SNAPSHOT: #NoNukesTuesday January 20, 2015 - The Movement is Alive!

The reward for committing to spend some time every week on the issue of nuclear disarmament -- e.g. developing the habit of being part of #NoNukesTuesday every week -- is that you start to see the forest for the trees . . . and you start to see how big this movement for nuclear disarmament is really growing.

For instance, on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, I learned . . .

There is a real debate happening right now in the UK about eliminating nuclear forces there:

VOTE AGAINST TRIDENT

As my MP I'm asking you to vote against
Trident replacement on Tuesday 20 January.

£100bn on a Cold War relic that does nothing
to secure us could be better spent on the
NHS, education and public services.

Meanwhile, people in the U.S. are wising up to the way the "nuclear threat" posed by Iran is being demagogued:

"The end of [Iran] negotiations isn't an unintended
consequence of Congressional action. It is very much an
intended consequence."(Senator Tom Cotton)

Luckily, the nuclear abolition movement is alive in the U.S.:

Global Zero tweet for January 24, 2015,
"Say NO to $1 Trillion Nuclear Arsenal"
protest in Washington, D.C.

And people recognize the threat posed by nuclear weapons is real and urgent:

What would happen if a nuclear weapon exploded over Chicago?

What's left to do? We need you to help put the power of network to work and bring about real nuclear abolition!

TAKE ACTION:

Put #NoNukesTuesday on your calendar.

Get tips on how to participate

fully in #NoNukesTuesday.

Find #nonukes activities near you.

Related posts

In light of the upcoming review of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) and the fact that organizations throughout the country and worldwide are organizing to press the U.S. to substantially reduce its stores of nuclear weapons, it seems like a good time to use social media to get EVERYONE on board!

(See 5 Ways YOU Can Make a Difference on #NoNukesTuesday )

It's up to those of us with networks in the U.S. to get the word out to people in this country about the what nukes do to people -- and the need for people to become active in the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons.

(See NEEDED: MESSENGERS - Americans Need to Hear the Awful Truth of Nuclear Devastation )

There is so much more to do, so many ways we can turn up the volume . . . ! Do you have ideas about how to carry #NoNukesTuesday into Tumblr . . . Instagram . . . Reddit . . . ?

(See What #NoNukesTuesday Reveals About Organizing for Nuclear Disarmament )

Surveillance and the Tech Companies: THE JIG IS UP!

Major tech companies have put out a clarion call today: Reform Government Surveillance! AOL, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo have discovered that the public is fed up with being spied on and know exactly where to point the finger: the government.

However, before we fall into a swoon over how the wonderful tech sector is looking out for our interests, we should first face up to the primary responsibility of the tech sector for creating the problem.

For a great primer on the data management that makes these companies hum -- and how that way of doing data management  inevitably cries out to be used for surveillance -- watch Terms and Conditions May Apply. This documentary is so fundamental to understanding what's happening today with the destruction of privacy and the empowerment of the government to conduct blanket surveillance that very soon we are all going to be talking about it. Let's just call it "TACMA."

The big thing I took away from TACMA is that the Rubicon was crossed when Google and others figured out that they would never be able to make money -- REAL money -- if their data management protocols shielded the identities of individuals. So they "reluctantly" backed away from such a limitation.

As anyone who has ever noodled with a spreadsheet knows, once the "key" to the individual is linkable, it's a free-for-all.

The government certainly has to clean up it's act.  But if we're going to make any progress on stopping surveillance in 2014, we're going to have to take on the tech companies themselves.

Related links

One issue that has a key place in the midterm elections in 2014, I believe, is surveillance.  With each passing day, I am hearing more and more people say that the surveillance issue is something that a wide spectrum of people are deeply upset about. That includes people on the right as well as people on the left -- people who don't usually talk with each other, much less work together for positive change!

(See The Surveillance Issue: The Fulcrum of the 2014 Election?)

Edward J. Snowden has forced us to confront what we all knew already: our government is running wild and we can't get our privacy back, short of some kind of very extreme change . . . . We have a problem with our government. It sees opportunities for power in every bit and byte of our personal data, and it's time to call it what it is: wrong.

See Fed Up With Being Spied On

There has been a good sign in 2013, in that many people have become outraged about government surveillance. A recent Pew poll found that Americans are now more worried about civil liberties abuses than terrorism. I believe a big question in 2014 will be whether challengers successfully address the issue of NSA surveillance in their campaigns.

(See What Will Election 2014 Boil Down To? )