When Is A Person Not A Person?

by C. A. Matthews

This question kept popping up in my mind this week: When is a person not a person? Could it be the particulates in the Canadian wildfires messing with my brain? Probably, but even before the worst of the smoke from up north came rolling into our area giving us a record-breaking 800+ AQI reading (301+ is considered “hazardous”) this question had been bothering me.

When is a person not a person? first came to me after I read an article about artificial intelligence. Many in the Big Tech field claim that AI has obtained “consciousness” and has “feelings” like a normal human being has, and it should be treated as such. However, there’s also a growing number of scientists, psychologists, and others who make the opposite claim.

AI is a sophisticated “large language model” that mimics life, but it isn’t alive. It can’t be conscious, which essentially means it’s able to suffer pain and joy like humans do. A computer with an LLM program has large memory banks and access to the internet, so you can say it has intelligence, but since it doesn’t have consciousness, it can’t put the two together and become what we’d call a person.

AI can’t use all the knowledge in the world it has at its digital fingertips and say, “I know what it feels like to be an AI, and I’m suffering a heartache today.” Well, it could say things like that, but does it actually feel things like a heartache or the loss of a close friend or the joy of eating ice cream on a hot summer’s night or holding your newborn baby for the first time? There’s the rub...

...Sticking with just human beings, however, When is a person not a person? For this next part you must suspend disbelief and consider who persons are through the eyes of the law. The law states quite clearly when a human being is not considered a person or has the rights of a person. It’s confusing because most of us define a person as a human being who possesses consciousness, self-awareness, and the capacity for moral reasoning. But that’s the psychological definition of a person, not the legal one. There is a difference—a big difference...

 

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That Level of Cruelty Is Where We’re At

 

Israel apologists have been amazingly defensive about its latest acts of terrorism in Lebanon. It’s extremely important to them that everyone believe it’s awesome and good to turn electronic devices into thousands of bombs placed throughout unsuspecting civilian populations. --Caitlin Johnstone, Biden Didn't "Fail" To Get A Ceasefire; He Never Tried

As someone who has just spent the last 3 years completing a PhD on how tech can be used for international crimes, I never thought blowing up civilian (including hospital staff and children’s) devices would be something to consider. But, apparently that level of cruelty is where we’re at. --Sarah Zarmsky on X

That Level of Cruelty Is Where We’re At

by C.A. Matthews

It’s not the plot of a science fiction novel or an action movie. It’s not an advanced level in a spy-thriller video game. It’s not even some poorly-written fan-fic that others gleefully critique on a deeply-hidden Reddit board. This actually happened. Within two days there were at least 32 human beings killed and thousands severely wounded in Lebanon. (As of September 23, the death toll has risen with 274 more people, including 21 children, 39 women and 2 paramedics killed in southern Lebanon today. 1,024 people, including 15 paramedics, were wounded according to the Lebanon Health Ministry.) Children and doctors and nurses and paramedics murdered indiscriminately and without warning.

According to the United Nations...

 

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A Graveyard For Children (Censored)

This week's blog has been censored by Blogspot. You can find it in full with all its links live at Substack at https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com  Thank you for your understanding.

A state whose existence requires the mass murder of children every few years is not a state that should continue to exist. --Caitlin Johnstone, Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide

A Graveyard For Children

words and peace demo photos by C. A. Matthews

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”


Admittedly, it’s a difficult concept to wrap your head around. Most of us are taught that children in general are the best and the brightest of humanity. They are our hopes for a better tomorrow, a cherished part of life on Earth. 

Most of us would do anything to protect children and keep them out of harm’s way. Ask parents what is the worst thing that could ever happen to them in their lives, and the vast majority will state, “Outliving my child.”

The death of one child can affect more than the child’s parents. The loss of a sibling, close cousin, or school friend is often listed as one of the most devastating events of a person’s life. Even the hope of a child who dies before they can take their first breath can devastate a family, and perhaps break a marriage apart. I’ve seen this, and their example will never leave me.

At first I thought they were a “normal” family—dad, mom, young school-age daughter—when I met them, but then I began to notice the occasional “lapses” in the mother’s attention She would be talking to you and then something in the conversation would hit her, and she’d stop. Her gaze would look off into a far distance no one else could see. 

I learned that this family had lost another child, younger than their living child, several years earlier. The baby had either been stillborn or died soon after birth, so perhaps they had never even had a chance to bring the baby home from the hospital. But the death was still felt, still mourned, and still haunted their every waking moment.

The father worked his new job hard, but in the few instances I saw him together with his wife and daughter, I could tell that the empty spot their lost child would have filled had left a void that neither he or his wife could cross or heal. Their young daughter was active and friendly, but often when interacting with her parents I noticed a quietness and sadness that seemed beyond her years. Even if she couldn’t remember her lost sibling, she intuited that something important was missing from all their lives.

Now take this tragic experience of utter loss and devastation and multiply it times...I don’t know, let’s multiply it times a billion. This is what losing 5,000+ children feels like to an entire nation. This is what the war crime of genocide feels like to the Palestinian people.

What sort of person would inflict such a sadistic injury upon their neighbors, upon the indigenous people whose land they had stolen 75 years earlier in a supposed attempt to find a peaceful home for themselves? 

There’s no way these Israeli sadists could be good parents themselves. They must secretly hate children or despise their very existence to want to inflict such harm upon little ones. To even think of murdering a child or an innocent adult as a form of “weapon” to use against another demonstrates these sick bastards’ twisted psychopathology.

There’s no other way I can explain this heinous sociopathic behavior. The thought of ethnically cleansing little ones and innocent civilians because you want their land (and possibly the oil and gas reserves beneath their homes) is just beyond the pale. It brings to mind the atrocious behaviors white Americans have perpetrated against African Americans and Native Americans and Asian Americans through out our nation’s history. Sick, sick, sick!

A loving parent would never do anything intentionally to harm the precious life of their child—or anyone’s precious child—if this parent truly cherishes children. But here we have the Israeli government cutting off water and electricity to Gaza, cutting off food supplies and medicines, and then intentionally bombing hospitals, including a hospital with a children’s ward, a hospital with tiny babies in incubators who need oxygen and heat to survive.

Do the Israeli people not share the same deep instinct to protect children from harm? Can’t they tell the difference between soldiers and toddlers? What sort of monsters would murder babies in their cradles? Can any other government really trust a government who doesn’t follow the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights?

Are the Israelis who follow Netanyahu the type of individuals who drown unwanted puppies and kittens? Did they tear the wings and legs off of insects when they were younger? Bully the smaller kids on the playground when they were growing up? There must be something in their psychological make-up and history to explain their current murderous behaviors. Nothing they say or do gives us any indication that their desire to commit genocide against the Palestinian people will let up anytime soon.

And then we have the genocide enablers, or more likely genocide collaborators, such as the United States.

Who could be worse than genocidal maniacs Netanyahu and company? Of course it’s anyone who would knowingly fix their star on his genocidal actions and try to ride his coattails. If “Genocide Joe” Biden could wash his hands of Israel and step back and stop all funding of their ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, then the US could be let off the hook. But no...Joe’s gotta be a part of it, up to and including supplying armaments and boots on the ground.

I have to wonder, what’s it like being an American soldier patrolling in the bombed-out ruins of Gaza? I can only assume it’s hellish and heartbreaking. Well, maybe if you have a conscience and care about children and innocent civilians, being bombed into a pulp, it would be heartbreaking. If you’re an American who enjoys drowning unwanted puppies and kittens and tearing the wings and legs off of insects, then you might feel right at home in this nightmare situation.

It’s one thing to call other countries mass murderers and genociders, but to accuse your fellow countrymen of committing war crimes? It’s truly sickening. I don’t know how we will ever be able to beg forgiveness for the US military’s genocidal behavior toward the Palestinians. It’s all too  obvious we’ve learned much from the Nazis we imported after World War II in Operation Paperclip. It’s all too obvious we admire the Neo-Nazis of the Azov Battalion that we continue to fund in Ukraine.

I’m just glad my father and grandfathers aren’t alive to see any of this happening. They’d probably pitch their purple hearts into the gutter in disgust knowing we’ve become genocide collaborators. My mother’s father served alongside General George S. Patton in Europe. They liberated POWs and opened the gates of the Death Camps… Why would they cheer on the US military of today conspiring to do the same things Hitler’s minions did at Auschwitz?

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,”  according to a United Nations spokesperson. The leaders who put them there, their murderers Netanyahu and Biden, need to be held accountable for their war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Nothing less will satisfy the tears of their loved ones or meet the need for justice on this woe-begotten planet.

Important Announcement:

There is a massacre taking place before our eyes in Gaza.

WATCH NOW

 https://youtu.be/zrl1FhA1dew?si=9Mf6vx8h-DKBPb6x

Dr. Jill Stein has always condemned violence against civilians on all sides. Yet there is no denying it: Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal. Palestinians are being denied food, water, electricity and medicine, as they are subjected to relentless bombings that even target hospitals. These crimes must stop now.

Jill is calling for an investigation of the Netanyahu regime’s war crimes, as well as the role of Biden and US leadership in aiding and abetting them.

The endless war machine enriches military contractors, lobbyists, and politicians, while it fuels bloodshed and devastation around the world. Please join us in supporting leadership that promotes peace and human rights at home and around the world by leaving a comment, and sharing this video with others who support peace.

Thank you,

Jill Stein for President 2024

 

P.S. Want to share with your friends? Share Jill’s video on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).

Seen on X/Twitter:

Who is this truth teller? This is a must watch for everyone. 💯 https://t.co/QPh9EPbB0V

— Indie 🍀🕊🦺🎸🎥 (@Indieafterbern) November 11, 2023

https://twitter.com/Indieafterbern/status/1723333522394427730 

With the lsraeli-caused power cut in al-Shifa Hospital, medical staffs gather premature babies together in a desperate attempt to keep them alive after three have already passed away. pic.twitter.com/f46EOcELYS

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) November 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/Timesofgaza/status/1723693992410280067

Articles and Other Interesting Links

6 Newborns Die After Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital Runs Out of Fuel Due to Blockade https://truthout.org/articles/6-newborns-die-after-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-runs-out-of-fuel-due-to-blockade/

At least six newborn babies who had to be taken off their incubators at al-Shifa have died as of Monday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with at least 30 others still at risk as doctors are forced to perform manual respiration on the babies to keep them alive. Doctors have said that the babies are likely to die as long as the electricity is out. The blockade has also forced dozens of patients on dialysis to be taken off the treatment, health officials say, meaning that they will likely die within days.

#MurderedByIsrael
https://murderedbyisrael.com/

'I cannot say how long they can last': Gaza newborns face desperate plight as incubators turned off due to power cut https://news.sky.com/story/israel-gaza-war-latest-hamas-al-shifa-hospital-sky-news-live-updates-12978800?postid=6761510#liveblog-body

Chris Hedges: The Horror, The Horror
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/11/chris-hedges-the-horror-the-horror/

The active complicity by the United States is unfathomable. Nothing justifies this. Nothing. And Joe Biden will go down in history as an accomplice to genocide. May the ghosts of the thousands of children he has participated in murdering haunt him for the rest of his life. ...

We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have arrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter. We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children.

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 36: Al-Shifa Hospital at Epicenter of Gaza Fighting as Fleeing Civilians Are Killed by Israeli Strikes  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-36-al-shifa-hospital-at-epicenter-of-gaza-fighting-as-fleeing-civilians-are-killed-by-israeli-strikes/

Casualties (As of November 12. Some are estimating the current death toll is nearer to 20,000):

    11,078 killed, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza
    183 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

'Can You Hear the Screams?' Physician Says Western Leaders Complicit in Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals https://www.commondreams.org/news/physician-gaza-hospitals

IDF Soldiers Torturing and Abusing Palestinians in the West Bank
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/graphic-videos-show-idf-soldiers-torturing-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/

“We Have Come to an End”: Palestine Red Crescent Says Gaza’s Hospitals Are Out of Solutions https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/9/nebal_farsakh_ifrc_israel_gaza

Death toll in Gaza likely ‘higher than is being reported’: US official https://thehill.com/policy/international/4301551-gaza-deaths-likely-higher-than-cited-us-official/
 

Palestine was inhabited in the Bronze Age by Canaanites, genetic ancestors of *both* Palestinians & Middle East Jews. Palestinians have been indigenous since 2000 BC.  See:
"Palestinians & their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean populations" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11802415_HLA_Genes_in_Palestinians_The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_
Mediterranean_Populations

JOHN PILGER: We Are Spartacus
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/09/john-pilger-we-are-spartacus/

Biden Could End All This With One Phone Call
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-could-end-all-this-with-one

Conflating Jewish and Pro-Israel Is Wrong and Misleading https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/09/conflating-jewish-and-pro-israel-is-wrong-and-misleading/

Dismantle Israel And The Entire US Empire
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/dismantle-israel-and-the-entire-us

Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-called-a-nazi-for-opposing/

What Would It Look Like If You Were Standing On The Wrong Side Of History? https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/what-would-it-look-like-if-you-were

Israel-Gaza War Is Deadliest Month for Journalists Covering Conflict in Over 3 Decades https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/05/israel-gaza-war-is-deadliest-month-for-journalists-covering-conflict-in-over-3-decades/

Letter to the Children of Gaza https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/08/chris-hedges-letter-to-the-children-of-gaza/

Protesters Block Traffic in Front of Congress Member’s Home, Demanding Ceasefire https://truthout.org/articles/protesters-block-traffic-in-front-of-congress-members-home-demanding-ceasefire/

“Ceasefire” Shouldn’t Be a Controversial Word
https://truthout.org/articles/ceasefire-shouldnt-be-a-controversial-word/

Holocaust Survivor Says No More! (video) https://youtu.be/vGTI2CBn3WA?si=zeLzAa8gHrBtLtMv

The Jobs Have Gone, But Fallout From Industrial Pollution Still Haunts Detroit  https://truthout.org/articles/the-jobs-have-gone-but-fallout-from-industrial-pollution-still-haunts-detroit/

We Analyzed Over 3.5 Million Written Teacher Comments About Students and Found Racial Bias https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/06/we-analyzed-over-3-5-million-written-teacher-comments-about-students-and-found-racial-bias/

Biden is the Greater and Less Effective Evil https://blackagendareport.org/news/874/33/Biden-is-the-Greater-and-Less-Effective-Evil

Longest Wrongful Conviction Sentence in US Ends in Exoneration
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/07/longest-wrongful-conviction-sentence-in-us-ends-in-exoneration/

US, European Officials Broach the Idea of Peace Talks With Ukraine https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/05/us-european-officials-broach-the-idea-of-peace-talks-with-ukraine/

The Root Of All Evils

The Root Of All Evils

by C. A. Matthews

 

For the love of Big Oil is the root of all evils. —1 Timothy 6:10 

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve [both] God and Big Oil. —Matthew 6:24

Before you interject, “Hey! That’s not quite what those Bible verses say,” read this short article from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Here’s a blurb:

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves  28 August 2019

Oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territory could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development. 

Geologists and resources economists have confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip, according to a recent UNCTAD study.

Let that information settle into your brain for a bit. You’re a smart person. (You’re reading this blog, aren’t you?) You’re intelligent enough to put two and two together and come up with five, right? What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil?

More importantly, what wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a resource?

I know many of my readers are supportive of environmental concerns and would state without hesitation, “I’d do nothing about those oil and gas reserves off the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The burning of fossil fuels is heating up our planet and causing catastrophic climate change—a change we may never be able to recover from as stronger hurricanes, larger floods, and long-lasting droughts become more common. Big Oil has enough blood on its hands already.”

I sincerely appreciate that response. It’s a commendable answer, but let’s venture into the hypothetical realm for a minute, shall we? Let’s pretend we’re not decent, planet-loving individuals but politicians from certain nations. (We discussed what kinds of politicians we generally have in the West in last week’s blog and why we need to get rid of these sociopaths.) Okay, ready to use your imaginations? Let’s go.

We’re politicians of large Western economies and their allies. Our countries are into burning fossil fuels big time, and we’re not planning to stop burning them anytime soon, no matter how often the climate scientists warn us about their downsides. There’s just too much wealth generated by Big Oil concerns to stop oil and gas exploration. We believe strongly in the superiority of capitalism and the making of big profits for our shareholders.

As an added bonus, Big Oil pays us politicos quite well for our work supporting their drilling and fracking. They don’t pay us directly, of course, but they pay us through their lobbyists and political action committees (PACs) that support our campaigns. We’re not about to forget there’s untapped oil and gas reserves off the coast of Gaza and in the West Bank region of what is now known as “Israel” because our bosses in Big Oil will keep reminding us. We’re going to do whatever we can to get our hands on those natural resources, and we’re not going to let anyone or anything get in our way.

To put this argument into the oil man’s vernacular: Drill, baby, drill!

Our minds are made up. We’re going to drill for that oil and gas that’s just sitting there asking for us to take it. We’ll need some land on which to build our oil refineries and start our new pipelines headed north toward Western Europe to sell our oil and gas products, too.  We might even put in a canal near the drilling site to circumvent having to pay another country to ship these products worldwide.

You do know why we need to sell natural gas in particular to Europe, don’t you? In case you’ve forgotten, we blew up a perfectly good liquid natural gas pipeline a year or so back in the Baltic. (More on that story here.) Doing so took out the competition for our oil companies’ gas sales to Europe. Without competition, our oil exporting country sold heating oil to places like Germany for four to six times the previous price they’d paid our competitor.

Unfortunately, shipping all this heating oil to Europe started making our own country’s heating oil and gas prices go through the roof, making our constituents none too happy. It also made them question the billions of dollars in military aid we were giving to a proxy army in order to bankrupt our biggest oil and gas competitor. Oops!

We told our friends in the mainstream media to keep pushing the narrative that our funding of this proxy war was all about protecting “freedom and democracy,” even if the leader of this proxy war had a long track record of absconding with funds. Some of the armaments we sold to him for this proxy war went “missing,” because we didn't keep track of them too closely. These missing armaments eventually ended up in the hands of other not-so-nice people around the world that we’ve said in the past were terrorists. Double oops!

So, we decided that we really have to stop selling so much of our own oil and gas to Western Europe and get the E.U. their fix via this new pipeline we planned to build in the Middle East.

But wait a minute! There are 2.2 million people living on this land where we recently discovered the oil and gas reserves. It’s one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, no less. And these people aren’t interested in us taking their fossil fuel resources from them. They actually want to keep their homes, schools, hospitals, historical landmarks, and houses of worship. They want to keep everything for themselves. Such selfish animals!

I know, I know… What else is new? Indigenous people are always crying over losing their land rights and having their mineral and petroleum resources stolen from right under them. But we in the Western nations know how to shut up indigenous people forever, don’t we? It’s what we’ve always done—we just use our military strength to overpower them and wipe them off the face of the earth or scatter them to the four corners of the globe. After all, we do what it says in the white man’s bible: Might makes right.

And it’s right for us to have control of all that untapped oil and gas, isn’t it? Our main trading currency, the petrodollar, is tied to the price of fossil fuels. We can’t afford to lose control of the world’s markets of oil and gas. We must have it, or else our economies will falter and collapse, and we politicians would be out of work and off the Big Oil gravy train before we knew it.

So, think again: What would you, as a sociopathic politician who is paid well by Big Oil, do to get your hands on that oil and gas? Would you go to war over it? Would you fund a proxy army in a far away country to stop another country from making profits from their own fossil fuels, especially if you could do so without using your own military and risking your own soldiers’ lives? Would you blindly support a Western “ally” in the Middle East, one that you regularly give billions of dollars in aid and military equipment to, and give them carte blanche to wipe out those pesky natives so you can get your oil men on the ground and start the drilling for all that lovely “black gold”?

Would you lose any sleep over exterminating the indigenous people who are in the way? (There's only 2.2 million of them, with half of them age 17 or younger. No big loss there since children can't drive yet.) We’re talking about 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil. What does that amount of fossil fuel translate into dollars? You can't even imagine how much profit there is to be made!

And if your “partner” in this acquisition of petroleum resources first wants to wipe out those savages and bomb all their buildings into rubble so they can be razed? Well, that’s their business, not ours. It’s not like we’ve set a sterling example on how to deal kindly with the indigenous peoples of our own white-settler colonizing project over the past three centuries, now have we? Racists gotta live and make money, too.

I know some of you will balk and say something along the lines of, “But I would never sanction ethnic cleansing just to steal land and drill for oil!” But put yourself into the shoes of the sociopathic leaders of the Western nations and Israel and ask yourself the questions again. You know now what all is at stake, and how much you’ve already invested into this scheme. 

The Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank area are considered racially inferior by Israel, your partner in this oil deal. You have no problem with the Israeli take on these indigenous people. They feel they rightfully deserve to have control over that oil and gas. So, there's no problem taking it from the Palestinians, is there?

Ask yourself the questions again: What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil? What wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a prize?

Please don’t tell me there aren’t people in Washington DC and in Israel who aren’t more than willing to commit war crimes in order to get that oil and gas and make their Big Oil masters happy. We all know that’s exactly what they’re doing. Capitalists always get their way. 

Money makes the world go round, after all, a capitalist will tell you. What better way to generate it than by drilling for oil and gas?

Why else would the US government want to keep all Israeli aid and military spending talks secret—done without Congressional approval? If the US isn’t committing war crimes alongside the Israeli military already, it certainly sounds like they’re getting ready to do so. And our spineless, sociopathic politicians know the majority of the American public won’t knowingly stand for it and could rebel against them. So, the feds are going to keep their actions quiet and lie about what they're doing for as long as they can get away with it.

“For the love of Big Oil [money] is the root of all evils.”All evils—but especially the evil called genocide. 

Keep protesting and speaking out to expose Big Oil's evils. Stand with others to end the rule of Big Oil's puppets and the entire military-industrial complex. Shut down the genocidal war machine forever.

Related Articles and Interesting Links

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves

The New Litmus Test https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-new-litmus-test.html

Israel Destroys Gaza to Control World’s Most Important Shipping Lane (video) https://rumble.com/v3t4nim-november-1-2023.html

Biden Wants Arms Deals With Israel to Be Done in Complete Secrecy https://truthout.org/articles/biden-wants-arms-deals-with-israel-to-be-done-in-complete-secrecy/

“This culture of silence is happening even as senior agency officials may acknowledge in private that Israel is committing war crimes, according to the report. “Over the past weeks, as I have heard from numerous officials across both the executive and legislative branches, it has become clear to me that many senior leaders not only fully understand how Israel is currently using U.S.-provided arms in Gaza, but are even, behind closed doors, willing to acknowledge that these actions include ‘war crimes,’” [Josh] Paul told HuffPost. “The fact that none are willing to do so publicly … points to a deep moral rot in our system.”

Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-final-solution-for-the-palestinians

Ask the American People Before You Impose a Genocide Tax for Prosperous Israel  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/02/biden-and-congress-ask-the-american-people-before-you-impose-a-genocide-tax-for-prosperous-israel/

Fossil Fuel Firms Bought Lawmakers  https://youtu.be/2qEIOvF5_H0?si=eY0UP2xOArVGEIV8

Israel Is Evicting Palestinians NOT In Gaza https://youtu.be/ESSQhpgOj7w?si=k9wKOYV3gcyv_XZJ

The Moral Complexities Of Bombing A Concentration Camp Full Of Children  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-moral-complexities-of-bombing

