THE REAL STORY ABOUT UKRAINE

A short-lived truce has broken down in Ukraine as street battles have erupted between anti-government protesters and police. Last night the country’s embattled president and the opposition leaders demanding his resignation called for a truce and negotiations to try to resolve Ukraine’s political crisis. But hours later, armed protesters attempted to retake Independence Square, sparking another day of deadly violence. At least 50 people have died since Tuesday in the bloodiest period of Ukraine’s 22-year post-Soviet history.

While President Obama has vowed to "continue to engage all sides," a recently leaked audio recording between two top U.S. officials reveal the Obama administration has been secretly plotting with the opposition. Democracy Now speaks to Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University. His most recent book, "Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War," is out in paperback. His latest Nation article is "Distorting Russia: How the American Media Misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine."

PROCESS OF CONVERSION

A friend here in Bath wrote me this morning and said he and his wife stumbled across this talk last night while channel surfing on TV.  I have no idea where it was playing.  He said his wife, who is now reading my book, named me the "peace bomb" after watching the talk.

The 2006 talk was hosted by the Society for Peace and Social Justice at the Chautauqua Institute in New York. The video ends with bonus coverage of footage of me being interviewed on two different radio shows while at Chautauqua.

NEWS ROUNDUP

• AP reports: 

Megan Rice, an 84-year-old nun, was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in prison for breaking into a nuclear weapons complex and defacing a bunker holding bomb-grade uranium, a demonstration that exposed serious security flaws at the Tennessee plant. Two other peace activists (Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed) who broke into the facility with were sentenced to more than five years in prison, in part because they had much longer histories of non-violent civil disobedience. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee holds the nation's primary supply of bomb-grade uranium and was known as the "Fort Knox of uranium." In her closing statement, Rice asked the judge to sentence her to life in prison, even though sentencing guidelines called for about six years. "Please have no leniency with me," she said. "To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest gift you could give me." She said the U.S. government was spending too much money on weapons and the military, and she told the judge about the many letters of support she had received, including one from youth in Afghanistan. "This is the next generation and it is for these people that we're willing to give our lives," she said.

• In a new piece called Myth: China is a Military Threat Retired Royal Navy Commander Robert D. Green from New Zealand writes that "The Chinese correctly see that the greatest US weakness is the Pentagon’s stranglehold on US foreign and domestic policy. With military industry interests in every political constituency, over-powerful lobbyists rebuff any major Pentagon budget cuts. This is slowly but surely bringing the US economy to its knees, and destroying the morale and health, let alone lives, of young Americans."

• The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Obama administration is making contingency plans to use air bases in Central Asia to conduct drone missile attacks in northwest Pakistan in case the White House is forced to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan at the end of this year, according to U.S. officials. The CIA and the military used an air base in Uzbekistan to conduct drone flights until the U.S. was evicted in 2005, said Brian Glyn Williams, a University of Massachusetts professor and author of the book "Predators: The CIA's Drone War on Al Qaeda." The military also has used a base in Kyrgyzstan to conduct air operations, including moving troops and supplies into Afghanistan. The Pentagon said last fall that it would shift those operations to Romania this summer. Last month, Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of U.S. special operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, visited Tajikistan, which abuts Afghanistan's northern border, for talks on "issues of bilateral security cooperation" and "continued military cooperation," according to a U.S. Embassy statement in Dushanbe, the capital.

• In an article posted on Counterpunch Franklin Spinney writes in part:

In the late 1980s, the leaders of the west promised Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that they would not expand eastward if the Soviet Union pulled out of Eastern Europe and ended the Cold War.  That promise was not kept.  A triumphal West stuck it to the Soviet Union’s  greatly weakened Russian successor, by incorporating the former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and the EU.  But that was not enough to sate the lust of the neo-liberal triumphalists in search of a new imperium.  Their next move tried to incorporate the Caucasus country of Georgia — a country more a part of Central Asia than of Europe — into the West’s sphere of influence.  That turned out to be a bridge too far; the Russians intervened militarily to put a stop to the lunacy. But events in the Ukraine suggest that stop may have been viewed as a temporary speed bump on the pathway to rolling back Russia’s geography to the years of Ivan the Terrible.

INSPIRATION FROM INDIA

• For the third time during recent weeks J. Narayana Rao (3rd from left in brown sweater) has organized another space issues workshop in Nagpur, India where he lives.  Rao is a retired railroad worker and a long-time peace activist.  He's recently created a powerpoint presentation and appears to have first used it at his Feb 18 talk at the National Institute of Social Work. His brief report about the presentation is worth reading:

Today another workshop on “Space For Peace” has been held with the help of Power point presentation in the B.P. National Institute of Social Work, Nagpur, India.  65 post graduate students,7 staff staff members and the Principal Dr. Sanjay Tulankar were present. I explained all the issues involved in the Space for Peace issue like various UN Treaties, Vision for 2020, the USSR entry into the space, danger of weaponisation of space, Space Debris, efforts to avoid an Arms Race in the Space,  Role of Global Network and the ensuing Space for Peace week in October 4-11 2014.

The Principal Dr. Sanjay Tulankar has been so impressed and wanted me to train 5 of the Lecturers of the Institute as resource persons on this issue so that they can visit schools and colleges and talk in the local language i.e Marathi. I have been thrilled with this proposal and agreed to do so. This institute will respond in a big way to observe the Space for Peace Week this year.

J. N. Rao

• Rao is an inspiration to those of us who know him.  He is not a young man anymore but is a joyful and determined peace worker.  He rides around Nagpur on a scooter.  When MB and I toured India in 2006 it was Rao who organized our two-week visit.  And he worked us hard, sometimes doing 3-4 events per day.  We went to primary schools, colleges, service clubs and more.  Once we both spoke at a general assembly of students.  While the talks were happening MB was folding origami paper cranes and putting them on a table upon the stage where we sat.  After things were over a teacher and swarm of students wanted her to teach them to fold.  So they all sat on a cement door stoop and folding they learned.  I was sitting on another stoop signing class books of the students.  I didn't just want to sign my name so I wrote different small phrases from my talk in each book hoping that if they shared my words with one another it would recycle the key elements of my presentation and better stick in their minds and hearts.  

• My last time in India Rao took me on an unforgettable trip via train and then van through busy and dangerous mountain roads to Kashmir. We visited Srinagar.  Martial law was declared while we were there and I saw first hand the kind of future the corporate oligarchy is making for all of us around the globe - internal conflict and growing instability.  You can see my blog post from Srinagar here. Below is just a bit from that particular blog.

As I continue to read the book by former Indian Naval Chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, he makes all this even more clear. One important strategy of corporate globalization he reminds the reader is “balkanization.” They did it in Yugoslavia when they broke apart that socialist country by fueling ethnic conflicts. Bhagwat says the global corporate agenda is now the same everywhere, fuel the rage and divide the people against one another. Then sell weapons and steal natural resources and exploit cheap labor as the people fight one another.

Bhagwat writes:

"Therefore, the big question is whether the Indian military is being nudged to reorient itself to moving away from defending India and Indian interests to such unending, quests as ‘furthering regime changes, democracy, and the smoke-screen, of the global war on terror’, under U.S. auspices."

• I was moved to put the Bertolt Brecht poem on the blog yesterday after reading it.  (James Williamson who lives in Cambridge, MA sent it to me.) Brecht's words jumped out at me..... the same fears and haunting contradictions of living today.  And he ended it with such human clarity, trying to learn how to be friends with each other - especially at a time when Mr. Big wants to turn us into violent chaos. Reading that poem for me was like taking the wafer at communion.  Yes great spirit I do recommit to trying to be friends with myself and others on our spinning orb.  Please help me stay strong. Amen.

GIVEN TO ME ON EARTH

 

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)

To those born later

I

Truly I live in dark times!

Frank speech is naïve. A smooth forehead

Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs

Has simply not yet heard

The terrible news.

What kind of times are these, when

To talk about trees is almost a crime

Because it implies silence about so many horrors?

When the man over there calmly crossing the street

Is already perhaps beyond the reach of his friends

Who are in need?

It’s true that I still earn my daily bread

But, believe me, that’s only an accident. Nothing

I do gives me the right to eat my fill.

By chance I've been spared. (If my luck breaks, I'm lost.)

They say to me: Eat and drink! Be glad you have it!

But how can I eat and drink if I snatch what I eat

From the starving

And my glass of water belongs to someone dying of thirst?

And yet I eat and drink.

I would also like to be wise.

In the old books it says what wisdom is:

To shun the strife of the world and to live out

Your brief time without fear

Also to get along without violence

To return good for evil

Not to fulfill your desires but to forget them

Is accounted wise.

All this I cannot do.

Truly, I live in dark times.

II

I came to the cities in a time of disorder

When hunger reigned.

I came among men in a time of revolt

And I rebelled with them.

So passed my time

Given to me on earth.

I ate my food between battles

I lay down to sleep among murderers

I practiced love carelessly

And I had little patience for nature’s beauty.

So passed my time

Given to me on earth.

All roads led into the mire in my time.

My tongue betrayed me to the butchers.

There was little I could do. But those in power

Sat safer without me: that was my hope.

So passed my time

Given to me on earth.

Our forces were slight. Our goal

Lay far in the distance

Clearly visible, though I myself

Was unlikely to reach it.

So passed my time

Given to me on earth.

III

You who will emerge from the flood

In which we have gone under

Bring to mind

When you speak of our failings

Bring to mind also the dark times

That you have escaped.

Changing countries more often than our shoes,

We went through the class wars, despairing

When there was only injustice, no outrage.

And yet we realized:

Hatred, even of meanness

Contorts the features.

Anger, even against injustice

Makes the voice hoarse. O,

We who wanted to prepare the ground for friendship

Could not ourselves be friendly.

But you, when the time comes at last

When man is helper to man

Think of us

With forbearance.

                                                                    [1940] 

NATIONAL SECURITY LAWS BLIND REAL JUSTICE

Lee Seok-ki, center, greeted supporters last fall outside the South Korean National Assembly in Seoul

A South Korean court today sentenced a left-wing lawmaker to 12 years in prison and six colleagues to shorter terms for allegedly plotting a "pro-North Korea rebellion in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula".

Prosecutors also asked judges to strip United Progressive Party (UPP) MP Lee Seok-ki of his civic rights for 10 years following his eventual release from prison. The UPP is a small party with only six seats in the National Assembly.

In South Korea it is illegal under the "National Security Law”, which was created by the occupying Japanese WW II imperial Army, to criticize US military bases in that country or to call for reunification between North and South Korea.

Lee Seok-ki has described himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” by South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Many believe the NIS is using the show trial to distract the public from overwhelming evidence that the intelligence agency interfered in the last national election in favor of right-wing President Park Geun-hye's "successful" campaign.

President Park is the daughter of former brutal dictator Park Chung-hee. During Park’s iron-fisted rule from 1961 to 1979, dissidents were tortured and sometimes executed on charges of "plotting" against South Korea.  While on my previous trips to South Korea I met many older activists who spent as many as 20-25 years in prison for opposing the Park dictatorship.

Both the past and present Park regimes in Seoul were and are obvious US puppets.

 One blogger described Lee Seok-ki's alleged crime this way:

Lee Seok-ki also described North Korea as a strong nation and South Korea as an American colony. More specifically, he said the United States had controlled Korea by using its two-party political structure to affect a divide-and-rule strategy. He thought American imperialism was falling apart, though, and that as the weakest link in the American imperialist chain, the Korean Peninsula would be the central stage of the global revolution to throw off the American imperialist yoke.

