fred, in his usual manner, fully examines and describes what he finds in 'our' government and the adversaries they create, and at the link below you can read it all;

Let’s Have a War with Russia!: I’d Rather Be Ruled by Autistic Hamsters

Guest Post by Fred Reed

The current state of the American Army. Troops learn the hardships of pregnancy.
The United States seems to be contemplating war with Russia, Iran, China, or all three Washington pushes NATO ever closer to Russia, leaves the nuclear-missile treaty and tries to destroy both countries and China economically. Why the push for war?
Simple. Asia is awakening. China (from which I have just returned) grows economically at a scorching pace–and all power rests on economic power. China is a large country, America a medium-sized one. America’s roughly two hundred million whites do virtually all of the scientific work on which national power depends. China has a billion increasingly educated Han Chinese, a five-to-one advantage. China’s stated aim is to united Eurasia among other places in one vast commercial union. Washington’s pugnacity has pushed China, Ira, and Russia together. The chain of nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey all totter between looking east and looking west. If Washington doesn’t stop this growth, the American Empire will be marginalized within decades........https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/11/05/lets-have-a-war-with-russia-id-rather-be-ruled-by-autistic-hamsters/

this author is frequently spot on in his awareness of things going on around us in ways you'll never hear from 'our free press' and here he will show you things about the far east you may never imagine, but it ain't good for the empire, and deservedly so;

By F. William Engdahl
5 November 2018
Image Credit: っ License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license https://bit.ly/2JGyswa
One of the more important consequences of the Trump Administration trade war against both China as well as Japan is the recent diplomatic and economic meeting between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Not only was it the first such meeting by a Japanese PM in seven years since the chill in relations over a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea. It also suggested a new political and economic strategy might be emerging across Asia’s largest economic sphere. Hours after leaving Beijing Abe hosted Indian PM Narenda Modi in Tokyo. Does this all foreshadow a new flank in an emerging multi-polar world or merely shrewd politics by Abe ?
Showing he saw the meeting in Beijing as more than a photo-op, Abe brought a business delegation of some 1,000 top Japanese businessmen. China Prime Minister Li Keqiang announced that deals worth $18 billion had been signed during the talks. As well the two agreed to resume $29 billion worth of mutual currency swaps in event of future currency crises. Both leaders agreed to create a hotline to communicate in event of possible future tensions. Abe also invited Xi to come to Japan in 2019, a >major step.
Less discussed in public media was the fact that Japan has agreed to include the China Renminbi in Japan’s foreign exchange reserves, a significant boost to the credibility of China’s currency. China for its part will allow the Bank of Japan to invest directly in Chinese government bonds.
What was not mentioned in the press accounts either in China or Japan was an historic offer of the Japanese Emperor conveyed through Abe to Xi. According to informed sources in Japan, Abe conveyed the wish of Japan’s Emperor Akihito to visit China before he abdicates next April to formally apologize to the Chinese people for the Japanese invasion of China during the 1930s. At the same time the Emperor extended an invitation to China’s Xi to come to Japan. According to the report, Xi accepted the invitation regardless the Emperor’s decision on his visit to China. Such a move by Japan’s Emperor would be seen by Beijing and the Chinese as more than symbolic.
Notably, Li formally invited Japan to reconsider its participation in China’s ambitious Belt-Road Initiative infrastructure project which has recently come under criticism from Malaysian, Pakistani and other partners. By showing openness to work jointly with Japan, the world’s third largest industrial economy after USA and China, China hopes to encourage others to join. Never in history has a nation so recently underdeveloped attempted a multinational series of projects across so many countries and cultures as China with its BRI. Charges of “debt diplomacy” and of refusing to take local considerations fully into view have given Washington and EU critics of the BRI or Economic Silk Road a recent field day in attacking China. Beijing is clearly learning quickly from its mistakes, at least judging from her Japan talks......http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO5Nov2018.php

in addition to my usual visiting this site daily, this link was sent by a friend this morning. pcr hits all nails directly on the head in this piece that follows in his usual path. america is done, and you don't have to stick a fork in it to test;

What This Election Is About
Paul Craig Roberts
I never cease to be amazed at the insouciance of Americans. Readers send me emails asking why I ever supported Trump when he was the Establishment’s candidate. If Trump was the Establishment’s candidate, why has the Establishment spent two years trying to destroy him?
The failure to put two and two together is extraordinary. Trump declared war on the Establishment throughout the presidential campaign and in his inaugural address.
As I wrote at the time, Trump vastly over-estimates the power of the president. He expected the Establishment, like his employees, to jump to his will, and he did not know Washington or who to appoint to support his goals. He has been totally defeated in his intention to normalize relations with Russia. Instead, we are faced with both Russia and China preparing for war.
In other words, the same outcome that Hillary would have achieved.
Trump has been so harassed by the Establishment that he is having trouble thinking straight. He was elected by “the deplorables” as the first non-Establishment candidate since when? You have to go back in history to find one. Perhaps Andrew Jackson. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were not the choice of the Democratic and Republican establishments, and the ruling establishments moved quickly to constrain both presidencies. The Democratic Establishment framed and removed both Carter’s budget director and chief of staff, depriving Carter of the kind of commitment he needed for his agenda. The Bush people that the Republican Establishment insisted be put in positions of power in the Reagan administration succeeded in blunting his reformist economic program and his determination to end the cold war. I fought both battles for Reagan, and I still have the bruises.
Trump is an outsider elected by “the deplorables” whose middle class jobs were offshored by America’s global corporations for the benefit only of the executives and large shareholders. A few people sold out the American middle class, which is shrinking away.....https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/05/what-this-election-is-about/

here's another of mine i've been working on for some time. and sometimes they come out better than others, and i suspect this is one of those cases. comments will let me know if i'm wrong;

George Orwell, 1984: “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought.”

Believing we’re best prevents Americans from adopting things that have worked elsewhere. For example, there’s no healthcare debate in which some politician doesn’t declare that the “American healthcare system is the greatest in the world” which is only correct if you add “…for the pharmaceutical industry” or “…for incredibly wealthy people” or some similar qualifier.

If you believe that some supernatural being is favoring America over all other countries, you might think it’s OK that it’s the only industrialized nation without mandatory paid maternity leave. After all, if God wanted American women to get some paid time off after giving birth, HE would say something. How God can be for and against something at the same time?

America is tops when it comes to spending money on shooting folks during traffic stops or blowing up Afghan wedding parties from drones. America is number 1 in: Prison Population, Obesity, Child Abuse Deaths, TV viewing time, Teen Pregnancy Rate, Prescription Drug Use, Citizens Killed by police, Debt, Crime, military spending, interfering in the affairs of other countries, Immoral and evil laws.

Encouraging people to only look at the positives, reinforces their belief in American superiority, while discouraging attending to the many things that require improvement. Only a thin line separates good old-fashioned patriotism from chauvinistic nationalism. There’s no better way to get Americans to rally around the flag than attacking somebody.

Collective responsibility is a fascist concept.

I don’t support the neo-lib or neo-con political establishment in America. The neo-lib control of ‘our free press’ and cunning manipulation of identity politics, seeks to portray the neo-liberal establishment as the heroes of decent values against Trump. The idea that any establishment embodies decent values is usually untrue.

Democraps push for identity politics simultaneously neglected developing a program concerning pressing economic issues. Democraps worry about being insulted by Halloween costumes or sports team names, while millions around the country are asking: What about bringing jobs/corporations back from China? Rethuglicans continue to work for the downtrodden wealthy and increased possession of the world. Democrats promote alleged Russian interference in elections as their main argument in defense of the hildabeest who allegedly lost to Trump as a result of the influence of external forces. This of course ignores how horrible she is which is why she lost: not phantom Russians.

America has a range of ‘acceptable’ opinions that must be held by respectable people. “Respectable” means that the subject is acceptable by polite society; a strong precondition on the ability to influence the mainstream. Ideas aren’t promoted if not ‘official’.

Who is in this group of “respectable people” who set the limits of acceptable thought? The mainstream media, the permanent government bureaucracy, a.k.a. the Deep State, who make and execute policy, along with universities that educate ‘respectable people’, the ‘thinking’ class, into the prevailing dogmas of the day, and finally the think tanks/foundations that pay professional ‘experts’ to sell their ideas.

An acceptable opinion allows the subject to be integrated with polite society. Respectability is a strong requirement to have open influence, of political control, demonizing anyone who departs from the consensus of respectable thought, and especially if they express their heresies in public. The trouble with political control and politicization of speech and thought in general, is that it significantly damages the ability of ‘consumers’ to think clearly.

If the truth happens to fall outside of polite consensus, then ‘our’ ruling elite and their society will run into situations they simply can’t handle.

The thinking class in America holds ideas that aren’t necessarily truthful and even self-destructive because they’re insecure and need to insist on being right about their guiding dogmas at all costs. Much of the behavior coming from the thinking class amounts to saying: ‘we’re the good people on the side of what’s right’. So many individuals are making a living at trafficking in, supporting, or executing policy based on these dogmas that they don’t dare depart from the permissible, provided ideas to keep their status and incomes.

Every so often we’re told how it’s necessary to invade some small country that isn’t doing as the Empire demands and we start building bases that grow and somehow never leave the independent country we’ve invaded. This grows until we lose our soldiers defending the base we’ve decided we’re allowed to impose on the invaded citizens, who we proclaim terrorists since they oppose our presence. What would you do if a foreign country started building a base down the road from your house? What do you think our response should be when the target country demands we leave?

The self-congratulatory mumble you hear nightly on the ‘news’: We’re doing a great job here, folks, of investigating what needs to be investigated and reporting what needs to be reported, etc. Count on us for “real news”. We’re ‘your’ trustworthy news source, even though we’re all owned by six corporations/billionaires with political agendas.  Then they tell us about how the Russians control their media as if it ain’t the same here. It’s come to the point where you can surf among the various ‘news’ sites and see the same story told the same way at the same time. But you would have little suspicion of this from the large page-one headlines in ‘our free press’, displaying its obsession with the ‘burning issue’ of whether President Putin/Hitler would confess to the sin of “interference” in the 2016 election and promise to repent. Anyone who questions this established conventional wisdom is certainly crazy and out of step we’re told.

The larger danger is how the ‘accepted’ American ‘news’ outlets have adopted a consistently propagandistic approach toward everything relating to Russia. This pattern traces back to the earliest days of Putin’s presidency in 2000 when he began to rein in the American-prescribed “shock therapy” which had sold off Russia’s assets to well-connected insiders, making billions of dollars for the West-favored “oligarchs” even as the process threw millions of average Russian into poverty. In virtually every instance, ‘our free press’ insisted on the most extreme anti-Russian propaganda line and accused people who questioned this Official Narrative of disseminating Russian propaganda or being a “Russian stooge”. There’s no tolerance for skepticism about whatever the State Department or the Washington think tanks say.

We’re told, without any evidence, there’s no doubt that Russia “invaded” Ukraine; “seized” Crimea; “meddled” in American and European elections. All these groupthinks should be investigated and not treated as undeniable truths. Seeing only one side to a story is what ‘our free press’ does. The major media acts as if only one side deserves any respect and dissenting views must be ridiculed and condemned.  ‘Approved’ versions of complex situations become conventional wisdom, which then can’t be significantly reconsidered regardless of future revelations.

It’s great irony that America, protected by two oceans while also benefitting from the world’s largest economy and most powerful military, persists in viewing itself as a victim, helpless and surrounded by enemies. The nature of the threats, Russia and China are best described as adversaries or competitors rather than enemies as they have compelling interests to avoid war, even if the Empire is doing its best to start one. Neither has anything to gain and much to lose by escalating a minor conflict into something that might well start WWIII. International terrorism is an ersatz threat that has been exaggerated through the media fearmongering to such an extent that it appears much more dangerous than it is. More Americans are killed by falling furniture than by terrorists in a year but terrorism has a particular potency due to its unpredictability and the fear that it creates.

Playing tough to the international audience has unfortunately become part of the American Exceptionalism DNA.

The Empire is moving seemingly relentlessly towards war with a country that creates no actual threat, unless it’s attacked, in support of a country that very much is part of the threat : Israel, would prefer to see Americans die in a war against Iran rather that sacrificing its own.

Serious thinking should be required in ‘our’ government about how America’s armed interventions all over the world have made many people hate us enough to strap on a suicide vest and go for it. Saudi financing and the Empire’s inclination to make war creates a deep well of hatred is the principal element in the rise of global terrorism.

Everyone’s for peace between wars which is like being a vegetarian between meals. When we schoolkids first heard about ‘good Germans’, who didn’t know what was happening we knew we’d never be like that, as we watched the ‘news’ and now we see how wrong we were. America projects its illusions on the world. Democracy exists to the extent you participate in the decisions about your life.

its all pasted in here with kunstler telling it like it is as he usually attempts to do, and mostly succeeds. the link is included but not live cause there's no more to the article at the link this time;

It may be as simple as this: voters look at the two parties and decide that they don’t want the nation to turn into a gigantic seminar on race and gender studies. The Democratic Party doesn’t have a platform, it has a curriculum. The party wants to instruct everybody how to think and act. You will be tested regularly on the correctness of your thought. And if you fail or object, say goodbye to your livelihood.
That’s the main reason that the Golden Golem of Greatness plays so well in the forsaken flyover precincts of this troubled land. They are weary of being scolded for their “privilege” by the privileged undergraduates of the most elite campuses. And from there, of course, the astounding hypocrisy informs and infects Democratic politics up to the highest level — e.g. the mendacious sex hysteria engineered by Diane Feinstein and a corps of DC swamp lawyers in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing.
This year’s main gambit by the Democrats has been the niggerization of white people. Oh, did I say the wrong word? It happens to describe exactly what has gone on: the effort to make white people the object of contempt and loathing. You don’t have to look further than The New York Times and its hiring of Sarah Jeong as an editorial writer — after she was discovered to be the author of Twitter tweets that declared, “Cancel white people,” and “Oh man, It’s sick how much joy I get from being cruel to old white men,” and “dumbass fucking white people….” I’m wondering: is there any ambiguity there? By the way, a search of The Times website for “by Sarah Jeong” comes up absolutely empty, suggesting that they’ve published nothing written by her since she got hired. There’s a show of confidence in their integrity!
Unless the financial markets blow up conveniently by the end of business Monday morning, Mr. Trump will continue to bellow out his triumphs of economic management. Personally, I’m not persuaded this vaunted miracle boom is anything but the result of piling onto the national debt, one way or another — tax cuts, fiscal profligacy, “defense” spending. And nobody should trust the numbers coming out of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, since they don’t count the many people who have simply dropped out of job-seeking.
The nation is still slowly choking to death on the fatal combination of its suburban sprawl living arrangement, the tyranny of multinational corporations, the profitless Ponzi scheme of shale oil fracking, and the immersive dishonesty that has turned even medicine and education into deadly moneygrubbing rackets. That armature of grift has to collapse, and the collapse has already begun on the margins and is steadily working its way to the core, where even the hedge fund cowboys and masters-of-the-universe will end up gasping like stranded whales on the shoals of insolvency.
In the meantime, and even so, it is imperative to keep the Democratic Party from the levers of power. If elected, they will convert a necessary and inescapable Fourth Turning into a game show replay of the French Revolution, with overtones of the Spanish Inquisition. We have not nearly seen the end of how insane a society can become under duress. And the duress of living in a collapsing industrial economy is something that the world has hardly seen before. Why do you think so many people are opiating themselves into an early grave?
This country certainly deserves leadership that can inspire it to carry on, to find a way to live even within the austere terms presented by the collapse of old arrangements. It won’t be the end of the world, and finding new, workable arrangements for daily life will open new doors as the old ones close. None of the political figures onstage these days inspires much confidence in that proposition, or even appears to see what’s on the horizon. So the Democrats seek solace in their race and gender antics and the Republicans gaze longingly back at the year 1957, and the fate of the nation goes where it will.

 http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/social-justice/

i constantly hear how our military is fighting for our freedom, which is a boatload of shit. this picture shows what it would look like if they actually were fighting for our freedom. our freedom isn't in small foreign countries trying to live as they please;

for years i've been saying the voting game is only that, a game, at least on the national level. this article may provide some evidence of that for those of you on the fence. the true believers will continue to play the voting game and become emotionally wrapped in its process and 'results' while the rest of us abstain from its foolish waste of time for predetermined results we always see;


I haven’t been writing about the US midterms much, because I don’t care about that nonsense anymore. The whole thing’s a fake pro wrestling performance staged every couple of years to give a heavily armed populace the illusory sense that they have some degree of control over the things their government does.
By this I do not mean that the votes aren’t real or that the outcomes are predetermined, I simply mean that both mainstream parties are controlled by plutocrats who benefit from the status quo and are only interested in their own power and profit. No matter who wins on Tuesday, the wars are guaranteed to continue, the oligarchs are guaranteed to keep siphoning more and more money out of the pockets of ordinary Americans, opaque and unaccountable intelligence agencies are guaranteed to continue expanding intrusive surveillance practices and narrative control psyops in collaboration with powerful Silicon Valley corporations, and we’re guaranteed to keep hurtling toward climate catastrophe on the back of an economic system which requires infinite growth on a finite planet. The only thing that might change a tiny bit is America maybe temporarily having a government which pretends to care about oppressed minorities sometimes.
But there’s a sharp tension in the air about this performance. Whenever I mention how it’s all an act staged to profit nobody but Vince McMahon, I get a bunch of people yelling and cursing at me, with even those those who kind of know it’s fake saying “Okay, but you still gotta cheer for The Undertaker though, come on!”.....https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/11/05/if-us-politics-were-real-a-massive-blue-wave-would-be-100-certain/