A really good day at Brunswick vigil

Five of us did our hour-long weekly Thursday vigil in Brunswick, Maine today. 

The public response was great - MB calculated it was 30 positives to every one negative.

One could say that the public is over these endless war$. They are done with the US-Israel being joined at the hip.

MB was on the opposite side of the street with her sign that read 'Stop War$ abroad and fascism at home'. It's interesting to me how many people now don't flinch when they see the word fascism. It has become a regular part of the political dialogue these days when we are talking about the US of A.

This intersection where we are standing is one of the busiest in the state. Traffic from I-295 and US 1. It is a primary intersection for those heading north and south.

Lots of out-of-state license plates were noticed today.

Rich, poor, middle class, working class truck drivers - they all saw us.

Bruce 

~ Photo by Steve Musica (click on photo for best view)

Fleeing Israhell

Washington waging an assault on international law

• The people have taken to the streets in Yemen to express their joy over the bombing of the Saudi regime by Yemen. The Saudi-US war on Yemen has lasted for 12 years with a vicious blockade and starvation of many children during that time. Iran has been one of the few nations to try to help the beleaguered people of Yemen.

• Lindsey Graham's Senate seat will be filled by his younger sister Darline [who has no experience, but will gladly take orders from AIPAC]. 'Democracy' working so well in the USA!  
• Trump's most recent attacks on Iran caused oil prices to jump above $83 per barrel.
• A US air strike targeted an environmental monitoring station in the Hormozgan region of Iran. 

• Trump on the strait of Hormuz: 'We will become the guardian of the strait, and when we do that, we will be reimbursed for it. We guarded the strait for 50 years, and we never got paid for it. We guarded it for nothing, but now we will make money.'
• Brian Berletic: An overview of Saudi-Arabia’s strikes on Yemen and how it fits in with other wars ongoing and planned. Same old, same old if you get the pattern. Saudi Arabia is turning on Iran and on Yemen. So those that told you that the Saudi’s are interested in a regional security initiative had it wrong. They are interested in what suits them at the moment.
• Sovereignista on the Houthis: Calling us 'Houthis' is like calling the Iranian people Khomeinis. Wouldn’t it be better to call us Yemenis instead of Houthis? 'Houthi' is the title of the leader of the Yemeni revolution, Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, while the entire population participated in the September 21, 2014 revolution. Therefore, you should call us by our true name: Yemenis or Ansar Allah (Supporters of God). The name 'Houthis' is used by our enemies to belittle us and deny our existence as a state, government, people, and army. Therefore, [we] hope you will not call us by the name our enemies use for us. 
• Secretary Marco Rubio: 'The International Criminal Court seeks to become the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law — empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens at will and existentially threaten American sovereignty. We will teach the ICC the full meaning of American resolve.' 

• Activist Ben Norton: The US empire is waging an all-out assault on international law. Why? Because the US knows its hegemony is declining fast, so it plans to wage even more barbaric wars around the world, in a desperate attempt to save its global empire. What the US is doing to Gaza, Cuba, and Iran is what it plans to do across the Global South. And US officials want to make sure that they are never held accountable for their genocidal crimes against humanity.
• Lvov, Nazi Bandera heartlands, in western Ukraine: A woman tried to prevent the issuing of another Zelensky government body snatcher death sentence. Being a coward and degenerate, one body snatcher tried to strangle the woman instead. “Freedom” and “democracy” never stops in Ukraine. Let's have the US-UK-EU give them some more money and weapons? Send NATO troops too?

• Nazi-led Ukrainian troops joined France's Bastille Day parade in Paris for the first time. While two Ukrainian pilots flew French-supplied Mirage fighter jets overhead. 

• Argentina's Jewish president Javier Milei allocated 100,000 hectares of forest land in Patagonia, about 4 times the size of Gaza, to Israel. Following this development, Mel Gibson's claim that "Israel will move to Argentina" has resurfaced.  

• Venezuela Watch: The US Air Force now runs Venezuela’s main international airport. A US amphibious warship is docked at its principal port. MQ-9 Reaper drones and combat helicopters fly reconnaissance over Caracas. Nearly 2,000 US troops are deployed on land, air and sea in and around the country, operating out of two colonies: US-held Puerto Rico and Dutch-held Curaçao. Washington calls this earthquake relief. The deployment’s actual tasks tell the story. After repairing a runway, the US Air Force’s Contingency Response Element took over “airfield management, air traffic coordination, communications, and security” at Simón Bolívar International Airport, according to SOUTHCOM’s own press releases. Control of the airport and the port means control of everything and everyone that enters or leaves Venezuela’s capital region. That is a military objective, and the Pentagon has secured it. An Israeli military delegation also arrived. Brig. Gen. Elad Edri, chief of staff of the Israeli Home Front Command, with “expert teams” for reconstruction. Israel operates in West Asia as a US forward base, and its appearance in Caracas is a deployment of US power by other means — the army that bombed Gaza to rubble now sends officers and engineers to Venezuela as reconstruction experts.

• Center for Constitutional Rights: We condemn Florida’s new anti-terrorism laws. We joined Palestine Legal in writing a statement in solidarity with organizations, movements, activists and communities in Florida impacted by two so-called anti-terrorism laws that went into effect on July 1, 2026, which represent a new state-level tool of authoritarian political repression. HB1471 and HB1473 constitute an unprecedented attempt to extend anti-terrorism authority to a state government by granting a small group of Florida officials the power to designate domestic and foreign groups as "terrorist organizations." This dangerous development in the right's attempt to consolidate its authoritarian project signals an escalation in the attack on Palestine solidarity and social justice movements more widely.

• Center for Protest Law & Litigation: The Trump administration has released its proposal to erect permanent eight- to nine-foot fencing around Lafayette Square, with unilateral authority to seal the park and shut Pennsylvania Avenue at the administration's unbridled discretion. This is a transparent effort to suppress visible dissent in front of the White House in the nation's preeminent public forum, and to eliminate the American people's right to assemble and petition their government at the seat of presidential power. It is an overt attack on participatory democracy. Lafayette Park is not the president's front yard. It belongs to the American people and is the time-honored location to petition the Executive Branch for redress of grievances. It is the single most significant site for protest of presidential policies and actions in the US, where people have assembled to demand justice for more than a century, from the suffragists to the Civil Rights Movement to this day.

Trump preparing attacks on Social Security

Trump wants to move the current Social Security system toward a Wall Street market system. 

They will play on people's dreams to be rich and the desire to hit it big in the stock market. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that this new proposed Trump program would be a "Back door for privatizing Social Security".

That has been the right-wing agenda since Social Security was created by the FDR administration during the Great Depression.

Millions of Americans rely on Social Security and Medicare to survive their older years.

We can't let these pirates in Washington steal the Social Security treasure chest.

Bruce 

The war's other purpose....

 

I've been wondering, often out loud, do the ruling Epstein oligarchs want to intentionally run the US (and western) economies into the ground, like a wayward 747 jet crash soon after taking off?

A total US economic shut down, similar to what we experienced during covid when the Mr. Bigs on Wall Street bought up lots of small and medium size businesses across the nation, on the cheap, further consolidating their elite power and control.  

If the covid gain-of-function couldn’t kill enough “useless eaters”, let the price of fossil fuel pain and rising inflation get another chunk of them. Sort of like that.

Economic prognosticators have been regularly suggesting that if Trump keeps the Iran war going much longer the entire global economy will be put into a terrible tail spin that impacts the vast majority of the people across the planet.

Imagine how BlackRock and Vanguard (and the other investment management corporations behind them) would have a field day following massive layoffs, Main Street business failures, home ownership foreclosures, and much more. The Wall Street biggies would have an open door to consolidate much of the little remaining wealth in the US and beyond that they don't already control.

This would introduce full blown jack-booted neo-feudalism with a wave of the magic wand. Overnight lay-offs and desperate homelessness, extreme poverty, massive hunger, major medical crisis with no government ability (or desire) to intervene and other such calamities would ensue.

The path to the World Economic Forum's favored 'Golden Billion' would arrive quicker than Trump could say, "I Made America Great Again."

Gaza in 2025-2026

We know this is the dream, the goal, the agenda of the criminal elites who now run the western colonizing governments. They know that climate crisis is descending on our unprepared nations. They haven't wanted to address the climate issue nor will they have the slightest interest in helping the masses who get scooped up by raging hurricanes, rising seas, soaring temperatures, and an unimaginable food crisis due to the heat and loss of clean water. 

One must also wonder if the US-NATO's war on Russia will escalate to the point that Moscow determines that they must use their nukes. Is this part of the planning of the CIA, MI6 and Mossad who are orchestrating this war designed to break Russian into smaller nations allowing the rabid corporate oligarchs the chance to grab the remains? It's always been this way, for the past 500 years, the US-EU colonizers want Russia's vast resource base.

The western nations are arming like never before ostensibly to protect against Russia and China - the boogey men. But in part they are also up-arming against the public because they know what is likely coming.

Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon genocidal operations by Israel-US-EU are the canary in the mines. How many still ignore the signs? Millions of deaths mean nothing to the elite. They keep telling us that AI will make most of us superfluous anyway. What more evidence do we need? How will our children and grandchildren survive this impending juggernaut? 

The elites of the world are now making their plans to live in gated fortresses and well-guarded underground bunkers. Elon Musk appears to believe his Mars colony is the answer. 

The rest of us will be on our own to manage as best we can.

Those that still support these current endless war$ (and extreme fascistic nationalism) need to wake up and see the writing on the wall before it is too late. This might sound apocalyptic, but since when have the rich ever given a damn what happens to the 'great unwashed'?

It's beyond time to tax the rich and break up the big investment corporations that own much of our nation. A revolt is needed more than ever. A socialized global economy that supports the greater good is what I want. That is our only way out of this coming landslide.

Protest and survive now - today - is the warning cry that should resound amongst those of us living under the iron fist of the rich and powerful.

Rise up or give up. Which path will each of us decide to take?

Bruce 

What Iran means about 'revenge' against US-Israel

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal interviews Setareh Sadeqi of the University of Tehran about calls by average Iranians and some politicians for targeting Trump and Netanyahu as revenge for their assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Dr. Setareh Sadeqi can be found at @leelako on X/Twitter.

Lindsey Graham gone but his sister takes his place

Using solar to travel in Cuba

Electric tricycles have exploded across Cuba as the country faces extreme fuel shortages due to the U.S.-imposed oil blockade. But blackouts now last so long — 20 or more hours a day — there isn’t enough electricity to charge them.

So drivers are now installing solar panels on top of their tricycles.

“As long as the sun is out, it’s charging the battery,” says Evanys Peréz. “Now we can travel up to 90 miles.”  

Trump attacks Iran for 3rd night in a row

• Iranians have been gathering outside, throughout the country, to condemn the US & Israel EVERY single night for 136 days.
• Iran tonight shot down a American MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormoz. More than 30 MQ drones have been shot down by Iran and Yemen since Trump's wars have started.

• Al Mayadeen correspondent in Tehran: The American attacks do not only target military sites, but also focus on economic areas and facilities.  The American attacks targeted the ports of Chabahar and Bandar Abbas, which are strategic in Iran. 
• Mehr News Agency: Explosions have been heard on the islands of Qeshm and Kish in Hormozgan Province, southern Iran from the US attacks.
• Sources from one of the sites affiliated with the so-called "Iranian Opposition" state that the US military is bombing Iranian sites with HIMARS from Kuwaiti territory.

• McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander: The US should seize Iran's Kharg Island to increase leverage in negotiations.
• U.S. Central Command: At the direction of President Trump, we have begun launching strikes against Iran for the third night in a row.

• Trump: We will destroy the Iranian nuclear facility tonight at Pickaxe (Karkas). (This is a fortified Iranian nuclear site that is still under construction.) He also said, 'The MoU with Iran was a test, and they did not abide by it.'

• Simplicius: Like the spiral of his legacy swirling down the porcelain drain, Trump has lit off a new cycle of aimless bombings, after his patience had run dry for waiting out Iran’s “surrender” to a war the Persian nation had long won. In reality, the US knows it has no real cards to play; the Iranian state has been powerfully reinforced and indurated against US aggression to the point where each round of strikes has increasingly diminishing returns. The late Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral has likewise cemented societal solidarity and spirit around the Iranian government, leaving the US and Israel with few avenues to make any kind of strategic inroads at all against their foe. Trump continues to wave the threat of “total destruction” of Iran’s critical facilities—desalination and nuclear plants, etc. — but these are likely bluffs owing to the knowledge that Iran’s response would likewise cripple the region’s most critical infrastructures as well, which would rebound onto Trump’s administration in extremely deleterious ways. Key US weapons stockpiles remain significantly depleted and will come under even more intense pressure if strikes against Iran continue at the current rate, as President Donald Trump reiterated Friday that the ceasefire in the conflict is “over.” 

• Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on the destruction of Lebanon: “I said that Southern Lebanon would become Gaza. We would apply the Rafah model. We would destroy everything there. And that is what we did. The infrastructure has been destroyed. Homes in 24 villages along the border, villages that had existed for hundreds of years have been demolished. The army systematically flattened the villages with bulldozers and explosives. Ninety percent of the houses are gone. Between 15,000 and 20,000 homes have been destroyed.”

• Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., have poured money into more than a dozen federal military contractors that are collectively making billions from their father’s administration. A Washington Post analysis reveals that those firms have raked in more than $3.2 billion in Pentagon deals under the second Trump administration. Most of Eric and Donald Jr.’s investments came after President Trump, 80, retook the White House last year. The firms have also secured $3.1 billion in potential future work, along with the right to “bid exclusively” for up to $200 billion more. Eric, 42, and Donald Jr., 48, cast their investments as acts of “patriotic capitalism,” claiming they’re helping to defend the US against enemy threats. 

• Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview with Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche: He said the West’s efforts made the special military operation a full-scale war, noted that Vladimir Zelensky knows how to end the conflict in Ukraine in one day, and also pointed out that Russia does not need a nuclear escalation and it will never start WW3. “Zelensky came to power promising his people to stop the war. That was his initial promise. And he still can stop the war, taking a very responsible decision.” This means the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbass and a legal recognition of the prevailing realities: “And the next day the war will be over.” Russia has recently liberated Konstantinovka: “It was prepared to be an untakeable fortress since 2014. And despite that, they managed to take it.” After the liberation of Konstantinovka, the Russian military is “going to take another two important cities. It’s Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. After that, the whole territory of the Donetsk Republic will be liberated.” EU and US supply Kiev with weapons, ammunition and military advisers. “They are supplying the Kiev regime with satellite surveillance results. They target Ukrainian weapons with their satellites. They are using their artificial intelligence, AI, in order to facilitate the military activities of the Kiev regime. If it’s not a direct involvement, then what?”

• CNN: Donald Trump has decided to support the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that was led by Epstein class Sen. Lindsey Graham. The move, announced after Graham's death, is expected to make it easier for Congress to pass the legislation. The bill would allow Trump to impose steep tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, and uranium, increasing pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine that the US-UK-NATO orchestrated in 2014. 

• The Sahel bloc is important because Russia is attempting to integrate relations with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger into the broader African framework. Lavrov has explicitly stated that Moscow expects to facilitate closer contacts between the Alliance of Sahel States and the African Union. This is important, since following the exit of these countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and their transition to a confederation, they are in need of external partners willing to recognize their new regional identity. In this sense, Russia offers not only military cooperation but also political recognition. 

• The Yemeni Armed Forces have bombed the Abha International Airport & King Khalid Airbase in Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles & kamikaze drones. In retaliation to Saudi bombing Sana’a airport in Yemen.
• Ansar Allah Political Bureau, Yemen: In a dangerous escalatory step, the criminal Saudi regime bombed Sana'a International Airport in an attempt to prevent our delegation from returning [from ceremonies in Iran) to their homeland, but it failed. The crime of targeting Sana'a International Airport constitutes a blatant act of aggression against our people, a flagrant violation of sovereignty, and a clear breach of international laws and conventions. The targeting of Sana'a International Airport reflects the level of hatred and criminality harbored by the Saudi regime, backed by the US, toward our people. The attack comes within the framework of implementing the American desire to maintain the unjust blockade imposed on our people for more than ten years. The Saudi attack is an attempt to reimpose tutelage over Yemen and confiscate its independent decision-making and sovereignty. Our people have the full right to respond to the Saudi aggression in bombing Sana'a International Airport. The UN, the international community, and humanitarian organizations must assume their responsibilities regarding the suffocating blockade imposed upon our people. Our people have always been, and will remain, free, steadfast in defending their rights, sovereignty, and dignity.  The Iranian Mahan Air civilian airplane successfully landing at Al Hodeidah airport despite attacks and threats from Saudis. 

Tucker interviews Dennis Kucinich about U.S.-Israel military merger

This month, unless Donald Trump stops it, our treasonous Congress is likely to merge the US military with Israel’s genocidal armed forces. 

Dennis Kucinich (long time peace activist in Congress) speaks on the end of American sovereignty.

Dennis Kucinich was Mayor of Cleveland, an eight-term U.S. Congressman, Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008, and currently authors The Kucinich Report on Substack: https://kucinichreport.substack.com/