Nuclear lobby and NASA propagandising to schoolkids
NASA Seeks Students to Imagine Nuclear Powered Space Missions
NASA 8 Nov 23
The third Power to Explore Student Challenge from NASA is underway. The writing challenge invites K-12th grade students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions, and then write an essay about a new powered mission for the agency.
For more than 60 years, radioisotope power systems have helped NASA explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system and has enabled many spacecrafts to conduct otherwise impossible missions in total darkness. Ahead of the next total solar eclipse in the United States in April 2024, which is a momentary glimpse without sunlight and brings attention to the challenge of space exploration without solar power, NASA wants students to submit essays about these systems.
Entries should detail where students would go, what they would explore, and how they would use the power of radioisotope power systems to achieve mission success in a dusty, dark, or far away space destination with limited or obstructed access to light. Submissions are due Jan. 26, 2024.
“The Power to Explore Student Challenge is part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to engage students in space exploration and inspire interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This technology has been a gamechanger in our exploration capabilities and we can’t wait to see what students – our future explorers – dream up; the sky isn’t the limit, it’s just the beginning.”……………………………..
The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-seeks-students-to-imagine-nuclear-powered-space-missions/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #radioactive
There’s Only So Much Propaganda Spin You Can Put On The Murder Of Thousands Of Children
They can talk about the killings on October 7 till they’re blue in the face, but people are going to object that nothing Hamas did makes it moral or acceptable to murder children by the thousands.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 29, 2023,
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/theres-only-so-much-propaganda-spin?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=138382123&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
The thing is there’s only so much propaganda spin you can put on the murder of thousands of children.
With other imperial military actions the propagandists had an easier time spinning things. Oh no those evil communists are taking over South Vietnam, we need to stop them! Oh no Saddam’s got WMDs, we need to get him! Oh no Gaddafi’s gonna rape and kill all those Libyans, we have a responsibility to protect them!
In Gaza, Israel and its western backers are massacring children by the thousands with a shockingly vicious bombing campaign that is turning entire neighborhoods into gravel. They’re raining down military explosives on a giant concentration camp that is densely populated by children.
There’s only so much a propagandist can do with that.
They can talk about the killings on October 7 til they’re blue in the face, but people are going to object that nothing Hamas did makes it moral or acceptable to murder children by the thousands.
They can say “Israel has a right to defend itself” as much as they want, but people are going to object that murdering children by the thousands is not actually defending anything from anyone.
They can bleat the phrase “human shields” over and over again, but eventually people are going to start saying “Okay but even if they are human shields, could we please stop murdering children by the thousands? I know I wouldn’t want my children to be murdered just because they were being used as human shields.”
They can say every death is the fault of Hamas, but more and more people are going to start saying “Okay blame whoever you want, but can we please stop murdering children by the thousands right this very instant?”
They can say “Well what do you expect Israel to do?”, and people will respond “Stop murdering children by the thousands for starters, please and thank you.
Imagine you’re a mass media propagandist trying to frame all this in a positive light. How would you do it? Would you be able to make it believable?
Propagandists are used to having a lot more wiggle room to work with than this. They’re used to interfacing with a complex matrix of narrative and manipulating it to distort the public’s understanding of what’s going on. But raw video footage of a mother clutching the tattered remains of a child is not narrative. Satellite images of powdered city blocks are not narrative. It’s just reality. Right there in your face.
Western civilization is dominated by propaganda. The “freedom” and “democracy” we think we have is an illusion that has been carefully cultivated by those who manipulate the way we think, speak, act and vote by mass-scale psychological manipulation — as Chomsky says, propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. A mind-controlled dystopia is not some dark future that awaits humanity if things go terribly wrong for us; it is already presently the case.
Propagandists are able to control civilization so effectively because they understand that humans are storytelling creatures whose lives are dominated by mental narrative, so if you can control the narratives the humans are telling each other, you can control the humans. A globe-spanning empire centralized around the United States depends heavily on its ability to indoctrinate us with subtle mass media messaging from a very early age.
The Gaza massacre throws a big fat monkey wrench in all that, because the raw data coming out of it is so transparently horrifying that no amount of narrative spin can make it look acceptable. The fact that the US and its allies are helping Israel murder children by the thousands is a giant glitch in the narrative matrix.
The longer this continues, the more people are going to wake up out of the propaganda-induced coma the empire has had them in all their lives. The more people are going to realize that their government is not what it has been pretending to be and the media have not been telling them the truth about the world. As the western empire backs the slaughter of thousands of children, the discrepancies between what the propaganda tells us about our society and what our society actually is are being brightly illuminated.
By murdering thousands of children in Gaza, the empire has exposed its true face in front of everyone. And the people aren’t liking what they see. #Israel #Palestine
Before They Launch Missiles, They Launch Propaganda Campaigns
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 30, 2023
Before they launch missiles, they launch propaganda campaigns. Before they roll out tanks, they roll out narratives. Everyone who helps manufacture consent for the killing in Gaza is just as culpable for the murder of those thousands of children as the people dropping the bombs.
In case you missed it there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that many of the horrific acts Hamas is accused of committing on October 7 (burning people alive, burning babies, mowing down concertgoers, etc) were actually the result of indiscriminate fire by Israeli forces. Here’s a link to a Grayzone article and a link to a video presentation by Propaganda & Co, both citing Israeli media reports as their evidence.
To be clear none of this means Israel killed everyone who died on October 7 or that Hamas didn’t kill noncombatants, it just means the narrative is wrong………………………………………………….more https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/before-they-launch-missiles-they?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=138403147&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email #Israel
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Nuclear power would be “clean”! but not renewable under Michigan legislation
Michigan Live, By Sheri McWhirter | smcwhirter@mlive.com, 26 Oct 23
LANSING, MI – Legal definitions of renewable energy vs. clean energy were among the issues tackled by Michigan state senators this week.
Under three energy-related bills, nuclear energy would not be considered renewable but would instead be legally defined as clean energy – generated without emitting greenhouse gases, which drive the accelerating climate crisis. If approved and signed into law, renewable energy resources would be defined as solar, wind, geothermal, or hydropower………………………………………… https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/10/nuclear-power-would-be-clean-but-not-renewable-under-michigan-legislation.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation
Israel Has Permanently Lost The Argument
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 27, 2023
Israel and its allies get away with a lot by marketing this as a “war”. It’s not a war. Israel launches high-tech military explosives at civilian buildings in a huge concentration camp while Hamas fires back with glorified fireworks which do light property damage. That’s not a war, it’s a massacre.
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I was upset when I saw that Israel has killed seven thousand people in its Gaza bombing campaign but then a really smart Israel apologist told me Hamas might be exaggerating those numbers and maybe it’s more like four thousand, so now I think it’s fine…..
Look it’s very simple: if your words say “we’re not targeting civilians we’re targeting Hamas” but your actions say you’re inflicting siege warfare on the civilian population and carpet bombing entire city blocks into rubble, then you’re not really targeting Hamas.
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Israel-Palestine is a very complicated, confusing, highly nuanced debate between those who think murdering thousands of children is fine and those who do not.
This is a very complicated genocidal massacre. Most complicated genocidal massacre in the history of genocidal massacres. There’s two sides to this genocidal massacre. This genocidal massacre requires nuance……………………………………..
It keeps surprising me that Israel apologists still expect to be taken seriously. Israel is massacring children by the thousands and turning Gaza into rubble and they still expect you to listen to them receptively when they defend its actions. It’s actually starting to get morbidly fascinating.
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Israel has lost the argument. Permanently. There’s no coming back from this.
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I cannot adequately express the immensity of my respect for the many, many, many Jewish voices I’ve seen taking a firm and forceful stand against the Gaza massacre. …………more https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-has-permanently-lost-the-argument #Israel
Atrocity Propaganda
All of this was achieved under a cloak of respectability in Western media by using the images and stories of killed Israeli children.
Israel and its supporters in the West are helping to provide psychological cover for an ongoing massacre of Palestinian civilians, writes Elizabeth Vos.
SCHEERPOST, By Elizabeth Vos / Consortium News 18 Oct 23
As merciless bombing in Gaza continues, Israel and its supporters have weaponized dead Israeli children and false narratives about them to justify massacring Palestinian children on an unimaginable scale in Gaza.
First it was the “40 beheaded babies” story, then it was a series of images of apparently burned infants, which whether fake or real, were published by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to further justify Israel slaughtering thousands of Palestinian children.
And slaughter we have seen. Israel so far has killed over 2,800 Palestinians, over 1000 of them children. Israel was reported to have bombed a pediatric hospital in Gaza with illegal white phosphorus, and shelled at least one school where dozens of children and their families sought shelter, killing at least 27 children. Entire extended families wiped out in their homes.
Civilians were told to flee to Southern Gaza, a potentially official ethnic cleansing in itself (if they are never allowed to return), before being bombed in their attempt to flee. (Israel says those were Hamas IEDs in the road to prevent people from leaving.) Medics were shelled in their effort to help the injured. [The WHO decried an Israeli order to evacuate 2,000 patients from 22 hospitals to southern Gaza.]
Dozens of journalists have been killed, or witnessed the death of their own families. Images and videos of dead Palestinian children pulled from the rubble have flooded social media (before Israel cut off the internet). All of this was achieved under a cloak of respectability in Western media by using the images and stories of killed Israeli children.
After the initial Hamas surprise attack, an oft-repeated rallying cry of Israel apologists was that Hamas had beheaded 40 Israeli babies. Despite the claims being referenced publicly by U.S. President Joe Biden (since walked-back by the administration), there has to date been no confirmation of such a story. According to The Grayzone, the claims were sourced to “David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank earlier this year.”
Forced to Apologize
CNN journalist Sara Sidner, who first aired the narrative, was forced to publicly recant and apologize for her statements………………..
This wasn’t only a journalistic error. It was Western media falling in line with the Israeli government’s claim of an atrocity, only to walk back the narrative when Israel refused to confirm the story. Her apology came after the original story went wildly viral on social media and repeated in multiple corporate news outlets, as noted by Mintpress News. …………………………………………………………
One cannot accept the weaponization of such a crime, no matter how horrendous, in order to commit equally horrific crimes against other innocents. That an official Israeli government social media account would publish such images — and that Netanyahu would show them to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to drum up support for the Israeli cause — represents a direct effort by Israel to weaponize the death and (so far alleged) imagery of dead Israeli babies to excuse a multitude of war crimes. …………………………………………………………………….
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis and musician Justin Bieber posted images of Palestinian children and land respectively, as if they were Israeli children and bomb damage, only to later delete their mistaken posts.
Footage of Palestinian children kept in chicken coop cages by Israeli forces circulated online, wrongly described as Israeli children captured by Hamas.
Other videos falsely purporting to show Hamas members with abducted children were widely circulated on social media.
A video of a woman being burned at a concert was found to have originated in Guatemala after going viral as a victim of Hamas. All of this, whether intentionally spread as misinformation or by mistake, acts to strengthen psychological cover for an ongoing massacre of Palestinian civilians.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, publicly stated regarding the cutting off of food, electricity, water and other necessities to all of Gaza that “we are fighting human animals and acting accordingly.” Even if his comments refer specifically to Hamas fighters, such collective punishment is illegal under international law and is one of the many war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian civilians in the week since Hamas’s attack. ………………………………………………………………..
With Israel also having cut the internet to Gaza, there is now little opportunity for journalists to broadcast the unfolding atrocity to the rest of the world. Caitlin Johnstone and others argue that this is a direct effort to hide atrocities that previously had been documented by journalists and Gaza residents on their phones.
In the war of propaganda, Israel and its supporters have highlighted the deaths of Jewish children, spread false stories about alleged beheadings of Jewish babies, and dishonestly portrayed Palestinian trauma as Israeli trauma.
There is one conclusion to be drawn from the ongoing atrocity appropriation and the carnage it excuses: even if the crimes by Hamas as described by Israel were all true, it doesn’t justify ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, the targeting of civilians and the murder of children by bomb, by starvation, and lack of medical care. Nothing could ever justify this. https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/18/atrocity-propaganda/ #Israel #Palestine
Australian government funds pro nuclear propaganda in schools – (even making it “fun”)
Education project focused on engaging next-generation nuclear science professionals in Australia and Japan.
ANSTO 11th October 2023 by ANSTO Staff
ANSTO has recently concluded up a successful cross-cultural nuclear science education project between Australia and Japan.
In collaboration with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the University of Tokyo, the project brought together 200 university students, 180 secondary school students and 40 schoolteachers across the two countries.
Participants learned about the history, cultural perspectives, career opportunities and applications of nuclear science in Australia and Japan in interactive presentations, demonstrations and discussions.
Engaging next-generation nuclear science professionals in Australia and Japan was funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 2022-23 Australia-Japan Foundation grant.
Dr Bridget Murphy, Education Manager (Secondary) at the Discovery Centre, was the ANSTO lead on the project.
“University students from both Australia and Japan were very interested in future career opportunities in nuclear science. They also had a broad range of questions about communicating science to the public effectively, radiation safety, the use of nuclear energy in combating climate change, and international collaboration in nuclear,” Dr Murphy said………….
Teachers from both Australia and Japan valued a cross-cultural perspective on the methods for teaching this subject in the classroom, using videos, hands-on and data-based approaches to instruction in nuclear science.
Professor Takeshi Iimoto of the University of Tokyo emphasised the role of project-based learning and suggested that even humour can make nuclear more understandable for school students.
ANSTO is pleased to continue professional development with teachers in Asia, building on past experience working with teachers internationally through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)………. https://www.ansto.gov.au/news/education-project-focused-on-engaging-next-generation-nuclear-science-professionals-australia #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants #Australia
Who finances RePlanet and its love for nuclear energy?
Could a fossil fuel lobby really be behind the promotion of fissile fuels?
October 10, 2023 https://electricalreview.co.uk/2023/10/10/who-finances-replanet/
In this week’s Gossage Gossip, our columnist discusses the financing behind environmental activist organisation RePlanet.
It is worth looking at who actually finances RePlanet – the organisation behind Swedish teenager La Anstoot, who is very publicly asking Greenpeace to get on board the nuclear train via a slick website and multiple media interviews.
Well, according to its EU filing, 94% of RePlanet’s two million euros per year comes from the Quadrature Climate Foundation. This was established by Quadrature Capital which owns $170 million in fossil fuel companies, including a $24 million stake in ConocoPhillips, the multinational oil giant behind the controversial Willow project that will drill in the Arctic.
So why on earth would the fossil fuel lobby be promoting fissile fuel? Perhaps it has something to do with the decades-long nuclear construction times – which is already up to 17 years, according to the Sunak government. Just think of all those carbon-burn dollars that can be generated in the meantime. #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Critics are sceptical over County Council’s ‘nuclear engagement officer role’ funded by the industry
Debate ignites over County Council’s nuclear engagement officer role funded by the industry A step towards transparency or a compromise on impartiality?
By Daniel Jaines Local Democracy Reporter , My Local, Lincolnshire, 10 Oct 23
Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC) job advert for a Policy and Engagement Officer, a role that will research the nuclear sector, has sparked controversy and concerns regarding impartiality and ethical considerations due to its funding by Nuclear Waste Services (NWS).
The job describes the role as a conduit between the council and the proposed Theddlethorpe Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in Lincolnshire and comes with a salary of £38,296-£42,503. The appointee will be tasked with maintaining an overview of the developments proposed by NWS, ensuring senior politicians and officers are briefed and engaged, thereby helping the council in its role as the principal relevant local authority.
This includes providing advice on the potential advantages and disadvantages of the proposed investment.
The officer will be responsible for ensuring that the local community is provided with balanced information and will coordinate with local and national authorities and organisations to manage and distribute the latest information about nuclear industry developments and waste disposal.
The role also involves advocating activities that enable both the council and the area to derive financial benefits from the proposed GDF through investments in critical infrastructure, business and employment supply chains, and community grants.
The advert notes that while the post is fully funded by NWS, it will operate independently of them, and the LCC has adopted a neutral stance on the GDF.
However, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) has expressed concerns, stating that the LCC’s understanding of the sector’s harsh realities is lacking, and that their motivations might be economically driven due to the long-term and uncertain nature of nuclear propositions.
The campaigners believe that LCC, by accepting funding from NWS, may be perceived as aligning itself with NWS or potentially compromising its impartiality in future nuclear-related decisions and policies.
The critics suggest that this funding could be seen as LCC getting “off the fence” and taking a side in the ongoing discussions and debates related to nuclear projects in the region.
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) English Forum, expressed his concerns about the direction in which the LCC is heading: “Whilst this may mean job security for the successful candidate, it must represent insecurity for the residents of Theddlethorpe, Mablethorpe, and Sutton.
“For the first duty listed for the post holder will be to act as ‘the main point of contact between the council and the geological disposal facility which is proposed by Nuclear Waste Services for Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire’.
“If NWS is indeed providing ‘permanent’ funding then it must remain of the view that, despite the clear local opposition to the proposal, a GDF might go forward for Theddlethorpe in the future. Otherwise, why would they invest?”
The Theddlethorpe site, currently under consideration for a GDF by NWS, has been met with significant opposition from the local community and elected members.
Ken Smith, a Theddlethorpe campaigner, has voiced that accepting funding from NWS suggests a bias on the part of LCC towards the GDF, rather than maintaining neutrality.
“In my view, it is totally unethical,” he said. “It gives NWS a direct line to councillors. They can claim independence as much as they like, but he who pays the piper calls the tune.”
He further emphasised the need for the council to encourage companies developing renewables, given Lincolnshire’s ideal location for such technologies………………….more https://mylocal.co.uk/lincolnshire/feed/120078/debate-ignites-over-county-council-s-nuclear-engagement-officer-role-funded-by-the-industry #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Interest, but skepticism, on nuclear microreactors, fusion , and thorium
The Nuclear Microreactor Race Is Heating Up
Zero Hedge,Oct 11, 2023,
“…………………………………………………………..Interest and Skepticism
Interest in microreactors and other advanced nuclear technology has increased partly because of concerns about climate change. While various processes associated with nuclear power can produce greenhouse gasses–for example, mining uranium for fuel–nuclear fission doesn’t directly generate them. For governments and corporations that have committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, nuclear energy can look rather enticing.
Yet, some experts and activists contend that the world can radically scale back hydrocarbons without using more nuclear power.
In early June of this year, for example, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chair Gregory Jaczko held a briefing in which he and others argued that nuclear power is too expensive and risky to help the U.S. decarbonize.
“There are now better ways to generate carbon-free electricity. We have renewable energy. We have geothermal, hydro, solar, wind,” Mr. Jaczko told the CBC in a 2019 interview…………………………
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has also sounded somewhat skeptical of advanced reactors.
In August of this year, he vetoed a bill that would have lifted the state’s moratorium on building new nuclear plants.
In a statement on the veto, his office said that “the vague definitions in the bill, including the overly broad definition of advanced reactors, will open the door to the proliferation of large-scale nuclear reactors that are so costly to build that they will cause exorbitant ratepayer-funded bailouts.”………………………………………………………..
Need for Non-Russian Fuel Another Challenge in Advanced Nuclear
The ADVANCE Act also directs the NRC to report to Congress on its ability to lessen its dependence on Russia for fuel.
Indeed, Russia’s dominance of the high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) used in most small advanced reactors has already delayed the launch of TerraPower’s Natrium reactor.
The Department of Energy in 2020 launched a HALEU consortium as part of its efforts to develop domestic sources.
Nano, a founding participant in the consortium, touts a subsidiary focused on HALEU production, HALEU Energy Fuel Inc.
The HALEU problem raises a basic question: even if Nano’s reactors are ready to roll by 2030, will they be able to operate?
“You can have a Ferrari, but if you don’t have fuel, it’s not going to run,” Mr. Yu said.
Chuckling at Fusion, Still Bearish on Thorium
In late 2022, the achievement of ignition in a fusion reaction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory got a lot of media attention.
At the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested the result supports the Biden administration’s goal of a commercial fusion reactor in the next decade, saying the work “shows that it can be done.”
Yet, when the subject of fusion came up, both Mr. Yu and Mr. Walker started chuckling.
“Well, the reason why we’re laughing a bit is because we’ve got some scientists on board, and they get asked this quite a lot, and they lose their temper about this,” Mr. Walker explained.
“You do get very hyped-up articles,” he added.
He pointed out that the fusion breakthrough celebrated last year required massive energy input, far more than the reaction itself generated………..
Mr. Walker voiced a few concerns about thorium reactors, saying some of Nano’s technical staff “were very bearish on it” and stressing that he lacks significant expertise on thorium. #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Define ‘Nazi’: Western media muddies history to cover up Canada’s SS scandal
https://www.rt.com/news/584101-western-media-nazi-canada/ 6 Oct 23 #Ukraine
“Fighting against the USSR didn’t necessarily make you a Nazi,” Politico says. Maybe. But Yaroslav Hunka definitely was one
Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.
Historical revisionists are now trying to argue that actual Nazi soldiers were just anti-Soviet resisters.
We knew that it was coming. It was only a matter of time. And now attempts to whitewash the actions of actual Nazis from WWII have begun – all because a bunch of ignoramuses in the Canadian parliament cheered one alongside Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and it all just makes Ukraine and its Western supporters look bad.
It also makes Western lawmakers look like they have no clue when it comes to Nazism in Ukraine – either past or present. So instead of asking questions about their judgment, it’s time to ask whether you’ve just misunderstood Nazis.
The newly-resigned Canadian House Speaker introduced Ukrainian one-time Waffen-SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka as a Ukrainian (and naturalized Canadian) who fought Russians back in the day, yet apparently no one bothered to do the math. The Soviet Union was allied with the West against Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was who fought against the Russians. Okay, it wasn’t the only one – there were others, like the Polish Home Army, which fought against both the Soviets and the Germans. So maybe Hunka was part of that? That’s the theoretical explanation the German Foreign Office offered when it emerged that the German ambassador to Canada was also present at the standing ovation in parliament. Yeah, that must have been it. A Ukrainian going to war to protect Ukraine from the Soviet Union by joining the Polish Home Army. Sounds plausible.
Oh, no, wait, he was actually in the Waffen SS, namely the First Galician Division – a unit that mostly consisted of Ukrainians and killed Poles and Jews. He joined it voluntarily and later described his decision in an essay published by an American online magazine. And now Poland wants him extradited for alleged war crimes.
Leaving aside convoluted historical revisionism, those who don’t acknowledge the nuance in this Nazi’s service are just feeding Russian propaganda, according to some Western commentators. “This history is complicated,” one wrote recently in POLITICO. “Because fighting against the USSR at the time didn’t necessarily make you a Nazi, just someone who had an excruciating choice over which of these two terror regimes to resist.”
It’s pretty safe to say that someone who volunteered for the combat branch of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organization is an actual Nazi – unlike Canadian Freedom Convoy truckers and their supporters who were treated like Nazis by this same Canadian government, which went as far as to even block some of their bank accounts. Have Hunka and the actual Nazis who were welcomed to Canada in the wake of the war ever had their bank accounts blocked? Or is that just for people who honk too loudly in protest? Who’s more embarrassing to Canada: naturalized Nazis, truckers, or the parliament?
So apparently, we’re supposed to now believe that Waffen SS soldiers aren’t really Nazis, just anti-Soviet resistors. Are we supposed to also look deep into the heart and intentions of each individual who served voluntarily in the Nazi uniform to determine how they really felt about it? Who knows – perhaps Hunka didn’t really mean it when pledging loyalty to the Führer. Maybe he’s like an employee at Home Depot who can’t be held responsible for store policies – even though, in the case of Nazis, that didn’t fly either, as the Nuremberg Trials proved.
It takes some Olympic-grade mental gymnastics to suggest that neither Zelensky, who’s Ukrainian himself, nor Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who holds degrees in Russian and Slavic studies from Oxford and Harvard and whose grandfather edited a Ukrainian Nazi newspaper during WWII, couldn’t have known that this guy just might be a Nazi… but they whooped it up for him anyway. But now, their actions are on the verge of being reframed.
It’s all such a backside-covering move to compensate for a total lack of due diligence – the same kind that was demonstrated when it emerged that Canada had knowingly trained and equipped Azov Battalion neo-Nazis for Ukraine’s current conflict with Russia while seemingly being bothered far more by the notion that the press risked finding out about it than by the idea of training guys with Nazi tattoos.
To accept historic reality, instead of trying hard to weasel Justin Trudeau and the Canadian establishment out of this embarrassment, is to let “Russian propaganda” win. Seriously. That’s the argument. “Canada’s enemies have thus latched on to these simple narratives, alongside concerned citizens in Canada itself, with the misstep over Hunka being used by Russia and its backers to attack Ukraine, Canada and each country’s association with the other,” wrote the POLITICO commentator. Know who else has “latched on” to the “I can’t believe they could be that dumb” narrative around this Canadian Nazipalooza? Honest people and patriots who are, in fact, less interested in peddling narratives that serve a handful of establishment elites and more interested in defending historical realities that serve all of humanity rather than reframing or perverting them to suit an ideological cause – anti-Russian or otherwise.
Trudeau said in the same breath as his apology for the Hunka incident that “it’s going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation, and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine.” It seems that some have already jumped on the opportunity to redefine defense of well-established historical record as “Russian propaganda” and to impose the whims of Western leaders as the new dystopian reality.
Military space groups in New Mexico expand recruitment and STEM education for children
STEM Education
AFRL’s STEM Academy provides curriculum and hands-on activities for students in kindergarten through high school including rocket launch competitions and simulated Mars missions.
Space News, Debra Werner, October 3, 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes
“……….. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate along with other military space organizations at Kirtland, including the Space Systems Command Innovation and Prototyping Directorate and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, are funding science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, expanding internship programs and bolstering local and long-distance recruitment efforts.
Since 2019 when Congress established the U.S. Space Force, demand for military, civilian and contractor space professionals across the country has grown. Demand is particularly acute in New Mexico, a state with about 2.1 million employees……………
Internships and Fellowships
AFRL brings high school, college and postgraduate researchers to Kirtland for summer internships. The goal is to “expose people to some of the things we do, because some of the things we do here are pretty cool,” Erwin said. “They can be offsets for things like not being able to pay people as much money” as private industry.
Science and engineering staff members at AFRL publish research topics online. Students can apply to work on specific topics.
“Those topics run all the way from things that are appropriate for a freshman in high school to advanced research, where we’re writing papers for journals and conferences for a PhD candidate,” Erwin said.
STEM Education
AFRL’s STEM Academy provides curriculum and hands-on activities for students in kindergarten through high school including rocket launch competitions and simulated Mars missions.
To meet growing demand, military space organizations seek to attract workers living in New Mexico and encourage other people to move there.
…….The Space Force, meanwhile, is working with state and local governments and nonprofits like the Space Valley Coalition and NewSpace Nexus on STEM programs that encourage New Mexico students to consider space careers and stay in-state.
The Innovation and Prototyping Acquisition Delta also is strengthening ties with universities.
“We are developing partnerships with universities within New Mexico and regional universities, like the University of Texas, El Paso, to leverage those recruitment pipelines for technical as well as programmatic talent,” Straight said………. https://spacenews.com/military-space-groups-in-new-mexico-expand-recruitment-and-stem/
Lincolnshire: a green and nuclear promised land
buried in the small print in the accompanying Job Description are the words ‘the post is fully funded by Nuclear Waste Services’ and the post is described as ‘Permanent’.
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/lincolnshire-a-green-and-nuclear-promised-land/ 6 Oct 23 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes
Lincolnshire County Council intends to ‘pursue nuclear schemes which respond to the growth of the sector’ by creating a specialist officer role to advise it, and Nuclear Waste Services seem keen to back it because they are paying their salary.
The authority has just placed an advertisement for a Policy and Engagement Officer who will ‘build our understanding of the sector, [to] prepare information about the growth of the sector, and [to] pursue schemes which respond to the growth of the sector’.
To the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities it is clear their understanding of the harsh realities faced by the sector is lacking as they reference the ‘proposed Geological Disposal Facility’, ‘the introduction of a fusion reactor’ and the ‘production of small modular reactors’ as though all are imminent.
If the motivation behind the appointment is primarily economic, then Lincolnshire County Council is labouring under a delusion, for pursuance of any of these propositions would be long-term and very uncertain.
The Theddlethorpe site is one of three that are known to be under active consideration by Nuclear Waste Services for the GDF; however, there is significant opposition from the local community and elected members, any siting will be subject to a promised ‘Test of Public Support’ in 2027, and even if taken forward it will be decades before it is built.
The earliest likely date that any practical fusion reactor, assuming that one can be made to work and is commercially viable, would be sometime in the 2050s. Despite the hype, every fusion experiment so far has required the expenditure of far more energy to start and sustain it than the amount of energy released at the end of it, and all these experiments have been of incredibly short duration.
And with reference to small modular reactors, it was only yesterday that Great British Nuclear recommended a set of designs to take forward. Now, in this nuclear version of a reality TV show, the contestants will face a three-year rigorous assessment by the Office of Nuclear Regulation, and those who survive will have to build a working prototype, build a factory to manufacture the parts, find a site or sites they deem suitable, secure site-specific permissions from regulators, planners, and government, avoid legal challenges from the local community, build the damned thing, and get it working. Sorry LCC – it’s going to be 2030’s at the earliest.
But if any motivation behind the appointment is the Council’s belief that nuclear is somehow the means to create ‘carbon free’ electricity to arrest climate change, their delusion is stronger still. For with over a decade at least to run before any possible earliest deployment of a working reactor in the county, the authority is clearly stepping away from its responsibility to do what it can now to mitigate its effects and for the people of Coningsby in Lincolnshire, who in July 2022, laboured under a temperature of 40.3 degrees centigrade, the hottest recorded in the UK, the wait will be especially bitter.
The NFLAs, wishing to be helpful, offer Lincolnshire County Council some alternate suggestions for duties for the appointed officer.
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA’s English Forum, explains:
“We would love to see the appointee help lower energy bills for the households of Lincolnshire, lower energy consumption, generate truly green, sustainable energy, and create jobs for the county, but new nuclear, which takes forever, costs a fortune, contaminates its surroundings, and leaves a deadly legacy of toxic nuclear waste, need not feature.
“Why? Because this officer should instead be seeking grants to install energy saving devices and insulation in the county’s most energy inefficient homes, many of which will be occupied by households in the greatest financial hardship, and, by working in partnership with communities, district and local councils, educational and medical establishments, social landlords and businesses, help install renewable energy technologies, such as a programme of roof top solar schemes, across the county.
“These activities would generate cleaner, cheaper electricity and create jobs in the short-term, not in the never ever”.
Will the job be repurposed to make this happen? The NFLAs think not as buried in the small print in the accompanying Job Description are the words ‘the post is fully funded by Nuclear Waste Services’ and the post is described as ‘Permanent’.
Councillor Blackburn concluded: “Whilst this may mean job security for the successful candidate, it must represent insecurity for the residents of Theddlethorpe, Mablethorpe, and Sutton.
“For the first duty listed for the postholder will be to act as ‘the main point of contact between the council and the geological disposal facility which is proposed by Nuclear Waste Services for Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire’.
“If NWS is indeed providing ‘permanent’ funding then it must remain of the view that, despite the clear local opposition to the proposal, a GDF might be go forward for Theddlethorpe in the future. Otherwise, why would they invest?
“I pity the people of Lincolnshire whose County Council appears to want to redesignate the county as a green, but nuclear promised, land.”
New York Times provides American State Propaganda disguised as news
American State Propaganda: A Thought Experiment
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 4, 2023 https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/american-state-propaganda-a-thought?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137657279&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email #Ukraine
The New York Times has published another CIA press release disguised as news, this time aimed at whipping up paranoia toward anyone who criticizes the US proxy war in Ukraine.
The article is titled “Putin’s Next Target: U.S. Support for Ukraine, Officials Say”. Its author, Julian E Barnes, has written so many New York Times articles with headlines ending in the words “Officials Say” that we can safely assume the primary reason for his continued employment in that paper is because empire managers within the US government have designated him someone who can be trusted to print what they want printed. This designation would make him a reliable supplier of “scoops” (read: regurgitations of unevidenced government claims) for The New York Times.
“American officials said they are convinced that Mr. Putin intends to try to end U.S. and European support for Ukraine by using his spy agencies to push propaganda supporting pro-Russian political parties and by stoking conspiracy theories with new technologies,” Barnes writes.
Of course the report never gets any more specific than that, and of course the “American officials” Barnes cites promote their unevidenced assertions under cover of complete anonymity.
“The American officials spoke on the condition their names not be reported so they could discuss sensitive intelligence,” Barnes writes.
The only named source cited in the article is a CIA veteran named Beth Sanner, who says that “Russia will not give up on disinformation campaigns,” but adds that “we don’t know what it is going to look like.”
And that’s really the whole article right there. Putin is going to be using his spy agencies to promote political parties and messages which support ending the practice of pouring billions of dollars of weapons into Ukraine, but nobody knows what that will look like exactly, so we all have to just be sort of generally distrustful toward anyone who doesn’t think it’s a swell idea to perpetuate a horrific war with potentially world-ending consequences, because they might be part of an unspecified Russian influence operation.
We saw a similar report from CNN a few weeks ago, in which the public was warned that Russia’s FSB is working to convert westerners into mouthpieces for Russian propaganda using methods so sneaky and subtle that those westerners wouldn’t even know it’s happening. Again, details were extremely vague and the only obvious response to the information provided is for everyone to just get really paranoid toward anyone saying anything that doesn’t support current US foreign policy toward Russia.
As a thought experiment, imagine what it would look like if the CIA or some other agency wanted to advance US information interests by making the public distrustful of any people or information which go against US strategic objectives. Try to imagine some of the things they might say or do.
Do you imagine it would look much different than what we’re seeing currently? Feeding trusted mainstream news reporters extremely vague stories about the Kremlin trying to deceive people into opposing the longstanding agendas of the US intelligence cartel, using online media and social subversion? Can you think of a more effective way to help shore up trust in your preferred narratives and sow distrust in narratives you do not prefer?
Here’s another one: imagine a state media outlet for a tyrannical dictatorship. Think about how its news stories are made, how it would often take orders from the government on what to report and what not to report, and how all its printing or broadcasting would always align with the information interests of that government.
Now ask yourself: in what material way is that reporting different from these CIA press releases we’re seeing from outlets like The New York Times and CNN? In both scenarios the government is feeding the media information it wants printed, and in both scenarios there will be consequences if the media don’t obey. In our hypothetical dictatorship those consequences might be more severe, but in our real life scenario the consequences are no less real.
If Mr Barnes had refused to work on this story, he would have lost his “scoop” and it would have been given to someone else, perhaps at a competing outlet. If Barnes ceased uncritically reporting unevidenced assertions from anonymous government officials, his prominence in the mainstream media would quickly fizzle, and his career would dry up. If The New York Times ceased functioning as a reliable outlet for the credulous printing of unevidenced government claims, then the government agencies who’ve been elevating the paper to prominence with their artificial “scoops” can take those hot stories to another competing outlet and let them get the subscriptions and the glory.
In both scenarios, the government is able to get its propaganda messaging printed as hard news reporting. In one scenario the reporter reports what the government wants because they work for the government, in the other scenario the reporter reports what the government wants because that’s the only way to have a career in media outlets that are owned and controlled by the plutocrats who benefit from the political status quo the government is premised upon. The only major difference is that in our hypothetical dictatorship, the public probably knows it’s being fed propaganda, and is therefore more likely to take what they’re being told with a grain of salt.
In a tyrannical dictatorship, the press is operated by employees of the government. In a Free Democracy™️, the press is operated by employees of the oligarchs who operate the government. In both cases you’re getting state propaganda, but in one of them the propaganda is disguised as objective news reporting.
The Mad Propaganda Push To Normalize War Profiteering In Ukraine.
Just the other day CNN anchor Erin Burnett ………. pausing to explain to her audience that this funding is actually good for Americans, because it goes straight into the US arms industry.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 1, 2023
There’s been an astonishingly brazen propaganda push to normalize war profiteering in Ukraine as Kyiv coordinates with the arms industry and western governments to convert the war-ravaged nation into a major domestic weapons manufacturer, thereby turning Ukrainians into proxies of the military industrial complex as well as the Pentagon.
At an event in Kyiv which hosted 250 “defense” industry corporations from 30 different countries on Friday, President Zelensky gave a speech urging war profiteers to open factories in Ukraine to cut out the middleman of securing and delivering so many weapons from abroad. This is an investment that the arms industry would ostensibly have plenty of time to set up, given that western officials are now going out of their way to communicate to the public that this war will stretch on for many more years to come.
Zelensky’s speech twice made use of the phrase “defense-industrial complex”, and used the phrase “arsenal of the free world” no fewer than three times.
“Ukraine is developing a special economic regime for the defense-industrial complex,” Zelensky said. “To give all the opportunities to realize their potential to every company that works for the sake of defense — in Ukraine and with Ukraine or that wants to come to Ukraine.”
“Right now, the most powerful military-industrial complexes are being determined, as are their priorities and the global standard of defense. All of this is being determined in Ukraine,” Zelensky tweeted with photos from the event.
This move has been accompanied in recent weeks by some of the most appalling mass media headlines that I have ever seen, all geared toward normalizing the military industrial complex in the eyes of the public.
In an amazingly awful Wall Street Journal op-ed titled titled “In Defense of the Defense Industry” and subtitled “Populists of the right and left attack U.S. companies that make weapons. Who do they think protects us?”, Future of Capitalism’s Ira Stoll argues that the military industrial complex is actually a wonderful thing we should all love and support.
“The weapons industry protects America and its allies, keeping us safe from ruthless enemies who would otherwise exterminate or enslave us,” Stoll writes. “Raytheon helps make weapons systems that defend Israeli civilians against attacks from Iran-backed terrorist groups. These include the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, SkyHunter interceptor systems and Tamir missiles. Raytheon also produces the Javelin antitank missile that Ukraine has used against Russian armor and the early-warning radars that would detect incoming missiles aimed at the U.S.”
Stoll does not name the alternate universe he is describing in which the US military is used to keep Americans safe rather than to advance imperial interests abroad.
Another recent Wall Street Journal article titled “The War in Ukraine Is Also a Giant Arms Fair” and subtitled “Arms makers are getting orders for weapons being put to the test on the battlefield” glorifies the way war machinery is being field tested on human bodies to the benefit of war profiteers.
“The Panzerhaubitze howitzer is part of an arsenal of weapons being put to the test in Ukraine in what has become the world’s largest arms fair,” writes WSJ’s Alistair MacDonald. “Companies that make the weapons being used in Ukraine have won orders and resurrected production lines. The deployment of billions of dollars worth of equipment in a major land war has also given manufacturers and militaries a unique opportunity to analyze the battlefield performance of weapons, and learn how best to use them.”
A Reuters article from two weeks ago titled “At London arms fair, global war fears are good for business” gushes over how much money is being raked in by arms manufacturers as a result of this war, with one unnamed arms industry executive telling Reuters, “War is good for business.”
Just the other day CNN anchor Erin Burnett followed up some clips of “far right lawmakers” voicing their opposition to funding for the Ukraine proxy war by pausing to explain to her audience that this funding is actually good for Americans, because it goes straight into the US arms industry.
“It’s worthwhile with all of this gaining some steam in public perception to be clear on some facts,” Burnett said. “First and foremost, the vast majority of this money is going to American companies and jobs, right, because those are the people that are making the Abrams tanks, the ammo and everything else. And you take Lockheed Martin, which makes the HIMARS, that have been core to Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the company announced it’s going to increase its workforce in Camden, Arkansas, by 20 percent, just because of this new demand.”
“That money is going to America,” Burnett added.
All this propaganda energy is going into normalizing the act of war profiteering because if you let the idea stand on its own, it would make people scream in horror. The fact that a deliberately-provoked war is being used as a giant field demo to show prospective buyers and investors how effective various weapons systems can be at ripping apart human bodies in order to profit from all this death and destruction is more nightmarish than anything any dystopian novelist has ever come up with.
Ukraine is a giant advertisement for weapons of mass slaughter, and the cost of that corporate ad is not money but human blood. If you look right at this thing it absolutely chills you to the bone. Which is why so much effort is being poured into making sure people don’t look at it.
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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