Sunday song

 

 

Australian activists: NO war on China and No to the QUAD!

 

 

 

Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition

Health care NOT Warfare! 

 
What a disgrace the budget for 2023 is. Billions of dollars will be directed towards war. Towards building weapons. No funds towards social support that’s needed to lift people out of the cost of living crisis. No funds towards building social housing. No new funding for any new rail projects or to expand public transport. 

Politicians however will receive an additional -$159 million over the next four years for electoral purposes. 

It is clear that the government is only interested in lining their pockets and compromising the safety of ordinary people so that they can continue to profit off war. But we will not stand for this.

NSW Teachers Federation opposes the AUKUS pact: 

"While governments appear ever ready to commit huge amounts of public revenue on military expenditure there remains a serious under funding of public pre-schools, public schools, TAFE and higher education, and other areas of the public sector. A massive transference of public wealth to private armament manufacturers will constrain public expenditure in all government portfolios for decades to come."

Campaigning against endless war & wasted spending

 

 

Bruce Gagnon and Luke Brooks-Shesler discuss their protest activities in the State of Maine. 

Luke shared how he felt lonely and alienated from friends and colleagues because of his views. He also shared his own "awakening" from the lies and propaganda of his government. 

Ukraine was discussed and well as the US threats and provocations against China and the proximity of nuclear annihilation.

History lesson: The war began long before 2022

 

Archive reports Christelle Néant

From 7 to 10 June 2018, we were in Sakhanka, in the south of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), to assess the situation. 

We spent three days and three nights with the civilians, who were once again under the shelling of the Ukrainian army.

The war in Ukraine began soon after the U.S. orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014. 

One of the first things the new Nazi-backed government did was outlaw the speaking of Russian inside Ukraine. Since more than half the nation's population speaks Russia as their primary language this became problematic. 

The people (mostly in eastern and central Ukraine regions which were largely Russian ethnic) began to hold peaceful marches and gathered signatures for a referendum. They called for a 'federated Ukraine' where people could speak the language of their choice and elect their own local leaders rather than having the new unfriendly government in Kiev appoint them.

Almost immediately the Ukrainian army (backed by the Nazi death squads who predominate in western Ukraine near the Polish border) began to attack the Donbass (Lugansk, Donetsk, Mariupol) region of eastern Ukraine.  As the people were attacked they began to create their own self-defense forces to protect their families and land from the Nazi-led attacks. Many of these self defense volunteers were coal miners who came out of the mines to fight the Nazis. There are many coal mines in eastern Ukraine. It was always the most industrialized part of Ukraine.

 

The US-NATO set up military training bases in western Ukraine and put many of the Nazis into a newly created Ukrainian National Guard in order to hide their fascist worship. But some Nazi units, like Azov Battalion, still maintained some level of autonomy though they were being trained, armed, directed, and paid by US-NATO.

Russia began it's 'Special Military Operation' in February 2022. By that time, since 2014, there had been more than 14,000 Russian-ethnics killed in the Donbass region and more than 34,000 wounded.

Citizens in Crimea voted overwhelming in 2014 (soon after they watched the coup in Kiev) to seek to rejoin the Russian Federation.

My one-way ticket to space

 

 

Over the years while coordinating the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice I organized many protests at the space center (now called the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station).

In October of 1990 we were holding an event at the nearby Kennedy Space Center complex prior to the launch of the NASA Ulysses plutonium probe. We went into federal court in Washington in our unsuccessful attempt to halt the launch. But the court case brought us much national and international media coverage about our concerns over hoisting deadly plutonium-238 into the heavens. That was in the days when the corporate media would actually cover our efforts.

On that particular occasion a man whom I did not know came up to me prior to our rally holding a bag. He reached inside and pulled out a NASA flight suit and said, 'You might want to use this'. I asked him where he got the NASA gear but he refused to say.

So I thanked him and pulled the jump suit on over my clothes and climbed onto the flatbed truck that was serving as our rally stage. I grabbed the microphone and made a big announcement.

