Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

The problem is not that the wrong people keep getting elected, it's that the elections don't matter and voters don't have a say. Reading by Tim Foley.

Haaretz has a new article out titled "Gaza Becomes Israel's Testing Ground for Military Robots", which reports that "In an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs in the Gaza War." Reading by Tim Foley.

There's an infuriatingly common type of liberal who purports to oppose Israel's actions in Gaza while also saying they support "Israel's right to exist", as though Israel's existence is somehow separable from its genocidal murderousness. Reading by Tim Foley.

In the case of suicide as we conventionally understand it, death is the goal. It is the both the means and the end, in and of itself. Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation was a means to a very different end: a free Palestine and the cessation of an ongoing genocide. Reading by Tim Foley.

You have either consciously chosen to side with the people who are being continually massacred by Israel, or you have consciously chosen to side with Israel, or you have sided with Israel by being "neutral", or you have sided with Israel by being indifferent. Reading by Tim Foley.

Imperial propaganda outlet The New York Times is currently embroiled in a massive scandal over its reporting which alleges mass rapes on October 7 - and the scandal is being fueled in part by leaks from its own staff. Reading by Tim Foley.

So that's what happens when the imperial media report on an Israeli massacre, in case you were curious and haven't been paying attention since October 7 or the decades which preceded it. Reading by Tim Foley.

Many high-profile Israel supporters have been circulating a fake screenshot of a Reddit account run by Bushnell saying "Palestine will be free when all the jews are dead." The fact that they're doing this illustrates two things: that Israel supporters are unscrupulous liars, and that they are freaking the fuck out about how much damage Bushnell has done to their cause. Reading by Tim Foley.

One of the main reasons the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell is having such an earthshaking impact on our society is because it's the single most profound act of sincerity that any of us have ever witnessed. Reading by Tim Foley.

When the slaughter stops in Gaza I will get to those cobwebs, promise, and water that monstera, and clean out that goo in the fridge. When the slaughter stops in Gaza I will youtube how to grow strawberries, and whether dinosaurs ever had feathers, and what's the deal with hibachis -  is it something to do with fondue? When the slaughter stops in Gaza I will brush my hair out finally, and call my Mum god bless her and make her a perfect lasagna -  no, two; I'll make one for freezing, and I'll give Dad back his drill. When the slaughter stops in Gaza I will teach myself to play 'Nightswimming', and do a drawing of that face that I took a pic of with my camera in that packed tram in peak-hour Back Before All This Happened, and I'll make some kind of cake. When the slaughter stops in Gaza I will sit with my love in our camp chairs, our fingers entwined with our heart strings, kicking coals awake til magpies chortle "oh boy are you guys still up?" and then I'll let him give me an orgasm -  the kind that rips thro

Shortly before his final act in this world, Bushnell posted the following message on Facebook: "Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' "The answer is, you're doing it. Right now." Aaron Bushnell has provided his own answer to this challenge. We're all providing our own right now. Reading by Tim Foley.

You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. Reading by Tim Foley.

You don't get to apply the label "lesser evil" to a president who is backing a literal genocide. That's not a thing. Past a certain point you're just plain evil. Reading by Tim Foley.

Every single day these last four and a half months I've been inundated with comments from Israel supporters excusing the most monstrous acts imaginable in the most monstrous ways imaginable. People calling for the total destruction of Gaza. People saying the Gazans deserve what is happening to them. Saying the sickest shit you can possibly think of in response to news of terrible things happening to innocent children. Reading by Tim Foley.

The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that if a Republican president were to back a genocide it would be an evil and unforgivable atrocity, whereas when a Democrat president backs a genocide it's a minor foible that you'd better shut up about unless you want Trump to win. Reading by Tim Foley.

Look for fresh opportunities to show westerners that the mass media are deceiving and propagandizing them to get them questioning their assumptions about what they've been told about the world. Look for fresh opportunities to show them evidence that the US war machine is the most murderous and destructive force on this planet. Look for fresh opportunities to show them how status quo systems create a far less beneficial society and a far less healthy world than what we could have under different systems. You never know what could be the one thing that snaps somebody's eyes open. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israeli media are now reporting that ten hostages were killed as a result of Israeli attacks on buildings where the IDF knew hostages were located. Israel supporters can go ahead and stop babbling about hostages when trying to justify the attack on Gaza. It's never been about saving hostages. Reading by Tim Foley.

One point I keep trying to drive home here in as many ways as I can is that this is the dystopia we were warned about. The main difference between this mind-controlled dystopia and the fictional dystopias in novels like 1984 is that in 1984 people knew they weren't living in a free society, whereas in this dystopia the people believe they are free. Reading by Tim Foley.

Tim and Caitlin are back with another chat, this time about Assange, Gaza, the empire and propaganda. We also took a couple of questions, including "Where do you get your news and how best to parse fact from fiction?" and "Across the world are there any people you admire offering inspiration and hope?"

I've actually stopped following people for getting Gaza wrong. People I'd previously followed for years. I disagree with literally everyone I follow on some issues at some times, but Gaza quickly became my red line. If you can't get that one right, nothing else you have to say is worth a damn. Reading by Tim Foley.