Remembering Ms. Bacall

Related Off-site Links:
This Day in History: Happy Heavenly Birthday, Lauren Bacall – Nourhan Sandouk (AOL.com, September 16, 2026).
Lauren Bacall at 100: A Hollywood Casualty Who Fought Back – Lily Ruth Hardman (Indie Wire, September 16, 2024).
How Lauren Bacall Faced and Overcame Antisemitism – Benjamin Ivry (Forward, September 16, 2024).
Lauren Bacall Talks Favorite Hollywood Memories and Career in Unpublished Interview – Sandy Stert Benjamin (Remind Magazine, August 12, 2024).
The 10 Best Lauren Bacall Movies, Ranked – Daniela Gama (Collider, June 6, 2024).
The Day Lauren Bacall Let Rip at Australian Reporters – The Sydney Morning Herald (August 14, 2014).
An Astonishing Portrait of Lauren Bacall at Age 88 – Kristin Hohenadel (Slate, August 13, 2014).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering Lauren Bacall on the 100th Anniversary of Her Birth
• Lauren Bacall’s Vow Following the Death of Humphrey Bogart
• An Appropriate Homage

Memes of the Times

Related Off-site Links:
The U.S. Had a Choice After 9/11. It Chose Wrong – Elie Mystal (The Nation, September 11, 2026).
Empire as a Way of Life: 25 Years Since 9/11 – Tariq Ali (Tariq Ali, September 11. 2026).
Three Major Revelations About the Gaza Holocaust in the Israeli Press – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 9, 2026).
“Israel Has Turned Into a Nazi Society”: Son of Holocaust Survivors Deplores the Rot in Israeli Society – Salwa Amor (The New Arab, May 9, 2024).
Comparing Israel to Nazi Regime Is Not a Criminal Offense, German Court Rules – Middle East Monitor (August 2, 2026).
How Israel and Its Allies Weaponize Antisemitism – AJ+ (February 15, 2024).
Why So Many American Jews Are Turning Away from Israel – Matthew Cassel (The Guardian, July 28, 2026).
“Imagine Being Threatened by Peace”: Singer Pink Lambasted for Criticising Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – The New Arab (September 12, 2026).
Macklemore’s Tour Cancellation Shows Why Celebrities Don’t Criticize Israel – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 14, 2026).
Debunking the Claim That Macklemore Has a “History Of Antisemitism” – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 16, 2026).
Hey, Ed Sheeran, Palestine Is Dying in White Silence Like Yours – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, September 15, 2026).
Ms. Rachel Calls Out Ed Sheeran for Being Politically Spineless . . . In the Nicest Way Possible – Elyse Wanshel (The Huffington Post, September 15, 2026).
How Andor Mirrored Israel’s Genocide – Jessie Gender After Dark (June 17, 2025).
The End Times Fascists Are Plotting Their Escape from Our World. Our Mission Is Clear — Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor (The Guardian, September 13, 2026).
Jill Stein Demands Jury Trial in St. Louis Assault Case – Rejecting Deal from Prosecutors – Ryan Krull (St. Louis Magazine, September 14, 2026).
Both Parties Are Failing Working People: An Interview with Dan Osborn – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, August 25, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Moral Issue of Our Generation”
• 25 Years of the “Exact Wrong Response to 9/11”
• Caitlin Johnstone on the Need to Cultivate Integrity – As Both an Individual and a Society
• What Integrity Looks Like
• Ed Sheeran Chooses the Side of the Oppressor
• Exposing the Apocalyptic Thinking of Today’s U.S. Far Right
• Andor’s Depiction of the Rise of Fascism: Not Predictive But Reflective
• Andor: “A Magnum Opus of Anti-Imperialist Art”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
• Welcome to the Rebellion
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Jill Stein on What the Green Party Is All About
• “Rest in Peace, Dear Prophet Dolly”
• Remembering the Dolly Parton and Dionne Warwick Duet . . . and Celebrating Dolly as a “Kind of American Folk Saint”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Time of Spiritual Evolution”

See also:
• Memes of the Times – August 29, 2026
• Memes of the Times – June 25, 2026
• Memes of the Times – May 15, 2026
• Memes of the Times – February 11, 2026
• Memes of the Times – November 23, 2025
• Memes of the Times – September 21, 2025
• Memes of the Times – July 27, 2024
• Memes of the Times – May 21, 2020
• Signs of the Times – April 25, 2017
• At the Minnesota Capitol, Signs of the Times (May 16, 2011)

Exposing the Apocalyptic Thinking of Today’s U.S. Far Right

A very timely and important book was released yesterday – End Times Fascism . . . And the Fight for the Living World by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor.

Following is how the book is described by its publisher, Macmillan.

End Times Fascism is a scathing investigation into the apocalyptic thinking of the Christian nationalists, tech-bro reactionaries, and populist survivalists who increasingly define the contemporary right – and a recipe for how to fight them.

As the planet burns and shared reality melts, a new iteration of the far right is on the march. How can we understand this dangerous new development, and what resources can we draw on to resist it? In their scathing assessment of the contemporary scene, the celebrated activists and authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor explore how the religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley technologists, and ethno-nationalists who make up this apocalyptic alliance share more than one might think: they are united in their belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming, whether through the manifestation of messianic prophecy, the rampages of a resource- and job-consuming artificial intelligence, or the purported existential threat of immigration and cultural replacement. Rather than avoiding this conflagration, they welcome it, convinced they will be among the saved on the other side.

“End times fascism” is the ideology of the actors who strive to make the world unlivable and then seek to protect themselves from the fallout — whether by repairing to luxurious private islands, rocketing off to Mars, or bunkering the nation to keep their enemies at bay. The new survivalists have accumulated power, but they are far from impregnable. As Klein and Taylor show via original reporting and analysis, their many internal conflicts and contradictions and their nihilistic inability to envision a shared future, even for their ostensible allies, leave them vulnerable to a new kind of “pro-life” politics – rooted in reverence for our shared existence and regard for the earth we inhabit and must protect.

Yesterday, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor were interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzále of Democracy Now!.

Here’s part of Goodman’s introduction to this hour-long segment, followed by the video of it.

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor launch their new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World on Democracy Now! It examines how wealthy elites are preparing for “the end of the world,” even as they contribute to growing inequality, political instability and the climate crisis. The rise of modern-day fascism is “not simply a rerun,” explains Klein. “We don't believe that history repeats on a loop. We believe that we're in something more like a sequel, where the logics of fascism, which are the logics of dehumanization, of othering, of racial supremacy and hierarchy, are now being applied in a time of global existential crisis.” In response, says Taylor, the growing movement seeking to resist this fatalistic vision “fundamentally needs to be grounded in a desire to stay here on Earth, to commit to this place.”

Related Off-site Links:
The End Times Fascists Are Plotting Their Escape from Our World. Our Mission Is Clear — Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor (The Guardian, September 13, 2026).
The Fight Starts Here: A Review of End Times Fascism — Daniel Trilling (The Guardian, September 14, 2026).
The End-Times Oligarchs Are Weary of Earth. But We Should Stand and Fight for Our Home — Natasha Walter (The Nerve, September 15, 2026).
Do Tech Billionaires Want the World to Burn? — The Interview (September 12, 2026).
Naomi Klein: “Extreme Wealth Has a Deranging Effect. It Turns You Into a Supremacist” — Zoe Williams (The Guardian, September 12, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Historian John Lestrange on the Meaning and Manifestations of Fascism, Past and Present
• The Gospel of Jesus Vs. Project 2025
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Bowing to an Idol
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Chris Smalls: The Working-Class Revolution Is Coming
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• “A Power Grab the Likes of Which This Country Has Never Seen”
• James Greenberg on Trump’s “Larger Design” – the Construction of a Military Dictatorship
• The “Creeping Fascism of Trump’s America”: A View from Australia
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• The Declaration of Resistance

Ed Sheeran Chooses the Side of the Oppressor

Mike Figueredo (right) begins his latest Humanist Report segment with the following:

Singer Ed Sheeran decided to boot Macklemore from his tour after weeks of relentless pressure by the media, billionaire venue owners, and even fellow singer Pink. Why did they want Macklemore removed, you ask? Because he had the audacity to say “free Palestine” on stage. In this video we’ll talk about Macklemore's (correct) comments about Israel, the manufactured outrage, and why history will judge Ed Sheeran harshly for his cowardice.

Indeed, this whole situation reminds me of Desmond Tutu’s words: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Figueredo’s timely and insightful 18-minute video commentary can be viewed in its entirety below.






UPDATE:

Ed Sheeran's Band, Beoga,
Along With All Four Supporting Acts,
Quit Tour in Solidarity with
Macklemore and Palestine
– Far Out Magazine
September 15, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Hey, Ed Sheeran, Palestine Is Dying in White Silence Like Yours – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, September 15, 2026).
“Lowlife Coward”: Ed Sheeran Declaration of “I Am Not Complicit” Stirs Fresh Outrage Over Macklemore Ouster – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 15, 2026).
Ed Sheeran Digs the Hole Even Deeper – David Doel (The Rational National, September 15, 2026).
Macklemore’s Tour Cancellation Shows Why Celebrities Don’t Criticize Israel – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 14, 2026).
Macklemore Responds After Removal From Ed Sheeran Tour: “The Victims Are the Palestinian People” – Ethan Millman (The Hollywood Reporter, September 14, 2026).
Robert Kraft, Associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Defends Banning Macklemore from Ed Sheeran Tour After ‘Free Palestine’ Comments: “We Do Not Provide a Platform for Hate Speech” – Jem Aswad (Variety, September 14, 2026).
Macklemore Exposes Robert Kraft in Explosive Ed Sheeran Tour Fallout After “Free Palestine” Controversy – Oindrila Chowdhury (Sportskeeda, September 15, 2026).
Ed Sheeran Says Dropping Macklemore From Tour Was “Promoter’s Decision, Not Mine,” Explains Why He’s Not Speaking Out on Israel and Palestine – Jem Aswad and Zack Sharf (Variety, September 15, 2026).
Ms. Rachel Calls Out Ed Sheeran for Being Politically Spineless . . . In the Nicest Way Possible – Elyse Wanshel (The Huffington Post, September 15, 2026).
Kneecap, Garbage, Bob Vylan and More Back Macklemore After Ed Sheeran Axing – Rachael Pimblett (Far Out Magazine, September 15, 2026).
Why White People’s Humanity Is “Just Humanity” But Yours Is “Politics” (The Sheeran Receipts) – The Conscious Lee (September 14, 2026).
Rapper Macklemore Says NFL Owners Got Him Kicked Off Concert Tour for Criticizing Israel – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 14, 2026).
“Free Palestine”: Macklemore’s Courage and the Myth of Pink’s “Loneliness” – Romana Rubeo (The Palestine Chronicle, September 14, 2026).
Pink Says Standing Up for Jews Has Been “Lonelier” Than She Expected – The Times of Israel (September 12, 2026).
Pink Addresses Backlash Over Comments About Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – Mitchell Peters (Billboard, September 12, 2026).
“Imagine Being Threatened by Peace”: Singer Pink Lambasted for Criticising Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – The New Arab (September 12, 2026).
Three Major Revelations About the Gaza Holocaust in the Israeli Press – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 9, 2026).

UPDATES: Ed Sheeran’s Craven “Neutrality” Is a Watershed Moment for Mainstreaming Palestine Solidarity – Natasha Lennard (Common Dreams, September 16, 2026).
Ed Sheeran Openers Quit Tour as Boycott Begins Over “Silencing” of Macklemore’s Palestine Speech – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 16, 2026).
Macklemore Donating Entire $1 Million Tour Earnings to Palestinian Aid, Challenges Robert Kraft to Match – Brett Meiselas (Meidas News, September 16, 2026).
Here Are All the Celebrities Who Have Sided with Macklemore or Called Out Ed Sheeran in the Past 48 Hours – Leyla Mohammed (BuzzFeed, September 16, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• What Integrity Looks Like
• Caitlin Johnstone on the Need to Cultivate Integrity – As Both an Individual and a Society
• Truth-telling in the Face of Systemic Power That Is Silent on Genocide
• Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – August 26, 2026
• Jonny Rashid: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2026
• “The Genocide in Gaza Is the Beginning. Welcome to the New World Order”
• Omid Safi: Quote of the Day – March 7, 2026
• Kym Staton: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• The Architecture of Settler Colonialism
• “It Is Up to Us”
• No Justice, No Peace
• Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love”

Something to Think About . . .

I’ve previously noted that my straight friend and ally Iggy is dedicated to facilitating mind and body transformation – within his own life and the lives of others who are similarly interested in holistic personal growth and change. To this end, Iggy’s professional/vocational life focuses on providing a range of services, including mindset mentoring, naprapathic massage, and personal training in boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai strength building and conditioning.

Iggy also regularly posts videos, reflections, and memes via social media that convey his understanding of the need for – and ways of cultivating – lasting postive change in our lives. His recent posting of the above caught my attention.

I especially appreciate the question – What if it all works out? – and the invitation and challenge it offers: Let go. Allow all to fall into place.

Indeed, I like it so much that I thought I’d share it here at The Wild Reed. Thanks, Iggy!

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Your Perception Is a Choice”
• Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026: Gulmarrad, Maclean, and Brooms Head
• A Fresh Take on Masculinity
• Home to Myself
• Opening to Love
• Surrendering in Sacred Trust
• Trusting the Sacred Flow of Life
• Love’s the Only Dance
• Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life
• Jesus and the Art of Letting Go

Image 1: Iggy.
Image 2: Michael J. Bayly (May 2026).

What Integrity Looks Like

I (mostly) agree with Qasim Rashid who said the following when sharing earlier today what I’m sharing this evening.

You absolutely should read Macklemore’s response to Robert Kraft forcing Ed Sheeran to cancel him. This is what integrity looks like. This is how you use your platform to stand up against Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Here’s were I disagree with Rashid: Sheeran wasn’t forced to cancel Macklemore (pictured at right). He was pressured, and he caved.

Following (with added images and links) is Macklemore’s response to Robert Kraft, the billionaire and former Jeffrey Epstein associate who pressured Sheeran to dump Macklemore from his tour.

________________

I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.

But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I’ve known him for 13 years. We’ve shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I’ve grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we’ve had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft [right] called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words “Free Palestine” and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, “I don’t take sides.”

And I get why people don’t. Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.

What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, “Free Palestine” becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying “Free Palestine” gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there’s a phrase in Arabic:

لا شكر على واج – “La shukra ala wajeb.” There is no thanks for a duty.

That stayed with me. Because that’s what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn’t, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people being displaced, starved and killed while the world debates which words we are allowed to use to describe it, how those words make us feel, and whether our discomfort matters more than the people living through a genocide.

I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say.

Free Palestine.

But if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.

– Macklemore
via social media
September 14, 2026

Following is David Doel’s 20-minute Rational National video commentary on Macklemore’s canceling by Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran.





NEXT:
Ed Sheeran Chooses the
Side of the Oppressor

Related Off-site Links:
Macklemore’s Tour Cancellation Shows Why Celebrities Don’t Criticize Israel – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 14, 2026).
Macklemore Responds After Removal From Ed Sheeran Tour: “The Victims Are the Palestinian People” – Ethan Millman (The Hollywood Reporter, September 14, 2026).
Robert Kraft, Associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Defends Banning Macklemore from Ed Sheeran Tour After ‘Free Palestine’ Comments: “We Do Not Provide a Platform for Hate Speech” – Jem Aswad (Variety, September 14, 2026).
Why White People’s Humanity Is “Just Humanity” But Yours Is “Politics” (The Sheeran Receipts) – The Conscious Lee (September 14, 2026).
Rapper Macklemore Says NFL Owners Got Him Kicked Off Concert Tour for Criticizing Israel – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 14, 2026).
“Free Palestine”: Macklemore’s Courage and the Myth of Pink’s “Loneliness” – Romana Rubeo (The Palestine Chronicle, September 14, 2026).
Pink Says Standing Up for Jews Has Been “Lonelier” Than She Expected – The Times of Israel (September 12, 2026).
Pink Addresses Backlash Over Comments About Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – Mitchell Peters (Billboard, September 12, 2026).
“Imagine Being Threatened by Peace”: Singer Pink Lambasted for Criticising Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – The New Arab (September 12, 2026).
Three Major Revelations About the Gaza Holocaust in the Israeli Press – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 9, 2026).

UPDATES: Ed Sheeran Says Dropping Macklemore From Tour Was “Promoter’s Decision, Not Mine,” Explains Why He’s Not Speaking Out on Israel and Palestine – Jem Aswad and Zack Sharf (Variety, September 15, 2026).
Hey, Ed Sheeran, Palestine Is Dying in White Silence Like Yours – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, September 15, 2026).
Ed Sheeran Digs the Hole Even Deeper – David Doel (The Rational National, September 15, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Caitlin Johnstone on the Need to Cultivate Integrity – As Both an Individual and a Society
• Truth-telling in the Face of Systemic Power That Is Silent on Genocide
• Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – August 26, 2026
• Jonny Rashid: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2026
• “The Genocide in Gaza Is the Beginning. Welcome to the New World Order”
• Omid Safi: Quote of the Day – March 7, 2026
• Kym Staton: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• The Architecture of Settler Colonialism
• “It Is Up to Us”
• No Justice, No Peace
• Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love”

Caitlin Johnstone on the Need to Cultivate Integrity – As Both an Individual and a Society

In her latest piece on her substack, Caitlin Johnsone responds to “pop star” Pink’s denouncement of fellow singer Macklemore’s call (right) for an end to Israel’s genocide of Palentinians in Gaza by calling on both individuals and society to “cultivate integrity.”

________________

Western liberal democracies are like a narcissistic wife beater who postures as a sensitive he/him feminist on social media. Like a pop star who makes a show of fighting the power and defending the marginalized while supporting Israel.

Our society isn’t what it pretends to be.

Our entire civilization sustains itself through an endless river of blood, sweat and tears from the global south while making movies about fighting for justice and saving the world.

Our pundits wag their fingers at the “tyrannical regimes” in empire-targeted nations while our own rulers murder, starve and terrorize disobedient populations in order to dominate the planet.

In school they teach us that we are lucky to live in a free society where the people command the government with their votes and we have the right to express ourselves in whatever way we choose, when in reality wealthy oligarchs control the entire electoral process and our expression is aggressively manipulated through a complex system of censorship and propaganda.

We have no integrity.

To have integrity as an individual is to be the same sort of person you are at home as when you’re in public. To treat everyone with the same amount of kindness and respect regardless of whether they’re your boss, your child, your subordinate, or your friend. When all your thoughts align fully with all your words, and all your words fully align with all your actions, whether nobody’s watching or everyone’s watching. When the values you claim to hold are the same as the values people see you embodying in the life you actually live.

To cultivate integrity as an individual is to bring all of these factors into alignment, and eliminate all conflicts and contradictions between them in the way you live your life. To cultivate integrity as a society is no different.

And as denizens of the western empire we’ve got a long, hard journey ahead of us if we are to eliminate all the conflicts and contradictions between the type of society we claim to be and the type of society we actually have. In practice we’re about as incongruent with our theoretical values as any civilization could possibly be. We are an empire of frauds.

The fight for a healthy world is largely a fight to move us from fraudulence to integrity. To create a society in which our most noble aspirations and most deeply cherished values are reflected in the way our civilization is actually organized. That is the cause toward which we all strive, when all is said and done.

Gaining integrity as an individual means getting uncompromisingly real with yourself about what you’re actually like as a person. Gaining integrity as a society means opening as many western eyes as possible to the reality that everything we’ve been told about our civilization and about our world is a complete sham. Only then can we begin striking at the true roots of our problems and move into health and harmony.

– Caitlin Johnstone
“Western Civilization Is a Phony Pop Star”
Caitlin’s Newsletter
September 12, 2026

NEXT:
What Integrity Looks Like

Related Off-site Links:
Macklemore’s Tour Cancellation Shows Why Celebrities Don’t Criticize Israel – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 14, 2026).
Rapper Macklemore Says NFL Owners Got Him Kicked Off Concert Tour for Criticizing Israel – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 14, 2026).
Robert Kraft, Associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Addresses Decision to Block Macklemore from Playing Gillette Stadium – Alex Young (Consequence, September 14, 2026).
“Free Palestine”: Macklemore’s Courage and the Myth of Pink’s “Loneliness” – Romana Rubeo (The Palestine Chronicle, September 14, 2026).
Pink Says Standing Up for Jews Has Been “Lonelier” Than She Expected – The Times of Israel (September 12, 2026).
Pink Addresses Backlash Over Comments About Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – Mitchell Peters (Billboard, September 12, 2026).
“Imagine Being Threatened by Peace”: Singer Pink Lambasted for Criticising Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Stance – The New Arab (September 12, 2026).
Three Major Revelations About the Gaza Holocaust in the Israeli Press – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, September 9, 2026).


For more of Caitlin Johnstone at The Wild Reed, see:
• Caitlin Johnstone on the “No Kings” Protests
• Quote of the Day – July 23, 2025
• The Only Difference
• Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Truth-telling in the Face of Systemic Power That Is Silent on Genocide
• Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – August 26, 2026
• Jonny Rashid: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2026
• “The Genocide in Gaza Is the Beginning. Welcome to the New World Order”
• Omid Safi: Quote of the Day – March 7, 2026
• Kym Staton: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• The Architecture of Settler Colonialism
• “It Is Up to Us”
• No Justice, No Peace

September Blooms

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Late Summer Blooms (2025)
• Late Summer Blooms (2016)
• September Garden
• September Vignettes – 2025 | 2024 | 2023
• Summer’s End
• Summer’s Parting Gift
• First Signs of “By Far the Most Paradoxical” Season

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Alan Cohen: “Terrorism Will End When We Refuse to Be Terrified”

In continuing with the Wild Reed series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Course in Miracles, I share this evening an excerpt from Alan Cohen’s 2015 book, A Course in Miracles Made Easy: Mastering the Journey from Fear to Love.

In this excerpt Cohen discusses the “end of terrorism,” a timely focus given that yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

____________

Humility is a virtue. Humiliation is not. Humbling yourself means allowing God to bring greater life to the world through you rather than letting yourself be a pawn in the ego’s* quest for blood. God champions your wellness and is doing everything He can to promote it. All else is a tragic misunderstanding of the will of God.

The world has become obessed with terrorism. Governments spend trillions of dollars on wars against terrorists, our beloved sons and daughters come home in caskets, and millions of innocent people are forced to undress in airports in order to ride on an airplane. Has it ever occurred to you that this is not how humanity was intended to live? Yet we can learn from even this most insane of scenarios: “All things are lessons God would have me learn” (Workbook, Lesson 193).

The answer to terrorism, personal and global, is found in the very place it lives: the fearful heart. Terrorism will end when we refuse to be terrified. The most insidious criminal is the inner terrorist, the part of your mind that bullies you or accepts bullying by others. An agitator in your psyche attempts to keep you small by encasing you in a circle of fear. You believe you are a tiny human body, alone, defenseless, and subject to the evil of the world. You believe people can hurt you without your permission, and you are powerless to create the life you yearn for. You believe you must go to a job you hate and tolerate obnoxious bosses, mean-spirited co-workers, and whiny customers. You accept that you must put up with demeaning relationships, struggle to survive, prove yourself to dead relatives, and hack your way through the jungle of life. Such inner terrorism is far more destructive to life on the planet than those who blow up cars and buildings. Psychic self-destruction turns bright, competent children with genius potential into hollow-eyed drones trudging through mind-numbing schools and then life-sucking jobs. The inner terrorist twists humanity into a writhing mass of fear, looking everywhere for love and finding it nowhere. So the world becomes a mockery of the heaven it was intended to be.

To all of this, A Course in Miracles says, “Peace to such foolishness!” (Workbook, Lesson 190:4:1). It assures us that as children of a loving, caring God, we deserve better. It emphatically tells us that crucifixion of self or others is not the will of God. "Perhaps you have misunderstood His plan, for He would never offer pain to you" (Workbook, Lesson 135.18:2). The will of God is entirely, utterly, eternally, only love. A Course in Miracles assures us that this is our will as well, therefore it must be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

– Alan Cohen
Excerpted from A Course in Miracles Made Easy:
Mastering the Journey from Fear to Love
Hay House, Inc., 2015
pp. 102-104

* In The Gift of Change, Marianne Williamson writes the following about the ego as understood in A Course in Miracles.

The word ego here means what it meant to the ancient Greeks: a small and separated self. When we identify with the ego it’s like looking at a hangnail and thinking, “That’s who I am.” The ego is an imposter self, masquerading as who we really are yet in reality the embodiment of our self-hatred. It is the power of our own minds turned against us, pretending to be our champion yet in reality undermning all our hopes and dreams. The ego is a delusional splinter that has cut itself off from our larger spiritual reality. It sets up a parallel mental kingdom in which it sees itself as different and special, always justified in keeping the rest of the world at bay. Seeing ourselves as separate, we subconsciously attract and interpret circumstances that seem to bear out that belief. That delusional kingdom is hell on earth.

When we remember who we are, when we stand firm in the light of our own true being as children of God, then the ego begins, however gradually, to recede. Darkness cannot stand when we truly embrace the light [i.e., right/divine understanding] – when we consciously foster it and devote ourselves to it. That is why recognizing who we are – that we are love, that we are as God created us – is the most important thing we can do in any instant. Love is our spiritual reality, untarnished by anything that has happened in the material world. . . . [O]nly when we reject the ego’s account of who we are, can we begin to discover who we really are.

And who we really are, is holy.

Our holiness is both the opposite of and the antidote to the ego. It is a state of being in which we have reconnected with our Source, remembering that in fact we never left. We were created by God in a state of holiness, we were born onto the earth in a state of holiness, and we will return to this state upon our death. All of us, however, in between our infancy and death, fell asleep to our true nature and experience the hell of our self-imposed separation from God. Remembering our connection to our Source awakens us and frees us from the nightmares we create. In any Holy Instant, the ego is made null and void. (Pp. 17-19)

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Why A Course in Miracles Is Not “New Age”
• A Course in Miracles: A Gift of Peace
• Mysticism and Miracles
• Gifts of Abundance
• I Am One With the Beloved
• Being One With the Beloved, the Source of All Things
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• Dwelling in Peace
• The Peace of God
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Stepping Out of Time and Resting Your Mind
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
• Today I Will Be Still
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Aligning With the Living Light
• An Expression of Humility
• Choosing to Awaken

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

25 Years of the “Exact Wrong Response to 9/11”

In marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies have penned a powerful piece that explains why “25 years of war was the exact wrong response to 9/11.”

First published this past Wednesday, September 9 at Common Dreams, I share this important article today at The Wild Reed in its entirety.

________________

The lesson of 9/11 should be that war is not the answer to any of the problems facing the United States. After inflicting violence and chaos on country after country for twenty-five years in a “global war on terror” that has evolved into a Zionist genocide and a revived Cold War against Russia and China, the widespread public opposition to Trump’s war on Iran suggests that most Americans have finally learned that lesson.

Unfortunately, powerful sections of our corrupt business and political elites have not.

Most Americans old enough to remember September 11, 2001, can still recall the horrifying images played endlessly on our TV screens as the scale of the mass murder became clear.

But we also remember something else: the sinking feeling that the hopes and dreams of billions of people, in the U.S. and around the world, would be pushed to the back-burner for the foreseeable future, as our leaders and corporate media all too predictably embraced a new agenda of revenge, fear-mongering, jingoism and military violence.

We found out later that only hours after the attacks – less than six hours after the first plane struck the World Trade Center and barely five hours after the Pentagon was hit – the planning for America’s military response to the 9/11 massacre was already under way.

At 2:40 pm, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld convened a meeting at the Pentagon. Notes taken by Undersecretary Stephen Cambone, later obtained by CBS News, recorded Rumsfeld demanding the “best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H.” – meaning Saddam Hussein – “at the same time” as Osama bin Laden. Then came the chilling instruction: “Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

Twenty-five years later, we can look back and see how the U.S. government used September 11 to unleash a crusade of violence, war crimes and chaos across the world. Experts like Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz and military historian Michael Howard warned from the beginning that declaring a “war on terror” made no sense and would make matters worse.

They were right, of course. But when the State Department’s annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report for 2004 showed an unprecedented increase in global terrorism following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice simply cancelled and discontinued the report, replacing it with a new one with different criteria to prevent comparison with previous years.

But, as Rumsfeld made clear to his subordinates from the outset, the 9/11 crisis provided an open-ended pretext for endless wars against enemies who had nothing to do with the attacks, and for the re-militarization of the United States after the small reduction in its military spending after the end of the Cold War.

Total U.S. military spending for the past 25 years has exceeded $21 trillion (in 2024 dollars), surpassing the combined spending of the other 18 largest military powers in the world. During that time, China has built a whole new civilization and infrastructure, and leap-frogged the U.S. economy to become the world leader in clean energy, high-speed rail and technological sectors in which the US was once preeminent.

Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for these counter-productive choices, and the appalling human costs of these wars on the countries the United States has attacked, bombed or invaded make this an especially atrocious way to squander our nation’s wealth.

The history of the United States during this period calls to mind an old Greek myth. Croesus, the famously wealthy king of Lydia, asked the Oracle at Delphi what would happen if he invaded Persia. The Oracle told him, “If you cross the Halys river, a great empire will fall.” Encouraged, Croesus launched the invasion. But he lost the war, and the empire that fell was his own.

In pursuing their global imperial ambitions, our leaders and ruling classes have discounted and betrayed the real sources of America’s prosperity and security: the well-being of the American people and peaceful relations with our neighbors around the world.

They have led us into war, poverty and extreme inequality, and hollowed out a system of government that was slowly becoming more democratic. At home, decades of political struggle by labor, civil rights and other social movements produced enormous advances, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, major investments in public infrastructure and education, and a highly progressive tax system – with the top income tax rate at 91% until 1963 – that helped finance those public goods and narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Contrary to the “End of History” theory embraced by many policymakers after the Cold War, and Margaret Thatcher’s famous insistence that “there is no alternative” to the extreme neoliberal capitalism that she and Ronald Reagan ushered in, societies always have political and economic alternatives. It is only a transparently self-serving choice by America’s corrupt ruling classes that saddles us with a system that keeps all decision-making power in their own hands in order to build their own wealth to the detriment of the country we all share.

We can see one alternative today in New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pursuing a different set of priorities: expanding free childcare, making major investments in affordable housing, improving public transportation, and freezing rents for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. Electoral politics can be part of the solution, but only if it reflects what ordinary people really want, instead of limited choices between oligarchic “lesser evils.”

Americans are demanding a renewal of social progress, with universal healthcare, quality public education, and all the things we need but can’t afford as long as this bloated, destructive war machine remains our government’s top priority. As Martin Luther King lamented in 1967, “I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube.”

Twenty-five years is a long time to keep moving in the wrong direction, especially when that direction involves endless war and the destruction of other countries. We are a long way from where most Americans would like our country to be. But we have a pretty good idea of what is wrong and what we need to do:

Stop throwing money at a broken, destructive war machine. Stop threatening and blockading our neighbors. Close overseas bases and bring our troops home. Tax the wealthy. Start rebuilding our country, and replace war and militarism with cooperation and problem solving. Take public ownership and responsibility for things we all need and use, like education, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and utilities. Abolish ICE, and other militarized institutions that waste our national resources and do not serve the public good. Insist that the military be scaled back to its legitimate role of defending the United States against a possible, but very unlikely, foreign military attack.

If we have truly learned the lesson of the past twenty-five years, then we must translate it into policies that reflect that. The real test is not whether we can finally see what went wrong after 9/11. It is whether we are able to change course.

– Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J.S. Davies
“25 Years of War Was the Exact
Wrong Response to 9/11”
Common Dreams
September 9, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The U.S. Had a Choice After 9/11. It Chose Wrong – Elie Mystal (The Nation, September 11, 2026).
25 Years Since the September 11 Terrorist Attacks – Patrick Martin (World Socialist Web Site, September 11, 2026).
“Horror to Last a Lifetime”: Juan González on Covering 9/11 Attacks in New York City 25 Years Ago Today – Democracy Now! (September 11, 2026).
On 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Condemnation of Global “War on Terror” That Has Killed Millions – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 11, 2026).
9/11 Began 25 Years of Non-stop War and Abuses of Power – Pam Bailey (Current Affairs, September 11, 2026).
On 9/11, We Said, “Never Forget.” Then, We All Forgot – John Pavlovitz (This Beautiful Mess, September 11, 2026).
Empire as a Way of Life: 25 Years Since 9/11 – Tariq Ali (Tariq Ali, September 11. 2026).
“Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump”: An Interview with Spencer Ackerman – Democracy Now! (September 10, 2026).
The Burning Towers Foreshadowed a Burning World – Viet Thanh Nguyen (Zeteo, September 10, 2026).
Osama Bin Laden Won – Nick Turse (The Intercept, September 11, 2026).
America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency – John and Nisha Whitehead (The Rutherford Institute, September 8, 2026).
25 Years After 9/11, How Do We Build a Movement to Stop Endless Wars? – Mark Engler (Waging Nonviolence, September 9, 2026).
4.7 Million Dead, $8 Trillion: Counting the Devastating Human and Economic Costs of the Post‑9/11 Wars – Democracy Now! (September 10, 2026).
After 9/11, the “War on Terror” Was a War of Terror – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, September 9, 2026).
“Let’s Just Round Them Up”: The Rise of Islamophobia in the Post-9/11 Domestic War on Terror – Democracy Now! (September 9, 2026).
Muslim Children Should Not Carry the Burden of the 9/11 Attacks – Maryam Hasan (Common Dreams, September 10, 2026).
Son of 9/11 Victim Says “Please Stop” Exploiting Tragedy to Spread Anti-Muslim Bigotry – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 11, 2026).
25 Years Later: Afghan New Yorker Masuda Sultan Remembers 9/11 and 19 Relatives Killed in U.S. Bombing – Democracy Now! (September 10, 2026).
25 Years After 9/11: Cover-Up of Air Quality Risk Proved to Be “Death Sentence” for Thousands – Democracy Now! (September 8, 2026).
Top Democrats Called Out for Silence Over Racist Push for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Skip 9/11 Memorial – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, September 9, 2026).
Mamdani Says NYC Can Honor 9/11 Victims by Building a City Where “We Run Toward One Another” – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, September 11, 2026).
Remembering Gay Hero Mark Bingham Who Saved Hundreds of Lives on 9/11 on Flight 93 – Lily Wakefield (Pink News, September 11, 2026).
Defining Images From the 9/11 Attacks – Reuters (September 10, 2026).
The 9/11 Decade: Timeline of Voices of Dissent on Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! (September 11, 2012).
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire – A film by Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally (2004).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering . . .
• Remembering September 11 and Its Aftermath
• A Letter to “Dear Abby” re. Responding to 9/11
• Rebecca Solnit on How 9/11 Should Be Remembered
• Karen Armstrong on the 9/11 Attacks: A “Flagrant and Wicked Abuse of Religion”
• Kittredge Cherry on Mychal Judge, the “Gay Saint of 9/11”
• Before (and After) the Poison
• Let’s Also Honor the “Expendables”
• Praying for George W. Bush
• The Tenth Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq


Image 1: Michael J. Bayly (Faces of Resistance: Images and Stories of Progressive Activism at the Turn of the Millennium (1997-2006) – Gallery 9: Responding to 9/11 and the “War of Terror,” Part 2).

Image 2: Photographer unknown.

Image 3: Michael J. Bayly (Faces of Resistance: Images and Stories of Progressive Activism at the Turn of the Millennium (1997-2006) – Gallery 9: Responding to 9/11 and the “War of Terror,” Part 3).

Following is the commentary at Faces of Resistance that accompanies this image.

Minneapolis resident Jack Rossbach was in New York City on September 11, 2001, representing Veterans for Peace at the United Nations’ Conference for Non-governmental Organizations. Exactly one year later, while participating in the weekly vigil outside of the Edina-based international weapons selling corporation, Alliant Techsystems, he recounted his experiences of that fateful day.

“I was on a bus going toward the U.N. for an early morning session when a woman with an incredibly strong New York accent starting asking what the people outside were looking and pointing at,” remembers Jack. “And then she started yelling about the hole in one of the World Trade Center towers and we soon all realized that a plane had crashed into it – into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

“I’d taken training in responding to catastrophic events so I got off the bus, caught another one and headed back toward the World Trade Center. That’s when I saw the second plane fly behind the South Tower and then hit it from behind.

“[On the streets] everybody was talking to everybody else. I mean, communication was just wide open. I remember there was a young man by a truck and he was just shaking, just shaking – telling us how he saw these planes intentionally crash into the towers. I knew then it had been an intentional act by people who believe that killing is a way to solve problems.

“I couldn’t see the South Tower because the smoke from the North Tower was too thick to see it, although when the South Tower collapsed I saw the dust storm . . . The second tower came down about twenty minutes later.”

About his presence at the Alliant Techsystems vigil on the first anniversary of 9/11, Jack said: “I’m totally devoted to non-violent resolution to conflict and to somehow or other convincing [those who are part of] the war machine that they're going in the wrong direction. There is another way – a very successful other way.”