Hack, disrupt, deny U.S. votes underway: 'Bye, bye democracy', US-Israel ready to strike Iran

• An Iranian senior security official in Tehran told Fars News that Iran has instructed its various operational units that, should another round of large-scale war occur, including a wave of assassinations targeting officials and the killing of civilians, Iran will consider political targets associated with the US and other participants in the war, as well as their infrastructure, legitimate targets.
• US keeps moving out its assets from its Al Udeid US base in Qatar. If they are indeed evacuations, then once Al Udeid is empty, the possibility of renewed attacks on Iran will be very high.
• Simplicius: As Europe’s daily warnings about an impending Russian attack on the quivering continent grow louder each day, it is the Europeans themselves that continue to posture toward war, accusing Russia of the most sensational absurdities imaginable. European tabloids and politicians alike have essentially merged into one multi-headed hydra, spewing its excrescence of propaganda at every turn. Some of the latest claims would be difficult for even children to believe. Take, for instance, last week’s offering that Russian “KGB” lavatory lurkers broke into the houses of Finnish MPs in order to “defecate” in their toilets as some kind of a mobster-like message. At the same time, UK news blamed Putin for costing the British taxpayers billions per year. 

• Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi: There is no reason to believe in progress in negotiations with the U.S. at this time.  We have absolutely zero confidence in the U.S. government’s stated desire for peace with Iran.
• The Cradle: Nearly half of all US active-duty service members oppose the military’s role in the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to a poll conducted by Change Research for veteran-led advocacy group Common Defense between 15 and 28 September. The poll surveyed over 730 active-duty US soldiers, immediate family members, and veterans and found that 49 percent of all respondents opposed the war, against 44 percent who backed it. Beyond Iran, a majority of respondents also opposed deploying US forces to back Israel’s military aggression against Gaza and Lebanon.

• Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance: While Palestinians are exhausted from the Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing and the coordinators and volunteers of the Gaza Flotillas are tired, they like the Palestinians, will never give up challenging the immoral, criminal actions of the Israeli state. The latest of the boats on the journey to Gaza is the Kate/Tenacity. After a two-month journey from northern Europe, the Kate/Tenacity arrived in Sicily on October 14, 2026 with 12 persons onboard. The Kate left Bristol, United Kingdom on August 17, 2026 and participated in Palestine solidarity community events in Ireland, France and Spain before arriving in Sicily. 

• Korea Update: “Expel Gen. Xavier T. Brunson for acting like a Colonial Governor and Violating Korea’s Sovereignty!" Since taking office as commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Brunson has repeatedly made outrageous remarks that turn our country into a war base and trample on our sovereignty. The university students took action to protest and demand the immediate expulsion of Brunson, who acts as Trump’s envoy of war, repeatedly disrespects our sovereignty, heightens the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, and provokes the anger of our people. The students’ struggle demanding Brunson’s expulsion was entirely justified and patriotic. However, the police violently arrested the university students who took part in this courageous and righteous struggle. We will continue to fight back until the patriotic students are released and the occupying force, Brunson, is expelled! We ask everyone to join forces and help secure the students’ swift release. Brunson, occupying force who violates Korea’s territorial sovereignty, leave this land! Expel Brunson, the occupying force opposing the transfer of wartime operational control! Expel Brunson, who is turning Korea into a war base! Release the patriotic student activists immediately! October 22 Korea University Student Progressive Federation reported that “More than 350 civil society organizations across South Korea condemned U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson for remarks and military actions they said violated Korea’s territorial sovereignty, and called for his immediate dismissal.” 

• Politico: SpaceX is by far the dominant player in the rocket business and indispensable to the military, dwarfing competitors and accounting for 85% of U.S. launches in 2025. The company is phasing out its Falcon 9 rocket to make way for Starship, a massive new vehicle that SpaceX says will be more efficient and profitable, but which many military satellites aren’t designed to fit. The situation leaves the Space Force in a launch crunch that could affect the military’s ability to put its advanced satellites in orbit — and on time. The Pentagon has few alternatives to ferry its equipment, and SpaceX’s competitors are likely years away from being able to offer comparable services. “Everybody’s having problems, so the Space Force is freaking out a little bit about launch,” said one former Space Force official, who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. 

