JOHNSTONE

Cynthia Vigil was never charged with any crime because anyone could see that violent force was an entirely understandable and legitimate response to having been kidnapped and subjected to horrific treatment. It never at any time occurred to anyone to say that she should have acted differently, and it most certainly never occurred to anyone to make her single act of desperate violence the major story instead of the fact that there was a serial killer who'd been abducting women and torturing them in his murder dungeon.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The light of awareness makes it very difficult for an empire which is fueled by human blood to operate, which is why so much effort has been going into shutting off the lights.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It clears up a lot of confusion when you understand that the US empire is not a national government which happens to run nonstop military operations, it's a nonstop military operation that happens to run a national government.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Well it finally happened: Biden is now letting Ukraine strike Russian territory with US-supplied weapons. Escalations in nuclear brinkmanship which would have been unthinkable a few short years ago are becoming increasingly common as Ukraine loses more and more territory and runs out of soldiers to fight.

Reading by Tim Foley.

For the last eight months people have been expressing frustration and confusion about the reluctance of celebrities to use their immense platforms to speak out against the US-backed slaughter in Gaza. But it's not really a mystery why this happens: celebrities are reluctant to criticize the US-centralized empire because they benefit from it directly.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Remember kids, Israel HAS to bomb hospitals and starve Gaza and incinerate children and shoot people waving white flags and assassinate doctors and journalists and commit daily massacres of civilians, because if it doesn't do this the region will be dominated by evil terrorists.

Reading by Tim Foley.

One by one, the US empire is discrediting all of its own arguments for why it should lead the world. All the violence, tyranny and injustice it claims to be keeping at bay with its globe-dominating leadership is being inflicted by the empire itself, in more and more brazen and egregious ways each year.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It's hard to believe there was a time when I didn't know what a child's insides look like.

That I didn't know how limp babies' limbs go when they are dead,

when they are missing parts of their body,

missing their head,

limbs dangling lifeless as parents hold them in front of the camera,

screaming, crying, pleading, desperate.

There was a time when I didn't know how it feels to watch a man scream "Free Palestine" while burning alive,

until there was nothing left to scream with and he lost his voice forever,

but still by some power remained standing long after his voice was gone.

I didn't used to know just how sadistic people can be,

how hateful they can be,

how apathetic they can be toward the suffering of human beings,

or how heroic others can be in times of great need.

I didn't used to know. Now I do.

And now I sit here, head heavy like lead, tongue limp like a baby's corpse,

hands feeling older than the stars,

and I don't know what to do.

There is nothing I can say to make this okay.

There is nothing I can say to make any of this make sense.

This is the civilization we were born into.

This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,

as the airman said before he burned.

I lift my ancient hands to my sore heart

and say a prayer to the great Whatever

in a desperate plea

for a better world.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Anyone who's been following the Gaza genocide on social media today will be seeing this phrase "legally killed child" alongside footage of children ripped apart by Israeli military explosives in a civilian displacement camp.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It's actually amazing how stupid the propaganda has gotten. Bombing kids and hospitals is self-defense. An extremely blatant ethnic cleansing campaign is actually a war. A few western Zionist Jews saying they feel unsafe on campus is a more urgent concern than an active genocide.

Reading by Tim Foley.