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Monday January 09, 2017
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Warren: No Confirmation Hearings for Trump Appointees Until They're Vetted for Conflicts of Interest
AlterNet | David Ferguson / Raw Story | 01/08/17

Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw down the gauntlet to the Trump transition team on Saturday when she called for a moratorium on confirmation hearings for his cabinet appointees until they can be thoroughly screened for conflicts of interest.

She was responding to a letter from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) expressing grave concern that confirmation hearings will take place before it has a chance to screen nominees for ethical conflicts. ... Read more

Don't Let Media and Society Normalize the Neofascists Coming to the White House

10 Trump Fails and Lies from Just This Week... Tip of the iceberg.
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 01/07/17

Every post-election week with Donald Trump feels like an eternity. The details change but the story stays the same: Trump whines, lies and pleads for attention, scrambling facts, fiction and conspiracy into a fatiguing, but now familiar blend. Last week followed the same formula, with Trump pretending not to know what he knows and to be an expert in everything he doesn't know, all while waging petty wars using time that could be spent boning up on policy.

  1. Calling for an investigation of NBC instead of the Russian hacks.
  2. Making personal calls instead of doing his friggin' job.
  3. Accepting Julian Assange's word over 17 intelligence agencies.
  4. Admitting he duped his know-nothing voter base on the border wall, then lying again.
  5. Lying about having a hand in every job-saving deal.
  6. But refusing to take credit for job losses.
  7. Calling Democratic senator Chuck Shumer a 'clown,' then saying we need to unite 9 minutes later.
  8. Throwing Obama's political ambassadors and their families out on short notice.
  9. Scheduling a news conference to distract from his appointee hearings.
  10. Still publicly smarting about being dissed by all the cool-kid pop stars for his little inauguration thing.
Read more

Kellyanne Conway wants people to look into Donald Trump's "heart," not "what's come out of his mouth"

Trump Lashes Out At Meryl: 'Her Lover' | Watch: Streep Trashes Trump In Powerful Golden Globes Speech...
HP | Lauren Weber | 01/09/17

Meryl Streep Goes After Donald Trump At The Golden Globes... While receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her lifelong achievements in acting, Meryl Streep went after Trump for his treatment of a disabled reporter and immigrants. Twitter had a field day imagining the president-elect's response. Trump did tweet this morning about her speech and spoke to The New York Times about it. As for the actual awards, "La La Land" took home more Golden Globes than any film, ever. Here's who else won the rest, and what we thought about the red carpet stunners. [Matthew Jacobs, HuffPost] ... Read more

The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government (2016) by Mike Lofgren

The New York Times bestselling author of The Party Is Over delivers a no-holds-barred exposé of who really wields power in Washington

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.
The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy by Peter Dale Scott

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 constitional 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 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 both White House policies and the American public interest.

GOP Congress, Trump Already Pushing Koch Industries' Bill to Hobble Regulatory Agencies
desmogblog.com | Steve Horn | 01/05/16

One of the first orders of business for the freshly convened 115th Congress -- now that it's no longer attempting to gut an independent ethics office -- is to pass a bill which could weaken the ability of federal regulatory agencies to do their jobs.

That law, the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act of 2017, has long been a legislative priority for Koch Industries, Koch-funded advocacy groups such as Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Its latest iteration, H.R. 26*, has the backing of Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and 159 co-sponsors (five Democrats and 154 Republicans) and has reached full debate on the House floor.

REINS dictates that a "major rule shall not take effect unless the Congress enacts a joint resolution of approval" and won't become law if Congress does not pass that resolution by "70 session days or legislative days, as applicable." ... Read more

Like father-in-law, like son-in-law: Jared Kushner named senior adviser to Donald Trump after making deals with China-linked company
Salon | Taylor Link | 01/09/17

Ignoring federal nepotism rules, Jared Kushner -- Donald Trump's son-in-law -- has been named a senior adviser to the president in the upcoming administration. Kushner had reportedly met with lawyers to devise a plan to circumvent a law that prohibits public officials from hiring family members, including son-in-laws, to an office over which that official has authority.

Shortly after the election, President-elect Trump hinted that Kushner was being groomed for an important role, saying that his son-in-law was so talented that he could help "do peace in the Middle East." The president-elect reportedly requested that Kushner receive top secret clearance to join him for his daily briefings. ... Read more

Jesse Ventura Trump risks assassination if establishment likes Pence more than him (12/24/16) [28:45]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, January 09 [14:09]
DN | Senate to Begin Confirmation Hearings for Wealthiest Cabinet in U.S. History Despite Lack of Vetting (01/09/17) [20:12]
DN | Repeal & Run? Republicans Move to Axe Obamacare, But What Will Replacement Look Like? (01/09/17) [9:34]
DN | Protests Erupt in Kentucky After GOP Supermajority Passes Extreme Anti-Choice, Anti-Union Bills (01/09/17) [11:05]
TRNN | Trump is Obama's Legacy (01/09/17) [22:12]
TRNN | House Passes Koch Brothers-Backed Legislation that Weakens Gov't Regulatory Agencies (01/09/17) [13:48]
TRNN | Economist Richard Wolff Says: Obama's Economic Legacy: Recovery for the Architects of Financial Crisis (01/08/17) [17:57]
TRNN | Confirmation Hearings for Trump's Climate-Denying Cabinet Begin Next Week (01/06/17) [11:25]
TRNN | How Russian and American Oligarchs Benefit from Mutual Demonization (01/09/17) [20:28]
TYT | Will The Media Ever Say Trump Is Lying? (01/08/17) [6:26]
TYT | Trump: Did I Say Mexico Was Paying For That Wall? I Meant You. (01/08/17) [14:40]
TYT | What Helped Trump Most: Economic Stress, Racism, Or Sexism? (01/08/17) [9:27]
TYT | Former CIA Director James Woolsey Is Through With Trump Transition Team (01/08/17) [8:34]
RT | Keiser Report: Unhappy Outlook for Chinese New Year (E1016) (01/07/17) [25:45]
Max and Stacy discuss the unhappy outlook for the Chinese New Year as liquidity and currency fears loom. They also discuss fake bonds and short selling. In the second half, Max continues his interview with Constantin Gurdgiev of macroview.eu about the global macroeconomic picture in 2017.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | The Sneaky Republican Obamacare Strategy You Need to Know (full) (01/06/17) [27:49]<
Diane Rehm will no longer be on the air daily, though she will be doing a weekly podcast. As soon as I get links to the podcast I will post them.
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

01.09.2017. 13:49



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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I'm still working on this

Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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

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Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

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

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

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

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

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

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

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

Wall Street and Banksters

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

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

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

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

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

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Nukes
Nukes

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

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

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

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

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

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

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

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

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

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

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

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911
911

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

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

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

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

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

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

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

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

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

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