• On Thursday, the first day of early voting in North Carolina, more than 100 students from North Carolina A&T and UNC Greensboro marched together to cast their ballots. They had to. The Guilford County Board of Elections denied both [predominately black] schools on-campus early voting sites, even though students had used them in 2024. So they walked. In 85-degree heat, A&T students made the trek to the closest early voting site at Union Square. It took about 45 minutes. Parts of the sidewalk were missing or blocked by branches, forcing students to walk in the street. When they got there, the line stretched outside the building. One UNCG freshman joined the march straight from class. It was her first time voting, and she said she wanted to make sure her voice was heard. Student organizer Xavier Jones had a message for the officials who pushed their polling sites off campus: "No matter how far away they put it, we will organize. We will march." Think about that. They made it harder. The students showed up anyway. Thank you, A&T and UNCG students, for walking 45 minutes in the heat to cast your ballots after your campus polling sites were taken away.

• Early voters in several states say their touchscreen ballots registered a different candidate than the one they selected, fueling a wave of complaints as midterm voting continues ahead of the November 3 election. In Nashville, Jackie Herrud told WSMV she ran into the problem while voting early at the Hermitage Library. “I kept punching for the Democrat, Jerri Green, and it kept punching back to Marsha Blackburn,” she said, describing three attempts before the machine accepted her intended choice. Stella Parton, the singer and sister of Dolly Parton, raised a similar complaint. She wrote on Facebook that her selection at the same library kept defaulting to Blackburn, the Republican candidate for governor, and that it took her three corrections before the machine registered her actual vote.

• The Press Bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reports that, according to information received by the SVR, a new cause for panic has emerged in Kyiv. The Office of the President of Ukraine has learned that US law enforcement agencies, while investigating the illegal activities of Mexican drug cartels, have received information about their collaboration with representatives of the Zelensky regime. The Americans discovered that criminal groups had been sending their fighters to Ukraine for a long time to train them in the assembly and combat use of unmanned aerial vehicles. At least 80 individuals were identified who had received this training in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Payment for this "training" was transferred to officials close to Zelensky from funds earned by drug traffickers from the sale of illegal substances in the United States. 
• Andrei Martyanov: Trump "latest shift" didn't materialize out of the thin air or because of Trump's good intentions. It is not Russia "sensing victory", which already has been won, it is the US "sensing defeat", which produced this shift. Well, Moscow will get it one way or another--it doesn't matter now. It is all about saving Washington's face, nothing more. The scale of catastrophe for the US (and combined West) in 404 [Ukraine] is monumental. History's turning point. Combined with defeats on several other fronts--from getting beaten up by Iran to Saudis facing a defeat--it adds up to a geopolitical earthquake of unparalleled power. Mr. Lavrov stressed it: "The West will never again be the main player, dictating terms." Lavrov stated that in its attempts to maintain dominance, the West is engaging in "unprecedented adventures" - citing the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro as one example. According to him, the world is approaching a turning point - the end of the era of hegemony and the beginning of the formation of a multipolar, polycentric world order. Difficult to disagree.

• In the past days, the Yemeni army seized 14,000 Saudi vehicles of various types from the Al Saud mercenaries who likely ran off abandoning their gear. 

• How’s it going for Zelensky these days? Does he have the Colombian flu or is that him spitting on the ground in front of the Swedish king after what looks like the king refused his handshake? What do you think? All this with new massive marches in Kyiv opposing the Zman. 

• Defense One: A few months into President Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it. The appointees wanted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to procure the machine, examine it and report back the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request. The proposition was shocking to CISA’s career staffers, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference. “My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don’t like,” one of the former officials said. “This goes against everything CISA represents.”   

Protest Maine Space Conference in Portland

 

On Thursday, November 5 please join us to protest the militarization of space at the Maine Space Conference. This year's conference is at the Roux Institute, located in the Wex building at 100 Fore Street in the Old Port. 

We'll stand outside from noon to 1pm to bring our messages to conference attendees coming and going during the lunch hour.

This event, held in Portland each year, is where conference goers hear about new technology and new profit opportunities working in the militarized space domain. Both the president and the head of the Pentagon have recently announced their plans for the U.S. to "dominate space" as a "warfighting domain." 

This violates treaty obligations, as does recent disclosure that the U.S. Space Force has already launched an offensive weapon into space. Golden Dome, an astonishingly expensive space-based interceptor program being pushed through Congress, is only intended to protect Washington DC.

Opposing the militarization of space has never been more urgent. Consider joining the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, an international organization of researchers and activists monitoring this dangerous situation for 34 years.

Lisa Savage

Maine Natural Guard
Peaceworks of Greater Brunswick
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space 

History lesson: What Really Happened In Yugoslavia

The Yugoslavia Wars were not about humanitarian intervention. Here is the testimony of a man who was closely involved in the NATO operations and a historian who studied that era closely. 

Professor David Gibbs and Colonel Douglas Macgregor compare their views on the Yugoslav wars, NATO’s role in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the thinking behind the 1999 bombing campaign. Macgregor recalls his work in NATO command, while Gibbs connects the Balkan interventions to NATO expansion, Europe’s military dependence, Russia, and later conflicts.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Gibbs and Macgregor urged people to watch the movie Wag the Dog which they agreed was the perfect description of the entire war. A made up event to hide ulterior motives.

MacGregor recalls the time he heard from Gen. Wesley Clark that this 'democratic revolution was going to spread from Yugoslavia all the way to Moscow'. This of course turned out to be true in part as we eventually witnessed the Obama-Biden orchestrated 2014 coup in Kiev that led to today's Ukraine proxy war on Russia. 

In other words there was a long term agenda and the Yugoslavia 'break up' of that nation was the kick-off and the 'proving ground' for the eventual attempt to do the same to the Russian Federation. 

How has that worked out so far?

Bruce 

The colonial powers failing attempt to stay in control of Earth

The western colonial declining powers demand to remain in charge of the planet. Those days are over.

Will these arrogant oligarchs destroy the planet if they can't get their own way?

This video eloquently describes this very moment in human history.

Bruce

Who are you to challenge me?

I heard a story the other day
about a Bangor Daily News (BDN) media official
telling peaceniks they had not covered their recent protest
because it was old news.
Redundant....old hat.....
stuff like that.

One peacenik thought about it
and wrote the guy back
and wondered if the BDN
was going to judge car crash stories
and murders and fires
by the same journalistic standards.

I'm certain the BDN scribe was insulted by such audacity. 
How dare you say such things to me he must have thought.
I am the creator of the community reality

I am the maker of fortunes and careers
I am the breaker of hearts and lives
I am the one who does as his corporate bosses tell him
I am the chief lackey around here.
Who are you to challenge me?

I remember many years ago

a media gate keeper telling a friend and me
not to worry our pretty little heads
about informing the public on a particular concern.
The newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, had a plan.
They were on the case and had it under control.

The media was the message
the media is the god.
A democratic debate was not needed
activism was not needed
the public was not needed
agitation was not needed,
ideas from the great unwashed were not needed,
the media boys were on the case....
Go home and find something useful to do
with your otherwise wasted lives.

And so it goes today
The pages are filled with all the news that is 

fit to be printed.
Whole sections of the paper are left blank for me now
as I rustle though the daily rag
passing the big adverts,
the color pictures of men in orange suits,
in handcuffs
on their way to trial,
for another sensational murder
or driving under the influence
of a crazy society.

Pages of stories about oranges looking like grapefruit
and birds singing in winter
while Baghdad blows up again
and people cry invisible tears,
and Washington burns our health care money,
as politicians tell us they are 

almost there with us.

The news is twisted
and turned
and flattened out
and squeezed
and bled
and contorted
and changed
and shortened
to fit the tiny spaces
between the ads for women's underwear
and cars
and SUVs
and hummers
and big stories about violent video games
and returning heroes from a war far away.

A letter here and an announcement there
that all is well here at home.
That democracy and the old ways are sound,

keeping the illusion alive.

But the truth lies with the rusty scissors
as fewer pages are clipped
and stored
in our scrapbooks
where the stories of our lives
used to be collected
to pass on to our children
so we could teach them
about the good work that was done
to keep the sacred fires burning.

Somehow the spirit rages on.

The Russians learned to read between the lines

of Pravda,

and today we turn the Times upside down

trying to learn the same lesson,

so we can be free again.

