Exposing Dirty Tricks

Exposing Dirty Tricks

by C.A. Matthews

Has anyone ever tried to pull the wool over your eyes? Fooled you into believing something that turned out later to be false? How did you feel after you discovered that you'd been bamboozled? Sad? Angry? Determined never to let something like this happen to you ever again?

Now you know how the Arizona Green Party (AZGP) feels upon learning that Green voters could become the victims of a series of terrible tricks. This scam essentially denies all Arizona voters a choice for US Senate. And who are these con artists attempting to pull a fast one over on the electorate? They're none other than the Democratic Party.

Here are the details as they were presented on X (Twitter) by the AZGP:

The message thread begins at this address: https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1780413138262954472

The Arizona Green Party has discovered compelling evidence that suggests that the Democratic Party is attempting to interfere in our primary election process for the U.S Senate race via the campaign of faux-Green candidate Mike Norton.

First, Norton isn’t even a registered AZGP member AT ALL. Voter data provided to us from the Maricopa County Elections Office indicates that Norton’s most recent change in party affiliation was to “Independent”, which he registered as on August 17th, 2023, not as a “Green”.

Norton filed a Statement of Interest to run for the U.S. Senate as a Green on March 17th, 2024, a mere two weeks before the deadline to submit a sufficient number of candidate nomination petitions. He had no prior involvement or contact with the AZGP whatsoever before this.

On March 18th, the first of 7 total out-of-state paid petitioners, all claiming to be working for Wells Marketing LLC, begin to register with the AZ Secretary of State’s Office via the Circulator Portal and designate that they are circulating petitions for Norton’s campaign.

The next day, March 19th, Mike Norton files a Statement of Organization with the FEC for his candidate committee, “Mike Norton for Arizona”. FEC Law stipulates that this has to happen once a Congressional candidate raises or spends a combined total of $5K.

On March 21st, the “Save Democracy PAC” a super-PAC with ties to the Democratic Party, donates the max contribution of $5K to Norton’s candidate committee. Reminder: anybody who knows anything about the Green Party knows that we DO NOT EVER accept contributions from super PACs.

[Editor’s note: You can learn more about the Green Party at https://gp.org]

On March 27th, two more Democratic Party linked super-PACs (“End Citizens United” and “Defend The Vote”) max out donations to Norton’s campaign, contributing $5K each.

Both these super-PACs have already officially endorsed Ruben Gallego for the 2024 US Senate seat in Arizona. [Editor’s note: Ruben Gallego is running as a Democrat.]

Get ready, cuz this is a BIG one. On March 28th, 5 individuals made maxed out contributions of $3300 each to Norton’s campaign, and 1 contributed a lesser $1000 donation. The names/backgrounds of these individual donors may surprise you, so let’s go through them one by one.

Michael D. Smith is a Principal/Director at Cornerstone Government Affairs. He’s also a member of the DSCC Majority Trust Legacy Circle since 2008, and a formerly appointed member of the DNC Credentials Committee. Smith contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign. [DSCC—Democratic Senate Congressional Committee]

Paul Bernon is a Managing Partner at PMB Ventures, a Co-Chair of the Emily List Creative Council, and a member of the DNC Finance Committee. Bernon contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign.

Devin Rhinerson is a Partner at Pace LLP and a former senior policy advisor to the (now deceased) Democratic Senator from the State of California, Diane Feinstein. Rhinerson contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s Campaign.

Elizabeth E. Steinglass (David’s wife) is a Harvard graduate, a poet/author, a Research Fellow at NYU School of Law, and- like her husband- a frequent big money donor to Democratic campaigns. Elizabeth contributed the maximum $3300 to Norton’s campaign.

Capping off the individual contributions is Timothy Webster, an Associate Professor of Law at WNE University who made a more modest contribution of only $1000 to Mike Norton for Arizona. While we have not yet confirmed Webster as being tied to the Dems, the timing is suspicious.

In a SINGLE day on March 28th, and between only 6 individual contributors, “Mike Norton for Arizona” received a whopping $17.5K, the majority of which came from Democratic Party insiders and their big money donors. But wait, there’s still more…

The following day, March 29th, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU-COPE) ALSO made a maximum $5K contribution to Mike Norton’s campaign. “Why the Transit Union?”, you ask? Norton’s background is as a CEO, Senior Executive, and Legal Counsel to 3 major transportation companies.

But that undersells it, because those companies specialize in the transportation of “High Security Products”. Can you guess what kind of products those may be? Here’s the answer: weapons, ammunition, explosives, and radioactive materials. A decidedly un-Green career, we’d say. [Editor’s note: The Green Party platform states clearly that they are for “People, Planet and Peace (over corporate profits). You can see now why this contributor is highly suspect.]

So, let’s summarize: Norton’s not a registered Green, and never has been. In the span of ONLY 12 DAYS after filing an initial Statement of Interest, he received over $15K from confirmed Democratic Party insiders. And now he’s trying to fool the Green Party voters of Arizona.

And if you’re wondering, as some of you surely would be, “What do the Democrats gain from heavily funding a fake Green Party candidate?”, consider the case of ‘18 Senate candidate Angela Green, who dropped out and endorsed Sinema at the very last minute against McSally.

