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Friday October 30, 2015
News Articles

Exclusive: GOP campaigns plot revolt against RNC
Politico | Alex Isenstadt | 10/29/15

Republican presidential campaigns are planning to gather in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening to plot how to alter their party's messy debate process -- and how to remove power from the hands of the Republican National Committee.

... On Thursday, many of the campaigns told POLITICO that the RNC, which has taken a greater role in the 2016 debate process than in previous election cycles, had failed to take their concerns into account. It was time, top aides to at least half a dozen of the candidates agreed, to begin discussing among themselves how the next debates should be structured and not leave it up to the RNC and television networks. ... Read more

*Stephen Cobert | The Biggest Loser Of The CNBC Debate Was Everyone (10/30/15) [7:54]

China Warns U.S. It Risks Sparking A War If It Doesn't Stop "Provocative Acts".

First They Jailed The Bankers, Now Every Icelander To Get Paid Back In Bank Sale
ZeroHedge | author | 10/30/15

First, Iceland jailed its crooked bankers for their direct involvement in the financial crisis of 2008. Now, every Icelander will receive a payout for the sale of one of its three largest banks, Íslandsbanki. ... Read more

BraveNewFilms | Koch Brothers EXPOSED (2014) [55:54]

Other Brave NEw Films

Paul Krugman on How the GOP Got Taken Over by Scam Artists
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/30/15

In a take-no-prisoners column Friday, Paul Krugman pretty much levels the Republican presidential field. They are, in a word, grifters, Krugman writes, representatives of a party that has defined respectability down. And the gullible base is only too happy to buy the snake oil they are selling.

Perhaps the most obvious example was Ben Carson's denial Wednesday night that he is involved with the company Mannatech, a purveyor of nutritional supplements that has been forced to pony up $7 million in a deceptive practices lawsuit. Carson simply and brazenly lied, denying his involvement, and the audience applauded him and booed the questioners (Ben Carson had extensive relationship to dietary supplement company despite denial, CNN). ... Read more

Every so often I add a "off topic" story. I found this one heart warming and had to read it (and see the pictures) all the way to the end.

Dying Puppy Found Alone In Forest Makes Miracle Transformation
www.thedodo.com | author | 10/28/15

Back in May, Stephanie Smith-Justus got a call from a worried neighbor. He had just seen a dog who was in dire need of help and he didn't know what to do. Smith-Justus, who works for her local city shelter and also runs the no-kill Buchanan County Humane Society in Virginia, grabbed her husband and ran down to the end of her street where the neighbor said he had seen the dog. After scouring the wooded forest area, she was ready to give up. But just then her husband found the dog, lying in a patch of weeds at the end of the road. "He said, 'Stephanie, I don't think he's going to live,'" Smith-Justus told The Dodo. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, October 30 [6:48]
*DN | Flat Taxes, Ending Medicare-Medicaid, Banning All Abortions: Meet New GOP Front-Runner Ben Carson (10/29/15) [12:19]
DN | John Nichols on Paul Ryan: The GOP's Best Actor Since Ronald Reagan (10/29/15) [6:23]
Stephan Cobert
Stephen Cobert | Focus On The Universe (10/30/15) [5:05]
Stephen Cobert | Science Is Naughty With Neil deGrasse Tyson (10/30/15) [3:29]
DR | Friday News -- Domestic (10/30/15) [1hr]
Note: Use the progress bar to jump to 6 minutes to start the video.
DR | Friday News -- International (10/30/15) [1hr]
TRNN | Ruth Coniff analyzes Ryan's voting record: A Look at Speaker Ryan's Record on "Fighting" for the Middle Class (10/30/15) [3:52]
TRNN | EU Passes Resolution to Protect Edward Snowden from Prosecution (10/30/15) [3:45]
*TRNN | Who Benefits From Sovereign Debt Crises? Part 4 (10/30/15) [9:17]
*TYT | Republican Candidate Tax Plans Cost TRILLIONS (10/29/15) [3:20]
TYT | Debate Fact Checking: Trump, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal (10/29/15) [3:25]
TYT | The New Speaker Of The House Is...Paul Ryan (10/29/15) [4:41]
*RT | CrossTalk on Syria: Obama cornered (10/30/15) [24:06]
RoF | Evil Koch Brothers Spend Millions To Eliminate Solar Power (10/30/15) [3:41]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.30.2015. 13:03

Thursday October 29, 2015
News Articles
*GOP Debate 10/28/15 (full) (10/28/15) [2:35:43]

Jeb Bush's Comeback Strategy Backfires At GOP Debate
AP & HP | Steve Peoples | 10/29/15

Jeb Bush sought to calm anxious donors with a comeback strategy focused on taking down rival Marco Rubio. But Bush's plan backfired badly on national television in the third GOP presidential debate.

Instead of generating much needed momentum, Bush's attack on his onetime protege raised new questions about his underwhelming candidacy in the primary contest he was once expected to dominate. And Bush's continued struggles highlight a deepening sense of uncertainty settling over a 2016 Republican presidential race that remains crowded and without a clear front-runner. ... Read more

Fact-Checking The CNBC Republican Presidential Debate
HP | FactCheck.org | 10/29/15

Summary
The Republican candidates met once again, and we found several claims worthy of fact-checking. Here are some of the highlights from the debate:
  1. Former CEO Carly Fiorina claimed that 92 percent of the job losses in President Obama's first term belonged to women, but women -- and men -- gained jobs by the end of Obama's first term.
  2. Businessman Donald Trump disputed the idea that he had criticized Sen. Marco Rubio and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for supporting H-1B visas. In fact, Trump's immigration plan, posted on his website, is critical of both of them.
  3. Trump also claimed his campaign was 100 percent self-funded, but more than half of the money his campaign has raised came from supporters' contributions.
  4. Fiorina blamed the Affordable Care Act for a large disparity in firm closings versus openings every year. But closings outnumbered firm births by the widest margin in 2009, a year before the law was enacted.
  5. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said it was "total propaganda" to say he was involved with a controversial nutritional supplement company, but he appeared in promotional videos for the company, touting its products.
  6. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that Social Security would be insolvent in seven to eight years. But even after the trust funds are exhausted -- estimated to be in 14 to 19 years -- the program can still pay out 73 percent of benefits for several decades.
  7. Sen. Ted Cruz said women's wages have declined under Obama, when in fact the latest figures show their wages have increased.
  8. Rubio claimed CNBC's John Harwood was wrong that a Tax Foundation analysis of his tax plan found those in the top 1 percent of earners would get nearly twice the gain as those in the middle. Harwood was right, and that's on a percentage basis.
  9. In the undercard debate, former New York Gov. George Pataki claimed the Iranians, Russians and Chinese "hacked" the private server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state and obtained "state secrets." There's no evidence of that.
Read more

The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank's $75 Trillion In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP.

Deutsche Bank To Cut 35,000 Jobs, A Quarter Of Its Workforce
AP & HP | author | 10/29/15

The announcement came Thursday as the bank reported a net loss of 6 billion euros.

Deutsche Bank says it is cutting 35,000 jobs through redundancies and the sale of businesses as new CEO John Cryan seeks to make Germany's biggest lender more manageable and profitable.

... The announcement came Thursday as the bank reported a net loss of 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion). Net profit was hit by 5.8 billion euros in noncash charges for the reduced value of its investment bank and Postbank. The bank will not pay a dividend this year and next year to retain capital and strengthen the bank's finances against possible financial turbulence. ... Read more

Pending Home Sales Tumble Most Since 2013 Amid "Signs Of A Slowing US Economy".

7 Astounding Charts Show How Badly The Fed (Federal Reserve) Failed The Housing Market
ZeroHedge | author | 10/29/15

For generations, single family housing development was a driver of US economic growth. Today, there is no single family housing industry to speak of. These 7 charts derived from this week's release of new house sales data from the Census Bureau illustrates just how bad things are. New house sales fell versus September 2015 and remain barely above the housing depression lows, a mere fraction of 2005 bubble levels. ... Read more
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Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 29 [11:29]
*DN | The Armor of Light: New Documentary Makes the Evangelical Case for Gun Reform (10/28/15) [12:49]
A new documentary opening this week focuses on two individuals who form an unlikely alliance to address gun violence in the United States. "The Armor of Light," by Abigail Disney, follows the evangelical minister Rev. Rob Schenck, an evangelical known for his anti-choice activism, and Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, the African-American teenager who was shot to death by a middle-aged white man in a gas station parking lot in 2012 after a dispute over loud music. The shooter, Michael Dunn, was later sentenced to life without parole. Schenck describes how McBath inspired him to begin speaking out about gun violence. "It was her passion in the wake of that pain and horror of losing a son to murder that was really what pulled me across the threshold of decision to start speaking to this, even though for me it is at great personal risk," Schenck says. "In our community, when you break with a kind of orthodoxy on social issues -- guns being one of them -- you are seen as a renegade or as a defector."
DR | New Republican House Leadership And The Latest In The GOP Presidential Race (10/29/15) [1hr]
DR | Simon Winchester: "Pacific" (10/29/15) [1hr]
Stephen Colbert - Late Show
Stephen Colbert | The Meatocalypse Has Arrived (10/28/15) [6:03]
Stephen Colbert | Never Bring A Trump To A Carson Fight (10/28/15) [5:08]
Stephen Colbert | Hillary Clinton Binge-Watches "The Good Wife" (10/28/15) [2:10]
TRNN | Hedges & Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?, Part 1 (10/22/14) [20:25]
*TRNN | Bernie and the Big Banks, Part 1 (10/25/15) [17:37]
TYT | CNBC GOP Debate: The Biggest LOSER (10/28/15) [3:42]
TYT | CNBC GOP Debate: The Biggest WINNER (10/28/15) [9:46]
TYT | CNBC GOP Debate: Can Trump Really Win? (10/28/15) [9:39]
TYT | Body Slamming Cop Fired, Sheriff Still Blames Victim (10/28/15) [13:23]
RT | Post-Apocalyptic scenes of Syrian town Morek retaken from ISIS (10/29/15) [2:32]
RT | Keiser Report: Money Laundering & Fraud Squads (E829) (10/29/15) [25:44]
RoF | Did Anyone Win The GOP Debate? Probably Not. (10/29/15) [4:42]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.29.2015. 12:46

Wednesday October 28, 2015
News Articles

5 Things To Watch For In Tonight's GOP Debate
HP| Zach Carter | 10/28/15

The Republican candidates for president will appear on Wednesdayat the University of Colorado Boulder for their third debate of the primary season. This time around, the host network is CNBC, which promises to "focus on the key issues that matter to all voters -- job growth, taxes, technology, retirement and the health of our national economy."

CNBC's debate night kicks off at 6 p.m. EDT, with an undercard debate featuring Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Rick Santorum. The debate featuring the candidates who could actually win the nomination begins two hours later. Your moderators for the evening are CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood. ... Read more

HP | Most GOP Voters Still Have No Idea Who They're Voting For. (10/27/15) (article)
Seven in 10 Republicans who support a candidate are still not sure on their choice.

