On The Idiotic Notion That It’s Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE. SEP 20, 2023 https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/on-the-idiotic-notion-that-its-brave?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137202849&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email

During a Sunday appearance on Face the Nation to plug his new Zelensky movie, actor Sean Penn decried the “cowardice” of the US government in its caution around provoking a nuclear exchange with its proxy warfare in Ukraine.

“It is my absolute feeling that the caution with which the United States has pledged support, which seemed, in my reading of February 2022 was a, like a lean on in the fear of nuclear conflict, something I think all of us should look very carefully at and understand that, of course, is possible,” Penn said. “And that’s to be concerning. The likelihood is extremely low. And as one of our witnesses in the film says, you know, are we going to let a gangster with nuclear weapons dictate the way we live?”

Penn emotionally lamented the fact that the Biden administration did not pour F-16 warplanes into Ukraine from the very beginning of the conflict, initially fearing the move to be too escalatory. Describing this hesitation, Penn said that “at some point, caution becomes cowardice.”

As you might expect, the interviewer refrained from challenging Penn on his claim that the likelihood of nuclear war is “extremely low” in spite of his acknowledgement that it’s a real possibility, or on his claim that resisting increasing the likelihood of nuclear war is an act of cowardice.

Sean Penn has been one of Hollywood’s most egregious empire apologists for some time now (in 2020 he told CNN that “there is no greater humanitarian force on the planet than the United States military”), but even by his standards these comments about nuclear brinkmanship are remarkably odious.

There’s this obnoxious idea that comes up in mainstream political discourse about Ukraine that an aversion to nuclear brinkmanship is somehow cowardly, and that being willing to risk the life of every terrestrial organism advancing US strategic objectives is somehow an act of courage.

We saw this back in July from Paul Massaro, an advisor to the US government’s Helsinki Commission and a minor celebrity in online Zelenskyite circles. During this year’s “Captive Nations Summit” with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Massaro mocked westerners for being “fearful” of proxy warfare in Ukraine leading to nuclear warfare.

“I think the biggest thing is fear, I think we’re fearful,” Massaro said. “It’s very funny to me, because you meet Ukrainians, not a single Ukrainian is fearful. You talk to Ukrainians it’s like ‘What if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’, they’re like ‘We’ll keep fighting, we’ll win.’ You know it’s only the westerners that are like ‘Oh my god, I’m over here in California and what if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’ You know, it’s almost pathetic.”

It’s a common theme. Any time you talk publicly about the risk of the continually escalating war in Ukraine leading to nuclear catastrophe you’ll get empire apologists calling you a coward and saying we all need to be brave and stand up to the big bully Putin. And it’s just such a disgusting perversion of what courage actually is and what it looks like.

Empire loyalists often talk about nuclear brinkmanship like it’s something courageous that they personally are doing, as though gambling every terrestrial life on strategic grand chessboard maneuverings is a brave risk that could only hurt them. If you think you are brave for risking the life of everyone on earth to advance your personal geopolitical agendas, you might be a malignant narcissist, because you think the world revolves around you, and other lives exist only as props to support your main character adventures.

Hardly any human on this planet gives a shit who governs Crimea or the Donbass — and exactly zero of the plants and animals do — but people like Sean Penn and Paul Massaro think they have every right to not only gamble all their lives on a bid to control that outcome, but to call themselves courageous for doing so. Imagine being so self-absorbed you think you’re a brave hero for putting the lives of Africans, Asians, and South Americans on the betting table who’ve never even heard of Donetsk or Luhansk and don’t care who governs them, as well as every non-human life on earth.

I mean, the absolute arrogance. The fucking gall. It’s as emotionally stunted and infantile a perspective as you could possibly come up with, but these are the people whose worldview is shaping outcomes on this planet. These are the sort of people who are setting the trajectory of our species as a collective.

The mainstream western political consensus is a sickness of the mind. Its existence should make us all want to fall to our knees and beg the forgiveness of every life on this earth that it imperils.

September 21, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, USA | Leave a comment

Bidenomics: Millions to Rebuild Maui, Billions for Ukraine

Eve Ottenberg / CounterPunch SCHEERPOST, September 18, 2023

Last month, President Joe “No Comment on Hawaii” Biden’s Twitter boosters hurried to claim that the measly $700 he initially boasted of for Maui fire victims was but the first installment of more generous help to come. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and even with Biden’s added ingredients, the pudding’s comparatively pretty thin and watery. On August 30, Biden pledged $95 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to aid Mauli’s rebuilding. It remains to see how far that goes – thousands of homes burnt to the ground. With an average home price in the most affected area, Lahaina, coming in at a cool million dollars, Biden’s promised bonanza, made after his disastrous hegira to Hawaii, may not stretch far.

Meanwhile, the Biden bunch showers billions on the most corrupt government in Europe and possibly in the world, namely Ukraine, whose American-gifted weapons flame into action all over the Middle East and in the hands of Mexican drug cartels (whose dangers are small potatoes compared to this past week’s massive, reckless and wildly provocative clinker of NATO wargames in the Black Sea), but when it comes to actual needy Americans – well, they aren’t worth as much as Washington’s imperial clients……………………………………………………………..

We do NOT need billions for Kiev kleptocrats. We do not need trillions for that ravenous monster python called the military industrial complex, busy devouring the last bloody scraps of the heart of the American economy. Washington should begin planning – yesterday……………………………………………………………………………… more https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/18/bidenomics-millions-to-rebuild-maui-billions-for-ukraine/.

September 20, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Ukraine could get long-range missiles armed with U.S. cluster bombs.

WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters)
The Biden administration is close to approving the shipment of longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine, giving Kyiv the ability to cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory, according to four U.S. officials.

After seeing the success of cluster munitions delivered <https://www.reuters.com/world/us-cluster-munitions-ukraine-expected-fridays-800m-aid-package-2023-07-07/> in 155 mm artillery rounds in recent months, the U.S. is considering shipping either or both Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that can fly up to 190 miles (306 km), or Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles with a 45-mile range packed with cluster bombs, three U.S. officials said.

If approved, either option would be available for rapid shipment to Kyiv.

Ukraine is currently equipped with 155 mm artillery with a maximum range of 18 miles carrying up to 48 bomblets. The ATACMS under consideration would propel around 300 or more bomblets. The GMLRS rocket system, a version of which Ukraine has had in its arsenal for months, would be able to disperse up to 404 cluster munitions.

With Ukraine’s push against Russian forces showing signs of progress, the administration is keen to boost the Ukrainian military at a vital moment, two of the sources said.

The White House declined to comment on the Reuters report.

The decision to send ATACMS or GMLRS, or both, is not final and could still fall through, the four sources said. The Biden administration has for months struggled with a decision on ATACMS, fearing their shipment would be perceived as an overly aggressive move against Russia.

Kyiv has repeatedly asked the Biden administration for ATACMS to help attack and disrupt supply lines, air bases, and rail networks in Russian occupied territory.

Last week Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had discussed the U.S. providing the long-range missiles and he hoped for a positive decision.

“Now is the time,” one of the U.S. officials said as Ukraine’s forces are attempting to pierce Russian lines just south of the city of Orikhiv in an attempt to divide Russian forces and put its main supply lines under threat. ATACMS or GMLRS with this capability would not only boost Ukrainian morale but deliver a needed tactical punch to the fight, the official said.

The U.S. plan is to include the grenade-packed weapons in an upcoming draw from U.S. stockpiles of munitions, according to the four U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the plan.

At present Ukraine has only one U.S.-furnished cluster munitions, the 155 mm rounds that were announced in July.

The new weapons would augment Ukraine’s current 45-mile range GMLRS rounds, a version that blasts out more than 100,000 sharp tungsten fragments, but not bomblets.

Made by Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), ATACMS come in several versions some of which can fly four times GMLRS’ range, and their use could reset battlefield calculus……………………………………………..

President Joe Biden may ultimately decide against, or delay a decision on the transfer.

Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries. Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed onto the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.

They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades after a conflict ends.

Washington has committed more than $40 billion in military assistance to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.

Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker https://www.reuters.com/world/us-eyes-long-range-missiles-armed-with-cluster-bombs-ukraine-officials-2023-09-11

September 19, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Activists want California nuclear reactor closed over safety concerns

EHN Staff September 17, 2023 https://www.ehn.org/activists-want-california-nuclear-reactor-closed-over-safety-concerns-2665541415.html

Washington Post journalist Anumita Kaur reports about environmental groups that have demanded the federal government immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant, stating that until tests are conducted on critical components, there is risk of “nuclear meltdown.”

In a nutshell:

The groups, Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace, filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, citing concerns about the risk of a nuclear meltdown due to delayed inspections of critical components, specifically the Unit 1 reactor’s pressure vessel. They are calling for comprehensive testing and inspection using ultrasound equipment and other methods to assess the vessel’s structural integrity before resuming operations. PG&E, the plant’s operator, asserts compliance with regulatory standards and safety measures.

Key quote:

“We will not sit idly by while PG&E and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rubber stamp and streamline Diablo Canyon’s extension,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director at Friends of the Earth. “Our latest filing targets unlawful, delayed inspections of the nuclear power plant’s crumbling, dangerous pressure vessel.”

The big picture:

A nuclear meltdown could have severe health and environmental consequences. In the event of a meltdown, radioactive materials can be released into the environment, posing a significant risk to human health. Exposure to radiation can lead to acute and long-term health issues, including cancer, radiation sickness, and genetic mutations. The environmental impact also includes contamination of air, soil, and water, affecting ecosystems and potentially requiring long-term evacuation of affected areas.

Read the article in the Washington Post.

Last year, Peter Dykstra wrote about utilities whose nuke plants are facing early closure because they’re aging and priced out of the market can apply to the DOE for relief.

September 19, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

A nuclear bomb is still missing after it was dropped off the Georgia coastline 65 years ago

Since 1950, the US military has been involved in 32 “broken arrow” incidents, where they lost or dropped nuclear weapons or other issues, like fires, were involved.

In his book “Command and Control,” Eric Schlosser wrote that in 1957 Air Force planes unintentionally dropped a nuclear weapon once every 320 flights. Coupled with the high rate of B-52 bomber crashes, there was the potential for about 19 incidents involving nuclear weapons each year.

Jenny McGrath Sep 16, 2023, Business Insider

In 1958, two Air Force jets collided over Georgia, and one was carrying a nuclear weapon.
The plane dropped the bomb off the coast of Tybee Island and landed safely.
Several searches have failed to find the weapon in the decades since.

Every once in a while, a high reading of radioactivity off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia, sends the US government scrambling to look for a nuclear weapon that’s likely hidden 13 to 55 feet below the ocean and sand, buried in the seafloor.

On February 5, 1958, two Air Force jets collided in mid-air during a training mission. The B-47 strategic bomber carried a Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb.

For over two months, the Air Force and Navy divers searched a 24-square-mile area in the Wassaw Sound, a bay of the Atlantic Ocean near Savannah. They never found the nuclear bomb.

Forty years later, a retired Air Force officer who remembered newspaper stories about the lost bomb from his childhood started a search for it.

“It’s this legacy of the Cold War,” said Stephen Schwartz, author of “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940.” “This is kind of hanging out there as a reminder of how untidy things were and how dangerous things were.”

But some experts say that even if someone finds the bomb, it may be better to leave it buried.

An armed training mission

At the time of the collision, it was “common practice” for the Air Force pilots on training missions to carry bombs on board, according to a 2001 report about the Tybee accident.

The purpose of the training mission was to simulate a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. They practiced flying over different US cities and towns to see whether the electronic beam would reach its target…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In 2004, Richardson told CBS News he regretted dropping the bomb because of all the trouble it caused.

“What I should be remembered for is landing that plane safely,” he said. “I guess this bomb is what I’m going to be remembered for.”

The question of the plutonium capsule………………………………………………………………

The US government and military have repeatedly said the Tybee weapon didn’t contain a plutonium capsule when Richardson jettisoned it. A receipt for the bomb that Richardson signed at the time said he wouldn’t allow the insertion of an “active capsule” into the weapon.

A 1966 letter declassified in 1994 complicated the picture. It referred to then-Assistant Defense Secretary Jack Howard’s testimony before a congressional committee calling the Tybee bomb a complete nuclear weapon, with plutonium included. In 2001, a military spokesman told The Atlantic that they had recently spoken with Howard, and “he agreed that his memo was in error.”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

One mishap among many

Less than a month after Richardson jettisoned the Tybee bomb, another B-47 accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon on South Carolina. It didn’t contain plutonium but left a 50-foot crater in a family’s yard. A few family members had minor injuries but everyone survived.

Since 1950, the US military has been involved in 32 “broken arrow” incidents, where they lost or dropped nuclear weapons or other issues, like fires, were involved.

Between 1960 and 1968, the US military kept jets armed with nuclear weapons at the ready in case of a surprise nuclear attack. A series of near misses and serious accidents with nuclear weapons caused the Air Force to end the program.

“I don’t think we’re going to go back to the bad old days of putting our nuclear weapons on aircraft,” Schwartz said…………………………. https://www.businessinsider.com/missing-nuclear-bomb-georgia-coast-still-not-found-2023-9
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September 18, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

JULIAN ASSANGE AND THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The revival of the Espionage Act in the persecution of Assange is destroying the very foundation of democracy

The US government has hounded Julian Assange since WikiLeaks first revealed the extent of US war crimes in 2010. In the process of persecuting Assange, the federal government has used every tool at its disposal and even pushed beyond the boundaries that supposedly restrict state power in defense of civil liberties. One of the most insidious tactics is the use of the Espionage Act, which had not been used for against whistleblowers and journalists for almost a century before Assange’s case. In the first part of a two-part conversation, lawyer and human rights defender Stella Assange, spouse of Julian Assange, joins Chris Hedges for a look at the vast and vicious campaign by the US to silence Julian Assange, and what it all portends for our democracy.

…..one of the things that’s disturbed me from the start is how all of the international bodies and the legal entities that have gone after Julian, have broken their own rules and it’s so blatant. That’s what I find kind of incomprehensible because it’s public. It’s not a secret. I mean, there is many secret stuff they’ve done, too, of course. But, you know, revoking political asylum, allowing British police to go in on sovereign territory, charging him under the Espionage Act when he’s not an American citizen, recording his meeting with his attorneys. I mean, any one of these things in a normal legal procedure, would have seen the case dismissed and yet they keep doing it and doing it.

…………. if they eviscerate the rule of law, it’s not just going to be for Julian. They set those kinds of precedents and if they’re allowed to get away with it with anyone, it’s dangerous. That’s what, for me, is just so frustrating.

STELLA
But don’t you think they’re deliberately dismantling the system? They want to show that they are dismantling it.

CHRIS
Yes, of course, they are. But they’re dismantling it right in front of us and we’re just watching. I’m talking about the broader public and not reacting.
Yes, of course, that is the goal.

And so in a way, that passivity makes us complicit in what is ultimately our own enslavement. I mean, this is all, of course, even beyond Julian as a person and as a journalist. And that’s what, you know, having followed this case for several years and as you know, I was very close friends with Michael Ratner, which is how I met Julian, because I would come to London with Michael. I’m just kind of mystified at how people can’t see where this is going to lead………………………………………………………….

CHRIS
……… I think reading the CIA, which is a state within a state, it’s not even accountable within the Congress. And there was a few years ago, Feinstein, after the torture was exposed, tried to do a congressional report and there was this really revealing moment. I’m no fan of Feinstein, but she was, at that moment, trying to do the right thing.And she came out and she was just ashen. And I can’t remember the exact words, but it’s something like, “we can’t take on these people…”, because they had bugged all the computers in the congressional office, they destroyed information.

And I think it was that moment where she personally realised that we can’t control, there’s no regulation, there’s no oversight, there’s no control. And unlike the Church and the Pike committees that in the middle 70s, had exposed the crimes. That was it. That moment is gone. And I think that Vault 7, because of this kind of imperial attitude on the part of the CIA where they can do anything, because the CIA, we have 17 intelligence communities in the United States. I mean, the CIA as an intelligence organization is kind of redundant.

And what it has done is transformed itself into a paramilitary, especially after 9/11. And it’s completely in the dark. It has its own drones and special forces units. Having had friends who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, these people create more problems than they solve because they’ll go on extraction and night raids and anger an entire village and then the next day the Rangers will go through the village and they open fire on…I mean, they’re counterproductive. And I think that what happened with Vault 7 is that you now have an incredibly powerful organisation that is, in essence, a paramilitary organisation with huge resources and that exposure of Vault 7, they’re not used to being monitored, exposed in any way. I think the anger, I think it was more visceral. I think the anger within the CIA was ran really deep. And, you know, again, I haven’t spoken to anyone in the CIA, but my guess is that at that point, they laid down the law. We’re getting Julian. That’s my my guess.

I think it’s all being, because Biden, no matter who’s in the office, Obama, you can’t, at this point they talk about the Dark State. I mean, these are the, you know, figures like Biden are the puppets. In the military, you know, the US military has not been audited for a decade. I read somewhere we spend more on military bands than we do on the State Department. I mean, again, it’s like ancient Rome. I mean, it’s its own entity, almost severed from the government.
But that’s how I read what happened after Vault 7.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. there is no investigative journalism now within the government, with the inner workings of government, because everyone’s too frightened to talk, because they they’re they can immediately be traced.

So the last readout of any kind of exposure of the the the crimes, the criminal activity of power comes through people who are like Chelsea manning or Snowden, who have access to documents and will leak them,……………………………………………………………….

It means there is no power is in no way accountable. There’s no transparency, and we know history has taught us that when that kind of secrecy is imposed on autocratic power, it just in abuse grows upon abuse grows upon abuse. And that is why they’re just determined to crucify Julian.
That’s the crisis that we’re in.
We’ve lost the ability to know what power is doing.

STELLA
I have this feeling that in order to establish the baseline, you would have to give a history lesson.

Because, for example, the use of the Espionage Act, you have to understand that it wasn’t used for almost 100 years against whistleblowers and journalists. There was a shift with Obama that opened the doors to maybe one day the Espionage Act being used against publishers in the same way now being used against whistleblowers. And the way it was being used against whistleblowers was as if they were spies to begin with. So, there was a progressive shift. And that’s why Julian was surprised when Michael Ratner told him that he tought the US would try him under the Espionage Act after he had published. Because it was unprecedented, because the First Amendment is clear. And the First Amendment is really a revolutionary instrument, and it is the gold standard in the world…………………………………………………………..

And then, with what’s been done to Julian, because it’s been so protracted, we’re in a completely different information and security environment, as in the powers of the security state are far greater and have eroded all these other rights that came.

…………………………………since the surveillance state has become so powerful, there’s been an ability to control communication in such an aggressive and invisible manner.
In the 12 or 13 years since WikiLeaks published this, we’re in a completely different environment……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://therealnews.com/julian-assange-and-the-end-of-american-democracy

September 17, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Kings Bay nuclear submarine hub dodged a bullet named Hurricane Idalia

By Jamie Kwong | September 15, 2023

Last month, Hurricane Idalia slammed parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. It also threatened to devastate one of only two US bases that host nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

Located in Camden County, Georgia—just north of the Florida border—Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is the Atlantic hub of the US nuclear submarine fleet. It’s tasked with maintaining and servicing these billion dollar systems and their nuclear missiles, which the United States relies on to assure its capacity to launch a nuclear strike “anywhere, anytime.”

Hurricane Idalia put this key nuclear mission at risk………………………………………………………………………………………

Kings Bay seems to have dodged the worst. Reports indicate the installation experienced minimal damage and resumed normal operations the morning after the storm passed.

But the base may not be so lucky next time. Hurricanes are only expected to get worse as global temperatures rise. A warmer ocean and atmosphere fuel the evaporation-condensation cycle that powers hurricanes, causing more rain, stronger winds, and so, more powerful storms. Idalia’s rapid intensification amid unseasonably warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf suggest this phenomenon may well already be underway………………………………….more https://thebulletin.org/2023/09/kings-bay-nuclear-submarine-hub-dodged-a-bullet-named-hurricane-idalia/

September 17, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Radioactive discharge from Fukushima nuclear plant raising concerns on California coast.

CBS News, BY ANNE MAKOVEC, MOLLY MCCREA, SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

A controversial plan to release more than one million tons of treated radioactive water into the sea is now underway in Japan, giving scientists here in the Bay Area pause as well as those who seek escape on the open water.

Near Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands recently, surfer Jason Gittens contemplated what is means to be able to enjoy the open oceans. For him, the Pacific Ocean is a treasure………………..

……………………………………………………………….. Recently, protestors have gathered in Tokyo and in parts of South Korea. They oppose Japan’s release of more than a million tons of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean which started on August 24.

Soon after, China announced a ban on all imported Japanese fish because of the release.

That prompted the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, to go shopping for Fukushima fish in a supermarket and to chow down sushi to show support for Japan in front of the news media……………………………………………

The damaged reactors are still hot. There is a massive amount of melted nuclear fuel and fuel debris inside them and they require constant cooling.

‘Water was used to cool the reactors and it is still needed to cool the reactors,” explained UC Berkeley nuclear engineering professor Dr. Kal Vetter. The water used for cooling turns radioactive. …………………

The water is cooling the molten cores of the Fukushima reactors from the time of the accident,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani. “It’s coming into direct contact with highly radioactive fission products and plutonium. So that’s why the water gets extremely radioactive.”

Makhijani is a nuclear fusion expert and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER).

In addition to the cooling water that is pumped inside, groundwater has seeped into the site, and rainwater has fallen on the damaged reactors and turbines. All this water is now contaminated with radioactivity. The tainted water is collected, filtered, and stored on-site in specially prepared tanks.

……………………………….The discharging of the radioactive waters will take at least 30 years and will be controlled and monitored not just by Japanese officials, but by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “The monitoring remains critical,” advised Vetter,…………………………………

Makhijani and Dalnoki-Veress remain concerned. Both belong to a panel of experts representing the Pacific Islands Forum. The panel consulted with Japan over its intentions to release treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean and found the decision to release “regrettable.”

“There’s a lot of things that can go wrong,” said Dalnoki-Veress.

Tritiated water remains a concern for the panel. Makhijani recently wrote the book “Exploring Tritium’s Danger,” which challenges many long-held beliefs about the radioactive substance. He maintains that the impacts of tritium on human health, especially when taken into the body, warrant much more attention.

Makhijani told CBS News Bay Area that in addition to the discharges, we all must pay more attention to what else we’re putting into the oceans.

“Because it’s not just this dumping,’ he said. “The oceans are under extreme stress. They’re under heat stress. They’re under acid stress, they’re under plastic stress.”

The oceans cover 72% of the earth and supplies half its oxygen. They also absorb 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.

A recent poll conducted by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and Consortium on the Ocean’s Role in Climate found Americans care deeply about the ocean and that the majority worry about how climate change is impacting the ocean’s health.

………………………………”We used to think in the old days, “Out of sight, out of mind.” And they just dump stuff in the ocean,” said Gittens. “Well, now it’s not so out-of-sight, and going forward, I worry about my kids. Are they going to enjoy the ocean as much as I do?” https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/radioactive-discharge-from-fukushima-nuclear-plant-raising-concerns-on-california-coast/

September 17, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | oceans, USA | Leave a comment

Two years after AUKUS announcement, American politicians are divided on delivery of submarines to Australia

ABC By North America bureau chief Jade Macmillan in Washington DC, 16 Sept 23

A Republican senator has renewed calls for the US to step up its production of nuclear-powered submarines before selling them as part of AUKUS, arguing America is as “unprepared” as it was ahead of the Pearl Harbor attack.

The US is set to transfer at least three Virginia-class submarines to Australia from the early 2030s under the AUKUS agreement.

However, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services committee, Roger Wicker, told a hearing in Washington this week that the US was failing to meet its own shipbuilding targets.

“We should be producing somewhere between 2.3 and 2.5 attack submarines a year to fulfil our own requirements as we implement AUKUS,” he said………….

Senator Wicker insists he supports the AUKUS agreement but has refused to back legislation in congress authorising the transfer of the submarines, arguing substantial new investments are needed in America’s shipbuilding capacity first.

In a letter to the president last month, he and 24 other Republicans argued selling submarines to Australia without a clear plan to replace them would “unacceptably weaken” the US fleet at the same time that China expands its military power.

Push for speed amid prospect of another Trump term

The AUKUS agreement will see Australia obtain up to five Virginia-class submarines from the US before eventually building its own nuclear-powered boats.

But two years after the deal was first announced, the US Congress still needs to sign off on several legislative proposals to progress it.

They include legislation to approve the sale of the subs, to allow Australia to make a promised $3 billion contribution to US shipyards, and to facilitate the sharing of sensitive technology………………………………………………………………………………………………

The political debate in the United States comes amid ongoing questions in Australia about the merits and the cost of AUKUS, which could have a price tag of up to $386 billion…………………………

Tensions within the Labor Party were exposed at its recent national conference, while former prime minister Paul Keating has described the agreement as the “worst deal in all history”.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles also previously expressed confidence in the level of bipartisan support for the agreement in the US………………………………

more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-16/aukus-submarine-deal-two-years-on-republicans-warning/102860868

September 17, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Cracks at V.C. Summer nuclear plant raise concern from federal regulators

A pattern of cracks and leaks, some dating back two decades, has recently come to light, prompting concerns over the safety of the 40-year-old facility.

News 19 Becky Budds, September 15, 2023

JENKINSVILLE, S.C. — Federal regulators have raised alarms about the integrity of the emergency backup systems at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant.

A pattern of cracks and leaks, some dating back two decades, has recently come to light, prompting concerns over the safety of the 40-year-old facility.

During a routine equipment test last year, plant workers discovered a minor oil leak in a critical section of the piping connected to the diesel generator system.

Subsequently, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspected the plant, uncovering a disconcerting series of cracks and leaks in the emergency generator system dating back twenty years.

Emergency diesel generators are an essential safety component at nuclear power plants, serving as a backup power source for the nuclear reactor. The NRC cautions that these cracks could potentially hinder the generator’s functionality………………………………………………..more https://www.wltx.com/article/news/local/nuclear-regulatory-comission-concerns-cracks-vc-summer-nuclear-plant/101-1e4f01d0-c8a0-4386-886e-24fc13f5877a

September 17, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Public Need Versus the Business of War

What does military contracting tell us about the priorities of the U.S. ruling class?

CHRISTIAN, SEP 16, 2023 Christian’s Substack

The American public is hurting. The bare necessities—clean water, nutritious food, and affordable housing—are hard to come by.

Tap water is contaminated with lead, PFAS, and other pollutants. The water systems that serve cities and towns suffer additional stressors, including drought, overuse, and a failure to incorporate greywater systems. And, like many necessities, you have to pay for it in the United States: Water utility prices continue to go up and up.

Hunger is a severe problem. ……………………………………

Housing is prohibitively expensive. …………………………………..

What is U.S. Congress doing as the public suffers?

Water Is Not a Priority

Every year, U.S. Congress appropriates money for two federal water funds. The Environmental Protection Agency gives this money to states in the form of grants. The Washington Post recently reported, “Since 2022, the federal allocation has totaled roughly $5.5 billion, amounting to a literal and figurative drop in the bucket for a nation with an estimated $625 billion backlog in projects just to provide cleaner, reliable drinking water.”

In other words, Congress has allocated 0.88 percent of the funding needed to establish infrastructure that dependably provides potable water.

It gets worse. Members of Congress skim funds off the top……………………………………

Food is Not a Priority

Stephen Semler, co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, recently showed that annual U.S. military spending increased during the Trump administration by 20 percent in nominal terms and then increased during the first two years of the Biden administration by 15 percent in real terms. The military budget is now a record $858 billion for fiscal 2023, a bipartisan feat.

Food insecurity “climbed 18 percent during the same stretch,” Semler explained. “Something’s wrong when either military spending or food insecurity spikes over a two-year period. When they soar in tandem, it’s an abomination…”

There is plenty of money available to make sure people don’t go hungry. For example, the amount of money to be spent over several years on new land-based nuclear weapons ($263.9 billion) could instead build 52.5 million community gardens ($2,750 each) across the country, with more than enough money left over ($119.52 billion) to cover a year of food stamps. Tax dollars, we see, could be used to nourish instead of accidentally or deliberately eliminating human life on Earth.

The Housing Crisis……………………………………

Support the Troops

Evidence suggests that the federal government doesn’t even prioritize the troops’ water, food, and housing…………………………………………………………………………………

A State of Permanent Warfare

Military and intelligence personnel don’t deploy themselves. The U.S. ruling class deploys them.

When “successful,” military or intelligence operations open up an economy to multinational corporations, enriching the ruling class. Examples spanning the three main eras of the military-industrial complex (the first Cold War, the “global war on terror”, and today’s “strategic competition”) illustrate this success:……………………………………………………………………………………….

Moreover, U.S. military activity itself is extremely profitable for Wall Street and top corporate executives, as the U.S. military doesn’t shoot, move, or communicate—let alone eat, refuel, fly, or spy—without corporate goods and services. Corporations absorb more than half of the U.S. military budget. Many regularly price gouge the military.

