Tunisia still fighting for freedom

 

Palestine & Venezuela solidarity protest in Maine shopping mecca Freeport

L.L. Bean doing renovations so we used their fence

Starting to walk thru shopping district

Walking from the other side of the street 

Two sides crossing the street

Closing circle

Yesterday more than 30 folks from around Maine gathered in front of the famous L. L. Bean store in Freeport for our monthly coalition solidarity protest. Each month we go to a different part of the state and hold these vigils at busy intersections. We began them in February 2022 as the US-NATO proxy war on Russia using Ukraine as the hammer heated up. We've done them ever since in all kinds of weather.

We had folks line both sides of the street with signs, flags and banners for nearly an hour. During much of that time I walked up and down in front of the L. L. Bean store and handed out a good stack of flyers to those who would take them.

Basically we had three kinds of people pass us. First would be Trump supporters who tended to be gruff, then liberals who would say 'I agree' but often refused flyers, and finally people with their heads down avoiding eye contact. But I did succeed in handing out the flyers.

After nearly an hour we walked down both sides of the very busy sidewalks and street. As we walked we chanted about Palestine, Venezuela, the cost of wars, and what the unfulfilled needs were in our nation. After several blocks we switched sides at a crosswalk and then proceeded back to the starting point. 

As we were chanting, especially about the cost of war and how the future generations were going to be stuck paying for endless war, I noticed many shoppers nodding in agreement. I can just imagine them inside the stores and being struck by the increase in prices for everything. Hopefully they connected some dots in those moments.

At the end we gathered in a circle and passed the megaphone around for introductions and comments. Palestinian Faisal Kahn made a rousing speech when it was his turn to speak. He reminded us about the suffering people in Gaza and the now beleaguered West Bank. He urged us all to keep doing the good work in order to stop the US-Israel-UK-EU-Arab monarchies bloody war on the Palestinian people.

Jamila Levasseur also told us about the eight young women and men in the UK, accused but not yet tried for Palestine solidarity actions. They are hunger striking as they demand an end to censorship, immediate bail, fair trials, that Palestine Action be removed from the terrorist list, and that Britain terminate its relationships with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapon manufacturer. Some have been hunger striking over fifty days. See more about this here

We deeply appreciate those who come from far across Maine to these regular events. It's a wonderful community we have built and even though we are not together for very long we are always buoyed by being together.

Our next statewide coalition protest will be held in Saco, Maine along the bridges between that city and Biddeford. Park at the Amtrak station. This will be held on Saturday, January 10 at 1:30 pm. (Saco is the home of the General Dynamics facility that builds the guidance systems for bombs the Pentagon sends to Israel.) 

Best wishes to all.

Bruce 

~ Photos by MB Sullivan

Sunday song

Julian Assange: Sweden broke own laws with Nobel Prize to Venezuela’s Machado

By Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed

The Swedish government violated its own laws by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, according to an explosive legal brief filed by Julian Assange, the Wikileaks co-founder and former political prisoner who was hounded across the globe, confined in harsh conditions, and subjected to physical and psychological torment over the course of a decade by the US and its allies.

The Nobel committee’s decision to award Machado the Peace Prize — and the 11 million Swedish Kroner ($1.18 million USD) reward which accompanies it — means that “there is a real risk that funds derived from Nobel’s endowment have been or will be… diverted from their charitable purpose to facilitate aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes,” Assange stated.

The Wikileaks founder pointed to the “ample public statements… showing that the U.S. government and María Corina Machado have exploited the authority of the prize to provide them with a casus moralis for war,” adding that the explicitly stated purpose of the war sought by Machado and her wealthy Latin American backers would be “installing her by force in order to plunder $1.7 trillion in Venezuelan oil and other resources.”

The Nobel Foundation stands accused of a number of violations of Swedish criminal law, including breach of trust, misappropriation and gross misappropriation, conspiracy, crimes against international law, as well as financing of aggression, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and breaching Sweden’s stated obligations under the Rome Statute, to which Stockholm says it is “deeply committed.”

Under Swedish law, “Alfred Nobel’s endowment for peace cannot be spent on the promotion of war,” Assange noted. “Nor can it be used as a tool in foreign military intervention. Venezuela, whatever the status of its political system, is no exception.”

By granting Nobel funds to Machado, Assange argues that the Committee is effectively financing “a conspiracy to murder civilians, to violate national sovereignty using military force…” By refusing to end payments, “they flagrantly violate Nobel’s will and clearly cross the threshold into criminality,” he alleged. The Wikileaks co-founder seeks the “immediate freezing of all remaining funds and a full criminal investigation” into Committee members who awarded the prize.

The Nobel Prizes were established in 1901 according to Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament, which was later incorporated into the Swedish and Norwegian legal systems. The Peace Prize, which is meant to be bestowed on the figure who has contributed most to “fraternity between nations,” the “abolition or reduction of standing armies,” and “the holding and promotion of peace congresses,” has served as a cornerstone of Scandinavian soft power ever since.

Since its inception, however, the prize was marred by controversy due to the violent legacy of its recipients, and the political ambitions of its Norwegian sponsors. In the case of one of the Prize’s first winners, US President Theodore Roosevelt, the Norwegian Nobel Committee was criticized at the time for overlooking the American statesman’s naked warmongering in Latin America in order to curry favor with the nascent US empire. The New York Times sardonically observed that “a broad smile illuminated the face of the globe when the prize was awarded … to the most warlike citizen of these United States.”

The same dynamic is at play in the Caribbean once again, according to Assange, as the Nobel Committee crowns a Venezuelan politician best known for her unhinged appealsfor foreign military intervention and her dedication of her Nobel victory to US President Donald Trump.

As Assange explained, Trump’s massive buildup of US military forces off the coast of Venezuela “has already committed undeniable war crimes, including the lethal targeting of civilian boats and survivors at sea, which has killed at least 95 people.”

“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights labeled these U.S. coastal strikes against civilian boats “extrajudicial executions,” the Wikileaks co-founder wrote. And the “principal architect of this aggression” was none other than Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who “nominated María Corina Machado for the peace prize.”

Read the rest of this article here

Private Equity closing hospitals

A woman showed up to a hospital in Pennsylvania with a barely breathing baby — only to find the hospital closed.

Why? The hospital's owner sent millions to private equity investors instead of investing in healthcare.

Now patients and workers are paying the price.

It's all part of thinning the global population as called for by the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

Down to what they call the 'Golden Billion'.  

the funnies

 

That 'big beautiful economic collapse'

 

What the hell have they done? They'd made a friggin mess of everything! 

You can't spend a trillion and a half dollars a year (once you add up all the hidden pots of gold in the military/intel/security/nuclear/CIA regime change budgets) and still have a prosperous nation. 

We are now $38 trillion in debt in the US.

There's no money left for health care, education, environmental care, infrastructure repair (crumbling roads, bridges, electrical grid, sewer and water systems), housing, common welfare, and much more.

The people are not stupid. They know they can't afford escalating costs for food, medical, housing, transportation, day care and the like.

They also know that both political parties have abandoned them in order to serve their masters on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, AIPAC, Madison Avenue, and the war machine.

People are getting angry and Trump knows it. Maybe this is why he's now putting troops on so many major city streets. And he wants to hand all the troops a 'bonus' of $1,776 in order to buy their support!

The ruling elites want to pit the people against each other - white against people of color, urban against rural, young against elders, Americans against the world.

We'd be fools to fall for these head fakes coming from the political hacks who are owned by the 1%.

The 1% does not give a daman about the rest of us.

Never have and never will.

Bruce

Col. Wilkerson nervous about US-NATO war mongering

 

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson declares that it would be a disaster to invade Venezuela. 

He and Judge Napolitano also discuss the current very dangerous steps that the EU-NATO are taking toward Russia as they attempt to block any peace deal to end the war.

Belgrade Professor Gajic on Ukrainian election speculations

Zelensky has outlined new conditions for holding elections — including demands for a ceasefire and foreign security guarantees.

Stevan Gajic, professor at the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade, argues these moves are aimed at delaying elections as Ukraine’s military position deteriorates and Western support becomes increasingly uncertain.

U.S. piracy against Venezuela

Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews Max Blumenthal on Why War With Venezuela Is Unjust.

Trump claims that Venezuela 'has stolen our oil and land'.

This really has nothing to do with drugs. It's about regime change.

Trump also claims that fentanyl is a 'weapon of mass destruction'.

Crazy? For sure.

Another war?

Who will pay for it?

What could possibly go wrong?

Can Washington do anything else but start war$?

Palestine reports: West Bank under attack & zionist brutal prisons

Al-Jazeera reports on how the Israeli occupation is turning Palestinian towns in the West Bank into open-air prisons.

