About Boris Johnson
That just shows that western politicians have no idea whats going on in Syria – no friggin clue, at all,
why would Boris support fully Russia/Syria just a few months ago, and now blast them?
Whats wrong with these people?! Do these people want a hot war with Russia? I mean…sigh.

Posted by: Zimba | Oct 11 2016 18:37 utc | 103

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-russia-sechin-idUSKCN12B0J1
Exclusive: Russia’s Rosneft boss Sechin says no to OPEC oil cap
Igor Sechin, Russia’s most influential oil executive and the head of state-controlled energy giant Rosneft, said his company will not cap oil production as part of a possible agreement with OPEC.

Posted by: okie farmer | Oct 11 2016 18:57 utc | 105

for Max @65
How to be a “White Helmet”
Procedure for “White Helmet” operations:
1. Blow up a building
2. Smear dust and ketchup on your face and hands
3. Do the same to a baby
4. Place the baby in the rubble and come back out
5. Wait for the official Al Nusra videographer, Khaled Khatib, to get his cameras and lights ready
6. Go back into the rubble and bring out the baby as the cameras roll.
7. Go on TV and demand that the US force a no-fly zone on Syrian airspace.
8. Go celebrate with your Al Nusra buddies and take a group selfie as they behead a sick and suffering 12-year-old boy.
That’s all there is to it! Have fun!
//
(Note: the term “White Helmet” is in quotes because the Al Nusra “White Helmets” in Syria stole the name from the Brazilian White Helmets, just as they stole the name “Syria Civil Defense” from the real Syria Civil Defense that has been in operation since the 50s.)

Posted by: AntiSpin | Oct 11 2016 19:27 utc | 107

hey, mgolani @ 102…
i realize that you got off to a rough start, but you should really chill out a bit…maybe go hang with your hashish smoking brethren in the Parvati Valley. whaddaya say?

Posted by: john | Oct 11 2016 20:13 utc | 109

American stupidity is worse than terrorism – Russia
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NVoLgD1RIxE
Without doubt it’s one for the Zakharova highlight reel. The contrast between this and her bumbling ‘spokes-peers’ in the west is… stark. No bullshit.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Oct 11 2016 20:29 utc | 111

mgolani @102
” the mother of all parlements”
So in 1264, Montfort summoned the first parliament in English history
“Althingi is the nation’s oldest institution, and the highest. Its foundation at Thingvellir (Parliament Plains) in 930 AD marks the birth of the Icelandic nation. Althingi was an assembly of the nation, where the leading chieftains met to discuss various matters, passe legislation and dispensed justice.”
ICELAND ALTHING (PARLIAMENT)BEAT BRITS BY OVER 300 YEARS
Plus Boris is a NYC native.

Posted by: ALberto | Oct 11 2016 20:34 utc | 113

@ dh… thanks.. i agree with chipnik – brexit is a window into the ground level dissatisfaction sweeping popular western culture.. no amount of throwing propaganda at the masses seems to be sticking like it used to.. even our resident hasbara troll gets little to no traction!
@115.. schlub.. obviously the houthis would benefit from this the least, so they must be punished the most! just mouthing usa style logic here..

Posted by: james | Oct 11 2016 20:56 utc | 115

David KNZ @ 51, The article is short on characterizing Putin’s actions. Once does not even know until the last paragraph that Ilya Maveev is against neoliberalism. Her article reports the facts, the actual neoliberal austerity programs that Putin has spearheaded. It reports who has opposed neoliberal destruction of medical care and the persistenc of Putin’s govt in implementing its privatization.
One cannot be anti-imperialist but neoliberal. One cannot be a progressive or pro-democracy and be neoliberal.
Israel Shamir says: “While agreeing with and supporting Putin’s foreign policy, the Communists, the Socialists and a sizeable minority of the ruling United Russia party disagree with Putin’s liberal economic and financial policies. They would like to suppress the oligarchs, to introduce currency controls, to re-nationalise privatised industries and to strengthen the social state. But they can’t do it: even if they were to gain a clear majority in the elections, Putin would still be entitled to ask, say, liberal Medvedev or arch-liberal Kudrin to form a government.”
Putin is in favor of the neoliberal economic system comprised of the Fed/IMF program and BIS which maintain the “independent” control of central banks– independent of national govts so that they continue to be controlled by the top level of the global oligarchs.
Putin, at Valdai: “I am certain that if there is a will, we can restore the effectiveness of the international and regional institutions system. We do not even need to build anything anew, from the scratch; this is not a “greenfield,” especially since the institutions created after World War II are quite universal and can be given modern substance, adequate to manage the current situation.”
Every economic figure in Putin’s govt is a neoliberal. Glazyev & Starikov are anti-neoliberal– that’s why their programs will never be adopted.

