Space Force comedy coming soon on Netflix

 Even as a global pandemic threatens our way of life, there still exist occasional moments that are not shrouded entirely in the impending doom of our species.

Netflix has confirmed that Steve Carell’s newest workplace comedy, “Space Force,” would be available to stream starting May 29.

The release of the 10-episode season, an obvious nod to President Donald Trump’s launch of the U.S. military’s newest branch, coincides with Netflix’s impending loss of Carell’s iconic sitcom, “The Office,” which is expected to move over to NBC’s soon-to-launch streaming platform, “Peacock.”

“Space Force” — co-created by Carell and Greg Daniels, the man who brought us the American version of “The Office” — centers on the exploits of four-star Gen. Mark R. Naird (Carell), a decorated pilot who once had lofty dreams of leading the Air Force.

Much to his chagrin, Naird is instead appointed as the head of the military’s sixth branch — a service whose mission is “to defend satellites from attack” and “perform other space-related tasks ... or something,” the show’s teaser trailer says.

“Skeptical but dedicated, Mark uproots his family and moves to a remote base in Colorado where he and a colorful team of scientists and ‘Spacemen’ are tasked by the White House with getting American boots on the moon (again) in a hurry and achieving total dominance,” a Netflix release said.

Inside the forbidden zone.....

Benjamin Rich, better known by his YouTube channel name Bald and Bankrupt, is an English travel blogger and author. He began his YouTube channel in June 2018, documenting the Indian subcontinent and the post-Soviet states before expanding to the rest of the world.

Not far from the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine is the town of Pripyat which housed the plant's workers and was abandoned due to high levels of radiation not long after the disaster.

He went there on a winters day to see what traces of the past remained... 

You can watch this new Chernobyl documentary below for free from April 16-26 

Dangers of 5G tech

A very well done video that explains dangers of 5G in a direct and simple way.

Jimmy Dore is real talk

Jimmy critiques the painful 'embrace' of Bernie and Biden.

Bernie is going full-bore on the deception campaign on behalf of the corporate-controlled Democrat party.  I guess he meant something else when he kept talking about 'revolution'.

The basic compromise between them was Biden agrees to set up 'Task forces' to study the problems we face.  Jimmy wonders out loud if either of them have any serious solutions?

The house is on fire - climate crisis and collapsing economy are going to drown us.  The Democrats 'big idea' is to study the problem.

Yesterday on the local NPR radio station they did an hour-long discussion with three 'experts' explaining why Bernie supporters must vote for Biden because Trump is bad.

After all Trump is a lair, a cheat, a wicked human being.  Trump raped women.  Trump works for the rich and those who control Wall Street.  Trump is a war monger. Trump is the villain.

I am reminded of the 2004 election between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry (D-MA).  They both were Skull & Bones club members while at Yale University.

During one of their debates Kerry said, "If elected I will spend $100 billion more on the military than George Bush will."  Then peace candidate for president Rep. Dennis Kucinich ended up withdrawing from the race and asked his supporters to vote for Kerry.  I declined.

I've seen this shit show now for virtually all my life.  My Italian grandfather in Connecticut was a business man and politically active as a Republican.  Unlike most immigrants he quickly climbed the ladder into the middle class while his maid lived at the bottom of the hill in a multi-story old wooden tenement house.  Growing up in a military family we only got to visit relatives in between moves every couple of years.  So when I first saw this 'unequal class relationship' with my own eyes one could say that my consciousness expanded.  I loved the maid, Angelina, as much if not more than my own grandparents.  She was more real.

In 1976 I supported Jimmy Carter for president because one of his key campaign themes was "The nuclear arms race is a disgrace to the human race."  An easy tongue-twister to remember.  But the problem was that once elected Carter built the new Trident nuclear submarine base in St. Marys, Georgia (his home state) in what once was a quaint fishing village.

Due to unrestrained sentimentality I voted for Walter Mondale when that 'liberal' Democrat lost in his race against Ronald Reagan in 1984.  I convinced myself that 'I knew him' and could trust him.

That was my last dance with the Democrats.  After that I went to Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Jill Stein.  Never regretted any of those votes.  They were my voice and spoke to my heart. 

I just can't do the work I do and then turn around and vote for someone who is up to their elbows in complicity with Wall Street and the war machine.  Just can't stomach it.

Others can do what they wish - voting is a sacred trust.  I'll give my opinion, argue with you, but in the end everyone should think for themselves.

The real issue is what we do between elections to push for the obvious changes we need in order to protect the future generations.

Bruce   

Everyone deserves good health care

Lisa Savage, Maine Independent candidate for the US Senate seat of Susan Collins under ranked choice voting, talks about the urgent need for expanded Medicare for All health insurance during the COVID-19 public health crisis.

See more at Lisa For Maine

Washington spies on everyone

Chris Hedges talks to William Binney, 30-year intelligence analyst and NSA whistleblower, about the Washington Post revelations over the CIA and West German intelligence (BND) setting up a Swiss company, Crypto AG, to sell encrypted machines to more than 120 governments worldwide. 

From 1970 to 2018, the CIA intercepted foreign government communications. Among the countries buying the machines were France, Iran, the Vatican, and Venezuela.

Who will pay the rent?

Weekly show: Connecting Moon mining & 'Space Force'

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


John Kiriakou hosts the latest edition of Loud & Clear.

Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and Bruce Gagnon from the Global Network are interviewed.

They talk about Trump's recent 'executive order' which maintains space is NOT a global commons.   Thus Washington flings open the door for the coming 'gold rush' in space.  The military will be working hand-in-hand.

We are indeed #1!

20,000: U.S. death toll overtakes Italy’s as Midwest braces for potential surge

The U.S. now has the highest death toll in the world. 

Yes,

we are indeed

the greatest,

#1

the best,

the first

in all things,

(well many things)

and in this case

#1 for sure.

We have the #1 

most expensive

medical scam
game

on the planet,

and right near the top

in worst medical

outcomes,

bragging rights for 

sure!

America is #1

in profit$,

just ask the

'health' insurance

corporations,

Big Pharma,

and the rest

of the favored

Wall Street

gamblers,

dice throwers,

that so expertly run

this 'system'.

Hart Island off the Bronx is being used for mass grave yard in New York.  Prison labor doing the work. Most of the victims are unknown, likely immigrants.

Yes America

 is the greatest

and we are showing

the whole world

just how expert we are

during this epidemic

of fear, despair,

and capital re-accumulation.

But fear not.

The fat stranglers

of the poor

and unemployed

have your backs,

literally,

as they pick your pockets.

Just remember your check

is in the mail.

Good luck after that.

Bruce  

Sunday song

Grounded on the Mothership

Earlier this week as MB and I walked through our mostly quiet town of Brunswick, Maine we saw colorful signs of spring popping out of the ground.  Then on Thursday and Friday we were gifted with a beautiful couple of inches of large snowflakes that graced the trees seen from our apartment windows.  Our quiet town became even more still.  Nature has that wonderful ability to hush the noisy human race.

Lately, during this virus epidemic shutdown, I've come to wonder if our Mother Earth might just be intervening to slap her unruly children up side the head in order to get our attention.  We are so busy with this and that, rushing about destroying this lovely planet, that most hardly even notice what harm we collectively cause.

Growth has become almost a 'sacred word' to the capitalists who have no thought or concern about what our industrial society is doing to the mothership.  They press on, blinded by their love for the dollar bill, unable to feel our spiritual connection to this tiny spinning orb that gives us life.  In fact, many of them are rushing forward with great zeal to move our 'civilization' into the heavens where they believe they can promote limitless growth and at the same time extract massive profits from the unregulated gold rush that awaits them.

This sickness of spirit blinds many.  Yesterday I put Will Griffin's new video for the Global Network (see just below) on the Facebook page of The Mars Society.  Almost immediately more than 30 comments were posted boasting about the profits to be made from mining the sky.  They laughed at our concern about repeatedly launching nuclear devices into space.  Several commentors claimed that 'this time' human civilization would get it right and create an almost perfect world in the space colonies they envision.

I responded, not with anger, to several of the commenters reminding them about past space nuclear accidents by the US and Russia (see here), about space junk that now circles our planet, and that unless our consciousness changes before we rush headlong into space we will be poised to carry the 'bad seed' of greed, war, and environmental degradation with us into the heavens.

This was just too much and after several hours of this back-and-forth on their Fazebook page my entry was removed.  When I checked out the link that gave the reason for removal it said the following:

Group Rules That Were Violated: Be relevant
Please post only articles, photos, videos, graphics, etc. that involve Mars exploration and planning for human missions. Off topic or irrelevant posts will be removed.

