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-aunt—you know the one, your auntie who makes your favorite chocolate chip cookies and knits you warm fuzzy sweaters for Christmas—compared 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

The problem with the coverage of the US campus protests | The Listening Post https://youtu.be/t4f9ulAAdJA

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

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Canceling Free Speech

 

Is this the end of protests?

If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending? —Caitlin Johnstone

 

Canceling Free Speech

by C.A. Matthews

 

The best thing about being American, in my opinion, is The Bill of Rights. The best amendment in particular is the First Amendment and the part where it says that We the People have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But Americans can’t even depend on that bit anymore, and it sucks.

Thanks a lot, fascists!

If you don’t equate free speech with our right to assemble and protest, then perhaps this recent incident involving arresting the bail fundraisers for the Cop City (Weelaunee Forest) protesters  in Atlanta won’t upset you like it does me:

https://communitymovementbuilders.org/stop-cop-city/

Rights advocates warned Wednesday that the arrests of three board members of an Atlanta-based bail fund could mark the beginning of a new era in the United States’ treatment of peaceful protesters—one in which both demonstrators and those who support them are targeted by law enforcement.

...The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department carried out the arrests of Marlon Scott Kautz, Savannah Patterson, and Adele Maclean of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF).

The group offers financial support to people who have been arrested for protesting, including the dozens of people who have been detained for resisting the development of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known by critics as Cop City—a $90 million police training facility that would take up 85 acres of publicly-owned forest. From ‘Behavior of a Fascist Police State’: Legal Aid Organizers Arrested After Backing Cop City

Atlantans can’t exercise their right of free speech to protest the building of a “Murder Academy” on the one remaining piece of virgin forest in their region. They’ll risk arrest if they do, and then their compatriots will be arrested when they raise funds to bail the original protesters out of jail. Our government says murder by cops is okay, but the bailing out of peaceful protesters isn’t to be allowed and those who do bail them out risk being locked up as well.

So much for the First Amendment!

The fact of the matter is that free speech has been weaponized. (Read Weaponizing Free Speech for a sample or two of what I mean.) Anyone expressing an opinion that isn’t sanctioned by the status quo can expect to be censored, arrested, charged and/or thrown into jail without even the possibility of being bailed out.

To this black mark on the First Amendment and The Bill of Rights I say: God bless America! Let “freedom” ring! (Yeah, right. *cough, cough*)

We’re living in an era of “Cancel Culture.” Free speech isn’t seen so much as a right as a suggestion. If what you say doesn’t upset the powers-that-be and their sycophants and paid trolls, you’re okay, but don’t you dare express an opinion they don’t like. Oh no. They can't have critical thinkers who can read between the lines, can they?

This fascistic outlawing of protesters is not just happening in the US—it’s a worldwide phenomenon. A recent video from The Juice Media out of Australia demonstrates just how inventive a “Five-Eyes democracy” can be when it comes to squashing voices of dissent.

 

youtu.be/kecnSHmznic  

This short video says it well. You don’t like something your government is doing (or allowing a big corporation to do) and you and your friends get out in the streets to protest it—you’ll wind up in jail and totally bankrupt. “Cool and normal” as the Aussies say. That phrase translates to roughly, “Bend over and take it,” in American English. 

Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly have been effectively canceled. God bless… the fascists, or so it seems.

Persons of conscience are being forced into making one of two difficult choices: Go along with whatever those in charge of our “democracy” tell you is “correct thinking” nowadays and shut up, or if you can’t “love it” you're told to “leave it.”

But where can we go? More importantly, why should we be forced from our homes because fascists desire endless wars for oil and want us to cooperate with the immoral death machine, a.k.a. the Military-Industrial Complex? Don’t we lovers of peace and harmony deserve to live here as much as the warmongers? 

God bless... those who don't believe the lies.  

The West sure loves to brag about its love of “freedom and democracy” and its “free press,” but it sure doesn’t act like it gives a flying Flag Day about them. Without independent journalists and media outlets, we wouldn’t have known about the jailing of the Atlanta protesters and their bail bond funders. Without the indies' reportage, we wouldn’t know about the US national security apparatus funding and endorsing coups d’etat around the globe, would we?

Journalists of integrity are fast becoming a rare and endangered species. They find themselves harassed and threatened with prison. Journalist Matt Taibbi did after his Congressional committee testimony concerning the Twitter Files. (Read Digital McCarthyism about how Taibbi was called a “so-called journalist” by members of Congress.) Reporters Veronica Coit and Matilda Bliss in North Carolina were actually arrested and charged with trespassing while covering the eviction of homeless people in Asheville’s Aston Park. During their trial, Judge James Calvin Hill refused to acknowledge their press status or that this was a First Amendment case. He found the duo guilty. In his decision, Judge Hill stated, “They may be journalists, but there was no evidence provided to the court that they are journalists.”

American reporter Gonzalo Lira is now sitting in a Ukrainian jail because of his in-depth coverage of the war in Ukraine. When asked if the US government would help free Lira, a government spokesperson wouldn’t say if US officials would even consider asking their Ukrainian counterparts for his release. Our so-called “representatives” are okay with letting a journalist rot in jail. 

No precedence there, is there? 

Meanwhile in the UK, journalists can find themselves treated like terrorists, grilled for hours, and their computer devices taken. This is what happened to The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenburg.

As soon as journalist Kit Klarenberg landed in his home country of Britain on May 17, 2023, six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officers detained him. They quickly escorted him to a back room, where they grilled him for over five hours about his reporting for this outlet. They also inquired about his personal opinion on everything from the current British political leadership to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. From British police detain journalist Kit Klarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone

Aw...the smell of “freedom and democracy” wafting in on the early summer’s air! It covers over the stench of those pesky truth-telling reporters like Kit, Gonzalo, Veronica, Matilda, and Matt. Kit might even find himself locked up at Belmarsh Prison with fellow truth-seeker Julian Assange if a judge decides he's “not a journalist.” I sincerely hope not.

God bless... independent voices who keep reporting what's really happening in the world in spite of threats from the fascist state.

This summer isn’t particularly a good time of the year for me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy sunshine and picnics, because I do. It’s just that I’m not that into American “patriotic holidays” like Memorial Day, Flag Day, or the Fourth of July. There’s not much to celebrate when your mind connects these holidays with endless wars for American hegemony, senseless killing for profits, and locking up persons who protest violence and report on war. Others simply associate these holidays with hot dog eating contests, fireworks, parades, and apple pie, but I just can't anymore. 

There’s little joy to be found in any patriotic holiday pretending to be supportive of our First Amendment rights like free speech and freedom of assembly while our so-called “elected representatives" are ripping those very rights out of the people's hands. The fascists in power have ruined things for me. I honestly can’t see myself wearing red, white, and blue and waving a little flag while watching an Independence Day parade ever again.  

I just can’t, knowing what I know. I can’t approve of the evil status quo hiding behind those once sacred symbols of the flag and The Bill of Rights. I’ll have to find myself another holiday to celebrate this time of year.

I know… Happy Bastille Day!

Related Articles and Other Insightful Links:

Honest Government Ad | Anti Protest Laws (SA) https://youtu.be/kecnSHmznic

The Crushing of Free Press Continues https://www.youtube.com/live/ggZHodvFu50

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker https://pressfreedomtracker.us/

If the Police Can Decide Who Qualifies as a Journalist, There Is No Free Press  https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/02/if-the-police-can-decide-who-qualifies-as-a-journalist-there-is-no-free-press/

British police detain journalist Kit Klarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/30/journalist-kit-klarenberg-british-police-interrogated-grayzone/

State Department Won’t Say If It’s Working to Free US Citizen Detained in Ukraine  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/29/state-department-wont-say-if-its-working-to-free-us-citizen-detained-in-ukraine/

