Earth Day: Conflict Over The Future Of The Planet

Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers


On this Earth Day, it is difficult to look at the state of the planet and the current political leadership and see much hope. In “Junk Planet”, Robert Burrowes writes a comprehensive description of the degradation of the atmosphere, oceans, waterways, groundwater, and soil as well as the modern pollution of antibiotic waste, genetic engineering, nanowaste, space junk, military waste and nuclear, a description of a planet degraded by pollution impacting our bodies and health as well as the planet’s future.

Burrowes includes another form of waste, junk information, that denies reality, e.g. climate change, the dangers of extreme energy extraction and food polluted by genetic engineering, pesticides, and depleted soils. This false reporting results in policies that create a risk of ecosystem collapse.

Political and economic elites want people to believe these problems do not exist. Those in power seek to protect profits from dirty energy rather than transition to 100 percent clean energy. They seek to protect agribusiness food, pesticides, and genetically modified foods rather than transform food to organic, locally grown foods using regenerative agriculture. They deny the reality of environmental racism rather than correct decades of racism and provide reparations. They seek to put profits ahead of the health and necessities of people as well as ahead of protecting and restoring the planet.

Despite this, a growing portion of the public understands these realities and is taking action to challenge the system. People know, for example, as activist Steven Norris writes, that they should be concerned about the impact of carbon infrastructure on their communities and the planet.

Last week, David Buckel, a nationally known advocate for gay rights and the environment, died in a self-immolation suicide as a wake-up call to save the planet. He wrote in a note, “Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather. Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result – my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”

The undertow being created by organized resistance is growing, and so is the push back against it. In order for this conflict to be resolved, the conflict must be heightened as is occurring now.

Tree-Sit Protest Of Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia Metro News.

People Power Escalates

As we write this, tree-sits are growing in West Virginia where people are putting their bodies on the line to prevent the destruction of trees and habitat to build the Mountain Valley pipeline for fracked gas. In Virginia, Red Terry started a tree-sit on Easter weekend to protect her land from destruction. She remains, despite the company with law enforcement support denying her food and water — something illegal against prisoners or during war. As trees are felled she remains, as do protesters in Pennsylvania, who are also doing tree-sits. Their stubborn courageous should encourage each of us.

In Louisiana, a water protector locked herself into a cement-filled barrel placed in the trench of a horizontal directional drill to block construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Eleanor Goldfield reports this is part of the Battle of the Bayou, a coalition of groups and individuals standing against the destruction of a fragile environment, facing arrest and creating a future together.

In Maryland, people blocked construction then escalated to a tractor blockade to prevent the construction of a compressor station that will bring fracked gas from the Mid-Atlantic to the Dominion export terminal in southern Maryland. People who fought the export terminal for years are now joining with neighboring counties fighting gas infrastructure and mounting a campaign against the Maryland Department of the Environment as Governor Hogan pushes $100 million in gas infrastructure.

People are taking protests to corporate offices as a busload of Lancaster, PA people did when they brought a 12 foot stretch of pipeline to a meeting room, singing songs and chanting, asking “How does it feel to be invaded?” In Bellevue Washington, protesters constructed a small longhouse blocking the main entrance to the corporate headquarters of an energy company.

California’s Governor Jerry Brown was protested when he came to speak at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Hundreds of people protested Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania over his pro-fracking policies. More politicians will be held accountable in this election year by angry constituents.

The industry recognizes that pipeline protesters are having an impact.  Canada is having a hard time moving tar sands and fracked gas because protests are stopping pipeline investment. Oil companies are successfully being pressured to examine the risks to the environment and human rights from their actions. Washington activists defeated the largest oil-train terminal in the nation.

Protests are successfully resulting in cities divesting from banks who fund fossil fuel projects. Europe’s largest bank, HSBC just announced it will no longer fund oil or gas projects in the Arctic, tar sands projects, or most coal projects. Corporations realize they are investing in stranded assets that may not pay off and they may be held legally accountable for causing climate change.

Exxon Knew protest. Photo by Johnny Silvercloud.

Litigation Raises Risks

Corporations and the federal government are facing lawsuits from individuals, organizations and state and local governments over climate change and environmental degradation. Protesters are using the courts to underscore the urgent necessity for action by using a climate necessity defense. Courts are beginning to accept it, but protesters willingly understand they risk incarceration.

ExxonMobil is facing a raft of litigation arguing the company was aware of climate risks but continued to mislead the public and to pollute. State and local governments are seeking damages and calling for a federal criminal investigation. Litigation highlights the science of climate change and demonstrates how oil giants made immense profits while billions of dollars of cost from climate change, e.g. immense storms and sea level rise, are borne by individuals and governments. Most suits were brought by coastal communities but recently Colorado communities are suing oil corporations over climate change-caused droughts and fires.

ExxonMobil tried to stop state investigations in Massachusetts, New York, and Texas over misleading investors for years about climate change risks. The judge issued a sharp rebuke with prejudice preventing an appeal and allowing the investigations to continue. Oil companies are no doubt behind new legislation in states to give severe penalties to people protesting “critical infrastructure”.

Future generations from Our Children’s Trust have brought eight suits against the federal government over the destruction of the environment claiming a public trust over the atmosphere. A suit filed by 21 youth in Washington has overcome government efforts to dismiss the case and will be going to trial after both the trial court and Ninth Circuit rejected the government.

Environmental racism is also being challenged. Recently a court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Civil Rights Act for decades of inaction over complaints filed by residents of Flint, MI. Hundreds of complaints about environmental racism have been made to the EPA. An ultimate case of racism is coming up in the Supreme Court when it considers whether the United States must abide by treaties made with Indigenous Peoples. The long history of racism from the founding of the US by colonizing land inhabited by millions, followed by ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous who lived there is on trial. If treaties are law, as they should be, this will empower Indigenous People more.

Climate Our Future from People’s Climate March by Reuters.

Change Is Being Created, Transformation Is Coming

The undertow of protest is having an impact. Corporations fear they will be held accountable for the damage they have done. Governments and elected officials are aware the people are angry and their careers can end with the new political culture created by people power.

The beginning of change always begins with education and changing ourselves. While we know, systemic change is necessary, people are also educating themselves about their own own lifestyles. Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Webb was conscious of the dangers of plastic and decided to keep all of his plastic for a year gathering 4,490 items, 93% were single-use plastic, and just 8 were biodegradable. He made a mural of his plastic to educate others.

The US uses 500 million plastic straws every day. Whenever we order a drink, we request no straws and share this fact. This consciousness has permeated the culture, now many restaurants only bring straws when asked, and people are organizing “Don’t Suck”  and “Be Straw Free” campaigns to eliminate plastic straws.

More people spend their money consciously using it to buy organic and local, eating less meat and boycotting factory farm foods. We have more power with our dollar than with our vote in a manipulated “democracy” disguised as an oligarchy.

People are also making changes at the community level. Edmonston, a working-class town with a median income of $19,000 in Maryland took  small steps to going green. In the early 2000s to ameliorate stormwater flooding, they gradually remade their town into a green town, empty lots turned into community gardens and  rain barrels were added. Now they have permeable pavement, solar panels, fruit trees for food and native plant landscapes with leaves collected by the city and composted.

In Brooklyn, people began reclaiming land with a vacant lot turned into a nearly 2-acre community space with garden beds, an outdoor movie screening area, a pumpkin patch, and an educational production and research farm. They then got data on vacant lots in the city and put bi-lingual signs on them that said: “This land is your land” and told people how to get control of the area, linking them to a website to help. Since 2011, communities have transformed over 200 sites. Municipalization, or fearless cities, may be a key for creating change toward socializing energy into a public service resulting in transformative cities. These changes are not only about the environment and climate justice but are also about economic, racial and social justice.

Despite the government continuing to invest in dirty energy, clean energy is growing. Wind farming is creating jobs in red states like Texas. The Solar Foundation mapped solar jobs by congressional district as solar is the fastest growing source of new energy. Research has been developed on a state-by-state basis to make the United States 100% renewable by 2050, with a national mobilization it could happen more quickly.

There are many challenges at the national level with corrupt federal agencies tied to polluting industries, but people pressure is still having an impact. The Federal Energy Regulatory System (FERC) which has been in bed with the oil, gas, and nuclear industries since its founding, indeed it is funded by those industries, has been the focus of a more than four-year pressure campaign by Beyond Extreme Energy. This June 23-25 they will be holding a Crack the FERC protest campaign to escalate pressure. The protest coincides with the Poor People’s Campaign as addressing the environmental crisis is linked to economic inequality, racism, and other issues.

The environmental crisis and the mishandling of climate change are issues that are going to make the 2020s a decade of transformational change. In order for people to create transformative changes, we need a well-educated activist community.

C.I.A. Color Revolutions

Javier Castro

CIA color revolutions have rarely succeeded, but they are increasing in frequency nevertheless. A CIA color revolution is when CIA operatives try to agitate local people to incite riots to try to overthrow governments. CIA color revolutions are a cash bonanza to CIA people, criminal beyond any shadow of a doubt, disastrous on the rare occasions they succeed, for example Iran in the 1950s and the Ukraine in the 2010s and disastrous when they fail. 2 recent examples of failed CIA color revolutions are Iran in 2017 and Nicaragua in Spring 2018. Plus there is a pending color revolution in Cuba.

Finally, this report will touch on why the CIA people do not care if their crimes, attempted color revolutions for example, have success or not. That is because these crimes, such as attempted color revolutions, are a huge cash bonanza to thousands of CIA officers and tens of thousands of their closest friends, relatives and lovers.

In the 1950s, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran. He promised to nationalize the oil company in Iran just like Norway did in Norway. American and British oil companies were making, at that time, a couple bucks a barrel off of Iranian oil while paying Iranians a couple pennies a barrel for their oil.

The CIA is supposed to uphold and protect American values like support for democratically elected officials, freedom, liberty, human rights, the Bill of Rights and so forth. But, since the CIAs get go in 1947, the CIA has instead opted to support unelected dictators, tyranny, oppression, misery, despair, mass murders, poverty and no rights for the people.

A book called Legacy of the Ashes has one of the most detailed descriptions of the CIAs first ever color revolution in Iran in the 1950s.

First, the CIA picked their replacement, the Shah, a tyrannical mass murderer of a CIA agent. Then, CIA people recruited all sorts of riff raff throughout Iran, especially in the Tehran capital region, to be CIA agents.

Most CIA agents in Iran are Iranians just as most CIA agents in Nicaragua are Nicaraguans, just as most CIA agents in Germany are Germans. Most CIA agents are recruited by cut outs. A cut out is a whore, male or female, who does not care where the money comes from, does not ask any questions, they take money from anyone to do anything, and to say anything.

In Tehran, the CIA bribed and paid prostitutes. Then, the CIA bribed or seduced, or both, criminals, drug addicts, street performers, magicians, mimes, beggars and so forth. The CIA had already bribed or seduced many military officials, government officials, businesspeople, clergymen, journalists and so forth.

The CIAs planned military coup failed. The Iranian military people who were CIA agents attacked the Iranian military people loyal to the Iranian people and to the democratically elected government of the Iranian people. The Iranian military people who were CIA agents failed. They lost.

But, in Tehran, the street performers, jugglers, magicians, prostitutes and other assorted CIA agent riff raff began parading around the capital with large photos of the Shah and loud declarations that Mosaddegh was deposed and the Shah was the new dear leader of Iran.

The Iranians in the capital were taken aback by the weird assortment of CIA agent weirdo’s, street performers, jugglers, magicians, prostitutes, etc. Parading about so euphorically, as directed by their CIA handlers, mostly cut outs, declaring the Shah as the new supreme leader. Mass confusion overtook the Iranian capital and in this environment of sudden mass chaos and mass confusion, a second attempt, this one successful, was made to depose the democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh and to install a CIA agent mass murderer dictator, the Shah, instead.

The key elements were the CIA agents recruited at the top and at the bottom.

At the top, the Shah, well known to the Iranian people as a descendent of former kings, and several military, intel and police commanders were recruited. At the bottom, legions of beautiful looking people, young prostitutes, male and female, and legions of enchanting appearing people, street musicians, magicians, jugglers and so forth.

