SAR #15191

"It is wrong to turn aside from what is happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with our lives." Pope Francis.

Yes, But: Germany's finance minister admits that the IMF is right when it says the only way forward will be to give Greece significant debt relief, but insists that it is not possible to do so under European rules and Germany is not about to let anyone change those rules.

Echo: The leader of ISIS in Afghanistan has been killed. By drones. Again.

Once And For All: Yes, the NSA has been listening to Angela Merkel's phone calls and those of over 100 of her advisors and political rivals, and WikiLeaks has published the transcripts. The NSA has been doing this for over a decade, and not just to the German High Command. It likes to pretend it just records “meta data”, but the records show they scoop up every word spoken – and if you think it's only the rich and famous... 
 
Prophets and Profits: ExxonMobil knew of, and made business decisions based on, the reality of climate change as far back as 1981. Yet it continued to fund climate change denial until at least 2008.

Hardly Time: A court in Naples has found former PM Silvio Berlusconi guilty of bribery, but by the time a second court hears the case and all the appeals are exhausted, the statute of limitations will have expired and Berlusconi will have another conviction to frame and hang on his office wall.

The Wild Wild East: Maine now permits all gun owners to carry concealed weapons, no permit nor rational reason required.

Perception: Now that 75% of Chinese stocks are not trading, major stockholders have been forbidden to sell their stocks and the market has fallen well over 35%, there is fear that the market “may be heading for a crash”. Golly, y'think?

Tea Leaf: The internet's bullish bloggers have become curiously quiet of late.

Be Afraid: The Pentagon is warning that by 2023 the Chinese will have “42,000 unmanned military planes.” By which they mean drones. The only way for us to be safe is to buy 43,000. Or more.

Sundown: Cops in NM are outraged that they can no longer simply stop people and take their money without even having to make up a reason. Maybe they'll go back to robbing drug dealers.

Bumbled Bees: Scientists agree that the native bumblebee population is fast declining, but point to climate change not pesticides as the culprit. The temperature range for the bumblebee has moved 200 miles northward, but the bees have only moved their range about 5 miles. Rather than migrate and adapt, they are simply dying out. An allegory? 
 
Rose Is Rose: The US Attorney General has ruled that, in the light of the Supreme Court's recent decision, married couples – all of them – will get federal marriage benefits.

Porn O'Graph: Snapped shot.