Home · News · News Feb 2017
Tuesday February 28, 2017
News Articles
CNN | Bernie Sanders warns Republicans worried about protests: You haven't 'seen anything yet' (02/23/17) [9:04]

TRUMP STUMPED: 'Nobody Knew' That Health Care Could Be So Hard
HP | Jeffrey Young , Jonathan Cohn | 02/27/17

"Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." That was President Donald Trump speaking at the White House Monday, and if anything can encapsulate the dilemma facing Republicans as they haltingly try to keep their campaign promises to repeal and "replace" the Affordable Care Act -- aka Obamacare -- it's that.

The idea that "nobody" knew health care is complicated is, of course, nonsense ? as literally anyone who's ever visited a doctor or used health insurance could tell you. But the realization seems to have come belatedly to Trump. ... Read more

House Republicans Are Helping Donald Trump Keep His Tax Returns Secret
HP | Alana Horowitz Satlin | 02/28/17

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) on Monday proposed a resolution to invoke an obscure law allowing the Internal Revenue Service to turn over the president's tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee for review. But the House voted 229-185, almost exclusively on party lines, to reject the effort.

Pascrell first raised the idea of using the law again earlier this month, but was shot down by the Ways and Means committee chair, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas.) ... Read more

White House Petition Demanding Trump Release Tax Returns Gets Over 1 Million Signatures
It's unclear if the White House will respond.
  1. **J. Michael Springmann -> How The CIA Lets In The Terrorists (02/17/17) [40:24]
  2. **What No One Is Telling You About Flynn's Resignation (02/16/17) [16:27]
  3. ***India Kicks Out Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (02/19/17) [12:54] 3*
  4. ******Nomi Prins -> The Past, Present and Future of Goldman Sachs (#21718) (02/06/17) [32:15]
  5. ****Michael Krieger -> How Trump Filled The Swamp with Steven Mnuchin (02/03/17) [1:00:00]
  6. ***How Government $ach$ Won The Election (02/01/17) [13:45]
  7. Goldman-Sachs Hacked Election (article)
  8. *****Trump Admin Raising Phoenix Program From the Ashes (01/30/17) [51:05]
  9. The Phoenix Program by Douglas Valentine (article)
  10. iPOD Answers | Why Would People Lie About Climate Change? (12/16/16) [44:50]
  11. ****Michael Krieger -> Trump Fills the Swamp wit Steven Mnuchin (12/07/16) [19:10]
  12. There will be Swamp by Michael Krieger (11/30/16) (article)
  13. ****Nomi Prins -> The Central Bankers' Game of Thrones (11/22/16) [17:34]
  14. ****What You Are Not Being Told About the Afghanistan War (10/11/16) [19:39]
  15. Bilderberg 2016: What's On The Agenda? (06/08/16) [16:19]
  16. ***Why is the MSM (Finally) Reporting on the Petrodollar? (06/01/16) [17:09]
  17. ***Joe Plummer Teaches Tragedy and Hope 101 (04/11/16) [31:54]
  18. **Meet the Billionaire Pedophile Pal of Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew (02/26/16) [21:56]
  19. TheLipTV | Trump's Child Prostitute Connection to Bill Clinton Mentioned in Lawsuit (06/22/16) [7:22]
  20. ****How Big Oil Conquered the World (12/25/15) [1:11:26]
  21. ****9/11 Trillions: Follow The Money (09/11/15) [59:34]
  22. ***Who Is REALLY Behind ISIS? (09/26/14) [1:04:32]
  23. ****What is the Federal Reserve? (07/06/14) [1:30:11]
  24. ****The New Phoenix Program (??) [1:05:22]
  25. ****Meet Allen Dulles: Fascist Spymaster (#307) (08/30/15) [53:01]
  26. ***The Secret Life of Timothy McVeigh () [58:17]

Trump: 'Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated'
thehill.com | Jessie Hellmann | 02/27/17

President Trump said Monday that "nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated," as Republicans have been slow to unite around a replacement plan for ObamaCare.

"I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject," Trump said after a meeting with conservative governors at the White House.

The GOP governors were in town this weekend for their annual conference and met with Trump to talk about a variety of things, but it's likely the conversation largely focused on healthcare. ... Read more

Click to zoom in
The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11.pdf

Pentagon Reporter: I Don't Know Any Military Commander Who Thinks Trump's Plan Is Going to Work
AlterNet | Sara K. Barris/Raw Story | 02/27/17

His military vision is dangerous and outdated, a better fit for the 1950s than 2017

On the heels of President Donald Trump's declaration that the United States must "start winning wars again," CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr revealed military leaders have a different opinion.

"There are a lot of questions about what the president means," Starr told Wolf Blitzer. "He said he was taking this from watching the military during his days back in high school and college in his words when perhaps it was a much more clear time for military victories." ... Read more

The floats at Karneval parades across southern and western Germany are known for their biting satire. As The Local reports, this year the main target of their derision was only ever going to be one man.
**Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 28 (FULL) [59:02]
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
*DN | As Trump Pushes for Historic $54B Military Spending Hike, Which Programs Will He Cut to Pay for War? (02/28/17) [12:36]
President Trump is heading to Capitol Hill tonight and is expected to outline part of his budget plan before a joint session of Congress. On Monday, Trump proposed increasing the military budget to just over $600 billion -- a 10 percent increase -- while deeply slashing the budgets of other agencies, likely including the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department. Trump said he wanted a historic increase in military spending. Democratic Congressmember Barbara Lee of California responded on Twitter by writing, "[President] Trump's morally bankrupt budget will funnel more money to the Pentagon at the expense of the poor [and] our planet. This is an awful idea." We speak to Neta Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War Project and a professor of political science at Boston University. In September, she released a report that found the United States has spent nearly $5 trillion since the September 11, 2001, attacks on homeland security and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan.
*DN | "Decade of Betrayal": How the U.S. Expelled Over a Half Million U.S. Citizens to Mexico in 1930s (02/28/17) [19:08]
President Donald Trump is slated to give his first presidential address to Congress today. Democratic lawmakers have begun giving their tickets away to immigrants as a protest against Trump's push to increase deportations and to block residents from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Well, this is not the first time people of Mexican descent have been demonized, accused of stealing jobs, and forced to leave the country. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, more than a million people residing in the United States were deported to Mexico--about 60 percent of them were U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. We speak to the preeminent scholar on this often overlooked chapter of American history: Francisco Balderrama, professor of American history and Chicano studies at California State University, Los Angeles. He is co-author of "Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s."
DN | From Standing Rock to the Red Power Movement: New Series "RISE" Focuses on Indigenous Resistance (02/28/17) [33:11]
Some Humor
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Cartoon Donald Trump Dreads The White House Correspondents' Dinner (02/28/17) [3:28]
Stephen Colbert | Jon Stewart To The Media: It's Time To Get Your Groove Back. (02/27/17) [10:29]
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann | Donald Trump Must Go (#39) (02/23/17) [3:51]
**TRNN | Col. Wilkerson -> Trump's Proposed $54 Billion Increase in the Military Budget Not for National Security (02/28/17) [10:31]
*TRNN | Nnimmo Bassey (born 1958) is a Nigerian architect, environmentalist activist, author and poet -> Armed Conflict, Global Warming Intensify Mass Famines (02/28/17) [10:14]
*TYT | Trump: Nobody Knew Healthcare Could Be So Complicated! (02/27/17) [7:12]
*TYT | Trump Calls For HISTORIC Increase In Military Spending (02/27/17) [8:14]
*TYT | Trump's "No More Leaks!" Meeting IMMEDIATELY Leaked (02/27/17) [5:43]
RT | Keiser Report: Breakdown in Liberal Ideology (E1038) (02/28/17) [25:47]
Max and Stacy discuss Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plunging and college endowments losing billions to hedge funds. Max interviews former banker Michael Krieger of LibertyBlitzkrieg.com about how the breakdown in liberal ideology gave us Trump.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Main Stream Media
MSNBC Morning Joe | President Trump Promises To Boost Military Spending To $54 Billion (02/28/17) [15:19]
MSNBC Last Word | Clouds Of Scandal And Rank Incompetence At White House (02/28/17) [12:14]

02.28.2017. 15:41

Monday February 27, 2017
News Articles

**Trump Budget Plan Boosts Pentagon, Trims State Dept, EPA
Reuters & HP| Reuters | 02/26/17

The White House on Monday will send federal departments a budget proposal containing the defense spending increase President Donald Trump promised, financed partly by cuts to the U.S. State Department, Environmental Protection Agency and other non-defense programs, two officials familiar with the proposal said.

... A second official said the State Department's budget could be cut by as much as 30 percent, which would force a major restructuring of the department and elimination of programs. ... Read more

The First 100 Lies: The Trump Team's Flurry Of Falsehoods
HP | Igor Bobic | 02/26/17

  1. White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely claimed the crowd on the National Mall was "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration." (Jan. 21)
  2. Trump falsely claimed that the crowd for his swearing-in stretched down the National Mall to the Washington Monument and totaled more than 1 million people. (Jan. 21)
  3. As Trump fondly recalled his Inauguration Day, he said it stopped raining "immediately" when he began his speech. A light rain continued to fall throughout the address. (Jan. 21)
  4. During his speech at CIA headquarters, Trump claimed the media made up his feud with the agency. In fact, he started it by comparing the intelligence community to "Nazi Germany." (Jan. 21)
  5. ... 100
Read more

NBC's "Today" show | "Words MATTER" George W. Bush SLAMS Donald Trump (02/27/17) [5:47]

Bannon Versus Trump
NYTimes | David Brooks | 02/10/17

It's becoming clear that for the next few years American foreign policy will be shaped by the struggle among Republican regulars, populist ethno-nationalists and the forces of perpetual chaos unleashed by Donald Trump's attention span.

The Republican regulars build their grand strategies upon the post-World War II international order -- the American-led alliances, norms and organizations that bind democracies and preserve global peace. The regulars seek to preserve and extend this order, and see Vladimir Putin as a wolf who tears away at it.

The populist ethno-nationalists in the Trump White House do not believe in this order. Their critique -- which is simultaneously moral, religious, economic, political and racial -- is nicely summarized in the remarks Steve Bannon made to a Vatican conference in 2014:

Humane capitalism has been replaced by the savage capitalism that brought us the financial crisis.

Once there was a collection of Judeo-Christian nation-states, Bannon argued, that practiced a humane form of biblical capitalism and fostered culturally coherent communities. But in the past few decades, the party of Davos -- with its globalism, relativism, pluralism and diversity -- has sapped away the moral foundations of this Judeo-Christian way of life.

Humane capitalism has been replaced by the savage capitalism that brought us the financial crisis. National democracy has been replaced by a crony-capitalist network of global elites. Traditional virtue has been replaced by abortion and gay marriage. Sovereign nation-states are being replaced by hapless multilateral organizations like the E.U.
Read more

My Comment: the above remarks by Bannon seem really humanitarian. However, the actions of the Trump Administration so far don't seem to match the philosophy.

This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America
Bloomberg | Joshua Green | old, 10/08/15

Bannon is the executive chairman of Breitbart News, the crusading right-wing populist website that's a lineal descendant of the Drudge Report (its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, spent years apprenticing with Matt Drudge) and a haven for people who think Fox News is too polite and restrained. He'd spent the day at CPAC among the conservative faithful, zipping back and forth between his SiriusXM booth and an unlikely pair of guests he was squiring around: Nigel Farage ... Read more

My Comment: I don't normally follow Glen Beck, but he does make some very interesting comments during this interview.
CNN | Glenn Beck attacks Steve Bannon as a dangerous Leninist (02/23/17) [5:55]
Who Is Alexander Dugin??

The One Russian Linking Putin, Erdogan and Trump
Bloomberg | Henry Meyer | 02/02/17

The Russian ultra-nationalist dubbed "Putin's Rasputin" by Breitbart News when it was run by President Donald Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has emerged as an unlikely foreign-policy fixer for the Kremlin.

Alexander Dugin, whose bushy beard gives him a passing resemblance to the Siberian mystic who bewitched the last czar's family, says he played a key but largely clandestine role in patching up Russia's relations with Turkey, an account confirmed by a senior figure in Ankara. And with people he calls ideological allies now in the White House, Dugin says he's bullish on better ties with the U.S., too. ... Read more

Who are the figures pushing Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin together?
BBC | John Sweeney | 01/16/17

The question of whether Russia's leader Vladimir Putin has got material with which he could blackmail Donald Trump is for now unknowable and misses the point by a country mile: the two men think alike.

Mr Trump's belief in American traditionalism and dislike of scrutiny echo the Kremlin's tune: nation, power and aversion to criticism are the new (and very Russian) world order. ... Read more

The philosopher known as "Putin's brain" is a big fan of Trump
Quartz qz.com | Reuters/Denis Sinyakov | 12/24/16

... He is virulently opposed to globalism, the international elite, and the existing geopolitical structure where the US is the clear superpower. Instead, he advocates for a world of multiple political powers, each representing bloc of countries. No surprise, then, that Dugin believes Russian should be one such global power. ... Read more

The frightening common ground between a Trump adviser and white nationalism's favorite philosopher
Think Progress | Justin Salhani | 12/20/16

Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, sees Dugin's ideology as an ally against liberalism.

Aleksandr Dugin's ideology has influenced white nationalists and supremacists. His thinking also echoes that of a key player in the Trump administration. ... Read more

Philosopher Dr. Aleksandr Dugin joins the program today to expound on Trump's swamp metaphor
Alex Jonnes | Alex Jonnes | 02/17/17

Philosopher Dr. Aleksandr Dugin joins the program today to expound on Trump's swamp metaphor

On the Tuesday, Feb. 7th 2017 transmission of the Alex Jones Show, an MSNBC host compares Trump to Putin and says he may start killing journalists. And overwhelming evidence shows Trump was right about massive voter/election fraud. Philosopher Dr. Aleksandr Dugin joins the program today to expound on Trump's swamp metaphor and provide his take on Putin and Trump as two poles of a new world vision. On today's show we also welcome University of California Professor Darrell Y. Hamamoto to discuss the riots at UC Berkeley over the weekend, and the California secession movement. ... Read more
Aleksandr Dugin: Putin's Brain Joins Alex Jones () [25:03]

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 27 [12:56]
*DN | Committee to Protect Journalists: Trump's Attacks on Media Will Be Felt by Journalists Around World (02/27/17) [11:22]
DN | Rev. William Barber: The NAACP Will Boycott North Carolina over HB2 & Voter Suppression (02/27/17) [11:53]
Humor
LastWeekTonight with John Oliver
**John Oliver | Obamacare (02/26/17) [18:52]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Trump's Nuclear Plan: It's Like The Cold War All Over Again (02/25/17) [4:33]
*TRNN | Economist Michael Hudson -> 'J is for Junk Economics,' says the media and academia use well-crafted euphemisms to conceal how the economy really works, Part 1/6 (02/27/17) [9:08]
*TRNN | Economist Heiner Flassbeck -> Mountains of Uninvested Corporate Cash, Not Mexico, Most Responsible for Job Loss (02/27/17) [15:12]
*TRNN | Oakland Institute founder Anuradha Mittal -> Erik Prince is Back: Former CEO of Blackwater Offering Services to the Trump Administration (02/27/17) [10:32]
*TRNN | Bhaskar Sunkara, Phyllis Bennis and Paul Jay discuss -> Trump at CPAC: Tax Cuts, Massive Military Build-up, Part 1 (02/25/17) [15:53]
TRNN | Bhaskar Sunkara, Phyllis Bennis and Paul Jay discuss -> Bannon-Trump Promise to Unleash Unfettered Capitalism, Part 2 (02/25/17) [17:48]
*TYT | CEOs Try To Explain The Economy To Trump (02/26/17) [6:58]
TYT | Trump Team Can't Wait To Fill More Private Prisons With Minorities (02/26/17) [8:03]
TYT | Trump Administration Told FBI To Back Off Russia? (02/24/17) [8:07]
TYT | Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus' Awkward Bromance (02/24/17) [4:11]
Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus shared a very awkward moment on stage at CPAC.

"NATIONAL HARBOR -- Reince Priebus and Stephen K. Bannon definitely get along. Everything you have heard about their relationship, says Priebus, is wrong. If you have heard that they are slowly engaged in a battle to the death, that is definitely not true. That is their, uh, belligerent chemistry. They are like brothers, Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Nam, just regular brothers.

They are the best of friends, like Frog and Toad, or even Bert and Ernie, if you catch them on the right evening. They talk all night until they fall asleep, holding hands. This is what they told New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi:

"We talk a lot, pretty much all day long," Priebus said. "And then we communicate at night --"
TYT | Conservatives Wave Russian Flags Before Trump's Speech (02/24/17) [7:52]
Note: I don't always agree with the the videos I post, but I always think it is a good idea to listen/hear both sides of an issue(s)
RT | CrossTalk: Media Wars (02/27/17) [24:33]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Will The Corporate Media Stand Against Trumps Attacks? (02/24/17) [11:07]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Donald Trump Admin Spikes Report That Undercuts Ban (02/24/17) [12:33]
Main Stream Media
MSNBC Morning Joe | 'Swirling Paranoia' Takes Over The White House (02/27/17) [14:17]
MSNBC Morning Joe | With Historic Low Numbers, President Donald Trump Keeps Fighting Media (02/27/17) [15:21]
MSNBC Morning Joe | Why 'Madman Theory' Is Unhelpful In Global Affairs (02/24/17) [10:14]
MSNBC Morning Joe | Steve Bannon Lays Out Vision For White House During CPAC Talk (02/24/17) [14:00]
FoxNews | "Attacking CNN doesn't create jobs" Chris Wallace DESTROYS Donald Trump aide (02/26/17) [4:53]
CNN | "CNN is NOT fake news" Shep Smith defends CNN on Fox News (02/24/17) [4:39]

02.27.2017. 15:34

Friday February 24, 2017
News Articles

Steve Bannon Says Feud With 'Corporatist, Globalist' Media Will Only Get Worse
HP | Igor Bobic | 02/23/17

A few days after President Donald Trump drew rebukes for calling the media the "enemy of the American people," his top strategist Steve Bannon showed no sign that the White House was willing to reconsider its feud with the press.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference alongside White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Thursday, Bannon warned the situation between the administration and the fourth estate will only get worse. ... Read more

RUSH | We're Not That Far From A CIVIL WAR! (02/10/17) [5:08]
A Little Bit of Humor
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | 'Real News Tonight': A Reliable Source For News Trump Will Like (02/24/17) [3:16]
Stephen Colbert | The Late Show Presents: Presidential Leak-Crets (02/24/17) [4:59]
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann | Donald Trump Must Go (02/23/17) [3:51]

Why the Christian Right Is Rejoicing Under Trump's Presidency
AlterNet | Alex Kotch | 02/23/17

In early 2016, few evangelical leaders were on Team Trump, as they had Ted Cruz and other conservative Christians to choose from in a crowded Republican presidential field. After Donald Trump embarrassed his GOP competition and became the party's nominee, prominent evangelicals began changing their tune. Some, including a number of outspoken anti-LGBT activists, worked with the Trump campaign on a large evangelical advisory board. After Trump won the presidency with 81 percent of the white evangelical vote, most far-right Christian leaders who hadn't endorsed him came around. Many were gleeful, and some even pronounced that God had stepped in and handed Trump the job.

That excitement has grown since the election as Trump prepared for and took office, nominating several ultra-conservative Christians for key posts and promptly following through on several of his campaign promises tailored to evangelical voters. Trump had already picked far-right evangelical Mike Pence for vice president. Then he nominated Betsy DeVos, who was raised in a Calvinist community in Michigan, for secretary of education and Seventh-Day Adventist Ben Carson for Housing and Urban Development secretary, and Human Services Sec. Tom Price, EPA head Scott Pruitt, Energy nominee Rick Perry, Agriculture nominee Sonny Perdue and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ... Read more

GOP Senator Tom Cotton Confronted At Town Hall
NBC | GOP Senator Tom Cotton Confronted At Town Hall About President Trump's Election (02/23/17 [4:20]
Senator Tom Cotton | Woman Asks Senator Tom Cotton (Arkansas) "What Insurance Do You Have?" (02/22/17) [4:40]
Senator Tom Cotton | Senator Tom Cotton "How can you support a man who Says he grabs Women by the *%^%&" (02/22/17) [0:57]
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Tom Cotton Town Hall (02/22/17) [12:55]
Senator Tom Cotton | Town Hall Event (02/22/17) [1:43:48]

White House Bars CNN, NYT, Others From Media Briefing
ZeroHedge | author | 02/24/17

CNN's political reporter Sara Murray has confirmed that CNN has been blocked from attending a White House press briefing this morning. Other reports note that The New York Times, LA Times, and Politico were also blocked. ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX were allowed in but AP and Time have boycotted the event. ... Read more

**Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 24 [11:02]
**DN | Days After Pruitt Becomes EPA Head, Newly Released Emails Show His Ties to Koch Bros. & Energy Firms (02/23/17) [10:54]
Thousands of pages of newly released emails reveal how EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt closely collaborated with oil, coal and gas companies backed by the Koch brothers to roll back environmental regulations during his time as Oklahoma attorney general. The documents were released just days after Pruitt was sworn in as the new head of the EPA, the agency tasked with curtailing pollution and safeguarding public health. Last week, Senate Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to postpone Pruitt's final confirmation until the emails were released, but Republicans pressed forward and confirmed him in a 52-46 vote, largely along party lines. As Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times. The trove of new documents shows how energy companies drafted language for Pruitt's Attorney General's Office to use to sue the EPA over environmental regulations. We speak to Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which successfully sued for the emails to be released.
*DN | As Calls Grow to Impeach Trump, Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Sees "Echoes of Watergate" (02/24/17) [13:24]
DN | John Dean: The Difference Between Trump & Nixon is Trump Says Publicly What Nixon Said on Wiretap (02/24/17) [8:50]
*TRNN | Center for Media and Democracy's Lisa Graves says -> Newly Released Emails Reveal Pruitt's Connections with Koch Brothers (02/24/17) [18:35]
**TRNN | Henry Giroux and Paul Jay discuss -> the Trump-Bannon-Pence administration, a naked display of the 1% ruling without apologies (02/24/17) [13:06]
*TYT | Net Neutrality Is On Its Deathbed (02/23/17) [4:52]
*TYT | Trump Attacks Transgender Rights, Find Out the Secret Reason Why (02/23/17) [5:25]
TYT | British Politicians Take Turns Blasting Trump (02/21/17) [10:23]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
*PBS NewsHour | What EPA's Scott Pruitt means for environmental policy and regulation (02/17/17) [6:56]
*PBS NewsHour | How scientists are scrambling to safeguard vital environmental data (02/17/17) [8:37]
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
*MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Trump Administration's Litany Of Mistakes Indicates Malice Or Incompetence (02/23/17) [21:12]
Main Stream Media
MSNBC The Last Word | Steve Bannon: The Most Powerful Person In President Trump's White House (02/24/17) [16:33]
FoxNews | Did Steve Bannon become the new face of the Republican Party? (02/23/17) [4:35]
Note: I don't like FoxNews, I don't particularly like Tucker Carlson, but I can listen to both sides of an issue and make my own decissions.
FoxNews | Krauthammer: Bannon showed he was brains of operation (02/23/17) [5:45]
FoxNews | Steve Bannon takes on the media at CPAC (02/23/17) [12:32]
CPAC | Steve Bannon & Reince Priebus Panel at CPAC 2017 (FULL) (02/23/17) [24:38]
Note: at least we don't have to hear from Sarah Paline or Machele Backmann.

02.24.2017. 17:18

Thursday February 23, 2017
News Articles

*Bernie Sanders Takes Down Drug Companies and Washington Lobbyists' Latest Racket
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 02/22/17

The Vermont senator blames an insulin price hike on the collusion of Big Pharma.

The price of insulin is going up, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) refuses to take it lying down. On Wednesday, the Vermont senator weighed in on a new class-action lawsuit taking aim at drug manufacturers.

"In the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry, major companies, have been fined some $35 billion for collusion, for fraud and for other illegal behavior," Sanders explained in an interview with "CBS This Morning." ... Read more

*Fears Grow That Climate Conflicts Could Lead to War
Bloomberg | Jonathan Tirone | 02/19/17

Among the 21st-century threats posed by climate change -- rising seas, melting permafrost and superstorms -- European leaders are warning of a last-century risk they know all too well: War.

Focusing too narrowly on the environmental consequences of global warming underestimates the military threats, top European and United Nations officials said at a global security conference in Munich this weekend. Their warnings follow the conclusions of defense and intelligence agencies that climate change could trigger resource and border conflicts. ... Read more

Little Bit of Humor
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Joe Scarborough: There Are Some Lines Trump Can't Cross, Part 1 (02/22/17) [5:38], Part 2[5:38]
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann | The Intel Community and the Slow Death of Trump's Presidency (#37) (02/22/17) [7:46]
The Making Of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy Of American Empire by Leo Panitch (2013)

The all-encompassing embrace of world capitalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century was generally attributed to the superiority of competitive markets. Globalization had appeared to be the natural outcome of this unstoppable process. But today, with global markets roiling and increasingly reliant on state intervention to stay afloat, it has become clear that markets and states aren't straightforwardly opposing forces.

In this groundbreaking work, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state. The Making of Global Capitalism identifies the centrality of the social conflicts that occur within states rather than between them. These emerging fault lines hold out the possibility of new political movements that might transcend global markets.

Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest
Politico | Kenneth P. Vogel | 02/23/17

A purported cyber hack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump's presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort's daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to "bulletproof" evidence related to Manafort's financial arrangement with Ukraine's former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 23 [14:13]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 23 (FULL) (02/23/17) [59:04]
*DN | The Stephen Miller Story: From Pestering Latino Students in High School to Drafting Muslim Ban (02/15/17) [13:26]
A new investigation by Univision shows how President Trump's senior White House policy adviser, 31-year-old Stephen Miller, was well known at his Santa Monica High School for heckling his fellow Hispanic classmates, including telling them to speak only English. He's now best known as one of the architects behind Trump's Muslim travel ban. For more, we speak with one of Miller's former classmates, Cynthia Santiago, the first Latina president of the school's Associated Student Body and now an immigration defense lawyer who has been helping people impacted by Trump's travel ban. We also speak with Univision reporter Fernando Peinado. His recent piece is titled "How White House advisor Stephen Miller went from pestering Hispanic students to designing Trump's immigration policy."
TRNN | Journalist Desiree Kane says -> Standing Rock and the Struggle Against Corporate Power (02/23/17) [12:09]
TRNN | Political science Leo Panitch says - > Greece's Debt Relief Conundrum (02/23/17) [19:27]
*TYT | Emails Show EPA Head's Cozy Ties With Big Oil (02/22/17) [8:12]
TYT | Statue Of Liberty Gets A Sweet New Sign (02/22/17) [3:08]
TYT | BREAKING: Water Protector's Camp Surrounded, Cops Moving In (02/22/17) [8:37]
RT | Keiser Report: China-US Trade War (E1036) (02/23/17) [25:46]
Max and Stacy discuss the 'bad news' and 'grave concerns' in the eurozone leading to big gold buying. **In the second half, Max interviews Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about the trade war with China that America has already lost. They also discuss North Korea and what the assassination of Kim Jong-nam means for the region.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Did Pruitt Prove He's In the Koch's Pocketbook Today? (02/21/17) [11:58]
ThomHartmann | Will The GOP Attacks On Elizabeth Warren Backfire? (02/22/17) [11:27]
*ThomHartmann | Russian Expert Stephen Cohen -> "Detente Both Possible & Necessary" (02/12/17) [32:09]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Montana GOP Chair Afraid Of Too Much Voting (02/23/17) [19:15]
Main Stream Media
MSNBC Morning Joe | President Donald Trump's Staffers Work To Control His Twitter Habit (02/23/17) [5:33]
MSNBC Morning Joe | Joe: How College Impacted Stephen Miller's Conservative Thought (02/23/17) [15:41]
NYTimes | Andrew Sullivan | 02/23/17
... I feel like I know Stephen Miller, the youthful Montgomery Burns who lectured the lügenpresse last Sunday morning in his charm-free Stakhanovite baritone. I feel like I know him because I used to be a little like him. He's a classic type: a rather dour right-of-center kid whose conservatism was radicalized by lefties in the educational system. No, I'm not blaming liberals for Miller's grim fanaticism. I am noting merely that right-of-center students are often mocked, isolated, and anathematized on campus, and their response is often, sadly, a doubling down on whatever it is that progressives hate. Before too long, they start adopting brattish and obnoxious positions -- just to tick off their SJW peers and teachers. After a while, you're not so much arguing for conservatism as against leftism, and eventually the issues fade and only the hate remains.