15 Reasons Why Mass Media Employees Act Like Propagandists https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/15-reasons-why-mass-media-employees

Authoritarianism Keeps Surging In Western "Free Democracies"
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/authoritarianism-keeps-surging-in/comments

‘Behavior of a Fascist Police State’: Legal Aid Organizers Arrested After Backing Cop City https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/behavior-of-a-fascist-police-state-legal-aid-organizers-arrested-after-backing-cop-city-protesters/

Arrest Of Bail Fund Organizers In Atlanta Sets A Dangerous Precedent https://popularresistance.org/arrest-of-bail-fund-organizers-in-atlanta-sets-a-dangerous-precedent/

The Empire! "We're Coming For All Of You!" https://indienewsnetwork.substack.com/p/the-empire-were-coming-for-all-of/comments

Supremes Declare War on Wetlands https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/31/supremes-declare-war-on-wetlands/

Lee Camp: The Threat Of Dangerous Ideas And Why We Need Them (podcast) https://popularresistance.org/lee-camp-on-the-threat-of-dangerous-ideas-and-why-we-need-them/

Dozens of GoFundMe Users Seek Funds to Flee States Passing Transphobic Laws  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/31/dozens-of-gofundme-users-seek-funds-to-flee-states-passing-transphobic-laws/

Nearly Half Of Earth’s Animal Species Are In Decline
https://popularresistance.org/study-nearly-half-of-earths-animal-species-are-in-decline/

Police Use Water Cannons, Mass Arrest At Extinction Rebellion Protest https://popularresistance.org/police-use-water-cannons-mass-arrest-at-extinction-rebellion-protest/

The War We’re Finally Allowed to See https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/patrick-lawrence-the-war-were-finally-allowed-to-see/

G7 Versus Diplomacy for Ukraine https://consortiumnews.com/2023/05/31/g7-versus-diplomacy-for-ukraine/

Drone attack on Moscow aims to escalate US-NATO war with Russia https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/31/furs-m31.html

China builds global alternative as US-led financial order decays
https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/china-alternative-us-led-financial-order

FBI Reopens Assange Investigation https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/report-fbi-reopens-assange-investigation/

The Slow Ethnic Cleansing of Ein Samiya’s Bedouin Community
https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/01/the-slow-ethnic-cleansing-of-ein-samiyas-bedouin-community/ 

Weaponizing Free Speech https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/weaponizing-free-speech.html

Digital McCarthyism https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/03/digital-mccarthyism.html 

Breaking News: Dr. Cornel West Announces He is Running for President https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/dr-cornel-west-announces-he-is-running

 

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Weaponizing Free Speech

 

This is the dystopia you were warned about. A mind-controlled populace thinking, speaking, shopping, moving and voting in accordance with the will of the powerful. All that's left now is to secure the few dissidents on the fringes and keep bolstering the mind control matrix.

This doesn't mean it's hopeless, it just means we've got to acknowledge reality and start working from where we're at. The biggest obstacle to real freedom is the belief that we already have it. --Caitlin Johnstone, The Empire of Hypocrisy

 

Weaponizing Free Speech

by C. A. Matthews

Most Americans believe that no one has ever gotten into trouble simply for speaking their mind. No matter how much you might disagree with a fellow American, you probably agree that they have the right to free speech. You believe that freedom of speech is a basic right protected by our Constitution. You feel confident that all Americans have the right to believe and express themselves as they deem fit. 

Sorry to break it to y’all, but you really don’t.  

Free speech is not guaranteed, as demonstrated by the latest US government shenanigans. The feds have charged four African Americans simply because they are members of the African People’s Socialist Party and expressed opinions that don’t align with the current administration’s viewpoint. 

According to the Black Alliance for Peace: 

The unsealed indictment states that on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, levied charges of “conspiring to covertly sow discord in U.S. society, spread Russian propaganda and interfere illegally in U.S. elections.” While no evidence of conspiracy, propagandizing, or interference has been presented, the APSP and its members have the right, as all US citizens do, to freely criticize U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Not since the Palmer Raids of the early 20th century, nor since the indictment of W.E.B DuBois in 1951, or the confiscation of Paul Robeson’s U.S. passport during the anti-communist “McCarthyist” era, has there been such a hysterical response to African people asserting their rights and freedom of speech in the United States.

The Department of Justice claims APSP members had “weaponized” free speech by expressing solidarity with the Russian people and “conspiring to interfere” with US elections. Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen in the DOJ's press release regarding the indictments stated, “The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt US elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are US citizens or foreign individuals abroad.”

Quick translation: The DOJ is prosecuting US citizens for political speech and related activities because they’re worried that more and more Americans don’t agree with the status quo of the uniparty and might not support the incumbent in the upcoming presidential election. The grand jury alleges that a Russian national "directed" these Americans to "publish pro-Russian propaganda" and "information designed to cause dissension in the United States." 

HandsOffUhuru.org

(Watch this excellent short video to learn more about the case: https://youtu.be/fvwhHouTZh0. Omali Yeshitela, APSP co-founder, voices how the US government apparently doesn't believe that African Americans are intelligent enough to come up with a socialist philosophy all on their own or know if they're being used by a foreign power. Obviously the FBI feels scared enough of an 82 year old African American man that they had to use violent tactics to break into his home to handcuff him and arrest him.)

I take all the Biden administration's legal mumbo-jumbo to mean that the Dems can’t afford to have any real competition running against the corpse of Joe Biden for a second term because he and his war in Ukraine are that unpopular. They must shut all dissenting voices down no matter how fascistic it makes them look. I suppose the white supremacists at the FBI couldn't wait to do something this evil, too.

(Did I just say that part out loud about Biden being a corpse and the FBI being Klansmen? Should I be watching out the window for the feds to arrive any minute on my doorstep carrying flash bang grenades?)

I do believe in “The pen is mightier than the sword,” and “The truth shall set you free.” But when an army’s worth of federal agents can show up at your front door and take you away simply because you’re an 82 year old African People’s Socialist Party member who doesn’t agree with the US government's racist and warmongering actions, can anyone ever too be careful speaking their mind? Will believing in the truth and the power of free speech save us from government abuse?

It's not reasonable for the government to just dismiss the First Amendment on the grounds that it is being "weaponized". You can't have your government dictating what speech is valid and what counts as "agitprop" and "disinformation", because they'll always define those terms in ways which benefit the government, thus giving more power to the powerful and taking power away from the people. -- Caitlin Johnstone

Speaking of abuse, although this is nothing quite as horrific as what’s happening to the APSP members, I was accused of using “weaponized” free speech this past week as well. I found myself a victim of corporate censorship. For the first time in eight years of writing and editing this weekly blog, a warning appeared at the top of the Blogger posting page. It read:

Your post titled "Who Is Stealing Our Election? " was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines and have unpublished the URL http://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2016/05/who-is-stealing-our-elections
making it unavailable to blog readers.

Say what? What could we have published that was so heinous that it had to be hidden from public view now? Why was Google (who owns Blogger) all of a sudden so upset that it had to censor the post, “Who Is Stealing Our Election?” after seven years? The post was published in early May 2016, long before Trump and his followers’ denials of the 2020 election results began. The date of the post should have been a dead giveaway about whose election was being “stolen” and by whom.

Flashback: Bernie Sanders was being royally screwed over by the Hillary Clinton campaign in early 2016. The trolling of “Berners” online was dreadful. As editor of what was then known as The Bernie Blog, I gladly published almost every decently written submission sent in by Bernie supporters. A short piece called, “Who Is Stealing Our Election?” was the first of two short pieces that I edited and published that week, so I titled the entire posting with that catchy question.

Who would have thought that seven years later a bunch of neoliberals would get their knickers in a twist (or panties in a bunch) so much that anything that sounds remotely like something a Trump supporter might say about the 2020 election must be completely blocked from public view, censored forever?

After a quick edit or “self-censoring” of the title, Blogger allowed the post to go live again. I didn’t change a word of the posting, just its title. Somehow that change made it acceptable to Google for public consumption. The English-speaking public once again has been saved by the brave censorship of private agents working behind the scenes for the US government, or, in this case, the Joe Biden re-election campaign.

And what exactly are we being saved from by corporate censorship? What didn’t you have the right to read because the powers-that-be wanted to protect your delicate sensibilities? From what I can gather from the Blogger policy page, it’s most likely this:

Misleading Content

Do not distribute content that deceives, misleads, or confuses users. This includes:

Misleading content related to civic and democratic processes: content that is demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in civic or democratic processes. This includes information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age / birthplace, election results, or census participation that contradicts official government records. It also includes incorrect claims that a political figure or government official has died, been involved in an accident, or is suffering from a sudden serious illness.

Now, why would anyone have any doubts about Joe Biden based on his “age” or from“suffering from a sudden serious illness,” such as having a stroke or dementia or that he hasn't "died" already and is simply a walking zombie? It's not like he's ever been seen babbling like an idiot on camera or wandering off a stage or looking to shake invisible hands, is it?

I apologize if we’ve ever mislead you with the content here at The Revolution Continues or made you not trust in “civic or democratic processes,” but that was never our intent. The post from seven years ago was simply a Berner’s lament over how the Clinton campaign had “stolen” Bernie’s primary wins. Well, we live and learn and move on, don’t we? The Dems haven’t “stolen” any primaries from their rightful winners since 2016, right? And it's not like they're cancelling the Democratic Party primaries and debates in 2024, either!

(If you believe those last two statements, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, or its equivalent in the Midwest. Your choice!)

Free speech is a right no American should ever take lightly. People have fought and died for your right to express yourself freely. People have been imprisoned around the world for expressing themselves and sharing important—and sometimes embarrassing and incriminating—information about governments. 

  

One such journalist springs to mind: Julian Assange. This week marks the fourth anniversary of Assange becoming the guest of His Majesty King Charles in England's Belmarsh Prison. In other words, an Australian journalist has been imprisoned in the UK because of his “crime” of journalism that has made the US government very angry. Assange dared to publish on his online platform, Wikileaks, the infamous “Collateral Murder” video. He exposed the lies of many governments, but he was particularly prolific in sharing information about the US involvement in the bloody war in Iraq and the tortures of detainees at our super-secret base at Guantanamo Bay. And, so far, nothing Wikileaks has ever published has been proven false.

 

Assange is being charged under the 1917 Espionage Act. His case raises troubling questions about whether it breaches both the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The Espionage Act criminalizes journalism by ignoring the fact that the First Amendment makes an exception for a journalist possessing and informing the public about state secrets that reveal government crimes and corruption. 

 

Assange’s indictment should be dismissed on the ground that the Espionage Act’s overreach is an existential threat to First Amendment freedoms. For a US court to do otherwise is to undermine due process and threaten the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. But we will see. This administration's paranoid take on free speech being used as a "weapon" seems to be the driving force in his continued imprisonment.

Just like the APSP members speaking their minds, and our blog posting a short piece with an incendiary title implying that elections can actually be stolen in the US, Julian Assange is being actively censored. He is by being blotted out of human memory, locked up to wither away behind bars without trial, his reputation smeared by Western governments because they didn’t like what he had to say, and they don’t want the rest of the world to know what he has yet to say. 

Other independent journalists have been censored, mocked, and threatened recently. Remember Matt Taibbi and Seymour Hersh? We featured both on them on the blog not too long ago. They're also being harassed by the US government and their corporate media partners.  

