Sep 13, 2024
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
If I were to describe our present geopolitical situation in ten words or less it would be “Genocide in the foreground, world war looming in the background.”
While attention is justifiably focused on the present horrors in Gaza and the imminent possibility that it could spark another war in the middle east, the world’s power structures are once again dividing themselves up into two increasingly intimate alliance groups with an increasingly hostile and militaristic posture toward each other.
As Ukraine loses more and more territory and soldiers to Russia, both Washington and Kyiv are demonstrating an openness to ramping up attacks on a nuclear superpower in ways that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Meanwhile, Russia and China are growing more and more intimate in preparation for future aggressions from the US power alliance.
Antiwar’s Dave Decamp has a few articles out right now which highlight this disturbing trend simmering in the background amid the waking nightmare in the foreground, on top of all the other dangerous escalations we’ve been discussing in this space.
In “Blinken Signals US Will Allow Long-Range Strikes in Russia With NATO Missiles,” DeCamp writes the following:
“On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly hinted that the US was preparing to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US and NATO missiles to support long-range strikes inside Russian territory, which would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war.
“Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv alongside UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Blinken said he discussed the issue of ‘long-range fires’ with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and said he would bring the discussion back to Washington. He said President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will discuss the issue when they meet this Friday.
“Signaling the US is ready to support long-range strikes in Ukraine, Blinken said, ‘Speaking for the United States, from day one, as you’ve heard me say, we have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that.’”
DeCamp highlights new reports in the mainstream press that “there’s already been a decision made in private to allow Ukraine to use British-provided missiles inside Ukraine” and that “the White House is finalizing plans to expand the area where Ukraine can hit inside Russia using US and British-provided missiles,” as well as recent statements from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul that the Biden administration appears poised to allow long-range strikes deep into Russian territory.
Russia, needless to say, has not responded kindly to these comments. In “Putin: Supporting Long-Range Strikes on Russian Territory Would Put NATO ‘at War With Russia’,” DeCamp writes the following:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday strongly warned the US against allowing Ukraine to use NATO missiles in long-range strikes inside Russian territory, saying the move would put the Western military alliance ‘at war with Russia.’
“Putin’s comments came after POLITICO reported that the White House was finalizing plans to expand the areas inside Russia where Ukraine can use US and British-provided missiles.
“‘This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,’ Putin told a TV reporter, according to AFP. ‘It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia. If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.’
“He added that supporting long-range Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory is ‘a decision on whether NATO countries are directly involved in the military conflict or not.’”
And it is here worth noting another article DeCamp published earlier this month on comments made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who said that Russia is preparing to change its nuclear doctrine in response to western aggressions relating to the war in Ukraine.
Finally, in “Russia Says It Could ‘Combine’ With China If Both Face Threat From the US,” DeCamp provides more information on this horrifying direction we appear to be headed:
“Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that Russia’s partnership with China is not aimed at any third country, but the two countries could ‘combine’ to respond to threats from the US.
“‘I would like to remind you that Moscow and Beijing will respond to double containment by the United States with double counteraction,’ Zakharova said when asked about US plans to deploy a Typhon missile system to Japan for several months, according to Reuters.
…
“‘It is clear that both Russia and China will react to the emergence of additional and very significant missile threats, and their reaction will be far from being political, which has also been repeatedly confirmed by the two countries,’ Zakharova said.
“Zakharova’s comments come amid large-scale Russian naval drills that the Russian military said involve over 90,000 personnel, 400 warships and submarines, and 120 aircraft. China is participating in the Pacific portion of the drill with three Chinese ships and 15 planes.
“Russia and China have increased their military cooperation in recent years directly in response to the similar pressure the two countries have been facing from the US and its allies. Zakharova insisted the relationship is defensive in nature.”
As we’ve discussed many times here, the US has been militarily encircling China in ways it would never tolerate from a foreign threat anywhere near its own borders, in much the same way the US and its allies knowingly provoked the war in Ukraine by amassing military threats on Russia’s border.
There’s so much going on in the world right now, and the US-centralized empire is doing so many terrible things, but every once in a while I think it’s important to highlight the fact that all these individually awful things are just the mundane daily manifestations of a power structure that has us on a trajectory toward a final global confrontation that would make them all look like a picnic in the park.
Status quo politics are quite literally driving us to armageddon. Freeing ourselves from these murderous tyrants is swiftly moving beyond the morally correct thing to do for the sake of the empire’s victims around the world, to an existentially urgent action we must take for our own self-preservation.
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JOHNSTONE August 2023: The True Symbol Of The United States Is The Pentagon (August 9, 2023)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A collection of timely essays, poems, articles and art from the Caitlin Johnstone project including:
Australia Agrees To Build US Missiles; US Dismisses Australian Concerns About Assange,
Funny How The UFO Narrative Coincides With The Race To Weaponize Space,
The Real World And The Narrative World,
and
Fifteen Useful Facts
JOHNSTONE September 23: Mitch McConnell’s Brief Flash Of Humanity (September 7, 2023)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
The September ’23 edition of a monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. Includes: Thirty Signs You Might Be An Empire Simp, Vivek Ramaswamy Is Just Another Disgusting Warmonger, The Illusory Truth Effect And The “Unprovoked” Invasion Of Ukraine, and more.
JOHNSTONE October 23: The Israel-Palestine Issue Is Not Complicated (October 12, 2023)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. This month includes: a Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix version of the unfolding events in the Palestine-Israel conflict; the burgeoning popularity of the word “unprovoked” both in Ukraine (p60) and Israel (p70); the great argument for revolution a wealthy capitalist accidentally made (p14); and the island calling into question whether the US gains enthusiastic consent for inserting its military bases into foreign countries (p23); and much more.
JOHNSTONE November 23: We Have Blood On Our Hands (November 20, 2023)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. The November edition of JOHNSTONE is dedicated solely to the ongoing genocide in Gaza because, quite frankly, that’s all we could think about this month. Each day has served up new and fresh horrors for our eyeballs as the worst massacre of this century dovetailed with social media and we all found ourselves with a front seat to rolling atrocities.
Includes:
Israelis Keep Hurting Their Own PR Interests By Talking … 7
US Says It’s Powerless To Stop The Genocide That It Is Directly Funding And Supplying … 11
The US Empire’s PR Crisis In Gaza … 16
Biden ‘Countering Islamophobia’ While Incinerating Gaza Is The Most Democrat Thing Ever … 24
and
The Ten Dumbest Things We’re Being Asked To Believe About Israel’s War On Gaza … 29
JOHNSTONE December 23: For Refaat Alareer (December 23, 2023)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. THIS month’s cover of JOHNSTONE is dedicated to the Palestinian poet, academic and activist Refaat Alareer who was recently assassinated by a surgical strike on 7 December 2023 as a part of the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing attempt being committed in Gaza. In the weeks before his death, he tweeted “If I must die, let it be a tale” with his now famous poem “If I Must Die”.
Refaat, here is our humble attempt to tell at least a part of that tale.
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE January 24: The Empire’s War On Journalism (January 30, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. Welcome to the empire, “where genocide is self-defense and peace rallies are genocide” (p34), a month when the US and eight of its allies responded to the International Court Of Justice’s ruling to cease killing and harming the Palestinian people by suspending funding to the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza (p16) and where we turn our eyes to Belmarsh where the final stage of Julian Assange’s extradition trial is about to take place on Feb 21 and 22 (p3).
For new readers, there is a summary of Where I Stand, Issue By Issue (p60).
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE February 24: Exposing The Ugly Reality Of War Crimes (February 23, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions.
As of this writing, Julian Assange’s fate for publishing on US war crimes is being deliberated by two judges from the UK, while the rest of the world is being startled awake to the reality of what the pat phrase “war crimes” has really meant this whole time. For too long the western empire has successfully hidden its depravity from its subjects, but the stark reality of Gaza and the images of what western bombs do to human flesh now means we can’t pretend that exposing war crimes is the kind of journalism we can do without.
Eyes are snapping open all over the globe, and the anger at what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars is palpable. But is it too late for Julian?
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE March 24: This Is What Our Ruling Class Has Decided Will Be Normal (April 5, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions.
ON the 25th of February, 2024, a young Airman recorded himself approaching the Israeli embassy in Washington DC and said these words:
“I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
He then set the camera down, walked a small distance and calmly emptied accelerant over his entire body, put on his hat and lit himself on fire, uttering the words “Free Palestine” with increasing urgency as the flames took hold of his body until he physically couldn’t make a sound ever again.
His name was Aaron Bushnell and this month’s edition of JOHNSTONE is dedicated to his memory.
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE April 24: Biden’s Bloodlust (May 4, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
A monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions.
As November gets closer and the Biden administration gets more murderous and tyrannical by the day, liberal spinmeisters are falling all over themselves to portray the president as some kind of passive witness to the atrocities we’re witnessing in Gaza and the authoritarian suppression of dissent we’re seeing in the US. No no, he’s completely powerless to stop the government that’s completely dependent on US military support from conducting a military operation. No no, he’s completely powerless to stop the violent police crackdowns he’s openly supporting and encouraging on protesters against his genocide.
Bullshit. Biden has always been a murderous swamp monster. That’s the only reason he got the job. And that’s why the cover of today’s issue of JOHNSTONE features the US president dining on an ice cream cone of gore.
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE May 24: The Nightmare In Gaza Continues (May 31, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
Nearly eight months in, and the waking nightmare of the US-backed genocide in Gaza shows no signs of stopping. The only ray of light in this unspeakably dark chapter of human history is that people around the world are beginning to awaken from the imperial propaganda matrix like never before, and are taking a stand against the war machine in ways that are making our rulers extremely nervous.
The cover of this issue features a painting of Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, whose existence personifies that small hopeful ray of light in the darkness more than anybody else I can think of.
JOHNSTONE is a monthly magazine-style publication of essays, articles, poems, art and short stories about the end of illusions. All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded. Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
INSIDE
- There Was A Time … 3
- Opposing The War Machine Is Cool Again, And The Empire’s Getting Nervous … 4
- Why Celebrities Aren’t Speaking Up About Gaza … 6
- Israel’s Defenders Talk So Much About Feelings Because They Can’t Talk About Facts … 8
- I Oppose Israel’s Atrocities In Gaza Because I’m Not A Psychopath …10
- Opposing Every War But The Current One, Supporting Civil Rights But Never Right Now … 12
- Empire Managers Explain Why This New Protest Movement Scares Them … 15
- The Bizarre Gymnastics Of The Gaza Aid Pier … 8
- The ‘Antisemitism’ Moral Panic Has Officially Jumped The Shark … 20
- CNN Compares Campus Protesters To Nazis In Stunning Propaganda Segment … 22
- Remember, All This Fascism Would Feel Way More Fascismy Under Trump … 24
- Opposing The Gaza Genocide While Supporting Biden Is A Dishonest, Nonsensical Position … 26
- It Is Everyone’s Responsibility To Help Save Gaza … 28
- Gen Z Just Might Save The World … 30
- Don’t Let Them Numb You To What’s Happening In Gaza … 32
- It’s Not Unusual That We’re Being Lied To, It’s Unusual That People Are Noticing … 34
- Just Seeing Through The Propaganda Isn’t Enough – We’ve Got To Open Our Hearts As Well … 37
- The Empire Doesn’t Hide Its Worst Deeds, It Just Manipulates How People Think About Them … 39
- The Destruction Of Gaza SHOULD Be Radicalizing People … 41
- Gaza Shows Us The Difference Between Evil Autocracies And Free Democracies … 43
- Using A Fictional Antisemitism Crisis To Support A Real Genocide … 45
- Protest And Dissent Can Absolutely Push The Empire To Retreat On Gaza … 48
- When Opposing Genocide Is Seen As Radical, Radicalism Becomes A Moral Imperative … 50
- When Your Rulers Ignore Voters But Are Terrified Of Protesters, That Tells You Something … 52
- If The Mainstream Worldview Was Accurate, Gaza Wouldn’t Be Burning … 54
- I Criticize The US Power Alliance Because It’s The Most Destructive Force On Earth … 56
- The US Empire Deliberately Stokes Hatred And Violence In The Middle East … 58
- The Problem Isn’t Civil Disobedience, It’s Civil Obedience … 60
- If You Can’t Even Elect A Candidate Who’ll End A Genocide, How Real Is Your “Democracy”? … 62
- Meanwhile, We’re Still WAY Too Close To Nuclear Armageddon … 64
- Like So Much Else, The Fuss Over ‘International Law’ Is Really About Narrative Control … 66
- It’s Actually Amazing How Stupid The Propaganda Is Getting … 68
- Israel Massacres Children, Which The Western Press Says Is Fine … 70
- The US Is Discrediting All Arguments For Why It Should Lead The World … 72
- Mass Slaughtering Civilians To Stop Terrorism … 75
- Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have … 78
JOHNSTONE June 24: The Emperor Has No Brain (June 30, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
DURING the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Americans got a harsh reminder that their nation is run not by their official elected leaders but by unelected empire managers from behind the scenes. Biden spent much of the debate staring vacantly, reaching for words, spouting gibberish, and even catching a quick power nap, proving everyone right who’s been saying for years that this man is suffering from a degenerative neurological condition.
This issue of JOHNSTONE is titled “The Emperor Has No Brain”, because the elected official who supposedly runs the globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around Washington cannot possibly have enough functioning gray matter to be the one calling the shots.
All works are written by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. The Caitlin Johnstone project is 100 percent reader-funded.
Visit caitlinjohnst.one for the original articles and their supporting links.
JOHNSTONE July 24: This Obvious Genocide Is Not What It Looks Like (July 24, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
For more than nine months now we’ve been manipulated and lied to about what Israel is doing in Gaza, by both our news media and by podium pontiffs like the State Department’s Matthew “Count Smirkula” Miller. It’s actually insulting how brazen these freaks have been about telling us not to believe our lying eyes about what’s as plain as day for all of us to see: that this is a genocide being live-streamed in real time right in front of our faces. It’s like they’re actually trying to break our minds by telling us not to trust our own perception of reality.
JOHNSTONE August 24: I’m Speaking (August 27, 2024)
by Caitlin Johnstone (Author) , Timothy P Foley (Author)
Earlier this month Vice President Kamala Harris shushed anti-genocide protesters with the words “I’m speaking” during a campaign rally, and was met with thunderous approval by Democrats who seized the moment to gush about what a commanding girlboss she is. Ever since Israel’s destruction of Gaza began last October, perhaps nothing has more clearly illustrated the depravity and soullessness of western liberalism than this.
This is what western liberals are all about. Feminist genocide. Intersectional war crimes. Daring to dream of a world that can be incinerated in a nuclear holocaust by a commander-in-chief with brown skin and she/her pronouns. A mountain of dead children topped with a Black Lives Matter flag blowing in the wind.
This month’s issue of JOHNSTONE is titled “I’m Speaking”, to honor this rare moment of political honesty in the heart of the US empire.
Knock nock 
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