Record Swarm Of California Earthquakes Continues A Series Of Unusual Events That Began In Late September
ZeroHedge | author | 10/28/15

First it was wildfires, then it was unprecedented flooding, and now it is earthquakes. In the past two weeks alone, more than 400 earthquakes have shaken San Ramon -- a small city that sits approximately 45 miles east of San Francisco. Never before have so many earthquakes been recorded in that area in such a short span of time. ... Read more

God and Government: Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism, and Freedom Of Conscience by Barry Lynn

A central player in every major church-state-separation battle for decades, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn understands the complexities of this divisive issue like few others. As a long-time activist, a civil rights lawyer, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he offers a unique perspective and a wealth of experience on church-state controversies. In this lively book, he has compiled his writings from various sources to explore in depth the many ways religious extremists have attempted to erode individual liberties.

The topics range from publicly-promoted prayer to efforts to undermine public education and replace it with taxpayer-subsidized vouchers for religious schools, interfering with end-of-life and reproductive rights, censorship, and belligerence directed against nonbelievers and minorities.

Lynn concludes that the ultimate goal of these extremist forces--consisting mainly of the Protestant Religious Right and the Roman Catholic hierarchy--is the creation of a corporate theocracy, a decidedly undemocratic system of government in which nonconservative Christians, along with humanist, feminists, and the LGBTQ community, are relegated to second-class status in America.
Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph Stiglitz (pdf).

Tthe Roosevelt Institute exposes the link between the rapidly rising fortunes of America's wealthiest citizens and increasing economic insecurity for everyone else. The conclusion is clear: piecemeal policy change will not do. To improve economic performance and create shared prosperity, we must rewrite the rules of our economy.

Markets On Hold Awaiting The Fed's Non-Announcement As Central Banks Ramp Up Currency Wars
ZeroHedge | author | 10/28/15

We would say today's main event is the culmination of the Fed's two-day meeting and the announcement slated for 2 pm this afternoon, however with the 90 economists polled by Bloomberg all expecting no rate hike, today's Fed decision also happens to be the least anticipated in years (which may be just the time for the Fed to prove it is not driven by market considerations and shock everybody, alas that will not happen). And considering how bad the economic data has gone in recent months, not to mention the recent easing, hints of easing, and outright return to currency war by other banks, the Fed is once again trapped and may not be able to hike in December or perhaps ever, now that the USD is again surging not due to its actions but due to what other central banks are doing. ... Read more

Charles Koch's Frankenstein Problem: He Created the Tea Party Monster -- and Now He's Horrified With the Results
AlterNet | Sean Illing | 10/27/15

The Koch network gave rise to the rabid right. But now Charles Koch wails about a 'lack of substance and civility.'

I'm a big fan of irony, which is why I enjoyed this Wall Street Journal profile of Charles Koch so much. In an interview with Patrick O'Connor, Charles -- evidently the more diplomatic half of the two most politically active Koch brothers -- spoke somberly about the tone of the 2016 presidential race and of political discourse more generally. "It's mainly about personalities and 'your mother sucked rotten eggs,'" he lamented to O'Connor.

On the one hand, I understand Charles Koch's frustration. After all, he and his brother are looking to invest $750 million on this election. When a man, his brother, and 450 wealthy donors build a national network of umbrella organizations in order to dictate political outcomes via dark money, they expect to get the results they want. ... Read more

More News
  1. Global shares rise as Riksbank helps ease Fed wait (Reuters)
  2. Asian Stocks Retreat Before Fed as Material Shares Lead Losses (BBG)
  3. For Fed, a Rates Puzzle Looms (WSJ)
  4. What the Superforecasters Say About When the Fed Will Lift Rates (BBG)
  5. U.S. Looks at Proposals to Step Up Fight Against Islamic State (WSJ)
  6. China Steel Head Says Demand Slumping at Unprecedented Speed (BBG)
  7. VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years (Reuters)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, October 28 [8:49]
*DN | Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz on "Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy" (10/27/15) [17:00]
*DN | Massive Indonesian Plantation Fires Create Environmental Catastrophe Spewing Haze & Carbon Emissions (10/27/15) [4:01]
DR | President Obama And FBI Director James Comey Speak Out On Policing And Crime (10/28/15) [1hr]
DR | Rev. Barry Lynn: "God And Government" (10/28/15) [1hr]
*TRNN | Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Who Benefits From Sovereign Debt Crises? Part 2 (10/27/15) [11:19]
**TRNN | Bernie and the Big Banks, Part 3 (10/28/15) [21:41]
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies says: Iran to Join Syria Talks (10/28/15) [9:31]
TYT | The True Cost Of Fossil Fuels (10/27/15) [3:05]
TYT | Obama Helping GOP Cut Social Security (10/27/15) [10:36]
RT | 'We refuse to be enemies': Israeli cafe offers 50% discount if Jews and Arabs dine together (10/28/15) [2:16]
RT | CrossTalk: Syrian Turning Point? (10/28/15) [24:37]
RoF | Media Remains Silent While SCOTUS Screws Over Americans (10/27/15) [8:51]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.28.2015. 12:08

Tuesday October 27, 2015
News Articles

South China Sea: U.S. Sovereignty Challenge Provokes Anger In Beijing
AP & HP | Christopher Bodeen | 10/27/15

A U.S. Navy warship sailed past one of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday, in a challenge to Chinese sovereignty claims that drew an angry protest from Beijing, which said the move damaged U.S.-China relations and regional peace.

China's Foreign Ministry said authorities monitored and warned the USS Lassen as it entered what China claims as a 12-mile (21-kilometer) territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a group of reefs, islets, and atolls where the Philippines has competing claims. ... Read more

Another Doctors Without Borders Hospital Hit By Airstrikes
Reuters & HP | author | 10/27/15

A Yemeni hospital run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was bombed in a Saudi-led air strike, wrecking the facility and wounding several people, the hospital director said on Tuesday.

A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in March to try to restore its government after its toppling by Houthi forces but the civilian death toll has escalated since then, alarming the United Nations and human rights groups.

And now, seven years after the financial crisis first brought CDS to widespread attention, pressure is growing inside and outside what's called the determinations committee to tackle conflicts of interest, according to interviews with three dozen people with direct knowledge of the panel's functioning who asked that their names not be used. Scandals that exposed how bank traders rigged key interest rates and fixed currency values have given ammunition to those who say CDS may also be susceptible to collusion or, worse, outright manipulation. ... Read more

*Inside the Secretive Circle That Rules a $14 Trillion Market
Bloomberg | Nabila Ahmed | 10/26/15

Fifteen of the biggest players in the $14 trillion market for credit insurance are also the referees. Firms such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wrote the rules, are the dominant buyers and sellers and, ultimately, help decide winners and losers.

Has a country such as Argentina paid what it owes? Has a company like Caesars Entertainment Corp. kept up with its bills? When the question comes up, the 15 firms meet on a conference call to decide whether a default has triggered a payout of the bond insurance, called a credit-default swap. Investors use CDS to protect themselves from missed debt payments or profit from them. ... Read more

The GOP's dysfunction all started with Sarah Palin
WashingtonPost | William M. Daley | 10/25/15

When The Post's front page declares: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party," it's time to ask: How did this come to pass?

You can choose from a litany of insurrections, government shutdowns and other self-inflicted wounds. But this year's carnival-like GOP presidential primary makes one event, in retrospect, stand out as a crucial turning point on the road to upheaval: the 2008 embrace of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be a heartbeat from the presidency. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

More News
  1. Hilsenrath - The Fed Strives for a Clear Signal on Interest Rates (WSJ)
  2. Tentative Budget Deal Reached, Raising Debt Limit (WSJ)
  3. China Calls U.S. Challenge Over Island Threat to Regional Peace (BBG)
  4. UK economy slows more than expected in third quarter (Reuters)
  5. In China's Alleyways, Underground Banks Move Money (WSJ)
  6. Inside the Secretive Circle That Rules a $14 Trillion Market (BBG)
  7. A Frustrated Koch Brother Decides It's Time to 'Spout Off' (WSJ)


Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, October 27 [8:59]
*DN | Charles Glass: Syria Burning: on the Roots & Future of the Deadly Conflict, Part.2 (10/26/15) [8:57]
*DN | Charles Glass: Tony Blair is Right - Those Who Removed Saddam Hussein Share Blame for Rise of ISIL (10/26/15) [7:17]
DR | Refugees Fleeing Syria And EU Efforts To Cope With The Migrant Crisis (10/27/15) [1hr]
*TRNN | Bernie and the Big Banks, Part 2 (10/27/15) [23:57]
TRNN | Who Benefits From Sovereign Debt Crises?, Part 1 (10/27/15) [13:03]
TYT | STUDY: Bacon Gives You Cancer (10/26/15) [8:10]
TYT | Trump: Daddy Only Gave Me A Million Dollars At First (10/26/15) [3:59]
TYT | Jewish Defense League Beats Buzzfeed Journalist In Paris (10/26/15) [6:01]
*RT | CrossTalk: Situation Syria (10/26/15) [24:24]
RT | Keiser Report: Crossing Financial Rubicons (E828) (10/27/15) [25:32]
RoF | Jeb's Pathetic Campaign Puts the Nail In The Bush Legacy Coffin (10/26/15) [8:04]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | TTIP: The Toxic Trade Deal Coming Up (10/27/15) [6:25]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.27.2015. 11:19

Monday October 26, 2015
News Articles

World Health Organization: Processed Meats Cause Cancer
HP | Kate Bratskeir | 10/26/15

The World Health Organization announced Monday that cured and processed meats like bacon, sausage, hot dogs and ham cause cancer, adding the foods to a top-tier list of carcinogenic substances that includes alcohol, cigarettes, asbestos, and arsenic.

Processed meats can be bundled with these threatening carcinogens because of their link with bowel cancer, according to a report from WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, though their inclusion doesn't mean that bacon causes cancer at the same rate as, say, smoking. ... Read more

The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that a 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increased the risk for bowel cancer by 18 percent. That's about three slices of cooked bacon.

Powerful Earthquake Hits Afghanistan, India, Pakistan
Reuters & HP | Krista Mahr | 10/26/15

A major earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast on Monday, killing at least 135 people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan and sending shock waves as far as New Delhi, officials said.

... The earthquake struck almost exactly six months after Nepal suffered its worst quake on record, on April 25. Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, 9,000 people lost their lives and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. ... Read more

Trump: All candidates controlled by money, I'm self-funded (10/26/15) [1:34]
Tony Blair Admits 2003 Iraq Invasion Contributed To Rise Of ISIS

Sarah Palin Marked the Moment the GOP Went Off the Rails
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/26/15

Wondering where the insanity that is today's GOP started? Look no further than nonsense-spewer Sarah Palin. This is the view espoused by WIlliam M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff under President Obama from 2011-2012 in Monday's Washington Post.

The turning point came in 2008, when the party put then Alaska-Governor Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency, despite her utter lack of competency. That is when the party effectively embraced the lack of competence and experience as a virtue. From that flows Ben Carson and Donald Trump as frontrunners for the nomination and a variety of other ills. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

Poll: Republicans View Donald Trump As Most Electable
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, October 26 [9:42] DR | Pros And Cons Of Raising Tax Rates On America's Wealthiest 1 Percent (10/26/15) [1hr]
Most Republicans in the 2016 presidential race taxes on the nation's wealthiest 1% should be cut to promote growth, but Democrats disagree: Debate over tax fairness and economic growth.
*TRNN | Bernie and the Big Banks, Part 1 (10/25/15) [17:37]
Is Sanders proposal to break up the big banks a solution to the power and concentrated wealth of Wall St.? Bill Black and Leo Panitch discuss and debate the plan.
TRNN | Jeannette Wicks-Lim says: $15 minimum Wage Without Job Loss (10/26/15) [11:34]
TRNN | Noam Chomsky & Abby Martin: Electing The President Of An Empire (10/26/15) [26:12]
TYT | Analyzing The Campaign Strategy Of Establishment Republicans (10/25/15) [4:55]
RT | 'Crystal clear case for Tony Blair war crimes in Iraq' (10/25/15) [4:58]
RT | Keiser Report: Fraud Futures From the Past (E827) (10/24/15) [25:44]
RoF | The Kochs Take Revenge On Wisconsin; The Kochs Brothers Peddling Political Corruption (10/23/15) [10:52]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.26.2015. 12:16

Friday October 23, 2015
News Articles

Even Conservatives Realize Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Committee Hearing Was Ridiculous
HP | Marina Fang | 10/22/15

Republicans and Democrats have long been divided on the purpose of the House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. GOP lawmakers, particularly the committee's chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), have insisted the panel is focused on investigating potential wrongdoing leading up to the attack, while Democrats have alleged that the GOP-led committee is a political stunt targeting Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

But after the former secretary of state's marathon testimony on Thursday, in which she endured 11 hours of questioning, even conservatives admitted the hearing accomplished very little. ... Read more

Should Bush Be Responsible For 9/11, As Hillary Is For Benghazi?
HP | Should Bush Be Responsible For 9/11, As Hillary Is For Benghazi? () [3:44]
USAToday | Hurricane Patricia is strongest ever
USAToday | Hurricane Patricia is strongest ever measured (10/23/15) [1:08]

*Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Embarrass Hapless Vulture Fund Investors
HP | Zach Carter | 10/23/15

"When you make a risky investment you should not expect to get 100 percent back on your dollar."

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on the federal government Thursday to curb the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico by cracking down on vulture fund investors.

"Wall Street should not be believing that they can get blood from a stone," Sanders said. "When people are suffering and hurting, you cannot continue to squeeze them." ... Read more
HP | Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Embarrass Hapless Vulture Fund Investors (10/23/15) [4:10]

This Is What Happens After Three Years Of Negative Interest Rates

Property prices in Copenhagen have risen 40-60 percent since the middle of 2012, when the central bank first resorted to negative interest rates to defend the krone's peg to the euro.

Here are 50 despicable things George W. Bush did before and after 9/11
RawStory | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/20/15

Let's look at 50 reasons, some large and some small, why W. inspired so much anger:

1. He stole the presidency in 2000.
3. He covered up his past.
5. He was a corporate shill from Day 1.
7. He embraced global isolationism.
8. He ignored warnings about Osama bin Laden.
11. Squandered global goodwill after 9/11.
14. He flat-out lied about Iraq's weapons.
17. Forced Colin Powell's false evidence at U.N..
20. Bush launched the second Iraq War.
21. Baghdad looted except for oil ministry.
26. Meanwhile, war profiteering surged.
30. Iraq war created federal debt crisis.
31. He cut veterans' healthcare funding.
32. Then Bush decided to cut income taxes.
35. Turned corporations loose on environment.
47. But took the most vacation time.
48. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld.
...
Read more
RoF | These Are The Worst Things George W. Bush Ever Did (10/22/15) [2:03]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, October 23 [13:03]
DN | "Everybody is a Suspect": European Rights Chief on Edward Snowden's Call for Global Privacy Treaty (10/23/15) [5:43]
DN | Shaker Aamer: After 5,000 Days of Torment, Last British Prisoner at Guantanamo is Set for Release (10/22/15) [13:46]
DN | U.S. Ally Saudi Arabia Prepares to Behead, Crucify Pro-Democracy Protester Ali Mohammed al-Nimr (10/22/15) [6:01]
*DN | "Where Does This End?": After Drone Papers Leaks, U.K. Gov't Has a Kill List of Its Own (10/22/15) [2:50]
DR | Friday News -- Domestic (10/23/15) [1hr]
DR | Friday News -- International (10/23/15) [1hr]
Migrants are escorted Thursday by police through Dobova, Slovenia, as they walk to a holding camp. Thousands of migrants marched across the border between Croatia into Slovenia as authorities intensify their efforts to attempt to cope with Europe's largest migration of people since World War II.
TRNN | Max Blumenthal, author of The 51-Day War: Netanyahu's Record on Inciting Violence Against Palestinians (10/22/15) [14:42]
TRNN | Samah Sabawi: Can Kerry Contain Netanyahu? (10/23/15) [11:40]
TYT | What Do Americans Think Of The Benghazi Investigation? (10/22/15) [3:42]
TYT | Trump Can't Believe Ben Carson Beating Him In Iowa (10/22/15) [8:02]
TYT | Paul Ryan Officially Running For House Speaker Race (10/22/15) [7:41]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E195) - Scott Walker Won't Be President, But Still An Asshole (10/22/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | How Canada Just Schooled Americans (10/22/15) [5:33]
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Polling of Likely 2016 Voters
Polling of Likely 2016 Voters.pdf (full)
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.23.2015. 11:46

Thursday October 22, 2015
News Articles

House Conservatives Support Paul Ryan For Speaker, But Won't Formally Endorse Him
HP | Mollie Reilly | 10/21/15

According to Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), approximately 70 percent of the group of hardline conservatives agreed to back Ryan for the leadership position instead of Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who had intended to run for the post. However, the caucus stopped short of endorsing Ryan, and Labrador said it would be up to Ryan to decide if the signal of support was enough. (The caucus needed to reach 80 percent support to grant an endorsement.)

Ryan, after nearly two weeks of indecision, finally agreed to run for House speaker on Tuesday -- on the condition that he receive support from all factions of the party, including the Freedom Caucus. Since he has received that support, Ryan appears to be a lock for the speakership. ... Read more

*Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

In this, the first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil--the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States--Steve Coll reveals the true extent of its power. Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation's recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe--featuring kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin--and the narrative is driven by larger-than-life characters, including corporate legend Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond, ExxonMobil's chief executive until 2005. A penetrating, news-breaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

SocialJustice | Steve Coll on the "Private Empire" of ExxonMobil (06/18/12) [1:01:57]

US Leading Economic Indicators Tumbles Most In 30 Months
ZeroHedge | author | 10/22/15

Missing expectations for the 3rd month in a row, US Lesading Economic Indicators (LEI) dropped 0.2% MoM. There has not been a bigger monthly drop since March 2013. Ironmically, initial jobless claims (which we have recently explained is now useless) was the largest positive contributor (after the yield curve steepness) but stock prices, average workweek, and building permits weighed heaviest. ... Read more
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Americans' Outlook For The US Economy Plunges Near 2013 'Government Shutdown' Lows
ZeroHedge | author | 10/22/15

Since February, Americans have become less and less confident about the economic future of the country. As Bloomberg reports, National Economy Expectations tumbled to 42.0 - just above Sept 2014 lows and almost as weak as during the 2013 government shutdown. 2015's weakening streak is the worst consistent drop since 2011 (which unleashed moar QE) as Americans' spending attitudes tumble the most since May. ... Read more
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Clean energy IS cheaper than fossil fuels if you remove the subsidies that the U.S. government pays them, which basically keeps the costs artificially low on fossil fuels... Take away the subsidies and the actual price of fossil fuels goes up to where it would normally be, making renewable energy look like a bargain in comparison...
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Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 22 [9:07]
*Prison for Exxon Execs? Lawmakers Seek Probe for Hiding Knowledge of Climate Change, Part 1 (10/22/15) [9:43], Part 2 [11:50]
For decades, Exxon has publicly questioned the science of global warming, contradicting internal findings by the company's own scientists. Recent exposés by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times reveal that Exxon concealed for decades its own conclusions that fossil fuels cause global warming, alter the climate and melt the Arctic. Exxon's climate deception is now sparking calls for a federal probe similar to that which yielded a racketeering conviction of Big Tobacco for hiding the dangers of smoking. We are joined by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California), who is calling for a Justice Department investigation of Exxon, as well as 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, who was just arrested for a one-man protest shutting down his local Exxon gas station. "It's difficult to think of a company that could have set back humanity for decades, and perhaps permanently," Rep. Lieu says. "But that's what happened here."
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InsideClimateNews - Exxon: The Road Not Taken website
DR | Vice President Biden, Congressman Ryan And What's Ahead For Their Political Parties (10/22/15) [1hr]
TYT | Paul Ryan: Want Me To Be Speaker? Here's My List Of Demands... (10/21/15) [6:55]
TYT | Meet Wall Street's Therapist (10/20/15) [6:53]
TYT | Netanyahu's Holocaust Conspiracy Theory Debunked (10/21/15) [3:01]
RT | Keiser Report: Empire of debt (E826) (10/22/15) [25:20]
RT | CrossTalk: Syria: Sulking Superpower (10/21/15) [24:10]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E194) - Throw Away Your Television (10/21/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann |Exxon Lied and the Planet is Dying... (10/22/15) [12:38]
ThomHartmann | How WE Can Save the Planet (10/22/15) [5:57]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.22.2015. 12:47

Wednesday October 21, 2015
News Articles

Plutocrats and Their Pets
HP | Richard North Patterson | 10/20/15

Wikipedia defines plutocracy as a society "controlled by the small minority of its wealthiest members." In 2010, the Supreme Court set out to help us join the list. The case, of course, is Citizens United. After an unseemly series of maneuvers by Chief Justice Roberts expanded the case far beyond the issues presented, a five to four majority of Republican appointees held that unlimited expenditures to elect political candidates are "speech " protected from regulation by the First Amendment. Stating bluntly in dissent that "the Court changed the case so it could change the law," Justice Stevens warned: "A democracy cannot function effectively when [voters] believe laws are being bought and sold."

The post-Citizens United conduits for such barter, Super PACs, funnel millions from the ultra-wealthy to support their human vessels -- a counterweight, one supposes, to the parlous effects of letting ordinary people vote. The ads spawned by this money now flood our airwaves: a prominent Democratic consultant estimates that his party's nominee must raise at least $1.5 billion to compete with the tidal wave unleashed by the Supreme Court. This spiraling financial arms race drives candidates away from voters in order to grovel before demanding would-be patrons in big-dollar "money primaries." And there is much groveling to be done. The 2012 campaign produced over $1 billion in soft money. 2016 will see a drastic increase: already a mere 156 families have put $176 million on the electoral table. ... Read more

The Banking Industry's Transparent Attempt to Weaken the CFPB
HP | Sen. Elizabeth Warren | 10/20/15

You'll never guess who's going around Washington, trolling the halls of Congress, talking about the importance of protecting the long-term health of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The banking industry.

That's right: After years of trying to kill, then delay, and then defang the agency, the banking industry and their Republican friends in Congress have launched a new effort to attract Democratic support for their latest attack by claiming that they just want to help the agency and the consumers it protects. Surely Democrats will not be taken in by yet another attempt to weaken the CFPB.

The latest industry-sponsored bill would fundamentally change the structure of the CFPB by replacing the agency's single, independent director with a commission of political appointees. ... Read more

Netanyahu Says Muslim Leader Convinced Hitler To Kill Jewish People | Reuters | 10/21/15
"Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews," Netanyahu said.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, October 21 [8:15]
DR | The FAA, Drones And The Safety Of The National Airspace (10/21/15) [1hr]
More than 700,000 hobbyists plan to buy a drone this year, up 63 percent from last year. Now the FAA will require registration of the small aircraft. What does it mean for the safety of the national airspace?
TYT | Trump Rampage Continues, Republican Establishment Starting To Panic (10/20/15) [6:53]
*TYT | Fox News Calls Trump A Truther (10/20/15) [13:28]
TYT | George W. Bush Has Had Just About Enough Of Ted Cruz (10/20/15) [5:45]
RT | Putin & Assad hold surprise meeting in Moscow: Key points (10/21/15) [11:15]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E193) - Saving The American Middle Class (10/20/15) [28:59]
IMF & The World Bank
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Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.21.2015. 11:43

Tuesday October 20, 2015
News Articles

*7 Ways Canada's Change Of Government Might Affect The World
HP | Ryan Maloney | 10/19/15

On Monday night, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada captured a majority in the 338 seat-Parliament, ending nearly a decade of Conservative governance.

Born in the spotlight, Trudeau is the eldest child of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who led the nation almost continually for more than 15 total years between 1968 and 1984 with a flashy but polarizing style. ...

Canada Election 2015
  1. Liberals form majority
  2. Harper to resign
  3. Election results and map
  4. Tory cabinet ministers lose seats
  5. NDP loses key members
  6. Huge gains for Liberals in Quebec
  7. Liberals' Atlantic results
7 Ways This Might Affect The World
  1. Liberals vow to end Canada's combat mission in Iraq and Syria
  2. A more generous approach to refugees
  3. Yes, Trudeau wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline
  4. Support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (most likely)
  5. Liberals aim to make Canada the latest country to legalize pot
  6. A fresh face at the Paris climate conference
  7. An inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women
Read more

Canadian Election HBO | John Oliver - Canadian Election (HBO) (10/19/15) [15:20]
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.

How U.S. Created Mayhem in the Rest of the Middle East
AlterNet | Rebecca Gordon | 10/20/15

This year's Nobel Peace Prize went to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy... in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011." The Quartet is a group of four organizations -- two national labor unions, a business group, and a lawyers' association -- whose work helped prevent Tunisia from sliding into civil war in the years following that "revolution."

Seeing the peace prize go to an organization that actually seems to have kept the peace is cheering news in a month that witnessed the military of one former Nobel laureate destroying a hospital run by another winner. Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) certainly earned its 1999 Peace Prize by providing medical services to people in more than 80 countries, often working in some of the most dangerous places on earth. On the other hand, as far as anyone can tell, a weary Nobel committee gave Barack Obama his prize in 2009 mostly for not being George W. Bush. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines forTuesday, October 20 [10:20]
DN | Canadians Oust Stephen Harper, Right-Wing PM Who Ignored Climate Change & Shunned First Nations (10/20/15) [25:10]
*DN | Inside Allan Dulles' Reign as CIA Director, from '54 Guatemala Coup to Plotting Castro's Overthrow, Part 2 (10/19/15) [10:46]
DN | A CIA Tie to JFK Assassination? Book on Ex-Director Allen Dulles Questions Agency's Role, Part 3 (10/19/15) [5:22]
TYT | Did George W. Bush Keep Us Safe On 9/11? Trump Thinks Not (10/19/15) [7:38]
TYT | Bernie Sanders Preparing A Speech Defining Democratic Socialism (10/19/15) [9:16]
TYT | How Politics In Canada Work Differently Than USA (10/19/15) [6:23]
RT | Keiser Report: Those Confused Investors! (E825) (10/20/15) [25:41]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Full Show: Trump is Right Again (This Time on Bush & 9/11) (10/20/15) [57:19]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.20.2015. 15:03

Monday October 19, 2015
News Articles

China Tried To Hack American Companies Since Agreeing To Cyber Pact, Security Firm Says
Reuters & HP | Joseph Menn | 10/19/15

CrowdStrike said it notified the White House of its findings but declined to identify the targeted companies.

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have tried to penetrate at least seven U.S. companies in the three weeks since Washington and Beijing agreed not to spy on each other for commercial reasons, according to a prominent U.S. security firm. ... Read more

More News
  1. Great News: China's GDP Growth Beats Forecasts as Stimulus Supports Spending (BBG)
  2. Oh wait, maybe not: China GDP: Deflategate Comes to Beijing (WSJ)
  3. Actually, definitely not: Shanghai rebar falls to record low after weak China GDP (Reuters)
  4. But who cares: European Shares Gain on Earnings as Bonds Drop, Metals Decline (BBG)
Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn

Assassination by drone is a subject of deep and enduring fascination. Yet few understand how and why this has become our principal way of waging war. Kill Chain uncovers the real and extraordinary story; its origins in long-buried secret programs, the breakthroughs that made drone operations possible, the ways in which the technology works and, despite official claims, does not work. Taking the reader inside the well-guarded world of national security, the book reveals the powerful interests - military, CIA and corporate - that have led the drive to kill individuals by remote control. Most importantly of all, the book describes what has really happened when the theories underpinning the strategy -- and the multi-billion dollar contracts they spawn -- have been put to the test. Drawing on sources deep in the military and intelligence establishments, Andrew Cockburn's Kill Chain unveils the true effects, as demonstrated by bloody experience, of assassination warfare, a revelation that readers will find surprising as well as shocking.

Paul Krugman Stands Up for Sanders, Dismantles Right-Wing Lies About Denmark's Economic Success Story
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/19/15

It's refreshing that presidential candidates are discussing what we might learn from other countries.

Krugman takes on the hoary right-wing myth that Denmark, the country touted by the Sanders campaign as getting a lot of things right, is somehow a dangerous example of runaway socialism in Monday's column.

He began by mentioning that that fact that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton even discussed what we might learn from Denmark in last week's debate. "Such an exchange would have been inconceivable among Republicans, who don't seem able to talk about European welfare states without adding the word 'collapsing,' he said. ... Read more

Yes, The US Government Really Is Bankrupt
...isn't it a little bit scary to consider that the government's #1 asset is its ability to steal money from you?
Canadian Election HBO | John Oliver - Canadian Election (HBO) (10/19/15) [15:20]
HBO | John Oliver - Real Quotes (10/19/15) [4:22]
HBO | John Oliver: Televangelists (older, but funny(or sad) 08/16/15) [20:05]

Untangling the Overlapping Conflicts in the Syrian War
NYTimes | Sergio PeÇanha | 10/18/15

What started as a popular uprising against the Syrian government four years ago has become a proto-world war with nearly a dozen countries embroiled in two overlapping conflicts.

Rebel groups supported by the United States are focused on toppling the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, not rooting out the Islamic State. ... Read more

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Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, October 19 [10:58]
*DN | Drone War Exposed: Jeremy Scahill on U.S. Kill Program's Secrets & the Whistleblower Who Leaked Them (10/17/15) [14:06]
The Drone Papers website
DN | "The Drone Papers" Reveals How Faulty Intel & Secret "Kill Chain" Mark Suspects, Civilians for Death (10/17/15) [11:18]
DR | The Future of U.S. Policy in Afghanistan (10/19/15) [1hr]
President Obama has changed course on Afghanistan, saying he'll keep thousands of U.S. troops there until 2017. We discuss what's behind the new White House strategy, the growing Taliban insurgency and the presence of ISIS in that country.
TRNN | Does the US Have a Plan in Afghanistan? Part 1 (10/19/15) [7:40]
TYT | Politician: We Need Gun Control...For Black People (10/15/15) [4:28]
TYT | Did Media Declaring Hillary Won Debate Influence Polls? (10/16/15) [9:18]
RT | CrossTalk: Russia's Outlook (10/19/15) [24:58]
RT | Hamid Karzai : 'US not interested in winning War on Terror' (10/19/15) [25:14]
RoF | Ben Carson -- Is It Possible To Be Very Smart and Very Stupid At The Same Time? (10/17/15) [2:35]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Full Show: How Reaganomics is Still Hurting the Middle Class (10/16/15) [56:35]
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-- More graphs --
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.19.2015. 11:08

Friday October 16, 2015
News Articles

People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis this year
WashingtonPost | Christopher Ingraham | 10/14/15

This week a 2-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. This type of thing happens from time to time: A little kid finds a gun, fires it, and hurts or kills himself or someone else. These cases rarely bubble up to the national level except when someone, like a parent, ends up dead.

But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I've found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself. ... Read more

Russia, Iran Begin "Promised" Assault On Syria's Largest City In Final Bid To Restore Assad
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/16/15

Iranian forces backed by Russian air power have officially begun the assault on Syria's largest city. A victory at Aleppo would effectively restore the Assad government just weeks after Moscow began bombing runs from Latakia. As Reuters notes, "the assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria's main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by Islamic State." ... Read more

Why the US Is Eternally Caught Off Guard in the Middle East
AlterNet & TomDispatch | Tom Engelhardt | 10/15/15

1,500. That figure stunned me. I found it in the 12th paragraph of a front-page New York Times story about “senior commanders” at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) playing fast and loose with intelligence reports to give their air war against ISIS an unjustified sheen of success: “CENTCOM’s mammoth intelligence operation, with some 1,500 civilian, military, and contract analysts, is housed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, in a bay front building that has the look of a sterile government facility posing as a Spanish hacienda.”

Think about that. CENTCOM, one of six U.S. military commands that divide the planet up like a pie, has at least 1,500 intelligence analysts (military, civilian, and private contractors) all to itself. Let me repeat that: 1,500 of them. CENTCOM is essentially the country’s war command, responsible for most of the Greater Middle East, that expanse of now-chaotic territory filled with strife-torn and failing states that runs from Pakistan’s border to Egypt. That’s no small task and about it there is much to be known. Still, that figure should act like a flash of lightning, illuminating for a second an otherwise dark and stormy landscape.

And mind you, that’s just the analysts, not the full CENTCOM intelligence roster for which we have no figure at all. In other words, even if that 1,500 represents a full count of the command’s intelligence analysts, not just the ones at its Tampa headquarters but in the field at places like its enormous operation at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, CENTCOM still has almost half as many of them as military personnel on the ground in Iraq (3,500 at latest count). Now, try to imagine what those 1,500 analysts are doing, even for a command deep in a “quagmire” in Syria and Iraq, as President Obama recently dubbed it (though he was admittedly speaking about the Russians), as well as what looks like a failing war, 14 years later, in Afghanistan, and another in Yemen led by the Saudis but backed by Washington. Even given all of that, what in the world could they possibly be “analyzing”? Who at CENTCOM, in the Defense Intelligence Agency, or elsewhere has the time to attend to the reports and data flows that must be generated by 1,500 analysts? ... Read more

Some Presidential Campaigns Are Running Out of Cash, New Filings Show
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 10/16/15

When the presidential candidates reported their third-quarter fundraising totals this week, the number to watch wasn't the size of their hauls but their overall burn rate—how quickly they were spending the cash they raised. The quarterly filings revealed some campaigns that were living within their means and building war chests for the long slog to come, and others that will be lucky to sputter into the early primaries.

On the Democratic side, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton raised an extraordinary amount of money—$26.2 million and $29.1 million, respectively—and they each ended the third quarter of 2015 with more money in the bank than they started with. That's something that many of their Republican rivals candidates can't say. ... Read more

More News
  1. McDonald’s Close to Deciding Whether to Change Structure of U.S. Real Estate (WSJ)
  2. Stocks Rise as Stimulus Bets Spur $4.1 Trillion Gain; Oil Climbs (BBG)
  3. Wall Street bonuses likely to plunge as trading revenue drops (Reuters)
  4. Syrian army launches Aleppo offensive with Iranian support (Reuters)
  5. Malaysia’s Najib Razak Played Key Role at Troubled 1MDB Investment Fund (WSJ)
  6. VW Loses Market Share in Europe as Diesel-Motor Recalls Loom (BBG)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, October 16 [11:29]
More to come
DR | Friday News -- Domestic (10/16/15) [1hr]
DR | Friday News -- International (10/16/15) [1hr]
TRNN | Junaid S. Ahmad discusses: No End to The War in Afghanistan (10/16/15) [9:32]
TRNN | CIA Whistleblower's Wife Asks Obama for Husband's Pardon (10/16/15) [3:34]
TYT | Trump Calls Bernie Sanders A Commie Maniac (10/15/15) [6:33]
TYT | "New Snowden" Leak Exposes Brutal Drone Program (10/15/15) [17:06]
TYT | Fox News "Terrorism Expert" ARRESTED For Pretending To Be CIA (10/15/15) [2:11]
TYT | Shocking Number Of Toddlers Shoot People With Guns (10/15/15) [6:08]
RT | Israel calls up reservists amid daily clashes in W Bank (10/15/15) [4:36]
RT | Keiser Report: Global Sock Puppetry (E823) (10/15/15) [25:37]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E191) - Fox & Friends & Stupidity (10/15/15) [29:00]
RoF | Marco Rubio Has Already Won The Billionaire’s Primary (10/15/15) [1:44]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Full Show: Bernie: Climate Change is Biggest National Security Threat (10/14/15) [56:30]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.16.2015. 09:50

Thursday October 15, 2015
News Articles

The Drone Papers
theintercept.com | Jeremy Scahill | 10/15/15

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars. ... Read more

The Drone Papers - The Assassination Complex
theintercept.com | Jeremy Scahill | 10/15/15

From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — worthy of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death. ... Read more

Afghan Taliban’s Reach Is Widest Since 2001, U.N. Says
NYTimes | Ron Nordland | 10/11/15

The Taliban insurgency has spread through more of Afghanistan than at any point since 2001, according to data compiled by the United Nations as well as interviews with numerous local officials in areas under threat.

The data, compiled in early September -- even before the latest surge in violence in northern Afghanistan -- showed that United Nations security officials had already rated the threat level in about half of the country’s administrative districts as either “high” or “extreme,” more than at any time since the American invasion ousted the Taliban in 2001. ... Read more
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Ted Cruz: Black Lives Matter 'Literally' Celebrates Dead Cops.

Second GOP Congressman Admits Benghazi Committee Is All About Hillary Clinton
HP | Marina Fang | 10/14/15

A second congressman admitted on Wednesday that the Republican House committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, is solely "designed to go after" Hillary Clinton.

“This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton,” Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) said on a morning radio show in upstate New York.

Republicans say they formed the House Select Committee on Benghazi to investigate the attack. Democrats have complained that the committee, which has cost taxpayers about $4.5 million during its 17 months of existence, was primarily a political stunt. ... Read more

Empire Fed Misses Again As New Orders Collapse To 5 Year Lows
ZeroHedge | author | 10/15/15

Definition: US Empire State Manufacturing Survey General Business Conditions.

After collapsing in August and unable to get up in September, October's Empire Fed bounced very modestly from -14.67 to -11.36 (but missed expectations for the 7th month of the last 8). This is the first time since 2009 that Empire Fed has printed below -10 3 months in a row putting The US firmly in recession territory, the underlying components were ugly with New orders crashing at the fastest pace since Nov 2010. Employees tumbled (as did inventories, although the plunge slowed) with prices received plumbing new cycle lows. In other words, total disaster... time to hike rates. ... Read more

Manufacturing activity in New York state plunged to its weakest level in August since 2009 due to steep drops in new orders and shipments, although optimism on future business improved, a New York Federal Reserve survey showed on Monday. The New York Fed's Empire State general business conditions index tumbled from 3.86 in July to -14.92 in August, its lowest since April 2009.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 15 [12:42]
DN | A New Snowden? Whistleblower Leaks Trove of Documents on Drones & Obama’s Assassination Program (10/15/15) [2:31]
DN | Breaking Silence, Wife of Jailed CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Seeks Presidential Pardon (10/15/15) [17:14]
exposefacts.org | “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling” by Judith Ehrlich (full) (05/12/15) [12:28]
Exposefacts.org
The Obama Administration’s War on Whistleblowers (04/27/15) [1:18:35]
Most Dangerous Man in America
Woody Harrelson discusses "The Most Dangerous Man in America" [4:17]
The Most Dangerous Man In America, Part 1 [43:25], Part 2 [43:25]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
DR | The Growing Gap Between The World’s Super-Rich And Everyone Else (10/15/15) [1hr]
Recent research indicates the top one percent of the population owns half the world’s wealth. What does the widening gap between rich and poor mean for global economic growth and political trends?
TRNN | Pendulum Swings Left in the Democratic Debate (10/15/15) [14:31]
TRNN | Hundreds Protest American Petroleum Institute On Climate Day of Action (10/15/15) [2:05]
TYT | Historic Ratings For Democratic Debate (10/14/15) [5:18]
TYT | Liberal "Free Stuff" We Can't Afford?? (10/14/15) [2:53]
RT | ‘Only the tip of the iceberg’: Secret Iran underground base shown to media is just one of many (10/14/15) [2:04]
ZH | Why Is Russia Building Massive Underground Bomb Shelters? (03/26/15) (article)
RoF | Ring of Fire (E190) - Dissecting The Democratic Debate (10/14/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.15.2015. 13:22

Wednesday October 14, 2015
News Articles
Democratic Debate CNN 2015 VIDEO Democratic Debate CNN 2016 (full) (10/13/15) [1:52:58]

9 Issues Democrats Just Debated That Have Been Almost Completely Ignored By Republicans
HP | Nick Wing | 10/14/15

With just five candidates at Tuesday's Democratic primary debate, the stage almost looked empty compared with the Republican debates. The most recent round of GOP contests featured a total of 15 candidates sparring in two separate events, including an 11-person primetime showdown.

While the first two GOP debates touched on topics that included cutting taxes, restricting abortion access, illegal immigration, vaccine skepticism and Secret Service aliases -- all issues, with the exception of the last, that debate moderators likely thought were at least somewhat important to GOP primary voters -- the Democratic candidates discussed topics that highlighted key differences between the parties. ...

  1. Race - The Democratic candidates mentioned racial divides in their introductions, noting disparity in income, education and economic opportunity, and incarceration rates. But the real power came when the candidates were asked flatly, "Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?" Most of the Democrats responded with resounding support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
  2. Campaign finance reform and Citizens United - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came out firing on this issue, blaming the Supreme Court's "disastrous" Citizens United decision for a campaign finance system that is "corrupt" and "undermining American democracy."
  3. Domestic surveillance - Democrats fielded a question about whether Edward Snowden was a hero or a traitor for leaking classified documents revealing the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program.
  4. Wall Street reform - The Democratic candidates came out strongly in favor of additional regulation on big Wall Street banks. In his closing speech, for example, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley vowed to "follow through on the promise to protect the Main Street economy from Wall Street
  5. "The 1 percent" - Sanders took the lead on the issue of income inequality, repeatedly borrowing a line from his stump speech about exactly how much of the wealth is controlled by the richest Americans.
  6. College affordability - The Democratic candidates agree: The price of college is too damn high. Both Clinton and Sanders criticized the exorbitant costs and called for broader reforms to lower the burden of student loan debt and to make higher learning less expensive.
  7. "Diplomacy" - Republican candidates certainly have some ideas on foreign policy, but diplomacy has not exactly been one of them. In fact, the word "diplomacy" has only been uttered one time over two GOP presidential debates.
  8. Paid family leave, health care and insurance - These three issues have gone almost entirely ignored by Republicans. On Tuesday, Democrats made the contrast clear, calling out the U.S. for failing to provide some of the basic health services and workplace benefits that are guaranteed in industrialized countries around the world.
  9. Benghazi and Clinton's emails - The Democratic candidates ended up spending time on a few issues that could have been taken out of the GOP playbook. ...
Read more

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.

The Biggest Threat To Glencore's Survival: The Unwind Of China's Copper "Carry Trade"
ZeroHedge | author | 10/14/15

If we, and Bloomberg, are correct, and if the CFD unwind has only just started impacting the true supply/demand dynamics, and thus price, of copper, then we are only 30% of the way through the unwind of China's copper "carry trade" and thus the 'over-capacity' concerns are massively under-appreciated. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, October 14 [9:07]
*DN | The Rise of America's Secret Government: The Deadly Legacy of Ex-CIA Director Allen Dulles (10/14/15) [9:58]
DN | An Undemocratic Party? Ahead of First Debate, Criticism Grows over DNC's Move to Control Process (10/14/15) [11:37]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
DR | Analysis Of The First Democratic Presidential Debate Of The 2016 Race (10/14/15) [1hr]
TRNN | Public Citizen's Scott Nelson outlined: 3 Supreme Court Cases You Should Be Aware Of (10/13/15) [4:43]
TRNN | In this episode of teleSUR's Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews Max Blumenthal about his latest book and the brutal tactics used by the Israeli state in its attempt to suppress Palestinian resistance. (10/13/15) [25:32]
*TYT | CNN Democratic Debate: The Young Turks Summary (10/13/15) [14:54]
TYT | The CNN Democratic Debate WINNER Is... (10/13/15) [5:47]
TYT | The Democratic Debate CONTROVERSY No One Is Talking About (10/13/15) [6:21] *RT | MH17 Report (10/12/15) [24:45]
RT | Avatars Will Replace Humans (E822) (10/13/15) [25:01]
RoF | Meet The Congressmen Letting Predatory Lenders Screw Consumers (10/13/15) [10:59]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | CNN Democratic Presidential Debate in Vegas (10/13/15) [57:16]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.14.2015. 11:51

Tuesday October 13, 2015
News Articles
Why are we allowing a Few people (100 at last count) decide out President for us!!!

Sheldon Adelson warms to Marco Rubio
Politico & HP | Alex Isenstadt | 10/12/15

Sheldon Adelson, one of the Republican Party's most sought-after contributors, is leaning increasingly toward supporting Marco Rubio -- and the Florida senator is racing to win the backing of other uncommitted megadonors who have the potential to direct tens of millions of dollars his way and alter the contours of the Republican primary fight.

Last week, during a campaign swing through Las Vegas, Rubio held a meeting in Adelson's offices at the Venetian Las Vegas, one of a number of five-star luxury casinos the billionaire mogul owns around the world. Adelson, seated at the head of his conference table, heaped praise on Rubio's performance while he discussed the dynamics of the 2016 race. Those briefed on the meeting described it as short but said it had an air of importance, with the two joined by Rubio's campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, and a pair of senior Adelson advisers, Rob Goldstein and Patrick Dumont. ... Read more

Hard to Believe: In Most States, Child Care Is Now More Expensive Than College Tuition.

Hillary donors worry: 'All the energy is with Bernie'
Politico | Kenneth P. Vogel | 10/13/15

Sanders prepares major fundraising push around debate.

