Syria Bombing Not an Accident

No doubt in my mind that the US is protecting its ISIS operatives.

US wants to take down the Syrian government in order to expand Israel's land grab in the Golan Heights, steal the oil from Syria, and expand the ISIS military capability so it can then be turned against Iran and ultimately Russia.

The goal is to carve Syria up into pieces just like the US has successfully done in Iraq and previously (under Bill Clinton) to Yugoslavia.  It's a bi-partisan operation in Washington.

Russia and Iran realize that the US-ISIS-NATO operation must be stopped in Syria before it gets bigger and much worse.

The US is lying about every thing going on Syria - sadly many in the peace movement and throughout our society are confused by the entire war and frozen into submission.

Russia keeps trying to get the US-NATO to agree to a real ceasefire and a peace agreement but each time they get near one the US then breaks the deal like they did with this bombing of the Syrian military forces in Deir ez-Zor on September 17.  Of course the US then blames Russia for everything in order to escape taking responsibility for its own actions.

Russia and the US are on a collision course.

You have to review Russian media sources in order to get another side of the story in Syria or Ukraine....at least then you can see that there is much more complexity to these events than western media allows the public to see......

Bruce

Truth Telling Time

Thank you Mr. Putin for telling the truth about US operations in Syria.

There is an obvious reason that the US has demonized Putin. 

Hollywood Script Writing

Could we say 'power trippin'? 

It's all a Madison Avenue
Hollywood
script
written by the 1%
for the viewing pleasure
of the rest of us

They say
you have to hear something
seven times
before you will
remember it

We got the message.

Hillary
is talking to the women
'we've got to
stick together'

Hillary means
'women's liberation'
just like
Obama
was black liberation
except cops
keep shooting
unarmed black
men and boys
cold blooded
in the streets
of America

The new
civil war
blue
on
black

no
shades of gray
involved
this time
it's clear
what
is happening....

Listen hard
you'll hear
it all again.....

Bruce

Nader: Sanders Effort Aborted

I voted for Ralph Nader twice when he ran for prez.  The second time was the famous hanging chad election that Bush-II stole.  Many liberals blamed Nader for Gore's loss. 

The truth of that election though was Al Gore never fought for his own voters as he sat back and watched the Republicans take the election.  The suppressed black vote in Florida, where I was living at the time, was massive across the state.  Gore never said much about that stain on democracy.

But in the end - all the Democrats could do was say that the whole sordid affair was Nader's fault - and sadly many of those same liberals still say it today.

It's sad to see Bernie turn into a sniveling shepherd for Hillary.  It's enough to make a person cynical.....

Bruce

Get Me Out of Here!

• One person from my old Florida days continues to ride me on my Fazebook page, yesterday complaining that: "I have often wondered during the past year when you became a classic 'Alex Jones tin foil wearing conspiracy' addict? I mourn the intelligent Bruce Gagnon I knew years ago."  This person has been regularly objecting to my postings that have shown any criticism of Hillary Clinton as an agent of the neo-cons who have taken over foreign and military policy decision making in Washington.  Like many fans of Clinton, this individual from Florida does not want to hear any critique of Clinton - particularly anything concerning her support for the Iraq war, the take down of Libya, or her calls for a No Fly Zone over Syria.  The most recent article I posted that drew a complaint can be seen here.

• But it is not just me getting the acidic complaints because I dare criticize Hillary Clinton.  Many others, particularly former Bernie Sanders supporters who can't stomach voting for Clinton, are being slammed by 'liberal' Democrats.  I was surprised to see reported in the Los Angeles Times the other day that Trump was now polling 14% support in the black community (and slowly trending upward) despite his racist posture.  This indicates that Clinton's bad smell is pushing away more than former 'revolution' seeking Bernie supporters.  The Democratic party is hemorrhaging - their cheating during the recent primaries to hand the nomination to Hillary has backfired on them as the public increasingly rejects their candidate. Turnout will be tough for the Dems to generate as Hillary is not motivating alot of real passion.  Thus the need for the 'libs' to turn up the heat on wayward radicals.  
• Bernie has put out the word to the liberals that 'we've hit sheep dogging time' and everyone needs to work the independent left over a bit - hit them at their knees.  My question: when the NSA and Homeland Security boys come to round up even the 'libs', who do they expect to stand up for them?  Talk about burning your bridges!  Even Daddy Bush (George H. W. Bush) from his wind turbine powered wheel chair in Kennebunk, Maine has declared he is voting for Hillary.  What more do you want?  Vote Hillary....the candidate of Wall Street and the CIA!  And then when Hillary starts a war with Russia and/or China you can put a peace bumper sticker on your car.  Right next to the Hillary sticker.  That's what I call covering all the bases.

