Baseball over for the O's

My favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, saw their season end yesterday by losing to the Boston Red Sox in a wild game.  The catch in the video above came in the 8th inning with the score tied.  Right-fielder Stevie Wilkerson saved them in that moment but the next inning the Red Sox won the game.

The Orioles had the 2nd worst record in all of major league baseball this year.  Last year they were the worst team.  But this year's team had many new young players who actually made it an interesting season for me.  Wilkerson was one of those.

On Saturday Mary Beth and I went to watch the Red Sox and Orioles game at historic Fenway Park in Boston thanks to her lifelong friend Marian.  We had a great time and the O's actually won that game by a score of 9-4.  I had on my O's hat and was surrounded by the faithful 'Red Sox nation' as they call themselves.

I don't like the corporate domination of sports but love baseball.  It is one of my few diversions from the constant madness of my country and much of the world.

So as they say in baseball - "Just wait til next year!"

Bruce 

'Let us in America reject enemy making'

Citizen diplomats, traveling with The Center for Citizen Initiatives to Russia in September, 2019, discovered that Russia is not our enemy.

Their experiences are documented in several videos which can be found on CCI's Youtube channel.

Decent story by ABC news on Biden controversy

More than once, after Joe Biden engaged in diplomacy on behalf of the United States, his son, Hunter Biden, conducted business in the same country (Ukraine & China).

This story just might indicate that the corporate oligarchs have decided to set Biden adrift.....after all the mainstream media don't usually do stories like this unless they have been told to do so by the 'owners'.

Will be interesting to watch what comes next.

We know that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) met with Hillary Clinton recently.  One can speculate on that meeting.

Sunday song

  

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
The Fates of Illustrious Men

Nature has hidden gold in the most secret depths of the earth, as it is dangerous to the human species. But Avarice, the prospector, searches voraciously and brings it to light. Avarice taught us to dig out the mountains, tunnel the bowels of the earth, and even to invade the depths of the sea with fish hooks. First, Avarice leveled the height of the mountains and cut down the woods to make roads. Then he showed us how to occupy foreign shores, to sign false contracts, to deceive wild beasts, to put serpents to sleep, to spread discord, to lie. He armed mankind in violence, invented poisons and treacheries. By all these methods and others as well, he gathered this glittering peril for some men in vast quantities.

Numbers don't lie....

Se the most recent study on this subject by Brown University in Rhode Island here.

Science is on side of argument that Pentagon is the major climate change polluter

Joe Jamison of the U.S. Peace Council explains that the Pentagon is one of the world's worst polluters.

They are all corrupt oligarchs - don't support any of them!

It's like a staged boxing match - a Hollywood script - a Madison Avenue public relations campaign to distract the public from our real problems.  All the air is being sucked out of the public discourse when it comes to our big concerns.

It's a public spectacle - political entertainment - bread and circus.  The corporations are feeding on us.

Have you noticed that the mainstream media, which is so concerned in this moment about 'the rule of law' and need for impeachment, never cared for a single moment about the following:

• George H. W. Bush's Persian Gulf war (1991-92). According to the BBC, between 60,000 and 200,000 Iraqi soldiers are thought to have been killed. Civilian deaths resulting from the war are estimated at well over 200,000. Massive environmental degradation resulted.  US troop causalities were 73,000 dead - most US soldiers who took part in the invasion of Iraq were exposed to, any many died from, uranium poisoning, which can take decades to kill. No impeachment charges were filed against Bush.  Add to that Bush's 1989 'Operation Just Cause' attack on Panama that killed several thousand innocent people. How many people died in Panama for certain?  This question may never be answered because the US military undertook elaborate efforts to bulldoze the dead into mass graves.
• Bill Clinton's illegal attack and break-up of Yugoslavia in 1999. The US sought to destabilize and dismember Yugoslavia in order to privatize its state-run industries and financial sector and dismantle its social service programs, thereby transferring Yugoslavia's wealth to transnational corporations. The U.S. dropped cluster bombs on Yugoslavia and exposed millions of people to depleted uranium. As many as 576,000 Iraqi children died during the Clinton imposed economic sanctions. This was the program in which Clinton's UN ambassador (and later Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright, when asked about these numbers, coldly stated, "The price is worth it."
• Crimes against humanity during the Bush-Cheney illegal 2003 'shock and awe' attack on Iraq and torture program. There were up to 1.3 million Iraqi deaths in this war as of 2009 and the war cost American taxpayers more than $3 trillion. The environmental damage was monumental.  U.N. estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis. Over 5,000 US troops were killed in Iraq with legions more committing suicide upon return home.
• Crimes against humanity during the Obama-Biden illegal take down of Libya, drone kill program, and illegal US orchestrated coup d'etat in Ukraine.  There were ten times more drone air strikes during Obama’s presidency than under George W. Bush.  A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. More than 800 civilians were killed in those countries.
• Trump has escalated the drone war even more than Obama. Researchers have documented the rise of “frequent killing of entire families in likely coalition airstrikes” under the Trump Administration. 

So obviously there are millions of legitimate reasons to have impeached both Republicans and Democrats over illegal and immoral wars in recent years.  But the mainstream media nor Congress has ever for one minute contemplated such legal action against these monsters.  Why not?

It's because the US ruling oligarchic families (from Boston, New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, etc) agree on Washington's military and economic empire.  So that leaves just one area for them to fight over. They play tit-for-tat over each other's corruption as we now see with the Trump-Biden-Ukraine story.

The lesson (bottom line) here is that both parties are loaded with corrupt corporate oligarchs.  They do agree on some fundamental issues:

• Endless war for control of global resources
• They agree on preventing 'Medicare for all'
• They agree on a new arms race in space and the resulting corporate profits
• They agree on surrounding, disrupting and trying to force regime change in nations that do not surrender to western control (China, Russia, Cuba, Syria, Iran, Venezuela.....)
• They agree on an expanding steroidal NATO - turning it into a global war machine
• And much more.... 

Thus today we witness an all-consuming Mafia-style war for power and control among the oligarchies on a very restricted terrain as they vie for lucrative national and international money available to which ever oligarchic families and networks are in charge in Washington.

The American people should not fall for this fake war going on in our nation's capitol.  We should not support any of these corrupt politicians, their political parties or their corporate media mouth pieces.

Bruce

Links between US Army & Ukraine's Nazis

A far-right US soldier arrested by the FBI for plotting domestic bomb attacks sought to join Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which was directly armed and advised by the American government

By Ben Norton

A far-right soldier in the United States Army has been arrested by the FBI for plotting bomb attacks targeting American media outlets and Democratic politicians.

While serving in the US military, this right-wing extremist gave fascist militants in Ukraine and other countries information on how to build bombs, including what he called “cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans.”

The FBI said he had also planned to travel to Ukraine in order to join the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia that has for years been directly supported by the US government.

In its court filing, the FBI described the Azov Battalion as a “violent far-right paramilitary group.” Yet it failed to disclose that this fascist militia has been armed and advised by American military officials in order to turn up the heat on Russia.

Publicly available photos show US military advisers directly meeting with the Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia — but the complete lack of critical coverage from a compliant mainstream media has ensured that few Americans know about their government’s double game with fascists.

The shocking arrest of the US soldier is the latest example in a long list of cases of what intelligence agencies refer to as “blowback,” when US government support for extremist foreign proxies fuels violent terrorism back at home.

US Army soldier teaching far-right extremists how to make bombs

The FBI filed a criminal complaint in Kansas district court on Monday, September 23, revealing that it had arrested US Army infantry soldier Jarrett William Smith for the alleged crime of “Distributing Information Relating to Explosives, Destructive Devices, and Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

In online messages with an FBI informant, Smith discussed carrying out terrorist attacks inside the US, and said he was looking for fellow far-right “radicals.” He also talked about killing members of Antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist group.

According to the filing, Smith had since at least 2016 been in regular communication with Craig Lang, an American far-right extremist who traveled to Ukraine to fight with the neo-fascist militia the Right Sector.

Smith had initially hoped that Lang could help screen him and get him approval to join Ukraine’s radical right.

Smith told Lang in June 2016, before he enlisted in the US Army, “No former military experience, but if I cannot find a slot in Ukraine by October I’ll be going into the Army… To fight is what I want to do.”

Apparently unable to find an opportunity in Ukraine, Smith joined the US Army in June 2017.

While in the US military, Smith repeatedly shared tips and tricks with Lang and other right-wing extremists in social media chats on how to build bombs.

In a Facebook group with Lang and others in December 2018, Smith boasted of his ability to create improvised explosive devices (IEDs), writing, “I got knowledge of IEDs for days. We can make cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans. I can teach you that.”

Arrested for trying to fight with US-backed Ukrainian Nazis

Following the arrest of Jarrett William Smith, CBS reported that the US Army soldiers had discussed “traveling to Ukraine to fight with a violent far-right group.” Like other corporate media outlets, CBS offered nothing more than a perfunctory account that failed to identify the specific extremist Ukrainian militia.

In its criminal complaint, however, the FBI wrote that Smith had “spoken about his desire to travel to Ukraine to fight with the Ukraine-based violent far-right paramilitary group, Azov Battalion.”

What the FBI did not mention is that the US government has for years supported the Azov Battalion as a proxy against Russia and its regional allies.

Since a US-backed 2014 coup overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected government and installed a viciously anti-Russian and pro-NATO right-wing government, Kiev has been battling pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

Neo-fascist Ukrainian groups like Right Sector and Svoboda played a major role in this Western-backed regime change operation. In the violence following the putsch, these forces cohered into neo-Nazi militias like the Azov Battalion and C14 (named after the white supremacist “14 words” slogan).

In 2014, the Azov Battalion was directly incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard, merging the explicitly fascist militia with the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior and military.

The United States strongly backs Ukraine and has given it significant military support. Many of the weapons provided by Washington have ended up in the hands of avowed neo-Nazis.

The Grayzone has repeatedly reported on the US government’s support for these neo-Nazis forces, including both Azov and C14.

In 2018, The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal reported on a meeting between US military advisers and the Azov Battalion.

The fascist Ukrainian militia had published photos on its website in November 2017 showing uniformed American and Canadian military officers shaking hands with an Azov officer, who was wearing a patch of the Nazi-inspired symbol the Wolfsangel.

In July 2018, Ukraine’s embassy in Israel attacked Blumenthal and The Grayzone for reporting factually on how the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion was also using Israeli weapons in the field.

The latest example of blowback

In its report on the arrest of the extremist US Army soldier, Jarrett William Smith, the legal news website Law & Crime described the Azov Battalion as a “violent far-right terrorist group.”

It failed to mention that the US government has directly supported this violent far-right terrorist group, however.

Shockingly, Smith is far from the first far-right American extremist to have plotted violent attacks with US-backed Ukrainian fascists.

In November, The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal reported on an FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the violent neo-fascist Rise Above Movement (RAM), who had trained with Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.

The FBI said in its indictment that Azov “is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”

This is reminiscent of blowback from American support for far-right extremist Islamist groups in the Middle East and Latin America who subsequently carried out acts of terrorism inside the US.

While few corporate media outlets have been willing to acknowledge US support for neo-Nazi groups like Azov, the growing danger of blowback has propelled a burst of critical reporting about the militias.

Back in 2014, Vice Media promoted the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, whitewashing and even directly embedding with them while they were fighting pro-Russian separatists.

But five years later, Vice has suddenly done a volte-face. This July, the news outlet published an article warning that battle-hardened far-right extremists who trained in Ukraine were returning home to the US and Europe, with violence on their minds.

[You can sign a petition opposing US-Canada arms sales to Ukraine. Anyone from any country can sign here.]

~ Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant editor of The Grayzone, and the producer of the Moderate Rebels podcast, which he co-hosts with editor Max Blumenthal. He tweets at @BenjaminNorton.    https://bennorton.com

Biden-Ukraine saga continued

More on the Biden-Ukraine-Trump story from guys who know the Ukraine issue as well as anyone.

Both are of Greek heritage - Alex Christoforou (Athens) and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris (London) discuss the latest updates in the Biden-Ukraine-China scandal that is blowing up in the face of the Democrat party primary front runner.

Award winning space documentary

This film, created by French-Canadian Denis Delestrac, was funded by Canadian and European public TV.  It aired on public television in Canada and in Europe and played in movie theaters around the world including across Latin America.

But because of the subject matter Delestrac was never able to secure a distribution deal in the United States.  Thus, except for our meager efforts to promote it in the US, the film was not seen in the nation where it was most needed to be watched.

Please help us share it on social media, especially during the upcoming Keep Space for Peace Week (October 5-12).

The film features several members of the Global Network.

How are U.S. bases worldwide linked to war fighting satellites?

Listen to "Saying NO to the militarization of space" on Spreaker.

Loud & Clear continues our weekly segment dealing with the ongoing militarization of space.

As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe?

Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, author of six books and the host of a nationally-aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and by Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Power in Space

What is this Biden-Ukraine-Trump controversy about?

By ZeroHedge

For days we've been treated to Mainstream media (MSM) insinuations that President Trump may have betrayed the United States after a whistleblower lodged an 'urgent' complaint about something Trump promised another world leader - the details of which the White House has refused to share.

Then, we learned it was a phone call.
Then, we learned it was several phone calls.
Now, we learn it wasn't Russia or North Korea - it was Ukraine!

Here's the scandal; It appears that Trump, may have made promises to newly minted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - very likely involving an effort to convince Ukraine to reopen its investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, after Biden strong armed Ukraine's prior government into firing its top prosecutor - something Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pursued for months. There are also unsupported rumors that Trump threatened to withhold $250 million in aid to help Ukraine fight [self-defense forces in eastern Ukraine].

Moreover, here's why Trump and Giuliani are going to dig their heels in; last year Biden openly bragged about threatening to hurl Ukraine into bankruptcy as Vice President if they didn't fire their top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin - who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into a natural gas firm whose board Hunter Biden sat on. [Following the US orchestrated 2014 coup in Ukraine V-P Biden got his son appointed to a Ukrainian fossil fuel company board of directors.]

In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. [See video above]

"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’" bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.

"Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time," Biden said at the Council on Foreign Relations event - while insisting that former president Obama was complicit in the threat.

In short, there's both smoke and fire here - and what's left of Biden's 2020 bid for president may be the largest casualty of the entire whistleblower scandal.

Trump can simply say he was protecting America from someone who may have used his position of power to directly benefit his own family at the expense of justice.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are acting as if they've found the holy grail of taking Trump down. On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) interviewed inspector general Michael Atkinson, with whom the whistleblower lodged their complaint - however despite three hours of testimony, he repeatedly declined to discuss the content of the complaint.

Following the session, Schiff gave an angry speech - demanding that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire share the complaint, and calling the decision to withhold it "unprecedented."

"We cannot get an answer to the question about whether the White House is also involved in preventing this information from coming to Congress," said Schiff, adding "We’re determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is to make sure that the national security is protected."

[It's interesting that suddenly the Democrats love 'whistle blowers' - would be nice to see them share some of that love for Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.]

And so - what the MSM doesn't appear to understand is that President Trump is asking Ukraine to investigate Biden over something with legitimate underpinnings.

Which - of course, may lead to the Bidens' adventures in China, which Giuliani referred to in his CNN interview. And just like his Ukraine scandal, it involves actions which may have helped his son Hunter - who was making [money] hand over fist in both countries.

Journalist Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash and now Secret Empires discovered that in 2013, then Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two and two weeks later, Hunter's firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government's Bank of China, which expanded to $1.5 billion.

