so far i haven't seen caitlin get it wrong and here she's spot on one more time in identifying the world's greatest threatening nation;


Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Saturday that the government under Venezuela’s recently re-inaugurated president Nicolas Maduro is “illegitimate”, and that “the United States will work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country.”
Pompeo’s remarks, which were echoed by Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton, are interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is because Venezuela’s presidential election in May of last year (which incidentally was found to have been perfectly legitimate by the international Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America) was actively and aggressively meddled in by the US and its allies. The second is that while the US government is openly broadcasting its intention to keep interfering in Venezuela’s political system, it continues to scream bloody murder about alleged Russian interference in its own democratic process two years ago.
What is the difference between the behavior of the United States, which remains far and away the single worst offender in foreign election meddling on the planet, and what Russia is accused of having done in 2016? According to a comment made by former CIA Director James Woolsey last year, it’s that the US interferes in foreign democracies “for a very good cause.”.............https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/01/13/if-america-stopped-destroying-the-world-the-bad-guys-might-win/

if you've visited this site often enough you'd have discovered i like tucker carlson's take on things, and here is an exploration of his latest creation: a storm among the rightly placed. it seems tucker doesn't toe the line of those who own us;

Tucker Carlson’s critique of unrestrained capitalism last week sent the Respectable Righ t into apoplectic fury. That’s why it’s irrelevant—and why Carlson is increasingly emerging as a name to conjure with.

In a now-celebrated monologue on his Fox News show, Carlson blamed multinational corporations and urban elites for the decline of Middle America. [Mitt Romney supports the status quo. But for everyone else, it’s infuriating, Fox News, January 3, 2019] He listed several social ills that he attributed to unrestrained capitalism, including predatory loans, higher drug use, declining marriage rates, and shuttered factories.

Carlson lambasted “conservatives” who bemoan the decay of the family but refuse to consider if capitalism played any role in that tragedy. According to Carlson, “conservatives” consider criticism of the free market to be apostasy.

He offered this blunt advice to Republicans who want to make America great again.

Republican leaders will have to acknowledge that market capitalism is not a religion. Market capitalism is a tool, like a staple gun or a toaster. You’d have to be a fool to worship it. Our system was created by human beings for the benefit of human beings. We do not exist to serve markets. Just the opposite. Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society.........http://www.unz.com/article/tucker-carlson-routs-conservatism-inc-on-unrestrained-capitalism-and-immigration/

another very long one i haven't finished yet but think it well to post it where a well known individual provides information on the road to hell the empire is on and how long before it may collapse;

The word ‘catastrophe‘ has several meanings, but in its original meaning in Greek the word means a “sudden downturn” (in Greek katastrophē ‘overturning, sudden turn,’ from kata- ‘down’ + strophē ‘turning’). As for the word “superpower” it also has several possible definitions, but my preferred one is this one “Superpower is a term used to describe a state with a dominant position, which is characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined-means of economic, military, technological and cultural strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers” this one, “an extremely powerful nation, especially one capable of influencing international events and the acts and policies of less powerful nations” or this one “an international governing body able to enforce its will upon the most powerful states“.

I have mentioned the very visible decline of the US and its associated Empire in many of my articles already, so I won’t repeat it here other than to say that the “ability to exert influence and impose its will” is probably the best criteria to measure the magnitude of the fall of the US since Trump came to power (the process was already started by Dubya and Obama, but it sure accelerated with The Donald). But I do want to use a metaphor to revisit the concept of catastrophe.

If you place an object in the middle of a table and then push it right to the edge, you will exert some amount of energy we can call “E1”. Then, if the edge of the table is smooth and you just push the object over the edge, you exercise a much smaller amount of energy we can call “E2”. And, in most cases (if the table is big enough), you will also find that E1 is much bigger than E2 yet E2, coming after E1 took place, triggered a much more dramatic event: instead of smoothly gliding over the table top, the object suddenly falls down and shatters. That sudden fall can also be called a “catastrophe”. This is also something which happens in history, take the example of the Soviet Union.

The fate of all empires…..........http://www.unz.com/tsaker/placing-the-usa-on-a-collapse-continuum-with-dmitry-orlov/

this is long enough that i haven't read it all yet but it contains more details about the 'newsguard' crap i just posted earlier. it seems that when saint obama made his 'fake news' comment just after hurricane trump was installed it portended greater government crimes, and here are some details;



Soon after the social media “purge” of independent media sites and pages this past October, a top neoconservative insider — Jamie Fly — was caught stating that the mass deletion of anti-establishment and anti-war pages on Facebook and Twitter was “just the beginning” of a concerted effort by the U.S. government and powerful corporations to silence online dissent within the United States and beyond.
While a few, relatively uneventful months in the online news sphere have come and gone since Fly made this ominous warning, it appears that the neoconservatives and other standard bearers of the military-industrial complex and the U.S. oligarchy are now poised to let loose their latest digital offensive against independent media outlets that seek to expose wrongdoing in both the private and public sectors.
As MintPress News Editor-in-Chief Mnar Muhawesh recently wrote, MintPress was informed that it was under review by an organization called Newsguard Technologies, which described itself to MintPress as simply a “news rating agency” and asked Muhawesh to comment on a series of allegations, several of which were blatantly untrue. However, further examination of this organization reveals that it is funded by and deeply connected to the U.S. government, neo-conservatives, and powerful monied interests, all of whom have been working overtime since the 2016 election to silence dissent to American forever-wars and corporate-led oligarchy.
More troubling still, Newsguard — by virtue of its deep connections to government and Silicon Valley — is lobbying to have its rankings of news sites installed by default on computers in U.S. public libraries, schools, and universities as well as on all smartphones and computers sold in the United States.
In other words, as Newsguard’s project advances, it will soon become almost impossible to avoid this neocon-approved news site’s ranking systems on any technological device sold in the United States. Worse still, if its efforts to quash dissenting voices in the U.S. are successful, Newsguard promises that its next move will be to take its system global.
Red light, green light . . .............https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-a-neocon-backed-fact-checker-plans-to-wage-war-on-independent-media/5665258

'our' owners have a new tool aimed towards ensuring that you only know approved items with the approved point of view and its called 'newsguard' so here is some information about that;


A new level of “fact checking” and “fake news” counter attacks are coming. This time, however, it won’t just be on Facebook or Twitter or Google, it will be internet and device wide. This fact checking service is being sold to the public under the name “NewsGuard” but the only thing it appears to be guarding is the establishment.
Newsguard attempts to set itself outside of the other allegedly “unbiased” fact checkers like Snopes and Politifact by setting out to monetarily cripple independent media sites by having their ads pulled.
“By licensing the NewsGuard ratings, advertisers limit their advertising, including programmatic advertising, to sites that meet the NewsGuard criteria. Advertisers use this data and related information about sites to craft efficient—and safe—ad campaigns,” their website reads.

But, what this really means is that sites like the Free Thought Project, who are entirely open about the subjective nature of our content (meaning we really love peace and freedom and have disdain for tyrants) will be hit in our only source of substantial revenue........https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/01/12/ominous-new-fact-checker-approves-msm-lies-to-start-wars-while-attacking-alternative-media/#more-189943

i've read about this from several sources though this is the first i've seen in what might be called 'well known media' and though you might doubt it due to your previous programming, its true;


Never had so many people been put in prison. The size of the Allied captures was unprecedented in all history. The Soviets took prisoner some 3.5 million Europeans, the Americans about 6.1 million, the British about 2.4 million, the Canadians about 300,000, the French around 200,000. Uncounted millions of Japanese entered American captivity in 1945, plus about 640,000 entering Soviet captivity.

As soon as Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, the American Military Governor, General Eisenhower, sent out an “urgent courier” throughout the huge area that he commanded, making it a crime punishable by death for German civilians to feed prisoners. It was even a death-penalty crime to gather food together in one place to take it to prisoners … The order was sent in German to the provincial governments, ordering them to distribute it immediately to local governments. Copies of the orders were discovered recently in several villages near the Rhine … The message [which Bacque reproduces] reads in part: “… under no circumstances may food supplies be assembled among the local inhabitants in order to deliver them to the prisoners of war. Those who violate this command and nevertheless try to circumvent this blockade to allow something to come to the prisoners place themselves in danger of being shot….”..........https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/01/12/a-holocaust-was-what-the-americans-did-to-the-germans/#more-190031

this is in the column of those i may well send to the local electronic fishwrap, but in case it never makes it there, you have an opportunity to read it now;

Fifty years ago there was a TV episode on ‘outer limits’ called “to serve man”. In it aliens, other planet types, landed and one of the first things they did was present world leaders a book, in their language. They provided earthlings free travel to their planet with extensive marketing about wonders to be found there. Earthlings lined up at the space ships to go. One radical, early on, decided to translate the book presented at the first landing. When most of the earthlings had already departed he discovered that “to serve man” was a cookbook.

“Consumers” say “out of the box” for being out of the mainstream, an unapproved place to be, so it’s hidden with slang. Eighty percent of the people will follow and/or do anything. You see them everywhere. They eat corporate plastic food. They have no minds. They follow whoever has the loudest voice. Propaganda campaigns from corporate media, even though fewer people trust them, still have great influence. The mainstream media repeat, as though real, what government tells them.

Despite all the moralizing propaganda “our government” isn’t much different than the feudal lords of the Middle Ages acting as though they rule thru divine right. It’s difficult to say that you think “our government” stinks and that you’ve had enough. The wealthy have the power, buy “our government”, and own American policy.

The quality of America’s education is considerably reduced in recent years. With such a handicap, even brilliant working class individuals have little hope of escaping their lot in life; a form of slavery essential to maintaining some measure of social order for the ruling class.

When the doctrine of “divine right” wore thin, a replacement was created so “consumers” didn’t view political authority as only naked power. That replacement is the theory of the rule of law. As long as the public identifies order with law, it will believe that an orderly society is impossible without the state provided law, and will support the state without considering how oppressive it may be.

Mentally challenged flag wavers, accept the myth that those from Government are here to help in the face of demonstrated reality. The only rational conclusion is to expect the worst. Those who still say it could never happen in America lack a real historic awareness and current events understanding.

Constitutions are worthless for controlling government that doesn’t know any limits to its power except your patience. We’ve accepted a society with shameful extremes of poverty, immense wealth and untrustworthy civic institutions. We’ve accepted regulation that’s no more benevolent than it absolutely has to be to avoid revolution.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), allowing indefinite military detention without charge or trial, places every American at risk of the torture chamber. The next fabricated crisis offers the opportunity for Martial Law creating the order for breaking down your door. Of course we all know the innocent are never accused because those in ‘our’ government are the best of the best and only have your interests at heart.

At least they’ve put your taxes to good use, fighting wars of choice, creating the Dept of Energy making us energy self-sufficient, creating the Dept of Education making our kids smarter, creating the VA to properly care for the veterans of our military adventures, creating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow everyone to own a home, creating an entitlement state that has resulted in 100 million government supported “consumers”, creating the SEC to make sure Wall Street banks don’t commit fraud destroying the worldwide financial system and now we have Obamacare to make us healthier.

If our system is so grand how come we lead the world in per capita and total prisoners? Our officially poor and homeless grow faster than our wealthy population. The system sells hope like a lottery ticket. Banks have been repeatedly caught laundering money for drug gangs and similar nasty activities. Nobody went to prison for those acts. I wonder why.

 “Our government” should care about observing the law. It protects you from government, and they really dislike that but it also protects government from you. Law is government’s only claim to legitimacy, yet they seem intent on ignoring it in the most public way possible. A contract is valid only if both parties comply with its provisions. We wouldn’t want “consumers” to think the deal is off, would we? You might not vote or something.

Liberty isn’t economic, but life style. The economic good is a bonus: Would you choose to live in a cage because the economy’s better there than in the wild?

Americans that question the system or expose its crimes are considered enemies; communists, terrorists, subversives, and such; “Our leaders” tell us to trust big brother, defer to authority, approve the military, NSA, CIA, and always “support the troops.” That’s what being a “patriot” is about to be acceptable in America.

America is terrified by its own images of terrorists everywhere. Like many dying empires America is striking out in blind desperation to save itself from its own paranoid fears and is destroying its foundations. America is the Constitution. Without the Constitution America ceases to exist and becomes a tyranny. America has become a tyranny masked in the costume of “freedom and democracy.”

Satire died the day Kissinger was given the Nobel peace prize. What’s the difference between our empire and Rome’s; between TV and the coliseum, between Germanic tribes and Afghans or Russians?

“Our government”, creates coups everywhere, subverting the democratically-elected governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and Ukraine; backing terrorist forces in Syria and Libya; militarizing Africa; and negotiating “free trade” agreements that remove democratic accountability from transnational corporations, and international banks: a few of America’s global, anti-democratic, anti-people strategies.

We’re told we live in a representative democracy, but who is being represented?

We’ve become the country where an angle to get something for nothing is “accepted”. “Everyone is doing it, so why shouldn’t I”. The oligarchs and politicians set the tone. Everyone is on the take. Greed and avarice are considered legitimate goals. The country revolves around fraud, corruption, scams, and swindles.

If history is a guide, most Americans will get out their dusty flags again, chant USA! USA! USA! And many Christians, conservatives, Tea Party types will be duped and distracted, once again. It just keeps on working out that way; just tell them they are being attacked by Muslims, and/or Putin. Rationality is in short supply in a nation of frightened, terrified people. It’s the ultimate disaster story of the welfare-warfare state—a nation with the most powerful government in history presiding over the most frightened people in the world. Large powerful government results in a weak citizenry, a citizenry that gets its courage vicariously through the troops and falls for anything, a citizenry that eagerly surrenders its freedom to their own government in the quest to be kept safe from the dangers that such government engenders.

A few years ago I was offered an opinion column in a local publication which I accepted and submitted several ‘opinions’, and then I got an email showing it was only partially so as the editor wanted to control how I expressed my opinion and was unresponsive when I called him on it. Free speech isn’t what you’re told it is in school.