Second IS pocket is under SAA control in the Homs governorate..

Posted by: Lozion | Aug 26 2017 17:16 utc | 3

nmb @3–
The Chinese have forcefully (for them) spoken to Tillerson of the Outlaw US Empire in easy to understand language: “In addition, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defended Pakistan on Tuesday. ‘I should say that Pakistan is in the frontline of fighting terrorism, made sacrifices to fighting terrorism, making important contribution to upholding peace and stability,’ Hua said, the third defense of Pakistan by Chinese leaders in as many days.” https://sputniknews.com/asia/201708251056768956-china-pakistan-alliance-trump-accusations/
Pakistan will now call on its new allies within the SCO: “‘We will contact China, Russia [and other countries of the region] in the coming days in order to get a regional consensus and a solution,’ Asif [Pakistan Foreign Minister] told the Geo TV broadcaster.”…
“‘Pakistan would never want unrest in Afghanistan as it would also clash with the country’s own interest,’ Asif said, adding that Pakistan sought stability in region no only for itself, but for neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.” https://sputniknews.com/politics/201708251056769875-pakistan-consensus-russia-china-trump-policy/
It appears that with the possible exception of India all the region’s nations reject Trump’s “newly minted” yet longstanding Afghan policy because it’s a proven failure. A Russian FM PR from last February prior to Pakistan and India’s formal admittance as Full Members of the SCO notes the concerted efforts to build a new policy having a chance at success:
“The parties discussed regional approaches to the development of security in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan at length.
“The participants agreed to step up efforts to promote the intra-Afghan peace process while maintaining the leading role of Kabul and observing the previously agreed upon principles of integrating the armed opposition into peaceful coexistence.
“In the context of a possible expansion of this negotiation format, the parties agreed on the necessity to increase regional efforts to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan through the potential of other countries in the next stage, particularly the Central Asian countries.” http://www.mid.ru/en/maps/pk/-/asset_publisher/GSALcG2HPipT/content/id/2642417

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 26 2017 19:37 utc | 5

Another pretend sanctions for US public consumption against Venezuela. Goldman Sachs stands by Maduro , not gonna give up bonds that pay 10-30% best in the world , another Trump reality show for stupider than he is, following Deep State order he does not understand or grasp intellectually with his flaccid clown brain, so his UN parrot called Haley.
Also all those heavy crude refineries owned by US investors vetoed any serious implementation of his unforeseen utterance called sanctions hurting Wall Street interests even if only in minute degree.
Also sanction against Venezuelan oil company is useless since already Venezuela sells through a third parties and that includes Russia, China and others, US refineries are happy to buy from with today’s suppressed prices.
What is worrying is Maduro clique deep connections to Wall Street that may unfortunately result in some rotten compromise where Venezuelan working people loose.

Posted by: Kalen | Aug 26 2017 20:41 utc | 7

I am carrying this comment forward from the end of the last Open Thread
I am posting this link about India because of the last two sentences which I will quote after the link
Death toll of violence rises to 28 in India following “spiritual leader” rape conviction
”
Fearing mobilization of crowds and rumourmongering, authorities have snapped internet in Haryana and Punjab, reports said.
A high alert has been sounded in Punjab, Haryana and New Delhi.
”
Is the rest of the world ready for your government deciding if/when to “snap” the internet on you?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 26 2017 20:54 utc | 9

@les7
“The Qatar-Turkey pipeline was a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline from the Iranian–Qatari South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field towards Turkey, where it could connect with the Nabucco pipeline to supply European customers as well as Turkey. One route to Turkey was via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria,[1][2] and another was through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.[3][4] Syria’s rationale for rejecting the Qatar proposal was said to be “to protect the interests of [its] Russian ally, which is Europe’s top supplier of natural gas.”[1]
That was supposed to continue to Turkey.”
That is on the reason Qatar went to war against Syria and failed thanks to Russia.
I doubt that Russia will allow a Qatar-Iran pipeline to cross Syria to Turkey and Europe now!
Russia has made a deal with Turkey on the “Turkstream”
“Russian gas giant Gazprom said Sunday it had started construction of a gas pipeline under the Black Sea to Turkey that also aims to provide gas to the European Union.
…
“By late 2019, our Turkish and European consumers will have a new, reliable source of Russian gas imports,” Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, said in a statement”
Qatar and Iran will have to compete with Gazprom if they want to use its facilities from Turkey.
Iran and Qatar may have to find another plan to send their gaz to Europe or the East.

Posted by: virgile | Aug 26 2017 21:10 utc | 11

The hegemon is in decline.

Posted by: @Madderhatter67 | Aug 26 2017 21:25 utc | 13

Greetings fellow barflies. I’ll have to change my username.
But I wished to draw attention to something that may develop over the next few weeks regarding lebanon.
I hope I get these link things right:
Guardian.co.uk headline: Nikki Haley says UN commander in Lebanon ‘blind’ to illegal arms trafficking/A>
US envoy Haley rips UN troop commander in Lebanon
The commanding officer is an Irish General – a Michael Beary who besides Lebanon has served in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Uganda and Somalia.
According to the Guardian:

US ambassador Nikki Haley sharply criticised the UN peacekeeping commander in Lebanon on Friday, saying he is “blind” to the spread of illegal arms and reiterating a call for the force to do more about it. He says there is no evidence it is actually happening.

I’m reading IF Stone’s book about the Korean War, and his writings about the ‘unified command structure’ of the UN forces make me wonder whether we will see an effort to install a US or other NATO general (Ireland is not a member of Nato and is officially a neutral-aligned country) in charge of an expanded mandate in Lebanon.
According to the Guardian story, the UNIFIL mandate comes for renewal at the end of the month.
Funnily enough, even though the professionalism/integrity of one of its (I suppose) leading soldiers is being called into question, I can’t find any significant defence of General Beary in an Irish media outlet.
Maybe this is something to watch for developments? Best wishes

Posted by: oneoffposter | Aug 26 2017 21:32 utc | 15

pay backs are a bitch….Manpads for Afghans…..!!!!!

Posted by: mhouston | Aug 26 2017 22:00 utc | 17

Russia speaking warmly about Pakistan: I would suspect “deep” motivation. Russian raison d’etat is to block Qatari and Iranian gas from Europe by enticing the export to the Indian subcontinent. A pipeline was agreed upon, but Pakistan stalls, and the only reason I can imagine is arm twisting and bribery by USA and KSA. Prospectively, that market is huge, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are growing fast and there is chronic lack of sufficient electricity. Natural gas is the fastest and cleanest source of electicity in the medium term (coal power station use ca. double amount of carbon for kWh than gas with a lot of other emission and/or troublesome solid wastes, nuclear power has problems and is slow to build, “renewables” are more expensive and have spotty availability). Pipeline from Pars field to Pakistani border is ready.
One should also observe that distances from Pars field to Mumbay and Ankara are roughly equal (ca. 2500 km), so Pakistani market is waaaay closer than Europe (Ankara – Vienna 1600km), and India, quite a bit closer.
Russia would like to embolden Pakistan, and China has some interest in it too, namely, that Pakistan stops being American stooge and gets more stable government. China offer to finance the Pakistani pipeline segment, than withdrew the offer, but now they should be more motivated. Massaging Pakistani egos and insecurities may help.
IMHO, this shows a destructive side of American foreign policy: sabotage of economic development inflicted on allies/vassals (on top of havoc that sanctioncracy attempts to inflict).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 26 2017 22:08 utc | 19

Typically the kind of unimportant information that the guardian publishes in the midst of summer when no one reads it
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/31/human-life-is-more-expendable-why-slavery-has-never-made-more-money

Posted by: Mina | Aug 26 2017 22:19 utc | 21

@ karlof1 who continues to help us watch the world go round.
Thank you.
The posting title on your last syrianperspective link says it all. trump-and-putin-play-chicken-as-risk-of-confrontation-increases-exponentially-trump-is-wests-sick-man.
Trump has generals and the money boys as his sidekicks. What should the world expect from such a configuration?
Bankruptcy by the US and the power to negotiate the “best” settlement aging empire can muster.
That is my take and I posit that it happens under Trumps watch….and possibly quite soon.
We live in interesting times, no?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 26 2017 23:50 utc | 23

Here’s a fascinating (to me) video of a Russian supersonic anti-ship missile called a Moskit.
The video shows the Moskit hitting a ship, bow on;
http://tinyurl.com/zacew7q

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 2:16 utc | 25

psychohistorian | Aug 26, 2017 11:16:38 PM | 25
What cements the absurdity of the money creation through debt gambit is; that debt cannot/will not be paid back, ever.
A long and winding road…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 3:56 utc | 27

@ V. Arnold about that debt thing
The world use to have debt jubilee events that acted as a reset….read Debt: The First 5000 Years by Graeber
Now we have a very dysfunctional (probably on purpose) matrix of debt situations all over the world….. personal, business and government.
How does one sit down and sort that out? LOL!!!
If/when you understand the absurdity of the debt situation and the private financial structure, inheritance and ongoing private ownership of stuff behind the structure, how do you reasonably respond?….if you are the elite, if you are the psychopath puppets, if you are the worker bees, if you are the zombies……..
That long and winding road could become more difficult for many if the vectors don’t change.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 27 2017 4:15 utc | 29

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 27, 2017 12:00:50 AM | 27
I decided several years ago to give PCR’s mixed messages a wide berth.
His Conspiracy article is typical of the drivel he mixes in with nice stuff people want to hear. His remarks about explosives in WTC are straight out of the (edu-phobic) Trufer ravings. He’s either too incurious to read the NIST report on WTC, or too technically ignorant to comprehend the content.
And he’s too long-winded – ALWAYS a sign the writer is camouflaging crap.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 27 2017 4:59 utc | 31

Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 27, 2017 12:59:32 AM | 30
My conclusion as well; I now give PCR little credibility.
He’s living in his moment of fame and past deeds.
Concur on 9/11 as well.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 5:11 utc | 33

about debt generally, highly recommended
http://michael-hudson.com/
about “jubilee”, do you know about potlach?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch

Posted by: mauisurfer | Aug 27 2017 5:26 utc | 35

@ mauisurfer who asked about potlach
I am a Tacoma, WA “native” and learned about the karma of potlach earlier than many. It is a great example of a cultural expression of excess that should be learned about and brought forward as alternative to the excess of current inheritance practice.
As I wrote above: We don’t have to have all the answers. We just need to move some important levers in the right direction and adjust accordingly.
I hope to live to see society moving away from our private finance controlled world..

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 27 2017 5:37 utc | 37

About US invasions…
the least glorious was the invasion to possess Wrangel Island, ca. 1000 square miles in a “strategic location”, ca. 100 miles from Siberia and 400 from Alaska. US military recruited 20 Alaskan Eskimos and left them there in 1920. Two years later they checked, and none survived. End of invasion. Later Soviets maintained a research station without a permanent human presence.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 27 2017 6:15 utc | 39

Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 27, 2017 2:29:45 AM | 39
I’d have to disagree re: NORAD.
Until those planes were siezed, they were normal commercial flights. I do not believe NORAD or anybody else had the time to react.
As to threatening the “pilots”; they were on a suicide mission.
I’m afraid your logic(?) is a bit skewed on that one. 😉

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 6:47 utc | 41

Money. I like all the topics on the table in this thread but I’ll take money in honor of psychohistorian and V. Arnold.
We think exactly backwards from the way the bankers think. Debt is our burden but debt is their income. This difference is crucial to bear in mind.
Bankers became bankers originally because they held capital that could form the basis for a loan, that could be the principal. But we live in a golden age of banking when central banks rule the system and subordinate banks within the system really don’t need much capital to create a loan.
In essence, in this age, the principal isn’t real. Only the interest is real. We the debtors have to pay off the principal as well as the interest. But they, the lenders, really only want the interest, which is vastly more important than the principal.
So when we say the US is in debt, all we’re really saying is that banks are being paid interest by the US, every day. This forms part of the income of the bankers who rule this global system through their private central banks. All that would be required for the US to become “bankrupt” would be for the banks to receive less income every day.
This is exactly what happens when the stock market crashes on cue, and banks cease to make money on the upward margins, and make money on the downward margins instead. People who make money purely from money have a dream, I suspect, of a stable income, but in practice they live in a world of fluctuating incomes as the different plays launch, surge, mature and wither.
So the question becomes, not how much the US has to “pay back” but how little the banks are prepared to take in interest. Or to put it another way – the correct way – when the US defaults on its nominal debt, how will this debt be restructured so that banks continue to receive their interest? Truly, this is all that matters.
~~
They say that the US Dollar will be replaced as a global reserve currency by the basket of currencies that is the Special Drawing Right (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I truly believe this is the future because the bankers, having come to rule the global financial system, have no reason at all to let it fall down in any way – especially when a perfect solution to keep it going exists already and has long been groomed for the role.
Jim Rickards has suggested, and it’s been linked here before, that when the SDR becomes the preferred unit of denomination for trades, extra liquidity will be added to the global economy – over, say, a decade – equal to $100 Trillion. This injected liquidity washes clean a lot of sins.
~~
Do not look for a collapse as if a person owed money and could not pay. Look instead to the restructuring, as if a machine too profitable to fail had to find a different way to continue, a different fabricated vision for which to get up each morning.
The sky, I think, will not fall. If it does not die of hubris and carbohydrates, the human world will continue for hundreds, perhaps thousands, perhaps millions of years. And within this history of woe, compound interest will remain as perhaps the most foul of all the greed-induced desires. The ultimate question in this regard becomes, how then to restrain and regulate this curse of compound interest that burdens society?
The issuance of currency based on debt is exclusively the result of the desire for interest. It is not an imperative in its own right. It’s a scam.
In the largest view, we are talking of reprogramming the greed that arises in the human breast. Do this, and we see the end to false money. But short of this, we have to treat the greed for “money made only from money” as the moral debasement that it is – the love of money that is the root of all evils – and outlaw it.
As a way to support the outlawing of the love of money, we can work at ground zero, by replacing private money with public money issued by states as a public utility. Sovereign money issued by the sovereign. Whoever creates the money holds the power of the sovereign.
Sovereign money. I’m not sure how to do this. But Ellen Brown has the road map. The Bank of North Dakota has the way.

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 27 2017 8:43 utc | 43

US ambassador Nikki Haley sharply criticised the UN peacekeeping commander in Lebanon on Friday, saying he is “blind” to the spread of illegal arms and reiterating a call for the force to do more about it. He says there is no evidence it is actually happening.

Nikki Haley is your average dumb, ignorant, Washington fuckwit.
1. The UNIFIL mandate only allows it to go after weapons with the consent of the Lebanese government, and since Hezbollah is part of that government, it ain’t going to happen.
2. The UNIFIL mandate allows it to fire at anybody who fires at it or civilians. The IDF has frequently fired at civilians and occasionally at UNIFIL. Is that idiot prepared to support UNIFIL with that part of its mandate? Pigs might fly.
As for the Korean War, the Soviets were boycotting the UNSC at the time because of its refusal to seat the PRC instead of the RoC as the representative of China (I believe) so the United States and its poodles were able to do the whole Korean War under the auspices of the United Nations. Russia would never allow a similar thing to happen again if it can possibly help it and if the US/France/UK try to place an allied officer in charge of UNIFIL, I strongly suspect the Russians or Chinese will veto it because it’s a really stupid idea. Just remember what happened to the US marines in Beirut when that moron Reagan decided to take sides with the nearest thing to Nazis in the ME in the Lebanese Civil War without first withdrawing the marines.
BTW, since the end of WW2, every single American government has been quite happy to work with Nazis so all this whining from American liberals about Trump enabling Nazis is a load of hypocritical bollocks.

Posted by: Ghostship | Aug 27 2017 10:36 utc | 45

>>>> V. Arnold | Aug 26, 2017 10:16:15 PM | 24

Here’s a fascinating (to me) video of a Russian supersonic anti-ship missile called a Moskit.

The Russians are readying a more advanced hypersonic anti-ship missile for operational use known as the Zircon. Apparently the missile has already been clocked at Mach 10, so fast that supposedly no air defence system can respond quickly enough, but more interestingly that if it’s of a similar weight to the Oniks (another anti-ship missile), at that speed (Mach 10), it has kinetic energy equivalent to 2,400 kg of high explosive. As that video shows, hitting a ship head on would ensure that most if not all of that kinetic energy would be absorbed by the target with the terrible damage seen in the video.
If a Zircon hit an aircraft carrier loaded up with jet fuel and munitions head on, how likely is that the aircraft carrier would remain operational?
BTW, about the possible “hacking” of a couple or three US warships, why would anybody deploy such a valuable capability during peacetime, even if it is a period of heightened tension? Any rational state such as Russia would maintain full secrecy about it so that when the shit really hits the fan, it could be deployed to leave all the carrier battle groups near defenceless.

Posted by: Ghostship | Aug 27 2017 11:06 utc | 47

Ghostship | Aug 27, 2017 7:06:09 AM | 46
Re: destroyer collisions; it’s why both debsisdead and I concluded Occam’s Razor was the likely answer. In other words, incompetence of the crew on watch (not).
I did get one very arrogant/rude reply arguing Occams Razor does’t apply in military situations; I didn’t bother responding to such nonsense.
And Yes, I’m aware of the Zircons and Oniks missiles; the Moskit was the only vid I could find showing a hit on an actual ship.
Pretty damn impressive, IMO.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 11:46 utc | 49

Peter AU 1 | Aug 27, 2017 7:48:56 AM | 49
While China and Russia focus on defense from U.S. aggression; the U.S. is playing global whack-a-mole.
I read a pretty balanced article in Russia Insider which illustrates the differing outlooks;
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/us-underestimes-russian-navy-its-own-peril/ri20737
And yes, China’s success with quantum entanglement messaging is fascinating; sent from earth to satellites and back again.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 12:06 utc | 51

Peter AU 1 | Aug 27, 2017 9:06:40 AM | 51
Not sure; possibly we’re talking about different systems.
Obviously, ground base to satellite would be wireless;fiber-opticless.
Can you link to the fibre-optic thingy you’re speaking to?

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 13:12 utc | 53

Peter AU 1 | Aug 27, 2017 9:39:45 AM | 54
Well done you; thanks.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 27 2017 13:57 utc | 55

Suntzu said it’s much better if you can win without actually having to fight.

Posted by: lysias | Aug 27 2017 14:18 utc | 57

There is an interesting segment in the Russian doco film “Crimea:Way Back Home”.
Interviews with both the Russian military in Crimea and also Putin on the Donald cook.
At the time the Donald Cook was buzzed it was also lit up with the Bastion radar. When the interveiwer asked Putin about the incident with the planes, Putin laughed and said they were a bit naughty, and then that segment ended/cut mid sentance.
Lit up by the Bastion radar, then their lights turned out, then dummy strafed by a couple of planes – no doubt the Donal Cook heros coming to rescue Crimea would have felt discretion was the better part of valour.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 27 2017 15:15 utc | 59

re: @46 Hoarsewhisperer “BTW, about the possible “hacking” of a couple or three US warships, why would anybody deploy such a valuable capability during peacetime, even if it is a period of heightened tension?”
I would think because they may have needed to get the US to stand down from some undisclosed yet planned incursion, possibly related to the Chinese Sea.
And Russia is several generations ahead of the US militarily, it is possible whatever was used is their “plain vanilla” capability, one of many they have but are yet to display.

Posted by: frances | Aug 27 2017 16:33 utc | 61

Piotr Berman @ 39
Can’t find any reference to the U.S. Military sending 20 “Eskimos” to settle Wrangel Island. Is that true?
They would have been in their native element, so it’s hard to believe they just “died.”
In 1921 a Canadian explorer. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, got four men, none “Eskimos”, and a young Inupiat woman to try live on Wrangel and claim it for Canada or Great Britain. The men all died in less than a year. The woman lived there for two years until she was found and returned to Alaska. The ordeal apparently didn’t take much out of her. She lived in the Arctic her whole life and died in the 1980s at 85.

Posted by: Ken Nari | Aug 27 2017 17:26 utc | 63

MAYDAY KOREA! by William R. Polk
highly recommended, this is part 1
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/08/mayday-korea-by-william-r-polk.html

Posted by: mauisurfer | Aug 27 2017 19:16 utc | 65

When debt interest eats all tax revenue a jubilee occurs. Trade has left that behind, so the financiers eat each other. Turtle Island NW Coast nations gave it all away to be remembered well, as well to take some heat of their debtors knowing that like Bhachinka Bhinball it falls back home. Canada could ’embrace’ the rest of Turtle Island and Carib, and Greenaland in our nation, a trade Regime…take the world. Ou Canada goes beyond the Canadian River where the Comanches only slowed us down. The good Col. Tyrant Killer ‘defending’ Vancouver, Brutish Colonia from somewhere in a cave in Virginia since 1779 from whonow? Our storm-trooer comedians have left irony to seed wonderment amoungst our nice neighbours, laugh out loud on the keyboard. Like snow-shoeing over the battlements and roofs/rooves to give a hand to the boys in the Armoury, maybe. I’d still want to have the Col. and his crew stirring the fire during the stormy nights, tho; and thinking of them as uncles for their best advice. He could watch the watchmen (there’s a Latin Version only a Lawyer could Love). Even allowed comments on 9-11 leading to some shitty little country north of Mecca.But whadda ya gonna do? Dirty Cards. Bad luck with friends like that. Whirl wind harvesting in a buyers market.
Thanks b and all. Good health is nearby. Cannabinol hunting head of Salish Sea

Posted by: failure of imagination | Aug 27 2017 23:12 utc | 67

b4real | Aug 27, 2017 12:56:56 PM | 62
You were not the one I was referring to; the one just above, is a virtual repeat of said behavior.
Enough said…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 28 2017 1:49 utc | 69

Just Sayin 68
Before I watched the interveiw with Putin, I totaly disbelieved the Donald Cook incident in the black sea. After watching that inteveiw, it seemed something out of the ordinary occurred. The incident occurred at a time when the polite green Russians had the Ukraine military barracaded in their barracks. From memory of the doco, Russia believed the Donald Cook was moving in to help the coupe regime in Kiev take Crimea.
You realy should read up on the circumstances surrounding each event before calling all and sundry morons.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 28 2017 2:10 utc | 71

Re: Hoarsewhisperer, psychohistorian, V. Arnold, in regard to your dissing of 9/11 “conspiracy” (and PCR)
…
Have you ever taken the time to look at the information presented by the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth? http://www.ae911truth.org/
…
Posted by: Perimetr | Aug 27, 2017 9:57:23 AM | 56
Yes I have looked at the information. And, unlike your good self, I didn’t just “look at it” I read and evaluated it. Imo, a list of Architects & Engineers should only include people with a degree in the stated discipline which would qualify them for membership in the Official Professional Institute. The list I read, when Gage’s list had circa 1000 names, contained hardly any people which met that standard.
Considering that there must be at least 50,000 qualified and registered Architects & Engineers in the US (interpolating from the number in Oz as a population ratio) A&E’s list of 1000, containing hardly any qualified people, isn’t just underwhelming, it’s pathetically dishonest and deceitful.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 28 2017 6:13 utc | 73

Just Sayin 72
There are three versions of the Donald Cook/black sea incident. The US version, the most likely snsationalised alternative news tabloid version, and the Russian version. The Russian version, as per ther commanding officer in Crimea and putin, I have only found in The Way Back Home doco.
Where is Russia at with regards jamming US systems? By most accounts theyu are one or two generations ahead of the US with their S400 and the S500 that is or will soon go into production. The main problem with these is the electronics. The US cannot jam the radars.
Trumps sixty tomahawk missiles. One failed at launch leaves fifty nine. According to Russian mod only half or less reached there target. I tend to put more weight in something said by Russian mod or political executive than I do of the US.
I found a photo on the net of one Tomahawk missile remains at Tartus. One section of the reckage matched exactly the design of the tomahawk warhead that I looked up. There were no reports of S-300 or S-400 launches. What happened to the missing missiles?
I suspect that Russia is ahead of the US in electronic warfare, to what extent I do not know.
Donald Cook? It is quite likely that after lighting it up with the Bastion targeting radar, Russia also jammed the Donald Cook’s Defence systems radars leaving them defenseless. Added to that a couple of S-27s doing strafing runs directly over ther ship rather than close passes. In the incident in the Black sea, the Commanding officer and Putin left no doubts that US ships would be sunk if they tried to interfere in Crimea and take the Russian naval base, Which was part of the prize for the US in regime changing Ukraine.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 28 2017 7:26 utc | 75

Truth.org red herring?
The scientific report by the morman scientist who proved jesus went to the US? Nano thermite?
Four dust samples were obtained some months after the event with no proof of origin with intewntion of inspection them for thermite. In reading the report, he was not looking for traces of any other explosive that are commanly used in demolition like C4/plastic explosive. The supposed sites of collection are shown on a map with distances from the buildings ect. The scientist who found jesus runs his magnet accross the dust samples and collects what else – thermite. All the supposed thermite particles from the samples are dumped in together rather than being analysed seperatly. First part of a scientific analysis wouyld be to check particle size from each sample. It would also check for all known explosives used in demolition, yet the man who ‘proved’ jesus was in amerikkka was only looking for thermite.
And as Hoarsewhisperer has said, the NSIT report on the mechanism of collapse was quite solid. Truthe.org rely on the weight of the building still being carried by the columns after the initial collapse of one floor has occurred.
Saudi nationals, Saudi financed, yet Saudi is a US ally in the destruction of a number of countries from the US fake ‘WAR on Terra’
That there was US involvment in 9/11 there is no doubt, but truth.org is a red herring.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 28 2017 7:48 utc | 77

It is quite likely that after lighting it up with the Bastion targeting radar, Russia also jammed the Donald Cook’s Defence systems radars leaving them defenseless.
No it isn’t – it’s not likely at all, you just completely invented that out of thin air.
There is ZERO evidence in that documentary to back up that fantasy. None whatsoever, it’s a little bit of info that your brain tagged on, all by itself, to what you actually heard in the documentary.
You invented it, in other words. Score one for the propagandists.
Confirmation Bias is about the nicest thing one could call it.

Posted by: Just Sayin | Aug 28 2017 9:20 utc | 79

Ghostship | Aug 28, 2017 5:21:58 AM | 80
Facing claims of crimes against humanity for army attacks on the minority Muslim Rohingya population, Suu Kyi’s administration has sought to severely restrict access to Rakhine for aid groups and the media while publicly discrediting them.
As the worm turns, once again, Aung Sang Suu Kyi was one of my few hero’s; and now shows her true colors (from martyr to oppressor).
Just goes to show; pick your hero’s with utmost care…
Or just possibly, have no hero’s; yes, that’s the route to walk.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 28 2017 9:44 utc | 81

Peter AU 1 | Aug 28, 2017 5:51:27 AM | 82
Question: Why do you waste so much energy on that obvious asshole? Troll?
Let b deal with him; I suspect he’s not long for this blog, yes?
Russia, in the intellectual department, is far and above the U.S. hegemonic pedantry.
Just saying is an emotional child; a ponzi schoolboy, in a world of few adults; so he gets his rocks off by inciting emotional responses; to further his retarded intelectual maturity.
Mostly, it’s why I do not engage him/her any longer…
Cheers to you…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 28 2017 10:04 utc | 83

83.
Right, sure. Your inability to provide anything concrete in the way of evidence, when asked for it, had nothin to do with it. Obviously
==========
U2. Designed to fly high above soviet radar and air defence. Not only did the soviets pick it up on radar, they shot the fuckin thing down.
The cold war history of US USSR and their succesor state Russia, is each getting one step ahead of the other.

This has nothing to do with the matter under discussion
An incident where US designers relied on distance and speed to outrun any pursuit, and turned out to be wrong, versus vague ever-changing mumblings about another “incident” coupled with fantastic claims of a new weapon with ever-changing array of fantastic powers eg: EMD (?) “electronics fried” etc etc,and other such authoritatively stated nonsense made by people who clearly haven’t got a clue what they are talking about
eg:

Regarding the Cook, In my lifetime, I do not recall any U.S. Navy ship allowing itself to fake-strafed. There is little doubt in my mind that standard orders are to fire a warning shot.
Didn’t happen.
Occam’s that.
b4real

There were 2 incidents with the Cook alone, in two separate geographic locations thousands of mile apart. In neither incident were shots fired. Clearly this person doesn’t know what they are talking about.
You people are talking about a new weapon with vaguely defined/alluded-to powers that even the weapon manufacturers seem to laugh at, and you can’t even demonstrate that you know anything at all about the situation nor the subject matter other than the contents of a documentary which you claim contain the “evidence” that you found so convincing.

Posted by: Just Sayin | Aug 28 2017 10:51 utc | 85

Back in comments 9 & 12 of this thread I reported about India shutting down (snapped) in various areas to control unrest. Below is an article from another source about that issue.
India responds to internet shutdown criticism… by codifying rules to make it legal

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 29 2017 5:46 utc | 87

North Korea has tested another missile by sending it over Japan. The Yanks are blustering, Julie Bishop is livid, in a vassal-ish kind of way, and Japan has called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to be held in private. So, what is Japan worried about that requires (Maxwell Smart’s) Cone of Silence to be lowered onto a UN meeting?
Probably what China is going to say…
In “News” last night China’s Foreign Ministry stressed that AmeriKKKa should stop provoking North Korea. This morning that snippet of Chinese wisdom had been erased from the MSM’s version of the NK SNAFU.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 30 2017 6:43 utc | 89

Re: Ken Nari | Aug 27, 2017 1:26:43 PM | 63
Sorry, I conflated two stories. Wiki, history of Wrangel Island:
In 1921, Stefansson sent five settlers (the Canadian Allan Crawford, three Americans: Fred Maurer, Lorne Knight and Milton Galle, and Iñupiat seamstress and cook Ada Blackjack) to the island in a speculative attempt to claim it for Canada.[31] The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition. At the time, Stefansson claimed that his purpose was to head off a possible Japanese claim.[32] An attempt to relieve this group in 1922 failed when the schooner Teddy Bear under Captain Joe Bernard became stuck in the ice.[33] In 1923, the sole survivor of the Wrangel Island expedition, Ada Blackjack, was rescued by a ship that left another party of 13 (American Charles Wells and 12 Inuit).
Wrangel Island Inhabitants on board Krasnyy Oktyabr 1924
In 1924, the Soviet Union removed the American and 13 Inuit (one was born on the island) of this settlement aboard the Krasny Oktyabr. Wells subsequently died of pneumonia in Vladivostok during a diplomatic American-Soviet row about an American boundary marker on the Siberian coast, and so did an Inuit child. The others were deported from Vladivostok to the Chinese border post Suifenhe, but the Chinese government did not want to accept them as the American consul in Harbin told them the Inuit were not American citizens. Later, the American government came up with a statement that the Inuit were ‘wards’ of the United States, but that there were no funds for returning them. Eventually, the American Red Cross came up with $1600 for their return. They subsequently moved through Dalian, Kobe and Seattle (where another Inuit child drowned during the wait for the return trip to Alaska) back to Nome.[34]
During the Soviet trip, the American reindeer owner Carl J. Lomen from Nome had taken over the possessions of Stefansson and had acquired explicit support (“go and hold it”) from US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes to claim the island for the United States,[35] a goal about which the Russian expedition got to hear during their trip. Lomen dispatched the MS Herman, commanded by captain Louis L. Lane. Due to unfavorable ice conditions, the Herman could not get any further than Herald Island, where the American flag was raised.[36]
In 1926, the government of the Soviet Union reaffirmed the Tsarist claim to sovereignty over Wrangel Island.
=======
So white Americans sent to Wrangel died, and Eskimo were treated very shabbily. Now I recall how Eskimo survive in Arctic. “Manly way” is to hunt sea mammals, and “feminine way” is to kill sea birds during nesting season. Freezing food for later consumption is not a problem.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 30 2017 23:09 utc | 91

– Jared Kushner (and family) has/have some BIG financial problems
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-kushners-china-deal-flop-was-part-of-much-bigger-hunt-for-cash/

Posted by: Willy2 | Sep 1 2017 7:05 utc | 93

Disgusting. Any normal person should boycott him, his asssoxiates”
Stooge Conan O’Brien frolics with Netanyahu and the Israeli army

Posted by: ProPeace | Sep 2 2017 2:00 utc | 95

@ Willy2 #93
what a crazy coincidence that the address of that building is 666
sometimes this stuff really does make you wonder.

Posted by: dan of steele | Sep 2 2017 13:24 utc | 97

Despite the inherent obstacles to everyone leaping in joy at the new outta Syria not hearing much else, a story outta england is just so over the top and weird yet typical of the horror world we find ourselves in yet funny as fuck to boot I’m gonna post on it.
The englanders are skilled spinners – one only has to consider the “former MI6 officer documents trump’s Russian golden shower” complete fabrication to get a gist. The story was completely untrue yet it dominated the news for nearly two weeks and provided the ‘break through’ which dems believed was essential to protect their slimy neolib asses.
Of all the spinners one, a bloke by the name of Tim Bell (now lord bell) stood head and shoulders above the rest. Bell is a case study in sociopathy nowadays he talks and behaves like a member of a centuries old aristo family – in fact he was a grammar school boy from a family of strugglers. He kicked off by being Margaret Thatcher’s Sean Spicer. After a while he set up his own firm ‘Bell Pottinger” in the late 1980’s to sell lies to the masses worldwide. No asshole was too smelly, the Pinochet creep who worked as chief marionette for amerika butchering thousands of Chilean humanists was a typical Bell Pottinger client. So was FW DeKlerk the last jaapie (white south african) leader of the apartheid state.
This week Bell Pottinger and tim bell have been swamped to obliteration over a south african deal. They are no more.
But the kicker is that they didn’t go down for lying – they got topped by the world’s other media spinners for telling the truth.
Their truth was that life is so tough in South Africa because economic apartheid still reigns. The indigenous people may be able to vote but only the same as everyone else in our brave new world – that is for a choice between tweedledum or tweedledee.
Hired by an extremely wealthy south african family who would once have been called ‘coloured’ they migrated to South Africa from the Indian subcontinent, Bell Pottinger was tasked with creating interference to distract citizens from the Guptas (that is the family name) close association with South African president Jacob Zuma. The Guptas got to select the South African finance minister and Zumas kids got high powered jobs with the Guptas. All standard neolib corruption.
It wasn’t going down very well in south africa though. The penny had finally dropped that the ANC was never going to build houses for everyone and among whitefellas who still retain enough racist brainwashing to distrust all ‘asians’ the optics were worse.
Bell who owes his allegiance solely to money ,was concerned that his emeritus deceiver gig and its annual stipend of one million pounds p.a. was under threat from the Bell Pottinger board so he headed down to jaapieland to sell a contract for distracting citizens from the reality of a corrupt ANC, by making lots of noise about another reality the hard truth about the lack of change in south africa’s racist economic structure.
That wasn’t well received by the jaapies who had been using their media stakes to kick up about Zuma’s rorts in order to distract from their continued ownership of as Karl would have put it, ‘The means of production’.
It went down even less well in england where the ultimate beneficiaries of that ownership hang out. The beneficiaries kicked up and bell is now dog tucker. It couldn’t happen to a sleazier fella.
Meanwhile we get to appreciate the humour of a mob of lying low lifes coming undone for telling the truth.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 6 2017 1:12 utc | 99