At the top, they had their plans and orders for a quick violent removal of the top elected officials and the top unelected officials, military, intel and police loyal to the Iranian people.

At the bottom, they had their plans and orders to quickly make an environment as chaotic, as confusing and as distracting as possible … so that CIA agents at the top could execute their evil plans with as little interference as possible from the rank and file.

Attempted CIA color revolutions in the 1960s failed. In Czechoslovakia, for example, the street people, CIA agents, were quickly met with tanks, shots fired in the air and mass arrests. Followed by trials, followed by prison terms for espionage, treason, unregistered foreign agent, sabotage, subversion, attempting to overthrow the government, inciting to riot, assembling without a permit, rioting, vandalism, disorderly conduct and so forth.

At the top, any military, intel, police officials found to be CIA agents received more stringent penalties for their crimes.

It is a crime in every country, except the US, to be a CIA agent. The countries that routinely enforce their own laws against CIA agents have almost no risk of an attempted CIA color revolution. China, for example. North Korea, as another example.

The countries that seldom enforce their own laws against CIA agents, for example, Mexico, Honduras and Afghanistan, are at greatest risk for CIA color revolutions and at greatest risk of becoming outright colonies of the CIA along with the rampant crime, poverty, prostitution, drugs, despair and general state of lawless misery that occurs when countries succumb to becoming colonies of the CIA.

For the first time in a long time, a CIA color revolution succeeded in the Ukraine in 2014. There was a calm before the storm hallmark. US government communications and actions regarding Ukraine became especially quiet, muted, in the months before that color revolution. Like a false peace. Like a Trojan horse.

CIA agents at the top and at the bottom, were recruited en masse. The Ukraine had fallen into the trap of not enforcing their own laws against CIA agents. Then, the day came and all throughout the capital, CIA officers, CIA contractors, CIA cut outs and CIA agents were passing out free lunches, free cookies, free cash and more … agitating as many people as possible to riot, creating an environment of chaos and confusion on the streets, at the bottom, to make it as easy as possible for the CIA agents at the top to execute their violent criminal plans.

After the 1953 Iranian color revolution, the CIA also buttressed the SAVAK secret police which mass murdered tens of thousands of Iranians and jointly, that is the Shah, SAVAK and the CIA, led Iran into a decadent reign of terror, misery and despair. Prostitution, drunkenness, drugs, and crime became rampant as did unemployment and religious intolerance. The CIA hates freedom of religion.

Foreigners became filthy rich off of Iranian oil, while Iranians got nothing for their oil. Until 1979. The Iranian people had it with being a colony of the CIA and they overthrew their murderous CIA agent overlords and ended the CIAs decadent reign of terror over the Iranian people. For good.

In the Ukraine, unemployment and misery have skyrocketed. Some Ukrainians freeze to death in the winter, others are malnourished. The CIA agents in charge of the Ukraine are neo nazis who have run the Ukraine into the ground. Ukrainian government bonds have junk bond status, which means they cannot borrow any more money and they cannot pay for the money that they did borrow. The Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe and their application to join the European Union was rejected outright.

The Ukraine is now ripe for the Ukrainian people to take back the Ukraine from the CIA just as Iran was ripe in 1979 for the Iranian people to take back Iran from the CIA. Even in the rare instances when the CIA wins at their self described color revolution game, they ultimately lose. Big time. Like in Iran.

Attempted CIA color revolutions depend on a lot of money laundering from the CIA to CIA operatives. It is 2018, and it has never been easier to detect money laundering. Some general just sold a house for double of what it is worth. Some pretend church or pretend charity just got large influxes of so called donations. Large cash remittances, Western Union, PayPal, Bitcoin, just started coming in for so and so. Some call center just got some large gravy train contracts from abroad. Pretty young women without jobs suddenly have wads of cash. Handsome young guys without jobs suddenly have wads of cash too. Some bureaucrat just bought another new BMW. Some restaurant is full of foreigners paying top dollar and leaving large tips. The red flags are all there before an attempted CIA color revolution. Follow the money honey.

The CIA hates it when people mention the CIA. The countries that most successfully ward off attempted CIA color revolutions are the nations where the people talk all the time about the CIA and their crimes. The news reports on the CIA and their crimes every week at least once a week. Learning about the CIA and talking about the CIA is part of the school curriculum for every grade level.

There is a book called Killing Hope by William Blum which is especially good for school children and adults to learn more about CIA crimes and CIA felons. Another good book for school children is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Hotlines to call about suspected criminal activity such as CIA sex trafficking, CIA human trafficking, CIA drug trafficking, CIA arms trafficking, violent CIA criminals, CIA serial rapists, CIA serial killers, CIA mass murderers and so forth.

Routine audits of military, intel and police people for foreign contacts, sex contacts, any unexplained money and so forth.

In late 2017, the CIA tried a color revolution in Iran. It fizzled out fast. There were a few days of CIA agents and Mossad agents out in the streets trying to incite riots, trying to sow chaos and confusion. Most Iranians did not take the bait. The vast majority of Iranians do not want to go back to living in poverty, despair and misery, feeling terrorized all the time, by SAVAK and the CIA, in a CIA colony.

When the CIA has colonized countries, the murder rate skyrockets as CIA agents go on serial killing sprees and most people fall into poverty and misery and a life, if you can call it that, of feeling terrorized all the time by CIA agent mass murderers who take over and then terrorize all the people all the time. The book named Killing Hope has the name it has for good reason.

On April 18, 2018, the CIA started an attempted color revolution against the democratically elected government of Nicaragua. Nicaraguan President Ortega received 70 percent of the vote in November 2016 which is in contrast to Donald Trump who got 46 percent of the vote and Hillary Clinton who got 48 percent of the vote in the US Presidential elections in November 2016.

A proposed increase of the retirement age by 2 years in Nicaragua was used by the CIA agents as a pretext to incite riots and to try to sow chaos and confusion in the streets. There have been no public disclosures, as of April 22, 2018, of any top ranking CIA agents in the Nicaraguan military, intel or police. The mood in and around the capital, Managua, is largely a mood of business as usual, with people doing pretty much what they generally do every day.

In the days immediately prior to the start of the CIAs attempted color revolution in Nicaragua, there were some changes. The CIA pretend tourist crowd changed, to an extent, not completely, from the usual crowd of 20 something newbie CIA agents parading around in bathing suit like prostitute costumes, many with plenty of drugs and most conspicuously displaying the fact that they had CIA cash to burn, to try to corrupt, entice, entrap, bribe, seduce, basically fishing expeditions by CIA newbies to try to recruit anyone they can catch … this changed, to an extent, to more experienced 30 something and 40 something CIA pretend tourists. Several of the CIA pretend priests and their legion of CIA media presstitutes and CIA pretend pastors were busier than usual travelling and with added meetings. Nicaraguans who travelled to the US, some for years, were recruited by the CIA, then returned to Nicaragua, these agents were getting more CIA cash sent to them and were generally getting giddy and excited with vague CIA promises of even more CIA cash later in April 2018 to come. Ditto for the many Nicaraguans with friends or family abroad.

One of many common CIA recruiting tactics is to profile, prey on and recruit prisoners in US prisons, called suicide squad recruiting, whereby Nicaraguan cons are given the option to serve out long prison terms, or get released early, go back to Nicaragua and be a CIA agent. These suicide squad CIA agents are then strung along with small CIA cash bribes, or low paying jobs at CIA front companies, etc. And the occasional freebie visits from CIA agent prostitutes. There was an increase in foreign payments and communications from foreigners to some of the businesspeople in Nicaragua who get income from abroad, for example call centers, import export businesses, tourism businesses, etc. In most every country on Earth, the CIA has thousands of front companies, many front company churches, both Catholic and Protestant, many CIA front company charities and so forth.

There was also an uptick in activity by CIA agents distracting, blocking, harassing, terrorizing, threatening, menacing and so forth by CIA agents against US citizen expats who do not like the crimes of the US government. These CIA agents were basically trying to neutralize, to distract, to so irritate, to so terrorize, to so keep busy and preoccupy the American expats who do not like the criminals who have infiltrated into the US government and the USAs dreaded secret police which is jam packed full of felons, that is the CIA, NSA and so forth.

In Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany and so forth, there are literally millions and millions of American born Americans who left the US. And never looked back. Because they do not like the secret police state that the USA has become since 2001, because they value freedom and liberty, because they are disgusted with US government crimes and by how heavily infiltrated with criminals the US government has become, because they value good more honest governance instead. All of the millions of Americans who have left the US have their reasons why they left.

Quite a large number of American expats left because they do not like the criminals in the US government. Many of these expats are routinely targeted by the US secret police to be harassed and terrorized and there are often upticks to such secret police targeting of such Americans in the days prior to attempted color revolutions, attempted coups, etc.

It is 2018 and nowadays, it is so easy for computers and computer programs to detect usual and unusual activity levels among CIA agents and suspected CIA agents, for example, cash flows, telecommunications, physical movements, etc.

With unregistered foreign agent laws proliferating around the world, it has never been easier to establish new laws regarding foreign agents. For example, anyone receiving more than $100 a year is required to register as a foreign agent and to file a report whenever they receive more than x dollars, for example $10 or $50, set a lower limit, from foreign sources, explaining how much they received, from who and why they were paid the money they were paid by foreigners.

The solutions exist to successfully counter crimes and attempted crimes. And all of the red flags are there to see prior to crimes and attempted crimes.

The Nicaraguan government announced that they are more than willing to discuss and alleviate any proposed pension updates to be sure to be in consensus, to be united with the people.

Longevity has increased by several years in Nicaragua with improvements to the health care system, more free clinics, more free public hospitals, more doctors and with more access to clean drinking water than ever. It remains to be seen if the news will begin to focus more on how Nicaraguans are now living longer than ever, thanks to improvements in access to clean drinking water, improvements in health care, how much longer exactly are Nicaraguans now living, how much this costs in terms of added pension costs, and round table discussions with experts and local leaders on the television, in the news and on the internet as to added costs for pensions and how these costs can be financed … along with public round table discussions about the economy in general.

Most people around the world generally appreciate good plans, discussed well then commenced for good economic growth and good pensions.

In the USA, pension plan after pension plan is collapsing. Harvey, Illinois, for example, became the latest municipality to announce, earlier in April 2018, that they can no longer pay pensions.

CIA agents in Nicaragua failed to mention how pension system after pension system in the USA already collapsed and how even larger pension systems in the USA are on the verge of collapse, for example, the State of Illinois, State of Kentucky, State of California, etc.

The CIA agents in Nicaragua also failed to mention how the USAs Social Security pension plan raised the retirement age. Twice.

First, from 62 to 65. Then, from 65 to 67. Due to widespread protests, concessions were made there, such that people could still retire at 62 but they would only get a half pension, approximately, or they can retire at 65 and get a three quarter pension, approximately or they can retire at 67 and get a quote full pension end quote.

This is a simplification of the concessions made in the USA. The actual math is far trickier than half at 62, three quarters at 65 and 100 percent at 67.

CIA agents in Nicaragua also failed to tell crowds they were trying to incite to riot that millions and millions of Americans have to work past age 67 because the full pension from Social Security in the USA is not enough money for a one room apartment and couple small cans of dog food a day. Millions of elderly Americans cannot afford human food. Dog food is cheaper than food for people. Cat food is also cheaper than food for people. Millions of elderly Americans only eat a can or two of dog food a day because they cannot afford to eat anything else.

Note, inciting people to riot is a serious crime in both Nicaragua and in the USA.

What else. The CIA agents in Nicaragua failed to mention that in the US, the police routinely use microwave weapons and sonic weapons to disperse disorderly Americans who are unlawfully assembling without a permit.

The Guardian in London counted how many Americans are known to have been shot to death each year by the police in the USA and they detailed names, dates, photos of well over 1,000 Americans known to have been murdered by the police per year in the USA. The actual figure of Americans killed by police is much higher than what is publicly disclosed by various police departments in the USA.

The same secret police agencies in the USA known to have murdered MLK, Malcolm X, JFK, etc. are known to murder tens of thousands of Americans each year and millions of foreigners each decade.

For 2 years in a row now, 2016 and 2017, life expectancy has dropped in the USA, resulting in lower pension costs to the government in the US. The drop in life expectancy is due to more fatal drug overdoses from an unprecedented drug epidemic of heroin from Afghanistan.

It is widely believed by many Americans that the lingering war in Afghanistan, 2001 to present, is a war for heroin, that many US government officials are pocketing billions of dollars a month, cash, from the heroin trade from Afghanistan, explaining why the war in Afghanistan is lingering on for so long, and that this unprecedented epidemic of heroin from Afghanistan into the US is being allowed to carry on because it is lowering the life expectancy in the USA which in turn is lowering pension costs to the government in the USA.

Government in the USA has promised $400 trillion in pension payments from 2018 to 2050. The US government gets $3.3 trillion per year in tax revenues.

From 2015 to 2025, government in the USA has promised over $100 trillion in pension payments to retirees …. While from 2015 to 2025, the US Federal government will only get $33 trillion in revenue. How is Uncle Sam going to pay $100 trillion in pensions from only $33 trillion in revenue?

They are not going to pay. The pension time bomb in the USA is exploding now.

Harvey, Illinois is the canary in the coal mine for the entire USA. These are all facts, facts and more facts that the many CIA agents in Nicaragua have failed to disclose to the very same Nicaraguan people they have been attempting to incite to riot, because of a proposed elevation of the retirement age by 2 years to a pension plan that is much more solvent, that is the Nicaraguan government INSS Social Security pension plan, than any pension plan in the USA. Compare the Nicaraguan pension plan to the pension plan in the State of Kentucky. Compare the Nicaraguan pension plan to the pension plan in the State of Illinois. Compare the Nicaraguan pension plan to the pension plan in Harvey, Illinois.

The CIA agent criminals responsible for at least 10 murders in April 2018 in Nicaragua, the same CIA agent criminals guilty of inciting people to riot, a serious crime in both the US and in Nicaragua, are not that good with facts and truths, they tend to be alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, unable to hold an intelligent conversation, interested only in the money they are getting paid, money which is going to dry up fast as the USA pension collapse accelerates and as a debt collapse also accelerates in the overly indebted USA, but, the Nicaraguan people are actually very interested to hear facts and truths about pensions and about the economy in general. In the news. On TV. On the internet. And at their educational levels.

University educated Nicaraguans want to hear these facts and truths at a university level. High school grads want to hear the facts and truths at a high school grad level and high school drop outs want to hear the Gods honest facts and truths at their educational level.

One simple message that is effective with many people, and at all educational levels, is the message that was broadcast that they CIA is trying to play you, do not get played by the CIA, do not be a putz. This is an approximate translation from the Spanish to English.

The CIA people do not really care if their color revolutions win or lose because the CIA people are more interested in pocketing as much cash as they can for themselves. Most of their work on color revolutions is contracted out, to contractors and to agents and paid in cash. Their contractors and their agents, what a coincidence, just happen to be their relatives, their friends and their lovers.

If the CIA allocated $1,000,000,000 for their failed 2018 color revolution in Nicaragua, then $1,000,000,000 in laundered cash is going into the pockets of several CIA officers, their relatives, friends and lovers pockets, regardless of the outcome. They do not care if they win or lose. They just want the money.

Another way to look at the CIA people is to look up the definition of CIA in the Stratfor Glossary. Stratfor has been one of the largest CIA contractors. The Stratfor glossary defines the CIA as picture the post office with a foreign policy.

All CIA ops are these gigantic black holes that suck in billions of taxpayer dollars each month and voila, as if by magic, these billions of taxpayer dollars each month get laundered into cash and these billions of taxpayer dollars each month then wind up in the pockets of the CIA officers, their relatives, their friends and their prostitute lovers. The CIA officers get to pick any contractors they want and they get to pick any agents they want and guess what, they pick their relatives, their friends and their prostitute lovers to be the contractors and agents for whatever op they are working on.

There has been absolutely no oversight on the CIA and there have been absolutely no checks and balances on the CIA. Just say national security, wink wink, and in 2 shakes of a lamb’s tail, every CIA officer becomes a millionaire. Why it is as if they won some mega millions lottery when they got hired and it makes absolutely no difference if their ops succeed or fail. That laundered cash has just kept flowing into their pockets and into the pockets of their friends, relatives and prostitute lovers who they pick to be their contractors and their agents.

Its like that.

The real CIA is very different, absolutely different from the fantasy fiction Hollywood shows that many people watch. The real CIA is much more like the CIA you read about when you read nonfiction books like Legacy of the Ashes, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and Killing Hope. Killing Hope is available for free on the internet.

Next up, Cuba.

Cuba inaugurated a new President, Miguel Diaz Canel on April 19, 2018 and the CIAs next attempted color revolution is slated for, you guessed it, Cuba. There will be their hallmark period of quiet, little to no criticism, false peace, Trojan horse, in the months before their attempted color revolution. Their hallmark uptick in money laundering efforts into Cuba, an uptick in efforts to recruit CIA agents at the top and at the bottom, oh, and a newer hallmark is the CIAs dependency on drones. Big drones. Little drones. Bird drones. Bug drones.

While it is usual for governments to call out the National Guard, the police and everyone else when the CIA attempts the crime of attempting a color revolution, and this most definitely is criminal under international law and under treaties signed by US government officials. What has been new the past few attempted color revolutions is that many government marksmen have had their sights set on the weird birds that are seen lingering around, on telephone lines, in trees, window sills, at hot spots where the CIA is most interested in inciting riots.

Examples of bird drones can be seen in countless youtube videos and these bird drones cost the US government billions and billions of dollars … and they can be reverse engineered and improved upon for a small fraction of that cost.

Some bird drones have payloads of thousands of insect drones. There are also countless youtube videos which better detail these types of mini drones. The insect drones also proliferate before and during attempted CIA color revolutions. In the most recent attempted CIA color revolution, government specialists have also been seen scooping up the various CIA bug drones …. to be reverse engineered and improved upon for a tiny fraction of the cost that Uncle Sam paid.

