Varoufakis: We live under Techo-feudalism

 

Yanis Varoufakis is one of the world's most famous economists and left-wing intellectuals.

The former Finance Minister of Greece, he is a Greek politician, the founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and launched the Progressive International with Bernie Sanders.
 
We had a lot to talk about: the European and the US left, Keir Starmer, Joe Biden, the pandemic, the economic crisis, fascism, the EU, the climate emergency.

Australia busted for war crimes in Afghanistan

 

A Four Corners [ABC News Australia] investigation has uncovered new allegations that unarmed civilians were unlawfully killed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. 

In an investigation months in the making, drawing upon sources in Australia and Afghanistan, our program will expose a culture of impunity and cover-up among members of Australia's special forces who served in Australia's longest war. 

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's national broadcaster. 

Read more on this story here

A great man

 

I met Coleman McCarthy through his brother Dennis who lived in Vero Beach, Florida while I was coordinating the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.  Dennis arranged for Coleman to come to Orlando to speak at an event I organized for him.

Coleman, before being fired as a columnist for the Washington Post (because he was too radical), once wrote one of his nationally syndicated columns about my space issues work after the urging of his brother who supported my peaceful space efforts.

Dennis was a former Catholic priest who lived for many years in Latin America. After leaving the priesthood he moved to Florida where we became friends.  He invited me to come to Vero Beach and sat me down for a meeting of the 'Full Moon Society' that he and another man created to discuss meta-physical subjects. He introduced me to the work of Edgar Cayce and his Association for Research and Enlightenment. Dennis also turned me onto the foundational book by D. H. Lawrence called the 'Plumed Serpent' which has stayed with me over the years and guided me in many ways.

I'm sure you will enjoy the video above - quite a good plug for Coleman from the CBS Sunday morning show.  He surely deserves it.

Bruce 

Stan Lofchie Presente!

 

 

It was with great sadness that we learned last night that long-time Brunswick peace & justice activist Stan Lofchie had died.  Stan was 95 years old and had been declining since the loss of his beloved Loukie a couple years ago.  He is survived by his two sons.

Stan was a member of Maine Veterans For Peace and was in the Army during WW II having survived the Battle of the Bulge. He was also a devoted member of Let Cuba Live and defended the besieged island nation with his characteristic big-hearted energy.

He was a generous soul who gave freely to causes. I could never forget how he was so thrilled by the Occupy movement and did all he could to provide the encampment in Portland with things they needed.

He was equally as kind to me giving me his best winter boats, two heavy coats, super-insulated gloves and more.  When MB and I moved to Maine in 2003 it was Loukie and Stan who helped us find our first home in their neighborhood and they took us in as their own.

During recent times MB has been one of Stan's caretakers along with a handful of others who did their best to honor his fierce independence at a time when he could barely walk without falling.  Local activist Eric Herter was one who did much to support Stan along with Martin McDonough, Josh Katz, Joanne Rosenthal, Johnny Schooley, Gina Markow and more.

A team of folks will be entrusted with making all necessary arrangements to honor Stan's memory and share keepsakes.  More information about these things will be circulated in the future.

You can watch a video interview we did with Stan about his life here.

Donations to Maine VFP would seem appropriate in Stan's memory.

Bruce

Latest Global Network space video

 

USSTRATCOM stands for United States Strategic Command. It’s one of the eleven combatant commands in the Pentagon, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

 

Traditionally, STRATCOM's mission was to direct a nuclear war, if it were ever to occur. If that wasn't dangerous enough, STRATCOM experienced a tsunami of changes after 2001. 

 

STRATCOM went on to be assigned many more "responsibilities" such as:

 

-Prompt Global Strike

-CyberSpace Operations -Space Surveillance and Reconnaissance

-Missile "Defense"

-Dominant Intelligence

-Electromagnetic Warfare

-Multi Domain Integration

-Global Command and Control

-"Combating" Weapons of Mass Destruction

U.S. votes against U.N. resolution opposing Nazism

 

Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on a resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism adopted by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly 75th session:

On November 18 in New York, the Third Committee of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly approved a Russia-sponsored resolution on Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Along with Russia, the document was co-sponsored by 58 countries from all regions of the world. The resolution was supported by 122 countries, or the absolute majority of the UN member states. Once again, it was opposed by only two countries – the United States and Ukraine, while 53 delegations, including EU member states, abstained.

The resolution makes a significant contribution to the fight against glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism, to the preservation of the historical memory of the lessons of World War II, and to the eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

We are deeply disappointed by the way the US delegation voted on this important document in the year of the 75th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism and the establishment of the Nuremberg Trials. Who would have thought that after so many years, some members of the United Nations would cite some far-fetched concerns about the freedom of speech to oppose efforts to combat glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism, the ideology of racial superiority and other forms of intolerance, disregarding their obligations under the main human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In this context, the broad and unwavering support for the Russian initiative by the states committed to the fight against glorification of Nazism is encouraging.

The resolution has gained particular relevance in recent years because there has been a rapid increase in the number of attacks and acts of violence against people of different ethnic backgrounds or linguistic or religious affiliation; race and skin color bias is on the rise, and migrants and refugees increasingly encounter rejection.

Members of the Nazi movement are increasingly being glorified and former members of the SS, including the Waffen-SS, are being whitewashed. Those who collaborated with the Nazis are proclaimed national heroes and members of national liberation movements. Monuments and memorials are being unveiled in their honor, and torchlight processions are held. At the same time, a full-scale war is being waged on monuments commemorating fighters against Nazism, and history textbooks are being rewritten to meet momentary political interests. Some countries introduce legislative bans on the use of symbols of the Victory over Nazism, which is also an alarming trend. 

Advent vigils at BIW underway

 

Last Saturday 14 folks came to Bath Iron Works (BIW) for the first Advent season vigil at the Navy shipyard. 

We lined up along Washington Street for some time in front of the administration building and then walked single file down to the South gate where workers pour out at noon during a shift change.  At that point George began handing out flyers to those who would take them.

The flyer in part said, "To prepare for peace [the arrival of the Christ child] means to disarm. It means to disarm our hearts so that we do not value comfort over compassion, progress over justice....We call for the conversion of BIW....Peace is ours when we recognize that all children, all people are as precious, as anticipated, as filled with potential, as worthy of love, as the child we await, the child born under the star."

The flyer was prepared by the organizers of the Advent season vigils - the Smilin' Trees Disarmament Farm (763-4062)

The vigils will continue on December 5, 12 and 19 from 11:30 to 12:30 on Washington St in Bath.  All are welcome to attend.

BIW builds Navy Aegis destroyers that are outfitted with so-called 'missile defense' interceptors that are key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning.  They would be used as the 'shield' to pick-off any retaliatory strikes after a US preemptive attack. These ships today are being used to encircle and provoke Russia and China.

Photos by retired BIW worker Peter Woodruff.  (Click on the photos for a better view)  

Bruce

Let's clear this up....

 

Several people have asked if I am sorry that Trump lost.  This question has emerged largely because I have been a frequent critical poster here and on Fazebook about Biden's incoming warmongering 'national security' crew.

So let me say without hesitation that I was absolutely opposed to Trump's reelection.  There, I hope that clarifies things.

But, I was also totally opposed to Biden's election as well.  I voted for the Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins.  I was thrilled to vote for him - I don't often get to vote for someone that I fully support. And it was a Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) election in Maine for the presidential race.

I did the same in Maine's US Senate race where I voted for the Independent candidate Lisa Savage which was also an RCV race. The Democrat raised $70 million during the campaign and lost to the incumbent Republican Susan Collins who was equally bad on most important issues. Again, I was very happy to have someone to vote for who I truly believed in.

So I will continue to show no love nor respect for Trump or Biden.

I've been thru this drill quite a few times in my life - particularly when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were elected.  I didn't vote for either of them - I voted for third party candidates in those races.  I was working full-time as a peace organizer and had no intention in voting for Democrats who carried water for Wall Street and the military industrial complex.

The last Democrat I voted for in a presidential election was Walter Mondale in 1984 - and I later regretted doing that. 

This cartoon by my long-time Florida friend and co-worker Will Park tells the story quite well about how I felt when Clinton took over for George H. W. Bush (former director of the CIA).  (You can click on the cartoons for a better view.) Will labelled Clinton as 'Republican Lite'.

Then once George W. Bush became president in 2001 (after his team cheated in Florida where I was living at the time) he started the criminal 2003 'shock and awe' attack of Iraq.  Sen. Joe Biden was a huge cheerleader for the US launching that war and occupation and again Will Park hit the nail right on the head with this cartoon. (You'll notice Biden featured in this masterpiece on the lower right side.)

 

I don't forget which political hacks have betrayed the public trust and gone off starting war$ and doing other similar evil deeds. I'd never allow myself to vote for these bastards.

So that is my response to those who might wonder if I am a secret Trump fan.  I'm not. 

Bruce 

Sunday song