KISS: Keep It Simple, Sociopath

by C. A. Matthews

It’s been really hard keeping up with what’s been happening recently in Syria and the rest of the world. Then I remembered a wise old saying, and I sat down and started listing the facts, just the facts. Here they are as simple as I can explain them:

First off, the US and its Western allies once called the group now in charge of Syria “terrorists”, but now we’re calling them “moderates” and forgiving them for all the torture and extrajudicial killings that they did. Their leader, Muhammad Al-Jawlani, used to have a $10 million reward on his head for being a terrorist with an organization formerly known as Al Qaeda. (Never heard of them before, have you?) But now we’re supposed to ignore his past because he turned in his turban for a Western-styled suit…

Yeah, that’s it. It’s sort of like a woman becoming a virgin again after twenty years of marriage and several children.

Second thing, we’re told that this recent invasion of Syria is not a land grab. Pay no attention to the Israeli military (using American provided weapons) bombing Syria 480 times in 48 hours because (in their words) the “moderates are terrorists” and can’t control their own people to Israel’s satisfaction. (But Al-Jawlani wears a suit now—doesn’t that make everything all right?) 

 

To learn how the KISS Method helps explain what's happening in the world, 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!

The Exercise of Imagination

 

“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”

—Ursula K. LeGuin

The Exercise of Imagination

by C.A. Matthews

My husband has a new hobby. Every evening he turns on the local newscast to view the weather forecast so we know how much watering our garden will need the next day. Lately he waits until the national newscast comes on. This is when his cathartic yelling at the screen begins.

“What the…? It’s not a war, asshole. The children of Gaza are being murdered. It’s a goddamn genocide. Say the word, you stupid bastard!”

Mercifully, the six o’clock newscast runs only about sixteen minutes or else he’d be permanently hoarse. I timed the commercials one night, and discovered the half hour is made up of mostly commercials for Big Pharma. That gives you some idea who their target audience is—older Americans with deep pockets who love popping pills.

National newscasts really don’t provide news as much as they give out headlines. Their headlines tend to be predictable propaganda soundbites courtesy of the Ministry of Truth or the government propaganda machine. The news readers with their Hollywood-movie-star looks aren’t trying to impart factual information as much as they’re trying to persuade and provoke emotions, such as hatred and animosity toward those whom the oligarchy wants us to hate. They want us to despise and fear others so much that we’d be willing to go to war with them and die—or at least we’re okay with our children or grandchildren dying for the cause.

After watching several national newscasts, the emotional manipulation became bleedin’ obvious (as my British husband says). Do the regular consumers of mainstream (legacy) media realize they’re being manipulated to believe and feel a certain way in the first place? (See last week’s post about who does the manipulating and why.) What do they really get out of it? Do they actually enjoy being lied to? Do the lies reinforce their deep-seated prejudices and feed their wildest fears, making them fat and content in their hatred? Is warmongering propaganda a source of entertainment for them?

 

To read the rest of this article, click on this link to go to our Substack page: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com  There you'll also see the related article and video links, all the images, and be able to easily leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the weekly blog post in your email box as well. (We'll think you'll like it much better than Blogspot.) Power to the people! 

There’s Always Money For Bombs

“The sinews of war are infinite money.” --Marcus Tullius Cicero

"How many free school lunches could have been bought with the money we used to send bombs to Israel so they could bury children under rubble?" --Professor Anthony Zenkus on X https://twitter.com/anthonyzenkus/status/1797464596552585340

There’s Always Money For Bombs

by C.A. Matthews

The images out of Gaza have been unrelentingly traumatic, but the slaughter in Rafah was just unbearably upsetting. Reports of decapitated babies. Charred children. People burned alive. All just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah. All while the US government makes excuse after excuse for Israel’s flagrant breaches of international law, which Israel said was just a “tragic mistake”.

After those images, I couldn’t function anymore. I certainly couldn’t sit down and try and write. The hopelessness and the horror and my rage felt too overwhelming. My complicity felt too overwhelming – the knowledge that this mass slaughter is being facilitated and funded by the US taxpayer, the knowledge that a little portion of my writing income goes towards this suffering. All while the public school around the corner from me in Philadelphia is failing because there’s never enough money for education and the library near me shuts on Sundays because there’s never enough money for public services and there are people going bankrupt in the US from medical bills because there’s never enough money to invest in public health. But there’s always money for bombs. --from Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies? by Arwa Mahdawi

When I read Arwa’s impassioned plea for sanity, I identified with it completely. I knew I had to write about it.

There is always—and I mean always—enough money for bombs in the annual budget that the US Congress passes. Sure, some of the money goes for tanks, nuclear subs, the dockyard queen known as the “Littoral Combat Ship,” and for the crash-worthy F-35, too, but that’s the gist of where the majority of our tax dollars go toward. Armaments. War. Death. Destruction.

Genocide.

Why is that? Arwa makes some pertinent points here. There’s never any money for universal health care or to help struggling public schools in America, but there’s plenty of money to give to genocidal maniacs like Israel, always billions of dollars worth of bombs to hand over to these ethnic cleansing mass murderers. Bombs that have killed and maimed over 100,000 human beings in Gaza alone. Bombs that don’t create goodwill among the nations. Bombs that only create more animosity and fear.

Bombs that are bringing us each and every day closer to a nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it.

I’m sure there are plenty who feel that I’m exaggerating the point and that poor Arwa needs to take a chill pill and lie down until her brain fog clears. I call those types of people “idiots.” Okay, perhaps “morons” might be the better term in an intellectual sense, but either term works for me. Nowadays we can’t afford to keep listening to morons and idiots because these moron and idiots are trying to start World War III.

Don’t believe me? Believe another intelligent person who has looked into this issue:

The Biden administration has given Ukraine permission to use US-provided weapons to hit targets inside Russian territory (...) a step that marks a significant escalation of the proxy war.

“Ukraine needs support from the US for targeting when it fires US-provided missiles, which means the US will now be directly supporting strikes inside Russia. The escalation risks provoking a major response from Russia, as Moscow recently warned the UK that it would target British military sites in Ukraine and “beyond” if British missiles were used in strikes on Russian territory. (…)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any NATO countries that let Ukraine strike Russia with their weapons would face “major consequences.”  From Biden Gives Ukraine Permission To Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons by Dave DeCamp

There it is in black and white. The US is threatening Russia. One nuclear power is threatening another by giving bombs to another country, Ukraine, even after what President Putin said about the first country will be held accountable for whatever damage their bombs do. And the idiots and morons in the US allow Ukraine to shoot American bombs/missiles into Russia, targeting nuclear radar sites, knowing full well that these actions could escalate the current conventional bloodbath into full-fledged nuclear warfare. For added fun, US NATO ally France is sending some of its troops into Ukraine to get slaughtered as quickly as Ukrainian troops have. There can never be enough cannon fodder—I mean “soldiers”.

I know it’s difficult to get your head around this horrific state of affairs, but allow me to help. I believe the word you’re looking for to describe this situation is “suicide.”

To reiterate: There’s always money for bombs. AND the US will always make certain there are bombs enough worldwide to commit a nuclear genocide against every last living thing on earth. Why? Because the US is hell-bent to get its way and remain the top dog economically and militarily while standing on the apex of a pile of smoldering rubble called the Late Great Planet Earth.

See, that’s not too difficult to understand, is it? It isn’t a good thing. In fact, it’s something that the rest of the people of the planet desperately want to stop. It’s what keeping both Arwa and me awake at nights.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know what I mean by the terms “zio-bully” and “zionarcissism”  and how to apply them to the behaviors of the United States of Israel. The US suffers greatly from the mental illness of zionarcissism. It believes the best thing in the world is to zio-bully everyone into doing what they say by threatening them with bombs raining down on them from the sky, along with the parts from more than a few Boeing jets for good measure. [Editor’s note: The US bombs that were rained down upon the sleeping refugee camp in Rafah were actually made by Boeing, the Boeing GBU-39. (Cost reports range from $30,000-$40,000 per bomb.)Yes, Boeing can make something that actually works as intended. Too bad this something was intended to maim and kill.]

by Mark Taylor www.DeMOCKracy.Ink

I know what you’re thinking, if you’re a sane and moral person, that is. You’re thinking: “It doesn’t make any sense for the US, or anyone for that matter, to provoke a nuclear confrontation. Nobody wins in a nuclear war.” You’re absolutely right. But if you’ve been following recent events, you’ll have come to the conclusion that the US is not run by anyone the least sane and/or moral.

For crying out loud, Butcher Biden has been giving away billions of dollars worth of bombs and armaments to Israel who is clearly committing war crimes against an indigenous civilian population! Children are being burnt alive and suffering amputations without the benefit of anesthetic because Biden allows the Israelis to block food and medicines from coming into Gaza. I ask you how is Biden’s behavior either “sane” or “moral”?

“But what do we Americans get out of all this death and destruction?” you wonder. “Surely we must get something out of it, or why else do it and ruin our reputation on the world stage?”

Good questions. Perhaps there are no satisfactory answers. One thing the NATO countries are getting from watching the Israeli Occupation Forces bomb and sniper-shoot their way across Gaza is lots of great data on how well their instruments of death work in the field. Military scientists now know exactly how many bombs it takes to turn a city the size of Gaza City into rubble. This could make fighting conventional wars in the future (if there is a future) much more organized and cost effective.  If you know you’ll only need like 25,000 bunker buster bombs for your first month’s barrage, then you won’t need to buy or stock any more bombs than that. See how that could save a few trillion bucks in the Pentagon’s budget? (More money for those legendary golden toilet seats for F-35s!)

Even more sinister than that is now all these wonderful military-industrial complex corporations have great feedback on just how deadly their weapons of war really are. I mean, it’s difficult to know just how many children can be burned alive in a refugee tent camp without actually testing out your bombs by dropping them on some human guinea pigs. Isn’t it nice how the people of Gaza have volunteered their services essentially to serve as “crash test dummies” for the past eight months?

You don’t believe me that scientists actually collect this sort of data from the deaths of civilians and use it to make more lethal weapons? Well, if I told you that Nazi scientists tested weapons on the bodies of living (soon dead) concentration camp prisoners during World War II, and that information was snatched up by the US and others at the end of the war and studied closely, would you still not believe me? It’s okay if you don’t. But watch out that you and yours don’t become the next guinea pig they decide to test out their instruments of death on.

In the end, that’s all the military-industrial complex CEOs want—lots of profits (which the US government is providing) and lots of success with their “products” so they get repeat business. And these products won’t necessarily be sold to be used abroad in a distant land against a distant people you don’t like next time. Americans could be the next guinea pigs. Take a look at our militarized policing systems in American cities.

Why the hell does a small town with less than 25,000 people in the heartland of America need a dozen Humvee armored cars, courtesy of a Pentagon rummage sale? Answer: It doesn’t. But I used to drive past the police depot that contained these weapons of war when I lived in that little town, and I wondered if the cops bought them just in case they ever needed to mow down a few protesters who started acting out of line and demanding an end to the genocides, an end to the endless wars.

Small town cops can’t ever be too careful come a full fledged “riot” of five grandmothers and two dogs standing on the corner of Main Street carrying “Free Palestine” banners. Those armored cars will come in handy in running those “killer grannies” down, won’t they? Who’s to say our militarized police won’t use these military-grade weapons against us for other things like being the wrong color, wrong religion, wrong politics, wrong gender identity, wrong… You get the picture.

So remember: There’s always money for bombs. That is, until We the People decide that there isn’t, and we do something to stop these insane genocidal-suicidal morons.

photos by Stefan Fane

One big thing we can do is show solidarity with oppressed people both at home and around the world. We can broadcast their cause to a wider audience, since broadcast mainstream media stations won’t bother to. We can stand together and not let the morons-in-charge divide us and conquer our power.

I did just that this past weekend. I marched in solidarity for Palestine with an interesting mix of people—peace activists, queer activists, LGBTQIA supporters, American Muslim activists and their supporters. I know, these don’t sound like groups that normally would march together in a summer festival parade under the banner of Palestine liberation, but they did. We had a great time and received over all good responses from the community.

Marching with Stefan

We can’t allow the morons to break our spirits. We can’t allow them to divide and conquer us as we fight for our case. We can’t quit protesting until we see our objectives met.

One day soon, we will make it so there is never any money for bombs as long as there are oppressed human beings in need of our help anywhere on the planet. I can’t wait to walk beside you then.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Israel’s Tents Massacre in Rafah Is a Heinous War Crime https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/tents-massacre-rafah-war-crime

Rafah Invasion Was Once Biden’s “Red Line” — But Israel Continues to Cross It https://truthout.org/articles/rafah-invasion-was-once-bidens-red-line-but-israel-continues-to-cross-it/

Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/biden-palestinian-beheaded-israeli-babies

Biden Lets Ukraine Strike Russia With US Weapons While Ukraine Attacks Russian Nuclear Defenses  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-lets-ukraine-strike-russia

Biden Gives Ukraine Permission To Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/30/biden-gives-ukraine-permission-to-strike-inside-russia-with-us-weapons/

US Presidents Who Gamble With Nuclear Armageddon https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/30/us-presidents-who-gamble-with-nuclear-armageddon/

The Military-Industrial Complex Is Killing Us All https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/03/the-military-industrial-complex-is-killing-us-all/

Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed https://www.972mag.com/icc-israel-surveillance-investigation/

The ICC Takes on Israel and the US Congressional Mafia https://medeabenjamin.substack.com/p/the-icc-takes-on-israel-and-the-us

Top EU official accused at ICC of ‘complicity’ in Gaza genocide https://thecradle.co/articles/top-eu-official-accused-at-icc-of-complicity-in-gaza-genocide

Israel Seizes Entire Gaza Border! https://rumble.com/v4ygyze-live-israel-seizes-entire-gaza-border-and-much-more.html

Biden pressures Netanyahu to accept peace deal that could have been agreed 40,000 bodies ago https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/biden-pressures-netanyahu-to-accept

Falsified US State Department Report Inspires Yet Another Resignation https://popularresistance.org/falsified-us-state-department-report-inspires-yet-another-resignation/

This Texas Company Is Providing the Jet Fuel for Israel’s Assault on Gaza https://truthout.org/articles/this-texas-company-is-providing-the-jet-fuel-for-israels-assault-on-gaza/

UN Calls for International Aid as Sudan Faces Imminent Famine Amid Civil War https://truthout.org/articles/un-calls-for-international-aid-as-sudan-faces-imminent-famine-amid-civil-war/

UCLA's Disturbing Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters: An Injustice Unfolds https://www.citizenschronicle.org/p/uclas-disturbing-crackdown-on-peaceful

Gaza-on-the-Rhine, a history lesson https://autonomies.org/2024/03/yazan-alloujami-gaza-on-the-rhine-a-history-lesson/

From Massachusetts, Some Tax-the-Rich Inspiration https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/28/from-massachusetts-some-tax-the-rich-inspiration/

In a Victory for Assange and First Amendment, UK Court Grants Right to Appeal  https://truthout.org/articles/in-a-victory-for-assange-and-first-amendment-uk-court-grants-right-to-appeal/

Why Celebrities Aren't Speaking Up About Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/why-celebrities-arent-speaking-up

Educators Celebrate as Judge Strikes Down New Hampshire ‘Banned Concepts’ Law https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/30/educators-celebrate-as-judge-strikes-down-new-hampshire-banned-concepts-law/

Delhi Heat Wave Suggests Underestimated Speed and Intensity of Global Warming https://truthout.org/articles/delhi-heat-wave-suggests-underestimated-speed-and-intensity-of-global-warming/

Murray & Galloway on Ending Israel's Genocide in Gaza https://youtu.be/mW5KF-Z08ug

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Go to https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com and subscribe at the link at the end of the article. You'll enjoy having each week's post automatically sent to your email box or reading it at the Substack site. Many thanks for your consideration. 

(How Not To Say) Told You So

 

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.― Joe Klaas

 

(How Not To Say) Told You So

by C.A. Matthews

Seven years ago, if you’d asked me if Hillary Clinton was going to win the 2016 presidential election or not and why, I would have answered: “Of course not! She’s not that popular. She actually smiled gleefully on television about slaughtering Qaddafi in cold blood when she was Secretary of State. Ew! She just rubs people the wrong way.”

I was right. Told you so.

If you would have asked me after the 2016 election how Hillary and the Dems were going to take their embarrassing loss, I’d have said: “They’ll come up with some elaborate excuse to cover up for the fact that they were too lazy to campaign in the Rust Belt, Deep South, or Rural West in order to garner those electoral college votes. They’ll refuse to accept their responsibility for this loss and will place the blame on others, pretending to be ‘victims’ of some great plot to make them look bad. Just you wait and see.”

Told you so—again. This time it was a much more sinister thing to have been right about. And it's been an uncomfortable seven years being maligned and shouted down although, in the end, I was proven right.

According to Black Agenda Report:

Taken together - the Mueller report that failed to uncover collusion between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign, and the Horowitz report that revealed violations of FBI protocols and which generated legal proceedings against some agents related to information used to justify launching Crossfire Hurricane, and now the Durham report - it is clear that the political and cultural phenomenon known as “Russiagate” could be legitimately characterized as a state-sponsored domestic psy-op.

The release of the Durham Report has finally vindicated my (and many others’) take on the Russiagate scandal. It has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be indeed an elaborate fraud concocted by the Democratic Party with the help of the FBI. The 306-page report was sent to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland and concludes that the FBI engaged in a witch hunt, code named Crossfire Hurricane, that was orchestrated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, aided and abetted by senior FBI officials who loathed Trump.  

We at The Revolution Continues were so confident that Russiagate was simply an elaborate cover up for Hillary’s unpopularity and big loss that we even created a whole page full of links to articles and videos demonstrating that none of the claims made by the Dems  were remotely true. (You can see just how much evidence we accumulated here.) 

To those of us on the actual Left who follow the reporting of independent journalists, Russigate was a blatantly obvious scam from the start. It didn’t deserve a moment’s notice of a serious publication or network and should go down in history as an example of how far a US political party will go to manipulate the mainstream media into covering for its extremely unlikable candidate and her poorly run campaign. President Richard "Watergate" Nixon is rolling in his grave at how long the Dems have got away with it.

So, here we are seven years later and the Durham Report has spilled the beans. There was no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and any foreign power. Zero evidence. No convictions were ever made from any of the multitude of allegations. Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald covers the whole story well in this episode of System Update: Durham Report Obliterates FBI for Russiagate Misconduct.

I hate to say, “I told you so!” to friends who fell hook, line and sinker for all the Russiagate nonsense, but it doesn't make any sense. Why didn’t they listen to us here at TRC in the first place? We could have saved them a lot of time and worry fretting over a so-called “foreign influence” interfering with the presidential election. Let’s face facts: The only persons who interfere with American elections are our fellow Americans who already have the power and means to do so, as well as the desire to change and/or manipulate the numbers in their favor. 

You think we’ll get an apology anytime soon from the top-ranked Dems who came up with this load of hogwash? I sincerely doubt it. To admit complicity in such a criminal plot that was a fiendish waste of time (and ultimately taxpayers’ dollars to debunk it) in order to **snigger** make demagogue Donald Trump look “bad” would make the Democratic Party look even more inept that the cognitively challenged resident currently residing in the White House. 

But Russiagate goes beyond mere ineptitude according to Black Agenda Report:

Remember, the infamous ‘Steele Dossier’ was paid for by the Clinton campaign and played a significant role in the mythology of Russigate. (…) Despite the fact that the Mueller report concluded that there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian Federation and that Russian election interference was largely an urban myth – the FBI’s absurd charges against the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) and its Chairman and supporters is based on the acceptance that the Russians are still involved in “malign influence” campaigns across the U.S. The FBI claims that the APSP has committed the ideological crime of “sowing dissent” among the public by their opposition to the Biden initiated war in Ukraine.

 

We talked about this incident concerning the APSP a couple of weeks ago in Weaponizing Free Speech. A made up hoax to cover for Hillary’s embarrassing loss in 2016 has led to a culture that demonizes and censors all groups that hold a very different outlook when it comes to eternal wars for resources at the expense of others. Because of a huge lie that has demonized Russia, dissenters such as the members of the African People’s Socialist Party must be arrested by the FBI and locked up. Their voices must be silenced—all because of the horrendous mess that is Russiagate, which was created for solely selfish political purposes.
 
Fellow Americans, the members of the APSP, could be sent to prison because (wait for it)... Because the Dems in 2016 wanted to make Hillary Clinton look like a victim of Russian propaganda and manipulation. It would be almost comical if it wasn't altogether criminal what the FBI is currently doing to the APSP members who were merely exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech.

And of course neither Hillary nor any of her pals in the DNC will ever see jail time for this criminal enterprise. Disgusting.

So, how can we prevent ourselves from saying “Told you so” when it’s oh-so tempting? Perhaps the best way is to not let these situations happen in the first place. Preemptively encourage your friends and family members to develop critical thinking skills. They must trust their natural sense of “What’s the motive behind this action? Who profits from spinning the narrative to make the public scared/angry/indignant about this particular person/place/organization? Is anyone trying to cover up for something they should or shouldn’t have done?”

If your friend or loved one can learn to stop and carefully question an organization’s or corporation’s or government’s or a political party’s motives and narratives, perhaps they will be able to stop themselves from becoming victims of the propaganda spewed from the mouths of co-opted mainstream media pundits. You won’t have to say “Told you so” ever again because they will be able to discern the truth and uncover the lies for themselves.

We talked about developing critical thinking skills on this blog before in our article on the East Palestine, Ohio/Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical burn (American Chernobyl). I know it’s easier said than done to inspire others to develop these necessary survival skills.

Some folks seem addicted to CNN or Fox News or whatever pundit they feel is speaking the gospel truth at that moment. They’ll automatically accept whatever is told to them by someone such as Rachel Maddow, even though her lawyers admitted in court that she isn’t truthfully reporting news but is “entertaining” her audience with whatever they want to hear. (And at a $30 million+ yearly salary Rachel will say anything. She doesn’t care if she’s acting like a parrot for a government disinformation agency. The money is good.)

This continual reinforcement of a false narrative from the media—such as the continual emphasis that Trump was working for Russia or that APSP members’ activism for peace in Ukraine is somehow “anti-American”—can make others act defensively when irrefutable evidence such as the Durham Report is given to them. They’ll lash out in anger or denial of the facts because of the psychic pain of cognitive dissonance. Providing facts that could overturn a big lie such as Russiagate could also ruin your relationship. I know I’ve been there. 

I was trying to convince a person that the Nazi influence in Ukraine goes way back to World War II. He wouldn’t have any of it. Photos of statues of Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in prominent display throughout Ukraine wouldn’t convince him. Videos of the summer camps that Ukrainian children attend where they are taught white supremacist dogma didn’t impress him. Even the fact that the Russians lost 26 million lives to the Nazis and are vehemently anti-Nazi wouldn’t convince him that they had strong motives to help their fellow ethnic Russians in the Donbass who had been repeatedly bombed by Neo-Nazis since 2015. I suppose asking him to read this well-researched piece, Nazis in Ukraine—It's Worse Than You Think, wouldn’t change his mind, either. 

When at long last it comes out in the mainstream media that there have been real live Nazis in Ukraine all along—and no doubt it will come out as NATO distances themselves from Ukraine and the potential war with China heats up—how will I stop myself from shouting, “I told you so”? It’s going to be tough. I’ll have to bite my tongue. Hard. 

But if I really care about this person, step-by-step I’ll help him see how he has been indoctrinated by an uncaring mainstream media...who works at the behest of an equally uncaring government...who works essentially for the billionaires of the military industrial complex that profits from eternal war. I’ll take things slow and easy. If he starts to connect the dots on his own, I won’t stop him and take the credit, but give him all the praise he deserves as a critical thinker. 

Because that’s who we need more of in this world. Critical thinkers who won’t blindly follow the horrendous hoaxes such as Russiagate. Critical thinkers who’ll stop and dissect the propaganda they’re being constantly bombarded with. Critical thinkers who’ll fight back against the censorship imposed upon us by those who wish to manipulate us. 

Welcome to the “good fight,” comrades! 

An Example of a Substack "Note"

"The problem, as is so often the case, is that mainstream westerners make the assumption that "If that's what was happening, we would have heard about it in the news." Not understanding that their "news" media is designed to advance the interests of the powerful, not to report the news." --Caitlin Johnstone

This is why I wish they'd get rid of the moniker "news" for the infotainment shows on the networks and "news" channels. They're not telling us anything we really need to hear--they're simply covering for the powerful, the manipulators of kings and corporations. It's time to do like the character of Howard Beal did in the movie Network and throw the tube out the second story window.

 

 

Read more "Notes" like this one at our Substack page and subscribe today: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

 

Related and Insightful Links:

Durham Report Obliterates FBI for Russiagate Misconduct. Major Changes at Twitter Raise Serious Questions. And Reflections on the Extraordinary Life of David Miranda | SYSTEM UPDATE #83
https://rumble.com/v2o5wgs-system-update-83.html

Durham Report Reveals the Real Threat to “Democracy” – The FBI Weaponized by Democrat Party Affiliated Elites
https://www.blackagendareport.com/durham-report-reveals-real-threat-democracy-fbi-weaponized-democrat-party-affiliated-elites

Why the Conspiracy Theory About Trump and Russia Won't Go Away  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-the-conspiracy-theory-about-trump

Eight Takeaways From the Durham Report
https://www.racket.news/p/damn-thats-thin-i-know-it-sucks-the

A Century of Censorship https://www.racket.news/p/a-century-of-censorship

Western News Media Exist To Administer Propaganda
https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/western-news-media-exist-to-administer

Bellingcat is a Western 'psy-op'
https://mate.substack.com/p/elon-musk-is-right-bellingcat-is

We Must Speak Up Before the Propagandists Get Their War with China  https://therealnews.com/we-must-speak-up-before-the-propagandists-get-their-war-with-china 

Counter-Disinformation: The New Snake Oil
https://www.racket.news/p/counter-disinformation-the-new-snake

Who is Accountable.us? https://indiemediatoday.substack.com/p/who-is-accountableus-howdidwemisstha

Marching To The Beat Of The Imperial Machine https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/marching-to-the-beat-of-the-imperial

‘Death Outlives War’: Analysis Estimates Post-9/11 ​US Conflicts Killed Over 4.5 Million https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/16/death-outlives-war-analysis-estimates-post-9-11-us-conflicts-killed-over-4-5-million/

A New Report Finds That the “War on Terror” Led to More Than 4.5 Million Deaths https://truthout.org/articles/a-new-report-finds-that-the-war-on-terror-led-to-more-than-4-5-million-deaths/

Biden Okays F-16s for Ukraine, US Weapons to Attack Crimea https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-okays-f-16s-for-ukraine-us

Ukraine Aid Funding Expected to Run Out by Mid-Summer
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/16/ukraine-aid-funding-expected-to-run-out-by-mid-summer/

Nazis in Ukraine--It's Worse Than You Think https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/nazis-in-ukraine-its-worse-than-you-think-80a2b8028306

Peru’s coup-plotting congress has 6% approval, 91% disapproval (but full US backing)
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/16/peru-coup-congress-approval-us/

Seymour Hersh: The Ukraine Refugee Question
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/19/seymour-hersh-the-ukraine-refugee-question/

Patrick Lawrence: Farewell to the Welfare State? Not Just Yet.
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/17/patrick-lawrence-farewell-to-the-welfare-state-not-just-yet/

The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World
https://eisenhowermedianetwork.org/russia-ukraine-war-peace/

Patrick Lawrence: The USA’s Soviet-Style President
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/17/patrick-lawrence-the-usas-soviet-style-president/

SCOTUS Case May Slash Regulation Of Everything https://popularresistance.org/scotus-case-may-slash-regulation-of-everything/

Inflation drives US household debt to record $17 trillion
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/16/fcta-m16.htm


Montana Becomes First State to Ban TikTok Amid Concerns of First Amendment Violations
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/18/montana-becomes-first-state-to-ban-tiktok-amid-concerns-of-first-amendment-violations/

Report Reveals Top CEOs Dodge Taxes on Nearly $9 Billion in Retirement Funds
https://truthout.org/articles/report-reveals-top-ceos-dodge-taxes-on-nearly-9-billion-in-retirement-funds/

The Flight From the US Dollar
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/18/the-flight-from-the-us-dollar/ 

American Chernobyl https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/american-chernobyl.html

Weaponizing Free Speech https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/weaponizing-free-speech.html 

 

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

More details to come. Power to the people!

Good-bye, BlackRock! So Long, Petrodollar! Hello, Peace!

China must be stopped before it imposes totalitarian diplomacy on Ukraine and authoritarian peace in the middle east. --Caitlin Johnstone

 

Good-bye, BlackRock! 

So Long, Petrodollar! 

Hello, Peace!

by C. A. Matthews

 

I took only one economics course in college, but even I can understand enough about our screwed up capitalist economic system to see where we’ve gone wrong. We’ve placed greed before compassion and war before peace because of their profit-making abilities. Look where it’s gotten us—the US stands on the precipice of total disaster.

And that’s a good thing.

Can the destruction of our corporate-controlled government’s way of manipulating and exploiting other governments be a positive development in the quest for world peace? I think we’re witnessing the end of an era. Soon the United States will have to stop forcing “freedom and democracy” upon other countries via sanctions and bombings. 

This “War on Terrorism” era that turned the US into the world’s biggest economic terrorist is, at last, drawing to a close. China is taking the world stage as peacemaker, acting as a go-between to feuding neighbors Iran and Saudi Arabia. Other countries are being helped by China’s New Silk Road (officially, the Belt and Road Initiative) with its low interest loans that will help them build necessary infrastructure projects.

I can see that quizzical look on some of my readers' faces now. China? What do you mean it’s not forcing itself on others with economic sanctions and threats of “military interventions” the way the US does? It actually wants countries to get along so everyone can safely do business with each other and live in peace?

What a dangerous concept according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken actually claimed that brokering peace deals between countries wasn’t a good thing after China said it was willing to sit down with Russia and Ukraine and help them put an end to their disagreements and save lives.

The US refuses to accept these potential peace negotiations (even though we’re supposedly not even at war with Russia) because it’s not in our best interests according to Blinken. The US government’s stance is that it prefers the fighting continue—or is it our true masters, the military industrial complex, who prefer this proxy war go on forever? Endless warfare means they can sell an infinite amount of armaments to a steadily growing number of combatants. At least that’s the theory if the countries involved don’t run out of soldiers. I guess there’s always those nifty A.I. “robodogs” with machine guns for faces to take up the slack, right?

MIC capitalists can’t have peace and cooperation breaking out across the planet like crocuses breaking through the frozen soil in the spring. No, never! What would happen to their profits if people simply lived in harmony with each other? Oh, the horror!

Those Americans who continue listening to mainstream media propagandists (who actually work for the military industrial complex) will continue believing that “War is Peace.” Orwellian doublespeak makes them see the world through the eyes of capitalist warmongers and profiteers. They irrationally hate China and its diplomatic ways. They’ll continue screaming for billions of dollars more to be sent to Ukraine in order to prolong that conflict, in spite of the fact there are fewer and fewer Ukrainians left to do the fighting. They’ll insist on the US starting a war to nuke China over Taiwan, a break away province that hasn’t been sanctioned or bombed by its parent country. For capitalists, it’s America’s way or the highway, even if the highway is strewn with millions of dead bodies from conflicts that could have easily been avoided.

Fortunately, the vast majority of sane individuals on this planet aren’t falling for the capitalists’ lies about the necessity for resource grabs any longer. They don’t agree with the US policy of economic sanctions that cause hunger and chaos in their wake. African leaders told a visiting V.P. Kamala Harris that they’re not going to be bullied into using the American petrodollar to do business internationally anymore. India and Pakistan have purchased and sold oil recently from Russia using their currency and not the petrodollar. Many countries are applying to join BRICS, an association of nations willing do business with each other in their own currencies and not the “standard reserve currency” of the US petrodollar.

Upon hearing about the growth of BRICS and the use of other currencies, Senator Marco Rubio let slip in a news interview: “They're creating a secondary economy in the world totally independent of the United States. We won't have to talk about sanctions in five years, because there'll be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar that we won't have the ability to sanction them." 

Oops!

That’s great news for heavily sanctioned countries like Cuba. Cuba, a country that came up with its own COVID-19 vaccine that it freely shares with others as well as a lung cancer vaccine than can cure millions. Cuba would prosper and be able to share even more of its people’s expertise freely without the economic roadblock of the US petrodollar. But Big Pharmaceutical corporations don’t want the “competition” that free vaccines and cures for cancer can give, so the US economic sanctions most likely will continue for the foreseeable future.

It’s nothing to be proud of. US economic sanctions and military interventions have maimed, starved, injured and killed more human beings in the last seventy years that in all the wars that have taken placed before that time. Most of the dead are children. 

Why, oh why? Don’t you capitalists have enough profits? Your CEOs are multi-billionaires already—do they have to become trillionaires at the cost of so much human suffering?

I've had enough of them. I say, “So long, petrodollar! Hello, world peace!” What about this“Good-bye, BlackRock” then?

French protesters—remember them from last week’s blog?—entered the Paris headquarters of BlackRock. BlackRock is an international corporation with assets worth somewhere in the vicinity of $10 trillion dollars. (Yes, that’s trillion with a “tr” and not a “b”.) If you are one of the millions of Americans who lost their home in the 2008 mortgage crisis, the bank or mortgage company that repossessed your home is probably controlled by BlackStone, which is owned by BlackRock. They hold a major share in thousands of corporations worldwide. Some of these corporations are major players in the US military industrial complex.

BlackRock has a lot of its investments in pension plans, perhaps even your own 401K, and it owns a lot of the French pension system as well. The French workers have told President Macron that they’re tired of the wealthy not paying their fair share of taxes and his unilateral raising of their retirement age. They are burning bank buildings because they realize their true enemies are not their fellow workers, or even people around the world who don’t look like them, but the capitalists who own and operate such obscenities as BlackRock. 

The French are also marching in the streets shouting at Macron to stop spending their taxes to fund a proxy war to control natural gas sales in Europe. They are anti-NATO, because everyone in France openly acknowledges that the Ukraine conflict was provoked by Western economies to break the Russian and its friends' economies. French workers want peace and justice for ordinary people, not only the multi-billionaires. 

 

Now you can see why Secretary Blinken doesn’t want China to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. There’s money to be made in conflict for his bosses in the military industrial complex, and peace would cause their profits to plummet. The petrodollar is on the wane, and he knows it. US economic sanctions won’t work much longer if there are other currencies being used to do business internationally between nations. The whole “terrorist threat” of US economic sanctions and endless warfare/coups d'état might be coming to an end much sooner than predicted.

It’s about time.

Let’s give peace a chance, America. Everyone will benefit. Even the goddamn profit-loving capitalists.

 

Related Links:

Geopolitical game changer: China's Iran-Saudi peace deal is big blow to petrodollar and US economic hegemony https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/china-iran-saudi-peace-petrodollar 

 

Countries Worldwide Are Dropping the US Dollar

https://popularresistance.org/countries-worldwide-are-dropping-the-us-dollar/

The Tragedy of US Diplomacy Pushing for War But Never Peace

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-tragedy-of-us-diplomacy-pushing-for-war-but-never-peace

 

Human Destiny In Ukraine

https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/09/human-destiny-in-ukraine/

On Biden Turning Down China's Push for a Peace Deal in Ukraine

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/china-peace-deal-for-ukraine

 

How the Global South Has Risen in the Face of US Sabotage

https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-global-south-has-risen-in-the-face-of-us-sabotage/284247/

French Pension Protesters Occupy BlackRock, Torch Restaurant https://popularresistance.org/french-pension-protesters-occupy-blackrock-torch-restaurant/  

 

UN Human Rights Council Condemns Impact Of Unilateral Sanctions  https://popularresistance.org/un-human-rights-council-condemns-impact-of-unilateral-sanctions/ 

 

While Everyone's Distracted, The Dollar Is Dying
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/while-everyones-distracted-dollar-dying

More and More Countries Are Ditching the US Dollar, Here's Why (video)  https://youtu.be/UcIPLGvwGF0

Question marks emerge over dollar supremacy
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/06/tokb-a06.html

Russia Writes Off 20 Billion In Debt To African Countries
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Russia-Writes-Off-20-Billion-In-Debt-To-African-Countries-20230320-0015.html

15 Million in the US to be Kicked Off of Public Health Benefits
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/07/15-million-in-the-us-to-be-kicked-off-of-public-health-benefits/

UN Human Rights Council Condemns Impact of Unilateral Sanctions https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/06/un-human-rights-council-condemns-impact-of-unilateral-sanctions/

Africa ‘All Out,’ 54-0, Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/07/africa-all-out-54-0-against-joining-bidens-proxy-war-on-russia/

The West Has Been Planning to Crush China For a Very Long Time
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-west-has-been-planning-to-crush

Why China's Winning & The US Is Panicking (w/ Josef Gregory Mahoney) (video) https://www.youtube.com/live/MMkqeaTlVTA

Chinese Currency Displaces Euro In Brazil’s Foreign Reserves
https://popularresistance.org/chinese-currency-displaces-euro-in-brazils-foreign-reserves/

China’s Historical Destiny Is to Stand With the Third World
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/02/chinas-historical-destiny-is-to-stand-with-the-third-world/

 

Marco Rubio Accidentally Makes a Great Argument Against US Dollar Hegemony https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/marco-rubio-accidentally-makes-a 

 

Protesters Storm BlackRock (video) https://rumble.com/v2he81o-protesters-storm-blackrocks-offices-bidens-oil-drilling-orgy.html

Macron Fails to Persuade, So Opts for Coercion https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/08/macron-fails-to-persuade-so-opts-for-coercion/

French Protesters Storm BlackRock's Paris HQ (video) https://youtu.be/xqki_HI1ZRY

US Media Cheer as France Forces Old People to Work https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/08/us-media-cheer-as-france-forces-old-people-to-work/

Biden Knocking 15 Million Off Healthcare (video) https://rumble.com/v2h0lzq-trumps-plane-gets-more-media-than-biden-knocking-15-million-off-healthcare.html 

US Bank Bailout Benefited Billionaires, Exposing Corruption: ‘I Understand Why Americans Are Angry’ https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/10/us-bank-bailout-benefitted-billionaires-exposing-corruption-i-understand-why-americans-are-angry/

Seymour Hersh: The Nord Stream Ghost Ship
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/05/seymour-hersh-the-nord-stream-ghost-ship/

For The Record, NPR Absolutely Is US State Propaganda
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/for-the-record-npr-absolutely-is

French Revolution 2.0/American Revolution Nil https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/french-revolution-20american-revolution.html

Seen on Twitter:

French protestors have stormed the Blackrock HQ. It's not just about retirement reforms now. They know who their enemies are (and this is why the US gov want to ban you know what) pic.twitter.com/kJq1rl90yW

— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) April 8, 2023

"Peace? You want peace??? 😡We will give you a 'piece' of this" -- US Navy sends a nuclear submarine loaded with missiles to the Middle East after Saudi Arabia makes peace with Iran, Syria and Yemen.

America is a crazy and dangerous hegemon unable to handle its decline amidst… pic.twitter.com/S8UVqzG6TN

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) April 8, 2023

Same old story. During elections, Republicans and Democrats scream that the differences between them are so seismic, civilization itself hangs in the balance. Then on the most consequential actions they can take -- like hurtling into World War III -- they behave exactly the same pic.twitter.com/SSDNZuDD0m

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 6, 2023