Home · News · News Nov 2014
Wednesday November 26, 2014
News Articles

Darren Wilson: There's 'No Way' Michael Brown Put His Hands Up
HP | Paige Lavender | 11/25/14

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened up for the first time in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, part of which aired Tuesday evening, less than 24 hours after it was announced a grand jury would not indict him for the death of Michael Brown.

Wilson said there was "no way" Brown put his hands up before Wilson fired his weapon, as some witnesses have described. Wilson said he thought, "he will kill me if he gets to me" when he saw Brown come toward him. ... Read more
Darren Wilson: There's 'No Way' Michael Brown Put His Hands Up

Good News for Mother Earth: Solar, Wind Power Becoming Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
BillMoyers | author | 11/24/14

The untold story of the 2009 stimulus package is that it jump-started a failing renewable energy sector in the US. As journalist Michael Grunwald, author The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, told The Atlantic in 2012, the much-maligned American American Recovery and Reinvestment Act "really launched a silent green revolution." A big part of that revolution was driven by the stimulus package's $90 billion for clean energy at a time when the government had been spending only a few billion per year.

Today, many of our green energy subsidies have expired, and additional tax breaks are unlikely to be renewed by Congress. But spending on research and development in both the public and private sector -- and by other countries -- now appears to be paying dividends. As of last year, the solar energy business alone accounted for more American jobs than gas and coal combined, according to the Solar Foundation's annual survey. ... Read more

Five bedrock assumptions that are warping American policy in the Middle East.
TomDispatch & BillMoyers | author | date

"Iraq no longer exists." My young friend M, sipping a cappuccino, is deadly serious. We are sitting in a scruffy restaurant across the street from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's been years since we've last seen each other. It may be years before our paths cross again. As if to drive his point home, M repeats himself: "Iraq just doesn't exist."

His is an opinion grounded in experience. As an enlisted soldier, he completed two Iraq tours, serving as a member of a rifle company, before and during the famous Petraeus "surge." After separating from the Army, he went on to graduate school where he is now writing a dissertation on insurgencies. Choosing the American war in Iraq as one of his cases, M has returned there to continue his research. Indeed, he was heading back again that very evening. As a researcher, his perch provides him with an excellent vantage point for taking stock of the ongoing crisis, now that the Islamic State, or IS, has made it impossible for Americans to sustain the pretense that the Iraq War ever ended. ...

  1. The presence of US forces in the Islamic world contributes to regional stability and enhances American influence.
  2. The Persian Gulf constitutes a vital US national security interest.
  3. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are valued and valuable American allies.
  4. The interests of the United States and Israel align.
  5. Terrorism poses an existential threat that the United States must defeat.
Read more

Prosperity Amidst the Ruins
ZeroHedge | author | 11/26/14

The fundamental problem facing the global economy is not slow economic growth but political inequality.

It's striking: as economies stagnate, the top tier is living even larger while the low-income masses sink further into marginalized poverty. I call this widening divide between the vested interests/wealthy and the rest of society prosperity amidst the ruins.

How can the top slice prosper while the rest of the populace suffers from higher taxes, stagnant wages and a collapse of employment/enterprise opportunities? ... Read more

There Goes The Shopping Spree: Nor'easter May Hit East Coast For Thanksgiving
ZeroHedge | author | 11/26/14

Forget Black Friday and Q4 GDP... it appears, from the most recent forecasts that from Wednesday on this week, the eastern US faces a 'White Five-Day' as Accuweather reports "an increasing likelihood for a swath of heavy snow stretching from eastern Pennsylvania through New York's Hudson Valley and across much of New England before all is said and done." Furthermore, as WaPo notes, Wednesday's possible storm has a chance to develop into a legitimate Nor'easter. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, November 26 [11:28]
DN | "This Country Values Property Over People": Ferguson Activist Speaks Out as Protests Spread (11/26/14) [12:16]
DN | Mississippi Burning: As Ferguson Erupts, Obama Honors Civil Rights Activists Slain By Klan in 1964 (11/26/14) [6:15]
Preview: The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy (11/26/14) [0:26]
From luxury skyscrapers -- taller, more expensive and exclusive than ever before -- the dark shadows of plutocracy are spreading across the commons of democracy.
Matt Taibbi - formerly of RollingStone, back at RollingStone
BillMoyers | Matt Taibbi joined Chrystia Freeland, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. (older) [49:12]
Matt Taibbi joined Chrystia Freeland, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, on Moyers & Company this weekend to discuss the literal and psychological takeover by the one percent of our society and government. In the segment, which you can watch above, Taibbi and Freeland discuss how class warfare is becoming inherent and why huge class disparity is an absent subject in presidential debates. "I think the winner take all economic dynamic is something that is existing separate from the politics," Freeland says. "The politics in the United States are exacerbating that division rather than mitigating it." Taibbi says the one percent feel entitled to their wealth and tax breaks, while the poor accept their inability to climb the ladder. "A lot of Americans are disillusioned about their situation," Taibbi says. "They actually do believe on some level that if they're poor, they deserve to be that way."
BillMoyers | Matt Taibbi talked about Mary Jo White, the wrist-slapping HSBC and UBS settlements, and ... (older) [15:21]
Matt Tahibbi on Bill Moyers Show: one of my favorite people and someone I've always looked up to. This week, we talked about Mary Jo White, the wrist-slapping HSBC and UBS settlements (about which a full Rolling Stone feature is coming, hitting newsstands next week), and the whole question of why some people go to jail and others don't.
TRNN | Police Brutality Towards Black People Has Historically Gone Unchecked (11/26/14) [17:07]
TRNN | Baltimore Erupts With Protests in Solidarity With Ferguson (11/26/14) [5:17]
TYT | CNN Blew Ferguson Coverage & Nobody Blew It Bigger Than Don Lemon (11/25/14) [5:37]
TYT | Obama Stays Cool As America Rages At Ferguson Injustice (11/25/14) [9:22]
TYT | Darren Wilson's Testimony Is Pure Weird Racist Fantasy (11/25/14) [8:23]
TYT | Ferguson Prosecutor Fails To Prosecute & That Might Have Been His Goal (11/25/14) [10:10]
TYT | Bob McCulloch's Bizarre Statement On Michael Brown Included Old Slanders (11/25/14) [12:09]
Thom Hartmann
ThomHartmann | Jesse Ventura on Ferguson, The mid-terms and Legal Pot... (11/25/14) [9:18]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links here for possible future use.
This is a compolation from a lot of other sources. Sometimes these can bee good since they accumulate ideas from a lot of different experts. Sometimes they are tedious, because they aren't stiched together well enough to make a point. This one is in the middle.
Fukushima Documentary 2014 HD ? Nuclear Exodus: Pandora's Promise Was A Lie (03/25/14) [2:55:38]

11.26.2014. 11:42

Tuesday November 25, 2014
News Articles

How Obama Pushed Hagel Out of the Pentagon
Bloomberg | Jonathan Allen | 11/25/14

"The White House has really wanted to minimize the influence of the Pentagon on policy," said Rosa Brooks, who was counselor to then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy during Obama's first term.

Like his immediate predecessors at the Pentagon, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, Hagel chafed at the way a small cadre of Obama loyalists centralized power in the White House. When Obama backed off a threat to bomb Syria last year, he made the decision on a walk with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough. Hagel was informed of the decision later.

Tension between Hagel and White House aides got so bad, the defense official said, that Hagel would often phone Obama after the meetings to make sure his voice was heard. ... Read more

Wall Street Pension-Raiders Scored Big Wins in 2014 Midterms
BillMoyers | author | 11/21/14

Last fall, journalists David Sirota and Matt Taibbi dug into a well-funded Wall Street campaign to loot public pension funds. A number of states had, or were in the process of turning billions of dollars in public employees' retirement funds over to various financial firms that in turn skimmed exorbitant fees off the top. ... Read more

Looting the Pension Funds
RollingStones | Matt Taibbi | 09/26/14

In the final months of 2011, almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension costs, the state of Rhode Island took bold action to avert what it called its own looming pension crisis. Led by its newly elected treasurer, Gina Raimondo -- an ostentatiously ambitious 42-year-old Rhodes scholar and former venture capitalist -- the state declared war on public pensions, ramming through an ingenious new law slashing benefits of state employees with a speed and ferocity seldom before seen by any local government.

Called the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011, her plan would later be hailed as the most comprehensive pension reform ever implemented. The rap was so convincing at first that the overwhelmed local burghers of her little petri-dish state didn't even know how to react. "She's Yale, Harvard, Oxford -- she worked on Wall Street," says Paul Doughty, the current president of the Providence firefighters union. "Nobody wanted to be the first to raise his hand and admit he didn't know what the fuck she was talking about." ... Read more

WALL STREET IS TAKING OVER AMERICA'S PENSION PLANS
TheIntercept | Murtaza Hussain |

Coverage of the midterm elections has, understandably, focused on the shift in political power from Democrats toward Republicans. But behind the scenes, another major story has been playing out. Wall Street spent upwards of $300M to influence the election results. And a key part of its agenda has been a plan to move more and more of the $3 trillion dollars in unguarded government pension funds into privately managed, high-fee investments -- a shift that may well constitute the biggest financial story of our generation that you've never heard of. .... Read more

Here Comes France: Right-Wing Leader Marine Le Pen Demands Central Bank Repatriate French Gold
ZeroHedge | author | 11/25/14

First Germany, then the Netherlands, perhaps Switzerland this weekend, and now the French right-wing Front National, which shockingly came first in May's European parliament elections, and whose leader Marine Le Pen is currently polling in first place in a hypothetical presidential election (in both a first and run off round), ahead of president Hollande, has sent a letter to the governor of the French Central Bank, the Banque de France, demanding that France join the list of nations which have repatriated, or at least tried to, their gold. ... Read more

Apple Market Cap Tops $700 Billion, Netflix Goes Red In 2014
ZeroHedge | author | 11/25/14

Apple tops $700 billion market cap and is up over 50% year-to-date...
Meanwhile Netflix has once again given up all its year-to-date gains...

Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Tar Sands - Click to zoom
Tar Sands is a messy job
A Thanksgiving Snowstorm Could Make America's Busiest Travel Day A Living Hell
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, November 25 [10:36]
DN | Black Lives Matter: Ferguson Erupts After Grand Jury Clears Officer in Michael Brown Killing (11/25/14) [20:02]
DN | Riot as the Language of the Unheard: Ferguson Protests Set to Continue In Fight For Racial Justice (11/25/14) [15:14]
*Matt Taibbi on How Wall Street Hedge Funds Are Looting the Pension Funds of Public Workers (older) [7:04]
TRNN | IPS fellow Phyllis Bennis and Just Foreign Policy's Robert Naiman discuss Hagel's actions on Afghanistan, ISIS, and the Pentagon budget (11/25/14) [13:05]
TYT | 12-Year-Old With BB Gun Killed By Police On Playground (11/24/14) [8:40]
TYT | Pentagon Boss Chuck Hagel Fired - Why And What Now? (11/24/14) [12:14]
TYT | Forget Ferguson, Blacks Are The Real Threat To Blacks, Says Giuliani (11/24/14) [10:54]
TYT | Conspiracy-Debunking Benghazi Report Whips Lindsey Graham Into A Tizzy (11/24/14) [8:31]
Thom Hartmann
*Thom Hartmann | EXPOSED: 90 Pipeline Spills in 4 Months... (11/24/14) [9:11]
*Keystone PipeLIES Exposed from Center for Media and Democracy (05/24/14) [23:07]
www.pipeliesexposed.org website
Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire (11/23/14) [57:00]
  1. 00:45 - "The Most Selfish Congress In History." Rant about upcoming Congress's plans for America. Congress, climate change, environment, jobs, economy, wages. #SelfishRepublicans
  2. 07:06 - David Haynes will tell us how corporate greed and negligence have made our roadways a very hazardous place. Airbag, Guard Rail, Corporation, Road, Danger, Lawsuit. #CorporateGreed
  3. 17:24 - "The Net Neutrality Battle Rages On." Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy for Free Press in New Jersey, will give us the latest on the ongoing battle for net neutrality. Net Neutrality, Telecom, Company, Internet, NSA, Spying. #NetNeutrality
  4. 26:16 - "Financial Divide Threatens American Security." Attorney Howard Nations explains how the growing gap between the haves and have nots is threatening our democracy. Income Gap, Money, Finance, Economy. #WealthGap
  5. 37:08 - "Fast Track To Disaster." Attorney David Hersh will tell us how the TPP could get fast tracked from the new GOP congress. Trade, Deal, TPP, Negotiation, Jobs, Wages. #NoFastTrack
  6. 46:48 - "SEC Delays Wrecking Our Economy." Peter Mougey will explain why the Securities and Exchange Commission is delaying rules and regulations that could help curb Wall Street crime. Banks, Wall Street, SEC, Dodd Frank. #JusticeDelayed

11.25.2014. 11:29

Monday November 24, 2014
News Articles

Chuck Hagel Stepping Down As Secretary Of Defense
AP & HP | Julie Pace | 11/24/14

President Barack Obama says Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has concluded it's an "appropriate time" for him to complete his service. Obama says Hagel will stay in place at the Pentagon until a successor is confirmed.

Hagel has had a rocky tenure of nearly two years in which he's struggled to break through the White House's insular foreign policy team. He stepped down under pressure amid multiple foreign policy crises, including the rise of the Islamic State group. ... Read more

Arresting Portraits Give Voices To Homeless People In America's Poorest Big City by Robbie Couch (11/24/14) (photos)

Behind 700% Loans, Profits Flow Through Red Rock to Wall Street
Bloomberg | Zeke Faux | 11/24/14

Joshua Wrenn needed money to make the January payment for his Jeep Cherokee. The truck driver and aspiring country singer in Madison, North Carolina, got $800 within minutes from a website he found on his phone. When he called to check his balance a few weeks later, he was told he had electronically signed a contract to pay back $3,920 to a company owned by an American Indian tribe.

"I didn't ever see a contract, not one time," said Wrenn, 30. "If I was that stupid, to sign for $3,000 for an $800 loan, I might as well bury myself alive."

Payday loans like Wrenn's -- costly, short-term advances for those with poor credit -- are illegal in North Carolina and about a dozen other states. That's driving online lenders to Indian reservations, where tribes say they're not subject to interest-rate regulations.

American Web Loan, Wrenn's payday lender, is one of the biggest in the U.S. Its offices are in four double-wide trailers, behind the Otoe-Missouria tribe's 7 Clans Paradise Casino in Red Rock, Oklahoma, off a two-lane highway lined with wheat fields. John Shotton, chairman of the Otoe-Missouria, says his impoverished tribe needs the profits to fund affordable housing and after-school programs. ... Read more

Here Are The Most Popular "Hedge Fund" Stocks in The Third Quarter
AAPL has regained its top spot as the global hedge fund hotel's most beloved stock. In fact, 4 of the 5 most widely held names are all tech names, with GOOG, MSFT and FB rounding out the top 4, and only Citigroup as the outlier in the top 5. Perhaps more notable is that the former hedge fund darlings AIG and GM, have been abandoned by the HF crowd, and were in 9th and 16th place, respectively. Click to zoom - for Larger Image

7 Leading Candidates for Corporate Rip-Off of the Year
Alternet | Paul Buchheit | 11/23/14

There are so many to choose from. Every one of these selections is an act of corporate treachery that takes billions of dollars from the American people.

  1. Selling Medication For Up To 100 Times More Than It's Worth - For an example is Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of the drug Sovaldi, which charges about $10 a pill to its customers in Egypt, then comes home to charge $1,000 a pill to its American customers.
  2. Paying Their Employees With Our Tax Money - Walmart made $19 billion in U.S. profits last year, and the four Walton siblings together made about $29 billion from their personal investments. That's about $33,000 per U.S. employee in profits and family stock gains. Yet they pay their 1.4 million American employees so little that the average Walmart worker depends on about $4,000 per year in taxpayer assistance, for food stamps and other safety net programs.
  3. Giving Money to Executives Rather Than Investing in the Future - Corporations are spending trillions of dollars on stock buybacks, which use potential research and development money to pump up the prices of executive stock options. Apple alone is spending $90 billion to repurchase its own stock through 2015.
  4. Making Money on Dirty Air and Water - Koch Industries dumps more pollutants into rivers and streams than General Electric and International Paper combined.
  5. Making the Highest Profit Margin in the Corporate World -- And Demanding a Tax Cut - The trading volume on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reached $1 quadrillion in notionalvalue last year. That's a thousand trillion dollars, about ten times greater than the world economy. CME complained that its taxes were too high, and they demanded and received an $85 million tax break from the State of Illinois.
  6. Skipping Out on the Country that Made Their Business Possible - Walgreens (which later backed down), Burger King, and Medtronic are the biggest names in the so-called inversions that allow companies to desert the country that made them successful.
  7. Group Ripoff: $74 Billion in Profits...and a Tax Refund - It seems incomprehensible that Boeing, Ford, Chevron, Citigroup, Verizon, JP Morgan, and General Motors, with a combined income last year of $74 billion, would pay no taxes, and in fact receive a combined refund of nearly $2 billion.
Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, November 24 [16:15]
DN | After Vowing to End Combat Mission in Afghanistan, Obama Secretly Extends America's Longest War (11/24/14) [22:59]
DN | No Debate: Antiwar Voices Absent from Corporate TV News Ahead of U.S. Attacks on Iraq & Syria () [5:20]
TRNN | Who Is In Charge of Development: The Elite or the Majorities? (11/24/14) [11:54]
Homeless Man Records His Daily Life (11/16/14) [7:05]
TYT | Our F*cked Up Medical System May Leave This Family Bankrupt (11/23/14) [6:25]
TYT | NYC Penthouses Include Big Juicy Tax Breaks & Systemic Corruption (11/23/14) [8:59]
TYT | GOP To Blame Obama For The Government Shutdown They're Planning (11/23/14) [4:36]
TYT | Crazy Muslim Theory From The Biggest Presidential Palace Ever (11/23/14) [4:58]
Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann | Nomi Prinz: Banksters are Rigging the "Stock" System with HFT (04/08/14) [10:37]
TestTube (Discovery Digital Network)
How Powerful Is China? (09/04/14) [4:09]
Why are Russia and Ukraine Fighting? (09/03/14) [4:05]
Nomi Prinz
All the Presidents' Bankers by Nomi Prins (07/14/14) [1:04:14]
The longstanding relationship between Wall Street and the White House has often been described as a "revolving door," with both camps benefiting from the connection. All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power offers an inside look at the political and economic web spun between these two giants. Journalist Nomi Prins traces the history of this partnership, from the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1907 to bankers' influence on politics after the financial crisis of 2008. A former Wall Street executive, Prins unravels the Ivy League schools, fishing trips, marriages, and job offers that thicken these ties each year. By recycling power and keeping it "in the family," Wall Street and the White House have become mutually beneficial entities, working together to shape national -- and international -- politics. According to Prins, these ties have had devastating consequences and the time has come to break them before it's too late.
Massive Fraud of The Financial Class with Nomi Prins () [1:19:06]
Interview with Nomi Prins; Sociopathic Banksters are Running the World () [49:08]
Nomi Prins-Financial Crash-Collapse Coming, It Should Have Happened () [19:41]
Webster Tarpley
Webster Tarpley on the 46 Drills of 9/11 (03/07/12) [58:36]
9/11 Synthetic Terror - Made in USA () [1:05:47]
Webster Tarpley 2013 "Manufactured Terrorism" () [1:08:54]
Webster Tarpley 9/11-Evidence () [1:06:12]
The Dark Web
BBC | Inside The Dark Web () [1:00:26]
TWC: The Dark Web Rises: A Journey through the Looking Glass! () [1:16:25]
Anonymous - The Internet's Own Boy - The Story of Aaron Swartz () [1:45:00]
The Virtual Interview: Edward Snowden - The New Yorker () [1:08:04]
More 9/11 Documentaries
Articles
Identifying 9/11 Victims

PBS Newshour | author | 09/21/01
SUSAN DENTZER: Father of two, and a civilian Army employee, Ted Moy worked at the Pentagon. When his wife did not hear from him after last week's terrorist attack, she called various Pentagon phone numbers he'd given her to track him down.

MADELINE MOY: He's been moved around just, you know, different parts of Pentagon. I said, "Okay, I'll give him a few more hours," you know, and then I start to cry.

SUSAN DENTZER: By the time Madeline Moy and other family members were taken by bus several days later to see the crash site, they knew Ted wasn't coming back. ...

... SUSAN DENTZER: 52 of the 117 remains removed from the Pentagon have now been identified. Out of the more than 6,300 missing in New York those identified and whose families have also been notified now number 135.
Read more
A Pattern of Evidence Destruction, Evidence Suppression, and Cover-up by Authorities and 9/11 Commission (article)
Click to zoom - then click on circles (be patient)
Pentagon Body Parts/debris (01/31/13) (article)
Question

How is it possible that the Pentagon's highly touted missile detections systems could not locate Flight 77 in the 42 minutes it was known to be lost before it crashed into the heart of the defense system of the U.S.? The missile detection systems did not depend on FAA radar and were programmed to pick up any unaccounted for objects and raise alarms immediately, as mentioned on the CBO website.

Here's another related question. Why was the Pentagon's billion-dollar missile defense system such a hot topic in the media before 9/11, yet we've heard almost nothing about it since? Could it be that there are elements in the government and military who don't want people to think about questions like those asked here? And an even bigger question is why isn't our media asking these questions and more?

Why is it that the 9/11 Commission budget was far less than the budget allotted to the Challenger space shuttle disaster or even the Monica Lewinsky affair? The 9/11 commission was originally allotted only $3 million. Eventually, after much begging and haggling, the commission was given $15 million. Yet a CNN article lists the cost of the Lewinsky investigation at $30 million. A Los Angeles Times article states the cost of the Columbia space shuttle disaster investigation was $175 million.

How could 9/11 -- the greatest disaster in American history -- be given such a small budget for investigation? Why didn't the Pentagon aggressively investigate the greatest failure ever in U.S. defenses? And why did both the president (see CNN article) and vice-president (see Newsweek article) initially oppose any investigation at all?
History Leading Up to 9/11
The Secret History of 9/11 () [1:30:15]
Pilots for 9/11 Truth
Pandora's Black Box - Chapter Two - Flight Of American 77 () [50:56]
9/11: ATTACK ON THE PENTAGON () [50:56]
9/11: Skygate 911 () [39:50]
9/11: Simulations NEW RELEASE (2014) [46:22]
PilotsFor911Truth.org website
Falling Man (9/11)
9/11 - The Falling Man () [1:11:26]
More 9/11 Documentaries
ABC | Report from Ground Zero, Part 1 () [26:51], Part 2 [26:00], Part 3 [26:00], Part 4 [26:00]
HC | Relics from the Rubble (9/11) (2002) [51:27]
Pentagon 9/11 footage - rare clips() [8:38]
Thought Provoking | Should we ignore new 911 details () [10:39]
FAKE | 9/11 Pentagon HIT BY US CRUISE MISSILE () [3:37]
FAKE | LEAKED 9/11 ANNIVERSARY PENTAGON CRUISE MISSILE FOOTAGE WITH ANALYSIS () [6:19]
Webster Tarpley
Webster Tarpley on the 46 Drills of 9/11 (03/07/12) [58:36]

11.24.2014. 14:56

Friday November 21, 2014
News Articles

Wall Street Stunned As Iceland Dares To Jail Banker Involved In 2008 Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

The impossible is possible. Never say never. Wall Street bankers are staring agog at headlines coming from Europe where, in Iceland, the former chief executive of one of the largest banks in the country which was involved in crashing the economy in 2008 has been sentenced to jail time. As Valuewalk reports, in receiving a one year prison sentence, Sigurjon Arnason officially became the first bank executive to be convicted of manipulating the bank's stock price and deceiving investors, creditors and the authorities between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 2008, as the bank's fortunes unwound, crashing the economy with it. ... Read more

3 Of The 10 Largest Economies In The World Have Already Fallen Into Recession -- Is The U.S. Next?
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

Are you waiting for the next major wave of the global economic collapse to strike? Well, you might want to start paying attention again. Three of the ten largest economies on the planet have already fallen into recession, and there are very serious warning signs coming from several other global economic powerhouses.

Things are already so bad that British Prime Minister David Cameron is comparing the current state of affairs to the horrific financial crisis of 2008. In an article for the Guardian that was published on Monday, he delivered the following sobering warning: "Six years on from the financial crash that brought the world to its knees, red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy." For the leader of the nation with the 6th largest economy in the world to make such a statement is more than a little bit concerning. ... Read more

U.S. Federal Reserve To Review How It Supervises Major Banks
HP | author | 11/20/14

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Thursday it has launched a review of how it oversees major banks, calling on its inspector general to help with the probe after a series of critical reports.

Separate studies to be undertaken by the Fed's Washington-based Board of Governors and its Office of Inspector General are meant to ensure that "divergent views" about the state of large banks are adequately aired. ... Read more

Gold Repatriation Stunner: Dutch Central Bank Secretly Withdrew 122 Tons Of Gold From The New York Fed
ZeroHedge | author | 11/21/14

A week ago, we penned "The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed", in which we got, for the first time ever, an admission by an official source, namely the bank that knows everything that takes place in Germany - Deutsche Bank - what the real reason was for Germany's gold repatriation halt after obtaining a meager 5 tons from the NY Fed ...

... Some took offense with this, pointing out, accurately, that the gold held at the NY Fed in deposit form for foreign institutions had continued to decline into 2014 despite the alleged German halt. Well, today we know the answer: it wasn't Germany who was secretly withdrawing gold from the NYFed contrary to what it had publicly disclosed. It was the Netherlands. ... Read more

QE isn't dying, it's morphing
Nomi Prins | Nomi Prins | 11/10/14

A funny thing happened on the way to the 'end' of the multi-trillion dollar bond buying program known as QE - the Fed chronicles. Aside from the shift to a globalization of QE via the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) as I wrote about earlier, what lingers in the air of "post-taper" time is an absence of absence. For QE is not over. Instead, in the United States, the process has simply morphed from being predominantly executed by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to being executed by its major private bank members. Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, has failed to point this out in any of her speeches about the labor force, inflation, or inequality.

The financial system has failed and remains a threat to us all. Only cheap money and the artificial inflation of asset values can make it appear temporarily healthy. Yet, the Fed (and the Obama Administration) continue to perpetuate the illusion that making the cost of (printed) money zero by any means has had a positive effect on the population at large, when in fact, all that has occurred is a pass-the-debt-ponzi-scheme co-engineered by the Fed and big US bank beneficiaries. That debt, caught in the crossfires of this central-private bank arrangement, is still doing nothing for American citizens or the broader national or global economy. Read more

Jon Stewart | "And when it does pass, (Keystone XL Pipeline)" Stewart concluded, "Mary Landrieu can be thankful that even though it didn't save her job, she can apply for one of the 35 to millions of jobs created by the pipeline." (11/21/14) [8:42]

So Many People Are Badly Traumatized by Life in America: It's Time We Admit It
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 11/19/14

Recently Don Hazen, the executive editor of AlterNet, asked me to think about trauma in the context of America's political system. As I sifted through my thoughts on this topic, I began to sense an enormous weight in my body and a paralysis in my brain. What could I say? What could I possibly offer to my fellow citizens? Or to myself? After six years writing about the financial crisis and its gruesome aftermath, I feel weariness and fear. When I close my eyes, I see a great ogre with gold coins spilling from his pockets and pollution spewing from his maw lurching toward me with increasing speed. I don't know how to stop him. ... Read more

Meet the Fortune 500 Companies (Corporations) Funding the Political Resegregation of America
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/21/14

Over the past four to five years, the United States has been resegregated--politically. In states where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans and presidential races can be nail-biters, skillful Republican operatives have mounted racially-minded gerrymandering efforts--the redrawing of congressional and state legislative districts--that have led to congressional delegations stacked with GOP members and yielded Republican majorities in the state legislatures.

In North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, to name just three, GOPers have recast state and congressional districts to consolidate black voters into what the political pros call "majority-minority districts" to diminish the influence of these voters. North Carolina is an especially glaring example: GOP-redistricting after the 2010 elections led to half the state's black population--1.1 million people--being corralled into one-fifth of the state legislative and congressional districts. "The districts here take us back to a day of segregation that most of us thought we'd moved away from," State Sen. Dan Blue Jr., who was previously North Carolina's first black House speaker, told the Nation in 2012. ... Read more

Senate | Permanent Subcommitee on Investigations
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, November 21 [8:09]
*DN | No Debate: Antiwar Voices Absent from Corporate TV News Ahead of U.S. Attacks on Iraq & Syria (11/20/14) [5:20]
*DN | Obama's Action Marks Historic Victory for Immigrant Rights, But Activists Warn of a Long Way to Go (11/21/14) [13:18]
DN | Viggo Mortensen Helps Mark 10 Years of Howard Zinn's "Voices of a People's History" (11/21/14) [13:06]
DN | Food Chains: New Film Tracks How Immokalee Workers Won Fair Wages from Corporate Giants (11/21/14) [3:41]
Bill Moyers - http:/billmoyers.com/
*BillMoyers | How Public Power Can Defeat Plutocrats (11/21/14) [25:25]
Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout return to talk about: Government has become a clearinghouse for corporations and plutocrats with deep pockets to buy the politicians who grease the wheels for lucrative contracts and easy regulation. It's all pay for play, and look the other way.
*TRNN | The Power to Create Money in the Hands of the Banks (11/21/14) [11:19]
The same financial institutions that created the financial crisis are now entrusted with one of the most power tools to shape the economy - and many elected officials have no idea, says Ben Dyson of Positive Money.
TRNN | Animal Agriculture: A Neglected Agent of Global Warming? (11/21/14) [11:36]
The co-producers of the documentary film "Cowspiracy" discuss the environmental impacts of animal agriculture - and why mainstream organizations have been silent about it.
Cowspiracy Official Trailer (06/06/14) [2:13]
Cowspiracy website
John Oliver
HBO | John Oliver: Predatory Lending () [16:31]
*How Money is Made | FED (Federal Reserve) | Banksters
Short Version | How the FED works[10:00]
Mike Maloney | The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind - Hidden Secrets of Money 4 [29:34]
CorbettReport | Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve (2014) [1:30:11]
What is the Federal Reserve system? How did it come into existence? Is it part of the federal government? How does it create money? Why is the public kept in the dark about these important matters?
*Sustainable | Factory Farms | Climate Change
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Meat the Truth (2011) [1:11:27]
A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms () [1:31:51]
FOOD, INC. by Robert Kenner () [1:00:00]
TYT | The Truth About Muslims Is The Same Truth About Your Family () [7:11]
Orthodox Jewish Men Cause Flight Delays After Refusing To Sit Next To Women (10/01/14) [6:41]
TRNN | Elizabeth Warren Spanks Fannie/Freddie Chief & He Barely Survives (11/21/14) [8:56]
TYT | Obama Lays Down The Law On Immigration (11/21/14) [11:08]
TYT | GOPer Practically Begging For Violent Reaction To Obama Immigration Speech (11/21/14) [10:05]
TYT | Immigration Reform Today, Ethnic Cleansing Tomorrow Says Top Kansas Republican (11/21/14) [4:03]
TYT | Grandmas Smoking Pot For The First Time (Hilariously Adorable Video) (11/21/14) [4:02]
Pretty cute video.
Tiny Homes
Awesome Micro Houses on Wheels Tiny Homes (04/11/14) [8:30]
Tiny home packs storage stairs, 2 lofts, tub in 136 sq ft (02/10/14) [14:22]
Spectacular 20ft Off-The-Grid Tiny Shipping Container House (09/25/14) [11:04]
Shipping containers recycled into affordable, accessible Utah home (02/14/14) [12:45]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

11.21.2014. 12:30

Thursday November 20, 2014
News Articles

The Latest Scandal: Goldman, Fed Employees Busted For Illegally Sharing Confidential Information
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

Because when the rape and pillaging of the US middle-class begins at the very top, it won't end until the sharp metal objects finally start falling.

On the morning of Friday, September 26, in addition to the shocking news of Bill Gross' departure from Pimco, the world was just as shocked, or not as the case was for many, that a former NY Fed staffer, Carmen Segarra, who had been previously fired for suggesting that Goldman Sachs has an undue influence on the NY Fed and gets a preferential treatment (certainly as a result of NY Fed's president Bill Dudley being working previously at Goldman Sachs), had released nearly 50 hours of tapes confirming her allegations: that the NY Fed was nothing but a branch of the bank that controls every central bank. The full details were presented in "How Goldman Controls The New York Fed: 47.5 Hours Of "The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes" Explain."

Ironically it was on that very day that another recent Goldman hire from the NY Fed - a classic case of, as the NY Times puts it, the "revolving door, the symbolic portal that connects financial regulators to Wall Street" - a 29-year-old former New York Fed regulator named Rohit Bansal, got into hot water after something "shocking" was revealed: he had an inside source at the NY Fed who was providing him with illegal, confidential information on a regular basis. ... Read more

*How Goldman Controls The New York Fed: 47.5 Hours Of "The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes" Explain
ZeroHedge | author | 09/26/14
Read more

**The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/07/14
Read more

Enough Is Enough: The President's Latest Wall Street Nominee
HP | Sen. Elizabeth Warren | 11/19/14

I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I've generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough.

Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.

So who is Antonio Weiss? He's the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard -- most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions. ... Read more

So now let's look at the big picture. The final totals are $59 billion, 3 percent of the total federal budget, for regular welfare and $92 billion, 5 percent of the total federal budget, for corporate welfare.

Neo-Feudalism Has Officially Arrived -- Congressman Suggests Building A Moat Around White House
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

"While the general population is aware something is seriously wrong, people remain extremely confused about the root of the problem. This is because what's happening all around us isn't socialism and it isn't free market capitalism. It is actually a return to something much more ancient and much more oppressive. It is a return to serfdom, neo-fedualism and oligarchy." ... Read more

World Not Even Close To Avoiding Dangerous Warming, UN Report Finds
HP | Seth Borenstein | 11/19/14

The world still isn't close to preventing what leaders call a dangerous level of man-made warming, a new United Nations report says. That's despite some nations' recent pledges to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions.

The report looks at the gap between what countries promise to do about carbon pollution and what scientists say needs to be done to prevent temperatures rising another two degrees. That two-degree level is a goal that world leaders set in 2009.

To achieve that goal, the world has to hit a peak of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases before 2030, said the report's chief scientific editor, Joseph Alcamo. But the study says carbon emissions will continue to soar until 2050 and by then it will be too late, even with recent promises by the U.S., China and Europe. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, November 20 [9:25]
*DN | From Hottest October to Coldest November, Is Climate Change Behind the Extreme Weather? (11/20/14) [10:17]
DN | "Just Mercy": Bryan Stevenson on Ferguson, Prison Reform & Why the Opposite of Poverty is Justice (11/20/14) [14:44]
Bill Moyers - http:/billmoyers.com/
BillMoyers | Preview: How Public Power Can Defeat Plutocrats (11/20/14) [0:29]
Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout return to talk about: Government has become a clearinghouse for corporations and plutocrats with deep pockets to buy the politicians who grease the wheels for lucrative contracts and easy regulation. It's all pay for play, and look the other way.
Thom Hartmann
*Thom Hartmann | The Latest on the Keystone Pipeline (11/18/14) [23:21]
Environment | Climate Change
*Arctic Death Spiral and the Methane Time Bomb (2014) [1:11:11]
TRNN | Despite Senate Vote on Keystone XL, Tar Sands Oil Will Still Reach the Gulf (11/20/14) [9:47]
Obama has quietly approved the Alberta Clipper, a cross-border pipeline between the U.S and Canada that will connect with the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, say journalists Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog and Cherri Foytlin of bridgethegulfproject.org.
*Missing Money
Click to zoom - for Full Image
Donald Rumsfeld Admits Day before 911 "2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD" () [3:57]
Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For (2014) [5:32] TYT | Al Franken Explains The Internet & It's Ted Cruz's Worst Nightmare (11/19/14) [12:06]
TYT | Bankers Given 'Honesty Test' & The Result Explains Everything (11/19/14) [5:30]
TYT | Politician Pushes For Literal Hunger Games (11/19/14) [5:06]
CorbettReport
CorbettReport | Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve (2014) [1:30:11]
What is the Federal Reserve system? How did it come into existence? Is it part of the federal government? How does it create money? Why is the public kept in the dark about these important matters?
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

11.20.2014. 10:43

Wednesday November 19, 2014
News Articles

Militant attack deaths soar to all-time high: report
Reuters | Peter Apps | 11/18/14

The number of people killed in militant attacks worldwide jumped more than 60 percent last year to a record high of nearly 18,000 and the figure could rise further in 2014 due to an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and Nigeria, a report showed on Tuesday.

Four Islamist groups operating in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria were responsible for two thirds of the 2013 attacks and the vast majority of the deaths occurred in those countries, the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said in its Global Terrorism Index.

However, militant attacks are on the rise more broadly, with two dozen countries seeing more than 50 deaths in 2013, it said. ... Read more

How the GOP used Twitter to stretch election laws
CNN | Chris Moody | 11/17/14
Republicans and outside groups used anonymous Twitter accounts to share internal polling data ahead of the midterm elections.

