JOHNSTONE
1,117 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 99 ratingsReadings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.
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Episodes
The Totalitarian Dystopia Is Already Here
April 17, 2023 02:43 - 5 minutes - 5.28 MBYou couldn't design a more effective totalitarian dystopia than the one we're in right now. One where everyone's brainwashed by propaganda without even knowing it, where everyone thinks, acts, votes and shops exactly as their rulers want them to, all while thinking they are free. Reading by Tim Foley.
US Moral Authority Is Dead And Buried
April 16, 2023 02:09 - 6 minutes - 6.02 MBSo when people try to frame Assange's persecution as a matter of public perception and fighting foreign narratives about the US, they are incorrect. The issue is not that Assange's persecution makes the US look bad, the issue is that it proves the US is bad. Reading by Tim Foley.
The US Needs Separation Of Media And State
April 14, 2023 01:57 - 10 minutes - 9.32 MBThe US State Department's spokesperson Ned Price is being replaced by a man named Matthew Miller. Like Price, Miller has had extensive prior involvement in both the US government and the mass media; Price is a former CIA officer and Obama administration National Security Council staffer who for years worked as an NBC News analyst, while Miller has previously had roles in both the Obama and Biden administrations and spent years as an analyst for MSNBC. Reading by Tim Foley.
Copbots, MSM Compliance, And McCaul's Embarrassing Taiwan Admission
April 12, 2023 03:33 - 8 minutes - 7.64 MBToo much interesting stuff happening in the life of the empire to cover in just one article today, so we're doing a three-in-one wrap-up. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Dalai Lama Is A Creepy Asshole
April 10, 2023 03:27 - 6 minutes - 6 MBThere's a really gross video going around of the Dalai Lama kissing a young boy on the lips and telling him to suck his tongue while an adult audience looks on approvingly. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Word "Presstitute" Is Insulting (To Sex Workers)
April 09, 2023 03:22 - 6 minutes - 6.14 MBIt's one of the most shameful jobs in the entire world to spend your time doing critical reporting on the enemies of your government while ignoring your own government's far more egregious crimes. People talk about sex work as shameful, and in America they'll even shame you for working a low-paying job like McDonald's, when on all our screens every day we see people selling their own government's ugly foreign policy in a line of work that is entire universes more shameful. That's why I dis...
Washington Says "Journalism Is Not A Crime" While Working To Criminalize Journalism
April 08, 2023 02:59 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MBThe use of the phrase "journalism is not a crime" is an interesting choice since the most common individual case you'll hear it used in reference to is surely that of Julian Assange, who has been locked in a maximum security prison for four years while the US government works to extradite him for the crime of good journalism. Every pro-Assange demonstration I've ever been to has featured signs with some variation of the phrase "journalism is not a crime," and any Assange supporter will be int...
The West Has Been Planning To Crush China For A Very Long Time
April 07, 2023 03:45 - 8 minutes - 7.53 MBChurchill: "I think we shall have to take the Chinese in hand and regulate them. I believe that as civilized nations become more powerful they will get more ruthless, and the time will come when the world will impatiently bear the existence of great barbaric nations who may at any time arm themselves and menace civilized nations. I believe in the ultimate partition of China—I mean ultimate. I hope we shall not have to do it in our day. The Aryan stock is bound to triumph." Reading by Tim Foley.
For The Record, NPR Absolutely Is US State Propaganda
April 06, 2023 05:06 - 9 minutes - 8.85 MBSo it is a bit funny that John Lansing is now cited complaining about NPR being labeled "state-affiliated media" on Twitter, given that he has devoted his life to promulgating US state-affiliated media. NPR receives funding from the US government, consistently advances the information interests of the US government, and is routinely run by professional propagandists of the US government. You could spend hours of your life just reading through Fair.org's "NPR" section to see the many, many way...
Assange Is The Greatest Journalist Of All Time
April 05, 2023 02:20 - 6 minutes - 6.16 MBAssange is not only the world's greatest living journalist, he is the greatest journalist who has ever lived. There's really no valid argument against this. Seriously, name me a superior journalist. You can't. Assange began his journalism career by revolutionizing source protection for the digital age, then proceeded to break some of the biggest stories of the century. There's no one who can hold a candle to him, living or dead. The fact that he is now in prison for doing great journalism tel...
Statement For The Smear Merchant
April 04, 2023 22:03 - 3 minutes - 3.01 MBLyrics: Good morning Mr Newspaper, for your enquiry, thank you kindly you want to profile me? How wonderful, I must say, you surprised me! Let's have an earnest tete-a-tete on the dangers of realpolitik Oh, what's that you wanna know? What's the taste of Putin's dick? I see what's going on here I see what's going on here I see what's going on here You come to me all compliments but we all know where you pay your tithe If you wanna try to smear your shit on me I'll grow roses in your shite ...
Marco Rubio Accidentally Makes A Great Argument Against US Dollar Hegemony
April 03, 2023 12:36 - 5 minutes - 4.66 MB“Just today, Brazil, the largest country in the Western Hemisphere, cut a trade deal with China," said Rubio. "They're going to, from now on, do trade in their own currencies, get right around the dollar. They're creating a secondary economy in the world totally independent of the United States. We won't have to talk about sanctions in five years, because there'll be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar that we won't have the ability to sanction them." Reading by...
Enslaving The World To Stop Chinese Tyranny
April 02, 2023 02:34 - 7 minutes - 6.65 MBThe US needs to stop China's rise by militarily encircling it and crippling nations who are aligned with it and waging economic warfare and staging proxy wars and saturating the world in propaganda and crushing free speech, because otherwise a tyrannical regime might take over. Reading by Tim Foley.
Australia Isn't A Nation, It's A US Military Base With Kangaroos
April 01, 2023 03:02 - 6 minutes - 5.53 MBWe're so far under Washington's thumb that we're not even allowed to know if there are American nukes in our country, and our own government can't even advocate in defense of its own citizen when he's being persecuted for the crime of good journalism. Reading by Tim Foley.
AUKUS Exists To Manage The Risks Created By Its Existence
March 30, 2023 22:50 - 10 minutes - 9.18 MB"NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence,” Professor Richard Sakwa once wrote in an attempt to articulate the absurdity of the military alliance's provocative nature on the world stage. At some point Australians must wake up to the fact that this is equally true of AUKUS: we're told the military alliance exists for our protection, but its very existence makes us less safe. Reading by Tim Foley.
Imagine If All Officials Were Interrogated By Reporters Like This
March 29, 2023 02:59 - 7 minutes - 6.48 MBA fascinating exchange took place at a UN press briefing the other day between China Global Television Network's Xu Dezhi and the UN's Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq about the US military occupation of Syria. The exchange is interesting both for the wild pro-US bias shown by a UN official, and for the way it illustrates how much truth can be exposed when journalists do what they're supposed to do in the press gallery. Reading by Tim Foley.
It's Immoral To Serve In An Immoral Military
March 28, 2023 02:44 - 6 minutes - 6.13 MBDeciding to enter the military is only morally justifiable if your country's military is used in a moral and just way. There's a weird, power-serving taboo against saying this which is born of the idea that it's more important to protect the feelings of "our troops" than to discourage people from enlisting in the most murderous war machine on earth, but it's true. Reading by Tim Foley.
The New York Times Is A Disgusting Militarist Smut Rag
March 27, 2023 12:45 - 9 minutes - 8.92 MBThe "paper of record" for the most murderous and tyrannical nation on earth, The New York Times has been run by the same family since the late 1800s, during which time it has supported every depraved American war and has reliably dished out propaganda to manufacture consent for the political status quo necessary for the operation of a globe-spanning empire that is fueled by human blood and suffering. It is a plague upon our world, and it should be destroyed, buried, and peed on. And I am bei...
MSNBC Pundit Goes To Fight In Ukraine, Acts Like A Disruptive Troll And Leaves
March 26, 2023 04:31 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MBThis gruelling war has had very little about it that draws a smile, but at least we'll always have the story of an odious imperial spinmeister flying to Ukraine to fight the Russians only to go home in disgrace while being spurned by his fellow propagandists after acting like an infantile troll. Reading by Tim Foley.
Syrians Have Every Right To Attack US Occupiers
March 25, 2023 03:02 - 5 minutes - 5.09 MBPeople who live in the Middle East have every right to attack the occupying forces there whose presence they oppose, and those occupying forces do not have any legitimate right to retaliate. Reading by Tim Foley.
They're Rebooting "Axis Of Evil" On The 20th Anniversary Of The Iraq Invasion
March 24, 2023 12:40 - 9 minutes - 8.31 MBThe western political/media class has suddenly resurrected the phrase "Axis of Evil" in recent days to refer to the increasing intimacy between Russia and China, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Reading by Tim Foley.
US Officials Really, REALLY Want You To Know The US Is The World's "Leader"
March 23, 2023 03:26 - 5 minutes - 4.88 MBIn response to questions he received during a press conference on Monday about Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin cementing a "new era" in strategic partnership between China and Russia, the White House National Security Council's John Kirby made no fewer than seven assertions that the US is the "leader" of the world. Reading by Tim Foley.
John Bolton's Prominence In The Media Proves Our Entire Society Is Diseased
March 21, 2023 12:34 - 8 minutes - 7.8 MBIt's actually a completely damning indictment of all western media if you think about it, and really of our entire civilization. The fact that an actual, literal psychopath whose entire goal in life is to try to get as many people killed by violence as he possibly can at every opportunity is routinely given columns and interviews in The Washington Post, and is regularly brought on CNN as an expert analyst, proves our entire society is diseased. Reading by Tim Foley.
Empire-Funded Think Tanks Are Not Valid Sources
March 20, 2023 13:07 - 6 minutes - 5.91 MBATTENTION JOURNALISTS: It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs. If you do cite them (and, again, don't), then at the very least you need to disclose the conflict of interest their funding causes in your reporting, and you need to make it abundantly clear to your audience that it is a conflict of interest. Read...
Stop Calling The Iraq War A 'Mistake'
March 18, 2023 13:31 - 5 minutes - 5.26 MBStop calling the Iraq War a "mistake". When you make a mistake, you make changes to ensure that mistake is not repeated. Nobody responsible for that invasion suffered any consequences of any kind, zero policy changes were made, and the unipolarist ideology which led to it has become more entrenched than ever. Reading by Tim Foley.
It's Good To Be Mean To War Propagandists
March 16, 2023 11:49 - 6 minutes - 5.92 MBWatching Keating tear strips off all those war pornographers was so satisfying because it showed Australians the appropriate emotional posture to have toward these disgusting freaks. That's the bare minimum level of contempt they should always be treated with. Australians who don't want a war with China are still unclear about how to respond to this deluge of mass media war propaganda our country is being smashed with, and Keating showed exactly how to respond; he provided a solid model for u...
Bush-Era Neocons Should Shut The Fuck Up About Iraq (And Everything Else)
March 15, 2023 14:01 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBDavid Frum and Max Boot, two neoconservatives who helped grease the wheels for the invasion of Iraq, have some thoughts they'd like to share with us as we approach the 20th anniversary of that horrific and unforgivable war. Both of these perspectives can be read in widely esteemed mainstream publications, because everyone who was responsible for inflicting that war upon our species has enjoyed mainstream influence and esteem to this very day. Reading by Tim Foley.
On War With China, Australia Is Caught Between A Rock And A Pentagon
March 14, 2023 04:09 - 8 minutes - 7.59 MBIn reality, Australia is not arming itself against China to protect itself from China. Australia is arming itself against China to protect itself from the United States. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Drums Of War With China Are Beating Much Louder Now
March 13, 2023 02:04 - 10 minutes - 9.32 MBComments from both Washington and Beijing have suddenly become much more pointed and aggressive in recent days, with talk about hot war now being discussed as not just a real possibility but in many cases as a probability. Let's have a look at some of the most significant recent developments. Reading by Tim Foley.
Imperial Narrative Managers Always Try To Make Peace Seem Unnatural
March 12, 2023 03:42 - 5 minutes - 4.99 MBDo you see what they're doing there? These professional China hawks are explicitly trying to frame peace as a strange "aberration", and war as the status quo norm. They're saying Australians require a "psychological shift" and a "mobilisation of mindset" from thinking peace is normal and healthy to thinking war is normal and healthy. Reading by Tim Foley.
They Work So Hard To Manufacture Our Consent Because They Absolutely Require It
March 09, 2023 14:02 - 8 minutes - 8.05 MBAustralian media are awash with reporting on the war-with-China propaganda series by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that I've been writing about for the last few days. Which is really quite extraordinary, because it's not an actual news story. Reading by Tim Foley.
Attack Of The "Pro-Ukrainian Group"
March 08, 2023 13:49 - 6 minutes - 6.38 MBThe latest New York Times report on the Nord Stream pipeline bombing is something else. According to NYT's anonymous US government sources, the pipelines were blown up by a "pro-Ukrainian group" who had no known connections to any military or intelligence agency, but somehow had all the information, skills, diving equipment and military explosives necessary to carry out such an attack. It's actually insulting how stupid it is. It reads like a small child lying about who broke the lamp in th...
Australian Media Are Outright Telling Us They Are Feeding Us War Propaganda About China
March 08, 2023 05:01 - 10 minutes - 9.91 MBThe mass media in Australia have been churning out brazen propaganda pieces to manufacture consent for war with China, and what's interesting is that they're basically admitting to doing this deliberately. Reading by Tim Foley.
No, Australia Does Not Actually Need To Prepare For War With China
March 07, 2023 04:59 - 9 minutes - 8.85 MBIn the latest instance of the Australian media's deluge of propaganda geared toward manufacturing consent for war with China, Nine Entertainment-owned newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have brought together a panel of "experts" to assess how well-prepared Australia is for a hot war with its primary trading partner. The question of if that war is necessary or should be prepared for is left completely unexamined. Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.
The Hawks Have Had China In Their Crosshairs For Years
March 04, 2023 22:42 - 7 minutes - 6.78 MBEvery now and then I like to highlight the fact that all this China stuff was forcast way back in 2004 by Michael Parenti, who said that the unipolarist neoconservative ideology that had hijacked US foreign policy envisioned a massive strategic confrontation with Beijing. "The PNAC plan envisions a strategic confrontation with China, and a still greater permanent military presence in every corner of the world," Parenti wrote in his book Superpatriot. "The objective is not just power for its ...
We're Losing Our Anti-War Heroes Right When We Need Them Most
March 03, 2023 12:47 - 5 minutes - 5.12 MBThe heroic whistleblower and peace activist Daniel Ellsberg is dying. In an open letter to his friends and supporters, Ellsberg announced that two weeks ago he learned that he has inoperable pancreatic cancer with a prognosis of three to six months. The letter is beautiful and inspiring, but it's also as heart-rending as anything you'll ever read, largely because within it Ellsberg makes it abundantly clear that he has extremely urgent concerns about the world he will soon be leaving behind....
US Ambassador To China: "We're The Leader" Of The Indo-Pacific
March 02, 2023 04:20 - 7 minutes - 7.03 MBA recent US Chamber of Commerce InSTEP program hosted three empire managers to talk about Washington's top three enemies, with the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussing the PRC, the odious Victoria Nuland discussing Russia, and the US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides talking about Iran. Toward the end of the hour-long discussion, Burns made the very interesting comment that Beijing must accept that the United States is "the leader" in the region and isn't going anywhere. Reading by ...
It Is The Mass Media's Job To Help Suppress Anti-War Movements
March 01, 2023 01:56 - 6 minutes - 5.72 MBThe narrative that Russia and China are acting with unprovoked aggression actually prevents peace, because if your government isn't doing anything to make things worse, then there's nothing it can change about its own behavior to make them better. But of course there is a massive, massive amount that the western power alliance can change about its own behavior with regard to Russia and China that would greatly improve matters. Instead of working to subordinate the entire planet to the will of...
There Has Never In History Been A Greater Need For A Large Anti-War Movement
February 27, 2023 03:23 - 8 minutes - 7.96 MBThings are escalating more and more rapidly between the US-centralized power structure and the few remaining nations with the will and the means to stand against its demands for total obedience, namely China, Russia, and Iran. The world is becoming increasingly split between two groups of governments who are becoming increasingly hostile toward each other, and you don't have to be a historian to know it's probably a bad sign when that happens. Especially in the age of nuclear weapons. Readin...
The Empire Gives People The Illusion Of Fighting The Power Without Ever Endangering Real Power
February 26, 2023 13:27 - 6 minutes - 5.76 MBThe way the war in Ukraine allows mainstream liberals to play-act as rebellious anti-imperialists is a good illustration of how the empire gives people the illusion of fighting the power without their ever opposing the empire. Reading by Tim Foley.
Democrats Praise Bush, Want More Small-Business War Profiteers
February 25, 2023 03:33 - 3 minutes - 3.58 MBWell it's another big day for Democrats doing Democraty things. Reading by Tim Foley.
After The Fugue
February 24, 2023 14:21 - 1 minute - 1.58 MBAfter the fugue state clears, after this whole shitshow has been shitshown, after the stuffed shirts have become unstuffed and the talking heads have found their bodies, after the Beltway brainchildren have turned back into terrestrial primates, after the Pentagon has been pierced by the Roman lance and bled out F-22s and Reaper drones, after our headless corporate gods have been cast into the sea screaming "I'M MELTING! MELLLTING!!!", after Buddha Godzillas his way across our world, Earth wi...
US Power Alliance Says It's Coordinating An "Information War" Against China
February 24, 2023 03:19 - 6 minutes - 5.57 MBIn an article published last week titled "US working with 'Five Eyes' nations, Japan on information warfare," a publication on military intelligence and communications technology called C4ISRNET reports that the US and its allies are collaborating "to share and sharpen information-warfare techniques in the Indo-Pacific" with the goal of "countering" the "increasingly aggressive China." Reading by Tim Foley.
Free Speech Is For Fighting The Empire
February 22, 2023 11:55 - 7 minutes - 6.46 MBFree speech is meaningless and worthless if you don't use it to oppose real power. In western "democracies" the majority of people are so effectively propagandized into speaking in alignment with the interests of the western empire that they may as well be taking orders on what to say at gunpoint. In totalitarian regimes you say what your rulers want you to say because they physically coerced you using the threat of violence. In "free democracies" you say what your rulers want you to say bec...
Russia And China Draw 'Red Lines' On Their Borders; US Draws Them On The Other Side Of The Planet
February 21, 2023 14:21 - 7 minutes - 7.24 MBWhether you agree with Moscow and Beijing about their "red lines" or not, you must concede that there's a very big difference between the way they draw them and the way the US makes use of that concept. Russia and China are issuing these warnings about the areas immediately adjacent to their own territory, while the US issues them to anyone it likes about what they are permitted to do with their neighbors, even when the US itself engages in those very activities all the time. Washington lite...
Narrative Is Used To Override Healthy Human Self-Interest
February 20, 2023 12:56 - 6 minutes - 6.21 MBHumans, interestingly, fall somewhere between tiny-brained hive insects and the larger-brained mammals and birds in terms of self-preservation impulses involving violence, despite having the most advanced brains in the animal kingdom. We have the same instinctive aversions to putting ourselves at risk as those other animals, but that instinct can be overridden by putting a bunch of stories in our heads about how the enemy must be destroyed for this or that reason. A few false narratives about...
The Power-Serving Myth That Anti-War Protests Make No Difference
February 20, 2023 04:31 - 6 minutes - 6.14 MBIf anti-war protests made no difference, the US empire wouldn't have completely abandoned full-scale ground invasions after 2003 and switched to sneakier, less effective means of warfare while launching unprecedented narrative management systems to suppress anti-war sentiments. They abandoned Bush-era Hulk Smash ground invasions in favor of drones, proxy warfare, covert ops and sanctions because enough people rose up and said "NO" to make them afraid of the masses beginning to wake up and beg...
Imagine If China Did To The US What The US Is Doing To China
February 19, 2023 10:54 - 7 minutes - 7.27 MBImagine Chinese warships sailing around near California and Hawaii, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, under the same aggressive "freedom of navigation" exercises that US warships routinely perform in waters near China to the anger of Beijing. Imagine People’s Liberation Army military bases in Central and South America, like the network of military bases the US has set up around China and continues to build up to this very day. Reading by Tim Foley.
What We Know About The US Air Force's Balloon Party So Far
February 18, 2023 04:13 - 5 minutes - 5.26 MBYou know, everyone's always talking about how the US military is only ever used to kill foreigners for resource control and generate profits for the military-industrial complex, but that's not entirely true. Turns out the US military is also used for shooting down party balloons. Reading by Tim Foley.
You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To
February 17, 2023 03:43 - 5 minutes - 5.05 MBThere's this Pink Floyd line that's been rattling around in my head, "You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to." Because it's so true; you can't deceive people who don't trust you. Propaganda only works if people don't know it's happening — if they don't think of its source as untrustworthy. That's why it gives me hope that trust in the mass media is plunging to historic lows: if people sufficiently distrust those who lie to them, then those lies won't take root in their minds an...