SAR #15075

Self-absorption is a fatal illness; ours.

Snowballing: After more than 30 years on pretending pedophilia was merely the just prerogative of the rich and powerful, the UK police are beginning to actually investigate the crimes. They have identified a luxury flat with a cellar where young boys were imprisoned before taken to nearby “party” houses where Members of Parliament and other big wigs sexually abused and occasionally murdered them. For sport. It seems that pedophilia was (and quite likely still is) part of the fabric of British society. The current Home secretary says “ 'We already know the trail will lead into our schools and hospitals, our churches, our youth clubs and many other institutions that should have been places of safety but instead became the setting for the most appalling abuse. However, what the country doesn't yet appreciate is the true scale of that abuse.”

Asked & Obvious: “Why Was an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Tracking a Black Lives Matter Protest?” What part of 'black' and protest' don't you understand?

The Works: Austerity – cutting social spending and taxes to increase economic activity – has worked so well in Europe that its GDP has only lost 10 points in the last 5 years, 100,000 companies have gone belly up and the young adult unemployment rate has been held to only 50%. And that's without Republican help.

Precisely: The Republicans are proudly sabotaging the health of their neediest constituents. If the Supremes rule against subsidies, over 3.5 million from AL, FL, GA, OK, SC and TX will be the losers. Who do Rubio, Cornyn, Cruz and the rest think they represent?

Either/Or: Shell's former CEO says that petroleum prices will double by the fall, while other experts say oil is heading for $20 a barrel. Note that last month world demand for oil increased by 1.1 million barrels per day.

Source Material: The IEA says that last year's 32.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions – essentially the same as last year's pollution of the atmosphere – is some sort of victory. Yeah, it shows that a slowing global economy uses less petroleum. What they neglect to point out is that even without any great increase in emissions the atmospheric concentration of CO2 continues to climb, now for the first time in humanity's history exceeding 400 ppm, “as climate change accelerates.”

Odds On: Why shouldn't we start another unwinnable war? Maybe God'll be on our side this time. Or do we just keep fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Feintly: The far right is right. The Federal Reserve is continuing to debase the dollar with its easy money quantitative easing. Never mind that the dollar has strengthened to parity with the euro, that's just a liberal trick. But don't celebrate too much, it is not good for our exports and we really don't need to increase our balance of trade deficit. 
 
Fool Disclosure: New rules for home Internet providers and wireless carriers require them to be truthful about how much their service actually costs. Most providers (ATT, Verizon, Comcast, TimeWarner, DirctTV etc) do not think that letting the marks know how badly they're being taken is a good idea.

Greed Is Good: The Wall Street “bonus pool” for 2014 is about double the amount of money made by all of the minimum wage full time workers in the country. The average bonus comes to $172,860.

One Born Every Minute: “As a matter of long-standing policy, the United States does not support political transitions by non constitutional means….” State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki.

Geograspy: Senator Cotton says we must stop the Iranians while we still can, pointing out that “they already control Tehran”. Makes you wonder where he sent his famous letter. 
 
Porn O'Graph: Home is where the young adults still are.