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 pretty obvious that I don’t use a AI to write my posts online. I wouldn’t make so many typos and mistakes in grammar/punctuation if I did use an AI computer program. I like to write the old-fashioned way—on a pad of paper with a pen—or on a laptop running Linux without all the bells and whistles. It just feels more natural that way, not forced, with no artificial intelligence trying to change my words mid-sentence.
I know what I want to say and how to say it. I don’t need an AI to tell me how to think.
I’m not anti-technology (despite my advanced years). In fact, I was one of the first persons to actually own a “PC” or personal computer back in the dark ages of forty-plus years ago. I worked in a government office during that time when our case documentation was being transferred over from pen and paper to computer documents. I’ve even written code for web sites and done other computer-related things over the years. So, you can’t say that I’m adverse to artificial intelligence out of a superstitious belief that all technology is evil and should be stopped.
I don’t believe it’s the technology that’s evil. It’s the people who are using it in negative ways and exploiting it that are doing evil. (Pope Leo agrees with me.)
AI data centers are breaking out like pimples across the face of America. This demonstrates to me that artificial intelligence isn’t going to be used for the public good because these data centers are being rammed down the throats of small town and big city people alike, against their will. These AI data centers aren’t there to help the locals, but to make tech bros even richer.
Simply put, AI is not your friend—especially if you’re not a billionaire. Don’t believe me? Would you believe economists from the prestigious Wharton School of Economics?
To learn more what's behind the big push to build AI data centers and how they can adversely effect workers and their jobs, please copy or click on the following link:
There
you'll be able to read the rest of this article, find related links,
see more graphics, and leave comments. You can become a free
or paid subscriber and
receive weekly email posts, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 573rd 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!
Molotov cocktail? Thrown at the home of a Big Tech CEO (who was charged with sexually abusing his sister in January 2025)? Could this mean? Really, could this be the start of…?
A massive 1.2 million foot warehouse full of paper products went up in flames. The unhappy employee was reported as saying, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.” (The next day a shopping mall in Ontario, California was set on fire. Good ideas catch on fast.)
Add these fiery actions and lack of respect for workers to the massive flood of conscientious objector calls to national hotlines due
to the illegal war in Iran—as well as Luigi Mangione’s “protest”
against the CEO of United Healthcare for their high rate of denying
health insurance claims—and I’m starting to see a pattern.
Could it actually be that Americans have had enough? Are they ready for Revolution?
I’m not talking about the so-called “American Revolution” of 250 years ago, either. That was tame by comparison to what could be happening here.
In 1776, we allowed a bunch of rich, white males tell the rest of us that they were tired of paying taxes to the crown and wanted to form their own style of monarchy—an oligarchy—instead. Forget that quaint little “tea party” in Boston Harbor. The “American Revolution” didn’t free enslaved persons, women, or the working poor, and it certainly didn’t recognize the right of the Native American peoples to live peacefully and have control over their own lands...
To find out what a Revolution really should be like, please copy or click on the following link:
There
you'll be able to read the rest of this article, find related links,
see more graphics, and easily leave comments. You can also become a free
or paid subscriber and
receive weekly email posts, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 566th 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!
Humanity refers to the quality or state of being human, which includes traits like kindness and compassion towards others. --Wikipedia
Humanity: understanding and kindness toward other people. --Cambridge Dictionary
Humanity is the quality of being kind, thoughtful, and sympathetic towards others. Synonyms: kindness, charity, compassion, understanding. –-Collins Dictionary
“Verify that you’re a human” the instructions tell you with an online check box. But are you? Just because you can check a box that an A.I. ‘bot might not be able to doesn’t really verify your humanity, does it?
I’ve been having doubts for several years now, doubts that keep me awake nights. What if some of the people I see on the streets, in the grocery store, at the doctor’s office, online and particularly on the television news aren’t actually “human”? What if they’re just sophisticated facsimiles of human beings, but there’s no “soul” or “conscience” within? In other words, what if these individuals display no humanity? What should I do about those persons who are able to check the box, but whose heartless actions demonstrate they are anything but human?
In science fiction action movies, the aliens are usually not the good guys. They want to eat us, enslave us, or use our bodies as batteries to power a matrix. Should we assume these faux humans we encounter on a daily basis are equally nefarious?
Here are some examples of individuals who worry me—and possibly you, too, if you’re human.
One perfect example of this “human or not?” conundrum is Donald Trump, better known in our household as the Cheeto Bandito. If Trump knows how to send a post on Twitter/X, then he probably can check that box verifying he’s a human, but is he really?
To
be considered human you have to be able to do more than apply orange
face paint on a daily basis. You have to demonstrate your humanity to
the world, or show empathy and compassion for others, especially to the
most vulnerable in society. Trump fails in this area big time...
Discover even more examples of "faux humans" (and what we should do with them) by reading the rest of this article. Copy or click on this
Substack link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 515th 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.
These questions keep popping up recently: When will the Revolution begin? What will start the Revolution? What will happen if Revolution comes (or not)?
The “why” we need to have a Revolution is simple enough: Trump is inaugurated again, and it’s no-hold-barred fascism in seconds flat.
Peaceful people are being kidnapped off the street without a trial or due process and flown to a privately-run prison in El Salvador, to be tortured under the auspices of a fellow fascist leader. Permanent residents who speak out against the US supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people are being whisked off the street and disappeared somewhere across the country in privately-run ICE prisons. Folks with decent-paying jobs in cities like Seattle are living in their cars because they can’t afford rents.
Bernie Sanders is herding Dems back into their useless duopoly faction in order to maintain the illusion that there is actually an “opposition party” in Congress. Worse yet, Bernie, who once boasted how much he was against the Iraq War, has voted to continue sending arms to Israel. He won’t even call it a “genocide” in Gaza. Really, Bernie has sunk so low to please the oligarchy that he’s forgotten all about the ordinary working class people.
It really does sound like the end times, doesn’t it?
To learn what will start the Revolution,please
continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this
Substack link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 512th 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.
“If you give a mouse a cookie… He’s going to ask for a glass of milk.” From If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (read aloud on YT) youtu.be/TRtSJ5Zu4MM?si=qYyJh-0FRHZKbgPK
“If you give a moose a muffin… He’ll want some jam to go with it.” From If You Give a Moose a Muffin (read aloud on YT) youtu.be/PBIXvlO_RBs?si=kMnOX7F-epy4kXSm
My daughters absolutely adored these picture books when they were little. The mouse or the moose keeps asking for more and more things until the human characters’ whole world becomes one big chaotic mess. They’re funny, cautionary tales, but mostly they’re just plain good ol’ toddler/early reader entertainment.
Somehow these children’s stories instantly sprang to mind upon watching excerpts of Donald Trump being sworn in as president this past week. While the children’s stories are adorable and silly, there’s nothing particularly adorable about Trump and company and their chaos. Their silly parts are equally annoying, too.
I find the best way to handle a Trump presidency is to ignore the man. I did it from January 2017 to January 2021. I just didn’t watch or listen to Trump on TV or online, and I still don’t. I will read about his actions or watch others discuss whatever insane thing he said that day, but I won’t listen to his voice or look at his face if I can avoid it. In that way, I keep my already high blood pressure from going any higher.
This method works well for me. I stay informed, but at a distance that is comfortable for my sanity. If you haven’t tried this ignoring technique of dealing with Trump, I highly recommend it. If you find that you really do miss listening to the dunderhead after a few days, then you can always switch him back on and watch and listen to him live to your heart’s content.
I don’t tend to write much about Trump, either. Sure, he’s bound to pop up now and then like a silly mouse or moose asking for baked goods in whatever I write for the next few years, but he is seldom the “main character” of any story I’ll tell.
Why is that you ask? It’s because I sincerely believe Trump isn’t the main character or protagonist of anything...
To discover why Trump isn't the big deal he likes to think he is, please continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this Substack link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!
This
article is the 504th 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.
(A Brief Explanation of Why Things Are F’ed Up and What We Can Do About It)
By C.A. Matthews
“We’re All Sad About Tom,” the announcement posted on the Burger King kitchen wall begins solemnly, “But going to his funeral won’t bring him back. No time-off will be given. Thx.”
This short, emotionally tone-deaf message neatly sums up all that is wrong, all that is heinous, all that is cruel and totally f’ed up in Western society, particularly the United States of America. And in its cruel depths lie the seeds of our redemption.
Who is “Tom”? Obviously Tom was a Burger King employee. Tom was a low-paid service worker in one of a million fast food restaurants that litter the planet. Tom has since passed away, but whether his demise was job related or not we don’t know. All we know for certain is that Tom will no longer be reporting to work.
