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Monday, October 5, 2015

US Senator Wants to Arm Syrian Rebels to Shoot Down Russian Planes....Then who is the enemy?


Senator John McCain reacted to Russia’s announcement that it had begun launching air strikes targeting ISIS militants in Syria by calling on the White House to arm Syrian rebels with weapons to shoot down Russian planes.
McCain initially responded to Fox News host Neil Cavuto’s question about whether he would shoot down Russian planes by saying no, but then went on to assert that he would arm Syrian rebels to carry out that very same task.
“I might do what we did in Afghanistan many years ago, to give those guys the ability to shoot down those planes, that equipment is available,” said McCain, adding that the Free Syrian Army would shoot down the planes, “just like the Afghans shot down Russian planes after Russia invaded Afghanistan.”
McCain is referring to how the United States armed Islamic militants in the 1970s, a policy that led to the rise of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama Bin Laden.
Senator McCain is opposed to Russia’s bombing of ISIS terrorists because he believes that Moscow is using this explanation as a cover to attack US-backed Syrian rebel forces who are trying to topple Bashar Al-Assad.
Although the rebels have fought against ISIS, there are numerous accounts of the FSA and other jihadist groups handing over their weapons to Al-Qaeda affiliates and in some cases defecting outright to join ISIS. The FSA has also been accused of a number of war crimes, some of which are on a par with ISIS.
McCain also made reference to claims that the Russian air strikes had claimed civilian lives, although Moscow vehemently denies this, with spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov asserting, “Russian jets did not use weapons on civilian infrastructure or in its vicinity.”
Russian Maria Zakharova, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also claimed that western media outlets were circulating fake pictures of dead civilians in order to impugn Moscow.
Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer tactical bombers reportedly struck eight ISIS targets, including key coordination centers situated in a mountainous region that were completely destroyed.
Credit to  EUtimes

RIGHT NOW THERE ARE 102.6 MILLION WORKING AGE AMERICANS THAT DO NOT HAVE A JOB



The federal government uses very carefully manipulated numbers to cover up the crushing economic depression that is going on in this nation.

For the month of September, the federal government told us that 142,000 jobs were added to the economy. If that was actually true, that would barely be enough to keep up with population growth. Sadly, the truth is that the real numbers were actually far worse than that. The unadjusted numbers show that the U.S. economy actually lost 248,000 jobs in September and the government added more than a millionAmericans to the “not in the labor force” category. When I first saw that number I truly believed that it was inaccurate. But you can find the raw figures right here. According to the Obama administration, there are currently 7.9 million Americans that are “officially unemployed” and another 94.7 million working age Americans that are “not in the labor force”. That gives us a grand total of 102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

That is not an economic recovery – that is an economic depression of an almost unbelievable magnitude.

This is something that my friend Mac Slavo pointed out the other day. I encourage you to read his analysis right here. If we measured unemployment the way that we did decades ago, we would all be talking about how similar Obama’s economy is to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But instead we let the feds get away with feeding us this completely fraudulent “5.1 percent” unemployment number and most of us believe the mainstream media when they tell us that everything is just fine.

Well no, everything is not just fine. At this point, the labor force participation rate is the lowest that it has been since 1977. And the labor force participation rate for men is at the lowest level ever recorded. The only way that the federal government has been able to get the official unemployment rate to go down so much is by pretending that hundreds of thousands of Americans that have been unemployed for a very long time “leave the labor force” each month.

The chart posted below shows how our labor force participation rate has deteriorated since the year 2000. And in particular, the decline since Obama first entered the White House has been very striking. Does this look like a “healthy economy” to you?…



To me, the civilian employment-population ratio is a far more accurate measurement of the employment picture in America than the official unemployment rate is. Just prior to the last recession, approximately 63 percent of all working age Americans had a job. During that recession, that figure slipped below 59 percent and it stayed there for several years. Just recently it slipped back above 59 percent, but as you can see we are now falling once again…



The reason this number is falling is because lots of Americans have been losing jobs lately.

In fact, we are seeing layoffs at major firms at a level that we have not witnessed since 2009


The jobs report today has been described as “ugly,” though it certainly didn’t, or shouldn’t have, come out of the blue: Layoffs in the energy, Big Tech, retail, and other sectors have recently mucked up our rosy scenario.

“The third quarter ended with a surge in job cuts,” is howChallenger Gray, which tracks these things, started out its report yesterday. In September, large US-based companies had announced 58,877 layoffs. In the third quarter, they announced 205,759 layoffs, the worst quarter since the 240,233 in the third quarter of 2009!

Year-to-date, we’re at nearly half a million job cut announcements (493,431 to be precise), up 36% from the same period last year.

Some of the companies that have recently announced layoffs include Wal-Mart, RadioShack, Delta, Sprint, ConAgra, Caterpillar, Bank of America, Halliburton, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

If you need to find a job or you plan to switch jobs in the near future, time is of the essence. Jobs are going to become much, much harder to find in the months ahead, and so every single day of job searching is absolutely critical at this point.

Right now, there are more than 100 million Americans that get some sort of assistance from the federal government every month. Government dependence is at a level that we have never seen before in U.S. history, and it is going to get a lot worse.

If we get to a point where the government is either unwilling or unable to take care of all of these people, we are going to have a massive societal problem on our hands. More than a third of the people living in our nation cannot independently take care of themselves, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class every single day. When the welfare state starts breaking down, the chaos that will ensue will be far worse than most people would dare to imagine.

So what do you think?

Are job losses and layoffs starting to happen in your area?

Credit to Infowars

First-hand look at Russian 'smart bombs' used in Syria against ISIS

Preview Of World War III? Russia Is Putting On A Display Of Firepower That Is Shocking The World


Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-34 - Photo from Mil.ruThe Russians have unleashed their own version of “shock and awe” in Syria, and the brutal efficiency of their airstrikes against ISIS targets has stunned many observers around the globe.  For more than a year, the Obama administration has claimed that its bombing campaign in Syria has been a “success”, and yet ISIS has continued to grow stronger and gain more territory.  But now just over a few days the tide of the conflict appears to have turned.  The whole world has gotten a chance to see what a global superpower can truly do to a bunch of radical Islamic terrorists when it is focused and determined.  The images that we have seen of hardened ISIS command centers being wiped off the face of the map by Russian bombs are truly impressive.  But why did those targets still exist in the first place?  Was the U.S. military unable to identify them previously?  Or could it be possible that the Obama administration did not want to hit them?
What we do know is that a state of panic has been created among ISIS militants that we have not seen previously.  There are reports of hundreds of terrorists abandoning their positions and trying to flee the country
Russian air strikes Saturday targeting the Islamic State group in Syria have sown “panic”, forcing some 600 “militants” to abandon their positions and head to Europe, Moscow claimed.
Summing up the results of Russia’s first three days of strikes, a senior official with the General Staff said Russian jets had made more than 60 sorties over 50 IS targets and added that Russia would ramp up its aerial campaign.
“Our intelligence shows that militants are leaving areas under their control. Panic and desertion have started in their ranks,” Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, a senior Russian General Staff official, said in a statement.
“Some 600 mercenaries have abandoned their positions and are trying to find their way into Europe,” Kartapolov said.
Of course the mainstream media in the United States is downplaying the effectiveness of these attacks.  The Obama administration is very much against these Russian airstrikes, and it is quite an embarrassment to the U.S. that the Russians are doing what we were either unwilling or unable to do.
You can witness video footage from some of these bombings right here and right here.  In recent years the Russian military has been rapidly modernized, and now they are displaying their might for all the world to see.  The following is how one particular attack was described in the Daily Mail
‘The sound of the rocket was extremely frightening. Then a huge explosion happened in front of my eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it before in Talbiseh. The scale was far worse than anything the Syrians have done. The destruction was huge and horrible. Buildings were destroyed completely. And streets just disappeared under clouds of dust and rubble as the walls fell.’
These Russian airstrikes are intended to pave the way for ground assaults by Syrian and Iranian troops.  If ISIS begins to lose a lot of territory inside Syria in the coming weeks, a lot of people are going to have some very serious questions regarding why previous U.S. attempts were seemingly so unsuccessful.  The following comes from Zero Hedge
Now obviously one must consider the source here, but Kremlin spin tactics aside, one cannot help but be amazed with the pace at which this is apparently unfolding. If any of the above is even close to accurate, it means that Russia is on schedule to declare victory over ISIS (and everyone else it looks like) in a matter of weeks, which would not only be extremely embarrassing for Washington, but would also effectively prove that the US has never truly embarked on an honest effort to rid Syria of the extremist groups the Western media claims are the scourge of humanity.
Inside Russia, these airstrikes are proving to be extremely popular.
Unlike the war-weary U.S. public, Russian citizens are relishing the opportunity to be proud of their military, and Russian media outlets are loudly trumpeting the efficiency of these airstrikes
Channel One’s evening news program on Saturday opened with dramatic cockpit videos of Russian jets making what were described as direct hits on terrorist training camps and weapons stores. The bombs were never off by more than five meters, a military spokesman said, because of the jets’ advanced targeting capabilities.
One popular Russian commentator even suggested that what is going on in Syria shows that in contrast to Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin is “a real man”
Political commentator Yulia Latynina said Russia wants to see the destruction of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “Only this will allow Putin to achieve the desired result, to show Obama how he, Putin, a real man, succeeded where Obama was disgraced,” she said in her program Saturday night on Ekho Moskvy radio.
I had to smile when I first read that.  Without a doubt, this entire episode is making the Obama administration look rather pathetic.
For weeks, Obama seemed to have little idea what the Russians intended to do in Syria.  And now that the Russians are bombing the living daylights out of ISIS, the best that Obama can do is whine loudly about it.
The Russians appear to be succeeding where Obama failed, and this has put the U.S. government in a very precarious position in the Middle East.  After seeing the Russians have such success inside Syria, the president of Iraq is now considering asking the Russians to conduct a similar campaign inside his own nation
One day after launching a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, Russia announced that it was considering going into Iraq.
A foreign ministry representative said Thursday that Russia would consider any request from Iraq to conduct anti-ISIS airstrikes in the country, and Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi told Western news outlets that Russian airstrikes were “a possibility” and that Iraq would “welcome it.”
Of course the truth is that the U.S. could have dealt a decisive blow to ISIS long ago if it truly wanted to.
The Obama administration was hoping that some combination of ISIS and other Islamic terror groups would ultimately topple Assad and bring about regime change in Syria.
Now that appears very unlikely to ever happen, and the Russians have greatly strengthened their hand in the Middle East.
So what will Obama’s next move be?
Nobody knows for sure, but it will almost certainly be the wrong one.

Credit to End pf the American Dream

The American 'Recovery' In 1 Chart

If this is the 'recovery' just what will the next recession look like?

Credit to Zero Hedge

The United Nations’ Green Economy Isn’t Sustainable Or Green!

Global Digital Technology Concept
The United Nations intends to replace Capitalism and Free Enterprise with its Green Economy, or Sustainable Development. However, its concepts of development and economy are deeply flawed and reminiscent of fringe ideas from the Great Depression era. (For a full discussion of Technocracy in the 1930s, see Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation.)
Sustainable Development, as most recently promoted by the UN’s 2030 Agenda Conference in New York at the end of September 2015, blatantly promises to end poverty everywhere, provide work with dignity and life-long education for all.
Leaders from virtually every nation on Earth jumped on the bandwagon and made politically binding commitments to rapidly implement Sustainable Development in their home countries. Of course, the United Nations will be there to help them every step of the way.
The catch is: Who will specify and enforce the envisioned “sustainable production and consumption” practices that are only mentioned in passing as a requirement for Sustainable Development and Green Economy?
In fact, we should demand answers from these would-be social engineers and technocrats as to exactly who will be making all of these decisions for us, and on what criteria.
And in any case, why are these technocrats masquerading as economists?
The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UNDESA) published in 2002 A Guidebook to the Green EconomyExploring Green Economy Principles. On page 5, the following “principles of a green economy” are listed:
  1. “It delivers sustainable development
  2. “It delivers equity – The Justice Principle
  3. “It creates genuine prosperity and wellbeing for all – The Dignity Principle
  4. “It improves the natural world – The Earth Integrity, Planetary Boundaries and Precautionary Principle
  5. “It is inclusive and participatory in decision making – The Inclusion Principle
  6. “It is accountable – The Governance Principle
  7. “It builds economic, social and environmental resilience – The Resilience Principle
  8. “It delivers sustainable consumption and production – The Efficiency Principle
  9. “It invests for the future – The Intergenerational Principle.”
Although the Guidebook contains several similar lists that attempt to define Green Economy, this one will suffice for this discussion.
In particular, what are these “Principles” that are only mentioned but not defined? The Guidebookprovides further explanation. For instance, the Earth Integrity Principle (item 4 above) reveals,
“The Earth, her natural communities and ecosystems, possess the inalienable right to exist, flourish and evolve, and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all beings. Every human has the duty to protect her.”
It is plain that this is not an economic proposition at all, but rather a religious one: Earth is a female entity that has “inalienable rights to exist” and demands to be served and protected. Really?
The Dignity Principle (item 3 above) states that it “upholds that every human being, now and in the future, has the right to livelihood. Poverty eradication and redistribution of wealth should be the main priority of governance and measured in those terms.”
It was no slip-of-the-pen that equates poverty eradication with redistribution of wealth. Forced redistribution of wealth resulted in the death of countless millions of people in the last 100 years who were forced to live in failed societies that imposed socialism, communism and Marxism.
There is no dignity in wealth redistribution.
Furthermore, this is not a matter of economic theory that might define an alternative theory to Capitalism and Free Enterprise. It simply states that one group will be chiseled out of their economic prosperity with the spoils going to another group that neither deserve nor has earned it. In America, this is called “stealing.”
On the UN Environmental Programme web site, it states,
“A green economy implies the decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth… These investments, both public and private, provide the mechanism for the reconfiguration of businesses, infrastructure and institutions, and for the adoption of sustainable consumption and production processes.”
No economist I have ever known or studied would ever suggest that it is possible to decouple resource use from economic growth. Resources and all economic activities are inseparable. However, UNEP has no problem with this because it seeks to “reconfigure” infrastructure and institutions (i.e., government, regulations, etc.) for “the adoption of sustainable consumption and production processes.”
Oops. There they go again. Who will determine production and consumption?
In this writer’s strong opinion, proponents of Sustainable Development and Green Economy need to answer some pointed questions. And, they need to stop pretending to be economists, because they are not!
Indeed, they are Utopian ideologues who think they know better than you on just about everything.
###
Patrick Wood is an author and lecturer on elite globalization policies since the late 1970s. He is co-author with the late Antony C. Sutton of Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. His latest book,Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation, focuses on the role of science and technology in the quest for global domination, and the elite who are perpetrating it.
Follow Patrick Wood at www.Technocracy.News
Credit to Common Sense 

1 Year Delay in Economic Reset

Rains not seen for 200 YEARS: Two dead, 22 million on flood watch and New Jersey homes already consumed by high tides in weekend storms



A record-setting 'once-in-200-years rainfall event' left 22 million Americans on the East Coast on flood watch as rains have closed down roads, waterlogged crops and showed little sign of stopping.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue of Weather Bell Analytics told NBC New York: 'It's going to be a slow-motion disaster'.

North and South Carolina have been hit the worst, with up to 12 inches of rain falling in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday night alone, and two deaths have been reported so far in the states.

President Barack Obama issued a state of emergency in South Carolina on Saturday and state emergency officials said flash flood warnings were issued for numerous counties and that some homes had already been evacuated, including in the coastal county that includes Myrtle Beach.

More than 15 inches of rain have fallen over the popular beach area since Friday, with more expected, the National Weather Service in Wilmington, North Carolina, reported.

South Carolina could get more rain in three days than it normally gets during the entire fall.



