JOHNSTONE

Australia has been paying insiders of the US war machine for consultation on how to run the nation's military, a massive conflict of interest given that Washington has been grooming Australia for a role in its war agendas against China.

Reading by Tim Foley.

No I will not be supporting any US presidential candidate. Not because I don't think Australians have any business involving themselves in US political affairs (we absolutely do), but because the elections are fake and the next president will with absolute certainty be another corrupt imperialist monster. I won't be picking any favorites in the next WWE event either.

Reading by Tim Foley.

So to recap, Australia's foreign policy is being shaped "for decades to come" by an "independent" strategic review that (A) was authored by someone who is compromised by US funding, (B) is being implemented in part by an American former military official, (C) calls for greater and greater cooperation with the United States across the board, and (D) focuses primarily on targeting a nation that just so happens to be the number one geopolitical rival of the United States.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The US is raging about Russia jailing a Wall Street Journal reporter on espionage charges, while the US is:

- Jailing Julian Assange for doing good journalism.

- Threatening to imprison Matt Taibbi.

- Charging African People's Socialist Party members with "propaganda" crimes.

Reading by Tim Foley.

There's a lot happening in the life of the empire, so we're doing another multi-story article to wrap it all up. Today we're discussing four stories:

1. Facebook is censoring multiple articles by Seymour Hersh.

2. Weapons industry-funded think tank helps Congress discover that Taiwan needs way more weapons.

3. The New York Times really, really doesn't like RFK Jr.

4. Twitter drops its "state-affiliated media" and "government-funded media" labels.

Reading by Tim Foley.

So many emerging technologies would be cause for celebration if our rulers weren't so damn evil and our systems weren't so damn oppressive. In a healthy society we'd be celebrating automation and AI giving us more and more abundance and free time; instead we're terrified of police robots and technocratic dystopia.

The knitting of neurology and technology would have incredible implications if we didn't know sociopathic intelligence agencies would immediately insert themselves into the use of those technologies. Virtual reality would be awesome if it wasn't going to be used to create fake worlds for people to purchase fake goods in so that capitalism can continue expanding while we destroy the real world.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Biden administration's Department of Justice has just charged four members of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) for conspiring to act as agents of Russia by using speech and political action in ways the DOJ says "weaponized" the First Amendment rights of Americans.

Reading by Tim Foley.

People shouldn't be punished for revealing the secrets of the government, governments should be punished for keeping secrets from the people.

Reading by Tim Foley.

You couldn't design a more effective totalitarian dystopia than the one we're in right now. One where everyone's brainwashed by propaganda without even knowing it, where everyone thinks, acts, votes and shops exactly as their rulers want them to, all while thinking they are free.

Reading by Tim Foley.

So when people try to frame Assange's persecution as a matter of public perception and fighting foreign narratives about the US, they are incorrect. The issue is not that Assange's persecution makes the US look bad, the issue is that it proves the US is bad.

Reading by Tim Foley.