Bruce

~ Published on this blog on Sunday, March 11, 2007

STRATCOM: The Most Dangerous Organization in the World

They used to call it the Strategic Air Command (SAC). They were in charge of the nuclear bombers and nuclear missiles. Then the Pentagon changed the name to the Strategic Command - StratCom.

StratCom is headquartered at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska. Their mission now includes being in charge of "full-spectrum global strike" (staging offensive, preemptive attacks); combating weapons of mass destruction; space and computer warfare; ballistic missile defense; and surveillance and reconnaissance (the "warrant-less wiretaps" conducted by the National Security Agency). In other words it runs almost the whole shebang!

According to Nebraskans for Peace: "Under the [Bush] administration’s 'doctrine of preemption,' StratCom was commissioned to launch a first-strike attack anywhere on earth — within one hour — if a threat to America’s national security is even suspected. Following the same drill used on Iraq over its alleged stockpiles of WMD, this new StratCom directive (called 'CONPLAN 8022') is a high-tech version of ‘shoot first and ask questions later.’ And neither a dithering Congress nor international rule of law will be permitted to stand in the way....StratCom’s attack plan even includes the use of tactical nuclear weapons to take out the reinforced bunkers housing Iran’s nuclear research facilities. 

"The mission array of the newly retooled StratCom, however, extends far beyond this vigilante role. In its struggle with the forces of international terrorism, the Bush-Cheney Administration saw fit to equip the Omaha command center with powers worthy of 'Big Brother.' The 'warrantless wiretaps' on American citizens conducted by the National Security Agency are, it turns out, a StratCom brainchild. As part of StratCom’s C-4ISR mission set, the NSA was made a 'Component Command' of StratCom, and the decision to begin this domestic spying operation was made by General Michael Hayden before he subsequently moved on to become the director of the CIA."

Private equity buying up last affordable housing

Greedy bastards from private equity firms are buying up 'mobile home parks', across America.

Then they jack up the rent for parking their trailers on the land and often force the people out and then rent the trailers for even more money - increasing their profits.

'There is no American dream anymore - it's survival now', says the woman in this video.

Some mobile home parks are trying to form cooperatives and buy the park themselves. But often the residents don't have the extra cash to pull this off.

Some states are passing legislation to keep private equity from buying up these parks. More of this must happen NOW!

Private equity firms are nothing but heartless capitalist bastards. They should be made illegal.

Saudi-Israeli-U.S. war on Yemen heats up, U.N. cutting Gaza food

• The UN’s World Food Program says it will cut monthly food assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza due to funding shortages.

• The IRGC Spokesman stated on Twitter that 'Seven Strategic Undersea Cables' located beneath the Strait of Hormuz will be destroyed during the next war. “All Internet and financial traffic in the region passes through these cables”.

• Ahmed Eldin: I worked at Al Jazeera on and off for a long time. I’ve sat in its newsrooms, logged onto its networks, and flew to Doha for the Al Jazeera Forum and dozens of other work events. I learned that Israeli spyware had been sitting inside 45 of the network’s computers, having arrived through banner ads for phones and earbuds, bought on the open market and shown on everyday websites. Nobody had to click. The ad loaded and the computer was taken. Every newsroom security training teaches people to avoid strange links, and that training was useless here. The infections ran through 2024 and 2025. Those were also the years Israel killed at least a dozen of Al Jazeera’s journalists in Gaza. In the same period an Israeli military intelligence unit, which +972 Magazine called the Legitimization Cell, built files casting Gaza reporters as Hamas operatives. Anas al-Sharif was named in those files. The army’s Arabic spokesman attacked him by video. Then Israel killed him in a tent outside al-Shifa hospital, along with his colleagues. While Israel hunted Al Jazeera’s reporters in the field, someone was reading over the shoulders of the people at their desks.  

• Several delegations including the delegation representing the Islamic Republic of Iran, walked out of the summit venue in Baku, "Republic of Azerbaijan", on Oct 15 during the speech by Isaac Herzog, the president of the Zionist regime, at the 7th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). In addition to Iran, 12 other delegations out of the total 28 left the hall in protest. The delegations from Iran, Palestine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh among those that walked out. 