A few hours before high tide, wind-driven waves crash into a fishing pier in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Friday


Tony and Sandy Mathena, from Raleigh, North Carolina, make a quick retreat up the steps to The Isles Restaurant & Beach Club as high tide come in at the west end of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina


A man walks his bicycle through high water at the City Market in downtown Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday


A vehicle navigates the flood water after high tides and heavy rains left parts of downtown Charleston, South Carolina


Dillon Christ (front) and Kyle Barnell paddled their canoe down a flooded street in Charleston, South Carolina


A man walked his dog through flood waters during high tide on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina on Saturday


Credit to Mail on line
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3258624/East-coast-storms-leave-22million-Americans-flood-watch-rain-Carolinas-kills-two.html#ixzz3ndXyupt6

A joint war room between Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Image result for Iran unveiled a new high-tech torpedo

A senior Iranian military leader warned this weekend that “all U.S. military bases in the Middle East are within the range of” Iran’s missiles and emphasized that the Islamic Republic will continue to break international bans on the construction of ballistic missiles.

Much of this missile work, like the details of Iran’s advanced arsenal, remains secret, according to Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force.

Hajizadeh dismissed the threat of military action by the United States, warning that all U.S. assets and allies are in range of Iran’s current missile arsenal, according to comments made Sunday in Tehran and recorded by Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.

The threats of attack on the United States were issued as Iran unveiled new high-tech torpedoes and the formation of a joint war room along with Russia, Syria, and Iraq.

“Some of the threats by the U.S. are aimed at appeasing the Zionists, while others are for the purpose of domestic consumption (in the U.S.), but what is important is that they are aware of and acknowledge our capabilities and deterrence power,” Hajizadeh was quoted as saying.

“We do not feel any need to increase the range of our missiles and (our perceived enemy) targets are fully within the range of our missiles,” he added.

Iran will not slow down the research and construction of advanced missiles, the IRGC leader said, despite international bans on such action.

The Pentagon confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon last month that Iranian warships confront the U.S. Navy on a “daily basis.”

Iran’s renewed war rhetoric and anti-U.S. posturing comes amid reports that Iran and Russia have taken the lead in Syria, where both countries are working to bolster the embattled President Bashar al-Assad.
Image result for war room

A senior Iranian official disclosed over the weekend that Iran, Russia, Syrian, and Iraq are working on forming a joint war room to coordinate operations in the region.

The so-called “information exchange center” would be the first step in formalizing a joint operations center to coordinate military efforts in Syria and elsewhere, according to political adviser to Iraq Mohsen Hakim, head of the country’s Islamic Supreme Council.

Meanwhile, Iran unveiled a new high-tech torpedo that it claims can hit targets both in and out of the water. The technology for the missile has been borrowed from the Russians, according to Iranian officials who spoke to Fars.

Credit to Freebeacon.com

Russia Claims ISIS Now On The Ropes As Fighters Desert After 60 Airstrikes In 72 Hours

One question that’s been asked repeatedly over the past thirteen months is why Washington has been unable to achieve the Pentagon’s stated goal of “degrading and defeating” ISIS despite the fact that the “battle” pits the most advanced air force on the planet against what amounts to a ragtag band of militants running around the desert in basketball shoes. 
Those of a skeptical persuasion have been inclined to suggest that perhaps the US isn’t fully committed to the fight. Explanations for that suggestion range from the mainstream (the White House is loathe to get the US into another Mid-East war) to the “conspiratorial” (the CIA created ISIS and thus doesn’t want to destroy the group due to its value as a strategic asset). 
The implication in all of this is that a modern army that was truly determined to destroy the group could likely do so in a matter of months if not weeks and so once Russia began flying sorties from Latakia, the world was anxious to see just how long the various rebel groups operating in Syria could hold up under bombardment by the Russian air force. 
The answer, apparently, is “less than a week.” 
On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it has conducted 60 bombing runs in 72 hours, hitting more than 50 ISIS targets.
According to the ministry (Facebook page is here), Islamic State fighters are in a state of “panic” and more than 600 have deserted. 
Here's what happens when the Russians locate a terrorist "command center": 
According to The Kremlin, the structure shown in the video is (or, more appropriately, "was") "an ISIS hardened command centre near Raqqah." Su-34s hit it with concrete-piercing BETAB-500s setting off a series of explosions and fires that "completely destroyed the object."  
Here's RT:
Surgical airstrikes by Russian fighter jets have knocked out a number of Islamic State installations in Syria, including the battle headquarters of a jihadist group near Raqqa, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Over the past 24 hours, Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M fighter jets have performed 20 sorties and hit nine Islamic State installations,” Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, reported.

Konashenkov added that yesterday evening Russian aircraft went on six sorties, inflicting strikes on three terrorist installations.

“A bunker-busting BETAB-500 air bomb dropped from a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber near Raqqa has eliminated the command post of one of the terror groups, together with an underground storage facility for explosives and munitions,” the spokesman said.

Commenting on the video filmed by a Russian UAV monitoring the assault near Raqqa, Konashenkov noted, “a powerful explosion inside the bunker indicates it was also used for storing a large quantity of munitions.

“As you can see, a direct hit on the installation resulted in the detonation of explosives and multiple fires. It was completely demolished,” the spokesman said.
And here's the Russian Defense Ministry taking a page out of the US Postal Service's "neither rain, sleet, snow, nor hail" book on the way to serving notice that nothing is going to stop the Russian air force from exterminating Assad's enemies in Syria:
Twenty-four hours a day #UAV's are monitoring the situation in the ISIS activity areas. All the detected targets are effectively engaged day and night in any weather conditions.
Now obviously one must consider the source here, but Kremlin spin tactics aside, one cannot help but be amazed with the pace at which this is apparently unfolding. If any of the above is even close to accurate, it means that Russia is on schedule to declare victory over ISIS (and everyone else it looks like) in a matter of weeks, which would not only be extremely embarrassing for Washington, but would also effectively prove that the US has never truly embarked on an honest effort to rid Syria of the extremist groups the Western media claims are the scourge of humanity.
Summed up in 10 priceless seconds...




Credit to Zero Hedge

France floods: 16 dead after storms and Guatemala landslide with hundreds missing


Flooding in Cannes Image result for France floods: 16 dead on Riviera after storms

Violent storms and flooding have hit south-eastern France, killing at least 16 people with three more missing, officials say.

Three elderly people drowned when their retirement home near the city of Antibes was inundated with floodwater.

Others died trapped in their cars in tunnels and underground car parks as the waters rose.

French President Francois Hollande announced a state of "natural disaster" in the affected region.

He thanked rescuers and expressed the "solidarity of the nation".

Mr Hollande offered condolences as he visited the retirement home in the town of Biot and urged residents in the region to remain cautious, saying: "It's not over."
'Terrifying'

Heavy rain hit the French Riviera, which lies on the Mediterranean coast and borders Italy, on Saturday evening.

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.Media captionLondoner Warren Greene - camping at Antibes - said the flood level rose to waist-height "within minutes"

The city of Nice is estimated to have received 10% of its average yearly rainfall in two days alone.

The river Brague burst its banks, sending water coursing into nearby towns and cities. Social media pictures showed water gushing down the streets of Cannes.

Cannes resident Katya Higham-Stoianova told the BBC: "It was terrifying. We wanted to go out but decided not to as the rain was unbelievably heavy. The level of water was rising very quickly."

Cannes mayor Davis Lisnard said: "Some cars were carried off into the sea. We have rescued a lot of people, and we must now be vigilant against looting."Image copyrightAFPImage captionA football match between Nice and Nantes had to be abandoned owing to torrential rain

Guatemala

The Guatemalan authorities say the number of people killed when a hillside collapsed on houses in the village of El Cambray, 15km (nine miles) outside the capital, has risen to 73.

They said another 350 people were still believed to be missing under tonnes of rock and earth that slipped onto homes on Thursday night.

Rescue teams were using dogs to try to reach people trapped under the rubble.

A morgue has been set up with some burials already taking place.

A government spokesperson, Julia Barrera, said they had managed to rescue 26 people so far. 

Image copyrightReutersImage captionEarthmovers were brought in to help thousands of rescue workers armed with shovels and pickaxesImage copyrightAPImage captionLocal volunteers joined rescue workers to search for survivorsImage copyrightAFPImage captionMore than 70 bodies have been found - with another 350 people believed to be missing.

More than a thousand rescue workers are working at the disaster site deploying earth movers and sniffer dogs.

Credit to BBC

Saudis Mull Launch Of Regional War


Image result for Saudis Mull Launch Of Regional War
While the US has certainly made some epic strategic blunders in Syria that raise serious questions about just how “intelligent” US intelligence actually is, there’s little doubt that if one were to look behind all of the media parroting, the Pentagon and Langley understand all too well what’s going on in the Middle East. 
That is, the significance of the Russia-Iran “nexus” in Syria isn’t lost on anyone in the US military and you can bet there have been quite a few high level discussions over the past 72 hours about the best way to counter Moscow and Tehran’s powerplay before it spills over into Iraq and ends up degrading Washington’s influence in Baghdad. 
As we put it on Friday, “if Russia ends up bolstering Iran's position in Syria (by expanding Hezbollah's influence and capabilities) and if the Russian air force effectively takes control of Iraq thus allowing Iran to exert a greater influence over the government in Baghdad, the fragile balance of power that has existed in the region will be turned on its head and in the event this plays out, one should not expect Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem, and London to simply go gentle into that good night.”
Sure enough, some experts now predict Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey will move to counter Russia militarily if Moscow continues to rack up gains for Assad. Here’s The Guardian with more:
Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran.

In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those countries have made it clear that they remain at least as committed to removing Assad as Moscow is to preserving him.

“There is no future for Assad in Syria,” Saudi foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir warned, a few hours before the first Russian bombing sorties began. If that was not blunt enough, he spelled out that if the president did not step down as part of a political transition, his country would embrace a military option, “which also would end with the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power”. With at least 39 civilians reported dead in the first bombing raids, the prospect of an escalation between backers of Assad and his opponents is likely to spell more misery for ordinary Syrians.

“The Russian intervention is a massive setback for those states backing the opposition, particularly within the region – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – and is likely to elicit a strong response in terms of a counter-escalation,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

As the Syrian civil war has unfolded, Saudi Arabia has been clear about its position, say analysts. “Since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, the view in Riyadh has been that Bashar al-Assad must go. There is no indication what-soever that Riyadh will change this position,” said Mohammed Alyahya, associate fellow at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.

“What is clear to Riyadh and its regional allies is that the recent Russian and Iranian escalation will only create a more unstable region and spill more blood,” he said.

Riyadh has focused support on rebels in the south, say analysts, while allies Turkey and Qatar have reportedly backed northern rebels, including conservative Islamist militias such as Ahrar al Sham.

That group, in alliance with the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al Nusra, recently reached a local ceasefire deal with Assad in the north. Its success in taking on government forces is thought to have been one trigger for the Russian bombing campaign and put them among the jets’ first targets.

“Most probably, the coming efforts will focus on boosting the effectiveness of major coalitions, co-ordination and co-operation between the most influential and effective groups in Syria,” said regional analyst Ali Bakeer.
Of course that isn’t going to work. 
Say what you will about how successful guerilla/urban warfare can be when it comes to bogging down a conventional army (examples of this include Vietnam, the Soviet-Afghan war, and Somalia during the Black Hawk down debacle), but the disorganization of the Syrian resistance combined with the fact that Iran has its own well-armed militias on the ground that, in combination with Hezbollah, are providing the ground support for Russian airstrikes, means the situation is all but hopeless for the various Riyadh- and Doha-backed groups operating in Syria. 
The only way to turn the tide here would be to intervene directly. 
But just as Iran is unwilling to risk direct intervention on behalf of the Houthis in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Qatar will likely be unwilling to risk direct intervention on behalf of their proxy armies in Syria. The problem for Riyadh and Doha: Syria is a lot more strategically important than Yemen. Here’s The Guardian again:
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already embroiled in an expensive and bloody war in Yemen that may limit both their military and financial resources. They have also so far deferred to western bans on transferring hi-tech weapons – including missiles that could take down aircraft – over fears that they might change hands in the chaos of the war and be used against their makers.

“The uncertain question today is the degree of power combined with efficiency that regional powers will be willing to bring to the table,” said Barnes-Dacey. “Do the Saudis now try to take matters decisively into their hands, including by providing rebels with sophisticated weaponry long denied them?

“The new [Saudi] king [Salman] has shown a willingness to be much more assertive and take measures into the kingdom’s own hands. If the Saudis see the situation slipping out of their hands, and there is a real sense that the Iranians are consolidating their position in Syria, you could see much stronger response.”
And speaking of a “strong response,” Russia continued to hit anti-regime targets for a fourth consecutive day on Sunday, making good on the Defense Ministry’s promise to step up strikes. Here’s Reuters:
Air strikes by suspected Russian jets hit targets around the town of Talbiseh in western Syria on Sunday, residents and a group which monitors the civil war in Syria said, a day after Russia promised to step up its air campaign.

Ambulances rushed wounded people to hospital in Talbiseh, north of the city of Homs, and one resident said at least five bodies had been recovered from the western part of the town.

"So far there are seven or six raids in the town," said Abdul Ghafar al Dweik, a former government employee and volunteer rescue worker.

He said he believed the raid was carried out by Russian jets. "They come suddenly... With the Syrian planes, we would get a warning but now all of a sudden we see it over our heads," he said.
We have said time and again that there’s no question Russian airstrikes will contribute to human suffering in Syria. After all, when you drop bombs on populated areas you’re bound to kill civilians (including women and children) no matter what Moscow says. However, the highlighted passages above shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you want your airstrikes to be effective, you’re not going to warn anyone about them beforehand unless of course you're dropping a nuke in which case you can tell civilians to leave ahead of time because you're reasonably sure the destruction will be so vast as to make the element of surprise a non-factor.
As for the effectiveness of the strikes, The Kremlin is out again claiming that ISIS is on its heels. Via Bloomberg and the Russian Defense Ministry (translated):
  • Russian warplanes have made 20 sorties, attacked 10 ISIS targets in Syria in past 24h, Russian Defense Ministry says on website.
  • Air force has attacked militant training camps in Raqqa, Idlib provinces; destroyed explosives workshop
  • Warplanes destroyed at least 4 ammunition depots, several command posts
  • Russian forces have broken “the management and logistics of the terrorist organization” and caused “significant damage to the infrastructure used for preparation of terrorist attacks”
And here's David Cameron repeating the Assad "butcher" accustations (again, via Bloomberg):
Russia is “backing the butcher Assad, which is a terrible mistake for them and for the world,” Cameron told BBC Television’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “It’s going to make the region more unstable, which will lead to further radicalization and increased terrorism.”

Cameron continued: “I would say to them change direction, join us in attacking ISIL but recognize that if we want to have a secure region we need an alternative to Assad,” using an alternative designation for Islamic State. Assad “can’t unite the Syrian people.”
Yes, Assad "can't unite the Syrian people", because clearly that's what this is all about, which explains why the West has been doing anything and everything to promotedisunity among Syrians for the better part of a decade, and on that note, we close with the following excerpt from a leaked diplomatic cable penned by then-Deputy Head of Mission in Syria William Roebuck in 2006 which shows just how concerned the West is with Syrian "unity":
-- PLAY ON SUNNI FEARS OF IRANIAN INFLUENCE:  There are fears in Syria that the Iranians are active in both Shia proselytizing and conversion of, mostly poor, Sunnis.  Though often exaggerated, such fears reflect an element of the Sunni community in Syria that is increasingly upset by and focused on the spread of Iranian influence in their country through activities ranging from mosque construction to business. Both the local Egyptian and Saudi missions here, (as well as prominent Syrian Sunni religious leaders), are giving increasing attention to the matter and we should coordinate more closely with their governments on ways to better publicize and focus regional attention on the issue. 
Credit To Zero Hedge