SAR #14329

We should dream a little smaller.

 
Perfect Record: Robert P. McCulloch, has been the Prosecuting Attorney for St. Louis County since 1991. During these 20-plus years, not one police officer in the county has been prosecuted for killing a suspect. Not one.

Through A Glass Darkly: No one actually knows what's going on with oil demand, supply and price and no one knows where it's going tomorrow. But there are some things we think we know: If the global economies collapse a bit more and demand for oil falls another 1 mbd, oil may go to 60 or lower. If OPEC/Saudi Arabia cuts exports by 1 mbd, and the world's economies muddle through, prices go back to the $100 range. If the price stays at or below $80 for long – six months or more, a lot of shale oil production will taper off and, after a year or so, a lot of shale production companies will default on their loans. And if world prices hover around $80 for a year or so, a goodly number of oil-based budgets in places like Venezuela, Russia and even Saudi Arabia will begin being expressed in economic hardship and social unrest.
Certainly US retail customers will be glad to take the money they'll be saving on their gasoline bills and spend it on other things, like food. But if the low oil prices are due to low economic demand, these happy days will not last. Most worrisome would be an expansion of debt in the mistaken belief that Good Times are back. They are not.

What Have You Done For Me Lately? If 0% growth in income for 100% of the population would represent a failure of our economic system, what about 0% growth for 90% of the population? 
 
Ins And Outs: Harry Reid, Temporary Senate Majority Leader, is genuflecting to the Republicans and letting them make corporate tax breaks permanent. Obama, under the strange belief that he's still president, has threatened to veto the bill because low-income taxpayers do not get a similar break. 
 
Talking Turkey: Women are not and cannot ever be equal to men. My name is Recep Erdoğan, I'm President of Turkey, and I approved this message. 
 
Curiosity: A Republican passed House bill aimed at hog-tying EPA to keep it from regulating anything, ever, prohibits scientists on EPA Scientific Advisory Boards from discussing their own scientific research. The bill will not pass the Senate, but it tells us which way the anti-science, anti-regulation stench is blowing. 
 
Endpoint: There is no point in debating the facts surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson shot and killed him. Wilson was a white police officer. Brown is a dead black teenager. End of story. What did they need a grand jury for? 
 
Travel Planning: Thinking about going to Detroit? Think again. Even the cops say it is too dangerous for civilians to enter.