Episode 151

Revolutionary Optimism amid Global Crises – 2023 Year In Review / 2024 predictions – Ep 151

Published on: 2nd February, 2024

Jovanni, Shiloh, and Monisha share an insightful look back at 2023 and share their hopes and predictions for 2024.  The massive ongoing shift to multi-polarity, the view of Ukraine and Palestine as the year ends, and understanding how to pursue and maintain revolutionary optimism in a pessimistic world are all touched on.  Thank you to everyone who has supported Fortress On A Hill as we enter our seventh year!!!

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Fortress On A Hill is hosted, written, and produced by Chris ‘Henri’ Henrikson, Keagan Miller, Jovanni Reyes, Shiloh Emelein, and Monisha Rios. https://bit.ly/3yeBaB9

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Transcript
Don:

This is Fortress On A Hill, with Henri, Danny, Kaygan,

Don:

Jo vonni, Shiloh, and Monisha

Jovanni:

Welcome, everyone, to Fortress On A Hill, a podcast about U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

foreign policy, anti imperialism, skepticism, and the American way of war.

Jovanni:

I'm Jovanni.

Jovanni:

Thank you for being with us today.

Jovanni:

With me are my two co hosts, Monisha and Shiloh.

Jovanni:

How are you guys doing today?

Shiloh:

Hey Jovanni, I'm doing well.

Shiloh:

It's good to see you.

Monisha:

Yeah, same here.

Monisha:

It's good to see both of you.

Jovanni:

Yep, today we reflect on 2023, the political dynamics that

Jovanni:

happened, the continuation of the endless wars, the shift in geopolitics,

Jovanni:

and anything else that comes to mind.

Jovanni:

As we reflect, I look forward to the new year.

Jovanni:

We do so with the knowledge that a great crime is being committed

Jovanni:

against the people of Palestine, while the world watches and feels

Jovanni:

powerless to do anything about it.

Jovanni:

Guys, let's each mention three or four things that impacted us,

Jovanni:

or impacted you, and, and uh, or that you are focusing on 2023.

Jovanni:

And uh, three things, or four things that uh, that you forecast for 2024,

Jovanni:

or that you look forward to in 2024.

Jovanni:

How'd that sound?

Jovanni:

Sounds golden.

Shiloh:

I think I'll be kind of brief, but just crawling,

Shiloh:

crawling to the end of 2023 here.

Shiloh:

The three things I'm going to mention are kind of gonna, uh, Build into Sinceri, but

Shiloh:

the first one is like, um, George Santos being expelled from, from Congress that

Shiloh:

was impactful one because it, it just showed the, like, circus that is the U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

Congress and just how easy it is to, even down to his name.

Shiloh:

And somehow he's still like, got voted in and was making laws that impact everyone.

Shiloh:

So that.

Shiloh:

Yeah, it was lighthearted in ways and then the, the also heavy in that like

Shiloh:

this clown, this queen of a person was actually making moves that impact

Shiloh:

people and yeah, um, and then the, the second thing, um, for 2023, um, was

Shiloh:

just, yeah, just kind of a little bit of frustration around the supposed, as

Shiloh:

I said, Just this system that we have, like, not being able to, so far, some

Shiloh:

states are starting to, but not being able to block, uh, Trump from, from

Shiloh:

running and being the front runner, um, which will go into the forecasting

Shiloh:

for 2024, I think more and more, like, yeah, just feeling kind of powerless, um,

Shiloh:

powerless against the machine that is U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

politics.

Shiloh:

Um, and then, yeah, what we're all, what we're all kind of, uh, the sadness

Shiloh:

that we're all swimming in, I think, right now is just the genocide and

Shiloh:

ethnic cleansing of, of our siblings in Palestine, our dear friends that are

Shiloh:

Palestinian, dear friends that are anti Zionist Jews, and just all of that.

Shiloh:

Yes, heaviness all around, um, and again, just feeling powerless, um,

Shiloh:

that my money is going into this, this harm and this violence, um,

Shiloh:

my, my tax money and all of that.

Shiloh:

Yeah, I think it, it is a shift that, you know, the world's

Shiloh:

eyes are, are being opened.

Shiloh:

I know a lot of, a lot of places and a lot of people were

Shiloh:

already eyes wide open to U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

imperialism.

Shiloh:

Um, but the, I think the Western world in particular is

Shiloh:

becoming more aware and seeing.

Shiloh:

Seeing this just, yeah, uh, right in our, in our faces on our phones.

Shiloh:

It's hard to, hard to ignore the impacts that the U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

has around the world.

Shiloh:

So those are the, those are the three things.

Shiloh:

Oh, I guess I could get into one event that really impacted me, um, just last

Shiloh:

month, uh, myself in a large group of, uh, Anti imperialist, anti militarist

Shiloh:

veterans made a trip out to Washington, D.

Shiloh:

C.

Shiloh:

to speak out against the genocide in Gaza and to call for a ceasefire and we

Shiloh:

got to meet with, um, The, like, actual legit, uh, lawmakers who, you know,

Shiloh:

who actually give a shit about people.

Shiloh:

Um, it's a very small handful of them.

Shiloh:

Um, but we got to meet with, um, Rashida Tlaib and she just, yeah, we shared just

Shiloh:

One of the best hugs I've ever experienced in my life and it just felt, it was

Shiloh:

just really impactful and um, sharing my story with her and her sharing a bit

Shiloh:

of herself with us was something that, yeah, that I keep, that I keep with me.

Shiloh:

So, those are the, yeah, those are the three.

Shiloh:

Three quick things that I'm thinking about.

Jovanni:

Did you guys occupy a congressional office as well?

Shiloh:

We did, yeah.

Shiloh:

We went to a senator after meeting with Representative Tlaib and some others.

Shiloh:

Senator Gillibrand's office.

Shiloh:

She's a senator from New York who's very, uh, very much tied to

Shiloh:

AIPAC and, and Israeli funding.

Shiloh:

And this was the day before they all left for Veterans Day weekend.

Shiloh:

And there's about 15 veterans in her office.

Shiloh:

And.

Shiloh:

She refused to meet with us, refused to even have a phone call with us,

Shiloh:

um, and her, yeah, her staff was less than kind, and just not trying

Shiloh:

to hear anything we wanted to say.

Shiloh:

We occupied her office, uh, for a few hours.

Shiloh:

A good handful of us were arrested, um, just trying to get a phone call

Shiloh:

with her, um, and uh, oh, what's that clown's name, from, uh, from

Shiloh:

Pennsylvania came out mocking us, um, waving an Israeli flag and just laughing

Shiloh:

as we were being arrested and just.

Shiloh:

Just showing his ass to everyone, um, yeah.

Shiloh:

And then the next day, you know, it's just like, such a, such a slap in the

Shiloh:

face to see Senator Gillibrand's social media the next day, just like shaking

Shiloh:

hands and being all chummy with a bunch of, bunch of veterans, because it

Shiloh:

was the day before Veterans Day, but.

Jovanni:

Couldn't be bothered.

Jovanni:

That's a big tall um, um, was he a senator, congressman?

Shiloh:

Yeah, he's a senator from Pennsylvania and I'll look up

Jovanni:

his name.

Jovanni:

He walks around with like a hoodie and everything, he's supposed to be

Jovanni:

like a, like a worker's man, person,

Shiloh:

whatever.

Shiloh:

He's a man of the people and that's what he ran on as a democrat, uh,

Shiloh:

but he's actually the, Largest recipient of, uh, of J Street,

Shiloh:

which is a shell company for APAC.

Jovanni:

John Fetterman.

Shiloh:

John Fetterman, thank you.

Shiloh:

Yeah.

Shiloh:

Yeah.

Shiloh:

He didn't want to talk to us.

Shiloh:

Yeah.

Jovanni:

So, uh, what are the things that you're looking forward to in, uh, in 2024?

Shiloh:

Oh, the things I'm looking forward to in 2024?

Shiloh:

A few things.

Shiloh:

Yeah, I don't know if looking forward to is the right word.

Shiloh:

I guess anxiously awaiting this whole election season and all the

Shiloh:

shitstorm that that's gonna be, is Trump gonna be able to run?

Shiloh:

I don't know.

Shiloh:

We don't really know yet.

Shiloh:

Um, he can't run in Colorado apparently, or he's not gonna

Shiloh:

be on the ballot at least.

Shiloh:

Um, are the Democrats really gonna put up with Uh, Joe Biden, who's

Shiloh:

older than the state of Israel.

Shiloh:

I don't know.

Shiloh:

Like that's, that's something to see.

Shiloh:

Um, I think it's just going to be.

Shiloh:

The biggest shitstorm we've ever seen as far as an election year goes.

Shiloh:

Um, uh, something else I'm looking, I guess I am looking forward to is just the

Shiloh:

movement that the BDS movement is making.

Shiloh:

Um, I think people are starting to see like that.

Shiloh:

Individual like consumer boycotts and divestments and sanctions really

Shiloh:

do hold power, um, and yeah, that, that movement's getting a lot of

Shiloh:

traction when a lot of people would kind of write them off beforehand.

Shiloh:

Um, and then another thing I'm looking forward to is just the, we're seeing

Shiloh:

the veil like kind of ripped off as it was being like slowly pulled back,

Shiloh:

but now it's being ripped off on U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

imperialism and, uh, and that is exciting and terrifying, I think,

Shiloh:

at the same time, but lots of world shifts happening and yeah.

Shiloh:

I feel like it's just a snowball right now, we're snow, snow

Shiloh:

plowing through to 2024 right now.

Jovanni:

On that, on that, uh, BDS, it's also not only Israeli

Jovanni:

products that are, that people are boycotting, but also American products.

Jovanni:

I mean, you saw that they hit that, um, that, uh, with the

Jovanni:

coffee place, uh, Starbucks.

Jovanni:

Starbucks took a big hit, globally, uh, for their support of Israel and,

Jovanni:

uh, I believe McDonald's as well.

Jovanni:

I believe they're closing, I believe, uh, they closed Starbucks

Jovanni:

or McDonald's restaurants in Malaysia and in other countries because they

Jovanni:

were, because of the financial hit that they were, they were getting.

Jovanni:

Because people, people don't realize that although they're private companies,

Jovanni:

right, um, But they represent the U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

overseas, you know, so when you're overseas, you go to Starbucks, you

Jovanni:

know, you are, you're going, uh, and the United States is a brand.

Jovanni:

America is a brand overseas, and people, you know, people, uh, It promotes

Jovanni:

itself as a brand and people think of the United States as jeans and, and hip

Jovanni:

hop and, and that's why particularly young people, when they think about the

Jovanni:

United States, that's when they think about, um, pop culture, pop music,

Jovanni:

shoes, um, Starbucks, um, McDonald's, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right?

Jovanni:

So getting that, so those become symbolism of the United States.

Jovanni:

So, um, because of U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

support, you know, those companies are also getting hit.

Jovanni:

You know, as a way for people to pretty much, you know, show their support or, you

Jovanni:

know, or their anger of what's happening.

Shiloh:

If only we could boycott the weapons companies, but we're

Shiloh:

not the ones using them, so we can't really boycott that.

Shiloh:

Yeah.

Shiloh:

Yeah, lots of movement in the BDS movement.

Shiloh:

Uh, lots of gains being made there and just like, yeah, it's just like, uh, with

Shiloh:

social media and whatnot, you can like really quickly get some momentum going.

Shiloh:

Like as soon as, as soon as, uh, yes, uh, a company gets shown to be

Shiloh:

a supporter of Israel or, or the U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

Like you're saying, it just gets shut down by the people real quick.

Shiloh:

So that's really exciting to, to come into our power as, as people

Shiloh:

and to see like that we do actually through consumerism, but we do

Shiloh:

actually have power in some ways.

Shiloh:

I think that's always important to, to have examples of.

Monisha:

There's some really important things, Shiloh, that you touched on,

Monisha:

particularly around the veil being lifted.

Monisha:

Um, and the topic of elections, um, so yeah, those are things that I'm

Monisha:

definitely looking forward to talking to about, but also talking to, you know,

Monisha:

because those are things that, um, we're all going to be facing the impacts of.

Monisha:

Great synopsis, great analysis accompanying your, your, um, I don't

Monisha:

even want to call them highlights because, They're lowlights.

Monisha:

Yeah.

Monisha:

Exactly.

Monisha:

Um, yeah, yeah, it's, uh, but I really appreciate too how you, you still have

Monisha:

some hopefulness about things that can happen, you know, the potential that

Monisha:

exists, um, in what's happening right now.

Monisha:

And I think that that's really important.

Shiloh:

Yeah.

Shiloh:

It's really important.

Shiloh:

If you, if you don't have hope, you kind of.

Shiloh:

You don't have anything.

Shiloh:

Like, hope is a, is an action.

Shiloh:

It's a discipline.

Shiloh:

And it's really hard to hold on to those threads sometimes.

Shiloh:

But if you don't have hope, you don't have, you don't

Shiloh:

have anything at that point.

Monisha:

Yeah.

Monisha:

And I like, um, also how you're not approaching hope in a bypassing way.

Monisha:

Um, you know, where I think not to be judgmental of folks, because

Monisha:

we never know where people are.

Monisha:

Um, but I think especially now with what's happening, you know, we see a lot of

Monisha:

folks sticking their head in the sand.

Monisha:

Um, and needing to maintain, like, some toxic positivity.

Monisha:

I just want peace, you know, and all that, without, um, participating in

Monisha:

the creation of that, you know, making sacrifices to create peace, uh, and

Monisha:

whatnot, like, even beyond boycotts, even in their social circles, speaking

Monisha:

out, you know, actually confronting reality, um, So, yeah, I think, um, the

Monisha:

other, I guess that's something else that I gather from, from what you've

Monisha:

shared is the, the need to balance that hope with action, um, to not use.

Monisha:

Like the whole idea of spiritual bypassing of, you know, all of that that comes with

Monisha:

wanting to, to achieve peace sometimes, um, people use it as a, a, a way of

Monisha:

avoiding, but there's no point to me.

Monisha:

There's no point in, in holding onto hope if we're not doing the thing

Monisha:

that creates what we're hoping for.

Monisha:

Yeah.

Monisha:

Okay.

Monisha:

That's my spiel.

Jovanni:

Absolutely.

Jovanni:

MMonisha.

Jovanni:

Monisha,you want to go?

Monisha:

Sure.

Monisha:

Yeah, thanks.

Monisha:

So, so 2023 for me, obviously being here in Puerto Rico, I'm really paying

Monisha:

more attention to what's happening here.

Monisha:

Um, you know, the, the.

Monisha:

Continuation of the Fiscal Control Board's undermining of human rights in Puerto

Monisha:

Rico via the austerity measures that are being implemented via the interventionism,

Monisha:

um, politically, economically, you know, through the economic dictatorship that

Monisha:

we're under, um, through them, a lot of what people have seen happening in

Monisha:

Ukraine because of the, like, you Natalie Jaresko was the, imposed as the finance

Monisha:

minister after the coup, um, and brought all of the austerity measures, really

Monisha:

hurt the people, the working people of Ukraine, part of the puppet government.

Monisha:

And we have a similar thing.

Monisha:

She actually was assigned to be the, the head of the fiscal control

Monisha:

board here in Puerto Rico for a period of time until recently.

Monisha:

Um, um, I think it was after.

Monisha:

The, the violence in Ukraine began was when her term ended, um, but implementing

Monisha:

basically the same things to strangle the people, privatizing everything, all

Monisha:

of everything that should be public, that should be accessible to everyone,

Monisha:

the basic needs and human rights that we have, um, privatizing all of it in the

Monisha:

name of paying off the, the illegal debt.

Monisha:

Um, that the people of Puerto Rico did not, um, have a say in the criminal

Monisha:

government and the bondholders and the investors and everybody else created.

Monisha:

We had no part in that, but we're the ones suffering from that.

Monisha:

Um, so that's been a big deal in 2023 here in Puerto Rico, the collapse

Monisha:

of our health care system, the collapse of our education system.

Monisha:

Um, pretty much the, the politicians that are there now in regardless of their

Monisha:

stance on, on, um, uh, status are for the most part, um, for privatization,

Monisha:

for, you know, all of these things because they're benefiting from it.

Monisha:

Um, there's a lot of corruption.

Monisha:

The Independence Party, not as much.

Monisha:

Um, but there's still, you know, no political entity is perfect regardless

Monisha:

of the, the aspiration that they hold.

Monisha:

Um, so, so yeah, there's that.

Monisha:

Um, we're still a colony.

Monisha:

Um, the Status Act, another version of the Status Act came out and it's

Monisha:

currently, I think, I haven't checked in a couple of days on what What

Monisha:

the status of the Status Act is.

Monisha:

I believe it passed the House and was in the Senate.

Monisha:

Um, recently, a group called New York Boricua Resistance did a webinar on it.

Monisha:

And I discussed it as, uh, we critically analyzed it as an element

Monisha:

of hybrid warfare, lawfare, political warfare, psychological warfare.

Monisha:

We talked about economic warfare, a little bit involved with that, but,

Monisha:

um, So that's the conversation around Puerto Rico's status gets passed

Monisha:

around, um, usually doesn't move.

Monisha:

Um, the difference between this piece of legislation, proposed legislation, and

Monisha:

ones in the past is it's supposed to, to make the The next plebiscite that we have

Monisha:

of our status binding, the ones, all of them leading up to this point have been

Monisha:

non binding, which basically just means that, um, for anybody who's not familiar

Monisha:

with how the supposed so called process of decolonization of Puerto Rico goes

Monisha:

with the United States, um, there is a, uh, Pretty much rigged, um, vote that

Monisha:

takes place every so often where the, the people of Puerto Rico, and I'm saying this

Monisha:

with air quotes and a lot of sarcasm, the people of Puerto Rico vote on whether or

Monisha:

not they want to either join the United States as a state, stay as a colony,

Monisha:

which according to the failure of the UN, they, they consider us conveniently

Monisha:

to be a self governing territory, which is a complete lie, Why, um, or to

Monisha:

become an independent sovereign nation, um, which terrifies the, the, the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

empire, um, for some reason.

Monisha:

The status act demands in a sense that the next plebiscite vote is binding.

Monisha:

Because Congress doesn't have to listen to what we say.

Monisha:

Congress ultimately, at the end of the day, makes the decision on what

Monisha:

happens with Puerto Rico, regardless of how any type of voting process

Monisha:

takes place here in Puerto Rico.

Monisha:

So to me, I personally don't have a whole lot of faith in this process.

Monisha:

I don't trust the United States and no one should on the planet.

Monisha:

Um, we see how.

Monisha:

They have consistently, um, disregarded treaties.

Monisha:

We see how they're behaving now.

Monisha:

We see how they've behaved since their inception.

Monisha:

Um, so, yeah, but that's, that's what's happening.

Monisha:

So there's going to be some conversation about that in the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

Um, voters most likely will not be exposed to a lot of those conversations.

Monisha:

They won't be aware of what's happening.

Monisha:

Supposedly there is, uh, supposed to be greater oversight over

Monisha:

the voter education process.

Monisha:

Uh, which is supposed to more effectively educate potential voters in Puerto Rico

Monisha:

about the various status options, what are the implications of these options,

Monisha:

and what are the processes involved in, if any of them were voted on.

Monisha:

For example, if Puerto Ricans, if the Puerto Ricans who chose to participate

Monisha:

in the plebiscite vote voted in favor majority, uh, for independence,

Monisha:

then there has to be an entire plan.

Monisha:

They have to be educated on that.

Monisha:

Beforehand, and the same with statehood and etc.

Monisha:

So there's that, um, the third thing, obviously, is Palestine, um, and through,

Monisha:

through this process, I've been kind of peripherally involved in the BDS movement

Monisha:

since, um, right after COVID started, um, and At the time I was involved

Monisha:

with a group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility and there was

Monisha:

a huge effort from within that group from some psychologists, not many,

Monisha:

unfortunately there's still a lot of Zionist influence in, in, inside that

Monisha:

group, um, who, who for a long time really struggled to educate, inform,

Monisha:

and move the group to support BDS.

Monisha:

And finally that was achieved and I got to be part of, of that, um,

Monisha:

the tail end of, of achieving that.

Monisha:

However, um, the, the American Psychological Association, uh, uh, for

Monisha:

folks who are not aware is basically the psychological warfare arm of the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

defense.