Under far-right Israeli minister Ben Gvir, Israeli prisons have become sites of systematic torture, where guards compete in brutality.  

Venezuela Says ‘You Will Never Colonize Us’

 

Brian Becker is joined by Manolo De Los Santos of The People’s Forum to discuss Trump’s “total blockade” against Venezuela — an “act of war” targeting oil tankers and ports, according to members of Congress as they vote on a War Powers Resolution to prevent the president’s attacks from escalating even further. 

De Los Santos also reviews Venezuela’s response to Trump’s attacks, as well as its history of foreign colonization and how it has shaped the consciousness of every generation in the country.

War with Venezuela now?

I heard Tucker Carlson say today that he spoke to a member of Congress who told him that Trump is going to announce war with Venezuela any minute.

I went to my acupuncturist this afternoon and he told me that he treats a couple of members of the US Coast Guard who were outraged by Trump's vicious attacks on small (most likely fishing) boats off the coast of Venezuela. 

They told my doc that it is their job to interdict any suspected drug boats, to apprehend them and then move them into the court system. Even to the people whose job it is to handle such situations, it is their opinion that Trump is circumventing the normal procedures and laws of the nation.

We know that the US has a national debt of $38 trillion. Venezuela has enough oil and other resources that could essentially cover that massive debt if Trump could steal it all. 

The woman in Venezuela that wrongfully won the so-called 'Nobel Peace Prize' has declared that if Trump would please take over her country then she would give the US control of all of Venezuela's resources.

Trump is indeed a Don - a  mafia Don.

He should be locked up and put on trial for numerous crimes against humanity - starting with  Palestine and Venezuela.

It is often said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Cuban gusano - worm) is calling the shots on Venezuela. I know he is a favorite of the zionists who wish to make him the next president.

Get out on the streets now folks. 

Bruce 

A United Venezuela Rejects Mr. Trump’s Grotesque Threat and Will Denounce It

BOLIVARIAN GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA

COMMUNIQUÉ

On the night of today, December 16, 2025, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in violation of International Law, free trade, and freedom of navigation, has issued a reckless and serious threat against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Through his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, lands, and mineral wealth are his property. Consequently, Venezuela must immediately hand over all its wealth to him. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, an alleged naval military blockade against Venezuela with the objective of stealing the riches that belong to our Homeland.

Venezuela, in the full exercise of the International Law that protects us, of our Constitution and the laws of the Republic, reaffirms its sovereignty over all its natural resources, as well as the right to free navigation and free trade in the Caribbean Sea and in the oceans of the world. Consequently, it will proceed, in strict adherence to the UN Charter, to fully exercise its freedom, jurisdiction, and sovereignty above these war-mongering threats.

Our Ambassador to the United Nations will immediately proceed to denounce this grave violation of International Law against Venezuela.

We call upon the people of the United States and the peoples of the world to reject by all means this extravagant threat, which once again reveals Donald Trump’s true intentions to steal the riches of the country that gave birth to the United Liberating Army of South America and to our Liberator, Simón Bolívar. The people of Venezuela, in perfect popular, military, and police unity, will know how to defend their historical rights and prevail along the path of Peace.

Mr. Donald Trump, verbatim, brandishes the following interventionist and colonialist expression: “until they return to the U.S. all the oil, land, and other assets they previously stole from us.” His true intention, which has been denounced by Venezuela and by the people of the United States in massive demonstrations, has always been to appropriate the country’s oil, land, and minerals through gigantic campaigns of lies and manipulation.

Venezuela will never again be a colony of any empire or foreign power and will continue, together with its people, along the path of building prosperity and the unrestricted defense of our independence and sovereignty.

The Venezuelan people, in perfect popular, military, and police unity, remain firm in the unrestricted safeguarding of their territory, their wealth, and their freedom. With our Father Liberator we say: “fortunately, it has been seen that a handful of free men can defeat powerful empires.”

Caracas,

December 16, 2025

It was never about feeding the world. It was about controlling the seed

Niklas Gustafson just dropped the clearest, most chilling explanation of how we lost control of our food.

This is what he shows, step by step:

• 1980: Corporations win the right to patent living seeds
• They slightly modify what nature already created → instantly own it forever
• Farmers who saved seed for 10,000 years are suddenly criminals if they replant their own harvest
• Today just 4 companies control >60% of all commercial seeds worldwide (some vegetable seeds: 95%+)
• Their seeds are designed to survive only their chemicals → you buy both, every single year
• Break the contract? They sue you. Plant something else? The crop dies anyway.

Result:

• Independent farmers turned into customers with no way out.
• Ancient seed diversity collapsing.
• Soil degrading at record speed.
• Food moving from fields to factories.
• Gustafson ends with the line that hits hardest: “This wasn’t about helping farmers. It was about replacing them.”

Inter-Korean Reconciliation Thwarted by Washington

Biden’s Appointee Gen. Xavier Brunson Rejects President Lee Jae Myung's Peace Initiative

Korea’s sovereignty has been reduced to financing the U.S. occupation of its own territory and shouldering the costs of American militarism.

Korea Update

Washington continues to veto even modest Korean efforts to foster inter-Korean rapprochement. General Brunson’s recent comments on South Korea’s [ROK] joint military drills reveal an imperialist, arrogant mindset that treats allies as subordinates rather than partners.

“Whenever someone talks about… exercising less or exercising differently… they need to understand that there are two times in a year where we absolutely need some support,” Brunson said, referring to the spring and summer exercises involving roughly 28,500 American troops. Brunson’s tone and message disregard Korea’s sovereignty, asserting control over a sovereign nation’s military decisions.

In this context, on 3 December, for the first time since his inauguration, President Lee Jae Myung publicly mentioned the possibility of suspending or reducing U.S.–ROK joint military exercises. South Korean President Lee has expressed openness to reviewing joint drills if it facilitates dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a position reflecting Seoul’s commitment to diplomacy and regional stability.

He even reinforced his point by citing President Trump’s own words from 2018: “I think it’s very provocative… We will be stopping the war games… which will save us a tremendous amount of money.” A U.S. Army budget analysis later confirmed that canceling certain exercises in 2018 had saved the U.S. an estimated $14 million.

Building on this, in recent weeks, several Korean senior officials—including Unification Minister Chung Dong-young—have suggested that adjusting U.S.-led South Korea military exercises may be necessary to revive stalled inter-Korean diplomacy. Chung has consistently argued that “we cannot hold South Korea–U.S. military exercises and simultaneously expect a North Korea–U.S. summit,” criticizing what he calls “bureaucratic thinking that waits for American approval.”

Nevertheless, President Lee’s calls, along with those of his senior officials, have not only fallen on deaf ears in Washington but have also reportedly been rebuked by American diplomatic officials in Seoul. These officials expressed “concerns” about such proposals and emphasized the strategic importance of U.S. Forces Korea, reportedly noting that the Trump administration now views a strong U.S.–ROK combined defense posture as essential. Although Trump had previously criticized the joint military drills as overly costly during his first term—even suggesting suspending them—his current stance has shifted. Moreover, he has made no public statement regarding President Lee’s proposal.

Meanwhile, under apparent pressure from Washington and in an effort to appease it, Lee’s hawkish and pro-U.S. National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac last week rejected reducing U.S.–ROK joint military drills as a means of encouraging talks with the North.

In short, even with his historic legitimacy from stopping [former President] Yoon’s martial law, an approval rating above 60 percent, and public pledges to safeguard Korea’s national sovereignty, President Lee remains unable—or unwilling—to fully exercise Korea’s sovereignty on the most important national security matters.

Occupied and Overcharged: Korea’s National Sovereignty Crisis Under the Trump Administration

Under the Trump administration, Washington’s encroachment on Korea’s national sovereignty has become more severe. The newly released National Security Strategy (NSS) reveals the U.S. confronting the reality that it can no longer sustain a globally overextended military empire, opting to avoid direct confrontation with strategic rivals like Russia and China while systematically shifting the financial costs, operational burdens, and strategic risks of its Indo-Pacific and global defense commitments onto subordinate allies—most notably South Korea, Japan, and Australia—through mechanisms such as hosting U.S. bases, purchasing U.S. weapons, and aligning economic, technological, and military policies—effectively using its allies to maintain American influence while narrowing their strategic autonomy.

South Korea, deeply tied to the U.S. economically, militarily, and ideologically, exemplifies subordination within this system.

Reaffirming the “America First” agenda, NSS 2025 explicitly demands that allies increase defense spending and contribute “far more” to collective defense:

“We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain. But the American military cannot, and should not have to, do this alone... Our allies must step up and spend—and more importantly, do—much more for collective defense.”

“Given President Trump’s insistence on increased burden-sharing from Japan and South Korea, we must urge these countries to increase defense spending, with a focus on the capabilities—including new capabilities—necessary to deter adversaries and protect the First Island Chain.”

In sum, under the Trump administration, Seoul is required to fund the U.S. military presence on its own territory, fund U.S. occupying forces, purchase billions in American weapons, act as a counterforce against China at Washington’s direction, and maintain the world’s largest overseas U.S. base at Camp Humphreys—all while its sovereignty remains subordinated to Washington’s strategic agenda. Korea’s sovereignty has been reduced to financing the U.S. occupation of its own territory and shouldering the costs of American militarism. Ultimately, the real danger to South Korea’s security is not North Korea; the gravest threat it faces is Washington’s encroachment on its sovereignty.

“It is the Pentagon’s assumption that they own and control South Korea no matter what", [says long-time Korea activist] Tim Shorrock.

History lesson: CIA caught drug running by reporter

 John Kiriakou

The Gary Webb story: a cautionary tale of truth, power, and media manipulation. 

Full report: An excerpt from CIA Declassified Season 

Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series exposed CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking, sparking a firestorm. The CIA, with the help of its mockingbird assets, destroyed Gary Webb's life and career.

Chinese view on Palestine

The United States recently managed to pass a highly controversial resolution in the United Nations Security Council, which basically transforms Gaza into a UN Mandate and makes Donald Trump its governor. 

Resolution 2803 has already been heavily criticized by Human Rights experts like Francesca Albanese and Craig Mokhiber. The puzzling thing in this is that Russia and China, both abstained from voting, thereby helping the resolution to pass.

To help understand China’s position on West Asia, ZHANG Sheng, a Non-resident Visiting Researcher at Turkey’s KUASIA University, and the author of a very popular video on YouTube, explains Chinese approaches toward Gaza.

U.S. military now policing Okinawa!?

 

Trump now appears to think he is the boss-man of the planet!

He's got his military operatives thinking they run the whole world.

How much longer can nations allow their national sovereignty to be erased?  

Trump gets the FIFA 'peace prize' and it has gone to his head!

Bruce

I'll never forget the past

Apache's on their way to imprisonment at Fort Marion in Florida. Geronimo is front row third-person from the right with beads and hat.

I lived in 

England, Germany (twice), 

South Dakota,
Florida, Connecticut
and northern California
while growing up 
in a chaotic and 

dysfunctional military family.

Three different high schools.

I hate good-byes,

so many beloved friends and family

left behind.

My heart wept.

Thus the love, 

for the sentimentality 

of The Kinks,

plus they got the blues.

All of these places I lived

were steeped in 

rich fertile history

which I explored 

with my eyes, 

my heart and my soul.

I absorbed the essence

of these 'home towns'.

Carried the stories

with me like a sacred scroll.

For good

and for bad,

I'm a

puzzle of geographic 

and cultural creation.

I won't forget

the pain and suffering of the poor 

in feudal London.

I haven't forgotten

the Roman ruins along the Rhine.

I won't forget Wounded Knee 

or Custer's Last Stand.

I also haven't forgotten this story 

from Fort Marion prison 

in St. Augustine, Florida.

On April 16, 1886, a train arrived in St. Augustine. People from all over town gathered at the station to take a peek at the fearsome and demonized people that carried little to nothing when they got off the train.

The new arrivals were Apache (including Geronimo) taken prisoner in Arizona and transported for confinement and 're-education' inside  Fort Marion - prisoners of the US Army.

Years later, after being moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Geronimo died as a prisoner. On February 16, 1909, the 79 year old Apache leader fell off a horse and spent a night in the cold, on the ground at Fort Sill. He died the next day and was buried there. 

Legend has it that former US Senator Prescott Bush (Grandad of George W. Bush) took a raiding party to Fort Sill and dug up Geronimo's skull which was placed inside the Tomb at Yale's secret Skull and Bones Club.

Yale's Peabody Museum acknowledges the presence of Geronimo's skull in its collection. There have been demands for repatriation from Apache descendants but no response.

I'll never forget

the deep respect I carry for 

those who fought 

to protect the people,

even when they knew

the genocidal white man's army
had the greater power and numbers.

In South Korea 

they say 'fighting!'

which translates 

to me as

courage, strength, 

clarity of purpose,

loyalty,

and a deep spiritual

understanding of our

connection to one another.

I won't forget that 'fighting'

means our responsibility

to protect the future generations.

I'll never forget that 

all things 

on and around

our beautiful Mother Earth

are related and sacred.

Bruce