Sinema ultimately won regardless of Green’s endorsement, but it was a close race, and the AZ Dem Party, the DSCC, and the DNC have no desire to take that chance with Ruben Gallego in 2024. They’re willing to fight dirty and do everything they can to sabotage the competition.

And what better way is there to stop any possible *real* competition for Gallego from our party than by implanting an operative in our primary, funding him so heavily he easily wins, and then immediately having him drop out in the general to endorse the Democratic candidate?

Well, Mike Norton you may be a smart man, and you may be well-funded by the corrupt DNC, but you can’t fool us, and you won’t get away with your lies and dirty tricks. We know a true Green Party candidate from a fake like you. And now, Arizona knows you’re a fraud too.

Wow… After making quite a few sloppy moves, do the Dirty Dems really think they’ll get away with this conman of a candidate? Do they think Arizona’s voters are stupid enough to vote for a “faux Green”?

I think you know the answer to both those questions. It’s “yes.”

The saddest part about the Dems pulling dirty tricks is that most voters won’t do much in-depth research into candidates running for office at any level. They’ll believe whatever is put before them in the mainstream media without questioning it. Most have never heard of OpenSecrets.org where they can check out where politicians are getting their money and just how much they've taken. Most voters have never thought of researching the party platform that the candidate says they’re promoting, which in this case is very important as Norton seems to stand for the complete opposite of the Green Party's philosophy.

If voters did do their research, they would learn that the Green Party is for “People, Planet and Peace” and their candidates pledge to never take money from PACs or Super PACs. They’d think twice about Mike Norton’s acceptance of money from an industry dedicated to war along with large donations from Democratic Party insiders.

I mean, why would well-heeled Democrats give money to a Green Party candidate in the first place? That should be a big giveaway right there. But wait, there’s even more nefarious activity going on in the Dems’ dirty tricks campaign to undermine the Arizona Green Party's primary. The AZGP has also reported there is yet another possible “faux-Green” candidate being promoted by the DNC.

The thread for these messages begins here: https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1781897196419621221

In addition to the meddling by the DNC in our primary election via the campaign of Mike Norton, the Arizona Green Party has found irregularities in the campaign finance reporting of Arturo Hernandez, the other faux-Green candidate for U.S. Senate. Here’s what we found.

Arturo filed his statement of interest with the AZ Secretary of State’s Office on March 1st, 2024, and he filed his FEC Statement of Organization (Form 1) and Statement of Candidacy (Form 2) on March 11th, 2024.

While it’s not required for a candidate to reach the $5K threshold before they file paperwork and start submitting FEC reports, as soon as they file that paperwork, they are obligated to report all funds that are raised or spent by the candidate’s committee.

Because Hernandez filed his Statement on the 1st of March, he was officially campaigning as of that date and cannot claim to have been “testing the waters” in the form of an exploratory committee, as is allowed for and outlined in FEC guidelines.

Part of that FEC Form 2 Statement of Candidacy requires candidates to declare their intent to expend personal funds if they are a candidate for Congress. Hernandez’s FEC Form 2 indicates that he claimed intend to spend $0 of his personal funds in the primary and general election.

However, if you examine Mr. Hernandez’s Q1 FEC reports, he has also claimed $0 in receipts and expenditures. Here’s where things start to get really fishy…

We know from personal testimony from AZGP members like @jonralstonlmt and research done during the signature challenge period that Mr. Hernandez had paid circulators distributing his candidate nomination petitions. Yet, Mr. Hernandez has not reported any money raised or spent.

Additionally, we know that Mr. Hernandez is a client of “In Compliance Inc.”, and his designated Treasurer and Custodian of Records is Chrissie Hastie, President/CEO of In Compliance Inc. However, no payments to In Compliance Inc. have been reported by Mr. Hernandez in Q1.

Even if the paid petitioners AND In Compliance Inc. were to have worked pro bono for Mr. Hernandez, they would still need to report this as an “in-kind contribution”. No such reporting has been made on the Q1 FEC report for “Arturo for Arizona”.

It is no secret that Mr. Hernandez is a sham candidate who has jumped onto our ballot line with the intent to fool Green Party in Arizona into wasting their vote on an infiltrator with nefarious intentions. Mr. Hernandez has even been so bold as to contact us to gloat.

While we are continuing to investigate further evidence of wrongdoing, we believe that it is highly probably that Mr. Hernandez and his candidate committee “Arturo for Arizona” have violated the FECA of 1971. We urge all AZ Green Party members to NOT vote for or support him.

If any individual would like to submit an FEC complaint against “Arturo for Arizona”, which could trigger a thorough investigation process by the Commission that may be very expensive for Mr. Hernandez… , here is the process for how to do so: https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/enforcement/complaints-process/how-to-file-complaint-with-fec/

Anybody can file an FEC complaint, and the more complaints filed, the more likely it is the commission will review the case.

