NOW THEY WANT YOU TO PAY TO CLEAN UP SPACE JUNK

Presently there is no technological way to clean up the more than 30,000 pieces of space debris orbiting the earth traveling at more than 15,000 mph.  Some scientists have long predicted that the International Space Station (ISS) will be someday destroyed by space junk.  It cost $100 billion to build the ISS.

Imagine the cost of cleaning up space debris - the aerospace industry must be drooling over the thought.

SATURDAY HISTORY LESSON

Important episodes of Oliver Stone's Untold History of the US.  Covers end of WW II and the corporate takeover of the US government.  The second one below is the Bush II and Obama years. Worth watching...

So much of what is happening today is connected to these two periods covered by Stone.  Unresolved issues you might say.  The revelations about internal US right-wing forces taking power is fascinating.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana (Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist)

MEET MR. BIG

• When you mix corporate power with the government, and the military, you get the toxic mix of fascism.  Mussolini in Italy identified their WW II era fascist state that way - the wedding of corporations and the government.

As the global economic and environmental crisis worsens we will be constantly given the notion that a massive military intervention and occupation are absolutely necessary in some tragic place and circumstances.  The average person might wonder for a moment, but then they move on and accept what they hear from their government.  We humans are a bit lazy and most interested in the day-to-day grind of life.  Why bother getting involved?  After all, it is Mr. Big we are up against.

• Yesterday I went to nearby Brunswick for the annual "All Species Day Parade" that drew several hundred parents and children dressed as their favorite species.  I held a homemade version of a sunflower and joined the parade.  Our former Addams-Melman House mate Maureen Block has been organizing the parade for the past several years.  She works at a place called Spindelworks that has a wonderful arts program for people with disabilities.  Maureen wanted to get kids and the public thinking more about our connection to nature.  A great vision.

• I stuck around Brunswick on the cold and drizzly day so that I could attend the PeaceWorks vigil along Main Street by the town green.  The vigil, led by Christine DeTroy, has been going on since 9/11 trying to get the public to call on our government to stop its endless wars.  Through the rain, the cold, and deep snow, the vigil continues each Friday.  People respect the vigilers too and frequently honk when they drive by. 

• My mind is on Ukraine so much these days as you can see on this blog.  I am reading so much and watching tons of videos.  I am trying to learn as much as possible.  The really compelling video for me was the one I put below showing US State Department official Victoria Nuland try to insult us by saying that grandmothers and children helped topple the recently past government of Ukraine.  It took a right-wing Republican congressman to get Nuland to 'sort of' acknowledge that we are supporting Nazi's in Kiev. 

I wish my 'liberal' Democratic Party congresswoman Chellie Pingree would raise the question of US support for the Nazi's in public.  But the Navy builds destroyers in her district and the warships are seeing increasing action in the Black Sea.  Outfitted with so-called 'missile defense' systems these Aegis destroyers are ready to fire SM-3 interceptor missiles at any Russian retaliatory nuclear strike after the Pentagon hit them first.  The US Space Command has been war gaming such an attack for years.

Oliver Stone’s recent TV series The Untold History of the US gave us the historical picture of how the US has been playing nuclear threat politics ever since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

My congresswoman's husband is a hedge fund $$$$$ man who owns the Portland Press Herald newspaper.  He heavily funds Democratic Party front groups around the state including some progressive organizations.  They become the grassroots door-to-door operation for the party on issues and campaigns that it wishes to focus on.  The Dems work the social and economic issues but steer clear of Maine's own role in the military industrial complex that is draining the national coffers which helps contribute to these social problems in the first place.

Everybody is chasing the dollar. 

OLIGARCHS RUN THE SHOW

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary where he teaches courses on US national security. He also instructs a senior seminar in the Honors Department at the George Washington University entitled "National Security Decision Making."

TIRED OF WAR

New poll by Zogby Analytics (893 likely voters, May 2-3) provides the latest war temperature test.

"Do you agree or disagree that the United States should use whatever means it can to prevent Russia from establishing control over eastern Ukraine?"

Agree - 29%
Disagree - 36%
Not Sure - 35%

The American people might not be able to find Ukraine on a map but they are smart enough to know that we don't need another war.

I would venture to guess that many of the "Not Sure" have been frozen by the mainstream media's very effective campaign of the demonization of Russia.  

VETERANS FOR PEACE

Veterans for Peace members have been arrested a number of times in New York at a Vietnam War Memorial. They've they've been charged and been on trial. But they continue to stand their ground. Why continuously arrest veterans?

CELEBRATING ANYWAY

Update from Mariupol:  

On Friday residents marched to remember the anniversary of the defeat of Hitler near the end of WW II as he tried to invade the former Soviet Union.  The current "leadership" of Ukraine, put into power by the US-EU, declared that Ukraine would not have ceremonies on this historic Victory Day holiday.  

But the people around the country, especially in eastern Ukraine, turned out anyway.  Those in Kiev, owing their power to the US coup d'etat, are finding their grip on things to be slipping daily.

As I have said many times these folks know what fascism looks like and they are reacting with their bodies because they clearly see the Kiev bunch for what they are.  In the video below unarmed citizens of Mariupol try to stop a tank.  Reports are that several local residents were killed during the day by Kiev forces.

NULAND TRIES TO EVADE NAZI CONNECTION IN UKRAINE

Assistant Secretary of State was harshly questioned in Congress as she struggles to defend activists in Kiev who benefited from Washington's support.

It took a right-wing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) to get Nuland to reluctantly acknowledge that Nazi's were/are involved in the Ukraian coup d'etat.

WHO ARE THE GUN SLINGERS?

Mariupol in eastern Ukraine... Fascist armed forces under Kiev junta are terrorizing unarmed citizens. The US-NATO are supporting this armed threat.

IT'S NOT BLACK OR WHITE

Watch the full interview here http://youtu.be/Dyj8BB1UpUA

NATO and Russia are back to square one after a decade of efforts to build a functional relationship. And with both sides flexing diplomatic and military muscle over Ukraine, the cycle of mutual misunderstanding is perpetuating. Is there a way forward through cooperation, or is open confrontation inevitable? Oksana is joined by Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo, the former Deputy Secretary General of NATO, to tackle these issues.

ITALIAN STYLE

Italian activists in Vicenza opened the fences and sowed marijuana seeds at the US military base in their community.

The US base at Vicenza was deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan wars and more recently in operations on the African continent and leading the NATO charge into the Baltics. 

There has long been major non-violent resistance in Vicenza against the US base. 

LET IT BE REAL

The US media, and practically all western media, is under corporate control.  They play the same tune and then broadcast about the "international consensus" in order to make it appear that the whole world is on their side.  It's not.

The pirates are playing their cards in the saloon and using all the tools at their disposal to make 'Full Spectrum Dominance" a reality.  The Space Command was the first to use that mantra but now it has spread to cover the entirety of the agenda of Mr. Big and his groveling minions.

Rarely do we see or hear the words of alternative voices to global domination.  Mr. Big has all the bases covered.  In times like this I remember the weeds popping up through the cracks in the pavement.  I am one of those weeds, joyfully seeking the sun, and good water, to survive on our rich planet.  I don't want nobody dominating the Mother Earth.  It's not the right path to survival.

Many inside the White House criticize the Russian media.  Yes Russian media have an opinion but they are more open to outside and alternative thinking and it is often refreshing coverage.  I will share a couple here from Ria Novosti.

They quote Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and US State Department employee, who is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).  This group recently sent a "memorandum" to Obama asking him to take immediate measures to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict.

“Now there is a very strong element in the United States which is pushing for really almost a confrontation with Russia over Ukraine and they haven’t really thought through it,” said Johnson, a co-author of the memorandum to the president .

“When they talk about arming the dissidents or arming folks opposing Russia in the Ukraine, they don’t appreciate the possibility of the escalation that that can create,” Johnson said.

“We [the US] tend to try to portray these things in a way that doesn’t really take into account all the dynamics that are involved. And I think it’s really dangerous,” he said.

The Russian news source also shared the thinking of international law professor Francis Boyle, a US-based expert on Russia and lifetime member of the peace movement, who says:

NATO is using the Ukrainian crisis as a smoke screen for a war plan and the US has already decided to permanently station troops in Eastern Europe.

NATO has repeatedly blamed Russia for the escalation of tensions in Ukraine and building up arms and troops on the country’s border. The alliance has already used the crisis to justify an expansion of its military forces near Russian borders, bumping up the number of air patrol missions in Eastern Europe.

These words are fundamental to the kind of public debate that should now be happening in the US but all possible media doors are closed - except those few tiny cracks in the cement.  But when people turn to listen to the voices provided by Russian media we are verbally whiplashed by John Kerry as he denounces RT.  Kerry's masters know by seeding the public fear of being branded a "commie" or a "subversive sympathizer" many will be disinclined to stick their necks out into such a cold climate.

Not all weeds make it through the cement cracks....mostly those who desire life so much that they keep growing and reaching out.  We call it hope... the truth ... and life.

Let it be.

SUPPORT LOW WAGE WORKERS

SOUNDS OF JEJU

I'm Jun Ashikari, Japanese contrabass player. I'm traveling with my contrabass from Japan to Iceland. And I make short movies about the places where I visited. 

Here is Jeju Island, South Korea where a Navy base is being built for US warships to surround China.  The 450 year old Gangjeong village struggles to stop the base and preserve nature.

INSIDE STORY

Odessa police were complicit in the horrific killings the port city saw last week. That's according to Kiev's interim prosecutor general, speaking to Ukrainian media about an on-going investigation. Last Friday, dozens of anti-government activists died in a building, besieged and set ablaze by extremists. But as an eyewitness told RT, those who weren't killed by the smoke and fire were soon finished off by the mob.

COPS GONE TOO FAR

A meeting of the Albuquerque (New Mexico) City Council was disrupted and was ultimately canceled Monday night, prompting the police chief and council members to walk out. Protesters took over the meeting, still furious over a series of incidents involving the city's police department in which people were killed or excessive force was used.

The Albuquerque Police Department has faced intense criticism for 37 shootings by officers since 2010 -- more than 20 of them deadly. Critics say that's far too many for a department serving a city of about 555,000. Complaints from local advocacy groups helped launch a federal Justice Department inquiry earlier this year that ultimately agreed the APD has too often gone too far.

IT WAS JUST A WEDDING...

Get involved. Take action. Sign up at www.codepink.org

THE AMORAL CLAIM

The Amoral Claim

I was in the bank today
the TV on the wall
carried the stock market channel
three guys talking about possible
war with Russia

One claimed
Putin is amoral
(Miriam Webster: being outside the sphere
to which moral judgements apply)
he was saying
that Putin is crazy
it was fitting to hear this
from stock market cats

The moral Wall Streeters
kick folks
out into the street
foreclosed on
legions now homeless

How about Obama's moral
drones in Pakistan
and Yemen
killing innocents?
how many died in Iraq
from the moral US bombs?

How many died in Libya
from NATO's moral
"responsibility to protect"
attack?

Food stamps are cut
by the moral rich men
and women
who occupy
the halls of Congress
children go hungry

Health care is carefully
ladled out
by the moral insurance
corporations
who care so deeply
about the millions
who have been thrown
under the bus

A holy book once
warned
beware of judging...
You hypocrite,
first take the log out of your own eye,
and then you will see clearly
to take the speck out of your brother’s eye

Beware,
the rich
righteous
moral
wise men 
are here
to save us
from the amoral
Putin who rides 
the bear

CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE

Today in Washington the third National Climate Assessment was released, a landmark report detailing the huge impacts of climate change in the US.

Compiled by more than 300 authors, the report covers past and projected impacts to conclude that climate change is already affecting every American region and many sectors of its economy and society, warning urgent action must be taken to curb further disruption.

The report, which the government calls the ‘the most comprehensive, authoritative, transparent scientific report on US climate change impacts ever generated’, is expected to steer US environment and climate policy during President Obama’s next two years in office, as part of his Climate Action Plan.

Outlining the growing body of climate science and increasing climate change-induced extreme weather events affecting communities and businesses across America, authors explain how 'climate change' means more than just hotter weather. For example they outline the large increases in heavy rainfall seen in the Northeast, Midwest and Great Plains between 1958 and 2012, as shown in the report’s graph above.

Importantly, the report points out how these regional impacts are expected to affect America's key sectors economically as well as socially - especially areas such as agriculture, energy, transportation, water, human health, forests and ecosystems - with the estimated costs of flooding alone amounting to $325 billion by 2100.

But the authors say there is still time to limit the extent of climate change’s damaging impacts: “Using scientific information to prepare for climate changes in advance can provide economic opportunities, and proactively managing the risks can reduce impacts and costs over time.”

EVIDENCE IS THERE

Members of ultra-nationalist Right Sector make Molotov cocktails that were hurled into Trade Union hall in Odessa where anti-Kiev protesters were finding refuge

Some of the 46 who were burned alive inside the Odessa Trade Union hall

Yahoo News shared a story last night that came from German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that reported US CIA and FBI agents were in Kiev helping to end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a 'functioning security structure'.

In addition there were photos on the Internet last night of NATO troops from the US, Canada, Italy and other countries inside Ukraine.  It seems rather obvious that since the recent visit of CIA chief Brennan and V-P Joe Biden to Kiev the US-NATO has likely taken over direction of the military operation in eastern Ukraine.

The US-NATO divert talk about their involvement in Ukraine by constantly accusing Russia of instigating the conflict and marshaling troops on its own border.  The US psy-ops strategy is to repeatedly put Russia on the defensive in western media while simultaneously expanding NATO and  inserting its own agents inside the Kiev 'security structure'.  When Russia claims that the US-NATO are running this show they happen to be telling the truth.

Western media still claims that it is unclear who set fire to the Trades Union hall in Odessa while the evidence overwhelmingly shows that the unarmed citizens inside the building were set upon by Right Sector fascists who threw Molotov cocktails and shot at them.  And then when a few crawled out of the fire they were beaten by the far-right nationalists.

I've learned that it took one whole hour for the fire department to finally make it to the burning building.  By that time it was getting dark and many inside had already died.  About 67 of those who were inside and lived were quickly arrested by the city police. (It's important to remember that in Ukraine the new federal government appoints the regional governors and mayors.)

This morning 1,000 Odessa citizens surrounded the police center and forced their way inside the building.  They released the 67 who had been arrested.  Rick Rozoff, who runs the Stop NATO website from Chicago, writes:

The latest report from the Odessa native currently living in the Chicago area is that her friend and his son, the first the victim of smoke inhalation, the second bludgeoned by Right Sector and allied forces outside the trade union headquarters in Odessa, have been released from police detention, but have not returned home for fear of being pursued by the extremist bands that attacked them on May 2. They are being hidden by friends. 

Reports circulating on international Russian-language websites, chat rooms and e-mail groups include the fact that Odessa law enforcement officials, beholden to the city's mayor, himself appointed by Kiev, released the names and addresses of those released to Right Sector and other neo-Nazi forces.

The pogroms have begun inside the Ukraine and the US-NATO are directing the operation.  This was similarly done by the US in Iraq, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, Korea, Vietnam and more.  But who would have imagined that our government would be crazy enough to pull this stunt on the Russian border?

The reason why the US thinks it can get away with it is a simple one - corporate consolidation of the world's media.  Once Mr. Big controls the message the corporate oil-i-garchy can do anything they want and get away with it.

But oh that pesky Internet ... wait, with the killing off of net neutrality the corporations hope to disable that vehicle as well.

KNOWING THE PLAYERS IN UKRAINE

In this video former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko says, "I want to say big thanks to all who came and fight in Odessa for our Ukraine. Also I want to tell that all military action that will be released in nearest future will be against any mass meeting of people."

In a leaked phone call on March 18 with Nestor Shufrych, former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Tymoshenko said, "It's about time we grabbed our guns and killed those damn Russians together with their leader."

"I hope I will be able to get all my connections involved. And I will use all my means to make the entire world rise up, so that there wouldn't be even a scorched field left in Russia," she added.

Tymoshenko was hailed as a hero of the 2004 Orange Revolution before she spent three years in jail for criminal embezzlement of state property. Now, Tymoshenko is running again for president of Ukraine.

She has recently said that Ukraine "must be a member of NATO".

Tymoshenko first made a name for herself in 1991 as general director and co-founder of the Ukrainian Petrol Corporation, a business venture that for a time made her one of the 100 wealthiest Ukrainians.  

BAITING THE RUSSIAN BEAR (CONTINUED...)

I am as distressed as I’ve ever been having watched a 24 minute video yesterday from Odessa, Ukraine as fascist Right Sector thugs set fire to a union hall where unarmed anti-Kiev protesters had taken refuge.

You can see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXm9nnY-AQ

You have to be patient watching the video because it is obvious that a lot of the time the photographer was trying to be discreet as he filmed the pro-western nationalists attacking the people inside the union hall. At one point the photographer runs around to the backside of the building and films police authorities standing around talking but taking no action to stop the carnage that killed more than 40 people.

What struck me the most was that during the entire 24 minutes of watching this video I never heard or saw any signs of fire trucks. Odessa is a big city and surely must have fire departments. Only near the end of the video did we finally see some police begin to move in but by then the fire was well under way and people were leaping out of windows. Who had the power to stop fire trucks from responding?

What we know is that Right Sector fascist thugs were bussed in from around Kiev and they marched through the streets of Odessa. There was a protest camp set up outside of the union hall where anti-Kiev protests were happening. As the fascists descended on the union hall many of the anti-Kiev protesters ran inside the building for safety. The pro-Kiev nationalists, supported by the US-EU, then began throwing Molotov cocktails into the building.

Never during the 24-minute video did I see any of the nationalists outside the union hall taking cover. Clearly they were not being shot at. But you do see at least one man on the ground firing his gun at those inside the building.

The news media in the US have responded by saying it is “unclear” who caused the fire. You can see a short video about media whitewashing this story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tykLCTVlw

I read one testimony this morning from someone who tried to help rescue those burned inside the building. He wrote:

Hello, my name is Igor R., I am 39, I live in town of Odessa. During 15 years I work as a doctor on the ambulance.
Yesterday, as you know, a frightful tragedy happened in our cities, one people put to death other. Put to death cruelly - burned living. Not because they were drunk, not for the inheritance of grandmother, but because they do not divide the political looks of nationalists. First they were beating people unmercifully, cruelly, and burned them alive after.
As a doctor I rushed to give help to the one who could be rescued, but I was stopped by pro Ukrainian Nazi radicals, who did not let me walk up to the injured. One of them pushed away me rudely, promising, that soon me and other Jews of Odessa are going to meet the same fate.
I saw a fellow which could be rescued, if I was able to take him away to the hospital, but all persuasions ended with me getting hit in the face so hard that I lost my glasses.
For 15 years I saw a great deal very much, but yesterday I wanted to cry, not from pain not from humiliation, but from a weakness. What occurred yesterday didn't even have place during fascist occupation in my town in WWII. I wonder, why the whole world is keeping silent?

The US backed ‘government’ in Kiev largely came to power because the Right Sector fascists used these same violent tactics in the coup d’état a couple of months ago. The now famous "Fuck the EU" quote from US State Department operative Victoria Nuland (wife of Bush-Cheney era neocon Robert Kagan) was direct evidence of the deep involvement and interference of the US in Ukraine. This whole story just reeks of hypocrisy and arrogance on the part of the US.

Victoria Nuland was also caught last December saying "we've invested $5 billion" in the Ukraine project.... that part picks up at the 7:25 mark in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0y-JUsPTU

Note the ExxonMobil and Chevron logos on the stage next to Nuland ... and remember that the oil-i-garchy wants Russian natural gas and oil supplies. Add it up, mix in the usual modus operandi, stir and what you get is chaos, instability and regime change.

What is Russia to do? Roll over and watch themselves get more NATO ‘missile defense’ bases on their borders and fascists appointed to the 'new government' cabinet in Ukraine? More than 27 million people were killed during Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during WW II. The Russians are hyper-sensitive to fascists coming to power on their immediate borders - especially when the US-NATO are calling the shots.

In recent days there have been reports from eastern Ukraine that not only Right Sector fascists have been attacking unarmed protesters but also that black-clad mercenaries (Blackwater?) have been filmed chasing down the anti-fascist protesters.

The US knew that Russia would have to react, that is why we've witnessed massive corporate media demonization of Putin during the past year or so. It helps make it easier for the American people to swallow another one of our interventions.

This intervention though could lead to nuclear war.

The time is long past for peace activists to speak out opposing the Obama administration and NATO baiting the Russian bear.

SUNDAY SONG

ORDINARY VOICES

This is a very interesting video of various Ukrainian citizens across the east of the country who are non-violently resisting the thugs, fascists, and mercenaries being set upon them by the US-EU sponsored Kiev 'government'.  They speak clearly and passionately about the repression they are facing as they organize in opposition to the nationalist forces being armed and controlled by the US installed regime in Kiev.

While Crimea has already had a referendum, the situation in other Ukrainian regions is still unstable. People want their voices to be heard and are demanding a vote. Many of the videos and interviews you will see in this film have never been shown on television.

NON-VIOLENTLY CONFRONTING U.S.-EU RULE

Amateur footage shows an angry mob in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine yelling at Kiev forces as a new 'anti-terror operation' is underway. Locals are calling soldiers "fascists" and telling them go back to Kiev because they don't need them in Kramatorsk.

Notice that the local people are not armed.  They confront 'their government forces' who have come to enforce US-EU corporate rule.

I'd like to see this footage with honest reporting in US mainstream media.

Obama and Kerry keep complaining about Russia Today (RT) media.  The reason why is because RT is telling us what is really happening in Ukraine and all along the Russian border.  When Obama and Kerry instruct me about what I should watch on TV then I know I must be heading in the correct direction.

MAINE ARTISTS HELP CREATE THE MOVEMENT

This is ARRT! from Geoffrey Leighton on Vimeo.

ARRT! – The Artists Rapid Response Team -- creates banners and props to promote the work of progressive non-profits across Maine. All members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists are invited to join.

WHO WILL PROTECT INTERNET FREEDOM?

Running for president in 2007, Barack Obama pledged to keep the Internet open to all, upholding the principle of Net neutrality. Now his FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has introduced new rules that have caused an uproar among public interest groups and media reform advocates. They believe Wheeler’s proposed changes break Obama’s campaign promise and will allow providers like Verizon and Comcast to sell faster access to the Web to the highest bidder.

The problem, Bill Moyers says, is that “business and government are now so intertwined that public officials and corporate retainers are interchangeable parts of what Chief Justice John Roberts might call ‘the gratitude machine.’” FCC officials, including Wheeler, transit back and forth through the revolving door between public service and lucrative private commerce, losing sight of the greater good. But there’s still time to speak up and make your voices heard.

BAITING THE BEAR

Union hall in Odessa burns after fascist Right Sector forces, working on behalf of the Kiev government put in power by the US-EU, set fire to it.  Some 46 died in the flames or from jumping out of the burning building.

Unrest erupted on Friday, May 2, with a mass fight started by football fans from Kharkiv, Right Sector radicals and members of the so-called “Maidan self-defense” force from Kiev, who had decided to march along the streets of Odessa, thus provoking clashes with the supporters of Ukraine’s federalisation.

Obama and the EU leaders blame Russia and Putin for this.  The truth is that the Kiev military mobilization against eastern Ukraine began after US CIA director Brennan and V-P Biden made recent trips to Kiev likely instructing them to advance onto protesters in the east.

No doubt in my mind that the US-EU are baiting the bear, trying to get Russia to respond to protect the people in the east which would then give NATO "the pretext" to make an attack on Russia.

Watch in this video above how EU politicians try to make it seem like it was pro-Russian forces who set fire to the union hall.  The height of arrogance and hypocrisy.  Who could ever believe a word these bastards say again!



You can see the Right Sector nationalists enjoying themselves as they set fire to the union building in Odessa and take shots at those who refuse to turn Ukraine over to MR. Big and his fascist agents.

What struck me the most is that the police appear to sit back until the damage is done before they  'gently' move in near the end of this video.  In the whole video you never hear or see a fire truck.... strange in a big city like Odessa.  The US-EU controlled 'government' in Kiev must have blocked the fire trucks - all part of the script that was written for this day.

Watching it I said to myself..... this is the beginning of WW III.

BEALE AFB DRONE PROTEST

Direct action at Beale AFB in California by Veterans for Peace and others on April 29 following the reading of an indictment for war crimes.

I lived on this base from 1969-1971 and graduated from nearby Wheatland High School.  I hope to get to one of these protests at Beale at some point.

NEWS ROUND-UP

People in the Philippines staged major protests during Obama's visit to sign new agreements to allow US military bases to return to their country.  The US was kicked out of the Philippines in 1992 and had to close its Navy and Air Force bases.

• At Beale AFB in California on Tuesday, the two main gates into the base for the first time during rush hour commute were successfully shut down, simultaneously.  Thirteen people were arrested, six were veterans and three others had never done civil resistance before.  Beale AFB hosts the Global Hawk (Surveillance drone), the U2 spy plane and the MC12 Liberty aircraft, all participants in the so-called  "war on terror." The base also has a PAVE PAWS radar which plays a key role in space directed warfare.

• Obama's visit to the Philippines this week was met with major opposition protests.  Long-time activist Walden Bello who represents Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party) in the House of Representatives of the Philippines writes:

    As U.S. President Barack Obama descends on the Philippines, Manila and Washington are rushing to complete negotiations on an Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC) between the two countries.

    What the agreement boils down to is that the Philippines will give the United States the right to operate bases in the country—for no rent—without the guarantee of U.S. protection of the country’s island territories.

    With the impending basing agreement with the United States, the Philippines is right back to its position during the Cold War, when it played the role of handmaiden to the U.S. containment strategy by hosting two huge military bases. The small window of opportunity to forge an independent foreign policy that the Philippines gained with the expulsion of the U.S. bases in 1992 will disappear with the impending signing of this latest pact with Washington.

• Russia is calling an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the punitive operation staged by the Kiev authorities in Ukraine’s southeastern regions, a spokesman for Russia’s permanent mission at the United Nations told ITAR-TASS on Friday. Ukrainian special forces have started a punitive operation in the city of Sloviansk early on Friday morning. “A full sweep operation was launched” with armoured vehicles and warplanes involved in it, a representative of the city militia told ITAR-TASS. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry stated that two Ukrainian Air Force’s helicopter gunships Mil Mi-24 had been downed and a military transport helicopter Mi-8 had been damaged in clashes.

• Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky is a Russian sociologist who has been a political dissident in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. He is coordinator of the Transnational Institute Global Crisis project and Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO) in Moscow. He writes:

    The arguments of the Kremlin in this dispute have not worked, and cannot work, for the simple reason that Western politicians for the present are not especially interested in what official Russia is thinking or doing. These politicians know perfectly well that there is no Russian invasion, and this, precisely, is the main international problem for them. To admit as much means admitting that the government in Kiev has gone to war on its own people.

    To speak of the Donetsk Peoples Republic as an independent political phenomenon in impossible, since this would require posing the question of the reasons for the popular protest, and listing its demands. The talk of Kremlin agents and of the ubiquitous Russian troops—who are impossible to discover, but who have occupied close to half of Ukraine without firing a shot or even showing themselves on Ukrainian territory—is playing the same propaganda role against the Donetsk republic as was played in the anti-Bolshevik propaganda of 1917 by stories of German spies and of money from the German General Staff.

• Amid rising tensions with Russia, the U.S. defense chief Chuck Hagel said Washington and its allies may "adjust" the timing for fielding "missile defense" (MD) systems in Europe. For now, "we are continuing with our schedule with the enhanced adaptive approach to fulfill the commitments that we've made in the interests of Poland, Romania and our NATO partners," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon in mid-April. The adjustment appears to mean opening the door to additional deployments of MD in other nations that border Russia.

• Georgia’s Defense Minister, Irakli Alasania, said in Washington on April 30 that in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, NATO allies should deploy “defensive assets” in Georgia. Air defense and anti-armor capabilities – “this is something we need to put in Georgia and Russians will understand that you are serious,” Alasania told the Washington-based think-tank Atlantic Council’s “Toward a Europe Whole and Free” conference.  They are talking about MD deployments and putting them in Georgia would be one more provocative step toward encircling Russia with these systems that are intended to serve as the "shield" after a US-NATO first-strike attack is launched. 

• It is obvious that the US is really stepping up the anti-Russian rhetoric and military "containment".  Things do not bode well for stability and peace in the region as US-NATO are forcing Russia to submit to corporate domination or face the possibility of major war.

MAY DAY: LET THE WORKERS BUILD RAIL

 

Let the Workers Build Rail

Let the workers build rail

and let their children have life

We need to transform

diversify

convert

swords into plowshares

it says so in a holy book

some call it the word of god

others say it just makes

good sense

better use of our resources

sitting on the train

gazing out the window

as the world passes by

I want to go back

to the way the good lord

made us

wise advice

swords into plowshares

In the present

the swords rule

the land is paved over

car parks

the earth cries out

for breath

we don't hear

our minds occupied 

$$$ and success

our hearts hardened

we can't breathe

I want to go back 

to the way the good lord

made us

spirit

and love

the children should come first

let them have life