U.S. sending updated nukes to bases in Europe

 

                             THE NEW NUCLEAR BOMBS MADE IN USA

 By GRANDANGOLO (Italian TV peace network)

 

"Production of the B61-12 nuclear bomb begins," Sandia National Laboratories from the United States announced. The B61-12, which replaces the previous B61 deployed by the U.S.  at Aviano and Ghedi and other European bases, is a new type of weapon.

It has a nuclear warhead with four power options, selectable depending on the target to destroy.

It is not dropped vertically, but at a distance from the target on which it is directed guided by a satellite system. It can penetrate underground, exploding deep to destroy command center bunkers in a nuclear first strike. The B61-12s, classified as "non-strategic nuclear weapons," are deployed in Europe – in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain and probably other countries – at distances far enough to strike Russia. They thus have offensive capabilities similar to those of strategic weapons.

Another nuclear weapon system, which the United States is preparing to install in Europe against Russia, is ground-based intermediate-range missiles. They can also be launched from  "anti-missile shield" installations, deployed by the U.S. at bases in Deveselu  (Romania) and Redzikowo (Poland), and aboard five warships cruising in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and  Baltic Sea close to Russia.

That such installations have offensive capabilities, Lockheed Martin itself confirmed.  

 

Outlining the characteristics of the Mk 41 vertical launch system, used in both land and naval installations, it specifies that it is capable of launching "missiles for all missions, both defense and long-range attack, including Tomahawk cruise missiles." These can be armed with nuclear warheads.

Europe is thus being turned by the U.S. into the front line of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, even more dangerous than that of the Cold War.

                                   
~  Grandangolo can also be seen on live TV on mobile or computer at the site:                                        https://www.byoblu.com/diretta-tv/

Evo Morales: UK Role in Coup That Ousted Him

 

 

Declassified UK

The President of Bolivia from 2006-19 invites Declassified to his house deep in the Amazon rainforest for an exclusive interview – on the UK role in the coup that overthrew him, how he reversed 500 years of history and industrialised Bolivia, and the efforts of the US and its British ally to bring him down.

•     THE COUP: ‘The U.K. participated in it – all for lithium’

•     THE BRITISH: ‘Superiority is so important to them, the ability to dominate’

•     THE U.S. : ‘Any relationship with them is always subject to conditions’

•     NEW MODEL: ‘We no longer submit to transnational corporations’

•     JULIAN ASSANGE: ‘The detention of our friend is an intimidation’

•     NATO: ‘We need a global campaign to eliminate it’

•     BOLIVIA: ‘We are putting anti-imperialism into practice’

 

 See Matt Kennard's full article about this interview at Consortium News

No confidence in US institutions - latest national poll

 

 Click on graphic for better view

So what comes next from the public as their outrage grows?

Will they think re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic will be enough (congressional elections in November) or will the people begin to call for truly systemic changes in the US oligarchic-run nation?

We are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the worm to turn....

An early Dem prez-vp prediction for 2024

 

Governors Gavin Newsom (California) and J.B. Pritzker (Illinois) appear to be early picks to be the Dem nominees for Prez and V-P in 2024

 

No, I don't have any inside scoop on the 2024 Democratic party nominees for the president and vice-president.

But I've learned over the years to keep my ears on the RR tracks - so I can hear the train coming as the Native Americans used to say.

During the past couple of days I've seen and heard corporate media puff pieces on both these guys - from the Washington Post to National Public Radio. For a small sampling see articles here, here, here and here.

Wall Street knows they have to move on from Biden real fast. He might not even make it till 2024. So the skids are being greased as they like to say.

Let's look at who these two guys are:

• Gavin Christopher Newsom is serving as the 40th governor of California since January 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019 and as the 42nd mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011.

He was elected governor in the 2018 election. Newsom faced criticism for his personal behavior and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by an attempt to recall him from office. He prevailed in the 2021 recall election. 

Newsom was born in San Francisco, to Tessa Thomas (née Menzies) and William Alfred Newsom III, a state appeals court judge and attorney for Getty Oil. He is a fourth-generation San Franciscan.
 

• J. B. Pritzker, a Democrat, took office as Governor of Illinois on January 14, 2019. 

Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker is an American billionaire heir, businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor. His family, which owns the worldwide hotel chain Hyatt, is considered among the US’s richest families. Pritzker is based in Chicago and has started several venture capital and investment startups like the Pritzker Group, where he is a managing partner. He has an estimated personal net worth of $3.6 billion.

