Of all the face-meltingly stupid narratives that have been circulated about the US proxy war in Ukraine, the dumbest so far has got to be the increasingly common claim that aggressively escalating nuclear brinkmanship is safety and de-escalation is danger.

We see a prime example of this self-evidently idiotic narrative in a new Business Insider article titled "Putin's nuclear threats are pushing people like Trump and Elon Musk to press for a Ukraine peace deal. A nuclear expert warns that's 'dangerous.'" 

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Profoundly Stupid Narrative That Nuclear Brinkmanship Is Safety And De-Escalation Is Danger

Planting angel eggs on a dying world,
at the feet of billboards,
in the clearcut wastelands,
by the rivers of tears from Yemeni mothers,
under highway overpasses where defective gear-turners sleep,
shambling from crater to crater on tree stump legs
wailing whale songs and praying to unprofitable gods,
planting them in the ashes whispering
"May there be kindness,
may there be seeing,
may there be artist lovers who are each other's muse."
Dancing a doomed dance,
a dance of holy futility,
the dance of madmen,
the dance of heretics,
the dance of censored saints,
of banished buddhas,
singing a song of hopeless hope,
irrational hope,
unscientific hope,
the hope of lovers and lunatics,
a lunatic's song sung to the moon.
Dance with us, gentle stranger,
through this world of Disney deforestation and unexplored abysses
with unauthorized choreography and wondermented eyes.
Let us hold the line against the empire of Earth eaters
for no other reason than that we're the only ones left
who are crazy enough to try.
There may be a hatching yet, gentle stranger.
Humanity is not broken
anymore than an egg
is a broken bird.
________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

Planting Angel Eggs On A Dying World

We should probably talk more about the fact that the US empire is loudly promoting the goal of achieving peace in Ukraine by defeating Russia while quietly acknowledging that this goal is impossible. This is like accelerating toward a brick wall and pretending it's an open road.

The narrative that Russia can be defeated by escalating against it makes sense if you believe Russia can be defeated, but the US empire does not believe that Russia can be defeated. It knows these escalations are only going to exponentially ramp up death and devastation.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Pretending To Seek Peace In An Unwinnable Proxy War

Western propaganda means people always oppose the last war but not the current war. The US provoking and sustaining its Ukraine proxy war is no more ethical than its invading of Iraq; it just looks that way due to propaganda. Ukraine isn't the good war, it's just the current war.

It is only by the copious amounts of propaganda our civilization is being hammered with that this is not immediately obvious to everyone. In the future (assuming we don't annihilate ourselves first), the propaganda will have cleared from the air enough for people to see clearly and realize that they were lied to. Again.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Always Opposing The Last War But Not The Current One

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has retracted an extremely mild, toothless letter its members had written to President Biden politely asking him to consider adding a little diplomacy into the mix to help end the conflict in Ukraine. The retraction followed a deluge of public outrage against their slight deviation from the official imperial narrative.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Worthless House Progressives Retract Mild Peace Advocacy Under Pressure From Warmongers

I stand here before you
in my mother's hand-me-downs,
in this world where mothers must work like they don't have children
and parent like they don't have jobs,
keeping households running and bills paid
while their hearts run around outside their bodies
on tiny little legs that don't yet know where the wolves are,
but don't you dare over-mother them,
or under-mother them,
or get anything wrong while treading laundry
and kung fuing the kitchen
and, oh yeah,
if you could save the world from nuclear armageddon
and environmental collapse when you get a minute
that'd be great.

I stand here before you
in my mother's hand-me-downs,
with my mother's strangled voice,
and my mother's Pinesol hands,
and my mother's weeping back,
and my mother's feral chores,
and my mother's loving patience,
and my mother's gritted teeth,
and my mother's inner beauty
that you never get to see —
her inner world of unheard symphonies
and unpainted art
and oceans of sleeping babies,
neatly stuffed into a housecoat
drowned out by a Helen Reddy song.

I stand here before you
in my mother's hand-me-downs,
glaring with crosshair eyes at eelfaced manipulators
who blacken the children's sky,
who poison my children's water,
who microplastic my children's blood,
who scorch my children's Earth
to turn billionaires into trillionaires,
vowing "I see you,
I'll stop you,
right after this dentist appointment,
right after this assignment,
right after these taxes,
right after this to-do list,
I'll be ready to stop you
in, like, two more weeks, maybe,
or maybe two weeks after that."

I stand here before you
in my mother's hand-me-downs,
with my mother's intuition
(two eyes in the back of her head —
"I can see what you are doing!"),
but my many eyes can only glance
before more dishes pile up
before the to-do list unfurls  —
I'll get to it, I'll get to you,
I'll stop you,
I will,
I see what you are doing,
I just need to take the kids to daycare
but make the sandwiches first
and stop off on the way to work
for a part to fix the air con
before the summer comes
before the heat you stoked
with dinosaur bones
and Canary Island loopholes
and the infantile ambitions
of impotent men
hits our little rental
(that I'm so grateful to have
so grateful I am
on-my-hands-and-knees grateful
your-cock-in-my-throat grateful
please don't kick us out we love you we do)
like a solar wind storm
barbecuing my children
in this tent made of weatherboards
like a tiny funeral pyre
for bad women,
naughty witches,
ladies flying solo
who need to be put in their place.

Just two weeks.
Just two weeks.
Just two weeks more.
Just two weeks and I'll sit in silence for while.
Just two weeks and I'll write this all down.
Just two weeks I need to get this stuff done.
Just two weeks.
Just two weeks.
Just two weeks,
and I'll stop you.

____________________

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.

Just Two Weeks

Mainstream punditry in the latter half of 2022 is rife with op-eds arguing that the US needs to vastly increase military spending because a world war is about to erupt, and they always frame it as though this would be something that happens to the US, as though its own actions would have nothing to do with it. As though it would not be the direct result of the US-centralized empire continually accelerating towards that horrific event while refusing every possible diplomatic off-ramp due to its inability to relinquish its goal of total unipolar planetary domination.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Advocating World War Three Is Just Mainstream Punditry Now

Love like there's no yesterday
like you're the first to ever love
like it's fresh and for the first time
because it is fresh and for the first time
and the illusion otherwise is just a trick of human perception
Love like a hermit crab that said fuck it
and cast aside its shell forever
Love like a three year-old rides a tricycle

Love like the nukes just started flying
Love like two middle aged bloggers
making out in the rain while Australia floods
Love like cobwebs and calliopes

Love like a geyser of starlings
pouring from your chest cave
Love like God just cracked you open
and gazed at all the parts of you you're most ashamed of
the things you feel most guilty about
and chuckled sweetly
at how you think any of that matters
in this roaring ocean of infinity
Love like an intimate ultrasound
of the world that's waiting to be born

Love like everyone's watching
and you're a slutty little attention whore

Love like peacock angels in screaming orgasm

Love like you deserve to love
and be loved
because you do
because you do
I swear to you on my accordion heart
and my warzone womb
and my eyes that are brimming with my grandmother's tears
you deserve to love and be loved
you do
you do
and it is safe
and it is right
and it is good
Love like tender holiness kisses

Love like swampwater messiahs

Love like watching My Dinner with Andre for the very first time
home alone with the lights out
and a box of tissues
and a mind full of wonder

Love like eating an orange while listening to crickets

Love like a heartfelt impromptu pop song serenade
from an adoring lover
who cannot sing
Love like a mother noticing that her prattling child
will never be that age again
Love like you are a very young primate
in a very old universe you do not understand
and your accomplishments mean nothing
because everything's so big
so all that matters is love
and loving
Love like a scarecrow saint

Love like a balrog buddha

Love like babies eating ice cream

Love big

Love hard

Empty the tank

Leave it all in the ring
There's nothing to save it for anyway

________________

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone

Love Like There's No Yesterday

"Those most touched by the war, namely the internally displaced, were more likely to prioritise saving lives. Other research reveals that those farthest from the battlefields have the most hawkish attitudes."

Those two simple sentences sum up so much of the attitude we are seeing toward this war, and it applies as much to those cheerleading continual escalation and bloodshed from the comfort of their homes on the other side of the world.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Farther People Are From The Fighting In Ukraine, The More They Oppose Peace Talks

Here's my entry for The Producers Corner Sample Challenge #287. first choppes done with the MPC touch, then messed arround with them in Ableton and wrapped up the whole scenery.  First time I'm combining samples from multiple tracks in one song.

Deejoohcee - TPC 287 - Against All Odds

luv jonez submission for Sample Challenge #255 at The Producers Corner.

Luv Shot Ya 87.5bpm 24bit

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.

Always Opposing The Last War But Not The Current One

Caitlin Johnstone

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