Home · News · News Feb 2014
Friday February 28, 2014
News Articles

The Town Los Angeles Drank
MotherJones | Alexis Madrigal | 02/26/14

.. This little patch of land is the key location in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $25 billion plan to fix California's troubled water transport system. Hood sits at the northern tip of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a network of manmade islands and channels constructed on the ruins of the largest estuary from Patagonia to Alaska. Since the 1950s, the Delta has served as the great hydraulic tie between Northern and Southern California: a network of rivers, tributaries, and canals deliver runoff from the Sierra Mountain Range's snowpack to massive pumps at the southern end of the Delta. From there, the water travels through aqueducts to the great farms of the San Joaquin Valley and to the massive coastal cities. The Delta, then, is not only a 700,000-acre place where people live and work, but some of the most important plumbing in the world. Without this crucial nexus point, the current level of agricultural production in the southern San Joaquin Valley could not be sustained, and many cities, including the three largest on the West Coast -- Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose -- would have to come up with radical new water-supply solutions. ... Read more

January Was Chock-Full of Extreme Weather Events, All Over the Globe
MotherJones | John Vidal | 02/27/14

There have been heat waves in Slovenia and Australia, snow in Vietnam, and the return of the polar vortex to North America. Great Britain has had its wettest winter in 250 years, but temperatures in parts of Russia and the Arctic have been 18 degrees above normal. Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere has had the warmest start to a year ever recorded, with millions of people sweltering in Brazilian and southern African cities.

According to the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which monitors global weather, the first six weeks of 2014 have seen an unusual number of extremes of heat, cold, and rain--not just in a few regions as might be expected in any winter, but right the way around the world at the same time, with costly disruptions to transport, power systems, and food production. ... Read more

Climategate: What Really Happened?
MotherJones | Kate Sheppard | 04/21/11 older

IT'S DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE how a guy who spends most of his time looking at endless columns of temperature records became a "fucking terrorist," "killer," or "one-world-government socialist." It's even harder when you meet Michael Mann, a balding 45-year-old climate scientist who speaks haltingly and has a habit of nervously clearing his throat. And when you realize that the reason for all the hostility is a 12-year-old chart, it seems more than a little surreal.

Back in 1999, Mann -- then a newly minted Ph.D. -- and a pair of colleagues constructed a chart that plotted historical climate data, spanning from 1000 to 1980. Because recorded temperatures only begin in the late 19th century, Mann and his team largely relied on so-called proxy records -- measurements of tree rings, coral, and ice cores whose variations illustrate temperature changes over the years. The graph showed that after nearly 900 years of relatively stable temperatures, there was a sharp uptick starting in the 20th century. You may have seen a version of the graph, known as the "hockey stick," in the film An Inconvenient Truth. ... Mann Geophysical Research Paper.pdf
Read more

*The "Largest Corporate Power Grab You've Never Heard Of", (TPP)
TRNS | author | 11/12/13 older

Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison describes the TPP as the "largest corporate power grab you've never heard of." Despite 19 rounds of negotiations that started all the way back in 2005, many of the details of the TPP still remain secret, even to members of Congress.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a massive trade agreement among 12 nations, including the US. And it's being negotiated by government trade officials and corporate lobbyists. Representative Alan Grayson said that the TPP is "a punch in the face to the middle class of America," and added, "but I'm not even allowed to tell you why." The deal would give multinational corporations the right to challenge our laws and regulations if firms believe those laws limit their "expected future profits." ... Read more

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): a guide to the most contentious issues
The Guardian | Gabrielle Chan | 12/09/13 older

... There have been many contentious issues around the TPP: critics are particularly concerned about the secrecy around the agreement given it has the capacity to change many local laws and regulations affecting Australian people.

Essentially, in order to receive access to other markets, Australia is in the process of trading off regulations that stop access by other countries and particularly multinational companies to the Australian market. ...

... So far, the majority of public criticism has centred on arguments relating to intellectual property and the cost of medicines, though many have concerns about environmental issues including climate change, investment, e-commerce and labour laws. ... Read more

We Are Living in Boom Times for Debt Collectors
Click picture to zoom in
NY FED Household Debt and Credit.pdf (02/2014)

One of these lines is not like the others. In general, delinquencies rose throughout the recession, and then began dropping as the economy began to improve around 2010-11. But not student loans. Delinquencies on student loans have been rising steadily for a decade, and when the economy began its recovery, they just went right on rising. Welcome to life as a college graduate.
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 28 [11:45]
*DN | Peeping Webcam? With NSA Help, British Spy Agency Intercepted Millions of Yahoo Chat Images (02/28/14) [16:25]
The latest top-secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) may have peered into the lives of millions of internet users who were not suspected of wrongdoing. The surveillance program codenamed "Optic Nerve" compiled still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and stored them in the GCHQ's databases with help from the NSA. In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency reportedly amassed webcam images from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts worldwide. According to the documents, between 3 and 11 percent of the Yahoo webcam images contained what the GCHQ called "undesirable nudity." The program was reportedly also used for experiments in "automated facial recognition" as well as to monitor terrorism suspects.
DN | George Takei on Life Inside a Japanese Internment Camp During WWII (02/28/14) [7:36]
Legendary actor, author and activist, George Takei, best known for playing Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek, appears on Democracy Now! for an extended interview. In this excerpt, he talks about his role as World War II veteran Sam Kimura in "Allegiance: A New American Musical." The musical tells the story of a Japanese-American family who is relocated from their farm after the attack on Pearl Harbor and placed in an internment camp in Wyoming. This parallels part of Takei's own family history. At the age of five, his family was shipped to a Japanese-American internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas.
TRNN News
TRNN | Nuclear expert David Lochbaum and award-winning journalist Susan Stranahan discuss the weaknesses in nuclear regulation and whether the United States has the proper safeguards to protect its citizens from a Fukushima disaster (02/28/14) [8:29]
Climate Change|Global Warming|Extreme Weather
Weather and Climate Summit - Day 3, Dr. Jennifer Francis (01/21/13) [1:51:37]
*Climategate: What Really Happened?
Original Climategate
Climategate "Hide the Decline" explained by Berkeley professor [4:58]
Hockey stick controversy (Wikipedia)
Recent Update
*Fact-Checking the Infamous Hockey-Stick Graph [4:32]
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Hockey stick graph (Wikipedia)
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday (02/28/14) [1hr]
International News - Friday (0228/14) [1hr]
TPP - Trans Pacific Partnership
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Federal Budget - Visualized
*Click picture to zoom in - National Budget
Tiny House
Click picture to zoom in

02.28.2014. 15:21

Thursday February 07, 2014
News Articles
Fracking
*Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson Sues To Keep 'Fracking' Away From His Backyard (02/25/14) [4:52], Part 2 [7:43]

*Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale
Weather.com | Jim Morris | current

The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is the site of one of the biggest energy booms in America, with oil and gas wells sprouting at an unprecedented rate. But local residents fear for their health - not from the water, but from the air they breathe. Our eight-month investigation reveals the dangers that come with releasing a toxic soup of chemicals into the air and just how little the government of Texas knows - or wants to know - about it.

When Lynn Buehring leaves her doctor's office in San Antonio she makes sure her inhaler is on the seat beside her, then steers her red GMC pickup truck southeast on U.S. 181, toward her home on the South Texas prairie.

About 40 miles down the road, between Poth and Falls City, drilling rigs, crude oil storage tanks and flares trailing black smoke appear amid the mesquite, live oak and pecan trees. Depending on the speed and direction of the wind, a yellow-brown haze might stretch across the horizon, filling the car with pungent odors. Sometimes Buehring's eyes burn, her chest tightens and pain stabs at her temples. On those days, she touches her inhaler for reassurance. ... Read more
*Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale (current) [14:56]

Click picture to zoom in
The Pentagon

How more than $8 billion in US taxpayers' money went to waste in Iraq
Christian Science Monitor | Tom A. Peter | 03/06/13 older

The report, entitled Learning From Iraq: A Final Report From the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, offered a detailed assessment how $60 billion in American taxpayer money was spent in Iraq during the war. Of that sum, about $25 billion went to training and equipping the Iraqi security forces, while the remainder went an array of development projects ranging from infrastructure construction to governance improvement programs.

The report offers several case studies demonstrating waste, including a project to reconstruct a bridge and oil and gas pipeline in northern Iraq. Geologists advised against drilling in the Tigris River to do the repair work because the soil was too sandy. Engineers ignored the report and spent tens of millions of dollars before the drilling plan was aborted.

The Iraqi reconstruction program was the second-largest nation building effort ever undertaken by the US, superseded only by Afghanistan, where appropriations for reconstruction spending are nearing $100 billion. ... Read more

Setting the Record Straight: Did Monsanto Really Buy Blackwater (Xe)?
activistpost.com | Anthony Gucciardi | 2012

There has been a great deal of publicity over the potential purchase of Blackwater (now known as Academi, and Xe before that) by mega corporation Monsanto.

While the two seem to be a great match, as they both fail to consider the morality and consequence of their actions, it seems that Monsanto is only involved with Blackwater in infiltrating activist groups who are opposed to the biotech giant -- an operation quite sinister enough.

The truth of the matter is that Academi (Blackwater) was purchased by private investors, and the heavily sourced article written by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation actually says nothing about Monsanto buying Blackwater. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 27 [12:55]
*DN | Big Oil and Bad Air: Report Exposes Link Between Fracking and Toxic Air Emissions in Texas (02/27/14) [6:55]
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: Although Credit Suisse helped ultra-wealthy Americans evade taxes, the bank will face no prosecution due to Swiss bank secrecy laws and a heedless U.S. Justice department (02/27/14) [5:50]
TYT News
TYT | Blatantly Selfish Reason a CEO is Suing to Stop Fracking (02/25/14) [2:59]
TYT | Rush Limbaugh says Homosexual Lobby Bullied Arizona Governor To Veto Bill (02/26/14) [1:53]
*TYT | Dick Cheney says Obama Should Cut Food Stamps, Not Defense (02/25/14) [4:35]
TYT | Most Gruesome Terrorist Group In The World? (02/25/14) [3:53]
Listen to More Sane Minds
Naomi Klein Interview at Occupy Wall St. (older) [4:43]
Naomi Klein on Global Neoliberalism (04/23/12) [14:27]
Shock Doctrine, Disaster Capitalism


Big Think Interview With Noam Chomsky (04/23/12) [23:06]





Pentagon
Dispatches | Iraq's Missing $20 Billions (trailer) [2:09]
*Dispatches | Iraq's Missing $20 Billions [47:52]
The coalition was given trusteeship of nearly 20 billion dollars of Iraq's money, nearly all of it was spent with no accountability and records. Fraud and corruption rampantly consumed much of these funds. Paul Bremer who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority made certain that as much of the money was spent as possible. Has some heartbreaking stories of actual Iraqi citizens and their children. Shows that the infrastructure, especially water and hospitals, which supposedly had billions spent on it though is still in shambles. Where did the money go!?
Greenwald | Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) (trailer) [2:06]
*Greenwald | Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) [1:15:40]
Robert Greenwald's documentaries are like sledgehammers of rage against everything he finds wrong with America, including Wal-Mart, Fox News and the Bush administration. He wants to rile us up, and he's not subtle. But then, neither are his targets. In "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," Mr. Greenwald compiles a horrifying catalog of greed, corruption and incompetence among private contractors in Iraq, focusing primarily on Halliburton, Blackwater Security Consulting and CACI International.
Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers website
TPP - Trans Pacific Partnership
Click picture to zoom
TRNN | Kevin Zeese: Leaked TPP Document Reveals No Regard for Environment in Trade Agreement (01/16/14) [12:31]
Interesting Stuff
Click picture to zoom Movie-Magic

02.27.2014. 11:51

Wednesday February 26, 2014
News Articles

How Govt. Hides the Poor: Formula for Measuring Poverty Dates to When a Loaf of Bread Cost 22 Cents
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 02/24/14

To determine who is officially poor in America, the federal government compares a family's annual cash income to a figure produced by an arcane formula that's based on the price of food in 1963, when a loaf of bread was 22 cents and a burger less than a quarter. Starting under President Lyndon Johnson, the government's official way of defining who is poor comes from calculating a minimum food budget for a family of four, tripling that figure to cover other living costs, and then indexing it annually for inflation.

The result is the federal poverty level. For 2014, that threshold was $23,850 for a family of four. Smaller families can subtract $4,060 per person. Individuals making $11,670 or less in 2014 were officially poor. Many government programs, from School Lunch to the Earned Income Tax Credit to Obamacare's subsidies, decide eligibility by comparing one's annual cash income to the official poverty level. ... Read more

*The Surrender of America's Liberals
Bill Moyers | Adolph Reed Jr. | 02/25/14

In a Web-exclusive interview, political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. talks with Bill Moyers about his new article in the March issue of Harper's Magazine -- a challenge to America's progressives provocatively titled, "Nothing Left: The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals."

In the piece, Reed writes that Democrats and liberals have become too fixated on election results rather than aiming for long term goals that address the issues of economic inequality, and that the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama too often acquiesced to the demands of Wall Street and the right.

As a result, Reed tells Moyers, the left is no longer a significant force in American politics. "If we understand the left to be anchored to our convictions that society can be made better than it actually is, and a commitment to combating economic inequality as a primary one, the left is just gone." ... Read more
Bill Moyers | The Surrender of America's Liberals (02/25/14) [18:50]

Stewart Mocks Conservative Chorus on Ukraine -- 'What Would Reagan Do?'
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 02/26/14

Jon Stewart made merciless fun of the recent outpouring of conservative pundits calling for President Obama to be more Ronald Reagan-like when it comes to dealing with the unrest in Ukraine. "What would Reagan do?" has been the common hue and cry on Fox news and other news outlets. Especially rich was having Reagan lackey Oliver North commenting that Reagan, unlike Obama, did not draw "red lines," he simply acted. Yes, Stewart pointed out, that's Oliver North, the one illegally sold arms to Iran, and illegally funded the Nicaraguan contras. That's the one we should be listening to all right.

Stewart then gave several examples of how well Reagan's action-oriented policies yielded such fantastic results. Funding the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan to fight the Russians. Of course, it was the the extreme elements of the Mujahadeen that became the Taliban, but, we didn't have to fight them for another "12 years," said Stewart, long after Reagan had left office. And, of course, Reagan selling arms to Saddam Hussein, whom we did not have to fight for another "two years . . . and then another 12 years after that." ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 26 [9:21]
*DN | Japan, U.S. Move to Expand Nuclear Power Programs Despite Contamination at Fukushima & New Mexico (02/26/14) [8:46]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Jeff Cohen: Public Broadcasters Relying More and More On Corporate Funding (02/26/14) [11:13]
TRNN | Robert Pollin: Incremental Raises to Minimum Wage Will Not Increase Unemployment (02/26/14) [8:53]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | The Surrender of America's Liberals (02/25/14) [18:50]
Charles Ferguson
No End in Sight (2008) (trailer) [2:42]
*No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent Into Chaos by Charles Ferguson (2008) [1:41:53]
Click to zoom review
Inside Job (2009) (trailer) [2:20]
*Inside Job by Charles Ferguson (2009) [1:48:39]
Click to zoom review
War on Terror
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & American Empire (preview/trailer) [6:29]
*Hijacking Catastrophe: Fear & the Selling of American Empire (2007 older) [1:10:38]
Hijacking Catastrophe website
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home.

The documentary places the Bush Administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force.
For additional financial documentaries go to the Sticky Page
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | WATCH: Stewart Mocks Conservative Chorus on Ukraine -- 'What Would Reagan Do?' (02/25/14) [4:45]

02.26.2014. 11:38

Tuesday February 25, 2014
News Articles

*Anatomy of the Deep State
Bill Moyers | Mike Lofgren | 02/21/14

There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.

Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an "establishment." All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State's protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude. ... Read more or read article at HuffintonPost
Bill Moyers | Mike Lofgren on the Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight (02/22/14) [26:48]

*Danielle Brian on Legalized Corruption
Bill Moyers | author | 02/21/14

Forget about the Machiavellian drama that plays out in the hit series The House of Cards, if you really want to be educated (or frightened) about what goes on in the nation's capital, just let everything you read in Mike Lofgren's essay sink in.

The ideological gridlock that grips Congress might make you angry. But as Lofgren points in his professorial manner, what should really get your blood pumping are the strings being pulled by the real decision makers: the executives on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and in the military-intelligence industrial complex surrounding the Beltway. ... Read more
Bill Moyers | Sheila Krumholz and Danielle Brian on How Money Rules Washington (02/21/14) [26:46]

*Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?
Click picture to zoom infographic
Nation Magazine | Lee Fang | 02/20/14

It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and I found myself hanging around the House-side entrance to the Capitol building, hoping to interview lawmakers during the protracted government shutdown in October. The members had been called by the Republican leadership to open just one slice of the government without authorizing funds for the Affordable Care Act, a partial solution that had rallied Democrats in opposition. As dusk settled in, I lingered to interview the representatives as they walked in and out of what everyone considered at this point to be a scene of political theater.

While I waited, a small crowd gathered, composed of men and women in business attire, creating something of a receiving line where they could exchange pleasantries with members of Congress as the latter made their way from their offices across Independence Avenue to cast a perfunctory vote. The city, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers sent home from the job, was far from dead. On Capitol Hill, the real financial engine of Washington, the selling of access and policy hummed along at full speed, and I was in the midst of it.

Many of the people assembled around me, I noticed, were former lawmakers and their associates. Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle was there, along with officials from his firm DLA Piper, to escort a group of international attorneys into a meeting with lawmakers. Men who said they were with Alston & Bird, another law firm heavily involved in lobbying, convened a few feet away. A cluster of businessmen with the credit-rating firm Experian prepped their own series of meetings with congressional staff.

Behind me, I heard the distinctive croak of Zach Wamp, a former congressman who was busy talking up his new job to current members of Congress. He boasted that he is now working for Palantir, the controversial intelligence contractor. "I'm kind of overseeing their operations up here," Wamp said when I asked what he does for Palantir. He ended the conversation abruptly .
Read more
DN | The Shadow Lobbying Complex: How Corporations Are Hiding Vast Influence, Peddling Efforts (02/25/14) [8:50]

Virginia Republican Says A Pregnant Woman Is Just A 'Host,' Though 'Some Refer To Them As Mothers'
HP | Laura Bassett | 02/24/14

A pregnant woman is just a "host" that should not have the right to end her pregnancy, Virginia State Sen. Steve Martin (R) wrote in a Facebook rant defending his anti-abortion views.

Martin, the former chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee, wrote a lengthy post about his opinions on women's bodies on his Facebook wall last week in response to a critical Valentine's Day card he received from reproductive rights advocates. ... Read more

Some Embarrassing Details From the Pentagon's Latest Stealth Fighter Report
The F-35 is a Bad Deal | author | 02/03/14

  1. Rolling out the F-35 originally was expected to cost $233 billion, but now it's expected to cost nearly $400 billion. I have heard development costs closer to 1 trillion. The time needed to develop the plane has gone from 10 years to 18.
  2. Lockheed says the final cost per plane will be about $75 million. However, according to the Government Accountability Office, the actual cost has jumped to $137 million.
  3. It was initially estimated that it could cost another $1 trillion or more to keep the new F-35s flying for 30 years. Pentagon officials called this "unaffordable" -- and now say it will cost only $857 million. "This is no longer the trillion-dollar [aircraft]," boasts a Lockheed Martin executive.
  4. Planes started rolling off the assembly line before development and testing were finished, which could result in $8 billion worth of retrofits.
  5. A 2013 report by the Pentagon inspector general identified 719 problems with the F-35 program. Some of the issues with the first batch of planes delivered to the Marines:
  6. The F-35 program has 1,400 suppliers in 46 states. Lockheed Martin gave money to 425 members of Congress in 2012 and has spent $159 million on lobbying since 2000.
Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 25 [11:07]
DN | Greenwald: Spy Agencies Manipulate Information, Attack Reputations of Targets Online (02/25/14) [1:19]
DN | Inside the Army Spy Ring & Attempted Entrapment of Peace Activists, Iraq Vets, Anarchists (02/25/14) [25:00]
*DN | The Shadow Lobbying Complex: How Corporations Are Hiding Vast Influence, Peddling Efforts (02/25/14) [8:50]
TRNN News
*TRNN | William Hartung: Pentagon Will Cut Services and Benefits To Soldiers While Protecting Profits of Defense Industry (02/25/14) [7:32]
TRNN | Dina Rasor: US Military Contractors Celebrate Record High Profits and Stock Prices (2013) [11:40]
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers | On How the Deep State is Sucking Money (preview version) (02/24/14) [2:51]
The following two videos are also listed in the left column, accompanying their respective articles.
*Bill Moyers | Mike Lofgren on the Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight (02/22/14) [26:48]
*Bill Moyers | Sheila Krumholz and Danielle Brian on How Money Rules Washington (02/21/14) [26:46]
Financial Crisis
Click picture to zoom in - FDIC
To see more charts, like the one above, look at the lower left column of the Sticky News Page.
Pentagon Follies
60 Minutes | Seven years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the most expensive weapons system in history. (02/16/14) [13:45]
*The Jet that Ate the Pentagon: The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in history, with a total cost of $1.5 trillion. (02/05/14) [8:18]
The Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E)
Dr. J. Michael Gilmore was sworn in as Director, Operational Test and Evaluation on September 23, 2009. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate, he serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense on operational and live fire test and evaluation of Department of Defense weapon systems.

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Gilmore was the Assistant Director for National Security at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In this position, he was responsible for CBO's National Security Division, which performs analyses of major policy and program issues in national defense, international affairs, and veterans' affairs. Specific areas of investigation included the long-term implications of current defense policies and programs, the implications of transformation for equipping and operating U.S. military forces, the effectiveness and costs of alternative approaches to modernizing U.S. military forces, and the resource demands associated with operating and supporting U.S. military forces.
DOT&E FY2013 Annual Report: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).pdf
Click picture to zoom in
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Retail Health Clinics (02/25/14) [1hr]
Jon Stewart - Daily Show
Jon Stewart | Jason Jones files his final report from Sochi-ish, and learns the most important Russian lesson of all (02/24/14) [6:06]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

02.25.2014. 11:44

Monday February 24, 2014
News Articles

*5 Hypocritical Justifications the 1% Use to Justify the America's Staggering Inequality
AlterNet | Paul Buchheit | 02/23/14

  1. Poor People Just Need to Get a Job. But there are No Jobs. This may be the greatest hypocrisy of them all, because it directly impacts so many Americans.
  2. Government is the Problem. Unless the Rich Need a Subsidy.
  3. "The Free Market System Distributes the Fruits of Economic Progress Among All People" Milton Friedman said that in 1990. More recently John Boehner remarked, "President Kennedy in 1960 said, 'a rising tide lifts all boats,' and I think that is in fact correct."
  4. Entitlements Must Be Cut. Except for the Entitlements Owned by the Rich. Paul Ryan makes the Republican case for cutting Social Security and Medicare: "The 2011 Budget Control Act largely ignored entitlement spending. But that is the nation's biggest challenge...There's a better way to cut spending...structural reforms to entitlement programs."
  5. The Super-Rich are the Most Productive Americans - They Earn Everything They Make It's confounding to hear the claim that America's highest earners deserve all they get when billion-dollar incomes are made by betting on mortgages to fail, or by betting on global food prices to rise.

John Paulson conspired with Goldman Sachs to create packages of risky subprime mortgages and then short-sell (bet against) the sure-to-fail financial instruments. The ploy paid him $3.7 billion.

Goldman Sachs' commodities index, notes Chris Hedges, "is the most heavily traded in the world. Goldman Sachs hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve." Numerous sources agree that speculation drives up commodity prices. Wheat, for example, rose in price from $105 to $481 in just eight years. ... Read more

Economics Has a Surprising Mental Disorder
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 02/18/14

The typical mainstream economist is about as good at making predictions as a monkey reading tea leaves. Exhibit A: The financial crisis, which only a few economists outside the mainstream saw coming.

Researcher Vinca Bigo decided to investigate, and found a surprising explanation: the profession of economics is suffering from a collective mental disorder, causing practitioners to project their pathologies onto the rest of us. Which is very costly for you and me. ... Read more

Transcripts show FED grappling with 2008 crisis
AP & MSN | Martin Crutsinger | 02/22/14

The Federal Reserve agonized in 2008 over how far to go to stop a financial crisis that threatened to cause a recession and at times struggled to recognize its speed and magnitude.

"We're crossing certain lines. We're doing things we haven't done before," Chairman Ben Bernanke said as Fed officials met in an emergency session March 10 and launched never-before-taken steps to lend to teetering Wall Street firms, among a series of unorthodox moves that year to calm investors and aid the economy. ... Read more

*Water leak in Fukushima may be due to workers' mistake
NHKWorld | author | 02/22/14

... About 100 tons of contaminated water spilled from a tank at the No. 4 reactor from Wednesday to Thursday. The escaped water flowed to the ground around the tank.

Tokyo Electric Power Company found the water contained 240 million becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substance, including strontium. That's the highest level ever detected in tainted water which leaked at the plant. ... Read more
Water leak may be due to workers' mistake (02/22/14) [1:06]

Truth Loader | 300,000 litres of radioactive water leaking into the Pacific - Fukushima (08/08/13 older) [5:10]

Longest-serving Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) to retire
Washington Post | Sean Sullivan | 02/24/14

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) will retire at the end of his current term, capping a historic career as the longest-serving member of Congress in history.

Dingell, 87, has served in the House for nearly 60 years. He became the longest-serving member of Congress last summer. He said his health was good enough for him to make another run, but he decried the hostile tone that has come to define business on Capitol Hill these days. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 24 [13:31]
DN | Coup or Revolution? Ukraine Seeks Arrest of Ousted President Following Deadly Street Protests (02/24/14) [13:44], Part 2 [16:40]
*DN | "The Paragraph Began to Self-Delete": Did NSA Hack Computer of Snowden Biographer & Edit Book Draft? (02/24/14) [10:31]



TRNN News
*Climate Change | GeoEngineering
ClimateState | Extreme Weather (July 2013) [18:28]
This video was pretty interesting explaining Climate Change.
BBC | Global Dimming Documentary About Geoengineering & Global Warming (12/31/11) [49:04]
The Gulf Stream and the Next Ice Age - Future Focus Episode 2013 [51:29]
The Gulf Stream and the Next Ice Age is a one-hour documentary which explores the results of a recent American government report that believes the collapse of thermohaline circulation will take place around the year 2010 and impose a minor ice age on Europe. Could Dublin acquire a climate like Spitzberg, and London like that of Siberia?

The Gulf Stream is a powerful surface current, driven by the Trade Winds. Its origins lie in the Gulf of Mexico and it carries the tropical waters from the Florida Strait to the great banks of the United States, where it heads eastward, carrying its warm waters to the borders of the North Atlantic. As soon as the tropical waters hit the Arctic Ocean, they cool abruptly and plunge towards the abyssal zone to form a loop, known as "thermohaline circulation." Then, like an immense conveyor belt that slows down in the ocean depths, it sets out again southward to rejoin the beginning of the Gulf Stream.
Why in the World are They Spraying (2013) [55:08]
PBS Journey to Planet Earth | narrator Matt Damon | Lester Brown: Saving Civilization Plan B 3.0 (2011) [1:24:10]
Wind Map
Financial Crisis | National Debt
Click picture to zoom in - National Debt
$1 Trillion & US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Toxic Chemical Spills In West Virginia And North Carolina (02/24/14) [1hr]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Learn more about Malala Yousafzai, who speaks out agains the Talaban () [6:13]
Malalafund.org website
Jon Stewart | Jason Jones Live From Sochi-ish - Better Off Red (02/19/14) [05:17]
Jon Stewart | Subway removes a controversial chemical from its bread, Kraft introduces a "natural mold inhibitor," and Hot Pockets warns of recalled beef (02/20/14) [05:34]
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.
Financial Crisis
*PBS Frontline | To Catch a Trader, SAC Trading (01/07/14) [53:41]
PBS FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith goes inside the government's ongoing, seven-year crackdown on insider trading, drawing on exclusively obtained video of hedge fund titan Steven A. Cohen, incriminating FBI wiretaps of other traders, and interviews with both Wall Street and Justice Department insiders.
Climate Change | GeoEngineering
BBC | Global Dimming Documentary About Geoengineering & Global Warming (12/31/11) [49:04]
Home (05/12/09) [1:33:17]
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
PBS | Strange Days on Planet Earth (2005) [53:33], Part 2 [54:13], Part 3 [53:33], Part 4 [54:11]
PBS NOVA | Extreme Ice (12/28/11) [52:51]
Above the Earth, documentary on climate change [1:29:29]
Fukushima
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster Video What Happened at Fukushima (03/11/13) [49:22]
On Fukushima Beach 2: The Lights of Fukushima () [1:13:19]
Hanford, WA
Five Decades of Plutonium Production at Hanford () [24:47]
The Hanford Story: Overview [16:43]
Hanford - Lethal and Leaking Part 1 (12/09/07) [7:00], Part 2 [7:00]
Terrorism - Boston Bombing
PBS NOVA | Manhunt--Boston Bombers (05/29/13) [53:07]
Other
PBS NOVA | Ancient Computer (04/03/13) [52:54]
PBS NOVA | Megastorm Aftermath (10/09/13) [52:52]
In October 2012, Megastorm Sandy cut a path of devastation across the Caribbean and the East Coast, killing hundreds and doing tens of billions of dollars in damage. To many, it was a wake-up call. Now, one year after Sandy's deadly strike, NOVA follows up on the 2012 film "Inside the Megastorm" with a fresh investigation of the critical questions raised by this historic storm.

02.24.2014. 12:37

Friday February 21, 2014
News Articles

Obama Admin's TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks
Bill Moyers | author | 02/20/14

Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show.

Stefan Selig, a Bank of America investment banker nominated to become the undersecretary for international trade at the Department of Commerce, received more than $9 million in bonus pay as he was nominated to join the administration in November. The bonus pay came in addition to the $5.1 million in incentive pay awarded to Selig last year. ... Read more

New Highly Radioactive Leak At Fukushima Plant
Reuters & HP | Mari Saito | 02/20/14

TOKYO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant said on Thursday that 100 tonnes of highly contaminated water had leaked out of a tank, the worst incident since last August, when a series of radioactive water leaks sparked international alarm.

Tokyo Electric Power Co told reporters the latest leak was unlikely to have reached the ocean. But news of the leak at the site, devastated by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, further undercut public trust in a utility rocked by a string of mishaps and disclosure issues. ... Read more

*Is the Arctic Really Drunk, Or Does It Just Act Like This Sometimes?
Jennifer Francis - Understanding the Jetstream MotherJones | Chris Mooney | 02/21/14

The biggest debate in climate science right now may be over whether global warming will create more winters like this one. If you care about the weather, you had better care about the outcome.

Just when weather weary Americans thought they'd found a reprieve, the latest forecasts suggest that the polar vortex will, again, descend into the heart of the country next week, bringing with it staggering cold. If so, it will be just the latest weather extreme in a winter that has seen so many of them. California has been extremely dry, while the flood-soaked UK has been extremely wet. Alaska has been extremely hot (as has Sochi), while the snow-pummeled US East Coast has been extremely cold. They're all different, and yet on a deeper level, perhaps, they're all the same.

This weather now serves as the backdrop -- and perhaps, as the inspiration -- for an increasingly epic debate within the field of climate research. You see, one climate researcher, Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, has advanced an influential theory suggesting that winters like this one may be growing more likely to occur. The hypothesis is that by rapidly melting the Arctic, global warming is slowing down the fast-moving river of air far above us known as the jet stream -- in turn causing weather patterns to get stuck in place for longer, and leading to more extremes of the sort that we've all been experiencing. "There is a lot of pretty tantalizing evidence that our hypothesis seems to be bearing some fruit." ... Read more
The Polar Vortex Explained in 2 Minutes [2:12]



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 21 [11:30]
*DN | Turning a Wedding Into a Funeral: U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen Killed as Many as 12 Civilians (02/21/14) [17:29]
*DN | Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted By Herbicide Firm Syngenta (02/21/14) [17:58]
TRNN News
TRNN | Jeff Faux and John Ackerman: The Connection Between the Drug War In Mexico and Neoliberal Policies (02/21/14) [10:21]
TRNN | Michael Ratner: Documents show the US engaged in major attacks against journalists, publishers, and whistleblowers (02/21/14) [11:23]
Whistle Blowers
Matt Taibbi Slams David Gregory: 'I Don't Know How He Can Call Himself A Journalist' (02/21/14) [1:04]
Thom Hartmann - Changing weather - TPP
*Thom Hartmann | The Polar Vortex is Coming Back!! (02/20/14) [7:28]
Thom Hartmann & Ring of Fire | Start Treating Workers Like Humans, Not Commodities (02/20/14) [10:54]
Mike Papantonio talks with Thom Hartmann and Stewart Acuff about the importance of American labor unions, and how trade pacts like the (TPP) Trans Pacific Partnership will do further damage to organized labor.
Thom Hartmann | Obama's Fast Track Push (of TPP) (02/20/14) [9:11]
Thom Hartmann talks with Lori Wallach, Executive Director-Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Website: www.citizen.org/trade, who says its time to push Congress to halt fast tracking of the (TPP) Trans Pacific Partnership.
*Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday (02/21/14) [1hr]
International News - Friday (02/21/14) [1hr]
Feel Good News
A Boy and His Dog [9:28]
This is a video that went viral on YouTube. Most of the comments are heartwarming.
Last year we made this film as part of our documentary filmmaking course at the University of Hertfordshire. We managed to find this special family and document an incredible few months of their lives. We made this film to not only tell the families story, but to raise awareness of Schwartz Jampel Syndrome and to show how incredible rescue dogs are. A little bit of love can go a hell of a long way.

TPP

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.

02.21.2014. 12:49

Thursday February 20, 2014
News Articles

No Protester Is Safe From Snipers Or AK-47s In Ukraine
HP | Ryan Craggs | 02/20/14

With the death toll already at 50 and rising in two days of violence, clashes in Kiev, Ukraine, show no signs of slowing down, despite President Viktor Yanukovych's announcement of a truce on Wednesday evening. Though the protests have persisted for nearly three months, the bloodiest days of unrest have come this week after both Russia and the European Union maneuvered to further influence the former Soviet state.

A multitude of videos circulating the Internet show the outrageous levels of violence in the Ukrainian capital. In one video from Radio Svoboda, Radio Free Europe's Russian service, a riot policeman with an unmistakable AK-47 assault rifle fires off the screen. ... Read more
Shooting people in Kiev (02/20/14) [2:42]

*EXPOSED: WALL ST. OVERLORDS UNHINGED
or
One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society
NYMag.com | Kevin Roose | 02/18/14

Recently, our nation's financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they're sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that "the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons."

Ross's statement seemed particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons -- the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi. ... You just have to read the article and watch the videos below!! ... Read more
Chris Hayes All-In
Backrooms of Old: Inside Wall-Street's Secret '1% Society' (02/20/14) [3:52], Part 2 [4:11], Part 3 [6:30]

*World Experienced 4th Warmest January On Record, But Not U.S.
AP & HP | Seth Borenstein | 02/20/14

The globe cozied up to the fourth warmest January on record this year, essentially leaving just the eastern half of the United States out in the cold. And the northern and eastern United States can expect another blast of cold weather next week.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday that Earth was 1.17 degrees warmer in January than the 20th century average. Since records began in 1880, only 2002, 2003 and 2007 started off warmer than this year. ... Read more

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) website
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 20 [11:53]
DN | A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup (02/20/14) [23:49]
DN | Venezuelan Protests: Another Attempt By U.S.-Backed Right-Wing Groups To Oust Elected Government? (02/20/14) [10:01]
DN | Excessive Force? Migrant Shot Dead By U.S. Border Agent Near San Diego After Throwing Rock (02/20/14) [6:48]
TRNN News
TRNN | Economist Yilmaz Akyuz: Why Is The 2008 Crisis Taking So Long To Resolve? (02/20/14) [8:31]
TRNN | 'Tres Amigos' Mexico Summit Advancing Neoliberal Reforms: John Ackerman and Jeff Faux: discuss how the meeting between the heads of Canada, Mexico and the United States will advance policies that increase inequality and fuel drug-related violence in Mexic (02/20/14) [5:49]
Bill Moyers
Preview: The Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight (02/20/14) [0:30]
This week, Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, joins Bill to talk about what he calls Washington's "deep state," in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. Lofgren is the author of The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.
Noam Chomsky
*TheNation | Noam Chomsky: How Climate Change Became a 'Liberal Hoax' (01/24/11) [21:49]
In this sixth video in the series "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, linguist, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky talks about the Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute and other business lobbies enthusiastically carrying out campaigns "to try and convince the population that global warming is a liberal hoax." According to Chomsky, this massive public relations campaign has succeeded in leading a good portion of the population into doubting the human causes of global warming.
Climate Change
NASA | Geoengineering and Climate Intervention: What We Need to Know (02/05/14) [1:27:27]
NRC: Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change (2013) (01/02/14) [1:04:24]
National Research Council: Both abrupt changes in the physical climate system and steady changes in climate that can trigger abrupt changes in other physical, biological, and human systems present possible threats to nature and society. Abrupt change is already underway in some systems, and large scientific uncertainties about the likelihood of other abrupt changes highlight the need for further research. However, with recent advances in understanding of the climate system, some potential abrupt changes once thought to be imminent threats are now considered unlikely to occur this century. This report summarizes the current state of knowledge on potential abrupt changes to the ocean, atmosphere, ecosystems, and high latitude areas, and identifies key research and monitoring needs. The report calls for action to develop an abrupt change early warning system to help anticipate future abrupt changes and reduce their impacts.
*Dane Wigington: Weather Update With (02/19/14) [5:24]
IPCC | Climate Change 2013 Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis (11/21/13) [9:19]
"IPCC | Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis" presents clear and robust conclusions in a global assessment of climate change science -- not the least of which is that the science now shows with 95 percent certainty that human activity is the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. The report con?rms that warming in the climate system is unequivocal, with many of the observed changes unprecedented over decades to millennia: warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, diminishing snow and ice, rising sea levels and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Safety Of Prescription Drugs Made Outside The U.S. (02/20/14) [1hr]
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.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change website
Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis.pdf(s)
Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (GeoEngineering??)
Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - North America - INTEX-A 2004
Welcome to the NASA Earth Science Mission - INTEX-NA website
Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - North America
INTEX-NA: Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - North America
Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - INTEX-B 2006
The Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment -- Phase B (INTEX-B)
Corbett Report
The IPCC Exposed (09/27/13) [45:41]
And
The Great Global Warming Swindle (03/08/2007) [1:15:56]
Global Warming or Global Governance? (2010) [1:22:04]
If you were to ask ten people on the street if mankind was causing global warming, at least eight out of ten would say yes. After all, Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth allegedly provides incontrovertible evidence that this is the case. Both presidential candidates are committed to passing economically devastating legislation that will do little to nothing to stop global warming. Contrary to what is heard in the media, however, there is overwhelming evidence that the warming we are experiencing is natural, with maybe a small amount contributed by man's activities. Nor is there any scientific consensus. 31,000 scientists have signed a petition stating there is "no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide is causing...catastrophic" warming. The debate is still raging within the scientific community. In this DVD, Sovereignty International has put together interviews of respected climate scientists and biologists from numerous sources who explain, step by step, why Al Gore and the global warming alarmists are incorrect. In some cases, blatantly so.

The DVD also provides evidence that the global warming agenda is being funded with tens of billions of dollars as a mechanism to create global governance.Hear from congressmen, experts and even well-known news broadcasters how global governance puts global institutions, especially the United Nations (UN), that are not accountable to the American people in control of every aspect of our economy. The skyrocketing gas and food prices today are a direct result of this agenda.
Global Warming Conspiracy Theory Jesse Ventura (2010) [42:10]

02.20.2014. 12:40

Wednesday February 19, 2014
News Articles
Weather
Click picture to zoom in
Weather Channel, Feb 20-21 [2:21]
S0 | News: Climate, Magnetic Storm (02/19/14) [4:18]
NASA | Solar Active Region Sports Huge Coronal Loops (02/19/14) [0:25]
Click to zoom chart - Globe/w winds at Jet Stream level
Pretty Cool Globe Showing the Winds at Jet Stream Level
Fracking

*Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale
Weather.com | Jim Morris | current

The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is the site of one of the biggest energy booms in America, with oil and gas wells sprouting at an unprecedented rate. But local residents fear for their health - not from the water, but from the air they breathe. Our eight-month investigation reveals the dangers that come with releasing a toxic soup of chemicals into the air and just how little the government of Texas knows - or wants to know - about it.

When Lynn Buehring leaves her doctor's office in San Antonio she makes sure her inhaler is on the seat beside her, then steers her red GMC pickup truck southeast on U.S. 181, toward her home on the South Texas prairie.

About 40 miles down the road, between Poth and Falls City, drilling rigs, crude oil storage tanks and flares trailing black smoke appear amid the mesquite, live oak and pecan trees. Depending on the speed and direction of the wind, a yellow-brown haze might stretch across the horizon, filling the car with pungent odors. Sometimes Buehring's eyes burn, her chest tightens and pain stabs at her temples. On those days, she touches her inhaler for reassurance. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in
Click picture to zoom in
*Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale (current) [14:56]

Some Interesting Pentagon Facts
Some Interesting Facts
  1. The Pentagon employs 3 million people, 800,000 more than Walmart.
  2. The Pentagon's 2012 budget was 47 percent bigger than Walmart's.
  3. Serving 9.6 million people, the Pentagon and Veterans Administration together constitute the nation's largest healthcare provider.
  4. 70 percent of the value of the federal government's $1.8 trillion in property, land, and equipment belongs to the Pentagon.
  5. Los Angeles could fit into the land managed by the Pentagon 93 times. The Army uses more than twice as much building space as all the offices in New York City.
  6. The Pentagon holds more than 80 percent of the federal government's inventories, including $6.8 billion of excess, obsolete, or unserviceable stuff.
  7. The Pentagon operates more than more than 170 golf courses worldwide.
Biggest Defense Boondoggle in History
  1. Rolling out the F-35 originally was expected to cost $233 billion, but now it's expected to cost nearly $400 billion. I have heard development costs closer to 1 trillion. The time needed to develop the plane has gone from 10 years to 18.
  2. Lockheed says the final cost per plane will be about $75 million. However, according to the Government Accountability Office, the actual cost has jumped to $137 million.
  3. It was initially estimated that it could cost another $1 trillion or more to keep the new F-35s flying for 30 years. Pentagon officials called this "unaffordable" -- and now say it will cost only $857 million. "This is no longer the trillion-dollar [aircraft]," boasts a Lockheed Martin executive.
  4. Planes started rolling off the assembly line before development and testing were finished, which could result in $8 billion worth of retrofits.
  5. A 2013 report by the Pentagon inspector general identified 719 problems with the F-35 program. Some of the issues with the first batch of planes delivered to the Marines:
  6. The F-35 program has 1,400 suppliers in 46 states. Lockheed Martin gave money to 425 members of Congress in 2012 and has spent $159 million on lobbying since 2000.
Click picture to zoom in
Click picture to zoom in
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 19 [12:29]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Bill Black: As private equity and investment firms purchase vacant properties, it's leading to the restoration of homes and a decline in vacancy, but also causing a decline in tax revenue (02/19/14) [5:46]
TRNN | Nicolai Petro: Violence persists between opposition and security forces, as opponents use culture to divide strongly nationalistic Ukrainian groups and factions identifying with Russia (02/19/14) [6:34]
TRNN | Medea Benjamin: When it comes to integrating foreign policy issues in broad united fronts, Part 4 (02/19/14) [18:37]
California Dought
Calif. farmers leave acres unplanted as state cuts off water (02/17/14) [2:45]
Click picture to zoom in
NOAA | Amount of old ice in Arctic, 1987-2013 (12/13/13) [0:59]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | David Simon on Our Rigged Political System (02/14/14) [10:31]
David Simon, journalist and creator of the TV series The Wire and Treme, returns to talk with Bill Moyers about the triumph of capital over democracy.

"If I could concentrate and focus on one thing … and start to walk the nightmare back, it would be campaign finance reform" Simon says.

Simon warns that if we don't fix our broken election system -- by getting big money out of elections and ending gerrymandering -- we will have reached "the end game for democracy."
60 Minutes
60 Minutes | Seven years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the most expensive weapons system in history. (02/16/14) [13:45]
60 Minutes | 100,000 Homes: Housing the homeless can save money? (02/09/14) [13:35]
Pentagon Follies
Want to save money, get the National Budget under control, send your kids to college? Then ask the Pentagon to cough up the 8.5 Trillion dollars they lost!!!!
*Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For
*The Jet that Ate the Pentagon: The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in history, with a total cost of $1.5 trillion. (02/05/14) [8:18]
How did the F-35 wind up so far over budget? (02/14/14) [2:16]
The F-35 is what the Air Force, Navy and Marines are counting on to replace all their current fighter jets. But the F-35 is seven years behind schedule and $1 trillion dollars in development.
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm New Violence In Ukraine (02/19/14) [1hr]
Not So Cute
Jerry Miculek: Desert Eagle 50 cal - 5 Shots in 0.8 Seconds in High Speed! (12/31/13) [4:51]
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.

02.19.2014. 13:50

Tuesday February 18, 2014
News Articles

Rescuing a Vietnam Casualty: Johnson's Legacy
NYTimes | Adam Nagourney | 02/15/14

... But now, 50 years later -- with a coming rush of anniversaries of the legislative milestones of the Johnson presidency -- Ms. Johnson and the diminishing circle of family and friends from those White House years have commenced one last campaign. They are seeking a reconsideration of Johnson's legacy as president, arguing that it has been overwhelmed by the tragedy of the Vietnam War, and has failed to take into account the blizzard of domestic legislation enacted in the five years Johnson was in the White House. ... Read more
Legacy of L.B.J. (02/15/14) [6:49](Please scroll down about an inch)

4 bankers die in one week in apparent suicides
intellihub.com/ | author | 02/04/14 older

This week 50-year-old Mike Dueker, the chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.

The string of deaths began on January 26 when a 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, William Broeksmit, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London. The very next day Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, 51, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok. Then on January 28, 39-year-old Gabriel Magee, a JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London. ... Read more

EXPOSED: WALL ST. OVERLORDS UNHINGED
or
One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society
HP & nymag.com | Kevin Roose | 02/18/14

Recently, our nation's financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they're sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that "the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons."

Ross's statement seemed particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons -- the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi. ... You just have to read the article!! ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 18 [10:04]
DN | Spying on Lawyers: Snowden Documents Show NSA Ally Targeted U.S. Law Firm [11:36], Part 2 [9:53], *Part 3 [6:11], *Part 4 [9:40]
TRNN News
TRNN | Obama Sucked the Steam Out of the Anti-War Movement, Part 3 (02/18/14) [23:36]
TRNN | Jordan Davis Verdict Highlights Need for "Race-Conscious Solution" To U.S. Racism (02/18/14) [14:32]
Climate Change
Federal Aid Heading To Drought Stricken California (02/18/14) [2:31]
BBC News California drought Obama announces $180m aid package (02/17/14) [1:54]
California Drought NASA research (02/17/14) [3:31]
California is experiencing a historic drought--by some measures the deepest in more than 100 years. NASA researchers are investigating a number of explanations for what the underlying cause may be. Learn more
Meet the Press | Bill Nye Scolds Marsha Blackburn GOP Congresswoman on Global Warming (02/18/14) [11:39]
Assorted Issues
Cute
Rabbit Island in Japan [0:36]
Not So Cute
Barrett 50 cal, 6 shots under 1 second [0:49]
Boy, Lee Harvey Oswald should have had one these, Barrett 50 cal. Perfect for lite, all purpose, home defense. You can do 6 shoots in just under 1 second. And even the little lady can give this gem a try. And you wouldn't even have to cut up the deer... it would already be in pieces.
Reagan To Lead GOP [2:13]
Jon Stewart | Stephen Cobert
How The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Affect Politics and Policy (04/23/13) [34:42]
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.

02.18.2014. 13:22

Monday February 17, 2014
News Articles

Winter Blast Dumps More Than A Foot Of Snow On Parts Of New England
AP/HP | author | date

BOSTON (AP) -- The latest blast of snow to hit New England dumped more than a foot in part of Massachusetts and packed heavy winds that left thousands without power Sunday on Cape Cod.

... Wind gusts of more than 50 mph were reported Saturday night on Cape Cod, where utility NStar said about 1,750 customers were without power on Sunday evening. Crews from Connecticut crossed into Massachusetts to help fix the power outages after more than 13,000 customers started the morning without power. ... Read more

Glenn Greenwald Among Four To Win Polk Award For Snowden Stories
AP & HP | author | 02/17/14

Four journalists who reported on the extent of the National Security Agency's secret surveillance based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden are among the winners of the 65th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism.

Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post will receive the award for national security reporting for stories based on secret documents leaked by Snowden, a former intelligence analyst. The awards were announced Sunday by Long Island University. ... Read more

Ex-Morgan Stanley Chief Jams Foot in Mouth, Complains of CEO Abuse
Rollin gStone | Matt Taibbi | 02/13/14

... Mack went on to say that the debate over compensation was healthy, just not always warranted. "As long as shareholders reward performance," he said, "we can argue." But, he added, "The last time I checked, this business is still a business that pays people extremely well."

It's already funny that of all the injustices in the world, this was the one Mack decided to worry about on TV: the criticism of poor Jamie Dimon's 74 percent raise. But more to the point: If we really did live in a world where shareholders rewarded performance, would a CEO who just oversaw a record $20 billion in regulatory penalties even have a job, much less be getting a raise? .... Read more
Bloomberg | John Mack Says Wall Street Pay Debate Is `Healthy' (02/11/14) [13:02]

Fracking is draining water from US areas suffering major shortages - report
RT | author | 02/07/14

Some of the most drought-ravaged areas of the US are also heavily targeted for oil and gas development using hydraulic fracturing - a practice that exacerbates water shortages - according to a new report.

Three-quarters of the nearly 40,000 oil and gas wells drilled in the US since 2011 were located in areas of the country facing water scarcity, according to research by the Ceres investor network. Over half of those new wells were in areas experiencing drought conditions. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in those wells required the use of 97 billion gallons of water, Ceres found. ... Read more

Brazil rations water in 140 cities amid worst drought in decades
RT | author | 02/16/14

Over 140 Brazilian cities have been pushed to ration water during the worst drought on record, according to a survey conducted by the country's leading newspaper. Some neighborhoods only receive water once every three days.

Water is being rationed to nearly 6 million people living in a total of 142 cities across 11 states in Brazil, the world's leading exporter of soybeans, coffee, orange juice, sugar and beef. Water supply companies told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the country's reservoirs, rivers and streams are the driest they have been in 20 years. A record heat wave could raise energy prices and damage crops. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 17 [14:18]
DN | The Killing of Jordan Davis: Michael Dunn Faces 60 Years After Split Verdict in 'Thug Music' Trial (02/17/14) [15:46]
DN | Untold History: More Than A Quarter of U.S. Presidents Were Involved in Slavery, Human Trafficking (02/17/14) [17:36]
DN | Former FCC Commissioner Warns About Comcast-Time Warner Merger, "Mindless" Media Consolidation (02/17/14) [8:28]
TRNN News
TRNN | Medea Benjamin: I Was Born a Rebel - Code Pink Co-Founder (02/17/14) [20:13]
TRNN | Medea Benjamin: Talks about her love/hate relationship with Cuba (02/17/14) [22:13]
TRNN | Michael Ratner: Eliminating Targets Based on NSA spying but not verified by human intelligence demonstrates Obama's false promise of oversight (02/16/14) [9:59]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm What A Proposed Cable Megamerger Might Mean For Consumers (02/17/14) [1hr]
Heartwarming News
Ellen Page Announces She's Gay In A Very Public & Powerful Way (02/17/14) [8:37]
This Penguin Chasing Her Zookeeper Is Hilarious And Adorable (02/13/14) [0:37]
Jon Stewart News
Jon Stewart | Jason Jones questions Russian citizens about gay rights and finds their opinions compare favorably with American views (02/12/14) [6:38]
*Jon Stewart | Jason Jones remembers the good old days of drunken nuclear hooliganism between the United States and Soviet Union. (02/10/14) [6:28]

02.17.2014. 16:46

Friday February 14, 2014
News Articles
When you see how much money is spent on the military and domestic security, some estimates claim 1.2 trillion, it can really make you shake your head. But, now look at some of the stuff the military spends that money on, see pdf files below, and you will really get pissed.

BFP Exclusive EyeOpening Report: Exposing Every Pentagon Contract in 2013
BFP | Christian Sorensen | 01/30/14

DOD's declared budget was approximately $673 billion for 2013. The discrepancy between our figures and DOD's arises when one considers wages, BAH, entitlements, allowances and retiree pay for the U.S. Armed Forces are not factored into daily contract announcements, and contracts under $6.5 million are not disclosed publicly.

The Department of Defense (DOD) spent $331,456,507,052 on roughly 3,288 publicly-disclosed contracts during 2013 ... Read more

BFP | Corporatocracy: How the Corporate Welfare State Divides and Conquers (02/11/14) [14:05]
*Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For

No, GMOs Won't Harm Your Health
MotherJones | Indre Viskontas | 02/14/14

With historic drought battering California's produce and climate change expected to jeopardize the global food supply, there are few questions more important than what our agriculture system should look like in the future. And few agricultural issues are more politically charged than the debate over genetically modified organisms. Even as companies like Monsanto are genetically engineering plants to use less water and resist crop-destroying pests, activists are challenging the safety and sustainability of GM foods.

For this week's episode of Inquiring Minds, I spoke with Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University. Novella is a prominent voice in the skeptical movement, a scientific movement that, as he describes it, focuses heavily on explaining the truth behind "common myths--things that people believe that aren't true." So I asked him to help sort out fact from fiction when it comes to industrial agriculture in general--and GMOs in particular. Read more

*The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 02/12/14

Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy -- a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century.

But the crazy thing is, nobody at the time quite knew it. Most observers on the Hill thought the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 -- also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act -- was just the latest and boldest in a long line of deregulatory handouts to Wall Street that had begun in the Reagan years. ... Read more

Up to 100 cars pile up on icy Pennsylvania highway
RT | author | 02/14/14

Several huge multi-car pile-ups totaling 100 vehicles have shut down part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Friday morning, as icy driving conditions made for a treacherous commute.

There's no word on exactly what caused the pile-ups, but local news station Fox 29 said the first accident took place around 7:40 a.m. and involved a tractor trailer. That accident triggered a chain reaction of collisions, which state police believe was caused by the icy road and people driving too fast. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 14 [10:08]
DN | Debate: Was Snowden Justified? Former NSA Lawyer Stewart Baker vs. Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (02/14/14) [12:41], Part 2 [17:45], Part 3 [11:28]
DN | Meteorologist Jeff Masters: Climate Change Affecting Weather Patterns Regardless of Season (02/13/14) [5:10]
DN | Weather Whiplash: As Polar Vortex Brings Deep Freeze, Is Extreme Weather Linked to Climate Change? (02/07/14 older) [9:56]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Janet Yellen's: Tapering of Quantitative Easing Disruptive at Home and Abroad (02/14/14) [8:02]
TRNN | Professor of Iranian Studies Hamid Dabashi: A Look At The Nations Behind The Syrian Crisis (02/14/14) [6:41]
TRNN | Dennis vanEngelsdorp: Gardeners should not use neonicotinoid insecticides harmful to bees just to make their lawns look better (02/14/14) [8:50]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday (02/14/14) [1hr]
International News - Friday (02/14/14) [1hr]
BFP News
BFP | Divide and Conquer: Politics and the Left/Right Fraud, Illusion of Choice (01/28/14) [10:31]
BFP | On The Spot the Whistleblowers: Follow the (Lack of) Money (11/29/13) [5:23]

Fukushima nuclear disaster (multiple articles)
RT | author | 01/13/14

TEPCO on Wednesday revealed that it detected 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive Strontium-90 in a groundwater sample taken some 25 meters from the ocean as early as last September, Reuters reports. The legal limit for releasing strontium into the ocean is just 30 becquerels per liter. ... Read more

Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Diplomat Buyers Club - Is there a rule ambassadors can't have set foot in the countries they are going to ambassador? (02/12/14) [4:49]
More News
Find someone who will celebrate you, not regulate you. Thanks to our new service, "ALEC," (02/12/14) [2:09]
"Coal Train Blues" Coal Exports Through Columbia River Gorge and Pacific Northwest [3:04]
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.

02.14.2014. 10:31

Thursday February 13, 2014
News Articles

Comcast, Time Warner Cable Deal Is A Disaster For Customers
HP | Mark Gongloff | 02/13/14

The $45 billion merger announced Thursday might be a win for both companies, but it will be no victory for their combined 30 million customers, who are already among the least-happy customers in all of Corporate America.

Little wonder, then, that the two companies were near the top of Consumerist's Worst Company In America contest last year, based on unscientific online polling. Comcast, which took home the title of Worst Company in 2010, reached the Final Four in 2013, after beating Time Warner Cable in the Elite Eight. ... Read more
Click pic to zoom and see entire article

Winter Storm Hits Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
HP & AP | Ron Todt | 02/13/14

The latest storm to roll off nature's assembly line during this bustling winter spread heavy snow and sleet along the Northeast corridor Thursday, while utility crews in the ice-encrusted South labored to restore power to hundreds of thousands of shivering residents.

"Snow has become a four-letter word in Delaware County and all along the East Coast this winter," said Tom McGarrigle, chairman of the Delaware County Council, in suburban Philadelphia.   Baltimore awoke to 15 inches of snow. Washington, D.C., had at least 11, and federal offices and the city's two main airports were closed. ... Read more

*"The Vampire Squid Strikes Again"- Matt Taibbi Takes On Blythe Masters And The Banker Commodity Cartel
ZeroHedge | author | 02/13/14

The story of how JPMorgan, Goldman and the rest of the Too Big To Fails and Prosecutes, cornered, monopolized and became a full-blown cartel - with the Fed's explicit blessing - in the physical commodity market is nothing new to regular readers: to those new to this story, we suggest reading of our story from June 2011 (over two and a half years ago), "Goldman, JP Morgan Have Now Become A Commodity Cartel As They Slowly Recreate De Beers' Diamond Monopoly." That, or Matt Taibbi's latest article written in his usual florid and accessible style, in which he explains how the "Vampire Squid strikes again" courtesy of the "loophole that destroyed the world" to wit: "it would take half a generation -- till now, basically -- to understand the most explosive part of the bill, which additionally legalized new forms of monopoly, allowing banks to merge with heavy industry. A tiny provision in the bill also permitted commercial banks to delve into any activity that is "complementary to a financial activity and does not pose a substantial risk to the safety or soundness of depository institutions or the financial system generally." Complementary to a financial activity. What the hell did that mean?... Fifteen years later, in fact, it now looks like Wall Street and its lawyers took the term to be a synonym for ruthless campaigns of world domination." ... Read more

*The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 02/12/14

Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy -- a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century.

But the crazy thing is, nobody at the time quite knew it. Most observers on the Hill thought the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 -- also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act -- was just the latest and boldest in a long line of deregulatory handouts to Wall Street that had begun in the Reagan years. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 13 [13:25]
*DN | Bill McKibben on Fight Against Keystone XL, Fossil Fuel Divestment and Obama's Failures on Climate (02/13/14) [15:58]
DN | N.C. Governor No Longer Works for Duke Energy, But After Coal Spill, Is He Doing Their Bidding? (02/13/14) [10:20]
TRNN News
TRNN | University of California AFT president Robert Samuels: How To Make Higher Education Free Without New Taxes Or More Government Spending (02/13/14) [8:31]
Wealth/Income Inequality
*Laura Flanders | Barbara Garson: How the nature of work has changed to benefit those at the top (02/13/14) [16:49]
Bill Moyers | Barbara Garson: Surviving the New American Economy (older) [56:46]
For more info on Wealth Inequality go to the Sticky News Menu
GeoEngineering
Epic Drought (02/02/14) [2:48]
Relentless rain wreaks havoc on southern England. (02/03/14) [1:41]
*Geoengineering Whistleblower - Ex-Military Kristen Meghan, Hauppauge, NY, (01/18/14) [21:36]
Kristen Meghan, Ex-Military, former Air Force Sr. Industrial Hygienist/Environmental Specialist. Her job was Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) was 4BOX1, Bio-environmental Engineer.
For more info on GeoEngineering go to the Sticky News Menu
Whistleblowers
*Kill the Messenger - Sibel Edmonds Documentary (09/27/13) [58:02]
InfoWars | BOMBSHELL: CIA Ran The Boston Bombers Reveals FBI Whistleblower (04/30/13) [46:40]
Following revelations of the Boston Bombers ties to the CIA FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds details the Tsarnaev brother's links to CIA backed terrorist operations in Chechnya
Sibel Edmonds Blows the Whistle on Government Blackmailing (06/25/13) [1:02:53]
In this remarkable conversation, Sibel Edmonds reflects on Russ Tice's recent revelations to Boiling Frogs Post and The Corbett Report that the NSA has wiretapped top government officials for years. Edmonds discusses from her own experience how the FBI collects dirt on Congressman and public officials for use as political leverage.

02.13.2014. 12:20

Wednesday February 12, 2014
News Articles

'Biblical flooding' spreads across UK in worst rainfall in over 200 years (PHOTOS)
RT | author | 02/11/14

England's largest river, the Thames, has burst its banks, devastating homes in the southeast in the worst floods in 50 years. PM David Cameron has called the flooding "biblical," as economists predict the crisis will cost close on $1 billion.

Strong gales and huge waves battered the UK this weekend, causing rivers to swell and floodwaters to rise across the country. Fourteen "severe" flood warnings were issued in the counties of Berkshire and Surrey, while two remain in the worst hit county of Somerset. The severe classification means there is potential danger to human life. ... Read more

CBS | Western U.S. drought puts big strain on reservoirs (01/30/14) [2:56]
CBS | California Drought 2014: Drought From Hell Plagues California (02/04/14) [2:05]

*SOUTH BRACES FOR 'CATASTROPHIC' STORM - Atlanta Area Braces For Dangerous Ice Storm
HP/AP | Christina A. Cassidy | 02/12/14

Emergency management workers hunkered down in Atlanta waiting to spring into action as rain -- along with temperatures -- fell overnight, potentially leading to "catastrophic" ice conditions forecasters said could hit the region.

Already, Georgia Power was reporting more than 2,000 power outages early Wednesday throughout the state. Forecasters and officials said that number would probably grow throughout the day. In north Georgia, morning snow was falling. Other areas of the South, from Louisiana to South Carolina, and the Mid-Atlantic also were expected to get socked with a wintry mix of ice, snow and freezing rain. ... Read more
GeoengineeringWatch Weather Update February 2 2014 [5:42]

Kyodo: 'Massive' amount of Fukushima data wrong? "Figures can't be trusted" -- NHK: Strontium-90 by ocean at 160,000 times limit -- Tepco: Actual levels "exceeded the upper limit of measurement… We are very sorry"
ENENews | author | 02/07/14

Feb. 7, 2014: TEPCO to review "massive" radiation data due to improper measurement -- [TEPCO] said Friday that it will review a "massive" amount of radiation data it has collected at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant because readings may be lower than actual figures due to improper measurement. "We are very sorry, but we found cases in which beta radiation readings turned out to be wrong when the radioactivity concentration of a sample was high," TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono told a press conference. ... Read more

Could GeoEngineering/ChemTrails Be Real!!

The Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, research on the health effects of radioactive materials, and tests on vulnerable populations without consent in St. Louis, 1945--1970
ksdk.com | Lisa Martino-Taylor | 09/27/12 older

Sociologist Lisa Martino-Taylor has spent years trying to uncover details of the Army's ultra-secret military experiments. She obtained documents from multiple federal agencies showing that St. Louis was among several cities where the aerosol testing took place.

