SAR #16152

An economic model that does not account for fraud is incomplete.

Crime Pays: Bradley Birkenfeld, onetime manager of UBS's Geneva based American Desk, went public with 19,000 illegal American accounts holding over $20 billion being hidden from the US tax collector. The US Justice Department imprisoned him for stealing the data. The US Treasury Department awarded him $104 million in finder's fees.

Cannon Fodder: Turkey's Erdogan, wanting a goodly supply of foot soldiers to build his new empire, says no Muslim family should use birth control and that having less than three children is “treason”. Unless you are a Kurd, of course.

Salty Grains: Michael Hayden former NSA director and head spook at the CIA claims that Facebook is a bigger threat to your privacy than the government – the government only wants to know where you are and what you're doing. Others think it is their right to join you in your doctor's office and preach to you.

See No Evil, Say No Evil: The Australian government tourist bureau says that the scientists who report that “a third of the central and northern Great Barrier Reef corals are dead” have been out in the sun too long. They also say that the UN report about the increasing damage to Tasmanian forests from global warming overstates things. And they don't want potential visitors to know that their biggest tourist attraction as become the poster child for global warming.

Pointed View: It is not Donald Trump that is destroying the Republican Party, the Republican Party self-destructed, he's just picking up the pieces.

A Parting Shot: