Who or What Can You Believe?

Who or What Can You Believe?

Some say capitalism is the only system of economics that works for everyone and that programs like UBI aren't necessary to maintain it, and yet...

Many workers have been told that "China is stealing your jobs!" And then there's this:
 

 

Democrats accused Trump's administration of being full of corporate grifters.  https://www.citizen.org/article/corporatecabinet/

Yet Biden's administration discloses that it's full of former corporate lobbyists as well. https://www.dailyposter.com/p/biden-aides-disclose-their-corporate

The CDC says six feet apart is the minimum safe distance to keep in order to prevent transmitting the coronavirus. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html 

Yet school districts across the nation now say it's safe for students' desks to be three feet apart--so their parents can return to work. https://nbc24.com/newsletter-daily/cdc-changes-school-guidance-allowing-desks-to-be-closer-03-19-2021-150920969

V.P. Kamala Harris says she is all for police reform, and yet her history as an Attorney General says otherwise: https://www.dailyposter.com/p/kamala-harris-police-accountability

And while V.P. Kamala Harris readily admits to smoking pot, Biden's White House fires their staffers for marijuana use. https://www.thedailybeast.com/biden-white-house-sandbags-staffers-sidelines-dozens-for-pot-use  

HR-1 or the "For the People Act" promises some needed voting reforms, yet  at the same time it will allow billionaires to flood unrestricted Dark Money into the campaign coffers of the Democrats and Republicans, further weakening what remains of our democracy.  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2021/03/poison-pill-politics.html

In February, the Biden administration submitted a bill to Congress, the US Citizenship Act of 2021, stating it would "reinstate the United States' commitment to human rights," and yet it reopened the very same Trump-era children "overflow facilities" to lock up immigrant children within a month. https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/68402-immigration-reopening-mass-influx-facilities-goes-against-biden-administration-promises 

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/68353-unaccompanied-immigrant-minors-are-not-a-qborder-crisisq-but-a-humanitarian-crisis

❌ $2000 relief checks
❌ $15/hr minimum wage
❌ elimination of student debt
❌ halting of deportations from day 1
❌ decriminalization of marijuana
✅ 127,457 deportations
✅ 30% increase in jailed migrant children

— tr☆pp (@Iawnhater) March 19, 2021

 

Also:

All student loan debt hasn't been cancelled as promised by Biden during the presidential campaign.

We didn't realize the $2000 stimulus check as promised in January by Biden and Harris while campaigning in the Georgia special election. 

Medicare For All has yet to be enacted in spite of promises made along the campaign trail.

Enacting a $15 an hour minimum wage seems to be a thing of the past for Dems--no matter if they claimed to support it in 2020.

Police officers and others are still getting away with murder of minorities.

And there are still kids in cages.

Who or what can you believe?

We could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.  You can only believe in yourself. Any conflicting information you read and hear in the mainstream media only provides further proof that they're in on the con.

The mainstream media will take the contradictions inadvertently revealed by those in power and manufacture them into a cover story full of misdirection and half-truths--Russia!--rather than actual facts. These spin doctors are so good at what they do that they will make you question your own memory and your own sanity if you let them.

The solution? Cut back or stop altogether watching and reading mainstream media outlets. Stop allowing their talking heads to fill yours with their nonsense. It's only going to give you a headache. 

What can you do to find out what's really happening in the world? Find as many independent media outlets as you can broadcasting a news story and learn to trust your instincts when comparing sources. Who makes money if you follow this particular media outlet's lead? And if something coming out of the mouth of a politician or an extremely well-paid pundit sounds unbelievable or is later proven false, don't hesitate to refute them or boycott them.

There's no reason for anyone to put up with liars, no matter how apparently high ranking or famous they are. Always insist on integrity. If more of us did this more often, what a wonderful world this would be.

Lee demonstrates how disingenuous our mainstream media can be in the following video:

 

https://youtu.be/rcPyb_9Rl68

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The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

*** 

We’ll be direct: There’s a youth nicotine addiction crisis raging across America, and Big Tobacco’s flavored products are fueling it like gasoline on a fire.

Whether it’s longtime products like menthol cigarettes or stealthy new e-cigarettes like Juul, the tobacco industry has relied on flavors to hook generation after generation on their dangerous products. It’s a strategy dating back decades – one that continues even during a pandemic, when protecting lung health couldn’t be more critical.

The result? More than 15,000 flavors on store shelves, addicting more kids and putting their health and brain development in jeopardy.

We must end flavored tobacco sales to stop this crisis of youth addiction – but we can’t do it without you. Will you add your name and join this urgent effort?

Here are the facts:

• More than 81% of kids who have ever used tobacco started with a flavored product
• Flavored tobacco makes it easier for young users to start
• 3.6 million kids nationwide are using nicotine-loaded e-cigs, unraveling years of progress in lowering youth tobacco use

It’s not all bad news, C.A. – we’ve made real progress against this threat. Five states and hundreds of cities nationwide have cracked down on flavored tobacco products. And last year, for the first time ever, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to end the sale of flavored tobacco.

2021 could be the year we finish the job and finally stop Big Tobacco from luring and addicting our kids with flavored products. But it won’t happen without a grassroots army demanding action. That’s where you come in.

JOIN US: There’s no time to waste. Sign up and join our fight to end youth nicotine addiction. >>

SIGN UP

Thanks,

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids 

*** 

 From Public Citizen:

“Get used to me.”

That’s what Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress last month during a hearing into unprecedented service cuts and mail delays under his leadership of the United States Postal Service.

DeJoy is a Republican mega-donor who has given over $2 million to the Trump campaign and other Republican causes since 2016.

Last year, Public Citizen helped file a lawsuit in federal court — in which we prevailed — to stop DeJoy from disrupting mail delivery leading up to the November election.

Now, DeJoy is about to propose additional changes that could delay the mail even more.

Too many Americans count on the Post Office to leave it in the hands of a Trump sycophant who seems bent on running the agency into the ground.

Tell the USPS Board of Governors:

Fire Louis DeJoy.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 

 

No One Should Live In Poverty

 

 

"Why don't we cut child poverty in whole? Why are we leaving half the children in poverty? How much child poverty are you comfortable with?" All valid questions Jimmy asks the propagandists. https://youtu.be/7SboDoWF_XU

The Trinity of Needs

by Coast Watcher

Nobody should lack a roof over their heads, food on the table, and access to free healthcare. This is a simple trinity of needs that a country as rich as the United States is more than capable of meeting. In fact it’s right up there in the preamble to the Constitution—it’s the American government’s duty to promote the general welfare. 

General (definition): Everybody.

Welfare (definition): Health, happiness, prosperity. 

Instead we have the unedifying spectacle of the government doing it’s best to water down all welfare passed to its people while providing ever-greater wealth for a select minority of uber-rich parasites. The one-off $1400 is patently less than the $2000 Biden and numerous so-called Democratic Party candidates promised before the Georgia run-off elections in a clear bribe to the electorate. It’s also means tested. That’s right; the so-called Democrats delivered less than their governmental partner in crime, the Republican Party.

If the United States was a properly-functioning country it'd be focused on getting affordable nutritious food to all people as a form of health care. Instead it’s entirely focused on food banks to ensure people don't starve to death. Food deserts are rife and spreading as supermarket chains grow ever larger and migrate to the wealthier neighborhoods.

If the United States were not a failed nation, it would provide housing for all its citizens. There are on average 550,000 people sleeping rough every night in all weathers. There are on average 4.2 vacant houses for every homeless person. Instead banks and mortgage companies seize properties which then stand vacant for years in a state of gradual decay.

Thirty two out of thirty three first world nations have universal free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare services. Only the United States does not. Instead, American healthcare costs on average twice as much as that found in any other country, while delivering half the value.

The situation is as it is because there are those who make money out of poverty, hunger, poor healthcare and homelessness. These people would have you believe the people afflicted by these dire situations are to blame for their plight. The money to rectify all these problems is there. The political will is not. Politicians prefer to cozy up to Big Business and accept funding and policy direction from their boards of directors than to listen to what the ordinary people need.

The time has come for a drastic change for the better, before it’s too late.

BIO: Coast Watcher isn't buying the "We can save half the children in poverty" line of the Dems. Every child could be saved. He sees who's behind these morally corrupt politicians and why they don't act too anxious to end poverty for all time for everyone on the planet. #CapitalismKills is more than just a hashtag--it's a truth that is becoming more and more evident to more and more people than ever before. Don't let them try to convince you that some folks must live in poverty in order for our economy to function...because no one should.

Spotted on Twitter: 

Does anyone seriously believe that $300 a month will cut childhood poverty in half? Or at all?

— Wear A Damn Mask, Please (@TeresaMayNot) March 13, 2021

What about "adult" poverty?

— Yellow Vests Form Like Voltron (@TweetyMctwat) March 13, 2021

If you got $1400 every minute, 24/7, 365 days a year, after 266 years you would still have less money than Jeff Bezos.

— Emma Decos (@emmadecos) March 13, 2021

Related Articles and Videos:

https://youtu.be/cCcMwZ2a29E

The American Dream of Upward Mobility Is Broken https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/68288-the-american-dream-of-upward-mobility-is-broken-look-at-the-numbers

The Sovietization of the American Press https://scheerpost.com/2021/03/14/the-sovietization-of-the-american-press/ 

Capitalist Economies Overproduce Food But People Can't Afford To Buy It  https://truthout.org/articles/capitalist-economies-overproduce-food-but-people-cant-afford-to-buy-it/

Biden's Big Bailout Can't Pull America Out of Its Death Spiral (by Chris Hedges) https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/68328-focus-bandaging-the-corpse-bidens-big-bailout-cant-pull-america-out-of-its-death-spiral 

How Democrats Abandoned You In Relief Bill (video) https://youtu.be/7xge33CwtL0

***

I went to Louisville, KY, last summer and felt the violence of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department firsthand. Three of my friends were arrested while we protested for justice in Breonna Taylor’s name, and I was sent to the hospital after police shot us with rubber bullets.
 
Luckily, they weren’t real bullets, and I wasn’t another Black woman murdered by police.

One year ago today, Louisville police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor. She was a young, Black woman like me, only a little older. Despite Breonna Taylor’s murder receiving intense press coverage and her name becoming known worldwide, we still don’t have justice. Her murder sparked a nationwide outcry – I was on the streets of Washington, D.C., nearly every day this summer alongside hundreds of peaceful protesters, demanding justice for Black lives, including Breonna Taylor and her family.

Police violence is gun violence. Breonna Taylor was one of the many Black women who was unfairly and unnecessarily stolen by America’s racist gun violence epidemic. And it’s not something unique to my generation: Black people have faced deadly bias and racial profiling from police for decades and are twice as likely to be killed by them. We must take action to protect Black lives, C.A.. Right now, the Senate has the chance to pass sweeping police accountability policies that would potentially save Black lives and chip away at the racist institution that took Breonna Taylor’s life.
 
The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act this month and if it passes the Senate, it could prevent unjustified murders by police. This bill would ban the use of chokeholds, like in the murder of George Floyd, and ban no-knock warrants — like the one that police used to enter Breonna Taylor’s home. This is a critical step in drastically overhauling the racist policing tactics that are taking the lives of far too many Black Americans.
 
Since the moment I had to use my classmate’s lifeless body to protect myself from being shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, I have been putting my own body on the line to fight against the gun violence that is predominantly killing Black and Brown young people. Today, one year after Breonna Taylor was murdered by police, I am asking you to fight with me and take action against racist gun violence perpetrated by police. I am asking you to fight as hard as I do for Black lives.
 
In honor of Breonna Taylor, will you sign our petition urging the Senate to pass this critical legislation to address policing? We cannot end gun violence without ending police violence.
 
I am remembering Breonna Taylor today. I am thinking of all the Black women who I am lucky to know and work with every day. And I will keep fighting for Black women until we finally address gun violence in this country.
 
Thank you for fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor and Black lives.
 
