Nord Stream pipeline sabotage: rush to judgment


March 8, 2023 Bill Weinberg


Ukraine is denying involvement in September’s attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, which were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany (but had already been shut by Russia before the apparent sabotage). The denials follow a March 7 report in the New York Times, citing anonymous US intelligence officials to the effect that an unnamed “pro-Ukrainian group” was to blame. (BBC News) German prosecutors simultaneoulsy announced their investigators had found “traces” of explosive on a yacht that had sailed to the site of the attack from Rostok just beforehand, and had been rented from a Polish-based company that is “apparently owned by two Ukrainians.” (Politico, The Guardian)

A roundtable on the revelations on France24 reveals how the lines are predictably drawn. A panel of mainstream journalists and wonks are all fairly noncommittal on the thesis of a Ukrainian hand in the attack, while also raising the alternative theory of a Russian covert operation against their own pipeline as a provocation. The panel’s one dissident is Georges Kuzmanovic of the Sovereign Republic party, a new populist formation in France, whose page on Conspiracy Watch makes clear his pro-Russian proclivities. Kuzmanovic harps on a third thesis: that the attack was a covert operation by the United States. In defense of this accusation, he cites a recent piece by the increasingly questionable Seymour Hersh, with the slightly dishonest title “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline.”

We say “dishonest” because the headline strongly implies concrete evidence—but there is none, only (exactly as with the NY Times piece) anonymous and therefore uverifiable sources. The piece is nonetheless getting much wide-eyed circulation from online partisans of both the left and right. While Kuzmanovic and his Sovereign Republic appear to be a vague left-right amalgam, the Hersh piece is also credulously plugged in a Feb. 16 editorial in The Nation magazine (supposedly America’s foremost “progressive” voice), which we had to call out on the CounterVortex podcast for its cynical pro-Russian slant.

Hersh’s distortions are deftly exposed by the British blog Bartholomew’s Notes, which keeps a very sharp eye on conspiracy theory and the culture wars. We take the liberty of quoting blogger Richard Bartholomew at length:


Several months on, the suggestion that the pipelines were bombed by the US rather than Russia has now received a boost from Seymour Hersh, who has made his case in a much-discussed 5000-word Substack post. Hersh’s account relies on “a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning”; as added context, he dredges up American controversies from the 1970s (the period appears to be his interpretative filter half a century later), and he includes public quotes from Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland as supposed gotchas. The story has been taken at face value by many, with coverage from [Tucker] Carlson, and pro-Russian Irish MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly raising the matter in the European Parliament. Donald Trump Jr suggests that recent the train derailment in Ohio may be Russian retaliation for the bombing.

The UK’s Daily Mail has also gone all-in, with an article headlined “Did Biden give the order to destroy Putin’s Nord Stream pipeline after Ukraine invasion? Bombshell report claims Navy divers carried out mission to kill Russia’s gas stranglehold on Europe in audacious mission overseen by president”, complete with graphics and maps. One wonders why the word “report” was chosen over “article” – “report” has connotations of formal findings at the end of an investigative process. The Mail‘s hack, one Lewis Pennock, describes Hersh’s essay as “compelling”, and only near the end does he mention that Hersh’s “reporting has previously been criticized for its heavy reliance on unnamed and anonymous sources”.

However, Hersh’s article does not fare well under scrutiny. An OSINT [Open Source Intelligence] analysis of specific details of the supposed “operation” has been published by Oliver Alexander, while Hersh’s underlying assumptions and narrative framing have been picked apart by the historian and energy researcher Simon Pirani. One small detail spotted by the military affairs reporter Wesley Morgan is that Hersh’s source describes the attack planning as a “goat fuck” – an unusual expression that just happens to have appeared previously in Hersh’s reporting. Norway is supposed to have been part of the US conspiracy, and Harald S. Klungtveit, an editor at Filter Nyheter, has further criticisms.

As regards the two “gotcha” quotes, Pirani deals with one:

Hersh refers to a press conference by US president Joe Biden and German chancellor Olaf Scholz on 7 February 2022, where Biden said: “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will put an end to it.”

