https://crimesofempire.com/2016/11/09/us-election-an-american-apocalypse

http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2019/01/bolsonaro-duterte-9-11-evangelicals.html

http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2019/01/jesus-marks-gospel.html

Once a year I like to pretend like my blog is some kind of “respectable” mainstream outlet... Saker 2018 “man” of the year: the American “dissidents”.

A dissident 'opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state'.

'Pretending...' about Truthscoop, know how he feels. A division down from The Saker, wonder how many read this (not looking). Like to do 'dissidents on YouTube'. Here are my current subscriptions. Sometimes I delete them all or swap on and off. Will keep this lot for now, although try not to listen/watch too much.

Attracted to literary criticism, a new form is a commentary about other commentators. Could be a bitch fest bore but it can be a useful accompaniment. Live responses to certain comments and questions add extra vulnerability and openness. Clips to critique and discuss played to address.

Like to have a healthy amount of disagreement among the selection. Keep the opposing views fresh, and remain content, don't always agree. It's a symbolic choice that includes inclusions out of principle.

One person who presents among those awakening to deeper information is Owen Benjamin. He takes questions live and prepared to share his experience and discoveries. Causes the difficulty of losing subscribers and crazy headlines. Although I disagree with his take on sexuality -- to some degree -- this is nuts and not a fair assessment:

Why is Amazon promoting this anti-trans alt right troll’s comedy special?

Jesse Spots does a good watch and chat-about Owen. As was Lift the Veil on the mysterious limousine crash and Owen knowing the victims. (Confess, like Left the Veil, although struggle with his early claims over the sterling How I see the World. The claims he made were unsubstantiated but in recent months he's carved out a credible space).

Others to mention? Dinner with Blake_201. Dissident Blake? Yes, more-mainstream health sees it this way. As with loud and sound Snake Diet and all the other food and fitness freaks. Veg. Police, Spencer, and all on the health-tip reckon hot.

To the flag watchers on there. UK Crit, Beat Worship, Anaconda -- barely an 'etc.' -- are the last men standing. Last stand. Standing with the constant pressure of censorship. Talk about a bellwether.

Quantum of Conscience is worth a mention. The outer and who-know-what goes realms get an unstoppable turnover.

Always one more and Blackstone Intelligence Network for being so clear and informative. Brendon O'Connell for convincing alt. alternatives. Could go on and more but for now...

Final blab in this wee appraisal. Ron Unz Pravada series as Saker suggests represents:

[Ron] has embarked on an amazingly courageous and most interesting series of articles entitled “American Pravda” in which Ron Unz exposed more sacred cows and unspoken taboos than any other public figure in recent memory. I highly recommend that you read every single one of these amazing texts and see for yourself how intellectual honesty and courage can be combined to achieve what I think will be recognized as a truly historical feat for intellectual freedom.

Paul Craig Roberts? What else to say?

Latest/yesterday begins:

In a few hours it will be another new year, 2019. I can remember when 1984 seemed far in the future, both as a calendar date and George Orwell’s predicted dystopia, to which 9/11 and the digital revolution gave birth in the 21st century. Now I find myself 35 years past 1984 and a stranger in a strange land.

Like Ron, it's the graduation and honesty that ploughs through the landscape. And Roberts has been, the one most prominent voice, in taking on fakes and false-flags. Nice, Vegas and on... Authorative and confirming, open and unshakable. Again The Saker:

For that he has been ridiculed and insulted, but none of that hateful ad hominem propaganda has succeeded in silencing him. Roberts clearly fears nobody and his voice remains one of the most powerful ones in our peace movement.

The other two dissidents noted, are Bonnie Faulkner (must get into more), and Professor Stephen Cohen who I read when see.

The Saker sums up with:

For all the empty talk about freedom of speech, diversity, pluralism and the like, the sad truth is that the USA is not a democracy, but a rather authoritarian plutocracy with strongly expressed elements of a totalitarian regime. True, nobody (that I know of) got sent to a labor camp (yet!) or shot in a cellar (yet!) for daring to speak up to power, but we must also remember the joke which says that “a totalitarian regime is one that commands you to “shut up!” whereas a liberal democracy simply says “keep talking!“. There is much truth to this.

Hope, helpful. Thanks again to Aangirfan if this is why you're here.

May '19 be a year we take our freedoms and hold some ground.