Two men from Iraq

Yesterday two Iraqi immigrant men approached our weekly peace vigil here in Brunswick, Maine.  They spent quite a bit of time talking to several of us along the line of sign and flag holders.

I was the last in the line and by then someone had mentioned I was a veteran.  One of the two men told me he was a veteran of three wars in Iraq.  First the Iran-Iraq war (where the US armed the Iraqi  government in hopes to destroy Iran).  Secondly was the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 (the daddy Bush war) and lastly the 2003 Bush Junior 'shock and awe' attack that still continues today with about 5,000 US troops deployed there.

I asked the Iraqi veteran if his country would at some point soon kick the US military out.  He said, "They can't".  I took that to mean that Washington's grip on Iraq was still too strong.

I asked him about the recent Israeli bombing of Iraq.  What is behind that?  He replied, "Israel and Saudi Arabia want to start a big war."  Many are speculating that Israel and the Saudi head-chopping monarchy (remember when America had a revolution against a monarchy in 1776?) want to force the US into a full-blown war with Iran.  In other words they want us to do their dirty work for them.

Some passing cars were honking support for the vigil and again the veteran said, dripping with cynicism, “See you have support, but in the next election they will all vote for more war”.

I must say that I was sadly impressed that this Iraqi man has figured out the American people quite well.  They'll honk for peace, won't lift much of a finger to help stop our endless war$, and then likely in large numbers will turn around and vote for the next Democrat (no matter who gets the nomination) that will keep us in costly wars.  The system we live under limits the 'national debate' about such issues which only makes it harder for the public to believe anything can actually change.  So they tend to take the easy way out.

The two men were glad to see our group on the street but they don't harbor much hope for an end to the madness in their beleaguered nation.  The US has used Iraq as a tool for many years to destabilize the region giving further justification for on-going Pentagon occupation.

Bruce

Support the indigenous people

The origins of 'space force'

Still as relevant as ever.....

The source

The Amazon cannot be recovered once it’s gone

Slash and burn

The fires blazing in Brazil are part of a larger deforestation crisis, accelerated by President Jair Bolsonaro.

Greed, ignorance, deceit, corruption, arrogance - corporate plutocracy

Lack of spiritual connection to our Mother Earth  

We can't just keep rolling along the way we are

Time to call it what it is
and act to change it
before it kills us all....

Bruce

Space Week actions list now forming

October 5-12, 2019

Keep Space for Peace Week

International Week of Protest to

Stop the Militarization of Space

No Space Force

No Missile Defense

Close U.S./NATO Bases Worldwide

Stop Drones Surveillance & Killing

End Privatization of Foreign/Military Policy

Convert the Military Industrial Complex

Deal with climate change and global poverty

Support the Green New Deal

 

List in formation

·       Bath Iron Works, Maine (Oct 5) Vigil across from administration building on Washington Street (Navy Aegis destroyers outfitted with “missile defense” systems built at BIW) 11:30-12:30 am   Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm (207) 763-4062

·       Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada (Sept 29-Oct 5) 10 YEARS of DRONE RESISTANCE at Creech.  Drone resistance mass mobilization. The U.S. Racist Drone Wars continue to expand around the globe, terrorizing and murdering the most vulnerable and poorest of communities, violating the national sovereignty of people and threatening us all into a much higher chance for an all-out nuclear confrontation.  These are covert wars. Much is censored and hidden from the public, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening! Contact: Toby Blomé:  atherbenyckeling@comcast.net  or Eleanor Levine:  eastbaycodepink@gmail.com

·       USAF Croughton, England (Oct 5) USAF Croughton is about to undergo one of the biggest redevelopments since it was constructed by the USAF almost 70 years ago. The new ‘Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex’ will put the site at the heart of a web of military and intelligence networks stretching from the USA to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. March & rally at main gate from 12-4 pm. Oxfordshire Peace Campaign, oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk

·       Kathmandu, Nepal (Oct 16-17) Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon will speak on space issues at various colleges across Kathmandu.  For details bhurtung@yahoo.com

·       Limerick, Ireland (Oct 5-6) World BEYOND War’s fourth annual global conference on the abolition of war will be held on October 5th and 6th and include a rally on the 6th at Shannon Airport, where U.S. military forces routinely pass through in violation of Irish neutrality and of laws against war.  https://worldbeyondwar.org

·       Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Oct 12) Peace Action will hold an event.  Details TBD. pamrichard35@gmail.com

·       Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia (Oct 11) March to stop the bipartisan war machine. The nuclear clock is at two minutes to midnight - we must unite for peace and against the war machine. For more info https://marchonpentagon.com/2019-march

·       Toronto, Canada (Oct 9) Vigil, outside the NATO Association of Canada office, 48 Yonge Street, from 12-1pm. Organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. tlorincz@dal.ca

·       Visakhapatnam, India (Oct 12-13) International Conference on Super Powers' Dominion in Outer Space & Global Sustainable Development. Co-Sponsored by Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University and the Global Network. Speakers will include Professor Peter Kuznick, Subrata Ghoshroy from MIT, Lindis Percy from UK, Professor Aruna Kammila and Bruce Gagnon. People of our planet must consider the question of the kind of seed one carries from earth into the heavens.  The essential objective of this Conference is to give a stage to exhibit emerging issues and challenges in outer space, including legal, political, economic as well as scientific in order to ensure peace and security in the international sphere with concern to outer space. For details intconf@dsnlu.ac.in

 Space Week Co-Sponsors:

• No to War – No to NATO
• US Peace Council
• Veterans For Peace
• Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
• WorldBeyondWar.org

Space Week poster http://www.space4peace.org/actions/Save%20Space%20for%20Peace%20Week%20Poster%202019.pdf

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

http://www.space4peace.org 

Story behind Trump's Greenland 'deal'

A U.S. consulate may appear in Greenland before the end of the year. And Washington doesn't care anymore about Copenhagen's opinion on this matter.

