FULL STORY OF NAZI ATTACK ON ODESSA

This documentary is a must watch because it answers many questions.

The first part gives us an inside look at the fascist forces being mobilized in western Ukraine.  You see them marching, chanting pro-Nazi slogans and calling for the death of Russians.

If you can only watch bits then I highly recommend the following:

* At 28 minutes you see the start of the recent Nazi attack on the union hall in Odessa.

* At 36 minutes you see the fascists thugs going inside the union hall to kill those who had ran into the building to escape the attack.  These people, who were calling for a national referendum to give rights to those opposing the US-NATO installed regime in Kiev, had a peaceful camp established outside of the union hall before they were attacked.

* At 40 minutes you see the famous fascist 'shooter' taking aim and firing at those inside the now burning union hall.

* Just after 50 minutes you hear testimony from someone who had been inside the building.

* At 52:34 minutes you see an interview with a severely injured man inside a hospital.

* At 1:01:17 you hear the detailed testimony of another man who was inside the building and was one of the few to survive the attack by the fascists.

The US-NATO spokespeople to this day still deny that the Nazi's were the killers of the people in Odessa.  Even some on the left seem to remain confused about this important event.

Many of these same Right Sector and Svoboda party fascists have now been bought into the Ukraine "National Guard" and are today, under the funding and direction of US-NATO, attacking their own fellow citizens in Eastern Ukraine because they have Russian blood.

This story must be shared and understood by the whole world.  To allow this kind of Nazi killing to go without legal action and international condemnation will ensure it will happen again and again.

REMEMBER LABOR HISTORY

NEW POWER BLOCS FORMING - BACK TO COLD WAR

US Secretary of Endless War Chuck Hagel meets with China's Lt. Gen. Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of the General Staff today in Singapore

This picture intrigues me.  The Chinese representative wears a military uniform.  The US representative of the Pentagon wears an expensive suit in order to perpetuate the myth that we have civilian control of our military.  The truth is that the corporate military industrial complex in the US controls the military and the Congress.  Hagel should have a uniform on as well.  The patch on his sleeve could be a photo of Mr. Big.

The US is heating up military pressure on China.  A resurging imperial Japan has been brought in alongside the US to confront Peking.  At the very moment that US-NATO are surrounding and provoking Russia the same thing is being done in the Asia-Pacific to China.  In the Asia-Pacific the US is creating an extension of NATO as they bring Japan, South Korea, Philippines and other countries in as junior partners in this military escalation.

The US and the global corporate capitalist empire are angry about the growing linkage between China, Russia and Iran.  Add to that Brasil, South Africa, India and others (part of BRICS) and you seen the clear challenge to the global corporate IMF and World Bank system.  They know that if left alone such a counter-alliance, multi-polar power sharing, is the beginning of the end of the road for the US-UK-EU new world order.

So the corporate pirates take out their long knives as they encircle Russia and China.  There is big trouble on the waters.

The Associated Press reports on today's meeting:

As he did in 2013, Hagel used his appearance at the Shangri-La conference to single out China for cyber spying against the U.S. While this has been a persistent complaint by the U.S., it was less than two weeks after the Obama administration charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets.

The Chinese, in response, suspended participation in a U.S.-China Cyber Working Group, and released a report that said the U.S. is conducting unscrupulous cyber espionage and that China is a major target.

Reuters also reported:

... in the speech at Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia biggest security forum, Hagel said the United States took no position on the merits of rival territorial claims in the region, but added: “We firmly oppose any nation’s use of intimidation, coercion, or the threat of force to assert these claims.”

Hagel's speech provoked an angry reaction from the deputy chief of staff of the Chinese Army, Lieutenant-General Wang Guanzhong.

“I felt that Secretary Hagel’s speech is full of hegemonism, threat and intimidation,” he told reporters just after the speech.

Wang said the speech was aimed at causing trouble in the Asia-Pacific. 

JAPAN EXPANDS MILITARY MOBILIZATION

Japan's Prime-minister has pledged his country's support to South-East Asian nations in their disputes with China. Shinzo Abe said Japan will help the countries in the region control their borders - and keep their sea and air routes open.

Political blogger Ryan Dawson thinks Japan's involvement is not about working towards stability but rather about selling more arms.

Japan's expanding military will be integrated with the US - an example of NATO moving into Asia-Pacific.

CLEANSING THE HOMELESS KIDS BEFORE WORLD CUP

Danish documentary about the social and human price of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

JUST CALL IT TERRORISM

Just call them terrorists
or Somali pirates
call them separatists
or pro-Russian

call them anything
and just keep
shelling them

into submission
or civil war
or onto refugee camps
or bantustans
or reservations

Just make sure that
the oil-i-garchy
can grab the land
the resources
the riches
for exploitation

Just make sure NATO
can set up bases
with interceptor missiles
on the Bear's border

It won't be long
the Bear's lair
is next

just call them terrorists

THE 'CHRISTIAN' REWRITING OF INDIAN WARS

This week on his 'WallBuilders Live' radio show, debunked Christian historian David Barton compared Native Americans of the 1700s to modern day terrorists and explained why the U.S. had to commit genocide of Native Americans.

This same way of thinking can be seen in operation today as the "christian" US kills people all over the world that stand up against the resource extraction policies of the corporate controlled Pentagon.

This week on his 'WallBuilders Live' radio show, debunked Christian historian David Barton compared Native Americans of the 1700s to modern day terrorists and explained why the U.S. had to commit genocide of Native Americans (audio below). - See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/christian-historian-david-barton-defends-us-genocide-american-indians-audio#sthash.OKI2Xosi.Zfr30oWB.dpuf

This week on his 'WallBuilders Live' radio show, debunked Christian historian David Barton compared Native Americans of the 1700s to modern day terrorists and explained why the U.S. had to commit genocide of Native Americans (audio below). - See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/christian-historian-david-barton-defends-us-genocide-american-indians-audio#sthash.OKI2Xosi.Zfr30oWB.dpuf

This week on his 'WallBuilders Live' radio show, debunked Christian historian David Barton compared Native Americans of the 1700s to modern day terrorists and explained why the U.S. had to commit genocide of Native Americans (audio below). - See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/christian-historian-david-barton-defends-us-genocide-american-indians-audio#sthash.OKI2Xosi.Zfr30oWB.dpuf

PENTAGON REVIEW OF ENTIRE 'MISSILE DEFENSE' PROGRAM

Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman James Alexander Winnefeld remarks at the Atlantic Council's Global Missile Defense Conference on May 28 in Washington.

Even though they try to sell the program as being needed to protect against Iran and North Korea, the facts are that the US is surrounding Russia and China with "missile defense" (MD) systems.

Winnefeld lies when he says that MD is not deployed against Russia.  He says that Russia has too many nuclear missiles that would overwhelm the US MD system.

But if you view the MD program as a key element in US first-strike attack planning (as Pentagon war games have revealed) the military would hit Russia or China first trying to take out as many of their nuclear missiles as possible.  Then the MD shield would be used to pick off any remaining retaliatory nuclear forces fired AFTER the US first strike.  It is that scenario that MD is being created for and Russia and China both clearly understand that.

The US pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia during the George W. Bush administration because the Pentagon wanted to develop this first-strike capability.  The whole reason the ABM Treaty was negotiated in the first place was because both sides recognized that MD systems are destabilizing and would give one side an advantage over the other.

The US is now pursuing that military advantage.  

SNOWDEN IN PERSON

After months of behind-the-scenes contact, "NBC Nightly News" anchor and managing editor Brian Williams sat down with Edward Snowden, a man wanted for espionage here at home, for his first American television interview. Nothing was off limits.

See the rest of the interview here

ANOTHER BIW PROTEST VIDEO

Just got this video from our protest at the "christening" of the Zumwalt "stealth" destroyer in Bath on April 12.

Thanks to Pete Sirois for this video.

LADY BUNNY SAYS....