Sen. Blunt wrote, "The idea that thousands of Missourians were unwillingly exposed to harmful materials in order to determine their health effects is absolutely shocking. It should come as no surprise that these individuals and their families are demanding answers of government officials." ... Read more here or here
Chemtrails Are NOT a Conspiracy Theory (06/03/13) [4:20]

Health effects of radioactive materials, and tests on people in St. Louis.pdf

How the U.S. Exports Global Warming
RollingStone | Tim Dickinson |02/03/14

While Obama talks of putting America on the path to a clean, green future, we're flooding world markets with cheap, high carbon fuels

The greening of American energy is both real and profound. Since President Obama took office, the nation's solar capacity has increased more than tenfold. Wind power has more than doubled, to 60,000 megawatts -- enough to power nearly 20 million homes. Thanks to aggressive new fuel-efficiency standards, the nation's drivers are burning nearly 5 billion fewer gallons of gasoline a year than in 2008. The boom in cheap natural gas, meanwhile, has disrupted the coal industry. Coal-power generation, though still the nation's top source of electricity, is off nearly 20 percent since 2008. More than 150 coal plants have already been shuttered, and the EPA is expected to issue regulations in June that will limit emissions from existing coal facilities. These rules should accelerate the shift to natural gas, which -- fracking's risks to groundwater aside -- generates half the greenhouse pollution of coal. But ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 12 [12:06]
*DN | Karim Khan, Anti-Drone Activist Who Lost Family Members to U.S. Strike, Goes Missing in Pakistan (02/12/14) [16:57], Part 2 [5:23]
*"Wounds of Waziristan" by filmmaker Madiha Tahir () [59:09]
DN | U.S. Plunges in Global Press Freedom Rankings As Obama Wages "War on Whistleblowers" (02/12/14) [8:15]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Bill McKibben to Obama: Say No to Big Oil (02/07/14) [26:46]
After the State Department issued a long-awaited environmental impact statement on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline last week, environmentalists and those opposed to the 1,179-mile pipeline have intensified their push for the Obama administration to reject the project.

This week, Bill Moyers talks with Bill McKibben, an activist who has dedicated his life to saving the planet from environmental collapse, about his hopes that Americans will collectively pressure Obama to stand up to big oil.

"Most people understand that we're in a serious fix," McKibben tells Moyers, "There's nothing you can do as individuals that will really slow down this juggernaut … You can say the same thing about the challenges faced by people in the civil rights or the abolition movement, or the gay rights movement or the women's movement. In each case, a movement arose; if we can build a movement, then we have a chance."
TRNN News
TRNN | Journalist, filmmaker, activist Danny Schechter "The News Dissector", tells Paul Jay what brought him to South Africa, the fight against apartheid and meeting and chronicling Mandela (02/11/14) [18:19], Part 2 [19:13]
More Videos
Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? (2013) [7:52]
John discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along the way reveals some surprising information, including that Americans spend more of their tax dollars on public health care than people in Canada, the UK, or Australia. Who's at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game?
RT News
RT | The Day We Fight Back': Netizens rally against NSA in memory of Aaron Swartz (02/11/14) [2:54]
Fukushima
*NHK | Radioactive Water Fukushima Daiichi's Hidden Crises (02/05/14) [48:49]
NHK World News Documentary Fukushima Daiichi Crisis
In-depth look at the struggles of the brave men trying to stop the huge amounts of highly radioactive water flowing into the pacific ocean. They think the melted core is still in unit-1. As one of the engineers says we don't know how we can stop the flow of contaminated water.

We have sent a man to the moon. We have send robots to other planets. We have replace human body parts routinely. But now, we are playing with toy boats to investigate the worst man-made disaster in our history (I'm not counting Climate Change). We are fucked! And what happens if there is another 6.7 earthquake?
The Horrible Truth About Fukushima -- Helen Caldicott, MD (02/09/14) [37:45]
More News Articles

$205 TRILLION: The Real Fiscal Gap -- Laurence Kotlikoff
SGTReport | author | 01/26/14

Laurence Kotlikoff Author and Professor of Economics at Boston University joins us to discuss the REAL DEBT of the U.S. government which is now $205 TRILLION when unfunded liabilities are actually counted.

Kotlikoff warns, "We have a country that is entirely broke, fiscally broke - it's probably in worse shape than any developed country. We are in terrible shape, even worse than Detroit because the people doing the accounting are engaged in fallacious accounting..." To my great surprise, Kotlikoff also believes that fixing "climate change" ought to be a top priority and somehow believes that a global carbon tax is the answer. ... $205 TRILLION: The Real Fiscal Gap -- Laurence Kotlikoff (02/26/14) [28:15]

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.

02.12.2014. 15:45

Tuesday February 11, 2014
News Articles

California's Drought Could Be the Worst in 500 Years
MotherJones | Alex Park | 02/10/14

The Golden State is in the midst of a three-year drought--and scientists believe that this year may end up being the driest in the last half millennium, according to University of California-Berkeley professor B. Lynn Ingram. Californians are scared, with good reason: Fire danger in the state is high, and drinking-water supplies are low.

But the drought will have repercussions outside the state's borders, as well. California produces a good chunk of the nation's food: half of all our fruits and vegetables, along with a significant amount of dairy and wine. ... Read more

"It is no longer possible to determine the difference between employees of the NSA and employees of companies such as Booz Allen."

How Booz Allen Made the Revolving Door Redundant
ipsnews.net | Pratap Chatterjee | 06/17/13 older

Edward Snowden, a low-level employee of Booz Allen Hamilton who blew the whistle on the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), unexpectedly exposed a powerful and seamless segment of the military-industrial complex -- the world of contractors that consumes some 70 percent of this country's 52-billion-dollar intelligence budget.

... Edward Snowden, a low-level employee of Booz Allen Hamilton who blew the whistle on the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), unexpectedly exposed a powerful and seamless segment of the military-industrial complex -- the world of contractors that consumes some 70 percent of this country's 52-billion-dollar intelligence budget. ... Read more

*The Intercept Images
Click to zoom chart
The Intercept | Trevor Paglen | 02/10/14

Over the past eight months, classified documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have exposed scores of secret government surveillance programs. Yet there is little visual material among the blizzard of code names, PowerPoint slides, court rulings and spreadsheets that have emerged from the National Security Agency's files.

The scarcity of images is not surprising. A surveillance apparatus doesn't really "look" like anything. A satellite built by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) reveals nothing of its function except to the best-trained eyes. The NSA's pervasive domestic effort to collect telephone metadata also lacks easy visual representation; in the Snowden archive, it appears as a four-page classified order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. ... Read more
New Photos of the NSA and Other Top Intelligence Agencies Revealed for First Time (02/10/14) [3:12]

How Agribusiness Tried to Destroy a Critical Scientist
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 02/11/14/span>

The biologist Tyrone Hayes had studied the endocrinology systems of frogs for many years, so it made perfect sense when the agribusiness giant Syngenta asked him to study the effects of the herbicide atrazine on amphibians. The company makes atrazine, which is used on half the corn in the U.S.

Hayes' research came back with a disturbing finding: that atrazine impeded the sexual development of frogs. Specifically, Hayes found that atrazine caused tadpoles to develop both ovaries and testes. So Syngenta decided to destroy Hayes.

A lot was, and is, at stake for Syngenta. They're trying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from banning their herbicide, which is "one of the most common contaminants of drinking water; an estimated thirty million Americans are exposed to trace amounts of the chemical. It's been banned in Europe, and the EPA is reviewing the herbicide this year.... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 11 [11:13]
DN | The Day We Fight Back: Activism Sweeps the Internet With Global Action Against Mass Surveillance (02/11/14) [6:44]
*DN | The Sixth Extinction: Elizabeth Kolbert on How Humans Are Causing Largest Die-Off Since Dinosaur Age (02/11/14) [20:25]
TRNN News
*TRNN | NSA Whistleblower Kirk Wiebe says that the NSA has lived a mostly unconstitutional existence, and that any oversight will require an independent group to have direct access to collected data (02/11/14) [8:22]
TRNN | Journalist, filmmaker, activist Danny Schechter "The News Dissector", tells Paul Jay what brought him to South Africa, the fight against apartheid and meeting and chronicling Mandela (02/11/14) [18:19]
California Drought
Stunning Before and After Photos of California's Mega Drought! (01/27/14) [2:44]
Lake Nacimiento January 2014 [3:14]
"Inequality for All"
When 'They' Say Cutting Taxes On The Rich Means Job Creation, They're Lying. Just Ask This Rich Guy. (clip from "Inequality for All,") [4:40]
To see more on Robert Reich and "Inequality for All" see the Sticky News Menu
Suspicious0bservers.org
Suspicious0bservers | Storms, Sun, Climate (02/11/14) [4:07]
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | Jason Jones remembers the good old days of drunken nuclear hooliganism between the United States and Soviet Union. (02/10/14) [6:28]
For more history on Russia, go to Oliver Stones' mini-series The Untold History of the United States on the Sticky News Menu
Jon Stewart | University of Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam threatens his own NFL draft prospects by coming out as gay. (02/10/14) [4:24]
Japan and Fukushima
C2CAM | 2014:"Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Threatens USA & North America Fukushima Style USA Nuclear Crisis" (01/11/14) [1:45:31]
Rescue American Health Care"
Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare (2012) (trailer) [4:00]
ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: what can be done to save our broken healthcare system? The film examines the powerful forces trying to maintain the status quo in a medical industry designed for quick fixes rather than prevention, for profit-driven care rather than patient-driven care. After decades of resistance, a movement to bring innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing into our high-tech, costly system is finally gaining ground.
DN | Whistleblower Dr. Steven Nissen on "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care" (01/23/12 older, but good) [21:47]
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.
Japan
BBC | No Sex Please, We're Japanese (10/25/13) [58:35]
Never Ending War
Never Ending War in Afghanistan (12/16/13) [58:55]
Discovery Times | The Fight for Baghdad (2004) [1:29:30]
"Discovery Times" was launched in April 2002 as a joint-venture between the New York Times and Discovery Communications. In April 2006 the NYT sold its stake in DT, ending its ownership in the channel. DT became "Investigation Discovery", abbreviated and stylized as ID, on January 27, 2008.

02.11.2014. 14:06

Monday February 10, 2014
News Articles

*Glenn Greenwald's New Website, The Intercept, Is Now Live
HP | Jack Mirkinson | 02/10/14

The first digital venture co-led by Glenn Greenwald is now live.

The Intercept, an online magazine edited by Greenwald and fellow journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill and backed by billionaire Pierre Omidyar, made its much-anticipated debut early Monday morning. Its first article was written by Greenwald and Scahill, and looked at the NSA's role in the U.S. drone strike program.

The piece was, of course, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. The magazine is just one of the multiple sites being created by First Look Media, the Omidyar-funded organization providing the cash for Greenwald and his colleagues.   In a blog post on the site, Greenwald, Scahill and Poitras said that The Intercept was "the first of what will be numerous digital magazines published by FLM." ... Read more

*The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program
firstlook.org/theintercept | Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald | 02/10/14

The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes -- an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

According to a former drone operator for the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target's identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using. ... Read more

Fukushima radiation levels underestimated by five times - TEPCO
RT | author | 02/10/14

TEPCO has revised the readings on the radioactivity levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant well to 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter – both a record, and nearly five times higher than the original reading of 900,000 becquerels per liter.

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission with a half-life of 28.8 years. The legal standard for strontium emissions is 30 becquerels per liter. Exposure to strontium-90 can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia. ... Read more

The Folly of Arming Israel
AlterNet | Chase Madar | 02/09/14

We Americans have funny notions about foreign aid. Recent polls show that, on average, we believe 28% of the federal budget is eaten up by it, and that, in a time of austerity, this gigantic bite of the budget should be cut back to 10%. In actual fact, barely 1% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid of any kind.

In this case, however, truth is at least as strange as fiction. Consider that the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid over the past three decades isn’t some impoverished land filled with starving kids, but a wealthy nation with a per-head gross domestic product on par with the European Union average, and higher than that of Italy, Spain, or South Korea. It is Israel. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 10 [13:18]
*DN | Death By Metadata: Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Reveal NSA Role in Assassinations Overseas (02/10/14) [12:05], Part 2 [16:22]
*DN | Defying Threats to Journalism, Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Launch New Venture, The Intercept (02/10/14) [9:46]
Legalize Democracy
*Legalize Democracy (02/08/14) [29:38]
Corporate Personhood: How Did We Get Here? (02/08/14) [3:31]
*Ring of Fire Papantonio | Dumbing Down America For Political Gain (02/07/14) [10:20]
Robert Reich - Inequality
Robert Reich | The War on the Poor and Working Families (02/06/14) [2:25]
MoveOn.org | How the Middle Class Got Screwed (2011) [8:13]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Jane D'Arista: Tapering of Quantitative Easing Is Throwing Emerging Markets into Chaos - And Big Banks Are Getting Richer (02/09/14) [9:19]
TRNN | The Economics of the 1%: Neoliberal Lies About Government (Part 1/3) (02/10/14) [6:57]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm A Conversation With Dr. Francis Collins, Director Of The NIH (02/10/14) [1hr]
Judy Foreman: "A Nation In Pain: Healing Our Biggest Health Problem" (02/10/14) [1hr]
Netflix - House of Cards
Netflix | House of Cards - Season 2 (trailer) [2:21]
Fun and Heart Warming Videos
Massive Pileup On Wisconsin Highway 41/45 During Snow Storm [5:18]
This Dog's Human Passed Away... Very Heartwarming [1:13]
A friend sent this link to me. It is interesting what imaginative people can come up with inspiration.
Because who is perfect? (12/02/13) [4:28]
Stephen Colbert Report
Stephen Cobert | Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman addresses the claim that Obamacare will destroy jobs and argues that the program will benefit everyone (01/06/14) [6:08]
GeoEngineering - Climate Change | Global Warming | ChemTrails
GeoEngineeringWatch.org
*The Most Important Topic of Our Time - GeoEngineering & chemtrails (06/20/13) [46:02]
Weekly GeoEngineering Watch Weather Update (01/19/14) [5:25]
Weekly GeoEngineering Watch Weather Update (01/26/14) [6:51]
Look Up - SkyderALERT.com (trailer) [9:58]
*LOOK UP - New, Chemtrails, Geo-Engineering, & Weather MOD. Must Watch! [29:56]
Wind, Temp & Precipitation Animations
Click to zoom chart - wind at Jet Stream - Globe


Click to zoom chart - wind at Jet Stream level
Click to zoom chart - temp near ground level
US Wind Map
Drought Monitor
Click to zoom chart - Drought Monitor - West
drought-monitor-us
drought-monitor-west
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.

02.10.2014. 09:13

Friday February 07, 2014
News Articles

*No Wonder the World Is Terrified of America -- We're the Biggest Threat
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 02/05/14

As the year 2013 drew to an end, the BBC reported on the results of the WIN/Gallup International poll on the question: "Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?"

The United States was the champion by a substantial margin, winning three times the votes of second-place Pakistan.   By contrast, the debate in American scholarly and media circles is about whether Iran can be contained, and whether the huge NSA surveillance system is needed to protect U.S. security. ... Read more

Now Even AIPAC Says It's Not The Right Time To Advance Iran Sanctions Bill
HP | Ashley Alman | 02/06/14

American Israel Public Affairs Committee changed course on Thursday, coming out against an immediate Senate vote on new Iran sanctions, according to a statement obtained by The Hill.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of the predominantly Republican-backed sanctions bill, took to the Senate floor Thursday to encourage his colleagues not to let partisan politics drive a vote on the matter. AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, expressed support for Menendez in a statement several hours later: ... Read more

A Whistle-Blower From the Banking Industry
NYT or TRNN | Bill Black | 02/26/14

Erika Brown is not well known, which helps explain why we have seen our most elite banks' leaders produce the greatest financial crime spree in history without a single conviction of the Wall Street elites who drove the crisis. Erika Brown is a whistle-blower. She revealed Bank of America's orders that its employees lie to homeowners to encourage foreclosures rather than loan modifications that could help the borrowers keep their homes.

The sick irony is that this occurred in the context of the Home Affordable Modification Program, which was designed to help save homes and gave the banks a financial incentive to do so. Brown and her colleagues revealed that their orders were to squeeze as much cash as possible out of financially troubled homeowners and then default.

If President Obama invited Erika Brown to be his guest at the State of the Union, he would signal an end to the administration's hostility toward whistle-blowers. The president should use his address to praise her courage and to encourage others to follow her lead -- and he should create a new website and phone bank so that whistle-blowers can come forward with evidence of fraud. He should announce that he has directed the attorney general to make prosecutions of elite frauds a much higher priority, and that he will submit an emergency supplemental budget bill to fully fund the financial regulatory agencies and hire 1,000 new white-collar-crime specialists at the F.B.I.

*California Dries Up as Brown Pushes $15 Billion Tunnel
Bloomberg | Michael B. Marois | 02/03/14

California's worsening drought is raising the stakes for a $15 billion plan endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown to build two 30-mile (48-kilometer) water tunnels under an ecologically sensitive river delta east of San Francisco Bay.

The tunnels, each as wide as a two-lane interstate highway, would ship water more reliably from northern California to thirsty farms and cities in the south. They would also bolster the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which is on the verge of collapse from feeding water to 25 million people and 750,000 acres (304,000 hectares) of farmland. ... Read more
ABC | California Governor Warns Residents of Serious Drought (01/31/14) [2:05]

Click to zoom chart
U.S Drought Monitor Website
U.S Drought Portal
GlobalChange.gov
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
A Deepening Drought in the West (slideshow) (02/02/14)
Tom Coburn Call for Constitutional Convention
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 7 [11:13]
DN | Execution Chaos: Witnesses Say Executions Are Botched As States Use Untested, Secret Drug Cocktails (02/07/14) [20:48]
DN | Trial Begins in Case of Man Who Murdered Florida Teen Jordan Davis Over Loud Music (02/07/14) [16:06]
*DN | Affluenza Defense Lands Wealthy Teen in Rehab After He Kills 4 People in Drunk Driving Accident (02/07/14) [8:41]
A wealthy teen who killed four people in a Texas drunk driving accident will not go to jail after a judge ruled this week that instead, he must attend an expensive rehabilitation facility paid for by his parents. The driver was 16-year-old Ethan Couch. He was speeding, with a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit. Couch has admitted to his crime, and in a case that went before a Texas judge, prosecutors sought a 20-year sentence. Instead, Couch was sentenced to 10 years probation after a psychologist claimed he had "affluenza," and testified that his cushy upbringing prevented him from connecting bad behavior with its consequences. We get response from Richard Alpert, the Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted the case against Couch. We are also joined by Boyce Watkins, a Syracuse University professor and the founder of "YourBlackWorld.net." He recently wrote an article titled, "Rich, White Kids Have 'Affluenza,' Poor, Black Kids Go to Prison."
TRNN News
TRNN | How Farm Bill's $8.7 Billion Food Stamp Cuts Hurt Working America (02/07/14) [8:35]
More Videos
Pink goop in Chicken McNuggets? McDonald's Canada answers (02/01/14) [2:44]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday (02/07/14) [1hr]
International News - Friday (02/07/14) [1hr]
Map of Poverty in America
Click to zoom chart
Click to zoom chart
NYT | Interactive Map of Poverty in America
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | 'Daily Show's' Jason Jones Turns Into The Music Man To Sell Koch Bros. To Small Town (02/06/14) [6:14]
Jon Stewart | Bill de Blasio reflects on replacing Mayor Bloomberg and faces his pizza-eating technique's harshest critic (02/03/14) [3:24], Part 2 [5:50]
Jon Stewart | The CBO Report, or Terror on Bulls#%t Mountain (02/06/14) [2:33], Part 2 [2:01], Part 3 [3:54]
MEMES
Click to zoom picture
Click to zoom picture
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.

02.07.2014. 12:33

Thursday February 06, 2014
News Articles

CBO Director: Actually, Obamacare Will Reduce Unemployment
HP | author | 02/05/14

One day after multiple media outlets misinterpreted a CBO report on Obamacare, Elmendorf clarified the CBO's position during the hearing. The federal agency, Elmendorf said, had found Obamacare 'spurs employment and would reduce unemployment over the next few years."

'When you boost demand for labor in this kind of economy, you actually reduce the unemployment rate, because those people who are looking for work can find more work," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked Elmendorf. ... Read more
CBO Director: ACA will *reduce* unemployment (02/05/14) [2:22]

NBC News' Richard Engel: My Computers, Cellphone Were Hacked 'Almost Immediately' In Sochi
HP | Catherine Taibi | 02/05/14

NBC News' Richard Engel said that upon arriving in Russia to cover the upcoming event, he was hacked "almost immediately" -- and privacy is not something visitors should expect to have.

Engel decided to test Russia's privacy system with the help of American computer security expert Kyle Wilhoit, who set him up with two brand new computers and a phony identity, with fake names and addresses. When Engel connected them to the Internet in Sochi, he said he quickly received a suspicious email and was shocked when his computer was hijacked immediately after opening the email. ... Read more

NBC | All Visitors to Sochi Olympics Immediately Hacked (02/05/14) [3:46]
Vice | Why the Sochi Olympics are the Most Expensive in History (02/05/14) [17:11]

*There's No End In Sight For California's Extreme Water Drought
Forbes | Henry I. Miller | 02/05/14

Water is in increasingly short supply in many parts of the United States. Here in California, where most of the state is experiencing 'extreme' drought, 2013 was the driest year on record, and we have had no relief during what should be the height of the rainy season. Moreover, there's no end in sight: The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service forecasts that the drought will 'persist or intensify' at least through April. ... Read more

Click pic to zoom and see entire article

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 6 [11:52]
*DN | Job Killer? How Media Spin Got Obamacare Wrong -- and Why Single-Payer Could Cure Its Actual Flaws (02/06/14) [19:54]
*DN | Empire of Necessity: Historian Greg Grandin on Slavery, Freedom and Deception in the New World (02/06/14) [18:01]
Other News
Winter Storm Causes Thousands in NJ to Lose Power (02/05/14) [2:38]
TRNN News
*TRNN | 'Climate Hubs' A Good Step But Obama's Policies Still Leading to Climate Disaster (02/06/14) [9:51]
TRNN | Chairperson Kirsten Sandberg: UN Report Blasts Catholic Church for Systemic Child Abuse Coverups (02/06/14) [5:26]
*Climate Change
Greenland
State of the Planet's Oceans Melting Greenland Ice Sheets Contribute to Global Sea Level Rise [5:40]
2013 National Emmy Award Nominee: Melting Point Greenland [41:55]
Iceland
Iceland: Ultimate Journeys (travel log) [43:33]
Antartica
HC | Earth Under Water - Worldwide Flooding | Sea Level Rise [45:07]
Antartica - this is a beautiful video
Under the Antarctic Ice - Beauty of The Nature [52:29]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm
Security And Human Rights At The Sochi Winter Olympics (02/06/14) [1hr]
Piers Morgan Show
Janet Mock: I was born a baby, not a boy (02/05/14) [4:16]
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.
HBO Films | Truman (1995) [2:10:53]
Tom Clancy - OP Center [1:53:35]
The Objective (2009) [1:26:23]
Forces in the front lines of the war on terror find themselves battling a foe more deadly than a bomb in this thriller. Ben Keynes is a CIA operative based in the Middle East who is keeping his eyes peeled for a potential crisis a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Keynes is checking some readings from a spy satellite when he discovers what appears to be a massive cache of radioactive material in the mountains of Afghanistan. Worried that Al Qaeda guerrillas are constructing a nuclear weapon, Keynes arranges to join a reconnaissance mission headed to Afghanistan, using the cover story that he's trying to ferret out an international terrorist leader. Keynes and the soldiers head into the mountains with a local, Abdul, serving as both translator and guide. Abdul warns Keynes and the soldiers that their intended destination is considered sacred ground by Afghans, and that they're risking their lives by trespassing. Keynes pays him little mind, but he and the soldiers soon discover that Abdul's warnings were well founded, and that a supernatural force lurks in the mountains more dangerous than any band of terrorists.

02.06.2014. 13:25

Wednesday February 05, 2014
News Articles

Geoengineered Snow Storms Wreaking Havoc around the Globe
magazine | author | date

There is a mountain of data including already conducted experiments, satellite imagery, lab tests of snow, observations on the ground, and multiple existing patents, all of which point solidly to the conclusion that snow storms are being engineered with well established weather modification processes. Two known patents for the process of "artificial ice nucliation for weather modification" are posted at the bottom of this article. The Chinese government has openly admitted they are creating "artificial snow storms" but later backtracked after causing a billion dollars of damage to Beijing. If the Chinese government can routinely create snow storms out of what should have been a rain event, how much more advanced must our government be at this same process? ... Read more

For the Love of Money
NYTimes | Sam Polk | 01/18/14

In my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million -- and I was angry because it wasn't big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.

Eight years earlier, I'd walked onto the trading floor at Credit Suisse First Boston to begin my summer internship. I already knew I wanted to be rich, but when I started out I had a different idea about what wealth meant. I'd come to Wall Street after reading in the book "Liar's Poker" how Michael Lewis earned a $225,000 bonus after just two years of work on a trading floor. That seemed like a fortune. Every January and February, I think about that time, because these are the months when bonuses are decided and distributed, when fortunes are made. ... Read more

31 Haunting Images of Abandoned Places That Will Give You Goose Bumps

Drought in the West Is Bringing Hard Times to Minority Farmers
AlterNet| Ngoc Nguyen | 02/04/14

California is experiencing record dry conditions, with this year projected to be the driest on record. The state usually relies on three months of rain from December to February to replenish its water supply. But, with three consecutive years of below average winter rainfall, supplies are alarmingly low. The snowpack -- which serves as water storage for the drier summer months -- is 20 percent of normal; reservoirs are very low for this time of year, and groundwater levels statewide have dropped significantly.

The severity of the drought prompted Governor Jerry Brown to declare a drought emergency on Jan. 17, a move largely aimed at boosting morale in this huge agricultural state. The declaration triggered limited federal assistance to state growers and livestock producers. Small farmers, who represent the majority (85 percent) of farming operations in the state, could get relief through an emergency loan program, but low enrollment in other federal loan programs suggest robust outreach efforts are needed, especially among minority farmers. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 05 [7:19]
DN | "An Olympic Snowden": U.S. Athlete on Being Turned Into a "Verizon Spokesperson" at 2006 Games (02/05/14) [4:05], Part 2 [13:58], Part 2 [13:13]
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: European Officials Pushing Austerity in Spain to Boost Corporate Profits By Repressing Unions and Wages (02/05/14) [3:39]
Wealth Inequality - Present GREED over Future Development
*TYT | Former Wolf Of Wall Street Comes Clean In Op-Ed (02/03/14) [8:25]
InfoWars | SuperClasses Running The World by David Rothkopf (06/02/13) [13:19]
UChicagoCIS | David Rothkopf - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making (09/23/13) [1:14:43]
The Wolf of Wall Street (full) [2:59:49]
More News
Hedge Fund Titan Spends $10M to Kill Keystone XL (02/05/14) [1:56]
Interesting... there is a billionaire that is working on our side!!
Pentagon
Want to save money, get the National Budget under control, send your kids to college? Then ask the Pentagon to cough up the 8.5 Trillion dollars they lost!!!!
*Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For
The Jet that Ate the Pentagon: The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in history, with a total cost of $1.5 trillion. (02/05/14) [8:18]
This is a fictional movie, based on true facts. It would be funny if it wasn't true.
The Pentagon Wars (1998) [1:43:49]
Click to zoom chart
*Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]
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.
CORPORATE FASCISM: The Destruction of America's Middle Class () [1:41:51]
The Trials Of Henry Kissinger () [1:19:41]
In Lies We Trust - CIA, Nazis, Hollywood, Bioterror () [2:30:39]

HBO | The Second Civil War (1999) [1:32:19]
DVD was released in 2005. The film was shown in theaters in Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and France in 1997 and 1998, before being released on videotape. In Australia, the film was released directly to videotape in April/May 1998. The DVD was released in 2005. Beau Bridges won the 1997 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for his portrayal of a Governor of Idaho who decides to close that state's borders to immigrants, precipitating a national crisis.

02.05.2014. 15:17

Tuesday February 04, 2014
News Articles

World Shares Fall To 4-Month Low Amid U.S. Slowdown, Emerging-Market Woes
HP | Reuters | Marc Jones | 02/04/14

World shares slumped to near a four-month low on Tuesday as signs of a slowdown in the U.S. economy aggravated the anxiety caused by a sell-off in emerging markets.   A report showing U.S. factory activity was weaker than expected had caused both the dollar and global equities to fall on Monday. European investors remained anxious on Tuesday after another session of sustained selling in Asia. ...

... Tokyo's Nikkei plunged 4 percent in its worst day since June, cementing its position as the worst performer in developed markets in 2014. MSCI's emerging-market index dropped 1.4 percent, putting its losses since late October at almost 12 percent. ... Read more

For the Love of Money
NYTimes | Sam Polk | 01/18/14

IN my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million -- and I was angry because it wasn't big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.

Eight years earlier, I'd walked onto the trading floor at Credit Suisse First Boston to begin my summer internship. I already knew I wanted to be rich, but when I started out I had a different idea about what wealth meant. I'd come to Wall Street after reading in the book "Liar's Poker" how Michael Lewis earned a $225,000 bonus after just two years of work on a trading floor. That seemed like a fortune. Every January and February, I think about that time, because these are the months when bonuses are decided and distributed, when fortunes are made. ... Read more

Greece Tops Europe's Shadow Economies
ZeroHedge | author | 02/04/14

While Greece may be the most corrupt nation in Europe, there appears another problematic issue for finance minister Yannis Stournaras when he discusses the way forward with his Swiss counterpart this week. As Bloomberg's Niraj Shah reports, Greece's difficulties with tax evasion are the worst in Europe. Accprding to a study from Johannes Kepler University, the size of the Greek shadow economy is a stunning 24% of GDP. ... Click to zoom chart

Bank Of America Warns: "Too Few Bears Out There", "Investors Not Prepared" For Selloff
ZeroHedge | author | 02/04/14

There is one main reason why complacency is bad: selloffs. Because as Bank of America explains, in an environment in which there are "too few bears", and where investors are "not prepared for a downside correction", when you do finally get a sell off for whatever reason, with nobody hedged and otherwise prepared for such an outcome, the only logical continuation is piling on until one gets selling exhaustion. And in a world in which hedge fund leverage is about 500%, by the time exhaustion comes, there will be very few left standing. ... Read more
Click to zoom chart

Shares steadier as emerging market sell-off eases
Reuters | Marc Jones | 02/04/14

World shares steadied after falling to a near four-month low on Tuesday as a bounce in battered emerging market currencies and a positive start for Wall Street helped lift some of the recent gloom.

A weaker-than-expected report on U.S. factory activity had hit global equity markets and the dollar hard on Monday but European shares had clawed back most of their morning losses by the time Wall Street reopened. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 04 [7:19]
*DN | Kids For Cash: Inside One of the Nation's Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals (02/04/14) [17:29], Part 2 [18:33], Part 3 [13:23]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Jeffrey Sachs: Approval of Keystone XL Would Be A Disastrous Move [10:52]
*TRNN | Heiner Flassbeck: Krugman is Wrong About the Market and Hot Money (02/03/14) [11:48]
*TRNN | Heiner Flassbeck: Finance is Super Rational about Profits, Irrational about Global Economy, Part 2 [12:15]
*TRNN | Heiner Flassbeck: Danger of Global Recession After 30 Years of Neoliberal Counterrevolution [10:15]
Another set of interesting photographs
TPP
*Is the TPP Dead? [11:43]
TPP v. Democracy (01/13/14) [6:04]
TYT News

As Inequality Worsens, Millionaires Are Pulling Up the Drawbridge Behind Them
AlterNet | Josh Bornstein | 02/03/14

When I became a partner in a law firm, something strange happened at the bank. Our relationship deepened. I became a premium client with premium needs.

I was introduced to my customer relationship manager. Soon after I realised I didn't have to queue in a bank branch again. If I had a problem, he could sort it out. I received a discount on the bank's advertised variable interest rate. Other bank employees contacted me to discuss "wealth management", "exciting investment opportunities" and "great insurance deals". ... Read more

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.

02.04.2014. 14:22

Monday February 03, 2014
News Articles

California Drought Prompts Unprecedented Water Conservation Efforts
HP | Jason Dearen | 01/31/14

Amid severe drought conditions, California officials announced Friday they won't send any water from the state's vast reservoir system to local agencies beginning this spring, an unprecedented move that affects drinking water supplies for 25 million people and irrigation for 1 million acres of farmland.

The announcement marks the first time in the 54-year history of the State Water Project that such an action has been taken, but it does not mean that every farm field will turn to dust and every city tap will run dry.   The 29 agencies that draw from the state's water-delivery system have other sources, although those also have been hard-hit by the drought. Read more
ABC | California Governor Warns Residents of Serious Drought (01/31/14) [2:05]

South Australia weather (02/03/14) [1:26] 44.7c = 112.46f
Bill Mahr had Erin Brockovich on his show talking about the chemical spill in West Virginia. She not only discussed the spill in the South, but also had the flollowing graph to show all the spots around the US where there were similar cause for alarm on water quality issues. Not too encouraging!
Click to zoom chart
Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm

The Titanic time warp: We knew it was being rebuilt, but as these amazing new designs show, it really WILL be 1912 all over again
DailyMail | Elizabeth Sanderson | 03/02/13

To offer 21st century cruise-goers the chance to sail on the Titanic, Palmer created the company Blue Star Line last year. The ship is being designed by Finnish company Deltamarin, and will be built by Chinese state-owned CSC Jinling Shipyard, Reuters reported.

While the new Titanic will have air conditioning and modern safety equipment (and enough lifeboats for all of its 2,435 passengers and 900 crew), it will be made to look just like the original. Passengers will even be divided into three classes, and will be kept from mingling with those outside their station.

Construction should begin next year, and Palmer hopes to have the ship cruising by 2016. Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 03 [11:22]
DN | Debate: State Dept Moves Keystone XL Closer to Approval, But Does Conflict of Interest Taint Report? (02/03/14) [23:28]
DN | Environmental Groups "Shocked" by Reports of NSA Spying of U.N. Climate Talks (02/03/14) [3:56]
Interesting Study on How Diet Effects Us.
BBC Horizon | Sugar v Fat: (2013) [59:19]
Corbett Report
*GRtv | The NSA and the 9/11 Deception (01/26/14) [14:46]
CorbettReport | How to Nullify the NSA (12/13/13) [38:26]
Interesting News
Secret Missions of the X-37B (05/31/13) [11:06]
Inside the derelict mansions of London's 'Billionaires Row' (02/02/14) [5:08]
Mansion after mansion is standing empty on The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, north London -- aka 'Billionaires Row'. Here, Robert Booth takes a tour of the derelict, rotting homes owned until recently by the Saudi royal family.
Fukushima
*Fukushima Daiichi: Closing in on Leaks (01/31/14) [1:43]
*Global GeoEngineering
The Most Important Topic of Our Time - GeoEngineering & chemtrails (06/20/13) [46:02]
GeoEngineering Watch website
Global GeoEngineering Flyer.pdf
Look Up - SkyderALERT.com (trailer) [9:58]
LOOK UP - New, Chemtrails, Geo-Engineering, & Weather MOD. Must Watch! [29:56]
ABC's Nightline | Alien Fibers: Morgellons Disease [11:17]
Do Chem-trails sprayed over our cities contain Genetically Modified Living Fibers, that keep growing and multiplying under the skin, to see how fast they cause neurological collapse in humans?
Revelations From A Man Who Helped Design Morgellons Disease (11/13/12) [30:46], Part 2 [32:09]
Morgellons actually Explained!! [1:08:34]
Morgellons is a synthetic model organism named CBL-001 Phoma Sp. (Pleospora), and there are over 10 substrains. Released 5 times between 1979 and the year 2000. The crime against humanity was reported to the CDC, ECDC, and Interpol in France.
Silent Superbug [3:13]
Silent Superbug (Video 1) [12:45]
Silent Superbug (Video 2) [14:25]
C2CAM | Morgellons Disease (radio show) (10/10/12) [2:35:38]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The State Department's Report On The Keystone XL Pipeline (02/03/14) [1hr]
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | Nancy Pelosi discusses the Affordable Care Act and government's intrinsic inefficiencies (01/30/14) [8:16], Part 2 [9:05], Part 3 [8:47]
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. She is the only woman to have served as the House Speaker and to date is the highest-ranking female politician in American history.
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.
Jesse Ventura - Conspiracy Theory
Jesse Ventura | 9/11 - Conspiracy Theory () [44:26]
Jesse Ventura | Solar Storm Conspiracy () [1:00:00]
*Ventura HARRP
Jesse Ventura | Conspiracy Theory - Project HAARP () [45:20]
Unsealed Government Secret Files on HAARP () [19:41]
What is HAARP () [1:02:58]
Jesse Ventura | Brain Invaders S03E07 () [43:27]
His technology is called mindseye in the UK and is used by special forces ( 21/22&23 SAS and SBS) for communication in the field wihtout speaking just thinking and lots more ( ADW / LDW / PHASE / BTVS etc....) im the biggest sceptic going but a former special forces friend (A11 , hands of god) showed me and opened my eyes .... theirs even an M.O.D instruction manual on this technoligy.
Psychotronic Weapons - weaponize neuropsychology
Project: Soul Catcher - Secrets of Cyber and Cybernetic Warfare Revealed by Robert Duncan
Project: Soul Catcher Vol 2. by Robert Duncan
The Matrix Deciphered website
The Matrix Deciphered by Robert Duncan.pdf
Launch of New Secret Spy Satellite
Launch of Worlds Largest Rocket - The Delta IV Heavy with NROL-65 Onboard (08/28/13) [6:52]
Alex Jones
Alex Jones: State Of Mind The Psychology Of Control (2013) [2:43:54]
Alex Jones: After the Tribulation (2013) [1:53:11]
BBC | Elephant Diaries - heart warming
BBC | Elephant Diaries Full movie (Full) (01/26/14) [1:26:37]
BBC | Elephant Diaries - S01E02 (01/26/14) [28:55]
BBC | Elephant Diaries - S01E05 (01/26/14) [28:51]

BBC | Elephant Diaries - S02E01 (01/26/14) [28:51]
BBC | Elephant Diaries - S03E02 (01/26/14) [28:51]
Building of the Titanic
BBC | First Largest ship In the World Ever Built () [44:14]

*Was the Titanic deliberately sunk by JP Morgan? () [51:55]

Titanic : Documentary on Building the Titanic () [1:10:11]
Titanic : Documentary on the Untold Stories of the Titanic's Passengers () [51:59]
Titanic Death of a Dream () [1:35:53]
*The building of the Titanic II (2016?)
Titanic II compared to RMS Titanic () [2:38]
Titanic II Interiors () [1:47]
Titanic II Technical Specs() [8:11]
Titanic II website
Another Titanic II website (flip-book)
Yet Another Titanic II website
The building of the Titanic replica for James Cameron's film, Titanic
The building of the Titanic replica for James Cameron's film, Titanic () [4:19]
James Horner: Titanic Soundtrack () [1:15:28]
Gilded Age
JP Morgan () [43:57]
The Vanderbilts () [48:16]

02.03.2014. 18:36



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

I'm still working on this

GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

I'm still working on this

Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Documentaries (small | pop-up)
Documentaries (big | full screen)
Good YouTube Documentaries

Note: To view a video, click on its name/title
Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

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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Donation


I am one of those "once" middle class, over 60, over educated, under-employed, semi retired, soon to be poor workers, that everyone is talking about. 
But I have a modest standard of living so I plan to give all extra donation, beyond my immediate needs, to several of my favorite charities.

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