BRICS is turning into a collective “Non-West”

 

 

By Elena Panina (Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute, Moscow)

BRICS expansion has been discussed for a long time. It is significant that the last summit on June 24 in the BRICS Plus format was attended by such countries as Algeria, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, Fiji, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Senegal, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

At the same time, the fact that the first applications for membership were submitted by Argentina and Iran, which did not take part in the BRICS Plus meeting, does not seem accidental.

Initially, the BRICS group was created as an association of the largest developing economies in the world. However, in the modern world, it is political decisions that determine the nature of the development of economic ties. It is quite logical that the first countries with a pronounced geopolitical sovereignty and having their own geopolitical scores with the collective West are preparing to join the expanded BRICS.

Iran is already almost two and a half thousand years old, since the time of Cyrus the Great is a powerful historical power, and its geopolitical significance cannot be overestimated. The geography itself determines the potential of its influence on the countries of the Arab world up to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, in the Transcaucasus, Central Asia, as well as on the Afpak region (Afghanistan and Pakistan). Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s state ideology has been anti-Western. Tehran is engaged in an intense struggle with the US-British coalition for influence in Iraq, and is helping Syria in the fight against terrorism.

From an economic point of view, Iran’s potential is also great. The Iranian economy is in the world’s top 20 in terms of purchasing power parity, the country is third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela in terms of proven oil resources, and has 16 percent of the world’s proven gas reserves.

 

Argentina, since the time of General Juan Domingo Peron, has also clearly felt its geopolitical role, being one of the regional leaders in Latin America. This role is recognized all over the world. Argentina, while not one of the world’s largest economies, is nevertheless a full member of the G20. Having survived the failed war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), as well as the collapse of liberal reforms according to the IMF recipes, the country has an obvious request to find an independent path of development. Today, Argentina is in a difficult economic situation, it has a huge external debt. However, the potential of Argentina as one of the global food exporters has significantly increased in recent years.

For various reasons, both Iran and Argentina are extremely interested in BRICS projects to create new international settlement systems that are alternative to the global hegemony of the dollar. Iran, which is under sanctions, life itself has forced to go to “de-dollarization”, the country practically does not use the US currency. For Argentina, the transition to a hypothetical new monetary and financial zone would mean an escape from the stranglehold of the IMF, from the pressure of American creditors, which today have an extremely destructive impact on the national economy.

In any case, against the background of aggressive pressure from the United States and its allies on potential new BRICS members, the desire of Iran and Argentina to join the community requires a certain amount of foreign policy courage. There is reason to assume that the process of their joining the BRICS will be successful, since both countries do not cause rejection even in India, which until recently was the main opponent of expansion. We can confidently predict that in the near future the process of adding new members to the BRICS will continue due to the entry of a number of Asian and African countries.

But even now, the BRICS expansion at the expense of Iran and Argentina is the final departure of the community from the idea of Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O’Neill, who coined this abbreviation twenty years ago, who decided to designate such a term as “emerging economies” that are “catching up” with the developed West.

We can say that BRICS is confidently turning into a “collective Non-West”, from a community of emerging markets it is finally transformed into a community of world powers with a pronounced geopolitical sovereignty. 

Russia, Russia, Russia

 

  

Pablo Escobar reports: 

 

Fabio Vighi has brilliantly outlined how “the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. The war serves the opposite aim of what we are told: not to defend Ukraine but to prolong the conflict and nourish inflation in a bid to defuse cataclysmic risk in the debt market, which would spread like wildfire across the whole financial sector.”

Caitlin Johnstone: Ukraine Crawling with CIA & Co

 

 

The previously unthinkable idea that the U.S. is at war with Russia has been gradually normalized, with the heat turned up so slowly that the frog doesn’t notice it’s being boiled alive.

 

By Caitlin Johnstone

The New York Times reports that Ukraine is crawling with special forces and spies from the U.S. and its allies, which would seem to contradict earlier reports that the U.S. intelligence cartel is having trouble getting intel about what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine. 

This would also, obviously, put the final nail in the coffin of the claim that this is not a U.S. proxy war.

In an article headlined “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say,” anonymous Western officials inform us of the following through their stenographers at The New York Times:

                “As Russian troops press ahead with a grinding campaign to seize eastern Ukraine, the nation’s ability to resist the onslaught depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training, according to U.S. and European officials.

                Much of this work happens outside Ukraine, at bases in Germany, France and Britain, for example. But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the massive amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.

                At the same time, a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine.”

The revelation that the C.I.A. and U.S. special forces are conducting military operations in Ukraine does indeed make a lie of the Biden administration’s insistence at the start of the war that there would be no American boots on the ground in Ukraine. And the admission that NATO powers are so involved in operations against a nuclear superpower means, we are closer to seeing a nuclear exchange than anyone should be comfortable with. 

This news should surprise no one who knows anything about the usual behavior of the U.S. intelligence cartel, but interestingly it contradicts something we were told by the same New York Times not three weeks ago.

    “American intelligence agencies have less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military, its planned operations and its successes and failures,” The New York Times  told us earlier this month. “U.S. officials said the Ukrainian government gave them few classified briefings or details about their operational plans, and Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they did not tell the Americans everything.”

It seems a bit unlikely that U.S. intelligence agencies would have a hard time getting information about what’s happening in a country where they themselves are physically located. Moon of Alabama theorized at the time that this ridiculous, “We don’t know what’s happening in our own proxy war” line was being pushed to give the U.S. plausible deniability about Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield, which have only gotten worse since then.

So why are they telling us all this now? Well, it could be that we’re being paced into accepting an increasingly direct role of the U.S. and its allies in Ukraine.

The other day Antiwar’s Daniel Larison tweeted, “Hawks in April: Don’t call it a proxy war! Hawks in May: Of course it’s a proxy war! Hawks in June: It’s not their war, it’s our war!”

 

Soon after the 2014 Obama-Biden administration orchestrated coup d'etat in Kiev this picture appeared. It is the HQ of the Ukrainian SBU (CIA equivalent) in the capital city. Guess who was running the show - then and now?

This is indeed exactly how it happened. Back in April President Joe Biden told the press the idea that this is a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia was “not true” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “It’s not, this is clearly Ukraine’s fight” when asked if this is a proxy war. The mainstream media were still framing this claim as merely an “accusation” by the Russian government and empire spinmeisters were regularly admonishing anyone who used that term on the grounds that it deprives Ukrainians of their “agency.”

Then May rolled around and all of a sudden we had The New Yorker unequivocally telling us that the U.S. is in “a full proxy war with Russia” and hawks like U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton saying things like,

    “We’re not just at war to support the Ukrainians. We’re fundamentally at war, although somewhat through a proxy, with Russia, and it’s important that we win.”

And now here in June we’ve got war hawks like Max Boot coming right out and saying that this is actually America’s war, and it is therefore important for the U.S. to drastically escalate it in order to hand the Russians “devastating losses.”

So, the previously unthinkable idea that the U.S. is at war with Russia has been gradually normalized, with the heat turned up so slowly that the frog doesn’t notice it’s being boiled alive. If that idea can be sufficiently normalized, public consent for greater escalations will likely be forthcoming, even if those escalations are extremely psychotic.

Back in March when I said the only “agency” Ukraine has in this conflict is the Central Intelligence one, empire loyalists jumped down my throat. They couldn’t believe I was saying something so evil and wrong. Now they’ve been told that the Central Intelligence Agency is indeed conducting operations and directing intelligence on the ground in Ukraine, but I somehow doubt that this will stir any self-reflection on their part.

~ Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium and Substack. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around.        

Irish MEP tells the truth

 

 

MEP (Member of European Parliament) Clare Daly outlines the 'real plan' for Ukraine

Report from chemical plant once held by Ukraine forces

 

 ...and below reflecting back on being stuck inside the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, one former commander talks about how the Azov Nazis treated the regular Kiev army guys. Interesting.

History lesson: Keep on knocking....

 

 

Keep a knockin', but you can't come in
Come back tomorrow night and try it again
 

WW 3 is on

 

True words from Gonzalo Lira

 

What will Washington do now?  

 

US putting nukes next in UK, Japan and South Korea? Pentagon already has nukes in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Italy and Netherlands.

 

Can the US take on Russia and China at the same time?

 

Will there be any money left in our national treasuries to help the people?

 

Can we eat war? 

Will there be air to breathe? 

 

Can I connect to all life on the planet and stand against the warmongers?

 

Bruce

Canadian special forces operating in Ukraine

 

 

Edmonton Journal 

Canadian special forces are in Ukraine as part of a NATO network to provide weapons, training and gather intelligence about the Russians, the New York Times is reporting.

Neither the Department of National Defence nor the office of Defence Minister Anita Anand would comment on the report published Saturday that noted a few dozen commandos from NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, had been working inside Ukraine. The United States withdrew its own 150 military instructors before the war began in February.

But the New York Times, citing three U.S. officials, reported that special forces from the NATO countries either remained or had gone in and out of Ukraine since then, training and advising Ukrainian troops and providing an on-the-ground conduit for weapons and other aid.

U.S. special forces have also established a coalition planning cell in Germany to co-ordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops, the New York Times reported. The cell, which has grown to 20 nations, is modelled after a similar structure the U.S. and its NATO allies used in Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Secretary Christine E. Wormuth has confirmed the cell provides intelligence and co-ordination for the flow of NATO weapons into Ukraine, allowing such convoys to avoid Russian attacks.

Both CTV and Global News reported in late January that Canadian special forces had been sent to Ukraine, but National Defence did not comment on that deployment.

The Liberal government is strongly supportive of Ukraine. It is still in discussions with South Korea to purchase 100,000 artillery shells for Ukraine in a deal that could cost Canadian taxpayers several hundred million dollars.

The Liberal government already spent $98 million to buy 20,000 similar artillery rounds from the U.S. for Ukraine. In addition, it has provided Ukraine with Canadian Forces M777 artillery guns that can use the 155-millimetre ammunition. 

'The NATO summit is the key thing'

 

 

By Kiji Noh (Veteran living in California)

The G7 meeting is happening right now at an Elite Spa in the Bavaria Alps, Schloss Elmau, the Nazi Esalen.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US are pampering themselves without ties, while pretending to solve the world's problems. 
https://www.reuters.com/world/g7-summit-kicks-off-under-shadow-ukraine-war-stagflation-risk-2022-06-25/
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2022/06/26-28/
War, hunger, fuel, global warming, supply chains, the future of Europe, and of course, China.

 My predictions:
 

• Continued anti-China bashing/blaming/band-waggoning

“We encourage China to support, in line with international law, the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and the integrity of its internationally recognized borders and to resolutely urge Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine,” the G7 statement read.
https://www.politico.eu/article/g7-china-pressure-russia-war-ukraine-xi-jinping-taiwan-china-military-aggression-cyberspace/
The world's wealthiest democracies on Sunday announced a $600 billion global infrastructure initiative to counter China’s BRI
https://www.politico.eu/article/g7-unveils-600b-plan-to-combat-chinas-belt-and-road/
This is the 2nd or 3rd time they've done this, so it's not working out so well.  This is a recycling of earlier ineffective initiatives: BBBW & the EU's Global Gateway program

• But there is uncertainty how hard to overtly confront China, due to economic concerns, esp. after botched sanctions on Russia:

 
When leaders from the G7 group of leading developed economies gather in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday, they will have very different visions of how hard to confront China just as the world seems to be tipping into a major economic crisis.
https://www.politico.eu/article/g7-conundrum-push-china-crisis/

• But there will be continued commitment to continue the war in Ukraine, despite the cost and foolishness.  

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now entering its fifth month, the G7 countries said they would “continue to coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements for military and defence equipment” and “provide Ukraine with the material, training and logistic, intelligence, and economic support to build up its armed forces.” They also vowed to expand cooperation on intelligence and information sharing, but the statement did not give more specifics on what further military or intelligence support would be provided.
https://www.politico.eu/article/g7-vow-to-support-ukraine-as-long-as-it-takes/
And a big show of support for Zelenski, who is expected to make a virtual showing.  

• But most of all, the G7 is just a socializer, an appetizer/cocktails to the real deal, the plat de resistance.  The NATO summit is the key thing.  

Part of the agenda is to get everyone on the same page, to counter centrifugal forces and enforce "unity", and to prepare and rehearse the choir on the real declarations at the NATO summit (and to overcome any resistance 
-NATO will increase its rapid reaction force 8 fold to 300K troops.
-Japan, NZ, SK, Oz will join the summit:we are looking at the beginnings of a defacto Asian NATO: Japan is remilitarizing, SK is readying for war with China,
-SK is joining US & NATO cyberwarfare exercises  https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220627000667
-NATO is likely to declare hostilities with China, albeit couched in coded, ambiguous language.  Western Supremacy is still a thing.

• Note the Culinary Apartheid in a Protestor-free zone:

 
Also, the G-7 is an elite, plutocratic white boys (and girls) club.  
This year they also invited India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, Argentina’s Alberto Fernández, African Union President Macky Sall, but they didn't even make the high table.  
The invitees will not join the real G-7 for Sunday dinner but will have a nice children's high tea with biscuits and sandwiches, hosted by the Bavarian governor.
Also, like Davos, it is completely restricted from access by the press or the people.  
18,000 riot police are restricting access--it is only accessible by military helicopter.  So much for democracy.

But the meals are vegan/vegetarian, so you know they are serious* about solving global warming.

(*meat and fish on demand, so maybe even the tokenism is not serious after all)

She is one of the great ones....

 

 

Live interview coming with Tamara Lorincz and Bruce Gagnon. 

Tamara will tell the story of her 'interrupting' Zelensky's talk to university students in Canada last week. Had a big impact across their nation and beyond. A real inspiration to many of us. 

We'll talk about NATO's plans to build a 'global NATO'. They want to move into Latin America, Middle East and Asia-Pacific. They are the armed muscle for corporate globalization.

Friday, July 1 at 11:00 am EST.

Click on the video to get notification.

Tamara is one of the great souls I've met during my time as an activist.  She has many skills, the best of which is her deep honest yearning for peace with real justice. People like her only come around now and then.

Here is Tamara some years ago protesting at her university during an event to receive Lockheed Martin's 'investment gift' to the school. She held her ground then too.

 

The bottom sign reads: 'Dalhousie [University] don't take Lockheed Martin's blood money...."  

Bruce

Enough of the sanctions, the Hungarian veto is correct!

 

Statement of the Hungarian Community for Peace

The Hungarian Community for Peace welcomes the fact that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wants to stop the anti-Russian sanctions policy and [initiate] a policy of peace. We consider it a reasonable, courageous move for the Prime Minister to veto another package of sanctions wanted by the hawks of the European Union, signaling that Hungary has not been let down by its life instinct to say no to the masochist madness that has taken over the European Union. 

We also welcome the fact that the government is paving the way for peaceful co-operation instead of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, and, unlike those obsessed with war, asks why it would not be possible to negotiate the recognition of Russia's legitimate security demands, the mutual guarantee of security! 

The Community for Peace believes that Hungary must have good relations with both the East and the West! The spirit of reconciliation must prevail over the EU and NATO pro-war leadership blinded by Russian hatred. The Hungarian example is contagious.

Normal thinking is starting to make its way elsewhere as well. People nowhere want to get cold and hungry, and they ask whom and what the sanctions are good for. Our confrontation with the sanctions policy also poses a serious task for Hungarian governmental and civilian diplomacy. 

We must act as a mediator between the EU and Russia, NATO and Russia. This can be successful if the government becomes a committed believer in East-West cooperation instead of the “Kállay double dance”. 

The better future of our country is revealed in peaceful cooperation. 

Budapest, 24th June 2022

Message to the French

 

 

Ukrainian Army used French CAESAR self-propelled howitzer during Donetsk shelling — France was promised the weapon would not be used against civilians.

The video shows the consequences of the shelling of the Donetskgorvodokanal, an enterprise for bottling drinking water, which was delivered to ordinary residents. 

The building was fired upon from a French CAESAR self-propelled howitzer, a shell hit the boiler room, breaking through the wall and destroying the equipment. The strikes are still hitting, according to the Readovka military correspondent Evgeny Linin. 

Evgeny showed footage of shells found near the Donetskgorvodokanal. There are reasons to believe that one of them is French: the French marking "MURAT" and the range of the AFU positions prove it. Ukrainians "move away" as far as possible, because the CAESAR range (42km) allows them to. By the way, the range of American M777 howitzers is 24 km. 

According to the DPR JCCC, a total of 9 civilian infrastructure facilities were hit.

Think visual

 

 

I like to use visuals in all my work. I'm not an intellectual but am rather a person who mostly learns by seeing and feeling. Thus the more I can use images to express myself - the better.

Here are a few that speak for me today.

Bruce 

 

Sunday song

 

 

Every 100 years...

 

Russia is attacked from the west about every 100 years. (Actually even more often than that. See here for the full list.)

Russia was first invaded by Batu Khans Mongols in (1237-1240)

The Swedes and Teutonic Knights jointly invaded Russia in (1240-1242) Russians led by Alexander Nevesky defeated both invaders.

The Poles invaded Russia in (1605-1606) Polish occupation of Moscow until a Russian uprising in 1618 drove out the Poles.

Swedes led by King Charles invaded Russia in (1708-1709) Russians led by Peter the Great defeated the Swedes.

Napoleon's French Grand Armee invaded Russia in (1812) Napoleon forced to retreat because of winter.

The Turks and Germans jointly invaded Russia during WW1 (1914-1918) Russia under Lenin signed peace treaty with Germans. Germans left Russia after WW1.

Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in (1941-1945) and were driven out by the Red Army in 1944. More than 27 million citizens of the USSR died at the hands of Hitler and his bankster supporters.

Why?

It's the resources baby. Europe wants them. Washington wants them.

 

So now its Ukraine's turn to be the sacrificial lamb, tossed into the fire lit by Satan's henchmen.

Fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian they yell from DC's capitol building. We'll send them the weapons they need to turn Russia's border into a festering sore. 

Bruce

What are most African nations thinking about Ukraine?

 

 

Most African Countries Support Russia    

Zelensky called fifty-five African leaders for virtual meeting but only four of them attended

 

By Lucas Leiroz (Researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant)

Apparently, Volodymir Zelensky’s popularity in Ukraine is very low. The Ukrainian leader called for a virtual diplomatic meeting with African heads of state, but the event failed completely. Almost all African leaders declined to participate, hampering Zelensky’s plans to make the meeting a pro-Kiev propaganda stage. Meanwhile, the Russian government’s popularity is growing in Africa, where citizens take the streets in support for the special military operation in Ukraine and ask for Russian help in combating terrorism.

On June 20, the Ukrainian president met with representatives of the African Union in order to discuss matters concerning the current conflict situation in Eastern Europe and the role of Africa on the world arena. Of the fifty-five heads of state invited to the meeting, only four attended. The other countries sent only diplomats or ministers, with the heads of state and government not willing to attend, even with the meeting being virtual.

The heads of state who attended the meeting were Macky Sall of Senegal, Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, Mohammed el-Menfi, President of the Libyan Council, and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo. It is important to note that Sall is the current president of the African Union, which is why his presence was essential for the event to take place. Therefore, his attendance does not necessarily mean an expression of his real desire – even more considering his recent conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the effort to increase Russia-Africa cooperation.

The virtual meeting was operated in secret, behind closed doors. According to official sources, Zelensky reiterated the Ukrainian position on the conflict, calling the Russian operation an unjustified “aggression”. He also commented on the current food crisis affecting Africa as a result of the conflict’s impact on the grain market. According to Zelensky, the African continent is Russia’s “hostage” because food shortages would be the result of such “aggression” and would only end when Russia decided to retreat.

Commenting on the event, Macky Sall took the most neutral and impartial stance possible, demonstrating that the Africa Union did not adhere to Zelensky’s appeals, but was concerned only with African states’ interests and the proper functioning of international law.

“Africa remains committed to respecting the rules of international law, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the freedom of trade”, he said in a publication in his Twitter account.

It is interesting to note how Zelensky’s attempt to convince African leaders to adhere to the Kiev-Western narrative absolutely failed. Not only did most African heads of state refuse to listen to the Ukrainian leader, but there was no adherence to the pro-Kiev speech on the part of those who attended the conference. For the African Union, the meeting was just a diplomatic formality, with no real gains or changes in position – which reveals that Zelensky’s plans did not work as expected.

This failure, however, was predictable for any realistic analyst. For African leaders, it is really hard to believe the fallacious narrative that Ukraine is a simple “victim” of an “unjustified aggression”. African countries are used to centuries of Western interventionism and violence and the peoples of this continent react to this with strong distrust of everything that Western nations support. As Zelensky is the ally of the US and Europe, he will likely be viewed with suspicion by countries that suffer so much from Western colonialist mentality and praxis.

In addition, there are other factors that need to be mentioned. Zelensky’s arguments that the food crisis is caused exclusively by Russia are no longer able to convince public opinion and state authorities. It is evident that, more than the conflict itself, the crisis has been caused by the sanctions against Russia, which motivates emerging countries to be enthusiastic about the end of these sanctions. Also, there are many reports that Kiev is exporting grain to the US and Europe in exchange for weapons, which is unacceptable.

Furthermore, there has recently been a strong wave of popular support for the operation in Ukraine from citizens of several African countries, especially in the regions most affected by terrorism. After the abandonment that Africa has suffered from the West in terms of security policies and defense cooperation, seeking Russian support has become the greatest hope for the members of the African Union, which is why recently there have been popular demonstrations in support of all Moscow’s actions, alongside requests for help to solve Africa’s internal problems.

