SAR #14139

Elections don't change things, revolutions do.

Present At The Creation: Despite some missteps in Ukraine and Vietnam, the Russian-Chinese agreement on a trillion dollar pipeline deal makes it likely that as the sun sets on the American Empire, Sino-Russian strength – military and economic - will grow and dominate the 21st Century.

Fails Laugh Test: The guys over at No Such Agency are having a good laugh at the US Justice Department charging China with computer-based espionage. 

 

Whistling/Graveyard: Charles Bolden, head of NASA, which can't send a man to Brooklyn much less the Space Station, says Russia's banning the US from using Russian rockets to get to the Space Station is no big deal. The US isn't interested in space exploration any more, anyway. Like me and sex.

Take Two Pills And We'll Call You In The Morning: NYPD cops solved a drugstore robbery by tracking the pills the robber stole – they contained GPS tags. Just think what the NSA could is doing with this technology. 

 

Goosing the Gander: Tell your daughter that if she's in a crowd and a man walks up behind her and grabs her breast that she is to simply stand there and enjoy it. That's what Judge Ronald Zweibel (who apparently has neither daughters nor decency) said in sentencing Cecily McMillan to three months in jail followed by five years on probation for reflexively elbowing an undercover cop who did just that. The cops uniformed friends then beat the crap out of her and dragged her off in handcuffs. She, mind you, was guilty of assault. The system works.

Dominoes: Today it's Oregon; a federal judge has ruled that the state's ban on gay marriage violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution. Number 19 by my count.

Be Afraid, Children: Former NSA chief General Keith Alexander is out beating the drums , claiming that the odds of a new, massive terror attack on US soil “are growing”, and that “a lot more is coming our way...” Which suggests we'd best prepare for even more government surveillance and control of our daily activities. 

 

The Company Store: What if the main reason the healthcare industry insists on warehousing the elderly as long as possible with pointless but expensive interventions is the profits these interventions provide doctors, hospitals and care facilities and the pharmaceutical predators? You can't die until your money is gone and all the money that can be extracted from your insurance, Medicare and Medicaid has been wrung out of you. It's in the fine print.

Without Comment: A Texas man faces a life sentence for making and selling marijuana brownies. Another reason I left the Lone Star. (Rick Perry, Stone Age Abortion laws... ) 

 

More Good Tidings: Greenland’s glaciers are even more vulnerable to melting than previously thought and, along with the newly apprised pending collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, will add even more to the expected rise in sea level due to global warming.

Do It Yourself: You've known for years that the Mediterranean Diet is good for you. Now scientists have figured out which parts and why. 

 

Porn O'Graph: Take a deep breath and relax.

The Parting Shot: