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.)
“It’s the real thing!” said a commercial a few decades back. Genuineness was a virtue to rejoice in, not disdain. I wish this sentiment were still true today when it came to our elected officials.
Nowadays, it seems the more glamorous you appear to the public, the more raved about on Tik-Tok or Twitter you are, the more likely you’ll be seen as “the real thing.” Take for example one very famous Congress member from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a.k.a. AOC. She’s been on magazine covers and seen noshing at the best galas in New York City, but has she even introduced or helped to pass Medicare For All like she promised when she first ran for office?
Uh,no. Not a thing AOC has promised to do, such as the DNC’s scaled-backed Green New Deal, has come to fruition. She’s even voted to send more money and weapons to a proxy war in Ukraine and
more military aid for Israel to bomb Palestinians into the dust. AOC hasn’t done anything to get the
immigrant “kids in cages” out of our hellish, racist immigration system except to take advantage of a photo op to cry for them in front of the cameras. AOC is a good little Dem. She does everything House Speaker Nancy “Mama Bear” Pelosi tells her to--and then some.
AOC,
in my humble opinion, is a cover model and a spokesperson for a
corrupt faction that
dares to call themselves the “democratic
party.” Celebrities
simply
don’t
fit the definition of “representatives
of the people.” Merriam-Webster’s
online dictionary says, “Celebrity--a famous or celebrated person.”
There’s
no mention of a celebrity being an advocate for the people in that
definition, is there?
Look
at where other political celebrities have gotten us in the last forty
years: B-movie star Ronald Reagan destroyed unions and preached
“trickle down economics” that only concentrated more wealth in
the hands of the super rich. Reality TV star Donald Trump set the
clock back several hundred years by promoting conservative federal
judges. If
you’re reading this blog, probably neither one of these presidents
are your favorite—and for good reason.
So
sorry,
AOC
is
a just another useless celebrity who doesn’t put the general
wealthfare of
the American people
before her
own fame or celebritiness.
She
forgets
her “lines” that she promised to
do for her voters when
she campaigned. She has
zero backbone and can’t or
won’t
act on the courage of her own convictions.
But
there is hope. There are “real things” running for office. One of
these genuine candidates is Matthew Hoh of North Carolina.
Matt
is running for the US Senate as
a Green. He isn’t taking corporate cash (like AOC does
as a Dem)
because
he
isn’t stuck in an establishment party that supports the military
industrial complex. In
fact, the Green Party US wants to overturn the Citizens United ruling
and get rid of all corporate and dirty money in politics. Since Matt
isn’t
beholden to
corporate paymasters, he
is
free
to represent everyday people, not billionaires.
How
refreshing!
And
talk about having backbone: Matt went
to war three
times as a US Marine and a diplomat before
realizing the courage
to pronounce the wars as unjust and immoral. In 2009 he
resigned
from the State Department over the surge of troops to the war in
Afghanistan and started speaking out against the endless war machine
and the corruption
in our
political
system.
Matt
isn’t one to take the cancellation of Roe v. Wade and the disregard
for human rights lying down either: “This
destruction by the Republicans and betrayal by the Democrats of a
woman’s right to an abortion and all forms of healthcare is
symptomatic of the larger degradation and disregard for human
rights--civil, economic and political--by the two-party system in
favor of money and special interests. This is why we must disrupt and
remake our political system. Too many people have died and suffered
due to the corrupt and money-beholden status quo.”
Wow.
That’s straight talk coming from a very brave man who isn’t
afraid to take on the billionaires who run our government. Isn’t
it nice to hear a candidate standing up for the people for a change?
The
time is
now
to elect a strong third party candidate like Matthew
Hoh
to
the Senate, a candidate who
isn’t pressured by a party that wants its members to do exactly as
they’re told by
their corporate donors.
America
can’t afford endless wars. We can’t afford more of our human
rights taken away from us. We
can’t afford to keep electing corporate-owned-and-operated
celebrities to public office no matter how pretty they look in an
expensive designer evening gown.
— STRIKE! & READ TheRevolutionContinues.com (@cynthianna3) September 8, 2022
"What Green New Deal? I never said that YOU PEASANTS! Now out of my way I have a Gala to attend that costs more than your families total lifetime earnings!" pic.twitter.com/vHF6iui34M
WE ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HELP AOC TO GET HER MESSAGE OUT THERE SHE PROBABLY ACCIDENTALLY DELETED IT SO LETS HELP HER SPREAD THIS TWEET pic.twitter.com/sGo2ZLyb3I
Perhaps the propaganda most Americans were indoctrinated in while growing up is starting to wear thin, but it still amazes me how many adults still believe the US government wouldn't do certain things that we attribute exclusively to the "bad guys" (e.g., "the Communists" or "Russia!").
"It can't be true!" some might say when confronted with an uncomfortable fact about our government, but there's plenty of evidence that proves it can be. Here are some examples of what the US government would do, has done, and will (more than likely) continue doing in our names.
On the historical front, we'd like to think that America is a land of "equal opportunity" and that all are treated well and have nothing to complain about. There are many who deny that slavery in the United States was all that "bad," and I've even heard arguments given on the "benefits" of slavery by whites. Some Americans might think "the Jim Crow laws" have something to do with migratory birds and that racism in America is not systemic, just personal. If so, how do we explain the destruction of Tulsa's Black Wall Street, and our government's lack of response to it and their denial of reparations to this day?
We'd like the US government to stop putting immigrant kids in cages, to stop preventing asylum seekers from entering the country, and to stop using archaic laws and scare tactics to prevent lawful immigration, but it's not happening. Here are some articles to prove it:
We'd like our government to tax the rich, and share those proceeds with the majority of working Americans for the good of all, but it's not happening. In fact, just the opposite happens on a regular basis as the following video attests.
We'd like our government to be fair and honest and not lie about hijacking dissidents or cooperating with such nefarious activities, but they do. Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald tells us about several incidents of our country's regime change tactics in the following video.
We'd like to think the US is always on the "good guys" side of violent conflicts, but how do we explain what's happening in Gaza? This excellent documentary (below) shows you where our tax dollars have been going for years... to the Military-Industrial Complex and then on to the Israeli army in order to wipe out the Palestinian people.
I’ve just returned to the Cheyenne River Nation from the frontlines
of the Stop Line 3 movement in Minnesota. An incredible and growing
coalition — led largely by Indigenous women — has formed to put an end
to this pipeline, a grave threat to sacred lands and water. Like
Keystone XL would have, Line 3 is slated to carry huge quantities of
ultra-toxic tar sands oil through the homelands of Indigenous
communities. I genuinely hope you’ll join me and the rest of the Lakota
Law team in supporting this critical fight.
My sister, Mabel Ann, joined me at the Line 3 protests this past week. We are ready to fight.
From a climate crisis standpoint alone, it’s a no-brainer that Line 3
should be a nonstarter. Line 3 would run more than 1,000 miles from
Canada to Lake Superior, and its carbon impact would be equivalent to 50
new coal plants! It also directly threatens the water supply of 18
million people and the sacred manoomin (wild rice) fields of the Anishinaabe People.
If that weren’t bad enough, the pipeline is already perpetuating the
ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW). So
far, two contractors working on Line 3 have been charged with sex
trafficking — no surprise considering that pipelines and the mancamps
that house oil workers typically lead to increased sex trafficking,
sexual abuse, and murders of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit
People.
These are some of the many reasons why I, accompanied by my sisters,
daughters and great granddaughters — and supported by a wonderful
organization called 1000 Grandmothers — went to Minnesota to show
solidarity. I’m so glad we did. We protested in front of the governor’s
mansion and met with energized people in two camps, including some young
activists from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. They
were grateful to receive our support as elders. When my daughter arrived
at their camp, they told her, “Welcome home.”
I left for Cheyenne River with a resolve to do more. Now, our Lakota
Law team is researching and reaching out to see how we can best assist.
We’ll offer media support and organizing help — whatever is needed. We
grandmas stand proudly alongside the young ones, our sisters on the
frontlines, and everyone in this growing coalition.
We hope you will, too. If you feel called, I encourage you to join
the fight in Minnesota for a week of action against Line 3, June 5-8. In
the meantime, please tell the president: Stop Line 3 now.
Wopila tanka — thank you for your action and care!
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People’s Law Project
***
Let’s be real. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced
millions of tenants across the country to reckon with the violence of
our housing system in new and profound ways. Thousands of us have been
forced from our homes or to accrue devastating amounts of rental debt.
And things weren't great for many of us, even before the pandemic.
One thing is clear: We as tenants don't have the power we need, especially compared to the people who own our homes.
That’s why we’re launching a campaign for a National
Tenants’ Bill of Rights, a critical stepping stone on the path to our
North Star vision, a Homes Guarantee. Our campaign will set the stage
for a century of radical tenant organizing— establishing tenants as a
political class, building the power of the tenant movement to win
federal demands, and ultimately transforming the landscape of tenant
organizing by enacting a National Tenants' Bill of Rights.
We know that the people closest to the problems are
closest to the solutions, so our campaign will begin a period of radical
imagination, engaging over one million tenants to write our own rights
into law. That's where you come in.
Join us as we forge ahead to build the world we deserve. R.S.V.P. HERE.
How many Humvees and Tasers does an average police department need? How much pepper spray and teargas? If you have a reputation for killing persons of color, it seems you can never have too many army cast-offs or spend too much of your city's budget on obtaining weapons of war to use against your civilian population, in groups or individually.
How much is a child's life worth? If you're twelve-year-old Tamir Rice or thirteen-year-old Adam Toledo, not much. It's not even worth very much if you're sixteen or seventeen or twenty, especially if there's some money to be made in it for private prisons or immigrant detention centers.
Let's not deny the facts any longer. In a capitalist society neither children nor adults of color nor the poor and homeless of any color or gender identity are seen as having much worth in the eyes of those in power. Those of lesser worth are seen as disposable commodities to the wealthy elites, things to be used and abused and then thrown in a landfill (grave) or cage (prison) at will.
Since testimony began in the Derek Chauvin trial on March 29, at least 64 people have died at the
hands of police nationwide. Black and Brown people
represent more than half of those killed. With the re-opening of public spaces as the world is declared "post-Covid," we should only expect more deaths by cops.
According to Marjorie Cohn:
On April 27, the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States,
for which I am serving as a rapporteur, will release its report with
findings of fact and recommendations addressed to national and
international policy makers. The commission is examining whether police
violence against Black people in the U.S. constitutes a gross violation
of international human rights and fundamental freedoms. Testimony was
presented to the commission by family members and attorneys about police
killings of 43 Black people and the paralyzing of another, all of whom
were unarmed or were not threatening the officers or others. --The Supreme Court Is Also To Blame For Daunte Wright's Death
So, it's not just Chauvin and his ilk who are at fault. We can't just lay the blame on "a couple of bad apples." Our human rights are being deliberately abridged. The corrupt system that runs our country is to blame for perpetuating this overtly military-style response against its own people.
You aren't seeing things. US policing budgets in total are greater than budgets for the Indian and Russian Armies. Take that Russiagaters! Why should anyone obsess over one poor country like Russia so much when it can't even afford to spend for its actual army as much as we do on just our police?
Could conspiracies like Russiagate be just another way to deflect attention away from things that really matter? A method of keeping the public from dwelling on the number of deaths caused by the police and the fact that kids are still being held in cages along our border with Mexico?
So, why is the US police force the third wealthiest "army" on the
entire planet? (We already have the world's largest conventional army by far.) The answer is clear: we're at war with our own citizens. People of color are
being used for target practice, and all citizens are being forced to pay ever more taxes to cover up police malpractice, that is, police brutality.
When we say "demilitarize the police" it means it's time to take away their military-grade weaponry that is being used against civilians who are exercising their freedom of speech and right to assemble. When we say "defund the police" it's backed up by the above memes which demonstrate just how much money our government pumps into what is one of the best customers of the Military-Industrial Complex, your local police department.
"Demonetize the children" should be self-explanatory. Any cop killing anyone's child--including an adult child--should be charged with murder. Private prisons and detention centers should be closed because no one should be making billions of dollars off the suffering of others, particularly struggling drug addicts and refugees fleeing violence. Compassion not cages should always be our goal.
Until we see money taken away from police departments, away from the Military-Industrial Complex, and away from the pockets of the for-profit prison/detention center industry, we will only see more innocents shot by the police, more protests, and more arrests to fill the prisons.
There's really only one answer to this genocidal mess. Replace cops with social workers to answer calls dealing with people in mental/emotional crises. Take the guns off those who walk a beat much like the British bobbies who don't carry weapons. More empathy, more training, more psychological testing of police recruits. Zero hiring of white supremacists, zero military equipment, zero lethal force allowed.
Abolish the police and replace them with what we need, not what the gun manufacturers want. And stop putting a price tag on human life.
"I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. To ensure we arrive alive, we won't take public transit (Oscar Grant). I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright), and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario). I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille), signal every turn (Sandra Bland), keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis), and won't stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks). I'm too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney) so I just hope the car won't break down (Corey Jones).
When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I'll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain), stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice), patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin), or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown). Once they are home, we won't stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark), eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean), or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson).
After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford) or to the gym (Tshyrand Oates) or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery). We won't even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper). We'll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd) and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor)."
These are things white people simply do not have to think about.
--- Author unknown
***
My name is Kyle Bibby and I served in the Marine Corps as an
Infantry Officer for over six years. As a Black man who earned the
uniform and served this country, I, along with many other Black
veterans, am growing concerned with the military equipment being
utilized by police departments across the country.
Increasingly, the training, equipment, and ultimately philosophy of
policing in the United States are being modeled to approach American
civilians as threats. Police departments receive militarized vests,
armored vehicles, weaponry, and training that they end up deploying
against civilians in the streets — especially Black and brown civilians.
Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a consistent and utterly unacceptable
deployment of force by uniformed police, and a culture of violence that
seeks to dominate communities rather than serve and heal them. If we’ve
learned anything, it’s that we can’t continue this war in our streets.
Yet, the trend of the military giving police combat gear is getting
worse, not better — the police are on track to get more military
hardware in 2021 than they did in 2020. Congress needs to act.
I became a Marine in 2007, but I'll be Black my entire life, treated differently in and out of my uniform.
I know that any interaction with police could all too easily
lead to detention, injury, or death. The police don’t care that I’ve
gone to war to protect this country — I could be the next George Floyd,
or Daunte Wright, solely due to the color of my skin.
While many are saying that our system is broken, I have to
disagree. Our system is working the way it was designed — to oppress and
disenfranchise the Black community while disguising it as “law and
order”. The rot is to the core and to the roots.
Simple reform isn’t enough: We must dismantle the system brick by
brick and push for transformative change together by standing strong and
not allowing our justice system to stay the same any longer.
We have the momentum to make real, lasting change — now we need your help to mobilize and organize passionate people ready to make a difference.
In solidarity,
Kyle Bibby U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Afghanistan Common Defense
***
JUSTICE FOR DAUNTE WRIGHT MEANS DEFUNDING AND ABOLISHING THE POLICE
The Movement for Black Lives and our supporters support the family
and community of Daunte Wright who had his life ripped from him by
former police officer Kim Potter. Daunte was a beloved son, brother and
father to a two-year-old. We’re grieving alongside his family and
community, and will continue fighting to defund the police in the
pursuit of justice and Black liberation.
A police officer murdered Daunte just miles from where another
officer murdered George Floyd last year. As Black people in Minnesota
and across the country have been forced to relive George Floyd’s murder
during the ongoing trial of his murderer, Derek Chauvin, the murder of
Daunte Wright is a harsh reminder of the daily threat the police pose to
Black lives, while police departments continue to be rewarded with
outsized budgets and impunity.
Police killed 121 people in traffic stops in 2020, and Black people
are pulled over at disproportionate rates with deadly consequences —
Sandra Bland, Philando Castile and now Daunte Wright. A traffic stop
should never be a death sentence. There is no excuse for the continued
murders and terror inflicted by police.
As the Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, and broader Minnesota
communities grieve, a militarized police force continues to perpetrate
tremendous harm on a community in mourning, with police officers
recklessly shooting tear gas at protestors and arresting and jailing
people at protests for extended periods of time in an intentional effort
to further terrorize and silence our communities.
Charging Kim Potter is not enough to create real accountability for
police or real safety for these communities. Ultimately only defunding
and abolishing the police will stop this terror and bring about real
safety. There is no ‘reforming’ this system—the time is now to divest
from deadly policing and invest in a vision of public safety that
protects us all.
We’re calling for all those who stand in defense of Black lives to
support Black-led organizations in Minneapolis and across Minnesota as
they continue to support and mobilize their communities in this moment.
If you’re able, send donations to:
