The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ~Buckminster Fuller, US Architect, Systems Theorist, Author, Designer, Inventor and Futurist
Making The Existing Model Obsolete
by C.A. Matthews
“That’s the way it is,” I’m often told whenever I criticize the corrupt governmental system in the US. “We can’t do any better than that,” I’m informed. “It’s the best we’ve got.”
I’m not one for absolutes. My usual response to that kind of statement is, “How can you be so sure it’s the best? Have we ever tried anything radically different and compared the two?”
My challenge to their belief that they live in a “democracy” isn’t what most people want to hear. It makes them uncomfortable. If our system of government in the US was compared to something else and found wanting, well… You get where I’m coming from.
Americans who don’t like change are comfortable with the status quo. They’re not hurting financially or going without health care. They’re not starving or skipping meals. They’re not sleeping rough in the streets.
Sure, these Americans might have some beefs about paying taxes and they’ll hold grudges against elected officials who failed to stand up to their promises, but they’re not going to welcome an entirely new system of government just because of those things. A sudden change in the governmental system might upturn these comfortable Americans’ apple cart. They can’t have that.
I’m not one of those people. I’m not that comfortable financially, physically, or intellectually with the existing model. I can’t stand the hypocrisy, hate, and violence the American system engenders. I’m for Revolution, a complete change of direction, a total tear-down of the prevalent framework and a building of a different model that works for working people, not corporations and their CEOs.
I go along with Buckminster Fuller—we need to create a better model or style of government so we can completely junk the old one that doesn’t work for the majority of us.
So, what would I replace the present “representative democracy” (that is, in reality, an oligarchy according to the 2014 Princeton study) in the United States with? Change always starts with an idea. I have an idea, a pretty good idea. It may not be your idea, but I thought I’d float it by you and get your feedback...
To discover my unique model of government that actually works as a democracy, please continue reading the rest of this
article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 527th 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.
I’d like to share this great comment by the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories of Palestine Francesca Albanese on the food blockade to Gaza, the GHF, and the lack of response from the international community:
This is the most sadistic exercise in intellectual gymnastics I’ve ever come across. (Found at the 42 minute mark: youtu.be/tLa4BT0J8Q4)
More videos featuring Francesca Albanese are listed on the Substack post.
If you think billionaires and massive corporations aren't the problem, think again...
Protecting Our Right To Protest
by C. A. Matthews
Just when you think you can't fall down the rabbit hole into
Alice's Wonderland any farther, your
elected officials will come up with legislation to abridge your rights to protest
and free speech.
I'm not kidding.
Who could joke about something so offensive and so entirely undemocratic?
Who could come up with a law that would make even chalking a protest message on
a sidewalk a felony? Who could come up with a way to make it legal for the cops
to shoot unarmed protesters if they feel the least bit "threatened"?
Our elected officials can--and they have!
Ohio isn't the only state to introduce anti-protesting
legislation, but it's the one I'm most familiar with. There are several bills currently in the Ohio legislature that focus on
curtailing or restricting protesting and free speech. They are Senate Bills 33,
16
and 41
as well as House Bills 22
and 109.
I recently encountered some protesters in Toledo who were speaking out (while
we still can) about protecting our rights to protest. Here's my impression of
where they were coming from and how it differs from my take.
Most of my fellow anti-protesting protesters (you go crazy just
saying that!) weren't happy about their elected representatives supporting these
measures, but they felt sure one thing could turn all of these bills
around. And what one thing is that? Why, voting these naughty politicians out of office.
The only reason these politcos created these anti-protesting bills in the first place, according to one of my
fellow protesters, is because they belong to the Republican Party. It's that simple. To be a Republican is to be anti-free speech and against embarrassing protests, in his opinion. As soon
as "good Democrats" can be put into office and take over these wayward politicians' seats, all
threats to our rights to protest and free speech will simply evaporate like a
light rain on a hot summer's day.
I wish I could be so optimistic.
Alas, I doubt that turning around the overwhelmingly Republican Ohio
House and Senate will automatically kill these anti-protest bills. I wish it could
be that simple. But it isn't.
Why isn't it? You only have to look at who or what is behind these pieces
of legislation to see why they won't simply "go away" when all the bad,
evil, wicked GOPers are voted out of office and replaced with the only other "recognized
establishment party" (the Democrats) in the Buckeye State. (That's a whole
other blog piece in the making. Ohio's current political establishment hates alternative parties so much that it makes it almost impossible for third parties to keep their "recognized" status from election to election.)
The real money and impetus behind Ohio's anti-protesting measures isn't because Republicans hate free speech. It's because the
fossil fuel industry hates free speech and bad publicity more. Big Oil is terrified of protesters shouting,
"People over pipelines!" over each and every mile of pipe they bury into our soil. The fracking industry doesn't care much for
the bad press they get whenever one of their wells or collection ponds leak. Somehow, Ohioans are
supposed to drink petroleum-laden well or river or lake water and
like it and live happily ever after.
Uh-huh. Yeah, like who's really fallen down the rabbit hole here?
Big Agriculture plays a part in all this shutting down of
free speech, too. But I suspect you already know something about that if you've
followed this blog's coverage of the first Rights of Nature Law passed in the
United States, The Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
Since both establishment parties--the Republicans and the
Democrats--have been well-awarded by Big Oil, Big Ag, and their lobbyist friends over the years, the
chances that a flip in the Ohio House and Senate to a majority Democratic Party
leadership would make any difference to how these new laws would be passed and enforced
is slim to none. Money talks--and
politicians whose hungry campaign coffers love a big helping of Big Oil dollars
aren't going to tell the fossil fuel industry to shut up and go away.
So we will have to do it.
Calling all activists! This spring and summer our voices must
be heard and our signs and bodies must be seen before it is too late. And start
raising your bail money now. Anti-protest laws mean more arrests. That's the purpose of them. But we have something Big Oil doesn't have--sheer numbers. They can't lock all of us away, all at the same time, can they?
Our elected representatives in Washington DC are also trying to abridge our right to free speech. Watch this interview with a person who was intimidated by the police for a response to a tweet he posted--not his actual tweet (which wasn't threatening) but another person's response to it that was. He was questioned and scared essentially because the tweet wasn't exactly flattering to a certain Congressmember's recent performance. If your elected officials can't be held accountable and take responsibility for their actions, then are you really living in a democracy?
Plastic is accumulating on our beaches and in our oceans. There could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Take action now.
Corporations
love plastic. Thanks to the fracking boom, it’s cheap for the fossil
fuel industry to create. So oil and gas companies are pushing plastic
consumption -- including the widespread use of one-use plastics -- to line their pockets.
But
the plastic waste problem has become massive: in the United States 91%
of plastic ends up being thrown away, never recycled. Some of it
ultimately ends up in our oceans, where it harms or kills marine
wildlife.
Call on Congress to protect our planet by supporting the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act.
Demand Congress address the plastic crisis before it overruns our planet.
Plastic
pollution kills over a million marine creatures annually, including
turtles, dolphins, whales, and sea birds. And plastics don’t
disappear. They just break down into smaller and smaller pieces until
they become microplastics.
But plastic also impacts humans. On average, people ingest the equivalent of a credit card each week. That’s right -- if
you’re an average person, you are likely consuming an average of 5
grams of plastic per week. Microplastics can be found in everyday foods
and drinks -- like beer, salt, shellfish and even drinking water!
Tell Congress you do not want to be exposed to more plastic in your food and water. Stop plastic polluters.
Plastic production also worsens the climate crisis. More than 99% of plastic is created from fossil fuels. The emissions from creating plastic could soon reach the equivalent of 300 coal-fired power plants.
Finally,
our country is one of the worst plastic offenders, which is why
Congress needs to take action. The United States produces the most
plastic waste per capita of any country -- then ships a large portion abroad to countries that are already struggling to maintain their own waste effectively.
Plastic
is polluting our entire planet, from the beaches to the deepest depths
of our oceans. Congress must address this crisis and stop Big Polluters
from destroying our health, land, air, and sea.
Demand the United States break free from plastic and stop the pollution at its source!
Michelle Chan,
VP of programs,
Friends of the Earth
***
We're rapidly approaching the May 1
deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and President Biden still
has not proposed a plan to fulfill his campaign promise.
War hawks in the foreign policy establishment are trying to dominate media coverage and claim nobody cares about ending the Forever War in an attempt to force President Biden to continue it.
But we have news for them — we
care. There is an overwhelming consensus among veterans and civilian
supporters that we must end the Forever War.
That's why Common Defense is calling on
supporters across the country to write Letters to the Editor to hold
President Biden accountable and show the media there is a grassroots
movement calling for an end to the Forever War.
The
war in Afghanistan has dragged on for nearly 20 years, and it is time
to do the right thing and end what veterans call the "Forever War." An
entire generation has never known a country at peace, and this conflict
has cost a trillion dollars and countless lives.
Pres. Biden has
the chance to right this wrong. This conflict must end now, as he
promised many times during his campaign. Our continued presence in
Afghanistan is not making America safer. In fact, prolonging these
conflicts is making us a target and putting our troops in harm's way
unnecessarily. It's well past time, please, Mr. President, bring our
troops home now.
Military withdrawal from Afghanistan will give
our diplomats a chance to do the hard work of building a peace
agreement, rather than continuing with a failed military strategy that
cannot accomplish anything further, and which the "Afghanistan Papers"
published by the Washington Post reveal top generals themselves do not
even believe in.
America's veterans and military members deserve
to have a government which advocates for them. We're counting on you to
do the right thing.
Writing a Letter to the
Editor can have a real impact, especially if you include any applicable
information about your military service or name your Representatives in
Congress. Believe me, elected officials read these!
If we can get dozens of veterans to sign on, we can take a crucial step to defending our democracy. But we need your help.
This
week, we learned what happens after a multi-billion dollar company like
Amazon spends a year intimidating, punishing, and suppressing workers
in Bessemer, Alabama who were working to form a union to push back on
unfair working conditions.
While this was not the result that we were hoping for, we are proud of the bravery and tremendous success the workers had in standing up to one the biggest corporations in the world, telling their story on the global stage, and demanding that they be treated with dignity and respect.
Congress needs to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to make sure worker voices cannot be silenced.Unions are one of best ways to ensure fair working conditions and equity.
And we need to break up these corporations through stronger antitrust
laws that give the tools that regulators need to ensure that no
corporation can make billions of dollars by profiting from the suffering
of workers and the destruction of small businesses.
This
is only the beginning. Workers and communities have been standing up to
Amazon's greed and abuses for years and we will soon see a time where
those efforts will result in the power that workers need to break up
Amazon's grip on our economy.
We need to remember that what’s happening in Bessemer is a result of Amazon’s unchecked corporate power and what corporations have done for decades to diminish the power of labor law so that they can get the most profit out of us as possible.
This week two separate actions across the Glass City brought attention to the power of the people fighting against the corrupt system. First up, Toledoans for Safe Water and Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie (ACLE) made some noise outside the federal building in Toledo, letting Judge Zouhary know that the people have a right to be in on the secret discussions concerning the Lake Erie Bill of Rights citizens' initiative. Second, UAW union nurses and support staff at St. Vincent's/Mercy Health Medical Center are on strike after talks fell through concerning hiring more staff to prevent overwork and abate unsafe working conditions.
Now our guest blogger, Coast Watcher, takes a closer look at how our system of governance has been turned against us--and why we must be ever vigilant.
photos by Crystal Jankowski
Sugar
and Cyanide
by Coast Watcher
One tactic
used by bought-and-paid-for politicians is to hide a "rider," an
additional clause or clauses containing legislation harmful to
ordinary voters inside bills on unrelated—and usually
beneficial—topics. What I term a Sugar and Cyanide Bill. A
favorite target for those who frame such riders are appropriation bills. The failure to pass appropriation bills can lead to delays in funding for vital
government programs.
In House Bill 166 Ohio lawmakers
added an across-the-board state income-tax cut, new health-care
consumer protections—and language that effectively nullifies
Toledo’s hard-won Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) citizens' initiative. HB166 was
voted into law on Thursday, June 9.
Of course at
first glance this bill would look popular. Who doesn’t like a cut
in income tax or good health care? The problem is that like a Trojan
Horse, or a Trojan virus designed to kill computers, the bill
contains an element of pure evil. If the bill goes unchallenged it
will effectively prevent citizens from trying to protect
their water supply through legal action.
The
executive branch of government actively seeks to destroy the
environment for the greater profit of Big Business. The legislative
is totally in the pockets of Big Business when it comes to framing
law. That leaves the judiciary as the sole course of action for the
citizen. Now, thanks to those same bought-and-paid-for politicians,
in Ohio at least even that avenue is closed, allowing those who
pollute the water supply for over 12 million people to do exactly as
they please.
Parts
of HB166 could
face scrutiny in the Ohio Senate. Those
parts will not include the clause negating the Lake Erie Bill of
Rights. Instead, in a clear example of complete disregard for
citizens of Ohio, the senate is more
likely
to argue over the scrapping of
Ohio’s $40 million
motion-picture tax credit.
In common
with other states, Ohio’s State Constitution forbids riders on
unrelated topics to be inserted into bills. This prohibition was
blatantly disregarded by those who framed HB166, and the Ohio House
went along with it. It opens the bill up for legal challenge, but it
also means that the whole legal process will take time to settle. This means the polluters get more years—even
decades—in which they can continue to dump whatever toxic materials
they like into Lake Erie and the watercourses that flow into it.
Just as
damaging to the lives and rights of ordinary people are bills
containing hidden clauses that discriminate. Often tucked
away inside legislation are clauses aimed at harming
LGBTQ+ citizens.