Picture foreign powers reverse engineering and improving on both the bird drones and the bug drones. Then every US government office under 24-7 surveillance by bird drones. And every room in every US government building has a bug drone, at least one. Who would not want to be a fly on the wall for that!

The Legacy of the Ashes book chronicles how the CIA has been the most over funded secret police agency in human history and how, despite all that cash, they just have had failure after failure. You almost feel bad for what losers they are after you read that book. I did.

Even when they lose at their attempted color revolutions, they do not just lose the color revolution, they lose the keys to the kingdom and end up with new and improved bird drones all over their buildings and bug drones in their every room, at work, at home, in their cars, wherever they go.

Time will tell how well the Cuban government knows who’s who on the island and what’s what. For example, the hallmarks of a CIA attempted color revolution discussed previously in this article. The uptick in money laundering crimes prior to such criminal attempts at color revolutions. Follow the money honey.

The real show will be all the expert marksmen shooting down and collecting bird drones plus all the bug catchers perfecting their skills at catching various different shaped bug drones. Then what happens a few months later, after the bird drones and bug drones have been reverse engineered and improved up, is anyone’s guess.

As an interesting aside, one CIA agent in Grenada, Nicaragua, a pretend English teacher at a private, nominally religious, elementary school bragged and bragged about how his brother remotely pilots drones for the US military. When asked if he was aware that some human rights groups report that over 90 percent of the people murdered by US government drones are innocent people, mostly women and children. That CIA agent made a big smile and proudly declared that’s right! My brother mass murders hundreds of innocent civilians each year, mostly women and children. But, he has to. He’s just following orders and besides, he owes $120,000 in student loans to the ROTC program he was in at his university and he has to keep mass murdering innocent people by the hundreds each year until his student loans are paid off.

When asked if his brother was concerned at all about being indicted and tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity at the International Court in The Hague, the CIA agent responded Not that I am aware of. Then I mentioned that a lot of the olive complexion children that your brother mass murders each year must look a lot like your first grade and second grade students who you teach at the school you work at, how do you feel about that. The CIA agent then grew quiet.

A couple blocks from him, is a big fat CIA agent who claimed he was deported from the US and he now co operates a shelter that profiles and preys on a dozen poor people and a discipleship camp just outside of Grenada, which is basically a CIA recruitment and training camp. A few more blocks and there is the pretend pastor at a CIA pretend church. Few more blocks and the CIA agent couple that owns the pretend church.

A few more blocks into Grenada, Nicaragua is a fat, creepy looking, drug addicted, syphilis infected CIA agent who claims he came to Nicaragua because he has so many traffic tickets in Miami. What a legend! He is so creepy that he is primarily tasked with stalking, harassing, terrorizing, threatening, menacing, etc. American expats who do not like the crimes of the US government and who do not like the many criminals who have infiltrated into the US government. Throughout the week, he is in and out of a pharmacy a block off of Grenada’s Central Park getting controlled substances without a prescription and taking his controlled substance meds like amphetamines, Ritalin, benzodiazepams and so forth.

There’s more. Much more. But there is only so much space available on the hard drive of this computer.

Some CIA agents in Costa Rica bragged publicly about CIA plans for a color revolution in Cuba in February 2018. Then, publicly stated in front of many people that their criminal plans had to be postponed a couple months … which later changed to postponed by several months. One of them, who used the name Chris, later said the open public bragging was supposed to be part of a PsyOp, short for Psychological Operation or psychological torture, intended to terrorize certain listeners. Ok. As a journalist, I asked a few more questions like who exactly were you all trying to terrorize and how exactly was that information supposed to terrorize anyone.

Chris like so many CIA agents is a drug addict and an alcoholic. Chris is also rail thin, balding, 40 something, chronically unemployed, basically unemployable, broke … he began nodding off from some drugs he took, woke up briefly to ask for a couple bucks for a pack of cigarettes. Chris, obviously, was not the only source for the latter part of this new report about CIA crimes.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man got updated about CIA tactics and methods. Legacy of the Ashes only chronicles a few dozen CIA failures in the latter half of the 1900s. When is Legacy of the Ashes going to be updated to include CIA failures from this century too?

Killing Hope accurately describes millions of innocent people murdered each decade, mostly women and children, because of the CIA, along with descriptions of literally thousands of crimes committed by CIA operatives. But, like Legacy of the Ashes, Killing Hope only chronicles some CIA crimes in the latter half of the 1900s. When is Killing Hope going to be updated to include CIA crimes from this century too?

The largest and deadliest gang of criminals on Earth is the Central Intelligence Agency. The biggest pimp on Earth is the CIA. No other gang of criminals is guilty of more counts of sex trafficking, human trafficking and drug trafficking than the CIA.

The CIA is guilty of more crimes in the US and abroad than all criminal gangs on Earth combined.

No nation, no group of people have murdered as many people as the CIA, in human history.

No nation and no group of people have caused as much human misery and suffering on Earth as the CIA.

The Bill of Rights includes the rights to redress government wrongs and freedom of the press. Primary functions of a free press include revealing government crimes and redressing government wrongs. When it comes to crimes, there is no element in the US government that commits more crimes, in the USA and abroad, than the CIA. When it comes to government wrongs, the CIA is about as wrong as it gets.

Former US Senator Moynihan introduced a bill in 1991 and again in 1995 to close down the CIA because of their many crimes. Third time is the charm. His bill needs to be re introduced in Congress, passed and implemented. Of all threats to We the people, foreign or domestic, the greatest threat to the American people is the Central Intelligence Agency.

There will be an end to CIA crimes and to the CIA criminals; the only questions are when and how. The best case scenario for when and how the CIA gang of criminals gets shut down, for good, is for Congress to reintroduce Senator Moynihan’s 1995 bill to close down the CIA, pass that bill in 2018 and to implement that bill by closing down the CIA in 2018. Any and all criminals who have worked for the CIA need to be investigated, indicted, arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned for their crimes.

The next successful color revolution is going to be in the USA when we the people take back America.

Zimbabwe sacks 16,000 striking nurses, as Uganda nurses threaten strike

Eddie Haywood

The government of Zimbabwe sacked 16,000 nurses employed at public hospitals Tuesday, after they went on strike the previous day to demand higher pay and better conditions. The striking nurses belong to the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) union.

The walkout comes as part of growing social unrest in the country and follows a month-long walkout by doctors, who struck over similar demands. The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has faced growing popular opposition since coming to power after a military coup removed long-time president Robert Mugabe late last year.

In summarily firing the striking nurses, the government is seeking to stop growing social unrest from escalating before the July 2018 elections. There is a deep-seated fear among Zimbabwe’s ruling elite over the eruption of mass social unrest, which could threaten their rule.

While patients were turned away from hospitals and clinics after the strike began on Monday, striking nurses set up an impromptu clinic during a demonstration outside of parliament, with the offer of free treatment to the public.

Speaking to the media regarding the provision of free treatment, Pretty Mugudza, a nurse at Central Hospital in the capital city Harare said, “We are doing this to show that we are for the people. All we are asking for are better working conditions. We can’t be looking at patients dying in hospitals because we have no resources.”

The state of public hospitals in the country is indeed horrific. The doctor-to-patient ratio in the country is an unprecedented 1 doctor for every 12,000 residents, in contrast to the United Nations recommended standard of 1 for every 200. Many Zimbabweans die from treatable diseases, even after admission for treatment at clinics or hospitals.

Hospitals frequently lack supplies, including medicines. Essential equipment, such as x-ray machines, are either obsolete, broken, or nonexistent in many clinics across the country. In rural areas, where the majority of Zimbabweans reside, most have no access to health care at all and must travel to cities for treatment.

Tapfumaneyi Gubede, a resident of Mutoko, told the Voice of America in 2016 of the dire state of health care many rural residents experience. “Another problem is the failure to acquire drugs. People pay a $5 fee for cards at clinics but there are no drugs. The clinic just writes a prescription and you are supposed to purchase the drugs from a pharmacy. Most people die because they do not have money.”

After his government sacked 16,000 poorly paid nurses, Vice President Chiwenga cynically claimed to have the health and well-being of Zimbabweans in mind. “Government has decided in the interest of patients and of saving lives to discharge all the striking nurses with immediate effect.”

Chiwenga declared that unemployed and retired nurses would replace those who have sacked. He further denounced the nurses’ actions as deplorable and reprehensible, coming after the government allocated a paltry $17 million in funding for nurses’ salaries. Distributed evenly among the 16,000 sacked nurses, the new funding equates to less than $3 per day per nurse and would do next to nothing to improve the deteriorating state of Zimbabwe’s public hospitals.

In a betrayal of the striking nurses, on Sunday ZINA called an end to the strike and instructed nurses to return to work on Monday, even after the government remained firm that striking nurses were to be replaced. While the cessation of the strike brought no agreement for better pay or conditions, ZINA told striking nurses of the union’s plan to file a lawsuit against the government. Such a maneuver is a dead end for the nurses and will do nothing to guarantee better wages or working conditions.

Uganda nurses and midwives threaten walkout over poor salary, working conditions

On April 15, nurses and midwives employed at public hospitals and clinics across Uganda threatened to strike if salary increases agreed to with the government in November were not enacted. The proposal for salary increases from 400,000 to 1 million Uganda shillings (or from $110 to $270) for entry-level nurses and midwives was negotiated between the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU) and President Yoweri Museveni last November.

The UNMU has rejected the government’s new salary structure for nurses and midwives for the 2018 fiscal year, stating that it falls far short of the agreement. The union threatened a walkout if the government did not table immediate negotiations to address the nurses’ and midwives’ demands.

Chairman General Wilson Owere Usher of the National Organization of Trade Unions (NOTU), to which the UNMU is affiliated, stated, “We are warning [Minister of Finance David] Bahati. If he insists we shall camp in Kabale. Government has the money and we know where the money is. When politicians need money, it is released in two hours, but when it’s workers who generate the money, government says it doesn’t have it. This time we shall not accept that.”

On Thursday, amid the threat to walkout by nurses and midwives, student nurses enrolled at Masaka School of Comprehensive Nursing conducted a boycott to protest exorbitant registration fees and poor quality meals provided by the school.

Occupying the student compound at the school, the students declared their refusal to eat meals, stating that they would not eat weevil-infested beans and other low-quality food that the school provides and for which students are made to pay high prices.

For patients at public-run hospitals and clinics throughout the country, most can wait for days before seeing a doctor, languishing in overcrowded emergency rooms.

Due to the lack of funding made available to the public-run hospital system, many facilities have been left to deteriorate for decades. There is a generalized lack of modernized equipment and frequent shortages of supplies, even stocks of drugs, which has forced patients to purchase medicines from pharmacies elsewhere.

The Ugandan masses subsist on $3 a day or less, with an estimated 10 million out of Uganda’s total population of 40 million living below the poverty line. Amid this colossal scale of social misery experienced by the masses, there are just 24 individuals at the top of Ugandan society who collectively have a net worth of more than $4.2 billion.

Twenty-seven protesters dead amid Sandinista government crackdown in Nicaragua

Andrea Lobo

After the Social Security Institute in Nicaragua (INSS) announced Tuesday a ruthless austerity package directed against the country’s pension system, the largest protests since the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) returned to power in 2007 have erupted across the major cities, while the government of the long-time leader of the FSLN, Daniel Ortega, has called on its supporters, operatives and police apparatus to launch a “Permanent Defense Mobilization.”

The Nicaraguan branch of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has recorded the deaths of 27 people, including a journalist, 43 disappearances, 20 detained, and dozens injured. These numbers have not been confirmed by the Red Cross. The FIDH is financed by the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundation, tied to the US intelligence apparatus, but the Nicaraguan government has not countered this information.

On Sunday, as reports surfaced that police officials were being arrested for not complying with orders to repress demonstrators, Ortega announced that he was cancelling the pension reform and setting up a negotiation with the business chambers, the trade unions and the Church.

After government buildings, other infrastructure and FSLN headquarters were attacked, and some burned in Estelí and Managua on Friday night, the military was deployed in these two cities. The next day, in his first public address about the demonstrations, Ortega appeared next to military and police chiefs, appealed for “reconciliation” within the ruling class, defended tax exonerations for big business, and emphasized that FSLN has for decades been a bulwark of “stability” for bourgeois rule. Without referring to the repression or dead, he sought to sow fear, with warnings about a civil war, and criminalized protesters as “agents of imperialism,” gang members, drug traffickers and “exterminators.”

While reactionary organizations aligned with US imperialism are likely attempting to take advantage of the current crisis to exert pressure on the ruling clique, the demonstrations appear to be a genuine popular explosion against right-wing reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Initial protests on Wednesday were composed largely of pensioners and University students in the two largest cities of the country, Managua and León. Activists of the right-wing opposition, Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), have been rallying some demonstrations, clearly seeking to gain control of the protests. During the last two days, thousands more, mostly youth, have joined the wave of demonstrations in 11 other cities and several smaller towns. Students have been arrested and at least 37 people have been injured.

Starting on July 1, existing pensions are scheduled to fall 5 percent, while future pensions will be 12 percent lower. At the same time, the signed executive decree increases the social security contributions from workers and employers by 0.75 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. Beyond denunciations by the bourgeois media and business chambers, these measures were not only suggested last year by the International Monetary Fund, but constitute a major diversion of income from the working class to the national ruling class and their imperialist bosses.

The FSLN political apparatus, including several media outlets controlled by the business clique around Ortega, the Sandinista Youth, all major trade unions, local government officials, and Catholic leaders, have organized concerts, demonstrations, and staged photo-ops in support of the INSS resolutions.

Moreover, videos from Managua posted on social media showed police pick-up trucks transporting groups of men wearing Sandinista youth t-shirts, who attacked demonstrators on Wednesday, targeting journalists. Similar incidents were reported in León and Masaya, while students barricaded themselves inside the Central American University (UCA) and the National Engineering University (UNI) to protect themselves against these pro-government shock groups and anti-riot police, who have used tear gas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators.

Vice-president Rosario Murillo, wife of Ortega, characterized the protesters as “tiny groups that inflame and destabilize to destroy Nicaragua.” The government suspended classes nationally on Friday, while the US embassy closed its offices and called on “the forces of order to respect media and the rights of protesters.”

On Friday afternoon, the international Western outlets celebrated that the local leader in Nueva Guinea, Francisca Ramírez, has called for peasants to march to Managua in protest of “all of the reforms of laws in this country.” Ramírez gained some fame internationally as the leader of the protests against the planned Inter-oceanic canal granted to the Chinese firm HKND.

In a dramatic about-face, the main business chambers and the all-powerful business council, Cosep, which have ruled the country hand-in-glove with the FSLN bureaucracy, have opposed the INSS measure and called for a lock-out by employers in the private sector on Monday, including a march “for dialogue and peace” in downtown Managua. So far, the only reported strike occurred on Friday afternoon by employees of the private bank Lafise.

In response, the government folded and announced talks with the Cosep about the INSS policies “among other themes,” with the business chambers calling on the weight of the funding to fall more heavily on the state finances and the workers.

All the major business chambers have used the increase of the quota required from employers to fund INSS to threaten workers with mass firings or dropping them from the social security program, which could potentially end up undermining the INSS finances. Their interventions in the current political crisis reflect a growing feud within the ruling class, which is losing confidence in Ortega’s ability to contain social unrest within the country, especially as they prepare much more sweeping attacks against the social rights of the working class.

Government officials and FSLN operatives have justified the pension cuts as a measure needed to expand elderly health care; however, a source with access to the INSS financial records told Confidencial that the institution was simply approaching bankruptcy.

On Thursday, a worker in Managua in contact with the WSWS reported a complete media blackout of the protests. “Daniel Ortega ordered to close down four TV channels,” she indicated, adding that many are joining the marches, with a genuine desire to resist the INSS measure and attacks against freedom of the press, but do so with hesitation regarding those organizing them.

At the same time, Nicaraguans are relying on social media to avoid the government blackout. In fact, on March 12, Rosario Murillo announced that she was discussing with the president of Congress measures to “revise” social media access in the country, indicating it was damaging the “ability to live in harmony.”

The FSLN first came to power in 1979 under a petit-bourgeois nationalist movement, including Castroite guerrillas. They were voted out in 1990 as the government began imposing IMF-austerity diktats. The Sandinistas, however, kept a significant amount of control over the state bureaucracy and military during the following decade. Since returning to power in 2007, the self-proclaimed “socialist” government has only deepened the exploitation of the Nicaraguan working class as cheap-labor platform largely for US imperialism, diverting virtually all wealth back to investors abroad or the local client elite. The top 10 percent of the population receives as much income as almost the bottom 70 percent (ECLAC-UN Economic Commission for Latin America).

Close to 85 percent of the working population has incomes below the ECLAC threshold of four poverty lines—“insufficient to keep out of poverty an average-sized household.” This measure has remained constant since at least 2002. Moreover, since 2008, inequality has increased rapidly.

Central Bank of Nicaragua figures show that the percentage of economic participation (above 15 years old) jumped from 52 percent in 2009 to almost 75 percent in 2016, amid a demographic boom nearly doubling the overall working population and more than doubling foreign investments. Despite such a large growth of potential contributors to INSS, the INSS fund turned a $7.5 million surplus in 2012 to a $75.8 million deficit in 2017, which suggests that, proportionately, workers are being excluded more from the health care and pension system. Some analysts also suggest deliberate mismanagement and corrupt investments to favor the ruling clique around Ortega.

The Ortega faction of the ruling class has been compelled to deepen its austerity measures to repay interest payments that are growing about 20 percent each year and to counter the loss of Venezuelan aid in recent years. For this, it has turned more decisively to set up a police-state dictatorship to suppress growing social opposition.

Nonetheless, just like the local business chambers, US imperialism is threatening to end their tolerance of the corrupt FSLN bureaucracy, particularly by keeping under consideration the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act in the US Congress, which could end Managua’s credit access from international financial institutions. Moreover, as the Trump administration pursues a more aggressive military and economic confrontation against its current major rivals, Russia and China, Washington’s pressure seeks to force the FSLN government to cut its growing ties to Moscow and Beijing or to install a regime that will.