Stunning Photos Of Record Snow Covering Upstate New York: 100 Total Inches Of Snow Expected
Click to zoom - for More Images
ZeroHedge | author | 11/19/14

As previously reported, the anticipated Polar Vortex 2.0 has struck, pushing temperatures in all 50 states to below freezing, while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people. According to Reuters, it was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. It remains to be seen how many GDP percentage points were wiped out as a result, unless of course, this time it will be different from last winter. But it was the situation in upstate New York, especially around Bufallo and parts of Erie County, where things got most dire and where 60 inches (1.5 m) of snow accumulated, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo. It gets worse: forecasters are calling for more snow on Thursday, as much as three feet more, for a total of up to 100 inches over four days - a year's worth for the region! ... Read more

A dramatic time-lapse of the snow-wall can be seen in the video below (11/18/14) [0:16]
Crashing Steel Prices Lead To Largest Chinese Bankruptcy, "Will Be Followed By Others".

Other Stuff in the News

  1. Yellen Inherits Greenspan's Conundrum as Long Rates Sink (BBG)
  2. West African Mining Projects Take Hit From Ebola Crisis (WSJ)
  3. Saudi oil policy uncertainty unleashes the conspiracy theorists (Reuters)
  4. Senate Rejection of Keystone XL Measure Sets Up 2015 Showdown (BBG)
  5. Ferguson, Missouri, remains on edge ahead of grand jury report (Reuters)
  6. Putin Said to Stun Advisers by Backing Corruption Crackdown (BBG)
  7. Italian 'Invasion' Has Swiss Fuming as Immigration Vote Looms (BBG)
  8. Apple and Others Encrypt Phones, Fueling Government Standoff (WSJ)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, November 19 [10:45]
*DN | Jerusalem Unrest Threatens Wider Flare-Up After Deadliest Attack on Israeli Civilians in 3 Years, Part 1 (11/19/14) [14:13]
DN | Jerusalem Unrest Threatens Wider Flare-Up After Deadliest Attack on Israeli Civilians in 3 Years, Part 2 (11/19/14) [16:55]
*DN | As Sioux Tribe Calls Keystone XL an "Act of War", TransCanada Hires PR Firm to Probe Critics (11/19/14) [13:23]
TRNN | Reporter Ansel Herz discusse: Seattle Begins Police Reforms in Wake of Federal Civil Rights Investigation (11/19/14) [9:47]
*TYT | Endless War Causes Endless Terror (Depressing Numbers) (11/18/14) [5:57]
TYT | Exec Thought His Comments Were Off The Record, Wrong Again Bob! (11/18/14) [5:02]
TYT | Who's Crazier, Charles Manson Or The Woman Marrying Him? (11/18/14) [2:14]
*TYT | Horrific Hatchet Attack On Israeli Synagogue (11/18/14) [11:12]
TYT | Illegal Coded Tweets Are McConnelling At Its Corrupt Worst (11/18/14) [8:54]
Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann | The Latest on the Keystone Pipeline (11/18/14) [23:21]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

11.19.2014. 10:41

Tuesday November 18, 2014
News Articles

Jerusalem Synagogue Attack Leaves 3 Americans, Briton Dead
HP | author | 11/18/14

Two Palestinian cousins armed with meat cleavers and a gun stormed a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers Tuesday, killing four people in the city's bloodiest attack in years. Police killed the attackers in a shootout.

The attack ratcheted up fears of sustained violence in the city, which is already on edge amid soaring tensions over its most contested holy site. Police said the dead worshippers were three Americans and a Briton, and that all held dual Israeli citizenship. The attack occurred in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood that has a large population of English-speaking immigrants. ... Read more

Reuters - 11/18/14
Number Of People Killed In Militant Attacks Jumps More Than 60 Percent last year.

Militant attacks are on the rise more broadly, with two dozen countries seeing more than 50 deaths in 2013, it said.

The four most active militant groupings are Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (now renamed Islamic State), Nigeria's Boko Haram, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and transnational al Qaeda-affiliated networks.

Not to minimize the above statistics, but here in the US we kill 30,000 a year with guns.

Robert Reich: The .01 Percent Blow Their Fortunes on Yachts, Personal Jets and America's Politicians
AlterNet | Robert Reich | 11/18/14

The richest Americans hold more of the nation's wealth than they have in almost a century. What do they spend it on? As you might expect, personal jets, giant yachts, works of art, and luxury penthouses.

And also on politics. In fact, their political spending has been growing faster than their spending on anything else. It's been growing even faster than their wealth. According to new research by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics, the richest one-hundredth of one percent of Americans now hold over 11 percent of the nation's total wealth. That's a higher share than the top .01 percent held in 1929, before the Great Crash. ... Read more

Markets as many know them no longer exist and have been replaced by centrally-planned "markets" where rising asset levels are not a byproduct of capitalism but a policy tool.

Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: "There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/18/14

Back in March we reported of a strange incident that took place just after the Ukraine presidential coup, namely that according to at least one source, "in a mysterious operation under the cover of night, Ukraine's gold reserves were promptly loaded onboard an unmarked plane, which subsequently took the gold to the US." Needless to say there was no official confirmation of any of this taking place, and in fact our report, in which we mused if the "price of Ukraine's liberation" was the handover of its gold to the Fed at a time when Germany was actively seeking to repatriate its own physical gold located at the bedrock of the NY Fed, led to the usual mainstream media mockery. Until now. In an interview on Ukraine TV, none other than the head of the Ukraine Central Bank made the stunning admission that "in the vaults of the central bank there is almost no gold left. There is a small amount of gold bullion left, but it's just 1% of the gold reserves." ... Read more

Archived
"F**k The EU" - US State Department Blasts Europe; Revealed As Alleged Mastermind Behind Ukraine Unrest
ZeroHedge | author | older 02/06/14

A leaked recording of a telephone conversation allegedly between US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and the US envoy to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt discussing who should be in Ukraine's next government has, according to The FT, threatened to fuel east-west tensions over the troubled nation's future. In apparent frustration with the EU -- which has failed to join the US in threatening sanctions against Ukraine's leaders if they violently crush the protests -- the voice resembling Ms Nuland at one point exclaims "Fuck the EU". As the two US diplomats decide whether "Klitsch" or "Yats" should be 'in' or 'out', listeners will be reminded (uncomfortably) that the governments of Ukraine and Russia previously alleged that the protests are being funded and orchestrated by the US. ... Read more

Hugh Hendry: "I Believe Central Bankers Are Terrified"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/18/14

... the structural deficiency of global demand continues to radicalise the central banking community. I believe they are terrified: the system is so leveraged and vulnerable to potentially systemic price reversals that the monetary authorities find themselves beholden to long only investors and obliged to support asset prices. ... Read more

This is what the rest of the world thinks of us?

Backstabbing in Hillaryland: Here We Go Again
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/18/14

"EXCLUSIVE: Read the Secret Emails of the Men Who May Run Hillary Clinton's Campaign"--promised a juicy exposé. In reality, the substance of what members posted on this 150-member "secret" listserv, dubbed the "Mook Mafia," was far from explosive. The phrases "smite Republicans mafia-style" and "punish those voters" read badly out of context. But then, who hasn't dashed off a snarky email to friends that you wished you could take back and touch up a little?

The real news isn't that Mook and Marshall had a listserv for fellow Democratic operatives. It's that someone on the listserv leaked its contents in an effort to hurt Mook's chances of becoming the manager of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In other words, the Clinton '16 effort has yet to officially launch and already the backstabbing and infighting has begun. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, November 18 [10:52]
*DN | Naomi Klein: Reject Keystone XL Pipeline, We Need Radical Change to Prevent Catastrophic Warming (11/18/14) [10:20]
Tar Sands - Click to zoom
Tar Sands is a messy job
DN | Return of the Ferguson War Zone? Missouri Enacts State of Emergency Ahead of Mike Brown Grand Jury (11/18/14) [26:06]
*TRNN | Economist James Henry says: G20 Summit Failed to Seriously Address Global Problems (11/18/14) [19:59]
TRNN | Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford examines: All Eyes on Ferguson as Gov. Nixon Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Grand Jury Decision (11/18/14) [12:32]
John Oliver
*TRNN | HBO | John Oliver: Salmon Cannon (11/16/14) [4:26]
*TRNN | HBO | John Oliver: Home Depot Commercial (11/02/14) [5:28]
TYT | Wall Street Crooks Spent Billions To Silence Whistle-Blower; It Didn't Work (11/17/14) [10:49]
TYT | Americans WAY OFF On Guessing The Unemployment Rate (11/17/14) [3:03]
TYT | Drug Warrior Mitch McConnell Tied To Millions In Cocaine (11/17/14) [5:59]
TYT | MUST SEE - 'OverCriminalized' from Brave New Films (11/17/14) [7:05]
TYT | Mitt Romney's Epic Irony On Losing An Election Will Make You Spit Your Coffee (11/17/14) [2:34]
Michael Moore
'Or Was It … the Saudis?': George W. Bush Ponders in Fahrenheit 9/11 () [1:00]
Remembering the Real Ronald Reagan -- Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' () [4:06]
Ring of Fire
*Ring of Fire (11/17/14) [57:00]
  1. 00:42 - "Soul Searching For The Democratic Party." Michael Burg will explain why the Democratic Party could be in big trouble, and why they need to immediately dump the corporatists within the party. #DumpCorporateDems
  2. 07:50 - "Were The Midterms Rigged From The Start?" David Haynes will tell us how gerrymandering and voter suppression helped propel the Republicans to unprecedented victories in the midterms. #SuppressTheVote
  3. 17:21 - "Corporate Media Wins 2014 Midterms." Abby Martin, host of Breaking The Set on RT America, talks about the corporate media's 2014 payday, where political ad spending reached into the billions. #CorporateMedia
  4. 27:16 - "Michael Savage's Civil War." Author David Neiwert in Seattle, Washington will tell us how Michael Savage's new book has become a call to arms for right wing nutjobs. #HateTalk
  5. 37:44 - "Big Pharma Gone Wild: Smith & Nephew." Attorney Ben Gordon explains the misconduct of medical device manufacturer Smith & Nephew. #BigPharmaGoneWild
  6. 47:25 - "Why Infrastructure Investment Vanished." Howard Nations will tell us why infrastructure investment has almost completely disappeared, in spite of the warnings from the country's top economists. #InvestInAmerica
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

11.18.2014. 12:41

Monday November 17, 2014
News Articles

Japan Unexpectedly Enters Recession as Abe Weighs Tax: Economy
Bloomberg | Keiko Ujikane | 11/17/14

Japan unexpectedly sank into a recession last quarter as the world's third-largest economy struggled to shake off the impact of an April sales-tax boost, raising the odds of a delay in a second bump in the levy. ....

"No part of Japan's economy looks encouraging," said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, who had the weakest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, with a 0.8% growth estimate for real GDP. "Today's data will leave another traumatic memory for Japanese politicians about sales tax hikes." ... Read more

Here Is Your "Global Recovery" In 24 Charts
ZeroHedge | author | 11/17/14

The last two graphs seem to be the most important since they summarize the direction the different countries are going.
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Haaretz obtains full document of EU-proposed sanctions against Israel
HP & Haaretz | Barak Ravid | 11/17/14

Sanctions could apply to Israeli politicians opposed to the two-state solution, which could include Bennett and Rivlin; steps against European companies working in settlements; punitive measures against Palestinians over 'negative measures.'

An internal European Union document on proposed sanctions against Israel, which Haaretz obtained in its entirety on Monday, reveals new details on the suggestions being made in the internal discussions among EU member states that have been taking place in Brussels. Among the options under consideration are measures against European companies that work in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, November 17 [8:38]
DN | Terror at the Top of the World: Is Climate Change Leading to More Attacks by Polar Bears in Arctic? (11/17/14) [7:51]
We look at a new investigation by the Pulitzer Prize-winning website, InsideClimate News, titled "Meltdown: Terror at the Top of the World." It tells the story of seven American hikers who went on a wilderness adventure into polar bear country in Canada's Arctic tundra -- and faced a harrowing attack. But despite taking proper steps to protect themselves, a polar bear came to their camp in the middle of the night and pulled one of the hikers out of his tent. Scientists say that climate change is greatly impacting polar bear habitat, which may be the cause of increased polar bear attacks on humans. We speak to Rich Gross, a Sierra Club guide on the trip, and Sabrina Shankman, a reporter with InsideClimate News and author of the new ebook.
DN | Is Obama's Immigration Plan Too Modest? Proposals Cover Less Than Half of Nation's Undocumented (11/17/14) [4:35]
*TRNN | William K. Black: $4.3 Billion Fine for Fraud in Exchange Market Manipulations is Pittance for Major Banks (11/17/14) [11:20]
TRNN | Ed Herman, Co-Author of "Manufacturing Consent" (older REPLAY 2012) [15:29]

Mission Accomplished: Stocks & Homeless Kids Hit All-Time Highs

9/11 Commission Report
Complete 911 Timeline (html)
9/11 Commission Report (pdf)
TYT | ISIS Chief Alive, Releases Tape & Endless War Erupts Like A Volcano (11/16/14) [8:31]
TYT | Amazing News About Nukes That Will Also Make You Sh*t Your Pants (11/16/14) [10:06]
*HBO | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons (07/27/14) [15:21]
TYT | Democrats Sink To A Sad Low In Eyes Of Americans (11/16/14) [3:19]
TYT | Christmas Removed From The Calendar. Muslims Blamed. (11/16/14) [5:16]
TYT | Elizabeth Warren Exiled Into Leadership Role That Never Existed Before (11/16/14) [4:01]
TYT | Mayor Totally Nails Why Democrats Are Spineless Losers (11/16/14) [7:02]
TYT | Billionaire Whines That Bankers Just Can't Make Any Money (11/16/14) [4:25]
TYT | Kansas Gets Terrible News Days After Re-electing Ultra Right-Wing Governor (11/16/14) [4:31]
TYT | 7-Year-Old Art Prodigy Or Scam? (11/16/14) [5:18]

11.17.2014. 15:20

Friday November 14, 2014
News Articles

Putin "Prepares For Economic War", Buys Whopping 55 Tonnes Of Gold In Q3
ZeroHedge | author | 11/13/14

Just as China is buying 'cheap' oil with both hands and feet, so Russia, according to the latest data from The World Gold Council (WGC) has been buying gold in huge size. Dwarfing the rest of the world's buying in Q3, Russia added a stunning 55 tonnes to its reserves, as The Telegraph reports, Putin is taking advantage of lower gold prices to pack the vaults of Russia's central bank with bullion as it "prepares for the possibility of a long, drawn-out economic war with the West." Bottom line: Russia bought more gold in Q3 then all other countries combined. ... Read more

The Fed (The Federal Reserve) Won: America's 0.1% Are Now Wealthier Than The Bottom 90%.
National Debt and the Debt Ceiling
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Bill Moyers | Tim McDonnell | 11/11/14

Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. That's without any changes to existing policy. In other words, we're only a few years away from the point where, in most of the United States, there will be no economic reason not to go solar. If you care about slowing climate change or just moving toward cleaner energy, that is a huge deal.

And solar energy is already going gangbusters. In the past decade, the amount of solar power produced in the United States has leaped 139,000 percent. A number of factors are behind the boom: Cheaper panels and a raft of local and state incentives, plus a federal tax credit that shaves 30 percent off the cost of upgrading.

Still, solar is a bit player, providing less than half of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. But its potential is massive -- it could power the entire country 100 times over.

So what's the holdup? A few obstacles: pushback from old-energy diehards, competition with other efficient energy sources, and the challenges of power storage and transmission. But with solar in the Southwest already at "grid parity" -- meaning it costs the same or less as electricity from conventional sources -- Wall Street is starting to see solar as a sound bet. As a recent Citigroup investment report put it, "Our viewpoint is that solar is here to stay." ... Read more
Click to zoom - for Images
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire
RollingStone | Tim Dickinson | 09/24/14

Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money.

The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. Koch-affiliated organizations raised some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect Republicans in this year's midterms. So far in this cycle, Koch-backed entities have bought 44,000 political ads to boost Republican efforts to take back the Senate. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, November 14 [15:24]
DN | Are Mexico's Missing Students the Victims of U.S.-Backed Drug War? (11/14/14) [21:46]
*Bill Moyers | The Bare Knuckle Fight Against Money in Politics (11/14/14) [25:19]
In this turbulent midterm election year, two academics decided to practice what they preached. They left the classroom, confronted the reality of down-and-dirty politics, and tried to replace moneyed interests with the public interest.

Neither was successful -- this year, at least -- but on this week's show, Bill talks with them about their experiences and the hard-fought lessons learned about the state of American democracy.

Lawrence Lessig ...
Zephyr Teachout ...
*TRNN | How Deep is the Rot on Wall Street? (11/14/14) [10:50]
Joseph Fichera's op-ed in the New York Times shows the full depravity of Wall Street's resistance to regulation says white collar criminologist, Professor William Black.
TRNN | US-China Climate Agreement Substantially Un-ambitious (11/14/14) [21:27]
While it is important for China and the US, the two largest CO 2 emitters to walk hand in hand in cooperation, the agreement lacks all of the above strategies necessary to acheive the levels necessay says Janet Redman of IPS and Professor Minqi Li.
TYT | Here's Undeniable Proof That The Media Isn't Liberal, At All (11/13/14) [11:17]
TYT | The Quiet Movement That's Saving Democracy Is About To Explode (11/13/14) [9:53]
TYT | Would Jesus Love or Hate Republicans? (11/13/14) [4:58]
TYT | Senator Ran On The Coward Ticket & Now He's An Ex-Senator (11/13/14) [9:20]
TYT | Probe Landed On Moving Comet. The Rosetta Mission Explained (11/13/14) [6:44]
TYT | Glenn Beck's Secret Brain Trouble, How He 'Fixed' It Is Most Troubling Of All (11/13/14) [10:58]
Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire (full episode) (11/09/14) [57:00]
  1. 00:42 - "The Lesson for Democrats."
  2. 9:09 - "Crucifying America."
  3. 19:38 - "Exposing Malpractice Myths." Howard Nations discusses a new Rand study showing that malpractice lawsuit caps are not lowering healthcare costs, or preventing medical errors. #MalpracticeMyths
  4. 37:15 - "Is Austerity Bringing A New Meltdown?" Attorney Michael Burg will explain what banks are doing with our money when we make a deposit. #ShowMeTheMoney
  5. 48:49 - "The Backstory." Pap news with Sam Seder.
Sam Seder Interviews Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi: Stunning Whistle Blowing on JP Morgan Chase's Misdeeds. (11/14/14) [52:27]
*DN | Matt Taibbi and Bank Whistleblower on How JPMorgan Chase Helped Wreck the Economy, Avoid Prosecution (11/07/14) [9:25]

11.14.2014. 12:48

Thursday November 13, 2014
REPEAT - But I think is important!
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]
Who's Responsible for National Debt - Click to zoom
Donald Rumsfeld Admits Day before 911 "2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD" () [3:57]
Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For (2014) [5:32]
Thursday November 13, 2014
News Articles

Beware of Monster Trade Deals Negotiated Behind Closed Doors
The Nation. & BillMoyers | Greg Grandin | 11/12/14

The media have been pushing a line, following the Republican victory in last week's midterm election, that the one area where Barack Obama and a now GOP-controlled Senate might find room for compromise is trade, especially the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a twelve-nation deal.

As with NAFTA, the lobbying will be intense to pass the deal, with the lucre of corporate campaign contributions sweetened by the praise that would be heaped on yea-voting members for transcending partisanship. It would be a disaster were the TPP to pass and go into effect, for multiple reasons: it deregulates financial speculation; it eviscerates the ability of nations to enforce environmental regulations; it locks in a deeply unequal trade and intellectual property-rights regime, granting a handful of the world's largest corporations monopoly protection; and it encourages the privatization of public services and public property.

Worst of all, it, it globalizes the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which allows corporations and investors to "sue governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic law that investors believe will diminish their 'expected future profits.'" Under such provisions, mining corporations have taken El Salvador to court for trying to limit their right to open-pit mine the country and pollute its rivers and El Lilly has sued Canada, complaining that its patent laws have hindered profits it could make on an ADD drug. ... Read more

Investors Don't Believe Low Oil Prices Are "Unequivocally" Good For America
ZeroHedge | author | 11/13/14

While investors are told day after day that low oil prices are "unequivocally" good for America's economy (pick your number $20, $30, $40 billion tax cut for consumers), it appears they are not buying this big lie (that appears to forget the other side of the equation of capex, jobs, and spending from the Shale Oil miracle). As oil prices push to levels where the majority of US Shale plays become non-economic on a half-cycle basis (appro. $70.00/barrow), markets are voting with their money and shale-based stocks are pressing to new lows (down 50-70% in the last few months). ... Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Russia to Fly Bombers to U.S. Gulf of Mexico as Ukraine Escalates
Bloomberg | Volodymyr Verbyany| 11/12/14

Russia plans to extend long-range bomber patrols as far as the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Pacific Ocean, its defense minister said, as NATO accused Vladimir Putin's government of sending more troops into Ukraine.

With Ukraine warning its conflict is close to returning to open war, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said his country's military will start conducting regular long-range bomber patrols along Russia's borders and over the Arctic Ocean. His ministry rejected an assertion from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's top general that it was moving combat troops and heavy weapons into Ukraine's rebel-held east. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, November 13 [13:17]
DN | As Dems Punt Vote on Loretta Lynch, Admin Faces Pressure to Include Girls in "My Brother's Keeper" (11/13/14) [9:37]
DN | Mexico Burns as Outrage over Student Disappearances Sparks Protests Against State-Backed Violence (11/13/14) [9:55]
DN | Are Mexico's Missing Students the Victims of U.S.-Backed Drug War? (11/13/14) [21:46]
Bill Moyers | Preview: The Bare Knuckle Fight Against Money in Politics (11/12/14) [0:20]
*TRNN | Investigative Reporter Garath Porter: Russia's Pivitol Role in the Iranian Nuclear Agreement (11/13/14) [11:17]
*TRNN | President Putin Pledges to Increase Trade with China and Asia to Rebuck Sanctions (11/13/14) [14:21]
TRNN | The Post-Bankruptcy Plan for Detroit, says Journalist Curt Guyette and Rev. David Alexander Bullock (11/13/14) [15:45]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | "Pay Any Price" author James Risen describes what has happened to him since the last time he wrote a book about the U.S.'s national security system. (11/06/14) [6:42]
Jon Stewart | Unclear and Present Danger: A tweet with murky origins raises questions about the well-being of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and President Obama increases the number of troops in Iraq. (11/10/14) [7:53]
Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts
Click to zoom - for Images

11.13.2014. 11:51

Wednesday November 12, 2014
REPEAT - But I think is important!
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]
Who's Responsible for National Debt - Click to zoom
Wednesday November 12, 2014
News Articles

Greed, Power, and Endless War -- James Risen Tears the Lid off America's Dirty Wars
AlterNet | James Risen | 10/31/14

Throughout the war on terror, greed and power have flourished just as readily back home in the United States, where the government's surging counterterrorism spending created a new national security gold rush. The post-9/11 panic led Congress to throw cash at the FBI, CIA, and Pentagon faster than they were able to spend it. Soon, a counterterrorism bubble, like a financial bubble, grew in Washington, and a new breed of entrepreneur learned that one of the surest and easiest paths to riches could be found not in Silicon Valley building computers or New York designing clothes ...

... Montgomery was the maestro behind what many current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the case now believe was one of the most elaborate and dangerous hoaxes in American history, a ruse that was so successful that it nearly convinced the Bush administration to order fighter jets to start shooting down commercial airliners filled with passengers over the Atlantic. Once it was over, once the fever broke and government officials realized that they had been taken in by a grand illusion, they did absolutely nothing about it. The Central Intelligence Agency buried the whole insane episode and acted like it had never happened. The Pentagon just kept working with Montgomery. Justice Department lawyers fanned out across the country to try to block any information about Montgomery and his schemes from becoming public, invoking the state secrets privilege in a series of civil lawsuits involving Montgomery. ...

... Montgomery's story demonstrates how hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the war on terror went to waste. With all rules discarded and no one watching the bottom line, government officials simply threw money at contractors who claimed to offer an edge against the new enemies. And the officials almost never checked back to make sure that what they were buying from contractors actually did any good--or that the contractors themselves weren't crooks. A 2011 study by the Pentagon found that during the ten years after 9/11, the Defense Department had given more than $400 billion to contractors who had previously been sanctioned in cases involving $1 million or more in fraud. ... Read more

Caught Rigging FX and Gold? Your Punishment Will Be A Bonus Capped At Just 200% Of Your Base Salary.

Bank of England Fires Chief FX Dealer Participating In Currency-Rigging Scandal
ZeroHedge | author | 11/12/14

Early in 2014, when the FX rigging scandal was still news, one of the most disturbing developments to emerge was that none other than the venerable Bank of England itself had been engaged in collusion with various manipulating parties, explicitly those participating in "The Bandits Club", "Cartel" and other chatrooms, as described in "Bank Of England Encouraged Currency Manipulation By Banks." As Bloomberg reported at the time ...

... Today, as widely reported previously, 5 banks settled with regulators such as US CFTC, UK's CFA and Swiss Sifma, for a total amount of $3.3 billion ($1.4 billion to the CFTC, $1.75 billion to the CFA). The banks were:

  1. HSBC Holdings PLC
  2. Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
  3. UBS AG
  4. Citigroup Inc.
  5. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Hilariously, as a result of "cooperating" the 5 banks received a 30% discount on their British settlement. Because when it comes to admitting one's crime there is apparently a pre-Thanksgiving blue light special.

Oddly enough, none of the other usual suspect banks, such as Goldman, Credit Suisse or Deutsche, all of whom also fired legacy FX traders and dealers, were once again completely forgotten, because clearly one can't disturb the two banks that pull the strings in the US, Goldman, and in Europe, Deutsche. ... Read more

Crime Pays: How An FX Rigger Made "Most Peoples Year" In One Trade
Rarely are we speechless, but this occasion, when UBS made $513,000 from just one fix, as the FCA's complaint against the criminal Swiss bank reveals, is the rare exception.

Russia To Have SWIFT Alternative By May
ZeroHedge | author | 11/12/14

As the West (US and its pressured allies) attempt to 'isolate' Russia more and more, the inevitable cornering further and further incentivizes Putin to develop alternatives to the status quo. In the past, western sanctioners have sabre-rattled cutting off Russian from SWIFT - the international inter-bank payment system - as a next step in squeezing the oligarchs into submission (though 'independent' SWIFT distanced itself from those calls). Now however, as RT reports, Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible "challenges" from the West. If successful, this would pose a further challenge to the USD's reign as sanction blowback reverberates once again. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, November 12 [7:14]
*DN | Obama Reaches Climate Deal with China -- and GOP Congress May Not Be Able to Stop It (11/12/14) [7:45]
*DN | Why We Lost: Retired U.S. General Calls for Public Inquiry into Failures of Iraq, Afghan Wars (11/12/14) [14:39]
Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, a three-star U.S. general who helped command troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, joins us to discuss his new book, "Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars." Bolger writes: "I am a United States Army general, and I lost the Global War on Terrorism. It's like Alcoholics Anonymous; step one is admitting you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. So do my peers. And thanks to our problem, now all of America has a problem, to wit: two lost campaigns and a war gone awry." Bolger is now calling for a public inquiry along the lines of the 9/11 Commission to look into why the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone so poorly.
The Fed (The Federal Reserve) Won: America's 0.1% Are Now Wealthier Than The Bottom 90%.
U.S. Wages Stagnate, Despite Doubled Worker Productivity(.pdf)
U.S. wages barely increased in real terms since 1974, the year before Fast Track was first enacted, even as American worker productivity doubled. In 1974, the average hourly wage for American workers in today's dollars was $18.46, while in 2012 it was up only 7 percent to $19.76. Over the same period, U.S. workers' productivity more than doubled.
*DN | Obama Calls for Net Neutrality, But His Own Industry-Tied FCC Appointee Could Stand in the Way (11/12/14) [13:18]
*TRNN | Capitalism's Stunning Contradiction (11/12/14) [14:11]
Economist Richard Wolff says every capitalist tries to systematically reduce wages and then can't sell what wage workers have produced.
*TRNN | Policy Research Economist David Rosnick: Household Wealth has considerably fallen to 1988 levels for a Majority of households (11/12/14) [9:55]
A new report from the Center for Economic Policy Research by David Rosnick and Dean Baker shows that most households now have net less wealth than they did in 1989. The report, titled The Wealth of Households: An Analysis of the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, shows little or no gain for the majority of Americans over the last 25 years.
The Wealth of Households: An Analysis of the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances.pdf
TRNN | On the Verge of a Historic Nuclear Energy Deal with Iran? (11/12/14) [9:39]
Unknown contents of President Obama's letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran under scrutiny by Republicans and the blogosphere as a historic deal nears, says Trita Parsi, President of the National Iranian American Council.
Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts
Click to zoom - for Images
TYT | Marijuana Use Shrinks The Brain, Study Shows (11/11/14) [4:37]
TYT | Ukraine Takes A Bad Turn, Ceasefire Threatened (11/11/14) [6:57]
TYT | Filibuster Abuse Set For A Big Comeback Under GOP Rule (11/11/14) [6:31]

11.12.2014. 11:49

Tuesday November 11, 2014
News Articles
REPEAT - But I think is important!
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]

Facing Down Corporate Election Greed
BillMoyers | author | 11/07/14

In the small city of Richmond, California, a slate of progressive candidates faced off against a challenge from pro-business candidates backed to the tune of more than $3 million by the energy giant Chevron. For years, Chevron has treated Richmond like a company town and its large refinery there has been a constant source of health and safety concerns.

Since 2007, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party leader, and her allies on the city council have faced down not only Chevron but other corporate interests like the real estate and financial industries as well. This year, Chevron fought back with an expensive barrage of negative campaign media. But on Election Day, the progressive slate triumphed, despite the roughly $250 per vote Chevron spent. ... Read more

What Could Possibly Go Right? America's New War in the Middle East
BillMoyers & Tom Dispatch | author | 11/10/14

Karl von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military thinker, is best known for his aphorism, "War is the continuation of state policy by other means." But what happens to a war in the absence of coherent state policy?

Actually, we now know. Washington's Iraq War 3.0, Operation Inherent Resolve, is what happens. In its early stages, I asked sarcastically, "What could possibly go wrong?" As the mission enters its fourth month, the answer to that question is already grimly clear: just about everything. It may be time to ask, in all seriousness: What could possibly go right? ... Read more

The Fed Won: America's 0.1% Are Now Wealthier Than The Bottom 90%
ZeroHedge | author | 11/11/14

As the Economist reports, according to a new paper by authors at liberal bastion UC Berkeley and the LSE, US inequality in wealth is approaching record levels (actually it already surpassed it as reported long ago).

"The authors examine the share of total wealth held by the bottom 90% of families relative to those at the very top. In the late 1920s the bottom 90% held just 16% of America's wealth--considerably less than that held by the top 0.1%, which controlled a quarter of total wealth just before the crash of 1929. From the beginning of the Depression until well after the end of the second world war, the middle class's share of total wealth rose steadily, thanks to collapsing wealth among richer households, broader equity ownership, middle-class income growth and rising rates of home-ownership. From the early 1980s, however, these trends have reversed. The top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth $73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the 1929 peak--and almost the same share as the bottom 90% of the population."

That was as of 2013. By now the wealth of the top 0.1% is not only well above that of the "bottom 90%" but higher than it has ever been. Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, November 11 [9:48]
*DN | Paralyzed Iraq War Vet Turned Peace Activist Tomas Young Dies on Eve of Veterans Day (11/11/14) [2:06]
DN | Legendary Talk Show Host Phil Donahue on the Silencing of Antiwar Voices in U.S. Media (11/11/14) [7:02]
Body of War by Phil Donahue () [1:27:38]
Bill Moyers | Mayor Gayle McLaughlin: Facing Down Corporate Election Greed (11/07/14) [25:14]
*Bill Moyers | America's New War in the Middle East (11/07/14) [25:20]
*TRNN | Col. Larry Wilkerson says: The Slippery Slope of More Troops in Iraq Leads To Vietnam (11/11/14) [11:18]
Col. Larry Wilkerson says if the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq does not focus on supporting Iraqi fighting forces to do the heavy lifting, we could end up with full-scale war like we did in Vietnam.
TRNN REPLAY | The Video that Bradley Manning says Pushed Him to Upload to Wikileaks, Part 1 (older, 05/12/10) [13:07]
TYT | George W Bush Enrages With Shocking Lack Of Self-Awareness (Even For Him) (11/10/14) [4:50]
TYT | Obama Proposes Surprisingly Strong Net Neutrality Laws (11/10/14) [8:48]
TYT | GOP Heads Explode Over Obama’s Net Neutrality Announcement (11/10/14) [6:19]
TYT | Why America Keeps Dumping Democrats (11/10/14) [5:33]

11.11.2014. 12:09

Monday November 10, 2014

News Articles

Obama Urges World Leaders To Approve Elusive, Potentially 'Historic' Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Deal
AP & HP | Julie Pace | 11/10/14

President Barack Obama pressed world leaders Monday to break stubborn logjams that have held up an agreement on a trans-Pacific trade deal that is eagerly sought by the White House and could lead to rare consensus with congressional Republicans.

... "We remain committed to ensuring that the final agreement reflects our common vision of an ambitious, comprehensive, high-standard, and balanced agreement that enhances the competitiveness of our economies, promotes innovation and entrepreneurship, spurs economic growth and prosperity, and supports job creation in our countries," the statement read. ... Read more

**The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/07/14

She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore. "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'"

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported -- more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations. ... Read more

The Last Nail In The Millennials' Coffin: A Negative 2% Savings Rate
ZeroHedge | author | 11/10/14

The bottom line, or rather, negative line, is the Millennials' savings, because "after a flirtation with thrift after the recession, young Americans have stopped saving. Adults under age 35--the so-called millennial generation--currently have a savings rate of negative 2%, meaning they are burning through their assets or going into debt, according to Moody's Analytics. That compares with a positive savings rate of about 3% for those age 35 to 44, 6% for those 45 to 54, and 13% for those 55 and older." ... Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Why Gorbachev Feels Betrayed By The Post-Cold War West
WorldPost & HP | Nathan Gardels | 11/07/14

On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, remains a hero in the West. But the West is no longer in favor with Gorbachev.

Already in 2005 when I sat down with him in Moscow to discuss the 20th anniversary of his reforms that ultimately led to the dissolution of the USSR, Gorbachev expressed anger and betrayal over what he regarded as America's "victory complex" over Russia. Clearly, the seeds of hostility that are now manifest in the present crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine have been gestating for some time.

Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev could not be more different as leaders. But they are both proud Russians who don't think their nation is getting its due. They are like " bent twigs springing back after being stepped on," in the phrase Isaiah Berlin used to describe how resentment and aggressive nationalism are rooted in the backlash against humiliation. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, November 10 [10:26]
DN | "This is Crazy": Ex-State Dept. Official Blasts Obama's Doubling of U.S. Troops in Iraq (11/10/14) [15:36]
*DN | Matt Taibbi and Bank Whistleblower on How JPMorgan Chase Helped Wreck the Economy, Avoid Prosecution (11/07/14) [9:25]
DN | On Eve of Veterans Day, a Former Soldier Speaks Out on Hidden Costs of War From PTSD to Suicide (11/10/14) [4:36]
DN | Out of Ebola Quarantine, Yale Student Says Health Workers Should Be Treated as Heroes, Not Pariahs (11/10/14) [11:46]
John Oliver
*HBO | John Oliver: The Lottery (11/09/14) [14:35]
HBO | John Oliver: Predatory Lending (08/10/14) [16:31]
*TRNN | Another Rule to Prevent Big Banks from Getting Even Bigger??? (11/10/14) [9:31]
The problem is that they are already too big and too complex and another rule is misguided says Gerald Epstein is Professor of Economics and a founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute.
TRNN | We look at how the new Republican majority will complicate Obama's efforts to move forward on two trade deals, TPP and T-TIP (11/09/14) [8:02]
TRNN | Fall of Berlin Wall Began Eastern Expansion of NATO (11/09/14) [18:39]
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern says the fall of the Berlin wall should have been an opportunity to create a constructive alliance with Russia, but instead, it became an opportunity to contain and isolate it.
TYT | Neo-Nazis & KKK Fight Like Angry Bigoted Children (11/09/14) [3:36]
Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire: What We Learned From The Fed Tapes (11/01/14) [9:42]

11.10.2014. 10:04

Friday November 07, 2014
News Articles

**The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/07/14

She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore. "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'" Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower.

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.

Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."

Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says. ... Read more

Edward Snowden: A ‘Nation' Interview
TheNation.com | Katrina vanden Heuvel | 10/28/14

On October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden. Throughout their nearly four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable, forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America's media and political system. The interview has been edited and abridged for publication, compressing lengthy conversations about technological issues that Snowden has discussed elsewhere. ... Read more

Central Planners Are In A State Of Panic
ZeroHedge | author | 11/07/14

The central planners are in a state of fear and panic. They are trying everything and anything to create market validation for their policies, watching with trepidation as their favored economic metrics fail to respond to all of their frenzied efforts.

... They've spurred the greatest wealth gap ever in US history, greater even than at the extremes of the Great Depression, apparently without the slightest concerns for Plutarch's ancient admonition that "An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."

... In short, everything the central planners have tried has failed to bring widespread prosperity and has instead concentrated it dangerously at the top. Whether by coincidence or conspiracy, every possible escape hatch for 99.5% of the people has been welded shut. We are all captives in a dysfunctional system of money, run by a few for the few, and it is headed for complete disaster. ... Read more

It is amazing how far we have come in less than 100 years (technology wise)!
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, November 07 [14:25]
*DN | Matt Taibbi and Bank Whistleblower on How JPMorgan Chase Helped Wreck the Economy, Avoid Prosecution (11/07/14) [9:25]
Full interview with Matt Taibbi & JPMorgan Chase whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann (starts about 2inch in on Progressbar).
DN | Full interview with Matt Taibbi & JPMorgan Chase whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann (11/07/14) [35:00]
*DN | New GOP Majority Backs Amnesty for Corporate Tax Dodgers, But Not Undocumented Immigrant Workers (11/07/14) [1:57]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart Calls Out 'Chickensh*t' Democrats. (11/07) [5:07]
*TRNN | Katrina vanden Heuvel on Interviewing Edward Snowden, Part 1 (11/07/14) [17:07]
TRNN | Hedges & Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?, Part 7 (11/06/14) [20:09]
*TRNN | Hedges & Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?, Part 8 (11/07/14) [23:35]
*TRNN | World Bank and IMF Polices behind the Inadequate Health Infrastructure to Quell Ebola (11/07/14) [14:07]
The World Bank's response to the Ebola crisis is inadequate since it is responsible for weakening health care systems in the region, says policy analyst and activist Nii Akuetteh.
TYT | Actual US Senators Believe These INSANE Conspiracy Theories (11/06/14) [6:05]
TYT | Republicans Stop Laughing Long Enough To Thank Democrats (11/06/14) [4:34]
TYT | Corporatist Obama Excited Now That Those Pesky Dems Are Gone (11/06/14) [6:15]
TYT | After Lying Themselves To Power, GOP Begins Their True Agenda (11/06/14) [6:29]
TYT | Democrats Show Head-Spinning Weakness On Mandates, Unlike GOP (11/06/14) [11:10]

11.07.2014. 11:10

Thursday November 06, 2014
REPEAT - But I think is important!
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]
*Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]
*Wealth Inequality in the World [3:51]
Thursday November 06, 2014
Some Important News for Today
  1. LOL@Fundamentals: European Stocks Fall as Investors Seek Stimulus Clarity (BBG)
  2. Obama, Republicans sound conciliatory note but battles loom (Reuters)
  3. Firms drop Pimco funds from managed accounts (Reuters)
  4. Not All QE Is Created Equal as U.S. Outpunches ECB-BOJ (BBG)
  5. Ukraine Accuses Russia of Sending Troops as Truce Wobbles (BBG)
  6. Lenovo Slumps After Projecting China 'Hypergrowth' to End (BBG)
  7. Palo Alto Networks discovers new malware targeted at Apple devices (Reuters)
  8. IPO That Brought In $1 Billion in March Implodes in Denmark (BBG)
News Articles

Job Cuts Surge 68%, Most In 3 Years; Worst October Since 2009
ZeroHedge | author | 11/06/14

Maybe this explains the election results? Challenger reports US companies laid off over 51,000 people in October, the most since May (and 2nd most since Feb 2013). This is a 68% surge MoM (and 11.9% rise YoY) - the biggest monthly rise since September 2011. Retail, Computer, and Pharma industries saw the biggest layoffs. Hiring also collapsed from the record 567,705 exuberance in September to just 147,935 in October. This was the worst October for layoffs since 2009. ... Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

By the time a man asks you for advice, he has generally made up his mind what he wants to do, and is looking for confirmation rather than counseling. Sydney J. Harris

2014: The Year of Koch
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/16/14

The price tag for 2014 will probably be the highest in American history. Candidates, parties, PACs, super-PACs, and political nonprofits--those anonymously funded outfits including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the pro-Democratic Patriot Majority--were on pace to spend $3.67 billion on the 2014 races, according to projections by the Center for Responsive Politics. That would be a new record, surpassing the $3.63 billion spent in 2010. ...

Other key takeaways on big money in the 2014 elections.

  1. Koch and Rove: From zeroes to heroes.
  2. The Democrats' new George Soros had a bad night.
  3. North Carolina: Our Senate race cost more than yours (and yours, and yours).
  4. Larry Lessig's spend-big-money-to-fight-big-money plan flopped.
  5. Judicial elections keep attracting big bucks.
Read more

Record Equity ETF Creation In October
ZeroHedge | author | 11/06/14

Every day for the past several years, sometime after 3pm, bullish market participants exhale a sigh of relief when as if out of nowhere, an "unexpected" surge of buying lifts stocks into the 4 pm close. There are several explanations for what some have dubbed if not Divine, then certainly centrally-planned intervention. This is the time when ETF creation and (far less frequently) redemption takes place. As a result, in a world in which the bulk of liquidity has shifted away from single name stocks and even futures toward ETFs, trends in the creation and redemption of ETFs are key to watch to determine how the market may move purely for to technical reasons (since fundamentals died some time in 2009). Which is why we note, with little surprise, that according to SocGen, Equity ETFs posted a record level of monthly creations in October, driven by US, regional eurozone and UK indexations, perhaps explaining the relentless levitation of the market on ever lower volume especially in the latter part of the day. ...

... Now if only someone could create an ETF (preferably 3x levered) that only buys itself when other ETFs are in the process of creating ETFs, then the first momentum driven perpetual engine will finally be a reality. ... Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Click to zoom - for Text for "What Are ETFs"

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, November 06 [11:20]
*DN | Sen. Bernie Sanders: The United States is on the Verge of Becoming an Oligarchy (11/05/14) [6:18]
*DN | Maui v. Monsanto: Hawaii County Voters Defy Agri-Giant's Spending to OK Landmark Ban on GMO Crops (11/06/14) [6:20]
*DN | Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder on Knowing Your GMOs: Changing a Label Costs "Essentially Nothing" (11/06/14) [10:14]
*DN | Obama & McConnell Pledge Cooperation; Will Fast-Tracking Secretive TPP Trade Deal Top Their Agenda? (11/06/14) [20:15]
*REPEAT - But I think is important! Bill Moyers | Bernie Sanders on Breaking Big Money's Grip on Elections (11/01/14) [25:30]
TRNN | 50 Arrested in Protests Against Federal Agency "Rubber Stamping" Fracking (11/06/14) [6:36]
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
TRNN | Professor Giovanni Baiocchi of University of Maryland: Modernizing and Energy Efficiency Could Drastically Reduce CO2 Emissions, Part 2 (11/06/14) [10:01]
TYT | Dems Viciously Blame Obama As Era Of Compromise Begins (11/05/14) [12:20]
TYT | Anti-Science Republicans To Run The Science Committee & Even Grimmer Results (11/05/14) [8:35]
TYT | Another Bush Elected, One With A Secret Weapon No Other Bush Has (11/05/14) [2:49]
TYT | Old People Run The Country For This Simple, Powerful Reason (11/05/14) [4:42]
TYT | 2014 Election Round Up - Analysis, What's Next & Then The Good News (11/05/14) [3:41]
TYT | Why Democrats Lost (11/05/14) [7:38]
TYT | The Best & Worst Case Scenario Of The Midterms (11/05/14) [5:19]

11.06.2014. 12:34

Wednesday November 05, 2014
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]


*Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]
*Wealth Inequality in the World [3:51]
Wednesday November 05, 2014
National Debt
Who's Responsible for National Debt - Click to zoom


History of Corporate Tax Rates
Top Corporate Tax Rate - Click to zoom
Wednesday November 05, 2014
News Articles

The Election - In 1 'Uncomfortably Divided' Nation Chart
ZeroHedge | author | 11/05/14

Isn't it ironic that the demographic in America that has seen the largest job growth during the 'recovery' turned out in droves to vote (against the incumbents) while the generation that remain mired in student debt, living at home with their mom-and-dad in record amounts, and having lost hope of the American Dream were apparently uninterested in 'change'. Perhaps, just perhaps, the elder generation still believes there is a difference between the two parties... or perhaps they are the ones who are most pissed as the promises of sipping margaritas on a golden beach in retirement is crushed into the reality of working to your grave at Home Depot... Read more
Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Had A Very, Very Bad Night
HP | Samantha Lachman | 11/05/14

Republicans had been predicted to take control of the Senate Tuesday evening, but Democrats hoped to do better in gubernatorial races. They were more than disappointed, as even candidates who had been expected to easily win in Democratic-leaning states were defeated. ... Read more

US debt may be only $17.9 trillion and rising at $1 trillion a year. But US unfunded liabilities are between $130 trillion to $244 trillion (Kotlikoff) and rising at $7 to $9 trillion a year. Sooner or later these unfunded liabilities become real liabilities.

There is no way interest rates can ever be allowed to rise as US deficits will skyrocket. As Bernanke revealed in his $250,000 lunch, interest rates will remain low in his lifetime.
South Africa | Don't worry the porcupine got away just fine.


Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, November 05 [7:28]
DN | The Citizens United Senator: After GOP's Midterm Rout, Mitch McConnell Likely Next Majority Leader (11/05/14) [12:13]
DN | A Big Win for Climate Change Denial: Republicans to Target EPA Regulations After Taking Senate (11/05/14) [11:25]
*Bill Moyers | Bernie Sanders on Breaking Big Money's Grip on Elections (11/01/14) [25:30]
John Oliver
*John Oliver | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: State Legislatures and ALEC (11/02/14) [17:17]
*TRNN | US Elections: Theater with Deadly Consequences (11/05/14) [20:11]
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson and Paul Jay discuss how the media helps create a charade of democracy, and makes a fortune doing it.
*TRNN | How Will the Midterms Affect Climate Change & Fracking Policy? (11/05/14) [15:07]
Daphne Wysham from the Center for Sustainable Economy says a Republican-controlled Senate will be a climate disaster, while Steve Horn from DeSmogBlog says we are likely to see the interests of the fracking industry advanced.
*TRNN | How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP (11/05/14) [8:53]
TRNN Replay (first published days before the 2010 elections) - Paul Jay: Top six ways Obama and the Democratic Party allowed a resurgence of the Republicans.
9/11 Conspiracy
*ZERO - An Investigation Into 9/11 () [1:44:54]
Isn't it interesting that the FBI never charged Usama Bin Laden for 9/11. They said it was because they never had enough evidence against him.
Usama Bin Laden - FBI Wanted Poster
Usama Bin Laden - FBI Wanted Poster
More Videos
Three Heroin Using Sisters
"Once we found out that each other was using, we were, like, what the hell? We might as well all get high together," says Valeen, 27. "We shoot up every single day, five, six, seven times a day." Amanda, 25, adds, "As soon as it goes through my veins, I just feel 100 times better." "It's just a vicious cycle of misery," says Tiffany, 22.
A Day In The Life Of Three Heroin-Addicted Sisters



11.05.2014. 11:16

Tuesday November 04, 2014
News Articles
*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]

Paul Singer Slams The Fake World: "Fake Growth, Fake Money, Fake Jobs, Fake Stability, Fake Inflation Numbers"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/04/14

This is from the man that runs one of the largest Vulture Capital Funds!!

"Nobody can predict how long governments can get away with fake growth, fake money, fake financial stability, fake jobs, fake inflation numbers and fake income growth. Our feeling is that confidence, especially when it is unjustified, is quite a thin veneer. When confidence is lost, that loss can be severe, sudden and simultaneous across a number of markets and sectors." "The situation is universal, a consequence of incompetent leaders and careless (or ignorant) citizenry." Read more

Click to zoom - for Text
Climate Change
70% of the emissions come from 10 nations. 50% of the emissions come from 2 nations... US and China.

JPMorgan Under Criminal Investigation Over Foreign Exchange Business
HP & AP | author | 11/04/14

The announcement by the nation's largest bank follows a similar disclosure Thursday by Citigroup. Banks in the U.S. and abroad are facing allegations that they manipulated foreign-exchange rates. Besides the Justice Department, JPMorgan says civil enforcement authorities and foreign regulators are also investigating its foreign exchange business.

The New York bank said late Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had boosted the amount of money set aside for legal expenses. It now has $5.9 billion in reserve, up from the $4.6 billion it reported in August. ... Read more

On the Ballot
ON THE BALLOT: 36 Senators... 36 Governors... 435 House Members... 6,000 State Legislators... Dozens Of Key Ballot Measures...
Rachel Maddow | Rachel Maddow: Impeachment, Vetoes Likely if GOP Gains Congress? (11/03/14) [19:58]

Interest Rates Cannot Rise - Here's Why
ZeroHedge | author | 11/04/14

I wrote an article recently over at Voices of Liberty that lays out the very dire picture for those of us who have yet to retire. The gist of the article is that the Fed has effectively robbed the retired class of any hope for having enough of a nest egg to live off through the end of their lives if they want to retire at 65.

Some may argue well this past 10 years has just been an anomaly of low interest rates but they will come back i.e. normalize to higher levels here in the next couple years. Well let me show you why that is simply wrong.

Here is why interest rates will be perpetually low for the rest of our lives, why the inflation calculation has been changed to a dynamic formula (meaning they now change the inputs each quarter) and why those of us yet to retire are screwed.

... Now even the CBO is forecasting debt to GDP to continue rising for as far as the eye can see and so there must be a negative slope on interest rates. If average interest rates on debt were to move back to let's say the 20 yr average of 7.5% our interest payments would take up 7.5% to 10% of our GDP. And that is something we simply cannot afford. The most our average interest on total debt can move in the near term is to around 4% which would take us to the high end of the historic DSGDP range. Fortunately I suppose that would also crush what little demand is left in the economy and so there is much incentive to do so. In 5 or 10 years time total debt will be sufficiently more than GDP that even 4% will be unsustainably high. ... Read more

Click to zoom - for Larger Image

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, November 04 [12:32]
*DN | The Priciest Midterms Ever, Brought to You by "Dark Money" and Election Finance Out of Control (11/04/14) [8:44]
The most expensive midterms in history could see one of the lowest turnouts in years. Voting numbers will likely dip below the 40 percent mark of both 2006 and 2010. This despite a record estimate of $4 billion in spending. One quarter of that money, some $1 billion, will come from anonymous, so-called dark money groups. That money has gone into creating some two million television ads -- most of them attack ads. We are joined by Lee Fang, one reporter attempting to follow the dark money trail. A reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, Fang blogs about money and politics at the Republic Report.
*DN | New Voter Suppression Laws Could Decide Key Races, and Turn Back the Clocks for Years to Come (11/04/14) [9:46]
DN | 40,000 Voters Missing in Georgia? After Registration Drive in Areas of Color, Names Left off Rolls (11/04/14) [15:24]
*TRNN | Economist Rachel Cleetus, with the Union of Concerned Scientists: Political Will Required to Address the Climate Crisis (11/04/14) [12:32]
*TRNN | Professor Giovanni Baiocchi of University of Maryland: IPCC Synthesis Report Stops Short of Naming the Worst Emitters of CO2 (11/04/14) [14:32]
TRNN | Professor Sabah Alnasseri of York University's Department of Political Science: Islamic State Born of Deteriorating Economic Conditions in Iraq, Part 2 (11/04/14) [14:14]
Poverty and inequality created by the plunder of Iraq's wealth by elites and multinational corporations after the US occupation of Iraq were a great recruiting tool for ISIS, says Professor Sabah Alnasseri of York University's Department of Political Science.
*TYT | Millions In Untraceable Dark Money From Nowhere Floods Campaigns (11/03/14) [10:04]
*TYT | Mitch McConnell's Grotesque Lobbyist Army Is Everything Wrong With Politics (11/03/14) [5:21]
*TYT | Ben Stein Names 'Most Racist President' & It's Exactly Who You Think (11/03/14) [6:14]
*TYT | Midterm Predictions Includes Optimistic Dems & A Scary Silver Lining (11/03/14) [10:06]
TYT | Sarah Palin Wants To Spank President Obama (11/03/14) [5:32]
TYT | Death With Dignity Advocate Brittany Maynard Dies At 29 (11/03/14) [7:25]

11.04.2014. 13:04

Monday November 03, 2014
News Articles

A Flood of Late Spending on Midterm Elections, From Murky Sources
NYTimes| Nicholas Confessore | 11/02/14

A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election on Tuesday. Some of the groups are "super PACs" that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races. ... Read more

Politics
Forty-Two Plutocrats Have Funded More Than a Third of All Super PAC Spending. Republican-aligned groups have outspent their Democratic counterparts by around three-and-a-half to one.

Climate Change
70% of the emissions come from 10 nations. 50% of the emissions come from 2 nations... US and China.

Bill Gross Warns "Global Economy & Financial Markets Are Insecurely Grounded"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

"Perhaps sooner rather than later, investors must recognize that modern day inflation, while a necessary condition for survival, is not a sufficient condition for increasing wealth at a rate necessary to satisfy future liabilities associated with education, health care, and a satisfactory retirement. The real economy needs money printing, yes, but money spending more so, and that must come from the fiscal side -- from the dreaded government side -- where deficits are anathema and balanced budgets are increasingly in vogue. Until then, deflation remains a growing possibility -- not the kind that creates prosperity but the kind that's the trouble for prosperity." ... Read more

Russia Conducts Full "Nuclear Triad" Drill, Launches Topol-M ICBM
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

1) ICBM - As reported earlier by the Barents Observer, the silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports. The Ministry, conveniently, adds that the Topol-M missile has an "extremely high accuracy of target destruction."

2) Strategic Bombers - This took place after a close encounter on Friday, when Norwegian F-16s were scrambled from Bodø airbase for the second time this week as a group of four Tu-95 strategic bombers were approaching from the northeast, Norway's TV2 reports. The bombers, flying out over the Barents Sea from Russia's Kola Peninsula, were accompanied by four Il-78 tankers.

3) Borey-class submarine - This was the first operational test launch of Bulava in line with the program of combat training. All previous launches were part of development testing of the new weapon. It is also the first time a Borey-class submarine had a full set of missiles on board when the launch was conducted. The Borey-class submarines carries 16 missiles that each may hold as many as 10 nuclear warheads. "Yury Dolgoruky" got her full set of Bulava missiles in June this year. ... Read more

James Risen Challenges the Greed, Power, and Endless War of the National Security State
AlterNet | Norman Solomon | 10/14/14

No single review or interview can do justice to "Pay Any Price" -- the new book by James Risen that is the antithesis of what routinely passes for journalism about the "war on terror." Instead of evasive tunnel vision, the book offers big-picture acuity: focusing on realities that are pervasive and vastly destructive.

Published this week, "Pay Any Price" throws down an urgent gauntlet. We should pick it up. After 13 years of militarized zealotry and fear-mongering in the name of fighting terrorism, the book -- subtitled "Greed, Power, and Endless War" -- zeros in on immense horrors being perpetrated in the name of national security.

Here are a few quotes from the book:
  1. "Obama performed a neat political trick: he took the national security state that had grown to such enormous size under Bush and made it his own. In the process, Obama normalized the post-9/11 measures that Bush had implemented on a haphazard, emergency basis. Obama's great achievement -- or great sin -- was to make the national security state permanent."
  2. "In fact, as trillions of dollars have poured into the nation's new homeland security-industrial complex, the corporate leaders at its vanguard can rightly be considered the true winners of the war on terror."
  3. "There is an entire class of wealthy company owners, corporate executives, and investors who have gotten rich by enabling the American government to turn to the dark side. But they have done so quietly. . . . The new quiet oligarchs just keep making money. . . . They are the beneficiaries of one of the largest transfers of wealth from public to private hands in American history."
  4. "The United States is now relearning an ancient lesson, dating back to the Roman Empire. Brutalizing an enemy only serves to brutalize the army ordered to do it. Torture corrodes the mind of the torturer."
  5. "Of all the abuses America has suffered at the hands of the government in its endless war on terror, possibly the worst has been the war on truth. On the one hand, the executive branch has vastly expanded what it wants to know: something of a vast gathering of previously private truths. On the other hand, it has ruined lives to stop the public from gaining any insight into its dark arts, waging a war on truth. It all began at the NSA."
Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, November 03 [10:46]
*DN | Jim Crow Returns: Interstate "Crosscheck" Program Could Strip Millions of the Right to Vote (11/03/14) [10:14]
DN | Angélique Kidjo: Don't Let the Ebola Crisis Dehumanize Africa and Don't Let Hate Consume America (11/03/14) [12:03]
DN | Honoring Mama Africa: Angélique Kidjo Pays Tribute to South African Singer, Activist Miriam Makeba (11/03/14) [6:00]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart, Week of 10/27/14: The Ebola outbreak hits Texas and New York City; Austin, Jason Jones...(11/01/14) [4:04]
Jon Stewart | Democalypse 2014 - South by South Mess: Texas. (10/30/14) [9:15]
*TRNN | Professor Chris Williams of Pace University says we would need to shut down the fossil fuel industry over the next 20 years to achieve carbon reduction targets (10/31/14) [14:24]
*TRNN | TRNN | Hedges & Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?, Part 6 (11/02/14) [19:37]
*TRNN | How Would a GOP-Controlled Senate Affect US-Iran Negotiations? (11/02/14) [9:45]
*TRNN | Evolutionary biologist Robert Wallace says the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is better explained by Western-driven policy than indigenous cultural practices (11/02/14) [16:43]
TRNN | Sabah Alnasseri, associate professor at York University's: Iraqi Parliament Takes Two Months to Appoint Two Key Cabinet Ministers (11/02/14) [12:29]
"You get your man, I get mine" method of appointing a cabinet just means more of the same corrupt elite at the helm while 3 million Iraqis remain internally displaced, says Sabah Alnasseri, associate professor at York University's Department of Political Science.
TYT | Woody Harrelson Has Dire Words About Climate Change (11/01/14) [5:32]
TYT | Lindsey Graham's 'White Male' Joke Is Too True To Be Funny (11/01/14) [5:14]
TYT | Says White Powerful Bill O'Reilly: Blacks Scare The White Power Structure (11/01/14) [11:17]
TYT | Marine Banned From School After Flipping Out Over Islam Homework (11/01/14) [7:24]

11.03.2014. 12:18



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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

I'm still working on this

GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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

I'm still working on this

Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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,.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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".

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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)

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Sponsors

I'm looking for sponsors to financially help with this site.  If you might be interested please send me a message using the Contact form.

Donation


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

save-the-children

News Pages
News March 2024
News February 2024
News January 2024
News December 2023
News November 2023
News October 2023
News September 2023
News August 2023
News July 2023
News June 2023
News May 2023
News April 2023
News March 2023
News February 2023
News January 2023

News December 2022
News November 2022
News October 2022
News September 2022
News August 2022
News July 2022
News June 2022
News May 2022
News April 2022
News March 2022
News February 2022
News January 2022

News December 2021
News November 2021
News October 2021
News September 2021
News August 2021
News July 2021
News June 2021
News May 2021
News April 2021
News March 2021
News February 2021
News January 2021

News December 2020
News November 2020
News October 2020
News September 2020
News August 2020
News July 2020
News June 2020
News May 2020
News April 2020
News March 2020
News February 2020
News January 2020

News December 2019
News November 2019
News October 2019
News September 2019
News August 2019
News July 2019
News June 2019
News May 2019
News April 2019
News March 2019
News February 2019
News January 2019

News December 2018
News November 2018
News October 2018
News September 2018
News August 2018
News July 2018
News June 2018
News May 2018
News April 2018
News March 2018
News February 2018
News January 2018

News December 2017
News November 2017
News October 2017
News September 2017
News August 2017
News July 2017
News June 2017
News May 2017
News April 2017
News March 2017
News February 2017
News January 2017

News December 2016
News November 2016
News October 2016
News September 2016
News August 2016
News July 2016
News June 2016
News May 2016
News April 2016
News March 2016
News February 2016
News January 2016

News December 2015
News November 2015
News October 2015
News September 2015
News August 2015
News July 2015
News June 2015
News May 2015
News April 2015
News March 2015
News February 2015
News January 2015

News December 2014
News November 2014
News October 2014
News September 2014
News August 2014
News July 2014
News June 2014
News May 2014
News April 2014
News March 2014
News February 2014
News January 2014

News December 2013
News November 2013
News October 2013
News September 2013
News August 2013
News July 2013
News June 2013
News May 2013
News April 2013
News March 2013
News February 2013
News January 2013

News December 2012
News November 2012
News October 2012
News September 2012
News August 2012
News July 2012
News June 2012
News May 2012
News April 2012
News March 2012
News February 2012
News January 2012

News December 2011