[Peace] News from Neptune on UPTV, Friday 26 September 2014 [#246]

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWS_Z2ptLN8

A Relying on Providence (& Two Russians) Edition

{INTRO} Good evening, & welcome to News from Neptune for the 39th week of 2014, on Rosh Hashanah.

~ For more than twenty years, this program has been "a spontaneous & unrehearsed discussion of the news of the week and its coverage by the media" - first on a so-called "community radio station" - and, when censored & locked out of there - welcomed, I'm happy to say, by the good people at Urbana Public Television.

~ I’m Carl Estabrook. My discussants tonight are DAVID GREEN & RON SZOKE

~ Our program's name, News from Neptune, was chosen to honor Noam Chomsky, who has been talking sense about American politics for twice the quarter-century we've been on the air. Chomsky has said that in the American media, “either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.”

Our format is to take turns suggesting stories that have been ignored or misreported (occasionally even innocently) and then having our colleagues comment on them.

Previous programs are archived on YouTube and posted to the facebook page for News from Neptune, where you’ll also find comments from viewers (not all unadulterated praise) and some answers from us. Write to me at <carl at newsfromneptune.com>; I'm happy to receive your comments.

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It’s September 26. On this date in 1983, Soviet Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty in the nuclear command center for the USSR's early warning system when Russian satellites twice detected the launch of five ICBMs from the US. Had Petrov followed protocol and reported the "attack," Moscow might have retaliated, bringing about a global nuclear war. But he didn't trust the newly-installed system, and doubted a nuclear strike would begin with only handful of missiles. So, without any additional information, Petrov decided it was a false alarm and kept it to himself.

Cf. 1962, the Cuban missile crisis. That itself was a consequence of major terrorist operations that the Kennedy administration was carrying out against Cuba, which looked as though we--and Secretary McNamara concedes this--looked as though they were building up to an invasion. That led to the placement of missiles, that led to the confrontation.

We, in fact, only learned in 2002 at a summit meeting that the world was literally one word away from nuclear war then. Russian submarines were under attack by US destroyers. It was learned at that meeting that they had had nuclear-tipped torpedoes and two of the commanders authorized their use assuming a nuclear war was going on. A third one countermanded that order...

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (1926-98) was a Soviet Navy officer. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and thereby prevented a nuclear war. Thomas Blanton (then director of the National Security Archive) said in 2002 that "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".

It was a popular 19c. saying that God takes care of children, drunks men and the United States. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck is said to have remarked, just before his death, that there was a special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.

So you’re listening to News from Neptune, the Relying on Providence edition, and Ron Szoke will offer the first prayer, at the Head of the Year.

[...]

{OUTRO} You've been watching News from Neptune for the 39th week of 2014 - the “relying on Providence to prevent nuclear war” edition. Our thanks to UPTV, especially Jake and Jason. Upcoming programs on UPTV include

Labor’s World View - sunday at 4pm, with Neptuner David Johnson;
Progressive Voices - mondays 3-5; and, on WRFU radio in C-U, 
Living Simply - first Fridays at 8am with Neptuner Ron Szoke.

Inshallah we'll be back next week with a new edition of News from Neptune to remind you, in the words of Edward de Vere,

"...what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge."

In the meantime, confusion to our enemies, and a good night to you.

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