JOHNSTONE

The Biden administration is now pushing Ukraine to lower its minimum draft age from 25 to 18 in order to provide more cannon fodder for the war against Russia. Polls say that both Ukrainians and Americans want this US proxy war to end, but instead of ending it Washington is pressuring Kyiv to throw teenagers into the threshing machine of an unwinnable conflict. And we were told this war was all about protecting democracy. Reading by Tim Foley.

Every so often I like to write out a basic explanation of who I am and what I'm trying to do here. As an entirely reader-funded writer I think it's important to periodically lay out exactly what I'm about so that any patrons or would-be patrons can assess if this weird little project here is something they want to support. Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.

If you stand for truth, peace and justice in this world then it’s important not to make your happiness dependent on large-scale wins. Reading by Tim Foley.

Conventional wisdom about the outgoing Biden administration’s reckless escalations in Ukraine these past few days is that things will cool down once Donald Trump takes office, but Trump’s cabinet picks aren’t really selling this idea. Reading by Tim Foley.

What we all want, deep down, is a truth-based relationship with reality. We might not be aware that this is what we are seeking from life, but it is. And everything in our society is stacked against our ever getting it. Reading by Tim Foley.

We live in a civilization built of lies and abuse, powered by lies and abuse, and defended using lies and abuse. Even the most kindhearted and well-intentioned among us struggle to bring about positive change, because the very fabric of our society is stacked against truth and kindness. Reading by Tim Foley.

The International Criminal Court has formally issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. No such arrest warrants were issued for President Biden or any of the other western officials who’ve been backing Israel’s genocidal atrocities, which is a bit like a judge issuing a warrant for a mass murderer but not for the guy who gave him the gun and stood next to him handing him ammunition and drove the getaway car and lied to the police to cover up the crime. Reading by Tim Foley.

One of the very few good things coming out of the relentless nightmare happening in Gaza is that at long last the western world is getting a clear look at Israel. The real Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

It’s so fun how the Biden administration is using its lame duck months to skyrocket hostilities between nuclear superpowers and we don’t even know who’s really making these decisions because the president’s brain is cottage cheese. Reading by Tim Foley.

Marco Rubio will be joining a long list of psychopaths as the next US secretary of state. A few of Trump’s cabinet picks might have a hard time getting past the Senate, but not Rubio. He’s the exact type of blood-guzzling swamp leech those creatures on Capitol Hill adore. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Obama continued and expanded Bush's most evil policies. Trump continued and expanded Obama's most evil policies. Biden continued and expanded Trump's most evil policies. Now Trump is preparing to keep the streak going. The face at the front desk changes, but the corporation stays the same. Reading by Tim Foley.

They do not hate each other. They do not see one another as an existential threat to the nation. They are not enemies. They’re barely even opponents. When the show is over they hug and kiss like boxers after weeks of phony trash talk made solely to sell pay-per-views. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Being pro-Israel is being pro-war, because the state of Israel cannot exist in its present iteration without nonstop US-backed military violence. Supporting Israel necessarily means supporting endless western military interventionism in the middle east. Trump supporters keep lying to themselves about this. Reading by Tim Foley.

Biden’s legacy is genocide, war, and nuclear brinkmanship. That’s all anyone should talk about when this psychopath finally dies. Anything positive he may have accomplished in his political career is a drop in the ocean compared to the significance of these mass-scale abuses. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel is really struggling with how difficult its present circumstances make playing the victim. It keeps having to invent new abuses to be victimized by like the imaginary Amsterdam “pogrom” and the fake mass rape narrative that surfaced months after October 7, because it can’t sit comfortably in the role of victimizer while on trial for genocide in international courts. Reading by Tim Foley.

The only thing I like about Trump is exactly what so many empire managers hate about him: he gives the game away. He says the quiet parts out loud. He’s the only president who’ll openly boast that US troops are in Syria to keep the oil or lament that they failed to take the oil from Venezuela, or just come right out and tell everyone he’s bought and owned by Zionist oligarchs. Trump is the opposite of Obama, who was very skillful at putting a pretty face on the evil empire. Trump puts a very ugly face on a very ugly thing. He is a much more honest face to have on the empire. A crude, stupid plutocrat who is owned by other plutocrats is the perfect representative of that tyrannical power structure. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Trump supporters are George W Bush supporters LARPing as Ron Paul supporters. They act like they're backing some anti-war figure who's taking a meaningful stand against the machine, when they're really backing a guy who spent four years rolling out longstanding neocon agendas. Reading by Tim Foley.

Democrats are sitting on a mountain of hundreds of thousands of human corpses they helped kill by mass military slaughter in the last four years, weeping and lamenting that now bad things are going to start happening. Reading by Tim Foley.

Turns out campaigning on the promise of continuing a genocide while courting endorsements from war criminals like Dick Cheney is not a great way to get progressives to vote for you. Reading by Tim Foley.

Some days it’s hard to say which is more horrific: the Gaza genocide itself, or the moral decay throughout our society which makes it possible. Reading by Tim Foley.

You really see this illustrated in US presidential election season, when debates will feature five or six minutes on “foreign policy” with the remaining two hours dedicated to “domestic policy” and culture war wedge issues despite the the White House’s relationship with foreign countries having orders of magnitude more significant real-world consequences. Reading by Tim Foley.

My one and only position on how Americans should vote is that they should do whatever makes them feel nice, since that’s all US presidential elections are: an emotional pacifier to let the masses feel like they have some meaningful control over their country. It’s about feelings and nothing else. Reading by Tim Foley.

It’s not hope that keeps me going, it’s love. Love for this beautiful planet and all the weird little critters scuttling around on it, especially the fingery ape monsters walking about on their hind legs making mouth noises about their mind noises. I love this whole chaotic wondermess so very, very much, and I want it to keep going. Reading by Tim Foley.

South Africa's legal team has submitted hundreds of documents containing what it calls "undeniable evidence" as part of its ongoing genocide case against the state of Israel, with the South African representative to The Hague telling Al Jazeera that "The problem we have is that we have too much evidence." Reading by Tim Foley.

In addition to everything else this genocide has been, it’s been a colossal insult to our intelligence. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Both Trump and Harris are auditioning for a role that will necessarily entail the creation of mountains of human corpses by US-sponsored violence, as has every viable US presidential candidate throughout our lives. This is because the US empire is deeply evil. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's the sense of powerlessness that gets to you. Watching all these people being slaughtered and tormented in Gaza and in Lebanon with the full support of your own government and its allies, but being unable to stop it. Reading by Tim Foley.

Lying Western Press Scramble To Frame Israel's Attack On Iran As Self - Defense by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley

The Only Good Thing About This Nightmare Is It's Exposing The Monsters For Who They Are by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley

Israel Continues Its War On Journalism by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley

Gaza WILL Get Worse Under Trump. It'll Also Get Worse Under Harris by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley

CNN says an IDF soldier has suffered trauma because he had to run over too many Palestinians with his D9 armored bulldozer. Says he can’t eat meat anymore because he had to drive over so much human meat (he actually called it “meat”) and it reminds him of all the blood and guts and bones and tissue that would come squirting out when he ran over them. Reading by Tim Foley.

When the Holocaust returned it came denouncing anti-semitism and wearing a Star of David. It was never going to look how we were expecting. It wasn’t going to show up in its old familiar costume with the bent cross and the tiny mustache, blaming all the problems on the Jews. It had to look different. If it didn’t look different, we never would have let it in the door. Reading by Tim Foley.

We Really Are The Bad Guys And This Really Is The Evil Empire "It can be nice to live in the western world, but the western world is not nice. Ours is the most savage and thuggish civilization on this planet, and it’s not even close." Reading by Tim Foley.

Israeli forces found and killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by accident while they were just randomly destroying parts of Gaza, and then they methodically targeted and killed four water engineers on purpose. These two facts alone tell you everything you need to know about what Israel is really doing in Gaza. Reading by Tim Foley.

British "counterterrorism" police raided the home of Electronic Intifada editor Asa Winstanley on Thursday morning, seizing multiple electronic devices on suspicion that the journalist violated the UK's 2006 Terrorism Act with his social media activity. Reading by Tim Foley.

“I say this because living in the west during a western-backed genocide can make you feel like you’re going insane.” Reading by Tim Foley.

One of the dumbest things we are asked to believe about Israel's genocide in Gaza is that all these civilians are being butchered because the Palestinians are evil and not the Israelis. That it's the victims doing evil things and not the perpetrators. Reading by Tim Foley.

If this was a real thing with real teeth and not an incredibly cynical eleventh-hour election ploy, it would have happened a full year ago. Reading by Tim Foley.

Nothing illustrates the malfeasance of the mass media like the vast disparity between how they’re covering the killing of four 19 year-old IDF soldiers by Hezbollah versus their complete lack of interest in a 19 year-old hospital patient who was burned alive by the IDF in Gaza. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel's permanent national security doctrine is basically "We can have peace tomorrow if we just kill a few more people today." But it's always today. Tomorrow never comes. Reading by Tim Foley.

If there's one thing this past year has made clear, it's that opposing the foreign abuses of the western empire is the most important task you can undertake if you care about truth, justice, and human rights. Reading by Tim Foley.

This was never about freeing hostages. It was never about getting rid of Hamas. It was never about Israel's "right to defend itself". It was never about mass rapes, beheaded babies, or babies cooked in ovens. It was always about stealing land from the indigenous people of Palestine. Reading by Tim Foley.

Things are so, so bad in the middle east right now, and from the looks of things they’re about to get a whole lot worse. Reading by Tim Foley.

I'll condemn Hamas as soon as you can tell me what the Palestinians should do instead besides lay down and die. Produce a coherent plan for Palestinian liberation that (A) doesn't involve violence, (B) would be effective, (C) is just, and (D) isn't naive or moronic. Then talk to me. Reading by Tim Foley.