• Scenes from Freak Show III.
• The Secessionist is fading fast.
• Classy people, those Republicans.
• There’s no compassion left in conservatism.
• Congrats, TBogg.

When they started Sagrada Familia there were no cars, the United States was led by President Chester “Mutton Chops” Arthur, and the war Europe was recovering from was the Franco-Prussian one, leaving France a few “Republics” short of the current model.

Cher — Half-Breed; Gypsys Tramps & Thieves; and Dark Lady, from Cher: Live In Concert, taped at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, 1999.

With all the other bad stuff that has been happening, the stock market crash, Georgia murdering Troy Davis and Mr. 0 keeping the wars going, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the sky really is falling this time. You probably won’t get hit by any of the pieces, but just to be on the safe side, don’t look up if you are outside tomorrow.

The latest AG to stand with Schneiderman and against the attempts to whitewash the fraud of the big banks is Kentucky AG Jack Conway. He is up for re-election this year, and is known nationally by virtue of his unsuccessful challenge to Rand Paul for Senate in 2010. Conway, in conjunction with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, sent an email to supporters aligning himself with Schneiderman.

Tonight the Republican candidates are back at it in Orlando for the Fox News/Google debate. For some reason the shunned former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, gets to participate but you won’t find that info in the article touting the debate at Fox News, go figure.

Greece has enacted yet another round of austerity to please their paymasters at the EU and the IMF. They will cut current pensions by 20% and future pensions by 40%, and cut wages for 30,000 employees. That ought to get the economy moving! And to think, cutting pensions and wages is considered “progress.”

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment to the FY 2012 State Department and foreign operations appropriations bill that, if signed into law, would block re-imposition of the Global Gag Rule. The amendment was introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and would prohibit future Presidents from using executive orders to refuse funding to a foreign organization solely because of the legal medical services it provides; the information, counseling, and referrals it offers; or the advocacy it engages in with its own government—using its own non-U.S. funds.

In terms of forensic psychology, why do prison abuses occur in for-profit prisons? Jenni Gainsborough, director of Penal Reform International, says many corporations take shortcuts in training prison guards. Prisons are no place for novice security workers, but require well-trained staff that are highly educated to respond to the types of situations common in a prison. Workers need to understand prisoner’s rights, appropriate self-defense procedures, and need to be able to communicate with prisoners in a fair and effective manner.

In retrospect, the banks had a pretty sound strategy with Dodd-Frank: fight it during the legislative process, but not too hard, allowing lawmakers to think they’ve accomplished something. Then, during implementation, bend the regulatory apparatus to your will, gutting the law before having to follow it. That has been extremely successful, especially because Dodd-Frank wasn’t really a law so much as a promise to write a law later.

The latest victim of the finance lobby’s efforts on Dodd-Frank is the Volcker rule.

Basically, the banks successfully got the regulators to define “hedging” so broadly that virtually any proprietary trade could be seen as a hedge.