In Times Like These

from thefreeonline on 20th Jan 2023 by Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.substack.

Listen to a reading of “In Times Like These”:

In times like these
when nuclear warheads are being moved into position,
when weapons manufacturers can’t keep up with the demand,
when the pundits are making everyone stupid and crazy,
when it’s hard to remember Assange’s face but you can’t turn on a screen without seeing Zelensky,
when our culture is manufactured on conveyor belts in New York, Hollywood, Arlington and Langley,
when everything’s fake but the bombs and blockades,
when it feels like we’re rocketing toward armageddon next to Jeff Bezos in a space suit,
when it feels like the angels have become smack addicts but have to settle for shitty Fentanyl fixes,
when it feels like God got kicked out of the group home and has to sell his plasma and sperm for cash,
when it feels like Heaven must be powered by smoggy nineteenth century London coal,
when it feels like the angel and the demon on humanity’s shoulders are double fucking our ear canals,
when the bastards have sleeves full of bottomless aces while we’re still trying to learn the rules,
when annihilation feels like a certainty and transcendence like a fairy tale,
it helps to have somewhere solid to take your stand.

In times like these
when everyone’s so alienated they have to consume chemical intoxicants together just to share affection with each other,
when everyone’s so lonely they trap animals in their homes with them so at least they have something that can’t leave,
when everyone’s so afraid of their own vulnerabilities they preemptively attack anyone who lowers their guard,
when everyone’s pouring their lives into generating profits for miserable employers who will never have enough,
when everyone’s being driven mad by the pointlessness of a civilization built around wealth extraction,
when everyone’s allowing themselves to be sedated into a coma so they can’t experience their own despondency,
when the radiant authenticity of nature is paved over to build cinemas to watch CGI creatures in CGI worlds,
when the sacred song of the heart is getting drowned out by desperation for dopamine hits from strangers on apps,
when the causeless joy of being keeps getting lost to fear and insecurity,
it helps to have some grounding in the changeless.

In times like these
truth can sneak in
like a thief,
like a ray of light through the smallest crack,
like a children’s cereal mascot finally nicking a bowl of that delicious sugary starch
(oh my god it’s got marshmallows and turns the milk neon colors oh fuck oh god I’m cumming),
like a ninja,
like Batman,
truth can sneak in and bonk you on the head
leaving you unable to see anything but the primal oneness,
unable to remember how you ever got things so mixed up,
like Gilligan when he got hit with the coconut
(except good).

In times like these
no matter how fucked up you are
you can sometimes catch Buddha winking at you in the mirror.

In times like these
everything is so tenuous
that satori can come crashing in at any moment.

In times like these
Shiva can just get tired of putting on the act
and take off the you-mask and break character.

In times like these
anyone’s petty and irrelevant natterings
can be interrupted by the hatching of their heart.

We are such weird, mascara-streaked, runny-nosed ape mutants.
We are sharp-toothed blood-splashing murder monkeys.
We are honey-hearted giants with galaxies in our eyes.
I really hope you know how beautiful you are,
no matter how hard things are
and no matter how hard things get.
You contain vast universes,
and I wish I could make full-length Broadway musicals out of all of them.
No matter what happens I will love you through and through
until the heat death of the universe
and beyond.

And we just might get our miracle after all,
beautiful ape mutant.
We just might get our miracle after all.
In times like these, anything is possible.
In times like these, anything can be.
In times like these, we’ve all got nothing to lose,
which means we’ve got nothing to lose
by leaping.

___________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on FacebookTwitterSoundcloud or YouTube, throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fiPatreon or Paypal, or buying an issue of my monthly zine. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

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By Caitlin Johnstone  ·  Launched 2 years ago

Articles, poems, stories and thoughts by Caitlin Johnstone. Will always remain free.

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33 Comments

Kate Aiello5 hr ago Pure poetry. Loved the “turn”… Particularly germane, personally, on the eve of 30th wedding anniversary; especially blessed to be married to a like minded warrior for Truth and brave enough to have initiated our ” leap” at the height of this recent madness back in the summer of 2021. You have a gift with words, Caitlin, and they resonate deeply with me.

6ReplyCollapse

Susy4 hr agoThank you for being you.

5ReplyCollapse

31 more comments…

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Want to see some imaginary numbers? US total debt

Out with CSTO, in with OTS: Turkey provides Kyrgyzstan more drones for new war with Tajikistan

Rick Rozoff's avatarAnti-bellum

CSTO: Collective Security Treaty Organization. OTS: Organization of Turkic States.

====

Defense Post
January 20, 2023

Kyrgyzstan Reveals Fresh Turkish Military Drone Purchase

Kyrgyzstan has bought a new batch of Turkish military unmanned aerial systems, a government representative revealed.

The systems are the Turkish Aerospace Industries’ Aksungur and Anka…the systems are already in the country.

The platforms are in addition to two other Turkish drones – Baykar’s Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci – the country acquired earlier.

Border Clashes

“After the clashes in Batken [with Tajikistan], special attention is being paid to strengthening the armed forces and security,” [presidential press service head Daiyrbek] Orunbekov wrote.

“Modern military equipment such as Bayraktar, Aksungur, Akinci, Anka, unprecedented air defense systems, were purchased and arrived in Kyrgyzstan.”

The Central Asian country has been operating the Bayraktar TB2 since December 2021…..

Bayraktar’s Role Against Tajikistan

Kyrgyzstan deployed the drones in September 2022 during border clashes…

View original post 63 more words

Everyone in the world should watch this video **NOW** before it is censored. Especially if you are in the UK!

UK doctors are speaking out. It’s so damaging to the narrative that even Twitter won’t let post it.

from thefreeonline by Steve Kirsch on 20th January 2023

Executive summary..343 comments below

UK doctors speaking out about what is really happening in their practices. These physicians risk being fired and having their license to practice medicine taken away. Their crime? Telling the truth about the dangers of the COVID vaccine.

The link to the video is disallowed on Twitter and other platforms. World governments do not want ANYONE to view this video. They don’t want anyone to learn the truth.

this recording from Bitchute still works /5.50pm GMT 20/Jan

Update 1/20/23

Introduction

Watch this video now. It is a video of UK doctors who are speaking the truth that the BBC and UK government do NOT want ANYONE to know.

This video is so damaging to the narrative that even Twitter will not allow you to include it.

Share This version blocked already it seems

Now is a good time to use that Share button…above before it’s too late. Use it or lose it.

In other news… more shots, more likely to get COVID

And be sure to view this article about how each booster makes you more likely to get COVID, not less likely.

It’s from the Cleveland Clinic which is one of the top medical institutions in the world. It shows that people with more shots are MORE likely to get COVID.

Continue reading “Everyone in the world should watch this video **NOW** before it is censored. Especially if you are in the UK!”

Activists say anti-Erdoğan stunt in Sweden aimed to expose ‘dictatorial’ Turkey demanding 130 refugees as PKK Terrorists

from thefreeonline By Turkish Minute on January 17, 2023

Picture taken on January 16, 2023 in Stockholm, shows an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the back of a car of Andreas, 39-year-old, member of the Swedish solidarity committee for Rojava, in Stockholm. Their action threw another spanner in the works of Sweden’s efforts to join NATO and pro-Kurdish activists who hanged on January 11, 2023 an effigy of Turkey’s president in Stockholm argue their “provocation” was in the name of free speech.Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

Pro-Kurdish activists in Stockholm who hung an effigy of Turkey’s president, further impeding Sweden’s bid to join NATO, say their stunt aimed to draw attention to Ankara’s “dictatorial” regime, Agence France-Presse reported.

The brazen stunt in front of the city hall incensed Turkey, which has yet to ratify Sweden’s bid to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine last February.

120 heavily armed police raid 15 houses to detain students suspected of Gülen opposition links By Turkish Minute January 12, 2023

Ankara wants Stockholm to crack down on activists close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and people accused of having ties to Fethullah Gülen, a US-based preacher wanted over a failed 2016 coup, before it approves Sweden’s NATO aspirations.

Andreas, a 39-year-old Swede speaking to AFP on condition that his surname not be disclosed, showed a doll resembling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with a rope still tied to his ankles.

He and four other activists from the pro-Kurdish Rojava Committee of Sweden hung the effigy by the feet.

The display was meant to mirror the grim end of Italy’s late dictator Benito Mussolini in 1945, when his body was strung up after he was executed.

Presented as a reminder of the fate of “dictators,” the action was staged and filmed before being posted on social media.

The provocation caused outrage.

Sweden’s ambassador was summoned in Ankara, which denounced it as “terrorism.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called it “sabotage” and condemned a “mock execution of a foreign democratically elected leader.”

‘Sabotage not a bad word’

“We did not expect it to get as big as it did,” Andreas admits, “but of course it’s good that the word got out.”

“All of these actions we are doing just show more and more how undemocratic Turkey is. A normal democracy would never have reacted like this,” he said.

In the Scandinavian country, NATO membership was long taboo, especially on the left.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flipped public and political opinion as did the prospect of neighboring Finland joining.

While polls showed a sharp swing in favor of NATO, many are disgruntled that there was little public debate before the previous Social Democratic government announced the country’s bid in May.

Andreas, who describes himself as a “socialist” sympathizer who became passionate about the Kurdish cause because of the war in Syria, does not shy away from being labelled a saboteur.

“For me, sabotage is not a bad word… many political changes have happened through sabotage,” he says.

The Rojava Committee is a “small group” of less than 100 supporters without financial backing, he says, “so we are using the means we have.”

No laws broken

Slow-moving negotiations with Ankara have also raised fears the Nordic country, which has long proclaimed itself a “moral superpower,” is prepared to sacrifice too much in the name of realpolitik.

Continue reading “Activists say anti-Erdoğan stunt in Sweden aimed to expose ‘dictatorial’ Turkey demanding 130 refugees as PKK Terrorists”

US demands Repeat of Hitler 1941.. German Panzer Tanks to roll on Russia?

from thefreeonline 20th January 2023

On June 22, 1941, over 3 million German troops invaded Russia through Ukraine in what was the most powerful invasion force in history. Nineteen panzer divisions, 3,000 tanks,…The panzers, sweeping 500 miles deep into Russia, left a trail of broken-down tanks…..

The German government has been under mounting foreign pressure for several weeks to approve deliveries of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Poland and other states have vowed to follow suit, and the British have already sent 14 tanks.

1942.. German Tank Battalions Fought to the End in the Icy Hell

Meanwhile Putin seems unworried, commenting just that both US and German tanks will burn as well. More threatening for Russia is the US ‘poised’ to transfer seized Russian assets to Kiev, move that will legitamize war robbery under the ‘Rules Based Order’.

However, Berlin is reportedly unwilling to do so unless the US also agrees to supply its M1 Abrams tanks. The Pentagon has signaled it is not ready for such a move, with the excuse that its armor is too complex to operate and train on.

It is true that the US tanks are incredibly over complex and unreliable, just like their fighter jets turned Nuclear bombers and their Patriot missiles.

The real reason the US refuses to send their obsolete 62 ton Abrams tanks may be fear they would fail and their sales would slump, as well as a desire that the Europeans pay for the German tanks.

Speaking to the ARD channel, a hysterical Zelensky railed at media reports that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would proceed with deliveries of heavy tanks to Ukraine only if the US did the same.. “You are grown-up people. You can talk like that for six months” he yelled.

Berlin has repeatedly said it would not approve such shipments without coordination with its allies. Although Germany has begun a gigantic rearmament campaign and supported the western sanctions and arming of Ukraine Merkel has now admitted the broken Minsk agreements, undermining any legitimacy of the proxy war on Russia. ( see.. Merkel’s Confession On Duplicity Of Minsk Accords)

She admitted the agreements to give Donbass autonomy inside Ukraine were just a lie campaign to gain time and to arm and train Ukraine for war, boosting the decades long NATO military siege of Russia.. And this has now been confirmed by other state heads.

The false Minsk accords allowed the 8 year long and still continuing Ukrainian shelling of Donbass with 15,000 deaths and counting. Under Angela Merkel an agreement could probably still have been reached, though Germany can hardly go against its orders from Washington.

The UK earlier this week confirmed, in the midst of economic collapse and severe repression of workers, that it is sending fourteen Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, with Poland also committing to provide a company of Leopards. This transfer, however, has yet to be approved by Berlin.

The UK, though on the verge of a general strike against State repression, kicked off the escalation by gifting fourteen Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine

Russia has repeatedly warned Western countries against sending escalating arms to Ukraine, arguing that it would only prolong the conflict. On Monday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that Western-made tanks provided to Ukraine “will burn” and would not be able to change the outcome of hostilities.

At a top level NATO meeting all the warmongering boys will meet up to congratulate each other and pressure Germany into further escalating the war on Russia.

jbjk

Escalated already way past no return. As Ukrainian battalions fill up with NATO troops in the role of mercenaries, and the whole of NATO gradually joins in, led by the US with a ‘Money No Object’ ticket to borrow, it’s hard to see how Russia could ever really win.

But Russia cannot lose either, nor can it abandon 3 million ethnic Russians in Donbass. When it’s forced to the crunch Russia still has the upper hand in Hypersonic Nuclear Missiles. And as Putin himself has been quoted as saying …….”Without Russia we don’t need a Planet”.

Vaccine War on Women- ‘Dear Friends, Sorry to Announce a Genocide- or what I’ve called, a ‘Baby die-off”- Dr Naomi Wolf

from thefreeonline on 20 Jan 2023 info from Dr Naomi Wolf, Robert W. Chandler, MD, Steve Kirsch Marcie Smith Parenti Joseph Mercola

Naomi Wolf I’ve been silent for some weeks. Forgive me. The truth is: I’ve been rendered almost speechless — because I’ve had the unenviable task of trying to announce to the world that indeed, a genocide — or what I’ve called, clumsily but urgently, a “baby die-off” — is underway…

Outspoken with Dr Naomi Wolf

Report 38: Women Have Two and a Half Times Higher Risk of Adverse Events Than Men. Risk to Female Reproductive Functions Is Higher Still.

The Pfizer documents demonstrate a strong signal that women have far more adverse events than males, particularly when considering reproductive organs and function. Primary source material from Pfizer shows a strong, sex-linked Adverse Event (AE) difference. Two major data collections, Reissue of Pfizer’s “5.3.6 Cumulative Analysis of Post-Authorization Adverse Event … Continue reading Report 38: Women Have Two and a Half Times Higher Risk of Adverse Events Than Men. Risk to Female Reproductive Functions Is Higher Still. .. DailyClout

*************

Report 52: Nine Months after Post-COVID mRNA “Vaccine” Rollout, Substantial Birth Rate Drops in 13 European Countries, England/Wales, Australia, and Taiwan.

by Robert W. Chandler, on January 19, 2023 • MD, MBA Daily Clout

Robert W. Chandler, MD, completed extensive research to write the article below. Some of the highlights of this important piece include:
Continue reading “Vaccine War on Women- ‘Dear Friends, Sorry to Announce a Genocide- or what I’ve called, a ‘Baby die-off”- Dr Naomi Wolf”