SAR #15086

"Collecting metadata on people means putting them under surveillance.”

Farm Teams: The US, having completely screwed the pooch in Yemen, is supplying logistical and intelligence support (from afar, having lost their in-country perches and drone bases) to a pickup team headed by Saudi Arabia with Kuwait, Bahrain, Qutar, Jordon, Sudan, Egypt and even Pakistan rounding out the roster, waging war on the so-far victorious Iranian backed Houthi rebels. This religious war between the Sunni (Saudi, al-Qadea et al) against Shiia (Iran and their dependent terror squads). The pending conflagration threatens both oil fields and oil transport routes, causing oil prices to rise and stocks to fall. 
 
Last Grasp: RadioShack is auctioning off to the highest bidder all of the customer personal data it has acquired over the years.

Plain Text: The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will permit (actually, encourages) corporations to sue the US government as well as state and local governments for any law or regulation that they feel diminishes the amount of profit they could make if they didn't have to worry about pollution, safety and that sort of thing. The cases would not be heard in US courts, but in extra-judicial investor-state dispute tribunals constituted by and for the corporations under the guise of the World Bank. It makes private corporations the legal equivalent of sovereign states, permitting them to privately enforce a public treaty. The whole thing stinks, especially the part where they call it a trade agreement. The only trade is our sovereignty for their profits.

Fiefdom of Choice: Republicans in AZ have passed legislation barring women using the federal healthcare marketplace from buying insurance that would cover abortion. 
 
Spare Parts: Next month the Pentagon is sending the first increment of US troops to Ukraine, while a bit to the south the US Air Force is flying air stirkes in support of Iranian troops in Iraq, while providing support for air strikes against Iran's designated representatives in Yemen. It's called pragmatism.

The Wilder West: Republican controlled Kansas is joining AL, AR, VT, and WY in permitting any adult citizen to carry a concealed weapon because "Carrying a gun is a lifestyle,"and you never know when you might have to shoot a gay, an abortionist, a stray liberal or an uppity female. 
 
Teaching Points: Representative Ron Johnson (Retard, WI) says Federal loans to students are a waste of taxpayer money because “loans are actually pretty easy to get, and college is a lot of fun.” And college is too expensive; he says it has gone from $1,000 a year in the 1960's to over $18,000 now. Actually, I went to an fairly cheap college in the 60's and it cost more than $1,000 a year, and my grandkids are going to pretty middle-of the road institutions for about $50,000 a year. But they are having fun.

Framing: Over the last few years, home prices in the US have outpaced wage growth 13:1. Home prices are being driven by speculators – hedge funds, institutional investors, international buyers, and gamblers, not by people who want to live in them.

Clause & Affect: Salesforce, a leading cloud computing company, has annoucned it is “canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana... because of the state's embrace of discrimination against gays, interracial couples, unmarried women without burkas, blacks, midgets and so on... and others who don't measure up to whatever religious yardstick someone wants to use. The NCAA has condemned the Republican Governor and legislature for passing and signing the bill. Keith Olbermann is using his pulpit to urge the NFL to boycott the state until it comes to its senses. 
 
Equal Opportunity: The SEC has decided that it is only right that the average American be permitted (if not actually encouraged) to lose his life savings betting on startups.