Lisa Savage: one of Maine's best activists

 

 

Regis Tremblay (from Waterville, Maine, now living in Crimea) interviews one of Maine's best activists Lisa Savage (Solon, Maine).

Always sharp and entertaining, Lisa was our Independent candidate for the US Senate seat from Maine in the last national election. She ran against Republican Sen. Susan Collins and a Democrat hack who said in one of the debates that everywhere she went the people told her they wanted 'Medicare for All'. She said she didn't support that program though, but instead supported 'universal access' to health care. That of course means that no one could be 'turned down' when applying for an private insurance policy. So the Democrat candidate ran the Wall Street line.

The sad part about that last national election, particularly here in Maine, was that the liberals still voted for the Democrats in resounding numbers despite knowing they are a bunch of lying war-mongers, thieves, and wimps.

Sen. Collins won with 51%. Lisa got a hard-earned 5% but she resoundingly won the four senate debates that were on TV across the state. Two of those debates were aired on national C-SPAN.

So enjoy (and share) this video of Lisa. 

She's the kind of person who ought to be in leadership in politics rather than the current dollar-grabbing corporate agents that pretend to be our 'representatives in Washington'.

Bruce

Crazy weather in Maine

 

 

How things can change in a week.

We've not had much snow here in Bath, Maine so far this year until Saturday.

So in one week's time we went from virtually no snow on the ground to this dump of 18-20 inches. And there is no place really to put the snow that we move! Another 5-8 inches is due on Friday of this week.

Is it the result of climate crisis where weather patterns are becoming increasingly strange and unpredictable? Sure seems that way.

One of my sisters who lives in northwest Iowa (Minnesota and South Dakota border) as of last week told me they've had no snow at all. 

Very strange indeed.

On top of that our two big propane tanks need refueling but the Irving Energy company has been stringing us along for the past week. One tank is now empty and the other is close to the end. We've lowered the heat way done - no showers for awhile either. We've heard that they are short on delivery drivers. Is this one more example of the growing disintegration of life in the 'greatest country in the history of the planet' as they like to say in Washington?

Bruce  

PS In this very bottom photo note the mound of snow (piled up by the city snow plow) in front of our car. Our good neighbor Gary brought his plow over to clear the path in the driveway. Very amazing. 

Sunday song

 

On the streets of Portland, Maine

 

 

Protest in downtown Portland, Maine at 5:00 pm last Friday, January 28.

Protest organized by Lisa Savage from Maine Natural Guard.

Video production by Brian Leonard.

NO WAR CALL TO ACTION!

 

STOP THE WAR WITH RUSSIA OVER UKRAINE!

We must act now to stop the war with Russia over Ukraine, a war that would risk becoming a dangerous conflict between nuclear states. As people residing in the United States, we have a special responsibility to call upon the U.S. government to: 

• Stop the war with Russia

• Stop the NATO expansion

• Stop sending weapons to Ukraine and the European Union

• Obey international laws and the UN Charter

• Resolve the current conflict within the United Nations Security Council

De-escalate the threat of a nuclear war

Once again, our world is facing an imminent threat of war between two major nuclear powers. As in the past, the United States is using the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the vehicle to wage war in clear violation of international law and the Charter of United Nations.

The Biden administration is currently flying $200 million worth of weapons and other “lethal aid” to Ukraine and has 8,500 US troops on standby to enter that country. ‘Nonessential’ U.S. diplomatic  personnel and their families are being withdrawn from the country. The corporate media is lockstep in its portrayal of Russia as the enemy who is about to invade Ukraine. These actions constitute a de facto declaration of war, while the corporate media fan the flame of war.

This current escalation of aggression against Russia through expansion of NATO’s presence into Ukraine is a serious threat to world peace and requires a unified and rapid response by anti-war organizations to stop a major war.

To that end, we, the undersigned groups, have agreed to support a day of action on February 5, 2022, with the following demands on the United States government:

On the morning of February 5, we will hold visibility actions by holding signs and banners in well-trafficked areas such as major intersections or highway overpasses that raise awareness of this urgent crisis and urge the President to stop the war with Russia. That afternoon, we will gather online for a national rally to demonstrate the breadth of opposition to war. During the rally, photos of the morning visibility actions will be shared.

Signatories (in alphabetical order):

• Answer Coalition

• Black Alliance for Peace

• CODE Pink

• Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

• International Action Center

• Massachusetts Peace Action

• Popular Resistance

• Task Force on the Americas

• United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

• U.S. Peace Council

• Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF–US)

• World BEYOND War

TO ENDORSE THE CALL AND SIGN THE PETITION TO PRESIDENT BIDEN AND UN SECRETARY GENERAL PLEASE VISIT:

https://popularresistance.org/nowarwithrussia/

TO REGISTER FOR THE FEBRUARY 5 NATIONAL RALLY PLEASE VISIT:

bit.ly/StopWarWithRussia  

Donbass (Russian border) situation report

 

Please, be advised that the situation around Donbas is becoming tense:

• there are now 150 thousand Ukrainian troops near Donbas (some days ago it was 120 thousand); Donbass has only 35,000 troops that cannot attack Ukraine;

• the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) has finalized the master plan to attack Donbas;

• the USA has delivered 250 tons of military equipment and ammunition (MEA) to UAF;

• 45 more U.S.transport aircraft are to arrive to Ukraine with MEA;

• civil hospitals in Ukraine have been converted into military ones;

• any regular annual vacations for the Ukrainian GIs have been cancelled for indefinite period of time;

• M141 Bunker Defeat Munitions have arrived to the UAF attacking forces (Donbas does not have them; so, it does not have them to attack Ukraine);

• several public protests against war versus Donbas have been staged near the Ukrainian Parliament;

• Kiev continues to violate a ceasefire accord in Donbas: according to the report of the OSCE SMM in Ukraine dated January 28th, 2022 has stated:

OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Daily Report 20/2022 issued on 28 January 2022
Summary In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded 173 ceasefire violations, including six explosions.
In the previous reporting period, it recorded 510 ceasefire violations in the region.
In Luhansk region, the Mission recorded 93 ceasefire violations, including 13 explosions.

Link: https://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/510929
 
Kind regards,
Dr. Vladimir Kozin
 
Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences
Member, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences,
Vice President, Russian National Institute for Global Security Research
Winner of Colonel-General Varfolomei Korobushin Reward (Russian Strategic Missiles Forces) and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Reward
Leading Expert, Center for Military-Political Studies, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)
Ph.D, Senior Researcher (Academic Rank) 

Fifteen nuclear reactors in Ukraine - war very bad idea

 

Ukraine diplomat sees little chance of war ‘in country with 15 nuclear reactors’

Ukraine is committed to seeking a diplomatic solution to the current tension with Russia, its ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said on Wednesday (26 January), adding that he saw little chance of all-out war, although there might be smaller conflicts.

Destruction of nuclear reactors would bring about a devastating regional impact on Europe.

“I believe that full-scale war is very, very, very difficult to expect, but we may see more localized conflict,” Korsunsky told a news conference in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

If war is going to happen, that will be the first ever in the history of mankind, war against a country which has on its territory 15 nuclear reactors, which has 30,000 km of gas and oil pipelines, full with gas and oil,” said Korsunsky.

“If all these infrastructure is destroyed, there is no more Ukraine. But this is just one consequence. There is no more central Europe and probably western Europe would be affected, too.”

An accident at the Chernobyl reactor, located in what is now Ukraine, spewed tonnes of nuclear waste into the atmosphere in 1986, spreading radioactivity across swathes of the continent and causing a spike in cancers in the more immediate region.

Russia’s Ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, said on Wednesday that Russia did not plan to invade Ukraine.

We don’t intend to invade at all,” Pavlovsky told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

“Our troops on the border…These troops are not a threat, they are a warning. A warning to Ukraine’s rulers not to attempt any reckless military adventure,” he said.

As to the sanctions, I think that by now everybody should understand that it is not the language which should be used when talking to Russia. The sanctions just don’t work.”

Coverage of our message in Pakistan papers

Pakistan Point

UrduPoint (Pakistan)

 

US Troop Alert May Be Empty Threat But It Awoke Many, Americans Don't Want War - Activist

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2022) US President Joe Biden's decision to alert 8,500 forces for possible deployment in Europe could be an empty threat, however, it awoke many in the United States as the Americans do not want another war, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space coordinator Bruce Gagnon told Sputnik.

The decision on alerting thousands of troops was made just two days before Washington gave its written responses to Russia' security proposals. A Pentagon spokesperson said on Monday that 8,500 US troops had been placed on heightened alert over the situation around Ukraine.

"First, I heard that Biden was immediately sending more troops, but then it was changed that the troops have been put on 'stand by'. So it could be an empty threat by the US," Gagnon said. "But the statement about sending the troops has woke up many people in the US to pay more attention to this issue. Americans don't want another war but with the Democrats in power many 'liberals' - who normally would not want a war - are now supporting Biden because their party is in power."

Gagnon added that, fortunately, growing numbers of Republicans are opposing war - "although some are doing it with electoral positioning in mind."

On Wednesday, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan delivered Washington's response to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia is reviewing the response but stressed that the United States, in its response to Russia's proposals on security guarantees, left the main question about non-expansion of NATO to the east unanswered.

"No surprise though but it is a very sad and disingenuous response by the US," Gagnon said. "It is quite clear to me that the US only has one goal in mind and that is to continue to demonize Russia internationally and to militarily create chaos on all Russian borders in order to destabilize the Moscow government. The US-UK-NATO wants regime change in Russia. They want total control of the Arctic region as the ice melts due to climate crisis."

Moscow published its security suggestions for NATO and the US in late 2021 as tensions flared high around Ukraine.

It requested, in particular, guarantees that the alliance would not expand eastward. The US insists it will not allow anyone to slam NATO's open door policy shut.

"I thought Russia proposals were rational, justified and necessary when one considers that Moscow is facing a 'Cuban missile crisis in-reverse,'" Gagnon said. "We are now witnessing US missile launch facilities in Romania and Poland, aggressive NATO war games on Russian borders, and regular naval and air force provocations along Russian borders. One can just imagine how crazy Washington would be if any country was doing this along US borders with Canada or Mexico."

 

Commenting on possible development of the situation around Ukraine, Gagnon said, "We hear that some NATO members are telling the US to back off but Washington and NATO hardliners are not even listening to their own NATO member states."

"I think this confirms that the US rules NATO with an iron fist. I can't imagine that anyone in Europe wants a war with Russia," he said. "I recently heard that a petition is now being circulated in Italy to withdraw from NATO. In the end this entire situation is furthering the US-NATO 'bad image' around the globe."

When asked whether there is still a chance to stop the war and what can be done to do that, the activist said, "I think there is a chance but first we must have more voices opposing war in the US and throughout Europe."

"I don't believe that Moscow is eager to start war but the Russian government has legitimate security concerns that any thoughtful person should acknowledge," he said. "We all must take responsibility to help stop a war that could possibly go nuclear."

The United States and its allies have accused Russia that it conducts a troop build-up in Ukraine and plans to invade the latter. Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying it does not plan to attack any country.

In addition, Russia has pointed to NATO's military activities close to its borders and the alliance's plans to move eastward as a threat to its national security. Russia has also said it reserves the right to move troops within its sovereign territory.

Hearing from the other side - who is the real threat?

 

 

I know in the west you are not supposed to share the words of the 'enemy camp' but 'F' that, if you know what I mean.

In this clip Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answers a reporters question by addressing the forbidden subject of US domination of Europe and NATO and the ever expanding claims by the west of their right to influence other governments where ever they wish to plant their hot seat.

Lavrov reminds us that the west (the original colonizers of the global south) are still playing their old game of manifest destiny, western exceptionalism and domination.

Russia understands that at some point this all must stop. It's past time for some nation to stand up to the bullies in Washington-London-Brussels.

The UK has been inside Ukraine for several months building a Navy base on the Black Sea near Odessa This will become a NATO naval operations center.

 

NATO is in crisis. Even some of its own members are increasingly questioning the goals of the Atlanta alliance. Why is NATO expanding into the Asia-Pacific and signing up Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and others? Who gave NATO the right to declare they were now the #1 corporate oligarchic muscle machine for the whole world?

The UK and Poland are working together to ensure more weapons shipments get to Ukraine. The west is turning an already unstable failed state into the new Libya. The US-UK-NATO want chaos on the Russian border as a way to destabilize Moscow. Bleed them dry so to speak.

Fortunately many peace groups & and their members are beginning to crank up the action around this issue. They are finally recognizing that the real trigger for a nuclear war is US-UK-NATO aggression aimed at Moscow. 

Some folks have been a bit slow to come around because they feared being demonized as 'Putin apologists' and such.

 

Just Wednesday  night (after I had sent out an email to the Global Network list) I got a message from a long-time friend in Florida. He had his son read my email and the young man responded that I was pro-Soviet and pro-Russia.

I wrote back that the Soviets were long gone.

We keep hearing from the media that Russia wants to re-create the former Soviet Union and is now making its move. 

You can believe what you want about true Russian intentions but the numbers don't lie.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) each year publishes their global military spending numbers for the previous year. (They appear to not yet have published their 2021 numbers.)

In 2020 US military expenditure reached an estimated $778 billion. (Actually $1 billion per year when you add up all the military money hidden in various government departments.) As the world’s largest military spender, the USA accounted for 39 per cent of total military expenditure in 2020. 

China’s military expenditure, the second highest in the world, is estimated to have totaled $252 billion in 2020. 

Russia’s military expenditure in 2020 was $61.7 billion. 

Germany increased its spending by 5.2 per cent to $52.8 billion, making it the seventh largest spender in 2020. 

In addition to China, India ($72.9 billion), Japan ($49.1 billion), South Korea ($45.7 billion) and Australia ($27.5 billion) were the largest military spenders in the Asia and Oceania region. 

 

 

Now add it all up

When you add the US totals to all the NATO members/partners the number hits well over 60% of the global total. Russia comes in at $61.7 billion which is in the same league as Germany, France or India. 

The notion that Russia could re-create the former Soviet Union at their level of military spending - especially when they would come into obvious conflict with US-UK-NATO - is pure fantasy. That is a story-line that was invented by Hollywood and Madison Avenue. Many believe it.

NATO's true goal is to become an international alliance that would essentially take the power away from the United Nations. Then NATO would not have to go before the UN's Security Council and ask for 'permission' to invade another country like Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. 

A free and expansionist NATO dooms the world to perpetual war.

Time to shut it down.

Bruce

History lesson: Steroidal CIA

 

Abby Martin introduces the first installment of a new Empire Files series about the CIA explaining why the agency was created, and how it became the most nefarious criminal organization in the world, with CIA expert Douglas Valentine.

Time to speak out - no more damn war!

 

Have we gone mad? 

No, we don't need a war with Russia! 

Find Oliver Stone's film Ukraine on Fire for a bit of history. 

Expanding NATO only serves the interest (and insatiable greed) of the military industrial complex. Enough killing! 

Enough death!

~ Mary Beth Sullivan (Bath, Maine)

 

Message from a Donbass labor leader

 

Nazi death squads in Ukraine. Since the 2014 US orchestrated coup in Kiev these killers have been trained, put in fancy uniforms and sent by the US-NATO advisers to the Donbass region along the Russian border to create chaos and kill their fellow Ukrainian citizens who are ethnic-Russian.

 

Dear friend and comrade!

Now the situation around our Republics is very serious. Ukraine brought to the front line about 125,000 soldiers of Ukrainian Army and murders from Nazi battalions. Many foreign instructors came to train Ukrainian soldiers. 

But mass media of US and EU says about “Russian aggression”. But we can’t see any Russian troops on our territory. We hope that common sense and wisdom will win and the world doesn’t fall into war. 

 

We still remember that Ukrainian authorities decided to drop bombs on the heads of Donbass residents instead of sitting down at the negotiating table. And we will never forget that only Russia, not so-called “civilized world”, gave us real help, support and defense. 

It is difficult to make any prognosis right now. We just see US push Ukraine into the war very hard. It is terrible but it is so!

What you can do for us? Thanks to Russia we not suffer from hunger. Only one thing we need. Your support and help us dissemination of real information about the situation in our Republics. If it is possible you can send us the letter solidarity from the name of your organization.

Thank you very much!!!

Андрей Кочетов 

Lugansk labor leader 

Donbass

Ethnic cleansing in Israel continues

 

Mohammed Salhiya, the owner of the home, said, “I’ve been attacked for 25 years, 25 years I’ve faced pressure to sell the land.…I’ve spent 25 years just in the courts with them.” 

Mohammed and members of his family refused to leave their home on Monday, even threatening to burn down the house, rather than yield to Israel’s demands to vacate. "We don't want death. But we have been expelled from our homeland again and again. We are already dead. We are dead inside. We have been dead since 1948," he said.

Washington doesn't want their response to Russia made public

 

Washington Asked Russia to Keep US Response on Security Guarantees Secret

 

TASS   

 
US officials have asked their Russian colleagues not to publish Washington’s written response to Moscow’s proposal on security guarantees, The Washington Post has reported.

However, according to the paper, “a senior State Department official acknowledged that the Kremlin may decide to publish it after the United States sends it next week.”

Following Friday’s meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Geneva, Washington agreed to provide written responses to Moscow’s proposals on security guarantees. After that, the US Secretary of State and the Russian top diplomat plan to hold the next meeting. At a news conference after the meeting, Lavrov told reporters that, in his opinion, publishing the US response would be a right thing to do. However, Russia will request Blinken’s consent to do so, he added.

On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft agreement on security guarantees between Russia and the United States, [a non-aggression pact] and a draft agreement on ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states. The proposed measures include guarantees that NATO will not advance eastward, including the accession of Ukraine and other countries into the alliance. They also impose restrictions on deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones.


The Washington Post:
 

Lavrov urged the United States to make its written response to the Russian proposals public.

U.S. officials asked their Russian counterparts to keep the document secret, but a senior State Department official acknowledged that the Kremlin may decide to publish it after the United States sends it next week.

The Biden administration’s written response will include American security proposals and demonstrate Washington’s interest in continuing dialogue, said the State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks.

Although the written response will continue to fall short of Russia’s demands to close NATO’s open door policy, the official said, the Biden administration believes there is still value in providing a letter that can be read directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There‘s one decision-maker in Russia and it’s President Putin,” said a second Biden administration official. “If this then allows the ultimate decision-maker in Russia to looks at these ideas and decide whether to move forward, it’s in our interest.”

 “We don’t want to be the ones who foreclose a potential diplomatic solution,” added the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. 

Birds killed during military 5G testing

 

‘Hundreds of thousands, if not millions’ of birds died during 2020 U.S. Air Force 5G exercise, New Mexico 

 

White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

“The military needs a reliable communication system at all times to protect and defend the country from potential threats.” –Tesmanian, September 24, 2020

In August 2020, an AT&T 5G antenna array at White Sands Missile Range went operational, providing “connectivity” for Advanced Battle Management Systems (ABMS) Onramp 2 on August 27.

The Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) is an interconnected battle network – the digital architecture or foundation – which collects, processes and shares data relevant to war-fighters in order to make better decisions faster in the kill chain. In order to achieve all-domain superiority, it requires that individual military activities not simply be de-conflicted, but rather integrated – activities in one domain must enhance the effectiveness of those in another domain.

 

From the Las Cruces Sun-News
September 12, 2020

    “It is terribly frightening,” Desmond said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. … We’re losing probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of migratory birds.”

In August, large numbers of birds were found dead at White Sands Missile Range and at the White Sands National Monument in what was thought to be an isolated incident, Desmond said.

The Department of the Interior warned in 2014 about the deadly effects of RF-EMF on birds. Research has shown that EMF frequencies affect their navigation and disorient birds. 

In addition, “non-lethal” military research (Craviso and Chatterjee, 2008) used RF-EMF to cause skeletal muscle contraction.

Then, in September 2020, the U.S. Air Force conducted a joint live-fire exercise with SpaceX. The bird deaths increased.

 

From the Tesmanian
September 24, 2020
 

U.S. Air Force Chief for Acquisition Dr. Will Roper, who serves as the principal adviser for technology research and development, met with reporters to discuss a live-fire military exercise that took place early this month, Investors news reports. During the conference, Roper shared SpaceX’s Starlink network [that is launching up to 80,000 min-satellites for 5G] was tested during the live-fire exercise as part of the military’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). 

 “What I’ve seen from Starlink has been impressive and positive,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “They’re cleverly engineered satellites cleverly deployed. So, there’s a lot to learn from how they’re designed and I think that there’s a lot we can learn from them.”

Roper shared that the Air Force connected Starlink to a “variety of air and terrestrial assets”. Starlink terminals are hooked to the cockpit of a Boeing (BA) KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft to assess the network’s performance while the airplanes fly. 

DoD plans to depend even more on satellites under its new “All Domain Operations” war-fighting doctrine. The strategy will require air, land, sea, space and cyberspace assets to network directly with each other. They will pass data and intel among them and perhaps even activate each other's weapons.

 

For more info contact Physicians for Safe Technology

Russian & American discuss space arms race & Ukraine

 

Vladimir Kozin (Russia) and Bruce Gagnon (Maine), two experts on weapons in space and the militarization of space, believe that we, as a species, are facing imminent grave danger. 

First, we are all being terrorized about this imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But, on top of that, is the possibility of a war breaking out in space.

Must see documentary on Ukraine coup in 2014

 

Documentary produced by Oliver Stone about the US orchestrated coup in Kiev, Ukraine in 2014 and about the western media and US role.

Learn more about the Nazi death squads that played a key role in the coup. These death squads have been turned on the Russian-ethnic Ukrainian population that lives in the Donbass region next to the Russian border.

Don't panic

 

Pilger: The Ukraine story is distorted - it's all propaganda

 

John Pilger on Ukraine, US tensions with Russia & China: An Enemy is Essential for US & Its Vassals!

 

This episode of Going Underground hosts legendary journalist and filmmaker John Pilger. 

 

He discusses the scandal surrounding Boris Johnson over Downing Street parties during Coronavirus lockdowns, growing US tension with Russia over Ukraine amid the backdrop of NATO enlargement to Russia’s borders, tensions with China and the West’s need for a perpetual enemy, the continuing persecution of Julian Assange and much more. 

Sunday song

 

Tucker gets this one right

 

 

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson discusses the Russia-Ukraine conflict and how the U.S. is moving closer to a 'devastating' war.

Big Pharma corruption in Africa - more relevant than ever

 

 

Dennis Riches writes about this important film: 

The Constant Gardener (2005) covered corruption in drug trials carried out in Africa. 

The film was based on John Le Carré’s novel, which was inspired by the true-life tale of Pfizer’s trial of its new drug trovafloxacin in Kano, Nigeria, during an epidemic of meningococcal meningitis. 

John le Carré, in the first edition of the 2001 novel on which the film is based, provided both a dedication and a personal afterword. The dedication and part of the afterword are reproduced in the closing credits of the film. 

The dedication states: "This film is dedicated to Yvette Pierpaoli and all other aid workers who lived and died giving a damn. Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this. As my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard." 

The text appears over John le Carré's name.

You can pay $4 to watch is film here

It's an important and riveting film.

5G rollout forcing airlines to cancel flights

 

5G internet rollout in the United States has impacted flight operations in the country. 

AT&T and Verizon agreed on Tuesday to a partial delay in activating their 5G networks following an outcry from US airlines, who said the rollout could lead to travel chaos. 

US President Joe Biden said the move would avert major disruptions, but at least one airline, Delta, warned of the potential for cancellations despite the postponement. Aviation industry insiders expect there could still be some flight cancellations and other impacts in the coming days, but the measures announced by AT&T and Verizon are expected to prevent the worst problems. 

Air India is revising and curtailing its US operations from Wednesday in the backdrop of a commercial 5G rollout in the country. 

“Due to the deployment of 5G communications in the USA, our operations from India stand curtailed/revised with change in aircraft type from 19th January,” Air India said in a tweet.

U.S. supports fascists in Bolivia

 

Bolivia's police intercepted a weapons shipment sent from the United States to the separatist region of Santa Cruz, the hub of the fascist opposition gangs that led the violent coup in 2019.

Washington pumping up war fever

 

It's nonstop in the western media. The message - war with Russia is coming. 

An American friend of mine, now living in Russia, has two sons in the US Army. One of them said to him today, "your two sons are going to be fighting your beloved Russia." So the troops are obviously being told to prepare for war. One of those sons, an Army Special Forces soldier has been sent to western Ukraine several times to train the Nazi death squads that have been brought into the Ukrainian  Army since the US orchestrated coup d'état in 2014.

Russia has repeatedly stated that they have no intention of invading Ukraine - unless Ukraine first strikes Crimea or the Donbass (eastern Ukraine that borders Russia where two Russian-ethnic republics are located that have continually been targets of the right-wing Kiev government since 2014).

Russia constantly says they have no desire to take over the failed Ukrainian state - in fact Moscow says that the US-NATO have driven that country into the ground since the 2014 coup and they should help it recover. But the Washington agenda is chaos - just like Iraq, Syria, Libya and other places US-NATO have destroyed with their 'freedom war machine'.

Let's take a moment and look at possible reasons for the US-NATO daily agitation for war.

• The western corporate powers see their reign as 'global rulers' rapidly vanishing and know this is the last chance to bring down Russia and China before the 'multi-polar' world comes into fruition in the next few years. 
• The west is led by evil, psychopaths who thirst for war. The neo-cons come to mind.
• It's all a big public relations scheme to create a rare 'win' for the west. If Russia does not invade Ukraine then the US-NATO can claim it was all because they stood up to the 'Russian bear', proving that their out-of-date alliance still has a role in the world today. 
• Western oligarchs can't stand to let Russia have all those natural resources in the Arctic that are becoming possible to extract due to melting ice. So Russia must be broken up into smaller nations giving Mr. Big the chance to make the grab. See the RAND Corporation study that lays out the plan to balkanize Russia here. Thus there is no stopping this rush to war.
  
• US-NATO are bluffing. It's all a great distraction to help take the heat off Big Pharma's global vaccine campaign and growing international economic problems.
• You pick - give us your take in the comments.
  

Now let's review some of the reasons why war might be avoided.

• If the US-NATO really went to full blown war with Russia then it would likely go nuclear. China would probably be pulled in. If this happens forget covid - kiss your family good-bye. Is the US-NATO stupid enough to try this? Yes they are but there are some sensible leaders in Europe who know this would not be such a great idea. Let's hope they have the stuff it takes to help shut down this insanity.
• The US-NATO constant aggression is a big money maker for the military industrial complex so this current war talk is a cash cow for them. But they are not stupid and know that nuclear war does not help their profit line.

Think back to 2003 and George W. Bush's ill-fated 'shock and awe' attack on Iraq that turned that nation into a chaotic failed state. Prior to the US-UK attack there were massive protests around the world for peace.

This time, as Washington-Brussels do their daily war-prep media barrage, there are few global protests. In fact there are some in the 'US peace movement' who buy the hype and believe Russia wants to remake the Soviet Union by invading Europe. Anyone who is actually paying real attention at this moment knows that story line is bullshit. But sadly some who should be protesting US-NATO provocations and aggression are not doing so. This weakens our ability to stop WW III.

I hope and pray that more people will speak out - and soon. Our lives depend on your courage and your action.

Bruce  

Hungarian people are interested in peaceful coexistence

 

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov at recent summit meeting in Geneva

 
Hungarian Community for Peace proposing separated deal with Russia
 

The Hungarian Community for Peace considers Russia’s demand for legitimate security guarantees to be fully justified and warns that the security of Hungary could be endangered if we insist on NATO’s policy of rejection. 

The Peace Community calls on the government to immediately recognize the legitimacy of Russia’s security claim and to distance itself from the deployment of NATO forces near Russian borders. 

Before his visit to Moscow in early February, we call on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to declare that the Hungarian people are interested in peaceful coexistence and refuse to sacrifice their security on the altar of the failed policies of NATO allies. It is in our national interest to have good relations with both East and West. 

We expect Hungarian Prime Minister to offer Hungary’s active participation in the construction of the new European security system and the establishment of a cooperative order in the spirit of Helsinki during his meeting with President Putin. We don’t have time to waste! 

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov gave the West a week to respond in writing to the Russian demand. If the US and NATO say no, there can be no doubt that the prospect of technical-military retaliation of Russia will come true, and we will be affected if we do not prevent it with a pragmatic policy through diplomacy. 

The Hungarian Community for Peace is proposing a separated deal with Russia on reciprocal security before we get into trouble due to NATO unrest. 

German Green Foreign Minister Baerbock in Washington's pocket

The German Green Party Co-leader Annalena Baerbock is now foreign minister in the new government and is a long-time opponent of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany.

 

 

 

 

New German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is causing serious tensions as she opposes the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline called Nord Stream 2. The pipeline (a joint project between Russia and several European energy companies) has been completed and is now waiting for final approval from the German government to turn it on. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a supporter of this project.

The controversial pipeline project, which runs from Ust-Luga in Russia to Lubmin in north-east Germany, is also likely to be the first test of the new German government’s already shaky coalition government.

The pipeline does not cross Ukrainian territory, which means that Ukraine would lose its status as the most important transit territory and the revenue that comes with it. Thus the right-wing government in Kiev is quite angry about Nord Stream 2 and is doing all they can to kill the project.

Baerbock, the 40-year-old Green co-leader, has long opposed the pipeline, but the new German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) supports it.

It is known that large sections of German business community strongly support Nord Stream 2. Without Russian gas supplies, Germany will not be able to meet its energy needs in the coming years as it moves away from nuclear energy and coal-fired power generation. Just last week Scholz commented that he was the leader of the new government and would be making decisions about foreign policy. What problems this will cause with Baerbock and the Green Party have yet to be determined.

Already Europe has had too dip into their gas reserves and many fear that the US-NATO aggressive drive against Russia could create a war that would cut gas supplies from Russia completely. This of course would cause severe hardship for people across Europe this winter and would drive the economy throughout Europe into the ground.

When fully operational, the pipeline would transport 55bn cubic metres of gas to Germany every year, equivalent to about 15% of the EU’s total gas imports.

Baerboc's positions on China and Russia boost her appeal to a Biden administration wary of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose SPD has traditionally been more sympathetic toward Russia.

On January 17 Baerbock visited Kiev where she met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. She also held talks with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

At a press conference after talks with Baerbock, Kuleba thanked Germany for its support and friendship. He also expressed gratitude for the way Baerbock's Green Party opposes Nord Stream 2.

Earlier in the month, on January 5, Baerbock traveled to Washington to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "The more difficult times, the more important strong partnerships are - and as Europeans we have no stronger partner than the USA," Baerbock told Blinkin. The Green politician emphasized that Germany had also supported Ukraine, for example, by setting up a military hospital. Blinken replied that the US would continue to supply Ukraine with 'defensive weapons'. 

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a news conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the State Department on January 5 in Washington

What happened to the German Greens?

With her aggressive stance against Russia, Baerbock is following in the footsteps of the last Green Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, who held the office from 1998 to 2005. At the time of the Rambouillet Conference, Fischer, in close cooperation with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, constructed the pretext for the NATO war against Serbia, an ally of Russia. (Fischer's sell out to the US-NATO war machine really angered the traditional peace movement in Germany and drove many activists away from the Greens.)

In 2014, the Greens and their Heinrich Böll Foundation actively helped fuel the Maidan protests, which served as a cover to overthrow elected Ukrainian President Yanukovych with the help of right-wing extremists and replace him with a nationalist, pro-Western regime. Despite the central role that fascist forces played in this coup, the Greens glorified it as a democratic revolution.

In 2008 I was invited to speak on space issues at the Global Greens conference in São Paulo, Brazil. I had been a Green party member for many years - largely inspired to join during the early 1980's when the German Greens were led by Petra Kelly who was a great inspiration to the German and international peace movement during the height of the Cold War. 

It didn't take me long to see that the German Greens in 2008 were not the same political party that had existed during the early 1980's. 

Because the German's were the largest and strongest of the Green party groups around the world they ran the Brazil Global Greens confab with an iron fist. They were not in the least bit interested in any peace and justice issues - all they wanted to talk about was how to take power. They had a real corporate feel to them.

And now they have won some power and it appears quite clearly they have become one more version of a US-NATO lap dog.

In the recent past I've seen quotes from Baerbock that as a replacement for Russia's natural gas via Nord Stream 2, she supported Europe purchasing much more expensive LNG (fracked gas) from the US that would be sent overseas by ship.  This proposal, strongly supported by most in Washington, is not being picked up by many political leaders in Europe - including the new leader of the German government Olaf Scholz.

How effective Baerbock will be in her new role as Foreign Minister is unknown at this time. But the fact that she is already causing some degree of disharmony within the new ruling German government by her anti-Russian thinking is not a good omen. 

Bruce

~ Some of the above information was copied from multiple articles found on the Internet

Amazon workers demand justice

 

Amazon promised workers in Chicago full-time roles with a hiring bonus, extra pay for working Thanksgiving, and paid bereavement leave. 

Every promise was broken. 

So these courageous workers led the first-ever walkouts coordinated across multiple Amazon warehouses.

U.S. Cold War on China Will End in Ten Years

 

By Michael Wong 

It being the beginning of the New Year, 2022, I decided to go out on a limb and make a prediction: The current U.S. Cold War on China will increase in intensity over the coming five years, but after five years will begin to wane, and will eventually crawl to a halt within ten years, by 2032. Why would I go out on a limb and make such a seemingly outlandish prediction? Here’s my thinking.

Five years ago, the RAND Corporation published a report saying that the US needs to stop China’s rise within ten years, or else China would become too strong for the US to stop. That was five years ago. This means, that if the report was right, the US must stop China within the next five years or it will be too late, and China’s peaceful economic rise will become inevitable. Here’s a very short one page summary of that RAND Corporation report: rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1140.html

My own observation is that all but one statement in this summary is accurate. The statement I think is inaccurate is: “A long conflict could expose China to internal political divisions.” I think, on the contrary, that a long conflict will have the opposite effect; the population will rally ’round the flag, and become much more determined to fight on, no matter the hardships. In fact, the hardships are likely to increase patriotic sentiment in the population. It will make real the fact that they are at war with an external aggressor. I think even the RAND Corporation has fallen victim to their own propaganda, that the Chinese government is an oppressive government that the people yearn to be free from. They overlook the 90%+ popularity of the government that polls show, which is consistent with what I heard in my visits to China.

Bear in mind that the RAND study was done five years ago and does not take into consideration two big factors that have since significantly weakened the United States; Covid and Trump. Covid you know; the United States has suffered over 800,000 deaths, while China has had under 5,000 deaths in a population four times as large. China did this by strict lockdowns, widespread testing, and strict protective measures which were denounced by the West as human rights violations, but eventually proved to have saved hundreds of thousands of human lives. While the US and other advanced economies contracted in 2020, China’s economy reopened quickly and continued to grow. Trump got us out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was intended to isolate China economically.

 

 

Not only did we fail to isolate China, but Trump’s behavior on that and many other issues sent a message to Asia and the world that the US is an unreliable partner, further damaging our credibility and the willingness of other nations to side with us in a war against China. Biden hasn’t improved the situation any and probably made it even worse; Blinken, Sullivan, and others in his administration have proven to be bumbling fools. And in the next five years, I don’t see any probable presidential candidate from either party who is likely to be any more effective. The only way to stop China’s rise would be a nuclear war. Hopefully that won’t happen, because it would end the world. If it does, I withdraw my prediction.

So if anything, the RAND Corporation study is likely to be over-optimistic, compared to today’s actual conditions. In five years, China will become too strong to stop, and its peaceful economic rise will become inevitable. With this rise will come the gradual improvement and strengthening of other third world nations via BRI (China’s “Belt & Road Initiative,” a modern version of the ancient Silk Road that served trade with China, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe) and other efforts by many countries to free themselves from Western domination. The multipolar world that China correctly points out is the natural state of the world will be coming into view. China will not dominate the world as America has, because for thousands of years China has always known that world domination is not sustainable, would exhaust China’s strength and resources, and would eventually lead to her own destruction (for more in-depth explanations, see my article, “The China Fear Factor,” or K. J. Noh’s article, “The US is Set on a Path to War”). Throughout most of China’s five thousand year history, there have usually been numerous strong countries in the world with no single nation dominating the entire world; a multipolar world in which China has a comfortable but not world dominating place.

 

It’ll take at least another five years after the tipping point for the US elite, always more than a bit slow these days, to recognize the sea change and come to terms with it, thus the total estimate of ten years. But they will have no choice, and hopefully the US will go the British route and slowly fade back into just being a country rather than an empire. That will actually be better for our country. If we spent more of our federal budget on domestic needs rather than war, we would thrive indeed. Most of us here will probably live to see it, and then we can pat ourselves on the back for a tough job well done. But until then, our job is to stand up and speak out strongly for peace. The next five years will be the most intense, and things may get worse before they get better. Particularly for those of us who are Chinese or Asian American, anti-Asian hate crimes may increase as the war propaganda and demonization accelerates. This is a time for courage and hard work. But there is hope ahead, and as the old civil rights folk song said, “Keep your eyes on the prize.”

~ Michael Wong is the vice president of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 69, San Francisco, and a retired social worker with a Master of Social Work degree. He is published in the anthologies, Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, edited by Maxine Hong Kingston, and Waging Peace in Vietnam, edited by Ron Carver, David Cortright, and Barbara Doherty. He also appeared in the documentary Sir! No Sir! about the GI resistance to the Vietnam War.  

MLK: 'Spirit of the civil rights movement should imbue the peace movement'

 

 

From the Archives: (The sound begins at 3:36 in the video)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes a speech in front of UN Secretariat Building at an Anti-Vietnam War Demonstration. He was joined by peace movement leaders Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dave Dellinger and others.

Crowd marching carries signs on United Nations Plaza. 

Sunday song

 

Pepe Escobar: Inside look at Kazak & Russia events

 

Max Blumenthal and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar (journalist from Brazil) discuss the violent coup attempt in Kazakhstan, and its crucial importance as an ally of Russia and the center of China's Belt and Road Initiative. 

Pepe addresses US and Turkish meddling, and why this massive and misunderstood country is suddenly at the heart of the new cold war. 

 They also talk about the failure of the US-Russia talks in Geneva and if war could be on the horizon.

Finding a way during hard times

 

A short video report by Al Jazeera Arabic on how Afghans, especially in the sunny southern regions of Afghanistan, are increasingly resorting to solar power to help cover up for severe shortfalls in the government electricity network.

Tracking the 'Space Force' agenda

 

Fighting Comes Into Focus for the Space Force in 2022  
Air Force Magazine.com

By Amanda Miller

The leaders of the Space Force foresee the service continuing to become more “lethal” in 2022, inventing new tactical scenarios in its third year while maturing its organizational charts and carving out roles for outside entities.

“I hope I am able to say that in Year 3, you’ll see us really putting our tires on the track and just really moving out and delivering the things that we’ve been thinking about and working on and designing,” said Space Force Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno.

Space Force’s director of staff at its Pentagon headquarters, Armagno summed up the service’s first two years and looked ahead to 2022 in a Potomac Officers Club webinar.
 

Maturing Organizations

Having now stood up all three of its field commands—two in 2021—the Space Force still needs to finalize where to base the headquarters of one. That process for Space Training and Readiness Command, temporarily at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., may be forthcoming.

Likewise, at the combatant command level, U.S. Space Command waits to find out whether it will move to Redstone Arsenal, Ala., as announced.

Meanwhile, the Space Force will double the size of its Pentagon headquarters staff, expecting to add 300 people in 2022, said Armagno.

People and satellites from the Space Force’s sister services will transfer to the new service in 2022. This second batch of transfers will turn 670 Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers into Guardians. They, and 259 civilians also transferring, will have a new orientation class to help bridge cultures. The Space Force also plans to add another 521 enlisted Guardians and about 70 officers through recruitment in 2022.

The Space Development Agency moves over in 2022 as well, from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to the Space Force. It will take along its plan for a multilayered, multifunctional constellation of relatively low-cost satellites made of readily available parts.

“I call it ‘cracking commercial’—hacking commercial,” Armagno said, referring to SDA’s role. That means figuring out how companies in the private sector “move so quickly— to capitalize on some of their innovation and inventiveness and bring it into the hands of operational warfighters sooner.” 

Bringing Outside Entities Into the Fold 

Partnerships now formalized with 11 universities will get off the ground in 2022. Selected in part for having Air Force ROTC detachments, the 11 also feature aerospace research programs.

On a visit to the University of Colorado Boulder to shake on the plan, Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson described the Space Force’s training and education needs. He said they’re “very, very focused and very, very high tech.”

 

To “operate successfully in an incredibly complex physical and technical domain,” Thompson said Space Force leaders realized the service needed to adapt.

Armagno, who attended the partnership signing at Georgia Tech, said the program is meant to benefit the Space Force on multiple levels: “world-class research, advanced education, and leadership development.”

In terms of working with companies in the private sector, Armagno said a business fair by the new Space Warfighting Analysis Center was “a recipe for success, and we’re going to repeat it.” The new center brought in companies for briefings “so that industries understood exactly what we need and why we need it.”

As evidence of growing collaboration with other countries’ militaries, Armagno offered the example of Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond’s “chiefs’ summit.” The summit hosted chiefs from 12 partners nations in 2020 and will grow to 22 in 2022.

Space Force’s “partnering arrangements” have delivered cost savings plus “opportunities to grow our relationships with the international community,” Armagno said. “For example, Norway is hosting a Space Force payload on one of its satellite launches, and it’s providing Arctic communications two years sooner than we could do it.”

Fighting Comes Into Focus

Only a few years ago, talking about “fighting in space” wasn’t only taboo: “I can remember when ‘space superiority,’ ‘offensive and defensive operations in space,’ ‘warfighting in space’—you couldn’t even use these words. It was against policy to talk about these things,” said retired Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, a former astronaut and commander of Air Force Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command.

Space Force Unveils Its First Weapon, a Satellite Jammer. The U.S. can now block satellite communications from the ground.

Now serving as the Mitchell Institute’s Explorer Chair for Space Warfighting Studies, Chilton talked about the military’s changing mindset with Space Force Lt. Gen. Chance B. Saltzman in a webinar rounding up some of the service’s accomplishments.

Saltzman suggested that provocative activities such as Russia’s debris-generating anti-satellite test in November are “a natural consequence of military behaviors.”

“When you are behind, you look for ways to seek vulnerabilities of your adversary and your competitor so that you can regain the strategic advantage, and we’re seeing that play out,” Saltzman said.

To be ready in the event that “a very bad day happens in space and the country need to recover,” Armagno said the Space Force practiced a “groundbreaking event” in June 2021—the service’s first “tactical responsive launch mission.” Space Systems Command, another of the three field commands, compressed what Armagno described as “the normal multi-month preparation timeline” for a launch “to just under three weeks.”

The exercise “demonstrated a possible rapid reconstitution capability for the nation,” Armagno said.

Armagno predicted that the service will publicly unveil a new force design for missile warning and missile tracking in 2022, “and we’ll continue to evaluate force designs for other missions.”

To help the Space Force prevent “bad actors” from causing more havoc in space, Armagno said globally accepted norms of behavior are the first step.

“From a military perspective, what’s important about norms of behavior is that we’re going to be able to tell who’s not following them,” Armagno said.