Exposing Dirty Tricks

Exposing Dirty Tricks

by C.A. Matthews

Has anyone ever tried to pull the wool over your eyes? Fooled you into believing something that turned out later to be false? How did you feel after you discovered that you'd been bamboozled? Sad? Angry? Determined never to let something like this happen to you ever again?

Now you know how the Arizona Green Party (AZGP) feels upon learning that Green voters could become the victims of a series of terrible tricks. This scam essentially denies all Arizona voters a choice for US Senate. And who are these con artists attempting to pull a fast one over on the electorate? They're none other than the Democratic Party.

Here are the details as they were presented on X (Twitter) by the AZGP:

The message thread begins at this address: https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1780413138262954472

The Arizona Green Party has discovered compelling evidence that suggests that the Democratic Party is attempting to interfere in our primary election process for the U.S Senate race via the campaign of faux-Green candidate Mike Norton.

First, Norton isn’t even a registered AZGP member AT ALL. Voter data provided to us from the Maricopa County Elections Office indicates that Norton’s most recent change in party affiliation was to “Independent”, which he registered as on August 17th, 2023, not as a “Green”.

Norton filed a Statement of Interest to run for the U.S. Senate as a Green on March 17th, 2024, a mere two weeks before the deadline to submit a sufficient number of candidate nomination petitions. He had no prior involvement or contact with the AZGP whatsoever before this.

On March 18th, the first of 7 total out-of-state paid petitioners, all claiming to be working for Wells Marketing LLC, begin to register with the AZ Secretary of State’s Office via the Circulator Portal and designate that they are circulating petitions for Norton’s campaign.

The next day, March 19th, Mike Norton files a Statement of Organization with the FEC for his candidate committee, “Mike Norton for Arizona”. FEC Law stipulates that this has to happen once a Congressional candidate raises or spends a combined total of $5K.

On March 21st, the “Save Democracy PAC” a super-PAC with ties to the Democratic Party, donates the max contribution of $5K to Norton’s candidate committee. Reminder: anybody who knows anything about the Green Party knows that we DO NOT EVER accept contributions from super PACs.

[Editor’s note: You can learn more about the Green Party at https://gp.org]

On March 27th, two more Democratic Party linked super-PACs (“End Citizens United” and “Defend The Vote”) max out donations to Norton’s campaign, contributing $5K each.

Both these super-PACs have already officially endorsed Ruben Gallego for the 2024 US Senate seat in Arizona. [Editor’s note: Ruben Gallego is running as a Democrat.]

Get ready, cuz this is a BIG one. On March 28th, 5 individuals made maxed out contributions of $3300 each to Norton’s campaign, and 1 contributed a lesser $1000 donation. The names/backgrounds of these individual donors may surprise you, so let’s go through them one by one.

Michael D. Smith is a Principal/Director at Cornerstone Government Affairs. He’s also a member of the DSCC Majority Trust Legacy Circle since 2008, and a formerly appointed member of the DNC Credentials Committee. Smith contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign. [DSCC—Democratic Senate Congressional Committee]

Paul Bernon is a Managing Partner at PMB Ventures, a Co-Chair of the Emily List Creative Council, and a member of the DNC Finance Committee. Bernon contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign.

Devin Rhinerson is a Partner at Pace LLP and a former senior policy advisor to the (now deceased) Democratic Senator from the State of California, Diane Feinstein. Rhinerson contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s Campaign.

Elizabeth E. Steinglass (David’s wife) is a Harvard graduate, a poet/author, a Research Fellow at NYU School of Law, and- like her husband- a frequent big money donor to Democratic campaigns. Elizabeth contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign.

Capping off the individual contributions is Timothy Webster, an Associate Professor of Law at WNE University who made a more modest contribution of only $1000 to Mike Norton for Arizona. While we have not yet confirmed Webster as being tied to the Dems, the timing is suspicious.

In a SINGLE day on March 28th, and between only 6 individual contributors, “Mike Norton for Arizona” received a whopping $17.5K, the majority of which came from Democratic Party insiders and their big money donors. But wait, there’s still more…

The following day, March 29th, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU-COPE) ALSO made a maximum $5K contribution to Mike Norton’s campaign. “Why the Transit Union?”, you ask? Norton’s background is as a CEO, Senior Executive, and Legal Counsel to 3 major transportation companies.

But that undersells it, because those companies specialize in the transportation of “High Security Products”. Can you guess what kind of products those may be? Here’s the answer: weapons, ammunition, explosives, and radioactive materials. A decidedly un-Green career, we’d say. [Editor’s note: The Green Party platform states clearly that they are for “People, Planet and Peace (over corporate profits). You can see now why this contributor is highly suspect.]