Monisha:

It is a defense industry, um, and it is Zionist heavy.

Monisha:

And so, um, I was involved with APA for a while, and right now there's

Monisha:

a lot of heat coming down toward the psychologists, and there has been a lot

Monisha:

of harassment, just like in, in most academic spaces, in most professional

Monisha:

spaces, um, where Zionism is king, they have made life Very difficult and, and

Monisha:

scary at times, um, for psychologists as well, who are themselves Palestinian,

Monisha:

who have been outspoken in support of BDS, and especially lately who have

Monisha:

been outspoken, um, against the genocide and calling for ceasefire, et cetera.

Monisha:

So I've been paying a lot of attention to that, um, and, It's

Monisha:

been interesting how, I think in the antiwar movement, I know there's not

Monisha:

a lot of attention given to the APA.

Monisha:

I think there's not a lot of information.

Monisha:

I know I'm constantly trying to educate people on this and trying to,

Monisha:

to organize, um, a targeted response to the APA with protests, um, with

Monisha:

social media campaigns, et cetera.

Monisha:

But there's not a whole lot of investment from the peace movement in that direction,

Monisha:

which I think is It's an issue that needs to be corrected because we're

Monisha:

really missing an opportunity to go after another weapons manufacturer.

Monisha:

The American Psychological Association needs to be viewed

Monisha:

as a weapons manufacturer.

Monisha:

Psychologists are contracted at these, these more well known weapons

Monisha:

manufacturing facilities, companies.

Monisha:

Especially in relationship to the development of artificial intelligence

Monisha:

and autonomous weapons, um, they're involved in human engineering, which

Monisha:

is now called human factor engineering.

Monisha:

There's a whole lot, there's a whole lot to that history.

Monisha:

Um, so, yeah, that's something that I'm still trying to help get

Monisha:

folks to, to see, so that it can be added into a lot of the organizing

Monisha:

effort, organizing efforts that are.

Monisha:

are currently underway.

Monisha:

Um, and the, the fourth thing is, um, like what Shiloh was

Monisha:

mentioning about, oh, no, sorry.

Monisha:

This, it's the Zone of Peace campaign that the Black Alliance

Monisha:

for Peace has initiated.

Monisha:

If folks are not familiar with what's happening, um, always in

Monisha:

the Western Hemisphere with regard to Latin America, um, and U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

policy toward Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine, all the various implementations

Monisha:

of that, the militarization of Latin America to serve the interests of U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

imperialism, and so on and so forth, um, the, Jovanni, what's the, FALAC

Monisha:

puts out a statement, but I can't remember the, what the acronym means.

Monisha:

I For CELAC.

Jovanni:

CELAC is the it's a community of Latin american and Caribbean states.

Monisha:

Okay, thank you.

Monisha:

So CELAC, the community of Latin American and Caribbean states, consistently

Monisha:

puts out a statement about creating the Americas as a zone of peace, calling for

Monisha:

the Americas to become a zone of peace.

Monisha:

It stops there at the statement, um, and so the Black Alliance for Peace took the

Monisha:

initiative to start, um, kind of like a coalition, I guess, um, but around

Monisha:

really helping to encourage and, and, um, Organized grassroots efforts toward

Monisha:

creating a zone of peace, starting with the people where the power is, like

Monisha:

Shiloh was saying, um, rather than leaving it up to politicians and their, their

Monisha:

own interests and like, performative solidarity, et cetera, et cetera.

Monisha:

Um, you know, statements are great, but then we have to actually do things.

Monisha:

So.

Monisha:

So, Black Lives for Peace with the Zone of Peace campaign is actually

Monisha:

doing something and, um, the org that I'm involved in, Soli Puerto Rico, um,

Monisha:

we're one of the founding, um, like, orgs to, not founding the, the campaign,

Monisha:

but to join it and endorse, endorse it, um, and it's been really great to, to

Monisha:

Connect with others, um, throughout Latin America, throughout the Americas, um,

Monisha:

including North America, and talk about, you know, how can we, um, as peoples,

Monisha:

um, united with the, the goal, you know, we all want to live in peace and what

Monisha:

does that look like in our daily lives?

Monisha:

What can we do to achieve that?

Monisha:

And there are seven core demands to the campaign so far, um, to dismantle

Monisha:

SOUTHCOM, shutting down all of the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

military bases in the region, ending U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

NATO military exercises in the region, disbanding U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

sponsored state terrorist training facilities like WINSEC, Western

Monisha:

Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, which some folks may know

Monisha:

more as the School of the Americas.

Monisha:

Oppose military intervention in Haiti, return Guantanamo to Cuba,

Monisha:

and to end all illegal sanctions and blockades of states in our region.

Monisha:

To include all economic warfare, lawfare, and to recognize and support sovereignty.

Monisha:

So I think this is a really important campaign.

Monisha:

Um, I think it's important that it is being led by the Black Alliance for Peace.

Monisha:

Um, and the, I think the capacity for this campaign to really affect, um,

Monisha:

foundational change, not necessarily superficial change, but I think that the,

Monisha:

the potential for foundational change to, to systems, um, in our region that

Monisha:

govern, uh, how, what happens in our region now, um, I think that this has

Monisha:

the potential for upending those systems.

Monisha:

Um, so that leads me into what I'm hopeful for for 2024 is that this campaign

Monisha:

grows, that there's more involvement, um, from people that we're able to

Monisha:

really connect the dots more intimately and in a more human way of how U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

imperialism operates in our region and that we can employ, you know, a

Monisha:

lot of the same principles that exist in, um, and organizing in the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

about like amplifying particular voices over others and so on and so forth and

Monisha:

that you know to me this gives me a lot of hope that those of us who are

Monisha:

in the global south area of our region who are the ones you know not only us

Monisha:

obviously but the the nations trapped the turtle island nations trapped inside

Monisha:

the the arbitrary borders of the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

um but that you know This will give us the opportunity to see each other,

Monisha:

to humanize one another, to be able to reach each other in ways that imperialism

Monisha:

tries to stop us from doing, and to, to really, um, build our collective power.

Monisha:

More meaningfully, um, and more tangibly, um, so that we can

Monisha:

achieve those, those demands.

Monisha:

Um, oh, I should also mention the objectives, um, of the campaign.

Monisha:

So, there's three.

Monisha:

The first is to build a people's That's plural.

Monisha:

A people centered campaign that coordinates anti imperialist, anti

Monisha:

war, and pro peace organizations, political parties, labor and social

Monisha:

justice orgs, as well as movements across our region to move our

Monisha:

Americas toward building alternative institutions and centers of power.

Monisha:

Number two, strengthen an America's wide consciousness

Monisha:

among the peoples of the region.

Monisha:

And number three, established peoples centered America's wide coordinating

Monisha:

structures that would facilitate the successful expulsion of the US EU NATO

Monisha:

axis of domination from our region.

Monisha:

Um, so those are very big goals, but I think that They're achievable

Monisha:

if we can organize ourselves well, um, so that brings me to the second

Monisha:

thing that I'm hopeful for is that, um, particularly for folks in the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

who, like Shiloh, you were mentioning the kind of like awakening that's

Monisha:

happening, um, in a more accelerated way now, um, that, that shredding of

Monisha:

the veil, um, I hope that that continues so that in such a way as to help people

Monisha:

see that the electoral politic aspect of organizing is not where we need to

Monisha:

be putting all of our attention, um, because it's not where we need to be.

Monisha:

There are so many other, uh, entry points.

Monisha:

There are so many other, like, strategically valuable places that

Monisha:

we need to be putting our energy.

Monisha:

Um, when you mentioned about, like, we can't boycott the weapons manufacturers

Monisha:

because we're not buying them.

Monisha:

We can boycott them by organizing the workers.

Monisha:

To remove their labor from those places.

Monisha:

Right?

Monisha:

So in that way, we don't have the power as consumers, but

Monisha:

we have that power as people.

Monisha:

We have that power as, as people who are economically suppressed,

Monisha:

oppressed and repressed.

Monisha:

Um, um, so yeah, and I think too, like, I'm hopeful that the, the weaponization of

Monisha:

identity politics by the imperial state.

Monisha:

is one of those parts of the veil that gets shredded because, like, if we turn

Monisha:

a critical eye toward recent years, like, let's turn The entire time that Trump

Monisha:

was running in his first campaign, people were, like, full speed organizing against

Monisha:

it, because so many of us could see the fascism, we could see it, we were living

Monisha:

it, you know, and we knew, we knew what was coming down the pipes, and we were

Monisha:

doing everything we could to stop it, in all of the ways that we knew how.

Monisha:

And look where we are still, you know.

Monisha:

So that's, that's probably one of my biggest hopes for 2024 for the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

in particular is that folks will see that, um, we need to shift our

Monisha:

tactics in how we organize ourselves and how we relate to each other, um,

Monisha:

particularly folks who align more or less, um, who May not yet be in a place.

Monisha:

We have to be realistic about how things are in the US.

Monisha:

Racially, the violence that's there, etc.

Monisha:

It's going to be hard for folks to go into One of the weapons manufacturing

Monisha:

places that is primarily employed by right wing thinking, you know, by

Monisha:

homophobic, transphobic, racist, white supremacist mindsets, that's going to

Monisha:

be really challenging and it's going to take a lot A lot from us to, to go

Monisha:

into those places and try to humanize those workers to, to reach the goal.

Monisha:

Um, but I hope that that's something that we can arrive at, and then

Monisha:

the last thing, I hope that like Jovanni, when you were talking about

Monisha:

people are starting to boycott U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

products now, expanding the BDS, I definitely think that that should happen.

Monisha:

Um, I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

Monisha:

And I really hope that, like, I'm, I'm so incredibly moved and encouraged

Monisha:

by South Africa, um, raising the issue of genocide to the ICC.

Monisha:

Um, and calling for Israel to be, you know, U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

needs to be right up in there with them and, um, if they could be retroactively

Monisha:

charged for all the war crimes, all, all of them, that would be, that

Monisha:

would just be like the greatest gift.

Monisha:

It's not going to happen like that, of course, but, um, yeah, I hope that

Monisha:

more countries will get a backbone.

Monisha:

You know, and do the same thing.

Monisha:

I hope that more countries will, will stop being so scared of the United States and

Monisha:

scared of Israel and actually do the right thing instead of also, like, maintaining

Monisha:

their complicity by preserving their own self interest and their greed and whatnot.

Monisha:

But that's what I hope for.

Monisha:

Free Palestine, free Puerto Rico, free Turtle Island, free

Monisha:

everywhere, US out of everywhere.

Jovanni:

Awesome.

Jovanni:

Thank you, Monisha.

Jovanni:

Monisha, I got a couple questions to ask you.

Jovanni:

So, the The, um, the plebiscite that you were talking about, that's the

Jovanni:

same plebiscite that, uh, AOC and, um, Lidia, Torres, well, that's the one

Jovanni:

that they're promoting here in Congress.

Monisha:

Yeah, and what's interesting is, so there was an older one that

Monisha:

they did, and both their names were on it, but the, on this one,

Monisha:

I think because it's now in the

Jovanni:

Lidia Velasquez, that's her name, right?

Monisha:

Lidia Velasquez, but I don't think AOC's name is on this.

Monisha:

The Senate version of it, because she's a representative, right?

Monisha:

Not a senator.

Monisha:

So, yeah, I don't know if, if her name can be on it, but yeah, it's the same one.

Jovanni:

Awesome.

Jovanni:

Also, I want to ask you about, when you mentioned, Duresco, something

Jovanni:

came to mind, also, that early this year, Uh, there was circling, uh, of

Jovanni:

Ukrainian troops being trained at, at the, uh, at the old Roosevelt Road,

Jovanni:

uh, base, whatever came out of that.

Jovanni:

So

Monisha:

I haven't seen anything else.

Monisha:

I live directly near there, so I hear all of the air traffic,

Monisha:

um, that goes in and out.

Monisha:

I can see training exercises happening from time to time, but it

Monisha:

doesn't seem like there's been any change to their frequency or type.

Monisha:

Then what I've been used to, like, hearing and seeing, so I'm not sure, I don't know.

Monisha:

Um, it did raise quite a stink among Vieques obviously, um, for folks who

Monisha:

are listening, Vieques are people from the island of Vieques that the U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

um, militarized and used as a, a practice range for all but real war

Monisha:

exercises for 60 something years and we're still struggling with.

Monisha:

The UXO and all of the stuff and so it did get discussed on social media.

Monisha:

I'm not sure if anybody did press releases on that or nothing else came out.

Monisha:

About it to lead to more action on the part of the community.

Monisha:

So it was just kind of hearsay.

Monisha:

Anyway, sources told that the,

Jovanni:

so I got, I got it from a news article from one from clarity.

Jovanni:

That right?

Jovanni:

Yeah.

Jovanni:

No, what's the clarity that it was either clarity that or

Jovanni:

the, I think it was clarity.

Jovanni:

Yes.

Jovanni:

Yeah.

Jovanni:

That one or the one that's, uh, the Metro was a Metro.

Jovanni:

The one that's in San Juan.

Monisha:

Yeah.

Monisha:

I didn't see that one.

Monisha:

I'd only seen the one from clarity that.

Monisha:

And in it, they, they say that a source, sources say, you know, but

Monisha:

there was nothing else to confirm it and not that I doubt them at all.

Monisha:

It's just that.

Monisha:

There was, it was rumored, the sources were saying this could

Monisha:

happen, not necessarily that it was going to happen, but that it

Monisha:

has, it was being talked about.

Monisha:

So, yeah, our ears are still to the ground here, keeping an eye on what happens with

Monisha:

that, and if there's anything that we see, we're definitely going to raise hell.

Jovanni:

Also, one last thing you mentioned about the, uh, um, the zona

Jovanni:

piece, I believe that was initiated by By either Chavez, he was Chavez

Jovanni:

when he was in power, uh, about the, uh, Declaration of Zone of Peace.

Jovanni:

I think one of the initiatives that they were trying to do at the time was to end

Jovanni:

the last active conflict in, in South America, which was the conflict of, uh,

Jovanni:

the Colombian government against the, uh, Colombian guerrillas, uh, where,

Jovanni:

where Chavez was, was acting as a, uh, mediator between the government and.

Jovanni:

The farc and now Cuba is acting as a mediator between the Columbia government

Jovanni:

and the, and the, uh, ELN, um, which is also another gorilla, uh, in the

Jovanni:

mil militia in in, in, uh, in Columbia.

Jovanni:

What's funny about it is that both countries, because of.

Jovanni:

Their, their involvement in trying and trying to bring those conflicts,

Jovanni:

I mean, the conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC

Jovanni:

is like the oldest active guerrilla conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

Jovanni:

I mean, it's been going on since, at least since the 50s, I believe.

Jovanni:

And, uh, uh, it came to a close, um, a few years ago, uh, but the, the ELN,

Jovanni:

it's still active and, uh, and, and, uh, right now Cuba is acting as a mediator.

Jovanni:

They're meeting in Havana.

Jovanni:

But what's funny is because of those two countries acting to try to bring closure

Jovanni:

to those, to those long conflicts, right?

Jovanni:

Both countries was designated as, uh, state sponsors of Tists because of

Jovanni:

that . Um, and, and, uh, uh, and Cuba was, was, was added to the list of state

Jovanni:

sponsors of terrorism, um, uh, a country because of their involvement with the,

Jovanni:

with the ELN and their involvement with the, uh, mediating between them

Jovanni:

and the, and the Columbia government.

Monisha:

I was not aware of, of that specific connection.

Monisha:

Thanks for, for telling me that.

Jovanni:

Yeah.

Jovanni:

Thank you.

Jovanni:

Thank you.

Jovanni:

Yeah.

Jovanni:

Thank you.

Jovanni:

Very, um, very valuable.

Jovanni:

Um, a lot of, a lot of input that you put there.

Jovanni:

Thank you.

Jovanni:

Um, guess who's next?

Jovanni:

Guess that's me, right?

Jovanni:

Um, so yeah.

Monisha:

What's on your mind, Jovanni?

Monisha:

Tell us everything.

Monisha:

So,

Jovanni:

uh, I've been, I've been, uh, taking notes on my phone all week,

Jovanni:

actually dodging things here and there, and then and I just put them together.

Jovanni:

I put like three at the top, three or four things together, right?

Jovanni:

Um, and obviously a lot of things that happened in 2023, um, a lot

Jovanni:

of movement, like, like, uh, Shiloh mentioned earlier, like, I mean, there

Jovanni:

was huge tectonic shifts going on.

Jovanni:

Um, I think Lennon was the one who coined that there were decades.

Jovanni:

That nothing happens and there's days that decades happens

Jovanni:

and that's what's happening.

Jovanni:

Um, you know, a lot of things moving, a lot of moving parts, a lot of

Jovanni:

things happening, you know, around the world, just so hard to keep up.

Jovanni:

Um, so one of the things that, that inspired me in 2023.

Jovanni:

Was the revolt in the Shahe, um, against France.

Jovanni:

Uh, that's Shahe is the area of Central Africa.

Jovanni:

Uh, so most of those countries in the Shahe, uh, were part of, you know,

Jovanni:

uh, French colonialism, you know, uh, they were colonized by France for

Jovanni:

like, uh, um, over a hundred years.

Jovanni:

Uh, but there were successive cos going on since, um, 20, 21, 2 and three.

Jovanni:

There were several cos um, where the.

Jovanni:

The president of the government that are, you know, francophone or francophile,

Jovanni:

francophile governments were overthrown by nationalist governments, right?

Jovanni:

By revolutionary nationalist governments.

Jovanni:

Um, or, not all, you know, they didn't necessarily have to be a revolutionary

Jovanni:

nationalist government, but they were, some of them were overthrown by

Jovanni:

governments that pretty much wanted to distance themselves from France, right?

Jovanni:

Um, so, the countries That pretty much enacted coups or broke relations with

Jovanni:

France were pretty much Chad, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon.

Jovanni:

In 2023, it was Niger that overthrew the government on a coup.

Jovanni:

Um, and pretty much broke relations with France and told, uh, France to,

Jovanni:

uh, go home and send all their troops.

Jovanni:

Like, keep in mind that France has bases in all these countries, you

Jovanni:

know, these other countries, right?

Jovanni:

And France pretty much, uh, controlled these countries economy.

Jovanni:

Um, and one of the things that, that, uh, and a lot of these countries are

Jovanni:

very rich, very rich in minerals, very rich in material and raw material, very

Jovanni:

rich in, in, uh, in, uh, commodities and everything, but the people see

Jovanni:

very little of, of the wealth that's being extracted from those countries.

Jovanni:

Most of this wealth goes to France, right?

Jovanni:

Or other European countries.

Jovanni:

Um, so that right there.

Jovanni:

You know, cause revolts and people's revolts.

Jovanni:

And, uh, and there's one character, there's one person, um, which was

Jovanni:

very inspiring for a lot of people.

Jovanni:

What's, um, his name is Captain Ibrahim Troy Ray, uh, he's

Jovanni:

from Burkina Faso, right?

Jovanni:

And he, I believe he's like, he was an army captain, I think like 32

Jovanni:

years old, but he became like an incarnation of, uh, Thomas Sankara.

Jovanni:

Uh, Thomas Sankara was a revolutionary, uh, uh, leader of that country.

Jovanni:

Uh, Burkina Faso, um, also led a revolt.

Jovanni:

Uh, against colonialism and neocolonialism and, was setting the,

Jovanni:

uh, the country in the path towards, uh, liberation and self sufficiency

Jovanni:

until he was killed in, in, in 87.

Jovanni:

So, this person became in the minds and the imaginations of, of his

Jovanni:

people, you know, the reincarnation of, of Thomas Shankara and, and, uh,

Jovanni:

he was very, uh, became very popular.

Jovanni:

So, yeah, so nevertheless, um, France, the U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

and others, Britain, they tried to reverse.

Jovanni:

Um, what was happening in, in the Chahal, and there's this, uh, economic

Jovanni:

community of West Africa, ECOWAS it's called, and these, uh, these,

Jovanni:

uh, this community of West Africa pretty much is a Western shill.

Jovanni:

It's like, uh, it's like the OAE, like the, uh, like, like the OAF

Jovanni:

here in the United States, kind of, and not United States, but in the

Jovanni:

US, in, in the Western Hemisphere.

Jovanni:

Uh, but this is, this is mostly focused on economic issues.

Jovanni:

Uh, but also in political issues in the Central and the West African countries.

Jovanni:

But anyway, they were threatening a, uh, a An invasion, to muster up

Jovanni:

an invasion to, uh, against Niger in post, uh, sanctions on Niger.

Jovanni:

They gave Niger a deadline that if they don't reconstitute the, the president

Jovanni:

that was overthrown by this date, that they were going to intervene militarily.

Jovanni:

Uh, France was supporting, US was supporting and everything.

Jovanni:

And, but they weren't able to do that because the other countries

Jovanni:

that I mentioned before, you know, Chad, Guinea, Mali, uh, threatened.

Jovanni:

Was that if they, if they uh, uh, get themselves involved militarily into

Jovanni:

Nigeria, they will come into the red, they would come to support Nigeria,

Jovanni:

and then there will pretty much be a declaration war against them as well.

Jovanni:

So it was kind of like a, went for all and all for one type of thing, you

Jovanni:

know, so Kowa kind of backed the away.

Jovanni:

But yeah, so that was, that was, um, that was inspiring.

Jovanni:

That was inspiring, uh, seeing that, uh, um, these countries, you know,

Jovanni:

stood up, uh, to Western, uh, economic power and military power, you know, they

Jovanni:

consolidated amongst themselves, and, and, and they, uh, um, support each other, and,

Jovanni:

you know, they, and these powers couldn't do anything about it, and they're,

Jovanni:

you know, they're right now tracking.

Jovanni:

Um, another thing that, that also, um, That I'm tracking, it also inspired me,

Jovanni:

was the BRICS Summit in South Africa.

Jovanni:

This was the 15th BRICS Summit.

Jovanni:

If all of you don't know what BRICS stands for, it means it's an economic

Jovanni:

relationship between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Jovanni:

Hence the acronym BRICS.

Jovanni:

Um, it's funny because the name, they didn't give themselves that name, the

Jovanni:

name that the, uh, was one of those, uh, stock firms that gave them that

Jovanni:

name, um, early, um, about 15 years ago, um, I forgot which stock firm, it

Jovanni:

was an American stock firm actually.

Jovanni:

Um, they gave them that name because the relationship, they

Jovanni:

were coming together, right?

Jovanni:

And pretty much the founders of this economic relationship was, you

Jovanni:

know, Brazil, Russia, and China, then India got involved, and then

Jovanni:

South Africa was the last one.

Jovanni:

But in this summit that happened in August 2023, uh, they

Jovanni:

announced, uh, six new members.

Jovanni:

Uh, to add the BRICS.

Jovanni:

So now it's called BRICS Plus, right?

Jovanni:

And the six new members is Egypt, Iran, uh, Saudi Arabia,

Jovanni:

Argentina, Ethiopia, and the UAE.

Jovanni:

Uh, most of them, most of the country, Egypt, uh, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the

Jovanni:

UAE, and Ethiopia, uh, are countries that are heavy on, on, on, on petroleum, right?

Jovanni:

So, that right there, pretty much.

Jovanni:

Having that is having, having consolidated that power, that petroleum power, uh,

Jovanni:

within this organization, pretty much, uh, make, make the bricks, uh, economically,

Jovanni:

um, higher than the G seven who also know who the G seven, you know, pretty much the

Jovanni:

great seven countries, you know, the, um, the, the seven wealthiest countries in the

Jovanni:

world, uh, uk, us, um, France, Germany.

Jovanni:

Uh, Japan, um, and two others, uh, make the BRICS, make the G7s, but the BRICS

Jovanni:

will path them in economic activities now, um, those countries, which, you

Jovanni:

know, I thought that was inspiring that, you know, that it's, it's an organization

Jovanni:

that is not centered in the West.

Jovanni:

But it's central elsewhere in the rest, uh, and that they have this

Jovanni:

cooperation with each other, and it was kind of inspiring, and then also

Jovanni:

opening up to other global majority countries to come in and whatnot, and,

Jovanni:

uh, have this, this, uh, this economic, uh, cooperation with each other.

Jovanni:

Uh, so yeah, so the six countries will become officially members

Jovanni:

in January, in January 2024.

Jovanni:

However, with the election of, uh, Uh, uh, Javier, uh, uh, Mila, Javier,

Jovanni:

what's his last name, Javier, uh, Mila, Mila, in, in Argentina, which is, he's

Jovanni:

pretty much a, you know, very extreme libertarian, pretty much in with, with,

Jovanni:

uh, with the IMF, uh, he want dollar right the economy, uh, he wants to

Jovanni:

enact, uh, austerity back in Argentina.

Jovanni:

He wants to break.

Jovanni:

He wants to break relations with Brazil, China, and Russia, uh, et cetera, and

Jovanni:

then he, and during his election campaign, he pretty much pledged allegiance to

Jovanni:

the United States and Israel, so he pretty much formally submitted the,

Jovanni:

uh, the letter to Lula in Brazil saying that Argentina will be withdrawn from

Jovanni:

the BRICS, so, so now instead of six countries, now it's five countries.

Jovanni:

Um, so, But yeah, so that was inspiring for me, uh, um, you know, the, you know,

Jovanni:

the new trade routes that's happening, you know, and then the, the linking, the

Jovanni:

linking between the, the BRICS, China's, uh, uh, uh, BRI, which is the Belt and

Jovanni:

Road Initiative, and the Central Asian Economic Union, which is made up of, uh,

Jovanni:

former Soviet, uh, countries in Central Asia, you know, the economic, these

Jovanni:

economic coalitions with each other, right, and, Um, that, you know, that's

Jovanni:

kind of inspiring as well, because, you know, now you're seeing the, you're

Jovanni:

seeing the, the world, the globe, kind of moving away from, from what was called

Jovanni:

the core, the core being central, you know, North Atlantic, you know, Canada,

Jovanni:

United States, and Western Europe, moving away from the core, from the center, you

Jovanni:

know, and pretty much doing business with each other, and pretty much by doing so,

Jovanni:

affirming their sovereignty, affirming their own development without being

Jovanni:

managed from, from the, uh, the West.

Jovanni:

Which I thought that was, I think that is very, um, you know, inspiring,

Jovanni:

um, also the de dollarization that's happening as well, which means that,

Jovanni:

uh, currently the countries when they do business with each other, they

Jovanni:

have to do business with what they do commerce with each other with dollars.

Jovanni:

So a lot of countries have to, um, manage to have dollar reserves and

Jovanni:

then that's how they, they purchase.

Jovanni:

Goods in the global market with dollars, uh, but the only country that

Jovanni:

print dollars is the United States.

Jovanni:

No other countries do that, right?

Jovanni:

So they have to, they have to sell the commodities in dollars, they have to

Jovanni:

buy the goods in dollars and everything.

Jovanni:

So now, um, with all this economic activity that's going on with all these

Jovanni:

countries, right, now these, um, and all these economic allegiances and all

Jovanni:

these economic interrelations that's happening, now countries are starting to

Jovanni:

bypass the dollar and having You know, bilateral relations, um, buying with

Jovanni:

their own currencies or other currencies, et cetera, right, which is a good thing.

Jovanni:

Um, one of the things that was funny, Marco Rubio, Senator in, in, in, in

Jovanni:

February, in, in Florida, he complained about the de dollarization that's

Jovanni:

happening because his word is it's going to be harder to sanction countries.

Jovanni:

So if countries.

Jovanni:

Those are not used dollars, it'd be harder to sanction them.

Jovanni:

Right now, the reason sanctions are so effective on countries is because

Jovanni:

countries need to use dollars to get goods, and then by denying them dollars

Jovanni:

by, you know, it kind of makes them hard to buy things in the market, right?

Jovanni:

So if countries are doing business with each other not using the dollars, right,

Jovanni:

so it's kind of harder, in Marco Rubio's words, it's harder to sanction them.

Jovanni:

Uh, third thing that, uh, that caught my attention and that I'm following

Jovanni:

is the, the failure of the Ukraine counteroffensive, which was, um, which was

Jovanni:

propped up to be this big thing that was supposed to happen in the spring of 2023,

Jovanni:

and then got pushed back to the summer.

Jovanni:

Um, this was supposed to break the back of the Russian army, um, the Ukrainian

Jovanni:

was supposed to, um, reach, um, uh, the coast by the end of the summer,

Jovanni:

they were supposed to be in Crimea, you know, having beach parties and

Jovanni:

everything, because they did a whole theatrical, uh, commercial on it, you

Jovanni:

know, all this, you know, promotion, how successful this was going to be.

Jovanni:

Uh, they weren't able to, they hit a pretty much a Russian wall and.

Jovanni:

The West was just throwing, uh, armament after armament and, you know, the, the

Jovanni:

Western countries were kind of depleting their, their, their shells and the

Jovanni:

armaments and, and all the weaponry that was sent into Ukraine and it was

Jovanni:

just being, you know, Destroy one after the other, um, you see countries like

Jovanni:

Germany, for example, they, you know, they use all their last reserves, you

Jovanni:

see, um, complain about, you know, they're using all their reserves and

Jovanni:

everything to send to Ukraine and nothing was happening, there weren't any goods.

Jovanni:

So now what's happening now that, that, uh, Ukraine kind of, if you don't

Jovanni:

notice, kind of left the, uh, the, the, the main, um, People aren't talking

Jovanni:

about Ukraine no more, it's now kind of hard talking about it, now the, the

Jovanni:

Ukrainian president Zelensky is just pretty much going around the world, you

Jovanni:

know, kind of begging for more money, because You know, it has been a failure.

Jovanni:

I mean, there, this, this country was pretty much pushed into this war.

Jovanni:

I mean, this year as well was the 10th anniversary of the war in

Jovanni:

Ukraine, which is, it happened 10 years ago with the coup in 2014.

Jovanni:

And when they started attacking the, uh, the Russian speaking populations

Jovanni:

within Ukraine, it was, And Eastern, Eastern Ukraine, um, et cetera, right?

Jovanni:

And then with the intervention of Russia, uh, uh, little, almost two years ago now,

Jovanni:

uh, it kind of escalated, intensified after that, um, but yeah, and, uh,

Jovanni:

pretty much to a push by, by, you know, by NATO and the, and Western, you know,

Jovanni:

European countries to, to pretty much, um, commit suicide, pretty much, that's what

Jovanni:

happened, you know, because they're, you know, self afflicted, and, Um, injuries.

Jovanni:

Um, they lost a huge amount of the population.

Jovanni:

They got millions of people that, that, that went, that went to Russia.

Jovanni:

Millions of people that went to Western Europe.

Jovanni:

Hundreds of thousands of people killed in the battlefield.

Jovanni:

You know, so, so this country pretty much is broken into pieces

Jovanni:

because They were used as cannon fodder to, to hurt, to hurt Russia.

Jovanni:

In the words of, of Hillary Clinton, you know, they were trying

Jovanni:

to get the Afghan trap on Russia using Ukraine, um, and it failed.

Jovanni:

Um, yeah, and lastly, uh, things that, uh, that I'm tracking, you know, um,

Jovanni:

is what's happening in Palestine.

Jovanni:

Obviously, that has impacted.

Jovanni:

I mean, in fact, a whole lot of people like Shiloh said earlier,

Jovanni:

it's, you know, it's happening broadly in life, people are anybody with a

Jovanni:

smartphone can see what's happening.

Jovanni:

And we're footing the bill, uh, this thing can end tomorrow if, if the U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

just stop, um, uh, enabling it and sending billions of dollars to, to Israel.

Jovanni:

Um, just this week, I believe they pushed another packet.

Jovanni:

Of a hundred billion dollars, uh, worth of am ammunitions and armament to Israel.

Jovanni:

Um, here in the United States Congress, um, I think they

Jovanni:

bypass Congress, actually.

Jovanni:

They bypass Congress and they just send it to them.

Jovanni:

And that's on top of the $4 billion that, that the United

Jovanni:

States sends to Israel a year.

Jovanni:

To sustain them, et cetera.

Jovanni:

Um, and every time other countries, every time they, they convene a session at the

Jovanni:

UN to try to, to, uh, uh, sanction Israel, try to do some type of, uh, resolution

Jovanni:

against Israel, the US and about three other countries, um, small countries like

Jovanni:

micro Micronesia and Palau, for example, and Israel, um, veto it or us veto it.

Jovanni:

We won't let it happen.

Jovanni:

We'll let it pass it.

Jovanni:

Um, Egypt, which is a neighboring country right, you know, right on the border

Jovanni:

with With, uh, Gaza has to ask, has to ask permission, uh, to Israel and the U.

Jovanni:

S.

Jovanni:

before sending an aid to Gaza, you know, which is, it's just huge

Jovanni:

humiliation to, to the, you know, to, to the Arab, Arab nations.

Jovanni:

Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, has the largest military

Jovanni:

in the Arab world, uh, yet they have to ask permission to send, um, Uh, aid into,

Jovanni:

into Gaza, which is very troubling, very humiliating to, uh, to you, to Arab people

Jovanni:

whose sentiments is on the right place.

Jovanni:

The, the, the issue in Palestine is in the hearts of every Arab person,

Jovanni:

uh, yet these, uh, these heads of states, they're totally captured,

Jovanni:

uh, by, by the West, by the U.

Jovanni:

S., by Israel.

Jovanni:

And they, uh, seem to be, uh, unable, unwilling to do anything, you know.

Jovanni:

And let's give him permission to do so.

Jovanni:

So yeah, those are the four things that I've been tracking, four things

Jovanni:

that I'm looking into and following.

Jovanni:

Things I'm looking forward to is the end of the Ukraine war.

Jovanni:

Which is, which is also going to be a, which also is already,

Jovanni:

the war is lost already.

Jovanni:

Um, you know, people in Congress, people in the West are pretty

Jovanni:

much turning away from Ukraine.

Jovanni:

Um, it's already a lot to cause.

Jovanni:

You know, NATO has been defeated again.

Jovanni:

You know, they got defeated in 2021 in Afghanistan.

Jovanni:

They're being defeated again in Ukraine.

Jovanni:

Um, but yeah, you know, I'm looking forward to this, the end of this carnage

Jovanni:

that's happening in, in Ukraine that has cost a lot of hundreds of thousands

Jovanni:

of lives, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, hundreds of thousands of, of

Jovanni:

Russian lives, um, and others, you know, to come to an end, to come to a close.

Jovanni:

A second thing I'm looking forward to is the end.

Jovanni:

of the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel.

Jovanni:

Um, if you notice that recently in Congress they passed a resolution Equating

Jovanni:

Zionism to anti Semitism, and I think every congressperson, it was a bipartisan

Jovanni:

thing, every congressperson voted for it, but one Republican Congress voted against

Jovanni:

it, and Rashida Tlaib, she voted present, you know, but everybody else voted, voted

Jovanni:

for it, which is wrong, which is wrong.

Jovanni:

Zionism is not, um, equivalent to anti Semitism.

Jovanni:

Zionism is, is an ideology that was created In Europe, um, is,

Jovanni:

uh, Jewish supremacy, um, you know, Jewish nationalism, uh,

Jovanni:

which is racialized, racialized, uh, Judaism, which is a religion.

Jovanni:

Um, so that's what Zionists is, and then, and, and the State of Israel is

Jovanni:

a Zionist, enacting a Zionist policy.

Jovanni:

Uh, I mean, apartheid policy, but it's not the same as anti Semitism, uh, anti

Jovanni:

Semitism being, uh, tied to language, uh, tied to a people of a region, which

Jovanni:

is people of the Middle East, people in what we call West Asia, uh, you know,

Jovanni:

are Semitic people, including Arabs are Semitic people, including Palestinians

Jovanni:

are Semitic people, um, so yeah.

Jovanni:

So that, uh, I'm looking forward to the end of this.

Jovanni:

This, uh, this state that was created by the U.

Jovanni:

N.

Jovanni:

was first created by Britain, by the U.

Jovanni:

K., um, it was started off by U.

Jovanni:

K., but was actually created by the U.

Jovanni:

N., um, in 1948, um, and, uh, without the input of the people that

Jovanni:

were already living there, which was the Palestinians, and that's,

Jovanni:

that's the origin of this conflict.

Jovanni:

Um, it's not religion, it's, it's not hatred towards Jews.

Jovanni:

Is, is, uh, is the, uh, um, the ethnic cleansing, is the displacement, is the,

Jovanni:

uh, people by immigrants from Europe.

Jovanni:

Claiming that the lands is theirs.

Jovanni:

Um, so yeah, I mean if you look at back at South Africa, for example, apart,

Jovanni:

thi South Africa doesn't exist anymore.

Jovanni:

People, you study South Africa, the country exists, but apartide

Jovanni:

South Africa doesn't exist anymore.

Jovanni:

It's in the history books.

Jovanni:

Um, yeah.

Jovanni:

And that's what I'm looking forward to, um, next year, that the apartide zionist

Jovanni:

state of Israel is in the history book.

Jovanni:

And then we have, we look forward to a more inclusive, more peaceful,

Jovanni:

um, you know, state in that area.

Jovanni:

Um, and then further, lastly, I'm looking forward to the furthering

Jovanni:

of the multi polar world.

Jovanni:

Uh, which is, which is forming as we speak, um, just like Shiloh mentioned

Jovanni:

earlier, the shift that's happening is, is moving towards a world where

Jovanni:

the West is not centered, but there are, there are multiple centers around

Jovanni:

the world, um, you know, what I would like to see instead of a multipolar

Jovanni:

is a pluripolar world, pluripolar world, which was, uh, coined by, by

Jovanni:

Chavez and, uh, and, uh, Evo Morales.

Jovanni:

Uh, which means a world that with no centers of power, you know, a world where,

Jovanni:

you know, where states are, are more in cooperative mode than in competitive mode.

Jovanni:

And that is my, and that's my story and that's what I'm sticking with.

Jovanni:

Go ahead.

Monisha:

May

Shiloh:

it be so.

Shiloh:

May it be so.

Shiloh:

Burn it all down, it sounds like.

Shiloh:

You're just done with all of, all of it.

Shiloh:

I'm, the thing that's, that's, uh, listening to both you and Monisha, the

Shiloh:

thing that keeps just, just echoing in my head is, you know, with all this,

Shiloh:

um, Monisha talking about the, all the systems and structures that are

Shiloh:

collapsing in Puerto Rico and just, yeah, all the war and violence, um,

Shiloh:

happening at the, At the behest of the U.

Shiloh:

S.

Shiloh:

and different empires, like, what, what is giving you hope?

Shiloh:

What is, what is you keep, what's keeping you in the fight and not like Monisha

Shiloh:

said, putting your head in the sand?

Shiloh:

What's, uh, yeah, what gives you hope, um, for 2024?

Jovanni:

I mean, we have, well, just like you guys mentioned earlier, I

Jovanni:

mean, we have to have revolutionary hope, just like you mentioned earlier,

Jovanni:

not having hope is not an option.

Jovanni:

We need revolutionary hope.

Jovanni:

We need to be aware of what's happening and take part in whatever

Jovanni:

our capacity is to take part in.

Jovanni:

Here in San Antonio, for example, we've been doing our part with

Jovanni:

the Palestinian, you know, ethnic cleansing that's happening now.

Jovanni:

Go into the community has been mobilized here.

Jovanni:

We've been going to here in San Antonio.

Jovanni:

We have City Hall.

Jovanni:

It's something that's called a citizen to to be heard, which is on Wednesday,

Jovanni:

which is, you know, anyone can go to the City Hall and present their.

Jovanni:

Present their, uh, you know, comments or present problems, you know, and the

Jovanni:

mayor is there and then the, the city council persons are there as well and

Jovanni:

everything, and then you get like three minutes, um, to, to uninterrupted,

Jovanni:

three uninterrupted minutes, um, to present your case, present, you know,

Jovanni:

your, you know, what you have to say.

Jovanni:

Um, so ever since this conflict has started, we've been, the community

Jovanni:

here in San Antonio, we've been going every Wednesday, every Wednesday, uh,

Jovanni:

we've been going down to, uh, to City Hall and pretty much people after

Jovanni:

people, people after people, right, giving their testimonies on, you know,

Jovanni:

on, on what's happening in Israel.

Jovanni:

I know that we're a city and you say that, well, you know, your city,

Jovanni:

that's something with foreign policy.

Jovanni:

That city doesn't have nothing to do with it.

Jovanni:

But San Antonio is a, is.

Jovanni:

It's part of this program called, um, uh, City, uh, Friendship Cities.

Jovanni:

So we have several, several Friendship Cities, and then they have, um, and

Jovanni:

this program of Friendship Cities.

Jovanni:

One of the, one of the cities that we're friends with is Tel Aviv.

Jovanni:

We're demanding that our, that our city, drops, you know, Tel Aviv as,

Jovanni:

as one of the Friendship Cities.

Jovanni:

You know, apparently, apparently the city of San Antonio had

Jovanni:

given Israel about 19 million.

Jovanni:

All right, 19 million dollars.

Jovanni:

Um, so yeah, so we're, we're demanding for our mayor to drop, um, to drop the, uh,

Jovanni:

Tel Aviv as a friendship city, which is interesting because he wrote the first,

Jovanni:

the first week that we started going, um, and like I said, we were filling the city

Jovanni:

halls, the media was there, and they were, you know, they were interviewing people

Jovanni:

on the spot and everything, and he put out a statement saying that he's not going

Jovanni:

to drop it because, um, It has nothing to do with foreign policy and, and, and, you

Jovanni:

know, friendship, you know, that's what, that's what the world needs is friendship,

Jovanni:

you know, just by, you know, just give us, give us like this little milquetoast,

Jovanni:

you know, uh, you know, uh, you know, statement, a little, yeah, you know,

Jovanni:

a little milquetoast statement there, right, saying that, you know, people need

Jovanni:

to talk and peace, you know, dialogue and blah, blah, we need cooperation,

Jovanni:

friendship is essential, right?

Jovanni:

However, uh, Houston, and you say it has nothing to do with, with foreign policy.

Jovanni:

But Houston, for example, is also a friendship city, uh, city,

Jovanni:

and they had a friendship city relationship with the Russian

Jovanni:

country, with the Russian, uh, city.

Jovanni:

And as soon as the Russian intervention started, right, they dropped

Jovanni:

that city like it was hot potato.

Jovanni:

They just dropped it.

Jovanni:

So, so they can't tell us that, that San Antonio can't do the same.

Jovanni:

You know, uh, they're choosing not to do it.

Jovanni:

That, that's the thing.

Jovanni:

Uh, apparently there's a, they're forcing.

Jovanni:

A, a vote here in San Antonio by, for next year, for the eighth or 9th of

Jovanni:

January, uh, people are, are asked to go to, to City Hall, uh, flood City

Jovanni:

Hall again, and, uh, pretty much push their concert, the cons members, you

Jovanni:

know, to this vote to drop, to drop, uh, Tel Aviv off the, uh, um, the

Jovanni:

friendship study list of, of San Antonio.

Jovanni:

So things like that, take part in whatever you can take part in.

Jovanni:

You know, I know that it could be overwhelming, you may feel powerless,

Jovanni:

you know, watching the news, you might feel, or other people just look the other

Jovanni:

way, just like nothing is happening, like, you know, we're in the holiday

Jovanni:

season, people out there shopping, like, nothing is happening, it doesn't concern

Jovanni:

them, it's not affecting them in any way, so yeah, we don't think about it,

Jovanni:

but yeah, but, you know, keep talking about it, uh, it's another thing that

Jovanni:

I, that I was seeing in social media, that, that the more people Flood social

Jovanni:

media with things about Palestine.

Jovanni:

The harder it is to shadowbind and the harder it is to, to, um, to,

Jovanni:

to close people's account or, you know, or, or, um, not close it.

Jovanni:

What they've been doing, they're suspending people.

Jovanni:

It's hard to suspend people because there's so many people, so many people

Jovanni:

putting a piece about Palestine, which is something that I think

Jovanni:

either you or, either you said it or Monisha said it that, um, that people,

Jovanni:

the veil is coming out, people are seeing it, which is something that

Jovanni:

we didn't see like 15 years ago.

Jovanni:

10 or 15 years ago, uh, the only, the only narrative that we'll get every time,

Jovanni:

every time Israel will get on the, on this killing spree, the only narrative that

Jovanni:

we'll get was the narrative from Israel, but now they don't control the narrative

Jovanni:

anymore, um, and people are pretty much pushing back with the, with the, with the

Jovanni:

counter narrative of what's happening.

Jovanni:

And, uh, yeah, yeah, so things like that give me revolutionary hope.

Jovanni:

Um,

Monisha:

before I say what, what gives me hope, I want to calm

Monisha:

myself out because I had intended to talk about the Congo as well.

Monisha:

Um, and I did not.

Monisha:

Um, I got lost in the sauce.

Monisha:

And I, I bring that up related to this because of How, um, the struggle for

Monisha:

the liberation of Palestine and the, the, the genocide that's happening

Monisha:

is part of what has brought light to what's happening in Congo, the

Monisha:

genocide there, and Israel and U.

Monisha:

S.

Monisha:

involvement there, um, as well as the huge, huge contradiction that it's

Monisha:

the very technology that we're using to expose the, the genocide against

Monisha:

Palestinians that is the result of the genocide against Congolese People.

Monisha:

I have a lot of feelings about that contradiction and I don't know what the

Monisha:

answer is to that, but I'm thankful that.

Monisha:

Now, at least, um, there's, it's being talked about more, um,

Monisha:

and we can become more aware.

Monisha:

And it makes me think about what does give me hope, um, is with mutual aid

Monisha:

initiatives, with food sovereignty movements, with the things that are doing

Monisha:

like what the Zone of Peace campaign talks about and like creating new structures.

Monisha:

Creating new systems for us to survive and thrive with and, and relate to

Monisha:

each other through so that we stop being unwitting and or unwilling

Monisha:

participants in these genocides, just by way of the nature of consumerism.

Monisha:

And I'm, I'm hopeful that the more Congo gets talked about.

Monisha:

Um, the more raw that contradiction becomes for people and we start to take

Monisha:

more responsibility in that way, you know.

Monisha:

I don't think we have an answer to that right now because we need our technology

Monisha:

to do the work that we're doing.

Monisha:

We need to be able to communicate with each other.

Monisha:

And now it's like every time I, I pick up my phone, which is constantly

Monisha:

now, I'm like constantly checking TikTok, Instagram, et cetera.

Monisha:

Um, I feel it.

Monisha:

I'm like thinking of the hands and the bodies, the eyes, the souls, the

Monisha:

spirits, the lives of the people in Congo that are the reason why this phone's

Monisha:

even in my hand to be to begin with.

Monisha:

Um, so, yeah, I guess in a weird way I'm trying to say that, um, the con the the

Monisha:

the the What's the word I'm looking for?

Monisha:

Jovanni.

Monisha:

You know it.

Monisha:

Like Exacerbation of the contradiction there of, of, you know, us being forced

Monisha:

to look at all of these things, um, is going to force us to change our way

Monisha:

of life and I see the people who are already working toward that and have been

Monisha:

working toward that for years through farming, through mutual aid work, um,

Monisha:

through, you know, trying to reduce our dependency on Globalization and on,

Monisha:

on these very systems that oppress us.

Monisha:

Um, so yeah, that's where my hope lies.

Monisha:

And that's why even though oftentimes I, I get very frustrated and, and

Monisha:

feel hopeless and feel despair and, and feel just like frozen.

Monisha:

Um, I look to those folks because they're constantly.

Monisha:

doing the thing, you know, they're growing food.

Monisha:

They're, they're teaching us, to me, they're, they're an example of what we

Monisha:

should be doing by like, if I could go back really quick to what I was saying

Monisha:

about balancing our energies and maybe Using them less on electoral politics

Monisha:

and more on other things, like, that's some of the other things that was in

Monisha:

my mind when I was saying that, like, we need to be creating mutual aid

Monisha:

systems to sustain general strikes, to effectively remove ourselves from the

Monisha:

equation of these, these oppressive systems once and for all, um, and if

Monisha:

we're For more information visit www.

Monisha:

FEMA.

Monisha:

gov Always focusing on electoral politics.

Monisha:

We're not giving our time and energy toward the creation of a new society.

Monisha:

We're maintaining the old one.

Monisha:

So yeah, food sovereignty.

Monisha:

You know, um, that's where.

Monisha:

Where my hope really lies, as well as in the resistance of people, like,

Monisha:

the people's just sheer will to resist and survive, um, I think that, that

Monisha:

to me is an incredible example, um, you know, that a lot of us who exist

Monisha:

within the first world, who benefit from these people's Will to survive.

Monisha:

Um, we need to take a lesson from them in that way and be willing to suffer and be

Monisha:

willing to struggle, you know, with less.

Monisha:

Um, and I see people willing to do that.

Monisha:

So,

Monisha:

what about you, Shiloh?

Monisha:

Ah,

Shiloh:

yeah, what gives me hope?

Shiloh:

Um.

Shiloh:

A few things big and small, um, small being, uh, small in stature, big in

Shiloh:

heart, my four year old gives me a lot of hope, um, they, my partner and

Shiloh:

I are very open and honest with them around, you know, to their level, like

Shiloh:

what's going on in the world and what's going on in Palestine and Palestine.

Shiloh:

Every day they ask me, you know, are they still fighting in Palestine?

Shiloh:

So if they can wake up hopeful that it's stopped, I can wake up hopeful as well.

Shiloh:

Um, I think, uh, the, uh, watching, watching Yemen just take matters

Shiloh:

into their own hands and, uh, block the Red Sea, like, that's a big, a

Shiloh:

big way of, um, exerting, exerting people power of like, you know,

Shiloh:

stopping the, the chain, um, the.

Shiloh:

The chain of weapons and the flow of weapons, um, and stopping the consumerism

Shiloh:

in Israel, uh, um, and then I can see, like, yeah, like we were talking

Shiloh:

about, the different actions of, of people power of, like, um, removing

Shiloh:

yourself through the BDS movement, um, removing your own consumerism and,

Shiloh:

and your own, uh, flow of, of money.

Shiloh:

And then also, um, yeah, if you can't.

Shiloh:

Or you can remove your, your consumerism and then you can also remove your labor,

Shiloh:

um, and like you're saying, Monisha, like, if, if we're going to ask people to remove

Shiloh:

their labor from the equation, then we have to have systems that support them,

Shiloh:

um, so that, yeah, people aren't left out.

Shiloh:

On Their Own, um, because we're still, yeah, living under

Shiloh:

capitalism, so you have to labor to live, um, so that gives me hope.