Think of it in some way as reactionary camp. Think Ingraham and Coulter and Yiannopoulos. They are reactionaries in the classic sense: Their performance-art politics are almost entirely a reaction to the suffocating leftism that they had to endure as they rose through the American education system. As a young, lonely conservative in college, I now wince at recalling, I threw a Champagne party to welcome Reagan's cruise missiles to Britain. Of course I knew better -- and could have made a decent argument for deterrence instead of behaving like a brattish dick. But I didn't. I wanted to annoy and disrupt the smugness around me. If you never mature, this pose can soon become your actual personality -- especially when you realize that it can also be extremely lucrative in the conservative-media industrial complex. I think of Ann Coulter, whom I met recently, backstage at Bill Maher's show. What struck me was her sincerity, searing intelligence, and grasp of the facts. In another universe, she could have become a reasoned defender of a sane conservatism. Instead she ended up writing In Trump We Trust. In exactly the same way, Miller really is a product of Santa Monica and Duke -- their living, breathing, raving antibody. ... Read more
Note: I don't normally watch The View, but I thought this was a good discussion on what is happening in the Trump Presidency.
The View | Whoopi Goldberg HEATED debate with Jedediah over Donald Trump (02/21/17) [8:37]


Stuff That Makes Me Squirm In My Seat
FoxNews | "YOU ARE FLAT WRONG" Chris Wallace Tells Stephen Miller Interview (02/15/17) [15:49]
Note: I have to admit Rush Limbaugh sounded OK here. His show on-the-other hand is outrageous.
FoxNews | "The media is Trump's ENEMY!" Rush Limbaugh goes CRAZY on Chris Wallace (02/20/17) [12:12]

02.23.2017. 11:36

Wednesday February 22, 2017
News Articles

Global Warming & Climate Change
NYTimes | author | Current

  1. How an Interoffice Spat Erupted Into a Climate-Change Furor - Feb. 20, 2017
  2. Mexico City, Parched and Sinking, Faces a Water Crisis - Feb. 17, 2017
  3. Disappearing Seagrass Protects Against Pathogens, Even Climate Change, Scientists Find - Feb. 16, 2017
  4. What California's Dam Crisis Says About the Changing Climate - Feb. 14, 2017
  5. Is the 'Anthropocene' Epoch a Condemnation of Human Interference -- or a Call for More? - Feb. 14, 2017
  6. A Rare Republican Call to Climate Action - Feb. 13, 2017
  7. A Conservative Case for Climate Action - Feb. 8, 2017
  8. 'A Conservative Climate Solution': Republican Group Calls for Carbon Tax - Feb. 8, 2017
  9. 'Irrational' Coal Plants May Hamper China's Climate Change Efforts - Feb. 7, 2017
  10. No Data Manipulation in 2015 Climate Study, Researchers Say - Feb. 7, 2017
Read more

What Climate Change Effects Are We Already Seeing
EPA | author | Current

Click to zoom in Goto the website page
Read more

Climate change: How do we know?
NASA.gov | author | Current

Click to zoom in Goto the website page
Read more

The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here
RollingStone.com | Eric Holthaus | older 2015

The worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen -- and much faster than climate scientists expected

Historians may look to 2015 as the year when shit really started hitting the fan. Some snapshots: In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people. In Washington state's Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory. London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated. In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains. Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide. Read more

CNN | CNN: Goldstein v McEnany (02/21/17) [6:07]
YouTube Commenters
My Comment: Yuk... this is news??
Commenter 1: She's shameless and he's a douche. Next.?
Commenter 2: That about sums up every discussion between the right and the left at the moment?
MSNBC Chris Hayes | Mitch McConnell and Republicans Experience Eruptions at Town Halls (02/21/17) [4:58]
Fusion | Who is Stephen Miller? The Guy Yelling at the Screen (02/14/17) [1:31]
David Pakman Show | Stephen Miller -> "the President will not be questioned, period" (02/14/17) [7:14]

'Everything's on the Table': Kellyanne Conway Floats Mass Recess Appointments of Trump Nominees
AlterNet | Tana Ganeva / Raw Story | 02/21/17

She called the remaining Obama-era staff "sleeper cells."

On Tuesday, counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway -- who's recently had some trouble getting booked on cable news -- appeared on conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt's radio show. First, Hewitt asked Conway why the President has not fired Obama-appointed US Attorneys and praised Donald Trump's controversial decision to dismiss acting Attorney General Sally Yates.

"Hey, I just want him to do, there are sleeper cells of Obama appointees throughout this government who are in political jobs. They're not civil servants, and I want them, I really want them gone yesterday," Hewitt said. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 22 [13:48]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 22 (FULL) [59:02]
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for the small white circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump around the video.
TRNN | Economist Heiner Flassbeck says -> Trump's Job Promises are Fiction - Free Trade is Fiction, Too (02/21/17) [17:06]
TRNN | Whistleblower Teacher Says Defunded Public Schools Vulnerable to Mass Privatization (02/21/17) [21:39]
In TRNN's ongoing investigation into Baltimore schools, a teacher says the long-term trend of over-testing and starving public schools of funds has made them an easy target for controversial education secretary Betsy DeVo
TYT | O'Reilly Tells Media To Bow Down To Trump (02/21/17) [6:55]
TYT | Homeland Security Unveils Deportation Plan (02/21/17) [8:54]
TYT | Did Trump Cause Riots In Sweden?? (02/21/17) [8:12]
After becoming a viral sensation following her appearance (and reappearance on Thursday) on Dr. Phil where she admitted to stealing cars and delivered the iconic "Cash me outside, how bow dah?" line, Danielle Bregoli is using her new fame to come out swinging.

Note: I wasn't going to post this, because I usually stick with current news, but I realized this was an important story in that it demonstrated how discouraging news events have become.
TYT | "Cash Me Ousside" Girl Mobbed By Screaming Fans (02/21/17) [11:31]
RT | CrossTalk: Revolt in the West (02/22/17) [24:25]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Democrats See New Zeal Among New Candidates (02/21/17) [23:45]
Main Stream Media
MSNBC Morning Joe | Mitch McConnell, Members Of Congress Face The Heat At Town Halls (02/22/17) [11:17]
MSNBC Morning Joe | Howard Dean: Democratic Leadership Is 'Old And Creaky' (02/22/17) [4:28]
NBCNews Meet the Press | WH Adviser Stephen Miller: A Single Judge 'Cannot Make Immigration Law' (02/12/17) [3:23]
Stuff That Makes Me Squirm In My Seat
FoxNews Hannity | Stephen Miller Travel ban is lawful and necessary News from CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, RT (02/09/17) [7:01]
FoxNews | President Trump is cooking a new travel ban. Stefen Miller explains (02/12/17) [14:02]

02.22.2017. 12:49

Tuesday February 21, 2017
News Articles

Trump Administration Tells World Leaders to Just Ignore What the President Says: Report
AlterNet | Erin Corbett / Raw Story | 02/20/27

"The dirty little secret of the 'Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said' approach to foreign policy is that it's not a sustainable foreign policy at all."

One month into President Donald Trump's administration, the divide in his team's approach to national security and foreign policy issues couldn't be more clear. The Rachel Maddow blog laid out the ways in which the Trump team has adopted a "Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said" approach to both matters. ... Read more
Or
'Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said' foreign policy

English Parliament, and PM, debted over Donald Trump's phrase "Grab them by the Pussy" constituted 'bragging about sexual assalt'.

Mar-a-Lago: Trump's Winter White House takes over Palm Beach
CNN | Dan Merica | 02/20/17

President Donald Trump, a newcomer to the White House, is still developing his relationship with the people of Washington. But that's far from the case with the people of Palm Beach -- now the location of his so-called Winter White House -- the long spit of land off Florida's East Coast that the real estate mogul has been frequenting for decades.

Since he purchased the Mar-a-Lago property in 1985 for $5 million, Trump's relationship with the tony city and its residents has ebbed and flowed. He's sued the city, fought with the town leadership and turned local issues into nattional controversies. Traffic caused by Trump's motorcade is the most recent sore spot for the people of Palm Beach and the surrounding area. ... Read more

Trump basically takes a vacation every week.

Friends describe Trump "ultimately accessible" in Mar-a-Lago, but that doesn't come without ethical pitfalls.

Democrats and ethics watchdogs questioned how the membership fee doubled to $200,000 after Trump's election. The club could turn into a way for Trump to sell access, watchdogs say, allowing members to pay for the luxury of sharing everything from a terrace to a lobby with the President of the United States, access that most lobbyists would salivate over.
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar (2017)

The rise over the last two decades of a powerful new class of billionaire financiers marks a singular shift in the American economic and political landscape. Their vast reserves of concentrated wealth have allowed a small group of big winners to write their own rules of capitalism and public policy. How did we get here? Through meticulous reporting and powerful storytelling, New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar shows how Steve Cohen became one of the richest and most influential figures in finance--and what happened when the Justice Department put him in its crosshairs.

Cohen and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn't lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than wrong--and for this they have gained not only extreme personal wealth but formidable influence throughout society. Hedge funds now manage nearly $3 trillion in assets, and competition between them is so fierce that traders will do whatever they can to get an edge.

Cohen was one of the industry's greatest success stories. He mastered poker in high school, went off to Wharton, and in 1992 launched SAC Capital, which he built into a $15 billion empire, almost entirely on the basis of his wizardlike stock trading. He cultivated an air of mystery, reclusiveness, and extreme excess, building a 35,000 square foot mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, and amassing one of the largest private art collections in the world. On Wall Street, Cohen was revered as a genius.

That image was shattered when SAC became the target of a sprawling, seven-year government investigation. Labeled by prosecutors as a "magnet for market cheaters" whose culture encouraged the relentless hunt for "edge"--and even "black edge," or inside information--SAC was ultimately indicted in connection with a vast insider trading scheme, even as Cohen himself was never charged.

Black Edge offers a revelatory look at the gray zone in which so much of Wall Street functions, and a window into the transformation of the U.S. economy. It's a riveting, true-life legal thriller that takes readers inside the government's pursuit of Cohen and his employees, and raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of modern Wall Street.

Here's What People Really Thought About That Trump Press Conference
HP | Ariel Edwards-Levy | 02/20/17

Note: what I found interest about this article was the analysis of how the polling was done. Apparently there is a lot of variables that have to be weighted to make the polling accurate. Hopefully those variables are honest and consistent and aren't easily manipulated to make the oppinion in the polls easily skew(able).
Read more

Nothing Seemed To Stop Milo Yiannopoulos -- Until This
HP | Chris D'Angelo | 02/20/17

Racism, bigotry and sexism weren't enough to silence the far-right troll.

A platform of hatred. A plethora of racist, misogynistic and transphobic remarks. But through it all, many stood by far-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, often defending his right to free speech.

Over the weekend, however, the Breitbart editor finally crossed what may have seemed a non-existent line, sending the American Conservative Union, publishing house Simon & Schuster and others who once supported him running. The breaking point: defending pedophilia. ... Read more

Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy by Sheldon Whitehouse (Author), Melanie Wachtell Stinnett (2017)

In Captured, U.S. Senator and former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse offers an eye-opening take on what corporate influence looks like today from the Senate Floor, adding a first-hand perspective to Jane Mayer's Dark Money.

Americans know something is wrong in their government. Senator Whitehouse combines history, legal scholarship, and personal experiences to provide the first hands-on, comprehensive explanation of what's gone wrong, exposing multiple avenues through which our government has been infiltrated and disabled by corporate powers. Captured reveals an original oversight by the Founders, and shows how and why corporate power has exploited that vulnerability: to strike fear in elected representatives who don't "get right" by threatening million-dollar "dark money" election attacks (a threat more effective and less expensive than the actual attack); to stack the judiciary--even the Supreme Court--in "business-friendly" ways; to "capture" the administrative agencies meant to regulate corporate behavior; to undermine the civil jury, the Constitution's last bastion for ordinary citizens; and to create a corporate "alternate reality" on public health and safety issues like climate change.

Captured shows that in this centuries-long struggle between corporate power and individual liberty, we can and must take our American government back into our own hands.
**CNN | Manafort, Flynn communicated regularly with Russians (02/14/17) [1:43]
Also see Racheal Maddow in the right column ->

Who is Paul Manafort?
CNN | Laura Smith-Spark | 02/15/17

So who is Manafort and why is he under scrutiny? He was originally brought in to save Trump from a defeat at the Republican convention, should Trump have failed to win enough delegates to clinch a first-ballot nomination.

But his role grew to serve as Trump's connection to the GOP establishment, telling Republican elders that their presidential nominee would run a traditional campaign that would not imperil down-ballot candidates. ... Read more

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash ($12.7 million) for Donald Trump's Campaign Chief
NYTimes | author | older 08/14/16

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

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

Paul Manafort
Wikipedia | author | date

Paul John Manafort Jr.[1] (born April 1, 1949)[2] is an American lobbyist and political consultant.[3] Manafort is best known for his lobbying efforts on behalf of Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych as well as world leaders such as Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko and guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi.[3][4][5] He was an adviser to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and was the national chairman of the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, as well as being a senior partner in the firm Davis, Manafort, and Freedman. It was confirmed in The New York Times on the eve of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration that Manafort is under active investigation by the CIA, NSA, FBI, ODNI and FinCEN.[6] Read more

**Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 21 [13:21]
**DN | A Message to Trump from a Swede: My Real Concern is Rise of Militant Anti-Muslim Neo-Nazis, Fascists (02/21/17) [13:33]
**DN | Black Edge: New Yorker's Sheelah Kolhatkar on Wall Street's Biggest Insider Trading Story in History (Hedge Funds) (02/21/17) [7:51]
**DN | A Champion of the People or Wall Street? Trump Pushes to End Dodd-Frank & Consumer Protection Agency (02/21/17) [10:52]
As the Trump administration enters its second month, Republican lawmakers have begun a legislative attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in response to the economic crisis a decade ago. The bureau was created under the Dodd-Frank legislation, which is also coming under attack by Republican lawmakers and the White House. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to repeal a Dodd-Frank anti-corruption measure requiring oil and mining companies to disclose payments to governments. He has also vowed to chip away at other parts of the legislation. We speak to Sheelah Kolhatkar, a former hedge fund analyst who is now a staff writer at The New Yorker. She is the author of the new book "Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street."
A Little-Bit-of-Humor
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Sorry ISIS, You Lost The Title Of 'Enemy Of The American People' (02/21/17) [7:52]
LastWeekTonight with John Oliver
*John Oliver | Vladimir Putin is known as a ruthless leader and master manipulator. John Oliver enlists a group of singing dancers to explain that to Donald Trump. (02/19/17) [20:05]
TRNN | TRNN Shir Hever Explained -> Trump's Turn from Two-State Solution Sows Crisis for Fatah, Hamas (02/21/17) [14:38]
TYT | Trump's Constant Mar-A-Lago Vacations Annoying Locals (02/20/17) [7:42]
TYT | LEAKED: Trump Talks To His "Special People" (02/20/17) [6:05]
TYT | Trump Cites Fake Terror Attack In Sweden (02/20/17) [15:40]
TYT | The NEW Red Scare (02/20/17) [4:35]
RT | Keiser Report: Ingredients for a New Global Crisis (E1035) (02/21/17) [25:47]
Max and Stacy discuss an EU blinded by hate and a currency unpegging from the dollar . . . watch what happens. In the second half Max continues his interview with Nomi Prins, author of 'All the Presidents' Bankers', about Trump's cabinet and advisers of the Goldman Sachs swamp.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | At What Point Do Trump Supporters Feel Betrayed? (02/20/17) [11:09]
Click to zoom in
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
**MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Shady Oligarch's Case A Test Of President Trump's Department Of Justice (02/21/17) [21:11]
*MSNBC Morning Joe | Senator Argues For Getting Corporate Forces Out Of Politics (o2/21/17) [8:02]
MSNBC Morning Joe | What New NSA Pick H.R. McMaster Says About President Trump (02/21/17) [15:58]
Note: I'm not sure I totally agree with the above discussion of Cabinet picks, but I always think it is important to hear all sides. I did notice that Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster never called Trump by name.

02.21.2017. 14:30

Monday February 20, 2017
News Articles
*NBC Meet The Press | Bernie Sanders Full Interview: President Trump Is A 'Pathological Liar'. (02/12/17) [6:44]
Sorry, I missed this last week. I like Bernie Sanders and think he is the only one who cares for the little guy (anyone in the 90% category).

*Tulsi Gabbard Versus "Regime Change" Wars
ZeroHedge | author | 02/20/17

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is a rare member of Congress willing to take heat for challenging U.S. "regime change" projects, in part, because as an Iraq War vet she saw the damage these schemes do, as retired Col. Ann Wright explains to ConsortiumNews.com.

I support Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, going to Syria and meeting with President Bashar al-Assad because the congresswoman is a brave person willing to take criticism for challenging U.S. policies that she believes are wrong.

It is important that we have representatives in our government who will go to countries where the United States is either killing citizens directly by U.S. intervention or indirectly by support of militia groups or by sanctions.

We need representatives to sift through what the U.S. government says and what the media reports to find out for themselves the truth, the shades of truth and the untruths. ... Read more

NBC Meet the Press | Reince Priebus: Michael Flynn 'Wasn't Straight Or Honest' (02/19/17) [6:14]
New World Order?? - Order for the Elites or the Common Man?? Who Benefits??
NBC Meet the Press | John McCain: 'I Worry About The President's Understanding' Some Issues (02/19/17) [11:54]

Trump Says There's Been No Russia Contact -- Of Course, Much Of What He Says Is Untrue
HP | S.V. Date | 02/19/17

The Republican leader of the United States Senate was asked last week if he believed the Republican president's denial that his campaign colluded with the foreign power that was trying to help him win.

Mitch McConnell's answer: "I have no idea."

His office later said that McConnell misunderstood the question ? that he thought he was being asked if he personally knew whether Trump's campaign had colluded with Russia. Regardless, McConnell's four words represent the new president's problem in a nutshell. Having made falsehoods a staple of his public discourse, Donald Trump now faces enormous hurdles in getting even his erstwhile allies to put their names behind his credibility.

Trump has made untrue statements about the size of his inauguration crowd, the "standing ovation" he received at CIA headquarters, the "millions" of "illegal" votes cast in the November election, the murder rate, the news coverage given to terror attacks, and, just Saturday at his Florida "campaign" rally, about the amount of vetting refugees trying to enter the country must undergo and about a nonexistent terror incident in Sweden. That's just a partial list, and he's only been in office a month.... Read more

Anatomy Of The Deep State: An Open Conspiracy (02/11/16) [23:03]
The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government by Mike Lofgren (2016)

Every Four years, tempers are tested and marriages fray as Americans head to the polls to cast their votes. But does anyone really care what we think? Has our vaunted political system become one big, expensive, painfully scriped reality TV show? In this cringe-inducing expose of the sins and excesses of Beltwayland, a longtime Republican party insider argues that we have become an oligarchy in form if not in name. Hooked on war, genuflecting to big donors, in thrall to discredited economic theories and utterly bereft of a moral compass, America's governing classes are selling their souls to entrenched interest while our bridges collapse, wages, stagnate, and our water is increasingly undrinkable.

Drawing on sinsights gleaned over three decades on Capitol Hill, much of it on the Budget Committee, Lofgren paints a gripping portrait of the dismal swamp on the Potomac and the revolution it will take to reclaim our government and set us back on course.
*Peter Dale Scott - Deep State: Secret Government CIA FEMA & The Doomsday Network (01/25/15) [2:04:17]
*The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy by Peter Dale Scott (2015)

This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden "deep state" that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America's increasing militarization, restrictions on constitutional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to shared sources of funding. Behind all of these commonalities is what Scott calls the deep state: a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law. With the increasing importance of Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to oil markets, American defense companies, and Wall Street itself, this essential book shows that there is now a supranational deep state, sometimes demonstrably opposed to official American policies and public interest.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "We're Not In Iraq To Seize Anybody's Oil"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/20/17

In the latest distancing by Trump administration advisors from recent statements by the President, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit on Monday to discuss the war effort against ISIS, and said that the US military is not in Iraq "to seize anybody's oil." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 20 [15:18]
**DN | "For-Profit President": A Look at How Trump Is Pushing Wholesale Corporate Takeover of the Gov't (02/20/17) [8:09]
DN | Did Jeff Sessions Foreshadow New Immigration Crackdown in a Memo Before Becoming Attorney General? (02/20/17) [5:25]
*DN | DHS Memos: Speed Up Mass Deportations & Prosecute Parents Who Help Undocumented Children Enter U.S. (02/20/17) [4:15]
Humor
LastWeekTonight with John Oliver
*John Oliver | Vladimir Putin is known as a ruthless leader and master manipulator. John Oliver enlists a group of singing dancers to explain that to Donald Trump. (02/19/17) [20:05]
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Samantha Bee | We're Still Not There: A Practical Guide to Resistance. (02/15/17) [5:42]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | This week our guests said it best. Bless you Christine Baranski, Laverne Cox, Maggie Siff, Sally Field and Bob Odenkirk. (02/18/17) [2:38]
Stephen Colbert | Moby Isn't A Credible Source, But Neither Is Kellyanne Conway. (02/18/17) [3:59]
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah | President Trump's Bats**t Press Conference (02/17/17) [5:37]
**TRNN | Matthew Fox and Paul Jay discuss -> Pope Francis Calls for Broad Front Against Tyranny and Savage Capitalism (1/2) (02/19/17) [15:17]
TRNN | Matthew Fox and Paul Jay discuss -> Steve Bannon Allies with Catholic Theo-Fascism Against Pope Francis (2/2) (02/20/17) [16:07]
*TRNN | PERI's Gerald Epstein says -> Trumponomics: Empowering Proto-Fascists (02/20/17) [8:25]
*TYT | EPA-Hating Scott Pruitt Confirmed Head Of EPA (02/18/17) [8:02]
*TYT | Trump Considering National Guard For Deportations? (02/18/17) [8:10]
TYT | You Won't Believe Who The Telecom Industry Is Bribing Now (02/19/17) [6:27]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*Inside Story | What does Michael Flynn's resignation mean for Trump? (02/14/17) [24:45]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | President Donald Trump, Sweden And Why We're 'Way Past Lines' (02/20/17) [10:47]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Kellyanne Conway Interview (02/xx/17 older) [13:37]

02.20.2017. 13:57

Friday February 17, 2017
News Articles

Trump Attacks 'Out Of Control' Media In Chaotic Press Conference
HP (and everyone else) | Christina Wilkie | 02/16/17

President Donald Trump launched a barrage of attacks on the press and leakers in an unsteady, unwieldy 77-minute press conference in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.

With his administration in crisis, Trump also defended the chaotic first month of his presidency, claiming that he had "inherited a mess" from President Barack Obama and that his administration "is running like a fine-tuned machine."

"I'm making this presentation directly to the American people with the media present ... because many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect they deserve," Trump said.... Read more

TheGuardian | Donald Trump's press conference (full) (02/17/17) [1:26:54]
C-SPAN | CLIPS: Donald Trump Press Conference (02/16/17) [15:10]
*TYT | Trump's Press Conference MELTDOWN (02/16/17) [11:32]

President Trump implodes in unhinged 77-minute press conference
Salon | Taylor Link | 02/16/17

The president held a press conference to introduce the new labor secretary pick but mostly used his time to attack the press ... Read more

TYT | Is Trump Lying About Roger Stone And Russia? (02/16/17) [7:16]

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone: I had no contact with Russian officials
Today | Kyung Kim | 02/16/17

Former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone rejected claims he had any involvement with Russian intelligence officials during or after the 2016 presidential campaign and said he welcomed a "fair, unbiased investigation" to clear his name. "Categorically, positively not," he said when asked Thursday on TODAY whether he had any regular dealings with Russians officials.

... Read more

Dow Dragged Lower By UnitedHealth After Government Sues Largest US Health Insurer
ZeroHedge | author | 02/17/17

The Dow Jones "Industrial" Average is suffering one of its worst intraday declines in weeks as a result of a 3.6% drop in UnitedHealth shares, which are sinking on news that the DOJ joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the insurer filed by a former executive claiming the country's largest health insurer overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars. ... Read more

What Is the 'Deep State' -- And Why Is It After Trump?
AlterNet | Jefferson Morley | 02/16/17

The firing of Gen. Michael Flynn has popularized the concept of the "Deep State" across the political spectrum.

Breitbart's Joel Pollak attacks the disloyal "Deep State #Resistance" to President Trump, while conservative pundit Bill Kristol defends it.

"Obviously [I] strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics," Kristol tweeted Tuesday. "But if it comes to it, [I] prefer the deep state to the Trump state." ... Read more

Aljazeera | Inside Story -> What happens to global support for two-state solution? (02/16/10) [25:30]
*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 17 [12:42]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 17 (Full) [59:02]
Some Humor
*TRNN | Economist Michael Hudson says -> IMF Lent to Greece Knowing It Could Never Pay Back Debt (02/17/17) [13:05]
TRNN | FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley says -> Did the Deep State Facilitate Flynn's Resignation? (02/17/17) [11:15]
TYT | How Many Insane Things Can Trump Say In One Press Conference? (02/16/17) [4:09]
Note: As always, I don't necessary support all the sources I include in these New Pages, but I always think it is important to listen to all (coherent) sides.
RT | CrossTalk: Flynn, Palace Coup? (02/17/17) [24:33]
RT | Trump on Russia: Getting along is great, sinking their ship is not (02/17/17) [4:53]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Trump...YUGE Gift to America's Big Oil Lobby (02/15/17) [27:47]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
The Truth About the Useless F-35 (08/18/15) [37:15]
Media News - I Do watch Some MSNBC
CNN
CNN | 'I got nothing': Panel flabbergasted by Trump's 'hour & 15 min episode' Trump reality show (02/16/17) [10:00]
CNN | Jeffrey Lord is a complete and total idiot (02/16/17) [10:00]
Some YouTube Commenter
Commenter #1: Trump is a stunningly clever media player but ultimately an extremely emotionally weak and insecure man. He is not suited at all to being president.

Commenter #2: how can these people say that he had a good news conference? I watched the whole thing and I didn't hear a complete sentence in it. I don't think he was able to keep a coherent thought at any point of his speaking.?

Commenter #3: trump accomplished two things today, distraction and vent session. Articles are surfacing US European allies' intelligence agencies intercepted information between trump's cronies and Russia starting from the summer. Europe shared their Intel with US.?
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | Joe: President Trump Is The First Sore Winner We've Ever Seen (02/17/17) [10:53]
*MSNBC Rachel Maddow | What It Looks Like When A President Fails (02/17/17) [20:24]
*MSNBC Rachel Maddow | WSJ: Intel Officials Withholding Intelligence From President Donald Trump (02/16/17) [7:41]
Right Wing News - Makes My Skin Crawl
Rush Limbaugh Radio News
RUSH | We're Not That Far From A CIVIL WAR! (02/10/17) [5:08]
InfoWars
InfoWars | Breaking: Army Admits Plan To Take Over The United States (02/15/17) [19:14]
InfoWars | Roger Stone Panicked Left Launching Civil War (02/15/17) [15:54]
InfoWars | Dr. Steve Pieczenik - Trump vs The Deep State (02/15/17) [15:24]
American News | "The Illuminati controls Trump" Alex Jones goes CRAZY and EXPOSES globalist agenda (02/12/17) [20:33]
X22Report | The 'Deep State' Soft Coup Is Now In Progress To Take Full Control Of The Country (02/14/17) [26:20]
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.