Posted by: Penelope | Oct 11 2016 21:02 utc | 117

106
There is $321 TRILLION of Mil.Gov.Fed.Biz debt-swaps transferred onto the backs of the People, and moar $BILLIINS added to that every day, making your search for justice like looking for a pearl in a landfill tip.
114
Amerika is stupid? See above. Stupid like a fox! The Pentagon alone stupidly ‘misplaced’ $6,000,000,000,000 of taxpayers savings and Panetta resigned after promising an audit to find it. Look under Clinton blue hag sack, that’s how she spirited away her $8.5 MILLION rainmaker payoff, after grifting Hamid Karzai with $8.5 BILLION in 2009. She knows where it all is. The treasure map is in her missing e-mails, haww, haww, haww
120
It just struck me today how incredibly Prussian both of the ‘choices’ America has, are. Trump is Germanic and so is Clinton. They are both 29th cousins to the fraudulent Germanic monarchs of England.They look like Tweedledum is a cheap suit and Tweedledee in a hag sack. Look at them!! Burgermeisters and Haupsfuhrers R US! Proof that Hitler didn’t lose WW2, the Nazis just moved to Langley, VA.
“Choice? You don’t have a choice! They own you. You are owned. And now they’re coming for your Social Security. And you know what? They’ll get it…They’ll get all of it!”
George ‘The Man’ Carlin, before he was silenced.

Posted by: TheRealDonald | Oct 11 2016 22:20 utc | 119

@ 103 chipnik You are claiming to be spokesmen for an awful lot of people and making the same mistake many newspaper opinion columnists make when they use the journalistic “we” when they should be using “I”. The opinion offered in your rant is what you think people want out of Brexit. The reality, of course, is that different people had different reasons for wanting out of the moribund and totalitarian behemoth known as the EU. Perhaps some of those voting to leave did so for the reasons you listed, but certainly not all of them.
It seems a hallmark of the internet era is people conflating their opinions and speculations with facts and truth. Alex Jones and his gang do a roaring trade passing off speculation and opinion as solid facts and irrefutable truths. That’s not to say they are always wrong, but they and many others seem oblivious to the fact opinions are just guesswork (sometimes mixed with wishful thinking) and if no evidence is available to support those opinions…they remain opinions and guesses. The leap from opinion to truth or requires good evidence. (In Jones’ case I think he’s probably wilfully throwing shit out there for his followers to screech over knowing very well that he has no idea if his claims are true or not. But that’s a different rant altogether.)

Posted by: Temporarily Sane | Oct 11 2016 23:08 utc | 121

make that last sentence “Worth 1,000,000,000,000 words.”

Posted by: ALberto | Oct 11 2016 23:48 utc | 123

.. Boris’ exhortation to go and demonstrate outside the Russian Embassy ….
I was truly curious. Those are the recent London demonstrations that the Lords of Google News deigned to notice:
Grantham A&E campaigners travelling to London for protest
ITV News-Oct 10, 2016
Thousands march in London during pro-refugee demonstration
The Guardian-Sep 17, 2016
A protest to ‘save London’s nightlife’ is happening this Saturday
The Tab-Oct 7, 2016
London joins ‘Black Monday’ global protest against Polish abortion law
Amnesty International UK-Oct 3, 2016
Hundreds of ‘mermaid’ activists stage protest at British Museum
Evening Standard-Sep 25, 2016
Hundreds of activists dressed as mermaids flooded the British Museum today for an environmental protest. Police assisted with the theatrical …
=====
Without a doubt, mermaids were the best. I was a bit afraid that London police will not be able to contained enraged mobs incited by the Foreign Ministers, but “flooding with mermaids” seem very civilized (mind you, the Museum was not literally flooded to enable mermaids to swim there).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 12 2016 0:09 utc | 125

obfuscation 101 from today’s daily usa press briefing
QUESTION: Well, we’ll find out. An email exchange recently made public of Secretary – former Secretary Clinton’s emails, she speaks in August 2014 of the need in Syria and Iraq to use diplomatic and traditional intelligence assets to put “pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” So that’s soon after her being secretary of state; it seems like she would be informed about what’s happening. Do you – does the U.S. believe that Qatar, the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIS and other radical Sunni groups?
MR KIRBY: I can’t – I’m sure this will shock you, but I’m not going to speak about the veracity of leaked documents and whether they’re authentic or not. I just won’t do that. What I can tell you is that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are members of the counter-ISIL coalition and have been contributing members of that coalition pretty much since its founding. And we rely a great deal on their efforts to help us counter terrorism in the region, particularly counter this particular group, Daesh. And we look forward to that – those relationships continuing, and their participation as active members of the coalition continuing as well.

Posted by: james | Oct 12 2016 0:11 utc | 127

@130 You can joke about it PB but here I am camped outside the Russian Embassy waiting for Boris. It’s cold and there’s nobody else around. I’m giving it one more day then he can do his own bloody protesting.

Posted by: dh | Oct 12 2016 0:35 utc | 129

john | Oct 11, 2016 11:05:33 AM | 84
Excellent point; I’ll not engage the galoots in their criminal behavior…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 12 2016 1:10 utc | 131

@b
maybe something of interest to you:
1) Here´s a not-staged video of civilian casualties in East Aleppo, – and no White Helmets around! Weren´t they supposed to be the “First responders”?
http://ogn.news/rciboa/
OGN are pro-rebel, but independent from MSM, so they stray from the agenda and sometimes provide interesting insights. For instance, during the CoH they showed the protests *against* UN convoys.
2) In Stuttgart a jury ruled that Ahrar al-Sham is a terrorist organisation.
This was only reported in the local (German) news
http://www.swp.de/ulm/lokales/alb_donau/Gericht-erklaert-Ahrar-al-Sham-zur-terroristischen-Vereinigung;art1222881,4035987
http://www.swp.de/ulm/nachrichten/suedwestumschau/Urteil-Terrorunterstuetzer-schuldig-gesprochen;art1222894,4035412
http://www.swr.de/landesschau-aktuell/bw/urteil-im-stuttgarter-terrorprozess/-/id=1622/did=18262150/nid=1622/1hbj7xd/
So much for the “moderate rebel” myth. Ahrar is the second strongest faction (presumably the biggest by members) and explicitly fights for a sharia state. Still, they take part in the Geneva negotations, and a spokesman last year was even offered space in the WashPo to present themselves as “mainstream”.
Interestingly, any CIA or MI6 officer involved with Ahrar al-Sham would now have to be prosecuted if he were to pass through Germany. Well, in theory.

Posted by: Qoppa | Oct 12 2016 1:41 utc | 133

@138 qoppa… further to your commments here is christoph germann from yesterday.. the whole article is worth reading, but this pertains to your comment on the latest development in germany/stuttgart on ahrar al sham…
A former CIA officer told SOFREP that the CIA has tracked al-Qaeda operatives from Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas traveling to Syria and joining Ahrar al-Sham, one of the most important opposition groups in Syria and Nusra’s main partner.[7]
If true, the United States would have to explain why it blocked a Russian proposal at the United Nations earlier this year to backlist Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam for links to ISIS and al-Qaeda.[8]
Ahrar al-Sham and its Western supporters have long sought to downplay the group’s organizational ties to al-Qaeda. Given the fact that longtime al-Qaeda operative Abu Khalid al-Suri was one of Ahrar al-Sham’s founding members and senior leaders, this proved to be somewhat difficult.[9] A few weeks before al-Suri’s death in February 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department described him as “al-Qa’ida’s representative in Syria.”[10]
At the same time, Western analysts touted Ahrar al-Sham as “an al Qaeda-linked group worth befriending” and warned that “designating Ahrar al-Sham as a terrorist group would destroy what little chance the United States has of building relationships with the other militias in the Islamic Front.”[11]
Designating Ahrar al-Sham as a terrorist organization would also reflect badly on NATO member Turkey, which has been providing arms and training to the group.[12]
By blocking Russia’s attempt to blacklist Ahrar al-Sham in May of this year, the U.S. and its allies protected one of their most important assets in Syria. Moreover, they enabled Nusra’s main battlefield ally to sabotage any future cease-fire deals and efforts to come to a diplomatic solution, as the group has been doing in the past.[13]

Posted by: james | Oct 12 2016 2:14 utc | 135

103 chipnik
I agree regarding people wanting an accounting.
Trump reminds me too much of the bully we all knew as kids and I can’t wait to see him handed his balls by a girl.

Posted by: Storm’n Norman | Oct 12 2016 3:23 utc | 137

@128 way to go! a twofer, jews AND communists! BTW your boy Sutton is a crank. The notion that the Nazis and Communists were on the same side and pawns of Wall St, ie jews, is plain stoopid and belied by all the facts. If it were true the Nazis and Communists would have joined forces and not spent all their men and materiel trying to wipe each other out. Duh!

Posted by: ruralito | Oct 12 2016 4:14 utc | 139

Why does MOA intelligentsia ignore the pure genius of Cdrake, Mgolani, Mm. Pissant and Chuck McQueer? (Did I get them all…) THESE POSTS ARE LIFE. So much truth. And wickedly clever. Well done. Whomever you are…

Posted by: Take Me | Oct 12 2016 4:32 utc | 141

Gulf of Tonkin 2.0
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa-idUSKCN12C0DV
The United States is seeing growing indications that Iran-allied Houthi rebels, despite denials, were responsible for Sunday’s attack on a Navy destroyer off the Yemen coast, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct a missile attack on the warship, said U.S. officials, who are not authorized to speak publicly because the investigation is ongoing.
The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also “painted” the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Iran-aligned fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, said the officials.
Neither of the two missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory on Sunday hit the USS Mason or the nearby USS Ponce, an amphibious transport dock. But the incident threatens to trigger the first direct U.S. military action against Houthis in Yemen’s conflict, even if it is limited to one-off retaliation.

Posted by: Peter AU | Oct 12 2016 5:52 utc | 143

@146
I take it, then, that you are not pat of the intelligentsia at MOA?

Posted by: Castellio | Oct 12 2016 5:53 utc | 145

There are many sick bastards with twisted minds. Fuck You!

Posted by: Jack Smith | Oct 12 2016 6:03 utc | 147

@Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 12, 2016 2:00:07 AM | 151
My last post not directed to you. 🙂
Like you not sure about Tariq Ali. Agree with him most of the time however, give Tariq Ali a chance, watch what he got to say about Hillary or Trump… He mentioned Jill Stein and ending below:
“You keep coming back to the same question are either of the two candidates (Hillary and Trump) safe? In my opinion, they’re not, so it better to vote for the candidate you agree with or not bother to vote at all.”
BTW Stein the only candidate, will stops aid to Israel and Egypt and will not punish Ed Snowden ( NOT exact quote, something like it)

Posted by: Jack Smith | Oct 12 2016 6:26 utc | 149

Good suggestion from Boris to protest outside the Russian embassy here is what my sign would say…
“AM I BACKING THE ASSAD REGIME, AND THE RUSSIANS, IN THEIR JOINT ENTERPRISE TO RECAPTURE THAT AMAZING SITE? YOU BET I AM” [thanks dh@101]
Or maybe add, unfortunately now I am Foreign I must do what the US tell me.

Posted by: harrylaw | Oct 12 2016 9:02 utc | 151

@157 harrylaw
Bozza gave up his US citizenship for his political aspirations in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/14/london-mayor-boris-johnson-to-renounce-us-citizenship
You might otherwise have him running agains HRC right now. OBTW you’d be welcome. As Desmond Tutu observed
“I don’t know why they put that moron in charge of foreign affairs. Although I suspect it is because they are all idiots too.”

Posted by: Stubbs | Oct 12 2016 9:18 utc | 153

Harrylaw @ 157, Stubbs @ 158:
As far as I know, BoJo did consider giving up US citizenship last year after selling a house in London and then being hit with a tax bill for US$44,000 from the IRS. He then had second thoughts, decided against renouncing US citizenship and paid the bill.
The May government may have put him in charge of foreign affairs in the expectation that he would be absent from the country on frequent official business. At least he’d be out of the way and causing trouble overseas.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 12 2016 10:47 utc | 155

Also UN spread pro-clinton propaganda,
UN human rights chief: Trump would be ‘dangerous’ if elected
US presidential candidate Donald Trump would be “dangerous from an international point of view” if he is elected, the UN human rights chief said Wednesday. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein says some comments by the Republican nominee are “deeply unsettling and disturbing to me,” particularly on torture and about “vulnerable communities.” Zeid, a Jordanian prince, also told reporters he doesn’t plan to tone down his recent remarks decrying dangers posed by “populists and demagogues.”

Posted by: Man | Oct 12 2016 11:24 utc | 157

Well, this is troubling…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-11/russian-government-officials-told-immediately-bring-back-children-studying-abroad

Posted by: George Hayduke | Oct 12 2016 11:41 utc | 159

@ George Hayduke | 164
Smart move, on so many levels. Sure, some elites (and their kids) may not like it, but long term its a brilliant move.
* If war breaks out, its best to have kids at home, instead of them being the hostages or even victims.
* In foreign universities studends get “Westernised”, foreign values deeply imprinted. If they return later, they willingly (or even subconsciously) work for those foreign powers instead of Russian interests.

Posted by: Harry | Oct 12 2016 12:21 utc | 161

Canary news?had a story about how Clinton emails reveal her backing of ISUS.
Over at MOA;AA attacks some guy because he doesn’t believe serial liars tales of the Jews in CCs and Hitlers alleged final solution.What a maroon.
How dumb are they,as with Tariq Ali,both against the truth of our world,and why AAs ancestors were expelled from Palestine is because of the myth of the holocaust,the cudgel for their dispossession.Trumps ending the zionist domination of our govt will end up helping Muslims,but the idiots let their own stupid prejudice cloud their eyes and minds.
Commie purists,and yes,Nazis and commies always end up as command and control,its their nature.
F*ck ideology,and Trump is our new leader paradigm ,an ideological free human.

Posted by: dahoit | Oct 12 2016 12:48 utc | 163

Some more “moderate” rebel watch
There has been some bloody infighting last week among the “moderates” in Hama and Idlib province. Mainly Ahrar al-Sham against Jund al-Aqsa.
As a consequence their Northern Hama offensive (which was led by Jund al-Aqsa) collapsed.
Always the same thing. It´s only the jihadis who fight on the front line. When they retreat Assad wins. This is the true reason why CoH keep falling apart.
Here´s an in-depth analysis of the background:
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/as-rebel-factions-fracture-hardliners-seek-to-prosper
what a testament of “moderateness”:
Even though Ahrar Al Sham accused Jund Al Aqsa of being an ISIL enterprise, it pointed only to some members as ISIL-type “extremists” – deliberately chosen to legitimise its war. Similar accusations are often levelled against Ahrar Al Sham itself. If Ahrar Al Sham views the existence of ISIL-type extremists within a group’s ranks as a cause of attacking it, it puts itself and its defenders in an awkward position, as the group has many of that type. Some of them left the group last month following an approval of their participation in the Turkish-backed operation.
In the same vein, if those extremists have now joined JFS, will Ahrar Al Sham cease to cooperate with a group that has them in its ranks? Ahrar Al Sham has already accused JFS of providing protection to ISIL-type extremists, echoing a similar accusation against JFS’s former incarnation, Jabhat Al Nusra, when it protected ISIL during the rebels’ clashes with ISIL in January 2014. Syrian activists point to a similar pattern. The episode might increase tension between JFS and Ahrar Al Sham and weaken the rebels militarily. But it also offers an insight into what lies ahead for Ahrar Al Sham, especially with regard to JFS’s attempt to co-opt it.

Posted by: Qoppa | Oct 12 2016 13:36 utc | 165

More background information on Jund al-Aqsa
https://twitter.com/thomasjoscelyn/status/785108350946205696

Posted by: Qoppa | Oct 12 2016 13:52 utc | 167

If citizens of the world got to vote.
https://worldwide.vote/hillary-vs-trump/#/
The 24HR US Poll has been heavily one sided for Trump in the last week.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Oct 12 2016 14:20 utc | 169

If there is a leading indicator of how thin the diplomatic ice is getting, this would be it:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-11/russian-government-officials-told-immediately-bring-back-children-studying-abroad
[Quote] Which is why we read a report in Russian website Znak published Tuesday, according to which Russian state officials and government workers were told to bring back their children studying abroad immediately, even if means cutting their education short and not waiting until the end of the school year, and re-enroll them in Russian schools, with some concern. The article adds that if the parents of these same officials also live abroad “for some reason”, and have not lost their Russian citizenship, should also be returned to the motherland. Znak cited five administration officials as the source of the report.
The “recommendation” applies to all: from the administration staff, to regional administratiors, to lawmakers of all levels. Employees of public corporations are also subject to the ordinance. [Unquote]
Read the rest. Keep in mind a very recent emergency preparedness drill involving as many as 40 MILLION people. Add it up for yourselves.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Oct 12 2016 14:49 utc | 171

@ Harry 166
A pertinent comment from zerohedge:
“Most people still think this is a game – this is being done to minimize defections/recover funds/make a statement.
In history this is actually a war warning.
In times of extreme tension the repatriation of non-combat/non-diplomatic personnel (ESPECIALLY families) is often a government priority. It does have morale (and moral) implications, which most Americans do not understand.
If the families of diplomatic personnel are being repatriated, the situation is truly dire. Russians studying abroad do not have diplomatic immunity, so their repatriation first makes sense.”

Posted by: George Hayduke | Oct 12 2016 14:58 utc | 173

161
That’s just Drago psyop to motivate Trump’s FRR crypto-Zionist End-Timers.
Although last night for the first time in my life, I dreamt of a nuclear holocaust, warheads glowing in the upper atmosphere before they MIRVd, where the last TV broadcaster ruefully quipped, “The weather today is informed by the mushroom clouds on the horizon.”
Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, like Saddam’s royal palaces spraying the velvet night with molten slag…then silence. I must haved rolled over in my sleep.
The unaffected survivors in my dream lived on islands south of the equator, a US research station of all men in this case, who upon hearing scattered broadcasts and driven mad from malnutrition and lack of women, set sail for the coast, only to discover tribes of grotesquely mutated alpha males, the women having all been killed, fled to the jungle or committed suicide.
Those mutated megamorphs capture the unmutated US research team, and hold them for Mengelian experiments in grafting their body parts, unsuccessfully and horribly gone wrong, by a giant mesomorph former geneticist gone mad. He rules by fear over the mutated tribe, and by terror over the normals whom he needs for his experiments, so must keep grotesquely alive.
At last, the Normals rise up, break out and escape to the jungle, suffering horrible skin diseases, fighting off grotesquely mutated beasts, until one day, there in a clearing, they spot … a normal woman, Eve.
And that’s how the monkeys evolved after the dinosaurs destroyed themselves in the first nuclear holocaust, 300,000,000 years ago, in Edgar Rice Burrough’s ‘Tales of the Volgans’, lol.
There are just enough FRR nutsacks in Missile Defense Command to make this happen. All it takes is one wrong relay switch, a bad sensor, six missing nuclear cruise missiles from Minot, and then why not? Yee haw!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgdrhrCM8

Posted by: TheRealDonald | Oct 12 2016 15:19 utc | 175

Penelope (41) cheer up. For ex. A topic I know a little about: Education, the changes to be implemented in Russia include several measures that move away from ‘junk’ education “neo-lib” style.
Astronomy is back in the curriculum, also an old-style book reading list, as is the practise of cleaning etc. done by pupils (market garden cultivated if poss) – “the aim is to learn to maintain, to create, to build” (my para.)
In 2001 Russia introduced a national ‘baccalaureate’, ‘matu’ etc. (GED but at a higher educ level.) The exam is to be reviewed, more-o-less banishing multiple choice, replaced with open ended ‘essay’ type. The relations between parents and school will be clarified, read: interference by parents will be restricted. Bureaucracy will be down-graded steeply (bureacratic control, endless tests, evaluation of teachers, the requirement for frequent, daily or weekly, reports, etc. is poison to a healthy school system, and a tool used by corps. neo-fascists etc.)
Handicapped children will be integrated into ‘reg. schools’ insofar as possible. (Good luck with that, .. a whole other topic.) Foreign students who join higher education will have to pass a Russian lang. exam (previous they took Russian courses and just went on. The courses of course continue.) All this is very much a ‘return’ to ‘solid trad values’ or whatnot. Btw, Donesk and Lugansk have adopted the Russian school-system requirements, curricula, and so on. Students from there can go straight to higher Ed. in Russia. I am describing merely…

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 12 2016 16:34 utc | 177

To 177: Not gonna argue with your black-pill view. All the levers of ELITE power — including the MSM — are on full display. That’s a NEW discovery for many.
There will ALWAYS be ELITES — those who’s greed and wanton mendacity and willingness to use evil to achieve their ends — living among us. I have few illusions. Cuz thieves always come to sow tares into the wheat-field. THE HARVEST IS NOW. And you’re seeing the tares being separated. And burned.
You choose the abyss. I choose to fan tares. And watch them burn.

Posted by: Take Me | Oct 12 2016 17:20 utc | 179

A word on a possible false flag in Syria:
Much has been said about a possible false flag action involving F15s disguised as Russian aircraft. I suppose it wont be
on Aleppo:
Aleppo is within reach of the S-400 or S300 and Russia has already signaled other nations not to fly there. Russian planes and Syrians are transponder protected; any unidentified plane is bound to find a missile or two after its tail. The S400 or 300 operators only care for the transponder id (IMO) and shoot accordingly. I doubt the owner of that or those F15s wants to lose them that way.

Posted by: CarlD | Oct 12 2016 18:03 utc | 181

Answers to questions from French journalists from TF1 TV channel

Question:
Mr President, the thing is that the French do not understand why you are bombing these people you call terrorists. After all, it was ISIS who attacked us, but there are no ISIS forces in Aleppo. This is what the French do not understand.
Vladimir Putin:
Let me explain. It is another terrorist group, Jabhat al-Nusra, that controls the situation in Aleppo. This group was always considered a wing of Al Qaeda and is included in the UN’s list of terrorist organisations.
What we find particularly depressing and hard to understand is that our partners, especially the Americans, are always finding a way to try to exclude this group from the list of terrorist organisations. Let me tell you why. It seems to us as though our partners are always repeating the same mistake. They want to use these terrorist organisations’ and radicals’ combat potential to pursue their own political aims, in this case, to combat President Assad and his government, and do not understand that they cannot simply stall them [the rebels] and get them to live by civilised rules after they have tasted victory over someone.
We have reached repeated agreements with the Americans that they will differentiate between Jabhat al-Nusra and its like and the so-called healthy opposition forces, including in Aleppo. They have agreed that this is necessary. What’s more, we have even agreed on concrete deadlines, but nothing is done from one month to the next.
We recently reached a ceasefire agreement, a D-day agreement, as our American friends said. I insisted that they first of all resolve the matter of separating Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorists from the healthy opposition forces and only then declare the ceasefire.
But the Americans insisted that we first need to declare a ceasefire and then they will take care of separating the terrorists from the non-terrorists. Finally, we agreed to make concessions, agreed to their terms, and on September 12 declared a day of silence and cessation of hostilities. On September 16, American aircraft launched a strike against Syrian army forces that killed 80 people.
At this same moment, immediately after the airstrike, ISIS launched an offensive in this very same place. Our American colleagues told us that this airstrike was made by error. This error cost the lives of 80 people and, also just coincidence, perhaps, ISIS took the offensive immediately afterwards.
At the same time, lower down the ranks, at the operations level, one of the American military service personnel said quite frankly that they spent several days preparing this strike. How could they make an error if they were several days in preparation?
This is how our ceasefire agreement ended up broken. Who broke the agreement? Was it us? No.

There’s more, good read.
Syrian War Report – October 12, 2016: Syrian Army to Receive Panstir-S Air Defense Systems

[1:40]
The Syrian military will receive a batch of Pansir S1 surface to air missile and anti-aircraft artiller weapons systems. According to reports in Russian media outlets. Sources in the military diplomatic circles say that the systems will be delivered under the Russian-Syrian deal made in 2008. Details of the deal have not been revealed. Nonetheless experts believe that the delivery of 36-50 systems and 700 missiles for them could be expected.
The reason of the decision is a growing threat to deliver military strikes on the government forces by the US-led coalition. Meanwhile, the Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed that it will use all military means to repel the US military aggression.

Yes, preparations for the defense of Syria – and Russia – from endless, now boundless US aggression.
@183 Noirette
Russian Government Officials Told To Immediately Bring Back Children Studying Abroad

Posted by: jfl | Oct 12 2016 21:43 utc | 183

For barflies around comments 150ish
Re Foreign Sec Boris
You could well all be right. I’m lacking in net time and persistance to search deeply abt this. I would go to Snopes but I gather that’s not counted as reliable either.
Daily Mail says he renounced
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3693725/Love-s-Labour-s-Lost-Boris-faces-bill-500-000-New-Foreign-Secretary-pay-advance-no-longer-time-write-book-Shakespeare.html “A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the Foreign Secretary was no longer an American citizen.”
but despite it having massive readership it’s too often awry to be treated as veridicle.
The Canary says it’s written to him asking for confirmation but awaits reply.

Posted by: Stubbs | Oct 13 2016 10:05 utc | 185

128
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdvOPRE3EQ
Worth the listen in these nutsack wacky neocon perpetual war national police state times.
“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think that you’ve not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I’d starve to death before I’d sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow.”
Woody Guthrie

Posted by: chipnik | Oct 13 2016 14:29 utc | 187

Hey TheRealDonald
The original motto of the US was
E Pluribus Unum or Our of many, One
In the 1950’s it was changed to the insufferable In God We Trust by neocons of the day
What part of your study of the Enlightenment period did you not get?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 14 2016 6:54 utc | 189

Matt Tiabbi confirms (I think) my thesis that Sanders was tasked with holding down the Left so that Clinton could move Center-Right, capturing the bulk of the electorate, then Sanders would deliver the Left for a grand slam, while Trump would hold the Far Right Rabbinicals at bay, then together take them plunging off the cliff. Which appears to be happening, if you stop by FiveThirtyEight.com, Clinton is ahead by +7, and Trump may not break 40%, as I predicted last spring. Anyway, thesis or antithesis, Tiabbi wrote a great synthesis today:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-fury-and-failure-of-donald-trump-w444943

Posted by: chipnik | Oct 14 2016 20:27 utc | 191

Citigroup chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet, WikiLeaks document reveals

One month before the presidential election of 2008, the giant Wall Street bank Citigroup submitted to the Obama campaign a list of its preferred candidates for cabinet positions in an Obama administration. This list corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Barack Obama’s cabinet.
The memorandum, revealed by WikiLeaks in a recent document release from the email account of John Podesta, who currently serves as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, was written by Michael Frohman, who was then an executive with Citigroup and currently serves as US trade representative. The email is dated Oct. 6, 2008 and bears the subject line “Lists.” It went to Podesta a month before he was named chairman of President-Elect Obama’s transition team.
The email was sent at the height of the financial meltdown that erupted after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15. Even as Citigroup and its Wall Street counterparts were dragging the US and world economy into its deepest crisis since the 1930s, they remained, as the email shows, the real power behind the façade of American democracy and its electoral process.
Frohman’s list proved remarkably prescient. As it proposed,
– Robert Gates, a Bush holdover, became secretary of Defense;
– Eric Holder became attorney general;
– Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security;
– Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff;
– Susan Rice, United Nations ambassador;
– Arne Duncan, secretary of Education;
– Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services;
– Peter Orszag, head of the Office of Management and Budget;
– Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs; and
– Melody Barnes, chief of the Domestic Policy Council.
For the highly sensitive position of secretary of the Treasury, three possibilities were presented:
– Robert Rubin and Rubin’s close disciples
– Lawrence Summers and
– Timothy Geithner.
Obama chose Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Geithner, along with Bush Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs CEO) Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, had played the leading role in organizing the Wall Street bailout.
Rubin had served as Treasury secretary in the Bill Clinton administration from 1995 until 1999, when he was succeeded by Summers. In that capacity, Rubin and Summers oversaw the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act (1933), which had imposed a legal wall separating commercial banking from investment banking. Immediately after leaving Treasury, Rubin became a top executive at Citigroup, remaining there until 2009.

One month before the presidential election of 2008, and a new ‘little list’ has undoubtedly gone out to Podesta again. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Posted by: jfl | Oct 15 2016 6:55 utc | 193

Soros predicts: Tump will take popular vote, but Cinton will be Prez
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cfTAD4Fzf3s

Posted by: Bluemot5 | Oct 15 2016 9:13 utc | 195

|@ 192 The Unreal Donald
What an exceptionally delusional and ignorant statement to be making there. There would be no connection whatsoever between the Queen of England’s carefully practiced public face and what was observed in Hillary Clinton’s present appearance. It is completely delusional to propose there would be any genetically significant relationship in 29th cousins, whatever that might be. You pass such comment off as being bright, it is rather indicative of ignorance and speculation to attribute such appearance to psychoactive drugs. The last time Hillary appeared to have emotional states readable seems to have been in her Congressional testimony over the Benghazi snafu, where lighting showed the deleterious effects of ageing. Opinions such as what you’ve produced are nothing but unintelligible noise and dismissible without consideration. Your offerings henceforth will elided with those endless and pointless tracts Rufus deposits.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Oct 15 2016 12:29 utc | 197

Tim Anderson on Facebook: (photo)
“White Helmets in Syria rescue same girl three times in three months.”
(Copied here in case you do not use Facebook.)

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Oct 15 2016 16:15 utc | 199