Connect The Dots…

 

So much suffering that never should have happened all because Palestinians were never given equal rights and were dehumanized. Wars for oil during a climate crisis. --White Rabbit 2587 on X

Connect The Dots… or Wars For Oil During A Climate Crisis

by C.A. Matthews 

227 Dead from Hurricane Helene (109 in North Carolina alone)

118,908+ Palestinians dead in the Genocide of Gaza by Israeli Forces (5.4% of the total population, estimated by 99 US doctors who have been to Gaza in the past year. Other estimates are over 200,000+ dead.)

2000+ Lebanese dead by Israeli Forces

$725 promised to Hurricane Helene victims by FEMA

$20 billion+ promised to Israel to continue its bombing campaigns of Gaza, West Bank, and Lebanon 

2024 will probably be the “Hottest Year on Record” beating 2023, the current record holder.

The list of top ten countries with the most petroleum reserves:

1. Venezuela 2. Saudi Arabia 3. Iran 4. Canada 5. Iraq 6. United Arab Emirates 7. Kuwait 8. Russia 9. United States 10. Libya

The list of countries that US and/or NATO-align countries have had or are currently picking a fight with in order to gain control of petroleum reserves: Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen

122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil are located off the coast of Gaza. This resource legally belongs to the Palestinian people, not Israel.

The US Military is one of the biggest polluters in the world with a huge carbon footprint. In 2017, the US military used 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels.

What have these seemingly random facts or “listicles” got to do with each other? Read them again and see if you can’t connect the dots.

Can you guess what was behind the strength and destruction of Hurricane Helene (and as of this writing, Hurricane Milton)? What if I told you that the Gulf of Mexico is super hot this year, hotter than it’s ever been in recorded history. The heat of the gulf’s water fueled Helene’s strength, causing it (and now Milton’s strength) to jump from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane in less than a day. The rapidly heating Earth will continue to increase the flooding, tornadoes, and assorted storm damage.

The climate crisis—or more accurately the climate catastrophe—is doing more than making your air conditioner work overtime. It’s causing droughts, floods, and killer storms like Hurricane Helene. The burning of fossil fuels is making things worse by adding to the “greenhouse gas effect” that is heating up our planet. Humanity needs to kick the oil habit—and fast—if we want to even begin to turn things around and save our children’s futures.

Now do some more connect-the-dots...

 

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Truth Is Never Out of Style

by C.A. Matthews

I enjoy listening to my friend DJ Amjad’s Deep Mix Music and More radio program while I’m writing. The other day I found myself singing along with a catchy chorus from a 1990’s rap song:

Now I know you're sayin'
Well why don't he stop beating around the bush
Well I'll get there when i get there
So there ain't no need to push!
Because the point I'm trying to make contains my whole philosophy
So listen to what I tell you and repeat it after me

Truth is out of style (out of style)
Truth is out of style (out of style) (say what?)
Truth is out of style (say what?)
Truth (say what?) (is out of style)
Truth (is out of style)
--from Truth Is Out of Style by DJ Zero & MC 900 ft. Jesus

Thirty-four years later, and the words still ring true. The “philosophy” that MC 900 sung in his rap has become the motto of many Western governments: Truth is out of style.

If you don’t believe me, how do you explain the following?

Richard Medhurst, an independent British journalist was arrested at Heathrow airport and held for nearly 24 hours under the UK Terrorism Act because of stories he featured on his podcast.

Mary Kostakidis, known as “the face of television news in Australia,” has been accused of supporting ethnic cleansing of Jews because of two retweets about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Sarah Wilkinson, UK activist/journalist and supporter of Palestinians, has been banned from using her phone or her laptop because of her tweets. (Yes, just for posting on the X platform!) She is effectively under house arrest.

Sharmine Narwani, who founded The Cradle, an online journal of news and comment, was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram. Narwani now stands accused of “praising terrorist organizations” and engaging in “incitement to violence.”

Professor Danny Shaw was detained by the FBI for three hours in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after returning from a Free Palestine film festival in London. His computing devices were seized. He had been fired from his job back in April when he was falsely called “antisemitic” for his pro-Palestine comments.

and, of course, Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame...

To read the rest of this article, click on this link to go to our Substack page: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com  There you'll also see the related article and video links, all the images, and be able to leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the weekly blog post in your email box as well. Subscribe today! Power to the people!  

The Root Of All Evils

The Root Of All Evils

by C. A. Matthews

 

For the love of Big Oil is the root of all evils. —1 Timothy 6:10 

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve [both] God and Big Oil. —Matthew 6:24

Before you interject, “Hey! That’s not quite what those Bible verses say,” read this short article from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Here’s a blurb:

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves  28 August 2019

Oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territory could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development. 

Geologists and resources economists have confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip, according to a recent UNCTAD study.

Let that information settle into your brain for a bit. You’re a smart person. (You’re reading this blog, aren’t you?) You’re intelligent enough to put two and two together and come up with five, right? What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil?

More importantly, what wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a resource?

I know many of my readers are supportive of environmental concerns and would state without hesitation, “I’d do nothing about those oil and gas reserves off the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The burning of fossil fuels is heating up our planet and causing catastrophic climate change—a change we may never be able to recover from as stronger hurricanes, larger floods, and long-lasting droughts become more common. Big Oil has enough blood on its hands already.”

I sincerely appreciate that response. It’s a commendable answer, but let’s venture into the hypothetical realm for a minute, shall we? Let’s pretend we’re not decent, planet-loving individuals but politicians from certain nations. (We discussed what kinds of politicians we generally have in the West in last week’s blog and why we need to get rid of these sociopaths.) Okay, ready to use your imaginations? Let’s go.

We’re politicians of large Western economies and their allies. Our countries are into burning fossil fuels big time, and we’re not planning to stop burning them anytime soon, no matter how often the climate scientists warn us about their downsides. There’s just too much wealth generated by Big Oil concerns to stop oil and gas exploration. We believe strongly in the superiority of capitalism and the making of big profits for our shareholders.

As an added bonus, Big Oil pays us politicos quite well for our work supporting their drilling and fracking. They don’t pay us directly, of course, but they pay us through their lobbyists and political action committees (PACs) that support our campaigns. We’re not about to forget there’s untapped oil and gas reserves off the coast of Gaza and in the West Bank region of what is now known as “Israel” because our bosses in Big Oil will keep reminding us. We’re going to do whatever we can to get our hands on those natural resources, and we’re not going to let anyone or anything get in our way.

To put this argument into the oil man’s vernacular: Drill, baby, drill!

Our minds are made up. We’re going to drill for that oil and gas that’s just sitting there asking for us to take it. We’ll need some land on which to build our oil refineries and start our new pipelines headed north toward Western Europe to sell our oil and gas products, too.  We might even put in a canal near the drilling site to circumvent having to pay another country to ship these products worldwide.

You do know why we need to sell natural gas in particular to Europe, don’t you? In case you’ve forgotten, we blew up a perfectly good liquid natural gas pipeline a year or so back in the Baltic. (More on that story here.) Doing so took out the competition for our oil companies’ gas sales to Europe. Without competition, our oil exporting country sold heating oil to places like Germany for four to six times the previous price they’d paid our competitor.

Unfortunately, shipping all this heating oil to Europe started making our own country’s heating oil and gas prices go through the roof, making our constituents none too happy. It also made them question the billions of dollars in military aid we were giving to a proxy army in order to bankrupt our biggest oil and gas competitor. Oops!

We told our friends in the mainstream media to keep pushing the narrative that our funding of this proxy war was all about protecting “freedom and democracy,” even if the leader of this proxy war had a long track record of absconding with funds. Some of the armaments we sold to him for this proxy war went “missing,” because we didn't keep track of them too closely. These missing armaments eventually ended up in the hands of other not-so-nice people around the world that we’ve said in the past were terrorists. Double oops!

So, we decided that we really have to stop selling so much of our own oil and gas to Western Europe and get the E.U. their fix via this new pipeline we planned to build in the Middle East.

But wait a minute! There are 2.2 million people living on this land where we recently discovered the oil and gas reserves. It’s one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, no less. And these people aren’t interested in us taking their fossil fuel resources from them. They actually want to keep their homes, schools, hospitals, historical landmarks, and houses of worship. They want to keep everything for themselves. Such selfish animals!

I know, I know… What else is new? Indigenous people are always crying over losing their land rights and having their mineral and petroleum resources stolen from right under them. But we in the Western nations know how to shut up indigenous people forever, don’t we? It’s what we’ve always done—we just use our military strength to overpower them and wipe them off the face of the earth or scatter them to the four corners of the globe. After all, we do what it says in the white man’s bible: Might makes right.

And it’s right for us to have control of all that untapped oil and gas, isn’t it? Our main trading currency, the petrodollar, is tied to the price of fossil fuels. We can’t afford to lose control of the world’s markets of oil and gas. We must have it, or else our economies will falter and collapse, and we politicians would be out of work and off the Big Oil gravy train before we knew it.

So, think again: What would you, as a sociopathic politician who is paid well by Big Oil, do to get your hands on that oil and gas? Would you go to war over it? Would you fund a proxy army in a far away country to stop another country from making profits from their own fossil fuels, especially if you could do so without using your own military and risking your own soldiers’ lives? Would you blindly support a Western “ally” in the Middle East, one that you regularly give billions of dollars in aid and military equipment to, and give them carte blanche to wipe out those pesky natives so you can get your oil men on the ground and start the drilling for all that lovely “black gold”?

