorial: spreading in Russia mistrust in the ability of the Government and President Putin himself to ensure the security of the country, thus weakening the internal resistance front. 

This is happening at a time when the US and NATO are stepping up the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons close to Russian territory and a “secret nuclear strategy” is coming to light: in a classified document – reported by the New York Times – “President Biden has ordered US forces to prepare for possible coordinated nuclear clashes with Russia, China and North Korea.” 

Italy’s participation in this catastrophic war strategy is far greater than expected. The incursion into the Russian territory of Kursk involved Italian armoured vehicles, which the government donated to Kyiv and crew training. This is confirmed by the video of the destruction of one of these armoured vehicles by Russian forces in Kursk. 

Italy is also participating in the preparation for nuclear war. In violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it not only deploys US nuclear bombs on its territory and prepares to use them, but through Leonardo, it builds nuclear missiles for the French arsenal. 

Dems not a party of 'the people'

 

 

George Galloway

The Obamas don’t represent black or working class people in America. They’re part of the Clinton circle, says Sabrina Salvati. 

Kamala Harris is the product of that patronage. 

Campaign signs are appearing in the US that say 'Kamala Harris for President - for the people'.

It's not true - Harris works for the oligarchic elites. 

The people be damned.

Sabrina says we need a political party for the working class. 

U.S. Out of Africa

 

   

BAP

Since Niger and Mali exposed that Ukraine, a nation heavily reliant on the United States for military and economic support, is supporting terrorism in the Sahel, this has starkly exposed the contradictions inherent in AFRICOM's mission on the African continent. AFRICOM was established under the premise of combating terrorism and ensuring stability in Africa. However, if a U.S.-backed government is actively aiding terrorist groups in the Sahel, it suggests that AFRICOM's role may not be as straightforward as it claims. Instead, it could be seen as part of a broader strategy that perpetuates instability and conflict in Africa, thereby justifying its continued presence and expanding influence under the guise of fighting terrorism.
 
This scenario would lend credence to the belief that AFRICOM's true purpose is not to eliminate terrorism but rather to maintain a perpetual state of conflict and dependency on the continent. By fostering instability, AFRICOM ensures that African states remain reliant on U.S. military support, which aligns with the strategic interests of the U.S. and its European and other allies in securing access to Africa's vast natural resources.
 
The purpose of AFRICOM is to make African militaries so integrated and dependent on US technologies and support as to make them easy to control and direct towards imperial interests whether that be by standing up, standing down, committing assassinations, committing coups, protecting coups, among other atrocities. Africans become the face of U.S. imperialism on the continent to protect against unwanted scrutiny while still maintaining U.S. access to African resources.
 
Join us for the International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in October to demonstrate our opposition to these designs. 

Zionists move the war to the West Bank

 

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank is “not just raids … it’s an act of war”. 

“What Israel is doing is conducting a war on occupied people which is a total violation of international law on how an occupying power should behave,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera, stressing that the West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. 

“They are using air strikes, air force, tanks, bulldozers, and what they are trying to do is to transfer the actual genocide and ethnic cleansing ongoing in Gaza into the West Bank,” Barghouti said. 

The amount of damage Israeli forces inflicted on the Palestinian territory’s infrastructure also indicates their goal to make it uninhabitable for its citizens, Barghouti added. “They destroyed water pipelines, electricity lines, houses, schools – what do they want? 

They want to create a situation where we cannot live in our country and that is exactly what the settlers’ plans are about. “It’s about Judaization of the West Bank, about annexing the West Bank and killing any opportunity for the Palestinians to be free and to have a state of their own,” he said. 

No Harbour for Genocide

 

 
The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy

Mobilisations across the Mediterranean Disrupt Military Fuel Transit to Israel

Over the past few weeks, civil society organisations and social movements across the Mediterranean have tracked and disrupted US Military chartered tanker vessels delivering military jet fuel to 'Israel'. Activists, politicians and workers in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and elsewhere have come together - under the banner of 'No Harbour for Genocide' - to successfully delay military jet fuel deliveries, with more disruptions planned.

U.S. contracted fuel tankers have continued to transit military fuel to Israel through Mediterranean ports, despite warnings that their cargo is used by Israel to commit genocide in Palestine.