…Biden was answering the question, “did you receive assurances from chancellor Scholz that Germany will pull the plug on this project if Russia invades Ukraine?” Everyone in the room understood, and anyone who views the clip will see, that this is a conversation about whether the United States could convince Germany to nix the project.

And on 22 February, that’s what happened. The Kremlin formally recognised the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk – the clearest signal yet that it intended to invade Ukraine – and Scholz announced that German approval for Nord Stream was withdrawn. That meant the pipeline could not be used for the foreseeable future.

Any serious account of what led up to the explosions would have to explain this vital reversal of German policy. Hersh does not mention it.

Hersh similarly misleads on Nuland:

More recently, Victoria Nuland expressed satisfaction at the demise of the newest of the pipelines. Testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in late January she told Senator Ted Cruz, “Like you, I am, and I think the Administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”

This echoes Sergei Lavrov’s interpretation of her comment, which had already been addressed by Newsweek:

Her comment clearly meant that the Biden administration was pleased that the $11 billion Russian-owned pipeline—which the U.S. had opposed for years on the grounds that it increased European reliance on Russian energy—is not being used. Germany halted the recently finished project just before the invasion last February after Russia formally recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

The magazine also notes that she previously used the phrase in January 2022, and there’s also an example from March 2022 – in other words, the US administration already regarded Nord Stream as useless and defunct months before the bombings. If something that basic falls apart after a moment’s investigation, why should we believe anything else in Hersh’s piece? And why didn’t the Daily Mail spot this?

It’s doubtful that criticisms or calls for caution will have any effect – one of the best ways to con someone is to flatter them into thinking that they’ve seen through a con, and American denials will feed into this tendency. This may apply to Hersh himself – has he simply made up his source, or is he being manipulated by someone who has come to him with a tall tale that he was predisposed to accept?

The willingness to believe anonymous, unverifiable sources by boosters of ether Hersh or the New York Times indicates that propaganda partisans are deciding what to believe on the basis of political convenience. And while a US, Ukrainian or even Norwegian motive in the sabotage may seem obvious, there are plausible Russian motives too. As Barthomew notes:

In fact, there are several reasons why Russia might have done it, and an analyst named Emma Ashford came up with several suggestions: (1) Putin signaling that he can damage European energy infrastructure at will; (2) Putin “was tying his own hands and that of any future Russian leader by making it harder to back down from the war in Ukraine”; and (3) a “force majeure” basis to counter lawsuits against Gazprom for failure to supply. A further possibility was (4) Russian hawks acting independently of Putin, although Ashford regarded this as “improbable”.

No matter whose “side” you are on here, we counsel: cool your jets and don’t believe the hype.

Jon Stewart just gave an 8-minute masterclass in highlighting gun politics hypocrisy

Stewart used an Oklahoma lawmaker's own arguments to show why his anti-gun-regulation stance doesn't make sense.

Annie Reneau

03.04.23

Jim Greenhill/Wikimedia Commons, @TheProblem/Twitter

Jon Stewart interviewed State Sen. Nathan Dahm about gun legislation.

Jon Stewart is a unicorn among interviewers, masterfully striking a balance between calm questioning and insisting on interviewees providing answers. Not deflections. Not pivots or side steps. Actual, direct answers to the questions he's asking.

Anyone who has interviewed a politician knows how hard striking that balance can be. Politicians are rhetorical magicians, saying lots of words that seem like an answer to a question, without actually answering it at all. Sometimes their avoidance methods are obvious, but usually, they know how to manipulate and control a conversation, deftly steering it in the direction they want it to go. If allowed to, they will not only avoid directly answering a question, but they will manhandle the entire interview, filling the air time with their own messaging. Politely letting them talk allows them to pull all of their favorite tricks.

As such, if you want to make a politician actually answer a question, interrupting them is unfortunately necessary. While interrupting can seem rude sometimes, when it's done to bring a lawmaker back to a question they haven't actually answered or to point out a flaw in their argument before they move on to something else, it's simply calling them on their b.s.

And few do that more effectively than Jon Stewart. One reason is that he is simply unfazed by politicians. He knows their game and looks at them like a parent whose child is clearly trying to pull a fast one. Another reason is that he thoroughly does his homework before the interview and can predict how they're going to respond, so he's able to catch them in their own web of illogic or hypocrisy in real time.

Such was the case in an interview with Oklahoma lawmaker Nathan Dahm on Stewart's show, "The Problem With Jon Stewart."

“State Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-OK) has penned several bills loosening gun restrictions, including the nation’s first anti-red flag law," the caption of the clip reads on Twitter. "He thinks these bills protect the Second Amendment—and that they make us safer. We think it's probably one or the other."

The main premise of Sen. Dahm's argument is "More guns make us safer." Stewart challenges him to defend that point, given the basic facts about gun violence statistics

Stewart points out that "More guns make us safer" flies in the face of what law enforcement officials have claimed. "When the police go to a house filled with guns, why don't they breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this Second Amendment that shall not be infringed is being exercised so fruitfully in this home?" Stewart asks. Good question.

Stewart also shows Dahm how his argument about people, not guns, being the problem doesn't make sense considering the fact that he shoots down all attempts at regulations that would help ensure those problematic people don't have easy access to guns.

Finally, Stewart highlights the hypocrisy of using government regulation to protect children from all kinds of things except the leading cause of death in children, which is guns.

Watch:

Can we have Jon Stewart interview all politicians on all issues, please?

RIP

 Prairie Populist, Honest Senator James Abourezk, Fearless Fighter For Justice – OpEd

US President Jimmy Carter, and George McGovern with James Abourezk: Photo Credit: White House

 March 4, 2023 

By Ralph Nader

Most citizen advocates who work with U.S. senators on a wide variety of issues probably would agree that the late South Dakota Democrat, James Abourezk, was one of a kind. It was not that he was so honest, so down to earth, or so engaging with friend and foe alike. Rather, it was his willingness to be a minority of one pressing into visibility the plight of the forgotten, the oppressed and the excluded.

During his one term in the Senate (1973 to 1978), he singlehandedly took the plight and causes of Native Americans to heights the long-complicit Congress and media could not ignore. Read what the Associated Press had to say in its obituary:

“Mr. Abourezk was the first chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and successfully pressed for the American Indian Policy Review Commission. It produced a comprehensive review of federal policy with American Indian tribes and sparked the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and the Indian Child Welfare Act — a landmark piece of legislation meant to cut down on the alarming rate at which Native American children were taken from their homes and placed with white families.”

Abourezk found a keen supporter in fellow South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, who was pioneering Senate hearings “discovering” serious hunger in America, including on Indian Reservations. He grew up on the impoverished Rosebud Reservation and never forgot where he came from.

As Senator, he visited Lebanon, the ancestral land of his immigrant parents, which introduced him to U.S. policy in the Middle East and the oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel and its main backer, the U.S. government. As a lone voice on Capitol Hill, he championed wider recognition of these racist practices, including discrimination against Arab-Americans (the other anti-Semitism).

His style was one of dialogue and friendly debate. He co-authored a book with Hyman Bookbinder titled, Through Different Eyes: Two Leading Americans, a Jew and an Arab, Debate U.S. Policy in the Middle East (1987). They travelled together around the country discussing and disagreeing before rapt audiences unused to such two-way dialogues.

The former Senate Democratic majority leader, South Dakotan Tom Daschle was a Senate aide to Senator Abourezk. He told AP, “He was courageous, he was outspoken. I give him great credit for his advocacy of human rights, especially of the need to recognize the Arab American community in the United States. He was a lone voice for many years. He was a great storyteller; he had great humor; he was quick-witted and people loved to be around him.”

Not surprising when you learn of all the jobs Abourezk had before and after serving four years in the Navy, earning a civil engineering degree from the South Dakota School of Mines and a law degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law. He worked as a ranger, blackjack dealer, judo instructor, bartender, bouncer, car salesman and wholesale grocery salesman.

