CNN reports that President Biden has nominated criminal neocon Elliott Abrams for a position on the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, which according to the US State Department is responsible for "appraising activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics" and pays "acute attention" to the US government's official foreign propaganda arm, the US Agency for Global Media.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Presidents Keep Hiring Elliott Abrams Because The US Empire Is Just That Evil

I was 19 the first time I was raped.
Backpacking through Europe, drugged, woke up being sodomised over a toilet bowl in some Italian hotel bathroom.
Blood everywhere.
Memories were fuzzy through whatever it was he slipped me, but I recall fumbling with the doorknob trying to get out, unable to understand why it wasn't opening, then looking down and seeing that he had his foot up against the bottom of the door.
Earlier that day I'd felt like I was flying. Here I was, traveling in Europe just like a grownup, making it work somehow even in a country where I didn't speak the language.
"I'm doing it! I can do it! My god, I can really do it!"
I was going to be an artist. I loved to paint. Teacher told me I should try to get some life experience before going to art school, so out I went to get some. My god did I get some motherfucking life experience.
Came home from Europe and immediately got into an abusive relationship, with a man who would use my talents to get him as much money, as much female attention, and as much professional clout as possible. He got me pregnant right after one of the times I tried to leave him.
I didn't paint.
I turned 26 the day after my daughter was born. I was terrified. I loved her so much I wanted her to have a better mother than me.
"Can I do it? Can I do it? Dear god, please help me do it!"
I gained a lot of weight, and I kept it on. Made me feel secure. Invisible. Like even if I can't do it, even if I fuck up royally at life and completely drop the ball, at least I won't wake up in a blood-smeared bathroom being sodomised over a toilet by a man who won't let me leave.
Now I am 48. I am healing, and I have grown strong. 
Through a strange series of miracles and unexpected rabbit holes, I've found myself in a situation where complete strangers from all around the world give me money to share my thoughts on things.
And I've begun painting again, after all these years. Just sold a few pieces at auction. And it's been bringing up some old feelings.
"I'm doing it! I can do it! My god, I'm really doing it!"
And my bum has started hurting. I've been having shooting pains radiating from right where that bastard stuck me all those years ago. Smacking me out of the air in my state of teenage exuberance. Breaking my wings. Breaking my paintbrush.
People keep asking me to do interviews, but I prefer to stay more hidden. Makes me feel secure. Invisible.
I don't know why I'm sharing this with you right now. I guess I can only write what's coming up for me on a given day, and this is definitely what's front and center for me at this moment.
I'm going to keep healing. I'm going to keep growing stronger. I'm going to keep painting. I may even do interviews one day. 
I don't know where this ride is headed, but I'm very happy I'm on it.
I'm really glad to be alive you guys.

I Was 19

Anyone who is capable of honest self-reflection and critical thinking understands that the "self-made man" is a myth of our culture; that anyone who amasses a fortune does so on the backs of many other people whose work made it possible, and found the opportunity to do so because of the circumstances they happened upon by chance of birth, conditioning and sheer dumb luck.
And it's worth highlighting that this is also true of all other personal circumstances, including those that people in this slice of the online community might take pride in. One doesn't for example become aware of the manipulations of the powerful and the deceptions of the media because they are particularly smart and virtuous, they do so because they were lucky enough to find information from others which helped them form this understanding, and because their personal conditioning allowed them to take that information in and let it inform their worldview.
Similarly, one doesn't wind up opposing capitalism because of any personal specialness or righteousness; one finds themselves opposing capitalism because they happened upon socialist ideas after having meandered through a life which gave them the conditioning necessary for them to seriously consider those perspectives and take them on board. If their life had unfolded differently, through no fault or virtue of their own, they never would have happened upon those ideas, or if they had they would not have been receptive to them.
I said "Anyone who is capable of honest self-reflection and critical thinking" above, but even those gifts come upon us largely by sheer dumb luck, brought to us by other people in the form of information and conditioning throughout our lives.
My point is we're all just kind of muddling our way through this thing, and our successes and failures (by whatever metric we measure success and failure) are due more to the unfolding of humanity's collective consciousness than any brilliance or defectiveness on our own part.
Obviously we must all try to do our very best with the hand that we were dealt in life, but it's probably a good idea to harbor some compassion for those who don't get it as right as we do in our eyes. We were all born into a world saturated with propaganda and dominated by abusive systems, and ultimately the degree to which we are able to see our way around in that world says as much about how good or bad we are as a seed landing on rich or sandy earth says about the quality of the seed.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Self-Made Man Is A Myth

Professional psychopath John Bolton has an article out with The Hill titled "America can't permit Chinese military expansion in Cuba" which inadvertently spells out exactly what's wrong with the way the US empire keeps amassing heavily armed proxy forces on the borders of its large Asiatic enemies.

Reading by Tim Foley.

John Bolton Accidentally Explains Why US Policy On Russia And China Is Wrong

The New York Times excludes some crucial information about cluster bombs from its headline, The Washington Post and Guardian have some interesting views on NATO membership for Ukraine, and, surprise! John Bolton loves cluster munitions.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Today In War Propaganda

Biden is lying. The US is deliberately surrounding China with war machinery and has been for years, and has rapidly escalated its efforts to do so during Biden’s term. There are currently no fewer than 313 US military bases in East Asia by the Pentagon’s own admission, with the Biden administration adding four new ones in the Philippines. Biden’s war machine has been busy instituting the AUKUS alliance which is specifically set up to menace China, moving nuclear-capable bombers to Indonesia, signing a military deal with Papua New Guinea, working to station missile-armed marines at Japan’s Okinawa islands, staging provocations in Taiwan, and getting into increasingly confrontational encounters with Chinese military vessels and aircraft off China’s coast as part of its dramatically increased military presence in the area.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Biden Keeps Lying About The US "Not Trying To Surround" China

And it really is interesting how almost everyone seems to be pretty much okay with corporations in the media and Silicon Valley interfering in a US election like this. Everyone shrieked their lungs out about the (now wholly discredited) narrative that Russian bots had influenced the US election with tweets and Facebook memes, but immensely wealthy corporations with universes more influence manipulating the way people think and vote is perfectly fine?

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Worst 2024 Election Interference Won't Come From Russia Or China

I saw a video clip of Julian Assange speaking in London in 2010 where he made an important observation while explaining the philosophy behind his work with WikiLeaks. He said that all our political theories are to some extent "bankrupt" in our current situation, because our institutions are so shrouded in secrecy that we can't even know what's really going on in the world.

"We can all write about our political issues, we can all push for particular things we believe in, we can all have particular brands of politics, but I say actually it's all bankrupt," Assange said. "And the reason it's all bankrupt, and all current political theories are bankrupt and particular lines of political thought, is because actually we don't know what the hell is going on. And until we know the basic structures of our institutions — how they operate in practice, these titanic organizations, how they behave inside, not just through stories but through vast amounts of internal documentations — until we know that, how can we possibly make a diagnosis? How can we set the direction to go until we know where we are? We don't even have a map of where we are. So our first task is to build up a sort of intellectual heritage that describes where we are. And once we know where we are, then we have a hope of setting course for a different direction. Until then, I think all political theories — to greater and lesser extents of course — are bankrupt."

Reading by Tim Foley.

Real Change Is Impossible While Our World Is Shrouded In Secrecy

Julian Assange is a journalist who's been imprisoned for doing journalism on war crimes, by an empire that claims to defend journalists and oppose war crimes. 

Assange and his persecution expose the giant plot holes in every story the western power structure tells about itself. About its love of free speech and the free press. About its opposition to tyranny. About its wars and why it wages them.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Assange Exposes The Empire's True Face

"Let the market decide" really means let the manipulators decide, because the markets are dominated by those who excel at manipulating. We're taught that letting the market decide means letting supply and demand take its natural course, as though we're talking about ocean tides or seasons or something, but in reality both supply and demand are manipulated constantly with extreme aggression. Manipulating the supply of diamonds. Manipulating the supply of housing. Manipulating the supply of oil. Manipulating people into wanting things they'd never thought to want before through advertising. Manipulating women into feeling bad about their bodies so they'll buy your beauty products. Manipulating people into paying $2000 for a $20 bag using branding. Manipulating people into buying Listerine by inventing the word "halitosis" and convincing them to be worried about it. Manipulating people into believing Beanie Babies were prized collectors items when they were just standard stuffed toys. 

Capitalism gives us a civilization that is dominated by trickery. Those who get to the top are those who succeed in tricking as many people as possible. Tricking them into paying more. Tricking them into buying your product and not someone else's. Tricking people who actually produce something of value into making you their middle man who gets paid despite producing nothing. Tricking competitors into making the wrong move. Tricking people into asking their doctor about your extremely lucrative pharmaceutical product. Tricking people into buying or selling certain stocks or cryptocurrencies or NFTs. Tricking people by using the legal system and your team of lawyers who understand it better than normal people do. Tricking people into letting you privatize their own drinking water and then selling it back to them in bottles. 

It's a scam competition. Whoever scams the best wins. How can you save the planet from destruction by human behavior when all of human behavior is driven by a bizarre scam competition? And the biggest scam of all is the narrative that this system is totally working and is entirely sustainable. That's the overarching scam holding all the other scams together.

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.

Capitalism Is A Giant Scam

In a recent CNN interview of US presidential candidate Cornel West, former CIA intern Anderson Cooper argued that the US invasion of Iraq was morally superior to the Russian attack on the city of Grozny.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Anderson Cooper Is A Disgusting CIA Goon

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