SAR #11105

Dueling anecdotes get you only so far, then you need data.

Plastics: It took 11 cement pump trucks several months to entomb Chernobyl. It will take a whole lot more to entomb Fukusima, once the disaster stops mutating. Investment opportunities abound.

Going to the Poorhouse: The military-industrial oligarchy is whining in pain – Obama wants to cut $40 billion a year from Defense spending that is now well over $800 billion annually. There's that much slack in the budget just for mercenaries.

Love Truth Hurts: “America’s finances were in great shape by the year 2000. We went from deficit to surplus. America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the Baby Boomers.” Then we elected George W. Bush.

Good Question: Where is Saudi Arabia's 3 million barrels a day in excess production capacity now that we need it? Or is it that they still have the “capacity” to pump more oil, but the oil isn't down there to be pumped?

Entertainment Weakly: CNN reports that 19% of Republicans want to see Donald Trump run for President, while 10% of them do not want him in the race. I think watching The Donald waddle around the primary circuit would be entertaining, so I'm all for it – it'll be a joy watching him and Rick Santorum go at each other.

The Problem: If 1 = The historical growth of federal expenditures on health care is unsustainable and 2 = Changing the path requires denying some medical services for someone who would otherwise receive them. Solve for 3 = A solution

Willful Suspension: Most accounts of the end of fossil fuels contain a rose-colored solution where we change the type of cars we drive and continue on, no big economic contraction, no decline in our living standards, just a nearly invisible changeover. This is not really the way it is going to work out.

Antigonish: Less than half the population has a job – lowest percentage in the last 30 years. Think of it as a clue.

Wand waving: If you're keeping score, Representative Ryan's plan would give the wealthy hundreds of billions a year additional revenue, give the health insurance industry hundreds of billions of dollars of additional revenue each year, and would deny healthcare to tens of millions of retirees and sick people. Don't worry, it is all posturing and has no chance of passing.

Too Clever By Half: The Supremes, by the traditional 5/4 split when riding roughshod over common sense, ruled that giving churches tax money for education it is wrong, but exempting from taxation the money people pay churches for education is perfectly fine. Same money, same result, process is everything.

Distressing: Reports claim 2 million foreclosed homes are being held off the market by banks, mostly because they are reluctant to actually record the losses they will eventually suffer. Meanwhile, another 6.7 million mortgages are delinquent, with a “cure rate” of essentially zero. Will this drive down house prices? Do geckos sell insurance?

Yadda Yadda, Get a Job: The economy's embryonic winning streak came to an abrupt halt as unemployment claims zoomed up 27,000 to over 412,000 last week. Excuses abound, reality not being one of them.

Tattletale: Among “9 Things The Rich Don't Want You To Know About Taxes”, David Cay Johnston reports that the poor and middle classes pay taxes, the rich mostly do not. Poor and middle class incomes are stuck at 1973 levels, but since Reagan the wealthy have raked in increasing amounts. Not news, but nicely displayed.

First Do No Harm: What if the politicians took a long vacation and stopped trying to fix things they don't understand and don't agree on? Many of our debt/deficit problems would cure themselves – or at least not get any worse due to tinkering.

Porn O'Graph: Why so many people have so much leisure.