Aalayah Eastmond

Gun Violence Survivor
Team ENOUGH Executive Council Member
Founder, Concerned Citizens DC

 ***

From Roots Action:

As a result of broad U.S. economic sanctions, countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe struggle without adequate food, electricity, medicine, medical supplies, masks and respirators. Those who suffer most under sanctions include pregnant women, children, and the chronically ill. We need to urge the Biden administration to issue a worldwide temporary general license to allow all countries and locations sanctioned by the United States to be able to easily import all related medicines, medical supplies, and vaccines, to facilitate international relief efforts related to COVID-19. We've put together, with our allies, a petition that will be delivered to President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris; White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain; Sec. of State Antony Blinken; Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin; Sec. of the Treasury Janet Yellen; and Sec. of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Click here to add your name!
The U.S. Treasury Department has the power to issue a worldwide, temporary general license authorizing the exportation and re-exportation of medical supplies and equipment and other essential goods that might otherwise be prohibited by sanctions. The temporary general license would not require Congress to suspend or repeal sanctions and would only cover the listed types of supplies and equipment. By making it clear these types of financial transactions are allowable, this license would aid in the donation or sale of items such as test kits, respirators, sanitizers, personal protective equipment, and medicine, which are all critical for preventing and treating COVID-19. U.S. economic sanctions technically exempt humanitarian items -- but banks, insurance companies, and other corporations are afraid that if they make loans, provide insurance for shipments, or send goods, the U.S. government will accuse them of violating the sanctions, levy hefty fines, and place them on a banned business list. An April 2020 Human Rights Watch report explained that sanctions have had a particularly detrimental effect on Iran’s healthcare system, as the country lacks access to critical medical equipment and medicine despite existing exemptions. UN Human Rights Commissioner Michele Bachelet echoed this point when she called for an easing of sanctions for COVID-19 relief. Past Republican and Democratic Party administrations have issued temporary general licenses after earthquakes in Iran. So, there is precedent for following through on this request. Sign the petition here!

***
The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below. http://paypal.me/camatthews Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

 

Pointless Violence

 

 

 

Pointless Violence

by C.A. Matthews

Is there any use writing about the impeachment trial that's come and gone in record time? We all knew what the outcome would be before it began, so there's no real need to waste words on it, is there? It's time to concentrate energy on things that matter to us, the working people of this great land.

A recent study determined that forty percent of all Covid-19 deaths in the US could have been prevented. Yes, prevented. There was no need for so many American families to lose so many loved ones. Our alleged public servants simply lied and fudged the numbers instead of spending their time and energy on sharing life-saving information with us in a timely manner so we all could have dealt better with this pandemic and suffered a minimal loss of life.

Our country's ham-fisted handling of the coronavirus threat is a perfect example of pointless violence being committed against the population. Yes, violence as in needless deaths and pointless as in there was absolutely no point in our government treating its citizens so abysmally. If the public's health and well-being had been put ahead of "the economy," or large corporations' profits, we wouldn't have lost over 188,000 human beings needlessly and destroyed the happiness of millions of others.

According to Paul Blest of VICE News:

The Lancet report alleges that Trump’s impact on public health was disastrous even before the pandemic. There were 22,000 extra deaths related to environmental and occupational factors in 2019 than there were in the last year of former President Barack Obama’s presidency, which the commission attributes to federal regulatory rollbacks.

But the report’s authors say the problem goes way beyond just the former president.

“We started out really looking at what Trump had done, and he has certainly done a lot wrong,” Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, another lead author on the report and a distinguished professor at the Hunter College School of Public Health, told VICE News. “But we looked at the health of the American people...and what we found is that it’s been four decades of government failure to support policies that support human health.”

The authors suggest an overhaul in the country’s public health infrastructure to fix the problem. In addition to giving the CDC more tools to fight systemic racism, they recommend transitioning to a Medicare for All system like the one championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The experts are clear. There has been "four decades of government failure to support policies that support human health." There was no point to this violence of ignoring the public's health and safety during this pandemic other than to make wealthy people even wealthier by denying us an adequate public health infrastructure and not fighting systemic racism.

Lee Camp considers the problem--and its solution-- in his opening monologue:

https://youtu.be/ENZqMYzaqvc

Our capitalist system's worst sins could be lessened simply by taxing and then redistributing the billions of dollars sitting in billionaires' bank accounts to the rest of us, leaving these hoarders with ten million dollars each. Our government would have no more excuses for not providing health care or an adequate education free for all Americans once this hoarded money is released into circulation.

Why won't our elected representatives promote this fair and equitable plan to help 99.9% of Americans, especially the most struggling? Could it be career politicians take their orders from these same undertaxed billionaires and their corporations? Could it be they don't care what pointless violence is brought upon us, the workers, as long as they please their corporate paymasters and are rewarded in turn?