Of course my post was not at all 'Off topic' nor was it irrelevant.  My only transgression was that I had challenged them to consider what kind of seed they intend to carry into space.  But in an organization where the president is a Lockheed Martin executive, no such friendly discussion can be allowed.  Space capitalism, mining the sky, rejecting the United Nations Moon and Outer Space Treaties, Trump's 'Space Force', questioning the use of nukes in space - none of this can be allowed to be discussed.

As unemployment accelerates across the US, and our national economy teeters toward full collapse, one must wonder how Washington could imagine spending hundreds of billions of needed dollars on space colonization projects while doctors and nurses go without sufficient resources to deal with the growing virus across the land.

We know that the aerospace industry understands that they must come up with a 'dedicated funding source' to pay for their expensive vision to bring the 'free market' into the heavens - despite the UN's call to make space 'the province of all humankind'.  Thus they've set their sites on those pesky 'entitlement programs' for defunding - which are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what little is left of the social safety net.  These are the programs the space colonization industry has sent their lobbyists to Washington to secure on their behalf. (I know this because the plan was outlined in an editorial years ago inside the industry publication called Space News.)

Thus it should not come as any surprise to me that my post on The Mars Society page was removed.  Many years ago while on a speaking tour of Southern California I was reading an article in the Los Angeles Times about the Mars Society and their grand vision.  I will never forget the quote from the president of the club.  It read:  'The Earth is a rotting, stinking, dying planet.  We must terraform [make green with life] Mars and move our civilization there.'

Imagine the cost to turn Mars into a beautiful planet full of life - like our Earth mothership.  If that is even possible.  It is indeed a sickness of spirit.

Bruce

Capitalism wants to 'control and dominate' space

Trump signed an executive order to allow corporations and citizens, aka billionaires, to begin mining the moon.

In addition, they want to use nuclear reactors to fuel spacecraft so they can mine Mars in the future. 

Corporations already dominate Earth, and it isn't enough for them. They want more. So, now they want to dominate Outer Space. 

Another excellent video by GN board member Will Griffin.

You can find the Pentagon's 'Vision for 2020' that spells out the quest for global and intergalactic domination here 

Extraordinary times: Lisa turns in ballot access signatures

US Senate Candidate Savage Delivers Signatures To Qualify for Maine’s November Ballot

Yesterday, Maine independent Green candidate for U.S. Senate Lisa Savage delivered petitions with 5,581 notarized and certified signatures, collected from Maine voters in 45 cities and towns to the Secretary of State’s office in Augusta. The Secretary’s office must now review and verify the petitions as the last step before Savage is placed on the ballot in November as an independent. She needed a minimum of 4,000 signatures from registered Maine voters and could deliver no more than 6,000.

“Thanks everyone for working so hard,” said Savage on the steps of the Burton Cross Building, wearing a mask and with just her husband and press coordinator in attendance. “I’m very gratified that so many people have confidence that I would make a good senator and that we can win this ranked choice voting race. This isn’t the big celebration we had hoped for in turning in our petitions, but the important thing is we’ll be on the ballot.”

While the campaign in fact gathered more than 9,000 signatures, thousands of them are still being processed by city and town clerks throughout the state, many of them overwhelmed with duties related to the COVID-19 outbreak. With the Secretary of State’s office already looking to move to a skeleton staff, and likely to be occupied with tough decisions about moving June’s primary election and other matters, the Savage campaign felt it was prudent to get qualifying signatures in as soon as possible, giving the Secretary’s office plenty of time to process and certify the signatures safely before the June 1 deadline.

Due to this quirk, as well, the 5,581 signatures included zero from Portland. To qualify for the ballot without signatures collected from Maine’s largest city demonstrates the breadth and depth of the campaign’s support.

“We want to thank the Secretary of State’s office and Deputy Secretary Flynn,” said Savage, “for working with us to safely hand over the petitions during the pandemic.” The campaign left the box of petitions outside the fourth floor office of the elections department while Secretary Flynn watched from inside the doors, to maintain chain of custody. Then, keeping six feet apart, Flynn took the petitions inside the office, where they will be quarantined for two days. The Secretary’s office estimates it may take weeks to work through the signatures and officially place Savage on the ballot, with current staff and workload.

Responsible social distancing precluded an event to submit the signatures, but many campaign volunteers expressed their enthusiasm for the momentum Savage will carry as the first official name on the November ballot, considering the parties will have to wait until July to name their nominees.

