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, February 05, 2022

Spaceports in Maine?

 


LD 1923, An Act To Establish the Maine Space Corporation


By Hillary Lister & Bruce Gagnon

This new Public Private Partnership would manage Federal government contracts, issue bonds, receive tax breaks, and distribute funds for acquiring land and property for a Maine Space Complex, including developing staging and launch sites for sending satellites and launch vehicles into polar orbit from Brunswick, Limestone, and near Jonesport.

LD 1923 is the result of work by the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a NASA funded organization that promotes aerospace industry interests.

The NASA-backed Consortium has been working to promote the bill in partnership with rocket developer bluShift Aerospace, the University of Maine System, the Loring Development Authority, which manages the former Air Force Base in Limestone, and the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which manages the former Air Force Base in Brunswick. The former bases have the advantage of having FAA certified airports, making them usable for satellite and rocket launches.

During the February 1 public hearing in Augusta testimony in support of LD 1923 specifically highlighted weaponized uses of the spaceports by Karl Hoose of VALT.

VALT Enterprizes was recently awarded a $6.4 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) due to VALT’s capacity to address a wide range of hypersonic mission tests. Hypersonics remain a top priority of the Department of Defense (DoD) with a budget of $3.8 billion in FY2022, and a total $29.3 billion investment by 2025.

VALT's DoD contract includes conducting multiple series of hypersonic flight tests to verify performance and capabilities.

Maine’s location and coastline make an ideal launch site location to reach polar orbits, which would make it the only launch location with direct polar orbital access on the east coast.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep Daughtry of Brunswick, has stated that, "The private sector can’t do this without support from public authorities. It will require coordination between federal, state, regional, local and private entities." This bill will set the process in motion for certain entities in the private sector, universities, and non-profit organizations to receive major financial support support through new federal and state tax-payer funded subsidies.

Perhaps to some this sounds like a benign effort to bring jobs and build Maine's economy. But we know that similar spaceport projects (see below) have belied the private sector promises and eventually became used for military operations. Not to mention the environmental impacts from fuels leaking into the local water supply and toxic rocket exhausts. This proposal requires citizen action.

The Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business (IDEA) Committee of the Maine Legislature will discuss and potentially vote on this bill at their Work Session on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, starting 9:30 AM. You can contact members of the committee with concerns about LD 1923 before Tuesday's work session.

The work session will stream live at:
https://legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/IDEA
 

IDEA Committee Members

Senator Chip Curry - D
Committee Chair
13 Parkside Lane Belfast, ME 04915
Chip.Curry@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Tiffany Roberts - D
Committee Chair (cosponsor of LD 1923)
35 Buttonwood Road South Berwick, ME 03908
Tiffany.Roberts@Legislature.Maine.gov

Senator Scott Cyrway - R
(cosponsor of LD 1923)
463 Benton Road Albion, ME 04910
Scott.Cyrway@legislature.maine.gov

Senator Joseph Rafferty - D
49 Middle Road Kennebunk, ME 04043
Joseph.Rafferty@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative John Andrews - R
P.O. Box 118 Paris, ME 04281
John.Andrews@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Susan Austin - R
136 Yarmouth Road Gray, ME 04039
Sue.Austin@legislature.maine.gov

Representative Sue Bernard - R
70 Grimes Road Caribou, ME 04736
Susan.Bernard@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Amanda Collamore - R
173 Library Street Pittsfield, ME 04967
Amanda.Collamore@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Jack Ducharme R
34 Heald Street Madison, ME 04950
John.Ducharme@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Valli Geiger - D
1 Green Way Rockland, ME 04841
Valli.Geiger@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Tavis Hasenfus - D
50 Nobis Point Readfield, ME 04355
Tavis.Hasenfus@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Raegan LaRochelle - D
102 Hemlock Terrace Augusta, ME 04330
Raegan.LaRochelle@Legislature.Maine.gov

Representative Sarah Pebworth - D
P.O. Box 347 Blue Hill, ME 04614
Sarah.Pebworth@Legislature.Maine.gov 

Blackwater is in the Donbass with Nazi Azov Battalion

 

The colored lines on the map indicate the 'line of contact' between the Russian-ethnic Ukrainians (the red line) who have 35,000 in their self-defense forces. The blue line is the US-UK-NATO backed Ukrainian army of 150,000 soldiers including mercenaries. The US is working hard to get Kiev to attack the Donbass which would force Russia to decide if they will fight to defend the Russian-ethnic population just across their border.


By Manlio Dinucci (Italy)
   
The phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky “did not go well“, CNN headlines: while “Biden warned that the Russian invasion in February is practically certain when the frozen ground makes it possible for tanks to pass through”, Zelensky “asked Biden to tone down, arguing that the Russian threat is still ambiguous”. 

While the Ukrainian president himself takes a more cautious stance, the Ukrainian armed forces are massing in Donbas close to the Donetsk and Lugansk area inhabited by Russian populations. According to reports from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, units of the Ukrainian Army and National Guard amounting to about 150,000 men are positioned there, the news is overshadowed by our mainstream media which speaks only of the Russian deployment. They are armed and trained, and commanded by US-UK-NATO military advisers and instructors.

From 1991 to 2014, according to the US Congress Research Service, the United States provided Ukraine with $4 billion in military assistance, plus over $ 2.5 billion after 2014. The NATO Trust Fund provided over a billion dollars in which Italy also participated. This is only a part of the military investments made by the major NATO powers in Ukraine. Great Britain, for example, has concluded various military agreements with Kyiv investing, among other things, 1.7 billion pounds in upgrading Ukraine’s naval capabilities: this program provides for the arming of Ukrainian ships with British missiles, the production of joint 8 fast missile units, the construction of naval bases on the Black Sea and also on the Azov Sea between Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia. In this context, Ukrainian military spending, which was equivalent to 3% of GDP ( Gross Domestic Product) in 2014, rose to 6% in 2022 corresponding to over 11 billion dollars.

In addition to the US-NATO military investments in Ukraine, there is the $10 billion investment foreseen by the plan that is being carried out by Erik Prince, founder of the US private military company Blackwater – now it is renamed  Academy – which has supplied mercenaries to the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department for covert operations (including torture and murder), gaining billions of dollars. 

Erik Prince’s plan, revealed by an investigation of Time magazine, consists in creating a private army in Ukraine through a partnership between the Lancaster 6 Company, and the main CIA-controlled Ukrainian intelligence office. Through them, Prince has supplied mercenaries in the Middle East and Africa. It is not known, of course, what would be the task of the private army created in Ukraine by the founder of Blackwater certainly with CIA funding. However, it can be expected that it would conduct covert operations in Europe, Russia, and other regions from its Ukraine base.

Against this background, the exposure made by the Russian Defense Minister Shoigu that in the Donetsk region there are “US private military companies that are preparing a provocation with the use of unknown chemicals” is particularly alarming. It could be the spark causing the detonation of war in the heart of Europe: a chemical attack on Ukrainian civilians in Donbas would immediately be attributed to the Donetsk and Lugansk Russians, who would be attacked by the preponderant Ukrainian forces already deployed in the region to force Russia to militarily intervene in their defense. 

At the forefront, ready to massacre the Russians of Donbas there is the Azov battalion, which trained and armed by the US and NATO has been promoted to a special forces regiment. It distinguished by its ferocity in its attacks on the Russian populations of Ukraine. The Azov battalion recruits neo-Nazis from all over Europe under its flag similar to that of the SS Das Reich, it is commanded by its founder Andrey Biletsky who was promoted to colonel. It is not just a military unit but an ideological and political movement, and Biletsky is the charismatic leader in particular for the youth organization that is educated to hate Russians by his book “The words of the white Führer“. 

Canada consorts with Ukrainian Nazis

 

A news broadcast by German ZDF station showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion with Nazi symbols on their helmets. Photo by Files /ZDF station

 

Canadian officials who met with Ukrainian unit linked to neo-Nazis feared exposure by news media: documents


A year before the meeting, Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine produced a briefing on the Azov Battalion, acknowledging its links to Nazi ideology.

Ottawa Citizen

Canadian officials who met with members of a Ukrainian battalion linked to neo-Nazis didn’t denounce the unit, but were instead concerned the media would expose details of the get-together, according to newly released documents.

The Canadians met with and were briefed by leaders from the Azov Battalion in June 2018. The officers and diplomats did not object to the meeting and instead allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials despite previous warnings that the unit saw itself as pro-Nazi. The Azov Battalion then used those photos for its online propaganda, pointing out the Canadian delegation expressed “hopes for further fruitful co-operation.”

After a journalist asked the Canadian Forces about the Azov social media postings, officers scrambled to come up with a response, according to documents obtained by this newspaper through Access to Information law.

 

US-NATO training base for Ukrainian military and Nazi battalions. The base is in the Nazi strong-hold in the western part of Ukraine. US Special Forces troops from Ft. Carson, Colorado are brought to this base to train the Ukrainian army which is then sent to the Donbass region to attack their fellow citizens who live near the Russian border and are predominately Russian ethnic. The Canadian military is heavily involved in training Ukraine's military. (The link just above takes you to the video pictured here)

Lt. Col. Fraser Auld, commander of Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine, warned that a news article might be soon published and could result in questions being asked inside the Canadian government about why such a meeting took place.

Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said the Canadians should have immediately walked out of the Azov Battalion briefing. “Canadian armed forces personnel do not meet with Nazis; period, full stop,” Farber said. “This a horrendous mistake that shouldn’t have been made.”

In 2019, the Soufan Center, created by former FBI agent Ali Soufan, who was involved in a number of counter-terrorism cases, warned about the connection between the Azov Battalion and white nationalists. “In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West, to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination and instruction in irregular warfare,” the report outlined.

The Azov Battalion has been formerly incorporated into the Ukrainian military, at least in theory, the Soufan Center report noted. But the battalion has cultivated a relationship with members of the Atomwaffen Division, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi terrorist network, it added.

Friday, February 04, 2022

Upcoming event - Sunday, Feb 6

 

 

US/NATO Aggression at the Russian Border

A conversation between US, Russian and Ukrainian Peace activists


Webinar, Sunday, February 6,

12 noon Eastern (US/Canada)

 
Click here to register:  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_984zj4TsQ8er6Ja5z3F9vg


Speakers will include:


  • Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace
  • Larissa Shessler, Chair, Union of Political Emigrants & Political prisoners of Ukraine
  • Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
  • Joe Lombardo, Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
  • Vladimir Kozin, Correspondent member, Russian Academy of Military Science
  • Leonid Ilderkin, Coordinating Council of the Union of Political Emigrants & Political Prisoners of  Ukraine.


 

 

Corporate media in the US has been warning about a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia.  This, Russia denies.  But this propaganda has been used by the Biden administration to whip up sentiment for war.  

Billions of dollars of US arms have been sent to Ukraine,  Ukraine has massed an estimated 145,000 troops on the Russian border with US-UK-NATO “advisors” supporting their effort.  

For years the US and its Western allies have moved NATO into Eastern European and former Soviet States in violation of agreements made with Russia at the end of the Cold War.  They have installed missiles in Romania and Poland and conducted “war games” at the Russian border.  

Today’s threat is a threat against a major nuclear power that puts the entire world in danger.  Join us for this important webinar with voices for peace from Russia, Ukraine and the US.

Click here for UNAC's statement on the situation on the Russian border

Especially violent & brutal week in the Occupied Territories

 


Update - January 16-22, 2022 in the Palestinian Occupied Territories


Dozens of armed Special Police Forces broke into the home of the Salehiya family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the middle of the night, at a temperature below zero degrees centigrade, arrested the family members and activists sleeping over with extreme violence, and razed the house to the ground – after they destroyed the nursery in the yard the previous day.

Thousands from all over the West Bank attended the funeral of Haj Suleiman Hadhalin who was run over to death by an Israeli police tow truck in his village of Umm Al Kheir.

Jewish terrorists attacked and clubbed activists helping to plant tree saplings near the Palestinian village of Bourin and burnt their car, seven of the activists are suffering head injuries and fractures.

Outpost terrorists were busy this week uprooting trees throughout the West Bank, invading fields, chasing out and running over flocks in the Palestinian Jordan Valley.

Soldiers broke into a school in Deir Nizam, vandalized a classroom and arrested pupils.

Protests against the occupation at junctions and bridges throughout Israel are being organized by the ‘Looking the Occupation in the Eye’ movement’.

Thursday, February 03, 2022

Who really controls Africa?

 


Abby Martin speaks to Eugene Puryear to discuss the big picture of US imperialism in Africa: From the Berlin Conference to the subversion of liberation movements to neocolonial puppets and the current sprawl of AFRICOM "counterterrorism."

 


Wednesday, February 02, 2022

Exciting webinar on Russia-Ukraine

 


Register at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_984zj4TsQ8er6Ja5z3F9vg

Discussing why US-UK-NATO want to bust Russia into smaller countries

 


Lauren Steiner talks with Bruce Gagnon, who coordinates the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, about what is really behind the beating of the war drums with Russia over Ukraine, the history of our involvement there, specifically our role in the coup of 2014, why Russia is massing troops in the border, why both parties and the corporate media present only one side of this story, and what we can do to stop a potential war.

Washington trying to replace the U.N. with NATO

 

Biden saying, 'Let me guess. Ukraine loves us. Everyone in NATO loves us. The whole world loves the USA!'

The seemingly unbridgeable gap between the major powers was on full display at the Security Council as they sparred over Ukraine and Russia’s security concerns, reports Joe Lauria at Consortium News.

 

Tensions in U.S.-Russia relations soared yet higher on Monday as the two powers voiced polar opposite positions on events surrounding Ukraine and European security at the U.N. Security Council.

The U.S. and its allies on the council painted a stark picture of an outlaw Russia threatening to invade Ukraine, while Russia sought to zoom out to the larger picture of Western threats to Russia’s security.

Russian Ambassador Nebenzia Vassily Alekseevich pointed out that even Ukraine’s president had asked the U.S. not to stir up panic. “Ukraine talked of the lack of a threat from Russia,” Alekseevich said. “We should not use the rostrum of the Security Council to push forward the propaganda of our colleague,” meaning the American ambassador.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield answered Alekseevich by saying the meeting was “not about antics and not about rhetoric,” and also “not about the U.S. and Russia, but peace and security about one of our member states.” She said the U.S. had spent $5 billion since 2014 so that Ukraine would be “prepared” for a Russian invasion.

Thomas-Greenfield told the council that “Russia’s actions strike at the very heart of the U.N. Charter. This is as clear and consequential a threat to peace and security as anyone can imagine.”  She said, “Russia’s aggression today not only threatens Ukraine. It also threatens Europe. It threatens the international order.”   

The U.S. ambassador said if the Security Council “stands for anything, [it] stands for the principle that one country cannot simply redraw another country’s borders by force, or make another country’s people live under a government they did not choose.”

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield claimed 'Russia threatens the international order.'     

 

 As any student of recent history or any astute newspaper reader understands, the United States, with its long history of coups, including by military invasions and occupations, has made many “country’s people live under a government they did not choose.”

Thomas-Greenfield portrayed Russia’s proposed treaties with the U.S. and NATO to create a new “security architecture” for Europe as being “extensive new demands and aggressive rhetoric” paired with “Russia’s military buildup.”

Thomas-Greenfield then accused Russia of shunning diplomacy, when it was Russia who asked for diplomatic meetings with the U.S. in Geneva and NATO in Brussels. “Russia could, of course, choose a different path: the path of diplomacy,” she said. “In recent weeks, the United States, along with our European allies and partners, and other nations around the globe concerned by Russia’s threat to Ukraine, have continued to do everything we can to resolve this crisis peacefully,” as Washington and its loyal media beat the drums of war.  

The Russian Response 

Alekseevich responded by saying that Russia is witness to a “very unusual situation” even in “these crazy times.” 

“Relocation of troops within our own national territory, which happened many times before on a larger or smaller scale and was never regarded hysterically,” he said, “as well as the relocation of military personnel … stationed in their garrisons rather than at the Ukrainian-Russian border, is considered by our American and Western colleagues as a confirmation of [an] allegedly planned military campaign … of Russia against Ukraine that is about to start in the next couple of weeks if not days.”

Alekseevich added: “At the same time, they provide no proof to back such grave allegations.” The U.S. has released satellite photographs of Russian military installations on Russian soil, with no indication of how close to Ukraine they are.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the press on Friday that Ukrainian intelligence interpreted the satellite images differently than the U.S. and saw no readiness for invasion. 

Alekseevich said: “Our Western colleagues say that de-escalation is needed, but they are the first to build up tension, enhance rhetoric and escalate the situation. Talks about an imminent war are provocative per se. It might seem you call for it, want it and wait for it to come, as if you wanted your allegations to come true.” 

He refuted Thomas-Greenfield’s assertion that Russia has threatened an invasion. “No Russian politician or public figure has uttered any threat about a planned invasion of Ukraine,” Alekseevich said.

He said Russia’s “Western colleagues” didn’t care about Ukrainians but only to divide Ukraine from Russia in order to weaken Russia. The U.S. had falsely linked cries about a Russian invasion to Russia’s treaty proposals to the U.S. and NATO, he said.

“As for our security-related demands, they are much broader,” Alekseevich went on. “Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO and non-deployment of foreign troops at Ukraine’s territory constitute only a small portion of much-needed arrangements that could considerably improve the military and political situation in Europe, and in the whole world.” 

Turning the tables on the U.S., the Russian ambassador asked the council which country was the real threat to international peace and security:

    “The maneuvers that the United States undertook to convene this meeting look especially inadequate and hypocritical against the fact that it is Americans who have record rates of military presence outside their national territory. American military officers, advisers, and weapons (including nuclear) are often located thousands of kilometers away from Washington. To say nothing of the fact that American military [ad]ventures claimed dozens and hundreds [of thousands] of  lives of people in the countries to which they were bringing peace and democracy.

 

Russian Ambassador Nebenzia Vassily Alekseevich
 

The United States repeatedly (i.a. in the recent years) used force against other states without Security Council consent. Their toolkit includes unilateral sanctions and coercive measures, as well as threats that they regard as a verdict of some sort of Supreme Court and try to make everyone deliver on them.

As reported by American experts, 84 out of 193 UN member states have been subjected to US occupation or aggression to some degree. In the course of 20th and 21st centuries, American troops have been deployed in one way or another in 191 states.

In a right of reply, Thomas-Greenfield said she was “disappointed” by Alekseevich’s “false equivalency” — the stock line from the Cold War, which says it is false to equate U.S. behavior with the aggression of others. “There are no plans to weaken Russia,” she said. “Welcome Russia as a responsible member of the international community,” which means, of course, following the Washington Consensus.

Alekseevich then replied that he had not heard one word from Thomas-Greenfield about the Minsk agreements “and that is very indicative.”

 

My take: US-NATO wants to expand into a global military alliance & replace United Nations

The US strategy is increasingly to divide the United Nations as a way to reject the UN. The US is tired of the Security Council. The US, and its war-mongering fascist allies, don't want to have to go to Security Council anymore to request approval for another regime change operation or war. 

They can't get Chinese or Russian approval anyway, thus they have hit the road and are out scooping up the most reactionary governments to join this 'Global NATO'.  The latest being Qatar. 

NATO signs these nations up as NATO 'partners' and then begins transforming their military (by forcing them to buy US manufactured expensive high-tech weapons systems) but always the Pentagon controls the tip of the spear.

With this armed apparatus Mr. Big hopes to keep cracking the whip over the backs of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and many more.

The first job of this 'enhanced NATO' is to take down Russia and China - while they think they still can pull it off. 

But after 77 years of the US ruling the roost, the debacle in Afghanistan has caused many to doubt that the western empire has the moral clarity, sanity, peaceful intentions, wisdom and sense of justice to be handed the right to rule over Mother Earth.

Those days are vanishing by the second.

Bruce 


NATO HQ meeting of their endless war council in Brussels     

 

~ Parts reprinted from Consortium News

Tuesday, February 01, 2022

The trucker demo in Ottawa

 

 

Thousands and thousand of truckers (many who took the jab) roared into Canada's capital in Ottawa protesting against the covid vaccine mandates.

Huge numbers of people around the globe oppose the mandates (Green pass it is called in many nations) and have been protesting for months. In most cases their government mocks them, calls them right-wingers, and then uses them to divide the public against itself. A very old tactic of the elites.

Despite Canadian politicians attempts to down-play this large and important protest, I can say I watched numerous videos and it was evident to me that this was a widespread movement. 

One video stands out in my mind - a endless line of truckers heading toward Ottawa, blasting their horns - and standing alongside the road in the Canadian cold was an equally long line of people holding signs and cheering for the truckers.

That was a well organized event. These folks are serious and if the government of Canada was wise it would listen to then.

Unless that is, the goal is to divide the public and push them further into civil conflict. It's being done in virtually every western country.

I think it is the corporate 'masters' desperate attempt to direct us into high-tech-feudalism. But everyone gets a 5G phone....

Bruce

Message from Canada

 


By Peggy Andrews (while commenting on Scott Ritter's excellent article at Consortium News)

I am Canadian watching what is going on between the Commonwealth countries (namely, UK, Australia, Canada, India) and the USA. The US has been doing its best to gather some allies. They bought off Australia. Kissed up to an inept UK. Now trying to challenge Canada into getting involved with Ukraine. We have been holding out but the US is putting the screws to us. Closing subsidiaries, threatening our security, infiltrating and using media to agitate right wing activists and enacting border closures. They want us to supply more military personnel and arms for Ukraine. Biden knows the only thing which will unite a divided country is war!

I’m of the same opinion as Scott Ritter’s article on Russia, USA and NATO. I also believe the responsibility for American unrest is mainstream media, but I’m not forgiving the tech algorithms. It became obvious during Trump campaign and continued through out his Presidency. Giving air time to a man who has a disorder and suffers from lack of any ethical standards. But when we look at history, once the pandemic is behind us and the economy sinks and then comes back… that is when fascism takes hold. I hope that is not in store for our us, our children and grandchildren.

While going thru my computer I ran across an article written by Robert Parry [founder of Consortium News] in 2017 concerning Russia and Ukraine as well as the Contra affair. I saved it because I finally found someone who writes the truth and is willing to speak out. Today I read his obituary and discovered Consortiumnews. I generally read 3 – 5 foreign newspapers a day, (Canada, USA, Germany, China and UK). Then listen to CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and FOX. This enables a well-rounded picture of what is happening. (Hey, we are in lockdown what else is there to do?)

The USA media is so slanted, no wonder America is in such a sad state. I’ll be cancelling my subscriptions to Washington Post and New York Times and sending you [Consortium News] my subscription costs so your organization can continue accurate and complete reporting. Thank you for speaking up.

Monday, January 31, 2022

Lisa Savage: one of Maine's best activists

 

 

Regis Tremblay (from Waterville, Maine, now living in Crimea) interviews one of Maine's best activists Lisa Savage (Solon, Maine).

Always sharp and entertaining, Lisa was our Independent candidate for the US Senate seat from Maine in the last national election. She ran against Republican Sen. Susan Collins and a Democrat hack who said in one of the debates that everywhere she went the people told her they wanted 'Medicare for All'. She said she didn't support that program though, but instead supported 'universal access' to health care. That of course means that no one could be 'turned down' when applying for an private insurance policy. So the Democrat candidate ran the Wall Street line.

The sad part about that last national election, particularly here in Maine, was that the liberals still voted for the Democrats in resounding numbers despite knowing they are a bunch of lying war-mongers, thieves, and wimps.

Sen. Collins won with 51%. Lisa got a hard-earned 5% but she resoundingly won the four senate debates that were on TV across the state. Two of those debates were aired on national C-SPAN.

So enjoy (and share) this video of Lisa. 

She's the kind of person who ought to be in leadership in politics rather than the current dollar-grabbing corporate agents that pretend to be our 'representatives in Washington'.

Bruce

Crazy weather in Maine

 





 

How things can change in a week.

We've not had much snow here in Bath, Maine so far this year until Saturday.

So in one week's time we went from virtually no snow on the ground to this dump of 18-20 inches. And there is no place really to put the snow that we move! Another 5-8 inches is due on Friday of this week.

Is it the result of climate crisis where weather patterns are becoming increasingly strange and unpredictable? Sure seems that way.

One of my sisters who lives in northwest Iowa (Minnesota and South Dakota border) as of last week told me they've had no snow at all. 

Very strange indeed.

On top of that our two big propane tanks need refueling but the Irving Energy company has been stringing us along for the past week. One tank is now empty and the other is close to the end. We've lowered the heat way done - no showers for awhile either. We've heard that they are short on delivery drivers. Is this one more example of the growing disintegration of life in the 'greatest country in the history of the planet' as they like to say in Washington?

Bruce  

PS In this very bottom photo note the mound of snow (piled up by the city snow plow) in front of our car. Our good neighbor Gary brought his plow over to clear the path in the driveway. Very amazing. 

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Sunday song

 



On the streets of Portland, Maine

 

 

Protest in downtown Portland, Maine at 5:00 pm last Friday, January 28.

Protest organized by Lisa Savage from Maine Natural Guard.

Video production by Brian Leonard.