Societal Collapse

The Mainstream Media Will Never Recover From These Shocking Revelations About The Associated Press, The New York Times And Politico

February 5, 2025February 5, 2025 by Michael

A free and independent press is absolutely essential. In fact, Thomas Jefferson once warned that “our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Sadly, we have just learned that some of our most prominent media outlets have been receiving enormous amounts of money from the government. The New York Times, Politico and the Associated Press were being absolutely showered with money during the Biden administration, and it is no coincidence that their coverage of the Biden administration was extremely favorable. This is a scandal of epic proportions, and there is no way that these media outlets will ever recover from this because their credibility is totally gone.

What has been happening at Politico is particularly egregious.

It is supposed to be an independent media entity, but it has been receiving millions of our tax dollars.

In fact, it has received more than 8 million dollars from USAID alone.

But that money from USAID is just the tip of the iceberg.

Overall, Politico has received more than 34 million dollars from the federal government.

That is a tremendous amount of money.

Politico has a subscription option called Politico Pro, and it costs about 10 grand per year.

For some reason, a whole bunch of government agencies were shelling out giant piles of money for such ridiculously-priced subscriptions.

The Biden administration was certainly very good to Politico.

Are we supposed to believe that it was just a “coincidence” that Politico was also very good to the Biden administration?

The following quote from Sean Davis really hit home with me…

It was Politico that maneuvered to have the Hunter laptop story banned and everyone discussing it censored.

Politico peddled the illegal Supreme Court leak that led to the near-assassination of multiple Supreme Court justices.

And now we find out the regime was funneling tens of millions of dollars of our money to Politico?

This is rampant corruption.

Thankfully, the DOGE team is working on ending all payments to Politico right now…

Karoline Leavitt speaks out on USAID spending millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on Politico subscriptions.

“The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.”

Interestingly, staffers at Politico “did not get paid for the latest pay period”…

Staff at Politico did not get paid for the latest pay period. The company just sent several emails to employees saying it believes there was a technical error, and is looking into how to fix the issue.

Could it be possible that their staff did not get paid because the gravy train from the federal government is drying up?

Of course Politico is not the only media outlet that has been getting showered with cash.

It turns out that the “independent” Associated Press has also been raking in millions of dollars.

How can any organization that has hauled in 19.5 million dollars from the federal government possibly claim to be free and independent?

Someone really needs to ask the Associated Press that question.

But at least the Associated Press has not been as big of an offender as the New York Times has.

The most important newspaper in the United States has received “tens of millions of dollars over just the past 5 years”.

The New York Times is a complete and utter disgrace.

I am sorry if this offends you, but it is the truth.

Reporters for the New York Times pretend to be “journalists”, but ultimately they are just propaganda mouthpieces.

It may not surprise you to learn that Reuters is also corrupt.

In fact, it has just come out that they were awarded a very large government contract for “Active Social Engineering Defense” and “Large Scale Social Deception”.

If you can believe it, Reuters was paid more than 9 million dollars under this single contract.

There is no excuse for any of this.

The good news is that many of these legacy media companies were headed for extinction anyway.

For example, we are being told that “the future of CNN looks grim”…

The future of CNN looks grim as experts say the liberal network is ‘in decline’ after staffers faced pay cuts and a round of layoffs.

Jeff McCall, a communications professor at Indiana’s Depauw University, told the Los Angeles Times that the network’s layoffs are not a good look for CNN.

‘Right now, you think of their brand as in decline. The layoffs; that’s a problem. And it looks really bad when you lose libel suits,’ McCall said.

Because these legacy media companies have lost so much credibility, more people than ever are seeking out alternative sources of information. I am honored to be a part of the alternative media ecosystem, but unlike legacy media outlets I do not receive any money from the government. I am able to keep my work alive by offering books and subscriptions to my newsletter.

Thomas Jefferson clearly understood that “our liberty depends on the freedom of the press”, and the vast majority of our legacy media outlets are no longer free or independent.

So it is up to the alternative media to uncover the truth and keep our leaders accountable, and with your help that is what we will continue to do.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

So Much Is Going On – Worst Egg Shortage Ever, New Virus In Alabama, Possible Santorini Eruption, And Tensions With China And Iran Escalate

February 4, 2025February 4, 2025 by Michael

We live at a time when global events are moving at a blistering pace. As Donald Trump and Elon Musk shake the very foundations of Washington D.C.’s giant bureaucracy, very alarming things are starting to happen all over the world. Chaos is erupting all around us, and I am entirely convinced that it is only going to intensify during the months ahead.

Let me start by discussing the worst egg shortage in U.S. history.

All over the country, grocery stores and restaurants are having a really difficult time finding enough eggs right now…

American restaurants are falling victim to a national egg shortage that has already plagued grocery stores from New York City to San Francisco and sent prices to $7 a carton.

I never imagined that egg prices would reach such dizzying heights in 2025, and the year has just begun.

In the Big Apple, a dozen cage-free eggs will set you back $11.99…

In New York City, prices reached as high as $11.99 for a dozen cage-free eggs at Whole Foods Inc. The national retailer placed a three-carton purchase limit on customers at some locations in the city. Customers in Nassau County on Long Island found supplies of Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs and Nellie’s free range ones sold out at Whole Foods online in the past week.

Organic eggs have been in short supply too. Over the weekend, refrigerated shelves were almost completely bare at a ShopRite in Brooklyn. The few crates left were priced at about $1 per egg. A nearby Costco was out of everything except quail eggs, according to grocery delivery app Instacart, and a Wegmans had run out of some of its store brands.

This is nuts.

A dozen eggs should be less than a dollar.

Or at least that was what life in America was like during the “good old days” prior to the pandemic.

But now it appears that those days are gone for good.

In fact, things are so bad that the Waffle House has decided to implement a “50 cent per egg surcharge”…

The Waffle House restaurant chain is putting a 50 cent per egg surcharge in place due to the biggest bird flu outbreak in a decade.

The 24-7 restaurant said that the resulting egg shortage has led to a dramatic increase in its costs.

Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight with Easter approaching.

Once upon a time, the two egg breakfast at the Waffle House was one of the most affordable breakfast meals in America.

But now you will have to shell out $7.75 for it…

The Waffle House, a reliable source of a cheap breakfast, said that its egg surcharge became effective this week and that it applies to all of its menus. The restaurant’s two-egg breakfast, which comes with toast and a side, was listed at $7.75 on Tuesday.

“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” the company said.

The bird flu pandemic that has been raging all over the world since early 2022 has not gone away.

In fact, over the last eight weeks it has been worse then ever…

“If you look at what’s happened the last eight weeks, the number of poultry operations that have gone down — and more recently, the duck operations — is absolutely stunning,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota told Axios.

Unfortunately, some experts are warning us that it is just a matter of time before the bird flu starts spreading among humans on a widespread basis.

When that happens, the panic that we will witness will be off the charts.

Are you ready for that?

Meanwhile, there is news that a different deadly virus has been discovered in the U.S. “for the first time ever”…

A potentially deadly virus has been detected in the United States for the first time ever.

Scientists identified the Camp Hill virus in shrews in Alabama, sparking fears it could find its way through animal reservoirs to humans and cause a potentially wide-reaching outbreak.

The Camp Hill virus belongs to a family of pathogens called henipaviruses, including the Nipah virus, a bat-borne virus that kills up to 70 percent of people it infects. The Camp Hill virus, however, has never been recorded in humans and scientists don’t know what symptoms are or the death rate.

That is certainly alarming.

And let us not forget about the outbreaks of Ebola, the Marburg virus, and a new strain of the monkeypox that are causing so much alarm in central Africa.

Yes, pestilences are certainly shaping up to be one of the major themes of 2025.

In Europe, another sort of a threat is making headlines.

Over the past week, more than 500 earthquakes have shaken the Santorini area…

Starting on January 28, the islands of Santorini and Amorgos have been rocked by near-constant tremors of magnitudes three to four.

According to the University of Athens’ earthquake monitoring tool, more than 555 earthquakes have hit the area since then.

Needless to say, these quakes have created quite a stir, and people have been evacuating from Santorini in droves…

Hundreds of people left Santorini on ferries and planes on Tuesday to reach safety in Athens as a series of quakes kept shaking the famous Greek tourist island.

Hundreds of quakes have been registered every few minutes in the sea between the volcanic islands of Santorini and Amorgos, in the Aegean Sea, in recent days, prompting authorities to shut schools in Santorini and the small nearby islands of Ios, Amorgos and Anafi until Friday.

Scientists are trying to assure us that everything is just fine and that a full-blown eruption of Santorini is not likely to happen.

Hopefully they are correct about that, because an enormous eruption of Santorini that occurred many centuries ago was absolutely catastrophic…

However, geologists believe a vastly more powerful eruption occurred around 1620 BC which destroyed a large part of the island, blanketed the region with ash, and is even believed to have contributed to the downfall of the mighty Minoan civilisation.

We have been witnessing unusual seismic activity here in the United States as well.

In fact, during the month of December there was a very alarming swarm of earthquakes along the New Madrid fault zone…

It has been an active week on the New Madrid fault line.

There have been ten small earthquakes in the Bootheel this week alone, with magnitudes ranging from 1.8 to 3.0.

I don’t think that a major quake is going to hit the region immediately.

But it is interesting to note that officials do intend to update the emergency plan for that area of the country…

State officials are teaming up with federal offices to plan for one of the most unpredictable disasters, earthquakes.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management along with FEMA, Region 6, and 30 counties have teamed up to update the New Madrid Seismic Zone plan.

Before I end this piece, there are two more things that I wanted to mention.

First of all, the Chinese have just announced that they will be imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports…

China unveiled a series of retaliatory measures against the U.S. on Tuesday, shortly after U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods took effect, raising concerns of a broader trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

China’s Finance Ministry said Tuesday it will impose additional tariffs of 15% on coal and liquefied natural gas imports from the U.S. and 10% higher duties on American crude oil, agricultural machinery and certain cars, starting Feb. 10.

U.S. relations with China are heading downhill very fast.

This will be something to watch very closely in the months ahead.

Also on Tuesday, Donald Trump signed an executive order that is intended to exert “maximum pressure” on Iran…

President Donald Trump will sign executive order on Tuesday restoring “maximum pressure” on Iran, Reuters is reporting, citing a US official. This is with the intended aim of thwarting all paths of the Islamic Republic toward a nuclear weapon.

The US official also cited Iran’s “malign influence” in the Mideast region and de facto state of war with Israel, including support for regional militants who attack Israeli territory and interests.

“The official told Reuters that Trump’s directive orders the US Treasury Secretary to impose ‘maximum economic pressure’ on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions. The directive is aimed at denying Iran ‘all paths to a nuclear weapon’ and countering ‘Iran’s malign influence’ according to the official.”

Of course economic pressure alone is not going to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

In recent months they have really been ramping up their program, and it is being reported that they have actually been working on delivery systems “with a 1,800‑mile range that could reach Europe”…

Iran has allegedly been covertly developing nuclear weapons with a 1,800‑mile range that could reach Europe using North Korean designs, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The Telegraph in Britain reported Sunday that details provided by the NCRI indicate that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is expanding its warhead program at two sites disguised as communication satellite launch facilities. The facilities, controlled by Iran’s nuclear weapons division – the Organisation for Advanced Defence Research (SPND) – are reportedly expediting missile production.

The Trump administration is not going to allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons.

Likewise, the Israeli government is not going to allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons.

But Iran has already almost reached a point of no return.

So I am expecting to see military action against Iran in the not too distant future.

When that happens, the Iranians will go absolutely ballistic, the price of oil will go through the roof, and the entire region will be thrown into a state of chaos.

At this moment, the media is focusing on so many other things.

But it won’t be too long before war with Iran makes really big news, and once we reach that stage everything will change.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

10 Burning Questions That Everyone Should Be Asking About The Black Hawk Disaster In Washington D.C.

January 30, 2025January 30, 2025 by Michael

What in the world just happened at Reagan National Airport? Like many of you, I was deeply distressed to hear of such a great tragedy that should have been so easy to avoid. There is no way that we can bring back those that have died. Many believe that if competent people were running things at Reagan National Airport, they would still be with us. Others are entirely convinced that we aren’t being given the entire picture. There are so many unanswered questions, and I am going to share quite a few with you in this article.

But let’s start with the basics. On Wednesday evening, a Black Hawk helicopter violently collided with an American Airlines plane that was attempting to land…

A massive search and rescue effort was underway after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair with an American Airlines jet at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday evening.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan National Airport (DCA) around 9 p.m. local time.

PSA was operating as Flight 5342 for American Airlines, and it departed from Wichita, Kansas.

With all of the technology at our disposal, there is no way that something like this should happen.

But it did.

People are demanding solid answers, and hopefully we will get some soon. There is just so much about this story that simply does not make any sense. The following are 10 burning questions that everyone should be asking about the Black Hawk disaster at Reagan National Airport…

#1 Why was staffing “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” at the air traffic control tower that was giving directions?

#2 Why was one person doing the jobs of two people at the time of the crash?

#3 Why was the pilot of the plane asked to change runways just before disaster struck?

#4 Who ordered the runway switch?

#5 How is it possible that whoever was operating the Black Hawk could not see a huge commercial plane?

#6 Why didn’t the helicopter take evasive action to avoid the plane?

#7 Was the plane was equipped with modern collision-avoidance technology? If so, why didn’t it prevent the crash from happening?

#8 Why are military helicopter training operations being conducted at such a busy airport?

#9 How is it possible that the helicopter “was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time” and nobody did anything about it?

#10 Why weren’t precautions taken after a nearly identical disaster almost happened the day before?…

A passenger flight had to abort landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC the day before American Airlines Flight 5342 collided in midair with a helicopter.

Republic Airways Flight 4514 was forced to back out of touching down and had to make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.

That’s according to an audio recording from air traffic control captured on Tuesday and heard by The Washington Post.

In my opinion, the military should be banned from conducting training operations at major airports.

There is just way too much traffic constantly coming in and out, and as we have seen, mistakes can happen.

Unfortunately, this was not the only air tragedy that occurred within the past few days.

In Santa Barbara, California a small private plane “crashed and burst into flames” near Highway 101…

And in Alaska, an F-35 fighter jet experienced a “malfunction” and tumbled violently out of the sky…

What is up with the F-35?

It is supposed to be one of the most advanced fighter jets in the entire world, but it has experienced one problem after another.

If even one of our most sophisticated fighter jets can lose power and tumble out of the sky, what does that say about us?

We live at a time when evidence of an “epidemic of incompetence” is everywhere we look.

The tremendous tragedy that just happened in Washington is also a reminder to all of us that life is so short. One moment everything can seem perfectly normal, and the next moment you can be facing eternity.

Live every day as if it may be your last, because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.

Sadly, I fully expect that there will be a lot more great tragedies throughout the remainder of 2025.

Global events have started to move at an extremely rapid pace, and the resulting instability is going to have very serious consequences in the days ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

11 Random Facts That Show That America Is Rotting And Decaying Right In Front Of Our Eyes

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025 by Michael

We are in far more trouble than most people realize. Fentanyl and other drugs are ravaging our cities, and homelessness, poverty and hunger are rapidly growing all around us. Meanwhile, our federal government, our state governments, and our local governments are drowning in debt, and economic conditions are steadily deteriorating. Corruption is rampant, incompetence is seemingly everywhere, and the moral decay of our society is accelerating. Unfortunately, much of the population is completely oblivious to what is going on because they are deeply addicted to the electronic gadgets that they are constantly staring at. The following are 11 random facts that show that America is rotting right in front of our eyes…

#1 A new study has discovered that smartphones “are making teenagers more aggressive” and are causing them to “hallucinate”…

Smartphones are making teenagers more aggressive, detached from reality and causing them to hallucinate, according to new research.

Scientists concluded the younger a person starts using a phone, the more likely they would be crippled by a whole host of psychological ills after surveying 10,500 teens between 13 and 17 from both the US and India for the study, by Sapien Labs.

“People don’t fully appreciate that hyper-real and hyper-immersive screen experiences can blur reality at key stages of development,” addiction psychologist Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, who was not part of the team who did the study, told The Post.

#2 According to Bloomberg, our cost of living crisis is driving more working Americans than ever to seek assistance from food banks…

Once a month, Kersstin Eshak visits a food pantry in Loudoun County, Virginia to stretch her family’s budget.

Eshak’s husband works at a big box retailer. She works as a substitute teacher. They have income, but with prices up nearly 23% over the past five years — and still rising — their earnings just don’t stretch quite far enough some months.

Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch.

#3 The U.S. national debt was sitting at about 10 trillion dollars when Barack Obama first entered the White House. Today, it is sitting at 36.2 trillion dollars.

#4 Criminals freely roam the streets, but a pastor in Ohio could face jail time for using his church to house the homeless…

The only problem is that while opening up his church — Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio — to the homeless, he’s also opened himself up to the reality of city code.

“Pastor Avell has known that this was not permitted use and that he does not have firewalls, he does not have sprinkler systems,” said Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade. “The kind of things you need in a residential facility. “

#5 A cryptocurrency called “Fartcoin” that was created as a joke currently has a market capitalization of 847 million dollars.

#6 Fentanyl is absolutely destroying communities all over America. For example, check out what has been happing in Las Cruces, New Mexico…

Las Cruces authorities say they first encountered fentanyl in 2018. In 2020, they confiscated a total of 461 pills.

In 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, fentanyl seizures exploded to more than 22,600 – and continued rising: roughly 70,000 pills were seized in 2022 and nearly 86,000 in 2023.

“It wasn’t in Las Cruces, and then it was, and then it was everywhere. In 2021, it really intensified and we’ve seen that the past few years. During that same period from 2018 to 2021, we saw a huge increase in crime: an 85% increase in violent crime and a 71% increase in property crime,” Las Cruces Chief of Police Jeremy Story stated last year during a virtual press conference on New Mexico’s fentanyl epidemic.

#7 In 2024, corporate bankruptcies in the United States reached the highest level “since the 2008 financial crisis”.

#8 We don’t hear much about cargo theft, but it reached a staggering 454 million dollars in 2024. That was a brand new all-time record high…

Cargo theft hit a record high in the U.S. and Canada for the second consecutive year, and the trend is expected to continue as criminal enterprises have become more sophisticated in their methods.

Verisk CargoNet’s annual analysis released this week found that cargo theft surged 27% from 2023 to 2024, hitting a record 3,625 reported incidents last year with an average value of $202,364 per theft. All told, the losses are estimated at more than $454 million.

#9 According to the New York Times, 15 percent of the “women” in our federal prisons are transgender.

#10 Most of the foods on our grocery store shelves are “highly processed”, and since “highly processed foods” are less expensive many U.S. consumers tend to gravitate to them…

Next time you walk down the aisles of your local grocery store, take a closer look at what’s actually available on those shelves. A stunning report reveals the majority of food products sold at major U.S. grocery chains are highly processed, with most of them priced significantly cheaper than less processed alternatives.

In what may be the most comprehensive analysis of food processing in American grocery stores to date, researchers examined over 50,000 food items sold at Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods to understand just how processed our food supply really is. Using sophisticated machine learning techniques, they developed a database called GroceryDB that scores foods based on their degree of processing.

#11 Homelessness in the U.S. is at the highest level ever recorded, and it is increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded.

We desperately need change in this country.

And you are never too young to be part of that change. Just check out how old some of our founding fathers were in 1776…

James Monroe was 18 years old.

Aaron Burr was 20 years old.

John Marshall was 20 years old.

Alexander Hamilton was 21 years old.

James Madison was 25 years old

John Jay was 30 years old.

Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old.

If we truly want to make this country great again, we need to rediscover the values and principles that once made this country so great.

Our nation is in the condition that it is today because of the choices that we have made.

