Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
What peace deal......Trump got played by Israel yet again?
Israel is still killing Palestinians & bombing Gaza & the so called (mostly Jewish-American) settlers are still attacking the Palestinians in the West Bank & taking their homes under the protection of the IDF!
Vance running cover for Trump and Israel.
Join MintPress director MnarAdley as she embarks on walking through the city of Hebron, where her family originates from. Known to Palestinians as the city of al-Khalil, Hebron is the largest and most populated Palestinian city in the West Bank. Dubbed by Israel as 'Hebron Smart City' -- this is where Israel tests its Draconian surveillance technology on the Palestinian population as part of what is called the Wolfpack surveillance system.
MnarAdley takes us along her journey as she crosses through the most heavily armed and surveilled checkpoints in the world where Israel has set up an automated apartheid system to track Palestinian movement. Adley is joined by Palestinian activist Izzat Karake from Youth Against Settlements who chronicles the struggle against settler colonialism where armed Jewish settlers supported by Israeli soldiers are trying to take over the city to Judaize the quarter.
Bruce Gagnon discusses the American Empire's plans for global space domination which ultimately translates into full spectrum dominance of the planet and world empire.
He comments on the plans for a Golden Dome, the global surveillance state, and the possible aim of NATO to one day supplant the UN as the world's global governance structure.
We held our weekly noon vigil in Brunswick, Maine today for an hour. I used the sign above. Since October of 2023 we've been holding this solidarity protest with a Palestine theme. Today four of us were holding signs (3 on Palestine and mine on Venezuela).
I was very curious to see how the public would respond to Venezuela considering all the BS propaganda coming from Washington and the corporate media about 'drug running into the US'.
I was quite impressed with the large amount of peace signs, thumbs up, honks and 'thank you' to this sign. It was a bit more then we've been getting for Palestine which has actually seen support increasing in the last six months.
On November 20 the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) is organizing a day of protest across the US in solidarity with Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua and Cuba. 'Hands off Latin America' so to speak.
So I think I'll keep using this Venezuela sign for awhile but will not drop my heartfelt daily active support for the people of Palestine - Gaza and the West Bank.
Next Thursday we are moving our Brunswick weekly peace vigil to the super busy intersection at 85 Pleasant St - just across from the laundromat and the police station. Our usual spot downtown has seen traffic slow considerably since tourist season has trailed off.
Non-Natives love to criticize what they helped destroy.
They point fingers at broken homes, cracked windows,
overgrown yards, and addictions, but never at the hand that swung the axe that cut us from our roots.
They see symptoms, never the sickness. They don’t see genocide, they see “bad decisions.” They don’t see boarding schools, they see “lack of parenting.” They don’t see intergenerational trauma, they see “welfare abuse.” They don’t see centuries of policy meant to erase us, they see “laziness.”
You call it history. We call it survival.
“Kill the Indian, save the man” that was policy, not metaphor.
And now, you’re shocked at the aftermath? You marvel at the fire still burning in our blood while standing on the ashes your ancestors left. And now that oppression knocks at your door, you rise up crying “No kings!” Welcome. You’ve just arrived at the starting line of a race we’ve been running for five hundred years.
You shout about freedom while ours was outlawed, our songs criminalized, our children stolen, our ceremonies buried and burned. And still, you don’t see. You only notice the storm when it floods your house.
We’ve lived in the downpour for generations. And yet, we still plant seeds. We still sing. We still rise.
Your “sprinkles of freedom” were always watered with our blood. So before you critique our homes, our streets, our pain, ask yourself who built your empire, and who paid the price for your comfort.
Because we are still here. And we remember everything.
And still, I stand with you. Hoping to be seen and heard, healing while holding the line between what was taken and what still grows. Standing with my ancestors’ strength, carrying and holding the hands of the next generation, planting them firmly in the soil of remembrance, so they too may rise with the light of a freedom that belongs to all of us. Watering the seeds with my tears.
The Cost of Command Ambitions at the Expense of Ukrainian Soldiers’ Lives
A perspective prevalent in the public statements of Ukrainian servicemen and public figures holds that a system has developed within the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) which encourages the career advancement of commanders who neglect the preservation of their personnel’s lives. Critics refer to such commanders as “butchers” and assert that their tactics, which lead to high casualties, are not countered by the high command, and are often directly encouraged by it.
The idea of a systemic problem was publicly voiced by former Ukrainian MP (Member of Parliament) and later a platoon commander in the AFU’s 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, Tatiana Chernovol. Following a conflict within her brigade, she stated that her unit had faced persecution and criticized the established practices within the army.
