Gas tanker truck tries to rundown protesters in Minneapolis

Thousands of peaceful protesters were occupying an interstate bridge in the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota when a gasoline tanker truck came barrelling down the road toward them.

People quickly scattered and it appeared that one lone brave protester sat in front of the truck forcing it to stop.

The driver of this truck has to be one sick fool and deserves to spend many years in jail for attempted murder of these peaceful folks.

It seems that Minnesota has some serious issues that it needs to address rather than blaming the protesters - a very mixed group of black and white folks calling for justice in the case of the killing of George Floyd by four white cops.  All four of those cops need to be charged with murder.

America is one very crazy country.

Bruce

'Light em up'

National guard and Minneapolis Police Department sweeping a residential street. Shooting paint canisters at people on their own front porch. Yelling “light em up”.

This is what the US military has been doing to innocent people all over the world for many years.  Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

We know that many local police departments across the US are being trained by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) who are famous for the way they brutally treat Palestinian people.

Instead of pausing, arresting the four cops who killed George Floyd and prosecuting them for murder, the US corporate oligarchies who run this country are going full-speed-ahead to shut down the growing protests.  They refuse to learn anything in this moment.

Their ultimate goal is to pit the American people against one another as the corporate fat cats steal the national treasury and resources of the nation.  We are heading into Neo-feudalism.

This macho attitude of brute force will only make matters worse.  They will kill more innocent people and further alienate legions of people in this country and around the world. 

The US has been using this aggressive, violent militarization since this nation was founded.  First they massacred the native people, then brutally suppressed slaves brought to this nation from Africa, attacked the civil rights and anti-war movements, and shut down the Occupy movement using these same ugly tactics.  

All of this violence will only hasten the collapse of this nation.  America is again showing the world that we are not the 'exceptional' nation that Washington claims we are, but are in fact a cruel, psychopathic, violent country that has no conscience nor any moral compass.

All of us must reject this militarization of the police and the fascistic attitude toward the citizens who dare publicly stand to say 'Stop the killing of black people across this land'.

Bruce 

'Charge the cops'

Tamika Mallory (a Black Lives Matter leader), Stephen Jackson (former NBA star) and Jamie Foxx (actor) speak passionately at rally for Greg Floyd who was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

They are demanding that all four cops involved in the murder be arrested and charged.

Protests against the Floyd killing are not only happening all across the US but are spreading internationally to cities like Berlin, London, Toronto and more.

There is also growing evidence that undercover police have been in part responsible for some of the violence (window breaking and starting fires) in Minneapolis.  This is standard operating procedure at big protests as the power structure understands that they can turn public opinion against the protests by instigating violence.

Sunday song plus bonus

Racism in America - "The good old days"

Just watched this documentary film called '13th' on Netflix.

Highly recommend it.  You will be changed after viewing this important film.

Timing couldn't be more perfect.

Bruce

Big revelations in this video - the plot thickens.....

As the protests widen to cities all over the nation, new video and information reveals that the cops who killed George Floyd knew him.

New video also shows that Floyd was not resisting arrest.

All four of the cops should be charged with murder.

This crime against Floyd is once again inspiring athletes in the sports world to speak out.   See video below.

We need to break away from the two mainstream political parties

How does RCV work?

We have Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in our November election in Maine.  No more spoilers - you get to vote for who ever you really, truly believe in.

Just what we all need!

U.S tries to sneak 'missile defense' system into South Korean village under virus lockdown

Here is Soseong-ri, Seongju, main land of Korea.

Thousands of policemen are invading Soseong-ri for the resumption of THAAD base construction.

About 100 police bus are surrounding this small village of around 100 households.

Currently, residents and citizens are gathering for protest.

The Moon Jae-in government has prohibited rallies due to corona virus 19. Now the government is mobilizing policemen for illegal THAAD base construction.

The above news comes from the No THHAD situation room on the spot.

By Sung-Hee Choi 

Inside view from behind the war curtain

In a post-Memorial Day video Jimmy Dore interviews Major Danny Sjursen (Ret.) about his recent experiences in the US Army.

Where is the justice in America?

Police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, fired tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets at protesters demanding justice for George Floyd, a Black man who died this week after officers kneeled on his neck and killed him during an arrest on minor charges.

Breaking U.S. sanctions

The US sanctions against Venezuela and Iran (as well as many other nations that Washington wants to topple) have thrown them together.  Tehran and Caracas are working in solidarity in defiance of threats from the US.

China, Cuba and Russia have also been assisting Venezuela in many ways since Washington's attempted series of coup measures have been taking place in the last few years.

There is growing evidence that all the recipients of aggressive US policies around the globe are teaming up as they understand that if one nation falls to the imperial antics of Washington, then they all become weaker and have less chance to survive.

Washington's self-assured arrogant sense of 'entitlement and exceptionalism' is slowly but surely creating the conditions for the collapse of the US economic and military empire.

The days of the bully on the block are slipping away.  Nations wish to be left alone to decide their own future.  Democracy is supposed to be about the people deciding what kind of government they wish to have.  Washington has no right to interfere.

International law dictates that one nation may not interfere in the affairs of another sovereign nation.  International law is something that sadly the US does not honor or respect.

My first real experience with this reality of America exerting its power on another weaker nation was Vietnam while I was in the Air Force during the early 1970's.  Since then I've witnessed and worked against countless other cases of Washington's immoral and illegal actions to force regime change against countries it does not like.

The US (and its NATO) allies wish to control the entire world. Those days are over.

You can sign a petition opposing US sanctions here

Bruce 

Walking thru the radiated forest of Belarus during virus

Whilst wandering through a remote radiated forest in Belarus I saw an old gate post and then soon after stumbled into an abandoned cottage where the inhabitants had seemingly left in a hurry leaving their belongings behind.

Well I did what anyone would do; opened a bottle of Soviet champagne and took a look through the things I had found.

By Bald and Bankrupt

Who is messing up the heavens?

Talking space issues yesterday with friend Regis Tremblay who moved a couple of months ago to beautiful Crimea.

Total number of operating military & civilian satellites: 2,666
United States: 1,327
Russia: 169
China: 363
Other: 807

Planning for war with China & Russia

I had a dream last night.  I was speaking to a good sized group and asked them if after nearly 20 years of US war and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq (with obviously no clear 'success') do they believe that the Pentagon could win a war with Russia and China?  I asked for a show of hands of those who thought the US could win such a war.  Most of the hands went into the air.  My dream turned into a nightmare.

The window is closing on US global dominance and Washington clearly understands this.  Our 'leaders' know that each passing day (with China and Russia working together to create a military alliance capable of effectively defending against US threats, provocations and attacks) the goal of returning to the role of undisputed king of the hill further slips away.

US is expanding its naval presence in the Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to restore dominance

“[This military shift into the Asia-Pacific] is consistent with the Mattis Nuclear Posture Review and other official statements since, which call for a shift of focus to confronting Russia and China,” Professor Noam Chomsky and public intellectual explained to MintPress.

“It’s also consistent with military policies, such as the NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe and in the Arctic, aimed at Russia, and with US efforts to prevent China’s technological development.” Chomsky added.

“And more generally, the Trump administration commitment to dismantle what remains of the arms control regime. Last August, it withdrew from the INF treaty and immediately tested missiles that violate it. It seems that the Open Skies Treaty and New Start are on the chopping block. These are among the reasons, I presume, why the Doomsday Clock was recently moved to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to termination.”

Independent journalist Sonja van den Ende (Netherlands) writes:

After careful review and planning between the U.S. Army Europe and the Polish Department of Defense, Exercise Allied Spirit, an exercise originally planned for May by DEFENDER-Europe 20, will take place on June 5, 2020, in the Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland training area. Other countries like Lithuania, Romania and North Macedonia will be the scene for the alleged “wargame“ [aimed at Russia], but also non-members like Sweden, Norway and Finland will be part of it too. 

While the US Democratic Party attempts to outdo the Republicans in anti-Russian hysteria, the war drive is nevertheless supported by both parties, which see it as essential to project American power around the world. On May 8, 2020, in a crude display of anti-Russian sentiment, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to laud the United States and Great Britain for their “victory over the Nazis!” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced the statement on the 75th anniversary of Hitler’s defeat in Europe for failing to acknowledge the decisive role played in the event by the Soviet Union.

We all know that it's Germany who started by invading Poland in 1939 and conducted the extermination of the Jewish people, political opponents, prisoners of war, Poles, resistance fighters and gypsies once they occupied a country. Do we want another war? No, I hope mankind, especially Europe has learned from the lessons of WWII, but I am doubtful whether they learned anything at all!

The US strategy at this time appears to be one that excites the corporations that make massive profits off the domestic military production system.  The current Pentagon encirclement of Russia, China and Iran appears to be about containment and forcing those nations to spend their national wealth in order to respond to US moves.  Washington hopes for the 'easy way out' - similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

But quite surprisingly the US Congress does not appear to understand that it is in fact the US economy that is likely to collapse first.  With the current $1 trillion a year of Pentagon spending (to get the correct total one must add up all the various military pots of gold hidden away in other agencies budgets, like the Department of Energy which is in charge of all nuclear weapons production) and the growing avalanche of US national debt now at $25 trillion - it seems quite certain that it is the USA that will be the first to hit the skids.

The one question that next comes to mind - in its desperation to regain the illusion of dominance - will the US resort to a first-strike attack using nuclear weapons in a mad attempt to scramble back to the top of the heap?  Given the fact that Washington is the only nation on Earth to have actually used nuclear weapons during war time this concern must be given serious consideration.  The pirate crew now running the ship-of-state in Washington has repeatedly displayed the cold-blooded capability to do such a thing.

And it is a bi-partisan mental illness as well.  We can't forget that it was the Obama administration and his 'faithful party members' that pushed through the nuclear weapons modernization program costing $1 trillion over the next 20 years.

The US normally likes to pick on countries that can't really fight back.  During my lifetime the Pentagon has attacked weak nations like Dominican Republic,  Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Granada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Iraq (repeatedly), Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and more. But the thought of going after China, Russia and Iran boggles the mind.  They could actually hit back and deliver a loaded punch.  But trying to bring logic to the question of US foreign policy will only keep one up at night.  Nothing about Washington's decision making ever makes any sense.

In the end I see it as an addiction - like an alcoholic at the bar unable to stop drinking. Until the American people and their government come to grips with this mental illness I'm sad to say this careening madness will likely continue.  The US needs global intervention - Washington needs to be put in the timeout corner and ordered to enter a 12-step program.

Hello - my name is America and I am addicted to power, military spending and endless war.  I am a bully.

Bruce

Memorial Day message: No good war$

Learn more about Lisa Savage here

Sunday song

Brazil's poor hit hard by virus

Brazil is reporting tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases every day with the death toll increasing so rapidly that graves can’t be dug fast enough. NBC’s Bill Neely reports for Weekend TODAY.

Latest space issues interview

Listen to "Saying NO to the militarization of space" on Spreaker.

Journalist Karl Grossman and Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, on “Loud & Clear this week.

The programs kicks off with our discussing Trump saying, upon the unveiling of a U.S. Space Force flag in the Oval Office last week, that “space is going to be…the future both in terms of defense and offense" -- a declaration of the offensive mission of the Space Force that flies in the face of the Outer Space Treaty that sets space aside for peaceful purposes. 

Correction: 

During the interview I mistakenly mixed up Trump's recent withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty with his current refusal to re-negotiate the START Treaty with Russia that expires next year.  

The Open Skies Treaty allows 34 nations to send unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of the states who are members of the accord. This creates trust and stability.  The US wants out.

The START Treaty regulates nuclear missiles and warheads between the US and Russia.  Trump wants out of this treaty as well.  It should be remembered that during the Obama administration they made the decision to upgrade and modernize the Pentagon's nuclear stockpile by spending $1 trillion during the next 20 years.

Bruce 

'All my relatives'

Rising voices/Hótȟaŋiŋpi from The Language Conservancy and Florentine Films profiles Lakota language loss and revitalization.

Though the Lakota nation has over 170,000 tribal members, only 6,000 of them speak Lakota today. The average age of the native speakers is now almost 70. But Rising Voices/Hótȟaŋiŋpi. depicts an exhilarating effort by both Lakota and non-Indian people to hold back the floodwaters of history: the day-by-day struggle to save a dying language.

A collection of spirits (good & not so nice)

• Washington is walking away from another arms control treaty with Russia - the Open Skies Treaty that allows each nation to fly over the others with spy planes to ensure they are keeping to various treaty agreements.  But the US don't do treaties no more....

• Iran is shipping oil to Venezuela but the Pentagon is threatening to intercept them.  This would be piracy - not really anything new when it comes to America.  The US sees the coming collapse of empire and knows the window is closing fast.  That is the reason for so many desperate 'last ditch' acts to remain Mr. Big - on top of the heap.  In the end Washington is willing to risk nuclear war with Russia and China.  Both mainstream political parties are engaged in this bloody game of Monopoly.  It is a circus.

• I'm following closely the status of Major League Baseball - will there be a season this year?  Appears to be coming closer to starting but issues between the club owners and the players over $$$ are at hand. Sadly it appears the minor league teams won't have a season.  I miss baseball.  Now and then I've been watching Baltimore Oriole World Series games from the old days online.

• Will we beat these sadistic people running much of the world or will we perish?  Like anyone else, I think about it alot and get asked the question frequently - can we stop them?  What can we do?  I would agree it looks bad - between climate crisis, economic collapse and the possibility of space/earth war we could all go down hard.  But I have no control of the outcome.  I was told many years ago by Quaker Al Geiger from Jacksonville, Florida that I was trying to carry the whole world on my shoulders.  He said I ought to just do my best, work hard, have a good spirit and let go of worrying about results.  Hearing his words one day, while we had lunch in the shade of a cedar tree on land he donated to the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, I felt liberated.  It's not all my responsibility - just do my bit and give it all I got.  These days Al is in a senior recovery center and has battled two bouts of the virus.  He's now in his 90's and one of the greatest men I've met in my life.  I love him.

• Mask or not to mask?  Vaccines?  Was the corona virus created in a military sponsored lab in the US and sent to China with funding from Dr. Anthony Fauci?  Was it from a bat?  One of the reasons people are so confused is because we've learned to question EVERYTHING if we hope to understand anything.  It's in the interests of the corporate ruling class to make us afraid, disoriented and servile.  I'm always going to drift to the side of more information, more voices, more choices.  I have enough confidence that if I gather lots of info then I will figure things out.

• The Oakland Institute reports:

• As a condition for a US$8 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine was forced to lift a 19-year moratorium on the sale of agricultural land in April 2020.

• Amidst an ongoing economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented street protests against the lifting of the moratorium by Ukrainians who are overwhelmingly opposed to the law.

• Opening the sale of land will benefit Western agribusiness interests [like Monsanto] and oligarchs who will now further consolidate ownership of land and intensify large scale, industrial agriculture in “Europe’s Breadbasket,” at the expense of Ukrainian farmers.

• While conditionalities accompanying Western foreign assistance are common practice, the way Ukraine has been forced to put its land for sale has no precedent in modern history.

On April 28, 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill into law authorizing the sale of farmland in Ukraine, lifting a moratorium that has been in place since 2001. This bill is part of a series of policy reforms that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditioned a US$8 billion loan package upon. Faced with a serious economic crisis, an ongoing civil war, and the rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic, Ukraine risked plunging into default without the package.

• And on we go.....hope to see you somewhere soon. Stay strong for the future generations.

Bruce

Great song illustrates this video

Song written by Dan Ellis from Brunswick, Maine and performed by Lisa's sister Hope Savage along with Alan Bond.

Understanding how the CIA works

This video is an expose, not only of the CIA, but what America really is and who we are as Americans filmed by Regis Tremblay.

This is the story about how Doug Valentine gained access to top officials in the CIA and CIA operatives who revealed their secrets and explained the inner workings of the CIA.

I read this book and learned so much.  It is a chilling story.

Another book that should be read along side of Valentine's book on the CIA is David Talbot's epic book called The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

I'd submit that since the Allen Dulles directed assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963,  no one can become president in the US unless the CIA picks and controls them.

That is the state of democracy in America today.

Bruce

Macron loses majority in Parliament over rightist policies

PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron faces the loss of his party’s majority in the French parliament with the defection of about ten left-wing members who say he has broken his centrist promises and is running a “conservative government”. Macron’s party, La République En Marche (LREM), has lost its absolute majority in the French National Assembly, The Times reported.

Ten MPs deserted Macron’s party and instead joined the independent group, Ecology Democracy Solidarity. The MPs that quit his party, which Macron formed in 2016, accused the French president of breaking his centrist promises and argue Macron is running a “conservative government”.

The loss of the 10 MPs means Macron has lost the majority in the National Assembly, which he has held since 2017. From 295 members, the LREM group goes down to 285 – four less than the absolute majority, fixed at 289 seats. Ministers have hit out at the defectors, and say they are defying Macron’s appeals for national unity during the coronavirus crisis.

Bruno Le Maire, the Finance Minister, stated, “I regret that some people want to reopen the left-right divisions that we and the French people wanted to put behind us in 2017.”

The defection is another major blow to Macron’s presidency, which has been marred by strikes and demonstrations by the Yellow Vest protestors.

At the beginning of the year, thousands of people protested the president’s overhaul to the national pension system. The proposals triggered a wave of strikes and demonstrations across France over several weeks.  But the health crisis led Macron to suspend the measures, while his government focused on tackling the deadly virus.

His current approval ratings are fairly dismal, with only 35 percent approving the government’s performance. In mid-May, around 250 people demonstrated against police brutality in France, on the first day the country eased its lockdown measures. Days later, the Yellow Vest movement also remerged in several cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon.

~ Reported by Fort Russ

Excellent analysis on Sanders & real movement

Krystal Ball discusses the future of the progressive movement after Dem leadership's repeated rejection of progressive provisions to coronavirus relief bills.

About Rising:  Rising is a weekday morning show with bipartisan hosts that breaks the mold of morning TV by taking viewers inside the halls of Washington power like never before. The show leans into the day's political cycle with cutting edge analysis from DC insiders who can predict what is going to happen. It also sets the day's political agenda by breaking exclusive news with a team of scoop-driven reporters and demanding answers during interviews with the country's most important political newsmakers.

Auction on Thursday

Support Lisa Savage’s campaign for U.S. Senate and local Maine artists by bidding on their work in a silent auction or by Zooming in for the live event.

Even if you aren’t planning to bid, feel free to join us for the virtual event for a fun and uplifting time.

TO REGISTER FOR THE LIVE AUCTION, YOU MUST RSVP ON OUR WEBSITE: https://www.lisaformaine.org/artauction

Everyone who RSVPs will receive a Zoom invite by email on the day of the event.

After you RSVP, go to https://lisaformaine.art/ to see the artwork and find more information about the Lisa for Maine art auction.

We hope you can join us to have some fun together, support some great artists, and raise some money for our grassroots campaign for people, planet, and peace!

Conversion creates more useful jobs

Although no public jobs can be created and no bridges repaired as long as all that money goes for unworkable Rube Goldberg Star Wars systems, not to mention cost overruns and plain corruption, [President Bill] Clinton will have to overcome his natural southern affinity for all things military.  Conversion is the name of the only game we have left.  Conversion from war to peace.  Instead of Seawolf submarines, he must build bullet trains (my advice to Jerry Brown, who dramatized it on television and won the Connecticut primary).  The same workforce that now builds submarines has the same technology to build trains.

~ Gore Vidal in GQ November 1992

Huey Long: Share the wealth

Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed "The Kingfish," was a populist American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and was a member of the US Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. As the political leader of Louisiana, he commanded wide networks of supporters and was willing to take forceful action.

During Long's years as governor, large expansions were made in infrastructure, education and health care. Long was notable among southern politicians for avoiding race baiting and white supremacy, and he sought to improve the conditions of poor blacks as well as poor whites.

Under Long's leadership, hospitals and educational institutions were expanded, a system of charity hospitals was set up that provided health care for the poor, and massive highway construction and free bridges brought an end to rural isolation.

He abolished the state’s poll tax and gave away free textbooks to every student.

A Democrat and an outspoken left-leaning politician, Long denounced the wealthy urban Baton Rouge and Washington elites, oligarchs and the banks. Initially a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first 100 days in office, Long eventually came to believe that Roosevelt's "New Deal" policies were an insufficient compromise and did not do enough to alleviate the issues of the poor or tackle the Depression. As a result, he developed his own solution called the 'Share Our Wealth' program, which would establish a net asset tax (limit on how many millions one person could have), the earnings of which would be redistributed so as to curb the poverty and homelessness epidemic nationwide during the Great Depression.

Long's Share Our Wealth plan was established on February 23, 1934, with the motto 'Every Man a King.' To stimulate the economy, Long advocated extensive federal spending on public works, schools and colleges, and old age pensions.

Long split with Roosevelt in June 1933 and was assassinated in 1935, and his national movement soon faded, but his legacy continued in Louisiana.

    "We do not propose to say that there shall be no rich men. We do not ask to divide the wealth. We only propose that, when one man gets more than he and his children and children's children can spend or use in their lifetimes, that then we shall say that such person has his share. That means that a few million dollars is the limit to what any one man can own."
    — Huey Long, Share Our Wealth radio address, February 23, 1934

    "I'm for the poor man — all poor men, black and white, they all gotta have a chance. They gotta have a home, a job, and a decent education for their children. 'Every man a king' — that's my slogan."
    — Huey Long (T. Harry Williams, Huey Long, p. 706)

    "They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen."
    — Huey Long, campaign speech for the re-election of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR), 1932 (Williams p. 589)

    "What did the opposition have to offer? Nothing. All they could talk about was autocrats and high taxes and state debts. Well we have always had taxes, the state has always been in debt, but never until Huey Long was elected did the people get anything for their money.”
    — gas station attendant (Huey Long's Regime in Louisiana, Ingham County News – Mason, MI, Feb. 20, 1936)

    "He was a crook — but he had no money; a corrupt politician — but the cost of government [in Louisiana] is third-lowest in the country; a demagogue — but he kept his campaign promises; a hillbilly — but he had no racial prejudices; an ignoramus — but he ran a business administration; a dictator — but he broadened the suffrage; an opportunist — but he had ideals."
    — Washington Columnist Drew Pearson’s proposed epitaph in response to false charges against Long (reprinted in "Huey Long’s Regime in Louisiana," Ingham County News, Mason, Mich., Feb. 20, 1936) 

Update on the virus with Francis Boyle

By Spiro Skouras

In a time of great confusion where so many possible scenarios of what we are seeing take place regarding the coronavirus outbreak, the origins of the virus and the severity of the pandemic, one is reminded of the quote from former CIA Director William Casey…

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”

While at this point we certainly do not claim to have all of the answers, we are working hard to provide alternative perspectives from top qualified experts and encourage the viewer to consider more than one possibility while having an open mind and draw your own conclusions.