In fact, in international relations, nothing matters more than cooperation. Zelensky will not be able to garner African support if he does not show interest or conditions to cooperate with Africa. Kiev currently has nothing to offer African countries, as it is economically broken and militarily virtually neutralized. On the other hand, Russia shows itself as a pillar for African food security and as a hope against terrorism in the continent. It is absolutely expected that in this context the African Union will decline its ties with Kiev and seek to approach the side that offers the best opportunities for cooperation. 

Garden update

 

This is what keeps me half-sane these days....latest version at my plot

Memorial marker for our dear Maine friends Stan & Loukie

 

 

Tomato plants in the hay on other side of pea trellis

MB and I put down seaweed last weekend to fertilize and serve as mulch

Germany to re-start coal power plants

 

The German Green Party is now part of the new coalition government in Berlin. Die Grünen, during the Merkel government, made a big effort to shut down the coal plants due to their impact on climate crisis. Now that their party has become anti-Russian (and big supporters of Zelensky) they have insisted on Germany refusing any Russian natural gas or oil. Thus in order to provide power for the nation Die Grünen supports re-start of the German coal power plants. Below is a comment at one site I frequent that addresses the complications of re-starting coal plants after they have been shut down.

 

By Mr P 

They say that EU coal-thermal power stations will be re-started.

This is easier to say than to do.

Some C-TPS will, could, probably re-start in 90 days or so. These things are not Aunt Pearl’s old de-soto car.

And when they were shut-down, I expect, there was pilferage and theft… Some C-TPS will turn out to be un-restartable…for example, steam turbines are prone to sagging…so they’re supposed to be rotated more or less all the time with “turning gear”…an electric motor drive…if not they tend to sag and become dynamically useless scrap….and this can become permanent. Boilers are supposed to be left full to prevent oxidation…were they? Then there will be “frozen” pumps, rust, and maybe frost damage…stuck valves…cracked castings and pipes…and boilers have to be hydro-tested and re-certified….probably essential parts have been stolen, salvaged, and sold. Is the documentation on hand or is it lost?

The skilled people who used to know these plants? These people are gone like the breeze.

I judge that “re-start” may be 50% in 90 days, if they have a blank check and cut regulatory and engineering corners. After re-start? Expect unplanned events.

Steam plants last long time…and by the time a critical element is out of spec, the manufacturer is gone…

The men who cast the vital pump case, and their factory, are gone, dead. Mickey-mouse temporary repairs don’t last so long…and require experts…

The coal TPS is actually a pretty good machine…coal does not create water in combustion, so specific heat of stackgas is less, less corrosion, CO2 has good heat transfer to boiler tubes… I have been in coal plants that were so clean you could spend the day and not have to change clothes or shower before going to a party, or the bar. Others, however…

After the TPS restart project? All the same problems times 10 to restart a nuke, if it was shut down for a long time.

It would be nice if the EU simply said “sorry” and made nice with Ruskieman. Especially because they’ll do this at some point, why wait? 

US-NATO moves to widen war to Kaliningrad via Lithuania

 

 

Lithuania is living dangerously, angering Russia by declaring that they will no longer allow transport of supplies by rail to Kaliningrad via their country. This rail transport arrangement was long ago agreed by treaty between Russia and Lithuania.

US-NATO is using Lithuania to provoke and widen its proxy war with Russia.

Dangerous play revealing the desperation in Washington.

Kaliningrad is a Russian semi-exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. The Potsdam Agreement of 1945 placed it under Soviet administration.

As a major transport hub, with sea and river ports, the city is home to the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy, and is one of the largest industrial centres in Russia.

 

Impacts from rocket launch facilities

 

 

The Global Network's latest video explores the various dangers that come from the growing numbers of rocket launch sites around the world.

 

Tens of thousands of launches are having major impacts on Earth's environment and a peaceful world.

