July 31, 2023

Video of July 22 event; crisis in the presidency; no "peace festival" for us, thank you

Previous letter (07/12/2023): Ukraine over the tipping point; more on July 22 event in Los Alamos; comment on generic "nuclear disarmament"
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Friends, good afternoon.

I (Greg) hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer, hot though it be.

First, we had an excellent event in Los Alamos on July 22nd. We are very grateful to the 20 or so of you who drove up "The Hill." Another 50 or so persons attended virtually. . There were four people present from Los Alamos. No media came, either in person or virtually, which is par for the course. We have finally posted a video of the meeting here, delayed somewhat this past week by other responsibilities. Fuller Lodge, unbeknownst to us, has infamously poor internet service; if you tried to attend from afar and couldn't get into the meeting, please accept our apologies.

In the first half of the meeting, Peter (Kuznick) presented what were in his estimation the top omissions in the current box-office hit "Oppenheimer" film, as he approached the evening's main historical topic, which was the role played by the ambition by "subdue the Soviets" in the overall conception and management of the Manhattan Project, including of course the Trinity test.

It should be obvious by now to all (but isn't) that the nuclear bombing of Japan had little or nothing to do with ending the Pacific war, and everything to do with sending a signal to the Soviets. As Peter said, the Soviets understood that signal perfectly. Only, contrary to the hopes of (Jimmy) Byrnes and Truman, the Russians weren't cowed. They got the signal all right, and the Cold War was on.

Fast forward from then to now: the Russians still aren't cowed, to the consternation of the neocons, today's successors to Byrnes and Groves. Instead, Russia, and China also, are "going from strength to strength," in George Galloway's words (see "Final Corruption of the American Republic," George Galloway, Jul 30, 2023, starting at about 7:20; thanks to Steve Starr for passing on this speech last night.)

In the second half of the Fuller Lodge meeting I provided a review of pit production, with a few new bits included. The slides I used are here (and also in the Zoom video).

For those who helped with all this, thank you. Your solidarity means more than we can easily say.

Second, Galloway's title (above) is not necessarily hyperbole. The U.S. government, and therefore we, are in a pretty big crisis. Those who are only exposed to mainstream media may not know how much evidence of corruption -- of government, and of the President and his family -- is now in the public domain.

Speaking personally, I am staggered by the depth and breadth of the lies in which our former Republic is now marinating. Not just in this instance, of course. Pervasively, now.

All this goes far beyond any partisan concerns. We have argued (in Bulletin 325, 02/18/23) that unless the Nordstream bombing is investigated -- and if warranted, the President and others involved impeached -- there is little hope for democracy in the United States. We have a Constitution. To keep it alive, we have to use it. The alternative is much, much worse, as we are starting to see.

We recommend Alastair Crooke, "The ‘Scandal Implosion’ Stratagem: Will It Work for Ukraine?", published today. As we note on our Ukraine page, "Crooke is invariably insightful and rewarding to read. His essays are sequential and cumulative. Often, his links carry the subterranean part of his argument. Here, he explains how the Western narrative will try to use the ‘scandal implosion’ technique to escape the political consequences of its self-made Ukraine trap. It won't work."

The Biden corruption that has subsequently come to light is much easier for citizens to understand than the Nordstream bombing, less hemmed-in by secrecy, and for these reasons harder to ignore. To the extent we do ignore it, we signal our acquiescence to authoritarian rule, our disinterest in democracy. James Kunstler, in a sarcastic review of recent developments, concludes with this bit of wisdom: "[R]emember: the government is not our country." No it is not, even though many New Mexicans -- steeped in the federal spending that is the "mother's milk" of our politics, think it is. That attitude is the colonial mind in a nutshell: hang onto the federal teat even if it is radioactive, incapable of producing economic and social development, and morally repugnant. Federal money first, resource extraction second, and the people, last.

One would think that easing the Biden crime family out of the limelight would be a high priority for Democrats, in time to rebuild the Party for the fall 2024 elections. That may happen.

In any case the ongoing catastrophe in Ukraine, the deepening scandal engulfing the President, the visible collapse of U.S. political leadership around the world, and the rapidly-rising cost of financing the federal debt (which now exceeds the defense budget and is rising like a rocket) -- just to mention the most obvious looming crises -- are going to rock quite a lot of boats, very soon. Many important policy issues are going to be "back-burnered" for now, in DC.

As we keep saying, the Ukraine war needs to be on everyone's front burner. There is too little opposition to it from people who should know better.

A phone call from the President could end the war in a day, as Trump (and I believe RFK Jr.) have both said. Congress could do it fairly quickly, by barring the use of further US funding for the war. No matter what, Ukraine is going to lose territory. Get used to it. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto: "‘There will be no better conditions for peace negotiations than the present,’ Szijjarto told journalists on Friday following his meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan. ‘Yesterday’s conditions were better than today’s, and tomorrow’s conditions will be worse than today’s.’"

Third, the Study Group will not be participating in the so-called "Peace Festival" in Albuquerque next weekend, which does not appear to have any particular meaning. Unlike most political rallies, including antiwar rallies, there are no central organizing values or shared political demands (like, for example, these). Many of the cosponsoring organizations are not anti-war, and/or do not oppose building a nuclear weapons production plant either in New Mexico (or for some groups, anywhere at any time). Some are closely connected to the Democratic Party, which is the Party which is most identified with creating the present war (out of its 2014 coup d'état in Ukraine) and for that matter, with demanding plutonium pit production in New Mexico. The strategy -- a common one, nationally -- seems to be one of creating a risk-free, commitment-free spectacle of pseudo-solidarity among diverse groups, with an unspoken rule of excluding people not in our "tribe." Fake, feel-good "activism," in other words. We strongly feel that this is not the time for a "peace festival," if there ever is such a time. We think there isn't, at any time, but having a "peace festival" while the U.S. is involved in an expanding proxy war with Russia is creepy, actually.

The introduction to Robert Bly's The Sibling Society comes to mind, as a warning:

…It is hard in a sibling society to decide what is real.  We participate in more and more nonevents. A nonevent transpires when the organizer promises an important psychic or political event and then cheats people, providing material only tangentially related. An odd characteristic of the sibling society is that no one effectively objects. Some sort of trance takes over if enough people are watching an event simultaneously. It is a contemporary primitivism, "participation mystique," a "mysterious participation of all the clan."

Kierkegaard once, in trying to predict what the future society would be like, offered this metaphor: People will put up a poster soon saying, Tonight John Erik will skate on thin ice at the very center of the pond. It'll be very dangerous. Please come. Everyone comes, and John Erik skates about three inches from shore, and people say, "Look, he's skating on thin ice at the very center of the pond!" A lecturer says: On Friday night we will have a revolution. When Friday night comes, the hall is filled, and the radical talks passionately and flamboyantly for an hour and a half; then he declares that a revolution took place here.

Best wishes,

Greg Mello, for the Study Group

PS: As most of you know by now, Biden is coming to New Mexico next week. When exactly and where we do not know.