Such experiences can lead to an independence of thought and practice. These jobs gave him a sense of theatre. Saying that sports was not controversial and can bring people together, he arranged for the University of South Dakota basketball team to play a game with the Cuban national basketball team in Cuba, where he met with Fidel Castro.

After retiring from the U.S. Senate, he wrote a memoir epitomizing his sense of humor, rooted in truth, emerged in force. He wrote of the Senate: “Where else are your doors opened for you, is your travel all over the world provided free of charge, can you meet with world leaders who would otherwise never let you into their countries, have your bad jokes laughed at and your boring speeches applauded? It’s the ultimate place to have one’s ego massaged, over and over.”

He believed in term limits and practiced what he preached – one term only – to the detriment of the American people that “this prairie populist” so dutifully spoke and acted for in the corporate-dominated Congress. We found him to be the “go-to” person in the Senate when time was of the essence. He took up consumer, labor, and family farmer causes as a matter of duty. With knowledge and intuition, he rose to the occasion, often with his close collaborator, Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), to challenge big business lobbies.

After he left the Senate, he founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), practiced law in South Dakota for good causes, and continued to speak out on U.S. foreign policy. Former ADC president, Albert Mokhiber wrote: “We lost a dear friend and mentor, a brave leader and the best that America has and hopefully will continue to offer.”

In the Nineties, he told me he sometimes regretted leaving the Senate, noting that by then his seniority would have made him chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He observed that had he led that Committee, several top judicial nominees, including Clarence Thomas, would not have been confirmed.

He was an exceedingly compassionate man. He was quick to express condolences and suggest some award or other legacy be established in honor of the deceased.

His many friends should gather together and decide what kinds of permanent legacies can be established in honor of a man who stood out, stood tall and proclaimed the needs of justice for the dispossessed. That would be a good way to convey condolences to his outstanding restaurateur wife and author, Sanaa Dieb, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The young generation, turned off by corrupt and cowardly politicians, needs to learn about the luminous life of 92-year-old James Abourezk.

Ralph Nader is a politician, activist and the author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a novel. In his career as consumer advocate he founded many organizations including the Center for Study of Responsive Law, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen, Clean Water Action Project, the Disability Rights Center, the Pension Rights Center, the Project for Corporate Responsibility and The Multinational Monitor (a monthly magazine).

‘This Is a Good Neighbor’: San Francisco Officials Impressed by New York Drug Consumption Sites

Written by David Sjostedt

Published Mar. 03, 2023 • 

San Francisco D6 City Supervisor Matt Dorsey, left, and San Francisco D9 City Supervisor Hillary Ronen, center, tour an OnPoint safe injection site at 500 West 180th St. in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, March 03, 2023. A delegation from San Francisco toured two OnPoint locations Friday, the first supervised drug injection sites in the United States. | Dave Sanders for The Standard

San Francisco leaders said they came away impressed by what they saw during a tour of two sites for supervised drug use in New York City and hope to bring lessons in how to open up similar sites in San Francisco.

The tour of the safe consumption sites, both operated by the nonprofit OnPoint NYC, took place on Friday as the city looks to open privately funded facilities for supervised drug use in an effort to abate an overdose crisis that has claimed over 2,000 lives since 2020. 

Although safe consumption sites have garnered virtually unanimous support among local legislators, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office has advised against public funding for the facilities because they are still illegal under federal law 

Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a recovering addict, said the tour was an emotional experience because of how the organization treated clients. 

A man places a cap on a needle after injecting himself at an OnPoint location in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood on March 3, 2023. | Dave Sanders for The Standard

“It’s powerful and moving to see a community-based org that’s committed to working with addicts and treating them as human beings,” Dorsey said. 

The tour included staff from Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Dorsey’s office, as well as representatives from the SF Fire Department, the SF Public Defender’s Office, the SF Department of Public Health and the nonprofits HealthRight 360, the SF AIDS Foundation and the Gubbio Project. 

Ronen’s, Dorsey’s the Public Defender’s office and the Gubbio Project’s trips were funded from grants provided by the San Francisco Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation, according to Ronen. The SF AIDS Foundation, HealthRight 360 and a representative from the health department self-funded their trips, while the remaining members were reportedly paid for by the city. 

Ronen, who organized the trip, said the tour made her realize that San Francisco is falling behind in implementing innovative policies.

“We pride ourselves on being a City on the cutting edge. Not anymore,” Ronen said in a text message. “It’s time for San Francisco to act.”   

Some local leaders have advocated for using funds won through a lawsuit against major pharmaceutical companies in August, but the City Attorney’s Office has said those funds are indistinguishable from public funds. 

The complicated legal situation presents an obstacle for any local nonprofit that will be tasked with opening such a facility.

Hillary Ronen speaks with Sam Rivera, executive director of OnPoint NYC (center) and Dr. Hillary Kunins at an OnPoint safe injection site in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood. | Dave Sanders for The Standard

According to Executive Director of OnPoint Sam Rivera, the cost of running 28 drug consumption booths during the weekdays in New York City comes out to $1.4 million a year. Rivera said the sites in New York face potential closure as their private funding runs dry.

The city’s first safe consumption site, called the Tenderloin Center, cost the city $22 million and closed in December amid criticism over client outcomes and neighborhood impact. 

As a former spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, Dorsey said that he was also inspired by OnPoint’s commitment to public safety while offering services to people struggling with addiction. 

“This gives me faith that there’s a way to do this right,” Dorsey said. “There were cops right outside. This is a good neighbor.” 

Central Washington airport hosts first test flight of hydrogen-powered airliner

Tom Banse (Northwest News Network)
March 4, 2023

The largest aircraft yet to fly on hydrogen-electric power made a successful first flight in Moses Lake, Washington, on Thursday. The maiden flight of a converted turboprop airliner offered a preview of one possible pathway for how to make your future flights more eco-friendly. Hydrogen fuel is one of several options the aviation industry is testing to reduce its carbon footprint, but the technology still attracts notable skepticism.

Test pilot Alex Kroll was at the controls of the De Havilland Dash 8-300 with a retrofitted hydrogen fuel cell powertrain when it was cleared for takeoff on a partly cloudy morning. Was he nervous?

"It's healthy to be a little nervous going into anything,” the ex-Air Force pilot said afterwards. “But you've practiced and rehearsed well enough and frequently enough that you're confident the system will perform."

The Universal Hydrogen flight test crew posed for pictures after a successful first flight of the company's hydrogen-electric Dash 8 airliner on March 2, 2023.

Tom Banse / NW News Network

And perform it did. Kroll, a co-pilot and a flight engineer ascended to 3,500 feet in the brightly painted, twin engine commuter plane. They flew two wide figure eights around the airfield before coming in for a smooth touchdown about 15 minutes later.

A crowd of investors, ground crew and about a dozen airline VIPs gathered beside the runway to watch. The more than 60 onlookers appeared to forget for a moment how cold the morning was as they heartily cheered the liftoff and landing.

"It feels like a normal airplane,” Kroll said. “You hardly know the engine on the right has been modified."

For the first flight, one of the Dash 8's two motors was powered by the hydrogen fuel cells while the other ran on regular jet fuel just to be safe. A California-based startup named Universal Hydrogen directed the conversion. The company took out seats in the back to make room for a compressed liquid hydrogen tank. The fuel cells combine the hydrogen with air to produce electricity and water. The electricity powers the propeller. The only exhaust is water vapor.

At a post-flight reception, Universal Hydrogen CEO Paul Eremenko lifted a glass to toast what he called, “the beginning of a new golden age of aviation.”

The hydrogen-electric motor and propeller under the wing at left differed from the conventional turboprop engine at right, requiring skilled piloting.
Tom Banse / NW News Network

“Yeah, pretty friggin' amazing,” he enthused to the attendees before they clinked their champagne flutes. “I think we really witnessed something historic here."

Eremenko said his company has an ambitious business plan to begin deliveries of converted twin engine turboprops to regional airlines beginning in late 2025. That assumes timely government certification of the new technology. A distinguishing feature of Universal Hydrogen’s offering is a modular fuel capsule that can be swapped in and out of an airliner fuselage to refuel without requiring new airport infrastructure.

"In general, I would say the industry is not yet on board with hydrogen. So that was one of the reasons today was such a historic day," Eremenko said in an interview Thursday. "I think the tide will turn. It will turn as we retire the risks, or the perceived risks, associated with hydrogen aviation — whether it is certification, or hydrogen supply, or hydrogen logistics, passenger acceptance."

Retired Boeing CEO Phil Condit is one of the skeptics. He cast doubt on hydrogen during a recent guest lecture at the University of Washington. He cited inefficiencies in its production and distribution. Condit said he is most keen on biofuels for zero emissions flight because they are essentially a drop in replacement for kerosene jet fuel.

"I can put it in an airplane that exists today and run that airplane," Condit said. "Can you get the costs down, that is the question."

What the industry calls sustainable aviation fuel is quite expensive and in limited supply currently. Condit and most other aerospace engineers say batteries are too heavy to power large commercial airplanes. Eremenko for his part scoffs at the touted benefits of synthetic fuels and biofuels, calling them a stopgap, “band aid” solution that fails to drive down emissions enough.

Universal Hydrogen CEO Paul Eremenko congratulated test pilot Alex Kroll after the landing.
Tom Banse / NW News Network

Major airlines are hedging their bets by investing in startups with different technologies. For example, Alaska Airlines has run periodic flight tests with a biofuel blend while also partnering with ZeroAvia, a competitor of Universal Hydrogen in the zero emission airplane conversion business. United Airlines has placed orders for large quantities of biofuel while also committing to buy several models of in-development battery-electric commuter aircraft.

Moses Lake airport director Rich Mueller said Central Washington has now hosted demonstrations of all of the leading options to power guilt-free air travel; namely, electric batteries, biofuels and hydrogen.

"I know that a lot of people think of Moses Lake as the stop on I-90 on their way to Spokane or vice versa," Mueller said. "But for what is going on in the future of aviation, we're finding ourselves right in the middle of it.”

Moses Lake has long attracted test flight campaigns because of its good flying weather, fairly uncrowded skies and the extra-long runways at the airfield, the latter a legacy from Grant County International Airport's former life as a Cold War-era Air Force base. Around the time the hydrogen-electric aircraft finishes testing there later this year, NASA contractors are expected to set up shop with a four-engine hybrid electric aircraft demonstrator. Everett, Washington-based electric motor maker MagniX is leading that contact in partnership with aircraft modification and flight testing specialist AeroTEC. The airframe they have chosen for the NASA-funded project is a retired De Havilland Dash 7.

The previous largest plane to fly on hydrogen-electric power was a 19-seat Dornier 228 regional airliner. ZeroAvia converted that plane in England and it completed its first flight in January. The Dash 8-300 that Universal Hydrogen is using as its testbed carried 50+ passengers in commercial service before its insides were gutted for the powertrain retrofit.

Universal Hydrogen is also working on a conversion kit for a larger model of regional airliner, the 72-seat ATR 72-600. This is the model expected to enter revenue service with the two airlines that are first in line to take delivery, Massachusetts-based Connect Airlines and French carrier Amelia Airlines.

“It’s great to see the progress of the technology, great to see the first flight,” said Scott Brownrigg, director of public affairs for Connect Airlines. “We’re really excited to be the first U.S. airline to offer zero emission flying through these zero emission aircraft.”

Brownrigg traveled to Moses Lake to witness the first flight of the hydrogen-powered airplane. The startup regional airline placed a firm order last year for 75 ATRs with the hydrogen conversion and has an option to take an additional 25 hydrogen-electric planes.

 Steven Spielberg thinks the US government is hiding information about UFOs

By 

Ben Kess    

March 3, 2023 

“E.T.” director Steven Spielberg thinks the 1982 classic was onto something — and believes the US government is hiding information about UFOs from the general public. 

“I think the secrecy that is shrouding all of these sightings and the lack of transparency until the Freedom of Information Act compels certain materials to be released publicly, I think that there is something going on that simply needs extraordinary due diligence,” he argued on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Thursday.

“I think what has been coming out recently is fascinating — just absolutely fascinating,” he added. “I would like to hear more about it. I don’t know what they are.”

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker said clearly there is “something going on … that’s not being disclosed to us.”

He also revealed that he doesn’t believe Earth is the only planet with life on it.

“I think it’s mathematically impossible,” he said. 

Steven Speilberg thinks the government is hiding information about UFOs from the public. 

CBS

Steven Spielberg thinks the 1982 classic “E.T.” was onto something.

Getty Images

An image of the Chinese spy balloon right before it was shot down.

Spielberg has made several movies about the supernatural, including 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” about a blue-collar worker whose life is changed when he encounters a UFO.

He also directed the 2005 film “War of the Worlds,” which is about an alien invasion of Earth that threatens to destroy human life. 

A declassified government report released in January said that most UFO sightings aren’t aliens, but there have been plenty that simply can’t be explained.

THIRD WORLD U$A

Scripps News Investigates: A city’s not-so-secret child labor problem


By: Scripps News
Mar 03, 2023

When federal authorities recently fined a food sanitation company for employing underage workers in dangerous jobs at 13 meat processing plants, the U.S. Department of Labor said it showed there would be no tolerance for child labor in America.

And yet a Scripps News investigation has found child labor likely occurred for years at one location in Grand Island, Neb., before the Labor Department detected it and intervened this past year, eventually identifying 27 minors illegally employed by Packers Sanitation Services, Inc, at a local beef plant.

PSSI was the contractor at the time responsible for daily cleaning of the factory owned by JBS USA.

"By the area where I work, some minors would walk through the hallway," said a 65-year-old JBS employee. He spoke in Spanish through an interpreter. He asked not to be identified out of concern he would jeopardize his job by speaking to the press.

He explained the work involved cleaning up blood and animal parts on the kill room floor and scrubbing food processing equipment with harsh chemicals.

"The ones who sanitize the plant work with a lot of chemicals," he said. "I don't know how old they were, but, yes, they looked a bit young. If for me as an adult it's dangerous, for them, it's more dangerous."

JBS USA terminated its contract with PSSI after the Department of Labor announced the results of its child labor investigation.

Federal court records in the case against PSSI obtained by Scripps News described teens getting burned by caustic cleansers at night, then going to school and falling asleep in class.

One 17-year-old dropped out of high school because they were so tired from cleaning, a filing by the Labor Department says.

Another document in the case says underage employees had been employed by PSSI in Grand Island since at least 2019.

Interviews with residents revealed a child labor problem going back even longer than that.

"I have memories of classmates falling asleep in school because they were working overnight," said Audrey Lutz, who grew up in Grand Island.

Lutz was the longtime executive director of the Multicultural Coalition, a local group that helps new immigrants settle in the city.

She also met with some of the underage workers identified by the Labor Department.

This report by Patrick Terpstra, Karen Rodriguez and Daniel Lathrop of Scripps News.
Copyright 2023 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights re

Kenya: Russia Lauds Kenya for Shunning 'Western Values' in Gay Rights Debate

By Jemimah Mueni

Nairobi — The Russian Embassy in Nairobi has backed the stance taken by top Kenyan government officials against homosexuality, and urged the country to remain firm.

The Russian Embassy in Kenya was reacting to remarks by President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua on Thursday, March 2, where they publicly stated that homosexuality has no place in Kenya, and that same-sex relations are unacceptable.

The Embassy warned the "gay agenda" was being pushed by the Western nations, and urged leaders to take responsibility for protecting the country's traditional values or risk losing humanity.

Russia, led by their President Vladimir Putin, has been very firm on their stand against the LGBTQ community and the propagating of the agenda in their country.

Putin anti-LGBTQ stance

President Putin during last month's state of the nation address blasted the West for encouraging same-sex relationships, adding that they are obligated to protect our children from degradation and degeneracy.

"Look at what they are doing in the West. They distort historical facts, do not stop their attacks on Russian culture, on the Russian Orthodox Church," Putin said.

"The West is perverting the family, the national identity. They are making pedophilia the norm in their lives, and priests encourage same-sex marriage. Forgive them Father, they know not what they do."

"The Anglican Church is planning--so far only planning--to look into the idea of a gender-neutral God. What do you say to that?" Putin said on February 21 address.

President Ruto Thursday said Kenya will not tolerate LGBTQ practices citing nonconformity to the country's traditions and beliefs.

"We respect our courts but our traditions and beliefs do not allow same sex relationships. That will not happen in Kenya, it may happen elsewhere but not in this country," President Ruto stated.

"I will not allow men to compete with women for other men," he added.

President Ruto also called upon religious leaders to intervene and take a firm stand in the fight against the LGBTQ agenda.

"I want to ask our religious leaders to stand firm and educate our children, our people so that we don't lose our beliefs and way of life to foreign practices," the President added.

Gachagua also commented on the issue, terming the ruling of the Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights as "demonic".

Feds still on the hook for endangering California coast salmon


A judge ruled that a case for protecting salmon species affected by a Northern California dam can go on ahead despite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' attempt to dismiss it.

CANDACE CHEUNG / March 3, 2023

Chinook salmon swimming upstream.

 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife photo via Courthouse News)

(CN) — A Northern California man’s protest against the unlawful "taking" of endangered salmon by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lives another day, as a judge ruled against both dismissal and a stay in the matter on Friday.

The defendants sought to either dismiss or stay the case that accused them of creating a hazardous habitat for Central California Coast steelhead, coho, and Chinook salmon, saying that the case should be deemed moot, considering recent action taken by the Corps to come into compliance with Endangered Species Act requirements.

The Coyote Valley Dam, an earthen dam built 70 years ago, is currently managed by the Corps and lies above the city of Ukiah, where it prevents large-scale flooding of the city. According to Sean K. White, a Ukiah resident and fisheries biologist who first brought his claims this past October, the dam is also dangerously affecting endangered salmon species in Lake Mendocino and the East Fork Russian River.

White alleged that the Army Corps, its chief and commanding general Scott Spellmon, as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, violated the Endangered Species Act by jeopardizing salmon populations with the dam’s flood control operations. White and attorney Phillip Williams asked for a judgment declaring that defendants were violating the Endangered Species Act, as well an injunction preventing the Corps from releasing any more water from the dam.

A 2008 biological opinion — a report required by the Endangered Species Act that details potential dangers and possible remedies for threatened species — detailed the particular risk to salmon from sediment stirred up by water released by the dam, which could, according to the complaint, result in “abrading and clogging gills, and indirectly cause reduced feeding, avoidance reactions, destruction of food supplies, reduced egg and alevin survival, and changed rearing habitat.”

An accompanying incidental take statement provided recommendations for minimizing risk and lowering water turbidity levels that White claims the Corps barely and belatedly fulfilled.

The Corps said that it already had intentions to reinitiate consultation for a new biological opinion with the National Marine Fisheries Service in February 2023, with results to come in 2024.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley declined to both dismiss or stay the case following Thursday’s oral arguments.

"The last formal consultation regarding the Coyote Valley Dam lasted four years; and the current process — according to defendants’ own witnesses — is expected to be similarly complex," Corley wrote in a ruling published Friday. "Thus, there is no guarantee defendants will complete consultation by March 2024. So, what happens in the meantime?”

The agencies also argued against an injunction, pointing to its statutory responsibilities for flood control and water conservation. But Corley rejected the request. “By defendants’ own admission, it is uncertain whether any potential injunction would create an irreconcilable conflict with a nondiscretionary agency duty. That an injunction may not ultimately be viable does not mean the underlying claim is moot.”

The judge also denied a stay in proceedings, saying that the defendants could not show that they would experience any undue hardship that would necessitate a stay.

The Army Corps and the fisheries service could not be immediately reached for comment.