Balloon Girl Self-Destructs

'We've Been Banksy'd!' Balloon Girl Self-Destructs on Fetching 1.3 Million at Sotheby's Auction

by RT

October 6, 2018

The elusive world-famous British street artist Banksy has reportedly pulled off one of the greatest art heists, allowing his own painting to self-destruct, just moments after ‘Girl with a Balloon’ had fetched over £1mn at auction.

Art lovers and collectors appeared shocked the moment Banksy’s Girl with a Balloon shredded itself into ribbons immediately after hammering a record of £860,000 (£1.04mn or $1.37mn with buyer's premium) at a Contemporary Art Evening Auction at Sotheby's London on Friday.

The 101cm-by-78 cm canvas in an artist's frame, annihilated in front of the auctioneers by a mechanism apparently hidden within the base of the frame, with just strips left to admire from the 2006 masterpiece produced by the famous-yet-anonymous British artist.

Dry Rainforest

Drought-Laden Rainforest 

by Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch

October 6, 2018

The world’s rainforests are under attack at a rate of 2.5 acres per second. Global warming and clear-cutting for growing palm oil and raising cattle are some of the biggest annihilators.

The repercussions are devastating. For example, one of the consequences is harmful alteration of hydrological cycles for major grain-growing regions of the planet.

But, that’s just the start of trouble.

Disrupted hydrological cycles, which are only now being disclosed by new research, are one example amongst many of the aftereffects of stressed-out ecosystems as a result of (a) global warming, (b) turbo-charged climate change, and (c) the persistent human footprint. The awful truth is that ecosystems across the world are stressed-out like never before.

But, nobody sees it.

Uncommonly stressed-out ecosystems occur most prominently where nobody lives, nobody sees, Antarctica, Tibetan glaciers, the Arctic, Siberian permafrost, Colorado River Basin, Alaskan permafrost Andes’ glaciers, Patagonia, Totten glacier, East Siberian Arctic Sea, ocean plankton, the Amazon rainforest. Who lives anywhere near those hot spots of ecosystem disruption?

Over time, the breakdowns turn more powerful, more dangerous, as a discordant world fails to come to grips with distinct risks of several tipping points simultaneously flaring up all at once. Such a horrific scenario could strike with the impact of a 7.5-mile-wide asteroid. The last time that happened 65 million years ago it was sayonara in a flash of geological time. If dinosaurs couldn’t handle it, well, as for Homo sapiens… hmm.

As a suggestion, maybe a world conference on “Impending Ecosystem Collapses” should be held, similar to Paris 2015, but titled: How in the hell did we let this happen? With a sub-conference titled: No-holds-barred capitalism’s infinite growth syndrome clashes with ecological preservation. Or, how about: Would capitalism-lite be better? Or, how about: Starting all over again?

Eliminating excessive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere would be a good start, a big leap forward to curing a lot of ills, and should be combined with reforestation and an enforceable order to stop cutting down rainforests with reckless abandon. According to Global Forest Watch: “Deforestation in crucial tropical rainforests has doubled since 2008.” Much of it is illegal and linked to corruption.

“A growing body of evidence indicates that the continuing destruction of tropical forests is disrupting the movement of water in the atmosphere, causing major shifts in precipitation that could lead to drought in key agricultural areas in China, India, and the U.S. Midwest.” (Source: Fred Pearce, Rivers in the Sky: How Deforestation Is Affecting Global Water Cycles, YaleEnvironment360, July 24, 2018)

Not only is there a problem with the hydrology cycle, but also three 100-year droughts (the ones that are supposed to happen once every 100 years!) hit the Amazon Rainforest like clockwork 2005-2010-2015 over the past 10 years. That’s unprecedented. As far as science knows, it has never happened before! It’s kinda like an out-of-body experience, hovering over blackened tree stumps as far as the eye can see.

Three droughts within a decade should take your breath away. If it doesn’t, it’s because of a failure to tune in to the overbearing Great Acceleration, aka: human footprint, overrunning planetary resources. Therefore, a key determinate for society’s longevity will be whether ecosystems, such as the rainforests, hang in there without cascading into irretrievable impracticable no-go oblivion.

Subsequent to the 2005 Amazon rainforest drought: ‘The biggest surprise for us was that the effects appeared to persist for years after the drought,’ said co-author Professor Yadvinder Malhi from the University of Oxford. ‘We had expected the forest canopy to bounce back after a year with a new flush of leaf growth, but the damage appeared to persist right up to the subsequent drought in 2010.” (Source: Malhi, et al, Effects of Drought in the Amazon Persist Years Later, Oxford University, 2018)

Another big problem: One season of drought can reduce the CO2 absorption ability of the Amazon for years to come. But, three back-to-back-to back droughts! Whew – triple ouch! Over time, it becomes impossible for the world’s great rainforests to combat global warming. Instead of serving as a “sink of CO2,” the forests “emit CO2,” happening now. Try that one on for size Mister Runaway Global Warming. Hmm- fits like a glove.


According to a study by NASA, the Amazon drought, over a three-year span, lost 270M metric tons of carbon per year. It’s not supposed to work that way folks. Part of the problem is global warming itself. A warming atmosphere shifts moisture away from the rainforest, which is the wrong direction!

Also, droughts self-perpetuate additional drought conditions, as a considerable portion of the rain that falls in a rainforest comes from water vapor that the trees release through their own leaves. But, dying leaves don’t release much water vapor, which shrinks the hydrological flow variability.

Photo: Mike Goren | CC BY 2.0

 A recent study “Amazon Outlook —Continued Warming, Multiyear Droughts,” Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, July 10, 2018 says:

“Our work suggests that there is a possibility for even longer droughts, perhaps lasting multiple seasons or years, setting the stage for fires that could clear swaths of the rainforest.”

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory found that after the 2005 drought the most affected parts of the Amazon Rainforest lost 35 inches rainfall in years following. (Source: Yan Yang, et al, Post-Drought Decline of the Amazon Carbon Sink, Nature, 2018)

As it happens, ongoing destruction of rainforests represents one of the major impacts of the Great Acceleration or the human footprint eclipsing nature. Already, early glimpses of that footprint are found stamped onto the backsides of three unprecedented 100-yr. droughts.

Rainforest decimation is but one of many ecosystem perils that should land on the desks of every world leader: “Urgent – Do Something!” And, oh yeah, while your at it maybe put in a good word for clean renewable energy.

In lieu of today’s inordinately compressed timeline of climate change (many scientists say stuff is happening 10xs faster than ever before), risks of widespread collapsing ecosystems are now more pronounced than at any time since the discovery of fire. It’s not too difficult to point a finger at the prime movers and shakers, i.e., excessive greenhouse gases like CO2 and the pitched battle over infinite growth. Infinity is a lot.

All of which brings to light the highly controversial Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, 2006 (more relevant today than back in the day). The British government requisitioned the high-powered study to calculate the economics of climate change. The landmark 700-page report, stated: “Climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.”

The Stern Review also ticked off a handful of consequences, assuming a “worst-case basis” and “business as usual, ” meaning no effort by the nations of the world to reign-in greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the mentions include, sea level rise possibly as high as 10-15 feet (remember- “worst-case basis”) in a few decades, Florida, NYC, and London likely flooded at various stages, and massive water-food shortages throughout the world, assuming temps run up 2C-5C during the century. And assuming “business as usual.”

Additionally, according to the report: Deforestation is responsible for more emissions than the transport sector, and a number of studies suggest “Amazon rainforest could be vulnerable to climate change, with models projecting significant drying in this region.” (a prophetic statement 12 years ago)

In sum, and relevant to all of the above, according to Mauna Loa Observatory as of Sept. 23, 2018 Atmospheric CO2 registers 405.5 ppm versus 381.82 ppm twelve years ago.

As an aside, following the asteroid collision 65mya within a period of 100,000 years, CO2 increased at rate of 0.2ppm/yr taking temps up 5C. Today we’re at “2.3 ppm/yr or the highest growth rate ever seen in modern times,” according to Carl Edward Rasmussen, University of Cambridge, Sept. 2018.

Apologies to Sir Nicholas Stern, as contrary to admonitions in his 700-page report, free-market globalists have cranked up the dial for CO2 up-up-and-away, forever more! Infinite growth!

Biz as usual prevails.

What was it Sir Nicholas Stern said about the “worst-case basis”?

Postscript: “Every tree in the forest is a fountain, sucking water out of the ground through its roots and releasing water vapor into the atmosphere through pores in its foliage. In their billions, they create giant rivers of water in the air – rivers that form clouds and create rainfall hundreds or even thousands of miles away.”

“But as we shave the planet of trees, we risk drying up these aerial rivers and the lands that depend on them for rain. A growing body of research suggests that this hitherto neglected impact of deforestation could in many continental interiors dwarf the impacts of global climate change. It could dry up the Nile, hobble the Asian monsoon, and desiccate fields from Argentina to the Midwestern United States.” (Fred Pearce- eminent UK author and science journalist)

 

Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

More articles by:Robert Hunziker

Trump's Stealth Enshrinement of NAFTA 2.0

NAFTA 2.0 Enshrines Deregulation for all of North America

by TRNN

October 5, 2018

The new agreement, now named the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement or USMCA, seems to be a mixed bag of things that both corporate America wanted and that unions support.

For example, on the issue of auto manufacturing, the USMCA requires a higher percentage of domestically produced parts in order to qualify for zero tariffs when exported. Also, on wages, it requires workers to be paid an average of sixteen dollars per hour in order to be exempt from tariffs.

However, on copyright issues, the deal strengthens the hand of corporations by forcing countries to adopt U.S. copyright protections, which will have an effect on keeping drug prices higher than they otherwise would be.

To examine the effect of NAFTA 2.0, or the USMCA, on the environment and on food safety, is Patrick Woodall. Patrick is the Research Director for the group Food and Water Watch.

Trump’s re-negotiated NAFTA, now called the USMCA, pushes food safety and other forms of deregulation to new extremes, making it more difficult to undo the damage even after Trump leaves office, says Patrick Woodall of Food and Water Watch.

CORPORATE MANAGEMENT REASON FOR RUSSIAN OPERATIONS THAT GO WRONG

TOP SECRET//NOFORN/– THE RUSSIAN CORPORATE MANAGEMENT REASON FOR OPERATIONS THAT GO WRONG

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

October 5, 2018

Moscow - Until mid-April, almost six months ago, the performances of the British, Dutch, Ukrainian and American intelligence agencies in producing evidence to explain the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury were about equal in fabrication quality and standard of proof; equally poor.

The four services had no need to use espionage tools or hack into the Netherlands-based organs investigating the missile attack and the poisoning. That is because their agents walked through the front doors of the Dutch Safety Board (DSB), the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Warfare (OPCW); took seats at their internal proceedings; and were given unrestricted access to their files. The agents of the four services also dictated the findings which have been published by the DSB, JIT, and OPCW; they have jointly agreed to withhold release of material evidence.

It has taken much longer for investigations by British, Dutch and other independent researchers to prove their fabrications and disinformation. The Russian contribution to this effort has been positive, though delayed, incomplete and contradictory, in the MH17 case; it has been negative in the Skripal case.

Then on April 13, four Russians were arrested in The Hague, the Dutch capital, in circumstances and on evidence suggesting they and their alleged employer, the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), were attempting to spy on the OPCW by electronic means. Official disclosure of what they were doing was delayed for six months until this Thursday. The exposed Russian operation threatens to compromise the veracity of much of the independent investigations of the MH17 and Skripal cases.

How could the four middle-aged operatives and their superiors at GRU have miscalculated the risks and costs of being caught, as compared to their estimate of the gains of their OPCW operation, if they had got clean away?

One clue to the answer can be found at page 24 of the Dutch military intelligence dossier, titled “operational modus operandi”. In the baggage of the four Russians were two wads of unspent cash — €20,000 and $20,000.

Details of the failed Russian operation in The Hague and the successful counter-intelligence operation by the Dutch, have been summarised in the western media. For evidence on which the media have relied, there is this 41-page US grand jury indictment with detailed allegations of names and operations going back to late 2014, click to open.

For the Dutch operation at OPCW last April, there is this 34-page folder of pictures and captions issued by the Dutch Defence Intelligence and Security Service. General Onno Eichelsheim, the defence intelligence chief, also provided a briefing to accompany the dossier.

The US criminal charge against the Russian agents is not espionage, which is reportedly their job, but their job tools — wire fraud, identity theft, money laundering, conspiracy. The “victims” reported in the US indictment are government organizations and intergovernment agencies which have been running public campaigns and sanctions against Russian organizations; most of them involving doping in Olympic sports and World Cup football.

The US prosecutors report the Russian motives for the GRU operations to include efforts to “undermine, retaliate against or otherwise de-legitimize the efforts” of the anti-Russian campaigns of the “victims”. Although the US indictment has added a description of the OPCW operation, it alleges no Russian motive, and issues no criminal charge for what the four Russians had done before their arrest on April 13.

If state espionage requires a motive, the October 4 presentation by Dutch officials was ambiguous. The Dutch Minister of Defence Ank Bijleveld announced the obvious:

“let me reiterate what the Dutch authorities have said before, namely that all organisations involved in the MH17 investigation …have long been aware of the Russian intelligence services’ interest in this investigation and have implemented appropriate measures.” 

General Onno Eichelsheim, head of the Dutch military intelligence agency, claimed the Russian operation intended “digital manipulation and sabotage” of the OPCW.

The week before the Russian team arrived at The Hague, Russia’s representative to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin (right), supported by several other state delegates at the OPCW, had charged the British and Americans, and also the OPCW secretariat, of sabotage of the organization’s charter, especially Articles VIII and IX. These set the rules and procedures for investigating allegations of chemical warfare by one state against another.

The secretariat, run by a Turkish diplomat who previously ran NATO operations in Syria and Ukraine, was also accused of illegally keeping the investigation of the Skripal case secret from the Russian representative and other OPCW members.

Voting on this “sabotage” occurred at the OPCW session on April 4; the Russian team now publicly charged with trying to open this secret arrived one week later, on April 11. For details of the earlier story, read this.

Last night the Foreign Ministry in Moscow accused the Dutch and British of a fresh attempt to change the way the OPCW secretariat investigates allegations like those the British have made in the Skripal case. “Some Western countries,” a ministry statement charges, “are persistently seeking the creation of such a mechanism to apportion blame for the use of chemical weapons contrary to international law and in violation of the UN Security Council’s prerogative. It is apparent that the current smear campaign is another stage aimed at creating the ‘necessary’ political background in order to push through this illegitimate initiative.”

Dutch defence officials have told the press that among the equipment they took from the four Russians arrested in April “laptops also contained material related to the Dutch investigation into the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine”.

Also, the Dutch allege

“they…found evidence that a Russian officer had been in a Kuala Lumpur hotel near where Malaysian government officials were investigating the 2014 crash of the passenger jet over Ukraine that killed nearly 300 people.”

Left, Ank Bijleveld, Dutch Minister of Defence; right, General Onno Eichelsheim 

head of the Dutch Defence Intelligence and Security Service.

Moscow sources say new rounds of information warfare are to be expected, and there ought to be no surprise in the effort by the Russian intelligence services to investigate the OPCW after the positions the organization has taken in the Syrian cases and the Skripal case.

What is problematic this time, the sources believe, is that the four agents were caught with all of their equipment and personal records.

“The absence of standard security measures the four agents ought to have followed and their lack of tradecraft ought to be an embarrassment for their immediate superiors and for the GRU command. On first appearances this operation shows that GRU’s cyber-warfare units lack professionalism and command discipline.”

Source: https://www.justice.gov/

A source close to GRU cautions against theorizing and guesswork in intelligence operations, but speculates nonetheless.

“I am trying to imagine how the operation commanders assessed the risk that their four-man team would get caught, and whether what they were after was worth the risk they were running. There appears to have been a lot of cash budgeted for these operations, and I am wondering how much of it was handled the way Russian commercial businesses operate. Do I need to say more?”

Brazilian Women Arise!

Brazil’s Women Rise Against Possible Far-Right Presidency

by TRNN

October 3, 2018

This coming Sunday, October 7, 147 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in the country’s elections for president, Congress, state governors, and state legislatures.

It will be a historic vote for several reasons. First, this is the first election following the impeachment, which many say actually was a coup, of President Dilma Rousseff. Second, the leading presidential candidate, former president Lula da Silva of the Workers Party, was barred from running in what his supporters and many independent analysts call a rigged trial on charges of corruption. Third, the vote could very well result in the election of a right-wing extremist, Jair Bolsonaro, who has a long history of misogyny, racism, homophobia, and support for Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship, which governed Brazil between 1964 and 1985.

Women in Brazil took to the streets across the country, to declare their opposition to far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, ahead of Sunday’s presidential vote

Skripals and Sanctions Feature in Putin's Speech at Oil and Gas Confab

Anger Therapy in Wartime

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

October 4, 2018

Moscow - On Monday President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, responded to British and American press reports about the Skripal case by saying the Kremlin had decided not to respond.

“We will no longer talk with the media. The BBC cannot confirm anything; the BBC can put forward an assumption or something else. Since the whole discussion has been conducted at the media level, we, as the Kremlin, no longer want to take part in that discussion.”

On Wednesday, in a speech to the international oil and gas industry, the state news agency Tass reported President Putin as declaring:

“Some media outlets are trying to put forward the idea that [Sergei] Skripal was practically a human rights defender. He is simply a spy and a traitor to his country. He is just scum (подонок) and that is it.”

Watch the session in full, with English translation voice-over.

The question about Skripal was asked by Ryan Chilcote, an American broadcaster employed by CNN, the US Public Broadcasting System, and Bloomberg. Chilcote offers himself for hire through the London Speakers Bureau “Bring Ryan Chilcote as a keynote speaker to your next event to motivate your audience”, his agent announces.

Chilcote didn’t ask Putin a direct question about Skripal. He asked about the sanctions which have followed.

“After the situation with Skripal, sanctions have increased; in November, possibly, there will already be new sanctions. What is Russia going to do the change the trajectory of relations with the United States and with the West?”

Putin decided to speak directly about Skripal at Min:1:05:41. Подонок appears at Min:1:07:03.

Kremlin record of Putin’s speech and Q&A session: http://en.kremlin.ru/

The Tass translation for Putin’s term подонок is not the accepted one. Scumbag and bastard are more common translations. The live voice-over English translation as Putin was speaking was “scoundrel”.

Reuters, Bloomberg, the Murdoch press, and CNN opted for scumbag. The official Kremlin translation into English says: “He is scum, that’s all.”

Kremlin text: http://kremlin.ru/

Putin spoke about the Skripal case for almost five minutes. The Tass and other press reports have compressed his remarks.

“He is just a spy, a traitor to the motherland. Do you understand? There is such a concept as ‘traitor to the motherland’ [audience applause]. He’s one of them.”

“Just imagine the situation – you are a citizen of your own country, and all of a sudden in your country, there is a person who betrays it. How will you treat him – the normal reaction would be to say he’s a подонок, that’s all. And around it a whole information campaign has been launched.

“I hope this will blow over, the sooner the better. All this squabbling between the special services didn’t just surface yesterday. As we all know, espionage, just like prostitution, is one of the world’s most important professions. No one has ever shut it down, nor is anyone still able to close it down.”

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jonathan Kuttab, Alison Bodine, Janine Bandcroft October 4, 2018

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

October 4, 2018

The meagre Western media coverage afforded The Great March of Return's beginnings in March has now all but disappeared, so those in Canada relying on the CBC and other corporate-interested news sources may be surprised to learn, the Great March trudges on; just as does the wanton murder of its defenseless, civilian participants.

Over the weekend, Israel's military killed seven more Palestinians, while injuring hundreds; at least 90 of those being wounded by live-bullet fire.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry says, 163 Gazans have died, with more than 20,000 being treated for injuries in Gaza's threadbare hospitals.

Listen. Hear.

But, it's not only the Canadian media derelict in its duty when it comes to Gaza, Canada's government, including opposition parties in the House of Commons, remains almost entirely silent.

Jonathan Kuttab is a human rights lawyer practicing in East Jerusalem. He is the co-founder of the organizations: Al Haq, the first international human rights legal organization in Palestine; The Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence (now Non-Violence International); and The Mandela Institute for Prisoners. He is also a founding director of Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une Paix Juste, a Canadian-based international law/human rights not-for-profit organization.

Jonathan is currently on a cross-Canada speaking tour. He spoke last night in Comox, and will be in Victoria tonight at 7pm presenting, 'The future of Jerusalem in the time of Trump' at UVic's David Turpin Building.

Jonathan Kuttab in the first half.

And; though Canada daily abrogates its international treaty-mandated duty to protect the human rights of Gazans, it has not exited the World stage altogether. The country boasting, "a consistently strong voice for the protection of human rights and the advancement of democratic values..." has adopted, along with its trade partners, the modern siege method, imposing economic sanctions against the democratically elected government of Venezuela.

Most Canadians would doubtless blanch at the hypocrisy of their nation's position, if only they knew the depth of its profundity. But, there again is where the CBC and its corporate media cohorts come in - or fail to do so.

Alison Bodine is Coordinator of the Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice's Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. The long-time antiwar and social justice activist is too a researcher and writer for the Fire This Time! monthly newspaper.

Alison Bodine and Canada as democracy's arsonist in Venezuela in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin for some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Jonathan Kuttab and the future of Palestine at a crossroads.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Resisting Militarism from the Inside

Army Capt. Brittany DeBarros Under Scrutiny For Tweeting Facts

by Staff - Couragetoresist.org 

September 29, 2018

US Army Capt. Brittany DeBarros has taken to social media to share some basic facts about our country’s endless wars, and the impact those are having both abroad and at home.

The July 20th edition of the Army Times declared, “An Army Reserve psychological operations officer is on day seven of 14-orders, according to her Twitter account, and she’s taking the opportunity to let the internet know she does not approve of the Defense Department.”

Brittany hasn’t stopped speaking out since, despite pressure from the Pentagon.


Photo: popularresistance.org

Brittany started posting a series of simple graphic messages on July 14. The first one read,

“I’m on Army Orders for the next 14 Days and there’s not much I can do about that. WHAT I CAN DO is schedule daily posts in my absence with facts about the horror being carried out by our war machine for profit.” 

It was accompanied by a graphic with the text “At the current rate, the US drops a bomb every 12 minutes.”

A couple of days later, she declared, “For years the executive branch has run wild warmongering while congress stands by. Greed fueled violence. Racist, Islamophobic fueled SILENCE. It’s on us to dismantle and our own liberation depends on it.”

After the Army announced that they were investigating her, she shared, “In case anyone is confused, these are my personal views and I don’t speak in an official capacity for the DOD.”

Brittany addressed her motivations on social media, explaining, “Two headlines within the last week: ‘White House: U.S. Can’t Afford Veterans’ Health Care Without Cuts.’ and ‘House Passes $717 Billion Defense Bill.’ So tell me again how it’s against the Army Values for me to point out this charade? And how I’m hurting my soldiers by refusing to be quiet about the fact that we have endless dollars to send them to war but suddenly are broke when they need care? I call b.s.”

This is the second time that she has caught the Pentagon’s attention. Brittany was also threatened with reprisal after giving a speech at the Poor People’s Campaign rally in Washington DC in June. At that time, she responded:

In the Army, we are taught that our core values must be Loyalty. Duty. Respect. Selfless service. Honor. Integrity. Personal courage.

So, you tell me…

Am I LOYAL if I say nothing while a wealthy few pay our politicians to disregard the Constitution I swore to protect so they can make a killing off of killing?

Am I a DUTIFUL leader if I stand by while the young soldiers for whose lives I’m responsible are sent to kill and die in illegal wars based on lies?

Am I RESPECTFUL of this uniform we wear if I am silent about the atrocities it’s being used to carry out?

Am I SELFLESS in my SERVICE if I fall in line and stay quiet simply to avoid risk to myself and my career?

Am I HONORABLE if I’m more concerned about what’s popular or acceptable than about what’s right?

Am I living with INTEGRITY if I say ‘I’ll do the right thing later when it won’t cost me so much’?

And where is my PERSONAL COURAGE if, in the face of repression and threats, I cower and back down, especially when so many before me have sacrificed so much for the very freedom I am exercising?

So if what I’ve been saying is somehow doing wrong by the military, the mistake they made was commissioning a leader that takes these values seriously. Leaders of conscience have a moral obligation to speak up #GIResistance #CourageToResist

About Face: Veterans Against the War (formerly IVAW) is hosting a gofundme drive to cover Brittany’s legal representation costs. Please help us and About Face reach our $3,000 goal to support Brittany by contributing at: 

gofundme.com/fund-war-resister-cpt-debarros

 

Bolton's Administration: Putting the World on Notice

U.S. Punishes Iranians and Threatens Nations That Disobey

by TRNN

September 30, 2018

As the Trump administration and its Israeli government ally continue their destabilization campaign against Iran, the EU, Russia, and China have reached a deal with Tehran that would shield financial transactions from newly reimposed U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. has warned of “terrible consequences” for those defying its sanctions. Can Iran and the remaining nuclear deal partners withstand U.S. pressure?

We speak to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy Lawrence Wilkerson’s last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff