United States

As tensions seemingly mount between the U.S. and Russia, an inconvenient fact for a media complex obsessed with progressing a narrative that the Executive Branch of the U.S. government is now controlled by the Kremlin, Putin offered up a rather unique way of responding to a reporter's question over whether he was "disappointed" in President Trump.  Speaking at a media conference on the last of the BRICS summit in China, Putin told a reporter that his question regarding his personal feelings toward the U.S. President were "very naive....he is not my bride."

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

By setting off a 100-kiloton bomb, after firing a missile over Japan, Kim Jong Un has gotten the world’s attention.

What else does he want?

Almost surely not war with America. For no matter what damage Kim could visit on U.S. troops and bases in South Korea, Okinawa and Guam, his country would be destroyed and the regime his grandfather built annihilated.

With Hurricane Irma, now an “extremely dangerous” category 5 storm bearing down on southeastern Florida, the Miami Herald reports that Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez has told reporters that an evacuation order was "probably coming late Wednesday or early Thursday." According to the latest forecasts, the storm is expected to make landfall in the US this weekend, unless the jet stream pulls it in a more northerly direction.

Authored by Robert McKeown via The Mises Institute,

As Hurricane Harvey, now tropical storm Harvey, makes its way across the southern US, estimates have already come in as to the cost of the storm. According to AccuWeather, Harvey is expected to cost upwards of $190 billion in damages, one percent of the national GDP. This makes Harvey the costliest storm ever to hit the United States, more than Katrina ($100 billion) and Sandy ($60 billion) combined.

Here Come The Clowns

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

On Monday, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, and today became an "extremely dangerous" category 5 hurricane, with some meteorologists are projecting that it will remain so until it eventually makes landfall in the United States.  And since a “category 6” has not been created yet, category 5 is as high as the scale goes at the moment.