Kings Bay Plowshares protesters found guilty

 

Beyond Nuclear's Linda Pentz Gunter covered the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 for the UK daily, The Morning Star. The seven were charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor after they entered the Kings Bay Trident submarine base in Georgia on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Pictured above after the verdict are, left to right, Clare Grady, Liz McAlister, McAlister's daughter Frida Berrigan and Carmen Trotta).

After cutting a padlock (and replacing it), Mark Colville, Clare Grady, Martha Hennessy, Fr. Steve Kelly, Liz McAlister, Patrick O'Neill and Carmen Trotta split into three groups. Kelly, McAlister and Trotta cut through a fence and entered the Limited Area, a shoot to kill zone, where they displayed a banner before being peacefully apprehended. Colville and O'Neill went to the "missile display" site where they painted messages, splashed (McAlister's donated) blood and removed lit lettering and parts of the missile "monuments." Grady and Hennessy put up crime scene tape, painted messages and splashed blood, and left behind Daniel Ellsberg's book, The Doomsday Machine. 

The trial took four days (including an almost daylong jury selection process) and the jury took just two and a half hours to find all seven guilty on every count. They have been released to their families (with the exception of Kelly -- see why in the story). Sentencing is expected in January 2020.

Here is the beginning of Linda's report on the verdict. (Read the full article).

Seven peace activists who entered a US Trident submarine base in Georgia 18 months ago to protest against nuclear weapons were convicted on Thursday. 

The jury in the federal criminal trial took just under two-and-a-half hours to find the all of the defendants guilty on every count.

Mark Colville, Clare Grady, Martha Hennessy, Steven Kelly, Liz McAlister, Patrick O’Neill and Carmen Trotta were each convicted of conspiracy, destruction of property at the Kings Bay naval base and depredation — meaning damage — of government property. 

They were also found guilty of the lesser offence of trespass. The trial had lasted just four days.

Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said it would take her between 60 and 90 days to decide on their sentences.

All were released to their families except Father Kelly, a 70-year-old Catholic priest who has already spent more than 10 years of his life in jail for other protests. He remains incarcerated due to an earlier offence.

Read the full article.

Offshore windfarms 'can provide more electricity than the world needs'

From The Guardian: 

Erecting wind turbines on the world’s best offshore sites could provide more than enough clean energy to meet global electricity demand, according to a report.

A detailed study of the world’s coastlines has found that offshore windfarms alone could provide more electricity than the world needs – even if they are only built in windy regions in shallow waters near the shore.

Analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that if windfarms were built across all useable sites which are no further than 60km (37 miles) off the coast, and where coastal waters are no deeper than 60 metres, they could generate 36,000 terawatt hours of renewable electricity a year. This would easily meeting the current global demand for electricity of 23,000 terawatt hours.

“Offshore wind currently provides just 0.3% of global power generation, but its potential is vast,” the IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol, said.

The study predicts offshore wind generation will grow 15-fold to emerge as a $1tn (£780bn) industry in the next 20 years and will prove to be the next great energy revolution.

The IEA said earlier this week that global supplies of renewable electricity were growing faster than expected and could expand by 50% in the next five years, driven by a resurgence in solar energy. Offshore wind power would drive the world’s growth in clean power due to plummeting costs and new technological breakthroughs, including turbines close to the height of the Eiffel Tower and floating installations that can harness wind speeds further from the coast.

PG&E high-voltage power line broke near origin of massive California fire that forced thousands of evacuations

As reported by the Washington Post. If confirmed, this would be the third major wildfire in California in just the past couple years caused by Pacific Gas & Electric, including the most deadly in state history, at Paradise last year, that killed 85 people.

As the article reports:

As the wildfire torched Sonoma, and others spread in San Bernardino, Los Angeles County and elsewhere, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) railed against all three of the state’s investor-owned power companies, including PG&E, which has already been forced into bankruptcy in the face of billions of dollars in liability claims stemming from previous fires.

“I must confess, it is infuriating beyond words,” Newsom said, accusing the utilities of neglecting their infrastructure and leaving the state vulnerable to fires sparked by outmoded power lines.

His statements echoed those he made two weeks earlier, when PG&E shut off power to nearly a million customers.

“It’s more than just climate change, and it is climate change, but it’s more than that,” Newsom said. “As it relates to PG&E, it’s about dog-eat-dog capitalism meeting climate change, it’s about corporate greed meeting climate change, it’s about decades of mismanagement.”

PG&E owns the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, scheduled to shut for good by 2025. More.

Update on October 30, 2019 by admin

As reported by the Washington Post: "PG&E's role in Sonoma fire questioned as power outage frustrations grown."

Rep. Elijah Cummings lies in state Thursday at U.S. Capitol

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (Democrat-Baltimore, MD), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and ReformAs reported by the Washington Post.

As chairman of the powerful U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Cummings (Democrat-Baltimore, Maryland, photo left) not only co-led the current impeachment inquiry. He also spearheaded an investigation into the Trump administration's greed-driven end run around Congressional safeguards, attempting to provide nuclear weapons proliferation capable technology and know how to the murderous, genocidal Saudi Arabian regime.

Even in the minority in 2016-2017, as Ranking Democrat on the committee, Cummings also led congressional efforts seeking justice and accountability in the aftermath of the Flint drinking water catastrophe. Michigan Radio paid tribute to Cummings' leadership on Flint, when news broke of his passing on. (See Beyond Nuclear's article, "After Flint, Don't NUKE the Great Lakes Next!")

Cummings was a national champion for social, racial, and environmental justice. His passing represents a huge loss for our country. But his memory, legacy, and example will shine on, as an inspiration for current and future generations.

Update on October 26, 2019 by admin

See this posthumously published op-ed by Cummings.

Omnicidal Tendencies: The Nuclear Presidency of Donald Trump

As reported by the Intercepted Podcast:

Trump now controls all U.S. nukes and seven activists who protested this threat are now facing decades in prison. This week on Intercepted: Legendary peace activist Liz McAlister has spent her entire life resisting U.S. war. The 79-year-old grandmother of six, who is on trial with her Kings Bay Plowshares co-defendants, explains why she and her friends snuck onto a U.S. nuclear base to deliver an indictment of the U.S. government. Rudy Giuliani has emerged as Donald Trump’s dollar store Roy Cohn and he has put himself right in the center of the impeachment inquiry. Journalist Johnny Dwyer, author of “The Districts,” chronicles Giuliani’s time as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Giuliani’s connections to shady characters from a host of countries and why he may never face indictment. Journalist Emily Guendelsberger went undercover working at Amazon, McDonald’s and Convergys. She discusses her experience in the dystopic world of low wage work and her new book “On the Clock, What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane.”

Peace activist Liz McAlister, investigative journalist Johnny Dwyer, and journalist Emily Guendelsberger are the featured guests.