Pritzker was born and raised in Atherton, California, from a Jewish family prominent in business and philanthropy. The Pritzkers are consistently named near the top of the Forbes "America's Richest Families" list since its 1982 inception.

Both of these guys obviously come from wealthy and hugely connected families. Call them leading oligarchs.

Why would the Dems pick them?

After 'stumbling Biden', the Dems need to go 'young and vital' and what better public relations gimmick than picking someone from California. Newsom showed himself to be a total political hack and hypocrite when he threw a party in a swanky restaurant in the middle of Covid lock-down for some well-connected chums. They were not wearing masks while everyone else was told to do so. 

 

The Electoral College is the process by which the states and District of Columbia elect the president of the United States. Each state is represented by a number of electors equal to the size of its congressional delegation. There are 538 electors in total. To win the Electoral College, a candidate must receive a majority—at least 270—electoral votes.

 

California is a huge state and will have 54 electoral votes in the 2024 national election - the most of any state in the country. Illinois will have 19 electoral votes in 2024 - tied for 5th most of any state in the nation. (Pritzker has a second home in Florida which has the 3rd most electoral votes - 30 of them.)

Pritzker could theoretically help the Dems in the mid-west 'rust belt' that their party has long ignored as corporations moved industrial jobs overseas. Working class people in this region went big for Trump in the last two elections. (Even many self-identified union members who were Democrats abandoned their party and voted Trump.)

Pritzker's corporate connections would likely help bring in boatloads of campaign donations.

Obviously the Dems know they can't hand the baton to current V-P Kamala Harris. People don't take her seriously.

So keep your eyes and ears open and see if this early promotion of these two guys in the corporate media is part of a trend. This is how politics works anymore - it is all show and tell - Hollywood and Madison Avenue scripted. The story-line is being written and pushed out into the minds of the people at this time. National elections have nothing to do with real democracy.

Time will tell.

I can assure you no matter who the Dems or Repubs nominate in 2024 - I won't be voting for either party.

Bruce  

Farmers on the rise

 

 

Dutch farmers protest and got huge support from citizens.

No farmers, no food.

Governments are beginning to fall.

Stop the sanctions on Russia which are causing many of these problems as farmers can't afford rising fuel costs and without fertilizers can't grow food.

The US-EU strategy has backfired. 

MIA in Ukraine - families angry

 

 

This is so touching and tragic - Ukrainian soldiers wives and mothers appealing for information about their loved ones from the US puppet regime in Kiev....they get no real information about those missing in action.

 

When soldiers are 'officially' listed as missing the families get no money from the government. If they are listed as dead then the families do get some funds. So MIA becomes the preferred policy of the government for obvious reasons.

 

Used as cannon fodder for US-UK-NATO ambitions. Nothing more.

 

Bruce 

The End of Western Civilization – Why It Lacks Resilience, and What Will Take Its Place

 

 
 

By Michael Hudson


The greatest challenge facing societies has always been how to conduct trade and credit without letting merchants and creditors make money by exploiting their customers and debtors. All antiquity recognized that the drive to acquire money is addictive and indeed tends to be exploitative and hence socially injurious. The moral values of most societies opposed selfishness, above all in the form of avarice and wealth addiction, which the Greeks called philarguria – love of money, silver-mania. Individuals and families indulging in conspicuous consumption tended to be ostracized, because it was recognized that wealth often was obtained at the expense of others, especially the weak.

The Greek concept of hubris involved egotistic behavior causing injury to others. Avarice and greed were to be punished by the justice goddess Nemesis, who had many Near Eastern antecedents, such as Nanshe of Lagash in Sumer, protecting the weak against the powerful, the debtor against the creditor.

That protection is what rulers were expected to provide in serving the gods. That is why rulers were imbued with enough power to protect the population from being reduced to debt dependency and clientage. Chieftains, kings and temples were in charge of allocating credit and crop-land to enable smallholders to serve in the army and provide corvée labor. Rulers who behaved selfishly were liable to be unseated, or their subjects might run away, or support rebel leaders or foreign attackers promising to cancel debts and redistribute land more equitably.

The most basic function of Near Eastern kingship was to proclaim “economic order,” misharum and andurarum clean slate debt cancellations, echoed in Judaism’s Jubilee Year. There was no “democracy” in the sense of citizens electing their leaders and administrators, but “divine kingship” was obliged to achieve the implicit economic aim of democracy: “protecting the weak from the powerful.”

Royal power was backed by temples and ethical or religious systems. The major religions that emerged in the mid-first millennium BC, those of Buddha, Lao-Tzu and Zoroaster, held that personal drives should be subordinate to the promotion of overall welfare and mutual aid.

What did not seem likely 2500 years ago was that a warlord aristocracy would conquer the Western world. In creating what became the Roman Empire, an oligarchy took control of the land and, in due course, the political system. It abolished royal or civic authority, shifted the fiscal burden onto the lower classes, and ran the population and industry into debt.

This was done on a purely opportunistic basis. There was no attempt to defend this ideologically. There was no hint of an archaic Milton Friedman emerging to popularize a radical new moral order celebrating avarice by claiming that greed is what drives economies forward, not backward, convincing society to leave the distribution of land and money to “the market” controlled by private corporations and money-lenders instead of communalistic regulation by palace rulers and temples – or by extension, today’s socialism. Palaces, temples and civic governments were creditors. They were not forced to borrow to function, and so were not subjected to the policy demands of a private creditor class.

But running the population, industry and even governments into debt to an oligarchic elite is precisely what has occurred in the West, which is now trying to impose the modern variant of this debt-based economic regime – U.S.-centered neoliberal finance capitalism – on the entire world. That is what today’s New Cold War is all about.

By the traditional morality of early societies, the West – starting in classical Greece and Italy around the 8th century BC – was barbarian. The West was indeed on the periphery of the ancient world when Syrian and Phoenician traders brought the idea of interest-bearing debt from the Near East to societies that had no royal tradition of periodic debt cancellations. The absence of a strong palace power and temple administration enabled creditor oligarchies to emerge throughout the Mediterranean world.

Greece ended up being conquered first by oligarchic Sparta, then by Macedonia and finally by Rome. It is the latter’s avaricious pro-creditor legal system that has shaped subsequent Western civilization. Today, a financialized system of oligarchic control whose roots lead back to Rome is being supported and indeed imposed by U.S. New Cold War diplomacy, military force and economic sanctions on countries seeking to resist it. 

See the rest of this article here

~ Michael Hudson (born March 14, 1939) is an American economist, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and a researcher at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, former Wall Street analyst, political consultant, commentator and journalist. He is a contributor to The Hudson Report, a weekly economic and financial news podcast produced by Left Out.

Webinar: What could trigger nuclear war with Russia and China?

 

 

Webinar: What could trigger nuclear war with Russia and China?

Start: Tuesday, August 02, 2022 • 3:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

End: Tuesday, August 02, 2022 • 4:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00) 

Register to get the Zoom link at  https://actionnetwork.org/events/webinar-what-could-trigger-nuclear-war-with-russia-and-china?clear_id=true 

Hosted by the Central Florida chapters of Veterans For Peace and World BEYOND War.

Stop NATO from turning Montenegro mountain area into military bombing range

 

Pangea

In this special Pangea's Grandangolo episode Jean Marazzani Visconti interviews Pablo Dominguez, an eco-anthropologist specialized on traditional pastoral mountain commons, and Milan Sekulović, president of the Association for the Defence of Sinjajevina, to discuss what is happening in Sinjajevina and their desperate defence of this precious territory. 

Sinjajevina is a plateau in the mountains of Montenegro where families of shepherds have lived and protected the territory for centuries. Sinjajevina was about to become a World Heritage Site for the world and Europe, when Montenegro joined NATO and they decided to use Sinjajevina as a shooting range and international military base. 

Traduzione in Italiano (video in Inglese) In questo episodio speciale di Grandangolo di Pangea Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti intervista Pablo Dominguez, un eco-antropologo specializzato sui territori pastorizi tradizionali, e Milan Sekulović, presidente della Associazione per la Difesa di Sinjajevina, per discutere cosa sta succedendo nella Sinjajevina e la loro difesa del prezioso territorio. La Sinjajevina è un altopiano sulle montagne del Montenegro, dove per secoli famiglie di pastori hanno vissuto e protetto il territorio. Sinjajevina stava per diventare patrimonio dell’umanità e dell’Europa, quando il Montenegro è entrato nella NATO e ha deciso di impiegare Sinjajevina come poligono di tiro e base militare internazionale.

Nazi's pour gas into only well in village in Donbass

 

Itapirkanmaa2

"Bandera devils ruined the only well in Volcheyarovka, LPR, filling it with diesel fuel. They asked where the well was. We showed them. We come the next day, they poured diesel fuel into it. People don't have water."  

GN boards meeting notes on July 9/10

Attending: Dave Webb (UK, a recent grand-dad), Koohan Paik-Mander (Hawaii), Bob Anderson (New Mexico), Mary Beth Sullivan (Maine), Aruna Kammila (India) Agneta Norberg (Sweden), Sung-Hee Choi (South Korea), Denis Apel (California), Atsushi Fujioka (Japan), Tamara Lorincz (Canada), Sandeepa Bhat (India), Bruce Gagnon (Maine). We got regrets from five board members who either could not attend because of the time in their particular community or just forgot about the meeting.

Check-in: We began with a check-in, each person talking a bit about what was happening these days in their community/country or in their heart. Generally nearly everyone expressed deep concern about the direction things were taking - from growing poverty/homelessness, bad politics at the national level in their nation, divided peace movement (although slowly changing as more people and groups get better info and see the bigger picture), economic troubles, worsening environment, media deception and RIMPAC war games aimed at China and North Korea now underway in the Pacific.

Bruce reported that there is presently just at $30,000 in our bank account and he reminded that the GN is now paying two part-time social media/video staff - Will Griffin (Pennsylvania and a new dad) and Lisa Savage (Maine). Will produces the new Space Alert podcast each month (and a space issues video) and Lisa is also taking the lead in Maine on the recently passed law to create a space launch authority/facility in Maine.

Several expressed how grateful they are for the GN and our ability to see that all over the world there are good, dedicated people doing their very best to make changes. One of the positives we heard was from Tamara - she and others recently organized more than a dozen local actions against NATO from coast-to-coast in Canada.

Board changes: Most board members wish to remain but there were a couple requests to make changes. Regina Hagen (Germany) asked to come off the board - she will be missed. Atsushi and Agneta asked to move from the directors to the advisors. All the rest will stay the same.

Bruce reminded that the difference between the directors and advisers is just a legal construct. The GN must have a formal BOD by law. But in the real world of GN operations since 1992 we've believed that there is no real separation between the directors and advisers. Thus we always invite everyone to speak out and share what is in their heart and help to guide us.

Ukraine: We had an excellent discussion about Ukraine. Atsushi asked why we have not done an official GN statement on the war in Ukraine. Dave and Bruce responded that the board members are far too divided on the issue and we'd rather not put ourselves thru the difficult process of trying to come to some kind of difficult consensus. We respect all views on this tragic and difficult situation and know that people are doing the best in their communities to work for peace in their own way.

Agneta told about being kicked off two organizations in Sweden because she dared show some understanding about how Russia feels it is being surrounded and embattled by the west. She said the Russia demonization in Sweden was outrageous. Swedish government would not allow a proper national debate or referendum on joining NATO and forced the decision.

Several members spoke about the historical context that has led to Russia's military action: the US orchestrated coup in 2014, the constant Kiev government shelling of the Donbass since 2014 (with more than 14,000 dead and more than 34,000 wounded), constant NATO expansion, US deployment of missile launch facilities in Romania and Poland that can fire nuclear-capable cruise missiles and more.

It was also mentioned how NATO is going global - including the US now saying that Russia and China are 'existential threats' to the west - largely because Russia and China are promoting the idea of a 'multi-polar' world.

So in the end it was decided that we won't produce a GN statement but we will continue to do our best to share relevant and important information concerning the war in Ukraine - especially when it connects to the space issue.

Space Week theme: Several members offered suggestions that sort of fit together into a good theme. Space Week would basically concentrate on 'Space, NATO, Cyber and Nuclear war'. The positive side of the message would be 'Protect and survive - Common security for all'. Space is the engine that drives all war today on the planet. Bruce and Dave volunteered to put together a draft for the boards to look at in the weeks ahead. Anyone else wishing to help on this please let us know. Space week will be October 1-8.

India Conference: Dr. Aruna Kammila reported that she is organizing another national conference (J. Narayana Rao would be proud of her) at her law school in Hyderabad (south central India). The date will be October 14-16 (she wanted to do it during space week but students/faculty would not be available then). The GN would be a co-sponsor.

Aruna made the request that GN board members please come to the event. For those wishing to attend the GN could pay your airfare and Aruna will provide lodging and food while we are at the conference. She will be inviting students from across India (like she did in 2019 when 200 students/professors came from 20 law schools). Bruce will be attending (he has heard from 2 others that would like to attend as well). Dave said he can't come but would be willing to make a speech via Internet - Aruna said that technology will be available. Aruna wants this next conference to broaden out the space issue (beyond just law) to talk about the key points similar to our space week theme.

Around that same time in October, Prof. (Dr.) Sandeepa Bhat (Professor of Law and Director of Centre for Aviation and Space Laws at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata) reported that he would be organizing another Zoom-type international conference on space issues. Last year he organized a similar event that was very successful - Dave, Bruce and Karl Grossman spoke via Internet. 

See our web site here

Rich gobbling up land, water, resources

 

 

MoneyWise reports:

 
Bill Gates just won legal approval to buy 2,100 acres of North Dakota farmland worth $13.5M — and people across the state are ‘livid’ about it

The tech billionaire keeps plowing millions into this asset class.

Bill Gates made his fortune in tech, but he’s now betting big on something completely different: farmland.

Last week, Gates secured the legal approval for purchasing 2,100 acres of farmland from northeastern North Dakota potato growers Campbell Farms.

Of course, this isn’t first time Gates has invested in the asset class. Having amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across dozens of states, Gates is already the largest private owner of farmland in America.

Let’s take a closer look at the approval.


Betting (on) the farm

Gates’ purchase of farmland in North Dakota initially raised concerns because of a Depression-era law that prohibits corporations and limited liability companies from owning farmland in the region.

North Dakota’s Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring previously told KFYR-TV — a television station in Bismarck, North Dakota — that many people weren’t thrilled about the news.

“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood. Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this,” Geohring said.

However, the anti-corporate farming law does allow individual trusts to own farmland if it is leased to farmers — and that’s what Gates’ firm plans to do.

On Wednesday, North Dakota’s Attorney General issued a letter saying that the purchase complied with the law.

 

A recession-resistant asset

You don’t need an MBA to see the appeal of farmland.

Markets can go up or down, but no matter what happens, people still need to eat.

That makes farmland intrinsically valuable.

And it just so happens that Gates’ good pal Warren Buffett also likes the asset.

In fact, Buffett bought a 400-acre farm in Nebraska back in 1986. “I needed no unusual knowledge or intelligence to conclude that the investment had no downside and potentially had substantial upside,” Buffett later wrote.

At Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting earlier this year, Buffett mentioned farmland again as one of the two assets he’d buy instead of Bitcoin.

“If you said, for a 1% interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25 billion, I’ll write you a check this afternoon,” he said.  

No need to be a billionaire

While the ultra-rich have been acquiring farmland, you don’t need to be a billionaire to get a piece of the action.

Publicly traded real estate investment trusts — that specialize in owning farms — allow you to do it with as little money as you’re willing to spend. You don’t need to know how to work the farm, either — just sit back, relax, and enjoy the dividend checks rolling in.

Gladstone Land (LAND), for instance, owns 164 farms totaling 113,000 acres. It pays monthly distributions of $0.0454 per share, giving the stock an annual dividend yield of 2.5%.

Then there’s Farmland Partners (FPI), a REIT with a farmland portfolio of 185,000 acres and an annual dividend yield of 1.8%.

If you are looking for options outside the stock market, there are investing services that allow you to invest in farmland as well.

Official New York City video on 'what to do during nuclear blast'

  

 

Hard to imagine this is serious by here it is. I guess Washington wants to sell us that nuclear war with Russia and China would be survivable. Good luck on that .....

NYC Emergency Management

NYC Emergency Management shares important steps for New Yorkers to follow if a nuclear attack occurs. 

 

For more information on how to be prepared for emergencies, visit NYC.gov/emergencymanagement or call 311 (212-639-9675 for Video Relay Service, or TTY: 212-504-4115).

 

 

The shelling of the Donbass never stops....

 

 

 

Graham Phillips (British independent journalist) has been reporting from the Donbass since 2014.

 

Ukraine's shelling of the Donbass region (Russian-ethnic part of Ukraine close to Russia) for the past 8 years. Listen to what the woman has to say about it all....

 

More than 14,000 have been killed in the Donbass and more than 34,000 wounded by Kiev's war on their own citizens. Funded, trained and directed by US-UK-NATO....how come few in the west are alarmed about these deaths?

 

 

 

Sunday song