"OWN THE UNDERSEA DOMAIN"

• Even though it is officially spring in Maine we still have winter.  Just this morning a cold wind blown sleet storm hit us.  People here complain about the weather all the time but rarely a mumbling word about climate change is heard.

• Yesterday I read a disgusting Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times.  He went for a ride on a nuclear submarine under the Arctic Ice to promote that new "field of conflict" to the American consumers.  He wrote:

I had spent the night on the sub as part of a group accompanying Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, who was observing the Navy’s submarine arctic warfare exercise.

 But this wasn’t tourism. Climate scientists predict that if warming trends continue, the Arctic’s ice cap will melt enough that — in this century — it will become a navigable ocean for commercial shipping year round, and for mineral and oil exploration. Russia has already made extensive claims to the Arctic, based on the reach of its continental shelf, beyond the usual 12 miles from its coastline; these are in dispute. To prepare for whatever unfolds here, though, the U.S. Navy keeps honing its Arctic submarine skills, including, on our trip, test-firing a virtual torpedo at a virtual enemy sub, studying how differences in water temperatures and the mix of freshwater from melted ice and saltwater affect undersea weapons and the sounds a sub makes (vital for knowing how to hide), as well as mapping the Arctic’s seabed topography.

“In our lifetime, what was [in effect] land and prohibitive to navigate or explore, is becoming an ocean, and we’d better understand it,” noted Admiral Greenert. “We need to be sure that our sensors, weapons and people are proficient in this part of the world,” so that we can “own the undersea domain and get anywhere there.” Because if the Arctic does open up for shipping, it offers a much shorter route from the Atlantic to the Pacific than through the Panama Canal, saving huge amounts of time and fuel.

You learn a lot on a trip like this, starting with the fact that I’m not claustrophobic. Sleeping in the middle rack of three stacked beds, appropriately called coffins, I now know that.

• Notice that Friedman didn't linger long after the bomb was dropped by the Admiral.  Friedman's job is not to analyze the fact that the US intends to "own the undersea domain".  His job was to plant the seed in the fertile soil of mindless patriotism and feel-good-isms that the corporate media specialize in.

• The message is clear.  The oil-i-garchy doesn't intend to debate this one... they are going to make a grab for the resources under the melting Arctic ice.  They are quite fine with the whole idea of climate change.  They are going to make big money and fly off to Mars or some fancy space hotel with organic gardens.  Fuck the rest of us.
• One big problem of course is Russia.  They have a huge land mass bordering the Arctic regions.  The US-NATO are thus preparing militarily for that 'problem'.

• Now is our moment for reality check.  Obama and the Democrats won't save us on this one.