SAR #14289

Define “sustainable” as in “a sustainable recovery.”

Decoder Ring: FBI Director James Comey says that Apple and others who are selling “dark devices” - phones and other devices that securely encrypt the users' data – are preventing the FBI from tapping your communications and thus preventing them from catching child predators, violent criminals, terrorists and those who would spread Ebola. Besides, you've got nothing to hide do you?

Jacks Or Better: In their opening bid, ISIS fighters killed at least 150 people in Baghdad.

Money/Mouth: One relatively accurate measure of sincerity is to follow the money. Over $1 billion has been pledged to the UN to fight Ebola. So far the $100,000 that Columbia promised and delivered is the only funding received. From the rich folks, nada.

Trick Or Treat: Democratic organizations like the DNC are flooding the internet with an unending barrage of emails begging, cajoling, threatening all sorts of bad things in what seems to be a desperate, last-ditch attempt to scare or shame people into sending them a few bucks. At first I thought the crap in my inbox was some sort of Republican ploy to discredit the Dems, but they apparently are doing it to themselves. I suspect that every dollar they manage to raise will come at the cost of at least one lost vote.

Mystery: Generation Y has been termed the “most cynical generation ever”. Wonder why.

Grist For The Mill: The Justice Department is begging a federal judge to delay the court order requiring the government to release videotapes of the force-feeding of detainees (they're not prisoners, you know) being held in Guantanamo Bay. Probaly not rated PG-13.

Without Comment: The US bombing of Afghanistan has reached a 2-year high.

This Just In: For the first 60 days of the air strikes against ISIS, the White House said they were legal under terms of the 1973 War Powers Act, which simply requires that the president inform Congress that he has unilaterally decided to wage a war. Now that the 61st day has come and gone, the administration is claiming that the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations to Use Military Force – which authorized Bush's war against Saddam and US operations against al-Qaida – also cover “operations” against ISIS, even though ISIS did not exist at the time and has been disowned by al-Qaida. It must be true, 'cause they said so.

Noted: Hunter Biden, son of the Vice President, has been discharged from the Navy after failing a cocaine test.

Inquiring Minds: Florida Governor Rick Scott wants a judge to prevent Google from revealing details about Gmail accounts he and two of his aides have been using. Makes one wonder what's behind the curtain. 
 
Asked and Answered: What’s the best way to overcome rising economic instability inequality? The problem isn't the rich, it's the poor, and the problem isn't the money the rich have but the money the poor don't have. We need to make the poor richer.

Question, Class: How come the R's are against the EPA regulating anything to do with the environment but all in favor of having the CDC dictate hospital procedures and set qualifications for getting on aircraft?