Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Wouldn't call it a debate....

 

I wouldn't call it a debate - more like a professional wrestling match.  This is the reason why more people in America don't vote than those who do.  They are sick of this shit.

MB and I tried to watch it but turned it off after awhile.  No redeeming value at all from either of them.  We agreed that this debate is a clear reflection of the collapse of the US military and economic empire.

Some years ago the corporate oligarchies that run this country said that they must turn politics into a food fight in order to turn off more and more American citizens.  That way the oligarchs would have an easier time controlling the country.  Their strategy appears to be working.

You've got one fascist candidate who blows the dog whistle for the armed right-wingers to 'stand by' while the other candidate has trouble finishing sentences and can't really find any major issues that he disagrees with the other on because in the end they both represent the corporate interests.

Take health care for example - both candidates support the 'insurance' companies remaining in control of the system - but they tinker around the edges and argue over mundane policies that won't have much ultimate impact.

They both demonize China and Russia and equally want to expand the Pentagon even more.  

I can't imagine voting for either one of these corporate empty suits - and I won't. Instead in Maine we have Ranked Choice Voting in the presidential and Congressional races.  I'll vote for the Green party prez candidate Howie Hawkins rather than these two flunkies.

This is the best these two corporate controlled political parties have to offer the American people?!

God help us all....

Bruce

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Upcoming Global Network Space issues 'Zoom' events

 

Air Force Space Command HQ at Petersen AFB, Colorado Springs, Colorado

  Two ZOOM Webinars

 

1st Zoom event

Global Network leaders discuss ‘Space domination’ during Keep Space for Peace Week

 
October 8, 2020 on Zoom
10am (EST), 3pm (BST), 6pm (KST), 12midnight (AEST)

How can we confront the rapidly increasing militarisation and possible weaponization of space? 

When the US Space Force was established last year President Trump said that it marked “a big moment” and that there was “going to be a lot of things happening in space. Because space is the world’s newest warfighting domain.” 

A new generation of space weapons – Episode 2 of Reagan’s Star Wars – is in the cards. The U.S., Russia, China and India have extensive military space programmes and tested Anti-satellite weapons (ASATs) and the UK, France, NATO, Japan and South Korea have either established or are working towards their own military Space Forces. 

Keep Space for Peace Week gives us an opportunity to focus on the challenges presented by the rush to exploit space. 

GN Convenor Professor Dave Webb introduces a panel of GN experts: Professor Karl Grossman (U.S.), Tamara Lorincz (Canada), Sung-Hee Choi (South Korea), Denis Doherty (Australia) and GN Coordinator Bruce Gagnon (U.S.) to discuss ways in which we can face these challenges.

Register for the meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wOxEQ4elRCGbfi0G8ZfHew

2nd Zoom event

As part of the  “Space Education and Strategic Applications Conference” 

This 2-day conference is organised by the Policies Studies Organization and will be entirely virtual around the time of “Keep Space for Peace Week” (October 3-10)


More details and program here: http://www.ipsonet.org/conferences/space-education-and-strategic-applications/sesa20program 

On October 15th at 1:20 pm (EST) the Global Network will be holding a panel on “Campaigning to Keep Space for Peace”, introduced and chaired by Professor Dave Webb (UK) with Professor Karl Grossman (US), Tamara Lorincz (Canada), Dr Aruna Kammila (India) and Bruce Gagnon (US). 

The panel members will discuss different aspects of the problems associated with the continuing militarisation of space and creating a global resistance to Keep Space for Peace. 


Each panel member will speak for 10-15 minutes and then questions will be taken from the audience and discussed by the panel members.


Please join us – you can register for the conference here: http://www.ipsonet.org/conferences/space-education-and-strategic-applications/sesa20program  

Monday, September 28, 2020

Visiting Gull Rock pottery in Hancock, Maine

 

MB and I recently visited Gull Rock Pottery in Hancock, Maine which is run by our friend Akemi Wray and her husband Russell.  It is located on wondrous Frenchman Bay.

Russell is a great artist who does amazing nature sculpture, etchings and engravings.  You can see his website here.

Akemi makes beautiful pottery with blue and white brush designs.  She is from Japan and of course her work clearly features that cultural influence. We bought several different pieces of her work and are now using them daily.

 

They are both great souls - we first met on a bus ride from Portland to Washington DC for a protest against George W. Bush's 'shock and awe' war in Iraq.  During more recent times Russell has been very active in our conversion campaign at Bath Iron Works and he has made brilliant banner paintings for our peace walks up and down the state.  Here is one of my favorites - Russell is standing next to me in the photo.

When ever we visit them Akemi always makes the most incredible food and she artfully lays out a beautiful spread on the table as we sit down to eat.

They are rare birds and make living in Maine all the more special for us.  If you are ever up in the Ellsworth-Hancock area be sure to stop and buy some of Akemi's wonderful pottery and one of Russell's works.  

You'll never regret it.

Bruce 

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Sunday song

 




Saturday, September 26, 2020

How do we pay for X, Y and Z?

 

When you are pushing the sensible issues like Medicare4All and conversion of the military industrial complex (to build commuter rail systems, tidal power or offshore wind turbines that help us deal on some level with climate crisis) people often ask - how are you going to pay for it?

Add to the needed wish list 'free higher education' so young folks don't get saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt.  How are you going to pay for that?

We don't hear any of the political class in Washington ever asking how the nation is going to pay for the boondoggle F-35, new navy destroyers, Trump's new Space Force or a host of other massively expensive endless war products.  Neither party questions the Pentagon.

But come forward with a proposal to meet the needs of the people or our fragile Mother Earth and they start wringing their bloody hands.  Oh, we can't afford those programs they claim.  They even want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to pay for Star Wars.

Don't buy their BS.

Many huge corporations and their rich CEO's pay no taxes.  Start making them pay their fair share and cut the $1 trillion a year Pentagon budget by 2/3 and we can begin to have the resources to create a country with 'liberty and justice for all'.

Bruce 

Friday, September 25, 2020

Star Wars has arrived in 2020

  

Each year since 2001 the Global Network organizes Keep Space for Peace Week.  Usually we develop a list of local actions that will be held around the world as groups and individuals express their concern and outrage over plans to move the arms race into space.

This year due to the virus pandemic we are having to forgo that organizing plan.  We are promoting the week anyway and plan to hold two Zoom webinars on space issues (October 8 and 15).  I'll post more information about each of those events in the coming days.

Both the Repubs and Dems support this expensive and provocative plan to have the US 'control and dominate space' and to 'deny other nations access to space'.  Originally put forward in a planning document (1997) called Vision for 2020 - this offensive program is right on schedule.

When Trump recently succeeded in getting his Space Force proposal through Congress it was the Democrats - who currently control the House of Representatives - that were in a position to stop the provocative plan.  But instead, as is usual for that party, they rolled over quite willingly - just like an eager lap dog.  All the Dems asked was to instead name the new service branch 'Space Corps' but they didn't even fight for that.

Both these two corporate parties in Washington will benefit as their 'elected officials' will get their campaigns heavily funded by the aerospace industry as a 'Thank You' for supporting what the industry has long claimed will be 'the most expensive industrial project in human history'.

Help us by sharing information about the weaponization and nuclearization of space in anyway you can.  Many in the public still think that Star Wars is far off in the distant future but the reality is that the program is now staring us right in the face.

Bruce 

Thursday, September 24, 2020

U.S. plays with fire over China


The Coming War on China, from award winning journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn’t – that the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war. 

Nuclear war is not only imaginable, but planned. The greatest build-up of NATO military forces since the Second World War is under way on the western borders of Russia. On the other side of the world, the rise of China is viewed in Washington as a threat to American dominance. 

To counter this, President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’, which meant that almost two-thirds of all US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific, their weapons aimed at China. A policy which has been taken up by his successor Donald Trump, who during his election campaign said “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing”. 

 Filmed on five possible front-lines across Asia and the Pacific over two years, the story is told in chapters that connect a secret and ‘forgotten’ past to the rapacious actions of great power today and to a resistance, of which little is known in the West. 

Distributed by Sideways Films 

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Freedom? Who benefits?

 

The elites love to brag about our ‘democracy’ here in America.

They are so ‘proud’ of what they call the ‘greatest nation in world history’ (nothing but pure arrogance) that Washington is willing to bomb and kill millions to bring them this so-called democracy as well.

Of course this is all a ruse.  We all know it’s not really about democracy.  That is just the glossy cover story to hide the real motive – profits and control. 

Years ago when I lived in Orlando, Florida my local bank changed its name to ‘Freedom Bank’.  I pondered that one for some time.  What was their definition of the word ‘freedom’?  Freedom to do what?

Freedom to rob other nations of their resources, freedom to lie, cheat, and kill?  Freedom to make endless amounts of $$$ with no regard to human rights, human needs or the impact on the environment from corporate actions?

I changed banks.

During this current bloody election season we are witnessing the real ‘democracy’ in action here in the USA.  Voter suppression, manipulation of polling data, corporate funding of ‘chosen candidates’, favored media coverage of the chosen ones, throwing alternative political parties off the ballots in some states, the list goes on.

 

I’ve sent out letters to the editor supporting my favorite Senate candidate to five different newspapers in Maine and so far only one paper has printed any of my letters.  And it is the paper farthest from my home!  I know others who have similarly sent different letters to several papers and can’t get any of them published.  Why?  Is there a quota on favorable letters for a particular candidate in Maine?

More Americans refuse to vote than those that actually do vote.  Why is that?  I’ve got a pretty good idea – they believe the system is rigged on behalf of the rich and powerful.  Why bother they say….if elections really worked they’d be made illegal an old saying goes.  Might just be right.

I was the kid who grew up on military bases going to military run schools where we were fed endless stories about the greatness of American democracy.  Suffice to say that I swallowed the line. 

I believe in the idea of democracy and would sure like to see some of it for once.

Bruce 

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Stephen Cohen Has Died. Remember His Urgent Warnings Against The New Cold War.

 

By Caitlin Johnstone

Stephen F Cohen, the renowned American scholar on Russia and leading authority on US-Russian relations, has died of lung cancer at the age of 81.

As one of the precious few western voices of sanity on the subject of Russia while everyone else has been frantically flushing their brains down the toilet, this is a real loss. I myself have cited Cohen’s expert analysis many times in my own work, and his perspective has played a formative role in my understanding of what’s really going on with the monolithic cross-partisan manufacturing of consent for increased western aggressions against Moscow.

In a world that is increasingly confusing and awash with propaganda, Cohen’s death is a blow to humanity’s desperate quest for clarity and understanding.

I don’t know how long Cohen had cancer. I don’t know how long he was aware that he might not have much time left on this earth. What I do know is he spent much of his energy in his final years urgently trying to warn the world about the rapidly escalating danger of nuclear war, which in our strange new reality he saw as in many ways completely unprecedented.

The last of the many books Cohen authored was 2019’s War with Russia?, detailing his ideas on how the complex multi-front nature of the post-2016 cold war escalations against Moscow combines with Russiagate and other factors to make it in some ways more dangerous even than the most dangerous point of the previous cold war.


“We’re in a new cold war with Russia that is much more dangerous than the preceding cold war for various reasons,” Cohen told The Young Turks in 2017. “One is that there are at least three cold war fronts that are fraught with hot war: that would be Ukraine, that would be the Baltic Black Sea region where NATO is undertaking an unprecedented military buildup on Russia’s border, and of course in Syria, where American and Russian aircraft are flying in the same airspace. And I would add to those three cold war fronts what is now called Russiagate, because the accusation that Trump needs to be impeached because he’s somehow a Russian agent so distorts and cripples the possibility of the White House making Russia policy that I think it’s a cold war front.”

Cohen repeatedly points to the most likely cause of a future nuclear war: not one that is planned but one which erupts in tense, complex situations where anything could happen in the chaos and confusion as a result of misfire, miscommunication or technical malfunction, as nearly happened many times during the last cold war.

“I think this is the most dangerous moment in American-Russian relations, at least since the Cuban missile crisis,” Cohen told Democracy Now in 2017. “And arguably, it’s more dangerous, because it’s more complex. Therefore, we — and then, meanwhile, we have in Washington these — and, in my judgment, fact-less accusations that Trump has somehow been compromised by the Kremlin. So, at this worst moment in American-Russian relations, we have an American president who’s being politically crippled by the worst imaginable — it’s unprecedented. Let’s stop and think. No American president has ever been accused, essentially, of treason. This is what we’re talking about here, or that his associates have committed treason.”

“Imagine, for example, John Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis,” Cohen added. “Imagine if Kennedy had been accused of being a secret Soviet Kremlin agent. He would have been crippled. And the only way he could have proved he wasn’t was to have launched a war against the Soviet Union. And at that time, the option was nuclear war.”

