If you want to help put pressure on NM Dems to stop the new nuclear arms race, please contact us

July 13, 2016

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1. Posted: "Crawl Out Through the Fallout Baby," presentation at Journey Santa Fe, Jul 10, 2016; video.
2. Updated a little:"The Crisis at Hand, the Emergency Mode, & the Need for Full-Scale Mobilization,"June 27 presentation at 350.org New Mexico.
3. Senator Udall was absent today from a critical hearing requested by Senator Feinstein on the stealthy new nuclear cruise missile.
   
4. If you want to help put pressure on the Democrats in the New Mexico delegation regarding nuclear weapons and related issues, please call or write.

Dear friends --

1. Posted: "Crawl Out Through the Fallout Baby," presentation at Journey Santa Fe, July 10, 2016; video"

Thanks to all who helped publicize and who attended this past Sunday, and special thanks to our hosts at Journey Santa Fe and Collected Works, and to moderator Denise Fort!

It was pretty much a standing-room-only event, and a lively one too. We tried to hit a few high points during our limited time. Now, after a little more editing we have posted all the slides, the ones we used, the ones we didn't get a chance to use, and one more. 

In hindsight some aspects of this presentation logically follow the previous one (2. below).

2. Updated a little: "The Crisis at Hand, the Emergency Mode, & the Need for Full-Scale Mobilization," June 27 presentation at 350.org New Mexico

Given the importance of some parts of this talk (e.g. why all grand plans to support our present level of consumption solely on renewable energy cannot succeed). I added a little more explanation and a couple of links. We did not do justice to this topic at all, of course. The takeaway is the same: we need to embrace what Margaret Salamon calls "The Emergency Mode" before it embraces us willy-nilly, with greater suffering and losses and fewer options at hand. Build renewable energy and transportation as fast as we are able, simplify, protect vulnerable people and species, and resist.

3. Senator Udall was absent today from a critical hearing requested by Senator Feinstein on the stealthy new nuclear cruise missile.
   

In fact the only Democrat besides Ms. Feinstein who showed up was Senator Tester from Montana, an "ICBM senator." The occasion was a special hearing on the Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) weapon, an immensely destabilizing strategic nuclear weapon which is not counted under New START counting rules and which therefore comprises a sort of New START "breakout plan" in action.

Ms. Feinstein was only able to bring one witness, the 89-year-old Dr. William Perry, a former Secretary of Defense who opposes LRSO. The video of the hearing is posted. The last moments of Senator Feinstein's frustrated and may I say appropriately frightened and responsible comments (starting at about 1:26:14 to 1:28:40, and then her last minute of comment, starting at 1:31:40) are very worth seeing.

This is not the place to provide more information on LRSO; we are in the process of preparing a web page that will do that.

All three of us in the office felt that for Mr. Udall to be absent from this hearing, unless he had a very good excuse, was disrespectful to his ranking member and to the gravity of the issue, in which he will play such an important role. If he is in favor of LRSO, let's hear it, and why. If he is opposed, let's hear that, why. 

Senator Feinstein, with others on the Energy and Water Development appropriations subcommittee, opposed the highly-accurate version of the B61-12 nuclear bomb, slated for deployment in four European countries, plus Turkey. Senator Udall rescued that nasty program, which supposedly brought 600 hires to Albuquerque to offset attrition at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and kept a few jobs at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as well.

New Mexico's two senators are among the most enthusiastic Democratic supporters of nuclear weapons in the Senate. Tom Udall, on the Appropriations Committee is growing in seniority. Does he take these issues as seriously as Ms. Feinstein (who as we all know is no dove)?

4. If you want to help put pressure on the Democrats in the New Mexico delegation regarding nuclear weapons and related issues, call or write us please.

All the NM Democrats are enthusiastic supporters of plutonium pit production, the LRSO (Michelle Lujan-Grisham and Ben Ray Lujan just joined with Republicans to support this weapon), and every other nuclear weapon proposal that has been advanced by the Obama Administration.

If anyone thinks it is possible to rein in climate change, protect the environment, or provide for more equal opportunity in our society while also spending roughly $1 trillion/year on various military, nuclear weapons, intelligence, and "homeland security" accounts, please think again.

If you want to do more to put pressure on New Mexico Democrats on these issues and others, and we hope you do, please write or call and we will conspire together. In Albuquerque, write Trish or call the office (505-265-1200). In Santa Fe and Taos, write Lydia Clark in Santa Fe.

We will also publish a short list of suggested immediate actions in this regard, but we would like to remind everyone that little actions we may take, especially little actions we take alone, won't suffice on any the bigger issues we face. This was a major theme in the above presentations.

So please do call.

Thanks again to all,

Greg, Trish, and the rest of the gang