by Stephen Lendman

Militarism, hubris and overreach define America. Wrecking it. Heading it for full-blown tyranny and ruin.

Permanent wars rage. With no end in sight. When no enemies exist. Except invented ones.

Waged by the most secretive intrusive government in US history. Its most repressive. Most ruthless.

Governed by diktat authority. Effective one-party rule. Federal courts and Congress rubber-stamping policies mattering most.

Including imperial adventurism. Corporate empowerment. Monied interests running things. Unprecedented concentrated wealth and power.

Big Brother surveillance. Police state lawlessness. Out-of-control state terror. Corporate controlled managed news misinformation.

Endemic corruption. Incestuous business/government ties. Flaunting the notion of government of, by and for everyone equitably and just.

Increasingly a nation of haves and have-nots. Rulers and serfs. Middle America disappearing in plain sight. Freedom an endangered species.

Democracy pure fantasy. Heading for a point of no return. World peace hanging by a thread. Possible global war one significant miscalculation away.

Perhaps by Machiavellian design. At the most perilous time in world history.

No joy to the world this holiday season. No giving thanks for wars without end. Unspeakable human misery.

Increasing hunger, homelessness and despair. Government serving wealth, power and privilege only.

Mindless of popular needs. Rule of law principles. Democratic values.

John Donne said "(a)ny man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind."

"(N)ever send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

Especially in times of war. When world peace hangs by a thread. With lunatics making policy in Washington.

Governing for their own benefit. Complicit with monied interests.

Turning America into a dystopian nightmare. Unfit to live in.

Ordinary people shut out entirely. With no say on what matters most. No futures for most young people.

No democracy by any standard. No sense of right or wrong. Indifferent to human suffering. Growing popular needs.

Governing extrajudicially. Destroying freedom one police state law at a time. Today's America a swamp of unfairness, injustice and lawlessness.

Anything goes is official policy. Business as usual persists. Challenging Russia recklessly risks the unthinkable.

Led by irresponsible media scoundrels. Ignoring hard truths. Repeating official Big Lies. Inventing others. Unjustifiably vilifying Putin.

Open, free and fair Russian media shame their Western counterparts. Especially corporate controlled US media.

Featuring managed news misinformation garbage. Treating viewers and readers like mushrooms. Well-watered. In the dark. On issues mattering most.

Not according to Washington Post editors. Substituting fiction for facts. On October 26 headlining "In campaign against truth, Mr. Putin wields fear and economic force."

Repeating one Big Lie after another. Outrageously accusing Putin of "reestablish(ing) dictatorship in Russia with a veneer of legality."

Ruling "through fear." With "aggressive propaganda…(W)alling off Russians from alternative sources of news and information."

WaPo repliocates other major US print and electronic media. All propaganda all the time. Big Lies ad nauseam.

Burying hard truths. On issues mattering most. Plus junk food infotainment. Advertorials on air. Everything to sell. Nothing to tell.

Violating core journalistic ethics. Unapologetically. Professor/media critic Robert McChesney calls America's system a "dollarocracy." Big money controlled.

Plutocracy by any standard. Mocking democratic values. Destroying the country. Wrecking it for wealth and power.

Russians get real news and information. So do world audiences following RT International (formerly Russia Today), Voice of Russia, and English language print media available online.

Americans get all garbage all the time. Worthless by any standard. An echo chamber for state-sponsored propaganda.

Regurgitated without challenge. Misreporting one major story after another. Depriving viewers and readers of news and information vital to know.

On October 25, WaPo editors repeated tiresome Big Lies. Claiming Putin "brazenly dispatched more troops and heavy weapons to eastern Ukraine…"

At the same time, "shrugging off protests from NATO." Citing illegitimate Kiev putschists saying "Russian forces and their puppet allies may be preparing a major offensive to capture more territory."

Throughout his tenure as president and prime minister, Putin was never revanchist. No evidence suggests otherwise.

Polar opposite America. Seeking world dominion one ravaged country at a time.

Ukraine its newest colony. Governed by illegitimate pro-Western puppets. Fascists by any standard.

Lawless. Ruthless. Waging genocidal war on its own people. Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov going all-out to resolve crisis conditions diplomatically. Responsibly.

Not according to WaPo editors. Claiming "Moscow forces (launch) small-scale attacks nearly every day."

Accusing Putin of "escalat(ing) his imperialism." Ignoring his polar opposite policies. Mindless of Washington waging permanent wars for wealth, power and privilege.

New York Times editors praise illegitimate oligarch Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. A thug. A pro-Western puppet and then some.

At the same time, repeating one Big Lie after another about Putin. Including invading Ukraine. Arming Donbas self-defense forces.

"(N)o longer any doubt," they say. Despite no credible corroborating evidence.

Wall Street Journal editors repeatedly accuse Putin of invading Ukraine. Pursuing revanchist objectives. Escalating conflict.

Ignoring his polar opposite agenda. Citing German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying he violated Europe's peaceful order.

Throughout months of Ukrainian crisis conditions, Big Lies about Russia's involvement exceed the worst of Cold War rhetoric.

Ignoring Washington's full responsibility for ousting Ukraine's democratic government. Replacing it with pro-Western fascist putschists.

Neo-Nazi extremists by any standard. Supporting their farcical presidential and parliamentary elections.

Premeditated naked aggression against Donbas. Dirty war. Without mercy.

Using cluster munitions, chemical and other banned weapons. Murdering civilians in cold blood.

Blaming Russia and Donbas freedom fighters for its own crimes. Heading for full-scale war. Despite agreeing to diplomatic resolution.

Its new coalition government is hard-right. Ultranationalist. Ideologically over-the-top. Extremist and then some.

Fascist by any standard. Mocking rule of law principles. Democratic values. With full support and encouragement from Washington. Supportive scoundrel media.

US forces armed with heavy weapons now deployed in Eastern Europe. Indefinitely. Menacingly close to Russia's border.

Additional deployments are planned. In Baltic states and Poland. Code-named Operation Atlantic Resolve. Established to challenge a nonexistent "resurgent Russia." It's so-called "threat."

Head of US forces in Europe, Lt. General Ben Hodges, claiming Lithuanian, Estonian and Polish fascist governments thank him "for what these soldiers represent."

Last summer Putin expressed justifiable concern saying:

"We shall provide an adequate and well-measured response to NATO's expansion towards Russia's borders…"

"(W)e shall take note of (US-led Alliance nations) setting up a global missile defense architecture and building up its arsenals of precision-guided weapons."

"No matter what our Western counterparts tell us, we can see what's going on."

"As it stands, NATO is blatantly building up its forces in Eastern Europe, including the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea areas."

"Its operational and combat training activities are gaining in scale." Without just cause. Threatening world peace.

On November 26, NATO commander General Philip Breedlove visited Kiev. Met with its illegitimate leaders. Poroshenko and prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Discussed US military aid. Mutual cooperation. Support for Ukraine's naked aggression.

Its eventual integration into NATO. Despite Russia's profound opposition.

Committed to prevent it from happening. Knowing what's at stake otherwise.

Ukraine remains hugely destabilized. A dangerous geopolitical flashpoint. A tinderbox able to ignite global conflict.

The struggle for its soul continues. At stake is world peace.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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