Secretary of State John Kerry finished his weekend tour of the Middle East, arriving in Paris to participate in an international conference on Iraq's security. The primary destination of the head of the U.S. Department of State was Saudi Arabia, where he met in Jeddah with representatives of the Arab countries (members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan) and Turkey, to persuade them to join the coalition established by the United States to fight "Islamic State," while, in reality, to restore the "anti-Syrian alliance" comprised of NATO and conservative Arab regimes.

Naturally, the key participant in the talks was Saudi Arabia, as the current spiritual leader of the Sunni world and the richest country in the region, prepared to finance plans for the overthrow of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. On the agenda was the issue of ending supplies to ISIL from Turkey and Jordan, as well as the prevention of financial support reaching the terrorists from abroad. The United States would also like to see Arab governments use their media for outreach. First and foremost, this would be popular TV networks "Al-Jazeera" and "Al-Arabiya," financed by Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, respectively.


Before flying to Saudi Arabia, Kerry visited Baghdad and Amman. Jordan's King Abdullah II said at the end of the visit by the Secretary of State that he is ready to join the coalition, while stressing that "but the main problem of the Middle East is Israeli occupation of Palestinian land."

Kerry's talks took place shortly after President Obama's declaration of his intent to "weaken and destroy" IS in both Iraq and Syria. A senior State Department official involved in the negotiations noted that the meetings are being hosted by the Saudis. According to this official, this is significant not only because of the size and economic influence of Saudi Arabia, "but also because of its religious significance for Sunnis." Overcoming the differences between Sunnis and Shiites in the region and in Iraq is an crucial part of improving the effectiveness of the coalition, as the majority of the fighters of "Islamic State" are Sunnis, and the new government in Baghdad Shiite-led, supported by Iran.

As later became clear, John Kerry pushed on participants in the Jeddah meeting the idea that the coalition might require enhanced presence of military bases in the region and overflight rights for military aircraft carrying out strikes against "Islamic State." The Secretary also called for increased efforts to combat funding of extremist groups by individuals and private Islamic charities, since financial supervision in Kuwait and Qatar is extremely weak. Kerry put special emphasis on ending oil smuggling by "Islamic State" across the Jordanian and Turkish borders. Here, however, certain complexities arise, since IS sells oil and gas products from oil fields and refining facilities in controlled areas to companies owned by the two countries at almost 50% of the world price, allowing Jordanians and Turks to do pretty good business, and IG to earn at least three million. dollars per day. Therefore, as we learned, Washington will carry out "more focused work" with these countries over the next few weeks.

The House on Wednesday approved President Obama's plan to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to counter the growing threat of the Islamic State organization, even though lawmakers in both parties remain deeply skeptical about its chances for success.

The vote placed Congress one step closer to authorizing the third significant U.S. military operation in Iraq in the past quarter century, and it put lawmakers on record approving U.S. engagement in the years-long Syrian civil war. It delivered Obama much-needed domestic political support as he seeks an international coalition to combat the growing threat of Islamist terrorism in the Middle East.

But the tally - 273 to 156 - also revealed widespread misgivings in both parties about the plan's chances of success, even among lawmakers who voted in favor of it.

Obama's proposal was opposed by more than 40 percent of Democrats, many of whom are concerned that new U.S. military operations in the Middle East could fester for several years with no clear strategy or definition of success.

Republicans provided the lion's share of support, but many are worried that Obama's plans are too limited. One top GOP leader suggested that Congress could give the president blanket military authority, even if Obama doesn't want it, when lawmakers hold a much broader debate after the November elections about the fight against Islamist militants.

In an extremely rare move, the US Navy removed a ship's top three commanding officers from their posts while it is at sea. The Navy is conducting an investigation into the command climate aboard the USS James E. Williams (DDG-95).

Cmdr. Curtis B. Calloway was relieved as commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer, along with Executive Officer (XO) Cmdr. Ed Handley and Command Master Chief Travis Biswell. The three posts make up the leadership aboard the Williams, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been underway since May 30.

Calloway was removed on Tuesday by Capt. Anthony L. Simmons, the deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 2, who "will remain in command pending the completion of a DESRON 2 command-directed investigation into the command climate aboard James E. Williams," the Navy said in a statement.

The military did not provide any details or explanation into the problems with the "command climate" that the three men created on board.

"Removing the three positions - commander, XO and CMC - almost all at once is exceedingly rare," the US Naval Institute (USNI) reported.

[A] crash is coming, and it may be terrific. .... The vicious circle will get in full swing and the result will be a serious business depression. There may be a stampede for selling which will exceed anything that the Stock Exchange has ever witnessed. Wise are those investors who now get out of debt.

The above words could easily have been stated by me or another of the (very) few others who currently predict the coming of crashes in the markets.

But they were not. The statements above were made by investor Roger Babson at a speech at the Annual Business Conference in Massachusetts on 5^th September, 1929.

Mr. Babson's prediction was not a sudden one. In fact, he had been making the same prediction for the previous two years, although he, in September of 1929, felt the crash was much closer.

News of his speech reached Wall Street by mid-afternoon, causing the market to retreat about 3%. The sudden decline was named the "Babson Break."

The reaction from business insiders was immediate. Rather than respond by saying, "Thanks for the warning - we'll proceed cautiously," Wall Street vilified him. The Chicago Tribune published numerous rebuffs from a host of economists and Wall Street leaders. Even Mr. Babson's patriotism was taken into question for making so rash a projection. Noted economist Professor Irving Fisher stated emphatically, "There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash." He and many others repeatedly soothed investors, advising them that a resumption in the boom was imminent. Financier Bernard Baruch famously cabled Winston Churchill, "Financial storm definitely passed." Even President Herbert Hoover assured Americans that the market was sound.

There are no political motives in the case of businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov, says the Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

It's "incorrect" and "absurd" to try to "paint the Yevtushenkov case in any political colors," Peskov told RIA Novosti.

Billionaire Yevtushenkov is accused of money laundering and has been placed under house arrest, official representative of Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said on Tuesday.

"It goes without saying that, understanding the possibility of a temporary negative impact on markets, the president counts on all the questions being answered by the investigators as a result of necessary investigative action, regardless of names, surnames and the status," Peskov said, reminding the journalists that one mustn't presume someone's guilt, it must be proven in court.


Shares in Yevtushenkov's holding Sistema AFK, one of the biggest in Russia, have been steadily falling after the news of his house arrest - on average by over 30 percent.

"The investigators had enough evidence to suggest that Evtushenkov is involved in legalizing property, acquired by criminal means, on a massive scale. Due to this, he has been accused. The chosen pre-trial restriction is two months' house arrest," Markin stated.

The start of the investigation caused a wave of response, from former businessmen to politicians.

Kiev is demanding that Russia stops sending convoys with humanitarian aid to southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Evhen Perebyinis said Tuesday.

"We demand Russia stop provocations with the so-called humanitarian convoys," the official was quoted as saying by Ukraine's UNIAN information agency.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman also urged Moscow to "withdraw troops, which, together with terrorists, continue to carry out crimes on Ukrainian territory".


Ukraine and the West are accusing Russia of providing military aid to the pro-independence forces in southwestern Ukraine and even of direct military intervention. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have repeatedly denied any involvement in the Ukrainian internal conflict.

Whatever Russia does, doubt does not even enter the equation. The answer is sanctions. So here we go again. The US Treasury-EU latest sanction package targets Russian banking, the energy industry and the defense industry.

The sanctions are mean. The sanctions are nasty. And there's no euphemism to describe them; they amount to a declaration of economic war.

Sberbank, Russia's largest won't be able to access Western capital for long-term funding, including every kind of borrowing over 30 days.

And the current 90-day lending bans affecting six other large Russian banks - a previous sanctions package - will also be reduced to 30 days.

On the energy front, what the US-EU want is to shut down new Russian exploration projects in Siberia and the Arctic, barring Western Big Oil from selling equipment and technology to offshore, deepwater or shale gas projects.

This means Exxon and Shell, for instance, are frozen in their operations with five top Russian oil/gas/pipeline companies: Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, and Rosneft.

No one ever lost money betting on the stupidity of the usual, unknown "senior US officials" - who are now spinning the latest sanction package is to force Moscow to "respect international law and state sovereignty." A cursory examination of the historical record allows this paragraph to be accompanied by roaring laughter.

One in 10 prime working age Americans are finding that by the time they get their paychecks, credit and loan businesses have been there first. The striking figure emerged after millions of payrolls were checked as part of a study by NPR and ProPublica.

The study 'Garnishment: The Untold Story', looked at the payrolls for 13 million anonymous Americans and found 7.2 percent, or over 930,000 people, are being garnished wages for child support, medical bills, student loans or court ordered debt before they ever see a dime.

In the study of 13 million ADP payroll checks of anonymous Americans, more than one in 10 employees, in their prime working ages of 35 to 44, had their wages garnished in 2013.

Child support payments were seized on 3.4 percent of checks, while 2.9 percent went for student loans and court ordered debt.

Debt retrieval begins in the local courts with a lawsuit seeking payment after a debtor falls behind for a few months.

In Moscow this summer, while reporting a story for Wired magazine, I had the rare opportunity to hang out for three days with Edward J. Snowden. It gave me a chance to get a deeper understanding of who he is and why, as a National Security Agency contractor, he took the momentous step of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents.

Among his most shocking discoveries, he told me, was the fact that the N.S.A. was routinely passing along the private communications of Americans to a large and very secretive Israeli military organization known as Unit 8200. This transfer of intercepts, he said, included the contents of the communications as well as metadata such as who was calling whom.

Typically, when such sensitive information is transferred to another country, it would first be "minimized," meaning that names and other personally identifiable information would be removed. But when sharing with Israel, the N.S.A. evidently did not ensure that the data was modified in this way.

Mr. Snowden stressed that the transfer of intercepts to Israel contained the communications - email as well as phone calls - of countless Arab- and Palestinian-Americans whose relatives in Israel and the Palestinian territories could become targets based on the communications. "I think that's amazing," he told me. "It's one of the biggest abuses we've seen."

People of Scotland!

Let's be honest. For a long time, the vast majority of you have, at the very least, harbored a certain resentment towards the 'English', and by 'English' I mean the racist, warmongering 'elite' class in Westminster who have treated you as second class citizens.

I'm here to tell you that your dislike of these 'English' is entirely justified. As an example of the prevailing attitude of the English establishment towards the Scottish people, consider the comments made by two members of the English establishment media a few days ago. In reference to the very fact that the Scottish were even being 'allowed' the chance to vote for independence, one of them said:

"Hang on, are we just pandering to the errant child, offering sweeties"

the other added:

"rewarding bad behavior"

These comments clearly highlight the contempt with which the English establishment authorities look upon the Scottish people. So why would any Scot, in his or her right mind, want to be associated in any way with such elitism and arrogance?