Lab
Rats of the World Unite!
(You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Cheese)
by C. A. Matthews
If
you’re thinking this article is about the student teachers', graduate assistants', and researchers' strike throughout the University of California system, you’re partially right. “Lab rats” is slang
for laboratory assistants, and a strike of over 48,000 of them in the
UC system is quite notable. What’s also notable is how very
little mainstream media coverage there’s been of this massive
strike by mostly young persons desperate to be paid a living wage.
The
average yearly wage in the UC system for student
teachers/assistants is $24,000 a year—this in a state where rents
have been skyrocketing, with the average rent for an apartment being
between $2,000 to $3,000 a month. You’d think with rising tuition
costs the university system could afford not to starve the people who
do the lion’s share of the work on their campuses.
But
the lab rats I’m actually referring to in the title of this blog
doesn’t just stop with the student workers at the University of
California. It includes all of us. We are all lab rats
according to a New York Times article called Western Allies Look to Ukraine as a Testing Grounds For Weapons. And we all know that
the Times is a “newspaper of record,” don’t we? That’s a
source that the big name mainstream media pundits gladly quote from, so
there’s got to be some grain of truth in what they say, right?
I’ll
admit I’m being a bit facetious here, but in this case I think
they’re reporting truthfully. If you don’t believe the NYT,
then at least believe this military bigwig:
"This Ukraine crisis that we’re in right now, this is just the
warmup,” said US STRATCOM head Charles Richard at a naval conference
earlier this month. “The big one is coming. And it isn’t going to be
very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been
tested [in] a long time.”
The
current proxy war in Ukraine and all wars being waged overtly or covertly right now in
the world are simply experiments to see how various newfangled war
gadgetry works against flesh and blood targets before "the big one" gets started. And by targets they mean
real live human beings like you or me.
But why? Well, step back and unclutch your pearls for a moment and consider this: What good is a costly
weapon of war if it doesn’t kill or dismember as advertised? Would you spend billions of dollars on a weapon that doesn't deliver the lethal results promised? Congress
has sent about $100 billion worth of military and humanitarian aid to
Ukraine. Only about 30% of the weapons can be accounted for according
to a CBS 60 Minutes documentary. (Yes, another mainstream media
outlet might possibly be telling us actual facts! But don’t
worry—CBS took the documentary down from the internet after the
government of Ukraine complained about it. I had a link to the archived
version of the documentary, but it seems to have "disappeared." This article has a link to the archived documentary.)
That 30% of weapons accounted for that the US has sent to Ukraine has got to
destroy, maim, intimidate, and annihilate enough to make up for the
missing 70% or else the Ukrainians might feel like they have to push for more military aid from NATO by triggering "article five". Doing so would change the "cold" proxy war into a genuine nuclear Armageddon, but don't worry Zelensky and company would never do such a dangerous thing. (If you believe that, I have some swampland along the Pecos River to sell you.)
So, where did all the missing arms sent to Ukraine go? Most intelligent
people assume these weapons have been sold onto the black market and gone into the hands of
other groups such as the neo-Nazi groups Italian police have
investigated.
According to The Grayzone's Alexander Rubinstein:
Five members of an Italian neo-Nazi organization known as the “Order
of Hagal” were arrested on November 15th while an additional member
remains wanted by authorities. He happened to be in Ukraine, fighting
Russian forces alongside the Azov Battalion, which has been formally
integrated into the Ukrainian military.
The “Hagal” members are accused of plotting terrorist attacks on
civilian and police targets. A sixth member of the Hagal group, now
considered a fugitive, is in Ukraine and embedded with the Azov
Battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has been incorporated into
the Ukrainian National Guard.
Members of the Order of Hagal reportedly maintained “direct and
frequent” contacts over Telegram with not just the Azov Battalion, but
also the neo-Nazi Ukrainian military formations Right Sector and Centuria, “probably in the view of possible recruitment into the ranks of these fighting groups,” according to Italian media.
The police investigation was launched in 2019 and has included
extensive computer searches and wiretapping; tactics which have revealed
members of the group’s intent on carrying out violent acts in Italy.
