Genocidal Intentions Lead To Genocidal Acts & Possibly Nuking Lebanon

Photo shared by Mike Hastie via the childrens' father who asked that we share widely.

It's hard to keep up with events unfolding these days, much less my reaction to them. If I take a day to travel in order to reach a large audience for anti-genocide messaging and to enjoy the comfort of being with like-minded friends, I get behind on the news.

Standout in Unity, Maine Sep 21, 2024 along the route to the Common Ground Fair

If I take time to sleep, I get even more behind.

But when I wake up in the morning I can tell what's stuck in my craw from the day before, and I know that is what I probably need to write about in order to process and move on. This video, "History will never forget," which I downloaded from reddit, doesn't cite a creator. Rest assured it wasn't me, because I don't have this level of video editing skills. I'm a writer so I might have rewritten the title to something like "Genocidal Intentions Lead To Genocidal Acts" because the history title is so generic it's impossible to find via online search. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/internationalpolitics/comments/1fm6x2u/history_will_never_forget/

Another disturbing development from overnight news is that the Israeli military raided Aljazeera's offices in Ramallah, a sign that the West Bank will soon be subjected to the horrors of Gaza. And that Israel doesn't want the world to see that. 

The IOF has already killed many Aljazeera journalists, including U.S. citizen Shireen Abu Akleh via sniper while she was present in a press vest at a raid on the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp in 2022. Reports say Zionist storm troopers removed Abu Akleh's picture before shutting down the office for the "45 days."

Also in my news feed this morning was speculation that the rapidly escalating hot war between Israel and Lebanon may have seen the Zionists use a "tactical" i.e. relatively "small" nuclear bomb. Watch the short video on Twitter and see what you think.

https://x.com/DougAMacgregor/status/1837565966500483216

Sometimes on zoom calls people laugh at me for the number of tabs I have open in my  internet browser. If something stays there for days it's probably because I was horrified by it but haven't finished -- or even started -- processing the information. Here's one that's been an open tab for over a week now:

Description: The US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) intends to issue an award on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)) with Terra Analytics, Inc., 966 10th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302-7474, for the research and development of active research programs that focus on modeling impacts on the environment and the impacts of nuclear weapons on farm systems..

https://sam.gov/opp/505b2b2cb4c140239c054f39ef333f81/view

The U.S. and its proxies would rather kick off nuclear war than face up to the reality that full spectrum dominance was always a pipe dream, and the age of multipolar power sharing is upon us. Our friends and allies in locations like New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan report on the rapid expansion of U.S. military activity there in preparation for war against China. And NATO continues goading Russia via Ukraine to see if they can get Russians to be the first to use a tactical nuke.

If we don't wake up tomorrow, it's been nice knowing you.

Bias Against China & Anyone Who Sounds Vaguely Chinese Is Not A Good Look On Liberals

So many racist political cartoons about China on the interwebs it was hard to choose just one.

Admittedly I do not know if it was liberals who flagged my annual subscription fee to Lee Fang's substack (a whopping $60) and put a hold on my credit card with the explanation "Possible Fraudulent Activity Detected." 

What I do know is that no such hold or warning has been triggered by my subscriptions to journalists with last names like Johnstone, Hedges, or even Taibbi.

This happened in the same week that the leader of a Democratic Party-aligned "peace" group in my state commented about an article on NATO I had shared: "The article you linked is incoherent (and look where it is published)."[emphasis mine]

Global Times published the piece on April 7 and included this introduction:

Editor's Note:

April 4, 2024, marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO. As a product of the Cold War, NATO should have been disbanded, but over the years, it has served as a war machine and facilitated US hegemony. The Global Times talked to a number of experts and scholars to reveal how the US exploits NATO to serve its geopolitical purposes and how NATO destabilizes the world, exacerbates nuclear threats and brings confrontation to Asia. 

In the second interview of the series, Global Times (GT) reporter Li Aixin talked to John Pang (Pang), a former Malaysian government official and a senior research fellow at Perak Academy, Malaysia. John said that having set Europe on fire with its aggressive enlargement, NATO proposes to bring their formula to Asia, against a far more powerful opponent - "It's an imbecile proposition."

Yikes! Both interviewer and interviewee have Chinese-sounding names. Who could possibly want to read and consider their opinions on geopolitical realities as the U.S. slouches toward WW3 with China?

