President Obama

Did Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott just lose his job because of fears that a probe and audit of the "data" and "statistics" behind global warming could threaten to destroy Goldman Sachs' best laid cap-and-trade, emissions trading scheme and carbon tax plans?

The caste of climate alarmists reminds us strongly of assorted doomsayers throughout history. They have almost become a kind of priestly caste, accusing us of committing the alleged “sin” of capitalism, even while they reserve for themselves the right to partake of its fruits to an extent few others are able to (as Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore notes, “environmentalism has become a religion”). Mind, we don’t believe genuine environmental concerns should be ignored, but AGW looks more and more like a contrived non-issue. The hysteria that has been on display of late is probably an indication though that its proponents are actually losing the debate.

As documented here and elsewhere, in addition to the Pope and Putin, the third world leader US president Obama is "historically" meeting this week is China's President, and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist party, Xi Jinping. But just like everywhere else, the president is mostly a figurehead for far greater political and primarily financial interests backing him. So who calls the shots in China? The following infographc lays out the key power divisions of political, economic and financial power in China at this moment.

Clash of the Titans? President "we don't spy/cyberhack other nations" Obama and President "we don't devalue our currency" Xi will hold a joint press conference to show the world how much US and China love each other (despite China dumping Treasuries and looming US cybersecurity sanctions on China)... grab your popcorn as Xi is supposedly taking questions from the Western press...

Contrary to popular opinion, there are problems that are too big for the Central Banks to control.

In a startling turn of events, retired General John Allen will be stepping down as special envoy to the global coalition fighting ISIS and will be leaving government employment entirely. President Obama’s hand-picked choice to lead the U.S. in the international effort fighting the Islamic State will call it quits just as the harsh spotlight intensifies scrutiny over questionable decisions by the administration.

“Unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”

As WaPo reports, "Hillary Clinton is proposing a $250 monthly cap on the amount patients with chronic and serious medical problems would have to pay out of pocket for prescription drugs as a way to reduce the effect of skyrocketing drug prices on consumers." "Nobody in America should have to choose between buying the medicine they need and paying rent," Clinton says. 

Russia has now confirmed that it is intervening in the Syrian war on the side of the Assad government; and, as Al-Arabiya's Azeem Ibrahim notes, the response of the U.S. betrays its impotent incredulity. Russia is poised to return to the Middle East, from which it was ejected with the collapse of the USSR. The United States seems to be telling Russia to go ahead, because, as Raghida Dergham explains, it is unwilling to engage – though it is not yet ready to fully retreat.

And then there were eleven (in tonight's main event)...

At this moment, president Obama is taking to the Business Roundtable where as noted previously he will discuss "the turnarounds in the stock market, housing iprices [sic?] and job growth." Here are some things Obama will not discuss.

Reports that the official unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent may appear to vindicate the policies of easy money, corporate bailouts, and increased government spending. However, even the mainstream media has acknowledged that the official numbers understate the true unemployment rate. Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, few in Washington, DC acknowledge that America’s economic future is endangered by excessive spending, borrowing, taxing, and inflating. Instead, Congress continues to waste taxpayer money on futile attempts to run the economy, run our lives, and run the world.

They say that the first casualty of war is truth. And, on both sides of the fight over lifting the ban on exports of U.S. crude oil, the truth has already fallen into a coma. The ban was instituted in 1975 in order to make America less subject to swings in international oil supply after suffering the price shock associated with the Arab oil embargo in 1973. Last week a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the ban after a Senate committee voted in July to do the same. A vote by the full House and Senate could be near.

The Pentagon has erupted in “revolt” amid claims from 50 intelligence analysts that senior defense officials manipulated intelligence reports to downplay the severity of the Islamic State’s increasing upper-hand in the Middle East.

"The story that (Aylan's father) told is untrue. I don't know what made him lie, maybe fear. He was the one driving the boat right from the start. When they set off five minutes in he was looking left and right, worried, then he was speeding. Even his wife was screaming at him to slow down." Iraq-based Zainab Abbas, via her Sydney-based cousin Lara Tahseen, told Ten News she paid $10,000 for the voyage.