Our readers probably know about Ben Swann. He's the host of "Reality Check" on CBS News. Swann has also established his own independent, crowdfunded Truth In Media Project at BenSwann.com. So far he and his team have produced 16 episodes, and more are in the works. He just announced his next project on Facebook:

Please support our new crowdfunding effort! We are going to create a full half hour documentary to explain not only HOW the U.S., Saudis, Israel, Jordan and Qatar created ISIS but WHY they did so in an effort to overthrow Assad in Syria as well as the effort now underway to end the U.S. funding of terror organizations. We are raising funds via Paystand so please consider donating. Just 5000 people at $10 each will get us the funding we need. Please contribute and SHARE!

The episode will be a follow-up to Swann's previous "Origin of ISIS" episode from February 2016. Check it out below:

Hidden in local archives and dusty Smithsonian reports are accounts that are all but forgotten to North American historians and scientists: accounts of giant (7 to 9 feet tall) skeletons discovered all across the country, many buried under earthen mounds. Some photographs still exist, but curiously, the skeletons do not.

On today's episode of the Truth Perspective we interview Jim Viera and Hugh Newman, authors of Giants on Record: America's Hidden History, Secrets in the Mounds and the Smithsonian Files. We discuss their research: the archaeological finds, the implications for our views on human history, and the nature of the apparent cover-up.

You can find Jim and Hugh's Facebook page here, and Hugh's website here.

Running Time: 01:27:55

Download: MP3


Here's the transcript of the show:

Two days ago, the US government released its report on "Russian interference in the US presidential election", claiming that Russia allegedly used hackers to release data that made Hillary Clinton look bad in order to allow Donald Trump to ascend to the presidency, a choice that Putin favored because, according to the Obama/Clinton coterie, Trump is a mind-controlled stooge of the Kremlin at worst, or a (shudder) "friend of Putin" at best.

The report itself is a complete farce as an example of an "intelligence" report. It runs around in circles and makes laughable claims about Russia's goals in the alleged "interfering". The report supposedly "assesses specific findings" rather than presenting any actual evidence, because apparently there is no actual evidence. The claims that the evidence can't be presented because it would compromise national security are transparently laughable. Appropriately then, the report begins by giving a sorry excuse for why it offers absolutely no evidence for its claims:

"The Intelligence Community rarely can publicly reveal the full extent of its knowledge or the precise bases for its assessments, as the release of such information would reveal sensitive sources or methods and imperil the ability to collect critical foreign intelligence in the future."

How convenient, "national security": the last refuge of liars and scoundrels. Next we're regaled with something called 'key judgments'. These are apparently plucked out of thin air as zero evidence is offered to substantiate them.

"We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments."

The first thing that stands out here is that the report assumes that the American public had faith in the US democratic process before the election, or that the USA actually has a real 'democratic process'. Clearly the US government is completely out of touch with the thoughts and feelings of the average US citizen with regards to the country's political process and the presidential election. A poll conducted back in May 2016 found 55% of Americans felt helpless about the 2016 presidential election. Only 13% said the two-party system works, while 38% considered it seriously broken. Another poll conducted in early October found that 40% of the public had lost faith in American democracy.

Smoking is surely detrimental to one's health, right? People are often bombarded with warnings about the negative effects of smoking and are persuaded to quit by health authorities. It has even got to the point now where people are being deprived of access to healthcare services if they smoke, and this is on the grounds that 'smoking will delay the onset of healing and may aggravate one's pre-existing condition'.

According to the World Health Organisation:

"the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing around 6 million people a year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke."

But like any other claim promulgated by the established health authorities, it is wise to question whether there is actually any truth to it. Bear in mind, it is these same authorities which recommend a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet (and we have seen how detrimental that has been to the general population's health). It is also those same people who would recommend treating chronic illness with synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, or the complete removal of entire organs (again, clearly not a successful approach). Anyone who pays attention can see that the authorities clearly don't care about people's health because they are more concerned with profit margins. So in this context rational inquiry demands that we look into whether tobacco is really 'all that bad'.

High carb, low fat, ketogenic, Whole 30 and paleo diets... research exists supporting (and refuting) them all. Some people thrive on a high amount of carbs, some decline. Some people soar on a ketogenic diet while others crash and burn. As much as researchers would like to find the perfect human diet it is becoming increasingly clear that one dietary template is not suitable for everyone everywhere and at all times. Age, genetics, activity level, location and more can all play a role in what one should or should not be eating.

Is diet as black and white as some proponents claim it to be? Do carbs, dairy, grains, fruits and legumes have any place in a 'healthy' diet? Are there any absolute no-no's? Join us on this episode of the Health and Wellness Show as we attempt to tease out the nuances and add some levity to the diet wars. And be sure to stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment where the topic will be Animals: Do they dream like us?

Running Time: 01:43:17

Download: MP3

The "activists" were out in full force during the last days of the final liberation of Aleppo, decrying what they saw as the fall of the city and transmitting their "last" messages as they awaited death or abduction by the "evil Assad regime" forces. They made quite an impact in social media and some were picked up for 15 minutes of fame in the regime-change-shilling Western media. Meanwhile foreign independent and Syrian journalists continue to present a narrative which is anathema to the mainstream, hence their exclusion from any coverage.

Lina Shamy has been a real hit on regime-change-cheerleading media such as Al Jazeera. She solemnly tells us people are living through an Assad genocide, many having lain under the rubble of bombed Aleppo buildings, with what she calls the civil defence, or more accurately, the 'White Helmets', unable to rescue them. Incidentally, the White Helmets are not the real Syrian Civil Defence. They have been set up as a shadow state institution, colonizing and subverting the provision of emergency response in this war-torn country.

There is a real Syrian Civil Defence, naturally enough performing under the mandate of the legitimate, internationally recognised Syrian government. It comes as no surprise then that it is the certified civil fire and rescue organisation according to the International Civil Defence Organisation (ICDO). Shamy is quite careless with her interpretation of who the civil defence is, and the carelessness doesn't end there.

Today on the show, we interview Douglas Valentine, author of the definitive book on the CIA's terror operations in Vietnam (The Phoenix Program), and the recently released title: THE CIA AS ORGANIZED CRIME: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World. Douglas had unprecedented access to CIA officers while writing his book on Phoenix, and since then, he has been one of their most vocal critics. He names names, and doesn't pull any punches when it comes to exposing the criminal network otherwise known as the Central Intelligence Agency.

Visit Douglas's website here: www.douglasvalentine.com

Running Time: 01:05:37

Download: MP3



Here's the transcript of the show:

Dear Readers,

The end of 2016 is approaching, and if you've been following SOTT closely, you'll know that this has been a year full of surprises! The world keeps changing, and us with it. The planet has been speaking loud and clear, as you can see in our monthly weather videos, and the sociopolitical stage had some surprises in store.

This year could be described as a year of division and polarization. From the US elections, to the debate over "progressive liberal ideologies", people seem to be making a choice, for better or for worse. Some are aligning themselves with the increasingly blatant lies peddled by the mainstream media and the pathological governments of our world, and some have taken a stand against those lies and are reaching a point where they finally see that there is something terribly wrong with the version of reality with which they are presented. More than minorities vs. majorities of all kinds, that is perhaps the biggest division: the choice between aligning oneself with lies or truth. We think that many of our readers have naturally chosen the latter, and we hope that that knowledge will always protect you.

The recent fraudulent "Fake News Furor" emphasizes this Truth vs. Lies factor; indeed, SOTT.NET was defamed by The Washington Post along with many other respectable Alt News sites, some not so respectable, and some of dubious origins. As our attorney wrote in a demand for retraction letter,

...SOTT is one of the accused organizations in a PropOrNot report referenced by the Post, which, contrary to Fake News' claim that the report had not been published, was available on the Internet well before Fake News ran. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, SOTT's tax returns are publicly available and transparent, such that allegations of Russian government support due would have been known as false given even casual inquiry by your publication. ...

Your identification of SOTT as a "fake news site" and as an agent for Russian propaganda designed to undermine American democracy is defamatory per se. You accuse SOTT of spreading "Russian-backed phony news to outcompete traditional news organizations for audience." These serious allegations have caused and will continue to cause great harm to SOTT, including but not limited to damage to policy impact and reputation, diversion of scarce reporting and managerial resources to respond to concerned inquires and debunk this smear, loss of readers, and damage to the site's financial sustainability. Moreover, writers and editors associated with SOTT face ridicule, emotional distress, loss of reputation, and risk to future career advancement, including for example, difficulty passing background and security checks. ...

Your article did not provide even a single example of "fake news" allegedly distributed or promoted by SOTT or indeed any of the other 200-plus sites on the PropOrNot blacklist....

As our readers know, and as emphasized by our attorney above, SOTT.NET is TOTALLY reader supported and anyone can view our non-profit tax returns to verify this claim. We don't carry ANY paid advertising and we are beholden to no one except YOU, the reader, and our consciences (something that seems to be seriously in want at MSM news sites.) Obviously, we may have a legal battle ahead of us and that means we need your support more than ever as we sail into these turbulent waters of attempts to totally stifle free speech. With your help, we won't go down without a fight!

We should also tell you that those of us here at SOTT who daily monitor the news in order to bring together the most complete picture of the "State of the Planet" often find it difficult to keep going in the face of the apparent lack of hope in spite of the confidence that some have in the abilities of Donald Trump to get the USA back on course. We are painfully aware of the struggle that must take place in order to right the wrongs and set things back on a positive footing; we are also aware that it will have to be a decision of the masses, not just 10% or 20% or 48% of the people. And that is why it is so important to continue to share knowledge. As conditions across all spheres of life continue to degrade, there will inevitably be more pain and suffering. With that, there will be more and more people who, having believed the chaos would never enter their lives, find that this is not the case: chaos is coming everywhere; and that makes it ever more important that we continue to fire the lighthouse for as long as we can.

Saying goodbye to the year 2016, we'd like to tell you a little bit about our accomplishments, since you may not be aware of them all. We have reason to be proud of our stamina and perseverance, and much more reason to be thankful for you, our readers and supporters, who make it all possible because, frankly, if we did not receive so many messages of thanks and support, we would have no hope either! There is always much more we can do, but this year, just as we thought our plates were too full, thanks to our readers' support, and the impetus from many new volunteers around the world, we did even more!

With liberal elites going into meltdown last month over 'Trumpocalypse', the stewards of empire are rapidly losing whatever grip they once had on reality. At the same time, with extreme weather event after extreme weather event impacting every region on Earth, it's as if this descent into madness is being marked every step of the way by Mother Nature. Disastrous climatic events in November 2016 included:

• Snow, hail and flooding in the deserts of Saudi Arabia (again)
• New Zealand's second strongest tremor in the modern era
• Johannesburg's worst flash-flood in living memory
• Another powerful quake (and another tsunami) off Fukushima, Japan
• Outbreak of 'thunder asthma' in Melbourne, Australia, which killed 8 people and sent another 8,500 to hospital
• The latest Atlantic Hurricane in the modern era (and the most southerly, and the first to ever make landfall in Costa Rica)
• Unprecedented 'superfires' torching swathes of the US Southeast

Those are just some of the more 'unusual' events in our latest Earth Changes Summary video, which also includes the other more 'normal' stuff: monster sinkholes swallowing multiple cars, people and homes - deluges washing away more homes, cars and people - massive meteor fireballs panicking people into thinking aliens have invaded - destructive tornadoes touching down in the capitals of Rome and South Africa - record November snowfalls in parts of northern US, northern China, and northern Europe...

We are, of course, being facetious. There's nothing normal about any of this. We've entered a new global climate. Forecasting models are largely redundant at this point. The costs from all this destruction pile up ever higher with each passing month. Until now, elites have either ignored the climate/planetary upheaval, or blamed ordinary people for causing one or another symptom, then carried on milking taxpayers and spreading wars. No doubt, given recent patterns, they're soon going to start blaming it all on Putin.

These were (some of) 'the signs' in November 2016...

As the Syrian Army completes the liberation of Aleppo from Al-Qaeda-led terrorist groups, you would think that there would be universal celebration of a landmark defeat of international terrorism. Not so, as we are assailed with reports of Syrian-led forces committing cold-blooded executions, women committing suicide, fearing they will be raped by Syrian soldiers, people burned alive, and reports of rape against the civilian population.

The above are all unverified allegations at this stage. They are coming from the opposition militant groups themselves, groups firmly aligned with the opposition and a whole array of "activists" posting on Twitter and Facebook, some of whom are finding themselves becoming instant mainstream media hits.

The most disturbing aspect is that the mainstream media are reporting unverified allegations as fact. This is the definition of fake news.

Reports emerged of at least 82 civilians being executed as the Syrian Army and allied militias clean up the last areas under rebel control. "The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes," said Rupert Colville, a U.N. spokesman. "There could be many more."