Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz • 467,475 subscribers
100% reader-funded. All works free to republish/use/translate. All works co-authored by Tim Foley. Patreon: https://t.co/W3o6lpndra Paypal: https://t.co/F6jUZFOo8z
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The first fully AI-generated movie to be accepted by a major film festival, Dreams of Violets, is atrocity propaganda for war with Iran. The trailer features characters gazing joyfully up at US/Israeli fighter jets arriving to bomb their country while a narrator talks of freedom:
Caitlin Johnstone345,366 просмотров • 9 дней назад
This is nuts, Trump really did do exactly what Ryan Grim suggested he do hours earlier: pretend Iran's ten-point plan is a new proposal, counting on the fact that the media hasn't been reporting on Iran's demands to make it look like a new offer Tehran put forward in desperation.
Caitlin Johnstone1,972,725 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
The actual, official 2024 Democratic Party platform accused Trump of "fecklessness and weakness" for failing to go to war with Iran during his first term. Kamala Harris labeled Iran the #1 enemy of the United States. In their 2024 debate, Harris repeatedly slammed Trump for being too soft on America's enemies and announced that she "will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel." There was no "plan" for avoiding this. Your people wanted this war as much as Trump and his handlers did. That's why they're doing nothing right now.
Caitlin Johnstone372,613 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
![Crenshaw: [Chinese citizens] must cooperate with Chinese intelligence whenever they are called upon, and if they are called upon they're bound to secrecy. That would include you. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew: I'm Singaporean.](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1639087482380910594/ext_tw_video_thumb/1639086137246642182/pu/img/t_vMNMeP8rZizmFu.jpg)
Congresswoman Fakes Code Pink "Assault", And Other Notes Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna falsely reported that antiwar activist Medea Benjamin “smacked” her during a confrontation on Thursday, subsequently calling the police in an effort to get the Code Pink leader charged with assault. If you watch the video of the so-called “assault”, it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen in your life. The 73 year-old activist barely grazes the clothing on Luna’s arm with her hand while speaking, after which the US Air Force veteran Luna collapses into a pile of blubbering victimhood. Benjamin reports that she was briefly detained by Capitol Police after the incident, but was released without charges after officers reviewed the video footage. Luna had already been on a crusade against Code Pink that same day, falsely suggesting the organization is funded by the Chinese government while questioning Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. She then took to social media to reiterate her false claim that “Code Pink is a CCP-funded op” and insisting the activist “hit my arm”. Everyone in the US government is a manipulative warmongering psychopath. Capitol Hill is swamp full of lying mass murderers. ❖ Asked by the press to define the word “ceasefire” on Wednesday, President Trump came up with an answer you just know was fed to him by his handlers. “It’s a different part of the world, you know; I’d say in that part a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner,” the president said. That might be the Hebrew definition of the word, but everywhere besides Israel the word “ceasefire” is understood to mean that both sides cease firing. The IDF has continued hammering Lebanon and Gaza amid so-called ceasefire agreements on a daily basis, and the president has plainly been groomed to regurgitate the correct lines in defense of this policy. ❖ More people have been burned to death by Israeli strikes in Gaza. People show you examples of discrimination against Jews and it’s somebody wearing a watermelon pin or saying “from the river to the sea”. People show you examples of discrimination against Arabs and it’s families being burned alive in Palestine and Lebanon with the full backing of the western world. The abuses and atrocities people defend using “antisemitism” accusations are orders of magnitude more dangerous than antisemitism. ❖ The Smotrich parade scandal really highlighted how many mental contortions liberal Zionists are performing in order to separate Israel and its government; they spent the whole next day in narrative management mode bloviating about how Israel’s finance minister does not represent Israel and had no business being in the Israel Day parade. They like to pretend there are fairy fantasyland versions of Israel in other dimensions ruled by magic Jewish elf queens who ride candy unicorns and treat Palestinians as equals, and it is only by some freakish and unforeseeable twist of fate that our dimension’s version of Israel wound up being governed by genocidal racists. That’s how they maintain their view that it’s