Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

 


The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Is No Democracy At All)

by C.A. Matthews

 

I believe most Americans understand that the United States is not a democracy or even qualifies as a representative democracy. The US is, in fact, an oligarchy, which means politicians work for their big money donors and not for the people.

The Princeton Study proved that no matter how hard average voters try to influence their elected representatives—try to make them vote for or sponsor a bill that would benefit ordinary people and not billionaires—the result will be the same. Whatever corporations and the super rich folks who own them want, they’ll get. To put it plainly, “Screw the needs of ordinary Americans!”

I came across an example this week that illustrates the American oligarchy in action. I will make a few suggestions on how we can fight back against their tactics, but feel free to come up with some actions of your own. Please write them in the comments below because sharing knowledge is power. Thank you.

From a recent Jill Stein for President campaign email:

On Thursday June 27th, the FEC [Federal Elections Commission] informed us that our campaign had qualified for primary matching funds. Then minutes later, FEC told us the Treasury department will withhold our payments to give priority to general election funding–just in case the Democratic and Republican candidates decide they want it.

Let me explain why that’s so outrageous...

 

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 leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the weekly blog post in your email box as well. Subscribe today! Power to the people!

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Sitting In The Dock At The Hague...

 

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others like him never need worry about going to prison for committing war crimes. Must be nice.

The Hague Invasion Act and the Hypocrisy of Joe Biden

by Coast Watcher

Last week, President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a war criminal” for ordering attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine. A few days ago, Biden announced at the end of his remarks:

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said on Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The White House and the State Dept. have been scrambling to explain away Biden’s remark. (...)

It was the second time that Biden confirmed that the purpose of the draconian US sanctions on Russia was never to prevent the invasion of Ukraine, which the US desperately needed to activate its plans, but to punish Russia and get its people to rise up against Putin and ultimately restore a Yeltsin-like puppet to Moscow. Without a cause those sanctions could never have been imposed. The cause was Russia’s invasion.
--Joe Lauria, Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War

Whatever the justification for accusing Putin of such crimes, Biden’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. Threatening to take out another leader is an act of war. The CIA has assisted many such coups d'etat--such as the 2014 overturn of the Ukrainian election. This is a war crime. And not many Americans are aware that the United States has created a legal fig-leaf for invading an allied country should it dare put an American on trial for the same kind of crimes Biden accuses Putin and his military of doing.

Titled "The American Service-Members Protection Act"  (or "The Hague Invasion Act"), President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2002. That was the same year the International Criminal Court (ICC) began operations at The Hague, Netherlands. The International Criminal Court was founded by the 1998 Statute of Rome as the first permanent judicial body to try persons accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The United Nations Security Council can also entrust the ICC to conduct trials in certain cases.

The American Service-Members Protection Act allows the United States to help bring those accused of war crimes to justice—should such a measure be assessed as being in America’s best interests. What really should set alarm bells ringing is the tiny fact that the law also allows the US military to invade the Netherlands, specifically The Hague, should the ICC ever dare to put an American on trial. 

Consider that for a moment. The Netherlands is a founding member of NATO since it was established in 1949 at the start of the original Cold War. The United States, its ally, has made it legal to invade and attack the Netherlands should the ICC even attempt to allow justice to prevail against US service personnel or citizens.

The Hague Invasion Act also allows the US to withdraw military assistance for any of the 138 ICC signatory countries unless they agree not to extradite Americans to stand trial at The Hague. It also prohibits ICC officials from conducting investigations in US territories. The American government has explicitly stated that it will arrest any such official that sets foot on US soil and has promised sanctions against any official who attempts to investigate American war crimes elsewhere.

So what exactly constitutes a "war crime"? According to the Geneva Conventions:

War crimes include the following serious violations of international humanitarian law:
(i) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions:
In the case of an international armed conflict, any of the following acts committed against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
• wilful killing;
• torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
• wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
• extensive destruction or appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
• compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
• wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial;
• unlawful deportation or transfer;
• unlawful confinement;
• taking of hostages.
This list of grave breaches was included in the Geneva Conventions largely on the basis of crimes pursued after the Second World War by the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and at Tokyo and by national courts.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v1_rul_rule156

The American government has killed, tortured, and imprisoned millions of people across the globe in various wars, military interventions, and regime changes, yet its so-called leaders can stand up in front of us with straight faces and have the nerve to call Putin a war criminal. It takes one to know one! In their hubris they know they can do exactly the same or worse things and that there's little to no chance of any country ever daring to put an American on trial for his/her war crimes. 

What’s even sadder is that NATO and most other countries go right along with it as if it's no big deal. War crimes are atrocities only committed by non-Americans apparently. Any American who commits a war crime will never be punished by the ICC. They'll walk free.

https://popularresistance.org/america-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/
What's the use of an international war crimes court that has no ability to punish those who commit war crimes? What's the use of not punishing war criminals who commit such acts as waterboarding, of holding and torturing their prisoners without charges for decades? You do remember the American government owns and operates Guantánamo Bay, don't you? 

Remember the prisoners being tortured and humiliated by US service personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Remember the shocking photo of that poor guy being held naked on a dog leash while a female soldier used electric shocks and taunted him with sexual abuses? Those are war crimes by any name.

The US building biolabs in the Ukraine and working on deadly pathogens there over the past eight years? Nah, that's just a walk in the park. Nothing to see here, folks--move along now before we decide to disappear you to Gitmo, too.


BIO: Coast Watcher sometimes can't believe the audacity and evil intent of world leaders. Perhaps it's good they're starting to let their facades slip. We know more about the inner workings of these murderous cabals than ever before. What's keeping us from building guillotines to rid us of these tyrannical psychopaths?

What we do know about the US biological weapons involvement in Ukraine. And this is just a thumbnail sketch…

1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar program for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the program’s main executor.

1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.

2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.

2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.

2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”

2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.

2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz and US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

2014 – Anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.

2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organization specializing in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defense.

2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".

2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".

2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programs.

2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.

2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation program is greatly expanded.

2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defense Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.

2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defense Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.

2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research center in a Wuhan laboratory, China.

2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.

February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.

February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.

March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

(Original source:  https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/2246  and more at https://canadianpatriot.org/2020/04/11/the-project-for-a-new-american-century-and-the-age-of-bioweapons-20-years-of-psychological-terror/)

Other related articles:

Hague Invasion Act Becomes Law https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law#

Legally, the US Military Can Break People Out of The Hague https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/us-can-invade-the-hague/

Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/27/can-russia-escape-the-us-trap/ 

Urging Regime Change in Russia, Biden Exposes US Aims in Ukraine https://mate.substack.com/p/urging-regime-change-in-russia-biden

International Law is a Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies to US Enemies https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/17/international-law-is-a-meaningless-concept-when-it-only-applies-to-us-enemies/#comments

The Lie of American Innocence  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-lie-of-american-innocence-686

More Evidence that the US Is Trying to Prolong this War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-us-is-trying?s=r 

The Impact of Ukraine on Yemen  https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/the-impact-of-ukraine-on-yemen/

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/22/washington-should-think-twice-before-launching-a-new-cold-war/ 

From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don't Justify Each Other https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/from-moscow-to-washington-the-barbarism-and-hypocrisy-dont-justify-each-other/ 

Yes It's a Proxy War  https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/26/yes-its-a-proxy-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

America Plea Bargains for its Crimes of Torture https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/24/john-kiriakou-the-us-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/ 

Bush War Crimes, Guantanamo In Spotlight at Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings https://therealnews.com/bush-war-crimes-guantanamo-in-spotlight-at-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings

US Lied About "Dangerous Pathogen" Research in Secret Ukrainian Biolabs https://popularresistance.org/u-s-lied-about-funding-dangerous-pathogen-research-in-secret-ukrainian-biolabs-newly-leaked-documents-reveal/

US Funds Nazis and Brings Back Firing Squads. Literally (video) https://www.rokfin.com/post/79671

 Seen on Twitter:

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Black Lives Matter--Until The Police Are Involved


Black Lives Matter--Until The Police Are Involved

by C.A. Matthews 

Watching mere glimpses of the Derek Chauvin trial--not the "George Floyd Trial" as it has been called in some instances--can  really enlighten you on the ugly reality of the US justice system. In our criminal courts it doesn't matter about the motivations of the alleged killer. It's all about the "worthiness" of the crime victim. 

In this case, Mr. Floyd has been found lacking in worthiness by the Chauvin defense attorneys. According to them it was okay for a member of the Minneapolis Police Force to murder Floyd in cold blood while other officers assisted by keeping witnesses at bay with unspoken threat that they, too, could be killed or maimed by the cops if they intervened.

You don't think these police officers were trained killers? Think again:

...Many Minneapolis police officers receive “Killology training” through the police union, where they are taught to kill rather than de-escalate conflict situations. This training violates the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which require officers to, “as far as possible,” use nonviolent techniques before resorting to force and firearms.

Prosecutors will likely try to isolate Chauvin as one of “a few bad apples.” That may be an effective prosecutorial strategy to convince jurors they should convict him. But this “rogue cop” characterization — also used after the 1991 Rodney King beating and the police killings of Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and Breonna Taylor — obscures the systemic nature of police violence against Black and Brown people in the United States. Even the best training in the world cannot teach police, who are licensed to kill and deployed to enforce a racist system, not to be racist.

Black people who are unarmed or not attacking police are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people, the Brookings Institution found. Moreover, police kill Black people at more than twice the rate of whites even though Black people account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population. More than 75 percent of the time, choke holds are applied on men of color.
--  Marjorie Cohn, Calling Chauvin a "Bad Apple" Denies Systemic Nature of Racist Police Violence

"Even the best training in the world cannot teach police, who are licensed to kill and deployed to enforce a racist system, not to be racist..."

 Once you concede that it's not only the police who are racists--it's the entire system they are taught to uphold that is racist--then George Floyd's murder makes "sense" if only in the fact that it was inevitable. His wretched death by the actions of Minneapolis police officers was inevitable given the training and the social conditioning of his killer and his accomplices. 

So, how do we make Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA Lives Matter, Asian Lives Matter, Migrant Lives Matter, Red Lives Matter, Women & Girls Lives Matter, Brown Lives Matter... if we're all constantly fighting against a system that wants to keep its divisive status quo in place?

“We say you don’t fight racism with racism — we’re gonna fight racism with solidarity,” said Fred Hampton, Black Panther founder. Hampton knew that solidarity is the ticket to overthrowing oppression. It's why he was killed--he wanted to bring many diverse groups together.

Cooperation among differing groups and organizations of Americans in a very large "Rainbow Coalition" will be necessary. This union of unions will be made up of activists who won't stand by and be silent any longer as their fellow Americans are killed by a system designed to keep wealthy capitalist, white, cisgendered males on top by any means necessary--which includes murder and intimidation.

Keep watching the Derek Chauvin trial via the live stream at Unicorn Riot, and you'll see our unjust system of justice exposed.  https://unicornriot.ninja/livearchive/   Then reach out to area groups/organizations who are speaking out against police brutality and for human rights on any level.  Join them and pass their information along to others and ask them to join a larger coalition of groups fighting for these goals. Solidarity must begin at the local level before it can spread to a national level and make a lasting change.


Related Articles:

https://truthout.org/articles/calling-chauvin-a-bad-apple-denies-systemic-nature-of-racist-police-violence/

https://truthout.org/articles/fred-hampton-was-right-we-must-fight-racism-with-cross-racial-solidarity/

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/68674-focus-why-the-trope-of-black-asian-conflict-in-the-face-of-anti-asian-violence-dismisses-solidarity

https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/race-and-perception-first-two-weeks-of-derek-chauvin-pre-trial/

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/30/us/witness-derek-chauvin-trial/index.html


https://truthout.org/articles/haaland-announces-investigative-unit-for-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people/

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/68627-protesters-are-chaining-themselves-to-the-fence-outside-derek-chauvins-trial

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/68644-dhs-watchdog-finds-widespread-mistreatment-of-immigrants-at-ice-facility

***

This campaign is a collaboration between UltraViolet and BLM Louisville community activists working on the ground to demand justice for Breonna Taylor.


On March 13, 2020, three Louisville police officers shot Breonna Taylor after breaking into her home. They didn't even call for medical help for her as she lay dying.1

But despite more than a year of protests calling for justice for Breonna, none of these officers has been criminally charged. In fact, one of the officers involved in Breonna's killing is still employed by the Louisville police.2

Enough is enough. The officers involved in Breonna's killing should all be fired and arrested, and they aren't the only ones. Our allies at Black Lives Matter Louisville have built a database of police officers who have neglected their duties and injured or killed Black people, and we have a plan to turn up the pressure and demand accountability.

Saturday, May 1, is the Kentucky Derby. It's the biggest media event in Kentucky every year, and with the state in the national spotlight, it's a prime opportunity to remind the country that Breonna's killers haven't been brought to justice. Our plan is to fly an airplane banner over the event and to drive a mobile billboard to force the national media to take notice and demand justice for Breonna. Will you chip in $5?

Yes, I'll donate $5 and help fund demand the firing and arrest of the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor.

The officers who killed Breonna Taylor want her to fade from public view. But we won't let that happen.

Breonna was an award-winning EMT and first responder who loved helping her patients and her community. A daughter, a friend, a Black American, she was 26 years old and planning to become a nurse. Her life mattered.3

The protest movements that followed Breonna's killing led to the Louisville City Council banning the use of no-knock warrants. Two of the police officers were fired. Many cities around the country are radically reenvisioning the role of police in our communities and beginning to shift resources from punitive criminal justice toward community investment, mental health, and rehabilitation.

But the fact remains that bad cops who kill Black people must be fired. When they escape accountability, it sends a message to other police officers that they will not be held accountable for killing Black people.

The Kentucky Derby is hugely important to the local economy. The state's top politicians and corporate leaders will all be there, and the last thing they want to focus on is Breonna Taylor. That means we have leverage to our demands, and we're going to use it.

Our airplane banner and mobile billboard will be impossible to miss, but without your grassroots donations, we will not be able to continue organizing high-profile protests like this one. Will you chip in $5?

Yes, I'll donate $5 to help demand justice for Breonna Taylor.

--Shaunna, KaeLyn, KD, Kathy, Bridget, Melody, Lindsay, Sonja, Kimberly, Maria, Elisa, Katie, Isatou, and Iris, the UltraViolet team

CONTRIBUTE

Sources:

1. What to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death, New York Times, January 6, 2021

2. A Year After Breonna Taylor's Killing, Family Says There's 'No Accountability,' NPR, March 13, 2021

3. What to Know About Breonna Taylor's Death, New York Times, January 6, 2021

*** 

Families Belong Together (Logo)

The Families Belong Together Act is the only proposal that makes amends and provides permanent relief and support for those impacted by Trump's unforgivable family separation policy. But first we need it to be introduced in Congress. We need to show there's support for this and we can't do it without you. Will you take two minutes to contact your congress members and ask them to co-sponsor the Families Belong Together Act?

CONTACT MY REPRESENTATIVES →

While we can't change the past, we can do everything in our power to reunite families and create a fair procedure for permanent legal status for thousands of children forcibly separated at the border. You spoke up before about this injustice and we need you to stand with us once again. Tell your lawmakers to do the right thing: Support the Families Belong Together Act. 

After enduring so much pain, these families deserve to be reunited in the United States and provided citizenship, care, and a commitment that family separation will never happen again. 

Only Congress can provide the permanent legal status necessary to ensure that families can safely reunite in our country. Now is the time to live up to our promise that families belong together. Contact your representatives today and help achieve justice for families. 

Thanks for taking action,

Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

P.S. You can learn more about the Families Belong Together Act here. 

*** 


The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!