Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

I love how everyone's just pretending the Afghanistan Papers never happened and the Taliban takeover is some kind of shocking tragedy instead of the thing everyone knew would happen because they've been knowingly lying about working to create a stable government this entire time.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Stop Believing US Military Invasions Have Noble Intentions

YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
>
I’M NOT QUITE SURE
WHERE OR WHEN
MY LIFE TOOK THE FIRST
OF HER MANY WRONG TURNS
>
FOR DAYS OF SADNESS
SEEM TO MINGLE
BLURRING IN MY MIND
THE FINE LINE
THAT DIVIDES
ALL THE GOOD TIMES
FROM THE BAD TIMES
ALL THE HAPPY
FROM THE SAD
>
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
>
ALTHOUGH MY DAY
BEGINS WITH TEARS
AND WORKS IT’S WAY
THROUGH ALL MY FEARS
SOMETIMES I’M LIFTED
FROM THIS GLOOM
WHEN SHAPE AND SHADOW
FILL THE ROOM
>
BUT LONELY MINDS
TORMENT WITH TRICKS
MENDING HEARTS
THAT NEVER FIX
BRINGING HOPE
WHERE DREAMS ARE STONE
TILL ONCE AGAIN
YOU’RE LEFT ALONE
>
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
>
DON’T I EXIST IN THE EYES OF THIS WORLD
AM I AS NOTHING TO EVERY GIRL
AM I THE WEAKLING
RIPE FOR THE PICKING
LONELY PARIAH
IN A UNIVERSE OF KINGS AND QUEENS
IN A UNIVERSE OF TWO EXTREMES
NEITHER ONE OF WHICH WAS MEANT TO BE
A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE EXISTS BUT ME

TO BE TRUTHFUL
THINGS BEGAN TO FALL APART
LONG BEFORE
MY LIFE DID START
>
DESTINED FOR ONE THOUSAND YEARS
BORN TO BE WHERE NO ONE CARES
MAYBE I WAS MEANT TO BE
A FAILURE AND A NOBODY
>
SOME MIGHT SEE THE IRONY
THE UNDERBELLY COMEDY
HAVING WON THE RIGHT TO LIFE
I LOST THE WILL TO LIVE
>
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
>
IT’S SO HARD TO COME TO TERMS
WITH THE FACT YOU’RE NEVER HEARD
AND YOU’RE ONLY EVER SEEN
AS A WASHED UP NEVER-BEEN
>
PEOPLE PASS YOU BY
NEVER LOOK YOU IN THE EYE
CAN’T AFFORD THE TIME OF DAY
WAIT UNTIL YOU GO AWAY
>
EVEN THOSE WHO SAY THEY CARE
WITH A CUSTOMARY TEAR
MUCH LIKE FRIENDS OF WEATHER FAIR
ONE BY ONE DO DISAPPEAR
>
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON’T EXIST
>
DON’T I EXIST IN THE EYES OF THIS WORLD
AM I AS NOTHING TO EVERY GIRL
AM I THE WEAKLING
RIPE FOR THE PICKING
LONELY PARIAH
IN A UNIVERSE OF KINGS AND QUEENS
IN A UNIVERSE OF TWO EXTREMES
NEITHER ONE OF WHICH WAS MEANT TO BE
A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE EXISTS BUT ME

YOU TREAT ME LIKE I DON'T EXIST old recording

Etoile

Random Facts for Friday 8-5-2022

NEW: Agency (1978) - Demo - JAM Creative Productions

This trio for one alto and two C flutes was inspired by a lecture titled "Georgia O'Keeffe's Radical Abstraction" in which one of O'Keeffe's works — Abstraction White Rose — was described as existing on a spectrum between realism and abstraction...or perhaps it is paradoxically both at the same time?

“Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.” — Georgia O'Keeffe

Lecture available here: https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/georgia-okeeffes-radical-abstraction/

Sheet music available upon request.
All are welcome to use this piece as a basis for improvisation.

Abstraction Cactus Flower © 2023 by Alyce Santoro is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Abstraction Cactus Flower (disquiet0591)

Humanity doesn't just need to escape from the mental prison of imperial indoctrination. It needs to escape from the heart prison as well.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Just Seeing Through The Propaganda Isn't Enough - We've Got To Open Our Hearts As Well

Aviator sunglasses hide demented eyes
in a skull full of bank logos and forgotten AIPAC speeches,
boozy nights of rapefinger whisperings and Beltway balrogs,
and fundraising wisecracks with smiles made of Gaddafi's bones,
brain now crowded with paper shredders 
and frantic, sweaty interns
staying up all night working 
to dispose of the evidence.

Aviator sunglasses with glowing pentagons in them,
with mountains of skulls in them,
with dismembered children in them,
with gutted babies in them,
with screaming mothers in them,
with burning flesh in them,
with flattened neighborhoods in them,
crushed limbs sticking out of rubble in them,
fathers carrying tiny bags of body parts in them,
laughing, mocking, blood-soaked soldiers in them,
bombs and food falling from the sky together in them.

Demented eyes gazing out upon a dying world 
through aviator sunglasses full of dead faces,
skin illuminated by a burning sky,
licking an ice cream cone
that is dripping deep red.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Aviator Sunglasses

What are they going to do, win the young back by writing another Wall Street Journal think piece? Have Netanyahu rap about how Zionism is rad while Tony Blinken plays guitar? They’ve got nothing.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Opposing The War Machine Is Cool Again, And The Empire's Getting Nervous

The imperial murder machine has many strengths, but it also has weaknesses.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Protest And Dissent Can Absolutely Push The Empire To Retreat On Gaza

I don't spend my time attacking the US war machine because I have any special love for Hamas, Iran, Russia, China, or any other power. I do it because the US empire is quantifiably the most destructive and tyrannical force on this planet, by an extremely massive margin.

Reading by Tim Foley.

I Criticize The US Power Alliance Because It's The Most Destructive Force On Earth

Our problem is not that more and more people are opposing Israel's empire-backed atrocities in Gaza with more and more aggression, our problem is that people are not opposing it aggressively enough. Our problem is that too many people still have their minds jacked into the mainstream worldview and ignore the most urgent matter of our time, letting their thoughts be preoccupied with frivolous garbage and trusting that our leaders are doing what's best for us.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Problem Isn't Civil Disobedience, It's Civil Obedience

Starriness

It's important to understand that there's nothing unusual about the western empire's depravity in Gaza or the mass media's constant lies and distortions about it - they do these things constantly, year after year. What's unusual is that people are waking up to it.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It's Not Unusual That We're Being Lied To, It's Unusual That People Are Noticing

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

Stop Believing US Military Invasions Have Noble Intentions

Caitlin Johnstone

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