SAR #13252

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Would you vote for him today? Why?

Quiz: What happened the last few times the US bombed a country to teach it a lesson? Why does O'Bomber think it will be different this time?

Making It Up As They Go Along: With the 'Final Round' of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Plundering Partnership treaty scheduled and little if any agreement yet reached on nearly one-third of the 'chapters' of the putative agreement, will there be secret meetings to resolve differences – away from the glare of public scrutiny? Not that there's been much public scrutiny so far and absolutely no public discussion or input into this latest ceding of national power to corporate forces. The interesting stuff always happens in secret, and for a reason.

Making Love, Not War: Sweden is offering permanent residency to all asylum seekers from Syria. Wonder if they would like that old and forgotten statue from New York harbor?

Fine Print: Yeah, the economy added jobs! Yeah, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.3%! But we only added a piddling 169,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell only because 312,000 people dropped out of the workforce. Let's see, if we lost 312,000 workers and added 169,000 jobs, we're celebrating a net decline of 143,000 employed American workers. Big whoop. Oh, and they took 74,000 away from job gains claimed in the previous two months. Fortunately, Wall Street profits continue to climb and war with Syria will boost the economy, too.

Another One Bites The Dust: For essentially unfathomable reasons, Australia has chosen über-conservative Tony Abbott, of the über-conservative Liberal Party,to be their new Prime Minister, leading them into a god-awful future with exactly the wrong plans: cut spending, kill immigrants, cut taxes, reduce the deficit and stop paying any attention to climate change – it's a hoax. Another great argument against popular democracy.

The Quote: It’s hard to look at climate change deniers as being anything other than willfully ignorant. The numbers are right there: As surely as greenhouse gas emissions are rising, so are global temperatures. To discount all that is to choose to be stupid.

What's A Little Leak Among Friends? The corrosive liquids that triggered the massive leak in a well in Total's Elgin North Sea field are commonly used in deep-water wells around the world. Total has quietly warned other operators of the danger. Don't worry, they are experts and they won't take unnecessary chances. Depending on the definition of 'unnecessary' of course.

Cornered: The Federal Reserve, and various other economists and financial commentators, have repeatedly told us for the last two or three years that the (then) latest data was a little weaker than they'd hoped for, but that better times were just around the corner. What if they're not? What if the Great Recession never ends? Show me where it says it must.

Porn O'Graph: Global temperature, by decade, by golly.

The Parting Shot:

"a way a lone a last a loved a long the/riverrun..."