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Wednesday August 31, 2016
News Articles

Obama Administration Meets Goal Of 10,000 Syrian Refugees
thinkprogress.org | Justin Salhani | current

Last September, the President Obama promised that the United States would resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the 2016 financial year, and 85,000 refugees in total from around the globe. But the plan to resettle Syrians in particular hit a hiccup after right wing politicians used the ISIS attacks in Paris and Brussels to ramp up anti-Muslim sentiment.

One of the main criticisms of refugee resettlement from the right concerned the screening process. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump played on the nation's anxieties by saying there is "no system to vet" Syrian refugees and a "better, bigger, more horrible version of the legendary Trojan horse." Politifact checked Trump's statement and labelled it 'false'. ... Read more
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TYT | Obama Welcomes 10,000th Syrian Refugee To America (08/30/16) [6:23]

Nasa: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
theguardian.com | Oliver Milman | 08/30/16

This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.

But Nasa said that records of temperature that go back far further, taken via analysis of ice cores and sediments, suggest that the warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium. ... Read more
TYT | NASA Warns Climate Change Could Cause Mass Extinction Event (08/30/16) [8:18]

Michele Bachmann: God 'Raised Up' Donald Trump
HP | Ed Mazza | 08/31/16

It's a question political pundits will be attempting to answer for generations: How did real estate magnate and reality TV star Donald Trump win the Republican presidential nomination?

Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a Trump advisor, claims to know the answer: God did it. Bachmann told "The Brody File" of CBN News that "the most high God lifts up who He will and takes down who He will." ... Read more

An Establishment Conservative's Guide To The Alt-Right
breitbart.com | Allum Bokhari | older 03/29/16

A specter is haunting the dinner parties, fundraisers and think-tanks of the Establishment: the specter of the "alternative right." Young, creative and eager to commit secular heresies, they have become public enemy number one to beltway conservatives -- more hated, even, than Democrats or loopy progressives.

The alternative right, more commonly known as the alt-right, is an amorphous movement. Some -- mostly Establishment types -- insist it's little more than a vehicle for the worst dregs of human society: anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other members of the Stormfront set. They're wrong. ... Read more

Diane Rehm Show
*DR | The Rise Of The "Alt-Right" Movement In The 2016 Campaign (erlier this week) [1hr]
Last Thursday, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Reno, Nevada in which she sought to tie Donald Trump to a movement many Americans probably had never heard of -- the "alt-right", a group that holds white supremacist views. It was part of a larger speech accusing her Republican opponent of racism, a barb that was traded back and forth between the two candidates last week. When Clinton mentioned the alt-right, it gave the movement a spotlight it has never had, leading to many questions about who they are, and what kind of association they have with the trump campaign. Diane and her guests discuss the rise of the "alt-right" and its place in this year's presidential campaign.
TYT | PRISON: Norway vs. United States (08/30/16) [5:31]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 31 [10:58]
DN | Glenn Greenwald: Clinton Believes Obama Has Not Been Militaristic Enough, Part 1 (08/31/16) [4:36], Part 2 [12:12]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
ColbertReport | Donald Trump's Extraordinary Health Report (08/30/16) [4:36]
ColbertReport | Sarah Palin Crashes & Burns (08/31/16) [4:56]
TYT | Rush Limbaugh Admits Something Shocking About Donald Trump (08/30/16) [3:30]
RT | Keiser Report: Coddled Banking Class (E960) (08/30/16) [25:37]
RT | Lionrock typhoon slams into Japanese areas still recovering from 2011 tsunami (08/31/16) [1:26]
Typhoon Lionrock reached northern Japan slamming into the areas still recovering from destructive tsunami of 2011. It's the first time a typhoon has made landfall in the northern region since 1951.
Max and Stacy discuss complacency and the "mother of all shorts," as those who sicken of the calm, know the storm. In the second half, Max interviews Mark O'Byrne of GoldCore.com about the arrival of Nirp in Ireland and the return of high rental costs.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Exposing the Koch's Environment Corruption (08/30/16) [10:55]
ThomHartmann | Fracking Could Destroy Your Health (08/30/16) [6:49]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Results From Congressional Primary Races And New Concerns About Hacks Into State Voting Systems (08/31/16) [1hr]
We have results from one of the last big primary nights of the year Florida and Arizona voted -- and projections show that big-name incumbents held their ground. Republican senators John McCain of Arizona, Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, also of Florida, have been declared winners. Incumbent wins normally would not be news... but this election season, all bets seem to be off. We'll talk about what the primary votes in states around the country may signal about results in November, plus take a look at a big general election story -- security concerns in state election systems.
Aljazeera | Al Jazeera World: Gaza's Shifah Hospital (08/30/16) [47:20]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.31.2016. 13:46

Tuesday August 30, 2016
News Articles

Republican Voters Wish They'd Picked A Different Nominee
HP | Ariel Edwards-Levy | 08/29/16

Seventeen candidates ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year. A majority of GOP voters now say that they wish they'd picked one of the 16 who weren't Donald Trump, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey. The public as a whole is less than impressed with either party's nominee. Just 20 percent of all voters say that Trump was Republicans' best choice, while 30 percent think Hillary Clinton was Democrats' best option. Read more

FBI says foreign hackers penetrated state election systems
Yahoo News | Michael Isikoff | 08/29/16

The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials.

The FBI warning, contained in a "flash" alert from the FBI's Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections. ... Read more
TYT | FBI Confirms Scary Election Hacking Concerns (08/29/16) [11:08]

The Evidence Of Fracking's Health Effects Keeps Mounting
thinkprogress.org | Alejandro Dávila Fragoso | current

Hydraulic fracturing has over the past few years been associated with ground water pollution, spills, and earthquakes in various states. Now, a study led by John Hopkins University researchers found that fracking in Pennsylvania may be associated with migraines, fatigue, and sinusitis.

The study, published Thursday, adds to a growing body of scientific work that on regular basis links the controversial extraction process with adverse effects on the environment and people. ... Read more
TYT | Evidence Of The Fracking Dangers Are Mounting (08/29/16) [6:20]


Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt by Sarah Jaffe (2016)


We are witnessing a moment of unprecedented political engagement and social activism. Pundits once fretted about Americans' apathy, but in the last few years we've seen uprisings and protests across the country: the growth of the Tea Party, the successful fight for a $15 minimum wage, BlackLivesMatter, Occupy Wall Street, and the grassroots networks supporting presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders.

In Necessary Trouble, journalist Sarah Jaffe leads readers into the heart of these movements, explaining what has made ordinary Americans from Seattle to St. Louis to Atlanta become activists. As Jaffe shows, Americans, regardless of political alignment, are boldly challenging who wields power in this country. They are poised to permanently remake politics as we know it--and in many cases, they already have.
Every bearded man is not a terrorist

Wake Up America - It's Time To Eliminate The 'Pusher'
ZeroHedge | author | 08/30/16

Central banks can only do one thing, and that's provide monetary welfare for the wealthy. Wake up, America. The only way to stop widening wealth and income inequality and kick your smack addiction is to eliminate the pusher. ... Read more
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EU hits Apple with 13 billion euro Irish tax demand
Reuters | Foo Yun Chee | 08/30/16

The European Commission ordered Apple Inc. to pay Ireland unpaid taxes of up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) on Tuesday as it ruled the firm had received illegal state aid.

Apple and Dublin said the U.S. company's tax treatment was in line with Irish and European Union law and they would appeal the ruling, which is part of a drive against what the EU says are sweetheart tax deals that usually smaller states in the bloc offer multinational companies to lure jobs and investment.

The U.S. feels its firms are being targeted by the EU and a U.S. Treasury spokesperson warned the move threatens to undermine U.S. investment in Europe and "the important spirit of economic partnership between the U.S. and the EU". ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 30 [12:39]
*DN | A Mother's Plea to CEO After EpiPen Price Jumped 400% (08/30/16) [9:30]
*DN | Why Are We Paying $300 for an EpiPen That Holds Only $1 Worth of Medicine? (08/30/16) [6:58]
DN | Could the Presidential Election Be Hacked? FBI "Flash" Alert Urges States to Bolster Security (08/30/16) [6:30]
*TYT | Photo Of Crying Old Couple Being Separated Goes Viral (08/29/16) [6:09]
TYT | Obama's Lesbian Farmer Invasion Thwarted By Rush Limbaugh (08/29/16) [6:49]
TYT | Hundreds Of Reindeer Killed By Lightning Strike (08/29/16) [3:21]
RT | Keiser Report: Lesser Evil Voting (E959) (08/27/16) [25:44]
Max and Stacy discuss the door opened to lesser evil as journalism collapses and neoliberalism dies. In the second half, Max interviews economist, Sandeep Jaitly, about negative rates, private placements and Trump's gold standard plans.
German economy minister: TTIP talks between EU & US have de facto failed (08/29/16) [6:14]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Big Pharma Bro Has Put America In Crisis (08/29/16) [12:28]
ThomHartmann | Sarah Jaffe Interview: What Makes Today's Protests Different?, Part 1 (08/29/16) [12:52], Part 2 [12:27]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | xxxxxxxx (08/02/16) [1hr]
Aljazeera | 101 East: Inside Fukushima's Time Bomb (08/25/16) [25:10]
Five years after the twin catastrophes of the Japan tsunami and Fukushima nuclear meltdown, villages sit silent and empty. Thousands of workers still toil to clean up the radioactive material but it could be decades before their work is finished. As Japan continues to suffer the toxic aftermath of one of its worst ever disasters, 101 East reveals that the countryside may never again be safe.
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost: Inside the murky world of negative interest rates (08/27/16) [26:00]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.30.2016. 11:27

Monday August 29, 2016
News Articles

Lawmakers Overseeing Wall Street Given Bigger, More Favorable Loans Than Others: Study
ibtimes.com | David Sirota | 08/19/16

It is good to be king, as the old saying goes -- and apparently it's also good to get a seat on a congressional committee that oversees the finance industry. According to a new study, those lawmakers tend to get larger loans and at more favorable interest rates right when they get appointed to those powerful panels. Researchers suggest the evidence is no random coincidence: They say the trend may in fact expose a conduit of influence peddling in which powerful lawmakers are using their position to extract favors -- and whereby Wall Street firms may be using stealth perks to increase their legislative power. ... Read more

Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire by Deepa Kumar

In response to the events of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a "war on terror," ushering in an era of anti-Muslim racism, or Islamophobia. However, 9/11 did not create the image of the "Muslim enemy." This book examines the historic relationship between anti-Muslim racism and the agenda of empire building.

Beginning in the eleventh century and the context of the Crusades, Deepa Kumar offers a sweeping historical analysis of the changing views of Islam and Muslims in the West, examining the ways that ruling elites throughout history have used the specter of a "Muslim enemy" to justify their imperial projects.

The language of Islamophobia that was developed in the context of the European colonization of the Middle East continues to thrive today in the United States. Kumar expertly exposes and debunks various myths about Muslims and Islam that have become widely accepted in the US.

She goes on to analyze the US's checkered attitude towards the parties of political Islam, outlining how it has treated Islamists as both allies and enemies. By examining local conditions that have allowed for the growth of Islamists, Kumar shows that these parties are not inevitable in Muslim-majority countries but are rather a contemporary phenomenon similar to the rise of Christian, Jewish, and Hindu fundamentalisms.

The final section of the book sheds light on how the use of Islamophobia in justifying foreign policy necessitates and facilitates political repression at home. Attacks on Muslim Americans have spread to attacks on dissent in general. Kumar concludes by making a powerful case for a grassroots movement that challenges anti-Muslim racism and the projects of empire.

Why Can't Our Economy Promote Equality and Shared Prosperity?
AlterNet | Jim Hightower | 08/28/16

Meet "Take On Wall Street," a grassroots movement preventing America's plunge into plutocracy.

Instead of griping about the greedheads of Wall Street and the rip-off financial system they've hung around our necks--why don't we "Take On Wall Street"?

You don't have to be in "Who's Who" to know what's what. For example, if tiny groups of Wall Street bankers, billionaires and their political puppets are allowed to write the rules that govern our economy and elections, guess what? Only bankers, billionaires and puppets will profit from those rules. ... Read more

The Scandal of EpiPens Runs Deeper Than Most of Us Realize
AlterNet | Martha Rosenberg | 08/26/16

It has been two years since Gilead Sciences Inc. rolled out its $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, priced at $84,000 for a course of treatment and met with disbelief from patients, insurers and health care professionals. After an 18-month investigation the Senate Finance Committee concluded prices did not reflect Gilead's development costs and that the drug maker cared about "revenue" not "affordability and accessibility." The committee also found that Sovaldi and a related pill, Harvoni, cost taxpayers $5 billion in 2014.

It's been one year since Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. hiked the price of a once-daily form of Wellbutrin, a 30-year-old antidepressant, to $1,400 a month despite the existence of a $30 generic and refused to lower prices on the millions hospitals pay for its life-saving heart medicines.

And it has been only a few months since a smirking Martin Shkreli, former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO, gave a figurative finger to Congress by refusing questions about why his company raised the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim, crucial for AIDS patients, from $13.50 a tablet to $750 per tablet. ... Read more

Dallas Fed Dead-Cat-Bounce Dies - Economy Contracts For 20th Month In A Row

Will The Pentagon's Effort To Whip Up War Fever Work in This Internet Era?
ZeroHEdge | author | 08/29/16

We are in the midst of a huge propaganda blitz by the Pentagon and its affiliated military-industrial complex. We've seen the results before and hopefully they will not reoccur with such worldwide viciousness again. Is it possible that this time the Pentagon's lurid lies will fail to awake public terror and instead incite indignation at military-industrial manipulations. That would be an outcome dearly to be desired in this awakening Internet era. ... Read more

Bush, Cheney, PNAC, & The Criminal Conspiracy To Invade Iraq (older, but good) [10:45]

'Go Topless Go' Is The Equal Rights Anthem We Didn't Know We Needed
HP |David Moye | 08/26/16

Every important political movement has its theme song. The Civil Rights movement had "We Shall Overcome," the 1970s feminist movement had "I Am Woman," and now there's a ditty for those who are fighting the good fight to allow women to go topless in public. The song is called, appropriately enough, "Go Topless Go" and performed by singer Gabriela Dolanska (her Facebook page states she is located in Slovakia). ... Read more
Go Topless Go (08/24/16) [2:34]

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 29 [14:53]
DN | Glenn Greenwald: Rousseff Impeachment Trial Marks Complete Reversal of Democracy (08/29/16) [17:14]
*DN | Glenn Greenwald: Why Are Saudis Donating Millions to Clinton Foundation? (08/29/16) [10:00]
DN | Greenwald: Journalists Should Not Stop Scrutinizing Clinton Just Because Trump is Unfit for Office (08/29/16) [5:01]
DN | Vijay Prashad: Turkey's Offensive Against ISIS & Press Crackdown is Really Just War on Kurds, Part 1 (08/26/16) [8:05], DN | Part 2 [9:57]
*DN | Actress Emma Thompson: Donald Trump is a White Nationalist Like Brexit Politician Nigel Farage (08/26/16) [2:53]
TRNN | Is 'Our Revolution' the Way To Build Transformative Politics? (08/29/16) [22:26]
TRNN | Deepa Kumar discusses: Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (Rerun) [20:21]
*TRNN | Economist Heiner Flassbeck discusses: No nations in the European Union are experiencing a recovery (08/29/16) [7:34]
*TYT | EpiPen Gouges Sick People For CEO Bonuses (08/27/16) [15:22]
EpiPen manufacturer Mylan is facing scrutiny and criticism for its recent business practices. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola,hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.

Mylan has drawn the ire of patients, consumer groups and now Congress for raising the price of the device 400% since it acquired EpiPen in 2007. The implement, which delivers life-saving medicine for severe allergy sufferers, can now cost more than $300 per pen. It's only sold in pairs and must be purchased every year because the drug, epinephrine, loses potency over time. Sales of EpiPen are now in excess of $1 billion annually.

Asked for comment, Myan referred to a statement on its website explaining the problem with the EpiPen isn't its cost, but the high deductible of many people's health insurance plans. The company also provides coupons that reduce the cost by $100.
TYT | Senate Banking Committee Gets "VIP Loans" (08/27/16) [7:31]
TYT | Why Is Obama Shoving The TPP Down Our Throats? (08/28/16) [2:33]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | The Rise Of The "Alt-Right" Movement In The 2016 Campaign (08/29/16) [1hr]
Last Thursday, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Reno, Nevada in which she sought to tie Donald Trump to a movement many Americans probably had never heard of -- the "alt-right", a group that holds white supremacist views. It was part of a larger speech accusing her Republican opponent of racism, a barb that was traded back and forth between the two candidates last week. When Clinton mentioned the alt-right, it gave the movement a spotlight it has never had, leading to many questions about who they are, and what kind of association they have with the trump campaign. Diane and her guests discuss the rise of the "alt-right" and its place in this year's presidential campaign.
*DR | "Doonesbury" Cartoonist Garry Trudeau On 30 Years Of Drawing Donald Trump (08/29/16) [1hr]
It was 1987 when the "Doonesbury" comic strip first imagined a Donald Trump presidential run. Since then, Trump has been a recurring character in cartoonist Garry Trudeau's Pulitzer Prize-winning strip. Over the years "Doonesbury" has taken on Trump's rhetoric, his beliefs about women, Trump University... well before any of this was making front-page campaign news. And the candidate has been less than pleased with Trudeau's satirical depictions, calling Trudeau a "sleazeball" and a "third-rate talent." Now the author has compiled all his Trump clips into a new book. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau on satire, politics and thirty years of drawing Donald Trump.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Charlevoix, Michigan - St. Marys Cement Plant
Approximately 1.3 million tons of cement is produced annually in Charlevoix, but the expansion and modernization would allow for the production of nearly 2 million tons of cement, Fallon said. In the end it depends on the numbers and our return on the $130 million investment. If the Charlevoix plant is improved and modernized, it would set us up for another 40 to 50 years of production." Read more
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Bike Paths Fishermans Island State Park
Hostiptal & Nursing Home & Airport
Google Maps | Google Earth in your browser
Google Earth Deskyop App

08.29.2016. 11:59

Friday August 26, 2016
News Articles

Vets Lose When Big Pharma and Defense Corporations Rake in the Big War Bucks
AlterNet | Ann Jones / TomDispatch | 08/25/16

A friend of mine, a Vietnam vet, told me about a veteran of the Iraq War who, when some civilian said, “Thank you for your service,” replied: “I didn’t serve, I was used.” That got me thinking about the many ways today’s veterans are used, conned, and exploited by big gamers right here at home.

Andrew Bacevich is certainly right about war profiteers, but I believe we haven’t yet fully wrapped our minds around what that truly means. This is what we have yet to take in: today, the U.S. is the most unequal country in the developed world, and the wealth of the plutocrats on top is now so great that, when they invest it in politics, it’s likely that no elected government can stop them or the lucrative wars and “free markets” they exploit. ... Read more

"Our Revolution"? Bernie Sanders Launches New Organization, But Key Staffers Quit in Protest
DemocracyNow | author | 08/25/16

Bernie Sanders and his supporters have launched a new political organization called Our Revolution. It seeks to support the next generation of progressive leaders, empower millions to fight for progressive change and elevate the nation’s overall political consciousness. More than 2,600 watch parties were held across the country last night to witness Sanders launch the new organization. But reports have emerged of political tumult within Bernie Sanders’s own team. Over the weekend, eight key staffers abruptly resigned in a dispute over the group’s leadership and legal structure. ... Read more

TRNN | Our Revolution Launch Event (08/24/16) [1:07:30]
At this meeting, Bernie Sanders and others from Our Revolution will lay out some of the next steps we can take as a movement to empower a wave of progressive candidates this November and win the major upcoming fights for the values we share. We'll also talk about how you can be a key movement builder in your community for Our Revolution.
OurRevolution.com website
TYT | Bernie Sanders Launches "Our Revolution" (08/25/16) [8:49]

Iraq War Surveillance Technology Being Used In Baltimore Without Public Debate
ZeroHedge | author | 08/26/16

Yesterday, Bloomberg published a lengthy expose on a company called Persistent Surveillance Systems, which has been secretly surveilling the people of Baltimore on behalf of the police since January. The article is titled, Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above, and here are some choice excerpts:

Pritchett had no idea that as he spoke, a small Cessna airplane equipped with a sophisticated array of cameras was circling Baltimore at roughly the same altitude as the massing clouds. The plane’s wide-angle cameras captured an area of roughly 30 square miles and continuously transmitted real-time images to analysts on the ground. The footage from the plane was instantly archived and stored on massive hard drives, allowing analysts to review it weeks later if necessary. .... Read more

TRNN | Chris Hedges Interviews Noam Chomsky () [56:00]
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media - Documentary by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick (1992) [2:40:24]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 26 [11:29]
DN | "Our Revolution"? Bernie Sanders Launches New Organization, But Key Staffers Quit in Protest (08/25/16) [15:16]
TRNN | Sanders Launch of "Our Revolution" a Step Forward and a Step Backwards (08/26/16) [20:08]
TYT | Trump Loves Crazy Alex Jones (08/25/16) [6:11]
TYT | Libertarianism Debunked. (08/25/16) [5:26]
TYT | CNN Panel Laughs At Katrina Pierson’s Trump Defense (08/25/16) [2:28]
RT | Keiser Report: Banks in Safe Harbors (E958) (08/25/16) [25:45]
Max and Stacy discuss the ‘ships in safe harbors’ – i.e., the banks and major corporations - that now no longer do what capitalism is meant to do. In the second half they continue their interview with Simon Dixon of BnkToTheFuture.com about the Bitfinex and The Dao ‘hacks’ and what lessons the respective responses hold for the legacy banking sector. They also discuss central banks turning crypto.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Proof Bailing Out Nuclear Plants Is Bad! (08/25/16) [6:52]
ThomHartmann | Tribal Rights & the Dakota Access Pipeline (08/25/16) [6:41]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Friday News - Domestic (08/26/16) [1hr]
The presidential campaign takes a particularly nasty turn this week as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take turns calling each other racists. Trump, meantime, seems to be going in a new direction on immigration. But exactly where he’s headed has been tough to pin down. The Republican nominee continues to trail Clinton in several battleground states. But in others, like North Carolina, voters remain divided. President Barack Obama surveys flood damage in Louisiana. And lawmakers demand answers after outcry over the skyrocketing cost of life-saving EpiPens. A panel of journalists joins Derek McGinty for analysis of the week’s top national news stories.
*DR | Friday News - International (08/26/16) [1hr]
Italy continues a desperate search for survivors of an earthquake that has claimed nearly 270 lives. Turkey blames PKK militants for a deadly car bomb targeting the police. Tensions rise between Washington and Tehran after Iran harasses a U.S. warship near the Persian Gulf. In France, what’s being called the “burkini wars” draws strong commentary from around the world. Insurgents in Afghanistan attack a university in the capital, killing more than a dozen students and staff. And the government of Colombia signs a peace deal with Marxist rebels to end a 52-year guerrilla war. A panel of journalists joins guest host Derek McGinty for analysis of the week’s top international news stories.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.26.2016. 10:01

Thursday August 25, 2016
News Articles
Still Working


Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill by Antonia Juhasz

It is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as ""before"" and ""after the gulf oil disaster."" Black Tide is the only book to tell this story through the perspective of people on all sides of the catastrophe, from those who lost their lives, loved ones, and livelihoods to those who made the policies that set the devastating event in motion, those who cut the corners that put corporate profits over people and the environment, and those who have committed their lives to ensuring that such an event is never repeated.

Dramatic and compelling, Black Tide exposes the human failings and human cost of the largest oil disaster in American history and how it could easily happen again.

"We cannot allow the BP disaster to be pushed from public view the way BP used chemical dispersants to hide the oil. These remarkable stories-of loss, heroism and culpability-are a vivid reminder that this catastrophe will be with us for decades, and that we have not yet made the changes necessary to prevent destruction in the future."
-Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
Just a reminder... the U.S. Military is the single largest user of oil in the world.
TYT | US Weapons To Bahrain Spiked After Paying Clinton Foundation $32 Million (08/24/16) [12:07]
What the Bush Family Knew, Before they Bought Land in Paraguay

Green Going Gone: The Tragic Deforestation of the Chaco
RollingStone | Christine MacDonald | o7/28/14

A converted garage in Asuncion, Paraguay, seems an unlikely headquarters for the crusade to save one of Earth's last great wilderness expanses. But in a cluttered and fluorescent-lit room, three geographic information systems (GIS) analysts are hunched over their computer screens searching satellite maps for signs of fresh deforestation in South America's Gran Chaco forest, doing the best they can. "The Chaco is one of the most unknown remaining wildernesses on our planet," says Alberto Yanosky, the activist in charge of those analysts. The problem though, is that "we're losing the Chaco faster than scientists can study it." ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Zoom in further to see the individual Soy plantations

*DN | Day After Obama Tours Louisiana Flood Damage, Gov't Holds Massive Gulf Oil & Gas Lease Auction (08/24/16) [12:16]
TRNN | Trent University professor Baris Karaagac: Turkey's Incursion into Syria Will Escalate Conflict with the Kurds (08/24/16) [12:52]
*TRNN | EpiPen Prices Soar Because Our Current System Can't Restrain Profit-Seeking Corporations (08/24/16) [9:35]
TYT | Lebanese Man Gunned Down By Racist Neighbor (08/24/16) [5:13]
TYT | French Police Force Muslim Woman To Strip At Beach (08/24/16) [6:42]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | A Cyber-Psychologist Explains How Human Behavior Changes Online (08/25/16) [1hr]
Dr. Mary Aiken, a pioneering cyber-psychologist, work inspired the CBS television series “CSI: Cyber”. She explains how going online changes our behavior in small and dramatic ways, and what that means for how we think about our relationship with technology.
*DR | The Big Business Of Looted Antiquities (08/24/16) [1hr]
Last year, the world watched in horror as ISIS destroyed key historical sites in Palmyra, Syria. But experts warn it’s not only these high profile acts of destruction that pose the biggest threat to the world’s cultural heritage. Instead, it’s a practice that dates back millennia – tomb raiding. The trade in looted antiquities is big business – and some fear it’s growing due to instability in the Middle East and North Africa. While the U.S. has passed laws restricting imports from Syria and Iraq, many argue little will change until the market for these stolen antiquities is eliminated. New efforts to curb the plunder of the world’s cultural heritage.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.25.2016. 12:10

Wednesday August 24, 2016
News Articles
Todays Headlines at HP
QUAKE ROCKS CENTRAL ITALY... 'THE TOWN IS NOT THERE ANY MORE' ... Dozens Dead... Thousands Left Homeless... Hospital Badly Damaged, Patients Moved Into The Street... 60 Aftershocks, Tremors Felt As Far Away As Rome... 'This Is A Catastrophe'...
Earthquake strikes central Italy, shocks felt in Rome and Venice (08/24/16) [4:29]

*Donald Trump Jacked Up His Campaign's Trump Tower Rent Once Somebody Else Was Paying It
HP | S.V. Date | 08/22/16

Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March.

The Trump campaign paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,458 in March ? the same amount it had been paying since last summer ? and had 197 paid employees and consultants. In July, it paid 172 employees and consultants. ... Read more
TYT | How Donald Trump Funnels Campaign Donations Into His Pocket (08/23/16) [8:18]

AP: More Than Half Of Clinton's Non-Government Visitors At State Gave To Foundation
AP | author | 08/24/16

More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money -- either personally or through companies or groups -- to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.

At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million. ... Read more

*Global Empire - The World According to Seymour Hersh, Part 1 (08/10/16) [30:31]
What the Bush Family Knew, Before they Bought Land in Paraguay
What the Bush Family Knew, Before they Bought Land in South America above the World's Largest Aquifer. | 50kview.blogspot.com | L.J. Devon | 07/19/14
The Ogallala aquifer, in the center of the U.S., has been used up at an unsustainable pace since the early 1980s when big agriculture began using automated center pivot irrigation devices. Once farmers started putting these devices into widespread use, the Ogallala became a center for abuse, precipitously drained year after year. The Ogallala is unique; it cannot be replenished by surface water or precipitation. When it's used up, there's no more water to go around.
Why Did George Bush Buy Nearly 300,000 acres in Paraguay? | agorafinancial.com | Brian Maher | 04/24/15
Bush Family Buy Up Guarani Aquifer | watchingamerica.com | Jenny Westwell | 06/18/15
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Global Economics Explained: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and Corruption (2012) [1:13:54]
Audio Book | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (02/24/16) [11:04:30]

According to Perkins, he began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s, but "threats or bribes always convinced [him] to stop."

According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to privatise their health, education, electric, water and other public services. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.

In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy. -- November 4, 2004 interview

I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew the government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh's government who was Time's magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed -- well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn't have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.

Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of The Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist and wrote a critically well-received biography of World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, holds that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong". For instance he points out that Indonesia reduced its infant mortality and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. He also disputes Perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. A value-added comparison done by the UN, he says, shows the number to be 29. (The 51 of 100 data comes from an Institute for Policy Studies Dec 2000 Report on the Top 200 corporations; using 2010 data from the CIA's World Factbook and Fortune Global 500 the current ratio is 114 corporations in the top 200 global economies.)
Great Chinese Crash
*BBC | The Great Chinese Crash (2016) [27:20]
Click picture to zoom in

Space Weather Conditions
Click picture to zoom in
Space Weather Conditions - Estimated Planetary K-Index
NOAA | Space Weather Prediction Center website
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 24 [13:23]
DN | Inaction on Climate Change Could Cost Millennials $8.8 Trillion in Lifetime Income (08/24/16) [6:18]
A new study has found that without action on climate change, the millennial generation as a whole will lose nearly $8.8 trillion in lifetime income dealing with the economic, health and environmental impacts of climate change. The study, "The Price Tag of Being Young: Climate Change and Millennials' Economic Future," was produced by NextGen Climate and Demos.
Nextgen Climate & Demos Release New Report on the Costs of Climate Change to Millennials website
The Price Tag of Being Young.pdf
DN | Embracing the Alt-Right: New Trump Campaign Chief "Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists" (08/24/16) [12:19]
*TRNN | Bill Curry says: The Real Scandal of Clinton's Emails: Conducting Foreign Policy In Secret (08/24/16) [18:35]
TRNN | Political economist Aleksandr BuzgalinHow: Ukrainian and Russian Elite Benefit From New Flare-ups at the Border (08/24/16) [10:00]
*TYT | MORE Leaked Hillary Emails Show Troubling Pattern With Clinton Foundation (08/23/16) [16:43]
TYT | Eric Trump Blames Stagnant Wages On Refugees (08/23/16) [3:04]
TYT | Donald Trump And Morning Joe Call Each Other Drunks (08/23/16) [7:33]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Why Does Trump Wants A Police State? (08/24/16) [11:29]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Questions About Hillary Clinton's Newly Uncovered Emails (08/24/16) [1hr]
Last October Bernie Sanders said the American people were sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's emails, but like it or not the story is far from over. The FBI found nearly fifteen thousand Clinton emails beyond the ones turned over to the State Department previously. The Department is now going through these emails, and a federal judge has ordered it to speed up their release. A conservative watchdog group this week separately released some emails that show big donors to the Clinton Foundation seeking access to Clinton when she was Secretary of State. Join us to talk about what we know and don't know about Clinton's emails.
*DR | Update On The Italy Earthquake (08/24/16) [1hr]
Deborah Ball, the Italy bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, gives us the latest on Tuesday night's deadly 6.2 magnitude earthquake north of Rome.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.24.2016. 11:40

Tuesday Aug 23, 2016
News Articles

Yemen Civil War (2011-201?)
globalsecurity.org | author | date

By early 2015, Yemen was pretty much a failed state, beset by a circular firing squad of factions. Besides a local struggle for power, the Yemen conflict is widely viewed as a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran. Yemen was wracked by internal divisions as the Houthi movement spread beyond its traditional rebellion in the north, separatists continue to press their cause in the south, and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claims attacks both at home and abroad, including on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris earlier in January 2015.

