Misc

Scientists surprised by bright spots on Ceres. I bet they're electrical hot spots.

Police State

Imagine what government would do with drones inside bodies.

Swiss police raid HSBC after disclosure it helped customers avoid taxes.

Google calls FBI's request for more power to hack computers "monumental" constitutional threat. Apparently they haven't noticed the Constitution is dead.

Global Warming and Energy

Lake Erie 94 percent ice.

Federal Reserve

Predictably, Fed officers keep rates at zero and say they will continue for a long time. It hasn't worked so far, so why not keep doing it?

War

US to sell armed drones.

Ukraine busted for more lies as rebels take contested town with strategic rail station, capturing hundreds of Ukrainian troops. Once again, Putin was the statesman and the winner.

US won't back Egypt's attacks on ISIS in Libya. I bet Egypt's rulers are angry.

Foreign Policy

France gets in on the spying through malware fun.

As if we don't have enough problems with hackers, the US and UK launch fascist plans to create tens of thousands more. Governments are turning the internet into a war zone.

Empire, war, police state and warrior politics all go together.

War on Drugs

DeWine wants rebate on Narcon because price went up.

Local

Instead of learning reading, writing and arithmetic, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School students are forced to learn poverty, homelessness and fair trade. And we wonder why schools stink. Homeschooling is the only option. Government controls privates schools too.

Global Warming and Energy

Solar cycle 24 quiet again, weakest in century.

Politics

Obama's approval rating hits 50 percent.

Sports

The NFL has changed its story about how it found out about the Patriots' under-inflated footballs. This stinks of a witch hunt.

Education

Extreme abuse of children by school personnel. What else would expect from government's prison-schools?

Schools cancel basketball game over scary Facebook post. Stupid ruler are giving every idiot in the world so much power. Now more idiots will do this.

Federal Reserve

Central banks protect banks from market discipline. They also legalize counterfeiting.

Claim that the dollar, while assuredly suffering inflation, won't suffer hyperinflation because empires don't die that way. There's never been an empire built on paper money like this one.

War

The fight over strategic railroad station continues in Ukraine despite ceasefire agreement.

The war in Ukraine has heightened the risk of nuclear war, and rulers don't have a red phone like they did in the Cold War.

ISIS in Iraq burns 45 people alive.

First the US creates a bunch of jihadist rebels in Syria, trains them and turns them loose, then, when they rampant and start beheading people and setting them on fire, the US invites them into the country with Syrian refugees.

Italy deploys 4,800 soldiers, ostensibly to protect against ISIS, but it could be the economy.

Blame Hillary and her ally for bringing about disaster in Libya.

Immigration

Federal court block's Obama's executive amnesty plan, but lawless Obama won't obey it.

Even 70 percent of Democrats say jobs should go to Americans before foreigners.

Police State

Incident shows bad officers don't turn off dash cameras. It's institutionalized corruption.

Obama is right when says the American people are the biggest obstacle to strong encryption and internet security.

Facial recognition breakthrough means better spying.

Company plans to deploy police robot in 2016.

"The menacing look of Telebot is no accident. Its design is one “…that can intimidate and display a sense of authority.”"

That perfectly fits the cop mentality.

Economy

Stocks down because of failure of Greek debt talks. More pressure for them to reach an interim deal.

One of the ways unions harm workers is by causing them to replaced with robots. I think this west coast stoppage is a lockout, not a strike.

"The PMA took the punitive action—which will cost workers hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in lost regular and overtime wages—in retaliation for an alleged slowdown by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
“PMA members have concluded that they will not conduct vessel operations on those dates, paying full shifts of ILWU workers such high rates for severely diminished productivity while the backlog of cargo at West Coast ports grows,” the PMA said in a statement."

Robots don't slow down either.

New York Penthouse most expensive ever.

London art auction breaks record.

Local

Truck crash knocks out power.

Record low high temp set yesterday. Cincinnati set a record low high and a record low at -7. That's cold.

Government spends tax money destroying houses and building houses.

Huber Heights's pool boondoggle wasn't built well enough to survive the winter unscathed.

Misc

Rosetta scientists surprised by the warmth of supposedly icy comet 67P and which showed no surface water ice.

Game theory doesn't understand species survival, which arises from the survival drive of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on's genes.

Health Care

Fear antibiotic resistance will kill 300 million people by 2050.

About those Obamacare enrollees.

Immigration

Republicans Senator compiles comprehensive timeline of 200 acts Obama took to dismantle immigration system.

Tax and Spend

Democrats unhappy about the Obamacare taxes the forced on Americans. Too funny.

Greece rejects eurozone offer as time runs out. There'll be a temporary deal just in Congress. More.

"Greece refused to countenance an extension of the existing €172bn bailout programme, while the rest of the eurozone’s finance ministers said this was a non-negotiable first step to talks." 

That's not a good starting point.

"“There is no alternative to a request to an extension of the programme” said Pierre Moscovici, the European Commission’s economics and financial affairs commissioner. That  was echoed by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chairman of the Eurogroup. “It is up to the Greek authorities now to decide whether they would want such an extension” he said. “There was a very strong opinion across the whole Eurogroup that it has to come from the Greek authorities... They have to make up their mind whether they will ask for an extension of the current programme.”"

They're going to extend the deal so they can negotiate more.

Regulation

FEC and FCC to destroy the internet as we know it. I don't know why this has become such a political issue.

Politics

Another reason to boot Google for DuckDuckGo. The downside to this is another reason Google is going down.

Federal Reserves

Central banks bought lots of gold.

Foreign Policy

NSA, though not named specifically, busted for new, most sophisticated malware.

"Taken together, the accomplishments led Kaspersky researchers to conclude that Equation Group is probably the most sophisticated computer attack group in the world, with technical skill and resources that rival the groups that developed Stuxnet and the Flame espionage malware."

I wonder who that could be. This is why US sites are constantly under attack from foreign hackers. It's nice to see this called a global scandal.

Local

Richmond police deploy drone.

Politicians, not the market, raise electric prices.

Media

Scientists have reason to exaggerate their findings because they believe getting in the media advances their careers.

Health Care

The VA was still investigating Phoenix corruption, but it stopped because of more corruption.

Government partially abandons its sickening diet.

New guidelines stop demonizing cholesterol.

Global Warming and Energy

Prediction of mega-drought in the Southwest comes from a model that has already failed.

Alarmists claim a new useful gas is destroying the ozone. They were wrong about freon, and they're almost certainly wrong about this.

Divestment of fossil fuel stocks from pensions hurts schools, students and especially poor families.

Showing the disconnect between weather sensors and reality, NCDC claims this is America’s sixth warmest winter ever.

Now global warming will spread disease. Funny, I always thought people were sicker in the winter.

Misc

Source of the cosmic thunderbolt symbol from many cultures.

Scientists surprised by giant plumes extending outside Mars's atmosphere.

""I don't think it's real. … Basic physics says this can't occur," Clancy says, adding that the conditions in Mars's upper atmosphere don't supply the necessary ingredients for clouds."

Typical.

War

Ron Paul on Obama's blank check for war.

Egypt attacks ISIS in Libya. Italy calls on the UN to attack ISIS in Libya.

ISIS affiliates are popping up because of, not despite, US war on ISIS.

Pentagon spends $84 million per year on Viagra.

Politics

The EU as the political extension of NATO, organizing all of Europe into a US client.

Misc

Lost civilizations discovered by satellite and drones in Sahara and Amazon.

Economy

Investors unhappy Google's boondoggles don't turn profit.

Global Warming and Energy

This is the third snowiest winter on record so far for Boston.

Scientists ask for international regulations to restrict geo-engineering. Or maybe this is a charade. Getting regulations would effectively allow geo-engineering.

War

Schizophrenic US war policy.

"For several months now, I’ve been noting that there is no foreign policy in Washington, but two factions that oppose each other in all things and separately conduct contradictory and inconsistent policies. [1]
The climax of this situation has been reached in Syria, where the White House first organized the moult of Daesh and sent it to ethnically cleanse Iraq, then fought it even though the CIA continues to support it. This inconsistency has gradually spread to the Allies. Thus, France joined the anti-Daesh coalition while some of its legionaries are part of the Daesh cadre [2].
When the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, requested written clarification, he not only received no answer, but he was fired. [3]"

I've been writing about the US fighting on both sides in wars for years. The head of the CRF called for the ouster of Obama's closest advisors. He won't get rid of them now. He has no more elections to worry about. In fact, why did this guy wait so long, when he knew he would have no leverage?

Since the US created ISIS and destroyed Libya, ISIS has spread to Libya.

The US lies about who it kills in drone strikes.

"According to Reprieve, a stunning 28 innocent people have been killed for every known terrorist or militant felled by a drone strike. The report echoes recent data of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), which managed to identify 704 of the 2,904 drone victims who were killed before October 2014 and found that just 10 percent were members of an armed group."

Wow.

Tax and Spend

In some form or fashion, Greece must default.

"One day, the whole system will come crashing down. Except for Hungary, government spending as a percentage of GDP has been rising year after year since the financial crisis of 2008. For the EU's twenty-eight nations, government spending hit 49 percent of GDP in 2013, up from 45.5 percent in 2007. For Greece the ratio has gone from 46.8 percent in 2007 to 59 percent in 2013: so much for the fiction of austerity."

Europe is doomed, as are we all.

Health Care

Curcumin boosts Omega-3 levels by converting plant-based ALA to EPA and DHA.

Police State

Danish police kill man they believe responsible for killing two at free speech event and synagogue.

CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia on lockdown.

War on Drugs

Schools treat e-cigarettes as drug paraphernalia.

Local

West Carrollton wants to raise taxes.

RTA to implement another bike-sharing program downtown.

Foreign Policy

The DoD intelligence report on Iran reports Iran's military is defensive only with no threat of aggression. But Iran is selling oil in currency other than the dollar, so it must be destroyed.

Pat Buchanan says Iran is no threat.

"Last week’s panic was triggered by the ouster of the pro-American Yemeni President by Houthi rebels. Suddenly, we heard wails that Iran has now captured four Arab capitals — Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa." 

Hardly. Shiites are not Iran.

"What about Iran’s drive to build a nuclear bomb?
Well, Israel has 100-300 atom bombs. America has thousands. Iran’s Muslim neighbor Pakistan has scores. And Iran? She has no bomb.
Iran has never tested a nuclear device. She has never produced weapons-grade uranium. Her Fordow underground plant now has IAEA inspectors and its 20-percent-enriched uranium is all being diluted. Construction of the heavy-water reactor at Arak has been halted. Half of Iran’s centrifuges are not operating. There are International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and cameras blanketing Iran’s program.
The U.S. intelligence community has twice said Iran has no nuclear bomb program. And the most recent finding, 2011, has never been reversed by the Director of National Intelligence." 

Peace doesn't make our rulers rich.

Politics

Prosecutor charges Argentine president in cover-up of murder of previous prosecutor.

Invisible Hillary Clinton has trouble raising funds.

Federal Reserve

Hackers steal nearly a billion from banks.

People are hoarding money, blocking hyper-inflation, for now.

Misc

Mikhail Gorbachev praises Khrushchev for denouncing Stalin.

Italians aren't reproducing enough to replace themselves.

"The birth rate among immigrants has fallen to 1.9 children per woman, its lowest level for five years.
Overall, the number of couples choosing not to have children has increased to 40 per cent in the last decade. Italian women have 1.39 children on average, against an EU average of 1.58."

Bye, bye Italy.

Health Care

Obamacare is expensive.

"A survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation, tracking 2015 deductibles and copayments across most exchange plans, says those complaints are at least half right. For all but the most generous Obamacare plans, out-of-pocket payments are usually higher than for employer-based insurance -- in some cases, drastically so."

Thanks, government.

The FDA wants us to believe this GMO apple is safe. No thanks.

Economy

Apple's self-driving car.

Media

Now Hollywood movies are being confused with science.

"In a paper published yesterday to the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, Thorne and Double Negative chief scientist Oliver James published the code used to create Interstellar's black hole, Gargantua, and demonstrated how it could be readily adapted for scientific research"

Maybe the code to render elves can be used to study elves.

"But with any luck, we won't remain blinded to the majesty of real life black holes for too much longer. Astronomers from institutes across the world are combining the power of thirteen radio telescopes to produce the first ever image of a black hole, or, more specifically, it's event horizon, the outer boundary. The project, called the Event Horizon Telescope, aims to have an image in three years."

Maybe this will be valuable because it won't show anything since black holes don't exist.

Tax and Spend

Greece has all the leverage against its eurozone lenders.

"Amazingly, Greece has all the leverage in these negotiations. Really? Yes they do and the following quote sums it all up….“If you owe a bank one thousand dollars and cannot pay it back, then YOU have a problem; but if you owe a bank one million dollars and cannot pay it back, then the BANK has a problem”. In this case the Euro-Zone is the bank…and they are owed > $315B. Greece is the poor little client with no practical chance of repaying any of this debt.
The Euro-Zone is well aware of this predicament. The worst case scenario for them is Greece “flipping them the bird” as they wave goodbye to the euro. The write-downs would be massive, capital would have to be raised to replace it, the economic disruption to all of Europe would be substantial and other large creditor countries to the Euro-Zone [Italy and Spain] may be tempted to copy Greece’s move and just “bolt” from the EU.
And…the future of the Euro-Zone could actually be in peril and that is dangerous to the entire global economy."

To keep Greece in the eurozone, lenders have to accommodate it.

"But…alas…Greece’s leaders have a brilliant idea to solve all of these lingering problems and, of course, it has to do with money printing. Greece has suggested that the Euro-Zone’s central bank [ECB] simply purchase most of Greece’s near term [5 years] maturity debt and actually deliver the proceeds back to Greece.
Greece’s message to the Euro-Zone amounts to…since you are starting an indefinite debt monetization program in just two short months…why not include us in the money printing party too even though our ability to repay our obligations is essentially zero? Hey…we’ll even pay for the paper and ink….with the money you’ve already given to us.
Everybody wins… no write-offs for the Euro-Zone, a little breathing room for Greece, the euro depreciates even more [an objective of debt monetization] and when Greece, inevitably defaults, the ECB can just print more money for them, once again, to defer the inevitable pain.
“In your face” Euro-Zone. Greece outsmarted you at the negotiating table and you will likely acquiesce to their creative requests…in all of your money printing shame…or is it just a dubious honor?"

They'll probably do it. At least a bunch of it.

War

Americans don't want another war.

"That an Iraqi army we equipped and trained at a cost of tens of billions would disintegrate and desert Iraq’s second city, Mosul, when confronted by a few thousand fanatics, was a debacle.
Why should Americans have to recapture Mosul for Baghdad?
And why do these “democrats” we install in power seem to perform so poorly?"

Rhetorical question.

Obama's wants Republicans to pass a new AUMF so they can share the responsibility for his failing war. If Republicans hadn't won the Senate, he wouldn't have pushed for this.

ISIS on the verge of taking Anbar province.

4,000 troops head to Kuwait before fighting in Iraq.

Claim that Putin is the winner of the Ukrainian cease-fire deal.

"President Putin proposed the solution over a year ago: autonomy in a federal state and the right to speak Russian for eastern Ukraine. Most important, Ukraine would never join NATO. Doing so would have put Russia’s vital naval base at Sevastopol under NATO control – as unthinkable for Moscow as for the US to see Norfolk, Virginia, or Houston under Russian or Chinese control.
Ukraine’s fierce nationalists and their US backers rejected Putin’s plan and set about trying to impose Kiev’s total control by military force.
It’s ironic that the US has given total support to Kiev’s war against what it calls “rebels” and “terrorists” while arming and financing Syria’s Sunni rebels whom Damascus brands “rebels” and “terrorists.”"

I doubt warmonger Obama will abide by this deal.

"A peace deal comes not an hour too soon. A full battalion of US Army troops is scheduled to arrive in western Ukraine to “train” government troops and lead them into battle. This hare-brained scheme has a potential clash with Russia written all over it."

Hopefully it will at least slow things like this down.

"Imagine if Russian troops arrived outside Montreal to train Canadian forces. The US has no strategic interests in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union/Russia until 1991. The whole crazy scheme was promoted by neocons as a way of undermining Russia and pulling Ukraine into their ideological orbit."

The dollar is the US strategic interest everywhere in the world.

"Putin has gotten Crimea back and Ukraine is in confusion. Most important, the march to war in Ukraine between nuclear-armed Russia and the US has been averted. Match to Putin."

Let's hope it holds. Warmonger Obama should give his bogus Nobel Peace Prize to Putin.

Technology making submarines obsolete.

Socialism

Why is the US Coast Guard in Antarctica?

Police State

Terorist kills Denmark artist who drew Mohammad. Second shooting at Copenhagen synagogue.

Federal prosecutor turned congressman writes bill designed to significantly advance the police state, turning the TSA into national police force.

NSA braces for more leaks coming soon.

Health Care

Pseudo-scientists just keep ramping up the alarmism about smoking.

Global Warming and Energy

Japan has more charging stations than gas stations.

Global warming skeptics are more knowledgeable about climate science than true believers.

Coldest day in two decades in New York City.

Foreign Policy

Rulers have been manipulating events for 100 years to create a European super-state. They won't let Greece go easily. I don't see how war in Ukraine helps keep Greece in the euro-zone. Right now, Greece and Russia are cozying up.

US noted Israelis were developing nuclear weapons in 1987.

Misc

Comet 67P, like comet Wild 2 before, contains crystals that can only be formed in high temperature.

Politics

We're supposed to believe Obama cares about cyber-security.

While politicians routinely get away with massive corruption, both legal and illegal, the Oregon government is being forced to resign over something ridiculously petty.

"Kitzhaber is under criminal investigation by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office for the role his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, has held in his office and whether she used that role to obtain private consulting work."

Politics is about cronyism. This isn't the real reason he's being forced to resign.

Police State

With multi-partisan support, EU setting up air passenger database.

DARPA is unusually honest.

"he government agency that brought us the Internet has now developed a powerful new search engine that is shedding light on the contents of the so-called deep Web. DARPA began work on the Memex Deep Web Search Engine a year ago, and this week unveiled its tools to Scientific American and 60 Minutes. "Memex, which is being developed by 17 different contractor teams, aims to build a better map of Internet content and uncover patterns in online data that could help law enforcement officers and others. While early trials have focused on mapping the movements of human traffickers, the technology could one day be applied to investigative efforts such as counterterrorism, missing persons, disease response, and disaster relief.""

Moving on.

Global Warming and Energy

Fearmongering paper claims "unprecedented drought" coming to southwestern US in 21st century. Hello. The southwestern US is a desert. There would nothing unprecedented about a great drought there.

War

US drone strikes have burned more people to death than ISIS.

Skepticism over ceasefire deal for Ukraine.

A selfish agreement by rulers won't stop war in Ukraine.

Economy

Prediction Google has peaked.

Apple joins Google, Microsoft, Uber and everybody else in pretending to be a car company. This is about government-granted tech monopolies.

Apple, like Google and Uber, is out of control. They can't own the car business.

Apple thinks its a car company. That's one of the reason it's going down.

Tax and Spend

IRS turns over 16,000 Lois Lerner emails, most likely after they deleted the incriminating ones.

Fed collect record taxes again.

Immigration

Armed with Obama's illegal IDs, states won't be able to stop illegal immigrants with voting.

Health Care

Theory the current measle's outbreak may have been orchestrated to benefit Big Pharma.

"The blitz has all the markings of an orchestrated campaign, perhaps a good example of “crisis capitalism” revealed to us in Naomi Klein’s seminal work, “The Shock Doctrine”. Whomever the hidden persuaders are, we know who will benefit from the freak-out. They are the Big Pharma megacorporations, their shareholders and others who are trying to shine up the honor of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Practice, and other medical trade organizations, all of which are highly dependent on Big Pharma’s largesse (in the form of advertising revenues and financial support for their medical conventions)."

I didn't know vaccine companies were completely exempted from liability.

"At noon today (Monday, Feb 9) I heard Dr Michael Osterholm, MA, PhD give a speech on MPR about his perceived need for the American government to spend more money and effort preparing for the massive number of. infectious diseases that might theoretically threaten the US in the future. He claimed that more vaccines are needed and they might need to be forcefully administered to reluctant subjects. I didn’t hear him say anything about the need for optimal nutrition, the main factor that made all the other infectious disease epidemics essentially disappear before the vaccines for them came on the market "

They can't make money off healthy, locally grown food.

Doctor claims the MMR vaccine is more dangerous than measles.

"From 1900 to 1960, with improved sanitation, clean water, and better nutrition fostered by rapid delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables along with affordable refrigerators, the mortality rate from measles in the U.S. dropped more than 95 percent."

It wasn't the vaccine that wiped it out.

"When I was a child 70 years ago families would have “measles parties” to expose their kids to another child with measles so they could have the disease and get it over with, since everybody eventually got measles anyway."

That sounds extreme.

Education

Parents rebel against Ohio and federal testing regimes. This is a good, if small, development. Better to take their children out of government schools.

Ohio bill limiting consequences of testing for one year is wothless.

Misc

Quick introduction to electric universe theory.

Local

Metroparks mansion sold to Metroparks employee in sweetheart deal.

Regulation

Contrary to the propaganda, minimum wage increases reduce employment or slow employment growth.

These article about stirring privacy fears are ridiculous. No spy program ever gets stopped because of them. 

Economy

Jim Rogers is bullish on Russia.

Foreign Policy

Convicted CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling says he's innocent of leaking operation Merlin secrets.

"Sterling, who had gone through established whistleblower channels in his attempt to expose the failings of Merlin by approaching the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003, insisted that he was not the source for Risen. His defense team suggested instead that someone on the congressional staff could just as easily have leaked the information, an alternative that was not seriously considered by the government attorneys."

That sounds like reasonable doubt to me.

Federal Reserve

The IMF protects the biggest banks of the G5 and carries out US foreign policy.

Russia is moving towards a gold-backed ruble.

Central banks hoarding gold, but mostly the BRICS, not in the west.

War

Rulers broker another Ukrainian ceasefire. Let's see if it takes.

13 point ceasefire plan. I doubt the US will honor the provision about removing all foreign troops and weapons.

Video of Ukrainian woman standing up to government draft enforcers.

Civil war in Yemen because the US fomented a coup there too.

Government and media lies about Syria and the Syrian rebels misled Kayla Mueller to aid the rebels who then kidnapped and killed her.

Politics

US dominating Israeli elections.

"The Republican consultants and money supporting right-wing causes are providing a boost to Netanyahu's Likud Party, while the Democrats are backing the more liberal Labor Party and the Zionist Camp, a center-left coalition that includes Labor."

This stinks.

Police State

We're supposed to believe Anonymous is hacking gas pumps. I'm skeptical. This is more likely a false flag. Anonymous gains nothing by hacking gas pumps, but our rulers gain by making it appear so.

FBI and DOJ can't find their drone privacy impact reports. This makes the government look clownish, but it's not. This is by design. It's evil, not stupid.

Socialism

Forced water rationing prompts Brazilians to hoard water.

Disgraced Secret Service agent who knows all about Obama gets secret job in DHS ICE division. That's what happens when you have the blackmail material.

Media

When will Al Sharpton get suspended for his lies? This is a great question, but Sharpton isn't a journalist. He's an activist. He has no pretense of being unbiased. Audiences don't care about his credibility.

Regulation

More skepticism of the danger of AI. This is all about regulating competitors.

One way to whip of furor over the FCC's impending regulation of the internet is compare the plan to Obaamcare.

Foreign Policy

NSA cyber-attacks on Iran taught Iranian forces techniques to use against Americans.

War

Obama is lying about the war resolution he's requested from Congress.

""It is not the authorization of another ground war like Afghanistan or Iraq," Obama said. "As I've said before, I'm convinced that the United States should not get dragged back into another prolonged ground war in the Middle East. That's not in our national security interest, and it's not necessary for us to defeat ISIL.""

Then he doesn't need a new resolution.

Ron Paul calls it a blank check for worldwide war.

"Interestingly it actually expands the ability of the president to wage war although the president publicly indicates he would like to restrain it. The new authorization explicitly does not impose geographic limits on the use of troops anywhere in the world and expands the definition of ISIS to that of all “associated forces.” A grant of this authority will do nothing to limit our dangerous involvement in these constant Middle East wars."

Exactly.

I like this description:

"On Wednesday, President Obama finally noticed the United States had been bombing the Islamic State (ISIS) and figured he should ask Congress to give permission for that which had already begun."

No kidding.

Global Warming and Energy

Jealous scientists from non-climate fields demand a piece of the government funded pie using geoengineering as an excuse.

Tax and Spend

Corrupt Ukrainian coupmeisters have blown through $17 billion, so the IMF plans to send $50 billion more. That'll disappear too.

Consequences in Greece.

"In short, Germany has no choice except to let Greece go and to allow the entire EU bailout state to unravel, and then to pay the piper for its statist follies.
The alternative is an all-powerful superstate in Brussels and Frankfurt that will necessarily extinguish whatever remains of political democracy and capitalist prosperity in Europe.
The latter would also permanently bury German taxpayers in other people’s debt. The fiasco in Greece has already proven at least that much."

I hope Greece pulls out.

US steals from ex-patriots.

"In the meantime, the U.S., now in its death throes, is burdened by inconceivable debt that cannot be repaid, an economy supported by a diminishing, asset-stripped middle class, all of which is actively ignored by an incurious, anesthetized population more interested in the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass than in their own privacy.  The behemoth is now thrashing, flailing, doing anything and everything to stay alive, including extorting other nations and its own citizens.  The beast will be come more aggressive and violent as it approaches its final breath."

Good description.

Remember that talk about sequestration cutting spending? It was a lie. Government spending and the deficit are both up dramatically.

IRS apologizes for seizing bank accounts because of bogus structuring laws, says it won't do it again. Please. It will just make the hard drives disappear.

Misc

Comet theory gets sillier and sillier with a theory comets form like deep-fried ice cream.

"Take Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the 3-mile-wide lump of rock and ice the European Rosetta spacecraft has been orbiting since September, for example. It would smell terrible, it generates a strange radio wave song and it is much darker than expected, even darker than charcoal."

Where does the frying come from? It's not the first time comets have been compared to ice cream. Note nobody has observe the ice cream inside.

Federal Reserve

Another bitcoin exchange has disappeared with the bitcoins. This thing was designed for fraud.

Senate Democrats, showing they're even more the party of Wall Street than Republicans, oppose auditing the Fed.

Politics

Jeb Bush posts names and email addresses of thousands of people who emailed him when he governor in absurd privacy breech.

The smear campaign cranks up for Scott Walker. The press is investigating his college days. They never investigated Barack Obama's or Hillary Clinton's.

Police State

More on how cops and the FBI work together to keep Stingray surveillance secret.

"“What is most egregious about this is that, in order for local police to use and purchase stingrays, they have to get approval from the FBI, then the FBI knows that dozens of police departments are using them around the country. And yet when members of the press or the public seek basic information about how people in local communities are being surveilled, the FBI invokes these very serious national security concerns to try to keep that information private.”"

Nice catch-22.

Florida lawyer advises drivers to keep their windows rolled up and remain silent at DUI checkpoints while showing a sign and papers through the window.

Russia plan to ban anonymizing tools. Every other government plans to follow.

Arizona bill would keep killer police identities secret.

Spy blimps over east coast.

Government reads any emails over six months old without warrants. NSA reads all emails without warrants, so this doesn't bother me too much.

Economy

Samsung claims it accidentally inserted adds into streaming video on its smart TVs. They have a weird definition of accident.

Weekend lockouts for west coast ports.

Health Care

US regulations allow food to be contaminated to protect corporations.

The government says alcohol is bad, so it's bad, and we got paid a lot of money to produce a scientific-looking paper to say so. We will not allow anybody to undermine the demonization of alcohol.

Ohioans spent record on alcohol.

Investigating facts of the MMR vaccine.

Health Care

US troops returning from African Ebola-zone. Seems like I read this a month or more ago.

Local

Huber Heights's council signs new agreement with YMCA to manage pool boondoggle despite mayor's objections.

"The contract was awarded despite objections from Mayor Tom McMasters, who believes that — had council engaged in a formal bidding process — another, cheaper option might have emerged."

That would have cost council member kickbacks.

Education

Compare school lunches to prison lunches.

Fewer than half of teachers now unionized.

Federal Reserve

I bet DSK isn't the only IMF bigwig who attended orgies. I bet they all did it.

Foreign Policy

The joint CIA-Mossad assassination of a Hezbollah leader in Syria was illegal and unconstitutional.

Police State

Serial stowaway flies, showing the uselessness of government's airport security.

Obama to announce new cyber-security agency brought to you from the same people who can't protect their own computers and who actively undermine all internet security.

Global Warming and Energy

Federally subsidized solar plant opens in California desert where it will do much harm to the environment. No that I care about a desert, but greens supposedly do.

Apple to build $850 million solar power plant, illustrating how corporations are socialist and inefficient from lack of prices.

""We know at Apple that climate change is real," Cook said. "Our view is that the time for talk is past and the time for action is now.""

There's a sure way to fall from the peak.

Snowiest month in Boston history.

Media

Brain Williams's claim to have been robbed in 1970s questioned. He's toast.

Williams suspended for six months. What a travesty. They're hoping this will blow over by then, but he'll still be a serial liar.

Politics

Illinois Republican governor takes on unions to cut government spending. Socialist Illinois must be reeling.

Comparing the new Greek prime minister to Fidel Castro.

Economy

Citigroup makes fantastic claims about oil and OPEC.

"Citigroup is telling us that oil is going to head down to $20 a barrel soon enough. Further, that Opec’s hold over the oil price is now definitively broken. That’s a pair of pretty strong claims and of course we need to take them both with the appropriate amount of salt. But I think the first is possible and the second is likely. Even though I agree that that second, the days of Opec’s control being over, is the more remarkable claim I do think it is the stronger of the two. The reason for this is two little bits of economics. The first being that monopolies and cartels do indeed exist but in the end they always fall over. If it’s not because of legal action against them, or because of cheating among the cartel’s members, then in the end technological advance will indeed get them. And that change here is fracking for tight oil. No, it’s not that the fracking revolution is cheaper than Saudi conventional oil or anything like that. But because the technology of fracking entirely changes the elasticity of supply of oil and that really does change the whole marketplace."

This will happen at some point because the technology of oil production, not just fracking, is advancing, but Citi will probably be gone before this happens.

 The middle class is shrinking.

Apple first $700 billion company.

War

Female American hostage ISIS claimed died in Jordanian air attack confirmed dead, but not the cause of death.

US closing embassy in Yemen.

Because of US aggression and because the US government has made the internet so insecure, we can expect cyberattacks in retaliation.

Both Republican and Democrat committee leaders want to send $1 billion in weapons to Ukraine. War is a bipartisan pastime.

Fear of major Ukrainian defeat may help peace talks.

Misc

New quantum models predicts no big bang, big crunch or dark energy. The universe has existed forever.