Bruce Gagnon -- Living in the midst of imperial collapse

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017

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 on 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