SAR #14145

Corporations and governments do not do “anything they can get away with”, they do everything we let them get away with. 

 
Movin' On: The triumph – and the results across Europe are clearly that – of the anti-euro, anit-EU far right parties have served notice that the docile population is no longer docile, and that the great social/economic experiment is failing. And it is failing mainly because of the austerity that the leaders – bankers, politicians and industrialists – have instituted in a failed attempt to paper over the problems caused by too much unity, far too soon. The scramble of both major parties in England to claim the far right's position is the beginning of an cynical scramble we'll see repeated across the continent in the next few weeks as the politicians once more pretend they are leading the parade.

Removing All Doubt: A billionaire has won the Ukrainian presidential election. Next question?

Works In Process: When the Supremes hand down a decision it's the law of the land. More or less. Seems they are allowed to revise what they said, sometimes years after the decision is decided. But the court is remarkably shy about letting the public know they've made changes.

Survey Says: An API/Harris survey found that surveys “can be biased or flat out wrong.” 
 
Littering: As if the gigantic plastic trash island in the middle of the Pacific weren't bad enough, researchers have found trillions of pieces of plastic in the Arctic's ice. Best part is that as global warming melts the ice these pieces will join all the others choking the biosphere. Maybe we should reconsider whether “Plastics!” was good advice.

More Is More: Like so many other diet-related bits of wisdom, following a gluten-fee diet if you do not actually have celiac disease is a waste of time and, more importantly, money.

Leadership: Uruguay has decided to attack drug traffickers where they live – by selling marijuana tax free, undercutting the traffickers' profits and thus their interest in dealing the drug. And Iran has executed a billionaire for... bank fraud.

Pain In The... Neck: If they can tag a pill so your computer will know if you swallowed it, what does the government hide its tags in? 
 
The Parting Shot: