@Wink

Except that they've left, not only Russia but all targeted countries on that nasty little list, no option but to go on high alert to strike America with everything they've got before they are obliterated by The Psychopaths That Be and at the least take their attackers down with them and the rest of the world.

The missiles will not, this time, be restricted to the previously generally impoverished/helpless countries the US Psychopaths That Be choose to militarily invade for corporate-interest (and resultant corrupt politician) enrichment/empowerment/global takeover.

I'm still trying to figure out how to kiss my ass good-by - can't reach it even in a (yoga) Plough position...

it's "over there" somewhere. And, if it's not mentioned on the 6:30 news - and it ain't - then can't be all that important. Besides... somebody else's kids are fighting it, so... who cares?

@dervish

Just like all of our other Presidents, except maybe Kennedy.

I was surprised by the news about the F-15, I figured that they'd give it a rest for a day or two. I suppose that this mission is a big FU to Russia and Syria, as well as Iran, but I wonder what the Russian position is? Did they lock on the F-15? Have the lines of communication re-opened?

We might be at war already.

@HenryAWallace

Beyonce had her twins, and JayZ is so happy.

What is the point in informing a populace if government does not respond to its people? And either the Democrat or the Republican will win all elections?

No good can come to plutocrats from a well-informed populace, or from a well-educated populace. Best to keep the hoi polloi ignorant and distracted, especially when it comes to war. Leave everything to the selected unrepresentatives and those who pay them--and I am not referring to government salaries.

@native

Just like he is now. He's never had a clue what he's babbling about. So he called Obama foolish and warned about "very bad things" in Syria. What "things"? Ha - don't ask Trump, he has no idea (and the vocabulary of a third-grader). What could go wrong?

He went to Mar-a-lago!

... leaving the White House situation room in the care of two junior-level Zionists and a couple of calcified Cold Warriors.

@CB

It's all about regime change in Syria and Iran. Keep in mind these are the last remaining countries on the list of seven countries that have yet to be destroyed and neutered.

I figure the US hawks are willing to keep pushing and pushing until Putin's back is against the wall. Putin has managed to outsmart them time and time again, ever since he managed to pull Russia out of the ashes in 2000. What will Putin's response be to the illegal US intervention/invasion of a sovereign state that Russia is militarily allied to?

US, Russia, and Iran Edging Closer to All-Out War in Syria
US Strikes on Pro-Govt Forces Bring Nations Into Growing Conflict

US, Russian, and Iranian military forces have all been involved in the Syrian War for some time now, and all with differing agendas. As they all increase their involvement, those fights have become less separated, and particularly in the case of the US and Russia, the threat of direct clashes is growing.

After several incidents in which US warplanes attacked Syrian pro-government targets, the US yesterday had its biggest attack, shooting down a Syrian Su-22 bomber inside Syrian airspace. The US insisted the attack was “collective self defense” meant to protect the Syrian Kurds.
...
That war with Iran, something many US hawks have coveted for decades, is predicated at least in part on these clashes in Syria not getting the US into a direct shooting war with Russia, as America’s goal of imposing regime change in Syria has grown to the point that, apart from US support from rebels, they’re also carrying out direct attacks on Syrian military forces. All this is ruining the pretense that US forces in Syria are only there to fight ISIS, and has put them in direct conflict with Russian interests.

@CB
the people who are in our government can be okay with this mindless slaughter of civilians in any country that TPTB wants resources from.
Millions to a billion people have been killed by this country since 1945 and especially after the demise of the USSR.
For no other reason except that the happened to be born in those countries, people's lives are not worth considering.
I have a hard time killing bugs and could never be involved with this mass murder trial our government has been part of.
It isn't just our government making these decisions, other country's leaders are also on board with this.
What's going to happen after they achieve global hegemony? Will these leaders focus their efforts on their citizens?
Sure, I can see that happening all to well.
SMDH

Assad's forces from skirting Raqqa to the south in their push towards Dier az Zor. This where the Syrian plane was shot down by the US.

EDIT: close info screen on top to view underlaying map and you will see what the US is trying to do.

Definitely looks like the US wants to partition Syria as was described in the Rand report several years ago. Unfortunately for war planners in Washington, Syria, with the help of Russia and Iran, has already exceeded the boundaries that were specified.

Take note that most of the rationalization for the balkanization of Syria, sectarian/ethnic strife, current and historical facts show that most of this 'strife' did not exist until it was exacerbated by outside forces. If elections were held in Syria at this time, Assad would get over 80% of the vote, DESPITE the majority being of different religious/ethnic background than he.

Newsbud Exclusive- The Balkanization of Syria & Iraq: The Roadmap to US-Israeli Hegemony in the Middle East

We are often told that the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the war in Syria are disastrous failures of Western foreign policy. This article, however, argues that the architects of these wars were, and are, well aware of the destabilising consequences of their military efforts, and in fact, had always regarded the breakup of Iraq and Syria along sectarian lines as a desirable outcome. The millions of deaths and injuries resulting from these horrific wars, as well as the displacement of several more millions, then, are nothing more than “collateral damage” to achieve US-Israeli hegemony in the region. Viewed from this perspective, post-9/11 Western Middle East policy in retrospect is not a failure, but a success.
...
So, while mainstream pundits opposed to the Trump administration - such as the New York Times (Thomas Friedman; Bilderberg attendee and member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission) and the Guardian (Hamish de Bretton-Gordon)[65] - keep advocating for the breakup of Syria, Trump happily follows their advice. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, even suggested a multinational occupation of Syria in a 2015 interview with Der Spiegel:

“The sad fact is that we have to put troops on the ground. We won’t succeed against this enemy [ISIS] with air strikes alone. [...] We can learn some lessons from the Balkans. Strategically, I envision a break-up of the Middle East crisis area into sectors in the way we did back then, with certain nations taking responsibility for these sectors. [...] The United States could take one sector, Russia as well and the Europeans another one. The Arabs must be involved in that sort of military operation, as well, and must be part of every sector.”[66]

The Trump administration, and the influential generals in it, are thus likely to follow orders from the Pentagon. Therefore, current US policy might be close to a strategy for partitioning Syria as laid out in a three-part series called A peace plan for Syria published by RAND corporation, a think tank closely aligned to the Pentagon. The first paper was initiated after Philip Gordon, senior fellow at the CFR and Bilderberg attendee, resigned as advisor to Obama and wrote an op-ed for Politico arguing for radical decentralisation in September 2015.[67] In the first RAND report, the authors, among them Gordon, claimed that establishing “safe zones” was “far better than the status quo and far more practical than any of the available alternatives;”[68] in the second piece, they presented a number of options, ranging from decentralisation to autonomy;[69] and in the last one, published in February 2017, they advised the new administration to enforce a balkanised Syria by establishing “control zones,” even though by then the Syrian army had retaken Aleppo and had made other military and diplomatic gains that shattered RAND’s previous plans.[70]
...

@Big Al
How long do you all think we can continue disseminating this information, even amongst ourselves?
Expect some kind of censorship or control of c99% and other truth exposing sites, probably thru our service providers or outright martial law.
Critical mass is near. All it will take is a decisive victory by Syrian forces or a shoot down of a American aircraft.
The American people must be kept ignorant at all costs.
The possibility of a distracting false flag attack of major proportions here in America is real. Expect it.
I really, really hope I'm wrong.

so it's not going to tell the American people the truth. The propaganda about the U.S. war in Syria, still outrageously labeled as a "civil war", has been off the charts since the U.S. started it's war against Syria in 2011.
The question is where is our Congress, where are our representatives? Not a peep from them, nothing, and our government is committing grave war crimes as we speak. Nothing about how the U.S. is ILLEGALLY in Syria, how it is actually protecting ISIS and other terrorist/mercenary groups.
It shows, again, how our Congress and Senate are completely controlled by the oligarchy as the media. No wonder Americans don't care, they simply don't have the information and their government and the media lies to them every second of the day.

@MrWebster
to cognitive dissonance. I've seen this time and time again at TOP. Half the population there have zombified brains. Every time a new bus arrives, no matter from what direction, they climb aboard and say that is where they wanted to all along.

"Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia."

If Trump does not get hyper-aggressive with Russia, then he is in Putin's pocket. Maddow is closely watching troop levels on Russia's borders to ensure they don't go down.

If Trump starts a war with Russia in Syria, how will the democrats and media justify the war while claiming Trump is Putin's lackey?

@NCExile
With Trump we get to actually see the shit that is going into it. I consider that an improvement.

I'm thinking the slavering. warmongering neolibs. are hoping that if they keep pushing the Trumpster he'll push Russia in turn too far with these escalating incidents as a means of being "manly" and "proving he's not Putin's stooge." Since apparently he's leaving most of the decisions to the Pentagon, not having the wit or interest to do anything but fully pretend to be Commander in Chief, he'll have to pretend any crazy shit they do on their own was his idea because he'd never want to admit he'd lost control of the military.

That's just one of the reasons why having a barking idiot as President is so dangerous. The only thing more dangerous would have been Madame Clinton because she would have skipped most of the foreplay. The grammatical quality of the lies might have been higher, but that's about it.

Okay, I've reached my tolerance limit for this stuff for today. I wish a lovely evening to everyone. Good luck to us all.

@riverlover

And as long as we let ourselves be made to feel powerless, we will remain tied within our own minds to never notice how steeply we outnumber the usurpers infiltrating our public services in so many democratic countries. Make 'em nervous until they run off to New Zealand to hide within the piles of ill-gotten gains they've already drained, well away and out of public policy. Not that NZ deserves that...

we are tied to the mast. Have ever we made to feel more powerless?