Bruce Kent on Trump's INF pull-out

CND's Bruce Kent on Sky News last night talking about Donald Trump's withdrawal from the INF treaty and ramping up the nuclear arms race.

Kent is a British political activist and a former Roman Catholic priest. Active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, he was the organisation's general secretary from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to 1990. He now holds the honorary title of vice-president.

In 1987, Kent left the priesthood rather than comply with an instruction from the late Cardinal Basil Hume to desist from involvement in the 1987 UK general election in accordance with the canon law of the Catholic Church. 

Sunday song - bonus track & lyrics

We Are The Many - Makana from Makana on Vimeo.


Here are the complete lyrics to “We Are The Many”:

Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can’t divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can’t buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few

MOURNING ARMAGEDDON - Makana from Makana on Vimeo.


Mourning Armageddon - Makana

I’m underground
What a sound
All around
How did I get down here
So low
Where did all the people go
In my mind
I don’t know if it’s real
When I think
What could happen
Why they built this
Why it came to be
Why we build places like this
With our mind
Oooooh
With our mind
But it’s just a container
And it’s up to us
To change
Gotta see each other
As friends not enemies
We can bring peace
I hope we never have to build another shelter
Like this
Never gonna build another bunker
Like this
Oooooohhh
Oooooohhh
I’m underground
Hear this sound
All around
How did I get down here
So low
Where did all the people
All go
In my mind
It was all
Just a dream
______________________________
Плач об Армагеддоне - Макана
Я под землёй,
Ох, какой звук
везде вокруг.
Как же я опустился сюда,
Так низко?
Куда пропали все люди?
Моему уму это непостижимо --
Это реальность или нет?

Когда я представляю
Что может произойти...
Почему же это построили?
Как такое стало возможным?
Зачем мы возводим места,
подобные этим?
С нашим разумом...
О-о-о-о-о
С нашим разумом.
Но это всего лишь контейнер
И в наших силах всё изменить.
Когда мы станем воспринимать друг друга
как друга
А не врага,
Мы сможем воплотить мир.
Надеюсь, нам никогда не придётся строить
Ёще одно такое убежище,
И мы больше никогда не построим бункер,
подобный этому.
О-о-о-о-о-о
О-о-о-о-о-о
Я под землёй.
Услышьте этот звук
везде вокруг.
Как я опустился сюда
Так низко?
Куда пропали все люди?
В голове моей остался
Всего лишь сон.

Congress is pretty damn sad

Look at these hacks in Washington avoid questions on Venezuela from Max Blumenthal like he has the plague.

Both parties are buying into this Venezuela BS.  Shows without a doubt their complicity with the fossil fuel agenda.  Any talk about dealing with Global Warming by these same politicians is irrelevant because most of them are being intravenously fed by oil and weapons production money for their campaigns.  Their job is to keep the empire in tact - but actually it is collapsing.

These corporate lackeys figure they can say most anything because the public is flying blind when it comes to Venezuela.  All day long on corporate media it is one crap story after the other - demonizing Maduro and linking him to the other guy who has already been demonized - Vladimir Putin.

It's a Hollywood and Madison Avenue double-feature script that is read on every mainstream media outlet in the western world.  1984 is still here.

Bruce

Washington walking away from another treaty....

Please see this new short video about Washington pulling out of the INF Treaty with Russia.  This treaty was signed in 1987 between Reagan and Gorbachev.  It banned medium range nuclear weapons from being deployed in Europe.

 

Trump claims that Russia is violating the treaty.  The US has been encircling Russia with medium range (nuclear capable) missiles for years.  The US pulled out of the ABM Treaty in 2002 which banned so-called ‘missile defense’ deployments and they’ve been on steroids since..

 

Just ask the Native Americans about treaties and Washington.  The white man speaks with a forked tongue.

The U.S. wants no treaty restraints as the corporate controlled government rolls the dice and attempts to take control of the entire planet.  Anyone who resists (including Russia and China) get put on the shit list.