To further clarify:

https://twitter.com/AZGreenParty/status/1781734840930549853

To be clear, the Democrats are trying to kick faux-Green Arturo Hernandez off the ballot, while they have installed a well-funded Democratic operative to run in our primary named Mike Norton. The AZ Green Party’s endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate race is @Quintana4Senate

Even the Republican US Senate candidate, Kari Lake, is exposing these Dem shenanigans:

https://twitter.com/KariLakeWarRoom/status/1781729926451999071

It appear the AZ Dem Party is attempting to kick the AZ Green Party candidate off the ballot so that their Trojan horse candidate can drop out & endorse Ruben Gallego.

These are the people who lecture us about democracy.

Mr. Hernandez doesn’t sound like the brightest bulb in the box to me. Could he be yet another DNC faux Green candidate that didn’t quite work out as well as they’d hoped, so they brought Mr. Norton on board later to be their “official faux Green candidate” instead? Why does the DNC pull such criminal stunts like this? Are they worried their own candidate, Mr. Gallego, isn’t electable?

Ruben M. Montejano states in an X post:

https://twitter.com/damnitruben/status/1781156089276641337

From what I gather AZ Green Party thinks if Norton wins their primary he will drop out leaving no Green Party Candidate to run against the Dem and Republican candidates in the general election.

The official Arizona Green Party candidate is Eduardo Quintana.[@Quintana4Senate]:

https://twitter.com/Quintana4Senate/status/1777399449985126691

My name is Eduardo Quintana, I am a dedicated Green Party activist in the Tucson area, and I am running a grassroots, corporate-free campaign for the U.S. Senate with the AZ Green Party

The Dems' actions demonstrate how very scared they are of losing the US Senate seat in Arizona. They possibly fear that voters see them as supporters of Genocide Joe Biden, repellent genocide-enablers. They’re willing to spend large sums of their donors' money and risk committing fraud to take away the voters' choices at the ballot box. 

When the news of these dirty tricks in Arizona eventually leaks out to a wider audience, won’t the Dems be helping their Republican opponent by making her look more honest than they are? This time around the Dems can’t claim the Green Party candidate is stealing votes from them because they are, in fact, funding “spoilers” like Mike Norton and Arturo Hernandez in the Green primary.

What does Norton in particular get out of all of this skullduggery? It seems his connection with the weapons industry is behind his reasoning for doing this so he can continue to fund Gallego and other Dem candidates who love passing huge military budgets. The military-industrial-Congressional complex operators don’t really care what label a candidate wears as long as she/he votes the way they want them to. As long as the duopoly remains in power, billionaires will thrive and workers will suffer as more and more money is siphoned out of the workers' pockets and slipped into the oligarchs’ bank accounts.

Worse yet, more innocents will continue to suffer and die as more US bombs are provided to apartheid Israel to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in Gaza. A Green Party senator from Arizona would work hard to end this horrific situation and all US military interventions worldwide.

What can the Arizona Green Party do to shut down this scam? They can take legal action against Norton for misrepresenting himself as a Green, but court cases take time, and it wouldn’t come up until after November. The Dems are counting on that. It’s why they waited until almost the last moment to sneak Norton in on the Green primary. In the meantime, they’re probably “rewarding” (i.e., bribing) all the Arizona judges to make a ruling in the DNC’s favor when the case finally does come to court. Criminals do tend to stick together.

If you’re a person who loves democracy and wants to help the voters of Arizona, there are a few things you can do. First off, share this story (and the X posts/Tweets) with others. The mainstream media certainly won’t cover this DNC trickery. They wouldn’t dare anger their corporate owners. So, it’s up to us everyday people, indie journalists, and independent podcasters to get the word out.

Secondly, file a complaint with the FEC if you feel moved to do so. And if you’re able, donate your time, talents and/or money to the AZGP and/or the GPUS. Lawyers don’t come cheap, and a party like the Green Party that only accepts donations from voters like you and me (not millionaires/billionaires) needs all the backers they can get. 

It’s why the Dirty Dems pick on the people-powered Greens—the Dems receive billions of dollars from their wealthy Super PAC donors but no real support from the masses. The Dems use their corporate donors’ money to pull undemocratic stunts like this one in order to manipulate us, We the People. Remember, “freedom isn’t free” when the people are being blatantly outspent by billionaires bribing politicians.

Last and certainly not least, support causes that are working to take big money out of US politics. Just think if the DNC wasn’t able to pull all this money together and create fake candidates to thwart voter choice, we might not be seeing these kinds of dirty tricks in the first place. Check out the Move to Amend and Ranked Choice Voting initiatives. 

