Craig OConnor – RI Future

September 6, 2013September 6, 2013

Tell our congressional delegation not to attack Syria

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Please call the members of the RI Congressional delegation and tell them to vote against authorizing military action against Syria, and also ask them to increase humanitarian aid. Heck, if you want, tell them you won’t vote for them if they authorize the use of force in Syria.

Senator Jack Reed: 401-943-3100, http://www.reed.senate.gov

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: 401-453-5294, http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov

Representative James Langevin: 401-732-9400, http://www.house.gov/langevin

Representative David Cicilline: 401-729-5600, http://www.cicilline.house.gov

Others have written on this blog about why attacking Syria is a bad idea. Please read the posts by Tom Sgouros, Bob Plain and others.

Nothing good will come of the US attacking Syria. Telling Syria the use of horrific weapons of war is wrong by flouting international law and illegally bombing them is not going to stop Assad and other evil doers from doing their evil; it will only make us look hypocritical and more like them.

It is quite likely that instead the situation will be made much worse. Iran could retaliate, perhaps against Israel. The Shiite-Sunni sectarian divide could grow worse with increased violence in Iraq and other countries. Russia and China may be provoked into openly supporting Assad’s regime. And the US would further enflame anger at our violence and unilateral military operations. As Bob Plain asks in his post, why is it ok for the USA to take military action without UN approval, and to bomb countries when we don’t like what they do? Imagine if, in response to our illegal bombing of Syria, some other nation bombed us in order to teach us a lesson?

And finally, what if Assad uses chemical weapons again? After striking once, we’d almost have to attack again, and this would draw the US into a war.

A few good places to look for interesting information on the Syrian conflict:

The Nation Magazine has some good reporting on the isse.

Frontline, on PBS, has several powerful documentary reports worth viewing.

Senator Bernie Sanders has spoken passionately on this, as have others (both Republican and Democrat).

And the Green Party , led by its 2012 Presidential candidate Jill Stein, have spoken against bombing Syria.

July 12, 2013July 13, 2013

350.org’s summer heat at Brayton Point

The folks over at 350.org are on tour this summer, organizing protests at some of the worst power plants across the nation – and our very own Brayton Point has made the grade!

Here are the details:

On July 28th, people from all over New England will come together for a mass mobilization at the Brayton Point power plant. Brayton Point is the largest coal-fired power plant from Massachusetts to Maine. We will call for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to close the plant and ask him to ensure a just transition for workers and host communities from the West Virginian mines to Somerset. The mobilization will include an optional non-violent civil disobedience component.

What: Mobilization to close down Brayton Point
Where: Somerset, Massachusetts
When: Sunday July 28th (with training on the 27th)
Why: To shut down the largest fossil fuel plant in New England and ensure a just transition for workers and communities

Organized by 350 Massachusetts Action and Better Future Action

One of 350.org’s Summer Heat Actions

Please note: They are planning civil disobedience. For those who would like to participate, you must attend a planning and training workshop the day before. Details HERE.

Brayton Point is a pollution factory. Chugging away in Somerset, Massachusetts, Brayton Point is perched along the shoulder of Mount Hope Bay, with over 77,000 people living within a few miles. 1,000,000,000 gallons of water are pumped from Mount Hope Bay into the power plant’s cooling towers.

Using about 40,000 tons of coal every three days, Brayton Point provides 20% of all the electricity for Massachusetts in just about the dirtiest way imaginable. 80% of this coal is shipped from Venezuela and Colombia, so the damage starts long before the carbon is burned in Brayton’s kilns. Much of the coal is from the worlds largest open-pit mine, El Cerrejon in Colombia, and from La Loma mine, owned by Drummond Energy, a company accused in the deaths of dozens of labor rights activists. According to diplomatic cables released to the public by Wikileaks, Drummnd was a cause of great concern for U.S. regulators due their employment of paramilitary organiztion United Self Defense Forces of Colombia to suppress workers.

According to SourceWatch, in 2006 it was responsible for 6.8 million tons of CO₂ emissions. As if that’s not bad enough, it released massive amounts of other greenhouse gasses, and sent 148 pounds of poisonous mercury into our environment.

Owned by Dominion Energy, it is under contract to be sold to a private equity firm.

June 17, 2013

Syria: Obama And Clinton’s War for Natural Gas?

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Now that President Obama has given in to Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton and John McCain and announced that he will send US weapons to the rebels in Syria, it is important to look one of the under-reported subjects of the war: natural gas.

Specifically, natural gas from the South Pars/North Dome reserves, the largest in the world.

The Syrian Civil War has become a proxy fight in the “Great Game” geo-politics of energy and power in the New World Order. A columnist published by the Guardian in the UK lays it out like this:

On the one side: Russia and Iran supporting the repugnant dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad as part of a plan to run a natural gas pipeline from North Dome to Russia, increasing Iranian and Russian power in the European natural gas markets
On the other side: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Syrian rebels plan an alternate pipeline to Turkey and thus to Europe, generating the support of France, Germany and now the United States

Or, as Milad Jokar writes in the Huffington Post:

“…the conflict can be viewed as a broader struggle between mainly Russia and Western countries which attempt to advance their national interests. For the West these interests are isolating Iran and bolstering the strategic and economic alliance with Arab allies like Qatar, which invests in Europe and offers an alternative to Russian gas.”

Natural gas may not be the central issue propelling the increasingly venomous civil war, but it may be a key reason why the US and European nations are involving themselves in this particular conflict.

The rebels are struggling against a tyrannical regime, but also are working with self-proclaimed al Qaeda groups. Many have noted that the war is now a sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite groups and is spreading into other nations like Iraq. Should the United States send arms that may end up in the hands of al Qaeda? Should we insert ourselves into another Middle East conflict that cuts through the heart of Islamic society?

Obama and his supporters argue that arming the rebels will force the Assad regime to negotiate a settlement. But how likely is that? 93,000 Syrians have already been killed. How many more will die as Russia arms Assad’s Baathist regime and the United States arms the Free Syrian Army? How much blood money will the profiteers of the military-industrial complex and the fossil fuel industry make?

The wars in Korea and Vietnam killed between 5 and 8 million people, mostly civilians. In both, the United States armed one side while the Soviet Union and China armed the other, until eventually American troops fought and died. Vietnam and Iraq were justified by President Johnson and President Bush on flimsy evidence of an attack in the Gulf of Tonkin and the presence of WMDs. Will it happen again?

And finally, why aren’t any major US media outlets reporting on the role of natural gas in this mess?

Addenda: I recommend watching the PBS Frontline documentary “Syria: Behind the Lines.” It captures a few days in the war and the morass of ethnic and religious divisions that inform the conflict. While some would like the American public to perceive the rebels as freedom fighters valorously rejecting the yoke of Assad tyranny, the reality seems far more complex. The chilling words of a wounded rebel soldier’s mother towards the end of the film make it clear the US may have no useful role in this conflict.

Thomas Pynchon – “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.”

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

Sign Local Gun Control Petition Here

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How many more must die? We need true gun control now, and our congressional delegation agrees.

Today’s a great day to re-watch “Bowling for Columbine” and you can do so here. It’s a great day to honor the heroism of our educators – any of whom could one day be put in the same situation that the teachers at Sandy Hook were – and you can do that here.

It’s also a great day to take action. And you can do that here:

Change.org|Make Your Own Petition

Please sign this Petition and Pledge.

Sometime in January we will hold an event at the State House at which we submit this petition and pledge, and demand our elected officials to act.

Petition and Pledge

Dear Governor Chafee, Speaker Fox and President Paiva-Weed:

We, the undersigned, do call upon the elected officials our state and local governments to enact meaningful gun control legislation. At a minimum, we expect he legislation to include the following:

No sale of or private ownership of automatic or semi-automatic firearms;

No sale of or private ownership of ammunition for such guns, nor any form of ammunition that is armor-piercing;

No sales of firearms without a 30-day waiting period and a background criminal check, including at gun shows or other “private sales”;

All sales of firearms, weather in a retail or private setting, shall require documentation that is submitted to the appropriate branch of the Rhode Island State Police;

Permits for firearm ownership will only be granted with demonstration of legitimate need for the item, including hunting or sport;

In addition to current laws, those with permits for firearm ownership shall be required to reapply every two years for their permit.

Please note: the proposal above is much less restrictive than in most democracies; for one example, the United Kingdom does not allow private ownership of almost any form of firearm, and its gun homicide rate is 1/100^th that of the US (0.03 per 100,000 vs. nearly 3 per 100,000).

We additionally pledge the following:

We will refuse to vote for or in any way support the candidacies of any person running for office who does not publicly support and work for the enactment of legislation that accomplishes the above; and

Will actively seek and support candidates to oppose any elected official who does not publicly support and work for the enactment of legislation that accomplishes the above ; and

Will disaffiliate with any party whose leadership does not publicly support and work for the enactment of legislation that accomplishes the above; and

We hereby promise to oppose the candidacies of any person seeking office who accepts the endorsement or financial support of the NRA; its affiliates; similar gun-industry or gun-rights organizations; or who in any way publicly expresses support for the positions and goals of said organizations.

In particular, we look to Governor Lincoln Chafee, Speaker of the House Gordon Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Pavia-Weed to ensure legislation meeting the above criteria is enacted in the 2013 legislative session. If such legislation is not enacted, the moral standing of these three leaders will be forever tarnished and their names held in disdain.

In memory of those who died in Newtown, and all those who have suffered and died from the easy access to guns in our nation, we say enough is enough. We demand that the phrase “well regulated’ be the keystone for our understanding of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.