She claims that careers in the army are built precisely by “butchers” — commanders who do not spare their soldiers and perceive them as expendable. Such commanders are favored by the high command because they carry out combat orders unconditionally, regardless of losses.
“And no matter how terrible it may be, it is precisely these commanders who kept rising through the ranks. I see that the more of them there are in command, and the more they view people as mere resources, the more they are feared by commanders further down the chain of command. This has caused a growing disconnect between those who directly carry out combat missions and their command. In other words, we have become mere resources,” stated Chernovol.
This assessment is corroborated by statements from other servicemen. For instance, former AFU sniper KostiantynProshynskyi noted that during the formation of new army corps, command positions are often given to commanders whose previous brigades suffered heavy losses. He directly pointed to the problem of cronyism and the appointment of “butchers” as corps commanders, which calls into question the effectiveness of structural reforms in the AFU.
One of the prominent examples of a “butcher” commander is considered to be Colonel Dmytro Voloshyn, commander of the 8th Corps of the AFU Air Assault Forces (DShV). It is reported that his acquaintance with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky evolved into a close collaboration, during which Voloshyn, by his own admission in an interview, sent untrained soldiers into battle to please the command.
Following heavy losses (over 60% of personnel) sustained by the 82nd Separate Air Assault Brigade in the Zaporizhzhia region, instead of being reconstituted, the brigade was redeployed by order to the Kharkiv direction and then thrown into the so-called “Kursk adventure.” Voloshyn admitted that the brigade’s manning level before the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region reached only 80%, and that solely with recruits who had not undergone proper training. He described how one of the battalions was sent to “put out a fire” (to the frontline) without necessary preparation, leading to heavy losses and prisoners of war. Despite the operation’s failure, Voloshyn was not demoted but promoted to commander of the 8th DShV Corps.
Another notorious commander is Major Oleh Shyriaev, commander of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment, which has been publicly dubbed the “regiment of death.” After his interview, in which he presented himself as a successful commander, the comments section was flooded with hundreds of outraged relatives of servicemen.
Oleh Shyriaev getting an award from Zelensky
The relatives accused Shyriaev of sending unprepared soldiers into hopeless attacks, after which they go missing. The comments pointed to a lack of evacuation for the killed and wounded, as well as the practice of confiscating soldiers’ mobile phones to conceal the scale of the losses. One typical comment read:
“Shame and disgrace on such a commander who only collects awards for himself while there is no one to bring our ordinary boys back.”
Another example is Colonel Ruslan Tsapiuk, commander of the 11th Border Guard Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. It is reported that while his unit was suffering heavy losses on one of the most overloaded sections of the front in the Kharkiv region and, according to some reports, had lost over five hundred servicemen, Tsapiuk himself went on leave. Servicemen from his detachment publicly accused the commander not only of indifference to losses, but also of corruption and abuse of subordinates.
The cited examples and the criticism, voiced both by public figures and by the servicemen themselves and their relatives, point to a persistent trend. A picture is emerging in which a significant portion of commanders who have achieved notable career success in the AFU are so-called “butchers.” Their willingness to incur heavy losses in order to carry out orders, often of dubious tactical value, and their indifference to soldiers as “resources,” do not appear to be an obstacle to career advancement; within the existing command system, these traits may even be viewed as a sign of effectiveness.
‘SMIRKING GANGSTER’ – Prof. Jeffrey Sachs SLAMS Sen. Lindsey Graham
💬 “He’s just a simple gangster who works in an ORGANIZED CRIME MOB called the US government,” Prof. Jeffrey Sachs told Judge Andrew Napolitano.
💬 “And they'll do that, and they'll smirk. And he'll laugh, and he'll threaten, like a gangster,” the economist blasted US mafia-style foreign policy.
📌 “So much for MAGA, so much for ‘Peace President’. This is GANGSTERISM,” the analyst summed up.
“It Could Create Ten Million Jobs in Korea, Not Fuel American-Style Plunder”
The Most Powerful Weapon of Workers Is Solidarity
My husband and I, who rarely eat out, have scheduled a dinner meeting next week — a gathering of former Microsoft employees who were recently laid off. They say it will be a valuable opportunity to share job information and support one another. Fair enough. For both laid-off and still-employed workers, solidarity remains an essential weapon.