The ruling class is organized and relentless in its pursuit of profit. The three branches of government (legislative, judicial, executive) largely respond to the needs of this class. Some of the richest and/or most influential members of U.S. government, such as a coal baron or a person who has profited from the provision of healthcare, even come from that class.

The Front Burner

A military aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, embodies the priorities of the ruling class. With a lifetime cost expected to top $1.7 trillion, the F-35 is on track to becoming the most expensive weapon of all time………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

One-Two Punch

The military-industrial complex is a one-two punch to the public………………………………………………………………………………… more https://thebusinessofwar.substack.com/p/public-need-versus-the-business-of?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1769284&post_id=137081544&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=c9zhh&utm_medium=email

September 16, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Hyping Ukraine Counteroffensive, US Press Chose Propaganda Over Journalism

The fact that US officials pushed for a Ukrainian counteroffensive that all but expected would fail raises an important question: Why would they do this? Sending thousands of young people to be maimed and killed does nothing to advance Ukrainian territorial integrity, and actively hinders the war effort.

Even as Ukraine and Russia sat at the negotiation table early in the war, the US made it clear that it wanted the war to continue and escalate. The US’s objective was, in the words of Raytheon board member–turned–Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “to see Russia weakened.”

The consensus among policymakers in Washington is to push for endless conflict, no matter how many Ukrainians die in the process. As long as Russia loses men and material, the effect on Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian victory was never the goal.

BRYCE GREENE, FAIR, 15 Sept 23

It has been clear for some time that US corporate news media have explicitly taken a side on the Ukraine War. This role includes suppressing relevant history of the lead-up to the war (FAIR.org, 3/4/22), attacking people who bring up that history as “conspiracy theorists” (FAIR.org, 5/18/22), accepting official government pronouncements at face value (FAIR.org, 12/2/22) and promoting an overly rosy picture of the conflict in order to boost morale.

For most of the war, most of the US coverage has been as pro-Ukrainian as Ukraine’s own media, now consolidated under the Zelenskyy government (FAIR.org, 5/9/23). Dire predictions sporadically appeared, but were drowned out by drumbeat coverage portraying a Ukrainian army on the cusp of victory, and the Russian army as incompetent and on the verge of collapse.

Triumphalist rhetoric soared in early 2023, as optimistic talk of a game-changing “spring offensive” dominated Ukraine coverage. Apparently delayed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June. While even US officials did not believe that it would amount to much, US media papered over these doubts in the runup to the campaign.

Over the last three months, it has become clear that the Ukrainian military operation will not be the game-changer it was sold as; namely, it will not significantly roll back the Russian occupation and obviate the need for a negotiated settlement. Only after this became undeniable did media report on the true costs of war to the Ukrainian people.

Overwhelming optimism

In the runup to the counteroffensive, US media were full of excited conversation about how it would reshape the nature of the conflict. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Radio Free Europe (4/21/23) he was “confident Ukraine will be successful.” Sen. Lindsey Graham assured Politico (5/30/23), “In the coming days, you’re going to see a pretty impressive display of power by the Ukrainians.” Asked for his predictions about Ukraine’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges told NPR (5/12/23), “I actually expect…they will be quite successful.”

Former CIA Director David Patraeus, author of the overhyped “surge” strategy in Iraq, told CNN (5/23/23):

I personally think that this is going to be really quite successful…. And [the Russians] are going to have to withdraw under pressure of this Ukrainian offensive, the most difficult possible tactical maneuver, and I don’t think they’re going to do well at that.

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius (4/15/23) acknowledged that “hope is not a strategy,” but still insisted that “Ukraine’s will to win—its determination to expel Russian invaders from its territory at whatever cost—might be the X-factor in the decisive season of conflict ahead.”

The New York Times (6/2/23) ran a story praising recruits who signed up for the Ukrainian pushback, even though it “promises to be deadly.” Times columnist Paul Krugman (6/5/23) declared we were witnessing “the moral equivalent of D-Day.” CNN (5/30/23) reported that Ukrainians were “unfazed” as they “gear up for a counteroffensive.”

Cable news was replete with buzz about how the counteroffensive, couched with modifiers like “long-awaited” or “highly anticipated,” could turn the tide in the war. Nightly news shows (e.g., NBC, 6/15/23, 6/16/23) presented audiences with optimistic statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other figures talking about the imminent success.

Downplaying reality

Despite the soaring rhetoric presented to audiences, Western officials understood that the counteroffensive was all but doomed to fail. This had been known long before the above comments were reported, but media failed to include that fact as prominently as the predictions for success………………………………………………………………..

Too ‘casualty-averse’?

……………………………………………………………… A mid-July New York Times article (7/14/23) reported that US officials were privately frustrated that Ukraine had become too afraid of dying to fight effectively. The officials worried that Ukrainian commanders “fear[ed] casualties among their ranks,” and had “reverted to old habits” rather than “pressing harder.” A later Times article (8/18/23) repeated Washington’s worries that Ukrainians were too “casualty-averse.”

Acknowledging failure

After it became undeniable that Ukraine’s military action was going nowhere, a Wall Street Journal report (7/23/23) raised some of the doubts that had been invisible in the press on the offensive’s eve…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Rather than dwelling on the stalled campaign, the New York Times and other outlets focused on the drone war against Russia, even while acknowledging that the remote strikes were largely an exercise in public relations. The Times (8/25/23) declared that the strikes had “little significant damage to Russia’s overall military might” and were primarily “a message for [Ukraine’s] own people,” citing US officials who noted that they “intended to demonstrate to the Ukrainian public that Kyiv can still strike back.” Looking at the quantity of Times coverage (8/30/23, 8/30/23, 8/23/23, 8/22/23, 8/22/23, 8/21/23, 8/18/23), the drone strikes were apparently aimed at an increasingly war-weary US public as well.

War as desirable outcome

The answer has been clear since before the war. Despite the high-minded rhetoric about support for democracy, this has never been the goal of pushing for war in Ukraine. Though it often goes unacknowledged in the US press, policymakers saw a war in Ukraine as a desirable outcome. One 2019 study from the RAND Corporation—a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon—suggested that an effective way to overextend and unbalance Russia would be to increase military support for Ukraine, arguing that this could lead to a Russian invasion.

In December 2021, as Russian President Vladimir Putin began to mass troops at Ukraine’s border while demanding negotiations, John Deni of the Atlantic Council published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (12/22/21) headlined “The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine,” which laid out the US logic explicitly: Provoking a war would allow the US to impose sanctions and fight a proxy war that would grind Russia down. Additionally, the anti-Russian sentiment that resulted from a war would strengthen NATO’s resolve.

All of this came to pass as Washington’s stance of non-negotiation successfully provoked a Russian invasion. Even as Ukraine and Russia sat at the negotiation table early in the war, the US made it clear that it wanted the war to continue and escalate. The US’s objective was, in the words of Raytheon boardmember–turned–Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “to see Russia weakened.” Despite stated commitments to Ukrainian democracy, US policies have instead severely damaged it.

NATO’s ‘strategic windfall’

In the wake of the stalled counteroffensive, the US interest in sacrificing Ukraine to bleed Russia was put on display again. In July, the Post‘s Ignatius declared that the West shouldn’t be so “gloomy” about Ukraine, since the war had been a “strategic windfall” for NATO and its allies. Echoing two of Deni’s objectives, Ignatius asserted that “the West’s most reckless antagonist has been rocked,” and “NATO has grown much stronger with the additions of Sweden and Finland.”

In the starkest demonstration of the lack of concern for Ukraine or its people, he also wrote that these strategic successes came “at relatively low cost,” adding, in a parenthetical aside, “(other than for the Ukrainians).”

Ignatius is far from alone. Hawkish Sen. Mitt Romney (R–Utah) explained why US funding for the proxy war was “about the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done”: “We’re losing no lives in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians, they’re fighting heroically against Russia.”

The consensus among policymakers in Washington is to push for endless conflict, no matter how many Ukrainians die in the process. As long as Russia loses men and material, the effect on Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian victory was never the goal.

‘Fears of peace talks’

Polls show that support for increased US involvement in Ukraine is rapidly declining………………..

The failure of the counteroffensive has not caused Washington to rethink its strategy of attempting to bleed Russia. The flow of US military hardware to Ukraine is likely to continue so long as this remains the goal.

The Hill (9/5/23) gave the game away about NATO’s commitment to escalation with a piece titled “Fears of Peace Talks With Putin Rise Amid US Squabbling.”

But even within the Biden administration, the Pentagon appears to be at odds with the State Department and National Security Council over the Ukraine conflict. Contrary to what may be expected, the civilian officials like Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland and Antony Blinken are taking a harder line on perpetuating this conflict than the professional soldiers in the Pentagon. The media’s sharp change of tone may both signify and fuel the doubts gaining traction within the US political class. https://fair.org/home/hyping-ukraine-counteroffensive-us-press-chose-propaganda-over-journalism/
—

September 16, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | media, USA | Leave a comment

Uranium Mining Protections Needed Across the West

The Biden administration needs to protect communities and water supplies across the West from the dangers of uranium mining.

Geoffrey H. Fettus Senior Attorney, Nuclear, Climate & Clean Energy Program

President Biden’s designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument will go far in protecting the rich cultural and ecological value of this majestic landscape. It will safeguard some of the most iconic public lands in the American West from the ravages of destructive mining and destructive waste. This protection has been a top priority for tribes in the area, and the designation is long overdue.

“That’s our aboriginal homelands,” Dianna Sue Uqualla, a Havasupai tribal council member, told the Bureau of Land Management at a public meeting according to Bloomberg Law. The monument will “keep at bay these mining people that are coming in,” and will protect the Grand Canyon from companies that are “desecrating, raping the Mother Earth.”

This is wonderful news, but there is much more to be done about uranium mining across the American West. And there’s also a lot of misinformation out there that muddies what should be a clear path forward to protecting all the people and watersheds of the West from unchecked uranium mining.

Uranium mining contaminated tribal lands for decades

The uranium mining industry has left a dreadful history of contamination and harm across vast swathes of the American West, but especially with respect to the Indigenous People who call this area home. It’s a complicated history that intertwines with the Manhattan Project and the Cold War, and it’s a legacy that has yet to be addressed.

On Navajo land alone, nearly four million tons of uranium ore were extracted from 1944 to 1986. The industry and the U.S. government left behind hundreds of abandoned uranium mines, four inactive uranium milling sites, a former dump site, and the widespread contamination of land and water; this includes the 1979 collapse of a tailings dam in Church Rock, New Mexico, that deposited 93 million gallons of radioactive and chemically contaminated liquid and 1,100 tons of solid radioactive tailings into the Rio Puerco, contaminating the river for more than 60 miles downstream. After decades of pressure, the government has finally started to assess and mitigate this contamination.

Much is left to be done: More than 500 abandoned uranium mines remain on Navajo land.

We need new standards

Back in 2016, the Obama administration was poised to take action on uranium mining standards, but then Donald Trump was elected president. It will come as no surprise that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Trump administration cast aside the Obama EPA’s long-overdue protective environmental standards. In an about-face, the Trump EPA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) moved to weaken uranium mining rules.

Once Biden took office in 2021, NRDC had hoped for a new approach. So far, however, we haven’t heard anything from either the EPA or NRC, despite repeated requests by NRDC and other major environmental groups, tribal representatives, and regional groups across the West.

It is time for the EPA to clear the obstacles and move forward on the uranium protections it drew up years ago.

The Biden administration can begin to protect the communities and water resources that have been negatively affected by uranium mining for decades by taking two steps: (1) dissolving a 2020 memorandum of understanding between the EPA and NRC that undercuts the EPA’s ability to enact standards; and (2) issuing protective uranium in situ mining standards that have been sitting on a shelf for years. ……………………………………………………………….

more https://www.nrdc.org/bio/geoffrey-h-fettus/uranium-mining-protections-needed-across-west?fbclid=IwAR2Hafe0PnFW-p5cPU2Cp85i6Azz9D5VHgZ5PH4gjUv2WKaGIULw_zTYMDQ—

September 16, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, indigenous issues, USA | Leave a comment

Environmental groups urge regulators to shut down California reactor over safety, testing concerns.

Daily Mail, By ASSOCIATED PRESS, 15 September 2023

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Environmental groups called on federal regulators Thursday to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California´s last nuclear power plant until tests can be conducted on critical machinery they believe could fail and cause a catastrophe.

Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that tests and inspections have been delayed for nearly 20 years on the pressure vessel in the Unit 1 reactor at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Instead, the groups argue, operator Pacific Gas & Electric has relied on data from similar reactor vessels to justify continued operations at Diablo Canyon, while dismissing indications that the steel wall in Unit 1 might be deteriorating from sustained exposure to radiation and is becoming susceptible to cracking, a condition technically known as embrittlement.

“We will not sit idly by while PG&E cuts corners on Unit 1´s safety,” Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth, said in a statement.

The vessels are thick steel containers that hold nuclear fuel and cooling water in the reactors.

The statement from the anti-nuclear groups contended that PG&E “has repeatedly postponed essential metallurgical tests and ultrasound inspections over the past two decades” on the vessel…………………………………..

The petition, filed Thursday in Washington, was accompanied by a 46-page report by Digby Macdonald, a University of California, Berkeley, professor in nuclear engineering and materials science, who wrote that continued operation of the Unit 1 reactor “poses an unreasonable risk to public health and safety due to serious indications of an unacceptable degree of embrittlement.”

“The reactor should be closed until PG&E obtains and analyzes additional data regarding its condition,” wrote Macdonald, who was retained by the environmental groups.

The petition asks the NRC to convene a hearing to review a 2003 decision by agency staff to extend the testing schedule for the Unit 1 pressure vessel until 2025. According to the groups, the last inspections on the vessel took place between 2003 and 2005. The utility postponed further testing in favor of using results from similar reactors to justify continued operations, they said.

In his report, Macdonald concludes PG&E should have accelerated its testing schedule, not delayed it, to assess possible defects. He noted that unlike most other reactor safety components, the pressure vessel has no independent backup system that can be called upon if it should crack or fracture and lose essential cooling water.

He added that obtaining more testing data on Unit 1 is especially important because its steel has excessive copper and nickel content “that render it more vulnerable to embrittlement.”

The “NRC currently lacks an adequate basis to conclude that Diablo Canyon Unit 1 can be operated safely,” Macdonald said.

Construction at Diablo Canyon began in the 1960s. Critics have long argued that potential shaking from nearby earthquake faults not recognized when the design was approved could damage equipment and release radiation. One nearby fault was not discovered until 2008. The groups argue that the embrittlement assessment is even more critical, given the plant’s seismic vulnerabilities………… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-12519587/Environmental-groups-urge-regulators-shut-California-reactor-safety-testing-concerns.html

September 16, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

50 US Lawmakers Reintroduce ‘CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act’ to Protect ‘the American Way of Life’

BY PATRICIA HARRITY ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Fifty U.S. lawmakers have reintroduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail Central Bank Digital Currency while protecting innovation and any future development of true digital cash. This is in direct opposition to the Globalists and the WEF agenda that seeks to enslave and remove all personal freedoms and privacy with CCP-style credit scores and surveillance.

U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) who has been a longtime advocate that any Fed-issued digital dollar (central bank digital currency) remain open, permissionless, and private announced on Tuesday that he and 49 other lawmakers have reintroduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act “to halt the efforts of unelected bureaucrats in Washington D.C. from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that dismantles Americans’ right to financial privacy.”

“If not open, permissionless, and private — like cash — a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP-style surveillance tool that can be weaponized to oppress the American way of life.” argues the congressman, “President Biden is willing to compromise the American people’s right to financial privacy for a surveillance-style CBDC. I don’t believe in compromising Americans’ rights,” he added.

CBDC Power

In many Western countries, including England, the USA, and Australia, banks are continuing to push towards the goal of Central Bank Digital Currencies as the only money as they plan to completely phase out cash use before the end of 2024. Individuals may argue that they already mostly use digital banking and debit or credit cards.

However, we have witnessed the freezing of the bank accounts of protesters in 2022 by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau simply for standing against the tyrannical restrictions of the plandemic, and hundreds of personal bank accounts were frozen under special powers.

Although yes, banks already have the power to close your account if they deem it necessary at the moment there is a small number of people already dealing with this, with their only offence being buying Bitcoin or questioning why the banks need to know what we’re doing with our money or questioning the banks ever tightening rules about holding an account with them, imagine what’s going to happen with CBDCs as the only legal currency says Brad Bleckwehl author of from the gutter up.

He continues:

“If you think the careers, contracts, and accounts of famous people getting canceled for saying or doing something that offends has nothing to do with you.. think about how ever-tightening PC culture is growing, and how authoritarian our Western governments have been becoming in recent years.”

“They’re literally trying to pass misinformation and censorship bills so they can legally control what we’re allowed to talk about. Combine the loss of freedom of speech with the ability to blackball us financially by freezing CBDCs, and we’re headed to a very bleak time for society. It’s not just going to be what is currently considered socially acceptable or not, it’s going to be forced behavior, forced ways of thinking. Look at how they bullied us with covid vaxxes.” (source).

The news of this pushback against the authoritarian control of our finances is huge

CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act Updated, Reintroduced

Congressman Emmer posted on social media platform X: “Today, with 49 of my Republican colleagues, I reintroduced the CBDC Anti Surveillance State Act.” (source)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Bottom Line: If not open, permissionless, and private — like cash — a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP-style surveillance tool that can be weaponized to oppress the American way of life,” the lawmaker concluded,

The House Financial Services Committee will consider his bill this month. more https://expose-news.com/2023/09/14/50-us-lawmakers-reintroduce-cbdc-anti-surveillance-state-act-to-protect-the-american-way-of-life/

September 16, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

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