Wednesday, January 21, 2015

SAR #15021


Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory.
 
Reader's Digest Version: In his SOTU address Obama said, more or less, that inequality is rising, but wages aren't, that American families are making less today than in 2000, that far too many have dropped out of the workforce, that an unacceptable number of our fellow citizens are live in poverty and that we could do something about all these problems, but the reality is that we're not going to do any of it. That's how the game works. Party on.

Two Things: 10-year Treasuries are at at 1.8% and the southbound lanes of I75 through Cincinnati will be shut down for several days after an overpass collapsed onto the roadway. Too bad we can't afford to fix 'em until after they collapse.

Putting Down a Bet: The IMF has, again, lowered its estimate of global GDP for 2015 to 3.5%, citing “persistent negative forces.”

The Emperor's Clothes: The Pakistani Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination claims that the Saudi Arabian government is responsible for destabilizing the Muslim world through its funding the spread of the draconian and medieval Wahhabi brand of Islam. This is true, but we're not supposed to let on that we know.

Pass The Barf Bag: A new effort seems to be underway to revise history and blame poor people for bursting the housing bubble by wanting to live in actual homes. 
 
Animal Farm: Pope Francis, while insisting that contraception is a sin, says that Catholics “don't have to breed like rabbits.” He also suggested that gays should shut up and stay in the closet so as not to upset African bishops.

Story Prompt: At a vegan strip club, two workers are...

Certainly Hope So: According to Snowden-leaked documents, the US managed to entice China into stealing the blueprints for the F-35, which will set their military back ten years and waste immense amounts of money.

Family Values: Mike Huckabee's PAC has paid members of his family $400,000 over the last six years. Who says his presidential aspirations were wasted?

Spoilsport: John Hofmeister, noted for predicting the rapid rise of gasoline prices back in 2012, now sees $5 a gallon gasoline and crude oil “pushing $100 a barrel” starting later this year.

Ontology Recapitulates... “[I]n a truly free market mercenary armies might be encouraged to seek profits by starting new wars.” Sort of suggests that we've had “a truly free market” for quite some time.

Phoning It In: NSA has permanently 'compromised' the servers that store all of the iPhone identity and synchronization data. These are probably the same servers that store the Apple biometric identification data. Sort of on stop shopping.

2 comments:

Jesse said...


Owning one of these smart phones is like opening a window on to everything you do.

I use a 'dumb phone' that is good for talking, ok for texting, and does little else.

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

with regard to a 'truly free market' - Will Rogers expressed a typically sunny view when he said that, in his opinion, we have "the best Congress that money can buy"