This means one very important thing: the Burger King restaurant where Tom worked is now short an employee.
This means that the remaining employees will be forced to pick up the slack. Whether or not this means it will be a permanent or temporary shortage of employees for the restaurant is unclear, but the late Tom’s position at the time the announcement was written doesn’t appear to have been filled yet.
The next line clinches the employee shortage situation: “But going to his funeral won’t bring him back. No time-off will be given. Thx.”
If you’re confused about the meaning of that line, here’s a different translation...
To read that translation and discover ways we can fix our problems, please continue reading this article by clicking on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com. There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.
Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!
This article is the 502nd 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.
No doubt, it will be called the surveillance video of the century. Well, no one who is working class—or even upper middle class or whatever is the term for those who aren’t quite in the top one-percent of earners in the US—is going to forget it. If you have ever paid private health insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, or filed for bankruptcy because of medical debt, or if you or your loved ones have ever been denied necessary health care by a private insurance company, then you will understand why so many are cheering over the gunning down of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Thompson was a man already under suspicion of insider trading by the Department of Justice, a man who made well over $10 million yearly, a man whose estimated net worth was estimated at approximately $42.9 million as of February 16, 2024, according to Wallmine.com, and a man whose corporation, UnitedHealthcare, has become notorious for its 32% denial of claims, with a market cap of $561.15 billion, the world’s 16th most valuable company by market cap according to CompaniesMarketcap.com.
So, yeah, it couldn’t have happened to a “nicer” guy.
The internet is full of some of the best memes and quotes ever this week. The shooter is being called the “Adjuster” by some, since he acted as a “claims adjuster” of sorts. The upside of all this hullabaloo is that after a lull we’re once again seeing a familiar hashtag: #MedicareForAll
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was actively volunteering for a presidential candidate who touted Medicare For All...
To learn who this candidate was and more about the sickness of capitalism, please read the rest of this article by clicking on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com. There
you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics,
and be able to leave comments. You can also subscribe and receive the
weekly blog post in your email box.
Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today! Power to the people!
Most
of us can remember our “first, real paying job.” For Americans,
we were most likely in high school, and a classmate mentioned to us
between classes how their boss was looking for more summer workers
and that we should apply and make some money. I had been babysitting
for our neighbors since I was about twelve years old, but it was very
hit and miss work, and there was a lot of competition on our street.
This was my chance to enter the “real paying job world” at age
sixteen. I road my bicycle a couple of miles from my home to
interview and got the gig. I worked a long,
hot and stormy summer standing
on my feet for eight hour shifts in
a soft-serve ice cream walk-up stand along Main Street and made the
huge sum of $1.25 per hour for about 32
hours of work per week.
Hard to believe $1.25 an hour was considered "good pay,"but that was the state’s minimum wage for “tipped employees” at
that time. All restaurant workers were paid that amount hourly. It didn’t
matter that we didn’t get tipped making ice cream cones for folks
who walked up to the window. We
were still
considered
“food service workers” and paid that lowly wage. I worked hard
that summer and ended up getting a raise—a
whole
$1.35 per hour.
Wow.
I thought I’d had it made.
The
next summer, a friend told me about a job working at a warehouse
clearance
sale
for a national franchised dress shop located in our local “mall,” a
newfangled place built on the east side of town and not located
downtown where a few of the big
department stores were
still
to be found. I
was
overjoyed
when I heard what this job paid—a whole $2.35 an hour! It was the
federal minimum wage. It was what older people made working similar
jobs, so I really felt like an adult at age seventeen. Even though I
spent a lot on clothes with my employee discount of 10% off that
summer, I saved a bit of money that I later used to get ready for
college.
Almost a
half century and many jobs later, the federal minimum wage hasn’t moved
upward all that much when adjusted for inflation. For the past
fourteen years, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25.
But
why? Corporate profits are up practically across the board or so we’re told
on the nightly news. CEOs get huge bonus packages. “Bidenomics is working,” neoliberals insist.
What’s wrong with us if we’re struggling to get by in the midst
of all this “booming economy” we’re told exists in the US
today?
Maybe
it’s not us who are wrong about the reality of our situations.
Consider
this:
The
federal minimum wage in the United States would be more than $42 an
hour today if it rose at the same rate as the average Wall Street
bonus over the past four decades, according to an analysis
… by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Citing newly released data
from the New York State Comptroller, IPS noted that the average Wall
Street bonus has increased by 1,165% since 1985, not adjusted for
inflation.
Last year, the average cash
bonus paid to Wall Street employees was $176,700—75% higher than in
2008 but slightly lower than the 2021 level of $240,400.
The federal minimum wage,
meanwhile, has been completely stagnant since 2009, when it was
bumped
up to $7.25 from $5.15. While many
states and localities have approved substantial pay increases in
recent years, 20
states have kept their hourly wage floors at the federal minimum.
So,
where’s our $42 per hour? I
guess it’s in
the same place where
our $600 went when we were promised $2,000 COVID relief checks when
Biden took office, but
we
only
received $1,400, right?
What’s
a working stiff in the US to do? We
can’t even afford to rent an apartment anywhere in the fifty states working
full-time hours (if you can get them) at $7.25 an hour. There have
been talks and protests centered around raising
the federal minimum wage to
$15
an hour, but
can anyone even afford to rent a decent place to live on that amount?
It’s doubtful. Not
even a $25 minimum wage can help a family rent a home in many cities.
American
workers
do have one
powerful option, but it’s rarely been discussed since Reagan took
office. We have the
ability to strike—if we’re not forbidden
to do so by federal law, such as the case with railroad
workers or air traffic controllers, that is. But so many Americans have been
brainwashed into thinking that a strike will cost them their job and
their health insurance, so they simply won’t
consider
it.
Are
Americans cowards? Not necessarily. I’d say we’re realists. We
know
we have
no safety nets like workers
in other
countries who
are blessed with
universal health care and universal basic income or "UBI" payments. With
no way to provide for our families without our lousy paying jobs,
we’d
best stay put and put up with the harsh treatment of the bosses.
But
are strikes really all that risky for workers? Where
did we get this idea that we the working class are essentially powerless and only billionaires can get what they want? Consider
this:
The
Teamsters Union and UPS have reached a tentative
agreement
on a new contract to cover the 340,000 Teamsters who work for the
package shipping giant.
According to a statement
released by the union, the new contract is “the most historic
tentative agreement for workers in the history of UPS,” promising
wage increases, an end to the two-tier wage system, new air
conditioning in vehicles, Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full
company holiday, and more.
In the days and weeks to
come, members will debate the pros and cons of the proposal as
thousands of UPS Teamsters vote on whether to ratify the contract.
But one thing seems undeniable: Any significant gains won by
Teamsters against a reluctant employer will have come about because
rank-and-file workers showed the company that they were prepared to
strike.
I
put
that last sentence in italics for emphasis. It bears repeating: Any
significant gains won by Teamsters against a reluctant employer will
have come about because rank-and-file workers showed the company that
they were prepared to strike.
Rank-and-file
workers actually have power? Yes,
we do!
Even the possibility of a strike can motivate a reluctant employer to
sit down and discuss the workers’ grievances and demands. And
if push comes to shove, the workers walk out and give the employers
even more to worry about as the company's profits take a hit and its reputation as being a fair and honest employer is thrown into the dumpster.
Fourteen
years of a stagnant federal minimum wage (with no maximum
wage for billionaires set) and no universal health coverage for all Americans should be a wake up call even for the sleepiest of workers.
Our government doesn’t work for us, the people, but for those who
already have more than enough wealth and power and obviously don’t
give care one bit about how many workers can’t even afford to rent an
apartment or put food on the table for their families. Our government
doesn’t care if we or our loved ones get sick, and we have no way
to afford medical care other than to beg strangers for donations via
GoFundMe.
Face
it, America. It’s time to lose the blind loyalty to both your
employers
and to
our
government. They
don’t have our best interests at heart. And we have the power to
make them see things our way—strike!
RBN's Labor Organizing Summit Part 2 Livestream -- featuring Kshama Sawant. I sat on a panel with other Green Party members and former presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein. (It starts at approx. 3:02 and the video should start there.) Hear what I and other Greens have to say about the labor situation in the US currently. (The answer to many of our troubles is to "Go West!")
Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog: The Little Red Book of Revolution
How can you get your e-copy? The easiest way is to subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack as a paying subscriber. Choose what level you'd like to subscribe at via the buttons on any post online at: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com
