Showing posts with label AOC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AOC. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

The Revolution of the Mind

 


"The revolution will not be televised because the first revolution happens inside your mind." —Gil Scott-Heron 

From Merriam-Webster online:

Revolution: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm. From the Latin revolvere meaning “to revolve or roll back.”

The Revolution of the Mind

by C.A. Matthews

It’s odd, but you can tell that many Americans feel uncomfortable using the world revolution with one notable exception: They will say “the American Revolution” when referring to the conflict the white colonists fought to gain their independence from Great Britain.

Advertisers frequently use the description term revolutionary when selling merchandise, everything from dish soap to feminine hygiene products, but even they hesitate to use the word revolution by itself in their ad copy.

Why all this fear and trepidation over a perfectly useful word? What dark, sinister secondary meaning does revolution hold for so many? How can we reclaim revolution and its healing power?

As you can tell by looking at the masthead above, revolution holds no threat to our peace of mind here at The Revolution Continues. In fact, as the years progress, the word has become almost a mantra of sorts for your truly. Whenever something hideous occurs in the world—say a livestreamed genocide of innocents, particularly children—I often find myself saying under my breath repeatedly: This will all come to an end, come the revolution…

I’m reassuring myself that one day there will be a great change of paradigm and the billionaires and their lackeys who persecute us now will be gone and the world will revolve around the workers of the world instead. Our needs and wishes to live in peace and harmony will reign then, not the oligarchs’ greed and selfishness. It’s an optimistic take on what seems a pessimistic era in our civilization’s history, but one must do what one must do to get out of bed and not cry all day long. Nothing changes that way.

If the revolution won’t be televised, will it be livestreamed instead? Open up your social media apps and tell me that the revolution isn’t being livestreamed now. Things are changing radically in front of our eyes in real time. Immigrants and their supporters are fighting against ICE. Protesters are going to jail simply for saying, “I don’t support genocide,” in the UK. The world is revolving around a different narrative than the one the powers-that-be want us to believe. Many of us in the working classes aren’t buying into the lies and excuses of the richest 1% anymore.

To borrow an old expression, “The cat’s out of the bag,” and that kitty is hissing and scratching to prevent itself from being stuffed back inside, kept in the dark, and thrown into the river to drown as the oligarchs are tempted to do to us who don’t do or think as we’re told...

 

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Still of Gil Scott-Heron taken from youtu.be/1Iklff1pNWY

This article is the 529th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

How To Spot A Sell-Out

 

How To Spot A Sell-Out

by C.A. Matthews

I have never trusted AOC. I never once thought she was a “progressive” or even “honest” in a Demon-erratic Party sort of way. So, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez actively promoting a pro-genocide/pro-war/anti-worker candidate and smearing a decent anti-genocide/anti-war/pro-worker candidate in a recent video doesn’t surprised me one bit.

I can spot a sell-out from a mile away. What do I mean by a “sell-out”? I’ll post some photos to help explain what I mean.

Above is a photo of AOC promoting a Green Party candidate in 2017. Yes, AOC actually helped the Greens, although in her recent tirade smearing Dr. Jill Stein she doesn’t seem to acknowledge how much she truly owes the Green Party for her political success. AOC and the Dems stole the “Green New Deal” from former Green presidential candidate Howie Hawkins who first verbalized it when he ran for governor of New York back in 2010. There’s even a video from C-Span from back in the day that proves the Green Party US created the Green New Deal that Dems later stole and watered down (and then totally forgot about).

With voters growing evermore dissatisfied with Harris and her ardent support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, we are witnessing an increasing number of smears of anti-genocide candidates. Recently AOC was caught outright lying in a ratioed video about “how the Greens do nothing.” Really? This is what I have to say to her...

 

To read the rest of this article, click on this link to go to our Substack page: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com  There you'll also see the related article and video links, all the images, and be able to leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the weekly blog post in your email box as well. Subscribe today! Power to the people!

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Performative Politics



Performative Politics

by C. A. Matthews


I’ve heard the term performative politics quite often in recent times. It makes me wonder why this kind of politics has come into vogue.
 
Let’s take a look at the words and define them separately. According to Wikipedia:

Politics...activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.

Merriam-Webster Online defines performative this way:

1. Relating to or marked by public, often artistic performance

2. Made or done for show (as to bolster one's own image or make a positive impression on others)

Both definitions describe more than a few actions taken recently by neoliberal politicians. Before I describe these incidents, perhaps it’s wise to define what exactly is meant by neoliberal or neoliberalism.

From Britannica.com:

Neoliberalism: an ideology and policy model that emphasizes the value of free market competition. ...It is most commonly associated with laissez-faire economics... Its confidence in free markets as the most-efficient allocation of resources, its emphasis on minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, and its commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.

Now that we’re on the same page with what is meant by these terms, politics, performative, and neoliberalism, here are three examples of recent performative politics and what I think each of the actors (that is, politicians) is communicating to their obvious and not-so-obvious audiences and why they choose to perform in such as way at this time.

First off, we have the extremely photogenic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC” as she is known. AOC gave a fiery speech at the recent March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. Her obvious audience was, of course, the crowd that gathered there or watched her performance online. This crowd included environmental activists and protesters of all the destructive things “Big Oil” has done to our planet with their constant drilling, mining, and burning of fossil fuels. But who was the not-so-obvious audience AOC was reaching out to with her speech? And why did she choose to perform this particular speech at this particular place and time?

To understand, AOC’s motivations we have to do a little research and look back at her history in politics. AOC ran as a “Bernie Sanders Democrat” and was photographed interacting with the youth-led Sunrise Movement environmental organization. She led a very loud protest with these young environmental activists inside Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s offices early on in her career, so it makes sense that she would show up at the march where many of them were protesting that day.

But many things have happened since AOC’s time hanging out with the Sunrise Movement in 2018. AOC has been re-elected to Congress a couple times, and she’s made quite a name for herself, not so much as an environmentalist but as a very good Democrat who does as she’s told. She has voted several times for massive Pentagon/Defense Department budgets in spite of the fact the US military is one of the most polluting organizations in the world.

AOC declared earlier this year that she supports President Biden running for office again, although he has done the complete opposite of what an environmentalist would support. Biden has opened up more federal land to oil drilling than any other president, particularly with the Willow Project:

The Biden Administration released its final decision approving three drilling sites for the Willow Master Development Plan, otherwise known as the Willow Project that threatens local communities, wildlife, and the global climate. This is a massive oil drilling development on Alaska’s North Slope, which is a stretch of public land known as the National Petroleum Reserve that borders the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

This project developed by ConocoPhillips would be the single largest oil extraction point on US public lands, emitting 278 million metric tons of climate pollution over the next 30 years. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 74 coal plants — one-third of all remaining U.S. plants. Willow will disproportionately impact the community of Nuiqsut, a predominantly Iñupiaq village of about 500 people already suffering extreme pollution from existing oil projects.--from Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project

By supporting Biden's actions, it seems AOC doesn't care much about the environment at all.

AOC has never protested the billion of dollars Biden has sent to Ukraine to continue NATO’s proxy war there. She hasn’t really come out against the sale of cluster munitions (cluster bombs) and depleted uranium to Ukraine, either. Cluster bombs maim primarily civilians—children for the most part—and depleted uranium radiation can lead to generations of genetically malformed babies and horrible rates of cancers in persons of all ages.

By supporting these astronomical Defense budgets and the US sale of cluster bombs (munitions that have been outlawed in almost every country in the world) as well as Biden’s Willow Oil Project, AOC's actions tell us that she isn’t particularly concerned with the health and well-being of her fellow human beings or the planet. Her actions in Congress just don’t support her image or “performance” as an environmental activist, now does it?

Who is Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s not-so-obvious audience she was trying to reach with her fiery environmental tirade at the march? I think she was telling the major donors of the Democratic Party—the military-industrial complex, corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and the rest—that she is more than willing to act as a front to keep the public from looking too closely at what’s really going on behind the scenes in Washington DC. AOC is good at getting positive press by looking pretty on camera and saying what the public expects at the right time and place. What she says has no real depth or substance, since none of her actions back her words up. 

AOC’s example of performative politics shows that she is willing to act as the perfect front in order to take interest away from the true polluters and causers of death and destruction on our planet. She’ll make all those young environmental activists in NYC forget that nothing has really changed since she first marched with them. Magicians would say she’s the “smoke and mirrors” of the establishment, a perfect distraction. And by the size of her growing bank account since joining Congress, she has been well rewarded for her work.

This next example of performative politics is very easy to spot, and it’s easy to figure out who the obvious and not-so-obvious audiences are. The United Auto Workers are on strike. President Joe Biden—who didn’t permit the railroad workers to go on strike for safer working conditions in 2022—said he wanted to be the first sitting president to visit a picket line. So Biden spent about 12 minutes for a photo op at one of the picket lines in Detroit. Looking at the photos of some of the strikers, you can tell what the obvious audience thinks about Biden’s performance. Just look at the expression on the guy’s face standing to the far left in this picture!

Tim Black tells us exactly what Biden’s motivations were for making that oh-so-brief visit in this video clip on Twitter:

The not-so-obvious audience of the CEOs of the Big Three Automakers know that Joe Biden’s many years of not supporting the workers and always being there to help bail out the corporations at the expense of the public purse isn’t going away anytime soon. They understand Biden's trip to a UAW picket line was just the photo op that it so obviously was. The billionaires hope that it will trick enough workers into thinking they're being heard by Washington to stave off the revolution for a while. But does Biden and his campaign staff realize just how shallow this attempt came across? That remains to be seen.

Our last example of performative politics took place recently north of the border. Compared to the first two examples, it was a complete and unmitigated disaster. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government invited a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran to be honored with a standing ovation in the House of Commons… A man who turned out to be a veteran of the 14th division of Hitler’s Waffen-SS (1st Galician) in World War II, a group that was known for its genocide of Poles, Jews, and other ethnic minorities in what eventually became Ukraine after the break up of the Soviet Union. The soldiers of the 1st Galician were responsible for burning 1,000 Polish people alive.  Horrific!

Oops! 

After Canadian Jewish groups demanded an explanation, the prime minster tried to rationalize why his government acted so callously:

Trudeau, meanwhile, pointed to the “deeply embarrassing” event as a reason to “push back against Russian propaganda,” as though the Kremlin somehow smuggled an nonagenarian Nazi collaborator into parliament, then hypnotized the Prime Minister and his colleagues, Manchurian Candidate-style, into celebrating him as a hero. --from Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawa's Longstanding Ukraine Policy

Using your critical thinking skills you’ve sharpened with the first two examples, who are in the obvious audience and the not-so-obvious audience Trudeau hoped to reach with this performance? We can assume that the public wasn't suppose to discover the genocidal history of this particular Ukrainian-Canadian veteran and that this “honor” given by Parliament would promote more Canadian corporations arms sales to Ukraine. Obviously, independent thinkers weren’t fooled and shared the information of the man's identity widely. Whether or not this negative publicity will affect Canadian arms sales to Ukraine remains to be seen.

Trudeau's not-so-obvious audience were the arms manufacturers who want the bloodshed to continue in Ukraine. The CEOS of the Canadian military-industrial complex were probably salivating at the thought of more arms sales. Endless proxy war is great for the NATO war machine, even if it’s not so great for the health and safety of human beings on the whole.

Hopefully you’re getting a handle on what is meant by “performative politics” by studying these recent examples. If you’re still confused why I labeled these three politicians “neoliberals” then go back to the definition for neoliberalism above and re-read the last line: [neoliberalism's]“commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.”

Think about that sentence. There’s a lot of capital to be made in the trading of armaments and munitions. All three of these politicians—AOC, Biden, and Trudeau—are on good terms with the military-industrial complex and are eager to see the trade in arms grow. They may say they support the striking workers, the environment, and veterans, but at the end of the day their actions make more money for the CEOs of the Big Three automakers, Big Oil, and the military-industrial complex.

And remember: actions always speak louder than words. Just ask this guy:

Keep sharpening your critical thinking skills and doing your research into the backgrounds and motivations of everyone who is involved in politics or the “activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.” 

Why? Because it seems politicians enjoy distributing the world's resources into their own pockets and keeping the status quo exactly the way it is while the world burns. Their fat personal bank accounts apparently help them sleep well at night, too. Stop believing the "performances" of politicians and hold them accountable before it's too late.

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links:

The Climate March, Joe Biden, and AOC's Dubious Endorsement https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/19/the-climate-march-joe-biden-and-aocs-dubious-endorsement

Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/biden-administration-breaks-climate-promise-and-approves-willow-project 

Clusterf*cked: The Cruelty is the Point https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/07/clusterfcked-cruelty-is-point.html

Nazi SS Veteran Receives Standing Ovation in Canadian Parliament https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/09/26/nazi-ss-veteran-receives-standing-ovation-in-canadian-parliament/

Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawas Longstanding Ukraine Policy https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/01/canadas-honoring-of-nazi-vet-exposes-ottawas-longstanding-ukraine-policy/

How Joe Biden and The Democratic Party’s Climate Agenda Increases Environmental Racism More Than It Reduces Emissions https://blackagendareport.com/how-joe-biden-and-democratic-partys-climate-agenda-increases-environmental-racism-more-it-reduces

GOOD NEWS: Climate Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Industry Starting to Build Major Momentum https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/good-news-climate-lawsuits-against

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side
https://www.leftvoice.org/bidens-picket-line-visit-doesnt-mean-he-is-on-our-side/

Canadian parliament’s applause for Nazi war criminal exposes NATO war against Russia  https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/xalg-s28.html

In Canada, Denialism Grows Over Residential Schools Ahead of Orange Shirt Day  https://truthout.org/articles/in-canada-denialism-grows-over-residential-schools-ahead-of-orange-shirt-day/


Senator Menendez and co-defendants plead not guilty as Democrats seek to contain fallout from bribery scandal
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/lwpt-s28.html

William Astore: What Would Real ‘National Defense’ Look Like?
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/27/william-astore-what-would-real-national-defense-look-like/

People Are Dying For Inches In Ukraine, The "World's Largest Arms Fair"  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/people-are-dying-for-inches-in-ukraine

Caitlin Johnstone: Neocons Love the Ukraine War
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/caitlin-johnstone-neocons-love-the-ukraine-war/

US House Rejects Cluster-Bomb Ban https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/28/us-lawmakers-reject-cluster-bomb-ban/

Fog Over Nord Stream https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/fog-over-nord-stream/

Files Expose Syrian ‘Revolution’ As Western Regime Change Operation https://popularresistance.org/files-expose-syrian-revolution-as-western-regime-change-operation/

Patrick Lawrence: The Undiscovered Country https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/patrick-lawrence-the-undiscovered-country/

Suing For a Livable Planet https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/suing-for-a-livable-planet/

A Major Win Against Factory Farming In Oregon https://popularresistance.org/a-major-win-against-factory-farming-in-oregon/

Uninvited and Unaccountable: How CBP Policed George Floyd Protests https://theintercept.com/2023/09/21/cbp-george-floyd-protests/

UN Report Urges End to Forced US Prison Labor—a 'Contemporary Form of Slavery' https://www.commondreams.org/news/racism-in-the-criminal-justice-system

Philadelphia Youth React When Charges Are Dropped Against Killer Cop https://popularresistance.org/philadelphia-youth-react-when-charges-are-dropped-against-killer-cop/

Why Our Popular Mass Movements Fail https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-our-popular-mass-movements-fail

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Real Representation, Not Celebrities

 

(We Need) Real Representation, Not Celebrities

by C.A. Matthews 

 

“It’s the real thing!” said a commercial a few decades back. Genuineness was a virtue to rejoice in, not disdain. I wish this sentiment were still true today when it came to our elected officials. 

Nowadays, it seems the more glamorous you appear to the public, the more raved about on Tik-Tok or Twitter you are, the more likely you’ll be seen as “the real thing.” Take for example one very famous Congress member from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a.k.a. AOC. She’s been on magazine covers and seen noshing at the best galas in New York City, but has she even introduced or helped to pass Medicare For All like she promised when she first ran for office?

Uh,no. Not a thing AOC has promised to do, such as the DNC’s scaled-backed Green New Deal, has come to fruition. She’s even voted to send more money and weapons to a proxy war in Ukraine and more military aid for Israel to bomb Palestinians into the dust.

AOC hasn’t done anything to get the immigrant “kids in cages” out of our hellish, racist immigration system except to take advantage of a photo op to cry for them in front of the cameras. AOC is a good little Dem. She does everything House Speaker Nancy “Mama Bear” Pelosi tells her to--and then some.

AOC, in my humble opinion, is a cover model and a spokesperson for a corrupt faction that dares to call themselves the “democratic party.” Celebrities simply don’t fit the definition of “representatives of the people.” Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary says, “Celebrity--a famous or celebrated person.”

There’s no mention of a celebrity being an advocate for the people in that definition, is there?

Look at where other political celebrities have gotten us in the last forty years: B-movie star Ronald Reagan destroyed unions and preached “trickle down economics” that only concentrated more wealth in the hands of the super rich. Reality TV star Donald Trump set the clock back several hundred years by promoting conservative federal judges. If you’re reading this blog, probably neither one of these presidents are your favorite—and for good reason.


So sorry, AOC is a just another useless celebrity who doesn’t put the general wealthfare of the American people before her own fame or celebritiness. She forgets her “lines” that she promised to do for her voters when she campaigned. She has zero backbone and can’t or won’t act on the courage of her own convictions. 

But there is hope. There are “real things” running for office. One of these genuine candidates is Matthew Hoh of North Carolina.  

Matt is running for the US Senate as a Green. He isn’t taking corporate cash (like AOC does as a Dem) because he isn’t stuck in an establishment party that supports the military industrial complex. In fact, the Green Party US wants to overturn the Citizens United ruling and get rid of all corporate and dirty money in politics. Since Matt isn’t beholden to corporate paymasters, he is free to represent everyday people, not billionaires.

How refreshing!

And talk about having backbone: Matt went to war three times as a US Marine and a diplomat before realizing the courage to pronounce the wars as unjust and immoral. In 2009 he resigned from the State Department over the surge of troops to the war in Afghanistan and started speaking out against the endless war machine and the corruption in our political system.

Matt isn’t one to take the cancellation of Roe v. Wade and the disregard for human rights lying down either: “This destruction by the Republicans and betrayal by the Democrats of a woman’s right to an abortion and all forms of healthcare is symptomatic of the larger degradation and disregard for human rights--civil, economic and political--by the two-party system in favor of money and special interests. This is why we must disrupt and remake our political system. Too many people have died and suffered due to the corrupt and money-beholden status quo.

Wow. That’s straight talk coming from a very brave man who isn’t afraid to take on the billionaires who run our government. Isn’t it nice to hear a candidate standing up for the people for a change? 

The time is now to elect a strong third party candidate like Matthew Hoh to the Senate, a candidate who isn’t pressured by a party that wants its members to do exactly as they’re told by their corporate donors. America can’t afford endless wars. We can’t afford more of our human rights taken away from us. We can’t afford to keep electing corporate-owned-and-operated celebrities to public office no matter how pretty they look in an expensive designer evening gown. 


Related Articles:

Matthew Hoh for Senate: https://www.matt4senate.org/

Follow Matthew Hoh on Twitter:  @MatthewPHoh

AOC is a Tool of the Democratic Party Establishment (video) https://youtu.be/XLHxm0Rt0QY

Spending Unlimited https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/12/spending-unlimited/

The Maskless Rich (Are Laughing At You) https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-maskless-rich-are-laughing-at-you.html 

What You Aren't Hearing About AOC's Dress Scandal (video) https://youtu.be/SryNJSASHdg 

Seen on Twitter:


Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Maskless Rich (Are Laughing At You)


Facebook has had a two-tiered system where famous people won't be censored or suspended for posts normal people would be. Politicians and celebrities freely ignore mask rules while their servants are forbidden to. They all think they're better than us, and our systems agree with them.  --Caitlin Johnstone, Propaganda Scrambles Our Minds: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix

The Maskless Rich (Are Laughing At You) 

by Coast Watcher

She wore that dress and all the rich assholes had a good laugh before returning to stuff their faces with champagne and caviar.

That pretty much sums up the impact Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had on the Met Gala the other night. Since then she’s worked overtime--not to force the vote for Medicare for All through Congress--but in a futile attempt to explain away her actions leading up to and after the gala. That dress is now a token of parody with anything from Tax the Proles to M4A blazoned across the young Congresswoman's curvaceous rump courtesy of Photoshop. (You gotta admit--these memes of AOC with various messages scrawled across her backside are hysterically funny. Surely she's smart enough to know this would happen. --Editor.)

So, for thousands of dollars a ticket (Upwards of $30-35K a ticket--Ed.) and meals costing thousands more the rich get to swank their stuff before a world that’s on the steady slide down to disaster. 

COVID-19 deaths in the US are skyrocketing.  Some  ICUs are jam-packed to the point that they’re seeking out beds in other states thousands of miles away. Oh, and the health insurance companies now say they’ll no longer pay for a COVID hospitalization. Yet a cursory study of the Met Gala event AOC attended in that dress demonstrates how the rich aren’t even worried about wearing masks. Undoubtedly they're laughing at us working stiffs who have to wear one or risk death.

Hmmm...Does their wealth and power somehow protect them from a rapidly mutating virus? 

The staff on the other hand, those hewers of expensive buffet meats and bearers of expensive drinks, are most certainly masked.  Check out any of the videos of the gala to see how the workers are masked. The rich don’t want to catch cooties off the plebs, do they? Besides, it’s a handy-dandy way of identifying said plebs so you don’t have to puzzle out whether they’re someone worth talking to or not. You're free to ignore the masked slaves and laugh behind their backs.

Meanwhile, outside the Met Gala venue, protesters were arrested for exercising their constitutional right to free speech and carted off to jail. Their protest signs were in their hands--not on their cabooses. Their masks were on their faces because there's deadly pandemic happening currently. The working classes don't arrogantly assume their status will protect them magically the way AOC and her posh friends do.

 
I’d have a lot more respect for AOC if she’d joined the protesters outside and led them into the event to confront the rich assholes who are totally insulated from reality by their vast wealth and arrogance. Maybe, just maybe, she could have tried to prick that bubble the 1% dwells in and forced them to see and experience some of the harsh world that so many of us dwell in. 

But, nope. AOC was having too much fun noshing with her rich buddies and posing for the cameras in that dress and laughing at all who fell for her faux-leftist posturing. Why would we have expected any better of a bought-and-paid-for neoliberal?

BIO: Coast Watcher always wears his mask in public and doesn't believe that wealth and status magically keeps the "COVID cooties" away. He also doesn't believe neolibs who pretend they're for the people while hanging out with the 1%.  Actions speak louder than words, don't they, AOC? What about that vote on Medicare For All?

Related Articles:

The Masking of the Servant Class: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-masking-of-the-servant-class

What You Aren't Hearing About AOC's Dress Scandal: https://youtu.be/SryNJSASHdg 

Big Pharma Secrets Revealed: https://scheerpost.com/2021/09/15/big-pharma-secrets-revealed-as-group-uncovers-portion-of-pfizer-vaccine-recipe/

Nancy Pelosi and her rich supporters obviously don't need masks (short video): https://youtu.be/E4xxPdgGonM


***


Your teeth are part of your body, right?

Not according to Medicare. Medicare doesn't cover basic dental services, such as cleanings, fillings, dentures, and more. That could all change -- unless Joe Manchin gets his way.

The Senate's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill includes the largest expansion of Medicare in decades, lowering the eligibility age and including dental, vision, and hearing care.1 It's a huge step toward Medicare for All.

But Joe Manchin has been on record this year opposing Medicare expansion.2 Just yesterday he vowed to slash the size of the $3.5 trillion plan, for no good reason, alongside a handful of fellow right-wing Democrats in the House, jeopardizing Medicare expansion and putting seniors' health at risk.

The fight to expand Medicare is one of the most important battles of 2021, and it will be decided in the next few weeks. We need you to send Congress a message right now that you want this to become law!

Sign the petition: Teeth are part of the body! Congress must expand Medicare now.

Every year, millions of Americans file bankruptcy due to medical bills.3 One in four Americans avoids medical care due to cost.4 Recent studies have shown that the cost of care with insurance varies widely--and is sometimes greater than the cash price of certain procedures.5 Things don't have to be this way.

Medicare expansion would change American healthcare. It would help senior citizens get hearing aids, ensure that Medicare patients have fair prices for prescription drugs, and that millions more Americans get quality healthcare.

Right now, the biggest obstacle to expanding Medicare isn't coming from Republicans. It's Joe Manchin and his fellow right-wing Democrats in the House and the Senate who are obstructing the path to better healthcare.

Although President Biden and Speaker Pelosi have agreed that the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation plan both need to pass, Manchin and these other right-wing Democrats are trying to undermine the reconciliation bill that includes Medicare expansion, demanding huge cuts and threatening the deals that made these bills possible.

These conservative obstructionists collected over $1.2 million from pharmaceutical companies that stand to lose profit from fair negotiations with Medicare providers.6

We need to make it clear to everyone in Congress: Medicare expansion must happen. If we are not loud enough, Manchin and the conservatives will get their way, and we will lose our best chance to expand Medicare.

Tell Congress: Don't listen to the obstructionists! Expand Medicare now.

