The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
I enjoy listening to my friend DJ Amjad’s Deep Mix Music and More radio program while I’m writing. The other day I found myself singing along with a catchy chorus from a 1990’s rap song:
Now I know you're sayin' Well why don't he stop beating around the bush Well I'll get there when i get there So there ain't no need to push! Because the point I'm trying to make contains my whole philosophy So listen to what I tell you and repeat it after me
Truth is out of style (out of style) Truth is out of style (out of style) (say what?) Truth is out of style (say what?) Truth (say what?) (is out of style) Truth (is out of style) --from Truth Is Out of Styleby DJ Zero & MC 900 ft. Jesus
Thirty-four years later, and the words still ring true. The “philosophy” that MC 900 sung in his rap has become the motto of many Western governments: Truth is out of style.
If you don’t believe me, how do you explain the following?
Richard Medhurst, an independent British journalist was arrested at Heathrow airport and held for nearly 24 hours under the UK Terrorism Act because of stories he featured on his podcast.
Mary Kostakidis, known as “the face of television news in Australia,” has been accused of supporting ethnic cleansing of Jews because of two retweets about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Sharmine Narwani, who founded The Cradle, an online journal of news and comment, was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram. Narwani now stands accused of “praising terrorist organizations” and engaging in “incitement to violence.”
Professor Danny Shaw was detained by the FBI for three hours in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after returning from a Free Palestine film festival in London. His computing devices were seized. He had been fired from his job back in April when he was falsely called “antisemitic” for his pro-Palestine comments.
and, of course, Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame...
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If you think billionaires and massive corporations aren't the problem, think again...
Protecting Our Right To Protest
by C. A. Matthews
Just when you think you can't fall down the rabbit hole into
Alice's Wonderland any farther, your
elected officials will come up with legislation to abridge your rights to protest
and free speech.
I'm not kidding.
Who could joke about something so offensive and so entirely undemocratic?
Who could come up with a law that would make even chalking a protest message on
a sidewalk a felony? Who could come up with a way to make it legal for the cops
to shoot unarmed protesters if they feel the least bit "threatened"?
Our elected officials can--and they have!
Ohio isn't the only state to introduce anti-protesting
legislation, but it's the one I'm most familiar with. There are several bills currently in the Ohio legislature that focus on
curtailing or restricting protesting and free speech. They are Senate Bills 33,
16
and 41
as well as House Bills 22
and 109.
I recently encountered some protesters in Toledo who were speaking out (while
we still can) about protecting our rights to protest. Here's my impression of
where they were coming from and how it differs from my take.
Most of my fellow anti-protesting protesters (you go crazy just
saying that!) weren't happy about their elected representatives supporting these
measures, but they felt sure one thing could turn all of these bills
around. And what one thing is that? Why, voting these naughty politicians out of office.
The only reason these politcos created these anti-protesting bills in the first place, according to one of my
fellow protesters, is because they belong to the Republican Party. It's that simple. To be a Republican is to be anti-free speech and against embarrassing protests, in his opinion. As soon
as "good Democrats" can be put into office and take over these wayward politicians' seats, all
threats to our rights to protest and free speech will simply evaporate like a
light rain on a hot summer's day.
I wish I could be so optimistic.
Alas, I doubt that turning around the overwhelmingly Republican Ohio
House and Senate will automatically kill these anti-protest bills. I wish it could
be that simple. But it isn't.
Why isn't it? You only have to look at who or what is behind these pieces
of legislation to see why they won't simply "go away" when all the bad,
evil, wicked GOPers are voted out of office and replaced with the only other "recognized
establishment party" (the Democrats) in the Buckeye State. (That's a whole
other blog piece in the making. Ohio's current political establishment hates alternative parties so much that it makes it almost impossible for third parties to keep their "recognized" status from election to election.)
The real money and impetus behind Ohio's anti-protesting measures isn't because Republicans hate free speech. It's because the
fossil fuel industry hates free speech and bad publicity more. Big Oil is terrified of protesters shouting,
"People over pipelines!" over each and every mile of pipe they bury into our soil. The fracking industry doesn't care much for
the bad press they get whenever one of their wells or collection ponds leak. Somehow, Ohioans are
supposed to drink petroleum-laden well or river or lake water and
like it and live happily ever after.
Uh-huh. Yeah, like who's really fallen down the rabbit hole here?
Big Agriculture plays a part in all this shutting down of
free speech, too. But I suspect you already know something about that if you've
followed this blog's coverage of the first Rights of Nature Law passed in the
United States, The Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
Since both establishment parties--the Republicans and the
Democrats--have been well-awarded by Big Oil, Big Ag, and their lobbyist friends over the years, the
chances that a flip in the Ohio House and Senate to a majority Democratic Party
leadership would make any difference to how these new laws would be passed and enforced
is slim to none. Money talks--and
politicians whose hungry campaign coffers love a big helping of Big Oil dollars
aren't going to tell the fossil fuel industry to shut up and go away.
So we will have to do it.
Calling all activists! This spring and summer our voices must
be heard and our signs and bodies must be seen before it is too late. And start
raising your bail money now. Anti-protest laws mean more arrests. That's the purpose of them. But we have something Big Oil doesn't have--sheer numbers. They can't lock all of us away, all at the same time, can they?
Our elected representatives in Washington DC are also trying to abridge our right to free speech. Watch this interview with a person who was intimidated by the police for a response to a tweet he posted--not his actual tweet (which wasn't threatening) but another person's response to it that was. He was questioned and scared essentially because the tweet wasn't exactly flattering to a certain Congressmember's recent performance. If your elected officials can't be held accountable and take responsibility for their actions, then are you really living in a democracy?
Plastic is accumulating on our beaches and in our oceans. There could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Take action now.
Corporations
love plastic. Thanks to the fracking boom, it’s cheap for the fossil
fuel industry to create. So oil and gas companies are pushing plastic
consumption -- including the widespread use of one-use plastics -- to line their pockets.
But
the plastic waste problem has become massive: in the United States 91%
of plastic ends up being thrown away, never recycled. Some of it
ultimately ends up in our oceans, where it harms or kills marine
wildlife.
Call on Congress to protect our planet by supporting the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act.
Demand Congress address the plastic crisis before it overruns our planet.
Plastic
pollution kills over a million marine creatures annually, including
turtles, dolphins, whales, and sea birds. And plastics don’t
disappear. They just break down into smaller and smaller pieces until
they become microplastics.
But plastic also impacts humans. On average, people ingest the equivalent of a credit card each week. That’s right -- if
you’re an average person, you are likely consuming an average of 5
grams of plastic per week. Microplastics can be found in everyday foods
and drinks -- like beer, salt, shellfish and even drinking water!
Tell Congress you do not want to be exposed to more plastic in your food and water. Stop plastic polluters.
Plastic production also worsens the climate crisis. More than 99% of plastic is created from fossil fuels. The emissions from creating plastic could soon reach the equivalent of 300 coal-fired power plants.
Finally,
our country is one of the worst plastic offenders, which is why
Congress needs to take action. The United States produces the most
plastic waste per capita of any country -- then ships a large portion abroad to countries that are already struggling to maintain their own waste effectively.
Plastic
is polluting our entire planet, from the beaches to the deepest depths
of our oceans. Congress must address this crisis and stop Big Polluters
from destroying our health, land, air, and sea.
Demand the United States break free from plastic and stop the pollution at its source!
Michelle Chan,
VP of programs,
Friends of the Earth
***
We're rapidly approaching the May 1
deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and President Biden still
has not proposed a plan to fulfill his campaign promise.
War hawks in the foreign policy establishment are trying to dominate media coverage and claim nobody cares about ending the Forever War in an attempt to force President Biden to continue it.
But we have news for them — we
care. There is an overwhelming consensus among veterans and civilian
supporters that we must end the Forever War.
That's why Common Defense is calling on
supporters across the country to write Letters to the Editor to hold
President Biden accountable and show the media there is a grassroots
movement calling for an end to the Forever War.
The
war in Afghanistan has dragged on for nearly 20 years, and it is time
to do the right thing and end what veterans call the "Forever War." An
entire generation has never known a country at peace, and this conflict
has cost a trillion dollars and countless lives.
Pres. Biden has
the chance to right this wrong. This conflict must end now, as he
promised many times during his campaign. Our continued presence in
Afghanistan is not making America safer. In fact, prolonging these
conflicts is making us a target and putting our troops in harm's way
unnecessarily. It's well past time, please, Mr. President, bring our
troops home now.
Military withdrawal from Afghanistan will give
our diplomats a chance to do the hard work of building a peace
agreement, rather than continuing with a failed military strategy that
cannot accomplish anything further, and which the "Afghanistan Papers"
published by the Washington Post reveal top generals themselves do not
even believe in.
America's veterans and military members deserve
to have a government which advocates for them. We're counting on you to
do the right thing.
Writing a Letter to the
Editor can have a real impact, especially if you include any applicable
information about your military service or name your Representatives in
Congress. Believe me, elected officials read these!
If we can get dozens of veterans to sign on, we can take a crucial step to defending our democracy. But we need your help.
This
week, we learned what happens after a multi-billion dollar company like
Amazon spends a year intimidating, punishing, and suppressing workers
in Bessemer, Alabama who were working to form a union to push back on
unfair working conditions.
While this was not the result that we were hoping for, we are proud of the bravery and tremendous success the workers had in standing up to one the biggest corporations in the world, telling their story on the global stage, and demanding that they be treated with dignity and respect.
Congress needs to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to make sure worker voices cannot be silenced.Unions are one of best ways to ensure fair working conditions and equity.
And we need to break up these corporations through stronger antitrust
laws that give the tools that regulators need to ensure that no
corporation can make billions of dollars by profiting from the suffering
of workers and the destruction of small businesses.
This
is only the beginning. Workers and communities have been standing up to
Amazon's greed and abuses for years and we will soon see a time where
those efforts will result in the power that workers need to break up
Amazon's grip on our economy.
We need to remember that what’s happening in Bessemer is a result of Amazon’s unchecked corporate power and what corporations have done for decades to diminish the power of labor law so that they can get the most profit out of us as possible.
All things must
come to an end. Eventually. That's just how life works in our linear temporal existence here on Earth. But is there ever a point where we should step in and
usurp the universe's timing for something to end? Is there ever a point where
we should put an endeavor to rest early before its memory becomes so worn and
tarnished that we can barely look back at it without tears and regrets?
You're looking
at one such endeavor.
The heyday of
Bernie Sanders' first "fringe" run for the White House are past.
Those of us who jumped on the Bernie bandwagon early on in 2015 have climbed to
the mountaintops and then plunged down to the deep dark valleys more times than
we care to admit. We all knew that Bernie's ideas were "mainstream"
and would capture the public's imagination.
But little did we know how the
"mainstream" media would at first ignore his race, then ridicule him
personally, then outright blame his followers for Trump's victory. Our idealism
blinded us to the reality of how "money talks" and how much the mess
we're in can be placed on the doorstep of the Citizens United ruling.
This blog used
to get tens of thousands of hits per week back when. No joke. Somewhere along
the line the opposition (in the form of David Brock's "Correct the
Record" trolls) started to block and get our promotional posts banned on
social media platforms. The site visits dropped, but then they recovered, as
progressives huddled together in the cold, cruel world that is Trump's America.
We knew we were filling a niche and had readers who depended upon us being
there for them in these dark times.
But with the
demise of Google+ and the death of Net Neutrality, the last nails have been
hammered into the coffin that is The Revolution Continues blog. If the hit
counters are to be believed (and that's problematic in and of itself--they
could be hacked), then we have gone from a weekly audience of a well-packed
basketball arena for a Bernie rally down to a mid-sized auditorium or less. Is
the struggle to produce/procure a weekly piece worth it for so few? We think
so, but the time, toil and effort are draining. One wonders is it worth all
the stress.
There are
progressive candidates worth promoting, discussing and disagreeing with. There
are a myriad of progressive causes that need our attention and help to get
their message out. Are we still able to fulfill our purpose without a large
advertising budget so we can buy the advertising we need to spread the word
that we used to get free of charge?
All we know for
certain at this point is this: the opponents of Net Neutrality and the scourge
of corporate-welfare capitalism have a lot to answer for!
Giving a
collective sigh, we push on. This week the inspiration wasn't there for any
of our diehard core of bloggers and hence this sad and sorry piece.
There is much
to get righteously angry about today in the news: little children dying in
#TrumpCamps, more people dying of preventable illnesses because Medicare For All
is still a figment of our imaginations, saber-rattling in the Gulf of Oman to
start another dirty little war for oil…
And, of course,
Bernie Sanders is back in the running, bigger and better than ever. We hold our
collective breaths and wait, cautiously optimistic the corrupt DNC won't thwart
his run for the White House again by anointing the corporatist/friend of
segregationalists former V.P. Joe Biden instead. It's early days yet, so we won't put the
cart before the horse. We're hopeful if Bernie doesn't get the nod at least
Tulsi Gabbard might… Nah, they'll just thrust Creepy Uncle Joe down our throats
and tell us to vote "blue no matter who."
The Greens have
yet to settle on any one candidate, but their national convention is a month
off. Without the specter of corporate lobbyist money, the Greens will at least
have a fair and democratic process to decide whom they wish to front for
president. There could be a pleasant surprise awaiting us in the near future.
We're holding
on until then. The towel is in our hands, and we've not thrown it in quite yet.
Give us a little love--give us some feedback in the comments section below. We'd love
to hear what you want to hear more about.
The Revolution
Continues… until it doesn't.
***
From the League of Women Voters:
Tuesday, June 25, marks six years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision which overturned essential provisions of the VRA which has led to countless attacks on the voting rights of Americans.
Over the past six years since Shelby County v. Holder,
we have seen many states and localities use every tool available to
make voting harder. Politicians have worked to roll back hours for early
voting, purge voter rolls of qualified voters, and even pass strict
voter photo ID bills that make it harder for people to register to
vote.
The Voting Rights Advancement Act was introduced to address the voting discrimination unleashed in the wake of the Shelby County v. Holder decision. Now let’s get to it and move forward on consideration of the bill.
Celina Stewart Senior Director of Advocacy and Litigation League of Women Voters
***
From Food & Water Watch:
Since settling with Ray Kemble in July 2012, Cabot has accrued 243 violations for its fracking in Ray's home county — why are they still allowed to frack? Support Ray and help fight Cabot!
I wanted to share a quick update on Cabot Oil & Gas’ efforts to silence people fighting fracking.
We are continuing to support Ray Kemble as Cabot’s lawsuit against
him slogs on. He didn’t do anything wrong by educating people about the
dangers of fracking, and Cabot’s lawsuit is unjustified bullying. (You can stand with Ray and support his legal fight, too.)
Meanwhile, Cabot is actually breaking rules. Since July 20, 2012
(the day Cabot settled the suit Ray brought against them for poisoning
his water), Cabot has accrued 243 violations for its fracking operations
in Susquehanna County alone, where Ray lives.1 This is unacceptable.
Cabot is accusing Ray of breach of settlement, but Cabot is
breaching the regulations they agreed to in order to frack. Despite
these violations, Cabot is still allowed to continue fracking throughout
the region, putting people's drinking water, homes and health in
danger. You can donate to stand up to Cabot and keep supporting Ray’s fight.
We will continue to fight Cabot, to stop fracking and to support Ray. Fight like you live here — donate today.
Onward together,
Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
Can you give a blogger a lift? How about helping them pay for a ride to the upcoming Green Party National Meeting in Salem, Mass. so The Revolution Continues can report on the action? Please donate a buck or two to our travel fund via the Paypal link below. Thanks!
