SAR #15183

It used to be that anyone could grow up to be President. Now it seems to be everyone.

The Spiral: Spain has passed a law essentially outlawing free speech, free assembly and dissent, on pain of fines up to €600,000. 
 
The IMF admits that not only have austerity measures destroyed Greece, and that the solution – more austerity – will only leave Greece with unsustainable debt. Note that over 90% of the €252 billion in bailout loans did not go to Greece at all, but to northern European banks. 
 
New Zealand has instituted a $50,000 fine for sending “harmful digital communications”. Guess who gets to retroactively define “harmful”. 
 
Australia's largest woodlands 'will not be protected if it prevents mining' companies from making profits, and whistleblowing on child abuse or other sexual assaults in Australian concentration camps is now punishable by two years in jail. 
 
The UK Government has decided to scrap legal requirements to end child poverty because it would cost too much to feed and cloth them decently. The Cameron government is pushing Parliament to ban all encryption in Britain in order to insure there are no “safe spaces” from government snooping. 
 
Cookie Monster: Meet NSA's XKEYSCORE a program that allows NSA analysts to enter your email address and call up “full-take data” on your Internet searches, emails, documents, usernames and passwords, and other private communications – including the voice content of your phone calls. But deep down you already knew that. 
 

Here endeth the lesson.

Connecting the Dots: Ted Cruz says that reopening the US embassy in Havana is a "slap in the face" to Israel. Don't ask; he needs the contributions.

A Little Help: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) asked USAID for the geographic coordinates for $210 million worth of clinics the agency claimed to have built. Of the 641 the taxpayer had paid for, 80% could not be found – some of the coordinates were in the Mediterranean, many were in areas where there are no human structures, etc. 
 
Earth-Shaking: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ordered the Ten Commandments monument on Oklahoma City capital grounds removed. It also ruled that homeowners can sue oil companies over damage from the earthquakes fracking causes.