legitimate to criticize specific actions of this one specific government sometimes, but it’s antisemitic to oppose Zionism or say Israel shouldn’t exist. They pretend that the genocidal apartheid state we see before us today is some sort of fluke that is only one of the many possible iterations of what Israel could look like, and that any minute now it could agree to a two-state solution and become a virtuous beacon of truth and justice for the entire world. This is of course ridiculous. Everything that Israel is today is the result of everything it has always been. All this war, genocide, apartheid and abuse is what it looks like when you give Zionists everything they want. This is all the inevitable fruit of the decision to plant a brand new ethnostate on top of a pre-existing civilization whose inhabitants do not belong to the privileged group. There is no alternate reality version of Israel. Its government is inseparable from everything it is as a state. Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are the product of everything Israel has been from its very inception, and when they leave power they will be replaced by psychopathic fascists with different names and faces. Genocidal apartheid states should not exist. To oppose genocide and apartheid is to oppose Zionism, because there is no material manifestation of Zionism put into practice which does not include those things. Saying “anti-Zionism is anti-semitism” is just saying you support genocide and apartheid and want those things to continue. ❖ It’s easy to point at Australia’s “antisemitism envoy” Jillian Segal and make fun of how crazy and stupid she is, but the Albanese government is the only reason her craziness and stupidity is a problem. The thing about Segal and all these “antisemitism advisors” they’re setting up in western governments is that they’re just random people with strong political opinions who are being elevated to ridiculous levels of influence. They’re not experts, they’re just people who happen to hold the political opinion that it should be illegal to criticize the state of Israel. Which wouldn’t normally be an issue; our society is full of individuals with terrible political opinions. The problem is that our government has selected these cartoonishly absurd Zionists to help shape policy in immensely consequential ways that erode the civil liberties of our nation. Our leaders are the ones to blame for these inept lunatics wielding obscene levels of influence; left to their own devices they’d just be harmless idiots. They’re only harmful because they’re being given the power to do harm. ❖
Caitlin Johnstone11,892 просмотров • 3 дней назад
Seeing New York Times editors say NATO stands for "North American Treaty Organization" on the same day CNN claims Iranians might help the downed pilot who was trying to bomb them because they're happy he's there really illustrates how fucked western journalism is, doesn't it? I mean, this is some serious baby-brained thinking on display here. That New York Times headline made it through MULTIPLE checkpoints before publication without it ever even occurring to anyone to at least do a quick Google search to find out if the A in NATO really does stand for "American", and, if so, why are there so many European countries in it? That CNN analyst really does have such an infantile, children's cartoon worldview on American wars that she thinks the people being bombed by US fighter jets will want to hug them and kiss them and give them presents when they emergency eject into enemy territory. It's kind of amazing that any of the people involved in either of these incidents are working in news media at all. If you've ever wondered why so many Americans are so ignorant about what's going on in their world, it's because for generations these have been the kinds of people informing them about world events. These are the news outlets who've been responsible for creating an informed populace. And their reporting is shared with the entire western world. I constantly criticize the western press for its role in propagandizing the public to manufacture consent for evil wars and normalize an abusive political status quo. You cannot despise these manipulators enough for their role in the world's dysfunction today. But these two incidents highlight the fact that the people running the western press aren't just evil — they're also really, really stupid.
Caitlin Johnstone159,413 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
Long as we're still picking on Sarah Hurwitz, I haven't seen anyone flagging how she said western Jews should have more loyalty to Israel than their own countries because Israeli Jews are their "siblings". Under the IHRA definition of antisemitism it's banned to say Jews do this.
Caitlin Johnstone419,283 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад
Zionists Push Islamophobia Because It's Easier Than Getting People To Like Israel "Israel makes everything gross. It makes the world more violent, more sociopathic, and more hateful. The entire state is sustained by nonstop violence and hatred." Reading by Tim Foley.
Caitlin Johnstone431,232 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад
Israel Rapes Everyone, And Other Notes International flotilla activists say they were subjected to torture and sexual assault by Israeli forces after being abducted in international waters while attempting to bring aid to Gaza. A statement from the Global Sumud Flotilla reports that the IDF held the activists on a makeshift “torture boat”, asserting that “At least 12 sexual assaults have been documented on that vessel alone, including anal rape and forcible penetration by a handgun.” This comes after a New York Times report on Israel’s systemic use of sexual torture in its prison camps sent hasbarists howling in outrage for days, and after a Haaretz report on the Israeli military’s internal findings that sexual assault is soaring among its own ranks. If you knew someone who was constantly being accused of rape by different people on a daily basis, at some point you’d have to conclude that that person is a rapist. When you see the Israeli military being constantly accused by people from all walks of life of using rape and sexual torture, you have to conclude that Israel is a rape country. ❖ They made up lies about atrocities so that they could justify committing atrocities. They made up lies about rape so that they could justify rape. They made up lies about dead babies to justify killing babies. They framed themselves as victims to justify victimizing others. ❖ It looks like the US may be reaching a deal with Iran, with warmongers like Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham and Mark Dubowitz expressing dismay at the terms the agreement appears likely to include. I no longer feel a sense of relief when the US war machine shows signs of de-escalation, because these days it’s just a sign they’re getting ready to escalate somewhere else. If Washington sets up an memo of understanding with Iran it only means they’re preparing to regime change Cuba, with plans to re-target Iran using different strategies already being drawn up for a later date. It’s like when you know a guy who always abuses his girlfriends. If you see one of his partners escape her abusive relationship, after a certain point you’re going to stop feeling a sense of relief, because after watching the patterns play out over and over again you know he’s just going to find some other unfortunate woman to put in that spot. The amount of abuse remains constant; all that changes is the victim. The violence of the US empire remains constant. It moves around, but it doesn’t diminish. If you see it pulling back a bit, that only means it’s preparing to come roaring forward, like a wave to the shore. The tide of imperial violence is going to keep returning until the empire is dismantled. ❖ There’s nothing more undignified than buying into the US war propaganda about Cuba. I see people show up in my replies arguing that Cuba is actually a real threat to the United States and it feels like they’re showing me videos of themselves eating feces. It’s so self-debasing. ❖ Normalize telling warmongering gusanos to shut the fuck up. US regime change interventionism is evil regardless of wherever your family happens to come from. Your family fleeing Cuba in the sixties does not magically make siege warfare and mass murder acceptable. Shut up. ❖ Point 1: Every relevant human rights group says Israel is an apartheid state. Point 2: Every relevant human rights group says Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza. Point 3: Genocidal apartheid states should not exist. Point 4: If you disagree with Point 3, you’re a bad person. ❖ Normal person: Genocide is bad. Israel supporter: Just say you hate Jews. Normal person: I oppose Zionism. Israel supporter: Jews. You mean Jews. Say Jews. Normal person: The Israel lobby is causing problems. Israel supporter: Jews Jews Jews Jews Jewy Jew Jews. Normal person: But I don’t mean Jews. I’m expressing specific grievances against a specific state, its backers, and the political ideology it is premised upon. I judge people based on their individual actions, not on their religion. Israel supporter: JEWWWWWWS. Normal person: You realize you’re doing the exact same thing neo-Nazis do, right? You’re conflating all Jews with everything bad about Israel and the forces which give rise to its abuses. Israel supporter: It is antisemitic to conflate all Jews with the actions of Israel. Normal person: Then why do you keep conflating all Jews with the actions of Israel? Israel supporter: Because it is antisemitic not to conflate all Jews with the actions of Israel.
Caitlin Johnstone31,121 просмотров • 15 дней назад
Nobody Sincerely Believes Cuba Threatens The United States In a sign that the US is preparing for yet another evil war, Marco Rubio is now claiming that Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the United States, saying the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is “not high”. “Cuba not only has weapons that they’ve acquired from Russia and China over the years, but they also host Russian and Chinese intelligence presence in their country — not far from where we’re standing right now,” Rubio told the press on Thursday. “So Cuba has always posed a national security threat to the United States. They, by the way, have been one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region.” Rubio’s comments come as a US intelligence report laundered through Axios claims that Cuba may be preparing to launch a drone strike against US military forces. Havana said the Axios report misrepresents Cuba’s defensive measures as a preparation to attack, accusing the US of “fabricating pretexts, creating and spreading falsehoods, and distorting as extraordinary the logical preparation required to face a potential aggression.” The US has also unsealed an indictment for Raul Castro, the 94 year-old brother of