Showing posts with label the Left. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Left. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

#BernieSandersMittens

 #BernieSandersMittens
by C.A. Matthews

It's amazing how quickly human beings can glomp onto a symbol of hope and run with it.


A photo of Senator Bernie Sanders, sitting on a folding chair at the inauguration ceremony in his usual brown parka and wearing a pair of handmade woolen mittens, has set the Internet alight and raised the spirits of many a Berner.

Hundreds of memes popped up overnight showing Bernie and his trademark mittens in a variety of positions and places--everything from sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office to sitting at the bar with the Dude from The Big Lebowski. Every single one brought a smile to thousands of faces. Every smile brought hope and revived fond memories of both Bernie's campaigns for the White House.

True to his nature, Bernie donated all proceeds from a "Bernie in Mittens" icon t-shirt/sweatshirt sale to the Vermont chapter of Meals on Wheels. For those who feel Bernie has become "just one of the boys" on Capitol Hill, consider this: A Vermont second grade teacher knitted Bernie's mittens from an old sweater and recycled plastic bottles. Joe Biden, the man whom Bernie inadvertently upstaged at the inauguration, typically wears a $7,000 Rolex watch and was found to have set up a "cancer foundation" that raised millions of dollars that was spent on executive salaries with none of the money actually going toward research for a cure.

No wonder memes of $7,000 Rolexes aren't trending!

The popularity of the Bernie's mittens meme speaks for itself. It's what is needed in an era where more Americans than ever before are becoming aware that they cannot trust those in power. They cannot trust a politician who promised a $2000 stimulus check right away before the election but now has backpedaled and lowered that amount to $1400 and pushed off the date to send it out to sometime in March at the earliest. 
 
Meanwhile, millions of unemployed Americans face eviction from their homes and starvation today and every day until then. Don't their lives matter more than the profits of Big Pharma and the health care industry? The military-industrial complex?

Bernie's mittens represent that even a working class boy like Bernie Sanders can grow up and do great things. They represent that the working class still has a friend in Washington DC who will stand up against the moneyed elites and their corporate donors and fight for our rights to health care and funds to survive during this pandemic.

Bernie's mittens will stand up there someday with the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell as great symbols of what America could be without the greed and tone-deafness of the oligarchs and their politician-puppets.


God bless America. God bless Bernie Sanders' mittens.

Thanks to James Kirkland who posted most of these memes on the Artists for Bernie Sanders Facebook group.


You can make your own memes at https://outsnapped.com/content/sit-with-bernie-sanders-meme-generator/

 
More insights on Bernie Sanders' Mittens:

Sanders Hopes Nation Smitten by His Mittens Will Back Food Charity Push  https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67456-sanders-hopes-nation-smitten-by-his-mittens-will-back-food-charity-push

The Mittens
https://correspondent.afp.com/mittens

The Meaning of the Mittens: Five Possibilities
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/21/inauguration-bernie-sanders-mittens/ 

***

Families Belong Together

Incredible hope that Trump's sadistic attacks on children and families will end. Overwhelming heartbreak at the incredible pain so many families have suffered. Fierce determination to reunite all separated children with their families and forever turn the page on this nightmare.

President Biden has made clear that his administration is going all-in undoing the horrors of the last four years. We’re optimistic about the soon-to-be-announced Presidential Task Force on Family Separation, an immigration bill that centers care and compassion, and the rebuilding of our asylum system with an eye towards dignity and compassion.

It is a BIG deal politically that Biden has announced reuniting families and overhauling our immigration system as a major priority, but the key will be Congress. That's where you come in, right now:

Can you let your representatives in Congress know there is huge public support for not just rebuilding but re-imagining America’s cruel immigration system?

ACT NOW

Families have been waiting decades and decades for a more caring and compassionate immigration system. Many of them are essential workers who are keeping our communities together, whether serving as doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic, picking our food, keeping our grocery stores going, or caring for our loved ones.

Millions of children come home every day unsure that their parents will be there to greet them, living in perpetual fear of ICE's family separation force.

We can not rest until every child torn from their parents is safe and reunited with their family. We will not rest until families are released from ICE jails. And we will tirelessly fight to ensure that these families get the restitution, love, and mental health support they need to start healing.

And we must hold those behind these atrocious policies accountable.

Restoring our moral standing in the world starts with doing right by those we have wronged and revamping our immigration and asylum system so no family lives in fear of being separated ever again. We have to seize this opportunity to fundamentally reshape our immigration system. Every single voice of public support can help tip the balance, so I'm asking:

Can you let your representatives in Congress know there is huge public support for fixing America’s broken immigration policies?

Thanks for all you do,

Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

 ***

The Revolution Continues will keep dancin' along with Bernie and his mittens!

We're now in our sixth year fighting against the corporate duopoly. We're not ashamed to say that we need fellow revolutionaries like you to help us stay online and provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can spare some of your pocket change, please use the Paypal.me link below to donate to help fund our operations.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

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


Tuesday, October 20, 2020

What Will Happen Next?

 

What Will Happen Next?
by Coast Watcher

It's a valid question given today’s political climate. Currently the so-called Democratic Party’s supporters are indulging in an orgy of vote-shaming to an extraordinarily high degree, far higher than that many experienced in the 2016 election. Anyone on social media who professes to have reservations concerning Joe Biden's qualifications is immediately set upon by trolls who moan, "But you’ve got to support Biden or you’ll get Trump!" 

Green Party voters are told either that they’re wasting their vote, their party is irrelevant, or "This isn’t the time for third party politics." (It never is. Funny, that). Some voters are acting so scared of the prospect of a second Trump term in office they’re practically wetting themselves.

So, what’s going on here?

The Democratic Party is either playing a game of brinkmanship by refusing to countenance any shift to the political left, relying upon dislike of/hatred for Trump to carry them to a victory, or they have no intention of winning. It’s pretty obvious that if the Democrats wanted to win by a landslide they’d have nominated Senator Bernie Sanders for president. Instead the Dem leadership spits in the face of Sanders and his millions of supporters for a second time—then expects the Berners to all fall in behind their Corporate-Owned Anointed One, Joe Biden.

What will happen next? Well, I suspect that we’re seeing the seeds of a bait and switch operation.

Let’s assume the Democrats want to win and that they succeed in putting Biden in the Oval Office by whatever margin of victory. Given his obvious health issues (about which the Democrats are being extraordinarily close-lipped) I don’t think Biden will last more than two years in office, tops. His mental health is a cause for speculation, especially after the debacle of the solitary debate with Trump. At some point Biden will become too unwell to continue his duties and will step down under the terms of the 25th Amendment. Kamala "The Cop" Harris will become president for the remainder of the term then stand under her own candidature in 2024.


Should Harris become president then, she’ll be in office for another four years, and again be legally able to stand for president in 2028. That means in effect Kamala Harris could be in the White House for something approaching twelve years. Given her punitive record on "law and order" in the state of California, that’s a pretty frightening prospect.

Of course we can’t ignore what might happen to the so-called Democratic Party party in the next few years. By obviously sidelining and then ejecting progressives from their ranks, the party is sliding further to the political right. It already occupies much the same ideological ground as the Republican Party did during the 1950s. The fact Biden is attracting so many endorsements from  moderate GOP politicians is telling. The Republicans in 2020 occupy much the same ideological ground as the fascist movements of the 1920s and 30s. 

I can see the Democratic Party hemorrhaging support to such a degree after this election because of their blatant dishonesty of what they truly stand for (their corporate donors). They’ll become an irrelevance on the political landscape and will eventually merge with the Republican Party into one mega-corporate-owned-and-operated political faction. For the remainder of the time until that happens, the Dems will continue to claim erroneously the "right" to any and all votes from voters on the actual political left.

Even if things don’t pan out the way I describe, a potential eight years of a Biden presidency is nothing to look forward to given his forty year plus record of voting for war and creating harsh law and order bills. He has already promised the corporate world that "Nothing will change" for them. But neither is another four years of Trump a pleasant outlook. The man’s record resembles that of a mad bull with a sledgehammer tied to its tail, running amok in a china shop.

