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How Media Outlets Work With Israel To Control Gaza Narrative

The state of the free press in the Western world is far from free, in fact, they act as stenographers for the military class to ensure profits for weapons manufacturers continue.

From watchdogs to lapdogs: Mnar Adley reveals the disappointing state of the fourth estate in the West, exposing how biased media, often working directly with the Israeli government, has been complicit in whitewashing Israeli crimes in Palestine.

SCHEERPOST, Mnar Adley / MintPress News October 16, 2023

Israelis were killed, while Palestinians merely “died.”

That’s the leading headline on the BBC after Israel pummeled Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, with Western-supplied bombs after Hamas’s surprise attack and rockets that hit Israel.

Some media outlets are leading with images of injured Palestinian children while reporting on unverified crimes committed by Hamas.

As if given the same script, corporate media anchors and journalists repeat the line that Israel has a right to defend itself as it bombs Gaza’s 2 million Palestinian population, targeting civilians violating international law.

Meanwhile, the same anchors and journalists demand Palestinians denounce violence and Hamas and run with unverified stories handed to them by the Israeli government.

This week’s coverage by Western corporate media underlined its inability to hold the world’s 4th largest military to account for war crimes and instead give airtime to Israeli military officials to incite genocide against Palestinians, who are caged like animals in the world’s largest concentration camp.

Western corporate journalists cannot report neutrally on Israel/Palestine. And here’s just a few examples as to why:

Let’s take The New York Times, for example. Not only has the newspaper constantly supported Israel’s expansionist policies, but it has also directly participated in the dispossession of Palestinians from their homes…………..(examples given)………………………………………

Axel Springer – a giant German broadcaster that owns Politico – has explicitly told its staff that it is their duty to support Israel and those that don’t should leave. A wave of firings of Arab journalists across Germany underlined this message.

The BBC, meanwhile, is the state broadcaster for the United Kingdom, a nation that helped create the state of Israel in 1948. Many of its top foreign affairs journalists go on to work for NATO or big think tanks funded by weapons manufacturers who directly profit from war.

The BBC has been continuously criticized for not providing historical context to the crisis in Gaza and linking it to its own British colonial history of helping create the state of Israel through the Balfour Declaration and providing it with weapons to occupy Palestinian land ever since.

American journalists who don’t toe the line on Israel/Palestine are frequently made examples of.

CNN fired anchor Marc Lamont Hill for calling for a free Palestine. Katie Halper was fired from The Hill for (accurately) calling Israel an Apartheid state. And The Guardian sacked Nathan J. Robinson after he made a joke mocking US military aid to Israel.

Other journalists in the industry see these examples, and the message is clear: stick to the script on Israel, or lose your job.

In 2013, an investigation revealed that Buzzfeed was paid huge sums to become a public relations arm for the Israeli military to ensure millennials were sympathetic to the occupation and to show the sexy side of the IDF.

In 2016, an investigation that I personally conducted into VICE News showcased how the hipster rag publishes “soft propaganda” to an anti-mainstream audience while pushing a pro-US and pro-Israel government narrative.

VICE does this by regurgitating releases from the Board of Broadcasting Governors, an arm of the US government that disseminates propaganda abroad through outlets like Voice of America to push for regime change and forever wars that fuel the military-industrial complex.

However, after a lift of its ban to be used in the United States, its reach now is the average American through outlets like VICE.

Of course, these are just a handful of examples of how the media, which is supposed to act as a watchdog to those in power and in the military, is acting as a lapdog for their moneyed interests and military agendas.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of the the many conflicts of interest within our media that most people don’t know about, including pundits and other journalists who appear within mainstream media outlets and newspapers as “experts” who are actually either simultaneously working with or are trained by think tanks, Public Relation outlets and Israeli lobby groups like AIPAC that take huge sums from the Israeli government and weapons manufacturers to ensure a pro-Israel, pro-war narrative is dominant.

This is why the context of Israel’s history as an occupier, an apartheid state that engages in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, is almost always left out. Instead, the public is fed with simplified versions of the conflict, presenting it as “complicated,” thousands of years of fighting between religions, Muslim vs Jews – a religious war.

The state of the free press in the Western world is far from free, in fact, they act as stenographers for the military class to ensure profits for weapons manufacturers continue.

This is exactly why in order to break through the fog of war and this soft propaganda, we must turn to independent media like MintPress and others who have preserved their principles of holding the permanent war state and elite accountable – that’s the role of journalism as defined by our first amendment.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/16/how-media-outlets-work-with-israel-to-control-gaza-narrative/ #Israel #Palestine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Small modular nuclear reactors: Unlikely, unaffordable, dirty and dangerous

So local jobs may only amount to security, cutting the grass, and periodic reactor maintenance with possible radiation exposure.

The Appalachia Peace Education Center in Abingdon considers the small reactors a bad idea. Here’s why.

by Rees Shearer, October 16, 2023 https://cardinalnews.org/2023/10/16/small-modular-nuclear-reactors-unlikely-unaffordable-dirty-and-dangerous/

A year ago, Gov. Glenn Youngkin came to Bristol to announce proposals from his new Virginia Energy Plan. He declared, “A growing Virginia must have reliable, affordable and clean energy for Virginia’s families and businesses.”

As a requisite to achieving those goals, the Governor proposed four small modular nuclear reactors for the Southwest Virginia Coalfields. But SM[n]Rs fail to meet the governor’s three laudable goals.

SM[n]Rs cannot be reliably licensed and constructed for a decade or more. No commercial SM[n]R has been successfully licensed. There are competing designs and even the Governor said the project would take 10 years. Nuclear power has a notorious history of construction and licensing delays. That means no new nuclear energy generation for at least a decade. There can be no reliable generation when the plant is not up and running. Solar energy and energy storage on restored mine lands can be brought online in a fraction of that time.

SM[n]Rs are unaffordable. At utility scale, the electricity energy standard, Lazards Levelized Cost of Energy, rates nuclear as the most expensive means to generate electric power. It’s not clear whether nuclear waste management, insurance, and decommissioning are included among the costs. The Nu-Scale reactor, under construction in Idaho, is the only SM[n]R even close to licensing. Between 2016 and 2023,  NuScale’s estimated power cost increased 60%. That’s in addition to $4 billion in subsidies from U.S. taxpayers. The latest nuclear project to come online (seven years late), Georgia Power’s Vogtle Units 3 and 4, exceeded cost projections by 120%. It’s unclear how much of the cost overruns customers will be forced to shell out. Nuclear power construction history shows an unfailing correlation between new designs and cost increases and project delays. Youngkin is opting for new technology designs. SM[n]Rs will not be affordable and Apco and Dominion Energy try to make sure customers bear the costs, even if the SM[n]R project is canceled before generating one Watt. The LCOE shows solar and on-shore wind, even adding battery storage, are the lowest cost sources of new power generation. 

SM[n]Rs are dirty and dangerous. SM[n]Rs produce plutonium 239, the most lethal element in high-level nuclear waste. A Stanford University study concluded that “small modular reactors may produce a disproportionately larger amount of nuclear waste than bigger nuclear plants.” That element is deadly for a quarter million years, a horrifying legacy. There is no permanent storage solution. Just to maintain this waste is already costing taxpayers and utility customers tens of billions of dollars. Additionally, plutonium 239 is the key element in proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism. There is risk of radiation leaks or a catastrophic accident. This becomes all the more concerning, given the proximity of sites already evaluated as potential SM[n]R locations to Southwest Virginia schools, neighborhoods, and downtowns. The governor proposes reprocessing the waste, which adds transportation and terrorism risks.

But what about jobs, you may ask? Modular design means that the reactors would be manufactured in one central location. Modules would be transported by truck to reactor sites. Then a specialized crew, moving from site to site, would assemble the reactor. At most, ground preparation will be the work for local contractors. What about high skill nuclear technology jobs the Governor is touting?  A spokesperson at NuScale Power, eagerly anticipated, “NuScale developed the information needed to obtain NRC approval that allows up to 12 NuScale Power Modules to be operated remotely from a single control room.” So local jobs may only amount to security, cutting the grass, and periodic reactor maintenance with possible radiation exposure.

The Clinch Coalition is a leading regional voice for transparency and opposition to  SM[n]Rs. The Coalition developed satellite videos (available at their website), demonstrating the risky proximity of homes, a school and businesses of three of seven SM[n]R sites proposed in a study by LENOWISCO Planning District Commission.

Gov. Youngkin could have proposed solar farms on restored mine lands. When combined with current technology battery storage, solar generates reliable, affordable and clean power — 24/7, installed and maintained by a local workforce — today. Just what the governor said he wanted.

Rees Shearer is a 40-year member of the Appalachian Peace Education Center in Abingdon. He writes this on the center’s behalf in response to the Sept. 9 opinion piece: “Virginia’s clean energy revolution begins in Southwest.” #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Declassified Soviet files reveal horror crimes of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators

https://www.rt.com/russia/584980-kgb-documents-ukrainian-nazis/ 16 Oct 23

Nationalists began ethnic cleansing of Jews during WWII, even before German occupation began, documents show

RT has obtained a trove of declassified KGB documents, highlighting crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Soviet territories occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII. The files include witness accounts of people who survived ethnic cleansing, as well as testimonies of Ukrainian collaborators captured by the Soviet domestic intelligence, then known as the NKVD.

Large swaths of present-day Ukraine fell under Nazi occupation in summer 1941 as German troops advanced deep into the Soviet Union. In fact, attacks on ethnic Jews and Poles, as well as local communists, began immediately as Soviet troops withdrew.

“In the first hours following the retreat of the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian population has demonstrated commendable activity against Jews,” a status report from the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police, dated July 16, 1941, reads.

Said “commendable activities” involved burning down a synagogue in the western Ukrainian city of Dobromyl and the murder of some 50 Jews by an “angry crowd” in Sambor. In Sokal, the help of local “trustworthy Ukrainians” allowed Nazis to find and exterminate some 183 “communist Jews.” Moreover, Ukrainian nationalists rounded up and brutally abused around 1,000 Jews in Lvov, subsequently putting them into a local prison, with the facility and the ‘inmates’ eventually taken over by the Germans, according to the status report.

With the German occupation regime properly established, the ethnic cleansing process was streamlined, with the so-called Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, created by the Nazis in August 1941, playing a very active role in it. According to the testimony of the Ukrainian police commander in Belya Tserkov, a major city in the Kiev region, Mikhail Tomasevish, members of his unit were so eager to kill Jews that they acted even beyond orders given by their Nazi masters. Namely, the local police secretary took pleasure in “questioning” arrested Jews, beating them with a rubber tube, and freely taking them “away” afterwards, with none of the detained ever returning to the police HQ.

Tomasevich led the police unit until 1943, when he fled alongside retreating German forces but ultimately ended up in the NKVD’s custody. While Tomasevich claimed most of the city’s Jews were exterminated before he assumed the post, he admitted partaking, one way or another, in the killing of over 1,000 people. Under his leadership, the police continued to actively search for survivors, using various tricks to lure the remaining Jews in the city to their deaths.

“To identify hiding persons of Jewish nationality, the [German field] gendarmerie, through the [Ukrainian] police, organized so-called traps, i.e., it was announced throughout the city that henceforth Jews would be allowed to live freely, but only in select houses,” Tomasevich testified.

“I put all the Jews who believed that and settled in the houses on a special register, a special folder of cases, titled ‘Yids’ [a derogatory term for ‘Jews’], was opened,” he explained, adding that when the flow of Jews willing to settle in the houses waned, all of them, some 50 people, were detained and killed “around January or February 1942.”

Civilian Ukrainian authorities, established under German occupation, have actively contributed to ethnic cleansings as well. For instance, according to an indictment in a 1944 case about Nazi crimes committed in the city of Sarny and its vicinity, local Ukrainian mayor Marinyuk directly facilitated the extermination of the entire local Jewish population in August 1942.

Some 13,000 people were gathered at a local concentration camp, guarded by field gendarmerie and Ukrainian police, under the pretext of being relocated for “work” in Germany. Instead, the Jews ended up before firing squads, with children thrown into the death pits and buried alive. Only some 40–50 people managed to escape the massacre, with Ukrainian nationalist units in pursuit, and those who managed to capture escapees were awarded a sack of salt.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | history, Reference, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Israel postpones ground operation in Gaza – NYT

https://www.rt.com/news/584962-nyt-israel-postpones-operation-gaza-weather/ 16 Oct 23

The offensive had been planned for the weekend but was rescheduled due to adverse weather conditions, the newspaper claims

Israel has decided to put off the start of its ground operation against Hamas in Gaza due to adverse weather conditions, the New York Times has claimed. The newspaper is also reporting that the incursion will likely come at quite a price for the Israeli military, given its scope as well as the fortifications built by the militants.

In an article on Saturday the media outlet alleged, citing anonymous Israeli officers, that the “invasion was initially planned for the weekend but was delayed by a few days, at least in part because of weather conditions.” These are so far precluding Israeli pilots and drone operators from providing ground forces with air cover, the NYT explained.

It quoted three unnamed Israeli officers as confirming that the imminent operation would involve tens of thousands of service members, including commando units, and tanks supported by warplanes, helicopter gunships, drones and artillery fired from land and sea. The alleged goal is the complete destruction of Hamas’ leadership, which has controlled the enclave since 2007.

The planned ground operation is expected to be the largest of its kind in over a decade, the NYT report continues, adding that it remains unclear if the IDF is planning to take control of only part of the densely-populated enclave or all of it. There is also a big question mark over whether Israelis are going to run Gaza or install a new Palestinian administration should they succeed in removing Hamas from power there, it wrote.

As for the imminent incursion itself, the anonymous Israeli officers told the NYT that it is likely to take months and to exact a large number of casualties on their side, as they will have to clear a vast network of Hamas’ underground tunnels.

Commenting on the ongoing Israeli air raids against Hamas on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country had unleashed “unprecedented force.” He stressed, however, that “this is just the beginning,” adding that “our enemies have only started paying the price.”

According to the latest estimates, Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 has resulted in at least 1,300 people killed, with nearly 3,500 injured. Dozens of people, both Israelis and other nationals, were taken hostage by the militants.

In Gaza, at least 1,900 Palestinians, including 614 children and 370 women, have been killed in the ensuing massive Israeli airstrikes over the past week, the Palestinian Health Ministry has reported.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Saturday that his country would respond should Israel go ahead with a ground operation in Gaza. #Israel #Palestine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is over – Moscow

Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,

 https://www.rt.com/russia/584853-ukraine-offensive-failed-nebenzia/ 16 Oct 23

Kiev has achieved nothing and Russian troops have now taken the initiative, top diplomat says

The four-month “counteroffensive” by Ukrainian forces has failed to reach any of its objectives, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Friday.

“For several days now, Russian troops have switched to combat operations, practically along the entire front line. Therefore, we can consider the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive formally over,” Nebenzia said.

According to the Russian envoy, four months of Ukrainian attacks resulted only in “hundreds of units of destroyed Western equipment” and “tens of thousands of lives of those conscripted by the Kiev regime, most of whom did not want to fight.” Some of the lucky ones surrendered and stayed alive, Nebenzia added.

Ukraine’s casualties have amounted to “over 90,000 people,” 557 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. 

Instead of putting an end to the “massacre” of Ukrainians on the frontline, the West “continues to feed them weapons, like a drug to an addict, thus prolonging his agony,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

“Let me emphasize that Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,” the Russian envoy added.

The cynicism of our former Western partners is simply amazing,” he said, bringing up the recent statement of Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren that arming Ukraine is “a very cheap way” to confront Russia.

A Ukraine that lives in peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of all of its citizens “had and still has a future,” the Russian envoy concluded. “The criminal neo-Nazi regime of [Vladimir] Zelensky does not.”

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted on Thursday that the offensive wasn’t just “behind schedule” but “off the schedule entirely,” adding that the explanation for that is classified.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fukushima plant water release: Russia follows China, suspends all Japanese seafood imports

WION News, Moscow, Russia Edited By: Srishti Singh Sisodia Oct 16, 2023,

Russia on Monday (Oct 16) suspended all Japanese seafood imports in the aftermath of Tokyo’s release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant. 

Previously, China had suspended the imports, saying that Tokyo has not proved the authenticity and accuracy of the nuclear wastewater data, nor that the ocean discharge of the water is harmless to the marine environment and human health. 

China was Japan’s biggest market for fish, accounting for more than $500 million worth of exports in 2022. 

Japan recently released treated radioactive water into the sea from its defunct nuclear reactor in Fukushima after the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the plan. ………………………………………………

What did Russia say? 

Ever since it released the treated water, Japan has faced the wrath of some nations and a number of environmentalists. 

Japan has also criticised Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, while Tokyo’s relations with Beijing, which has deepened ties with Moscow, have worsened. 

As reported by the news agency AFP, Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s body responsible for regulating agriculture products, said that as a “precautionary measure”, it was “joining China’s provisional restrictive measures on the import of fish and seafood products from Japan as of October 16, 2023”. 

It added that the restrictions would remain in place “until the necessary exhaustive information to confirm the safety of seafood produce … is forthcoming”.   https://www.wionews.com/world/fukushima-nuclear-plant-like-china-russia-suspends-all-japanese-seafood-imports-647527

October 18, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, Russia | Leave a comment

Israel Hamas conflict: US President Joe Biden heading to Israel as Iran threatens ‘action within hours’

US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday and has warned other nations to stay out of the conflict, after Iran threatened to launch “action within hours”.

news.com.au Shannon Molloy, October 17, 2023 

Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday for high-level talks about the worsening conflict in Palestine, as Iran threatened to involve itself in the war.

The US President has reaffirmed America’s “iron-clad commitment to [Israel’s] security” and warned other state and non-state actors to stay away.

Some 2000 troops have been ordered to “prepare to deploy” as American warships head to the region.

Meanwhile, aid organisations say time is running out to avoid a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza as food, water and fuel runs out, aid organisations warn.

Biden heading to Israel

United States President Joe Biden will visit Israel for high-level talks about the escalating conflict with Hamas in Palestine, after Iran threatened to become involved “within hours”.

Speaking just now to reporters in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the visit, during which Mr Biden will “reaffirm the United States’ solidarity … and iron-clad commitment to its security”.

“The president will hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” Mr Blinken said.

Mr Biden will also “underscore our crystal-clear message” to others to not seek to take advantage of the crisis “to attack Israel”.

“To that end, he has deployed aircraft carrier groups and other military assets to the region.”

That warning to “state or non-state” forces and the president’s confirmed visit to Israel on Wednesday came just moments after Iran issued a stern threat that is prepared to involve itself in the conflict……………………………………………………….. more https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-conflict-israeli-family-of-five-found-dead-in-an-embrace/news-story/6d79f51f5bcc759020697fa44e63e33b #Israel

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Zelensky orders reporters to keep silent about corruption – Ukrainian media.

 https://www.rt.com/russia/584929-ukraine-gags-media-corruption/ 16 Oct 23

The Ukrainian president reportedly told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict

President Vladimir Zelensky has allegedly ordered Ukrainian journalists to avoid reporting on corruption, the editor-in-chief of the Zerkalo Nedeli (‘Mirror of the Week’) news outlet has claimed.

The Ukrainian president told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a leading Kievb outlet.

Speaking at the National Media Talk 2023, Yulia Mostovaya said that she had learned of Zelensky’s demand from colleagues who had attended an off-the-record meeting with him. 

The president reportedly made the request after the Ukrainian press published reports about inflated food prices paid by the country’s armed forces.  

According to Ukrainian media reports, including Zerkalo Nedeli, the Defense Ministry had been buying food and clothing for its service members at prices two to three times higher than the market price. For example, the ministry paid up to 17 hryvnia ($0.47) for a single egg and 22 hryvnia ($0.60) for a kilogram of potatoes, while the average prices for those goods at stores in Kiev at the time were about seven hryvnia ($0.19) and eight hryvnia ($0.22), respectively. 

Mostovaya stated that Zelensky’s request to avoid the topic of corruption in media publications was something the Ukrainian press may have considered if Zelensky had presented it in a “balanced manner” and explained that reporting on such issues could affect Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities. 

“We would accept these conditions if the president had said: ‘Here is a person. Here’s his phone number. If you have substantiated facts, please provide them to this person, he will immediately pick up the phone. And give us a week to respond. If there is no reaction within a week, send it to print.’” 

However, no such proposal was put forward by Zelensky, Mostovaya claimed, noting that instead the president told reporters to “remain silent until victory.”  

“If we remain silent, there will be no victory,” the editor-in-chief said. 

The issue of corruption in Ukraine has repeatedly been brought up by journalists and officials, both within the country and in the West.  

Last week, the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, stated that Ukraine will likely be unable to join the EU anytime soon because it is “corrupt at all levels of society.” He also urged Brussels not to make any “false promises” to the Ukrainian people who are already “up to their neck in suffering.” 

Ukraine has for years been seen as among the most corrupt countries in Europe and was ranked 116th out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2022. #Ukraine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel:  Biden’s treasure squandering trifecta

https://heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com/ 13 Oct 23

President Biden has a weapons supply problem. In 20 months of the Russo Ukraine war, also US proxy war on Russia, he’s blown $113 billion in US treasure desperately needed by the Homeland. , National health care, infrastructure, clean energy, border security, migrant aid relief, education, crime reduction among other issues, go wanting.

The repetitive requests for more, more, more are weighing on Americans who increasingly see it as the boondoggle for the weapons makers it is. While congressional Democrats completely support is Biden’s spending spree, a small Republican House contingent is pushing back, sensing public disgust with Biden’s giveaways as a means of defeating him next year. They’re holding up current spending requests with both their opposition and current legislative paralysis due to the vacant Speaker’s chair.

But no fool Biden senses this Republican opposition can be neutered by combining his weapons aid for Ukraine with that for Taiwan and now Israel, both countries of which are favored by the anti-Ukraine Republican claque.  

All three countries earmarked for endless weapons deserve US attention.

We should be negotiating an end to the Russo Ukraine war instead of sabotaging every diplomatic effort that could have ended it in the first 2 months. We blew an easy opportunity to save 400,000 Ukrainian lives simply to weaken Russia. Nuclear confrontation with Russia looms.

We need to go back to a One China policy that kept Chinese reunification with Taiwan on the back burner for 50 years till first Trump, then Biden, blew it to smithereens. Some military leaders fear we’ll be at war with China by 2025.

We need to be a broker for peace between Israel and Gaza Palestinians, not a weapons supplier and cheerleader for massive bombing and destruction of Gaza to avenge Hamas’ recent attack.  Israel, the dominant military power in the Middle East, needs not a single US weapon to prevent further Hamas attacks. They just need better intelligence. Conversely, US support for the current bombing and impending invasion puts every remaining hostage, including Americans, at risk of imminent death.

Too early to determine if Biden’s proposed Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel weapons trifecta will overcome taxpayer and Republican opposition. If it does, it’s the weapons makers and perpetual war promoters that will hit the Trifecta. Everyone else will lose….and thousands will die.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Poland’s $40 billion plan for 2 nuclear reactors, built by 2043, (hopefully)

US and Polish officials have signed an agreement to go ahead with the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant, under the Polish government’s policy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

The Polish state-owned utility Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe, PEJ, which is charged with overseeing the country’s nuclear programme, signed the agreement with a consortium of Westinghouse and Bechtel. The plant will be located about 280 km from Poland’s border with Germany, which recently shut down its last remaining nuclear reactors in line with its own national policy, and in 2022 the four German states closest to Poland said they were opposed to the Polish plan. There has also been some opposition to the plan within Poland on the grounds that the initial cost is prohibitive, and construction takes too long, but the opposition has not achieved any decisive results to date.

The current plan is for Poland to spend $40 billion on two nuclear plants, each with three reactors. The construction programme will come to a close in 2043. PEJ – a special purpose vehicle 100% owned by the State Treasury – applied to the ministry on 13 April for a decision-in-principle. The application included a description of project characteristics, indicating the maximum total installed capacity, the planned operating period and details of the Westinghouse AP1000 technology proposed for construction of the plant. In July the ministry issued a decision-in-principle, enabling the investor, PEJ, to apply for a number of further administrative decisions, including a siting decision and subsequently the construction licence………..

October 18, 2023 Posted by | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

 This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen

This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp. Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead.

Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas. 

By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost, October 15, 2023  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/15/this-way-for-the-genocide-ladies-and-gentlemen/

Washington and European governments are cheerleading Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. The failure to intervene to halt the carnage threatens to ignite violence throughout the region.

I have been in urban warfare in El Salvador, Iraq, Gaza, Bosnia and Kosovo. Once you fight street by street, apartment block by apartment block, there is only one rule — kill anything that moves. The talk of safe zones, the reassurances of protecting civilians, the promises of “surgical” and “targeted” air strikes, the establishment of “safe” evacuation routes, the fatuous explanation that civilian dead were “caught in the crossfire,” the claim that the homes and apartment buildings bombed into rubble were the abode of terrorists or that errant Hamas rockets were responsible for the destruction of schools and medical clinics, is part of the rhetorical cover to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.

Gaza is such a small area — 25 miles in length and about 5 miles wide — and so densely populated that the only outcome of an Israeli ground and air assault is the mass death of those Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calls “human animals” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls “human beasts.” Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv suggested dropping “doomsday weapons” on Gaza, widely seen as a call for a nuclear strike. Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday dismissed calls to protect Palestinian civilians. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible … this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true,” Herzog said. “They could’ve risen up, they could’ve fought against that evil regime that took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.” He added, “We will break their backbone.”

The demand by Israel that 1.1 million Palestinians — nearly half of Gaza’s population — evacuate northern Gaza, which will become a free fire zone, within 24 hours, ignores the fact that given the overcrowding and sealed borders there is no place for the displaced to go. The north includes Gaza City, the most densely populated part of the strip, with 750,000 residents. It also includes Gaza’s main hospital and the Jabalia and al-Shati refugee camps.

Israel, by employing its military machine against an occupied population that does not have mechanized units, an air force, navy, missiles, heavy artillery and command-and-control, not to mention a U.S. commitment to provide a $38 billion military aid package for Israel over the next decade, is not exercising “the right to defend itself.” This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp. Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been forced to close 14 food distribution centers leaving half a million people without food relief. Gaza’s only power plant has run out of fuel. The United Nations says 12 of its staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes, 21 out of 22 UNRWA health facilities in Gaza have been damaged and hospitals lack basic medicines and supplies.

Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas. 

The West refuses to intervene, as 2.3 million people, including 1 million children, are deprived of food, fuel, electricity and water, see their schools and hospitals bombed and are butchered and rendered homeless by one of the most advanced military machines on the planet.

The gruesome images of Israelis gunned down by Hamas is the currency of death. It trades carnage for carnage, a macabre dance that Israel initiated with the massacres and ethnic cleansing that allowed for the creation of the Jewish state, followed by decades of dispossession and violence meted out to the Palestinians. The Israeli army, before the current assault, had killed 7,779 Palestinians in Gaza since 2000 including 1,741 children and 572 women, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. This figure does not include Gazans who died due to drinking contaminated water or being denied access to medical treatment. Nor does it include the rising number of Gazan youth who, having lost all hope and struggling with deep depression, have committed suicide.

I spent seven years reporting on the conflict, four of them as the Middle East Bureau Chief of The New York Times. I stood over the bodies of Israeli victims of bus bombings in Jerusalem by Palestinian suicide-bombers. I saw rows of corpses, including children, in the corridors in Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. I watched Israeli soldiers taunt small boys who in response threw rocks and were then callously shot in the Khan Younis refugee camp. I sheltered from bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes. I climbed over the rubble of demolished Palestinian homes and apartment blocks along the border with Egypt. I interviewed the bloodied and dazed survivors. I heard the soul crushing wails of mothers keening over the corpses of their children.

I arrived in Jerusalem in 1988. Israel was busy discrediting and marginalizing the secular, aristocratic Palestinian leadership of Faisel al-Husseini and driving Jordanian administrators from the occupied West Bank. This secular and moderate leadership was replaced by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat. But Arafat, very likely poisoned by Israel, and the PLO were also ruthlessly pushed aside by Israel. The PLO was replaced by Hamas, which Israel openly fostered as a counterweight to the PLO. 

The escalating savagery of Israel against the Palestinians is reflected in the escalating savagery of the Palestinians. The resistance groups are Israel’s doppelgängers. Israel believes that with the eradication of Hamas the Palestinians will become docile.  But history has shown that once one Palestinian resistance movement is destroyed, a more virulent and radical one takes its place.

The killers feed off each other. I saw this in the ethnic wars in Bosnia. When religion and nationalism are used to sanctify murder there are no rules. It is a battle between light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan. Rational discourse is banished. 

“The sleep of reason,” as Francisco Goya said, “brings forth monsters.” 

The Jewish extremists, fanatic Zionists and religious bigots in the current Israeli government need Hamas. Revenge is the psychological engine of war. Those targeted for slaughter are rendered inhuman. They are not worthy of empathy or justice. Pity and grief are felt exclusively for one’s own. Israel vows to eradicate a dehumanized mass that embodies absolute evil. The maimed and dead in Gaza, and the maimed and dead in Israeli towns and kibbutzim, are victims of the same dark lusts.  

“From violence only violence is born,” Primo Levi writes, “following a pendular action that, as time goes by, rather than dying down, becomes more frenzied.”

The Biden administration has promised unconditional Israeli support and weapons shipments. 

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to “deter any actor” who might widen the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The carrier group includes the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford; its eight squadrons of attack and support aircraft; the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy; and the Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt, according to a Pentagon statement.

The U.S., as in the past, ignores the far greater death and destruction, as well as the illegal occupation, meted out by Israel to the Palestinians or the periodic military campaigns — this is the fifth major military assault by Israel on Gaza in 15 years — against civilians. 

Israel says it recovered 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters after the incursion. This is a number greater than the 1,300 Israeli victims. Nearly all the dead Hamas fighters, I suspect, were young men born inside the Gaza concentration camp who had never seen the outside of the open-air prison until they burst through the security barriers erected by Israel. If Hamas fighters possessed Israel’s technological arsenal of death, they would be able to do their killing more efficiently. But they do not. Their tactics are cruder versions of those Israel has used against them for decades. 

I know this disease, the exaltation of race, religion and nation, the deification of the warrior, the martyr and violence, the celebration of victimhood. Holy warriors believe they alone possess virtue and courage, while their enemy is perfidious, cowardly and evil. They believe they alone have the right to revenge. Pain for pain. Blood for blood. Horror for horror. There is a fearsome symmetry to the madness, the abandonment of what it means to be humane and just. 

T.E. Lawrence calls this cycle of violence “the rings of sorrow.”

Once these fires are lit they can easily become a conflagration.

Israeli tanks and soldiers, to thwart an attack by Hezbollah in support of the Palestinians, have been deployed to the border with Lebanon. The Israeli forces killed fighters from Hezbollah, as well as a Reuters journalist, which saw Hezbollah fire a salvo of rockets in retaliation. Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir announced he would distribute 10,000 assault rifles to Israeli settlers, who have carried out murderous rampages in Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Israel has killed at least 51 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas launched its attack on October 7.

Psychologist Rollo May writes:

At the outset of every war…we hastily transform our enemy into the image of the daimonic; and then, since it is the devil we are fighting, we can shift onto a war footing without asking ourselves all the troublesome and spiritual questions that the war arouses. We no longer have to face the realization that those we are killing are persons like ourselves.

The killing and torture, the more they endure, contaminate the perpetrators and the society that condones their actions. They sever the professional inquisitors and killers from the capacity to feel. They feed the death instinct. They expand the moral injury of war. 

Israel taught the Palestinians to communicate in the primitive howl of hatred, war, death and annihilation. But it is not Israel’s assault on Gaza I fear most. It is the complicity of an international community that licenses Israel’s genocidal slaughter and accelerates a cycle of violence it may not be able to control. #Israel #Palestine

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Collateral damage” is unintentional, but Israel’s bombing of Gaza kids IS INTENTIONAL.

2 Bombing Kids And Blaming It On Hamas


CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 16, 2023

There’s no “collateral damage” in Gaza. Collateral damage is when you unintentionally kill civilians. You can’t drop military explosives on places you know are densely packed with children and then call their deaths unintentional. It’s like calling the death and destruction caused by Hiroshima and Nagasaki unintentional.

The “human shields” narrative is just Israel bombing civilians and blaming it on someone else. That’s all it’s ever been.

The “human shields” argument is like if London had responded to an IRA attack by dropping thousands of bombs on Belfast, killing thousands of Irish civilians and hundreds of children, and justifying its bombing campaign by calling it an unfortunate but necessary measure to take out the IRA’s Belfast Brigade because they’re located in the same places as civilians.

It’s like if the western political/media class defended and supported the carpet bombing of Belfast, saying “All those thousands of deaths are the fault of the IRA, because they’re in Belfast where the civilians are. England has a right to defend itself, after all.”

It’s like if Belfast was walled in with nowhere for civilians to escape to, and London carpet bombed it targeting schools, churches and hospitals, and the western press framed this relentless assault on civilian buildings as “the UK-IRA war” in which London is exclusively bombing “IRA targets in Belfast”.

It’s like if the British spent a week dropping military explosives on locations it knew were packed with Irish children, and anyone who criticized this was accused of anti-Britishism and blood libel.

And to be clear this is not something I’d put past the British actually doing during the Troubles… if the Irish were Muslim and their skin was a little darker……………………….

Step 1: Abuse and kill Muslims

Step 2: Wait for Muslims to respond to those abuses with violence

Step 3: Cite that violence as justification for more killing and abuse to fight “radical Islamic terrorism”.

Works for the US empire’s bogus “war on terror”, and it works for Israel………………………………………..

Israel apologist translation guide:

“You’re an anti-semite” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You hate Jews” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You want Jews to die” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You love Hamas” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You side with the terrorists” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

Not that it really matters but for the record I personally have a great love for Jews and Jewish culture. Always have, since I was a kid. Most of my anti-war heroes are Jewish, and Jewish artists and thinkers have played a tremendous role in shaping my worldview. My criticisms are directed solely at the apartheid state which cannot exist in the way it exists without nonstop violence and war, which is falsely framed by the western empire as the monolithic source and stronghold of all things Jewish.

Conflating the abuses of that state with Jewishness and Judaism is profoundly anti-semitic. Jews are not anything remotely close to a monolith on the issue of Israel and Zionism. Most of what I’ve learned about Israel over the years I’ve learned from the brilliant Jewish people I follow who oppose it.  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/bombing-kids-and-blaming-it-on-hamas?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137999931&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=emailit. #Israel #Palestine

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Seventy years on, Indigenous victims of UK’s nuclear tests in South Australia still await justice

Rudi Maxwell Oct 14 2023  https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/indigenous-news/2023/10/14/indigenous-victims-sa-nuke-tests/

Seventy years ago Yami Lester was playing outside with his friends at Wallatinna Station in remote South Australia when the ground shook beneath their little feet.

Then a strange black mist quietly rolled in.

On that day, October 15, 1953, the British government conducted its first nuclear test on the Australian mainland, at Emu Field, 170km from Wallatinna.

Mr Lester, a Yankunytjatjara man, was blinded by the fallout.

Before he died in 2017, he shared his memories of the explosion with ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons.

“It wasn’t long after that a black smoke came through, a strange black smoke, it was shiny and oily,” he said.

“A few hours later we all got crook, every one of us.

“We were all vomiting; we had diarrhoea, skin rashes and sore eyes. I had really sore eyes, they were so sore I couldn’t open them for two or three weeks.

“Some of the older people, they died.”

Between 1952 and 1963, the British government, with the active participation of the Australian government, conducted 12 major nuclear test explosions and up to 600 ‘minor’ trials in remote South Australia and off the coast of Western Australia.

The ‘minor trials’ dispersed 24.4 kg of plutonium in 50,000 fragments, 101kg of beryllium and 8 tonnes of uranium.

Radioactive contamination from the tests was detected across much of the continent. For decades the authorities denied, ignored and covered up the consequences.

Legacy of trauma

Australia held a royal commission into the tests, which handed down its final report in 1985. In the UK, former service personnel are still fighting with the government for access to records.
Karina Lester says little was done to protect Aboriginal communities during nuclear tests, the ones at Emu Field were known as Totem 1 and Totem 2.

Little was done to protect the 16,000-or-so test-site workers, and even less to protect nearby Aboriginal communities, as Karina Lester, Yami’s daughter, explained.

“The country is still wearing the scars and the people are still wearing those scars as well,” Ms Lester told AAP.

“One of the things I’ve been concerned about as a second generation survivor is that there has been no clean-up at Emu Field in 70 years, so we still don’t know if it’s safe for us to hunt and gather and collect food on or to even visit.

“And so it’s a difficult time for the family but also a time for us to remember and remind our fellow Australians of exactly what happened 70 years ago at Totem 1 and Totem 2 at Emu Field.”

October 17, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | Leave a comment

‘Humanity Must Prevail’ in Gaza, Says UN Official as Refugee Shelters Become IDF Targets

“Wars have rules,” said the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. “Civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics, and UN premises cannot be a target.”

By Julia Conley / Common Dreams SCHEERPOST, October 15, 2023

The emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations on Saturday said that “humanity is failing” as officials in the United States and other powerful Western countries refused to hear the calls of a growing number of humanitarian groups, progressive lawmakers, and governments for a cease-fire in Gaza—allowing Israel to forge ahead with what will likely be an imminent ground assault on the blockaded enclave. 

“The past week has been a test for humanity,” said Martin Griffiths one week after Hamas unleashed a brutal surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,300 people and taking scores of people hostage. As Israel’s response has targeted Gaza—home to two million people, about half of whom are children—repeated airstrikes have bombarded “homes, schools, shelters, health centers, and places of worship,” Griffith said, leaving at least 2,215 Palestinians dead, including more than 600 children. 

“Entire residential neighborhoods have been razed to the ground,” added Griffiths, who serves as under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the United Nations. “Aid workers have been killed. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already critical, is fast becoming untenable.”

Griffith’s comments came as the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that the indiscriminate bombing campaign has placed its own shelters in “unprecedented” danger, making it impossible for workers to ensure the safety of some 270,000 peoplewho have been displaced and sought shelter at 102 schools run by the agency. 

“Wars have rules. Civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics, and UN premises cannot be a target,” said the UNWRA said in a statement. “We are sparing no effort to advocate with parties to the conflicts to meet their obligations under international law to protect civilians including those seeking refuge in UNRWA shelters.”……………………………………………………………………………….. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/15/humanity-must-prevail-in-gaza-says-un-official-as-refugee-shelters-become-idf-targets/ #Israel #Palestine

October 17, 2023 Posted by | civil liberties, Legal, MIDDLE EAST, politics international | Leave a comment

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant teardown ahead of schedule, but removal of the spent fuel is a problem.

By CHRIS LARABEE, Staff Writer, 10/15/2023

VERNON, Vt. — With the reactor building serving as one of the final structures standing, the decommissioning of the former Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has been progressing steadily with a potential finish date four years ahead of its 2030 deadline.

Amid a teardown of the former turbine building’s foundation one day last week, officials from NorthStar, the company undertaking the $600 million decommissioning project, shared their planned decommissioning timeline of the controversial power plant…………………………………

Entergy, the former owner and operator of the plant, closed the facility in 2014, citing the lack of profitability of Vermont Yankee in the energy economy. The plant began operation in November 1972 and faced decades of scrutiny from anti-nuclear activists. Decades later, Entergy, which purchased the facility for $180 million in 2002, also faced several lawsuits over the final decade of Vermont Yankee’s lifetime……………………………………………………

Removing waste

As of Aug. 31, NorthStar had sent a total of 685 shipments of waste by rail to a storage facility in Texas, amounting to approximately 39,188 tons of material, according to Corey Daniels, senior manager for the spent fuel storage installation for NorthStar…………….

Removing waste

As of Aug. 31, NorthStar had sent a total of 685 shipments of waste by rail to a storage facility in Texas, amounting to approximately 39,188 tons of material, according to Daniels.

While the site is expected to be cleared in just a few years, there is a potential snag.

NorthStar is able to transport “low-level radioactive” materials, such as metal waste, for disposal, but the nuclear fuel that powered the reactor currently remains on the site because a license to an interim Texas storage facility was vacated.

The license was vacated after the Texas state government challenged the facility and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to grant a permit for an interim waste facility, according to The Brattleboro Reformer.

State added that it is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s legal fight and there is the possibility the case could be brought before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the meantime, State said the spent fuel will remain on the parcel until the federal and various state governments can find a solution. ……………………. https://www.gazettenet.com/Vermont-Yankee-nuclear-plant-teardown-ahead-of-schedule-52630716 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 17, 2023 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

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