SOUND FAMILIAR?
Watch out for the promises from Flash.......
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....
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. @BruceKGagnon
I am very aware that some might not like all the videos I've been putting on my blog in recent months. I've not really had any complaints, one person though did tell me that they miss me not writing as much. So I'm trying to strike a balance. But some of these videos, in their images, can tell more than I ever could with words.
Take for example the one here today from Afghanistan. It's a story about the US bombing one of their own bases rather than losing it to the Taliban who had driven them from the outpost. There is remarkable imagery in the short video, the mountains, the river, the people forlornly watching as US military choppers zoom by one after the other. The man sitting on the ground serving tea to the US soldier.
One thing that grabbed me was the US Lieutenant pointing to the nearby mountains and saying, "This is Indian country." It's a revealing statement. The US cavalry's job was to exterminate the Indians. Their slogan was "A good Indian is a dead Indian." A Native American would likely warn the people of Afghanistan, "Watch out, they are coming to steal your land."
We don't know enough about the war in Afghanistan, and know very little about the people. These folks have experienced endless war for the last 30-some years and some day the US will be forced to leave the same way the former Soviet Union's huge military was - with their tail between their legs. But how many will die in the meantime? How much more national debt will be piled up here in the US paying for this bad war?
In Maine the peace movement is trying to get meetings with our two Democratic Congress persons and our two Republican Senators to talk about Afghanistan. So far they are all stone-walling. There will be a statewide meeting here at the Addams-Melman House on August 1 to deepen our organizing on Afghanistan. The meeting will follow a protest at the next "Christening" of another Navy Aegis destroyer at Bath Iron Works.
I went to the world premiere of the new film called "Tapped" yesterday in Waterville, Maine. The packed house cheered like crazy as the film ended. Many people featured in the film were in attendance as Maine's "water wars" are a vital part of the story in the documentary.
This is a must watch film. It tells the story about corporations like Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi trying to grab up the water resources around the world for their control and profit. The film clearly lays out the deadly connections between the manufacturing of plastic bottles and the people who live near these chemical production plants suffering from cancers and other deadly ailments. The scenes about plastic bottles leaching chemicals into the drinking water inside them is chilling. But most troubling of all is the horrific story about the disposal of plastic bottles that end up in the world's oceans for generations to come and that are now killing marine life.
This excellent film clearly reveals how effective the bottled water industry has been at making their product appear to be "pure" and "natural" and "safe" as a way to get the public to fear water from their own public drinking systems. But as we are all now learning, quite often the bottled war comes from the same sources that our tap water flows from.
They handed out stainless steel water bottles to everyone who attended the film opening yesterday. We've all got to become users of these reusable bottles and teach people about the negative consequences of buying plastic bottled water.
If you love your children, if you love this planet, then you will boycott plastic. You must get ahold of this excellent film and show it in your community. The future generations depend on you doing so.
A sadly compelling short report on the near total decline of Detroit.....a ghost town in the making.
I watched this interview in full this morning. It is a fascinating inside view of how the health insurance corporations ensure that there is no challenge to their profit making business.
This former high-level executive from Cigna has quit his job and is now blowing the whistle on the ways the insurance industry intimidates, lies, and bribes their way into the halls of Congress to block any reform.
The bit above is just a teaser, see the full Bill Moyers interview here.