JOHNSTONE

The mass media in Australia have been churning out brazen propaganda pieces to manufacture consent for war with China, and what's interesting is that they're basically admitting to doing this deliberately.

Reading by Tim Foley.

In the latest instance of the Australian media's deluge of propaganda geared toward manufacturing consent for war with China, Nine Entertainment-owned newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have brought together a panel of "experts" to assess how well-prepared Australia is for a hot war with its primary trading partner. The question of if that war is necessary or should be prepared for is left completely unexamined.

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.

Every now and then I like to highlight the fact that all this China stuff was forcast way back in 2004 by Michael Parenti, who said that the unipolarist neoconservative ideology that had hijacked US foreign policy envisioned a massive strategic confrontation with Beijing.

"The PNAC plan envisions a strategic confrontation with China, and a still greater permanent military presence in every corner of the world," Parenti wrote in his book Superpatriot. "The objective is not just power for its own sake but power to control the world's natural resources and markets, power to privatize and deregulate the economies of every nation in the world, and power to hoist upon the backs of peoples everywhere — including North America — the blessings of an untrammeled global 'free market.' The end goal is to ensure not merely the supremacy of global capitalism as such, but the supremacy of American global capitalism by preventing the emergence of any other potentially competing superpower."

Reading by Tim Foley.

The heroic whistleblower and peace activist Daniel Ellsberg is dying.

In an open letter to his friends and supporters, Ellsberg announced that two weeks ago he learned that he has inoperable pancreatic cancer with a prognosis of three to six months. The letter is beautiful and inspiring, but it's also as heart-rending as anything you'll ever read, largely because within it Ellsberg makes it abundantly clear that he has extremely urgent concerns about the world he will soon be leaving behind.

Reading by Tim Foley.

A recent US Chamber of Commerce InSTEP program hosted three empire managers to talk about Washington's top three enemies, with the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussing the PRC, the odious Victoria Nuland discussing Russia, and the US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides talking about Iran. Toward the end of the hour-long discussion, Burns made the very interesting comment that Beijing must accept that the United States is "the leader" in the region and isn't going anywhere.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The narrative that Russia and China are acting with unprovoked aggression actually prevents peace, because if your government isn't doing anything to make things worse, then there's nothing it can change about its own behavior to make them better. But of course there is a massive, massive amount that the western power alliance can change about its own behavior with regard to Russia and China that would greatly improve matters. Instead of working to subordinate the entire planet to the will of Washington and its drivers, they can work toward de-escalation, diplomacy and detente.

We're not going to get de-escalation, diplomacy and detente unless the people use the power of their numbers to demand those things, and the people are not going to use the power of their numbers to demand those things as long as they are successfully propagandized not to. This means propaganda is the ultimate problem that needs to be addressed. Ordinary people can only address it by waking the public up to the fact that the political/media class are lying to them about what's happening with Russia and China, using whatever means we have access to.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Things are escalating more and more rapidly between the US-centralized power structure and the few remaining nations with the will and the means to stand against its demands for total obedience, namely China, Russia, and Iran. The world is becoming increasingly split between two groups of governments who are becoming increasingly hostile toward each other, and you don't have to be a historian to know it's probably a bad sign when that happens. Especially in the age of nuclear weapons.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The way the war in Ukraine allows mainstream liberals to play-act as rebellious anti-imperialists is a good illustration of how the empire gives people the illusion of fighting the power without their ever opposing the empire.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Well it's another big day for Democrats doing Democraty things.

Reading by Tim Foley.

After the fugue state clears,

after this whole shitshow has been shitshown,

after the stuffed shirts have become unstuffed and the talking heads have found their bodies,

after the Beltway brainchildren have turned back into terrestrial primates,

after the Pentagon has been pierced by the Roman lance and bled out F-22s and Reaper drones,

after our headless corporate gods have been cast into the sea screaming "I'M MELTING! MELLLTING!!!",

after Buddha Godzillas his way across our world,

Earth will heave a deep sigh of relief,

and we will truly hear the birdsongs

for the very first time.

The birdsongs like the full moon's light hitting your eyes after orgasm.

The birdsongs like the gentle tickle of a sleeping lover's breath on your skin.

The birdsongs soaring out of the silence like the opening notes of Sweet Child O' Mine,

born of silence and received by silence, met by the baby's smile of silence,

emerging in complete human stillness

for the very first time.

__________________

Reading by Tim Foley.