Guest Post by Caitlin Johnstone
When I was a little girl I used to end all my nightly prayers with the words, “And please no nuclear war, and peace on earth. Amen.” This was in the early eighties. The knowledge that weapons existed armed and ready which could annihilate all life on earth, including my Mum and my Dad and everyone I loved, kept me up at night.
I still marvel at the fact that these weapons exist, just as armed and just as ready, and we just go about our lives like it’s perfectly normal. They’re even more prone to malfunction than they were back then, because so many parts of the system are much older now. All it would take is something failing to work the way it’s meant to or somebody making a mistake or miscommunication that hadn’t been adequately anticipated and prepared for, and it could set into motion a chain of events from which there is no coming back. We’ve already come within a hair’s breadth of nuclear annihilation on more than one occasion due to such occurrances, and yet people still act like preventing that from ever happening isn’t the single most important priority for our entire species.
In the days leading up to the Helsinki summit between leaders of Russia and the United States, an open letter titled “Common Ground: For Secure Elections and True National Security” was published and signed by experts, activists and scholars ranging from Noam Chomsky to Gloria Steinem to Daniel Ellsberg to Michael Moore. Part of the letter reads as follows:
“At the same time, the US and Russian governments show numerous signs of being on a collision course. Diplomacy has given way to hostility and reciprocal consular expulsions, along with dozens of near-miss military encounters in Syria and in skies above Europe. Both sides are plunging ahead with major new weapons-development programs. In contrast to prior eras, there is now an alarming lack of standard procedures to keep the armed forces of both countries in sufficient communication to prevent an escalation that could lead to conventional or even nuclear attack. These tensions are festering between two nations with large quantities of nuclear weapons on virtual hair-trigger alert; yet the current partisan fixations in Washington are ignoring the dangers to global stability and, ultimately, human survival.”
Open Letter –On Common Ground: For Secure Elections & True National Security, signed by Gloria Steinem, Noam Chomsky, Walter Mosley, Amb. Jack Matlock, Gov. Bill Richardson, Valerie Plame, Daniel Ellsberg, Alice Walker, among 23 signers/ via @thenation https://t.co/sUTHXGlRnp
— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) July 11, 2018
All of this is completely true. You can perhaps understand why, then, when #TreasonSummit became the top trend on Twitter during the Helsinki summit, little 1983 Caitlin Johnstone wanted to punch everyone spouting that moronic bullshit right in the fucking nose.
Though you’ll never hear American mass media talking about it on either MSNBC or Fox News because it doesn’t fit the narrative on either side, Trump has actually dangerously escalated cold war tensions with Russia far beyond anything his predecessor dared to do. From adopting a Nuclear Posture Review with greatly increased aggression toward Russia and blurring lines between when nuclear strikes are and are not appropriate, to facilitating the longstanding neoconservative agenda to arm Ukraine (a dangerously hawkish move which Obama adamantly refused to do), to repeatedly bombing the Syrian government and killing Russians in Syria as part of its illegal occupation of that country, to throwing out Russian diplomats on more than one occasion, to expanding NATO with the addition of Montenegro, to aggressive sanctions on Russian oligarchs and more, this administration has inflamed tensions along multiple fronts and increased the probability of something going disastrously, irrevocably wrong.
Whether the US president has been doing these things because that was his plan all along, or because he is beholden to powers which wish to advance such agendas, or because he’s caving to political pressures from his opponents in order to avoid accusations of treason, is a question that’s open for debate. Personally, I do not care. What matters is the fact that these escalations are there, and that they need to be scaled down, and that I shouldn’t have to share a fucking planet with anyone who thinks otherwise.
Is #TreasonSummit really trending on Twitter?
Where was this hashtag when Trump was canoodling with Netanyahu and Bin Salman?
— sameera khan (@SameeraKhan) July 16, 2018
Opposing talks which could lead to de-escalations between the two countries who own almost all of the nuclear warheads in the world is inexcusable and unforgivable. I don’t care if you’re dumb enough to swallow the US intelligence community’s still completely unsubstantiated claims of Russian hacking. I don’t care if you think Trump is bought and owned by Vladimir Putin. Even if both of those things were true, there would still be no excuse for opposing peace talks in a dangerously escalating new cold war. None.
Communication and understanding in this situation is an objectively good thing. This meeting with Russia’s leader, which all US presidents have done for many decades, is an objectively good thing. If you have joined in the campaign to help shove the tide of opinion away from peace and toward nuclear holocaust, you are making yourself an enemy of humanity. You have become so warped and demented by your hatred of Donald Trump that it has made a part of you less human.
I despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for, and I despise everything that created him. I hate that I have to know his fucking name. But he is the only President of the United States right now, and he is in a unique position to help steer us away from the iceberg and avoid a confrontation that everyone on earth should want to avoid. Any possibility of that happening, however remote, should be supported.
Only assholes and morons oppose these peace talks. If you want to help steer this ship into the iceberg of nuclear holocaust, then I want you thrown overboard. Get a fucking grip, you raving lunatics. Stop this. Stop this immediately.
“this administration has inflamed tensions along multiple fronts and increased the probability of something going disastrously, irrevocably wrong.”
You’re pointing the blame in the wrong place. Blame the bullshit Russia investigation, the intel community coup, the Washington establishment, and the lying ass main stream media. That’s where your anger should be directed. Trump is meeting with Putin DESPITE all of this arrayed against him and your TDS will not allow you to see it… Chip
If a nuclear device is “lit off” in an American or European city, it will have Israel’s fingerprints all over it. Israel is desperate to keep the American money spigot running, as well as sabotaging the Palestinian “peace process” that the world wants it to take seriously.
In fact, if a nuclear device is “lit off” anywhere in the world, it will have come from Israel’s secret nuclear “stockpile”.
The “power outage” in Atlanta was a convenient excuse for Israel to perform a logistical “sleight of hand”, as an Israeli plane was allowed to land and take off during the “power outage” without receiving customs clearance or inspection. This is one of many Israeli companies that possesses a “special exemption” granted by the U S government that frees it from customs inspections. Just maybe another one of Israel’s nukes was just being pre-positioned or nuclear triggers (tritium) were being renewed, getting ready for “the big one”. As most Americans are tired of all of the foreign wars being fought for Israel’s benefit, another “incident” on American soil would be enough to galvanize the American public, once again, (just like WTC 9-11) to support another war for Israel’s benefit. Israel’s “samson option” is a real threat to “light one off” in a European or American city, if Israel’s interests are not taken seriously.
I wouldn’t worry about Russian nukes. The “elephant in the room” that no one wishes to talk about is Israel.
Israel refuses to abide by IAEA guidelines concerning its nukes as they are already distributed around the world. Israel would not be able to produce all of them as most of them are not in Israel, proper. No delivery systems are needed as Israel’s nukes are already “in place”. Look for another “false flag” operation with the blame being put on Iran or Syria. You can bet that some Iranian or Syrian passports will be found in the rubble.
Israel also threatens to detonate nuclear devices in several US cities. Talk about total INSANITY; the so-called “Samson Option” is it.
As an aside, American “foreign aid” is prohibited from being given to any country that has not signed the “Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty” or refuses to abide by “International Atomic Energy Agency” (IAEA) guidelines regarding its nuclear devices. Guess what?? Israel does not abide by EITHER and still gets the majority of American “foreign aid”. This prohibition also applies to countries that do not register their “agents of a foreign government” with the U S State Department. Guess what?? Israel (again) with its “American Israel Political Action Committee” (AIPAC) still gets “foreign aid” in contravention of American law..
There are forty or so congressmen, senators and thousands of high-level policy “wonks” infecting the U S government who hold “dual citizenship” with Israel. Such dual citizenship must be strictly prohibited. Those holding dual citizenship must be required to renounce said foreign citizenship. Refusal to do so should result in immediate deportation with loss of American citizenship. Present and former holders of dual citizenship should never be allowed to serve in any American governmental capacity.
If a nuclear device is “lit off” in an American or European city, it will have Israel’s fingerprints all over it. Israel is desperate to keep the American money spigot running, as well as sabotaging the Palestinian “peace process” that the world wants it to take seriously.
In fact, if a nuclear device is “lit off” anywhere in the world, it will have come from Israel’s secret nuclear “stockpile”.
The “power outage” in Atlanta was a convenient excuse for Israel to perform a logistical “sleight of hand”, as an Israeli plane was allowed to land and take off during the “power outage” without receiving customs clearance or inspection. This is one of many Israeli companies that possesses a “special exemption” granted by the U S government that frees it from customs inspections. Just maybe another one of Israel’s nukes was just being pre-positioned or nuclear triggers (tritium) were being renewed, getting ready for “the big one”. As most Americans are tired of all of the foreign wars being fought for Israel’s benefit, another “incident” on American soil would be enough to galvanize the American public, once again, (just like WTC 9-11) to support another war for Israel’s benefit. Israel’s “samson option” is a real threat to “light one off” in a European or American city, if Israel’s interests are not taken seriously.
Israel refuses to abide by IAEA guidelines concerning its nukes as they are already distributed around the world. Israel would not be able to produce all of them as most of them are not in Israel, proper. No delivery systems are needed as Israel’s nukes are already “in place”. Look for another “false flag” operation with the blame being put on Iran or Syria. You can bet that some Iranian or Syrian passports will be found in the rubble.
Israel also threatens to detonate nuclear devices in several US cities. Talk about total INSANITY; the so-called “Samson Option” is it.
As an aside, American “foreign aid” is prohibited from being given to any country that has not signed the “Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty” or refuses to abide by “International Atomic Energy Agency” (IAEA) guidelines regarding its nuclear devices. Guess what?? Israel does not abide by EITHER and still gets the majority of American “foreign aid”. This prohibition also applies to countries that do not register their “agents of a foreign government” with the U S State Department. Guess what?? Israel (again) with its “American Israel Political Action Committee” (AIPAC) still gets “foreign aid” in contravention of American law..
There are forty or so congressmen, senators and thousands of high-level policy “wonks” infecting the U S government who hold “dual citizenship” with Israel. Such dual citizenship must be strictly prohibited. Those holding dual citizenship must be required to renounce said foreign citizenship. Refusal to do so should result in immediate deportation with loss of American citizenship. Present and former holders of dual citizenship should never be allowed to serve in any American governmental capacity.
When Netanyahu addressed both houses of congress, it was sickening to see our politicians slobber all over themselves to PROVE that they were unconditional supporters of Israel…just who the hell do they work for? Certainly not for the interests of the American people and the United States…they should renounce their United States citizenship and be deported to Israel…
When Netanyahu addressed both houses of congress, it was sickening to see our politicians slobber all over themselves to PROVE that they were unconditional supporters of Israel…just who the hell do they work for? Certainly not for the interests of the American people and the United States…they should renounce their United States citizenship and be deported to Israel…
I think I just had a Deja Vu.
Yep. About the 10th time we’ve had to endure that particular C & P job.
This gal has brass ovaries. Her piece on wishing death on mc shit is spot on. I have as little respect for the Orange Crusader as I had for the other Grand High Exalted Mystic Rulers (Gleason) before him but he’s obviously flying in the face of the establishment seeking peace with Russia. The dummo-libs have evolved into the party of the establishment and they’ve lost their fucking minds in the process. Trump deserves great credit for having the balls to try. Only insane, delusional maniacs would hope he fails and tensions grow.
CCRider said,
“Trump deserves great credit for having the balls to try. Only insane, delusional maniacs would hope he fails and tensions grow.”
Those in opposition to the peace talks understand the BIGGER PICTURE and see the phony gesture of the olive branch between billionaire oligarchs as ANOTHER marched step towards an out in the open One world technocratic NEO feudal kakistocrac are not wishing for nuclear annihilation by pointing these things out….
WE DARE NOT FORGET THIS, even for a second as appears Ms. Johnstone has apparently done, finally being forced to show some of her hand and us glimpse her true motives for her “Ovaries of Steel” and truth speaking as of late…
Kaitlynn Johnstone also warned those in opposition of peace talks,
“Whether the US president has been doing these things because that was his plan all along, or because he is beholden to powers which wish to advance such agendas, or because he’s caving to political pressures from his opponents in order to avoid accusations of treason, is a question that’s open for debate. Personally, I do not care. ”
I DO CARE if he “IS beholden to powers which wish to advance ‘such’ agendas”…
Like my source told me as Trump entered primaries, “Looks like they found their man.”
What this meant according to this, for lack of a better word, “SPY” was:
1. NO WWIII. This was hard for me to accept because I was pretty adamant that all signs pointed to a manufactured conflagration between the BRICS vs. NATO a la the historical pretext that justified WWI in the American PUBLIC schoo textbooks…
2. Another Big War, but not in the Middle East. Which I assumed meant with North Korea because of the rhetoric and military positioning, South China Sea stuff with China, selling arms to Taiwan and my belief that with the finding of trillions of dollars in rare earth minerals in North Korea and Russian/China natural gas deal worth tens of billions of dollars, and the One Belt one road initiative that the Korean peninsula would be UNIFIED.
But now I’m not so sure,
Maybe it’s this fomented, engineered civil war in America….because of my belief that active measures have begun in earnest on American society and Brand Trump and his arrogant persona is adding fuel to the fire of the inevitable escalation…when ALL ROADS of resolution lead to conflict and bloodshed.
We are supposed to embrace the picture opt writing of this narrative abroad with Russia, yet people yearn for war at home…so Russia and the global oligarch community can sit back and fund both sides on our way down the toilet.
We are doomed to repeat the horrors of the Weimar republic it seems.
“I despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for, and I despise everything that created him. I hate that I have to know his fucking name.”
_______________________
I’m not quite as passionate about my loathing of the great golden boy as Caitlin, but I’m definitely riding in the same boat. Trump exudes sleaze in an overt, in-your-face way and for a rich guy is rather unique in lacking any semblance of class. This is a guy that will take a $200 steak and pour ketchup on it.
This is a guy that will marry a $10,000/ hr model and sleep with a $200/hr hooker.
This morning in the USA Today there is a commentary by Rand Paul that simply makes the point that the US needs to look at the massive expansion of NATO countries from Russia’s perspective (that they are basically surrounded and that the numbers continue to grow on their direct border) and understand their position in all of this.
The number of people calling him a traitor in the comments reminds me of how, when Ron Paul essentially restated the “Golden Rule” of Jesus when it came to foreign policy (ie. – we need to look at how we would feel if they did the same things to us that we do to them), he was booed – at a Conservative Christian gathering.
Empathy is something nearly completely lacking in our society it seems.
Mr. Liberty
Great points made by both Pauls lately…
Ms. Johnstone mentioned recent NATO member Montenegro…
https://plus.google.com/116552287217847892988/posts/NJyuUHSNUHi
From February of this year…
Russia deploys nuclear-capable missiles to border with Poland and Lithuania
President of Lithuania warns weapons pose threat to ‘half of all European countries’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-nuclear-missiles-kaliningrad-baltic-sea-poland-lithuania-nato-a8199011.html
Does anyone really believe our president could do any worse in any foreign policy arena then what has already been FUBAR for decades !
I remember being convinced that hiding under my desk at school would protect me from blast debris from a 97 megaton nuclear blast that creates a crater a mile deep and 35 Miles accross , I’m grown up now and witnessed enough foreign policy blunders that put more than enough names on a wall !
If president Trump can make peace and an alley out of a potential enemy great it’s cheaper and safer than trapping off into some armed conflict to get cheap Nike’s 30 years later .
As for assholes and morons they have had their way long enough and their shit has not worked or has it ?
I suppose that depends on what the real goal is ?
One thing you can count on what has been ultimately done for the last 40 to 50 years had nothing to do with the health and welfare of the American people or the nation as a whole . That is unless the goal is to turn the US into a “SHIT HOLE”