Showing posts with label protesters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label protesters. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Unlearning Hopelessness

 

A most creative way to protest Trump's recent visit to Scotland.

Unlearning Hopelessness

by C.A. Matthews

Seen on X: https://x.com/aashisjo/status/1947314052016824491

@DrNeenaJha Seriously what do we do?? We’ve protested, boycotted, campaigned, donated, written articles, pressured our government & institutions

@aashisjo What do we do? We organize real action, not performances. We disrupt the empire by refusing to work. We do not ask them to stop, we force them to stop.

 

While I was pruning back the dying raspberry canes in our organic garden, I contemplated just how hopeless the task was. The monsoon rains dumps this season had encouraged more raspberry canes and briers to grow than usual, then further rains drowned half of them with the excessive water around their roots. The out-of-control new brier growth was choking some of the older fruit bearing ones.

Why bother? I thought. I should give up now and avoid any more scrapes and scratches.

But I didn’t give up. I kept on until the task was finished. Why? Because I happen to like eating raspberries. I helped plant the first small canes in our garden, and they’d graciously had fed me (and others) over the years. So, I gritted my teeth and kept pruning. I vowed not to give up on them, especially when they needed my help the most.

Gardening is very much like fighting the unjust system we live in. Sometimes things go well, but most of the time it’s chaos and all hands-to-the-pumps—or pruning shears. Raspberries and other living things can be as unpredictable as the powers-that-be who control and punish us whenever we deviate from their plans. But we can’t give up on fighting back against the oligarchs no matter how tough things get. We’ve got to keep on hacking through the jungle and prune those briers. We’ve got fruit to harvest.

There’s been a lot of talk among psychologists and therapists about learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is when we believe we cannot change painful circumstances, so we stop trying and just endure what’s happening. 

This “just enduring” behavior describes the actions of the majority of humankind in the year 2025, in my opinion. We are enduring, but we’re not growing and producing fruit that will feed ourselves and others now and in the future. We’ve thrown in the towel along with our gardening secateurs, and because of that choice to give up, our circumstances will not change for the better.

Some psychologists believe that it’s actually learned hopelessness or a hopeless depression that keeps us from fighting back against painful circumstances. It’s easy to understand why and how depression sets in. Have you ever scrolled through your social media stream to check out the headlines or look at the memes?

No wonder it's called doomscrolling

While the odds of us succeeding in our goals to make the world a better place for all may be astronomical, we can at least try to fight the corrupt system and make some things better, right? The challenge is that we’ve heard too many horror stories and learned from others how hopeless the fight has become for them. We start to believe that it’s hopeless to even try and change things...

 

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Tuesday, May 27, 2025

We Deserve Better Psyops

 

We Deserve Better Psyops

Or "Do Western Governments Really Care About 14,000 Babies Dying Within 48 Hours"

by C.A. Matthews

Have you ever known a person whose word you couldn’t take seriously? They’ll say they’ll mow your lawn, but they never seem to get around to it. They say they care about you, but they never return your calls. They promise to pay you back when you loan them money, but do they ever? You can’t trust a single word this person says because of what they do—or don’t do, more than likely.

That’s how I feel today about Western governments’ politicians and diplomats. They’re always trying to cover their asses when the shit hits the fan as a result of their actions. They’ll fake tears of concern, saying that they truly care about starving Palestinian babies, although hundreds of thousands of innocents in Gaza have been dying over the past 19+ months due to their direct material, financial, and “moral” support of the genocidal Israeli regime.

We can’t trust sociopathic politicos of the West to show empathy. All along they’ve been a proud part of this genocide of the Palestinian people. Whether they do what they do for money or for the power they seek in West Asia and/or the petroleum resources they’ve been promised makes no difference. They’re okay with 14,000 babies starving within 48 hours. Selfish, heartless bastards the lot of them.

I particularly distrust the genocidal state of Israel, even more than I distrust Western politicians. They’ve claimed all along that they want their hostages back, but their implementation of their Hannibal Directive on October 7, 2023, demonstrates that they’ve never really cared about their own people’s safety. Photographic evidence revealed how they shot from helicopters at their own soldiers and citizens in escaping cars in order to make it seem like a much larger incident than it was by a small, ragtag group of oppressed Palestinians.

Israelis simply want to steal the entirety of the Gaza Strip and keep it for themselves. They want the oil and natural gas reserves located just off shore. So, why would any thinking person believe the Israelis actually care about any of their victims, let alone the young and innocent...

 

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This article is the 521th 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, July 9, 2024

The Fight



 The Fight

by C.A. Matthews

 

Nowadays there are so many things coming at us all at once—climate disasters, political disasters, personal disasters—that it sometimes becomes so overwhelming that all you want to do is shout, “ENOUGH ALREADY! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Only once you’re free from the stress will you be able to walk away from everything with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed as you curl up with your favorite blanket in a corner of your bed like you did when you were three years old and then forget that the world even exists.

Too bad the world never forgets about you.

The world has a way of finding us no matter how much we try to hide from it, like it or not. It won’t leave us alone if we have half a brain cell or even a tiny gram of integrity. It will call to us and plead with us to take part in its happenings. It will call to us saying, “Help me get rid it of these evil and immoral elements and replace them with just and moral ones.”

And we’ll feel obligated to do so, until it all becomes too much for us again. Then we’ll curl up in a fetal position and sob, “Enough! Please?”

I’ve been hovering over the “Enough!” cliff edge for quite some time now, so I really appreciated reading Caitlin Johnstone’s latest poem. Here it is in case you haven’t read it yet...

 

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Monday, May 20, 2024

To Proclaim Loudly


I don't know if there has ever been a time comparable to this one, where we are seeing people for who and what they really are. There's nowhere to hide anymore. You're either with God or you're with the devil and his legions. You either support children being stripped naked, having their hands tied behind their back, and executed or you don't. There's no middle ground. And whatever side a person is on has become abundantly clear to everyone around them. The masks are off.  --Mike Stone

To Proclaim Loudly

by C.A. Matthews


As the weeks turn into months, and the genocide in Gaza continues unabated, you really start to wonder: “Is it worth it? Is it worth protesting to a (mostly) uncaring audience that ethnic cleansing is wrong? Is it worth doing march after march after protest after protest after informational meeting after informational meeting when you’re essentially reaching the same folks (who were already pro-Palestinian) time and time again?”

It’s draining, and it’s frustrating, but what is the alternative? To give up? To stop caring about the plight of two million souls who are enduring the worse that humanity has to offer? And this isn’t the only place on Earth where people are being indiscriminately killed because of… Well, simply put, greed and prejudice. The Congo, Sudan, and Haiti come to mind. You can see the “why” of how Westerners can forget about the suffering of darker-skinned peoples. It’s not like the Western nations have never been racist against non-whites, but now the West has adopted the racism of Zionism as well. How open-minded of them!

Giving up on saving the lives of others will not save our lives, in case you’re leaning that way. If we stop caring for others, we will eventually stop caring for ourselves and our loved ones. You can’t just turn off the tap of compassion for one part of humanity and expect love to flow to the rest. It doesn’t work that way. Ask an addict. When you use chemicals to kill the pain and stop feeling those uncomfortable emotions, it doesn’t just stop the negative feelings. It shuts down all your feelings. And how can you love others when you’re not even loving yourself through the abuse of substances or engaging in destructive habits? Answer: You can’t.

The United States of Israel is one such addict.

The US has become addicted to greed itself. We hoard others’ natural resources such as land, fossil fuels, copper, cobalt, platinum, uranium… The list goes on ad infinitum. Our powers-that-be have perfected the use of racism and fear of others in their quest to steal others’ natural resources. They promote racism and fear of others in their divide and conquer tactics within our country. With all of us at each others’ throats, we will never have enough energy to go after those who are truly our enemies, the capitalists and their minions.
You don’t have enough to eat? It’s those people down the block or the country across the globe from yours who are “stealing your food.” Go fight them for it, but forget all about blaming the rich and powerful who control food distribution. Forget who are manufacturing the false narrative that your fellow workers are at fault. Somehow it’s never the fault of the wealthy who own everything. Remember you should never tax the “job creators” and make them pay their fair share of taxes… Trust the Trickle Down Theory implicitly! It will eventually trickle down some wealth to you and yours in perhaps three to four hundred years.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t expect to live that long.

The bottom line is we can’t give up. We can’t give up on the Palestinians, the Congolese, the Sudanese, the Haitians...or ourselves. To give up on any part of humanity is to give up on the whole of humanity.

To give up on humanity is to give up on any chance we have of turning the climate crisis around. It’s to give up on seeing your children or grandchildren grow up to take the reins away from the greedy and prejudiced powers-that-be who are currently screwing us and the planet over.

So, what can we do on days when all we can think about doing is throwing in the towel? On days when all we want to do is to stop caring so much about others because it hurts? On days when we could just walk away from this struggle called life and not miss it? There’s only one thing we can do: We have to give ourselves new marching orders.

We take it to the streets again. And again. Because...
If our struggle was hopeless their propaganda would be unnecessary. Keep Going.
We keep proclaiming the truth of what’s happening—loudly. We keep marching in protest parades even when threatened with mace, rubber bullets, tear gas or a night in jail. We keep sharing the truth of things even when others refuse to listen and shun us or shame us. We don’t need their approval, after all. Our consciences approve of us and our actions. And these stone-hearted fools really do need to hear us.

They really do understand there is a genocide happening in Gaza, but they’re afraid of us knowing that they do. They’re scared of acknowledging their part in perpetuating the official narrative that there is no genocide. They have become slaves of the corrupt system. In their fear they’ve locked themselves into the cycle of Zionist lies thinking they'll stay safe, not realizing that losing their souls is a prison worse than hell itself.

Poor pitiful things! This is where the “proclaim loudly” part comes in handy.
We simply don’t shut up. We don’t shut down. We keep repeating the reality of our messed up world over and over again because these sell-outs to the Zionist lie are both stupid and stubborn. But we can act pig-headed, too. With so many innocent lives at stake, why should we waste precious time playing their silly “Shut up, you’re hurting our feelings” game?

Saving lives, the planet, and our souls comes well before anyone-who-is-okay-with-babies’-faces-being-blown-off-by-US-provided-bombs’ “feelings”. These narcissists need a wake up call to reality, not our coddling. Let me put it bluntly: F*** the feelings of all greedy zionarcissists! It time for you to grow up and think of the welfare of others, you self-centered morons!

It's freeing when you give yourself permission to keep marching with heads and flags held high. And no, not the flags of the military-industrial complex lackeys, better known as the US and its NATO allies. We fly the flags of truth, liberty, revolution, freedom and peace for all humankind. Wave those flags proudly and raise a fist and shout loudly!


Let’s keep encouraging one another as the days drag along and it seems like there’s no end in sight to the bombing, shooting, starving, and suffering of innocents. It is our duty. We are their witnesses. We are their bringers of hope. We may even be their bringers of salvation in time. And we’d want them to do the same for us when our time of suffering comes.

Power to the people!


Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Willing Executioners
https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/13/chris-hedges-israels-willing-executioners/

Please Stop Saying Israel Is an “Ally” of the United States — It Is Not.  https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/please-stop-saying-israel-is-an-ally

Israel Orders Evacuation in Rafah, Hours After Raiding Al Jazeera Offices https://truthout.org/articles/israel-orders-evacuation-in-rafah-hours-after-raiding-al-jazeera-offices/

Police Brutality “Made in Israel” https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/police-brutality-made-in-israel

US Army Officer Resigns Over ‘Unqualified’ Support for Israeli Slaughter in Gaza  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/13/us-army- officer-resigns-over-unqualified-support-for-israeli-slaughter-in-gaza/

Jewish Biden Appointee Resigns from Interior Department Over Gaza Slaughter https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/16/jewish-biden-appointee-resigns-from-interior-department-over-gaza-slaughter/

The Genocide Case Against Israel Before the World Court Just Got Much Stronger https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/the-genocide-case-against-israel

Report: Israel Has Bombed Known Aid Worker Sites in Gaza at Least 8 Times  https://truthout.org/articles/report-israel-has-bombed-known-aid-worker-sites-in-gaza-at-least-8-times/

Biden’s Shifting ‘Red Line’ Allows Israel To Keep Getting Away With Murder https://popularresistance.org/bidens-shifting-red-line-allows-israel-to-keep-getting-away-with-murder/

Biden won't turn his back on Israel because he is just as fanatical as Netanyahu https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/biden-wont-turn-his-back-on-israel

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity https://www.nationofchange.org/2024/05/20/icc-prosecutor-seeks-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-and-hamas-leaders-for-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity/

'Dark Times' As Renowned Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé Detained, Interrogated By FBI https://www.commondreams.org/news/ilan-pappe  https://mark192.substack.com/p/alert-dark-times-as-renowned-israeli

The Nakba: All you need to know explained in five maps and charts https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-nakba-ethnic-cleansing-explained-five-maps-charts

UCLA attackers exposed: meet the violent Zionist agitators LA police haven’t arrested https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/13/ucla-attackers-exposed/

13% of 2020 Swing State Biden Voters Won’t Be in 2024 Because of Gaza: Polls https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/14/13-of-2020-swing-state-biden-voters-wont-be-in-2024-because-of-gaza-polls/

Booing of Israeli Singer Covered up by Eurovision https://rumble.com/v4uywkb-eurovision.html

The US Empire Deliberately Stokes Hatred And Violence In The Middle East https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-empire-deliberately-stokes

Orf vs. The Memory Hole: When Israel Bombed AP's Gaza Office https://censorednews.substack.com/p/orf-vs-the-memory-hole-when-israel 
 
Assange Wins Right to Appeal on 1st Amendment Issue https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/20/assange-wins-right-to-appeal-on-1a-issue/ 
 
Why You'll Never Achieve The American Dream https://youtu.be/vu7IJ-HDIos?si=zzYvS4vHxhy5C7Qk
 
“Unprecedented” – CO2 Rising 10 Times Faster Than Any Time in Recorded History https://scitechdaily.com/unprecedented-co2-rising-10-times-faster-than-any-time-in-recorded-history/ 
 
For those who think Biden is "soft" on immigration: 

"...The Biden Administration seeks to engage in the type of politically-motivated action that the Refugee Convention and 1980 Refugee Act sought to eliminate. For the above reasons, such action would violate the intent of Congress, our treaty obligations, and over two centuries of U.S. case law." Proposed Asylum Bar Regs Are At Odds With International Law (And Why That Matters)  https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2024/5/16/proposed-asylum-bar-regs-at-odds-with-international-law-and-why-that-matters

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Monday, May 13, 2024

Changing The World

Changing The World

by C. A. Matthews


“If you think we can’t change the world, it just means you’re not one of them who will.” --Jacque Fresco

The last two hundred plus days have been difficult. But, every once and a while, there is a glimmer of hope. There is a light shining through the haze of the seemingly endless bombing in Gaza. Not everyone supports this genocide. Not everyone buys into the sociopathic narrative of the Israelis and their bought-off Zionist agents in the West.

In fact, every day there are more and more people who are speaking out against the war crimes the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) are perpetrating against innocent Palestinian civilians. Our university students are leading the way in protest against the entrenched, bloodthirsty establishment. Cops are using rubber bullets, mace, and nightsticks against them, but the students are holding fast. They truly are heroes in these dark times.

BGSU students protest in downtown BG

And we should follow their lead.

Change is scary, but sometime it’s necessary. This is one of these times. The world cannot remain the way it is, stuck in the sickness of capitalism’s endless wars to steal resources (oil, land, rare earths) from native peoples. The world cannot remain under the control of full-fledged psychopaths who’d rather foul our air, land, and waters to generate another billion dollars in profit than to preserve what remains of our beautiful Earth by practicing prudent and fair methods of resource management. The world cannot remain in the hands of sociopaths who believe that ethnic cleansing and immigrant-scapegoating are legitimate, moral activities to handle human conflict.

The world will not remain a livable place much longer if these activities continue. And so our university students—our heroes—are taking the lead at pointing out the evils of the status quo at the risks of their studies, their careers, and their lives. We should do all that we can to promote their cause and boycott the industries, institutions, and individuals that are selfishly driving our planet toward its death throws.

One student eloquently summed up the meaning of the student protests in a short interview:

University Of Chicago Student States: "There Are Things That More Important Than My Academic Future" https://youtu.be/BJpML0QBcMk  and also  https://youtu.be/vAZIMWNOa7w

Another student gave testimony to her school’s board of trustees on how their investments into the military-industrial complex aren’t what the students and faculty want:

Speaking Truth to Power: Rutgers Student Confronts School Leadership Board https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/speaking-truth-to-power-rutgers-hdwmt-112

And Columbia University social work graduates got their points across during their graduation ceremony: https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1789827109470224418

Bold, aren’t they? I
find them refreshing in their moral courage, don't you?

More nominees for an "Aaron" award!

This is what I mean when I say these university students are our heroes. They valiantly clear away the cobwebs of the fascistic narrative spin offered up by government spokespersons and present the facts to us in a rational and moral fashion. Genocide is no longer to be considered an “option” or a “choice” or a “defense tactic” or a way for your university to make money. It’s just plain mass murder. It’s horrific ethnic cleansing. Anyone who can’t intuit that profound truth is a very sick individual and needs to be locked up for their own good as well as for the good of society.

Perhaps we should install padlocks on all the doors and rubber mats on the floors and walls that line the Capitol Building and the White House to keep all the AIPAC-owned lunatics inside to prevent them from starting World War III?

BGSU students and others on Main St.
After seven months, one would hope that more celebrities would come crawling out of their golden bubbles to protest the criminal actions of Israel. But being threatened with dropped contracts for their music or having their juicy parts in big Hollywood productions axed are considered more important to most entertainers than helping save thousands of innocent lives from being butchered by the Israeli military. 

Rapper Macklemore is an exception. He has written a rap song declaring the reality of what the students are protesting about while simultaneously exposing the shallow narcissism of celebrityness. (All proceeds from the song are being donated to UNRWA, too. Nice touch, Macklemore.)

audio only https://youtu.be/wmg6vbt04TY
video https://youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo


HIND'S HALL
Written and Produced by Macklemore

The people they won’t leave
What is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?
The problem isn’t the protests it’s what they’re protesting
Cause it goes against what our country is funding
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
When I was 7 I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy E
What was it again? Oh yea fuck the police
Actors in badges protecting property
And a system that was designed by white supremacy
But the people are in the streets
You can pay off Meta you can’t pay off me
Politicians who serve by any means
AIPAC, CUFI and all the companies
You see we sell fear around the land of the free
But this generation here is about to cut the strings
You can ban Tik Tok take us out the algorithm
But it’s too late we’ve seen the truth we bare witness
We’ve seen the rubble the buildings the mothers the children
And all the men that you murdered and then we see how they spin it
Who gets to the right to defend and who gets the right of resistance
Has always been about dollars and the color of your pigment
But White Supremacy is finally on blast
Screaming free Palestine until they’re home at last
We see the lies in them
Claiming it’s anti-semitic to be anti-zionist
I’ve seen Jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding
In solidarity and screaming free Palestine with ‘em
Organizing, unlearning and finally cutting ties with a
State that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system
To uphold an occupying violent
History been repeating for the last 75
The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied
If some kids in tents, posted on the lawn occupying the quad is really against the law
And a reason to call in the police and their squad
where does genocide land in your definition huh? destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque pushing everyone into Rafah and dropping bombs
The blood is on your hands Biden, we can see it all
And fuck no I’m not voting for you in the fall
Undecided, you can’t twist the truth
The people out here united never be defeated when Freedom’s on the horizon
Yet the music industry’s quiet complicit in their platform of silence
What happened to the artist what do you got to say?
If I was on a label, you could drop me today
And be fine with it cause the heart fed my page
I want a ceasefire fuck a response from Drake
What you willing to risk?
What you willing to give?
What if you were Gaza? What if those were your kids?
If the West was pretending that you didn’t exist
You’d want the world to stand up
And the students finally did
Let’s get it


