SAR #15047

It was romance, not love. It often is.

Boots Just Above The Ground: Waves of American Apache attack helicopters armed with machine guns, air-to-surface anti-armor missiles and rocketry have been attacking the ISIS forces near al-Baghdadi in an attempt to protect the 300 plus US Marines at the near-by airbase from harm.

Strings: Listen up, GOPers, the Kochies have free money – they're giving away about a billon bucks - for you with no strings attached and all you have to do is promise them you will never ever believe in global warming or taxing the people causing it. Take the money; it's not rocket science. It's not science at all. 
 
Enough Already: As part of the essential protections international corporations need, the TPP treaty will give them the ability to send people to prison for the non-commerical infringement of their copyrights, No need for courts and such.

New & Improved: Comcast wants to assure its customers that they will not be called assholes anymore. Even if they are.

A Penny Saved: The at least occasionally prescient Robert Shiller notes that the CAPE index (a large scale view of corporate price-earnings) is about as high as it was just before the 1929, 2000 and 2008 debacles. Shiller expects little in the way of asset returns in the next decade. If I had any assets left, I'd worry.

Me, Too: Google, following on Samsung's heels, will eavesdrop on you as you browse the internet using Chrome, and like Samsung via your TV, will deliver ads tailord to your every mood – based on what it hears as well as what you click on.

Added Benefits: Visa wants you to upload an app that wil let them track you via your cellphone, just like Verizon and the NSA. So they'll know it's really you ordering that pizza in Gobbler's Knob. Or not, if the guy who stole your credit card stole your cell phone. Or vise versa.
 
One Per Customer: Wisconsin Wannabe Scott Walker is right; if Americans had to pee in a cup before they could could run for office, we'd all be better off. 
 
What The Frack? The US oil-rig count climbed from a paltry 180 in 2009 to 1,609 last October. Last week the count was down to 1056, a 34% drop in four months. CEOs in Houston aren't hitting the panic button yet, but they're keeping one handy on the credenza behind them.

Clip & Save: Little Brother has assured us that he won't “relitigate my brother's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Which is just fine, they weren't litigated in the first place. 
 
Syllabus: Obama wants to replace all that standardized testing mandated by Bush's No Child Left Behind with less testing, more teaching and more resources for teachers. For starters. Or non-starter, given the Republican education-for-profit privatizers' control of Congress.

And The Winner Is: “There is an absolute way to win. Have your own lottery. Every day for one year put the $2 in a can. At the end of the year pull out the $730 and declare yourself the winner. And, you don’t even have to pay taxes on the winnings. There are a lot of nice things you can buy or do with $730.”

Fifty Greyer Shades: SC state representative Thomas Corbin, at a meeting on domestic violence, described women as “a lesser cut of meat”. Mr. Corbin is, of course, a Republican.

Porn O'Graph: The way it'll be. Scary stuff.