So, let’s summarize: Norton’s not a registered Green, and never has been. In the span of ONLY 12 DAYS after filing an initial Statement of Interest, he received over $15K from confirmed Democratic Party insiders. And now he’s trying to fool the Green Party voters of Arizona.

And if you’re wondering, as some of you surely would be, “What do the Democrats gain from heavily funding a fake Green Party candidate?”, consider the case of ‘18 Senate candidate Angela Green, who dropped out and endorsed Sinema at the very last minute against McSally.

Sinema ultimately won regardless of Green’s endorsement, but it was a close race, and the AZ Dem Party, the DSCC, and the DNC have no desire to take that chance with Ruben Gallego in 2024. They’re willing to fight dirty and do everything they can to sabotage the competition.

And what better way is there to stop any possible *real* competition for Gallego from our party than by implanting an operative in our primary, funding him so heavily he easily wins, and then immediately having him drop out in the general to endorse the Democratic candidate?

Well, Mike Norton you may be a smart man, and you may be well-funded by the corrupt DNC, but you can’t fool us, and you won’t get away with your lies and dirty tricks. We know a true Green Party candidate from a fake like you. And now, Arizona knows you’re a fraud too.

Wow… After making quite a few sloppy moves, do the Dirty Dems really think they’ll get away with this conman of a candidate? Do they think Arizona’s voters are stupid enough to vote for a “faux Green”?

I think you know the answer to both those questions. It’s “yes.”

The saddest part about the Dems pulling dirty tricks is that most voters won’t do much in-depth research into candidates running for office at any level. They’ll believe whatever is put before them in the mainstream media without questioning it. Most have never heard of OpenSecrets.org where they can check out where politicians are getting their money and just how much they've taken. Most voters have never thought of researching the party platform that the candidate says they’re promoting, which in this case is very important as Norton seems to stand for the complete opposite of the Green Party's philosophy.

If voters did do their research, they would learn that the Green Party is for “People, Planet and Peace” and their candidates pledge to never take money from PACs or Super PACs. They’d think twice about Mike Norton’s acceptance of money from an industry dedicated to war along with large donations from Democratic Party insiders.

I mean, why would well-heeled Democrats give money to a Green Party candidate in the first place? That should be a big giveaway right there. But wait, there’s even more nefarious activity going on in the Dems’ dirty tricks campaign to undermine the Arizona Green Party's primary. The AZGP has also reported there is yet another possible “faux-Green” candidate being promoted by the DNC.

The thread for these messages begins here: https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1781897196419621221

In addition to the meddling by the DNC in our primary election via the campaign of Mike Norton, the Arizona Green Party has found irregularities in the campaign finance reporting of Arturo Hernandez, the other faux-Green candidate for U.S. Senate. Here’s what we found.

Arturo filed his statement of interest with the AZ Secretary of State’s Office on March 1st, 2024, and he filed his FEC Statement of Organization (Form 1) and Statement of Candidacy (Form 2) on March 11th, 2024.

While it’s not required for a candidate to reach the $5K threshold before they file paperwork and start submitting FEC reports, as soon as they file that paperwork, they are obligated to report all funds that are raised or spent by the candidate’s committee.

Because Hernandez filed his Statement on the 1st of March, he was officially campaigning as of that date and cannot claim to have been “testing the waters” in the form of an exploratory committee, as is allowed for and outlined in FEC guidelines.

Part of that FEC Form 2 Statement of Candidacy requires candidates to declare their intent to expend personal funds if they are a candidate for Congress. Hernandez’s FEC Form 2 indicates that he claimed intend to spend $0 of his personal funds in the primary and general election.

However, if you examine Mr. Hernandez’s Q1 FEC reports, he has also claimed $0 in receipts and expenditures. Here’s where things start to get really fishy…

We know from personal testimony from AZGP members like @jonralstonlmt and research done during the signature challenge period that Mr. Hernandez had paid circulators distributing his candidate nomination petitions. Yet, Mr. Hernandez has not reported any money raised or spent.

Additionally, we know that Mr. Hernandez is a client of “In Compliance Inc.”, and his designated Treasurer and Custodian of Records is Chrissie Hastie, President/CEO of In Compliance Inc. However, no payments to In Compliance Inc. have been reported by Mr. Hernandez in Q1.

Even if the paid petitioners AND In Compliance Inc. were to have worked pro bono for Mr. Hernandez, they would still need to report this as an “in-kind contribution”. No such reporting has been made on the Q1 FEC report for “Arturo for Arizona”.

It is no secret that Mr. Hernandez is a sham candidate who has jumped onto our ballot line with the intent to fool Green Party in Arizona into wasting their vote on an infiltrator with nefarious intentions. Mr. Hernandez has even been so bold as to contact us to gloat.

While we are continuing to investigate further evidence of wrongdoing, we believe that it is highly probably that Mr. Hernandez and his candidate committee “Arturo for Arizona” have violated the FECA of 1971. We urge all AZ Green Party members to NOT vote for or support him.

If any individual would like to submit an FEC complaint against “Arturo for Arizona”, which could trigger a thorough investigation process by the Commission that may be very expensive for Mr. Hernandez… , here is the process for how to do so: https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/enforcement/complaints-process/how-to-file-complaint-with-fec/

Anybody can file an FEC complaint, and the more complaints filed, the more likely it is the commission will review the case.

To further clarify:

https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1781734840930549853

To be clear, the Democrats are trying to kick faux-Green Arturo Hernandez off the ballot, while they have installed a well-funded Democratic operative to run in our primary named Mike Norton. The AZ Green Party’s endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate race is @Quintana4Senate

Even the Republican US Senate candidate, Kari Lake, is exposing these Dem shenanigans:

https://twitter.com/KariLakeWarRoom/status/1781729926451999071

It appear the AZ Dem Party is attempting to kick the AZ Green Party candidate off the ballot so that their Trojan horse candidate can drop out & endorse Ruben Gallego.

These are the people who lecture us about democracy.

Mr. Hernandez doesn’t sound like the brightest bulb in the box to me. Could he be yet another DNC faux Green candidate that didn’t quite work out as well as they’d hoped, so they brought Mr. Norton on board later to be their “official faux Green candidate” instead? Why does the DNC pull such criminal stunts like this? Are they worried their own candidate, Mr. Gallego, isn’t electable?

Ruben M. Montejano states in an X post:

https://twitter.com/damnitruben/status/1781156089276641337

From what I gather AZ Green Party thinks if Norton wins their primary he will drop out leaving no Green Party Candidate to run against the Dem and Republican candidates in the general election.

The official Arizona Green Party candidate is Eduardo Quintana.[@Quintana4Senate]:

https://twitter.com/Quintana4Senate/status/1777399449985126691

My name is Eduardo Quintana, I am a dedicated Green Party activist in the Tucson area, and I am running a grassroots, corporate-free campaign for the U.S. Senate with the AZ Green Party

The Dems' actions demonstrate how very scared they are very scared of losing the US Senate seat in Arizona. They possibly fear that voters see them as supporters of Genocide Joe Biden, repellent genocide-enablers. They’re willing to spend large sums of their donors' money and risk committing fraud to take away the voters choices at the ballot box. 

When the news of these dirty tricks in Arizona eventually leaks out to a wider audience, won’t the Dems be helping their Republican opponent by making her look more honest than they are? This time around the Dems can’t claim the Green Party candidate is stealing votes from them because they are, in fact, funding “spoilers” like Mike Norton and Arturo Hernandez in the Green primary.

What does Norton in particular get out of all of this skullduggery? It seems his connection with the weapons industry is behind his reasoning for doing this so he can continue to fund Gallego and other Dem candidates who love passing huge military budgets. The military-industrial-Congressional complex operators don’t really care what label a candidate wears as long as she/he votes the way they want them to. As long as the duopoly remains in power, billionaires will thrive and workers will suffer as more and more money is siphoned out of the workers' pockets and slipped into the oligarchs’ bank accounts.

Worse yet, more innocents will continue to suffer and die as more US bombs are provided to apartheid Israel to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in Gaza. A Green Party senator from Arizona would work hard to end this horrific situation and all US military interventions worldwide.

What can the Arizona Green Party do to shut down this scam? They can take legal action against Norton for misrepresenting himself as a Green, but court cases take time, and it wouldn’t come up until after November. The Dems are counting on that. It’s why they waited until almost the last moment to sneak Norton in on the Green primary. In the meantime, they’re probably “rewarding” (i.e., bribing) all the Arizona judges to make a ruling in the DNC’s favor when the case finally does come to court. Criminals do tend to stick together.

If you’re a person who loves democracy and wants to help the voters of Arizona, there are a few things you can do. First off, share this story (and the X posts/Tweets) with others. The mainstream media certainly won’t cover this DNC trickery. They wouldn’t dare anger their corporate owners. So, it’s up to us everyday people, indie journalists, and independent podcasters to get the word out.

Secondly, file a complaint with the FEC if you feel moved to do so. And if you’re able, donate your time, talents and/or money to the AZGP and/or the GPUS. Lawyers don’t come cheap, and a party like the Green Party that only accepts donations from voters like you and me (not millionaires/billionaires) needs all the backers they can get. 

It’s why the Dirty Dems pick on the people-powered Greens—the Dems receive billions of dollars from their wealthy Super PAC donors but no real support from the masses. The Dems use their corporate donors’ money to pull undemocratic stunts like this one in order to manipulate us, We the People. Remember, “freedom isn’t free” when the people are being blatantly outspent by billionaires bribing politicians.

Last and certainly not least, support causes that are working to take big money out of US politics. Just think if the DNC wasn’t able to pull all this money together and create fake candidates to thwart voter choice, we might not be seeing these kinds of dirty tricks in the first place. Check out the Move to Amend and Ranked Choice Voting initiatives. 

Whatever you do, don’t give up hope. Make a vow to never let the Dems get away with dirty tricks ever again. Power to the people—not the corporations who own the Dems, their criminally minded minions!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Democrats Sue to Block Green Candidate https://arizonaglobe.com/fl/democrats-sue-to-block-green-candidate/

Challenging the duopoly: Jill Stein on why she's running for US president as Green Party candidate https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/jill-stein-president-green-party

'Obvious Evidence of Genocide': Mass Grave Discovered in Gaza's Nasser Hospital https://www.commondreams.org/news/mass-grave-gaza-nasser-hospital 

Israeli Strikes in Rafah Kill 22, Including 18 Children https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/21/israeli-strikes-kill-22-in-rafah-including-18-children/

Israel Is Turning Hospitals Into Mass Graves While The West Fixates On 'Antisemitism' https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-is-turning-hospitals-into

We need to have a conversation about Zionism https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/we-need-to-have-a-conversation-about

Bankers upgrade Lockheed stock after Iran strikes at Israel https://responsiblestatecraft.org/lockheed-martin-israel-war/

Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership https://www.commondreams.org/news/palestinian-statehood

In Fit of anti-Palestinian Hatred, Congress tries to Outlaw “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” https://www.juancole.com/2024/04/palestinian-congress-palestine.html

Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership https://www.commondreams.org/news/palestinian-statehood

In Fit of anti-Palestinian Hatred, Congress tries to Outlaw “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” https://www.juancole.com/2024/04/palestinian-congress-palestine.html

Stop Pretending Biden Is Some Passive Witness To Israel's Warmongering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-pretending-biden-is-some-passive

Israel's Latest Lie Is That It Has 'No Choice' But To Attack Iran https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-latest-lie-is-that-it-has

If The Mainstream Worldview Was Accurate, Gaza Wouldn't Be Burning https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-the-mainstream-worldview-was-accurate

Amal Clooney’s Silence on Gaza Shows the Limits of Liberalism  https://www.mintpressnews.com/amal-clooney-silence-gaza-shows-limits-liberalism/287251/

The Palestine Movement Has Completely Undermined the US-Israel Relationship  https://youtu.be/X1Zz2Hnmr7w

Blinken Is Sitting on Staff Recommendations to Sanction Israeli Military Units Linked to Killings or Rapes https://www.propublica.org/article/israel-gaza-blinken-leahy-sanctions-human-rights-violations

Protesters Block Road To Shannon Airport in Ireland, Calling For End To Usage By U.S. Military https://worldbeyondwar.org/protesters-block-road-to-shannon-airport-in-ireland-calling-for-end-to-usage-by-u-s-military/

Escalation With Iran Seemingly Over; Now We Have To Worry About Rafah  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/escalation-with-iran-seemingly-over

The US Doesn't Support A Two-State Solution, It Just Supports Saying It Does https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-doesnt-support-a-two-state

Palestine Coverage – Latest Unicorn Riot Stories from Palestine and Pro-Palestine Protests  https://unicornriot.ninja/palestine-coverage-latest-unicorn-riot-stories-from-palestine-and-pro-palestine-protests/

US Government Rejects Australia’s Call To End Assange Case, Submits 'Assurances' For Extradition https://thedissenter.org/us-government-rejects-australias-call-to-end-assange-case/

In Gaza The Sniper Drones Are Crying Like Babies https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-gaza-the-sniper-drones-are-crying

From Florida to Australia, Global Coral Bleaching Could Soon Be Worst on Record  https://truthout.org/articles/global-coral-reef-bleaching-event-brings-bad-news-for-the-climate/

Dead Last (With Emphasis on Dead!) https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/17/dead-last-with-emphasis-on-dead/

Assange Extradition Case Moves Forward While The CIA Covers Its Tracks https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/assange-extradition-case-moves-forward

"Rules-Based Order" Means Rules For Thee But Not For We https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/rules-based-order-means-rules-for

FBI Violated Your Rights An Unbelievable Amount According To Gov't Docs! https://youtu.be/6lk7bAYoiRo?si=9cyf6s58SjrnRSN6

 

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The Writing's On The Wall

The Writing's On The Wall

by C.A. Matthews

Some days it feels like this nightmare will go on forever. It’s overwhelming. When you can’t even have a reasonable, adult conversation with others for risk of being labeled “antisemitic” simply because you support the rights of Palestinians to live and not be ethnically cleansed, it does feel like this is it... The End Times. 

The end of Western civilization perhaps.

Maybe the death of Western civilization isn’t such a bad thing after all. Who needs a society which continues to deny basic human rights to people based upon the “superiority” or “inferiority” of skin color, race, religion, politics, social status, or ethnicity? The writing is on the wall. We’re already seeing the signs of the end of this sick world approaching in various ways. It’s time to accept this truth so we all can live together in peace and harmony.

Already the “stenographers for the oligarchs” are starting to fold. Mainstream media outlets are beginning to soften their original hard line, pro-Zionist/anti-Palestinian stance. Why their sudden change of heart? It probably has a lot to do with so many independent journalists outing them for the propaganda mouthpieces for Israel and the military-industrial complex of the West that they are.

by Mark Taylor, DeMOCKracy Ink

Even CNN has changed its mind, revealing how it didn’t do its job properly when it came to reportage on the “Flour Massacre.” Seems the IDF were at fault all along. Israeli snipers shot at helpless starving Gazans as they gathered to get food aid off of the trucks, the opposite of how many a Western headline read. The food aid itself didn’t kill them. They didn't kill each other in the rush. The IDF did so. Deliberately.

Funny how the truth has a way of eventually leaking into the world of Western journalism. Apparently these stenographers for the oligarchs don’t like being embarrassed by Palestinian journalists who got things right the first time. They don’t enjoy being caught in the act of regurgitating Israeli lies one too many times by independent podcasters. It makes them look stupid. It makes them look like paid-off shills.

Well, they are shills for Israel and the military-industrial complex, aren’t they? But they don’t want to look that obvious. They don't want everyone who watches them to think, "These so-called journalists love bloodshed and violence. Great for their ratings, right?" So, they’ve kept up their front and pretended that they’ve never repeated the hasbara (translation: storytelling) of the Israelis on behalf of their corrupt Western governments. They'll pretend they've never once lied even when they’re forced to make corrections to their stories later. 

But it’s too late. Intelligent and insightful people question everything they hear and read. They look for and find alternative sources of news and double check the facts. Darn those smarty pants! They're making CNN’s and their compatriots’ propaganda spinning that much harder.

The writing is on the wall. Mainstream news outlets will either return to an approximation of “fair and balanced” journalism, or else they’ll be laughed off the planet. When push comes to shove, their CEOs will want to stay in business. They’ll probably accommodate the public’s need to know the truth, rather than continue passing on the false narrative spin of Western governments' propagandists.

Speaking of Western governments… The writing’s on the wall there as well.

“Genocide Joe” Biden and his administration are slowly but surely circling the drain. Trying to sell a geriatric with memory issues and a vicious streak of hatred against non-white peoples has been an extremely difficult sales job for Biden’s campaign workers. Promoting the lesser evil voting argument doesn’t hold up when making such statements as, “Trump would start even more genocides than Biden already has!” 

Nah, it doesn’t work. It exposes the fallacy of lesser evil voting even more than it already has been exposed. It's all just a nasty voter shaming technique. The duopoly and its candidates are just uniformly evil no matter how they care to label themselves, as either ”Donkeys” or “Elephants”. Both groups work for the military-industrial complex and do as they're told. They're both full of crap.

Stories about how President Ronald Reagan picked up the phone in 1982 and called Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and told him to stop bombing Lebanon, and twenty minutes later, Israel stopped the bombings, have been unearthed recently. Repeating Reagan's tough stance against Israeli bombing makes things look even bleaker for "Butcher Biden" and his genocide-enabling administration. 

White House briefings by smooth-talking spokespersons hinting at how “upset” or “angry” or “frustrated” Biden is with P.M. Netanyahu’s actions do nothing to change the facts of the matter.  A genocide is being committed by Israel using US provided bombs and arms. What do Biden's feelings really got to do with anything unless they've been telling him it's the right thing to do, funding a genocide, for the past six months?

Biden continues to send bombs to Israel who uses them to ethnically cleanse even more civilians in Gaza. If US presidents have the power to pick up the phone and call Israeli prime ministers and get them to shut down military operations, why hasn’t Joe Biden picked up the phone and demanded an end to the bombings? The answer is simple: He doesn’t want to stop supplying bombs to Israel. He doesn’t really care if Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. Biden’s war machine donors’ wishes and profits are infinitely more important to him that breathing, happy Palestinian children ever could be.

The most recent polls show that the vast majority of Americans want the US to stop sending bombs to Israel. If Biden continues to ignore the public’s opinion on this matter, he has set himself up for a big fall come the November presidential election. With this stubbornly short-sighted attitude, one wonders if he really wants to keep his job. Maybe not.

The writing is on the wall: Biden is going down for the count. No doubt about it. And good riddance! 

With Biden knocking himself out of the race, the odds for an alternative party candidate such as the Green Party's Jill Stein winning have increased exponentially. In a crowded field of two wannabe presidents and two former presidents, Dr. Stein needs only 26% of the Electoral College vote to win. 

