SAR #15271

It's a test of character; a lot of 'em are failing.

Battered Up: Having deposed Boehner, the uber-conservatives seem likely to next turn to removing Mitch McConnell from his Senate leadership. Their complaint is that he has not taken advantage of the GOP majority to neuter the Democrats by eliminating the use of filibusters.

A Grateful Nation: An 11-year Special Forces holder of the Bronze Star for Valor has been kicked out of the US Army for “shoving a local [Afghan] commander who was keeping a 12-year-old boy chained to a bed as his sex slave. This was construed to be “a flagrant departure from professionalism and even-tempered leadership” by senior Army commanders who have long sense lost any sense of decency.

New Thinking. New Possibilities: An uncorrectable manufacturing problem has caused Hyundai to recall nearly half a million of its midsize cars to replace their defective engines.

Second Act: The second group of US-trained Syrian “moderate” rebels have given much of their weaponry and transport to the local Al Qaeda affiliate immediately on crossing into Syria . The $5oo million program has been a complete failure, like so many US undertakings in the Middle East.

Carramba! Jeb! says he will do what his brother did, except this time it will work.

Up The River: The Pine River in Michigan has so much farm-runoff-caused E. coli in it that residents are being warned to not even touch the water. Over in Flint, Michigan the drinking water contains so much lead that seniors, children and pregnant women have been told not to drink it. A chicken producer in Mississippi is recalling half a million pounds of chicken that may be contaminated with “extraneous metal materials”. As opposed to acceptable metal materials.

Barefoot & Pregnant: Marco Rubio says that women are either too dumb to be trusted to make abortion decisions for themselves, or they get pregnant so they can sell their fetus at Planned Parenthood which “created an industry … an incentive for people not just to look forward to having more abortions, but being able to sell that fetal tissue...”

Usual Suspects: Police in Kansas City are using computer algorithms to identify potential criminals before they commit crimes – and then telling the suspects that the cops are watching them. The idea is to prevent future crime through intimidation and harassment, although that's not the way the chief explains it.

Ordered In The Court: The judge in a Texas murder trial has had a “shock belt” placed on the defendant to encourage him to stop “misbehaving” during his trail. In that he is facing the death penalty, a few electric shocks may not have the deterrent value the judge is seeking.

Saying No To No: In Australia, 70% of the voters oppose the plan by the Tony Abbot government – wholly owned and operated by environmental rapists and climate change deniers – to strip environmental groups of their charity status.

Dumb & Dumber: “George W. Bush's central plan for selling his 2001 tax cut, both as a candidate and then later as president, was to lie about both its cost and its beneficiaries. Jeb Bush's central premise for his own tax cut proposal seems to be the same.”

Your Money Or Your Life: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a US drug company that has only one product, Soliris, is suing s Canada for trying to lower its $700K-a-year cost. Alexion has made $6 billion in profit from the drug in the last eight years. The drug treats, but does not cure, two rare and lethal diseases of the blood. Patients must take the drug for life. This sort of thing will become common once TPP is in force.

High There! “Dry” counties in Kentucky have significantly worse problems with meth than places where alcohol is legally available.

Porn O'Graph: Greed is good.