Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

The death toll has risen to 12 from Israel's terror attack in Lebanon on Tuesday which detonated explosive materials hidden in thousands of pagers. Another 20 people were then killed in another attack on Wednesday with a second wave of explosions, this time using walkie talkies and home solar energy systems. The total death toll now sits at 32. Two children and four healthcare workers are among the dead. Thousands have been injured. As you would expect, western empire managers are getting really squirmy about this. White House spokesman John Kirby adamantly refused to answer any questions involving Israel's responsibility for the attacks during a press conference on Wednesday, despite Israel being widely reported as the responsible party, with outlets like The New York Times citing US officials as their source. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel just turned thousands of Lebanese people into involuntary suicide bombers in the name of fighting terrorism. Reading by Tim Foley.

Everything Israel has done since October 7 are things it was doing before October 7. Raping. Torturing. Stealing. Siege warfare. Killing kids with snipers. Murdering journalists and healthcare workers. Israel's actions before and since October 7 show you why October 7 happened. Reading by Tim Foley.

This is not democracy. This is plutocracy. This is oligarchy. We’re just indoctrinated into calling it democracy, by the very same mass-scale psychological manipulations they use to keep it from being a democracy. Reading by Tim Foley.

I don’t care how you vote. Vote for Harris or for Trump if that’s what you feel like doing. But I do think if you vote for either of those monsters, you should at least have the decency to feel gross about it. Like you did something very dirty and shameful in order to get by. Reading by Tim Foley.

According to Trump supporters the Deep State is simultaneously (A) a supremely powerful entity capable of enslaving the world in a neo-Marxist bug-eating vaccine mandate woke dystopia and (B) somehow incapable of successfully assassinating one 78 year-old man despite multiple attempts. Reading by Tim Foley.

Everything was going fine until Grandma brought out the roast Palestinian child for dinner. Reading by Tim Foley.

It’s not enough to win, you’ve got to do good things with your win. Democrats do not do good things when they win, they do profoundly, shockingly evil things when they win. Reading by Tim Foley.

The moral degeneracy of this civilization looks like living lives of relative comfort built on the backs of workers in the global south whose labor and resources are extracted from their nations at profoundly exploitative rates, while raining military explosives on impoverished populations who dare to disobey the dictates of our government, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, and acting like this is all fine and normal. Reading by Tim Foley.

While attention is justifiably focused on the present horrors in Gaza and the imminent possibility that it could spark another war in the middle east, the world's power structures are once again dividing themselves up into two increasingly intimate alliance groups with an increasingly hostile and militaristic posture toward each other. Reading by Tim Foley. Article with supporting links: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/genocide-in-the-foreground-world

If you missed the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, this was pretty much the tone of it: Trump: She’s a communist. She’s literally a Marxist. Harris: Actually Goldman Sachs loves me. Trump: I saw her eat a cat. It was on the TV. Harris: Dick Cheney loves me too. Trump: She won’t kill any Palestinians at all. Harris: I’ll kill way more Palestinians than he’ll kill. Trump: I will kill the most Palestinians. I’ll kill more Palestinians than anyone. Harris: You couldn’t kill even one Palestinian. You are weak. Trump: I am not weak I am strong. I am the strongest. Harris: You’re a weak little girl and you’ll let China win. Trump: She’s gonna start a nuclear war with Russia. Harris: I will invade Russia myself and I’ll kill Putin with my bare hands. I am the strongest and you are the weakest. Trump: It’s not true. It’s not true. Harris: I will also do the most fracking and drill the most oil. Many Republicans have said I’m the strongest. Trump: No. No. She’s weak on immigrat

Clearly Muslim Americans are seeing something they care deeply about this election season which the rest of the population has decided doesn't matter very much. Reading by Tim Foley.

It doesn’t matter how you vote, and it doesn’t matter how you don’t vote. The US power structure is set up to be completely unaffected by voters. Reading by Tim Foley.

I shouldn't be able to do this for a living. Criticizing the warmongering of a single power structure shouldn't be anyone's full-time job. No government should be murdering people so consistently and reliably that people can plan their whole lives around it. Reading by Tim Foley.

American democracy means getting to choose between genocide wearing a MAGA hat and genocide waving a rainbow flag. Reading by Tim Foley.

Why should you care about Gaza? Because we can’t keep living like this. Our species cannot continue living on this planet as though what happens to other people and other organisms around the world has nothing to do with us. We don’t live in that kind of world anymore. Reading by Tim Foley. Article version: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/why-should-i-care-about-gaza

One of earth’s most evil living beings, Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, has officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president. His daughter, Liz Cheney, has also endorsed Harris. Reading by Tim Foley.

An effective solution that we can all begin applying in the here and now is working to foment a revolutionary zeitgeist by spreading awareness of the depravity and deceit of the empire. Reading by Tim Foley.

In a healthy society, those who dedicated themselves to the task of getting as many human beings ripped apart by military explosives as possible would be reviled as monsters and caged for the health of the collective. In our society this is seen as a perfectly legitimate career path, from which someone can earn a very comfortable living. In a healthy society, only those who promote the interests of ordinary human beings and spurn the influence of malign manipulators would ever be elevated to positions of leadership. In our society, it's the best way to make sure you spend your life in perpetual obscurity. Reading by Tim Foley.

I thought I'd go through the questions and comments on my various platforms today and tap out some answers to the ones that jump out at me. Reading by Tim Foley.