The title of Macklemore’s song, Hind’s Hall, comes from the “renamed” Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University. Here’s a short bio of who Hind was in case you don’t know:

Hind Rajab was a 6-year-old girl from Gaza. In January 2024, she and her family were shelled by the Israeli army while in their car. Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, were the only survivors, trapped within the car. They called the Palestinian Red Cross Society, with Layan saying, “They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We're in the car, and the tank is right next to us.” The PCRS sent a team to rescue them. However, after 12 days, on February 10, when the Israeli army withdrew from the area, Hind Rajab and her six relatives were found dead in the car, along with the two paramedics sent to rescue them, who were also found dead nearby, victims of Israeli snipers.

The Columbia students renamed the building in honor of a frightened little girl left to die of her injuries and starvation all alone beside the corpses of her family members who earlier succumbed to their wounds. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will probably never be charged or prosecuted for what they did, but the students of Columbia immortalized Hind Rajab by renaming a building in her honor. Macklemore is spreading Hind’s story worldwide through his gift of music. May Hind’s remaining family and friends find some solace in knowing that she will never be forgotten, and that not all Westerners were oblivious to their suffering.


This is heroism. This is changing the world for the better. These are the people we should follow and imitate.

Block the Hollywood celebs and the Grammy winners online who can’t even be bothered to hold a concert to raise money for UNRWA. They won't even bring about public awareness to the genocide in Gaza by chatting about it on the red carpet or the talk show circuit or their X feeds.

To quote Macklemore: “I want a ceasefire! F*ck a response from Drake!”

The students are changing the world. Follow their lead. Free Palestine.


Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Blood on Biden’s Hands: The invasion of Rafah MUST be stopped
https://youtu.be/sovQJfZL-jw

University Of Chicago Student States: "There Are Things That More Important Than My Academic Future" https://youtu.be/vAZIMWNOa7w

University Students in Mexico Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Call for BDS https://truthout.org/articles/university-students-in-mexico-launch-gaza-solidarity-encampment-call-for-bds/

MACKLEMORE - HIND'S HALL https://youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo

'HIND'S HALL' OCCUPATION / Hind Rajab’s Mother Reacts To Student Protests https://mark192.substack.com/p/hinds-hall-occupation-hind-rajabs

Opposing The War Machine Is Cool Again, And The Empire's Getting Nervous https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/opposing-the-war-machine-is-cool

Students Demanding Divestment: You’re On The Right Side Of History https://popularresistance.org/students-demanding-divestment-youre-on-the-right-side-of-history/

Speaking Truth to Power: Rutgers Student Confronts School Leadership Board https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/speaking-truth-to-power-rutgers-hdwmt-112

Thousands of U.S. Students Arrested While Israel Invades Rafah https://youtu.be/RzMueJ4OpsI

Chris Hedges: The Nation’s Conscience  https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/08/chris-hedges-the-nations-conscience/

Campus Protests Are Fighting Militarism and Corporatization at Home and Abroad https://truthout.org/articles/campus-protests-are-fighting-militarism-and-corporatization-at-home-and-abroad/

USC President and Provost Censured After Faculty Senate Vote https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/10/usc-president-and-provost-censured-after-faculty-senate-vote/

Empire Managers Explain Why This New Protest Movement Scares Them https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-explain-why-this

Listen to the Students  https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/08/listen-to-the-students/

Universities Have Failed Their Democratic Mission by Repressing Gaza Protests https://truthout.org/articles/universities-have-failed-their-democratic-mission-by-repressing-gaza-protests/

Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Operations In The Country https://popularresistance.org/israel-shuts-down-al-jazeera-operations-in-the-country/

There’s Only 1 to 3 Days’ Worth of Food Left in Gaza, World Food Programme Warns https://truthout.org/articles/theres-only-1-to-3-days-worth-of-food-left-in-gaza-world-food-programme-warns/

Israeli Prisons Subject Palestinians to Constant Torture, “Revenge” https://truthout.org/articles/report-israeli-prisons-subject-palestinians-to-constant-torture-revenge/

Jill Stein EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - Why Ending the War on Gaza Means Breaking From Biden https://youtu.be/NXSZUtt4kYE

Why 9 in 10 American Zionists Are Actually Christians  https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/why-9-in-10-american-zionists-are

Support for a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza Increases Across Party Lines https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/5/8/support-for-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-increases-across-party-lines

When Opposing Genocide Is Seen As Radical, Radicalism Becomes A Moral Imperative https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/when-opposing-genocide-is-seen-as

Every single hostage exchange Hamas offered Israel since October
https://twitter.com/cynthianna3/status/1788687035424735544

Over 100,000 Gazans flee Rafah as UN warns 'no aid in sight' https://thecradle.co/articles/over-100000-gazans-flee-rafah-as-un-warns-no-aid-in-sight

Jill Stein on an Egyptian TV news program (with an endorsement) https://youtu.be/kuIJt73t9aQ?si=LZthWo7QNBDB4fDb

The CIA and Zionism: A Complex History https://www.spytalk.co/p/the-cia-and-zionism-a-complex-history

USA & Israel defy world in vote to make Palestine full UN member https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/us-israel-un-vote-palestine-full-member

Can No One Tell Me the Name of an Israeli Woman Who Was Raped by Hamas on 10/7? https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/can-no-one-tell-me-the-name-of-an

Using A Fictional Antisemitism Crisis To Support A Real Genocide https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/using-a-fictional-antisemitism-crisis

When Your Rulers Ignore Voters But Are Terrified Of Protesters, That Tells You Something https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/when-your-rulers-ignore-voters-but

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Monday, May 6, 2024

All Cops Are [Expletive Deleted]



All Cops Are [Expletive Deleted]

by C.A. Matthews

I really hate slapping a label onto a particular group of people, but sometimes the label just fits.

After watching videos and reading stories about what the police of various cities/countries have been doing to university students and faculty members who are attempting to hold down peaceful anti-genocide encampments, I can’t come to any other conclusion. The cops are not our friends. The cops are not there to protect and serve the public. The cops are there for one reason and one reason only.

That reason is to protect and serve their non-empathetic, zionarcissistic, capitalistic masters who are afraid that We the People are getting close to taking them out and shutting down the war machine to make endless profits.

Their tactics give them away. Teresa Watanabe observes:

https://twitter.com/TeresaWatanabe/status/1785575610469007471

200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per LA Times’ Safi Nazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security?

Good question. Campus security and the city cops seem to be working side-by-side on allowing vigilantism to terrorize the students. The cops are definitely not on our side but, even worse, they’re actually aiding and abetting acts of violence against peaceful protesters.


From Natasha Lennard’s article I’ve Covered Violent Crackdowns on Protests for 15 Years. This Police Overreaction Was Unhinged https://theintercept.com/2024/05/01/nyc-gaza-college-protests-police-outside-agitators/:

A lone Trash can lay on its side at the intersection of W. 139th St and Amsterdam Ave in Harlem, in front of the gates of the City College of New York.

At around 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, this was the extent of damaged property that I witnessed outside the college campus. At the same time, New York Police Department officers in riot regalia had amassed in their hundreds, including members of the Strategic Response Group — a unit dedicated to public unrest and “counterterrorism.”

More police had stormed through the school’s neo-Gothic gates less than an hour before, at the behest of the college’s president, to arrest protesting students en masse.

Twenty blocks south, police had locked down and barricaded all streets in a two-block radius of Columbia University, brutally arresting students inside the inaccessible campus.

Between Columbia and City College, over 200 protesters — almost all students — were arrested before the night was out.

There are many more examples of “unhinged police” actions that have taken place on college campuses across the country. Why would peaceful protesters trying to do a good deed by bringing justice and awareness to the plight of the Palestinians invoke such violent responses? Why are cops allowing Zionist vigilantes to beat and injure students with their blessing? Who is calling the shots here?

I think you know who. (Watch a video with Bibi giving the orders.) Netanyahu ordered the cops to squash the American campus encampments, and his puppet Joe Biden went along with it willingly. Biden's campaign staff is trying to make him look like a “kinder, gentler genocide-enabler who is also tough on crime” in this an election year. It’s better to let Netanyahu take the heat and pretend it’s all his idea than let Geriatric Genocide Joe draw more attention to the fact that he hasn’t been calling any shots lately.

But it’s even worse than a demented commander-in-chief not leading compassionately when it comes to policing campus protests. Treasonous Americans are actually causing violence against our students with the blessing of the police and perhaps even a foreign government. I bet you know which foreign government that is, too.

From The Grayzone:

Rebecca Weiner is a Columbia U. professor who also serves as intelligence director of the NYPD. Mayor Eric Adams credits her with spying on anti-genocide student protesters and directing the militarized raid that dislodged them from campus. (...)

During a May 1 press conference, just hours after the New York Police Department arrested nearly 300 people on university grounds, Adams praised adjunct Columbia professor Rebecca Weiner, who moonlights as the head of the NYPD counter-terrorism bureau, for giving police the green light to clear out anti-genocide students by force. (...)

Weiner “develops policy and strategic priorities for the Intelligence & Counterterrorism Bureau and publicly represents the NYPD in matters involving counterterrorism and intelligence.”

The NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau currently maintains an office in Tel Aviv, Israel, where it coordinates with Israel’s security apparatus and maintains a department liaison. Weiner appears to serve as a bridge between the Bureau’s offices in Israel and New York.

The Zionist government of Israel obviously is in charge of American security—particularly when it comes to policing college campus protests. The New York Police Department even maintains an office in Tel Aviv, Israel—that’s not a neighborhood in Brooklyn, either. Strange how the NYPD bows so easily to the wishes of a foreign government without a care to the welfare of its own citizens. Then again, most large city police departments throughout the US have had their officers trained by programs either conducted or originated by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).

Perhaps that explains how the cops in New York and Los Angeles had no problems with pro-Israel vigilantes beating up on peaceful college students. The Israelis aren’t known for objecting to the abuse and torture of others or for protecting free speech. They’re experts on the use of deadly violence against civilians as we’ve seen these past seven months in Gaza and the West Bank.

It’s probably part of the IDF’s training to teach American cops like Rebecca Weiner to see their fellow Americans (such as the college students) as lesser beings, such as animals, who are only fit for abuse and imprisonment. It’s how the Israelis see the Palestinians. Israeli government officials have said as much on camera more than once.

American cops trained to think of pro-Palestine protesters as less than human. What could go wrong?

Indie journalist Michael Tracey adds: 

Rebecca Weiner, head of the NYPD "counter-terrorism" bureau, identifies one of the threats that supposedly necessitated the Columbia raid: "Mainstreaming of rhetoric associated with Terrorism." No question this is recasting political speech as "Terrorism." She also blames TikTok. https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1785707101676773621

Rebecca Weiner, an adjunct professor that the students at Columbia would have trusted spied upon them, then turned over the information to the police units that violently stormed their symbolic occupation of Hamilton Hall, a building which was also taken by students in a 1968 protest against the Vietnam War. The students trusted Weiner, and she consequently betrayed them and had them beaten and arrested.

Judas Iscariot looks like your favorite great-auntyou know the one, your auntie who makes your favorite chocolate chip cookies and knits you warm fuzzy sweaters for Christmascompared to this Weiner woman. How can a traitor like Weiner live with herself knowing how much she has hurt these kids and their futures? And for what? To further the Zionist plans of Israel in the USA? Or is it the United States of Israel now?

Fortunately not all professors are as traitorous or vicious as undercover cop Rebecca Weiner. Annelise Orleck, Head of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth, was banned from campus for six months for trying to protect her protesting students from riot police. (Watch it here: https://twitter.com/Zephyr_8______/status/1786149558625382830 )

So, for every traitor like Weiner, there’s a hero like Orleck. Of course, Professor Orleck has been harshly punished for her compassion, but somehow I doubt she regrets her actions. The students at Dartmouth were lucky to have her on their side.

Is there anything the students of Columbia can do to fight the injustices that their pro-Israel university directors have inflicted upon them? Yes, there is.

From the Twitter/X thread that starts here:

https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1786103595277992177

BREAKING: The Department of Education has announced that Columbia University is under federal investigation for anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment. Palestine Legal is representing four Palestinian students and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

“The law is clear— if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters, they will risk losing federal funding” said senior Palestine Legal attorney Radhika Sainath

This comes less than 48 hours after Columbia President Shafik called in the NYPD, which violently arrested and brutalized dozens of student protesters, some with guns drawn, using sledgehammers, batons, and flash-bang explosives.

“Palestinian students at Columbia deserve justice and accountability, not only for Israel’s decades-long oppression and violence against our people, but for the racism and discrimination we’ve experienced here on Columbia’s campus,” said Mayam Alwan.

Palestinian students have dealt with immense repression and a hostile campus environment. A complainant received a conduct notice for stating her family was bombed in Gaza. Read the full complaint here: https://palestinelegal.org/news/2024/4/25/columbia-students-file-civil-rights-complaint-after-nypd-arrests-national-guard-threat

The owned-and-operated-by-Israel Columbia University and the racist, traitorous cops of the NYPD aren’t going to get away with their crimes if the justice system allows the students to sue. That’s a very big “if” considering how infiltrated the US apparently is by Zionists. Who really knows how many American judges are under Israel’s direct control?

A silent coup d’etat of the US by Israel has occurred, and it didn’t happen overnight. This shows you just how long the Israelis have been setting things up to guarantee America’s support before they started in on their genocide of the Palestinian people. This so-called Israel-Hamas War is premeditated mass murder. This is exquisitely planned ethnic cleansing. Nothing was left to chance. 

The Zionists knew then and know now what they're doing in Gaza is illegal under international law as well as being utterly heinous and immoral. They knew it would more than likely cause huge protests around the globe, but they still keep doing it. Bombs are raining down on Rafah and thousands of innocent Palestinians are running for their lives from this supposed "safe place" even as I type this sentence. Shutting down student encampments won't change anyone's mind who has already determined that this is a genocide.

Natasha Lennard sums it up well:

Israel’s decimation of Gaza has — at least for millions more people — given lie to the redemptive myths of the post-World War II political liberal order. Young people, even the children of the elite, even children of Zionists, are standing with Palestine. Their peaceful acts of protest count as disruptive because they count as un-American — which should be a badge of honor amid a US-backed genocide.” —I’ve Covered Violent Crackdowns on Protests for 15 Years.This Police Overreaction Was Unhinged.

Are all cops in the US working for the Zionists’ agenda? Maybe not. There is at least one outlier.

Denver’s Police Chief Ron Thomas declined to clear the students’ pro-Palestine encampment at Auraria University because he felt to do so was a violation of their rights to peaceful protest. Chief Thomas’ refusal to arrest the students is impressive. He actually sees the protesters as human beings, not animals, and worthy of having the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment of Constitution to free speech. We can only hope his actions are copied by others.

But if we continue to see police violence against peaceful students and flat-out refusal to honor the pro-Palestine protesters’ rights of free speech on university campuses—or street corners—across the US, then the old saying will still apply. The label will stick. You know the one I'm alluding to:

ACAB

Seen on Twitter/X from Fadi Quran:

https://twitter.com/fadiquran/status/1787065255677378638

Every student protesting should know these three things: 1. You are a ray of hope for Gaza: Every person I’ve spoken to in and from Gaza has told me they were losing hope in international solidarity, until these protests started. They said the encampments are their main (for many the ONLY) source of hope now. 2. Your pressure is working: Despite what the US government is saying publicly, under the table these protests have forced them to urgently pursue a ceasefire, including significantly increasing pressure on the Israeli war cabinet. 3. Boards of Trustees across campuses are now divided, with some shifting towards divestment, and asking themselves the question of: Why risk everything to protect weapon companies and war criminals? Given this rising impact, different tools of deception and oppression are going to be used to shut down your momentum. Maintaining your eyes on the prize, your unity, coherence of messaging and the moral high ground are central. You are at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and dignity. Millions across the world have your back. Until Victory.

Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the UK, and Copenhagen University in Denmark have also set up Palestine solidarity encampments.
 

Related Articles and Interesting Links

Columbia crackdown led by university prof doubling as NYPD spook https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/02/columbia-crackdown-university-nypd/

I’ve Covered Violent Crackdowns on Protests for 15 Years. This Police Overreaction Was Unhinged. https://theintercept.com/2024/05/01/nyc-gaza-college-protests-police-outside-agitators/

Students in Cuba Stand with U.S. Student Encampments for Gaza https://youtu.be/hCn1jtHSj8E?si=wDX_KUWkhComRJNq 

Bipartisan Bill Would Create ‘Antisemitism Monitors’ at College Campuses
Pro-Palestine protests have been falsely labeled as 'antisemitic' even though many Jewish students are involved https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/29/bipartisan-bill-would-create-antisemitism-monitors-at-college-campuses/

Israel Orders Evacuation in Rafah, Hours After Raiding Al Jazeera Offices https://truthout.org/articles/israel-orders-evacuation-in-rafah-hours-after-raiding-al-jazeera-offices/

The Press Freedom Clock is TikToking https://www.projectcensored.org/press-freedom-clock-tiktoking/

Israeli Finance Minister Denounced for Calling for 'Total Annihilation' of Gaza https://www.commondreams.org/news/smotrich-gaza-annihilation

The 'Antisemitism' Moral Panic Has Officially Jumped The Shark https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-antisemitism-moral-panic-has

The Bizarre Gymnastics Of The Gaza Aid Pier https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-bizarre-gymnastics-of-the-gaza

Sermon for Gaza  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/sermon-for-gaza

Support Palestine. Boycott Israel https://boycott.thewitness.news/

Israel planning ring of checkpoints to prevent men from fleeing Rafah, source says  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-israel-planning-ring-checkpoints-prevent-men-fleeing-rafah

State Dept. Claims it Upholds Laws, but Won't Acknowledge Israel's Nukes, Flouting Law Requiring Funding Cutoff to Proliferators
https://husseini.substack.com/p/state-dept-claims-it-upholds-laws

How Israel Violates International Law in Gaza: Expert Report https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/01/how-israel-violates-international-law-in-gaza-expert-report/

"Vote Biden to save democracy" is not going according to plan, is it? https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/what-happened-to-vote-biden-to-save  (Good links to articles on the student protests and Zionist vigilantism.)

Pro-Palestine Protesters Occupy University Hall After Columbia Refuses to Divest https://truthout.org/articles/pro-palestine-protesters-occupy-university-hall-after-columbia-refuses-to-divest/

America is Rising for Gaza: What Should We Expect? https://www.mintpressnews.com/america-gaza-protests-what-should-we-expect/287313/ 

FIND THE PRICE OF YOUR CONGRESSIONAL MEMBER'S SOUL: Website Tracks AIPAC Campaign Cash Pay-Outs  https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-find-the-price-of-your-congressional

CNN Compares Campus Protesters To Nazis In Stunning Propaganda Segment https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/cnn-compares-campus-protesters-to

Remember, All This Fascism Would Feel Way More Fascismy Under Trump  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/remember-all-this-fascism-would-feel

Thank you for your support following the cancellation of my show on The Real News. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/thank-you-for-your-support-following

Yemen Braces For Impending Massive US-Led Air and Ground Campaign https://www.mintpressnews.com/exclusive-yemen-braces-for-impending-massive-us-led-air-and-ground-campaign/287342/

Matthew Hoh & NC Green Party WIN in Court https://youtu.be/SB4IMfRw8Pc?si=xA_e8EvF8hKI94sg

The United States is the world’s terrorist. (An exhaustive list of all the military interventions the US has been involved in.)
https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/its-not-russia-its-not-china-the

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Go to https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com and subscribe at the link at the end of the article. You'll enjoy having each week's post automatically sent to your email box or reading it at the Substack site. Many thanks for your consideration.