• A recent article reported one former Sanders supporter named David Kerans having learned that in some states the voting results were altered by up to 10 percent in Clinton’s favor.... The voting machines were apparently rigged to register every one of Sanders' vote as 0.8 points and every one of Clinton's as 1.2 points. Sanders' supporters learned that the voting machines used during the elections are not subjected to any form of oversight by the authorities, with both hardware and software being supplied by private companies.

• The 2016 Duma parliamentary elections in Russia further gave evidence to the fact that Putin's popularity remains strong - in spite of western economic sanctions.  Putin's United Russia party took 343 seats out of 450 in the Duma.  The parties that came in after United Russia (Communists, Liberal Democrats and Fair Russia) are also described as pro-Putin.  So the western hopes that the pro-Washington parties would score big were dashed by the Russian voters. Pro-US political parties barely got 3% together.  Thus US-NATO is left to only one tool in their box of toys - more destabilization of Ukraine, Georgia and other countries along the Russian border.  Plus, of course, more NATO war games and missiles aimed at Russia.

NSA is Tracking Every Phone in the World

Oliver Stone's new film now appearing in local theaters.

A really great and dramatic movie that is a must see.

Snowden is a real hero.

Following the UK Labour Leadership Fight

To the surprise and dismay of many Labour MP's in the UK, Corbyn was elected with the backing by Momentum, and is expected to win again next week in an another leadership election says, Professor Leo Panitch.

Leo Panitch is the Senior Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at York University, Canada. 

He is the author of many books, the most recent of which include UK Deutscher Memorial Prize winner The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire, In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives, and Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy and Imagination . He is also a co-editor of the Socialist Register, whose 2017 volume, which will be released in time for the Labour Party Conference and launched in London in November, is entitled Rethinking Revolution

---

U.S. Largest Overseas NSA Spy Base

Leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed how his former employer used the US spy base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, England to conduct ‘kill or capture’ missions in its global shadow war.

The new files published by The Intercept partly lay to rest speculation by journalists and campaigners over what really goes on at the US base.

They show that secretive NSA kill-capture operations in the Middle East have been developed and initiated from inside the base’s heavily guarded perimeter wire.

Absolute Coordination Between US Warplanes & ISIS during Syria Attack

Listen to this folks - you'll never hear this on mainstream media in the west.  We get nothing but Pentagon propaganda here in the US.

Thank god for RT International.

If you truly want to understand the whole Syrian mess then read this article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria: They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries — for oil.

No MUOS Anywhere!!!!

US space warfare communications base in Sicily.... MUOS stands for The Mobile User Objective System.

The MUOS system includes four ground station facilities, each of which serves one of the four active satellites of the MUOS constellation and are located at: the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station at Kojarena about 30 km east of Geraldton, Western Australia; Naval Radio Transmitter Facility (NRTF) Niscemi about 60 km from Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, Italy; Naval SATCOM Facility, Northwest Chesapeake, Southeast Virginia; and the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific, Oahu, Hawaii.

U.S. Bombs Syrian Military

US-led coalition jets have bombed Syrian government forces’ positions near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, killing 62 troops and "paving the way" for Islamic State militants to capture more land.

Even the US military newspaper Stars & Stripes admitted that the US had done this bombing.  See it here

Is the US trying to torpedo this Syria ceasefire?  Is the US trying to draw Russia into a dog fight over the skies of Syria?

Are the Pentagon and State Department in the US at war with each other?  Who is actually running US foreign and military policy these days?

Is the US angry over the fact that it is losing in Syria and trying to turn the tables?

Is the US Ambassador to the UN crazy?

Bruce

Sunday Song

Will U.S. Allow Peace in Ukraine?

Ukraine gets the OK from the IMF for another bailout loan.  At least long enough to keep Kiev on course through the American elections in November.

Germany and France want Ukraine to honor the Minsk2 ceasefire agreements that require it to pull back the Nazi forces from the front lines in eastern civil war zones.  Stop the shelling of the innocent citizens in the Donbass and allow for fair elections and local autonomy in the region.  This is not Russia taking over the area.  It would be Kiev honoring the wishes of the local people and the agreements made.

But the US does not want a stable future in the Donbass or anywhere else in Ukraine.  Ukraine is simply a Washington pawn to destabilize the Russian border thus the skepticism of the speaker in the video.

Just like in Syria we see the US sign a ceasefire deal with Russia but it "can't or won't" put the breaks on the terrorists that the Pentagon/CIA/Saudi Arabia have armed, funded, trained and directed for so long.

The US makes money and headway by creating instability and chaos.  Weapons get sold, countries get destroyed and lands taken.  The lives of the people are meaningless.  Capitalism always grinds on.

We have to acknowledge that it has been Russia over and over again in recent years that is promoting peace, negotiations, agreements. and cooperation.  The western governments and media have demonized Putin non-stop.  The Iran nuke deal was Putin's work.  He has been the one to force the US to even consider a real ceasefire in Syria.  It is Putin who made the Minsk2 agreement happen.

Give the man the credit he is due.

Bruce

Trying to Divide the People in Seongju

Zoom in Korea reports:

Nightly candlelight vigils against THAAD [US 'missile defense'] deployment continue in Seongju, South Korea despite attempts by the county chief and right-wing groups to undermine the protests.  The Association of Seongju County Veterans Groups tried to halt the protests by applying for a permit to use the same location outside the county hall at the same times as the candlelight vigils. “Technically, the veterans groups do have a permit, but theirs is a ghost rally where no one comes out,” said a member of the Seongju Task Force to Oppose THAAD Deployment.

Without an official permit, the Task Force has had to obtain special permission from the county hall to hold the candlelight vigils in the county hall courtyard.  But on September 11, the county hall abruptly denied its permission, citing “the sudden change in the security environment of the Korean peninsula after North Korea’s fifth nuclear test,” and tore down the protest banners and tents in its courtyard.  Since then, the county hall has filled its courtyard with government vehicles and has stationed police and government officers there every night to block protesters from using the space.

Undeterred, the Seongju residents held their 61st candlelight vigil on September 11 outside the Seogju Cultural Center across the street from the county hall. “They’re trying to use North Korea’s nuclear test as an excuse to undermine the protest. From the residents’ perspective, it makes no sense at all,” said Lee Jae-dong, chair of the Seongju County chapter of the Korean Peasants League. County residents plan to continue the nightly candlelight protests outside the cultural center.

Residents Determined to Fight Despite Dissolution of Official Task Force

Since the county chief succumbed under pressure from the Park Geun-hye government and turned his back on the residents, the Seongju Task Force to Oppose THAAD Deployment has also been mired in internal division. On September 12, the day after the county chief kicked out the protesters from the county hall courtyard, the Task Force voted to dissolve itself by a narrow majority. Of the 29 members in attendance, 15 voted to dissolve the Task Force, and 14 walked out in protest.

The 14 dissenting members held their own meeting to discuss the election of new officers, then held a press conference to declare the dissolution vote invalid. “The Task Force was formed to oppose THAAD until plans for its deployment are withdrawn. Officially, Seongju is still the designated site. The idea of dissolving the Task Force while the Seongju residents are still fighting is absurd. Those who have given up on the fight should stop insisting on dissolving the Task Force and just leave the Task Force,” they said in a statement released at the press conference.

At the news of the dissolution of the Task Force, Seongju residents held an emergency meeting to form the Seongju Candlelight Defense Team to continue the fight against THAAD and make sure the candlelight vigils go on. “We have to hold those who voted to dissolve the Task Force responsible and normalize the Task Force. In the meantime, we, the residents will continue the candlelight vigils,” they declared at their own press conference outside the County Hall on September 13. The Seongju Candlelight Defense Team is composed of 250 residents, who have organized themselves into five different teams – planning, operation, general affairs, public education and transportation.

Their first task was to organize the 64th candlelight vigil the next day, which fell on Chuseok, a national holiday that celebrates the fall harvest. The next day on September 14, 1200 people lit their candles under a full moon outside the cultural center. They included those who had been away from home for work and returned home to Seongju for the holidays. A picket sign read, “This fall harvest holiday, let’s return THAAD back home too- to the U.S.!”  Minjoo Party National Assembly Representative Park Jumin, who had gone to Seongju to spend the holiday with his in-law’s, also joined the candlelight vigil.  He apologized to the residents on behalf of his party, which has yet to adopt opposition to THAAD as its party platform, and pledged, “Ultimately, we will not betray you- that, I can promise.” 

Pentagon Biggest Polluter on Earth

The US military is the biggest polluter on Mother Earth - this is what is happening all over the planet on the nearly 1,000 Pentagon bases - toxic pollution of the local environment........with very little, practically no clean-up.

RT reports:

A stunningly picturesque arctic landscape in Greenland has been blemished with over 10,000 fuel-filled barrels and piles of rusty remnants from a former US WWII military base abandoned 70 years ago. 

The WWII American airfield, named Bluie East 2, was built in eastern Greenland to house 200 to 300 soldiers in 1942.

It was shut down and abandoned by the US Air Force in 1947.

Most of the equipment and supplies were left behind, including thousands of fuel drums, cases of dynamite, ammunition, vehicles and machinery.

"There was about 3,000 55-gallon [208-litre] drums of aviation gas, automotive gas, heating oil. And those drums are all [still] there," said Robert Baxter, who was stationed in Bluie East 2 in 1946 when he was 18 years old.