  

Matt Taibbi is even being threatened with criminal charges of lying to a Congressional committee for a mistake made by a network propagandist who interviewed him on MSNBC. Seymour Hersh has been ridiculed and his Substack posts about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing have been blocked on Facebook and labeled as "disinformation." If you ever needed more proof that the US government doesn't believe in the public's right to know and practice free speech, the demeaning treatment of these two maligned journalists prove it.

To all of you who are still reading at this point, I have just one word of advice to you in case you ever feel compelled to censor yourself and not use your right of free speech as a “weapon” for good in the world.

 

Don’t.

 

No matter what the corrupt government threatens, no matter what the corrupt corporations that do their bidding threaten, nothing—absolutely nothing—is as important as free speech and your right to express yourself fully. It is your inborn right, and it is your duty to continue to speak and write freely. It is your inborn right and your duty not to believe, agree with, or even acknowledge the lies and propaganda put out by untrustworthy powers-that-be.

 

Because if you don’t believe in and practice free speech in spite of the risks, then who else will?

 

Related Links:

Why Is The Government Targeting Black Socialists? (video) https://youtu.be/fvwhHouTZh0

Indictment Of African People’s Socialist Party Is A Racist Assault On The Black Liberation Movement https://popularresistance.org/indictment-of-african-peoples-socialist-party-is-a-racist-assault-on-the-black-liberation-movement/

Biden DOJ Just Indicted 4 Americans For Free Speech! Who's Next? (video)  https://www.youtube.com/live/EzvJIBfIYu4

War on Dissidents: New DOJ Indictments Criminalize Dissent—Weaponizing the Russian Censorship Tactics They Condemned (video) https://youtu.be/uxa_BSMPf1Q

Biden DOJ Indicts Four Americans For "Weaponized" Free Speech
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-doj-indicts-four-americans

Biden DOJ Charges Black Activists For Supporting Russia (video)
https://www.youtube.com/live/sbKT-MeY7kU

You're Not Immune To Propaganda (video) https://youtu.be/dl2fnWIlDZg

The Empire of Hypocrisy https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-empire-of-hypocrisy-notes-from 

The American Empire and its Media
https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/

1st Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession of Classified Data
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/21/1st-amendment-authorized-assanges-possession-of-classified-data/

WikiLeaks: Collateral Murder (Iraq, 2007) https://youtu.be/HfvFpT-iypw (video)

Corporate Media Are The Anti-Wikileaks https://popularresistance.org/corporate-media-are-the-anti-wikileaks/

Facebook Brands Seymour Hersh Reporting As ‘False’ & What Does This Mean For A Free Press (video) https://odysee.com/@HardLensMedia:9/facebook-brands-seymour-hersh-reporting:2

Matt Taibbi: House Democrats Have Lost Their Minds
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/19/house-democrats-have-lost-their-minds/

MSNBC Host’s Lie Could Send Journalist to Prison! w/ Matt Taibbi (video) https://youtu.be/tWNh03Ma1SA

Digital McCarthyism  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/03/digital-mccarthyism.html

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil! https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/pay-for-your-own-wars-big-oil.html

Here Come the Militarized Robots (But There Go Our Civil Liberties) https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/18/here-come-the-militarized-robots-but-there-go-our-civil-liberties/

House Democrat Threatens Twitter Files Journalist with Prosecution and Imprisonment  https://leefang.substack.com/p/house-democrat-threatens-twitter

Today In Empire: War Machine-Funded War Games, Facebook Censors Hersh, And More  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/today-in-empire-war-machine-funded

Universal Public Services: The Power of Decommodifying Survival
https://popularresistance.org/universal-public-services-the-power-of-decommodifying-survival/

Fossil Fuel Giants with Most Emissions Paid $118 Billion to CEOs in the Last Decade https://truthout.org/articles/fossil-fuel-giants-with-most-emissions-paid-1-18-billion-to-ceos-in-last-decade/

You Won't Believe Who Got The Richest From The Afghanistan War
https://youtu.be/wEFTLIzGZ6M