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Fri, 30 Sep 2016
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Lame ducks in Obama Administration promoting Killary's war - her presidency has already begun

Diana Johnstone
Counter Punch
Mon, 26 Sep 2016 20:20 UTC
If the British Empire was built on the playing fields of Eton, United States world hegemony gets its training in Hollywood studios and advertising agencies. Selling your product, or yourself, by looking sincere is a cultivated American art. Current top U.S. leaders are expert practitioners.

In the space of a few days, Samantha Power, John Kerry, and Barack Obama all turned in war-winning performances.

Three Deadly U.S. Blows to Hopes of Peace In Syria

Last August 8, on that serious think tank the Charlie Rose show, former acting CIA director Michael Morell said that U.S. policy in Syria should be to make Iran and Russia "pay a price". Russians and Iranians should be killed "covertly, so you don't tell the world about it", he said. Morell proposed that U.S. forces begin bombing Syrian government installations, in order to "scare Assad". Probably angling for a good job next year, he is on record supporting Hillary Clinton as a "highly qualified commander in chief" and a "strong proponent of a more aggressive approach" in Syria.
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Attention

Volunteers by day, terrorists by night: The double life of White Helmets


South Front
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:01 UTC
Map
© twitter.com / Gjoene
A worker of a social canteen
Volunteers of the White Helmets civil defense organization have a double life: they are 'volunteers' by day and terrorists by night.

Photos, published online, reveal 'the second life' of volunteers of the White Helmets civil defense organization that operates throughout the Syrian territory, controlled by the 'moderate' opposition.

According to the photos, the volunteers spend one part of their lives, providing assistance to civilian population, and then transform into members of terrorist groups and shoot at the same civilians.

Comment: See also:

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Heart - Black

Zakharova: Terrorist groups in Syria using human shields to carry out attacks in Aleppo


TASS
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 20:13 UTC
© Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP
Terrorist groupings are using the tactic of a human shield to carry out attacks on Aleppo in Syria, Russia's Foreign Ministry official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"An especially grave situation is developing in the north of the country, first of all, in Aleppo where government troops have fought against Jabhat al-Nusra militants and affiliated groupings in the past few days," the spokeswoman said.

"On the whole, the extremists' tactic remains unchanged: attacks are made under the cover of a human shield - the talk is about civilians. Snipers are actively involved. They conduct fire not only against Syrian army servicemen but also against civilians," Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, "so-called infernal machines - self-made explosive devices - were used time after time."

"Militants are laying mines along positions they are abandoning and approaches to them. Populated areas in the province of Aleppo and also in the province of Latakia and the Damascus region were shelled," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
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Chess

The politics of bombing - wholesale, retail and the West's use of terror for control

James Petras
The James Petras Website
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 19:56 UTC
© 99getsmart.com
Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, the macro.
Bombs, domestic and foreign, are defining the nature of politics in the United States, the European Union and among radical Islamist groups and individuals. The scale and scope of bomb-politics varies with the practitioner.

'Wholesale bombers' are state actors, who engage in large-scale, long-term bombing designed to destroy adversary governments or movements. 'Retail bombers' are groups or individuals engaging in small-scale, sporadic bombings, designed to provoked fear and secure symbolic outcomes.

Apart from planned bombings, there are improvised bombings committed by deranged individuals who engage in suicide attacks without any political backing or coherent purpose.

In this paper we will focus on the nature of 'wholesale' and 'retail' bombings, their frequency, political consequences and long-term impact on global political power.
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SOTT Logo S

Automation, economic collapse, basic income slavery: Our dystopic future?

SAO
Sott.net
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:58 UTC

Everything is awesome.
A thought occurred to me a few days ago about a potential chain of events that might transpire in the near future. It felt like a eureka moment; some things just kinda clicked and suddenly made sense when considered together. First, a quick background. There is a lot of talk that developments in artificial intelligence and automation will automate many jobs and create huge numbers of people whose skills are no longer useful because machines will be able to do those jobs. And worst of all, they won't be able to re-train and/or get different jobs because those jobs too will be automated - there are no replacement jobs coming. This video covers this really well:

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Megaphone

Assad advisor to RT: Conflict of interest between Pentagon and White House led to failure of Syria ceasefire


RT
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:55 UTC
© Sputnik/ Michael Alaeddin
Internal disagreements in the US as well as Washington's support for terrorist groups in Syria are hampering peace efforts, President Assad's Political and Media Adviser Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban told RT.

"If you go back to the Congress session on September 22, and to what Ashton Carter (the Defense Minister in the United States), and what [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Joseph Dunford said, and [Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee] John McCain, you will see that the ceasefire failed, and the agreement was not implemented because of the real differences and conflict of interest between the Pentagon and the White House," said Dr. Shaaban.

The US is actively undermining counterterrorism efforts in the country, according to Assad's adviser.

"I think that al-Nusra in Syria is absolutely protected by the United States, by Qatar, by Saudi Arabia and Turkey," Shaaban said."Reality shows the American coalition is not fighting terrorism in Syria.
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Wall Street

Canada to join China-led bank, signaling readiness to bolster ties

Jane Perlez
The New York Times
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:14 UTC
© Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Canada said on Wednesday that it had applied to join China's version of the World Bank, breaking with previous leaders who had shared United States officials' skepticism of the new Beijing-led lender.

The move came during a five-day trip to China by the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who is seeking to burnish trade, business and political ties with Beijing. China's relationship with the previous Canadian government had been lukewarm.
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Magnify

New York vs. Budapest: The Western media covers two similar terrorist attacks very differently

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:05 UTC
This past weekend, Budapest suffered a terrorist attack. A video has emerged of a man planting a suspect package at the scene of the crime which later spectacularly blew up, seriously injuring two police officers. Yet the western media has been stunningly silent about the whole affair whilst RT, to their credit, were amongst the first to report the incident and show photos as they emerged.

Last week, a terrorist bombing of a similar magnitude occurred in New York. Live shots of Manhattan were show across all major, old fashioned news outlets.

Of course whilst there was an extreme probability that the New York blast was a terrorist attack, we were treated to the perfunctory 'gas leak' theory for a few hours before the obvious became clear: (1) It was terrorism; and (2) It was ISIS inspired/ISIS style terrorism.

Mainstream media readers and viewers could be forgiven were they to think that the meddling in once stable countries like Syria has caused gas lines throughout the world to conspire together and decide to burst open near the closest flame with an alarming frequency.

Comment: The media makes it very clear - if it doesn't happen in the US or in one of its vassal states like France or Germany, it doesn't matter.

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Vader

US reportedly considering more ineffective sanctions against Russia


Katehon
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:54 UTC

Pointless, costly, ineffective
The US Department of State has mentioned the possibility of new sanctions against Russia over the situation in Syria.

The spasms of a dying Leviathan

The US State Department representative said that Moscow might be sanctioned for its cooperation with Damascus.

It should be recalled that the Russian operation in Syria is held in agreement with the constitutional government and has not violated international norms, unlike the US occupation and its "allies" from ISIS.

The US's statement on Russia's supposed wrongdoing came after it was proven that the US military cooperated with ISIS and "Jabhat al-Nusra", which are recognized terrorist groups, and that Washington was involved in the attack on the UN humanitarian convoy.

At the same time, all Western accusations against Russia crumble like a house of cards, and Washington understands that there is nothing with which to reproach Moscow from the point of view of international law. Therefore, provocations are becoming clearer and rhetoric harsher.
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Георгиевская ленточка

Russia's recovery and the story of 'the Putin Miracle'

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:35 UTC
Map
© The Awe Some Daily
Russia's contemporary problems are mainly traceable to the Western engineered economic and social collapse of the 1990s. Its recovery under Vladimir Putin is far more impressive than its continuing problems.

The inspiration for this article is something many people living in the West may encounter.

The scenario unfolds like this. A genuinely open minded individual who can understand the failures and faults of the west, sees the disasters of Islamic terrorism and what Russia is doing to combat it and is sympathetic to the Russian people and to Russian culture. But then comes the line, "Russia isn't perfect either".

Of course it isn't and thank goodness for a strong political opposition in the form of both the LDPR and Communist parties in order to hold the government to account.

But what starts as innocent if not juvenile 'east versus west' banter reveals what in the West is a tale untold. A tale of suffering, misery and devastation. If one wonders why Russia has problems, here is why, and it has nothing to do with the trite and bigoted reasons offered up to people in the West by the mainstream media.
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