This isn’t the time for third party politics? I beg to differ. Here’s another prediction: With the so-called Democrats becoming increasingly irrelevant on the American political scene, third parties will step up to represent the vast majority of Americans. After all, someone has to pick up the torch dropped by Sanders. 
Of all the parties in this strange time we’re living in, only the Green Party with its nominee, Howie Hawkins, champions the cause of Medicare for All, a living wage, environmental protections, paid vacation and maternity leave, and healthier workplaces. In short, they aim to bring the United States into the twenty-first century and join the rest of those countries with a First World economy. 

With even a modicum of luck and the imminent implosion of the so-called "major" political parties, the Greens will have their place in the sun some day soon.

Learn more about Kamala Harris' track record in California at https://ccinamon.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/kamala-harris-resource-list/

Related pieces written by Coast Watcher: 

Kamala The Cop https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2020/08/kamala-cop.html

Biden: My Time?  http://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2019/04/biden-my-time.html

BIO: Coast Watcher doesn't have a crystal ball to gaze into to peer into the future, but the greed of the oligarchs and the mindlessness of their political puppets doesn't make it difficult to predict what will happen next. His advice to voters is "Don't fall for these con-artists. Vote your conscience. Support the causes you want and need for you and your family's future. Now is not the time for moderation and centrism. Now is the time to build the future to believe in."

 ***

 Seen on Facebook:

I would never under any circumstances vote for this!
Joe Biden wrote the 1994 Crime Bill and still defends it. He wrote the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act, later became the Patriot Act.
In 1996 he voted against gay marriage.
In 1999 he repealed Glass Steagall Act.
In 2001 he voted for the Patriot Act.
In 2002 he voted for the Iraq invasion.
In 2005 he voted to end bankruptcy protections for students.
Biden advocated for social security cuts for forty years and tried to cut it FOUR times, 1985, 1994, 2007, and during the Obama years; supported cutting medicare, medicaid and veterans benefits, FOUR times, you can access videos of him bragging about it.
He supported raising the retirement age.
He supported the Kline-Miller Pension Act, a bill that cuts union pensions.
He has a rating of D- by Greenpeace due to his support of fracking, oil and gas extraction and the building of new fossil fuel infrastructure.
He held fundraisers with union busting lawyer, Steven Cozen.
He took $200,000 speaker fee to help elect Republican candidate, Fred Upton.
He voted for the Telecommunications Act of 1996, deregulation of media industry,
He voted to repeal Glass Steagall, leading to financial crisis.
He voted against expanding a child care tax credit.
He voted in favor of a 700 mile long border wall with Mexico.
He voted for NAFTA.
He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
He voted to let states overturn Roe v. Wade.
He supports the Hyde Amendment.
He worked to undermine the ACA coverage of contraception,
He pushed for the job killing China Trade bill.
He backed the TPP.
He opposes cannabis legalization.
He supported extending Bush tax breaks for the 1%.
He promoted the war on drugs.
He plagiarized part of his “climate plan” from fossil groups.
"Nothing will fundamentally change,” were Biden's words to his rich donors if he is elected (6/19).
Voted with Clinton to end welfare.
Opposed measures to allow consumers to sue for price fixing.
Opposes universal health care/Medicare For All.
He didn't just compromise with segregationists, he fought for their cause in schools. Joe is a racist to the core, always has been. He repeatedly lied about marching in the civil rights movement.
He repeatedly lied about being arrested in apartheid South Africa. He flip flops on his long held support for the death penalty now that he's running for president.
He won't commit to reducing the prison population, and he’s a paid hack for the credit card industry.
So there you have the facts about Joe Biden.~ Bibi Bowmen

 ***

These times are tough, but we're tougher!

Still, we have to pay for internet and keep the lights on. If you're financially able, please consider making a small donation to keep The Revolution Continues going. You can do so via the Paypal address below. Thank you, fellow revolutionaries, and keep fighting! http://paypal.me/camatthews


***
Food & Water Action

Recently introduced legislation would open federally-controlled waters to large-scale open ocean aquaculture, putting our oceans and food supply at risk.

Open ocean aquaculture may sound harmless, but it’s really just another term for dangerous, industrialized, large-scale factory fish farms. These facilities damage wild ecosystems, threaten coastal economies and rob local fishing communities of their livelihoods.

That’s why Food & Water Action is calling Congress out and demanding they protect local communities by stopping corporations from taking over our oceans for their own profit.

Send a message to your Members of Congress asking them to reject factory fish farms.

In May, Trump issued an executive order aimed at slashing regulatory protections and environmental reviews of factory fish farms. For years, federal agencies have been pushing factory fish farms in federal waters, even though they know the harm those facilities will cause. In fact, we had to file a federal lawsuit and get a U.S. Court of Appeals to declare that it was unlawful for the government to give industrial fish farms everyday permits. Now some members of Congress want to give fish farmers a pass.

Open ocean fish farms wreak havoc on everything around them:

  • They pollute. Waste, excess food, antibiotics and other chemicals pollute ocean water, promoting algae growth that leads to habitat loss and the destruction of sea life.
  • They spread disease. Outbreaks of diseases and parasites can spread to wild fish populations, killing them or making them unsafe for consumption.
  • The fish escape. Approximately three million fish escape every year from fish farms, pushing non-native species into the ecosystem and disrupting Indigenous fisheries.
  • They harm fishing communities. Factory fish farms eliminate fishing jobs by undercutting wild fish prices. This means lost jobs in coastal communities.
Send Your Message

Despite the hype from agribusinesses and industrial fish companies, it’s clear that factory fish farms solve zero problems and create a whole lot of new ones. Allowing open ocean aquaculture in U.S. waters would make our food less safe and damage our oceans.

The wild-capture fishing industry, Indigenous nations and local communities are already speaking out against this bill. Let’s stand with them. We can't let this threat to our oceans and food system move forward.

Take action now to tell your Members of Congress to protect our oceans and fishing communities.

Onward together,

Wenonah Hauter
Founder and Executive Director
Food & Water Action and Food & Water Watch

P.S. Learn more about Open Ocean Aquaculture.

 

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Toxic Left


The Toxic Left
 by Coast Watcher


One of the problems—perhaps the problem—with those of us on the Left of the political spectrum is the tendency for us to divide against each other. There is a desire in a few individuals to be holier than thou—to be more of a Leftist than anyone else. For a person to be so politically correct that, in their effort not to say/do/write anything that may be construed as prejudicial to others, they can barely function. It’s especially important not to air grievances on social media where it can attract the wrong kind of publicity for the cause. Facebook is the worst for this kind of behavior.  


It’s quite ironic that those who seek to improve the welfare of the environment and society as a whole can be more divided than those who place the individual first and foremost. The Right is far from unified, but since the goal of the Right is to make profit out of everything, to turn the Earth and all upon it into a commodity of some kind, it tends to make for greater unity of purpose. 

The Right appeals to all that is base in human nature. It is the politics of selfishness and greed. That desire to make a buck, even (and in sociopathic cases especially) if it involves screwing over your fellow human. Until such time as that tendency to look out for Number One disappears from the human condition, it will be difficult to counteract if the Left fails to work as a whole toward a common goal.  


That would be an ecumenical matter…


The adjective ecumenical refers to something universal, or something that has a wide, general application.




In this case it benefits the Left and our cause to put aside our differences or at least place them on hold. To be ecumenical in pursuit of our objective, which is the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If someone says, writes, or does something which may be construed as non-PC, talk it over with them in a quiet fashion and see if the matter can be resolved peacefully. This is vital if working within a group. It does not do the cause of the Left any good at all to blow up about it on social media—especially Facebook. Those on the Left must discuss such issues calmly and not act as judge, jury, and executioner. Such behavior is negative, divisive, hurts feelings, and costs support which could be crucial in these days of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Doug Ford, Jair Bolsanaro, and their kind.  


The world cannot afford to waste time on moments of butt hurt. We of the Left need to put aside our differences and unite—Now.

BIO: Coast Watcher grows tired of the incessant bickering in some leftist groups. He's ready for action not tears. He says, "Cooperate. It's all hands on deck if we're going to save the planet. There are no winners if we all wind up dead."





***
What Should The Left Be Focusing On? 
(Hint: It's Not Fighting Each Other) 

Coast Watcher states that the Left has a tendency to divide itself among its various factions rather than concentrating on important issues that need to be addressed. So, what should the Left be doing instead of arguing who is more politically correct? The following videos and article links should give you some ideas.

https://youtu.be/7O1BvDe0-hQ 

Hmm... If Brits are shocked at the cost of American health care, then why aren't more Americans in the streets demanding Medicare for All? Could it be the Left isn't getting this message out to everyday working Americans and informing them of the benefits of universal health care? 


https://youtu.be/4NBdEgCr8d0

Trump has declared war on the poor. Food Stamp benefits will be taken away from 700,000 working Americans. What exactly is the Left doing to bring relief to those suffering from hunger and poverty in the US? The Poor People's Campaign and other left-leaning groups are tackling this issue, but could use much more support.

Immigration Woes: There is so much the Left can do to help alleviate the suffering of these Dreamers, refugees and asylum seekers.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/inside-the-cell-where-a-sick-16-year-old-boy-died-in-border-patrol-care_n_5de9601ce4b0d50f32b0ad89
Endless Wars for Oil: The Left has more than enough work to do to stop these and expose the lies they're built upon.
https://www.newser.com/story/284110/us-lied-and-lied-about-afghan-war-bombshell-report.html

The Climate Crisis:  The Left must lead the way toward a greener future or else we're all doomed. With the forests burning and the oceans rising, we can't wait.  Our water is tainted, our soil is becoming desert-like. Infighting only takes away energy and wastes valuable time. There is no Planet B!  https://youtu.be/P5zUor4EXw8

Don't forget there's plenty to fight hard for in the realm of social justice issues. We need to guarantee rights for LGBTQ persons, women, persons of color, and let's not forget we need to dismantle the "new slavery" of our for-profit prison culture in the US. There are also worthy causes in tackling the student loan debt crisis and providing free education from pre-school through college. With so many things that need addressing in our society today, who can justify giving any thought to name-calling matches?

***
 
The Genocide of Indigenous Women Is Happening Right Now. Tell Canadian Authorities to Stop the Violence Now!
 
Sign Now

The country's Truth and Reconciliation Committee spent three years investigating the terrifying number of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and its work culminated in the release of a damning report. According to the Committee, there is currently an ongoing "Canadian genocide" against Indigenous women and members of the LGBTQ community.
From the evidence they could collect, the Committee found that far more than 4,000 Indigenous people have been murdered or "disappeared" in the past few decades. But the true toll and number of victims will likely never be known. Canadian authorities must take action to stop this genocide, now!
The more than 1,200-page-long report details the horrors still being inflicted upon the Indigenous community, even today. These include Canada's former practice of forcibly sending thousands of Indigenous children to government-sponsored residential schools, where they were abused for decades. On top of that, Canada's First Nation peoples have also endured abductions, sexual violence, forced sterilizations, lack of medical access, mass food insecurity, homelessness, and active cultural erasure.
Thankfully, the document also includes 231 specific recommendations on how the Canadian government can both begin to make amends for these heinous crimes and to stop them once and for all.
Thank you for taking action to help Canada's First Nations people,


Steff D.
The Care2 Petitions Team

P.S. The New York Times has called this "a race-based genocide of Indigenous peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis." This cultural violence has to end now. Sign the petition.
***


Tell Democrats in Congress: Fight the Patriot Act
The petition to Democrats in Congress reads:
"Section 215 of the Patriot Act is widely invasive and has never proven to be effective in preventing terrorist attacks. Protect our democracy and sunset Section 215 when it expires in March."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►


Tell Democrats in Congress: Fight the Patriot Act
Speaker Pelosi's House of Representatives just quietly extended the government's legal power to surveil our phone calls.1

Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to collect a massive amount of our personal information without a warrant, was set to expire on December 15. But House Democrats recently joined with Republicans in the House and Senate to quietly approve a stop-gap budget bill that included an extension of Section 215 until March 15, 2020. We cannot let this stand.

Section 215 gives the NSA legal ability to listen to our phone calls. It lets the government keep records of who we are talking to and what we are talking about. No Democrat should have allowed this extension to pass without a meaningful public debate. Speak out now to show Democrats that we are watching and demand that they allow Section 215 to expire in March.

Tell Democrats in Congress: Make a wrong decision right. Sunset Section 215 in March 2020. Click here to sign the petition.

Congress passed the wildly invasive Patriot Act during the anti-Muslim hysteria that followed 9/11. It undermines our civil liberties and targets communities of color and immigrants, but has never been proven effective in preventing terrorist attacks. All it has ever done is sanction state-sponsored criminalization of -- and violence against -- Muslims and open the floodgates for the government to collect millions of Americans' phone data in bulk without us knowing.2

Under Trump's National Security Agency, extending surveillance powers under Section 215 is even more dangerous. Through anti-Muslim draconian border policies such as the Muslim ban, the Trump administration is already over-policing and attacking the rights of our Muslim neighbors, friends and family members. We must do everything we can to protect them. That includes holding Democrats' feet to the fire when they supercharge Trump's surveillance state.

Add your name now to make clear to every Democrat in Congress that we expect them to fight tooth and nail to safeguard our democracy from authoritarians like Trump, not help him attack our civil liberties and spy on our communities.

Tell Democrat lawmakers: Sunset Section 215 in March 2020. Click the link below to sign the petition:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/repeal-section-215?t=9&akid=35260%2E9999572%2E_tMVvZ

Thanks for fighting back,
Jelani Drew, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Zack Whittaker, "Congress extends NSA calls records collection powers to March," Tech Crunch, Nov. 21, 2019.
  2. Rainey Reitman, "3 Years Later, the Snowden Leaks Have Changed How the World Sees NSA Surveillance," Electric Frontier Foundation, June 5, 2016.


From Friends of the Earth:
Trump’s EPA will stop at nothing to sacrifice our health and our planet to enrich Big Polluters. It refuses to ban bee- and butterfly-killing pesticides. But things just got worse.
Last month, the EPA announced plans to require the disclosure of all raw data -- including private medical records -- for studies that are essential for our most important environmental laws and regulations. This would likely prevent the studies from happening or undermine their conclusions. The inevitable result would be fewer protections from the pesticide industry and other polluters.
Trump’s EPA is attacking our privacy and the science we all rely on to increase profits for mega-corporations. We need your help to send a loud and clear message to the EPA: Stop suppressing science! 
This new rule is part of the Trump Administration’s broader effort to censor science and gut our bedrock environmental protections -- selling out our health and planet to enrich Big Polluters.
In 2017, Trump’s EPA reversed a ban on the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos after Dow Chemical gave Trump $1 million. Chlorpyrifos is linked to increased risk of autism, ADHD, reduced IQ and memory loss.
Later, in 2018, the EPA announced that it would cut funding for all children’s environmental health centers. One of these centers was directly responsible for showing how badly chlorpyrifos hurts children’s brains.
The EPA’s proposed plans are the next step in giving polluters like Dow Chemical a free pass to poison us and the environment while children and bees suffer. Now, the agency needs to feel a groundswell of grassroots opposition to its latest giveaway. And they need to hear from you today!
Since day 1, the Trump Administration has worked to make it easier for Big Polluters to poison people and the environment. Trump’s EPA continuously refuses to ban bee-killing neonics and cancer-causing glyphosate, despite the clear science showing harm.
The only way Trump can do this successfully is by undermining science. After all, independent research shows that these pesticides harm bees and poison people. But the EPA would rather protect pesticide industry profits instead of people and our planet.
The EPA’s new plan would make it harder to study the damaging effects of these chemicals. And it even aims to defund the very EPA centers that produce this essential research.
Strong, independent science helps ensure polluters are held accountable. An attack on science is an attack on our families and our pollinators like bees and butterflies. We need to drive the message home to the EPA: Stop suppressing science NOW!
Standing with you,
Jason Davidson,
Food and agriculture campaigner, Friends of the Earth