I heard this same message years ago while preparing my doctoral dissertation, when I interviewed South Korean workers. They all emphasized: “Solidarity is the weapon of survival for working people. Workers must unite.” Even here in the United States, I draw strength from the ongoing efforts of Korean workers organizing and standing up again.
Case in point–the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which led the charge in ousting Yoon Suk-yeol, returned to the streets to confront Trump’s tariff threats. This is the same KCTU that played a central role in the impeachments of Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk-yeol, now rising once more. After driving Yoon from office, the flames of resistance are reigniting in Korea’s public squares — this time opposing coercive U.S. tariffs. It is inspiring.
The struggle of Korea’s workers and younger generation to defend economic sovereignty bridges Seoul and the industrial city of Ulsan. On October 25, the KCTU held simultaneous rallies in Ulsan’s manufacturing, automobile, and shipbuilding districts and at Seoul’s Sungnyemun Gate, demanding the full withdrawal of Washington’s $350 billion cash extraction threat. Participants marched from Sungnyemun to the U.S. Embassy, chanting: “Stop economic exploitation! Stop job destruction! No to Trump! End submissive negotiations! Withdraw the U.S. investment demand entirely!” Progressive Party co-representative Kim Jae-yeon added, “The people will no longer tolerate a government that bows to the United States.”
This moment marks a symbolic return of the KCTU to the public square, defending South Korea’s economic sovereignty against U.S. coercion. The threats — forced extraction of $350 billion, tariff bombs on auto parts, and currency swap leverage — are being condemned as economic aggression and neocolonial exploitation. In both Ulsan and Seoul, workers declared “No to Trump,” taking another step toward a broader struggle reminiscent of the resistance three years ago.
KCTU Chair Yang Kyung-su reminded the crowd that even the impeachments of Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk-yeol once seemed impossible — yet people’s resistance and solidarity made them possible. He urged that, without giving up, the KCTU must again lead the citizens’ movement. “Trump’s demands,” he said, “could create ten million jobs paying $36,000 a year — the same amount he’s demanding from South Korea. It’s time to resist this American-style plunder with determination.”
Korean workers’ longstanding culture of organization and resistance is rare among unions globally. At a webinar, American activists who admired this spirit asked me about their role in Korea’s democracy and economic justice movements. Indeed, their unity continues to be one of the most powerful forces in progressive change, showing that workers together can make the impossible possible and create hope amid despair.
Political leaders, nuclear weapons workers, and citizens urged to think carefully about the realities portrayed in the film, including the limitations of nuclear deterrence and the temptation of national suicide
By Los Alamos Study Group director Greg Mello:
"The film's highly-realistic portrayal of a nuclear decision scenario merits, in itself, wide attention. There are many such scenarios possible. Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow picks one -- an incoming ballistic warhead, unattributed due to a satellite glitch -- and masterfully proceeds to weave human drama and uncertainty into the preexisting procedures and protocols.
"Some commentators believe such a glitch -- accidental or intentional -- is nearly impossible due to satellite redundancies, etc. As Bigelow portrays, communication systems don't always work when contingencies occur. Will all these satellites withstand a high-amplitude solar storm? Maybe, and there's the rub. Humans have a tendency toward optimism regarding the stability and resilience of complex systems on which we are utterly dependent.
"In the film, there is not much time available for the first set of decisions. In fact, the 18 minutes Bigelow provides could be much less in real life. There could be zero warning, if a nuclear weapon were assembled in the U.S. from components smuggled here, or if undersea drones were used to deliver nuclear weapons to U.S. coastal facilities such as submarine bases or cities, or if nuclear weapons were brought into U.S. harbors in shipping containers.
"Sea-launched hypersonic missiles might appear on radars with very little warning -- perhaps 5 minutes. Cruise missiles launched from shipping containers on ships could be very close to their targets. Bigelow's 18 minutes is generous.
"The ground-based mid-course interceptors (GBIs) portrayed in the film basically don't work. Any weapon which only works about half the time in highly-scripted test situations is not a weapon which actually works in the real world. Against real warheads with decoys, warheads which might come in large numbers and in some cases will maneuver, anti-missile defense will forever prove impossible for fundamental physical reasons. (Closing speeds are too fast; the lenses in the optics have to be too large for interceptors to lift fast enough, etc.)
"For long-range, deeply-submerged torpedoes of intercontinental range (already deployed by Russia and possibly soon in some form by China, judging from the 2025 Victory Parade) there will likewise be no practical defense. The ocean is just too big and too deep. There also is, and will remain, no effective defense against short-range missiles of any modern variety. Trump's 'Golden Dome' is many things, but an effective defense it will never be.