If we want to turn things around, we must start making better choices. Anyone that does not understand this is just being delusional.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Who Owns The Media? There Are 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

January 27, 2025January 27, 2025 by Michael

We live in a society that is literally addicted to consuming media content. Unfortunately, control of that content is dominated by just a handful of ultra-powerful corporations. Back in 1983, the media industry was controlled by a group of about 50 large companies. Today, the media industry is controlled by just 6 gigantic corporations. They own television networks, streaming services, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most of us don’t ever stop to think about who is feeding us the endless hours of news, sports and entertainment that we constantly ingest. But we should. The truth is that each of us is tremendously influenced by the messages that are constantly being poured into our heads. We are addicted to the “programming”, and we just keep coming back for more. Most of us spend multiple hours each day consuming media content, and many of us actually begin to feel physically uncomfortable if we go too long without watching or listening to something.

The six corporations that collectively control the media industry are Disney, Time Warner, National Amusements, News Corporation, Comcast and Sony. Collectively, the “big six” absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. If the “big six” were a country, they would have the 26th largest GDP in the world. But even those areas of the media that the “big six” do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, iHeartMedia now owns over 1,200 radio stations in the United States, and companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook are increasingly dominating the Internet.

When you control what Americans watch, hear and read, you acquire a great deal of influence over what they think.

The content that they produce for us is called “programming” for a reason.

The power to shape our culture is the power to alter the future of our society. We have witnessed seismic cultural shifts in recent decades, and the media industry has been the driving force behind many of those shifts.

These gigantic media conglomerates are much larger than most people realize. Below, I have listed just a sampling of some of the media properties that are owned and controlled by the “big six”…

Disney

ABC Television Network
Disney+
Pixar
Disney Publishing Worldwide
ESPN
A&E
Lifetime
The History Channel
Marvel
Lucasfilm
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Records
Buena Vista Games
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Vice

Time Warner

CNN
HBO
Time Inc.
Time Warner Cable
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Castle Rock Entertainment
CW Network (partial ownership)
TMZ
New Line Cinema
Time Warner Cable
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
DC Entertainment
TBS
TNT
America Online
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
People Magazine

National Amusements

CBS Television Network
Paramount+
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Showtime
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
CBS Films
CBS Games
Comedy Central
Country Music Television (CMT)
Gamespot
Logo
MTV
Nickelodeon
Nick at Nite
Nick Jr.
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land
VH1
The Smithsonian Channel
Pocket Books
Simon & Schuster

News Corporation

Fox Television Network
Fox News
Fox Sports
Fox Business
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
The New York Post
Barron’s
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Beliefnet
FX
The Speed Channel
Times of London
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox Television
The Wall Street Journal
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Interactive Media
HarperCollins Publishers
Harlequin
The National Geographic Channel
Tubi
Zondervan

Comcast

NBC Television Network
Peacock
MSNBC
CNBC
NBC News
Bravo
NBC Sports
Comcast Sportsnet
The Golf Channel
Fandango
FanDuel
Oxygen
Syfy
Telemundo
USA Network
The Weather Channel
Focus Features
NBC Universal Television Distribution
NBC Universal Television Studio
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Pictures

Sony

Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Entertainment Televsion
Sony Music
Sony Interactive Entertainment (Playstation)
TriStar
Triumph Films
Affirm Films
Animax
Crackle
CSC Media Group
Columbia Pictures
Destination Films

Big tech companies such as Amazon, Apple and Netflix have started to produce their own content in recent years, but their content is nearly indistinguishable from that produced by the “big six”.

The primary goal of these behemoths is to make money.

So they aren’t going to do anything that will threaten their relationships with their biggest advertisers. This is one of the reasons why large pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on advertising. They realize that executives at these companies will be desperate to keep the gravy train rolling, and so negative coverage of pharmaceutical companies will be almost non-existent.

Fortunately, an increasing number of people are starting to wake up and are realizing that the media industry should not be trusted.

In fact, a Gallup survey that was conducted in October 2024 found that only 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in the mainstream media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly”.

The good news is that as the mainstream media loses credibility, the alternative media is growing.

Americans are starting to look elsewhere for the truth, and that has allowed independent journalists such as myself to flourish.

Of course the establishment has responded by aggressively censoring the alternative media, but now that we have a new administration in Washington that is anti-censorship, hopefully we will see some significant changes.

Every day, we are in a battle for hearts and minds. Most of the population is still plugged into “the matrix” and still consumes endless hours of “programming” that is produced by the “big six”. Meanwhile, those of us in the alternative media are desperately trying to get people to wake up and think for themselves.

Sadly, even most people that think that they are “awake” are still being very heavily influenced by movies, television shows and news programs.

The “programming” that they are constantly offering to us is so seductive, and very few are able to break the addiction entirely.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Alert! Watch How This Develops Very Closely – “We Can Do It The Easy Way, Or The Hard Way”

January 22, 2025January 22, 2025 by Michael

We have reached such a pivotal moment in world history. During his time in the White House, Joe Biden brought us closer to nuclear war with Russia than ever before. If Kamala Harris had won the election, I am convinced that a nuclear war with Russia would have almost certainly happened during her term. But Donald Trump won the election instead, and now he has a historic opportunity. He can end the conflict in Ukraine and avoid a nuclear war with Russia. If he is able to do that, he will save countless lives. However, if he handles this situation with Russia badly and nuclear missiles start flying back and forth, it will be the end of America as we know it today.

It is not going to be easy to end the war in Ukraine. Anyone that suggests otherwise simply does not understand the dynamics that are at play.

The good news is that unlike Biden, Trump actually wants to make a deal, and on Wednesday he posted a message on Truth Social in which he revealed quite a bit about what he is thinking…

I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin – and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!

I very much agree with Trump that we need to end this ridiculous war.

But Trump needs to be very careful. Diplomatic finesse will be required to reach an agreement, and making threats is not going to help at all.

In particular, telling Russia that we “can do it the easy way, or the hard way” is not going to move the needle in the right direction.

Precisely what would “the hard way” look like?

Would that mean greatly escalating the conflict in Ukraine?

Already, Trump is calling on the Europeans to substantially increase their financial support for the war…

Additionally, the U.S. President reiterated his call for European Union nations to step up their contributions to support Ukraine, calling for an extra $200 billion [USD].

I understand what Trump is trying to do.

He has repeatedly expressed his desire for “peace through strength”, and so he is attempting to get leverage on the Russians.

But issuing threats could threaten the temporary “window of opportunity” that we have right now.

In fact, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov just stressed that the “window of opportunity” that has opened up is “a small one”…

‘Compared to the hopelessness in every aspect of the previous White House chief (President Joe Biden), there is a window of opportunity today, albeit a small one,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies in Moscow.

‘It’s therefore important to understand with what and whom we will have to deal, how best to build relations with Washington, how best to maximise opportunities and minimise risks.’

Hopefully the two sides will sit down and talk very soon, because if an agreement does not happen in the coming months there probably will not be one at all.

And when talks do commence, they will be quite tricky.

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that the Russians must be allowed to keep all of the territory in Ukraine that they have conquered and NATO forces will not be allowed on Ukrainian territory once the conflict is over…

Putin has repeatedly said that he is ready to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine but that Russia’s current control of 20% of Ukrainian territory will have to be accepted and that Ukraine must remain neutral.

On the other side, the Ukrainians have no intention of accepting what Russia is offering.

The Ukrainians want all of their territory back, and President Zelensky just told that world that he wants “a minimum of 200,000 European soldiers” on Ukrainian soil once the war has concluded…

Zelensky said “a minimum of 200,000 European soldiers will be required to secure Ukraine after any peace deal is reached.”

“A minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” he said, emphasizing the need to keep Putin in check.

He also decried Russia’s demand to cut Ukraine’s army down to a fifth of its current size of 800,000 troops, saying that would leave the country defenseless.

The Russians will absolutely not accept NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine.

In fact, during a recent broadcast Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov issued an ominous warning to “every mother in Europe”…

During a state TV broadcast, he furiously declared, “[The West] don’t understand that we can easily destroy all these countries, at least their capitals, which send peacekeepers….”, reports the Express US. “For us, these are not peacekeeping troops, but interventionists. And we will kill them all. The French, the English, the ******* Germans.”

Addressing his audience across 11 Russian time zones on Kremlin-controlled state TV, he said, “I just want you to translate my words carefully so that they reach the consciousness of every mother in Europe. You will send your sons and they will all be destroyed. And if that happens, thanks to your politicians, war will come to your homes.”

That is rather chilling.

Unfortunately, Solovyov represents what mainstream Russians are thinking.

The Russians will not accept NATO troops in Ukraine under any circumstances, and the Russians will not give any territory back.

And with each passing day, the Russians are taking even more territory.

It literally will take a major miracle to end this war.

But now Trump has his chance. He is the master of “the art of the deal”, and so let’s see what he can do.

I just hope that he realizes that the fate of our society hangs in the balance.

We’ve got one shot at this, and if an agreement cannot be reached the consequences will be apocalyptic.

I know that everyone is focused on Trump’s domestic policies right now, and they are certainly important.

But if he doesn’t get negotiations with Russia right, the domestic policies that he is instituting aren’t really going to matter much at all.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Why Is Our Planet Getting Hit By Historic Natural Disaster After Historic Natural Disaster?

January 21, 2025January 21, 2025 by Michael

Have we become numb to the major natural disasters that are constantly happening all around us? Over the past couple of years we have been getting hit by historic natural disaster after historic natural disaster, and this week we are getting hit again. A “once-in-a-generation” blizzard is dumping enormous amounts of snow along the Gulf Coast, and new fires have suddenly erupted in southern California. Meanwhile, the other side of the planet continues to get hammered by unusual earthquakes. A steady stream of absolutely devastating disasters has become our “new normal”, and 2025 is certainly off to a blistering start.

Last year, the U.S. averaged a “billion dollar disaster” about every two weeks, and natural disasters inflicted a total of $417,000,000,000 in damage to the global economy…

The year 2024 saw global natural catastrophes inflict $417 billion in economic losses, with insured losses reaching $154 billion, underscoring the escalating impact of climate change on extreme weather events worldwide, according to Gallagher Re’s Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report.

We are going to easily surpass that figure this year, because it is being projected that the fires in southern California alone have already caused at least 250 billion dollars in economic damage.

Unfortunately, that crisis is far from over. In fact, two new fires broke out in San Diego County on Tuesday morning…

Southern Californians are facing even more wildfire devastation as two more wildfires broke following weeks of destruction in Los Angeles.

The Lilac and Pala Fires broke out early on Tuesday morning within an hour of one another in San Diego County, and they had already ravaged nearly 100 acres.

Evacuations for parts of the county have been ordered, while other area residents are urged to pack up their things and leave, according to Cal Fire.

Authorities are blaming these new fires on hurricane-force winds which have been ripping across the region…

The origins of the blazes remain unknown. They erupted as hurricane-force winds blew across Southern California through the night and early morning, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service. A 102-mph wind gust was recorded in the San Diego mountains around 10 p.m. Monday.

Simultaneously, the Gulf Coast is being hammered by a very strange blizzard.

CNN is referring to it as a “once-in-a-generation winter storm”…

Historic snowfall is burying parts of the Gulf Coast amid dangerous cold as a once-in-a-generation winter storm wreaks havoc on travel in a region wholly unaccustomed to winter weather.

We have never witnessed anything quite like this.

In fact, this is the very first blizzard warning that we have ever seen in the state of Louisiana…

Portions of the Gulf Coast saw a first-ever blizzard warning, a wide swath of the South was targeted by a major winter storm, and brutally cold temperatures gripped much of the nation Tuesday as the U.S. grappled with wild winter weather.

Stacey Denson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, told USA TODAY the blizzard warning was a first for Louisiana. A blizzard warning means the expectation that snow and frequent wind gusts up to 35 mph could reduce visibility to 1/4 mile or less.

If the planet is “warming up”, why are we having a blizzard in Louisiana?

That doesn’t make sense.

If you can believe it, some areas of Louisiana were expected to receive up to 10 inches of snow…

State Climatologist Jay Grymes said widespread snow accumulations of 4-10 inches are expected. Cities such as Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans are in the path of the storm.

“The impacts there are going to be crippling,” Grymes said. “Louisiana, this is definitely happening.”

This is a truly unusual weather event.

One meteorologist actually said that this winter storm “almost looks like a hurricane”…

“It almost looks like a hurricane … only with snow as the precip type!” meteorologist A.J. Mastrangelo said on social media as the city got blanketed Tuesday morning.

So why is this happening?

Can anyone out there explain what we are experiencing?

On the other side of the planet, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that just hit Taiwan was so powerful that it actually caused chipmaker TSMC to evacuate factories in central and southern Taiwan…

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous, rural area of Taiwan’s south on Tuesday near the city of Chiayi, the island’s weather administration said, with reports of minor damage.

Chipmaker TSMC said it had evacuated staff at its factories in central and southern Taiwan, and they were all safe.

The earthquake shook buildings in the capital, Taipei. The quake had a depth of 9.4km (6 miles) with its epicentre in Dapu township in Chiayi county, and hit just after midnight, the weather administration said.

In China, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake that recently hit that country caused major cracks in five different hydropower dams…

Cracks have been detected on five hydropower dams out of 14 in Tibet that have been inspected by Chinese authorities since a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the area on Jan. 7, killing at least 126 people.

Three out of the five affected dams have since been emptied, a Tibet emergency management official said at a press conference on Jan. 16. A hydrology expert said it indicates the problem is very serious.

In southern Brazil, a state of emergency has been declared after 120 millimeters of rainfall in just a few hours caused horrific flooding…

Camboriú Mayor Juliana Pavan declared the emergency after more than 120 millimeters of rainfall were recorded in just a few hours flooding city streets and adjacent roads such as BR-101, where the Morro do Boi tunnel is closed. Argentine tourists were reported to be arriving en masse for the second half of January as a convenient exchange rate advises against vacationing in their home country.

“It rained, in a few hours, about 130 millimeters in the cities of Itajaí, Camboriú and Balneário Camboriú. More than half the volume expected for the entire month of January,” Santa Catarina Governor Jorginho Mello pointed out.

I could go on and on giving you lots more examples, but I think that you get the point.

We were warned that natural disasters would be a major theme in 2025, and that is precisely what has happened.

On a related note, the magnetic north pole of our planet continues to move even closer to Russia…

If you are using your smartphone to navigate, your system just got a crucial update. Scientists have released a new model tracking the position of the magnetic north pole, revealing that the pole is now closer to Siberia than it was five years ago and is continuing to drift toward Russia.

Unlike the geographic North Pole, which marks a fixed location, the magnetic north pole’s position is determined by Earth’s magnetic field, which is in constant motion. Over the past few decades, magnetic north’s movement has been unprecedented — it dramatically sped up, then in a more recent twist rapidly slowed — though scientists can’t explain the underlying cause behind the magnetic field’s unusual behavior.

Our planet has become less stable, and it is changing in unpredictable ways.

And nobody is going to be able to stop it.

We really are living in apocalyptic times, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

Some people are spending millions of dollars on doomsday bunkers in anticipation of what is coming.

The vast majority of us will never be able to do that, but I would encourage you to prepare for what is ahead however you are able.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

5 Historic Emergencies That Trump Will Be Confronted With Immediately As He Returns To The White House

January 19, 2025 by Michael

Buckle up and hold on tight, because things are about to get really wild. Immediately after taking the oath of office, Donald Trump is going to be faced with incredibly difficult decisions which could have enormous implications for every man, woman and child in this country. There will be all sorts of people giving him all sorts of advice, and it won’t always be easy to distinguish the good advice from the bad advice. So let us pray that he makes his choices wisely. The following are 5 historic emergencies that Trump will be confronted with immediately as he enters the White House…

#1 A Major War

Iran has gotten extremely close to being able to build nuclear weapons, and once they are able to do that it is inevitable that the Iranians will distribute such weapons to Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies. Joe Biden had been considering a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program, but he ultimately decided not to pull the trigger. Now it is Donald Trump’s turn. According to the Wall Street Journal, a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has been under “serious review by some members of his transition team”…

President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options for stopping Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, including the possibility of preventive airstrikes, a move that would break with the longstanding policy of containing Tehran with diplomacy and sanctions.

The military-strike option against nuclear facilities is now under more serious review by some members of his transition team, who are weighing the fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad—Tehran’s ally—in Syria, the future of U.S. troops in the region, and Israel’s decimation of regime proxy militias Hezbollah and Hamas.

Needless to say, if the U.S. and/or Israel takes out Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Iranians will go ballistic and there will be a major war in the region.

#2 A New Pandemic

If you thought the last one was bad, just wait until you see what is coming next.

According to NBC News, the Biden administration and Trump’s team have been working together to formulate a response to the “escalating bird flu outbreak spreading in the United States”…

Amid an escalating bird flu outbreak spreading in the United States, federal health officials have begun to brief members of the incoming Trump administration about how they’ve responded to the crisis so far.

“We sent them all of the information on our work,” said a Biden administration health official familiar with transition briefings within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s the first indication that the two administrations appear to be working together to prioritize the H5N1 response.

Apparently part of that response is 590 million dollars in additional funding “to push Moderna’s messenger RNA-based pandemic flu vaccine towards approval”…

The federal government has committed an additional $590 million to push Moderna’s messenger RNA-based pandemic flu vaccine towards approval, as the Biden administration, in its waning hours, ramps up preparations for a potential H5N1 avian influenza pandemic.

#3 Economic Trouble

Inflation is starting to really accelerate once again, and this is particularly true for food prices…

There isn’t one factor. Bird flu is killing chickens, cutting egg supplies and sending wholesale prices to a record. Extreme heat and dry weather in the world’s coffee-growing regions have sent the cost of brews surging. Chocolate and cereal makers have raised prices for their products, too.

It is a problem for consumers, who are still acclimating to a stretch of bruising inflation following the Covid-19 pandemic. Shoppers are picking up more store-branded groceries and scouring multiple stores for the best deals. Grocery prices in December were roughly 28% higher than they were five years ago, according to the Labor Department.

No president can magically zap the bird flu out of existence or cause it to rain in areas where it isn’t raining.

The truth is that there is no easy solution on the horizon, and prices on some key staples such as eggs are expected to go much higher in 2025…

During his 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly made the promise that “prices will come down,” BBC reports, but according to two experts, that won’t be happening any time soon — at least when it comes to the price of eggs.

While eggs are already “40% more expensive now than they were a year ago,” KTLA notes, according to the Department of Labor, the raging avian flu epidemic means “it’s about to get even worse.”

The epidemic — which “has already led to the death of more than 100 million egg-laying hens” — according to the report, is expected to spike egg prices “as much as 20% more in 2025.”

#4 A Historic Natural Disaster

It is now being projected that the fires in the Los Angeles area will be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history by a wide margin.

Unfortunately, this is a crisis that is far from over, because extremely high winds are expected to return to southern California this week…

Los Angeles is bracing itself for more catastrophic wildfires this week as weather forecasters predict the return of gusting Santa Ana winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

More than 27 people have died and 22,000 buildings have burned in at least six wildfires since the first fire erupted on January 7.

#5 A Government At War With Itself

Donald Trump says that he wants to “drain the swamp” and make major changes to how the federal government operates.

That is great.

Unfortunately, about half of the people that run our federal agencies intend to resist what Trump will be trying to do…

When asked if they would most likely be supporting or resisting the Trump administration over the next four years, government managers were almost evenly split with 44% saying they would support the administration and 42% saying they would resist.

But the divide between those federal managers who would resist and those who would support the incoming Trump administration grew much sharper when respondents were questioned along party lines.

89% of Republican federal employees said they would either “somewhat support” or “strongly support” the administration, while 73% of Democrat bureaucrats surveyed said they would either “somewhat resist” or “strongly resist.”

Our federal government is literally going to be at war with itself.

If you think that transforming the largest government bureaucracy in the history of the world is going to be easy, you are just kidding yourself.

We are moving into a time of tremendous turmoil, and it won’t be pretty.

The good news is that 2025 is certainly not going to be boring.

The news cycle will be speeding along at a breathtaking pace, and I believe that we will witness one historic event after another during the next 12 months.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

+ More