Of course, the crap-filled Donkeys and Elephants will pitch a fit and kick and scream “election fraud!” if Dr. Stein does win, but every time the duopoly pulls their dirty tricks, the more voters become wiser to how corrupt the American system of voting truly is. If they block the people's choice, the US will be revealed as the oligarchy it is and not the "democracy" it pretends to be.

The writing's on the wall for the wealthy, white, male settler-colonialist class who created and perpetuated this travesty called the United States of America. Let's hope they realize this soon and surrender peacefully to the people.

Perhaps the best news of all is that six months after starting their genocide of the Palestinian people the writing is on the wall for the ethnostate of Israel.

Things have gone too far, too fast. The moral stench of the murders of innocent children and babies in incubators in Gaza has convinced many countries to stop supporting Israel. Some like Spain are calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. Colombia is calling for all nations to break diplomatic ties with Israel. The South African genocide case made against Israel at the International Court of Justice has picked up more supporters. Many countries are calling for United Nations' sanctions against Israel and for the UN to treat Israel as a pariah state.

If there ever was any hope for a “two state solution” between Israel and Palestine, recent actions of the Israeli government, military, and its bloodthirsty civilian population have pretty much killed its chances. The writing’s on the wall. The only chance for peace in the region is to permanently shut down the white settler-colonial, apartheid, racist-Zionist government of Israel and build a democratic secular state that doesn’t make one ethnic group superior to the other. All people are to be treated equally. No exceptions.

Six months of daily images of children lying crushed in the rubble, dying slowly of starvation, and dying trying to scrounge up food while being shot at by IDF snipers is grueling and disheartening. But there is a glimmer of hope when we realize that the writing is on the wall. I predict that the end is coming soon for these heartless bastards in both Israel and the Western governments. My only wish is that I live long enough to see all of them punished for their crimes against humanity.

Peace and morality can be restored to the world. We the People can take our rightful place in the governance of ourselves. We can lock away the warmongering narcissists and their minions in the prisons they've built to torture those who resisted their tyranny. When we do, we will write the best and last thing on the wall: Good-bye to the war machine forever!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces Spain’s readiness to recognize the state of Palestine and encourages other European countries to follow suit. pic.twitter.com/egt9FcgJj9

— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 10, 2024

Will Israel Drag the US Into Another Ruinous War? https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-hamas-hezbollah-iran/

Gaza is a test of the absolute bare minimum requirements for someone to be worth listening to about anything at all, because if you got this one wrong then there’s just something wrong with you as a human being.  —Getting Gaza Right Is The Absolute Bare Minimum Requirement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-gaza-right-is-the-absolute

"If something like this can happen in plain view of everyone, and the people in charge not only do nothing but actively facilitate it, then you have to start wondering if everything about your entire nation is deranged, and if everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie." —Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gaza-asks-us-a-question-about-what

Israeli Suffering Is Not Comparable To Palestinian Suffering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-suffering-is-not-comparable

Biden declares “ironclad” commitment to Israel as death toll mounts in Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/tnmf-a11.html

Iran Strikes Back https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/iran-strikes-back 

Biden Administration Won't Say Whether They Support Federal Shield Law For Journalists https://thedissenter.org/biden-white-house-wont-say-whether-backs-press-act/

Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-killing-aid-workers-israel-plan-destroy-gaza

West votes against rest of world, supporting illegal sanctions in UN Human Rights Council https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/west-votes-rest-world-un-sanctions

CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/cnn-finally-tells-the-truth-about

Ralph Nader: The Mutually Reinforcing US and Israeli Empires https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/09/ralph-nader-the-mutually-reinforcing-us-and-israeli-empires/

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/10/israel-has-formed-a-task-force-to-carry-out-covert-campaigns-at-us-universities/

It Can't Be Fun Defending Israel These Days... https://youtu.be/guxkmRPSTlI?si=iaM2puQPdz8fBo4B

Aid Flotilla Heading To Gaza To Break Siege https://popularresistance.org/aid-flotilla-heading-to-gaza-to-break-siege/

Establishment SUDDENLY Turns Against Israel! https://youtu.be/ExQM25IwFd4?si=wC0zhVp5hX6nVm0C

Tucker Carlson and Palestinian Priest on Israel’s Oppression of Christians https://youtu.be/n2_4uI-lcv4?si=dq1R8GxL-hkrUwr2

Empire Managers Keep Acting Like Iran Is About To Attack Israel Without Provocation https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-keep-acting-like

Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-Trained Neo-Nazi Army https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/08/meet-centuria-ukraines-western-trained-neo-nazi-army/

Sales of Palestinian land are happening around the US  https://therealnews.com/illegal-real-estate-sales-of-palestinian-land-are-happening-around-the-us

Last Year, You Spent More Than a Month’s Rent on Pentagon Contractors https://otherwords.org/last-year-you-spent-more-than-a-months-rent-on-pentagon-contractors/

47 years later, Leonard Peltier is still not free https://therealnews.com/47-years-later-leonard-peltier-is-still-not-free

A great album now on Bandcamp:
Notes From A Holocaust by David Rovics
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/notes-from-a-holocaust 

Active Duty Airman Larry Hebert refuses to eat while Gaza starves.
 