“A recurring theme of my recently published book War with Russia? is that the new Cold War is more dangerous, more fraught with hot war, than the one we survived,” Cohen wrote last year. “Histories of the 40-year US-Soviet Cold War tell us that both sides came to understand their mutual responsibility for the conflict, a recognition that created political space for the constant peace-keeping negotiations, including nuclear arms control agreements, often known as détente. But as I also chronicle in the book, today’s American Cold Warriors blame only Russia, specifically ‘Putin’s Russia,’ leaving no room or incentive for rethinking any US policy toward post-Soviet Russia since 1991.”

“Finally, there continues to be no effective, organized American opposition to the new Cold War,” Cohen added. “This too is a major theme of my book and another reason why this Cold War is more dangerous than was its predecessor. In the 1970s and 1980s, advocates of détente were well-organized, well-funded, and well-represented, from grassroots politics and universities to think tanks, mainstream media, Congress, the State Department, and even the White House. Today there is no such opposition anywhere.”

“A major factor is, of course, ‘Russiagate’,” Cohen continued. “As evidenced in the sources I cite above, much of the extreme American Cold War advocacy we witness today is a mindless response to President Trump’s pledge to find ways to ‘cooperate with Russia’ and to the still-unproven allegations generated by it. Certainly, the Democratic Party is not an opposition party in regard to the new Cold War.”

“Détente with Russia has always been a fiercely opposed, crisis-ridden policy pursuit, but one manifestly in the interests of the United States and the world,” Cohen wrote in another essay last year. 

“No American president can achieve it without substantial bipartisan support at home, which Trump manifestly lacks. What kind of catastrophe will it take — in Ukraine, the Baltic region, Syria, or somewhere on Russia’s electric grid — to shock US Democrats and others out of what has been called, not unreasonably, their Trump Derangement Syndrome, particularly in the realm of American national security? Meanwhile, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has recently reset its Doomsday Clock to two minutes before midnight.”

And now Stephen Cohen is dead, and that clock is inching ever closer to midnight. The Russiagate psyop that he predicted would pressure Trump to advance dangerous cold war escalations with no opposition from the supposed opposition party has indeed done exactly that with nary a peep of criticism from either partisan faction of the political/media class. Cohen has for years been correctly predicting this chilling scenario which now threatens the life of every organism on earth, even while his own life was nearing its end.

And now the complex cold war escalations he kept urgently warning us about have become even more complex with the addition of nuclear-armed China to the multiple fronts the US-centralized empire has been plate-spinning its brinkmanship upon, and it is clear from the ramping up of anti-China propaganda since last year that we are being prepped for those aggressions to continue to increase.

We should heed the dire warnings that Cohen spent his last breaths issuing. We should demand a walk-back of these insane imperialist aggressions which benefit nobody and call for détente with Russia and China. We should begin creating an opposition to this world-threatening flirtation with Armageddon before it is too late. Every life on this planet may well depend on our doing so.

Stephen Cohen is dead, and we are marching toward the death of everything. God help us all.

Monday, September 21, 2020

Jimmy Dore covers Lisa Savage

 


Sunday, September 20, 2020

Sunday song


 


 

Saturday, September 19, 2020

History lesson: GI's resist Vietnam war

 

Produced by BBC

When I joined the Air Force in early 1971, after my training, I was sent to Travis AFB in California for my permanent duty.  It was an airlift base for the war so there was lots of anti-war organizing outside the base gates and inside the barracks.

As it turned out my first roommate was an organizer in the GI resistance movement and meetings would often be held in our room at night. 

I came into the Air Force as a Young Republican for Nixon, but being in that room and reading their newsletter called 'Travesty' changed by life. It was there that I became a peace activist. 

Thus this is one of my all-time favorite documentaries.

Enjoy it.

Bruce

Friday, September 18, 2020

Lisa Savage stood out in the Senate debate

 

 
 Credit: George Danby / BDN

 
Bangor Daily News
 
I was stunned Friday evening watching the U.S. Senate debate. Until then, you’d almost not know that there were four folks running for the office. During the debate, Lisa Savage stood out as the most competent and honest candidate and because of that and many other qualities, she is the most qualified to represent the people of Maine in the U.S. Senate. The only problem is we have heard next to nothing about her in the news.

Savage answered the questions she was asked concisely and clearly. Her front-running opponents dodged questions and answered in calculated sound bites for use in their highly-produced, expensive campaigns. Maine people deserve to be represented by straightforward, honest people who are transparent about their motivations and their intentions. Savage has run a campaign devoid of the usual “dark money,” PACs and corporate donations.

Savage’s policy positions make practical sense for the people of Maine and the United States. She is for revitalizing our economy and cutting spending on endless wars by taking care of the folks at home and redistributing funding toward building energy-efficient infrastructure via the demilitarized Green New Deal, instead of continuing to support a bloated Pentagon budget. She pointed out the example of Bath Iron Works quickly pivoting their production to make COVID-19 testing supplies in the midst of a global pandemic. Imagine what they could do with more planning for solar or wind energy! She is for providing affordable health care to all Mainers. And, for the record, she is for funding the Veterans Administration and fully accounting for the actual cost of the military.

Mainers are independent thinkers with less influence from corporations than some of our neighbors. We enjoy the homegrown, locally produced products and services for which Maine is known. Why would we want to be represented by a candidate who is supported by outside interests? Savage is driven by her experience as a school teacher and as chief negotiator for her local bargaining unit of the Maine Education Association. She understands the needs of working people — most folks in Maine — and has the experience to represent us.  

As independent thinkers, Mainers appreciate the opportunity to vote for the best candidate. We do not have to compromise and vote for the person we think will beat our least favorite candidate. Instead, with ranked-choice voting, we can vote for our actual first-choice candidate, even if they are not on a major party ticket, without fear of “throwing away” our vote or “spoiling” the election. Many Mainers will agree that Savage is a better choice than either of the front-runners, regardless of what their party affiliation is or has been.

If the newspapers and other news organizations around the state would include Savage‘s transparent and down-to-earth campaign in their coverage and in the polls, we would all be able to make a much more informed decision in the coming election. We, the readers, are counting on them to provide the most complete, accurate coverage possible. 
 
~ Chrystina Gastelum of Biddeford is a business owner and massage therapist. She’s a member of the city’s Conservation Commission. 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

The Dark Side of 5G: Military Use

 


The art of war

By Manlio Dinucci

The September 12 demonstration “Stop 5G” in Rome rightly focuses on the possible electromagnetic consequences for health and environment, in particular on the decree that prevents mayors from regulating the installation of 5G antennas in the municipal area.

However, the Italian public continues to ignore a fundamental aspect of this technology: its military use. We have already warned about it in the manifesto (10 December 2019) but with poor results. The subsequent programs launched by the Pentagon, officially documented, confirm what we wrote nine months ago.

The "5G Strategy," approved on May 2, 2020, stated that "the Defense Department must develop and employ new concepts of operation that use the ubiquitous connectivity that 5G capabilities offer to increase the effectiveness, resilience, speed, and lethality of our Forces."

The Pentagon is already experimenting military applications of this technology in five air, naval and land forces bases: Hill (Utah), Nellis (Nevada), San Diego (California), Albany (Georgia), Lewis-McChord (Washington), Dr. Joseph Evans, technical director for 5G at the Department of Defense, in a press conference on June 3 confirmed.

He then announced that 5G military applications will soon be tested in seven other bases: Norfolk (Virginia), Pearl Harbor-Hickam (Hawaii), San Antonio (Texas), Fort Irwin (California), Fort Hood (Texas), Camp Pendleton (California) and Tinker (Oklahoma).

Experts predict that 5G will play a decisive role in the development of hypersonic weapons, including nuclear warheads: huge amounts of data must be collected, processed and transmitted very quickly to guide them on variable trajectories, escaping interceptor missiles. The same data collection is necessary to activate the defenses in the event of an attack with such weapons, relying on automatic systems.

The new technology will also play a key role in the battle network, being able to connect millions of two-way radio equipment in a limited area.  

5G will also be extremely important for the Secret Services and Special Forces: it will make possible much more effective espionage systems and increase the lethality of drone-killers.  

These and other military applications of this technology are certainly being studied in China and other countries as well. Therefore, the ongoing 5G is not only a trade war.

The strategic document of the Pentagon confirmed it: "5G technologies represent crucial strategic capabilities for the national security of the United States and for that of our allies." It is therefore necessary to "protect them from our adversaries" and convince our allies to do the same to ensure the "interoperability" of military applications of 5G within NATO framework.

This explains why Italy and other European allies of the US have excluded Huawei and other Chinese companies from 5G telecommunication equipment supply tenders. 

"5G technology” - explains Dr. Joseph Evans in the press conference at the Pentagon – “is vital to maintain military and economic advantages of the United States," not only against its adversaries, especially China and Russia, but against its allies.

For this reason, "the Department of Defense is working closely with industrial partners, who invest hundreds of billion dollars in 5G technology, in order to exploit these massive investments for military applications of 5G," including military and civilian "dual-use applications". . .

In other words, the 5G commercial network, built by private companies, is used by the Pentagon at a much lower cost than would be necessary if the network were built solely for military purposes.

 The common users, to whom the 5G multinationals will sell their services, are going to pay for a technology that, as they promise, should "change our lives," but at the same time it will be used to create a new generation of weapons for a war, meaning the end of human generations. 

~ The Manifesto, 8 September 2020 

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Let's make a list.....

 

 

So let's count the ways we build community. How many different ways do we help take care of one another?  Let me start a list and you can add to it.

  • Public parks (local, state, and national)
  • Public sewer & water systems
  • Roads, bridges, sidewalks
  • Public radio & TV (although they learn too far toward promoting the corporate agenda these days)
  • Public libraries
  • Public schools
  • Public financing of elections
  • Public hospitals
  • Public banking
  • Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security
  • Public transportation
  • Post office
  • Airline control towers
  • Public welfare relief programs
  • Snow removal from public roads
  • Coast Guard (Even Republicans like the Coast Guard.  Just last week a pro-Trump 'boat rally' in a Texas lake got out-of-hand and a bunch of the boats began to sink due to all the waves created by their mega-power boats.  So as they faced danger and possibly death, the Repubs called on the 'government' to bail them out. Some stories are just so precious as they illustrate blind hypocrisy.)   

  • Pentagon?  (I'm ambivalent about this one but the public does pay for it even though the weapons industry is a profit making syndicate.  A minimal defense of our shores and borders would be sufficient protection for the American people.  What we have now is pure offense - should be named 'The Offense Department' that serves their corporate masters.)
  • Public utilities (More than 2,000 publicly owned electric utilities in the United States provide up to 25 percent of electricity that Americans use. Because public utilities commonly keep salaries under more control than private utilities, customers pay up to 14 percent less for energy from public utilities. In smaller municipalities, profits from cooperatives and public utilities make up a large part of city budgets. Such organizations are also on the leading edge of developing green energy initiatives, and some expect to be producing up to 35 percent of their energy via renewable sources by 2020.)
  • Student Loans and Grants 
  • Garbage collection, public landfills and recycling programs
  • Fire departments, paramedics and other emergency services
  • Environmental protection programs (as challenged as they are by the corporate polluters.)
  • Justice, courts, prosecutors and jails (All publicly financed but largely used by the corporate oligarchs to suppress the poor, the weak, and people of all colors.)
  • Urban planning departments (Where raging battles are underway between developers and those who do want to design a sustainable way of living.)
  • Museums (Many museums are privately owned by organizations and groups, but many are also taxpayer-funded state, national, and federal museums.)
  • CIA & FBI (We would be better off without either of them.  Imagine how much tax payer $$$$ we'd save....)
  •  Corporate/Business Subsidies (This is the type of socialism that is acceptable to the Republican party. Your tax dollars are given to big corporations to do things that often they should not be doing - like fracking, making weapons, oil spills, cancer-laden pharmaceuticals, and lots more.)
  • Veteran's (VA) Health Care (I use the VA at Togus, Maine and it is really great.  But everyone should have access to free health care - thus I support Medicare4All!)
  • Free school breakfast & lunch programs (Increasing as America is collapsing more and more children are going without food every day.  Fortunately they get some food at school.  But with the current pandemic and many schools closed, how will they get those meals?  These are the kinds of things our nation should be funding rather than the CIA, endless war, and tax subsidies for Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and company.)

There are alot more examples of how our collective taxes are used for good and for bad.  The reason why politics is important is because the 'government' will do with your money what ever those who are running the show tell them to do.  Thus the need to stand against the corporate domination of politics in America.  It's your money.  It's our future at stake.

Bruce

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Bannering by Red's Eats in Wiscasset

 

While standing near Red's Eats (one of Maine's most famous tourist traps for lobster rolls owned by a family named Gagnon) on US 1 by the bridge in Wiscasset for two-hours yesterday, holding banners and signs, a new record for honks was set with 212.

Seven of us (Nick, Jon, Marty, Bruce, Lisa, Patsy and Vera) worked both sides of the very busy highway where traffic slowly comes on and off the bridge ensuring everyone got a good look at us.

Truckers were quite friendly with their big horns.

Nick is a Wesleyan student who lives in Hallowell and borrowed a car to come join us for the first time.  He is interested in doing more of this.  I gave him a handful of merch items to hand out to friends.  Jon Olsen brought along first-timer Marty.

Our next bannering will be Thursday, Sept 17 in Westbrook from 3:30 - 5:30 pm.  We will banner at the intersection of Main Street and Stroudwater Street.  I suggest folks park at the church located at 677 Main St.

Everyone we speak to says Lisa did extraordinarily well in the debate on 9-11.  Word of mouth is spreading fast.  This bannering campaign is helping to reinforce that she has an active following and is running a 'people powered' campaign rather than a dark money corporate one.
 
Future bannering days will be held in Yarmouth, Bath, Farmington, Lewiston, Waterville, Camden, Hallowell, Kennebunk, Skowhegan and many more.

Bruce 

Monday, September 14, 2020

Duck your heads Brunswick!

 

Cell phone footage shot by Eric Van Dongen, who was watching the launch of Astra's 3.1 rocket which failed shortly after lift-off and crashed to the ground.

The rocket launch was on 9-11 from the spaceport at Kodiak Island, Alaska. (Local residents call it the 'spacepork'.)  They were promised it would be a civilian launch complex but nearly all launches so far have been military Star Wars tests.

Representatives from the spaceport responded to the accident by saying:

    The fire was put out quickly and no one got hurt, Mark Lester, president of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation told KMXT Radio.

    “The launch was terminated early, which is part of our safety process,” Lester told the station. “We are prepared for these things. The key is public safety, and everything we did to keep the air, waterways and land free from the public is exactly why we do that in conditions like this.”

    Since each test can provide new information and data, the launch was a success, Lester told KMXT.

    In a blog post, officials at Astra, the company launching the rocket, said they were pleased with what happened with Rocket 3.1, and that they expect it to take three rocket flights in order to get a rocket into orbit.

    “Early in the flight, our guidance system appears to have introduced some slight oscillation into the flight, causing the vehicle to drift from its planned trajectory leading to a commanded shutdown of the engines by the flight safety system,” they wrote regarding what occurred during the flight.


Maine state legislative leaders are pushing a proposal to create a 'Spaceport Complex' in Brunswick at the former naval air station.  See the resolution now before the legislature to begin the process here.

Brunswick is alot different from Kodiak Island - much more populated area with all kinds of development near the former naval base.

This proposal to create the 'Spaceport Complex' has been done rather quietly with many legislators signing on in support.  The public is just beginning to learn about the plan.  It is being sold as jobs, jobs, jobs.

We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Bruce 

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Sunday song

 



Saturday, September 12, 2020

The People's Choice in Maine's Senate race

 

The reviews are in from across Maine and the nation.  People loved Lisa's debate performance last night in the US Senate race's first debate. Donations and comments are pouring in. The debate was sponsored by the two biggest newspapers in Maine and one of the major TV stations.  It also aired nationally on CSPAN.

Here is a sampling from Lisa's Facebook page:

  •  This is my first exposure to your campaign, Lisa Savage for US Senate, and I think you represented yourself well.
  • While I am not a registered Maine voter, I will sing your praises to friends & family who are.
  • Thank you, Lisa Savage for US Senate for being such a level headed & compelling candidate to motivate me to vote this year. Definitely my first choice and will continue to encourage others to do the same.

  • You have won my vote. ❤ Thank you for being a decent, intelligent, independent woman.

  • You did amazing Lisa! In the comments section of the video, you clearly stood out. People really seemed to admire you! Excited to see your numbers jump with the next polls!

  • Great debate from the most principled, honest and fair candidate on the stage. Way to go Lisa! ❤

  • Well done, Lisa Savage! You done us proud!

  • Excellent job on the debate, Lisa Savage! You were on topic, focused on solutions, and you didn't trash-talk the others on stage. Well done!!
  • You were great. The thanks for answering the questions with a focus on what you care most about moving forward.
  • So glad I watched the debate tonight and learned more about you! Strategizing my rank choice voting decisions! Thank you for putting yourself out there!
  • You kicked butt tonight. Great job!!! Before the debate I had never heard of you (I live in a bubble). Now, you have my vote. Democrats and Republicans have had 250 years to get things right and they are not even close. America could be better, much better. Progressive is the only way America will progress.

  • I was blown away by your grasp of issues, focused answers and obvious intelligence and genuineness. Brava, Lisa!

  • Everyone should recognize that you are the candidate we need for the problems we are facing. They can spin anything to the tribal team fans but the only genuine article up there was obviously you.
  • Anyone in Maine, convince, inform, campaign & canvass for Lisa Savage for US Senate. Phonebank for her, bring Signs or make some. Tell everyone that she's not a spoiler & with Ranked-Choice Voting, she is safe. & establish that the reason Lisa Savage is the only electable one because Sara Gideon & Susan Collins are backed by Corporations & will never bring the changes we so desperately need now. Lisa has the policies that will solve the problems, she only needs your help. 


Friday, September 11, 2020

NSA spy bases in the UK

 

This is the third in a series of Global Network videos about the US program to establish 'down link' bases around the world to intercept all communications and to assist in the targeting of Pentagon attacks.

The last video was about the NSA spy base in Australia called Pine Gap.

This video, by GN board member Will Griffin, takes us to the United Kingdom where we learn about two similar bases - Menwith Hill in Yorkshire and Croughton near Oxford.

See all other GN space videos here

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Hedges: Primacy of corporate power

 

Journalist Chris Hedges spoke to the Peoples' Convention - August 30, 2020.

He lays it down like only he can do - not shaving any edges.

It's a clear speech, he speaks truth with a force that comes from watching other nations disintegrate internally.  His warnings often do not go heeded because most people fear having to recognize what Hedges has to say.  They don't really want to be in the middle of the coming shit storm - maybe it will go away or we'll get a knight in shining armor to save us....they hope.

The mistake is to think one can somehow escape the coming collapse.  But we can't run from it - we all will feel it.

This summer's political convention atmosphere (with a touch of professional wrestling thrown in for good measure) is evidence to me that the corporate ruling elites have constructed a brilliantly effective public relations campaign.

Hollywood and Madison Avenue have put their high-paid smarts together and decided the best way for the ruling oligarchs to benefit from the coming collapse is to turn the great unwashed against one another.  

How many so-called 'progressive' groups are really working for the public?  Many are Democratic party front groups, with paid staff and marching orders to push Biden and Dems nationwide.  One local kid in Maine told that he is being paid $20 per hour by one well-funded Dem campaign.  That's alot of bread for doing door knocking for a candidate.  

Both Republican and Democrat compromised leadership are reading off a script.  Mom and pop sitting around the TV (afraid of going outside) have nothing left except to take sides with our brain-washers.  It's very sad.

I don't see enough of a fighting spirit in the public.  They have a tired, angry, depressed, fearful look in their eyes.  My volunteer efforts lately to hold banners for Lisa Savage are putting me out by the American people.  If you want to see America just hold a sign on a corner.  Most of them are driving by.  Not many are walking but that will change soon enough too.

Some folks do get it.  While we banner many honk, wave or flash peace signs back at us.  Lots are timid though about acknowledging that something is going wrong. One woman slowly and gingerly hung her hand out the window the other day and gave us a finger wave.   

It reminds me of peace walks.  Usually I organized them this time of the year.  I put together five of them in Florida - the biggest was the Walk for the Earth from the Everglades to Tallahassee in the north.  Seven weeks long.

 

Here in Maine I've organized five of them as well.  Always led by Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist monks and nuns.  Brilliant people - they carry love, action and spirit to people around the world.  We've had great walks in Maine with a very dear and dedicated team over the years.  Because of covid any thought of a well organized peace walk this year is not possible.  Maybe next year.  But for now I am standing on the corner holding banners that ask the people what they truly stand for.  

I love doing this more than any other part of my work.  I want to see and feel the people.  And bring them the spirit that you are not alone.

Bruce 

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

First Maine U.S. Senate debate on 9/11

 

https://www.lisaformaine.org/

See this very impressive cover endorsement article from The Mainer - an arts, music, politics, culture monthly out of Portland.  Check it out here

I'm told a 15 year old did the cover artwork drawing of Lisa.  Very well done I'd say.  

In the last week, as people approached the end of summer with the traditional Labor Day weekend, the numbers of Lisa supporters, donors and volunteers has grown dramatically.

Letters to the editor supporting Lisa are increasing statewide as well as other media coverage.  Today the Bangor Daily News did a story about the four US Senate candidates positions on health care.  You can find that one here.

The eyes of the nation will be on the Maine Senate race largely because it will be a Ranked Choice Voting election.  Voters will be able to rank the four Senate candidates meaning the old 'spoiler' tag that usually applies when progressive candidates run won't work this time.

It's been a pleasure to be able to do volunteer work for Lisa.  She's a great person and friend.

Bruce