Would you lose any sleep over exterminating the indigenous people who are in the way? (There's only 2.2 million of them, with half of them age 17 or younger. No big loss there since children can't drive yet.) We’re talking about 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil. What does that amount of fossil fuel translate into dollars? You can't even imagine how much profit there is to be made!

And if your “partner” in this acquisition of petroleum resources first wants to wipe out those savages and bomb all their buildings into rubble so they can be razed? Well, that’s their business, not ours. It’s not like we’ve set a sterling example on how to deal kindly with the indigenous peoples of our own white-settler colonizing project over the past three centuries, now have we? Racists gotta live and make money, too.

I know some of you will balk and say something along the lines of, “But I would never sanction ethnic cleansing just to steal land and drill for oil!” But put yourself into the shoes of the sociopathic leaders of the Western nations and Israel and ask yourself the questions again. You know now what all is at stake, and how much you’ve already invested into this scheme. 

The Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank area are considered racially inferior by Israel, your partner in this oil deal. You have no problem with the Israeli take on these indigenous people. They feel they rightfully deserve to have control over that oil and gas. So, there's no problem taking it from the Palestinians, is there?

Ask yourself the questions again: What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil? What wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a prize?

Please don’t tell me there aren’t people in Washington DC and in Israel who aren’t more than willing to commit war crimes in order to get that oil and gas and make their Big Oil masters happy. We all know that’s exactly what they’re doing. Capitalists always get their way. 

Money makes the world go round, after all, a capitalist will tell you. What better way to generate it than by drilling for oil and gas?

Why else would the US government want to keep all Israeli aid and military spending talks secret—done without Congressional approval? If the US isn’t committing war crimes alongside the Israeli military already, it certainly sounds like they’re getting ready to do so. And our spineless, sociopathic politicians know the majority of the American public won’t knowingly stand for it and could rebel against them. So, the feds are going to keep their actions quiet and lie about what they're doing for as long as they can get away with it.

“For the love of Big Oil [money] is the root of all evils.”All evils—but especially the evil called genocide. 

Keep protesting and speaking out to expose Big Oil's evils. Stand with others to end the rule of Big Oil's puppets and the entire military-industrial complex. Shut down the genocidal war machine forever.

Related Articles and Interesting Links

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves

The New Litmus Test https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-new-litmus-test.html

Israel Destroys Gaza to Control World’s Most Important Shipping Lane (video) https://rumble.com/v3t4nim-november-1-2023.html

Biden Wants Arms Deals With Israel to Be Done in Complete Secrecy https://truthout.org/articles/biden-wants-arms-deals-with-israel-to-be-done-in-complete-secrecy/

“This culture of silence is happening even as senior agency officials may acknowledge in private that Israel is committing war crimes, according to the report. “Over the past weeks, as I have heard from numerous officials across both the executive and legislative branches, it has become clear to me that many senior leaders not only fully understand how Israel is currently using U.S.-provided arms in Gaza, but are even, behind closed doors, willing to acknowledge that these actions include ‘war crimes,’” [Josh] Paul told HuffPost. “The fact that none are willing to do so publicly … points to a deep moral rot in our system.”

Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-final-solution-for-the-palestinians

Ask the American People Before You Impose a Genocide Tax for Prosperous Israel  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/02/biden-and-congress-ask-the-american-people-before-you-impose-a-genocide-tax-for-prosperous-israel/

Fossil Fuel Firms Bought Lawmakers  https://youtu.be/2qEIOvF5_H0?si=eY0UP2xOArVGEIV8

Israel Is Evicting Palestinians NOT In Gaza https://youtu.be/ESSQhpgOj7w?si=k9wKOYV3gcyv_XZJ

The Moral Complexities Of Bombing A Concentration Camp Full Of Children  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-moral-complexities-of-bombing

As The Lights Go Out In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-the-lights-go-out-in-gaza

Israel Has A Directive To Kill Hostages
https://youtu.be/_T5SLfZs5ww?si=Gc_kAMO8-072XQxl

White House in discussions with Israel on deploying US troops to Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

Israel in Search of Its Hiroshima: Massive Bomb Wipes Out 20 Apt. Buildings, Kills, Wounds 400 Civilians  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/01/israel-in-search-of-its-hiroshima-massive-bomb-wipes-out-20-apt-buildings-kills-wounds-400-civilians/

Israel Apologists Relentlessly Gaslight And Attack Our Sense Of Reality https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-apologists-relentlessly-gaslight

New Document Leak on Plan to Expel Gaza Population https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/31/new-document-leak-on-plan-to-expel-gaza-population/

This is not a war, it's the second Nakba https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/this-is-not-a-war-its-the-second

In Gaza, Biden is an equal partner in Israel’s mass murder
https://www.aaronmate.net/p/biden-is-an-equal-partner-in-israels  

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”

US Says It's Powerless To Stop The Genocide That It Is Directly Funding And Supplying https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/us-says-its-powerless-to-stop-the

Biden 'Countering Islamophobia' While Incinerating Gaza Is The Most Democrat Thing Ever https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-countering-islamophobia-while

The fight for Palestinian Liberation is a Fight for the Whole Working Class https://unac.notowar.net/2023/10/23/the-fight-for-palestinian-liberation-is-a-fight-for-the-whole-working-class/

This Weekend’s DC Protest Was Largest Pro-Palestine Mobilization in US History https://truthout.org/articles/this-weekends-dc-protest-was-largest-pro-palestine-mobilization-in-us-history/

 

Palestine Solidarity Activists Block Boeing’s Doors to Stop Delivery of Bombs https://truthout.org/articles/palestine-solidarity-activists-block-boeings-doors-to-stop-delivery-of-bombs/

 

Gaza Peace Activists Chain Themselves To Ship Headed To Israel

https://popularresistance.org/gaza-peace-activists-chain-themselves-to-ship-headed-to-israel/

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Shows Wealth-Building Doesn’t End Racial Injustice https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

US Immigration Policy Is Designed to Divide the Working Class
https://truthout.org/articles/us-immigration-policy-is-designed-to-divide-the-working-class/

Only Israel, the United States, and Ukraine Refuse to Stand With Cuba https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/only-israel-the-united-states-and-ukraine-refuse-to-stand-with-cuba/

UN Human Rights Committee Calls for Moratorium on Life Without Parole in U.S. https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/un-human-rights-committee-calls-for-moratorium-on-life-without-parole-in-u-s/

Performative Politics

Performative Politics

by C. A. Matthews

I’ve heard the term performative politics quite often in recent times. It makes me wonder why this kind of politics has come into vogue.

 

Let’s take a look at the words and define them separately. According to Wikipedia:

Politics...activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.

Merriam-Webster Online defines performative this way:

1. Relating to or marked by public, often artistic performance

2. Made or done for show (as to bolster one's own image or make a positive impression on others)

Both definitions describe more than a few actions taken recently by neoliberal politicians. Before I describe these incidents, perhaps it’s wise to define what exactly is meant by neoliberal or neoliberalism.

From Britannica.com:

Neoliberalism: an ideology and policy model that emphasizes the value of free market competition. ...It is most commonly associated with laissez-faire economics... Its confidence in free markets as the most-efficient allocation of resources, its emphasis on minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, and its commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.

Now that we’re on the same page with what is meant by these terms, politics, performative, and neoliberalism, here are three examples of recent performative politics and what I think each of the actors (that is, politicians) is communicating to their obvious and not-so-obvious audiences and why they choose to perform in such as way at this time.

First off, we have the extremely photogenic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC” as she is known. AOC gave a fiery speech at the recent March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. Her obvious audience was, of course, the crowd that gathered there or watched her performance online. This crowd included environmental activists and protesters of all the destructive things “Big Oil” has done to our planet with their constant drilling, mining, and burning of fossil fuels. But who was the not-so-obvious audience AOC was reaching out to with her speech? And why did she choose to perform this particular speech at this particular place and time?

To understand, AOC’s motivations we have to do a little research and look back at her history in politics. AOC ran as a “Bernie Sanders Democrat” and was photographed interacting with the youth-led Sunrise Movement environmental organization. She led a very loud protest with these young environmental activists inside Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s offices early on in her career, so it makes sense that she would show up at the march where many of them were protesting that day.

But many things have happened since AOC’s time hanging out with the Sunrise Movement in 2018. AOC has been re-elected to Congress a couple times, and she’s made quite a name for herself, not so much as an environmentalist but as a very good Democrat who does as she’s told. She has voted several times for massive Pentagon/Defense Department budgets in spite of the fact the US military is one of the most polluting organizations in the world.

AOC declared earlier this year that she supports President Biden running for office again, although he has done the complete opposite of what an environmentalist would support. Biden has opened up more federal land to oil drilling than any other president, particularly with the Willow Project:

The Biden Administration released its final decision approving three drilling sites for the Willow Master Development Plan, otherwise known as the Willow Project that threatens local communities, wildlife, and the global climate. This is a massive oil drilling development on Alaska’s North Slope, which is a stretch of public land known as the National Petroleum Reserve that borders the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

This project developed by ConocoPhillips would be the single largest oil extraction point on US public lands, emitting 278 million metric tons of climate pollution over the next 30 years. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 74 coal plants — one-third of all remaining U.S. plants. Willow will disproportionately impact the community of Nuiqsut, a predominantly Iñupiaq village of about 500 people already suffering extreme pollution from existing oil projects.--from Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project

By supporting Biden's actions, it seems AOC doesn't care much about the environment at all.

AOC has never protested the billion of dollars Biden has sent to Ukraine to continue NATO’s proxy war there. She hasn’t really come out against the sale of cluster munitions (cluster bombs) and depleted uranium to Ukraine, either. Cluster bombs maim primarily civilians—children for the most part—and depleted uranium radiation can lead to generations of genetically malformed babies and horrible rates of cancers in persons of all ages.

By supporting these astronomical Defense budgets and the US sale of cluster bombs (munitions that have been outlawed in almost every country in the world) as well as Biden’s Willow Oil Project, AOC's actions tell us that she isn’t particularly concerned with the health and well-being of her fellow human beings or the planet. Her actions in Congress just don’t support her image or “performance” as an environmental activist, now does it?

Who is Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s not-so-obvious audience she was trying to reach with her fiery environmental tirade at the march? I think she was telling the major donors of the Democratic Party—the military-industrial complex, corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and the rest—that she is more than willing to act as a front to keep the public from looking too closely at what’s really going on behind the scenes in Washington DC. AOC is good at getting positive press by looking pretty on camera and saying what the public expects at the right time and place. What she says has no real depth or substance, since none of her actions back her words up. 

AOC’s example of performative politics shows that she is willing to act as the perfect front in order to take interest away from the true polluters and causers of death and destruction on our planet. She’ll make all those young environmental activists in NYC forget that nothing has really changed since she first marched with them. Magicians would say she’s the “smoke and mirrors” of the establishment, a perfect distraction. And by the size of her growing bank account since joining Congress, she has been well rewarded for her work.

This next example of performative politics is very easy to spot, and it’s easy to figure out who the obvious and not-so-obvious audiences are. The United Auto Workers are on strike. President Joe Biden—who didn’t permit the railroad workers to go on strike for safer working conditions in 2022—said he wanted to be the first sitting president to visit a picket line. So Biden spent about 12 minutes for a photo op at one of the picket lines in Detroit. Looking at the photos of some of the strikers, you can tell what the obvious audience thinks about Biden’s performance. Just look at the expression on the guy’s face standing to the far left in this picture!

Tim Black tells us exactly what Biden’s motivations were for making that oh-so-brief visit in this video clip on Twitter:

Does Joe Biden Really Care About Union Workers? #JoeBiden #CornelWest2024 #UAW pic.twitter.com/4s55qW127k

— RealTimBlack (@RealTimBlack) September 29, 2023

The not-so-obvious audience of the CEOs of the Big Three Automakers know that Joe Biden’s many years of not supporting the workers and always being there to help bail out the corporations at the expense of the public purse isn’t going away anytime soon. They understand Biden's trip to a UAW picket line was just the photo op that it so obviously was. The billionaires hope that it will trick enough workers into thinking they're being heard by Washington to stave off the revolution for a while. But does Biden and his campaign staff realize just how shallow this attempt came across? That remains to be seen.

Our last example of performative politics took place recently north of the border. Compared to the first two examples, it was a complete and unmitigated disaster. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government invited a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran to be honored with a standing ovation in the House of Commons… A man who turned out to be a veteran of the 14th division of Hitler’s Waffen-SS (1st Galician) in World War II, a group that was known for its genocide of Poles, Jews, and other ethnic minorities in what eventually became Ukraine after the break up of the Soviet Union. The soldiers of the 1st Galician were responsible for burning 1,000 Polish people alive.  Horrific!

Oops! 

After Canadian Jewish groups demanded an explanation, the prime minster tried to rationalize why his government acted so callously:

Trudeau, meanwhile, pointed to the “deeply embarrassing” event as a reason to “push back against Russian propaganda,” as though the Kremlin somehow smuggled an nonagenarian Nazi collaborator into parliament, then hypnotized the Prime Minister and his colleagues, Manchurian Candidate-style, into celebrating him as a hero. --from Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawa's Longstanding Ukraine Policy

Using your critical thinking skills you’ve sharpened with the first two examples, who are in the obvious audience and the not-so-obvious audience Trudeau hoped to reach with this performance? We can assume that the public wasn't suppose to discover the genocidal history of this particular Ukrainian-Canadian veteran and that this “honor” given by Parliament would promote more Canadian corporations arms sales to Ukraine. Obviously, independent thinkers weren’t fooled and shared the information of the man's identity widely. Whether or not this negative publicity will affect Canadian arms sales to Ukraine remains to be seen.

Trudeau's not-so-obvious audience were the arms manufacturers who want the bloodshed to continue in Ukraine. The CEOS of the Canadian military-industrial complex were probably salivating at the thought of more arms sales. Endless proxy war is great for the NATO war machine, even if it’s not so great for the health and safety of human beings on the whole.

Hopefully you’re getting a handle on what is meant by “performative politics” by studying these recent examples. If you’re still confused why I labeled these three politicians “neoliberals” then go back to the definition for neoliberalism above and re-read the last line: [neoliberalism's]“commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.”

Think about that sentence. There’s a lot of capital to be made in the trading of armaments and munitions. All three of these politicians—AOC, Biden, and Trudeau—are on good terms with the military-industrial complex and are eager to see the trade in arms grow. They may say they support the striking workers, the environment, and veterans, but at the end of the day their actions make more money for the CEOs of the Big Three automakers, Big Oil, and the military-industrial complex.

And remember: actions always speak louder than words. Just ask this guy:

Keep sharpening your critical thinking skills and doing your research into the backgrounds and motivations of everyone who is involved in politics or the “activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.” 

Why? Because it seems politicians enjoy distributing the world's resources into their own pockets and keeping the status quo exactly the way it is while the world burns. Their fat personal bank accounts apparently help them sleep well at night, too. Stop believing the "performances" of politicians and hold them accountable before it's too late.

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links:

The Climate March, Joe Biden, and AOC's Dubious Endorsement https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/19/the-climate-march-joe-biden-and-aocs-dubious-endorsement

Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/biden-administration-breaks-climate-promise-and-approves-willow-project 

Clusterf*cked: The Cruelty is the Point https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/07/clusterfcked-cruelty-is-point.html

Nazi SS Veteran Receives Standing Ovation in Canadian Parliament https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/09/26/nazi-ss-veteran-receives-standing-ovation-in-canadian-parliament/

Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawas Longstanding Ukraine Policy https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/01/canadas-honoring-of-nazi-vet-exposes-ottawas-longstanding-ukraine-policy/

How Joe Biden and The Democratic Party’s Climate Agenda Increases Environmental Racism More Than It Reduces Emissions https://blackagendareport.com/how-joe-biden-and-democratic-partys-climate-agenda-increases-environmental-racism-more-it-reduces

GOOD NEWS: Climate Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Industry Starting to Build Major Momentum https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/good-news-climate-lawsuits-against

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side
https://www.leftvoice.org/bidens-picket-line-visit-doesnt-mean-he-is-on-our-side/

Canadian parliament’s applause for Nazi war criminal exposes NATO war against Russia  https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/xalg-s28.html

In Canada, Denialism Grows Over Residential Schools Ahead of Orange Shirt Day  https://truthout.org/articles/in-canada-denialism-grows-over-residential-schools-ahead-of-orange-shirt-day/

Senator Menendez and co-defendants plead not guilty as Democrats seek to contain fallout from bribery scandal
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/lwpt-s28.html

William Astore: What Would Real ‘National Defense’ Look Like?
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/27/william-astore-what-would-real-national-defense-look-like/

People Are Dying For Inches In Ukraine, The "World's Largest Arms Fair"  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/people-are-dying-for-inches-in-ukraine

Caitlin Johnstone: Neocons Love the Ukraine War
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/caitlin-johnstone-neocons-love-the-ukraine-war/

US House Rejects Cluster-Bomb Ban https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/28/us-lawmakers-reject-cluster-bomb-ban/

Fog Over Nord Stream https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/fog-over-nord-stream/

Files Expose Syrian ‘Revolution’ As Western Regime Change Operation https://popularresistance.org/files-expose-syrian-revolution-as-western-regime-change-operation/

Patrick Lawrence: The Undiscovered Country https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/patrick-lawrence-the-undiscovered-country/

Suing For a Livable Planet https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/suing-for-a-livable-planet/

A Major Win Against Factory Farming In Oregon https://popularresistance.org/a-major-win-against-factory-farming-in-oregon/

Uninvited and Unaccountable: How CBP Policed George Floyd Protests https://theintercept.com/2023/09/21/cbp-george-floyd-protests/

UN Report Urges End to Forced US Prison Labor—a 'Contemporary Form of Slavery' https://www.commondreams.org/news/racism-in-the-criminal-justice-system

Philadelphia Youth React When Charges Are Dropped Against Killer Cop https://popularresistance.org/philadelphia-youth-react-when-charges-are-dropped-against-killer-cop/

Why Our Popular Mass Movements Fail https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-our-popular-mass-movements-fail

 

Interview with a Non-Scientist

 

Interview with a Non-Scientist

by C. A. Matthews

With the recent March to End Fossil Fuels in New York and the deadly floods in Libya and elsewhere, environmental crises and activism have been talked about in the both mainstream media and podcast outlets alike. Climate scientists like Peter Kalmus have preached the warning far and wide that burning fossil fuels has heated our atmosphere causing detrimental climate change and, more than likely, irreparable damage to our planet. Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West has elevated the climate emergency by actually speaking about it on the campaign trail, unlike others running for the same office who somehow think expanding oil drilling on federal lands is a good idea.

Sane persons ask, “What will it take for Big Oil to shut down forever and allow green energy to take over? Why won’t our elected officials listen to the concerned climate scientists instead of their obscenely wealthy corporate donors? Why does the mainstream media tolerate #ClimateHoax people at the expense of #ClimateEmergency people?”

Why indeed.

I decided to track down a climate crisis denier and ask them for their perspective on recent happenings in the weather. Perhaps their insights can answer these questions and clear up some of the confusion. To that end, I put out a call and received a response from one Freddie Flattearther. Here is the transcript of that interview:

 

The Revolution Continues: Welcome to the The Revolution Continues blog, Freddie. Thanks for taking some of your valuable time to talk with us.

Freddie Flattearther: Thanks for this opportunity. It isn’t usual that a communist organization is interested in hearing anything from the sane side of this climate change argument, so I must admit I was quite happy to oblige.

TRC: You’re welcome. We’re not exactly a “communist organization,” but we do pride ourselves on keeping an open mind and being one with the workers. So, let’s start by you telling us a little about yourself and why you feel you’re qualified to speak about the so-called “Climate Hoax” you claim is currently happening.

FF: You could say that I’m a proud non-scientist who knows tons more about the climate changing than any of these so called “climate scientists” out there. You wonder what they’re teaching in those colleges nowadays, but, whatever it is, it’s not commonsense.

TRC: It’s not commonsense? Please elaborate on why being a “non-scientist” makes you an expert in an area that others study for many years at a high level of academia?

FF: I call it the “They-can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees Syndrome.” Those eggheads can’t even look at their calendars and see the main reason why the climate is changing. You need an ordinary person like me whose mind hasn’t been contaminated with too much knowledge to explain it.

TRC: Please do.

FF: (Lowering his voice.) It’s so simple that even a child can understand it. The climate changes all the time. It’s called "the four seasons"—and I don’t mean the pop group with Frankie Valli from the 1960s or the big, fancy hotel chain, either.

TRC: So the massive floods, the unprecedented number of strong hurricanes so far this year, the unusual heat waves and droughts worldwide are all due to a simple change of the seasons? Is that correct?

FF: Well, not exactly. The seasons are changing, but they’re also getting both longer and shorter. Summer is about a month longer than normal I’ve observed over the last couple of years. Hence, we had a very intense hot spell in what used to be a month normally associated with spring. There’s also a big chance they’ll be a larger than average number of hurricanes occurring because summer is longer, so there’s more room on the calendar to squish them in. I call this the “Rubber Band Effect.” Eventually we’ll snap out of it.

TRC: How will we “snap out of it”?

FF: The giant rubber band wound around the core of the planet will eventually break, bringing things back to normal.

TRC: There’s a giant rubber band wrapped around the core of the planet? I wasn’t sure you believed in a round Earth with a core, what with your last name and all, Mr. Flattearther.

FF: My family used to believe in a flat Earth, but I’ve grown a little in my outlook over the decades. A flat Earth makes it hard to explain a lot of planetary events. However, the rubber band core explains earthquakes and the climate changing dramatically quite well.

TRC: This rubber band core explains the devastating earthquake in Morocco recently?

FF: Yes, that was the rubber band core being bounced hard by the giant who lives on the dark side of the moon.

TRC: (Clearing throat.) There’s a giant on the moon who bounces the earth’s core now and then?

FF: Yes, and he bounces it mostly when he’s bored. He’s grown very bored these past fifty years because we haven’t sent up any more spaceships to the moon for him to slingshot them around. It’s one of the biggest reasons why it’s been growing hotter lately.

TRC: (Nodding slowly.) Uh-huh. Explain how that works. And does this giant have a name?

FF: Those intense heat blasts come out of the giant’s mouth. He’s full of hot air, so I’ve given him the name of “Mr. Gassy.” And he is a stinker! His burping and farting explains why our air smells rather rank like rotten eggs sometimes, especially when the wind is blowing from the side of town where the oil refinery is located.

TRC: You don’t believe the obnoxious smells are coming from local manufacturing and/or the oil refinery itself?

FF: Nah, they couldn’t be. I know for a fact that our factories and our oil refinery only emit the purest of air.

TRC: (Raising an eyebrow.) Really? How do you know this to be true? Most people would say that the bad smells are indicative of the pollutants being spewed out of the smoke stacks.

FF: Of course it’s true! Why would Exxon or Chevron lie to us? They take care of little ducklings and goslings whenever they’re in need of a bath. There’s a TV commercial that shows this to be true.

TRC: You mean the dish soap commercial showing people washing oil off of wild birds’ feathers after they were got caught in an oil slick? Okay, I see where now you’re possibly getting your ideas. Do you always believe whatever you see or hear on television?

FF: For the most part, yes. There’s no reason for the big corporations to lie to us. They live on the same planet with us. Why would they pollute their own air and water, for instance? (Laughing.) I bet you don’t have a good answer to that!

TRC: No, I don’t. There is no good reason why anyone or any corporation would pollute their own air and water, but they do. As they say, “It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest.”

FF: See? I told you there’s no real reason to worry about a “climate emergency.” (Miming quote marks.) The corporations are looking after us like they look after those sick birds. We can trust them because they’re smart, unlike our politicians. They’re all a bunch of morons.

TRC: On that point, we’re agreed. Politicians are, for the most part, unethical morons, but how can we be so sure we’re not being duped by Big Oil, for instance?

FF: I’m sure they’re not lying to us, because if I ever found out they had lied about the quality of their product, gasoline, I’d stop buying so much of it for my Cadillac Escalade and buy one of those plug-in electric cars instead. I’d be downright angry if I ever found out how their products caused the earth to become hotter or dryer in the summer months or caused deadly flooding and storms where normally there aren’t any. Lots of people like me would stop buying gasoline, and that would put the oil companies out of business. They’re not stupid. They rely on people like me to stay in business.

TRC: They certainly do. So, you’re not angry about Mr. Gassy the giant bouncing the earth or batting it about?

FF: No, not really. It’s just the way he is. I just hope the US can nuke China soon so we can prevent the Chinese from sending any more space probes to the dark side of the moon. It annoys him.

TRC: Uh, yeah. Do you feel that nuclear war is winnable?

FF: All wars are winnable—if you have Mr. Gassy on your side.

TRC: Yeah, I thought you might say that. It’s been quite an experience chatting with you, Freddie Flattearther. Everyone, be careful out there and try not to get on the giant’s bad side. It seems the future of everyone on Earth is counting on it.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links: 

 

Peter Kalmus speaking at the End Fossil Fuels march in NYC

https://youtu.be/1rJHlFME480?si=H4t1ymTZIsP3zyUx

Civil Society Reactions To United Nations Climate Ambition Summit https://popularresistance.org/civil-society-reactions-to-united-nations-climate-ambition-summit/

Climate Defenders Arrested While Blocking Entry To NY Federal Reserve  https://popularresistance.org/climate-defenders-arrested-while-blocking-entry-to-ny-federal-reserve/

The Climate March, Joe Biden, and AOC’s Dubious Endorsement
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/19/the-climate-march-joe-biden-and-aocs-dubious-endorsement/

Mining the Sacred: Indigenous nations fight lithium gold rush at Thacker Pass https://youtu.be/uLO7ClVtlBA?si=UoZtSbEN-vY8Vs-I

A Guide To Six Greenwashing Terms Big Ag Is Bringing To COP28https://popularresistance.org/a-guide-to-six-greenwashing-terms-big-ag-is-bringing-to-cop28/

Chinese balloon was not spying, US gov't admits months after manufactured crisis  https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/chinese-balloon-not-spying-us-media

This War Wasn't Just Provoked — It Was Provoked Deliberately
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-war-wasnt-just-provoked-it-was

War Profiteers Are A Sign Of A Profoundly Sick Society
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/war-profiteers-are-a-sign-of-a-profoundly

We're Being Prepared For The Ukraine War To Last Into The 2030s
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/were-being-prepared-for-the-ukraine

 

Ukraine Follows Imperial Japan's Example in the Attrition of its Military https://ohiobarbarian.substack.com/p/ukraine-follows-imperial-japans-example

Australian Politicians Coming To US To Free Julian Assange
https://popularresistance.org/australian-politicians-coming-to-us-to-free-julian-assange/

US Sees Highest Ever Increase in Poverty https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/22/us-sees-highest-ever-increase-in-poverty/

If The Facts Come Out, It Could Spell The End For Joe Biden
https://popularresistance.org/if-the-facts-come-out-it-could-spell-the-end-for-joe-biden/

'Silent Coup'—How corporations rule the world w/Matt Kennard | The Chris Hedges Report https://youtu.be/1xRrk-cYU-E?si=0o252v-vU6MR3E_D

Biden orders deployment of 800 soldiers to US-Mexico border https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/23/xsta-s23.html

Beyond the Border: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Presence at Racial Justice Protests in Summer of 2020
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/FOIA/cbp-presence-racial-justice-protests-summer-2020

Citizen Groups Sue EPA for Using Black Neighborhoods as “Sacrifice Zones” https://truthout.org/articles/citizen-groups-sue-epa-for-using-black-neighborhoods-as-sacrifice-zones/

Striking Autoworkers at Stellantis Are Up Against a Yacht-Sailing Billionaire  https://truthout.org/articles/striking-autoworkers-at-stellantis-are-up-against-a-yacht-sailing-billionaire/

Boston March October 7 To Demand: Indigenous Peoples Day Now! https://popularresistance.org/boston-march-october-7-to-demand-indigenous-peoples-day-now/ 

 

Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog:  The Little Red Book of Revolution

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