Get a new Global Network T-shirt

 

 

We've just created a new T-shirt campaign for the Global Network.  You can purchase them online at Bonfire for $20 (plus s/h).  They come in the above four colors and many different sizes.

Bonfire ships them directly to your home. International orders can be made as well with additional postage due.

The Global Network makes a couple bucks on each shirt thus helping our international campaign to prevent Star Wars from becoming a tragic reality.  And time is crucial as Washington makes its move for control and domination of space and the Earth below!

Help us spread the message - go here to order.

Thanks

Bruce

What is 'Missile Defense'?

 

 

The Pentagon is surrounding China and Russia with so-called 'missile defense' systems.

Just what is MD and why is it not defensive?

MD is the 'shield' to pick off Chinese or Russian retaliatory responses after a US first-strike attack.

The US refuses to renounce first-strike while China and Russia have done so many years ago.

MD used to be illegal under the US-Russia ABM Treaty (Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) that George W. Bush pulled the US out of in 2002.

The US annually computer war games a first-strike attack against China and Russia at the Space Command.  They call it the 'Red team vs the Blue team'. In the initial attack the Pentagon attempts to take out as many of Russian and Chinese nuclear forces (air, land and sea-based) as possible. China and Russia then fire their remaining nuclear retaliatory capability and the US uses its MD layered system to pick-off as many retaliatory responses as possible giving the Pentagon what they call a 'successful' first-strike.  

Yes it is insane. These are the psychopaths now running the show in Washington.

During Obama's administration the Pentagon escalated deployment of MD on Navy Aegis destroyers (SM-3 interceptors) and Army ground-based launchers like THAAD and PAC-3. The plan is to also add orbiting MD battle stations some day. In addition the Pentagon is working on lasers to be part of the MD program.

 

MD is dangerous, provocative and destabilizing.

Video made by Global Network board member Will Griffin.

Bruce 

It is women who bear the burden.....

 

This is the trailer for "Accidents Can Happen: The Women of Three Mile Island," a 90-minute documentary film about the nuclear meltdown that took place on March 28th, 1979 at Three Mile Island, in Middletown, PA. 

The film chronicles the story of four mothers who lived five miles from the nuclear power plant when the accident occurred. Accidents Can Happen investigates the story through a feminist lens. 

The mothers' story is buttressed with interviews with medical doctors, nuclear engineers, scientists, and nuclear scholars. 

The film includes interviews and archival footage with Jane Fonda, Bonnie Raitt, and Dr. Helen Caldicott, Mark Jacobson (Stanford), Greg Jaczko (Princeton), Kate Brown (MIT), and others. 

For more about the project (in production), please see the website: AccidentsCanHappenthefilm.com

Nasrallah on Capitol Riots: Trump revealed the true face of the U.S.

 

Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah 

on January 9, 2021, three days after the Capitol riots.

Transcription :

[…] My first comment (concerns the Capitol Hill riot), because it would be unwise to ignore an event of such magnitude, namely the major incident that occurred in recent days in the United States, in Washington. Trump called for a protest in Washington, interrupting his New Year’s Holiday to come to Washington and call for a (big) protest, addressing protesters behind a bulletproof glass the same day, and urging them to march on the Congress, and on the Representatives and Senators assembled nearby to (officially) establish the result of the presidential elections.

Then, during the meeting of Representatives and Senators, the two Houses of Representatives and Senators, the demonstrators invaded the Congress building (the Capitol), in a scene [of a coup or “color revolution”] that the United States have the habit of fomenting in other countries of the world to bring down regimes. But now Trump has implemented it in his own country! This is the very thing they have perpetrated in many countries of the world, and which they have been trying to do for a year and a half in Lebanon! Either way, the protesters walked towards the building, passed through the security gates, and entered (the Capitol). There were a number of deaths, dozens of injured, dozens of arrests, bloody clashes… The Representatives and Senators fled, ending their meeting, hiding (where they could)… Then various measures were taken, and clamors (of condemnation) arose from all sides.

Of course, this is a very important and very dangerous event, which cannot be minimized or considered minor, despite the efforts of some. And its consequences are also (major and) dangerous. In Lebanon and in the Arab world, the darlings (vassals) of the United States have endeavored to downplay the significance of this event, to belittle and underestimate it. But (to know its real scope), it suffices to ask the inhabitants of Mecca, who are the most aware of what is happening at home (Arabic proverb inviting to question those first concerned). Let’s rely on what the people of the United States have said, what Biden said, what his vice-president (Harris) said, what top Democratic Party officials said, within the Republican Party, etc. How did all these people describe this event? What has been the reaction within the Trump administration itself, the resignations etc.? If it were only a minor and marginal incident, under control, it would not have had all of these consequences, which still continue, and can lead to impeachment proceedings against Trump by Congress.

 

It was not the (intended) topic of my speech, but since this event has occurred, I will say two words about it.

First, this is obviously a (major) event that we must ponder and analyze carefully, and from which we should draw lessons. This event reveals to us the reality of the current (domestic) situation in the United States, and reveals the true face of this (so-called) democracy and its (vain) pretenses. But among the things to stress in this event is that the people of the United States themselves have tasted first-hand the consequences of Trump’s policies, and his willingness to kill even Americans –who he was already killing during the past year during demonstrations [against police brutality and institutional racism]– to stay in power. We have long warned of the dangers of the policies of this assassin, and what Americans and the world have seen is only a small glimpse of what Trump perpetrated over four years in many countries around the world, such as Yemen, Iraq, Syria, the siege imposed on Iran, Venezuela, etc., and his support for Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people. The whole world has remained silent, as have many Americans, in the face of its atrocious crimes against other peoples, in particular its manifest, official and scandalous crime against the two Commanders (who defeated ISIS), Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al- Muhandis. And today, Trump’s criminal truth has been revealed to the eyes of his own people. Trump exemplifies the American political and military arrogance which has long imposed its hegemony on peoples, monopolized their choices and chained their sovereignty.

 

Yemen

 

What has happened in recent days is an example of the sterile and catastrophic nature of this (bogus) American democracy which has no real guarantees, and allows individuals like Trump to come to power. How could an election allow the rise to power of a figure so puffed up with arrogance, so criminal, so mad and so stupid, to rule not only the United States, but the whole world, holding the future of humanity in his hands?! (This experience at least) revealed the true face of this American (pseudo-)democracy that they wanted to impose on the world. And with his allies and accomplices in the Middle East, Trump exemplifies power-hungry tyrants, (ready for anything to cling to power), even at the cost of the blood of their own people. Of course, we must also mention Pompeo, who always urged us to preserve the popular vote, while he and his President did everything possible to impose themselves and alter the outcome of the elections, by force and threats. He was talking to us about the respect due to protesters, and we saw the (unarmed protesters) killed and wounded in the heart of Washington.

I will conclude on this point with two words.

(First, I want to say) that God the Most High and the Exalted has protected the peoples of the world and the whole Earth during these four years (of Trump’s presidency), and we must all pray to Him, invoke Him and intercede with Him so that He continues to preserve us during the days that remain before January 20, because the nuclear codes are still in the hands of this mad, stupid, racist and arrogant character that is Trump, a real tyrant who when he gets angry, he no longer knows what he is doing. May God continue to preserve the world for the few days remaining until January 20.

And my last point is this: when I saw Trump’s recorded speech yesterday (it was not broadcast live), and in which he condemned the protesters, those who had engaged in violence, vowing to abide by the law and calling everyone to respect the law, he reminded me of this Quranic verse which says: “They are like Satan when he lures someone to disbelieve. Then after they have done so, he will say ˹on Judgment Day˺, ‘I have absolutely nothing to do with you. I truly fear Allah—the Lord of all worlds.’ ” (Quran, 59, 16).

It was Trump who organized this demonstration, he is the one who incited them to march on Congress, it is he who sent them there, and when they took the Capitol, he disassociated himself from them, saying he had nothing to do with any of this and was abiding by the law. This is the real face of Trump, the way he behaves with those who support him, let alone his allies. 

In conclusion, this is a major event, and the developments underway in the United States are very important and will have consequences domestically but also on the whole world. We must follow all of this closely. […]

~ Hassan Nasrallah (born 1960, Beirut, Lebanon), Lebanese militia and political leader who served as leader (secretary-general) of Hezbollah  from 1992. Nasrallah was raised in the impoverished Karantina district of eastern Beirut, where his father ran a small grocery store. After the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975 caused the family to flee south from Beirut, Nasrallah joined Amal, a Lebanese Shiʿi paramilitary group allied with Iran and Syria. Soon afterward he left for Najaf, Iraq, to study at the Shiʿi seminary there. Following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Nasrallah left Amal to join the Hezbollah movement, a more-radical force that was heavily influenced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. In the late 1980s Nasrallah rose through Hezbollah’s ranks and became a leading figure. As his potential for leadership became clear, he went to Iran to further his religious education in Qom. He assumed leadership of Hezbollah in 1992 after his predecessor, Sheikh ʿAbbas al-Musawi, was killed by an Israeli missile.

'The whole thing is a GD circus'.....

 

 

Another great skit by Jimmy Dore....

Our opposition grows: Dangers of launching nukes into space

 

 

The US began launching space probes with nuclear power in the early 1960's.  One of these military satellites powered with a nuclear reactor fell back to Earth in April of 1964. 

It was called SNAP 9-A and was launched aboard a Department of Defense weather satellite that failed to reach orbit. The nuclear reactor, as designed, released radioactive debris in our upper atmosphere during reentry and then burned up. Remnants struck the Indian Ocean. A total of 2.1 pounds of plutonium-238 vaporized in the atmosphere and spread worldwide.

Over the years there have been a host of space nuclear accidents by the US and former Soviet Union/Russia.  See more here

Dr. John Goffman studied the SNAP 9-A accident and concluded that the dispersed deadly plutonium-238 was a leading cause of the increase in cancers around the world today. During our 1997 Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and Global Network campaign to stop the launch of the Cassini space probe, with 72 pounds of plutonium-238 onboard, Goffman was a huge help to us doing frequent media interviews where he warned of the dangers of global contamination if there was to be a launch accident.

(Goffman's earliest research was in nuclear physics and chemistry, in close connection to the Manhattan Project. He co-discovered several radioisotopes, notably uranium-233; he was the third person ever to work with plutonium. Later in life, Gofman took on a role as an advocate warning of dangers involved with nuclear power.) 

The nuclear industry currently views space as a new (and wide open) market for their toxic product that has run its dirty course on Mother Earth.

During our campaigns in 1989, 1990, and 1997 to stop NASA's Galileo, Ulysses and Cassini plutonium launches, we learned that the nuclear industry positioned their agents inside NASA committees that made the decisions on what kinds of power sources would be placed on those deep space missions.  Similarly, it now appears that the nuclear industry has also infiltrated the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that has been studying missions to Mars.  The recommendation, not any surprise, is that nuclear reactors are the best way to power a Mars mission.

 

But nukes are not the best for us Earthlings because the Department of Energy (DoE) has a bad track record of human and environmental contamination as they fabricate space nuclear devices. An accident at launch could have catastrophic consequences.

In 1996, just prior to the launch of Cassini, it was reported that while fabricating the plutonium generators for the Cassini space probe, 244 cases of worker contamination occurred at DoE's Los Alamos lab in New Mexico. So it is not just a launch pad explosion that we worry about. 

 

We fought the DoE and NASA on those previous nuclear launches and are entering the struggle again.  

The nuclear industry has its sights set on nuclear-powered mining colonies on an assortment of planetary bodies - all necessitating legions of nuclear devices being produced at DoE and then launched on rockets that blow up from time to time. They are also now promoting a nuclear rocket to Mars - with reactors for engines. The Pentagon has long claimed that they need nuclear reactors to power space-based weapons.

We urge the public to help us pressure Congress, NASA and DoE to 'say no' to nukes in space. We've got to protect life here on this planet. The best way you can help is to share this information with others so that we can build an international base of awareness and action around this issue.

We are in the middle of a pandemic and people have lost jobs, homes, health care and even food on their table.

Trips to Mars (without nuclear devices) can wait.

Bruce

Culture review: 'Brutal world of competition'

 

Journalist Chris Hedges reflects on Michael Jackson's death and the commodification of his life. 

Recorded in 2009.

Many lessons to be learned in this video. 

The message resonates more each day. 

Fighting for freedom & justice in Mississippi

 

Fannie Lou Hamer was a force to be reckoned with. Enduring intractable racism, police beatings, and even forced sterilization, she never stopped working for equal voting rights for all. 

 

Born on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, Fannie Lou, was the 20th and youngest child of Lou Ella and James Townsend. Both Lou Ella and James worked as sharecroppers their entire lives; when Fannie Lou was just six years old, she joined them, despite having endured a bout of polio just a year earlier. 

Hamer was eight years old in 1925 when she saw Joe Pullam, a local sharecropper, lynched. In an interview with Jack O'Dell in 1965, she said, "I remember that until this day and I won't forget it." 

Poverty forced Hamer to drop out of school at the age of 12, and by the age of 13, she was picking as much as 400 pounds of cotton in a day and receiving $1 for her work. Since Hamer had learned how to read and write during her brief time in school, she also worked as a record keeper on the plantation, and soon discovered just how the owners would cook the books to cheat the poor sharecroppers out of their fair wages. 

To offset this, Hamer began secretly tilting the scales to ensure people weren't cheated. She later recalled, "I didn't know what to do and all I could do is rebel in the only way I could rebel."

Sunday song

 

    

What animal has visited us?

 

We discovered these tracks outside our back door?

Was it a bear, deer or a woolly mammoth?

It certainly isn't a squirrel or a rabbit.

Bigfoot (Sasquatch) maybe? 

You can click on the photos for a better view.  Let me know if you have any idea.

Bruce 

On the Navalny case....

   

Russia – stop calling the Navalny team “opposition”, they are NATO agents

 

By Christelle Néant 

Donbass Insider

Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called for an end to the labeling Navalny and his team as “opposition” in Russia and for them to be called by their real name in view of their actions, namely NATO agents.

It must be said that following the complete sabotage of Alexey Navalny and his team, between the video published by the FSB showing his associate with a man considered to be an MI6 agent, and the abject behaviour of “Mr. 2%” in court against a veteran of the Second World War, the fact that the Russian “opposition” is in reality a team of NATO agents has become more and more flagrant.

Following the failure of the latest pro-Navalny demonstrations in Russia, his associate Leonid Volkov, who is leading the protest actions from abroad, had called on 4 February for them to cease until spring or even summer.

“We won’t organise a rally next weekend… The wave of protests must end at a high point. Because if we continue to get down, it will demotivate and frustrate everyone terribly… We are going to prepare well and organise something big in the spring and summer,” he said.

But on 9 February, the situation turned around, and the Navalny team announced that new actions would finally be carried out in February.

Why such a turnaround in barely five days? Because Volkov and Ashurkov (the one who had been filmed in the company of a supposed MI6 agent) went to receive their instructions from their Western bosses. And not even secretly. Poland proudly posted the meeting in question on its Twitter wall.

“Recent developments in EU-Russia relations require action by EU Member States. This is why Poland is hosting a virtual meeting with A. Navalny’s closest associates, Leonid Volkov and Vladimir Ashurkov. The 27 permanent representatives of the EU with the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Ukraine are now discussing the next steps”.

In short, NATO has given its orders to the Navalny team for the next steps to be taken, making them agents of the organisation. No conspiracy in all this is explicitly stated in the tweet!

The meeting at which Ashurkov and Volkov received their orders from their NATO bosses did not escape the notice of Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, who commented it on her Facebook wall as proof that Navalny’s team is in fact a group of influence agents.

“What happened between 4 and 9 February that led the opposition to radically change its tactics? It’s simple – there was an online meeting with Volkov and Ashurkov at the Polish Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels on 8 February 2021, attended by EU countries, the United States and the United Kingdom. In fact, it was a meeting of NATO countries. NATO members gave instructions to the “opposition”, or in fact to their agents of influence, on how to conduct subversive operations “more intelligently”. 

 

The West has already invested too much money and resources in this story to wait for spring. They understand well that in spring, the information campaign launched by the West will be deflated. They can no longer juggle with the theme of “chemical weapons” without presenting facts because their backs are against the wall. So they’re just all-in,” she wrote on her wall.

While on the set of Russia’s first television channel, Maria Zakharova went even further in drawing the conclusion from all this, saying that it was necessary to stop calling the Navalny team “opposition” and instead describe them as what they are, namely agents of NATO influence.

“Generally speaking, we should stop calling them “opposition”, opposition is something else. They are agents of influence,” she said.

Commenting on the details of the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed that this was a NATO meeting with its agents of influence aimed at destabilising the situation in Russia.

“It doesn’t matter how you make it up, it doesn’t matter how you call it, but it is a meeting with influence agents to destabilise the situation in a sovereign state, there is no other way to call it”, said Zakharova.

And for the diplomat such acts on the part of Russian citizens can only be described as treason.

“It’s banal and vulgar, it’s always been like that. Take the classic works of our authors: from high literature to children’s fairy tales. For our country, this is a story whose qualification is unequivocal. We now take no legal references, etc. But as far as the moral and ethical assessment is concerned, this is treason,” said Ms Zakharova.

The diplomat also stressed that Alexey Navalny, presented by the West as a “prisoner of conscience”, did not deserve such a qualification because he has no conscience.

“I would like to say that the Western media also supported or participated in this campaign… as well as non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International, which described Navalny as a “prisoner of conscience”. This is an oxymoron – you cannot call a person who has no conscience because he or she is lying a prisoner of conscience,” said Zakharova at a Duma meeting that investigated foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs.

She said that Russia could not consider the actions of the countries involved “other than as an attempt to divert information resources to interfere in the internal affairs of the country, which is contrary to international legal principles”.

The Navalny affair and its use by NATO countries to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs clearly shows the double Western standard, which shouts out for imaginary Russian interference, but does not hesitate to do to Moscow what it accuses it of doing. But above all, it could end up completely scuttling Alexey Navalny and his team on the political level in Russia. Because the Russians have no desire to have a NATO agent at the head of the country. 

No justice in Israel for Palestinian people

 

The ruling by the International Criminal Court is a game-changer

From now on, Israeli Army soldiers and officers had better think twice about obeying orders to destroy Palestinian homes.


Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc) press release

The judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague ruled unequivocally that the court has full authority to hear and decide on Palestinian complaints of violations of International Law by the State of Israel and its army. Thereby, the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.  

To date, the only judicial authority authorized to hear cases relating to acts by the Israeli Army in the Occupied Territories had been the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. In spite of prolonged wild incitement waged by Israeli right-wing circles against the Supreme Court and its judges, in practice the Supreme Court was and remains extremely forgiving towards the occupation army, rejecting the vast majority of appeals lodged by Palestinians. 

When it comes to the judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, it's a completely different matter. The Hague Court is bound by the provisions of International Law, specifically by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which sets out in detail what an occupying state is allowed - and what it is forbidden - to do in a territory under the military rule of its army. Many of the acts that the IDF routinely undertakes in the territories under its rule may turn out  to be serious violations of International Law.  

For example: Just a few days ago, on the morning of Monday, February 1, a large military force arrived in the tiny village of Hamsa al-Fouka in the northern Jordan Valley. The soldiers destroyed dozens of residential buildings and sheep pens, leaving 85 Palestinian residents - 45 of them children - homeless and exposed in the open air. The soldiers also demanded that the residents completely leave Hamsa al-Fouka and move to another location that the army would determine for them, threatening that if they did not leave voluntarily, they would be forcibly transferred by the army.  

This act of destruction and devastation carried out by the army - and it is certainly not the first of its kind - has gone virtually unnoticed by the Israeli public and political system. Knesset Members who habitually engage in loud and vociferous debates failed to take up this issue. But make no mistake: outside the borders of the State of Israel, there are those who constantly monitor and closely record such acts.  

At the International Court, indictments can certainly be filed against IDF officers and settlers as well as against officials and ministers in the Government of Israel. Among other things, acts of wanton destruction – carried out  especially against small and highly vulnerable Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills - can certainly lead to the filing of indictments against everybody involved. 

From now on, IDF officers should think twice about obeying an order to participate in such acts of destruction, and risk serious consequences. Officers who nevertheless decide to continue participating in these acts of destruction had better make an effort to keep their identities secret, constantly wear masks regardless of the Kovid-19 situation, and in general start acting like law-breakers evading law enforcement -  because that is exactly what their legal status is about to become.  

Decision-makers in the State of Israel have been well aware in recent weeks that the decision of the judges in The Hague was imminent, and that President Trump - who tried to intimidate the International Court by series of blatant threats - is no longer in the White House. It is surprising that in such a situation the decision-makers continued to order soldiers and officers to go on destroying of Palestinian homes, when knowing that those who carry out such orders may have to pay a heavy price.  

 

Defense Minister Gantz should look up from his clashes with the Prime Minister and his party's precarious electoral situation, and think about the consequences of the Hague judges' decision – the consequences for himself personally, both regarding his former position as Army Chief of Staff and his present one as Defense Minister, and the changing judicial situation of the soldiers and officers for whom he is responsible as being in charge of Israel’s military system.

 
~ Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson +972-(0)54-2340749

Latest interview with Regis Tremblay

Regis Tremblay interviews Bruce Gagnon [yesterday] on STRATCOM as the most dangerous organization on Earth; the U.S. Space Force; Nuclear weapons and power in space; Biden's foreign policy towards Russia and China; and the effort to clean up space. 

Thousands and thousands of space junk bits could spell dark times for the planet after causing a cascading destruction of satellites that control nearly everything we do on Earth. 

See our Global Network video about STRATCOM here  

'Is it too much for us to ask for human dignity?'

 

Odds & Ends

 

• Our newsletter (Space Alert!) printer delivered excess copied to me yesterday.  After they print the paper they also mail it to our US domestic mailing list.  Then I take the extra copies and do the mailing to our international members.  If you'd like to get a copy of the paper just send me an email at globalnet@mindspring.com and I will send you one right away.   You can also view it online here

• I was invited yesterday to speak to a local church committee here in Bath about non-violent direct action.  Rev. Bill Bliss (Neighborhood UCC church) offered the invite.  He (and his two sons) went on our Global Network Russia Study Tour in 2019.  I really enjoyed the discussion and was pleasantly surprised at how many great questions the church members asked.  

• Earlier in the week several of our Global Network board members met on Zoom with the lead lawyer in a pending federal court action that will challenge the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that is in charge of authorizing satellite launches. Tens of thousands of launches are now planned in the next few years - so many that the aerospace industry and the Pentagon are running around the globe looking to build new spaceports to handle the glut. A couple big problems immediately come to mind when I think of thousands of mini-satellite launches. One would be the toxic rocket exhaust punching a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer thus making our climate crisis worse. The growing space debris problem, with increasingly congested orbits adding to the mess, makes the chances of an accidental avalanche of crashes in space more likely. This could ultimately make it impossible to launch a rocket off Earth due to the ‘minefield’ of space junk circling our already fragile planet. Astronomers are upset about the dark night sky being fouled by legions of new blinking satellites encircling our planet. I'll keep you posted as this legal action moves forward. 

 

• Jonathan Cook writes: “There is a reason that, as we rush lemming-like towards the cliff-edge, urged on by a capitalism that cannot operate at the level of sustainability or even of sanity, the push towards intensified war grows. Wars are the lifeblood of the corporate empire headquartered in the US. Whether public or covert, wars provide an opportunity to remake poorly defended, resistant societies — such as Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria — in ways that allow for resources to be seized, markets to be expanded and the reach of the corporate elite to be extended. War is the ultimate growth industry, limited only by our ability to be persuaded of new enemies and new threats.”

• The Tromsø municipal council in northern Norway has decided to say NO to a port for U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. This prompted the Norwegian Minister of Defense to react:  “Tromsø cannot opt out of NATO”, he said in late 2020. The federal government is pushing hard to override local politicians and public opinion. Tromsø is the third largest urban municipality in Norway, and the seventh in population. Tromsø is the regional civil administration center for the northern area in Norway. Tromso is very close to the Russian border along the Barents Sea. NATO is continually holding war games there (aimed at Russia) and has established a weapons depot in Norway where after each war game is over much of the military hardware is being stored. A similar US weapons hub has also been built in Poland.
  

 

NATO war games in the Nordic region aimed at Russia

• NATO is expanding its military alliance into space, and announced construction of a “space center” at Ramstein AFB, Germany. The new facility will be used as a coordination point for surveillance in space, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported.  “This will be a focal point for ensuring space support to NATO operations, sharing information and coordinating our activities,” a NATO official said.  About half of the 2,000 satellites currently in earth orbit are owned by NATO members (mostly US). The action follows a 2019 NATO decision declaring space as a separate area of operations. 

JFK's most important speech

This is the speech that got JFK killed - along with some other issues that pissed off the CIA, mafia, and Wall Street....

It is my understanding that the national media largely ignored this speech - thus few across the nation ever knew about it.  It ran against the prevailing political agenda of endless war and Washington's global domination post WW II.

Things haven't changed much since then - in fact they've gotten worse.  You'd never hear a Bush, Clinton, Obama, Trump, Biden or others in either major party in this country talk like JFK does in his speech.

We need voices like JFK's but they are going to have to come from the grassroots - the corporations have locked down Washington so these ideas are verboten in government these days.

The US has become bad-hearted - not really that different from the enemies it has fought - the Nazis, terrorists or others.  Look in the mirror America and see what we have become.

Violence runs through our veins.  It was America's creation story.

We all know now that the US is arrogant with a deep-rooted misbelief that it is the most exceptional of nations. USA uber alles....

Let's recall that Operation Paperclip, which brought about 1,500 former Nazi military leaders to the US after WW II, helped in many ways ensure that aggression, greed and deceit became embedded inside the Deep State and its supporters.  We suffer from it today. 

Bruce

What ever happened to class struggle?

 

As the fight amongst the oligarchs heats up over Trump's 2nd impeachment, one must wonder what ever happened to the days when the poor and the working class were clear-eyed enough to see their real struggle was against the rich?  Wall Street banksters, the weapons warlords, Hollywood moguls, oil barons, real estate developers and the like.  

Instead we see the Lumpenproletariat on their knees scratching and clawing each other - defending one side of the elite mobsters who are armed against the other in Washington's usual sideshow that distracts the nation from the ever present reality of capital accumulation.  The gap between the 1% and the 99% widens to resemble the divide at the Grand Canyon while loyal Republican & Democrat party faithful bark out the scripts written by the commanders of the Congressional leadership.

If you listen closely you can hear the muffled graveyard anguish of Robin Hood, Joe Hill, Mother Jones, Ida B. Wells, Woody Guthrie, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Cesar Chavez and many more.  Why are we not aiming our anger and well-justified outrage at those who really run the show? Why do we carry water for one side of the corrupt uber class against the other?

 

 

Trump's impeachment in the Senate is all about theatrics and distraction.  Even before the gavel pounds to open the hearings the outcome is known.  The costly show will go down to ultimate failure because 17 Republicans are needed to ensure a 'successful' prosecution and the Democrats will not sway enough of the other side to join the effort.

Meanwhile the legions of those being evicted from their homes will grow, unaddressed by the well dressed (and well fed) politicians who stand on the Senate floor and bloviate about 'right and wrong'. The hungry will not be fed by these hearings.  The jobless will not be helped.  Those without Medicare for All will not be served by those who work for the rich.

National Public Radio (NPR), the NY Times, Washington Post, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN will spend hours cranking up the public with reports on the 'historic debate' in the halls of the people.  But those halls have boundaries and those who labor inside the Congress have masters to serve and they know their jobs.  They don't do anything to disrupt the status quo.

Beware what bait you bite on in the coming days. You just might get hooked into a circus act that is designed to hide the real horror of today - the reintroduction of feudalism.

Bruce

Return of Dr. Strangelove

 

The New Cold War
Head of Strategic Command: US Must Prepare for “Very Real Possibility” of Nuclear War With China

In an era when international cooperation in the face of pandemics and climate change is essential, the world appears to be racing towards a new Cold War, and unfortunately, few except the military top brass are talking about it.

by Alan Macleod

Mint Press News

Writing in the U.S. Naval Institute Journal, Admiral Charles A. Richard warned that the military must “consider the possibility of great power competition, crisis, or direct armed conflict with a nuclear-capable peer” and update and modernize its approach to its two principal adversaries.

“There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons,” he wrote, demanding that the United States “prepare for the conflict we prefer, instead of one we are likely to face.”

Richard accused the Chinese of “mak[ing] technological leaps in capabilities in every domain” and Russia of “aggressively modernizing its nuclear forces.” He concluded that “the probability of nuclear use is low, but not impossible, particularly in a crisis and as our nuclear-armed adversaries continue to build capability and exert themselves globally,” and that the U.S. risks suffering “embarrassment” or worse if they do not act.

The admiral’s words closely echo a recent report from the Atlantic Council — a body that is filled with top American generals and closely linked to NATO. The council advised President Biden to draw a number of “red lines” around China, past which the U.S. would respond militarily. These included virtually any Chinese military actions in the South China Sea, cyberattacks on its neighbors, or even a North Korean strike on its adversaries. Any backing down from the brink, the council insisted, would mean national “humiliation” for the United States.

In recent months, the United States has taken a number of provocative military actions on China’s doorstep. In July, it conducted naval exercises in the South China Sea, with warships and naval aircraft spotted just 41 miles from the coastal megacity of Shanghai, intent on probing China’s coastal defenses. In December, it flew nuclear bombers over Chinese vessels close to Hainan Island. Last year Florida Senator Rick Scott stated that every Chinese national in the U.S. was a communist spy and should be treated with extreme suspicion.

Scott’s words are part of a broader propaganda war against China. In 2011, the American public’s view of the country was strongly favorable. However, due in no small part to fearmongering stoked by politicians and media pundits, nearly three-quarters of Americans (a historic high) hold negative views of China, with less than one-quarter positively rating the country, according to Pew Research.

It is a similar story with Russia. During the 2012 presidential debates, Republican nominee Mitt Romney was relentlessly mocked for his position that Russia was an adversary. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” President Obama famously quipped. Since then, however, the number of Americans with a favorable view of Russia has dropped from an all-time high in 2011 of 49% to just 19% today.

Perhaps due to increased nationalistic sentiment, little attention has been paid to the Trump administration’s decisions to back out of every international anti-nuclear weapons deal the U.S. had signed, including the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) and the Open Skies treaties as well as the New START agreement.

Last week, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reset their famous Doomsday Clock — an estimation to how close the world is to armageddon — to just 100 seconds to midnight, the closest, in their estimation, we have ever been to complete destruction. Explaining their decision, the committee, which includes 13 Nobel laureates, stated that nuclear nations have, 

Ignored or undermined practical and available diplomatic and security tools for managing nuclear risks. By our estimation, the potential for the world to stumble into nuclear war—an ever-present danger over the last 75 years—increased in 2020.”

One piece of good news came down on Wednesday when the White House announced it had renewed the New START treaty — a deal which limits the number of nuclear missiles the U.S. and Russia can possess. However, on Iran, Venezuela, China, Afghanistan, and other nations, Biden appears to be maintaining Trump’s aggressive policies.

The outcome of any nuclear confrontation has been well understood by war planners for over half a century. In his book “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” former military analyst and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg explained that his team calculated that, in the event of a totally successful widespread American nuclear strike against the Soviet Union, with no retaliation whatsoever, at least 99% of the world’s population would die as a result. As he noted: 

It is the smoke, after all (not the fallout, which would remain mostly limited to the northern hemisphere), that would do it worldwide: smoke and soot lofted by fierce firestorms in hundreds of burning cities into the stratosphere, where it would not rain out and would remain for a decade or more, enveloping the globe and blocking most sunlight, lowering annual global temperatures to the level of the last Ice Age, and killing all harvests worldwide, causing near-universal starvation within a year or two.”

In an era when international cooperation in the face of pandemics and climate change is essential, the world appears to be racing towards a new Cold War. Unfortunately, few except the military top brass are talking about it. Worse still, they seem to be almost delighted at the prospect.

~ Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

Conservative activist speaks out against weaponization of space

 

Good video on dangers of war in space from a conservative activist...he begins with the Jeff Bezos leaving Amazon story so the mega-zillionaire can concentrate on launching satellites.

Is there growing opportunity for conjunction of interests between some conservatives and progressives?  It can only happen if we are willing to listen to one another without pre-judgment.

Bruce

Sunday song

 

Treaty needed to ban weapons in space

 

The Hill

The US should negotiate a ban on basing weapons in space

The Biden administration is assembling a deep bench of personnel with experience negotiating arms control agreements and already has agreed with Russia to extend the New Start Treaty. It’s clear the administration intends to initiate another look at the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review and the massive buildup in nuclear weapons begun by the Trump administration. While it’s good that the Biden administration intends to resume negotiations to continue nuclear force reductions, the specter of placing weapons in space is another area that requires a serious arms control effort.

Now that separate space organizations have been established, major military commands are advocating to develop new capabilities. Pentagon buzzwords characterize space as a “contested domain” and some consider actual war-fighting in space to be inevitable. Some advocates argue that the U.S. should strive for technological superiority in space to ensure our dominance of that critical domain.

The history of technological advancement in weapons systems shows that any advantage gained usually lasts fewer than five years and guarantees a cycle of ever-increasing cost and new perceptions of threat. Already, there are weapons that can be targeted against space-based assets from non-space domains. Russia and China are believed to have deployed ground-based capabilities to attack satellites, and India joined this club last year by using a ground-based missile to bring down a satellite.  [The US has also tested anti-satellite weapons.]

Although it isn’t clear how the Biden administration will shape space policy, during his confirmation hearing, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seemed to signal a shift away from a more muscular approach and back to a focus on space resiliency and protecting U.S. space assets. As one analyst concluded, the language Austin used signals the Biden team wants to “start to lean away from … the pugilistic aspects of what’s been articulated [by the Trump administration].” Responding to a question about what his advice would be to the U.S. Space Command concerning military space operations, Austin stressed measures to protect U.S. assets that don’t include offensive options for taking the fight to adversaries. While not a fully articulated space policy, this is a welcome change of tone after the past few years of heavy breathing about waging war in space.

If the U.S. and other nations continue the current drift toward organizing and equipping to wage war in space, Russia, China and others will strive to improve capabilities to destroy U.S. space assets. Over time, this would greatly increase the threat to the full array of U.S. space-based capabilities. Intelligence, communications, surveillance, targeting and navigation assets already based in space, upon which the Department of Defense (DOD) depends for command and control of military operations, increasingly would be at significant risk. As a consequence, weaponizing space could become a classic case of trying to solve one problem while creating a much worse problem.

For example, buried in the DOD 2020 budget is $150 million for research into putting missile defense assets in space to attack enemy nuclear missiles in the boost phase. If the U.S. or another nation does deploy weapons in space, it would be the first country to do so and likely would be a disaster for strategic stability. To ensure the credibility of their nuclear deterrents, Russia, China and others could be expected to respond by deploying additional and new types of long-range ballistic missiles, as well as missiles employing non-ballistic trajectories that are harder to hit.  Russia and China also would strive to improve their ability to destroy U.S. space-based interceptors, which would greatly increase the threat to the full array of U.S. space assets.

It’s time for arms control planning to address the issues raised by this drift toward militarization of space. Space is a place where billions of defense dollars can evaporate quickly and result in more threats about which to be concerned. China and Russia have been proposing mechanisms for space arms control at the United Nations for years; it’s time for the U.S. to cooperate in this effort.

In 2015, Frank Rose, assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance in the State Department, called for arms control in space at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum workshop on space security. But, he said the Obama administration opposed a 2008 Russian and Chinese proposal to ban all weapons in space because it was unverifiable, contained no prohibition on developing and stockpiling space arms, and did not address ground-based space weapons such as direct ascent anti-satellite missiles.   

Instead of just criticizing others’ proposals, the U.S. should join in the effort and do the hard work of crafting a space arms control agreement that deals with the concerns we have and that can be verified. A legally binding international treaty banning the basing of weapons in space should be the objective.

Let’s be clear: Deploying weapons in space crosses a threshold that cannot be walked back.  Given the implications for strategic stability, and the likelihood that such a decision by any nation would set off an expensive space arms race in which any advantage gained would likely be temporary, engaging now to prevent such a debacle seems warranted.    

~ John Fairlamb, Ph.D., is a retired Army colonel with 45 years of government service, much of it in joint service positions formulating and implementing national security strategies and policies, including  two four-year details in the Department of State and as the political-military affairs adviser for a major Army command. His doctorate is in comparative defense policy analysis. 

Biden's magic tricks: watch both of his hands

 

During the Obama administration the Modus operandi (MO) was to play magic tricks. Obama would announce a good thing and then at the same time do a really bad thing.  I started urging people to watch both of the magicians hands. 

Following Obama's slight of hand tricks, Biden is off to a similar start. Here are a few examples:

• Just yesterday Biden made a foreign policy speech where he said, "America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy". But on February 2 Stars & Stripes newspaper reported that his administration was "deploying bombers and airmen to a base in Norway for the first time, underscoring the growing importance of the Arctic region to U.S. defense strategy." The Air Force has been stepping up its strategic bomber missions in the Arctic, but recent missions have either been staged from England, where bombers typically deploy while training in Europe, or have involved round-trip flights between the U.S. and the Nordic region. This is the first time bombers are deploying to Norway. (Which of course borders Russia in the north.)
  

 

 

• In his speech Biden praised those who have been calling for an end to the Saudi-US war in Yemen.  He said the US will end all support for Saudi Arabia's 'offensive operations' in Yemen. But then in typical magician style the new prez stated that the US will "continue to help and support Saudi Arabia" by selling them 'defensive' weapons.  Now let's see here - how much difference is there between offensive and defense weapons?  A bullet is a bullet.  A bomb is a bomb....

• On February 3 Biden announced an agreement to extend the New START Treaty with Russia, to preserve the only remaining nuclear arms agreement between them.  OK that is good.  But are you watching his other hand?  On Biden's first day in office he ordered more US troops into the oil fields of Syria. 

• On January 28 Biden sent three warships into the Black Sea, stepping up its presence in the region after a drop in overall NATO maritime activity there last year. The destroyer USS Porter began its transit into the sea, joining the USS Donald Cook (built in Bath, Maine) and a third warship conducting operations in the strategic waterway, the Stars & Stripes reported. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led the Army in Europe until 2018, said more allies should step up to help the U.S. in the region. “We clearly have to increase the priority of the Black Sea,” said Hodges, who is now the Pershing chair of strategic studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “US Navy has too many (requirements) and not enough resources. President Biden will expect Allies to do more.” Russia took note of the US's Black Sea escalation and sent fighter jets zooming just above Washington's provocative deployment of destroyers in Russia's backyard.  How would the US respond if Moscow sent warships into the Gulf of Mexico? 

 

• Let's not leave China out.  Again on January 28 Biden ordered a 'task force' of four B-52 bombers to fly to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, part of an ongoing demonstration by the Air Force of its ability to move strategic assets around the globe. Stars & Stripes again reported that the B-52s, from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, were sent to “reinforce the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region” through “strategic deterrence.” Guam, at the eastern edge of the Philippine Sea, is within easy range of the South China Sea, where the US is escalating pressure on China to surrender to Washington's control.

 

 

• Then on February 4, just to make sure that Beijing got Biden's message that "American is back", the US Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain (built in Bath, Maine) sailed through the Taiwan Strait marking the first such transit since Biden took office. The Navy called it "routine". China said it remains on "high alert" and "is ready to respond to all threats and provocations at any time." My son lives in Taiwan so this one really hit close to home.
  

• All of these 'operations' cost big $$$$ - especially at a time when the US Congress says that the government can't afford to give our citizens $2,000 each to help them deal with loss of jobs, no healthcare, growing hunger and poverty, and general economic collapse. But despite all the nice talk about bringing the nation back to sanity and solvency - it is the same old 'double cross' - Three-card Monte scam.  Watch both hands of the dealer.  Look away at your own risk.

Bruce

Israel: fascist outpost in Middle East

 

Israel has become a killer country.  They are as fascist as any nation could ever be.

Free Palestine....stop the plans for 'Greater Israel' which has its eyes set on grabbing Syria, Egypt, Iran and more.

Their actions, like those from US-NATO, are pure criminal.

US citizens must stop funding the Israeli war machine. Stop Now!

Bruce 

Comedy break: Love it!

 

Snow days here in Maine

 

Mary Beth and I went to Augusta one day late last week for an appointment. Since we would be there anyway we joined the weekly noon time Women in Black vigil in 14 degree weather - quite cold and windy as well. (Masks actually are quite helpful in this kind of cold/windy weather.) These two photos above by Roger Leisner.

Then Monday and Tuesday we had a snow storm here in Maine, so we needed to get out and do some shoveling.  Today the sun is shining and the temp is 37 degrees.

I had a call from a high school friend in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida yesterday who wanted to check on me after seeing the weather report about our big snow storm.  They were predicting we'd get up to a foot of snow but I'd guess we only got about six inches or so.  We actually have not had very much snow this winter and the temperatures have generally been pretty mild so far.

Bruce

Space issues webinar that got hacked

 

Last Sunday I did this webinar on space issues with a Marxist group in northern California.

Three quarters of the way thru it was hacked by a racist who posted various disgusting words on my Powerpoint slides.  So the talk had to be stopped and we continued without people seeing the last 1/4 of my slides.

This is one slide that didn't get seen by those on the Zoom meeting.

 

Add NATO nations spending to the US figure and you'll see the global total well over 50%. How can Russia and China (even combined) be such a military threat to US-NATO?  And it should be remembered that Russia cut their military spending the last couple of years to help deal with their large poverty numbers.

One does not have to be a Russian or Chinese booster in order to see the facts as they are.

Bruce 

Preview: Latest Space Alert newsletter

 

 

Our current Space Alert newsletter is now at the print shop and is also available online here

Below are a few bits from the latest edition which has a focus on impacts from the growing numbers of spaceports around the world and their launches.  Increasingly crowded orbits result as well as continued destruction to the ozone layer from toxic rocket fuels. 

• During this past year we’ve been witnessing a virtual explosion of plans to construct new ‘spaceports’ at various locations around the world. Proposals have included building them in Scotland, Hawaii, Maine, Japan and beyond. Some are still in the works and others have been put on the shelf for now. Space X and  other  corporate-owned  launch  companies are scanning the globe for launch sites as the ‘need’ for tens of thousands of mini-satellites for 5G are making the  aerospace industry drool as they envision the money that can be made hoisting them into the heavens. 

• A couple big problems immediately come to mind when I think of thousands of mini-satellite launches. One would be the toxic rocket exhaust punching a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer thus  making our climate crisis worse. The growing space debris problem, with increasingly congested orbits adding to the mess, makes the chances of an accidental avalanche of crashes in space more likely. This could ultimately make it impossible to launch a rocket off Earth due to the ‘minefield’ of space junk circling our already fragile planet. Astronomers are upset about the dark night sky being fouled by legions of new blinking satellites encircling our planet.

• Today Sweden has joined the club [NATO]. Numerous bases are installed from the North to the  South in the “neutral and non-aligned” country of Sweden. We have Lerkil in the South and Esrange in the North of Sweden—the world ́s biggest downloading station from satellites. Sweden has, with its vicinity to Russia, become a servile obedient vassal state to the U.S.

• Rocket Lab (RL) was founded in 2006. Its founder and CEO is Peter Beck, a high-profile New Zealand (NZ) entrepreneur who was a finalist for New Zealander of the Year 2020.  He personally and Rocket Lab, the company, have enjoyed consistently favourable treatment from both the NZ media and successive governments. RL was originally touted as a shining example of Kiwi innovation and continues to be under the Jacinda Ardern government. But, in fact, it is now simply the NZ subsidiary of an American company, with major ownership by Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer. 

• Space is now big business and seen by the (UK) government as one potential path to recovery from the economic havoc caused by Covid-19. Forecasts suggest it could be worth over $1 trillion by 2040 and the UK aims to capture 10% of the market by 2030. A consortium of Local  Enterprise  Partnerships (LEPs) which bring together local authorities, academic institutions, research groups and businesses are establishing several regional space hubs around the UK to ensure that space is a priority for regional economic growth. Among them is ‘AstroAgency’ which operates across Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Space Leadership Council. Lockheed Martin has chosen Unst—one of the Shetland Islands—to develop its own Shetland Space Centre (SSC) for vertical launch operations. So, the UK is now well on the way to being directly  involved in US plans for space domination.

• SpaceX may be the dominant player, but it is far from the only U.S. company with plans to slather “every inch of the world” with emissions from low-orbit 5G satellites. Amazon, angling for a potential four billion new customers, plans to launch a total of 3,236 satellites and promises to start delivering Internet services.  Facebook is also planning for thousands of satellites. 

 

 

• The Space Development Agency (now integrated with the Space Force) selected Elon Musk’s  company SpaceX as the launch provider for its first 28 satellites, awarding the company a $150  million contract for two launches.  SpaceX is expected to conduct the first launch in September 2022. All satellites need to be on orbit by March 31, 2023. The satellites will form the layers of the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture, a constellation in low Earth orbit that will be able to ‘push targeting data to war fighters, track hypersonic weapons, connect sensors and shooters over the orbit  network’. While the NDSA will eventually include hundreds of satellites, the agency isn’t putting them all up at once—the agency plans to add a growing number of satellites every two years.

• In 1978, NASA scientist Donald Kessler warned of a potential catastrophic, cascading chain reaction in outer space. Known as “Kessler  Syndrome,” the theory posited that orbits above Earth could one day become so crowded, so polluted with both active satellites and the junk from of past space missions, that it could render future space travel problematic and even impossible.

• The plunge into Earth’s atmosphere of worn-out satellites, rocket parts and other space junk is a common occurrence.  For spacecraft re-entries, that process means basically ‘burning computers'. During re-entry, big chunks of aluminum and other materials are subjected to intense heating. Some  particles are very reactive, so even small amounts of them could have a significant effect on atmospheric chemistry.

• The Tromsø municipal council in northern Norway has decided to say NO to a port for U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. This prompted the Norwegian Minister of Defense to  react: “Tromsø cannot opt out of NATO”, he said in October. The federal government is pushing hard to override local politicians and public opinion. Tromsø is the third largest urban municipality in Norway, and the seventh in population. Tromsø is the regional civil administration center for the northern area in Norway. Tromso is very close to the Russian border along the Barents Sea.

Warning about 5G health impacts

 

Former President Of Microsoft Canada, Frank Clegg: 5G Wireless IS NOT SAFE

 

 

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