Showing posts with label elitists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elitists. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Verify Your Humanity

 

Verify Your Humanity

by C. A. Matthews

Humanity refers to the quality or state of being human, which includes traits like kindness and compassion towards others. --Wikipedia

Humanity: understanding and kindness toward other people. --Cambridge Dictionary

Humanity is the quality of being kind, thoughtful, and sympathetic towards others. Synonyms: kindness, charity, compassion, understanding. –-Collins Dictionary

“Verify that you’re a human” the instructions tell you with an online check box. But are you? Just because you can check a box that an A.I. ‘bot might not be able to doesn’t really verify your humanity, does it?

I’ve been having doubts for several years now, doubts that keep me awake nights. What if some of the people I see on the streets, in the grocery store, at the doctor’s office, online and particularly on the television news aren’t actually “human”? What if they’re just sophisticated facsimiles of human beings, but there’s no “soul” or “conscience” within? In other words, what if these individuals display no humanity? What should I do about those persons who are able to check the box, but whose heartless actions demonstrate they are anything but human?

In science fiction action movies, the aliens are usually not the good guys. They want to eat us, enslave us, or use our bodies as batteries to power a matrix. Should we assume these faux humans we encounter on a daily basis are equally nefarious?

Here are some examples of individuals who worry me—and possibly you, too, if you’re human.

One perfect example of this “human or not?” conundrum is Donald Trump, better known in our household as the Cheeto Bandito. If Trump knows how to send a post on Twitter/X, then he probably can check that box verifying he’s a human, but is he really?

To be considered human you have to be able to do more than apply orange face paint on a daily basis. You have to demonstrate your humanity to the world, or show empathy and compassion for others, especially to the most vulnerable in society. Trump fails in this area big time...

 

Discover even more examples of "faux humans" (and what we should do with them) by reading the rest of this article. Copy or click on this Substack link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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                            Happy Holy Week and Power to the People!

This article is the 515th 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, August 23, 2022

The 50 Year Apology

 


The 50 Year Apology

by C.A. Matthews

It’s amazing how fast your mind can go back in time when you hear a name or see a face that you haven’t seen in almost 50 years. 

This week I’m taking the wise advice of Vegematic (subscribe to his YouTube channel and watch his latest here) and taking a break from the stress of the current headlines. I’m tripping down Memory Lane and writing about something that greatly interested me when I was younger, namely film-making and Hollywood.

I wanted to be a movie director/documentary maker when I was fresh out of high school. My dream never materialized, but I’ve followed some film creatives over the years. One face that I saw on television at the Academy Awards Show almost fifty years ago flashed in front of me this past week. 

It made me think of how “important” I thought the Hollywood elite were back then. Now I know better—they are simply puppets, repeating what the oligarchs want repeating so the struggling masses don’t rise up and overthrow the oligarchy. As puppets, what they say and do isn't all that important to me anymore, but I still find their actions and non-actions fascinating.

Zach Sharf of Variety sets the scene:

Sacheen Littlefeather dominated headlines this week after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a formal apology to her for the mistreatment she faced at the 1973 Oscars. Littlefeather, who was 26 years old at the ceremony, took to the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando, who was named best actor for “The Godfather,” and declined the award for him. Brando cited Hollywood’s problematic portrayal of “Native American Indian people in film and television” as his reason for rejecting the Oscar.

 (...)“[John Wayne] did not like what I was saying up at the podium,” Littlefeather said. “So, he came forth in a rage to physically assault and take me off the stage. And he had to be restrained by six security men in order for that not to happen.”

“It was interesting because some people were giving me the tomahawk chop. I thought, ‘This is very racist. Very racist indeed.’ And I just gracefully walked and ignored them,” Littlefeather continued.

 Samantha Ibrahim of The NY Post tells us what all the apology entails:

Littlefeather was sent a formal apology from the Academy earlier this summer regarding the incident and is set to be gifted a longer one during an event titled “An Evening With Sacheen Littlefeather” come September.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” wrote former Academy President David Rubin in the note. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.

“For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” he continued. “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Here's a clip of what actually happened that night:

https://youtu.be/2QUacU0I4yU

Almost fifty years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wants to make a formal apology to Sacheen Littlefeather. They want to say they’re sorry for allowing a bunch of racist assholes to taunt and boo her statement, a political statement she made on behalf of her friend Marlon Brando. They want to say they didn’t agree with John Wayne’s drunken threats, but they don’t want to come out and simply say that Hollywood's most beloved Western actor (and huge money-maker to this day) John Wayne was wrong, either.

But come on! Fifty freakin’ years? What was the big hold up admitting your sins, Hollywood elitists?

Sacheen Littlefeather’s budding career in film was destroyed that night. She was instantly blacklisted (or is that red-listed?) and never appeared in a movie or TV show again. Walking onto that television stage was a big sacrifice to make for a young actress with a promising career, but Sacheen did so because she believed in the nobility of the cause she represented. She admired Brando’s gumption for turning down his Best Actor "Oscar" for The Godfather on the first world-wide live television broadcast of the awards ceremony in order to share a most important message. Viewers around the world heard the name “Wounded Knee” for the first time and were motivated to find out more about the injustices that happened there.

Littlefeather’s life hadn’t been a bed of roses before the incident at the Academy Awards. She was sent at a very young age to live with her maternal grandparents. They forced her to attend an all-white Catholic school where she felt like she didn't fit in. But she started to reconnect with her Apache roots as she matured and became an activist in the 1960s.

Sacheen received a degree in holistic health and nutrition after she suffered from collapsed lungs, a consequence of her childhood  tuberculosis, at the age of 29. Using her healing knowledge, she joined with Mother Teresa to take care of AIDS sufferers in hospices. As a mentor, she has become an admirable role model for many young Native Americans.

No one will ever convince me that the Academy is just about the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Hollywood is just as political (perhaps even more so) as Washington, DC. Obscenely wealthy, powerful white males can never be seen as “weak” to the lower classes, so they couldn’t be seen making an apology to a Native American activist concerning their racist conduct in 1973...or 1983...or 1993… or 2003...or 2013...

That it took almost five decades, a documentary about Sacheen’s life, and the public acknowledgment that she is battling breast cancer, only proves how little their apology really means to them.

So why are they doing it now? There could be some genuine contrition on some of their parts. But I think it’s more likely because the internet has made it far easier for folks to see the horrors of racism up close and personal. 

White elites, like the oligarchs of Hollywood, know that they are making big business off of people of color worldwide and that market is growing. It’s better for their profit margins for them not to be confused with your garden variety, right-winger, white-robe-wearing yahoo type of racist. They want to clean up their image in order to make more money.

If there’s anything that neoliberals have learned over the last six years, it’s this: Make a big production out of looking like a humble servant of the people while you simultaneously screw over the public by spewing tons of propaganda to sell your sick and twisted version of reality. 

You know the reality I speak of all too well. It’s the neoliberal reality where $800+ billion goes to a proxy war (with nuclear war overtones) to fatten the military industrial complex billionaires. It's the reality where nothing much ever goes to feed, house, or provide medical care for struggling working class Americans. In neoliberal reality, there's no such thing as "discrimination" or "racism" because what neoliberals themselves don't experience cannot possibly be happening elsewhere in their country or anywhere on the planet.

You might have been taught from an early age to think that the “good guys” in the movies where the white cowboys like John Wayne and the “bad guys” were the red-skinned “savages” native to North America. Sacheen Littlefeather’s brave sacrifice in front of the cameras in 1973 proves that narrative wrong on oh-so-many levels. Her courage in real life is a billion times more heroic than any silly stunt openly racist John Wayne might have performed on the silver screen. 

May many more activists follow Sacheen Littlefeather's example both now and in the future.

Related Articles:

Sacheen Littlefeather: John Wayne ‘Came Forth’ to ‘Assault’ Me at the 1973 Oscars but Was ‘Restrained by Six Security Men’ https://variety.com/2022/film/news/sacheen-littlefeather-john-wayne-assault-oscars-1235345008/ 
 
Sacheen Littlefeather: Raging John Wayne tried to attack me at 1973 Oscars https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/sacheen-littlefeather-raging-john-wayne-tried-to-attack-me-at-1973-oscars/

‘I promised Brando I would not touch his Oscar’: the secret life of Sacheen Littlefeather  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/03/i-promised-brando-i-would-not-touch-his-oscar-secret-life-sacheen-littlefeather

Sacheen: Breaking The Silence (documentary)
https://www.onebowlproductions.com/sacheen
 
 
Wounded Knee '73: American Indian Movement (video)
 
Nuclear Waste Ravaged Their Land. The Yakama Nation is on a Quest to Rescue It. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/yakama-nation-nuclear-waste-cleanup
 
If Everyone is King, No One Is
 
Research Shows Critical Race Theory Could Be a Valuable Teaching Tool for Overcoming Racism
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/research-shows-critical-race-theory

The Human Species is Acting Like a Self-Destructive Individual
https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue/the-human-species-is-acting-like-a-self-destructive-individual
 
The Chris Hedges Report: Psychology of a Klansman
 
Will You Survive Humanity's Deadly Trajectory? (The Vegematic Show) https://youtu.be/kFVxJlnIRgw
 

Toledo Pride Parade 

The LGBTQIA+ community, another discriminated group, is also due a "50 year apology" from the elite establishment. Some cities celebrate Pride Month in June, but Toledo does things a little differently--it's celebrated all summer long here. This past weekend was the annual Pride Parade, and the turnout was wonderful after the COVID hiatus. Happy Pride everyone!

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.

 ***

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

  ***

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