Sleight of Hand

by C.A. Matthews

Sleight of Hand (from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online)

1a : a cleverly executed trick or deception b : a conjuring trick requiring manual dexterity 2 a : skill and dexterity in conjuring tricks b : adroitness in deception

Synonyms: legerdemain, fakery, front, scam, swindle, cheating, duplicity, chicanery, fraud, subterfuge, trickery, hoax, feint, dupery, skulduggery

I’m always amazed how easily adult human beings are taken in by the masters of sleight of hand. I don’t mean just professional magicians and jugglers, either. I mean some seem to believe every word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth while simultaneously insisting they detest the man because he’s a big fat liar.

Now, that’s some Grade A legerdemain on Trump’s part! He not only fools his own followers and devotees, he fools his avowed enemies as well.

But why would anyone believe a person they claim to be a liar in the first place? Why get upset over toddler-like antics such as shouting matches and name-calling? And perhaps the biggest question, why do they spend so much time and energy whining about the antics of a big fat liar?

Could it be...could it really be so simple? Are Trump and company simply acting like magicians practicing sleight of hand tricks? His job for our true rulers (the billionaires/oligarchs) of our corrupt capitalist system is to keep us distracted from what’s really going on? You got to admit it, Trump does have the perfect qualifications for the job of Distractor-in-Chief.

First off, he’s a failed businessman who makes used car salespersons look good. Secondly, he was the “star” of a TV reality show for several years, so he actually knows how to follow a script and improvise from a prompt. (You do realize that reality TV shows are all scripted, don’t you? I’ve met people who think everything they watch on TV reflects reality. Those who can think for themselves and practice critical thinking skills know how far from the truth that is.)

So, here you have Trump in his role as Distractor-in-Chief recently getting into a televised knockdown, drag out fight with Mr. Zelensky. All of a sudden people are crying and wringing their hands over how “rude and obnoxious” Donald Trump was to that “brave, honorable man” Volodymyr Zelensky.

Remember: Everything on television is not real—and neither is Mr. Zelensky...

 

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KISS: Keep It Simple, Sociopath

by C. A. Matthews

It’s been really hard keeping up with what’s been happening recently in Syria and the rest of the world. Then I remembered a wise old saying, and I sat down and started listing the facts, just the facts. Here they are as simple as I can explain them:

First off, the US and its Western allies once called the group now in charge of Syria “terrorists”, but now we’re calling them “moderates” and forgiving them for all the torture and extrajudicial killings that they did. Their leader, Muhammad Al-Jawlani, used to have a $10 million reward on his head for being a terrorist with an organization formerly known as Al Qaeda. (Never heard of them before, have you?) But now we’re supposed to ignore his past because he turned in his turban for a Western-styled suit…

Yeah, that’s it. It’s sort of like a woman becoming a virgin again after twenty years of marriage and several children.

Second thing, we’re told that this recent invasion of Syria is not a land grab. Pay no attention to the Israeli military (using American provided weapons) bombing Syria 480 times in 48 hours because (in their words) the “moderates are terrorists” and can’t control their own people to Israel’s satisfaction. (But Al-Jawlani wears a suit now—doesn’t that make everything all right?) 

 

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Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. —Martin Luther

What Are You Thankful For?

words and holiday parade photos by C.A. Matthews

About this time of the year in the good ol’ USA there comes a national holiday that pretty much is celebrated by all Americans (except for Jehovah Witnesses, of course). It seems a benign enough harvest-time holiday with no overtly religious overtones, but with some covertly religious ones for those who partake. Americans of all persuasions and socio-economic backgrounds celebrate this holiday, with or without help from their local food pantry or soup kitchen.

This national holiday is called “Thanksgiving.” It was supposedly the brain child of English colonists who invited the local Native Americans over for a grand meal in thanks for the Native’s assistance they unwittingly gave their white invaders. If it hadn’t been for the kindness of the Native Americans, the English colonists would have completely died off their first winter at the Massachusetts Bay colony. Later, the Natives would come to regret their good manners when the Europeans stole their land and passed small pox on to them, but white historians conveniently leave out all those unpleasant details.

Instead, historians have chosen to emphasize the happier aspects of the Thanksgiving feast—good food, togetherness, neighborliness, and sharing leftovers with anyone who’ll take them off your hands so you’re not stuck eating turkey for the next three weeks. These aspects make it a pretty nifty national holiday to celebrate in the short, dark, and damp days of late autumn in North America—as others called “Canucks” also celebrate this harvest festival about a month earlier. (Apparently they forget the calendar includes months after October.) Thus, border families of mix American-Canadian heritage have the chance to eat two Thanksgiving dinners, with the added bonus of putting on enough blubber to survive the arctic onslaught of the coming winter.

While everyone sits around the dinner table feasting on the traditional meal of roast turkey and stuffing—which is no where close to the supposed original Thanksgiving feast of venison and seafood—guests are supposed to share what they are thankful for in their lives. This is when the problems begin.

In presidential election years, Americans with big mouths not filled with mashed potatoes and gravy might make mention of how thankful they are their favorite presidential candidate won the recent contest. Others, who are not feeling quite so happy about this outcome, will then attack the sanity of the first party and call them some rather nasty names. The atmosphere of Thanksgiving thankfulness will immediately evaporate. Thrown bread rolls and tossed turkey drumsticks can be turned into semi-lethal weapons if calmer heads don’t quickly prevail.

This is why on pain of having a pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream thrown in their face that most Americans do their best not to bring up politics at Thanksgiving. No one is more thankful than the hosts of the traditional meal that politics have been left where they belong—in the trash can out back—before entering their home. With dinner table small talk limited to sports, the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and how everyone will go about losing all the weight they’ll gain from gorging on turkey and several desserts, the day proceeds much more smoothly than things did ultimately between the Native Americans and the English colonists.

So, here it is another US presidential election year and Thanksgiving approaches. This begs the question for Americans and Non-Americans alike: What are you thankful for?

 

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The Exercise of Imagination

 

“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”

—Ursula K. LeGuin

The Exercise of Imagination

by C.A. Matthews

My husband has a new hobby. Every evening he turns on the local newscast to view the weather forecast so we know how much watering our garden will need the next day. Lately he waits until the national newscast comes on. This is when his cathartic yelling at the screen begins.

“What the…? It’s not a war, asshole. The children of Gaza are being murdered. It’s a goddamn genocide. Say the word, you stupid bastard!”

Mercifully, the six o’clock newscast runs only about sixteen minutes or else he’d be permanently hoarse. I timed the commercials one night, and discovered the half hour is made up of mostly commercials for Big Pharma. That gives you some idea who their target audience is—older Americans with deep pockets who love popping pills.

National newscasts really don’t provide news as much as they give out headlines. Their headlines tend to be predictable propaganda soundbites courtesy of the Ministry of Truth or the government propaganda machine. The news readers with their Hollywood-movie-star looks aren’t trying to impart factual information as much as they’re trying to persuade and provoke emotions, such as hatred and animosity toward those whom the oligarchy wants us to hate. They want us to despise and fear others so much that we’d be willing to go to war with them and die—or at least we’re okay with our children or grandchildren dying for the cause.

After watching several national newscasts, the emotional manipulation became bleedin’ obvious (as my British husband says). Do the regular consumers of mainstream (legacy) media realize they’re being manipulated to believe and feel a certain way in the first place? (See last week’s post about who does the manipulating and why.) What do they really get out of it? Do they actually enjoy being lied to? Do the lies reinforce their deep-seated prejudices and feed their wildest fears, making them fat and content in their hatred? Is warmongering propaganda a source of entertainment for them?

 

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There’s Always Money For Bombs

“The sinews of war are infinite money.” --Marcus Tullius Cicero

"How many free school lunches could have been bought with the money we used to send bombs to Israel so they could bury children under rubble?" --Professor Anthony Zenkus on X https://twitter.com/anthonyzenkus/status/1797464596552585340

There’s Always Money For Bombs

by C.A. Matthews

The images out of Gaza have been unrelentingly traumatic, but the slaughter in Rafah was just unbearably upsetting. Reports of decapitated babies. Charred children. People burned alive. All just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah. All while the US government makes excuse after excuse for Israel’s flagrant breaches of international law, which Israel said was just a “tragic mistake”.

After those images, I couldn’t function anymore. I certainly couldn’t sit down and try and write. The hopelessness and the horror and my rage felt too overwhelming. My complicity felt too overwhelming – the knowledge that this mass slaughter is being facilitated and funded by the US taxpayer, the knowledge that a little portion of my writing income goes towards this suffering. All while the public school around the corner from me in Philadelphia is failing because there’s never enough money for education and the library near me shuts on Sundays because there’s never enough money for public services and there are people going bankrupt in the US from medical bills because there’s never enough money to invest in public health. But there’s always money for bombs. --from Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies? by Arwa Mahdawi

When I read Arwa’s impassioned plea for sanity, I identified with it completely. I knew I had to write about it.