Climate striking in Portland

A group of us peaceniks attended the Student Climate Strike in Portland, Maine last Friday.  Several of us arrived early and held signs and banners across the street from City Hall where the event was held.  The newspaper reported that about 2,000 people turned out for the spirited event.

It was quite moving to see various schools (Middle, High school and college students) march down the street to city hall - they each got a rousing applause as they approached.

Several of us handed out over 350 of your Conversion of Bath Iron Works flyers as part of our statewide campaign to expand public consciousness about the Pentagon's contribution to climate change.

Here are a few more photos of some of us as we vigil across from city hall before the big show began.  (Photos by Peter Woodruff - click on the photos for a better view.)

Lisa Savage (right) with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter

Jason Rawn (left) and Mark Roman

Peter Morgan (right) and I talking with a man who told us he already got our flyer from a neighbor.  Nice to know they are getting around so well. 

Sunday song

UFOs confirmed by Navy

The US Navy has confirmed the UFO footage caught on tape by US military members is authentic. These leaked unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings show the flying objects skyrocketing through air space used for Naval training in 2004 and 2015.

Two of these US military UFOs videos were published by the New York Times and Blink 182 member Tom Delonge's research org in 2017. Delong has long been interested in aliens and UFO video.

Victims of colonialism, racism & climate crisis

WANTOKS - Dance of Resilience in Melanesia (Official Trailer) from Cultures of Resistance Films on Vimeo.

More about WANTOKS:

In 2018, the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, hosted the Melanesian Arts & Cultural Festival, celebrating the country’s fortieth anniversary of independence. On neighboring island states, the struggle for freedom continues, as West Papua resists Indonesian occupation and the residents of New Caledonia still live under French rule.

In all Melanesian countries, residents face the common challenge of climate change, as rising sea levels threaten to swallow both land and tradition. In this charged context, captivating performers are using their talents to celebrate local culture and draw international attention to their islands’ plight, with the hope of spurring international solidarity and prompting collective action against the perils of a warming world.

Featuring striking footage from the South Pacific islands, WANTOKS: Dance of Resilience in Melanesia, profiles the artists and activists who are fighting for self-determination while trying to defend their homes against the rising sea.

 Yours,

 iara lee and the whole team
 Cultures Of Resistance Network - Founder 

Fossil fuel boom in America killing the future

The new film follows the U.S. oil supply chain, covering health, climate and environmental justice impacts.

And it points to the president who was central to creating the current reality: Barack Obama.

U.S. empire biggest threat to Mother Earth

Former US military veterans Ken Mayers (82) & Tarak Kauff (77) take a couple of hours out from their three-week walk from Shannon to Malin Head in Ireland to talk about their Shannon Airport St. Patrick's Day peace action.

Eddie Mitchell of Love Leitrim talks about the urgent need to oppose the import of US fracked gas to the Shannon Estuary.

Melting Arctic ice - dangerous American mess below!!!

The melting of Greenland’s ice cap is set to expose Camp Century, a US military base that hid a top-secret project along with its nuclear and other toxic waste. It was meant to be buried forever – entombed in ice.

But the rising temperatures mean that the cold war camp and its hazardous remains could be exposed within decades. Our Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson reports from western Greenland.

The story behind Yemen's attack on Saudi oil fields

The attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities.

How was it possible that Yemen could hit Saudi oil fields with slow lumbering drones while 'mighty' US Patriot missile defense systems failed to work?

This video shares the story - something we can't find in the US media - at least up to this point.

Could it be because the Neo-cons that run Washington want to keep saying that Iran did it - using this event as justification for a full-scale war and regime change in Tehran?

A very good article on the same subject can be found here

Julian Assange's first hack was the Galileo plutonium launch in 1989

I've posted this previously on this blog but with Keep Space for Peace Week coming soon, and Julian Assange wasting away in a British prison, I thought it a good time to re-post.  Bruce


The leaflet above was advertising a protest I organized at the space center in Florida in 1989. This was during the period from 1987-1997 where we held one large protest after the other against the nuclearization and weaponization of space. Sometimes there were 500 people there, frequently about 1,000 came, and our biggest ever was more than 5,000.

In 2011 my son Julian [a debate coach], who grew up attending these events during his childhood, sent me an email with a link to a book written by Suelette Dreyfus with Research by Julian Assange that was published in 1997. The book was called Underground: Front Page. You can find the book here

Julian told me, "Dad, one of the debate topics for the Harvard tournament is about WikiLeaks and I've been doing a lot of research on Julian Assange. Here's a link to a book he worked on...read the first chapter!!!"

So I dutifully clicked on the link.

Much to my surprise I found that the authors began their book with an account of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice's 1989 campaign to oppose NASA's launch of the Galileo plutonium-238 space probe that garnered international media coverage. This was the first of three major nukes in space campaigns that I led (the others Ulysses in 1990 and Cassini in 1997).

The authors wrote:

For weeks, the protesters had been out in force, demonstrating and seizing media attention. Things had become very heated. On Saturday, 7 October, sign-wielding activists fitted themselves out with gas masks and walked around on street corners in nearby Cape Canaveral in protest. At 8 a.m. on Monday, 9 October, NASA started the countdown for the Thursday blast-off. But as Atlantis's clock began ticking toward take-off, activists from the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice demonstrated at the centre's tourist complex.

That these protests had already taken some of the shine off NASA's bold space mission was the least of the agency's worries. The real headache was that the Florida Coalition told the media it would `put people on the launchpad in a non-violent protest'. The coalition's director, Bruce Gagnon, put the threat in folksy terms, portraying the protesters as the little people rebelling against a big bad government agency. President Jeremy Rivkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends, another protest group, also drove a wedge between `the people' and `NASA's people'. He told UPI, `The astronauts volunteered for this mission. Those around the world who may be the victims of radiation contamination have not volunteered.'

I'll always remember the 1989 launch of Galileo because it was delayed over and over again for about a week. The international media was gathered at the Kennedy Space Center tourist area with nothing much to do so each day during that week we'd assemble as many activists as we could get and hold another vigil and news conference which helped us tremendously get the word out around the world about the deadly plutonium space launch.

In chapter 1 of this book is a whole section about a computer worm that got planted inside of NASA's computers during this very time. Was the Galileo delay due to a hacker trying to help us stop that launch? Was a hacker also trying to symbolically "sit on the launch pad"? We've got to learn more about this story. I've already pointed it out to journalist Karl Grossman who helped us break the Galileo story open in 1989.

It just goes to show that you never know who is paying attention to your efforts. Who could have known that Julian Assange, who has become such a big name due to his courageous work with Wiki Leaks, would be moved enough by our campaign to feature it in the first chapter of his book? Maybe it was because it was a classic story about out-of-control technology and the "little peoples" reaction. Any way you cut it one has to acknowledge that it has a nice twist.

One side story should be told here as well. My son Julian was nine years old in 1989 and one day I came home and he had my gas mask on. In his most serious voice he told me, "Don't worry Dad, if Galileo blows up I could wear this gas mask for the rest of my life." He was trying to make me feel better. His words cut right to my heart and my soul and virtually every day since that time I have stayed true to the cause because I believe that no child, my own or anyone else's, should ever have to think of living in a radioactive wasteland wearing a gas mask for their whole life.

Bruce

P.S.

    More detail showing how involved Assange was during our 1989 campaign in Florida to stop the plutonium launch of Galileo space mission can be found here:

    Clip:

    "JULIAN Assange has told the story of his childhood and adolescence twice - most recently to a journalist from The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian, and some 15 years ago, secretly but in greater detail, to Suelette Dreyfus, the author of a fascinating book on the first generation of computer hacking, Underground, for which Assange was the primary researcher ...

    ... Nothing about Assange has ever been straightforward. One of the main characters in Underground is the Melbourne hacker Mendax. Although there is no way readers at that time could have known it, Mendax is Julian Assange.

    IN the late 1980s, Assange joined the underground subculture of hacking that was forming in Melbourne. By October 1989 an attack was mounted from Australia on America's NASA computer system via the introduction of what was called the WANK worm, in an attempt to sabotage the Jupiter launch of the Galileo rocket as part of an action of anti-nuclear activists.

    In an article he later published in the left-wing magazine CounterPunch, Assange would claim the WANK worm attack was "the origin of hacktivism"... 

Evidence: U.S. buys weapons for ISIS in Syria

WAR with Evgeny Poddubny.

This is War, a show about how current conflicts are made, about wars that have ended, are in progress now, or will start soon.

In this show it is revealed that the American government buys weaponry in Eastern European countries and hands them over to terrorist groups in Syria and Yemen.

Earlier, experts supposed this was happening. Now, they have evidence.

Can we acknowledge that the US government is run by a criminal corporate syndicate?

Americans like 'political entertainment'

Here it is.....sit back and enjoy the show.

What if Iran had bases on U.S. borders?

Who is the aggressor nation?  What is the agenda?

Who is running this Hollywood script?

Who is making the $$$$$?

Excellent insider interview on U.S. foreign policy

Lawrence Wilkerson, who served alongside John Bolton in the Bush administration, discusses the reasons for Bolton’s firing; Bolton's legacy as a war hawk who promoted regime change and undermined global arms control; the anti-interventionist views of a potential successor, Douglas Macgregor; and the lasting influence of neocons inside the national security state.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson was the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Currently a distinguished professor at the College of William and Mary.

Invitation to International meeting on Ukraine issues via Skype

Dear Friends and Colleagues!

We, the "Red square / Molotov Club" of international political and economical experts, gladly announces the Skype conference on subject of “Western Colonization of Ukraine: GMO’s, NATO weapons, and expanding conflict with Russia”.

The event is going to be held as an open talk conference international wide with use of Skype communication tool.

The date of the event: September 25.

The beginning of the Skype debate starts in 17.00 (05.00 PM) of Central European Time (CET), which is 11.00 A.M. in New York (USA).

The end of the event is in 20.00 (08.00 PM) of Central European Time (CET), which is 2.00 P.M. in New York (USA).

The proposed subjects for debate is:

• Ukrainian food export to European Union (including GMO’s produced in Ukraine);
• Ecological security in food export & Ukraine situation;
• US/NATO expansion including into space;
• Climate change;
• Growing Russia-China relationships

We gladly invite our Friends and Colleagues for participation in this talks on such important issues of today's World!

The invited organizations-participants:

• Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (USA, UK, EU, etc)
• Euro-Rus, (Belgium, EU)
• Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine (Ukraine)

We also ask for every possible participant to send to our organizing unit Your short representation (in one or two sentences) and Your Skype address to our email: mitya.dezhnev@mail.ru  

The contact information of our organizing unit:

+7 901 764 11 87 (for telephone, whatsapp and viber calls and messages)

We are waiting for Your responses with anticipation! And we looking forward to see You in our circle of communication!

Please RSVP to Leonid Ilderkin at mitya.dezhnev@mail.ru  

Got my banner for space week!

Our dear friend Ken Jones, formerly residing and teaching college in Portland, Maine, is now living just outside of Asheville, North Carolina.  He sent this photo with the words - "Got my banner!"

He is planning to work the streets of Asheville during Keep Space for Peace Week in early October.  Ken has signed up for the following:

·       Asheville, North Carolina (Oct 5-12) Each day during the week, members of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace will vigil and conduct a walkabout downtown for an hour carrying the No to NATO banner and passing out flyers. 

Ken came to Maine last June and was arrested with us at the 'christening' protest of another Aegis destroyer at Bath Iron Works when 22 of us were taken into custody for blocking buses and vans when General Dynamics/BIW were ferrying people into the ceremony to give 'the blessing of Jesus' to another killing warship.  Out of those arrested that day nine of us chose not to pay the $60 bail commissioner fee so we spent two nights in the county jail.  Ken was my cellmate.  

The banner Ken is holding was created by Global Network board member Will Griffin.  During space week a similar one will be held in Toronto outside the NATO Association of Canada office by fellow Global Network board member Tamara Lorincz.  

Will, Ken and I went to Jeju Island, South Korea a few years back to join the annual Grand March for Life & Peace around the island organized by the people from Gangjeong village where the U.S. forced the construction of a Navy base in the 500-year old fishing and farming village that has negatively up-ended life in that small community.  It was a hot August journey around the beautiful island and one of the best experiences I can ever recall, walking with hundreds of Korean men, women and tireless children for peace.

Ken and I have many things in common.  He comes from Baltimore, Maryland and I was born near there.  We were both catchers in our years playing organized baseball.  We first met at a protest in Portland many years ago and noticed that we both had made identical protest signs - same words - which I sadly can't now recall what they were.  We are both cherished friends of the Nipponzan Buddhist Monk Utsumi and Nun Denise who are building a peace pagoda in the Smokey Mountains.  Ken is a frequent volunteer in that wondrous project.

We were born to be brothers in the struggle for certain.

Thank you and keep on steppin' dear friend Ken.

Bruce     

Jesus & Capitol Hill don't mix....

Meet The Fellowship, the secret organization at the center of Netflix’s five-part docu-series “The Family,” a project that was made “with unprecedented participation from members of the organization,” which examines the “sophisticated, successful tactics its affiliates use to influence policy-making around the globe.”

In the trailer you’ll see experts and organization members discuss The Fellowship’s “involvement in widespread political scandals, the notorious C Street house and investigate how the immensely private organization works with the current administration.”

Here’s the official description for “The Family,” courtesy of Netflix:

Every February, on the first Thursday, at the same hotel, dignitaries and guests from 100 countries gather in America’s capital for a blessing. While more than 3,000 people attend the National Prayer Breakfast — including every U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower — the host organization has long shrouded itself in secrecy. Technically, it’s called The Fellowship, but former “brother” members like New York Times bestselling author Jeff Sharlet know the group as The Family.

As he learned firsthand and documented in The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, The Family believes the separation of church and state is unnecessary, and political affiliation is irrelevant. The Family grooms and supports leaders, teaching them that the Bible is a story about power, not mercy – that leaders are chosen by God, not elected.

The docu-series is directed by Jesse Moss and executive produced by Alex Gibney.

Biden stumbles once again

Joe Biden goes off-topic when asked about what would he do to address slavery in the past with a rambling, stuttering reply about showing poor people how to raise their children.

It's clear as hell to me that this recent debate performance in Houston indicates that Biden's day in the sun has passed him by.  But sadly the DNC (Democratic National Committee), which is still run by the Clinton political corporate syndicate, has been insisting that Biden be the next presidential nominee for their party.

Why?  Because the corporations are comfortable that they control Biden even if he has trouble finishing a thought.

During the last election campaign the 'super delegates' were given the power to override the popular will of the party which favored Bernie Sanders.  Much complaint and criticism ensued.  So the party decided that in 2020 the super delegates would not be involved in the first round of voting at the Democratic party convention.

But with so many candidates running in the Democratic party primaries it is highly likely that in the first round at the convention no one candidate will gain enough votes to get the nomination.  That means the convention will go to a second and possibly third round and in that case the corporate-owned super delegates will be back in play.

This means the Democrats are still likely to choose an eventual candidate for 2020 that will be either Biden or someone else who is absolutely in the bulging pockets of the corporate elites (Corry Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke or even Elizabeth Warren who is owned by the Raytheon Corporation in Massachusetts).

There is no room in the Democratic party for real progressive ideas and policies.  The party bosses will cheat and pull any necessary shenanigans to ensure they cut the heart out of progressive forces leaving them just like in 2016 - support the corporate candidate Hillary Clinton or leave the party.

Bruce