SAR #13074

They’re called 'booms' for a reason.

Too Big To Flail: Not only are the behemoth banks too big to fail, but according to officials at the highest levels of the US government they and the people (okay, men) who run them are too important to the economy to be prosecuted, no matter what the crimes. But it's not done to protect the guilty, but to protect “the innocent shareholders.” Personally, I've never seen one, but I suppose there must be some. But most of the shareholders are part of the top 5% and innocent isn't a term that comes to mind when describing many of them.

In Summation: Unemployment in debt-crippled Greece rose to a record 26% in the last quarter of 2012, as austerity measures continues to drive the economy into “a deep recession.” [If 26% unemployment isn't a Depression with a capital D, I missed the memo.] In the under-25 age group, unemployment was 57.8 percent, giving them lots of free time to study social engineering in the streets.

The Easy Button: Here's a solution to the 'can the president kill citizens on US soil with drones' quandary: Pass a law that says the president can't kill US citizens. Period. Drones shouldn't enter into the discussion. Could even mention things like courts and trials.

Objects In The Mirror May Disappear: According to the US State Department there are no prisoners being held under “indefinite detention” at Guantánamo. First of all they are detainees, not prisoners. And no individual will be held “longer than necessary”, or forever, whichever comes first. And that's definite.

Chained Melody: Here's how “chained CPI” will work: Each year your Social Security benefit will be lowered by 0.3%. Cumulatively. After 10 years that'll lower your benefit by 3%, 6% after 20 years. And should you live to be 97, you'll have to get by on about 10% less. But you'll be proud to be a survivor of The Grand Bargain. If you survive.

Just Following Orders: Blackwater's manifold and egregious crimes have been given a pass by federal prosecutors because 1) they occurred overseas and 2) the were acting on behalf and at the behest of the CIA to do things the law prevented the CIA from doing itself.

An American Dream: No, not home ownership, homes ownership. Blackstone Group has gathered up $2.1 billion to buy up houses lost to foreclosure and rent them back to the folks who lost them to foreclosures and then peddle the bundled rental agreements as an adventurous securitization.

De Facto: Beppe Grillo, Italy's current political leader, says that northern Europe is eager to drop Italy from the eurozone "like a hot potato". There's also some suspicion that Italy might return the favor.

Keeping Score: The Air Force has stopped letting the public know about its drone strikes in Afghanistan (and it has never been forthcoming about drone strikes in other places, lots of other places), but not, not they claim, because some kooks are questioning the legality of randomly killing people. But, as Senator Lindsey Graham says, ““Sometimes you hit innocent people...” So far drones have have killed 4,700 people, some of them enemy combatants.

Foot Bone Connected To The... Genetically modifying plants so they can poison their main biologic pests is a good ides. Well, it was, until someone figured out that when the target bugs don't attack, the plants don't put out their natural defenses and so they succumb to other pests... One damned thing after another.

Losing Seasons: Canadian winters are significantly warmer and shorter than they were 30 years ago. During that time the temperature regimes and plant life of the south have marched more than 700 kilometers northward. The frozen north is leaving and won’t be back. Visit soon, before its gone.

The Parting Shot:

 

Thalictrum thalictroides, Rue Anemonie