I told the audience of hundreds that we all sadly remembered the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986 quite well. I said that particularly sad for us was that the mission was doing a big public relations stunt for NASA with their plan to send school teacher Christa McAuliffe into space. The Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven aboard.

I announced that NASA was creating a new program - the 'first activist in space' and that I had applied to take the trip. Then I said that I had been selected to go on a future space shuttle mission.

Many in the crowd moaned and called out for me not to go.

'But there is just one problem. It's only a one-way ticket', I replied to the assembled.

Still even some believed that I would soon be lost in space. 

Many though did get the joke.

Bruce

What is being sprayed in the sky?

 

 

 

Dane Wigington

 

Is there more in the rain than just rain? Check this 4 minute video. GeoengineeringWatch.org sincerely thanks Joseph and Patrick for sharing their film footage observations regarding magnetic testing of precipitation particle fallout. Geoengineering Watch also wishes to express our deepest gratitude to each and every activist and individual that is doing their best to expose and halt the ongoing climate intervention operations in our skies.

All are needed in the critical battle to wake populations to what is occurring, we must make every day count.

~ Dane Wigington

Dems fear real debate and honest primaries....

 

The Jimmy Dore Show

During an appearance with fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Symone Sanders disparagingly and dismissively declared that there would be no Democratic Party presidential debates during the primary season. When pressed about recent poll results suggesting that Robert Kennedy Jr. was polling at a respectable 19%, Sanders insisted that incumbent presidents never debate primary opponents, and Biden would continue that tradition. 

Guest host Aaron Maté and comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the very good reasons why the clearly declining Joe Biden would want to avoid debating at all costs.

Critiquing the corporate media during war time

 

 

 

Finian Cunningham

The Western mainstream media have never been so blatant in their propaganda for the U.S. empire. 

The pretensions are threadbare. As the warmongering U.S. government/regime and its Western/NATO imperialist lackeys are becoming more exposed and desperate to maintain credibility, so too are their media tools. The likes of the New York Times, BBC, CNN – and many more – are a contemptible joke on the public. They are an insult to common intelligence.

Fake news has been around for centuries, but it’s now becoming glaringly obvious and self-destructive. In the same way that the U.S. warmongering empire is becoming glaringly obvious and self-destructive.

The disconnect with reality and degradation of supposed independent journalism is reflected in record levels of distrust among the Western public toward the mainstream, corporate-controlled news media. 

In this interview, U.S.-based writers Bruce Gagnon and Daniel Lazare demolish the pretensions of Western media. 

The systematic cover-up of the Nord Stream sabotage by the United States and its NATO allies – an act of war and state terrorism – demonstrates the servile function of Western media outlets that claim to be pillars of independent news and freedom of information. 

Media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and the British state-owned BBC, among many others, have been exposed as pathetic propaganda tools for the United States and other NATO imperialist regimes. 

All Western media outlets have ignored credible investigative reporting by Seymour Hersh (and others) who have very plausibly implicated the sabotage of Nord Stream by the U.S., carried out under the instructions of American President Joe Biden. 

Another touchstone subject is the vile persecution of Julian Assange. Western media have again covered up what are a shocking violation of Assange’s rights and principled publishing through the whistleblower organization Wikileaks. Julian Assange’s only “crime” is that he revealed the war crimes committed by the U.S. and its imperialist lackeys. 

Assange’s appalling mistreatment, indeed torture – four years in British solitary confinement awaiting extradition to the U.S. over spurious “spying charges” – is a vicious attack on journalism and the public’s right to know. Yet supposed self-declared Western media defenders of “truth” and “fact-based” objective information – have conspired to be silent and permit Assange’s persecution. Western media are shown to be complicit in destroying the very principles of journalism that they claim to uphold. 

As Bruce Gagnon and Daniel Lazare point out, it is a crime to tell the truth and Western media stand exposed in their odious dereliction of duty to report independently. They are seen more than ever as out-and-out tools of empire. 

A proper understanding of the Nord Stream sabotage and the case of Julian Assange would give the Western public a critical insight into the imperialist nature of their governments – regimes that serve warmongering capitalist interests. Critical mass must be thwarted at all costs by the Empire’s media foot-servants. 

From the point of view of U.S.-led Western imperialist power, it is imperative and absolutely vital to cover up the scandals of the Nord Stream attack and Julian Assange, among others. If the public were to become more widely cognizant then the whole edifice of Western governments implodes. This is why the Western media are more blatant than ever to cover up. But the truth will win out. 

The war in Ukraine is becoming more evident as a war-racket and imperialist proxy war against Russia. That war is in desperate danger of spiraling into an all-out world war that could unleash a nuclear catastrophe. 

The same Western media cover-up is at work with regard to the U.S.-led NATO aggression toward China. Again, the Western media are spinning imperialist propaganda of alleged Chinese menace in order to justify what is an insane warmongering agenda to confront China and prop up American hegemonic ambitions. 

A tantalizing positive prospect is that critical, independent media are gradually and relentlessly breaking the monopoly of Western propaganda media. The internet and global communications are seeing to that – albeit against sinister censorship by Western regimes. 

Nevertheless, the establishment Western media are increasingly held in distrust and contempt by the Western public and globally. 

We are living in an exemplary time of the fabled Emperor With No Clothes. The false image of dominant Western regimes and their lying corporate media has never been so degraded but also never so fragile. The Western lie machine’s days are numbered. It only has itself to blame because of its abject disservice to the public interest. 

Western state-complicit media claim to be “free”. Laughably, they are “free” to be slaves of lies and propaganda. 

A crash is long overdue.

RFK Jr. interviews Col. Macgregor

 

Colonel Douglas Macgregor discusses the war in Ukraine with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 6, 2023.

It is a brilliant conversation - Macgregor was at his best. 

This is a must listen.

Bruce 

May 9: Russians remember 27 million dead in WW2

 

In 2019 I organized a Russia Study Tour for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. I also made a trip to Russia before then in order to do the advance work for the trip.

Our visit took us to Moscow, Crimea and St. Petersburg. On May 9, 2019 we were in St Petersburg and joined the march to honor those who fought and died during WW2 to stop the German Nazi invasion of the former Soviet Union.

In the end 27 million people from the Soviet Union died at the hands of the Germans. To put this in some context, the US lost 500,000 people during WW2.

The 'March of the Immortal Regiment' in St Petersburg, that our 25 member tour group joined, drew more than 1.2 million people. It took hours to proceed through the city streets.

People held signs with photos of relatives who fought and/or died during the war. In the first photo above I hold a picture of my mother's two brothers who both served in the Navy and had their ships sunk by the Nazis. They miraculously survived.

Americans have been taught that the US-UK were largely responsible for defeating the Nazis in WW2. But the truth is that without the massive war effort by the Soviet Union the Nazis would have won the war.

Lately though I've begun to think that maybe the Nazis won anyway. Don't forget that the US brought well over 1,500 Nazis to the US after WW2 and seeded the entire military industrial complex (including the CIA) with these Germans. Today we see the US siding with the Nazi-backed government in Kiev. We see German tanks again inside Ukraine firing at Russian soldiers. We also witness the US re-arming the former Japanese fascists and turning them against China like in WW2.

When the Russians and Chinese see these moves today by the US to rearm and mobilize the WW2 fascists they know that the war never really went away. The Cold War followed WW2 and now we see the expanding NATO military alliance becoming a global war machine - the military arm of corporate capital. NATO is on steroids and rapidly moving into the Asia-Pacific.

Our delegation was proud to visit Russia in 2019 and to 'pick the forbidden fruit' - to learn about Russian history and to meet the people who we found to be loving, generous, smart and eager to be friends with Americans.

Sadly our government in Washington today is run by mean-spirited neo-cons who want endless war$ and regime change around the globe. They wish to remain King of the Hill - but the US empire is currently in free-fall collapse.