02.17.2017. 14:04

Thursday February 16, 2017
News Articles

Donald Trump declares war on his intelligence agencies over 'illegal' and 'un-American' leaks
telegraph.co.uk | David Lawler | 02/16/17

President Donald Trump has declared war on his own intelligence agencies over "un-American" and scandalous leaks, that his aides had been in "constant communication" with Russian intelligence officials during the presidential campaign.

... Hours after Michael Flynn, Mr Trump's national security adviser, resigned after misleading the White House over conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US, reports emerged that key campaign aides had also been communicating with Russian officials. ... Read more

But...the F35 fighter uses more than 900lbs of Chinese Rare Earth Elements!

According to reports, under Obama, the Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track.
*A Bit of Humor
Vox | Kellyanne Conway's interview tricks, explained (02/13/17) [6:31]
Watching Conway do backflips to avoid answering simple questions is fascinating and occasionally entertaining, but it doesn't provide viewers with useful information about what the Trump administration is doing or intends to do. And it should raise questions about what the purpose of interviewing an administration official actually is.

Meet The Man Behind The Market's Relentless Ramp
ZeroHedge | author | 02/16/17

In an ironic twist of fate, it appears the catalyst for many of the biggest and most incomprehensible market ramps of the last few years is a fund called "Catalyst." With around $4 billion under management (before the latest collapse), the levered options fund is run by Edward Walczak who "uses options to create a better risk/return profile." ... Read more

J Is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception by Michael Hudson (02/21/17)

J IS FOR JUNK ECONOMICS is an A-to-Z guide that explains how the world economy really works - and who the winners and losers are. The book includes more than 400 concise and acerbic entries, several essays, and a full topic index. Expanding on KILLING THE HOST: HOW FINANCIAL PARASITES AND DEBT DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Prof. Hudson's new book covers contemporary terms that are misleading or poorly understood as well as many important concepts that have been abandoned - many on purpose - from the long history of political economy.

Two key concepts are RENT THEORY and DEBT, which explain how Unearned Income and the Financial Sector impoverish governments and populations the world over as power and riches flow upward into the hands of the few. Several additional essays provide background for key points and explore today's uncertain political and economic environment.

To understand what's really going on, it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel; the major issues that guide healthy economies were known to the Ancients and were expanded upon by the classical economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, E. Peshine Smith, Simon Patten, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, and others of many political stripes whose aim was to leave the brutal legacy of feudalism behind. Their ideas and principles are brought back into the spotlight here. It is hoped that this book will deconstruct today's "value-free," watered-down and deceptive economics that favor the wealthy, allowing the next generation to create a successful economy with proper checks and balances that will benefit everyone. This is a book you will want to refer to again and again.
The Race To The Bottom: Why A Worldwide Worker Surplus And Uncontrolled Free Trade Are Sinking American Living Standards by Alan Tonelson

A leading economic journalist explains why Washington's responses to globalization have created a global worker surplus that undermines both American workers and those in developing nations.







Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 16 [14:17]
*DN | Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 16 (full) [59:02]
*TRNN | Whistleblower Coleen Rowley says -> Did the Deep State Facilitate Flynn's Resignation? (02/16/17) [11:15]
TRNN | CEPR's Dean Baker says -> Upward Distribution of Wage Income Behind Social Security's Shortfall (02/16/17) [12:16]
TRNN | In the Trump Era, Is Canada's Trade Relationship with the U.S. a Blessing or a Curse? (02/16/17) [16:41]
*TYT | Trump Furious At Leakers For Exposing Russia Ties (02/15/17) [8:36]
TYT | Sinking Trump Ship Plagued By Leaks, Possibly Moles... (02/15/17) [10:58]
TYT | Trump Filibusters When Asked About Rising Anti-Semitism (02/15/17) [4:64]
TYT | Netanyahu Laughs At Trump's Peace Plan (02/15/17) [13:11]
*RT | Keiser Report: Trump's First Hundred Hours (E1033) (02/16/17) [25:45]
Max and Stacy discuss fast trains and high-speed rail presidents. In the second half, Max interviews Dr Michael Hudson, author of J is for Junk Economics, about the fake economy, the binned TPP trade deal and Trump: the first hundred hours.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | What The Flynn Disaster Reveals... (02/14/17) [11:12]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | Massive Purge Of Intel Community, Leakers Possible After Mike Flynn Situation (02/16/17) [14:32]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Physical Abuse A Sensitive White House Theme (02/16/17) [21:50]

02.16.2017. 10:31

Wednesday February 15, 2017
News Articles

Trump Ties to Infrastructure Advisers Roth and LeFrak Run Deep
Bloomberg | Satah Mulholland | 02/15/17

Donald Trump didn't look very far when searching for infrastructure advisers. He turned to two Manhattan real estate developers he has known for decades, Richard LeFrak and Steven Roth.

LeFrak, a billionaire whose New York roots mirror Trump's own, and Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, one of the city's largest landlords, will spearhead a committee dedicated to one of the new administration's signature campaign pledges. Trump's relationships with the two men, who will lead a council of builders and engineers to monitor spending, crisscross New York in a web of personal and professional ties. ... Read more

Goldman Sachs Stock Hits Record on Bet Trump Will Unleash Wall Street

Goldman Warns of China Economy Risks During Year of the Rooster
Bloomberg | Enda Curran | 02/14/17

China's economy may have slipped down the global worry list, but significant risks remain, including an abrupt end to a massive credit boom or an overly aggressive policy response if inflation should speed up, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

While a hard landing isn't the New York-based bank's base case for 2017 -- it expects only a modest slowdown -- economists warn that a push to rein in cheap loans will weigh on key sectors such as housing. Officials are trying to keep a lid on frothy house prices without harming the wider economy, where growth remains heavily reliant on government spending. ... Read more

RT | Toxic uranium admission: Pentagon confirms to RT use of depleted uranium in Syria (02/14/17) [2:46]
Note: I don't particularly like, or watch, Fox News, but I do think there are really tough questions that need to be discussed out in the open, supported by real facts, not ALTERNATIVE FACTS. Then with real facts a well informed decission/policy can be made.
Fox News | Retired Marine's message about travel ban goes viral (02/10/17) [6:00]
Note: I don't particularly like, or watch, Fox News, but I do think there are really tough questions that need to be discussed out in the open, supported by real facts, not ALTERNATIVE FACTS. Then with real facts a well informed decission/policy can be made.
Fox News | Retired Marine's message about travel ban goes viral (02/10/17) [6:00]

Biggest EU Banks Embark on the Mother of All Debt Binges
wolfstreet.com | Don Quijones | 02/14/17

Spain's three biggest banks, Banco Santander, BBVA and Caixa Bank, have got off to a flying start this year having issued €8.6 billion in new debt, seven times the amount they sold during the same period of last year. The last time they rolled out so much debt so quickly was in 2007, the year that Spain's spectacular real estate bubble reached its climactic peak. ...

... This newfangled class of bail-in-able debt was cooked up last year by French-based financial engineers in order to help France's four global systemically important banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Groupe BPCE and Société Générale) out of a serious quandary: how to satisfy pending European and global regulations demanding much larger capital and debt buffers without having to pay investors costly returns on the billions of euros of funds they lend them to do so. ... Read more

Ocean Pollution: 'Extraordinary' Levels Of Contamination Found At Deepest Parts Of Ocean Inside Fish, Shrimp
ibtimes.com | Juliana Rose Pignataro | 02/13/17

Manmade pollution has made its way to the furthest reaches of the planet, according to scientists. Researchers found 'extraordinary' amounts of the banned chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, more than 36,000 feet down in the ocean.

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom studied shrimp-like creatures called amphipods residing in the depths of the Mariana Trench, almost seven miles down, during two expeditions in 2014. The team found concentrations of PCBs 50 times greater than those found in animals living in surface waters, according to a study published Monday in Nature, Ecology and Evolution. ... Read more

China Just Created A Record $540 Billion In Debt In One Month
ZeroHedge | author | 02/14/17

One week ago, Deutsche Bank analysts warned that the global economic boom is about to end for one reason that has nothing to do with Trump, and everything to do with China's relentless debt injections. As DB's Oliver Harvey said, "attention has focused on President Trump, but developments on the other side of the world may prove more important. At the beginning of 2016, China embarked on its latest fiscal stimulus funded from local government land sales and a booming property market. The Chinese business cycle troughed shortly thereafter and has accelerated rapidly since." ... Read more

*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 15 [13:59]
DN | Criminalization & Trump's ICE Raids: Two Immigrant Rights Organizers Facing Deportation Speak Out (02/14/17) [14:22]
DN | The Predatory Mindset of Donald Trump: An Interview With Eve Ensler & Christine Schuler Deschryver (02/14/17) [25:30]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Michael Flynn's White House Tenure: It's Funny 'Cause It's Treason' (02/15/17) [8:15]
Stephen Colbert | Cartoon Donald Trump Gets Tucked Into Bed By Steve Bannon (02/11/17) [1:10]
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah/Daily Show | General Flynn Gets The Boot (02/15/17) [4:44]
Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Profiles in Tremendousness - Senior Adviser Stephen Miller (0214/17) [6:12]
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah http://therealnews.com/
TRNN | AlterNet Ben Norton says -> Flynn's Resignation Won't Stop Trump Admin. From Targeting Iran. (02/14/17) [9:44]
TYT | Kellyanne Conway Can't Take Much More Of This... (02/14/17) [9:52]
TYT | Michael Flynn Resigns Amid Russia Scandal (02/14/17) [4:35]
TYT | Russia Still Has Plenty Of Friends In Trump Administration (02/14/17) [6:53]
TYT | Russia Violates Missile Treaty, Trump Silent... (02/14/17) [5:34]
Note: As always, I don't necessary support all the sources I include in these New Pages, but I always think it is important to listen to all (coherent) sides.
RT | CrossTalk: Steve Bannon (02/15/17) [26:41]
RT | Keiser Report: Banks appeased, crocodiles feasting (E1032) (02/14/17) [25:45]
Max and Stacy discuss how Deutsche Bank made $462 million disappear through the magic of derivatives. In the second half, Max interviews Trond Andresen, who campaigned long ago to keep Norway out of the euro, to discuss the anti-EU mood across Europe and how the rancor could save the euro... should anyone want to save it.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Aljazeera | Inside Story -> What does Michael Flynn's resignation mean for Trump? (02/14/10) [24:45]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | Mika: Michael Flynn Fallout 'Looks Like The Steps Leading To A Total Meltdown' (02/15/10) [17:33]

02.15.2017. 10:30

Tuesday February 14, 2017
News Articles

Donald Trump's white nationalist "genius bar": Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Michael "Decius" Anton and beyond
Salon | Chauncey Devega | 02/14/17

Donald Trump's administration is built around a brain trust of white nationalists. To deny that fact is to ignore a crucial element of this national crisis: America's "greatest generation" defeated Nazism during World War II, and 70 or so years later one of the country's two leading political parties has injected a more polite version of that poison into its veins and rode to power in Washington on a wave of bigotry and racism.

Among the men who have President Trump's ear, we find White House strategist Steve Bannon, senior adviser Stephen Miller, deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka and newly installed Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ... Read more

Banksters | Robo-Signing
DEFINITION of 'Robo-Signer' An employee of a mortgage servicing company that signs foreclosure documents without reviewing them. Rather than actually reviewing the individual details of each case, robo-signers assume the paperwork to be correct and sign it automatically, like robots.
WSJ | This week, mortgage-servicing giant GMAC Mortgage Co. halted | Robbie Whelan | 09/22/10 (article)
*60Minutes | The next housing shock, Bank Fraud Robo Signing for Forclosure (06/13/11) [14:06]

Income share for the bottom 50% of Americans is 'collapsing,' new Piketty research finds
Click to zoom in marketwatch.com | Steve Goldstein | 02/07/17

A new research paper from economists including Thomas Piketty finds that the bottom 50%'s share of income in the United States is "collapsing."

In the U.S., between 1978 and 2015, the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 12% from 20%. Total real income for that group fell 1% during that time period. ... Read more

*Jim Rickards Explains the Global Elite's 'Ice-9' Plan to Freeze The Entire Financial System (02/07/17) [40:52]
The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis by James Rickards (2016)

A drumbeat is sounding among the global elites. The signs of a worldwide financial meltdown are unmistakable. This time, the elites have an audacious plan to protect themselves from the fallout: hoarding cash now and locking down the global financial system when a crisis hits.

Since 2014, international monetary agencies have been issuing warnings to a small group of finance ministers, banks, and private equity funds: the U.S. government's cowardly choices not to prosecute J.P. Morgan and its ilk, and to bloat the economy with a $4 trillion injection of easy credit, are driving us headlong toward a cliff.

As Rickards shows in this frightening, meticulously researched book, governments around the world have no compunction about conspiring against their citizens. They will have stockpiled hard assets when stock exchanges are closed, ATMs shut down, money market funds frozen, asset managers instructed not to sell securities, negative interest rates imposed, and cash withdrawals denied.

If you want to plan for the risks ahead, you will need Rickards's cutting-edge synthesis of behavioral economics, history, and complexity theory. It's a guidebook to thinking smarter, acting faster, and living with the comfort­ing knowledge that your wealth is secure.

The global elites don't want this book to exist. Their plan to herd us like sheep to the slaughter when a global crisis erupts -- and, of course, to maintain their wealth -- works only if we remain complacent and unaware. Thanks to The Road to Ruin, we don't need to be.
The Road to Ruin: Global Elite's 'Ice-9' Plan to Freeze (Google sample)

Jim Rogers: "We're About To Have The Worst Economic Problems Of A Lifetime, A Lot Of People Will Disappear"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/12/17

"Get prepared," warns billionaire commodity guru Jim Rogers, "because we're going to have the worst economic problems in your lifetime and a lot of people are going to disappear." In this wide-ranging interview with MacroVoices' Erik Townsend, the investing legend discusses everything from whether Russia is being scapegoated ("yes, ask Victoria Nuland"), the war against cash ("governments love it... they want to control everything"), to his views on gold and the demise of freedom. ... Read more
*MacroVoices | Erik Townsend & Patrick Ceresna -> Jim Rogers - Macro Outlook in the Trump Era (02/09/15) [1:08:00]

*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 14 [13:24]
*DN | Pipeline Partners: Trudeau & Trump Meet as They Push for Keystone XL & Other Big Oil Projects (02/14/17) [12:50]
*DN | FCC Under Trump: Net Neutrality & Internet Freedom Faces New Attack (02/14/17) [8:35]
*Keith Olbermann | Michael Flynn Must Now Be Arrested (#32 ) (02/13/15) [5:52]
*TRNN | Bill Black says -> Steve Mnuchin, Who Played Key Role in Foreclosure Crisis, Confirmed As Treasury Secretary (02/14/17) [12:03]
*TRNN | Col. Larry Wilkerson says -> How Trump Could Widen Divisions Within the Republican Party (02/14/17) [9:14]
TYT | America's Child Marriage Problem (02/13/17) [7:18]
TYT | LEAKED: "Being President Is Harder Than Trump Thought" (02/13/17) [11:07]
TYT | Why Is Everyone But Trump Freaking Out In This Picture? (02/13/17) [10:02]
RT | Keiser Report: China's 'Debt Trap Diplomacy' (E1031) (02/11/17) [25:45]
Max and Stacy discuss China's 'debt trap diplomacy' and Goldman Sachs conspiracies. In the second half, Max continues his interview with Jim Rickards, author of The Road to Ruin, about Donald Trump's economic policies so far.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
*MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | 'Free Agent' Kellyanne Conway Has 'Been Out Of The Loop For Months' (02/14/17) [10:56]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Michael Flynn Resignation 'Almost Unbelievably Dramatic' (02/13/17) [5:34]
CNN
CNN Anderson Cooper | Trump Was Warned Flynn Could Be Blackmailed By Russia, Ignored Warnings (02/13/17) [14:14]

02.14.2017. 11:25

Monday February 13, 2017
News Articles
TOP STORIES
  1. HOW THE GRAMMYS GOT POLITICAL The 59th annual Grammys had a political undertone, from host James Corden's jokes and Katy Perry's "Persist" armband to Busta Rhymes' commentary. The highlight of the night was Beyoncé killing her epic performance, which showcased her growing pregnancy. Twitter lost its mind after she brought the house down. Adele even gave her half of her award for Album of the Year, saying the queen should have won for "Lemonade." Check out the full list of winners, as well as a breakdown of the pretty insane fashion rocked last night. [HuffPost]
  2. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP YET TO DEFEND MIKE FLYNN The National Security Adviser's tenure is increasingly "tenuous" as the White House has yet to make a statement following reports of Flynn's contact with Russia. And here's where this leaves the National Security Council. [NYT]
  3. RESIDENTS ORDERED TO EVACUATE AREA BELOW DAMAGED CALIFORNIA DAM At least 188,000 have been evacuated from Northern California as the Lake Oroville Dam, which is the tallest in the U.S., is in danger of "imminent collapse." [Reuters]
  4. NORTH KOREA SAYS IT SUCCESSFULLY TESTED MISSILE The country announced Monday that it had successfully launched a new type of medium-to-long-range ballistic missile. Here are the options Trump has for responding. [HuffPost]
  5. NOR'EASTER TO PUMMEL NORTHEAST Thousands of flights are expected to be canceled at the storm barrels through New England. [Reuters]
  6. REPORT: RUSSIA MAY 'RETURN' SNOWDEN AS A 'GIFT' Intelligence officials believe the handover would be to "curry favor" with Trump. Edward Snowden's response? "Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they're next." [HuffPost]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's job security in jeopardy
CBS | Major Garrett | 02/12/17

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's job security is in jeopardy, CBS News has learned, and White House policy adviser Stephen Miller's studied non-defense of Flynn illustrates a new level of isolation from Trump and his inner circle.

Flynn's deception about conversations with the Russian ambassador about Obama administration sanctions have deeply soured his relationship with Vice President Mike Pence. Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation describe Pence as aggravated by Flynn's decision to deceive Pence -- forcing him to say things on Flynn's behalf on "Face The Nation" and other shows that have proven to be untrue. Pence relied on Flynn's representations and feels burned, the sources said.? ... Read more

TYT | Cenk Uygur's Rousing Speech On Getting Money Out of Politics (02/12/17) [45:13]
Syria
*RT | Syria Special: Is Assad winning, Amnesty Intl Allegations & MSM myth-busting (02/11/15) [28:25]
We speak to Charles Glass, award winning foreign correspondent who spent his career on the ground in the Middle East about the turning tide in Syria. We talk to Amnesty International about the timing of their new report containing allegations against President Assad's government.
*Yahoo News | Bashar al-Assad Interview (full) (02/09/17) [33:37]
Stolen childhood: Syrian children growing up with war (promo) (02/11/17) [2:24]
*Growing up with War: Children of Syria. The tragedy of kids who have never known peace. (full) (02/13/17) [26:46]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 13 [13:10]
*DN | Saru Jayaraman: Trump Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder Does Not Respect Women At All (02/13/17) [10:39]
DN | Secretary of Labor Violations? Opposition Grows to the Nomination of Fast-Food CEO Andy Puzder (02/13/17) [7:36]
*DN | California vs. Trump: Lawmakers Push to Become "Sanctuary State" Despite Threats from Washington (02/13/17) [8:40]
HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
*John Oliver | Trump vs. Truth (02/12/17) [23:49]
*TRNN | Public Citizen Lobbyist Craig Holman says -> Kellyanne Conway Broke the Law (02/12/17) [15:58]
*TRNN Empire Files | Abby Martin interviews Mark Ames -> Post-Soviet Russia, Made in the U.S.A. (02/13/17) [27:13]
*TYT | Report: Trump Advisor Lied About Russia (02/10/17) [8:24]
*TYT | CNN Host To Kellyanne Conway: Why Does Trump Lie So Much? (02/11/17) [7:08]
TYT | THOUSANDS Killed In Mass Executions (02/12/17) [7:38]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Fukushima Is Still Melting Down... (02/10/17) [11:07]

Fukushima
BeyondNuclear.org | "Nearly 700,000 tons of radioactive water stored at Fukushima plant" (2015) (article)

As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, 700,000 tons of highly contaminated radioactive water has accumulated in temporary storage tanks at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The figure grows by several hundred tons per day.

This means an additional 1,000-ton, 30-foot tall storage tank must be added every few days. More than a thousand such tanks now exist at the site.

700,000 tons of contaminated water is equal to more than 188 million U.S. gallons.

As the article reports, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) claims that most of the stored wastewater has already been processed by its ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System), as of May 2015.

However, the ALPS had suffered numerous breakdowns, and even leaks into the environment, over the past several years. Also, ALPS only filters out 60-some of the radioactive substances in the wastewater. There are a couple hundred radioactive substances contaminating the water.

One of the hazardous radioactive substances that cannot be filtered out is tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Tepco wants to simply dump the massive amount of tritium into the Pacific, but Japanese fishermen have resisted the plan for years.

Another unresolved question is where the 60-odd radioactive substances filtered out of the wastewater by ALPS will be stored or dumped.
BeyondNuclear.org | Contaminated Ground Water Flows into the Pacific Ocean Every Day

80-100 thousand gallons of contaminated ground water flows into the Pacific Ocean every day
BeyondNuclear.org | Cost of Fukushima disaster expected to soar to ¥20 trillion (11/30/16)

Â¥20 trillion equates to about $180 billion in U.S. currency. Please note, however, the full cost accounting to increase the expenses for dealing with the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe's ongoing aftermath to more than $500 billion, by some estimates.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

02.13.2017. 15:26

Friday February 10, 2017
News Articles

CNN and sticking to your guns: A lamentation by Bill Moyers
Salon | Bill Moyers | 02/10/17

I thought CNN was taking a courageous stand against White House lies. I was mistaken

Well, I certainly got that one wrong. Based on news reports, and after two phone calls to check them out, on Tuesday I wrote a column saluting Jake Tapper and CNN for saying, "No!" to Kellyanne Conway when the White House offered her up as a guest for Tapper's Sunday program. Except for Fox and Breitbart, I said, no news organization had been more useful to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy than CNN, but now it appeared they were fed up with serving as a springboard for the lies tossed around like grenades by Trump's propaganda minions -- most notably Ms. Conway, the president's senior adviser who doubles, I pointed out (with apologies to my late Baptist deacon father for the language) as the administration's official Queen of Bullshit. ... Read more

Saudi Arabia has twice as many UK-made warplanes than the Royal Air Force.
*MSNBC Morning Joe | Kellyanne Conway 'Doesn't Respect The Lines' (02/10/17) [12:13]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Court Hands President Donald Trump A Loss And A Lesson On Ban (02/10/17) [9:45]

*A winter of blazing discontent continues in the arctic
Salon | Brian Kahn, Climate Central | 02/10/17

The Arctic is in crisis and is the most dramatic example of how carbon pollution is reshaping the planet

Weird. Strange. Extreme. Unprecedented. These are some of the words that describe what's been happening in the Arctic over the past year as surge after surge of warm air have stalled, and at times reversed, sea ice pack growth. And the unfortunate string of superlatives is set to continue this week.

Arctic sea ice is already sitting at a record low for this time of year and a powerful North Atlantic storm is expected to open the flood gates and send more warmth pouring into the region from the lower latitudes. By Thursday, it could reach up to 50°F above normal. In absolute temperature, that's near the freezing point and could further spur a decline in sea ice. ... Read more

Keith Olbermann | Life in Trump's America Just Got Worse for Your Pet (#31) (02/09/17) [5:47]

Trump's imaginary America is a realm of crime and depravity -- but he can find that stuff closer to home
Salon | Gary Legum | 02/10/17

The president's new orders on crime and law enforcement offer only empty symbolism -- but real people will get hurt/p>

On Thursday, President Trump signed three executive orders related to law enforcement. As with some of his past orders, this latest round seemed partly like a publicity stunt, designed more to make him look busy while having little practical effect in reality. Since he signed them during a ceremony to swear in Jeff Sessions as the nation's new attorney general, one could say they are the equivalent of giving a new employee his marching orders just before showing him to his desk on his first day of work.

On the surface, these orders would not seem to do much. One order directs Sessions to appoint someone to run the generically named Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety. A second directs federal agencies to review ongoing efforts pursuing international drug cartels and criminal syndicates to make sure they are sufficiently effective, and to report back to Trump in a few months on the results. The third order could be called the "Blue Lives Matter" EO, and it mostly tells Sessions to make extra-double-sure that federal and local laws against harming law enforcement personnel are adequate, and to recommend whether penalties for violence against authorities should be made more harsh. ... Read more

Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation at highest level since 2011 meltdown
theguardian.com | author | 02/03/17

Extremely high radiation levels have been recorded inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, almost six years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown.

The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant -- a process that is expected to take about four decades. ... Read more

*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 10 [14:37]
*DN | See the Signs of Terror: Journalists Call on Trump to Condemn White Supremacist-Led Attacks & Plots (02/10/17) [19:03]
*DN | Court Refuses to Reinstate Trump's Muslim Ban, Says "No Evidence" of Attacks from 7 Listed Countries (02/10/17) [16:34]
Humor in the News
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Senator Elizabeth Warren Reacts to Being Silenced (02/09/17) [5:51]
TYT | Kellyanne Conway Turns News Into Ivanka Commercial (02/09/17) [8:18]
*TYT | Trump Gets Tough On Crime (02/09/17) [16:03]
TYT | Bronx School Lead Levels SIXTEEN TIMES Higher Than FLINT (02/09/17) [7:03
TYT | Will Judge Block DAPL Construction? (02/09/17) [7:31]
TYT | John McCain: Trump's Raid Was A Failure (02/09/17) [9:34]
TYT | Trump At Odds With Supreme Court Nominee? (02/09/17) [13:17]
RT | Keiser Report: Trump/Abe Golf Diplomacy (E1030) (02/09/17) [25:43]
Max and Stacy discuss Trump's bilateral deals with Japan as he and Shinzo Abe hit the golf course. In the second half, Max interviews Jim Rickards, author of The Road to Ruin, about Donald Trump's political shock and awe - are we on the road to ruin?
Note: I don't necessarily believe in everything RT pumps out, but I always think it is valuable to see what other people are saying around the world. Everything seems to be all over the board.
RT | CrossTalk: Trump's Battles (02/09/17) [24:33]
It was an unusual campaign and now Donald Trump's style as president is equally unusual. Will he eventually be forced to govern through executive orders? Will the GOP get in line? And will he be allowed to recast American foreign policy?
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | The Witch Hunt For Climate Scientists (02/09/17) [12:27]
Noam Chomsky
*TRNN | Chris Hedges: Interview with Noam Chomsky (01/20/17) [55:08]
TRNN | Noam Chomsky - Changing Contours of Global Order (01/17/17) [1:17:37]
Search for Noam Chomsky name:
  1. Google Search Results: About 10,600,000 results
  2. YouTube Search Results: About 482,000 results
  3. YouTube Search Results over 20 minutes... meaning significant lectures: About 482,000 filtered results
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

02.10.2017. 13:31

Thursday February 09, 2017
News Articles
CNN Debate | Ted Cruz vs Bernie Sanders Debate the Future of Obamacare (02/07/17) [1:59:07]

Leaks Suggest Trump's Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
Reuters & HP | S.V. Date | 02/07/17

President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one that's good for the economy? Or a weak one? So he made a call ? except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynn's accounts of the incident.

Flynn has a long record in counterintelligence but not in macroeconomics. And he told Trump he didn't know, that it wasn't his area of expertise, that, perhaps, Trump should ask an economist instead.

Trump was not thrilled with that response, but that may have been a function of the time of day. Trump had placed the call at 3 a.m., according to one of Flynn's retellings, although neither the White House nor Flynn's office responded to requests for confirmation about that detail. ... Read more

MSNBC Today | ornadoes Rip Across South; Louisiana Governor Declares State Of Emergency (02/08/17) [2:29]

Wall Street's Best Friend Trump Aims to Dismantle Dodd-Frank, Which Protects Millions of Americans from Fraud
AlterNet | David Dayen / The American Prospect | 02/08/17

History teaches us that financial regulations die from a thousand cuts rather than a signifying event. As Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova puts it, "Financial reform is like a big onion. The more layers you peel off, the harder you cry."

For example, by the time the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law removed the Glass-Steagall firewall between commercial and investment banks in 1999, that separation was already effectively wiped out--by administrative waivers granted by regulators. The 1994 Riegle-Neal Act that formally allowed banks to open branches across state lines came after a decade of states altering rules to undermine local control of finance. Deregulation of mortgage rules that led to the housing bubble rolled out over a 20-year period, spanning Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. And even then, it took the George W. Bush administration's laissez-faire supervision to really supercharge predatory lending. ... Read more

Keith Olbermann | The Travesties Done in Your Name and Mine (#30) (02/08/17) [3:43]

Five Charts That Say All Is Not Well in Markets
Bloomberg | Tracy Alloway | 02/06/17/span>

A former TV star as U.S. president doesn't seem to have injected markets with much of a ''fear factor.'' But digging beneath the surface of an eight-year bull run exposes subtle signs that hint at an uneasy optimism.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has sailed past 20,000 and the S&P 500 is nearing its life-time high set in January, indicating that investors have so far shrugged off the uncertainty brought by the new administration. But, here are five charts that suggest all is not well in markets. ... Read more

Harry Dent: Stocks Will Fall 70-90% Within 3 Years
peakprosperity.com | author | 01/30/17

All four of the cycles I track point down now. One after the next has peaked in the last several years. All four point down into early 2020 or so. That's only happened in the early to mid-'70s when we had the worst stock crashes back then, the OPEC embargo, etc -- the worst set of crises since the 1930s.

The next three years are likely to be the worst we see in our lifetimes. It will be more like the early 1930s when stocks hit a debt bubble and financial asset bubbles crashed, which they only do once in a lifetime such as the early 1930s. Stocks will be down 70, 80, 90% -- that's to be as expected in this stage of the cycle after such a bubble. ... Read more
Harry Dent: Stocks Will Fall 70-90% Within 3 Years (01/30/17) [44:31]

*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 09 [13:27]
*DN | "These Are Not Normal Times": Hundreds of NYC Students Walk Out to Protest Trump & DeVos (02/09/17) [3:53]
DN | Human Slaughterhouse: Amnesty International Says Up to 13,000 Hanged at Syrian Prison (02/09/17) [15:19]
Amnesty International has released a shocking report claiming as many as 13,000 people--mostly civilians--have been hanged in a Syrian government military prison in recent years. Amnesty accuses the Assad government of running a human slaughterhouse and engaging in a deliberate policy of extermination by hanging thousands of civilians at a prison near Damascus. Amnesty says the killings amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. We speak to the co-author of the report, Nicolette Waldman, an Amnesty International researcher specializing in detention issues.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | President Trump Is Using His Office To Protect His Family's Businesses (02/09/17) [10:55]
Stephen Colbert | Jake Tapper's Job Isn't To Be Liked (02/09/17) [8:03]
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Samantha Bee | Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Sanctuary Cities (02/08/17) [8:12]
Samantha Bee | CNN Had It In Them the Whole Time (02/08/17) [4:47]
*TRNN | Dr. Stephen Cohen tells host Abby Martin -> US-Russia Relations in "Most Dangerous Moment" (02/09/17) [22:15]
TRNN | Billions Divested from Banks Backing Dakota Access Pipeline (02/09/17) [6:34]
*TYT | Trump: Nobody's Complaining About DAPL (02/08/17) [5:46]
TYT | Trump Throws Tantrum After Nordstrom Drops (02/08/17) [12:21]
TYT | Trump's Lawyers Unprepared For Muslim Ban (02/08/17) [9:11]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

02.09.2017. 13:08

Wednesday February 08, 2017
News Articles

WATCH: Jake Tapper Hammers Kellyanne Conway in Heated New Interview
Salon & AlterNet | Taylor Link / Salon | 02/08/17

On Monday, legendary news anchor Dan Rather singled out CNN's Jake Tapper as today's journalistic standard. On Tuesday, Tapper showed off his talent in a 25-minute, wide-ranging showdown with White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway

After Conway fabricated a terror attack -- the so-called Bowling Green massacre -- to justify a constitutionally-questionable travel ban, Tapper confidently held the high ground in the interview. "You cited a massacre that didn't happen. You said the media didn't cover it," Tapper said. ... Read more

MNN NYC | Jake Tapper Confronts Kellyanne Conway for WH Claims on Media Terror Coverage: Facts harmful (02/07/17) [11:44]
Stephan Colbert | John Oliver: Trump's Election Was the Exactly the Trainwreck 'I Thought It Was Going to Be' () [6:32]
Note: I read this YouTube comment several days ago and decided to copy it here... it seemed so appropriate.

Indeed, the Middle East conflicts were originated by the British and were taken over by the US. Evidently, you don't even know what the "old Middle East" is, for if you did, you'd know that Middle East in its current format was curved out of the Ottoman empire by the British after the WWI. Britain carved small countries based on oil reserves and ethnicity out of what was left of Ottoman empire and it pitted different ethnicities against each other, so they would have to rely on the British to be protected against each other. In some cases they put minorities in charge of majorities (e.g. Sunnis in Iraq and Bahrain, and Alawites in Syria...) to be able to control their respective societies! After the WWII the Americans made a pact with the Saudis to maintain the "petrodollar" for US protection of their regime against both internal dissent, and external threat. That is why the US ignores Saudi involvement in most terrorist activities such as 9-11 and support for ISIS! FWI, the old "Middle East" primarily consisted of Ottoman empire before the British took it apart.?

Elizabeth Warren Silenced on Senate Floor for Reading Words of Coretta Scott King
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 02/08/17

Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the Senate floor Tuesday night in an unprecedented act of Republican censure. She had been reading a letter from Coretta Scott King criticizing the civil rights record of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Trump's cabinet appointee for attorney general.

"Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge," Warren said, citing the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. ... Read more

*Fukushima, Japan
BeyondNuclear.org | 'Fukushima catastrophe ongoing: Leakage on a daily basis' (02/06/17)

RT interviews Beyond Nuclear on recent measurements showing 53,000 Rem per hour (deadly to humans within a minute or less, at close range, in the absence of radiation shielding), or higher, radiation dose rates in the melted down Unit 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. (The interview includes a section about the chronic, and acute, leaks of radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean from the site.
BeyondNuclear.org | Fate of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant remains unknown (01/03/17)
BeyondNuclear.org | "Nearly 700,000 tons of radioactive water stored at Fukushima plant" (2015) (article)

As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, 700,000 tons of highly contaminated radioactive water has accumulated in temporary storage tanks at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The figure grows by several hundred tons per day.

This means an additional 1,000-ton, 30-foot tall storage tank must be added every few days. More than a thousand such tanks now exist at the site.

700,000 tons of contaminated water is equal to more than 188 million U.S. gallons.

As the article reports, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) claims that most of the stored wastewater has already been processed by its ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System), as of May 2015.

However, the ALPS had suffered numerous breakdowns, and even leaks into the environment, over the past several years. Also, ALPS only filters out 60-some of the radioactive substances in the wastewater. There are a couple hundred radioactive substances contaminating the water.

One of the hazardous radioactive substances that cannot be filtered out is tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Tepco wants to simply dump the massive amount of tritium into the Pacific, but Japanese fishermen have resisted the plan for years.

Another unresolved question is where the 60-odd radioactive substances filtered out of the wastewater by ALPS will be stored or dumped.
BeyondNuclear.org | Contaminated Ground Water Flows into the Pacific Ocean Every Day

80-100 thousand gallons of contaminated ground water flows into the Pacific Ocean every day
BeyondNuclear.org | Cost of Fukushima disaster expected to soar to ¥20 trillion (11/30/16)

Â¥20 trillion equates to about $180 billion in U.S. currency. Please note, however, the full cost accounting to increase the expenses for dealing with the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe's ongoing aftermath to more than $500 billion, by some estimates.

Alex Jones' Former Editor Trashes Him as a Trump Sellout and Snake Oil Salesman
Media Matters & AlterNet | Eric Hananoki / Media Matters | 02/08/17

Kurt Nimmo, a longtime former editor for Alex Jones' Infowars.com, has been publicly trashing his ex-boss as a "snake oil salesman" who sold out to support President Donald Trump.

Alex Jones and his Infowars.com are known for pushing conspiracy theories, including claiming the government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the tragedies at Columbine, Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon, among others.

The site's editor, Paul Joseph Watson, apparently has no editorial standards and has repeatedly posted fraudulent information. Jones recently announced that the purported news organization would be attending White House press briefings and that it had hired widely discredited reporter Jerome Corsi as its D.C. correspondent. ... Read more
Truth Seeker | Alex Jones (InfoWars) Talkes: Fake News, George Soros, Megyn Kelly Exposed (02/03/17) [22:19]

*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, February 08 [13:00]
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann | The 50 Craziest Things Trump Has Done As President (#29) (02/07/17) [9:37]
*TRNN | Sierra Club's Jack Darin and PEER's Jeff Ruch say: EPA Employees Speak Out Against Pruitt and Trump's Anti-Science Agenda (02/08/17) [13:09]
*TRNN | Karen Dolan says: Betsy Devos is likely to seek the rollback of protections for children in public schools and pursue pro-charter policy without adequate accountability standards (02/07/17) [13:08]
*TYT | CNN Host BLASTS Kellyanne Conway On Terrorism Hypocrisy (02/07/17) [7:06]
TYT | Dollar ALREADY Going Down Under Trump (02/04/17) [3:50]
TYT | Historic Vote Confirms Betsy DeVos (02/07/17) [12:40]
TYT | Big Problems Brewing Between Trump And California... (02/07/17) [12:40]
*RT | Kevin Kamps from BeyondNuclear.org -> Radiation at Fukushima at highest level since meltdown (02/06/17) [5:26]
Radiation levels at one of Fukushima's power stations is at its highest level since the tsunami-triggered meltdown almost six years ago, TEPCO reports. Safely dismantling the plant will prove an enormous challenge and is made even more difficult by this discovery.
Kevin Kamps Beyond Nuclear website
RT | Keiser Report: Topsy--Turvy World (E1029) (02/07/17) [25:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Please Welcome President Steve Bannon (02/07/17) [12:16]
*Aljazeera | Inside Story -> Is Russia testing Donald Trump in eastern Ukraine? (02/05/10) [25:00]
Aljazeera | What's changing the Antarctic sea ice conditions? (02/08/10) [3:07]
Aljazeera | Canada's Dark Secret - The story of Canada's residential school system and the indigenous survivors who bear witness to its abuses. (02/07/10) [47:30]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Economist Richard Wolff
MNN NYC | Richard Wolff: Economic Update With Richard Wolff: Trump, Wall Street, Goldman Sachs (01/25/17) [58:00]
MNN NYC | Richard Wolff: Donald Trump and Mexico (01/31/17) [58:00]

02.08.2017. 13:22

Tuesday February 07, 2017
News Articles

Mike Pence Breaks Senate Tie to Confirm Betsy DeVos
AlterNet | Laura Clawson / DailyKos | 02/07/17

For the first time in American history, a vice president had to vote in the Senate to break a tie on a Cabinet nominee, and Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Donald Trump's education secretary. DeVos has no experience as an educator, or even as a public school student or parent of public school students, but she sure does donate a lot of money to Republicans.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski could have stopped DeVos in committee, but instead they voted for her there, waited to ensure she would have enough votes, then took the opportunity to grandstand about how they couldn't vote for her. Democrats were united against DeVos, and senators were flooded with calls opposing her nomination, but in the end, there weren't three Republicans to vote against an unqualified, unpopular nominee. Republicans whose offices were getting so many calls against DeVos that voters couldn't get through or even leave voicemails nonetheless voted for her. ... Read more

Trump defends Putin: 'You think our country's so innocent?'
CNN | Sophie Tatum | 02/06/17

President Donald Trump appeared to equate US actions with the authoritarian regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview released Saturday, saying, "There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?"

Trump made the remark during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart.

"But he's a killer," O'Reilly said to Trump.

"There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?" Trump replied. ... Read more

Refugee Screening Process for US
The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World by Douglas Valentine (2017)

Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine's research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA's elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA's relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA's ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA's activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.A common theme is the CIA's ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.
*Guess what this Image is [1:03]

Republicans Happy To Have Trump Distract The Press As They Move Their Agenda
HP | Matt Fuller | 02/07/17

President Donald Trump's first two whirlwind weeks in office have left congressional Republicans gasping over questions of crowd size, "alternative facts," even baseless claims about massive voter fraud ? and that was really just the initial few days. But Trump's antics have also handed members a gift: distraction.

The often-unhinged tweets, aggressive executive orders and erratic behavior have all provided Republicans some cover as they attempt to repeal a health care law that is becoming more popular. "There is some merit to the argument that would suggest that much of the focus is on what President Trump is doing and not as much on what Congress is doing," ... Read more

Aljazeera | Inside Story - John Galtung - The American Empire Will Fall by 2020 (03/26/10) [22:45]
Click to zoom in
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, February 07 [12:24]
*TRNN | The Bizarre Far-Right Billionaire Behind Bannon and Trump's Presidency (mini-doc) [24:59]
*TRNN | Lies Promote Trump's Economic War Against Iran (02/03/17) [13:04]
*TYT | Trump Muslim Ban STOPPED (02/06/17) [10:45]
Google Search
Search: vetting process for refugees
Results: About 566,000 results (0.65 seconds)
Some listings:

Refugees Entering the U.S. Already Face a Rigorous Vetting Process ...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/29/us/refugee-vetting-process.html
Jan 29, 2017 - Syrian applicants must undergo these two additional steps. Each is reviewed by a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services refugee specialist. Cases with "national security indicators" are given to the Homeland Security Department's fraud detection unit. 14.

How the Refugee Vetting Process Works | The Heritage Foundation
www.heritage.org/immigration/commentary/how-the-refugee-vetting-process-works
4 days ago - How the Refugee Vetting Process Works. Dec 21st, 2015 2 min read. COMMENTARY BY. David Inserra. Policy Analyst, Homeland Security ...

Infographic: The Screening Process for Refugee Entry into the United ...
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/.../infographic-screening-process-refugee-entry...
Nov 20, 2015 - The Screening Process for Refugees Entry Into the United States (full text of ... Recurrent vetting: Throughout this process, pending applications ...

How does the US screen refugees? Very carefully - CNNPolitics.com
www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/trump-immigration-ban-refugees-trnd/
Jan 31, 2017 - The UN screens them: Refugees are people who are forced to flee their ... The US does its own vetting: This process involves eight federal ...
*TYT | Trump: Negative Polls Are Fake News (02/06/17) [12:56]
*TYT | A Brutal Reality Of The U.S. Healthcare System (02/06/17) [6:04]
*TYT | Republican Calls For "Another Kent State" (02/06/17) [12:12]
*TYT | Trump: America's Not So Innocent (02/06/17) [9:09]
*TYT | Democrats Close To Stopping Trump's Education Pick, Betsy DeVos? (02/06/17) [6:12]
RT | Interview with William D. Cohan: Wall St Power: Are financial elites a good fit for Trump's cabinet? (02/06/17) [25:26]
Note: I included this video because it is always nice to hear the other side. Contrary to his beliefs I don't think you can always look to peoples poor beginnings, I do think people get jaded by their surrounding (Wall Street's wealth). I do think their are probably people just as good fron non-Wall Street sources (that would serve the PEOPLE better).

I noticed in the second half he agreed that the actual picks by Trump, weren't probably the best picks.
RT | CrossTalk: It is still early, but many of Trump's foreign policy decisions appear to reflect those of Obama. Hostility toward Russia remains and harsh rhetoric is directed towards Iran. Is Trump appeasing the neocons? (02/06/17) [24:05]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Has Trump Set the Table for the Reichstag Fire? (02/06/17) [27:32]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

02.07.2017. 19:04

Monday February 06, 2017
News Articles

Mitch McConnell Distances Himself From Donald Trump's Latest Controversial Statements
HP | Ariel Edwards-Levy | 02/05/17

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, distancing himself from President Donald Trump's more equivocal view of the foreign leader.

"Putin is a former KGB agent, he's a thug, he was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election," McConnell said in an interview on CNN's "State Of The Union." "No, I don't think there is any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does." ... Read more

C-Span | Another Heated White House Daily Briefing For Sean Spicer (02/03/17) [29:31]
SNL | Sean Spicer Press Conference (02/05/17) [8:06]

Trump Attacks 'Out Of Control' California In Sanctuary Fight
HP | Mary Papenfuss | 02/06/17

Donald Trump turned up the heat on the most populous state in the union in the sanctuary battle, calling California out of control and soft on immigrants. He vowed to cut funding to California if officials vote to declare it a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants, and warned that California and his administration are on a "collision course."

California "is, as you know, out of control in many ways," Trump told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in an interview aired Sunday before the Super Bowl. ... Read more

CNN | Don Lemon asks can Steve Bannon manipulate the President of the United States Donald Trump? (02/01/17) [10:53]
CNN | Steve Bannon's ex-business partner Julia Jones speaks to (02/02/17) [6:12]

Wall Street Is Even More Craven Than We Thought
HP | Zach Carter | 02/05/17

... But there was Dimon on Friday, sitting at a table surrounded by other wealthy corporate executives, being praised by President Donald Trump ? a man who publicly supports war crimes and is already flirting with a constitutional crisis as he implements a campaign promise to impose "a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

"There's nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie," Trump said, smiling and pointing his finger at Dimon. Within hours, the president had signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to scour a 2010 Wall Street reform law for regulations that could be nullified. ... Read more

Which Assets Are Most Likely To Survive The "System Reset"?
Click to zoom in ZeroHedge | author | 02/06/17

Longtime correspondent C.A. recently asked a question every American household should be asking: which assets are most likely to survive the "system re-set" that is now inevitable? It's a question of great import because not all assets are equal in terms of survivability in crisis, when the rules change without advance notice. ...

... The charts below describe the key dynamics driving a system re-set. Earned income (wages) as a share of GDP has been falling for decades: this means labor is receiving a diminishing share of economic growth. Since costs and debt continue rising while incomes are declining or stagnating, this asymmetry eventually leads to insolvency.

The "fix" for insolvency has been higher debt and debt-based spending--in essence, borrowing from future income to fund more consumption today. But each unit of new debt is generating less economic activity/growth. This is called diminishing returns: eventually the costs of servicing the additional debt exceed the increasingly trivial gains. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, February 30 [13:13
More News Sources
Fox | Bill O'Reilly interviews President Donald Trump before Super Bowl (02/05/17) [9:50]
ABC | George Stephanopoulos Tries To Keep His Cool While Listening To Alternative Facts Conway (01/31/17) [6:07]
CNN | Alternative Facts Are Lies, Kellyanne Conway (01/22/17) [4:28]
Trump: The Resistance Report with Robert Reich (02/07/17) [27:05]
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Daily Show | Hasan the Record - President Trump's De Facto Muslim Travel Ban (02/05/17) [4:48]
Saturday Night Live
SNL | Oval Office Cold Open (02/05/17) [6:32]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Sean Spicer Will Now Take Your Pre-Approved Question (02/04/17) [6:22]
*TRNN | Professor Chris Williams discusses: New Republican Strategy: Acknowledge Climate Change, Obscure Human Role (02/06/17) [13:34]
TRNN | Professor Chris Williams discusses: Trump Attacks Climate Science to Defend Interests of U.S. Capital (02/06/17) [15:07]
TYT | Bank Loses BILLIONS For Funding Dakota Pipeline (02/05/17) [5:56]
RT | 'You think our country is so innocent?' - Trump asks after O'Reilly calls Putin 'a killer' (02/06/17) [4:25]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | The Trump Administration Embraces the "Big Lie" (02/03/17) [12:26]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Morning Joe | President Donald Trump 'Brought Wall Street Right Into The White House' (02/06/17) [6:07]

02.06.2017. 13:44

Friday February 03, 2017
News Articles

Senate Votes To Kill Dodd Frank Anti-Corruption Rule
HP | Lisa Lambert | 02/03/17

The rule was aimed at curbing corruption at big oil, gas and mining companies

The Republican-led Congress killed a controversial U.S. securities disclosure rule early on Friday aimed at curbing corruption at big oil, gas and mining companies.

In a 52 to 47 vote, the Senate approved a resolution already passed by the House of Representatives that wipes from the books a rule requiring companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp to publicly state the taxes and other fees they pay to foreign governments.

Republican President Donald Trump is expected to sign it shortly.

Exxon and other major energy corporations have fought for years to prevent the rule, required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, from seeing the light of day. ... Read more

Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus (2017)
by Matt Taibbi

In twenty-five pieces from Rolling Stone--plus two original essays--Matt Taibbi tells the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society.

Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement.

Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight.
Secret Service Is Dealing With Over 12,000 Tweets Calling For Trump's Assassination.

The Central Banks Pull Back: Now It's Up to Fiscal Policy to "Save the World"
charleshughsmith.blogspot.jp | 02/02/17

Have you noticed that the breathless anticipation of the next central bank "save" has diminished? Remember when the financial media was in a tizzy of excitement, speculating on what new central bank expansion would send the global markets higher in paroxysms of risk-on joy?

Those days are gone. Nowadays, central banks cautiously continue the bond buying programs they've had in place for years, but their policy initiatives are tepid at best: they talk about expanding asset-buying programs to include more stocks, or discuss notching interest rates higher in some cases; but the talk is subdued, as expectations are being consciously lowered.

The reason central bankers are pulling back from their previous "we can do no wrong, we're saving the world" expansion is those policies have failed to bolster the real economy. Even conventional economists who never met a central bank expansion they didn't love are grudgingly conceding that quantitative easing and all the other monetary expansions did little but make the rich richer and everyone else poorer. (see wealth chart below for data confirming this.)

Even the Davos crowd who benefited so mightily from central bank largesse is looking anxiously over their shoulders, fearing a sharpened pitchfork wielded by an enraged debt-serf might be plunged into their backs.
Read more

*The Chinese Credit Bubble
dailyreckoning.com | James Rickards | 01/31/17

The problem is that the rail transportation infrastructure I found so impressive, and most of the other infrastructure in China, was built with debt. The debt was financed by the mega-Chinese banks on government orders.

Since the ghost city buildings don't have tenants and the train tickets are heavily subsidized, there's no way that debt can be repaid. Instead new loans are made to pay interest on the old, or the debt is refinanced or rolled-over in a never-ending stream of zombie lending.

The banks finance their lending with customer deposits or sales of wealth management products (WMPs, something like the CDOs that brought down Lehman Brothers). WMP's have been described by the former Chairman of the Bank of China as the greatest Ponzi scheme in history. Banks rely on sales of new WMPs to redeem the old ones at maturity. The projects financed by the original WMPs cannot repay them.

How big is this mountain of debt? Total Chinese debt at all levels (household, corporate, bank and government) is now more than 250% of GDP as shown in the chart below
Read more

New Yorker & Der Spiegel, Two Well Known Magazines. Do They Know Something We Don't? Click to zoom in
CNBC | The Real Scoop On Tiny House Living (02/02/17) [1:56]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 03 [10:43]
*DN | Yemen: Jeremy Scahill & Advocates Question "Success" of Trump Raid That Killed 24 Civilians (02/03/17) [24:41]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | Cartoon Donald Trump Has A Few Thoughts For Australia (02/03/17) [8:48]
*TRNN | Lies Promote Trump's Economic War Against Iran (02/03/17) [13:04]
*TRNN | Dr. David Barber discusses: Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 600 Percent Faster Than Predicted by Current Models (02/03/17) [13:16]
TYT | Matt Taibbi Interview: Insane Clown President And The 2016 Circus. (02/02/17) [31:42]



TYT | Trump Press Secretary: Iran Attacked US Navy Ship! (02/02/17) [4:56]
TYT | Trump Administration Putting Iran "On Notice" (02/02/17) [7:48]
TYT | Trump's Call With Australia: Total Disaster (02/02/17) [8:07]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

02.03.2017. 17:05

Thursday January 02, 2017
News Articles

*First Strike: Military Officials Trash Trump
Reuters & HP | Ayesha Rascoe | 02/02/17

Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations, officials said.

U.S. Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens was killed in the raid on a branch of al Qaeda, also known as AQAP, in al Bayda province, which the Pentagon said also killed 14 militants. However, medics at the scene said about 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed. ...

... U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations. As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists. ... Read more

President Trump's Mexico ultimatum: Take care of "bad hombres" or U.S. might

Stability Is Good for Business. Trump's Whims Threaten It
Bloomberg & HP | Matt Leviner | 02/02/17

"If there's no rule of law for some people, there's no rule of law for anyone,"
Read more or original at Bloomberg

Steve Bannon: 'We're Going to War in the South China Sea ... No Doubt'
AlterNet | Benjamin Haas / The Guardian | 02/02/17

The United States and China will fight a war within the next 5 to 10 years over islands in the South China Sea, and "there's no doubt about that." At the same time, the US will be in another "major" war in the Middle East.

Those are the views -- nine months ago at least -- of one of the most powerful men in Donald Trump's administration, Steve Bannon, the former head of far-right news website Breitbart who is now chief strategist at the White House. ... Read more

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration Of Law Enforcement
TheIntercept | Alice Speri | 01/31/17

White Supremacists and other domestic extremists maintain an active presence in U.S. police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A striking reference to that conclusion, notable for its confidence and the policy prescriptions that accompany it, appears in a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, obtained by The Intercept. The guide, which details the process by which the FBI enters individuals on a terrorism watchlist, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File, notes that "domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers," and explains in some detail how bureau policies have been crafted to take this infiltration into account. ... Read more
TYT | White Supremacists Are Taking Over Police Departments Across America (02/01/17) [12:01]

Keith Olbermann: Donald Trump's Travel Ban Is The 'Greatest Possible Gift To ISIS' (#28) (02/01/17) [7:09]
*Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, February 02 [12:09]
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
*Samantha Bee | The Not-A-Muslim-Ban Muslim Ban (02/01/17) [7:12]
*Samantha Bee | When you run the government, you can replace qualified staffers with whoever will hump your leg the hardest. (02/01/17) [5:39]
*Samantha Bee | Refugees come here with the audacity to take the Statue of Liberty literally. (02/01/17) [5:23]
*TRNN | Bill Black Discusses: Private Sector Will Make a Killing Off of Infrastructure Bank (02/02/17) [11:33]
*TRNN | Michael Wood, a leader of Veterans for Standing Rock says: Dozens Arrested at Standing Rock as Veterans Vow to Block Completion of Dakota Access Pipeline (02/02/17) [9:42]
*TYT | State Department Now Controlled By Big Oil (02/01/17) [5:44]
*TYT | Republicans Cross Party Lines On Trump's Education Pick (02/01/17) [8:32]
*TYT | Republicans STEAMROLL Past Democrats (02/01/17) [7:36]
*RT | Keiser Report: Post-Obama Era (E1027) (02/02/17) [25:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | GOP Is "Freaking Out" About ObamaCare (02/01/17) [11:12]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Neil Gorsuch Not A Typical Nihilist Donald Trump Nominee (02/01/17) [11:19]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Anti-Donald Trump Backlash Outpacing Tea Party (02/02/17) [11:40]

02.02.2017. 13:24



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

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

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

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

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

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

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

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

Wall Street and Banksters

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

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

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

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

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

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Nukes
Nukes

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

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

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

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

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

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

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

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

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

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

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

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911
911

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

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

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

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

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

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

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

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

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

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