There is always—and I mean always—enough money for bombs in the annual budget that the US Congress passes. Sure, some of the money goes for tanks, nuclear subs, the dockyard queen known as the “Littoral Combat Ship,” and for the crash-worthy F-35, too, but that’s the gist of where the majority of our tax dollars go toward. Armaments. War. Death. Destruction.

Genocide.

Why is that? Arwa makes some pertinent points here. There’s never any money for universal health care or to help struggling public schools in America, but there’s plenty of money to give to genocidal maniacs like Israel, always billions of dollars worth of bombs to hand over to these ethnic cleansing mass murderers. Bombs that have killed and maimed over 100,000 human beings in Gaza alone. Bombs that don’t create goodwill among the nations. Bombs that only create more animosity and fear.

Bombs that are bringing us each and every day closer to a nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it.

I’m sure there are plenty who feel that I’m exaggerating the point and that poor Arwa needs to take a chill pill and lie down until her brain fog clears. I call those types of people “idiots.” Okay, perhaps “morons” might be the better term in an intellectual sense, but either term works for me. Nowadays we can’t afford to keep listening to morons and idiots because these moron and idiots are trying to start World War III.

Don’t believe me? Believe another intelligent person who has looked into this issue:

The Biden administration has given Ukraine permission to use US-provided weapons to hit targets inside Russian territory (...) a step that marks a significant escalation of the proxy war.

“Ukraine needs support from the US for targeting when it fires US-provided missiles, which means the US will now be directly supporting strikes inside Russia. The escalation risks provoking a major response from Russia, as Moscow recently warned the UK that it would target British military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” if British missiles were used in strikes on Russian territory. (…)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any NATO countries that let Ukraine strike Russia with their weapons would face “major consequences.”  From Biden Gives Ukraine Permission To Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons by Dave DeCamp

There it is in black and white. The US is threatening Russia. One nuclear power is threatening another by giving bombs to another country, Ukraine, even after what President Putin said about the first country will be held accountable for whatever damage their bombs do. And the idiots and morons in the US allow Ukraine to shoot American bombs/missiles into Russia, targeting nuclear radar sites, knowing full well that these actions could escalate the current conventional bloodbath into full-fledged nuclear warfare. For added fun, US NATO ally France is sending some of its troops into Ukraine to get slaughtered as quickly as Ukrainian troops have. There can never be enough cannon fodder—I mean “soldiers”.

I know it’s difficult to get your head around this horrific state of affairs, but allow me to help. I believe the word you’re looking for to describe this situation is “suicide.”

To reiterate: There’s always money for bombs. AND the US will always make certain there are bombs enough worldwide to commit a nuclear genocide against every last living thing on earth. Why? Because the US is hell-bent to get its way and remain the top dog economically and militarily while standing on the apex of a pile of smoldering rubble called the Late Great Planet Earth.

See, that’s not too difficult to understand, is it? It isn’t a good thing. In fact, it’s something that the rest of the people of the planet desperately want to stop. It’s what keeping both Arwa and me awake at nights.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know what I mean by the terms “zio-bully” and “zionarcissism”  and how to apply them to the behaviors of the United States of Israel. The US suffers greatly from the mental illness of zionarcissism. It believes the best thing in the world is to zio-bully everyone into doing what they say by threatening them with bombs raining down on them from the sky, along with the parts from more than a few Boeing jets for good measure. [Editor’s note: The US bombs that were rained down upon the sleeping refugee camp in Rafah were actually made by Boeing, the Boeing GBU-39. (Cost reports range from $30,000-$40,000 per bomb.)Yes, Boeing can make something that actually works as intended. Too bad this something was intended to maim and kill.]

by Mark Taylor www.DeMOCKracy.Ink

I know what you’re thinking, if you’re a sane and moral person, that is. You’re thinking: “It doesn’t make any sense for the US, or anyone for that matter, to provoke a nuclear confrontation. Nobody wins in a nuclear war.” You’re absolutely right. But if you’ve been following recent events, you’ll have come to the conclusion that the US is not run by anyone the least sane and/or moral.

