Living in a state of war

• During the past year I've been getting monthly recorded phone calls from a company doing political surveys.  The last call was asking if North Korea is a threat to the US.  This morning they called back and reported that over 400,000 people responded to the North Korea question and 55% of responders felt that North Korea was a threat and only 5% did not think they were a threat to the US.  I was one of the 5%.  The question for this time was 'Are we going to have more celebrity presidential candidates in the future - like Oprah Winfrey?'   I voted I don't know.  America is such a friggin mess.

• President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of Washington DC is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s military. “The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a Pentagon official. It's going to be very expensive but is all part of the overall plan to make sure that the public accepts our new role in the world which is 'security export'.  We won't make shoes, TVs, cars, clothes, steel or much else anymore but we will make weapons and endless war on behalf of resource extraction corporations.  

• We've had very spotty coverage in the Maine media about our Aegis 9 trial dismissal last week.  No real surprise.  One local weekly newspaper has posted a story about the judge's dismissal and actually got the facts right.  I was asked to send some comments for the article and I am pleasantly surprised that they picked the strongest words from my statement for their article in the Coastal Journal.  They printed: “The obvious take away for us is the enormous power that General Dynamics has over the City of Bath and the State of Maine,” said Bruce Gagnon, one of the Aegis 9 and member of Veterans for Peace. The group is also protesting a proposed $60 million in tax credits being offered General Dynamics by the State of Maine. You can read the entire article here.
• Video above produced by Regis Tremblay who wanted to do something to help get the word out more about GD's $60 million grab from Mainers.   In the video I said GD is 'selling' back their own stocks - I should have said 'buying' back their own stocks driving up their market value.