Killing
people on the battlefield or through hate group crimes in our cities gives valuable feedback to military-industrial complex manufacturers as to the lethality of their
weapons. Simply put, dead
and wounded lab rats like you and me mean more sales. Selling weapons means more
profits for MIC investors. Lab rats dying is a win-win in the
investors’ eyes.
So,
why do we lab rats, white mice, and cute little guinea pigs allow these horrible events to happen? Do
we want to be killed? Do we enjoy watching others being killed simply to make profits for billionaire capitalists? If
you say “no” to these two questions, then you no longer have any excuses. You know what is needed. We must take
action to prevent more deaths. We have to say "no more war" and actually mean it and do what it takes to stop it.
Just
like the striking lab rats of the University of California system, the warehouse workers of Amazon, and the
baristas of Starbucks, we need to take this message to the streets. We must
strike, protest, do whatever to get our message out to the public and get it on the airwaves and tweeted
around the world. We need to make the owners
of our lab cages afraid of us tiny little rodents who outnumber them 99 to 1. We must escape the cages of our own making and rattle their cages instead.
We
can’t just sit back and nibble our cheese (or whatever lab
rats/white mice eat) and watch Netflix. We
can’t offer up “thoughts and prayers” alone about this
situation and expect practical results. Raytheon and Lockheed Martin don’t read minds, and they certainly don’t
hear our prayers. They
simply accept large amounts of US taxpayers’ dollars and laugh
all the way to the bank. What’s another million dead lab rats to
them if they turn a profit?
Our
planet’s very survival depends upon this generation’s actions. Do
we run back into our mouse holes and allow homicidal maniacs to kill
us all in the name of capitalism and profits? Or do we use our teeth and
claws to fight for our lives? Rats are known for their bravery and for deeply caring for their offspring. Let’s
not cower in our cages any longer.
Lab rats of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our cheese (and our planet's safety to gain).
US Empire Views Ukrainians and Russians like Lab Rats https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-empire-views-ukrainians-and-russians
This Year's Biggest Strike Is By 48,000 Academic Workers at the University of California https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/25/this-years-biggest-strike-is-by-48000-academic-workers-at-the-university-of-california/
UC's Student Workers Can't Afford California
https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/16/ucs-student-workers-cant-afford-california/
New School Staff Strike Shows the Institution Is Not So Progressive When It Comes to Faculty Pay https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/17/new-school-staff-strike-shows-the-institution-is-not-so-progressive-when-it-comes-to-faculty-pay/
Strike Wave Rocks Britain as Unions Confront the Cost of Living Crisis https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/20/strike-wave-rocks-britain-as-unions-confront-the-cost-of-living-crisis/
Blowback: Italian Police Bust Azov-Tied Nazi Cell Planning Terror Attacks https://thegrayzone.com/2022/11/15/blowback-italian-azov-tied-nazi-terror/
Zelensky and Media Lackeys Caught in Most Dangerous Lie Yet https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/20/zelensky-and-media-lackeys-caught-in-most-dangerous-lie-yet/
US Russia Proxy War Risks Nuclear Apocalypse 60 Years After Cuban Missile Crisis https://popularresistance.org/us-russia-proxy-war-risks-nuclear-apocalypse-60-years-after-cuban-missile-crisis/
FTX Partnership with Ukraine Is Latest Chapter in Shady Western Aid Saga https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/16/ftx-partnership-with-ukraine-is-latest-chapter-in-shady-western-aid-saga/
FTX the Joke of Democracy
https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/17/ftx-the-joke-of-democracy/
Corporate Weapons Heaven Is Hell On Earth https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/18/corporate-weapons-heaven-is-hell-on-earth/
Our Ruling Class Wants Us to Accept War As Something That Will Never End https://rainershea.substack.com/p/our-ruling-class-wants-us-to-accept
* * *
In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...
Zonta’s
world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to
investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she
persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist
fighters) take action?
Available now: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie
A great tale of how love, cooperation, and socialism will ultimately save us all. -- Redd Phlagg
