OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #242, AUGUST 13, 2025.

 

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #242, AUGUST 13, 2025.   Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

 

END CORPORATISM: Move to Amend Citizens United for a Government that Serves the Public Interest..

END EMPIRE:  Our Journey from Afghanistan.

STOP Project 2025!

 

 

END US CORPORATISM: MOVE TO AMEND CITIZENS UNITED.    It’s the System:  Stop the Arsonists. 

Right now, people are rallying to save PBS.   With the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal grants canceled, donations are pouring in from those who value quality, commercial-free news, educational programming, and cultural content. This outpouring is a powerful testament to the role of a free press in an informed society.  But the real crisis isn’t just the loss of PBS—it’s the system.  It’s the system where powerful interests dominate elections, flood our airwaves with propaganda, and influence laws written by corporate lobbyists—while politicians cut funding for essential public services.  We should absolutely support PBS and other institutions under attack. But we must not lose sight of the root cause. We can’t just fight fires—we need to stop the arsonists.  
Move to Amend is working for the long-term solution: the “We the People” Amendment, which affirms two essential truths—corporations are not people, and money is not speech. This reform is the foundation for a government that serves the public interest, not corporate agendas. . . .  MORE https://www.movetoamend.org/?utm_campaign=pbs_fundraising_ask&utm_medium=email&utm_source=movetoamend

 

END US WARMAKING: Afghanistan

BOOK CLUB:  Our Journey from Afghanistan: A Story of Survival and Hope.   For this book club, World BEYOND War President Kathy Kelly will join the two authors who have written their remarkable story . . . and 18 of you.   In September, 2025, World BEYOND War will be holding a weekly discussion for each of four weeks of the book Our Journey from Afghanistan: A Story of Survival and Hope with the authors Zar & Kasim, and with Kathy Kelly.   When you register for the club, we will mail you a paperback copy of the book.   We'll let you know which parts of the book will be discussed each week along with the Zoom details to access the discussions.

 

FIGHTING BACK AGAINST PROJECT 2025

Public Citizen <president@citizen.org> 7-28-25. 
[I am asked, what can I do against all these crises?  My frequent reply is: support an effective organization.  And one of the best is Public Citizen, founded by Nader.  Its legal office is filing cases against wars, warming, corporations, you name it.  For the public, for us.  Here’s an example]:

“Still *another* win in court against Trump regime.”

Things are happening fast with our various lawsuits against the Trump regime.
Last week we emailed you about a big win in one of our lawsuits. In that case, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore a critical database about the funding allocated to various agencies. That database went dark after Russell Vought, one of the primary architects of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto, took charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Now we have another victory to share in a completely different case.
Here are the basics:   For six decades, Job Corps has helped millions of at-risk youth by providing job training, housing, and assistance with GEDs.   The Job Corps program has continued with ongoing bipartisan support in Congress — even when President Richard Nixon wanted to shrink it and President Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate it altogether.  But then Donald Trump was reelected, and tried to do what Nixon and Reagan couldn’t. In May — in flagrant defiance of the law — the Trump regime announced that it was suspending the Job Corps program and closing all 99 Job Corps centers nationwide.   Public Citizen — with Southern Poverty Law Center as co-counsel — filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful decision to close the Job Corps centers.

Last Friday, the court ruled in our favor and put on hold the Trump regime’s decision to close the Job Corps centers. 
The judge wrote that the administration’s actions were “unprecedented” and that it “unequivocally” acted “unlawfully” in its scheme to kill the storied Job Corps program. 
MORE ABOUT TAKING THE REGIME TO COURT. . . .

[Note on jobs and our 2 Parties:  both Parties are warmongers that use wars to produce jobs, but the Dems simultaneously still seek civilian New Deal plans and practices for producing jobs and DEI, while the Republicans… well, as you see.    –D]

 

END WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #242, AUGUST 13, 2025.   Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #243, AUGUST 11, 2025.

  

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #243, AUGUST 11, 2025.  Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

Renata Alves.  “The Southern Ocean Shift: A Warning Sign....” 

Rebekah Jones.  “Trump admin removes climate reports, vows ‘revisions.’"   
Yale Climate Connections.  Communicating the Climate Catastrophe.  

 

The Southern Ocean Shift: A Warning Sign in Global Climate Circulation by Renata Alves.   PCI Messenger.  Post Carbon  Institute .   https://www.postcarbon.org/?utm_source=Post%20Carbon%20Institute&utm_campaign=6ec096e70f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_04_23_09_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-3d81828221-15592605&mc_cid=6ec096e70f&mc_eid=b82ba59825 

 A new scientific study sent a quiet but serious signal through the climate science community last week: researchers have detected a shift in the Southern Ocean’s circulation patterns. While the mainstream media barely registered the news, this finding could have significant implications for global climate dynamics and the resilience of Earth’s systems. The study, powered by satellite innovations, challenges longstanding climate model predictions and offers a fresh lens into one of the most remote yet critical regions on the planet. 

 

“Trump admin removes climate reports, vows ‘revisions.’"   Mesoscale News with Rebekah Jones rebekahjones@substack.com .   Aug 11,   2025.     Click here to subscribe!    

Three days ago, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fossil fuel executive, announced in a CNN interview that the National Climate Assessments (NCAs)—the government’s crown jewels of climate truth—have been taken offline "because we’re reviewing them."   He added, with all the grace of an arsonist offering to supervise the cleanup, “We will come out with updated reports…with comments on those.”   These reports, demanded by law, crafted by hundreds of working scientists, peer reviewed, published every four years—gone. Not because they were flawed, but because they stood like mirrors to a burning world.   The administration also pulled all previous NCAs from public view, and fired over 400 scientists who were working on the upcoming sixth installment—an assessment scheduled for 2027 or 2028.    What once guided governors, planners, farmers, might now guide us toward existential disaster.   Scientists are rightly outraged. One researcher likened this bureaucratic erasure to Stalinist practices. These reports don’t deserve “comments”—they deserve protection.   There is a peculiar kind of violence in erasing knowledge. . . .   MORE click on title 

COMMUNICATING THE GLOBAL EMERGENCY  
Yale Climate Connections   
Dear Friends, 
Knowing your audience is key to successful communication. This is especially important when communicating climate change: a topic that elicits different responses from different people. This means your communications strategies and messages should be tailored for your audience. Our research identifies six unique audiences within the American public who perceive and respond to climate change in their own distinct ways: Global Warming’s Six Americas — the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive. 

In 2018, we created a simple 4-question survey tool, called “SASSY” — the Six Americas Super Short Survey — that helps communicators quickly categorize any individual or group of respondents. Since then, a growing number of campaigns, educators, and researchers are using this tool to better understand their audiences, screen participants for their research, and measure the effectiveness of their communication campaigns. 

Today, we are excited to release the new Guidebook: Using the Six Americas Super Short Survey (SASSY) in Campaigns and Education. 

 

 

 

 

END OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #243, AUGUST 11, 2025.  Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE 2025 Dick’s talk 8-10-25 on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

 

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE  2025

Dick’s talk 8-10-25 on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

I.                Chronology of The Bomb

II.             Chronology of the Resistance

 

I.  Chronology of the Bomb

Naming the Bomb

The first test of the atomic bomb occurred on July 16, 1945, and was named “Trinity. “  J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb, had been reading John Donne’s poetry and was inspired by the line: “Batter my heart, three person’d God.”   Donne was a 17^th c. British poet and priest.  Apparently Jewish Oppenheimer did not intend to imply a connection with Christian theology.

The Bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945, was named Little Boy.  The Bomb dropped on Nagasaki was named Fat Man.  Few euphemisms have equaled these in sheer egregiousness.

 

Following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the development of nuclear weapons saw rapid acceleration and proliferation. The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, breaking the US monopoly. This led to a nuclear arms race, with the US developing the hydrogen bomb in 1952 and other nations like the UK, France, and China following suit. 

• 1949: The Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb, ending the US monopoly on nuclear weapons. 
• 1952: The United Kingdom tested its first atomic bomb. 
• 1952: The US tested the first hydrogen bomb, significantly more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. 
• 1954: The US conducted the "Bravo" test, a massive hydrogen bomb test that caused radioactive fallout and impacted nearby populations. 
• 1960: France tested its first atomic bomb. 
• 1964: China tested its first atomic bomb. 

 

 

 

 

II.Chronology of the Resistance

 

The period was marked by a focus on both developing more powerful weapons and building up arsenals, alongside attempts at arms control and international treaties. 

 

24 January 1946:  UN calls for elimination of atomic weapons.

1955: The Russell-Einstein manifesto was issued, warning of the dangers of nuclear war and advocating for peaceful resolutions. 

Late 1960s onward: Attempts at arms control and disarmament treaties were pursued, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  This Treaty has several loopholes which can be exploited by the other Nations to have their own Nuclear program.  But although about 25 Nations might have gained nuclear weapons, the Treaty prevented all but  9.   Although the NPT did not ultimately prevent nuclear proliferation, in the context of the Cold War arms race and mounting international concern about the consequences of nuclear war, the treaty was a major success for advocates of arms control because it set a precedent for international cooperation between nuclear and non-nuclear states.

1996: The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signature, aiming to ban all nuclear test explosions. 

 

These efforts for control of nuclear weapons continued in

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (the TPNW). Thanks to indefatible efforts of the United Nations and to several NGOs like ICAN, the treaty that aims to prohibit all activities related to nuclear weapons, including development, testing, production, and possession. It was adopted on July 7, 2017, and entered into force on January 22, 2021, after receiving 50 ratifications.    As of February 2025, 73 states have ratified or acceded to the TPNW, and 94 have signed it, 

Before the Treaty, nuclear weapons were abhorred by world populations.  Now the weapons are illegal under international law.  The TPNW is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively ban nuclear weapons, marking a significant step towards their elimination.   A step.  The 9 nations with the weapons refused to sign.

But the  States that have signed, known as the Parties to the Treaty, have continued the struggle,  meeting on the risks for humanity of nuclear conflict, the status and operation of the Treaty, the total elimination of nuclear weapons, victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation and assistance.  
    

     What’s the best metaphor for the nuclear predicament facing us—the futility of the resort to force in the nuclear age?  We live on the brink of global nuclear destruction, “with no more than a mechanical or human mistake between us and the end of the world”?   Or: “ . . .We are hanging by one arm from a branch that sticks out over the brink”?  Abolition of the weapons would give us solid ground, where instead of heaping up weapons that can destroy our civilization, we could find peaceful means for handling disputes in the international sphere, the hope of the United Nations.  Then perhaps these artifacts of mass destruction will take their place “alongside the naval cannons of the past…played on by small children.” (Johanthan Schell, The Abolition).

     Humans have taken important steps to limit the weapons.  Now the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has brought us significantly closer to global abolition.   What can we do?  The most obvious thing is to ally ourselves with organizations advocating for that goal.  My latest Anthology of Nuclear WEAPONS RESISTANCE ORGANIZATIONS lists thirty.   https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2025/04/omni-supporting-nevada-desert.html