SAR #15301

Sure governments are bad at business. So is business; most startups fail.

Speak Softly And Carry A Dictionary: While Obama continues to maintain that there will be no boots on the ground, or if there are they will not be engaged in combat operations, the Secretary of Defense says the troops deployed in Iraq (and occasionally in Syria) will only engage in “direct action”, not combat. He also said that no US-trained Syrian rebels had come under Russian airstrikes because, despite a lot of effort and money, there are no US-trained rebel forces.

Echo: The newly elected president of Guatemala is a professional comedian. That's not exactly what we did – George was an amateur.

Definition: The US Special Forces soldiers who called in the air strike on the Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan knew it was a hospital but thought it was under Taliban control, making the sick and wounded men, women and children fair game to be burned to death in their beds. Knowingly bombing a hospital is a war crime, no matter whose running the place. Same goes for the Saudi attack on a similar hospital in Yemen.

Brave New World: What number comes next in this series: 1981, 1982, 1983, ____ ? Right, 1985, because the Orwell's estate claims exclusive use of the number “1984”.

Another Sideshow: House Republicans, seeing the shine has gone from their Benghazi investigation and not sure Marsha Blackman can carry the day with her Planned Parenthood witch hunt, is opening an investigation aimed at impeaching the director of the IRS. Because the DOJ said it found no crime...

Frying Pan/Fire: Despite the Saudi war on Yemen and the long-running civil war, refugees from Ethiopia and Somali continue to arrive, fleeing worse lives at home.

Neverland: The main Republican candidates more or less agree on tax policy: Zero tax on capital gains and much lower taxes rates on everyone plus a $2,500 per-child tax credit. Oh, and a balanced budget. And growth, lots and lots of economic growth. Too bad all our prevous rounds of tax cuts for the rich haven't produced much growth, but this time it'll be different. It says so, right there in Ayn Rand's novels.

Interesting Idea: In order to reduce the influence of unconscious bias in the selection process, college applications in the UK will be identified only by number, no names.

The Way We Were: “Why should we pay any attention to anything Republicans say about deficits?” Since JFK, every Republican President has deepened the deficit and every Democratic President has left office with much smaller budget deficits than he inherited.

First, Amended: The US Customs have intercepted about 300 clay tablets thought to be looted Biblical artifacts looted from Iraq, destined for Hobby Lobby's corporate headquarters. The Christianized owners will claim this interferes with their constitutional right to worship graven images.

Principal Principles: As the Republican party dissolves into an incoherent swirl of ideologues, the odds seem to favor of the Democrats retaining the White House in 2016 and possibly 2020 and beyond., if fo no other reason than that it is still an elective office. If the GOP cannot field candidates who bridge the chasm between traditional Republicans and the crazies on the Freedom Caucus/Tea Party edge while having at least some appeal to the independent voters, it is doomed. Right now such a candidate is not in view, and if one was he or she would be dismembered by the far right who insist on repealing not just Obamacare but every social advance made since FDR was first sworn in.

Rod And Gun Club News: US hunters kill more than 700 lions every year, although calling these guys 'hunters' is a stretch. It's more like getting laid in a whore house and pretending you are a great lover. They rank along side the poachers who use cyanide to poison elephants in Zimbabwe.