More from Crimea

Being interviewed on Russian national TV while at the 35th Battery Museum in Sevastopol, Crimea on May 4.  As the Nazis advanced on Sevastopol during WW II Russian sailors and soldiers retreated to the 35th Battery and up to 30,000 were killed by the Nazi troops.  This is one of the most incredible museums I've ever visited.

Our group having just emerged from the final hall of the museum where a moving video showed the faces of many of the 30,000 who were killed by the Nazis during the German occupation of Crimea.

GN board member Will Griffin (Iraq & Afghanistan war veteran) standing with a 93-year old WW2 Soviet Union veteran who helped defeat Nazi fascism. We  learned much from his stories and perspectives. He’s worried about climate change and says the future of our kids depends on what we do now. This meeting took place in Yalta.

Two days ago, in Yalta, Crimea we split our 20-person study tour group into smaller units and went to various places.  Several of us met with the Council of Veterans which included a 93-year old WW II veteran (pictured above with Will Griffin).

He was quite an impressive man who joined the Army of the former Soviet Union at 16 years old (he lied about his age) and today still does push-ups for exercise.  He joined the Army as the Soviets were pushing the German fascist army away from the Soviet Union and he was stationed in Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Here are some of the things he told us:

We have a negative attitude today about US-NATO military encirclement of Russia.

During the war I met American soldiers near the end of the war – it was a joint victory against the Nazis.  In Austria we were amazing friends with each other.

The military budget of the USA is today more than 10 times grater than the Russian military budget.  Russia can’t be an aggressor.

Ninety-eight percent voted in our 2014 referendum to re-join Russia.  There was not one casualty during that time. During the Soviet Union we had education for free, medical care for free, housing for free, vacation for free. 98% of our kids went to summer camps for free. 

There were shortcoming too.  We could not travel outside of the Soviet Union and our economy began to slide near the end.

Now many things have changed.  Russia has more social programs to benefit the people.

We are faithful to these memories.  We do not want war.  If we have to we will cut the head of the snake that seeks to surround us.  We hope mankind will be smart enough not to start a war.

If someone wants to compete with each other let them compete in sports stadiums, places of art, etc.

In Russia we are more oriented towards using capitalist profits to help people. Eighteen percent of the population in Russia live in poverty.  We now have the task to bring them up so we don’t need any war and neither do you in the USA.

Photos by Will Griffin

Sunday song

Assange update

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson and WikiLeaks' Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson commented on the Westminster Magistrates Court hearing on a request by the US to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on charges of leaking classified information in London on Thursday.

Welcome to Yalta

Last night Will Griffin took this short video while we were out walking along the promenade at the port in Yalta, Crimea.

The mountains are in the background, the black sea just across from our hotel.

The place is packed as we are sandwiched between May 1 Labor Day and May 9 day to remember the 'Immortal Regiment' - those who died liberating the former Soviet Union from the grip of the German Nazi occupation.

Today we visit the Livadia Palace, the site of the famous meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill here in Yalta in 1945.

Our hotel is on Roosevelt Street in Yalta and a bronze bust of FDR is just across the street from our hotel.

Things are going well.  Folks are in love with Crimea - the people are warm and welcoming.  The food is great.  The sanctions against these good people should be removed.

Bruce

Regime changes create more refugees

While the Trump administration oversees a coup attempt in Venezuela, Honduras is suffering from an actual dictatorship and humanitarian crisis, after a 2009 US-backed right-wing coup destabilized the country.

Lucy Pagoada speaks about the resistance to imperialism.

May Day parade and round table meeting in Simferopol

Crimea has 175 ethnic groups.  Many of them wore costumes during the May Day parade through the streets of Simferopol this morning.  Lots of people posed behind our banner with us and media was particularly interested in us as well.  The crowd along the parade route gave us a warm reception. (Click on the photos for a better view)

Seven members of Veterans For Peace are in our delegation to Russia. 

Passing by the reviewing stand which cheered us as we walked by.

The Crimeasn side of the round table.  Several from this side welcomed us and spoke about their organizations and the impacts of US sanctions on Crimea.

Our side had four speakers including Dave Webb (UK), Carrie Schuchardt (Massachusetts), Leslie Harris (Texas) and me.

Yan Epshtein (Black Sea Assn for International Cooperation) and GN board chair Dave Webb sign cooperation agreement.

We began the day participating in the May Day parade in Simferopol, Crimea.  Our banner was a huge hit with many people wanting to get behind it before the parade began.

Leaders in Crimea spoke to us at a round table conference that was organized after the May Day parade. Four of us from our delegation spoke during the round table meeting.  I used an outline to guide my short presentation so below is my best recollection of what I said.  Lots of media interviewed us before and after the event.  We also signed a Cooperation Agreement between the Black Sea Association for International Cooperation (NGO) and the Global Network.

We’ve come to Crimea to pick the forbidden fruit.

The Global Network was created in 1992 to prevent the arms race from moving into space.

Each year we hold an annual meeting in a different country.  Last year we met in Oxford, England near a US space warfare base.

We decided that this year we should come to Russia for a study tour in order to break down barriers between our nations.  We’ve come here to listen and learn and to return home and tell the stories that we hear.

We are not happy with all the demonization of Russia that is currently going on in the US and across the west.  When the governments are frozen the people must step up to break down the barriers.

It’s an honor to be here today.  The US sanctions against Crimea and Russia are wrong.  The US is unfairly punishing the people of Crimea for trying to exercise democracy.

I closely followed the Maidan (so-called revolution) in Kiev in 2014 and the resulting overwhelming vote in Crimea to seek to return to Russia.

We worry about war between the US-NATO and Russia. 

The US-NATO are expanding their military operations right up to the Russian borders. The US Navy is sending warships into the Black Sea.

The US is encircling Russia with so-called ‘missile defense’ systems.

The US continues to withdraw from important arms control treaties.

Trump is creating the ‘space force’ to give the US domination of the planet.  This is arrogance.

We have come here to build a bridge of peace between our peoples.

Thank you very much

Bruce

Photos by Will Griffin

The time is now.....

Convert the war machine - create the 'Natural Guard'

Very moving appeal from Afghanistan woman to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) about standing up strongly to end these senseless and destructive wars.

We need to convert the Pentagon to the 'Natural Guard' and have them work on providing assistance to people who are suffering from climate disasters.  Our Mother Earth is in toxic shock and her body is thrashing about.  There will be much greater environmental catastrophe in the years ahead and we will need the Natural Guard to do the important relief work.

Stop the war$ - convert the military machine to sustainable production - create the Natural Guard!

Bruce

PS Today we are all flying from Moscow to Crimea where we will be until May 5.  We'll visit three cities in Crimea.  More on all that later.

'There is no one but us'.....

At 'Imperialism on Trial' event in Belfast, Ireland Ray McGovern answers a question about the role of the Catholic Church in politics. Raymond McGovern is a veteran CIA officer turned political activist. 

McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. 

In January 2003, Ray co-created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose how intelligence was being falsified to “justify” war on Iraq. Ray is an active member of Veterans For Peace and has been on numerous actions and delegations.

A day in Moscow

Statue in the subway honoring the resistance to the German Nazi occupation during WW II. (Click on photos for a better view)

One subway line honoring Russian sports.

Orthodox church we visited on Holy Saturday.  We went inside and lit candles with the local people.  We were each given cakes and decorated eggs by church members.

New apartment blocks near our hotel in Moscow.

We went to the incredible WW II museum that did much to show the cooperation of Russian and American soldiers in defeating the Nazis.  I doubt that many American museums reflect this fact that the US and Russia were allies during the war. 

There were many large rooms in the museum that had panoramic wall paintings of war damage inside of Russia.

Another of the panoramic wall paintings of Nazi destruction of Russian cities.  More than 27 million Soviet citizens died in the war with Germany.  The U.S. lost 500,000 troops in the war.

Large statue inside the museum - hard to describe how moving it was.  Russia has been repeatedly invaded throughout its history and the people strongly desire peace but are prepared to fight to the death if invaded again.  Today they fear the US and NATO are encircling them in order to try to force another 'regime change war'.  This museum did not glorify the war and destruction but was a clear statement that victory against invaders will be won even if it takes the last person's life. 

Sunday song (with bonus track)

 

LBJ's daughter: 'These ships not to destroy'

Former US Navy Academy graduate (and All-American lacrosse player) Dud Hendrick arrested at BIW.  Dud is a Vietnam war veteran and now a member of VFP.

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb thanked the crowd gathered at Bath Iron Works on behalf of her father (LBJ) and quoted John Quincy Adams, calling America a ‘well-wisher of freedom for all.’

“We christen this ship in that spirit, not seeking to destroy, conquer, or dominate other nations, but rather to defend our own safety and the safety of other nations,” said Robb. “This ship goes to its mission not as part of an American vessel, not just as a part of our nation's self defense, it goes out as a vessel prepared to support and represent the strength, the purpose and the vitality of alliances, such as NATO. It goes out in support of important ideas, the idea of a community of free nations. Our defense pacts and alliances may come under threat from within and from without, but those alliances are vital in today’s dangerous and unruly world.”

This is the kind of mind numbing blather that we often hear to justify the aggressive US war machine now sent around the world to indeed dominate on behalf of corporate interests.  They can lie all they want and try to justify it but the protest blocking the buses bringing people into this 'private christening' ceremony removes the unholy Vail off the devil's face.  Those entering this worship of endless war were able to witness this citizens uprising close up and personal.

Money for human and environmental needs - not destruction.

See more media coverage here.

Bruce

Message to BIW: Convert & deal with coming climate catastrophe

Twenty-five good hearted souls were arrested in Bath, Maine early this morning as they blocked the entrance road into the Bath Iron Works 'christening' ceremony of the $7 billion Zumwalt 'stealth' destroyer.

In their act of civil resistance they called for the conversion of the shipyard to sustainable production - commuter rail, offshore wind turbines, tidal power systems and the like.  In order to save the future generations from the coming climate catastrophe we must shift wasteful and dangerous military spending to peaceful and sustainable production immediately.

Studies show that by converting military production facilities we would in fact get more jobs in the process.

We thank Regis Tremblay for these great photos.  You can see more of them on Fazebook here.

For a better view click on each photo to enlarge them.

Our love, admiration and thanks go to all who attended the event today in Bath and those who took the step to stand strong for peace, non-violence and a sustainable future.

See the Portland Press Herald coverage where they first reported that 'several' were arrested but an hour after seeing that story they pulled it and scratched any word of the arrests.  Just goes to prove that corporate media has been out sourced to the war machine.

Bruce

War with Russia?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, a dysfunctional and pro-American Russian President Yeltsin presided over the chaos of the 1990’s; when Putin came to power, the West was very disappointed at the independent and nationalist character of the Putin led state and the demonization began.

Stephen Cohen joins Paul Jay on Reality Asserts Itself

The oligarchy wants us to know nothing......

Julian Assange is a thorn in the side of the US elites which explains the effort they made to capture him, ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters told RT, adding that it’s appalling the UK has become an accomplice “of the American Empire.”

Watching WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being physically removed from his shelter at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London last week “was absolutely chilling” to legendary musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), who gave RT’s Going Underground his take on Assange’s arrest.

Photos from Red Square

Photos by Global Network board member Will Griffin who went to Red Square today in Moscow.

I've been sitting in the hotel lobby all day waiting for our study tour participants who have been trickling in.  Still three more to go.

We begin our formal meetings in the morning at 9:00 am.  Over the next four days several Russian experts on areas from military policy, economics, Ukraine, and other subjects will come and speak to us.

The breakfast buffet (comes with the hotel room) this morning was stunning.  (Food is always important to me.)

Bruce

Arrived in Moscow for study tour

Four of us from the US flew together to Moscow via New York City yesterday.  We came a day early to get adjusted to the time change and overnight flight.

The others in our Global Network study tour group will be arriving tomorrow and we'll start our meetings with various Russian experts the next day.

Our hotel window looks out on this magnificent building across the six lane road.  MB, Will Griffin and I took a walk before dinner through a park next to this beautiful site.

Everyone from taxi drivers (from the airport to hotel) and hotel staff have been really thoughtful and kind to us.

Seven in our group of early arrivals had dinner together at a Central Asian restaurant next door to the hotel and the food was excellent.

MB will explore the famous Russian Metro tomorrow while I sit in the hotel lobby to ensure all of our people get checked in without any difficulties.

When we were walking we saw people heading to the Metro after work, folks walking their dogs, all normal stuff.  In the restaurant a big group of 20 people were having a grand time and as we left we noticed the quite large restaurant was packed. I said to MB and Will how it is such a damn shame that Washington continues to demonize Russia.  The American people are wrong when it comes to how they view Russia and the people here.

On the plane I watched a film about one of the former Soviet Union's most famous folk musicians - Vladimir Vysotsky.  I went online to learn more about him once I arrived at the hotel and read that while in the US in late 1970's he was on the CBS 60 Minutes TV show and they said he had spent time in a Soviet gulag.  But it turns out to have been a lie.  This is just a tiny example of the way the US has in my lifetime brainwashed the American people about Russia.  It makes me doubt much of what I've been taught.

Do you remember the Bullwinkle cartoon TV series that ran from 1959-1964.  The bad guys were the two Russian spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, both working for the dictator Fearless Leader. The Russian demonization has been ingrained in the American mind.

Bruce

And the audience applauded.....

"I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It’s – it was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment".

Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State) participates in a Q&A discussion at Texas A&M University as part of the Wiley Lecture Series, in College Station, Texas on April 15, 2019.

The 'glory of the American experiment'?  What?

Texas A & M is the home to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library.  Daddy Bush was also the former director of the CIA.

Some years ago I was watching C-SPAN one evening and Daddy Bush was giving Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), brother of JFK and RFK, an award at Texas A & M.  I was quite shocked to see Kennedy accept the award from a man who has been directly implicated in the assassination of his own brother(s)!  Why would he take such an award from him?

I chewed on that one for many years and came to the conclusion that this is how the oligarchic system works in the US.  Sort of like the Mafia.  Sometimes the mob kills each other when they have disputes and other times they work together when their interests fall in line.

I've come to see that America has regional oligarchies.  Texas, Boston, Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc.  They battle with each other for power and control of the government.  Sometimes they kill one another.  Other times they give one another awards.

Most of the public would think this whole analysis of power in the US is crazy.  But that is how I see it.  I've learned alot about how oligarchies work by daily studying Ukraine since the US orchestrated coup d'etat there in 2014.

Ukraine's newly elected president (comedian Volodymyr Zelensky) has zero governing experience and was put up to run by one of the biggest oligarchs in the country - a man named Kolomoisky who owns the TV network which promoted Zelensky.  Kolomoisky also has his own private army which he uses to push people in Ukraine around.  Kolomoisky is strongly linked to the US and Israel so the 'new president' Zelensky will actually be working for the US-NATO.

Zelensky beat Petro Poroshenko (another Ukrainian oligarch) in the election.  The US loved the drunken Poroshenko but the public hated him so it was time to switch horses.

This is how things appear to work anymore.  Democracy has largely become a show horse with little meaning.

Bruce

Connect the dots: Conversion for survival

Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space talks about the necessity to bring the environmental and peace movements together and to be authentic, even when your political party is on the wrong side.

The Global Network website is http://space4peace.org/

Bruce is departing for Russia with a group of Global Network and Veterans for Peace members this week.  You can follow their progress on his blog and donations to the Global Network can be made from their web site.