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How Do We Live With Ourselves?

 

In Lak'ech Ala K'in. "I am you and you are me. What I do to you, I do to myself." —Mayan Saying

How Do We Live With Ourselves?

by C.A. Matthews

In this season of supposed “Peace on Earth! Goodwill to All Humankind!” one would hope to see—and experience—some of this peace and goodwill for oneself.

But, of course, that’s not possible in December 2023 because there’s a genocide going on in Palestine, both in Gaza and the West Bank. There are also other genocides occurring elsewhere on the planet—such as in the Congo—but they’re not making the news cycle much, like the one in Rwanda a few years back didn’t. Africans are invisible to Western media outlets. The stacks of dead bodies of black people don’t register on their cameras or consciousnesses.

Criminal, isn’t it?

The fact that Netanyahu and Biden have teamed up to slaughter tens of thousands of Palestinians, including little children, babies in incubators, and the elderly, has caused many Americans to simply shut down emotionally and intellectually. That’s the only explanation I can give to explain the lack of responses I’ve received whenever I post an article, a video, or photo detailing what’s happening in Gaza on my Facebook page. I’m lucky to get one or two likes or comments from the same one or two persons, but mostly I receive zero responses. Crickets.

Even to a video that shows the destruction of Gaza that US tax dollars have paid for (Don't you feel proud?): https://youtu.be/k0pOaRsfxYc?si=CaOByrRvvMFpsJrR

I know it’s foolish of me to even think it’s worth my time posting anything on Facebook, but I feel that the public has the right to hear the whole story and not only the sanitized and twisted narrative the status quo puts out in the mainstream media. I keep hoping some of these posts will get through the blocks and shadowbans. I know a lot of what I’ve posted on X/Twitter has been censored as well, but enough of my X posts must get through because I do receive plentiful responses from online friends and strangers alike.

Of course, the strangers are often accusing me of being “antisemitic” because I voice that I am strongly anti-Zionist/anti-genocide. Somehow people are confusing these two radically different concepts, Semitism and Zionism. Semitic peoples are simply people originally from the part of the world that makes up Gaza/Palestine and the modern state of Israel and speak similar languages. That’s all it really means.

And I’ll admit that I’m very much for Semitic people living and thriving and not being crushed to death in the rubble of their homes while being bombed by the Israeli air force, bombs courtesy of the US military-industrial complex. I’m very much for tiny babies in incubators in hospitals in the Gaza strip to have access to electricity and clean water and to not be left to die alone in the cold and dark because Israeli soldiers forced their doctors and nurses out of the hospitals. I’m very much for Israeli civilians not being burned to death in their cars by missiles shot from Apache helicopters piloted by Israeli Air Force pilots who believe in the “Hannibal Directive”.

I simply want all signatories to the United Nations Convention on Human Rights to follow the rules. I don’t want them to commit war crimes. That’s not too much to ask now, is it?

So, obviously I’m far from being “antisemitic” by the textbook definition. As far as the political ideology of Zionism goes? Nah, I can’t get behind it since it has led to the creation of a horrible ethnostate that has slaughtered the indigenous peoples for decades now without mercy because the Zionists want to steal the natives’ land and natural resources. Any political ideology that supports anything like the 1948 Nakba, apartheid, second class citizenship for native peoples, carpet bombing, and outright genocide isn’t an ideology I can support in good conscience.

And that’s where the problem lies for me. My conscience tells me that genocide is wrong, and that I, as a professing Christian, must do all that I can to “Love my neighbor as myself.” I cannot simply turn a blind eye to the horrors happening to Palestinians since they are my “neighbor.” I  must “Do for others as I would like them to do for me.” I must walk a mile in their moccasins and learn what it’s like to be oppressed, to feel the pain of what is happening to them, and then do something about it. I don’t have a choice. It’s what I as a Christian must do.

My conscience says that if I simply ignore others being killed and injured with US provided military armaments then I, as an American citizen/taxpayer, am every bit as culpable as the party to whom we provided the weapons to that is actively doing the killing.

We Americans don’t get a free pass on this. We don’t get to deny that we’re causing untold suffering and agony to our fellow human beings just because we made a private deal with another country that wants to use our military aid to commit a genocide. We must accept the blame and take action to rectify the nightmarish situation before it gets even worse—although it’s already gotten worse, hasn’t it?

I can’t imagine a worse scenario than 1.8 million displaced, 7,000 dead children, 20,000 civilians dead or crushed under the rubble of Gaza, murdered simply for the crime of being born Palestinian.  Once the "temporary pause" was lifted, over 700 Palestinians were killed within the first 24 hour period by IDF bombing. It bothers my conscience. It hurts my heart greatly. I can’t sleep sometimes. I remember my youngest daughter spending her first week of life in an incubator. How would I feel if she had been left to die alone or buried under a ton of rubble because Zionists wanted her dead?

But nobody wants to hear about my PTSD triggers. This strange concept of having a conscience isn’t going over very well with some Americans I’ve encountered, unfortunately. Here is my recent tale that illustrates this problem:

I was sharing information from one group to another group online, because I thought maybe a few people (not all, just a few) in the second group might be interested in using their musical skills to help out the folks in the first group. So I copied and pasted a request from the first group and sent it along in a group email to the second group. Honestly, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I was in a hurry, and I didn’t edit the paragraph I’d received from the first group because I didn’t want to add words or take away anything from what they were trying to ask help for.

Imagine my surprise (shock, really) the next day when I’m totally blindsided by a heated response posted in the second group that I emailed. Only two persons emailed back on the loop, but their accusations of my “antisemitism” and the “legal ramifications” of assisting the first group this holiday season pretty much told me that they weren’t the decent human beings I’d thought they were. (And the rest of those on the email loop? They’ve remained silent—in agreement? In fear they could be attacked next? Who knows?)

Now here's the real kicker: the second group is a church group, and I’d assumed they were professing Christians as well as musicians. Wouldn’t they as Christians want to stop a genocide being committed with the help of our tax dollars? Don’t their consciences bother them about the genocide going on against the relatives of the first group? Are my friends in the first group seen as being less than somehow because not all of them are the same kind of Christians or aren’t seen as American as the persons in the second group?

I’ll never know the answer to these questions. My emails asking for clarification (and maybe some words of comfort?) from the church's pastor were never answered. And I was apparently dropped from the church music group’s email loop as well.

Being ghosted by your pastor and others who you thought were your friends really sucks—especially during the Christmas season. I’ve always sung in church praise bands, choirs, and chorales. My favorite activity in December is going Christmas caroling. It’s the highlight of the year for me. It makes the cold and damp and the darkness of early winter bearable. Now it's ruined for me because I’m not welcome to sing with this second group because… Because I have a conscience? Because I don't support genocide?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to put my conscience to sleep—ever—even if I end up friendless. How could I live with myself knowing that I didn’t at least try to help others who are hurting? Why should I become a soulless sociopath just to fit in with present-day, bloodthirsty mainstream American society or a mainline American church denomination that backs those immoral values?

Since I've always followed the teachings of a radical Palestinian of the first century A.D. who preaches the Golden Rule, I think I’ll just walk on water and get the hell away from these hypocrites ASAP.  

I doubt I’ll ever be able to forget this upsetting experience or the unkind things my former church associates implied about the Palestinian Americans with whom I associate with through the local activism scene. I enjoy my current work with immigrants as a paralegal and have enjoyed my work as an ESL tutor and citizenship teacher for many years. I don’t see immigrants and newcomers as second class citizens or less than the people who have lived in the US all their lives. When a person or group has a reasonable request and asks for help, why can’t I share this ask with others without the risk of being attacked and accused of made-up charges of antisemitism?

Why are the people who actually support genocide by their actions and non-actions alike getting to call all the shots? I know—it’s because they’re capitalists, right? Money talks, especially in cash-strapped American churches. We can’t be upsetting the folks who write the big checks for the offering plate, can we?

It’s going to be a blue Christmas for yours truly. I get to suffer for putting my neck out there because I care about others. But a big thanks goes out to all those online who have supported me in the past and who will continue to support me in the future. You get me. You have a conscience. Bless you for being you.

Hey—maybe we can get together online and throw a Zoom Christmas carol party? I’ll bring the electronic cookies. (Ha-ha!)

How do we live with ourselves if we can’t even be open to showing love to our neighbor whose relatives are being wiped out in a genocide? We can’t. We die. Inside. Our consciences will be lost. Forever. And the warmongers and genocide supporters will win.

And we can’t let them win. Ever.

 

Liberationist theologian Herb Montgomery puts the whole Christmas story into a sharper perspective in A Christmas Story for the Marginalized

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2019/12/a-christmas-story-for-the-marginalized

Reclaimed interpretations of the Christmas story emphasize details that we can’t afford to miss. Jesus being born into immense poverty, being announced to the socially outcast, bypassing the politically, economically, socially and religiously of the day, and his parents becoming violence-fleeing refugees for the well-being of their child—there is an entire foundation here on which to build a framework for Christians who are working toward social justice today.

 

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