BIW parent company in poor house - needs Maine state welfare check

General Dynamics (which own Bath Iron Works - BIW) is embarking on a statewide public relations campaign to ask the state legislature in Maine for a $60 million tax break over the next 20 years for their Navy shipbuilding operation in Bath.

They claim that in order to stay competitive they must have state financial support - what I'd call corporate welfare.

Already over many years General Dynamics has received more than $197 million in state and local tax breaks for BIW.  In 2013 BIW asked for another $6 million tax break from the City of Bath.  I worked with a small committee that organized a local campaign to oppose the tax cut and in the end a very reluctant city council voted to cut the request in half giving General Dynamics/BIW $3 million. That meant that citizen intervention saved the community $3 million that could be used for other local needs like salaries for firefighters, police, and for fixing crumbling infrastructure.

Now they dare to come around to an already financially strapped state of Maine with their corporate silver cup in hand asking for another $60 million. 

On top of this I recently discovered an article in the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal entitled Defense firms spend big on lucrative stock buybacks.  The article reports (as shown in the photo above) General Dynamics spent $9.4 billion buying back its own stocks during 2013-2016.

In the article William Lazonick, an economist at UMASS-Lowell and an expert on stock buybacks says, "I think, as taxpayers, we're being taken for fools.  At a minimum, I would have a rule saying, 'You're not getting any subsidies if you're doing buybacks.  You're showing us you don't need the money.' "

The article also suggests that buybacks are bad for workers and average shareholders because the real beneficiaries are savvy traders who can time their sales and corporate brass with pay packages linked to stock performance and earnings per share.

In fact the top CEO at General Dynamics, Phebe Novakovic, last year made $21 million ($5 million of which was bonuses). It was Novakovic who accelerated General Dynamics stock repurchases since taking over the corporation in 2013 - so her bonuses are likely due to these fiscal shell games.

Novakovic netted $49 million in take-home pay in her first four years as General Dynamics CEO, with an annual average of 43% of her total compensation coming by way of stock-based pay.  So essentially this whole thing is a scam to bleed the taxpayers.

What is most disgusting is how they play one state against another saying that if they don't get more tax breaks in Maine then they can't maintain their operations because a similar shipyard in Mississippi gets tax breaks from their state.  So the poor in Maine are pitted against the poor in Mississippi and all the politicians - Republican and Democrat alike - get on their knees and give these thieving corporate pirates everything they want.

Of course some of the politicians get a kick-back too in campaign donations for having played the Wall Street game.  It's sick.

General Dynamics, like most weapons corporations, get the vast majority of their operating funds from the federal treasury.  The taxpayers are paying the freight from the start.  But then the military industrial complex adds another twist – a strategy to extract even more profit from the taxpayers by going to the states and even to small cities like Bath demanding additional tax breaks.

We all should demand that our state legislators oppose this corporate welfare giveaway. Before General Dynamics gets anymore state taxpayer dollars they should be required to begin a transition process to build commuter rail systems, tidal power and offshore wind turbines to help us deal with our real problem - global warming.

We have the right, and the responsibility, to speak out and demand this nonsense stops now.  We are handing a collapsing nation, facing the ravages of global warming, to our children and grandchildren.  The least we can do is call upon on state legislators to go to Augusta and say no to General Dynamics. Enough is enough.

Let General Dynamics take back some of the extravagant pay increases and bonuses from their top executives before they come poor mouthing to our already financially barren state treasury.

Bruce

Stop Navy Attacks on Sea Life

In 2013, the Navy EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) for sonar testing and military training stated that the Navy would be permitted to harm whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals nearly 9.6 million times while conducting high-intensity sonar exercises and underwater detonations over a span of open ocean surrounding Hawaii greater in area than the continental U.S.

Then, in 2015, Earthjustice sued and got the Navy to agree to refrain from such testing in very sensitive areas of Hawaiian waters.

But now, the current proposal under discussion is that in 2018, the Navy would be allowed to resume practice of this mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in these sensitive areas around the Hawaiian islands and along the southeast Atlantic Coast of the US (Florida-Georgia coast) which happens to be the prime breeding ground of the North Atlantic Right Whale - one of the most endangered whales of all.

In your comments you can pick the 'No Action Alternative' – Under this alternative, the Navy would not conduct proposed training and testing activities, and a permit under the Marine Mammal Protection Act would not be issued.

Please send in your comments before the deadline of December 12! Instructions to do so are here: https://hstteis.com/Public-Involvemen...

 

Sunday Song

Throw it all away.....

Living in the midst of imperial collapse

• After two buses (from Brunswick to Portland and Portland to Boston) I am now in Boston South Station waiting for Amtrak train to New Haven.  I speak tomorrow at a peace conference that will be held at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut.  Looking forward to being there with everyone.  Peace organizing in Connecticut has a long and strong tradition. 

• I selected this photo above because it depicts so well all that is wrong with the US these days.  Our addiction to fossil fuels, denial of climate change (that largely is a result of this addiction), endless war to control oil and natural gas around the world, and the mounting drug addiction of the American people as they face moral and spiritual neglect by the corporate oligarchies that run the country. 

• To illustrate that point just yesterday the House of Representatives in Washington voted for a colossal tax cut for the top 1%.  This tax cut, and increases in taxes for the working class, will widen the national debt and put the few remaining social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in further danger of being impaled in order to give the rich even more profits.  It's a clear sign of a decaying empire in the final stages of collapse.  People are very dispirited right now as they have come to understand that our 'democracy' has been drowned under the backwash of corporate money.

• At the same time our local newspaper in Bath yesterday reported that the Bath Iron Works (BIW owned by General Dynamics) is demanding the state give another massive tax break to the shipyard over the next 20 years.  This is how the weapons corporations rig the system (don't forget they already get hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to build the weapons).  Our local 'liberal' Democrat state representative is writing the bill which will pass near unanimously at the capital in Augusta.  More corporate welfare for sure.  Not even a hint of any thought to require BIW to move toward building sustainable technologies as a condition for those funds.  Our state legislators are supplicants before the imperial war crown.
• Another thing driving me nuts is Washington demanding that RT sign up as a foreign agent.  Since when does a foreign news agency have to be treated with such disrespect and censorship in the US?  In reality this has all come about as the Democrats try to mask their own electoral failures by blaming Russia for damn near every problem in the universe!  No other foreign media outlet working in the US has been subjected to such barbarism.  I heard that the Russian Duma (parliament) has passed a bill to require that US media should have to similarly register in their country.  Why not?  My mom used to say, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander."
• One more item on censorship.  Fazebook is still blocking my post links to this blog when I put them on my profile there.  I'm hearing alot from other activists who are having their posts on FB blocked.  So the other day a friend suggested I look at a new alternative social media site called MeWe.  I did and have set up two pages there - one for me and one called Keep Space for Peace.  I figure our days are numbered at FB as Zuckerberg has joined the 'deep state'. I might as well get started creating new opportunities to share information without restrictions.  Check out MeWe here

Bruce

RT: One of Best Media Outlets Today

Attack on Media Freedom

Very important story....crackdown on media that is not under corporate control.  The American corporate state showing how it can't allow alternative media voices to be heard.

The Justice Department's move forcing RT America to register as a foreign agent has received little to no criticism, or in some cases notice, from prominent media outlets and civil liberties groups. Real News speaks to author and journalist Max Blumenthal.

Debating the Colonization of Space

Yesterday my son Julian (who lives and teaches debate in Taiwan) wrote me asking if I would answer some questions that he would post on his web site that is a resource for debate students.  Julian is preparing to take his middle and high school students from Taiwan to a tournament in China in the coming months.  He told me that the topic for debate in China for the next half-year will be the colonization of space.

I was happy to hear that space colonization was being studied and debated by students and even happier to see my son integrally involved in the discussion.

Below find his questions and my responses.

Julian: If you were a teacher, what’s the most important thing you would want your students to learn about space colonization?

Bruce: Think outside the box – we are on the edge of a new dimension – the historical moment where the current global war system (with countries cutting each others throats for control and domination on Earth) is preparing to move into space where there are few if any rules.  Step back for a moment and think about the costs – money, lives, ecological impacts when you factor in the use of nuclear power, lasers and other advanced weapons technologies.

The public knows little to nothing about all of this – the opportunity for ‘democratic’ debate needs to catch up with the huge advances in technology.  Slow things down just so the people can catch up and have some input since after all – most of this space colonization will ultimately be paid for (one way or the other) by the great unwashed back here on the planet.

Julian: A lot of people think we should colonize space to avoid the eventual extinction of humans on earth. How would you respond to these points?

Bruce: Some years ago I was in Los Angeles and picked up the LA Times newspaper.  I read a story about ‘terraforming Mars’ so that snivilization could be moved there because, as stated in the piece by leaders of the Mars Society, the Earth “is a rotting, stinking, dying planet.”  I was offended by the Mars Society attitude about our beautiful mothership Earth that flies through space – far more lovely in my mind than the red planet of Mars.  I have nothing against Mars but am just partial to my Mother Earth.  Few of us here on Earth will be jetting off to Mars anytime soon.  It will be quite an expensive proposition to move snivilization to Mars – maybe some of those funds could be used to clean up our beautiful planet here.  As it turns out the US Pentagon is the largest polluter on Earth – maybe we could stop funding the Pentagon (at one trillion dollars a year) and we could really take care of our Mother Earth.  Plus at that time the president of the Mars Society was Robert Zubrin who was an executive at Lockheed Martin which stands to make a lot of $$$ if Congress could be convinced to spend the national treasury on more Mars missions.

Julian: You once wrote that colonization would be a “Trojan horse” for nuclear power and weapons in space. Can you expand/explain more?

Bruce: The nuclear industry and the weapons industry are itching to get their greedy hands on the money that would come into their bank accounts if nuclear power and weapons are moved into space.  Years ago the aerospace industry suggested that ‘Star Wars’ would be the largest industrial project in the history of Earth.  So once a nation like the US begins the process of colonizing space they will quickly say that it can’t possibly be done without the use of nuclear power (for mining colonies and to power rocket engines to Mars that would get them there in half the time) and space weapons to protect their ‘interests and investments’ in space.   Follow the money trail.

Julian: Many people write about how asteroid mining could prevent resource wars on earth. What are you thoughts on asteroid mining?

Bruce: It is true that the Earth is running out of many precious resources and it might be necessary to some day mine the sky.  But the real question is what is the process – who controls the process of deciding who owns what in space?  Who decides which country, corporation or individual gets to claim ownership?  The United Nations wisely came up with two treaties – the Moon Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty.  These treaties have declared that space bodies like asteroids are the province of all humankind.  To me that means if they are mined then the proceeds, the riches, should benefit all of humanity.  Mr. Big should not be allowed to push and shove his way to the planetary bodies and then stuff the proceeds from the mining operations into his already overstuffed pockets.  During the Obama administration the US already created a new law allowing US individuals and corporations to claim ownership of planetary bodies.  This is in violation of those UN Treaties.

Julian: Colonizing space would be really expensive and could take money from other programs that are more important like studying and developing technological solutions to climate change. Would you agree or disagree? Why?

Bruce: I would agree with that fully.  Some years ago (in 1999) the aerospace industry newspaper Space News ran an editorial entitled ‘Mars Missions are Affordable’.  They wrote that “Early estimates for Mars mission quickly ran up to $400 billion, and Congress eliminated funding for every project that bore the Mars label.”

Space News also suggested that, “The notion that it is too costly to conduct human exploration beyond Earth orbit is rubbish.”  They suggested that the US needed a dedicated funding source to pay for Mars missions and suggested that cuts could come from places like the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Veterans hospitals; and from popular entitlement programs (which officially are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what is left of the welfare program). 

Basically Space News suggested that the social lifeline for poor and working class people in the US should be defunded to pay for Mars and space colonization.  This attempt to defund social progress is well underway in the US today and in many other nations around the globe – especially nations that have undertaken plans to venture into space.  This should tell us something about the kind of people who are promoting space colonization – they are only out for their own profits and gain.  They don’t give a damn about the general public.

Julian: Is the technology ready for colonization? All technology can have some kind of accident. Should we be worried that trying to colonize too quickly could make accidents more likely?

Bruce: The technologists at the time (1912) said the new fancy high-class Titanic, the largest and most luxurious passenger vessel in the world, was unsinkable.  We were told that nuclear power plants were safe and cheap.  Nuclear power in space was also safe we were told (see below for list of space nuclear accidents).

Cassini was launched by NASA in 1997 with 72 pounds of deadly plutonium-238 onboard.  Just prior to the launch the Santa Fe, New Mexico newspaper reported that while fabricating the plutonium generators for Cassini the Dept. of Energy (DoE) lab at Los Alamos had reported 244 cases of worker contamination.  So even before the launch there was already tragic consequences from the space nuclear production process.  Factor in possible launch mishaps and we are asking for trouble when we seriously consider putting toxic nuclear materials on rockets that historically have about 10% failure rates.

United States

SNAP 9-A, April 1964: Launched aboard a Department of Defense weather satellite that failed to reach orbit. Reactor, as designed, released radioactive contents in upper atmosphere during reentry and then burned. Remnants struck the Indian Ocean. Total of 2.1 pounds of plutonium-238 vaporized in atmosphere and spread worldwide.

SNAP 19, May 1968: Meteorological satellite. Nuclear fuel, 4.2 pounds of uranium-238, stayed intact and was recovered off Southern California coast and reused.

Apollo 13, 1970: Nuclear material, 8.3 pounds of plutonium-238, inside lunar module when it was jettisoned before return to Earth. Now at bottom of South Pacific Ocean near New Zealand. Sampling so far shows no radiation leak.

Soviet/Russian

COSMOS 305, January 1969: Soviet unmanned lunar rover lost rocket power and stayed in orbit, dispersing radiation in upper atmosphere.

Soviet lunar probe, Fall 1969: Unmanned lunar probe burned up and created detectable amounts of radioactivity in the upper atmosphere. Any surviving debris from incident presumed to be on the ocean floor.

RORSAT, April 1973: Soviet satellite launch failed; reactor fell into Pacific Ocean north of Japan. Radiation detected.

COSMOS 954, January 1978: Launch failed; 68 pounds of uranium-235 survived fall through the atmosphere and spread over a wide area of Canada's Northwest Territories. Canadian-U.S. teams cleaned up; no detectable contamination found.

COSMOS 1402, 1982: Failed launch; reactor core separated from spacecraft and fell to Earth separately in February 1983, leaving radioactive trail in atmosphere and landing in South Atlantic Ocean. Not known if any radioactive debris reached Earth surface or ocean.

COSMOS 1900, April 1988: Soviet radar reconnaissance satellite failed to separate and boost the reactor core into a storage orbit, but backup system managed to push it into orbit some 50 miles below its intended altitude.

COSMOS 1402, February 1993: Crashed into the South Atlantic carrying 68 pounds of uranium-235.

MARS ‘96, November 1996: Disintegrated over Chile or Bolivia, possibly spreading its payload of nearly a half pound of plutonium.

Julian: Do you think it’s better to colonize before 2050 or wait until later?

Bruce: We are going to have to wait until humans are much more mature before we move off the planet in order to go out and grab various planetary bodies for mining operations. 

In the US Space Command planning document “Vision for 2020”, in a section called ‘Historic Perspective’, they state:  “Historically, military forces have evolved to protect national interests and investments.  During the rise of sea commerce, nations built navies to protect and enhance their commercial interests.....Likewise, space forces will emerge to protect military and commercial national interests and investment in the space medium due to their increasing importance.”

Julian: You wrote about the risk of spreading disease before. But many advocates of colonization worry about diseases on earth that could kill us all. They also believe we could do things to prevent contamination in space. Aren’t diseases on earth a bigger threat than diseases in space?

Bruce: The biggest threat of disease from space is when potentially dangerous samples are brought back from Mars (or other planets) without taking appropriate safely measures.

A 1997 report, the “Assessment of Planetary Protection Requirements for Mars Sample Return Missions” recommends that any material brought back from the red planet be presumed hazardous and quarantined in a secure facility of the sort the US Army and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) use to study such exotic pathogens as the deadly Ebola virus.  There are currently no such space sample return safe facilities available and the more unregulated and decentralized the space mining/colonization industry gets the more risk there will be of future earthbound dangers.

Julian: You also once wrote about carrying our “bad seed” into space. Some might counter that point by arguing that colonization would create unity on earth. Which do you think is more likely- world peace from the overview effect or more of the same?

Bruce: Let’s recall the roots of the global war system here on Earth.  When nations built navies to explore and claim far away lands for themselves (England, Holland, France, Spain, etc.) they were soon sending armies and navies to secure their land claims so they could exploit the local resource base and dominate any indigenous peoples living on those lands.  This created the global competitive war system that we still suffer from to this very day.  What makes us think that if we carry this same ‘bad seed’ of competition, greed and conflict into the heavens that things will turn out any differently there – especially when asteroids and planets are so far away – who is going to know if country X destroys country Y’s mining colony?  There will be no media there to report anything. 

In a 1989 book called Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years congressional staffer John Collins wrote the definitive study for the US government about how to control and dominate space for national interests.  In one section called the ‘Earth and Moon Gravity Wells’ Collins wrote, “L1, the lowest energy transfer site for 230-million-mile trips between Earth and Mars, could be fitted with military facilities......Armed forces might lie in wait at that location to hijack rival shipments on return.  L2, currently considered an ideal place to collect raw materials catapulted from the moon, also is a potentially important clandestine military assembly area.....Nature reserves decisive advantage for L4 and L5, two allegedly stable libration points that theoretically could dominate Earth and moon, because they look down both gravity wells.  No other location is equally commanding.”

This small section from Military Space Forces indicates that as far back as 1989 the US government was already planning to create the military capability to control the pathway on and off the planet Earth in the years ahead as plans for space mining/colonization move ahead.  So it is abundantly clear to me that our present human state of mind is not ready to venture off into a competitive dog-eat-dog space colonization gambit.  We urgently need the chance to involve the public in learning about and debating these issues – thus one of the primary reasons for the creation of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space in 1992. 

Yes, unity on Earth is a very good idea but let’s work to create it here now so that when we inevitably do move into outer space we don’t plant the flag (and bad seed) of endless conflict.

Julian: I know you are concerned about future generations. What would you say to the people who argue that colonization is the only way to guarantee that humans survive? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, right?

Bruce: It might be necessary to move off Earth at some point in time but what do we gain if we carry the bad seed to new planetary bodies and plant the same earthly habits like greed, corruption, war and ecological devastation?  Already we can see how the space faring nations on Earth have terribly polluted the orbits just beyond our planet with so much space junk/debris that we now have to track it and frequently move satellites and the Int’l Space Station (ISS) in order to ensure they are not hit by debris flying past at 15,000 mph.  (Some scientists have predicted that at some point the ISS will be hit with space debris creating a cascading effect that only worsens an already grave problem that has no foreseeable solution.)

So what is the guarantee that humankind will survive for very long if they have not matured when they move to planetary bodies that will indeed be far less hospitable to human life than our lovely Mother Earth is. 

It’s a spiritual question even more than a technical or legal one.  What kind of consciousness should we carry with us into the spiritual realm of the heavens? 

Students and debaters would be serving the future generations in a good way if they also discussed these moral and ethical dimensions of space colonization.

I highly recommend watching these two space documentaries to get a much fuller understanding of these issues.

Arsenal of Hypocrisy (2003) here

Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space (2009) here

~ Art by W. B. Park in Florida

Costs of U.S. War$ Rising Fast

It's been calculated that - by the end of this year - the US will have spent a total of $5.6 trillion on wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. That's triple what the Pentagon says it's spent.

BIW Advent Vigil Schedule

US Navy destroyer arrives at new Navy base on Jeju Island, South Korea and is met by protests

Please join us as we hold a light in the darkness at the Advent Vigil for Disarmament at Bath Iron Works.

We will gather across from the BIW Administration building on Washington Street in Bath from 11:30 am til 12:30 on the four Saturdays of Advent – December 2, 9, 16 and 23.

We stand with signs calling for the end of the building of weapons of mass destruction by General Dynamics here in Maine.  We stand in opposition to the production of the Arleigh Burke class of Aegis Destroyers [outfitted with so-called ‘missile defense’ systems] and the new Zumwalt Destroyers which will cost over $3 billion each and are presently under construction in the BIW shipyard.

It is time to end the construction of these warships and to begin the transformation to a nonviolent society by using our resources to create life affirming alternatives to our present war based economy.

Please join us for an hour on these four Saturdays in December as we witness in hope for a nonviolent world through disarmament.

~ Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm   763-4062

PS The Aegis 9 trial has again been rescheduled by the Sagadahoc County Superior Court.  The next court date is now Jury Selection on January 4, 2018 at 8:30 am at the West Bath District Court (101 New Meadows Road).  The Aegis 9 were arrested on April 1, 2017 during a ‘christening’ of an Aegis destroyer at BIW.  See the video here

Aegis 9

1. Lisa Savage – Solon, 60 years, School teacher
2. Jason Rawn – Lincolnville, 45, War tax resister, house painter
3. Bruce Gagnon – Bath, 65, VFP (Veterans For Peace & Global Network)
4. Natasha Mayers – Whitefield, 70, Artist
5. Bob Dale – Brunswick, 92, VFP, retired Navy pilot
6. Mike Tork – Cape Cod, MA, 69, VFP, former Navy Vietnam vet
7. Mark Roman – Solon, 69, Woodworker
8. Russell Wray – Hancock, 61, Artist
9. Jessica Stewart – Bass Harbor, 37, Catholic Worker activist

Hunger Striker on Jeju Island Opposing New Airfield

Catholic Father Mun meets with Jeju Island hunger striker Kim Kyeongbae as he reaches his 35th day without food.  Kim is a farmer and opposes the new Jeju Island 2nd airport project on a part of the island near the new Navy base.  Many believe that the proposed new airport would also serve as an Air Force facility and be used in conjunction with the new Navy base in Gangjeong village.

Joyakgol (who recently came to Maine for our peace walk in Bath) provides us with the following update about the hunger strike and growing movement on Jeju Island, South Korea to oppose a 2nd airport.

Kim Kyeongbae is the vice president of the Seongsan-eup residents committee against the second airport in Jeju. He is a farmer and backhoe driver from Nansan-ri, which is one of the four villages that will be wiped out by the second airport project. He will have to be displaced from his home if the Seongsan-eup airport project begins the construction.

Recently, the Jeju provincial government made a report that the majority of Jeju Islanders want the second airport and sent it to the central government. It was regarded as Jeju Governor Won's OK sign to the central government with the project.

But the report was based on a 'rigged' opinion poll so most of the Jeju people cannot accept it, and got angry against the governor. The vice-president of the residents committee began a hunger strike in front of the Jeju provincial government building. And today is the 35th day.

We Oppose Navy Bombing the Oceans!

Incredible moving testimonies by the people in Hawaii opposing US Navy plans to bomb the hell out of the oceans killing massive amounts of sea life.....

Activist Russell Wray writes about this video:

I just finished watching the whole thing. There were some pretty great comments being made, some that were knock your socks off great, but, as several of the commenters stated, the whole thing is just a big show, a mere formality that the Navy is required by law to engage in, even if its just running through the outward motions. In fact, its pure illusion, as the Navy has zero intention of changing anything about what it intends to do regardless of what anyone says or does or what laws are violated. Period!

 I loved the comments of the woman who was prosecuted by the National Marine Fisheries  disService (the very agency that gives the go-ahead  permits for the Navy to commit its undersea Holocaust) for ceremonially burying a dead melon-headed whale, and who kept on talking despite the disgusting disrespectful interruption by the Navy woman telling her her time was up. And I particularly loved the last commenter’s comments. Wow! What amazing power that beautiful woman has!!!

~Russell Wray

COAST (Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats)

Hancock, Maine

Sunday Bonus Track

Sunday Song

Why is there so much gun violence in the U.S.?

Nearly every week day I listen to the On Point radio program on National Public Radio (NPR) with host Tom Ashbrook.  Lately Ashbrook, to his credit, has been asking the question 'Why is there so much gun violence in the US?' - especially after the recent deplorable shootings in Las Vegas and Texas.   

Ashbrook has academics and news reporters as guests on the show to review various studies that show the escalating trends of gun violence and he wonders why the political class in Washington remains virtually silent about offering any real solutions.

But like most Americans, Ashbrook is only scratching the surface of the problem.  He never connects the dots to the US military empire that has more than 800 bases overseas in at least 100 countries.  He never looks at the militarization of life in America - the reality of violent TV and movies and our endless wars that portray our troops as 'heroes'.

I was watching a basketball game last night and one commercial that ran was a Marine recruitment video similar to the one above.  In it you'll see the evolution of a young American woman into a tough Marine firing her automatic weapon at some unseen enemy.  The video's bottom line is that she is defending those of us at home and is a hero.  See it here

Some years ago the Pentagon began touting our future in the US as one where 'security export' would be our top national job.  Under corporate globalization of the world economy every country would have a different role.  We won't make things like shoes, cars, refrigerators, clothes, or phones any more.  America will make weapons and send our kids overseas to fight in endless wars on behalf of resource extraction corporations.  But the  corporations, and the Pentagon, have to sell this new mission to an unsuspecting public - thus the massive military recruitment budget and TV commercials like these.

Unless and until we have a national discussion - particularly on media like Ashbrook's popular national radio talk show - nothing will change.  The signal and message to people across the nation is currently clear - guns and endless war are linked together in the glorification of violence and American power.

America needs a 12-step program to end our national addiction to killing.  Until we can come on the air and say, "Hello, my name is America and I am addicted to guns, war, domination and violence" - don't expect anything to really change.

Ashbrook will be doing shows about mass killings all over the land the rest of his radio career and he will never get to the real reasons for these senseless killings because America's DNA is fully loaded with hundreds of years of senseless killings that have never been accounted for in any meaningful way.  If you doubt me just ask the people in Iraq or at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

I am going to send the link of this post to Mr. Ashbrook but I doubt he will see it or that anything will come of it.  There are just some topics that are not allowed on NPR and this is surely one of them.

Bruce

Protect the Water Protectors

Watch the video and sign the petition asking North Dakota to drop all charges against the peaceful and prayerful water protectors of Standing Rock.

Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, Lakota People’s Law Project assists in the return of Lakota children to their families and communities, partners to protect sacred lands from threats such as the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), and much more.

Click here

Gaslighting and Lies

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity.

Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief.

The Costs of U.S. Proxy War in Ukraine

The answer is no - Russia is in fact helping to care for the self-defense forces from eastern Ukraine who have protecting their communities from US-backed attacks since 2014.

Patrick Lancaster writes:

For the last 3.5 years the Ukraine war has been raging and soldiers, as well as civilians have been getting injured and killed everyday. People of Russia and [the government of] Russia itself have decided to help the victims of the Ukraine war. This is is part one in a series to show what happens to self-defense soldiers after they are injured fighting on the anti-Ukraine or "Rebel" ( DPR & LPR ) side of the war. For the first 5 parts of this series we will concentrate on the Moscow-based charity fund "Dobro mira". We will show you how they function, who they help, and how you can help them continue to do what they do.

Lancaster is an independent American video journalist who has been reporting since 2014 on the Ukraine war and he does much to help with humanitarian efforts in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.

The US has been funding, training and directing the Ukrainian forces to attack the Russian-speaking population who live in eastern Ukraine.  The US proxy Army routinely attacks civilian homes, schools, day care centers, hospitals, train and bus stations, churches and more in the Donbass region.  Thousands of innocent people have been killed by the US war project being run by the fascist regime in Kiev.

The new US Pentagon spending bill proposes $350 million in security aid, including lethal defense weapons, for Ukraine in 2018. The bill was approved by both Senate and House Armed Services Committees on Wednesday.

Lethal aid could provide Ukraine with anti-tank weapons and possibly anti-aircraft arms, according to published reports.

DNC Hack Done 'Locally'

NSA whistleblower William Binney spoke to RT about his recent meeting with CIA director Mike Pompeo, where they discussed accusations that Russia meddled in 2016 US presidential election by hacking the Democrats.

In an interview with RT America host Ed Schultz on Wednesday, Binney said tests have “clearly showed” the DNC was not hacked by Russia before the 2016 presidential election, but that the data was downloaded locally.

Binney met with CIA director Mike Pompeo on Wednesday to review analysis by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which challenged the notion that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russia. In a letter to President Donald Trump, the group claims the “data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers.”

After analyzing the data, VIPS concluded that the transfer simply does not support the claim the documents were hacked by Russian agents, as leaders of the US intelligence community claimed in a January report.

Rich Keep Getting Richer

Tax the hell out of the rich - they've had enough party time on working people's backs.....

Listen closely to this - the 'little people' are gonna get screwed - call it the new brand of feudalism - this time you get a smartphone so they can keep track of you at all times.....

My journey and my lifetime struggle

Decolonization of my mind is a daily task.  There are layers and layers of files in my brain, planted over a lifetime, which have to be sorted and many deleted.  I've internalized alot of BS over the years.  One of my ongoing tasks is to find good and trusted sources of information so I can replace the outdated, outmoded, and out-right lies that I've swallowed.

Joining the Air Force in 1971, during the Vietnam War, as a right-wing young-Republican meant that I had much to learn about the real world.  Once exposed to the anti-war movement in the barracks I began to devour everything I could find to learn anew.  In those days there was no Internet.  Music helped teach me quite a bit.  But there is never any substitute for reading and personal experience.

The Pentagon Papers (the government's own 'secret' history of the Vietnam War) blew my socks off.  The papers were published in book form and I read the whole thick compilation - often while sitting at my desk on the Air Force base and occasionally sharing important bits out loud with my fellow GIs.  That got me in some hot water.

My constant reading of Native American history was very important in my development.  I'll always remember the indigenous wisdom - 'Put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming'.  Perfect advise anytime.

I didn't learn much in college after the service - one of the few things I picked up was that one Political Science professor was a Henry Kissinger fan so if you wanted A's you touted the Kissinger line.  I got a C in the class and began to feel like I was back in the Air Force.

My mind decolonization took another major jump when I joined the United Farm Workers Union as a staffer in Florida organizing fruit pickers from 1978-1980.  There I read People's History of the US and Labor's Untold Story.

In 1983 I started working full time in the peace movement in Florida and early on began to specialize on space.  It was natural since at the time I lived in Orlando, only one-hour away from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center where I organized many large protests over the years.  One publication that had huge impact on me was another of those government insider books that revealed the real plans for US space domination - Full Spectrum Dominance.  This one was entitled Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years.

One small illustration from that book was a section about the 'Earth and Moon Gravity Well'.  Who ever militarily holds the top of the gravity well will control which country/corporation can get on and off the planet to successfully 'mine the sky' in the years ahead.  The author John Collins, a congressional staffer, wrote: "Armed forces might lie in wait at that location [at the top of the well] to hijack rival shipments on return."  He was obviously referring to the need for the US to control the gravity well with military bases on the Moon and armed space stations on either side of the lunar body. The primary obstacle to this plan is $$$$ which is why the aerospace industry wants to defund the 'Entitlement Programs' which are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what remains of the welfare program.  I read about this 'strategy to create a dedicated space funding source' in an industry publication called Space News.

Just today I saw an important article that fits right into my agenda of mind decolonization.  The article is How America Spreads Global Chaos and is posted on Consortium News which has become one of my preferred sites for real news.  In the article Nicolas J.S. Davies writes:

U.S. Air Force Colonel Fletcher Prouty surprisingly described the role of the CIA as a response by powerful people and interests to the abolition of the U.S. Department of War and the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947. Once the role of the U.S. military was redefined as one of defense, in line with the United Nations Charter’s prohibition against the threat or use of military force in 1945 and similar moves by other military powers, it would require some kind of crisis or threat to justify using military force in the future, both legally and politically. The main purpose of the CIA, as Prouty saw it, is to create such pretexts for war.

Prouty described how the CIA infiltrated the U.S. military, the State Department, the National Security Council and other government institutions, covertly placing its officers in critical positions to ensure that its plans are approved and that it has access to whatever forces, weapons, equipment, ammunition and other resources it needs to carry them out.

The CIA, or the Deep State, is the real power in America today.  Many books give you a good understanding of this reality but the one I'd highly recommend is The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot.  It reads like a mystery novel and is one of my top five favorite books ever.

I have always had a hunger and thirst for the truth - when I was a kid I wanted to be an FBI agent to fight organized crime.  After I joined the Air Force I began the long path to realization that our government is controlled by a corporate criminal syndicate.  So today I feel like my wish came true - in my own independent way I am fighting the mobsters.

In order to stay sane I've often returned to books about Native Americans who knew the 'Great White Father in Washington' facade better than most.  They've had much experience dealing with the White Man's 'forked tongue' while struggling to hold onto their sacred spiritual circle.  One book I'd offer here is Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas.

When one can control their own mind they can begin to live a centered life and not be the slave of anyone or any corporate media outlet.  This is my journey and my lifetime struggle.

Bruce

~ Thanks to Global Network board member Will Griffin for the graphic above which inspired writing this post.

U.S. Base Expansion in Okinawa Destroys Nature

This video is about Takae, a forested area on the northern part of the island of Okinawa.  I've been there twice - once with Veterans For Peace (VFP) and a second time with a delegation of Buddhists. 

In December I am returning to Okinawa, and to Takae, with another VFP delegation - this time a larger one and our most diverse delegation of veterans yet.

We will stand with the local people as they non-violently resist the US military base expansions at Takae and Henoko.

Takae is a subtropical forest and mountain area that the US military has used since Vietnam for jungle training.  Sixty percent of Okinawa's drinking water comes from this region.  It was only in recent years that the small local village called Higashi (population 150) learned that the US had tested Agent Orange in the surrounding forest during the Vietnam years.  Dow Chemical (which manufactured Agent Orange) drums were uncovered in the area.  The locals tried to get the water tested but US forces interfered with that process.  Some animals in the area have been found with deformities.

In Henoko two US Marine V-shaped runways are being built to extend out onto pristine Oura Bay covering a total area of 205 hectares.  Of this total area, 160 hectares is to be in-fill, dredged from the sea.  Already large concrete blocks weighing as much as 45 tons were dropped on 75 seabed sites destroying 94 colonies of coral. Okinawans regularly protest at base gates and try to block sea construction operations in their kayaks.  Like on Jeju Island, South Korea they are manhandled and arrested by the Japanese government.

 

You can see some of my past blog posts about Takae and Henoko (including many photos and videos) here

The US is aiming all of this base expansion in Okinawa (and South Korea) at China and Russia.  The US wants regime change in Beijing and Moscow and is trying to get it done with a loaded gun pointed at those two sovereign nations.  This could only lead to war - nothing good can come from this US arrogance.

Bruce

Puerto Rico is a Colony

No Trump War Zone

Protests all over South Korea

No Trump No War actions, rallies and protests took place Saturday afternoon in Seoul, Chuncheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Jeonju, Gwangju, Ulsan, Busan and Changwon in South Korea.

$elling War and Pentagon Expansion in Asia-Pacific

Trump touched down in Hawaii on his way to Asia.  He was met with protests there and huge marches are happening across South Korea in anticipation of his meeting with the newly elected President Moon in Seoul.

Moon is turning out to be a disappointment to peaceniks across Korea as he carries water for the US imperial project.  It's a clear sign that those supposedly in charge in South Korea are not.  They are at the mercy of Washington and the military industrial complex.

China during the last couple of days sent nuclear bombers bumping up with the coast of Guam in a certain statement before Trump visits Beijing.  Just weeks ago, while speaking at the UN, Trump blasted socialism as a failed system - many taking it as a shot across China's bow before his trip there.  China has fired back showing the Donald that two can play the nuclear 'fire and fury' ball game.

Beijing has repeatedly warned the US that if Washington decides to 'decapitate' North Korea then China will be forced to come into the war to stop the US invasion of the north.

North Korea borders both China and Russia and neither of those nations can afford to allow an aggressive US military outpost in the northern region of the Korean peninsula.  It's a deal breaker to use Trumpian lingo.

Trump's Asia-Pacific sales trip will take him to Japan (to meet with the fascist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, grandson of an imperial Japanese war criminal), South Korea, China, Vietnam (where the US is trying to cut a deal get to permission to use the Cam Ranh Bay Navy base), and the Philippines (where the US is once again porting its warships at Subic Bay after being kicked out in 1992).

Trump's primary job is to hold the line as anti-American fervor sweeps the Asia-Pacific.  US base expansions in Okinawa and South Korea has fueled popular resistance to the Obama-Clinton era 'pivot' of 60% of American military forces into the region which requires more ports-of-call, more airfields and more barracks for US troops.  With these base expansions comes environmental degradation, dramatically increased noise pollution, GI disrespect and mistreatment of local citizens, stealing of lands from farm and fishing communities, Pentagon arrogance about its control over host governments and many other local grievances.  Washington is not interested in hearing about, or seriously negotiating, these deep concerns thus the official Pentagon response is more bluster and domination which only fuels the fires of domestic rage.

The US military is the loaded gun placed at the head of all Asia-Pacific nations - you either comply with Washington's economic demands or this instrument of destruction will be used.  The cancerous US military occupation of the region has nothing to do with defending the American people. The Pentagon defends corporate 'interests' which require a submissive region. 

The US is in a bind as its imperil project collapses overseas and at home.  Trump's 'Make American Great Again' mantra are code words to restore the empire's prestige and domination.  But there is no going back - like white supremacy at home, those days are long gone.

The US's only option is to close its more than 800 military bases around the world and bring its occupation troops home.  Learn to get along with others and bury the idea that America is the master race - the 'exceptional' nation.

The other option is World War III which would go nuclear in a cold hard flash. No one wins that one.

The American people ought to wise up and see the writing on the wall.  But they'd need a real media to share with them the true feelings of the occupied people around the world and we don't have that - ours is a subservient media that promotes only corporate interests to US citizens.

Plus the American people would need to care about other people around the world - human solidarity has largely been beaten out of the hearts of our citizenry. Even most liberals currently babble the anti-Russian recycled red-baiting being fomented by elected Democrats in the hardened halls of Washington.

There is no escaping the sad fact that it will be a brutal collapse for America and it is surely coming.

Bruce

Art by W. B. Park

Sunday Song

All Out in South Korea!

No Trump No War actions, rallies and protests will take place Saturday afternoon in Seoul, Chuncheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Jeonju, Gwangju, Ulsan, Busan and Changwon in South Korea. 

Tens of thousands of people will gather to stop the lunacy and keep peace on the Korean peninsula.

No Trump in South Korea! No War!

Protests against Trump's visit to South Korea are being banned by the new so-called 'liberal' Moon government.

But on the folks go anyway..... it is a very moving video - particularly the women's words near the end where she says, "We are living in Korea with no sovereign power."

The South Korean government, since its creation by the US after the end of WW II, has always been an appendage of Washington.  The people in South Korea know that reunification and peace will never happen on the Korean peninsula as long as the US government controls their fate.

Especially at a time when the US views South Korea as nothing more than a forward deployed military outpost for US forces actually aimed at China and Russia.

Bruce

NATO's Serbian chickens come home to roost.....

NATO is about to get sued by Serbia for using depleted uranium when it illegally bombed the hell out of Yugoslavia in 1999 in a successful attempt to break apart (Balkanize) the Communist nation.

Recall that on May 7, 1999, during the US-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force), five US JDAM guided bombs hit the People's Republic of China embassy in Belgrade killing three Chinese reporters and outraging the Chinese public.

According to the U.S. government it was a mishap - the Pentagon maintained they used the 'wrong maps'.  Right......

President Bill Clinton later apologized for the bombing, calling it accidental. CIA director George Tenet testified before a congressional committee that the bombing was the only one in the campaign organized and directed by his agency.

The raid caused a dramatic rise in tension between China and the United States. An official statement on Chinese television denounced what it called a "barbaric attack and a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty".

Months after the US-NATO attacks on Yugoslavia the aerospace industry magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the European allies were upset because the US Pentagon would not share any of the satellite photos of what their planes had hit.  Europeans came out of that war saying they'd never put themselves in such a 'blind' situation again and began to build their own military space satellite network that they called Galileo (which sounds so nice and peaceful).

It's hard for American citizens to see that our foreign policy is barbaric but it is.  We've handed over the keys to Washington to a bunch of greedy, sick, warmongers who have taken their act global. 

It is truth telling videos like this one coming out of Russian media in the US that is helping to drive the anti-Russian campaign in Washington.  The US is not used to anyone calling it out for war crimes around the world.  RT is publicly doing just that and the deep state demands Russian media airing across the US be shut down one way or the other.  The US empire is collapsing as the world has become clearer about what Washington is really all about.

Now it's just up to the American people to figure it out and stop the evil nonsense.  

Bruce

Washington Scandals - I've seen this story before

The Iran-Contra scandal is branded into my consciousness.  It happened during the years of 1983-1988 when the Reagan administration was violating Congressional mandates not to arm the Contras in Nicaragua who were trying to overthrow the elected leftist government in that nation.  Reagan ignored the law and armed the Contras anyway leading to much death and destruction.

There are many stories linked to that time but two stand out for me.  One is about a small Arkansas county prosecutor who went to then Gov. Bill Clinton and said he had clear proof that the CIA was running guns and drugs in and out of Central America from a tiny airport in his county.  The prosecutor pleaded with Gov. Clinton to help him with state funds to take on the CIA.  Clinton told the prosecutor to go home and he'd get back to him ASAP.  The prosecutor never heard back from Clinton.  Instead Clinton used the situation to help grease the skids for his eventual run for the presidency by showing he'd play ball with the CIA.

A second story is about a toy maker from Atlanta, George by the name of Bob Fletcher.  Fletcher was a Republican small businessman who one day found himself with an offer he could not refuse.  A man walked into his shop and offered him a large amount of money to buy his business and then paid Bob to stay on to run the operation.  Soon Bob realized that the new owner had no interest in the business, it was collapsing, and instead very shady guys were coming in and out of the toy company and meeting with the new owner behind closed doors.

Eventually Bob challenged the new owner who opened a drawer and handed Bob a flyer for a Hellfire missile system and told Bob, "This is what we are selling now and you'd better keep your mouth shut or you will be dead."  Bob figured he'd better get the hell out of town right away and moved to Orlando, Florida where I was living and working for the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.

By then the Iran-Contra hearings were going full bore in Congress and one day Bob was watching a retired general testify before the investigating committee and recognized him as one of the men who would come to the Atlanta toy business to meet the new owner behind closed doors.  Knowing that his business had been turned into a CIA weapons front operation Bob called the FBI in Miami and told them the whole story plus he had lots of documentation to back it all up.  The FBI set up an interview with Bob and copied all his documents - they told him to go home and they'd get back to him right away.  He waited and never got a call.  Eventually Bob called the FBI back and they told him they had lost all his documents and his testimony.

At that point Bob really began to suspect that the entire Iran-Contra Congressional hearing process was a sham.  By this time I had met Bob and organized a speaking tour for him around Florida with various peace groups.  You can hear his story here

Bob next tried to get Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh to listen to his story.  Walsh had Bob meet with his staff but nothing ever came from the meeting.  Bob became quite disillusioned with the entire process, realizing that the congressional hearings were rigged, and decided to run for Congress against right-wing Rep. Bill McCollum who himself was heavily involved in funding the whole US covert war in Central America.  I remember doing some phone banking for Bob's campaign right before the election.  For a relatively unknown guy Bob did pretty well but still lost the election.

In the end the Iran-Contra hearings found that the sale of weapons to Iran was not deemed a criminal offense but charges were brought against five individuals for their support of the Contras. Those charges, however, were later dropped because the administration refused to declassify certain documents. The indicted conspirators faced various lesser charges instead. In the end, fourteen administration officials were indicted, including then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Eleven convictions resulted, some of which were vacated on appeal. The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W. Bush, who had been Vice President at the time of the scandal. The Iran-Contra Affair and the ensuing deception to protect senior administration officials including President Reagan has been cast as an example of post-truth politics.

So the bottom line was that no one went to jail - no one really faced any repercussions - in fact Col. Oliver North (who had helped to run the entire guns/drug operation from a cash filled safe in his White House office) became a hero in the right-wing community and got a well paid job on FOX News.

Bob was so disgusted that he moved to Montana and joined the militia.  Years later I saw him on TV news one night being interviewed about the militia's opposition to the US government.  A search on the Internet reveals that still today Bob is tilting at windmills - telling his story and trying to get the public to see that our government is corrupt.

As I watch the current version of the Iran-Contra hearings in Washington - this time the so-called Russian influence peddling story - I can see that it is really nothing more than a big distraction and in the end few, if any, will pay any real price.  The big boys are always protected either by having charges dropped or by a presidential pardon.

Our government is run by a corporate criminal syndicate.  They ensure that both parties are protected from any real prosecution for their criminality.  The rest of us - the so-called 'little people' - are the ones that are held to the letter of the law.

Bruce

Maine: Almost half the state loses power after latest storm

We had a big storm here three days ago with winds topping out at over about 65 miles per hour in the Portland area.  Just after the storm 484,000 homes in Maine were without electricity and it will be Saturday before the remaining 250,000 get their power turned back on.  (Maine has a population of only 1.3 million.)

We were lucky at our house here in Bath - we never lost power while most homes in the city did.  Over the years we rarely lose power and we've heard folks say that our house is on the same electrical grid as Bath Iron Works because we live so close to the shipyard. Sounds like a plausible theory.

One might wonder why our state doesn't move power lines under ground as global warming is causing more severe storms more frequently.  Some would say that the state can't afford to take on the expensive effort to bury power lines - but watching this current recovery effort I can't imagine how we can afford to repeatedly repair this aging electrical system after the next big storm - and we know that there will surely be more to come.

October was the warmest month in Maine's recorded history.  Portland made it through the entire month of October without a frost.

Bruce