... On February 25, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia due to its operation in Yemen, passing by 359 to 212 votes. However, the European Parliament vote doesn't compel every member state to act. The European Parliament resolution of February 25, 2016 on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen refers to "grave concerns" over the deterioration of the situation on the ground. ... Read more

In January 2016 the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) reported that 470,000 deaths had been caused by the conflict in Syria, either directly or indirectly. This represents a dramatic increase from the total of 250,000 fatalities attributed to the UN in news reports in recent years. But the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stopped updating the death toll from Syria's civil war in January 2014.
TYT | Gary Johnson Interview With Cenk Uygur Of The Young Turks (08/22/16) [15:37]
TYT | Jill Stein On Why Trump AND Clinton Are Dangerous (08/18/16) [10:11]

*U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds
Reuters | author | 08/19/16

The United States Army's finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced.

The Defense Department's Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up. ... Read more
TYT | Army Accounting Off By TRILLIONS Audit Reveals (08/22/16) [9:10]

An audit shows that the US Army accounting books are a little off...by a couple trillion dollars. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore, and Ryan Clayton, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.

"It's Gone" - Why Foreign Demand For US Treasuries Has Disappeared
ZeroHedge | author | 08/23/16

Something significant has happened in recent months: buying 10-yr US treasuries is no longer profitable. It is not only Europeans or Japanese, there now isn't any global fixed income investor that can make decent money by buying hedged USTs. ... Read more

Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis by Chris Williams

Around the world, consciousness of the threat to our environment is growing. The majority of solutions on offer, from using efficient light bulbs to biking to work, focus on individual lifestyle changes, yet the scale of the crisis requires far deeper adjustments. Ecology and Socialism argues that time still remains to save humanity and the planet, but only by building social movements for environmental justice that can demand qualitative changes in our economy, workplaces, and infrastructure.

"Williams adds a new and vigorous voice to the growing awareness that, yes, it is our capitalist system that is ruining the natural foundation of our civilization and threatening the very idea of a future. I am particularly impressed by the way he develops a clear and powerful argument for an ecological socialism directly from the actual ground of struggle, whether against climate change, systematic poisoning from pollution, or the choking stream of garbage. Ecology and Socialism is a notable addition to the growing movement to save our planet from death-dealing capitalism."

Germany Warns People To 'Stockpile' Cash In Case Of 'War'
ZeroHedge | author | 08/23/16

The German government is warning its people to 'stockpile' food, water and cash in case of 'war'. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government is set to tell citizens to stockpile food, water, medicine, fuel and cash in case of war, an attack, catastrophe or "national emergency", the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday. ... Read more

Central Banks Are Terrified... But of What?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/23/16

If the recovery is real and as strong as the "data" suggests... why are Central Banks engaged in the most aggressive stimulus in history?

According to the official data, the EU's Services and Manufacturing PMI's were 53.1 and 51.8 in August. Both were significantly above 50 (which represents contraction)... Moreover, the EU's inflation rate has risen over 0.4% in four months, rising from -0.2% in April to 0.2% today. And yet, despite this data, the ECB continues to hold interest rates at -0.4% while also spending €80 billion per month in QE (the equivalent of $90 billion). At this pace, the ECB will spend nearly €1 TRILLION IN QE PER YEAR. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 23 [12:43]
*DN | "This is Our War & It is Shameful:" Journalist Andrew Cockburn on the U.S. Role in the War in Yemen (08/22/16) [20:30]
*DN | As Kerry Plans to Visit Saudi Arabia, Activists & NGOs Demand U.S. Stop Funding War Crimes in Yemen (08/22/16) [11:04]
Click picture to zoom in
TRNN | Time is Running Out - Help Us Expose the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science (08/03/16) [4:41]
Investigative journalist Bruce Livesey has teamed up with TRNN to make a documentary to expose the Koch brothers' war on the environment and their plan to influence the 2016 elections - and we need your help. Please make a donation today.
TRNN | Professor Chris Williams and actress Emma Thompson discuss the threats of seismic testing and drilling for oil in the Arctic (08/23/16) [17:18]
*TRNN | Saudi Arabia Bombing Yemen To Quell Demonstrations for Democracy (08/23/16) [18:31]
TYT | Donald Trump Wants To Film "The Apprentice" From White House (08/22/16) [9:09]
RT | Keiser Report: Why politicians should follow Mozart's lead? (E956) (08/20/16) [25:45]
Max and Stacy ask why politicians don't take a cue from Mozart and start composing policy for everybody rather than just for the elite. In the second half they continue their conversation with fracking advocate, Nick Grealy of London Local Energy about his belief that natural gas, even of the fracked variety, is a more environmentally friendly source of energy than most others.
RT | Keiser Report: Cryptocurrency Drama (E957) (08/23/16) [24:41]
Max and Stacy discuss the Venezuela in the capital markets. In the second half they talk to Simon Dixon of BnkToTheFuture.com about the crypto-novela playing out with much drama in the crypto-currency space.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Libertarians: Pro-Corporate & Pro-Billionaire Ideology… (08/23/16) [12:06]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | As Zika Spreads, Tough Choices For Pregnant Women And The Search For A Vaccine (08/23/16) [1hr]
The Centers for Disease Control's travel warning for the Zika virus expanded four days ago -- to another neighborhood of Miami. And experts say the virus likely isn't done spreading. Most at risk: Gulf coast areas like Louisiana, still overrun by standing water after historic flooding, and Texas, vulnerable to infected mosquitoes because of its hot climate. Zika's threat has ignited conversations for families who are pregnant and those who hope to become pregnant, including a new debate around reproductive healthcare and abortion. Meanwhile, new vaccines are moving through early-stage trials at a rapid pace, but how quickly they come to market could hinge on funding woes in congress. Where Zika is headed -- and how we're treating it.
*DR | Why We Open Our Hearts And Wallets For Some Disasters -- But Not Others (08/23/16) [1hr]
President Obama visits Baton Rouge today. Flooding there killed 13 people and hit tens of thousands of homes. Clean-up is underway, but the challenge is profound: dozens of state highways remain closed, vast acres of crops are a 100% loss and thousands of people still can't return to their homes. Those who can confront mountains of mud and debris, but some say news of the devastation was slow to reach the rest of the country and there are concerns that the national response may fall far short of the true need. Join us to talk about the crisis in Baton Rouge, the disasters we pay attention to, those we don't and why.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos
PBS NOVA | The World's Strongest Material () [55:43]

08.23.2016. 14:09

Monday Aug 22, 2016
News Articles

The Gilded Rage: A Conversation With a Trump Supporter That Will Surprise You
AlterNet | Alexander Zaitchik | 08/18/16

The following is an adapted excerpt from Alexander Zaitchik's new book, The Gilded Rage: A Wild Ride Through Donald Trump's America, published here with permission from Skyhorse/Hot Books. The Gilded Rage is the chronicle of Zaitchik's listening tour, inspired by Studs Terkel, through the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and along the Mexican Border. The result is an often surprising collection of voices of Trump supporters that Zaitchik met as he followed the 2016 primary calendar. The below section profiles a West Virginia Trump supporter named Ed Wiley, a former miner who in recent years has emerged as one of the state's leading (and most unlikely) anti-coal activists. ... Read more

Michele Bachmann Says She's Advising Trump On Foreign Policy, Because Why Not
HP | Marina Fang | 08/21/16

Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has claimed President Barack Obama's foreign policy would lead to the rapture, says she is advising Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on foreign policy.

Speaking to reporters outside a private fundraiser that Trump held in Minneapolis on Friday evening, the 2012 GOP presidential hopeful and tea party stalwart said she has known Trump for several years and supports his proposals to crack down on immigration and terrorism. ... Read more

Climate Change
Note: the talk starts at 6:21 on the Progressbar
NASA | Dramatic Changes in Polar Ice: Waleed Abdalati (06/10/16) [58:51]

German Government Urges Citizens To Stockpile Food, Water "In Case Of Attack Or Catastrophe"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/22/16

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday.

Following Angela Merkel's proclamation that Islamic terrorism is not a function of the massive influx of muslim immigrants into Germany thanks to he immigration policy, we could not help but be a little surprised that, as TagesSchau reports, the federal government, according to a newspaper report wants to encourage the population to begin stockpiling food and water again, so that they temporarily can take care of themself in the case of a disaster or an armed attack. As Reuters details, ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 22 [13:25]
John Oliver - LastWeekTonight
HBO John Oliver | John Oliver Asks Donald Trump To "DROP OUT" (08/21/16) [11:35]
HBO John Oliver | Charter Schools (08/21/16) [18:12]
TRNN | The Empire Files: Chevron vs. the Amazon - The Environmental Trial of the Century (08/22/16) [23:22]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | The Justice Department's Plan To Phase Out Privately Run Federal Prisons (08/22/16) [1hr]
The Justice Department will phase out its use of for-profit prisons to house federal inmates. This follows a government report indicating private prisons are not as secure or safe as those federally run, and don't offer significant cost savings. Prison rights advocates hailed the move. Supporters of the private system criticized it, saying it was partly based on faulty data. The majority of incarcerated Americans are in state prisons, not federal. Some rights groups hope the Justice Department move will set the stage for state prisons to follow suit. We weigh the pros and cons of government and private prisons.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.22.2016. 10:11

Friday August 19, 2016
News Articles

ELECTION 2016 11 Dangerous Right-Wing Kooks, Cranks and Operatives Surrounding Donald Trump
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan | 08/18/16

It used to be that people like this only got backstage passes to the GOP's big doings. Now they're part of the show.

  1. Stephen K. Bannon. The CEO of Breitbart News LLC is many things. In 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek headlined its profile of Bannon: "This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America." ...
  2. Roger Stone. This operative, message-maker and dirty trickster has a long history in the GOP, going back to the small part he played in the Watergate scandal. ...
  3. Alex Jones. During the RNC, Jones hired planes to fly over Cleveland trailing a banner reading, "Hillary for Prison." ...
  4. Phyllis Schlafly. While it might seem surprising at first for an old Cold Warrior like Schlafly to support a candidate so cozy with a former KGB chief, it's important to remember that what Schlafly opposed was communism, not authoritarianism. Trump surely fits the latter bill, as does Vladimir Putin, who is no longer a communist, having seen the light to become an oligarchist. ...
  5. Ann Coulter. Much like Donald Trump, right-wing author Ann Coulter will say anything to get attention. She has said she opposes women's suffrage, that women who claim to have been raped are mostly "girls trying to get attention," and once described abortion clinic workers gunned down by right-wing zealots as having "had a procedure performed on them with a rifle." ...
  6. Pamela Geller. Best known for her opposition to the opening of a mosque near the site in lower Manhattan where the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place, Geller boarded the Trump train once the candidate jumped aboard her anti-Islam caravan. ...
  7. Milo Yiannopoulos. Yiannapoulos, who works for Breitbart, is Donald Trump's LGBT champion. At a rally in Cleveland sponsored by Roger Stone and Alex Jones during the RNC, Yiannapoulos offered this outpouring, according to Montgomery's report: "I might be a dick-sucking faggot, but I f**king hate the left." ...
  8. Pat Buchanan. A longtime ally of Phyllis Schlafly, the former Reagan White House communications director has made no secret of his contempt for non-white people. His essay, "A Brief for Whitey," asserts that slavery was good for African Americans and they should be grateful that it brought them Christian salvation. ...
  9. Rev. Pat Robertson. The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the now-defunct Christian Coalition is having a major bromance with Donald Trump, promoting the GOP presidential candidate on his television program, "The 700 Club," and elsewhere. ...
  10. Ralph Reed. Reed's reputation as a Christian choirboy took a beating in the 1990s, when it was revealed that he took part in the scandal that brought down lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Essentially, Reed was paid to organize evangelicals opposed to gambling to block gaming operations that would have gotten in the way of the casino interests who were paying him. ...
  11. etc.
Read more

This Is What Donald Trump's "Orbit" Looks Like Following Manafort's Resignation
Bloomberg | Elizabeth Titus | 08/19/16

Now that Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort is officially out of the campaign which - until three days ago - he was managing, at which point he was upstaged by Breitbart's Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, here is what Trump's presidential "orbit" tentatively looks like by way of Bloomberg ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

*TYT | Syrian Boy Rescued From Bombed Building (VIDEO) (08/18/16) [10:14]
*TYT | Jill Stein On Why Trump AND Clinton Are Dangerous (08/18/16) [10:11]
*TYT | Democrats Signal Surrender On Sanders' Public Option (08/18/16) [11:22]
"Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) renewed push for a government-run healthcare plan is getting a tepid reception from Democrats, with some saying he is waging a losing battle.

Long-time "public option" supporters like Sanders believe Aetna's decision to flee the ObamaCare marketplaces this week proves what they've been saying all along: that the time has come for a new government-run healthcare plan in the United States.

But on Capitol Hill, Democrats think a fight over a public option is nearly impossible to win, regardless of how the November election shakes out. "The public option was a good idea in 2009, and it's a still a good idea today. [But] I don't know that the politics have changed at all on it," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a top ObamaCare advocate, said by phone Wednesday."
TYT | "Says Who?" Trump Lawyer Self-Destructs On CNN (08/18/16) [2:15]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 19 [57:14]
*TRNN | Climate scientist Michael Mann: Devastating Floods in Louisiana Are the Sign of Things to Come (08/19/16) [10:00]
*TRNN | Dr. Alyson Kenward from Climate Central: Deadly Wildfires to Grow More Intense, Burn Longer Due to Global Warming (08/19/16) [6:40]
TRNN | Truthout's Maya Schenwar says: DOJ Ending Use of Private Prisons: Will Decarceration Follow? (08/18/16) [8:23]
TYT | Obama Pushing TPP So Hillary Won't Have To (08/18/16) [8:51]
TYT | U.S. To Phase Out Federal Private Prisons (08/18/16) [5:50]
TYT | Anti-Gay Pastor's Home Destroyed By God's Wrath (08/18/16) [6:00]
RT | Keiser Report: To Frack or Not To Frack? (E955) (08/18/16) [23:34]
Max and Stacy ask why only ? of the British population supports fracking despite big cash payments allegedly on offer from the government. In the second half, they talk to fracking advocate, Nick Grealy of London Local Energy about his belief that natural gas, even of the fracked variety, is a more environmentally friendly source of energy than most others - despite the arguments (he says are false) that fracking pollutes groundwater and causes earthquakes.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | How to Change Our Pathetic Green Infrastructure (08/18/16) [4:11]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Friday News - Domestic (08/19/16) [1hr]
The Friday News Roundup: Donald Trump shakes up his staff after another campaign controversy. Major health insurer Aetna is the latest to pull back from Obamacare. And a group calling itself the shadow brokers say they hacked the NSA. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
*DR | Friday News - International (08/19/16) [1hr]
The State Department concedes a $400 million payment to Iran was delayed to add "leverage" for the release of three U.S. prisoners. Russia launches airstrikes on the Islamic State in Syria from a base in Iran. Officials investigate Donald Trump's campaign chairman for financial ties to a pro-Russia party. The UN says it played a role in Haiti's cholera epidemic. And Brazilian police accuse U.S. Olympic swimmers of fabricating a story about being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio games. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Aljazeera | TechKnow - Unsafe shrimp and the question of seafood farming (08/15/16) [23:50]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.19.2016. 11:31

Thursday August 18, 2016
News Articles

Louisiana flooding is the country's 'worst natural disaster' since Hurricane Sandy, Red Cross says
WashingtonPost | Emma Brown | 08/17/16

BATON ROUGE -- Five days into this disaster, adrenaline is giving way to exhaustion and -- for many of those who left their homes amid rising water -- a constant, churning anxiety about the future.

Thousands are still holed up in shelters or at friends' houses on high ground, relying on Facebook videos and word-of-mouth for an answer to the question on everyone's tongues: How bad is the damage? ... Read more

'There Will Be A Lot Of Families That Come Home To Nothing'

Southern California Blue Cut Fire Rages Unchecked After Mass Evacuations
HP & Reuters | author | 08/17/16

A Southern California wildfire raged unchecked in thick brush on Wednesday after destroying an unknown number of houses near a highway corridor between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and forcing as many as 80,000 residents to flee their homes, officials said.

The so-called Blue Cut Fire ignited on Tuesday in the mountainous Cajon Pass and quickly ballooned to 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares), putting firefighters on the defensive as they made a stand in front of homes and businesses. ... Read more

*July 2016 Was The Hottest Month Ever Recorded
HP | Chris D'Angelo | 08/17/16

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ? two leading global authorities on climate ? both say July 2016 was not only the hottest July on record, but the most sizzling month in the history of record-keeping.

NOAA on Wednesday said July's global average temperature was 62.01 degrees, 1.57 degrees above the 20th-century average. NASA, which uses a slightly different methodology, said Monday the average global temperature in July was 1.51 degrees above average. Both agencies pegged July as the hottest month since monitoring began in 1880. ... Read more

Geoengineering?
ge·o·en·gi·neer·ing - the deliberate large-scale manipulation of an environmental process that affects the earth's climate, in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming.

What's the Deal With Geoengineering?
Slate | Jacob Brogan | older, 01/06/16

Your 101 guide to the maybe-crazy, maybe-sane attempt fix climate change by tinkering with Earth's atmosphere.

At its simplest, "geoengineering" is the active transformation of our planet's climate through human intervention. The field emerged in earnest in the last two-and-a-half decades as a response to global warming and other forms of environmental degradation. It's about using technology to solve crises created by other technologies, everything from filters that pull carbon dioxide out of the air to spraying chemicals that would lower the global temperature. ... Read more

Your Geoengineering Cheat Sheet
Slate | Jacob Brogan | older, 01/06/16

Geoengineering describes the active transformation of our planet's climate through human intervention. Here are some of the key players, major debates, and pop cultural landmarks shaping the ways that we understand this emerging field. ... Read more

The Most Important Topic of Our Time - GeoEngineering (older) [46:02]
GeoengineeringWatch website
A Case for Climate Engineering by David Keith

Climate engineering -- which could slow the pace of global warming by injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere -- has emerged in recent years as an extremely controversial technology. And for good reason: it carries unknown risks and it may undermine commitments to conserving energy. Some critics also view it as an immoral human breach of the natural world. The latter objection, David Keith argues in A Scientist's Case for Climate Engineering, is groundless; we have been using technology to alter our environment for years. But he agrees that there are large issues at stake.
A leading scientist long concerned about climate change, Keith offers no naïve proposal for an easy fix to what is perhaps the most challenging question of our time; climate engineering is no silver bullet. But he argues that after decades during which very little progress has been made in reducing carbon emissions we must put this technology on the table and consider it responsibly. That doesn't mean we will deploy it, and it doesn't mean that we can abandon efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we must understand fully what research needs to be done and how the technology might be designed and used. This book provides a clear and accessible overview of what the costs and risks might be, and how climate engineering might fit into a larger program for managing climate change.
**Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 18[11:14] *TRNN | Mark Weisbrot: 'FAILED: What the "Experts" Got Wrong on the Global Economy', Part 3 (08/18/16) [19:39]
TRNN | Climate Change Will Prolong U.S. Mosquito Season, Lead to Spread of Zika Virus (08/18/16) [9:50]
TRNN | Bill Black explains: Few (If Any) Progressives on Clinton's Transition Team (08/18/16) [16:03]
TRNN | Henry Giroux discusses: Neofascism of the Law and Order Candidate (08/18/16) [21:20]
TYT | Hillary's New Hire Reveals Her Pro-Corporate Priorities (08/17/16) [13:07]
TYT | Donald Trump: I Don't Trust US Intelligence (08/17/16) [8:00]
TYT | Bernie Sanders Renews Fight For Public Option (08/17/16) [9:47]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Major Insurers Pull Back From Obamacare: Who's Affected And What It Could Mean For The Future Of The ACA (08/18/16) [1hr]
Aetna this week joined other health insurers in withdrawing from many states where it offers plans through the Affordable Care Act. The company cited an unsustainable financial situation. But that motive is being questioned: We learned this week that Aetna warned it would reduce its presence in the exchanges if the Justice Department sued to block its deal to acquire Humana, which it did last month. Regardless, this latest pullback from Obamacare leaves a lot of questions about competitive options in the exchanges, how consumers will be affected, and the future of the law. We'll get some answers, and look at how this might affect the presidential campaign.
*DR | What Concealed-Carry Gun Laws Mean for Individual Freedom and Public Safety (08/18/16) [1hr]
Twenty years ago, carrying a concealed weapon in public was strictly controlled or illegal in nearly half of U.S. states. Fewer than five million Americans had a concealed-carry permit. Today, carrying a concealed firearm is legal in all fifty states. And the number of permit holders has risen to nearly 13 million Americans. Most of these cite self-defense as the primary reason for carrying a gun outside the home. But critics of these laws say the latest research shows no clear connection between carrying a gun and preventing violence. Diane and guests discuss the rise of concealed-carry gun laws in the states and what it means for individual freedom and public safety.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.18.2016. 10:04

Wednesday August 17, 2016
News Articles
Some of Today's Headlines
TRUMP IMPLODES AGAIN FRESH CREW OF CRAZIES... Manafort Demoted... Breitbart News Chairman Named Campaign CEO... ‘Following Weeks Of Gnawing Agitation Over His Advisers’ Attempts To Temper His Style’... Second Shakeup In Two Months... 82 Days Until Election...

In Major Shake-Up, Trump Hires Breitbart Exec and Citizens United Propagandist Bannon to Lead Campaign
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan| 08/17/16

In what is being billed as a major campaign shake-up, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has hired Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon as his campaign's chief executive, according to The New York Times.

The writer/director of a number of films produced by Citizens United, Bannon is a curious choice to lead a campaign in turmoil. His expertise is as a propagandist, not a politico. Citizens United is best known as the plaintiff in the lawsuit that yielded the Supreme Court decision that allowed for the flooding of U.S. political campaigns with cash from unnamed donors. ... Read more

Conservative Radio Host Admits Right-Wing Media Created a 'Monster' That Doesn't Believe Facts
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 08/16/16

While a fair number of GOPers have either outright stated their opposition to Donald Trump or evaded the question with enough skill to avoid providing an on-the-record endorsement, they’ve steered clear of admitting the role the right-wing media machine has played in paving the way for Trump’s rise. In fact, blowhards like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh keep pushing the right-wing lies that have made their party into a group that believes in everything but the truth.

Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host, may be the first of his ilk to take responsibility for turning the right—those who pushed Trump to the top of the bill—into a crowd of fact-denying, media-mistrusting, Trump lie-swallowing, angry “monsters” who cannot be swayed by reality. He goes on record saying as much in an upcoming interview with Business Insider’s Oliver Darcy, who tweeted an excerpt ahead of the full text being published. ... Read more


TYT | Conservative Talk Show Host Admits Trump Is Their Fault (08/16/16) [4:52]

Rudy Giuliani is getting eviscerated for ‘forgetting’ 9/11. But he didn’t really.
WashingtonPost | Aaron Blake | 08/16/16

There was a time in his political career when Rudy Giuliani talked about 9/11 so much that Joe Biden famously said of him that there were "only three things he mentions in a sentence: A noun, a verb and 9/11."

But on Monday, while introducing Donald Trump and Mike Pence at a speech in Ohio, Giuliani almost seemed to forget the event that so defined his time as New York mayor. "Under those eight years before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States," he said. "They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office." ... Read more
TYT | How Could Rudy Giuliani Forget About 9/11? (08/16/16) [5:43]

We often criticize the federal government for being 19.4 trillion dollars in debt, and rightly so, but let us not forget that U.S. households are 12.2 trillion dollars in debt.

Overwhelmed By Debt, Nearly 1 In 5 Young Adults Live With Their Parents Or Grandparents
ZeroHedge | author | 08/17/16

... Millions of our young people cannot find decent jobs once they leave school, and millions of them are absolutely overwhelmed by debt. Of course some of them are just lazy, but whatever the reason it is undeniable that multi-generational households are on the rise. According to the Pew Research Center, 12 percent of the U.S. population was living in multi-generational households back in 1980. Today, that number is up to 19 percent. That means nearly one out of every five U.S. adults now live with their parents or their grandparents. One of the big culprits, of course, is student loan debt. ... Read more

Floating off the coast of Vancouver Island
Click picture to zoom in
These Artists Are Living Out Their Dreams In A Handmade Floating House (08/17/16) [2:33]
Floating off the coast of Vancouver Island, a 45-minute boat ride to the nearest town, is a sustainable island fortress complete with a dance floor, art gallery and garden. For artists Catherine King and Wayne Adams, this is home: a labor of love 24 years in the making.
Off the Grid on a Homemade Island
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 17 [10:57]
*DN | Why Did Clinton Just Tap a Pro-TPP, Pro-KXL, Pro-Fracking Politician to Head Her Transition Team? (08/17/16) [10:49]
DN | Danny Glover & Larry Hamm on Black Lives Matter, Police Killings & How to Stop Donald Trump (08/17/16) [15:06]
TYT | Michael Moore: Donald Trump Trying To Throw Election (08/16/16) [5:31]
*TYT | Trump Proposes “Extreme Vetting” To Keep Muslims Out (08/16/16) [10:10]
TYT | US Covering Up Saudi War Crimes? (08/16/16) [5:29]
*RT | Going Underground | Graham Hancock’s Magicians of the Gods & Elitist Academia (08/16/16) [11:55]
*RT | Soros hacked, thousands of Open Society Foundations files released online (08/16/16) [3:38]
Soros hacked, thousands of Open Society Foundations files released online (08/16/16) [3:38]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Right Wing Radio - We Created A Monster! (08/17/16) [11:36]
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Debate Over Armchair Psychological Assessments Of Donald Trump (08/17/16) [1hr]
Many psychiatrists have offered armchair assessments of Donald Trump’s mental health. We discuss the history of diagnosing mental fitness for high office, when personality disorders can be strengths and the pitfalls of long distance psychological analysis.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.17.2016. 13:29

Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
News Articles

Hillary Clinton has an 88% chance of winning the presidency.
NYTimes | Josh Katz | 08/15/16

The Upshot's elections model suggests that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, based on the latest state and national polls. A victory by Mr. Trump remains quite possible: Mrs. Clinton's chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a field goal from the 20-yard line. ... Read more

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump's Campaign Chief
NYTimes | Andrew E. Kramer | 08/14/16

KIEV, Ukraine -- On a leafy side street off Independence Square in Kiev is an office used for years by Donald J. Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, when he consulted for Ukraine's ruling political party. His furniture and personal items were still there as recently as May.

And Mr. Manafort's presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort's main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. ... Read more

*The True Story Of How War Broke Out In Syria
ZeroHedge | author | 08/16/16
Submitted by Steven Sahiounie via American Herald Tribune

...The CIA agents running the Deraa operation from their office in Jordan had already provided the weapons and cash needed to fuel the flames of revolution in Syria. With enough money and weapons, you can start a revolution anywhere in the world. In reality, the uprising in Deraa in March 2011 was not fueled by graffiti written by teenagers, and there were no disgruntled parents demanding their children to be freed. This was part of the Hollywood style script written by skilled CIA agents, who had been given a mission: to destroy Syria for the purpose of regime change. Deraa was only Act 1: Scene 1. ... Read more

Failed: What the "Experts" Got Wrong about the Global Economy by Mark Weisbrot

Why has the Eurozone ended up with an unemployment rate more than twice that of the United States more than six years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Why did the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries suffer a prolonged economic slowdown in the last two decades of the 20th century? What was the role of the International Monetary Fund in these economic failures? Why was Latin America able to achieve substantial poverty reduction in the 21st century after more than two decades without any progress?

Failed analyzes these questions, explaining why these important economic developments of recent years have been widely misunderstood and in some cases almost completely ignored. First, in the Eurozone, Mark Weisbrot argues that the European authorities' political agenda, which included shrinking the welfare state, reducing health care, pension, and other social spending, and reducing the bargaining power of labor played a very important role in prolonging the Eurozone's financial crisis and pushing it into years of recession and mass unemployment. This conclusion is based not only on public statements of European officials, but also on thousands of pages of documentation from consultations between the IMF and European governments after 2008.

The second central theme of Failed is that there are always practical alternatives to prolonged economic failure. Drawing on the history of other financial crises, recessions, and recoveries, Weisbrot argues that regardless of initial conditions, there have been and remain economically feasible choices for governments of the Eurozone to greatly reduce unemployment-including the hardest hit, crisis-ridden country of Greece.

The long-term economic failure of developing countries, its social consequences, as well as the subsequent recovery in the first decade of the 21st century, constitute the third part of the book's narrative, one that has previously gotten too little attention. We see why the International Monetary Fund has lost influence in middle income countries. Failed also examines the economic causes and consequences of Latin America's "second independence" and rebound in the twenty-first century, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

This Is Not A Love Story: Examining A Month Of Deadly Domestic Violence In America
HP | Melissa Jeltsen | current

  1. In January, 112 people were killed in suspected intimate partner homicides, including children and bystanders.
  2. Men committed 89 percent of the alleged fatal attacks, and 77 percent of the victims were women.
  3. at least half of the women killed had left their partner or were in the process of leaving before the fatal incident.
  4. A woman who has been strangled by an intimate partner is seven times more likely to become a homicide victim down the line.
  5. Firearms were responsible for 57 percent of suspected intimate partner homicides in January, according to our analysis. Experts say that if an abuser has access to a gun, victims are five times more likely to be killed.
  6. States requiring background checks for private handgun sales saw 46 percent fewer women shot to death by their intimate partners.
Read more

*TRNN | Mark Weisbrot: 'FAILED: What the "Experts" Got Wrong on the Global Economy', Part 2 (08/16/16) [19:34]
TRNN | Professor Chris Williams says: The Dangers of Climate Change Aren't Coming: They're Already Here (08/15/16) [11:38]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: Turkey suggests it's no longer willing to play the role of NATO's Islamists for the United States (08/15/16) [10:56]
*TYT | 5 Reasons Why Finland Is A Global Education Leader (08/15/16) [5:05]
RT | Keiser Report: Schrödinger's Brexit (E954) (08/16/16) [25:45]
Max and Stacy ask whether, as Schrödinger's cat rules monetary and fiscal policy, could a collateralised Embassy Cat bond deliver the asset value the Bank of England needs? And, is the ECB financing M&A activity in the donut sector in order to prepare for the civil unrest they expect when their policies fail? In a real Schrödinger's cat moment, Stacy appears in the second half, too! They discuss low rates starting to wipe out pension funds and insurance funds and how the absence of capital expenditure (capex) in favour of share buybacks has, in turn, wiped out the real economy - as evidenced in the collapsing productivity numbers out of the United States.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Note: sometimes I have to post my News Page before all the links are available. This happens most noteably for the Diane Rehm Show. If the pop-up links don't work, just go to The Diane Show website and click the links there.
*DR | Student Debt And Rethinking The Value Of A College Degree (08/16/16) [1hr]
Americans have accumulated $1.3 trillion in student debt. College graduates can earn more over time compared to high school graduates, but many now question the net benefit of a college degree: The student debt crisis and plans from the presidential candidates.
*DR | A Conversation With Khizr And Ghazala Khan (08/16/16) [1hr]
Khizr Khan's speech at the Democratic National Convention, with this wife Ghazala standing by his side, pointedly challenged Donald Trump on his American values and became one of the biggest stories from the DNC. Diane talks with Khizr and Ghazala Khan about their family story, the son they lost in Iraq, and how they came to be the center of a presidential election season.
Aljazeera | The Stream - Japan at a crossroads (08/15/16) [25:00]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.16.2016. 07:32

Monday Aug 15, 2016
News Articles

Trump and the Exploitation of Right Rage: It's Not the Economy, Stupid, That's Attracting Angry White Men to Him
AlterNet & Salon | Bob Cesca / Salon | 08/14/16

... While the lack of a college diploma binds most Trump supporters together, there are more obvious tells -- ones that we can plainly see but that can't be fully measured by pollsters. Specifically, it's not easy to quantify the growing resentment of white males who believe they're slowly losing their millennia-long grip on societal power. Likewise, it's difficult to measure the brainwashing of Trump's loyalists by the Fox News and talk radio echo-chamber. Yet we see it on display every day.

Last week, a video of a Pence rally showed an Air Force Mom asking Trump's running mate about the Khizr Khan story and whether Pence will ever tell Trump that "enough is enough." The mom was interrupted by boos, along with a gray-haired older man who attempted to shout her down, only to be escorted from the venue by security. The man who was dragged away, as well as the crowd itself, all fit nicely into the demographic profile of Trump's base: older white male retirees with massive chips on their shoulders. ... Read more

Milwaukee Mayhem
HP & Reuters | author | 08/14/16

Violent Protests Erupt In Milwaukee After Police Kill Suspect At Traffic Stop

The National Guard was activated on Sunday to help authorities should further rioting erupt in a predominantly black Milwaukee neighborhood where a policeman killed a suspect who officials said had turned toward the officer with a gun.

Police Chief Edward Flynn said a silent video of the incident appeared to show the officer acting within lawful bounds in the shooting of Sylville K. Smith, 23, on Saturday after Smith fled a traffic stop. Flynn said the video from the officer's body camera showed Smith turning toward the officer with a gun in his hand. ... Read more

Voters Say Economy, Supreme Court Are Top Campaign Issues

FBI Mutiny? Feds Said To Launch Clinton Foundation Corruption Probe Despite DoJ Objections
ZeroHedge | author | 08/13/16

Multiple FBI investigations are reportedly underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation, according to a former senior law enforcement official... The actions are "seen by agents as a positive development as prosecutors there are generally thought to be more aggressive than the career lawyers within the DOJ." ... Read more

"Russian" Hacker Guccifer 2.0 Publishes Complete Personal Information Of All Congressional Democrats
ZeroHedge | author | 08/13/16

The "Russian" hacker Guccifer 2.0 has made it possible for millions of American to contact their Democratic representative instantly, after he released an excel spreadsheet on his blog - obtained from hacking the DNCC - which includes the personal cell phone number, physical and email address as well as full personal information for some 200 congressional Democrats. ...

Note: it is ineresting that it took less than 24 hrs for the information to disappear of his site... "Some content on this page was disabled on August 13, 2016 upon receipt of a valid complaint regarding the publication of private information."
Read more or Read on WallStreetJournal

WikiLeaks - Search the DNC email database
wikileaks.org | author | date

Today, Friday 22 July 2016 at 10:30am EDT, WikiLeaks releases 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series. The leaks come from the accounts of seven key figures in the DNC. The emails cover the period from January last year until 25 May this year Read more

Fun Fact
The main ingredient that gives most Worcestershire sauce its umami flavor is anchovies. Actually, fermented anchovies. Worcestershire gets its intense taste from anchovies that have been left to ferment in vinegar for a duration of 18 months. The other ingredients that make up this savory sauce usually include onions, molasses, sugar, salt, garlic, tamarind, cloves, chili pepper extract, water and natural flavorings.

Clayton Fire devastates Lake County town; thousands flee
SFGate.com | Evan Sernoffsky | 08/14/16/span>

LOWER LAKE, Lake County -- A fast-moving wildfire that has ripped through rural Lake County, destroying homes and forcing thousands to flee, accelerated Sunday, burning into historic downtown Lower Lake.

While fire officials confirmed Sunday that 10 homes had been consumed by the Clayton Fire, many properties were visibly ablaze by Sunday afternoon, and commercial structures in Lower Lake were in flames before dusk. This fire is going to have a very long-term, devastating impact on this community," said Lt. Doug Pittman, a Marin County sheriff's spokesman working on behalf of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. ... Read more

President Obama Issues Disaster Declaration For Flood-Ravaged Louisiana
HP & Rueters | Byrn Stole | 08/15/16

BATON ROUGE, La., Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for flood-ravaged Louisiana, where at least five people have died and emergency crews have rescued more than 20,000 people stranded by unprecedented flooding.

Governor John Bel Edwards said residents had been pulled from swamped cars, flooded homes and threatened hospitals across the southern part of the state. The already soaked region is expected to get more rain from a storm system stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley. ... Read more

Click picture to zoom in
Bison skull Mountain - Wikipedia
Bison skulls to be used for fertilizer, 1870
*DN | "Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart": NYT Mag Examines Region Since 2003 U.S. Invasion (08/15/16) [10:48]
As conflicts from Iraq to Syria have forced a record 60 million people around the world to flee their homes and become refugees, we speak with Scott Anderson about his in-depth new report, "Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart." Occupying the entire print edition of this week's New York Times Magazine, it examines what has happened in the region in the past 13 years since the the U.S. invaded Iraq through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Anderson is also author of the book, "Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East."
*DN | Did Companies & Countries Buy State Dept. Access by Donating to Clinton Foundation? (08/15/16) [22:55]
*DN | Donald Trump Claims Obama & Clinton Founded ISIS, But Bush Negotiated U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq (08/15/16) [11:12]
LastWeekTonight
HBO | John Oliver : Auto Lending (08/14/16) [17:55]
*TRNN | Mark Weisbrot: 'FAILED: What the "Experts" Got Wrong on the Global Economy' (1/3) [23:38]
TYT & RoF | Art Imitates Life: Pap and Sam Discuss Pap's New Novel "Law and Disorder" (08/13/16) [6:33]
Mike Papantonio's new novel, Law and Disorder, will be out next month. Recently, Sam Seder and Pap discussed the book and how Pap's career as one of the most formidable trial lawyers in the country inspired his work.
*RT | Max and Stacy discuss 'crexit' and the dark heart of Italy's banking crisis as central bank intervention increases financial risk. (08/13/16) [25:47]
*RT | Keiser Report: Phantom Pension Funding (E952) (08/11/16) [25:44]
Max and Stacy discuss the reckless gamble that Governor John Kasich of Ohio - one of the 'legitimate' and 'respectable' candidates (as per the media) in the Republican primaries - chose to take with the state's pension funds. In the second half they interview Francine McKenna of Marketwatch.com about what Donald Trump's tax returns might show. Francine suggests that they would show 'yuge' business losses but that ordinary people wouldn't understand investing for the specific purpose of such losses. They also discuss what the IRS audit of the Clinton Foundation might show and what the transcripts of Hillary's talks to Goldman Sachs would show.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Zachary Roth - When did the Republican war on democracy begin?, Part 1 (08/12/16) [12:41], Part 2 [12:35]
*DR | Hillary Clinton's Economic Plan And New Questions About The Clinton Foundation (08/15/16) [1hr]
Last week, Hillary Clinton laid out her economic plan for the nation, calling for major investment in infrastructure while opposing deals--like the Trans-Pacific Partnership--that she said aren't fair to American workers. She also attacked Donald Trump, saying his plan would put the country into a recession. Her speech in Michigan was an attempt to earn trust among voters, as her newly-released tax returns showed large amounts of income from speeches to Wall Street and other businesses, and another batch of emails raised questions about the relationship between the State Department and The Clinton Foundation. A look at Hillary Clinton's plan for the economy and new questions about her wealth.
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost: Turkey and Russia: The billion dollar handshake (08/13/16) [25:11]
When Turkey shot down a Russian military jet last November, business ties between the two countries hit rocky terrain, with Russia slapping trade sanctions on Turkey.

However, it seems all is now forgiven as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin meet in St Petersburg to revive business relations - something both countries are keen to do as they both face unique sets of economic challenges and slowdowns.

Sanctions on Turkey's tourism, construction and food export industries are now set to be gradually phased out, Russian package tours will no longer face suspension and two major join energy projects will be unfrozen as part of the renewed relationship.

Where Turkey is concerned, a 41% drop in international arrivals - prior to the attempted coup - has proven detrimental to the tourism industry. Assurances were made to foreign investors post-attempted coup, legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund has been proposed and younger Turks are now being forced to pay into a private pension to improve on their savings, all in a bid to rescue Turkey's troubled economy.

Many, like CEO of Limak Holdings Ebru Ozdemir, are positive about the future.

"Last year Turkey broke its own record in foreign direct investments," says Ozdemir. "We hit $16 billion and this year we want to break this again - we want to go even higher."

But the general consensus is very much in favour of Turkish and Russian relations being back on track, especially where mutual benefits are concerned.

"Turkey needs Russian gas and Russia needs Turkish produce, beaches and warmer weather," says Bulent Gultekin, professor of finance at Pennsylvania University. "There's a perfect complimentarity between the two countries."

Aljazeera | Inside Story - Is Turkey undergoing a shift in foreign policy? (08/14/16) [26:22]
The Turkish government has been hosting Iran's top diplomat, in a move seen as a shift in foreign policy after last month's failed coup.

Turkey has been unhappy with the West's muted response to the coup and frustrated with continued criticism of its human rights record.

The Iranian foreign Minister's visit comes just days after Turkey's President historic trip to Russia, during which he very publicly made up with Vladimir Putin after the shooting down of a Russian fighter plane on the Turkish-Syria border last year.

So many are asking whether these moves mark a shift in Turkey's global alliances and what impact will they have on the war in neighbouring Syria?

Aljazeera | Inside Story - Can Kashmir anger be a turning point? (08/13/16) [25:45]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.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.

08.15.2016. 10:17

Friday Aug 12, 2016
News Articles

Wall Street Can't Agree on When to Halt the U.S. Stock Market
Bloomberg | Annie Massa | 08/11/16

  1. Market-wide circuit breakers cause rift in trading industry
  2. Stock exchanges announced rare truce on other improvements

The trading industry can't find consensus on when to apply the U.S. stock market's brakes during times of turmoil.

On Thursday, the nation's three major exchange operators upgraded their rules to help prevent a repeat of the chaos seen on Aug. 24, 2015, when many securities suddenly sank. But a major sticking point remains, according to an official who spoke at an event hours after NYSE Group, Nasdaq Inc. and Bats Global Markets Inc. announced their changes. ... Read more

Not to be a downer, but I keep thinking of the 1.3 Quadrillion Dollars of the Unregulated Derivatives Market
#walkBackDonald: A Reminder That Donald Trump Did Not Oppose The Iraq War (08/12/16) [10:04]
"Politicians are like sperm. One in a million turns out to be an actual human being."

"World Out Of Whack"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/12/16

Talking with old people is a "helluva" lot of fun. I mean really old people - those closer to having a lid over their heads. People who grew up watching the advent of cars, TVs, and who still marvel that we have shaving cream in a can and chicken in packaging.

You realise how damn lucky we are today on so many fronts. Women very rarely die in childbirth, we can reasonably expect that our kids won't die from some horrific disease before making it to adulthood, and we take for granted food and wine from the other side of the world and sundry other goods which we find in our local supermarkets and shopping malls. Foods and goods that a generation ago either simply didn't exist or were available only to people with bow ties and butlers.

Most people living in advanced economies used to take for granted the idea that tomorrow would likely be better than today. Real positive incomes have been the norm since World War II. Sure, there have been very brief periods, one notably during the 70's where inflation was high and this wasn't the case, but the trend has been positive and steady. Up until around 1993 when it all ended. ...

"Between 65 and 70 percent of households in 25 advanced economies, the equivalent of 540 million to 580 million people, were in segments of the income distribution whose real market incomes--their wages and income from capital--were at or had fallen in 2014 compared with 2005. This compared with less than 2 percent, or fewer than ten million people, who experienced this phenomenon between 1993 and 2005."
Read more
Click picture to zoom in
Click picture to zoom in

Koch Brothers' Toadies Ryan and Pence Clean Up and Cover for Trump's Violent Rhetoric
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan | 08/10/16

The Koch brothers are said to loathe Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate. But you wouldn't know it from the actions of two of their favorite toadies. House Speaker Paul Ryan and vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence are working overtime to make excuses for Trump's incendiary comments, most recently Trump's suggestion at a rally in North Carolina Tuesday that "Second Amendment people" could take matters into their own hands should Hillary Clinton become president and start appointing Supreme Court justices.

Charles and David Koch, the neo-libertarian billionaires who own a good chunk of the apparatus of the Republican Party, have been very good to Ryan, whose career really took off when Americans for Prosperity, the brothers' political astroturf organization, embraced him with awards and accolades, beginning, as AlterNet reported, in 2008. And Pence has appeared as a featured speaker at numerous events sponsored by the Koch network, including many Americans for Prosperity gatherings. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 12 [10:04]
Full Economic Plan Speech in Detroit, Michigan
Donald Trump Full Economic Plan Speech in Detroit, Michigan (08/08/16) [54:48]
Hillary Clinton Full Economic Plan Speech in Warren, Michigan (08/11/16) [48:54]
*TRNN | Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies says both Trump and Clinton would pursue militaristic foreign policy with nuanced differences (08/11/16) [17:17]
*TYT | Donald Trump: Obama LITERALLY Founded ISIS (08/11/16) [16:51]
TYT | No Prison For Convicted Rapist Who Called Victim "F*cking B*tch" (08/11/16) [8:09]
RT | 'Am I not speaking English?' Reporters grill State Dept over Clinton emails (08/11/16) [3:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Mike Papantonio: Guess Where the Kochs Are? (08/11/16) [11:29]
*DR | Friday News - Domestic (08/12/16) [1hr]
Note: video starts at 8:00 on the Progressbar
Hillary Clinton unveils her economic agenda at a speech in Detroit, Michigan. The Democratic nominee promises to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and to stamp out what she calls the "trump tax loophole." Donald Trump walks back his assertion that President Obama founded the Islamic State, saying he was being "sarcastic." A batch of new emails raises questions about the relationship between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. A Department of Justice report finds systemic, racial bias at the Baltimore police department. And the courts weigh in on voter ID laws in two states. Guest host Susan Page and a panel of journalists discuss the top domestic stories of the week.
*DR | Friday News - International (08/12/16) [1hr]
A top UN diplomat says the alleged use of chlorine gas against civilians in Syria should be investigated as a war crime. Tensions rise between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. Fifty Republican national security experts sign an open letter declaring Donald Trump puts the U.S. at risk.

In Australia, leaked documents offer new details on alleged abuses of asylum seekers housed on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. Japanese Emperor Akihito indicates he wants to abdicate because of health issues. And the geopolitics of the Rio Olympics. A panel of journalists joins guest host Susan Page for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Aljazeera | Inside Story - Is the conflict in Ukraine about to escalate? (08/11/16) [24:20]
Aljazeera | People and Power - Ukraine: The Odessa File (08/11/16) [25:00]
Some YouTube Comments
  1. BayanTheOne - it's not an economic crisis, it's colossal corruption and plunder and appropriation of public resources. one cannot have an economic crisis in a shithole with no economy.
  2. Bfh - what is this a joke? in my country royals steal around 260B USD per year and you're makeing a big deal out of 12B??
  3. Richard Bright - I appears the Elite control; the Politicians and Corruption abounds. Look at Nonprofits in general and the percentage of Donations that reach the PEOPLE IN NEED!
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.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.

08.12.2016. 11:55

Thursday Aug 11, 2016
News Articles

Trump Accuses Obama Of Being The "Founder Of ISIS; Crooked Hillary Clinton Is The Co-Founder"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/11/16

"ISIS is honoring President Obama," Trump said during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, adding that "He is the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS." He did not spare Hillary either: "I would say the co-founder would be 'Crooked' Hillary Clinton," Trump added of his Democratic rival. .... Read more
Donald Trump says ISIS was Founded by Obama (08/11/16) [0:34]

  1. Nearly 7 in 10 voters backing Donald Trump in North Carolina believe the presidential election will have been rigged against him if he loses, according to a new poll.
  2. Sixty-nine percent said the race will have been fixed should Democratic presidential nomineeHillary Clinton win in the Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released Tuesday.
  3. Sixteen percent said if Clinton wins it will be because she legitimately earned more votes than Trump, the GOP's presidential nominee.
  4. Forty percent, meanwhile, said the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) will tilt the election in Clinton's favor despite the fact the organization no longer exists.
  5. Pollsters next found that 41 percent agreed with Trump's statement last week that Clinton is "the devil," contrasted with 42 percent who disagreed and 17 percent who were unsure.
  6. Tuesday's results also showed that 47 percent believed they witnessed footage of Iran collecting $400 million from the U.S.
  7. Forty-six percent said they had not seen the video, which Trump seemingly admitted he had not actually viewed last Friday.
  8. Forty-eight percent of Trump's supporters in North Carolina additionally blamed Clinton and President Obama for Capt. Humayun Khan's death in 2004, even though Obama was an Illinois legislator and Clinton was a senator at the time.

App Lets You Buy Leftover Food From Restaurants And It's Really Cheap
HP | Sarah Grossman | 08/10/16

"Food waste just seems like one of the dumbest problems we have in this world," co-founder James Crummie told Business Green.

Here's a situation where takeout is more cost efficient than cooking at home. Too Good To Go, an app operating in the UK, allows users to order leftover food at a discount from restaurants, according to the website. The goal is to help curb waste from establishments that typically toss out perfectly edible food at the end of the day.

Users simply log in, pick a restaurant, and pay through the app. Then they pick up their food at designated times ? usually around closing or after peak meal times, according to the Telegraph. ... Read more

Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart
NYTimesMag | Scott Anderson | current

Before driving into northern Iraq, Dr. Azar Mirkhan changed from his Western clothes into the traditional dress of a Kurdish pesh merga warrior: a tightfitting short woolen jacket over his shirt, baggy pantaloons and a wide cummerbund. He also thought to bring along certain accessories. These included a combat knife, tucked neatly into the waist of his cummerbund, as well as sniper binoculars and a loaded .45 semiautomatic. Should matters turn particularly ticklish, an M-4 assault rifle lay within easy reach on the back seat, with extra clips in the foot well. The doctor shrugged. "It's a bad neighborhood." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 11 [11:27]
*DN | Crisis Engulfs Fox News as Roger Ailes Sexual Harrassment & Spying Scandal Grows (08/11/16) [14:10]
DN | How Did Susan Estrich Go from Feminist Icon & Roger Ailes Foe to His Attorney in Harassment Case? (08/11/16) [7:55]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
ColbertReport | Remember the Democratic Convention? Yeah, we barely do too. Here's our best moments. (08/08/16) [4:16]
TRNN | Financial regulator Bill Black describes some of Hillary Clinton's statements on economic policy as 'incredible nonsense' (08/11/16) [11:49]
TYT | Donald Trump's Campaign Scrambling To Defend 2nd Amendment Comment (08/10/16) [11:26]
*RT | Keiser Report: Phantom Pension Funding (E952) (08/11/16) [25:44]
Max and Stacy discuss the reckless gamble that Governor John Kasich of Ohio - one of the 'legitimate' and 'respectable' candidates (as per the media) in the Republican primaries - chose to take with the state's pension funds. In the second half they interview Francine McKenna of Marketwatch.com about what Donald Trump's tax returns might show. Francine suggests that they would show 'yuge' business losses but that ordinary people wouldn't understand investing for the specific purpose of such losses. They also discuss what the IRS audit of the Clinton Foundation might show and what the transcripts of Hillary's talks to Goldman Sachs would show.

HSBC wasn't prosecuted because it was 'too big to fail': House committee
MarketWatch.com | Francine McKenna | older 07/11/16

HSBC avoided criminal prosecution for anti-money-laundering violations because of the bank's "systemic importance" to the global financial system, according to a report from the House Financial Services Committee on Monday.

The report said top Justice Department officials, led by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, ignored an internal recommendation to criminally prosecute HSBC four years ago because they worried that criminal penalties might send shock waves throughout the global financial system. ... Read more
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Karen Shragg - The Ticking Time Bomb - Population, Part 1 (08/10/16) [12:47], Part 2 [11:56]
*DR | Challenges For The Media In Covering Donald Trump (08/11/16) [1hr]
Reporters and editors across America are grappling with how to cover Donald Trump. His unorthodox presidential campaign and what some call dangerous rhetoric have led journalists to debate the value of objectivity. Join our discussion of the media's challenges in covering Donald Trump.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.11.2016. 13:17

Wednesday Aug 10, 2016
News Articles

The GOP must dump Trump
TheWashingtonPost | Joe Scarborough | 08/09/16

The Muslim ban, the David Duke denial, the "Mexican" judge flap, the draft dodger denigrating John McCain's military service, the son of privilege attacking an immigrant Gold Star mother and the constant revisionism and lying about past political positions taken are but a few of the lowlights that have punctuated Donald Trump's chaotic chase for the presidency.

Any one of these offenses would have disqualified any other candidate for president. But the Republican nominee remained competitive against a historically weak Democratic nominee on the promise of bringing radical change and dramatic disruption to Washington. ... Read more

Poll: One In Five Republicans Want Trump To Drop Out
*TYT | National Security Establishment Lines Up Against Donald Trump (08/09/16) [3:49]

How Much Damage Could Donald Trump Really Do, After All?
HP | Mark Kleiman | 08/09/16

Some of the people planning to cast protest votes in November have a bedtime story they love to tell themselves. In the story, Donald Trump's election wouldn't be such a bad thing because the diffusion of power in the American political system would prevent him from carrying out the worst of his lunatic schemes.

Now, there is a germ of an idea there: political and institutional constraints greatly limit the power of a President. But it's worth noting that the political constraints generally act through the perceptions of the President and those around him about what he can, and can't, get away with: that is, precisely the sort of thing that would have kept Trump-the-candidate from, e.g., hurling ethnic insults at a federal judge. A President unfazed by criticism, and willing to ignore advice about the limits of his lawful authority from the Office of Legal Counsel, actually can get quite a lot done. No President in the modern era -- even Nixon -- has dared to say what President Jackson said about a Supreme Court ruling: "Mr. Justice Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." But what if we had a President who was willing to behave that way, surrounded by advisers egging him on to do so? Trump's power for evil might be substantially greater than (e.g.) Obama's power for good. ... Read more

State Department Releases New Batch Of Emails Clinton Failed To Turn Over

Emails Renew Questions About Clinton Foundation and State Dept. Overlap
NYTimes | Eric Lichtblau | 08/09/16

A new batch of State Department emails released Tuesday showed the close and sometimes overlapping interests between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.

The documents raised new questions about whether the charitable foundation worked to reward its donors with access and influence at the State Department, a charge that Mrs. Clinton has faced in the past and has always denied.

In one email exchange, for instance, an executive at the Clinton Foundation in 2009 sought to put a billionaire donor in touch with the United States ambassador to Lebanon because of the donor's interests there. ... Read more

*TYT | Newly Released Emails Don't Look Great For Hillary Campaign... (08/09/16) [8:19]
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy by Michael E. Mann

The award-winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize--winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of billions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars.

The Madhouse Effect portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity has changed Earth's climate. Toles's cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books?and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of sound science.
Trump's Newest Adviser Once Compared Syrian Refugees To Rattlesnakes
Proxy War in Syria: US vs Russia by Natalia V. Osipova and Mark Mazzetti
Proxy War in Syria: US vs Russia by Natalia V. Osipova and Mark Mazzetti (08/08/16) [2:52]
30 Years After The Disaster: Ukraine Plans Huge Solar Farm In Chernobyl

Vietnam Secretly Moves israeli Rocket Launchers To Disputed Islands To Counter China
ZeroHedge | author | 08/10/16

While over the last several months, tensions over the South China Sea territorial dispute have mostly focused on the diplomatic war of words between China and the US, Reuters reports that in a move that is likely to substantially "raise tensions with Beijing", Vietnam has secretly fortified several of its islands in the disputed territory with Israeli-made EXTRA mobile rocket launchers 'capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 10 [10:31]
*DN | David Cay Johnston: author of "The Making of Donald Trump", discusses Trump's Ties to the Mob & Drug Traffickers (08/10/16) [18:50]
DN | Donald Trump Under Fire After Hinting Gun Owners Could Assassinate Hillary Clinton (08/10/16) [2:45]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
ColbertReport | Future Former President Obama and the 'Ransom' Scandal (08/04/16) [5:53]
TRNN | EPI Senior Analyst David Cooper says raising minimum wage hike has historically not led to job losses, but higher local demand and decreased turnover. (08/09/16) [11:57]
TYT | Donald Trump Threatens Hillary Clinton With Gun Violence (08/09/16) [7:51]
TYT | Howard Kurtz Accuses Media Of Bias... Works At Fox News. (08/09/16) [9:17]
TYT | Study: Millions Of Americans May Be Drinking TOXIC Water (08/09/16) [7:40]
RT | Assange hints murdered DNC staffer could've been Wikileaks source, offers $20k reward for info (09/10/16) [4:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | Dr. Michael Mann: Climate Change...The Madhouse Effect (08/10/16) [11:29]
*ThomHartmann | Stop Being Dumb & Partisan on So-Called 'Free Trade' (08/10/16) [7:29]
*DR | 15 Years After 9/11, Are We Safer From Terrorist Attacks? (08/10/16) [1hr]
After the 9/11 attacks, the government re-organized dozens of federal agencies and spent almost a trillion dollars to protect the country from terrorism. In the last fifteen years, the overall FBI budget nearly tripled to fund counter-terrorism efforts. Intelligence sharing among federal agencies improved. And airport security was strengthened. But are we safer? With emerging threats of lone-wolf killers inspired by the Islamic State, national security and intelligence experts warn we will never be completely safe. A look at the strengths and weaknesses of homeland security and counter-terrorism today.
*DR | Two Views On The Jim Crow South And Its Legacy Today (08/10/16) [1hr]
Historian Charles Dew was born in 1937 and grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. His parents, along with every white person he knew, believed without question in the inherent inferiority of black Americans and in the need for segregation. In a new memoir, "The Making of a Racist," he describes what he learned as a child and how he gradually overthrew those beliefs. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson details the crushing realities of the Jim Crow South from the other side of the color line. In her 2010 book, "The Warmth of Other Suns," she documents the migration of black families in the 1930s, 40s and 50s in search of better lives in the North and in the West. Charles Dew and Isabel Wilkerson join us to talk about racism in American, then and now.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.10.2016. 11:36

Tuesday Aug 09, 2016
News Articles
Some of Today's Headlines
Collins Can't Stomach Cruel Trump... GOP Senator Pens Brutal Indictment Of Donald's 'Inability And Unwillingness To Honor' Republican Legacy'... 'Unworthy Of Being Our President'... 'Incapable Of Change'... 50 GOP Heavyweights: Stop 'Reckless' Trump... Republicans Sound Alarm: Trump Could Endanger Senate!... Poll Plummet Continues... Monmouth: Clinton Takes Double-Digit Lead...

GOP Senator Won't Back Donald Trump Because He's 'Unworthy Of Being Our President'
HP | Marina Fang | 08/08/16

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday said she won't back GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, joining a handful of Republican senators who say they cannot support him because of his rhetoric and temperament.

"Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values, nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country," Collins wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. ... Read more

*Trump Offers Huge Favors to Billionaires, and Calls It a Big Economic Speech
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan | 08/09/16

If it came out of the mouth of any other politician, the speech delivered on Monday by the Republican presidential candidate at the Detroit Economic Club would have been stunning in its mendacity. But issuing forth from Donald J. Trump, it was, sadly, to be expected. ...

... He claimed that "the terrible Obama-Clinton judgment" destroyed Detroit's manufacturing sector, when the Obama administration twisted Republican arms to get the funding to save the American auto industry. ... Read more

Donald Trump Full Economic Plan Speech in Detroit, Michigan (08/08/16) [54:48]
TYT | Donald Trump's Economic Plan: More Money For The Rich (08/08/16) [8:14]

Trump's economic advisers are also his biggest donors
Politico | Shane Goldmacher | 08/07/16

After spending months scolding his rivals for being beholden to their financial backers, Donald Trump unveiled an economic advisory council last week -- and filled it with some of his biggest donors.

Of the 13 men -- and they are all men -- that Trump touted as economic advisers for their "unparalleled experience and success," five are major donors whose families combined to give Trump's campaign and his joint fundraising account with the Republican Party more than $2 million. ... Read more

A Crisis Of Intervention
ZeroHedge| author | 08/09/16

"Dishonest money has created a culture of speculation out of ordinary producers and savers. As a result, we confuse financial markets for the source of our wealth." Perhaps at some point our central bankers will come to appreciate that wealth is not created by the printing of money. It is created by honest entrepreneurial endeavour, which is itself jeopardised by constant monetary intervention. ... Read more

Roger Ailes Had a 'Black Room' at Fox and Used Company Funds to Spy on Journalists
esquire.com | Peter Wade | 08/07/16

Sherman reported in New York Magazine that Ailes used Fox News money to fund public relations and surveillance campaigns against his enemies, including Sherman and other journalists. He also used company dollars to settle allegations of sexual harassment against him.

These shady dealings have been uncovered as Fox News executives pour through the network's financial records following Ailes's resignation. According to Sherman's sources at Fox, Ailes spent millions on these endeavors, but because Fox was bringing in more than a billion dollars in yearly profits, the amounts used personally by Ailes were almost negligible. ... Read more

Could The Deep State Be Sabotaging Hillary?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/09/16

Few would dispute that Hillary Clinton is the Establishment's candidate. It's widely accepted that the Establishment hews to a neoconservative (neo-con) foreign policy that is fully supported by America's Deep State, i.e. the centers of state power that don't change as a result of elections. As a result, it's widely accepted that the Deep State fully supports Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency and will move heaven and earth to get her elected. While this is a logical premise, I suspect it's overly simplistic. I suspect major power centers in the Deep State are actively sabotaging Hillary because they've concluded she is a poisoned chalice who would severely damage the interests of the Deep State and the U.S.A. Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 09 [10:17]
DN | Meet Jacqui Maxwell, the UAW Autoworker Who Interrupted Trump's Economic Speech in Detroit (08/09/16) [7:36]
DN | Matt Taibbi: Trump's All White Male Economic Team Includes "Financial Crisis Villain" John Paulson, Part 1 (08/09/16) [9:21], Part 2 [4:30] *TRNN | Investigative reporter Greg Palast tells Paul Jay that John Paulson made billions in the mortgage market collapse and by holding the auto industry hostage for taxpayer money (08/09/16) [10:56]
TRNN | Economist Robert Pollin and journalist Doug Henwood discuss: Trump Adopts Reaganomics (08/09/16) [16:57]
*TYT | HISTORIANS Can't Remember A Leader Who Lied More (08/08/16) [8:33]
TYT | WTF Is The Fox News "Black Room"??? (08/08/16) [10:52]
*TYT | Meet Evan McMullin: The CIA's Republican Anti-Trump (08/08/16) [11:34]
We have a new Republican candidate in the race. Some big money is backing Evan McMullin, a former CIA Goldman Sachs employee. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
RT | Max Keiser: They observe that the political world has collapsed because of the bailouts and now we have the most disliked candidates in modern history and the most insane conspiracy theories masquerading as political analysis. (E951) (08/09/16) [25:43]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*DR | Analysis Of Donald Trump's New Economic Plan (08/09/16) [1hr]
With a speech yesterday in Detroit, Donald Trump attempted to recover from a rough week on the campaign trail. The topic was the economy, and while many of the ideas were ones he has already discussed, Trump laid out some new ideas, such as a proposal to allow families to deduct child care spending from their income taxes. He also updated his tax plan bringing him more in line with Congressional Republicans. Trump took plenty of jabs at Hillary Clinton, blaming her for Detroit's economic troubles, and casted himself as the candidate of the future and of change. Diane and her panel discuss Trump's proposals on taxes, trade and financial regulation.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.09.2016. 11:20

Monday Aug 08, 2016
News Articles

Donald Trump Tries a Campaign Reboot
WallStreetJournal | Beth Reinhard | 08/08/16

Donald Trump is trying to quickly reset his presidential campaign to address worsening poll numbers and growing isolation from influential members of the Republican Party.

At weekend rallies, the GOP nominee read from a hand-held script and offered endorsements for the re-elections of a trio of Capitol Hill Republicans whom he had toyed with rebuffing. On Monday, he will head to Detroit to deliver an economic policy address that is expected to draw contrasts with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. ... Read more

Donald Trump Full Economic Plan Speech in Detroit, Michigan (08/08/16) [54:48]
TYT | Poll: Donald Trump Really NOT Winning With Millennials (08/07/16) [14:57]
TYT | Judge Rules Against Third Parties In Debates (08/06/16) [11:28]

We've Already Used Up Earth's Resources For 2016 -- And It's Only August
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/08/16

It's less than eight months into 2016 and the ominous day is already nearly upon us: Earth Overshoot Day, previously known as Ecological Debt Day, is a reminder of the enormous toll we take on the Earth.

For the rest of 2016, we'll be "living on resources borrowed from future generations," as the World Wildlife Fund pointed out when we failed last year. Troublingly, this year's Overshoot Day is happening earlier than ever before. It's "come around five days earlier than last year, a sign that humanity's consumption of renewable natural resources continues to rise," Global Footprint Network spokesman Sebastian Winkler told The Huffington Post. ... Read more

TYT | Cenk Uygur Discussing Donald Trump On This Week With George Stephanopoulos (08/06/16) [11:14]
Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It by Wendell Potter

American democracy has become coin operated. Special interest groups increasingly control every level of government. The necessity of raising huge sums of campaign cash has completely changed the character of politics and policy making, determining what elected representatives stand for and how they spend their time. The marriage of great wealth and intense political influence has rendered our country unable to address our most pressing problems, from runaway government spending to climate change to the wealth gap. It also defines our daily lives: from the cars we drive to the air we breathe to the debt we owe. In this powerful work of reportage, Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman, two vigilant watchdogs, expose legalized corruption and link it to the kitchen-table issues citizens face every day. Inciting our outrage, the authors then inspire us by introducing us to the army of reformers laying the groundwork for change, ready to be called into action. The battle plan for reform presented is practical, realistic, and concrete. No one-except some lobbyists and major political donors-likes business as usual, and this book intends to help forge a new army of reformers who are compelled by a patriotic duty to fight for a better democracy. An impassioned, infuriating, yet ultimately hopeful call to arms, Nation on the Take lays bare the reach of moneyed interests and charts a way forward, toward the recovery of America's original promise.

Howard Kunstler Rages "Wake The F**K Up... Gravity Always Wins"
ZeroHEdge | author | 08/08/16

"...distortions in markets, currencies, and capital are spinning out in an ever broader, centrifugal gyre, coinciding, as chance would have it, with the most peculiar election in modern times. The incoherence and deceit on both sides is far beyond even the extravagant American norms of dauntless political bullshit. We literally have no idea what we're doing in this country, or what we're actually wishing for. The financial structures of everyday life look more fragile than ever. Gravity always wins." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 08 [11:41]
LastWeekTonight
John Oliver | Journalism (08/07/16) [19:22]
TYT | Only 9% Of Americans Have Voted For Trump Or Hillary (08/07/16) [5:53]
TYT | Is Capitalism Easier In Co-Op Mode? (08/07/16) [5:58]
RT | Max and Stacy discuss the 'Great Period of Instability' and the $24 trillion rollover risk as interconnected disasters in the global economy. (E950) (08/06/16) [25:39]
Max then talks to Reggie Middleton in Bryant Park, NY, about there being no such thing as negative interest rates and how the German taxpayer will go broke before Deutsche Bank does. Max talks to Valentin Schmid of the Epoch Times about the trillions of bad debts in the Chinese banking system and what plans the Peoples Bank of China has for dealing with it.
RT | Julian Assange Special: Do Wikileaks have the email that'll put Clinton in Prison? (EP 376) (08/06/16) [27:54]
TYT & RoF | Florida's Solution To Toxic Algae Blooms? Ease The Rules on Water Pollution (08/07/16) [2:06]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Wendell Potter - The Practical Reality Of Our Oligarchy, Part 1 (08/05/16) [12:44], Part 2 [12:22]
*DR | The Lawsuit Against Former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes And Sexual Harassment In The Workplace (08/08/16) [1hr]
In 2005, Gretchen Carlson began working for Fox News. She rose through the ranks to become host of her own show, "The Real Story." But in June, Fox News declined to renew her contract. A few weeks later, Carlson sued Roger Ailes, alleging the Fox News chief fired her because she refused his sexual advances. Ailes denies the allegations but has since left the network. Since then, more than 20 women have come forward with stories about Ailes sexually harassing them on the job. And investigators are now looking at what other Fox News executives knew about Ailes's behavior. Diane and guests discuss the case against Roger Ailes and the challenges of confronting sexual harassment in the workplace.
DR | The Increasing Global Demand For Sand (08/08/16) [1hr]
Sand is essential for modern construction. Almost every new office tower, road and shopping mall being built in Asia's booming cities is made with concrete mixed with sand. And to get more sand, companies and people are pulling sand out of rivers and oceans at an unprecedented rate, say scientists. And in the deep ocean waters off the U.S., sand is being excavated to restore coastlines from Louisiana to New Jersey. Some estimate that extracting sand is a $70-billion industry. Diane and a panel of guests take a look at the increasing demand for sand, and concerns about the impact of dredging on river and ocean life worldwide.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.08.2016. 14:20

Friday Aug 05, 2016
News Articles

Clinton surges to big lead in McClatchy-Marist poll
mcclatchydc.com | David Lightman | 08/04/16

Clinton made strong gains with two constituencies crucial to a Republican victory -- whites and men -- while scoring important gains among fellow Democrats, the poll found.

Clinton not only went up, but Trump also went down. Clinton now has a 48-33 percent lead, a huge turnaround from her narrow 42-39 advantage last month. ... Read more
TYT | Donald Trump's Polls PLUMMETING After Week Of Fail (08/04/16) [9:04]

Top 10 Articles in Todays Papers
POLITICS
TRUMP TANKS: Clinton Adds To Lead As Donald Goes Off The Rails
Khan Meltdown Leaves Campaign Critically Wounded
Hillary Swoops In To Convert Crestfallen Republicans

POLITICS
GOP Insiders To Politico: Trump Should Drop Out
GOP Senators Distance Themselves From Trump In An Effort To Save Senate Majority

POLITICS
Trump's New York Campaign Chair: 'No Doubt' President Obama Is A Muslim

POLITICS
Polls Suggest Younger Voters Are Seriously Considering Libertarian, Green Party Candidates

POLITICS
Trump Admits He Didn't See Nonexistent Iran Money Video
EARLIER: Trump Repeats Lie That He Watched Iran Video Even After His Campaign Acknowledged It Didn't Exist

POLITICS
There Would Be No Check On President Trump's Power To Launch Nuclear Weapons

WORLDPOST
Black Lives Matter Protesters Block Road To Europe's Busiest Airport

WORLDPOST
ISIS Captures Up To 3,000 Fleeing Iraqis, Executes 12

POLITICS
WATCH: Trump's Supporters Weigh In On The Khan Controversy

POLITICS
The Cowardly Ryan: Calls Trump Attacks 'Beyond The Pale' -- But Won't Rescind Endorsement!

Trump Made Up An Entire News Story On Iran -- And He's Standing By It
thinkprogress.org | Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani | 08/04/16

In the last few days, Donald Trump has made up an entire news story on U.S. foreign policy. Speaking at a rally in Maine on Thursday, Trump claimed that the Iranian government released secret footage it had of the United States transferring $400 million in cash to Iran.

"You know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country," Trump said. "They want to embarrass our country. They want to embarrass our president. Because we have a president who's incompetent. They want to embarrass our president." ... Read more
TYT | Donald Trump Makes Up Iran Story After Watching Fox News (08/04/16) [6:49]

At the Crossing Borders Conference in Greece, critical theorist Maria Nikolakaki says 24 people are displaced every minute, which equals 34,000 every day - and this is, at its core, a class war.

Spurred Out of Service: How Conald Trup Avoided Vietnam
inquisitr.com | Nancy Bailey | 08/04/16

Donald Trump's history of avoiding the draft has fallen under scrutiny, since his public feud with the parents of a fallen soldier, Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 by a car bomb while serving in Iraq.

Trump, whom the Gold Star father Khizr Khan said had "sacrificed nothing," retorted that he had made sacrifices and "done a lot," including creating jobs and helping establish a Vietnam War memorial in New York. ... Read more
TYT | Donald Trump Takes Vet's Purple Heart After Draft Dodging Vietnam (08/04/16) [4:36]

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 05 [8:59]
*DN | Cartoonist Garry Trudeau: 30 Years of "Doonesbury" on Donald Trump, Part 1 (08/05/16) [9:14], Part 2 [10:40]
DN | Dave Zirin: Protests by Athletes and Displaced Rio Residents Accompany Opening of 2016 Olympic Games (08/05/16) [13:58]
*TRNN | Investigative journalist Bruce Livesey has teamed up with TRNN to make a documentary to expose the Koch brothers' war on the environment and their plan to influence the 2016 elections. (08/04/16) [4:41]
RT | Israeli hackers breach ISIS messenger app, reveal 'attack plans' (08/05/16) [4:53]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | A very real threat to life on this planet is currently trapped deep under Arctic permafrost. And thanks to climate change - that permafrost is rapidly disappearing. (08/05/16) [7:38]
ThomHartmann | Mike Papantonio, author of his new book "Law And Disorder" says: The idea of a Donald Trump presidency was scary enough already - but it just got even scarier. (08/05/16) [12:13]
ThomHartmann | Is This A Trump Scam.. building Up the Infrastructure? Or Is He Right On This? (08/05/16) [11:06]
*DR | Friday News - Domestic (08/05/16) [1hr]
Note: the video starts at 3:50 on the Progressbar
More Republicans question whether to support Donald Trump for president. The FBI continues to investigate a hack of Democratic National Committee emails. And the latest on a Zika outbreak in Miami. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
*DR | Friday News - International (08/02/16) [1hr]
The Obama administration defends a $400-million-dollar payment to Iran. President Obama denies the payment was a ransom payment for hostages. President Obama says the Islamic State is turning more to terrorism because it is losing ground in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. launches airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Libya. The Syrian government and rebels trade accusations over allegations of toxic gas attacks. And the Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.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.

08.05.2016. 11:45

Thursday Aug 04, 2016
News Articles
Some of Today's Headlines
CODE RED: Trump Boasts of 'Top Secret' Info... Falsely Claims He Saw An Iranian Film Of The $400 Million Money-Transfer... Harry Reid: 'This Man Is Dangerous,' Give Him Fake Intel... Officials Uneasy: Trump A Possible National Security Risk... Nuke Musings Donald's Most Disqualifying Act Yet... Chomsky: Trump's 'Finger On The Button Should Terrify People'... Campaign Near Breaking Point... GOP Reaches New Level Of Panic...

Trump Boasts About Watching 'Top Secret' Iran Video Immediately After Becoming Eligible To Receive Classified Briefings
HP | Christina Wilkie | 08/03/16

Donald Trump on Wednesday described vivid details from a video he said he had watched earlier in the day of Iranian officials unloading cash from an airplane. The money was part of a payment, announced earlier this year, from the U.S. to Iran to settle a decades-old dispute over an incomplete weapons sale.

"I'll never forget the scene this morning," Trump told the crowd in Daytona Beach, Florida, of what he said he had watched. "Iran ? I don't think you've heard this anywhere but here ? Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane. ... Read more

French President: Trump 'Makes You Want To Retch'
TYT | Trans-Pacific Partnership EXPLAINED! (08/04/16) [6:22]

Joe Scarborough Claims Trump Asked Advisor Why US Can't Use Nukes
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/ | Katherine Krueger | 08/03/16

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough reported on the air Wednesday morning that when Donald Trump met for a briefing with an unnamed foreign policy expert, the GOP nominee allegedly asked, "Why can't we use nuclear weapons?" several times.

Scarborough made the claim during an interview with retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who expressed concern about how Trump would be an "erratic" and "inconsistent" commander-in-chief. ... Read more
*TYT | Donald Trump: Why Don't We Use Nukes? (08/04/16) [11:41]

America's Oligarchs Support Clinton Almost Unanimously
ZeroHedge | author | 08/04/16

Perhaps the reason why this is so, is: Clinton has already spoken privately with the heads of these companies (the companies owned by the oligarchs) and with their lobbyists, and she coordinates her campaign with their propaganda-operations. So: her messages are also their messages. (But what she has told them behind closed doors goes even beyond that, into her proposing new federal subsidies for their businesses.)

The historical background of the current developments in the U.S., has already been well covered in a lengthy paper by Ryan Patrick Alford, that's appropriately-titled "The Dismantling of the Rule of Law in the United States" (especially see there "Citizens United," which is a direct source of this). ... Read more

The Profound Challenge of OCD: One Woman's Story
AlterNet | author | 08/04/16

I added this article because it captured my interest. We all have the potential to fall down a rabbit hole. This article shows how one woman struggled with her demons...

... But, beneath the surface, in the labyrinth of my brain, an entire subculture of irrational worries, self-doubts, and bizarre fears was wildly proliferating, the content of which often had nothing to do with Peter. For instance, cleaning out my pantry one afternoon, I came across a jar of tartar sauce, unopened, which I knew I'd never use. I offered it to our cleaning-lady, who took it home. That evening, I was seized by the overwhelming fear that this jar somehow might be contaminated by botulism. It didn't matter how improbable this fear was, I couldn't stop it. I began calling every hour, then every half-hour, then 20 minutes, until I reached her and insisted she throw it out. I knew she thought I was crazy. I thought I was crazy. A few months later, a similar worry burbled up: I'd regifted an unopened set of Crabtree & Evelyn bath accessories as a present to my mother-in-law. Suddenly, I was overtaken by the possibility that dangerous bacteria may have somehow contaminated the soap and shampoo during the short time they were sitting, untouched, in a closet. Too embarrassed to call her myself, I enlisted Peter to call his mother to explain that she should throw the package away. I can't recall us ever discussing this curious incident. Did Peter or my mother-in-law or I perceive anything odd about my concern with contamination, like the contaminated blood products that harmed Peter? As if I, too, had become contaminated -- and was capable of contaminating others, in turn? ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 04 [10:15]
DN | First Evidence Surfaces of Foreign Money Pouring into U.S. Elections After Citizens United (08/04/16) [9:25]
DN | Chris Hedges vs. Robert Reich on Clinton, Third Parties & Next Steps for Sanders Backers, Part 1 (08/04/16) [19:00], Part 2 [15:55]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
*ColbertReport | For Donald Trump, Every Day Is Opposite Day (08/04/16) [5:44]
ColbertReport | Cartoon Donald Trump Might Flake On The Debates (08/03/16) [3:18]
*TRNN | Col. Lawrence Wilkerson discuss Hillary Clinton's militarist track record and Donald Trump's bellicose rhetoric (08/04/16) [26:57]
*TRNN | Vijay Prashad said the Libyan Government of National Accord has been under pressure to invite the US bombing campaign because western governments won't grant access to $67 billion in sovereign funds until the Islamic State is defeated (08/04/16) [10:37]
TRNN | Economist Heiner Flassbeck says there's no debt crisis in Europe, it is Germany's absolute competitive advantages that drove deflation throughout Europe (08/04/16) [15:02]
TYT | Navy SEAL Releases Insane Campaign Ad (08/04/16) [10:31]
RT | Keiser Report: Max and Stacy discuss the farcical, upside down world that central bank intervention has made in markets -- where the safest bets are now the most dangerous. (E949) (08/04/16) [25:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*DR | Donald Trump's Tax Returns And Whether The Public Has The Right To Know (08/04/16) [1hr]
For the past 40 years, every U.S. presidential candidate from a major party has released their tax returns. It's not required by law, but voters have come to expect it. Donald Trump has refused to disclose his tax information. His campaign chief reiterated last week that the candidate would not be releasing his returns. Calls for the Republican nominee to do so have grown stronger recently. On Monday billionaire businessman Warren Buffet announced he'd disclose his income tax records if Trump did and offered to meet with the candidate any time before the election to answer questions from the public about them. Join Diane and guests for a discussion on the tradition of personal tax disclosure by presidential candidates -- and what's at stake.
*DR | John Dickerson: "Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories From Presidential Campaign History" (08/04/16) [1hr]
Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson shares his favorite stories from presidential campaign history -- the ones he says journalists rehash long after the fact. From forgotten moments to familiar tales: memorable scenes from campaign history in America.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.04.2016. 11:31

Wednesday Aug 03, 2016
News Articles

Runaway Trump Train Picks Up Speed As Aides Can't Grab The Controls
HP | Howard Fineman | 08/03/16

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign chairman, has had success dealing with hard-to-manage dictatorial types, from Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, to Jonas Savimbi of Angola, to Victor Yanukovych of Ukraine. But he is described by close friends as "frustrated" beyond measure by his inability to manage Trump in any sense.

Reince Preibus, the pliable chair of the Republican National Committee, went to extraordinary lengths to legitimize The Donald ? but now the RNC is throwing up its hands and distancing itself. Read more

"It Takes A Village To Maintain A Dangerous Financial System"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/16

Reassurances that regulators are doing their best to protect the public are false, warns Stanford's Anat Admati in her latest report on the collusive dissonance within financial markets. She discuss the motivations and actions (or inaction) of individuals in the financial system, governments, central banks, academia and the media that collectively contribute to the persistence of a dangerous and distorted financial system and inadequate, poorly designed regulations. The underlying problem is a powerful mix of distorted incentives, ignorance, confusion, and lack of accountability. Willful blindness seems to play a role in flawed claims by the system's enablers that obscure reality and muddle the policy debate.

In banking, the public interest in safety conflicts with the incentives of people within the industry. Protecting the public requires effective regulations because market forces fail to do so. Without effective regulations, dangerous conduct is enabled and perversely rewarded. Because the harm is difficult to connect to specific policy failures and individuals, it persists. Even if a crisis occurs, the enablers of the system can promote narratives that divert attention from their own responsibility ... ... Read more

Trump Says It's Time To Sell Stocks, Warns Of "Very Scary Scenarios" For Investors
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/16

While Wall Street typically worries about how politics might affect the market, Presidential candidates worry about how the stock market might affect their political outcomes. The reason for this is that historically, the market performance in the three months leading up to a Presidential Election has displayed an uncanny ability to forecast who will win the White House... the incumbent party or the challenger. Since 1928, there have been 22 Presidential Elections. In 14 of them, the S&P 500 climbed during the three months preceding election day. The incumbent President or party won in 12 of those 14 instances. However, in 7 of the 8 elections where the S&P 500 fell over that three month period, the incumbent party lost. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Our Consumption Of Earth's Natural Resources Has More Than Tripled In 40 Years
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/02/16

Limestone and steel for our homes, wheat and vegetables for our dinner, fossil fuels for our industries: we rely heavily on our planet's natural resources to survive.

Yet we're using up these resources at such an unsustainable pace that we may be "irreversibly" depleting some of them ? and critically damaging our Earth in the process, according to a new United Nations report. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 03 [10:07]
DN | Section 60: 2008 Film Captures Khizr & Ghazala Khan Mourning Son in Arlington National Cemetery (08/02/16) [8:17]
TYT | Jill Stein Has Chosen Her Running Mate. (08/02/16) [9:23]
RT | Obama: US failed to plan for peace and security in Libya after toppling of Gaddafi (08/03/16) [6:06]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Obama's blunt words on Donald Trump, Paul Ryan's pro-TPP talk at a Koch-billionaire gathering, and whether Progressive challenger Tim Canova can beat Debbie Wasserman Schultz. (full) (08/02/16) [56:55]
*DR | Update On The Spread Of The Zika Virus In The U.S. (08/03/16) [1hr]
The CDC has issued an unprecedented travel warning for part of Miami, where more than 10 new cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed. What's causing the virus to spread in one South Florida neighborhood and how officials are responding.
Aljazeera | Inside Story - Can US air strikes push ISIL out of Libya? (08/02/16) [24:45]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.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.

08.03.2016. 09:52

Tuesday Aug 02, 2016
News Articles

David Stockman Rants Against The Dangers & Digressions Of The Donald's Demagoguery
ZeroHedge | author | 08/02/16

"Making America great" is about unleashing the nation's capitalists again. It's an expression that prosperity is not bestowed by the state but won by the kind of builders, investors, innovators and workers that The Donald fancies to be the essence of Trump Inc. To that extent, Donald Trump could be regarded as an incipient anti-statist. While this might seem like an overly generous characterization, it is a measure, alas, of the degree to which the bipartisan "policy" consensus against him has congealed around what is essentially a Keynesian axiom of endless macroeconomic intervention and "stimulus". ... Read more

TYT | Koch Brothers Pass On Hillary AND Trump. Will Buy Congress Instead. (08/01/16) [6:40]

Trump Urges His Supporters To Sell Stocks, Warns Of "Very Scary Scenarios" For Investors
ZeroHedge | author | 08/02/16

Now that we are exactly three months away from the November 8 election, if Trump wants to really boost his electoral chances, a market crash right now be certainly most welcome by his campaign. Which may be why Trump today urged his supporters to get out of equities as "interest rates set by the Federal Reserve are inflating the stock market" and warned of "very scary scenarios" for investors. ... Read more

A "1 In 10,000 Year Event": JPM Head Quant Explains Why The S&P Refuses To Sell Off
ZeroHedge | author | 08/02/16

"... one would expect this scenario to happen once every ~10,000 years. The fact that we see this type of behavior demonstrates market inefficiency--in this case driven by hedging of option exposure. Quite literally, the market was pinned. Over the past 3 weeks, the amount of call options exceeding put options (in terms of gamma exposure) averaged almost $40bn (per 1%), which is the largest call to put gamma imbalance ever observed." ... Read more

European Bank Bloodbath Destroys Stress Test Credibility
ZeroHEdge | author | 08/02/16

If the goal of the EBA Stress Tests was to reassure investors and regain confidence that 'all is well' in Europe's increasingly fragile and systemically interconnected banking system, then it has utterly failed. The broadest European bank stock index is now down 7% from the post-stress-test spike highs, Italian banks are at record lows and being halted (despite Renzi's promises), Commerzbank is struggling with capital raise chatter, and Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are tumbling after being booted from the Stoxx 50. ... Read more

The Rising: Connecting Human Health and Oil Operations
The Rising: Connecting Human Health and Oil Operations (trailer, longer) (07/11/16) [5:38]
The Rising: Connecting Human Health and Oil Operations (trailer, short) (07/11/16) [1:57]
The Rising: Connecting Human Health and Oil Operations (crowed funding) (04/12/16) [5:08]
The Rising: Connecting Human Health and Oil Operations (website)
The Big Fix - BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Cover up (12/27/12) [1:30:19]

Whatever You Do, Don't Look Down
HP | Abigail Williams | 08/02/16

Situated off the side of China's Tianmen Mountain, the 100-meter-long, 1.6-meter-wide skywalk is situated high above Hunan's Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Dubbed the "Coiling Dragon Cliff" skywalk, the clear glass walkway overlooks a sheer drop that would turn any stomach. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 02 [12:10]
DN | The Never-Ending War: U.S. Announces New Front Against ISIS in Libya (08/02/16) [6:24]
The U.S. military carried out two airstrikes in Libya against ISIS fighters on Monday in the latest escalation of the U.S. war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The strikes took place in the city of Sirte. Pentagon officials said the campaign would continue until ISIS has been driven from the city, which it took over last year. Libya has been engulfed in fighting after a U.S.-backed military intervention ousted longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Pentagon said Libya's Western-backed unity government requested the airstrikes. The so-called unity government is one of three competing governments that claim legitimacy in the country. We speak to Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She's author of "Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror."
DN | Trump Attacks Muslim Mother of Slain U.S. Soldier in Comments "Beyond Limit of Human Decency" (08/01/16) [14:00]
TRNN | Dave Zirin the author of Brazil's Dance with the Devil: 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio Eclipsed By Controversy (08/02/16) [13:07]
TRNN | Arn Menconi tells: Colorado Green Party Senate Candidate: 'I'm Running to Stop Endless Wars' (08/02/16) [6:53]
TYT | Trump Continues Feud With Fallen Veteran's Family. (08/01/16) [10:00]
TYT | Republicans Condemn Trump For Khan Comments (08/01/16) [6:32]
TYT | Trump Advisor Smears Muslim War Hero As Terrorist Double Agent (08/01/16) [7:24]
RT | Keiser Report: Myth of Millennial Entrepreneur (E948) (08/02/16) [25:45]
From Kingston, NY, Max and Stacy discuss the myth of the Millennial entrepreneur. Business startups have collapsed but the Obama administration says that student debt is great for the US economy; meanwhile, in China, 'innovation centers' have popped up all over the country, but will the entrepreneurs ever show up? In the second half, Max interviews Gerald Celente of TrendsResearch.com about entrepreneurship and US elections.
RT | CrossTalk: Is Russia meddling in American politics? Also, are we witnessing another crucial tipping point in Syria? And, has Turkey's Erdogan turned his back on the west? (08/01/16) [23:56]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | The Sick & Dying Victims of BP Speak Out! (08/01/16) [7:23]
*DR | Voter Access In 2016: Latest On Restrictions Across The Country (08/02/16) [1hr]
The North Carolina voter ID law targeted African Americans with "almost surgical precision." That's according to a three-judge panel that decided Friday to strike down the law. Recent weeks have seen a slew of similar victories for challengers of voting restrictions: Federal courts also dealt blows to Republican-backed laws in Texas, Wisconsin and Kansas. Supporters of these laws say they address voter fraud and other issues at the polls. But is the tide now turning when it comes to voter restrictions? The latest on recent court decisions affecting voters, and what they could mean for the outcome of the presidential election.
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - The most powerful economic job in the world (07/30/16) [26:00]
Aljazeera | Inside Story - What's behind Russian humanitarian corridors in Aleppo? (07/31/16) [25:00]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.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.

08.02.2016. 13:27

Monday Aug 01, 2016
News Articles
Some of Today's Headlines
TRUMP'S CHUMPS... No Mention Of Nominee In GOP Leaders' Khan Responses... Reid: 'Cowardice'... Khan: 'The Lack Of Moral Courage Will Remain A Burden On Their Souls'... Calls Trump 'A Black Soul'... Says Some Prominent Republicans Reached Out In Support... TRUMP SMEARS GOLD STAR MOTHER... 'I'd Like To Hear His Wife Say Something'... TRIES TO BACKTRACK: Calls Slain Soldier A 'Hero'... Ghazala Speaks, Again: 'He Doesn't Know What The Word Sacrifice Means'...

GOP Leaders Don't Ditch Trump Even After Condemning His Attacks On Muslim War Hero's Family
HP | Marina Fang | 07/31/16

In what has become a familiar pattern, GOP leaders on Sunday denounced Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's latest round of offensive remarks. But they continue to support his campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) both issued standard statements condemning Trump's attacks against Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American war hero killed in Iraq. ... Read more
*TYT | Father Of Fallen American Soldier Delivers POWERFUL Speech Against Trump (07/31/16) [6:46]

John Oliver | Lays Into Trump for His Shameful Criticisms of the Khan Family (08/01/16) [18:09]
On Contact: Into the Political Wilderness with Jill Stein (07/30/16) [26:04]

Hillary's Latest Headache: Skolkovo
ZeroHedge | author | 08/01/16

... Of the 28 "partners," 17, or 60%, have made financial commitments to the Clinton Foundation, totaling tens of millions of dollars, or sponsored speeches by Bill Clinton...

Russians tied to Skolkovo also flowed funds to the Clinton Foundation. Andrey Vavilov, the chairman of SuperOx, which is part of Skolkovo's nuclear-research cluster, donated between $10,000 and $25,000 (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton's family charity"

Thus far, this should not be surprising. It is yet another instance of crony capitalism that has so well characterized the Clintons over the years. However, as US intelligence agencies including the FBI were soon to find out, the Russian Silicon Valley served other purposes as well. ... Read more

*Whistleblower's Stunning Claim: "NSA Has All Of Hillary's Deleted Emails, It May Be The Leak"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/01/16

"If the FBI really wanted them they can go into that database and get them right now," William Binney said of Clinton's emails as well as DNC emails. Asked point blank if he believed the NSA has copies of "all" of Clinton's emails, including the deleted correspondence, Binney confirmed. "Yes. That would be my point. They have them all and the FBI can get them right there." ... Read more

Is Europe Doomed By Vassalage To Washington?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/01/16

... With few exceptions, principally the UK, membership in the EU also meant loss of financial independence. As only the European Central Bank, an EU institution, can create euros, those countries so foolish as to accept the euro as their currency no longer have the power to create their own money in order to finance budget deficits.

The countries that joined the euro must rely on private banks to finance their deficits. The result of this is that over-indebted countries can no longer pay their debts by creating money or expect their debts to be written down to levels that they can service. Instead, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, and Ireland were looted by the private banks. ... Read more

Paul Krugman Reveals the 'Real Sinners' Behind Trump
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 08/01/16

Paul Krugman is incredulous about the mounting horrors of the Trump campaign and spends his Monday NYTimes column once again trying to inject some reasonable thinking into the debate about how to vote come November. Depressingly, he notes that a YouGov survey just found that "61 percent of Republicans support his call for Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton," which doesn't bode well for how Republicans feel about his criticisms of a Muslim war hero's family. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 01 [11:20]
*TRNN | Wenonah Hauter, author of Frackopoly: Big Oil and the Battle for Our Future (08/01/16) [19:53]
*TRNN | Gerry Epstein and Dimitri Lascaris say: Italian Bank Failures Could Disintegrate the EU (08/01/16) [15:40]
*TYT | Roger Ailes Might Run Donald Trump's Presidential Campaign (07/31/16) [11:38]
*TYT | Hillary's Case On Foreign Policy: Warhawks Better Than Crazy Warhawks (07/31/16) [11:33]
TYT | What Hillary Clinton Didn't Say In DNC Speech... (07/31/16) [8:56]
RT | Keiser Report: Taxation and Comedy (E947) (07/30/16) [25:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Pence More Dangerous Than Trump (07/30/16) [8:11]
*DR | After The Conventions, What's Next For The 2016 Race For President (08/01/16) [1hr]
Now that the political conventions are over, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have begun their sprint to the November elections. With less than 100 days left, the candidates are polling nearly neck and neck. The most recent nation-wide polls averaged by RealClearPolitics.com have Trump at 45.6 percent and Clinton at 44.7 percent. Campaigning in swing states began right after the conventions ended. Trump will likely need to win Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania to win the 270 electoral votes to win the White House. Guest host Susan Page and a panel of guests discuss what to expect in the homestretch of the 2016 race for president.
DR | A Conversation With Green Party Candidate Jill Stein (08/01/16) [16:30]
Note: video starts at 4:40 on the Progressbar
When Green Party candidate Jill Stein ran for president in 2012, she walked away with .36 percent of the vote. In this election season, she's found renewed support from voters dissatisfied with both major political parties and Washington as a whole -- especially from disillusioned Bernie Sanders supporters. Since June, she's risen from 2.5 to 3.5 percent in the presidential polls, according to RealClear Politics. The doctor-turned-activist and politician talks with guest host Susan Page about the 2016 presidential race and running as a third-party candidate.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

08.01.2016. 10:59



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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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