Much Ado About Due Process

by C. A. Matthews

The term due process has been in the news lately, but what does the US Constitution say about due process? According to Wikipedia:

The Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause ensures that no person can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without fair legal procedures. It protects individuals from arbitrary government actions and guarantees certain legal rights in both criminal and civil cases.

A Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, which prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law.

So, what does due process mean in the legal sense? According to Wikipedia:

Procedural due process requires government officials to follow fair procedures before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. When the government seeks to deprive a person of one of those interests, procedural due process requires the government to afford the person, at minimum, notice, an opportunity to be heard, and a decision made by a neutral decision maker.

This protection extends to all government proceedings that can result in an individual's deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature, from parole violation hearings to administrative hearings regarding government benefits and entitlements to full-blown criminal trials.

So, who is entitled to the right of due process—the right to have the opportunity to defend oneself when one is accused of a crime or misdemeanor by the government? The Constitution says a person is entitled to the right of due process. It’s not for citizens alone, in other words.

Who exactly is a “person” has been argued and decided before the Supreme Court in the past. The US Constitution once stated that an enslaved person of African ancestry was only “3/5 of a person” for population census purposes, and therefore, he or she was not a person, but we’ve moved past that (hopefully). The current take is that every person currently within the borders of the US, whether they’re a citizen, a permanent resident (green card holder), living here under a temporary status (TPS, DACA, etc.), a tourist, or an undocumented person (without status) is entitled to due process.

No exceptions.

 

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Escaping the Nightmare

by C.A. Matthews

This beautifully produced short video (above) spoke to me this week. Watch it and see what I mean.

Entitled Escaping the Duopoly Nightmare: A Tribute to the Fearless! the video gives one hope that there is a large enough percentage of Americans out there who actually “get it” and who are escaping the nightmare of the faux US democracy established and maintained by the billionaire oligarchs. These folks aren’t crying into their beers/coffee cups. They’re making plans on how they’ll fight back, and it could lead to building a strong alternative party that represents the working class, not the one-percent, in the near future.

To put this in the vernacular: Smart voters ain’t buying into the rich dudes’ lies anymore. They’re taking their business elsewhere. They’re starting their own workers’ party, far away from the brain dead, bought-off Red and Blue MAGAts. They’re going to put the people in charge, not the corporations.

Amen to these brave visionaries! Could the Revolution be just around the corner?

Meanwhile across the globe, brave Pakistanis are escaping from a nightmare not of their own making...

 

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Changing The World

Changing The World

by C. A. Matthews

“If you think we can’t change the world, it just means you’re not one of them who will.” --Jacque Fresco

The last two hundred plus days have been difficult. But, every once and a while, there is a glimmer of hope. There is a light shining through the haze of the seemingly endless bombing in Gaza. Not everyone supports this genocide. Not everyone buys into the sociopathic narrative of the Israelis and their bought-off Zionist agents in the West.

In fact, every day there are more and more people who are speaking out against the war crimes the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) are perpetrating against innocent Palestinian civilians. Our university students are leading the way in protest against the entrenched, bloodthirsty establishment. Cops are using rubber bullets, mace, and nightsticks against them, but the students are holding fast. They truly are heroes in these dark times.

BGSU students protest in downtown BG

And we should follow their lead.

Change is scary, but sometime it’s necessary. This is one of these times. The world cannot remain the way it is, stuck in the sickness of capitalism’s endless wars to steal resources (oil, land, rare earths) from native peoples. The world cannot remain under the control of full-fledged psychopaths who’d rather foul our air, land, and waters to generate another billion dollars in profit than to preserve what remains of our beautiful Earth by practicing prudent and fair methods of resource management. The world cannot remain in the hands of sociopaths who believe that ethnic cleansing and immigrant-scapegoating are legitimate, moral activities to handle human conflict.

The world will not remain a livable place much longer if these activities continue. And so our university students—our heroes—are taking the lead at pointing out the evils of the status quo at the risks of their studies, their careers, and their lives. We should do all that we can to promote their cause and boycott the industries, institutions, and individuals that are selfishly driving our planet toward its death throws.

One student eloquently summed up the meaning of the student protests in a short interview:

University Of Chicago Student States: "There Are Things That More Important Than My Academic Future" https://youtu.be/BJpML0QBcMk  and also  https://youtu.be/vAZIMWNOa7w

Another student gave testimony to her school’s board of trustees on how their investments into the military-industrial complex aren’t what the students and faculty want:

Speaking Truth to Power: Rutgers Student Confronts School Leadership Board https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/speaking-truth-to-power-rutgers-hdwmt-112

And Columbia University social work graduates got their points across during their graduation ceremony: https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1789827109470224418

Bold, aren’t they? I find them refreshing in their moral courage, don't you?