 

•  The making of rocket fuels creates major amounts of carbon dioxide releases
•  Rocket launch exhaust contaminates air and water killing fish, birds and other wildlife
• Rocket fuel storage is leaking into local water supplies. A key ingredient called perchlorate severely impacts the thryroid and especially children. Perchlorate is found in milk, lettuce and now contaminates the Colorado River.
• Every rocket launch helps to punch a larger hole in the Earth's ozone layer
• When rocket parts fall back to Earth, burning up on re-entry, they drop a toxic stew of burned electronics parts into the air and water
• Launch corporations promise lots of jobs, no environmental harm, and no military uses in order to worm their way into communities around the world
• This video shows the examples of three communities impacted by rocket launch facilities - Boca Chia, Texas; Kodiak Island, Alaska and Rocket Lab in New Zealand
• Most launch facilities, sold to the public as civilian, turn out to be a Trojan Horse as the military soon takes over and Pentagon, DARPA and CIA space missions are launched

 

Please like and share this video with others

 

Find links to all Global Network social media platforms here 

Facing the music - the coming economic collapse

 

Regis Tremblay

Bruce Gagnon returns to talk about Ukraine, the NATO divide, US narrative changing; US economy collapsing; those crazed psychopaths who are behind the collapse of society; WWIII will be fought in Space, and more. 

 

Journalists and even small bloggers like Alina Lipp, 27 yr old German woman accused of treason by German government, bank account blocked.

Protests increasing across the west as sanctions blowback hitting home......

 

 

• Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday to protest the soaring cost of living in the UK and called for the government to do more to help as people's expenses rise more quickly than their wages.

• A trade union-organized protest numbering 70,000 to 80,000 demonstrators packed the streets of Brussels on Monday, bringing the city to a standstill. In addition to expressing anger at the rising cost of living in Belgium, many condemned the US-led NATO alliance and its involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Protesters demanded that their leaders “spend money on salaries, not on weapons,” and chanted “stop NATO.”

Underdog Fan Club - a personal story

 

 

I am a life-long member of the Underdog Fan Club. I always support those on the bottom of the pile.

When our Air Force family lived in Leicester, England (Bruntingthorpe air base) in early 1960's I learned all about Robin Hood. Took from the rich and gave to the poor.

Then we moved to Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota. I found out the real cowboys and Indian story. Washington's genocide of the native people touched my soul deeply. Did the Indians have the right to defend themselves against the US Army? Of course they did.

In the mid-1960's we moved to Wiesbaden, Germany and our school class visited former Roman fortifications along the Rhine River. I'll never forget wondering 'What were the Romans doing so far from home?' when we were told by our guide that the stones we were standing on had once been the barracks foundation for Roman soldiers. In that moment I learned that empire is a contradiction over time. They always collapse.

Vietnam war was on full-blast when I joined the Air Force in 1971. It was there I became a peacenik. My first roommate in the barracks was a leader in the Travis AFB, California 'GI Resistance' movement. At first I sat in the corner during their meetings, just listening. I had been a Young Republican for Nixon in '68. But my chair eventually moved into that barracks circle - I couldn't deny that the Vietnamese people had the right to defend themselves against the US.

The Nicaraguans had the right to defend themselves against the US armed-trained-funded-directed Contras (1979-1990). 

Beginning in April 1999 US-NATO (including forces from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other allied countries) rained bombs down on the tiny country of Serbia, the largest fragment of the former Yugoslavia. Did Serbia have a right to defend themselves? Yes.

Race ahead to 2003 - 'shock and awe' in Iraq - George W. Bush's war. Did the people of Iraq have the right to defend themselves? I believe so.

 

 

Then in 2011 the US-NATO began the bloody war on Syria - demanding regime change in Damascus. They have failed but still the war goes on. Do the Syrian people have the right to defend themselves against the US-NATO war machine? Yes, of course.

Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, all throughout the African continent and more.  People in the global south are suffering as the western military hammer tries to enforce the demands of empire. But people are fighting back. I support them. 

In the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine I've been supporting the Russian-ethnic populations as they resist the Washington-London-Brussels mad attempt to create an endless bloody war along Russia's border. I watched as coal miners left their jobs to defend their families from constant attacks by Nazi death squads armed-trained-funded-directed by US-NATO. Moscow kept doing all it could diplomatically for eight years before it finally moved into Ukraine to stop the shelling of the Donbass region. Since the US directed coup d'etat in Kiev in 2014 more than 14,000 have died and more than 35,000 wounded. Still the fighting rages on as US-NATO keeps that war alive by sending weapons to Kiev's lost cause.

So it is indeed possible to be a peacenik and at the same time believe in solidarity. This solidarity means I stand with the people when the US is kicking the holy hell out of them around the world on behalf of corporate interests. To do anything else for me would be a sin. A sin of indifference.

You want to end these wars? Start to pin the blame on the real provocateurs - the US and NATO. 

Bruce

Nazis shell maternity hospital in Donbass

 

 

FearlessJohn

◾Vishnevsky Maternity Hospital of Donetsk received a direct strike by Ukrainian Terrorist Forces on Monday 13 of June. 

◾Full report, doctors and patients testimonies: 

◾The shell hit the roof over the maternity ward. Fortunately, there were no patients there at the time of the attack. 

◾The Hospital suspended work due to serious damage after the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

◾As Anna Zheleznaya, deputy general director of the Donetsk Republican Center for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, said, women in labor are evacuated, and those of them who are possibly will be discharged. 

◾After the shell hit right in the Hospital, 222 people, including 35 newborns, remained in the basement until the morning - they sat on benches, chairs, and lay on mattresses. 

◾According to obstetrician-gynecologist Valeria Goncharova, no one panicked. At least outwardly. ◾"Both gynecology and intensive care have been bombed"… a young female doctor can't hold back her tears, she is terrified.  

'I don't know if I will survive another war'

 

 

Patrick Lancaster

Again the Ukraine forces set another record of the heaviest attacks on the city of Donetsk, in all 8 years of this war, with a purportedly over 400 artillery shells fired on the streets of Donetsk from Ukrainian held territory. 

 

At about 7:30 am yesterday the 18th intense shelling went on the city of Donetsk In the center and other regions. At about 9:30 my team and I went to the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk after hearing reports of shelling there. After arriving the shelling continued and we spent the next 90 min carefully avoiding shelling as it rained down on this residential area so we could document the attack. 

 

While there and in this report we documented and saw with our own eyes impacts and damage to at least 8 apartment buildings, an Electronic equipment factory, a farmers market, and 3 small stores. We came across a group of people digging through debris to find their friend's bodies (hopefully alive) after Ukraine shelled a market. As I came up one of the elderly man fell down while searching, so I helped him up and joined them in the search. 

 

We only found one of their friends (not alive). We could not find the other 2. I pray they made it out alive. We saw one civilian killed by the shelling, one injured and 2 missing and presumed dead. 

 

To be clear this location is one of the MANY that took heavy shelling throughout the day in Donetsk. 

Sunday song

 

 

War within the War: The Fight over land and Genetically engineered agriculture

 

 

Organic Consumers Association

We launched a new live broadcast on our Millions Against Monsanto Facebook page, “The Secret Military History of Monsanto,” hosted by Organic Consumers Association’s political director Alexis Baden-Mayer. 

Our guest for the inaugural broadcast was Mitchel Cohen, editor of the book, The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides, and author of the article, “War Within the War: The Fight Over Land and Genetically Engineered Agriculture.” 

 

Kiev is the killer - Washington calls the shots

 

Ukrainian troops forcibly kept people in a burning building. 32 people died. 

It's called ethnic genocide - the west wants to get rid of the Russians so they can take Moscow's vast resource base. 

Simple as that....

Every criminal syndicate has an MO.

Bruce 

The little-known Libya oil story

 

 

Libya laboratory: the unknown front

By Manlio Dinucci

While Europe is in the grip of the energy crisis, in Libya oil wells have been closed since last February. In Italy and in Europe there is no mention of it, so as not to have to go into the details of a war that we are promoting, which, however, is good for the Italian government no one has noticed. Till now!

But how did this situation come about? Last December elections in Libya were mysteriously canceled one week before the vote. Why? Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif Gaddafi was given over 50% in the polls and would become president of Libya.

 In response to this brutal interference in Libyan political life, last February the Parliament thus voted to trust Fathi Bashagha after he had in turn recognized the authority of Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army.

However, the outgoing premier, Abdulhamid Dabaiba, supported by the West, now without political legitimacy remains in his post in Tripoli, he is protected by his militias, to which ISIS has recently been added.

 This has prompted the Libyan people together with the trade unions to close the oil wells, almost entirely in 2/3 of Libya controlled by Haftar’s Libyan National Army. This extreme decision is motivated by a well-founded fear that the oil revenues will be used to finance a new repressive military device in Tripoli, sponsored by NATO, against the will of the people.

 At a time when the debate in Italy is focused on war and the high cost of living, unblocking Libyan oil through the full recognition of Libyan sovereignty and not through the financing of militias and support for an "illegal" Prime Minister could provide Italy with those resources necessary to counter the high cost of living.

 Who is ready to challenge the Draghi government in this battle?

 We talked about it with Michelangelo Severgnini, author of the film "The Scream", for several years in contact with hundreds of Libyans and migrants from Libyan soil.