This is the kind of ignorance and arrogance that starts war$ which often can't be stopped.

Welcome back to the nuclear age.

Video by Will Griffin.
Bruce

Protest in Hawaii against rocket launch facility

Big Island Video News

A gathering in Hilo, Hawaii on January 25 concerning a commercial spaceport proposal for East Hawaiʻi stirred emotions inside the meeting and out.

Terri Napeahi, a Keaukaha Action Network organizer, joined a group of sign waving residents in the parking lot of the Panaʻewa Gym, as representatives from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation met with area-residents inside the building. The company wants to develop a Pacific Spaceport Complex-Hawaii on W.H. Shipman land between Haʻena Beach and Pāpaʻi Bay.

“I’m an ag farmer. I live there, and I’m concerned,” said Napheahi, who took issue with the meeting.  

“This meeting was put together as a private meeting. It was not a public meeting,” Napeahi said. “I found out that the letter was only inviting [Hawaiian Home Lands] leaders, Shipman, and our politicians. Our Hawaiian community was not invited. I questioned that, and then they opened it up to the Panaʻewa and Keaukaha Farmers Association.”

“It is unethical to hold a private meeting before a public meeting,” Napeahi said. “What do they need to know about rockets? I lived next to an airport all my life, by ‘touch and go.’ You are going to do another impact on our Hawaiian families?”

Napeahi, who entered the building for only a few short moments to deride the meeting, said the subject of the spaceport “is going to be an issue for the whole entire island, not just us.”

A public informational meeting regarding the proposal is planned for February 6, at a location to be determined.

The making of a U.S. puppet in Venezuela

Journalist and author Max Blumenthal joins Rick Sanchez to offer his analysis of Venezuela’s political crisis. He says Juan Guaido’s “real constituency is in Washington” and that he’s at the forefront of a years-long destabilization campaign orchestrated by the US.

Read much more on this story here

Wilkerson: Both parties support endless war

Some years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, I watched a three-hour program on C-SPAN where then Naval War college teacher and author (Pentagon's New Map) Thomas Barnett gave a presentation.  He was introduced as Donald Rumsfeld's strategy guy.

Barnett stated that America's role under corporate globalization would be 'security export'.  Other countries would make products using cheap labor and the US would fight wars to control the 'non-integrating gap' around the world in places where oil and other vital resources were available.  These places, where the particular nations were not 'fully integrated' into the US-controlled 'new world order', would be taken down and occupied.

This is what we see today in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America where the US-NATO are attempting to take full control of the planet on behalf of western corporate interests.

Empire means endless war to stay in control.  That means massive debt to pay for war and cutbacks in social and environmental spending.  It means withdrawing from treaties as a key step in this strategy - create chaos and claim the right to occupy and 'stabilize'.  They are only interested in stability when it means full corporate dominance.

In the short video clip above retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell) recounts attending a recent meeting of Democrat and Republican leaders who are totally committed to endless war.  The clip speaks for itself.

Bruce

U.S. strategy for Venezuela - create chaos

In The Peace Report’s latest interview, Will Griffin sits down with Paul Dobson from Venezuelanalysis.com to talk about the current struggle in the country. Paul gives us a very clear picture of the situation on the ground. He describes the forces on the left who support the Bolivarian Revolution and the Maduro government as well as the far-right forces from Washington, Venezuela, and Columbia who want to overthrow the government with coup attempts, street violence, and even assassination attempts. 

They also discuss how elections in Venezuela are a model for the world to follow, how the country has been the backbone of anti-imperialism for Latin America, and the support from the country’s rural countryside, specifically from Campesinos, who continue to fight for a sovereign and free Venezuela.

Gagnon on space force & need to convert MIC

Listen to "More Men to Mute and More 2020 Candidates" on Spreaker.

On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" hosts Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon are joined by James Early, Former Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies, to talk about the ongoing crisis in Venezuela and the return of the Monroe Doctrine, the rise of the political right in Latin America, if President Obrador can save progressivism in Mexico, and the lack of a Progressive Democratic voice against US interventionism.

In a special third segment (starts at 39:11 point) "By Any Means Necessary" is joined by Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator with Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, to talk about America's ongoing efforts to develop a nuclear space force, if Democrats will halt military spending in exchange for funding a Green New Deal, and the need for nonviolent civic interruption to slow the military industrial complex.

Later in the show, Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon are joined by Jacque Luqman of Luqman Nation to talk about former Starbuck's CEO Howard Schultz and Senator Bernie Sanders chances of running in the 2020 Presidential race, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries big talk and little action, Roger Stone lying to Congress, Tom Brokaw's racist comments on "Meet The Press", and new US sanctions aimed Venezuelan oils.

Dems censor, demonize, slam critics of Venezuela coup

Yesterday I posted this article Congresswoman who fixed Democratic primary for Clinton now ‘fixing’ democracy in Venezuela from RT on several Fazebook pages.

At one of the pages a couple likely loyal Democrats asked the page moderators to remove the post because it was from RT.  One woman wrote: Admins please don't allow posts from RT. We don't need to feed the Russian propaganda machine that aims to divide us.

I responded by writing:  Why are some folks so afraid of some Russian media? Have people been brainwashed so effectively that it makes you shudder? We should be reading media from all over the world. Don't we know that most western media (NY Times, Wash Post, TV networks) are corporate controlled media? We have to piece the truth together from many sources.

Another woman answered me:   Who cares about truth. Let’s just give free rein to Russian propaganda. You don’t need to think, you can just ‘feel.’

There was more but I won't bore you with the illogical and mean-spirited drivel that came from these 'good Democrats' who claim they are part of the 'Resistance'.  With resistance like that how can we go wrong?  Ugh....

I actually came away pretty depressed realizing that these woman are out trying to censor information about what is going on in our world because they've been told by their party leadership that Russia is evil.  The article (which I urge you to read) actually quotes the Green Party candidate for president in 2018 Jill Stein (maybe that is in part why these Democratic Party women were upset) and journalist Glenn Greenwald.  RT was actually just giving voice to American activists who are virtually never heard on mainstream western media.

Needless to say it is quite alarming how quickly may so-called 'progressive' Democrats have swallowed the Russia demonization script and are quite ready to censor any media sources that don't give the party line that today is regularly heard on NPR, MSNBC, Washington Post and more.

Just because some Democratic Party leaders are backing the coup d'etat in Venezuela many of these non-critical party faithful are following like lemmings as US foreign policy takes another dive over the cliff.  They, who regularly hate Trump, are now supporting his coup attempt in Venezuela.  

Strange bedfellows for sure.

Bruce 

Balsonaro blues in Brazil

The US's favorite puppet in Brazil, recently elected president Jail Balsonaro, hardly had time to put family photos on his new desk when he and his sons got hit with major corruption accusations.

Washington has hoped that the fascist Balsonaro government will help in the current effort to topple the Maduro government in Venezuela.  But now it appears that Balsonaro will be just a bit preoccupied with his own battle to remain in power.

The arrogance of the Balsonaro family could lead to their downfall much sooner than anyone had ever imagined.  Direct connections to murder, assassination and organized crime is not a great start.

Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for this update from Brazil.

