SAR #14112

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Philanthropy is not charity, it is the rich using tax write-offs to shape society to their purposes. D S Wright

Fan, Stuff Hitting The: There are allegations that Poland's NATO-installed leadership was pressured last fall to provide a month or so of training to persons to be dispatched to Ukraine to stir up trouble. Now Biden runs off to Kiev to boost the morale of the chosen oligarchs in our struggle to appropriate Ukraine's natural resources for Western Capitalists. Back in DC, the US warns Putin he has “days, not weeks” to fall in line. Grab your popcorn, the exciting part is coming right after the commercials. 
 
Diversionary Moves: While everyone is concentrating on the possiblity of war in Ukraine, Obama goes merrily along launching “massive and unprecedented” attacks against al-Qaeda in Yemen, killing “dozens of top leaders” in two days of airstrikes. Make that 'probable' top leaders. No actual count of weddings was immediately available.

Asked: Are Western Policies Evil or Desperate? Or both?

Unhelpful: Just in time to help Obama celebrate his arrival in Japan – where he's going to tell them to stoop doing what he's been doing for the last 5 years (QE) China has seized a Japanese cargo ship to force the Japanese to pay a pre-World War II debt. Playing hardball.

Days Of Whine and Roses: Science geeks aat the US AID say that there will not be enough arable land, available water or needed energy to sustain the 9 billion expected to populate the earth by 2050, resulting in starvation, famine and migration becoming “politically destabilizing” - which is science talk for war. They didn't mention plague, but that's in there too. Why don't scientists just keep busy figuring out ways for the rich to get richer and quit scaring the rest of us?

No Gold From Straw: A new study confirms what has long been suspected – the main value of corn bioifuels are the dollars it lets the politicians distribute to favored clients, and not in reducing CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. In fact it is a tad worse than gasoline in killing the planet as we know it. The politicians and the bioifuel industry quickly claimed that it was the study's methodology and not corn biofuels that were flawed.

This, Just In! “Politicians don’t seem to care very much about what the public thinks: when elite preferences and popular preferences are different, the elite almost always wins.” If you pay the band it plays your song.

Reminder: Your host is traveling and posting will be rather erratic until early May. Your indulgence at my indolence and selfishness is appreciated... ckm3, prop.

The Parting Shot: