SAR #15334

Don't worry about electronic voting machines; your vote will be stolen long before election day.

Teaching Point: The man who exposed HSBC's laundering money for arms dealers and helping the very rich duck taxes has been rewardedwith 5 years in jail. HSBC is sorry for any inconvenience this sorry affair caused the various dictators, drug lords and idle rich whose privacy was violated. HSBC is shutting down its operations in India because of Falciani's leaks.

Das Capitol: Mirror, mirror on the wall, we's the most corrupt of all! Maybe ever. And it is not getting better; might get much worse. An epic rant.

Rebels With A Cause: Portugal’s anti-austerity Left has finally wrested power from the EU/ECB/IMF loving Right two months after winning elections that the President tried to negate administratively. An acrimonious discussion with Brussels on budgetary goals will now unfold, as the government tries to provide for the people while Brussels backs the banks, with the President still muttering in the background that he will dissolve the government if it does what it was elected to do.

Terror Is As Terror Does: Climate activists in Paris have been arrested and placed under house arrest under terms of the newly passed anti-terrorism laws. Protesting is no longer allowed, for fear of... protests.

A Day In The Life: Kleptocrats from the EU/ECB and Germany, Inc. have stolen four banks worth about $350 billion for just over $6 billion, costing the Greek public about $44 billion in the process. It was all done with smoke and mirrors by letting the new owners name their price.

Signs Of The Times: Every day on your way to work you can see the dismal future of the US oil industry reflected in the $1.74 a gallon signs at the gas stations. It is obvious that massive defaults and bankruptcies are on the way if prices do not rise soon, and that prices are not going to rise soon. The questions you should mull over as you drive on down the street are these: How soon, and how far will it spread into the rest of the economy?

Noted: Generic versions of the hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, which cost about $90,000 in the US, are available in India for about $1,000. Got any vacation time saved up?

Profits Before People: The UK, which has become seriously unhinged of late, has passed the Deregulation Act, which makes all laws and regulations that might tend to limit corporate profits null and void. Wait to the Republicans get back to Washington!

Flattery: Saudi Arabia, which is planning on executing more than 50 people in a single day and will execute a famous poet for failing to comply with the wishes of the Wahabi terrorists who pass as religious leaders in the country, says it will sue any and all who compare their justice system to that of ISIS. And if that doesn't work they will execute you, kill your children and send your wives to marry ISIS fighters.

If / Then: If the UK can be prosecuted for war crimes over the missiles it sold to Saudi Arabia that were used to kill civilians in Yemen, then just imagine the number of charges the US will have to face...