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....

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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, May 25, 2019

Army: It's not just a job - it's an adventure.....





After posting a video of a young recruit talking to the camera about how service allows him to better himself “as a man and a warrior”, the US Army tweeted, “How has serving impacted you?”

As of this writing, the post has over 5,300 responses. Most of them are heartbreaking.

  • “My daughter was raped while in the army,” said one responder. “They took her to the hospital where an all male staff tried to convince her to give the guy a break because it would ruin his life. She persisted. Wouldn’t back down. Did a tour in Iraq. Now suffers from PTSD.”
  • “I’ve had the same nightmare almost every night for the past 15 years,” said another.
  • “Someone I loved joined right out of high school even though I begged him not to. Few months after his deployment ended, we reconnected. One night, he told me he loved me and then shot himself in the head. If you’re gonna prey on kids for imperialism, at least treat their PTSD.”
  • “The dad of my best friend when I was in high school had served in the army. He struggled with untreated PTSD & severe depression for 30 years, never told his family. Christmas eve of 2010, he went to their shed to grab the presents & shot himself in the head. That was the first funeral I attended where I was actually told the cause of death & the reasons surrounding it. I went home from the service, did some asking around, & found that most of the funerals I’ve attended before have been caused by untreated health issues from serving.”
  • “Chronic pain with a 0% disability rating (despite medical discharge) so no benefits, and anger issues that I cope with by picking fistfights with strangers.”

  • “My parents both served in the US Army and what they got was PTSD for both of them along with anxiety issues. Whenever we go out in public and sit down somewhere my dad has to have his back up against the wall just to feel a measure of comfort that no one is going to sneak up on him and kill him and and walking up behind either of them without announcing that you’re there is most likely going to either get you punch in the face or choked out.”
  • “Left my talented and young brother a broken and disabled man who barely leaves the house. Left my mother hypervigilant & terrified due to the amount of sexual assault & rape covered up and looked over by COs. Friend joined right out if HS, bullet left him paralyzed neck down.”
  •  “My cousin went to war twice and came back with a drug addiction that killed him.”
  • “It’s given me a fractured spine, TBI, combat PTSD, burn pit exposure, and a broken body with no hope of getting better. Not even medically retired for a fractured spine. WTF.”
  •  “Y’all killed my father by failing to provide proper treatments after multiple tours.”
  • “Everyone I know got free PTSD and chemical exposure and a long engagement in their efforts to have the US pay up for college tuition. Several lives ruined. No one came out better. Thank god my recruiter got a DUI on his way to get me or I would be dead or worse right now.”
  • “I have ptsd and still wake up crying at night. Also have a messed up leg that I probably will have to deal with the rest of my life. Depression. Anger issues.”
  • “My grandfather came back from Vietnam with severe PTSD, tried to drown it in alcohol, beat my father so badly and so often he still flinches when touched 50 years later. And I grew up with an emotionally scarred father with PTSD issues of his own because of it. Good times.”
  • “Hmmm. Let’s see. I lost friends, have 38 inches of scars, PTSD and a janky arm and hand that don’t work.”
  • “my grandpa served in vietnam from when he was 18-25. he’s 70 now and every night he still has nightmares where he stands up tugging at the curtains or banging on the walls screaming at the top of his lungs for someone to help him. he refuses to talk about his time and when you mention anything about the war to him his face goes white and he has a panic attack. he cries almost every day and night and had to spend 10 years in a psychiatric facility for suicidal ideations from what he saw there.”

  • “My best friend joined the Army straight out of high school because his family was poor & he wanted a college education. He served his time & then some. Just as he was ready to retire he was sent to Iraq. You guys sent him back in a box. It destroyed his children.”
  • “Well, my father got deployed to Iraq and came back a completely different person. Couldn’t even work the same job he had been working 20 years before that because of his anxiety and PTSD. He had nightmares, got easily violent and has terrible depression. But the army just handed him pills, now he is 100% disabled and is on a shit ton of medication. He has nightmares every night, paces the house barely sleeping, checking every room just to make sure everyone’s safe. He’s had multiple friends commit suicide.”
  • “I was #USNavy, my husband was #USArmy, he served in Bosnia and Iraq and that nice, shy, funny guy was gone, replaced with a withdrawn, angry man…he committed suicide a few years later…when I’m thanked for my service, I just nod.”
  • “I’m permanently disabled because I trained through severe pain after being rejected from the clinic for ‘malingering.’ Turns out my pelvis was cracked and I ended up having to have hip surgery when I was 20 years old.”
  • “My brother went into the Army a fairly normal person, became a Ranger (Ft. Ord) & came out a sociopath. He spent the 1st 3 wks home in his room in the dark, only coming out at night when he thought we were asleep. He started doing crazy stuff. Haven’t seen him since 1993.”
  • “Recently attended the funeral for a west point grad with a 4yr old and a 7yr old daughter because he blew his face off to escape his ptsd but thats nothing new.”
  • “I don’t know anyone in my family who doesn’t suffer from ptsd due to serving. One is signed off sick due to it & thinks violence is ok. Another (navy) turned into a psycho & thought domestic violence was the answer to his wife disobeying his orders.”
  • “My dad served during vietnam, but after losing close friends and witnessing the killing of innocents by the U.S., he refused to redeploy. He has suffered from PTSD ever since. The bravest thing he did in the army was refuse to fight any longer, and I’m so proud of him for that.”
  • “My best friend from high school was denied his mental health treatment and forced to return to a third tour in Iraq, despite having such deep trauma that he could barely function. He took a handful of sleeping pills and shot himself in the head two weeks before deploying.”
  • “My son died 10 months ago. He did 3 overseas tours. He came back with severe mental illness."
  • “My dad served two tours in middle east and his personality changes have affected my family forever. VA ‘counseling’ has a session limit and doesn’t send you to actual psychologists. Military service creates a mental health epidemic it is then woefully unequipped to deal with.”
  • “My best childhood friend lost his mind after his time in the marines and now he lives in a closet in his mons house and can barely hold a conversation with anyone. He only smokes weed and drinks cough syrup that he steals since he can’t hold a job.”
  • “My cousin served and came back only to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and ptsd. There were nights that he would lock himself in the bathroom and stay in the corner because he saw bodies in the bathtub. While driving down the highway, he had another episode and drove himself into a cement barrier, engulfing his Jeep in flames and burning alive. My father served as well and would never once speak of what he witnessed and had to do. He said it’s not something that any one person should ever be proud of.”
  • “I was sexually assaulted by a service member at 17 when I visited my sister on her base, then again at 18. My friend got hooked on k2 and died after the va turned him away for mental health help. Another friend serving was exploited sexually by her co and she was blamed for it.”
  • “I spent ten years in the military. I worked 15 hour days to make sure my troops were taken care of. In return for my hard work I was rewarded with three military members raping me. I was never promoted to a rank that made a difference. And I have an attempt at suicide. Fuck you!”
  • “My father’s successful military career taught him that he’s allowed to use violence to make people do what he wants because America gave him that power.”
  • “While I was busy framing ‘soliders and families first’ (lol) propaganda posters, my best friend went to ‘Iraqistan’ but he didn’t come back. He returned alive, to be sure, but he was no longer the fun, carefree, upbeat person he’d previously been.”
  • “My husband is a paraplegic and can’t control 3/4 of his body now. Me, I’ve got PTSD, an anxiety disorder, two messed up knees, depression, a bad back, tinnitus, and chronic insomnia. I wish both had never served.”
  • “I am so sorry. The way we fail our service members hurts my heart. My grandfather served in the Korean War and had nightmares until his death at 91 years old. We must do better.”
  • “My Army story is that when I was in high school, recruiters were there ALL the time- at lunch, clubs, etc.- targeting the poor kids at school. I didn’t understand it until now. You chew people who have nothing at home up and spit them out.”
  • “I hope to god that the Army has enough guts to read these and realize how badly our servicepeople are being treated. Thank you and god bless you to all of you in this thread, and your loved ones who are suffering too.”

Poking Iran - looking for trouble....



"We need to get nasty...", one of the warmongers says.

Friday, May 24, 2019

What we are fighting for - all my relations


Trying to catch up


  • I wrongly thought that after I got home from Russia things would slow down for me.  NOT!  I'm feeling like a one-armed wallpaper hanger.  So many potential war hot spots that the U.S. is pursuing.  So much work to do.
  • There is the next issue of the GN's Space Alert newspaper deadline of June 10.  Also the Keep Space for Peace Week (October 5-12) poster with a No to NATO theme that awaits me.
  • I was doing some research this morning on behalf of friends in India who are organizing a Space Law conference at a university in Visakhapatnam during space week.  I'll be attending and offered to help find some space law experts who could possibly be invited to speak.  The corporate forces are lining up trying to dismantle United Nations space law to allow for privatization and corporate domination of space resource extraction.
  • Also this morning I sent out an email invitation to Mainers to attend a June 14 Russia Study Tour report by Rev. Bill Bliss, Mary Beth Sullivan and me.  The event will be held at the Brunswick public library at 7:00 pm.  
  • I've been invited to speak at the University of Florida on June 6 at an interesting conference called Disrupting the status quo: Reconstruction, recovery and resisting disaster risk creation.  Apparently there is an international network that is working on this at the academic level and they wanted some activist feedback so they invited me.  I will talk about conversion of the war machine to help deal with climate catastrophe and also the concept of turning the Pentagon into the 'Natural Guard' for work on rescue, recovery, etc.  Should be an interesting experience.
  • One other big event coming soon - another 'christening' of an Aegis destroyer at BIW on June 22.  I am part of a great team of Mainers working on that protest action as well as a news conference in Portland the day before.
  • So lots to do.  I'm not complaining - I'm lucky to be able to spend my life doing this important work.  Sometimes though, since we are underfunded and short handed (unlike the military industrial complex), it can feel like a tsunami is hitting.  I guess in a way it already has. We do the best we can and push on....thanks for checking in now and then. Best of luck your way.
Bruce

Gabor Maté: 'Don't be so quick to believe them'



Physician, mental health expert, and best-selling author Dr. Gabor Maté sits down with The Grayzone's Aaron Maté (his son) to analyze how Russiagate was able to take hold of U.S. society following Donald Trump's election.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Excellent interview



Chris Hedges talks with reporter, Matt Taibbi, about the deep rot in American journalism.

Russian view of Trump's push for Iran war



The situation in Iran is like a powder keg with sparks raining on it. It's extremely dangerous for the entire world.

The United States started this conflict when last year it withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran for no reason. After that, President Trump imposed illegitimate sanctions against Iran and earlier in May, banned every country on our planet from purchasing oil, steel, copper, and aluminum from Iran.

In response, Iran threatened to cancel the restrictions on its nuclear industry that it voluntarily adopted before.

This Russian TV report on possible war between the U.S. and Iran is instructive.  You learn much more from it than one normally gets on corporate owned TV in the west.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

BIW schedules another destroyer 'christening' - Convert the shipyard


Next BIW Civil Resistance List for June 22


  • Ashley Bahlkow North Yarmouth, Maine
  • Meredith Bruskin Swanville, Maine
  • Dan Ellis Brunswick, Maine
  • Jim Freeman Verona Island, Maine
  • Ridgeley Fuller Belfast, Maine
  • Bruce Gagnon Brunswick, Maine
  • Suzanne Hedrick Nobleboro, Maine
  • Dud Hendrick Deer Isle, Maine
  • Cynthia Howard Biddeford Pool, Maine
  • Connie Jenkins Orono, Maine
  • Ken Jones Asheville, NC
  • Tarak Kauff Woodstock, New York
  • Brown Lethem Brunswick, Maine
  • Natasha Mayers Whitefield, Maine
  • Jane Newton Georgetown, Maine
  • Rosie Paul Brunswick, Maine
  • Doug Rawlings Chesterville, Maine
  • Jason Rawn Hope, Maine
  • Mark Roman Solon, Maine
  • Lisa Savage Solon, Maine
  • Dixie Searway Vermont
  • Robert Shetterly Brooksville, Maine
  • Mary Beth Sullivan Brunswick, Maine
  • Russell Wray Hancock, Maine

Above is the current list of those seriously considering joining the next civil resistance action at Bath Iron Works in Maine during the Aegis destroyer ‘christening’ that is scheduled to happen on Saturday, June 22.

Just weeks ago 25 people from Maine and beyond were arrested at BIW during the ceremony to bless the third Zumwalt ‘stealth’ destroyer at BIW – named the LBJ.  The recently elected District Attorney for the Midcoast, Natasha Irving, decided that prosecuting the LBJ 25 would be a waste of time.  The LBJ action drew extraordinary amounts of media coverage which repeatedly reported that the protest was all about converting BIW to deal with our real problem today – climate catastrophe.

In May 16 BDN article entitled Government report criticizes Bath Iron Works and Navy for ‘serious deficiencies’ in Zumwalt program (see it here) an amazing revelation was disclosed.  The Navy has decided to use the LBJ (costing $7 billion) for parts to keep the first two Zumwalt ships running.

So in the midst of growing climate disruption, with our government doing little to nothing to protect the future generations, the Navy has created a $7 billion ‘parts store’ for their boondoggle Zumwalt program.

Converting facilities like BIW would create more jobs, because producing sustainable technologies is a better driver of employment than building warships -- see Brown University's definitive study from 2017, “Job Opportunity Cost of War”

The destroyers at BIW cost billion$ each, are provocative as they are deployed to encircle China and Russia with first-strike cruise missiles, and contribute significantly to the massive US military carbon boot print.

Instead of building these warships we could be building commuter rail systems, tidal power systems, offshore wind turbines and disaster-relief ships to help us deal with climate change.

Please stay tuned and join us in Bath (on Washington Street across from the Post Office) on June 22 at 8:00 am for our next protest. 

Help us call for a conversion of our hearts and the military industrial complex.

For more information contact globalnet@mindspring.com

A beautiful view of Crimea



Comprehensive TV news report from our visit to Artek in Crimea – including Bill Bliss reciting Pushkin in Russian & Will Griffin training for cosmonaut duty.

A taste of Crimea at the famous kids camp on the Black Sea where Maine resident Samantha Smith visited during the middle of the cold war on a peace mission.

Latest This Issue show



"This Issue" host Bruce Gagnon interviews Bill Clark and Wendy Flaschner from Maine AllCare about their campaign in our state to ensure that all Mainers are covered with health care.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Global Network Russia Study Tour Declaration


 
May 9, 2019
 
As an international delegation to the Russian Federation of 25 individuals, we have visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and three cities in Crimea (April 25-May 9).

We came to learn, to listen, and to build a bridge of friendship through citizen diplomacy.  We have had daily important meetings with Russian journalists, activists, academics, ordinary citizens, and gained first hand information and historical perspective. The Russian people met us with warmth, openness, and generosity.

We came because we are alarmed by the U.S. demonization of Russia and the NATO provocations which have created a world of increasing military confrontation, with the U.S. even threatening the first-use of nuclear weapons.

Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991 US/NATO has encircled Russia with bases, so-called ‘missile defense’ systems, escalating “war games” right on its borders, and with warships increasing military operations in the Black Sea.

Numbers don’t lie.  Russia is a country of just 144 million people, with average income of $400 a month, or $13 a day. Their annual military budget is $60 billion and decreasing. The U.S. military budget is $800 billion and increasing. The U.S. has more than 800 bases encircling the world.

The Russian people love their country with a warmth and depth of love that is difficult for Americans to comprehend. It is a love born of centuries of history, culture and religious faith, and a love born of the suffering and sacrifice of the repeated defense of their Motherland.

On Victory Day, May 9 in St. Petersburg, we walked in solidarity with 1.2 million family members and survivors of the 1941 – 1945 defense of the former Soviet Union when Americans and Russians were friends and allies against the German fascist invasion and occupation. (It should be remembered that 28 million Soviet citizens lost their lives during the fight against the fascists.)

Our message is a call to end the demonization of Russia, remove US/NATO warships from the Black Sea, end the escalating war maneuvers on Russia’s borders, and build bridges of diplomacy and friendship.

