Turkey

While we patiently dig to find who the on and offshore "commodity trading" middleman are, who cart away ISIS oil to European and other international markets in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars, one name keeps popping up as the primary culprit of regional demand for the Islamic State's "terrorist oil" - that of Turkish president Recep Erdogan's son: Bilal Erdogan.

Earlier today, Italian police seized a shipment of 800 pump action shotguns bound for Belgium. Their origin: Turkey. Given what we know about Ankara's connection to Islamic State, one is certainly left to wonder if this isn't one of many "smoking guns" (pun fully intended) that will surface in the weeks and months ahead now that Vladimir Putin has thrust Erdogan's ISIS connections into the limelight.

“We should focus on the meaning rather than individual words"...

Moments ago, after nearly two hours of private talks in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and France's Francois Hollande, a press conference started in which the two world leaders will share the conclusions of their discussions: will France gravitate closer toward Moscow after the events of the past 2 weeks or will it remain a key block in the NATO anti-Russia alliance?

Price for Thanksgiving dinner pre-Fed: $0.50

Price for Thanksgiving dinner 102 years after establishement of the Fed: $50

It would not be unprecedented for trendy issues like the F.A.N.G. stocks to continue on to much larger gains... But just ask the Turkeys how this ends.

The Thanksgiving we celebrate is for the success of the Pilgrims after establishing property rights and free enterprise as that event laid the foundation for the growth of America. Were our Pilgrim and Jamestown colony forefathers to wake up from the dead and look at the graduated taxation (from each according to his ability) and welfare programs (to each according to his need) we have today they might offer us a lesson in history by simply quoting Goethe, “Those who do not learn from the lessons of history are doomed to relive them.”

"It is wrong for the United Kingdom to expect the aircrews of other nations to carry the burdens and the risks of striking ISIL in Syria to stop terrorism here in Britain!"

The question now comes down to how Russia will respond to what happened, but perhaps even more important for observers to ponder is why the US is unofficially distancing itself from its ally’s aggression. Despite both NATO and Obama giving full backing to Turkey’s fateful decision, Reuters has quoted an anonymous American military official that purposely leaked that the Russian plane was downed while over Syrian airspace, basing the assessment on heat signature detection. This raises questions about why the US is playing both sides of the fence – on one hand, publicly supporting Turkey, while on the other, strategically releasing information that conflicts with Turkey’s official depiction of events.

The Western media will tell you that Gazprom cannot afford to cut Turkey off in retailiation for Ankara's attack on a Russian warplane. While that may be true, it's important to remember that Turkey's fallback option when it comes to replacing lost supply is Iran and under the circumstances, it seems exceptionally unlikely that Tehran would be willing to make things easier on Erdogan.

Gobble, gobble, gobble...

“Unknown air traffic position onto Humeymim 020, redirect to 26 miles. This is Turkish Air Force speaking - en guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately."

Why Now?