In this interview Spiro is joined by the author of the US Biowarfare Act Professor Francis Boyle to discuss the latest developments regarding the Coronavirus outbreak, the source of the virus and the corrupt interests involved.

Professor Boyle also outlines two reports which he claims confirm his position on the origins of the virus. One, from a Nobel Peace Prize winning scientist in France. The second, a leaked memo from the 5 Eyes intelligence alliance.

If you'd like to see the many articles that back up what Francis Boyle is talking about see here

The Mirror Image of the Same Person

The " Gooks. "

That's what we were told in basic training.

The Them and The Us.

That's right.

That's how stupid I was when I went to

Viet Nam.

I found out the truth in a padded cell when

I finally realized I was the enemy in Viet Nam.

Betrayal is explosive!!

It's 2020, and now we have Donald Trump.

The plague is still alive and well.

Nothing has changed.

The Pentagon is still the most evil piece

of real estate the world has ever seen.

By Mike Hastie
Army Medic Viet Nam
May 16, 2020

Photo by Mike Hastie

Sunday song

What is U.S. role in Syria?

Asked why the American public should tolerate US involvement in Syria, Special Envoy James Jeffrey points out the small US footprint in the fight against ISIS. "This isn't Afghanistan. This isn't Vietnam. This isn't a quagmire. My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians."

— Jared Szuba (@JM_Szuba) May 12, 2020

   

The Trump administration's stated military objective of "securing the oil" in Syria is in part keep that oil out of Russia and Assad's hands, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper suggested in October.

— Jared Szuba (@JM_Szuba) May 12, 2020

See more on this story here

Beautiful sea-diving women of Jeju Island

Seven months pregnant and apprehensive of the effect motherhood would have on her career as a professional freediver, Kimi Werner took a trip to the island of Jeju in South Korea to meet her heroes, the haenyeo – a group of freediving and fishing women often regarded as Korea’s first working mother’s whose culture dates back centuries.

Expecting her first child, Kimi explored how the haenyeo represent feminine strength and resilience as a self sufficient sisterhood of diving mothers and grandmothers. As Kimi transitions from a solo underwater adventurist to a mother cultivating a family, she longs to learn from the haenyeo elders - many of which are well into their 70’s and continue to dive.

Join Kimi on her journey in Lessons from Jeju, where she gains a deeper understanding of what it means to pass on her own legacy and learns motherhood for a professional athlete isn’t a roadblock but instead a path forward.

Space Force: 'Super- duper'

Today I was presented with the brand new @SpaceForceDoD flag in the Oval Office. I will take Great Pride in displaying it at the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/S29tBFYlQY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2020

 
NPR reports:

Trump held an Oval Office ceremony Friday to sign the 2020 Armed Forces Day Proclamation and unveil the official flag of the Space Force, the newest military branch. Standing alongside senior leaders of the military, Trump called the unfurling a "very special moment."

"We've worked very hard on this and it's so important from a defensive standpoint, from an offensive standpoint, from every standpoint there is," Trump said. The flag design comes from the seal of the Space Force, which was approved by the president in January. It sparked some Star Trek fan outrage for what some people have called its similarity to a logo in the science fiction franchise.

According to the White House, the dark blue and white of the flag is meant to represent the "vast recesses of outer space" and includes a elliptical orbit with three large stars meant to symbolize the branch's purpose: "organizing, training and equipping" Space Force troopers, in the language of the Pentagon.

The Space Force was created in part to protect strategic American space infrastructure, including communications, navigation and spy satellites, from adversaries such as Russia and China.

"As you know, China, Russia, perhaps others, started off a lot sooner than us," Trump said. "We should have started this a long time ago, but we've made up for it in spades. We have developed some of the most incredible weapons anyone's ever seen. And it's moving along very rapidly."

[This statement is our course total fiction as the US has been leading the way in militarizing and weaponizing space - especially since the early 1990's when its only competitor the former Soviet Union collapsed.]

Trump teased what he called a new weapon that could attack at such a high speed it would overwhelm an enemy's defenses.

"We have, I call it the 'super-duper missile.' And I heard the other night [it's] 17 times faster than what they have right now," Trump said.

It wasn't immediately clear what missile the president was describing, but the U.S. and other advanced powers are known to be developing new hypersonic weapons, designed to race at many times the speed of sound.

Trump was joined by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who praised the president for his efforts to push the new organization within the Defense Department.

"With the establishment of Space Force and establishment of Space Command, the United States is now doing what it needs to do to protect our assets in space and ensure that space remains the heavens by which we not only protect America, but we sustain our economy, we sustain our commercial capabilities, we sustain Americans' way of life," Esper said.

[The true purpose of the Space Force is to give the US 'control and domination' of space and the ability to 'deny' others the use of space. See Vision for 2020 here.]

Trump officially created Space Force, the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Services, in December. It's the first new military service since the Air Force was created in 1947.

Is this the best we got?

Checking in on Biden 🙂 pic.twitter.com/yyPWXvaTMA

— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) May 12, 2020

 
Notice Biden talks about 'health insurance'.  He's not talking about Medicare4All.  He's talking about making sure the insurance corporations keep their dirty hands on control of health care in America.

That's not what the vast majority of the people want.

Plus he can hardly put together a clear sentence anymore.

Is this the best that we got?  Hardly....

Bruce

Out of work, out of $$, running out of time.....

This thing ain't over yet - going to hit us hard.

Solutions?

End the war$, tax the rich and corporations (many of whom are not paying any taxes), enact Medicare4All, and stop bailing out Wall Street and the aerospace industry.

Pentagon's Bio-warfare labs

By Dilyana Gaytandzhieva

The US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of Biological Weapons. Hundreds of thousands of unwitting people are systematically exposed to dangerous pathogens and other incurable diseases.  Bio warfare scientists using diplomatic cover test man-made viruses at Pentagon bio laboratories in 25 countries across the world. These US bio-laboratories are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program– Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa.

Georgia is a testing ground for bioweapons

The Lugar Center, Republic of Georgia

The Lugar Center is the Pentagon bio laboratory in Georgia. It is located just 17 km away from the US Vaziani military airbase in the capital Tbilisi. Tasked with the military program are biologists from the US Army Medical Research Unit-Georgia (USAMRU-G) along with private contractors. The Bio-safety Level 3 Laboratory is accessible only to US citizens with security clearance. They are accorded diplomatic immunity under the 2002 US-Georgia Agreement on defense cooperation.

The USA-Georgia agreement accords diplomatic status to the US military and civilian personnel (including diplomatic vehicles), working on the Pentagon program in Georgia.

Information obtained from the US federal contracts registry clarifies some of the military activities at The Lugar Center – among them research on bio-agents (anthrax, tularemia) and viral diseases (e.g. Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever), and the collection of biological samples for future experiments.

Pentagon contractors produce bio agents under diplomatic cover

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has outsourced much of the work under the military program to private companies, which are not held accountable to  Congress, and which can operate more freely and move around the rule of law.  US civilian personnel performing work at The Lugar Center have also been given diplomatic immunity, although they are not diplomats. Hence, private companies can perform work, under diplomatic cover, for the US government without being under the direct control of the host state – in this case the Republic of Georgia. This practice is often used by the CIA to provide cover for its agents.

Three private American companies work at the US bio-laboratory in Tbilisi – CH2M Hill, Battelle and Metabiota. In addition to the Pentagon, these private contractors perform biological research for the CIA and various other government agencies.

CH2M Hill has been awarded $341.5 million DTRA contracts under the Pentagon’s program for bio-laboratories in Georgia, Uganda, Tanzania, Iraq, Afghanistan, South East Asia. Half of this sum ($161.1 million), is being allocated to The Lugar Center, under the Georgian contract.

According to CH2M Hill, the US Company has secured biological agents and employed former bio warfare scientists at The Lugar Center. These are scientists who are working for another American company involved in the military program in Georgia – Battelle Memorial Institute.

Battelle as a $59 million subcontractor at Lugar Center has extensive experience in research on bio-agents, as the company has already worked on the US Bio-weapons Program under 11 previous contracts with the US Army (1952-1966).

The private company performs work for the Pentagon’s DTRA bio laboratories in Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Uganda, Tanzania, Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Battelle conducts research, development, testing, and evaluation using both highly toxic chemicals and highly pathogenic biological agents for a wide range of US government agencies. It has been awarded some $2 billion federal contracts in total and ranks 23 on the Top 100 US government contractors list.

The CIA-Battelle Project Clear Vision

Project Clear Vision (1997 and 2000), a joint investigation by the CIA and the Battelle Memorial Institute, under a contract awarded by the Agency, reconstructed and tested a Soviet-era anthrax bomblet in order to test its dissemination characteristics. The project’s stated goal was to assess bio-agents dissemination characteristics of bomblets. The clandestine CIA-Battelle operation was omitted from the US Biological Weapons Convention declarations submitted to the UN.

Top Secret Experiments

Battelle has operated a Top Secret Bio laboratory (National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center – NBACC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland under a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contract for the last decade. The company has been awarded a $344.4 million federal contract (2006 – 2016) and another $17.3 million  contract (2015 -2026) by DHS.

Fort Detrick, Maryland has been the primary US bio-warfare lab for the Pentagon since after WW II.

Amongst the secret experiments, performed by Battelle at NBACC, are: Assessment of powder dissemination technology ; Assessment of hazard posed by aerosolized toxins and Assessment of virulence of B. Pseudomallei (Meliodosis) as a function of aerosol particle in non-human primates. Melioidosis has the potential to be developed as a biological weapon, hence, it is classed as a category B. Bioterrorism Agent.  B. Pseudomallei was studied by the US as a potential bioweapon in the past.

Besides the military experiments at the Lugar Center in Georgia, Battelle has already produced bioterrorism agents at the Biosafety Level 4 NBACC Top Secret Laboratory at Fort Detrick in the US. A NBACC presentation lists 16 research priorities for the lab. Amongst them to characterize classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens for their BTA (biological threat agent) potential; assess the nature of nontraditional, novel and non-endemic induction of disease from potential BTA and to expand aerosol-challenge testing capacity for non-human primates.

See the rest of this important article here

Find more on the history of Fort Detrick here

Art Auction to help Savage campaign

The Lisa for Maine Art Auction will be LIVE on May 21, at 5:30 p.m. Bidding on pieces featured on this page starts May 18!

Support Lisa Savage’s campaign for U.S. Senate and local Maine artists by bidding on their work in a silent auction or by Zooming in for the live event. Even if you aren’t planning to bid, feel free to join us for the virtual event for a fun and uplifting time with Auctioneer Richard Roberts!

Pieces linked below are ready for bidding via our Google Form. High bids will begin to be announced on May 18 for certain items below at 6 p.m. The leading bid will thereafter be updated twice per day, at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., until the live event begins, at which point the silent auction will close. For each work donated, the artist will decide how much of the sale price to receive as an honorarium, and will donate the rest to our campaign for people, planet, and peace. 

 See the art work here

Latest edition of Space Alert online

Latest Space Alert newsletter now heading to the print shop

See the full edition here

Unfinished bizness

• It was quiet around here in Brunswick for almost two months. Now folks hope the virus is over and they are starting to hit the streets again.  Car traffic is picking up.  In 14 of Maine's 16 counties things are starting to open again.  The other two counties (York and Cumberland) are still mostly on lock down.  I live in Cumberland County.

• Dentists are clamoring to open as they report that infections and such are on the rise which could lead to serious illness.  I can relate to this concern since for the past two weeks I've had a tooth infection and need it pulled.  My regular dentist examined me last week and agreed that we should pull the tooth, but I've had to wait another week to see a surgeon.  I go in today - I'll be glad to stop taking the pain pills.  I hate to take medications.

• Like many, I agree that the best part of the virus pandemic has been the slow down of life and our massive ugly polluting impact on the natural world. So in a way it breaks my heart to see things ramp up again.  Back to hustling, endless growth, money-mongering, war-mongering and all the rest that comes with a capitalist, consumerist, car culture.  Ugh....

• Gotta put down the guns, all religion is one, politicians only want to blind you, break away....got to give out your love.  'Unfinished Business' - a song by Dave Davies (The Kinks).  These words are his as I listen to the song while I type this.  I often do this when I write - take words, phrases or thoughts from songs and try to plug them into a poem or a post.  Peace is the only way....unfinished business.  Yeah...

• The artwork above is from friend Russell Wray in Hancock, Maine who is a great advocate and defender of sea life.  He made this banner for one of our past peace walks across Maine.  He does amazing sculpture of nature.  We have one of his etchings on the wall in our home.  See his website here

Bruce

Trump tries to re-write WW II history

Trump has created a fury when the White House made the above Tweet on May 8.  Washington once again attempts to re-write history by claiming that the US and the UK defeated Nazi Germany.

But in fact it was the Soviet Union that defeated the Nazi Army. (It was May 8, 1945 in Berlin when Soviet soldiers captured the city and at the same moment it was May 9 in Moscow due to time differences. The Russians claim victory day as May 9.)

Throughout most of WWII, the US and UK faced just 10 German divisions combined. The Soviets alone fought more than 200 German divisions largely as a result of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

The numbers don't lie.  Here are the figures for total losses in WW II:

• UK 451,000
• U.S. 419,400
• France 600,000
• Soviet Union 27 million

You can imagine the outrage that is felt in nations that were part of the former Soviet Union when they hear the west (US-NATO countries) attempt to erase their dramatic contributions toward defeating fascism during WW II.  In response the Russian Foreign Ministry made the following statement.

Soviet soldier raising the flag after they took Berlin from the Nazis on May 9, 1945

Statement by the Foreign Ministry concerning US attempts to rewrite the history of the Victory over Nazism

Attempts to distort the results of the defeat of Nazism and the decisive contribution our country made, which are continuing in Washington even during these days of universal celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory, cause utter indignation.

In this context we cannot neglect the commentary posted on the White House pages in social networks where the victory over Nazi Germany is credited exclusively to “America and Great Britain.” On the eve of this sacred holiday US officials could not garner the courage and will to even in passing pay tribute to the indisputable role and incomparable colossal losses suffered back then by the Red Army and the Soviet people for the sake of the humankind. Remarks by US official representatives turned out to be extremely restrained.

Regretfully, such an attitude is in apparent contrast with the statement made Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on April 25 on the occasion of the historic meeting of Soviet and US soldiers on the Elbe in 1945.

The document stresses the joint efforts of our nations in the fight against a common enemy.

We proceed from the assumption that real historical facts may not be ignored, regardless of feelings towards both the Soviet Union, which liberated the world from the brown plague, and our country of today. This is evidenced not only by the numerous grounded responses to the White House tweets from Russians and also from Americans who know their history and people from around the world. It is indicative that their reasonable and fact-based comments are being regularly deleted. And this is being done in the “most democratic country,” which tirelessly proclaims its “adherence to freedom of speech”!

The topic of the scared deeds of the older generation in that war must not turn into another problem in bilateral relations, which are going through hard times as it is. Russia and the US, despite disagreements, can counter ever-increasing present-day challenges on the basis of trust, mutual respect and while taking into account each other’s interests.

We intend to have a serious conversation on this issue with US officials. 

Critical review of Sanders & his so-called 'revolution'

This is an excerpt of an interview recently conducted with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and best-selling author Chris Hedges.

Hedges discusses Bernie Sanders' decision to run as a democratic candidate and not an independent despite 2016 DNC corruption. In addition, he examines the Sanders' campaign failure and whether it should be attributed to internal or external factors.

To watch the full video visit: https://youtu.be/elJwNiAgcmA

Must see this one....

We watched this great film the other night for $5 online.

It was shown in only one theater in our state when it came out last year and only for two days.  We were shocked that no other theaters in Maine picked it up.  Of course we should not have been surprised at all.

This is a very important (and suspenseful) film based on a true story about a brave woman from a British spy agency who revealed to the press that George W. Bush and Tony Blair lied their respective nations into the Iraq war by fabricating a story to pressure the United Nations to support the 2003 'shock and awe'.

I strongly urge everyone to watch it.

It's one of the most important stories in contemporary human history.

Bruce

Mother's Day message

Sunday song

Notes from online GN board meeting

Due to the virus pandemic our annual Global Network meeting (scheduled for Ottawa in May along with many other groups in a coalition conference) was cancelled.  Thus we have needed to bring together our board members via Internet and did so last night.

Twenty of our board members from India, U.S. (Maine, Massachusetts, New York, California, Pennsylvania, Washington & Hawaii), England, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Russia were on the call.

We spent 2.5 hours listening to each other report on to what is happening in our part of the globe during this pandemic as well as major military operations currently underway by our own government and/or the U.S.

It was such a positive experience that we decided to get together again next month for another round.

Here are a few notes of highlights from the folks.

• The hypocritical Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that his country supports the global ceasefire a day after it resumed weapon sales to the outlaw nation Saudi Arabia.  In addition Canada is planning on purchasing a fleet of new fighter jets with the bids due this June. The Canadian government wants to buy 88 fighter jets for $19 billion in an "open and transparent" competition. However, in May, the Canadian government made a $70 million payment to the U.S. military to remain in the F-35 development consortium bringing Canada's total payment of $540 million to date. Many peace activists expect that Canada will buy the Lockheed Martin stealth fighter, a carbon-intensive combat aircraft for first-strike operations that the country doesn't need. Activists are calling on the federal government to invest in a green new deal, not buy a new weapons system.
• The Japanese government had agreed to the deployment of US 'missile defense' (MD) systems called Aegis Ashore in two communities inside the country.  Aegis Ashore is a ground-based launching system that replicates the Navy's Aegis destroyer MD program.  Aegis Ashore has been deployed on the land in Hawaii, Romania and Poland.  These launch platforms can fire SM-3 (Standard missile interceptors) or first-strike attack nuclear capable cruise missiles.  Residents near the two Japanese cities have been vigorously opposing these deployments and the government appears to be wavering about one of the communities called Akita.  The people fear health impacts from the radar systems that are part of Aegis Ashore as well as the reality of becoming a direct target in a war with China or Russia.
•  The Trump administration is pressuring the South Korean government to increase its 'cost sharing' of the expense of United States Forces in Korea (USFK). Washington insisted that Seoul increase 'their contribution' by 500% but very recently changed the proposal to 53%. Still this outrageous demand is not going over well in South Korea as could be expected.  
• The South Korean government is creating a Space Force, purchasing four Global Hawk drones and will be launching a military satellite this year.  The air force gallery in the Jeju Aerospace Museum promotes South Korea's vision of being an aerospace power.
• In Australia the usual rotation of US Marines into a base in Darwin (in northern part of the country) have been cancelled due to the virus.  But the US continues to send personnel to its big space spy base at Pine Gap which is located in the middle of the country on indigenous lands.
• In Germany the government was slow to respond to the virus.  Borders have been closed and racism has grown worse as the lock down appears to bring out the worst in many people.  
• The virus gives us all a moment to pause (the Earth has been healing itself during the global shut down) and we should use this opportunity to strongly project our transformative visions for a more sustainable way of living.  In particular our call for massive cuts in military spending, ending war, and converting the war machine to needed and useful production that helps deal with our real problem - climate change.
• Been working with black and brown people who experience the brunt of the virus and racism in the US.  If we are ever going to change anything then they must lead the movements.  In a strange way this is a hopeful time as we either do this right now or humanity will be lost.  It is time for everyone to step forward to resist the ravages (human and environmental) of capitalism.
• One of our board members from Sweden couldn't be on the call due to illness but sent this message along:  I want to contribute here with what I know about the enlarging of Esrange in the North of Sweden to be able to launch mini-satellites. (Esrange is the worlds biggest downloading station from satellites and has a rocket station.) Angstrom laboratories in Uppsala, Sweden, has developed the prototype of mini-satellites for military use already in 2005. Mini-satellites will most probably be used for damaging Russian and Chinese satellites. I am prepared to write about these rather alarming developments at Esrange in the next issue of Space Alert. Another thing is that Israel most probably is training drones at North European Aerospace Test range. 
• The US-NATO war games called RIMPAC are held in the Pacific and peace groups have been working hard to get them cancelled this year.  The word is now that they will only do the naval portion of the war exercises this year - the practice land invasions that are usually done with the Army and Marines are cancelled.  
• A corporation that promotes 'spaceports' is pushing to have the state of Hawaii help fund one there.  This is happening in many places around the US and throughout the world.  
• As the aerospace industry moves to launch tens of thousands of 'mini-satellites' for 5G and other uses they are saying they need more launch facilities.  Even in Brunswick, Maine aerospace operatives are pushing for a spaceport at the former navy base.  It is important to remember that a spaceport that got forced on the people of Kodiak Island, Alaska was sold to the public as a 'civilian launch facility' but every launch over the years since it was established as been a Star Wars technology test.  
• News has emerged that the US (since it orchestrated the 2014 coup d'etat in Ukraine) has built 15 bio-warfare labs in that nation.  Recent reports indicate that cattle grazing near the labs have been dying.  Little public information is available.  The US has also set up similar bio-war labs in Georgia, also along Russia's border.
• Pentagon recruiting is increasing during the pandemic as unemployment grows and young people have few options.
• Migrant farm workers, considered 'illegal' in California, are now being called 'essential workers' as they harvest our food.  But they are still treated poorly - lacking good housing, health care, fair wages and more.  
• Homelessness is growing in the US during this pandemic.  Here in Maine our state has taken good steps to help treat those experiencing homelessness with dignity which has not always been the case.
• India is spending three times more on the military than on health care during this virus pandemic.  India has 300 million people living in poverty.
• We should explore space but not exploit it.
• Many current US military bases in the US (like Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg in California) will be renamed as Space Force bases.
• The UK has announced it intends to create a Space Force and will focus on building and launching mini-satellites.  Most of these satellites (as is the case with most space technology) would be 'dual use' - meaning serving two masters - both military and civilian purposes.
• We must do more to show the 'deadly connections' between nuclear weapons and space technology.  These are not separate issues.  
• The corporate media is not covering any of these space issues in a real way anymore.  Thus the work of the GN is needed now more than ever.  It is really the only international organization doing this kind of work to stop the nuclearization and weaponization of space.
• Our next Space Alert newsletter is now in design mode as all copy has been sent to our lay out person.  It should be in the mail pretty soon.  The focus of this coming issue will be the Space Force.  The public relations campaign around the Space Force keeps saying that it will be a 'lean' organization - meaning it won't be expensive.  But the truth is that for many years the aerospace industry has bragged that Star Wars will be the largest industrial project in human history.  Who will pay for this? 
• You can find a list of our GN board members here