Just like they planned it...

Damn you Hawkins....don't you know we have a reputation to uphold?

For the past few months, and I'm sure for many more months to come, the United States, and much of the rest of the world, too, has been fixated on what Donald Trump and his band of merry men have been up to.  Is Putin using a condom?  Where are Prez Trump's tax returns?  Did he lie?  On and on. 

And in other Breaking News, we're still all hot and bothered about which bathroom transgender people can use, whether same sex marriage should be allowed or smacked down, whether Black Lives Matter more than any other lives, whether or not Kim's butt is getting bigger, whether you pronounce Qatar "Cut-er" or "kuh-Tar", etc.  All those things together pretty much take up all 24 hours of our modern 24 hour news cycle.

But SURPRISE...there's more going on in the world than they've told us about we've been allowed to know, namely that the BANKS have been scheming relentlessly behind the scenes to get control of what little money they DON'T already have.  Example in point, from today's BBC news:

"An international group of bankers, lawyers and stockbrokers - reportedly with links to the City of London [Europe's major financial center]- appears to have fiddled the tax system, employing practices which were at best unethical, at worst illegal [italics added].  Ultimately they may have deprived the state [Germany] of nearly €32bn (£28bn; $36bn)."

And they almost got away with it, until a young administrative assistant in Germany's central tax office noticed that she was receiving claims for huge tax rebates from a single US pension fund.  BUSTED!

Closer to home, the US House of Representatives last week voted to gut most of the Dodd-Frank banking reforms put in place after the financial meltdown back in '08.  The banksters have pretty much already poked D-F full of holes anyway, but this is just their way of kicking the rest of us in the teeth.  While we were all looking left, they quietly ran right for the win.

If you're keeping count, since 2008 the 20 largest international banks have been fined over a  QUARTER TRILLION DOLLARS for their illegal activities....and they're not the least bit ashamed of it!  

Meanwhile we sit here glued to the TV wondering whether Trump's Atty Gen, Jeff "Goober" Sessions, had grits for breakfast this morning?  *sigh*

Let that soak in for a minute.

S

Those crazy Brits seem to get all the best news stories....

I've really got to hand it to the Brits....they have a 'nose' for finding REAL news stories.  While US journalists are following up on silly stories about Secret Service agents who can't keep their pants on, the BBC gets the scoop on hard-hitting stories like this:

Red Square Naked Man Faces Charges

A naked performance artist who nailed his scrotum to Red Square as a political protest may face up to five years in prison.

Or this:

An al-Qaeda affiliated rebel group in Syria is reported to have asked for forgiveness after beheading a fellow rebel (L) in a case of mistaken identity.

And not far behind are the German media.  Today they featured a story titled, Five Reasons Stupid People Make More Money Than You.

1.  Beginning life with a healthy trust fund opens lots of doors, even for idiots.  ESPECIALLY for idiots.

2.  Beautiful, tall people will make $230,000 more during their working life.

3.  Men who score low on the "agreeableness" scale make 18% more than their more pleasant colleagues.  (Five percent more for snarky women.)

4.  "Brown nosers" win big.

and 5.  God apparently loves really stupid people judging by the way He bestows excessive "luck" on them.

So today I've learned I apparently come from the loins of indentured servants, am uglier (and shorter) than Danny Devito, am far too nice, have no concept of "sucking up", and couldn't hit the floor if I fell off a barstool.

  

Now that right there is some damn fine journalism.  It explains a lot.  ;)

S

Back in the saddle again....

Looks like I'm in good company at least. 

It seems the last few days I've been afflicted with the "Disease of Kings", aka gout.  My right foot / big toe started hurting like hell, as if I dropped a 50 pound weight on it, except without all the black and blue.  The doc diagnosed it and gave me some meds, and I'm much better now.

In the olden days it was usually royalty that had gout, mainly because they were the only ones who could afford red meat and alcohol, two of the prime culprits that cause gout.  But in my case, however, it seems the problem is Coca Cola's.  

My red meat and alcohol intake are very modest....a few beers or glasses of wine a week, depending on what is served for dinner, and the same for my red meat consumption....but I buy and drink Cokes by the case.  And a check on the World Wide Web says that "high fructose sweetened drinks" are bad, bad, bad for causing gout.  Looks like it's adios, my good canned buddies.  :(

Wonder if this means I'll have to stop wearing my crown, too?  (Just as well.  Most of the little rhinestones have already fallen out.)

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As you all know, I'm a news junkie.  Some of what I take away is very serious stuff, but some is just comical, to wit:

The NYT headline read:  "After Outside Pressure, Rebels in Congo Lay Down Their Arms".

Ummm....it looks to me like their arms decided to just lay down and surrender all by themselves.  I'm guessing the term "maintenance" doesn't translate into Congolese.

And the BBC is reporting a new warning put out by the UN that says our output of atmospheric clogging "stuff" is again setting records.  They go on to say much of this is due to the well known problem of cattle flatulence. (That's a $3 term for cow farts.)  

As anyone who has driven anywhere even close to a West Texas cattle feedlot will testify, it's a serious problem for sure.  So why hasn't someone thought of just producing a heavy-duty version of Beano for bovines?  

And the same article says that much of the global emission of greenhouse gasses is due to he way farmers in may parts of the world improperly plough their land, citing this photo ^ as an example.

Just thinking out loud here....instead of just throwing out billions of dollars in foreign aid money around the world to see it siphoned off by the corrupt dictators and generals, why don't we just start sending them boat loads of John Deere's and Massey Ferguson's?  Jobs for us, more food for them, cleaner air for us all.  DUH!  This ain't rocket surgery, people!

See, I've already fixed our global warming problem, and it isn't even noon yet.  (Note to Nobel committee:  That's Scott with two "T"s  :)

S