Home · News · News Aug 2015
Monday August 31, 2015
News Articles
Chemtrails | Geoenginering | Solar Radiation Mgmt

Geoenginering Methods
climatecentral.org | author | 11/05/10

In order to slow down climate changes likely caused by the increase in human-generated greenhouse gases, some scientists and policymakers are exploring ways in which to cool the planet. A number of geoengineering strategies, or ways in which the environment might be manipulated to offset global warming, have emerged, though there is not yet an agreed upon definition of which methods should be categorized as geoengineering.

According to the Royal Society's report on geoengineering the climate, released in 2009, there are two main approaches. One involves deflecting a small amount of the sun's light and heat away from the planet to lower global temperatures; this could include the use of reflective aerosols or mirrors high in the atmosphere, or may require the deliberate formation of clouds. A second general method for cooling the planet involves removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, either via sequestration or CO2 capture, or possibly through ocean iron fertilization to promote the growth of CO2-consuming algae. ... Read more
Royal Society's report | Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty.pdf (2009)
Click picture to zoom in

I believe in Climate Change. I think the reduction of CO2 should be done through reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, conservation, and expanding sustainable energy sources, i.e. solar, wind, geothermal, wave motion. Reducing Global Warming using Geoengineering seems really dangerous to me.
DaneWigington |Climate Engineering Weather Warfare, and the Collapse of Civilization (01/30/14) [1:17:19]
"What in the World Are They Spraying?" () [1:37:45]
"Why in the World are They Spraying?" () [1:12:55]

Number of Extremely Hot Days Continues to Rise
climatecentral.org | author | 07/08/15

2014 was the hottest year on record globally, and the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998. As greenhouse gases continue to build and warm the planet, we are seeing an increased number of hot days in the U.S. While the hottest days of the year are usually during meteorological summer, extreme heat can kick in during late spring and last into early fall. The rise in extreme heat during this time of year brings more than just inconvenience and higher cooling bills. ... Read more
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Where's the Heat? Check the Oceans
climatecentral.org | author | 04/23/15

The rate of atmospheric warming has been slower in past 15 years than the previous 30 -- even as we've continued to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is tempting to think that everything we've learned about greenhouse gases since 1857 is wrong, but it is not. We tend to focus on land surface temperatures, because that's where we live. However, it is critical to remember the climate system includes the oceans in addition to the atmosphere. And as it turns out, a tremendous amount of heat energy (that appears to be missing) has been absorbed by the sea. As the graphic above, based on the IPCC Fifth Assessment, illustrates, the amount of heat energy that has gone into the oceans since the warming began is phenomenal. ... Read more
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How Different Modes of Transportation Stack Up
climatecentral.org | author | 04/25/15

Transportation accounts for 28 percent of Americans' overall greenhouse gas emissions. Since this is the primary cause of global warming, many people might wonder how their travel choices will affect the climate. For many of us, of course, there's not a lot of choice in how we get from here to there since planes, trains and busses don't go everywhere. Still, it's useful to know how different modes of transportation stack up. ... Read more
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NYTimes | California's Extreme Drought, Explained (1 yr old, 07/07/14) [3:33]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 31 [11:57]
*DN | "Our Climate, Our Future": As Obama Visits Arctic, Alaskans Urge Him to Reverse Shell Oil Deal (08/31/15) [9:15]
*DN | Death Toll Rises as Refugees Head to Europe Seeking Safety (08/31/15) [11:00]
DN | Refugee Crisis: A Report From Sicily, Italy (08/31/15) [9:07]
DN | Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch on Refugee Crisis (08/31/15) [6:21]
*Bernie Sanders
Please, please listen to this interview with Bernie Sanders. He makes o much more sense than the other side.
*Bernie Sanders: The Vox conversation (04/28/15) [36:47]
Bernie Sanders is serving his second term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2012 with 71 percent of the vote. His previous 16 years in the House of Representatives make him the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, Sanders attended James Madison High School, Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. After graduating in 1964, he moved to Vermont. In 1981.
Sen Bernie Sanders website
TYT | Sarah Palin To Interview Donald Trump! (08/28/15) [4:16]
'On Point' with Gov. Sarah Palin & Donald Trump (08/28/15) [10:51]
'On Point' with Gov. Sarah Palin & Sen. Ted Cruz (08/28/15) [11:05]
'On Point' with Sarah Palin & Governor Jeb Bush (08/28/15) [13:32]
Some of the Commenters
The Bush Family, is the greatest threat to America! America wants Trump
No. We need a warrior and his name is Ted Cruz! Cruz/Trump 2016!
Pretty good actor, that Jeb. He's a Bush, make no mistake, the son of George Bush Sr. the brother of George W. and they have done enough damage. Do you remember the George W elections between Al Gore. Jeb was responsible for not letting blacks vote. What has changed with Jeb? Make no mistake he's the same ruthless guy.
"On Point" with Gov. Sarah Palin speaks with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) (08/26/15) [10:02]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: Mediterranean Refugee Crisis Escalating (08/31/15) [10:42]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: Extraordinary Brutality Inflicted on Civilians in Yemen (08/31/15) [6:34]
TYT | Trump Gaining On Hillary, But Can He Survive His Own Ego? (08/29/15) [1:43]
*TYT | Immigrants Commit Fewer Crimes Than The National Average (08/30/15) [9:56]
TYT | Thousands Of Syrian Refugees Rescued By Italian Coast Guard (08/29/15) [8:03]
RT | CrossTalk: Western-made Refugee Crisis (08/31/15) [23:55]
RoF | Interview with author David Bromwich: The Neocon Nuts Are Reemerging -- Where Did These Fools Come From? (08/31/15) [8:37]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.31.2015. 15:32

Friday August 28, 2015
News Articles

The Reason China's Crash Will Unleash A Global Bond Shockwave
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/15

"The PBoC's actions are equivalent to an unwind of QE, or in other words Quantitative Tightening. The potential for more China outflows is huge [and] the bottom line is that QT has much more to go. It is hard to become very optimistic on global risk appetite until a solution is found to China's evolving QT." ... Read more

We Are All Preppers Now
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/15

Damian McBride is the former head of communications at the British treasury and former special adviser to Gordon Brown, erstwhile Prime Minister of the U.K. Yesterday he tweeted some surprising advice in response to the plunge in global equities markets. Evidently, McBride interprets the wipe-out of over $3 trillion in total global market cap during the three-day rout as a prelude to a much broader and deeper financial crash that will precipitate civil unrest:

  1. Advice on the looming crash, No. 1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work.
  2. Crash advice No. 2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.
  3. Crash advice No. 3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to.
We were close enough in 2008 and what's coming is on 20 times that scale. ... Read more

What's Behind the Stock Market's Rollercoaster Ride?
AlterNet | Amy Goodman | 08/25/15

The real problem is that we're in a nonrecovery in America, and Europe is in an absolute class war of austerity.

In an interview with Democracy Now!. economist Michael Hudson talked about the wild ride on Wall Street Monday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell a record 1,100 points before closing down nearly 600 points. "The real problem is that we're still in the aftermath of when the bubble burst in 2008," he told Amy Goodman, "that all of the growth in the economy has only been in the financial sector, in the monopolies--only for the 1 percent. And it's as if there are two economies, and the 99 percent has not grown. And so, the American economy is still in a debt deflation. So the real problem is, stocks have doubled in price since 2008, and the economy, for most people, certainly who listen to your show, hasn't grown at all. ... Read more

71 Refugees Confirmed Dead After Suffocating In Back Of Truck (in Austria)

Fukushima
Fukushima Alps (recent) [4:41]
Geoengineering
geoengineeringwatch.org | Dane Wigington: Engineered Drought Catastrophe, Target California (07/23/14) [31:35]
geoengineeringwatch.org | Dane Wigington: We are All Getting Sick, Food Chain is Dying (02/07/14]
geoengineeringwatch.org | Dane Wigington: Climate Engineering Weather Warfare, and the Collapse of Civilization (original) [1:17:19]
Large Scale Tree Deaths
Our Forests Are Dying, Are We Next? (07/27/14) [10:42]
The Bomb
The visualization features 2,153 nuclear detonations that have taken place since 1945 (08/26/15) [14:00]


Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 28 [10:42]
DN | An Unequal Recovery in New Orleans: Racial Disparities Grow in City 10 Years After Katrina (08/28/15) [13:37], Part 2 [12:19]
DN | Shock Doctrine: A Look at the Mass Privatization of NOLA Schools in Storm's Wake & Its Effects Today (08/28/15) [4:56]
DN | "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People": Reflections on Kanye West's Criticism 10 Years After (08/28/15) [13:08]
TRNN | RootsAction.Org's Jeff Cohen says: Bernie Sanders Lead, Why is He Silent on U.S. Foreign Policy? (08/28/15) [8:50]
TRNN | Heiner Flassbeck: Reaganism and Thatcherism were Intellectually Dishonest, Part 1 (older, but good 07/25/14) [19:11]
TYT | Bernie Sanders Goes After Conservative's Family Values (08/27/15) [7:08]
TYT | An Emotional Plea For Gun Control From Father Of Murdered News Anchor (08/27/15) [5:30]
TYT | Gunman Opens Fire On TV News Crew (08/26/15) [9:30]
TYT | Virginia Shooter's Derranged Manifesto Called For Race War (08/27/15) [6:01]
RT | Ray Jones, boxer: US & Russia should strive to improve each other, not fight for dominance (08/27/15) [1:14]
RT | Keiser Report: BP settlements & Uber's profit (E802) (08/27/15) [24:32]
RT | MAKS-2015 International air show kicks off near Moscow (08/26/15) [3:14]
RT | Russia launches 1st Proton rocket with UK sat (08/28/15) [1:15]
RoF | Jeb Made Millions By Bankrupting Florida Pension Funds (08/27/15) [2:08]
RoF | Bernie Sanders Makes Koch Brothers The Face Of Corporate Greed (08/27/15) [1:29]
RoF | Trump's Single Platform Will Dominate 2016: NATIONALISM!! (08/28/15) [11:56]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Thom Hartmann | Will This Movie Change How You See the World? (08/28/15) [7:09]
Chloe and Theo Trailer - Starring Dakota Johnson (2015) [2:08]
Chloe and Theo - Starring Dakota Johnson (2015) [1:08:06]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

08.28.2015. 15:03

Thursday August 27, 2015
News Articles

Stocks Fly After Fed Official Cools September Rate Hike Talk
Reuters & HP | Jamie McGeever | 08/27/15

Stocks rose around the world on Thursday, following the biggest gains on Wall Street in four years, after a U.S. Federal Reserve policymaker said the case for an interest rate increase next month "seems less compelling" than it was a few weeks ago. Increased appetite for risk also lifted crude oil prices further from last week's lows. The price of government bonds and the Japanese yen fell.

In early European trading, the FTSEuroFirst index of leading 300 European shares was up 2.5 percent at 1,415 points. Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40 and Britain's FTSE 100 were all up more then 2 percent. ... Read more

It's Official: China Confirms It Has Begun Liquidating Treasuries, Warns Washington
ZeroHedge | author | 08/27/15

As Bloomberg reports, "China has cut its holdings of U.S. Treasuries this month to raise dollars needed to support the yuan in the wake of a shock devaluation two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the matter. Channels for such transactions include China selling directly, as well as through agents in Belgium and Switzerland, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the information isn't public. China has communicated with U.S. authorities about the sales." ... Read more

What Would Happen If Everyone Joins China In Dumping Treasurys?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/27/15

On Tuesday evening, we quantified the staggering cost of China's near daily open FX operations in support of the yuan. In short, the new currency regime has led the PBoC to dump more US paper in the past two weeks than it had YTD. In conclusion, we asked if anyone else was set to join China in liquidating US Treasurys at a never before seen pace. Here's the answer and what it means for the US economy and monetary policy going forward. ...

And make no mistake, these are timely questions, because the combination of collapsing commodity prices, China's devaluation, and the threat of a Fed hike have put enormous pressure on EM currencies the world over and that, in turn, means a drawdown of EM FX reserves and pressure on DM bonds. As JP Morgan put it last month, "the sharp reversal in EM FX reserve accumulation between Q1 and Q2 is consistent with the sharp reversal in DM core bond markets. Core bond market yields collapsed in Q1 but saw a big rise in Q2. This is a good reminder of how important FX reserve managers remain in driving core bond markets."
Read more

5 Medicinal Herbs You Can Grow in Your Backyard
AlterNet | Miles Schneiderman | older, 06/05/15

At its core, most of medicine is still herbology, according to Dr. Jenn Dazey, naturopathic physician at Bastyr University's Department of Botanical Medicine. And growing your own medicinal garden is easier than it might seem. In fact, you might already have one. Many common culinary herbs have a long history as traditional medicines. ... Read more

Fukushima
Fukushima breaking news 2015 (02/25/15) [3:30]
PBS Nova | Japan's Killer Quake (older) [54:10]
TRNN | National Day of Action Pushes Democrats Senators to Support Iran Deal (08/27/15) [1:56]
TRNN | Economist Gerard Dumenil argues: What Would Happen to the Eurozone if Greece Leaves? (08/27/15) [8:29]
TYT | Ted Cruz Wants To Deport Millions, Just Please Don't Talk About It (08/26/15) [3:21]
TYT | Donald Trump Vs. Fox News: Round 2! FIGHT! (08/26/15) [10:05]
*RT | CrossTalk: Korean rumble (08/26/15) [24:30]
RT | Captured, sold, raped: ISIS turns thousands of Christian women and children into sex slaves (08/26/15) [3:27]
RoF | Corporate Fraud Is Costing Taxpayers Billions and Will Cause A New Economic Collapse (08/26/15) [9:32]
RoF | Jeb Gets Desperate, Asks Big Brother Bush To Save Campaign (08/26/15) [3:39]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.27.2015. 07:37

Wednesday August 26, 2015
News Articles

Reporter, Cameraman Killed In Live Shooting During News Broadcast
HP | Hilary Hanson | 08/26/15

Two journalists with Roanoke, Virginia-based news station WDBJ were killed Wednesday in a shooting that took place during a live broadcast. Reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward died shortly after the incident, WDBJ general manager Jeff Marks told The Roanoke Times. Authorities are searching for the suspect. ... Read more

Ted Cruz Plots Government Shutdown Fight Over Planned Parenthood.

China's Turbulent Stock Market Slips Once Again
Reuters & HP | author | 08/26/15

The central bank's stimulus hasn't convinced investors.

Aug 26 (Reuters) - China's turbulent stock markets slipped again on Wednesday, as a double-barrelled blast of central bank stimulus failed to convince investors of Beijing's ability to jolt the world's second biggest economy out of its slowdown.

After watching share prices tumble around 25 percent in a little more than a week, the People's Bank of China re-entered the fray late on Tuesday, cutting interest rates and further loosening bank lending restrictions. ... Read more

Here is a nugget of wisdom from one of the prime architects of the 2008 financial crash!!!
Watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to see how Larry Summers, Robert Rubin and Timothy Geitner really acted during their time in power.
*PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

What If The "Crash" Is As Rigged As Everything Else?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/26/15

Why would "somebody" engineer a mini-crash and send volatility to "the world is ending" levels? There are a couple of possibilities.

  1. The Shock Doctrine. Naomi Klein's landmark study of how manufactured crises are used to justify further consolidation of power, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, provides a blueprint for how financial crises set the stage for policies that extend the power of central and private banks and various state-private sector players.
  2. A "crash" engineered to set up a buying opportunity for insiders. When easy gains get scarce, what better way to skim a quick 10% than engineer a "crash," scoop up shares dumped by panicked punters and momo-following HFT bots spooked by "the world is ending" VIX spike, and then reverse the "crash" with another round of happy talk?
  3. Settling conflicts within the Deep State. I have covered the Deep State for years, in a variety of contexts--for example: ...
Read more

More 9/11 News
The number of cancer cases linked to Sept. 11 has grown in recent years. As of May 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 4,000 first responders, rescue workers and survivors who have been diagnosed with cancer linked to the attacks. According to the CDC, skin cancer, prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are among the most common illnesses among those individuals.
Kangaroo in Australia
Kangaroo horde during bike ride (08/26/15) [1:25]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 26 [8:25]
*DN | "Casino Capitalism": Economist Michael Hudson on What's Behind the Stock Market's Rollercoaster Ride (08/25/15) [15:14]
*DN | As Peace Talks Collapse in South Sudan, Film Shows "Pathology of Colonialism" Tearing Apart Nation (08/25/15) [24:19]
*DN | Two Separate Americas: David Simon's New Mini-Series Looks at "Hypersegregation" in Public Housing (08/26/15) [20:48], Part 2 [15:23]
*TRNN | Economist James Henry discusses: The Sky Is Not Falling? China's Stock Market Impact (08/26/15) [8:39]
TRNN | Why is Saudi Arabia Now Supporting the Iran Deal? (08/26/15) [2:59]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: Bradley Manning, the Nuremberg Charter and Refusing to Collaborate with War Crimes, Part 3 (older, 04/09/15) [14:01]
TYT | Ex-Baltimore Cop Joe Crystal: Police Today Are Like Gangs (08/25/15) [7:31]
TYT | Pollster: "Nothing Disqualifies Trump" (08/25/15) [7:24]
Trump v. Luntz -- The Battle Of The Right-Wing (0825/15) [3:50]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.26.2015. 11:27

Tuesday August 25, 2015
News Articles

Chinese Stocks Tumble Again, But Other Markets Stabilize
AP & HP | author | 08/24/15

The decline comes despite a multibillion-dollar government effort to stop a slide in prices.

Chinese stocks fell Tuesday for a fourth day, hitting an eight-month low amid signs Beijing was no longer buying shares to stem a price slide, and Japanese stocks also dropped. But other Asian and European markets bounced back from a day of heavy losses. U.S. stock futures were also up after Monday's global sell-off and a tumultuous day on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones closed down 3.6 percent. Analysts said it was unclear whether the rebounds in some markets were indications that worst was over or a reprieve in a longer-term bear market.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 7.6 percent to 2,964.97 points, adding to Monday's 8.5 percent loss and taking the benchmark to its lowest level since Dec. 15. Some 2,000 stocks out of about 2,800 on China's two mainland exchanges fell by the 10 percent daily limit, according to Hexun, a financial news website. ... Read more

July Was The Hottest Month Ever; Cable News Barely Noticed
HP | Sam Stein | 08/24/15

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015 was the earth's warmest month on record, dating back to 1880.

This wasn't some one-off study. It was supplemented by similar findings from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Japanese Meteorological Agency; and, of course, it came on top of other studies underlining the perilous state of global warming. ...

  1. MSNBC: Discussed the report five times, not counting the two repeats of Rachel Maddow's show early on Friday morning.
  2. CNN: Discussed the report five times, not counting repeat airings.
  3. Fox News: Did not discuss the report.
Read more
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015

The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country
MotherJones | Samantha Michaels | 08/23/15

Nearly one-third of the world's mass shootings have occurred in the United States, a new study finds. Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, has released the first quantitative analysis of public mass shootings around the world between 1966 through 2012. Unsurprisingly, the United States came out on top--essentially in a league of its own.

Over those five decades, the United States had 90 public mass shootings, defined as shootings that killed four or more victims. Of the 170 other countries examined in the study, only four even made it to double-digits: The Philippines had 18 public mass shootings, followed by Russia with 15, Yemen with 11, and France with 10. ... Read more

US Equity Futures Soar 4% After PBOC Rate Cut; Chinese Futures Jump After Overnight Market Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The PBOC cut itself was not surprising, considering the PBOC now has to juggle and micromanage every aspect of the economy, from its sliding currency, to the bursting stock bubble, to record capital outflow, to soaring real interest rates, to the slowing economy. In fact, bulls around the globe will welcome the latest central bank bailout. Which also happens to be the worst aspect of today's intervention, because one can once again toss all the talk that China would finally stop intervening in asset pricing, with today's decision merely perpetuating the market's reliance on central banks. As a reference, this was the second time China cut both RRR and interest rates in 2 months: the last time it did so was during the depths of the financial crisis. ... Read more

With Stocks In Free Fall, China Ditches Plunge Protection For Desperation Rate Cuts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The dual policy rate cut is a desperate attempt to 1) free up liquidity, and 2) shore up confidence in the stock market. We suspect the effects may be short lived on both accounts because after all, aggressive easing only fuels further depreciation necessitating further liquidity-sapping FX interventions in a vicious loop, and loose monetary policy likely won't be much comfort to China's 90 million retail investors who now, more than ever before, are virtually guaranteed to sell any rip they can get in a desperate attempt to claw back their life savings which they naively poured into stocks back in April and May. ... Read more

Why Did China Just Cut Rates, Again: Here Are Goldman's Three Reasons
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

Goldman's 3 key reasons for China's "surprise" rate cut: 1) Activity growth weakened meaningfully after a brief rebound in 2Q; 2) Outflows re-emerged and drained liquidity; 3) Equity market has been falling very rapidly. The conclusion: "These cuts are positive moves which are much needed to support the economy and market. But they are unlikely to be sufficient by themselves." ... Read more

More News
  1. China's Central Bank Cuts Interest Rates (WSJ)
  2. Chinese Stocks Crash Again to Extend Biggest Plunge Since 1996 (BBG)
  3. China cuts rates, reserve ratio to aid economy as stocks sink (Reuters)
  4. Wall St. suffers worst day in four years, S&P confirms correction (Reuters)
  5. Europe's Stocks Head for Best Day Since 2011 (BBG)
  6. Market turmoil clouds Fed rate outlook (FT)
  7. For All Its Heft, China's Economy Is a Black Box (WSJ)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 25 [7:45]
*TRNN | Michael Hudson: Smoke and Mirrors of Corporate Buybacks Behind the Market Crash (08/25/15) [10:57]
Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy

The Dow Jones trading took a deep drive this morning, dropping over 1,000 points in the first 20 minutes of trading. It is now slowly reversing itself, but it was the greatest loss in trading since the 2010 crash. Here to discuss all of this, we're joined by Michael Hudson. Michael Hudson is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His latest book, which we promise to unpack in detail very soon, is Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy Global Economy. You can get a digital download of it at Counterpunch.
*TRNN | Larry Wilkerson says: Computer Voting and Stealing Democracy (08/25/15) [10:27]
CODE RED: Computerized Election Theft and The New American Century: POST - E2014 Edition

CODE RED is about what has happened to American elections, American politics, and America since computers took over the vote counting just a few short years ago.

It identifies the red flags -- including the glaring one waving over our most recent election, E2014 -- and provides accessible examinations of why those flags are red. It is a disturbing and provocative call to action. It is about saving our democracy and our country. Now, before it's all gone.

Free and fair elections are the bedrock of a democracy. America, which considers itself the beacon of democracy, has turned to computerized counting for virtually all of its public elections. Several other advanced democracies -- including Germany, The Netherlands, and Ireland -- have moved away from the computerized tabulation they initially embraced, having recognized the manifest security risks it entails. But America has continued to entrust its elections to privatized and concealed vote counting despite mounting and voluminous evidence that the vulnerabilities to manipulation are not merely hypothetical but are actually being exploited, with profound political consequences.
TYT | School Bans Flags On Cars, Fox News Sees Evil Liberal Plot (08/24/15) [3:39]
TYT | Ashley Madison Fallout Now Claiming Lives? (08/24/15) [6:11]
TYT | Fox News: Black Lives Matter Makes Being White Uncomfortable (08/24/15) [5:15]
RT | Keiser Report: Fraud in Miami (E801) (08/25/15) [25:48]
RoF | Ring of Fire On Free Speech TV (E162) [29:00]
RoF | A Psychological Breakdown of a Donald Trump Supporter (08/20/15) [11:25]
When it comes to politics, nothing motivates voters more than fear, and the Republican Party has mastered the art of making people afraid. But fear is only half of the equation -- once they make voters scared, they have to be able to convince them that they are the only candidate capable of keeping them safe -- all the voter has to do is put their blind faith into that Republican candidate. This is how Republicans manipulate voters.
*RoF | Pap and Max Keiser: Banking Terrorists Declare War On Global Economy (08/24/15) [4:12]
RoF | Pap and Thom Hartmann: There Is No More Republican Party; Hate Talkers Have Taken Control (08/21/15) [9:50]
RoF | Koch Brother Doing Anything It Takes To Keep Republicans In Office (08/24/15) [7:28]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*RT ThomHartmann | Market Meltdown (08/24/15) [57:22]

08.25.2015. 10:07

Monday August 24, 2015
News Articles

What Is Really Going On: Market Liquidity Worse Than During The Flash Crash; 4500 Crash Events; Constant Halts And Unhalts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

Curious why few if any traders can actually execute any trades, whether buys or sells? The reason is that despite the relative calmness of the index prints, what is going on beneath the surface is an unprecedented wave of constant halt and unhalts as all stop levels were taken out, many in circuit breaker territory, making it virtually impossible for any matching enginge to, well, match buyers and sellers.

The resulting halts made it impossible for regular traders to step in, requiring central banks to buy via the CME's Central Bank Incentive Program, to restore some market stability. And just to add to the pain, there is absolutely no liquidity in either stocks. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Bloodbath: Emerging Market Assets Collapse As China Selloff Triggers Panic
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

That's right, Bloomberg's commodity index cratered to its lowest level since 1999 or, said differently, the lowest level of the 21st century. That headline flashed just minutes after we highlighted Barclay's take on the "long, slow, and painful" end of the commodities supercycle which is weighing heavily on emerging markets in the wake of China's move to devalue the yuan. Here's how we described the setup on Sunday evening: ... Read more
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Is This Black Monday Crash The BIG ONE? It Doesn't Matter
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

After losing 11% last week, Shanghai this morning was down almost -9% at one point, after lunch went back up to -6.5%, and ended its day at -8.49%. A Black Monday for sure, but is this the BIG ONE? It really doesn't matter one bit. Unless perhaps you persist in calling your self an investor, in which case we pity you, but not for losing your shirt. Because God knows we've said enough times now that there are no functioning markets anymore, and therefore no-one who can rightfully lay claim to the title 'investor'. ... Read more

Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury
Vanity Fair | Michael Joseph Gross | (older 2010)

Even as Sarah Palin's public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor's road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits -- a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family -- and the sadness she has left in her wake. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

VICE News
VICE News | Cult Leader Thinks He's Jesus (05/16/12) [25:47]
Jon Stewart
Bloomberg | Jon Stewart: How the Fake Newsman Won Over America (06/03/14) [25:01]


Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 24 [9:29]
DN | Sarah Shourd, Hiker Jailed in Iran, Hails Nuclear Deal While Urging Release of Detained Americans (08/24/15) [8:00]
DN | "Opening the Box": After Being Jailed in Iran, Sarah Shourd Examines Solitary Confinement in U.S. (08/24/15) [7:43]
TRNN | AIPAC Spending Millions to Defeat Iran Deal, But Efforts Are Falling Flat (08/24/15) [3:32]
TRNN | Michael Ratner: Moving Towards a Police State, Part 7 (older) [17:32]
TRNN | Paul Street says Bernie Sanders is a non-option for Black or progressive America (08/24/15) [11:07]
*TYT | American Corporations: Workers Pay Taxes, Not US!!! (08/22/15) [7:36]
Click picture to zoom in
TYT | Why Is The Media Handling Trump With Kid Gloves? (08/23/15) [7:19]
TYT | Meet Trump's Pretend Military Advisors (08/23/15) [3:59]
TYT | It's Time For The Hispanic Media To Stand Up To Trump (08/23/15) [4:28]
TYT | Is The World Ending In September? (08/22/15) [2:09]
TYT | Terrorist Caught Attempting To Bomb Abortion Clinic (08/22/15) [5:58]
*RT | CrossTalk: Undiplomatic Power (08/19/15) [24:03]
*RT | Keiser Report: Competition Coming from Cuba (E800) (08/22/15) [25:48]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*RT ThomHartmann | Is 2015 the "Big Jump" - When Global Warming Takes Off? (08/20/15) [8:19]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

08.24.2015. 11:00

Friday August 21, 2015
News Articles

Noam Chomsky, 'The Iranian Threat' - Who Is the Gravest Danger to World Peace? -or-
Noam Chomsky, Rogue States and Nuclear Dangers
TomDispatch.com | Noam Chomsky | 08/20/15

The first prime-time Republican primary debate of 2015 was an eye-opener of sorts when it came to the Middle East. After forcefully advocating for the termination of the pending nuclear deal with Iran, for example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker unleashed an almost indecipherable torrent of words. "This is not just bad with Iran," he insisted, "this is bad with ISIS. It is tied together, and, once and for all, we need a leader who's gonna stand up and do something about it." That prescription, as vague as it was incoherent, was par for the course.

When asked how he would respond to reports that Iranian Qods Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani had recently traveled to Russia in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, GOP billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump responded, "I would be so different from what you have right now. Like, the polar opposite." He then meandered into a screed about trading Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for "five of the big, great killers leaders" of Afghanistan's Taliban, but never offered the slightest hint that he had a clue who General Soleimani was or what he would actually do that would be "so different." ... Read more

HFTs Get Blamed For China's Market Crash

Russell Napier Lays Out The Trigger For The Next Emerging Market Crisis
ZeroHedge | author | 08/21/15

"I have learnt from history that it is very hard working out what the trigger is. In 2008, it was the collapse of Lehman Brothers that triggered a credit crunch. Now it could be a major event in Turkey or a default of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras or some event in Malaysia. But if I have to pick one I would say it is Turkey introducing capital controls. Such controls will mean that Turkey will not pay back principals amounting to 400 Bio. $ and the interests on it." ... Read more

Parts Of California Have Sunk Over A Foot In Eight Months Due To Drought

The Drought Isn't Just a California Problem
MotherJones | Julia Lurie | 08/21/15

California's been getting a lot of attention for the drought, but it's not alone in its lack of rain: This year is on track to be the driest on record for several western states. As the map below--a recent iteration from the US Drought Monitor--shows, virtually all of Washington, Oregon, and Nevada are covered in swaths of "severe," "extreme," or "exceptional" drought. ... Read more

Shara Palin - Game Change
In 2008 Sarah Palin, if elected, would have been 1 heart beat away from the Presidency. Please people think and do research into the people you elect! Don't rely on the Clownfest that is our mass major media.
*What Sarah Palin Is All About () [3:35]
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

A Look Inside Banksy's 'Dismaland,' The Bleakest Amusement Park Ever
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/21/15

On Thursday, images and video captured inside "Dismaland," Banksy's new art exhibition/dystopian amusement park, began making the rounds on social media. They offer a glimpse into a world that's predictably dark, bizarre and full of satire. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 21 [8:49]
*DN | Sen. Bernie Sanders: From Greece to Puerto Rico, the Financial Rules Are Rigged to Favor the 1% (08/21/15) [12:07]
*DN | Global Warming Worsens California Drought as July Becomes Hottest Month on Record (08/21/15) [11:15]
The Dirty Secrets
*Motherboard | The Dirty Secret at the Bottom of the Great Lakes: Oil & Water (08/11/15) [17:16]
*TRNN | Former IAEA Inspector Robert Kelley says: Iranian "Self-Inspection" Won't Undermine Deal (08/20/15) [6:43]
*TRNN | Gerald Epstein of PERI, U. Mass. Amherst, argues that Clinton does not go far enough by just calling for transparency in "shortermism" because buybacks of corporate stocks should be made illegal (08/21/15) [8:21]
TRNN | Dimitri Lascaris explains: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Tenders His Resignation (08/21/15) [13:55]
TRNN | Michael Ratner: Fighting Reagan's Secret, Illegal Wars (older) [19:33]
TYT | Bernie Sanders: Abolish Private Prisons (08/20/15) [8:59]
*TYT | Donald Trump Wants Lower Minimum Wage (08/20/15) [6:55]
TYT | Conservative Radio Host Defends Slavery (08/20/15) [9:25]
TYT | Republicans Fire Woman For Not Going To Church (08/20/15) [4:31]
RT | Keiser Report: $32 trillion in pointless trading (E799) (08/20/15) [25:32]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.21.2015. 12:20

Thursday August 20, 2015
News Articles

Sarah Palin: Trump's policies sound like they came after drinking a six-pack -- and that's why I like him
RawStory.com | Travis Gettys | 08/19/15

The former half-term governor of Alaska and failed vice presidential candidate appeared Tuesday evening on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News program, where she praised Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship -- as spelled out by the 14th Amendment,

"He's talking big picture, of course, plus specifics, thankfully -- more specifics than any other candidate, by the way," Palin said. ... Read more

Donald Trump Gives Rousing Speech in Hampton, NH (8-14-15) [54:15]
*MamaGrizzRadio | Trump praising Palin (08/19/15) [1:01]
*FoxNews | Palin's take: The Trump phenomenon (08/19/15) [7:32]
*What Sarah Palin Is All About () [3:35]

Did Republicans just give away the 2016 election by raising birthright citizenship?
Washington Post | Paul Waldman | 08/18/15

It may not seem like it, but this week has seen the most significant development yet in the immigration debate's role in the 2016 election. I'd go even farther -- it's possible that the entire presidential election just got decided. Is that an overstatement? Maybe. But hear me out.

For months, people like me have been pointing to the fundamental challenge Republican presidential candidates face on immigration: they need to talk tough to appeal to their base in the primaries, but doing so risks alienating the Hispanic voters they'll need in the general election. This was always going to be a difficult line to walk, but a bunch of their candidates just leaped off to one side. After Donald Trump released his immigration plan, which includes an end to birthright citizenship -- stating that if you were born in the United States but your parents were undocumented, you don't get to be a citizen. ... Read more

The Shadowy World Of 'Dark Web'
HP | Damon Beres | 08/19/15

Enter the shadowy corner of the web where the Ashley Madison hackers released their data trove.

ISIS uses it. The Ashley Madison hackers used it. But chances are, you're not so familiar with the so-called "dark web," a hidden network of websites that requires special tools to access. The appeal of such a network is obvious: Users can remain anonymous if they play their cards right, which means they can exchange sensitive information and make illicit business deals without fear of retaliation from law enforcement. ... Read more

Turkey On The Brink As Calls For Martial Law, Civil War Send Lira Plunging Again
ZeroHedge | author | 08/20/15

Turkey is rapidly descending into chaos on all fronts. With the lira in free fall and the politically-motivated violence escalating, one prominent lawmaker is calling for martial law ahead of new elections which could plunge the country further into civil war. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 20 [11:58]
*DN | "The Danger of a Failed Iran Deal": Could GOP Rejection of Nuke Pact Lead to War? (08/20/15) [22:58]
*DN | Islamic Leaders Take on Climate Change, Criticizing "Relentless Pursuit of Economic Growth" (08/20/15) [6:28]
DN | As Jimmy Carter Discusses Cancer Diagnosis, Former Aide Praises Him as Honest, Noble Man (08/20/15) [1:59]
TYT | Fox News Has Lost Control Of Donald Trump (08/19/15) [9:24]
TYT | Half Of British Youth Aren't "Completely Heterosexual" (08/19/15) [8:19]
RT | CrossTalk: Undiplomatic Power (08/19/15) [24:03]
How should we assess the behavior of Samantha Power, Washington's top diplomat at the United Nations? Called by some a "foremost scholar on genocide," Power is quick to back the use of military power in the service of so-called humanitarian goals. She is also fond of using the word 'outrage' -- what does this tell us about her?
RoF | Ring of Fire On Free Speech TV (E161) [29:00]
RoF | Scott Walker: Corporate America's Chosen; One A Koch Brothers Lapdog (08/19/15) [9:04]
Privateizing America
ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council

*ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council) Explained in 5 Minutes [5:00]
RoF | Only One GOP Candidate Doesn't Support Endless War; Isn't This A Problem? (08/19/15) [3:20]
RoF | World's Largest Telecom Company Is NSA's Biggest Snitch (08/19/15) [2:55]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
RT ThomHartmann | Lookout! The Risks of Arctic Drilling (08/19/15) [6:14]
Is the Revolution Back On? (08/19/15) [6:03]
More News Articles
  1. Crude prices fall towards $40 on global glut (Reuters)
  2. China Central Bank Injects Most Funds Since February as Money Rates Increase (BBG)
  3. Divided Fed Puts Yellen on Hot Seat (Hilsenrath)
  4. So Long September: Bond Traders Defer Their Date With the Fed (BBG)
  5. More Foods Boast Non-GMO Labels--Even Those Without GMO Varieties (WSJ)
  6. UN to let Iran inspect alleged nuke work site (AP)
  7. IAEA says access to Iran's Parchin military site meets demands (Reuters)

08.20.2015. 13:40

Wednesday August 19, 2015
News Articles
*Bernie Sanders: The Vox conversation (04/28/15) [36:47]
*Bernie Sanders Speaks With Katie Couric (08/02/15) [39:43]
*Bernie Sanders Shuts Down Chuck Todd on Meet the Press (08/02/15) [7:31]
Jeff Weaver talks about the Bernie Sanders surge (08/12/15) [7:25]
Bernie Sanders To George Stephanopoulos: Don't Underestimate Me (05/07/15) [7:11]
Jon Stewart on Bernie Sanders's biggest vulnerability: 'Consistent principles' (older, 05/01/15) [4:34]

To Fight ISIS, Obama Risks Empowering Iran's Favorite Terror Group
HP | Akbar Shahid Ahmed | 08/19/15

More than $1 billion in U.S. military equipment quietly began flowing to the Lebanese military over the last year. Saudi Arabia is paying for much of it: powerful missiles, advanced aircraft. But Washington is also making its contribution. Lebanon, a country one-third the size of Maryland that is nestled between Syria and Israel, has today become the fifth-largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

The flood of money indicates how worried the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other power players have become about the extremist threat that Islamic State militants and the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria pose to Lebanon.

The Obama administration is betting the Lebanese military can keep the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and al-Qaeda from wreaking further havoc. Both groups have developed cells in Lebanon that they are likely to activate in response to battleground shifts in Syria, Lebanese officials say. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

After 6 Years Of QE, And A $4.5 Trillion Balance Sheet, St. Louis Fed Admits QE Was A Mistake.

Twin Typhoons Intensify In The Pacific, Threaten East Asia; Atsani is now a super typhoon. Goni may soon follow suit
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/19/15

Stunning images and video show the twin typhoons, Goni and Atsani, as they spin over the Pacific Ocean this week. The two typhoons are said to be intensifying as they move closer to Taiwan and Japan, respectively. According to Weather.com, Atsani has become a super typhoon. Goni may soon follow suit.

If that happens, it'll be the first time since 1997 that two super typhoons have formed in the Pacific, the Washington Post reports. Read more

First Near-Fully Formed Brain Grown In Lab, Ohio State Scientists Say
HP | Kim Bellware | 08/18/15

Scientists at Ohio State University say they've grown the first near-complete human brain in a lab. The brain organoid, if licensed for commercial lab use, could help speed research for neurological diseases and disorders, like Alzheimer's and autism, Rene Anand, an Ohio State professor who worked on the project, said in a statement Tuesday, "The power of this brain model bodes very well for human health because it gives us better and more relevant options to test and develop therapeutics other than rodents," Anand said.

The brain, engineered from adult human skin cells and grown in a dish for 15 weeks, is about the size of a pencil eraser, according to the university. It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain, and contains 99 percent of the genes in a fully developed human fetal brain. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 19 [9:28]
*DN | David Cay Johnston: 21 Questions for Trump on Kickbacks, Busting Unions, the Mob & Corporate Welfare (08/19/15) [11:09]
To talk more about Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, we are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump off and on for 27 years. He recently wrote an article for The National Memo titled "21 Questions for Donald Trump." David Cay Johnston is an investigative reporter previously with The New York Times. He’s currently a columnist for Al Jazeera America as well as a contributing writer at Newsweek. His latest book is "Divided. The Perils of Our Growing Inequality."
DN | "Privileged Bloodlines": Is Trump's Stance Against Birthright Citizenship Setting Tone for GOP? (08/19/15) [10:03]
TYT | What TV Preachers Really Do With Your Money (08/18/15) [8:40]
TYT | Jeb Bush Totally Isn't Panicking... yet (08/18/15) [5:33]
TYT | Bill O'Reilly Is Still On Team Trump (08/18/15) [3:59]
RT | Keiser Report: US cops vs Poor Suckers (E798) (08/18/15) [25:42]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
RT ThomHartmann | Why Build A Nuclear Power Plant Near A Volcano? (08/18/15) [7:09]
RT ThomHartmann | Progressive Roundtable - What Would America look like w/ Prez Trump or Prez Bernie? (08/17/15) [12:12]
Privateizing America
ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council

*ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council) Explained in 5 Minutes [5:00]
*RT ThomHartmann | Neocons Led Us To A Bloody & Costly Iraq War - Is Iran Next? (08/18/15) [10:55]
More News Articles

The Next Leg Of The Commodity Carnage: Attention Shifts To Traders - Glencore Crashes, Noble Default Risk Soars
ZeroHedge | author | 08/19/15

Commodity trading giant Glencore may have top-ticked the commodity supercycle with its 2011 IPO, but it's been downhill ever since (66% downhill to be precise if measured by the tumble in the stock price), culminating this morning when the Baar, Switzerland-based mining and commodity giant reported a first half net loss of $676 million, compared with net profit of $1.72 billion a year ago.

Revenue tumbled 25% to $85.7 billion after the company admitted China's economic slowdown had caught the company "by surprise" and that no one in the mining industry "can read China" at the moment. The result: GLEN stock had plunged by 9% as of the last check, wiping out $3 billion in market value, and down a whopping 44% in the past three months, substantially underperforming its peers Rio Tinto (which Glencore once tried to acquire) and BHP Billiton. ... Read more


08.19.2015. 11:02

Tuesday August 18, 2015
News Articles

Trump Is the Republicans' Nightmare and They Won't Wake Up From It
NYMag | Jonathan Chait | date

When Donald Trump initially rocketed to the top of national Republican polls, it was fashionable to compare him to Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich -- a flamboyant media personality, briefly capturing the spotlight, but doomed to immolate. But Trump is not running a race like those other candidates, nor is he mimicking their results. Instead, he is following the pattern more like a candidate from an earlier cycle: Pat Buchanan. ... Read more

23 Nations Around The World Where Stock Market Crashes Are Already Happening
ZeroHedge | author | 08/18/15

You can stop waiting for a global financial crisis to happen. The truth is that one is happening right now. All over the world, stock markets are already crashing. Most of these stock market crashes are occurring in nations that are known as "emerging markets". In recent years, developing countries in Asia, South America and Africa loaded up on lots of cheap loans that were denominated in U.S. dollars. But now that the U.S. dollar has been surging, those borrowers are finding that it takes much more of their own local currencies to service those loans. At the same time, prices are crashing for many of the commodities that those countries export. The exact same kind of double whammy caused the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s. ...

  1. Malaysia
  2. Brazil
  3. Egypt
  4. China
  5. Indonesia
  6. South Korea
  7. Turkey
  8. Chile
  9. Colombia
  10. Peru
  11. Bulgaria
  12. Greece
  13. Poland
  14. Serbia
  15. Slovenia
  16. Ukraine
  17. Ghana
  18. Kenya
  19. Morocco
  20. Nigeria
  21. Singapore
  22. Taiwan
  23. Thailand
Read more

Pentagon Boosts Drone Flights 50% As Bernanke Warns Cutting Defense Spending Could Hurt Economy.
In the event you were becoming concerned that the U.S. government might be backing away from its longstanding policy of endless violence, militarism and bloodshed, fear not. If we know one thing for sure, it's that defense contractors and the military-intelligence-industrial complex must earn. And continue to earn it will.

China Stocks Crash, More Than Half Of Market Halted Limit Down; PBOC Loss Of Control Spooks Global Assets
ZeroHedge | author | 08/18/15

Just hours after the PBOC announced a modestly "revalued" fixing in the CNY, which curiously led to weaker trading in the onshore Yuan for most of the day before a forceful last minute intervention by the central bank pushed it back down to 6.39 it was the local stock market spinning plate - which had been relatively stable during the entire FX devaluation process - that China lost control over, and after 7 days of margin debt increases the Shanghai Composite plunged by 6.2% in late trade, tumbling 245 points to 3748, just 240 points above its recent trough on July 8, a closing level some 27% off its June peak. ... Read more

How Dick Cheney Kicked off an Era of Cancer Clusters and Eco-Disasters from Fracking
AlterNet | Wenonah Hauter | 08/18/15

This past Saturday, marked a notable 10th anniversary. But it was certainly nothing to celebrate. Ten years ago, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The giant energy bill included massive giveaways for the fossil fuel, nuclear and ethanol industries and provided only token incentives for renewables and improved energy efficiency. But the most infamous piece of the law was what is now commonly known as the "Halliburton Loophole," an egregious regulatory exemption that ushered in the disastrous era of widespread oil and gas fracking that currently grips our nation. ... Read more

    More News
  1. China stocks slump 6 percent on fears of further yuan depreciation (Reuters)
  2. U.S. Lacks Ammo for Next Economic Crisis (Hilsenrath)
  3. Emerging Markets Extend Slide as Commodities Fall; Pound Jumps (BBG)
  4. China yuan to move both ways, more 'adjustments' unlikely: central bank economist (Reuters)
  5. Playing Chinese markets is as simple as 'follow the leader' (Reuters)
  6. PBOC Injection Shows China Worries About Outflows (WSJ)
  7. Russia Fails to Soothe Oil Concerns as Citi Joins Ruble Bears (BBG)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 18 [11:36]
DN | Snowden Documents Reveal AT&T's "Extreme Willingness to Help" NSA Domestic Spy Program (08/18/15) [8:35]
*DN | Meet the Whistleblower Who Exposed the Secret Room AT&T Used to Help the NSA Spy on the Internet (08/18/15) [14:59]
DN | Obama Gives Shell Final Approval to Drill in Arctic Despite Protests & Pledge to Cut Emissions (08/18/15) [8:28]
*TRNN | Professor Larry Wilkerson discusses: Colleges Train for Work, Not Thought (08/18/15) [9:13]
TRNN | Shir Hever says: Greece Buying Israeli Drones Tested on Palestinians (08/18/15) [10:10]
TRNN | Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog.org discusses: Clinton Emails and The Privatization of Mexico's State Owned Oil and Gas Company, Part 2 (08/18/15) [7:45]
TYT | Trump Lays Out Mexican Border Wall Plan (08/17/15) [8:10]
TYT | Trump's Military Strategy: Watch Lots Of TV (08/17/15) [12:34]
TYT | Trump Is Crushing The GOP Field...And His TYT Ban (08/17/15) [6:17]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Max Blumenthal Explains Politicide, Part 1 (08/17/15) [12:46], Part 2 [12:43]
Journalist/Author Max Blumenthal, The 51 Day War-Ruin and Resistance in Gaza/Alternet joins Thom. My guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is award-winning journalist and author Max Blumenthal. Currently a Senior writer at Alternet and a former fellow at the Nation Institute - Max is one of the leading American journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He's reported on the ground from war-torn Gaza and has written a series of bestelling books on the topic - including his latest "The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza" - a must-read account of the 2014 conflict that destroyed 10,000 homes - killed 2,200 people - and displaced 300,000 others.

08.18.2015. 10:24

Monday August 17, 2015
News Articles

Bernie Sanders Blasts Trump During Iowa speech: 'I Apologize. We Left the Helicopter at Home'
AlterNet | Bethania Palma Markus / Raw Story | 08/16/15

Progressive presidential candidate Bernie Sanders illustrated the stark difference between his populist agenda and his rivals' when he chided Donald Trump's display of excess at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.

The billionaire real estate and media mogul had descended on the fair in a flashy black helicopter with the word "Trump" emblazoned on the sides and was giving children rides in it, The Hill reports.

Sanders seemed to find it ridiculous. "Oh there's Donald Trump, what can we do," Sanders said mid-sentence. "I apologize, we left the helicopter at home. It's in the garage, forgot to bring it." ... Read more

John Oliver Exposes Televangelism, Then Forms His Own Tax-Exempt Church
HP | author | 08/17/15

John Oliver delivered the sermon of a lifetime on Sunday night, turning his "Last Week Tonight" studio into his church and the audience into his congregants. And he did it legally: Oliver created Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, "a tax-exempt organization that you certainly can't say is not a church."

He was of course trying to make a point -- revealing his new faith right after exposing the massive fraud of televangelists who preach what's known as the Prosperity Gospel. As Oliver explained, these televangelists exploit their often impoverished followers by convincing them that donating to the church is a "seed" that will grow into wealth they will be able to harvest later on. ... Read more

Why Everyone Is So Nervous About What China Does Next, In One Chart
ZeroHedge | author | 08/17/15

Translation: once begun, the currency war, which for the time being is being fought with conventional means, has no choice but to become nuclear.

Here, in one chart, is the reason why anyone following China's devaluation is very nervous. And if they aren't yet, they should be. Because if China is indeed intent on catching up with the rest of the EM complex - whose FX is trading about 30% lower - then the resulting devaluation will lead to nothing short of a global FX neutron bomb. ... Read more

13 Things Donald Trump Was Right About
MotherJones | Tim Murphy | 08/13/15

Donald Trump spent most of the weekend saying awful things about Megyn Kelly, after the Fox News host had the temerity to question him at last Thursday's debate about his history of saying awful things about other women. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise: Hurling insults at people who cross him is basically the entire point of Donald Trump.

But when he's not saying bad things about Kelly, Hillary Clinton, Rosie O'Donnell, women more generally, black people, Mexicans, President Barack Obama, various members of the press, John McCain, or Mohawks, Trump also makes a lot of good points. ...

  1. The invasion of Iraq: In 2003, he told the Dallas Morning-News that the Iraq War had been a "disaster" that "should not have been entered into." "To lose all of those thousands and thousands of people, on our side and their side, I mean, you have Iraqi kids, not only our soldiers, walking around with no legs, no arms, no faces," he said. "All for no reason. It is a disgrace."
  2. Katy Perry shouldn't have married Russell Brand:
  3. Campaign finance: Although Trump bragged (falsely) about having cut checks to most of the Republican candidates with whom he shared the stage last week, he also made some smart points about the corrupting influence of campaign contributions. "I will tell you that our system is broken," he said during the debate. "I give to many people. I give to everybody, when they call I give, and you know what? When I need something from them, two years, three years later, I call, they are there for me."
  4. Material excess: "While I can't honestly say I need an eighty-foot living room, I get a kick out of having one," he wrote in his most famous book, The Art of the Deal. Both of these statements sound pretty true.
  5. Harvard: No one likes Harvard.
  6. The merits of his cologne, which is actually called "Success": and features notes of juniper, iced red currant, frozen ginger, vetiver, and tonka bean.
  7. Dick Cheney: "He's very, very angry and nasty," Trump said in a 2011 review of Cheney's book. "I didn't like Cheney when he was a vice president. I don't like him now. And I don't like people that rat out everybody like he's doing in the book. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller, but isn't it a shame? Here's a guy that did a rotten job as vice president. Nobody liked him. Tremendous divisiveness. And he's gonna be making a lot of money on the book. I won't be reading it."
  8. Himself: "I'm a whiner," he told CNN on Tuesday.
  9. The Drug War: In 1990, well before the political tides had shifted in favor of pot legalization, Trump was declaring the federal government's mass-incarceration campaign a waste. "We're losing badly the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars."
  10. RedState's Erick Erickson, who disinvited Trump from the conservative site's confab last weekend due to his remarks about Megyn Kelly:
  11. "Fuckface von Clownstick" is not an original insult:
  12. National health care: "We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing," he wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve.
  13. Tom Brady:
Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 17 [13:35]
DN | Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian Taylor Branch Remembers Julian Bond (1940-2015) (08/17/15) [11:31]
DN | Former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous Remembers Julian Bond (08/17/15) [7:17]
John Oliver
*HBO | John Oliver: Televangelists (08/16/15) [20:05]
*TRNN | Climate Change: Have We Reached the Point of No Return? (08/17/15) [19:30]
TRNN REPLAY | Michael Ratner: The Vietnam War was a Seminal Event for Me (older, 03/03/14) [22:54]
TRNN | Historian and author Gerald Horne discusses: Kerry in Havana Restoring the US Embassy (08/14/15) [8:38]
TYT | Christians Asked About Israel And The Nuclear Deal With Iran (08/16/15) [7:01]
*TYT | Trump: The System Is Broken, And I Love It! (08/15/15) [14:08]
TYT | What Really Caused The Tianjin Explosion? (08/14/15) [3:28]
TYT | Rand Paul's Anti-Trump Attacks Backfire (08/16/15) [3:01]
*RT | Keiser Report: Hot show in the 'great state of Chicago' (E797) (08/15/15) [25:39]
RoF | This Repressive, Hateful GOP Will Never Win The Youth Vote (08/14/15) [2:23]
RoF | Comcast Orders MSNBC To Remove Anti-TPP Hosts (older, 07/30/15) [6:47]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Argentina - Vulture Capitalism Takes Another Step (08/14/15) [7:33]
ThomHartmann | It's Official - The Kochs Have Chosen Their Candidate (08/14/15) [8:41]
Why I Will Make My Own Dog (and Cat) Food
Definition: Meat & Bone Meal
AAFCO: The rendered product from mammal tissues, with or without bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

The animal parts used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters and so on. It can also include pus, cancerous tissue, and decomposed (spoiled) tissue.
Procter & Gamble sells IAMS, Eukanuba and Natura to Mars
magazine | author | older, 04/10/14
Procter and Gamble Company Wednesday announced that confectionary and veterinary products major Mars, Incorporated has agreed to buy three of its pet food brands IAMS, Eukanuba and Natura in the United States and Latin America for $2.9 billion in cash to expand Mars Petcare business.

Mars Petcare is one of the world's leading pet food and veterinary care providers with presence in over 50 countries.

Upon completion of the transaction, expected in the second half of 2014, the three Procter and Gamble brands will join Mars Petcare's billion dollar stable mates Pedigree, Whiskas, Banfield, and Royal Canin.

08.17.2015. 10:30

Friday August 14, 2015
News Articles

Federal Experts: Current El Niño Could Be Historically Strong
HP | Nick Visser | 08/13/15

Federal meteorologists say the current El Niño is already the second strongest on record for this time of year and could be one of the most potent weather changers of the past 65 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded unusual warmth in the Pacific Ocean in the last three months. El Niño is a heating of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter.

"This definitely has the potential of being the Godzilla El Niño," Bill Patzert, a climatologist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the Los Angeles Times. "Everything now is going to the right way for El Niño. If this lives up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides and mayhem." ... Read more

Three Clear Signs the US is Back In Recession
ZeroHedge | author | 08/14/15

The US economy is collapsing at a pace not seen since 2008-2009.

Retail sales are showing outright deflation, declining at a pace not seen outside of contractions.

The retail sector is not the only sector showing pronounced weakness.

General Electric (GE), JP Morgan (JPM), Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), Citigroup (C), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Intel (INTC), Coke (KO), Oracle (ORCL), Honeywell (HON), Goldman Sachs (GS), and American Express (AXP) have all reported a decline in Year Over Year sales for the second quarter of 2015.

These companies are not unusual in this regard. Across the board S&P 500 companies have posted a 4% drop in revenues.

The damage is heaviest in the commodity sector, particularly energy, but growth is anemic with the exception of healthcare (which is being boosted by the increase in costs due to Obamacare). Excluding healthcare, the largest growth is a mere 2.4%... and that is being concentrated due to a few key players. ... Read more

There's Never Been a Presidential Candidate Like Donald Trump in American History
AlterNet | Ben Jacobs / The Guardian | 08/10/15

A fabulously wealthy reality television host with a belligerent social media presence is something entirely new.

The real estate mogul's bombastic entrance into American politics has become a cultural phenomenon. His populist, nativist rhetoric has struck a chord with many voters and his wealth allows the billionaire to show a striking disregard for the norms of party politics. The result was that Trump's appearance in the first presidential debate led to sky-high ratings with a viewership higher than the World Series or the NBA Finals. ... Read more

10 Places AIPAC Would Never Show Members of Congress on Their Upcoming Propaganda Trip
AlterNet | Max Blumenthal | 08/12/15

58 members of Congress will be in Israel in the coming days on a tour sponsored by the America Israel Education Foundation, an arm of the pro-Israel lobbying organization, AIPAC. Though AIPAC claims the trip is an annual ritual with no connection to the increasingly rancorous debate over the Iran nuclear deal, the trip offers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a key opportunity for face-to-face fear mongering with some of the lawmakers who control the deal's fate.

After the Republican delegation visits Israel, 22 Democrats -- including several who represent key swing votes on the deal -- will be shepherded through the AIPAC tour by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, an Israel lobby favorite. The freshmen legislators will visit all the requisite destinations, from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, which has featured exhibits accusing Palestinians of a central role in the Jewish genocide in Europe, to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who likes to present influential visitors with a special ring he purchased in a local pawn shop that supposedly legitimizes Israeli control over Jerusalem. ...

  1. Dimona
  2. "The Arab room"
  3. Ofer Military Prison
  4. Teddy Stadium
  5. Zion Square
  6. Kiryat Arba and Hebron
  7. Al Araqib
  8. Holot
  9. Deir Yassin
  10. Aerial Footage of Al Shejaiya in Gaza
Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 14 [10:39]
DN | U.S. Raises Flag in Cuba After 54 Years, Prisoner Exchanges and "Stork Diplomacy;" Embargo Remains (08/14/15) [15:12]
DN | Britain Challenges Julian Assange's Asylum in Ecuadorian Embassy as Sweden Vows to Continue Inquiry (08/14/15) [6:44]
DN | Chelsea Manning Faces Solitary Confinement for Having Vanity Fair's Caitlyn Jenner Issue in Her Cell (08/14/15) [4:34]
*PBS Channel
PBS | The Bomb (07/28/15) [1:54:39]
A powerful story of the most destructive invention in human history, outlining how America developed the nuclear bomb, how it changed the world and how it continues to loom large in our lives. Witness the raw power and strangely compelling beauty of rare views of above-ground nuclear tests.
TRNN | Economist Zhun Xu says: Devaluation of the Chinese Yuan Sends Markets into Flux (08/14/15) [11:47]
TRNN | Stathis Gourgouris says: Will SYRIZA Survive Radical Left Democracy? (08/14/15) [15:36]
TRNN | Assange Denied the Right to Defend Himself Against Sexual Assault Allegations (08/14/15) [5:57]
TYT | Fox News Has Zero Journalistic Integrity (08/13/15) [2:30]
TYT | Kim Jong-un Executes His Vice Premier For WHAT? (08/13/15) [3:12]
Rt crosstalk | Turkey: New Ottomans (older, 2012) [23:00]
RoF | Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV (full) (08/13/15) [08/13/15]
*RoF | Bankster Parasites Taking Over The World (08/13/15) [12:29]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War (08/13/15) [5:27]
ThomHartmann | Could China Trigger the Crash of 2016? (08/13/15) [10:47]
ThomHartmann | Politics Panel - What Would A Bernie Presidency Look Like? (08/14/15) [12:47]

08.14.2015. 10:43

Thursday August 13, 2015
News Articles

Humans Have Used Up A Year's Worth Of The Earth's Resources In 8 Months
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 08/12/15

Less than eight months into 2015, humans have already consumed a year's worth of the Earth's resources.

This means that for the rest of 2015, we will be "living on resources borrowed from future generations," the World Wildlife Fund said. It's like overdrawing a bank account. The earth is going into ecological debt earlier each year, The Guardian notes. This year's Earth Overshoot Day is six days ahead of last year's, and months earlier than in 2000, when it arrived in October.

Global Footprint Network and other experts say addressing the growing problem of overpopulation is a cornerstone of reducing ecological debt. John R. Wilmoth, director of the United Nations Population Division, announced Monday that the world population of 7.3 billion people is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and up to 13.3 billion by 2100. He said there's only a 23 percent chance that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the century.

The U.S. is the world's ninth-biggest resource hog, using 310 percent of its capacity for resources, Global Footprint Network data shows. Top offenders are the United Arab Emirates (750 percent), Singapore (590 percent) and Belgium (460 percent.) ... Read more

Earth Overshoot Day 2015 is on Aug. 13th (08/10/15) [4:30]
FootPrintCalculator.org

Today, Humanity Has Spent Our Planet's Budget for the Entire Year
HP | Marco Lambertini | 08/13/15

When a country plummets into a massive financial deficit, it attracts worldwide attention. Yet countries today are largely ignoring another form of overspending: their ecological deficits. This is putting economies and citizens alike at even more risk.

The consequences of a fiscal deficit can strike much more quickly than those of an ecological deficit. But the results of an ecological deficit -- including fisheries collapse, biodiversity loss and climate change, as well as economic instability -- are potentially much longer lasting and more difficult to reverse if not tackled early. This is because addressing resource constraints requires reshaping our use of resources like forests and energy, with profound effects on our infrastructure and lifestyles. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 13 [6:19]
DN | Henry Siegman, Leading U.S. Jewish Voice for Peace: "Give Up on Netanyahu, Go to the United Nations" (08/13/15) [14:56]
*TRNN | Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog.org says: Clinton Emails and The Privatization of Mexico's State Owned Oil and Gas Company (08/13/15) [7:55]
*TRNN | Ralph Nader: Are Nader-Like Reforms Still Possible? (Part 2) (older, but interesting) [25:02]
*TYT | Bernie Sanders Surges Past Hillary In Polls (08/12/15) [7:02]
TYT | Rich Kid Torched Ferrari So He Could Upgrade To A Newer Model (08/12/15) [5:44]
RT CrossTalk | Donald's Triumph (older) [24:19]
RT | Keiser Report: Summer Solutions - 'See wealth, think debt that financed it' (E796) (08/13/15) [25:45]
RoF | CEO Pay Exposed -- Income Inequality Is MUCH Worse Than We Thought (08/12/15) [9:48]
*RoF | These Companies Are Getting Rich While The Planet Burns (08/12/15) [2:46]
RoF | War-Hungry Conservatives Vow To Stop Obama's Iran Deal (08/12/15) [1:58]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.13.2015. 11:04

Wednesday August 12, 2015
News Articles

Poll: Sanders surges ahead of Clinton in NH
TheHill.com | Kevin Cirilli | 08/12/15

A stunning new poll has Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) beating presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Sanders has eclipsed Clinton by a 44 to 37 percent margin, according to a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll that was first reported by the Boston newspaper Tuesday evening.

Today's poll is the first to show Sanders, whose liberal policies are popular with the Democratic base, ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire ... Read more

SEC to force companies to reveal CEO-to-worker pay ratio
america.aljazeera.com | Ned Resnikoff | 08/05/15

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted Wednesday to force most publicly traded companies to reveal their ratio of CEO compensation to median worker pay.

The decision brought an end to five years of debate and revision, which began when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in July 2010. Dodd-Frank created the disclosure requirement but left the SEC to determine exactly how the rule would be implemented. ... Read more
aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014
CEO Pay by State

How Roger Ailes Picked Trump, and Fox News' Audience, Over Megyn Kelly
NYMag.com | Gabriel Sherman | date

In the fallout since the first GOP debate, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has found himself caught between Donald Trump, who has the full backing of Fox's misogynist audience, and Megyn Kelly, the star anchor whom Ailes has nurtured and sees as the key to reaching younger viewers. For a few days, Ailes didn't know how to handle Trump's full-throated attack on Kelly, who accused Trump of sexism during the debate. Eventually, as I reported yesterday, he made the same choice he always does: follow the ratings, and mend fences with Trump. But that process has meant that Fox has had to mute its defense of Kelly, who is now watching uneasily as the Fox audience turns on her: According to one high-level source, Kelly has told Fox producers that she's been getting death threats from Trump supporters. ... Read more

Dozens Of Retired Generals, Admirals Back Iran Nuclear Deal

The Worst of the Worst of the Worst: New Century and its Economics Shills
TRNN | William Black | 08/08/15

... The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published a list of the "worst of the worst" -- the ten worst lenders in the ten worst markets for nonprime mortgage foreclosures. The absolute worst lender on that list is New Century. That makes it the worst of the worst of the worst. It also makes LST the worst of the worst of the worst economists writing about the fraud epidemics that drove the financial crisis. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 12 [9:11]
DN | Artist Emily Jacir Brings the Palestinian Experience to the Venice Biennale (08/12/15) [21:25]
*DN | Artist Mariam Ghani, Daughter of Afghan President, Takes on U.S. Abuse from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib (08/12/15) [20:03]
*TRNN & Laura Flanders | An Economy for the 99%: Josh Lerner and Connie Razza (08/11/15) [25:53]
*TYT | Bernie Sanders Proposes New Holiday For Voting (08/11/15) [10:19]
TYT | Ferguson Cops Chummy With Armed White Militia (08/11/15) [10:22]
TYT | Journalists Charged After Reporting In Ferguson (08/11/15) [4:59]
RT CrossTalk | 9/11: Whodunit? (old, but interesting) [25:33]
RoF | Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV (08/11/15) [28:59]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
More Articles

Looking For The Safest, Healthiest Pet Food? Good Luck With That.
HP | Zach Carter | 08/12/15

... The pet industry is booming. Americans spent over $58 billion on their pets last year, according to the American Pet Products Association, including more than $22 billion on food alone. The market for pet food is up over 75 percent since 2000, with almost all of that growth in the high-end "premium" sector, according to data from Euromonitor International. ...

... The market for premium pet food is dominated by a handful of large companies. Mars Petcare is the world's biggest pet food company with over $17 billion a year in annual sales, according to Petfood Industry data. It's also the parent company for a host of high-end brands most consumers don't associate with its flagship Pedigree label. Hippie-yuppie favorites, including California Naturals, Evo, Nutro, Eukenuba and Innova, are all heads of the Mars hydra. ... Read more


08.12.2015. 11:12

Tuesday August 11, 2015
News Articles

The Sad Truth About the State of the Financial System Today
ZeroHedge | author | 08/10/15

For six years, the world has operated under a complete delusion that Central Banks somehow fixed the 2008 Crisis. All of the arguments claiming this defied common sense. A 5th grader would tell you that you cannot solve a debt problem by issuing more debt. If the below chart was a problem BEFORE 2008... there is no way that things are better now. After all, we've just added another $10 trillion in debt to the US system.

  1. The REAL problem for the financial system is the bond bubble. In 2008 when the crisis hit it was $80 trillion. It has since grown to over $100 trillion.
  2. The derivatives market that uses this bond bubble as collateral is over $555 trillion in size.
  3. Many of the large multinational corporations, sovereign governments, and even municipalities have used derivatives to fake earnings and hide debt. NO ONE knows to what degree this has been the case, but given that 20% of corporate CFOs have admitted to faking earnings in the past, it's likely a significant amount.
  4. Corporations today are more leveraged than they were in 2007. As Stanley Druckenmiller noted recently, in 2007 corporate bonds were $3.5 trillion... today they are $7 trillion: an amount equal to nearly 50% of US GDP.
  5. The Central Banks are now all leveraged at levels greater than or equal to where Lehman Brothers was when it imploded. The Fed is leveraged at 78 to 1. The ECB is leveraged at over 26 to 1. Lehman Brothers was leveraged at 30 to 1.
  6. The Central Banks have no idea how to exit their strategies. Fed minutes released from 2009 show Janet Yellen was worried about how to exit when the Fed's balance sheet was $1.3 trillion (back in 2009). Today it's over $4.5 trillion.
Read more

China Devalues: Biggest Plunge Since '94

A Stunned Wall Street Reacts To China's Currency Devaluation
magazine | author | date

There is much stunned confusion among Wall Street's "best and brightest" following China's historic Yuan devaluation overnight which was predicted by exactly zero of said best and brightest, just like nobody expected the SNB to give up its own peg to the EUR in January.

The problem as the WSJ puts it, is that a devaluation for China is both good, and very bad. Good because it will help the struggling export sector, which has stalled amid weak global demand. Exports in July, for example, sank more than 8% and they were down nearly 1% for the first seven months of the year.

At the same time, it was essential for the People's Bank of China not to alarm domestic and foreign investors to avoid triggering a wave of capital outflows. Investors tend to dump a weakening currency and move their assets into other currencies. Thus, the PBOC said the move was a one-time reform effort to bring the yuan more in line with the markets.

That, of course, is a lie: the Fed's first QE was a "one-time" abnormal monetary intervention which has since become the de facto standard of every single central bank. ... Read more

After Marathon Talks, Greece And International Lenders Clinch Multi-Billion Euro Bailout Deal
Reuters & HP | author | 08/11/15

Greece and its international lenders reached a multi-billion euro bailout agreement on Tuesday after talking through the night, officials said, potentially saving the country from financial ruin.

The agreement, reached after a 23-hour session of talks, must still be adopted by Greece's parliament and euro zone countries. The single currency bloc's finance ministers are due to meet on Friday, giving time to finalize the deal before a major debt repayment next week. ... Read more

Robert Reich: Has America Finally Figured Out a Way to Rein in the Shocking Sums We Pays CEOs?
AlterNet | Robert Reich | 08/10/15

The Securities and Exchange Commission just ruled that large publicly held corporations must disclose the ratios of the pay of their top CEOs to the pay of their median workers... About time.

... Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 11 [8:16]
DN | Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky about Iran's situation regarding the nuclear Deal. (older) [21:56]
DN | Political Art and "All the World's Futures": Okwui Enwezor, First African Curator of Venice Biennale (08/11/15) [11:15]
*TRNN | Author and analyst Phyllis Bennis discusses: Why Does Senator Schumer Oppose the Iran Nuclear Deal? (08/11/15) [7:02]
TRNN | Dockworker and Union Leader, Giorgos Gogos: Greek Dockworkers Against the Troika (08/11/15) [7:02]
TYT | Think The Debate Hurt Trump? Think Again. (08/10/15) [4:45]
TYT | Bernie Sanders Unveils Racial Justice Platform (08/10/15) [13:25]
TYT | Trump: I'm Not Sexist, Megyn Kelly Has PMS! (08/10/15) [10:30]
TYT | Florida Pastor: Planned Parenthood is ISIS (08/10/15) [7:54]
RT | Keiser Report: Summer Solutions - Collapsing Empires (E793) (08/06/15) [25:45]
RT | Keiser Report: Summer Solutions - Stealth Privatization (E794) (08/08/15) [25:44]
RT | Keiser Report: Summer Solutions - Planet Ponzi dwarfing world's economy (E795) (08/11/15) [25:10]
RoF | GOP Candidates Turn Blind Eye To Income Inequality (08/10/15) [9:43]
RoF | Voters Are Rejecting The Ruling Class -- The 1% Are Running Scared (08/10/15) [2:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Why Shell is "Breaking Up" w/ALEC (08/11/15) [6:25]
ThomHartmann | Scientists Speak Out On the Iran Nuclear Deal (08/11/15) [6:01]

08.11.2015. 09:58

Monday August 10, 2015
News Articles

Bernie Sanders Unveils Sweeping Policy Platform To Combat Racial Inequality
HP | Marina Fang | 08/10/15

Sanders addressed the issue in front of more than 20,000 supporters in Portland, drawing his largest crowd yet.

A day after being interrupted by Black Lives Matters protesters at a campaign event in Seattle, Washington, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a detailed platform on combating racial inequality.

Sanders' campaign posted the platform on his website on Sunday, and he addressed the issue of racial justice that evening in front of more than 20,000 supporters in Portland, drawing his largest crowd yet along the campaign trail. Nearly 12,000 people attended Saturday's event in Seattle. ... Read more

Who Does Our Economy Serve?
TruthOut | Thom Hartmann | older, 07/28/15

During a speech at New York University Friday, Hillary Clinton took aim at "quarterly capitalism," her name for corporate the United States' endless - and senseless - pursuit of profits. ...

... As Edward Luce pointed out in a recent piece for The Financial Times, "The level of US investment is at its lowest since 1947. Last year, according to Goldman Sachs, S&P 500 companies spent more than $500bn on share buybacks. This year it is expected to hit $600bn.... For every dollar the top US public companies spend on investment, they are returning eight or nine dollars to shareholders."

Stock buybacks don't grow the economy as a whole; they just make giant rich corporations - and their CEOS - even richer. ... Read more

Welcome Back to Smoke-Filled, Back-Room Politics
TruthOut | Thom Hartmann | 08/06/15

... Nobody wants to admit it, but our political process is rapidly going back to the days when cigar-smoking insiders handpicked the nominees, except this time it's not corrupt political bosses choosing who they want to run for president, it's billionaires like the Koch Brothers.

As The New York Times pointed out over the weekend, "fewer than four hundred families are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign, a concentration of political donors that is unprecedented in the modern era." ... Read more

"fewer than four hundred families are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The $12 Trillion Fat Finger: How A "Glitch" Nearly Crashed The Global Financial System - A True Story
ZeroHedge | author | 08/08/15

... in under a minute, the hateful script had taken offline the entire system in much the same manner as chucking a spanner into a running engine might stop a car. The databases, as always, were flushing their precious data onto many different disks as this happened, so massive, irreversible data corruption occurred. That was it, the biggest computer system in the bank, maybe even the world, was down. And it wasn't coming back up again quickly. At the time this failure occurred there was more than $12 TRILLION of trades at various stages of the settlement process in the system. This represented around 20% of ALL trades on the global stock market. ... Read more

"Orwellian" FBI Says Citizens Should Have No Secrets That The Government Can't Access
ZeroHedge | author | 08/08/15

The police and surveillance state predicted in the forward-looking 1940s classic "1984" by George Orwell, has slowly, but steadily, come to fruition. However, like a frog sitting idly in a pan of steadily-warming water, too many Americans still seem unaware that the slow boil of big government is killing their constitutional liberties. The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data -- information the government has no automatic right to obtain. ... Read more

*The Bomb Didin't Beat Japan... Stalin Did
FP | Ward Wilson | old, 05/30/13

Read more

More News
Economic Update: System Badly Broken by Richard D. Wolff, (audio) (08/07/15) [58:30]
LIPtv | "The Act of Killing", Documentary with Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (older, 2013) [57:37]
THE ACT OF KILLING, the 2013 documentary about the political and criminal genocide in Indonesia of the 1960's and the ongoing unchecked abuses of power by government "thugs," has achieved international recognition. One of the most haunting films of the year, we discuss the filming, political and cultural factors of the genocide, impact and making of the film (featuring footage) with director Joshua Oppenheimer on this full length BYOD interview.


Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 10 [8:56]
*DN | Lead the Way Out of the Interrogation Room: Will American Psychological Assoc. End Role in Torture? (08/07/15) [4:30]
*DN | James Risen: In Sharp Break from Past, APA Set to Vote on Barring Psychologists from Interrogations (08/07/15) [12:52]
DN | First Republican Debate of 2016 Presidential Race Kicks Off on Fox News with Roger Ailes Favorites (last Friday, 08/07/15) [16:11]
Ten leading Republican presidential candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2016 presidential election Thursday night. Fox News invited 10 candidates to take part: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Scott Walker. Some analysts described the debate as the Roger Ailes primary since the head of Fox News had so much say into who participated in the prime-time event. Seven other Republican presidential candidates who didn't make the cut participated in another debate earlier in the evening. Fox News said it calculated its top 10 list by averaging five national polls, a process which came under fire from polling agencies earlier this week. We feature highlights from the debate.
No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson
No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson (older, but good 2006) [1:41:53]
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | Republican presidential hopefuls gather for a rapid-fire interview forum, and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton readies her campaign for a possible bid from Joe Biden. (08/08/15) [5:36]
Jon Stewart | Jordan Klepper heads to Eureka Springs, AR, to investigate a pastor's claim that an LGBT equal-rights ordinance discriminates against Christians. (08/01/15) [5:31]
*TRNN | Col. Larry Wilkerson and Center for Media and Democracy's Brendan Fisher discuss: GOP Debate: A Mirage of Democracy (08/10/15) [14:27]
*TRNN | Gar Alperovitz: Nuclear Attack on Japan was Opposed by American Military Leadership (Part 2/5) (older, 01/24/14) [14:27]
TRNN | The Forces Behind Schumer's Rejection of Iran Deal (08/10/15) [6:33]
TYT | Fact Checkers Working Overtime On GOP Debate Lies (08/07/15) [10:36]
TYT | Trump's Megyn Kelly Twitter Tantrum (08/07/15) [12:56]
TYT | Lindsey Graham Attacks Clinton For Sex Scandal (08/07/15) [4:19]
TYT | Ted Cruz Makes "Machine Gun Bacon" (08/10/15) [6:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.10.2015. 09:06

Friday August 07, 2015
News Articles

Trump Trips In GOP Debate, But Trumpism Wins: Planet Politics
HP | Howard Fineman | 08/07/15

He came off as arrogant, thin-skinned and mean -- but his blustery pronouncements are taking over the GOP.

Whatever eventually happens to Donald Trump's candidacy -- and he stumbled personally as a candidate here Thursday night -- this much should be clear to America and the world after the first Republican debate: Trumpism is taking over a political party that will have a good chance to win the presidency in next year's election. Which means that if the GOP takes the White House in 2016, it will do so with a leader who has acknowledged, if not fully accepted, Trump's clout and at least these aspects of Trumpism:

  1. Construction of a wall (or something) to effectively militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.
  2. A bellicose military stand toward Iran, China and Russia.
  3. A virulent contempt for the federal government, for all government, and for traditional politics as it's been practiced.
  4. An immediate repudiation of the now-pending nuclear arms-control deal with Iran.
  5. The abolition of President Barack Obama's health care law, to be replaced with a private enterprise system of some kind.
  6. A confrontational, name-calling, finger-in-the-chest approach to politics, media and anyone who accidentally gets in your way.
Read more

*2016 First Republican Presidential Debate- Top 10 Candidates (full) (08/06/15) [1:46:46]
The Bomb Sends a Message to the World
*TRNN | Untold History: The Bomb Sends a Message to the World (Part 6/7) [18:20]
The above interview with Peter Kuznick, professor of history, is refering to the 10 part series done by oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick: "The Untold History Of The United States" (see below).
*The Untold History Of The US by Oliver Stone
More News from AlterNet
Why Jeb Bush's Pitch to the Koch Brothers Should Scare You
Adele M. Stan / The American Prospect
Fox News Chief Makes a Bizarre Attack on Jon Stewart
Colin Gorenstein / Salon
Chris Christie Suggests Teachers Should Be 'Punched in the Face'--Teacher Takes Him Up On It
Dartagnan / Daily Kos
How Right-Wingers Are Suppressing the Minority Vote in Georgia - and the Pushback to Expand Democracy
Zaid Jilani / AlterNet
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 07 [5:32]
*DN | Japanese Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe on 70th Anniv. of US Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (08/06/15) [34:11]
DN | On Hiroshima Anniv. Peacemakers March on Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, Birthplace of Atomic Bomb (08/06/15) [12:38]
*TRNN | From 9/11 to Mass Surveillance, The Man Who Knew Too Much - Thomas Drake, Part 5 (08/07/15) [23:41]
*TRNN | The Winners & Losers in Iran Sanctions Relief (08/07/15) [5:09]
*TYT | Japan Mourns Hiroshima's 70th Anniversary (08/06/15) [10:06]
Also
*TYT | Who Was The Republican Debate's Biggest Loser? (08/06/15) [11:10]
TYT | Who Won The First Republican Presidential Debate? (08/06/15) [9:20]
TYT | Do Democrats Handle Economy Better Than Republicans? (08/06/15) [2:41]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.07.2015. 10:55

Thursday August 06, 2015
News Articles

WAR PARTY
HP | Ryan Grim | 08/05/15

President Barack Obama has been getting pushback from opponents of the Iran nuclear deal for arguing that opposition to it is tantamount to support for war. Not true, they say. The opponents just want "a better deal."

"Today, President Obama once again presented a false choice between military action and his deeply flawed agreement with Iran," Cotton said, a few months after admitting that his aim had been to blow up the deal. "It will give Iran billions of dollars to finance a terrorist war on Israel and America that it has been waging for over 30 years. And it raises the prospect that in 10 to 15 years, Iran will be able to wage war with a nuclear weapon. Americans deserve a better deal that will deprive Iran of nuclear-weapons capability."

In a briefing with a handful of reporters in the White House on Wednesday, Obama said that he's not trying to be provocative, but that there simply is no way to coax Russia, China, France, Great Britain, Germany and Iran to return to negotiations to ramp up sanctions -- certainly not if the U.S. Congress rejects the deal on the table. The only option left after diplomacy, then, is military action. ... Read more

Why The U.S. Isn't Prosecuting White Collar Criminals
ThinkProgress | Alan Pyke | 08/04/15

The decline in American vigor against crooks who keep their hands clean comes as Britain prepares to send a financier to prison for his role in a megabank conspiracy to rig interest rates in their favor. Tom Hayes, 35, was sentenced Monday to 14 years behind bars by a British jury. ...

Upon his release, the conviction will ensure Hayes cannot attain the kind of high-powered finance job that might afford him the chance to re-offend. The stiff sentence should also dissuade others in his industry from being cavalier about the law.

Such deterrence is a key tenet of any law enforcement effort. In the United States, a wave of potentially criminal financial activity before, during, and after the 2008 Wall Street crisis has failed to produce any kind of proportional prosecutorial response. The U.S. government is on track to prosecute 36.8 percent fewer white collar crimes this fiscal year than it did in 1995 according to the TRAC data. ... Read more

Numerous studies have shown that it's far more expensive to leave homeless people on the streets than it is to give them supportive housing. For instance, a study in central Florida found that residents pay $31,065 annually per chronically homeless person on the street. The annual bill for giving that same person a permanent place to live and supportive services like health care and job training: $10,051.

Unlike Donald Trump's Campaign, His Take On The Federal Reserve Is Sort Of Serious
HP | Daniel Marans | 08/05/15

But there is at least one issue about which Trump has offered more details than most actual presidential candidates: Federal Reserve monetary policy.

"I liked Paul Volcker a lot," Trump told hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann during the segment, which can be viewed below. "I thought he was a terrific guy in so many different ways, and he had a good pulse and ... he was doing what had to be done." Volcker, who ran the Fed from 1979 to 1987, increased interest rates dramatically to combat high inflation. He is credited with reducing inflation from 13.3 percent in 1979 to 3.2 percent in 1983 -- but in so doing, he induced a recession. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 06 [8:25]
*TRNN | Shir Hever questions: Is Netanyahu Fueling Anti-Semticism? (08/06/15) [10:28]
*TYT | FOX Sits Seven Republicans At "Kids' Table" Debate, Tantrums Ensue (08/05/15) [10:58]
RT | Keiser Report: Summer Solutions with Prof. Steve Keen (E792) (08/04/15) [25:26]
RoF | Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV (full) (08/04/15) [29:00]
RoF | Why Are Progressives The Only Ones Getting Things Done? (08/05/15) [5:23]
RoF | Facts Are Facts: Trump Supporters Are Just Plain Stupid (08/05/15) [7:23]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson "GOP Is On Their Rear Ends!" (08/04/15) [11:06]
ThomHartmann | Why Is Chris Matthews Comparing Bernie To Mao Tse Tsung? (08/04/15) [6:12]
Rachel Maddow
RachelMaddow | Ted Cruz's Machine Gun Bacon Fail & Chris Christie Abandons "the Boss" (08/04/15) [6:39]
RachelMaddow | Dirty Secret: What Fox News is about to do to Republican Party (07/28/15) [7:59]

08.06.2015. 08:19

Wednesday August 05, 2015
News Articles

Israel ex-security chiefs urge Netanyahu to accept Iran deal
YahooNews | author | 08/03/15

Jerusalem (AFP) - Many Israeli ex-generals and former security chiefs have signed a petition urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, which he strongly opposes.

It urges the government to pursue a policy that would "restore trust and reinforce security and diplomatic cooperation with the American administration". ... Read more

Here's Who Will Be In The First GOP Presidential Debate
HP | Igor Bobic | 08/04/15

Fox has said it will average the most recent five polls from "major, nationally recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques" to create a top 10 field of candidates who will participate in the coveted 9 p.m. primetime debate. Depending on which polls Fox takes into account, it's possible that the final list could include ties, resulting in more than 10 candidates onstage. Contenders who don't make the main stage will be given an opportunity to debate each other at an earlier, 5 p.m. slot. ... Read more

As of Tuesday morning, the five polls Fox is most likely to use are from Monmouth University, NBC/The Wall Street Journal, Fox News itself, Bloomberg and CBS/The New York Times.
Click picture to zoom in
Click picture to zoom in

11 Things You'll Probably Hear During The First GOP Debate That Are Totally False
ThinkProgress | Kira Lerner | 08/04/15

While Thursday will mark the first of nine official debates, the candidates have had no shortage of opportunities to make their positions heard, from dozens of conservative conferences to TV appearances and interviews. While they may surprise America with some never-before-heard attacks, new misinformed arguments or gross generalizations, it's not hard to predict most of their likely talking points based on what they've said during their campaigns so far. A not-insignificant number of them have already been debunked, but that won't stop them from being repeated. ... Read more

Trump May Be Soaring In The Polls, But The Bookies Aren't So Sure
ZeroHedge | author | 08/40/15

At 1000-to-1, Kim Kardashian is an outsider in the race to be the next US President but perhaps most notable in the odds that bookies are willing to offer is the 7th place that Donald Trump ranks (at 18-to-1 or just a 5% probability of winning), below GOP rivals such as Jeb Bush (23% probabiity) and Marco Rubio (11% probability). Trump even ranks below Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden according to where the money is being bet! Of course, Hillary remains the odds-on favorite at 10/11 (or 52% probability). ... Read more

Michael Moore Is About to Surprise America with Major New Documentary on the American Empire
AlterNet | Zaid Jilani | 08/04/15

Moore will premiere his new film 'Where To Invade Next' at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

"The issue of the United States at infinite war is something that has concerned me for quite some time, and provides the necessary satire for this film," he said. ["There's] this constant need it seems to always have an enemy -- where's the next enemy so we can keep this whole military industrial complex alive, and keep the companies that make a lot of money from this in business. I've always been a little bothered by that, so that's where the comedy comes from." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 05 [10:51]
*DN | Naomi Klein: Obama Is Beginning to Sound Like a Climate Leader, When Will He Act Like One? (08/04/15) [19:54]
*DN | Naomi Klein on Visiting the Vatican & the Radical Economic Message Behind Papal Climate Encyclical (08/04/15) [10:37]
*TRNN | From 9/11 to Mass Surveillance, The Man Who Knew Too Much - Thomas Drake, Part 4 (08/05/15) [20:46]
*TRNN | Daphne Wysham and Chris Williams unravel the contradictions in President Obama's Clean Energy Plan and his "all of the above strategy" (08/05/15) [17:22]
*TRNN | Phyllis Bennis: Israel's Nukes a Major Factor in Mideast Arms Race (08/05/15) [9:32]
Click picture to zoom in
TYT | Fox News Republican Debate Lineup And Preview (08/04/15) [8:40]
TYT | Activists Punk Scott Walker AGAIN (08/04/15) [8:13]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.05.2015. 10:38

Tuesday August 04, 2015
News Articles

Politicians from Both Sides of the Aisle: Corruption Has Destroyed America
ZeroHedge & WashongtonBlog | 08/04/15

There's always been some corruption in the United States ... but it's never been this bad before. ... Read more

Jon Schwarz has rounded up a good collection of recent quotes on corruption from both sides of the aisle:
  1. "Now [the United States is] just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congressmembers. ... So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors ..." -- Jimmy Carter, former president, in 2015.
  2. "You have to go where the money is. Now where the money is, there's almost always implicitly some string attached. ... It's awful hard to take a whole lot of money from a group you know has a particular position then you conclude they're wrong [and] vote no." -- Vice President Joe Biden in 2015.
  3. "Lobbyists and career politicians today make up what I call the Washington Cartel. ... [They] on a daily basis are conspiring against the American people. ... [C]areer politicians' ears and wallets are open to the highest bidder." -- Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2015.
  4. "When you start to connect the actual access to money, and the access involves law enforcement officials, you have clearly crossed a line. What is going on is shocking, terrible." -- James E. Tierney, former attorney general of Maine, in 2014.
  5. "Allowing people and corporate interest groups and others to spend an unlimited amount of unidentified money has enabled certain individuals to swing any and all elections, whether they are congressional, federal, local, state ... Unfortunately and rarely are these people having goals which are in line with those of the general public. History well shows that there is a very selfish game that's going on and that our government has largely been put up for sale." -- John Dingell, 29-term Democratic congressman from Michigan, in 2014 just before he retired.
  6. "When some think tank comes up with the legislation and tells you not to fool with it, why are you even a legislator anymore? You just sit there and take votes and you're kind of a feudal serf for folks with a lot of money." -- Dale Schultz, 32-year Republican state legislator in Wisconsin and former state Senate Majority Leader, in 2013 before retiring rather than face a primary challenger backed by Americans for Prosperity.
  7. "The alliance of money and the interests that it represents, the access that it affords to those who have it at the expense of those who don't, the agenda that it changes or sets by virtue of its power is steadily silencing the voice of the vast majority of Americans ... The truth requires that we call the corrosion of money in politics what it is -- it is a form of corruption and it muzzles more Americans than it empowers, and it is an imbalance that the world has taught us can only sow the seeds of unrest." -- Secretary of State John Kerry, in 2013 farewell speech to the Senate.
  8. "I think it is because of the corrupt paradigm that has become Washington, D.C., whereby votes continually are bought rather than representatives voting the will of their constituents. ... That's the voice that's been missing at the table in Washington, D.C. -- the people's voice has been missing." -- Michele Bachmann, four-term Republican congresswoman from Minnesota and founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, in 2011.
  9. "The banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." -- Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in 2009.

Greek Bank Stocks Crash Again Amid Fresh Signs Of Economic Disintegration
ZeroHedge | author | 08/04/15

After trading limit-down on Monday when Greek stocks opened for trading for the first time since PM Alexis Tsipras called a referendum, shares of Greek banks once again flirted with the daily 30% loss limit on Tuesday as there were simply no bids for a set of institutions that everyone knows is insolvent. Meanwhile, Kathimerini reports that "the state's losses from indirect taxes alone in the first couple of weeks of capital controls and the shuttering of banks [amounted to] more than half a billion euros." ... Read more

Jon Stewart's Farewell To Fox News: 'Adios, Motherf**kers!'
HP | Ed Mazza | 08/04/15

Jon Stewart has three more nights left in the "Daily Show" chair, but on Monday he delivered what may be his parting shot at longtime nemesis, Fox News. The network's talking heads have called him a "tool" of President Barack Obama, referred to the pair as having a "bromance" and described the comedian as an administration "propagandist."

Instead, Stewart played clip after clip of Fox News hosts over the years gleefully pointing out his many disputes with the administration. ... Read more

World's Glaciers Melting At Fastest Rate Since Record-Keeping Began
HP | Nick Visser | 08/03/15

The world's glaciers have melted to the lowest levels since record-keeping began more than 120 years ago, according to a study conducted by the World Glacier Monitoring Service that was released on Monday.

The research, published in the Journal of Glaciology, provides new evidence that climate change has spurred the rapid decline of thousands of the world's ice shelves over the past century. The first decade of the 21st century saw the fastest loss of ice since scientists began tracking it in 1894 -- and perhaps in recorded history, WGMS reported ... Read more

Raging California Wildfires Drive 13,000 From Their Homes
AP & HP | Terence Chea | 08/04/15

Firefighters were working aggressively to regain control after a raging Northern California fire jumped a highway that had served as a containment line for the massive blaze -- one of 20 wildfires burning in California. Cooler weather had helped crews build a buffer Monday between the wildfire and some of the thousands of homes it threatened as it tore through drought-withered brush in Lake County that hadn't burned in years.

But Monday afternoon erratic wind blew hot embers north of Highway 20 ignited several fires across the highway north of the city of Clearlake. ... Read more

Why America's Inequality Problem Is About a Lot More Than Money
AlterNet | David Cay Johnston | 08/03/15

Inequality is about much more than the growing chasm of income and wealth between those at the very top and everyone else in America. It's also about education, environmental hazards, health and health care, incarceration, law enforcement, wage theft and policies that interfere with family life over multiple generations.

In its full dimensions, inequality shapes, distorts and destroys lives in ways that get little attention from politicians and major news organizations. How many of us know that every day 47 American babies die, who would live if only our nation had the much better infant mortality rates of Sweden? "Poverty is not natural," Nelson Mandela once said. "It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings." ... Read more

HBO | John Oliver: Washington DC Statehood (08/02/15) [17:02]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 04 [6:52]
Joshua Oppenheimer Documentarys
The Look of Silence Official by Joshua Oppenheimer (trailer 2) (2015) [2:33]
The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer (trailer) (2013) [2:13]
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | Jon Stewart's Farewell To Fox News: 'Adios, Motherf**kers!' (08/04/15) [6:39]
*TRNN | From 9/11 to Mass Surveillance, The Man Who Knew Too Much - Thomas Drake, Part 3 (08/04/15) [21:32]
TRNN | Professor of Economics at Nehru University Jayati Ghosh discusses: Germans Get Debt Relief Twice in 20th Century, But Demand Greeks Pay Up (08/04/15) [5:50]
TYT | Trump: Obama Failed Black America (08/03/15) [2:38]
*TYT | Jeb Bush: Let's Spend More On Mexican Border (08/03/15) [9:15]
TYT | Hillary: Aren't I Relatable? I ALSO Had A Mother! (08/03/15) [9:59]
*RT | Keiser Report: The Precariat - The Dangerous New Class (E791) (08/01/15) [25:05]
In this special summer solutions episode of the Keiser Report Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert are joined by Guy Standing, co-President of the Basic Income Earth Network and author of The Precariat: The Dangerous New Class, to discuss the problem of declining incomes, automation of many jobs, and the rise of the Precariat. As a possible solution to the problem of ever fewer high paying jobs, they discuss basic incomes - the arguments for and against.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/

08.04.2015. 09:55

Monday August 03, 2015
News Articles

2016 GOP presidential debate schedule
WashingtonPost | author | current

DateMediaTimeLocation
08/06/15Fox News5 p.m. ET, 1 hrCleveland, OH
08/06/15Fox News9 p.m. ET, 2 hrsCleveland, OH
09/16/15CNN/Salem Radio9 p.m. ET, 2 hrsSimi Valley, CA
10/28/15CNBC  Boulder, Colorado
11/xx/15WSJ Wisconsin
12/15/15CNN/Salem Radio Nevada
01/xx/16Fox News Iowa
02/06/16ABC News New Hampshire
02/13/16CBS News South Carolina
02/26/16NBC Houston, Texas
02/10/16CNN/Salem Radio Florida
03/xx/16Fox News details to come
Note: in most of the debates it will be the top 10 candidates in recent national polling.
Read more

The I.R.S. Gives Up on 'Dark Money'
NYTimes | author | 07/25/15

The federal government has all but surrendered to the powerful, rich donors whose anonymous contributions threaten to undermine the 2016 elections. The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, signaled as much on Thursday when he told a House committee that there would be no change in the tax code in 2016 to end its growing abuse by political operatives using nonprofit “social welfare" institutions to disguise the identities of affluent campaign contributors. ... Read more

Mideast Hit With 165F Heat, 'Highest Ever Recorded'
newsmax.com | author | 08/01/15

Scorching heat has put temperatures as high as 165 degrees in the Middle East, as a "heat dome" passes its way through the region.

"That was one of the most incredible temperature observations I have ever seen -- and it is one of the most extreme readings ever in the world," AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Saglia told The Telegraph of the 165-degree heat-index reading in the western Iran city of Bandar Mahshahr. ... Read more

Wildfires Rage On Across California
AP & HP | author | 08/02/15

Wildfires blazing in several Western states Sunday chewed up forests and threatened homes but were most numerous in Northern California where dozens are raging and setting off evacuations. Wildfires are also burning in Washington and Oregon.

The biggest California wildfire -- raging in the Lower Lake area north of San Francisco -- spread overnight to cover even more drought-stricken ground, expanding more than 30 square miles in four or five hours, said California's Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott. ... Read more

Conspiracy Anyone? The NSA's 9/11 Cover-Up
AlterNet | Bill Blunden | 07/26/15

General Hayden told a lie, and it's a whopper.

“All tricksters, other than magicians, depend to a great extent upon the fact that they are not known to be, or even suspected of being, tricksters. Therein lies their great advantage." -- John Mulholland

Spies likewise wield illusion on the world stage in the service of secrecy. So it is with the events behind the attacks of 9/11 where those who question the official story are derided as conspiracy theorists. Thanks to the investigative digging of reporter James Bamford, with the assistance of NSA whistleblowers like Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe, the 9/11 crowd can now point to a conspiracy fact: an incredible cover-up that goes all the way to the top of the American intelligence community.

In a recent piece published by Foreign Policy Bamford examines a phone call to a clandestine operations center run by Osama bin Laden in Yemen during March of 2000. The phone call was dialed by one of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar, from his apartment in San Diego. In fact, there were a number of such phone calls made by 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego. Why didn't our security services immediately launch investigations? ... Read more

Jimmy Carter Rages At What The U.S. Has Become: "Just An Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over." ... Read more

Greek Stocks, Economy Collapse, Suffer Worst Declines In History
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

The Athens Stock Exchange reopened on Monday after a five-week hiatus. Stocks fell nearly 23% out of the gate with the country's insolvent banks trading limit-down. Meanwhile, Markit confirmed that the Greek economy has for all intents and purposes collapsed, with Greece's manufacturing PMI printing at 30.2. New orders plunged to just 17.9, betraying a contraction of unprecedented depth. ... Read more

LIBOR Scapegoat Found Guilty, Sentenced To 14 Years
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

Judge Sentences Hayes To 14 Years in Jail for LIBOR Crime. Former UBS Group AG and Citigroup Inc. trader Tom Hayes, the first person to stand trial for manipulating Libor, was found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to rig the benchmark rate. Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 03 [11:37]
*DN | Will "The Look of Silence" Force U.S. to Acknowledge Role in 1965 Indonesian Genocide? (08/03/15) [2:01], Part 2 [3:35]
Fox News
*FoxNews | Donald Trump on why he scares the GOP establishment (08/01/15) [11:29]
Notice how Donald Trump talks about Mexico stealing our jobs, but never mentions the secret trade deals TPP, TTIP, or the TSA? Why is that? Trump also talks about Wisconson and NJ doing poorly financially, but doesn't mention his own companies going through bankruptcy in the past? Great claims, no substance!
9/11 | Able Danger
911 | Somebody Has Been Sitting on the FBI (old, 11/06/01) [9:10]
9/11 Truth: Able Danger, Mohamed Atta, & Alleged Hijackers (old, ) [4:49]
Able Danger - CBS, CNN News (old, 08/09/05) [11:08]
*TRNN | Bill Black mocks: Republican Rank-and-File Line Up Against Financial Regulation (08/03/15) [10:00]
PBS-Frontline-the-warning-the-financial-collapse*Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]





*TRNN | From 9/11 to Mass Surveillance, The Man Who Knew Too Much - Thomas Drake, Part 1 (08/02/15) [32:14]
*TRNN | From 9/11 to Mass Surveillance, The Man Who Knew Too Much - Thomas Drake, Part 2 (08/03/15) [29:20]
*TYT | IRS Surrenders To Dark Money (08/02/15) [8:23]
*TYT | One Man Decides Which Republicans Allowed In Debate (08/02/15) [3:53]
*TYT | Rush Limbaugh Is Trump's New BFF (08/01/15) [4:37]
RoF | Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV (07/30/15) [29:00]
RoF | Trump VS. Kochs - Battle Of The Asshole Billionaires (07/31/15) [5:05]
RoF | Who Will Win The True Progressive Vote: Bernie or Hillary? (07/31/15) [2:46]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.
CorbettReport | Sibel Edmonds on Gladio B and the Paris Shooting (01/21/15) [54:56]
GRITtv | Richard Wolff: On Bernie Sanders and Socialism (07/14/15) [25:49]
This week: On Sanders and Socialism. Is socialism still an American taboo? Not so much, says professor Richard Wolff; nor was it in the past, says Nation columnist John Nichols. Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York City. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including his most recent; Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown 2010- 2014, and he hosts the weekly Economic Update podcast. John Nichols' many books include The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition...Socialism, and, most recently, Dollarocracy: How the Money-and-Media-Election Complex is Destroying America.

08.03.2015. 10:15



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Good YouTube Documentaries

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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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