Pentagon’s Impact on the Oceans

 Maine Peace Walk – Militarization of the Seas

October 9-24

Ellsworth, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire

The Pentagon has the largest carbon footprint on our Mother Earth.  Waging endless war consumes massive amounts of fossil fuels and lays waste to significant environmentally sensitive places on the planet – particularly the oceans.

The oceans are inhabited by a multitude of different life forms, from microorganisms to whales, many of whom are able to sense sound and use it to find food, navigate, communicate, and avoid predators. Navy sonar blasts wreak havoc on these creatures, disrupting their lives, leaving animals more susceptible to disease and lowered reproductive success, and sometimes injuring and killing them.

Because Navy sonars are extremely loud, depending on ocean conditions, that noise can travel at harmful levels for tens or even hundreds of miles, impacting huge numbers of animals. By the Navy’s own estimates, sonar noise can still be as high as 140 decibels 300 miles from the source, a level that is a hundred times more intense than the level known to result in behavioral changes in large whales.

Some of these exercises will even take place inside designated critical habitat for the already endangered right whale, frequenter of Maine waters. In fact, the Navy is now constructing a 500 square mile instrumented range off the coast of Georgia where it intends to conduct 470 sonar exercises annually - the Navy chose this site just offshore of the only known calving grounds of the right whale! In March 2015 Navy sonar testing near Guam led to the stranding of three beaked whales.

Shipyard Impacts in Maine

Pier-side testing of sonar occurs at Bath Iron Works (BIW) and at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery which results in significant fish kills. Navy off-shore weapons testing exercises puts toxic chemicals and hazardous materials and waste into Maine’s marine environment.

The Kennebec River that BIW fronts is often dredged in order to allow the deep hulled destroyers built there to get into the ocean.  Dredging takes a heavy toll on aquatic life.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has caused serious pollution of the local environment. The shipyard is on an island that the Pentagon considers as one of their facilities most vulnerable to climate change, particularly their dry-dock facilities. Rising sea levels could affect shipyard toxic waste sites which are now mostly right on the shoreline and would seriously impact water quality and sea life.

Ocean Acidification

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the early 1800s, fossil fuel-powered machines have driven an unprecedented burst of human industry and society. Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in ocean pH caused by human fossil fuel emissions. Oceans currently absorb approximately half of the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuel. An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes.

Arctic Militarization Due to Climate Change

In early 2014 Maine’s Sen. Angus King went on a nuclear submarine ride under the Arctic Sea ice which is now melting due to climate change.  Admiral Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations was on the sub and said, “In our lifetime, what was [in effect] land and prohibitive to navigate or explore, is becoming an ocean… We need to be sure that our sensors, weapons and people are proficient in this part of the world,” so that we can “own the undersea domain and get anywhere there.” 

When Sen. King returned from the trip he told his constituents that there has been "a 40% reduction in ice as a result of global warming."  He reported that "previously inaccessible" gas and oil reserves were now going to create "new opportunities".  King concluded, "I am convinced we need to increase our capacity in the region, something I intend to press upon my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee as we work on our military priorities for the coming years."

Rather than drill for more fossil fuels in the Arctic, and create a new arms race in that environmentally sensitive region, the US should be working to convert our military industries to build offshore wind turbines, rail, solar and tidal power.  According to studies done by the UMASS-Amherst Economics Department shipyards in Bath and Portsmouth could nearly double their number of jobs by building rail or wind turbines.  The Gulf of Maine has more wind power generating potential than any other place in the US.

Help Save Our Seas

If the seas die so do humans on Earth and much of the wildlife.  Now is the time to speak out for ending the massive military impacts on the world’s oceans and for conversion of our fossil fuel dependent military industrial complex to sustainable technologies. We will walk to bring attention to these crucial issues.  

Please help us carry this message to the public by joining with us.

Maine Walk for Peace is sponsored by:  Maine Veterans for Peace; PeaceWorks; CodePink Maine; Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST); Peace Action Maine; Veterans for Peace Smedley Butler Brigade (Greater Boston); Seacoast Peace Response (Portsmouth); Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; (List in formation)    


To view the walk flyer and daily walk schedule please click here

Crimes Against the Peace (for profit.....)

Not at all surprising to see this very important report.  The US-NATO war project in Ukraine promises the psychopathic leaders in Kiev that they will get rich if they just push the bloody war against people in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine).

This is how the imperial system works - find some low life scoundrels and make them rich if they carry out the blood letting on behalf of corporate capitalism.  And then of course blame it all on Putin!  Works every time - just like a charm......

The Real Struggle Starts From Now On

Jeju Island Catholic Bishop Kang U-Il

The overflow crowd outside of the grand opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in Gangjeong village

Sung-Hee Choi reports from Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea:

[Sept. 5] Bishop Kang U-Il says, “The real struggle starts from now on.”

On a gently rainy day, about 500 priests, sisters, laymen, villagers, and peace activists gathered to celebrate the opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in the village. The event organizers had expected about 200 crowd.

The four story building, of which the idea was first initiated by Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyeon and Bishop Kang U-il, is hoped to be ‘an outpost for the peace of Northeast Asia’ (Bishop Kang)

On the day, the words by Bishop Kang, the Board President of the Center, was resolute, touching and inspiring.

The Jeju Sori, a local media, excerpted some of his long speech. Thanks to it, here I also translate some of his words as well.

............................................................

“There are people who ask whether the struggle has finished with the naval base [that will port US warships aimed at China] being almost completed. No. It has not finished. The real struggle starts from now on.”

“In April 2005, I expressed my opinions, for the first time, against naval base construction. There are five reasons following the public teachings."

“Firstly, war is disaster. It cannot be a solution between nations. It is because such thing did not happen in the past and would not happen in the future, either.”

"Secondly, when a state power takes arms force, it can be justified and get citizens’ sympathy only by strict conditions. The mobilization of state power against the struggle in opposition to the Gangjeong naval base can never be a self-defense. “

“Thirdly, modern arms are weapons of massive mankind-killing. The increment of arms cannot be connected to peace."

“Fourthly, we are dumping tremendous budgets into arms production. What if it is used for the nation progress, for the poor..?”

“Lastly, why there should be a military base in Jeju, the far-most from the Korean truce line and the tainted by the wounds of the April 3rd incident? Jeju is the Peace Island designated by the government. The relationship between any military base and the Peace Island is like water and oil."

“With the construction of the naval base, the death of the April 3rd spirits has become meaningless…”

“Sixty-seven years ago, more than 30,000 people, more than 10% of the whole population of the Jeju Island people lost their lives for the April 3rd incident. [A massacre of Jeju peasants directed by the US military.] They were mostly innocent Island people nothing to do with ideology conflicts. They died without knowing the reasons of their deaths.”

“There are people who say that there is no more need of struggle since the Gangjeong base has been almost completed. No, the real struggle starts from now on.”

“The people we counter is not those who covered the Gureombi Rock with concrete. Nor the youths who come to the naval base to fulfill their duty for national defense. It is those who consider war positively.”

“It is the struggle against those who justify war preparation disguising their violent spirit with the logic of national security. On any basis, war is not right.”

The U.S. Military Empire of Overseas Bases

Abby Martin is back on the air and debuts teleSUR's The Empire Files exploring the U.S. Empire and its rise to world hegemony.

See interviews American University professor David Vine about his new book 'Base Nation' about the huge string of US military bases around the world. 

Whose interests do these Pentagon bases actually protect?

On Israel's Occupation of Palestine

 

Miko Peled speaking about Israeli policies in Palestine during the recent VFP national confab in San Diego......

Sunday Song

 

 

Protesting at the Air Show

Click on any of the photos for a better view

Several from the 'Patriot Riders' motorcycle club parked their bikes and jumped in front of us.  They stood in front of Veterans for Peace member Tom Whitney (white shirt) and threatened to beat him up when he held his sign up so it could be read.  After about 15 minutes the club whose motto is "Freedom isn't Free" got back on their motorbikes and roared off. The Brunswick police, just across the street, did nothing.  If a group of peaceniks jumped in front of a right-wing protest we'd be quickly made to move and likely would face some rough treatment by the cops.

We stood for just over three hours at the entrance to the former Navy base in Brunswick, Maine today while thousands of people limped their way toward the Blue Angels airshow in a major traffic jam.  It was an organizers dream - a captive audience.  People often complain that we are always 'preaching to the choir' but that wasn't the case today.

We had a couple dozen positive responses from those driving into the airshow but the vast majority of people were sullen, angry, and even viciously nasty.  Since 2003 we've done these airshow protests here in Brunswick at least 7-8 times but this was the meanest crowd I can remember.  Several others in our group of 15 noticed the same thing and wondered what the difference was this time around.

I think it is a complicated question with several possible answers.  First I'd suggest that those who are pro-military are tired of losing all the wars that the US keeps fighting.  (After all we have this huge high-tech military machine and can't lick those darn folks in dusty Afghanistan.) So pro-war people get surly when peaceniks dare appear at a 'patriotic show' like this one today.  Secondly there is the 'Trump factor' where 'The Donald' is promising a return to the glorious past of the USA.  He tells his supporters that we'll have the greatest military (undefeatable) once again, we will build a wall along the Mexican border, that he'll bring the jobs back that 'China took from us' and other such trash.  This opens the door for the latent racism and blood thirsty warmongering that is instilled in the core of many American hearts and gives license to the unleashing of this rabid dog.  An airshow, where there is a kind of worship of killing power on display, becomes a perfect festival of sacrifice.  But there standing at the entrance of the airshow is the crew of peaceniks spoiling the party.  It pisses alot of them off - big time.

A half-dozen of the so-called 'Patriot Riders' zoomed up on their motorbikes, parked them, and grabbed their American flags and began to jump in front of some of our folks who were holding signs.  They tried to pick a fight with retired medical doctor Tom Whitney, who is a member of Veterans for Peace, but were unsuccessful in their bullying tactics.  One of them got in front of the banner I was helping to hold but I asked him to move and he did.  He began yelling to cars, "God bless the USA."  After a minute I asked him if God blessed other countries as well?  He was startled by the question but did generously agree that God likely did bless other nations as well.

The 'Patriot Riders' were trying to hand out cards to airshow enthusiasts as their cars crept toward the former base.  The red-white-blue card read in part "Seeking new members....We believe in the Constitution of the USA and all of it's preambles."

We heard alot about freedom today from the passing motorists.  Things like:  "If it wasn't for these planes you wouldn't have a right to stand there protesting."  The funny thing though is that most of those spitting out the 'freedom' word at us really didn't like the fact that we were actually exercising such freedoms by protesting the airshow.  Many of them shot us the finger, thumbs down, cursed at us, gave us the evil stare and the like.

I've been publicly protesting for more than 35 years but today felt like one of the most abusive events I have ever experienced.  We know that the American empire is in collapse and I believe that in their hearts people know this to be true.  Folks want to hang on to old glory but the tattered flag is fading fast in the dusty winds of time.  I fear that the corporate oligarchy that runs the USA is turning the rage of the people against the critics - a red-white-blue version of Hitler's fascist brown shirts.  We see this being done in other places like Ukraine.  What makes us think that they would not do the same here in the US as well?

I was glad we were at the airshow today with our signs and banners.  If you want to reach the American people just go out onto the streets because they are in their cars.  The road has become the town square in the US of A.

~ Photos by Peter Woodruff

Watching the Political Gate Keepers

Almost daily on Fazebook or various email lists I am witnessing some 'peaceniks' go to great lengths to defend Bernie Sanders and attack those who dare utter a questioning word about the candidate's positions on military and foreign policy.

Today on one email list a Washington DC-based staffer for a group called 'Just Foreign Policy' hit back at an activist who raised a question about Sanders with this comment:  "Is the purpose of this list to shill for Jill Stein and the ultra-left retard faction?"

After several folks challenged that comment (particularly the tone) the staffer responded with this:

But some of the noise on the left against Sanders is coming from ultra-left fantasyland - a place of dishonesty, manipulation, deceit, and abuse - and it's important to call that out. 

Israel-Palestine is a great example of this. There is a faction of people who are trashing Sanders for "supporting Israeli militarism" because he hasn't opposed U.S. military aid to Israel. 

That's an ultra-left fantasyland position. Sanders isn't running as the candidate of the ISO or the SWP or the Workers' World Party. He's running for the Democratic nomination for President. To trash him for not taking the positions that the Trotskyite groups are taking is to fundamentally attack the political engagement of people in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

My interpretation of these comments is that they are intended to red bait anyone who dares challenge one of the Democrat candidates on foreign policy.  We are accused of being purists and not practical.  It's a strategy we see played out across the nation every election cycle to keep people in their boxes - afraid to challenge the mainstream political system to end its global imperial domination project.

And it works - loads of liberals get in line and reflexively take pot shots at anyone that dares question Democratic Party candidates about our bases overseas, endless war, NATO on steroids, expensive weapons systems, military aid to Israel, Pentagon environmental impacts, or the enormously obscene Pentagon budget.  You are told to stop being so issue selfish, demanding, and are accused of 'hurting' their favorite candidate.  Just wait until after Sanders gets elected, then we can talk about peace, we are told.

The message is be satisfied when the candidate says they support an audit of the Pentagon and would use drones more wisely.  It's called an 'enlightened' imperial war machine.

When you track some of these Washington-based groups back to their funding trail and their party allegiances what you usually find are links to the rotting soul of the Democratic Party.  The party sends these gate keepers out during election time to herd the sheep and chase away any "retarded lefty" wolves who might infect the flock with such lofty and unrealistic notions like peace and disarmament.

You can be sure that there is a direct link between the level of nastiness from the gatekeepers and the fact that they are losing sway with the majority of the rank-and-file within the most active elements of the progressive movements.  Folks out in the hustings are slowly figuring out who works for who these days. 

I saw a similar scene in South Korea where any activist that dares to question the US military bases in their country, their own government's level of military spending, and dares call for reunification of Korea is usually accused of being an agent of North Korea.  Organizations are attacked and activists put in jail for those 'crimes'.

It's an insult to the truth and the idea of democracy. It's fascism.

I still take election campaigns seriously.  If you are going to run for office then you'd better get ready to field the tough questions from the retarded Trotskyites in the audience.  We all have a right to think for ourselves and to speak up.  It's called human rights.

'Don't Get Caught Up in the Lie'

 

Larry Kerchsner interviewed in the second in the series Warriors For Peace: Veterans Speak. 

Video by Regis Tremblay.

On the Iran Deal

Sanders Wants "Strongest Military in the World"

See Bernie Sanders on foreign policy starting at 4:00 minutes into the video.  The phrase that disturbs me the most is "I believe the US should have the strongest military in the world."

Currently the US spends 34% of the world total on military spending - Russia comes in at 4.8%.  Add in the NATO countries to the US total and you reach 50%.  

The real question for Sanders remains how can you fund the "strongest military in the world" and still afford to provide free college tuition, free medical care and fulfill the other social spending priorities he promises? 

The problem with Bernie's campaign is that half of him is trying to be an insurgent candidate and the other half of him is trying to play the Democratic party inside baseball strategy.  It's a contradiction and can't be sustained over the course of a long campaign.  He's running a campaign with half his brain and heart tied to a ball and chain.

My opinion is that Sanders won't get the nomination and he is failing to use this golden opportunity to really tell the truth to the American people - our military empire is killing our domestic economy, we can't afford social progress at home and pay for endless war at the same time.

Notice that Sanders does not question US foreign policy moves to dominate the world on behalf of corporate capitalism.  His critique is limited to we can't go it alone - we have to work in conjunction with our allies in a more effective way.  (He calls for our head chopping ally Saudi Arabia to do more since they have a big military which is largely supplied by the US military industrial complex.) He doesn't touch the issue of whether our bombing of Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia was just, legal or immoral.  (He does briefly say Bush's Iraq attack was wrong but that is all he says.)  For example he endorses drones and promises he'd do a better job of using them - he won't kill so many innocent people.  Bernie sticks to the same old Democratic Party foreign policy outlines.  He's got no balls.

If he would have the courage to address our out-of-control military machine then I'd be all out for the Bern....but sadly he's half-stepping which won't cut the mustard in my book.

What is Next for Ukraine?

 

Violence has again returned to the streets of Kiev – the internal contradictions of the Maidan coup are on view for all to see. Since the forced ouster of the previous elected government, Ukraine has been long on intolerance and short on compromise. What’s next for this divided country? CrossTalking with Dmitry Babich and Mark Sleboda.

Everything is Fine

Everything is fine
payday comes
on Friday
car payment due
but its all fine

Don't need to worry
about a thing
weather
unusually hot
but not bothered
sitting in idling car
talking on Samsung phone
everything is fine

What's to complain about?
we are on top
tip-top of the  
$$$$ mountain
our global military power
will be safe
even if Bernie wins
heard him say so
we'll stay #1
you got the Bern?