Shiloh:

And then also this, uh, just in the last, I think, week, maybe 10 days

Shiloh:

or so, the first, uh, public, uh, conscientious objector, Tal Mitnick,

Shiloh:

um, a teenager in Israel who's objecting to conscription into the Israeli army,

Shiloh:

um, That gives me hope if, yeah, maybe possibly more, more people feeling, um,

Shiloh:

emboldened to do that and speak out.

Shiloh:

Um, yeah, I think a lot of the youth give me hope always, so that's

Shiloh:

what's giving me hope right now.

Shiloh:

And, um, yeah, hopefully we can all carry that into

Jovanni:

2024.

Jovanni:

Speaking on Israel and, and, and the genocide they're committing, um, in broad

Jovanni:

daylight, you know, in front of cameras.

Jovanni:

It's astonishing because the first time I mean, this is not the first

Jovanni:

ethnic cleansing or first genocide that's ever happened in human history.

Jovanni:

But it's the first time it's actually happening in broad

Jovanni:

daylight in front of cameras and people actually seeing it in live.

Jovanni:

You know, while it's happening, you know, um, usually, um, and something

Jovanni:

else that, you know, they seem to not get held accountable either, you

Jovanni:

know, um, and that's more astonishing.

Jovanni:

That's, I mean, it's a huge slap in the face of humanity and

Jovanni:

whatever institutions and whatever values people claim they have.

Jovanni:

My daughter, she, she wanted me to recommend a couple of movies, a few movies

Jovanni:

actually, right, to, um, if you're new to the, um, if you want to know more.

Jovanni:

Uh, of, you know, of Palestine through, through Palestinians, through the

Jovanni:

eyes of Palestine, Palestinians, you know, and their experience and, and

Jovanni:

what they've, what they're living.

Jovanni:

Um, good movie is Farha.

Jovanni:

Farha, I watched Farha, I recommend it.

Jovanni:

You guys watched Farha as well, right?

Jovanni:

That was, that was a pretty good movie, right?

Jovanni:

Um, it takes place when the Nakba happened in 1948, uh, to

Jovanni:

a, to a girl, uh, and her family.

Jovanni:

What happened when the, uh, you know, the Israeli militias started showing

Jovanni:

up at people's doors and just started pretty much, um, um, was that, was, start

Jovanni:

depopulating areas, um, in Palestine.

Jovanni:

There's another one called Born in Gaza.

Jovanni:

It's a documentary.

Jovanni:

There's one called Omar.

Jovanni:

Another one is Habibi.

Jovanni:

Another one is 200 meters, another one is the present, 3000 nights, salt

Jovanni:

of the sea, salt of this sea, the crossing, pomegranates and myrrh.

Jovanni:

Eyes of a Thief, and all those movies you can find on Netflix.

Jovanni:

There's another movie that we actually screened here in San Antonio called Five

Jovanni:

Broken Cameras, which is pretty good.

Jovanni:

It's about a man who's documentary.

Jovanni:

We're documenting, uh, the, the occupation in his neighborhood, and each time his

Jovanni:

camera get broken, so he needs to get a new camera or he fixes it and whatnot.

Jovanni:

And to take pictures of the abuse that's happening, um, in his neighborhood and by

Jovanni:

the, uh, by the Israeli occupation forces.

Jovanni:

Um, yeah, so I think this is a good place to wrap up for the night.

Jovanni:

Um, I mean, I have mixed feelings about 2023.

Jovanni:

I don't know about you guys.

Jovanni:

I mean, there, there are ups and downs.

Jovanni:

Um, notice I didn't notice, uh, notice I, uh, the, the, the points that are

Jovanni:

like, you know, I, I started with are, are things that I thought was positive.

Jovanni:

And then, um, and then with the down note, um, obviously the tragedy that

Jovanni:

we're all witnessing, you know, genocide, ethnic cleansing right before our eyes.

Jovanni:

The people doing it, you know, with impunity while we, here in the U.

Jovanni:

S., flip the bill.

Jovanni:

I mean, it's a slap in the face, like I said, you know, to everyone, to humanity,

Jovanni:

to wherever, anyone who ever told us.

Jovanni:

Uh, that, you know, that we stand for, for human rights, for truth, for democracy,

Jovanni:

for this and that, you know, it's just a big humiliation, big, big snack, right?

Jovanni:

Uh, but we must have, you know, revolutionary optimism.

Jovanni:

We need to go forward.

Jovanni:

We need to go push, we need to intervene whenever we can.

Jovanni:

We need to take action whenever we can.

Jovanni:

We can't put our head in the sand, like Monisha said, or look the other way,

Jovanni:

or just act like nothing's happening.

Jovanni:

Uh, we need to, we need to be, we need to be protagonists.

Jovanni:

In this world, to be not just spectators, but protagonists.

Jovanni:

Um, any last comments before we depart?

Jovanni:

Y'all give me hope, too.

Jovanni:

Oh, you too.

Shiloh:

Same, same, just like, yeah, staying in community and, you know,

Shiloh:

keeping those, those heart to heart connections that we have really, uh,

Shiloh:

Yeah, just keep your own humanity, the psychopaths in power lost theirs

Shiloh:

years ago, but we have to keep our own humanity, and we do that

Shiloh:

through caring about one another.

Monisha:

Yeah,

Monisha:

what Tyler said.

Jovanni:

Interesting, uh, uh, someone told me a story, uh, over

Jovanni:

a weekend, over last weekend.

Jovanni:

Um, and, and we're talking about the same note, and it's about this elderly

Jovanni:

person that was sitting, you know, with a sign about, you know, protesting wars

Jovanni:

and, and motivation and everything.

Jovanni:

And he was an elderly person, right?

Jovanni:

And he was the only person standing on a daily basis.

Jovanni:

He'll, you know, he'll He'll stand in the same spot with the same

Jovanni:

signs, you know, and every, the same sign about ending wars and ending

Jovanni:

the, uh, all the wars and whatnot.

Jovanni:

Um, and someone stopped him and asked him, you know, why, you know, why are

Jovanni:

you here day in, day out, you know, you know, every day with the same sign, you

Jovanni:

know, and people just walk past you and they don't pay you any mind, you know.

Jovanni:

Um, you know, you're not changing anything.

Jovanni:

Why are you still doing it?

Jovanni:

Um, and his answer was, you know, I don't do it to change people.

Jovanni:

I do it so people won't change me.

Jovanni:

You know, that was, that was pretty fun I thought.

Jovanni:

But, uh, uh, well, yeah, thank you all for, for accompanying me tonight.

Jovanni:

Uh, thank the listeners, thank you listeners for staying with

Jovanni:

us, you know, throughout 2023.

Jovanni:

Hope to see you again in 2024.

Jovanni:

Um, please share us, you know, please share us with your friends,

Jovanni:

you know, uh, help our community here grow, help our capacity grow.

Jovanni:

We have, uh, multiple places where you can listen to us, you know, anywhere

Jovanni:

you can get, anywhere you listen to podcasts, you can find us, you can

Jovanni:

find us on YouTube, uh, we have an Instagram, uh, uh, do we have Instagram?

Jovanni:

I'm not sure, but I know we have a Telegram page, um, as

Jovanni:

well, you know, please sign up.

Jovanni:

Um, yeah, help us grow in this coming year and, um, here we try to,

Jovanni:

you know, we try to keep it real.

Jovanni:

Um, yeah, thank you.

Jovanni:

And, um, take care everybody.

Henri:

Money is tight these days for everyone, penny pinching to

Henri:

make it through the month often doesn't give people the funds to

Henri:

contribute to a creator they support.

Henri:

So we consider it the highest honor that folks help us fund the podcast

Henri:

in any dollar amount they're able.

Henri:

Patreon is the main place to do that.

Henri:

In addition, any support we receive makes sure we can continue to provide

Henri:

our main episdoes free for everyone.

Henri:

And for supporters who can donate $10 a month or more, they will be listed

Henri:

right here as an honorary producer.

Henri:

Like these fine folks.

Henri:

Fahim's Everyone Dream, Eric Phillips, Paul Appel, Julie Dupree, Thomas

Henri:

Benson, Janet Hanson, Ren jacob, Scott Spaulding, spooky Tooth,

Henri:

Helge Berg, and Howard Reynolds.

Henri:

however, if Patreon isn't your style, you can contribute directly through PayPal

Henri:

at PayPal dot me forward slash Fortress on hill, or please check out our store on

Henri:

Spreadshirt for some great Fortress merch.

Henri:

We're on Twitter and @facebook.com at Fortress On A Hill.

Henri:

You can find our full collection of episodes at Fortress On A Hill dot com.

Henri:

Skepticism is one's best armor.

Henri:

Never forget it.

Henri:

We'll see you next time.

Henri:

I hope you'll pay attention.

Henri:

I will not detain you long.

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About the Podcast

Fortress On A Hill (FOH) Podcast
Clearing away the BS around U.S. foreign policy, anti-imperialism, skepticism, and the American way of war
The United States has become synonymous with empire and endless war, American troops sit in 70% of the world's countries, and yet, most Americans don't know that. The military is joined disproportionately by a 'warrior caste’ whom carry this enormous burden, making a less diverse force and ensuring most of society doesn't see their sacrifice. And American tax dollars, funding hundreds of billions in unnecessary spending on global hegemony, are robbed from the domestic needs of ordinary Americans. We aim to change that. Join Henri, Keagan, Jovanni, Shiloh, and Monisha, six leftist US military veterans, as they discuss how to turn the tide against endless war and repair the damage America has caused abroad.

About your host

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Christopher Henrikson

Chris ‘Henri’ Henrikson is an Iraq war veteran from Portland, OR. He deployed in support of
Operation Noble Eagle at the Pentagon following 9/11 and served two tours in Iraq in
support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A former MP team leader, Henri also served two years
as a CID drug investigator. Now a journalist, podcaster, writer, and anti-war activist, Henri
no longer supports the lies of imperialism or the PR spin of the politicians, wherever the
source. He seeks to make common cause with anyone tired of jingoistic-driven death
from the American war machine and a desire to protect the innocents of the earth, no
matter their origin. Except Alex Jones. Fuck that guy. Follow him on Twitter at
@henrihateswar. Email him at henri@fortressonahill.com.