Thank you for speaking out,

Tal and the team at Watchdog -- a project of Demand Progress

Sources:
1. CNBC, "Senate approves framework of $3.5 trillion budget plan that would expand Medicare, tax credits and climate initiatives," August 11, 2021.
2. Washington Post, "Democrats seek to push Medicare expansion as part of Biden’s $1.8 trillion families plan, defying White House," April 29, 2021.
3. CNBC, "This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy," August 11, 2021.
4. CNBC, "Nearly 1-in-4 Americans Are Skipping Medical Care Because of the Cost," March 11, 2020.
5. New York Times, "Hospitals and Insurers Didn't Want You to See These Prices. Here's Why." August 22, 2021.
6. Daily Poster, "Dem Obstructionists Are Bankrolled By Pharma And Oil," August 23, 2021.

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Common Defense

In the months following George Floyd's murder in May 2020, Americans watched as local and state law enforcement officials deployed military vehicles and weapons in the streets of America.

As service members and veterans, we know better than anyone that these weapons and vehicles should only ever be used in the theater of war. Most certainly, these weapons should never be used against unarmed civilian protesters.

Yet, in the summer months of 2020, we saw the police militarize and arm themselves against peaceful, unarmed protesters fighting for their right to live and thrive free from police abuse and trauma. The police then used grenade launchers against the press and unarmed civilians, leaving countless protestors injured and some blinded for life.

Is this the America we fought for as service members and veterans?

Today police departments currently receive surplus military equipment from an obscure Pentagon program called the "1033 Program." This program has enabled the transfer of $7.4 billion worth of surplus military equipment to over 8,000 local law enforcement agencies around the country.

This is not the equipment that belongs on the streets of America.

Will you join Common Defense and a coalition of allies demanding that Congress and President Biden act now to end the militarization of police departments?

Common Defense is proud to support the work Reps. Nydia Valazquez, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have put in to amend the National Defense Authorization Act so as to demilitarize the police and make our communities safer.

The solution is simple and right in front of our eyes:

  • First, we must place a moratorium on the transfer of military equipment and weapons to law enforcement agencies.
  • Second, we need to prohibit the transfers of firearms, ammunition, destructive devices, and MRAPs, and grenade launchers to law enforcement agencies.
  • Finally, we need to repeal the 1033 Program, which enabled these abuses to take place.

It's time to stop this. It's time we apply pressure on President Biden and Congress to act and demilitarize our communities NOW.

President Biden has done a lot in keeping his campaign promises, but this issue is one that we can't afford to let slip by.

Will you join us at Common Defense and sign the petition to demand Biden and Congress to act now to demilitarize the police?

SIGN THE PETITION

Common Defense

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Families Belong Together (Logo)

Over 10,000 Haitian migrants seeking safety from political turmoil and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake are trapped in makeshift encampments in Del Rio, Texas as they wait to claim asylum. At the same time, the Biden administration completed its 37th deportation flight back to Haiti and plans to up the ante to deter others from entering the country.

Deporting people back to danger when they have the right to asylum is irresponsible and flat-out wrong. We cannot continue playing political football with human lives and pretend like the only choice for children and families is between further suffering or deportation. 

We have every means to prevent such egregious acts and inhumane conditions. Join us to demand the Biden Administration HALT all deportations to Haiti. 

TAKE ACTION

Since Biden took office, Haitian families have been torn apart and left vulnerable at alarming rates: By March of this year, the Biden Administration had removed more Haitians since taking office than during all of 2020.

In the wake of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the U.S. did the right thing and granted thousands of Haitians Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and earlier this year, they extended TPS to protect Haitians from danger after pressure from advocates to uphold his promise to Haitians.

If we don’t do something now, our immigration system will continue to fail, children and families will continue being detained and getting separated, and people will inevitably die on our watch. Haitians shouldn’t have to decide between suffering and being sent back to the danger they’re trying to escape--we can do better and we must.  

From Haiti to Mexico to Afghanistan, it is unconscionable to send families and children back to such unsafe conditions, and place them at further risk of poverty, instability, and death.

We are capable of doing more. Call on Biden to issue a moratorium on ALL deportation flights headed to Haiti now.

TAKE ACTION

The lives of Haitian people are at risk if we don’t do something now. We need comprehensive solutions now. Biden must do the right thing and welcome people in urgent need of safety with dignity and compassion. 

Thanks for all you do,

Paola Luisi, Director

Families Belong Together