A report by Oil Change International and Data Desk revealed that three deliveries of JP-8 military jet fuel took place between October 2023 and March 2024. The fuel was carried by US flagged tankers Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast, with each tanker carrying enough fuel for an estimated 12,000 flights of Israel's F-16 and F-35 aircraft. In April 2024, UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution expressing deep concern over the use of jet fuel by Israel to commit violations of international law.

Yet state-operated and privately-owned ports in the Mediterranean Sea, along with NATO and US military bases, have continued to service these oil tankers with fuel, food, supplies and crew changes, enabling them to continue transit fuel shipments to Israeli fighter jet planes uninterrupted.

In response, over the past three weeks activists throughout the Mediterranean have come together to disrupt and delay the delivery of military jet fuel. Groups working together under the banner of No Harbour for Genocide, who have been monitoring the vessels, confirm that the Overseas Santorini delivered an additional shipment of military fuel to the Israeli government at the port of Ashkelon. The delivery took place on August 8, 2024 'in the dark' after the ship turned off its transponder due to mounting public pressure.

Yet the significant disruption caused to the Overseas Santorini's latest voyage demonstrates the possibilities of ending such deliveries through popular action.

Successful Disruption

The Overseas Santorini's transport route reveals the web of government-state-military partnerships profiting from Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians. The Overseas Santorini is one of ten ships enrolled in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration's Tanker Security Program, which provides these "militarily useful" vessels with $6 million in annual stipend to "allow for committed, reliable and loyal fuel transportation to the US military during a time of national crisis."

Both vessels, in addition to the Overseas Mykonos, are all contracted by the U.S. government to deliver military fuel supplied by the Valero Energy Corporation to the Israeli government, which negotiated the purchase of the fuel through the U.S. State Department at a cost of $3 billion in 2020. Valero was granted a contract by the US Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy) to provide nearly one billion litres of JP-8 jet fuel, diesel fuel, and unleaded gasoline covering many years' supply to the Israeli Armed Forces. Valero refines the petroleum products used by the Israeli air force at its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.

On its most recent delivery, the Overseas Santorini left Corpus Christi on July 15, 2024, and entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar on July 31. Through coordinated actions by civil society groups, social movements and dockworkers, the vessel was pressured to abandon its routine ports of call in Algeciras, Spain and Gibraltar. Further pressure was mounted in Malta, forcing the vessel to skip the country and continue directly to the Ashkelon terminal in Occupied Palestine.

The Overseas Santorini's entire voyage was beset with problems created by the mass, transnational mobilization against its delivering of jet fuel to Israel's genocide. On July 25, dockworker unions in Spain issued a statement saying they would refuse to service the ship, numerous Spanish politicians spoke out against it docking and hundreds turned out in the city of Algeciras calling on the city to reject what they referred to as "The Ships of Death".

Once the tanker rerouted to Gibraltar, dozens of British MPs wrote to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Fabian Picardo, the chief minister of Gibraltar, calling on them to refuse the ship's request to dock, meanwhile activists on the ground in Gibraltar mobilised their community to monitor and protest the ship's activities. Similar campaigns by civil society, activists and politicians - working closely with trade unions and port authorities - were established in every potential harbour along the Overseas Santorini's route, forcing it to turn off its tracking system for over a week in order to evade further activist disruption.

Announcements, protests and actions organised as part of this mobilisation can be found on the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine social media pages, both Instagram and X/Twitter.

 

 

Tracking Ships in the Dark

Both vessels have routinely and deliberately obscured their voyage details and positions. While the Overseas Santorini has been in the dark since it entered the Mediterranean Sea and during its offloading of military fuel, the Overseas Sun Coast has not revealed its next destination.

Turning off AIS tracking can prevent other vessels from identifying a ship's identity and increases the potential for collisions at sea, and likely to constitute a breach of maritime law. In the context of the genocide in Palestine, turning off the AIS reduced state and public accountability in monitoring and intervening in the operations of the vessels, in line with international laws and obligations. These actions raise significant concerns over navigational safety in addition to public and state accountability.

These evasive actions led to the posting of lookout notices throughout the Mediterranean, mobilising activists, fishermen, dockworkers and other boaters to seek out and identify the route of the Overseas Santorini. This uncovered its docking and unloading in Ashkelon on August 8, and is expected either in the port of Limassol, Cyprus or Souda, Crete. The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus has already called on its government to prevent the vessel from docking or refuelling in Cypriot ports, whilst activists in both Cyprus and Crete have been mobilising against the ship docking there.

Meanwhile, the other military partner vessel - the Overseas Sun Coast - which was docked in the southern French port of Lavera, 30 miles west of Marseilles, departed on August 7. The vessel had arrived from the U.S./NATO naval base at Rota, Spain, with its next port of call yet to be declared. Palestinian-solidarity groups, including Comité local des Soulèvements de la terre de Marseille, Urgence Palestine Marseille, and BDS Provence demanded the French government prevent and prohibit the undocking of vessels engaging in the transit of military fuel to Israel from its port; or risk being complicit in genocide. The call urged workers at the port of Lavera to refuse complicity in genocide; and the harbouring of the Overseas Sun Coast.

Growing Legal Consensus

Alongside the UN Human Rights Council statement in April, legal experts have also expressed that in the context of Israeli genocidal practices, states have an obligation to prevent the transit of military fuel through their ports. A letter signed by more than 60 international legal experts was sent to the UN missions of all states bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Mexico warning that the transit of military fuel through their territory breaches international law.

The letter underlines the responsibility of states to "refuse permission to either of these vessels to transit within states’ territorial waters or to provision them within ports under states’ jurisdiction." It further emphasises that "Failure to do so could amount to a breach of international legal obligations and complicity in the international law violations being committed by Israel."

The experts make clear that Mediterranean ports must act to fulfil their legal obligations under international law and refuse transit and services to vessels directly enabling Israel to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and other grave breaches of international law. Such actions are consistent with those taken by states and workers to end Apartheid in South Africa, and more recently, in campaigns to identify and sever links between shipping firms and the military junta in Myanmar.

These recent, successful mobilisations are only the first phase in a series of planned global disruptions that will target Valero Energy, the OSG tankers used to transfer military jet fuel, the companies servicing these ships, the ships' insurers and all entities profiting from the murder of Palestinians. As the campaign outlines, as long as corporations and states continue to provide, and profit from, the sales and transport of weapons, ammunition and military fuel, there must be No Harbour for Genocide.

~ For more background information on these shipments, the popular mobilisation against them or anything else, please contact the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine: info@palenergyembargo.com

Fewer Americans willing to fight & die for other countries

  

Responsible Statecraft

A July poll shows that a majority of the American public does not support sending U.S. troops to defend Taiwan or Ukraine, sentiment that lines up with findings from other recent surveys on these heated subjects, which suggests that Americans appear to be warming to restraint and non-interventionism in international affairs.

Indeed, another poll, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February found that a majority of Americans (56%) do not believe that the United States should pick a side in Israel’s war on Gaza. And a more recent survey from Council this month found that just four in ten support the United States sending troops to defend Israel if attacked by its neighbors.

Similarly, Americans’ suspicions of foreign intervention were uncovered in a recent YouGov poll, which found that 79% said that they only support intervention if the U.S. were directly threatened (that number significantly dropped to 49% if an ally were attacked). In the same study, the only recent war that a majority of Americans viewed as justified was World War II.

Despite these findings, Washington continues to push forward with fanning the flames of war around the world, whether being slow to work toward peace settlements in Ukraine and Gaza, stoking conflict with China, or throwing gargantuan amounts of money, unnecessarily, at the Pentagon and thus, the weapons industry.

"The general through line of the polling data is there is a disconnect between official U.S foreign policy and the preferred policies of the American people,” Tucker Kass, spokesman at Defense Priorities which conducted the July survey, told Responsible Statecraft concerning their findings. “The policy coming out of D.C. is interventionist but the American people, at least based on the answers we received, support a more judicious, more discerning policy that would frankly be wiser than current policy."

The Defense Priorities poll also found that just 22% of those surveyed support the United States defending Ukraine. Forty-six percent opposed while 32% were neutral. Thirty percent said they support America militarily defending Taiwan against China, while 37% opposed and 33% were neutral. Additionally, a plurality of Americans surveyed, 44%, agreed that avoiding war with China is more important than Taiwan’s autonomy.

Meanwhile, Americans have been increasingly less likely to support U.S. military aid being sent to Ukraine. A 2022 survey from the Chicago Council found that 79% of Americans supported sending military aid to Kyiv, but that number shrunk to 63% in the Council’s September 2023 poll. Defense Priorities’ July survey found that only 20% of Americans supported continued unconditional support for Ukraine.

Other surveys also found that Americans have opposed the U.S. militarily defending Taiwan against a Chinese attack. In addition to the previously mentioned Defense Priorities poll, a survey from November 2023 by the Chicago Council found that only 39% would support defending Taiwan, rising to 43% in 2024.

Support among Americans for defending Israel militarily has also been trending downwards. According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, support for using U.S. troops to defend Israel has hovered just over 50 percent from 2015 through 2021, but dropped to 41% in 2024.

The American public appears to be questioning U.S. military involvement in world affairs more generally. Support for U.S. military bases in Germany, Turkey, Poland, Baltic partners, Japan, South Korea, and Australia is down across the board from 2022 to 2023.

Despite these apparent trends, there are some caveats. As seen in the Defense Priorities poll from July, Americans don’t tend to follow U.S. foreign policy closely, leading to large shares of neutral or “don’t know” responses to related polling questions. Polls also have the potential to differ widely. For example, some polls have shown support for America defending Taiwan, including one survey from the Global Taiwan Institute showing 61% in support as recently as 2022. Additionally, the public can be swayed by conflict or strong media driven narratives. For example, after the September 11th attacks, the media helped to normalize the idea of deposing Saddam Hussein. By January 2002, 73% of the American public supported the use of force in Iraq, believing what the Bush administration said about the presence of WMDs in the country. After years of hindsight, only 32% of Americans considered the Iraq War the right thing to do according to a 2024 survey.

Americans today are now able to see alternative opinions on social media and non-mainstream outlets, leading to perhaps more skepticism towards official Washington perspectives. As polling has shown, Americans have appeared to be able to see through pro- war narratives on Taiwan, Israel-Hamas, and Ukraine.

“Presidents and other interventionists often win short-term public support for military adventurism by moralizing and scaremongering,” Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, told RS. “However, when the effects of these tactics begin wearing off — and Americans start coming home in body bags — public enthusiasm typically wanes. Hence eventual popular disgust with the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and more.” 

Activists must connect all the dots....

 

By Ian DiMartino

 Protesters Must Confront the Empire - Including in Ukraine & China - to Free Palestine

If the anti-genocide protesters across the United States want a truly free Palestine, they need to expand their horizons to confront the American Empire as a whole, particularly in its actions against Russia in Ukraine and China in Taiwan.

The anti-genocide protests that are disrupting the Democratic Convention in Chicago, have occupied college campuses, and continue to attract large crowds in the United States’ biggest cities have been, understandably, focused on the ongoing genocide and not on the other wars and provocations that the United States is involved in.

That seemingly makes tactical sense from the protester’s perspective. The genocide in Gaza is significantly less popular than the NATO proxy war in Ukraine. And Taiwan, despite the ever-increasing tensions in the area, is not a significant concern for most people at all, because there isn’t any active fighting going on. So it would make sense to focus on the conflict that is the most unifying and has the most attention.

But this is a mistake. Morally, the proxy war in Ukraine should horrify any anti-war activist. Men young and old are being forcibly grabbed off the street to die in a conflict that the United States knows is already lost.

The dead don’t include nearly as many women and children, but these are human lives being snuffed out and in numbers even higher than in Gaza.

The war is continuing only to prevent Washington from admitting defeat before they're ready and to kill as many Russians as possible. If Gaza is the most immoral action the American Empire is engaged in, then Ukraine is undoubtedly the second. 

“These protests outside the DNC should [also] be protesting the insanity of [a] potential World War III and this hawkish, irrational, anti-Russia fervor that gripped the Democratic Party in the last decade,” Jeremy Kuzmarov, the managing editor of Covert Action Magazine argued on Sputnik's The Final Countdown.

Like Gaza, Ukraine also has the possibility of escalating into World War III, but the NATO proxy war is a direct confrontation with the world’s largest nuclear power. Gaza is among the most dangerous things the empire is doing, but Ukraine is undoubtedly the first. Taiwan, likewise, has the potential to end civilization as we know it, all for an island less than a hundred miles off the coast of mainland China.

 

“And, what in return are American taxpayers getting? They're just getting [the] deaths of the eastern Ukrainian people and potential World War III with these dangerous provocations into Russia. So there should be great outrage about that alongside the weapons to Israel, alongside the situation with Taiwan,” Kuzmarov said. 

“The US has been arming Taiwan to the teeth and building up [its] military base network, including in the Pacific Islands, for a potential war with China, and that would be a devastating war,” Kuzmarov continued. “They’re threatening three major [wars] at a time when there’s huge problems domestically, where there’s armies of homeless in American cities, where the education system is in crisis.”

