As Our Governments Prepare for World War, the People Seem Helpless
The World Socialist Website is reporting something that is kind of important. I say that sarcastically, yes I do.
"Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian industry to be prepared to divert all its efforts into war production."
The human race is about to confront it's greatest fear, whether it is capable of eradicating itself from the face of the earth.
"Putin reportedly made this remark at the Sochi summit, where he discussed the Syrian war with Turkish and Iranian officials. As he spoke, he was reviewing the Russian military’s annual Zapad military exercise, which took place in September, with Russian army staff.
Putin said,
“The ability of our economy to increase military production and services at a given time is one of the most important aspects of military security. To this end, all strategic and simply large-scale enterprise should be ready, regardless of ownership.”
Russia is currently conducting exercises related to an all-out mobilization for a war against the United States and allies. That includes everything from practicing firing off their nukes toward New York, L.A., Washington D.C. and Seattle, WA to a complete national focus on weapons manufacturing and ground, naval, air, intelligence, media, and war support operations.
WSWS is right in warning:
"Putin’s remarks are an urgent warning to the international working class. Global capitalism is undergoing a historic political collapse. The danger of a Third World War, rooted in the conflict between the nation-state system and the global character of economic production, is imminent and growing. What Putin announced openly at the Sochi summit is what NATO governments are doing behind the backs of the people: preparing for all-out global war directly between the major nuclear powers and, if necessary, against their own population."
As stated, the U.S. and NATO are also in preparations for all out war and you can bet China is doing so also.
"Two weeks ago, NATO held a summit in Brussels to discuss building naval and logistical bases to transport US and European troops across the Atlantic and the European continent to fight Russia. Reviewing the summit agenda, German news magazine Der Spiegel concluded, “In plain language: NATO is preparing for a possible war with Russia.”
You think things are bad now?
"As in Russia, NATO officials are readying for such a war with plans to subordinate all social and economic life to the diktat of the banks and the military."
How would you like to be subordinated?
WSWS consistently has been calling for an international working class movement against war, capitalism and oligarchy. They do so once again. Perhaps more people are coming closer to listening?
"There is no way to stop the drive to war outside a politically-conscious intervention by the working class, on an international scale, in revolutionary opposition to war and to capitalism. The greatest danger in this situation is that masses of workers are not fully aware of the depth of the political crisis and the rapidly rising danger of a catastrophic war.
It is under these conditions that, amid a campaign denouncing Russia in US and European media, governments are demanding stepped-up censorship of the Internet and social media, and Google is censoring anti-war and socialist web sites, first and foremost the World Socialist Web Site. This is why the WSWS calls for building an international anti-war movement in the working class and a socialist and anti-imperialist perspective, and asks for its readers’ support in spreading its materials against censorship and war."
Do you really think trying to elect better politicians is going to solve this problem? While the United States slumbers into the Christmas season and the New Year, world war inches closer and closer. Instead of focusing on electing more politicians as the media and government will herd people to do next November, it might be better to focus on how to stop these maniacs from killing us all right now.
Comments
I'm not surprised by this
I've been reading and commenting about this since Obama was president. This started roughly 3 years ago when NATO was putting troops and military equipment into countries that surround Russia after Obama's Ukraine coup and Russia annexing Crimea. Obama kept saying that Russia was the aggressor in this area, when it was our country that overthrew Ukraine's government and then they supported the neo nazis. The propaganda that was spouted since then was so people will get behind the upcoming war against Russia. And look at how easily people have fallen for this. Their stupidity at believing what Brenn, Clapper and others is basically saying that they won't have a problem with this.
The wars in the Middle East have removed many of Russia's allies which is another reason for them.
Kremlin instructs Russian industry to prepare for war mobilization
If North Korea is destabilized by the sanctions or if Trump is stupid enough to bomb them, this will remove another ally.
