Why I Dislike Most Celebrities (Except for Two)

 

Why I Hate Dislike Most Celebrities (Except for One Two)

by C. A. Matthews

(I was going to say “Why I Hate...” but I didn’t want the AI ‘bots reading my stuff calling me a “hater” at some point. They’ll be busy calling me antisemitic anti-cementic by then anyway.)

This past week’s ruckus over pop singer Ed Sheeran dropping his fellow performer, the rapper Macklemore, from his big stadium tour (and then consequently being dropped by his own backup band and all his opening acts) demonstrates to me that there is such a thing as poetic justice.

Justice is now being served on Sheeran as he deals with millions of fans unfollowing him on social media, being labeled a “coward” and a “zionist”, two adjectives that don’t paint a very pretty picture of him. How Ed is being treated by the public doesn’t surprise me. I truly believe some celebrities deserve a good hard kick in the arse now and then to remind them that they, too, are only human.

This is the theme of this piece: We are all human beings, and, as such, we all have human rights. One of the more important rights is the right not to be ethnically cleansed by white colonizers who stole your homeland. This is where Ed Sheeran totally dropped the ball.

Celebrities like Ed Sheeran entertain the notion that just because they’ve reached a certain level of fame or celebrityness they’ve somehow become something better than us mere mortals. They have become superhuman or superior to the rest of the struggling masses on this planet. They don’t need to consider anyone else’s feelings but their own. We see this mindset in Ed’s choice of billionaire friends, the NFL New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft...

 

...But there is one “celebrity” I hold a great deal of admiration for. She’s not a pop singer or a movie star, but she has been in the limelight quite a bit over the past three years. I’m talking about Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Here’s a short review of her latest book, When The World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine. (Available from Other Press.)

“When the world sleeps, it falls on us, we the people, to wake it up--and now more than ever the world needs an awakening.”

So begins Francesca’s memoir of how she became the champion of human rights we see today on the world stage. Each chapter is a story of a friend or acquaintance who has shaped her outlook on Palestine and life in general. Each person helped her to take the next step in her personal development, steps necessary to deal with the stress of working pro bono for the United Nations. Each person poses a question that we all need to answer for ourselves...

 

To learn more about why I don't like most celebrities (and read the rest of the review of Francesca's book), please copy or click on the following link: 

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Gaza's Gravediggers

 

This week I thought I’d do something a little different. Besides writing this blog for over eleven years, I’m also a book reviewer/book doctor and disgruntled novelist. This post is what I call an “extended book review,” one in which I don’t have to worry about the word count, etc. (Don’t be surprised if you see an abbreviated review elsewhere online later. Or post one yourself.)

I was given the chance to read Norman Finkelstein’s upcoming release, Gaza’s Gravediggers, and I can’t keep his insights to myself any longer. It documents the how and when and where of the why Israel is able to get away with committing a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people with little to no consequences. (And frankly, I don’t think Israel really cares about the consequences of being labeled bloodthirsty neo-Nazis just as long as nobody demonstrates the gumption to shut down their infernal killing machine.) 

Finkelstein has done us all a huge favor by methodically researching the recent International Court of Justice cases in regards to the genocide claim made first by South Africa. It’s all there in black and white, the details of how Israel apologists have infiltrated that court as well as other high positions in the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. The world is maintained in a perpetual stalemate so that both Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and America’s imperialism can continue unabated.

If you want to invest in one book (and why just one?) that records for posterity the manipulation of international law behind this ultimate crime against humanity, then Gaza’s Gravediggers is it. —C.A. Matthews

 

Gaza’s Gravediggers

 by Norman G. Finkelstein

 O/R Books

Release date September 1, 2026 in the US, September 3 in the UK
Preorder by clicking  here

“Why isn’t the United Nations (UN) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Criminal Court (ICC) doing anything to stop the terrible genocide happening to the Palestinian people?” is a remark one often sees online nowadays. The frustration expressed about the lack of action to end the violence is heartfelt. 

The world’s leading forensic scholar and professor of political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict, Norman Finkelstein, isn’t afraid to tackle this question head on. His meticulously documented critique of recent UN/ICJ/ICC activities reveal how a deplorable element has infiltrated these international bodies, creating a stalemate that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands, a number which grows daily...

To read the entire review of Gaza's Gravediggers, please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 579th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven+ years. Thanks! 

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V Is For Venezuela...

I was in the middle of writing an “annotated freestyle poem” when I heard about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife’s kidnapping. The news sent my head spinning. I asked our resident armchair historian his opinion of what was going on, what we could learn from history, and where it might be going. Here’s his take on the developing story in Latin America.

Venezuela: The New Sudetenland

By Coast Watcher

I feel like a German who saw WW2 coming and couldn’t do anything.

So wrote a friend on Saturday when the news broke of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife’s abduction from their home. Their subsequent transportation to New York City to be processed for alleged crimes unfolded over the next few hours, during which social media lit up like a Christmas tree.

Few posts by ordinary citizens and commentators praised America’s actions. Those that did were probably AI generated trolls and bots. Musk’s Grok is particularly asinine in condemning President Maduro with a spiel straight out of Trump’s playbook.

Most Western governments issued statements supporting President Maduro’s “arrest,” although reading between the lines there’s a sense of shock and disbelief that such a thing could have happened. For anyone with knowledge of history, there are few precedents. We’re in uncharted territory, but that territory is looking increasingly similar to the years leading up to World War 2.

The post World War 1 (WW1) seismic shift that moved the boundaries of Europe took huge populations and resources of various kinds from the Central Powers and either transferred them to the victors’ control or set them up as independent polities. The former Austro-Hungarian Empire was shattered as its disparate ethnic peoples went their own ways. Latent or oppressed nationalism surged into life, leading to the creation of new states such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Control of coal deposits was crucial to the post-war revival of the global economy. France and Belgium demanded the Saar-Warndt Basin in compensation for the destruction of their mines by Germany during the war. Germany needed to retain the coalfields to fuel its own industrial recovery so it could pay the war reparations demanded by the Entente Powers. Wrangling over the coalfields delayed economic revival by years and caused a great deal of hardship to ordinary people during some harsh winters.

American President Woodrow Wilson’s cherished dream of a League of Nations bringing perpetual peace to the world got off to a rocky start...

To learn more about the history of US empire PLUS read my poem entitled How Many Babies Have To Freeze Before...,  please copy or click on the following link: 

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Democrats feel the same way as Trump about Maduro. Go figure!

 

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The Winning Team

It’s been a long and stressful week. Rain and pain have been my personal challenges. I know I have nothing really to complain about when compared to the hell others are enduring in places such as Gaza or Sudan. Still, you have to wonder what life would be like if it wasn’t always an uphill climb or an endless fight against the forces of darkness with no light at the end of the tunnel. What would it be like if, just this once, we could be members of “the winning team”?

The Winning Team

a poem by C. A. Matthews

When life is tough and you want to scream
It’s best to join the winning team.
When genocide isn’t all it seems
Know that’s because of the winning team.
The winning team makes all the rules
And those who ignore them are the fools.
Since those that have deserve the rest
Their demands are sacrosanct and blessed—
By God. It’s because of their skewed worldview
That innocent people’s lives have been screwed.
But who cares? Life on top is pure cream
Because you’ve joined the winning team.

 When fossil fuels are getting lean
It’s time to join the winning team.
Those with wanted oil are evil regimes
That must be destroyed by the winning team.
The winning team always knows what’s best.
Others’ self-determination is put to the test.
Colonizers may come and then they’ll go
But don’t resist your betters—that’s a big no-no!
Any lame excuse can start a resource war—
Don’t you what “false flags” are really for?
The devastating results are seldom seen
Through Western eyes. 

The mass media’s on the winning team.

To read the rest of the poem and find out who are this week's "winners and "losers", please copy or click on the following link: 

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To find out more about the Uniting for Peace resolution that President Petro proposed at the UN, watch this video webinar: https://www.youtube.com/live/5q-8pqiofPY  

We’ve Got The Power!

by C. A. Matthews

Oftentimes, we don’t realize that all is not lost. We haven’t hit a roadblock like we thought. There is a path forward.

This is one of those times.

The Uniting for Peace resolution was made at the United Nations General Assembly this past week by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. He is now talking with other countries, such as the ones that comprise the Hague Group, to build a protective force for Gaza. (The US has since revoked Petro’s visa for his courage to speak so boldly at the UN. An illegal move, but what would you expect of Trump?)

More nations have recognized Palestine as a state than ever before. Spain, Italy, and recently Turkiye have sent naval escorts to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla. Every large city in Italy has held massive pro-Palestine protests and the longshoreman have vowed to go on strike to prevent the transport of military supplies to Israel.

So, even if the Western governments look like they’re not doing anything much to end the genocide in Gaza, there are some tiny, incremental changes happening for the better that will lead to a positive outcome. Yeah, I know—what’s happening seems very little and very late in the game, but it’s what we got.

Now is the time to play our cards well and pull out all the stops...

 

To find out how we can use our power for the good of all and end the genocide in Gaza, please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 539th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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Same Planet, Different Worlds

 

Same Planet, Different Worlds (Where Do We Fit In?)

by C. A. Matthews

“In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane.” – Charles William King

I’m anxiously awaiting news from the United Nations calling for a Uniting for Peace resolution. I’m wondering how it could have taken them this long to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. I’m debating whether or not to remain in a country with a government that shows zero respect for civil rights, human rights, or the rights of anyone not a member of the economic elite.

I’m puzzling, “Why do I live on a planet where some can carry on as if there’s nothing wrong with starving and bombing children simply because they want to steal the land right out from under the oppressed babies’ tiny feet? Where do I fit into a world that is very different from the way I want to imagine it?”

There’s a certain freedom to not fitting in. You revel in a feeling of superiority to those who declare with a straight face, “Newborns are Hamas!” as they clutch their Star of David flag. But really, where do we who are pro-Palestine and anti-genocide fit into a world full of narcissists and neo-Nazi sympathizers?

We may as well be aliens from outer space when conversing with the brain dead zombies who get their news from the mainstream media—if they even bother to follow the news at all. We seem to have nothing in common with each other. Well, we all breathe air and consume food in order to live, but most of us have very poor quality air to breathe and some have little or no access to food...

 

To find out how we can all fit into this world (and save our planet), please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 538th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, slavery, and brutality at the opposite pole.” — Karl Marx 

 

 

The Stain Remains

by C. A. Matthews

The graffiti artist Banksy honored the Royal Courts of Justice in London recently with a great original artwork. Its subject caught the public’s eye immediately. The spray-painted scene showed a judge, complete in black gown and white wig, using his gavel to pummel a protester to the ground. The protester is attempting to hold up a protest sign splattered in his own blood. After the recent “I support Palestine Action” protests and massive arrests of people of all ages and conditions, what image of violent censorship by the state could be more appropriate?

According to Novara Media:

The arrests included Steve, a disabled RAF veteran using a walker, Mike Higgins, a 62-year-old blind and disabled man who was previously arrested on 9 August, an NHS midwife, a retired doctor in her 80s, two mental health nurses and 83-year-old Anglican priest Reverend Sue Parfitt.

Of course, this was to be the only Banksy artwork that couldn’t remain so the British people could enjoy its message for years to come. (There’s actually an earlier Banksy decorating a London police box, so his paintings are usually left alone.) The court had the image of the abusive judge and the downtrodden protester scrubbed from the wall outside the courthouse’s entrance within days. Only an ominous dark shadow of the aggressive judge and the beaten protester remains.

If this dark shadow doesn’t tell the story of our times, I don’t know what does. As someone said after the artwork was washed off the courts’ wall: The stain remains.

The powers-that-be can scrub away a Banksy image, censor and arrest us all they like for protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people, but the stain of the colonizers’ actions toward the ordinary people will never fade away. As the Irish-speaking group Kneecap said in an X post: “You can’t wash away genocide… Your complicity will always remain.”

There is bright red blood splatter on the protester’s placard in the original image, the protester’s own blood shed because of the judge’s evil actions. In the same manner, no matter how hard the Royal Courts of Justice (Ha!) tries to cover for the UK’s support of genocide, blood stains from the ethnically cleansed victims of Gaza will remain on their hands. No amount of “scrubbing” (censoring) or “whitewashing” (using propaganda/hasbara to cover up lies) will ever wipe away the people’s memory of how red those blood stains were.

It’s time for us all in the West to give up trying to lie our way out of our war crimes. The stain remains no matter how violently a country acts toward their own people who courageously keep pointing out the stain of genocide. Trying to shut down mass protests by censoring an organization such as Palestine Action and proscribing it as a “terrorist group” does nothing to hide the UK government’s past or present war crimes. In fact, it only adds to the government’s growing list of crimes against humanity...

 

To read more about how we as activists can help remove the stain of genocide from our world, please copy or click on this link: 

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Unite for Peace! (Or Die)

by C. A. Matthews

Last September, the United Nations gave the apartheid state of Israel one year to comply with the rulings of the International Court of Justice to end the genocide in Gaza or face the consequences.

That year ends on September 18, 2025. It’s high time for the war criminals’ day of reckoning!

On September 18 (or even before), the United Nations can start imposing serious sanctions on Israel. This include a military embargo as well as establishing a war crimes tribunal. Israel can also be stripped of its credentials as a member state in the General Assembly. The UN then can send in a protective force to distribute food and medical aid and protect Palestinian civilians from further harm at the hands of genocidal Zionists. More than two-thirds of the General Assembly supports creating such measures—it was more than a ten to one ratio for the September 2024 vote—and there’s nothing the US, even with its Security Council veto, can do about these measures.

So, what’s stopping this overwhelming majority of member nations in the United Nations from ending the genocide of the Palestinian people today? The US can’t stop the General Assembly vote or prevent sanctions against Israel from taking effect. Israel can’t prevent itself from being kicked out of the UN if enough member states vote to do so. The time to take decisive action to end this ethnic cleansing is now.

But let’s say that Canada feels pressured by the US not to vote yes on the UN’s Uniting for Peace process. Are there other countries so terrified of the US that they’d be willing to ignore the vast majority of their own people who want to stop the genocide in Gaza? Could the oligarchs of other colonizing countries in particular want to keep their ties with the US and its corporate oligarchs intact? Could they instruct their UN representatives to vote no or abstain on the initiative? Could US allies such as the UK, Germany, France, Canada, or Australia actually vote against Uniting for Peace?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. But it’s still worth a shot even if there’s only a remote possibility to save lives, right? (...)

 

To read more about how we can start the Uniting for Peace process and how to become a part of the Lifeline for Palestine, please copy or click on this link: 

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And watch this video for a short explanation of Uniting for Peace:  https://youtu.be/79m9MSYH3kU 

This article is the 536th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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Francesca Albanese: Boldly Speaking Truth To Corporate Power

by C.A. Matthews

Serving as the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories of Palestine is a tough job, and Francesca Albanese knew when she took on the position that she was bound to make her share of enemies. However, the vile things coming out of the mouths of genocide-enabler Donald Trump and his boyfriend, genocide-instigator Benjamin Netanyahu, about Albanese’s recent work reporting on the economic conditions of the genocide in Gaza are unbelievable.

Even US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to get in on the feces-slinging by “sanctioning” her for standing up for the Palestinian people’s human rights. He posted on X:

Secretary Marco Rubio @SecRubio

Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.

Rubio, a former “human rights attorney”, is coming down heavy on a fellow human rights attorney? Is this a Monty Python sketch or am I just dreaming? If it is a dream, it’s a nightmare, that’s for certain.

Will Francesca Albanese suffer personally from US sanctions simply for doing her job? I hope not...

...In spite of the pressures and threats from bullies such as Trump and Rubio, Ms. Albanese carries on. She even calmly explained why she’s under fire for exposing state and corporate complicity in Israel's genocide:

It's a sign the system is cracking; it is punching back. But it will only win if we are scared, if we stop standing with one another.

Good advice. We need to stand with each other and not let the bullies shut us down.

The system is cracking, but it’s possibly not quite the system most imagine...

 

To find out what kind of system Francesca Albanese is really taking on (and just how dangerous it is), please continue reading the rest of this article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link: 

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This article is the 528th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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That Level of Cruelty Is Where We’re At

 

Israel apologists have been amazingly defensive about its latest acts of terrorism in Lebanon. It’s extremely important to them that everyone believe it’s awesome and good to turn electronic devices into thousands of bombs placed throughout unsuspecting civilian populations. --Caitlin Johnstone, Biden Didn't "Fail" To Get A Ceasefire; He Never Tried

As someone who has just spent the last 3 years completing a PhD on how tech can be used for international crimes, I never thought blowing up civilian (including hospital staff and children’s) devices would be something to consider. But, apparently that level of cruelty is where we’re at. --Sarah Zarmsky on X

That Level of Cruelty Is Where We’re At

by C.A. Matthews

It’s not the plot of a science fiction novel or an action movie. It’s not an advanced level in a spy-thriller video game. It’s not even some poorly-written fan-fic that others gleefully critique on a deeply-hidden Reddit board. This actually happened. Within two days there were at least 32 human beings killed and thousands severely wounded in Lebanon. (As of September 23, the death toll has risen with 274 more people, including 21 children, 39 women and 2 paramedics killed in southern Lebanon today. 1,024 people, including 15 paramedics, were wounded according to the Lebanon Health Ministry.) Children and doctors and nurses and paramedics murdered indiscriminately and without warning.

According to the United Nations...

 

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