The Writing's On The Wall

The Writing's On The Wall

by C.A. Matthews

Some days it feels like this nightmare will go on forever. It’s overwhelming. When you can’t even have a reasonable, adult conversation with others for risk of being labeled “antisemitic” simply because you support the rights of Palestinians to live and not be ethnically cleansed, it does feel like this is it... The End Times. 

The end of Western civilization perhaps.

Maybe the death of Western civilization isn’t such a bad thing after all. Who needs a society which continues to deny basic human rights to people based upon the “superiority” or “inferiority” of skin color, race, religion, politics, social status, or ethnicity? The writing is on the wall. We’re already seeing the signs of the end of this sick world approaching in various ways. It’s time to accept this truth so we all can live together in peace and harmony.

Already the “stenographers for the oligarchs” are starting to fold. Mainstream media outlets are beginning to soften their original hard line, pro-Zionist/anti-Palestinian stance. Why their sudden change of heart? It probably has a lot to do with so many independent journalists outing them for the propaganda mouthpieces for Israel and the military-industrial complex of the West that they are.

by Mark Taylor, DeMOCKracy Ink

Even CNN has changed its mind, revealing how it didn’t do its job properly when it came to reportage on the “Flour Massacre.” Seems the IDF were at fault all along. Israeli snipers shot at helpless starving Gazans as they gathered to get food aid off of the trucks, the opposite of how many a Western headline read. The food aid itself didn’t kill them. They didn't kill each other in the rush. The IDF did so. Deliberately.

Funny how the truth has a way of eventually leaking into the world of Western journalism. Apparently these stenographers for the oligarchs don’t like being embarrassed by Palestinian journalists who got things right the first time. They don’t enjoy being caught in the act of regurgitating Israeli lies one too many times by independent podcasters. It makes them look stupid. It makes them look like paid-off shills.

Well, they are shills for Israel and the military-industrial complex, aren’t they? But they don’t want to look that obvious. They don't want everyone who watches them to think, "These so-called journalists love bloodshed and violence. Great for their ratings, right?" So, they’ve kept up their front and pretended that they’ve never repeated the hasbara (translation: storytelling) of the Israelis on behalf of their corrupt Western governments. They'll pretend they've never once lied even when they’re forced to make corrections to their stories later. 

But it’s too late. Intelligent and insightful people question everything they hear and read. They look for and find alternative sources of news and double check the facts. Darn those smarty pants! They're making CNN’s and their compatriots’ propaganda spinning that much harder.

The writing is on the wall. Mainstream news outlets will either return to an approximation of “fair and balanced” journalism, or else they’ll be laughed off the planet. When push comes to shove, their CEOs will want to stay in business. They’ll probably accommodate the public’s need to know the truth, rather than continue passing on the false narrative spin of Western governments' propagandists.

Speaking of Western governments… The writing’s on the wall there as well.

“Genocide Joe” Biden and his administration are slowly but surely circling the drain. Trying to sell a geriatric with memory issues and a vicious streak of hatred against non-white peoples has been an extremely difficult sales job for Biden’s campaign workers. Promoting the lesser evil voting argument doesn’t hold up when making such statements as, “Trump would start even more genocides than Biden already has!” 

Nah, it doesn’t work. It exposes the fallacy of lesser evil voting even more than it already has been exposed. It's all just a nasty voter shaming technique. The duopoly and its candidates are just uniformly evil no matter how they care to label themselves, as either ”Donkeys” or “Elephants”. Both groups work for the military-industrial complex and do as they're told. They're both full of crap.

Stories about how President Ronald Reagan picked up the phone in 1982 and called Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and told him to stop bombing Lebanon, and twenty minutes later, Israel stopped the bombings, have been unearthed recently. Repeating Reagan's tough stance against Israeli bombing makes things look even bleaker for "Butcher Biden" and his genocide-enabling administration. 

White House briefings by smooth-talking spokespersons hinting at how “upset” or “angry” or “frustrated” Biden is with P.M. Netanyahu’s actions do nothing to change the facts of the matter.  A genocide is being committed by Israel using US provided bombs and arms. What do Biden's feelings really got to do with anything unless they've been telling him it's the right thing to do, funding a genocide, for the past six months?

Biden continues to send bombs to Israel who uses them to ethnically cleanse even more civilians in Gaza. If US presidents have the power to pick up the phone and call Israeli prime ministers and get them to shut down military operations, why hasn’t Joe Biden picked up the phone and demanded an end to the bombings? The answer is simple: He doesn’t want to stop supplying bombs to Israel. He doesn’t really care if Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. Biden’s war machine donors’ wishes and profits are infinitely more important to him that breathing, happy Palestinian children ever could be.

The most recent polls show that the vast majority of Americans want the US to stop sending bombs to Israel. If Biden continues to ignore the public’s opinion on this matter, he has set himself up for a big fall come the November presidential election. With this stubbornly short-sighted attitude, one wonders if he really wants to keep his job. Maybe not.

The writing is on the wall: Biden is going down for the count. No doubt about it. And good riddance! 

With Biden knocking himself out of the race, the odds for an alternative party candidate such as the Green Party's Jill Stein winning have increased exponentially. In a crowded field of two wannabe presidents and two former presidents, Dr. Stein needs only 26% of the Electoral College vote to win. 

Of course, the crap-filled Donkeys and Elephants will pitch a fit and kick and scream “election fraud!” if Dr. Stein does win, but every time the duopoly pulls their dirty tricks, the more voters become wiser to how corrupt the American system of voting truly is. If they block the people's choice, the US will be revealed as the oligarchy it is and not the "democracy" it pretends to be.

The writing's on the wall for the wealthy, white, male settler-colonialist class who created and perpetuated this travesty called the United States of America. Let's hope they realize this soon and surrender peacefully to the people.

Perhaps the best news of all is that six months after starting their genocide of the Palestinian people the writing is on the wall for the ethnostate of Israel.

Things have gone too far, too fast. The moral stench of the murders of innocent children and babies in incubators in Gaza has convinced many countries to stop supporting Israel. Some like Spain are calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. Colombia is calling for all nations to break diplomatic ties with Israel. The South African genocide case made against Israel at the International Court of Justice has picked up more supporters. Many countries are calling for United Nations' sanctions against Israel and for the UN to treat Israel as a pariah state.

If there ever was any hope for a “two state solution” between Israel and Palestine, recent actions of the Israeli government, military, and its bloodthirsty civilian population have pretty much killed its chances. The writing’s on the wall. The only chance for peace in the region is to permanently shut down the white settler-colonial, apartheid, racist-Zionist government of Israel and build a democratic secular state that doesn’t make one ethnic group superior to the other. All people are to be treated equally. No exceptions.

Six months of daily images of children lying crushed in the rubble, dying slowly of starvation, and dying trying to scrounge up food while being shot at by IDF snipers is grueling and disheartening. But there is a glimmer of hope when we realize that the writing is on the wall. I predict that the end is coming soon for these heartless bastards in both Israel and the Western governments. My only wish is that I live long enough to see all of them punished for their crimes against humanity.

Peace and morality can be restored to the world. We the People can take our rightful place in the governance of ourselves. We can lock away the warmongering narcissists and their minions in the prisons they've built to torture those who resisted their tyranny. When we do, we will write the best and last thing on the wall: Good-bye to the war machine forever!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces Spain’s readiness to recognize the state of Palestine and encourages other European countries to follow suit. pic.twitter.com/egt9FcgJj9

— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 10, 2024

Will Israel Drag the US Into Another Ruinous War? https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-hamas-hezbollah-iran/

Gaza is a test of the absolute bare minimum requirements for someone to be worth listening to about anything at all, because if you got this one wrong then there’s just something wrong with you as a human being.  —Getting Gaza Right Is The Absolute Bare Minimum Requirement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-gaza-right-is-the-absolute

"If something like this can happen in plain view of everyone, and the people in charge not only do nothing but actively facilitate it, then you have to start wondering if everything about your entire nation is deranged, and if everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie." —Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gaza-asks-us-a-question-about-what

Israeli Suffering Is Not Comparable To Palestinian Suffering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-suffering-is-not-comparable

Biden declares “ironclad” commitment to Israel as death toll mounts in Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/tnmf-a11.html

Iran Strikes Back https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/iran-strikes-back 

Biden Administration Won't Say Whether They Support Federal Shield Law For Journalists https://thedissenter.org/biden-white-house-wont-say-whether-backs-press-act/

Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-killing-aid-workers-israel-plan-destroy-gaza

West votes against rest of world, supporting illegal sanctions in UN Human Rights Council https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/west-votes-rest-world-un-sanctions

CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/cnn-finally-tells-the-truth-about

Ralph Nader: The Mutually Reinforcing US and Israeli Empires https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/09/ralph-nader-the-mutually-reinforcing-us-and-israeli-empires/

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/10/israel-has-formed-a-task-force-to-carry-out-covert-campaigns-at-us-universities/

It Can't Be Fun Defending Israel These Days... https://youtu.be/guxkmRPSTlI?si=iaM2puQPdz8fBo4B

Aid Flotilla Heading To Gaza To Break Siege https://popularresistance.org/aid-flotilla-heading-to-gaza-to-break-siege/

Establishment SUDDENLY Turns Against Israel! https://youtu.be/ExQM25IwFd4?si=wC0zhVp5hX6nVm0C

Tucker Carlson and Palestinian Priest on Israel’s Oppression of Christians https://youtu.be/n2_4uI-lcv4?si=dq1R8GxL-hkrUwr2

Empire Managers Keep Acting Like Iran Is About To Attack Israel Without Provocation https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-keep-acting-like

Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-Trained Neo-Nazi Army https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/08/meet-centuria-ukraines-western-trained-neo-nazi-army/

Sales of Palestinian land are happening around the US  https://therealnews.com/illegal-real-estate-sales-of-palestinian-land-are-happening-around-the-us

Last Year, You Spent More Than a Month’s Rent on Pentagon Contractors https://otherwords.org/last-year-you-spent-more-than-a-months-rent-on-pentagon-contractors/

47 years later, Leonard Peltier is still not free https://therealnews.com/47-years-later-leonard-peltier-is-still-not-free

A great album now on Bandcamp:
Notes From A Holocaust by David Rovics
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/notes-from-a-holocaust 

Active Duty Airman Larry Hebert refuses to eat while Gaza starves.
 

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.

Canceling Free Speech

 

Is this the end of protests?

If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending? —Caitlin Johnstone

 

Canceling Free Speech

by C.A. Matthews

 

The best thing about being American, in my opinion, is The Bill of Rights. The best amendment in particular is the First Amendment and the part where it says that We the People have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But Americans can’t even depend on that bit anymore, and it sucks.

Thanks a lot, fascists!

If you don’t equate free speech with our right to assemble and protest, then perhaps this recent incident involving arresting the bail fundraisers for the Cop City (Weelaunee Forest) protesters  in Atlanta won’t upset you like it does me:

https://communitymovementbuilders.org/stop-cop-city/

Rights advocates warned Wednesday that the arrests of three board members of an Atlanta-based bail fund could mark the beginning of a new era in the United States’ treatment of peaceful protesters—one in which both demonstrators and those who support them are targeted by law enforcement.

...The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department carried out the arrests of Marlon Scott Kautz, Savannah Patterson, and Adele Maclean of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF).

The group offers financial support to people who have been arrested for protesting, including the dozens of people who have been detained for resisting the development of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known by critics as Cop City—a $90 million police training facility that would take up 85 acres of publicly-owned forest. From ‘Behavior of a Fascist Police State’: Legal Aid Organizers Arrested After Backing Cop City

Atlantans can’t exercise their right of free speech to protest the building of a “Murder Academy” on the one remaining piece of virgin forest in their region. They’ll risk arrest if they do, and then their compatriots will be arrested when they raise funds to bail the original protesters out of jail. Our government says murder by cops is okay, but the bailing out of peaceful protesters isn’t to be allowed and those who do bail them out risk being locked up as well.

So much for the First Amendment!

The fact of the matter is that free speech has been weaponized. (Read Weaponizing Free Speech for a sample or two of what I mean.) Anyone expressing an opinion that isn’t sanctioned by the status quo can expect to be censored, arrested, charged and/or thrown into jail without even the possibility of being bailed out.

To this black mark on the First Amendment and The Bill of Rights I say: God bless America! Let “freedom” ring! (Yeah, right. *cough, cough*)

We’re living in an era of “Cancel Culture.” Free speech isn’t seen so much as a right as a suggestion. If what you say doesn’t upset the powers-that-be and their sycophants and paid trolls, you’re okay, but don’t you dare express an opinion they don’t like. Oh no. They can't have critical thinkers who can read between the lines, can they?

This fascistic outlawing of protesters is not just happening in the US—it’s a worldwide phenomenon. A recent video from The Juice Media out of Australia demonstrates just how inventive a “Five-Eyes democracy” can be when it comes to squashing voices of dissent.

 

youtu.be/kecnSHmznic  

This short video says it well. You don’t like something your government is doing (or allowing a big corporation to do) and you and your friends get out in the streets to protest it—you’ll wind up in jail and totally bankrupt. “Cool and normal” as the Aussies say. That phrase translates to roughly, “Bend over and take it,” in American English. 

Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly have been effectively canceled. God bless… the fascists, or so it seems.

Persons of conscience are being forced into making one of two difficult choices: Go along with whatever those in charge of our “democracy” tell you is “correct thinking” nowadays and shut up, or if you can’t “love it” you're told to “leave it.”

But where can we go? More importantly, why should we be forced from our homes because fascists desire endless wars for oil and want us to cooperate with the immoral death machine, a.k.a. the Military-Industrial Complex? Don’t we lovers of peace and harmony deserve to live here as much as the warmongers? 

God bless... those who don't believe the lies.  

The West sure loves to brag about its love of “freedom and democracy” and its “free press,” but it sure doesn’t act like it gives a flying Flag Day about them. Without independent journalists and media outlets, we wouldn’t have known about the jailing of the Atlanta protesters and their bail bond funders. Without the indies' reportage, we wouldn’t know about the US national security apparatus funding and endorsing coups d’etat around the globe, would we?

Journalists of integrity are fast becoming a rare and endangered species. They find themselves harassed and threatened with prison. Journalist Matt Taibbi did after his Congressional committee testimony concerning the Twitter Files. (Read Digital McCarthyism about how Taibbi was called a “so-called journalist” by members of Congress.) Reporters Veronica Coit and Matilda Bliss in North Carolina were actually arrested and charged with trespassing while covering the eviction of homeless people in Asheville’s Aston Park. During their trial, Judge James Calvin Hill refused to acknowledge their press status or that this was a First Amendment case. He found the duo guilty. In his decision, Judge Hill stated, “They may be journalists, but there was no evidence provided to the court that they are journalists.”

American reporter Gonzalo Lira is now sitting in a Ukrainian jail because of his in-depth coverage of the war in Ukraine. When asked if the US government would help free Lira, a government spokesperson wouldn’t say if US officials would even consider asking their Ukrainian counterparts for his release. Our so-called “representatives” are okay with letting a journalist rot in jail. 

No precedence there, is there? 

Meanwhile in the UK, journalists can find themselves treated like terrorists, grilled for hours, and their computer devices taken. This is what happened to The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenburg.

As soon as journalist Kit Klarenberg landed in his home country of Britain on May 17, 2023, six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officers detained him. They quickly escorted him to a back room, where they grilled him for over five hours about his reporting for this outlet. They also inquired about his personal opinion on everything from the current British political leadership to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. From British police detain journalist Kit Klarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone

Aw...the smell of “freedom and democracy” wafting in on the early summer’s air! It covers over the stench of those pesky truth-telling reporters like Kit, Gonzalo, Veronica, Matilda, and Matt. Kit might even find himself locked up at Belmarsh Prison with fellow truth-seeker Julian Assange if a judge decides he's “not a journalist.” I sincerely hope not.

God bless... independent voices who keep reporting what's really happening in the world in spite of threats from the fascist state.

This summer isn’t particularly a good time of the year for me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy sunshine and picnics, because I do. It’s just that I’m not that into American “patriotic holidays” like Memorial Day, Flag Day, or the Fourth of July. There’s not much to celebrate when your mind connects these holidays with endless wars for American hegemony, senseless killing for profits, and locking up persons who protest violence and report on war. Others simply associate these holidays with hot dog eating contests, fireworks, parades, and apple pie, but I just can't anymore. 