For crying out loud, Butcher Biden has been giving away billions of dollars worth of bombs and armaments to Israel who is clearly committing war crimes against an indigenous civilian population! Children are being burnt alive and suffering amputations without the benefit of anesthetic because Biden allows the Israelis to block food and medicines from coming into Gaza. I ask you how is Biden’s behavior either “sane” or “moral”?

“But what do we Americans get out of all this death and destruction?” you wonder. “Surely we must get something out of it, or why else do it and ruin our reputation on the world stage?”

Good questions. Perhaps there are no satisfactory answers. One thing the NATO countries are getting from watching the Israeli Occupation Forces bomb and sniper-shoot their way across Gaza is lots of great data on how well their instruments of death work in the field. Military scientists now know exactly how many bombs it takes to turn a city the size of Gaza City into rubble. This could make fighting conventional wars in the future (if there is a future) much more organized and cost effective.  If you know you’ll only need like 25,000 bunker buster bombs for your first month’s barrage, then you won’t need to buy or stock any more bombs than that. See how that could save a few trillion bucks in the Pentagon’s budget? (More money for those legendary golden toilet seats for F-35s!)

Even more sinister than that is now all these wonderful military-industrial complex corporations have great feedback on just how deadly their weapons of war really are. I mean, it’s difficult to know just how many children can be burned alive in a refugee tent camp without actually testing out your bombs by dropping them on some human guinea pigs. Isn’t it nice how the people of Gaza have volunteered their services essentially to serve as “crash test dummies” for the past eight months?

You don’t believe me that scientists actually collect this sort of data from the deaths of civilians and use it to make more lethal weapons? Well, if I told you that Nazi scientists tested weapons on the bodies of living (soon dead) concentration camp prisoners during World War II, and that information was snatched up by the US and others at the end of the war and studied closely, would you still not believe me? It’s okay if you don’t. But watch out that you and yours don’t become the next guinea pig they decide to test out their instruments of death on.

In the end, that’s all the military-industrial complex CEOs want—lots of profits (which the US government is providing) and lots of success with their “products” so they get repeat business. And these products won’t necessarily be sold to be used abroad in a distant land against a distant people you don’t like next time. Americans could be the next guinea pigs. Take a look at our militarized policing systems in American cities.

Why the hell does a small town with less than 25,000 people in the heartland of America need a dozen Humvee armored cars, courtesy of a Pentagon rummage sale? Answer: It doesn’t. But I used to drive past the police depot that contained these weapons of war when I lived in that little town, and I wondered if the cops bought them just in case they ever needed to mow down a few protesters who started acting out of line and demanding an end to the genocides, an end to the endless wars.

Small town cops can’t ever be too careful come a full fledged “riot” of five grandmothers and two dogs standing on the corner of Main Street carrying “Free Palestine” banners. Those armored cars will come in handy in running those “killer grannies” down, won’t they? Who’s to say our militarized police won’t use these military-grade weapons against us for other things like being the wrong color, wrong religion, wrong politics, wrong gender identity, wrong… You get the picture.

So remember: There’s always money for bombs. That is, until We the People decide that there isn’t, and we do something to stop these insane genocidal-suicidal morons.

photos by Stefan Fane

One big thing we can do is show solidarity with oppressed people both at home and around the world. We can broadcast their cause to a wider audience, since broadcast mainstream media stations won’t bother to. We can stand together and not let the morons-in-charge divide us and conquer our power.

I did just that this past weekend. I marched in solidarity for Palestine with an interesting mix of people—peace activists, queer activists, LGBTQIA supporters, American Muslim activists and their supporters. I know, these don’t sound like groups that normally would march together in a summer festival parade under the banner of Palestine liberation, but they did. We had a great time and received over all good responses from the community.

Marching with Stefan

We can’t allow the morons to break our spirits. We can’t allow them to divide and conquer us as we fight for our case. We can’t quit protesting until we see our objectives met.

One day soon, we will make it so there is never any money for bombs as long as there are oppressed human beings in need of our help anywhere on the planet. I can’t wait to walk beside you then.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Israel’s Tents Massacre in Rafah Is a Heinous War Crime https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/tents-massacre-rafah-war-crime

Rafah Invasion Was Once Biden’s “Red Line” — But Israel Continues to Cross It https://truthout.org/articles/rafah-invasion-was-once-bidens-red-line-but-israel-continues-to-cross-it/

Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/biden-palestinian-beheaded-israeli-babies

Biden Lets Ukraine Strike Russia With US Weapons While Ukraine Attacks Russian Nuclear Defenses  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-lets-ukraine-strike-russia

Biden Gives Ukraine Permission To Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/30/biden-gives-ukraine-permission-to-strike-inside-russia-with-us-weapons/

US Presidents Who Gamble With Nuclear Armageddon https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/30/us-presidents-who-gamble-with-nuclear-armageddon/

The Military-Industrial Complex Is Killing Us All https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/03/the-military-industrial-complex-is-killing-us-all/

Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed https://www.972mag.com/icc-israel-surveillance-investigation/

The ICC Takes on Israel and the US Congressional Mafia https://medeabenjamin.substack.com/p/the-icc-takes-on-israel-and-the-us

Top EU official accused at ICC of ‘complicity’ in Gaza genocide https://thecradle.co/articles/top-eu-official-accused-at-icc-of-complicity-in-gaza-genocide

Israel Seizes Entire Gaza Border! https://rumble.com/v4ygyze-live-israel-seizes-entire-gaza-border-and-much-more.html

Biden pressures Netanyahu to accept peace deal that could have been agreed 40,000 bodies ago https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/biden-pressures-netanyahu-to-accept

Falsified US State Department Report Inspires Yet Another Resignation https://popularresistance.org/falsified-us-state-department-report-inspires-yet-another-resignation/

This Texas Company Is Providing the Jet Fuel for Israel’s Assault on Gaza https://truthout.org/articles/this-texas-company-is-providing-the-jet-fuel-for-israels-assault-on-gaza/

UN Calls for International Aid as Sudan Faces Imminent Famine Amid Civil War https://truthout.org/articles/un-calls-for-international-aid-as-sudan-faces-imminent-famine-amid-civil-war/

UCLA's Disturbing Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters: An Injustice Unfolds https://www.citizenschronicle.org/p/uclas-disturbing-crackdown-on-peaceful

Gaza-on-the-Rhine, a history lesson https://autonomies.org/2024/03/yazan-alloujami-gaza-on-the-rhine-a-history-lesson/

From Massachusetts, Some Tax-the-Rich Inspiration https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/28/from-massachusetts-some-tax-the-rich-inspiration/

In a Victory for Assange and First Amendment, UK Court Grants Right to Appeal  https://truthout.org/articles/in-a-victory-for-assange-and-first-amendment-uk-court-grants-right-to-appeal/

Why Celebrities Aren't Speaking Up About Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/why-celebrities-arent-speaking-up

Educators Celebrate as Judge Strikes Down New Hampshire ‘Banned Concepts’ Law https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/30/educators-celebrate-as-judge-strikes-down-new-hampshire-banned-concepts-law/

Delhi Heat Wave Suggests Underestimated Speed and Intensity of Global Warming https://truthout.org/articles/delhi-heat-wave-suggests-underestimated-speed-and-intensity-of-global-warming/

Murray & Galloway on Ending Israel's Genocide in Gaza https://youtu.be/mW5KF-Z08ug

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Silence Equals Death: 2023 In Review

Silence Equals Death: 2023 In Review

by C.A. Matthews

The very last post of the year for the past couple of years has been a review and summarization of events that happened in that year. And so it will be again. Why mess with success?

If there’s one short, pithy phrase that summarizes everything that has happened in the year 2023—and I believe future historians will agree with me—it’s this: Silence equals death.

Looking at the first half of the year, death was occurring in the usual places where it had been in the year previous: In Ukraine, at the US Southern Border, in US prisons and jails and at the hand of the police in their never-ending crusade to terrorize people of color for the sake of satisfying the bourgeoisie class.

Silence factors into each of these events in the manner that nothing was done to prevent the deaths of countless civilians and innocent bystanders. In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the protection of ethnic Russians in the Donbas region, a potential peace negotiation hosted by Turkey was revealed that would have taken place in March of 2022, a mere month after the hostilities began. The US dismissed it summarily, the US military--Congressional-industrial complex being the primary supplier of armaments to Ukraine, of course.

To think a peace deal could have been made within a month of the conflict’s start, saving the lives of thousands of Ukrainians and Russian soldiers and civilians. So many needlessly killed in the twenty months plus afterward because the US egged on the fighting for its own gain. There was no need for so much loss of life and destruction to have been leveled on that part of the planet. The two sides could have worked things out at the negotiation table.

by Mark Taylor https://mark192.substack.com/

 

Only the greed of the US war machine and the ethnic bigotry of Zelensky and his Azov Battalion has kept this war going for so long, and now that they’ve had their war usurped by the genocide going on currently in Gaza, they’ll most likely have to to give in to the Russians of the Donbas region who they hate so much. Twenty months of death and for what? In the end, nothing but chaos in a country that will be enthusiastically “rebuilt” by BlackRock and its subsidiaries at a very nice profit.

The US could have spoken up at any time and ended the weapons dump, encouraged the Ukrainians to avail themselves of the peace negotiations offered in March 2022, but instead it chose to do nothing and say nothing.

Silence equals death.

The horrors of a barbwire floating “wall” in the middle of the Rio Grande exemplifies the US immigration policy in 2023. While many in the immigration advocacy field (myself excluded) thought they could “push Biden left” to improve some of the most heinous aspects of our immigration laws, nothing got better for immigrants in 2023.

In many ways, things stayed the same or got even worse than they were under the previous administration. Human beings fleeing terror and discrimination in their homelands weren’t allowed to step on US soil and claim asylum, as is their right under both US and international law. After the “Title 42” policy expired, a new way to thwart asylum seekers was initiated, the “CBP One app” program. Poor and technologically disadvantaged asylum seekers cannot access CBP One from outside the US, therefore, they cannot apply for asylum in the US.

Insult to injury, wealthier, more connected immigrants can step off a plane and plead for asylum without going through the onerous CBP One app process. Money and political popularity with the present administration means doors to immigration open far more easily for these migrants, such as the blue-eyed, blond Ukrainians, but not so much for Haitians, Hondurans, and other persons of color.

If the drownings of men, women and children in the Rio Grande, along with the heat exhaustion/suffocation of immigrants being smuggled into the US in shipping containers on trains and semi-trucks doesn’t convince you the US government doesn’t care one bit about those fleeing persecution caused by US funded coups d’etat and economic sanctions in the Global South, then what will? What will make you speak out against these injustices?

Silence equals death.

Here are some of the blog articles from the first part of 2023 covering these subjects:

Police Violence

Targets On Our Backs https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/01/targets-on-our-backs.html

Immigration

The Unwelcoming Society https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-unwelcoming-society.html

The New Title 42 https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-unwelcoming-society.html

The Endless and Unnecessary Proxy War 

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil!
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/pay-for-your-own-wars-big-oil.html

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

Good-bye, BlackRock! So Long, Petrodollar! Hello, Peace!
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/good-bye-blackrock-so-long-petrodollar.html

The second half of 2023 proved no less bloody. More migrant lives were lost in the deserts and in the Rio Grande, the fighting needlessly continued on in Ukraine, and many pundits forecast a war breaking out between the US and China over its runaway province of Taiwan. Nobody else in the world seemed overly enthused about taking on the Chinese outside “the Five Eyes” nations who had momentary lapses about who their largest trading partner really was. (Hint: It’s not the US.) 

Nuclear sub deals made between US and Australia helped the Aussies to forget and to deny imprisoned publisher Julian Assange as being one of their own, leaving him to slowly die in the UK’s infamous Belmarsh Prison while awaiting extradition to the US this coming February. Once in the US, he’ll be locked up in solidarity confinement and never heard from again. All this evil committed against one individual simply because Assange had the audacity to publish the truth about US war crimes during the Iraq War. It's almost as if Westerners don't want to hear the truth and take comfort in state propaganda.

And if that isn't enough, our earth's warming is accelerating at such a rate it soon could be at the point of no return. Facts like this aren't stopping oil drilling operations like the Willow Project any. Big Oil and the US government acts as if we have all the time in the world.

Silence equals death.

Perhaps the single worse incident in 2023 of people remaining silent while thousands are being slaughtered in real time on social media is the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Every country on Earth knows what is going on there apparently except the US and Israel, as it has been openly acknowledged by the United Nations and international human rights organizations. The Israelis continue to pay huge sums of money in order to purchase billboards in Times Square and ads on social media—as well as paying for “false flags” on US college campuses—just to keep their “victim card” current while playing the role of the only ethnic group to suffer a holocaust while perpetrating an ethnic cleansing. US politicians (such as Rep. Marcy Kaptur) play dumb (not stupid per se, but by not talking) while their constituents plead with them to call for a permanent ceasefire.

It must be that by never calling what the UN and every human rights group on the planet call a “genocide” an actual genocide then it never ever happened. It’s not happening, so we can all just forget about the unpleasant photos and videos of dead Palestinian children and their families lying in the bombed out rubble of their homes. We can forget all about those horrible images of tiny babies lying dead in their incubators where Israeli soldiers sentenced them to die all alone by forcing their doctors away from the hospitals they were bombing. What we don’t acknowledge or witness can’t be happening, right?

Oh, well, never fear—Israeli real estate mavericks have already started selling off Gazan beachfront property. It’s not like the land had ever been occupied by 2.2 million indigenous Palestinians. It’s “always” belong to Israel—even before the 1948 Nakba… whatever that was.

Silence equals death.

So, we come to the end of another year of Biden’s “Nothing will fundamentally change” administration and nothing has changed except for the rapidly increasing death count of Palestinians slain by US-backed Israeli forces, more deaths of asylum seekers to the US along our Southern Border, more Ukrainians and Russians dead who all could have been saved back in March 2022 if the US hadn’t forced Zelensky to continue the carnage, more Americans dead because they cannot afford health care, food, fuel and rising housing prices… while the world continues to heats up because of fossil fuel burning.

What’s on tap for 2024? More of the same most likely. US hegemony knows no bounds and has zero empathy for the poor, the indigent, the immigrant, the indigenous peoples of the globe. It just wants more war, more war profits along with more grabs for oil and natural gas.

The only way things could get better in 2024 is by following my practice, what I call “The New Litmus Test,” when it comes to whom to vote for or follow in any matter whatsoever. (I recommend using this litmus test for everyone or else you could wind up with some nasty surprises such as the ones I encountered in “How Do We Live With Ourselves?”) Because if we don’t get brutally honest with ourselves about how horribly we’re treating our fellow human beings and the planet that sustains us all, then we don’t really deserve to be here in the first place, in my humble opinion.

Silence equals death—but speaking out and taking action can sustain our consciences and sustain life. We can stop a genocide. We can stop a useless conflict over natural gas sales to Europe around a peace negotiation table. We can offer sanctuary to those seeking protection and asylum. We can protect journalists who tell the truth—no matter how “harmful” the military-industrial complex thinks revealing their war crimes are.

Support those who speak up even louder when those in authority shut them down. Don’t choose death or silence. Choose life. 

Here are some of the blog articles from the second part of 2023 covering these subjects: 

Big Oil's control of our world

Happy Co-Dependence Day, America (Boiling Frogs) 
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/07/happy-co-dependence-day-america-boiling.html

The Root of All Evils
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-root-of-all-evils.html

The Choice  (Climate scientist Peter Kalmus on global warming)
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-choice.html

Weaponizing Free Speech (censorship)
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/weaponizing-free-speech.html

The morality of our elected officials and others

Your Congressmember At Work--For Israel
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/11/your-congressmember-at-work-for-israel.html

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

How Do We Live With Ourselves?
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/12/how-do-we-live-with-ourselves.html

 

Cancel Genocide. Keep Christmas. https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/1739444921717670213

Other Related Articles and Interesting Links

At This Point We Have To Always Assume Israel Is Lying Until Proven Otherwise https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/at-this-point-we-have-to-always-assume

On Tuesday Israel killed a Palestinian baby girl who was born during the IDF bombing campaign on Gaza. They’ve been killing children so aggressively for so long now that they’re starting to kill children who were born after the child-killing began.

Seventeen days. Al-Amira Aisha got seventeen days on this planet before being crushed to death by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Rafah, alongside her two year-old brother Ahmed and 25 others who’d been living in the same apartment building. She never knew a day of peace.

A Palestinian baby girl, born 17 days ago during Gaza war, is killed with brother in Israeli strike  https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-war-children-6e69c73aa6f9c60ffeb07b4b1ff294e9

Christmas Wishes for “Peace on Earth” Are Empty Without Ceasefire in Gaza https://truthout.org/articles/christmas-wishes-for-peace-on-earth-are-empty-without-ceasefire-in-gaza/

As of this writing, over 20,000 Gazans have been slaughtered, the vast majority of them women and children. Over 1.9 million of the 2.2 million population is now homeless, still subjected to relentless bombing, with no protection, no shelters or anywhere to run to, as Israel continues to pummel them like fish in a barrel. This campaign is not only allowed, but actively supported by the United States, which supplies 2,000-pound bombs to be dropped on the hapless Palestinians. More importantly, it supplies a diplomatic umbrella that justifies and legitimizes what has been described as an ongoing genocide of apocalyptic proportions, and provides Israel relative immunity from international law, the International Criminal Court and outraged international public opinion.

