SAR #15281

Maybe we should simply come home... and stay here.

Dance Steps: Obama assures the public that Syria will not become a “proxy war” between the US and Russia, even as it becomes a proxy war between the US and Russia. Russia says it is open to coordinating the war against ISIS with the US, but the US says it will not cooperate with them, and demands the Russians stop interfering with US efforts to destroy ISIS. Iraq, which isn't much fooled by the US pretended air war against ISIS, says it would welcome Russian air attacks on ISIS forces in Iraq. Russian warships launched 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian sea against targets inside Syria,.

Priorities: Canadian PM Stephen Harper says that he will not allow human rights concerns to interfere with Canadian arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Dry Clean Only: The number of Americans receiving ongoing unemployment benefits is at a 15-year low - less than 28% of all unemployed Americans, well below the 67% who received the assistance before the Congress (for which read Republicans) ended federal extended benefits. The labor force continues to shirink, with another 350,000 Americans dropping out this month.

Don't Despair: Wall Streeters are better off than ever, with the average salary reaching $404,800. How's things at your place?

Leg Bone Connected To... The current distaste banks have for financing new shale well exploration will lead to a continuing decline in US oil production. In turn this decline – caused by prices being too low to service the debt needed to drill the wells- will pave the way for much higher prices in the future when (and if) demand increases as the world economy revives. If.

Burning Fuse: Mining giant and commodities trading biggie Glencore – whose continued existence is becoming more and more problematic - has $100 billion in mostly unsecured debt spread around Wall Street. Stay tuned, the rats will start leaving the ship any day now.

Today's Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Bishop of New York claims, under oath, that the children molested by pedophilic priests are at least partly to blame for being raped. An Italian priest went on TV to blame “love-seeking children” for tempting priests to rape them. And a Pedophiic Bishop in England escaped child abuse charges because members of the Royal family and high ranking Mps intervened to quash the investigation.

Memo: Like all US warplanes, AC-130 gunships record the video and audio from every gun on the aircraft. Publishing them would pretty much let everyone know who did what to whom, and when. Don't hold your breath.

Round 'em Up: Monsanto spent $7.1 billion buying back its own stock, at an average of $115 a share, in an attempt to please shareholders by driving up the price. It closed yesterday at $84 – losing about $2 billion that the company could have used to develop and market new products, or even just set aside to pay the civil suit damages that Roundup is going to bring them.

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: Turkey warns European nations that about 2 million Syrian refuges are currently in Turkey and another 3 million will flee Aleppo and environs as the conflict intensifies there. They are not going back and there is no effective way to stop them from coming. Plan accordingly.

Clarification: David Cameron’s promise during his address to the Conservative party conference that “an all-out assault on poverty” would be at the center of his second term was taken to mean he planned government social programs to help the poor. Turns out that it wasn't an assault on poverty, but an assault on the poor. At least 200,000 children from working households will fall into poverty next year as a direct result of the Cameron government's cuts in benefits.

Porn O'Graph: Economics 101