Global

          It was supposed to be just another round of pork in Columbus. The nuclear power industry, which was flush with success from winning billions in bailouts from state governments in New York and Illinois was again prepared to play Ohio's government like a fiddle. Ohio had, in the past, ponied over $9 billion in subsidies for such flimsy reasons as "stranded costs" to keep the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants running. This time, though, it's proven to be much more complicated. Fierce opposition from every part of the political spectrum meant a reduced payoff, and even though Governor DeWine signed House Bill 6 (HB6) into law on July 23, the money may never be delivered.

In my town in the United States — as is not especially unusual — we have big memorials in prominent public places marking some of the most catastrophically immoral actions of the past. Unfortunately, all five of these major monuments celebrate and glorify these past horrors, rather than reminding us not to repeat them. The University of Virginia is building a memorial to the enslaved people who built the University of Virginia. So, we will have five celebrations of evil, and one cautionary remembrance thereof.

Two of the five monuments celebrate the genocide of the westward expansion across the continent. Two celebrate the losing and pro-slavery side of the U.S. Civil War. One honors the troops who participated in one of the most devastating, destructive, and murderous assaults on a small part of the earth that humanity has yet produced. In the United States people call it “the Vietnam war.”

The preface below - as well as the choice of some of the photos in the article below is by Duty to Warn columnist Gary G. Kohls, MD (2,137 words)

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well…We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions."

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." – From the farewell address of President Dwight David Eisenhower – January 17, 1961

Robert J. Burrowes

I have previously written a summary of the interrelated psychological, sociological, political-economic, military, nuclear, ecological and climate threats to human survival on Earth which threaten human extinction by 2026. See ‘Human Extinction by 2026? A Last Ditch Strategy to Fight for Human Survival’.

Rather than reiterate the evidence in the above article, I would like to add to it by focusing attention on three additional threats – geoengineering, medical vaccinations and electromagnetic radiation – that are less well-known (largely because the evidence is officially suppressed and only made available by conscientious investigative activists) and which, either separately or in combination with other threats, significantly increase the prospect of extinction for humans and most (and possibly all) life on Earth by the above date, particularly given the failure to respond strategically to these interrelated threats.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha ended his
five-year-long junta and took over the defense ministry when his new
government was sworn in on July 16, nearly four months after an
election to reaffirm him as prime minister.

President Trump's support during Prime Minister Prayuth's military-led
regime is expected to continue amid Thailand's increasing closeness
with neighboring China which supplies diplomatic, economic and
military support.

The U.S., a treaty ally, trains Thailand's military which remains
under Army Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, son of a 1991 coup leader
former supreme commander Sunthorn Kongsompong.

"After the coup in Thailand, we severed a significant amount of
mil-to-mil [military-to-military] engagement," said Army Command Sgt.
Maj. Eric Curran. "We lost a lot of traction."

Some new Thai military captains have "no desire to come to the United
States. They want to go train in Russia and China.  That's one of the
impacts we notice on the ground level," he said according to Army
Times.

Congratulations to us! Talk about the art of the deal! Whether we know it or not, in the wake of those presidential Fourth of July festivities on the Washington Mall (“the biggest ever fireworks”), we’re all Saudis now. And here’s the good news: it only cost the Pentagon $1.2 million extra -- which, in the twenty-first century, is military chump change -- for those spectacular fly-overs, the uniformed personnel gathered in the rain, and the otherwise largely useless tanks hovering here and there in Washington.

I spoke with Senator Mike Gravel on Thursday and asked him whether it seemed fair to him to be excluded from Democratic Party Presidential Primary debates on the basis of his performance in polls that did not include his name among those whom people could say they supported.

Of course, he said that it did not. But he also raised some additional questions, and told me what he would say if included in a debate.

Gravel said that 70,000 supporters had donated to his campaign. That means he has qualified for the debates by the factor that he couldn’t be prevented from competing in, namely number of donors. In this regard he differs from some of the candidates being included in the debates; they have not achieved the required number of donors, but are being included on the sole basis of their performance in polls in which they had the distinct advantage of their names being included.

I want Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic Presidential debates because she speaks out against wars. She raises the topic unasked. She wants various wars ended or not launched. She wants impeachment made automatic for presidents who launch wars. What’s not to love?

I also want Mike Gravel included for the same reason. If anything, he’s even better than Gabbard. But Gravel openly says he doesn’t want to be elected; he just wants to improve the debates. I wish Gabbard would say the same thing. Here’s why.

February 15, 2003, saw the biggest public demonstration in world history. It was against the obvious lies being used to launch a war against Iraq. Whistleblower Katharine Gun risked her freedom to expose the war in March 2003. The United Nations refused to support the war, and its Secretary General joined many world governments in denouncing the war as a fraud and a crime.

In 1825, long before anybody even thought about air flight, the US Navy began operations in the Pensacola, Florida area, when the federal government built a naval yard on Pensacola Bay.

90 years later, in 1914, the naval yard became home to the Navy’s first permanent air station. Since that time, NAS (Naval Air Station) Pensacola has served as the primary training base for naval aviators and has housed the Blue Angels aerobatic programs, which will be giving 61 shows at 32 locations from March through November of 2019. The two Blue Angel shows in Duluth are scheduled for July 20 – 21, 2019.

Stéphane Brizé’s award-winning At War (En Guerre) is a French
feature about unions, strikes and class struggle being released in
America shortly after Bastille Day, which commemorates that “other”
French Revolution. In this movie a German-owned company reneges
on promises to keep a factory open in an economically depressed
region of France, despite the workers’ sacrifices, agreeing to cutbacks
on wages and benefits, plus the firm’s receiving of subsidies and tax
credits from the French government. The “problem” is that although
the factory makes a profit, it is not profitable enough for shareholders
obsessed with “competivity” in our increasingly globalized planet.
 
In the workers’ fight to prevent the plant from closing and not lose
their jobs the proletarians resort to industrial actions that become
increasingly militant, including walking off the job, sit-down strikes,
occupations, etc. The failure of the French government and courts to
decisively support the strikers pushes them towards more direct
action. At one point the German CEO is roughed up after a failed