The US has made a bit of a habit of leaving Greenland to deal with their mess.

A recent study revealed Greenland’s melting ice sheet is expected to eventually expose an abandoned US Cold War military base and release the biological, chemical and radioactive waste that was left behind in 1969. 

You can sign a petition demanding that the US clean-up its mess here

Indian Wars are Far from Over......

In a powerful interview, Winona LaDuke links historic oil extraction on tribal land to intergenerational trauma among Native Americans: "90 percent of my community, generally, I would say, is just trying to survive."

Intro Words at Jill Stein Event

Fifth Maine Peace Walk

Stop the War$ on Mother Earth

Indian Island (Penobscot Nation) to Kittery
October 11-26
 

News Release

Peace and environmental activists from Maine and beyond will walk through large portions of our state from October 11-26 in order to bring the issues of endless war, environmental degradation, and climate change to the public’s attention.  The walk will begin on Indian Island (with a supper and ceremony hosted by the Penobscot Nation) and end in Kittery.

“We come together out of our deep concern about the many different wars being waged on Mother Earth, ranging from over-fishing, deforestation, and human-caused extinctions, to climate disruption and endless war,” said Russell Wray of Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST) in Hancock.

According to walk co-organizer Connie Jenkins from Orono, “Close to home we support the Penobscot Nation’s struggle for Justice for the River, opposition to the East/West Corridor, and conversion of war production to alternative energy at Maine shipyards.  We know from past experience of walking through rural and urban Maine that many people will be reached with our messages. We hope this spiritual act of walking and sharing conversation and food will help people in our state feel less isolated and despairing about the future.” 

The peace walk begins on Indian Island October 11 and will pass through Dexter, Pittsfield, Unity, Waterville, Augusta, Norway, Lewiston, Brunswick, Bath, Freeport, Portland, Saco, Kennebunk, York Beach, and Kittery.  The walk will average about 12 walking miles per day. (Some driving will be necessary between some of these communities.) In the evenings walkers will be fed at local churches and will often stay in local homes.)

The walkers will hold a protest at Bath Iron Works on October 20 at 3:00 pm and conclude on October 26 with a protest at the naval submarine yard in Kittery.  Both protests will call for the conversion of the Maine shipyards to alternative energy production such as public rail systems, solar power, wind turbines and tidal power systems.  Studies at UMASS-Amherst Economics Department reveal that building needed alternative energy rather than military production would create more jobs.  See the study here

Buddhist monks and nuns from the Nipponzan Myohoji order will lead the non-violent peace walk.  Their order does peace walks all over the world.

Maine Walk for Peace is sponsored by:  Penobscot Nation; Smedley D. Butler Brigade Veterans For Peace (Boston area); Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Maine Veterans For Peace; Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST); Veterans For Peace (National); Peninsula Peace and Justice; Maine Natural Guard; Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks; Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center; Veterans For Peace, Jim Harney Chapter 003; Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine; Alliance for the Common Good; Grandmothers Against the East/West Corridor; Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC); Pax Christi Maine; Friends of the Piscataquis Valley; Concord Massachusetts Peace Vigil; Peace Action Maine; ESTIA Maine; Stop the East-West Corridor (STEWC); Maine Green Independent Party; Mission Board of State Street Church (Portland); Reversing Falls Sanctuary; Peace to All Beings; Waldo County Peace & Justice

The daily schedule and entire walk route can be found at Maine Veterans For Peace here

- END -

Obama Funds Israel for Greater Role as Regional Bully

As the US imperial war project collapses it needs regional actors to help play the role of neighborhood bully.  Israel appears to love that job in the Middle East.  Israel and the US have plans in the works to take even more land from Syria.  Washington & Tel Aviv also seek to take effective control of Egypt and then use that base to secure Libya for the bankster and oil baron empire.

Thus the US taxpayers are having their hides extracted by Washington in order to pay for this massive Middle East and northern Africa land grab. 

I got a call last night from a Florida friend telling me there was a major movement of US military personnel from that state onto the African continent.  The US is destabilizing as much of Africa as possible in order to justify greater military occupation there. 

I am certain that Israel, funded by the US taxpayer, will play a huge role in that occupation of Africa as well. 

Bruce

Why Does U.S. Demand Cease Fire Agreement Be Kept Secret?

Is it déjà vu all over again? Russia and the U.S. have brokered another ceasefire to stop hostilities in Syria. But can these two parties ensure their allies and proxies commit to the deal?

Are the Pentagon and the State Department on the same page? And what about fighting terrorist groups?

CrossTalking with Gareth Porter, Stephen Zunes, and Eva Bartlett.