As we wait in hope for the long promised $2,000 stimulus check--bargained down to only $1,400--to arrive so we can cover our past due rent, let's not forget how we got into this mess. As we wait for Medicare For All to be passed into law so we no longer go bankrupt whenever huge medical bills arrive, let's not forget who made us suffer the loss of our homes and so many of our loved ones. 

Above all, let's not remain quiet any longer. Let's make our point loud and clear--we're not going to stand for such pointless violence being perpetrated against us ever again. We need to voice our anger to everyone in public office, at all levels of government. The politicians have made it crystal clear they can't be bothered to stand up for our rights, haven't they? It's high time they understood how serious a crime it is to deny life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the majority.

 

Related Articles:

Here's How Many Deaths We Can Blame On Trump's Terrible Response

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67794-heres-how-many-covid-deaths-we-can-blame-on-trumps-terrible-response

40 Percent of US Covid Deaths Could Have Been Avoided

https://truthout.org/articles/new-lancet-report-40-percent-of-us-covid-deaths-could-have-been-avoided/ 

 Americans May Need to Wear Masks Throughout 2021

https://truthout.org/articles/biden-indicates-americans-may-need-to-wear-masks-throughout-2021/

 ***

Mask up, Red Shirt! 

(And don't fall for fake news!)

The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

***

The Line 3 Pipeline in northern Minnesota would violate Indigenous rights and carry the pollution equivalent to 50 coal power plants.

Fight back and stop the next Keystone XL. Sign the petition: Stop the Line 3 Pipeline!

Bulldozers for the Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota have arrived to plow through sacred wild rice watersheds, over 800 wetlands, and 200+ bodies of water in Ojibwe treaty territory.

Indigenous water protectors are fighting to protect their land, but the drones are overhead and the police are militarizing.

President Biden has the power to stop this project. He can review the permits granted by Trump and halt Line 3 construction immediately.

Protect native lands. Sign the petition: Stop the Line 3 Pipeline!

This will be the first climate test for his administration and we are making it clear that the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 pipelines must be stopped.

Minnesotans submitted 68,000 public comments against Line 3, they've marched in the streets, attended the hearings and engaged in every step of the process.

Now, over 144,000 Americans have signed a petition to stop Line 3. Will you add your name today?

Thanks for standing up.

-- Progressive Reform Network

 ***

The USPS Board of Governors, which appoints the Postmaster General, has four vacancies.

That means Joe Biden can nominate members who can FIRE Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and undo his sabotage of the USPS.

We must fill these vacant seats with members who will defend the USPS's universal service obligation, and defend our Postal Service from privatization.

Sign on: Save the USPS! Fill the four vacancies on the USPS Board of Governors.

Throughout this pandemic, postal workers have risked their lives as essential employees, while the Postmaster General removed sorting machines and wreaked havoc on delivery times.

If you're as tired as we are of delayed holiday cards and packages in Shangri-La, take action today.

Sign on: Save the USPS! Fill the four vacancies on the USPS Board of Governors.

Thanks for taking action.

-- Progressive Reform Network

 ***

From Public Citizen

The United States Senate was not just the jury in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Senators themselves were among the targets of the attack he provoked and the trial was conducted at the scene of the crime.

Yet 43 senators — all Republicans — CHOSE to disregard the obvious truth that Donald Trump incited a violent insurrection in an attempt to overturn the election he lost.

Whether they did this because of political cowardice or because they have joined the Trump cult, these 43 senators have invited further political violence and imperiled the American experiment in democracy.

• These 43 senators have brought America to the brink of authoritarianism by licensing the use (or at least the threat) of violence by those seeking to achieve or retain political power.

• These 43 senators will have blood on their hands the next time Trump or some other political extremist provokes an attack on a government building or elected officials.

• These 43 senators have affirmed their allegiance (or, at best, deference) to the proto-fascist, white-supremacist “politics” personified by Trump.

• These 43 senators have forsaken any claim to love of country and even the most basic tenets of democracy.

• These 43 senators have violated their oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

• These 43 senators will go down in history as political cowards who put rank partisanship before real patriotism.

Join Public Citizen in delivering a message to these 43 senators:

You have opened the door to ongoing political violence and may have set our country on a path toward authoritarianism. You are clearly incapable of feeling shame, but know this: History, if it remembers you at all, will remember you as an apologist for mob violence and a traitor to democracy.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen