An Empire That Starves Its Citizens While Feeding Its War Machine

by C. A. Matthews

“The message could not be clearer: there is always money for bombs, borders, and war—but never enough for children, healthcare, or basic human dignity… No amount of flag‑draped propaganda can hide the simple, brutal math of an empire that starves its citizens while feeding its war machine.” --from Can’t Afford Daycare or Healthcare — But Hegseth Swears a $1.5 Trillion War Budget ‘Puts Taxpayers First’

It can’t be that simple, can it?

Why is it that the US empire doesn’t care whether ordinary Americans live or die? Why is it they don’t care that we can't afford to have children or own a home? When you think about it, it’s a million times more evil than simply being an empire that starves its citizens. It’s an empire that cares only about making huge profits from endless wars and genocides for its oligarchy, its billionaire rulers, rather than the health and welfare of its people.

There’s no real need to explain away recent comments coming from the White House. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care.” His words speak for themselves. (Quote taken from Trump says it’s ‘not possible’ for the U.S. to pay for Medicaid, Medicare and day care: ‘We’re fighting wars’)

War will always rank above healthcare, childcare, and environmental issues for the US empire—especially if these issues have anything to do with the poor and working classes. No real surprises there. 

But the thing that surprises and disgusts me the most is how so many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that this type of callous behavior originated with Donald Trump. To them nothing bad like this ever happened before Trump entered the White House in 2017 and then again in 2025.

To jog your memory, watch this short video. Be sure to read the text on the screen while listening to the discussion in the background: The Façade of Democracy...

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Conscientious objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War: 1-800-379-2679. 

 

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

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

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

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

Trump is the perfect American symbol.

A loudmouth preacher of greatness standing on a 

mountain of debt, spectacle, and unpaid human cost.

He is the flag turned into a product.

The gospel turned into a grift.

The empire turned into a reality show.

The Perfect American Symbol

by C. A. Matthews

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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V Is For Venezuela...

I was in the middle of writing an “annotated freestyle poem” when I heard about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife’s kidnapping. The news sent my head spinning. I asked our resident armchair historian his opinion of what was going on, what we could learn from history, and where it might be going. Here’s his take on the developing story in Latin America.

Venezuela: The New Sudetenland

By Coast Watcher

I feel like a German who saw WW2 coming and couldn’t do anything.

So wrote a friend on Saturday when the news broke of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife’s abduction from their home. Their subsequent transportation to New York City to be processed for alleged crimes unfolded over the next few hours, during which social media lit up like a Christmas tree.

Few posts by ordinary citizens and commentators praised America’s actions. Those that did were probably AI generated trolls and bots. Musk’s Grok is particularly asinine in condemning President Maduro with a spiel straight out of Trump’s playbook.

Most Western governments issued statements supporting President Maduro’s “arrest,” although reading between the lines there’s a sense of shock and disbelief that such a thing could have happened. For anyone with knowledge of history, there are few precedents. We’re in uncharted territory, but that territory is looking increasingly similar to the years leading up to World War 2.

The post World War 1 (WW1) seismic shift that moved the boundaries of Europe took huge populations and resources of various kinds from the Central Powers and either transferred them to the victors’ control or set them up as independent polities. The former Austro-Hungarian Empire was shattered as its disparate ethnic peoples went their own ways. Latent or oppressed nationalism surged into life, leading to the creation of new states such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Control of coal deposits was crucial to the post-war revival of the global economy. France and Belgium demanded the Saar-Warndt Basin in compensation for the destruction of their mines by Germany during the war. Germany needed to retain the coalfields to fuel its own industrial recovery so it could pay the war reparations demanded by the Entente Powers. Wrangling over the coalfields delayed economic revival by years and caused a great deal of hardship to ordinary people during some harsh winters.

American President Woodrow Wilson’s cherished dream of a League of Nations bringing perpetual peace to the world got off to a rocky start...

To learn more about the history of US empire PLUS read my poem entitled How Many Babies Have To Freeze Before...,  please copy or click on the following link: 

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Democrats feel the same way as Trump about Maduro. Go figure!

 

This article is the 552nd blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten+ years. 

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Radical Peace

by C. A. Matthews

A lot of talk in activist groups consists of “When do we act?” and “Who will lead us?” Discussions of when we’ll know what to do and how we’ll know who to trust or which groups are the best ones to give us advice can go on for days, weeks, months or even years. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but in the meantime nothing much is accomplished and things can continue to grow worse. Much worse.

Waiting forever for answers is the wrong option, I believe. We must act, even if we’re uncertain of what direction we’re going exactly. Making no decision is actually making a decision, one that’ll probably not yield the desired result. At the current crossroads we as activists find ourselves, following the example of leaders from the past may help us find the direction that will lead us to a more peaceful present and happier future.

Once upon a time, a radical activist declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9) and meant it. He kept emphasizing peace as an action that could produce positive results and strengthen our determination. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14: 27)

His idea of peace was both internal and external, as one can’t fully be realized without the other. This was quite a daring concept in his era, especially as it was vocalized by a poor man from a working class migrant family living on the edge of the world’s largest empire. Sound familiar? That’s were many of us find ourselves today—living on the edge of empire, struggling to survive.

Empire, both then and now, doesn’t care very much for peace. Peace doesn’t sell fighter jets or killer drones. You can’t grow empire if you don’t have ready access to natural resources, land, and (slave) labor enough to build the profitable weapons of war, and you can’t gain these things without endless wars and genocides to appropriate them from others. We’ve seen this recently with the US perpetrating resource grabs in both Venezuela and Gaza...

 

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This article is the 550th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten+ years. 

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Happy holidays and a very peaceful New Year to you and yours! 

What If The Empire Ended?

 

What If The Empire Ended?

words and protest photos by C. A. Matthews 

I was driving to a local college this past week to hear a talk by a friend about her time living in Haiti when a intriguing song came on the radio. It was totally unexpected. I was listening to a smooth jazz station run by the local school district and usually the songs are instrumentals. But the lyrics of this song struck me as being extremely relevant to the situation we find the world in today. The opening lyrics went something like this:

What if the world ended? Would those I had befriended be my friends anymore?

This wasn’t a sentiment I expected hearing in a contemporary jazz song. I wanted a copy of it*, and I was sorry there was no identification given of either the artist or the song title by the time I reached my destination. (I drive an old car. My car’s radio doesn’t have an electronic readout. It’s primitive, but it does the job. I like my car’s CD player, too.)

Anyway, the song’s lyrics intrigued me in a slightly different way than considering the end of all life on Earth. What if the empire ended? What would life be like without the US empire? What if today—not next year or the next decade—the US empire came to a crashing halt? That’s it—it’s dead and gone. What would life be like for the vast majority of us?

For one thing, I’m sure my friend’s story about her time in Haiti would have a happier ending. The US empire has meddled, couped, invaded, and generally taken advantage of that small Caribbean country over and over and over again. (Read Major General Smedley Butler’s War Is A Racket to see how he felt about his part in it.) I believe the US government owes reparations to the Haitian people for our imperialist treatment of them—and to many others as well.

So, what if the empire ended? Would those whom Americans have betrayed become our friends again? What would the world be like if the driving force behind empire building (that is, capitalism) no longer existed?

Let’s do a thought experiment with some recent headlines...

 

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This Is What Empire Looks Like

 

This Is What Empire Looks Like

by C.A. Matthews

...Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryan, and all those early anti-imperialists understood America had a choice: It would be empire abroad or democracy at home, but it could not be both. The choice is now bitterly obvious.

This leaves Americans with nothing left to believe in, nothing worth lifting a finger or even raising a voice to defend. As our militarists mull whether to reinstitute the draft to fill the ranks of the reluctant, we should consider: This is what empire looks like. --Patrick Lawrence: The Dialectic of the Draft

What does “empire” look like to you?

When you spot a homeless person wandering the streets of an urban setting, bags in hands and perhaps pushing an old shopping cart full of their earthly possessions, does the word “empire” and all that it implies spring to mind?

Whenever you encounter a crumbling bridge or a pot hole the size of the Grand Canyon as you commute to work, do you think: Wow. Isn’t it great that the US has invaded so many other countries and forced them to give up their resources so we can enjoy the best of everything here?

After you’ve gifted your last twenty bucks to a friend’s GoFundMe to help him pay for an operation he desperately needs, but he can’t afford since he has no health insurance, do you jump for joy upon reading a headline stating that Biden has given another $24 billion dollars to an endless proxy war?

Are you anxiously awaiting your turn to join or be drafted into the army so you can experience “survivable nuclear warfare” up close and personal in Ukraine, Iran, China or...?

Do you still call Juan Guaido “el presidente” of Venezuela? Did you support the blowing up of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, because you believe the US should keep it’s European allies dependent on us for the fuel to heat their homes and run their factories?

Whenever you read how Israel just blew up a home in Gaza full of little children does it bring tears of joy to your eyes because you figure all Palestinian nine-month olds are terrorists?

Are you ecstatic whenever you see the price of gasoline has jumped by another fifty cents? Are you happy to pay significantly more for the same bag of groceries that you purchased last month? Is paying your landlord yet another rental increase the most beautiful thing in the world to you?

Do you think the “Climate Emergency” is completely made up? “Global Boiling” or warming isn’t even a real thing? That there’s never going to be a day of reckoning for what we’ve done to our planet?

Can’t wait to lock up all the “homos, drag queens, and rapist migrants”? Can’t wait to put women back in their rightful place—in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, with no access to abortion care or birth control? The world would be a happier place with everyone in their proper place, wouldn’t it?

Are you gathering up books right now for a good ol’ fashioned book burning? Are you keeping your kids out of the socialist public school systems that teach how all people are equal (CRT) when it’s more than obvious some just aren’t?

Do you believe in active censorship of social platforms, broadcast media outlets and the press? Can’t wait to shut down all opposition groups that defy those in power? Do you get a thrill out of kicking alternative party candidates off the ballot?

Voting? Really? It’s for the birds! Let the billionaires run the show outright from now on. It would save a lot of trouble holding pretend elections every so often, right?

Did you learn that freedom and capitalism go hand in hand? Do you still believe it even after you’ve been laid off from your job and thrown into debtors’ prison through no fault of your own?

Deep down, do you feel it’s gotta be your fault if you can’t make it in an economic system that favors those who are born in the “right” zip code with the “right” last name and the “right” network of friends and family members? Anyone can “get ahead” if they do capitalism right, right?

What’s your excuse? Oh, yeah, it’s those migrants who keep “stealing” our jobs by working for pennies on the dollar and the union members who keep insisting on a living wage. They’re making the bosses hire the “wrong” type of workers, right?

Have you figured out yet that agreeing to any or all of the above demonstrates you have no problems living in an empire?

This is what empire looks like. If you were born in the US, you’ve been living in one your entire life. You’re used to the harsh treatment of both yourself and your neighbors. That’s because an empire will try to pass itself off as a “representative democracy” or some related thing and tell you that you’re stupid if you think it’s otherwise. You’ll take the denials of your human rights and be satisfied.

It’s the ultimate Stockholm Syndrome. A co-dependent relationship where you feel you’re deserving of abuse. Bend over and take it and be happy that you don’t live in… wherever it is the propagandists are telling you where you don’t want to live in this moment in time because they don’t have “freedom and democracy” like Americans all think we do.

It’s easy letting your betters in the empire do all the thinking for you, isn’t it? Just nod and do as you’re told and you’ll be all right—that is, until they figure out you’re not worth keeping around anymore.

That’s the true beauty of running an empire. An empire can just ignore the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the unemployed, and the sick without the means to get well. Eventually they just die off from neglect by the state. By the hundreds of thousands, even millions. They call it, “Survival of the fittest.”

Are you “fit”? Are you sure? Do you really want to find out when the US military drafts you and ships you out to another war for oil or uranium or lithium or whatever it is the Empire is interested in this time around? When they neglect you in your time of greatest need?

This is what empire looks like.

The alternative to empire is practicing true democracy and equality for all. Folks caring for one another. Putting social programs and the needs of the people before the greed of the military-industrial complex. Putting the health of our planet and the well-being of our children above killing and stealing from fellow human beings in order to make a quick profit.

Dr. Cornel West promotes this better way of living. If you’re interested in leaving the US empire behind and building a democracy instead, check out his platform. But don’t wait. We don’t have long. The wildfires caused by our empire’s neglect of the planet and its people are burning everywhere. It’s time to help put them out by squashing the oxygen to the empire builders once and for all.

 

One huge obstacle to revolutionary change is that people can’t really see the depravity of the empire, because they’ve been conditioned not to look at it too closely, and because they’ve been habituated to it their entire lives. It’s possible to help them see it with fresh eyes. --Caitlin Johnstone, The Most Important Election Of All Time

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links:

It's Never About The US President, It's About The US Empire
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-never-about-the-us-president

Patrick Lawrence: The Dialectic of the Draft  https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/10/patrick-lawrence-the-dialectic-of-the-draft/

Biden Asks Congress for Additional $24 Billion to Spend on Ukraine War https://news.antiwar.com/2023/08/10/biden-asks-congress-for-additional-24-billion-to-spend-on-ukraine-war/ 

 

Capitalist Greed And Imperialist Policies Fuel Migrant Housing Crisis https://popularresistance.org/capitalist-greed-and-imperialist-policies-fuel-migrant-housing-crisis/

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - The Israel Lobby’s Useful Idiot

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jr-the-israel-lobbys

Ohio voters reject referendum measure backed by anti-abortion forces https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/08/10/lxej-a10.html

The Illusory Truth Effect And The "Unprovoked" Invasion Of Ukraine https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the

Defense Contractor Funded Think Tanks Dominate Ukraine Debate https://quincyinst.org/report/defense-contractor-funded-think-tanks-dominate-ukraine-debate/

How Swedish Love for the US Turned Deadly https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/10/how-swedish-love-for-the-us-turned-deadly/

New York Times Helps Marco Rubio Push Persecution Of Antiwar Leftists https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/new-york-times-helps-marco-rubio

More People Die Young in US Due to Health Care and Welfare Cuts, Study Findshttps://truthout.org/articles/more-people-die-young-in- us-due-to-health-care-and-welfare-cuts-study-finds/

Building Grassroots Power For National Universal Health Care
https://popularresistance.org/building-grassroots-power-for-national-universal-health-care/

The UN’s Vague ‘New Agenda for Peace’ https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/08/the-uns-vague-new-agenda-for-peace/

Survivors Of Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test Are Still Fighting For Justice https://popularresistance.org/survivors-of-oppenheimers-trinity-test-still-fighting-for-justice/

109-year-old Tulsa Massacre Survivor Becomes Oldest Woman in the World to Release a Memoir https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/08/109-year-old-tulsa-massacre-survivor-becomes-oldest-woman-in-the-world-to-release-a-memoir/

In A Summer Of Record Heat, Striking Workers Are Making Climate Demands https://popularresistance.org/in-a-summer-of-record-heat-striking-workers-are-making-climate-demands/

Maui’s deadly wildfires burn through Lahaina – it’s a reminder of the growing risk to communities that once seemed safe https://theconversation.com/mauis-deadly-wildfires-burn-through-lahaina-its-a-reminder-of-the-growing-risk-to-communities-that-once-seemed-safe-211317

Congress ADMITS U.S. Has Invaded Hundreds of Other Countries!
https://youtu.be/AEiSiozBHmM

New Study Finds Fracking Is Linked To Seismic Tremors https://popularresistance.org/new-study-finds-fracking-is-linked-to-seismic-tremors/

3-Year-Old Dies En Route to Chicago Under Abbott’s Anti-Migrant Bussing Program https://truthout.org/articles/3-year-old-dies-en-route-to-chicago-under-abbotts-anti-migrant-bussing-program/

Seen on (formerly known as) Twitter:

Joe Biden just announced another $13B to Ukraine. The total is now ~$130B. For that price Americans could have:

Ended Homelessness permanently ($20B)
Universal Pre-K ($35B)
Free Community College ($30B)
Fix all 45k structurally insufficient bridges ($42B)
= $127B

Priorities

— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) August 10, 2023

https://twitter.com/realrobdurden/status/1689693557869674497 

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