This Is How You Do It

words and photos by C.A. Matthews

It’s more than a song title—it’s how we’ll win this thing.

The most common reply I get whenever I post a blog or make comment on another’s blog about this topic goes like this:

“Well, since you’re so full of ideas—how the hell do we pull this off? How do we get rid of the raping-pedophile-fascist-imperialist-capitalists-in-power? Because if we can’t get rid of them, then what’s the use of pointing out how evil and corrupt they are? Learn to live with it, [insert insulting epithet here].”

It is tiring repeating myself constantly, but if that’s what it takes I’ll do it. Our planet and our children’s futures depend upon this current generation of human beings doing the right thing and getting it done.

Perhaps words alone are not enough to make an impression on some minds… Here are some photos from a recent “ICE Out!” march, an organizers’ fair, and a “No War on Iran” protest along with a brief explanation of what I’m talking about.

First off, we need to organize. This is not a dirty word. Here’s an explanation of what it means...

 

To learn more about what it means to organize versus mobilize, please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 556th 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!

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Part-way through writing this week’s article the unthinkable happened again. ICE/CBP agents murdered another American citizen in cold blood on a cold street in Minneapolis during a general strike. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA hospital. He was helping another person when he was beaten to the ground and shot several times by federal agents. Videos of the incident show that he was never a threat at any time to anyone before the agents murdered him.

Within the past month we’ve witnessed the deaths of three citizens at the hand of federal agents—Keith Porter was murdered by an off duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, Renee Good and Alex Pretti shot by ICE/CBP in Minneapolis in January while working as legal observers. Three Americans who had long lives to look forward to have been cut down early by the fascist state. They are symbols and martyrs of the Revolution… The Revolution that is being born even as I type this.

Rest in power, Alex, Renee, and Keith. May we do you proud.

The following poem posted by Sony Thăng on his X account inspired my article. You’ll see why.

Trump is the perfect American symbol.

A loudmouth preacher of greatness standing on a 

mountain of debt, spectacle, and unpaid human cost.

He is the flag turned into a product.

The gospel turned into a grift.

The empire turned into a reality show.

The Perfect American Symbol

by C. A. Matthews

If things appear to be falling apart, so much the better.

The global capitalists’ empire truly is a “reality show” of sorts. It’s scripted by the twelve richest men in the world and acted out by their chosen politician-puppets. The entire plot of this sick and twisted reality show has become more and more obvious over the last few years. It can be summed up simply: Endless War for Endless Profits.

Millions of deaths are necessary in order to generate the trillions of dollars’ worth of profits for those lucky billionaires (or oligarchs if you prefer that term). I mean, you wouldn’t buy a killer drone or an AI surveillance program that hasn’t been extensively tested, would you? You wouldn’t waste your money on something that doesn’t work as advertised, right?

What better place to test out your new “toys” than in an open-air concentration camp called Gaza? It’s full of frail human bodies to crush, explode, and dismember at will. And once it has been emptied and turned into a luxury resort, they’ll just move the weapons testing on to a new location. Hmm… How about Minneapolis?

These twelve super-wealthy white males didn’t get filthy rich by holding back any. They didn’t get rich by having morals or practicing compassion. Eight decades ago, about the same time the apartheid regime in what is now called Israel formed, novelist George Orwell penned their mantra:

War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.

 

To learn more about who should be our "perfect American symbols", please copy or click on the following 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 555th 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!

You can also make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is our only source of income. Thank you. 

 

 

Revolutionaries Don’t Ask Permission

by C. A. Matthews

The kids in Minneapolis get it. They stood outside the hotel where ICE agents were staying and made noise all night long. Loud noise. Deafening music and consistent shouting. All. Night. Long. No sleep for the killers and kidnappers of ICE allowed.

The kids didn’t ask for permission. They didn’t care about violating a noise ordinance or getting arrested. They just wanted ICE gone. For good. For the family of Renee Good. For the good of the community.

This is what Revolution is all about. It’s about doing good for the sake of the community—not the billionaire oligarchs ruling this fascist state.

Revolution is not about doing nothing and taking the shit dumped on us. It’s about shoveling that shit right back into the faces of those who wish to bury us. We bury them instead until the threat is no more.

I think the constant following and videoing of ICE agents in Minneapolis will wear the bastards down in time. They will leave town and avoid the upper Midwest from now until their ultimate demise at our hands. So keep it up, kids! You do us proud.

More Americans need to demonstrate the same bravery, the same courageous bloody-mindedness of the Minneapolis protesters...

 

To learn more about what it means to be a revolutionary, please copy or click on the following 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 554th 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!

You can also make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is our only source of income. Thank you. 

 

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.

 

To learn more about the importance of the Due Process Clause for both US citizens and non-citizens alike, continue reading the rest of this article. Copy or click 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 517th 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. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

 

Bread and Circuses Redux

Bread and Circuses Redux

Coast Watcher

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions—everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses. ~ Juvenal

The companies that bought time in the recent Superbowl commercial blocks are the same ones that were given trillions of dollars in bailout money by the same people who won’t give us a measly two thousand dollars Covid relief. Like the Roman arenas and circuses of long ago, many modern stadiums are built using public money. The American government obviously thinks that distracting the public by promoting spectacles like the Superbowl is worth more than providing actual payments of cash to help us all through the pandemic.

We’re now told that the next payment due April will be $1400, not $2000, because of the $600 paid out last year by the Trump administration. This is in blatant disregard of the numerous political statements made before the Georgia special election by Biden, Harris, Ossoff and Warnock specifically stating $2000 would be paid out in the event of a Democratic party victory.   

Having got what they wanted, why would the so-called Democrats bother to pay out now? 

We’re also told that the relief payments will be means tested, that anyone earning over $50K as an individual/$100K as a couple won’t get the money. This in spite of the fact that $50k/$100K isn’t a whole heck of a lot of money on which to live in some parts of the US.

Most other first world countries continue to pay their citizens relief money on a steady basis, and will probably do so for the foreseeable future. Not in the US, where capitalism declares everybody must go back to work to make more money for the rich and to hell with your kids and elderly getting exposed to Covid-19. 

Capitalists would prefer you didn’t think of such things, that you must agitate for schools, bars and restaurants to be reopened so you can go back to your "normal" grind. As a thank-you for your slavish cooperation, they’ll throw a few crumbs your way.

Instead of demanding our elected representatives do their duty to the people, we humbly petition them to do so and anxiously hope for bread and circuses. And that's what we get--overpriced distractions and food banks.

God help America. 

From Twitter:

If $50,000 or $70,000 is too much to get a survival check then $174,000 is too much to pay a corrupt politician.

— ✋🏼Daniel (@jai_lies) February 9, 2021

Related article:

 "Unbelievable": Bernie Sanders Slams Democrats Who Want to Narrow Income Eligibility for Stimulus Payments

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67707-unbelievable-bernie-sanders-slams-democrats-who-want-to-narrow-income-eligibility-for-stimulus-payments

BIO: Coast Watcher isn't much into football or circuses of any kind. How long will the American public allow itself to be distracted? If the "$2K check" isn't forthcoming, will that awaken their ire and birth a political revolution? Coastie certainly hopes so!

 ***

The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year fighting against the corporate duopoly. We're not ashamed to say that we need fellow revolutionaries like you to help us stay online and provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can spare some of your pocket change, please use the Paypal.me link below to donate to help fund our operations.

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*** 

Last week, under the cover of darkness, ICE hurriedly rounded up a group of chained and horrified Black immigrants from Alexandria, Louisiana on a deportation flight to Jamaica.

It came 8 days *after* the Biden administration issued a moratorium on deportations, but ICE took advantage of a temporary block on Biden’s deportation moratorium.

Let’s be clear: nothing in the judge’s order requires ICE to deport people right now--DHS has the power to grant stays of removal or use their prosecutorial discretion to stop it.

We need to ramp up the pressure fast -- Families Belong Together is joining with our partners at UndocuBlack Network and the Black Immigrant Collective to demand ICE stop deporting community members and return all our deported community members on iAero Airways Flight 3562. Will you add your name?

aCT NOW →

The Biden administration made a critical first step towards addressing our broken immigration system this week. The moratorium represented a previously-unimaginable collective exhale from thousands of Black and brown people -- both those in detention and their communities of support.

But instead of following this lead, ICE is barreling ahead using the same misguided and cruel removal policies that dominated the Trump era.

ICE might technically be allowed to continue with deportations, but it flies in the face of the crystal clear direction from the Biden administration -- and we can’t let them get away with it.

We need you to help put pressure on DHS to stop deporting our community members and return our deported community members on iAero Airways Flight 3562 -- add your name now.

Thanks for all you do,

Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

***

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, is increasingly linked to cancer. Yet, major stores still sell this toxic herbicide. Join us in this week of action to tell Home Depot and Lowe's to Reject Roundup. Take any of these 3 easy actions:

Take a picture of yourself with a message telling Home Depot and/or Lowe’s to Reject Roundup.  Create your own sign on a piece of paper OR download and print this sign. Then email us your photo and we'll post on our social media. OR Mail or deliver these letters to Home Depot and/or Lowe’s.

And let us know if you do. OR

Post on social media. Post the photo you took above or post one of these suggested messages on Lowe’s Facebook wall, Home Depot’s Facebook wall, and Twitter with these graphics. Show bees and butterflies some love this Valentine's Day, @HomeDepot @Lowes. It’s time to #RejectRoundup! Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup® weedkiller is decimating monarch butterflies by wiping out milkweed, the only food source for their young. Monarchs have declined by 90% in the past 20 years alone. Don’t let them disappear in our lifetime.  Hey, @HomeDepot @Lowes, show us some love this Valentine’s day and #RejectRoundup! This toxic weedkiller is linked to cancer and reproductive harm. We want it off your shelves and out of our bodies!  When are you taking Roundup off your shelves @Lowes and @HomeDepot? This Valentine’s Day, show some love for {insert what is important to you: our kids health, pollinators, groundskeeper health, our waterways, etc.} #RejectRoundup   Post anytime throughout this week and you can even post multiple times. Thank you for joining our Valentine's Week of Action to Reject Roundup. For the health of pollinators, humans, and the planet,

Jes Walton Food Campaigns Director Green America

***

From Friends of the Earth:

Take action to protect ocean habitats from floating factory farms. Sign Now Wild fish, sea birds, and dolphins are at risk -- along with the health of our oceans and coastal communities. Take action now. The federal government is trying to permit industrial ocean fish farms in federal ocean waters without Congressional authorization. These floating factory farms pollute our coastal waters with pesticides and chemicals -- putting our ocean habitats in danger. Our ocean ecosystem is too fragile to put in the hands of agribusiness, and we need your help to stop it. Tell your members of Congress to support the Keep FinFish Free Act to protect our coastal waters. Sign now to demand our oceans are protected from floating factory farms! Sign Now Our oceans are fragile. It takes strategic planning and policies to protect marine environments. Industrial fish farms routinely cause massive spills, spreading diseases, pets, and threatening wild fish stocks. Seabirds get entangled in the pens and cages. Whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions experience food shortages. Giant agribusiness is just another Big Polluter looking to exploit our public lands and water for the sake of profit. Sadly, aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector, while fish receive the least protections. Hold your members of Congress accountable for protecting our waters and wildlife. Take action: Demand the health of our oceans and marine line be protected from aquaculture facilities. Sign Now Factory fish farms depend on toxic pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, and genetically engineered crops -- such as soy -- a disturbing cocktail of toxins that greatly impact human health. Pharmaceutical drugs used to control pests and disease in overcrowded pens can increase the risk of harmful bacteria becoming antibiotic resistant in human illness. Dyes used to make factory farmed salmon pink have links to retinal damage and hyperactivity in children. Chemical compounds used can increase the risk of cancer, reproductive problems, and disrupt the endocrine system. We need your help to hold officials accountable for protecting us from toxic aquaculture facilities. Demand your members of Congress put our health ahead of corporate profit. Demand they support the Keep FinFish Free Act. Sign Now Standing with you, Hallie Templeton, Senior oceans campaigner, Friends of the Earth ***