More nominees for an "Aaron" award!

This is what I mean when I say these university students are our heroes. They valiantly clear away the cobwebs of the fascistic narrative spin offered up by government spokespersons and present the facts to us in a rational and moral fashion. Genocide is no longer to be considered an “option” or a “choice” or a “defense tactic” or a way for your university to make money. It’s just plain mass murder. It’s horrific ethnic cleansing. Anyone who can’t intuit that profound truth is a very sick individual and needs to be locked up for their own good as well as for the good of society.

Perhaps we should install padlocks on all the doors and rubber mats on the floors and walls that line the Capitol Building and the White House to keep all the AIPAC-owned lunatics inside to prevent them from starting World War III?

BGSU students and others on Main St.

After seven months, one would hope that more celebrities would come crawling out of their golden bubbles to protest the criminal actions of Israel. But being threatened with dropped contracts for their music or having their juicy parts in big Hollywood productions axed are considered more important to most entertainers than helping save thousands of innocent lives from being butchered by the Israeli military. 

Rapper Macklemore is an exception. He has written a rap song declaring the reality of what the students are protesting about while simultaneously exposing the shallow narcissism of celebrityness. (All proceeds from the song are being donated to UNRWA, too. Nice touch, Macklemore.)

audio only https://youtu.be/wmg6vbt04TY
video https://youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo

HIND'S HALL
Written and Produced by Macklemore

The people they won’t leave
What is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?
The problem isn’t the protests it’s what they’re protesting
Cause it goes against what our country is funding
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
When I was 7 I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy E
What was it again? Oh yea fuck the police
Actors in badges protecting property
And a system that was designed by white supremacy
But the people are in the streets
You can pay off Meta you can’t pay off me
Politicians who serve by any means
AIPAC, CUFI and all the companies
You see we sell fear around the land of the free
But this generation here is about to cut the strings
You can ban Tik Tok take us out the algorithm
But it’s too late we’ve seen the truth we bare witness
We’ve seen the rubble the buildings the mothers the children
And all the men that you murdered and then we see how they spin it
Who gets to the right to defend and who gets the right of resistance
Has always been about dollars and the color of your pigment
But White Supremacy is finally on blast
Screaming free Palestine until they’re home at last
We see the lies in them
Claiming it’s anti-semitic to be anti-zionist
I’ve seen Jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding
In solidarity and screaming free Palestine with ‘em
Organizing, unlearning and finally cutting ties with a
State that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system
To uphold an occupying violent
History been repeating for the last 75
The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied
If some kids in tents, posted on the lawn occupying the quad is really against the law
And a reason to call in the police and their squad
where does genocide land in your definition huh? destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque pushing everyone into Rafah and dropping bombs
The blood is on your hands Biden, we can see it all
And fuck no I’m not voting for you in the fall
Undecided, you can’t twist the truth
The people out here united never be defeated when Freedom’s on the horizon
Yet the music industry’s quiet complicit in their platform of silence
What happened to the artist what do you got to say?
If I was on a label, you could drop me today
And be fine with it cause the heart fed my page
I want a ceasefire fuck a response from Drake
What you willing to risk?
What you willing to give?
What if you were Gaza? What if those were your kids?
If the West was pretending that you didn’t exist
You’d want the world to stand up
And the students finally did
Let’s get it

The title of Macklemore’s song, Hind’s Hall, comes from the “renamed” Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University. Here’s a short bio of who Hind was in case you don’t know:

Hind Rajab was a 6-year-old girl from Gaza. In January 2024, she and her family were shelled by the Israeli army while in their car. Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, were the only survivors, trapped within the car. They called the Palestinian Red Cross Society, with Layan saying, “They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We're in the car, and the tank is right next to us.” The PCRS sent a team to rescue them. However, after 12 days, on February 10, when the Israeli army withdrew from the area, Hind Rajab and her six relatives were found dead in the car, along with the two paramedics sent to rescue them, who were also found dead nearby, victims of Israeli snipers.

The Columbia students renamed the building in honor of a frightened little girl left to die of her injuries and starvation all alone beside the corpses of her family members who earlier succumbed to their wounds. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will probably never be charged or prosecuted for what they did, but the students of Columbia immortalized Hind Rajab by renaming a building in her honor. Macklemore is spreading Hind’s story worldwide through his gift of music. May Hind’s remaining family and friends find some solace in knowing that she will never be forgotten, and that not all Westerners were oblivious to their suffering.

This is heroism. This is changing the world for the better. These are the people we should follow and imitate.

Block the Hollywood celebs and the Grammy winners online who can’t even be bothered to hold a concert to raise money for UNRWA. They won't even bring about public awareness to the genocide in Gaza by chatting about it on the red carpet or the talk show circuit or their X feeds.

To quote Macklemore: “I want a ceasefire! F*ck a response from Drake!”

The students are changing the world. Follow their lead. Free Palestine.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Blood on Biden’s Hands: The invasion of Rafah MUST be stopped
https://youtu.be/sovQJfZL-jw

University Of Chicago Student States: "There Are Things That More Important Than My Academic Future" https://youtu.be/vAZIMWNOa7w

University Students in Mexico Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Call for BDS https://truthout.org/articles/university-students-in-mexico-launch-gaza-solidarity-encampment-call-for-bds/

MACKLEMORE - HIND'S HALL https://youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo

'HIND'S HALL' OCCUPATION / Hind Rajab’s Mother Reacts To Student Protests https://mark192.substack.com/p/hinds-hall-occupation-hind-rajabs

Student Power: Freedoms under threat in the U.S. https://youtu.be/l8-ojOG16ow

Opposing The War Machine Is Cool Again, And The Empire's Getting Nervous https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/opposing-the-war-machine-is-cool

Students Demanding Divestment: You’re On The Right Side Of History https://popularresistance.org/students-demanding-divestment-youre-on-the-right-side-of-history/

Speaking Truth to Power: Rutgers Student Confronts School Leadership Board https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/speaking-truth-to-power-rutgers-hdwmt-112

Thousands of U.S. Students Arrested While Israel Invades Rafah https://youtu.be/RzMueJ4OpsI

Chris Hedges: The Nation’s Conscience  https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/08/chris-hedges-the-nations-conscience/

Campus Protests Are Fighting Militarism and Corporatization at Home and Abroad https://truthout.org/articles/campus-protests-are-fighting-militarism-and-corporatization-at-home-and-abroad/

USC President and Provost Censured After Faculty Senate Vote https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/10/usc-president-and-provost-censured-after-faculty-senate-vote/

Empire Managers Explain Why This New Protest Movement Scares Them https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-explain-why-this

Listen to the Students  https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/08/listen-to-the-students/

Universities Have Failed Their Democratic Mission by Repressing Gaza Protests https://truthout.org/articles/universities-have-failed-their-democratic-mission-by-repressing-gaza-protests/

Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Operations In The Country https://popularresistance.org/israel-shuts-down-al-jazeera-operations-in-the-country/

There’s Only 1 to 3 Days’ Worth of Food Left in Gaza, World Food Programme Warns https://truthout.org/articles/theres-only-1-to-3-days-worth-of-food-left-in-gaza-world-food-programme-warns/

Israeli Prisons Subject Palestinians to Constant Torture, “Revenge” https://truthout.org/articles/report-israeli-prisons-subject-palestinians-to-constant-torture-revenge/

Jill Stein EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - Why Ending the War on Gaza Means Breaking From Biden https://youtu.be/NXSZUtt4kYE

Why 9 in 10 American Zionists Are Actually Christians  https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/why-9-in-10-american-zionists-are

Support for a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza Increases Across Party Lines https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/5/8/support-for-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-increases-across-party-lines

When Opposing Genocide Is Seen As Radical, Radicalism Becomes A Moral Imperative https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/when-opposing-genocide-is-seen-as

Every single hostage exchange Hamas offered Israel since October
https://twitter.com/cynthianna3/status/1788687035424735544

Over 100,000 Gazans flee Rafah as UN warns 'no aid in sight' https://thecradle.co/articles/over-100000-gazans-flee-rafah-as-un-warns-no-aid-in-sight

Jill Stein on an Egyptian TV news program (with an endorsement) https://youtu.be/kuIJt73t9aQ?si=LZthWo7QNBDB4fDb

The CIA and Zionism: A Complex History https://www.spytalk.co/p/the-cia-and-zionism-a-complex-history

USA & Israel defy world in vote to make Palestine full UN member https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/us-israel-un-vote-palestine-full-member

Can No One Tell Me the Name of an Israeli Woman Who Was Raped by Hamas on 10/7? https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/can-no-one-tell-me-the-name-of-an

Using A Fictional Antisemitism Crisis To Support A Real Genocide https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/using-a-fictional-antisemitism-crisis

When Your Rulers Ignore Voters But Are Terrified Of Protesters, That Tells You Something https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/when-your-rulers-ignore-voters-but

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