"What is realistic in the film is that our political system pretends that these GBI systems do work. 'We' believe they work because 'we' have invested so much money in them, and only a few scientists have the temerity to say they don't work. The experts allowed to speak with the greatest authority are the ones being paid to lie. And because we are as a nation scientifically illiterate, the lies stand.
"But why is there only an 18-minute response window in this film? Viewers need to zero in on this question. Bigelow's generals don't provide much of an answer, especially given the missile's ambiguous origin. If the U.S. were to respond with a nuclear strike against Russia or China, there is little doubt that these countries' nuclear forces would destroy the U.S. utterly. A nuclear strike against either of these countries is, under any circumstances whatsoever, an act of national suicide for the U.S. Soon North Korea will likely be in that same existentially-dangerous category, if it is not already there.
"So the temptation to strike back is really the temptation of national suicide. As irrational as it seems, that suicidal tendency is indeed hard-wired into U.S. nuclear targeting policies. In this regard, it does not matter if a committee or a single individual chooses to respond, or whether this or that nuclear strike package is chosen. The die will be cast, in either case. What happens then will be up to the 'other side.' Would they spare us? Don't count on it.
"Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, told many of us personally that his private advice to the two presidents he served was to never, under any circumstances, order the use of nuclear weapons. For McNamara, there was no 18-minute response window because in his view, there should never be a response, period. Is then the entire apparatus of nuclear deterrence a kind of dangerous fiction that attains its horrific reality by only widespread participation and belief, a kind of doomsday cult?
"It is easy for many people to say, 'Nuclear weapons should never be used.' But the fact is that the U.S. government has definite plans to use weapons under various circumstances if the President so orders, and to 'win' the resulting nuclear war. The Pentagon views nuclear weapons as weapons of war, and so does most of Congress.
"The continuity of government (COG) protocols portrayed in the movie are, right now, woven into the fabric of government, a shadow thrown on our tattered democracy from a contingent future.
"There is no discussion of nuclear destruction in this movie, other than an initial casualty estimate. In fact the infrastructure which supports life in the U.S. is quite fragile. Were the three main U.S. electrical grids taken out by electromagnetic pulses from high-altitude nuclear explosions, which is possible, life in the former United States would become very tenuous.
"For many reasons, it is our belief that only a very few nuclear weapons -- less than the fingers on both hands -- could end the United States.
"Viewers, including students, might want to imagine that the scenes in this movie were occurring in Russia, which lacks a truly global early-warning satellite system. How should these actors react, if they were Russian?
"It will be clear to viewers that the response decisions are going to be based in part on the overall diplomatic context. How many lines of communication are open? What is the trust level, and by what verification measures is it maintained? In simple terms, are we at war or are we at peace?
"Right now, the U.S. is unfortunately conducting a proxy war with Russia that has seen deep strikes against Russia's strategic nuclear assets. How does this affect the decision calculus, in Russia and the U.S.?
"We hope viewers will consider some of these issues and share his film with others."
The poor, the elderly, veterans, and disabled are in the firing line as Washington is trimming their $38 trillion debt on the backs of the needy.
42 million in the US get food stamp (SNAP) benefits. Local food banks can't keep up with the growing demand.
With Pentagon spending currently over $1 trillion a year the oligarchs are going after people support programs in order to cut the deficit.
This is all part of the collapse of the American economy.
The rich will not suffer.
It is the unneeded poor, the superfluous populations, that are in grave danger.
Sabby reports above that Amazon says they are going to replace 600,000 jobs with robots. Look for more of that in the near future.
We've got to build community and organize if we hope to survive and protect the future generations.
And we must connect these issues - endless war$ must be linked to cuts in human needs programs. Are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid next on the cut list as well?
It was a cool and cloudy day as seven of us gathered on a bridge over Highway I-95 in Waterville. The occasion was our monthly statewide solidarity vigil with Palestine. As it turned out the elite (Junior Ivy League) Colby College was having its annual homecoming so lots of people were around to witness our protest.
We began at 8:00 am on the bridge for two hours. We covered both north and south directions of the highway. I was counting cars from both directions in 5 minute increments - doing it frequently to come up with averages over the 120 minutes. All together I got a conservative figure of 4,000 vehicles that saw our banners.
After a warming break at a local coffee shop in Waterville for breakfast, tea and chatting we moved over to a local second hand store to get some gloves for those who did not have any. (I even bought a lovely old wooden rocking chair.)
