Mutually Assured Destruction 2.0

by C. A. Matthews

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) --The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear weapons should a potential enemy use them first, both sides being annihilated in the event of war. --Wiktionary

Mutually Assured Destruction 2.0 (MAD 2.0)–The same as above, only this time artificial intelligence technology (AI) plays a dominant role in humanity’s self-annihilation. —C.A.M.

Growing up in the second half of the twentieth century had its challenges. I don’t remember where or when I first learned about the Cold War or the Red Scare, but I recall by the time I hit fourth grade I knew that the “Commies” were to be feared. Why? The Reds had weapons called nuclear bombs, and if they ever decided to drop one or more on the US, that would be the end of me and my family.

A little later in my schooling, I found out that the US also possessed nuclear weapons. In fact we were the first and only country to ever use them on another country, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This knowledge created a conundrum. Were Americans the “baddies” in this situation for dropping nuclear bombs on Japan—especially for bombing civilians?

I remember learning about “Mutually Assured Destruction” in a high school current events class. My teacher didn’t seem overly concerned, but he didn’t seem too excited about “MAD” as it was nicknamed, either. MAD really was mad or crazy, I came to realize. Who in their right mind would think stockpiling nuclear weapons in order to scare other countries from attacking you—while they in turn stockpile the same kind of weapons—is a good game to play? It makes no sense to me to this day.

Flash forward to last weekend. I attended a workshop entitled, “The AI War Machine: Traditional vs. AI Warfare,” at the Green Party’s Annual National Meeting. The Greens’ motto is “people, planet and peace.” So, what has AI got to do with people, the planet, or making and keeping the peace? Plenty!

If there were AI controlled fighter drones in 1945, would the US have stopped their nuke bombing after only two cities? One reason the US didn’t continued was because human beings flew the planes. Those who witnessed the atomic bombs explode over Hiroshima or Nagasaki found it an awesome experience—meaning they were filled with awe at the tremendous power they had unleashed. It brings up the thought, “Have we gone too far?” Over the decades, more and more have expressed fear, horror, sadness, and regret about what these two atomic bombings did to our fellow human beings.

That’s not a problem if you’re an operator of a “Fury drone”, an AI controlled fighter drone currently manufactured in Pickaway County, Ohio, just south of Columbus. In the 21^st century one lone operator can remotely operate an entire fleet of these “Top Gun” drones. Once over the target, the AI pulls the trigger or drops the bomb as programmed, causing massive death and destruction below.

Little to no guilt, fear, horror, or sadness is generated because there’s only one person handling all the dirty work. This person is more than likely located thousands of miles away from the war zone. They might never see video or evidence of the havoc they’ve wreaked. They might never feel the need to express regret or horror at their actions.

Isn’t advanced military technology great?

 

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Growing The Greens

words and photos by C. A. Matthews

My apologies in advance for the brevity and possible incoherence of this week’s post. I returned home Sunday evening from four days in Chicago at the Green Party Annual National Meeting. Early Monday morning I had a scheduled dental appointment to fix a broken tooth. So, I’m composing this blog article to publish at its usual Tuesday morning time while suffering from the twin effects of exhaustion and painkillers. Here goes nothin’!

My first thought is to post more photos than words about the convention. Yeah, that’s the safest way to go… I took a lot of photos and pages and pages of notes at the various workshops. My bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived brain is still trying to make sense of it all.

I attended workshops on organizing for peace; Uniting for Peace 2.0 (the UNGA resolution for Palestine); AI data centers and how they’re impacting our communities and the environment; Latin America under attack (by the usual suspects); the AI war machine (Or how Peter Thiel’s Palantir, Aduril and Erebor have effectively taken over the US military. It’s very scary as well as they’re bent on destroying our environment.); and the independent media and its role in the resistance (yeah!). You could say that Greens attract some very intelligent and very informative people...

 

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When Is A Person Not A Person?

by C. A. Matthews

This question kept popping up in my mind this week: When is a person not a person? Could it be the particulates in the Canadian wildfires messing with my brain? Probably, but even before the worst of the smoke from up north came rolling into our area giving us a record-breaking 800+ AQI reading (301+ is considered “hazardous”) this question had been bothering me.

When is a person not a person? first came to me after I read an article about artificial intelligence. Many in the Big Tech field claim that AI has obtained “consciousness” and has “feelings” like a normal human being has, and it should be treated as such. However, there’s also a growing number of scientists, psychologists, and others who make the opposite claim.

AI is a sophisticated “large language model” that mimics life, but it isn’t alive. It can’t be conscious, which essentially means it’s able to suffer pain and joy like humans do. A computer with an LLM program has large memory banks and access to the internet, so you can say it has intelligence, but since it doesn’t have consciousness, it can’t put the two together and become what we’d call a person.

AI can’t use all the knowledge in the world it has at its digital fingertips and say, “I know what it feels like to be an AI, and I’m suffering a heartache today.” Well, it could say things like that, but does it actually feel things like a heartache or the loss of a close friend or the joy of eating ice cream on a hot summer’s night or holding your newborn baby for the first time? There’s the rub...

...Sticking with just human beings, however, When is a person not a person? For this next part you must suspend disbelief and consider who persons are through the eyes of the law. The law states quite clearly when a human being is not considered a person or has the rights of a person. It’s confusing because most of us define a person as a human being who possesses consciousness, self-awareness, and the capacity for moral reasoning. But that’s the psychological definition of a person, not the legal one. There is a difference—a big difference...

 

To learn more about the problems of being legally designated a non-person no matter where you live or your immigration status, please copy or click on the following link: 

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Gaza's Gravediggers

 

This week I thought I’d do something a little different. Besides writing this blog for over eleven years, I’m also a book reviewer/book doctor and disgruntled novelist. This post is what I call an “extended book review,” one in which I don’t have to worry about the word count, etc. (Don’t be surprised if you see an abbreviated review elsewhere online later. Or post one yourself.)

I was given the chance to read Norman Finkelstein’s upcoming release, Gaza’s Gravediggers, and I can’t keep his insights to myself any longer. It documents the how and when and where of the why Israel is able to get away with committing a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people with little to no consequences. (And frankly, I don’t think Israel really cares about the consequences of being labeled bloodthirsty neo-Nazis just as long as nobody demonstrates the gumption to shut down their infernal killing machine.) 

Finkelstein has done us all a huge favor by methodically researching the recent International Court of Justice cases in regards to the genocide claim made first by South Africa. It’s all there in black and white, the details of how Israel apologists have infiltrated that court as well as other high positions in the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. The world is maintained in a perpetual stalemate so that both Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and America’s imperialism can continue unabated.

If you want to invest in one book (and why just one?) that records for posterity the manipulation of international law behind this ultimate crime against humanity, then Gaza’s Gravediggers is it. —C.A. Matthews

 

Gaza’s Gravediggers

 by Norman G. Finkelstein

 O/R Books

Release date September 1, 2026 in the US, September 3 in the UK
Preorder by clicking  here

“Why isn’t the United Nations (UN) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Criminal Court (ICC) doing anything to stop the terrible genocide happening to the Palestinian people?” is a remark one often sees online nowadays. The frustration expressed about the lack of action to end the violence is heartfelt. 

The world’s leading forensic scholar and professor of political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict, Norman Finkelstein, isn’t afraid to tackle this question head on. His meticulously documented critique of recent UN/ICJ/ICC activities reveal how a deplorable element has infiltrated these international bodies, creating a stalemate that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands, a number which grows daily...

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Weather As A Weapon

words and original photos by C.A. Matthews

By the fourth day of record high temperatures and tropical humidity, I was convinced that this unusual Midwestern heatwave was more than it appeared. I haven’t seen such record high temperatures linger for more than a day or two since I lived in the Southwest. I can’t recall anything like this amount of heat and humidity for days on end growing up in this part of the world. The weather suddenly seems very unnatural and deadly. Deliberately so.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist—the name the CIA devised to smear the reputations of those who early on thought the details surrounding JFK’s assassination seemed highly suspicious. I don’t believe in UFOs or flying saucers because, let’s face it, what intelligent alien species would want to land on this hellhole of a rock? No self-respecting alien would come to a planet where babies and children are forfeit if they come from the wrong indigenous ethnic group or are seen as “playthings” for the pedophile perverts in power.

Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not talking conspiracy theories here. I have some evidence to back up my opinion that global warming/climate change is happening because the perverse people in power find it’s a useful tool to keep us poor folks in our place. The weather works well as a weapon in their arsenal to fight foreign enemies, too...

During this heatwave, I wondered how much longer can I carry on like this. I’m not getting any younger. I’m not sure I’ll be able to take care of my garden in the future during a similar extreme heatwave, especially if they become regular events. Maybe it’s time to call it quits, sell my house and garden, and move on? Who really cares about the native plants I’ve encouraged to grow so they and their pollinators don’t become extinct? Who else but me and my spouse cares about the trees we’ve planted as a small attempt to restore some of the vast forests that used to cover this part of the world?

Now, take my experience and observations in my garden recently and multiply them times a thousand or even a million. What if every small land holder or backyard gardener in the US decided within the next few years that it’s impossible to keep growing their own fruit and vegetables in this extreme weather? What if they decided it’s not worth planting trees if they’re going to dry up due to not receiving our “typical” rainfall amounts?

Expand these ideas to include farmers on the few small family farms still remaining in the US. Do they continue to struggle to make a living in this hostile climate? Why not sell off their cows, pigs, goats, and chickens? Why not sell off their old tractor and move into the city and work at a Walmart? Suddenly there’s a lot of “unused land” on the market for Tech Bros to buy cheap so they can build more heat-producing, water-hogging AI data centers, isn’t there?

Without gardeners and small farmers “hogging” water for their crops and livestock, there’s much more water to be had for cooling AI data centers. I can hear the gears clicking in the greedy idiots’ heads in the Trump administration even now...

 

To learn more about how weather is being used against us by the powers-that-be, please copy or click on the following link: 

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Happy Birthday Vichy USA!

 

If everybody had a notion ’cross the USA

That everybody’s gone fascist—like Donnie Trump, oh yay!

 You’d see them wearing blond hairdos

Doing their sieg heils too

Everybody’s gone fascist! Vichy USA!

(Sung to the tune of Surfin' USA. The rest of the lyrics can be found at the Substack link below.)

by C. A. Matthews

The 1976 Bicentennial was really something. I remember fondly all the fabulous fireworks displays, huge parades, and special band concerts in the park. It was nice to think about how the United States had stayed together and made it a full two hundred years. As a child, I didn’t really understand what all had happened in those two centuries and how the US had played a major role in maintaining violence and oppression both at home and around the world, activities that would lead to the current fiasco Americans find themselves in fifty years later.

I would have never thought that the “land of the free” meant that we’d come to deny immigrants asylum based on their race, religion, or ethnicity. I probably would have laughed at the mere idea that well-to-do white South Africans would be considered deserving refugees, but that poor black Haitians who fled a disintegrating country (helped to fall apart by greedy Americans) would not.

I would have never thought that locking up thousands of non-violent immigrants was “freedom”, nor that sending young children out of the country without their parents was a compassionate thing to do. These weren’t the concepts of freedom and morality I was indoctrinated in at church and school.

Fifty years ago, I would have never thought that anti-fascist activists would be labeled “terrorists” and sentenced to harsh sentences by a federal judge for trying to point out the crimes of ICE. These are the sentences of the activists who protested at the ICE facility in Texas: Benjamin Song: 100 years, Marisela Rueda: 70 years, Cameron Arnold: 50 years, Savanna Batten: 50 years, Zachary Evetts: 50 years, Bradford Morris: 50 years, Elizabeth Soto: 50 years. What essentially are life sentences for daring to set off fireworks and wearing all black clothing to a protest, no less.

Meanwhile, the ICE agents who murdered Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Keith Porter have received a total of 0 years in prison. You read that right—the ICE agents responsible received sentences of zero years for their murders of Renee, Alex, and Keith. The similarities between ICE and the Nazi Gestapo are undeniable...

 

To learn more about Vichy USA (and how to shut it down), please copy or click on the following link: 

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Changing Directions

by C.A. Matthews

Some folks won’t admit they’re lost. They’ll keep driving miles and miles out of their way rather than own up to the fact that they took a wrong turn somewhere. For them it’s better to stay lost than acknowledge there was a different (usually better) route they could have taken to reach their destination.

I often find this same attitude whenever I encounter others who hold to a less-than-desirable political outlook. No matter what “direction” you try to give them, they will choose to remain “lost” rather than admit they took a wrong turn or listened to the wrong person(s).

Psychologists call it “cognitive dissonance” when you refuse to contemplate that you could be wrong. It’s just too painful to admit to yourself that what you believe to be true could actually be a falsehood. Instead, you’ll lash out at others who might have innocently pointed out where you became lost in your thinking or offered you directions to get back on the right path.

Friendships and relationships often end when one person shares directions with an acquaintance or relative who doesn’t want to be corrected. Even if your friend or loved one holds onto beliefs that are potentially dangerous or destructive to themselves or others, they just want validation—not correction—from you. So, do you remain silent, bite your tongue, and say nothing? Is there ever a good time to share your beliefs with a few gentle pointers as to where your relative or acquaintance might have taken a wrong turn?

Let me know if you’ve found a surefire formula on how to handle these kinds of situations because I could certainly use one! (And I’m sure I’m not the only one.)

While contemplating what to write about this week (remember that I’m a flesh and blood entity who doesn’t use AI), I came across a social media post that made me yearn to help others change directions—or change their minds, if you will. The post was a political cartoon that an old friend posted on her Facebook page. We’ve never really discussed politics per se, but even after we both moved to different parts of the country we’ve kept in touch online. 

Some of her posts have led me to believe that she is a follower of the “Blue-No-Matter-Who” cult (BNMW). I call this organization a “cult” because I’ve noticed how its members tend to repeat whatever their leaders say, no matter how “lost” it makes them sound. In other words, they repeat talking points that make them come across as brainwashed members of a cult...

 

To discover how you or a loved one can "change directions", please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 576th 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 eleven years. Thanks! 

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