SAR #15085

Think of balance sheet “goodwill” much as the value of a marriage before the divorce.

Gentle Ben Warren: Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has hired a management company to fire thousands as Heinz is merged with Kraft, creating the world's fifth largest manufacturer of food-like substances. The goal of the merged company is to “create savings of $1.5 billion a year” which is an awful lot of $15 an hour jobs, while protecting Warren's Good Guy Capitalist image. 
 
Last Last Chance: The mandarins running Europe have given Greece five days (until Monday next) to submit a written plan detailing step by step how Athens will make all of the changes (for which read “privatizations”) that the banks want.

Especial Ops: US Special Operations forces will be practicing suppressing civilian unrest in “training drills” across seven southwestern states this summer, in a process designed to accustom US citizens to the presence of armed military swarming from helicopters and waving guns around. Commanders explained that exercises like this allow soldiers to train in environments similar to anticipated future deployments, which explains why they've built a mockup of Washington, DC including subway traincars with Metro logos for “realistic practice occupying urban areas.“

Both Sides Now: In Yemen, government troops armed with US weapons are fighting against Houthi rebels, who are also armed with (liberated) US weapons. If you are keeping score at home, Yemen is a US backed Saudi satrapy and the Houthi rebels are backed by our new friends in Tehran. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also trying to matter.

Goose/Gander: Google thinks that as long as you are watching TV, the TV should be watching you. And tattling on you to advertisers. Well, at least they're not the NSA. Yet. 
 
Snip, Snip: In AK, Kim Hammer, a Republican state representative (and far too representative at that) has introduced a bill that would “give single mothers on Medicaid an incentive to get surgical contraception so they can take “a little bit of a breather to think about their life decisions that are affecting us as taxpayers.” Of course it's just aimed at single mothers because married women have men around to make their life decisions for them.

Party Hearty: In CT, GOP state representative Mike Bocchion noted that “At the end of the day, if there are not witnesses [to date rape and gang rape at college] at least if there are it is a great party.” He says his remarks were taken out of context and that he hadn't given his consent...

Another Damned Thing: Not only do we have to worry about running out of water – that was yesterday's story – the UN says that we have been abusing the soil so badly that within 60 years much of the world's farmland will be exhausted. Which is okay, because we're going to run out of water 20 years before that.

Privacy Acts: At a closed meeting in London, the World Bank, USAID, Syngenta (a seed and biotch firm) and the Gates Foundation met to plan the privatization of African seed saving and swaping, preventing traditional farmers from saving and sharing seeds. No farmers nor farm organizations were permitted to attend the meeting.

Made To Order: Orders for durable goods in the US fell again last month, making it 3 out of 4. The biggest disappointment was capital goods ex-aircraft orders, which were down 7.6%. It's becoming a pray as you go recovery. 
 
Porn O'Graph: Jobs, left and right.