A most creative way to protest Trump's recent visit to Scotland.

Unlearning Hopelessness

by C.A. Matthews

Seen on X: https://x.com/aashisjo/status/1947314052016824491

@DrNeenaJha Seriously what do we do?? We’ve protested, boycotted, campaigned, donated, written articles, pressured our government & institutions

@aashisjo What do we do? We organize real action, not performances. We disrupt the empire by refusing to work. We do not ask them to stop, we force them to stop.

 

While I was pruning back the dying raspberry canes in our organic garden, I contemplated just how hopeless the task was. The monsoon rain dumps this season had encouraged more raspberry canes and briers to grow than usual, then further rains drowned half of them with the excessive water around their roots. The out-of-control new brier growth was choking some of the older fruit bearing ones.

Why bother? I thought. I should give up now and avoid any more scrapes and scratches.

But I didn’t give up. I kept on until the task was finished. Why? Because I happen to like eating raspberries. I helped plant the first small canes in our garden, and they’d graciously had fed me (and others) over the years. So, I gritted my teeth and kept pruning. I vowed not to give up on them, especially when they needed my help the most.

Gardening is very much like fighting the unjust system we live in. Sometimes things go well, but most of the time it’s chaos and all hands-to-the-pumps—or pruning shears. Raspberries and other living things can be as unpredictable as the powers-that-be who control and punish us whenever we deviate from their plans. But we can’t give up on fighting back against the oligarchs no matter how tough things get. We’ve got to keep on hacking through the jungle and prune those briers. We’ve got fruit to harvest.

There’s been a lot of talk among psychologists and therapists about learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is when we believe we cannot change painful circumstances, so we stop trying and just endure what’s happening. 

This “just enduring” behavior describes the actions of the majority of humankind in the year 2025, in my opinion. We are enduring, but we’re not growing and producing fruit that will feed ourselves and others now and in the future. We’ve thrown in the towel along with our gardening secateurs, and because of that choice to give up, our circumstances will not change for the better.

Some psychologists believe that it’s actually learned hopelessness or a hopeless depression that keeps us from fighting back against painful circumstances. It’s easy to understand why and how depression sets in. Have you ever scrolled through your social media stream to check out the headlines or look at the memes?

No wonder it's called doomscrolling! 

While the odds of us succeeding in our goals to make the world a better place for all may be astronomical, we can at least try to fight the corrupt system and make some things better, right? The challenge is that we’ve heard too many horror stories and learned from others how hopeless the fight has become for them. We start to believe that it’s hopeless to even try and change things...

 

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The Glass is Refillable

The earth looks so beautiful from space. Let's keep it that way.

The Glass Is Refillable

by C. A. Matthews

Most of us reach a breaking point at one time or another in our lives. There’s simply too much crap being thrown at us. We’re in pain both mentally and physically, and we’re long past the point of caring at work, school, or home. Since nothing is going our way, and it appears to be the last days of the Late Great Planet Earth, the urge to do absolutely nothing but tear down others who voice even an ounce of optimism is too tempting to resist.

So, we sit on our backsides and insult absolute strangers on the internet whenever they suggest possible solutions to our or the world’s problems. Simply put, we don’t want to hear that the glass is “half full.” Oh, no, no, no! We bitch up a storm and tear those faceless internet posters a new hole and make them feel as horrible as we feel, because we don’t have any optimism left when we’re in the midst of a breaking point.

Well, pardon me for breathing, but I think you actually can generate some enthusiasm for life even when the sh*t has hit the proverbial fan.

Optimism is Mother’s Nature way of keeping us alive and functioning and not wallowing in self-pity or destructive behaviors. Because while we’re wallowing, nothing is getting done, and we’re actually adding to our own problems as well as the planet’s. Screaming—or the online equivalent in all caps complete with asterisks and exclamation points—that the glass isn’t even “half empty” because it has been spilled and smashed into a million pieces only provides a mere nanosecond of relief. The pain inside remains.

 

The goal for intelligent, rational creatures is to rid ourselves of pain, not continually do things that ask for more of it. We are hardwired to take action to end the pain, and we can do so without killing ourselves or others. (Editor’s note: If you are feeling suicidal, in the US please call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. If you’re feeling homicidal, put all weapons out of reach, take a deep breath, and contact Emotion Anonymous to find a meeting near you.) 

Rash actions are often regretted and cannot be rescinded, but wisely planned and deliberate actions taken toward a reachable goal can ease our pain and provide possible solutions to the challenges facing us.