At 1:00 pm we gathered at the busiest intersection in Waterville for our vigil. People came from all over to join us. At 2:30 pm we walked thru the downtown area with our signs (in both directions) and then ended with a short sharing circle.
Our friend Luke brought his horn and played moving spiritual/political songs throughout the vigil.
Our next monthly protest will be held next to the Augusta Civic Center just off Hwy I-95. We will meet on Saturday, November 22 at 1:30 pm. The Augusta Civic Center in Maine is located just off of Exit 112 for northbound traffic and Exit 112A for southbound traffic on I-95.
Argentina (after they have stolen the wealth of the nation they now need a bailout from Trump which could rise up to $40 billion. American farmers are not happy about this. So much for MAGA.)
By exchanging secret messages with Soviet leader Khrushchev to reduce the risk of nuclear war, US President John Kennedy was putting himself at increasing risk.
What alarmed the deep state agencies monitoring the JFK-Khrushchev exchanges was that the new US president was cutting them out of the loop. Those accustomed to steering the government's elected leaders where they wanted them to go found themselves outside peering in at a leader resolving issues without their permission.
The deep state wanted the destruction of Cuba and war with the former Soviet Union. They were angry that JFK had not followed orders.
In the end JFK-Khrushchev's private communications during and after the Cuban Missile Crisis led to a pause in the mad hysteria of the US military industrial complex (MIC) as JFK and the Soviets created an atmosphere where the two nuclear powers could reason with one another.
Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US and Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which prohibited nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater. This was the first major arms control agreement between the two superpowers and was directly motivated by the fear of nuclear war that resulted from the crisis. While the treaty did not ban underground tests, it was a significant first step in limiting the arms race and preventing the spread of radioactive contamination.
JFK and Khrushchev began to discuss total nuclear disarmament in a series of private letters.
JFK's famous disarmament speech at American University, delivered on June 10, 1963, was titled "A Strategy of Peace". In it, he called for a new approach to the Cold War, advocating for a peaceful relationship with the Soviet Union and proposing the ban on atmospheric nuclear weapons testing as well.
He advocated for a reassessment of American attitudes toward peace, the Soviet Union, and the arms race.
Sadly the CIA (and its allies in the Pentagon and the Mafia) concluded that JFK had gone too far in attempting to bring true peace and they, under the leadership of Allen Dulles, moved to assassinate JFK.
Since that time no US president has been free from the deep state's threat to kill anyone who attempts to seriously reign in the military industrial complex and its push for endless war and global domination. And now we see the MIC moving the arms race into space.
JFK knew he would likely be killed for attempting to seek peace and nuclear disarmament but he risked his life in order to save humanity from a nuclear holocaust.
In the end the crisis was averted when a swap was agreed upon by the two nuclear powers. The Soviet Union pulled their nukes out of Cuba and Washington agreed to take their nuclear-tipped Jupiter missiles out of Turkey.
President Kennedy instructed all members of his government to make no public comments which would claim any kind of victory over the Soviet Union. If it was a triumph, it was a triumph for the next generation and not for any particular government or people.
Former US CIA agent Phil Giraldi interviewed about the CIA being 'Unleashed on Venezuela'.
They also cover the current plans coming from the zionists in the US and Israeli about the Gaza 'redevelopment' on behalf of rich oligarchs from both those nations.
Egypt has also now sadly endorsed this so-called Gaza plan.
It is nothing more than a theft of Palestinian lands on top of an already obvious genocide!
Steve Witcoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner both claimed on CBS TV show '60 Minutes' that there has been 'no genocide' in Gaza.
Pepe Escobar (world traveling journalist) reviews most of the US-NATO's war fronts and the insane chaos that comes with it all.
He mentions the EU's plan to steal billions of Russian assets that are frozen in European banks. If this money is stolen then imagine how other nations will think twice about investing in EU banks.
EU is burning their own houses. The leadership there are corrupt - just like in the US.
How much longer will the people in the EU and the US put up with their 'mis-leaders'?
Pepe praises Russia for its patience when dealing with scatter-brained Trump over life and death issues. Russian leadership is increasingly fed up with the ruthless meanderings of the US so-called government.
They also discuss Trump's crazy 'drug-oil war' with Venezuela and the need for Latin American nations to stand against US foreign policy. Pepe also nails US Secretary of State Narco Rubio - the Cuban-American war hawk. He calls Trump the 'king of the jungle'.
