JOHNSTONE

It's probably worth flagging the fact that the president of the United States is promoting the establishment of a Ministry of Truth to restrict information in a suggested law called the "Charlie Kirk Act". Reading by Tim Foley.

The McDonald's flag at Guantanamo Bay was lowered to half-mast in honor of the GOP swamp creature who was assassinated by a sniper the day before 9/11, which I think we can all agree is the most American thing that has ever happened. Reading by Tim Foley.

You cannot become a high-level pundit, politician or political operative in either mainstream party without being an evil piece of shit. It's part of the job description, because the job requires you to make excuses for the abuses of a globe-spanning empire which is fueled by human blood. Reading by Tim Foley.

The assassin appears to have been able to successfully escape after the killing, so nothing is known about what their motives were. Rightists are braying for civil war and demanding sweeping new authoritarian measures to crush what passes for the political "left" in the United States these days, based on nothing but vibes and feelings. Reading by Tim Foley.

Recent hours have seen too much Israeli depravity to write about, including an assassination strike in Qatar to sabotage peace talks, a second drone attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and a Guardian article featuring an IDF sniper who discussed killing civilians like a trophy hunter talking about game animals. Reading by Tim Foley.

A drone appears to have struck a boat from the Global Sumud Flotilla while it was docked at a Tunisian port on its way to bring aid into Gaza, temporarily starting a fire. Nobody on board was harmed. The boat was reportedly crewed by the same activists who had attempted to sail to Gaza on the Madleen this past July, including Greta Thunberg. And it is here worth noting that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently said that Global Sumud Flotilla activists must be designated as terrorists and treated accordingly, in order to "create a clear deterrent" against foreign parties attempting to bring aid into Gaza by sea. It is no mystery who the prime suspect is in this attack. Reading by Tim Foley.

In a sense all I'm ever really pointing at here is the importance of taking responsibility. Taking responsibility as westerners for the suffering and destruction inflicted upon the world by the western power structure that we live under. Reading by Tim Foley.

In the UK a terrorist is someone with a cardboard sign saying "I support Palestine Action". In the US a terrorist is a Venezuelan suspected of drug trafficking. In Israel a terrorist is someone resisting occupation. Reading by Tim Foley.

He hung up a sign that said Secretary of War, snapped a picture for the socials, shut the door, took a swig of Jameson straight from the bottle, then sat down and fondled the revolver in his desk drawer like a little boy playing with his penis. Visions of cruise missiles danced through his head, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines and tiny middle eastern bodies blown to bits by glorious inventory. Mushroom clouds flashed in his eyes as he caressed the trigger with an index finger. "They call me the Secretary of War," he said. "They call me the Secretary of War." He did not feel the robins in his chest or hear the red-winged blackbirds trilling in his hair. The electricity of the flesh was a stranger to him. Exuberance was a deadbeat dad who never called. Outside the Pentagon walls a cicada roared unnoticed and the grass sang ancient hymns to the sun god. People bustled in and bustled out, their minds buzzing with Palantir porn, their lips casting spells of Raytheon and ruin. Under the rubble of a far away building a child reached out a hand in the darkness. Her cries were silenced by gulps of whiskey in the office of the Secretary of War. Reading by Tim Foley.

Make no mistake about where the moral authority stands here. This isn’t something we need to be on the defense about. It’s something we need to be on the attack about. Reading by Tim Foley.

You always see Israel apologists saying "If Hamas lays down its arms there'll be no more war, if Israel lays down its arms there'll be no more Israel." But really the exact opposite is true. If the Israelis lay down their arms, a genocide ends. If Hamas lays down their arms, Israel's planned ethnic cleansing of Gaza happens quickly and without resistance. Reading by Tim Foley.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN human rights experts, Israeli human rights groups like B'Tselem, and the overwhelming majority of genocide scholars all agree it's a genocide. The debate is over. The hasbarists lost. Reading by Tim Foley.

This is just what happens when bad people in your life reveal an ugly truth about themselves. If you learn that someone in your life is cool with their government supporting a genocide, you can just sort of let your feelings and natural inclinations lead the way on that. Reading by Tim Foley.

To be racist is to admit that you are a dull, vapid person. It's an admission that you are so intellectually, emotionally and spiritually shallow that you can only enjoy and connect with other human beings in the most superficial of ways. There is no depth to you. There has been no growth in you. You are stunted. You have been wasting your time on this planet instead of maturing and expanding your connectedness with the gift of human life. Reading by Tim Foley.

As if we didn't have enough ugliness in the world right now, Trump has deployed warships near Venezuela's coast, prompting Caracas to ready drone and naval patrols for conflict. Reading by Tim Foley.

Saying "I support a two-state solution" does not release you from your moral obligation to ferociously oppose a genocide backed by your own government. Reading by Tim Foley.

We don't need to rescue western civilization from outside forces, we need to rescue ourselves from western civilization. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israelis who say "the Arabs hate us because of our religion" are as self-evidently moronic as the Americans who said "they hate us for our freedom". In both cases the answer is no, dipshit, they hate you because of the horrific things to do to them. Reading by Tim Foley.

4. In what way would it benefit Iran to orchestrate antisemitic attacks in Australia? 5. In what way would it benefit Iran to "undermine social cohesion and sow discord" in Australia? 6. Please explain how orchestrating antisemitic attacks in Australia would advance Iranian interests more than the interests of some other state, like, say, just for example, Israel? Reading by Tim Foley.

They simply look at the actions of October 7 from the prism of their own experience as a comfortable western suburbanite on the other side of the world and think, “I would never conduct such an attack; I am much too virtuous and compassionate.” No you’re just too comfortable and coddled, and you’re too much of an emotional infant to consciously put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Reading by Tim Foley.

The truth is that this is a propaganda narrative which has been debunked by some of the most pro-Israel, pro-establishment sources you can imagine. Reading by Tim Foley.

They claimed that Israel has a phenomenally low civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio, then Israel's own data proved that civilians comprise the vast majority of those killed by the IDF. They denied that Israel is starving Gaza, then the IPC came out with a report saying that Israel is starving Gaza. They tried to claim that the skeletal children we're seeing in Gaza looked that way because of pre-existing conditions, then the Israeli press published an extensive report showing that children with no pre-existing conditions are being starved. They tried to deny that Israeli soldiers were massacring civilians at aid sites, then the Israeli soldiers themselves told the Israeli press that they were being ordered to massacre civilians at aid sites. Never forget all the monsters who tried to gaslight you and convince you that you are crazy and hateful for saying these things are happening. Never, ever forgive them. Reading by Tim Foley.

When a nation keeps having to publish denials that it is intentionally starving civilians, you can safely assume it's because that nation is intentionally starving civilians. If you saw someone on social media loudly denying the latest allegations that they are a child molester over and over again for two years, you probably wouldn't let them babysit your kids. Reading by Tim Foley.

The most important thing to make clear here is that anyone who suggests that Israel's onslaught in Gaza has anything whatsoever to do with hostages is either ignorant or lying. Reading by Tim Foley.

Zionism means exactly what we see before us today. Genocide. Ethnic cleansing. Apartheid. Nonstop violence and abuse. That's what Zionism means. And anti-Zionism means opposing these things. Reading by Tim Foley.

Things are so fucked up that the only way to get wounded Palestinian children in and out of the United States for medical treatment these days would be to disguise them as Israeli pedophiles. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's so revealing how Israelis keep begging Trump to end the killing in Gaza, because they understand that the US president has the power to force Israel to stop. It seems like Israelis understand this far better than Americans do. Reading by Tim Foley.

Do as much as you can to make the world a better place, and be content with your efforts regardless of whether or not they are successful. You’ll never be able to save the world single-handedly no matter what you can do; all you can do is make one person’s worth of effort. Make peace with that. Reading by Tim Foley.

The most culturally consequential fictional fantasy land ever authored is not Oz or Narnia or Middle Earth, but the liberal Zionist creation of Alternate Reality Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

Probably goes without saying, but if Israel was on the side of truth and morality it would not have a military unit dedicated to manipulating the public narrative about actions which normal people would see as extremely evil. Reading by Tim Foley.

Stop platforming Israeli government officials and professional genocide apologists. Stop asking them what they think. Stop presenting their lies and manipulations as news stories. Stop asking them if they agree with their critics. Stop doing it. Stop. Reading by Tim Foley.

This isn't sad, it's enraging. And it deserves a response of unmitigated forceful aggression. Reading by Tim Foley.

During a speech in South Carolina, US Senator Lindsey Graham warned that God will "pull the plug" on Americans if they stop supporting Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

The truth is that Palestinians will never be free as long as Israel exists as the hypermilitaristic racist settler-colonialist state that it is. Reading by Tim Foley.

Palestine is the moral issue of our time for the same reason if you saw someone in your family torturing another member of your family to death, it would be the most urgent matter happening in your life at that moment. You'd have other problems in your life, but that would come first. Reading by Tim Foley.

The IDF is of course claiming that al-Sharif was Hamas, because that's what they always do. They've been murdering a historically unprecedented number of journalists and defending their systematic effort to blind the world to their actions in Gaza by claiming that every journalist they kill is Hamas. The journalists are Hamas, the hospitals are Hamas, the UN is Hamas, the peace activists are Hamas, the demonstrations are Hamas, telling the truth is Hamas, human empathy is Hamas, objective reality is Hamas. It's all Hamas. Reading by Tim Foley.

Their goal is never to communicate or to have a conversation, it's to advance the information interests of a genocidal apartheid state. Reading by Tim Foley.

A note to future generations for historical record: Every pundit, politician and reporter of our time who claims they didn't know what was happening in Gaza is lying. They knew what was happening. They knew Israel was telling lies. They knew about everything. They had access to the same information as all the rest of us. We watched them make excuses and ignore indisputable facts every step of the way. There was absolutely no confusion about what they were looking at. It was all right out in the open. Don't let them get away with saying they didn't know. They knew. They knew the entire time. Brand them permanently with this shame, and force them to carry it with them for the rest of their lives. Reading by Tim Foley.

This genocide is one nonstop insult to our intelligence. It's actually degrading at this point. The lies Israel and its supporters have to pretend to believe are getting so ridiculous that supporting Israel is now an act of public humiliation and self-debasement. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's not okay to be a grown adult with internet access in August 2025 and still believe that what we are seeing in Gaza is not a genocide. It's not okay to be a grown adult with internet access in August 2025 and still believe this mass atrocity is about self-defense. It's not okay to be a grown adult with internet access in August 2025 and still believe that people in Gaza are not being deliberately starved by Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It wasn't that long ago when I sincerely wondered if we'd ever see Assange's face again, let alone in public, let alone in Sydney, let alone heading up what had to be one of the largest pro-Palestine rallies ever held in Australia. Dare to be encouraged. The light is breaking through. Reading by Tim Foley.

It was obvious in October 2023 that Israel intended to eliminate all Palestinians in Gaza, in part because you would never treat a population that way if you intended to leave survivors on your border. Because you'd know they'd seek revenge later on. Reading by Tim Foley.

A much more useful and interesting question than "What was Israel supposed to do in response to October 7?" is "What were Palestinians supposed to do in response to all of Israel's abuses prior to October 7?" Nobody's ever been able to give me a serious response to this question which doesn't entail mountains of lies and/or the dehumanizing expectation that Palestinians should accept conditions that none of us would willingly accept ourselves. Reading by Tim Foley.

This is humiliating for everything that passes for the "left" in mainstream US politics. Imagine being such a dogshit human being that you'd let Marjorie Taylor Greene be a better person than you. Reading by Tim Foley.

I will probably spend the foreseeable future periodically reminding the world that when everyone was angry at Israel for starving children in Gaza, Israel's apologists spent days loudly proclaiming that no, they were actually just starving SICK children. As their DEFENSE they said this. They actually believed this helped their case. Reading by Tim Foley.

People absolutely should admit that they were wrong, and they absolutely should be encouraged to do so, but they need to do it with humility, and with some outward expression of remorse. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel apologists use language the same way malignant narcissists do. It's never to communicate or connect or find out what's true, it's always to manipulate and get things they want. Reading by Tim Foley.

Dear Mr Dreyfus, Today I saw the skeleton of a young man in Gaza picked clean by dogs, his arms and head intact but the rest of his body was bone and gristle. The colour of the bones was still a bright fresh red. He had been shot only days ago but the cats and dogs had got to him already and gnawed his bones clean. I have never seen anything like it. Every single day brings fresh horrors to my screen. Each time I think I can no longer be shocked, I am proven wrong. The image of that man made me gasp. It literally took my breath away. I then had to sit with my hands over my eyes while I waited for my heart and breath to come back to normal. When I close my eyes at night, all I can see is skeletal babies, their little mouths gaping open like baby birds waiting for a worm. I have started to dream about it. Each night I carry a child, a new child, a different baby, trying to find food for them. I wake up with a shadow of an ache in my arms because in my dreams their bones are as brittle as egg shells and I have to be so tender and careful. This. Must. Stop. All the waffle of who-did-what-and-when burns to dust when babies are starving. No amount of words can make that right. No amount of words can extinguish the images from my eyes, the ache in my heart, and the alarm going off in my head for those babies. Please do what you can! I beg of you. Please make it stop. It’s all I can think about and I am not alone. Every day the numbers of people like me are growing. Every day more eyes snap awake.

As western pundits, politicians and celebrities suddenly pivot to denouncing Israel's genocidal atrocities after two years of silence, it's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were being told that saying "death to the IDF" is a hate crime. Reading by Tim Foley.