[Peace-discuss] News from Neptune on UPTV, Friday 4 April 7pm

[C. G. Estabrook]

NEWS FROM NEPTUNE for 4 April 2014 
An "Oh, No! NATO" Edition
Produced and directed by Caleb Seripinas
on Urbana Public Television (7pm Fridays)

RON SZOKE on the free market*;
KAREN ARAM on free elections in Turkey; and
CARL ESTABROOK on free speech & SCOTUS.

ON THIS DAY IN 1949 – The US, the only major country to emerge undamaged from WWII, creates the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to control European militaries - which we now use for imperialist campaigns in Asia and Africa.

ON THIS DAY IN 1958 – The "peace symbol" (semaphore for ND = nuclear disarmament) is displayed in public for the first time in London, by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

'...the U.S. nuclear arsenal will cost $355 billion over the next decade … the U.S. would spend $1 trillion on the nuclear arsenal in the next 30 years.

'And of course the United States is not alone in the arms race... it is a near miracle that we have escaped destruction so far ... In the case of nuclear weapons, at least we know in principle how to overcome the threat of apocalypse: Eliminate them.

'But another dire peril casts its shadow over any contemplation of the future—environmental disaster. It's not clear that there even is an escape, though the longer we delay, the more severe the threat becomes—and not in the distant future. The commitment of governments to the security of their populations is therefore clearly exhibited by how they address this issue.

'Today the United States is crowing about “100 years of energy independence” as the country becomes “the Saudi Arabia of the next century”—very likely the final century of human civilization if current policies persist.

'One might even take a speech of President Obama's two years ago in the oil town of Cushing, Okla., to be an eloquent death-knell for the species.

'He proclaimed with pride, to ample applause, that “Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That's important to know. Over the last three years, I've directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We're opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We've quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We've added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”

'The applause also reveals something about government commitment to security. Industry profits are sure to be secured as “producing more oil and gas here at home” will continue to be “a critical part” of energy strategy, as the president promised.

'The corporate sector is carrying out major propaganda campaigns to convince the public that climate change, if happening at all, does not result from human activity. These efforts are aimed at overcoming the excessive rationality of the public, which continues to be concerned about the threats that scientists overwhelmingly regard as near-certain and ominous.

'To put it bluntly, in the moral calculus of today's capitalism, a bigger bonus tomorrow outweighs the fate of one's grandchildren.

'What are the prospects for survival then? They are not bright. But the achievements of those who have struggled for centuries for greater freedom and justice leave a legacy that can be taken up and carried forward—and must be, and soon, if hopes for decent survival are to be sustained. And nothing can tell us more eloquently what kind of creatures we are.' [Noam Chomsky]

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* See Karl Polanyi, "The Great Transformation" (1944), which finds it reasonable to have markets in your society but quite wrong to turn your society into a market.  For the opposite view, see "Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society" <http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303978304579475860515021286>.

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