Bruce

All the news that is fit to ignore - Venezuela to Hawaii

• Anti-government protests in Venezuela that seek regime change have been led by several individuals and organizations with close ties to the U.S. government. Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado - two of the public leaders behind the violent protests that started in February (2014) – have long histories as collaborators, grantees and agents of Washington. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have channeled multi-million dollar funding to Lopez’s political parties Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular, and Machado’s NGO Sumate and her electoral campaigns.
• Self-proclaimed Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaido has praised the Bank of England's reported refusal to allow Caracas to repatriate $1.2 billion worth of gold bullion, branding the move a "protection of assets." Caracas has been waging a losing battle to get its gold back from the UK since late last year, with the Bank of England repeatedly refusing its repatriation requests, according to media reports. Last week, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt joined Britain's US allies in backing Juan Guaido, calling him "the right person to take Venezuela forward" and making the return of Venezuela's gold all the more unlikely. Over the weekend, as if on cue, Guaido praised London's decision not to return the gold.

• The Israeli foreign ministry has reprimanded Ireland's ambassador Alison Kelly after the lower house of Irish parliament voted in favour of a bill that will ban the purchase of goods and services from the illegal Israeli settlements.  The bill, put forward by independent Irish Senator Frances Black, seeks to ban the import or sale of goods produced by settlements in the occupied West Bank.  In the aftermath, Senator Black tweeted, "Ireland will always stand for international law + human rights, & we're one step closer to making history. Onwards!" The bill would still go through several more stages of review and amendment before it is signed into law, but it is backed by all of Ireland's opposition groups, including the Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, Labour, the Green Party, the independents and the Socialist Democrats.

• The US has helped 40 ISIS commanders escape from a Taliban prison in Badghis, in northwestern Afghanistan, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported. The 40 inmates, all foreigners, were taken by helicopter to an unspecified location after US troops attacked the prison and killed all security guards two weeks ago. The agency, which plans to disclose more details of this operation soon, said the deputy head of the Badghis provincial council, Abdullah Afzali, confirmed the facts. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry....the US has links with ISIS. The Foreign Ministry also reported that US special forces may have participated in the seizure of prison documents to prevent leakage of information about the sponsors of the terrorists.

• The Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC) wants to develop a Pacific Spaceport Complex-Hawaii, and is currently assessing land in Hawaii as a possible location.  The corporation told a private meeting of selected residents in Hawaii that it does not plan on doing military contract work at the potential launch site. Instead, the focus will be on commercial satellite launches. This is the same thing that the AAC told people on Kodiak Island, Alaska some years ago when they built a launch site there.  In fact, every launch from Kodiak Island has been a military Star Wars test.  Folks in Hawaii had better watch out for the AAC's forked tongue.

Sunday song

U.S. coup in Venezuela is pure hypocrisy

Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks out against the Venezuelan coup, she is immediately smeared as a Russian.

According to the corporate controlled media in the US, Russia interfered in our last national election.  I don't believe it but how in the hell can the media complain about that alleged incident and then turn around and support a US coup d'etat in Venezuela?

Mainstream media and the Democrats hate everything Trump does and says - but then when he pushes a coup d'etat in Venezuela they clam up. 

It is nothing but hypocrisy - pure and simple.

Please read this very important article entitled Venezuela’s US-Backed Coup Leader Immediately Targets State Oil Company and Requests IMF Money at Consortium News.  This media organization is one of my favorite news sites.

To see the majority of Democrats slavishly falling in line on this coup just makes the case - both major political parties in the US are corporate agents - bought and sold by Mr. Big.  It's that corporate campaign cash that buys subservience in Washington. 

As Jimmy Dore says in this video - we need a revolution here.  Yeah, the sooner the better.

Bruce

Words of wisdom....

 

“Every time the US ‘saves’ a country, it turns it into an insane asylum or a cemetery."

No U.S. intervention in Venezuela!!

Medea Benjamin (CODEPINK) with a sign reading 'Don’t support a coup in Venezuela' interrupted an Organization of American States (OAS) meeting attended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington DC on Thursday.

Many of those in attendance applauded the woman dressed in pink while Pompeo gave a wry smile.

Security eventually removed the woman from the meeting room as she shouted: 'Coups only create more violence.'

Push back against Trump's 'offensive' space proposal

Members of the UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament hold signs at their recent annual conference

Trump boasts that his latest proposal to station orbiting battle stations in space would enable the Space Command to pick-off any nuclear missile attack against the US.  

The new Trump space proposal is a key element in Pentagon first-strike attack planning sold to the public as ‘missile defense’.  The system is not actually designed to protect the U.S. from every nuclear missile launched at us—that would be a mathematical impossibility. This Star Wars system would only work as the ‘shield’ to be used to pick off Russian or Chinese retaliatory responses after a U.S. first-strike sword is thrust.

We know this because the Space Command has been computer war gaming such a scenario for years—they call it the ‘Red team’ versus the ‘Blue team.

These words below give an indication that so-called 'missile defense' is in fact about developing a budget line that would enable the research, development, testing and deployment of offensive space systems.  See for yourself and you decide what the agenda really is:
 

We are not interested in keeping pace with the emerging threats. We want to outpace them. This requires not just defensive weapons, but a host of enabling technologies that will allow us to integrate the missile defense mission across our department." - Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan, 01/17/2019

The kicker is that the costs would be colossal—what the aerospace industry has long said would be the largest industrial project in human history. The only way the U.S. can pay for it is by cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and by twisting the arms of NATO members to pony up more money.  We've repeatedly heard the calls in Congress for cutting 'the entitlement programs' and we've seen Trump going to Europe demanding that NATO member states pay more to the 'alliance'.

All of this of course punches huge holes in any hopes of negotiating the PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space) Treaty at the United Nations.  For many years Russia, China and Canada have led efforts at the U.N. to bring forth such a new treaty - to close the door to the barn before the horse gets out.  But the US (through successive Republican and Democrat administrations) has blocked the development of such a treaty despite massive global support for a ban on a new arms race in space.

One must wonder what the Democrats (now in control of the House of Representatives) will do when Trump requests funding for these dangerous and destabilizing space warfare programs.  We all recognize the power of the aerospace industry in Congress. Most of the members of Congress from both parties get campaign donations from the space weapons corporations. 

It is high time for the American people to realize that this program, that I've long called Pyramids to the Heavens (see art below from Florida friend Will Park), can only be funded if all programs of social progress are defunded and the $$$$ gets moved into Pentagon coffers.

New York-based journalism professor Karl Grossman has been writing about the Star Wars program for many years.  See his latest article on Trump's proposal here.

Bruce  

Truth be told.....

Sign petition to oppose U.S. led coup in Venezuela

Yesterday US President Donald Trump took the extraordinary and illegal action to recognize the president of Venezuela’s legislature as the “interim president” of the country.

Sign the petition here to tell your elected officials NO US-ENGINEERED COUP In Venezuela!

It is clear that the US government and corporate media believe they have entered the final offensive to replace the elected Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro with one that will be subservient to US interests.

Tell your elected officials that you oppose foreign intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs. This action is counter to both the United Nations and Organization of American States Charters and thus illegal under international law.  

We know that President Trump met with Venezuelan coup plotters in 2017 and the Venezuelan opposition speaks openly of its coordination with the United States government. Officials in the U.S. and internationally have repeatedly called for the Venezuelan military and business people to take power, denouncing and refusing to recognize legitimate elections, and even having the audacity to "recognize" a "new president" in Venezuela who was not elected and who has no legitimate claim to office. Recent events have included the first ever attempted coup-by-drone, in August 2018; and the January 22nd coup attempt by 27 National Guard troops led by a sergeant. One might infer a sense of desperation among the enemies of the Bolivarian government.  

US National Security Advisor John Bolton called Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua a "Troika of Tyranny", but the real triple threat faced by Latin America is the alliance of ultra-right administrations from the United States, Colombia, and Brazil of Donald Trump, Iván Duque, and Jair Bolsonaro, respectively. These Oligarchs of Overthrow have Venezuela in their sites, and military intervention is clearly an option on the table where they are seated.

By James Jordan from the Alliance for Global Justice

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