Duck and Cover all you want, It won't do any good
Time sure flies doesn't it? It seems like just yesterday when the neocon/Zionist think tank, Project for a New American Century (PNAC), published it's world domination manifesto in September of 2000. They said America was King/Queen of the World and to keep it that way, it must "rebuild it's defenses", i.e., it's military, so it could remain the Super Supremo Superpower. Any and all challengers and impediments to world domination would be handled through military and economic strength.
I also remember clearly when General Wesley "I'm one of them" Clark, back in 2006, told the world about the neocon/Zionist plan to take down "seven countries in five years". The same neocons/Zionists from the think tank PNAC who infested the Bush administration.
I remember warning people during Obama's war in Libya that the powers that be weren't stopping there, they still had Syria, Iran, then Russia and China. Then Ukraine happened, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the alliances between China, Russia, Iran and others, and here we are today on the brink of a nuclear war.
People better believe that, to paraphrase the Orange President Dude. There is a very real possibility of war with China and Russia which could very well go nuclear. I've read a number of "alternative news" commentators who've suggested that the most pressing issue for left leaning activists is to revive the antiwar movement, or fucking create one for that matter. I agree. I think we ain't seen nothing yet. These people at the top of our food chain, they're serious about this American domination thing. Don't doubt those in power won't do whatever it takes to get the job done.
A nuclear war is the wild card. That's where we're at.
I have to pimp this article, "The New (Cold?) War with China" by Alan Nassar. It is an excellent summation of the current situation regarding China and why we are at Danger Level Five. He pulls it all together. I can't recommend it enough. I had previously written an essay referencing John Pilger's article, "The Coming War with China". (John Pilger, “The Coming War on China”, CounterPunch, December 2, 2016.) This is serious stuff.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/27/the-new-cold-war-with-china/
Comments
Scary article
I think before they take on China they are going to take on Russia first. We know that they have troops in at least 20 countries that surround Russia and they are practicing war games in the seas around Russia.
They have put missle defense shields in 3-4 countries surrounding Russia and are ramping up their anti Russia propaganda by accusing Russia of interfering with the election.
And the American sheep are buying it.
There is a diary on DK about how Putin has been using Trump as a puppet for at least 5 years or more.
I think one source says it goes back 16 years when Trump might have been thinking about running for president.
Does it matter that China holds so much of our debt? If it does then why can't it call it in and bankrupt the USA?
One thing is for sure though. Our leaders are fucking nuts if they truly believe that they can survive a first strike against Russia.
Yep, remember your duck and cover drills kids. I'm sure that those desks will protect you from nuclear radiation.
Relative to Russia, the most logical analysis I've seen
from a number of sources is they'll first try to break or damage the alliance that's formed between Russia and China, i.e., a divide and conquer strategy, which entails overtures toward Russia/Putin and increased hostility toward China. That's how the Trump admin is lining up. China is the number one economic power now, strategies changes according to the situation. The debt doesn't matter like people think it does, not when one side is willing to go all the way and the other isn't.
An episode of a U.K. TV series,
"New Tricks," dealt with fallout shelters that people could construct for themselves in case of a nuclear blast. A character speculates that most that people could afford to construct were meant to be a place where people would die, essentially tombs to keep bodies off the streets. I was just a kid during the whole build-a-bomb-shelter era. That more chilling intent didn't occur to me, even when they showed sketches of a "shelter" made with a door laid like a lean-to against a house foundation with dirt on top of it. It seems pretty creepy now.
Of course President Reagan reportedly wanted to see where the "war room" that he saw in Doctor Strangelove (which of course doesn't exist). Because the overlords should never face the risks that the rest of us would face as a result of their reckless behavior.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
duck and cover
I was just a kid, too, when home fallout shelters distinguished the haves from the have-nots (my family) in the neighborhood. But I'd never heard the "duck and cover" routine until later in life.
In our St. Leo Catholic School, we didn't duck under our desks, we drilled to line up in the hallways as quickly, and of course, as orderly as possible. ("No talking in line" was a mantra that applied to all line-up situations) The idea was that this was the most structurally-sound area, and away from all the glass in the very tall windows in every classroom. But us kids secretly shared a dark inside joke about it, and one maybe not so crazy....it would be an easier task to collect all of our dead, irradiated bodies if a bulldozer could just run down the hallway and scoop the lot of us up in one pass. Don't die harder....die smarter!
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh
Wow! My public elementary school, Layton Hall
Elementary was across the road from St. Leo's Catholic School, although probably not your St. Leo's. We did use the hallways for "cover," but it was all bs anyway. We started our Civil Defense "training" in Pennsylvania before moving south.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Read years ago good Nation article on one bomb hitting Detroit
Article was written way way back when. It looked at what would happen if one Soviet MIRV hit Detroit, and nothing more. Fall out shelters would become no more than a quick cook oven as the oxygen would be pulled out to feed the gigantic fireball, then followed with a massive heat wave. And if you were in Chicago expect to die shortly of radiation sickness.
Just recently read where some experts speculated that nuke exchange between India and Pakistan would be enough to trigger a nuclear winter.
From what I have been reading now and then, the super rich are looking to buy extremely durable fall out shelters or looking to run away to remote spots like New Zealand.
I don't think there is anywhere one can hide and survive a full on nuclear war. It would be more a matter of how many more weeks would one survive compared to those who died instantly.
And the insane neocons in the Pentagon are gaming a limited nuclear war with Russia and concluding that we could win one.
You read Nevil Shute's "On the Beach"? Not even more
remote areas like Australia were safe from fallout. TPTB are delusional.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Thanks. I have seen parts of the movie. Very moving.
I remember thinking they showed the horror of nuclear war without showing the wreckage.
I tend to tear up when I hear Waltzing Mathilda.
Is it worth trying to start an antinuclear movement?
So many countries have nukes. The rich folk think they are above the peasants and that they can somehow control weather, earthquakes, and entire ecosystems. They probably can be among the few who survive serious global warming, but they could not survive a nuclear war.
Economic justice will give us more power to demand an end to nuclear brinksmanship. What is the best focus of our efforts?
Who holds US debt
This article from CNN money shows that the vast majority of US debt is held by US citizens, including various banks, pension funds, individuals, state and local governments. The single greatest holder of US debt is the Social Security Trust Fund.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
So much for Al Gore's "lockbox"
Why do they got to borrow from Social Security?
Beware the bullshit factories.
Why?
Two reasons. First, it's a great way to fleece the middle class that have been pumping money into the system for 80 years. Second, it's a great way to fleece the middle class by declaring that Social Security is broke and those 80 years of pumping ain't gonna be paid back.
It's also a great way to pay for wars, without the war tax
that FDR levied to fund our participation in WW II. I mean, a war tax only makes war even more unpopular; and we can't risk that the populace finally rebels against the insane institution of war, can we?
The OT had the right idea. Forget armies. Choose one person from each side (preferably the one most responsible for war); let them fight each other (David and Goliath).
Have a plebiscite
All those voting for war will be required to go and fight: no upper age limit.
Or better: all those voting FOR war in congressional districts whose Congressperson voted FOR war will be required to fight - and the Congressperson voting for war will be required to surrender his/her seat and enlist as their commander.
All those voting for war in congressional districts whose Congressperson voted against war will be allowed to volunteer for service, and will be liable for war taxes.
No service shall be required, and no taxes shall be collected, from those voting against war.
Government Borrowing Not so Fast
The Social Security trust fund takes in more money than it spends each month at least for now. So what to do with the extra cash. Sorry not enough mattresses too much cash. They buy US Treasury Notes and bonds which at least used to pay interest and they are backed by the full faith and credit of the US. So Social Security makes one of if not the safest investments in the world with the excess funds and they are totally commission free.
T-bills and bonds are forms of loans. They are loaning the government money in exchange for notes that can be cashed in later. So from the Treasury side it is a debt that as to be re-payed. But it's also an asset in that they have the money available to spend so long as they keep enough funds on hand to meet daily demands just like a bank does.
The money is then available to the General Fund and can be spent by Congress anyway it chooses. They are in the same position as a bank is when you deposit funds in a savings account or buy a certificate of deposit. The bank can loan it out to people to buy cars and houses or they can build new bank buildings or as they often do also buy short term T-bills to park their excess cash just like Social Security. Congress doesn't just go raid the Social Security Trust Fund the way most people make it seem.
The only catch is that at least in theory they could pass a law under which they would default on the debt similar to what corporations have done with their retirement funds though bankruptcy proceedings. However defaulting on trillions in SS debt would mess with the economy worldwide. it has always been possible but not probable.
Now the alternative is the Ryan plan. The GOP would prefer that the Trust Fund invest in the private stock and bond market. Why? Because they would be subject to the same brokerage fees as any other transaction and it would pump trillions into the casino known as Wall Street. Bankers would have the holiday to end all holidays and there would be billion dollar CEO bonuses rather than puny hundreds of millions.
When all the high fives were done old people would be back to starving to death or ending their life in some "poor house". Catfood would be a luxury. If you don't believe it read your history. In fact I can recommend a book called Square Meals that is written about Depression era feeding programs and the history of how they came about.
What they haven't come to grips with is that it would also drain an equal amount from the General Fund or maybe they have since drown the government is their mantra.
So rather than thinking of the Government borrowing from or raiding Social Security. Which would you rather have you retirement invested in Government securities that are no more or less safe than the money in your pocket or investment bankers, or in mattresses to stuff? Money doesn't just sit around. It is either spent or invested somewhere.
Well, they only held off the
Well, they only held off the nuke fight for so long. Looks like they want it back on the table as an option. Why do you think Putin had prepped his people for a warmongering Hillary with shelters set back up and drills to get folks to head to shelters? they are more ready for a nuke fight than we are. America and China would be likely to let folks go to Nuclear Ashes so they could have the wealth left for the top class, and screw all others, but they forget, w/o a way to fix things and have food production again, nuke fights are pretty much a final option .
So long, and thanks for all the fish
If not an earthquake to ‘duck and cover’ from,
there's nuclear disaster to also consider.
Even though this thesis is relevant to New Zealand’s future security in the Asia-Pacific region, there are many points that support the projected transition from the US’s place of power to China.
There's lots more in this long thesis.
Compare Obama to Putin and Xi Jinping. Who comes across as
the more sane? Obama has become a joke in international affairs.
The following is an excellent read. (All the cartoons are priceless.)
The third article is great, CB. Thanks for the link to it
As many people have written, it's the USA and its allies that are creating the terrorists in Syria to help overthrow Assad.
They were the ones who used the sarin gas on the Syrian people, but Obama used it as an excuse for overthrowing Assad. How callous and cowardice was that?
And Putin also shamed him into finally attacking the ISIS convoys that were miles long that were taking oil into Turkey to sell to Israel and coming out with supplies.
Obama dropped a few bombs on them, but not enough to damage them because he said that he didn't want to hurt innocent civilians. Now that was rich coming from the drone king who had no problem bombing weddings or the people that came to help them.
Then there's the coup in Ukraine where they are funding the same group of neo Nazis that they fought against during WWII, just like they are funding the same group of terrorists who they fought against during the Iraq war.
The soldiers who fought in both of those wars should be in the streets over this. That is the very definition of hypocrisy.
And it's going to be another one of Obamas's legacies.
But, hey there's Lily Ledbetter, right?
From M.A.D. to N.U.T.S.
In the Reagan Era, a.k.a. the Second Cold War, the theoretical basis of US nuclear policy shifted from MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) to NUTS (Nuclear Utilization Target Selection). In plain English, that means we went from a policy of having nukes to AVOID war to having nukes to MAKE war. In plainer English, we went from just plain MAD to totally NUTS...as some of the following quotations from the era reveal.
The advice of Pipes and others like him was taken seriously by Reagan, who in late 1981 approved a National Security Decision Document committing the United States to fight and win a global nuclear war.
The kind of nuke war they were planning was not like in the movies or popular books - a single reciprocal exchange of 'massive retaliation' then done. No, this was to be a long, drawn out affair - "a protracted struggle lasting up to 6 months", as the NYT put it, for which we would have to stockpile a LOT of nukes. US Secretary of State George Schultz was asked at the time, how many?
Needless to say, all this talk of protracted nuclear war was worrisome to ordinary people, who wondered how we could survive. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, T.K. Jones helpfully explained:
Got that, boys and girls? No more 'duck and cover': it's the dirt that does it. The USG created civil defense plans to evacuate major US cities in the even of nuclear war, called 'Crisis Relocation Planning'. Of course, the top brass understood very well this was just to calm the population, since in real life there is no way you are evacuating a city... So in a real nuclear war, the likelihood was that we would lose a significant portion of the population. But Reagan admin officials were still sanguine:
I feel better already.
We're not Serfs, we're ants.
. . . and TPTB have a magnifying glass.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
and then what?
Typical utopian short-sightedness, denial and rationalization, then and today....
After crawling into a hole under 3 feet of dirt....then what?
After evacuating millions into the countryside....then what?
After deposing/assassinating a demonized leadership....then what?
In all cases, mostly just death of mostly ordinary people....that's what.
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh
Yeah. But what is the downside?
We have entered the time of the Great Depopulation.
You'll notice the "serious people" aren't squawking about climate change. They're mum or they brush it off. They know what needs to be done. If you look at the science, they are right, I am sorry to say.
Look around. Who ever heard of fighting nuclear wars over such minor side issues? This normalization of nuclear conflict is clearly the set up for what's to come.
I think it was Churchill who said that after a certain point
more bombs just make the rubble bounce. Nuclear war would devastate the planet to the point where even the cockroaches would have a difficult time surviving.
Global warming will cause serious problems, but we can still mitigate the damage. I am mostly worried about the release of methane clathrates in the Arctic. The rate of release will make a big difference.
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/features/200409_methane/
I dont' get it.
If depopulation is their end game, why are so many so anti-birth control and anti-abortion and anti-sex education for so long? Why do they encourage people to keep having so many babies, only for them to die miserably or fight and be killed in wars? That's just about the cruelest, evilest thing imaginable.
This shit is bananas.
You answered your own question.
"for them to die miserably or fight and be killed in wars", which simultaneously keeps them dis-engaged from any viable political power.
I love your sig line...I once had it put on a tee-shirt for a good friend of mine, and I and the world do miss her dearly.
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh
Maybe it's for the best that most of the old city fallout
shelters have been re-purposed or buried. I guess that means the Plan B (or C, or D, or E or Z) is to "let" the peons die off, instantly or miserably later in the cold and dark.
One downtown here was in the sub-basement of the old High School (now apartments and shops above and one story under). My husband was an architect for the "new" high school. He scored an old metal can with a metal lid that stored water, with directions on how when empty it could be used as a "latrine". It now holds dog food here. Mouse-proof, you know.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
The eiltes will survive
but they will emerge from their shelters to a devastated ecosystem.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
And only the serfs that they took into their bunkers
to serve them while they were waiting for the air and ground to clear.
Look up understand bunkers at Denver airport.
CT or what? I've read that the elites are building underground bunkers in many states and countries.
Who knows if it's true or not, but I'm reminded of the movie 2012
Best documentary on Nuclear War
Made and then banned in the UK. It was considered too horrific to show and as I read somewhere, it might convince people to be against nuclear weapons. Made in the 1960s. After watching it felt like somebody threw a basketball in my face. It starts positing conflict between America and China, spreading to Europe. It uses a kind of docu-drame format.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game
Here is site to view it which I have not tried yet..
https://archive.org/details/thewargamereel2
"Threads" from the BBC (mid '80's),
much to Thatcher's chagrin, dealt with a nuclear exchange and the resultant 'nuclear winter'. Not good for the citizens of Sheffield.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Threads...
I was a just turned 20 something moved to the UK from America when that came out. Watched it and it immediately and irrevocably changed my view on myself, my country, my other country (UK), and the world. Maybe a kitschy series, I dunno, but it changed me forever and made me the hippie dippie, farmer/archaeologist, anti-war protester, socialist that I am. Born to late to be a protester in the 60's, I joined in the 80's and have never left.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Pretty much.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6prK716ssM]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Umatilla Army Depot, 1957
To dispose of bombs containing various nasty chemicals, the personal of the Umatilla Army Depot would stack several at a time in a pit and burn them. The resulting explosions would cause the windows to shake in "Sandstone School" about 5 miles to the East.
That classroom looked very similar to the one pictured above.
Thanks for the memories · · · I think · · ·