In March, US President Joe Biden approved a new strategic plan that includes preparations for a simultaneous nuclear war with Russia, China and North Korea. This is where the war in Ukraine and the United States’ provocations of China has led us. 

 

“I think it's a recognition of how much the aggressive US policy of primacy and hegemony and poking all of these countries in their own backyards has led to them acting enough together in strategic military partnerships that the US feels it would be necessary, if a nuclear war breaks out, to engage with all three of them,” international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda told the Sputnik’s The Critical Hour. “That is something I believe that the US has very much provoked.”

“The US views [this] as an inevitable Thucydides trap war with China in the short term, something in roughly around the next five or so years,” Sleboda warned.

Even if the protests are successful in obtaining a ceasefire or even an arms embargo on Israel, without confronting the empire, those victories will be temporary –even if we ignore that a nuclear war will make everything else a moot point. If the goal is to end US support of Israel indefinitely, establish a Palestinian state and prevent the US from funding genocide again, then confronting the empire –the entirety of the empire– is critical.

This is the same military apparatus that gave Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Ngô Đình Diệm weapons and later killed them. It is the same military apparatus that funded a 34-year genocide in Guatemala and supported apartheid in South Africa until the very end. If a ceasefire is achieved, who doubts that the United States government will continue to support Israel for as long as it exists? Who doubts that the United States will be first in line to assist the Israelis in their “relocation” efforts of the Palestinian people?

 

“At the end of the day, if they’re getting the arms from the United States, that’s all they need. And the United States is not going to really threaten sanctions or something that would really make life difficult for the Israelis and hinder the operations,” Kuzmarov explained.

There are a lot of young people on the streets in support of Gaza. More than that, there are a lot of people who are realizing for the first time what their government is truly capable of. Many seem to still be operating under the belief that Gaza is a black mark on American history and not what it is: a continuation of what the empire has always done. There are also a lot of old heads out there. Those who became aware of what America really is when they saw Vietnam, South Africa, Grenada, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, or a litany of other countries. They should know better and should start talking about it before this protest movement dissipates like the Vietnam protests did: before getting any real reforms other than an end to one particular conflict among many.

"The protesters have to put all this together. And we need a vast social movement for a change in the US government away from warfare and toward a government that works for its people," Kuzmarov concluded.

NATO continues to encircle Russia

 

The construction site of the Rudninkai military base in Lithuania

ilPost

 Work has begun on the construction of a German military base in Lithuania, which will host 4,000 soldiers

In Lithuania, work has begun on the construction of a German military base that will house 4,000 troops: it is the first time since World War II that the German army is permanently deployed abroad. In addition to the 4,000 Bundeswehr military, the German armed forces, Lithuania will also host a thousand contractors, or members of private military companies.

The decision to build the base was made following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, for fear that President Vladimir Putin might attack a NATO member country. Last year Germany had pledged to allocate its troops to Lithuania, which is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and most recently the Lithuanian minister Ingrida Simonyte had decided to increase defense spending, which this year will be 3 percent of the country’s GDP (in Italy the estimated expenditure for defense in 2023 was 1.5%).

 

The military base will be built in the city of Rudninkai, which is located about thirty kilometers south of Vilnius, the capital, and about twenty kilometers away from the border with Belarus, a historic ally of Russia. Lithuania will spend about one billion euros on the construction of the military base, whose work is expected to be completed in 2027. 

[Lithuania also borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.  In a post on X the Lithuanian Defense Ministry wrote that the country had “just launched its largest-ever military project at Rudninkai, building a base to house 80% of the German brigade.”

Raimundas Vaiksnoras, Lithuania’s chief of defense, stated that the German “brigade will work as reassurance to our population and as deterrence, to push the Russians out,” as quoted by Reuters.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, the official acknowledged, however, that Vilnius would have to shell out more than €1 billion ($1.10 billion) over the next three years to develop the base – admittedly a “huge investment” for a nation of 2.9 million.

The government hiked taxes to cover the increased outlays.

Berlin already leads a multinational NATO advance force stationed in the Baltic nation.

Moscow has repeatedly made it clear that it views the bloc’s military capabilities inching ever closer to the Russian border as a direct threat to its national security, which it will have to counter accordingly.]

Snowden accuses Macron of ‘taking hostages’

 

 

Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, has called the arrest in France of Telegram founder Pavel Durov an “assault” on basic human rights.

The French (and US) want to steal all telegram user info and shut down the program because of its independence from deep state control like so much other social media is these days.

The French people should rally in support of Durov and an independent Telegram. France should be vilified internationally for this fascistic attack on global free speech.

We are moving across the west into neo-feudalism. The US-UK-EU talk alot about democracy but they don't practice it and surely don't believe in it.

Where are the voices of western NGO's like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders? 

Commenting on Durov’s arrest, Telegram said the platform “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is within industry standards,” adding that claims that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse committed by users are “absurd.”

“I think the attack is coming neither from the EU nor from France,” his former press secretary Georgy Loboushkin said. “It’s most likely an attack from the United States, which has been after Pavel Durov for a long time, and Durov has always talked about it.”

“He said, for example in an interview with Tucker Carlson, that he and his employees are under pressure, or at least there’s some kind of surveillance conducted by the FBI,” the former spokesman continued. “I think the root causes are there, so it doesn’t make any sense to discuss the intentions of the French authorities who arrested him, because they don’t play any role here at all.”

Bruce   

Maine enviro agency downplays PFAS dangers at former naval base

 

Portland Press Herald

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is downplaying the risk to the public water supply and nearby drinking water wells from an accidental discharge of 1,450 gallons of toxic firefighting foam at the Brunswick Executive Airport on Monday.

But a state toxicologist at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Maine does not yet understand the public health risk that might be posed from inhalation of foam. After the spill, the foam could be seen blowing in the wind around Hangar 4, drains and manholes, and nearby retention ponds.

“We’ve all seen the videos of the foam in the air,” toxicologist Andy Smith said. “We can understand why that is concerning to people. … As that happens, you can potentially form an aerosol, small droplets, and it is the small droplets that people can inhale.”

State Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said he was concerned to hear the foam could become an aerosol.

“Given that the foam blew all over the Landing, getting a warning now that there may be an air-quality issue – that was a little concerning,” Ankeles said. “And I’m looking forward to hearing more about what sort of proximity we’re talking about when they tell us ‘don’t get close to the foam.’ ”

[Last] Monday, 1,450 gallons of firefighting foam containing forever chemicals, or PFAS, which are known to be harmful to human health, were discharged from a malfunctioning fire suppression system in place to smother high-intensity fuel fires inside Hangar 4 at the Brunswick Executive Airport.

For decades, military and civilian firefighters used special foam containing PFAS to smother the intense flames caused by fuel fires. While manufacturers can no longer use two variants of the chemicals, large amounts of “legacy” PFAS-containing foam are still out there.

The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority is responsible for fronting the cost of cleanup efforts, Executive Director Kristine Logan said. The price tag will run into the millions, money that she said MRRA doesn’t have.

DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim acknowledged Wednesday that Maine has long known the former [naval air] base had a forever chemical contamination problem, even before Monday’s spill. Some tests show high levels of forever chemicals in the base groundwater – as high has 10,000 parts per trillion.

Maine says drinking water can’t have more than 20 parts per trillion of six combined forever chemicals. New federal limits are even lower, with a 4-parts-per-trillion cap. All houses and businesses located on Brunswick Landing – the new name of the old base – draw water from the public supply.

A public meeting will be held on Thursday, August 29 at the Brunsiwck Town Hall at 6:30 pm for local residents to raise questions and seek more information.

Sunday song

 

Israel: Sources accuse Blinken of sabotaging Gaza ceasefire talks

 

Middle East Monitor

Well-placed Israeli sources accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday of sabotaging negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, Anadolu Agency has reported.

According to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, unnamed sources said that, “Blinken made a grave mistake by claiming that Netanyahu accepted the US proposal, putting the ball in Hamas’s court.”

The sources argued that Blinken “seriously undermined the negotiations and demonstrated a lack of understanding,” accusing him of fostering false optimism for internal US political reasons, particularly to ensure the smooth running of the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago this week.

They added that senior Israeli negotiators were alarmed by Blinken’s statements during his press conference, believing that he had “dealt a death blow to the deal” by siding with Netanyahu and giving a “gift” to the Israeli prime minister.“

No agreement will occur if Israel continues to insist on deploying forces along the Philadelphia Corridor,” which borders Gaza and Egypt, said the sources. “Blinken’s remarks implied US support for Netanyahu’s position on maintaining Israeli forces along Philadelphia, despite opposition from both Hamas and Egypt.”

Expectations had been that Blinken would encourage both Israel and Hamas to show flexibility, but instead, he “embraced Netanyahu and distanced himself from Hamas,” casting significant doubt on the feasibility of reaching a deal.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli media reported that US President Joe Biden was expected to speak with Netanyahu “tonight” to urge him “to soften Israel’s position” regarding the Philadelphia Corridor.

Israeli, Egyptian, and American officials met in Cairo on Sunday and Monday to discuss the Corridor issue. According to the Israeli website Walla, at Netanyahu’s direction Israeli negotiators presented maps to Egyptian and US representatives, proposing that Israeli forces continue to deploy along the Philadelphia Corridor as part of the first phase of the deal, albeit on a smaller scale. However, Egypt rejected this proposal, and the US made it clear to Israel that the map presented was unacceptable, according to media reports.

Speaking in Doha before departing the region on Tuesday, Blinken said that the US opposes any long-term Israeli occupation of any part of Gaza.

The Philadelphia Corridor is a 14-kilometre (8.69-mile) demilitarised buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It remains one of the major sticking points in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner exchange and ceasefire deal which will allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. However, mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

Israel is continuing its brutal offensive on Gaza which began after the cross-border incursion by Hamas last October. The onslaught has killed over 40,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded nearly 93,000 others, according to local health authorities. Vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the blockaded enclave. It denies the allegation.

The devil made me do it!

 

Zionists

are trashing

Palestinian 

Christian graveyards

in Jerusalem. 

Why?

Because they 

'worship idols'....

 

Self-declared

(and decorated)

Nazis

storm Russian

frontier villages

round up 

civilians,

including children,

use them as shields

and shoot some number

in the back of their heads.

 

Why?

Because Ukrainian nationalists

call Russians 

'cockroaches'.... 

 

Washington-London-Brussels

call these killers

'democracy lovers'

and send them

money and weapons.

 

The corrupt
corporate media
tell us lies
to cover

these dirty tracks.

 

I call them devils.

 

The American people

are being fleeced

to pay for the war crimes

of Ukraine

and Israel. 

 

The soul

of our nation

is being desecrated.

Bruce  

Retired Israeli General Yitzhak Brick: Attacking Hezbollah is mass suicide!

 

Israel faces collapse 'in less than a year' if war of attrition continues: Retired general

Facing a crumbling economy, global calls for boycotts, internal strife, a shortage of troops, and war on several fronts, Israeli authorities have continued to sabotage ceasefire talks that could quell regional tensions

The Cradle

The former ombudsman of the Israeli army, reserve General Yitzhak Brik, says his country “faces collapse in less than a year” if the war against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the Lebanese resistance in the north continues at its current pace.

In an opinion column published by Haaretz on 21 August, Brik claims Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has begun to “sober up,” pointing to Gallant’s recent comments in which he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of “total victory” in Gaza “gibberish.”

“[Gallant] has started to understand that if a regional war breaks out due to failure to reach a [ceasefire deal], Israel will be in danger,” Brik says, adding that “Gallant already understands that the war has lost its purpose. We are sinking into the mud, losing fighters who are killed and wounded, with no chance of achieving the main goal.”

“Indeed, the country is galloping to depreciation. If the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues, Israel will collapse in no more than a year,” the former army commander highlights.

 

Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon

Brik goes on to list the many threats facing Israel 10 months into its campaign of genocide in Gaza, including intensifying attacks inside its territory, a manpower crisis in the army due to heavy losses, a crumbling economy made worse by global calls to boycott the country, possible embargoes on arms shipments, and the “loss of social resilience and hatred between the parts of the population, which can ignite and cause it to crash from within.”

“All roads of political and military rank lead Israel to the slope … Israel has entered an existential spin, and it may soon reach a point of return,” Brik concludes.

His stark warning comes as political sources revealed to Israeli media on Thursday that Netanyahu “did not change his positions” on the terms for a Gaza ceasefire deal after speaking with US President Joe Biden the night before.

Ceasefire negotiations are set to resume in the Egyptian capital in the coming days without the presence of Hamas, as the Palestinian group has rejected a new US-backed proposal and has remained steadfast in demanding Israel adhere to the terms of an earlier proposal it agreed to on 2 July, saying the one-sided talks give Israel “more time to perpetuate the war of genocide against our people.”