The Land of the Greed and the Home of the Child-Haters

by C. A. Matthews

There’s nothing to be proud of living in a country that openly and unapologetically hates children. All children.

For those who are totally clueless (or pretending to be) the following articles will enlighten you. Once you’ve read them, you will no longer be able to claim ignorance of the genocide happening in Gaza and America’s involvement in it. You will understand why the rest of the world feels nothing but disgust whenever they spy the Star Spangled Banner waving in the breeze alongside an Israeli flag.

Ready to open your eyes and your mind? Here goes…

 (The article links can be found in the article on Substack.)

...You didn’t think I was going to leave out domestic child abuse/endangerment articles, did you? If the US government is willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on sending aid to Israel to bomb, burn, and maim Palestinian children (and then won’t even let them into the country for treatment), why wouldn’t it be willing to not spend any money at home to improve American kids’ health and educational opportunities?

Why wouldn’t the US government spend billions on hiring masked vigilantes under the guise of ICE to terrorize and rip families apart who are looking for asylum? Why wouldn’t the US government want to destroy the First Amendment and censor protests against these horrific American policies? It does these things because it can and it does get away with them.

And why? Because America hates children...

 

To read the rest of this article as well as an extra piece about a county commissioners' meeting I recently attended about divesting from Israeli bonds, please copy or click on this link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 534th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you. 

 

Much Ado About Due Process

by C. A. Matthews

The term due process has been in the news lately, but what does the US Constitution say about due process? According to Wikipedia:

The Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause ensures that no person can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without fair legal procedures. It protects individuals from arbitrary government actions and guarantees certain legal rights in both criminal and civil cases.

A Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, which prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law.

So, what does due process mean in the legal sense? According to Wikipedia:

Procedural due process requires government officials to follow fair procedures before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. When the government seeks to deprive a person of one of those interests, procedural due process requires the government to afford the person, at minimum, notice, an opportunity to be heard, and a decision made by a neutral decision maker.

This protection extends to all government proceedings that can result in an individual's deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature, from parole violation hearings to administrative hearings regarding government benefits and entitlements to full-blown criminal trials.

So, who is entitled to the right of due process—the right to have the opportunity to defend oneself when one is accused of a crime or misdemeanor by the government? The Constitution says a person is entitled to the right of due process. It’s not for citizens alone, in other words.

Who exactly is a “person” has been argued and decided before the Supreme Court in the past. The US Constitution once stated that an enslaved person of African ancestry was only “3/5 of a person” for population census purposes, and therefore, he or she was not a person, but we’ve moved past that (hopefully). The current take is that every person currently within the borders of the US, whether they’re a citizen, a permanent resident (green card holder), living here under a temporary status (TPS, DACA, etc.), a tourist, or an undocumented person (without status) is entitled to due process.

No exceptions.

 

To learn more about the importance of the Due Process Clause for both US citizens and non-citizens alike, continue reading the rest of this article. Copy or click on this Substack link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 517th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

 

 

Verify Your Humanity

by C. A. Matthews

Humanity refers to the quality or state of being human, which includes traits like kindness and compassion towards others. --Wikipedia

Humanity: understanding and kindness toward other people. --Cambridge Dictionary

Humanity is the quality of being kind, thoughtful, and sympathetic towards others. Synonyms: kindness, charity, compassion, understanding. –-Collins Dictionary

“Verify that you’re a human” the instructions tell you with an online check box. But are you? Just because you can check a box that an A.I. ‘bot might not be able to doesn’t really verify your humanity, does it?

I’ve been having doubts for several years now, doubts that keep me awake nights. What if some of the people I see on the streets, in the grocery store, at the doctor’s office, online and particularly on the television news aren’t actually “human”? What if they’re just sophisticated facsimiles of human beings, but there’s no “soul” or “conscience” within? In other words, what if these individuals display no humanity? What should I do about those persons who are able to check the box, but whose heartless actions demonstrate they are anything but human?

In science fiction action movies, the aliens are usually not the good guys. They want to eat us, enslave us, or use our bodies as batteries to power a matrix. Should we assume these faux humans we encounter on a daily basis are equally nefarious?

Here are some examples of individuals who worry me—and possibly you, too, if you’re human.

One perfect example of this “human or not?” conundrum is Donald Trump, better known in our household as the Cheeto Bandito. If Trump knows how to send a post on Twitter/X, then he probably can check that box verifying he’s a human, but is he really?

To be considered human you have to be able to do more than apply orange face paint on a daily basis. You have to demonstrate your humanity to the world, or show empathy and compassion for others, especially to the most vulnerable in society. Trump fails in this area big time...

 

Discover even more examples of "faux humans" (and what we should do with them) by reading the rest of this article. Copy or click on this Substack link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!

                            Happy Holy Week and Power to the People!

This article is the 515th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

 

 

“Make Capitalism Hated Again” This Year’s Fashion

by C. A. Matthews

I’ve always been confused and dismayed by how some people can seemingly change their tunes and start acting like sociopaths with ease. Their newly acquired opinions don’t seem to conflict with their innate sense of right and wrong. I must have missed the class on how to stop acting like a decent human being at the drop of a hat. Without this ability, I stick out like a sore thumb in society without even trying.

Some people have simply stop talking to me because I said and/or did something that wasn’t quite in fashion. Whatever it was it must have made them feel uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that they had to dismiss me out of hand. It took some time, but I eventually figured out what it was that made some folks uneasy around me.

Nobody wants to be reminded that they have a conscience.

Nobody wants to hear that other human beings have rights and should be respected as equals. It’s so much easier to label others “human animals” or “serfs” or “illegals” and use and abuse them as you like. It’s no wonder these fashionable folks without a conscience stopped talking to me.

But I won’t apologize for making others feel uncomfortable about genocide, racism, and discrimination. I refuse to condone sociopathic actions of any kind. To quote Lillian Hellman: “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.”

Will these budding tyrants ever apologize for making me feel like a freak whenever I stand up for the rights of others? Probably not. I don’t expect them to, frankly. They’ve made their bed with war criminals, and they’ll lie in it until the next political fad comes along.

You might be asking yourself at this point, “Where does all this talk about having a conscience fit in with what’s currently happening in the US and the world?” My answer: “How about everything?” Here are some recent headlines to make my point... 

To read those headlines, please continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this Substack link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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This article is the 507th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years.

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

The New Title 42

The New Title 42

info gathered by C.A. Matthews

Editor's note: From the "Just when you hoped things would get better for ordinary people" department comes news of what the Biden Administration wants to replace Trump's infamous "Title 42" deportation program with, and yes, it's fairly horrendous. 

In my day job as an immigration advocate, I have to explain what this new "Asylum/Transit Ban" is to a group of college students in a Powerpoint presentation. Here are my notes--along with a call for action. Everyone who reads this should send in a comment by the March 27th deadline and pass the link along. Lives are at stake.

 

The Biden Asylum/Transit Ban (“The New Title 42”)

What is/was Title 42?  

Title 42 is a public health and welfare statute enacted in 1944 which gives the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the authority to determine whether a communicable disease in a foreign country poses a danger of spreading in the US. If the CDC finds that a disease does pose a threat, it can, with approval from the president, temporarily prohibit people or property from entering the country to avert danger. It was enacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Title 42 is set to expire on May 11, 2023, when the Biden administration states it will declare the pandemic officially over within the United States.  

What’s the big controversy over Title 42? 

Title 42 has been used to prevent immigrants from entering the US and claiming asylum, even though all persons entering the country must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Throwing up policy roadblocks to prevent people from entering the country and claiming asylum goes against current US asylum law. There have been 2.5 million expulsions under Title 42. A pattern of discrimination against asylum seekers of certain nationalities, ethnicities, races, indigenous peoples, and LGBTQ+ persons has been noted. 

Expelled migrants from the US southern border have been sent to wait in the northern region of Mexico under the January 2019 MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols) or “Remain in Mexico”. Mexico will take only Department of Homeland Security expulsions of nationals of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela. All others are either sent back to their country of origin or allowed to proceed through a “normal asylum procedure” in the US. 

(Editor's note: Notice that the more melanin in your skin, the more likely your right to claim asylum in the US will be thwarted. And where these folks are being told to wait in northern Mexico is far from safe and pleasant. Read the latest travel advisory from the US Department of State on how very dangerous that part of the world is. Many Mexican states are labeled by the US government as "Do not travel because of crime and kidnapping." This recent story about kidnapped and slain American medical tourists proves it. Photo above: US Customs and Border Patrol agent whipping a Haitian asylum seeker at the southern border last year.)

What is asylum? 

An asylum seeker meets the same legal standard as a refugee. An individual can claim asylum because of past persecution or fear of future persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. 

Congress passed the Refugee Act (1980) to bring the US into compliance with its international obligations under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which prohibits returning refugees to any country where their lives or freedom would be threatened. 

On a ruling on Title 42, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pointed out that the Refugee Act is very specific about the circumstances under which the government can deny asylum for failure to apply in a transit country. Under the act’s “safe third country” provision this scenario can happen only if the transit country is safe and has both a robust asylum system and a formal treaty with the United States agreeing to safe third-country status. 

Asylum seekers are supposed to be given a “credible fear interview” by a DHS officer at their port of entry to determine if their asylum claim has validity. If the officer says the claim of asylum is valid, the person can remain in the US while they await their court appearance to present their case before an immigration judge. The Biden administration’s proposed rule will narrow this procedure down to a “reasonable fear interview,” which has a much higher denial rate. If the officer denies the asylum claim, the migrant will be deported. They can appeal this denial, but most do not understand the appeal process and have no access to legal assistance. 

The importance of winning an asylum claim is that it is often the only path most immigrants can take to obtain a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR or “Green Card”) status and eventually become a US citizen. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) or similar statuses are not permanent and do not lead to LPR status or citizenship. 

What is the new “Biden Asylum/Transit Ban” going to do that’s different from Title 42? 

The Biden Administration on February 21, 2023, announced a crackdown on those seeking asylum in the US. The proposed rule would see the rapid deportation of anyone who has not first applied for asylum en route to the US southern border through the use of a smartphone app called “CBP One.” CBP One has been plagued with significant technical problems, preventing many from making “asylum appointments” (two weeks or more out) and has raised serious equity and privacy concerns. The app takes a very long time to fill out and has been known to crash, and the main text is currently available only in Spanish and Haitian Creole, with English only error messages. It cannot be accessed from a computer, and the user must first use an all-English web site, “Log-In.gov,” to set up an account and have their identity verified before accessing and applying for a an asylum appointment via CBP One. 

This proposed rule has been condemned by immigration rights groups, which claim it runs counter to the “humane immigration system” that Biden promised while campaigning for the White House. Some have called it a “hybrid of the Trump transit bans.” It clearly discriminates against those asylum seekers who are too poor to own a smartphone, have no stable internet accessibility, lack computer device skills, or are illiterate. 

The Trump Administration proposed prohibiting asylum for migrants who didn’t first apply for asylum (and been denied) in a country of transit before reaching the US southern border and entering through a port of entry. The court struck down this policy for violating the 1980 Refugee Act, which guarantees the right of all migrants who reach the US to apply for asylum. The Refugee Act expressly permits asylum seekers to access protection anywhere along the border—not just ports of entry—and it does not require appointments to be made in advance on a smartphone only app to request asylum. 

 What problems could this “New Title 42” (Biden Asylum/Transit Ban) cause? 

The proposed Biden Asylum/Transit Ban would create a new asylum restriction for adults and families who present themselves unannounced to US border officials at the southern border. If they have traveled through another country or countries on their way to the US, they would have to provide proof that they applied for asylum in one of the transit countries and been denied first. (One lawyer on a webinar noted that a denial of an asylum application in another country could be used against the person applying for asylum in the US, possibly in violation of the Fifth Amendment.) The Biden administration insists that every asylum seeker has the power to avoid the ban by sticking to what it calls “lawful pathways,” implying that it’s unlawful to seek asylum if you enter the United States between ports of entry (enter without inspection), which goes against the Refugee Act. 

The rule also creates a whole new convoluted procedure to determine whether and how the ban applies. For instance, if you fly into the US, this proposed rule will not apply to you. If you come across the border from Canada, this rule does not apply. Those who have received an advanced parole (and have a US sponsor) or come into the US under a work, student, or tourist visa will not be subject to this rule. The rule only applies to persons who have physically crossed into the United States at the southern border.

The biggest problems arise from the so-called “lawful pathways” that don’t really exist for many people. The process migrants could be shunted into instead is tantamount to a near-complete asylum ban when one considers how the process is intended to work and how it interacts with systems on the ground. And the rule doesn’t even attempt to explain these discrepancies! 

To get a feel for the absurdity of the proposed regulation, read How to Seek Asylum In the United States (Under the Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Transit Ban), In 12 Not-At-All-Easy Steps. https://immigrationimpact.com/2023/02/22/steps-to-seek-asylum-biden-transit-ban 

What can we do to express our concerns about this proposed asylum/transit ban rule?   

Go to https://immigrationjustice.quorum.us/campaign/44910/ or https://noasylumban.us     

Individuals can make a comment to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Service) about the proposed regulation. Only 30 days were given for public comments to be made (as compared to the usual 60 day comment period). The comment deadline is March 27, so write your comment soon and share the link with others. 

Learn more about the Biden Asylum/Transit Ban at 

https://humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Biden_asylum_ban_factsheet_Feb2023_1.pdf

Last but not least editor's note: If you like to know more about what it's like to be an asylum seeker trying to navigate the complex US immigration system, watch the documentary Seeking Asylum. The filmmakers met a mother and her children fleeing a violent situation and trying to reunite with her husband who was working in the United States. More on how you can view it at its web site https://www.seekingasylumfilm.com/

Quote of the Week: 

 “We have spent the past decade pouring money into the border-security apparatus in an effort to deter asylum seekers. It hasn’t worked because we’ve spent all of that money on border security and we’ve spent almost none on actually building a functional and working humanitarian-protection system on the back end.  

And now we’ve got a two-million-case backlog, more than six hundred thousand asylum applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and three million people on ICE’s non-detained docket. This is not something that you’re going to be able to fix overnight. About the only thing the Biden Administration and Congress could do right now is just declare immigration bankruptcy and start all over again, and have amnesty, but there isn’t the political will for that right now, unfortunately.”

– Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Director at the American Immigration Council

Related Articles:

CBP One Is Riddled With Flaws That Make the App Inaccessible to Many Asylum Seekers https://immigrationimpact.com/2023/02/28/cbp-one-app-flaws-asylum-seekers/ 

 

Critics Decry New Biden Rule as "Trump's Asylum Ban Under a Different Name  https://truthout.org/articles/critics-decry-new-biden-rule-as-trumps-asylum-ban-under-a-different-name/

  

How to Seek Asylum In the United States (Under the Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Transit Ban), In 12 Not-At-All-Easy Steps  https://immigrationimpact.com/2023/02/22/steps-to-seek-asylum-biden-transit-ban 

 

Biden Wants to End Exploitation of Migrant Children, But His New Asylum Policy Could Make It Worse https://immigrationimpact.com/2023/02/27/labor-exploitation-migrant-children-biden-asylum-policy/ 

 

White House Struggles to Explain the Fate of Title 42 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/06/public-health-emerdency-title-42-00081390

From Still Awaiting Court Dates, Migrants Suffer the Effects of ‘Band-Aid’ Fixes to Our Broken Immigration System https://immigrationimpact.com/2023/02/08/awaiting-court-dates-notice-to-appear

 

A Pennsylvania Hospital is Attempting to Deport an Undocumented Woman in a Coma https://truthout.org/articles/a-pennsylvania-hospital-is-attempting-to-deport-an-undocumented-woman-in-a-coma/

Other interesting articles I've read this week about the Ohio train derailments (there's now two of them!) and the quest for peace in the world:

Norfolk Southern Cargo Train Derailed Near Springfield (Ohio) https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2023/03/04/cargo-train-derails-springfield-clark-county-ohio/69972311007/

East Palestine, Ohio And The Oligarchy https://popularresistance.org/east-palestine-ohio-and-the-oligarchy/

Angry residents confront EPA and railroad officials at East Palestine, Ohio town hall https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/04/rail-m04.html

Norfolk Southern Used Sick Leave as a Bargaining Chip to Erode Safety, Union Says https://truthout.org/articles/norfolk-southern-used-sick-leave-as-bargaining-chip-to-erode-safety-union-says/

"Too Many Holes": Rail Workers Say Buttigieg Plan of Action is Not Enough https://popularresistance.org/too-many-holes-rail-workers-say-buttigieg-plan-of-action-is-not-enough/

East Palestine Residents Confront Norfolk Southern at Town Hall Meeting https://truthout.org/articles/east-palestine-residents-confront-norfolk-southern-at-town-hall-meeting/

Rail Workers Demand Immediate Action from Lawmakers to Rein in Rail Industry https://truthout.org/articles/rail-workers-demand-immediate-action-from-lawmakers-to-rein-in-rail-industry/

Exposure to Chevron's Climate Friendly Fuel May Pose Severe Risk of Cancer https://truthout.org/articles/exposure-to-chevrons-climate-friendly-fuel-may-pose-severe-risk-of-cancer/ 

