Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Someone who knows about cluster bombs

 


 

By Bob Anderson

The Koohan Paik-Mander (from Hawaii) talk here was well received and we had about 30 people in attendance.  She was the first guest speaker at our reclaimed Peace Center.  There was a mixture of old and young. She spoke about the theme of war ongoing now on marine life by all these militaries with their war games was powerful.  People responded well to it.  David Barsamian had a local fellow tape it and he is going to put it out on Alternative Radio, we hope.  

[Koohan will speak in Brunswick, Maine on Sunday, August 13 from 4:00-6:00 pm at the public library.]

Zelinsky does not fully realize he is just a pawn on the superpower chessboard.  The world must be laughing at him tonight.

The activists here get enraged over cluster bombs but not nukes in NATO countries.  

 



As a side, when I was in the Air Force at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV, the war profiteers were just developing cluster bombs and I was assigned to part of the testing program, as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Specialist.  What I learned was that we were rushing them into use in Vietnam so fast that the military did not know the dispersal pattern of these bomb-lets from various altitudes and speeds, etc.  

So we were on the desert range doing the tests to see when they would land.  In Vietnam they were hitting our own troops with them, not knowing the parameters.  

 

Bob Anderson shopping for cluster bombs in the Nevada desert

And there are many types of cluster bombs.  It was one of the things that made me wonder about all of what we were doing.  The cluster bombs were not designed originally to destroy tanks or anything but to create a large number of casualties of “walking wounded” to fill up the NVA hospital system.  The official message was that they were intended to be used on radar sites.  Later ones were more destructive, intended for tanks, etc.  Now there are many horrible models. 

 


The new feature on the old 750 iron bomb was a folding fin arrangement to allow the bomb to fall slowly and directly down from plane, the fin opens like an unbrella to slow the bomb allowing the pilot to pull up fast to get away from blast area.  For low level high speed bombing runs.  We are looking at drop patterns here again.  This is the area of Creech AFB where the drones were flown in recent years.  The live nuclear tests were done in the 50s-60s just over the mountain range in background.

 

Just a technical point on the testing too, dropping them on hard dry lake beds in the Nevada desert is not like the soft jungles and terrain of Indochina.  That means the ones that don’t explode immediately can lay around and if hit with a hard impact then detonate.  Some of them were designed with fuses to deliberately sit around for different lengths of time before detonating.  Really sinister thinking went into these weapons.

There is a great 2013 movie made in Laos about some of this called The Rocket.  Is is about 2 hrs and well done.

I will conclude that the peace movement is rightly concerned about Biden and the U.S. sending cluster bombs to Ukraine but not worried about the cluster of nuclear weapons we have placed around Russia and China.

~ Bob Anderson helps coordinate Stop the War Machine in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The NATO lies - Global South is over it

 


US-EU promised Russia at the time of the collapse of the former Soviet Union that NATO would not expand one inch toward Russia....now its on steroids. This promise was part of the deal offered to Gorbachev in order to get Russia to agree to the reunification of East and West Germany.

The US recently has built missile launch bases (Aegis Ashore) in Poland and Romania that can fire first-strike attack nuclear capable Tomahawk cruise missiles into Russia in minutes. A Cuban-missile crisis in reverse. 

The American people have no clue.

NATO expansion has been slow-rolled out since the early 1990's. It was always intended for what is happening today. A full-blown war against Russia using Ukrainian 'cannon fodder troops' along with US-NATO weapons, funding (including paying for Ukraine's Social Security system with funds from US Social Security program), intelligence & targeting, and ultimately directed by the CIA and its European partners (Operation Gladio).

The info is all out there to be found if a person truly wishes to know what is going on. But sadly many Americans spend enormous amounts of time shadow dancing with corporate media and Neo-con lies.

Those who use Russia-demonization as their shield are trying to hide their complicity. Many of these folks didn't have much to say about Ukraine since 2014 when some of us were trying to get the public to pay attention to the Ukrainian Nazi slaughter of  Russian-ethnics in the Donbass (more than 34,000 dead, 15,000 wounded). The US-NATO was content to facilitate this genocide and many people across the west were far too busy to pay any real attention.

   

Groundbreaking for the US missile base in Poland


The US missile base in Romania during construction.

There can be no doubt that the US fully controls all operations and decision making at the new missile bases in Poland and Romania. Just like in South Korea, Japan, Germany, England, Australia, Guam and hundreds of other US military bases around the globe.

The US runs the show and has absolute control over the 'allies'. That is how colonial exploitative powers work. 

But this US-UK empire is on its way out. Most of the world population is opposed to the US-NATO global expansion and domination agenda. They are fed up with NATO's endless war$.

Today we find rapidly declining numbers of the collective US-UK-NATO populations who support this insane program for war with Russia and China. It's a last ditch effort - a Hail Mary pass late in the game - the walls are crumbling. 

Look at the once-heralded city of San Francisco. Just like with so many of other towns and cities across our nation we witness free-fall collapse there due to disinvestment by federal, state and local governments. Staggering percentages of our national budgets have been moved to fund the coming WW3 rather than repairing our disintegrating communities. The western elites are rolling the dice, abandoning their own people and nations, gambling their money on war.

These people are like drunks at the bar.

California's Governor Gavin Newsom is being programmed to take Biden's place for the Dems.  He is fairly young, handsome and from 'good stock' as they say in the cattle business. Biden will be eased out at some point - with 'sincere apologies' designed to build sympathy for a pathetic human being who proved long ago that he worked for Mr. Big. 

 



All war$ these days are resource war$. Western oligarchs have decided that left alone Russia would prosper and share their resources with friendly nations at good prices. That has been Moscow's MO for many years. 

Vladimir Putin announced in March that Russia has written off debts of African states worth more than $20 billion dollars. Would the IMF and World bank do the same. Very doubtful.

So war is necessary - even if it lasts 20 years like Afghanistan. The US-NATO's goal is the destroy as much of Russia as possible (forcing them to spend on rebuilding) and to kill as many Russians as they can. 

Last week I watched several Ukrainian POW testimonies on video where they said that during their NATO training, psychiatrists told them to kill-kill Russians. It's clear Nazism but that discussion is verboten across the west.

 


 

How is Russia to respond? How can anyone who is intellectually honest not admit that Moscow has only one clear choice. Defend their people, defend their nation or surrender. After years of pleading and offering peaceful ways out of this morass - like the Minsk 1 & 2 agreements that the west intentionally ignored - Russia is left with its back against the wall. But Moscow still gets blamed by the west for starting this war.

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday wrote: 

 The dissolution of NATO itself may be the only way to prevent wider war and to stop the United States and the world from being plunged into the abyss of a wider, cataclysmic war.
See his entire article entitled 'The Dissolution of NATO May Be the Only Way to Prevent WWIII:
10 reasons why NATO ought to be disbanded'

 Bruce

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Turkey once again back tracks on promises made

 

  On July 8, five commanders of the notorious Ukrainian Azov battalion returned to Ukraine from Turkey. They were supposed to stay in Turkey until the end of hostilities “under the personal guarantees of the Turkish president”. However, it seems that the Turkish President changed his mind.

By Ahmed Adel (Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher)
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the European Union on July 9 to open the doors for his country to join the bloc if they want to secure support for Sweden’s accession to NATO. His blackmailing of the EU, which ultimately produced results, comes only days after he controversially broke an agreement with Moscow by releasing neo-Nazi Azov Battalion members under Turkey’s custody to Ukraine. 

    “Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union. I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years,” Erdogan said. “First, open the way to Turkey’s membership of the European Union, and then we will open it for Sweden, just as we had opened it for Finland.”
Turkey has been an EU member candidate since 1999. Since 2016, negotiations on a visa-free regime between Turkey and the EU have been on hold. The country’s bid for EU membership has been stalled due to democratic backsliding and an unrelenting occupation of the northern portion of EU-member Cyprus since 1974.

Ultimately, Erdogan backflipped just mere hours after issuing his blackmail.
    “I’m glad to announce … that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” said NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on the eve of the alliance summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12.
Finland and Sweden applied to join the bloc in May 2022. Finland gained its membership on April 4, 2023, while the Swedes await approval from Hungary and Turkey. As Turkey will never surrender its occupation of northern Cyprus, its EU membership will be forever stalled, making Erdogan’s ultimatum either a desperate action or a calculated manoeuvre to advance other interests.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told public broadcaster SVT that he expects Turkey will eventually signal that it will let Sweden join the alliance, though he could not say whether that would happen at the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital. Sweden’s top diplomat said he expects Hungary, which also has not ratified Sweden’s accession, to do so before Turkey.

Turkey and Hungary remain the only NATO members still standing in the way of Sweden becoming the 32nd member of the US-led bloc, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban strongly signalling he will follow Erdogan’s lead and approve Sweden’s membership only if Turkey does the same.

Now that Erdogan has reportedly unblocked Sweden’s path, the question is what was offered to appease the Turkish leader. Presumably, Erdogan would have only unblocked the accession process with the promise of receiving F-16 fighter jets, advancing EU membership talks without altering domestic oppression and ethnic cleansing abroad, or securing Western funding as the Turkish economy continues to tank with Gulf money all dried up.

The NATO summit will be dominated by how the alliance will see its future relationship with Kiev amid endless efforts by President Volodymyr Zelensky for Ukraine to become a member and a signatory to the mutual defence pact. Evidently, though, Sweden’s situation will also be discussed since Turkey is the main hindrance to their accession.

 


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for his part, joined a chorus of other European leaders and officials who said Sweden’s NATO membership should not be tied to Ankara’s stalled EU membership bid.

    “Sweden meets all the requirements for NATO membership. The other question is one that is not connected with it. And that is why I do not think it should be seen as a connected issue,” the German chancellor said.
Stoltenberg also expressed before announcing Erdogan’s unblocking that the two issues have nothing to do with one another, reminding that while he supports Ankara’s bid for EU membership, it was not one of the conditions in the agreement signed by Turkey, Sweden, and Finland in 2022 at the NATO summit in Madrid.

Despite Erdogan initially adding another condition to Sweden’s accession, it is not a sign that Turkey has gone rogue within NATO, but rather it is the Turkish president blackmailing the alliance and EU to gain advantages for his country – what they are specifically since EU membership is not realistic, remains to be seen.

Erdogan broke a deal he had with Moscow by releasing on July 8, only days before the NATO summit, five Ukrainian Azov Battalion officers, who returned to Ukraine on a presidential plane. The Azov Battalion militants had been prisoners since the battle of Azovstal following the Russian liberation of the port city of Mariupol. Erdogan had no obvious reason for breaking the deal, meaning that he will now want something at the NATO summit for doing this.

Although it may appear that Erdogan has gone rogue by attaching an impossible condition for Sweden to become a NATO member, he is just leveraging to gain some advantage for Turkey. The release of the Azov Battalion members for seemingly no good reason demonstrates that Turkey is still firmly within the NATO bloc.

Covering all the key points so well....

 

Larry Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He's questioned by Andrew Napolitano.

Napolitano (a Libertarian) gets right to the point when he interviews others. He is a former judge in New Jersey.

Speaking about the Ukraine war, the judge has become critical of the Biden administration and its controlling Neo-con cabal.  

This particular show touched on the failure of the Ukrainian 'offensive', Prigozhin's latest show biz act, Turkey's betrayal of Russia, and the current lack of real leadership in Washington. 

More people are talking openly about the coming fall of the USA. Those who are thinking and doing something about this imperial collapse are astonished that the majority of Americans are locked in fear. Americans have become immobilized by the overwhelming brainwashing BS that flows from the media and government.

All the while Rome is burning. 

What do the 1% want at this point? They see the writing on the wall. A revolt is eventually coming. 

The ruling oligarchs are maximizing profit (another period of capital re-accumulation) in every possible way - they are taking back any progressive gains that have been made across the nation since the early 1960s - they are loading up with AI robotic control plans to deal with the masses.

Welcome back to feudalism - this time is is called 'neo-tech fascism'.

What about our kids future?

Bruce

Monday, July 10, 2023

Register now for GN's 31st annual Zoom confab - July 15

 


Be sure to mark your calendar for this hugely important and informative event.
 
The panel will speak for the first hour (9:00 am EDT or 1:00 pm UTC).
 
During the second hour we will open the floor for questions/comments from the audience.
 
We are asking everyone to register in advance - this way you will get an automatic reminder before the event.
 
Zoom Registration at this link
 
We've got some great speakers on really timely topics. You won't be disappointed.

Bruce Gagnon - Panel discussion moderator

Tamara Lorincz - Subject: Censorship Industrial Complex - How NATO, national intelligence services and universities coordinate and weaponize information

Ray McGovern - Subject: US Missile Bases in Poland & Romania – ‘Cuban Missile Crisis in Reverse’

Juyeon Rhee - Subject: US-NATO expansion into the Asia-Pacific

Lisa Savage - Subject: Declining Empire Chases Fading Dream Of Full Spectrum Dominance

Christian Sorensen - Subject: How corporations form the backbone of space militarization?

Professor Em. Dave Webb - Subject: The drive to militarise & weaponise space
 
Hope to see you on Saturday, July 15 to help celebrate 31 years of peace in space (and on the planet) work! 

NATO meeting: Scorched Earth in Ukraine

 

 


The forthcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 seems already infected by a strange policy fatalism, writes Tony Kevin.


By Tony Kevin  
Special to Consortium News

Hope of a policy breakthrough in Vilnius, Lithuania towards peace in Ukraine, spearheaded by the war-weary East Europeans, seems to have drained away.

There is general acceptance in NATO that the Ukrainian summer offensives in Zaporizhie and again now in Bakhmut have failed to dent Russian defences, with horrific mortality in Ukrainian manpower and enormous destruction of Western-supplied equipment.

The West seems content to let Zelensky go on wasting Ukraine’s increasingly scarce military-age men in a process described by writer Raúl Ilargi Meijer as NATO’s assisted suicide of the Ukrainian nation.

The NATO unspoken strategy seems to be: we know Russia is inevitably winning in Ukraine, but we will make sure we and our Kiev proxies destroy as much as possible of Ukraine’s manpower and national wealth before Russia takes control of the country.

The Kakhovka dam is gone, and what is left of Zaporizhie Nuclear Power Plant seems increasingly at risk of West-assisted Ukrainian sabotage. These two huge assets were the pivots of Ukraine’s industrial and agricultural potential and wealth.

When Russia wins political control over the ruined land of Ukraine, and after it repudiates Western carpetbagging claims to asset ownership there, it will face a huge rebuilding job, comparable to the situation the Soviet Union faced in Ukraine after the 1944-45 vengeful scorched-earth actions by the retreating Nazi divisions.

Meanwhile, Germany under its supine Scholz leadership is de-industrialising, following the loss of cheap Russian gas after the U.S.-conducted sabotage of the Baltic pipelines. German industrialists are taking their capital, management skills and intellectual property elsewhere. France is riven by serious rioting. The EU is distracted and aimless. Western Europe is shrinking in global influence.

In the U.S., only the military-industrial-information complex is doing well. Infrastructure continues to decay. The middle class is eroding and confused. The Democrats are the party of liberal imperialism and the Republicans are still riven between warmongers and America-first nationalist Trumpians. Who knows who will be the next U.S. president, and if he or she can arrest America’s relative decline.

Russia steadily makes reputational headway in what it now describes as the Global Majority (what used to be the Global South). There is an increasingly long queue of governments seeking to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The Russia-China strategic alliance is the linchpin of this growing robust and intellectually confident ideology of multipolarity which is attracting the attention of serious governments around the world.

Russia’s task is to win in Ukraine, as it is doing, but without destroying its reputation with China and the Global Majority.

Russia is bringing down the curtain on 320 years since Peter the Great began trying to make Russia a member of European-Anglophone Club. Russia will never trust the West again.

The history of Western diplomatic treachery during the last 32 years since the 1991 end of Soviet Communism has shown Russians that the U.S.-U.K. agenda was always about much more than defeating Communism: it was about expanding American global hegemony and breaking up Russia as a competing world civilisational state.

There is enough evidence now to satisfy the Global Majority that U.S. regime change and controlling operations in Ukraine since 2013 have been above all cynically aimed at weakening and destabilising Russia. Remembering their own viciously exploited colonial history, the Global Majority are glad these Western efforts are failing.

The Vilnius NATO meeting will produce no new miracles of salvation for the doomed Kiev regime. There will be a lot of tired rhetoric about continuing to defend democratic Ukraine.

Nobody – speakers or listeners – will believe it .

~ Tony Kevin is a former Australian senior diplomat, having served as ambassador to Cambodia and Poland, as well as being posted to Australia’s embassy in Moscow. He is the author of six published books on public policy and international relations.

Sunday, July 09, 2023

IAEA head gets huge 'unwelcome' in Seoul

 


 

Hundreds of people gathered to protest in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, as Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in the country in an effort to calm fears over Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.

“They say there are only a few risks possible, but what if that really happens and who’s going to be responsible for that?” said Han Sang-Jin, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions spokesperson.

The IAEA, which serves as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said earlier in the week that a two-year review showed Japan's plans for the water release would have a negligible impact on the environment.

On Sunday, Grossi is set to meet with members of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which has been critical of the Japanese plan.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During his visit to South Korea from July 8 to 9, the IAEA chief Grossi was greeted by people's fierce protests. People followed him wherever he goes and shouted slogans, "Go Out, Grossi!,"  as well as "Did you leak the draft for 1 million euros?" 

Grossi was supposed to enter Korea on July 7 but was stranded at the airport for hours thanks to protestors. He could barely leave the airport after midnight.  Today, July 9th, he visited the National assembly but protestors' shouts were loudly heard even inside the National assembly room where he met the opposition party members.  And there were many small and big protests in South Korea yesterday and today. 

He left for New Zealand this evening. Discharge of nuclear-contaminated water will be the end of Earth. We, the people in the Pacific and the world should not allow it. 

Thank you.

Sung-hee Choi
Jeju, South Korea  
 


Sunday song

 


 


Saturday, July 08, 2023

Latest U.S. strategy: Syrian jihadists to fight Russians

 


 

Ukraine, U.S. Are Recruiting Syrians, Plotting Attacks Against Russian Forces From Iraq

SouthFront

The intelligence services of Ukraine and the United States are plotting attacks against Russian forces in Syria and recruiting militants from the war-torn country for Kiev forces, Sputnik reported on June 30, citing a Syrian diplomatic military official. 

The unnamed official told the Russian news agency that Ukrainian and American intelligence officials are operating from the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.

The recruitment of Syrian militants is being directed by the honorary consulate of Ukraine in Erbil, Farhad Ali Shakir, the official said, adding that the militants will be trained at bases in Iraq by Ukrainian officers who prepared for this task in U.S. institutions.

    “As the American administration’s planned path for the conflict in Ukraine is failing, the U.S. is taking additional steps to increase the recruitment of those willing to fight into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the source explained.

The source alleged that the CIA, the U.S. main intelligence agency, is now negotiating with the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the heads of several Arab tribes in Syria to recruit militants for Kiev forces, with a monthly salary for each militant of up to $2,000.

The YPG is the core faction of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control a large part of Syria’s northeastern region including the border line with Iraq’s Kurdistan.

Attempts by Kiev forces to recruit military from Syria were first reported just a few days after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in February of last year.

Last April, a report by The Washington Post citing leaked U.S. intelligence documents revealed a plot by the Ukrainian intelligence and the SDF to launch attacks against Russian bases and key oil fields in Syria. The SDF has since denied any involvement in such a plot.

Ukraine launched its so-called spring counteroffensive early on in June. However, its forces are yet to make any meaningful gains on the ground, despite sustaining heavy losses. Ukraine and the U.S. are likely stepping up efforts to recruit Syrian militants in order to use them as cannon fodder on hot fronts.

Friday, July 07, 2023

Latest Space Alert newsletter now available

 


Our latest Global Network Space Alert newsletter is now at the printer.

Those of you on our mailing list should get it via postal mail very soon.

If you are not on our mailing list for a hard copy and would like to receive one (or multiple copies) please let us know by email at globalnet@mindspring.com

I think you will find many interesting articles in this edition #43.

You can see it online https://space4peace.org/newsletters/

Also don't forget to register for our 31st GN Annual meeting on July 15 (9-11 am EDT or 1-3 pm UTC) via Zoom. We have a great lineup of speakers. You must register in order to get the Zoom link.  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-network-31st-annual-meeting-latest-developments-on-war-via-space-tickets-638565886757?fbclid=IwAR0AUtpcHLcpDyOjA2s7xBe5C1pX2_NLgyOtYbEtbItZPBL-o-bbwqCYLcA

Bruce

Thursday, July 06, 2023

Jeju islanders protest Japan's radioactive water discharge

 


 

By Ko Dong-hwan


Residents of Jeju Island protested, Thursday, the controversial discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant by likening themselves to Korea's 16th-century Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The admiral from the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom is famous for having defeated the Japanese fleet despite being outnumbered during the 1392-98 Imjin War.

Twelve fishing vessels helmed by members of local ship owners' associations, female divers ("haenyeo" in Korean) and young locals set out from Jocheon near the popular Hamdeok Beach on the northern coast of the island. The charging ships ploughed through waves while national flags and yellow banners fluttered in the wind. The banners contained messages like "If the sea dies, Jeju dies as well," "All Koreans disagree," "Let's protect Jeju's waters" and "Oceans aren't Japan's dumping grounds for radioactive waste."

The protesters referred to the day's rally as the "1597 Battle of Myeongnyang, 2023 Battle of Jeju," linking the rally's spirit to the battle between Yi's 13 ships and a Japanese fleet of around 130 ships. Taking place in the country's southern waters between the mainland and Jeju Island, the battle saw the Japanese fleet retreat against Yi's art-of-war gambits that cleverly took advantage of the local ocean currents.

During the rally, the protesters submerged a giant Rising Sun flag, a symbol of Japanese imperialism, and positioned their vessels around it.

The protesters said that if the Japanese government discharges the radioactive water as planned, all living creatures, including humans, will be endangered on Jeju Island, where they are surrounded by ocean waters. In a rally on land prior to embarking on their sea journey, they said they have decided to "bet their lives" on preventing the controversial discharge. The discharge is planned to begin later this year and will continue for 30 to 40 years.

The protesters called it "an act of terrorism" as it will drive people out of the island by destroying its local fishery and tourism businesses.

The protesters also raised a protest banner that read, "There are 700,000 Yi Sun-sins here on Jeju," with the figure referring to the island's approximate population.

The radioactive water discharge issue continues to intensify in Korea as many people across the country are criticizing the Japanese government's dumping plan following the plant's tsunami-induced destruction in 2011, and said they cannot trust the final assessment report from the International Atomic Energy Agency which approved the plan.

The issue has created thick divisions among Korean lawmakers, with those from the ruling People Power Party welcoming the discharge and opposition parties accusing them of kowtowing to the Japanese government.

Let's look out for each other

 


Right against left
black vs white
gay vs straight
USA against the Global South
 
divide and conquer,
taught to Washington 
by the British empire
which used the technique
to 'perfection'.
 
White man's
ideology driven
by money and military power.
 
Indigenous people
lived in tribal communities,
working together,
looking out for one another,
call it 
what you wish,
cooperation, communism
or good old time religion.
 
Capitalism 
has no heart, 
no spirit,
no love for Mother Earth
or the people.
 
Bank of London 
and Wall Street
all about global control
and cold hard cash.
These pirates
want all the treasure chests.

People have become
superfluous due to
robotics, mechanization,
computerization and AI.

So the herd is being thinned
by hunger, war$, 
unproven vaccines, 
lack of real healthcare,
genocide,
and benign neglect

We have a choice.
We can reject the corporate
Neo-con prescription 
which equals 
more of the same,
 
or we,
in our daily lives,
build the alternative world 
of peace, loving,
caring, sharing, 
endless beauty
and respect for all
living beings.
 
Along with principled
political dialogue.
 
Being human again,
rather than selfish
consumers
and heartless money grabbers.

Bruce 

Nazis in Ukraine?

 


 

Lev Golkin, an author and journalist, explains his recent article about the continuous white washing of white supremacists in the Ukrainian Army. 

~ Lev Golinkin is the author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka, Amazon’s Debut of the Month, a Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program selection, and winner of the Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa. Golinkin, a graduate of Boston College, came to the United States as a child refugee from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov (now called Kharkiv) in 1990. His writing on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, the far right, and immigrant and refugee identity has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, The Boston Globe, Politico Europe, and Time (online), among other venues; he has been interviewed by MSNBC, NPR, ABC Radio, WSJ Live and HuffPost Live.  

Wednesday, July 05, 2023

Big story - 10 years after

 


 

Welcome to 2nacheki Africa reacts.

In this video, we react to very rare video of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni talking about just how NATO forcefully stopped 6 African leaders from saving Ghaddafi during the Libya invasion. 

Ukrainian conflict an “Opportunity” for the CIA says director William Burns

 


By Lucas Leiroz (Journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant)

At the same time, Ukrainian President emphasizes there is “no secret” between the Ukrainian government and the US main intelligence agency. 

US authorities no longer hide their anti-Russian ambitions in Ukraine. In a recent statement, CIA Director William Burns said the Ukrainian conflict would be a “unique opportunity” for Washington. The case shows how Western strategists really want to destabilize and harm Russia as much as possible, with no intention of peace or diplomatic goodwill.

The head of American intelligence revealed in a lecture at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK on July 1 that his agency plans to explore the possible opportunities for infiltration that would arise from the weaknesses of a Russian society allegedly dissatisfied with the conflict in Ukraine. This would be, according to him, an appropriate occasion to advance anti-Russian plans in the intelligence sector.

    “Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression (…) That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service. We’re not letting it go to waste”, he said.
In this regard, Burns also made it clear that the CIA is already taking steps to advance its projects. According to the official, the agency launched a recruitment channel on Telegram in May, showing “business” proposals for Russian officers, military, government representatives and scientists who want to provide information from Moscow to American forces.
    “We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business,” he added.
Two days later, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky went public to reveal that his regime is constantly in cooperation with the CIA, and there are no secrets between them. Recently, Zelensky and Burns met during a director’s visit to Kiev. On the occasion, the neo-Nazi leader talked to the US official about many “important things”, such as what Ukraine “needs” to keep the proxy war on Russia. 
   “My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes. We discuss important things – what Ukraine needs and how Ukraine is prepared to act (…) We don’t have any secrets from the CIA because we have good relations and our intelligence services talk with each other (…) The situation is pretty straightforward. We have good relations with the CIA chief, and we are talking. I told him about all the important things related to the battlefield that we need”, Zelensky said.

According to an anonymous source linked to the American government interviewed by CNN, Burns’ visits to Kiev are frequent, despite the fact that media outlets often do not pay attention to these events:
    “Director Burns recently traveled to Ukraine, as he has done regularly since the beginning of Russia’s recent aggression more than a year ago (…) As with other trips, the director met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and President Zelensky, reaffirming the US commitment to sharing intelligence to help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression”, source said.

 


Indeed, Burns’ words about the CIA seeing the conflict as an “opportunity” show that American intelligence wants to take advantage of events in Eurasia to generate instability in Russian society, fomenting frictions in the government, military and civil institutions. Burns exposes the plans very clearly and does not hide his intentions, which makes the US hostile stance towards Russia public.

The CIA director’s regular visits to Kiev are actually part of these anti-Russian plans. American intelligence actively interferes in the conflict, manages the activities of its proxy state directly from the battlefield, acting as a true belligerent party. This high level of information sharing and strategic integration shows that there is certainly American participation in all crimes committed by the neo-Nazi regime, including terrorist attacks and murders of civilians in the undisputed territory of the Russian Federation.

However, it remains to be seen whether the US anti-Russian plans will really be effective. The director is mistaken in his assessment of the Russian scenario when he says that there is “disaffection” and growing frictions in Russia as a result of the conflict. Vladimir Putin’s popularity and Russian national unity have been greatly strengthened by the progress of the special military operation, contradicting Burns’ claims.

Also, it is unlikely that any incursion attempt by American intelligence will be successful, considering that Russian security forces are on high alert for this type of threat, having occurred repeated operations focused on neutralizing infiltrated foreign agents and terrorist networks. Moscow is aware that the real enemy side in the current conflict is the US-led West, which is why it is acting cautiously to protect itself.  

Furthermore, Burns’ words about an alleged public CIA recruitment of Russian citizens through Telegram sounded unconventional. This type of strategy sounds amateurish and ineffective in terms of security, since Telegram is an easily accessible network and Russian forces could act against citizens who search for the CIA there – in addition to infiltrating their own counterintelligence agents in the process of recruitment.

Either Burns made this announcement as a bluff to try to “scare” Russia by demonstrating that it was advancing intelligence operations, or in fact the CIA is desperate in its search for agents on the ground in Russia and is making basic strategic mistakes. In both cases, it is clear that American intelligence does not seem prepared to defeat Russia

Tuesday, July 04, 2023

July 4 - nothing to celebrate

 

Protest outside the U.S. NSA spy base in North Yorkshire, England

 

I don't celebrate July 4.

Actually a group of us peaceniks walked in the Bath, Maine parade today with peace banners and a radical marching band playing anti-war songs. Between our group and the band we were about 20 people. It was the only band in the parade - a first in my experience. No high school marching bands. What happened to them - defunded? Some folks watching the parade really gave us a good reaction. The parade in Bath is said to be the biggest in the state.

Mark Roman, Amelia Hoag and I carried this banner.

 

This photo is from a years past Bath July 4 parade. Amelia Hoag (now in high school) is the one on the left side of the photo next to MB. Our friend Leanne is in the middle.

July 4 is a celebration of Washington's long lost imperial wishes. The empire though today is in full collapse mode.

I would hope people around the world would step up their opposition to the USA and help bring on a multi-polar world that rejects western colonialism and western corporate domination.

We all have a role to help make this happen.

I sadly hear quite a few Americans these days talk about a coming nuclear war as if it was inevitable or acceptable. It's not. It is indeed arrogant to say such things as if we had the right to determine the fate of the planet in such a horrid way. But that is how many think because of the years of indoctrination about the US being the 'exceptional nation'.

One fortunate thing with my growing up in a military family was all the different cultures I experienced in our constant moves around the US and overseas. Americans are not the 'tops'. Actually, by and large, most Americans are quite uninformed and much more boring than other cultures.

A friend and I were writing to one another on email about this 'accepting Armageddon' mindset and I told him, "That is why our voices are so crucial today - we must try every avenue to protect the future generations."

Help us do just that please by publicly rejecting the US-UK-NATO war project that utilizes well over 800 Pentagon military installations around the world as the hammer to keep the imperial boot on the neck of the world.

People are fed up with us - especially in the Global South.  

 


First bloom of my new peace rose bush planted this spring. It's fitting the rose fully opens on July 4. 

Plant seeds even in the midst of Neo-con warmongers. Beauty is needed now more than ever. Keep paddling always....

Bruce 

Reap what you sow

 

 


 


I think we can all agree that the current chaotic events in France are violent riots, regardless of how the country slipped into chaos and all the justifications for and against the rioters’ acts.

Nevertheless, there is something which always catches my attention after every security event in Europe and that is how polarized the discussion gets as one part puts all the blame on the migrants and refugees and the other side insists unlimited migration has nothing to do with the instability, warning instead of the rise of the far-right groups.

As a Syrian living in Germany, I’m sick and tired of being used as a punch ball for political scores from both sides. The left says refugees are welcome and the right says they want to expel them all.

How about addressing the root causes of the influx of refugees in Europe, which was infiltrated by Islamists and radicals who would never integrate into Western societies?

Let us check the timeline of the significant waves of refugees to Europe in the past decade.

In 2011, the foolish leaders of Europe led a coalition of NATO states against Libya, bombed the country to ashes, supported the Islamists to fight against Gaddafi and eventually, they murdered the leader of the North African country who warned Europe ten days before the NATO invasion in March 2011, that Libya plays an important role in the security of the Mediterranean and that if he removed by the NATO-backed Islamsits, millions will march from Africa to France and Italy.

But the media told us Gaddafi is bluffing and he is insane for stating the obvious. Now, tell me, who was correct and who was foolish?

The same thing happened in the Middle East. After destroying Iraq and killing Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, the criminal cabal in Washington, London and in some European countries came after Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and they triggered a proxy war which created an unprecedented refugee crisis; five million refugees and seven million internally displaced people.

There are millions more waiting for the right opportunity to escape to Europe too.

What drives me crazy is that Western politicians either do not learn from their mistakes or they simply don’t care.

These experiences have shown that interventionist and hawkish policies do not benefit anyone and instead of joining the efforts of China and Russia in stabilizing the region, the US and the EU are increasingly imposing more illegal sanctions on the Syrian people and pushing them below the poverty line and desperation.

So, who is creating the migration and refugee crisis here?

To the Western left, I say: instead of helping the refugee after they arrive in your country, help them stay in their home countries by simply not destroying their livelihoods and investing in stability and job opportunities.

And to the Western right, I say: instead of blaming the refugees for all your problems, understand that nobody wants to leave everything behind and risk his life to arrive in Europe unless the conditions that your politicians created in their countries are unbearable.

Personally, I haven’t heard of any Syrian refugees in Europe before the US-led regime change against Damascus in 2011, have you?

~ Kevork Almassian is an award-winning political commentator from Syria. He is the founder of Syriana Analysis and is known for his contribution to the literature on the Syrian war.

Extracted gold from Africa

 

 

By Githii @githii


Did you know? 

France, with its fourth largest gold reserves of 2,436 tons, doesn't even have a single gold mine within its borders. Meanwhile, Mali, a country once occupied by France, doesn't hold any gold reserves in its banks, despite having a staggering 860 gold mines and an annual production of 50 tons.

This stark contrast raises important questions about historical injustices and the economic disparities that persist today. The colonial past of France and its exploitation of resources in its former colonies have left a lasting impact. While France benefits from its gold reserves, countries like Mali, with abundant natural resources, struggle to reap the rewards.

These disparities in wealth and resources contribute to social unrest and inequality, as we've witnessed in recent riots in France. The frustration and anger of marginalized communities, including immigrants and descendants of former colonies, are rooted in these historical injustices.

As the world grapples with the complexities of immigration and social justice, it is crucial to address the systemic issues that perpetuate these disparities. It's not enough to simply acknowledge the past; concrete actions are needed to rectify the imbalances and ensure a more equitable future.

By fostering dialogue, promoting fair trade practices, and supporting sustainable development in countries affected by historical injustices, we can strive towards a world where resources are shared more equitably and opportunities are accessible to all.

Let's work together to create a future where countries like Mali can benefit from their own resources and where the impact of historical injustices is acknowledged and redressed.

Monday, July 03, 2023

Questions from Russia

 


 One of the Neo-cons plotting the demise of Russia.
 
 


A news agency in Russia sent me two questions today and asked for my response. See how I replied below. 

See the Russian versions at: https://sobcor.news/04072023/3410/     https://t.me/zovgrad/10915

 

- Will the United States supply F-16 fighters and how will this affect the course of hostilities in Ukraine?

BKG: I would imagine that Washington would first get NATO allies to send F-16 fighters to Ukraine before it did so itself. It would help the US put those nations in a position where they would have to then purchase F-35 as replacements. While the US knows that the F-16 would not make a measurable difference in the war, Washington would hope that Russia might bomb the airfields in Romania or Poland where these planes would be based thus giving the excuse to use Article 5 to bring NATO more directly into the war.

- How can the supply of depleted uranium shells by the United States end? Will this delivery bring us closer to the nuclear apocalypse?

BKG: The US-UK-NATO are in desperation mode as their war project in Ukraine is failing. The UK sent DU tank shells to Ukraine but Russia destroyed them in the western part of the country. Now Biden is considering to send DU as well. I believe the west wishes to radiate as much of the Donbass region as they can. Their goal is always to kill as many Russians as possible. In addition the US is now deciding on sending cluster bombs to Ukraine.  The west lectures the world about morality and such but when it comes to its wars the mask comes off and the devil pirates are exposed. They don't care how many people they kill or what they do to the environment. The fact that the west recently brought Greta Thunberg to Kiev reveals how the they intend to play the 'environmental card' to blame Russia for the west's own crimes against nature. My heart aches as I worry that Washington and Kiev intend to use the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant as a weapon to be used against Russia in order to justify full NATO participation in the war. I hope the divisions inside NATO will rapidly increase before that tragedy happens.

Bruce  

~  Austrian politician Gunther Fehlinger (above graphic) is perhaps one of the most pro-Ukrainian Austrian public figures actively promoting the integration of both Ukraine and Austria (formally neutral) into NATO.  Fehlinger calls for the removal of a monument to children victims of US-NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999. In his opinion, the monument in the center of the Serbian capital spreads anti-American and anti-NATO sentiments.

Lest we all forget.....

 

 


What would happen if a nuclear war were to be sparked between Russia and the United States today? 

Who would survive? In our most scientifically realistic simulation to date, we show what a nuclear war between Russia and the United States might look like. It is based on detailed modeling of nuclear targets, missile trajectories, and the effects of blasts, EMPs, and smoke on the climate and food resources.  

Sunday, July 02, 2023

A warning to the west - truth be told

 


 
Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial

There will be hell to pay for the U.S. and European rulers who have staked everything on their nefarious ambition for “strategic defeat of Russia.”

The Ukraine proxy war against Russia can be increasingly seen as a disastrous defeat for the United States and NATO. That stunning outcome should be making world headlines. Instead, the Western media spin machine is in overdrive about a failed mutiny in Russia, which on an objective scale of important events is relatively minor compared with the colossal U.S./NATO scandal.

A month-long Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed to make any dent in Russia’s defenses despite billions of dollars and euros in weaponry funnelled to the Kiev regime by the NATO bloc. That is a veritably astounding calamity and scandal. The completely unnecessary death and destruction are obscene – akin to World War One slaughtering by callous armchair generals and politicians.

Even Western officials and the corrupt money-grubbing Kiev regime are coyly admitting that the much-vaunted counteroffensive – that had been hailed for months as an expected hammer blow against Russian forces – is a failure. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers as well as NATO special forces covertly on the ground have been killed. Hundreds of tanks and infantry vehicles have been pulverized by superior Russian firepower.

It is a slaughter and orgy of war racketeering that American and European political elites, along with their media servants, have endlessly promoted.

There will be hell to pay for the American and European rulers who have staked everything on their nefarious ambition for the “strategic defeat of Russia” (under the specious guise of “defending democracy” in a Nazi regime!)

The political consequences for U.S. President Joe Biden will make his Afghanistan withdrawal debacle in 2021 look like a picnic as presidential elections loom next year.

As for the European Union, whose leaders have slavishly followed Washington’s folly in Ukraine, the repercussions of economic and political chaos will fatally undermine this already teetering entity.

Ultimately, there’s no getting away from the impending seismic geopolitical crisis, no matter how much the Western elitist mis-rulers twist and squirm to avoid accountability.

The tumult from the Prigozhin affair in Russia over the last week, which saw a mutiny attempt by the chief of the Wagner private military company, came at a convenient time for the U.S. and EU. It momentarily distracted from the unmitigated disaster that Washington and its NATO allies have created in Ukraine. But as the Prigozhin charade dissipates, the focus will rightly turn to the far bigger scandal of Western-led defeat in Ukraine.

Who will answer for the countless lives lost, the millions of displaced, and the American and European economies and livelihoods thrown into disarray? All of the Western so-called leaders, as well as the shameless war-propagandizing media outlets, are a rogue’s gallery that will face searing scrutiny from their public in due course when the chickens inexorably come home to roost.

Disturbingly, however, in the short term, the mad rulers in Washington and Europe show no connection with reality and no turning back in their war obsession.

This week, the European Union’s supposed top diplomat Josep Borrell is proposing to turn the bloc’s so-called European Peace Facility into a “Ukraine defense fund”. The EU has already committed over €50 billion of taxpayers’ money for propping up the Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev. Now, unelected bureaucrats like Borrell want to make the whole purpose of the EU a banker for war in Ukraine.

Denmark has this week taken the lead among other European states to begin a pilot training program for Ukrainians and other NATO mercenaries to fly the U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.

The Biden White House is also reportedly close to signing off on the supply of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine which would be capable of launching attacks on Russian territory. Biden has already burnt through $150 billion of public money in fencing a corrupt Kiev regime whose army and NATO weapons have been obliterated. (Of course, this is a super-lucrative, self-reinforcing business for the U.S. military-industrial complex and their political pimps in Washington, including Biden.)

In other words, instead of sobering up to the reality that the U.S.-led proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is doomed, the Biden administration and its European flunkies are doubling down. They are strapped by their own ideological straitjackets, corrupt personal interests, the short-term elite profits of war, and Russophobia.

Western leaders are even making the twisted deduction that the failed mutiny in Russia is all the more reason why the U.S. and NATO should ramp up arms to the Kiev regime. Antony Blinken, the American Secretary of State, gloated this week about a supposed opportunity to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. Such thinking is completely delusional and insanely dangerous.

The conflict in Ukraine could end in short order. It should never have started. The solution to end the violence is the same as was advocated by Moscow a long time ago: to formulate geopolitical security accords and in particular neutrality of Ukraine with regard to joining NATO.

The Western rulers have learnt nothing. Ahead of the NATO summit in two weeks’ time in Vilnius on July 11-12, Britain and others are calling for Ukraine’s membership to be fast-tracked. Such a move will consolidate the path to all-out war with Russia.

Further arming Ukraine and pushing for NATO membership is not simply digging a deeper hole for yourself. It’s pushing the situation over the abyss.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council this week: “For this war to end, the American masters must give orders to their vassals. The absence of such signals and orders indicates only one thing: the United States has no need or desire to end the conflict, but has an appetite for its continuation and anticipates when Russia will be defeated, preferably [in the U.S. interpretation] strategically. I want to tell you that that isn’t going to happen.”

The Russian envoy added this grim warning: “Having become completely detached from reality, the West is deliberately provoking a direct confrontation between nuclear powers.”

There is a foreboding sense that rather than face accountability for their Ukraine nemesis, the Western elite would rather start World War Three.

That is the most damnable realization about the Western political class and their so-called liberal democracy. It’s a fascist cabal willing to suicide the world.

Up to an indefinite point, Russia’s formidable military deterrence can hold off the Western cabal from their warmongering delusions, and in that way increasingly expose the Western psychopathic system for what it is. But for a historic transition to a more peaceful world, the onus is on the people in the West to take down their warmongering system and hold their criminal mis-leaders to account. If World War Three can be avoided in the meantime, that is. 

Sunday song

 


 

Saturday, July 01, 2023

Stop Japan from dumping radioactive water in Pacific

 

 

A group of Philippine citizens staged a protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Friday morning, urging the Japanese government to reverse its decision to dump the radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The 'Korean Solution' for Europe

 


By Manlio Dinucci (Grandangolo on Byoblu TV, Italy)


The "Conference on Ukraine’s Recovery" was held in London, and marked the transition to a new phase of the war against Russia: the US, NATO, and the EU are not only continuing to arm Kyiv forces but are preparing to transform Europe in the forefront of a long-lasting confrontation with Russia. 

There are several indications of what the plan might be: 1) Create a military demarcation line in Europe, like the one that has divided the Korean peninsula for 70 years, formally demilitarized through an armistice with Russia. 2) Put Ukraine, formally out of NATO, "under the tutelage" of Poland which, at the official request of Kyiv, would permanently deploy its military forces there together with those of the three Baltic Republics and possibly other NATO countries.

Hence the need for " Ukraine’s recovery ", which cost is expected to be between 400 and 1,000 billion dollars. In this framework, European Union - which this year has allocated 18 billion euros to pay salaries, pensions, and public services in Ukraine - allocates another 50 billion euros for the "recovery" of Ukraine, taking away other vital resources from EU countries.

The plan stems from the failure of the "Ukrainian counter-offensive" which, according to what they announced, was supposed to break through the Russian lines and reconquer the "occupied territories". The Ukrainian armed forces, financed, armed, and trained by NATO, equipped with the most modern weaponry (such as the German Leopard tanks) are suffering increasing losses. Hence the need for a new strategy. 

“An unwinnable war / Washington needs an endgame in Ukraine,” writes Samuel Charap, an analyst at the RAND Corporation: “A total victory on the field by either side is nearly impossible. Proper peace is impossible. However, it is possible that the two sides could settle for a Korean-style armistice line.”

This scenario is further elaborated by Anders Rasmussen, NATO secretary general at the time when it demolished the Libyan State in war and started covert operations to do the same in Syria: “We know that Poland is very busy providing assistance specific to Ukraine. I do not exclude that Poland is even more involved in this context on a national basis and that it is followed by the Baltic states, with the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine."