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News May 2013


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Friday May 31, 2013
News Articles

*A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR, Public television's attempts to placate David Koch
The New Yorker | Jane Mayer | 05/27/13

Last fall, Alex Gibney, a documentary filmmaker who won an Academy Award in 2008 for an exposé of torture at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, completed a film called "Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream." It was scheduled to air on PBS on November 12th. The movie had been produced independently, in part with support from the Gates Foundation. "Park Avenue" is a pointed exploration of the growing economic inequality in America and a meditation on the often self-justifying mind-set of "the one per cent." As a narrative device, Gibney focusses on one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Manhattan--740 Park Avenue--portraying it as an emblem of concentrated wealth and contrasting the lives of its inhabitants with those of poor people living at the other end of Park Avenue, in the Bronx.

Among the wealthiest residents of 740 Park is David Koch, the billionaire industrialist, who, with his brother Charles, owns Koch Industries, a huge energy-and-chemical conglomerate. The Koch brothers are known for their strongly conservative politics and for their efforts to finance a network of advocacy groups whose goal is to move the country to the right. ... Read more

Stephen Cobert | On David Koch And PBS [2:17]

*United States of ALEC... Update
Bill Moyers | author | 05/30/13

2013 legislative sessions are in full swing in state capitols across America, and ALEC has once again managed to fit its sticky fingers into scores of legislative cookie jars. This year, renewable energy, state-funded education and your tax dollars are among the many items poised to be gobbled up.

ALEC makes no bones about its opposition to state Renewable Energy Standards (RES), which require that states derive a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources. Todd Wynn, the director of ALEC's energy task force, told Bloomberg News outright that ALEC is opposed to such mandates, going as far as to say: "Natural gas is a clean fuel, and regulators and policymakers are seeing how it's much more affordable than renewable energy." ... Read more

Bill Moyers | United States of ALEC (09/28/12) [31:58]

*Gretchen Morgenson on Why Banks Are Still Too Big To Fail
Bill Moyers | author | 05/24/13

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson tells Bill that, five years after the country's economic near-collapse, banks are still too big to fail, too big to manage, and too big to trust. Stockholders' reaffirmation of Jamie Dimon as JP Morgan Chase's chairman and CEO this week -- despite a year of accusations and investigations at the bank -- is further evidence, she says, of an unchecked system that continues to covet profits and eschew accountability, putting our economy and democracy at risk. Morgenson also discusses how behemoth companies like Apple manipulate the system and avail themselves of the biggest tax loopholes money and influence can buy. ... Read more

Bill Moyers | Gretchen Morgenson on Why Banks Are Still Too Big To Fail (05/24/13) [18:40]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 31 [12:48]
*DN | Did Public Television Commit Self-Censorship to Appease Billionaire Funder David Koch? (05/30/13) [14:31], Part 2 [16:37]
Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal say plans for their new documentary to air on public television have been quashed after billionaire Republican David Koch complained about the PBS broadcast of another film critical of him, "Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream," by acclaimed filmmaker Alex Gibney. Lessin and Deal were in talks to broadcast their film, "Citizen Koch," on PBS until their agreement with the Independent Television Service fell through. The New Yorker reports the dropping of "Citizen Koch" may have been influenced by Koch's response to Gibney's film, which aired on PBS stations, including WNET in New York late last year.
TOO HOT FOR PBS: "Citizen Koch" Trailer (05/30/13) [14:31]
*PBS Bill Moyers | Watch Alex Gibney's 'Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream' [20:00]
*Bill Moyers | Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson: On Winner-Take-All Politics (03/01/12) [52:47]
How, in a nation as wealthy as America, can the economy simply stop working for people at large, while super-serving those at the very top? This weekend, in an encore broadcast of the premiere episode of Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers looks at America's economic disparity and investigates how it happened and who's to blame. His detectives: political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, authors of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer -- And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. Through exhaustive research and analysis, Hacker and Pierson -- whom Moyers regards as the "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson" of economics -- detail important truths behind a 30-year economic assault against the middle class.
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers | Why Tim DeChristopher Went to Prison for His Protest (05/24/13) [34:23]
In December 2008, during the closing weeks of the Bush White House, 27-year-old environmental activist Tim DeChristopher went to protest the auction of gas and oil drilling rights to more than 150,000 acres of publicly-owned Utah wilderness. But instead of yelling slogans or waving a sign, DeChristopher disrupted the proceedings by starting to bid. Given an auction paddle designating him "Bidder 70", DeChristopher won a dozen land leases worth nearly two million dollars. He was arrested for criminal fraud, found guilty, and sentenced to two years in federal prison -- even though the new Obama Administration had since declared the oil and gas auction null and void.
TRNN News
TRNN | Jeannette Wicks-Lim: Actual US Poverty Twice Official Figure (05/31/13) [9:30]
According to official figures 15 percent of Americans live in poverty, real numbers are over 33 percent of Americans cannot meet basic needs.
*TRNN | Michael Ratner: The government uses a sledge hammer to go after "truth tellers" Bradley Manning, Jeremy Hammond and Julian Assange (05/31/13) [13:08]
Collateral Murder Video [39:29]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 05/31/13 [1hr]
International News - Friday 05/31/13 [1hr]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | New questions ariseover John McCain's secret trip to Syria (05/30/13) [12:41]
Chris Hayes | Bankruptcy ruling leads to cutting pensions for thousands (05/30/13) [7:55]

Thursday May 30, 2013
News Articles
Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]

Congress Still Puts Out for Wall Street
TruthDig | Robert Scheer | 05/27/13

What does it take to make a Wall Street banker squirm with shame? Not content with having swindled tens of millions of Americans out of their homes and life savings, the very bankers who caused the biggest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression are now subverting government regulations designed to prevent comparable disasters in the future.

Top of the list of those responsible are the hustlers at Citigroup, once the world's largest financial conglomerate, and a leading practitioner of the sordid behavior that caused the housing meltdown. Indeed, Citigroup was allowed to form as a merger of the investment banking of Travelers and the federal insured commercial banking of Citicorp only because lobbyists for those institutions successfully engineered the reversal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that had banned such combinations. ... Read more

U.S. Banks Rake In Record $40.3 Billion in Quarter

Business is clearly good again for the financial institutions that were rescued by American taxpayers just a few short years ago. Thanks in part to increased revenue from customer fees, U.S. banks' profits soared to a record high for the first quarter of 2013, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Wednesday. According to the FDIC, the banking industry earned $40.3 billion from January to March, the highest ever for a single quarter and a figure nearly 16 percent more than the same period a year ago.

*Americans have rebuilt less than half of wealth lost to the recession, study says
Washington Post | Ylan Q. Mui | 05/30/13

American households have rebuilt less than half of the wealth lost during the recession, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve, hampering the country's economic recovery.

The research from the St. Louis Fed shows that households had accumulated net worth totaling $66 trillion at the end of last year. After adjusting for inflation and population growth, the bank found that number amounted to only 45 percent of the wealth that Americans had during the peak of the boom in 2007.   In addition, most of the improvement was due to gains in the stock market, according to the report, primarily benefiting wealthy families. That means the recovery for most households was even weaker. ... Read more

Blankfein (Goldman Sach) Leads Bank CEO Pay With $26 Million Deemed Overpaid
Bloomberg | Elizabeth Dexheimer | 05/29/13

Bankers at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) had a tumultuous 2012. The firm cut 900 jobs, promoted the fewest executives to the exalted post of partner in more than a decade and slashed the portion of revenue set aside for compensation to 38 percent from 42 percent a year earlier.

For the man at the very top of Goldman Sachs's pay pyramid, Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, 2012 was his finest year since the boom times of 2007. Blankfein, 58, was awarded $26 million for his work last year, lifting him to No. 1 in the Bloomberg Markets ranking of the best-paid CEOs at North America's 20 largest financial companies by customer deposits. ... Read more

*Colorado River Meeting In San Diego Brings Western States, Tribes And Conservation Groups Together
HP & AP | author | 05/28/13

Water managers from seven states, Indian tribes and conservation groups are pledging to find ways to wring more from every drop of water in the drought-stricken Colorado River.

Looming shortages are predicted on the river serving some 40 million people in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. Mexico also has a stake. ... Read more

Comment: Do you think the Colorado River empties into the ocean? Well, you would be wrong. The Colorado River runs out of water way before the Pacific Ocean.

image2Running Dry - drought-stricken Colorado River [1:41]

Make Peace With Meat
NYTimes | Mark Bittman | 05/28/13

I probably eat a third as much meat as I used to and, on the not-rare (three times a week?) occasions that I do indulge, I eat less of it.

I'm reminded of a really good plate of slow-roasted lamb shoulder I had in Seattle two weeks ago; there were about six ounces on the plate, and I ate half. It was delicious, and it was enough. This is no longer a conscious thing but a new habit. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, May 30 [14:40]
DN | As Lawmakers Target Food Stamp Funding, New Report Finds 1 in 6 in U.S. are Going Hungry (05/30/13) [11:08]
Rachel Maddow | Shell admits that the accident with their drilling rig in Artic waters was for tax adviodance (05/28/13) [7:38]
Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq With Massive DU (Depleted Uranium) Epidemic of Birth Defects and Cancers (03/20/13) [11:51]
TRNN News
TRNN | Jeff Faux: Democrat's Vision for Economy is GOP-Lite (05/30/13) [17:29]
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis: Kerry's offer may appeal to Palestinian elite but will not alter the basic demands of the Palestinian people (05/30/13) [7:43]
*TPP - Trans-Pacific Partnership
What Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? [4:00]
TPP - A Corporate Fascist Coup [6:30]
RT | How the TPP can rewrite US domestic laws (05/14/13) [5:33]
For the seventeenth time, government officials from 12 countries are set to meet to discuss an international free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP negotiations have been kept under wraps and still much of the issues discussed are unknown to the public. If the agreement is passed it will become one of the biggest global treaties in history. Many critics of the TPP feel that is business agreement could affect the sovereignty of each nation involved. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, is one of those critics and she explains why the TPP is a bad idea.
Peril in the Pacific: No to the TPP (03/07/13) [11:12]
Exposed Investment Chapter.pdf
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Future Of The GOP (05/30/13) [1hr]
Stunned by electoral losses last fall, the Republican National Committee commissioned an analysis of the GOP. It found the party had come to be defined by what it's against, not by what it stands for. In a recent speech, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said, "Way too many people believe Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker." Some believe extremists have hijacked the party - hurting moderates at the polls and in Congress. In a TV interview over the weekend, former Republican Senator Bob Dole suggested he barely recognizes today's GOP. Diane and guests assess the future of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party should brand itself as "closed for repairs," said former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole recently on "Fox News Sunday." In photo, he is seated on the right, with another former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, Standing from left, former Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky.
Glenn Hubbard: "Balance: The Economics Of Great Powers From Ancient Rome To Modern America" (05/30/13) [1hr]
I don't particularly like Glenn Hubbart, because I think he is disingenuous when it comes to Wealth Inequality. All you have to do is watch Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job" [1:48:27], to see how insincere he is in answering questions. But, I liked Diane Rehm's questions and questions from the callers becuse they made some good points.
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
MSNBC Rachel Maddow
Some Boston Stuff
RT | Who radicalized Boston Marathon bombers? (04/24/13) [3:29]
RT | Boston bombing suspect claims US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as reason for attacks (04/24/13) [4:42]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

Wednesday May 29, 2013
News Articles

The World's Richest 8% Earn Half of All Planetary Income
AlterNet | Eric Zuesse | 05/28/13

The lead research economist at the World Bank, Branko Milanovic, will be reporting soon, in the journal Global Policy, the first calculation of global income-inequality, and he has found that the top 8% of global earners are drawing 50% of all of this planet's income. He notes: "Global inequality is much greater than inequality within any individual country."

... Milanovich says: "Among the global top 1 per cent, we find the richest 12 per cent of Americans, ... and between 3 and 6 per cent of the richest Britons, Japanese, Germans and French. It is a 'club' that is still overwhelmingly composed of the 'old rich'," who pass on to their children (tax-free in the many countries that have no estate-taxes) the fortunes that they have accumulated, and who help set them up in businesses of their own - often after having sent them first to the most prestigious universities (many in the United States), where those children meet and make friends of others who are similarly situated as themselves. ... Read more

Gun Makers Saw No Role in Curbing Improper Sales
NYTimes | Mike McIntire | 05/27/13

The Glock executive testified that he would keep doing business with a gun dealer who had been indicted on a charge of violating firearms laws because "This is still America" and "You're still innocent until proven guilty."

The president of Sturm, Ruger was not interested in knowing how often the police traced guns back to the company's distributors, saying it "wouldn't show us anything."

And a top executive for Taurus International said his company made no attempt to learn if dealers who sell its products were involved in gun trafficking on the black market. "I don't even know what a gun trafficker is," he said.

The world's firearms manufacturers have been largely silent in the debate over gun violence. But their voices emerge from thousands of pages of depositions in a series of liability lawsuits a decade ago, before Congress passed a law shielding them from such suits in 2005, and the only time many of them were forced to answer such questions. ... Read more

White House briefings lay out new drone rulebook -- but questions remain
thebureauinvestigates.com | Chris Woods | 05/24/13

Two of the most controversial aspects of the US covert drone campaign -- CIA control of strikes in Pakistan, and the use of so-called signature strikes -- look set to continue until at least 2014, papers released by the White House indicate.

In the wake of President Obama's Thursday speech on counter-terrorism policy, White House national security officials have released two key documents. The first, US Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism, lays out the standards now being used to decide whether to deploy 'lethal force' outside the battlefield. ... Read more
U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities.pdf

TPP - Trans-Pacific Partnership
Why is TPP so secret? Please pay attention to TPP... everything I have heard has been bad.
TYT | Highly Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Would Undermine U.S. Sovereignty (05/28/13) [3:19]
Aljazeera | Inside Story Americas - Will the Pacific trade deal protect workers? (12/05/12) [25:16]


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, May 29 [13:35]
DN | Jeremy Hammond, Stratfor Hacker, Guilty Plea Part of Crackdown on Journalism, Activism (05/29/13) [13:38], Part 2 [15:41],
*Jeremy Scahill Dirty Wars Discussion (05/09/13) [56:14]
*UCTV | The Scientific Case for Urgent Action to Limit Climate Change (05/02/13) [59:00]
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Somerville, a world-renowned climate scientist and author of "The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change," discusses the scientific case for urgent action to limit climate change.
TRNN News
*TRNN | Bill Black: Operation involving drug money carried on for almost a decade before being charged; much bigger crimes on Wall St. go unpunished (05/29/13) [13:19]
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis: McCain's trip to Syria, his calls for US air strikes and arming rebels with heavy weapons, seems designed to counter Obama plan to negotiate with Russia (05/29/13) [13:07]
Aljazeera
*Aljazeera | Inside Story - Are US banks untouchable? (05/26/13) [25:01]
Aljazeera | After the seizure of AP's phone records, we ask if the US is still the land of the free for journalists and sources. (05/20/13) [25:00]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Update On The Escalating Crisis In Syria. (05/29/13) [1hr]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Homeland Security
Homeland Security website
Homeland Security - Report Suspicious Activity???
General U.S. Policy Documents
Presidential Executive Orders
Barack Obama
January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017
44th President


George W. Bush
January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009
43rd President


Other Presidential Executive Orders
Presidential Directives
Barack Obama
January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017
44th President


George W. Bush
January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009
43rd President


Other Presidential Directives
How Amputee actors help make Boston Marathon Bombing Drill look real? [4:13]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

Tuesday May 28, 2013
News Articles

40 'Frightening' Facts On The Fall Of The US Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 05/27/13

If you know someone that actually believes that the U.S. economy is in good shape, just show them the statistics in this article. When you step back and look at the long-term trends, it is undeniable what is happening to us. We are in the midst of a horrifying economic decline that is the result of decades of very bad decisions. 30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about one trillion dollars. Today, it is almost 17 trillion dollars. 40 years ago, the total amount of debt in the United States was about 2 trillion dollars. Today, it is more than 56 trillion dollars. At the same time that we have been running up all of this debt, our economic infrastructure and our ability to produce wealth has been absolutely gutted. ... Read more

HELL: 450 Murdered In Iraq This Month
HP | Adam Schreck | 05/27/13

Iraq Bombing Attacks: Explosions Rip Through Baghdad, Killing Dozens

A coordinated wave of car bombings tore through mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 66 people and maiming nearly 200 as insurgents step up the bloodshed roiling Iraq.

The attacks in markets and other areas frequented by civilians are the latest sign of a rapid deterioration in security as sectarian tensions are exacerbated by anti-government protests and the war in neighboring Syria grinds on. ... Read more

Beware Capitalist Tools
HP | Robert Reich | 05/27/13

Forbes magazine likes to call itself a "capitalist tool," and routinely offers tool-like justifications for whatever it is that profit-seeking corporations want to do. Recently it has deployed its small army of corporate defenders and apologists in the multi-billion dollar fight to keep the effective tax rates of global corporations low.

... It's the fact of their power to manipulate laws by playing nations off against one another -- determining how much they pay in taxes, as well as how much they get in corporate welfare subsidies, how much regulation they're subject to, and so on -- that raises the question of how citizens can countermand this power. ... Read more

*Why Democrats Can't be Trusted to Control Wall Street
robertreich.org/ | Robert Reich | 05/24/13

According to the New York Times, a bill that's already moved through the House Financial Services Committee, allowing more of the very kind of derivatives trading (bets on bets) that got the Street into trouble, was drafted by Citigroup -- whose recommended language was copied nearly word for word in 70 lines of the 85-line bill.

Where were House Democrats? Right behind it. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, Democrat of New York, a major recipient of the Street's political largesse, co-sponsored it. Most of the Democrats on the Committee, also receiving generous donations from the big banks, voted for it. Rep. Jim Himes, another proponent of the bill and a former banker at Goldman Sachs, now leads the Democrat's fund-raising effort in the House.

Bob Rubin -- co-chair of Goldman before he joined the Clinton White House, and chair of Citigroup's management committee after he left it -- is still influential in the Party, and his protégés are all over the Obama administration. I like Bob personally but I battled his Street-centric views the whole time I served, and soon after I left the administration he persuaded Clinton to support a repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 28 [10:43]
DN | Billionaire Commerce Nominee Penny Pritzker's Legacy of Anti-Labor and Subprime Scandal (05/28/13) [14:52]
*The Entire Globe is a Battlefield for Pentagon [7:46]
the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is not becoming more "democratic" -- or even transparent.
TRNN News
*TRNN | Jeff Faux: Consumers are between 65 and 70 percent of the economy and they are most affected by the recession. Business is not spending, because consumers aren't spending (05/28/13) [14:16]
*TRNN | Military Suicide Rate Continues to Rise at Alarming Rate - 22/day (05/28/13) [8:08]
TYT News
TYT | Who Took Down Stockton? (05/20/13) [31:25]
Wall Street Movie
I watched "Assault on Wall Street" last weekend and initially thought it was going to be a mediocure "made for TV" melodrama, but it was a surprise.
*Assault on Wall Street (2013) (Full length) [1:38:54]
"Assault On Wall Street" Feature Film by Uwe Boll Interview [3:25]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm *Democracy In Trouble (05/28/13) [1hr]
A new study says democracy is in trouble on both sides of the Atlantic. Diane and her guests discuss why citizens in North America and Europe feel disconnected from their government as well as prospects for reviving the democratic spirit.
Interesting
Girl Raised As A Bushman Walking With Lions & Toys With Group Of Cheetahs! (05/05/13) [3:17]
More News Articles

Military Quietly Grants Itself the Power to Police the Streets Without Local or State Consent
AlterNet | Jed Morey | 05/15/13

... The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was introduced to the militarization of domestic law enforcement. By making a few subtle changes to a regulation in the U.S. Code titled "Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies" the military has quietly granted itself the ability to police the streets without obtaining prior local or state consent, upending a precedent that has been in place for more than two centuries.

The most objectionable aspect of the regulatory change is the inclusion of vague language that permits military intervention in the event of "civil disturbances." According to the rule: "Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances." ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds
WKBW's War of the Worlds 1971 [1:24:50]
Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete [57:03]
War
Threads (1984) [1:52:30]
Threads was aired on 1984, one Sunday night at 9pm to an unsuspecting UK TV audience, it single handedly put the nation off the nuclear war effort and was then quitely removed from the archives until 2002.
Thirteen Days [2:19:38]
The Day After (1983) [2:06:44]
Fail Safe (2000) World Nuclear Holocaust [1:24:23]
Without Warning (1994) [1:28:40]
"Without Warning" is a TV movie featuring veteran news anchor Sander Vanocur and reporter Bree Walker as themselves covering a breaking news story of three meteor fragments crashing into the Earth's northern hemisphere in October 1994. The film is presented mostly in real time as if it were an actual breaking news event, complete with remote reports from reporters. The executive producer was David L. Wolper, who produced a number of mockumentary-style films from the 1960s onwards but is best known as the producer of "Roots" and "Roots: The Next Generations".
Panic In The Year Zero (1962) American Nuclear Holocaust [1:31:43]
The Missiles of October [2:35:44]

Monday May 27, 2013
News Articles

*Obama 'Put a Target on Their Backs', SEAL Team 6 Family Members Say
USNews | Paul D. Shinkman | 05/09/13

In all, 17 members of the SEAL Team 6 counterterrorist force were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. In all 38 troops died after the helicopter was shot down by what a review determined to be a Taliban RPG over Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011

... During a press conference on Washington Thursday, family and advocates for the fallen troops called into question the rules of engagement that they say prohibited their sons from being able to return fire, and the White House's decision to announce shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden that SEAL Team 6 was responsible for the raid. ... Read more

Banks' Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills
NYTimes | Eric Lipton | 05/23/13

Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.

In a sign of Wall Street's resurgent influence in Washington, Citigroup's recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee's 85-line bill. Two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. (Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.) ...

... The passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, which took aim at culprits of the financial crisis like lax mortgage lending and the $700 trillion derivatives market, ushered in a new phase of Wall Street lobbying. Over the last three years, bank lobbyists have blitzed the regulatory agencies writing rules under Dodd-Frank, chipping away at some regulations. ... Read more

5 Most Horrifying Things About Monsanto--Why You Should Join the Global Movement and Protest on Saturday
AlterNet | April M. Short | 05/22/13

Fed up with health concerns, environmental threats and political corruption, a Utah mom organizes a global movement against the biotech giant.

Fed up with the fact that she has to spend "a small fortune" in order to feed her family things she says "aren't poisonous," Tami Canal of Utah has organized a global movement against the giant chemical and seed corporation Monsanto. Monsanto is the conglomerate mastermind behind many of the pesticides and genetically engineered seeds that pervade farm fields around the world. Monsanto produces the world's top-selling herbicide; 40 percent of US crops contain its genes; it spends millions lobbying the government each year; and several of its factories are now toxic Superfund sites. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 27 [58:56]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
TRNN News
*TRNN | The Hunger Games Economy: Jeff Faux: Dreams of Wall St. and Military Industrial Complex are not compatible with dreams of American middle class (05/27/13) [11:53]
*TRNN | Thousands rally as part of global protest against Monsanto's political power and its role in spreading GMO throughout the world's food supply (05/27/13) [5:39], Part 2 [5:00]
TRNN | Wilkerson: War is Not About Truth, Justice and the American Way [10:15]
*TYT News
TYT | "Who Took Down Stockton?" Documentary on TYTInvestigates (05/26/13) [4:08]
TYT | Monsanto Wins Fight to Take Away State Food Labeling Rights (05/26/13) [5:04]
TYT | Republican Hypocrisy on Oklahoma Relief Aid (05/25/13) [4:48]
TYT | Utah and Mississippi The Gayest States in America (05/25/13) [2:32]
TYT | Cashing In On Students (05/24/13) [5:12]
TYT | New York Times article which discusses recent proposed banking legislation. (05/24/13) [7:07]
TYT | Obama Brags About Out of Control Drone Strategy (05/23/13) [14:01]
TYT | 9-Year Old Stands Up To Rahm Emanuel Closing His School (05/23/13) [6:16]
Older Videos
*Glenn Beck Exposes the Private Fed; Gets Fired by Fox (04/08/11) [39:40]
I don't normally watch Glenn Beck, but it is quite a coincidence that he comes out with the real truth about the private Federal Reserve, and then loses his show on Fox News.
*Boston Marathon Bombing - Are We Being Conditioned for Martial Law?

Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I.
NYTimes | David K. Shipler | 04/28/13

THE United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years -- or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.

But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested. ... Read more

Fox News | Judge Napolitano: Admit FBI Have Been Involved In 17 False Flag Terror Non-Events


Comment: I don't normally watch Alex Jones, but I do like this interview with Joel Skousen. I thinks some of the theories put forth in this interview are worth considering.
Joel Skousen: Brothers Set Up as Patsies in Boston Staged Terror Event (04/23/13) [45:07]
Click to zoom
Additional Information on the Boston Bombing
Boston Bombing: What You Aren't Being Told (04/22/13) [5:28]
Boston Bombing Could Cost Billions (04/23/13) [4:47]
Family Guy predicts Boston Marathon attack? [0:52]

Friday May 24, 2013
News Articles

"Terminal State Of Broken"
ZeroHedge | author | 05/23/13

The world has taken on a "virtual reality" with no reference to what really is. This is the biggest market power play of smoke and mirrors in history. It is happening because the financial system is in a terminal state of broken.

The terminal state of broken applies to government and the institutions contained therein. Furthermore, these areas have infected non-governmental institutions, especially those which derive their existence and/or success from a close association with government. These include the educational system, defense industry, highly regulated industries like medicine and finance and a host of others. ... Read more

I agree with the article above, but for one exception, I would substitute Wall Street for the word government. Don't get me wrong, I know the "Revolving Door" between Washington and the private sector is a huge problem, but if the money of Wall Street/big business wasn't corrupting our representatives everything else, I feel, would eventually straighten itself out.

Delinquent Student Loans Hit Record, 30% Of 20-24 Year Olds Are Unemployed And Not In School
ZeroHedge | author | 05/23/13

Almost a year ago we shared a calculation according to which "Over $120 Billion In Federal Student Loans In Default", suggesting that the next credit crisis has already arrived. Since then the topic of the student loan bubble has become a household topic. Sadly, that does not mean it has gotten any better. In fact, according to the latest Education Department data it has gotten as bad as it has ever been. As Bloomberg reports, not only have overdue student loans reached an all-time high but the number of young people aged 20-24 out of school and unemployed is at a record high ... Read more

Exclusive: Congressman Preps Bill to End Terror War Authority
WireMagazine | Spencer Ackerman | 05/23/13

In the wake of President Obama's big speech about restraining the war on terrorism, a member of the House intelligence committee is working on a bill to undo the basic authorities to wage it.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is preparing a piece of legislation that would "sunset" the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), a foundational law passed in the days after the 9/11. "The current AUMF is outdated and straining at the edges to justify the use of force outside the war theater," Schiff tells Danger Room. ... Read more

*Deja Vu on the Hill: Wall Street Lobbyists Roll Back Finance Reform, Again
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/21/13

It's becoming an annual tradition: Spring rolls around, and while nobody is looking, Wall Street quietly lays siege to Washington and reaches a hand out to yank the last remaining teeth out of the government's financial regulatory head.

In the last two weeks, we've seen two major developments here. There was a wave of deregulatory bills that snuck through the House with surprisingly bipartisan support, and a series of regulatory decisions by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that will seriously weaken the already-weak Dodd-Frank reform legislation, particularly with regard to derivatives trades. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 24 [12:33]
DN | Medea Benjamin v. President Obama: CodePink Founder Disrupts Speech, Criticizing Drone (05/24/13) [10:47], Part 2 [5:14]
*DN | Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes (05/23/13) [18:02]
HuffingtonPost
HP | Hospital Prices No Longer Secret As New Data Reveals Bewildering System, Staggering Cost Differences (05/23/13) [2:39]
The Real News Network (TRNN)
TRNN | Global Protest in 300 Cities Will Take Aim on Monsanto (05/24/13) [9:01]
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to challenge Monsanto's bullying of small farmers, influence on public policy, and aggressive promotion of GMOs.
TRNN | Michael Ratner and Paul Jay analyze President Obama's defense of his drone and Guantanamo policies (05/24/13) [27:05]
A policy based on continuing US dominance in the Middle East; Obama's speech was interrupted by Code Pink's Medea Benjamin.
Aljazeera
Aljazeera | Inside Story Americas - The US disconnect over climate change (05/18/13) [25:03]
Quote of the Day: With less than five percent of the world's population, the US consumes about a quarter of the world's fossil fuels. The Pentagon, which devours more than 300,000 barrels of oil per day, an amount greater than that consumed by any of the vast majority of the world's countries, is the planet's single biggest consumer.
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 05/24/13 [1hr]
International News - Friday 05/24/13 [1hr]
Jon Stewart - Daily Show
Jon Stewart | The Monsanto Protection Act - You Stuck What Where Now? (older 04/03/13) [2:56]
Jon Stewart | Peggy Noonan remembers the days when a presidential scandal meant selling embargoed arms to Iran and funneling the money to coked-out jungle rapists in Nicaragu (05/22/13) [4:32]
Jon Stewart | Barackalypse Now: The Obama administration sends out some guy to address the myriad scandals threatening to engulf the White House. (05/20/13) [4:32]
Stephan Colbert
Colbert Goes After Census Bureau
*Cost of Health Care System

Hospital Charges Grow Like 'Compound Interest' In Opaque And Irrational U.S. Health Care System
HP | Jeffrey Young | 05/24/13

Why would Orange Park Medical Center in Florida charge $117,445 to place a stent into a patient's artery, while the Mayo Clinic half an hour away in Jacksonville charges less than 45 percent of that amount?

The answer, in short, is because the U.S. health care system doesn't operate according to the standards of competition that govern other industries. Hospitals often rule local fiefdoms using their own idiosyncratic price-setting conventions, and the health insurance companies that pay the bills have little incentive to wage risky wars against prominent local institutions. ... Read more

Click to zoom - Example of SS above, 163072 xls rows
America's Health-Care Prices are Ludicrous
Click to zoom
International Federation of Health Plans: 2012 Comparative Price Report.pdf
Click to zoom
Understanding Health Care Bill
Click to zoom

Kaiser Family Foundation website
HealthCare.gov
A federal government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services


*Cost of the Military

Where Has All The Money Gone
Nation of Change | Tom Dispatch | 05/14/13

Outside the United States, the Pentagon controls a collection of military bases unprecedented in history. With U.S. troops gone from Iraq and the withdrawal from Afghanistan underway, it's easy to forget that we probably still have about 1,000 military bases in other peoples' lands. This giant collection of bases receives remarkably little media attention, costs a fortune, and even when cost cutting is the subject du jour, it still seems to get a free ride.

... Not surprisingly, when it comes to such contracts and given our recent wars, the top two countries into which taxpayer dollars flowed were Afghanistan and Iraq (around $160 billion). Next comes Kuwait ($37.2 billion), where the military has had a significant presence since the first Gulf War of 1990-1991, followed by Germany ($27.8 billion), South Korea ($18.2 billion), Japan ($15.2 billion), and Britain ($14.7 billion). While some of these costs are for weapons procurement, rather than for bases and troop support, the hundreds of thousands of contracts believed to be omitted from these tallies thanks to government accounting errors make the numbers a reasonable reflection of the everyday moneys flowing to private contractors for the world of bases the United States has maintained since World War II. ... Read more

Commission on Wartime Contracting website
Wartime Contracting: Controlling costs.pdf [5.2MB]

The Military Balance: The annual assessment of global military capabilities and defence economics
The International Institute For Strategic Studies | 2013

Click to zoom

Just as the official Chinese and Russian defense budgets are incomplete, so is the US defense budget. The IISS does count the US spending outside the Pentagon's nominal budget, such as for nuclear weapons, the Selective Service, and other defense related spending in what the Office of Management and Budget calls the "National Defense" budget function. However, the IISS does not count other US defense related spending. For 2011, this includes roughly $20 billion in military retirement spending outlayed by the Treasury Department (the DOD budget pays for less than half of annual military retirement costs). IISS does not count military aid to countries like Israel and Pakistan (in the International Affairs budget). It also does not count various homeland defense costs in the Department of Homeland Security (such as Customs and Border Patrol and the Coast Guard). It does not count the costs of caring for veterans of past and current wars in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Adding in all of these non-DOD agencies' costs, plus a share of the annual interest on the national debt, can get total US defense-related spending up to about $1 trillion, rather than the $739.3 billion the IISS counts for the US for 2011.
Read more

Quote: Regardless of the specifics, the basic truth is about half of your income tax is going to the military.
Click to zoom
Larry Wilkerson: Six big arms monopolies profit from tension and war; promote a strategic vision that favors their short term commercial interest. (04/16/13)[15:42]

Thursday May 23, 2013
News Articles

Texas to take BP and Halliburton to court
Aljazeera | author | 05/19/13

Texas has joined the crowd of Gulf of Mexico states to file suit against BP Plc, Halliburton Co and others for their role in one of the worst oil spills in US history.   The complaint, filed on Friday in US District Court in Beaumont, Texas, alleges that the companies and others "engaged in wilful and wanton misconduct" for their role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The state has accused the firms - as well as Transocean, Anadarko and BP America in its suit - of violating Texas' environmental regulations. Texas is seeking money from "lost" tourism revenues due to the spill, as well as monies that would have been generated from state park entrance and concession fees by visitors to the coastal communities. ... Read more

*Too-Big-To-Jail Dogs Obama's Justice Department As Government Documents Raise Questions
HP | Shahien Nasiripour | 05/22/13

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have neither conducted nor received any analyses that would show whether criminal charges against large financial institutions would harm the economy, potentially undermining a key DOJ argument for why the world's biggest banks have escaped indictment.

Testimony by a top Justice official and fresh documents made public on Wednesday during a House financial services committee hearing revealed that financial regulators and the Treasury Department did not provide warnings to prosecutors weighing the economic consequences or fallout in the financial system of criminal indictments against large financial groups. DOJ also could find no records that would substantiate its previous claims that it weighed potentially negative economic or financial impacts when considering criminal charges, said Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division. ... Read more

Approaching 'peak oil'?
Aljazeera | author | 05/04/13

The idea of 'peak oil' - or the point in time when maximum petroleum extraction has been reached - is something that has been around since the 1950s.   These days though, the debate centres on whether oil has or has not yet reached its 'peak', given that we have extracted so much of it, and that reserves are declining.

But as new extraction techniques evolve - things like fracking, tar sands, deep water drilling - do we really have fuel that could last for centuries?

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), more than 95 percent of all oil in the world has already been discovered, and half of those total reserves of 2.5 trillion barrels have already been consumed. That's because we, as an entire planet, consume 85 million barrels of oil every day. ... Read more

Here's What a Real Political Cover-up Looks Like -- Orchestrated by the Right-Wingers Who Know It Best
AlterNet | Robert Parry | 05/21/13

Exclusive: Republicans won't let go of their conspiracy theory about some nefarious "cover-up" in "talking points" for Ambassador Susan Rice's TV interviews on the Benghazi attack. But they should at least have better skills for detecting a real cover-up, since they've had direct experience, as Robert Parry documents.

... In 2011, I gained access to files at the George H.W. Bush library in College Station, Texas, showing how Bush's White House reacted to allegations in 1991 that he had joined in an operation in 1980 to sabotage President Jimmy Carter's negotiations to free 52 American hostages then held in Iran.

What those files revealed was how to run a cover-up! Its framework was set on Nov. 6, 1991, by White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, who explained to an inter-agency strategy session how to contain and frustrate a congressional investigation into the so-called October Surprise case. The explicit goal was to insure the scandal would not hurt President Bush's reelection hopes in 1992. ... Read more

Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA
Nation of Change | David Swanson | 05/09/13

Clearly, an investigation of large-scale government corruption by this singularly destructive corporation is long overdue.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been taken over by an outside organization. RootsAction has launched a campaign demanding a Congressional investigation.   The organization is called Monsanto.

Monsanto is, of course, the world's largest biotech corporation. These are the people who brought us Roundup weed killer and the resulting superweeds and superbugs, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange -- which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, May 23 [9:55]
*DN | Killing Americans: Jeremy Scahill on Obama Admin's Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes (05/23/13) [18:02]
DN | Ríos Montt Genocide Verdict Annulled, But Activists Ensure US-Backed Crimes Will Never Be Forgotten (05/23/13) [16:05]
DN | Mexican Priest Alejandro Solalinde on Central, South American Migrants' Perilous Journey to U.S. (05/23/13) [12:39]
*America's health-care prices are ludicrous
Click to zoom
International Federation of Health Plans: 2012 Comparative Price Report.pdf
Elizabeth Warren: Too-Big-To-Jail Dogs Obama's Justice Department (05/22/13) [7:34]
TRNN News
Comment: Your police department at work. Among items transfered to local law enforcement agencies have been assault rifles and grenade launchers, even Blackhawk helicopters and .50 caliber machine guns; In fiscal year 2011 alone, the Pentagon transferred almost $500 million worth of materials to domestic law enforcement.
*TRNN | Obama Expands Militarization of Police: 2011 alone, the Pentagon transferred almost $500 million worth of materials to domestic law enforcement (05/23/13) [9:54]
Aljazeera News
Counting the Cost - Approaching 'peak oil'? (05/04/13) [25:01]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Questions former MSNBC pundit Dylan Ratigan about leaving cable news for the less angry world of hydroponic farming. (05/21/13) [5:39]
*Monsanto | GMOs | Killing the Environment
Here are some suggestions on how we can help slow down Monsanto's march to environmental disaster. Please call your Congress person to tell them how you want them to vote.
Click to zoom

*Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]

Wednesday May 22, 2013
News Articles

Is Wall Street Still "Untouchable"?
PBS Frontline | author | 05/21/13

This fall will mark the five-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, sparking the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. When the anniversary hits, many legal experts agree, any chance federal prosecutors will have had to hold Wall Street accountable will have come and gone with the passing of the statute of limitations.

In The Untouchables, which re-airs tonight on Frontline, correspondent Martin Smith examines why not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for fraud tied to the sale of bad mortgages. ... Read more

Another Chilling Leak Investigation
NYTimes | Editorial Board | 05/21/13

With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible "co-conspirator" in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.

The latest reported episode involves James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News. In 2009, Mr. Rosen reported on FoxNews.com that North Korea planned to launch a missile in response to the condemnation of its nuclear tests by the United Nations Security Council. The Justice Department investigated the source of the article and later indicted Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department security adviser, on charges of leaking classified information. Mr. Kim pleaded not guilty. Normally, the inquiry would have ended with Mr. Kim -- leak investigations usually focus on the source, not the reporter. But ... Read more

Click to zoom

Iceland Freezes EU Plans as New Government Shuns Euro Crisis
Bloomberg | Omar R. Valdimarsson | 05/22/13

Iceland's new government is turning its back on the European Union and will shelve accession talks that started in 2010 as the nation seeks to protect its economic recovery from the debt crisis.

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who will take over as prime minister this week, has decided that a January decision to freeze EU membership talks will be extended indefinitely, his political adviser Johannes Thor Skulason said in a phone interview today. ... Read more

Ben Bernanke meets privately with Darrell Issa
Politico | Jon Prior | 05/21/13

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met privately last week with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and other lawmakers to discuss the central bank's efforts to stimulate the economy and how it could exit this strategy in the future, according to people who attended the meeting.

The meeting followed a letter that Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent Bernanke in April expressing dismay that the Fed was not providing lawmakers with more information about how in the future it plans to wind down its bond portfolio, which has grown to more than $3.3 trillion as a result of the Fed's efforts to boost economic growth. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, May 22 [9:57]
*DN | Other Than Honorable: Army Strips Benefits of Wounded Veterans by Kicking Them Out for Misconduct (05/22/13) [25:04]
A new investigation by the Colorado Springs Gazette says the U.S. Army is downsizing from a decade of war by increasingly kicking out soldiers, including wounded combat veterans. Despite serving multiple tours of duty, the wounded soldiers lose their medical care and other benefits for life. We're joined by Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Dave Philipps, whose three-part series "Other Than Honorable," tells the stories of several discharged veterans suffering severe health issues from injuries sustained in combat. "The army's difficulty in dealing with this is not an army problem, it is a societal problem. We're talking about over two million people who have deployed in the last 10 years," Philipps says. "Over 500, 000 of them have more than three deployments. These are people who may have issues that they need our help with. And if the Army isn't sort of the first responder, the person who gets them on the right track, and the Army in fact through its actions is banning them care for the rest of their lives, that's going to affect our society for a really long time."
DN | Editor of The Progressive Calls For Eric Holder to Resign Over Spying on Press, Occupy Protesters (05/22/13) [6:14]
PBS Frontline
*PBS Frontline | "The Untouchables": examines why no Wall St. execs have faced fraud charges for the financial crisis. (re-aired) [53:41]
This fall will mark the five-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, sparking the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. When the anniversary hits, many legal experts agree, any chance federal prosecutors will have had to hold Wall Street accountable will have come and gone with the passing of the statute of limitations.
House Financial Services Subcommittee meeting today
TRNN News
*TRNN | Kathleen McClellan: Obama's Attack on Whistleblowers Criminalizes News Gathering (05/22/13) [11:23]
The Documentary below explores the information about media censorship, consolidation and propaganda.

Note: this is a long documentary, but I found the flow of information interesting. Remember you can always use the Progressbar to jump around in the video.
Orwell Rolls in his Grave [3:01:53]
TRNN | Darcey O'Callaghan: Wikileaks Cables Reveal State Dept. systematically promoting biotechnology and GMO food abroad (05/22/13) [10:44]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Role Of The Federal Government In Disaster Relief (05/22/13) [1hr]
MSNBC Chris Hayes All-In
Chris Hayes | Day two of tornado tragedy in in Moore, Oklahoma (05/21/13) [13:28], Part 2 [6:26], Part 3 [4:58], Part 4 [5:52], Part 5 [6:56], Part 6 [2:56]
Chris Hayes | Immigration reform bill survives first hurtle, passes Senate committee (05/21/13) [3:25]

Tuesday May 21, 2013
News Articles

Oklahoma Tornado 2013 Devastates Moore, Kills Dozens
HP & Reuters | author | 05/20/13

A massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, killing at least 51 people with winds of up to 200 miles per hour (320 kph) that flattened entire tracts of homes, two schools and a hospital, leaving a wake of tangled wreckage.

... Some 20 to 30 school children were missing and feared dead beneath the rubble, KFOR television reported, citing unnamed officials from the scene. ... Read more

Detroit Bankruptcy Decision Depends On Next 6 Weeks As Kevyn Orr Deals With Debt
HP & Reuters | author | 05/19/13

Bond restructurings, negotiated settlements with bondholders and bond insurers, and tough talk with unionized workers are on the agenda as Detroit's emergency financial manager tries to meet a self-imposed, six-week deadline to decide whether the city can get through its financial crisis without a bankruptcy filing.

... Orr's spokesman, Bill Nowling, said the emergency manager expects to decide soon whether talks with the affected parties will get the job done. "It's safe to say we will have a good idea of whether we can reach an out-of-court restructuring with our bondholders, pensioners, retirees and city employees within six weeks," Nowling said. "This is not going to be a prolonged process. We are in a financial crisis." ... Read more

Study: Human Disaster Looms if Global Temps Rise 4ºC
Common Dreams | Jon Queally | 05/20/13

New research from Europe predicts a 4ºC global temperature rise is well within the range of possibility this century, and that even if the worst predictions of climate change disasters do not materialize the cost of this global change will mean "human disaster" for the planet.

As The Guardian's Fiona Harvey reports, the study--which appears in the journal Nature Geoscience-- shows that as the world's oceans reach their capacity to absorb much of the world's carbon pollution, the increased temperature rise to the atmosphere will create "catastrophe across large swaths of the Earth, causing droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves, and drastic effects on agricultural productivity leading to secondary effects such as mass migration." ... Read more

'Act of Congress' Hopeful Creation of Dodd-Frank, Omits Grim Ending
Propublica | Jesse Eisinger | 05/10/13

President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in July 2010, hailing it as an overhaul to prevent the kind of crisis that hit the world economy in 2008 and one of the signature achievements of his first term. Almost three years later, much of the big stuff the law calls for is on hold, under legal and legislative assault, or still working its way through the regulatory intestines. According to a law firm that tracks the legislation, only 38 percent of the 398 Dodd-Frank rules have been imposed, while regulators haven't yet publicly put forward versions of almost a third of them. ... Read more

Inside the Liar's Loan
Slate | Mark Gimein | older, but good

Here's the narrative we've heard about the mortgage meltdown: miscalculation and unfounded optimism, clueless investors, cash-strapped home buyers clobbered by rate resets.

But there's one piece of the mortgage-meltdown tale that virtually every article or television program dances around without ever quite confronting. It's the simplest aspect of the crisis to understand and also the most troubling, because it's not about complicated financial dealings and can't be fixed with bailouts. It's about an astounding breakdown of social norms. It's the story of the liar's loan. ... Read more

The Coming Collapse Of The Petrodollar System
ZeroHedge | author | 05/20/13

The theory of Petrodollar Warfare can be attributed to US analyst and author William R Clarke, and his 2005 book of that title which interpreted the US-UK decision to invade Iraq in 2003. He called this an "oil currency war", but the concept of the petrodollar system and petrodollar recyling dates back to the eve of the first Oil Shock in 1973-1974. The role of the petrodollar system as a driving force of US foreign policy is explained by analysts and historians as basic to maintaining the dollar's status as the world's dominant reserve currency - and the currency in which oil is priced. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 21 [11:30]
DN | "The Unimaginable Has Happened": Massive Tornado Kills Dozens, Flattens Suburb of Oklahoma City (05/21/13) [16:34]
*DN | Austerity Kills: From Greece to U.S., Crippling Economic Policies Causing Global Health Crisis, Partr 1 (05/21/13) [13:38], Part 2 [15:02]
Chris Hayes | What happens when a tornado hits. (05/21/13) [2:56]
Financial Crisis
Understanding the financial crisis [7:53]
I ran across this video and thought it did a good job of explaining some of the Financial Crisis... the Governments contribution. What is totally missing is Wall Streets contribution, i.e. the liar's loans, the complicitness of the Rating Agencies, the derivatives sold by AIG, and the list goes on.
Albert Bartlett | Chris Martenson | Brain food
Comment: I originally posted Chris Martenson's, Crash Course (see below) because it helped me understand what exponential growth was and how it can't be maintained and be sustainable at the same time. Today I watched Albert Bartlett's lecture on exponential growth and I thought he did a great job on explaining a complex topic in an easy to understand manner.

If everything changed at a snails pace we could take our time preparing for future crisis. But, what these two men are trying to educate us to is exponential growth and how it can throw a monkey wrench into our plans.
*Albert Bartlett, professor emeritus of Physics at Univ of Colorado-Boulder, talks about how to view unfettered growth [1:13:54]
*Albert Bartlett interview from Blind Spot documentary (01/12/09) [4:34]
*Blind Spot Documentary 2008 [1:25:46]
*Crash Course by Chris Martenson, Part 1 [5:15], Part 2 [9:08], Part 3 [6:28], Part 4 [9:29], Part 5 [4:07], Part 6 [9:21]
MSNBC Ed Show
*MSNBC | Ed Show - Republicans closer to dismantling labor protections (05/19/13) [8:10]
MSNBC | Ed Show - Income Disparity in The U.S.: When Will The Republican Greed Stop (older, but still good) [15:25]
MSNBC Chris Hayes All-In
Chris Hayes | Tales of heroism emerging from battered Oklahoma. (05/20/13) [7:46]
Chris Hayes | Deadly tornado hit Moore , Oklahoma. People were told to go underground. (05/20/13) [9:32], Part 2 [4:41]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Intersection Of Political Influence And Journalism (05/21/13) [1hr]
Olympia Snowe: "Fighting For Common Ground: How We Can Fix The Stalemate In Congress" (05/21/13) [1hr]
Tar Sands | XL Pipeline | Ogallala Aquaifer
Click to zoom

Tar sands exploitation would mean game over for climate, warns leading scientist
theGuardian | Damian Carrington | 05/19/13

Prof James Hansen rebukes oil firms and Canadian government over stance on exploiting fossil fuel, which he says would make climate problem unsolvable

Major international oil companies are buying off governments, according to the world's most prominent climate scientist, Prof James Hansen. During a visit to London, he accused the Canadian government of acting as the industry's tar sands salesman and "holding a club" over the UK and European nations to accept its "dirty" oil.

"Oil from tar sands makes sense only for a small number of people who are making a lot of money from that product," he said in an interview with the Guardian. "It doesn't make sense for the rest of the people on the planet. We are getting close to the dangerous level of carbon in the atmosphere and if we add on to that unconventional fossil fuels, which have a tremendous amount of carbon, then the climate problem becomes unsolvable." ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday May 20, 2013
News Articles

Kansas, Oklahoma Hit By Tornadoes, Storm System Tears Across The Plains And Midwest
HP | Sean Murphy | 05/19/13

SHAWNEE, Okla. When Lindsay Carter heard on the radio that a violent storm was approaching her rural Oklahoma neighborhood, she gathered her belongings and fled. When she returned, there was little left of the community Carter had called home. Several tornadoes struck parts of the nation's midsection Sunday, concentrating damage in central Oklahoma and Wichita, Kan. One person was killed near Shawnee, Okla., and 21 injuries were reported throughout the state. ... Read more

Portugal Banks Warn European Leaders: "You Can't Keep Playing With Fire"
ZeroHedge | author | 05/20/13

While we are told day after day that not only is Europe 'fixed' but that Cyprus was not a template, it seems the bankers in the peripheral nations are a little less confident (never mind their record amount of reach-around-based domestic bond buying). European "leaders need to moderate their language," warned one bank CEO, and as the FT reports, another feared a "Cyprus virus," adding that "you can't keep playing with fire." ... Read more

*The Most Dangerous Country In Europe
ZeroHedge | author | 05/20/13

One of the primary focuses of "Out of the Box" is on where you might get hurt and, more importantly, seriously hurt. "Preservation of Capital," the first ten rules of my thinking, has reached epic seriousness in a world with interest rates at unsustainable lows and underlying economic fundamentals that cannot support today's yields. The irrational game goes on based upon one thing and one thing only which is the creation of capital by all of the world's central banks. The money must go somewhere and so it does but the disconnect between the equity markets and bond yields from the real world is frightening. ...

... That title, in my opinion, belongs to France. ... Read more

*The 4 Big Ways That Insatiable Corporate Hunger for Profits Has Devastated American Life -- and the World Along with It
AlterNet | Paul Buchheit | 05/09/13

Calling Themselves 'Multinationals': No Allegiance to Anyone - Big business is making its way around the world like a modern-day Attila the Hun, pillaging and despoiling the planet.

The damage caused by the relentless corporate drive for profits has become more clear in recent years. In the most important areas of American life, devastating changes have occurred: ... Read more

Judd Gregg Redefines "Revolving Door" - From US Senator, To Goldman Sachs Advisor, To Head Of SIFMA
ZeroHedge | author | 05/20/13

Behold the definition of a "revolving door" - Judd Gregg: from US Senator, to Goldman Sachs advisor, to Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) head, all in under two years. ...

... "SIFMA is the leading trade association for the capital markets business with an outstanding member base and dedicated employee team," Bentsen said. "Judd Gregg will bring a strong voice and leadership to underscoring the role of finance in fostering capital formation, wealth creation and jobs and economic development in the United States. I look forward to working with Judd and our members as we promote effective and efficient markets, at home and abroad, to finance a growing American economy." ... Read more

Smashing the Absurd Myth That More Guns Make Us Safer
AlterNet | Sean McElwee | 05/15/13

Gun rights advocates are jumping at recent polls showing that gun violence has decreased, and the public is unaware of this phenomenon. Rush Limbaugh argues that, "as America arms up, gun violence goes down," parroting the infamous book by Dr. John Lott, More Guns, Less Crime. Emily Miller argues in the Washington Times that, liberals have been "muzzled" by the news. But, in fact, research shows that those who oppose gun control ask the wrong questions. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, May 20 [12:33]
*DN | Geoengineering: Can We Save the Planet By Messing With Nature? (05/20/13) [26:01]
DN | Coalition of Immokalee Workers Targets Wendy's In Fair Food Campaign to Improve Wages, Conditions (05/20/13) [11:31]
*DN | Sen. Angus King Accuses Obama Admin of Rewriting Constitution by Waging Endless War [2:33]
*DN | Mad at the IRS? Blame It on the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision [2:01]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Bill Black: Banks Win Big as Regulators Refuse to Rein in $700 Trillion Derivatives Market (05/20/13) [16:30]
*TRNN | David Swanson: Occupy No Longer in Headlines But Activism Continues Nationwide (05/20/13) [14:02]
TRNN | Yotam Feldman: New Film Exposes the Israeli Weapon and Security Industry (05/20/13) [11:35]
*MSNBC Chris Hayes All-In
Chris Hayes | Scandal-gate gives Republicans cover on Immigration Reform. (05/17/13) [12:39]
Chris Hayes | Obama to deliver speech on Drones. (05/17/13) [8:12]
Chris Hayes | More talk on the IRS scandal sidetracks us from the AP scandal, which is much more important. (05/17/13) [5:13]
*Chris Hayes | Death by foreclosure: this weeks REAL scandal that is going on! (05/17/13) [5:01], Part 2 [8:01]
Comedy
George Carlin - We Like War [9:48]
Stephen Cobert | "Anthony Weiner's Comeback -- After withdrawing from public life to spend more time with his penis, ex-congressman Anthony Weiner is ready to stick it back in." [4:16]

Are Some Americans Too Powerful to Make Fun of?
HP | Steven Strauss | 05/19/13

Stephen Colbert interviewed former President William Jefferson Clinton. It would be difficult to imagine a more flattering interview, unless scripted by Clinton's own press people (upon reflection -- perhaps it was). ... Read more

Stephen Cobert | Colbert Galactic Initiative -- Bill Clinton Part 1 President Bill Clinton explains why he doesn't call the Clinton Global Initiative the Clinton American Initiative [7:19], Part 2 [6:00], Part 3 [4:19]
More Videos
As U.S. Debates Gun Post-Newtown, Obama Urged to Break With NRA & Back Global Arms Treaty. Part 1 (older 12/26/12) [3:50], Part 2 [25:45]
As the debate over gun control intensifies in the United States, work continues on an international treaty to regulate the global arms trade. On Monday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to reopen negotiations on the treaty. The United States dropped its opposition after stonewalling talks in July, a move that prompted critics to accuse President Obama of caving to congressional Republicans and the National Rifle Association in an election year.

"I have not seen anywhere else in the world, a gun lobby that has the same level of influence on its own government as the NRA does in the United States," says Andrew Feinstein, author of "The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade" and a former African National Congress member of Parliament in South Africa. "The U.S. buys and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined, so what happens in the U.S. is going to have enormous impact on the rest of the world."
RT | Fake Withdrawal? 'US won't leave Iraq oil to Iran' (12/18/11) [11:06]
Rigged USA Elections Exposed (12/28/11) [11:59]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday May 17, 2013
News Articles

Iraq Bombing Kills At Least 43 Outside Sunni Mosque In Baquba
Reuters | author | 05/17/13

BAQUBA, Iraq, May 17 (Reuters) - Two bombs exploded outside a Sunni Muslim mosque the Iraqi city of Baquba as worshippers left after Friday prayers, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks in a month-long surge in sectarian violence.

Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and Sunni tribal leaders have spread since troops raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, and fears are intensifying of a return to all-out Shi'ite-Sunni conflict. ... Read more

Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press
Wired Magazine | Nicholas Weaver | 05/14/13

We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell's 1984 as an operations manual.

With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists -- and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times -- it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell's Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn't immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.   So how can one safely leak information to the press? ... Read more

Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky: The Truth About America's Secret, Dirty Wars
AlterNet | Jeremy Scahill, Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman | 05/16/13

I really like Jeremy Scahill reporting. I think he is one of the few real investigative reporters. Once he gets started he is fascinating to listen to. Noam Chomsky is one of my favorite speakers.
Read more

The World's Uberwealthy Scramble To Buy Greek Isles
ZeroHedge | author | 05/17/13

The emir of Qatar is a busy man: in addition to providing funding and weapons to the mercenary group formerly known as Syrian "rebels" in order to boost his already incalculable wealth and promote his LNG interests in the region over those of Saudi Arabia, in the process isolating Russia as the marginal provider of energy to Europe and furthering western interests even if it means escalating the Syrian civil war, he is also diversifying his assets. And he is doing so in a way that would provide for a quick and painless getaway should things in his country turn sour (now that the US and Russian fleets are converging nearby, this is no longer a merely token possibility): by buying Greek islands. So now that the world has seen the "lead investors" step in, the uber-wealthiest are scrambling to copycat one of the world's richest people and stake their own Greek island claim. ... Read more

TYT News


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 17 [13:47]
*DN | "Astoundingly Disturbing": Obama Administration Claims Power to Wage Endless War Across the Globe (05/17/13) [10:52]
*DN | Obama Worse Than Nixon? Pentagon Papers Attorney Decries AP Phone Probe, Julian Assange Persecution (05/17/13) [19:01]
DN | Released From Prison, Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher on Civil Disobedience & Building Movements (05/17/13) [12:39]
PBSFrontline
*PBS Frontline | "Top Secret America: 9/11 to the Boston Bombings" with Washington Post reporter Dana Priest (04.30/13) [53:51]
Top Secret America website
This next video starts out slow, but keeps going faster and faster. We collectively have exploded 2053 nuclear bombs.
*A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto [14:25]
Rachel Maddow | Hubris (current and good) (Full Movie) [44:11]
PBS Secrets of the Dead | The Man Who Saved the World. (10/24/12) [53:10]
The little-known story of how close to nuclear destruction the world really was during those dark October days and how the heroism of one man saved us all (hint he was Russian).
PBS Secrets of the Dead | The Worlds Biggest Bomb. (05/17/11) [53:30]
*PBS Frontline | "Never Forget to Lie". Before I was anybody, I was a child survivor of the Holocaust. (05/14/13) [53:41]
Never Forget to Lie website
PBS Secrets of the Dead
PBS Secrets of the Dead | Caveman Cold Case. (05/15/13) [52:16]
TRNN News
TRNN | Mark Seibel (McClatchy Newspapers): Seizure of a news organization's phone records should be illegal as it limits the ability of journalists to investigate and report. (05/17/13) [12:51]
*TRNN | Heiner Flassbeck: Corporations are sitting on mountains of cash and are unwilling to invest in the real economy - only high taxes on profit will make them do so. (05/17/13) [7:30]
*MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 05/17/13 [1hr]
International News - Friday 05/17/13 [1hr]
Other Videos and Documentaries
"Just one day after Treasury Secretary Jack Lew wrote a letter urging lawmakers to reject a slate of Wall Street deregulation measures, nearly two dozen Democrats joined Republicans to approve the package in the House Financial Services Committee.

The legislation would repeal several sections of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law targeting derivatives, the complex financial transactions at the heart of the 2008 banking collapse. Similar measures have already cleared the House Agriculture Committee with broad bipartisan backing.

The most controversial bill advanced on Tuesday would expand government backing for derivatives by allowing banks to sell them from their taxpayer-insured divisions. Dodd-Frank requires banks to "push out" many of these operations into units that do not receive deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)..."

Thursday May 16, 2013
News Articles

Elizabeth Warren Confronts Eric Holder, Ben Bernanke And Mary Jo White On Too-Big-To-Jail
ZeroHedge | author | 05/15/13

Elizabeth Warren is one of the few Senators out there pushing to understand why the federal government has created an untouchable class of criminals in America that can do whatever they want whenever they want and, not only get away with it, but also get bailed out when they make mistakes. In case you missed it, I highlighted a powerful video a few months ago in which she made regulators squirm when confronted on "too big to jail." Now she has written a letter to Ben Bernanke, Eric Holder and Mary Jo White. My favorite line is:

"If large financial institutions can break the law and accumulate millions in profits and, if they get caught, settle by paying out of those profits, they do not have much incentive to follow the law." ... Read more

Hanford Nuclear Cleanup May Be Too Dangerous, Future Of Storage Plant Uncertain
HP & Scientific American | Valerie Brown | 05/09/13

The most toxic and voluminous nuclear waste in the U.S.--208 million liters --sits in decaying underground tanks at the Hanford Site (a nuclear reservation) in southeastern Washington State. It accumulated there from the middle of World War II, when the Manhattan Project invented the first nuclear weapon, to 1987, when the last reactor shut down. ....

... After decades of research, experimentation and political inertia, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) started building the "Vit Plant" at Hanford in 2000. It's intended to sequester the waste in stainless steel--encased glass logs, a process known as vitrification (hence "Vit"), so it cannot escape into the environment, barring natural disasters like earthquakes or catastrophic fires. But progress on the plant slowed to a crawl last August, when numerous interested parties acknowledged that the plant's design might present serious safety risks. In response, then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu appointed an expert panel to find a way forward. Because 60 of the 177 underground tanks have already leaked and all are at increasing risk to do so, solving the problem is urgent. ... Read more

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Note: Boston Bombing Suspect Allegedly Wrote Confession In Boat, CBS Reports
HP | author | 05/16/13

The younger Boston bombing suspect allegedly penned a note on the inside of the boat where he was found hiding from authorities, sources told CBS News senior correspondent John Miller.

The scrawling explained his rationale for his part in the deadly explosion, sources said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly wrote that his actions were retaliations for the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims," the note said, according to CBS' sources who were granted anonymity.

The report would seem to add credence to a Washington Post story last month which cited anonymous "U.S. officials" who said Tsarnaev provided a similar rationale for the bombing when he was interrogated from his hospital bed.

In his reaction to the Post's story, Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald noted that similar reasons have been given by other Muslims who have attempted or carried out recent attacks in America:

In the last several years, there have been four other serious attempted or successful attacks on US soil by Muslims, and in every case, they emphatically all say the same thing: that they were motivated by the continuous, horrific violence brought by the US and its allies to the Muslim world - violence which routinely kills and oppresses innocent men, women and children:

Greenwald lists attempted "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, attempted New York City subway bomber Najibullah Zazi and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan as examples.

"If the United States does not get out of Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries controlled by Muslims, Shahzad said during his guilty plea. "We will be attacking [the] U.S."
Read more

CFTC Waters Down Derivatives Rule In Victory For Wall Street
HP | Shahien Nasiripour | 05/15/13

The U.S. regulator overseeing the derivatives market is set to retreat from an ambitious proposal that would have increased competition in the swaps market, handing victory to large banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will vote Thursday on final rules that will govern a large portion of transactions in the $633 trillion swaps market. Some derivatives are known as swaps because they "swap" risk from one party to another. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, May 16 [13:31]
*DN | "The Other IRS Scandal": David Cay Johnston on Dark Money Political Groups Seeking Tax-Exemption (05/16/13) [12:53], Part 2 [11:11]
The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, has been forced to resign days after the IRS apologized to tea party and other right-wing groups for putting extra scrutiny on their bids to become tax-exempt organizations. While the IRS targeting of tea party groups has made headlines for days, far less attention has been paid to the roots of the crisis. After the 2010 landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United, there was a spike in new political organizations seeking tax-exempt status under tax code Section 501c(4). The court ruled these groups could raise unlimited corporate money without disclosing donor information. Several groups have claimed to be social welfare organizations while spending tens of millions of dollars on political operations. We speak to David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes about taxes issues. "One of the questions that needs to be examined in the real scandal here is how did MoveOn, how did Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, how did Bill Burton's progressive democratic group get approved as exclusively social welfare organizations?" Johnston says. "There are a bunch of folks out there arguing that, well 'primarily,' that phrase that pops up in IRS regulations, can mean 49.9 percent of your activity. I'm sorry, is there an adult in America who's been in a romantic relationship who thinks that 'exclusively' is 49 percent of the time?"
*DN | Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a "Terrifying" Step in State Assault on Press Freedom (05/16/13) [19:05]
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us to discuss what could mark the most significant government intrusion on freedom of the press in decades. The Justice Department has acknowledged seizing the work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The phones targeted included the general AP office numbers in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Connecticut, and the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. The action likely came as part of a probe into the leaks behind an AP story on the U.S. intelligence operation that stopped a Yemen-based al-Qaeda bombing plot on a U.S.-bound airplane. Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and former New York Times reporter, calls the monitoring "one more assault in a long series of assaults against freedom of information and freedom of the press." Highlighting the Obama administration's targeting of government whistleblowers, Hedges adds: "Talk to any investigative journalist who must investigate the government and they will tell you that there is a deep freeze. People are terrified of speaking, because they are terrified of going to jail."
TRNN News
*TRNN | Dr. Heiner Flassbeck: Government has to step in and correct the imbalances of low wages and unregulated financial markets or a deeper recession and crisis is inevitable (05/16/13) [15:57]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Department Of Justice, National Security And Freedom Of The Press. (05/16/13) [1hr]
*MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
MSNBC Rachel Maddow

Wednesday May 15, 2013
News Articles

*Elizabeth Warren, a Great Investment
Truthdig | Robert Scheer | 05/14/13

How astonishing to have a public servant who actually cares to inform the public about the inner workings of the system of crony capitalism that has wedded big government with big business. ... Read more

*The 182 Percent Loan: How Installment Lenders Put Borrowers in a World of Hurt
ProPublica | Paul Kiel | 05/13/13

One day late last year, Katrina Sutton stood at a gas pump outside Atlanta and swiped her debit card. Insufficient funds. But that couldn't be. She'd been careful to wait until her $270 paycheck from Walmart had hit her account. The money wasn't there? It was all she had. And without gas, she couldn't get to work.

Pull Quote:
She walked out with a check for $207. To pay it back, she agreed to make seven monthly payments of $50 for a total of $350. The loan papers said the annual percentage rate, which includes interest as well as fees, was 90 percent.

Comment - this is a scandal:
Banks can get money for less than 1% from the FED's Discount Window, then they loan it out for credit cards @ 23%, or PayDay Loans @ 300% to 750% APR, or now we have Installment Loans @ 90%.

She tried not to panic, but after she called her card company, she couldn't help it. Her funds had been frozen, she was told, by World Finance.   Sutton lives in Georgia, a state that has banned payday loans. But World Finance, a billion-dollar company, peddles installment loans, a product that often drives borrowers into a similar quagmire of debt. ... Read more
Listen to Audio story

*Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA
Nation of Change | David Swanson | 05/09/13

Clearly, an investigation of large-scale government corruption by this singularly destructive corporation is long overdue.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been taken over by an outside organization. RootsAction has launched a campaign demanding a Congressional investigation.   The organization is called Monsanto.   Monsanto is, of course, the world's largest biotech corporation. These are the people who brought us Roundup weed killer and the resulting superweeds and superbugs, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange -- which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans. ... Read more

Everything is Rigged, Continued: European Commission Raids Oil Companies in Price-Fixing Probe
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/15/13

According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets. The targeted companies include BP, Shell and the Norweigan company Statoil. The Guardian explains that officials believe that oil companies colluded to manipulate pricing data: ... Read more

*'Who's Going To Jail Over This Scandal?'
HP | Sabrina Siddiqui | 05/15/13

The nation's top two Republican leaders suggested Wednesday that criminal acts were likely committed by the Internal Revenue Service in its apparent targeting of tea party groups that were seeking tax-exempt status from the agency.

Their comments come after the release of an inspector general report that found the tax collectors improperly singled out the groups who were applying to be "social welfare" groups under the tax code's 501(c)4 provisions, largely because of ineffective management. ... Read more

Comment
Where were these guys when Wall Street nearly distroyed the world. And where are these guys when Wall Street lobbyist are gutting any attempt to rein in their gambling behavior?? John Boehner is a coward.


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 15
TRNN News
TRNN | Dr. Heiner Flassbeck: We're in worst shape now than in 2008 because at least then there was hope governments would face up to the situation (05/15/13) [11:21]
TRNN | Creative and cultural resistance has played a major role in Egypt's ongoing Revolution (05/15/13) [5:28]
*MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Tax Exempt Status: Which Organizations Qualify And Why (05/15/13) [1hr]
Jon Stewart
*Jon Stewart | The IRS shifts the burden of proof from the tinfoil behatted to the government by targeting the Tea Party and other conservative groups. (05/13/13) [6:46]
*Jon Stewart | Following Time Magazine's health care expose, the government investigates comparative medical costs across 3,000 US hospitals. (05/13/13) [4:38]
More News Articles

OK, He Didn't Cause Hurricane Katrina. But He Is Guilty of Fraud.
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 05/10/13

In the history of U.S. military research, there's never been a project with such a combination of big science, high sleaze, and pure conspiratorial strangeness. Yet somehow, some way, the story of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, just got sleazier and stranger -- all thanks to an elderly physicist named Alfred Wong.

HAARP was originally pitched back in the Cold War as a way for plasma physicists to study the ionosphere by blasting it with radio frequency emissions. If you build this series of RF antennas in remote Alaska, the scientists told the Pentagon, HAARP wound not only advance our understanding of this crucial field. It could also be used to fry incoming Soviet missiles and spy on underground bunkers. One physicist working for the Arco oil-and-gas conglomerate even suggested that HAARP could be used to weaponize hurricanes. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Tuesday May 14, 2013
News Articles

Political Intelligence: Transparency or Insider Trading?
Bill Moyers | John Light | 05/10/13

There are many ways corporations and financial interests can exercise influence in Washington. Some donate money to political campaigns while others hire lobbyists to be their megaphones to legislator ears. But information flows the other way, too. And since the financial crisis, details about the laws and regulations being hashed out behind closed doors is more valuable than ever.

A story from the Washington Post this week looks at the growing popularity of "political intelligence" firms that sell analysis of federal actions, and the likely policy ramifications of those actions, to interested parties. Oftentimes, the clients are investors in a company that will be affected by a policy decision or a proposed regulation. ... Read more

*Will Predator Banksters at JPMorgan Chase Finally Pay for Their Misdeeds?
AlterNet | Richard (RJ) Eskow | 05/13/13

Recent revelations show that Chase is the poster child for all that is corrupt, contemptible, and criminal about today's megabanks.

Will California Attorney General Kamala Harris hang tough in her new lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, the first to target individual bankers accused of defrauding the public? If so, it would be the first time in five years that executives at a major bank have personally paid a price for their misdeeds.

Recent revelations have shown the world that JPMorgan Chase comes as close as any institution in America to embodying all this is corrupt, contemptible, and criminal about today's megabanks. This is gratifying, at least on a personal level, since that was not a popular position when we first started writing about JPM and CEO Jamie Dimon a few years back. ... Read more

*One More Ag-Gag Bill Bites the Dust!
Care2 | Piper Hoffman | 05/13/13

One more ag-gag bill bites the dust! Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam vetoed the bill after the state legislature passed it, protecting his state from travesties like the silliness that happened in Utah, where a woman almost went to jail for standing on a public sidewalk and recording what was plainly visible at the slaughterhouse across the street. Utah eventually dropped the charges against her.   51,000 Care2 members have signed our petition against ag-gag laws. We have already helped kill bills in California and Indiana, as I've written here. We have momentum on our side. ... Read more

Lehman Reaches Beyond Grave to Grab Millions From Nonprofits
Bloomberg | Martin Z. Braun | 05/13/13

Remember Lehman Brothers? It's back!

Almost five years after Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (LEHMQ). filed for bankruptcy and set off the global financial crisis, managers of the bank's estate are demanding millions of dollars from retirement homes, colleges and hospitals. ... Read more

Benghazi, IRS, immigration and repealing 'Obamacare' (again): The week to come in Congress
WashingtonPost | Ed O'Keefe | 05/13/13

Scandal, not legislation, could dominate Congress this week as lawmakers in both parties continue to respond to revelations that the Internal Revenue Service gave extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and continue to accuse the opposing party of playing politics with the attack at a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. ... Read more

Homeland Insecurity
Bill Moyers | Peter Van Buren | 05/11/13

What do words mean in a post-9/11 world? Apart from the now clichéd Orwellian twists that turn brutal torture into mere enhanced interrogation, the devil is in the details. Robert MacLean is a former air marshal fired for an act of whistleblowing. He has continued to fight over seven long years for what once would have passed as simple justice: getting his job back. His is an all-too-twenty-first-century story of the extraordinary lengths to which the U.S. government is willing to go to thwart whistleblowers. ... Read more

Large Corporations Seek U.S.--European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance
AlterNet | Andrew Gavin Marshall | 05/10/13

corporate world order is emerging, and like any parasite, it is slowly killing off its host. Unfortunately, the "host" happens to be the planet, and all life upon and within it. So, while the extinction of the species will be the end result of passively accepting a corporate-driven world, on the other hand, it's very profitable for those corporations and their shareholders.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the latest corporate-driven agenda in what is commonly called a "free trade agreement," but which really amounts to 'cosmopolitical corporate consolidation': large corporations dictating and directing the policies of states -- both nationally and internationally -- into constructing structures which facilitate regional and global consolidation of financial, economic, and political power into the hands of relatively few large corporations. ... Read more

*Elizabeth Warren, a Great Investment
Truthdig | Robert Scheer | 05/14/13

How astonishing to have a public servant who actually cares to inform the public about the inner workings of the system of crony capitalism that has wedded big government with big business.

Elizabeth Warren does great email. One payoff of my pittance of a contribution to her grass-roots funded campaign--I regret not contributing more--is that I am regularly alerted by the new Massachusetts senator to the favoritism of our Congress toward Wall Street. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 14 [12:20]
*DN | Dr. Paul Farmer on Rwanda's Health Leap, Haiti Struggles, How Communities Can Repair the World, Part 1 (05/14/13) [9:39], Part 2 [10:18]
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: Pres. Obama cannot expect growth in the economy when he continues the policies of austerity. (05/13/13) [19:05]
TRNN | Larry Wilkerson: Evangelical Christianity is spreading with official support throughout the US armed forces. (05/13/13) [8:23]
*MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | There are 2 IRS scandals: one you have heard about and one you haven't. (05/13/13) [15:23]
Chris Hayes | Michigan, Buena Vista Schools district closed and the state won't help the district. (05/13/13) [6:28]
Chris Hayes | Gunman opens fire on New Orleans Mother's Day parade... we need gun control. (05/13/13) [5:09]
Chris Hayes | Nancy Pelosi knocks the GOP's Benghazi obsession, i.e. "Talking Points". (05/13/13) [5:09], Part 2 [5:26]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Ongoing Controversy Over The Deadly Attack In Benghazi (05/14/13) [1hr]
60 Minutes
*60 Minutes | "Insiders" update: 2011 report shamed Congress into passing the Stock Act, but earlier this month, Congress quietly repealed parts of the law.. (04/28/13) [1:09]
*60 Minutes | Disabled veterans are getting help finding work in a tough job environment. Air Force veteran Mike Haynie has created a course to teach vets how to launch their own businesses. (05/12/13) [13:28]
60 Minutes | Bill Gates, technology is still the solution. He shows Charlie Rose some inventions he's working on to help heal the world. (05/12/13) [13:28]
60 Minutes | An American aid worker's first interview about being kidnapped and held for ransom by Somali pirates in a 93-day ordeal.. (05/12/13) [15:46]
60 Minutes | Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones' charity - the Robin Hood Foundation -- fights poverty with the hardnosed, business sense of Wall Street. (05/05/13) [12:10]
60 Minutes | Invisible wounds of war: Tens of thousands of servicemen and women are dealing with lasting brain damage as the Pentagon scrambles to treat these invisible wounds. (05/05/13) [13:35]
Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert
Jon Stewart | Residential Evil: The Mortgage Electronic Registration System is like a key party, but instead of f**king your wife, they lose track of the deed to your house.. (05/07/13) [6:26]
Stephen Colbert | On the IRS targeting conservative groups (05/14/13) [3:24]
Saturday Night Live | On the Benghazi hearings (05/13/13) [3:45]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday May 13, 2013
News Articles

Wall Street Is Killing Dodd-Frank One Regulation at a Time
Truthdig | Thomas Hedges | 04/30/13

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a letter this month outlining the changes it would like to see made to the Dodd-Frank Act, whose full implementation has been delayed for almost three years now. The chamber's Fix, Add, Replace (FAR) agenda to alter Dodd-Frank insists that Congress' already compromised attempt to avoid another financial meltdown is too ambitious. The law is failing, the chamber says, because it aimed to tackle too much. ... Read more

Cash, Secrecy and Strongmen: 5 Unsavory Ways America Conducts Its Global War
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 05/10/13

The recent revelation that the Central Intelligence Agency has handed tens of millions of dollars over to the offices of the president of Afghanistan should come as no surprise. The CIA has a long history of this sort of activity. And most importantly, it's the latest reminder of how America's global "war on terror" has been forged through backroom deals, cold hard cash and the fostering of corruption.

From Yemen to Afghanistan to Somalia, America has prosecuted its perpetual war the usual way U.S. foreign policy is conducted: partnerships with unsavory leaders who are corrupt and commit abuses. Here are five striking examples of how the U.S. global war has been characterized by unsavory activity since 2001. ... Read more

New Orleans Shooting: Suspect Caught On Surveillance Video Of Mother's Day Parade Violence
HP | Chevel Johnson | 05/13/13

Video released early Monday by New Orleans police shows a possible suspect in the Mother's Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a neighborhood parade.

Police believe more than one gun was fired in the burst of Sunday afternoon violence -- the latest to flare up around a celebration this year -- and they have vowed to swiftly track down those responsible. Detectives were conducting interviews, collecting any surveillance video they could find and gathering evidence from the scene. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them. ... Read more

Who Can Stop the Koch Brothers From Buying the Tribune Papers? Unions Can, and Should
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/10/13

... We have another one of those situations brewing now, only it's a much bigger deal this time -- the much-talked-about, much-dreaded potential sale of the Tribune newspaper group to the odious Koch brothers. As first reported in the Times a few weeks ago, the Kochs, after years of working through the media with relentless lobbying and messaging, are exploring the idea of skipping the middleman and becoming media themselves, with the acquisition of one of the biggest media groups in the country. ... Read more

Who Can Take Republicans Seriously?
NYTimes | author | 05/12/13

It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans.

At every opportunity since they took over the House in 2011, Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in reaching a compromise with the White House. For two years, they held sham negotiations with Democrats that only dragged down the economy with cuts; this year, they are refusing even to sit down at the table. ... Read more

Melting Ice Opens Fight Over Sea Routes for Arctic Debate
Bloomberg | Flavia Krause-Jackson | 05/12/13

... The countries that make up the Arctic Council -- Russia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, the U.S. and Canada - - will sign a treaty on oil-spill preparedness and response, discuss their agenda for the next two years and possibly vote on adding to the roster of permanent observers, which includes Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Poland. ...

... This week's conference comes amid signs that greenhouse gases blamed for global warming are accumulating at rates mankind has never experienced. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on May 10 that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million, a threshold not seen for 3 million years. ... Read more

Navy $37 Billion Ships Seen Unsuitable Have 2-Year Window
Bloomberg | Tony Capaccio | 05/10/13

The U.S. Navy has two years to convince critics, from lawmakers to some in its own ranks, that its troubled $37 billion Littoral Combat Ship program is worth continuing beyond the 24 vessels already under contract.   The Navy must make its case by 2015 for 28 more of the ships if it's to continue the shipbuilding effort beyond the vessels it has already committed to buy from teams led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Austal Ltd. (ASB) ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, May 13 [13:28]
*DN | Climate Tipping Point? Concentration of Carbon Dioxide Tops 400 ppm For First Time in Human History (05/13/13) [12:05]
DN | Ríos Montt Guilty of Genocide: Are Guatemalan President Pérez Molina, U.S. Officials Next? Part 1 (05/13/13) [11:21]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Marshall Ganz on Making Social Movements Matter. (05/10/13) [33:48]
Bill's guest, veteran activist and organizer Marshall Ganz, joins Bill to discuss the power of social movements to effect meaningful social change. A social movement legend who dropped out of Harvard to volunteer during Mississippi's Freedom Summer of 1964, Ganz then joined forces with Cesar Chavez of the United Farmworkers, protecting workers who picked crops for pennies in California. Ganz also had a pivotal role organizing students and volunteers for Barack Obama's historic 2008 presidential campaign. Now 70, he's still organizing across the United States and the Middle East, and back at Harvard, teaching students from around the world about what it takes to beat Goliath.
*Bill Moyers | Rachel LaForest and Madeline Janis on Fighting for Fairness. (05/10/13) [18:56]
Economic equality advocates Rachel LaForest, executive director of Right to the City, and Madeline Janis, co-founder and national policy director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, discuss with Bill how social action can change both policy and lives. Janis led the fight for a living wage in Los Angeles; LaForest fights for fair and affordable housing across the country.

The Biggest Creator of Low-Wage Jobs? Uncle Sam
Bill Moyers | Theresa Riley | 05/09/13

A new study from Demos estimates that American taxpayers fund nearly 2 million low-wage jobs that pay workers less than $24,000 a year ($12 an hour or less). These private-sector jobs are generated by federal contracts, grants, loans and other programs. ... Read more
Click to zoom

Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm
As I listen to this broadcast I'm still amazed that the (supposed) experts are pouncing on the poor overbuying their housing and nothing on the banks. Only the callers are questioning the guest and keeping it more real. I'm disappointed with the guests, but I'm encouraged by the callers.
*Taking The Pulse Of The U.S. Economy 05/13/13 [1hr]
Click to read
Read the Comments. See what the callers think.
*MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | How conservatives pick and choose their scandles. (05/10/13) [16:23]
Chris Hayes | Republicans cling to killing "Obamacare". (05/10/13) [7:23]
Chris Hayes | GOP: Debt Ceiling, pay SS, then bond holders, not Medicare recipients. (05/10/13) [3:46]
Chris Hayes | Controversial Heritage immigration study co-author resigns. (05/10/13) [3:46], Part2 [6:38]
60 Minutes
60 Minutes | Invisible wounds of war: Tens of thousands of servicemen and women are dealing with lasting brain damage as the Pentagon scrambles to treat these invisible wounds. (05/05/13) [13:35]
We all learned a lot in recent years about the dangers of head injuries from contact sports like football. We now know that a hard hit can cause brain damage that only becomes apparent after an athlete's playing days are over. Football is violent, no doubt, but it's nothing compared to war. And just as the National Football League has struggled to come to grips with head injuries so has the military - but on a much vaster scale.

Friday May 10, 2013
News Articles

Hospital Prices No Longer Secret As New Data Reveals Bewildering System, Staggering Cost Differences
HP | Jeffrey Young | 05/08/13

When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690.

Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges only $7,044 for the same treatment, according to a massive federal database of national health care costs made public on Wednesday. ... Read more

7 Financial Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
AlterNet |Lynn Stuart Parramore | 05/08/13

  1. How much does it cost to die? average funeral $11,618.00.
  2. Big banks are getting even bigger. As Bloomberg reports.
  3. Offshore tax cheating v. stealing socks.
  4. Wall Street family values.
  5. ...
Read more

Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 05/07/13

In essence, the Fed extends low-cost credit (i.e. "free money") to the financier class which then uses this free money to buy rentier assets, that is, assets that generate economic rents for the owners, who add no value and create no wealth.

This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy. ... Read more

Paul Ryan: Progressivism Is 'Arrogant And Condescending'
HP | Preston Maddock | 05/09/13

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) belittled progressives during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday.   "Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also -- in my humble opinion -- arrogant and condescending," Ryan said, according to a transcript. "Instead of helping people make their own decisions, it makes those decisions for them. It makes Washington the center of power and politicians the center of attention." ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 10 [13:22]
*DN | Are the FBI and IRS Secretly Reading Your Email Without a Warrant?. (05/10/13) [8:56]
DN | With Father and Sister Imprisoned, Exiled Bahraini Activist Maryam Alkhawaja Condemns Ongoing Abuses. (05/10/13) [14:25]
*BB | Study Shows Too-Big-To-Fail U.S. Banks Grew After Crisis (05/10/13) [2:08]
*TRNN News
TRNN | Pakistan's Elections More Unpredictable than Ever (05/10/13) [9:25]
TRNN | Arab League's Peace Initiative Puts Israel in an Embarrassing Position (05/10/13) [6:33]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 05/10/13 [1hr]
International News - Friday 05/10/13 [1hr]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Obama makes his case for jobs while Republicans push the Texas model. (05/10/13) [11:52], Part 2 [9:25]
*Chris Hayes | Carbon in the atmoshpere is about to hit the highest level since Pliocene Era, 3 to 5 million years ago. (05/10/13) [4:38]
*Chris Hayes | Elizabeth Warren, why do students pay more to borrow from the government than banks?? (05/10/13) [7:31], Part 2 [6:21]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Thursday May 09, 2013
News Articles

How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank
TheNation | Gary Rivlin | 04/30/13

The mood was triumphant on the morning of July 21, 2010, when Barack Obama, not quite two years into his presidency, strode to a podium inside the Ronald Reagan Building, a few blocks from the White House. As he prepared to sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act -- the sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another spectacular financial collapse -- into law, the president first acknowledged the miracle of having a bill to sign at all. "Passing this…was no easy task," he told the crowd of hundreds. "We had to overcome the furious lobbying of an array of powerful interest groups and a partisan minority determined to block change."

Indeed, some 3,000 lobbyists had swarmed the Capitol in hopes of killing off pieces of the proposed bill -- nearly six lobbyists for every member of Congress. For Michael Barr, then an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, the trench warfare spurred by Dodd-Frank left him shellshocked. ... Read more

Chomsky: The Boston Bombings Gave Americans a Taste of the Terrorism the U.S. Inflicts Abroad Every Day
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 05/02/13

There are few in Boston who were not touched in some way by the marathon bombings on April 15 and the tense week that followed. Several friends of mine were at the finish line when the bombs went off. Others live close to where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect, was captured. The young police officer Sean Collier was murdered right outside my office building.

It's rare for privileged Westerners to see, graphically, what many others experience daily - for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings.   On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist Farea Al-Muslimi, who had studied at an American high school, testified before a US Senate committee that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren: Student Loans Should Have Same Rate Big Banks Get
HP | Ryan Grim | 05/08/13

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her first bill Wednesday, designed to set student loan interest rates at the same level the Federal Reserve offers to big banks.

... "Every single day, this country invests in big banks by lending them money at near-zero rates," Warren told The Huffington Post. "We should make the same kind of investment lending money to students, who are trying to get an education." ... Read more

Wealth Inequality PDF
A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93% (full PDF article)


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, May 09 [14:00]
DN | Chicago Workers Open New Cooperatively Owned Factory Five Years After Republic Windows Occupation. (05/09/13) [10:45]
DN | Prosecutors Seek 75-Year Sentence for U.S.-Backed Guatemalan Dictator Ríos Montt in Genocide Trial. (05/09/13) [4:51]
NPR FreshAir
*NPR FreshAir | Nearly Three Years After Dodd-Frank, Reforms Happen Slowly (05/08/13) [40:40]
*HP | Elizabeth Warren: Student Loans Should Have Same Rate Big Banks Get (05/08/13) [6:31]
HP | Greek Youth Unemployment Rises Above 60 Percent (05/09/13) [1:34]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Larry Wilkerson: President Obama protected Bush/Cheney from criminal prosecution to protect himself (05/09/13) [15:42]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Sexual Assault In The Military 05/09/13 [1hr]
Jaron Lanier: "Who Owns The Future?" 05/09/13 [1hr]
People I Like
Noam Chomsky: If Nuclear War Doesn't Get Us, Climate Change Will (03/28/13) [6:43]
*Noam Chomsky: Things Are Ugly - Do Something About It (05/06/13) [3:41]
TheNation | John Nichols: Democracy vs. Dollarocracy (03/29/13) [2:52]
Jeremy Scahill: Killing Anwar al-Awlaki (04/22/13) [3:45]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Jon Stewart Eviscerates Free-Market Libertarianism in Bit on Illegal Foreclosure. (recent) [6:26]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In - 05/08/13
Chris Hayes | Re flags and missed warning signs in Cleveland kidnapping case. (05/08/13) [13:07], Part 2 [8:59]
Chris Hayes | Buena Vista school district in Michigan, is out of money, closed the schools and layed off all the students. (05/08/13) [4:07]
Chris Hayes | Republicans continue to beat the Benghazi drums. (05/08/13) [7:00] Part 2 [14:47]
Click to zoom
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

Wednesday May 08, 2013
News Articles

Air Force sidelines 17 ICBM launch officers; commander cites 'rot' within system
WashingtonPost | AP | 09/08/13

The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control -- and, if necessary, launch -- nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.   The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a "D" grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for. ... Read more

*The Rich Have Gained $5.6 Trillion in the 'Recovery,' While the Rest of Us Have Lost $669 Billion
AlterNet | Les Leopold | 05/03/13

Oh, are we getting ripped off. And now we've got the data to prove it. From 2009 to 2011, the richest 8 million families (the top 7%) on average saw their wealth rise from $1.7 million to $2.5 million each. Meanwhile the rest of us -- the bottom 93% (that's 111 million families) -- suffered on average a decline of $6,000 each.

Do the math and you'll discover that the top 7% gained a whopping $5.6 trillion in net worth (assets minus liabilities) while the rest of lost $669 billion. Their wealth went up by 28% while ours went down by 4 percent.   It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. Here's why. ... Read more

*A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93%
Pew Research | Richard Fry | 04/23/13

During the first two years of the nation's economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.

From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.   These wide variances were driven by the fact that the stock and bond market rallied during the 2009 to 2011 period while the housing market remained flat. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren: Trade talks could weaken bank oversight
Politico | Kate Davidson | 05/08/13

Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised concerns Tuesday that negotiations over new trade agreements could be used as a backdoor way to water down financial regulations.

Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing for Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg, Warren (D-Mass.) said there are "troubling indications" that negotiations over trade deals with Asia and Europe could be seen as an opportunity for banks to quietly weaken oversight of the financial services industry. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, May 08 [10:44]
*DN | Pentagon Study Finds 26,000 Military Sexual Assaults Last Year, Over 70 Sex Crimes Per Day. (05/08/13) [17:13]
DN | Eduardo Galeano, Chronicler of Latin America's "Open Veins," on New Book "Children of the Days". Part 1 (05/08/13) [15:03], Part 2 [11:55]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Bob Pollin: Responds to Reinhart and Rogoff; Cuts Deepen and Stock Market Soars. (05/08/13) [14:25]
*TRNN | Larry Wilkerson: Obama Under Pressure to Seek Regime Change in Syria and Iran. (05/08/13) [13:43]
*TRNN | Larry Wilkerson: Six big arms monopolies profit from tension and war; promote a strategic vision that favors their short term commercial interest. (older 04/014/13) [15:42]
Annual Report To Congress | Military and Security Developments, Involving the People's Republic of China 2013
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Who Benefits From College And Why. 05/08/13 [1hr]
Guests

Isabel Sawhill senior fellow of economic studies at The Brookings Institution.

Nina Marks president of Collegiate Directions Inc., and principal of Marks Education.

Robert Lerman professor of economics, American University fellow, Urban Institute
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Jon Stewart Slams NRA Fearmongering at Gun-apalooza. (05/07/13) [6:05]
Other Videos
Comment: this is an older video that I have posted several times before, but I like because it covers a lot of topics, topics that I think should stay in the national conversation (note: I realize it is British).
Bilderberg, 7/7, 9/11, New World Order & Diana, Now That's Weird, Tony Gosling EMTV (04/23/11) [50:17]
Tony Gosling is an ex-BBC local radio reporter and researcher and now editor of his own Bilderberg.org website and a 9/11 discussion forum www.911forum.org.uk which takes a serious look at some of the holes in the official 'terrorism' stories on which the so-called War on Terror is based. One watch of which of this 45 minute show reminds us just how many subjects are reported in a biased way or not reported at all within the NATO countries.
Other Videos and Documentaries

Tuesday May 07, 2013
News Articles

#OpUSA Hackers Plan 'Day To Remember' With May 7 Attacks On Banks, Government Agencies
HP | Gerry Smith | 05/06/13

A collective of hacker groups plans to attack the websites of major government agencies and banks on Tuesday to protest American foreign policy.

For weeks, the groups, which include Anonymous, have used social media to publicize their planned operation, dubbed "#OpUSA." In a post on the file-sharing site Pastebin, one member of Anonymous laid out an ambitious list of targets, including the websites of the White House, the Defense Department, the FBI, Bank of America and Chase Bank. ... Read more

The US Regulatory Vice Closes On Bitcoin
ZeroHedge | author | 05/06/13

Just six weeks after the US Treasury decided enough-was-enough with this upstart non-fiat, non-controlled-by-TPTB currency (and applied money-laundering reglations), US financial regulators are now looking for supervisory control over Bitcoin.

As The FT reports, CFTC's Bart Chilton notes "it's not monopoly money - real people have real risk in these instruments," and that regulating the controversial cyber-currency "is sure something [CFTC] needs to explore." Chilton's remit to regulate this "shadow currency" is predicated on it becoming a basis for derivative contracts as opposed to purely transactional. ... Read more

Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 05/07/13

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke is a Reverse Robin Hood, robbing from the lower 95% and giving to the financier class. The Real Reverse Robin Hood: Ben Bernanke and his Merry Band of Thieves (August 31, 2012).   It's worth understanding the mechanisms of this wealth transfer: in essence, the Fed extends low-cost credit (i.e. "free money") to the financier class which then uses this free money to buy rentier assets, that is, assets that generate economic rents for the owners, who add no value and create no wealth.

This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy. ... Read more

TPP - Trans-Pacific Partnership
Click to zoom
Other Trade Treaty Graphs
Click to zoom
Click to zoom


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 07 [14:13]
*DN | "Over the Line": U.S. Agents Shooting Dead Innocent Mexicans Across the Border With Impunity. (05/07/13) [10:33]
*DN | Robert Fisk on Syria's Civil War, Chemical Weapons "Theater" & Obama's Backing of Israeli Strikes. (05/07/13) [31:30]
Pre-election violence rips through Pakistan (05/04/13) [2:03]
*TYT | The Koch Plan to Trick Latinos into Voting Conservative. (05/05/13) [4:58]
"The sprawling conservative network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch is being overhauled, with some key Koch operatives moving to a fledgling "dark money" group that is poised to become a chief financing vehicle for the mega donors' political and ideological projects, The Huffington Post has learned."
There's a lot of money to be made in tax breaks for billionaires if Republicans gain control in the Senate and keep control of Congress in 2014. The Koch brothers know that, and they're dumping money into more deceptive marketing campaigns to make sure it happens.
The Real News Network (TRNN)
TRNN | Shir Hever: Israel's Syria Strategy to Weaken Hezbollah and Profit from Chaos. (05/07/13) [19:37]
*TRNN | Japanese critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership say it's an attempt to impose an American system on Japan and would threaten Japanese public healthcare system. (05/07/13) [8:42]
Comment - The Trans-Pacific Partnership is not a fair trade agreement and should be voted down. If your not interested in Japan, at least watch the last couple minutes of this video to see how it can impact US states and citizens.
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Preventing Terrorism In The Digital Age 05/07/13 [1hr]
The surviving Boston bombing suspect told investigators he and his brother learned to build bombs from online sources. Terrorism in the digital age.

Guests
Philip Mudd senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center and former deputy director of the FBI National Security Branch.

Michael German former FBI agent and senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Jerrold Post author of "Mind of the Terrorist" and professor of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at The George Washington University.

Michael Moynihan cultural news editor at Newsweek Daily Beast.
Wall Street & Washington
*The Wall Street Financial Crisis from Fall of Republic by Alex Jones (08/20/11) [30:44]
Osama Bin Laden | 911
*60 Minutes | Presents: Killing bin Laden (02/24/13) [43:46]
Click to zoom
*Interview with Osama bin Laden. Denies his Involvement in 9/11 (article)

Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday May 06, 2013
News Articles

U.S. May Charge JPMorgan For Power Market Manipulation
Reuters & HP | Scott DiSavino | 05/03/13

The regulator of U.S. power markets appears likely to pursue manipulation charges against JPMorgan Chase & Co , analysts said, after a New York Times report on the agency's document that seemed to lay out its case.

The Times said on Friday it reviewed a confidential, 70-page government document that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sent to JPMorgan in March, which alleged the bank manipulated the power market in California and Michigan in 2010 and 2011. ... Read more

JPMorgan Activist Shareholders: JPMorgan 'Lindsay Lohan Of Banks'
HP | Eleazar David Melendez | 05/03/13

Two years ago, when CtW Investment Group began asking JPMorgan Chase & Co. to drop several members from its corporate board, Michael Pryce-Jones, a senior analyst at the activist shareholder, admits the effort was a thankless task. Pryce-Jones says other investors tended to meet his group's proposal with puzzlement, silence or scorn.

This year, the response to his campaign has been markedly different, Pryce-Jones said.   "People tell us they've actually taken time to look at this board's composition and they're dumbstruck," he said. "People have turned and said to us, 'We didn't know it was so bad,' or, 'We never realized the board was so inexperienced.' It's a regular thing we hear now." Read more

This Uber-Wealthy Venture Capitalist Gave A TED Talk Saying Rich People Don't Create Jobs -- And TED Is Refusing To Post It
Business Insider | Grace Wyler | 05/16/12

As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs.

The position is controversial -- so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. ... Read more

The Hollowing Out of Government
HP | Robert Reich | 05/05/13

OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of over more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to about one inspector for every 59,000 American workers.   There's no way it can do its job with so few resources, but OSHA has been systematically hollowed out for the years under Republican administrations and congresses that have despised the agency since its inception.

In effect, much of our nation's worker safety laws and rules have been quietly repealed because there aren't enough inspectors to enforce them. That's been the Republican strategy in general: When they can't directly repeal laws they don't like, they repeal them indirectly by hollowing them out -- denying funds to fully implement them, and reducing funds to enforce them. ... Read more

Cheapest Way to Rob Bank Seen in Cyber Attack Like Hustle
Bloomberg | Jordan Robertson | 05/06/13

... One attack was so fast that, within two hours, $9 million was withdrawn from automated teller machines in 46 cities, according to Francis deSouza, president of products and services for Symantec Corp (SYMC)., the Mountain View, California-based information security company that investigated the incidents. ...

... Tens of millions of dollars were stolen in the past year in two-pronged attacks that banks didn't notice until customers complained or investigators later uncovered the breaches, said Samir Kapuria, a Symantec vice president who led the research. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, May 06 [10:38]
DN | Michael Pollan on How Reclaiming Cooking Can Save Our Food System, Make Us Healthy & Grow Democracy. (05/06/13) [11:10]
Job Creators
TYT | Banned TED Talk (05/17/12) [5:35]
"As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs.

The position is controversial -- so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. National Journal reports today that TED officials decided not to put Hanauer's March 1 speech up online after deeming his remarks "too politically controversial" for the site.
Click to zoom
Original Slides to Nick Hanauer TED Talk.
Wealth Inequality
Wealth Inequality In America = Socialist Propaganda?? (03/10/13) [5:55]
May Day - Employment Inequality | Unions
May Day 2013 San Francisco Marchers Speak Out For Justice (05/02/13) [11:58]
SF Solidarity Rally-Speak-out Against United Grain-Mitsui PMA Union Busting At Port Of Vancouver (03/17/13) [18:20]
Aljazeera
Aljazeera | Inside Syria - Jordan: Straddling Syria sensitivities. (05/50/12) [27:08]
Some Humor
John Fugelsang asks God to explain John Boehner (05/02/13) [3:10]
More Articles

13-Year-Old Florida Boy Shoots 6-Year-Old Sister In Chest
Sun Sentinel & HP | By Mike Clary | 05/06/13

Late Saturday afternoon, Justin Latourrette noticed that the two young children of his new neighbors were out in the driveway washing a family car.   "I thought it was strange," said Latourrette, 29. "They didn't seem to have any supervision."

What happened about an hour later was even stranger: "A loud boom," said Latourrette; police confirmed it was a gunshot.   According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy shot his 6-year-old sister inside their residence in the 5900 block of Northeast Second Terrace just before 7 p.m. ... Read more

Let's Cut Through the Bitcoin Hype: A Hacker-Entrepreneur's Take
Wired Magazine | Dan Kaminsky | 05/03/13

I'm on neither "Team Bitcoin" nor "Team Global Financial System." I'm on "Team Lets Fix This Thing."

Bitcoin. Everybody's talking about it. What's true, and what's hype? Perhaps the only thing that's clear about Bitcoin is that it's not going away anytime soon. Who am I to say? I'm not an economist; I'm a hacker, who has spent his career exploring and repairing large networks. And networks may very well be how the world works -- financial, social, electronic, even physical ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday May 03, 2013
News Articles

Study links insecticide use to invertebrate die-offs
The Guardian | Damian Carrington | 05/01/13

The world's most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed.   On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food crops rely. ... Read more

The "Price" Of Record High Markets: $10 Trillion In Seven Years

ZeroHedge | author | 05/02/13

By now everyone, even CNBC, admits that the only reason stocks are where they are is due to the G-7 central banks. What many may not know, however, is how we got here, and where we will be at the end of this year. ... Read more

Banks on the Run - Part 3
TheNation & Bill Moyers | Greg Kaufmann | 05/02/13

You can't talk about poverty without talking about the practices of the big banks, including their continuing refusal to stem the foreclosure crisis through mortgage principal reductions.   Consider this: Latinos lost 66 percent of their household wealth after the housing bubble burst, and African-American households lost 53 percent. Nearly 12 million families--disproportionately people of color--have either lost their homes or are currently in foreclosure, and another 16 million are underwater, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Communities are decimated by boarded up houses and vacant lots, declining property values and the consequent loss of state and local revenues, and fewer opportunities to weather and recover from financial hardship. A new study from the Urban Institute indicates that white families now average six times the wealth of African-American and Latino families. ... Read more
Part 1, Part 2

*While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 04/26/13

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire "independent" consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal -- in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.

In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits. ... Read more

May Snow Storm Breaks Records; Dumps Over A Foot Across Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Hp & Reuters | author | 05/03/13

An unseasonable May storm system dropped more than a foot of snow across the central Plains and the upper Midwest on Thursday, closing roads and causing power outages in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.   The winter storm system has delivered about 18 inches (46 cm) of snow across parts of northwest Wisconsin and more than 15 inches in southern Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.

"The northernmost areas have seen snow in May before, but not of this magnitude," said Jim Keeney, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.   Temperatures fell close to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1 degree Celsius), making for a heavy, wet snow that downed trees and caused power outages and road closures. The snowfall will likely break seasonal records in portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Keeney said. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, May 03 [12:05]
DN | Angela Davis and Assata Shakur's Lawyer Denounce FBI's Adding of Exiled Activist to Terrorist List. (05/03/13) [34:15]
DN | Assata Shakur in Her Own Words: Rare Recording of Activist Named to FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List. (05/03/13) [8:33]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann Explain Why Congress is Failing Us (04/26/13) [26:47]
Political scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann tell Bill that Congress' failure to make progress on gun control last week -- despite support for background checks from 90% of the American public -- is symptomatic of a legislative branch reduced to dysfunction, partisan ravings and obstruction.

A year ago, the two -- who had strong reputations as non-partisan analysts -- decided to speak truth to power with their book It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. In it, they argue that congressional gridlock is mostly the fault of right wing radicals within the Republican Party who engage in "policy hostage-taking" to extend their political war against the president.

What's more, Ornstein and Mann say, the mainstream media and media fact-checkers add to the problem by indulging in "false equivalency" -- pretending both parties are equally to blame. ... Read more
*Bill Moyers | Sandra Steingraber: The Toxic Assault on Our Children (04/19/13) [56:54]
Biologist, mother and activist Sandra Steingraber joins Bill to explain why she was willing to go to jail -- and did -- for blocking access to the construction of a storage and transportation facility involved in the controversial process of fracking. Steingraber has become internationally known for building awareness about toxins she says are threatening our children's health by contaminating our air, water and food, and talks to Bill about how we must take action stop these "toxic trespassers." ... Read more
Bill Moyers | "Dance of the Honey Bee" (04/19/13) [6:41]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 05/03/13 [1hr]
International News - Friday 05/03/13 [1hr]
*MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Argues that a "gun culture" that involves designing and marketing firearms to children... need to be re-examined. (05/02/13) [14:47]
Chris Hayes | President Obama talks immigration reform in Mexico. (05/02/13) [7:04]
Chris Hayes | Obama administration will continue to push Plan B age restrictions. (05/02/13) [5:02]
*Chris Hayes | Help for homeowners. (05/02/13) [4:25]
*Chris Hayes | Discuss wheather there is some real change finally coming for homeowners. (05/02/13) [8:36]
TRNN News
TRNN | Obama Visits Mexico - US Policy Helped Create a Land of Government Corruption and Narco Gangs. (05/03/13) [12:46]

Thursday May 02, 2013
News Articles

*Too-Big-to-Fail Takes Another Body Blow
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/01/13

... Last week, on April 24th, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced legislation called the "Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act of 2013 Act," or the "Brown-Vitter TBTF Act" for short. The bill is a gun aimed directly at the head of the Too-Big-To-Fail beast. ... Read more

Pat Toomey: Background Checks Died Because GOP Didn't Want To Help Obama
HP | Amanda Terkel | 05/01/13

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) revealed that some members of his party opposed expanding background checks for gun sales recently because they didn't want to "be seen helping the president."

Two weeks ago, only three Republican senators voted for the bipartisan background checks amendment sponsored by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), despite overwhelming popular support for such a measure. ... Read more

Flow of Tainted Water Is Latest Crisis at Japan Nuclear Plant

NYTimes | Martin Fackler | 04/29/13

Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world's second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain.

Groundwater is pouring into the plant's ravaged reactor buildings at a rate of almost 75 gallons a minute. It becomes highly contaminated there, before being pumped out to keep from swamping a critical cooling system. A small army of workers has struggled to contain the continuous flow of radioactive wastewater, relying on hulking gray and silver storage tanks sprawling over 42 acres of parking lots and lawns. The tanks hold the equivalent of 112 Olympic-size pools ... Read more

Executive Pay Of Austerity Advocates Saves Companies More Than $1 Billion Via Tax Loophole
HP | Zach Carter | 05/02/13

... The four highest-paid executives at the firms received a total of $6.3 billion in pay over the period, according to the report. Federal tax law allows companies to deduct executive pay based on performance from the firm's tax bill as a business expense. This performance-based compensation includes stock options, stock awards and other types of incentive pay. These 90 companies qualified for tax perks totaling between $1 billion and $1.5 billion over the course of three years, depending on how many types of pay firms actually deducted ... Read more

How the CIA's Bags of Cash Undermined the Afghanistan War
Wired Magazine | Spencer Ackerman | 04/29/13

... Nearly every month since the war began in 2001, the CIA has sent a guy over to Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a bag -- sometimes a suitcase, sometimes a backpack, sometimes a shopping bag -- full of cash. His former chief of staff says they used to call it "ghost money," and it totals tens of millions of dollars, according to an eye-opening New York Times story. Quite the hypocritical twist from a sponsor country that so frequently hectors Karzai about corruption. "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan," a U.S. official levels with the paper's Matthew Rosenberg, "was the United States." ... Read more

Banks Move Shareholders Meetings to Avoid Protests
Bill Moyers | Greg Kaufmann, The Nation | 05/02/13

You can't talk about poverty without talking about the practices of the big banks, including their continuing refusal to stem the foreclosure crisis through mortgage principal reductions.   Consider this: Latinos lost 66 percent of their household wealth after the housing bubble burst, and African-American households lost 53 percent. Nearly 12 million families -- disproportionately people of color -- have either lost their homes or are currently in foreclosure, and another 16 million are underwater, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, May 02 [14:10]
DN | As U.S. Moves to Arm Syrian Rebels, Questions Raised About Reports of Chemical Weapons Attack (05/02/13) [17:24]
TRNN News
TRNN | Jesse Rothstein: Low wages and lack of purchasing power the real structural problem, skills training and more education is not the critical solution (05/02/13) [10:56]
TYT News
*TYT | 5-Year Old Tragically Kills Baby Sister with Rifle 'Made for Youths'. (05/01/13) [3:50]
*TYT | May Day - Why the Bottom 90% Should be Outraged. (05/01/13) [6:28]
*TYT | Woman ARRESTED For Filming Slaughterhouse from Public Street. (05/01/13) [4:25]
TYT | 3 More Suspects in Boston Marathon Bombing. (05/01/13) [7:09]
TYT | CIA Bribes Afghanistan President with 'Ghost Money' (04/29/13) [7:54]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
05/01/13
Chris Hayes | Three new suspects charged in Boston bombing. (05/01/13) [10:22]
Chris Hayes | Inappropriate punishment because of todays political environment. (05/01/13) [9:18]
Chris Hayes | May Day, Labor Day, workers march for better conditions, wages, etc. (05/01/13) [5:09]
Chris Hayes | Sequestration effects on the rich vs effects on the poor. (05/01/13) [6:16], Part 2 [6:16]
04/30/13
Chris Hayes | Obama blasts congressional interaction and Guantanamo hunger strike. (05/01/13) [15:49], Part 2 [6:47], Part 3 [6:43], Part 4 [7:00]

Wednesday May 01, 2013
News Articles

5-Year-Old Get .22 Caliber Birthday Rifle, Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Sister
AlterNet | Steven Hsieh | 05/01/13

A 5-year-old-boy shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with a .22 caliber rifle he received for his birthday, said police in Cumberland County, Ohio, where the incident occurred. ... Read more

A Four-Year-Old Shoots and Kills Deputy's Wife at Weekend BBQ
Gawker | author | 04/08/13

Guns don't kill people--no, they do. One did this past Saturday, in the 26,000-person town of Lebanon, Tennessee, when it was left loaded on a bed, within grabbing distance of a toddler. ... Read more

Grand Theft Market: High-Frequency Frontrunning CME Edition
ZeroHedge | author | 05/01/13

One of the New Normal responses to allegations, first started here in 2009 and subsequently everywhere, that all HFT does is to frontrun traditional market players (among many other evils) now that its conventional and flawed defense that it "provides liquidity" lies dead and buried, is that "everyone does it" so you must acquit because how can you possibly prosecute a technology that accounts for over 60% of all market volume and where if you throw one person in jail you would throw everyone in jail. Today we learn that this indeed may be the case, and not only at the traditional locus of HFT frontrunning such as conventional exchanges for stocks such as the NYSE or even dark pools, but at the heart of the biggest futures exchange in the US, the CME where as the WSJ's Scott Patterson explains frontrunning by HFT algos is not only a way of life, but is perfectly accepted and even smiled upon. ... Read more

The reality of high-frequency trading
Politico | Charles M. Jones | 03/19/13

Is high-frequency trading a threat to our financial markets or an important innovation that benefits today's investors? Judging by the rhetoric coming from some in Washington and elsewhere, it's easy to perceive high-frequency trading as a one-sided battle pitting merciless, lightning-fast machines against earnest but doomed investors. One member of Congress went so far as to call high-frequency trading "a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of our markets." But does this view match reality? ... Read more

Fed holds steady on stimulus, worried by fiscal drag
Reuters | Pedro da Costa | 05/01/13

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it will continue buying $85 billion in bonds each month to keep interest rates low and spur growth, and added it would step up purchases if needed to protect the economy.

Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, May 01 [11:44]
*DN | As Bangladesh Toll Hits 400, Calls Grow to Grant Workers the Same Protections as Labels They Make (05/01/13) [17:29]
High Frequency Trading (HFT) (and more)
*60Minutes | Wall Street: The Speed Traders (older) [13:36]
*60Minutes | Wall Street's Shadow Market. (older 10/05/08) [12:04]
*60Minutes | Derivative - Credit Default Swaps. (older 10/26/08) [12:29]
60Minutes | Bank Of America. (older 10/19/08) [12:03]
60Minutes | Derivative - Credit Default Swaps. (older 12/14/08) [12:30]
BEEs
EU to ban pesticides linked to bee decline (04/29/13) [2:28]
The European Union appears set to impose a two-year ban on three pesticides linked to bee deaths after a majority of member countries voted in favour of a moratorium. A key committee of experts on Monday cleared the way for the European Commission to impose a proposed ban on insecticides blamed for a sharp decline in bee populations.
TRNN News
*TRNN | Dr. Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese: Obama care will not put an end to medical bankruptcies - 80% of people going bankrupt due to healthcare costs had insurance (05/01/13) [11:51]
TRNN | Gerald Friedman: A single-payer plan in Maryland would cover everyone, improve outcomes and make business more competitive (older) [10:00]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Paul Farmer: "To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation" 05/01/13 [1hr]
TYT News
TYT | Stephen Colbert's Sister Puts a Beatdown on Mark Sanford. (05/01/13) [7:22]
TYT | Will We EVER Close Gitmo? (04/30/13) [6:49]
TYT | Parents Say 'Diary of Anne Frank' is Pornographic?! (04/30/13) [4:43]
TYT | Is Syria Calling Obama's Bluff? Does The U.S. Have to Intervene? (04/30/13) [9:06]
Other Videos and Documentaries

05.01.2013. 07:29



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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I'm still working on this

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

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

Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

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

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

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

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

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

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

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

Wall Street and Banksters

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

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

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

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

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

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Nukes
Nukes

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

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

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

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

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

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

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

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

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

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

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

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911
911

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

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

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

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

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

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

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

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

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

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