Oh, Loretta.

I'll bet that AG Loretta Lynch is shaking in her boots right now, because when Hillary Clinton goes down, Lynch's career will go down with her. Heck, maybe they'll even be cellmates.

Loretta Lynch's ties to the Clintons go back to 1999 when then-President Bill Clinton appointed her to run the Brooklyn US Attorney's office. She left in 2002 and went into private practice, but returned to the Brooklyn office in 2010 at the behest of President Barack Obama. (Here's her official bio.)

In 2015, she was sworn in to become the 83rd Attorney General of the United States, taking the place of the blatantly corrupt Attorney General, Eric Holder, who will probably be most famous for his roles in the Fast and Furious operation, inciting racial tensions, and his mishandling of the Lois Lerner/IRS debacle.

"The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people. The people are unaware. They're not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government."—John Lennon

How do you balance the scales of justice at a time when Americans are being tasered, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, hit with batons, shot with rubber bullets and real bullets, blasted with sound cannons, detained in cages and kennels, sicced by police dogs, arrested and jailed for challenging the government's excesses, abuses and power-grabs?

Politics won't fix a system that is broken beyond repair.

No matter who sits in the White House, the shadow government will continue to call the shots behind the scenes.

Relying on the courts to restore justice seems futile.

Indeed, with every ruling handed down, it becomes more apparent that we live in an age of hollow justice, with government courts, largely lacking in vision and scope, rendering narrow rulings focused on the letter of the law. This is true at all levels of the judiciary, but especially so in the highest court of the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, which is seemingly more concerned with establishing order and protecting government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Even so, justice matters.

It matters whether you're a rancher protesting a federal land-grab by the Bureau of Land Management, a Native American protesting an oil pipeline that will endanger sacred sites and pollute water supplies, or an African-American taking to the streets to protest yet another police shooting of an unarmed citizen.

Unfortunately, protests and populist movements haven't done much to push back against an authoritarian regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and accountable to no one.

It doesn't matter who the activists are (environmentalists, peaceniks, Native Americans, Black Lives Matter, Occupy, or the Bundys and their followers) or what the source of the discontent is (endless wars abroad, police shootings, contaminated drinking water, government land-grabs), the government's modus operandi has remained the same: shut down the protests using all means available, prosecute First Amendment activities to the fullest extent of the law, and discourage any future civil uprisings by criminalizing expressive activities, labelling dissidents as extremists or terrorists, and conducting widespread surveillance on the general populace in order to put down any whispers of resistance before it can take root.

Thus, if there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the power of juries and local governments to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFBI Director James Comey

The criticisms which are being made of FBI Director James Comey for disclosing the latest investigation do not bear scrutiny. The FBI did not violate the terms of the Hatch Act and far from acting contrary to due process the FBI has been careful to follow it

Hillary Clinton's response to the revelation that the FBI is investigating the emails on Anthony Weiner's computer is all that might be expected from someone of her personality.

Whilst a secure and confident person would welcome the FBI investigation, say they had nothing to hide, and offer assistance, Hillary Clinton's reaction and that of her campaign team is to release the attack dogs.

Thus over the last two days we have seen an obviously orchestrated storm of criticism of FBI Director James Comey, with claims that he is trying to influence the election, is breaching protocols, and may even have broken federal law, by informing Congress of the new investigation before the election has taken place.

Is there any basis to this?

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are arming up for a possible post-Election Day battle.

Clinton is assembling a voter protection program that has drawn thousands of lawyers agreeing to lend their time and expertise in battleground states, though the campaign isn't saying exactly how many or where. It is readying election observers in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and Arizona to assess any concerns -- including the potential for voter intimidation -- and to verify normal procedures.

The Republican National Lawyers Association, which trains attorneys in battleground states and in local jurisdictions where races are expected to be close, aims to assemble 1,000 lawyers ready to monitor polls and possibly challenge election results across the country. Hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, one of Trump's biggest backers, has sunk $500,000 into the group, its biggest donation in at least four presidential elections, Internal Revenue Service filings show.

"We are fighting for open, fair and honest elections," the association's executive director, Michael Thielen, said in an e-mail.

While the general public might be under the illusion that Russia is nothing more than a "regional power", the terrifying truth has now been revealed: Russia is a global hegemon with the unequaled power to decide who gets to be the President of the USA. Yes, that's right, the entire exceptional USA, its population and political and economic institutions, are nothing more than pawns of the Russian government, mere putty in the hands of the tyrant Putin.

This shocking claim has been repeatedly made over the past few months by the Clinton campaign and many Democrat politicians, not to mention the leading media organs on both sides of the Atlantic. Their evidence, as incontrovertible as the claim itself, is made up of repeated statements by Hillary and her minions that Putin and Trump are best buddies and that Putin has been hacking DNC emails and releasing them to the public, just to make Hillary look bad. And just when you thought that the situation couldn't get any worse, now we are told that the FBI might be compromised too. Yes, you heard that right, there are not only Reds under the FBI's bed, but FBI Director Comey might be sleeping with one.

In truth, our very way of life is in peril from this revanchist Red Menace. We must take action, and now. Elect Hillary or you'll be speaking Russian by Christmas.

Coming back to reality...

For four days now al-Qaeda in Syria (aka Jabhat al Nusra aka Fatah al-Sham) and assorted other "rebel" groups have tried to attack Aleppo from the west to break the siege on al-Qaeda associated groups in east-Aleppo. The New York Times is now openly admitting that CIA-supported groups are acting under al-Qaeda's operational command. The piece though, which belonged on page one, was in the back of the paper. There is no public outcry over this disturbing fact.

The attack on west-Aleppo had been talked about for over two weeks and the defenders are well prepared.

As can be seen on the map above the areas al-Qaeda and its allies managed to capture so far are only small rural outskirts. Every attempt to attack actual city estate under roof was repelled by the defenders. Small infiltrations like shown in the map were immediately cleaned up. The marked area is back in the hands of the Syrian army. It is estimated that the several thousand attackers have so far lost more than 500 men. A 1,000 more are likely injured. Every attack has to be carried over mostly open land and is received by heavy artillery fire. Air attacks ravage their supply and preparation ares.

Over the next few weeks, the International Criminal Court (ICC) could open an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Afghan war, including those allegedly committed by American troops, Foreign Policy magazine reports.

Citing "several knowledgeable sources," the magazine claims that the ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is several weeks from launching a thorough and comprehensive investigation into violations in conducting war that could implicate US soldiers, Taliban insurgents and, possibly, the Afghan government.

If indeed launched, the investigation would be the first of its kind. The ICC has never considered bringing war crimes charges against American army personal for acts committed in Afghanistan before.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shows a one percent, 46-45, lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to the latest poll. Trump's resurgence follows revelations that the FBI is taking a renewed look at the Clinton e-mails scandal.

Trump's lead in the poll comes despite the Democratic presidential candidate having a lead in early voting, which shows her at 54 percent compared with Trump at 41 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Tuesday.

One in five likely voters said they had already voted (21 percent), while about one-quarter said they plan to vote early or by mail (24 percent). Only a slight majority plan to vote in-person on Election Day.

The United States Election project said 24.7 million voters have voted early, 19 percent of the 129 million ballots cast in 2012.

Some 53 percent of Trump supporters had enthusiasm for their candidate, compared to only 43 percent of Clinton backers.

The plans of coalition forces and the Iraqi army to carry out an assault in residential areas of Mosul will likely result in mass civilian casualties, Russia's Defense Ministry said, while noting there are no humanitarian corridors in the Iraqi city.

"We are hearing reports about an upcoming storming of residential areas populated by civilians that are murky, but extremely alarming, given the mass casualties that could result," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

He added that the US' plans for the military operation give the impression that "the city of one million residents is only populated by terrorists."

The Russian military released the statement following remarks made by the US State Department concerning the anti-terrorist operations in the Iraqi city and Aleppo in Syria, in which it maintained that the situations in Mosul and Aleppo are completely different, with State Department spokesman John Kirby claiming that only the US-led coalition's offensive in Iraq was being carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law.

WikiLeaks has released the 25th batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta. The latest tranche consists of almost 2,500 emails, bringing the number released so far to almost 42,000. WikiLeaks has claimed it will publish 50,000 emails in total in the run up to the US presidential election on November 8.

Yesterday's emails revealed that Anthony Weiner was a cause for concern within the Clinton campaign as far back as 2011. Emails from the former congressman's laptop are key to the FBI's decision to reopen an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server.

'Dump all those mails'

"We are going to have to dump all those emails," Podesta tells Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in an email dated March 2, 2015, a week before Clinton addressed the email scandal at a press conference, claiming there was no classified material sent via the private server.

It's not clear which emails Podesta is referring to in the thread, but Podesta tells Mills: "better to do so sooner than later".

Mills replies: "Think you just got your new nick name."