XX-34 BADGER (yield 23 kt) - an atmospheric nuclear test performed by the U.S. on 18 April 1953 as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole at the Nevada Test Site.
(Image: U.S Government / public domain / Flickr)Image: U.S Government / public domain / Flickr)
February 16, 2025
AlterNet
AlterNet
— Are we seeing the beginnings of World War III brought to us by Trump and Putin? Trump’s reflexive ass-kissing of Putin is putting Europe at risk of war, repeating the big mistake that Neville Chamberlain made at the Munich conference on September 30, 1938. Expansionist dictators like Putin are not interested in peace unless it’s entirely on their own terms; Putin has already, since he became president of Russia on the last day of 1999, taken over or seized functional control via proxies of Belarus, Chechnya, Syria, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Crimea, and Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. Claiming that the breakup of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” (Прежде всего, следует признать, что крушение Советского Союза было крупнейшей геополитической катастрофой века), he’s now trying to get the old band together, which includes absorbing Ukraine.
Trump, Hegseth, and Vance all appear committed to helping Putin achieve his goal, kneecapping any effort to give Ukraine real security and ratifying the discredited doctrine that when a country invades a neighbor they should be able to keep whatever land and resources they can steal. Trump actually said: “Russia fought for that land in Ukraine and lost a lot of men doing it, so they should just keep it.” This is insanity. And it gives a green light to China on their quest to regain control of Taiwan by force, another event that could trigger a third world war.
This is such an extreme pro-Putin and anti-democracy position that Britain’s prime minister and politicians across Europe are calling it out, worried that Trump is quite literally walking that continent toward war with Russia. As the conservative Member of Parliament Sir Bernard Jenkin said, “Some of the defence chiefs have been expressing this, that we must be ready to fight a war with Russia if necessary, in order to be able to deter Russia.” Yes, European politicians are now openly discussing the possibility of war on the continent, all because Trump is so weak when it comes to Putin. Pathetic…and dangerous.
— Trump’s Cronies Just Took an Axe to America’s Nuclear Watchdogs—And It’s Exactly What Putin Wants. The Dogey crew have now, according to ABC News, begun to gut an agency most Americans don’t even know exists: the National Nuclear Security Administration. This agency of around 1800 people monitors Putin’s nuclear weaponry, keeps ours in tip-top shape, and investigates nuclear disasters and the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. As ABC News reported, “Two former staffers confirmed probationary employees began receiving termination notices late Thursday and worried the agency of only about 1,800 employees was losing the key nuclear arms expertise that cannot be replaced.” It appears that, for the moment, the gutting of this agency was paused after the news broke, but if Putin likes it, odds are they’ll be back with another axe to take to the agency. After all, Republicans need to lay off enough government employees to free up $4 trillion to pay for the tax cuts they have planned for people making over a quarter-million a year (and tax increases for everybody below), and if it helps Trump suck up to Putin, all the better…
— Seven Justice Department prosecutors have now resigned rather than being “enough of a fool or coward” to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. This is Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre on steroids, and highlights how corrupt Pam Bondi and Emil Bove are willing to be to satisfy their orange overlord. One of the Justice Department prosecutors, Hagan Scotten, comes with solid conservative credentials, having served 3 combat tours in Iraq (earning two Bronze Stars) and clerking for both John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh. Scotten was blunt in his resignation letter:
“I can even understand how a Chief Executive whose background is in business and politics might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful, deal. But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
That said, Bove and Bondi finally found somebody who was retiring and did the deed so that his colleagues wouldn’t lose their jobs; it’s now just a matter of time before the entire DOJ has been corrupted and turned into Trump’s personal vengeance machine.
— JD Vance brings his culture war to Europe. Everybody at the Munich Security Conference this week wanted to hear what the vice president had to say about Trump’s and Hegseth’s bizarre surrender-monkey comments on Ukraine. Instead, Vance forced them to sit through an extended screed about how terrible it is that European countries censor or even punish people who openly promote Nazi propaganda and racist memes. Vance also went on and on about immigrants, bringing Trump’s and Vance’s naked racism into the continent’s media, much to the delight of white supremacists everywhere. As CNN’s foreign correspondent Nick Paton Walsh noted, the VP’s speech was “bizarre.” I’d add, it’s also dangerous.
— Musk’s teenage wonder-boys left a backdoor open on the DOGE website, leading to its capture by hackers. Noting that “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro,” a group of anonymous hackers briefly took control of the doge.gov website. They told 404 Media, that the Dogey website “is insecure and pulls from a database” called Cloudflare Pages that can be edited by anyone. And these are the guys inside our nuclear secrets, our spy agencies, our federal payroll records, and now Social Security and Medicare. What could possibly go wrong?
— California, Oregon, and Washington state have been invited to join Canada. In a tongue-in-cheek proclamation, Canadian Member of Parliament Elizabeth May suggested the three states could get “free healthcare” and “safe streets” by abandoning the US and joining Canada as their newest province or two or three. She pointed out that their Medicare-for-All system covers everybody so nobody would have to go on GoFundMe to beg for money for their kids’ hospitalization, and the NRA doesn’t run Canadian politics like it does here so there’s so few gun crimes that they don’t even traumatize children with school shooting drills. “We’ll also take Bernie Sanders off your hands,” she added as an afterthought, suggesting Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine could join Canada’s maritime provinces. Are you ready to sign on? Let me know what you think…
@2024 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. - "Poynter" fonts provided by fontsempire.com
'Deeply Concerned' Dems Want to Know If DOGE Can Access Nuclear Weapons Data
"The nation and the world need to know that U.S. nuclear secrets are robustly safeguarded," argue Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Don Beyer.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) speaks while Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) looks on, during a nuclear arms control event outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2024.
(Photo: Sen. Ed Markey/X)
Brett Wilkins
Feb 12, 2025
COMMONDREAMS
A pair of Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Trump administration to clarify whether any members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have access to classified information about the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Responding to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright's admission that he granted DOGE associates access to the Department of Energy, and to reporting that a 23-year-old former intern at Musk's SpaceX was allowed into DOE's IT systems without the requisite security clearances, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)—both members of the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group—wrote to Wright to voice their concerns.
"The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an integral part of the Department of Energy, is entrusted with protecting the nation's most sensitive nuclear weapons secrets. The nation and the world need to know that U.S. nuclear secrets are robustly safeguarded," the lawmakers wrote.
"It is, therefore, dangerously unacceptable that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency—including individuals lacking adequate security clearances—has been granted access to DOE's information technology (IT) system despite legitimate security concerns inside the agency," they added.
"There is no justification for relaxing basic security procedures when it comes to our nuclear stockpile, but recent actions reflect a brazen disregard for DOE security policies," Markey and Beyer argued. "DOE must ensure that all personnel with access to classified information and systems surrounding our nation's nuclear arsenal follow the highest security standards."
The letter continues:
Recently, you were quoted as saying that three individuals involved with DOGE are at DOE and "have access to look around, talk to people, and give us some good feedback on how things are going." And, according to media reports, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, who does not have the appropriate security clearances needed to access DOE's IT system, received access over the objections of members of its general counsel and chief information offices. This incursion into some of the nation's most sensitive files is the latest in a series of Trump administration moves to plant unqualified Musk and DOGE staffers throughout the federal government, some of whom have records of leaking sensitive information and potentially wreaking havoc with vital information systems.
"As members of the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, we are deeply concerned by this disregard of DOE security protocols and the potential impacts on our nuclear security," Markey and Beyer wrote.
The lawmakers asked Wright to answer the following questions by Friday:What is the process for granting, reviewing, and revoking security clearances for DOGE staffers at DOE?
Have any DOGE staffers been given access to NNSA classified nuclear weapons information?
Under what authority and justification was each instance of classified access granted to DOGE staffers?
Are DOGE staffers required to undergo training on the handling of classified information?
What security measures are in place to ensure DOGE staffers do not improperly access or inappropriately share sensitive nuclear secrets?
Have any DOGE staffers with access to classified information had significant outside financial interests, foreign contacts, or other affiliations that could pose security concerns?
Are NNSA employees included in the administration's buyout offer for federal employees?
If so, and if senior NNSA employees leave the organization, how do you plan to maintain the security and secrecy of nuclear weapons and related information?
Appearing on CNBC Friday, Wright dismissed "rumors" that DOGE members are "seeing our nuclear secrets."
"The nation and the world need to know that U.S. nuclear secrets are robustly safeguarded," argue Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Don Beyer.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) speaks while Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) looks on, during a nuclear arms control event outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2024.
(Photo: Sen. Ed Markey/X)
Brett Wilkins
Feb 12, 2025
COMMONDREAMS
A pair of Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Trump administration to clarify whether any members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have access to classified information about the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Responding to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright's admission that he granted DOGE associates access to the Department of Energy, and to reporting that a 23-year-old former intern at Musk's SpaceX was allowed into DOE's IT systems without the requisite security clearances, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)—both members of the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group—wrote to Wright to voice their concerns.
"The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an integral part of the Department of Energy, is entrusted with protecting the nation's most sensitive nuclear weapons secrets. The nation and the world need to know that U.S. nuclear secrets are robustly safeguarded," the lawmakers wrote.
"It is, therefore, dangerously unacceptable that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency—including individuals lacking adequate security clearances—has been granted access to DOE's information technology (IT) system despite legitimate security concerns inside the agency," they added.
"There is no justification for relaxing basic security procedures when it comes to our nuclear stockpile, but recent actions reflect a brazen disregard for DOE security policies," Markey and Beyer argued. "DOE must ensure that all personnel with access to classified information and systems surrounding our nation's nuclear arsenal follow the highest security standards."
The letter continues:
Recently, you were quoted as saying that three individuals involved with DOGE are at DOE and "have access to look around, talk to people, and give us some good feedback on how things are going." And, according to media reports, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, who does not have the appropriate security clearances needed to access DOE's IT system, received access over the objections of members of its general counsel and chief information offices. This incursion into some of the nation's most sensitive files is the latest in a series of Trump administration moves to plant unqualified Musk and DOGE staffers throughout the federal government, some of whom have records of leaking sensitive information and potentially wreaking havoc with vital information systems.
"As members of the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, we are deeply concerned by this disregard of DOE security protocols and the potential impacts on our nuclear security," Markey and Beyer wrote.
The lawmakers asked Wright to answer the following questions by Friday:What is the process for granting, reviewing, and revoking security clearances for DOGE staffers at DOE?
Have any DOGE staffers been given access to NNSA classified nuclear weapons information?
Under what authority and justification was each instance of classified access granted to DOGE staffers?
Are DOGE staffers required to undergo training on the handling of classified information?
What security measures are in place to ensure DOGE staffers do not improperly access or inappropriately share sensitive nuclear secrets?
Have any DOGE staffers with access to classified information had significant outside financial interests, foreign contacts, or other affiliations that could pose security concerns?
Are NNSA employees included in the administration's buyout offer for federal employees?
If so, and if senior NNSA employees leave the organization, how do you plan to maintain the security and secrecy of nuclear weapons and related information?
Appearing on CNBC Friday, Wright dismissed "rumors" that DOGE members are "seeing our nuclear secrets."
No comments:
Post a Comment