trump, brexit, the yellow vests and you have the seed of a worldwide revolt against the powers that have owned us for too long to count, but read the following and tell us what you suspect is going on;

It was the  best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Those memorable words penned by Charles Dickens in 1859 begin the story of the times leading up to the French Revolution and ending in the  Jacobin Reign of Terror. The Tale of Two Cities may be back for an encore. So might the Reign of Terror.

The earth’s very first worldwide revolution began in Paris on November 17th 2018. The immediate cause was an increase in taxes on diesel and gasoline. The French government levied higher taxes on diesel of 7.6 cents per liter in 2018 with a planned increase of an additional 6.5 cents effective on January 1st 2019. Gasoline taxes rose by 3.9 cents in 2018 and were due to go up 2.9 cents more with the turn of the New Year.

Globalization has caused a mass migration all over the world from rural areas and small towns to the large cities. As the migration took place, the balance of political power shifted and the rural areas had less and less of an impact on the decision making process.

French law requires all vehicles be equipped with neon yellow vests for safety if the automobile is disabled or the driver needs to change a tire. Yellow vests or Gilets Jaunes are in every car in case of emergency. Any emergency will do, even a protest.

The protests began simply with a demand that the increases in fuel taxes be rescinded. From Paris other groups of the Gilets Jaunes sprang up spontaneously all over France in village squares and in the ubitiquous traffic circles controlling the flow of traffic rather than red lights found in most countries. People in the streets protesting actions of the government are the ultimate form of direct democracy............http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/01.19/cake.html

you can spend a minute and a half to see and hear 'our free press' freely tell you that its their job to control what you think;


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbZEYrRpPE

one more illustration speaking thousands of words;

this is a very interesting development in the saga of the khazars in their occupation of palestine, and i'm going to be looking for more developments in the practice of 'our democracy';


The newly elected Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who represents Michigan’s 13th District, is seeking to take a delegation of congressional representatives to the Palestinian West Bank, which is militarily occupied by Israel and where some 600,000 Israeli squatters have usurped Palestinian land belonging to the nearly 3 million Palestinians living there (another nearly 2 million live in the Gaza Strip).
Tlaib represents not only part of Detroit but Dearborn Heights and among her constituents are many Arab-Americans who strongly support Palestine and resent Israel’s colonization project of stealing their land and resources and ultimately hoping to displace them and make them refugees anew.
Ordinarily, the wealthy and powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (which ought to have to register as a foreign agent but doesn’t because it is so wealthy and powerful) pays for a trip of these Federal representatives to Israel, where they are introduced to Israeli politicians and given the Israeli story about the Palestinians. This is like visiting Columbia, South Carolina in the 1950s and asking the white state legislators there why Black South Carolinians are so poor and have such bad education and health statistics.
As a result of such successful boondoggles and lobbying, the US is now giving $23,000 to each Israeli family over the next 10 years, $38 billion in total, at a time when Federal employees are not being paid at all and are losing their mortgages and people in Flint, Michigan, are still expected to drink lead-poisoned water. Israel is a wealthy country with a per capita income of $40,000 a year in nominal terms, slightly better than that of France. The only reason that the American public is forking over that kind of cash to the Israelis is that the Israel lobbies have given significant campaign contributions to many in Congress and expect them to put massive aid to Israel into the US budget as a quid pro quo.........https://www.juancole.com/2019/01/1234567.html

the price of empire that we pay daily including by those who don't want to be involved;

Why America and Britain Are Self-Destructing (And What the World Can Learn From it)

It’s a striking fact of today’s world that the two rich societies in shocking, swift, sharp decline are America and Britain. Nowhere else in the world, for example, are real income, life expectancy, happiness, and trust all plummeting, apart from maybe Venezuela (No, “but at least we’re not Venezuela!” is not the bar to aim for, my friends.)
Their downfall is, of course, a self-inflicted catastrophe. But the interesting question is: why? And what does it tell us about what it takes to prosper and thrive in the 21st century, which is something that America and Britain clearly aren’t doing, and maybe aren’t capable of doing?
Here’s an equally curious observation. America and Britain aren’t just any countries. They are the former hegemons of the world’s most powerful empires. Britain, until the first half of the 20th century, and America, picking up where Britain left off. Is this just a strange cosmic coincidence — that it is the two greatest empires of the most recent past who are the ones seemingly most incapable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century? There aren’t coincidences that great, my friends. Such tides of history always whisper lessons to be learned. What is this one trying to urgently teach us?
That there is a price to empire. A grave and ruinous one. And that price has grown over the centuries  -  so high that now, it is not worth paying anymore.
Let me explain what I mean — because it is not just about spending too much money and grasping too high. Not at all. It is about the kind of a place and people such a country ends up limited to being — and perhaps can then never really easily outgrow...........https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-18/price-empire

as the empire attempts to own the world we're fed crap such as this stuff in which we're expected to believe we have a right to be in countries that have expressly not only not invited us but asked us to leave but the rabid members of this land act as though we have a right to be anywhere we wish to be. soon we'll see emperior palpatine make an impassioned speech about how we have to expand more;


The deadly attack in the northern city of Manbij, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, was reported to have been carried out by a suicide bomber. The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group reportedly claimed responsibility, but the group routinely makes such claims which often turn out to be false.
The American military personnel were said to be on a routine patrol of Manbij where US forces have been backing Kurdish militants in a purported campaign against ISIS and other terror groups.
An explosion at a restaurant resulted in two US troops and two Pentagon civilian officials being killed, along with more than a dozen other victims. Three other US military persons were among those injured.
US media highlighted the bombing as the biggest single death toll of American forces in Syria since they began operations in the country nearly four years ago.
The US and Kurdish militia have been in control of Manbij for over two years. It is one of the main sites from where American troops are to withdraw under Trump’s exit plan, which he announced on December 19.
Following the bombing, the New York Times headlined: “ISIS Attack in Syria Kills 4 Americans, Raising Worries about Troop Withdrawal”. The report goes on, “the news prompted calls from Republicans and Democrats for President Trump to reconsider his plans to withdraw troops from the country.”
A more pointed headline in The Washington was: “Killing of 4 Americans in Syria Throws Spotlight on Trump’s Policy”...........https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-18/convenient-killing-us-troops-syria

nato is one tool the empire uses to create more troubles for nato to be called to confront so as to further the goals of the empire which ain't peace but control, of everyone, if they can and are allowed to continue their foolishness;

Alleged discussions between US President Donald Trump and his aides about a US withdrawal from NATO have been making headlines recently.

The New York Times in an article titled, “Trump Discussed Pulling U.S. From NATO, Aides Say Amid New Concerns Over Russia,” would claim:

There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years. 

Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States.

And while the division or dissolving of NATO most certainly would benefit Russia – removing a malignant and aggressive rogue institution from its borders and the toxic atmosphere of perpetual confrontation it creates – it would also most certainly benefit each and every NATO member many times more.

Despite the many myths surrounding NATO’s role in “protecting” its individual members, nothing has undermined the security of NATO member states more than NATO itself.

The Myth of NATO’s Purpose 

The reality-show that is American politics has increasingly depended on institutionalized reverse psychology – where a notion that fundamentally appeals to Americans of all political persuasions is passed through “Trump” to create automatic and irrational aversion in at least some segments of the public.

A US withdrawal from an expensive, antiquated, and repeatedly abused military alliance allegedly created to keep in check a Soviet Union that no longer exists is one such universal notion. To polarize debate around the otherwise clear-cut benefits of reducing or dissolving America’s role in NATO, “Trump’s” alleged desire to withdraw from the alliance has been emphasized, and specifically within the context of “Trump” being an alleged agent of “Russian” influence.

But the truth of NATO’s actual purpose and the very real threats it poses to global peace and stability is independent of one’s like or dislike of US President Donald Trump.

Far from confronting a Soviet – or now “Russian” threat – NATO instead is used to leverage and abuse Europe’s collective political and military power to augment US wars of aggression far beyond the North Atlantic where NATO was supposedly created to protect.......https://journal-neo.org/2019/01/19/us-withdrawal-from-nato-would-benefit-americans-most-of-all/