The Atrocities In Gaza Are The Perfect Embodiment Of 'Western Values' https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-atrocities-in-gaza-are-the-perfect

Amid U.N. Security Council Intrigue, U.S. Privately Moves To Block Another Option For International Accountability For Gaza
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/un-security-council-us-block-accountability-international-gaza_n_6583338ce4b04da984257b9c

Israeli Evidence of Hamas Command Center in al-Shifa Hospital Falls Short: Report (from Washington Post)
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/israeli-hamas-command-center-al-shifa-hospital-falls-report-1234934784/

Israeli forces blow up dozens of residential buildings in Gaza's Shujaiya neighbourhood  https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-detonate-bomb-destroy-over-50-gaza-buildings

Going Mask-Off About The Two-State Solution Lie
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/going-mask-off-about-the-two-state

After all the lies and atrocities we’ve seen over the last two and a half months, everyone should be reflexively disbelieving any claims by the Israeli government and begging the forgiveness of Palestinians for not believing everything they’ve been claiming for generations.

Blood Money: The Top Ten Politicians Taking the Most Israel Lobby Cash  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/20/blood-money-the-top-ten-politicians-taking-the-most-israel-lobby-cash/

UNICEF Warns 'Many More Children Will Die' in Gaza Without Safe Water https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-water

GAZA WAR UPDATE: Israeli Trade Destroyed by Yemen Siege, Resistance Targets Officers & More rumble.com/v427he8-gaza-war- update-israeli-trade-destroyed-by-yemen-siege-resistance-targets-o.htm

UN calls for probe as Israeli army accused of killing unarmed Palestinians  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/21/idf-executed-palestinian-men-in-front-of-their-families-un-confirms

Meet the Companies Profiting From Israel's War on Gaza
https://www.commondreams.org/news/weapons-used-by-israel

Use The Right Language: AMERICAN War Crimes & AMERICAN Genocide In Gaza https://mark192.substack.com/p/a-call-to-substackers-use-the-right

80+ Groups Descend on DC Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire, Migrant Rights  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/20/80-groups-descend-on-dc-demanding-gaza-cease-fire-migrant-rights/

Meta Is Systematically Censoring Pro-Palestine Posts, Human Rights Watch Finds  https://truthout.org/articles/meta-is-systematically-censoring-pro-palestine-posts-human-rights-watch-finds/

Biden Is Paying Growers to Replace Farmworkers With Bracero Contract Labor https://truthout.org/articles/biden-is-paying-growers-to-replace-farmworkers-with-bracero-contract-labor/

‘The Way Things Are Going, Biden Is Going to Lose On His Own’: An Interview With Jill Stein  https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-way-things-are-going-biden-is-going-to-lose-on-his-own-an-interview-with-jill-stein/

Our leaders are the most immoral and cowardly people imaginable
https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/our-leaders-are-the-most-immoral

US Abstains From UN Gaza Resolution After Lobbying to Weaken It
https://truthout.org/articles/us-abstains-from-un-gaza-resolution-after-lobbying-to-weaken-it/

Israel: Starvation Used as Weapon of War in Gaza https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza

In unprecedented slaughter of Gaza civilians, US claims Israel is the “victim” https://www.aaronmate.net/p/in-unprecedented-slaughter-of-gaza

How Israel Buys Support From Celebrities & Influencers w/Lee Camp https://youtu.be/ma1autOZcPc?si=7z5u7RqJOsGEIPEN

Israel's Killing of Journalists in Gaza 'Unparalleled,' Says Watchdog
https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalists-killed-in-gaza-2666788920

Ukraine Grenade Attack Heralds Coming Terror Wave
https://popularresistance.org/ukraine-grenade-attack-heralds-coming-terror-wave/ 

How Big Oil Is Taking Us for a Fossil-Fuelized Ride https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/21/how-big-oil-is-taking-us-for-a-fossil-fuelized-ride/