There’s little joy to be found in any patriotic holiday pretending to be supportive of our First Amendment rights like free speech and freedom of assembly while our so-called “elected representatives" are ripping those very rights out of the people's hands. The fascists in power have ruined things for me. I honestly can’t see myself wearing red, white, and blue and waving a little flag while watching an Independence Day parade ever again.  

I just can’t, knowing what I know. I can’t approve of the evil status quo hiding behind those once sacred symbols of the flag and The Bill of Rights. I’ll have to find myself another holiday to celebrate this time of year.

I know… Happy Bastille Day!

Related Articles and Other Insightful Links:

Honest Government Ad | Anti Protest Laws (SA) https://youtu.be/kecnSHmznic

The Crushing of Free Press Continues https://www.youtube.com/live/ggZHodvFu50

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker https://pressfreedomtracker.us/

If the Police Can Decide Who Qualifies as a Journalist, There Is No Free Press  https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/02/if-the-police-can-decide-who-qualifies-as-a-journalist-there-is-no-free-press/

British police detain journalist Kit Klarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/30/journalist-kit-klarenberg-british-police-interrogated-grayzone/

State Department Won’t Say If It’s Working to Free US Citizen Detained in Ukraine  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/29/state-department-wont-say-if-its-working-to-free-us-citizen-detained-in-ukraine/

15 Reasons Why Mass Media Employees Act Like Propagandists https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/15-reasons-why-mass-media-employees

Authoritarianism Keeps Surging In Western "Free Democracies"
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/authoritarianism-keeps-surging-in/comments

‘Behavior of a Fascist Police State’: Legal Aid Organizers Arrested After Backing Cop City https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/behavior-of-a-fascist-police-state-legal-aid-organizers-arrested-after-backing-cop-city-protesters/

Arrest Of Bail Fund Organizers In Atlanta Sets A Dangerous Precedent https://popularresistance.org/arrest-of-bail-fund-organizers-in-atlanta-sets-a-dangerous-precedent/

The Empire! "We're Coming For All Of You!" https://indienewsnetwork.substack.com/p/the-empire-were-coming-for-all-of/comments

Supremes Declare War on Wetlands https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/31/supremes-declare-war-on-wetlands/

Lee Camp: The Threat Of Dangerous Ideas And Why We Need Them (podcast) https://popularresistance.org/lee-camp-on-the-threat-of-dangerous-ideas-and-why-we-need-them/

Dozens of GoFundMe Users Seek Funds to Flee States Passing Transphobic Laws  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/31/dozens-of-gofundme-users-seek-funds-to-flee-states-passing-transphobic-laws/

Nearly Half Of Earth’s Animal Species Are In Decline
https://popularresistance.org/study-nearly-half-of-earths-animal-species-are-in-decline/

Police Use Water Cannons, Mass Arrest At Extinction Rebellion Protest https://popularresistance.org/police-use-water-cannons-mass-arrest-at-extinction-rebellion-protest/

The War We’re Finally Allowed to See https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/patrick-lawrence-the-war-were-finally-allowed-to-see/

G7 Versus Diplomacy for Ukraine https://consortiumnews.com/2023/05/31/g7-versus-diplomacy-for-ukraine/

Drone attack on Moscow aims to escalate US-NATO war with Russia https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/31/furs-m31.html

China builds global alternative as US-led financial order decays
https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/china-alternative-us-led-financial-order

FBI Reopens Assange Investigation https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/report-fbi-reopens-assange-investigation/

The Slow Ethnic Cleansing of Ein Samiya’s Bedouin Community
https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/the-slow-ethnic-cleansing-of-ein-samiyas-bedouin-community/ 

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

Digital McCarthyism https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/03/digital-mccarthyism.html

Breaking News: Dr. Cornel West Announces He is Running for President https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/dr-cornel-west-announces-he-is-running

 

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!

Weaponizing Free Speech

 

This is the dystopia you were warned about. A mind-controlled populace thinking, speaking, shopping, moving and voting in accordance with the will of the powerful. All that's left now is to secure the few dissidents on the fringes and keep bolstering the mind control matrix.

This doesn't mean it's hopeless, it just means we've got to acknowledge reality and start working from where we're at. The biggest obstacle to real freedom is the belief that we already have it. --Caitlin Johnstone, The Empire of Hypocrisy

 

Weaponizing Free Speech

by C. A. Matthews

Most Americans believe that no one has ever gotten into trouble simply for speaking their mind. No matter how much you might disagree with a fellow American, you probably agree that they have the right to free speech. You believe that freedom of speech is a basic right protected by our Constitution. You feel confident that all Americans have the right to believe and express themselves as they deem fit. 

Sorry to break it to y’all, but you really don’t.  

Free speech is not guaranteed, as demonstrated by the latest US government shenanigans. The feds have charged four African Americans simply because they are members of the African People’s Socialist Party and expressed opinions that don’t align with the current administration’s viewpoint. 

According to the Black Alliance for Peace: 

The unsealed indictment states that on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, levied charges of “conspiring to covertly sow discord in U.S. society, spread Russian propaganda and interfere illegally in U.S. elections.” While no evidence of conspiracy, propagandizing, or interference has been presented, the APSP and its members have the right, as all US citizens do, to freely criticize U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Not since the Palmer Raids of the early 20th century, nor since the indictment of W.E.B DuBois in 1951, or the confiscation of Paul Robeson’s U.S. passport during the anti-communist “McCarthyist” era, has there been such a hysterical response to African people asserting their rights and freedom of speech in the United States.

The Department of Justice claims APSP members had “weaponized” free speech by expressing solidarity with the Russian people and “conspiring to interfere” with US elections. Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen in the DOJ's press release regarding the indictments stated, “The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt US elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are US citizens or foreign individuals abroad.”

Quick translation: The DOJ is prosecuting US citizens for political speech and related activities because they’re worried that more and more Americans don’t agree with the status quo of the uniparty and might not support the incumbent in the upcoming presidential election. The grand jury alleges that a Russian national "directed" these Americans to "publish pro-Russian propaganda" and "information designed to cause dissension in the United States." 

HandsOffUhuru.org

(Watch this excellent short video to learn more about the case: https://youtu.be/fvwhHouTZh0. Omali Yeshitela, APSP co-founder, voices how the US government apparently doesn't believe that African Americans are intelligent enough to come up with a socialist philosophy all on their own or know if they're being used by a foreign power. Obviously the FBI feels scared enough of an 82 year old African American man that they had to use violent tactics to break into his home to handcuff him and arrest him.)

I take all the Biden administration's legal mumbo-jumbo to mean that the Dems can’t afford to have any real competition running against the corpse of Joe Biden for a second term because he and his war in Ukraine are that unpopular. They must shut all dissenting voices down no matter how fascistic it makes them look. I suppose the white supremacists at the FBI couldn't wait to do something this evil, too.

(Did I just say that part out loud about Biden being a corpse and the FBI being Klansmen? Should I be watching out the window for the feds to arrive any minute on my doorstep carrying flash bang grenades?)

I do believe in “The pen is mightier than the sword,” and “The truth shall set you free.” But when an army’s worth of federal agents can show up at your front door and take you away simply because you’re an 82 year old African People’s Socialist Party member who doesn’t agree with the US government's racist and warmongering actions, can anyone ever too be careful speaking their mind? Will believing in the truth and the power of free speech save us from government abuse?

It's not reasonable for the government to just dismiss the First Amendment on the grounds that it is being "weaponized". You can't have your government dictating what speech is valid and what counts as "agitprop" and "disinformation", because they'll always define those terms in ways which benefit the government, thus giving more power to the powerful and taking power away from the people. -- Caitlin Johnstone

Speaking of abuse, although this is nothing quite as horrific as what’s happening to the APSP members, I was accused of using “weaponized” free speech this past week as well. I found myself a victim of corporate censorship. For the first time in eight years of writing and editing this weekly blog, a warning appeared at the top of the Blogger posting page. It read:

Your post titled "Who Is Stealing Our Election? " was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines and have unpublished the URL http://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2016/05/who-is-stealing-our-elections
making it unavailable to blog readers.

Say what? What could we have published that was so heinous that it had to be hidden from public view now? Why was Google (who owns Blogger) all of a sudden so upset that it had to censor the post, “Who Is Stealing Our Election?” after seven years? The post was published in early May 2016, long before Trump and his followers’ denials of the 2020 election results began. The date of the post should have been a dead giveaway about whose election was being “stolen” and by whom.

Flashback: Bernie Sanders was being royally screwed over by the Hillary Clinton campaign in early 2016. The trolling of “Berners” online was dreadful. As editor of what was then known as The Bernie Blog, I gladly published almost every decently written submission sent in by Bernie supporters. A short piece called, “Who Is Stealing Our Election?” was the first of two short pieces that I edited and published that week, so I titled the entire posting with that catchy question.

Who would have thought that seven years later a bunch of neoliberals would get their knickers in a twist (or panties in a bunch) so much that anything that sounds remotely like something a Trump supporter might say about the 2020 election must be completely blocked from public view, censored forever?

After a quick edit or “self-censoring” of the title, Blogger allowed the post to go live again. I didn’t change a word of the posting, just its title. Somehow that change made it acceptable to Google for public consumption. The English-speaking public once again has been saved by the brave censorship of private agents working behind the scenes for the US government, or, in this case, the Joe Biden re-election campaign.

And what exactly are we being saved from by corporate censorship? What didn’t you have the right to read because the powers-that-be wanted to protect your delicate sensibilities? From what I can gather from the Blogger policy page, it’s most likely this:

Misleading Content

Do not distribute content that deceives, misleads, or confuses users. This includes:

Misleading content related to civic and democratic processes: content that is demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in civic or democratic processes. This includes information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age / birthplace, election results, or census participation that contradicts official government records. It also includes incorrect claims that a political figure or government official has died, been involved in an accident, or is suffering from a sudden serious illness.

Now, why would anyone have any doubts about Joe Biden based on his “age” or from“suffering from a sudden serious illness,” such as having a stroke or dementia or that he hasn't "died" already and is simply a walking zombie? It's not like he's ever been seen babbling like an idiot on camera or wandering off a stage or looking to shake an invisible hand, is it?

I apologize if we’ve ever mislead you with the content here at The Revolution Continues or made you not trust in “civic or democratic processes,” but that was never our intent. The post from seven years ago was simply a Berner’s lament over how the Clinton campaign had “stolen” Bernie’s primary wins. Well, we live and learn and move on, don’t we? The Dems haven’t “stolen” any primaries from their rightful winners since 2016, right? And it's not like they're cancelling the Democratic Party primaries and debates in 2024, either!

(If you believe those last two statements, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, or its equivalent in the Midwest. Your choice!)

Free speech is a right no American should ever take lightly. People have fought and died for your right to express yourself freely. People have been imprisoned around the world for expressing themselves and sharing important—and sometimes embarrassing and incriminating—information about governments.

One such journalist springs to mind: Julian Assange. This week marks the fourth anniversary of Assange becoming the guest of His Majesty King Charles in England's Belmarsh Prison. In other words, an Australian journalist has been imprisoned in the UK because of his “crime” of journalism that has made the US government very angry. Assange dared to publish on his online platform, Wikileaks, the infamous “Collateral Murder” video. He exposed the lies of many governments, but he was particularly prolific in sharing information about the US involvement in the bloody war in Iraq and the tortures of detainees at our super-secret base at Guantanamo Bay. And, so far, nothing Wikileaks has ever published has been proven false.

Assange is being charged under the 1917 Espionage Act. His case raises troubling questions about whether it breaches both the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The Espionage Act criminalizes journalism by ignoring the fact that the First Amendment makes an exception for a journalist possessing and informing the public about state secrets that reveal government crimes and corruption. 

 

Assange’s indictment should be dismissed on the ground that the Espionage Act’s overreach is an existential threat to First Amendment freedoms. For a US court to do otherwise is to undermine due process and threaten the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. But we will see. This administration's paranoid take on free speech being used as a "weapon" seems to be the driving force in his continued imprisonment.

Just like the APSP members speaking their minds, and our blog posting a short piece with an incendiary title implying that elections can actually be stolen in the US, Julian Assange is being actively censored. He is by being blotted out of human memory, locked up to wither away behind bars without trial, his reputation smeared by Western governments because they didn’t like what he had to say, and they don’t want the rest of the world to know what he has yet to say. 

Other independent journalists have been censored, mocked, and threatened recently. Remember Matt Taibbi and Seymour Hersh? We featured both on them on the blog not too long ago. They're also being harassed by the US government and their corporate media partners.  

Matt Taibbi is even being threatened with criminal charges of lying to a Congressional committee for a mistake made by a network propagandist who interviewed him on MSNBC. Seymour Hersh has been ridiculed and his Substack posts about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing have been blocked on Facebook and labeled as "disinformation." If you ever needed more proof that the US government doesn't believe in the public's right to know and practice free speech, the demeaning treatment of these two maligned journalists prove it.

To all of you who are still reading at this point, I have just one word of advice to you in case you ever feel compelled to censor yourself and not use your right of free speech as a “weapon” for good in the world.

Don’t.

No matter what the corrupt government threatens, no matter what the corrupt corporations that do their bidding threaten, nothing—absolutely nothing—is as important as free speech and your right to express yourself fully. It is your inborn right, and it is your duty to continue to speak and write freely. It is your inborn right and your duty not to believe, agree with, or even acknowledge the lies and propaganda put out by untrustworthy powers-that-be.

Because if you don’t believe in and practice free speech in spite of the risks, then who else will?

 

Related Links:

Why Is The Government Targeting Black Socialists? (video) https://youtu.be/fvwhHouTZh0

Indictment Of African People’s Socialist Party Is A Racist Assault On The Black Liberation Movement https://popularresistance.org/indictment-of-african-peoples-socialist-party-is-a-racist-assault-on-the-black-liberation-movement/

Biden DOJ Just Indicted 4 Americans For Free Speech! Who's Next? (video)  https://www.youtube.com/live/EzvJIBfIYu4

War on Dissidents: New DOJ Indictments Criminalize Dissent—Weaponizing the Russian Censorship Tactics They Condemned (video) https://youtu.be/uxa_BSMPf1Q

Biden DOJ Indicts Four Americans For "Weaponized" Free Speech
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-doj-indicts-four-americans

Biden DOJ Charges Black Activists For Supporting Russia (video)
https://www.youtube.com/live/sbKT-MeY7kU

You're Not Immune To Propaganda (video) https://youtu.be/dl2fnWIlDZg

The Empire of Hypocrisy https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-empire-of-hypocrisy-notes-from 

The American Empire and its Media
https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/

1st Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession of Classified Data
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/21/1st-amendment-authorized-assanges-possession-of-classified-data/

WikiLeaks: Collateral Murder (Iraq, 2007) https://youtu.be/HfvFpT-iypw (video)

Corporate Media Are The Anti-Wikileaks https://popularresistance.org/corporate-media-are-the-anti-wikileaks/

Facebook Brands Seymour Hersh Reporting As ‘False’ & What Does This Mean For A Free Press (video) https://odysee.com/@HardLensMedia:9/facebook-brands-seymour-hersh-reporting:2

Matt Taibbi: House Democrats Have Lost Their Minds
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/19/house-democrats-have-lost-their-minds/

MSNBC Host’s Lie Could Send Journalist to Prison! w/ Matt Taibbi (video) https://youtu.be/tWNh03Ma1SA

Digital McCarthyism  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/03/digital-mccarthyism.html

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil! https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/pay-for-your-own-wars-big-oil.html

Here Come the Militarized Robots (But There Go Our Civil Liberties) https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/18/here-come-the-militarized-robots-but-there-go-our-civil-liberties/

House Democrat Threatens Twitter Files Journalist with Prosecution and Imprisonment  https://leefang.substack.com/p/house-democrat-threatens-twitter

Today In Empire: War Machine-Funded War Games, Facebook Censors Hersh, And More  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/today-in-empire-war-machine-funded

Universal Public Services: The Power of Decommodifying Survival
https://popularresistance.org/universal-public-services-the-power-of-decommodifying-survival/

Fossil Fuel Giants with Most Emissions Paid $118 Billion to CEOs in the Last Decade https://truthout.org/articles/fossil-fuel-giants-with-most-emissions-paid-1-18-billion-to-ceos-in-last-decade/

You Won't Believe Who Got The Richest From The Afghanistan War
https://youtu.be/wEFTLIzGZ6M