SAR #13113

Read the fine print; in economics there are no guarantees.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch: Following the bombings in Boston where 3 died and 170 were wounded, hundreds of investigators and government officials are working to determine what went wrong and what lessons can be learned to prevent reoccurrances. Following the blast in West, Texas that killed 14 and injured hundreds, Federal agencies are "reviewing their inspection practices." Or non-practices; it had been 28 years since OSHA had last inspected the plant. Other state and federal agencies which were aware of the hazards the plant presented had done nothing, and most likely will do nothing going forward. Proportion? We don't need no stinking sense of proportion...

Tea Leaves: In NYC last year, deaths at construction sites more than trippled, and about 75% of those deaths were at non-union sites.

Signs Of Life: Now that the intellectual underpinnings for austerity as a cure-all have been destroyed, some of the EU's leadership is beginning to understand that the public is not in any mood to accept more austerity measures; in Spain the population is falling because the population is fleeing, and in Greece the hoodlums and neo-Nazi's are taking over. Even the IMF (which has long prescribed austerity as a cure-all) is now trying to get leaders like Britain's PM to abandon planned cuts.

18 1/2 Minutes: Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of computerized redistricting files that Wisconsin Republicans had been ordered to turn over to Democrats for review have been... deleted.

Fairness Doctrine: Retailers like Amazon and eBay have apparently not contributed enough to political campaigns lately; the White House and Senate are backing a bill to force internet retailers to collect state and local sales taxes based on delivery addresses. Putting them on an even footing with local retailers is the stated intent, raising more taxes for the states and local communities is the actual agenda. It is hard to make an argument that such sales should ever have been tax-exempt.

Inalienable, Right? The power industry is asking the Supremes to tell the EPA to leave them alone and let them get on with polluting the country's water and air in the pursuit of profits as God intended.

Keeping Score: Since Dr. James Hansen first warned congress about global warming in 1988, not a single month’s temperatures have fallen below the 20th-century average for that month. Half the world’s population is now too young to have lived through the last colder-than-average month.

Numbers Are Numbers: The government is going to change the way GDP is calculated in ways that will boost apparent GDP by 3%. Another reminder that much of economic planning and theorizing is based on bad (or manipulated) data poorly understood.

Explanation: Patriots are fighting to keep their second amendment rights because “the 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line.”

Without Comment: “Detroit police have been accused of ‘kidnapping’ homeless people and leaving them outside city limits.”

Be Prepared: According to global experts and the US intelligence community (often mistakenly thought to be the same things), we are beginning to experience a global scarcity of vital resources (energy, water, land, food, and critical minerals) and the onset of extreme climate change, which, together, will produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict.  Expect wars over access to water, global food riots, mass migrations (with resulting anti-migrant violence), the breakdown of social order and the collapse of states. Then things will turn ugly.

Porn O'Graph: Pity the overtaxed businessmen.

The Parting Shot:

The real recovery is Spring.