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.)
Armageddon sells. Red and orange hellish visions of burning fields and forests. Billowing black-gray smoke and horribly injured wildlife. Escaping humans cowering before flames. All these fiery nightmares littered our screens this past week. Australia is burning.
But so has California, the Congo, Siberia and the Amazon. Outside of a few independent journalists covering the Congo and Siberia, most Americans are only familiar with the wildfires in California and Brazil. Apparently the suffering in Africa and the remote areas of Asia aren’t photogenic enough for the mainstream media to report on. Or maybe it’s because we just don’t care about the people and wildlife that live there. It’s not like ordinary Americans ever take fun-filled vacations to Siberia or sub-Saharan Africa, right? Only rich white hunters like Trump's sons go on safari to shoot giraffes and lions these days. Scared koalas and sad kangaroos capture people’s imagination. They sell papers and make for poignant television commercials, but will they wake up those who have denied the horrendous effects of climate change for so long? Will they bring about charges against those who have committed crimes against humanity, such as the fossil fuel industry lying to us for years about greenhouse gases and CO2?
There are fires burning on every single continent. The whole world is burning. If these images of the end times don’t inspire action to take positive steps to stop the burning, then what will? We need to do something to bring about radical change in how we heat our homes, how we get to work, what kinds of foods we eat, what kind of textiles we clothe ourselves in, what ways we interact with nature... Let's douse the actual flames but stoke the fires of genius and creativity and cooperation, shall we? As the Australian bushfires burn, another conflagration is taking place in the war room of the White House. Trump is starting a war with Iran, a possible nuclear power. Why? Oil, of course! The Iranians recently announced they had another 50 billion barrels in oil reserves. We can’t allow anyone other that the US to have access to that oil, can we? Tempting nuclear winter is an acceptable risk in the oligarchs’ collective mind and possibly the minds of gas-guzzling SUV owners. But wait… Isn’t it the fossil fuel industry that is fueling our climate crisis? The self same climate crisis that is causing Australia to burn? Destroying whole ecosystems and killing a half billion animals? Why would any sane person allow a suspect industry such as Big Oil to start a war to obliterate everything that is currently being burned to a crisp?
Oh, yeah... It’s Trump and his advisors who decided to assassinate a high-ranking Iranian general as an excuse to steal more oil and generate endless stock splits for Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin. We’re not exactly talking strong examples of sane individuals here! Until we eliminate those in power who hold their fellow man—and indeed life itself—in such contempt, we are all at risk. The people and the planet can’t take much more of this ill treatment. We don’t appreciate the beautiful blue globe we live on, obviously, but is that any reason to allow warhawks to irradiate it by starting World War III? The squeamish and the cowardly need to buck up—things are going to get nastier and uglier before they get better. No matter what a 1950s' Civil Defense propaganda film tells you, there's no safe way to survive a nuclear holocaust.
There is no “gray zone” where you can just ignore what’s happening and stare at your phone screen wondering what happened to Instagram once the cell towers fall over. Sorry, folks. It’s a black or white decision. You'll have to make it without the assistance of Twitter or Wikipedia, too. Pick a side—Planet or Profits, People or Plutocrat Power-trip—and stick to it. Let everyone know where you stand on this issue so we can take appropriate measures to either: 1) Help you in your endeavors to save our beloved Earth, or 2) Do all we can to derail your homicidal/genocidal destruction of our world. Now is not the time for indecision. Now is the time for action. Which side are you on?
No War With Iran Peace Protest January 4, 2020 -- Toledo, Ohio photos by Cindy & Adrian Matthews
***
Over 80 U.S. cities, and others elsewhere, held demonstrations on Saturday against war on Iran.
Senator Tim Kaine has introduced a
privileged resolution in the Senate, and Representatives Barbara Lee and
Ilhan Omar have introduced it in the House, to force a vote on ending U.S. war on Iran. Click here to email your Senators and Representative.
We, the people, have been preventing a war on Iran for many years, including stopping major efforts to start one in 2007 and 2015.
Congress needs to reverse course. This
Congress has refused to impeach for wars and threats of nuclear war,
has stripped out of the National Defense Authorization Act the ban on
war on Iran that was contained in the House version, and has given
Trump even more military funding than he asked for.
Numerous Congress members of both
parties, during the days leading up to Trump's assassination of Iran's
top military commander, accused Trump of weakness toward Iran.
We need Congress members to speak
out for peace, for an end to threats and punishing sanctions, for a
removal of U.S. troops from the region, and for the restoration of
diplomacy.
World BEYOND War is a global network of
volunteers, activists, and allied organizations advocating for the
abolition of the very institution of war. Our success is driven by a
people-powered movement –
support our work for a culture of peace.
***
Do you ever worry that you'll wake up and discover it's not just winter--it's actually "nuclear winter?"
Do you ever want to scream and shout about how unjust and unfair our system of health care is? How screwed up our judicial system or jails are? How unlikely you'll ever be out of debt with the current crop of morons in charge?
If any of this resonates with you, why not write about it and submit your article to The Revolution Continues? We'd love to hear from you! Send it to us at: thebernieblog2016@gmail.com
If you're not a writer, but you're one of the few on the left gainfully employed, why not share a little of your monetary wealth with those of us slaving in the trenches of indie journalism. We'd appreciate it. Thanks!
Editor's note: This is a British board. Whitechapel is the cheapest property.
The Way of Life/The Way of Death
by Coast Watcher
It’s
pretty much evident that capitalism is destroying our world. This
parasitical philosophy treats everything as a commodity to be
exploited for the maximum amount of money possible. People—ordinary
human beings—are an endless source of wealth. We are lied to,
coerced, bribed, blackmailed and outright threatened to make us
continue working for the System. No matter where we turn in life, a
capitalist is there, ready and willing to screw us over.
Big
Business owns governments. The United States government, founded on
such principles as liberty and justice for all is a wholly-owned
concern of capitalism, but this should not come as too much of a
surprise when you consider the Founding Fathers were all rich white
guys—in other words, the very stuff of capitalism. Many of them
owned slaves. After the successful revolution against British rule it
took decades and a bloody war to abolish slavery, yet even that abolition
didn’t stick.
Although
slavery and involuntary servitude were outlawed by the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, an exception was made as a punishment
for crime. Capitalists seized upon this exception and set up
for-profit prisons in which those incarcerated are forced to work for
Big Business. To ensure a ready supply of labor, the capitalists
persuaded lawmakers to introduce the "three strikes and you’re
out" laws for petty infringements, such as possession of marijuana.
It’s a matter of record that African-Americans are the section of
society most afflicted with these laws and the ones least likely to
afford a competent legal counsel.
In
California, volunteer convict firefighters are instrumental in
fighting the terrible wildfires afflicting the state. They’ve
helped save countless lives and property—including homes belonging
to the rich—yet once they leave prison they are not allowed to
parlay their hard-won experience into a permanent firefighting job. How is it just
that a person who risked his or her life to help others is not
allowed to benefit from it? What is even more infuriating is the fact
that most of the recent wildfires were caused by PC&G electric
company’s lack of maintenance on their power lines. Maintenance is
given zero priority because it gets in the way of yet greater
profits—at the cost of serious damage to the environment.
Of
course, the sale and purchase of people is still illegal—just—but
the capitalists have found a way to circumvent such things. Take the trade in children forcibly separated from parents who entered the US, either illegally or in search of asylum. (No, Mr. Trump, under the UN
charter which the United States signed, seeking asylum is not
illegal). Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has shares in companiesthat trade in adoptions, and a ready supply of children is essential
to her healthy profit margin. Those kids, over ten thousand of themand mostly of Hispanic ethnicity, will likely go to affluent white
people to be brought up as white, losing their heritage along with
their true parents. And some of those poor children end up in the
hands of pedophiles, adding sexual abuse to their woes."
The
destruction of the environment in pursuit of profit is a major goal
of Big Business. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) pour hundreds
of thousands of tons of animal effluent into water courses each and
every day all year round. Agribusinesses spray pesticides,herbicides, and fertilizers onfields in similar amounts, the run-off from which also finds its way
into water courses. The net result of this is a massive increase in
algae blooms as the cyanobacteria
present feeds
on the nitrogen in fertilizer and effluent.
Cyanobacteria excretes
toxins into water and the air. It has been linked to a variety of
medical conditions
including ALS, Parkinson's and
Alzheimer’s Disease,
and has killed animals that come into contact with it. The
gene that allows genetically altered "Roundup Ready" plants to
tolerate the carcinogenic herbicide was extracted from cyanobacteria.
Big
Business knows that the public would close down CAFOs in a heartbeat
for this, let alone the horrible mistreatment of animals that occurs in such
places. To protect its vast profits the companies that own and run
CAFOs succeeded in getting a law pass that forbids the public from
taking photographs of their operations. They also succeeded in
persuading a number of state to exempt CAFOs from most regulations
regarding animal welfare.
Nuclear
power plants in North America are aging and increasingly dangerous.
Three Mile Island is the most notorious example, but there have been
other incidents involving pressurized water reactors that the public
was not made aware of. The Davis-Besse plant, located between Toledo and Cleveland, is a
decrepit facility, yet First Energy, the owner, has rammed a bill through the Ohio state house giving them a heavy subsidy for keepingthe plant open. This in spite of a near meltdown in 2006 which only
came to light in 2011. A mere sixteenth of an inch of metal—that’s
the width of a slice of processed cheese—stood between the nuclear
core and the total devastation of the western Lake Erie basin.
If you
think the public will be warned if such a meltdown should ever
happen, think again. The power industry decided long ago it wouldn’t
be feasible to evacuate major cities, so they won’t bother. Oh, and
you can’t sue them if you are displaced by a nuclear incident. Yep,
Big Business ensured that law got passed long ago.
We
can also look at the way oil pipelines are forced through rural areas
of America in spite of vehement opposition from residents, usually Native Americans. Back in the 1930s Big Oil got the government to
give them the right to claim eminent domain when building pipelines.
Recently it got the government to rate such pipelines as "infrastructure," which means anyone protesting or damaging them
are liable for trial under terrorism charges. If convicted it would
mean several years to life imprisonment. People have gone to jail for
obstructing pipelines crossing their own land. Big Oil gets around
local objections by promising jobs, without mentioning that the jobs
involved amount to local security and minor construction. The big
ticket jobs like engineering and specialist construction come from
out of state. Numerous cases of murder and rape have been leveled at
construction workers while oil pipelines are being built, but few
convictions come from them.
As
an aside it’s interesting to note that when a proposed pipeline was
scheduled to pass through a large country estate belonging to a
billionaire in Pennsylvania, the proposal was dropped when said
billionaire threatened a lawsuit against the oil company. The same
thing happened when a fracking operation was to be set up next to a
stud farm owned by another billionaire. The proposal was dropped like
a hot potato the moment he threatened to sue.
The
way of life will be to curb the activities of Big Business, forcing
them to clean up their mess and enforce the laws and regulations
preventing them from polluting our planet ever again. The way of
death will be to allow these rich individuals and their corporations
to continue as they’re done for far too long.
Which
is it to be? It’s past time we decided once and for all.
BIO: Coast Watcher is keeping score. The crimes of the capitalists will not be forgotten--or ignored much longer. The people are awake and watching. Now is the winter of our discontent--and our political revolution!
Communities of color on
the frontlines of the climate crisis have been battling environmental
injustice for decades. Landfills, dirty industrial plants, and
warehouse / truck depots all are located, by design, in lower income,
black and brown communities.
That means the people
who live, work, and raise their kids in these areas face greater
health risks from pollution. It means their kids cannot comfortably
play outside without breathing dirty air or drink water from their
tap. It means that these frontline communities will continue to bear
the brunt of the climate crisis as politicians kick the can further
and further down the road. Meanwhile, the rest of society lives a
comfortable distance from the consequences.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris
(CA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) have drafted the Climate
Equity Act, a legislative proposal to achieve the key principle of
justice for frontline communities. This legislation focuses on
communities most affected by the crisis and the transition to
renewable energy. It will require environmental and climate-related
legislation receive an equity score that will transparently estimate
the impact on frontline communities, require environmental and
climate-related rules and regulations have significant impact on
frontline communities, and ensure that representatives of frontline
communities are at the table during the review of rules and
regulations of a newly established Office of Climate and Environmental
Justice Accountability.
If brought into
fruition, the Climate Equity Act will help rebuild communities
affected by environmental injustice, ensuring they receive adequate
attention from Congress looking forward.
Join our national
grassroots network mobilizing for climate equity.
From Roots Action: Julian Assange is being held in prison in the United Kingdom,
convicted of and charged with no crime there. He is in danger of being
extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for publishing accurate
information in the public interest. This is a threat to journalism and
to democracy, not just to WikiLeaks and Assange.
We the undersigned respectfully call
on the appropriate authorities of the United Kingdom to immediately
release Julian Assange, citizen of Australia, from Belmarsh prison where
he is being unjustly and cruelly incarcerated.
Acting as a publisher through
WikiLeaks, Mr. Assange has done the world a service in documenting the war crimes and other abuses of the United States and other governments, organizations, and corporations.
He is not charged with any crime or
even misdemeanor in the United Kingdom, and has fully served his
sentence for his single offense: jumping bail to avoid extradition to
the United States via Sweden. He was not and is not charged with any
crime in Sweden.
The sole charges against Mr. Assange
originate in the United States, where he is charged with the
publication of accurate information provided by informed sources, as
well as with encouraging a source, and protecting a source. These are regular and necessary practices of journalism in a free and democratic society.
The prosecution of a publisher for publishing accurate information that
is clearly in the public interest is a threat to journalism and to
democracy.
The "espionage" prosecution by the United States of a non-U.S. citizen who has not been in and is not in the United States would be an additional dangerous precedent to set.
It is quite clear that in its
current treatment of Julian Assange, the United Kingdom is debasing
itself as a mere instrument of political repression exercised by the
United States. The current imprisonment of Mr. Assange is a blot on the
United Kingdom’s judicial system, a disgrace to British decency.
There is every reason to fear an
unfair trial, or cruel imprisonment without trial, in the United States.
We appeal to your sense of justice to uphold the best traditions of
British democracy and respect for human rights by immediately freeing, rather than extraditing, Julian Assange.
After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.
***
From Progress America:
Tell Congress:
"We,
the undersigned, call on Congress to support legislation that would end
surprise medical bills and hold down health care costs overall. We
shouldn’t be left to foot the bill when health care industries disagree."
Nichole
Briggs woke up in the middle of the night with stomach pain and went to
the local hospital for an emergency appendectomy. She double-checked
that the hospital was covered by her insurance, yet she still received a
bill for nearly $5,000 because the surgeon within the hospital was
outside her network. She refused to pay the unfair bill. A credit agency
then took her to court and put a lien on her home, all for a bill she
shouldn’t owe in the first place.
We have been closely monitoring recent developments in Bolivia as
President-Elect Evo Morales was forced to resign yesterday at the hand
of the Bolivian military. Despite the tepid response from major American
media outlets, let us be clear that this is a coup.
Bolivia has been rocked by weeks of protests challenging the
validity of the October 20th election results in which Morales, the
popular first president from Bolivia’s indigenous population, was
elected to a third term.
Morales, who has served for 14 years, agreed to
an audit of the results to be conducted by the Organization of American
States (OAS). His right-wing challenger, Carlos Mesa, did not agree to
any such audit.
It’s important to know that the OAS has a record of overturning
elections in left-leaning countries while turning a blind eye to
emerging right-wing regimes backed by U.S. foreign policy and American
corporate interests.
The United States has backed 12 coups throughout Latin America. It
is clear that these governments are targets because they are considered
hostile to U.S. capital and strategic interests, not because they are
undemocratic.
The OAS follows a specific script of contesting the legitimacy of
the elections, vowing to restore democracy with the new hand-picked
leader, and downplaying U.S. involvement which translates to funding and
arming the opposition, waging an economic war, and of course, blaming
the target for civil unrest, corruption, and authoritarianism.
But if the OAS were concerned with democratic elections, where
were they when loyalists of Jair Bolsonaro, the new president of Brazil,
conspired to lock up his rival, Lula da Silva, to clear Bolsonaro’s
path to the presidency? And why, following a contentious election in
Venezuela, did the OAS align with Tri, and rush to recognize Juan
Guaidó as the rightful president over Maduro? To this day, the OAS
continues their effort to legitimize Guaidó, a man who is known to be
friendly to U.S. oil interests.
If the OAS were concerned with
recognizing the will of the people, why didn’t they demand a proper
audit of those election results? Or call for a new election with
independent international oversight?
Our
founders believed that government must be of the people, by the people,
and for the people. That is a human right, and these principles must be
protected even when the will of the people runs counter to U.S.
business interests.
No one -- not the OAS, not the United States government, not multinational corporations looking to exploit natural resources --no onebut the people of a nation has the right to dictate who will govern that nation.
We must stand in solidarity with the people of Bolivia and support
a truly independent audit of the election results to ease political
tensions in their deeply-divided country.