Hillary Clinton's major donors want her to show more "fire" in Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate to halt Bernie Sander's grass-roots momentum and populist fundraising appeal.

But the Vermont senator's campaign sees the debate as a major opportunity to cash in, campaign sources tell POLITICO, and, if recent precedent holds, it could yield a multimillion-dollar surge from activists giving $10 or $20 each. With both candidates set to release fundraising totals later this week, small donors have provided the overwhelming majority of the $41 million raised by Sanders through the end of last month. ... Read more

MH17 Felled By Russian-Made Missile, Crash Report Finds

So, if they can put this much effort into reconstructing a crashed aircraft, why can't they tell us what happened to World Trade Center 7, a 47 story skyscraper that fell at free fall speed (6.5 sec) on 9/11??

After 1,000 Palestinians Wounded, 24 Killed, Hillary Clinton Laments Only Israeli Deaths.

Six Ways Paul Ryan Will Rev Up The Right-Wing War on America If He Becomes House Speaker
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/12/15

In his 2012 book, the former VP nominee describes an agenda with no taste for compromise.

It is a good bet that the right-wing lunatics who are taking over the asylum known as the House of Representatives will install one of their own as the next Speaker -- quite possibly Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, the Ways and Means Committee Chair and 2012 GOP vice-presidential nominee -- even though he's saying he doesn't want the top job.

After House GOP failed to elect a speaker last week, Ryan is still the first choice of many Republicans. But don't believe for a second that he represents a pragmatic or slightly centrist wing of the House Republican spectrum--just because more draconian ideologues in so-called Freedom Caucus are also running. ... Read more



Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, October 13 [10:38]
DN | Shock & Panic in Turkey: Deadliest Terrorist Attack in Country's History (10/13/15) [11:33], Part 2 [16:13]
DN | From Million Man March to Columbus Day: Challenging White Supremacy & "Doctrine of Discovery" (10/13/15) [10:13]
DN | Gyasi Ross: Why I Support Bernie Sanders & the #BlackLivesMatter Protesters Who Interrupted Him (10/13/15) [5:55]
LipTV
LipTV | Has the Third Intifada in Israel Already Begun? (10/06/15) [10:05]
TRNN | Did Turkish Security Forces Know About Deadly Ankara Attack? Part 1 (10/13/15) [11:02]
TYT | Anti-Muslim Protesters Bring Assault Rifles To Mosque Protest (10/12/15) [5:06]
TYT | Students Use Sex Toys To Protest Open Carry (10/12/15) [4:19]
RT | 'Third Intifada?' Violence grips West Bank and Gaza, clashes intensify (10/12/15) [2:47]
RT | Spiral of violence: Palestinians and Israeli forces clash as unrest engulfs West Bank (10/13/15) [1:12]
RoF | BP Manages To Turn $20 Billion Fine Into Tax Write-Off (10/12/15) [2:25]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E188) - Protect The Working Class (10/12/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Conversations w/Great Minds P1: The Influence Machine - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (10/10/15) [13:16], Part 2 [12:21]
Click picture to zoom in
ThomHartmann | Is This the End Of This New McCarthyism Witch Hunt? (10/13/15) [10:37]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
DR | Global Security Threats Posed By The Increasingly Sophisticated Tools Of Cyberwarfare (10/13/15) [1hr]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.13.2015. 11:47

Monday October 12, 2015
News Articles

Bernie Sanders Is Exceeding Obama's Historic 2008 Run in Crowds, Donors and Polling
magazine | author | date

In three key areas, Sanders is actually ahead of the insurgent campaign Barack Obama ran in 2007 and 2008.

When Bernie Sanders announced he would be running for president late in the Spring of 2015, many observers didn't take it seriously -- making analogies to failed perennial candidates like Ron Paul, who had a fervent base but did not make traction in the election.

Record-Breaking Crowds
Over the summer, it became clear that Sanders was drawing some of the largest crowds in Democratic primary history -- with tens of thousands pouring out into cities to see the senator. ... Read more

Disaster Capitalism by Antony Loewenstein

Award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein travels across the US, Britain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and Australia to witness the reality of Disaster Capitalism--the hidden world of privatized detention centers and militarized private security, formed to protect corporations as they profit from war zones. He visits Britain's immigration detention centers, tours the prison system in the United States, and digs into the underbelly of the companies making a fortune from them. Loewenstein reveals the dark history of how large multinational corporations have become more powerful than governments, supported by media and political elites.
Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond by Mark Ames

Going Postal examines the phenomenon of rage murder that took America by storm in the early 1980's and has since grown yearly in body counts and symbolic value. By looking at massacres in schools and offices as post-industrial rebellions, Mark Ames is able to juxtapose the historical place of rage in America with the social climate after Reaganomics began to effect worker's paychecks. But why high schools? Why post offices? Mark Ames examines the most fascinating and unexpected cases, crafting a convincing argument for workplace massacres as modern day slave rebellions. Like slave rebellions, rage massacres are doomed, gory, sometimes inadvertently comic, and grossly misunderstood. Going Postal seeks to contextualize this violence in a world where working isn't--and doesn't pay--what it used to. Part social critique and part true crime page-turner, Going Postal answers the questions asked by commentators on the nightly news and films such as Bowling for Columbine.

Ankara, Turkey Bombings Kill 86, Injure More Than 186
AP & HP | Suzan Fraser | 10/10/15

Two bomb explosions targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday killed 86 people and injured 186, Turkey's health minister said.

The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's main train station as people were gathering for the rally, organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union and other civic society groups. The rally aimed to call for an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. ... Read more

Smoking Will Kill 1 in 3 Young Men in China.

You Think the NSA Is Bad? Meet Former CIA Director Allen Dulles.
MotherJones | Aaron Wiener | 10/10/15

Mother Jones chatted with Talbot about the reporting that went into his 704-page doorstop, the controversy he invited with his discussion of Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theories, and the parallels he sees in today's government intelligence overreach. ... Read more

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.
Some History

The REAL Reason Saudi Arabia Hates Iran
ZeroHedge | author | 10/08/15

Everyone knows that the Saudi Arabia -- the center of Sunni Islam -- hates Iran because it is the center for the rival Shia Muslim sect.

In other words, the Saudi government hates Iran because it is a republic, while Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are monarchies. The Saudis want to crush Iran so that it cannot set an example showing that Muslims can live in a republic without a monarchy. ... Read more

The CIA in Iran
NYTimes | James Risen | date

The Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of its covert operation to overthrow Iran's government in 1953 offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a series of mishaps that derailed its original plans.

Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, October 12 [10:01]
*DN | Making Money from Misery? Disaster Capitalism from the Migrant Crisis to Afghanistan and Haiti (10/09/15) [18:51]
John Oliver
HBO | John Oliver Lets Big Oil Have It: N. Dakota Boom Is Literally Killing People (10/12/15) [19:33]
Daily Show
Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Trevor Noah Points Out Huge Republican Hypocrisy (10/07/15) [8:49] TRNN | Journalist Mark Ames explains: What The Changing Workplace Has to Do With Mass Shootings (10/12/15) [10:37]
*TRNN | Abby Martin explores the history of anti-communism in America. America's Unofficial Religion - The War on an Idea (10/12/15) [10:37]
TYT | Kevin McCarthy Accuses Others Of Playing Politics Regarding Him Playing Politics (10/11/15) [4:53]
TYT | Ben Carson: Gun Control Led To Holocaust (10/11/15) [12:26]
*TYT | Democrats And Republicans Both Furious About Money In Politics () [11:27]
*RT | Syria: Russia's Turn (10/12/15) [24:45]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
The Deep State
The Deep State has a life of its own, like the government itself. It's composed of top-echelon employees of a dozen Praetorian agencies, like the FBI, CIA, and NSA...top generals, admirals, and other military operatives...long-term congressmen and senators...and directors of important regulatory agencies.

But Deep State is much broader than just the government. It includes the heads of major corporations, all of whom are heavily involved in selling to the State and enabling it. That absolutely includes Silicon Valley, although those guys at least have a sense of humor, evidenced by their "Don't Be Evil" motto. It also includes all the top people in the Fed, and the heads of all the major banks, brokers, and insurers. Add the presidents and many professors at top universities, which act as Deep State recruiting centers...all the top media figures, of course...and many regulars at things like Bohemian Grove and the Council on Foreign Relations. They epitomize the status quo, held together by power, money, and propaganda. Altogether, I'll guess these people number a thousand or so.

10.12.2015. 11:50

Friday October 09, 2015
News Articles

Kickstart our hearts: Our moral depravity in Syria rises to callous new levels
Salon | Ben Norton | 10/09/15

We have money to bomb Syria, but not to help Syrian refugees. Our government's answer to that is just embarrassing

The U.S. launched a campaign this week on Kickstarter -- a crowdfunding website on which people around the world can donate to fund proposed projects — to help provide aid to Syrian refugees. All proceeds will go to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the leading international body on refugees. ... Read more

Here’s How Much We’re Spending on the War Against ISIS
MotherJones | Edwin Rios | older, 06/14/15

More than 6,200 targets damaged or destroyed in the course of nine months, according to the DOD. Roughly two-thirds of that spending, or a little more than $1.8 billion, came from the Air Force, with air operations costing $5 million per day. ... Read more

Wholesale Inventories Rise And Sales Tumble Sending Ratio To "Recession Imminent" Cycle Highs
ZeroHedge | author | 10/09/15

Wholesale Inventories rose 0.1% MoM (more than expected and the most in 7 months) and Sales dropped 1.0% MoM (notably less than expected and weakest in 7 months) sending the inventory-to-sales ratio to 1.31x - new cycle highs - and flashing the brightest recession warning yet. With inventories up 4.2% YoY and Sales down 4.5% YoY, the stunning reality is the absolute dollar spread between inventories and sales has never been bigger. ... Read more

Bank Of England Tells British Banks To Reveal Their Full Exposure To Glencore And Other Commodity Traders
ZeroHedge | author | 10/09/15

Overnight we got confirmation that Glencore has indeed become a systemic risk from a regulatory standpoint after the FT reported that the Bank of England has asked British financial institutions to reveal their full exposure to commodity traders and falling prices of raw materials amid concerns over the impact of the oil and metals slump. Or, in other words, their exposure to Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Gunvor and Mecuria. ... Read more

[PHOTO ESSAY] These Photos Will Make You Want to Quit Your Job and Ride a Mustang From Mexico to Canada
MotherJones | Bryan Schatz | 09/25/15

On a midsummer afternoon in 2013, in the wilds of southern Utah, Ben Masters jumped off his horse, tied it to a tree, and watched his three friends ride off into the mountains in the wrong direction. It had been a tough day. They'd already been forced to turn back after trying to scale the Wasatch Plateau, snow-choked at 10,500 feet above sea level; the horses struggled and postholed through thick snowdrifts, and the group could go no farther. ... Read more
Unbranded, the film (trailer) (09/27/15) [2:01]

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, October 09 [8:46]
Interesting Video
*Drain The Great Lakes () [41:56]
TRNN | Journalist Patrick Cockburn, who just returned from Syria, speaks about the impact of the Russian airstrikes in Syria and weather it can play a role in bringing the civil war to an end (10/09/15) [19:31]
TRNN | Andrew Jones and Chris Williams discuss: Countdown to Paris: Are the Pledges to Cut Emissions Enough to Save the Planet? (10/09/15) [17:06]
TRNN | Stathis Kouvelakis says: Defeat and Demoralization in Greece (10/09/15) [12:49]
TYT | Ben Carson Doesn't Know What The Debt Ceiling Is (10/08/15) [7:50]
TYT | Bill Cosby Forced To Testify About Allegedly Raping Teenage Girl (10/08/15) [3:50]
DR | Friday News -- Domestic (10/09/15) [1hr]
DR | Friday News -- International (10/09/15) [1hr]
RT | Targeting All Terrorists (10/09/15) [23:31]
RoF | GOP Has Dismantled The Constitution, And Consumers Are Getting Screwed (10/08/15) [9:04]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
*ThomHartmann | ALEC's 2016 Agenda (10/09/15) [6:20]
ThomHartmann | Francesco Femia, The Center For Climate & Security: Syria's Climate Conflict (10/09/15) [27:31]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.09.2015. 13:01

Thursday October 08, 2015
News Articles

Bernie's Gun Control Critics Are Wrong -- His Stance Has Been Consistent for Decades
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/07/15

Sanders supports the rights of rural hunters, while opposing militarized weapons.

"The Vermont social democrate isn't terrible on guns: Though the NRA endorsed him in his first race for Congress, he has a D-minus rating from the group," wrote Joan Walsh, national political correspondent, citing his positives first. "He supported the 2013 background-check bill, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, and closing the gun-show sales loophole." ...

... "I [Bernie Sanders] went before the sportsmen of Vermont and said that I have concerns about certain types of assault weapons that have nothing to do with hunting. I believe in hunting. I will not support any legislation that limits the rights of Vermonters or any other hunters to practice what they have enjoyed for decades. I do have concerns about certain types of assault weapons." ... Read more

In Shocking Development, Boehner's Chosen Successor Kevin McCarthy Pulls Out Of Speaker Race.

Children Who Live Near Fukushima Have Alarming Cancer Rates
AP & HP | author | date

The government claims the heightened rates are due to more screening efforts.

... Most of the 370,000 children in Fukushima prefecture (state) have been given ultrasound checkups since the March 2011 meltdowns at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The most recent statistics, released in August, show that thyroid cancer is suspected or confirmed in 137 of those children, a number that rose by 25 from a year earlier. Elsewhere, the disease occurs in only about one or two of every million children per year by some estimates. ... Read more

The Race for House Speaker Has Republicans "Audibly Crying"
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 10/08/15

The GOP just entered full meltdown mode.

The House GOP now has a full-blown leadership crisis on its hands. As Republican lawmakers gathered on Thursday to elect a new speaker, John Boehner's presumptive heir for the top spot, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), unexpectedly bowed out of the race, telling his colleagues he was "not the guy." Boehner--who reportedly joked recently, "I had this terrible nightmare last night that I was trying to get out and I couldn't get out"--was forced to postpone the vote for his successor. Lawmakers who were present for the closed-door meeting reported a scene of "chaos" that included "audible crying." ... Read more

Volkswagen's Top U.S. Executive Knew Company May Be Breaking Emissions Rules 18 Months Ago.
This Comment pertains to Max Keiser Report in the right column: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy tanks. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.




If none of the Republicans were swayed after Sandy Hook, what are the chances now? The only way they'd vote for gun control would be if corporations were getting shot because those are the only "people" they really care about.

[PHOTO ESSAY] 21 Photos That Capture the Heartbreak of Europe's Refugee Crisis
MotherJones Magazine | David Maurice Smith | 09/25/15

"These people are at risk," says photographer David Maurice Smith. "We have to humanize them."

Photojournalist David Maurice Smith has been on the front lines of the refugee crisis for a year and a half, bearing witness to a great migration of war-weary people seeking safer grounds. He covered the Syrian exodus while in Jordan, where more than 600,000 Syrian refugees are now living. While in Indonesia, he reported on asylum seekers from 14 different countries--including Iraq, Yemen, Burma, Afghanistan, and Pakistan--who were trapped while trying to reach Australia by boat, many of them fleeing war, persecution, or both.

"A lot of those people are there because of the same conflicts that are forcing others to Europe," Smith says. To see that situation firsthand, Smith recently traveled to, among other places, the Hungarian-Serbian border, where he was awed by the immensity of the crisis. "This is of a huge scale--hundreds of thousands." ... Read more

  1. Congress probing U.S. spy agencies' possible lapses on Russia (Reuters)
  2. Defense Ministers From NATO Hit Out at Russian Action in Syria (WSJ)
  3. U.S. Rules Out Cooperation With Russia as Moscow Launches First Naval Strikes on Syria (WSJ)
  4. Man Who Called China's Boom and Bust Says Use This Rally to Sell (BBG)
  5. For Volkswagen, New Questions Arise on U.S. Injury Reporting (BBG)
  6. Deutsche Bank May Swell $14 Billion Selloff in China Bank Stakes (BBG)
  7. Emerging market slowdown hits German exports (FT)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 08 [6:49]
Trevor Noah - Daily Show
Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Trevor Noah Loses It Over Ben Carson's Comments On Mass Shootings (10/07/15) [6:01]
Financial Industry - 2008 Crash
Global Financial Meltdown (older, but good) [2:49:15]
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis says: MSF Hospital Targeted by Afghan Government Forces in July (10/08/15) [12:21]
*TYT | The U.S. Wastes Billions Training Foreign Armies (10/07/15) [3:10]
*TYT | Bill O'Reilly Is Sure America Has No Hungry Children (10/07/15) [8:51]
Some YouTube Comments:
Commenter 1: Bill O'Reilly's ignorance never ceases to amaze me! He criticizes others for not having numbers or hard evidence to back up their statements, then goes on to make all of these unsubstantiated, weak-ass claims that he cannot POSSIBLY back up because they're all 100% bullshit! Then he demonizes the parents...I have LOTS of friends who are parents, and the LAST thing ANY OF THEM would EVER do is buy a big screen TV or a shiny new sports car at the expense of feeding their children! Really??? And does he even have a clue what the term abuse means?

Commenter 2: He is worth 70 million dollars. He wont be able to relate to normal people. Non of them will. CNN or Fox news. I stopped watching them a long time ago.

Commenter 3: I grew up hungry and loved going to school at the beginning of elementary school because of lunch...
From 2004 to 2009 O'Reilly earned $10 million per year for anchoring the O'Reilly Factor. From 2009 to 2013 his salary with Fox increased to $15 Million per year. In 2013 and 2014, following his latest contract negotiation, O'Reilly made $18 million per year. In 2014 he also earned $28 million in book royalties.
TYT | White House Fighting Independent Investigation Of Hospital Bombing (10/07/15) [16:25]
RT | Keiser Report: Global Paradox of Risk (E820) (10/08/15) [25:40]
RoF | Even Greedy Wall Street Bankers Think We Should Act On Climate Change (10/07/15) [4:27]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Why the Media Isn't Covering Citizens United (10/08/15) [4:49]
ThomHartmann | Sen Warren Goes After Big Oil! (10/08/15) [12:57]
ThomHartmann | Grayson Unveils Benghazi Complaint (10/08/15) [12:39]
Greg Hunter
GregHunter | Bix Weir-Implosion and Restart of Financial System Coming (10/04/15) [33:02]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.08.2015. 13:28

Wednesday October 07, 2015
News Articles

The Derivatives Market: Bets, Bookies, and Fraud by Jeff Nielson
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

Derivatives are bets. This is not a metaphor, or analogy, or generalization. Derivatives are bets. Period. That's all they ever were. That's all they ever can be. This can be easily illustrated by simply examining and defining some of the more well-known "derivatives", meaning those derivatives with whom everyone is familiar with their labels.

Let's start with the two largest and most-important forms of this gambling (and fraud): "interest rate swaps" and "credit default swaps". What is an interest rate swap? This is a bet between a banker (i.e. the people who control interest rates) and a Chump, on which direction an interest rate will move. ... Read more or Here

After Over a Decade of Occupation and $1.5 Billion in US Aid, the Reality Facing Women in Afghanistan Has Barely Changed.

Ask Courageous Ben Bernanke Anything, Courtesy Of The WSJ
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

As the WSJ has kindly offered, anyone who wishes to, can ask Ben Bernanke questions about his "courage" to print $3 trillion and make the rich richer. Just make sure to tag your tweet with #FedWSJPro. ... Read more

A "Heroic" Ben Bernanke Blames Congress For Poor Economic Recovery
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

"That's why I often said that monetary policy was not a panacea -- we needed Congress to do its part. After the crisis calmed, that help was not forthcoming. When the recovery predictably failed to lift all boats, the Fed often, I believe unfairly, took the criticism." ... Read more

Putin Has Just Put An End to the Wolfowitz Doctrine
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

4-Star General Wesley Clark noted:

In 1991, powerful neocon and Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz was the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy -- the number 3 position at the Pentagon. And I had gone to see him when I was a 1-Star General commanding the National Training Center.

And I said, "Mr. Secretary, you must be pretty happy with the performance of the troops in Desert Storm."

And he said: "Yeah, but not really, because the truth is we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn't ... But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region -- in the Middle East -- and the Soviets won't stop us. And we've got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet client regimes -- Syria, Iran, Iraq -- before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." Read more
Wesley Clark - America's Foreign Policy "Coup" (11/05/07) [8:14]

This Comment pertains to Thom Hartmann in the right column: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.




Warren for Vice President? Biden Reportedly Floated Spot in Private Meeting
AlterNet | Zaid Jilani | 10/06/15

Vice President Joe Biden is still actively considering running for president, and a series of reports have claimed he will make up his mind this month.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit from the report is that Biden apparently hinted at a joint ticket with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a meeting with her earlier this year. This would speak to Biden's understanding of what is likely undermining Clinton's campaign -- an inability to demonstrate that she is serious about tackling inequality and the power of the super rich. Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, October 07 [8:08]
SuperPAC Shuffle
The Bush/Clinton SuperPAC Shuffle - Follow the Money (06/10/15) [4:40]
TRNN | Sune Engel Rasmussen, The Guardian reporter: US Military Attack on MSF Hospital in Afghanistan Considered a War Crime (10/07/15) [9:34]
*TRNN | The Laura Flanders Show talks with professor and author Greg Grandin about his latest book, Kissinger's Shadow. (10/07/15) [26:06]
TYT | Christopher Columbus Was Horrible (10/06/15) [8:32]
TYT | Media Fails To Point Out Republicans' Baseless Benghazi Smear Campaign against Clinton (10/06/15) [10:13]
*TYT | Prison Debate Team Defeats Harvard In Amazing Victory (10/06/15) [8:31]
*RT | Blaming Russia (10/07/15) [24:02]
RoF | Another Round of Wall Street Scams -- Still No Prison Time (10/06/15) [9:20]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E186) - It's Time To Draw The Line (10/06/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Bernanke Now Says Jail the Banksters! (10/06/15) [4:42]
*ThomHartmann | TPP - Here's What Happens Under SHAFTA (10/06/15) [4:42]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
DR | Concerns Over Russia's Growing Military Presence In Syria (10/07/15) [1hr]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

10.07.2015. 12:33

Tuesday October 06, 2015
News Articles

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Disaster
HP | Ian Fletcher | date

So a deal between the signatory nations has finally been reached for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is firmly on Obama's plate. Given his status as a liberal president, the public's ever-growing disapproval of free-trade agreements, and the fact that he criticized such agreements when George W. Bush made them, he really should have known better. This is not what people voted for him to get. After the failed promises of NAFTA, a job-destroying trade deficit that has grown despite a long series of free-trade agreements, and ever-more-aggressive foreign mercantilism, it was obvious that America needed a new trade strategy. And if the purely trade aspects weren't bad enough, the TPP is also a profoundly anti-democratic agreement which signs away our right to govern our own economy. ... Read more

Global Poverty Will Hit New Low This Year, World Bank Says
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 10/04/15

The Washington-based institution's latest projections expect the number of people who survive on $1.90 a day to drop from 12.8 percent of the human population in 2012 to 9.6 percent this year. That means 702 million people still struggle to survive.