Fidel Castro, in a move that resembles the playbook used for the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. The excuses for military action are already being rolled out. This happens as US war machinery relocates to the Caribbean, and as Cuba flounders under a crushing US oil blockade that is already inflicting a severe humanitarian toll. And everyone knows it’s all based on lies. You know it. I know it. Marco Rubio knows it. The war propagandists know it. The gusanos brigading social media begging for war know it. We all know it’s a sham. Not one person sincerely believes Cuba poses a threat to the United States. No one sincerely believes Cuba just coincidentally became an urgent menace to US national security all of a sudden right when the US began scrambling to consolidate geostrategic control in the middle east and the western hemisphere. Nobody actually thinks that a tiny, impoverished island nation is preparing to launch a war of aggression against the United States. This is a performance put on by warmongers and bootlickers. It insults our intelligence and robs us of dignity. If things cool down with Iran, then it’s a safe bet they’re going in for the kill shot on Cuba. The US empire never makes peace, it just moves the crosshairs of its war machinery from nation to nation. We see this over and over again. Yay! The troops are leaving Afghanistan — oh, now they’re waging a proxy war in Ukraine. Excellent, they’re deescalating against Yemen — whoa, now they’re kidnapping the president of Venezuela. Oh hey, it looks like the mass slaughter in Gaza has slowed down — oh, now they’re going to war with Iran. Look, they’re pulling thousands of troops out of Germany — oh, it’s so they can move them to Poland. Hey these Iran negotiations are finally getting somewhere — ah man, now they’re invading Cuba. Over and over and over and over again. As soon as the human butchery slows down in one place, it picks up somewhere else. The US empire exists in a constant state of war. War is the glue that holds the empire together. If the wars stop, the empire stops. That’s why the denizens of the empire are never allowed to vote for an end to wars. You can vote for candidates who will end abortions or trans rights or corporate regulations, but you can’t vote for a candidate who will actually end the wars. Peace is never on the ballot, because war is too critical for the functioning of the empire. Which is why it’s so important for us all to stand against the war machine. If we can end the wars, we can end the empire. Not until then will we have a shot at building a healthy world.
Caitlin Johnstone33,940 просмотров • 17 дней назад
Thousands Of New Yorkers Just Attended A Nazi Parade For Israel, And Other Notes Multiple far right Israeli ministers attended New York City’s Israel Day Parade on Sunday, including Israel’s genocidal finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich is ideologically not significantly different from a Nazi. Which means New York City just hosted a Nazi parade that was attended by thousands of people. New York officials are acting shocked and appalled by Smotrich’s appearance at the march, but “I can’t believe there were Israeli officials at the Israel parade” is kind of a hard sell. This is just what supporting Israel looks like: standing shoulder to shoulder with genocidal extremists and making common cause with them. That’s what Israel is. ❖ Americans are growing concerned about the latest Israeli military nightmare, which of course means it’s time for Axios to publish another article telling them the president has got it all under control. The latest Axios narrative management op is titled “Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon,” claiming the president admonished the Israeli prime minister that he is “fucking crazy” over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, saying “You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” As usual the article was authored by Israeli intelligence insider Barak Ravid, who has made an entire career out of falsely reporting that the US president is furious with Netanyahu and is moments away from twisting Israel’s arm to make peace. Some Barak Ravid headlines from the Biden administration include the following: Biden “running out” of patience with Bibi as Gaza war hits 100 days Scoop: Biden in “frustrating” call told Bibi to solve Palestinian tax revenue issue Biden’s ultimatum to Bibi: Change Gaza policy or we will White House temperature is “very high” ahead of Biden-Bibi call “We won’t support you”: Inside Biden’s ultimatum to Bibi Israel and U.S. deeply divided in meeting on key Rafah operation issues Biden and Bibi “red lines” for Rafah put them on a collision course Biden-Bibi clash escalates as U.S. accused of undermining Israeli government Biden and Netanyahu hold first call in a month amid public split Biden breaks with Netanyahu but sticks with Israel Biden on hot mic: Told Bibi we needed “come to Jesus” meeting on Gaza Biden, in rare criticism, warns Netanyahu that Israel risks losing global support Biden, in rare criticism of Bibi, says pause in Gaza fighting should have come sooner Scoop: Blinken warns Israeli officials global pressure will grow longer war goes on Israeli minister lambasted at White House about Gaza and war strategy Scoop: Biden tells Bibi he’s not in it for a year of war in Gaza Blinken unloads on Bibi: “You need a coherent plan” or face disaster in Gaza Scoop: White House cancels meeting, scolds Netanyahu in protest over video Netanyahu irked by “critical” Harris comments Needless to say, Biden continued shipping weapons to Israel throughout the Gaza holocaust until the moment he left office in January of last year. There was never any meaningful conflict between the White House and Tel Aviv then, and we may safely assume that there there is no meaningful conflict between the White House and Tel Aviv today. As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp notes, the Israeli press are reporting that Netanyahu’s planned attack on Beirut has been drawn up in coordination with Washington. ❖ A new UN report accuses Israel of rape and sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners, yet another entry into the mountains upon mountains of evidence for this already well-established fact. It’s crazy how the actual, serious hasbara narrative about all these reports is that there’s a giant global antisemitic conspiracy in which all humanitarian institutions are collaborating with mainstream news outlets in a sinister plot to make Israel look bad. ❖ The Zionist PR operation StopAntisemitism has a multi-paragraph post up on Twitter right now complaining that a hospital receptionist wore a keffiyeh at work, and it made a Jewish woman feel upset. That’s it. That’s the whole entire story. A Jewish person’s feelings felt upset about a piece of cloth. People are getting ripped to shreds by Israeli bombs in Lebanon and Gaza, but this is what we all need to focus on. When people talk about “skyrocketing levels of antisemitic incidents”, it’s mostly just stuff like this. ❖ Australia’s antisemitism czar released a document which simultaneously asserts that “Antisemitism and antizionism are both expressions of hatred towards Jews” AND that “It is antisemitic to conflate the policies of the Israeli government with the views of Jewish Australians”. These two sentences are contradictory and mutually exclusive. They cannot both be true. If it’s wrong to conflate all Jews with Israel, then it cannot be right to conflate a rejection of the pro-Israel political ideology with a hatred toward all Jews. It’s either one or the other. It can’t be both. Just in case you wanted a little more insight into how absurd and incoherent this fake “antisemitism” panic is.
Caitlin Johnstone12,457 просмотров • 5 дней назад
If Iran Kills US Troops, The Blame Rests Solely On The US And Israel White House officials reportedly want Israel to provoke Iran into attacking US military bases in the region, because it will make Americans more willing to go to war. Reading by Tim Foley.
Caitlin Johnstone148,011 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
They're Not Mad At Ben-Gvir For Being Evil, They're Mad At Him For Being Honest Western and Israeli officials are currently wagging their fingers in faux outrage at Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for publicly boasting about the mistreatment of flotilla activists attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ben-Gvir’s Twitter account shared a video of the minister taunting activists who were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters earlier this week, captioning it “This is how we accept the supporters of terrorism” in Hebrew and “Welcome to Israel” in English. The video shows flotilla activists from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand being shoved, held in stress positions on the ground, and mocked by Ben-Gvir while restrained. This all of course pales in comparison to the abuses endured by Palestinian captives on a daily basis, but it’s the subject of international outcry today because the victims are from the west. Western officials from the United States, the UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand have issued huffy, indignant statements denouncing Ben-Gvir and demanding the return of the activists, while Israeli officials put on a display attempting to distance themselves from the actions of their own national security minister. “The way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” tweeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the controversy. “You knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display — and not for the first time,” Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar admonished Ben-Gvir on Twitter, adding, “No, you are not the face of Israel.” “Itamar Ben Gvir’s reckless grandstanding is not representative of government policy,” tweeted Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, adding, “Ben Gvir’s antics take a sledgehammer to our diplomatic efforts while Israel’s enemies gleefully jump on every unfortunate nonsense to discredit and demonize.” All this posturing about how Ben-Gvir’s actions do not represent Israel or its values would probably have carried more weight if they were not taking place in the immediate aftermath of an international scandal over a New York Times report on Israel’s fondness for using sexual torture on its captives — including the use of trained rape dogs. Analysts have noted that Israel’s national security minister appears to be sharing these materials in order to drum up support from his far-right base in an election year, which tells you everything you need to know about the political environment in that country today. Also noteworthy is the fact that Ben-Gvir has posted videos of this sort before — the only difference being that his victims in those videos were Palestinian. We are only seeing outcry from the western world today because the west perceives western lives as infinitely more valuable than the lives of Arabs. So it is a bit rich for the western political/media class to be making a fuss over this video in particular after enthusiastically supporting Israel’s nonstop violence and abuse this entire time, and it is rather silly for Israeli officials to be claiming their national security minister’s actions do not represent the values of their country. Ben-Gvir is the perfect embodiment of the racist murderousness of both Israel and the western empire. He represents everything this twisted civilization has become. They’re not mad at Ben-Gvir for being evil. They’re just mad at him for being honest.
Caitlin Johnstone30,357 просмотров • 18 дней назад
