Ashika

Trump saying he wants to take back the Panama Canal is hilarious tbh. He would run it to the ground the way he has all of his previous businesses 🥱(along with the U.S.A over the next four years)

@caitoz I love this 🥹 thank you and your husband, Caitlin!

A Bit About This Strange Little Project Of Mine caitlinjohnst.one/p/a-bit-about-…

A Bit About This Strange Little Project Of Mine Every so often I like to write out a basic explanation of who I am and what I’m trying to do here. As an entirely reader-funded writer I think it’s important to periodically lay out exactly what I’m about so that any patrons or would-be patrons can assess if this weird little project here is something they want to support. For starters, everything “I” write here under the name of Caitlin Johnstone is actually the work of two people: myself and my American husband Tim Foley. Many of you might know Tim as the male voice who does the readings for all of our articles. While it’s my vision and I’m in charge of the editorial direction these works take, Tim co-authors and co-signs everything I publish. Most of the stuff you read here arises from conversations he and I have while nerding out about war, philosophy, humanity, and how to save the world. Tim and I met in an online discussion group about spiritual enlightenment. He moved out here to Australia to be with me in 2016, and a few months later we found ourselves writing political essays which at the time focused on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. After a long series of miracles, mishaps and embarrassments, we somehow wound up doing crowd-funded commentary as a full-time gig. It was strange and scary suddenly amassing a large following before we’d really had time to learn and grow in our understanding of the world. We’d both spent many years mostly unplugged from politics focused entirely on spirituality and healing, and then all of a sudden we were seized with this powerful impulse to begin writing about the world’s problems and had to do so with thousands of people watching us while we were still total neophytes to the political scene. Most people who do things in front of an audience get to spend a long time practicing before they step onstage, but we had to learn on the fly and feel our way into it, and it was frequently both terrifying and humiliating. Eventually we got the hang of it, but we continue to learn and grow. The basic premise of everything you read here is fairly simple and straightforward: we live in a tyrannical dystopia that’s driving humanity to its doom, and we need to wake up from the propaganda indoctrination and egoic delusions which keep us complying with the status quo so that we can use the power of our numbers to overthrow our oppressors and create a healthy world. We come at it from countless angles using all different approaches, but that’s the basic message and the idea underpinning it all. Ideologically we’re about as far on the left end of the political spectrum as it gets. Tim was a bit of a US-model libertarian when we first met, but I tricked him into becoming a commie using my feminine wiles. Because we see all of humanity as deeply deluded at this point in history we’re reluctant to identify with any particular political faction or group up with any particular clique, but it seems pretty clear that a healthy world where the environment is protected and people’s basic needs are met will necessarily entail the complete dismantling of capitalism. We’re going to have to transition from competition-based systems to collaboration-based ones where we all work together for the good of every living being. Our business model is one of the most interesting and unique things about our project. Everything we publish is free to read, and anyone who wants to is encouraged to republish, repurpose and re-use anything we create free of charge. All our income consists of donations from people who support what we’re doing and want to help us continue doing it, without expecting anything in return; there are no special perks offered for donating besides our gratitude and your knowledge that you’re supporting something you believe in. We try to shape our lives like the kind of world we want to see emerge in the future, and this miniature collaborative unconditional gift economy is one of our efforts at doing that. For some strange and miraculous reason this peculiar model seems to actually work, and we’ve been able to dedicate our lives to making ourselves as useful as possible in the best way we know how. It has been a thrilling adventure and a great privilege to do this for a living, and we are so unspeakably grateful to everyone who makes it possible. Our hope of course is that one day this job becomes unnecessary because the wars, tyranny and abuse have ended and a healthy society has been created. Nothing would make us happier than to become obsolete and unnecessary so that we can hang up the gloves and move on to the next project. That is part of the future we are working toward. Until then, we’ll be here. Writing every day, taking as few days off as possible, and doing everything we can to open eyes and throw sand in the gears of the machine. Thank you so much for traveling with us, in whatever way you travel.

@LewStuhl @georgelemental @caitoz I love your username 😂

@georgelemental @caitoz Someday I would like to see one communist or socialist society be given the chance to thrive without American interference. Until then, we really cannot know if such a system works. We do know that capitalism does not work, not unless the goal is destruction of the species.

Check out my new post to read more about my take on how Americans' lack of empathy and willful ignorance is what landed them a Trump presidency here: ashikaw.substack.com/p/american-ego…

If this was not true, liberals would’ve never supported the blood soaked hands of Kamala as their candidate. And as for Republicans, they voted in a guy who will gleefully continue the bloodshed in Palestine so obviously, they don’t give much of a shit either.

This election cycle has made it clear as day that most Americans do not care about the fact that they’re funding the ongoing slaughter of black and brown people on the other side of the world so long as it does not directly interfere with their comfort and wellbeing.

For this to work though, people need to come together to fight for a common goal; something I struggle to envision Americans doing but I sincerely hope they find a way to, otherwise we will all suffer the consequences of their inaction.

The Democratic party has done little to nothing to push forward a progressive agenda throughout the past 4 years. They have failed to represent working class families, broken promises and failed to deliver solutions on countless issues that have negatively impacted Americans.

Panamá was particularly exemplary in the mining protests we organized last year. At its height, a quarter of a million Panamanians shut down major streets all over the country— it served as a poignant reminder to the government of how much power we have as a collective.

Protesting isn’t supposed to feel comfortable or convenient, it’s supposed to cause disturbance in order for it to be effective and it requires a large percentage of the population to be involved so that it’s not easily suppressed. There really is strength in numbers.

Alonso Gurmendi, an expert on political violence and international law, feels that Americans need to look at the Global South for inspiration on how to effectively protest. Spoiler alert: rallies aren’t it, major disruption is.

American egocentrism made Trump win open.substack.com/pub/ashikaw/p/…

There’s something so alchemic about cooking. The way you transform material from one thing to completely other by mixing a few things around on a fire, magic ✨

This weekend I took a roadtrip with my girls to a beach town called Cambutal where I witnessed one of the most incredible sunsets of my entire life. #blessedneverstressed

Female friendship is so deeply healing. As women, we're bombarded with a lot of negative crap from society about how we're meant to live and prioritize our relationships. It's powerful to witness the magic that happens when we come together to tune out that noise.

Some people obsess over themselves and tend to overlook the environment they're in. To be unaware of your surroundings and stuck in your own head can lead to a real disconnect between the external world and your internal world.

Someone who identifies as a feminist might not treat women with the same kind of respect and reverence as they treat men. This is paradoxical, definitely, but humans are full of paradoxes.

I used to think that identifying a certain way would imply certain behaviors but I realize now that this is absolutely not a given. For instance, someone who is a therapist isn't necessarily mentally healthier than their patient.

My dog made a special appearance in the video I submitted for a job I applied for today, do you think this will help or hurt my chances of landing the gig? 😅

People will often do things that you might not understand or that have the potential to disappoint you but it's about how you choose to allow their actions to affect you. You can't control what other people say or do but you can absolutely control the way you react to them.