How many activists around the world could be accused of the same so-called crime of naming the US as an imperialist occupying power?  How many activists around the world daily call for the US military bases in their country to be removed? Under the South Korean National Security Law I could be arrested for naming the US an imperial power.

Through the lens of the Jeju Island non-violent Navy base resistance we've seen how the right-wing government of South Korea does the bidding of the US corporate war machine.  The fascist response of the current puppet government in Seoul should make us all aware of the slippery slope we now tread on right here in the US. 

SUNDAY SONG

NO COWERING IN IRELAND

Imprisoned peace activist Margaretta D'Arcy has reiterated her assertion that Shannon Airport's runway is being used improperly for the purposes of war, and has called on the Minister for Defence Alan Shatter to stop defending the indefensible military use of the airport. Speaking to John Lannon and Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch this Monday, she said that the State has a responsibility to ensure the proper use of the airport and to protect it against security threats.

"The fact that Niall Farrell and I could walk out onto the runway at Shannon demonstrates that it is not secure." said Ms D'Arcy. "The military use of the airport presents grave risks to the people in the airport or living nearby, as well as being in contravention of international laws and against the wishes of the majority of Irish people".

A PRIMER ON IRAN

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He wrote his dissertation on Max Weber's theory of charismatic authority with Philip Rieff (1922-2006), the most distinguished Freudian cultural critic of his time. Professor Dabashi has taught and delivered lectures in many North American, European, Arab, and Iranian universities.

Professor Dabashi has written twenty-five books, edited four, and contributed chapters to many more. He is also the author of over 100 essays, articles and book reviews on subjects ranging from Iranian Studies, medieval and modern Islam, and comparative literature to world cinema and the philosophy of art (trans-aesthetics). His books and articles have been translated into numerous languages, including Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Urdu and Catalan.

HELP THE BOYCOTT OF SODASTREAM

This morning, after first shoveling a large dump of wet heavy snow, I met local Episcopal Deacon Carol Huntington at a coffee shop in our downtown Bath shopping area.  We prepared to cross the street to a popular local store called Now You're Cooking where we had an appointment with the owner.  We carried a letter asking him to stop selling SodaStream carbonation devices or other products made by this company.

SodaStream manufactures these machines within an Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territory. These settlements are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace.

The store owner brought us into his office and had three of his staff join us.  Carol, who has been to Palestine twice in the last 16 months, and I asked him not to continue supporting this unethical enterprise built on lands stolen from the Palestinian people.  We handed him the letter full of signatures from people who live in the Midcoast of Maine.  Carol shared with him a church produced document called "Steadfast Hope: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace."  It chronicles the history of Israel's illegal theft of Palestinian lands and the ever expanding settlements that to this day keep grabbing even more land and water.

The store owner was polite and made the case that he likes to let his customers decide for themselves what they will and will not purchase.  He said many of his products come from China but he does not support the way that government is run.

The boycott of SodaStream is having an impact.  Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that, "SodaStream slumped 3.3 percent to $35.34 in New York [stock exchange], the lowest since Nov. 20, 2012. The stock plunged 26 percent on Jan. 13 after SodaStream reported worse-than-forecast preliminary earnings for 2013."

I reminded the store staff of the recent global celebrations of the life of Nelson Mandela.  I suggested that South African apartheid was ultimately defeated in large part due to global economic boycotts and sanctions of that nation.  The bantustans in South Africa, virtually identical to the reservations on Indian land across the US, are in fact what we see today in Palestine.  The people face cultural genocide as their lands are taken, their ability to grow food is destroyed, and their remaining villages are separated from one another by the occupation wall.

The store owner did tell us that he was hearing from some of his customers about the boycott though he said he has about 200 people who he supplies with SodaStream products.  We told him that this effort was not directed at him personally but that we wanted to be upfront and inform him that we will continue to ask others in the community to share their feelings about SodaStream with him.

As we left the store I told the shop owner and his staff that they needed to learn more about the history of the Palestinian land that the SodaStream factory sits on today.

If you live in the Midcoast and are at all inclined to support the SodaStream boycott we ask you to contact Now You're Cooking in Bath and share your feelings.

Wherever you live you can help bring justice to the Palestinian people by lending a hand to the boycott of Israeli products as long as that nation continues to enforce their apartheid system on the people of Palestine.

WHAT'S WITH THAT WEATHER?

• The snow is coming again now, up to 18 inches in some parts of the state, the media plays it up big.  Everyone is beginning to fear climate change but we are still not allowed to talk about the subject in any meaningful way - particularly the military aspects of weather modification.

• In 1999 I was part of a small group that went to Puerto Rico to support the people's occupation of the island of Vieques that was then a bombing range for the US Navy.  It's was thrilling and humbling to visit the occupied island as Puerto Ricans waged an ultimately long but successful campaign to kick the Navy out.  The island is now faced with serious environmental impact from the years of pounding with US ordnance .

We were invited to Puerto Rico by a group called the Comité Contra las Experimentaciones Ambientales. They were the organization that led the protests against NASA in 1998-99, which forced cancellation of the Coqui Two rocket, launches in the town of Vega Baja. The Coqui Two were a series of atmospheric experiments by NASA. The rockets released chemicals into different layers of the atmosphere in order to test their effects on communications and radar signals. Protests forced NASA to close down the operation after eight tests even though 11 had been scheduled. (See my report at the time here) 

Learning about the NASA-Pentagon weather modification experiments was deeply disturbing to me.  We are talking about people who are playing-testing-toying with the whole web of life in order to "control" nature and use it as a weapon of war.  It is shocking...... it is the work of the devil.

