Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Gates enters global surveillance game

  

Bill Gates Bankrolls $1 Billion Plan to Blanket Earth In Video Surveillance Satellites

By Baxter Dmitry 

Almost every corner of the planet will soon be monitored by video surveillance satellites capable of live-streaming coverage of human activity for “governments and large enterprises”— if Bill Gates gets his way.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is bankrolling a company that is using a $1 billion initial equity allocation from investors to plan a network of satellites to provide real-time coverage of almost every location on Earth.

Washington-based company EarthNow plans to launch an army of more than 500 satellites into our atmosphere, providing its users with near instantaneous video feedback with only one second of delay.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed Bill Gates’ plan to surveil the entire world, using an example of Los Angeles police ticketing Malibu surfers for breaking quarantine rules.

 



“Does anyone share my dread that Bill Gates — and his Mini-Me, Tony Fauci — will somehow be running our Brave New World?” said Kennedy on Instagram. “

“Imagine a world where the government doesn’t need police officers to apprehend those surfers or ticket you when you violate social distancing with your girlfriend. Suppose that computers discover your beach trip by tracking your movements using a stream of information from your cell phone, your car GPS, facial recognition technology integrated with real-time surveillance from satellites, mounted cameras, and implanted chips.”

“Welcome to Bill Gates’ America,” he added. “It’s right around the corner.”

The obvious question is who will be the “users” of this technology. According to Wikipedia, the company expects its initial customers to include “governments and large enterprises.”

Bill Gates isn’t the only big player bankrolling the project. Softbank, Airbus and Greg Wyler are also heavily invested.

CIA stonewalled from the beginning

 


Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Oliver Stone about his new film "JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass," which was recently released on SHOWTIME. 

Stone explores misconceptions regarding JFK's legacy and discusses why he believes the US government refuses to declassify documents related to the assassination even 58 years since it took place.

Friday, November 26, 2021

Possible motives for a provocation against Russia

 


By Andrei (The Saker)


A lot of commentators have pointed out that the West really does not want a full scale war with Russia because this would, at best, be a suicidal proposition.  True.

But there are some specific interests in the West which very much want to raise tensions as high as possible.  Today I will list just a few: (partial list)


The US energy sector

The energy sector is deeply concerned about Biden’s “green” rhetoric, combined with the fact that OPEC+ countries are not obeying US demands about prices.  Also, US shale gas is expensive.  Should a war happen between Russia and the Ukraine, it would also certainly completely derail Russian energy exports to the EU which, in turn, would create a very high demand for US energy in Europe (and worldwide).  This is an old US goal in Europe, to force the EU to purchase US energy even though Russian can provide it for a much better price

NATO

That one is simple: NATO has no raison d’être, but now NATO leaders can claim to be the only thing standing between the good, freedom loving EU countries and Putin’s hordes.

“Biden” option one

Biden’s ratings are almost as bad as [Ukraine president] Zelenskii’s.  If an anti-Russian provocation is executed and Russia has to openly intervene in the Ukraine, Biden can become a “wartime President” and he can wave the flag which will hopefully distract from his immense internal problems and make him look more “presidential” (which in US parlance means “more willing to use force”).

“Biden” option two


Say no provocation takes place and with time, all this hysteria eventually fizzles out.  Then Biden can claim that “he showed the Russkies who is boss” and “America’s” resolve “deterred and contained the Putin”, etc.  That would be like a mouse claiming that it deterred a sleeping bear from attacking it.  The proof?  Well, the evil bear did not attack, did it?  So what more proof do you need?

“Biden” option three

As I have mentioned in the past, there are signs that the US has farmed out the Ukraine to the Europeans, which in turn means that should a shooting war happen, and its outcome is not in doubt, “Biden” can say “we tried to help the Ukraine as much as we could, more than anybody else, but they cannot expect us to go to war with Russia to support them”.  In other words, letting “Ze” lose a war against Russia is a very elegant way to get rid of “Ze” and to blame the current full-spectrum chaos in the Ukraine on him, while deflecting any criticisms of the USA.

UK+EU politicians

UK and EU politicians have been faithfully parroting all the anti-Russian propaganda and now they are stuck in their own ideological corner: they hate Russia, but they need Russian energy.  This dilemma could be “solved” by a short but nasty war which would powerfully re-polarize the EU against Russia and, therefore, fully and totally place the EU in the iron grip of the USA.

 


US MIC

That one is obvious: the bigger and scarier the Russian boogeyman is, the more the peace-loving USA can spend on “defense”.  And remember that the goal of US “Congresspersons” (love that newspeak!) is not to contribute to a sane US foreign policy, but to get re-elected.  That, in turns, means that keeping the US MIC up and running, a real financial bonanza for a country otherwise in terrible economic shape, is one of the best ways to get reelected while projecting the image of a “patriotic” elected official.  Ted Cruz anybody?

The US deep state

The US deep state has always hated Russia and has always fanned the flames of hysterical russophobia.  The Neocons play a major role here, but they are far from being the only ones, it is quite clear that, besides the White House, the deep state also runs the Department of State, the CIA and the Pentagon.

The 3B+PU

It is now clear that the 3B+PU attempted to overthrow Lukashenko [Belarus], and that they failed.  How to better conceal the magnitude of this failure from the general public than to have a short and ugly war against Russia, especially since the 3B+PU fully understand that Russia will never attack them first.  Here I have to make a special mention of Poland which currently feels like a giant, standing as they do, on the shoulders of the USA.  For them, it is a win-win situation: if Russia is defeated, they get to proclaim themselves the best soldiers in the history of the universe, if Russia wins, then they can declare themselves the most victimized nation on earth.  Either way, both options are a salvific manna from the heavens for Polish nationalists (who otherwise are in trouble with the EU).

‘Ze’

Zelenskii’s ratings are even worse than Biden’s.  Most of his former allies have turned against him and unless something very dramatic happens, his political future is pretty much zero, he will be lucky if he manages to escape the Ukraine on time, that is before somebody decides to take direct action against him (lots of different interests in the Ukraine are now openly and deeply hostile to ‘Ze’).

The British military/security establishment

The Brits have imperial phantom pains and they feel relatively safe, being far away from the Russian-Ukrainian line of contact.  They also feel that it is quite unthinkable to imagine that Russia would dare to actually strike at a British ship/aircraft or, even less so, at a location in the UK.  That latter belief is quite mistaken, by the way, because the Russians also realize that should they, say, sink a UK ship, or even hit a military facility in the UK, the latter would have two basic options:  1) do nothing by themselves and ask Uncle Shmuel for protection 2) counter-strike against Russia themselves, which would only expose themselves to more Russian counter-strikes.  If this sounds like a losing strategy to you, it is because it is.  But for the country of Litvenenko, Skripal, Bellingcat, and “highly likely” reality is never an impediment to action.  Besides, it really appears that the UK is run by a mentally deranged Prime Minister surrounded by petty bureaucrats and a senile Queen.

The folks nostalgic for the good old days of the white, western, empire

That’s folks like Josep Borrell and all those who wanted a unipolar world, run by the West, of course, where no country could dare defy the rule of the Single World Hegemon (don’t matter which country, as long as it is a western one).  These folks are the ones who need to get whacked, hard, by the Russian military every century or so.

In truth, there are many more groups in the West who want some kind of war, some want it quick and small, others want it bigger, while others want to stop the escalation just short of actual war.

As always, what happens next will be the result of of the sums of the many vectors influencing that outcome: each party will pull towards its interests as much as possible, and the sum vector of all of these unofficial foreign policies will result in what many of us will call “US foreign policy”, in spite of the fact that as such, no such policy exists (other than a sum of these different vectors).

Lastly, is the Putin-Biden being canceled?

Yesterday Psaki said that she was not aware of any preparations made for a summit between Biden and Putin.  Also, a quick look at the calendar makes me wonder: between the upcoming Summit for Democracy, Dec 9th-10th, and the period between the western holiday season (Dec 24th – 1 Jan) the time available to organize such a summit is shrinking quickly.  Following the initial announcement, the rhetoric in both Russia and the USA about such a summit has become much more vague as if both sides now appear to have second thoughts about this.

And if that summit is planned for sometime in January, then this just leaves more time for the Ukronazis to come up with any provocation they like.  If that happens, then any summit would the scrapped sine die anyway.

We can still hope that this summit will take place, and that would be an effective way for “Biden” to show to “himself” and his enemies (the other factions of the US power structure) that he, “Biden”, is still in control.  A bad peace is always preferable to a good war.  But with so many western interests vested into such a war, I am not very optimistic.  

At arms, the enemy is at the gates

 


The art of war


By Manlio Dinucci (the manifesto, Italy)

NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg met President Draghi on November 17 in Rome to address "the current security challenges" arising from "Russia's military build-up in and around Ukraine". Stoltenberg thanked Italy because it "contributes to our presence in the Baltic Region with the air policing and troops". 

The Italian Air Force - specifies the Ministry of Defense - has deployed at Ämari airport in Estonia F-35A fighters from the 32nd Wing of Amendola and Eurofighter Typhoon fighters from the 4th Wing of Grosseto, 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle, 37th Wing of Trapani, and 51st Wing of Istrana (Treviso). 

When Russian planes fly into the international airspace over the Baltic, usually heading for the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the Italian fighters receive an immediate take-off order from the NATO command on alert and within minutes they intercept them. 

The official purpose of this operation is "to preserve allied airspace". The real purpose is to make Russia appear as a threatening power preparing to attack Europe. This is fueling a growing climate of tension: the F-35A and Eurofighter Typhoon fighters deployed within minutes of Russian territory are dual-capable fighters with conventional and nuclear capabilities. What would happen if similar Russian fighter jets were deployed on the border with the United States?

The "air policing" on Russia's borders is part of the frenzied U.S.-NATO military escalation in Europe against an invented enemy, Russia, in an increasingly dangerous grand strategic game. It was initiated in 2014 with the US/NATO-directed coup in Ukraine, supported by the EU, in order to provoke a new cold war in Europe to isolate Russia and strengthen US influence and presence in Europe. 

 


Russia has been accused of forcibly annexing Crimea, ignoring that it was the Crimean Russians who decided in a referendum to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia to avoid being attacked, like the Russians in Donbas, by neo-Nazi battalions in Kyiv. Those used in 2014 as a strike force in the Maidan Square putsch, triggered by Georgian snipers who fired on demonstrators and policemen, and in subsequent actions: villages put to fire and sword, activists burned alive in the [2014] Odessa Chamber of Labor, unarmed civilians massacred in Mariupol, bombed with white phosphorus in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Stoltenberg and Draghi also addressed the issue of the "crisis on the border of Belarus with Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania". NATO accuses Belarus of using, with Russia's support, "vulnerable migrants as tools of hybrid tactics against other countries, putting their lives at risk." 

Defending the migrants, expressing fear for their lives, are the same US and NATO leaders, including the Italian rulers, who in the last thirty years have led the first war against Iraq, the war against Yugoslavia, the war in Afghanistan, the second war against Iraq, the war against Libya, the war against Syria.  Wars that have demolished entire states and broken up entire societies, causing millions of victims, forcing millions of people to forced emigration.

The day after the meeting with Draghi, Stoltenberg attended the 70th anniversary of the NATO Defense College, to which about 15,000 military and civilian personnel from 80 member and partner countries of the Alliance have graduated in Rome since 1951. After being educated in every aspect of "international security," they went on to "hold the highest civilian and military positions," that is, positions of responsibility in the governments and armed forces of NATO member and partner countries. 

In this university of war, where the most sophisticated strategies are taught, the most important sector is dedicated to Russia. It will now be joined by another. In his celebratory speech, the NATO Secretary-General in fact stressed, " Russia and China are leading an authoritarian push-back against the rules-based international order."

Stoltenberg has however forgotten to specify that “the international order must be based on our rules". 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Evidence of US bio-warfare against North Korea & China during Korean War

 


This film is a Chinese propaganda piece accusing the U.S. of using bacteriological warfare in the Korean War. The film has an English soundtrack.

This is definitely a true story. The US (with assistance of former Japanese fascist biological experts from WW II) dropped bio-warfare agents on North Korea and northeast China during that war.

I wrote an extensive blog post about this (and a book entitled 'A Plague Upon Humanity') which you can see here.

Ask yourself - what is the connection between the current US bio-warfare program (with labs around the globe) and the creation of covid?

Bruce  

 


Come on over....


Wednesday, November 24, 2021

On fascism

 


By Ignazio Silone

Ignazio Silone was born in Italy in 1900. He was a political organizer and opposed the rise of Fascism in Italy during his time. His other well-known novel Fontamara, as this one, was written while in exile, only returning to Italy in 1944. He died in 1978.

Below are a few excerpts from his novel Bread and Wine. I think many of these words have direct relationship to our world today.

  • People have been misled by slogans too long; they distrust all the phrases of politics; and as for the peasants, they have never trusted anything said by talkers from the cities. Most people understand the truth well enough; it is courage and energy they lack, a readiness to sacrifice themselves.
  • Freedom is not a thing you can receive as a gift. One can be free even under a dictatorship on one simple condition, that is, if one struggles against it. A man who thinks with his own mind and remains uncorrupted is a free man. A man who struggles for what he believes to be right is a free man. You can live in the most democratic country in the world, and if you are lazy, callous, servile, you are not free, in spite of the absence of violence and coercion, you are a slave. Freedom is not a thing that must be begged from others. You must take it for yourself, whatever share you can.
  • We are divided by superficial things. In order to understand one another we should not be afraid of discarding commonplaces, symbols, labels.

  • How can we hope to destroy fascist subservience if we abandon the critical spirit? Try and answer me that.

 

  • With the devices at our army’s disposal, you’ll see that the new war in Africa [Ethiopia] will be over in a few days. Our death ray will carbonize the enemy…Did you see in the newspaper that the men called up at Avezzano are to be blessed by the bishop today? The death ray will of course also open the way to the missionaries.
  • Even the landscape had put on uniform. The train, the stations, the telegraph poles, the walls, the trees, the public lavatories, the bell-towers, the garden gates, the parapets of bridges, bore inscriptions exalting the war. [In our present times, beside the ever present war-porn, we are drowned with the messages promoting 'maximum consumption' by corporate power.]
  • The dictatorship is based on unanimity. It’s sufficient for one person to say no and the spell is broken. Under every dictatorship one man, one perfectly ordinary little man who goes on thinking with his own brain is a threat to public order…the whole of that formidable granite order is imperiled.
  • If we apply our moral feelings to the evil that prevails all round us, we cannot remain inactive and console ourselves with the expectation of an ultra-terrestrial life. The evil to be combated is not the sad abstraction that is called the devil; the evil is everything that prevents millions of people from becoming human…I believe that nowadays there is no other way of saving one’s soul. He is saved who overcomes his individual, family, class selfishness and frees himself of the idea of resignation to the existing evil…one must not be obsessed with the idea of security, even the security of one’s own virtue…To save oneself one has to take risks.
  • We must stay together. We must not allow ourselves to be divided.

Letter to Canadian MP: We are in a climate emergency, no new fighter jets!

 


November 22, 2021

Hon. Bardish Chagger, MP
100 Regina St S #360,
Waterloo, ON  N2J 4P9

Re: We are in a climate emergency & pandemic – oppose the $19 billion fighter jet purchase

Dear MP Chagger,

We are writing to inform you of our third Pan-Canadian Day of Action #NoNewFighterJets on Monday, November 22, which coincides with the opening of the new session of Parliament. There is a big demonstration on Parliament Hill today and actions that are taking place outside of the offices of Members of Parliament of all the political parties in cities from coast to coast including in Victoria, Vancouver, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal and Halifax. The actions are planned by dozens of Canadian peace and justice organizations. We are opposed to the federal government spending $19 billion on 88 new fighter jets with a life-cycle cost of $77 billion. We are in a climate emergency and a global pandemic exacerbated by social inequalities, the federal government needs to spend precious federal resources on these security challenges not a new weapons system.

In 2019, the federal government launched a competition for a fleet of new fighter jets. It is the second most expensive government procurement in Canadian history. The government is now evaluating submitted bids for Boeing’s Super Hornet, SAAB’s Gripen and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter. The federal government stated that it would select the winning bid in early 2022. Yet, fighter jets are for fighting, we need global peace and cooperation to deal with our common human security challenges.


Most critically, Canada cannot decarbonize and meet its Paris Agreement target if we buy carbon-intensive combat aircraft that will lock our country into fossil-fuel powered militarism for decades. We are asking you to put the well-being of Canadians and the planet first. We are asking you to let the government know we want the fighter jet procurement cancelled.

 


This past summer, over 100 high-profile Canadians such as Neil Young, David Suzuki, Naomi Klein, Sarah Harmer, Dr. Gabor Mate, restauranteurs, businessmen, medical professionals, academics and union leaders have signed an open letter calling on the federal government to cancel this procurement. Last spring, over 1,000 Canadians signed a parliamentary petition against the purchase. Please listen to Canadians. We want the federal government to invest in Indigenous services, health care, affordable housing, green jobs and a just recovery not new fighter jets.




Today’s Pan-Canadian Day of Action “No New Fighter Jets” is organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), World Beyond War, Peace Brigades International-Canada, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Labour Against the Arms Trade, Pax Christi Toronto, Ottawa Raging Grannies, Pivot 2 Peace, Regina Peace Council, Canadian Peace Congress, Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, Victoria Peace Coalition, Just Peace Advocates, Winnipeg Peace Alliance, and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute.

Thank you for your time and attention. We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Tamara Lorincz
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and WILPF-Canada
Waterloo, Ontario

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

'The U.S. Provokes an Escalation in the East of Ukraine'



The Russian Foreign Intelligence office (SVR) issues an unprecedented warning about US operations in eastern Ukraine


THE UNITED STATES PROVOKES AN ESCALATION IN THE EAST OF UKRAINE


The press Bureau of the SVR of Russia reports that recently Washington officials have been actively intimidating the world community by allegedly preparing Russia for “aggression” against Ukraine. According to incoming data, the US State Department through diplomatic channels brings to its allies and partners absolutely false information about the concentration of forces on the territory of our country for a military invasion of Ukraine. The Americans paint a terrible picture of how hordes of Russian tanks will begin to crush Ukrainian cities, convince them that they have some “reliable information” about such intentions of Russia.

It is surprising with what speed a previously quite respectable foreign ministry turns into a mouthpiece of false propaganda.


These fabrications, however, are not as harmless as it may seem. The quote attributed to the Minister of Propaganda of Hitler’s Germany, Joseph Goebbels, reads: “The more monstrous the lie, the more willing the crowd is to believe in it.” Of course, this line fits into the anti-Russian course of the West. We are much more concerned about the fact that such aggressive propaganda encourages the Kiev regime to build up its military grouping in the Donbas and resume shelling of civilian objects. There is data on the creeping advance of Ukrainian positions deep into the so-called gray zone along the demarcation line, as well as the concentration of forces and means of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the border areas with Russia and Belarus. The United States and its allies continue to pump Ukraine with weapons, encourage the use of delivered means of destruction, including strike unmanned aerial systems, in order to carry out military provocations.

The provocative policy of the United States and the European Union, which deliberately strengthens Kiev’s sense of permissiveness and impunity, causes extreme concern. We observed a similar situation in Georgia on the eve of the events of 2008. Then M. Saakashvili “broke loose” and tried to destroy Russian peacekeepers and the civilian population of South Ossetia. It cost him dearly.