Whatever you do, don’t give up hope. Make a vow to never let the Dems get away with dirty tricks ever again. Power to the people—not the corporations who own the Dems, their criminally minded minions!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Democrats Sue to Block Green Candidate https://arizonaglobe.com/fl/democrats-sue-to-block-green-candidate/

Challenging the duopoly: Jill Stein on why she's running for US president as Green Party candidate https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/jill-stein-president-green-party

'Obvious Evidence of Genocide': Mass Grave Discovered in Gaza's Nasser Hospital https://www.commondreams.org/news/mass-grave-gaza-nasser-hospital 

Israeli Strikes in Rafah Kill 22, Including 18 Children https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/21/israeli-strikes-kill-22-in-rafah-including-18-children/

Israel Is Turning Hospitals Into Mass Graves While The West Fixates On 'Antisemitism' https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-is-turning-hospitals-into

We need to have a conversation about Zionism https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/we-need-to-have-a-conversation-about

Bankers upgrade Lockheed stock after Iran strikes at Israel https://responsiblestatecraft.org/lockheed-martin-israel-war/

Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership https://www.commondreams.org/news/palestinian-statehood

In Fit of anti-Palestinian Hatred, Congress tries to Outlaw “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” https://www.juancole.com/2024/04/palestinian-congress-palestine.html

Stop Pretending Biden Is Some Passive Witness To Israel's Warmongering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-pretending-biden-is-some-passive

Israel's Latest Lie Is That It Has 'No Choice' But To Attack Iran https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-latest-lie-is-that-it-has

If The Mainstream Worldview Was Accurate, Gaza Wouldn't Be Burning https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-the-mainstream-worldview-was-accurate

Amal Clooney’s Silence on Gaza Shows the Limits of Liberalism  https://www.mintpressnews.com/amal-clooney-silence-gaza-shows-limits-liberalism/287251/

The Palestine Movement Has Completely Undermined the US-Israel Relationship  https://youtu.be/X1Zz2Hnmr7w

Blinken Is Sitting on Staff Recommendations to Sanction Israeli Military Units Linked to Killings or Rapes https://www.propublica.org/article/israel-gaza-blinken-leahy-sanctions-human-rights-violations

Protesters Block Road To Shannon Airport in Ireland, Calling For End To Usage By U.S. Military https://worldbeyondwar.org/protesters-block-road-to-shannon-airport-in-ireland-calling-for-end-to-usage-by-u-s-military/

Escalation With Iran Seemingly Over; Now We Have To Worry About Rafah  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/escalation-with-iran-seemingly-over

The US Doesn't Support A Two-State Solution, It Just Supports Saying It Does https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-doesnt-support-a-two-state

Palestine Coverage – Latest Unicorn Riot Stories from Palestine and Pro-Palestine Protests  https://unicornriot.ninja/palestine-coverage-latest-unicorn-riot-stories-from-palestine-and-pro-palestine-protests/

US Government Rejects Australia’s Call To End Assange Case, Submits 'Assurances' For Extradition https://thedissenter.org/us-government-rejects-australias-call-to-end-assange-case/

In Gaza The Sniper Drones Are Crying Like Babies https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-gaza-the-sniper-drones-are-crying

From Florida to Australia, Global Coral Bleaching Could Soon Be Worst on Record  https://truthout.org/articles/global-coral-reef-bleaching-event-brings-bad-news-for-the-climate/

Dead Last (With Emphasis on Dead!) https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/17/dead-last-with-emphasis-on-dead/

Assange Extradition Case Moves Forward While The CIA Covers Its Tracks https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/assange-extradition-case-moves-forward

"Rules-Based Order" Means Rules For Thee But Not For We https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/rules-based-order-means-rules-for

FBI Violated Your Rights An Unbelievable Amount According To Gov't Docs! https://youtu.be/6lk7bAYoiRo?si=9cyf6s58SjrnRSN6

 

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The Writing's On The Wall

The Writing's On The Wall

by C.A. Matthews

Some days it feels like this nightmare will go on forever. It’s overwhelming. When you can’t even have a reasonable, adult conversation with others for risk of being labeled “antisemitic” simply because you support the rights of Palestinians to live and not be ethnically cleansed, it does feel like this is it... The End Times. 

The end of Western civilization perhaps.

Maybe the death of Western civilization isn’t such a bad thing after all. Who needs a society which continues to deny basic human rights to people based upon the “superiority” or “inferiority” of skin color, race, religion, politics, social status, or ethnicity? The writing is on the wall. We’re already seeing the signs of the end of this sick world approaching in various ways. It’s time to accept this truth so we all can live together in peace and harmony.

Already the “stenographers for the oligarchs” are starting to fold. Mainstream media outlets are beginning to soften their original hard line, pro-Zionist/anti-Palestinian stance. Why their sudden change of heart? It probably has a lot to do with so many independent journalists outing them for the propaganda mouthpieces for Israel and the military-industrial complex of the West that they are.

by Mark Taylor, DeMOCKracy Ink

Even CNN has changed its mind, revealing how it didn’t do its job properly when it came to reportage on the “Flour Massacre.” Seems the IDF were at fault all along. Israeli snipers shot at helpless starving Gazans as they gathered to get food aid off of the trucks, the opposite of how many a Western headline read. The food aid itself didn’t kill them. They didn't kill each other in the rush. The IDF did so. Deliberately.

Funny how the truth has a way of eventually leaking into the world of Western journalism. Apparently these stenographers for the oligarchs don’t like being embarrassed by Palestinian journalists who got things right the first time. They don’t enjoy being caught in the act of regurgitating Israeli lies one too many times by independent podcasters. It makes them look stupid. It makes them look like paid-off shills.

Well, they are shills for Israel and the military-industrial complex, aren’t they? But they don’t want to look that obvious. They don't want everyone who watches them to think, "These so-called journalists love bloodshed and violence. Great for their ratings, right?" So, they’ve kept up their front and pretended that they’ve never repeated the hasbara (translation: storytelling) of the Israelis on behalf of their corrupt Western governments. They'll pretend they've never once lied even when they’re forced to make corrections to their stories later. 

But it’s too late. Intelligent and insightful people question everything they hear and read. They look for and find alternative sources of news and double check the facts. Darn those smarty pants! They're making CNN’s and their compatriots’ propaganda spinning that much harder.

The writing is on the wall. Mainstream news outlets will either return to an approximation of “fair and balanced” journalism, or else they’ll be laughed off the planet. When push comes to shove, their CEOs will want to stay in business. They’ll probably accommodate the public’s need to know the truth, rather than continue passing on the false narrative spin of Western governments' propagandists.

Speaking of Western governments… The writing’s on the wall there as well.

“Genocide Joe” Biden and his administration are slowly but surely circling the drain. Trying to sell a geriatric with memory issues and a vicious streak of hatred against non-white peoples has been an extremely difficult sales job for Biden’s campaign workers. Promoting the lesser evil voting argument doesn’t hold up when making such statements as, “Trump would start even more genocides than Biden already has!” 

Nah, it doesn’t work. It exposes the fallacy of lesser evil voting even more than it already has been exposed. It's all just a nasty voter shaming technique. The duopoly and its candidates are just uniformly evil no matter how they care to label themselves, as either ”Donkeys” or “Elephants”. Both groups work for the military-industrial complex and do as they're told. They're both full of crap.

Stories about how President Ronald Reagan picked up the phone in 1982 and called Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and told him to stop bombing Lebanon, and twenty minutes later, Israel stopped the bombings, have been unearthed recently. Repeating Reagan's tough stance against Israeli bombing makes things look even bleaker for "Butcher Biden" and his genocide-enabling administration. 

White House briefings by smooth-talking spokespersons hinting at how “upset” or “angry” or “frustrated” Biden is with P.M. Netanyahu’s actions do nothing to change the facts of the matter.  A genocide is being committed by Israel using US provided bombs and arms. What do Biden's feelings really got to do with anything unless they've been telling him it's the right thing to do, funding a genocide, for the past six months?

Biden continues to send bombs to Israel who uses them to ethnically cleanse even more civilians in Gaza. If US presidents have the power to pick up the phone and call Israeli prime ministers and get them to shut down military operations, why hasn’t Joe Biden picked up the phone and demanded an end to the bombings? The answer is simple: He doesn’t want to stop supplying bombs to Israel. He doesn’t really care if Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. Biden’s war machine donors’ wishes and profits are infinitely more important to him that breathing, happy Palestinian children ever could be.

The most recent polls show that the vast majority of Americans want the US to stop sending bombs to Israel. If Biden continues to ignore the public’s opinion on this matter, he has set himself up for a big fall come the November presidential election. With this stubbornly short-sighted attitude, one wonders if he really wants to keep his job. Maybe not.

The writing is on the wall: Biden is going down for the count. No doubt about it. And good riddance! 

With Biden knocking himself out of the race, the odds for an alternative party candidate such as the Green Party's Jill Stein winning have increased exponentially. In a crowded field of two wannabe presidents and two former presidents, Dr. Stein needs only 26% of the Electoral College vote to win. 

Of course, the crap-filled Donkeys and Elephants will pitch a fit and kick and scream “election fraud!” if Dr. Stein does win, but every time the duopoly pulls their dirty tricks, the more voters become wiser to how corrupt the American system of voting truly is. If they block the people's choice, the US will be revealed as the oligarchy it is and not the "democracy" it pretends to be.

The writing's on the wall for the wealthy, white, male settler-colonialist class who created and perpetuated this travesty called the United States of America. Let's hope they realize this soon and surrender peacefully to the people.

Perhaps the best news of all is that six months after starting their genocide of the Palestinian people the writing is on the wall for the ethnostate of Israel.

Things have gone too far, too fast. The moral stench of the murders of innocent children and babies in incubators in Gaza has convinced many countries to stop supporting Israel. Some like Spain are calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. Colombia is calling for all nations to break diplomatic ties with Israel. The South African genocide case made against Israel at the International Court of Justice has picked up more supporters. Many countries are calling for United Nations' sanctions against Israel and for the UN to treat Israel as a pariah state.

If there ever was any hope for a “two state solution” between Israel and Palestine, recent actions of the Israeli government, military, and its bloodthirsty civilian population have pretty much killed its chances. The writing’s on the wall. The only chance for peace in the region is to permanently shut down the white settler-colonial, apartheid, racist-Zionist government of Israel and build a democratic secular state that doesn’t make one ethnic group superior to the other. All people are to be treated equally. No exceptions.

Six months of daily images of children lying crushed in the rubble, dying slowly of starvation, and dying trying to scrounge up food while being shot at by IDF snipers is grueling and disheartening. But there is a glimmer of hope when we realize that the writing is on the wall. I predict that the end is coming soon for these heartless bastards in both Israel and the Western governments. My only wish is that I live long enough to see all of them punished for their crimes against humanity.

