JOHNSTONE

Every time there's a mass shooting in America with an AR-15, high-level Democrats line up to proclaim that those weapons should only ever be used to kill impoverished foreigners.

The latest example of this ongoing phenomenon was Illinois Senator and Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth telling the press that a recording from the Highland Park shooting which killed seven people and wounded dozens more reminded her of her combat experience during that horrific invasion, saying the US needs to do better within its own borders.

"I just listened to the sound of that gunfire from one of the videos that was captured," Duckworth said. "And let me tell you that the last time I heard a weapon with that capacity firing that rapidly on a Fourth of July was Iraq, it was not the United States of America. We can and we should and we will do better."

Reading by Tim Foley.

The US government views the American people as an annoying distraction from its real job of managing a globe-spanning empire. They couldn't be more obvious about it. The only thing keeping Americans from seeing it are the media spinmeisters telling them daddy loves them all day.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Our civilization is built upon lies and obfuscation to such an extent that advocating for transparency and the democratization of information can be a complete political position, all by itself.

Rather than claiming to know what's best for society (whether we should move left or right, whether we should espouse this model or that model), it is perfectly legitimate to simply support giving humanity the information tools necessary to know the truth about what's happening so that they can collectively determine for themselves what direction to take.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Fox News's fabulously popular right wing pundit Tucker Carlson has ratcheted up his show's anti-China propaganda yet again, introducing his interview with Brazil's rightist president Jair Bolsonaro with a psychotic rant against Beijing that, were it about Moscow, would have looked perfectly at home among even the most demented mainstream liberal punditry at the height of Russiagate hysteria around 2018.

Before attempting to help Bolsonaro reverse his abysmal polling against his left-wing opponent Lula da Silva in a presidential election this coming October, Carlson led with the completely unevidenced claim that "China has been busy with its own agenda—taking over the world."

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Ukraine war is the single most aggressively trolled issue I've ever witnessed. As soon as it started, Twitter was full of brand new accounts swarming anyone who uttered wrongthink about Ukraine, and now there are entire extremely coordinated troll factions working to scare people away from criticizing empire narratives about this war. It's plainly very inorganic, so it's good to recall what we know about the trolling operations of western militaries.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article with links: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/ukraine-is-the-most-aggressively

Former CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo gave a speech at the Hudson Institute last week that's probably worth taking a look at just because of how much it reveals about the nature of the US empire and the corrupt institutions which influence its policies.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Turkey's President Erdoğan has officially withdrawn Ankara's objection to the addition of Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, with the three countries signing a trilateral memorandum at a NATO summit in Madrid.

The removal of Erdoğan's objection was reportedly obtained via significant natsec concessions from the other two nations largely geared toward facilitating Turkey's ongoing conflict with regional Kurdish factions, and it removes the final obstacle to Finland and Sweden beginning the process of becoming NATO members. Finland's addition will more than double the size of NATO's direct border with Russia, a major national security concern for Moscow.

Reading by Tim Foley.

From our perch here on the edge of armageddon

we are safe to gush out our love over everything,

because we've got nothing left to save it for

and nothing left to lose.

I place slippery wet YES kisses on the black crows in your stomach

and on the glowing red cardinal birds who fill the night sky.

I hold your precious heart in my hands and my eyeballs grow vines into it

and I weep round sloppy joy while telling you that you are perfect.

There is great beauty to be found in the oceans choked with garbage,

in the coughing poverty streets filled with schizophrenic prophets and opioid eyes,

in the Sauron eye of Google,

and in the pounding of the war drums as the ICBMs are readied.

It is not hard to see.

It is not even hidden.

We hold hands on the precipice and pour YES into the madness,

the majestic, orgasmic, omnicide angel madness.

Come what may.

Come, what may.

Come on, whatever may come.

We beckon forward the inevitable.

We collaborate with the chaos.

We ride as passengers with ancient earthworms and DMT gods

on the back of an infinite sea turtle

holding hands in excitement

for whatever is to come.

I love you so, so much.

I embrace you deep into my feathers

so you can hear the heartbeat of the galaxies.

Whatever happens,

whether we pass the great test or not,

whether we adapt or go extinct,

whether we make the jump or fall,

in the big picture

—the really, really big picture—

it will all be okay.

Let's smoke cigarettes here on the edge of the abyss,

as the air begins to crackle with an alien potentiality,

and just gush our love out over everything

while it is there to be loved,

because it is there to be loved,

for however long it lasts,

come what may.

____________________

____________________

____________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

One

It sure is mighty convenient timing for all political and electoral energy in the United States to suddenly get sucked up into a single issue which affects the powerful in no way, shape or form. I wouldn't have thought it would be possible for everyone's attention to get diverted away from inflation and the looming likelihood of wage reductions and soaring unemployment or the economic war with Russia that's making everything worse for everyone while pouring vast fortunes into the proxy war in Ukraine, but by golly, the empire found a way.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The New York Times reports that Ukraine is crawling with special forces and spies from the US and its allies, which would seem to contradict earlier reports that the US intelligence cartel is having trouble getting intel about what's happening on the ground in Ukraine.

This would also, obviously, put the final nail in the coffin of the claim that this is not a US proxy war.

Reading by Tim Foley.