SAR #14288

“One thing you have to give Wall Street: they are not too lazy to steal.” Jesse

Reality Check: From the Dow's 17,300 three weeks ago, closing at 16,100 is less than encouraging. The Nasdaq is down over 10%. Etc. Etc. If you care, you already know. If you don't you must be one of the great unwashed who have all your money tied up in debts. That's why retail sales are off, too. 
 
Noted: The NASA reports that globally September was the warmest on record.
Capitalism 101: The UN says the world has failed to prevent Ebola from spreading and Obama agreed, pointing out that there was no profit to be made from the current crop of victims in West Africa. When it gets to the US, things'll gear up.

Dogma: Despite abundant evidence that German-inspired austerity has doomed the eurozone to years of unnecessary suffering, Germany's Angela Merkel insists that Germany will not abandon its demand that the budget balanced down to the last pfennig. Pfennig wise and Deutsche Mark foolish, or something like that. 
 
Grossly Domestic Product: What's all the worry about the economic effects of the Ebola when there will be an immense increase in hospitalization, expensive treatments, lots of fear and panic to pander to, plus all the funerals. All of which “economic activity” will go to increase our GDP, with very little increase in petroleum use, right Mr. Krugman?

Side Show: As Secretary Kerry was busy assuring everyone that the US was committed to helping strengthen Libya (NFIA), Egypt was busy bombing Islamist militant positions in Benghazi.

Logistics: There's a reason that armies spend a lot of time, money and attention on the little details involved in fielding troops – if you don't have solid logistical support, the mission fails. For example, the WHO is estimating that by December there will be at least 10,000 new Ebola victims a week. Never mind how many trained medical personnel, hospital beds, isolation wards and such will be needed, think about what to do with 7,000 corpses a week when there are only 50 safe-burial teams in the region. The CDC says, worst case, there will be 1,370,000 infected by mid January, which means that at current rates there will be about a million dead by mid February. 
 
It's The Other Guys: While 81% of Americans are convinced that most members of Congress are out of touch, over 50% say their representative is as pure as the driven snow or hasn't been caught yet.

Friends Like These: Turkey has agreed to let fighters cross into Syria to fight ISIS, but only if they are Syrian refugees. Those seeking to join ISIS don't seem to have to meet that requirement. 
 
Debtor's Dilemma: There is only one legitimate way to deal with debt - pay it off or write it off. Or you can see Vinnie and borrow some more to pay it off. Oh, wait... if you're the government you can just inflate it away. 
 
Resupply Mission: ISIS has overrun the third largest military base (built and equipped by the USArmy, of course) and captured tanks, artillery and military supplies. ISIS has also captured some of Saddam's antique chemical weapons. Y'know, the ones that didn't exist, and now seem to have. 
 
Rinse and Repeat: Perhaps the reason that the US has ben extremely reluctant to provide arms and training to Syrian rebels is that the CIA has finally realized that it rarely works – and Lord knows they've repeated the experiment enough times.