SAR #15108

Repeat after me: Paper ballots, hand-counted in public.

Free Money Forever: According to the government, the cost of living has decreased 0.1% y/y and not seasonally adjusted. Don't see where the inflation is going to come from that would require the Fed to raise interest rates. Looks like more QE will be needed, so party on.

Future, Tense: During the fifty years of the original Cold War, both sides knew the rules and pretty much stuck to them. But today, with Cold War Two between Russia and the US and its European dependencies, there are no rules. Both sides are making it up as they go along, pushing towards a less-than-proxy war in Ukraine. That's why sending a brigade from the173rd Airborne to Ukraine right now is not a Good Idea. 
 
Delegation: The head of ISIS in Pakistan was killed when a bomb he was planting exploded. He missed the part in leadership school about delegation.

Tail Wagging: California lawmakers have given in to a handful of vocal anti-vaccination idiots who think their opinion trumps science and that their rights include endangering the health of their neighbors' young children. Vaccinations will remain optional, despite the object lesson the state lived through this winter. California remains one of 20 states that allow ignorant minorities to put the majority at risk. 
 
Seconded: A one-year-old child was shot in the head during a road rage incident in Washington, where the irate driver was exercising his NRA-given right to protect himself by shooting the innocent at random. 
 
Another Place Not To Live: Arizona's Republican Governor has signed a bill that requires doctors to tell patients seeking an abortion that drug-induced abortions can be reversed, even thoough they cannot and never have been. The bill also bars women from obtaining any health insurance that would cover the cost of an abortion. 
 
Odds: For every 1,000 citizens killed by police, only one officer involved in these murders is convicted of wrongdoing of any sort.

Our Hero: A lawyer representing football star and accused rapist Jameis Winston – likely to be the number one pick in the pro football draft – says that the lawsuit brought by his victim is just a “stunt”. He seems fully qualified.

Self-Hoisting Petard: Tennessee has never taken it upon itself to adjudge the validity of any group seeking to organize a church in the state, for fear of treading on the rights of Christians no matter how loopy. So they had no choice but to issue 'church' status to a swingers' club in Nashville, which will use its newly found faith to build a place of worship in a neighborhood that rejected them when they were being honest. 
 
Priorities: After spending billions to paint itself green, BP has abandoned all its green energy projects to concentrate on profits today and to hell with your children's future.

Back Issues: At the end of March the US embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan received 150 tons of “diplomatic mail” in 12 separate containers, which were flown in from Abu Dhabi on a Ukrainian cargo plane. The embassy had received an earlier large shipment of “diplomatic mail” via US Air Force cargo aircraft in November 2013. How much do pallet loads of $100 bills weigh?

Seasonal Mirage: The House has voted to repeal the estate tax, in order to save the family farm. Never mind that in the last 30 years the Republicans have been unable to find a single instance where a family farm was 'lost' to estate taxes, nor the troublesome fact that the tax only applies to about 0.2% of the very wealthiest Americans. It's a death tax and has to be killed. Too bad Senate Democrats appear to have enough votes to block it. But it makes for good theater.