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Donald Trump Wants to Make It Easier to Start a Nuclear War. This Should Petrify Us.

February 8, 2018

Nov 29, 2017-Seoul, South Korea-People watches a TV screen showing a local news program reporting North Korea's missile launch at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. North Korea abruptly ended a 10-week pause in its weapons testing by launching what the Pentagon said was an intercontinental ballistic missile, apparently its longest-range test yet, a move that will escalate already high tensions with Washington. The Korean letters read "Fired ballistic missile." (Photo by Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Donald Trump Wants to Make It Easier to Start a Nuclear War. This Should Petrify Us.

SHE DID TRY and warn us.

“Imagine, if you dare … imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” Hillary Clinton said in her speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2016, referring to her then-Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

Yet four months later, in November 2016, almost 63 million of her fellow Americans voted to put the short-tempered, thin-skinned former reality TV star in charge of their country’s 6,800 nuclear warheads. Never forget: As president of the nuclear-armed United States, Trump — Trump! — has the power to destroy humanity many times over, while rendering the planet uninhabitable in the process.

If that wasn’t terrifying enough, last week, less than 72 hours after the State of the Union speech, in which Trump ramped up his war of words with North Korea, his administration announced that it wanted to make it much easier for the president to start a nuclear holocaust.

You might have missed that rather important piece of news. Last Friday, while cable news channels rolled on the Nunes memo, the Pentagon published the latest Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, which includes two pretty alarming new components.

First, while Barack Obama’s 2010 NPR for the first time ruled out a nuclear attack against non-nuclear weapon states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, Trump’s NPR goes in the opposite direction and suggests that the U.S. could employ nuclear weapons in “extreme circumstances” to defend the “vital interests” of the United States and its allies. The document states:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

If There’s a War in Korea, Blame Trump

February 6, 2018

If There’s a War in Korea, Blame Trump

Brainwashed Americans believe that Kim Jong-un is responsible for the confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, but nothing could be further from the truth. The real problem is not Kim’s nuclear weapons but Washington’s 65 year-long military occupation that continues to reinforce a political solution that was arbitrarily imposed on a sovereign nation in order to split the country in two, install a puppet regime in the south, establish a permanent military presence to defend US commercial interests, and maintain control of a strategically-located territory that is a critical part of Washington’s plan to encircle Russia and China to remain the dominant global power throughout the century.  Simply put, Washington is 100 percent responsible for the current confrontation just as it has been responsible for every flare-up for the last 7 decades.

Even so, fighting back against the relentless outpouring of US-backed state propaganda is no easy task. So allow me to defend the position of the DPRK with just one, brief analogy that will help to put things into perspective:

Imagine if the Korean army decided to deploy tens of thousands of combat troops to fight on the side of the South during the Civil War. And let’s say, that these forces were so successful that they were able to kill 3 million Americans while reducing every business and factory, every home and hospital, every church and university, to smoldering rubble. As a result of Korean meddling, the North was unable to win the war, but was forced to settle for an armistice that permanently split the US into North and South allowing Korea to install its stooges in the capitol of Richmond while it established military bases in every southern state from Virginia to Louisiana.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Duck and Cover’ Drills Exacerbate Fears of N. Korea War

February 3, 2018

‘Duck and Cover’ Drills Exacerbate Fears of N. Korea War

A recent false alarm in Hawaii had citizens in a state of panic over an impending nuclear attack, which, as Ann Wright speculates, may have been the point.

A “duck and cover” school drill from the 1950s.

Are you ready for nuclear attack warning sirens in your community?  I live in the State of Hawaii, which decided in December 2107 to begin monthly nuclear attack warning siren drills, similar to the monthly tsunami warning sirens that are tested each month.

You know what happened – an employee of the State of Hawaii Emergency Management Department pushed the wrong button, setting off the siren, and no one alerted the public for nearly 49 minutes that it was a drill. Cell phone alerts to everyone in the 808 area code flashed “Nuclear attack warning-take cover,” with residents and tourists alike going into crisis mode.

Three days prior to the false alarm, 20 of us attempted to call to the attention of the state government that the sirens are being used for political advancement of a hysteria for war with North Korea, or DPRK – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. We do not believe the North Korean government is going to attack the United States and suspect that the nuclear sirens and “duck and cover” drills are purposeful and dangerous fear-mongering.

The sirens heighten the anxiety and stress of impending conflict and devastation, making citizens afraid – and in their fear, more likely to accept whatever line the government feeds them on threats and counter-measures.

Successive administrations have lied our country into wars – from Vietnam to Iraq. We do not agree for the need for war with North Korea and refuse to accept the attempted U.S. intimidation of the DPRK, which could lead to war. The sirens, much like the steady barrage of “orange alert” terror warnings in 2002-2003 that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq, normalize the potential for war.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

It Sure Sounds Like the US Is Actually Going to Bomb North Korea

February 3, 2018

(ANTIMEDIA) — During his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, Donald Trump pledged the United States would continue its “campaign of maximum pressure” against North Korea. Meanwhile, the Washington Post ran an opinion piece written by the man who was, until recently, set to become the U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

Victor Cha, a professor at Georgetown University and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, had reportedly passed all U.S. security checks, and South Korea had signed off on him.

It was expected — and for the government in Seoul, hoped — that Trump would soon formally nominate Cha for Senate approval. But over the weekend, it was reported that the White house informed Cha he was no longer being considered for the post.

Sources say the move was motivated by Cha’s disagreement with the Trump administration’s policy on North Korea. In particular, these sources say, the would-be ambassador took issue with the White House considering a preemptive strike against the Hermit Kingdom.

Writing for the Washington Post on Tuesday, Cha stated that the answer to the North Korean question “is not, as some Trump administration officials have suggested, a preventive military strike.”

Rather, Cha wrote, there are options available to address the threat “without escalating into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans.”

Cha, who previously served in the administration of George W. Bush, wrote that he expressed his concerns over North Korea policy while he was being considered for the Seoul ambassadorship.

The Georgetown professor went on to question the logic of the “bloody nose” strategy, meant to shock leader Kim Jong-un and make him think twice about his nuclear ambitions:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Henry Kissinger says a “pre-emptive attack” against North Korea is a “strong” possibility

February 2, 2018

Henry Kissinger says a “pre-emptive attack” against North Korea is a “strong” possibility

Kissinger, “Temptation to deal” with North Korea “with a pre-emptive attack is strong”

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said that he agrees with the aggressive statements President Trump has made towards North Korea.

Kissinger also warned Congress last week against potential military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s support.

The former Secretary of State said that the Trump Administration “will hit that fork in the road, and the temptation to deal with it with a pre-emptive attack” against North Korea “is strong, and the argument is rational.”

PJ Media reports…

The Trump administration has signaled that North Korea would be crossing a red line if it developed nuclear capability for its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Yet some policy officials and military experts claim that North Korea has already crossed that line, or is at least very close to attaching nuclear warheads to its missiles.

Kissinger offered his thoughts on the impending “fork in the road,” in which the administration may consider pre-emptive military action or increasingly tighter sanctions against the regime.

“We will hit that fork in the road, and the temptation to deal with it with a pre-emptive attack is strong, and the argument is rational, but I have seen no public statement by any leading official,” Nixon’s secretary of State told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “But in any event, my own thinking, I would be very concerned by any unilateral American war at the borders of China and Russia, in which we are not supported by a significant part of the world, or at least of the Asian world.”

The current North Korean trajectory, Kissinger continued, could lead to nuclear proliferation throughout Asia, as he believes South Korea will not accept being the only Korea without nuclear capability. Japan will follow suit, he said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Countdown to Doomsday: Daniel Ellsberg and the Nuclear Papers 

February 2, 2018

Countdown to Doomsday: Daniel Ellsberg and the Nuclear Papers 

Photo by August Muench | CC BY 2.0

Just as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the Doomsday Clock closer than it has ever been to our species extinction point reports show that the U.S. warfare state is moving its latest high-tech rendition of tactical nuclear weapons, the B-61 “Gravity Bomb,” to airbases on the island of Guam. Is this an attempt to intimidate North Korea? Or is it a stage in a crackpot plan to destroy NK’s ability to carry out what that state has stated categorically is its defensive strategy against just such an attack?

Every sane individual I know understands that as long as nuclear weapons exist someday, and that day looms sooner every day, they will be used. The sponsors of the Bulletin, the Union of Concerned Scientists, was established after World War II and the atomic incinerations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by some of the very scientists and technicians who had made the bomb possible and who then understood the nature of the monstrous evil they had unleashed. Though Albert Einstein was not one of those scientists his theoretical physics had abetted the basic formula for fission and the Bomb and, believing that Nazi Germany was working on a bomb too, he urged President Franklin Roosevelt to undertake the Manhattan Project. He came sorrowfully to regret this action and spoke regularly about his opposition to war and the nuclear age. “If only I had known,” he declared, “I should have become a watchmaker.”

The renowned physicist also focused attention on the existential quandary unique to the human species when he said “Mankind invented the atomic bomb but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap.” Has there ever been another species that actively enabled the instruments of  its own extermination?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cold War Mentality Belies Fear of Democratic World Order

January 22, 2018

Cold War Mentality Belies Fear of Democratic World Order

Cold War Mentality Belies Fear of Democratic World Order

This past week saw a spate of international security alarms which underlines the danger of the world stumbling into catastrophic war. Those alarms, which were either false or hyped up, stem from a Cold War mentality.

Such a mentality is not only dangerous, it is also unacceptable in today’s world.

First, we saw the US territory of Hawaii being put on full-scale alert over a supposed incoming ballistic missile. The alarm turned out to be false. There was no such incoming missile, but the entire population on the Pacific island were put through 38 minutes of sheer torment.

A day after that incident, Japan’s air-raid system also put a similar false alert.

In both cases, it was assumed that the non-existent missiles had been fired from North Korea.

Meanwhile in Europe, fighter jets from Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain – all members of the US-led NATO alliance – were scrambled to intercept two Russian warplanes. The Russian Ministry of Defense rejected claims that its aircraft were acting “provocatively”, saying that the pair of Russian Tu-160 bombers had at all times been flying in international airspace on a routine exercise.

The latter type of incident appears to be an increasing occurrence. Over the past two months, British navy frigates have made a point of “escorting” Russian warships navigating “near British territorial waters”. Again, as with the air intercept incident this week, the Russian Ministry said that its warships have at all times adhered to international waters.

It is not Russian aircraft or vessels that are being provocative. It is British and other NATO states who are in effect trying to interdict Russia’s legal right to use international airspace and maritime territory.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Thinking the Unthinkable: Nuclear War with North Korea

January 19, 2018

Thinking the Unthinkable: Nuclear War with North Korea

Thinking the Unthinkable: Nuclear War with North Korea

Is the Trump administration prepping the American people – indeed, the world – for a war against North Korea? It certainly seems so. US President Donald Trump is constantly needling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, comparing the size of their respective “nuclear buttons,” while during a speech to the United Nations in September he promised to “totally destroy North Korea” if it was believed to be a threat to the United States.

Trump’s generals – the only other people he seems to trust, outside of his immediate family – appear to be playing along. The head of the US Marine Corps told his troops that “there’s a war coming.” H R McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, also seems pumped up for conflict. According to recent articles, McMaster feels that traditional deterrence will not work on Kim, and that it is “almost impossible to overstate the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.”

In apparent response, the US military seems to be gradually yielding to the idea of war with North Korea. A recent New York Times article ominously suggested that the military is quietly preparing for “a last resort: war with North Korea.” US forces are practicing quick-reaction mobilizations and air-assault exercises, sending Special Operations forces to South Korea, and deploying additional bombers, including B-2s, to Guam.

The US military insists that it just wants to be prepared for any contingency. However, every day it seems more and more conceivable that a US-North Korean war could break out.

Suppose they gave a war…

Admittedly, there is a wide gap between conceiving a war with North Korea and actually undertaking one – and thank goodness for that. However, conceptualizations are often the first step toward action, and this raises two big concerns.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

US Deploys Tactical Communications-Scrambling Plane To Korean Peninsula

January 18, 2018

US Deploys Tactical Communications-Scrambling Plane To Korean Peninsula

South Korea’s deal to allow North Korean athletes and dignitaries to attend the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang appeared to ease tensions on the peninsula earlier this month. Still, it appears the US air force has been expanding its presence in South Korea.

Local media reported Monday that an EC-130H Compass Call aircraft, an advanced plane capable of denial of service attacks on enemy plane’s communication systems, was deployed to South Korea’s Osan Air Force Base by the US Air Force earlier this month.

According to Sputnik, it’s unclear why the state-of-the-art tactical aircraft was deployed to the base. Some critics have speculated that it may be used to collect data on North Korea’s military during the Games, which are set to begin Feb. 9.

The plane, based at Arizona’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the aircraft reportedly made its way to South Korea after stopping at Japan’s Yokota Air Base.

The US Airforce only has 14 of these advanced aircraft in its entire arsenal, according to Sputnik.

The planes have recently been used to keep Daesh fighters from coordinating attacks.

“If we can shut down or deny their communication,” Lt. Col. Chris Weaton of the Electronic Combat Squadron said in a statement, “then we are causing chaos.”

An estimated four of the 13 EC-130Hs are operating in Iraq and Syria.

Rep. Gabbard Speaks Truth to Power About the Real Reason Korea Has Nukes

January 18, 2018

Rep. Gabbard Speaks Truth to Power About the Real Reason Korea Has Nukes

Photo by AFGE | CC BY 2.0

We already knew that Tulsi Gabbard was courageous, when the Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii resigned from her position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee in disgust during the primary season in 2016, declaring publicly what we now know to have been true — that the DNC was manipulating the primaries to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders — was courageous. Now as basically the only member of Congress with the guts to call out the US as the cause of our current knife-edge threat of a nuclear war, she’s demonstrated her courage again.

Gabbard, [1]interviewed on ABC News, declared unambiguously that the reason that North Korea has worked so diligently to develop nuclear weapons and missiles capable of delivering them to the US is that the United States over several decades and under a number of presidents, has had a policy of “regime change,” and a history of violently attempting to overthrow governments that it doesn’t like. As she put it in an interview over the weekend with ABC news host George Stephanopolos, “Our country’s history of regime-change wars has led countries like North Korea to develop and hold on to these nuclear weapons because they see it as their only deterrent against regime change.”

Rep. Gabbard, who has been calling for the US to negotiate directly “and without pre-conditions” with North Korea to resolve the crisis, says the US also needs to recognize the reality that North Korea already has nuclear weapons and is not going to give them up unless it feels secure from US attack.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump Fires Trade War Shots: “If There Is A Trade War With China, There Is”

January 17, 2018

Trump Fires Trade War Shots: “If There Is A Trade War With China, There Is”

With Reuters having published the part of its exclusive Trump interview in which the president discusses North Korea and Russia, and in which he said that it is “very possible” the crisis with North Korea can’t be resolved in a peaceful way, moments ago Reuters published highlights from the remainder of Trump’s interview, which discloses more from Trump’s trade agenda.

Here are the Reuters headlines:

  • TRUMP SAYS HE HOPES THERE WON’T BE A TRADE WAR WITH CHINA, BUT “IF THERE IS, THERE IS.”
  • TRUMP SAYS U.S. IS CONSIDERING “BIG DAMAGES” IN PROBE OVER ALLEGED CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT
  • TRUMP SAYS HE MAY TERMINATE NAFTA AGREEMENT, A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD BE UNHAPPY IF HE DID: RTRS

Mexico’s peso pared some of today’s gains on the news Trump “may” terminate Nafta agreement, with the MXN falling 0.5% to 18.6833/USD vs session high 18.58, although the bullet hardly says something we haven’t known already.

And touching on China’s threat to sell Treasurys if there is a trade war, Trump said:

  • TRUMP SAYS ANY CHANGE IN CHINA’S PURCHASES OF U.S. TREASURIES WOULD NOT HURT U.S. ECONOMY, SAYS EVERYBODY WANTS TO BUY TREASURIES

Some more details from the full interview:

In an interview with Reuters, Trump and his economic adviser Gary Cohn said China had forced U.S. companies to transfer their intellectual property to China as a cost of doing business there. The United States has started a trade investigation into the issue, and Cohn said the United States Trade Representative would be making recommendations about it soon.

“We have a very big intellectual property potential fine going, which is going to come out soon,” Trump said in the interview.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump: “Very Possible” Crisis With North Korea Can’t Be Resolved Peacefully

January 17, 2018

Trump: “Very Possible” Crisis With North Korea Can’t Be Resolved Peacefully

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, President Trump said on Wednesday that Russia is helping North Korea get supplies in violation of international sanctions and that Pyongyang is getting “closer every day” to being able to deliver a long-range missile to the United States. As a result, Trump said he hoped the standoff with Pyongyang could be resolved “in a peaceful way, but it’s very possible that it can’t.”

Having learned his lesson from his recent WSJ interview, Trump declined to comment when asked whether he had engaged in any communications at all with Kim, with whom he has exchanged public insults and threats, heightening tensions in the region. He did, however, blame Moscow:

“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump said during the Oval Office interview. “What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing.”

Which is ironic because it was a Chinese, not Russian ship, that was recently observed  illegally selling oil to North Korea. It’s even more ironic that in the interview, Trump praised China for its efforts to restrict oil and coal supplies to North Korea but said Beijing could do much more to help constrain Pyongyang.

In any case, with North Korea still the major global challenge facing Trump this year, the president cast doubt during the 53-minute interview whether talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be useful. In the past he has not ruled out direct talks with Kim.

“I’d sit down, but I‘m not sure that sitting down will solve the problem,” he said, noting that past negotiations with the North Koreans by his predecessors had failed to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olympic Games In South Korea – Perfect Opportunity For A False Flag Attack?

January 17, 2018

Olympic Games In South Korea – Perfect Opportunity For A False Flag Attack?

The war rhetoric surrounding North Korea on both sides of the Pacific has never been more aggressive than it has been the past year (at least not since the Korean War). There are some people that see the entire affair as a “distraction,” a distraction that will never amount to actual conflict. I disagree with this sentiment for a number of reasons.

North Korea is indeed a distraction, but still a distraction in the making. That is to say, the chest beating and saber rattling are merely a prelude to the much more effective distraction of live combat and invasion in the name of regime change and “national security.” As I noted in my article “Korean War Part II: Why It’s Probably Going To Happen,” the extensive staging of military assets to the region that has not been seen in over a decade, the extremely swift advancement of North Korean missile technology to include ICBMs capable of reaching the mainland U.S., the strange and unprecedented language by China indicating that they will not intercede against an invasion of North Korea by the U.S. “if Pyongyang attacks first….” All of this and more shows a clear movement of chess pieces into place for a sudden action.

According to these factors, I am led to believe that a false flag event blamed on North Korea, or a prodding of North Korea into taking an attack posture, is likely. The purposes behind such a war would be many-fold. Primarily, the final implosion of the vast financial bubbles created by central bank stimulus measures could be undertaken while the banks themselves escape public blame or prosecution.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Japanese Public Broadcaster NHK Issues False Alarm Over North Korean Missile Launch

January 16, 2018

Japanese Public Broadcaster NHK Issues False Alarm Over North Korean Missile Launch

It’s deja vu, all over again.

Just four days after residents of Hawaii lived through 38 minutes of doomsday hell, after a false public broadcast alarm announced that a ballistic missile launch was headed for the island, only to reverse and announce later it was a mistake, moments ago Japan’s National broadcaster NHK’s app issued a false J-Alert to phones over a North Korean missile launch at 6:55 p.m. Tuesday evening local time.

The message, received by phone users with the NHK app installed on their devices, read: “NHK news alert. North Korea likely to have launched missile. The government J alert: evacuate inside the building or underground. “

✔@AmichaiStein1

: Japan’s national broadcaster NHK just sent a text alert reporting that North Korea launched another missile … and then corrected itself

Shoko Oda@shoko_oda

NHK accidentally sends missile alert, similar to that of Hawaii from a couple days ago… uhhhh….

It then promptly corrected the error just 5 minutes later, at around 7 p.m.

After the false alert, NHK issued an on-air apology on Tuesday evening local time, saying “the news alert sent earlier about NK missile was a mistake. No government J alert was issued.”

“Around 6:55pm earlier we reported on the NHK’s news site and NHK’s news disaster prevention application ‘Pattern of North Korean missile launch’ but this was incorrectly issued. J alert has not appeared. I must sincerely apologize,” the news outlet wrote.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Watch A Sitting Congresswoman Shred The MSM Narrative In Under A Minute

January 15, 2018

Watch A Sitting Congresswoman Shred The MSM Narrative In Under A Minute

Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard appeared on multiple Sunday news shows a day after her state’s false ICBM emergency alert sent the islands into a tense 40 minutes of panic before it was revealed to be a message sent in error, where she slammed the mainstream media’s reporting on the North Korean nuclear threat, saying, “We’ve got to understand that North Korea is holding onto these nuclear weapons because they think it is their only protection from the United States coming in and doing to them what the United States has done to so many countries throughout history.” 

She further called for Trump to hold direct talks with Kim Jong Un in order to prevent the real thing from ever happening.

awd

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Gabbard is an Army reserve officer who previously served two tours in the Middle East, including in Iraq. Image via the Ron Paul Institute

On Saturday Gabbard had immediately criticized President Trump for mishandling North Korea, taking to MSNBC to proclaim that “our leaders have failed us. Donald Trump is taking too long… he’s not taking this [nuclear] threat seriously…” During Sunday interviews she elaborated on a plan of action, advising Trump to enter talks with Pyongyang which should “happen without preconditions” and that Trump should “sit across the table from Kim Jong Un” in order stamp out the climate of fear which contributed to the “unacceptable” alert issued on Saturday.

✔@TulsiGabbard

We’ve got to understand that North Korea is holding onto these nuclear weapons because they think it is their only protection from the United States coming in and doing to them what the United States has done to so many countries throughout history.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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