Greed is an infectious disease

How can people be so heartless and insensitive? 

Blast from the past: They finally got me.....

This blog post was written on June 27, 2019. I thought I'd share it again.

This financial business (above) in Orlando, Florida put the sign up in the early 1990's.  The interesting thing about it was that the building was right on the downtown entrance to the interstate highway (I-4) that was jammed with cars at the end of each workday.

A friend saw it and took the photo.  That particular message stayed up there for some time.  They were complaining about all my organizing in the Orlando-area and also the protests I was then regularly organizing at the Kennedy Space Center around the Star Wars program.

I've spent a few days in jail here and there over the years.  Once after a Cape Canaveral Space Force Base protest I did five nights in the lock up.  But I've never been too eager to spend time in jail.  I'm an organizer and figure my place is out on the street stirring the pot.

The owner of this business would be happy though to hear about my couple of days in jail over the past weekend. I wanted to write a bit about the experience - one that I can say was quite remarkable.

But first a qualifier. The jailers and police in Maine are generally a bit different from other places where I have been 'apprehended' while doing protests across this land.  They tend to be much less anxious in Maine to bust heads and inside the jail they were more at ease.

With that said, all things were not Shangri-la at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, Maine. A group of us had been arrested at another 'Christening' of an Aegis destroyer at Bath Iron Works here in Maine for blocking the cars and buses as people came to the event. The jail was the project of Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties and holds minimum, medium and maximum-security inmates.  I am told it is a privatized jail but could not find any information on the Internet about who owns it.  The terrible food served there is produced by the Aramark Corporation.

Here are some general observations about the jail: 

• Inmates report that they have barely edible oatmeal virtually every morning.  We also had cardboard-like potatoes and watered down apple juice during our time there in addition to the oatmeal.  
• In an advert online for jobs at Two Bridges jail one person wrote:  "Pros - free lunch, always off 2 or 3 days off in a row every other weekend off. Cons - understaffed, high turnover rate, staff morale low due to nature of the job." [Might be wise to add under the Cons - the food.]

• If you want extras like coffee, tea, salt, pepper, mayo, shampoo and the like you have to purchase it from the jail 'commissary' - one more way to turn a profit for the private corporation that owns the joint.  Many inmates purchase packages of Ramen noodles to eat in their cells since they are always hungry.  Our group of five men protesters gave some of our food away to other inmates which they gladly accepted.
• We repeatedly heard that it costs the two counties 'utilizing' the jail $150 a day to house the prisoners.  We also heard that .22 cents a day is spent feeding the inmates.  Could have been a rumor but the same information came from both men and women pods.  The whole private prison industry needs to be investigated.  The taxpayers and the inmates are being ripped off.  Sadly few media do investigative journalism any more.
• At one point I had a splitting headache and asked the jail guard for two aspirin.  He blew me off.  An inmate heard me and went into his cell and returned with a small packet containing two aspirin which he had purchased.  I gave him my apple and told him 'good trade'.

• Our men's cell block had an upstairs and a downstairs.  Each cell had two steel bunk beds, one toilet, one sink, one chair, and one tiny table.  The light was always on.  When the downstairs cell mates were allowed out to eat, shoot hoops, watch TV, play games or walk around the 'pod', the cells upstairs were locked down.  Then they switched and the upstairs inmates were sent downstairs and the lower cells were locked down.

• Everyone was issued a plastic cup and a plastic 'spork'.  Food was served on ugly brown thick plastic trays.

• We all were also given blue jail clothes, two thin sheets, a blanket, extra underpants, pants, towels, socks - many of which were tattered.
• It was so cold in the lock up that I was shivering at times and came home with a severe sore throat.

• The blue plastic mattress was about two inches thick which made sleeping very hard to do on top of the steel frame bed.  It didn't help that on Sunday night they ran a very loud floor cleaning machine downstairs until 12:30 am.

• We had one rectangular window in our cell (my cell mate was fellow protester Ken Jones from North Carolina).  We could see a wild patch of yellow buttercups and robins bounding around but were not allowed to go outside.

• The official jail handbook was 41 pages long and it was all we had to read for our first 24 hours until we learned about a well hidden drawer downstairs where a few books were available.  Each day one copy of the Portland Press Herald newspaper was available for the 70-some inmates.  Most of them checked it out when they could find it. 

• The handbook has a lengthy dress code for those who visit inmates.

• Our cell was 12 ft by 7 ft.

• When we arrived at the jail we learned that word had already spread about our protest and our arrests. Many of the inmates thanked us for our protest at BIW and urged us to 'keep it up' when we left.  That included one very intimidating inmate with ripplin muscles who told one of our guys that he has family that works at the shipyard.

It was no fun to be in jail but I'm glad we refused to pay the $60 bail commissioner fee which landed us in the joint.  Other inmates couldn't believe we refused to pay such a small fee - one guy we met has a $15,000 bail and has been in jail for quite some time because he couldn't pay it. (This particular guy was the most welcoming to us and helped us navigate our way during our time.) Many have to stay locked up for months until their trails are held.  The entire bail system is unjust and should be ended.  The bail commissioners make big money off the system.

One of my best moments was while I was walking in circles around the lower pod to get some exercise.  A young black man locked inside his cell tapped on the window and held up the newspaper story about our arrests.  He fist bumped me on the small cell window.

The four women protesters inside the jail told similar stories about their experiences and they made some deep connections with other women inmates.

In the end these inmates are predominately working class who are mostly good people who have made some mistakes.  The American 'corrections' system is not about helping people become better citizens - in fact it is a profit driven clamp down program directed at poor and working class people who have become superfluous populations.  Due to mechanization, robotics, computerization and off-shoring of jobs tens of millions of people in this country are no longer 'needed' by the capitalist system.  [These days we can add AI to that older list.] So instead of educating them, these unwanted people are locked into cold steel dungeons and little to no effort is made to 'rehabilitate' them.

Other countries, Norway comes to mind, have a very humane way of handling people who have broken the law.  But America isn't into being human - it's all about making money and punishing the men and women of our society who have no place in this dog-eat-dog culture.

I befriended one young man during my time in Two Bridges jail.  He has cerebral palsy, walks with a limp, and has had problems with depression and alcohol.  He's in jail for a month.  A sweeter guy you'd never find anywhere.  Meeting him was worth my two nights in a lousy bed - with little sleep and an aching back.

Bruce

We Went to Arkansas. The Farm Crisis Will Shock You

Farm debt is expected to reach $560 billion this year—a record high. But it's not just because of the trade war with China. Farmers told us it's because a handful of corporations have taken control of their markets to ensure they always win, and farmers barely break even.

Correction:

4:28 Bayer and Monsanto did not merge in 2015 during the Obama administration. The companies reached a deal for Bayer to acquire Monsanto in September 2016. The merger was approved by the first Trump administration in May 2018.

We were told North Korea is bad

A young Russian woman takes us on a tour of North Korea.

North Korea let me in. I went for eight days trip in September 2026. Pyongyang and Kalma Beach, my own camera the whole time with interviews from locals. 

This video covers the visa, the flight, customs, the history behind the border split in 1945, and what I actually saw on the ground. 

Beaches, parks, the metro, a summer camp, jobs and salaries, prices, dress code, and what people told me about their own lives. 

Edward Snowden: 'I think we need to put Sam Altman in jail'

'Your computer that is connected to the Internet is frankly being controlled remotely by a model that is far away that you don't understand how it works.' 

The errors of AI are the responsibility of its developer.

It doesn't have to be this way. 

Hegseth impeachment, New Dems threatened by leaders, Gaza underwater, U.S. threatens Iraq, Saudi's turn to ISIS

 

• Pepe Escobar: After spending 95 minutes on the phone with Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and number two of the Iranian government, three days later President Putin sent his private plane to Tehran to bring Rezaee and a small Iranian delegation to Moscow for a face-to-face meeting at the Kremlin. The meeting lasted near 3 1/2 hours. And crucially, Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in the room, via encrypted phone. The end game is that Moscow now ranks its strategic partnership with Tehran at the level of its strategic partnership with Beijing, its highest. Significant technology assistance and transfer is under way. Russia has already delivered 12 advanced attack helicopters; a wide range of offensive and defensive equipment; and increased targeting capability, via satellite and fiber-optic drone technology. That means in practice that Tehran is even more prepared than before to absorb a US and/or death cult attack and to answer it with overwhelming force.  In parallel, the pathetic Iraqi Quisling government and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have seriously started threatening each other, in advance of what is now ominously in the open: imminent invasion plans of southern Iran, in the Ahwaz region, crammed with oil fields, by American troops deployed in Iraqi soil. The Islamic Resistance has already warned Prime Minister Al-Zaidi that any attempt to arrest Shi’ite leaders would mean the fall of his government. As if all of the above was not dire enough, some sort of shaping rhythm has been established by CENTCOM, which is now bombing Qeshm island for 2-3 nights running.   

• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) reading the part of his impeachment resolution how Hegseth ordered US military to bomb Minab elementary school in Iran, 3 times killing at least 170 children, school staff and parents. Tuesday’s vote was a procedural attempt by Republicans to stop the impeachment push by sending the matter back to committee, the Associated Press reported.  The motion passed 211-204, with multiple Democrats and Republicans missing the vote. Massie was the lone Republican to cross party lines. Eleven Democrats refused to vote at all - they could have ensured the impeachment was a success. As it turns out all 11 of them have been heavily funded by AIPAC.

• UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese describes children in Gaza remaining in tents flooded by freezing rainwater as “the shame of our time.” 70,000 displaced families’ tents were flooded during the first 12 hours of the storm, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Displaced families continue to suffer amid widespread destruction and Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelter supplies.

• Tasnim News Baghdad: Disclosure of the details of the anti-Iranian mission sent by Trump to Iraq. Abdullah Ahmed Al-Dulaimi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, claimed that Tom Barak, Trump’s special envoy to Baghdad, pressured the al-Zaidi government to close all the border crossings between Iraq and Iran, cut ties between Tehran and Baghdad, stop the import of goods between the two countries, and move towards establishing trade relations with the Persian Gulf countries. He added that during this visit, Barak told Iraq not to settle its debts to Iran with dollars, and that transactions between Tehran and Baghdad should be done only with Iraqi dinars, and that the country’s airspace should remain closed to passengers and goods from/to Iran. Al-Dulaimi stated that Barak threatened the Al-Zaidi government that if it refused to implement the American orders, it would suffer dire consequences. The Al-Zaidi government has agreed to the demands made by Washington so that this process can be implemented gradually and according to the schedule desired by the parties.  

• Tehran’s mayor made public transport in Tehran FREE since the war. It’s been 8 months and Iranians are still enjoying free metro, even before the war, metro tickets cost almost nothing. 

• US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claims that anyone who opposes Trump’s war with Iran is being blinded by Satan. During an incredibly sycophantic recent interview on The Anchor Podcast, Huckabee was asked by the host if he believed European opposition to the US war on Iran was the result of mental problems. “I think it’s a spiritual issue,” Huckabee replied. “I know it sounds a little funny for an ambassador to be talking like this, but look, I see this as spiritual darkness, spiritual blindness,” adding that “Satan has blinded the minds of those and has captured their thinking.”
• Ahead of the election, thousands of Mississippians were moved to inactive status because the secretary of state's office paid $50,000 to use unverified data from credit bureau Experian to clean out voter rolls. Secretary of State Michael Watson told Mississippi Today that the rollout of the commercial data was "wildly successful." This unprecedented number of inactive voters led to more affidavit ballots, prolonging the count. These ballots must be 'cured', meaning to correct issues with voter identification or mail-in ballots, by Nov. 10. "Mississippi is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, state to vote in," one voter said. "As a lifelong Mississippian, I am used to us living in a legacy of constantly fighting back, and this is just in alignment with our legacy. And people ask folks from Mississippi, why do we live down here? Why do we stay out here with everything that we're facing? But we're fighters, and we won't ever stop fighting."

• Sludge: The nonprofit that helped get Professor Cornel West on presidential ballots in 2024 received all of its funding that year through a conservative political network that has been bankrolled by Elon Musk, tax records reviewed by Sludge show. People Over Party helped pay for petition drives to get the left-wing West onto state ballots in 2024 as Democrats warned he could play spoiler by drawing votes from Kamala Harris and helping Trump. A nonprofit called Interstate Priorities disclosed a $7.7 million grant to the group on its 2024 tax return, accounting for all of the revenue that People Over Party reported raising that year. 

• La Catrina Norteña: Now in Ecuador, people are calling for the ouster of the Miami-born Trumpist junior @DanielNoboaOk, who has his country mired in its worst security and economic crisis and who had the former left-wing presidential candidate Luisa González thrown in jail two weeks ago. "Out with Noboa, out, out with Noboa, out"...  
• Yemen military: Thousands of ISIS fighters have arrived to battle our forces in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is amassing mercenaries from every corner of the globe to kill us. We shall make an example of them—a lesson for every mercenary who has sold out his own homeland. Yemen has hit Saudi Aramco headquarters as a warning that more can come if they don't end their long war against the people of Yemen. 

• Ryan Grim: Incoming Rep. Don Leonard, a Democrat who flipped a deep red district in Ohio, said in a video he posted online that allies of Hakeem Jeffries had threatened “to make [his] life a living hell” if he didn’t get in line and support Jeffries [for House Majority leader] without conditions. Leonard's conditions: (1) A vote on a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and (2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.” Leonard said he was told he would never be re-elected if he didn’t play ball. Meanwhile, nobody has risen in opposition, though members can vote for someone whether they’re running or not. The situation presents something of a catch-22: Hakeem Jeffries isn’t vulnerable unless a challenger emerges, and a challenger won’t emerge as long as Jeffries is seen as invulnerable.  

The $400 Million Corruption Machine Built by Trump's Biggest Donors

OpenAI's president gave Trump $25 million. Trump moved to block state AI regulation.

UnitedHealth gave $5 million. Trump doubled their Medicare Advantage pay increase.

It all happens through MAGA Inc. and oligarchs are spending big to defend their cash cow this election.

Walk for the Earth - 700 miles thru Florida

The Animals Speak Out

by W.B. Park

Good evening. We’re here to try to convince you that unless you folks wake up, our whole eco system is going to crash. Agri-business and lawn sprinklers are draining our aquifers and swamps. DDT, dioxin, and a soup of other toxins are seeping into our drinking water and eating away our ozone protection. Mining and ranching interests slash and burn our jungles. Paper and lumber companies level whole forests in days. Developers concrete what’s left. As a result, our source of oxygen is disappearing. Our topsoil is eroding. Whole species are in danger. The food chain has holes. Cancer, respiratory diseases, miscarriages, dropping sperm counts…I mean, how bad does it have to get before you people start trying to help? Hello? Is anybody out there listening? 

This is a chapter from my book entitled 'Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire'. At the time of this I was working for the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.

I drove the 700-plus mile Walk for the Earth route four times before our official beginning in late February, 1996. I had plenty of time to think about the enormous undertaking and what it was “all about.” During these long drives I mapped the walk route and scouted for places for the campers to sleep. I met with local groups along the way and got them to commit to join the walk when it passed through their community. 

Many of the groups took on the task of organizing meals for the walkers. I made contact with the local media to publicize the walk and the local issues we’d be illuminating. Quite often, there was a community forum to set up.

I knew that we were going to walk through communities of color where poor people were struggling, often alone, over local environmental issues. I knew we were going to try to help return a sense of power to people in our state who feel powerless in the face of corporate political dominance. What I didn’t know was that water contamination would be the issue that everyone talked about, up and down the state.

The Everglades are being diced up—big sugar, citrus groves, vegetable production and urban sprawl are impacting South Florida’s primary water source. We met with black people in Belle Glade and listened to their stories about water contamination from sugar cane production.

In Polk County, where miles and miles of phosphate mining has impacted poor communities, water contamination has reached epidemic proportions. While in this region, we met with black people whose communities were contaminated by the phosphate industry. There are no environmental groups speaking out for the people. Even the Audubon Society is taking money from the phosphate industry while poor people die from cancer.

While walking through the citrus belt of Central Florida, walkers met with Hispanic farm workers who talked over and over again about pesticide poisoning. We learned that drinking water is being contaminated by these chemicals.

Urbanization (whether in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, or Jacksonville) is creating massive amounts of pollution (from more and wider roads and millions of cars) that is getting into our underground water aquifer.

We held a protest in the Ocala National Forest where the Navy has had a bombing range since World War II. Once out in the middle of nowhere, the range is now being surrounded by urbanization.

Up in north Florida, in Perry, deadly dioxins are being dumped into the Fenholloway River by the Buckeye paper mill. The river carries the toxins from the plant right into the Gulf of Mexico where aquatic life is now dying as a result. We held a rally in front of the paper mill while standing in the pouring rain. 

At each stop, local authorities talk about dilution. They admit that pollutants are reaching the aquifer, but insist that they are diluted when they enter the enormous underground water systems. But this is a lie because pollutants are entering the aquifer up and down the state in such vast amounts that they must certainly be having cumulative adverse impacts.

What we learned from the local people we met on the walk is that they want someone to stand up with them. They want someone to tell it like it is. They can’t drink the water. They can’t eat the fish. The birds are dying.

Our walk was led by Bobbie C. Billie, the spiritual leader of the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation. His family, still legally at war with the U.S. government, is the one holdout family within the Seminole people who never submitted to the reservation system. Bobbie was the only person who was able to walk every single step of the 700 mile walk. On the weekends, members of his family would join us for the walk.

Bobbie C. Billie

One high school teacher from Miami brought a busload of her students to begin the walk in the Everglades and ended up bringing them back virtually every other weekend as well.

At the end of the Walk for the Earth, about 600 people turned out from all over the state to march the last three miles to the State Capitol in Tallahassee with us. Two days later, about 50-60 of us went into the capitol to lobby. Some of us held a day-long vigil inside the capitol rotunda, while others visited their representatives. One of our signs read, “The corporations control the government.” Corporate lobbyists, running around with their cell phones, were not amused. But many capitol staffers came by and discreetly whispered, “You’re right.” The native people from South America who joined us played their magical flutes inside the rotunda, and people were drawn to us like snakes responding to charmers. It was an exciting and empowering day.

When you speak the truth in the heart of power, sparks literally fly. The Walk for the Earth: A Journey for Future Generations was a success. We saw that with our own eyes. We heard it from the public with our own ears. And now we must speak about it with our own voices.

If there is to be a future for our children then we must move now to protect what little natural life is left in Florida. We must stand before the government and the corporations and say “enough!” We must call for a moratorium on growth and development in Florida. If we don’t, who will? 

Bruce