SAR #13221

"The leadership of the Republican Party” - an oxymoron.

Prosecutorial Misconduct: If you've been convicted of a crime, especially a drug-related crime, since the late 1990's there is a good chance that the evidence used at your trial stemmed from illegal NSA intercepts of your communications and activities that were provided to the cops, who then "walked back the cat" to conceal the poisonous tree from which they picked the fruit. They call it 'parallel construction' and justify it by saying everybody does it. It's not just the DEA that does this; the IRS and other agencies also take advantage of this little gift from Big Brother. This doesn't make you a good guy, it just makes them worse. "This is only the part we’ve been permitted to see. Just imagine what else goes on."

Constipation: Although the market indexes are reaching new highs based on the Fed's QE handouts, the consumer spending that actually drives the economy has been flat since March, which pretty much gives the lie to the idea of a broad based recovery. 
 
Big Deals: “Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.” What more do you need to know? That every bank in the world wants to be Goldman Sachs? What better argument against capitalism than its success?

Odds On Favorite: The federal government runs out of money in October if Congress can't pass its spending bills by then, which would force the government to shut down. Know any Republicans who actually want to pass a spending bill? Then there's the (make-believe) drama of raising the debt ceiling at about the same time, and the R's want spending cuts to match any increase in the debt ceiling, so there's another show-stopper. Throw in the Crazies who say defunding the Affordable Care Act and transfering any sequester-based defense cuts to cuts to social welfare safety net programs, and a governmental shut-down will be a good outcome. Chaos seems more likely. Bring it on; best guess is the blame will fall on the Republicans, where it most assuredly belongs.

Subtraction: NSA's claim that its spying on Americans has prevented "more than 50 terrorist attacks" has been revised to read that - at the most - one plot might have been disrupted. Feel safer now?

Wayback Machine: I'm so old that I once believed that bankers were honest and the government was for the people. No longer. Exhibit A: JPMorgan Chase is under both criminal and civil investigation for mortgage-related crimes and misdemeanors, going one better than Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, SAC, etc. who only got hundreds of millions in fines for their cheating hearts. Exhibit B: NSA, Obama, the Supreme Court and the fellows down at the county courthouse. 
 
Lady Killer: The ever modest and self-effacing Larry Summers helped create Senator Elizabeth Warren by quashing her nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. Makes you wonder what he's been whispering about Janet Yellen.

Dilution: Every day, Tepco's disastrous Fukushima complex is leaking (?) 300 tons of 'highly radioactive water' into the ocean. Tepco, of course, says it hasn't got enough money (nor a viable plan) to stop the leak – it doesn't even know where it originates – and wants Japanese taxpayers to foot the bill for freezing enough of the ground under the reactors to contain the water. No, it's never been done on such a scale, but Tepco has lied about the problem for so long that desperation has set in.

Spotty Quiz: Of DailyKos' list of 15 things the media should tell us about nearly every day, how many do you know? Then why aren't you out in the street, protesting?

Either / Or: Is it (A) news media are propaganda organs or (B) politicians seek out economists who reinforce their prejudices or (C) news media are desperately afraid of declaring, in any straightforward way, that politicians are wrong or simply lying, no matter how much what they say is at odds with the truth. Of course some variant of (D) All of the Above, is entirely possible.

Another Refrigerator Magnet: Chris Matthews predicts that the Republican death wish will extend to submitting to the far right and nominating Rand Paul as their nominee for president in 2016. One can hope.

Porn O'Graph: The structure behind 'structural unemployment'.

The Parting Shot:

 Then came the rains...