SAR #12171

12171

The sun will rise tomorrow, and the day after.

Act Two: Egyptians have returned to Tahrir Square by the thousands to protest the power grab by the military.

Multiple Guess: The reasons NSA gave for not letting Congress know about how many Americans are being spied on by their government: 1) They don't know. 2) Looking up the answer would interfere with eavesdroping on Americans. 3) It would be an invasion of citizens privacy to let Congress know. 4) How many Americans are there?

Spot On: “The worst thing about the Greek election is the possibility that it will encourage the Germans and the ECB to persist a bit longer with their fantasies about how things might work.” - Krugman.

Because There Are So Many Of Them: Mitch McConnell, repeating the misleading fact that between 45 and 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all,” which ignores payroll taxes that most of the wealthy manage not to pay at all, and sales taxes which are the most regressive taxes around. Mitch says the poor should be taxed more in order to protect the endangered millionaires.

Good On Her: If you haven't yet experienced “The Vagina Monologues”, why didn't you venture up to Lansing, MI, to enjoy the production in support of Rep. Lisa Brown?

Litany of Ignorance: “We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts.  … Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality.  Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by right-wing politicians.” And so on. Great rant.

A Little Off The Top: The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet.

Pictures At An Exhibition: In New York this year, each night sees “more than 43,000 people, including a record 17,000 children” sleeping in municipal shelters. The average stay is nearly a year. Mind-boggling, as is having places for that many in shelters.

Inquiring Minds: The ECB has loaned various failing eurozone banks & countries just a tad over €1.2 trillion so far, to little or no effect.

Democracy Inaction: Republicans, betting on the come, have shut down consideration of the president's nominees for the nation's courts – wanting to save these vacancies to be filled with right wing extremists if they bamboozle enough voters in November. Yes, it ties up the nations judicial system, but who cares?

Stimulus: Manufacturers expect the market for domestic drones to grow to over $11 billion a year by 2022, mainly through sales to local police departments..

An Ouch of Prevention: In Michigan, a known hotbed of illegal voting, where exactly zero cases of such have been prosecuted in the last decade, the GOP pushed through three new bills aimed at keeping potential Democratic voters from voting – and ruled that the 66 votes they got were close enough to the required 73 to have the laws take immediate effect. Protecting democracy is hard, but someone's got to do it.

Corporate Welfare: World-wide, fossil fuel subsidies totaled over $400 billion in 2010, with the struggling oil industry receiving about $200 billion. Meanwhile, governments wasted $66 billion on renewable energy projects.

The Parting Shot:

Trillium sp.