The State Department recently revealed another blowout by Trump, who isn't used to being rejected.

On the backdrop of the Danish Ministry of Defense openly warning of troop deployments to ensure the island's safety against an American invasion, the White House is proceeding with the provocation by proposing to Greenlanders they make up their own mind in which currency they want to receive their subsidies — in dollars or kroner.

Listen to "Sen. Tom Cotton also wants the United States to buy Greenland" on Spreaker.

Foreign Policy In Focus, joins the show.Senator Tom Cotton, a far-right wing senator from Arkansas, has an op-ed in today’s New York Times in which he says that the United States must purchase Greenland at all costs. Cotton adds that he even raised the idea with the Danish Ambassador to the US a year ago. The Danish government has repeated that the island is not for sale. Is this crazy idea becoming mainstream? Bruce Gagnon, the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, joins the show.

Now appearing in the U.S.

Great is arriving in the U.S. via a sailboat.

She is leading the Student Climate Strike protests planned across the world on September 20.

Here in Maine events will be held in Portland, Farmington and Mount Desert Island.

At each of these we are encouraging people to bring signs/banners that connect the dots between militarism and climate change - the Pentagon has the largest institutional carbon boot print on Earth.

For more info on these connections see here

Featured Space Week action - Croughton AFB in UK

National march and rally 
October 5
Croughton, England

Speakers:

• Paul Mobbs – ‘Croughtonwatch’       
• Lindis Percy – Co-founder Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases
• David Cullen – Director, Nuclear Information Service

The new U.S. ‘Space Force’ is part of the militarisation of space. This will need ground stations like USAF Croughton, where the U.S. is spending £200m to turn the base into one of its’ largest international intelligence hubs, building the new Joint intelligence Analysis Centre (JIAC).

This major U.S. communication and intelligence base supports space communications, data links, military drone information, bomber guidance, missile defence, diplomatic communications, and command and control war fighting functions. It will be a key link in the ‘chain’ controlling US surveillance, armed drone and special forces operations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

(RAF) USAF Croughton main gate is on the B4031, off the A43, 2 miles North of M40 junction 10, just South of Brackley, Northamptonshire.

Travel west on the B4031, past the main gate, turn left at mini-roundabout on eastern edge of Croughton village, and park at signed site, not at main gate.  Starts 12.00 car park, along B4031 to Main Gate, finishes 4.00pm.

Food stall and disabled toilet at main gate.         

Bring flags and banners!

Minibus leaves St Giles, Oxford 10.45 & Oxford Rail station 11.00
Tickets £8.00 – pre booking essential –

Contact: 01865 248357 / oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk

Oxfordshire Peace Campaign

Gore Vidal on conversion

Although no public jobs can be created and no bridges repaired as long as all that money goes for unworkable Rube Goldberg Star Wars systems, not to mention cost overruns and plain corruption, [President Bill] Clinton will have to overcome his natural southern affinity for all things military.  Conversion is the name of the only game we have left.  Conversion from war to peace.  Instead of Seawolf submarines, he must build bullet trains (my advice to Jerry Brown, who dramatized it on television and won the Connecticut primary).  The same workforce that now builds submarines has the same technology to build trains.

~ Gore Vidal in GQ November 1992

Over the past weekend MB and I went to our friend Ridgeley's cabin on an island in the middle of Flying Pond (Mainer's often describe lakes as ponds) in Central Maine.  We canoed, kayaked, swam and had two lovely sunset rides on a floating picnic table mounted on drums with a small, quiet battery-operated motor.  One sits on the picnic table bench and dangles your legs in the surprisingly warm lake water.  We drank a bottle of Crimean red wine (the best wine I have tasted in recent memory). I was given the bottle for my birthday by our Russian friend Tanya.  What fun it was to spend time on the lake as we near the end of summer.

While at the lake I reclined in a hammock for several hours reading Gore Vidal's 2001 book entitled The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000.  I found his statement above about conversion of the military industrial complex inside this spirited book.

Gore Vidal knew about the ruling class.  He emerged from it and became one of the ruling elites fiercest critics.

Vidal was born into a political family; his maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, served as United States senator from Oklahoma. He began to drift towards the political left after he received his first paycheck, and realized how much money the government took in tax. He reasoned that if the government was taking so much money, then it should at least provide first-rate health care and education rather than endless war.

Vidal was very much against any kind of military intervention in the world. In Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta (2002), Vidal drew parallels about how the United States enters wars and said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt provoked Imperial Japan to attack the U.S. in order to justify the American entry to the Second World War (1939–45). He contended that Roosevelt had advance knowledge of the dawn-raid attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). In the documentary Why We Fight (2005), Vidal said that, during the final months of the war, the Japanese had tried to surrender: "They were trying to surrender all that summer, but Truman wouldn't listen, because Truman wanted to drop the [atomic] bombs .... To show off. To frighten Stalin. To change the balance of power in the world. To declare war on communism. Perhaps we were starting a pre-emptive world war".

As a public intellectual, Vidal criticized what he viewed as political harm to the nation and the voiding of the citizen's rights through the passage of the USA Patriot Act (2001) during the George W. Bush administration (2001–2009). He described Bush as "the stupidest man in the United States" and said that Bush's foreign policy was explicitly expansionist. He contended that the Bush Administration and their oil-business sponsors, aimed to control the petroleum of Central Asia, after having gained hegemony over the petroleum of the Persian Gulf in 1991.

In 1977 Vidal said, "There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party .... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt .... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties."

He was a great, gutsy man who gave the nation deep insights into the ruling class that he largely rejected during his long and active life.  Vidal died in 2012.

Bruce

Israel bombs Iraq....why?

Pushback with Aaron Maté

An Israeli bombing of a weapons depot allegedly used by Iran is the first Israeli strike on Iraq in nearly forty years and a major escalation of Israel's campaign against Tehran. The attack also underscores how Israeli violence on its neighbors has been normalized, As'ad AbuKhalil argues.

Guest: As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University Stanislaus.

Voices from the Amazon

While the world prays for the #Amazon, the xinguanos gather and cast an arrow in the air. The Brazilian government must protect our forests and respect the ways of life of indigenous peoples and traditional communities.

Brazil's new president Balsonaro is driving development of the Amazon at a fierce pace.  The world must stand in solidarity with the indigenous people in the Amazon.  

Where is Ghislaine & why has she not been arrested?

Who was Robert Maxwell, bizarre death and proven links to Mossad still invite scrutiny? What has he to do with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein?

Former UK MP George Galloway joins Rick Sanchez to share his insights.

Sunday song

History lesson: CIA running drugs

Gary Webb, the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who broke the story of the CIAs involvement in the importation of cocaine into the U.S., died December 10, 2004, reportedly from self-inflicted gunshots to the head. It was a tragic end to a brilliant, and tragic, career.

In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published Webb's 20,000 word, three-part series entitled Dark Alliance. The articles detailed the nexus between a California coke kingpin, CIA officials and assets and the Nicaraguan Contra army, whose funding had been cut off by an act of Congress in the mid-80s. Webb found evidence that the CIA had direct contact with the smugglers, knew the proceeds were going to fund the murderous Contras, and tried to cover it up when other law enforcement agencies began investigating. The most troubling aspect to the story was that the central player was no ordinary drug lord. He was the man many credit for popularizing crack, the highly addictive, smoke-able form of cocaine.

For many African-Americans, the story smacked of a grand conspiracy to destroy the black community. There were rallies in Watts and Compton [Los Angeles], and heated discussions on black media across the country. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for a federal investigation. In November 1996, CIA director John Deutch appeared at Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles to personally answer to the allegations. He was met with loud jeers. It was a PR disaster.

But it was Webb who found himself on the ropes. Ironically, the CIA did little to publicly counter his allegations. Instead, the media did its dirty work for them, most notably the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The mainstream media accused Webb of exaggerating his findings.

I endorse this message!

Putin's reaction to Pentagon's test of missiles which violated INF Treaty

Putin’s address to the permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation came with strong assertions about its position vis-à-vis Washington’s formal withdrawal from the INF treaty. Putin’s speech came five days after the United States made a test launch of a ground-based cruise missile which, according to the US military, hit the target at a distance over 500 kilometres.

According to Putin, the testing of a missile with characteristics prohibited under this treaty taking place just 16 days after Washington’s own denunciation, was obvious not to be an improvisation but the next link in a chain of events that were planned and carried out earlier. The speech was an important indicator about Russia’s position for the future and a planned Russian reciprocal response.

 - Drago Victorien

The US has built a missile launch base in Romania with another currently near completion in Poland.  At both of these bases will be a ground-based launch site called 'Aegis Ashore'.  From this base the US could launch SM-3 'missile defense' interceptors and first-strike attack cruise missiles which could hit Moscow in 10 minutes time.

In this video Putin refers to the Tomahawk nuclear-capable cruise missile as the one that was tested on August 18 by the US.  The test was conducted from San Nicolas Island, California, and the Pentagon said that "the test missile exited its ground mobile launcher and accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight."

The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Moscow earlier this month. The INF Treaty (signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987) limited the development of ground-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

Putin correctly states in the video that a test of this system, from a ground-based launch platform so soon after US withdrawal from the INF, clearly indicates that the US had been developing this technology long before Washington withdrew from the treaty.

The US has lately been pulling out of virtually all arms control treaties. George W. Bush withdrew the US from the ABM Treaty (that outlawed 'missile defense' systems) in 2002, Trump quit the Iran-Nuclear Deal and now again Trump has walked away from the INF Treaty.

It is as clear as a bell that Washington intends to move from arms control to 'full spectrum dominance' and refuses to be restricted by any sane attempts to restrain and reduce the arms race.  In fact Washington currently refuses to declare a nuclear 'No First Use' policy.  Russia and China have long renounced the first use of nuclear weapons.

Also in the video Putin refers to Russia's annual military spending (just over $60 billion a year) while the Pentagon budget is well over $1 trillion a year once all the various military pots of gold are added up.  So there is obviously no 'rough equivalence' between the two nation's military forces.

The US leads the pack by a wide margin and intends to keep driving a new arms race that is profitable for the aerospace industry and creates new global instability.

The constant demonization of Putin and Russia is surely intended to disguise the true US intentions of putting Washington in the dangerous position to be 'Master of Space' and 'King of the Hill' on Earth.

Sadly most Americans (and much of the west) appear to have fallen for Washington's propaganda.

Bruce

Israel wants Washington to invade Iran

Israel is trying to “suck America into” a war with Iran that could destabilize the Middle East and lead to a world war in much the way that the imperial rivalries in 1914 led to the First World War, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, warned in Washington.

A war with Iran, he said, could “perhaps terminate the experiment that is Israel and do irreparable damage to the empire that America has become.”

But Israeli leaders want a war, and they are pushing one with the support of their American political friends, including Democrats like Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, whose overheated rhetoric about Iran recalls Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, Wilkerson said. Another pro-war faction are “warmed-over neoconservatives” who got us into the Iraq war.

“I’ve been there, done that; I don’t need the tour,” he said.

Wilkerson, a retired army colonel who now teaches government at Washington-area universities, served Powell during the run-up to the Iraq war.

He spoke at the annual Israel lobby conference at the National Press Club, sponsored by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Institute for Research: Middle East Policy.

The conference aired on C-SPAN.

Stop deforestation

The Amazon rain forest has been burning for weeks at a record rate, adding to an already alarming level of deforestation.

"I am praying God every minute"

More from the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.

"I can't handle it any more. My whole body is worn out. It's worn out so much, that if I hear any sound, my body is all shaking. It's the fear. We are living in fear and we don't know when will it end." - tells through tears Vera Vasilievna. She can't even hide from shelling any more: her husband is paralysed and her lungs already turned black after months she spent in the basement.

Kirova Street is the most dangerous spot in Kominternove settlement. Bullets are flying here day and night, most of the houses are nothing but ruins, lush gardens are burnt down by tracer munitions.

Ukrainian soldier, look whom you are shooting at! There are no military positions on this street, just elderly, desperately trying to survive in this Hell! Broken windows in their homes are taped with plastic. There is no gas and regular power blackouts, as result of shelling. Each gunshot and mine flying over their roof makes old people tremble. And this is the second war in their lives...

Donbass Rose

"I'm ready to take more risks"

Our workshop under the shade tree during the 2019 Peace Fair in Brunswick, Maine.

We talked about the connections between militarism and climate catastrophe.

Camera work by Peter Woodruff (retired BIW worker) and editing by Martha Spiess.

Caroline Galactéros: “Isolating Russia to Please the US Was a Stupid Calculation”

At the time of the August 19 meeting between the Russian and French heads of state, Caroline Galactéros, Doctor of political science, Colonel within the operational reserve of the Army, president of the Geopragma think tank, and specialist in Eastern Europe, decrypts for “L’Invalide” what the real stakes of this Franco-Russian summit are.

Question: After the absence of Vladimir Putin at the 75th anniversary in Normandy, Emmanuel Macron would like to catch up with and revive the Minsk process, and also to address the issue of Donbass at Brégançon before the G7 in Biarritz. Does this French ambition seem credible to you?

Galactéros:  “Obviously no. I would like to believe that our President has realised that he must urgently overcome the neoconservative networks that have infiltrated his administration (like Donald Trump’s) and see Russia forever an enemy of Europe. This fossilised vision, remote-controlled from Washington, has the advantage of preventing the EU from getting closer to Moscow, and therefore from keeping it strategically under exclusively Atlantic control. Unfortunately, some recent major appointments to the diplomatic and national strategic evaluation apparatus have little hope of a strategic upgrade by the president. The prisoner of the Elysee and that of the White House are still very far from fomenting their ‘great escape’…

The question of Donbass is simple. It is a purulent abscess that Vladimir Putin keeps under his thumb to make it impossible for Ukraine to join the EU, a stepping stone towards NATO. After the various waves of enlargement of the Alliance, which has removed the Russian protective glacis, this absorption of Ukraine by NATO is a non-negotiable red line for Moscow because it would put the forces of the Alliance in contact immediately from those of Russia. In order to ‘settle the Donbass issue’, Kiev must first and foremost respect the Minsk Accords, and above all, Moscow must obtain a written agreement from the United States to ensure that Ukraine remains a strategically neutral buffer zone. and never be more encouraged nor allowed to join NATO. If Paris were able to obtain that, then our star would shine forever in the Russian skies and beyond, in all the European woes. And we would then exercise de facto leadership. We are far from this. Washington continues to provoke Moscow and Paris is silent. The last summit of the Alliance allowed it to reaffirm. via its General Secretary, its intention to welcome Ukraine and Georgia in the Alliance…“

Franco-American relations seem to be at an impasse, is it out of spite or opportunism that France turns to the old Russian ally?

“France has still not understood – and even seems unable to understand – that there is a structural difference in interests between Washington and the European Union. Our political and strategic allegiance is deep, but it is based on a fantasised convergence of interests. Under Trump, who holds us on ‘short reins’ and loudly proclaims his contempt, we feel ourselves orphaned by a tutelage that until then was soft and allowed us to obey … saving face, in military or declaratory rodomontades . But in fact, in 2013, with Obama and his famous ‘red line’ in Syria, the die was cast. But then, redoubling our servility, we had no burst of saving pride. Nothing has really changed in Paris. This is the drama. Because the rest of the world moves at high speed. I fear that our president, despite his lyrical musings, is not really aware of our history with Russia over the centuries, nor has any structured strategic vision. He does not see France in his flesh or his heart, and words are not enough to embody a will. He wants to be the self-proclaimed leader of a resurgent Europe, but he does not apprehend the conditions.

To get closer to Moscow (as indeed to Tehran), Paris must become a credible and reliable power, whose word one can count on, who is mentally independent, free, sovereign. In short, we just have to stop saying mere words and leave our US proxy status. Here again, we are far from doing this. Since Nicolas Sarkozy with Libya, then Francois Hollande with Maidan and the Mistrals, France is unfortunately no longer considered autonomous, even less strategically independent. Its signature no longer has any weight. Its vision of the world and of its place within it, in respect of his own interests and values, is nowhere to be found. In Syria, its bewildering game of destabilising a sovereign state and supporting the worst terrorist groups that strike it on its national territory and undermines its unity, has profoundly discredited it. Our foreign policy is a-historical, schizophrenic, and suicidal.”

Under what conditions could Russia hear the French position in Iran and Syria?