North Carolina has a woeful record for this. In 2016 House Bill 2
contained language that stripped North Carolina workers of their
right to sue under a state anti-discrimination law, a right that has
been upheld in court since 1985. Described as "a Trojan Horse of
hate," the manifestly discriminatory bill was aimed at firing up
the anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice felt by bigots in the NC house to the point
they would pass the legislation in a landslide, thus enabling those
who inserted the clause—Big Business sponsored politicians—to
serve their corporate paymasters.
Occasionally
attempts to place riders in unrelated bills fail. In 2005, a West
Virginian bill aimed at limiting the number of members cities can
appoint to boards of parks and recreation included a rider making
English the official language of West Virginia. Most of the senators
and congress people of the state were unaware of the rider until
after they’d passed the bill. Thankfully it was vetoed by the then
governor on
the ground that it violated the state proviso
that bills must only be related to one topic.
That’s not
to say such attempts have ceased or will cease in spite of such
restrictions. Ohio’s passing of HB166 is a clear
example. Instead of calling the cops on the persons responsible for
this flagrant violation of the law, the matter is passed to the
courts where it will be tied up in legal limbo for decades. In the
meantime, CAFOs and similar polluting agencies will continue to daily
pour several hundred thousand tons of effluent into Lake Erie.
There’s no
known cure for this tactic. Those politicians right of center will
continue to use the method to pass legislation aimed at benefiting
Big Business, or anti-women, or anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice at the expense
of ordinary citizens for as long as they are bribed to do so or see
an advantage in their favorability ratings.
BIO: Coast Watcher won't be fooled again. Neither should you. He advises that you keep an eye peeled for the next Sugar and Cyanide Bill the corrupt duopolists attempt to pass through your statehouse. Don't let them do it!
***
From Take It Back.org:
Breaking: Alabama goes off the deep end and bans all abortions including for victims of rape and incest– sparing only the life of the mother exception. Missouri follows suit.
Will you sign
our petition asking Alabama Governor Kay Ivey reconsider her decision
-- or risk a national boycott of her state that could cost Alabama
thousands of jobs and billions of dollars?
P.S. We will also send you Governor Ivey's Montgomery office number so you can contact her via telephone as well.
***
We welcome the opportunity for 21st Century infrastructure package. Our
country desperately needs a real public infrastructure plan that
focuses on long ignored and abandoned communities of color and
low-income communities that fixes crumbling roads, bridges, ports,
water, and sewer pipes, while investing in clean energy technology and
green jobs to fight global climate change and increase resiliency and
ensure our communities thrive.
The good news is that we already have a framework for exactly that
plan, with growing support in the House of Representatives. Recently,
more than ninety Members of Congress signed on as original sponsors of a
new resolution, HCR 36. This resolution outlines 10 principles for any
spending on infrastructure. These Principles are supported by a broad
and diverse coalition of labor, community, and environmental
organizations representing millions of Americans.
A sound infrastructure plan would create millions of good jobs while
revitalizing America’s crumbling infrastructure. It would accelerate our
response to the climate crisis. It would be paid for by making Wall
Street, giant corporations, and the rich pay their fair share. By
contrast, a bad plan will drag down the economy by incurring all of the
costs without the benefits, while missing an opportunity to protect our
planet and further burden struggling families and communities of color.
President Trump says he will respond with an infrastructure proposal in
three weeks. We’ll judge any plan by whether it meets the standards
enumerated in the Lieu-Krishnamoorthi-Crist Congressional resolution.
In solidarity,
Ana Maria Archila
Co-Executive Director, CPD/A
***
From Roots Action:
To: U.S. Congress and state legislatures From: You
6.1 million Americans nationwide
are denied their right to vote due to felony disenfranchisement. Join us
in demanding that EVERY American citizen of age -- including those who
are incarcerated -- can cast a ballot and be heard in our democracy.
A true democracy that is of, by, and
for the people must extend the right to vote to all its citizens.
But right now, most states deny that
right to millions of incarcerated Americans -- creating a class of
people who are subject to the laws of this country but have no say in
how they're governed. (Only Maine and Vermont allow incarcerated people to vote.)
On top of that, most states count
incarcerated people as residents of their prisons when drawing electoral
maps, not of their home communities -- even though people in prison are
unable to vote in the prison’s district. The result? A form of
gerrymandering that unfairly skews political representation towards the rural, whiter communities where prisons are often built.
Our mass incarceration system is
silencing the voices and communities most impacted by it. And that’s by
design -- dating back to the Jim Crow era, felony disenfranchisement
laws are one of many tactics used to attack black people’s political
power.
We believe that ALL American
citizens have the right to vote. Join us in calling on federal and state
officials to end felony disenfranchisement once and for all -- and
allow incarcerated citizens to vote.
