Opening salvo: Get Ready for an All-Out Assault on Social Security by Washington in 2017
By Dave Lindorff
To Weapons Dealers, Laws Are Decorative Holiday Ornaments
You might be forgiven for imagining that laws are serious things. When you violate them, you can be locked in a cage for decades. That’s not true for big-time weapons dealers like the U.S. government.
Two years after the creation of the Arms Trade Treaty, the news is that it’s failing in Yemen. I’m hard pressed to see why it isn’t, thus far, failing everywhere. The weapons dealers keep dealing weapons by the tens of billions of dollars exactly as if nothing has changed.
Here (courtesy of the CIA-funded Amazon data cloud) is the key text of the treaty:
“. . . A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms . . . if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a Party . . . .”
The dominant weapons dealer, the U.S. government, has not ratified the Arms Trade Treaty. The second-place dealer in instruments of death, Russia, has not either. Neither has China. Certainly France, the United Kingdom, and Germany have ratified it, but they seem to have little difficulty ignoring it. They’ve even ratified the convention on cluster bombs but, at least in the case of the UK, ignore that one too. (The U.S. has temporarily paused its sales of cluster bombs, but not ratified the treaty.)
And another 87 nations have ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, none of which do any significant weapons dealing on the scale of the top 6, but plenty of which violate the treaty in their own small ways.
The U.S. has very similar laws on its own books already and long has. Ignoring them, or taking advantage of the ability to waive them, has become routine. The United States is far and away the biggest seller of weapons, giver of weapons, producer of weapons, buyer of weapons, deliverer of weapons to poor countries, and deliverer of weapons to the Middle East. It sells or gives weapons to all types of nations just as if no restrictions applied. Yet, here are some U.S. laws almost pretty enough to frame on the wall:
“No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. . . .
“. . . Of the amounts made available to the Department of Defense, none may be used for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a unit of a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
And there’s this one:
“The prohibitions contained in this section apply with respect to a country if the Secretary of State determines that the government of that country has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. . . .”
This one may actually have been written with the assistance of medical marijuana:
“No [weaponry] shall be sold or leased by the United States Government under this chapter to any country or international organization . . . unless —
(1) the President finds that the furnishing . . . to such country or international organization will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace. . . .”
This may come as shocking news, but none of the weapons sales made by the United States or any other nation thus far in the history of the world has promoted world peace. None has reduced — on the contrary, all have increased — terrorism. All have constituted gross violations of human rights. All have been transferred with knowledge that they would be used against civilians and in violation of international laws. Here are a few of those laws:
“. . . the Signatory Powers agree to use their best efforts to insure the pacific settlement of international differences. In case of serious disagreement or conflict, before an appeal to arms, the Signatory Powers agree to have recourse, as far as circumstances allow, to the good offices or mediation of one or more friendly Powers.”
The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928:
“The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.”
“All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. . . .”
The United States has temporarily halted some of its weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, while continuing others and continuing to actively wage war alongside Saudi Arabia against the people of Yemen. This is no more or less a violation of law and morality than U.S. weapons sales to Iraq or South Korea or (gifts to) Israel or the United States itself. No amount of lawyerly rejiggering of terminology, selective definition of “terrorism,” or narrowing of what counts as a “human right” can change that.
Yet the shoplifters go to jail while the weapons dealers walk free. None of the death dealing nations solves or even strives to solve its disputes by pacific means any more than every heroin user is a model citizen, yet the weapons — like the drugs — keep flowing.
The International Criminal Court denies itself the right to prosecute the crime of war (only “war crimes”) or to challenge the U.N.’s dominant powers (coincidentally the world’s major weapons dealers) or to prosecute crimes by non-members of the ICC committed in the territories of non-members. Yet when Barack Obama drone-murders people in the Philippines (a member), the ICC is silent. And in Afghanistan (another member) it suggests that it might someday see fit to open a prosecution.
Obviously the answer to this charade is not utter lawlessness. Here are some partial answers:
Tell the ICC to prosecute all criminals equally.
Build pressure for divestment from weapons dealers.
Resolved: To Find Peace Advocates in Every Nation
From all around the globe, nearly 50,000 people have signed this statement:
I understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.
Anyone inclined to can sign it here: http://worldbeyondwar.org/individual
In each of 143 countries, somewhere between 1 and several thousand people have signed. The purpose of the statement is to begin organizing a truly global movement. But certain countries are missing. Let’s resolve to add them to the map in 2017.
Obviously there exists at least one person in Venezuela and in Cuba and in Honduras and in Haiti and the Dominican Republic who wants to end all war. As in most countries, it is likely that most people in those countries want to do so. But who will be the first to put their name down?
Organizations can sign too, and several hundred have done so at: http://worldbeyondwar.org/organization
Can we find signers who will sign online or on hardcopy in Algeria, Libya, Western Sahara, Mali, Eritrea, Mauritania, Liberia, Chad, Angola?
What about in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, North Korea, or Papua New Guinea?
Beyond adding a single signer in each of these places, we want to add volunteer leaders who will join the global coordination of educational and activist efforts to rid our species of the disease of militarism before it rids the planet of us.
In 143 countries people have already signed and in a growing list have become active. World Beyond War now has country coordinators all over the world and is hiring paid staff to begin in January and work with them to accelerate our growth and intensify our activities.
Do you know anyone in any of the missing countries? Can you ask them to sign?
Do you know anyone who might know anyone who might know anyone in any of the missing countries? Can you ask them to sign?
Can you bring sign up sheets to any events you organize or attend in 2017 and ask everyone to sign, then mail them in (or photograph and email them in)? This is how we’ll grow. And this growth combined with the power of our message will change the world.
Focus: Russia and Syria - Dec 27, 2016
U.S. says not providing portable anti-aircraft missiles to Syrian rebels - Reuters
Russia Foreign Ministry: Washington seeks to disrupt nuclear parity with Moscow - TASS
Boris Johnson called 'undiplomatic and unprofessional' by Russia over Syria comments - Mirror Online
Moscow would welcome Henry Kissinger’s expertise in Russia-US relations: Kremlin - RT News
John McCain op-ed: We have a stake in Syria, yet we have done nothing - Chicago Tribune
McCain: NATO key to stopping 'Russian misbehavior' - TheHill
Intelligence agencies sued for records on Russian election interference - TheHill
--------------------------------------------------
Russia says will boost cooperation with Turkey, Iran on Syria: Interfax - Reuters
Kazakh leader says ready to host Russia, Iran, Turkey for Syria talks - rferl.org
Turkey says Saudis, Qatar should attend Syria peace talks - Bloomberg
U.S. calls 'ludicrous' Turkey's claims coalition supported terrorists in Syria - Reuters
Putin orders expansion of Russia’s naval base in Tartus, Syria - Countercurrents
Iran considers letting Russia use its Hamadan base - Al Arabiya English
Russian troops in Aleppo report finding mass graves with tortured and mutilated bodies - AP
First photos of Russian military police in Syria's Aleppo - southfront.org
Iran says could send military advisors to Syria's Aleppo if needed: RIA - Reuters
Massive battle brewing in western Palmyra as Syrian Army mobilizes 7000 soldiers to fight ISIS - almasdarnews.com
Unknown special forces eliminate leaders of militant groups in Syria - southfront.org
Saudi Arabian king launches fundraising campaign for Syria, donates millions - ibtimes.com
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Talk Nation Radio: Richard Cahan on the Forced Removal and Incarceration of Japanese Americans
Richard Cahan is a journalist who writes about photography, art and history. He worked for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1983 to 1999, primarily serving as the paper’s picture editor. He left to found and direct CITY 2000, a project that documented Chicago in the year 2000. Since then, he has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books, including Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows and Richard Nickel’s Chicago. He also works as a curator, creating photo and exhibitions at Chicago museums.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Please embed the SoundCloud audio on your own website!
Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at
http://TalkNationRadio.org
Focus: Turkey and Syria - Dec 26, 2016
President Tayyip Erdoğan to ask Donald Trump to impose no-fly zone over Syria - The Independent
Qatar, Turkey hold talks on Syria crisis - gulf-times.com
Kurdish YPG reports ongoing attacks by Turkish army near Kobanê with heavy weapons - ANF
U.S. does not support connecting Kurdish cantons in Syrian Kurdistan: Ambassador to Ankara - ekurd
Russia met 24 Syrian Kurdish parties: Russian general - Kurdpress News Aganecy
US backed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces 5km from strategic Tabqa dam west of Raqqa - Rudaw
Kurdish female fighters playing key role in battle for Raqqa - ARA News
ISIS jihadists burn four men to death on charges of supporting Kurdish forces - ARA News
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Poet’s notebook: What do I do about the mice: A pacifist's quandary'
It was late,
In the middle of the second half of the night.
We were asleep.
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe On the Occasion of Your Visit to Pearl Harbor
You recently announced plans to visit Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i at the end of December 2016 to “mourn the victims” of the Japanese Navy’s attack on the U.S. naval base on December 8, 1941 (Tokyo Time).
In fact, Pearl Harbor was not the only place Japan attacked that day. The Japanese Army had attacked the northeastern shore of the Malay Peninsula one hour earlier and would go on to attack several other British and U.S. colonies and bases in the Asia-Pacific region later that day. Japan launched these attacks in order to secure the oil and other resources of Southeast Asia essential to extend its war of aggression against China.
Since this will be your first official visit to the place where Japan’s war against the United States began, we would like to raise the following questions concerning your previous statements about the war.
“MARY & JOSEPH” ARRESTED ENACTING NATIVITY SCENE AT HANCOCK DRONE BASE
Friday, December 23, as many throughout the world prepare to celebrate the birth in Palestine of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, four members of the grassroots group Upstate Drone Action were arrested at the main entrance of Hancock Reaper Drone Base on East Molloy Road in the town of DeWitt in upstate New York.
The four set up a nativity manger tableaus in the driveway entrance to the Hancock base. Hancock hosts the 174th Attack Wing of the NY Air National Guard – the MQ9 Reaper drone hub. Hancock is also the national Reaper maintenance training center.
The MQ9 Reaper is a robotic, satellite-linked, remote assassin flying unmanned missions over Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern, African and West Asian nations. The CIA uses Reapers for its illegal lethal missions over northwest Pakistan.
According to “LIVING UNDER DRONES: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan ,” published by Stanford University and New York University Law Schools [downloadable], such missions are responsible in that region for the deaths of hundreds of noncombatants, including women and children, and for the terrorizing of thousands more.
Bev Rice, playing Mary, noted that “If Herod had had a Reaper drone, Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have been incinerated.” John Amidon, playing Joseph, further declared, “The indiscriminate and illegal killings of so many holy families in the MiddleEast must stop!”
Today’s civil resistance action is one chapter in Upstate Drone Action’s six-year scrupulously nonviolent campaign to expose the Hancock AFB war crime. Since 2010 there have been over 170 anti-Reaper arrests at Hancock. These have resulted in extreme bails, maximum fines, incarcerations, and so-called “Orders of Protection”…as well as some acquittals in the De Witt Town Court.
Those arrested Friday:
~ John Amidon, Albany, NY
~ Ed Kinane, Syracuse, NY
~ Jules Orkin, Bergenfield, NJ
~ Bev Rice, New York, NY.
Focus: Russia - Dec 23, 2016
Putin: Systems overcoming anti-missile defense more effective than missile shield itself - TASS
VIDEO: Putin says Russia's nukes can pierce any defense system - YouTube
Defense Ministry reveals Russian army's plans for upcoming year - TASS
TRANSCRIPT: Expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board • President of Russia
Russian forces receive 139 new aircraft, 4 missile regiments reequipped: Shoigu - Sputnik
Two Russian army formations rearmed with Iskander tactical missiles in 2016 - TASS
Russia to float out 2 nuclear submarines in 2017 - TASS
Russian Black Sea fleet to receive 3 Submarines, 2 Frigates in 2017: Commander - Sputnik
Russian Navy to receive 2 new Arctic bases: Northern Fleet Commander - Sputnik
Russian MoD to receive advanced electronic warfare system in 2017: UIMC - Sputnik
Production of the hypersonic missile is expected to be launched in 2017 - Sputnik
US Air Force report: Hypersonic missiles From China, Russia pose growing danger - freebeacon.com
Russian Army to get weapons to fight mini-drone swarms in two years - TASS
Russia tested over 160 new weapons in Syrian operation: defense minister - RT News
Snap combat drills demonstrate rapid development capabilities of Russian Army: Putin - Sputnik
Serbia to receive 6 fighter jets, 30 tanks, 30 combat vehicles From Russia - Sputnik
Russian defense minister proposes holding joint drills with Serbia annually - TASS
---------------------------------------------
Putin sees no big news in Trump’s statements on bolstering US nuclear potential - TASS
Trump: I got a 'very nice letter' from Putin about improving relations - CNBC
Putin’s letter to Trump - Google Drive
Putin says Western sanctions hampering cooperation on counter-terrorism - Reuters
US Commerce Dept adds 23 Russian entities to sanctions list - Sputnik
Putin sees hope for economy in wage growth, easing recession - Bloomberg
Labor productivity in Russia’s defense industry ‘rockets’: Putin - Sputnik
POLL: Over 60% of Russians trust President Putin - Sputnik
VIDEO: Putin holds annual Q&A marathon, (Starts at 11:20 min) - YouTube
TRANSCRIPT: Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference • President of Russia
Did Putin get Botox plastic surgery? He looks younger - Mediaite
Interview with CrowdStrike chief on the new evidence of Russian role in DNC hack - PBS NewsHour
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
The Scandal of Vast Inequality in Retirement Pay
Cato the Elder, a Roman senator and historian, once remarked: “Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.” For centuries, retirees have been aware of this unfortunate fact, which led them to demand and, in many cases, secure old age pensions to help provide financial security during their “golden years.” But as indicated in a recently-released report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the financial security of retiring corporate CEOs is far, far greater than the financial security of average Americans.
Book review/essay: Morally Surviving America’s War on Vietnam
By Johhn Grant
The War I Survived Was Vietnam: Collected Writings of a Veteran and Antiwar Activist
Yes, Dubya, Now I Miss You
When George W. Bush made the case for attacking and destroying the nation of Iraq, he made claims that, if true, would have justified nothing. And he proposed as evidence for those claims fraudulent, implausible, and even ridiculous pieces of information. But he was expected to produce evidence. There was no assumption that he should simply be taken on faith.
Those standards are gone.
The common wisdom that Vladimir Putin hacked into Democratic and Republican emails and fed the Democratic ones to WikiLeaks which delegitimized an otherwise legitimate election, is not based on any public evidence, and none is asked for by most believers.
The premise that possessing weapons justifies being attacked was patently absurd in 2003. The U.S. openly possessed all the weapons it claimed Iraq had. The premise that (further) exposing a rigged primary harms, rather than facilitating, election integrity, is strictly nuts in 2016. WikiLeaks and any source(s) deserve our thanks.
But the standard of evidence has been altered. It's certainly possible the Russian government hacked the emails. It's even possible that Russia was the source for WikiLeaks, and that Julian Assange and Craig Murray are deluded or lying, that Bill Binney is mistaken, and that all the anomalies in the claims of Russian hacking can be explained away. But the expectation that some sort of evidence should be produced no longer exists.
One reason for this is that during the Obama years wars were launched without public debates and marketing campaigns. Continuing and escalating the war on Afghanistan was simply done, without discussion. Continuing war on Iraq -- which still continues -- was done without requiring any of the pretenses used to escalate it in 2003. Launching hundreds of mini-wars in the form of drone murders took public debate out of the picture by definition, just as the presidential possession of a nuclear button has aided the decades-long re-imagining of Congress as a group of court jesters.
When Obama has made unproven and implausible claims about looming massacres in Libya or Iraq, or chemical weapons use in Syria, or airplanes shot down in Ukraine, or coups in Ukraine, or "moderate" terrorists, or Iranian nukes, or drone war success in Yemen, or the nature or legality of drone murders, there has been no general request for evidence. Even with the claims about Syrian chemical weapons in 2013, the public and Congress said no to escalating the war in a visible manner, but did not focus on demanding evidence for claims.
Enter Trump, professing a desire to (continue to) "kill their families" and to "steal their oil," and gone is any rationale for making any dubious claims in need of any evidence. If the Trumpists will believe in millions of repeat voters just because he says so, the anti-Trumpists will believe any anti-Trump-and-Russia story just because the CIA says so.
This thinking is not necessarily conscious and explicit. Those intent on taking the CIA on faith remain proud of considering the evidence of climate change. But when you combine anti-Trump with pro-Hillary plus xenophobia plus the demonization of Putin, some people lose all perspective. And when the past 13 years have been spent eroding the idea that a public case against a foreign target should include evidence, the sale is made quite easily.
So, yes, I miss the days of Dubya. I miss the days when the U.S. government pretended not to torture. The President "Elect" now promises to torture. Why? Because President Obama forbade prosecution of the crime of torture, allowed torture to continue, outsourced much of it, and replaced a lot of the torture program with a new murder program (using drones). And because the U.S. media pretended that torture had been legal under Bush and was somehow made illegal by an Obama "executive order," which is not a law.
I miss the days when lawless prisons like Guantanamo that kept people imprisoned without charge or conviction were deemed shameful and worthy of abolition. These Obama supposedly legalized with another "executive order." Now Trump says he'll pack the prisons.
I miss the days when unconstitutional mass surveillance, or mass deportations, or the rewriting of laws by presidents was illicit and scandalous. Now these things are generally accepted. So here's my question to good liberal Americans:
How is not impeaching Bush working out for you?
Letting Bush's impeachable offenses slide almost required letting Obama's slide, as there was such overlap. But now you've created a presidency of truly imperial power.
The point of impeaching and removing Bush would not have been to make Dick Cheney president, any more than the point of studying history is that your school has assigned that class to the football coach.
The point of impeaching Bush would have been to create a President Cheney in fear of being impeached, followed by other presidents in fear of being impeached.
Why can basketball announcers grasp that Duke's Allen Grayson might not be tripping opponents this year if he'd been suspended for a game or two when he did it last year, but political analysts can't grasp that if Bush had been impeached, or even an effort made to impeach him, we might not now -- like India -- have a twitter-loving right-wing nationalist preparing to create Muslim registries and enforced flag worship?
So, here's an idea. We can't go back in time. But we can start now. Trump is going to violate the Constitutional bans on domestic and foreign presents and "emoluments" on day one, and likely begin piling up original as well as familiar impeachable offenses during his first week.
But just as the only conceivable way to get Trump into office was to nominate Hillary Clinton, the surest way to derail an impeachment campaign against Trump will be to load it down with dubious claims about Russia.
See if you can predict what the Democrats will do.
Focus: Russia - Dec 21, 2016
Russian, Iranian and Turkish FMs hold joint press conference on Syria - Sputnik
U.S. plays down absence from Moscow talks on Syria, says not 'sidelined' - Reuters
Russia-Iran-Turkey statement useful for resumption of Syria talks in Geneva: UN - Sputnik
Iranian security chief says Iran, Russia share military base In Syria – World Tribune
Hezbollah fighting in Syria with U.S. weapons supplied to Lebanese army, IDF says - Haaretz.com
Former Nusra Front claims responsibility for Russian Ambassador's assassination - Sputnik
Ambassador shooting: Russia pushes back on Turkey's Gulenist claim - CNN.com
----------------------------------------------
U.S. sanctions more companies, people over Russia actions in Ukraine - Reuters
US State Department hopes Trump would see wisdom in keeping sanctions on Russia - Sputnik
EU decision on extending anti-Russia sanctions takes effect - Sputnik
Moscow to take adequate measures over US expansion of anti-Russian sanctions - TASS
Kremlin calls US-Russian ties 'frozen on practically all levels', unsure about Trump - AP
State Department rejects Russia's claim that dialogue has ended - Washington Examiner
POLL: Most economists say U.S. to ease sanctions over next 12 months - Bloomberg
Report: Russians regularly shelled Eastern Ukraine in 2014 - ABC News
Sources: Russia tests anti-satellite weapon - CNNPolitics.com
Russia missing from Trump’s top defense priorities, according to DoD memo - Foreign Policy
Text of DoD memo on Trump’s top defense priorities - Foreign Policy
Senate Dems plan proxy war against Trump with Tillerson confirmation - newsmax.com
POLL: Only one-third of Americans say Russia influenced 2016 election - POLITICO
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Focus: The Pentagon - Dec 20, 2016
McCain slams $13B in Pentagon spending in latest waste report - TheHill
REPORT: America’s Most Wasted - mccain.senate.gov
F-35 chief: Loose bracket sparked fire on Marine Corps plane - defensenews.com
F-35's $400K helmet still blinds pilots on night flights - DoD Buzz
The F-35: What’s left to fix? - Aviation Week
F-16 designer: Applauds Trump, says each F-35 ‘harms American air power’ - Sputnik
VIDEO: F-35 pilot interview; Why did F35 lost to F16 - YouTube
Despite problems, F-35’s first test pilot still believes in the stealth fighter - Fresno Bee
Northrop's new combat drone could outclass Boeing F/A-18, Lockheed F-35 -- The Motley Fool
Unilateral negotiations still in play for F-35 contract with Lockheed Martin - flightglobal.com
Lockheed Martin wins contract for F-35 logistics - Pacific Coast Business Times
--------------------------------------------
The F-35 gets a big win as Israel scores $38 Billion in US military aid - The Fiscal Times
Is the F-35 deal a dud for Israel? - israelrising.com
F-35 meet Russia’s stealth fighter T-50 - JewishPress.com
America’s F-35 fighter jet vs China’s J-20: A comparison - Business Insider
China’s J-20 ‘stealth’ fighter is inferior to the US F-35, lets slip Chinese expert - Chinatopix
Special battle of stealth fighters: F-35 vs China J-31 & Russia T-50 - Scout
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Tomgram: William Astore, All the President's Generals
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Talk Nation Radio: Vincent Emanuele on Wars for Oil Companies; Robert Alvarez on Department of Energy for Nuclear Weapons
.jpg)
Vincent Emanuele joined the United States Marine Corps as a squad automatic machine gunner in 2002. After two combat-deployments in Iraq, he refused orders for a third and immediately began organizing with Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
In 2008, Vince testified to Congress at the Winter Soldier Hearings on Capitol Hill, where he provided detailed accounts of war crimes, atrocities, drug abuse and sexual assault within the military.
See https://www.facebook.com/vincentjr.emanuele
Emanuele is just back from Standing Rock and discusses environmental and antiwar strategy. This show contains the second half of a discussion begun last week.
Robert Alvarez is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. and an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Strategic International Studies. He is considered one of the nation’s preeminent experts on civilian and military nuclear programs.
Between 1993 and 1999, Mr. Alvarez served as Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy.Between 1988 and 1993, Mr. Alvarez served on the Majority Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, chaired by Senator John Glenn (D-OH).
His work has appeared in Ambio, Science and Global Security, Science, the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Issues in Science and Technology (the magazine of the National Academy of Sciences), the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Technology Review, the Washington Post, the Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post and other publications. Mr. Alvarez won the John Barlow Martin Award for Public Interest Journalism and has been featured on CBS “60 minutes,” the PBS NOVA show, NPR’s All Things Considered, the New York Times, and several documentary films.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Please embed the SoundCloud audio on your own website!
Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at
http://TalkNationRadio.org
Attempting to Curtail Dissent of Seniors by Stopping Social Security Checks
By Ann Wright
Governments go to pretty low tricks to silent dissent--curtailing ones travel to neighboring countries and now stopping social security checks.
First, in 2005 and 2006 it was the Bush administration putting some of us protesting Bush’s war on Iraq on the National Crime Information Data base. Yes, we had been arrested for failure to comply with orders to move from the fence in front of the White House during protests against the war on Iraq, torture at Guantanamo and other US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan or refusing to end protests by sitting in ditches at Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch. But these were misdemeanors, not felonies, yet we were put on the FBI’s international crime list, a list for felony violations.
Fortunately, Canada is the only country that seems to use the list-and they use it to deny entry into Canada. At the request of Canadian parliamentarians to challenge Canada’s compliance with the Bush administration’s political retaliation list, I made another trip to Canada to test it and was expelled from Canada in 2007. The Canadian immigration officer told me as he was putting me unceremoniously on the flight back to the U.S., “An expulsion is not as bad as being deported. At least each time you want to attempt to come into Canada, you can undergo 3-5 hours of interrogation answering the same questions as the last time you attempted to enter and you might get an exemption to the expulsion. With a deportation, you will never get in.” Over the past six years, I have gone through the lengthy interrogation twice and was given a 24-hour exemption to the expulsion on one occasion when accompanied by a Canadian parliamentarian and a Canadian Broadcasting TV crew filming the event and the second time a 2-day exemption in order to speak at several Canadian universities.
2017 Peace Essay-Response Contest Rules
The West Suburban (Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Faith-Based Peace Coalition is once again sponsoring a Peace Essay Contest with a $1,000.00 award to the winner, $300 for the runner-up, and $100 for third place. As in the previous year’s contest, essays will have to be directed to a person who can help promote knowledge of the Kellogg-Briand Pact (KBP) and, from whom a response is expected. Essays will be judged not only on the quality of the essay but on the impact of the response. Everyone is eligible to participate; there are no restrictions regarding age or country of residence. Participants are required to take the following 3 steps:
It wasn’t the Russians!: Hillary Clinton Lost the November Election because She Blew Off Sanders Activists and Voters
By Dave Lindorff
Steer Your Way
By Kathy Kelly
Since the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, I've given daily thought to the more alarming aspects of Trump culture. Conversations among friends have been quite helpful, both here in the U.S. and in far- away Kabul from which I recently returned. It becomes hard to envision constructive responses to Trumpism without a steadfast focus on the larger culture which has made the policies of previous administrations seem acceptable and normal. This is part of why I was quite willing to sign the recently drafted "We Stand for Peace and Justice" statement at www.standforpeaceandjustice.or
Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Urgent to Progressives: Stop Fueling the Anti-Russia Frenzy
This week began with a mass email from the head of the Democratic National Committee, who declared: “By now, Americans know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian government orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on political campaigns and organizations over the past two years and used stolen information to influence the presidential campaign and congressional races.” DNC chair Donna Brazile went on: “The integrity of our elections is too important for Congress to refuse to take these attacks seriously.”
Focus: Russia and NATO - Dec 19, 2016
NATO and Russia talk at the Council meeting, but remain divided on Ukraine - Reuters
Statement by the NATO Secretary General following a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council - NATO
VIDEO: NATO Secretary General statement following NATO-Russia Council - YouTube
European defense budgets climb as NATO countries step up spending - NBC
Stoltenberg: NATO is considering strengthening its presence in the Black Sea - UAWire
Romania boosts NATO role as Black Sea tension rises - irishtimes.com
Lavrov: Kyiv's initiative of patrolling Black Sea jointly with NATO provocative - KyivPost
Russia will respond if NATO establishes military group in Black Sea: Foreign Ministry - Sputnik
Serbia to get Russian fighter jets to counter NATO threat - ABC News
VIDEO: Henry Kissinger on Russia hacking & Putin - CBS News
-------------------------------------------------
UN approves sending monitors to Aleppo as evacuations resume - ABC News
Russia, Iran and Turkey to hold Syria talks in Moscow on Tuesday - Reuters
Putin tells Rouhani he wants Syria conflict resolved soon: Kremlin - Reuters
Gunman kills Russian ambassador to Turkey, shouts 'God is great' - usatoday.com
VIDEO: Footage of Russian ambassador assassinated in Turkey - YouTube
Putin calls ambassador murder provocation aimed at derailing Syria negotiations - Sputnik
VIDEO: Putin comments on ambassador assassination in Ankara - YouTube
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Tomgram: Nick Turse, Washington's America-First Commandos in Africa
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
When Donald Trump enters the Oval Office, awaiting him will not only be his own private air assassination corps (those CIA drones that take out terror suspects globally from a White House “kill list”), but his own private and remarkably secret military. Ever since John F. Kennedy first made the Green Berets into figures of military glamour, there’s always been something alluring to presidents about the U.S. military’s elite special ops forces.
What Racist Registries Look Like
A new large photo book has just been published called Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II.
People who support creating a Muslim registry should take a look. Here are the victims before, in their small farms and their LA mansions. Here they are being forcibly removed. Here they are incarcerated. Here is what was done to their homes in their absence. Here they are in the camps, prisoners for nothing, and after their release.
To this day, no proof has ever been produced that any Japanese American planned to assist Japan in war against the United States in any way. Nor was there reason to think so at the time. Instead there was open admission of racist and greedy motivations on the part of government officials and white farmers respectively.
These photographs were the U.S. government's own documentation of its crime, and the hired photographers included Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and others with the talent to capture stories in stills. The accompanying text by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams expands one's understanding.
In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the creation by the Office of Naval Intelligence of a list of Japanese-Americans who would be the "first to be placed in a concentration camp" once a war could be started.
In 1939 FDR ordered the ONI and the FBI to create a larger "custodial detention index" of primarily Japanese-, German-, and Italian-Americans, renamed and continued as the "security index" by J. Edgar Hoover after Attorney General Francis Biddle ordered it shut down.
The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required all non-citizen adults to register with the government. In early 1941 FDR commissioned a study of West coast Japanese-Americans, which concluded that they were no threat at all. He commissioned another study that reached the same conclusion.
Monday Morning Bernie Backing
The growing push to defeat Trump by any of the following means:
