Well that didn't take long. After espousing his strategy last night of leading a broad coalition against ISIS, it appears President Obama's "allies" are backing away from the plan. As The WSJ reports, Germany and the U.K. on Thursday ruled out carrying out air strikes on Islamic State militants in Syria.

It appears the Europeans, realizing the ire that these actions will likely cause to Putin, are stepping back - "We haven't been asked, nor will we do it," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters and his U.K. counterpart Philip Hammond explicitly ruled out air strikes in Syria, after the U.K. parliament struck down such a move last year. So that leaves the French?

As usual, every European snaction (sic) has an equal and opposite Russian reaction. Here is how the Russian Foreign ministry responded to what van Rompuy announced earlier today would be a new round of Russian sanctions, which wil finally be enforced tomorrow. First from the Russian foreign ministry:

• BY PASSING NEW ANTI-RUSSIAN SANCTIONS, EU EFFECTIVELY MADE CHOICE AGAINST PEACE PROCESS IN UKRAINE - RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY'S STATEMENT

And from Russia's European ambassador:

• NEW EU SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA LEAVE RUSSIA NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO GO FOR CERTAIN COUNTER-MEASURES - RUSSIA'S PERMANENT REP TO THE EU
  CHIZHOV
• EU SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA DEVOID OF ELEMENTARY LOGIC, COMING SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH DE-ESCALATION OF UKRAINIAN CRISIS - RUSSIA'S AMBASSADOR TO EU CHIZHOV

The Spanish government is readying itself for an autumn of discontent, spending nearly €1 billion ($1.29 billion) on riot gear for police units as disparate protest groups prepare a string of demonstrations.

Since June, the interior ministry has tendered four contracts to purchase riot equipment ranging from shields to stab vests. The ministry also finalized its purchase of a new truck-mounted water cannon, an anti-riot measure used during Spain's dictatorship and the transition to democracy but little seen in recent years.

Despite attempts by opposition Socialist politician Antonio Trevín to paint the purchase as "a return to times that we would rather forget," the ministry said in its tender that the water cannon was necessary, "given the current social dynamic."

The government's spending spree comes as groups across Spain are predicting a season of protests. "We're calling it the autumn of confronting power and institutions," said the activist group Coordinadora 25-S which has its roots in the Indignados movement.

Rallies are being planned to counter draft laws by the governing People's Party that would curtail access to abortion in Spain or see unauthorized protests levied fines of up to €600,000 ($775,000). Months after former King Juan Carlos abdicated the throne in favour of his son King Felipe VI, protests are also being planned to demand a referendum on the monarchy.

President Obama's speech was a record low in terms of moral and intellectual analysis: What it boils down to is war - i.e. killing every single ISIS person anywhere, people who he compares to cancer cells.

The war on terror has always been about killing terrorists but you can not kill an ism - terrorism. To do something about the causes that compel people to become terrorists would be much more efficient.

The President has said repeatedly that a lasting solution is political, not military. The speech, however, is exclusively military - not a word of political, psychological or other insights: No, we kill people because we think it is wrong to kill people...

China and Russia are to build one of the largest ports in northeast Asia on Russia's Sea of Japan coast, Chinese media reports. It is the latest step by Beijing and Moscow to bring their economies closer, and diversify from Western influence.

The new seaport will be located in Russia's Far East, just 18 kilometers away from the Chinese border and will be capable to handle up to 60 million tons of cargo a year, China's state-run People's Daily Online reported.

The deal between the two countries was signed at May's Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai, the report said.

Today, Igor Strelkov, previously the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Militia, gave his first public address since his resignation in August. Rumor had it that Strelkov was forced out by Russian influence, leading to the changes of leadership that saw the successful offensive actions taking by the newly christened Novorossiyan Armed Forces. While he doesn't confirm or deny that, Strelkov has much to say of importance in this briefing, specifically regarding the real motivations behind the war in Ukraine, its importance for Russia, and the continued interference of the West and their fifth column in Russia.

The world must act in Libya as it is quickly turning into a major "terrorist hub" on Europe's doorstep, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned. France played a key role in the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya that led to the current chaos.

It's high time to "sound the alarm about the seriousness of the situation in Libya," Le Drian said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper.

"The south [of Libya] is a sort of hub for terrorist groups where they come to re-supply - including with weapons - and re-organize. In the north, the political and economic centers of the country are now at risk of falling under jihadist control," he said.

Le Drian commented that the crisis-hit North African state was "the gateway both to Europe and the Sahara." Libya is a short flight or a boat ride away from Europe, with just over 1,000 kilometers separating it from Malta and the Italian island of Sicily in the Mediterranean.

The minister also warned that the country is the region's "trafficking zone, beginning with human trafficking."

"We need to act in Libya and mobilize the international community," Le Drian said, adding that French troops stationed in Mali could be moved closer to Libyan borders.

Partly-nationalized British banks Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) both say they would relocate their headquarters to London if Scots vote for independence on September 18.

Recent polls indicating pro-union and independence camps are neck and neck have rocked British financial markets and pushed the pound to its lowest value since November.

RBS, which has been based in Scotland since 1727, claimed it would be "necessary to re-domicile the bank's holding company" because of "a number of material uncertainties arising from the Scottish referendum vote."

In a statement, the bank claimed independence could have a bearing on "credit ratings, and the fiscal, monetary, legal and regulatory landscape to which it is subject.

"For this reason, RBS has undertaken contingency planning for the possible business implications of a 'yes' vote. RBS believes that this is the responsible and prudent thing to do and something that its customers, staff and shareholders would expect it to do."

The United States Department of Homeland Security may require the local police forces it supplies with military-grade weapons to repay federal anti-terrorism grants should the items be used to suppress dissent.

A representative of the DHS, one of three federal agencies responsible for allocating military equipment to local police forces, indicated during the first congressional hearing devoted to the last month's civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri that the department is considering demanding that grant money be repaid should weapons be used to tamp down protests.

"We have a range of remedies should [the Dept. of Justice] find non-compliance, including recoupment of funds," Brian Kamoie of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, told Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) of the Senate Homeland Security Committee during a hearing on Tuesday this week in Washington, DC.

The US Department of Justice and the White House are investigating the possibility of limiting federal programs that have distributed an immense amount of local law enforcement agencies with armored vehicles and other military weapons in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

One way the US government distributes military-grade weaponry to local police departments is through the Department of Defense's 1033 program, in which the Pentagon offers hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus military equipment to police forces throughout the US. For instance, St. Louis County, which encompasses Ferguson, is part of the program, as RT has reported. Ferguson became the focus of law enforcement militarization, among other issues, following the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in August.

Has the ISIS psyop calmed down a bit? Before it dies out let's examine some incredible ironies and oddities surrounding CIA's ISIS. After all, the ISIS psyop deserves a thorough analysis from every angle, so I thought it appropriate to outline for the sake of humanity. Hopefully, humanity can use the ISIS psyop as a tool for the final or further awakening. It may be wishful thinking, but it is worth exposing every crack and corner of this psyop and let government know that we are not going for it this time.

I declare humanity too intuitive to buy into this psychological operation and hopefully I'm right. So while the core TV-watching, mainstream media-believing community drinks the government Kool Aid, let us get started by pointing out several glaring observations regarding the ISIS psyop.

Glancing ahead, the ISIS kids have knowledge of things that require you to have education, modern technical skills, a little bit of decency, structure, conformity to societal norms and somewhat transparent connection to the outside world. What are these things and what are some of the surreal oddities surrounding ISIS? Let's examine:

1. Professional Camera, Editing Software and Skills

Incredibly, despite being savages that only want to kill for apparently no specific burning reason other than that fact that you are not ISIS, ISIS has at least some kind of production department that can skillfully provide what could be considered Hollywood-style editing (of supposed beheading videos) with multiple camera angles, consistent daylight on their subjects and proper daylight mode video exposure. They clearly have the skills for setting up multiple cameras and using those precise angles for their production department. In order to put out these supposed beheading videos, they also had to make sure that the sounds were just right and that there was no shaking of the camera.

Someone then had to take the various video angles and properly edit the footage so as to make it look professional. The editor, apparently a man of class and decency, then is careful not to show any actual action and blood. Savage killers who are ALSO respectful and classy about being too disturbing with their videos. Instead they courteously (but sloppily) cut from the early hand action of their British-sounding supposed lead man, to the post beheading amazingly clean shot of a head sitting on a corpse with the classic Photoshop drop shadows. In Hollywood style, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock films, the editor essentially leaves the action to the viewer's imagination. Even though this beheading movie created by ISIS is not being submitted for any film festivals, they carefully comply with techniques that would make this film fully acceptable into almost any gore film festival.

To those who want to point out to viewers the amazing lack of blood during those first critical throat slices of James Foley's neck, sorry, exposing this lack of blood is in itself apparently too grotesque by YouTube standards and should you post such a video it will be conveniently removed.