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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Toddlers Being Targeted by Publishers With ?Sparkly? Books Promoting Becoming Transgender Wed Jun 25, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Toddlers are being targeted with "sparkly" books that promote becoming?transgender, with a fifth of publishers' transgender-related products being aimed at children, research has found.
The post Toddlers Being Targeted by Publishers With “Sparkly” Books Promoting Becoming Transgender appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Forget Labour?s Industrial Strategy Waffle. This is What Young People Need Right Now Wed Jun 25, 2025 17:44 | Joanna Gray
Forget Keir Starmer's Modern Industrial Strategy waffle, says Joanna Gray. As someone who works with young people, this is what they need right now ? and it's not AI, 'green jobs' and even more imported workers.
The post Forget Labour’s Industrial Strategy Waffle. This is What Young People Need Right Now appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Miliband Failing to Cut Household Energy Bills, Says Climate Change Committee Wed Jun 25, 2025 15:24 | Will Jones
Ed Miliband?has failed to make progress on cutting household energy bills, the Climate Change Committee has warned, as it also called on ministers to curb the public's use of air travel?and ban new homes from using gas.
The post Miliband Failing to Cut Household Energy Bills, Says Climate Change Committee appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link An Australian Sceptical Note on COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Wed Jun 25, 2025 13:33 | Ramesh Thakur
As Australia finally withdraws Covid vaccines for children, Ramesh Thakur says the fact that 99% of one country's Covid deaths occurred after 75% were vaccinated should have made it obvious the benefits were illusory.
The post An Australian Sceptical Note on COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why Are Footballers Being Forced to Promote Pride? Wed Jun 25, 2025 11:09 | Will Jones
Free expression is under attack in football as an increasing number of players are punished for refusing to wear the rainbow symbol. Why are footballers being forced to promote Pride, asks Freddie Attenborough in Spiked.
The post Why Are Footballers Being Forced to Promote Pride? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Steve Kelly Sentenced to 32 Months for damage at Kings Bay nuclear base in Georgia USA

category international | anti-war / imperialism | news report author Saturday October 17, 2020 13:17author by Justin Morahan Report this post to the editors

Plowshares Go to Prison

The 7 Plowshares activists who were found guilty of damage at Kings Bay, (Georgia USA) nuclear base back in 2018 are being sentenced, Liz Mc Alister was first. Fr. Steve Kelly second.

Plowshares activist Fr Steve Kelly was sentenced today to 32 months in prison for his part in the protest action in Kings Bay Nuclear submarine base, Georgia in USA, on 4-5 April 2018.

He is the second defendant to be sentenced - already Liz McAlister had received a 3 year sentence for her part in the same action: declaring Trident weapons a crime.

Neither Steve nor Liz will be too perturbed by the ridiculously long sentences as they both have been in prison awaiting trial In effect Liz was sentenced to "time served" - to be followed by "supervision"! (she is 80 years of age); Steve(59) may have to serve 3 months and will probably refuse supervision.

Liz's daughter, Frida Berrigan, made a statement of love and support at the sentencing of her mother. It is not just a beautiful, heart-rending tribute from a daughter, it is also a brilliant defence of non-violent action and a powerful indictment of the system of oppression and inequity which her mother Elizabeth fought against non-violently throughout her life. Everything is there: George Floyd's murder, jogger Ahmaud Armery's murder, Martin Luther King's inspirational targetting of racism-militarism-materialism, the $720+ billion spend on the military during a pandemic, poverty, the brokenness of every fiber of the social safety net: because her Mom has wed her anti-racist philosophy with her anti-nuclear analysis.

For her, "Black Lives Matter" and "Trident is a Crime" may be one and the same.

Steve Kelly, a priest coming from the same faith base as Liz, had a character witness, Dennis Apel, who made a similarly resounding statement to the court.

"I am no stranger to the typical U.S. courtroom where the 'law' is treated as God while justice takes a back seat" he said "where even the most fundamental morals are ignored for the sake of upholding the system designed to maintain idolatry to the Pentagon; where witnesses are sworn in with the admonition 'to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God' and then [are] essentially gagged in front of a jury of their peers through motions In Limine, denied the ability to speak the truth about why they did what they did, the horrors they are confronting and the spirituality behind their actions. ... In what kind of system could a person with the spirituality, conviction and love of God’s children that Fr. Steve Kelly has, be dismissed as a criminal and left to languish for two and a half years in a county jail, while his basic message is expunged in the courtroom; the message that the most horrific and abominable weapons designed by human technology... are allowed to exist and proliferate.

"Fr. Steve Kelly is a man of deep faith who speaks truth to power and accepts the consequences. That is his character. Any other assessment of his character is false. I know this because I have known Steve for decades. He has spent more than 10 years of his life behind bars, giving up the warm embrace and camaraderie of loved ones as well as the comforts of a truly-accessible easy life, to instead speak the truth that God sees nuclear weapons as an abomination. I defy anyone in this courtroom to make a case for a God who embraces weapons of indiscriminate destruction and human misery. It’s not complicated. We who accept nuclear weapons are wrong, wrong, wrong. Fr. Steve just says that with his life and body. That is his character. He has taken up his cross to follow Jesus, pure and simple. We dismiss that fact at our own peril. ..."

All of this seems a long distance from the days when Cardinal Spellman visited the US troops in Vietnam in December 1966 and told them that what America expected was total victory.

Or maybe not. Pope Paul VI rebuked Spellman for his warmongering. Also the same Cardinal Spellman condemned the Berrigan brothers, Philip and Dan for their anti-war activity,

And just by coincidence, Liz McAlister is Philip Berrigan's wife and Frida Berrigan is their daughter

Five more Kings Bay Plowshare defendants await sentencing.

Meanwhile Colm Roddy and Dave Donnellan are pleading Not Guilty to criminal damage in Shannon airport (4 years ago) in a jury trial in Dublin Circuit Court at Constitution Hill court house. The trial continues next week.

 
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