"Oh what tangled webs we weave, when we first practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott

When Dr. Lisa Bardack[*] was asked to become Hillary Clinton's personal physician in 2001, it had to have been a crowning moment in the career of the Mt. Kisco internist. Dr. Bardack could have anticipated little downside. She already had the responsibility -- and legal obligation under HIPAA -- to protect the privacy of her patient. She and her staff would have to be especially scrupulous in the case of a senator with presidential ambitions, but this should not have posed a serious problem.

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton corrupts everyone who serves her. And this year Bardack encountered difficulties she could not have foreseen in 2001:

1. Clinton developed serious medical issues.

2. The candidate was being videoed, not only during campaign stops, speeches, townhalls, and the rare press conference, but before and after events -- by individuals with cell phones who were under no obligation to obey orders given to servile journalists to turn off their cameras.

Boris Johnson just had his first run in with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, and he got destroyed via Facebook.

In an article on The Duran last week by Numan Abd al-Wahid entitled, "How becoming British Foreign Secretary made Boris Johnson flip on Syria", we examined Boris Johnson's sudden flip flop on Syria, right after he was appointed British FM.

Author al-Wahid notes...

Following his appointment as British Foreign Secretary British politician Boris Johnson has without explanation transformed from a supporter of cooperation with Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian government and Russia in the fight against Jihadi terrorism into a supporter alongside Saudi Arabia of regime change in Syria.

Boris' flip flop is easy to explain. By becoming British FM, Johnson got a gold card entrance into the globalist club.

The American electorate has never been more divided with people having wide ranging opinions on which party/candidate would be best for the future of the country. Certainly economic and other facts help guide those opinions but, in the end, the decision is also based on the subjective views of each voter.

But, for Politifact, apparently even the facts are subjective and based on party affiliation. Take the following example:

On July 6, 2015, Bernie Sanders made the following comment about Black youth unemployment in the United States:

"For young people who have graduated high school or dropped out of high school, who are between the ages of 17 and 20, if they happen to be white, the unemployment rate is 33 percent. If they are Hispanic, the unemployment rate is 36 percent. If they are African-American, the real unemployment rate for young people is 51 percent."

Shortly after that comment was made, Politifact decided to "fact check" Bernie's assertion that black youth unemployment was sky high and found that it was "Mostly True."

Sanders said that for African-Americans between the ages of 17 and 20, "the real unemployment rate ... is 51 percent." His terminology was off, but the numbers he used check out, and his general point was correct -- that in an apples-to-apples comparison, African-American youth have significantly worse prospects in the job market than either Hispanics or whites do. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, so we rate it Mostly True.

The Philippines military will hold its first military drills with US forces under President Rodrigo Duterte, who earlier made offensive remarks about Barack Obama and called for American Special Forces to be kicked out from the country.

The exercise is scheduled to take place from October 4 -12 on the Filipino islands of Luzon and Palawan, with the latter located near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

According to the US embassy in Manila, the initiative to invite the US troops to take part in the 33rd Philippines Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX 33) came from the military of the Philippines and was welcomed by the American side.

"The opportunity to train and build mutually beneficial capabilities with our Armed Forces of the Philippines partners is essential for sharpening our bilateral amphibious and humanitarian assistance capabilities, both hallmarks of the US Marine Corps" Brig. Gen. John M. Jansen, commander of the US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said. "Exchanging expertise and cultivating our longstanding security alliance provides a cornerstone for security and stability in the region, and has for decades," he added.

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Sunday after spotting Chinese warplanes fly through a strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa islands for the first time. Beijing said it sent more than 40 aircraft to participate in military drills in the Western Pacific.

The Japanese military said they decided to put their fighter jets up in the sky after spotting eight Chinese aircraft, including four bombers, two fighters and two surveillance planes. The military added that they later made a U-turn and flew back to the East China Sea without violating Japanese airspace.

Japanese defense officials said this is the first time that Chinese fighter jets have passed through the area, according to local media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears intent on reviving the KGB in ministerial form. Reports are circulating that a new Ministry of State Security (MGB) is being set up based on the existing Federal Security Service (FSB) plus some other security services, producing a new security monolith along the lines of the old Soviet secret police.

With the new ministry, Putin - a former KGB officer himself - hopes to recapture some of the $300bn a year lost to corruption. The Russian economic model is now broken following the collapse of high oil prices, and there appears no other way he can keep intact the system he has built over the last 16 years and at the same time cover the budget deficit without implementing austerity measures, which could provoke social unrest and cause his regime to collapse. Putin's revenue-raising plan could have been lifted straight out of a KGB MBA textbook.

The new ministry is the latest in a string of initiatives that Putin has been introducing for years that increases his grip on power. It began with tough anti-money laundering rules in 2000, through de-offshorisation rules for Duma deputies and corporates, up to the creation this year of National Guard elite police forces under direct presidential control. But the MGB will take the game to a whole new level, institutionalising Putin's control of the security services.

The so-called "moderate" rebels turned off the water to 1.5 million civilians living in West Aleppo in retaliation for a Syrian Army airstrike on East Aleppo that allegedly left 250,000 residents without water setting the stage for an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

The city of Aleppo is "dying" according to United Nations officials after a fierce wave of bombing last night by the Syrian Army in an attempt to break the stalemate in what once was the economic capital of the country but is now left to rubble after years of combat between the Assad government and rebels.

Last night's airstrikes according to early reporting by the United Nations left 115 dead as hostilities have intensified following the collapse of the ceasefire earlier this week resulting in large part from a US-led coalition airstrike on a Syrian Army base in Deir Ez-Zor that left 62 dead and hundreds injured "paving the way" for a major offensive by Daesh (ISIS) terrorists and over 300 ceasefire violations by the rebels.

The Washington Post tries an "explainer" piece to reconstruct the recent attack on an aid convoy in Urum al-Kubra, west of Aleppo. The sources are anonymous U.S. officials and members of the U.S./UK paid agitprop organization "White Helmets". I am curious about one of those "witnesses":

That Monday was a warm fall evening. Ammar al-Selmo, a local rescue worker, was making tea in a building across the street. Stepping onto a balcony just after 7 p.m., when it was already past dusk, he said he listened to a helicopter swoop in and drop two barrel bombs on the convoy.

Haven't we heard that name before? Ammar al-Selmo?

Reuters:

"There are planes in the sky now," Ammar al Selmo, the head of the Civil Defence rescue service in the opposition-held east, told Reuters from Aleppo on Saturday morning.

Another WaPo piece also says that Selmo is not just a local tea drinking rescue worker in Urum al-Kubra:

By nightfall, more than 100 bombs had landed, and more than 80 people were dead, said Ammar al-Selmo, head of the Aleppo branch of the White Helmets civil defense group.

Moscow's experience of giving concessions to the Syrian rebels following requests from the US, in the hope of it culminating in a ceasefire has not worked, Russia's envoy to the UN has told the Security Council adding that Moscow will no longer be following these steps.

Vitaly Churkin said that Russia has pressured Damascus on several occasions to meet the demands of its opponents, in the hope that this would lead to a ceasefire. However, this has not had the desired result and has seen constant violations by some rebel groups despite Washington's promise to keep them under control.

"The American side de facto signed that it was unable to influence the groups it sponsors and to deliver on the deal as it promised. First of all, to separate those groups from terrorists and mark their positions on the ground accordingly," he said.

He added that the actions of the US-led coalition, which killed 62 Syrian government soldiers in a miscalculated airstrike near Deir ez-Zor and exposed them to an offensive by the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) damaged relations with Damascus.

He dismissed criticism of the Syrian army, expressed at the Security Council meeting by the US, France and the UK, over the latest offensive in eastern Aleppo.

If you can't even win when the rules are changed in your favor, things must be REALLY bad.

That's how it looks for Hillary Clinton's new 2016 campaign book, "Stronger Together," co-authored with running mate Tim Kaine.

WND reported just days ago when the book was being savaged on Amazon.com with negative reviews, with 81 percent one-star ratings and an average of only 1.7.

Clinton supporters lashed out at "trolls" they said were criticizing the book only because they oppose the Democrat's presidential candidacy.

WND previously reported there were more than 1,200 reviews, and the number grew to than 2,000.