Month: September 2022

Sabotage Of Both German-Russian Gas Pipelines — Whodunit?

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Tweet from Lowkey sharing Polish member of the European Parliament Radek Sikorski's tweet "Thank you, USA" with a photo of gas bubbling to surface from damage to Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea. Quotes Biden's promise to 'bring an end to it"

I was traveling yesterday while following news of underwater explosions disabling both Nord Stream gas pipelines and a potential repeat of Hurricane Katrina level-flooding with Ian dumping a foot of rain on very low, very flat parts of Florida.

About the latter, the best comment seen so far is:

Tweet from Themperor Kennedy reading "I've never understood why we give hurricanes people names. We should name them after the top 500 carbon-emitting corporations or something."


Link to tweet

About the pipeline sabotage, let me just say I have the same sinking sensation I experienced on 9/11. As a student of history, this looks like a history-changing event no matter who did it. 

But whodunit? 

A digest for today’s reading or viewing.

Pepe Escobar

Germany and EU Have Been Handed Over a Declaration of War

George Galloway

The Galloway Show #24

Joe Lauria

The Timing Of The Pipeline Attack

The Saker

Sitrep on Nordstream 1 and 2 gas pipelines

Tweet from NATO: "#NATO exercises present opportunities to test new unmanned systems at sea, ensuring that Allies can work together to counter current and future security challenges." With a photo of a ship and rubber dinghy with NATO troops deploying something into the water.

Shared by IntelRepublic on Telegram with this comment:

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT! Whoever’s manning NATO’s Twitter page seems to not bother keeping up with current events, turning heads after posting BOAST on alliance’s testing of new “unmanned systems at sea” on SAME DAY as alleged SABOTAGE of Nord Stream pipelines, prompting some onlookers to CONNECT THE DOTS and question whether the post is CURIOUS COINCIDENCE or unintentional revelation of supposed NATO interference. 

What’s for sure is NATO’s social media is LEAKY and in DIRE NEED of a plumber 💦

Meanwhile, in what had formerly been the biggest Ukraine war news of the day, all four Oblasts voted to join the Russian Federation. 

Eva Bartlett (Canadian journalist on the ground in Donetsk)

My interview from Donetsk on the people’s eagerness to vote to join Russia

Yet another history-changing event as now Ukraine shelling Donbas, as they have done continuously for the last several years, will be attacking Russian territory if the Russian Federation accepts them as anticipated.

What’s a concerned mom and grandmother to do? 

1) Find useful information outside corporate media sources.

2) Hold on, this wild ride will only get wilder as the U.S. empire managers lash out in desperation against the threat they perceive in the potential unification of Eurasia. Russia + Germany economic cooperation is currently broken, but the Russia + China bond may be impossible to rend asunder. In fact, it seems to be strengthened with each U.S./NATO action targeting either one of them.

ADDENDUM Sep 30:

I received feedback on this post for including a link to George Galloway’s take show episode #24.

I apologize for not listening beyond the initial segment on the Nord Stream attacks. Galloway went on to express transphobic remarks and also to explain his labor stance on the dangers of unregulated immigration.

Had I listened to those segments I would not have promoted his video.

Thanks for reading, and know that I always appreciate hearing from you.

“Failure is feedback, and feedback is the breakfast of champions” — my favorite fortune cookie message ever, which I carry in my wallet.

Maine Child Woken By Rocket Test In Brunswick, Many More To Come

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Illustration of a rocket being launched with graphics indicating extreme noise levels.
Source: Popular Mechanics “How The Noise Of Big Rockets Breaks Apart Buildings”

A friend of mine received an email from a friend of his in Brunswick, Maine this week:

Did you hear this last night? I thought of you when my 8 year old came running into my room terrified and crying after they woke him up.

https://www.wmtw.com/article/maine-company-successfully-test-fires-rocket/41347930

If you can imagine being 8 years old again, you are probably aware of the threat of war breaking out. (At least I was at that age.) Even if you are not, a terribly loud industrial sound — loud enough to wake you up — could send you running in tears to your parents to ask them what’s going on. 

The parents were alarmed by the loud noise also, but didn’t find out until the following day that it was bluShift Aerospace testing one of the rockets it intends to launch from the Maine coast at Steuben, near Acadia National Park. The company’s headquarters, however, is in Brunswick, a heavily populated area where they plan several more tests.

Photo from Twitter user Scott Gustin showing a fireball and black smoke at a rocket launch site in Florida.
Explosion rocks SpaceX test launch site during test

Brunswick already gets hit hard by excessive noise every time a military air show comes to town. Last time the Blue Angels performed, a sonic boom cracked the sliding glass doors of another friend of mine, a woman in her 90’s. Her daughter contacted the Brunswick Landing folks who hosted the airshow, but no compensation for the damage was offered.

I continue to be mystified about two things:

  • What democratic process was used in Steuben to determine that rocket launches would be allowed there? Or in Brunswick to determine if the public wants to endure this level of noise pollution?
  • When will environmental groups and activists in Maine wake up to the environmental harms of a rocket launch site on the coast? BluShift plans up to 35 launches per year from the Steuben site! I’ve reached out to Sierra Club of Maine, 350 Maine, and several other groups. But if they are beholden to the Democratic Party, they will likely continue to look the other way.

According to her recent newsletter to constituents, Brunswick’s Senator Mattie Daughtry (a Democrat) is full of self-congratulation over her authorship of this bill. Clearly she is representing moneyed interests in Maine, not schoolchildren who deserve not to be terrified awake on a school night.

Sand beach with large piece of twisted metal and a local bird in Texas.
Wilson’s Plover with debris from SpaceX operations in Boca Chica, Texas. Image credit: Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP)

Those of us in Maine who are paying attention have a website, NoToxicRockets4ME.org, where you can find out more about this environmental issue plus the experiences of other places (Kodiak, New Zealand) where rocket launch sites have been built. Locals are promised that what they will get in return for the industrialization of a pristine coastal spot is jobs (which don’t materialize) and no military use (which does materialize).

Map of Maine coast showing close proximity of Acadia National Park to Steuben.
Steuben, Maine is outlined in red

I hope Mainers wake up before campers in Acadia are awakened by loud noises scaring children and disrupting wildlife in what was once a peaceful spot.