Today former US Treasury official, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, warned King World News that the threat made by Putin today just stunned the United States and Europe. Dr. Roberts also discussed how the threat unfolded today at the International Economic Forum in Russia. Below is what Dr. Roberts had to say in this powerful interview.

Eric King: "Dr. Roberts, there is this International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg (Russia). I know the U.S. has pulled out, but does the high level of attendance, despite Washington's pressure, indicate fading U.S. influence?"

Dr. Roberts: "Yes. One of the advisors to Putin had publicly complained that Washington had put unprecedented pressure on American and European countries not to attend. But it turns out that present at this forum, which began yesterday and continues today and tomorrow, there are official delegations from 62 countries, and the CEOs of 146 of the major companies in the world....

Scottish lawmakers will consider a petition Tuesday to grant fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden asylum in Scotland should it gain independence.

The petition will be considered by the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee, which allows individual voters to put forward proposals.

It has been lodged by former university lecturer Mick Napier, who says Snowden deserves political asylum.

Napier's petition says Snowden "revealed uncontested information on the extensive surveillance undertaken by the British GCHQ and the US NSA to the extent that they furtively collect all emails and text messages of every citizen."

It adds: "For this we owe him a debt of gratitude and the award of political asylum would be a demonstration of that gratitude."

On this date, U.S. House of Representatives Bill "H.R. 2847" goes into effect. It will usher in the true collapse of the U.S. dollar, and will make millions of Americans poorer, overnight. You now have just several weeks to prepare...


SOTT summary of the transcript

On July 1, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives Bill "H.R. 2847" goes into effect. It will usher in the true collapse of the U.S. dollar, and will make millions of Americans poorer, overnight. You now have just several months to prepare...

Economic Factors at Play

I know that to most people, the situation seems to be getting better in America. Stocks have recovered all their losses. Real estate has rebounded. Unemployment and bankruptcies have dropped. But here's the thing: The unfortunate reality is that we are actually in a much more dangerous and precarious place today than we were six years ago. I'm simply following my research to its logical conclusion.

Amazon's power over the publishing and bookselling industries is unrivaled in the modern era. Now it has started wielding its might in a more brazen way than ever before.

Seeking ever-higher payments from publishers to bolster its anemic bottom line, Amazon is holding books and authors hostage on two continents by delaying shipments and raising prices. The literary community is fearful and outraged - and practically begging for government intervention.

"How is this not extortion? You know, the thing that is illegal when the Mafia does it," asked Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, echoing remarks being made across social media.

Amazon is, as usual, staying mum. "We talk when we have something to say," Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive, said at the company's annual meeting this week.

The underground effort by some conservatives to impeach President Obama for picking and choosing which laws to enforce is about to shift into a higher gear with a new book from a noted terrorism prosecutor detailing seven impeachable offenses on topics ranging from immigration to Obamacare.

In Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment, Andrew C. McCarthy makes the legal case to dump the president, but also hopes to build the political will in Congress and the nation to take the unusual move last used against former President Bill Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky affair.

"You have to make the public case that the president has to be removed," said McCarthy. "I'm trying to make it," he said.

Russia has prepared a classified document setting out actions it would take if Western nations impose further sanctions on Moscow over its involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin's top economic aide said on Friday.

The United States and European Union have hit officials, lawmakers and companies close to Putin with sanctions and have warned they could impose broader measures affecting swathes of the economy if deemed necessary to rein in Russia.

"I can say that strategy or no strategy, there is a tactic, it has been worked out, it is in the form of a document - a document that is closed, for obvious reasons," Andrei Belousov told state-run Rossiya-24 television when asked whether Russia had strategy in place.

"Whether it is sanctions against individuals or against companies, whether it is sectoral sanctions, comprehensive, systemic sanctions, whether they touch the banking system or not - corresponding actions have been set out for each of these levels," he told Rossiya-24 in an interview on the sidelines of Russia's annual economic forum.

"And so, if something is applied against the Russian Federation, we know how to react quite quickly."

Belousov echoed Putin's warning that sanctions would boomerang against those who imposed them and suggested further punishments for Russia would go against the interest of European nations in particular.

"I can tell you my observation: Our Western partners - our colleagues who work in Russia - are much more worried about sanctions than we are," Belousov said.

"That applies to German companies, French companies, Italian companies - that is, companies from countries that are quite strongly represented here."

On the heels of a high-profile indictment announced earlier this week by the United States Department of Justice against five Chinese military officers, sources say Russian hackers could be among the next individuals targeted by the DOJ.

The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy magazine and the Chicago Tribune all reported this week that officials close to the US government's hunt for foreign hackers say Russians are on the radar of the Justice Department, and could be named in the next DOJ indictment.

All three outlets hesitated to name their sources, but the Journal reported that people familiar with the government's investigations said alleged cybercriminals in Russia are likely to be charged soon.