The House's "Horrors of Socialism" Resolution Spurred by the Capitalist Class's Greatest Fear https://indypendent.org/2023/02/the-houses-horrors-of-socialism-resolution-spurred-by-the-capitalist-classs-greatest-fear/

China's Peace Plan for Ukraine https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/03/chinas-peace-plan-for-ukraine/

Major US Outlets Found Hersh's Nord Stream Scoop Too Hot to Handle https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/04/major-us-outlets-found-hershs-nord-stream-scoop-too-hot-to-handle/

Abnormal for West to Dodge Nord Stream Explosive Revelations https://enapp.globaltimes.cn/article/1286480

 

2021: The Year Nothing Fundamentally Changed

 

2021: 

The Year Nothing Fundamentally Changed

by C.A. Matthews 

I don't know about you, but I really hate telling folks, "I told you so."

After penning last year's end-of-the-year article, 2020: The Year That Wasn't, I held out some hopes for 2021. Surely I thought we'd get a handle on this COVID-19 pandemic and turn a noticeable corner sometime in 2021. We wouldn't be counting deaths worldwide in the millions and the virus variants by the dozens. The drug manufacturers would gladly share their vaccine formulas with our fellow human beings, and intelligent people everywhere would willingly line up to receive a vaccination.

I even thought that we might--just might--see some decent legislation or executive orders come out  of the Biden White House. We desperately needed leadership to force ICE and CBP to help asylum seekers reunite with their children rather than forcing them to "Remain in Mexico."  We needed leadership to end blatant racism against Haitian immigrants. If we were lucky, the Squad would push Biden "left" and pass Medicare For All to help Americans without health care. Heck, he might even do as his promised on the campaign trail and end the suffering of so many burdened with overwhelming student loan debt. 

Instead, 2021 turned out to be just as candidate Joe Biden said it would, when he announced what his presidency would be like when compared to Trump's: Nothing would fundamentally change.

Ironic, isn't it? It's the only thing he's been right about so far.

So, here we find ourselves at the end of 2021, and we find ourselves pretty much in the same screwed up situation we found ourselves in last year at this time. The pandemic rages on. No mandatory lock downs or even a consistent masking policy has been issued by the CDC. Less than 10% of Africans have been fully vaccinated. Big Pharma refuses to share its vaccine formulas, even though much of the research was funded by US taxpayers and the more people on the planet vaccinated, the less chance for further virus mutations. And things could get much worse now that the omicron variant has popped up in the "everybody go back to work and school as normal" United States of America.

 Nothing has fundamentally changed.

I won't go on about how Americans still don't have universal health care, in spite of living through a pandemic of biblical plague proportions. We don't have universal basic income, either, in spite of record unemployment, under-reported as usual especially for women, the young, and people of color. Student loan repayments will start up again in the new year.  Eviction moratoriums have ended. 

The Biden Administration has some serious problems with arithmetic, too. They early on promised everyone a "$2000 check" but only paid out $1400 so far. Even those of us who can't balance a checkbook can tell you those two numbers aren't the same. 

Nothing has fundamentally changed.

They said they'd stop the war in Afghanistan, and yet they passed a record-breaking military budget this year. (Mercenaries and some American military personnel will remain in Afghanistan, so it's war by another name.) We're "updating" our nuclear arsenal, as if having more nuke power than necessary to wipe out all life on the planet isn't enough. Trump's saber-rattling carries on from 2020 in regards to China and then Russia and then China again and then Russia again and then…

 Nothing has fundamentally changed.

The big COP-26 climate change convention recycled the same ol' tired promises of cleaning up our dirty fossil fuel habits. Ironically, the very next week the Biden Administration sold a record number of oil exploration leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and then a lawsuit to clean up the longest running oil spill in the Gulf in history was decided. "Clean coal" anyone?

Nothing has fundamentally changed.

Worse yet, this mantra is the stinky attitude one gets from the establishment and their billionaire pals. They're fine with things not changing. They're not worried about millions more dying from a preventable illness like COVID-19. They're happy to make sh*t-loads of money from  trading in shares in Big Pharma and buying up the homes that have been foreclosed on this year in order to force us to rent our previous abodes from landlords later.

And war and the environment? Hey, if drone bombing innocents and endlessly fracking oil makes a profit, why would you ever stop? Am I right?

Nothing has fundamentally changed.

If there's one New Year's resolution I'd like to make--and work hard to keep--it's this: Things will fundamentally change in 2022. They have to or else we'll all wind up dead.

https://jillstein.net/

Fundamental change won't necessarily come via the voting booth. Unless you're open to voting for third party candidates, who boldly profess radical ideas like ending wars for oil, instituting Medicare For All, and legislating free schooling from pre-K through college, then I wouldn't worry too much about voting. Voting for the "lesser evil" or "any red or blue will do" just creates more evil that our world doesn't want or need. Blindly accepting only two choices to vote for--choices blessed by billionaire capitalists--guarantees "nothing will fundamentally change-ism" will continue.

Change could happen in the streets, through online activism, by knocking on doors, or through a combination of these activities and more. But somehow, change must come. We've got to change things fundamentally this coming year of else there might not be a 2023 to look forward to in another 365 days.

Be the change you dream of. Fundamentally. And we hope to see you again here next year. Stay safe!

Second Thought is an excellent podcast. This recent video focuses on how "Feel Good Stories" are used to distract us from the true horrors of our corrupt system.  Watch and think about what you can do to bring about fundamental change.  https://youtu.be/Sck8xNicy5o

 

End of the year pleading: Donate a buck or ten to help keep the lights on and the editor sane via this link http://paypal.me/camatthews  Thank you.

*** 

Talking with family members who don’t agree with you over the holidays is hard. And sadly, immigration can be one of the topics that gets most heated.

We’ve all had those tense, uncomfortable conversations with loved ones, and now there’s an extremely helpful resource to help shift dinner-table conversations from confrontational to productive.

Check out the brand-new “Brave Conversations: Immigration Edition” guide now.

Check it out for free now →

These conversations can be hard, but no one has to tackle them alone.

In this guide, there are five simple sections to help center a conversation about immigration in compassion and commonsense:

• Tips for talking about hard topics
• Common misconceptions about immigration and how to respond
• Facts about what’s really happening
• How to take action
• Additional resources for further research

Ending family separation is a huge task, and it’s going to take a collective effort, from huge mobilizations to individual conversations with the people closest to us.

Every one of us has the tools to change the hearts and minds of our family and friends, and each individual conversation is a part of the larger national shift needed to ensure safety for immigrant families and children.

We’re in this together, and all of us can use this guide as a resource to help change public opinion on immigrant children and families in the U.S., starting with the people we’re all most influential with: our friends, family, and those who trust us the most.

Check out the guide now →

We believe that to learn and grow, we need to be brave. We must end detention and family separation for good – and it all starts with what we’re talking about at home.

Thanks for all you do,

Tovia Siegel, Organizer
Families Belong Together

P.S. Let me know how any brave conversations go, and send over any suggestions to help improve the guide! Simply email me at info@familiesbelongtogether.org.

*** 

We’re about to have a constitutional crisis. In the next few months, the Supreme Court is going to overturn or undermine 50 years of precedent in Roe v. Wade, and yet the leadership of the Democratic party seems to give it a big ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Everyone should be very, very alarmed that our current Supreme Court is an existential threat to our rights and every progressive priority.

The Biden Administration needs to stop twiddling their thumbs while the ultra conservatives on the Supreme Court take away our constitutional rights whether it’s abortion or voting or gender rights. Demand Congress and the Biden Administration pass the Judiciary Act—NOW.

ADD YOUR NAME

The ultra conservatives Supreme Court Justices are nothing more than right-wing politicians in robes—and the American people know that. Recent polls show the Supreme Court is the most unpopular it’s been in decades, and a majority of Americans no longer believe the justices are deciding cases on the merits. The Court derives its legitimacy from the people, and it’s clear that the American people no longer believe this stolen Court is legitimate.

The conservatives on the court have already told us that they’re not just coming after our human right to abortion access and to determine our own reproductive lives. They have their sights on Obergefell v. Hodges, immigration, and voting rights.

We can stop them from literally destroying our democracy by adding 4 seats to the Court by passing the Judiciary Act of 2021. This is the only practical, proportional response to Republicans’ theft of the Court and the only way to restore its balance and integrity.

Sign the petition to join advocates and activists across the country to demand Congress and the Biden Administration pass the Judiciary Act and add 4 more justices to the Supreme Court NOW.

Mike Phelan
Progress America

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In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie