We reflect on a horrific produced water leak, Iowa’s results, Gov Martinez’s disgraceful secret settlements, how “electability” is code for keeping corporations in control, and a powerful video on the risk of nuclear war
Before we offer summaries and links to last week’s posts, a few announcements. And don’t miss the closing video on the implications and consequences of nuclear war and the US’s trying to create popular comfort for the newest version of nuclear weaponry, “limited nuclear arms.”
A new nuclear warhead requested, designed and produced under the Trump administration, has been deployed aboard a nuclear submarine, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
The deployment of the W76-2, a low-yield variant of the nuclear warhead traditionally used on the Trident missile, was first reported Jan. 29 by the Federation of American Scientists. The first to move out with the new weapon was the USS Tennessee (SSBN-734), deploying from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia at the end of 2019, FAS reported.
As the 15 minute Ted-Talk video below makes clear, there is no such thing as a “limited” nuclear weapon, despite how they might package it.
We Are In the Red
We don’t like to push for donations, but…
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Our Nation Builder platform costs $250 a month, and during the session our printing and paper costs explode. On Saturday, we found ourselves in the red for the first time in a year. So, if you possibly can, please show your appreciation with a contribution or, even better, a pledge to make smaller monthly contributions.
Click here to make a contribution or, if you prefer, send a check to: Retake Our Democracy, P.O. Box 32464, Santa Fe, NM 87594.
Thank you so much for your advocacy efforts and for your support!
Dahr Jamail, The End of Ice: A powerful one-hour podcast with Retake Our Democracy and Dahr Jamail. Thank you to KSFR for making this available immediately. If you heard the live show on Saturday, that is but half of what you will hear in this podcast. This is perhaps the most important and the best show we’ve done in three years. I could not recommend this more highly.
Click here to listen to the full show.
A Look Back At Last Week’s Posts
If you only have time to review one of last week’s posts, there is no question that the one on “electability” is most important. We simply can’t accept the electability argument and must understand the motivation behind the media, the DNC, and centrist Democratic leadership trying to force us to accept tepid options that will not address corporate control, the climate crisis, the wealth gap, our need for universal healthcare, or our need to dump Trump.
Produced Water, Iowa Results? and Gov. Martinez Shocking Secret Settlements
Tues., Feb. 4: The focus of this post is on a produced water leak that illustrates precisely why we can’t trust the gas & oil industry and their self-serving efforts to make “produced” water palatable to New Mexicans. We also discuss Auditor Brian Colon’s stunning testimony at a Senate Judiciary hearing last week. If you didn’t catch this post, please read about Martinez’s secret $5+ million settlements made without any legal review or a semblance of integrity. This is government at its absolute worst.
Click here to read the full post.
Bernie, Mayor Pete Tie In Iowa; Trump Guilty As Hell, but…
Thurs., Feb. 6: This post focuses on how Trump continues to escape justice despite one moral and legal offense after another. We also reflect on the implications of Sanders’ showing in Iowa, as he continues to defy the critics. Finally, the post also pays tribute to friend and advocate Lynne Fischer, who was honored on the House chamber floor Friday afternoon. Each day at the Roundhouse we are all reminded of how special Lynne was, and all of our efforts in this session are dedicated to her.
Click here to read the full post.
What Is Wrong With Using “Electability” To Guide Your Votes? It’s a Trap!
Sat., Feb. 8: This post outlines precisely how wrong it is to use “electability” as criteria in supporting a candidate, how it very intentionally prevents us from voting for our aspirations, and how those aspirations are actually shared by a majority of Americans.
It isn’t enough that third parties that offer a more progressive platform have been demonized, now even supporting a progressive Democratic candidate has been characterized as suicidal. The post asks you to consider why the media and centrist Dems (read: Dems who take their cues from Wall St, Gas & Oil, Pharma, big Ag, the military industrial complex, etc) are so strident about their insistence to only consider “realistic” candidates, electable candidates?
The problem is that the elite’s determination of electability flies in the face of polling data that shows either Warren or Sanders would do quite well against Trump. Other polling data shows that the key elements of their platform enjoy enthusiastic support among voters. What’s more, the post points out how history shows that the bold choice often does better than “experts” thought possible. Finally, Warren and Sanders’ positions are overwhelming embraced by the next generation of Democratic voters. Turn your backs on that army of enthusiastic youth at your own peril.
The post sticks to facts and polls and is well worth sharing with Democrats you know who think we need to be safe in 2020. We don’t have time for safety: Listen to Greta Thunberg…or better yet, the podcast with Dahr Jamail.
Click here to read the full post.
And don’t go away until you see the video below, a Ted Talk on the increasingly grave risk of nuclear war.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
We really should be worried. “Limited Low Yield Nukes” kinder gentler nukes, that will be easier to deploy, “against smaller targets.” The really sick thing is that there has been virtually no push-back or criticism. There used to be global treaties, they seem to have evaporated. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nuclear-arms-treaty-russia The media has not reported the facts on this either. There is a global arms race going on now, thanks to Trump. The US is the worlds largest arms dealer, there is no conflict anywhere, the arms dealers consider off limits.
There was barely a reaction when they announced billions in “Pit Production” right up the hill. The same contractors working for contractors that brought us the “most expensive nuclear accident ever.” https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/03/26/395615637/official-report-nuclear-waste-accident-caused-by-wrong-kitty-litter
“Unfortunately, workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, also in New Mexico, apparently switched from inorganic clay litter to organic litter. According to the report, workers put the brand “Swheat Scoop” inside drum 68660.”
A random “contractor” decided that organic kitty litter sounded better. Perhaps someone owned stock in the company or they were just so ignorant, that a decision on something this critical could make a difference. We were led to believe that actual scientists were making these decisions. What we found out is that random contractors and subcontractors, are involved in the process. This was no “accident” it was monumental stupidity and we are seeing more of it, there have been numerous safety issues since. Nothing changed with the change in management, an academic institution is just better branding. All they have to do is give some scholarships to local kids with lot of media amplification, and they are suddenly good neighbors. We can forget all about the plume of hexavalent chromium heading downhill.
Locally it looks like Egolf is finally catching on, “House Speaker Brian Egolf on Tuesday accused Republicans of deploying a strategy of extending debate on bills with bipartisan support to decelerate the process of passing legislation they don’t like.” https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/tension-rising-between-dems-and-gop-as-session-in-home/article_c2195fd4-4d0c-11ea-aa22-5b8cb25a5e60.html
We have a bunch of centrist “democrats” who have already compromised, playing footise with lunatics. the very same lunatics that took this state to the bottom, destroyed the educational system, left children traumatized, they dismantled what was left of our democracy. The damage they did has a generational impact. It will take years to unpack what they did, the millions in settlements are the tip of the iceberg. There is still plenty of denial, and we have to put up a good front for the economic development and tourism industries.
So much complacency, the “Red Flag Bill” was a compromise, Virginia banned assault weapons. Our corporate sponsored legislators are too cowardly to do that here. They are too cowardly to do more than basic incremental legislation. The lobbyists and corporate sponsors are telling them to go slow, as they flood local media with content marketing.
Fascism is already here, the populace has been silenced. The gun owners are the victims, not the children cowering behind books in the library, hoping that the books will stop the bullets. The real horror of what has occurred is not effecting the comfortable yet, as long as the stock market looks good, and they can “choose” to buy crap on amazon, everything is hunky dory.
Some of the bills they passed sound great, the optics are really good. They are enough to lull the populace into a false sense of security. Of course we do not have the people, not enough teachers, no competent psychologists or social workers. This state scraped by for years, hiring unqualified retirees, who went along with the dismantling. They saw nothing, and had no problems with what they saw. Martinez fired the people who spoke up in state government, none of this is being investigated. Lot of cozy relationships between people in state government and health providers, and industry interests. It is not hard to see what years of “public and private” partnerships have brought us.
Check this out!
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/02/more-about-pete It looks like he is the new corporate media/corporate democrat darling.