SAR #14286

Stock markets are undergoing another cynical cyclical downturn.

Sequence: First there was a report that Turkey would let the US use its airbases for strikes against ISIS in Syria and Kurdish Iraq. Not true – and John Kerry's words are classic obfuscation. Turkey says it will continue shipping oil to Iran, defying US sanctions. NATO views Turkish 'reluctance to help against ISIS' with deep suspicion – with Germany's Deputy Speaker calling for Turkey to stop supporting ISIS. This is unlikely. Turkey's Erdogan sees Western 'spies' and journalists as a far greater threat than ISIS and is not wholly against the ISIS plan to redraw borders throughout the region, for he has strange dreams of a revived Ottoman Empire, for he seems to think he can let ISIS do the dirty work and then reap the Caliphate. 
 
Grin and Bear It: Do not criticize Jet Blue or its pilots. They will throw you off the plane. All their planes. 
 
Reality, Checked: Australia's Tony Abbott, continuing his all-our assault on the climate, now says "coal is good for humanity". By which he means that a new mine that will produce 5.5 million tons of coal a year (which will spew 8.25 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere), about 500 jobs, and billions in profits is a Good Thing for his friends who own the mine. Mind you Tony is right when he says that "Coal is essential for the prosperity of the world. Energy is what sustains our prosperity, and coal is the world's principal energy source and it will be for many decades to come." Too bad, but he's right, all-round: our economy depends on fossil fuels and we'll burn 'em all or die trying.

Volunteers, Please: A Canadian anti-Ebola vaccine will start its first human trials in the United States. Just what pool of Ebola victims these 'test subjects' will come from wasn't clear.

Protecting and Serving, Especially Serving: New York City has paid police victims nearly half a billion dollars in the last 5 years. Me, me, stop and search me!

Lines In The Sand: The US Army Chief of Staff acknowledges that ISIS is now within 15 miles of the Baghdad airport and has a “straight shot to the airport”, but “we're not going to let that happen.” We? Let? Airpower? Stay tuned.

Quoted: “No society can withstand the stresses that our rising inequality puts on the system. there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. Or first the one, then the other. There is no counterexample.”

Reformation: Perdue Farms, faced with either living up to its advertising or removing “humanely raised” from their labels, will be removing the words from their products.

Open Wide: The proletariat put their money where their mouth is – and when times get tough the poor and middle class stop going to the dentist. And lately they've stopped going to the dentist.

Porn O'Graph: Coincidence, simply coincidence.