Several times in the past week I've seen articles about the U.S. instigating a proxy war in the Pacific using the Philippines as their cat's paw. I've also read analysis from sources we're being trained to consider suspect. Here's a short list:

Aukusing for War: The Real Target Is China  by Dr. Binoy Kampmark, published April 7, 2024 by the Australian Independent Media Network

Snow Job: 15 Years of U.S. Gaslighting in the South China Sea published April 9, 2024 by Peter Lee's China Threat Report (audio version also available there)

Xi Jinping's Thoughts On China's Nuclear Weapons by Gregory Kulacki & Robert Rust, published April 1, 2024 by Union of Concerned Scientists.

That last article debunked a New York Times report claiming that China's leaders 

“are looking to nuclear weapons as not only a defensive shield, but as a potential sword — to intimidate and subjugate adversaries.” [The Union of Concerned Scientists] examined the evidence and found it did not support that claim. 

Actually found a political cartoon about China that isn't racist!

The narrative management strategies employed by liberals around China are extremely familiar, because we have just been through two years of being told that the war in Ukraine started in 2022 all the while being scorned for reading anything published in Russia. 

A thought police officer on a "peace" listserv based in Maine constantly attacks posts that deviate from U.S. State Department talking points while citing sources like the NYT, Washington Post, and CNN as beacons of truth. Uh huh.

Pot calling kettle black cartoon from the New York Times.

We've seen the recent claim that TikTok is being used to manipulate young people into hating Israel's genocide in Gaza, and China is at fault because, as Nancy Pelosi said on camera, if China's government can control the algorithms "we" are in big trouble. A backhanded admission that the U.S. controls the algorithms on Meta products, Twitter/X, YouTube, and search engines like Google.

This kind of bias makes you look stupid, folks. When Chew Shou Zi, CEO of TikTok, was attacked during a hearing in Congress for being Chinese he responded, "No, I'm Singaporean." 

I was embarrassed for my country. 

You should be, too.

 

BRICS Summit vs. Camp David

In sharp contrast to the BRICS summit in South Africa ushering in a "multilateral organization that will shape the contours of a new system of international relations," (Pepe Escobar), the U.S. hosted Japan and South Korea at Camp David to hammer out a three-way military alliance between grossly unequal partners.

From Sara Flounders writing in Workers World:

The military pact of South Korea and Japan with the U.S. intentionally damages both the South Korean and Japanese economies, as China has been the major trading partner of both countries. However, right-wing militarists in office in each country seem willing to act against their own people’s interests.

The U.S. government has long maintained separate defense pacts with both countries. Based on Japan’s brutal 35-year colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula, from 1910 to 1945, there remains deep hostility among the Korean people toward Japan. Nevertheless, based on U.S. pressure, the regimes have now become “partners” against China.

Excerpt from the White House statement:

Pre­sident Biden commended President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida for their courageous leadership in transforming relations between Japan and the ROK. With the renewed bonds of friendship—and girded by the ironclad U.S.-Japan and U.S.-ROK alliances—each of our bilateral relationships is now stronger than ever. So too is our trilateral relationship.

My translation: the deeply unpopular President Yoon making nice with colonial exploiter Japan was a prerequisite for the new war pact against China.

In an interesting parallel, it now appears that China and Russia's brokering of an historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran earlier this year paved the way for both nations to join BRICS. 

 

Now being termed BRICS 11 because six nations have joined the original five of the acronym (the other new members are the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia).

From BRICS fan Escobar writing in The Cradle:

Here is the Johannesburg II Declaration of the 15^th BRICS summit. BRICS 11 is just the start. There’s a long line eager to join; without referring to the dozens of nations (and counting) that have already “expressed their interest”, according to the South Africans, the official list, so far, includes Algeria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Guinea, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Cuba, Kuwait, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkiye and Syria.

So while the bigger, wealthier group forges ahead with a comprehensive agreement to reign in predatory debt mechanisms of the West against the Global South and, incidentally, to reject new members if they sanction existing BRICS nations, the U.S. continues looking for a nation to play the role of Ukraine in its planned war against China.

As blogger Andrew Korybko observed:

the recent Sino-Filipino incident that was sparked by Manila’s failed attempt to smuggle construction materials to a disputed reef could have been timed to precede the latest trilateral talks and this week’s joint drills, thus enabling them to be spun as defense measures instead of provocations..

All of this leads to “pacifist” Japan saber-rattling against China in its South Sea on the Philippines’ behalf in support of their shared US patrons’ “rules-based order”, which solidifies their nascent trilateral alliance.. and consequently advances the AUKUS+ agenda of “containing” China.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects have been busy on the information war front.

An investigation by Alan MacLeod of MintPress News found that the FBI and the government of Taiwan have been working together to spread hate against China in the U.S.

Official documents reviewed by “MintPress News” show that the Taiwanese government is attempting to drum up anti-China hostility, influence and intimidate American politicians and is even working with the FBI and other agencies to spy on and prosecute Chinese American citizens.

Key points of this investigation
• Taiwanese officials are monitoring Chinese Americans and passing intelligence to the FBI in attempts to have them prosecuted.
• Taiwan is working with “friends” in media and politics to create a culture of fear towards China and Chinese people in the US
• Taiwanese officials claim they are “directing” and “guiding” certain US politicians.
• Taiwan is monitoring and helping to intimidate U.S. politicians they deem to be too pro-China.
• The island is spending millions funding US think tanks that inject pro-Taiwan and anti-China talking points into American politics.

Why do nations like Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines, for whom China is a huge trading partner, submit to U.S. demands that run counter to their own economic interests?

Because if you don't submit, they do this to you: "The Outcome Of American Interference In Pakistan."

But much of the world is banding together to say Enough! Note that BRICS came out strongly against war in space, and in favor of arms control treaties in what the U.S. predictably rejects in its key "warfighting domain." Indeed, satellite communications have been integral to the U.S./NATO waging their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Full disclosure: I work for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space which is prominently featured in Jeremy Kuzmarov's article.

It appears that war has hastened ongoing cooperation with Russia by many nations -- in direct opposition to its stated goal of isolating Putin and his government. For example, check out this speech by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki at the BRICS summit denouncing "U.S. exceptionalism" on the grounds that "it has gravely impaired global progress for over a century now."

I think we can all agree that century is behind us, and history is now remaking itself.

Connecting The Dots With A Global Environmental Antiwar Perspective

I'm excited to welcome Koohan Paik-Mander to Brunswick, Maine this weekend. She and I are both on the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (GN) board together, but we've not met in person. This is typical of the GN as its directors, advisors, and members are found around the world e.g. South Korea, India, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and U.S. 

Where there is military degradation of the environment, including space and the planet's oceans, GN's  members are paying attention and reporting back, as well as often organizing resistance locally to military bases, rocket launch sites, and colonizer warmongering.

From Hawai'i, Koohan focuses on the oceans we all share. I got to know her better when we collaborated on a webinar during the 2021 People's Summit for Climate Justice at COP26  organized by Veterans for Peace. 

She's also been reporting from the U.S. war on China beat for a while now.

I've learned a lot from Koohan, a journalist who is also a strong researcher (remember when the two went hand in hand?). She wrote to me last fall when warplane jet fuel leaking into drinking water in Hawai'i was getting a lot of attention from environmental activists:

Even though the military is Hawaii's biggest economic driver after tourism, the preparation for war with China is tangibly scary, even for the rah-rah corporate media. When the local community saw that the Pentagon has been more than willing to forego safe drinking water from Oahu's only aquifer in order to push for war, articles started to appear that were more realistically critical. 

I'm glad the Global Network is here to connect these articles with you and others.

A big benefit of GN membership is the curated news feed. Koohan shared the photo above with us in November, 2022 and commented:

Aloha Friends,

We were overjoyed this morning by this sight. 

This photo was taken the first night of the first eruption since 1984 from the world's largest live volcano. Apparently, Madame Pele, the Fire Goddess, has decided that it's EVICTION TIME for the U.S. military. 

The 125,000-square-mile Pohakuloa Training Area is the largest live-fire training ground in the Pacific"

 

Despite the fact that its lease (for the whopping sum of $1.00) expires in 2029, some believe Pohakuloa might become the site of a U.S. Space Force base. Stay tuned for more on that.

If you're lucky enough to be in Maine, join us Sunday August 13 in Brunswick at the Curtis Memorial Library from 4-6pm. Light refreshments and an opportunity to hear from Koohan Paik-Mander, a unique and dedicated defender of the oceans!

BARBIE & OPPENHEIMER Are Both Sophisticated Propaganda Vehicles

I can hear you saying, "I get that OPPENHEIMER could be soft propaganda for nuclear weapons use but BARBIE??" And I'm right there with you -- because not everything that comes out of Hollywood is propaganda for the U.S. empire's war machine.

Unless it is.

Bear with me while I notice that 

a) BARBIE is stirring up controversy over a map that is glimpsed showing a nine-dash line delineating areas in the South China Sea right off the coast of China and 

b) U.S. client countries like the Philippines are lining up to ban BARBIE because they object to where the line is.

Here's the non-fanciful map that NPR (National Pentagon Radio) served up in early July to accompany their article linked above:

Here's another map I saw this morning that may have some relevance here:

Pew Research map shows unfavorable views of China are rather uneven worldwide and furthermore suggests that propaganda works. The highest percent of those viewing China unfavorably are in U.S. client states Australia and Japan, followed by U.S. client state Sweden, followed by the U.S. itself.

Heck, even false stories about the Barbie movie are helping to fan the flames of the map controversy.

It's evil, but I have to admire the empire's narrative management strategies.

As for OPPENHEIMER? Don't get me started. While sheepdogs for the Democratic Party insist the movie is required viewing and sure to turn anyone anti-nuclear, sharper analysts reach different conclusions. 

From indigenous activists Klee Benally and Leona Morgan:

To glorify such deadly science and technology as a dramatic character study, is to spit in the face of hundreds of thousands of corpses and survivors scattered throughout the history of the so-called Atomic age.

Think of it this way, for every minute that passes during the film’s 3-hour run time, more than 1,100 citizens in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died due to Oppenheimer’s weapon of mass destruction. This doesn’t account for those downwind of nuclear tests who were exposed to radioactive fallout (some are protesting screenings), it doesn’t account for those poisoned by uranium mines, it doesn’t account for those killed during nuclear power plant melt-downs, it doesn’t account for those in the Marshall Islands who are forever poisoned.

Of course the real power of propaganda is directing our attention, both away from inconvenient truths and toward a version of reality that benefits the powerful.

I'll leave you with this example from popular culture aimed at young kids: 

This is  from a picture book for children, Diary of a Spider, published in 2011 by Scholastic. I could do an entire blog post on that corporate entity's penetration of U.S. public schools with turn key book fairs that sell a myriad of pro-military and pro-empire books. 

Soft propaganda starts early and it never sleeps. 

NATO Summit Turns Its Back On Zelensky And Pivots To China

As the collective West turned its back on a bad actor, Russia turned its back on a grain deal that was supposed to feed the Global South.

Many have commented on -- and photoshopped -- what is by now an iconic photo from last week's NATO summit in Vilnius. For example:

This rendition plays on the fact that Ukrainian President Zelensky's image seems to demand he dress in pseudo Army fatigues at all times, even formal dinners in a European capitol. So, he looks more like the janitor than a power broker. The yellow bucket plays nicely next to Mrs. Zelensky's blue dress to invoke the ubiquitous flag adopted by liberals in support of the Democratic Party's signature proxy war. (Said flags are looking rather tattered and faded these days as Ukraine's spring-no-wait-more-like-summer offensive sputters out with little accomplished.)

President Zelensky was possibly the only person in Vilnius who expected Ukraine to be invited to join NATO. Instead he was rebuffed but told that his real soldiers can keep fighting and dying while the West dials back its financial support and supplies of military equipment. 

Consolation prize: cluster bombs for Ukraine! These are on the shelf in the U.S. arsenal, mostly because when used they are extremely destructive of both children and public approval.

(Note that Politico's National Security Daily is brought to you by one of the big dogs of the U.S. military industrial complex, the true winners of the proxy war on Russia via Ukraine.)

President Zelensky lashed out at being snubbed and a UK government official admonished him to show more gratitude for what he's already received. (President Zelensky has reportedly become immensely wealthy skimming off foreign aid and can easily afford a business suit to wear to these sort of gatherings. His public relations staff no doubt advised against it.)

What was most significant about the NATO summit lay to the east. This surprised no one who has recognized that weakening Russia is merely the prelude to taking on the West's major competitor, China. Why? "The deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests."

Since when is Japan in NATO? Or Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea for that matter? ODD ANDERSEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

From NATO's Vilnius Summit Communique:

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values. We remain open to constructive engagement with the PRC, including to build reciprocal transparency, with a view to safeguarding the Alliance’s security interests.

As reported by Shannon Tiezzi in The Diplomat,

NATO leaders called out China for “malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation” and accused Beijing of striving “to subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains.” The statement also expressed concern over China’s attempts to “ to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains” and “create strategic dependencies.” 

Note: the U.S. has relied heavily in recent years on its made-up concept "rules-based international order" which translates to "f**k international law and the UN, the powerful do as they will and the weak submit as they must."

China was not slow to respond. The Chinese mission to the EU had its spokesperson issue a statement that included the following:

the Communiqué arbitrarily distorts China’s stance and policies, and deliberately smears China. We firmly oppose and reject this accusation..

The trend of the world is surging forward. We urge NATO to go with the trend of the times, listen to the just call of the international community for peace, development and cooperation, correct its misperceptions and policies, and play a constructive role in world peace and stability. 

We would like to make it clear to NATO that the Chinese side is firm in its resolve to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. We firmly oppose NATO’s eastward movement into the Asia-Pacific region and any action that jeopardizes China’s legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response.

Meanwhile, Russia announced it was withdrawing from the cooperative agreement to allow grain shipping through the Black Sea. Intended as a way to mute the effects of the Ukraine war on food supplies in the Global South, instead the deal resulted in Ukraine re-selling the grain to Europe. Russia had warned several times that if the other part of the deal, that of lifting restrictions on their export of food and fertilizer, they would let the agreement expire.

The West can now claim that Russia has abandoned the humanitarian goals of the grain shipping deal. And the heavily propagandized public in NATO nations will eat this analysis up, much like they still cling to the absurd notion that Russia's entry into Ukraine's civil war in February 2022 was "unprovoked."

Some are suggesting that the straw that broke the grain deal's back was the use of a civilian ship carrying grain to launch drones that blew up the Kerch Strait bridge, injuring a teenager and killing her parents. But actually the cancellation announcement preceded the attack. (Ukraine recently took belated credit for the October 2022 attack on the bridge that links Russia and Crimea, an attack that used a suicide truck bomber rather than underwater drones.)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that NATO players are likely involved, too. 

Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians. The U.S. and Britain are in charge of a terrorist state structure.

Meanwhile you may be wondering, who will be the proxy assigned to fight China on behalf of NATO? Taiwan, Japan, and Australia are all in the running. Maybe Hong Kong and New Zealand too? Stay tuned. 

Pivot To Asia, Round Two

I've been hoping to find a digest of reliable information and analysis about U.S./NATO war plans aimed at China. Here is my second attempt, an imitation of my friend JK's valiant efforts on Ukraine news (her mini-digest "contains information you are not likely to read/hear in the Western/U.S. media." If you want to get on her list, message me.) 

A lot has happened since my first attempt back in February; but, since I don't read or speak either dialect of Chinese (or Japanese or Korean), I feel ill-qualified to edit news from China. Maybe someone among the readers here will consider taking this on?

Item #1

BLINKEN IN CHINA: Did it accomplish anything?   (9:41)

Andy Boreham, Reports on China, June 20, 2023

Excerpt:

"The common interests of the two countries should be valued, and their respective success is an opportunity instead of a threat to each other." Chinese President Xi Jinping

Item #2

Corporate media slanders China, Cuba: a lie so blatant even the Pentagon must deny it

by Sara Flounders, Worker's World, June 16, 2023

Excerpt: 

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío Domínguez, called the [Wall Street Journal] reports “totally mendacious and unfounded… Cuba rejects all foreign military presence in Latin America, including the many U.S. bases and troops” and the U.S. occupation of Guantanamo. 

(Note from LS: Touché)

Item #3

NATO opening an office in Japan

Bruce Gagnon, Organizing Notes, June 17, 2023

Excerpt:

NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Japan (likely hosted at Yokota Air Base), the first of its kind in Asia. The station will allow the military alliance to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as China emerges as ‘a new challenge’

Item #4

Strategies of Denial

by Gray Anderson, New Left Review, June 15, 2023

Excerpt: 

passage of the Inflation Reduction and CHIPS Acts made tangible the ‘deep integration of domestic policy and foreign policy’. Restrictions on the export of crucial AI and semiconductor components to China.. confirmed the drive to monopolize ‘chokepoint’ or ‘stranglehold’ technologies, a veritable declaration of economic war. ‘These actions’, a CSIS analysis concluded, ‘demonstrate an unprecedented degree of US government intervention to not only preserve chokepoint control but also begin a new US policy of actively strangling large segments of the Chinese technology industry – strangling with an intent to kill.’ 

Item #5

What's behind U.S.-driven reforms coming to the World Bank?

Conor Gallagher, Naked Capitalism (link is to Popular Resistance share), June 14, 2023

Excerpt:

Change is coming to the World Bank.. It’s difficult to predict exactly how the new mission will play out, but one thing is clear: the efforts are being driven by the desire to counter/thwart Beijing’s expanding global influence.. And it looks like the reforms will go hand in hand with pushing the debunked narrative that Chinese lending is a debt trap while also trying to relegate China to the backseat in the growing number of distressed countries.

(Note from LS: Since China kicked butt on accomplishing the "eradicate poverty" goal previously expressed as the World Bank's mission, PR spin is sorely needed.)

Item #6

The Hegemon Will Go Full Hybrid War Against BRICS+

Pepe Escobar, Strategic Culture, June 12, 2023

Excerpt:

U.S. Think Tank Land – inebriated by their self-created aura of power – always telegraphs in advance what they’re up to. That was the case with Project 9/11 (“We need a new Pearl Harbor”). That was the case with the RAND report on over-extending and unbalancing Russia. And now that’s the case with the incoming American War on BRICS as outlined by the chairman of the New York-based Eurasia Group.

Item #7

U.S. Navy preparing for war with China - COI #432 (51:51)

Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman, Conflicts of Interest, June 10, 2023

China portion begins around 11:40

Excerpt (from Antiwar.com post describing the contents of the video):

..details a top US admiral – the head of INDOPACOM – saying he’s been tasked by the president and the Pentagon chief to win direct a war with China over Taiwan

Item #8

Taiwan Says It's in Talks on Being Brought Under US Nuclear Umbrella

Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, May 28, 2023

Excerpt:

Taiwan’s foreign minister said last week that the US and Taiwan are in talks on the possibility of the island being brought under Washington’s nuclear umbrella, a step that would make a catastrophic war between the US and China much more likely.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu made the comments before Taiwan’s parliament

Item #9

Psy-ops warriors: Tiananmen Square and the media-pack

Gregory Clark, Pearls & Irritations, June 12, 2023

Item #10

Fixing an American Mess: China, Iran, and Pakistan link up to secure Afghanistan

F.M. Shakil, The Cradle, June 13, 2023

Excerpt:

As part of their strategic partnership agreement for 2021, China reportedly pledged a $400 billion investment in Iran over the next 25 years, while Pakistan hosts the flagship project of the BRI, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is in this complex security context that the first-ever trilateral anti-terrorist parley between China, Iran, and Pakistan took place last week.

Item #11

The generational divide in Australian politics is widening

Alan Patience, Pearls & Irritations, June 17, 2023

Excerpt:

AUKUS is becoming a rallying point for those who are fed up with the old politics. Local [Australian Labor Party] branches.. are rising up to condemn the Albanese government’s morally flawed commitment to the project. Indeed that commitment is likely to become counterproductive for the government at the next election. 

(Note from LS: AUKUS is a military alliance to threaten China -- Australia's largest trading partner -- and its provision to station nuclear submarines in Australia is a violation of that nation's constitution.)

Item #12

Fukushima plan a nuclear threat to Asia-Pacific

Shaun Burnie, China Daily, June 13, 2023

Excerpt:

There is no scientific, legal or moral justification for Japan to deliberately contaminate our shared and common marine environment. And concerned citizens, scientists, maritime lawyers, the fishing communities across the Asia-Pacific and the world's leading oceanography universities and institutes have spread public awareness about the nuclear dangers, something that has rarely been done before.

Item #13 (mainstream media source)

Space race: how the U.S. and China are locked in a battle to become superior in space

Rachel Shilke, Breaking News Reporter, Washington Examiner, June 20, 2023

Excerpt:

China launched its Tiangong space station in 2022, working as the sole operator and user. Tiangong was created after China was excluded from the [International Space Station], largely because of the U.S.'s reservations over Chinese space programs and their ties to the [People's Liberation Army].

(Note from LS: "Breaking news" from mainstream media alleges U.S. is "locked in battle" with China for space dominance, but "U.S. remains superior." Delusional thinking by the declining empire.)

---

Want to know more about how space figures into plans for war on China? 

More details and link to register for a July 15 Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space webinar here. (Note that the NY time should read EDT not EST.)