Winter is coming

[nitro]

This is the opposite of what I would do. Talking should never stop. Communication is always the wrong bridge to close.

However, I would either tell the world we are not interested in sticking our nose in Syria for legal and political reasons, or I would go in and if I go in, I don't mince words or action.

It is the indecision on policy that drives me crazy because it offers false hope. Define your goals and interests clearly, and then execute them without fear or doubt. If you make a mistake, join the club. Regret is about action not taken, not action taken. Do or do not. There is no try.

US suspends talks with Russia over Syria

CNN)The State Department announced it is "suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia" that came about as part of the short-lived cessation of hostilities in Syria. "This is not a decision that was taken lightly," the statement said.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said "everybody's patience with Russia has run out," leading to the suspension of US talks with Moscow on Syria.

Earnest said Russia had lost credibility by "making a series of commitments without any indication they were committed to following them."

He said Russia hadn't carried about a successful initiative against ISIS in more than seven months, and claimed they had been "reduced to claiming credit for successful US operations."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/03/politics/us-suspends-talks-with-russia-over-syria/index.html

 

[nitro]

Putin ‘in a Hurry’ in Syria Before U.S. Holds Election

© Muhammed Juneyd/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images The aftermath of Syrian government and Russian airstrikes in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo in July.

WASHINGTON — Russia is using the waning days of the Obama administration to strengthen President Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power, expand the territory he controls in Syria and constrain the options of the next American president in responding to the civil war, according to a number of American officials and Russian analysts.

The strategy of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, they say, is to move aggressively in what he sees as a prime window of opportunity — the four months between now and the 2017 presidential inauguration — when Mr. Putin calculates that the departing President Obama will be unlikely to intervene in the escalating Syrian conflict and a new American president who might consider a tougher policy will not yet be in office.

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“Putin is in a hurry before the American elections,” said Nikolai V. Petrov, a political scientist in Moscow. “The next American president will face a new reality and will be forced to accept it.”

American intelligence analysts have told the White House that the Russian goal is to help the Syrian military retake the besieged city of Aleppo so that Moscow can resume talks on Syria’s future on vastly stronger terms, according to administration officials who asked not to be identified because they were discussing classified assessments.

Lending credence to that assessment, a senior American intelligence official told reporters on Monday that the Russian and Syrian attacks that have been carried out since the Syrian government declared an end to a short-lived cease-fire on Sept. 19 have been some of the deadliest since the conflict began.

Divining Mr. Putin’s intentions has always been more art than science, but there is every indication that he sees Syria as a strategic interest. Russia’s intervention in the war represents the Kremin’s most important military foothold in the Middle East in decades and has enabled Moscow to showcase the military’s ability to project power.

© Vladimir Isachenkov/Associated Press Russian pilots, assisted by ground crews, climbed into a jet last year in Latakia, Syria. The haste with which Russians began punishing airstrikes after setting up operations here caught the Obama administration…

The intervention has also enabled Moscow to stand by an ally, Mr. Assad, and to some extent carry out operations against the Islamic State and Nusra Front, the terrorist groups that are the ostensible targets of Russia’s deployment in Syria...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-‘in-a-hurry’-in-syria-before-us-holds-election/ar-BBx01Db?li=BBnb7Kz

 

[nitro]

I on occasion agree with the Republican party. This is one of them:

 

[Handle123]

They should get that rodent before the Winter starts to see how bad/good winter to be.
Punxsutawney Phil

 

[nitro]

Russia Ponders Soviet Bases in Cuba and Vietnam

Newsweek
Damien Sharkov 2 hrs ago

Russia is considering restoring some of its Soviet-era bases overseas, in South America and Southeast Asia, state news agency Itar-Tass reports.
Deputy Minister of Defense, Nikolay Pankov told Tass that Russia is “working on” plans to reopen military bases in countries such as Cuba and Vietnam.

The ministry has already said that it has set out plan to expand Russian bases in countries from the former Soviet Union, such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia. However, the deputy chair of parliament’s International Affairs Committee, Alexey Chepa, put forward the proposal to extend these plans further.

“It is necessary to consider the matter of our presence in other regions of the world,” Chepa said. “I consider it in keeping with the national interest of Russia that we restore our defunct bases in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa.”

While the Ministry of Defense expressed readiness to review these ideas, it has already vowed to deploy Russian troops on a historic drill in Africa. Russian paratroopers are set to join an exercise alongside the Egyptian armed forces later this month, which would be the first such drill they have held in Africa.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...ses-in-cuba-and-vietnam/ar-BBx8Sfu?li=BBnb4R7

 

[nitro]

Ron Paul on Syria

 

[nitro]

Russia to the US: If you want a confrontation, 'you'll get one everywhere'

Alex Lockie
October 11, 2016

putin
(Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at a meeting at the Kremlin in October 2015.Reuters/Yuri Kochetkov)

A full year after Russia stepped into the Syrian quagmire on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Moscow has come to rival and challenge the US and NATO in virtually every arena possible.

Here's a quick glance at what Russia has accomplished just in the last month or so:

• Likely bombed a UN humanitarian aide convoy trying to provide relief to besieged Aleppo, derailing joint US and Russian peace talks.
• Continued to strike civilian targets in Syria — using chemical weapons, experts have said — exacerbating the refugee crisis in Europe. US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove has even gone as far as to accuse Russia of purposefully attacking civilians, "weaponizing" the flow of refugees into Europe.
• Sent nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, Russia's European enclave.
• Suspended an agreement with the US to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium because of what Russia viewed as "unfriendly" acts by the US.
• Sent additional missile defense batteries to Syria, and even threatened to shoot down US planes flying in Syria without warning.
• Participated in military drills with China in the South China Sea, where China has illegally annexed and militarized artificial islands.
• Likely hacked the Democratic National Committee and other US government agencies and leaked the information to the public in an effort to delegitimize the US's upcoming election and destabilize the country at large.

Without a doubt, relations between Russia and the West have reached their lowest point since the height of the Cold War.

Retired Russian Lt. Gen. Evgeny Buzhinsky told the BBC that for its part, Russia sees the West as the belligerent party, citing sanctions against Russia as well as barring the Russian Paralympic team from the Rio Olympics for well-documented and state-sponsored doping as Western aggression against Russia.

"Of course there is a reaction. As far as Russia sees it, as Putin sees it, it is full-scale confrontation on all fronts. If you want a confrontation, you'll get one," Buzhinsky told the BBC. "But it won't be a confrontation that doesn't harm the interests of the United States. You want a confrontation, you'll get one everywhere."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-us-want-confrontation-youll-162932320.html

 

[dealmaker]

Panama Papers

The Danish tax authority is suing 34 companies from the country that were named in the Panama Papers tax avoidance scandal. It wants the taxes it was owed. Some of the companies can't pay up, so the Tax Agency is suing their management instead. It's considering suing another 50 companies, too. Reuters