“Washington wants to break the Russian-Iranian axis and uses Paris to do this. Unlike us, Vladimir Putin is anything but an ideologue. He’s a pragmatic one. Concerning Syria, France has unfortunately been trapped in the American game of regime changes, miles away from any democratic perspective. On the Iranian issue, it has aligned itself with Washington’s warmongering, quickly giving up its initial intransigence, after the US’ exit from the JCPOA, and showing itself unable to operate the INSTEX mechanism, which would make it possible to counter the extraterritoriality of the American law. Bursts of sanctions that sought to stifle the Iranian economy, freeze all competition, and provoke a political and social crisis to destabilise the Islamic Republic. Then we started to say, as Washington did, that we should extend the spectrum of the Agreement to ballistic questions or something else …. In short, we went to sleep. Today, instead of saying once and for all that Paris would remain alongside Tehran in the JCPOA without asking for renegotiation or extension, in order to obey Washington and Tel Aviv we dare to ask Tehran, in the name of ‘de-escalation’ to respect the Agreement, when it was Washington that tore it to pieces. It’s the world upside down. What does one hope to gain in terms of credibility by such an attitude? It is up to the US and not Iran to respect the JCPOA! The recent statements of our Foreign Minister criticising Tehran for threatening to disobey the Agreement are staggering and typical of the reversal of wrongs and the manipulation of the reality that has characterised our so-called moral diplomacy for far too long.

Our leadership is floating, and so is the conscience of our national interests. This is the great paradox of a presidency based on technocracy, but which methodically destroys the tools of the regalien and the authority of the state … Whatever ‘legitimist’ I am politically, who decided to put hopes on the one, whoever he is, and to who the insignia of honour is given to govern our motherland, I come to wonder if our president only believes in the Nation, in France as a historical and cultural entity of its own, or if he rather believes progress (iveness) consists of erasing, according to multilateral agreements and renouncements of sovereignty and authority, the last concrete and symbolic instruments of our independence. The Pact of Marrakesh and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle are sad examples of this sly relinquishment masked by great pomp.

To return to the conditions in which Moscow might see some interest in involving us again in the Syrian and Iranian issues – from which at the same time our moralising and cynical approach arose – even if Vladimir Putin and his spokespersons display a gallant contempt for sanctions , it seems obvious to me that only lifting them would be a serious and tangible sign of a recovery of autonomy of Europe and France in relation to America. It would be enough for Paris to understand it, to want it, and to decide on it. The opposition of only one EU member is enough to prevent their renewal. Dare to disobey and resist. This would be a big blow to the hornet’s nest of our collective inconsistencies and a true strategic revolution for Europe, its first step in the world of adults, without armbands, without buoys, without a harness! Without a leash, if to be brief. What are we waiting for? What can we still lose after our industrial jewels, our honour, and our soul? Our pusillanimity becomes really unbearable.”

The question of Crimea and the repression of the opposition are issues of concern for Quai d’Orsay. Can this prevent France from halting the economic sanctions?

“Quai d’Orsay, and those who unfortunately control it and take Putin’s Russia for Stalin’s USSR – mentally sclerosed and fossilised so as not to have to think otherwise than as Pavlov’s dogs – are constantly seeking new demands and requirements to present in Moscow (against of course no concessions or openness on our part). They pretend to ignore the obvious: it is up to us to take a step towards Russia and lift the sanctions. As for Crimea, everyone knows that there is nothing to do or hope for. We played and mounted (at minimum – condoned as France) a coup in Ukraine …. and we lost, a bit like in Syria. With Maidan, we served on a silver platter for Moscow the opportunity to take back Crimea, which was wrongly granted to Ukraine by the Ukrainian Khrushchev in 1954. As for the repression of the opposition in Russia, unfortunately we are reaping the rewards of our hopeless policy of ostracisation. Vladimir Putin is becoming more and more a prisoner of the conservative currents and tries to optimally hold the helm, but he sometimes has to give guarantees and does not control everything, far from it. The release of the banker Delpal, most likely imprisoned in spite of the Kremlin, is a very positive sign that the Russian President is now able to loosen some of the barriers that constrain his room for manoeuvre. We are wasting precious time not helping him. Who will come to power after him? Maybe a true autocrat, far less shrewd and anti-European.

To isolate Russia to please our Grand ally was a stupid calculation. Not only has this pushed it to Peking out of spite and necessity, but it leaves Europe disarmed, caught between an America more leonine than ever, and a China that aims more and more openly for the progressive dismemberment of the Old continent and the domination of Eurasia. Not to admit that, in this distressing scenario, Russia was our master asset, and to accept to let ourselves be isolated as Washington dictates to us, is a major strategic mistake, which our policies, all trends combined for at least 20 years and the ‘Wars of Kosovo’, bear heavy responsibility for. I am in favour of France, without further delay, rethink from top to bottom its foreign policy and defence. It must structure it around a realistic and human Gaullist posture, which alone can restore its stature and weight, instead of dissolving its historical, political, and ethical flesh in the abstract vapours of Western multicultural sheep behavior. From this point of view, the presidential gesture, at Brégançon as before at Versailles, can be very useful. But only if it fits into a vision and a clear will, supported by a lucid, enviably pragmatic, and strict evaluation of our national interests. Otherwise, the ‘pas de deux’, successful or missed with this or that, will be reduced to political communication, and even to a sad comedy: that of our consented abasement in the declining pageantry and luster of a great nation . Then the cure will turn out to be even worse than the illness, and no head of state will be mistaken anymore. Vladimir Putin less than any other.”

~ L’Incorrect, Hadrien Desuin

Who's your daddy?

Who's your daddy?

Has it hit home
yet?

We know the score
but are slow,
hesitant,
to step up

It's the time to move....
don't look back

Dems got big $$$
from oligarchies
Repubs too,
similar corporate $$$$
Mr. Big controls
it all

But it is election time,
again,
pressure is intense,
'line up with
the slow walkers'
who allow
status quo
to grind on,
distraction
from truth

Who's your daddy?

There is a place
up ahead
where we are going,
it is the spirit
and breath
that gives our children,
life on this
fragile globe

Who are we?

Alien?
Ape man?
Lost
and hopefully
found,
before it's
too late

Eleven years left
to swing things
around,
or so they say

Let's rise
with the sun,
feel the heat
feel the connection

Bruce

NED: Who actually is doing the interferring?

In this Grayzone special, Max Blumenthal attends a Capitol Hill gathering of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and explores the group's destabilizing global campaign to meddle in other countries' affairs.

The report covers the NED's interference in foreign elections in Russia and Mongolia, its participation in coup attempts from Haiti to Venezuela to Nicaragua, and its escalating public relations efforts against China and North Korea.

Getting beyond the fabricated story.....

Global Network board members Bruce Gagnon and Will Griffin discuss the current crisis in Ukraine: how fascists are killing thousands of people, support from the right-wing authoritarian government, and how the US supports and trains the fascists.

Sign the petition to ban weapons going to the US-NATO backed regime in Kiev here

Also this excellent article by Diana Johnstone on the origins of the 2014 coup in Kiev - see here

GN Website:
http://space4peace.org/  

Weekend at Cape Cod

MB and I went to Truro on Cape Cod, Massachusetts over the weekend to attend her Sullivan family party that was held at her brother's place.

We drove to Portland, Maine and then took a bus to Boston.  We then walked about half an hour to the ferry terminal and took the boat to Provincetown which was about a 90 minute ride. The boat was amazingly fast and the scenery quite wonderful.

P-town as it is called was loaded with tourists as there was a festival there over the weekend.  MB's brother lives right across the street from the bay so it was a relaxing time to sit on the deck and enjoy the water and the beautiful sunsets.

The family party, as always, was big and loud with loads of food and the famous Sullivan family desserts.

Then on Sunday we took the ferry back to Boston, walked to South Station for the bus which took us back to Maine.

It was a great weekend and we are so glad we didn't try to drive all the way to Cape Cod.  No stress, just a fun weekend and always great to hang out with her two brothers.

This was our first taste of any kind of summer vacation - short but still sweet.  But there is more to come next weekend.  More on that later.

Bruce

Sunday song

History lesson: CIA mind bending program

Former patients of Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute and their families called on the Canadian government to intervene and push the U.S. government to settle a lawsuit in which the patients alleged their lives were ruined by a CIA-funded brainwashing program.

A largely unknown and forgotten story.

Why the demonization of Gabbard?

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has been smeared as an Assad apologist for her efforts to end the US-backed proxy war and her skepticism of US military strikes in Syria.

MIT professor emeritus Ted Postol, a leading missile expert and informal Gabbard advisor, defends Gabbard's stance and criticizes the OPCW's continued silence on a leaked document that suggests the April 2018 gas attack in Douma was staged.

Theodore Postol, award-winning Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT is interviewed by journalist Aaron Maté.

And you wonder why the mainstream media and fellow-Democrats keep trashing Gabbard?

I once saw Gabbard on CNN say that the 'CIA created ISIS' - which is true.  What other politician can you think of with the intestinal fortitude to say that on national TV?

One would imagine that it would be a good idea to keep Rep. Gabbard in the Democratic party debates as long as possible.

Just saying .....

Bruce 

Gets stranger every day.....

A portrait of @BillClinton sporting Monica Lewinsky's blue dress and red heels in the Oval Office, was found in #JeffreyEpstien 's "Pedo Mansion" pic.twitter.com/Dbtz7cK4yZ

— Jared Wenzelburger (@ThePhotoJay) August 14, 2019

• Here is a link to The Daily Mirror story & Clinton painting.

• The latest news concerning Epstein is that the autopsy found broken bones in his neck.  One has to wonder.  See more here

• Also a comprehensive article by journalist Whitney Webb entitled Epstein May Be Just One Part of an Intricate Network of Sex and Power. Webb looks at the sordid history tying together mobsters, oligarchs, and government intelligence agencies in a web of blackmail, exploitation, and profit. See an interview with Webb just below.

• This whole sordid affair is uncovering many dark stories about our nation.  No wonder our politics are so sick.  Look at the people who run this country!

What is 5G?

The US is attempting to put 5G on a fast track despite evidence suggesting the new technology could pose serious health concerns.

Martin Pall, Professor Emeritus at Washington State University joins Michele Greenstein to discuss health concerns over 5G and why the government is attempting to ignore the research and medical findings.

We are planning a public event in Brunswick, Maine (likely in November) to discuss the subject with a couple people who have been studying the dangers of these technologies. 

The good war?

By Will Griffin (The Peace Report)

After 18 years of the US war in Afghanistan, do we really understand the reasons behind it? We know that it has backfired and terrorism has spread and grown around the world. We know the US is losing the war because the Taliban now control more territory than they ever have since 2001. We know more civilians have died from US bombs than enemy combatants.

But when asking organizers in the US peace movement, I receive a myriad of answers. Anything from theories of Israel secreting planning the 9/11 attacks or it was just a bad decision. Very few understand the real reasons behind the war.

I am a veteran of the war who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 when President Barrack Obama announced the surge, ultimately deploying more troops, dropping more bombs, and wasting more taxpayer dollars on a failed effort that resulted in more civilians dying. We ARE STILL FIGHTING THERE!

I’d like to give my perspective on why the US initially invaded the sovereign nation who had very little to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Inspiring the world in Hawaii

Big Island Video News reports:

A crowd of thousands gathered at the base of the [sacred] Mauna Kea Access Road on Sunday, as opposition to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) swelled over the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday were day 27 and 28 of the scheduled start of construction on the TMT. Crews seeking to ascend the mountain in order to build the billion-dollar observatory have been stopped, for now, as project opponents have taken control of the only road (suitable for heavy machinery) that leads to the summit.

Events were happening across the Hawaiian Islands. Thousands were estimated to have participated in a Kapu Aloha Unity March in Kahului, Maui. Also, “thousands of surfers across the world lent their voices on social media” on Saturday “to raise awareness of the struggle to protect Mauna Kea from the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.”

Also making her first appearance on Mauna Kea since the standoff began, Congresswoman and U.S. Presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard, who live streamed her arrival at the kūpuna tent.

Incredible singing begins about half-way through the video - you'll want to listen.

See more here

Latest This Issue: Climate change & the Pentagon's impact

My latest guest on my public access TV show is Lisa Savage who coordinates the Maine Natural Guard and lives in Solon, Maine.

We discuss the Pentagon’s impact on the reality of climate catastrophe and the need to convert the military industrial complex if we hope to have the resources to shift away from our fossil fuel addiction.

Lisa is a public school teacher and a grandmother.

You can find Lisa's blog here

Does the truth still matter?

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus at Princeton and NYU, says that while Robert Mueller has closed up shop, dangerous U.S. fear-mongering about Russia remains.

Cohen's latest book is "War with Russia: From Putin and Ukraine To Trump and Russiagate."

Cohen is interviewed by outstanding journalist Aaron Maté.

Sunday song

 

 

Epstein takes his own life?

It was reported this morning that Jeffrey Epstein, being held in a New York City jail and under suicide watch, hung himself.

A sigh of relief was heard around the world as top politicians, actors, media moguls, assorted rich men, and intelligence agency operatives in Israel, UK and the US know they now have nothing to worry about.  There will be no investigation that blows their cover.  Things have been 'sorted out' by Mr. Big.

And what about the young women who were exploited by Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell?  Their stories will likely fade into the sunset.

The sex slavery case was just getting too big and had to be shut down.  So Epstein, supposedly under the watchful eye of jailers in his Manhattan cell, was able to string himself up without a peep from prison authorities.  Hard to believe?  Well, of course it is.....

The story even reached here in Maine, as just yesterday it was disclosed that former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell from our state was named as one of the perps.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in a 2016 deposition, named Mitchell among a group of powerful men to whom she said Epstein offered her for erotic massages and sex. Others who were named include former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Britain’s Prince Andrew, financier Glenn Dubin, former MIT scientist Marvin Minsky and Jean-Luc Brunel, a well-known modeling agent. In a statement Friday to the Press Herald, Mitchell said the allegations are false.

You can just imagine the calls that were coming into 'massage central' from the fat cats who have been linked to this story.  Their rear ends were getting fidgety.  They were demanding that something be done to shut this whole case down.  I can just hear them now - someone has to shut this guy (Epstein) up.  And they did.  Either that or they snuck him out of the jail under false pretenses.

One must wonder if Ghislaine Maxwell will be quietly sent packing, out of the US, say to Israel or to the Moon in order to ensure that no more 'prosecutorial nonsense' is able to happen. After all Maxwell has been identified by many of the young women as the person who recruited them on Epstein's behalf and trained them in the art of 'massage'.

I also wonder what happened to the 'Me Too' movement?  They were screaming like crazy when a series of Hollywood gropers were IDed but during this Epstein saga they have been remarkably silent.  Why is that?

This entire scandal reeks of corruption. influence and big money.  Many good lawyers and journalists were working overtime to break the story and bring the many big wigs to justice for their crimes against young innocent girls.  Now it looks like the story could die along with Epstein.  We should demand otherwise.

It is a great tragedy.

Bruce 

Living with war in the Donbass

 New president in Ukraine, new Rada (parliament), same shelling and killing of citizens in the eastern part of the country (Donbass region) who are ethnically Russian.....US-NATO support the operation.

Life of Signalnoe residents (near by Dokuchaevsk) is not easy. There is no water in the settlement for more than 20 years, no jobs for young people and every day shelling on top of that! However, local people are optimistic and thankful to Russia for humanitarian aid and support. It would be impossible to survive without it in time of war.

Saturday Comedy Bonus

One of the greatest!

Jobs & a future for coming generations

Demand it - make it happen!

Convert the war machine to sustainable production - solar, wind turbines, tidal power systems, commuter rail systems, weatherizing homes, repairing crumbling infrastructure, and more.

Make the demand now and repeatedly.

Protest and survive.

Cut the Pentagon budget to pay for the Green New Deal.

The view from Iran

Iran has been preparing for a possible attack since the US 2003 invasion on Iraq, Professor Mohammad Marandi at the University of Tehran tells News With Rick Sanchez.

A hot war would be “catastrophic,” destroying not just the oil industry and global shipping but Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Iran hopes there are “enough sane people in the US to avoid that,” Marandi says.

America's role is 'security export'

In the early years of the illegal George W. Bush 'shock and awe' attack and occupation of Iraq I was watching C-SPAN TV one evening.

They showed a three-hour presentation of then Naval War College instructor Thomas Barnett who had written a new book called the Pentagon's New Map.  Barnett was introduced to the military & CIA audience as then Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld's 'strategy guy'.

Barnett proposed in his plan that America's role in the world under corporate globalization was 'security export'.  He said that the US would not make things anymore - shoes, cars, TV, cell phones, washing machines and other consumer products.  It's cheaper for the leading corporations to move overseas where labor is cheaper.

America's job Barnett said was to go around the world and control the 'non-integrating gap' - those nations who are not presently under the full control of western bankers.  Iran, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, the African continent, etc. 

Barnett declared that the Pentagon would go into one of these nations with overwhelming force - what he called 'Leviathon'.  But the problem he said, is who will run these countries after we take them over?  What we need he said is a force to run these nations after the initial take down.  He called this team 'Systems Administration'.  Not too soon after I noticed that Lockheed Martin had received a huge contract to train 'Sys Ad' forces. Barnett said our 'Sys Ad' troops would never come home.

Barnett also claimed that the US will need legions of young people to go into the 'Leviathon' force and that they should be easy to find because there are essentially no jobs in this country anymore.  He said that we need to recruit these 'angry young men' who while away their time playing violent video games.  There are an endless supply of them across America.

But increasingly, likely due to endless war and stories about PTSD, young people are figuring out that the Army is not such a great job.  So the Army has a plan.  Lower the enlistment age to 16 years old. They are now floating trial balloons to see how the public and Congress respond.

The Washington Times reports:

The best way to fix the U.S. armed forces’ recruiting challenges may involve dipping further into the nation’s high schools.

As the Army, Navy and other services contend with a thriving economy and a directive to expand their ranks, there is a growing debate over whether the military should consider lowering the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 16. More than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, already have adopted the policy.

“For one, many of the factors that disqualify older youths from joining — like criminal records — are not as present in younger teens,” said Shane McCarthy, chief marketing officer of Sandboxx, a leading technology platform that connects military members stationed abroad with families and friends at home. Mr. McCarthy also has advised military commands on how to better target recruits.

Since first hearing Barnett's presentation it has become clear to me that his 'strategy' has increasingly been adopted by the US military and related civilian contractors.

In the end Barnett himself, and his neo-colonial program, are filled with arrogance and American exceptionalism.  It's all about global domination on behalf of corporate capitalism.  Barnett likes to claim that 'The world is my playground'.

Now it appears in order to pull this whole plan off they need to have more of our younger kids.  It's a sign of failure and imperial decline.  Don't let them get away with it.

Bruce

Call it what it is - offense

Call it what it is

It's not about defense
it's offense
full spectrum dominance
first-strike
decapitation

don't call it defense!

It's the war department
not the defense department

No one is attacking us
except for these
young
angry white men
armed with assault weapons.
Domestic terrorists

Who sends them our way?
In whose interest
is it to create
a civil war in America?

What are the oligarchs,
across the US,
not wanting us
to know,
as we duck
under the neo-Nazi
shit storm?

It smells like
Ukraine to me
where the oligarchs
get citizen
to kill citizen
and turn the country
into a failed state
as it is hollowed out
by the rich,
and for the rich

Same, same
here in the USA
same agenda
same strategy,
modus operandi,
every criminal has one
a way of repeating
their psychopathic
behavior

We should put
the FBI
onto the case
except
they now work
for the oligarchs

Bruce

Time for cleansing & healing

This man says it all - short and sweet.  Watch the face of the show's host.

Eddie Glaude, the chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, speaks to American culture, racism in 2019 and how President Trump is the "manifestation of the ugliness that's inside us."

Report directly from Donbass

Maine filmmaker Regis Tremblay is now in Donbass (near the Russian border) and has filed this report.

The interview is with Finnish journalist, Janus Putkonen, who has been living in Lugansk for several years. Janus reveals many unbelievable FACTS about the civil war in Ukraine. This video was recorded on August 7, 2019 as we toured the bombed out and destroyed parts of Lugansk. This short video will be part of a feature documentary on the civil war between Kiev and the people of the Donbass region.

Summer fun in Maine....

Peace Fair

The crowd above gathered in Brunswick, Maine last Saturday for the final Peace Fair which has been held for 15 straight years on the town green.  Christine DeTroy, who initiated the fair and has done much of the leg work over these years, is now 91 years old and has reached her limit.  No one seems yet willing to keep the tradition going. It's been a good run.

The keynote speaker on Saturday was Maine artist Robert Shetterly who has painted the portrait series called Americans Who Tell the Truth.  He's done more than 235 portraits and spends alot of time on the road showing them and telling stories about the people he has painted.

I facilitated a workshop under a shade tree about the links between the military and climate change and met some new folks in the process.  There is expanding interest around Maine in the subject.

Hiroshima Day

On Tuesday at 7:00 am 21 of us met in front of the administration building at Bath Iron Works (BIW) for a two-hour vigil remembering the US bombing of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.  We concluded the event by taking turns reading parts of a long poem written by Thomas Merton called the Original Child Bomb.  As we read the moving story of the warped US decision to produce and drop the atomic bombs, two BIW security stood silently just a few yards away.  I turned up the sound on our portable amplifier to max level to ensure they could hear Merton's words.

Afterwords most of us went together to a local eatery for a late breakfast.  We've become like a family after all these years of working together in Maine - particularly with the regular protests at BIW. Quite a few of those attending the vigil came from a long distance - two of them making a three-hour drive from the north to be with us.

Court Arraignment

It was fitting that on Hiroshima day 13 folks from our last arrest at BIW (twenty-two were arrested on June 22 for blocking the highway during a 'christening' of another destroyer at the shipyard) had to appear in West Bath District Court for their arraignment.  Nine of us had already been arraigned after spending the weekend in county jail because we refused to pay the bail commissioner fee after our arrest.  We learned that the state reduced the misdemeanor charges to a 'traffic citation' for the 13.  They now face a $150 fine which no one wants to pay.

The nine of us previously arraigned at the jail in June have to appear for our Disposition hearing at the court on September 4.  Not certain what our next steps will be after that.

Staying faithful & determined

In the midst of a United States that is coming apart at the seams (almost daily terrorist shootings of innocent people by white nationalist men; worsening climate change; growing global poverty as corporate capitalism extracts and hoards wealth; Washington's wars all around the world; sanctions increasingly squeezing China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela; plus announcements of US withdrawal from arms control treaties and production of new deadly weapons systems) we here in Maine are doing our best to stay active and public.  Like so many of our friends in similar places around the world - we want to show a frightened, discouraged, depressed, and resigned public that there are those who still care and are doing all they can to stand up against the insanity of our corporate run government.

We'd all like to be successful and show good results from our activism.  But I don't worry so much about 's-u-c-c-e-s-s' anymore.  I keep rolling because I must.  I continue to protest because I could not live with myself if I wasn't doing all I could do to protect the future generations.  Yes, results are great - but I figure you have to put the gears of outrage into motion first if you ever hope to make an impact.

I'll leave the rest to history - so to speak....

Bruce