Peace and morality can be restored to the world. We the People can take our rightful place in the governance of ourselves. We can lock away the warmongering narcissists and their minions in the prisons they've built to torture those who resisted their tyranny. When we do, we will write the best and last thing on the wall: Good-bye to the war machine forever!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces Spain’s readiness to recognize the state of Palestine and encourages other European countries to follow suit. pic.twitter.com/egt9FcgJj9

— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 10, 2024

Will Israel Drag the US Into Another Ruinous War? https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-hamas-hezbollah-iran/

Gaza is a test of the absolute bare minimum requirements for someone to be worth listening to about anything at all, because if you got this one wrong then there’s just something wrong with you as a human being.  —Getting Gaza Right Is The Absolute Bare Minimum Requirement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-gaza-right-is-the-absolute

"If something like this can happen in plain view of everyone, and the people in charge not only do nothing but actively facilitate it, then you have to start wondering if everything about your entire nation is deranged, and if everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie." —Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gaza-asks-us-a-question-about-what

Israeli Suffering Is Not Comparable To Palestinian Suffering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-suffering-is-not-comparable

Biden declares “ironclad” commitment to Israel as death toll mounts in Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/tnmf-a11.html

Iran Strikes Back https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/iran-strikes-back

Biden Administration Won't Say Whether They Support Federal Shield Law For Journalists https://thedissenter.org/biden-white-house-wont-say-whether-backs-press-act/

Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-killing-aid-workers-israel-plan-destroy-gaza

West votes against rest of world, supporting illegal sanctions in UN Human Rights Council https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/west-votes-rest-world-un-sanctions

CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/cnn-finally-tells-the-truth-about

Ralph Nader: The Mutually Reinforcing US and Israeli Empires https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/09/ralph-nader-the-mutually-reinforcing-us-and-israeli-empires/

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/10/israel-has-formed-a-task-force-to-carry-out-covert-campaigns-at-us-universities/

It Can't Be Fun Defending Israel These Days... https://youtu.be/guxkmRPSTlI?si=iaM2puQPdz8fBo4B

Aid Flotilla Heading To Gaza To Break Siege https://popularresistance.org/aid-flotilla-heading-to-gaza-to-break-siege/

Establishment SUDDENLY Turns Against Israel! https://youtu.be/ExQM25IwFd4?si=wC0zhVp5hX6nVm0C

Tucker Carlson and Palestinian Priest on Israel’s Oppression of Christians https://youtu.be/n2_4uI-lcv4?si=dq1R8GxL-hkrUwr2

Empire Managers Keep Acting Like Iran Is About To Attack Israel Without Provocation https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-keep-acting-like

Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-Trained Neo-Nazi Army https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/08/meet-centuria-ukraines-western-trained-neo-nazi-army/

Sales of Palestinian land are happening around the US  https://therealnews.com/illegal-real-estate-sales-of-palestinian-land-are-happening-around-the-us

Last Year, You Spent More Than a Month’s Rent on Pentagon Contractors https://otherwords.org/last-year-you-spent-more-than-a-months-rent-on-pentagon-contractors/

47 years later, Leonard Peltier is still not free https://therealnews.com/47-years-later-leonard-peltier-is-still-not-free

A great album now on Bandcamp:
Notes From A Holocaust by David Rovics
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/notes-from-a-holocaust 

Active Duty Airman Larry Hebert refuses to eat while Gaza starves.
 

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

The Miracle

Editor's note: I had a dream about this whole hot mess the world finds itself in. I wanted to share my vision, but I struggled to put it into words until I decided to write it as a short short story. Other than the odd poem (not very often and very odd), I haven't posted anything like a short story at the The Revolution Continues before. This is a first. I've not written much fiction in recent times because, frankly, I don't feel like writing anything funny or with a happy ending. My last novella is set in a dystopian world where an anarchist commune that practices mutual aid is struggling to survive alongside a fascist state. My publisher insisted it at least have a "happy for now" ending. (You can buy a copy of it here. It would make my publisher very happy. Or you can drop me a donation via my Paypal.me page here. That would make me very happy!)

If you decide you'd like to read more short fiction posts, let me know. I'll see what I can do. If you'd rather I didn't post fiction here, leave a comment stating your preference. Thanks for your feedback.

 

A must-watch short video:

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power.

The Miracle

by C.A. Matthews

“That’s my planet,” I confessed, trembling. I pointed to the big blue marble that is Earth through the spaceship observation port. The tallest of the grayish, bulb-headed, big-eyed, mouthless alien beings nodded in understanding. “You can tell it’s inhabited from the amount of pollution in the atmosphere detectable from this… height.”

I’d never believed in alien abduction before, but now that it was happening to me it didn’t seem all that bad. No anal probes. No poking or prodding of any kind really, unless you count the mental probing my hosts—I hated to label them “my captors”—had gently done to determine how best to communicate with me. I spoke out loud, but I realized fairly quickly that they were reading my mind and communicating me mentally, so using my vocal cords wasn’t necessary. Talking just made me feel less nervous in their presence, and they didn’t seem to mind.

The pollutants and toxins in your biosphere are slowly killing your kind and many other species. Do you understand? The tallest of the aliens sent its thoughts directly into my head. Its tone and intonation made me imagine it was coming from an older, wiser individual. It communicated slowly and kindly as if speaking to a lost child. Would you like them removed?

“The pollution, you mean, not the people, right?” I laughed and then gasped as what it meant hit me fully. “You’re saying that you all can actually clean up our polluted planet after all we’ve done to it?”

Yes, we have the means to return your planet’s biosphere to its state before the mass burning of fossil fuels began. We can purge the toxins from the atmosphere, the water cycle, and from the soil. Crops and forests will thrive. No longer will adverse climate effects harm food production or the wildlife. We can replace the engines that run your vehicles, machinery, and industrial plants that cause pollution and radiation with ones that do not. We can eliminate rogue viruses and bacteria that cause serious illness and provide your healers with instruction on how to cure through natural means, not through the use of synthetic chemicals. Allow us to demonstrate.

With a wave of its hand—or what I thought would pass as a hand on Earth—Tall Guy gave its compatriots the signal to start Operation Earth Clean-Up. I’m not sure if what I witnessed from the spaceship window happened instantaneously or was happening over a period of days, years, or centuries, but within what seemed only a few short minutes to me the face of the Earth looked much greener and bluer and...well, healthier.

“Wow…” I whispered. “Thank you! I am very impressed. No more bad air quality days? No more boil warnings for our tap water? I can actually swim in the lake now and not get covered with an outbreak of poisonous blue-green algae?”

We have purged the toxins that are hazardous to life on your planet, my host mentally informed me. Your kind can be cured of sicknesses now with simple medicines and techniques available to all.

“No more need for bad health insurance that never covers what you really need? Cancer cured? It all sounds too good to be true.” I shook my head in disbelief. “In my country, big corporations make lots of money from keeping people sick and addicted to drugs.”

Tall Guy blinked. If it had possessed a mouth, it might have frowned. The concept of capitalism was probably as foreign and strange to my hosts as their spaceship and advanced technology were to me. If they were reading my mind at that moment, they might have regretted lavishing such kind gifts upon our selfish species.

Is there anything else we can do for your kind before we return you? Tall Guy asked.

I couldn’t wait to return to Earth—the beautiful, unpolluted Garden of Eden where sickness would be no more. I sighed. There was something niggling me in the back of my mind. I had to know if my hosts could grant me this one last, grand wish.

“Can you rid our world of war? Can you remove all the weapons—that is, the tools of violence and destruction? Guns, cannons, nukes, tanks, submarines, bomber jets and the like that humans use to kill other humans?”

Tall Guy blinked again. I was pretty sure this time it was frowning inside even without a mouth. I probably had asked too big of a favor. After all, extracting pollution out of the biosphere could be just an elaborate chemical equation to them, but taking weapons away from warmongers? If the concepts of capitalism and greed were incomprehensibly horrible and cruel to my hosts, can you imagine what they would have thought of humanity’s insatiable need to slaughter their neighbors and steal each others’ land and resources?

A few minutes later, after much discussion as I called my hosts’ method of communicating as a group by touching their foreheads together, I got my answer.

We will try.

It took more than a hand wave from Tall Guy to bring peace about on Planet Earth. Several different groups of gray aliens started to work out different aspects of the challenge. I was allowed to walk about and watch each team tackle their part of the problem. I watched a view screen with fascination as one group disintegrated the biggest and most obvious weapons of war. They focused what must have been a laser upon an aircraft carrier and then poof! It was vaporized. Gone. Likewise to nuclear subs and battleships. The sailors aboard were all magically transported to the closest port.

I couldn’t help but clap my hands with glee as another group took out an entire fleet of bombers and nuclear silos. Zap! They disappeared.

But my hosts didn’t stop there. Another group worked on eliminating all the small arms and automatic weapons on the planet. I’m not sure how their scanners could pick up on the millions of firearms, some of which were hidden in cellars and barns by the thousands in my country, but they did it. Abracadabra! They vanished.

Wars aren’t only fought on the battlefields, but in the cities and towns where the oppressed are helpless to defend themselves. Several groups of my gray hosts worked on tearing down barbwire fences and concrete walls that had imprisoned so many within their own homelands or kept them from entering a place of safety. I don’t know how they did it, but my hosts flung open the prison doors that had incarcerated freedom fighters and innocents alike, setting them free.

In turn, the politicians and the corporate war lords who had profited greatly from eternal wars for oil and similar land grabs were escorted by invisible forces to trade places with the unjustly imprisoned. Ta-da! What a brilliant move!

The destruction of homes, family farms, and small businesses, the results of the wars and genocides, was instantly reversed. Homelessness and hunger were no more. All who had been separated by violence and divisions were once again reunited with their family members and friends.

I wept tears of joy.

It is accomplished, Tall Guy communicated to me. Why do you experience sadness?

“I’m not sad. I’m happy.” I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and gazed upon one of the view screens where a neighborhood, once reduced to rubble by bombing, now stood whole and complete. “I am so happy with the results of your wonderful talents. How can we ever thank you?”

And then I caught a glimpse of something on the screen that caused my smile to fade. “What the hell… What is he doing?”

A man picked up a rock and threw it hard at another man just about to enter his rebuilt home. The second man fell to his knees, blood pouring from a deep gash on his forehead. The first man and his group ran toward the second man’s home, throwing more rocks at it as well as the people of the rebuilt neighborhood.

“I thought you had eliminated all war?” I whispered.

My hosts assembled and pressed their foreheads together in communion. After a long minute, Tall Guy approached, its appendages spread open in an imploring fashion.

We eliminated all the human-made tools of war and violence as you had asked us to, but we cannot take away the feelings of hatred and greed and fear from inside each human being. That is something humanity must do for itself. Do you understand?

I nodded and closed my eyes. “I understand. I appreciate all that you’ve done for us. I realize now that I can’t expect you to perform a miracle.”

A miracle? Explain.

“Something that seems impossible, but it can and does spontaneously occur on rare occasions.”

Tall Guy nodded. Its gaze appeared softer, more sympathetic. No, we cannot perform a miracle. We cannot change the minds of living beings set on hurting others.

“How long will it take until humankind rebuilds all the weapons it had?” I sniffed. “Years? Months? Days?”

Not long. Tall Guy’s tone registered upon my mind as resignation.

I turned toward the window. The skies above the Earth were growing darker and dirtier by the second. Humans were already rebuilding the polluting factories to create instruments of death, to destroy each other and Earth’s fragile ecosystem without mercy.

Can we help? Tall Guy communicated to me.

I slowly smiled at my gracious hosts. “We’d all better start praying for that miracle, or else I’ve wasted your time.”

This meme of Israeli girls writing their names on bombs to drop on Gaza is a couple months old. Recent estimates say 15,000+ children have been murdered in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power. https://youtu.be/ysZVQpTJVH8?si=1tIiR3JBSPbTKdBg

The Majority of Americans Now Disapprove of Israel’s Genocide, Polling Finds  https://truthout.org/articles/the-majority-of-americans-now-disapprove-of-israels-genocide-polling-finds/

'This Is Unforgivable': Israeli Airstrike Kills 7 World Central Kitchen Workers https://www.commondreams.org/news/world-central-kitchen-israel

Latest Huge Transfer of 2,000-Pound Bombs from U.S. to Israel Not Newsworthy to the New York Times  https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/03/latest-huge-transfer-of-2000-pound-bombs-from-u-s-to-israel-not-newsworthy-to-the-new-york-times/

The 'Human Shields' Lie Has Been Conclusively, Irrefutably Debunked  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-human-shields-lie-has-been-conclusively

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/05/doctor-at-israeli-detention-camp-for-gazans-blows-whistle-on-war-crimes/

Biden Has Had the Power to Stop Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza Since Day 1 https://truthout.org/articles/biden-has-had-the-power-to-stop-israels-war-crimes-in-gaza-since-day-1/

US military veteran refuses to pay fine after being found guilty over Hamas sign  https://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/national/24226377.us-military-veteran-refuses-pay-fine-found-guilty-hamas-sign/

Israel Keeps Getting More Murderous https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-keeps-getting-more-murderous

Six Months Of Hell On Earth https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/six-months-of-hell-on-earth

The Chris Hedges Report: Hamas: How Israel Created Its Own Nemesis https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/02/the-chris-hedges-report-hamas-how-israel-created-its-own-nemesis/

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes

Courageous Active Duty Air Force Airman On White House Hunger Strike For Gaza https://mark192.substack.com/p/a-true-patriotic-member-of-the-military

Will President Biden Pardon America's First Corporate Political Prisoner? https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/will-president-biden-pardon-americas

International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/international-court-issues-first-ever-decision-enforcing-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment/

The Key Bridge disaster was caused by the oppression of workers https://therealnews.com/the-key-bridge-disaster-was-caused-by-the-oppression-of-workers

Looking Back At The Flint Water Crisis  https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/looking-back-at-the-flint-water-crisis

Epic Fail: The Forever Failure of America’s Failed Forever Wars https://tomdispatch.com/epic-fail/

Chris Hedges: The Death of Amr  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/chris-hedges-the-death-of-amr/

Stop Reporting On Biden's Angry Feelings Toward Israel. It's Not News. It's Not Interesting. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-reporting-on-bidens-angry-feelings

Israel Lets Some Aid Into Gaza So The US Will Keep Giving It Weapons To Kill People In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-lets-some-aid-into-gaza-so

As Support For Gaza Goes Mainstream, Don't Let The Empire Co-Opt The Movement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-support-for-gaza-goes-mainstream

How World Central Kitchen serves Israel’s genocidal agenda https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-world-central-kitchen-serves-israels-genocidal-agenda

“Netanyahu’s Colonial Project”. Appropriation of All Palestinian Lands. Israel’s Plan to Expand into A “Greater State” https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-quest-palestinian-free-palestine-continues/5853557

Big Oil Clouded the Science on Extreme Weather. Now It Faces a Reckoning https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/06/big-oil-clouded-the-science-on-extreme-weather-now-it-faces-a-reckoning/ 

The Real Reason The US Wants To Ban TikTok https://youtu.be/xEDGZlG_41k

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