- Got alot on my plate this week. This morning I taped another edition of my public access TV show and invited fellow Mainer (and Jeju Island filmmaker) Regis Tremblay to be my guest. He did a great job. Tonight we have the Move to Amend resolution coming to our Bath City Council for a decision. Then when I get home there is an 8:00 pm phone conference call with the Hancock Air National Guard drone base protest (April 26-28) organizers from Syracuse, New York. I've been invited to speak at that event and also to join in their planning call.
- Tomorrow in Augusta we have round-two of the drone moratorium hearing at the state capital. A bunch of us will be going. The Judiciary Committee will begin their deliberations at 2:30 pm on the 4th floor.
- Very sad to hear about the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I'll never forget seeing the film The Revolution Will Not Be Televised about the US attempted coup against Chavez and the poor people's resistance that ultimately prevented it. If you've not seen this film, you must. The US lies about, and demonizes, any leader that resists corporate domination. Chavez was such a man. Find the film here
- The recent effort by the Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific to gather signatures on a statement opposing US-South Korea war games, aimed at North Korea, was a huge success. You can see the final list of those signing on here
- I sent around an email to fellow Maine activists today taking orders for our pizza-style door hanger literature that we plan to distribute across the state during the week of April 7-13. We are asking for five cents each which means if you order 100 it costs $5. It's obvious that the austerity cuts in programs of social uplift will ramp up in the coming months. The public feels abandoned and isolated by the political system. Getting these door hangers out across Maine can help remind people that there is an organized push-back in our state against these attacks on social progress. Working together we can help make that happen. You can see the door hangers here
- The so-called "liberal" John Kerry, now comfortably in as Obama's new Secretary of State, is already showing his Skull & Bones Club colors. One of his first acts was to release a memo saying that the Tar Sands pipeline will not be a serious environmental problem. Then he made a trip to visit the Saudi Arabian monarchy where he made a huge weapons sales on behalf of the military industrial complex. Kerry is just one of the oligarchy. They plant these operatives inside both the Republican and Democrat parties and have turned us into a collapsing empire that is killing the planet. These hacks deserve no respect and loyalty and will get none from me.
What I know about Chavez is limited partly because I haven't been getting the whole story from the commercial media but it is enough to know it is distorted. They just ran a story, "Chavez's try to be savior of poor floundered in US" that down plays his charitable attempts and ignore some of the reasons they didn't have as much impact. He offered to do more but was refused in most areas; one exception was in the Boston area. At the same time all the US companies refused to do anything and continued to make outrageous profits; this part is rarely mentioned by the commercial media.
ReplyDeleteFor more information see this article.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2013/03/joe_kennedy_s_oil_aid_to_dry_up
This one and many others mentions his attempts to suppress "Venezuela’s media" is often mentioned and they also mention that he forces them to cover his speech. What they don't mention is that this is the same commercial interests that control our own consolidated media which ignore many of the most important issues.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that he has actually promoted a more diverse media there which we need here; in fact I've heard on several occasions that is exactly what he might be doing.