Everything is fine
ships under production
just down the street
paychecks coming in
spending big at local
coffee shop
everybody making $$$$

Just take a walk
see it all
right before your eyes
cars zooming by
windows rolled up
AC turned on
full blast
everything is fine
here in vacation land

feels like southwest
Texas
dry as a bone
not distracted
by anything
except occasional
roar of Blue Angels
practicing
for weekend show
some call it
the price of freedom
I call it
ritual sacrafice
the collapse
of the Aztecs
all over again

nobody noticed
at the time 
everything was fine

Airshow Not All Fun & Games

Join us for protest in Brunswick this Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm in front of former Navy base on Old Bath Road.  Wear ear plugs.

Photo above is of napalm burned for "entertainment" at the last Blue Angels air show in Brunswick.  Who knew that burning people alive was 'loads of family fun'?  This is what the children are being taught at this military recruiting spectacle.  It's moral depravity.

Thanks to Lisa Savage from CodePink Maine for this image above.  Last weekend she and her husband Mark Roman came to Brunswick and handed out a flyer with the image to local residents urging them to rattle their chains about the airshow.

Stripping Greece of its National Assets

German parliament approves €86 billion Greek bailout with 454 lawmakers voting ‘yes’, 113 voting ‘no’ and 18 abstaining. According to the bailout terms Greek ports, water suppliers, islands will be sold to satisfy EU privatisation.

But economists are not sure the packages can help Greece to overcome the crisis. Ratings agency Fitch which upgraded Greece's ratings by one notch to 'CCC' from 'CC' says that the risks of unsuccessful completion of the Greek bailout are still high.

The Rat Race in Space

Nuclear powered Cassini space craft orbits Saturn

We treat one another
on our satellite
Earth
like we are
aliens
from another
planet

It takes
much ignorance
and arrogance
to miss
the point
that all humankind
are family
on this
spinning orb

Somehow
the elites
have successfully
turned us against
one another

Next they will
take this
dog-eat-dog
system
into space
into
the heavens

Who will
control
the planetary bodies
for resource extraction?

The profit motive
appears
to know
no bounds
the rat race
moves
into space

Who is Really Responsible for Refugee Crisis?

"I am not a terrorist, this is not a terrorist... We are human beings. Where is the humanity? Where is the world to see...
Posted by Al Jazeera English on Monday, August 24, 2015

The US-NATO create a war to try to topple the government of Syria. Massive refugee crisis ensues and the people who are running for their lives are met with this bitterness and violence. The real evil here is the US-NATO for creating the war in Syria.

Similarly refugees from the US-NATO Libya take down debacle are also seeking safety and comfort.  African refugees are growing as the US corporate imperial project to take control of vital resources on their continent creates more instability that results in driving people from their homes.

Little analysis about the cause of these refugee crisis is aired on mainstream media.  The refugees are used to further divide societies - distracting them from staring deeply into the eyes of the real enemy which happens to be Mr. Big and his well paid underlings.

Post Atomic Reality

 

VICE accompanies photographer Donald Weber to the buffer zone at Fukushima, Japan, where the eerie silence mirrors that at Chernobyl, and follow him as he attempts to document the unfolding nuclear crisis.

War Crimes Continue Against People in Donbass

 

So the shelling and killing continues against the innocent people in eastern Ukraine.  Why does the US-NATO get away with these obvious war crimes?

Who will stand up to the runaway pirates in Washington-Brussels-London-Bonn?

Protest Saturday at Airshow in Brunswick

Coming up quickly this weekend at the former Navy base in Brunswick will be ‘The Great State of Maine Air Show’ featuring the Navy Blue Angels stunt team.

 

I learned yesterday that Maine Veterans for Peace had declined to organize a protest at the airshow. Feeling it important to stand in protest at this event I’ve decided on short notice to put out a call for a protest presence in front of the former Navy Base, now called Brunswick Landing and Executive Airport, in Brunswick.

 

We will gather from 10:00 am until 1:00 on Saturday, September 5.

 

It’s obvious that this airshow is a major recruiting gimmick for the Pentagon and is a horrible waste of resources especially during this time of growing government austerity. The carbon bootprint from such a massively polluting event once again underscores the reality that the US military is the largest polluter on the planet. Finally we should all be reminded of the indiscriminate killing that is done by these kind of warplanes in the real world.

 

If you are so motivated please join those of us who plan to hold banners and signs outside the airshow. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.