some of you may have noticed i hold israel in full and complete contempt for a long list of reasons, many of which i illustrate on this blog with what i post here. this article here pasted in full is a very interesting development should it be true;

Russia Insider — Oct 12, 2018

Editor’s note: This report comes from DEBKA which is a publication from the Israeli militant right-wing. It is also an sometimes accused of being an outlet for the Israeli intelligence. As such some of its reports may not reflect reality, or even what DEBKA editors believe is, or may be, reality–but merely what information the Israeli uber-hawks want out there. Nonetheless, the theory presented is an interesting one, and not entirely implausible. Syria does not have crews trained to man its new Russian-made S-300 air defense systems, but Iran on the other hand has had these missiles for a few years now and has such operators. It is within the realm of possibility that until Syrians can be brought to speed it will be Iranians (rather than Russians) who will be manning Syria’s new S-300s.

DEBKA Exclusive: The US and Israel were alarmed to learn that Moscow had decided to man the S-300 anti-air missiles sent to Syria with Iranian teams, DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report. US and Israeli intelligence agencies which brought the news to Washington and Jerusalem also reported that the Russians had begun flying the Iranian operatives over to Syria.
Moscow announced the supply of S-300 air defense missiles to Syria in the wake of its row with Israel over the Russian Il-20 spy plane crash on Sept. 17. But, on the quiet, Moscow also decided that they would be operated by Iranian teams. And so Syria received the exact same air defense system that Russia sold to Iran two years ago – the S-300PMU-2 – which was installed for protecting its nuclear sites. American and Israeli military experts were caught by surprise by this discovery, but our sources reported the Russians were giving Syria outdated batteries.
One of Moscow’s considerations was that Iranian crews operating the Syrian-based S-300s will be in harm’s instead of Russian teams in the event of US or Israeli aircraft making direct hits on the systems.
For Israel this move has both good and bad aspects: On the one hand it will be a relief for Israeli aircrews to know that when they go for Syria’s S-300 air defense batteries, they need not fear hurting Russian troops; but, on the other, by managing Syria’s air defenses, Iran further strengthens is military foothold in Syria, which the Netanyahu government is dedicated to rooting out. By the same token, Iran takes Moscow’s decision as an endorsement of its claim to a solid military presence in Syria.
Shortly after DEBKAfile published this revelation on Monday, our military and intelligence sources discovered further that Russia has supplied Syria with three S-300 battalion sets, each consisting of eight launchers with a 100 missiles per launcher. They all underwent major overhauls in Russia’s arms factories. Russia has therefore deployed to Syria a total of 300 anti-air missiles – albeit outdated but in tiptop condition.


http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=177642

this is a longer than usual exploration of the latest dustup in the functioning of the empire. the title below opens the door. enter at your own risk and discover things you suspected but didn't really want to know;

The Killing of Saudi Journalist Khashoggi Could Spell the End for Mohammad bin Salman

The death of famous journalist Saudita Jamal Khashoggi is likely to have important repercussions, revealing the hypocrisy of the mainstream media, tensions inside the Saudi regime, and the double standards of Western countries.

On October 2nd, 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly killed inside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Turkey. The sequence of events seems to show that the murder was premeditated. Two days before his death, Khashoggi went to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul to obtain documents pertaining to his divorce in preparation to remarry in the United States. The Saudi embassy instructed him to return on October 2nd to collect the documents, which he duly did. He entered the embassy around 1pm on October 2nd but never exited. Khashoggi’s fiancée, after waiting several hours, raised the alarm as Khashoggi had instructed her to do should he not reemerge after two hours.

It is from here that we should start to reconstruct this story that resembles a science-fiction novel even by Saudi standards, a country that does not hesitate to kidnap heads of state, as was the case with the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, about a year ago.

Jamal Khashoggi is a controversial figure, a representative of the shadowy world of collaboration that sometimes exists between journalism and the intelligence agencies, in this case involving the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the United States. It has been virtually confirmed by official circles within the Al Saud family that Khashoggi was an agent in the employ of Riyadh and the CIA during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/12/killing-saudi-journalist-khashoggi-could-spell-end-for-mohammad-bin-salman.html

you america firsters won't like the information contained in this article but you will have the opportunity to learn some things about another item coming our way. the end of the empire will happen fully in our lifetime it seems and here's some of why that will be;

Trump is trying to square a globalized world through a national-based American capitalism. It won’t work...
Former President Teddy Roosevelt (1901-09) described the essence of US foreign policy as “speaking softly while carrying a big stick”.
Under the incumbent president, Donald Trump, it seems to be all about “speaking loudly”.
What Trump is carrying in reserve is a moot question.
The difference comes down to a question of credibility. A century ago, America was a formidable military, diplomatic and economic power. Hence, Roosevelt could afford to speak softly because there were other indisputable means at his disposal to reinforce US power.
Today, the US is still a formidable military power, that’s for sure. But as for its economy and the role of the American dollar as a global payment mechanism the evidence suggests that it has lost much of its former dominance.
President Trump seems to be trying to compensate for the decline in US power overall by way of adopting more bellicose and foghorn rhetoric for others to comply with American demands.
This week saw a record fall in the American stock market. That suggests that the supposed strength of the US economy is not what it has been cracked up to be under Trump. A major factor in the collapse of the US stock market is reported to be the uncertainty prompted by the growing US trade war with China.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin lamented the US policy of imposing sanctions against other nations and its over-reliance on the dollar as the main global currency exchange tool. Putin said the US was making a “strategic mistake” by using the dollar as a weapon with which to punish other nations to comply with Washington’s diktats.
“This is a typical mistake of any empire,” he said at the Russian Energy Week Conference, in Moscow.
Implicit in Putin’s comments was that the US is acting like a failing empire. Unsure of its former dominance, the US is resorting to brute force to shore up its otherwise declining power. But in doing so, America is acting above its credibility and thereby compelling others to seek ways around Washington’s overextended writ.
When the dollar replaced gold as the global financial standard in the early 1970s, the American currency assumed a privileged position in international trade. But with such a privilege comes the responsibility to be a universally respected banker, which entails a certain apolitical character of the dollar.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-12/self-defeating-us-empire

in case you might be someone who likes facebook, here is some evidence to help you clear your mind from that trap. it not only ain't your friend, its your enemy or at least your opposition when it comes to freedom of expression;

After Facebook announced on Thursday that it shut down and removed hundreds of pages and accounts that it vaguely accused of spreading "spam" and engaging in "inauthentic behavior," some of the individuals and organizations caught up in the social media behemoth's dragnet disputed accusations that they were violating the platform's rules and raised alarm that Facebook is using its enormous power to silence independent political perspectives that run counter to the corporate media's dominant narratives.
While it is reasonable to assume that some of the more than 800 total pages and accounts shut down by Facebook were engaged in overtly fraudulent behavior—such as the use of fake accounts and bots to generate ad revenue—numerous independent media outlets that cover a wide array of issues say they were swept up in the massive purge despite never using such tactics.

"Those who demanded Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants censor political content are finding that content that they themselves support and like end up being repressed. That's what has happened to every censorship advocate in history."
—Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

"Facebook has removed the pages of several police accountability/watchdog/critic groups, including Cop Block, the Free Thought Project, and Police the Police," Washington Post journalist Radley Balko noted in a tweet following Facebook's announcement. "They've also apparently severely restricted activity for the Photography Is Not a Crime page."
Activist, comedian, and political commentator Lee Camp argued that Facebook's purge is clear evidence that the "purging of anti-establishment thought is upon us" and described the account shutdowns as "full-frontal suppression of dissent."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/12/facebook-accused-full-frontal-suppression-dissent-after-independent-media-swept-mass

every day i read reports like this one, or a variation, where israel creates its own problems and then complains about it leading to more of these things. israel needs to be removed and its original inhabitants returned to their original home;

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Galen

Press TV
Dozens of Palestinian students have been injured after armed Israeli settlers and soldiers raided a high school in the occupied West Bank, a report says.
The Palestinian Ma’an news agency, citing Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activities in the region, reported that around 18 heavily armed Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement broke into the high school in Urif village, located in southern Nablus, on Wednesday.  
Upon storming the school, the invading settlers began hurling rocks at horrified students inside their classrooms, inflicting injuries to dozens of students, he further said, adding that the invasion also led to disruption of classes and material damages.
Minutes after the incident, Israeli forces also entered the high school and provided protection for the settlers while escorting them out of the area. The troopers also fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas canisters at students, causing a number of them to suffer from tear-gas inhalation.
Daghlas also confirmed that authorities dismissed the classes and hundreds of students evacuated the school’s premises.
In its annual report for 2017, the Palestinian Ministry of Education revealed that 80,279 Palestinian children and 4,929 teachers and staff were “attacked” by either Israeli settlers or soldiers.
About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories has been a major sticking points in Israeli-Palestinian talks, which have stalled since 2014.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/10/11/576684/Palestine-West-Bank-Israel-school-Urif-students-settlers

http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/israeli-settlers-soldiers-injure-dozens-of-palestinian-students-in-northern-west-bank/234636

this is a longer than usual article that's made for you q followers in which the writer goes in search of the sealed indictments and where' they'll lead, and perhaps when;


There is a growing consensus in the narrative within the alternative news community (commentators, their insiders, and members in general) that has become too big, too coherent to ignore. Even among the more skeptical of the commentators who have long bemoaned that real tangible action of disclosure and legal proceedings seems to be taking forever, there is now a real optimism, even a certainty among several, that this time things will be different.
The broad strokes of the narrative go as follows: Donald Trump was originally asked by a military and political Alliance of patriots to run for office, and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 represented the triumph of this Alliance over the Deep State and their chosen candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump ran on an anti-establishment platform that resonated with awakening voters as Trump promised to ‘drain the swamp’–essentially indicating that crimes that were being committed against the American people would be brought to light and the Deep State insiders perpetrating them would be brought to justice.
Since Donald Trump took office, the Alliance has been working meticulously to convene secret Grand Juries to indict Deep State criminals, keeping the indictments sealed until everything lines up to enable them to make mass arrests and begin military tribunals. The confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh seems to pave the way for legal support from the Supreme Court, as needed, to authorize actions that will get the ball rolling such as the release of unredacted FISA Documents which will lay bare the complicity of key players gumming up the works such as US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which will lead to their removal from power and finally end Deep State obfuscation.



https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/10/no_author/many-insiders-believe-military-tribunals-for-deep-state-will-happen-any-time-now/

kunstler describes the foolishness he sees around him on a regular basis. here he ventures into more fun and games while showing you what's coming down the pike in our direction with a side trip into kanye and hurricane trump;


Looks like somebody threw a dead cat onto Wall Street’s luge run overnight to temporarily halt the rather ugly 2000 point slide in the Dow Jones Industrial Average — and plenty of freefall in other indices, including markets in other countries. A Friday pause in the financial carnage will give the hedge funders a chance to plant “for sale” signs on their Hamptons driveways, but who might the buyers be? Hedge funders from another planet perhaps? You can hope. And while you’re at it, how to you spell liquidity problem?
Welcome to the convergence zone of the long emergency, where Murphy’s law meets the law of unintended consequences and the law of diminishing returns, the Three Amigos of collapse. Here’s where being “woke” finally starts to mean something. Namely, that there are more important things in the world than sexual hysteria. Like, for instance, your falling standard of living (and that of everyone else around you).
The meet-up between Kanye West and President D.J. Trump was an even richer metaphor for the situation: two self-styled “geniuses” preening for the cameras in the Oval Office, like kids in a sandbox, without a single intelligible idea emerging from the play-date, and embarrassed grownups all standing ‘round pretending it was a Great Moment in History. You had to wonder how much of Kanye’s bazillion dollar fortune was stashed in the burning house of FAANG stocks. Maybe that flipped his bipolar toggle. Or was he even paying attention to the market action through all the mugging and hugging? (He did have his phone in hand.) Meanwhile, Mr. Trump seemed to be squirming through the episode behind his mighty Resolute desk as if he had “woke” to the realization that ownership of a bursting epic global financial bubble was not exactly “winning.”



http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/hammer-time/