For all those who feel hopeless and see no way to fight against those who are destroying Earth’s biosphere, I feel your pain. Peter Kalmus, a NASA climate scientist, recently said in his keystone address at the Green Party Annual National Meeting how much it hurts him to see what’s happening in the world, too. He told us: “Don't lose hope—but don’t have false hope.”

This means we can’t deny what is happening any longer. We need to educate ourselves about the main causes behind the environment’s degradation. For example, we have to look at our outdated economic system. It is disheartening and maddening to watch heartless capitalists turn the precious planet we’ve come to know and love into one huge polluted cesspit for the sake of ever bigger profits for a tiny handful of billionaires. It makes no sense. Don’t these a-hole billionaires breath oxygen and drink water, too?

It's the senselessness of the mega-polluters’ stupidity that causes us the most pain. Their asinine and self-centered attitudes reveal the true cause behind these insanely short-sighted behaviors: they’re a-holes and selfish bastards.

There, I said it. Now, what do we do about the situation? Do we allow the super-wealthy to continue wallowing in their a-holery and selfishness?

Nah, that would be wrong of us. We want the sick-o billionaires to be happy and healthy functioning human beings, right? They can’t remain these hideous, soulless creatures, raping the planet of its natural resources, filling landfills and oceans with toxic wastes, poisoning life as we know it. It’s time to take action to turn the billionaires into actual human beings even if it impoverishes them in the process. It’s time to take away their power and their playthings and stop others from cooperating with them in the destruction of Earth.

How we go about this awesome feat depends on our own individual/personal philosophies. Some activists will take to the streets in protest and boycott products from countries that are greatly contributing to the biosphere’s demise. A great example of focusing attention (and possibly bringing about some real change) on how destructive the fossil fuel industry is to our environment is happening on September 17 at the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. 

If marching down Broadway while screaming at the billionaires doesn’t bring you out of yourself and generate renewed determination to become a doer and not just a wallower in your pain, please find someone to talk to, such as a professional counselor. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness, and we need all the strong people we can get.

Environmental activism (protests, marches, sit-ins, demonstrations, etc.) can include resisting and preventing the growth of the military-industrial complex (MIC) and fighting for peace as well. The US military machine has not only killed millions of innocents, but it’s also the fifth most polluting organization in the world, ranking far ahead of actual countries.

Shutting down America’s endless wars for resources would help stop the MIC’s pollution, and it would also create friendlier conditions among nations to cooperate and fight climate change together. Once everyone is on the same page and talking to each other, without fear of having an American nuclear bomb dropped on them, it would go a long, long way in solving all our planet’s problems.

Isn’t it better to take the “half-full glass” of optimism and run with it than to throw the glass on the floor in a fit of existential pique?

Some activists will hack into banks’ and corporations’ computer systems and take the power away from those who do the most harm by financing the resource wars that increase pollution. Relieving billionaires of their wealth and redistributing it to those who are in need will end most social ills, too. Once income inequality is addressed many good things will fall into place. In the US that would mean the end of homelessness, health care for all, and free education from the youngest to the oldest of students. Solving those issues could lead to the end of racism and classism. Less pain for everyone!

Some activists feel more comfortable working “within the system” or at least attempting to overthrow the corrupt system from within. They put time and effort into electoral politics and assisting political candidates and causes. Is this the most effective use of their time, energy, and intellect? The jury is still out.

One thing's for certain, to sit around and scream obscenities online at those who are involved in the electoral process is definitely a waste of time, energy, and intellect. Acting like a “troll” online does not solve anyone’s problems, let alone the planet’s. It doesn’t meet the challenges of ending wars or fighting for the environment or preventing income inequality, for instance. Perhaps the people who have tough skin that can handle the media smears and nasty hit-pieces in the press about their characters while they run for office are the ones most capable of inspiring the majority of populace to take action.

Human beings need honest and hard-working leaders because the game of life is tough and the goalposts seem so far away. Let’s not run the worthy leaders off the field before they’ve had their chance to convince us otherwise. But let's not be afraid to expose and run off the dishonest and unworthy leaders, either. Perhaps a two-pronged approach of direct action as well as electoral action is the wisest route to take after all?

Many people think they have the sole responsibility to fix what all needs fixing in the world. But that’s not true. We’ve got to do it together or not at all. The “not at all” happens while we wallow and criticize others’ optimism and actions. It only adds to our “empty glass” pain.

Taking action by becoming an activist is one way to fight the pain in our hearts and the depression that clouds our thought processes. When you focus your energies toward a common goal—tackling climate change, for instance—then you’re no longer alone in your pain. You no longer have the time to wallow and criticize needlessly. You’re busy doing something worthwhile, and you’ll feel better about yourself and others.

At the very least, you’ll have more things to criticize later when you give activism up and go back to the wallowing and destructive behaviors. So, why not give it a try? You’ve got nothing to lose.

Remember, the glass may not be “half full,” but it isn’t “half empty,” either. The glass is refillable. We’re still here. The planet is still here. We need to get to work now. It may sound hokey, but tomorrow is another day. Let’s use our glass wisely and together.

 

Another way to look at the necessity of activism:

Nuclear brinkmanship. Yemen. Iraq. Starvation sanctions deliberately targeting civilians. Deliberately imposed poverty crushing people to death at home and abroad. Arming neo-Nazis, violent jihadists and right wing counterrevolutionaries in foreign conflicts to advance geostrategic interests. Police brutality. The relentless push for online censorship. The nonstop barrage of propaganda to manipulate our minds. The increasingly loud drumbeats for hot war with Russia and China. The ecocidal nature of global capitalism.

All of these things are profoundly horrific, but people don’t really see them, because they’re being conditioned to look past them.

Our task, then, is to get them to look. Really look, and really see. In this way we can actively abnormalize what has been normalized, one pair of eyes at a time.--Caitlin Johnstone, Abnormalize the Empire

Related Articles and Interesting Links

The March to End Fossil Fuels: https://www.endfossilfuels.us/ 

The Choice https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-choice.html 

Suicide and Crisis Lifeline--Call 988 in the US and for more info:   https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/988-fact-sheet.pdf

Find a meeting of Emotions Anonymous (worldwide): https://emotionsanonymous.org/find-an-ea-meeting/general-information.html 

Montana Youth Turned The Tables And Won An Unprecedented Climate Victory https://popularresistance.org/montana-youth-turned-the-tables-and-won-an-unprecedented-climate-victory/

The Imperialist History Behind the Maui Fires https://www.leftvoice.org/the-imperialist-history-behind-the-maui-fires/

Environmentalists Owe An Enormous Debt To Julian Assange
https://popularresistance.org/environmentalists-owe-an-enormous-debt-to-julian-assange/

The Media’s Role In Criminalizing Climate Protest
https://popularresistance.org/the-medias-role-in-criminalizing-climate-protest/

Japan to release wastewater from Fukushima nuclear plant into Pacific Ocean https://www.nationofchange.org/2023/08/25/japan-to-release-wastewater-from-fukushima-nuclear-plant-into-pacific-ocean/

The U.S. Military Is Driving Environmental Collapse Across the Planet https://www.leftvoice.org/the-us-military-is-driving-environmental-collapse-across-the-planet/

How Ohio’s Chamber of Commerce Killed an Anti-Pollution Bill of Rights https://theintercept.com/2019/08/29/lake-erie-bill-of-rights-ohio/

Abnormalize The Empire https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/abnormalize-the-empire

Unipolar Hegemony Is A Freakish Historical Aberration
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/unipolar-hegemony-is-a-freakish-historical

Another Day, Another CIA Press Release Disguised As News
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/another-day-another-cia-press-release

97 Percent of UAW Workers at Big 3 Automakers Vote to Authorize a Strike  https://truthout.org/articles/97-percent-of-uaw-workers-at-big-3-automakers-vote-to-authorize-a-strike/

Double Punishment: California Prisons Set Up Thousands of People to be Detained and Deported by ICE—Including Citizens
https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/24/double-punishment-california-prisons-set-up-thousands-of-people-to-be-detained-and-deported-by-ice-including-citizens/

BRICS Doubles Share of Global Oil Production In Welcoming Six New Members at BRICS Summit in S. Africa
https://themcgwire.substack.com/p/brics-doubles-share-of-global-oil

Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Has Failed—It’s Time to Reevaluate
https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/26/ukraines-counteroffensive-has-failed-its-time-to-reevaluate/

Zelensky Cracks Down on Draft Dodgers, Forces Men to Fight & Die in This War https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/25/zelensky-cracks-down-on-draft-dodgers-forces-men-to-fight-die-in-this-war/

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 online at: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

If you'd like to help out in the meantime, buy me a coffee!  https://ko-fi.com/therevolutioncontinues

More details to come. Power to the people!

 

Exposing The Lie

Exposing The Lie

by C.A. Matthews

I never quite fell for the lie.  And, perhaps, that's been a saving grace.

I never quite believed what my ninth grade Civics teacher told us one day in class. Our economy was supposed to go on and on and grow and grow, forever and forever. Literally. When I dare questioned, "Why?" I was told, "Because it has to." 

"But what if everyone already has two cars, a home, and all the stuff a family could possibly ever want or need in it?" I wondered aloud. 

I got strange looks from my classmates upon that utterance. No worries, I was used to it even back then. I figured I wasn't supposed to think outside the box and expose the lie. I was supposed to just keep quiet and accept it. I pretended I did to get through the rest of the unit and receive a decent grade on the test, but I never really believed what I read in our textbook or wrote on those tests.

Flash forward to middle age and then some: Now more than ever, I don't believe anything anyone with any so-called "expert qualifications" tells me about the lie. I go along with billions of others worldwide who believe just the opposite. Economies aren't supposed to expand exponentially forever at the expense of the planet's and the people's health and well-being. 

Those of us in the know realize what we have in the US is a fiat currency. Simply put, we'll always have more than enough money for endless wars and weapons spending and tax cuts and bailouts for the rich, but we'll never have enough to cover health care costs for our people or education costs from pre-K through college for everyone or guaranteed housing for all. Nope, we no can do under the lie that the powers-that-be operate under and force us to follow. We're told that We the Little People will have to manage without, or spend out all the "ones-and-zeroes" in our bank accounts just to provide the bare necessities of food and shelter and health care for our loved ones.

"That's the way of the world," we're told by our so-called elected officials as they vote themselves a pay raise, give more "free money" to banks and corporations who mismanaged their ones-and-zeroes in their ledger sheets, and ignore our increasingly worsening plight.

But it doesn't have to be that way. How do I know? Remember, I don't believe in the lie and once one's eyes are opened (or re-opened) one can't see things the way the liars would like us to see them. I don't see how it can be considered "fair" or "legal" to allow people to die because they can't afford an operation or medicines to keep them healthy and alive. I don't accept the lie simply because those with more ones-and-zeroes on their bank statements tell us to. I don't see these persons as my superiors to be obeyed like a mindless slave. I resist and I speak up.

Even worse, I encourage others to resist the lie and speak out against it too. 

Are you in the know? How do you know if you are? How do you know you've not fallen hopelessly into the pit of liars?

If you've noticed the increasing number of  COVID-19 deaths in the US, heard on a podcast or via the grapevine how many workers worldwide are currently on strike or are voting to organize and/or strike or are simply walking off their jobs because they've had enough of the liars' manipulations and ill-treatment of workers, then you're part of the billions like me. We don't believe in the lie called capitalism. We don't see it as a fair and equitable way to distribute resources to all human beings because simply there's no proof that it actually works for the majority of us.

Sure, there are thousands and thousands of private non-profits and "charity organizations" worldwide that fill in the gaps, but why are there "gaps" in the first place? Could it be because our so-called "democratically elected governments" don't want to fill in the gaps because they don't give a sh*t about hungry and homeless people and wish they'd just fade away? Just look at how the US government puts all the onus of picking up the slack of not taking care of all its people onto the backs of those most easily guilted into doing so. And these charity groups do it because they've come to believe the lie all along that it is their job to do so.

What if we told them that it shouldn't be left in the hands of private charitable agencies to take care of the public's needs? What if we opened their eyes as well to the lie and how their good natures have been taken advantage of for centuries by evil and selfish men who want to keep the majority of resources to themselves? What would happen? Would these charitable persons demand an end to the lie of capitalism and expose its ugliness to the world?

We'll have to see. Some folks are really into being bigwigs in the non-profit realm and see themselves as successful capitalists, too. They've joined the "Liars Club" and profit immensely from the status quo. They might not want to give up giving out  old clothing to poor homeless vets and the occasional free meal or donating canned goods that were given away as a favor to clear the shelves for new products to be stocked at well-to-do grocery stores. But maybe, just maybe, once the charitable bigwigs become a part of the working class living from paycheck to paycheck, hand out to hand out, they'll start to see the bigger picture, too.

Until then, don't close your eyes and forget how you see the lie at work in the world. Help others to see it and denounce it. And don't cross the picket lines.
 

Related articles:

US Billionaires Got 70% More Wealth Under COVID. They Didn't Deserve Any of It.  https://www.rsn.org/001/us-billionaires-got-70-more-wealth-under-covid-they-didnt-deserve-any-of-it.html

Capitalism is Violence https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/10/26/capitalism-is-violence-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

Don't Believe the Corporate "Labor Shortage" Bullsh*t  https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/25/dont-believe-the-corporate-labor-shortage-bullsht/

 

***

 

Climate chaos or a clean energy future – that’s the choice before world leaders at COP26. Demand that they move to keep fossil fuels in the ground and pass a Fossil Fuel Treaty.   TAKE ACTION

In less than two weeks, I’ll be with leaders from around the world in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26 to discuss how the world will combat climate change.

I firmly believe that if we’re to stave off the worst of the climate crisis, a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty based on the principles of no new exploration, a managed wind down of existing production, and a just transition must be a major topic of conversation.

However, we’ve learned from past COPs that without significant amounts of public pressure, world leaders can avoid hard questions and decisions. We can’t let that happen.

World leaders need to not just understand what’s at stake, but that they’ll be held accountable if they don’t do what’s necessary in the fight to maintain a habitable climate.

Will you sign the petition demanding world leaders start working on a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty at COP26?

PASS A FOSSIL FUEL TREATY

The record breaking heat waves, extreme weather events, and catastrophic wildfires we’ve seen over the past few years are nothing compared to what’s coming if the global community doesn’t come together to keep fossil fuels in the ground and initiate a just transition to clean energy.

It’s incredible that this hasn’t happened sooner. As historic as the Paris Climate Accords were, there was no mention of coal, oil, or gas – the fossil fuels responsible for 86% of global emissions [1] – in the entire document. Not once! You can’t solve a problem if you won’t even recognize it.

And let’s be clear – we have plenty of solutions and a clear path forward to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy while keeping workers employed and economies strong. 

We know that we have more than enough renewable energy potential to replace fossil fuels without needing any new production. [2] We know that renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, and the disparity keeps growing. [3] We know that, at least in the United States, there are three times more clean energy jobs than fossil fuels jobs. [4]

Join me in calling on world leaders to choose a clean energy future over climate chaos by negotiating a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Climate change is a global problem and it’s time that the world started acting accordingly. 

As a member of the Stand.earth community, you know that we can do anything we put our minds to. 

We’ve gone up against multinational oil, gas, and coal companies worth billions of dollars and come out victorious, blocking dozens of their projects that would have poisoned local communities and accelerated the climate crisis. We’ve protected millions of acres of forests that people thought couldn’t be saved. We’ve shifted billions of dollars of purchasing from corporate powerhouses like Starbucks, Staples, and Levi’s onto sustainable pathways.

Because of people like you, we're achieving victories that others thought were impossible. This community is more than half a million people strong (and growing!). Together, we're using our collective power to fight climate change, protect wild spaces, stand with impacted communities, and say no to new fossil fuels.

Now, let’s make the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty a priority at COP26.

With hope and determination,

Tzeporah Berman
International Program Director
Stand.earth

[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf
[2] https://indd.adobe.com/view/e0092323-3e91-4e5c-95e0-098ee42f9dd1
[3] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/renewables-cheapest-energy-source/
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/04/22/renewable-energy-job-boom-creating-economic-opportunity-as-coal-industry-slumps/?sh=329027a93665

***

From Hip Hop Caucus:

We need to kill the oil industry before the oil industry kills us.

What we definitely do not need to be doing is approving the hundreds of petrochemical plants Biden is set to approve. Creating oil and plastics is bad for our water supply. It’s bad for our air supply. It’s bad for our very survival. And if Joe Biden is as serious as he claims to be about protecting our future, he’ll stop this madness before it goes even further.

TELL JOE BIDEN: Stop pouring fuel on the raging fire of the Climate Crisis. Stop Approving Petrochemical plants.

Big oil makes money for big oil. In the process, these are the companies which dodge their taxes, poison every community they enter, give us cancer, and burn the very planet we rely upon for life. It’s disgusting enough we have to fight the fatal impacts of the petrochemical plants which already exist.

The very least we can do is not create any more.

For Future Generations,

Rev Yearwood
President & CEO
Hip Hop Caucus

***

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about Texas’s extreme anti-abortion law. But the mere fact that they refused to overrule it on sight two months ago has sent other states scurrying to craft knock-off legislation. We need to send a loud, clear message: Abortion is a right, and we’re not going to allow it to be taken away by a rigged Supreme Court or a gerrymandered state legislature. Sign the petition: Stop six-week abortion bans! Protect our reproductive freedoms! SIGN NOW The People United fights for politicians who will work to unrig the courts and codify the right to an abortion in law, by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and repealing the Hyde Amendment. Together, we will win. In solidarity, The People United

The People United is new, but our fight is as old as democracy itself. Corporate interests use big money to make politicians betray the People. But there are more of us―and together, we can push things forward. We're fighting to elect candidates who don’t take power for granted, and are willing to use it to fight for the People as hard as Mitch McConnell fights for corporations. We won’t have deep-pocketed corporate donors. This is only going to work if The People are United. DONATE NOW