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....
About Me
- Name: Bruce K. Gagnon
- 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. @BruceKGagnon
Saturday, January 02, 2016
Ukrainian Nazis marched in Odessa (above) on January 1 to celebrate the birthday of their hero Stepan Bandera. During Hitler's invasion of the former Soviet Union during WW II Bandera put on a Nazi uniform and joined forces with the German Army in their onslaughts.
Today many of those being trained in western Ukraine by the US Army are the 'volunteer battallions' of these Bandera forces who have been leading the war against fellow Ukrainian citizens living in the eastern part of the country (Donbass) near the Russian border.
One of the popular slogans of Bandera forces is "Russians on knives".
Similar marches also took place in Kiev, Lvov, Dnepropetrovsk and other
Ukrainian cities. Across the 'democratic west' these events were not reported in the mainstream media.
Friday, January 01, 2016
What We Want in the New Year
Bad weather, in part due to most governments virtually ignoring climate change, is slapping us hard in the face. I wrote Global Network board convener Dave Webb yesterday who lives up in Yorkshire, England about the floods there and he commented: "Lots of problems with roads and rail blockages but we are out of the danger zone. Lots of horrible experiences for many people - usual problem of the government not funding proper flood defence even though they were warned about it all over and over. Seems like they preferred to spend the money on bombers and nuclear weapons!"
And there you have it - in the UK the big issue is a planned massive expenditure on Trident nuclear submarine replacement instead of dealing with human needs and physical infrastructure to protect the public from the coming storm brought on by climate change. UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is working hard now to challenge Trident.
Here is the US there have been floods and bad tornadoes in recent days - particularly in parts of the nation where people generally laugh at the idea of climate change. (In the south and midwest.) Maybe they won't laugh so hard now. Wake up and smell the coffee!
So this will be my mantra as we dig into 2016. I'll keep hammering away on the connection between militarism and climate change - the Pentagon has the largest carbon bootprint on spaceship Earth. How can we afford to keep wasting our meager resources on more war when our Mother Earth's body is in toxic shock?
I send my heartfelt greetings to folks around the world who are visiting this blog. I wish you and your loved ones peace, justice, and the strength and determination to keep moving forward. What could be more important in our lifetime than to work for the betterment of all humankind? What could be more important than taking good care of our fragile planet so that our relatives in nature (the things that fly, the things that crawl, the things that swim) can survive as well?
Best to all of you. Drop me a line sometime and share your story please.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Defending the Sacred
Holding Their GroundThe Unist'ot'en Camp are blocking pipelines from crossing their land in British Columbia.
Posted by AJ+ on Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Great courage and determination shown by the First Nations people as they resist giant resource extraction corporations in western Canada.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Story Behind U.S. Global Blitzkrieg
In this episode of teleSUR's Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges and author
Vijay Prashad trace the acceleration of U.S. militarism since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, and discuss the consequences of U.S.
domination over global affairs.
Korean 'Comfort Women' Speak for Themselves
"북미 미디어에서는 위안부 협상에 대해 긍정적으로 보도하고 있고, 할머니들의 목소리가 제대로 대변되고 있지 않습니다." 예일대 로스쿨에 재학중인 임현수씨의 제안과 번역 도움으로 영어 자막이 들어간 동영상을 만들었습니다. 할머니들의 분노와 울분을 전세계로 퍼트려 주세요. 여러분의 공유 한번이 나비의 날갯짓이 돼 세상을 바꿀 수 있습니다. 노컷뉴스는 앞으로도 영어와 일본어 자막이 표기된 위안부 협상 관련 동영상을 계속 제작하겠습니다.
Posted by CBS Nocutnews on Wednesday, December 30, 2015
The right-wing South Korean government, likely under orders from Washington, has agreed to make peace with Japan over the WW II forced prostitution issue. The Japanese imperial Army forced 200,000 Korean women into servitude as 'Comfort Women'. Japan now offers $8 million and an ambiguous apology. Neither the South Korean government nor Japan's right-wing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ever consulted with the affected women before this scripted production was set in motion.
The goal here is to try to rehabilitate Japan's WW II fascist image now that Abe has destroyed the peaceful Article 9 in their constitution that outlawed offensive war making. The US has big plans for a revitalized corporate dominated government in Tokyo when it comes to helping the US to wage endless war. The US will further drag a willing Abe into confrontation with China and Russia. But first Washington wants to clean up Japan's image in the 'global market place' so that they can better serve as agents in the US's 'war for peace, democracy and global harmony'.
It's like professional wrestling - the image of the actors in the ring makes for everything. Somebody has to be the bad guy and someone (the US) gets to always play the shining knight. Japan's apology was intended to help wipe their image slate clean before the big battles begin. Japan can now officially join the 'good guys'.
It looks like the plan feel flat with those who counted most - those remaining 'comfort women' who are still alive. Look how the South Korean politician grabs the woman's hand at the end and slinks away. Great video that once again reveals the remarkable fighting spirit of the Korean people.
It's Cold Outside
- We got our first snow of the season in Bath early on Monday morning. The norm since we've lived in Maine is that snow in the Midcoast comes around Thanksgiving. So this year it was a month late as warm temperatures extended the summer here up north. I had a post on Facebook today from a friend in England who reminded us: "It's so difficult for the people experiencing the extreme weather that is so devastating. Please be mindful of our wildlife who have no idea what is going on.. fish being displaced when rivers/lakes flood.. birds who observe this and cannot access lovely bird tables because of floods.. Sheep and Cows who are stranded."
- I love history, our human path has been a remarkable story of suffering and periodic advances for real justice - extracted at great loss from the imperial agents. (My mind immediately flashes to Chicago where Mayor Rahm Emanuel is under attack by the black community who keep getting killed by his death squad police force. Emanuel is test driving the 'Gaza solution' for control and domination of unwanted superfluous populations in big American cities - repositories, reservations, gulags, interment camps, ghettos.) Now and then the people get tired of eating shit served up by our pirate masters and they begin to rise up. It feels like such a moment is awakening worldwide now. A time to build up, a time to break down. What one thing can I do today to help build this fire? I ask myself that question every day. It drives me to get up in the morning.
- The other thing that drove me the last two days was getting outside to shovel snow. Fortunately this one was only about a 3-incher, a tune-up for later big dumps. In the meantime I love playing in the snow. We have paths here to our woodpile, shed, and compost pile that must be kept open. Four doors are always in need of clearing when the snow comes. I get great satisfaction out of hauling wood and shoveling. One can find a strong sense of accomplishment with those chores - we rarely get to glimpse the idea of 'completion' in the peace and justice world. On we go - I will keep shoveling.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Kiev's Nazi Army Sings Praises to Hitler
In the video, Artyom Vitko, the former commander of the Kiev backed Luhansk-1 "volunteer" Battalion [death squad] and now a member of Lyashko's Radical Party, can be seen sitting in the back of a car wearing camouflage fatigues and singing along to a track extolling the virtues of the Fuehrer.
"Adolf Hitler, together with us, Adolf Hitler, in each of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the right time," Vitko sings, saluting the camera with his water bottle as the car's sound system blares "Heil Hitler."
Read more here
Western War on Ukraine
A very well done, informative and deeply moving film by a German journalist about the US-NATO puppet Kiev regime's war on their own citizens in Eastern Ukraine....
The documentary is not an action movie. Rather, it lives from spoken word, by the voices of the people featured in the interviews and their impressions. Accompanied with sequences of events it draws a picture of the personal feelings of the participants – whether civilians, soldiers and journalists.
“Ukrainian Agony” is a silent film about the immense volume and violence of war. The propaganda has reached a new level of “quality”. Disinformation, concealment, half-truths up to outright lies are the “weapons” of certain Western media in this war – in an unprecedented degree.
Film by Mark Bartalmai, German independent journalist, Photographer.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Courting the Nazi Operatives
This is an authoritative account of the postwar relationship between Nazi intelligence chief General Reinhard Gehlen who came to work for the US after the war and was eventually put in charge of intelligence in post-WW II West Germany.
Gehlen was instrumental in creating the US-NATO 'Gladio' program of terrorism across Europe that was used to discredit the left.
The documentary also covers the US secret program called 'Operation Paperclip' that smuggled about 1,500 Nazi operatives into the US to work in the military space program, NASA, Air Force Flight Medicine program, MK Ultra Mind Control program, CIA, and more. The entire military industrial complex of the US was seeded with these Nazi war criminals.
Was there an ideological contamination that followed?
The documentary also covers the US secret program called 'Operation Paperclip' that smuggled about 1,500 Nazi operatives into the US to work in the military space program, NASA, Air Force Flight Medicine program, MK Ultra Mind Control program, CIA, and more. The entire military industrial complex of the US was seeded with these Nazi war criminals.
Was there an ideological contamination that followed?
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Repeat it Often Enough
often enough
easy to do
with corporate
dominated
media
say it
over and over
again
drum it into
thick skulls
turned to mush
by endless
info-tainment
poor schools
consumerism
Pentagon says
America's role
under corporate
globalization
is
'security export'
endless war
watch the
movie previews
see our future
here at home
the message
to the kids
war
it's 'all you can be'
keep repeating it
Captain America
to
Star Wars
Throw in some
nationalism
exceptionalism
we are #1
the big lie
Sell the wars
lie to
recruit the jobless
A Global Force
For Good
Army Strong
The Few,
The Proud
Above all
Aim High
über alles
all lies
Our minds
are occupied
by Madison Avenue
Madmen
fill our brains
with the
big lies
My Sunday prayer:
Wake up
take back
our souls
decolonize
our minds
they belong
to us
not to
the devil
or his
congressional
agents