January 22, 2025

San Francisco

 MASTER LIST of Articles for DWF NEWS 1/22/25

Religious fanatics, lawless world ruled by Bully nations

Bat Shit Insane Religious Fanaticism Is A Requirement for US Empire Managers

Caitlin Johnstone

Israel & U.S. brazenly become Nazi Germany all over again

The U.S. Establishment's Intense Commitment to Exterminating Palestinians

Eric Zuesse       The Duran

Think tanks fueling endless war

Think Tanks or Stink Tanks?

Roger Kotila    Earth Federation News & Views

See who's funding the think tanks cheerleading for more war funding

Quincy Institute

Billionaires betting big on nuclear--at what cost?

NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

M.V. Romana     Versobooks.com, London

Are you ready for drone-vulnerable nuclear plants?

Memo to Trump: Address the new threat of drone-vulnerable nuclear reactors

Henry Sokolski     Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Religious fanatics, lawless world ruled by Bully nations

Bat Shit Insane Religious Fanaticism Is A Requirement for US Empire Managers

Caitlin Johnstone

EXCERPTS

During her Senate confirmation hearing for UN ambassador, Trump nominee Elise Stefanik was asked by Senator Chris Van Hollen if she agreed with Israeli Nazis Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotritch that Israel has a “Biblical right” to the West Bank. Stefanik said yes.

It’s so wild how bat shit insane religious delusions are almost a prerequisite for acceptance in the highest echelons of Official Washington. These confirmation hearings are like,

“Are you mentally ill enough to do US foreign policy?”

“Yes, I have the requisite mental illnesses to do US foreign policy.”

“Your brain is a festering stew of psychosis and you have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality?”

“Yes, I promise that is the case.”

Antisemitism crisis a myth

There is no antisemitism crisis in our society. There isn’t. It’s a lie. A lie that has been cynically promoted by institutions like the ADL to shut down criticism of genocidal atrocities by a tyrannical apartheid state. That’s all we’ve ever been looking at here.

Lawless world, tyrants do as they please

If “international law” was a real thing that actually existed, every nation which facilitated the destruction of Gaza would be forced to rebuild it immediately and war crimes tribunals would already be underway.

But international law does not exist in any meaningful way. Domestic laws exist because states have the power to enforce them, but there is no international body which has the power to force the US-centralized empire to stop committing mass atrocities. The reality is that we still live in an ultimately lawless world where tyrants do as they please, and the only rules of any real consequence are the ones which benefit the tyrants. READ MORE

Israel & U.S. brazenly become Nazi Germany all over again

The U.S. Establishment's Intense Commitment to Exterminating Palestinians

Eric Zuesse

EXCERPTS

 The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal was also made to leave while asking Blinken why he allowed hundreds of journalists to be murdered in Gaza, telling State Department spokesman Matt Miller that he “smirked through a genocide.”

Husseini was then forcibly removed for asking questions about Gaza, and about Israel’s nuclear program and Hannibal directive. Blinken told Husseini to “respect the process,” to which Husseini replied, “Respect the process? Respect the process? While everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ says Israel’s doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to respect the process? Criminal! Why aren’t you in the Hague?”

The western political-media class is expressing outrage over the incident, not because of journalists being manhandled for asking critical questions of their government, but because those journalists asked critical questions. …

Just the day before, the January 15th edition of The Chris Hedges Report, “America’s Academic Gulag (w/ MIT Student Activists) | The Chris Hedges Report”, showed the great international war reporter Hedges interviewing two young rising stars and Ph.D. students at America’s leading STEM University, MIT, who are being driven out, and their scholarships and grant funding cancelled, simply because they consider genocide to be unacceptable. One, named Prahlad Iyengar, had been a National Science Foundation Fellow studying for his Ph.D. in the intersection of quantum information, quantum sensing, and machine learning; and the other, who is Richard Solomon, had been studying for his Ph.D in the political economy of trade and science, and who had previously been a Vice Consul and Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department.  READ MORE

Think tanks fueling endless war

Think Tanks or Stink Tanks?

Roger Kotila    Earth Federation News & Views

The use of think tanks to anticipate, help plan, and justify potential wars is a key obstacle to world peace. Think tanks funded by defense (war) contractors and Bully governments may claim they offer objectivity, but in reality they mostly provide analyses which, knowingly or not, neglect peaceful alternatives (nonviolent solutions).  

It is a rare think tank paid for by the US government that includes an analysis using the United Nations to prevent, or to end war. None of these think tanks let the public and politicians know that a "new UN" (i.e., a democratic world federation) is what will be needed to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction. 

There is almost no discussion of the growing 109 movement -- a legal requirement for the Charter to be reviewed. In the Review the outdated Charter should be directly compared to the Earth Constitution which is ready to provide the UN General Assembly with a model, guide and authority to establish the urgently needed world federal union government ("new UN" or "UN 2.0").   

The Earth Constitution movement as a replacement for the obsolete Charter is given the silent treatment by these think (stink) tanks. Why? America is in the War Business.  A "new UN" (UN 2.0) designed properly with a real world constitution could have the potential to end war itself.   

Indeed, invariably the assumption in most stink tank articles is that there exists an "enemy" (sometimes termed an "adversary") which needs analysis: Where is the enemy's vulnerabilities; what are its strengths?

The adversary ("enemy") is usually demonized as authoritarian with a leader who is a "dictator" or a "strongman." This helps the public believe that the so-called enemy is a bad guy, and deserves to be taken down by US/NATO. 

In these stink tank articles US Empire's illegal invasions and covert coups are never labeled as terrorism, or criminal. Instead, the myth is proudly maintained that US Empire is "exceptional."   

Most analysts in these stink tanks are, in my opinion, the equivalent of "hired guns" with Ph.D.'s and high IQ's, and are capable of providing arguments to convince the politicians and public that any potential war will (of course) require more funding to have adequate weaponry to do the job. 

The fact that a world federal government is the solution to ending war is simply not discussed, nor the fact that there is a world constitution waiting in the wings -- the Earth Constitution. 

~ Roger Kotila, PhD (Opinion in Earth Federation News & Views)

See who's funding the think tanks cheerleading for more war funding

Quincy Institute

Browse our publicly available repository of foreign government, U.S. government, and Pentagon contractor funding of the U.S.’s top 50 foreign policy think tanks going back to 2019.

Over a third of the top foreign policy think tanks in the U.S. publicly disclose little or no information about their funders. Yet, most think tanks provide at least some information about how they are funded.

The Think Tank Funding Tracker allows users to explore these funding relationships for themselves. Start by searching for a donor or think tank below or use the browse function in the top right corner.

Top 10 Think Tanks That Receive Funding from Foreign Governments:

Atlantic Council 20,883,000 Brookings Institution 17,150,001 German Marshall Fund 16,168,022 RAND 12,400,000 Stimson Center 11,632,261 Middle East Institute 10,631,648 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 10,565,011 Center for a New American Security 2,805,001 Center for Strategic and International Studies 1,975,000 Peterson Institute for International Economics 1,725,019

Top 10 Think Tanks That Receive Funding from Pentagon Contractors:

Atlantic Council 10,270,001 Center for a New American Security 6,665,000 Center for Strategic and International Studies 4,115,000 Brookings Institution 3,475,000 Hudson Institute 2,240,000 Council on Foreign Relations 2,095,000 Stimson Center 1,555,763 Aspen Institute 1,125,000 German Marshall Fund 871,010 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 620,008

Top 10 Think Tanks That Receive Funding from the U.S. Government:

 READ MORE

Billionaires betting big on nuclear--at what cost?

NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

M.V. Romana     Versobooks.com, London

Book review by Roger Kotila:

Nuclear energy is being falsely presented to the public as safe and "clean" by its advocates. It is being presented as an important solution to reduce global warming and the climate crisis. The promise of a big nuclear energy future is being advocated by a number of billionaires.

What billionaires, and why? The nuclear energy cycle is very profitable since the government backs it financially, and the corporation gets paid to build nuclear power plants, to run them, and to deal with the radioactive waste products which go on and on indefinitely. Nice way to insure ongoing profit!

Billionaires like Sam Altman (Open AI) seek a source of energy to meet the massive demands of AI operations. Bill Gates and Peter Thiel believe nuclear power can help us move away from fossil fuels as a source for electrical energy. Tesla's Elon Musk also believes in nuclear energy. Cryptocurrency operations (block chain), like AI, require enormous amounts of energy.

But along comes M.V. Romana who is trained in physics and a professor at the Univ of British Columbia where he is chair of Disarmament at the School of Public Policy, and a member of the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group.

Professor Romana's "NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change" documents why the current demand for nuclear power is not only the wrong path, but why it is a potentially dangerous path in the search for more (clean) energy. 

He explains that nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons are intimately connected, that nuclear energy "cannot be separated" from nuclear weapons. He warns that nuclear power plants "become a dirty bomb" if attacked during war. He argues that the claim that "small nuclear reactors" are the answer is a hopeless myth -- sheer wishful thinking. 

He debunks the hype about using sodium or gas-cooled reactors in SMR's (Small Modular Reactors). He documents why SMR's won't, and can't, do the job. So far, a wild goose chase. He warns that Big Money will use public relations firms to fool the public into accepting nuclear power as a solution even though it lacks scientific validation.

To my readers -- don't forget PLUTONIUM, a by-product which comes from nuclear power plant operation and can be used to make nuclear bombs!

I recommend this book for anyone trying to evaluate nuclear power as an energy source. Could it be a fatal mistake? -- Review of this book by Roger Kotila, editor DWF NEWS.

Are you ready for drone-vulnerable nuclear plants?

Memo to Trump: Address the new threat of drone-vulnerable nuclear reactors

Henry Sokolski     Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

EXCERPTS

Mr. President, in the closing days of your first administration, you issued an executive order spotlighting the growing dangers of drone attacks against America’s critical energy infrastructure. ... Four years later, large drones overflying nuclear plants both here and abroad demonstrate your request was spot on.

Our government, however, continues to discount the dangers such overflights pose. As for the threats facing the most frightening of civilian targets—nuclear power plants—Washington has been all too silent. While there are many other infrastructure nodes drones can hit, the effects of striking nuclear plants exceed that of almost any other civilian target set. Your second administration urgently needs to address this new threat.

All of this comes as the United States, South Korea, and Russia are pushing the export and construction of scores of large and small reactors in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. You and your cabinet should understand that new and existing nuclear plants are potential military targets—now and in the future. ... READ MORE