In this collapse the neo-cons are more dangerous than ever. They've repeatedly shown a lack of vision and a lack of humility. Many around the globe fear that the US will strike out against Russia and China with nukes in one last nuclear-fired Hail Mary.

Keep praying and speak out publicly. Hold a sign on a street corner - alone or with others. The public is seeking the truth and some sense of hope and movement. Help be the motivators for peace and real global justice.

And don't swallow the outrageous lies and distortions promoted by the corporate media.

Bruce

One of my all-time fav books

 

David Talbot talks about his book The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, in which he recalls the life and career of Allen Dulles, the longest-serving director of the CIA.

Reads like a mystery novel.  

One of the top 3 books of my life.

Bruce

Protest at Maine's busiest traffic intersection

 

Click on the photos for a better view

 

We gathered more than 40 people yesterday in Portland, Maine at our state's busiest traffic intersection. We all agreed that there were more honks, waves and peace signs than we'd ever seen before and we've been holding these statewide peace protests frequently since the US-NATO proxy war began in Ukraine in 2022.

(Our next one will be May 20 in Belfast, Maine at 1:00 pm on Rt 1 at the Hannaford store. Then again on June 24 we will meet at 1:30 pm at the foot of the Lewiston-Auburn bridge next to the veterans memorial.)

One TV station showed up and the Portland Press Herald sent a reporter who did a decent story although the comments below it are indicative of how much the non-stop anti-Russian propaganda has taken hold with many. 

I am rather suspect though about comments after such news articles because I know for a fact that the Pentagon has warehouses full of GI's sitting at computer terminals and they are assigned states and newspapers where they are to monitor articles and trash anyone who has an alternative view to the government's warmongering/corporate domination line. So I always take the comments with a grain of salt - usually I just ignore them.

I had a conversation with a Canadian friend today who told me all about the US-NATO-Canada orchestrated campaign across academia in her country to demonize anyone who shows the slightest recognition that the war in Ukraine is a proxy war on Russia created by western powers. And they are now slipping China into the demonization story there as well. Anyone who dares to stand up to this is labeled as a Putin-ista, trashed and put on fancy looking lists with 'similar agents'. She's been publicly speaking out at these events and is catching some hell but she can handle it.

I think the US-UK-NATO and the rest of the western warmongers are getting nervous because the global tide is accelerating against their 'regime change plan' to topple Moscow and Beijing. This desperation leads them to clamp down on their vaunted 'free speech and democracy'. (Similar to British royalty's crack down in London as many anti-royalists tried to protest the coronation of Charles the Spoiled. He's afraid of his own 'subjects'. That is one so-called kingdom that needs to fall.)

Anyway my hope is that the still many people on 'the left', who are more concerned about what someone might say about them, are unwittingly helping promote WW3 which would indeed end in a red hot flash. These folks need to meet the Wizard of Oz and get a heart and some courage. The times call for it.

Sponsors of the gathering included PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Maine Natural Guard, Communist Party of Maine, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Green Independent Party, People’s Party of Maine and Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST). 

Thanks to MB Sulllivan for the photos above.

Bruce

Sunday song

 

 

How much do NATO’s citizens pay for its wars?

 

Click on graphic for better view

 

The United States is indisputable leader in military spending both in absolute figures and per capita. 

However, on the latter count the gap is not so dramatic with some Nordic countries demonstrating impressive propensity for making their citizens pay for war. 

U.S. to set up military bases in Finland

 

By Drago Bosnic (Independent geopolitical and military analyst) 

SouthFront

The formal admission of Finland on April 4 was the latest move in the process of “globalizing” NATO. At the time, the belligerent alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that Helsinki’s membership “will be good for [its] security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.” Nobody ever explained how exactly this is “good for Finland’s security”. Russia and Finland share a border over 1,300 km long, meaning its ascension has nearly tripled the line of direct contact between NATO and Russia, as the combined border between them has previously been approximately 700 km. Now being well over 2,000 km long, the border could be a major source of tensions.

Precisely this is happening now, as the United States and Finland are finalizing a deal that would allow the Pentagon to establish a permanent military presence in the Scandinavian country. According to a report by Newsweek, published on May 2, a senior official of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mikael Antell, confirmed that Helsinki and Washington DC are negotiating a so-called “Defense Cooperation Agreement” (DCA) that would allow for the construction of significant military infrastructure on Finnish soil. Apparently, the aforementioned agreement doesn’t include the deployment of US nuclear weapons, yet. However, the Finnish government and military officials are yet to specifically rule out the possibility of hosting nukes.

Considering the fact that, for months, Helsinki has been refusing to give any guarantees such weapons will not be deployed on its territory, this is quite telling and concerning. While the US already has nuclear weapons stationed in five NATO countries under several bilateral nuclear sharing programs with each, specifically Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey, these are relatively far away from core Russian regions. On the other hand, Finland is not. Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second most important city, is less than 200 km away from the Finnish border, putting it well within the range of tactical ballistic, cruise and, most alarmingly, prospective hypersonic missiles (provided the US deals with its technological shortcomings).

If Helsinki and Washington DC were to go ahead with such plans, it would be the first case that a country has hosted American nuclear weapons after the end of the (First) Cold War. The same goes for Poland, whose insistence on having nuclear weapons deployed on its territory has already pushed Russia to deploy its own tactical warheads in Belarus. Finnish Foreign Ministry official Mikael Antell stated that the DCA “enables troops to enter the country, stay on the ground, the pre-storage of material and possible infrastructure investments through the funds granted by the US Congress to the Pentagon”. The US and Finland have allegedly been in talks on the DCA since last fall, with the latest round of discussions on the deal taking place in Helsinki last week.

“The agreement also defines the facilities and areas where the cooperation would be focused,” Antell said, adding: “They are basically military areas and garrisons. In principle, there can be more than one, but the discussions are still open in this regard.”

 

Commenting on the aggressive military buildup, Russian military expert Yuri Knutov told Sputnik: “The Northern Sea Route – a shipping lane that runs along Russia’s Arctic Sea coast – has become a prominent transport artery of late, and Moscow now seeks to increase maritime traffic and cargo flow along that lane. Therefore, the emergence of NATO military bases at the entrance to the Northern Sea Route would require us to boost security measures, to bolster our Northern Fleet and maybe even to deploy our warships to escort cargo vessels in order to protect the latter from any provocations or from some restrictions concocted by Western countries.”

The exact nature of permanent US military presence in Finland is not officially disclosed, although Knutov pointed out that “Helsinki did not attempt to negotiate issues such as the maximum number of foreign NATO troops that could be deployed on its soil, which appears to suggest that Finland is willing to let NATO use its territory without any limitations”. This notion is particularly worrying when counting the strong possibility of nuclear weapons being deployed so close to core Russian regions. Moscow previously never saw Finland as a direct threat, but its membership in NATO, a hostile and extremely aggressive military alliance that openly declared and targeted Russia as its primary enemy, completely changes the geopolitical calculus, a move that Helsinki chose to do unilaterally.

After Finland joined NATO, several high-ranking Russian officials stated that Moscow will respond in kind in case of further escalation and NATO military buildup, but insisted that Helsinki is still not seen as a primary military threat. However, from a purely strategic standpoint, the situation can hardly be considered optimistic. Finland directly broke from its apparent neutrality after it decided to acquire F-35 fighter jets in late 2021. The Pentagon has direct access to everything the F-35’s sensors can detect, meaning that Finland would be sharing key military data with the US regardless of whether it was a NATO member or not. Still, as previously mentioned, Helsinki being a member also means that it’s more likely to see the deployment of US offensive weapons in close proximity to St. Petersburg.

In this regard, when Stoltenberg stated that the ascension of Finland was truly historic, he was right. However, this was only in the sense that Helsinki is essentially repeating the same mistake as over 80 years ago when it joined the Axis led by Nazi Germany. Worse yet, just like Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich established military bases in Finland and deployed the Wehrmacht there just before launching “Barbarossa”, the US is doing exactly the same. Now that Finland is among “old friends” once again, maybe it should dust off the history books and pay very close attention to how such military and geopolitical adventurism ended the last time. The belligerent thalassocracy in Washington DC should be even more concerned, as Finland at least continued to exist in the postwar period. On the other hand, Nazi Germany didn’t.

Good to see Japanese stepping it up....

 

 

More than 25,000 peace-loving Japanese rallied in Tokyo on the Constitution Memorial Day to protest against the government’s intention to revise the country's constitution and expand its military.

Japan has become a chief agent of the aggressive US-NATO military alliance that is on on steroids as it tries to turn the Asia-Pacific into a war zone aimed at China.

Washington's goal is to use Taiwan against China similar to how the US currently uses Ukraine against Russia.

Fascism alert!

Protests in Philippines against US bases aimed at China

 

 

 

In February of this year, the US and the Philippines announced that the Pentagon will have access to four more military bases, making a total of nine US military bases in the country.

This announcement comes at a critical time where tensions between China and the US are on the rise. While the war in Ukraine is raging as a proxy war between two nuclear states, the conflicts between China and the US adds fuel to a fire that would immediately drain the economy, involve several countries around the world, and could potentially end the world as we know it.

To understand the critical importance that the Philippines plays in geopolitical tensions, specifically in the tensions between China and Taiwan, including countries Japan, South and North Korea, Russia, Australia and the US, the history of the Philippines shines some light on continued relationship between the Pentagon and the archipelago in southeast Asia. 

From colonization by the Spanish for 300 years, to the US-Philippines War at the turn of the 20th century, to a territory (colony) of the United States for several decades, to obtaining flag independence with a military dictatorship who was and is backed by the United States elite, the history of the Philippines and its relationship to the world are ever-more important to understand the potentialities of Asia and the world.

Do you recall this story?

 

 

What ever happened to Elián González? Belly of the Beast’s Liz Oliva Fernández recently sat down with Elián, now 29 and a father of a 2-year-old daughter, to talk about migration, family, and Cuba’s future.

Elián lives a modest life in his hometown of Cárdenas, just a few blocks from his father. As a recently elected lawmaker in Cuba he hopes to improve relations with the United States and the Cuban-American community. 

~ See latest news here about members of a youth delegation to Cuba detained on return to US. One hundred-fifty young leaders from the United States took part in a 10-day delegation to Cuba to exchange and learn from the Cuban people. On their return, many of them were detained at US airports and their devices were searched.

Washington uses Okinawa as tool against China

 

 

This is a six-minute explanation of Okinawa's present situation, as war over Taiwan looms.  It was prepared by the anti-war people of Miyako Island, and it's well done.  

Please pass it on to anyone who might be, or should be, interested.

 

This is a good discussion....

 

 

 

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom

 

Timely discussion - always first-rate knowledge from both men.

Two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) approached Moscow's Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president, and were downed through the use of electronic warfare equipment on May 3. 

The Russian leadership denounced the incident as a "terrorist act" and an attempt on the life of Vladimir Putin. 

"This story is related to international terrorism," Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, told Sputnik. 

"The fact is that Ukraine is already openly positioning itself as a terrorist state, which is covered up by the collective West, primarily by Washington and Brussels. And with such support, [the Kiev regime] calmly arranges such terrorist acts of sabotage, using the simplest and most modern method for this, that is, buying these products in the West and equipping them with the necessary amount of explosive, and then sending them on a particular course." 

According to Mikhailov, the incident appears to be a Kiev PR stunt aimed at galvanizing the domestic audience in the absence of any achievements at the front line: Ukrainian authorities need a "nice picture" to generate some hype on social media. 

"Most importantly, they are trying to show the collective West that this counteroffensive, funded by the West, is underway. It's just a multi-layered one. One of its stages is an attack on the Kremlin. But we are well aware that from a military point of view, everyone is safe and sound and no damage has been inflicted. And all this [fuss] is just a propaganda stunt," he said.