• There are many theories, and wild claims at times, by folks trying to get to the bottom of the whole question of weather modification for corporate control.  But when we see Monsanto in action - destroying natural seeds - and we see Nestle - grabbing local water supplies, even here in Maine - the picture becomes murkier and clearer at the same time.  The corporate war is on and they will do anything to win.  They are crazy.  They have a spiritual disconnection with the real world.  It is like Avatar.

• On Saturday at 3:00 pm, we hope the storm will be gone by then, David Swanson from Virginia will speak in Brunswick at the public library (and later that evening in Portland at USM).  He is a very creative, funny and dedicated pro-peace activist.  He puts all the pieces together and has made important re-discoveries that connect us to massive anti-war sentiment amongst the people just after WW I.  The US signed an international treaty to outlaw war, which of course today is totally ignored by our war machine government.  David has the kind of spirit that wants to reconnect us to times when we were more united and filled with determination to end war.  He helps us rediscover our power as humans. And he will make us laugh a bit as well...

MILLION$ TO MAR$

 Read it and weep - and discourage your kids from taking the nuclear bomb to Mars.....


Universe Today reports:

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is a huge fan of Mars exploration and Mars colonies, and in a new interview he says a launch system to send people to the Red Planet could be available in 10 to 12 years. Requirements: it has to be big, and it has to be launched frequently to send millions of people and tons of cargo space wards.

    “We need to develop a much larger vehicle, which would be a sort of Mars colonial transport system, and this would be, we’re talking about rockets on a bigger scale than has ever been done before. It will make the Apollo moon rocket look small,” said Musk in a recent CBS interview, referring to the 363-foot (110-meter) behemoth that was the Saturn V.

Examiner.com brought this key piece of the issue into focus - what about nuclear power?

Musk did not elaborate about what this super rocket would look like or what technology it might contain. However, back in the late 1950s and early 1960s a group of researchers developed a concept of a spacecraft that would be propelled through the use of nuclear bomb detonations under Project Orion. The project was terminated soon after the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In any case the problems of nuclear fallout and electromagnetic pulse caused by the detonation of hundreds of nuclear bombs in the Earth’s atmosphere were never resolved.

Certainly a nuclear bomb propelled spacecraft, as large as a World War II battleship, carrying hundreds of colonists, would certainly fit Musk’s vision. One way to make it work might be to build the ship in pieces in Earth orbit, beyond the magnetosphere, and then only use the nuclear bomb drive in deep space. Assembling such a vehicle would take a considerable number of launches of conventional heavy lift rockets and a construction project that would dwarf the International Space Station.

For whatever reason, Mr. Big is anxious to get to Mars.  Is it because they know something we don't?  Is it because there is huge money to be made selling us this project of Mars exploration and colonization?  The aerospace industry has said that space development will be the largest industrial project in human history. 

Who is going to pay for it?  They are only now privatizing space operations because the taxpayers paid all the years of research & development (R & D) via NASA.  The public pays the R & D and the corporations are brought in once there is ‘opportunity’ for private profit. 

Mars though is far away and a dangerous ride it would be.... so much investment is still necessary and they want the public to pay for it.  The global citizen is being asked to pay for space technology R & D - it's the high tech jobs everyone keeps talking about.  So we pay for the freight and once the package gets successfully to the station Mr. Big is waiting at the loading ramp to receive it.

They sell us this vision of new life on an exciting red planet.  Most people could care less.  I am a little suspicious of anyone who is so eager to move from this beautiful planet Earth (in spite of its current environmental crisis) to a dead barren red planet - what is going on there? 

Is this some sci-fi movie where a team of ship-wrecked aliens land on Earth, mess everything up and turn the earthlings into slaves to build an escape vehicle back to Mars?  I try to keep an open mind - anything is possible these days......

While we are on this story..... the aliens here are fully in control of the CIA, NSA, Wall Street and such.  They drive BMW's and were somehow linked to Operation Paperclip.  (But that one will wait until a later chapter.) The aliens want us to not only build them an escape vehicle - they also want us to set them up with some fancy residential colonies on Mars.  Terraform the planet so life will be sustainable there.  The nuclear industry is eagerly behind this program.  They envision these colonies to be very dependent on nuclear power generation.  And even nuclear rockets could give Mr. Musk the ‘lift capacity’ he needs to send millions to Mars. 

Do they mean millions and millions of dollars are going to Mars or are they talking about sending people?  I can see the strapped-in suckers now riding on the ‘heavy lift nuclear bomb' with destination Mars painted on the side.  Mars or Bust!  Bust they go and we could eat radiation forever.  Is this the aliens Earth population control program? Dr. Strangelove is back.

Wake up….it’s just a bad dream.

Beware of the hustlers.

A SONG FOR THE TRIP TO MAR$

TODAY IS THE DAY

• Today is the NSA action day.  All you have to do is make a call or send an email - and share the action with others.  This is the kind of action day that helps decide whether we have any rights at all or we become a full-blown police state.  Just go here to help the cause.

• We had a meeting at the house yesterday of a group of Bath residents, and one from Arrowsic, to plan a public forum on the diversification/conversion of the local shipyard at Bath Iron Works (BIW).  They make nothing but warships there now.  We'll hold the event in June and have a potluck supper along with it.  We are going to try to bring in a couple speakers with expertise on this issue so it should be exciting.  Coming out of our committee meeting we had folks volunteer to meet with BIW administration to invite them to be part of this public discussion.  Another one of our folks yesterday agreed to check with his union leadership at BIW and request that they speak at the event as well.

• Our friend Peter found two great videos by accident the other day - or should we call it providence?  The scene is Labor Day in 1994.  President Bill Clinton comes to BIW and endorses diversification of the shipyard.  Also speaking that day was former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, Rep Tom. Andrews, and the union president of the BIW local as well as the president of the International Association of Machinists.  They were all begging for conversion/diversification – bring back commercial shipbuilding!  Now our challenge is to get the current crop of leaders to just match that mark.  It's sad to see how far things have slipped in these years.  We've got to regain the initiative.

• I've just been reading a biography of Bertolt Brecht the German playwright who got caught in the middle of the Nazi party taking power prior to WW II.  I wanted to learn about the challenges they faced during that period and was eager to learn more about how Brecht thought and spoke about those times.  He was an inspiring man who, once Hitler's blitzkrieg began, still believed he had to keep creating plays that could inform and inspire the people to popular rebellion.  I see many historical similarities to our present moment in the US. 

• Brecht wrote:

There are uncritical people who have doubt
And there are scrupulous people who never take action…
With the murderer’s axe raised above their heads
They ask themselves whether he isn’t human too…
You can make mistakes
By acting with too little thought,
But the mistake in time of danger
Is to go on thinking too long.

• The marriage of corporations and government - especially the government with the biggest military machine on the planet - is fascism.  It's dangerous and deadly.  Put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming.

STANDING UP FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald join Democracy Now for their first interview upon launching The Intercept, their new digital magazine published by First Look Media, the newly formed media venture started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Greenwald is the journalist who first broke the story about Edward Snowden’s disclosures on the National Security Agency. He was previously a columnist at The Guardian newspaper. Scahill is producer and writer of the documentary film "Dirty Wars," which is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

"We are really about a journalistic ethos — which is not doing things like helping the U.S. continue its targeting of U.S. citizens for death, but by being adversarial to the government," Greenwald says. "Telling the public what it ought to know, and targeting the most powerful corporate factions with accountability journalism." Greenwald and Scahill founded TheIntercept.org with filmmaker Laura Poitras.

STAYING ON THE CASE IN NAGPUR

Global Network board member J. Narayana Rao held another workshop for students in Nagpur, India yesterday.  The man has more energy than the rest of us put together.  He's a real inspiration. Rao wrote:

Another workshop has been held today for the Students. 35 students have participated. They said that in their colleges, they have not been explained any thing about space including the peaceful use of space leave alone weaponisation of space even though India is making great progress in space science and technology. The are happy to know several things on space and pledged their support to participate in any programme to oppose weaponisation of space.

SUNDAY SONG

NOW WE ARE ALL GOING ON THE RESERVATIONS

Abby Martin features an exclusive interview with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, concerning areas of extreme poverty that he refers to as 'sacrifice zones', as well as the reasons behind the collapse of complex societies.

Part two here

UKRAINE: THIS IS HOW THE US DOES IT

Washington Post reports today:

On Thursday, a video was posted on YouTube in which Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, disparagingly dismissed European Union efforts to mediate the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine by bluntly saying, “Fuck the E.U.” On Friday, Merkel, through press attache Christiane Wirtz, described the gaffe as “absolutely unacceptable,” and defended the efforts of Catherine Ashton, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief..... Nuland quickly apologized for the comments, with the United States pointing the finger Thursday at the Russians for recording and posting her private conversations with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt.

The main issue here should be the arrogant US interference in Ukrainian domestic affairs.  This video clearly reveals just how so-called US "diplomat" Nuland is picking winners and losers in the Ukraine.  That is not acceptable under any circumstances.

The Ukrainian people now fear a Syrian-style civil war in their country which is being fostered by US support for ultra right-wing forces that were historically allied to Nazi Germany.  The US wants to see a civil war on Russia's border as one more step toward breaking up the Russian Federation.  Talk about playing with dynamite.

You also hear Nuland talking about using the UN to give political cover to US devious operations in the Ukraine.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon obviously is a US puppet.  

Again from the Post:

“Victoria Nuland must step down after these remarks, otherwise there has to be a suspension of negotiations about the E.U.-U.S. free-trade agreement,” Jörg Leichtfried, leader of the Austrian Social Democratic delegation in the European Parliament, told the Austrian press agency APA, according to the daily Die Presse.

Experts say the image of the United States has suffered deeply, with the Nuland gaffe reinforcing perceptions of American heavy-handedness at a highly sensitive time. This week, for instance, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published fresh allegations that the United States had wiretapped former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. In response, Schröder gave an interview to the Bild newspaper in which he said, “The U.S. has no respect for a loyal ally and for the sovereignty of our country.”

Nuland’s nomination as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs in May last year clearly plays an important part in the Obama administration’s aggressive strategy toward Russia. She previously served as a deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and is married to the prominent “neoconservative” commentator and historian Robert Kagan. 

THE WORD

JAIL TIME COMING FOR DRONE PROTEST

Hancock 17 Drone War Crimes Resisters' Verdict Is In

All found guilty of  disorderly conduct but acquitted of trespassing; Order of Protection extended 2 years; Judge decides to send a message

On Friday, February 7, Town of DeWitt Court Judge David Gideon found twelve of the Hancock Drone War Crimes Resisters guilty of disorderly conduct, but acquitted them of trespassing. They had gone to Hancock Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, NY, on Oct. 25, 2012, to bring a Citizens War Crimes Indictment to the base and symbolically block the gates. Their nonviolent action had called for an end to drone warfare.

Saying, "At some point this has to stop," the judge gave the defendants the maximum sentence - 15 days in jail (starting immediately) and a $250 fine with a $125 court surcharge. He also imposed a two-year Order of Protection, prohibiting the defendants from going to the home, school, business or place of employment of Col. Earl A. Evans, Commander of Hancock's mission support group. Considering that the defendants had never met or knew of him before their arrest, it is clear the intent is to keep people away from the base. Defendant Rae Kramer stated, "No person on the base was intimidated by us, that is clear. But the end result is to deprive me of my 1st Amendment Rights."

In their sentencing statements, the defendants spoke from their hearts and minds. Some reaffirmed their legal duties as citizens to stop war crimes. Clare Grady said, "We went there to stop the war crimes. That was our intent." James Ricks hoped the judge would "sentence us to community service to investigate the war crimes they are committing at the base." Judy Bello said, "The people suffering are so significant. It requires a persistent response," and argued that the international law argument is indeed valid. Mark Scibilia-Carver quoted the Pope saying "violence is a lie," and "Faith and violence are incompatible." Mark Colville challenged the Court, stating, "This court has been found guilty of stopping it's ears to the laws that are in place to protect life. This court has been found guilty of stopping it's ears to the voices of the victims of the drones."

The defendants were prepared for whatever sentence the judge imposed. In the words of Ed Kinane, "Any penalty this court can impose on me is trivial compared to the death sentences imposed on the drone victims."
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Of the five defendants not sentenced, one, Elliott Adams, is to be sentenced later. Two others had their cases dismissed on technical grounds, and the remaining two had plead guilty earlier.

The defendants are part of the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, which seeks to educate the public and Hancock Air Base personnel about the war crimes perpetrated in Afghanistan with the MQ-9 Reaper Drone piloted from Hancock Air National Guard Base. See upstatedroneaction.org.

Video of the sentencing and sentencing statements will be available soon at www.peacecouncil.net.
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Defendants who were sentenced:

• Judy Bello Rochester, NY 
• Daniel Burgevin Trumansburg, NY 
• Mark Colville New Haven, CT 
• Clare Grady Ithaca, NY 
• Mary Anne Grady Flores Ithaca, NY 
• Martha Hennessy New York, NY 
• Brian Hynes Bronx, NY 
• Ed Kinane Syracuse, NY 
• Rae Kramer Syracuse, NY 
• James Ricks Ithaca, NY 
• Mark Scibilia-Carver Trumansburg, NY 
• Patricia Weiland Northampton, MA

THE PATH TO WORLD POWER

DYNASTY IN AMERICA

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (on left) and Hillary Clinton are being pushed by the corporate oligarchy as their candidates in the next round of political theatre

Now that Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) is political dead meat the ‘voices’ tell us that Jeb Bush wants to run for president.  The conservatives love him; the fundamentalists do as well, as do the militarists and bankers.  It's a good fit, as they say in the shoe business.

But the bankers, and oil barons and the military industrial complex like Hillary too.  Lots of liberal women adore her as well.  Many Democrats are excited about "putting" the first woman into the 'highest office'.  Some Democrats though remember Hillary's long ties to Wall Street evidenced during the first Clinton reign over the White House.  NAFTA, bank deregulation, and steadily building the war machine were the hallmarks of the Clinton years - that and "welfare reform" that stepped up the pace of austerity cuts.  While representing New York in the Senate Hillary was a strong supporter of an aggressive Pentagon. The Clinton's Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC) is a corporate funded political instrument designed to ensure their control of Washington.

So the oligarchy will run two horses in the race for president on November 8, 2016.

I lived in Florida when Jeb Bush was first elected governor in 1998.  He defeated a good man named Buddy MacKay who had been Lt. Gov. under the previous administration.  As a congressman MacKay had been good on many issues including speaking out against the US war in Central America.  For a southerner MacKay was an open man in most ways.  One of his campaign themes was that Florida could not handle any more people due to the draining of the water aquifer.  He wanted to put limits on growth.

Jeb Bush represented the powerful development industry and reactionary (slavocracy) interests that wanted control of everything in Florida and across the region.  That means Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Latin America and more.  There has long been a historic link between Florida big corruption money and imperial ambitions across the Caribbean.

At Bush's first inaugural address at the capital in Tallahassee he pointed to the nearby government buildings and said, "My dream is to someday see all these buildings closed down."  Imagine how the corporate oligarchy cheered at the mere thought of the idea.  Feudalism - there can be no better word to describe the vision.

As president Bush would push feudalism with gusto while Clinton would shave a few of the edges and keep the progressive base frozen just as Obama has eagerly done while in office.  They all work for Mr. Big.

We are likely to get more of the feudal dynasty - Bush and Clinton - sold to us like soap on a TV advertisement.  Maybe the people will rise up and demand more. There still is alot of that Occupy spirit out there.  God knows things are not getting any better these days.

ARRESTED FIVE HUNDRED TIMES

Lindis Percy tells her story of activism against US military occupation in England.  From the women's peace camp at Greenham Common in the early 1980's to her work today at the US NSA surveillance and 'missile defense' base at Menwith Hill, Lindis has been arrested 500 times going to prison about 15 times.

Her work with the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) in Yorkshire has helped to illuminate the military mission of Menwith Hill and other bases in England.

Lindis is also a board member of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

ANTI-SNOOPING ACTION

DEAR USERS OF THE INTERNET,

In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. Today we face another critical threat, one that again undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.

In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of its leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.

Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance.

Together, if we persist, we will win this fight.

February 11th 2014 is The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance

Go here for more info

'CHRISTENING' PROTEST PLANNED IN BATH

The Zumwalt 'stealth' destroyer was put into the water at BIW in late 2013.  The warship is outfitted with new electromagnetic 'rail guns' right out of a sci-fi movie. Using electric pulses, not chemical explosives, the guns can shoot a 40-pound metal slug from New York to Philadelphia at up to 5,600 mph - more than seven times the speed of sound - with 32 times the force of a car traveling at 100 miles per hour.

The Navy has announced that the 'christening' of the new $3 billion 'stealth destroyer' USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is scheduled for Saturday, April 12, 2014 in Bath, Maine.

 

This super high-tech destroyer will be a key weapon system used by the US to "control" China in what is turning out to be a very provocative strategy.

There will be a protest that day at the shipyard on the corner of Washington & Hinckley streets in Bath.  Thousands of people are expected to attend the ceremony.  This protest will be sponsored by Smilin' Trees Disarmament Farm, Veterans for Peace, and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.  We'll hold the event from 10:00 am until noon.  We expect to have some special guest speakers that day.

Then that same evening there will be a pot luck supper and panel discussion about the implications of the US Asia-Pacific 'pivot' at a local church in Brunswick. The pot luck will begin at 6:00 pm and the panel at 7:00 which will feature speakers from Japan, Korea, India, and more.  This event will be sponsored by Veterans for Peace and the Global Network.

We will provide home hospitality for any out-of-towners that come to these events. Just let us know.

Please mark your calendar for April 12 and help us spread the word.

YOU WANT A JOB?

When Keystone XL's top job recruiter comes to town, he reveals just what jobs the controversial oil pipeline would really create.

Oil executives like to claim that the Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of jobs. But in a project fueling so many environmental and health risks, only one man is honest enough to say exactly what those jobs would be. (Hint: they're not construction.)

It's true, Keystone XL has a job for you! But the question is: do you really want it?

A LOOK BACK

Here is a video called "The Battle for America's Soul" filmed at a 2005 speech. The event was held at the Emmanual Mennonite Church in Gainesville, Florida.

The one-hour video covers the mythology of America, corruption within the military industrial complex, plans for U.S. control of space, the corporate destruction of the American economy, America's addiction to weapons and war, and concludes with a transformative suggestion for the nation.

22nd ANNUAL SPACE ORGANIZING CONFERENCE

NOT MY CONCERN

New 'Prompt Global Strike' systems now under development would give the US Strategic Command (StratCom) the capability to hit Russia or China from space

The cutting of steel
the turn of the wrench
the twisting of the screw
our hard hats are at work

How these pieces fit together
is not my concern
it's jobs in America
what other option do we have?
It's the only game in town
we'd better take it
before someone else grabs the work
that's the way it is in dog-eat-dog land

I am just here
for the paycheck
and occasional rah-rah
when the politicians stop by
and tell us we are the greatest
aircraft makers, ship builders,
tank assemblers, satellite designers,
drone pilots
in the world

I have other things on my mind
I have things to buy at WalMart
made in China
or Vietnam
who we helped 'liberate'
for corporate capital

I have no concern about who
the latest enemy is
that these weapons will engage
So what if we encircle China
or Russia
in a new cold war

As long as the cheap stuff
still stocks the shelves at WalMart
then I have no concern
I am free
to shop.

SELLING A PIG IN A POKE

The idiom pig in a poke refers to a confidence trick originating in the late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but cats and dogs were not.  The idiom pig in a poke can also simply refer to someone buying a low-quality pig in a bag because he or she did not carefully check what was in the bag.

Maine's piece of this F-35 boondoggle is the Pratt & Whitney plant in North Berwick.  They make engines there for this plane.

Maine House Speaker Mark Eves (Democrat-North Berwick) in 2013 said he was pleased that Pratt & Whitney got the engine contract.  "This is incredible news for Maine workers in North Berwick," said Eves. "The jobs provided by the North Berwick facility serve countless families in the area and across the state. North Berwick is proud to have Pratt & Whitney and its workers in our community."

Our liberal congresswoman Chellie Pingree from Maine's 1st District has been a strong supporter of the F-35 engines being built at Pratt-Whitney.

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.....

• I just brought in a bunch of wood as we expect to have a snowstorm tomorrow with 4-6 inches worth.  I love doing the wood - it's sunny now and cold outside.  A beautiful day really.  I try to make bringing in the wood my daily mantra.  Staying focused on that moment, each piece of wood, let the worldly worries pass through my mind and out.  Thanking the great spirit for each breath, each day, and each gift.

• I love this art work above that I found on a Korean friend's Facebook page.  Really tells the story of the two worlds.  The natural world that indigenous people understand and nurture.  Then the world of capitalism that is all about destruction, consumption, and creating things we don't really need.  And with that life comes the spiritual disconnection from the real things in life.  No wonder huge portions of North Americans are taking anti-depressant meds.  We have to talk to each other more about these two worlds - that is part of the process of change.  Create a new consciousness.  We have to think it and live it if we really want to survive on mothership Earth.

• I did an hour radio talk show out of Vermont this morning with Joseph Gainza who does a weekly peace show.  He's had me on several times and he is good about making the connections between militarism and so many other issues like austerity cuts, environmental degradation, corporate control of government and more.  Quite a few people called in.  One guy talked about his deep frustration with the decision that F-35 fighter planes will quite possibly be using Vermont's largest city (Burlington) as an airfield.  (Even their Socialist US Sen. Bernie Sanders supports the plan.) I told the story about the 80-year old woman in Ireland now in jail for going out to Shannon airport and blocking the runways. They did this because the Pentagon uses Shannon as a leap-frog base for US military planes going to Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.  How can peaceniks in other countries go to jail opposing US warplanes but activists here not do the same I asked the radio audience?

• I also told the radio audience this morning that I went to a Tar Sands protest yesterday afternoon in nearby Brunswick.  There was a good crowd standing in the middle of town and my sign read: Pentagon has the largest carbon boot print on Mother Earth.  Many environmentalists don't want to talk about that fact.  They want to avoid the military issue because they feel like they have good 'rapport' with elected Democrats.  Connecting these unpleasant dots might alienate their good relationship and prevent the Democrats from stopping tar sands and doing more about our worsening environment and the coming reality of climate change.  But we were on the street yesterday because Obama is now characteristically caving on the Tar Sands issue.  The Dems aren't going to stand up to Obama on this in any meaningful way so what is there really to lose by telling the truth?

• One caller this morning said "yeah activism is nice but we need to put our attention to alternative energy" instead.  What she was really saying is 'don't waste your time protesting and complaining about the military budget' that now consumes 60% of every federal discretionary tax dollar.  My response to her was, "You are right.  We need alternative energy like rail, solar, wind, and more but where is the money going to come from to build this in a serious way across the country?  Corporations are moving production overseas for cheaper labor.  The domestic investment has to come from the federal government, with our tax dollars, and the money is presently buried in the golden chest called the Pentagon."  

• I repeated the words of abolitionist Frederick Douglas who said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will."  So what is our demand?  And how strongly are we willing to make it - like a sheep or a lion? Think about the future generations before you answer that question....

SPACE ORGANIZING IN INDIA

 

J. Narayana Rao lives in Nagpur, India and has been on the board of the Global Network for many years.  He is a retired railroad union worker and lives very frugally.  He's been involved in the Indian peace movement for a long time and also works hard to help poor people get what little bit of support from the government they can get.  He's a tremendous inspiration to all of us.

This weekend Rao organized a workshop on peace in space issues for young people in his community.  I wanted to share his very moving report from that event.  I'm sure you will be touched by it as I was.  The Global Network tries to send some money to Rao each year to help him with his space organizing projects across India.  He often travels the country speaking to students and bringing the otherwise unknown issue of space militarization to the next generations.  The US is dragging India into the space warfare program particularly aimed at its neighbor China.  We are going to have to send him even more resources to do this vital work.

Today the first Workshop on “Space for Peace” has been held in the Railway Colony, Motibagh Nagpur. 42 boys and girls attended. I have dealt with every thing connected with space. Introduction, Use of space, Outer Space Treaty, Moon Treaty,Vision For 2020, The Danger of Weaponisation of Space, Space Debris etc. After my presentation two girls have only expressed their views. But one boy by name Ankit Singare who is in Class 8^th Standard who came along with his cousin surprised me when he came forward and in a fearless manner started telling that this sort of Workshops will enlighten the present generation, no one should think of putting weapons in space. Having been surprised I called him to my house and talked to him in detail. He told me that he belongs to a poor family, his father died and his mother works in a cloth shop and with the help of his uncle, looking after him and his younger brother. He wants to be scientist and take part in all competitions in his school including debating competitions. I want to help this boy. You can see him standing behind me in the photo. I am attaching some photos.

            - J. Narayana Rao

SUNDAY SONG

TOSSING PEOPLE OUT OF THE BOAT

This week on Moyers & Company, David Simon, journalist and creator of the TV series The Wire and Treme, talks with Bill Moyers about the crisis of capitalism in America. After President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address, it’s a reality check from someone who artfully uses television drama to report on the state of America from an entirely different perspective — the bottom up.

“The horror show is we are going to be slaves to profit. Some of us are going to be higher on the pyramid and we’ll count ourselves lucky and many many more will be marginalized and destroyed,” Simon tells Moyers. He blames a “purchased” Congress for failing America’s citizens, leading many of them to give up on politics altogether.

FOUR 'MISSILE DEFENSE' SITES CHOSEN FOR STUDY

The Department of Defense, directed by Congress, is undertaking the completion of  Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for a potential additional 'Ground-based Mid-Course Missile Defense' (GMD) site in the continental United States. (The other current GMD site is located at Fort Greeley in Alaska.)

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has decided that four sites will be evaluated.  The MDA has not yet made the decision to proceed with construction of a new missile defense site.

It is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete the EIS.  The EIS will assess environmental impacts at each of the sites, to include potential impacts to land use, water resources, air quality, transportation, socioeconomics and other factors established by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  Public involvement is supposedly encouraged as part of the process, to include public meetings, written comments and public review of the draft and final documents.

The sites selected for completion of an EIS are (in alphabetical order):

• Camp Ravenna, Ohio
• Fort Custer, Michigan
• Fort Drum, New York
• Portsmouth SERE Training Area, Maine (Rangeley)

There are several types of "missile defense" systems today.  Some are on Navy Aegis destroyers (testing quite successfully), some are deployed on Army mobile launchers, while the GMD system is based underground.  The GMD system, whose mission is to have an interceptor missile hit an "enemy" nuclear missile in deep space, has not had any real success in their testing program - many of the tests have been scripted to appear successful.

A new GMD site could cost more than $5 billion to build.  Boeing manages the GMD program while Raytheon and Orbital Sciences Corporation build the interceptors ('kill vehicles') and the rockets.

These "missile defense" systems are key elements in US first-strike attack planning.  Each year the US Space Command runs a computer war game where China and Russia are attacked with hypersonic global strike weapons that attempt to take out their nuclear capability.  After that initial attack China or Russia would attempt to fire their remaining nuclear forces at the US.  It is then that the triad of US "missile defense" systems (ship-based, mobile, and GMD) would be used to pick-off those retaliatory strikes.  One should call "missile defense" the shield that is used after the US first-strike attack sword lunges into the heart of China or Russia.  This is what the Pentagon and the Missile Defense Agency are now developing.

Maine State Rep. Andrea Boland (Sanford) told me last week that North Korea, Iran and Russia are eager to attack the US.  The liberal Democrat wants this GMD base in our state.  Better us, she told me, than someone else. I don't see it that way.  The aerospace industry in Maine wishes to expand their operations across the state....this GMD site appears to be their major effort to make a big splash.

Now is the time for public outcry against this East coast GMD site.  Activists in Maine, Ohio, Michigan and New York must speak out against the madness of US first-strike attack planning and the colossal waste of our $$$$$ at a time of austerity cuts in social spending.

In the end "missile defense" is destabilizing as it forces China and Russia to make counter-moves that are then used by the Pentagon to justify even more of these kind of programs.  New arms races are fueled by deployment of so-called "missile defense".  It truly should be called missile offense.