• World Socialist Web: Ukraine attacked Russia with more than 1,000 drones overnight last Saturday, in the largest bombardment of St. Petersburg since WW2. The attack, in which Russia’s Defense Ministry counted 1,015 drones across 15 regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, was one of the heaviest bombardments of Russian territory since the war began. These strikes are directly funded by the NATO powers, which have provided Ukraine with over $100 billion in weapons, and are carried out on the basis of targeting data provided directly by their militaries. Since 2022, these wars have merged into a single global conflagration. It includes the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine; the Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon, armed and defended by Washington; the bombing of Iran in June 2025; and the war against Iran launched on February 28 of this year. The objective is the redivision of the world among the old imperialist powers. This violent and ongoing project includes the breakup of the existing Russian state, which will open up the vast Eurasian landmass to unfettered capitalist exploitation. For the oligarchs of finance capital, the loss of a few hundred million lives would be a small price to pay for this rich prize. In 2014, the US funded, armed and supported the coup that overthrew the pro-Russian government of Ukrainian President Yanukovych and installed the present regime, a dictatorship ruling under martial law. Since then the US and NATO surged money and weapons to Ukraine, turning it into a frontline state for war against Russia.  

• The Department of War has created the US Prayer Force, a new joint military initiative designed to integrate battlefield prayer, strategic supplication, and faith-based force multiplication into America’s national defense posture. The Prayer Force, informally known inside the Pentagon as “the Kneeling Eagles,” will operate under the newly created Office of Spiritual Superiority and will coordinate with combatant commands, chaplain corps personnel, defense contractors, and selected congressional faith-leadership caucuses. 

• Two US-based activists have been ordered by the Department of Justice to testify in mysterious grand jury proceedings, even after they served two months in jail for impeding production of one of Israel’s biggest arms suppliers. They’re not the only ones, they say — and are urging anyone slapped with a similar subpoena to seek free legal counsel. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun quietly subpoenaing American activists who disrupted operations at an Israeli weapons manufacturing facility in New Hampshire responsible for arming the Israeli army amid its ongoing ethnic cleansing campaigns in Gaza and southern Lebanon, according to documents reviewed by The Grayzone. Prosecutors originally sought to jail both of the young women and a third activist, Calla Walsh, for 37 years each, for helping deface the exterior of Israel’s Elbit Systems weapons manufacturing facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and using bike locks to temporarily impede access to the main entrance. The subpoenas insist that Ross and Shergalis appear before a grand jury in New Hampshire on October 21. Though the subpoenas are dated October 5, they were only issued to the young women on October 16, just five days before the date on which the US government is compelling them to appear — an unusually brief window which Ross and Shergalis say was likely intended to coerce their testimony and jeopardize their civil liberties.

• Egyptian President El-Sisi on October 17 called for an emergency parliamentary session to authorise a possible Egyptian intervention to defend Saudi Arabia if requested by the kingdom. Egypt is the latest country to publicly signal support for Saudi Arabia as the kingdom faces escalating missile and drone attacks by the Houthis, who control much of Yemen. El-Sisi said Cairo would take the necessary measures to protect Saudi Arabia, adding that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for the kingdom’s security and stability to be undermined. Saudi Arabia has secured defensive military support from Pakistan and Turkey through the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which the three countries agreed to activate on October 5. More recently, the kingdom also received defensive support from the United Kingdom and France.  Egypt confirms it will support Saudi Arabia and deploy troops to help them fight against Yemen. Sisi is about to drag his country into a war for Saudi Arabia.

• Brian Berletic: 'Mecca Alliance' quickly and predictably reveals itself as more US 'Burden Sharing'. The 'Mecca Alliance' has recently announced mobilization against Ansarallah in Yemen as part of wider US proxy war on Iran. While Western media (and some alt media) presented the 'Mecca Alliance' as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey 'distancing' themselves from the US, the alliance/pact was obviously the US extending its 'Burden Sharing Network' over these nations as part of waging war on Iran and its alliance network; Ansarallah in Yemen is part of Iran’s strategic depth across West Asia and US proxy war on the group has played out for years as the US seeks to isolate and topple Iran itself; Ansarallah’s actions are a direct, defensive response to this US aggression, simply laundered through Saudi Arabia; The only question now is to what extent the 'Mecca Alliance' mobilizes – while nations may be captured or influenced by the US, there is the possibility of commitments being more symbolic than substantive – as was/is the case with Egypt vs Ansarallah amid US pressure to expand its proxy war on Yemen; Finally, the US admits hundreds of its advisers have been involved in facilitating the war on Yemen as Saudi Arabia itself lacks the capabilities to wage such a war. It is a US war in all but name. The US is an over-extended empire increasingly draining its own proxies to compensate for its own growing limitations. This recent development is just another symptom of this process. 
• The US used 19 years worth of Patriot missile stockpiles in just 7 months in the war against Iran.
• Slovakia refused to participate in financing a new €70 billion loan for Ukraine for 2027, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced after the EU summit in Brussels. Fico stated that Hungary took a similar position. Fico reported that Ukraine requested an additional €70 billion from the European Union. Meanwhile, the EU had previously already agreed to a €90 billion loan to Kiev for 2026-2027.

• Air Force Maj. Jason Watson was arrested July 1 on the steps of the US Capitol after calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump. According to his lawyer, he’s now being held in solitary confinement 24 hours a day in what some legal experts say could amount to illegal pretrial punishment. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) contains provisions barring officers from engaging in public political activities that are typically protected for civilians, including criticizing the president and other elected officials. Before he was charged, Watson gave a CNN interview on August 17 in which he continued to criticize Trump, accusing him of “flagrantly violating the Constitution” and “breaking the law.” Rachel Van Landingham, a former Air Force judge advocate and professor of law at Southwestern Law School, told Common Dreams that this “seems to be a blatant case of illegal pretrial punishment given that the nature of his pretrial restraint does not seem necessary to either ensure his presence at trial or to prevent foreseeable serious criminal misconduct.”

• Pete Hegseth is facing an internal party rebellion as Republican Representative Thomas Massie has publicly called on Donald Trump to fire him. Massie first introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in September 2026, accusing him of waging an unauthorized, illegal war in Iran and overstepping his authority. The friction escalated on October 15, following reports that Trump is considering removing Hegseth after the upcoming midterm elections due to the unpopularity of the conflict. Massie responded publicly via social media, stating that Trump firing Hegseth immediately to avoid a formal House impeachment would be "the honorable thing to do."

• Israel & the CIA are helping Saudi Arabia by sending them military assistance (Uganda mercenaries and/or military equipment) to fight the Yemenis. A transport aircraft, owned by Israeli businessman and arms dealer Barak Orland, flew from Uganda to Sharorah Airport in southern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border. Ukraine seems to be assisting Saudi Arabia to counter Yemen’s drones. Ukraine had previously assisted the Persian Gulf Arab countries as well against Iranian drones during the 40-day war.

Looking back Coal Miners Need Justice

 

I wrote this article for the blog on January 5, 2006. It's an important and meaningful article for me that I wanted to re-share.

I was drawn to the TV much of yesterday like a moth is drawn to a flame. I watched the broken hearted families of West Virginia coal miners react to the news that 12 of their loved ones had died deep in the Sago mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. I was touched by the intense emotion recorded by the cameras as people learned of the deaths, three hours after they had been told that their prayers had been answered and a "miracle" had saved the trapped miners.

One woman screamed "they don't care about us," referring to the International Coal Group, Inc. who owns the mine. Another woman wailed that they had been abandoned by God.

I heard one man, whose father was killed in the mine, say that his dad did not like the working conditions but had to do the job so he could "put food on the table." Then just moments later, I saw one journalist say that the miners loved the work so much that "they'd work for half the pay" if they had to in order to stay in the mines. (Do they think we are that stupid - really!)

The Sago mine is a non-union operation that had 200 fines in 2005 for violations of the Mine Health and Safety Act. The Bush administration has cut 170 jobs from the mine safety program in recent years making enforcement of the act more difficult to administer. The man now in charge of the program is a former coal company manager who Bush appointed to monitor the very industry he worked for. The highest fine received in 2005 by the Sago mine was for $800, indicating that the mine safety program was quite lenient on their industry pals.

This was for me something personal. When I was a kid, living in England, we heated with coal. It was delivered to our home and we saw the blackened faced chimney sweeps go door to door in the neighborhood looking for work. It was my job to bring in the coal each day from the outdoor bin. I had tasted coal dust. For me the coal miners strike had some point of reference. I've paid attention to the issue over the years.

In 1989 I went to Carbo, Virginia during the year-long Pittston coal strike by the United Mineworkers Union. Nestled in the mountain hollows (pronounced "hollars" by the locals), I sat on the picket line for two full days with the striking workers. At first they were a bit suspicious of me, but after I explained that I worked in the peace movement and had been an organizer for the United Farmworkers Union, they made me feel at home.

The men displayed great dignity and fierce determination to protect what little gains they had made after many years of struggle. In that particular instance, they were striking because the Pittston coal company was planning to discontinue medical benefits for pensioners, widows and the disabled.

Remembering that many miners suffer from black lung disease, the cut-off of medical benefits at the very time they most needed them would be devastating. I will never forget the sadness I felt when I left the picket line to return home.

So America's eyes and many hearts turned to the coal miners in West Virginia the last couple of days. There are now calls for an investigation from the politicians in Washington. But until we deal with the fact that the coal corporations have unlimited power, and the workers have virtually none, then nothing much changes. Even with a mine safety program, as long as the industry runs the show the law is nothing but a cruel hoax.

Working people in America are being screwed left and right. The Sago coal tragedy is one more warning sign that we are returning to a feudal society. The haves are getting richer and the have-nots are getting poorer -- and dying. 

We need more than prayers for the dead. We need to mourn for them, and in their memory, we need to organize like hell.

Bruce 

U.S. seeks space superiority & domination

By Bob Anderson

Pentagon, Space Force and aerospace industry language, ideology, is important.  Without a doubt space is the high ground of all warfare now, space satellites are key.  When they say space domain awareness like in Vision 2020 they now openly declare space is U.S. sovereign territory including the moon and Mars. Some of the military actually use this language in forums as a comparison to when Britain and Spain fought over marine dominance. 

There is no discussion anywhere of sharing the cosmos with any other country.  In fact the main competitor China is described in terms of total removal from space activity.  The Chinese lander on the far side of the moon has them somewhat worried, it is a pretty significant accomplishment.

Coming off Ukraine and Iran the U.S. plan is to rebuild the domestic war manufacturing infrastructure focusing on one way attack cheap drones, Patriot type interceptor missiles and hypersonic interceptors for the Golden Dome.  Directed energy weapons are still not a reliable weapon.

The goal is to integrate earth and space into a seamless fabric of high-tech war. The big rush to build data centers and AI are part of this. Hegseth is moving all military branches to a model of autonomous war from sea to space, assuming many command centers may be lost in a coming war and the task of rebuilding in time of war will require super capabilities.

And nuclear reactors to power all these far flung missions from drones to the moon and Mars.

China and Russia are the imagined aggressors which supply the immediate rational for more spending, driven by the old guard war profiteer class.  A number of Zionist war profiteers are relocating to the U.S. rebranding themselves to get in on this flow of money. The NDAA is just a formality for what is already in process.

One current scenario propagated is that the U.S. lacks in everything compared to Russia and China.  We are so victimized.  Therefore what we must prepare for is that Russia might think they are going to lose if they don’t act soon so they will launch multiple nuclear weapons into space at low earth orbits to destroy the U.S. satellite communications and control capabilities. Bit of a contradiction there but it serves to get funding.

To that end the Space Command is rushing thousands of satellites into orbit, thanks a lot to Elon Musk with a plan to also integrate commercial satellites into military control.  Redundancy is the current counter to a possible detonation of nuclear weapons in low earth orbit.  A large number of space launch facilities are being build worldwide for getting more satellites up in space.  And the Kessler Effect is starting also.

But overall China is the main target.

~ Bob Anderson (Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a retired college teacher of economics and political science. He served in the U.S. Air Force and saw combat during the 1967-68 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Later, he helped form the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He traveled to Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1973 to support the indigenous struggles for sovereignty. He is co-director of Stop the War Machine which has organized major demonstrations opposing Star Wars and the wars of empire.  

TPUSA goes full zionist

In this episode of 51/49, James breaks down the viral moment between Ben Shapiro and the TPUSA audience — diving deep into what the Seven Noahide Laws actually state, the true impact of 1991's Public Law 102-14, and the broader shift happening across modern political commentary platforms.