Prevent a new arms race into space

 

The Global Network's latest Space Alert! show with Journalism Professor Karl Grossman and long-time peace activist Alice Slater. 

 

They both live in New York and each serve on the boards of the Global Network.

 

They discuss PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Space in Outer Space) and the long-history of the US blocking Russia and China's attempt to create a new treaty at the United Nations to ban all weapons in space.

 

Also discussed is the current drive by the nuclear industry to move their toxic product into space to power mining colonies on the planetary bodies, to power rockets to Mars and to provide power for space weapons.  

Economics lesson: The U.S. slide into collapse

 

 

This is a well made video that explains hard economic topics in a simple and clear way.

US arrogance has come home to haunt the nation.

Or as they say in some places, the chickens are coming home to roost.

How much longer will the US be able to keep the massively expensive military production system humming along? 

Just last week Biden's Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks came to Bath Iron Works for a tour. She was invited so Maine's so-called elected officials could stand in unity and proclaim they all support even more destroyers being built - to protect us from China and Russia. 

General Dynamics (that owns BIW) announced that if they don't get funding for two more ships in the 2021 federal budget it will need to cut its workforce by 2,500 workers.

The fall from grace is coming though - sooner rather than later. And no provisions in Bath or at the state capital in Augusta are being made to handle this inevitable economic collapse. It will rock the state of Maine hard because our state (like virtually all 50 states) is addicted to military spending.

Few choices will remain at that point. 

One big question - will Congress drain funding for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid in order to keep the war machine alive?

People better get ready, there is a train a-coming....

Bruce

Selfishness - we are colonized

 

 

The loon cries

from the lonesome lake,

here in Maine,

the haunting,

but beautiful call

of life and love.

 

But the sound of the loon is not enough for everyone.

 

Some want to bottle the water the loon lives on.

 

Others want the land around the lake,

for their 'cottages'

which turn into 3-story mansions.

 

Something must be done 

with all that $$$,

gained by 

misbegotten deeds.

Corporate thievery.

 

We are colonized people,

watching the corporate approved news

on our flat-screen TV's.

 

Trees must be chopped down 

and minerals dug,

toxic runoff

kills the fish

and the loon.

 

Humanoids

are not immune either,

as they like to imagine.

Always must have more,

never satisfied,

never content,

always more,

the Moon and the night sky too...

 

Bruce 

 

Cracking down on public debate - democracy still alive in America?

 

Krystal and Saagar discuss a major story detailing the Biden administration's next vehicle for censorship. 

No New Fighter Jets for Canada

 

Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

As wildfires blaze in western Canada amidst record breaking heat waves, the Liberal government is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars on unnecessary, dangerous, climate destroying fighter jets.

The government is currently moving forward with the competition to procure 88 warplanes, which includes Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter, SAAB’s Gripen and Boeing’s Super Hornet. Despite previously promising to cancel the F-35 purchase, the Trudeau government is laying the ground to acquire the stealth fighter.

Officially the cost of buying the jets is about $19 billion. But, a report from the No New Fighter Jets Coalition suggests the full life cycle cost of the planes will be closer to $77 billion. Those resources could be used to eliminate boil water advisories on reserves, build light rail lines across the country and construct thousands of units of social housing. $77 billion could turbocharge a just transition away from fossil fuels and a just recovery from the pandemic.

Conversely, purchasing new jets will entrench fossil-fuel militarism. Fighter jets consume huge amounts of specialized fuel that emit significant greenhouse gases. Purchasing a large number of warplanes to use in coming decades is at odds with Canada’s commitment to rapidly decarbonize by 2050. With the country experiencing the highest temperatures in history, the time for climate action is now.

While exacerbating the climate crisis, fighter jets are not needed to protect our security. As a former deputy minister of national defence Charles Nixon noted, there are no credible threats requiring the acquisition of new “Gen-5” fighter jets. The expensive weapons are largely useless in responding to natural disasters, providing international humanitarian relief or in peacekeeping operations. Nor can they protect us from a pandemic or the climate and other ecological crises.

Rather, these offensive weapons are likely to generate distrust and division. Instead of resolving international conflicts through diplomacy, fighter jets are designed to destroy infrastructure and kill people. Canada's current fleet of fighter jets has bombed Libya, Iraq, Serbia and Syria. Many innocent people were killed directly or as a result of the destruction of civilian infrastructure and those operations prolonged conflicts and/or contributed to refugee crises.

The procurement of cutting-edge fighter jets is designed to enhance the Royal Canadian Air Force’s ability to join U.S. and NATO operations. Spending $77 billion on warplanes only makes sense based on a vision of Canadian foreign policy that includes fighting in future U.S. and NATO wars.

Polls show the public is decidedly ambivalent about warplanes. An October 2020 Nanos poll revealed that bombing campaigns are an unpopular use of the military and supporting NATO and ally-led missions is a low priority. The majority of Canadians said that peacekeeping and disaster relief was a priority, not preparing for war.

Instead of purchasing 88 new fighter jets, let’s use these resources for healthcare, education, housing and clean water.

At a time of health, social and climate crises, the Canadian government must prioritize a just recovery, green infrastructure and invest in Indigenous communities.

 

 

SIGNATORIES

Neil Young, Musician
David Suzuki, Geneticist and Broadcaster
Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament
Naomi Klein, Author and Activist
Stephen Lewis, Former UN ambassador
Noam Chomsky, Author & Professor
Roger Waters, co-founder Pink Floyd
Daryl Hannah, Actor
Tegan and Sara, Musicians
Sarah Harmer, Musician
Paul Manly, Member of Parliament
Joel Harden, MPP, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Marilou McPhedran, Senator
Michael Ondaatje, Author
Yann Martel, Author (Man Booker Prize-winner)
Roméo Saganash, Former Member of Parliament
Fred Hahn, President CUPE Ontario
Dave Bleakney, Vice President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Stephen von Sychowski, President, Vancouver District Labour Council
Svend Robinson, Former Member of Parliament
Libby Davies, Former Member of Parliament
Jim Manly, Former Member of Parliament
Gabor Maté, Author
Setsuko Thurlow, co-recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of ICAN and recipient of the Order of Canada
Monia Mazigh, Ph.D, author and activist
Chris Hedges, Author & Journalist
Judy Rebick, Author and Activist
Jeremy Loveday, Victoria City Councillor
Paul Jay, Executive Producer & Host of The Analysis
Ingrid Waldron, Professor & HOPE Chair in Peace & Health, Global Peace & Social Justice Program, Mcmaster University
El Jones, Department of Political and Canadian Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University
Seth Klein, Author and Team Lead of the Climate Emergency Unit
Ray Acheson, Disarmament Program Director, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Tim McCaskell, Founder AIDS Action Now!
Rinaldo Walcott, Professor, Toronto
Dimitri Lascaris, Lawyer, Journalist and Activist
Gretchen Fitzgerald, National and Atlantic Chapter Director, Sierra Club
John Greyson, video/film artist
Brent Patterson, Director, Peace Brigades International-Canada
Aaron Maté, Journalist
Amy Miller, Filmmaker
Tamara Lorincz, PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs
John Clarke, Packer Visitor in Social Justice, York University
Clayton Thomas-Muller, Senior Campaign Specialist - 350.org
Gordon Laxer, Author and Professor emeritus at University of Alberta
Rabbi David Mivasair, Independent Jewish Voices
Gail Bowen, Author & retired Associate Professor, First Nations University of Canada, Saskatchewan Order of Merit
Eva Manly, Filmmaker
Lil MacPherson, Climate change food activist, founder and co-owner the Wooden Monkey Restaurant
Radhika Desai, Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba
Justin Podur, Associate Professor, York University
Yves Engler, Author
Derrick O’Keefe, Writer & Activist
Dr. Susan O’Donnell, Researcher and Adjunct Professor, University of New Brunswick
Robert Acheson, Treasurer, Science for Peace
Miguel Figueroa, President, Canadian Peace Congress
Syed Hussan, Migrant Workers Alliance
Michael Bueckert, PhD, Vice President, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
David Walsh, Businessman
Judith Deutsch, Former President Science for Peace & Faculty Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute
Gordon Edwards, PhD, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Richard Sandbrook, President Science for Peace
Karen Rodman, Executive Director of Just Peace Advocates
Ed Lehman, President, Regina Peace Council
Richard Sanders, Founder, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
Rachel Small, Canada Organizer, World BEYOND War
Vanessa Lanteigne, National Coordinator of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Allison Pytlak, Disarmament Programme Manager, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Bianca Mugyenyi, Director, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Simon Black, Assistant Professor, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University
John Price, Professor emeritus (History), University of Victoria
David Heap, Ph.D. Associate Professor & Human Rights advocate
Máire Noonan, Linguist, Université de Montréal
Antoine Bustros, Composer
Pierre Jasmin, Les Artistes pour la Paix
Barry Weisleder, Federal Secretary, Socialist Action / Ligue pour l'Action socialiste
Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford Past Co-President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Dr. Nancy Covington, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Angela Bischoff, Greenspiration
Raul Burbano, Common Frontiers
Dr Jonathan Down, President IPPNW Canada
Dru Jay, Executive Director, CUTV
Martin Lukacs, Journalist and Author
Nik Barry Shaw, Author
Tracy Glynn, Assistant Professor, St. Thomas University
Florence Stratton, Professor Emeritus, University of Regina
Randa Farah, Associate Professor, Western University
Johanna Weststar, Associate Professor, Western University
Bernie Koenig, Author & Philosophy Professor (retired)
Alison Bodine, Chair, Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) - Vancouver
Mary Groh, Former President of Conscience Canada
Nino Pagliccia, activist and political analyst
Courtney Kirkby, Founder, Tiger Lotus Cooperative
Dr. Dwyer Sullivan, Conscience Canada
John Foster, Author, Oil and World Politics
Ken Stone, Treasurer, Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
Cory Greenlees, Victoria Peace Coalition
Maria Worton, Teacher
Tim O'Connor, High School Social Justice teacher
Glenn Michalchuk, Chair Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Matthew Legge, Peace Program Coordinator, Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
Freda Knott, Activist
Jamie Kneen, Researcher and Activist
Phyllis Creighton, Activist
Charlotte Akin, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Board Member
Murray Lumley,  No New Fighter Jets Coalition & Christian Peacemaker Teams
Lia Holla, Executive Coordinator of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada, Founder of Students for Peace & Disarmament
Dr. Brendan Martin, World Beyond War Vancouver, Activist
Anna Badillo, People for Peace, London
Tim McSorley, National Coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Dr. W. Thom Workman, Professor & Director of International Development Studies, University of New Brunswick
Dr. Erika Simpson, Associate Professor, Western University, President of Canadian Peace Research Association
Stephen D’Arcy, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Huron University College
David Webster, Associate Professor, Bishop’s University
Eric Shragge, Immigrant Workers Centre, Montreal & retired Associate Professor, Concordia University
Judy Haiven, PhD, Writer & Activist, Retired Professor, Saint Mary's University
Dr. W. G. Pearson, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Chamindra Weerawardhana, Political analyst & Author
Dr. John Guilfoyle, Former Chief Medical Officer of Health for Manitoba, MB BCh BAO BA FCFP
Dr. Lee-Anne Broadhead, Professor of Political Science, Cape Breton University
Dr. Sean Howard, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Cape Breton University
Dr. Saul Arbess, Cofounder of the Global Alliance for Ministries of Peace and the Canadian Peace Initiative
Tim K. Takaro, MD, MPH, MS. Professor, Simon Fraser University
Stephen Kimber, Author and Professor, University of King's College
Peter Rosenthal, retired lawyer and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto

US-Taiwan: West’s Last Foothold in China

 

By Brian Berletic (New Eastern Outlook)

In Washington’s ongoing and ever-growing confrontation with China, it continues to place pressure on Beijing over Taiwan.

However, as China continues along a path soon to exceed the US economically, militarily, and technologically, Taiwan’s reintegration as part of a single China is all but inevitable. Recently introduced legislation attempting to reinforce US influence over the island territory is - in the short-term - only going to ratchet up tensions further between Beijing and Washington.

While US moves are sold as “supporting Taiwan,” in reality Taiwan stands most to lose from these resulting tensions. 

In the long-term, it will likely prove a poor investment for Washington regarding its Indo-Pacific strategy.

US Investing in a Problematic Relationship with Taiwan

While many assume Taiwan is a country and that it has close ties with the United States, in reality Taiwan is not a country. Under the universally recognized “One China Policy” Taiwan is considered part of China with one single government representing “One China.” Even the US, officially, recognizes the “One China Policy.” For example, the US does not have an official embassy in Taiwan.

In practice, however, the US uses Taiwan as a foothold of Western influence within Chinese territory, much the way it and its European allies used Hong Kong until very recently.

The US carries out highly provocative arms shipments to the authorities in Taiwan and instead of an official embassy, conducts diplomatic affairs out of what it calls the “American Institute in Taiwan.”

The US government has also established a presence for other arms of US “soft-power” including the so-called “Taiwan Foundation for Democracy,”  a franchise of the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy. Through this Taiwan-based institution, the US is able to exercise political control over both Taiwan and opposition groups throughout the region who all share an un-coincidental animosity toward Beijing. 

More recently, the US has proposed a series of bills to both pressure China overall, and specifically ratchet up tensions between the two global powers over the Taiwan issue.

Reuters in its article, “Pushing against China, U.S. lawmakers plan pro-Taiwan bill,” would claim:

Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives will introduce legislation this week seeking to boost U.S. support for Taiwan, part of an effort in Congress to take a hard line in dealings with China.  

Called the “Taiwan Peace and Stability Act,” it aims to further deepen this “unofficial” relationship between Taiwan and Washington. While in official statements the US continues to recognize the “One China Policy,” unofficially this act and others like it are aimed at encouraging Taiwan’s independence movement and the souring of economic ties between Taiwan and the mainland.

US-Taiwan Strategy Fundamentally Flawed

Reuters also noted the recently introduced EAGLE Act, or the “Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act.”

While the topic of “ensuring American global leadership” is surrounded with discussion and debate over how to achieve it, the question of whether or not the US should “lead” the world remains unaddressed by policymakers in Washington.

Read the rest of this article here

Vigil at BIW continues at Navy compound gate

Dan Ellis (right from Brunswick) and Peter Morgan (from Raymond) hold the new banner answering the question 'Where do these destroyers go when the leave Bath?'

 

Ridgeley Fuller (Belfast) joined us as well

 

 

George Goodwin (Boothbay) and Bill Rixon (Freeport)

 

Bruce Gagnon from Bath

 

We had seven people (five members of Veterans For Peace) at Bath Iron Works (BIW) today during our lunch hour vigil. We've been doing these twice-a-month since May as a warm-up for the next 'christening' of a Navy Aegis destroyer. It is expected that there will be another such ceremony sometime soon. Six destroyers are currently under construction at BIW (which is owned by General Dynamics Corp).

One highlight of the day was a carload of three elderly woman stopping dead in the street right next to me and asking what we were doing. Traffic at that moment got a bit backed up and I told her we were from VFP and handed them two of our flyers. One of flyers calls for the conversion of BIW and the other spells out the massive carbon bootprint of the Pentagon that helps to exacerbate our current climate crisis. One of the women exclaimed, 'This is great!'

After each vigil we go to a local restaurant and have lunch together. A few of us had not seen each other in quite a while due to the virus lockdown.

Some of the shipyard workers, as well as the Navy personnel working at the yard, have become quite familiar to me as I stand in the same place each time and hand out flyers. A couple of them are a bit hard-hearted and unfriendly but in fact most of those passing by are quite friendly and respectful. A few actually stop and chat which is nice. I am more than convinced that our messages are seeping into their souls.

We had many more car honks today than ever before. One of the guys suggested that it was due to there being more of us vigiling than usual. It is always quite interesting to get honks just as a bunch of workers or sailors walk by. I can say with confidence they notice.

Our goal is to prepare the sailors for the protests they will see when the destroyers leave Bath and head overseas where, in the main, they are not wanted by people living in those nations. People understand that the US provocative deployments of these warships is an obvious trigger for possible war with China and/or Russia. People living in those places would be prime targets.

Thanks to Eric Herter (Brunswick) for taking the photos.

Bruce

Latest Space Alert! show

 

Our latest Space Alert! show with Journalism Professor Karl Grossman and long-time peace activist Alice Slater.

They both live in New York and each serve on the boards of the Global Network.

They discuss PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Space in Outer Space) and the history of the US blocking Russia and China's many attempts to create a new treaty at the United Nations to ban all weapons in space.

Also discussed is the current drive by the nuclear industry to move their toxic product into space to power mining colonies on the planetary bodies, power rockets to Mars and to provide power for space weapons.

If you want to see other videos on the Global Network's YouTube channel use this link here.

U.S. stealing oil & burning wheatfields in Syria

 

Syrian-girl breaks thru the fog and clearly spells out what Washington is actually doing in its illegal occupation of Syria. 

(See how social media is censoring those who are critical of US foreign policy - go ahead and make the 2nd click to watch this. It won't hurt you.)

NATO wants to close Hungary behind an Iron Curtain

Declaration of the Hungarian Peace Community
 
NATO and the European Union have launched a coordinated political attack on Hungary to end our cooperation with China and Russia. They want Hungary to terminate the agreement with Russia on the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, and with China on the construction of the Belgrade-Budapest railway line and the establishment of Fudan University in Hungary. 

The Western system of alliance, of which our country is a member, requires us to cut the threads to the East and fully submit ourselves to the will of NATO. Their attack is hidden under the guise of defending democracy. They claim that they are worried about the fate of liberties and human rights in Hungary.

No doubt there are problems with these back home! Not a little! But there can hardly be any doubt that the cause of the problems is not to be found in the building with East of relations and cooperation based on mutual benefits. 

The West fears that the Hungarian example may become catchy, and it turns out that opening up to the East will bring enormous benefits, including the protection of lives. See curbing the epidemic with oriental vaccines! 

They complain that the power does not tune the people against the Russians and the Chinese, as do the Poles, Czechs, Romanians and Baltics. They complain that we are ready to restore diplomatic relations with Syria. Most importantly, they complain that we are vetoing Ukraine's integration into NATO. While they fear democracy in Hungary, they pact with Nazis in Ukraine. 

No criticism has been made of the law passed on 1 July, which subdivides Ukraine into subordinate and superior ethnic groups and serves as a legal basis for the deprivation of the rights of peoples, nations and national minorities declared not to be indigenous. According to the law, the Hungarian, Ruthenian, Russian, Polish, Romanian and many other minorities that make up Ukraine are no longer considered native.

 

 

If NATO's real goal was to protect freedoms and human rights, it would not support a Ukraine that crushes them! But since this is not the goal, but the use and exploitation of Ukraine against Russia, it turns its back on its own declared values, and it also unites with Ukrainian extremists in the spirit of the policy of goal sanctifies the tool. Not only does it expose our Hungarians living in Ukraine to atrocities, but it also endangers the peace and security of Hungary with the rearmament of Ukraine, its joint military exercises, and its series of provocations around Crimea. 

According to the creed of the Hungarian Peace Community, Hungary must live in peace and in good relations with both East and West. We consider a doubtful ally to be one who does not support but hinders us in this matter of destiny for the survival of our nation. 

The Hungarian Peace Community proclaims the friendship and peaceful coexistence of peoples. We want equal, mutually respectful, mutually beneficial cooperation with the East, not a Western Iron Curtain with the East!
 
July 8, 2021  

~  The peace association was founded in 2014, during the Ukrainian crisis. Simó Endre is the president. Endre is a journalist, economist and expert in international relations. He worked as a correspondent in Lisbon, Rome and South America. He manages the work of the Hungarian Peace Community and the Hungarian Social Forum in a form of social work.

History lesson: Who rules Washington?

 

Many contemporary authors have characterized current conditions in the United States as being oligarchic in nature. 

Simon Johnson wrote that "the reemergence of an American financial oligarchy is quite recent", a structure which he delineated as being the "most advanced" in the world. Jeffrey A. Winters argues that "oligarchy and democracy operate within a single system, and American politics is a daily display of their interplay." 

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) opined in a 2010 The Nation article that an "upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country."

US political and finance industry leadership has recently been dominated by people associated with Harvard and Yale.

A well-known fictional oligarchy is represented by the Party in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The socialists in the Jack London novel The Iron Heel fight a rebellion against the oligarchy ruling in the United States. 

Corporatocracy is a term used as an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. It is a generally pejorative term often used by critics of the current economic situation in a particular country, especially the United States. Economist Jeffrey Sachs described the United States as a corporatocracy in his book The Price of Civilization. He suggested that it arose from four trends: weak national parties and strong political representation of individual districts, the large U.S. military establishment after World War II, big corporate money financing election campaigns, and globalization tilting the balance away from workers.

The term was used by author John Perkins in his 2004 book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, where he claimed that a "corporatocracy" exists, involving tacitly coordinated corporations, banks, and governments. This collective is known as what sociologist C. Wright Mills would call the Power Elite.

Next CIA-directed Color Revolution in Cuba?

Statement of the World Peace Council on the recent protest events in Cuba


The World Peace Council (WPC) expresses its serious concern about the recent well orchestrated and paid imperialist plan to create chaos and disorder in Cuba, using as pretext the severe shortages of imported goods and other products of primary necessity, as well as electricity cuts, facts that have to the great extend their root causes in the almost sixty (60) years criminal blockade imposed by the USA on Cuba. Particularly during the last period and in conditions of the global health pandemic, Cuba is being prevented through new and additional measures and sanctions to purchase and import medicine and raw material for medicine as well as technical hospital supplies.

While acknowledging the suffering of the Cuban people the WPC underlines in the strongest way its rejection to any actions of interference and subversive actions which are aiming in the “regime change” by paid elements and mercenaries as we have observed it in other parts of the world with “Color Revolutions”. The Cuban people know too well that the imperialists have never stopped the war against their country, regardless the rotating methods or the changing residents of the White House. These criminal and inhuman policies are being helped by its imperialist allies of the European Union and their agents inside Cuba and in Florida who demanded today even an open intervention under humanitarian pretext as it has been witnessed also in other cases of countries before.

We denounce the cynical interest of those forces that cause the suffering by political and economical sanctions and blockade first and their hypocrisy then for the “poor Cuban people” who have to be taught “democracy and human rights”. Cuba particularly has given lessons of solidarity and dignity many times from the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 on, but this last period during the Covid-19 pandemic, the island of the Revolution has championed one more time with its selfless internationalist aid to peoples in need while it is developing in extremely difficult conditions its own vaccines very rapidly with the commitment to help poor and oppressed peoples of the world as well.

We express our indignation to the imperialist plans to create social discontent and direct it against the sovereign Cuban government. The achievements of the Socialist Cuba constitute an example and source of inspiration for the peoples of Latin America and the world.  

The WPC stands in Solidarity with the heroic people of Cuba and its Revolution!

      We demand the immediate lifting of the blockade and of all sanctions against Cuba!

                               End to the imperialist provocations!

                                           Hands off Cuba!
 

The WPC Secretariat                 Athens, 12th July 2021

World Peace Council
Athens/Greece
www.wpc-in.org

Drone whistleblower facing serious jail time

 

In 2015, Daniel Everette Hale released documents revealing devastating failures in the U.S. drone war program, among them the widespread killing of civilians.

For his truth-telling in the interest of humanity, Daniel has been prosecuted under the Espionage Act and is now being held in the Alexandria (Virginia) Detention Center awaiting sentencing on
July 27, 2021. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

Please go to http://StandWithDanielHale.org to find out how you can call on President Biden to pardon Daniel. Also, request Federal Judge Liam O’Grady to sentence Daniel to time-served so that Daniel can be immediately released on July 27.

This action was a collaboration of:  http://BanKillerDrones.org, http://BackboneCampaign.org, WHISPeR/ExposeFacts, Veterans for Peace Chapter 34 (New York City), CODEPINK, World Beyond War, World Can’t Wait, Veterans for Peace (National). 

Where do these BIW made Aegis destroyers go?

 

Another great banner made by ARRT! (Artist Rapid Response Team) here in Maine.

The group is led by long-revered artist/activist Natasha Mayers who has been a regular at the protests at Bath Iron Works (BIW) where naval Aegis destroyers are built.

The banner was conceived with this question in mind: Where do these destroyers go when they leave Bath? How do they impact the rest of the world politically and environmentally?

 

BIW Aegis destroyers do not actually carry nuclear weapons. They carry cruise missiles that could be outfitted with nuclear warheads. They are primarily first-strike attack weapons.

Aegis also carry SM-3 interceptor missiles whose job is to take out any retaliatory strikes after the US launches a first-strike attack on China or Russia.  (So-called 'missile defense'.) SM-3 missiles are not nuclear - they are called 'kinetic' which means they crash into the other missiles and they both explode.

So the Navy Aegis destroyers throw the left hook and then the right cross - double-punches.

In Maine most people just think about BIW as a jobs engine but the impact of these warships is far greater than just jobs. 

If we were really concerned about creating jobs we'd be building commuter rail systems at BIW as well as tidal power systems to help us deal with climate crisis.

The war economy must end

Since WW II the US economy has been running on endless war.

We are excited about taking this new banner out to BIW for one of our upcoming bi-monthly vigils so the sailors and shipbuilders can gaze upon it. We want them to think about the political dimension of their 'mission' and also the environmental impacts of these warships.
 
There will be a 'christening' ceremony held at the shipyard in the coming weeks as they prepare to launch one of the six destroyers they are currently working on. Our current small vigils are warm-up acts for the bigger public rally.

We all pay for this
 
So how do we get the public to step up (even with knees shaking) and answer this fundamental question - Do you really support this?
 
Empire is so over.
 
Please....help speak out against the madness.
 
Our only hope for survival is to turn America away from complicity with corruption, endless war, and climate crisis.

New Hollywood show: The Three Spaced-Out Stooges

 

 

It's all info-tainment

 

Written

and acted out by

Hollywood, NASA,

the military-industrial,

congressional, academic, 

Wall Street complex.

 

Keep the people

on the edge of their seats,

always yearning for

more drama.

 

It's better than cocaine.

 

The job

of these

three clowns

is to distract

and entertain,

while the public

gets sold a 

'new Wild West',

with America

riding shotgun

on a space-wagon 

carrying a load of 

gold and guns.

 

We've seen 

this movie

before.

 

Who turns out 

to be

the real stooges? 

Bruce

Sunday song