JOHNSTONE

It was only by the most tenacious of efforts by the very worst people in the world that we wound up here. It is only by those same efforts by those same terrible people that we continue along this horrifying trajectory instead of taking the final off-ramp. Reading by Tim Foley.

Iran and Israel are at war, with the US already intimately involved and likely to become more so. Which of course means we'll be spending the foreseeable future getting bashed in the face with lies from the most powerful people in the world. Reading by Tim Foley.

This is what Israel chose to be. This is what a state full of Zionists looks like when you let the Zionists do everything they want to do. Reading by Tim Foley.

Okay it’s been a few months since the last war Israel started, so now that Iran’s on the chopping block let’s go over the rules once again. Rule 1: Israel is never the aggressor. If Israel attacks someone it’s either a response to an aggression that happened in the past, or a preemptive attack to thwart an imminent aggression in the future. Rule 2: History automatically restarts at the date of the last act of aggression against Israel. If someone attacks Israel it was completely unprovoked, because nothing happened before the attack on Israel. Rule 3: Anything bad that Israel does is justified by Rule 2. This is true even if it does things that would be considered completely unjustifiable if it were done by a nation like Russia or China. Rule 4: Israel has a right to defend itself, but nobody else does. Rule 5: Israel never bombs civilians, it bombs Bad Guys. If shocking numbers of civilians die it’s because they were actually Bad Guys, or because Bad Guys killed them, or because a Bad Guy stood too close to them. If none of those reasons apply then it’s for some other mysterious reason we are still waiting for the IDF to investigate. Rule 6: Criticizing anything Israel does means you hate Jewish people. There is no other possible reason for anyone to oppose acts of mass military slaughter besides a seething, obsessive hatred for a small Abrahamic faith. Rule 7: Nothing Israel does is ever as bad as the hateful criticisms described in Rule 6. Criticisms of Israel’s actions are always worse than Israel’s actions themselves, because those critics hate Jews and wish to commit another Holocaust. Preventing this must consume 100 percent of our political energy and attention. Rule 8: Israelis are only ever the victims and never the victimizers. If Israelis kill Iranians, it’s because the Iranians hate Jews. If Iranians kill Israelis, it’s because the Iranians hate Jews. Israel is an innocent little lamb that just wants to mind its own business in peace. Rule 9: The fact that Israel is literally always in a state of war with its neighbors and with displaced indigenous populations must be interpreted as proof that Rule 8 is true instead of proof that Rule 8 is ridiculous nonsense. Rule 10: The lives of people in Muslim nations are much, much less important to us than western lives or Israeli lives. Nobody is allowed to think too hard about why this might be. Rule 11: The media always tell the truth about Israel and its various conflicts. If you doubt this then you are likely in violation of Rule 6. Rule 12: Unsubstantiated claims which portray Israel’s enemies in a negative light may be reported as factual news stories without any fact checking or qualifications, while extensively evidenced records of Israeli criminality must be reported on with extreme skepticism and doubtful qualifiers like “Iran claims”, “Hezbollah says” or “according to the Hamas-run health ministry”. This is important to do because otherwise you might get accused of being a propagandist. Rule 13: Israel must continue to exist in its current iteration no matter what it costs or how many people need to die. There is no need to present any logically or morally grounded reasons why this is the case. If you dispute this then you are likely in violation of Rule 6. Rule 14: The US government has never lied about anything ever, and is always on the right side of every conflict. Rule 15: Israel is the last bastion of freedom and democracy in the middle east and therefore must be defended, no matter how many journalists it has to assassinate, no matter how many press institutions it needs to shut down, no matter how many protests its supporters need to dismantle, no matter how much free speech it needs to eliminate, no matter how many civil rights its western backers need to erase, and no matter how many elections its lobbyists need to buy. Reading by Tim Foley.

Future New York Times headlines: - Iranian strikes rock Israel in unprovoked attack. - Israeli families take shelter amid antisemitic terror bombing. - Israeli defense minister: U.S. campus protesters somehow knew about Iranian strikes in advance, indicating Tehran coordination. - Trump privately voices frustration with Netanyahu over Iran conflict the U.S. is just passively, innocently witnessing. - American Jews feeling anxious, unsupported amid spiraling wars in the Middle East. - Opinion: I feared for my life during airstrikes on Tel Aviv. Nobody in the world can possibly understand what this is like. - Opinion: Is the U.S. at risk of being drawn into another Middle Eastern war? - Opinion: Is the U.S. stumbling into another Middle Eastern war? - Opinion: Is the U.S. accidentally oopsie poopsie bungling into another Middle Eastern war? - Opinion: Is the U.S. being dragged kicking and screaming into a war in the Middle East, something it historically tries to avoid at all cost? - US launches strikes on Iran in preemptive attack. - Opinion: Is the U.S. being sucked into a third world war? - Opinion: Is the U.S. tumbling headlong into a nuclear exchange with Russia and China? - Opinion: The sky is darkening as nuclear radiation creeps across our land, so we must all come together and condemn Hamas. - Opinion: The earth is a barren wasteland. Nothing remains. Check on your Jewish friends. Reading by Tim Foley.

It has driven the Israelis mad that their global support is being eroded by Palestinians recording their own genocide and broadcasting the footage to the world. If they think they can get away with keeping Gaza in the dark they absolutely will do so, while continuing to seek out further ways to hide the truth from the world. Reading by Tim Foley.

Well it looks like the US is on the precipice of war with Iran again. US officials are telling the press that they anticipate an impending Israeli attack on Iran while the family members of US military personnel are being assisted with evacuation from bases in the region. Reading by Tim Foley.

At the beginning of this month, Israel and its apologists ferociously denied claims that IDF troops had fired upon civilians seeking aid at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site, killing 31 people. On the second of June, Israeli forces again opened fire on civilians seeking aid in Gaza, killing three people and injuring more than 30. On June 3, Israeli forces again opened fire on civilians seeking aid, reportedly killing at least 27 people. The US/Israeli-backed GHF temporarily suspended operations after this spate of mass shootings. On June 8, Israeli forces again fired upon civilians seeking aid at two separate distribution points in Gaza, killing twelve. On June 9, Israel and Israeli-backed forces opened fire on a crowd at an aid site in Gaza, killing 14. And on June 10, at least 36 people were reported killed and 208 wounded when Israeli forces again fired on crowds seeking aid in Gaza. Reading by Tim Foley.

While the Waymos burn While the air over LA fills with smoke and teargas and Reaper drones While Israelis hand each other trophies for not murdering Greta Thunberg While Palantir stocks soar and insect populations plummet While the news man writes headlines with increasingly creative phrasing While people with nothing to lose sharpen guillotine blades While the bank boys ask why the robot armies aren’t ready yet While keffiyeh-clad heroes march to Gaza While secret saints work secret miracles in the margins While a sleeping giant stirs within our depths While the flames dance in Buddha’s eyes While my peacock feather heart opens like a fuchsia bud While the tears roll down my cheeks for the dead and the dying While the firelight dances on my walls and the rebels dance in the fire I open my strange palms to our strange future and welcome it Come what may. Reading by Tim Foley.

Shortly before the IDF raided the Madleen, Sky News host Jonathan Samuels strongly implied that the ship deserved to be attacked because it is full of antisemites and Hamas supporters. Reading by Tim Foley.