As The Lights Go Out In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-the-lights-go-out-in-gaza

Israel Has A Directive To Kill Hostages
https://youtu.be/_T5SLfZs5ww?si=Gc_kAMO8-072XQxl

White House in discussions with Israel on deploying US troops to Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

Israel in Search of Its Hiroshima: Massive Bomb Wipes Out 20 Apt. Buildings, Kills, Wounds 400 Civilians  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/01/israel-in-search-of-its-hiroshima-massive-bomb-wipes-out-20-apt-buildings-kills-wounds-400-civilians/

Israel Apologists Relentlessly Gaslight And Attack Our Sense Of Reality https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-apologists-relentlessly-gaslight

New Document Leak on Plan to Expel Gaza Population https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/31/new-document-leak-on-plan-to-expel-gaza-population/

This is not a war, it's the second Nakba https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/this-is-not-a-war-its-the-second

In Gaza, Biden is an equal partner in Israel’s mass murder
https://www.aaronmate.net/p/biden-is-an-equal-partner-in-israels  

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”

US Says It's Powerless To Stop The Genocide That It Is Directly Funding And Supplying https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/us-says-its-powerless-to-stop-the

Biden 'Countering Islamophobia' While Incinerating Gaza Is The Most Democrat Thing Ever https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-countering-islamophobia-while

The fight for Palestinian Liberation is a Fight for the Whole Working Class https://unac.notowar.net/2023/10/23/the-fight-for-palestinian-liberation-is-a-fight-for-the-whole-working-class/

This Weekend’s DC Protest Was Largest Pro-Palestine Mobilization in US History https://truthout.org/articles/this-weekends-dc-protest-was-largest-pro-palestine-mobilization-in-us-history/

 

Palestine Solidarity Activists Block Boeing’s Doors to Stop Delivery of Bombs https://truthout.org/articles/palestine-solidarity-activists-block-boeings-doors-to-stop-delivery-of-bombs/

 

Gaza Peace Activists Chain Themselves To Ship Headed To Israel

https://popularresistance.org/gaza-peace-activists-chain-themselves-to-ship-headed-to-israel/

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Shows Wealth-Building Doesn’t End Racial Injustice https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

US Immigration Policy Is Designed to Divide the Working Class
https://truthout.org/articles/us-immigration-policy-is-designed-to-divide-the-working-class/

Only Israel, the United States, and Ukraine Refuse to Stand With Cuba https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/only-israel-the-united-states-and-ukraine-refuse-to-stand-with-cuba/

UN Human Rights Committee Calls for Moratorium on Life Without Parole in U.S. https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/un-human-rights-committee-calls-for-moratorium-on-life-without-parole-in-u-s/

Black Lives Matter--Until The Police Are Involved

Black Lives Matter--Until The Police Are Involved

by C.A. Matthews 

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

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

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

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

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

Black people who are unarmed or not attacking police are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people, the Brookings Institution found. Moreover, police kill Black people at more than twice the rate of whites even though Black people account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population. More than 75 percent of the time, choke holds are applied on men of color.

--  Marjorie Cohn, Calling Chauvin a "Bad Apple" Denies Systemic Nature of Racist Police Violence

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related Articles:

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

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

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

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

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

🚨 ACTION ALERT 🚨 SIGN ON NOW! Join us in support of declaring a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls on May 5th. Sign on: https://t.co/p7Y9S5QiJj.

Please circulate widely! #MMIWG #MMIWGActionNow #NoMoreStolenSisters pic.twitter.com/ESwlerOTjQ

— National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (@niwrc) March 29, 2021

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

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

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

In 1978, the top 0.1% owned about 7% of the nation’s wealth. In 2019, they owned nearly 20%.

The looting is grotesque.

— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) April 3, 2021

***

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CONTRIBUTE

Sources:

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

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

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

*** 

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

CONTACT MY REPRESENTATIVES →

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

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

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

Thanks for taking action,

Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

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

*** 

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

http://paypal.me/camatthews

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