“Our leadership in the years leading up to this particular pandemic has just been completely inadequate,” said Austin Witham, of Portland. Politicians have “been so busy getting at each other's throats and turning the American people against each other that we have absolutely no current response that's going to save an adequate amount of lives. We need people like Lisa to actually get in there and focus on supporting the American people."

Steven “October” Paul, also of Portland, is excited about the prospect of supporting Savage in a ranked choice environment. “It eliminates any kind of temptation for people to think there’s a spoiler candidate,” he said.

Unity College student Cody Pajic said Savage is his candidate for ensuring that government response to the pandemic doesn’t leave people like him out in the cold. The recent stimulus package is a good example, he said. If a parent claims a college student as a dependent, it could be a double whammy where the student has lost income from working at school, and is financially independent, but isn’t eligible for a stimulus check. “So you’re just not getting any payments from this $2 trillion stimulus payout, that the corporations are going to be benefiting from massively. And that really pisses me off,” he said.

Find information about Lisa Savage, her policy positions, background, and how to support her people-powered campaign at www.LisaforMaine.org.

Wash your hands!

USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors comprise more than half of Navy’s coronavirus cases

Stars & Stripes

 More than half of all U.S. sailors who have tested positive for coronavirus are attached to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, according to Navy data released Wednesday.

Across the Navy, 548 service members have contracted the illness and 286 of those are Roosevelt sailors, the update said. Nearly all the ship’s crew has been tested, with 10% coming back positive. None have been hospitalized.

It’s unclear with which ships, installations or units the remaining cases are associated. The Department of Defense late last month directed all services to refrain from releasing coronavirus numbers specific to commands.

Pilger on neo-liberal destruction of society

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to legendary journalist and film-maker John Pilger about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

He discusses the fact that the Conservative government was warned about shortages leaving the NHS vulnerable in pandemics 4 years ago, the damage privatisation has done to the National Health Service, budget cuts which have seen bed capacities fall to record lows, his criticisms of the Boris Johnson administration’s response to Coronaviurs, the lack of mass-testing in the U.K. which has been seen in other countries such as Germany, South Korea and China, the government blaming China for the Coronavirus crisis, and the threat to Julian Assange’s life as he is denied release from prison as Coronavirus claims its first victim in Belmarsh Prison and more!

Spring time in Crimea

A new video from the Botanical gardens in Yalta, Crimea.

I've been to these gardens twice in the past two years - once in the fall and the other in the spring.

A beautiful place.

Enjoy the tulips!

Wonderful protest in Los Angeles

Rent strike!

Coming soon - more info to follow

Co-sponsored by UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).  More details coming soon.

 Webinar Speakers

Prof. Dave Webb (Chair @Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)
Dave Webb has been Chair of CND since 2010 and is also Chair of Yorkshire CND. He is the convener of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility and until recently a Professor of Engineering and Director of the Praxis Centre at Leeds Metropolitan University.
https://cnduk.org

Bruce Gagnon (Coordinator @Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space)
Bruce was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992. His articles have appeared in publications like: Earth Island Journal, National Catholic Reporter, Asia Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, Albuquerque Journal, Sekai Journal (Japan), CounterPunch, Space News, Z Magazine, and Canadian Dimension. Bruce published his book in 2008 called Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire.
http://space4peace.org/

Lynda Williams (Board Member; Science Educator and Activist @Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space)
Lynda Williams (California): is a physicist and science entertainer who is devoted to nuclear disarmament and the proliferation of peace. She performs science cabarets and promotes scientific literacy as a means to motivate political empowerment, peace and social justice. Lynda lives and teaches in northern California and produced a CD with anti-Star Wars songs to benefit the GN. http://space4peace.org/  

Still riding in Maine

Starr Gilmartin (Trenton, Maine) on her bike and finding a way to promote Lisa Savage's campaign for the US Senate against current Republican Senator Susan Collins.

It will be a Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) election for the Senate here in Maine.  So there is no spoiler - people get to rank their favorite choices.

You can learn more about Lisa at her web site here

During this isolation from the virus Lisa is staying quite busy (her public school where she teaches of course has been closed) - in particular she has been calling for the closure of Bath Iron Works in support of the union who is demanding that workers be allowed to stay home and be paid while off work.

Lisa has also been calling for rent and mortgage relief for all people who need it. The rich fat cats are being well taken care of by Washington (including Sen. Collins) but very little is being done for working and poor people who once again are being kicked to the curb.

Rattle your chains now folks - if you don't no one will do it for you.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease - so keep squeaking real loud!  

Bruce