HANGING ON BY THE GUN

• The disclosures that Glenn Greenwald will soon be releasing the names of activists across the US who are being spied on by the government should stir the pot a bit.  Can't wait to see those sparks fly.
• The Russia-China deal to build a natural gas pipeline, and to trade in some currency other than dollars, will only increase the oil-i-garchy's desire to take them both down.  That means we will see even more demonization (if that can be possible) of both countries in the corporate dominated media.  
• I was watching a CBS-TV interview with John Kerry this morning where he outrageously called on Edward Snowden to "man up" and come back to the US to face the music.  Kerry is such a rich prick.  Snowden's brave action to release NSA data is a great gift to the whole world.
• Now that Ukraine had their "election" the US will likely step up military weapons and training grants to the regime as they widen their attacks on eastern provinces.  Many innocent civilians in the east are already being killed by the US-NATO puppet government in Kiev.  If you ever wondered what Syria looked like at the start of their war you can see it happen first-hand in Ukraine.  All of this is being driven by the corporate oligarchs who want Russia broken into small pieces that can be controlled by Mr. Big.  Among those oligarchs is George Soros - the Democratic Party sugar daddy.
• A couple thousand coal miners went on strike today and marched into the city of Donetsk.  They vow to get other miners involved in their growing opposition to the US-NATO puppet regime in Kiev.  The new president of Ukraine calls these people terrorists and Somalia pirates. Imagine how that kind of talk from a billionaire is angering these workers.
• The Obama team is talking about more training and military assistance for the terrorists that the US-NATO are funding in Syria.  Without the support of the US-NATO this so-called civil war would have been over long ago.  
• Speaking today at the Army's West Point commencement speech, Obama declared that “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.”  The main thing we appear to be exceptional at is killing lots of people. 
• The only way the US can keep its offensive military machine humming around the world is to get "the allies" to pay more of the costs.  But the plan is for the US to still control all of it as they run everything through Pentagon high-tech space systems - what they call "interoperability".  
• The way to foil the corporate endless war machine is to cut the funding.  Now is the time for activists around the world to increase our common campaigns to cut military spending.  We need our national treasuries for human needs and dealing with the consequences of climate change.

JEJU CRACKDOWN

Coverage from Australian TV network:

South Korea's government is cracking down on protests against a controversial new naval base.

The base, being built on the environmentally sensitive Jeju Island, will serve as a key port for the Korean and US navies.

Protestors say the base puts their country at risk and they're prepared to go to jail rather than be silenced.

THE CHOMSKY FILE

BBC Interview with MIT Professor Noam Chomsky from 2003.

WHY NO AUDIT AT THE PENTAGON?

There are fresh calls in Washington for the Pentagon to come clean about how it has been spending trillions of taxpayer dollars. The Department of Defense has not audited a single budget in more than 20 years, despite demands from Congress.

Let some meager misappropriation happen in a social program anywhere in the US and the media and Congress go into a rip-snort and demand an immediate audit and even defunding of the agency.  But the saintly military industrial complex, by handing over large sums of campaign cash to politicians (money which largely comes from the taxpayer), is sheltered from such scrutiny.

Many years ago while organizing in Orlando, Florida I saw this very thing take place as local social service agencies that ran job training programs for the poor were watched with an eagle eye. One organization somewhere in the US could not account for $40,000 and it became a national scandal. Tiny incidents like that gave Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-FL), on the Senate Budget Committee in Washington, the fuel he needed to help destroy the CETA job training program.  The money was transferred to the Pentagon and the military budget grew from $150 billion a year to double that in no time at all.  It's then doubled again and again while social spending is now in tatters.

MY STOMACH CHURNS

My stomach churns
as I watch
the arrogant master
crack his whip

Once a slave owner
its hard to give up
the throne

The greed
and hunger
for dominance
is a sickness
that seeps
through the core
of the nation

Its ugly to watch
but living inside
the beast
can at times
be more than
any human
should have to
withstand

Some warn us to quiet down
they fear being associated
with those who try
to speak the truth
as best they can

Truth though
is not popular
in the corridors
of power
lined with
wood paneling
and elegant chairs
where only the
best drink
is taken

STIRRING WORDS

The Option of Saying No

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle

It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.

But it has one defect:

It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.

It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.

But it has one defect:

It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.

But he has one defect:

He can say, “No!"

- Bertolt Brecht

“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
 

- Bertolt Brecht

SOMALI PIRATES?

Ukraine's president-elect, billionaire Petro Poroshenko, has promised to use full force until all separatists have been destroyed. He has now vowed to strengthen the military crackdown, making it faster and more efficient. Poroshenko is calling the people in eastern Ukraine "Somali pirates",

Political scientist Mateusz Piskorski from the European Center of Geopolitical Analysis joins RT to discuss this issue.

INSIDE THE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE

MB and I carrying our conversion banner just as the Memorial Day parade got going today from Topsham to Brunswick.  We were at the tail end of the peacenik delegation in the parade.

Before the parade started a photo with fellow VFP member George Goodwin

Today about 25 folks from Maine Veterans for Peace (VFP) and the Brunswick-area group PeaceWorks lined up in Topsham, Maine for the annual Memorial Day parade that ends in the next town of Brunswick.  Along the way thousands were on the sidewalks to watch the show.

Each year we dress in black, carry banners with the group names, and lots of the white VFP flags.  This year MB and I were at the tail end of our group carrying the new banner made by Maine artists that calls for conversion of the war economy.

VFP member Doug Rawlings wrote today about the parade, "Our presence was met with muted applause from some, enthusiastic applause from others, and some turned backs from others."

I saw two people turn away as we passed by and heard one woman say "Support the troops".  Other than that I heard no overt negative reactions against us.  Not everyone loved us - but we saw legions of people along the way reading the words on the conversion banner.   Some looked a bit stunned but many got the message and a good number of them gave us a thumbs up or a peace sign.

It was bit unusual to be carrying a banner calling for conversion of the war economy in this nationalistic parade but it is the kind of thing we need to do if we are ever going to successfully have a real dialogue across the nation about our addiction to military spending and war.

One woman in particular caught my attention as she sort of secretly flashed us a positive wave and a guarded smile.  She obviously wanted to show her approval but was also very concerned about being too demonstrative, not wanting to stand out in the crowd.  I believe that being in the parade helps open the door for others to feel safe to question the prevailing authority around the war and peace issue.

George Goodwin, in the photo above, was a career Navy man and is a long-time VFP member.  He carried one of the white flags today and walked in front of us.  At one point he turned to me and said, "We've got to stop doing these damn parades, but we've got to end war first."  He sure is right about that.

But how do we end war unless the peace community, and our many allies, talk more about jobs.  The military industrial complex has us all over the barrel because any threats to cut the Pentagon budget are met with fear and silence about the waste and immorality of war.... resulting in domestic political inaction.

My feelings about the largely working class crowd today is they are afraid.  They know that solar, wind, rail make more sense than endless war but they don't see how anything will ever change.  So they support the one government agency that gives their kids jobs - the military.  Sure they get killed and are deeply emotionally wounded by war trauma.  But what is anyone else offering them these days so they can feed their families and have some kind of a future?

UKRAINE OLIGARCH APPEARS WINNER

Ukrainian confectionary tycoon Petro Poroshenko is winning the presidential election in the first round of voting, having secured more than 50 percent of votes, several exit polls show.

WHO IS POROSHENKO?

Petro Poroshenko will likely be the US-NATO anointed president of Ukraine after today's election.  Poroshenko is a corporate oligarch and former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Trade and Economic Development. 

For me the bottom line is clear - the corporate oligarchs take full control of the government and have the far-right Right Sector and Svoboda to thank for busting down the doors to make it all possible.  Rewards will have to be paid to the right wing shock troops (brown shirts).

Those in eastern Ukraine understand the danger of this deadly connection between corporate capital and fascists.  This same kind of "coalition building" is happening around the world - Japan, Egypt, South Korea, India, Canada, Saudi Arabia, US, and many more.

Each time the oligarchy gets away with taking power, and holding onto it with their far right alliances, another nail is put into the coffin of the people of the planet and our Mother Earth.

We must see how what happens in Ukraine is part of a larger corporate plan for global domination.

ELECTION DAY IN UKRAINE

Ukrainians go to the polls to elect a new president, three months after the previous one was deposed in an armed coup.

People in eastern Ukraine are largely boycotting the national election.

LIBERATE HAWAI'I

Jon Olsen, Maine activist, on his new book called Liberate Hawai'i.  Jon lived in Hawaii for many years and has always held Hawai'i', and the people there, close to his heart.

SUNDAY SONG