Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

At Least 194 Children Have Been Shot to Death Since Newtown
MotherJones | Mark Follman | 12/10/13

A year after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Mother Jones has analyzed the subsequent deaths of 194 children ages 12 and under who were reported in news accounts to have died in gun accidents, homicides, and suicides. They are spread across 43 states, from inner cities to tiny rural towns.

Following Sandy Hook, the National Rifle Association and its allies argued that arming more adults is the solution to protecting children, be it from deranged mass shooters or from home invaders. But the data we collected stands as a stark rejoinder to that view: ... Read more
The NRA says arming more adults will protect kids -- but most are killed at home, our investigation shows, often with unsecured guns.

Another Batch of Wall Street Villains Freed on Technicality
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 12/04/13

I love covering trials, which is one reason I've been a little sad since switching over to the Wall Street beat: Few of the bad guys in this world ever even get interviewed by the authorities, much less indicted, so trials are comically rare.

But we did have one last year, a big one, and though it was boring and jargon-laden enough on the surface that at least one juror fought sleep in its opening days, I thought it was fascinating. In a story about the Justice Department's Spring 2012 prosecution of a wide-raging municipal bond bid-rigging case, I called it the "first trial of the modern American mafia": ... Read more

*Pope Francis Is Time's Person Of The Year
HP | Catherine Taibi | 12/11/13

Time's managing editor Nancy Gibbs explained the magazine's choice on Wednesday, calling the Pope "a new voice of conscience."

"In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time, about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power," she said. "When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church." ... Read more

Two-Thirds Say American Dream Is Over
ZeroHedge | author | 12/11/13

A stunning 64% of American say the US no longer offers everyone an equal chance of 'getting ahead', according to a new poll by Bloomberg. The widening gap between rich and poor - as we have previously noted as wide as during the roaring 20s - has eroded faith in the American dream. The lack of faith, Bloomberg reports, is especially pronounced among those making less than $50,000 a year with 73% of those saying the economy is unfair. ... Read more
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The One Topic No One Is Discussing
ZeroHedge | author | 12/11/13

Earlier, Deutsche Bank's iconoclast Jim Reid dared to point out the painfully obvious: that something has drastically changed since the Great Financial Crisis (what that "something" is, is clear to all those whose year end bonus does is not contingent on never pointing out the printerphant in the room). This time around, instead of looking back, he looks forward, to the year 2014, and brings up the two questions nobody dares to ask: i) what happens if 2014 is the year when the recession can no longer be delayed, and ii) how will the Fed, already having doubled down on every last "bullet" in its arsenal, use monetary policy to provide a burst of growth when even $85 billion in flow per month is no longer enough...

From Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid Read more