Head of the Press Bureau

SVR of Russia S.N. Ivanov

22.11.2021

~ This is a machine translated text whose source is here: http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2021/11/ssha-provotsiruyut-obostrenie-na-vostoke-ukrainy.htm

Island residents protest proxy war between America & China

 


 Miyakojima (Okinawa) residents voice sense of danger, call for the removal of missiles claiming they are an “obstacle to peace”

 

Ryukyu Shimpo

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) transported surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missiles November 14 from the Miyakojima Garrison over the water to the Bora Training Grounds. Under occasional heavy rain, Miyakojima residents rushed to Hirara Port and to the entrance of the Bora training grounds in protest, calling for their removal and chanting, “Missiles are an obstacle to peace!”

The munitions were carried the training grounds in a truck. The JGSDF truck, which had a red “fire” symbol to indicate that it was carrying explosives, drove through bustling crowds in commercial districts, cutting its way through the city surrounded by an ostentatious guard.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s (JMSDF) Shimokita transport craft, which was loaded with the missiles, docked at Hirara Port at 7:00 a.m. After docking, around 15 cargo trucks that appeared to have containers filled with munitions disembarked onto the wharf.




In front of the wharf gate, citizens who oppose the JSDF missile deployment conducted a “die-in,” lying flat on the ground as if they were corpses in a harsh protest of the transport. Police officers began removing protestors for a “traffic violation,” and around 11:00 a.m. the trucks were able to depart. 

At the entrance of the Bora Training Grounds protesters also conducted a sit-in, protesting the delivery of the missiles to the training area. After protestors were again removed by the police, the trucks entered the base and finished their delivery just after 1:00 p.m.

During World War 2, the Japanese army had a cart filled with munitions in the Bora region explode, killing a young child. One of the protestors of at the sit in, a farmer, 80, from Gusukube, Miyako, criticized, “Many of the elderly know what happened at that time, and oppose the deployment. It is a problem that this transfer happened without a meeting to explain things.” 

Hiromori Shimoji, co-representative of the “Citizens Group to Oppose Missile and Munition Deployment” said, “Starting today we are living under a cloud of anxiety.” He criticized the southwestern shift of defensive fortifications, saying, “Why does Okinawa need to be put in harm’s way as the site of a proxy war between America and China?”

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

Russians sound-off against mandates & lockdowns

 



With Russia poised to implement a nationwide digital vax-tag system—which will be required for all aspects of normal life—citizens across the country have started to attend rallies and issue video appeals to the Kremlin.

There are petitions, protests and video appeals popping up in all corners of Russia.

In the Duma, a Communist deputy straight-up accused the government of trying to abolish the constitution, and then asked if Putin and his cabinet have QR codes of their own.

For more on the growing Russian opposition to QR mandates see here

NASA wants ideas on how to put nuclear reactor on Moon

 



Fission plant would be built on earth then sent into space

By Graeme Massie

NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the Moon and is asking for ideas on how to do it.

The fission power source would be used to support permanent human life on the Moon, before future manned missions to explore Mars.

The US space agency is working with the government’s top nuclear research lab, the Department of Energy’s National Laboratory in Idaho, to develop the power source by the end of the decade.

“Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp,” said Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab.

A nuclear reactor would provide essential power regardless of conditions on either the Moon or Mars, and be built on Earth before being sent into space. 

Monday, November 22, 2021

Sportsnik report: A great human story

 


A wonderful story.

Australian documentary on former Chicago Bulls starting centre Luc Longley.


Sunday, November 21, 2021

Gates buys media love & spy sats




Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal discuss latest revelations about Bill Gates buying off the media.

A second important story about Gates is this one: Bill Gates Bankrolls $1 Billion Plan to Blanket Earth In Video Surveillance Satellites

Almost every corner of the planet will soon be monitored by video surveillance satellites capable of live-streaming coverage of human activity for “governments and large enterprises”— if Bill Gates gets his way.

Sunday song