Thanks for covering this. I'm pretty sure that the media isn't going to do it since i haven't seen them do it anywhere except on alternate websites.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I don't believe people have fallen for it
but the msm, the hillbots, the neocons etc.etc.
that control the narrative and make it seem like we
have fallen for it. It's their cognitive dissonance
at work, they really don't care either way if the
people have fallen for it or not.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
And just in case the world isn't insane enough
Israel responds to defeat of Islamist rebels in Syria with threat of wider regional war
Gee, maybe if they hadn't had us destroy so many countries in the Middle East, they wouldn't be feeling the threats to their country.
More fun and games. Canada doesn't want to be left behind the upcoming war with Russia.
Canada adopts anti-Russia Magnitsky Act
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Wow, this has got to stop.
We've reached overload, can you feel it? Maybe this it. Maybe people will finally see this has gone too far and has to be stopped.
I feel it
I've been reading comments that show people are getting ready to jump out of the boiling kettle. The rollback of net neutrality on top of the tax cuts has pushed people too far.
Add this to everything else that they have done to us and boom....
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Boom
Better the boom caused by We the People, than the Big Boom followed by nuclear winter.
I'm hoping that most people understand about the consequences of nuclear war, and don't think nuclear weapons are just like regular weapons, only with a bigger explosion.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I fear they don’t.
For too many like myself, a Gen X’er, or younger, atomic weapons are an abstract concept. Test footage has been reduced to stock footage from too many midnight movies or kitschy “duck and cover” safety films. We weren’t alive when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s all ancient history.
I grew up at the tail end of the first Cold War. I remember learning about nuclear winter and things of that because it was still a very real fear. But, after Regan tore down the wall (snort!) all that seemed to fade away.
Furthermore, I know the effect of the endless coverage of Gulf War I, aka “the first Nintendo war” as some called it, really seemed to turn war into an abstract concept for me even as it was happening. I remember people speculating about if Saddam had “the bomb”, but it was so much milder than the paranoia of my earlier childhood. (Its almost like TPTB knew that wasn’t a real possibility...hmm...)
At the risk of sounding like an old crank, I really think from the mid 80s on, War became that thing that happened to other people and because we “won” the Cold War, atomic weapons moved from being a threat to a meaningless status symbol of a country’s military prowess. No one talks about the hazards anymore and modern warfare is so removed to so many, to say nothing of the influences of a “survivalist” industry as robust as ever, that I’m sure most people have no idea what they’d be in for, or thing they can just ride it out.
I still remember seeing one of those documentaries on the bomb that was largely comprised of bomb tests and it was truly one of the most haunting and terrifying things I’ve ever seen. It I wasn’t already a peacknik, that would have flipped me, for sure.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
@snoopydawg
Trudeau sucks the same Kochs, et al, as did Harper. I wonder if their luxury bunkers will survive the results, whether they'll be in them in time, and what they'll be thinking when their power and/or other supplies fail...
China, Russia and everybody else on the to-be-attacked lists right down to India will all have to strike us all at once - although it only takes a hundred nukes to make life on the planet extinct. In any event, I'd just like to say how much I appreciate - and how happy I am to have known - y'all.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I agree completely.
This brings to mind Hillary's proposal for a no-fly zone over Syria. When pressed during debates about the implications of enforcing it (i.e. actually having to shoot down Russian planes), first by Bernie Sanders, then later by debate moderators with Trump, she completely rejected the scenario, as if it would never come to that, an answer that still didn't satisfy anyone, yet the MSM conveniently didn't press her on it.
Now that they (Hillary) lost, it seems like the Russians are behind every problem.
It really does look like the MIC (likely in association with other powerful interests) have their hearts set on a war with Russia.
And with the Uranium One deal, a planned limited nuclear exchange could have been (and could still be) in the works. Maybe as a way to deal with that pesky refugee problem.
The details are harder to know, but it does look like a war with Russia is in the cards.
Mike Taylor
they are crazy & may kill us all
@irishking Or they feel that
Or they feel that ultimately it's good for business, and they can escape to New Zealand with their fortunes and avoid the worst of it. In some vocabularies you cannot have the word creative without the word destruction.
This amazed me too
I was wondering how many people voted for Obama instead of her because of her Iraq war vote, but then were going to vote for her even though she was telling us that she wanted to create a no fly zone over Syria which would have risked war with Russia?
This is the same type of thinking when the people who had protested against the Iraq then stayed silent when Obama started doing the same damn things in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Whenever anyone spoke about this on DK, we were told to stfu and then called Obama haters just because we still had a problem with our country killing civilians...
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
let' s hear from Bernie on the subject.
what is his answer?
if silent, then what fucking good is he?
@irishking Or Robert Reich. He is
Or Robert Reich. He is all over the tax issue but he is right in step with neoliberals when it comes to Russia and the war machine.
If passing your purity test
forces politicians whose policies are closest to yours to lose elections, you're not making much of a contribution.
"Purity test"?
That's the code phrase the Dem establishment uses in an attempt to shut up the progressives and shame them into voting for the DNC candidate.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
But
progressives increasingly seem to be developing a set of their own. Bernie doesn't make it anymore. Elizabeth Warren doesn't make it because she was virtually the last senator to endorse Hillary after she locked up the primary, but she still endorsed her and campaigned for her. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard, but the leap from the House to the Executive Office is long for anybody, let alone a cutting edge progressive,
Maybe I'm wrong. Please name a couple of senators who meet your criteria.
Why should he?
Take that stuff to GOS where it belongs.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Don't type an incoherent one liner,
then tell me to take anything to the GOS. You sound like you'd fit right in.
I'm not attacking anybody. I'm asking a serious question. If no one can get elected meeting a set of standards there is a problem. If there are such people I'd like to be aware of it. Where is the insult that should banish me to the GOS?
"Please name a couple of senators who meet your criteria"
the dem party is MIA .
that is my point.
I think they are wrong to go along and want it stopped.
sorry if that makes some uncomfortable.
calling you out, Bernie.
why are you cool with killing babies?
"I am a domestic issue guy" doesn't cut it.
The thought that
the Democratic Party is MIA doesn't upset me in the least. If there is no one in that party who fills the bill, a new party or a revolution seems the only way out.
The 2016 election should have been a golden opportunity for a 3rd party. Nothing happened. Is there a Progressive Ross Perot out there?
I know where you want to go. I like where you want to go. But I don't see the path so far. I'm willing to let a thousand flowers bloom and work with the fittest and most attractive. It isn't easy. I see the pictures from Yemen and Syria too. But the MSM said Trump became presidential when he fired 59 cruise missiles into Syria in response to what was quite likely a false flag gas attack. His popularity went up briefly.
There is nothing that stops us from taking everything we can get, little as it is, from Progressives on domestic policy while trying to build an anti-war movement.
just can't let Bernie off the hook
but ymmv.
"purity test"
since when is too much to ask a leading progressive to oppose criminal war crimes?
why should that cause him to lose an election?
baffled.
if the people need to know more, he should tell them.
not hard.
@irishking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxXKr2hKCz0
This apart from Homeland Security taking control over all electoral infrastructures.
What might work would involve a landslide win too evident to be denied and cheated into oblivion.
Nation-wide Strategic voting for non-corporate/non-warhawk candidates only, paper ballots only, insistence on citizen oversight every step of the electoral way and a stated en masse refusal to ever again accept suspicious electoral results - or deaths.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I am not seeing any anti-war sentiment in my real life community
Quite the contrary. Our soldiers can kick any ass anywhere, our nukes are bigger and better. Nothing is worse than Communism or being without plenty of oil.
Or not standing up for the national anthem.
If I can't explain to them that RT is not Russian propaganda, there is no use in discussing radioactive fallout, is there?
Maybe I just live in a pocket of stupid.
My Mom always called this Texas community the armpit of the world.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Relax, cusp.
You ain't in a mere pocket of stupid. It's everywhere in America. Stupidity. It's what makes us special, ya know.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I take a small bit of comfort in that.
No need for me to pack up and leave.
Anybody have any opinions on when, not if, Turkey leaves NATO? And which countries will be their new best friend? Col. Wilkerson says Turkey has the biggest, best armed and trained military in that part of the world.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It's my understanding that Turkey has aligned
itself with Russia and possibly Iran. Or Syria.
I know what you mean about people in your state worshiping the military. I'm in the middle of this type of thinking too.
They really believe that our military goes around the world to promote peace and protect people's liberties. SMDH!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I did see it here in this small town in western NC
when we had our Peace vigil. My compatriots started in 2003 and were met with massive hostility from nearly everyone who saw them. I joined in 2012 and the original members still left said things had changed dramatically in those nine years.
My personal experience was that the majority of the people, regardless of their political identification (many of whom were self identified as conservatives), were opposed to these wars. I can say that when we would bring up the massive cost of these wars, most people were shocked and became even more opposed to the wars as a result.
Does this stated opposition translate into action? Based upon my own experience, the answer is sadly NO. I just wish more people understood just how expensive and wasteful these wars have been and are continuing to be. Based upon my own anecdotal experience, the moral issue does not sell, but the fiscal costs of these wars does.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I tried that.
The come back was the way to reduce the cost war was to drop a nuke, be done with it. Even my right wingers love drones.
Nobody talks about war in terms of suffering.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Wow!
Maybe it is the location and the type of people around here or maybe it was because our meetings were face to face, but I never met one person who suggested dropping nuke in my four and a half years with the Peace vigil. Maybe people thought that, but they did not say it.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@gulfgal98 I heard it from two
I heard it from two men running for State Representative. When the first one that said it at a political town hall, I asked a question about it, got removed from the room by a policeman.
The second candidate said it to me at a political meeting held at a local café. He and I were the only 2 people that heard his statement. I flipped over my coffee cup, flipped him off, told him to fuck himself, left the care' before anybody made me leave.
That is pretty much face to face.
I do not know how you managed.
Cheapest war is nukes where I live. I never, ever mention costs of war.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Only after the world is
Only after the world is destroyed by war will there be an anti-war movement.
It's kind of like stoplights.
A stoplight would be installed after a crash, not before to you know actually prevent the thing.
@Strife Delivery
Lol, black humour, I presume?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Thanks, Al, difficult to find peace with so many, even close,
having so much aggression; seems it's bred in by most forms of government and capitalists.
edited
China is expanding "freedom of navigation" drills
South China Sea into the Pacific.
Time to multi-task work on peace efforts like code pink divest, political contacts, work on skills useful if commercial product distribution is disrupted and identify who may need assistance. Many of the same activities suggested for climate change.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
You're drinking too much kool-aid.
It's the US that coined the Orwellian term "freedom of navigation". It's the US that sails and flies any damn where it wants to. It's the US that is conducting bombing runs and installing soldiers in several Middle Eastern and African nations with neither UN authorization or invitation by the governments.
US coined the term, China now using it to
support their increased flights in the Pacific and South China Sea. Harder to formally protest a country "assisting" the US in keeping navigation routes open.
(same article linked above) (PLA - Peoples Liberation Army)
I just think it is a warning, like Russia Industry to be prepared for war, regarding a preemptive strike the US could launch into North Korea by the US.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Im surprised that Putin would think a war would last long enough
to need industry to ramp up to WW2 levels. Once a superpower (cough, cough...USA) starts losing large assets such as carriers, the temptation to go nuclear would be irresistible. I simply don't see how America could fight a winning war with China without going nuclear. Once a nuclear exchange starts, does anyone see "clearer heads" prevailing? I don't. I see egomaniacs taking the planet down with them.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
Argentina might win that war, or maybe New Zealand.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Your comment made me remember "On the beach"
by Nevile Shute. Read it eons ago. Back when people actually feared WW3.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
@SparkyGump
No, it only takes 100 (apparently not several hundred) modern nukes to kick enough dust high enough to block sunlight for decades, killing all plant-life round the globe, with surviving animals (including us) starving probably before the oxygen runs out, and maybe even before we die of indirect radiation exposures.
Try for a spot on a direct hit and if lucky, maybe never even know what hit you, because nobody will want to be around after this starts.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
As I write this comment,
there are 36 comments here, 36 comments on the Bitcoin essay.
It will take millions of people to stop wars.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981