While he was campaigning, it was wise to refrain from coming to any definite conclusions about Trump's character or intentions. Much of what a presidential candidate says before election day is rhetoric, marketing and bluff, designed to attract as many votes as possible.

As a general rule, the words of a politician, particularly one who is facing an election, rarely translate into actual policy. Actions and results are what count, not discourse or style. Not following this rule is what made America's anti-Bush, anti-war 'dissident left' fall for Obama's deception, and conversely, engage in anti-Trump campaigns before he got into office.

The rule still applies now that Trump has become president, although his words carry more weight because they are now a signature away from becoming executive orders. Someone in his position understands that inconsistency in word and deed risks eroding his authority.

US government rhetoric against Iran has lately hit levels not seen since the Bush administration, and a string of events over the last couple of weeks in and around Yemen appears to be the reason for it. US drone strikes and airstrikes against targets in Yemen took place before, during and after Trump's inauguration, but it was the US Special Forces (Navy Seals 6) raid in central Yemen on January 28^th that got the US media's attention.

Two days after Trump's inauguration, US drones "killed five Al-Qaeda operatives" in central Yemen. This operation took place without Trump's knowledge (and thus without his approval) because his predecessor freed the Pentagon from executive oversight when it comes to drone warfare. The US war machine is, in a sense, sentient. It generally operates without any official leadership, decision-making or input from 'the civilian government'. The same goes for the multiple drone strikes conducted in 'ISIS-occupied' Syria and Iraq over the course of Trump's inauguration and first days in office.

So while most people might assume that all such operations would cease during the few days between the removal of the old administration and the institution of the new, yet that is not what happens, which is pretty clear evidence that US foreign policy operates independently of the White House.

Seals' Dawn Raid in Central Yemen

But then came something that apparently did involve Trump. On Sunday January 29th, US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued an incredible press release, which stated that "one US service member was killed and four more injured" during a counter-terror "raid against al-Qa'ida-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen on January 28." The operation, they said, killed an estimated "14 AQAP members and the capture of information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots." Oh, and a US MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft used in the operation "experienced a hard landing," so it had to be "intentionally destroyed in place [by US Marine jets]."

Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Michael Flynn, reincarnated as National Security Adviser in the Trump administration, showed he has lost none of his belligerence toward Iran, nor gained any control over his war hawk ways when he threatened that the US is "officially putting Iran on notice," for two recent events. One was not even carried out by Iran, but rather by Iranian-supported Houthi forces who attacked a Saudi warship, while the other was a medium-range ballistic missile test carried out for defensive purposes by Iran. In the myopic worldview of people like Flynn, however, Iran has no right to self-defence. It must sit there like a sitting duck, defenceless, anxiously waiting to be picked off by the US and Israel at a time of their choosing.

Flynn has shown unconditional loyalty to Donald Trump from the start of Trump's election campaign, becoming a trusted confidante and a bottomless pit of knowledge on military/intelligence matters. Trump should strongly consider the value of this loyalty, as Flynn threatens Trump's pledge to scale back US military adventurism and regime change addiction.

Flynn loves Israel. He deliberately lies about Iran's nuclear program. At the end of 2007, 16 US intelligence agencies concluded Iran stopped working on a nuclear program by 2003. Yet 9 years later, Flynn repeats the lie that Iran is still actively working on nuclear weapons. This cloudy thinking totally undermines the good work he did as head of the DIA in revealing the plan for a Salafist principality in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq. But we must take the good with the bad, and in Flynn's case the bad leaves the good in the shade.

Today we're interviewing Sheikh Khaled Tantoush, one of Libya's most well-known Imams. Tantoush was released last month by militias in Misrata, following his 5 years and 3 months' imprisonment without trial. An outspoken leader against radical Islam, and for the Libyan people, Tantoush was tortured by the same foreign mercenaries that invaded and destroyed Libya under the support and guidance of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other Western and Gulf State leaders. His last act of service before his arrest in 2011 was to wash Muammar Gaddafi's wounds in preparation for his burial.

Welcomed back to his home in Tripoli by thousands of people, Sheikh Tantoush is another link in the chain of hope for the Libyan people as they cleanse their country of the evil that befell it, and return it back to peace and stability. He is joining us today to speak the truth about what happened in Libya these past 6 years, the criminals who destroyed his country, and to tell the truth about Libya and its people.

Jim & JoAnne Moriarty - who we've had on a couple of times previously - will be joining us to today to introduce us to this extraordinary man.

Running Time: 01:40:39

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Here's the transcript of the show:

On Jan. 30th (more or less, no one knows for sure), a "Saudi Frigate" was broadsided in the Red Sea by something that caused a big explosion and killed, reportedly, two "Saudi sailors". Iranian media reported that the Saudi frigate had been hit by an anti-ship missile. This was followed soon after by Saudi media reports that a terrorist attack was carried out by "suicide boats," or small craft laden with bombs. The Western media initially repeated the Iranian report but then corrected that mistake in favor of the Saudi version - of a "suicide gun boat" piloted by a bunch of wild-eyed 'al-Qaeda' terrorists. So which was it? Logic would suggest that it was a missile. The Houthis had previously fired a missile at an Emirati ship last October and the idea that a naval frigate miles out to sea would have allowed one or more small boats loaded with fertilizer to approach it close enough to detonate is laughable. So why did the Saudi and Western governments and media lie about it?

Sugar, spice and everything nice...that's what girls are made of. Society has played a role in promulgating the myth of the compassionate and tender female and people hold the belief that all women are pleasant and agreeable -- it's the males of the species who warrant suspicion. All women are kind and in touch with their emotions and the emotions of others. They're all nurturing caregivers with a strong mothering instinct. Right? Wrong! It's because of these false beliefs that people can be blindsided when a Nasty Woman crosses their path.

On this episode of the Health and Wellness Show we discuss Nasty Women -- the borderlines, the histrionics, the female psychopaths and the ones you can't quite label but you know something is off. What are their tactics, how do they differ from Nasty Men, who are their prey and how can we protect ourselves from these she-devils?

Stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment where the topic will be species appropriate nutrition.

Running Time: 01:49:22

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I read the most ridiculous headline recently, something that at first glance I presumed had to be 'fake news.' The headline was: Cop attacks innocent woman, tasers her for no reason, calls it 'horseplay', then gives her a 'Sorry I Tased You' cake.

Sounds like a joke, right? I did some digging and the headline is technically not accurate. The officer in question never gave the woman a cake, he just texted her this picture:
The problem here is that everything else is true. This cop showed up at this woman's work for no reason, harassed her, stole her drink and then tased her when she tried to get it back.

The lawsuit states that the officer "used his apparent law enforcement authority to intimidate, harass, and threaten [the] plaintiff ... about her personal life. Because Wohlers did not like how [the] Plaintiff failed to respond to his show of authority, Wohlers became increasingly aggressive toward employees at the apartment complex's office, including with Ms. Byron."

Ms. Byron says that the officer then took a Sweet Tea that was sitting on her desk and refused to give it back to her. When she attempted to get her drink back, the officer tased her in the throat and chest and then jumped on top of her when she fell to the ground, placing his knees firmly on her chest and forcefully removing the taser prongs.

Now, if you or I were to walk into someone's office, harass, steal and attack someone with a deadly weapon, we'd be in jail, facing harsh penalties. This cop, however, was never charged and quietly resigned from his department without any legal consequences. His department defended him, calling this a simple case of 'horseplay', as if this was two young children having a friendly tussle in a schoolyard.

Can you imagine the mentality of someone who can conflate horseplay with assault? How about imagining them having the authority to exercise deadly force on civilians? Reducing assault to 'horseplay' demonstrates the way in which accountability is sidelined, not only in this particular case, but across the US. Obviously, there's a serious problem here.

From as far back as 2008, video recordings of strange and eerie sounds have been appearing on the internet. They occasionally garner a mention in the media but are generally ignored or explained away as a 'hoax', the result of "secret government weapons", the "activation of HAARP" or "HAARP-like technologies", the by-product of "top secret construction work on underground bases", or "aliens", etc., etc.

Variously described as groaning, metallic, clashing, clanging and trumpet-like, these (usually loud and pronounced) noises seem to come from the sky but generally reverberate in such a way that listeners are unable to make out from which general direction they come.

These 'strange sky sounds' have been observed all over the globe and first really caught the public's attention in 2011, when a spate of events sparked such widespread interest that significant effort was made to discredit the phenomenon through the dissemination of fake recordings.

Some, certainly, are hoaxes. That's human nature; we mock that which we do not understand. But the sheer proliferation of 'strange sound events' in recent years, the similarities (with minor differences) between them, and the diversity of the locations they've been recorded in (sometimes more than once), speaks to there being a global reality to this phenomenon. In the course of tracking and reporting these events on SOTT, we've noticed that they tend to come in waves; there can be 'silence' for some time, then 4 or 5 'strange sounds' events occur in disparate locations (perhaps within the same region or continent) in the time span of a week or fortnight. And, as best we can tell, this trend seems to be increasing.

Here is our 'best of' strange sounds summary video, comprising some events from around the world in 2016. Please excuse the occasional foul language - muting or otherwise distorting it would have interfered with the strange sounds themselves. Besides, hearing them curse and swear, you get a real sense of the observers' astonishment!

Official history records that the last 100 years of human history were dominated by 2 world wars, fought between the proponents of freedom and democracy and the forces of slavery and fascism; a 'Cold War' waged by the 'West' against Communist China and the Soviet Union; and more recently, a potentially 'unending' war against the forces of 'Islamic fundamentalism', again waged by the 'West'.

That, at least, is the official narrative.

The alleged 'humanitarian' or otherwise benevolent intentions of the 'West' in these campaigns appears to have given rise, at least in the latter part of the 20th century, to an entrenched culture of progressivism in many 'Western' nations that bolstered the cause of 'humanitarian' military interventions in other countries by Western military forces. This 'progressivism' has, however, produced significant social stressors in Western nations, and provoked a backlash from conservative or 'traditionalist' segments of the population that found their voice, finally, in the unexpected election of Donald Trump as US President.

Join your hosts this week as we disassemble the official narrative of modern history and reveal the much more plausible, if unpalatable, truth about the forces behind the scenes that have brought our global society to the sorry state in which it currently finds itself.

Running Time: 01:58:13

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On this episode of the Health and Wellness show we delve into the murky world of personal care products, a $450-billion industry world-wide. We have been kept in the dark about the ingredients in our personal care products, especially those that present potential health risks. In our cleanliness routines we are exposed to over 84,000 chemicals and only 1% are tested!

Are we seduced by the intoxicating aromas, flashy packaging and enticing promises of everlasting youth these products offer? What are some of the ingredients in personal care products and is there any regulation or monitoring of the long term health effects? How can we navigate an industry that is constantly bombarding us with claims of 'natural' and 'organic ingredients' while simultaneously omitting information about endocrine disruptors, neurotoxins, carcinogens, plasticizers and lead. Join us as we examine the ugly side of beauty products and what we can do to nourish our skin and our bodies using traditional wisdom.

As always Zoya's pet health segment followed by a special recipe for the week!

Running Time: 01:26:34

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