"For several years, the Obama administration has put Chinese and Russian cyber spies and criminals at the top of its list of worst offenders in what officials describe as a relentless campaign targeting American businesses for the benefit of those countries' own industries," Shane Harris wrote for FP. "Estimates on the true cost of cyber-espionage range widely, but are generally believe by experts and officials to be in the tens of billions of dollars annually."

As Harris reported, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that the FBI was aggressively pursuing further criminal investigations pertaining to foreign hacking cases, but fell short of announcing the filing of new charges. Now with Monday's indictment out of the way and the US officially charging members of the Chinese military for the first time ever, however, multiple sources said that American authorities are gearing up to throw the book at Russian hackers.

Psychopaths dominate the halls of power in both the United States and throughout the world. The current economic, political, military and legal system breeds psychopaths, rewarding psychopathic behavior and punishing those with conscience and integrity. Psychopaths will naturally be drawn to and converge at the apex of the power pyramid as much from their own drive for ambitious power as the hierarchical system that both requires and reinforces those who can comfortably operate without conscience, guilt or any genuine level of empathy toward others.

Psychopaths are in love with power and risk taking, masters of manipulation, self-serving opportunism and self-aggrandizement, and hold doctorates in deceit and deception. Psychopaths are super intelligent charmers who are highly skilled at playing others in order to get what they want. They are keenly perceptive at reading people, understanding their motives and values, brilliant at learning their weaknesses and blind spots, and highly effective at inducing both sympathy and guilt in others.

Instinctively knowing what others want to hear, psychopaths are gifted at winning over others, making them feel special and wanted. They are adept at making positive and lasting first impressions and initially demonstrating that they appear to be caring and considerate, but only on the most superficial, disingenuous level. Their innately keen intelligence, social charisma and charm, extroverted energies, over-the-top confidence are all weapons they utilize in their powerful arsenal to win over, defeat and control others, especially to win over those imbued with power and position that they yearn for themselves.

Psychopaths have an uncanny ability to pick brains, soliciting information, knowledge, creative ideas and even secrets from others, yet opportunistically utilize them to their own advantage as living proof that information is power, parading them as their own ideas and knowledge, and craftily taking and receiving undeserving credit and accolades from bosses and those in power. They are gifted actors, able to take on chameleon-like colors according to their particular social setting and company. Though they lack a capacity to feel emotions with any depth or intensity, as actors and manipulators they are able to manufacture crocodile tears for effect whenever it suits and benefits them.

The part of the brain that regulates emotions, the amygdala, is less active in psychopaths. Thus, they do not feel fear, sadness, regret or disgust that the rest of us experience. Only when it is self-serving will psychopaths act scared, sorry, indignant or surprised, and the key operable word here is act because that is all they can do when it comes to showing real emotion. They have no trouble putting on the act of emotions when they are determined to manipulate others most often into feeling guilty or sympathetic toward them. The only genuine emotion psychopaths express is anger whenever their manipulations are thwarted or rebuffed. They frequently use intimidation tactics and can behave impulsively and even violently when angered, especially in response to a perceived personal insult or perceived betrayal of trust or perceived lack of respect for their authority. But most often their emotional tirades are to manipulate, gain power and control over others.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Friday that the United States planned to receive competitive advantages in trade and economic ties with Europe by insisting on sanctions against Russia.

"Insisting on imposing sanctions against Russia, I have the suspicion that maybe our American friends, and they're pretty sophisticated guys, they, perhaps, even want to get certain competitive advantages in their trade and economic ties in Europe? I simply just don't see, don't understand any other incentive motives that are that serious or deep, but I hope that common sense prevails," Putin said.

The US and EU have imposed sanctions against Russia in connection to its policy in Ukraine and the reunification of Crimea. The sanctions have so far remained targeted and consist of government-approved lists of individuals and companies facing visa bans and asset freezes.

Editor's Note: Well, it looks like Obama the Peacemaker image took another hit today. China, which has no overseas military bases and no carrier battle groups sailing the seas to defend its customers, considers itself a target and not a threat. Imagine that!

The US "divide and conquer" ploy with the Asia Pivot is turning into Obama's Asia Boomerang. The land of freedom and democracy has turned into the major stimulus on the planet for forming defensive military alliances.

It seems they don't want to buy one of our "Sanctions-R-US" franchises. The Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves.

Maybe it's all a trick. Maybe "they" want to divert China and Russia's capital investment away from peaceful business endeavors and whiz it out the window, following the example of the $2 trillion we blew on the military industrial complex over the last decade with no credible threats on the planet.

Good gosh, what group in America would want to do that when our bridges are falling down and the highway trust fund is almost empty... the list goes on and on. Take a look at the companies that the Bush (43) thugs are all involved with, before and after. They seem to have done well.

Don't be surprised to hear brain dead Congressional candidates screaming about how we must rearm American to protect ourselves from the yellow horde building unsinkable inner tubes to float millions of Chinese secret DNA commandos across the Pacific to invade America.

The think tanks are sharpening their pens and swords to scare Americans into putting what money they have left into their various coffers by going on their Asian Jihad. Americans need to form a security alliance of their own here at home to defend ourselves against "you know who"... Jim W. Dean