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