Signed by:
  • Dave Webb, Convener, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Leeds, England
  • Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Brunswick, Maine
  • Subrata Ghoshroy, Board Member, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Will Griffin, Board Member, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and the Peace Report, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Mary Beth Sullivan, Board Member, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Brunswick, Maine
  • Rev. Bill Bliss, The Neighborhood United Church of Christ, Bath, Maine
  • Lincoln Bliss, New York City
  • Raymond Bliss, Freeport, Maine
  • Cathleen R. Deppe, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Veterans for Peace, El Segundo, California
  • Shreedhar Gautam, Secretary General, Nepal Council for World Affairs, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Leslie Harris, Veterans for Peace, Flower Mound, Texas
  • John Harris, Veterans for Peace, Flower Mound, Texas
  • Cindy Heil, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Veterans for Peace, Asheville, North Carolina
  • Leonid Ilderkin, Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, Moscow, Russia
  • Yosi McIntire Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, St. Augustine, Florida
  • Solidad Pagliuca, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and Cuba Friendship Association, St. Augustine, Florida
  • John Schuchardt Veterans for Peace and House of Peace, Ipswich Massachusetts 
  • Carrie Schuchardt, House of Peace, Ipswich Massachusetts
  • Alexander J. Walker, Veterans for Peace, El Segundo, California
  • Bill Warrick III MD, Veterans For Peace and Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Gainesville, Florida
  • Sally Warrick, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Gainesville, Florida
  • Prabhu Ray Yadav, Treasurer, Nepal Council for World Affairs, Kathmandu, Nepal

Maine conversion campaign



Click to get better view of the conversion flyer.

If you'd like to order copies of this flyer contact globalnet@mindspring.com 

Monday, May 20, 2019

Never forget 'shock & awe'



George Galloway is a British politician, broadcaster and writer. Between 1987 and 2015, with a gap in 2010–12, he represented four constituencies as a Member of Parliament, elected as a candidate for the Labour Party and later the Respect Party.

Warning to all over Iran attack


Distance yourself from U.S. Iran policies or be responsible for the next catastrophe in the Middle East
Remember President Trump’s tweet and accompanying statements by the Trump administration officials concerning Iran – as reported here by CNN on May 19, 2019.
Trump’s statement amounts to a de facto declaration of war on Iran.
Objectively speaking, it is a lie that Iran threatens the US. It is a lie that the US sends aircraft carriers to the region in self-defence. It’s lies as blatant as the one about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
You may think that this is just psychological warfare and positioning. It is not. Because: Over time, this type of statements develop its own dynamics and the US will not be able to back down from what it threatens to do without loosing face.
President Trump’s statement is a blatant violation of international law, the UN Charter’s Article 2.4 which states:
“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
In this extremely worrying situation of years of step-by-step US build-up to war with Iran, every and each government that does not issue a formal public protest distancing itself from this type of rogue state behaviour that endangers world security must be considered co-responsible for a war on Iran if and when it breaks out.
Check out whether your government has the statesmanship and courage to do so, no matter where you live. Protest if it doesn’t.
This is not the way the world’s strongest military and a world leader should behave – against a state that has, according to every report including US assessments, adhered to every word in the JCPOA, the Nuclear Deal with Iran of 2015.
The only – gross and repeated – violator of that agreement is the United States of America, by its withdrawal from it and thereby also violating international law since that agreement is embedded in a UN Security Council resolution.
Additionally, the US continues and has stepped up sanctions that amount to (economic) war crimes and collective punishment of 85 million completely and indisputably innocent civilian Iranians.
NATO and the EU – as collective organisations – must now distance themselves from this policy and, in the field of US Iran policies, defy any pressure exerted by Washington, issue statements to the effect that this type of policies by a friend and ally is completely unacceptable morally and a crystal clear violation of international law as well as civilised behaviour among members of the global society.
Secondly, each member state must practice civil disobedience against the US in this field, step up all types of cooperation with Iran and – in actions and not just words, words and more words – isolate the US.
Any government that keeps silent in this extremely dangerous situation are philosophically as well politically complicit in every violent action that may be directed at Iran and its people at any point in the future.
To quote Albert Einstein: “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”
When it comes to its Iran policies, the United States must now be made clearly and unequivocally aware that it does not have and will not have any support – ethically, politically, militarily or economically – from allies and friends – neither when making such statements not if it is mad enough to start a war on Iran and destroy one more civilisation and sovereign state in the Middle East.
This is in the service of the US itself: One more war will make the US the most hated country on earth. It will devastate the US economy further. It will weaken and spell the end of the US Empire. It will – like all the other wars – be what I have repeatedly termed a predictable fiasco on its own terms.
If you love America, act now. If you want to see it crumble and fall, keep silent and let it fall into its own – tendentially fascist, militarism-addicted – trap.
~  Jan Oberg, director of TFF - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research based in Lund, Sweden 

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Sunday song