Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

People are getting dumber, sicker, lonelier, and more and more miserable. And the profit-driven systems we live under have no answers, besides throwing increasingly shitbrained technology at us so we can distract ourselves from how fucked up everything has gotten. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley. As usual, anyone who wants to set these words to music is free to do so.

The empire we live under is everything we're trained to fear. Our own rulers are the murderers. Our own rulers are the terrorists. Our own rulers are the tyrants. Our own rulers are the problem. Reading by Tim Foley.

While I was working on this painting of US oligarch Jeff Bezos I kept thinking about a speech he gave in 2019 where he laid out his nightmarish vision for the future of the human species. Bezos described a future where the overwhelming majority of humans are shipped off to space to live their lives inside “O’Neill colonies” — giant cylinders which rotate to simulate Earth’s gravity. Only a privileged few would get to remain on humanity’s home world, where the ecosystem would be able to repair and thrive now that it’s not being overburdened by more humans than it can handle. One doesn’t have to stretch the imagination to guess which side of the equation Bezos envisions himself and his family winding up on in this scenario. Press enter or click to view image in full size As I was painting I kept thinking about how horrific it would be if Bezos’ plan for humanity was ever put into place, because you know hardly anyone would leave this planet voluntarily. Billions of people would be forced onto space ships bo

Have you ever noticed how whenever you see someone promoting hatred toward Muslims, nine times out of ten it will be someone who supports Israel? There's a reason for that. Zionists promote Islamophobia because convincing westerners to hate Muslims is easier than convincing them to love Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

They're on the back foot. This has never happened before. We've got a real shot at winning this thing. Reading by Tim Foley.

They get everyone fighting a fake revolution so that nobody thinks about fighting a real one. Reading by Tim Foley.

In today's news, Israel's stupid fucking genocidal rapists ran over an unexploded ordnance from their own evil carpet bombing campaign, blamed Hamas for the explosion, started bombing the fuck out of Gaza again, killed scores of civilians, said they were once again cutting off aid to the enclave, and then quietly backed down on urging from Washington. Reading by Tim Foley.

Last year I banged out an angry rant about the way Israel supporters would yell "release the hostages!" at anyone who talked about the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians, saying Hamas was to blame for the killing because of their refusal to release the Israeli captives, and that it would all stop once the hostages are free. I'm remembering that essay today because the hostages are free, but the massacres are continuing. Reading by Tim Foley.

In one of the more freakish acts of genocide propaganda we've seen in the last two years, the official Twitter account of the Israel Foreign Ministry made a post smearing desperate, starving civilians as cruel savages using the false allegation that they "tore apart" a "whale" that had become "stranded" on the beach. Reading by Tim Foley.

These last two years have shown us that western civilization doesn't need protection, it needs redemption. It needs to save its soul. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel is so evil it's actually hard to wrap your mind around it. Reading by Tim Foley.

It has never been legitimate to intentionally deprive civilians of humanitarian aid that they need to survive. You have to give them aid. It has never been legitimate to shoot noncombatants because you decided they crossed some sort of line into a forbidden zone. It has never been legitimate to shoot noncombatants at all. It has never been legitimate to commit genocide. Israel just needs to stop the genocide. The onus for stopping a genocide is on the party committing the genocide. The onus is not on the victims of the genocide to end it by meeting certain conditions. This should not even need to be said. Reading by Tim Foley.

I don't know who first coined the saying that an Israeli ceasefire means "you cease and we fire," but it proves reliably accurate time after time. Reading by Tim Foley.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only thing I like about Donald Trump is his infantile tendency to say the quiet part out loud. Reading by Tim Foley.

If you saw a man beating a child into a coma, would you cheer after the beating stopped? No, your first reaction would be horror at what happened and your second would be fear that he'll attack the kid again. And then at some point you'd start wondering why the guy isn't in jail. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel's top officials are openly declaring that they intend to terminate the Gaza ceasefire after they get their hostages back. Reading by Tim Foley.

When normal people get a ceasefire agreement they think "Good, this means we can finally stop fighting and killing." Whenever Israelis get a ceasefire agreement they go, "This means we have to hurry up and kill as many people as possible before it takes effect." Reading by Tim Foley.

I’m sorry but it’s just plain hilarious that we’re still expected to hate Hamas after spending two years being shown exactly what it is that Hamas has been fighting. Reading by Tim Foley.

Look at what happened before October 7 and you'll see year after year of murder, oppression and abuse. Look at everything that's happened since October 7 and you'll understand the kind of sadistic, psychopathic regime the Palestinians have been living under this entire time. Reading by Tim Foley.