But that's a stunning decline from the numbers reported over the last 25 years. According to the World Bank, 37.1 percent of the world's population lived in extreme poverty in 1990. In 2015, that number is estimated to drop to 9.6 percent. ...

Reduction of EXTREME POVERTY. Great! I'm wondering what is happening to the Regular Poor!.
Read more

Glencore Stock Is Re-Crashing
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/06/15

After 5 days of CEO-confidence-inspired BTFD-ing (a la Bear Stearns), following the 30% collapse at the start of last week, Glencore's stock price is tumbling 7.7% in the early European trading. Following a deep plunge off the open yesterday (which was rallied back to the highs) and extreme volume atthe close, Tuesday's early weakness has pushed the stock to the biggest loss since last Monday's carnage... Read more

After Over a Decade of Occupation and $1.5 Billion in US Aid, the Reality Facing Women in Afghanistan Has Barely Changed.

Honeybees Are Facing a Global Threat, and If They Go, So Do We
AlterNet | Reynard Loki | 10/06/15

Environmentalists and agribusiness are waging a pitched battle over the use of pesticides.

What is the most important animal to humans? In prehistoric times, the dog helped transform early hunter-gatherers into apex predators. Later, human civilization was built on the backs of horses. But starting around 11,500 years ago, when humans began making permanent settlements and invented agriculture, bees emerged as the most critical animal to human survival. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
This Comment pertains to the Diane Rehm Show below: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.




DR | Ben Bernanke: "The Courage to Act" (10/06/15) [1hr]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, October 06 [8:32]
*DN | NAFTA on Steroids: Consumer Groups Slam the TPP as 12 Nations Agree to Trade Accord (10/06/15) [8:42], Part 2 [18:03]
John Oliver
*HBO | John Oliver: Mental Health (10/04/15) [11:54]
*TRNN | Manuel Perez-Rocha, policy analyst at Institute for Policy Studies, says: What Washington Isn't Saying About the TPP 'Victory' (10/06/15) [3:37]
*TRNN | Sonali Kolhatkar tells Paul Jay that: Dependency on War Lords Led to U.S. Attack on MSF Afghan Hospital (10/06/15) [20:06]
*TYT | TPP Trade Agreement Passed (10/05/15) [10:12]
The United States and 11 other countries have officially reached an agreement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. If you're thinking there is going to be more transparency now that they've reached a deal, think again. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks break down this historic agreement.
*TYT | Doctors Without Borders Hospital Bombed During U.S. Airstrike (10/05/15) [12:17]
TYT | Huckabee: "Sin And Evil" To Blame For School Shootings (10/05/15) [9:06]
RT | TPP deal reached: 12 countries strike Pacific Rim trade accord (10/05/15) [3:53]
Ring of Fire (E185) - The Danger In Your Medicine Cabinet (10/05/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Is the Great Conveyor Belt Failing? (10/02/15) [7:40]
ThomHartmann | The Guns Are the Killers (10/05/15) [10:45]
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/

10.06.2015. 12:14

Monday October 05, 2015
News Articles

Hillary Clinton Goes Big On Gun Policy, Creates Contrast With Bernie Sanders
HP | Sam Stein | 10/05/15

Hillary Clinton will call Monday for substantial new limits on the availability and distribution of firearms, stepping aggressively into the debate over gun control in the wake of last week's mass shooting at a community college in Oregon.

The former secretary of state will outline four specific proposals during a pair of town hall events in New Hampshire, all of which are sure to inspire intense opposition from gun rights advocates. One of the proposals will put her directly at odds with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her top competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination. ... Read more

*A Mosaic Of Facts - Media Weapons Of Mass Delusion
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/02/15

Can you tell truth from lies in mass media? RT's Miguel Francis-Santiago delves deep to try to understand the intricacies of information war. He meets media experts and puts together the Mosaic of Facts, showing how public opinion is manipulated, not just over the Ukrainian Crisis but throughout the world. ... Read more

Mosaic of Facts (trailer) (new) [1:24]
Mosaic of Facts (full) (new) [53:38]
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein

In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn't just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It's an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not--and cannot--fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.

Bernie Sanders 'Disappointed' By Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Deal
Reuters & HP | author | 10/05/15

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he was disappointed by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Pacific trade deal reached on Monday, saying the pact would cost U.S. jobs and hurt consumers.

"Wall Street and other big corporations have won again," the U.S. senator from Vermont said in a statement, vowing to "do all that I can to defeat this agreement" in Congress. ...

... "But it would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual action, since obviously everything that went wrong or was illegal was done by some individual, not by an abstract firm," Bernanke was quoted as saying. ... Read more

This Comment pertains to the article below: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.




Bernanke: More Execs Should Have Faced Prosecution For 2008 Financial Crisis
Reuter & HP | author | date

"Now a financial firm is of course a legal fiction; it's not a person. You can't put a financial firm in jail."

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that more corporate executives should have been prosecuted for their actions leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. ... Read more

More News
  1. MOAR: Euro-Area Growth Seen Slowing in Sign More Stimulus May Be Ahead (BBG)
  2. MOAR: Japan's wage growth slows in August, keeping pressure on BOJ for more stimulus (Reuters)
  3. MOAR: Stocks, Copper, Emerging Markets Jump as Fed Delay on Rates Seen (BBG)
  4. And yet... Central Banks Lose Bond-Market Credibility as Woes Mount (BBG)
  5. World Bank cuts Asia growth forecast on China and US rates (BBC)
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, October 05 [12:15]
DN | Mission Accomplished Redux: 1 Year After "End" to War in Afghanistan, Aid Workers Reveal Real Story (10/05/15) [13:51]
*DN | Naomi Klein on The Leap Manifesto & What a System of Climate and Economic Justice Looks Like (10/05/15) [6:48], Part 2 [14:46]
*DN | This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis Film Re-imagines Vast Challenge of Climate Change (10/02/15) [15:17], Part 2 [15:17]
This Changes Everything (trailer) (08/27/15) [2:22]
This Changes Everything.org website
People (Speakers) I Like and Trust
College Kingwood | Lawrence Wilkerson: The Travails of Empire (09/24/15) [1:25:11]
Naomi Klein, "This Changes Everything" (08/07/15) [1:09:49]
*TRNN | Taking from the Many to Give to the Few - David Cay Johnston on Reality Asserts Itself, Part 1 (older, 10/03/14) [14:12]
TRNN | Judith Butler and Dima Khalidi discuss: Reports Expose Zionists Stifling Dissent on US Campuses (10/04/15) [26:24]
TRNN | Sami Ramadani: The Syrian Civil War and Big Power Rivalry (older) [15:33]
TYT | President Obama On Umpqua Mass Shooting (10/03/15) [13:11]
TYT | STUDY: White People Believe They Face Greater Hardships Than Others (10/03/15) [5:07]
*RT | CrossTalk: Reformable UN? (10/05/15) [23:50]
Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org
DR | Another Mass Shooting And New Calls To End U.S. Gun Violence (10/05/15) [1hr]
Corporate Welfare -
Click picture to zoom in
Conspiracy Theory Rock (1998) [2:27]
"Conspiracy Theory Rock." This cartoon created by SNL cartoonist Robert Smigel in 1998 ran once in a "TV Funhouse" segment, and has been since removed from all subsequent airings of the Saturday Night Live episodes.
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.

10.05.2015. 12:37

Friday October 02, 2015
News Articles

Guns Kill An Average Of 36 People Every Day, And The Nation Doesn't Even Blink
HP | Nick Wing | 10/01/15

The nation was once again confronted with the horror of a deadly school shooting on Thursday, this time a massacre at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon. A gunman killed at least 10 people and wounded seven before police fatally shot him. It marked the 45th shooting on a school campus this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group pushing for legislative reforms to reduce gun violence. It was the 142nd shooting at a school since the December 2012 rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. ... Read more

There Have Been 45 Shootings At Schools So Far This Year

The mass shooting at a community college in Oregon also marks the 142nd shooting at a school since Newtown.
Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi

... Khalidi closely analyzes three historical moments that illuminate how the United States' involvement has, in fact, thwarted progress toward peace between Israel and Palestine. The first moment he investigates is the "Reagan Plan" of 1982, when Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin refused to accept the Reagan administration's proposal to reframe the Camp David Accords more impartially. The second moment covers the period after the Madrid Peace Conference, from 1991 to 1993, during which negotiations between Israel and Palestine were brokered by the United States until the signing of the secretly negotiated Oslo accords. Finally, Khalidi takes on President Barack Obama's retreat from plans to insist on halting the settlements in the West Bank....

This Meme Reveals the Stark Difference Between Bernie and Hillary
U.S. Uncut | James Woods | 08/19/15

The Internet is abuzz with Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton memes. But with no sources for any of the claims listed, we decided to do some research and find out just how different the two Democratic Primary front-runners are and if these assertions were factually correct. ...
Click picture to zoom in

The 80/20 Rule Is Crushing The Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 10/02/15

In business, the 80/20 rule states that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. In an economy that is more than 2/3rds driven by consumption, such an imbalance of the "have" and "have not's" impedes real economic growth.

I have often written about the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. As shown in the chart below, while asset prices were inflated by continued interventions of monetary policy from the Federal Reserve it only benefitted the small portion of the population with assets invested in the market. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

US Factory Orders Flash Recession Warning - Drop YoY For 10th Month In A Row.

The Dangerous Illusion That Risk Can Be Offloaded Onto Others
ZeroHedge | author | 10/02/15

Central bank intervention/financial repression provides the illusion thay systemic risk has been disappeared, and this pushes all asset classes into correlation. The idea that some assets will escape the implosion is also illusory; what appeared uncorrelated can suddenly correlate overnight, destroying the entire fantasy that risk can be offloaded onto others. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, October 02 [8:06]
DN | Rashid Khalidi on Syria: The Beginning of This Mess was the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq (10/02/15) [16:19]
Russia has launched airstrikes in Syria for a second day, becoming the latest foreign government to intervene in a war that has already killed over 240,000 people and displaced millions. The move sparked concern from U.S. officials, who say the Russian attacks did not hit ISIL targets but instead struck rebel groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including at least one group trained by the CIA. The United States and Russia have long disagreed about strategy in Syria, with Washington calling for Assad's departure and Moscow backing the Syrian president. Earlier today, the Kremlin said Russia is coordinating with the Syrian military to hit ISIL targets as well as other militant organizations. Russia is at least the 10th foreign government to launch airstrikes in Syria this year. Other countries include the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Australia, Turkey, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. We speak to Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi.
Diane Rehm Show
DR | Friday News Roundup -- Domestic (10/02/15) [1hr]
DR | Friday News Roundup -- International (10/02/15) [1hr]
TRNN | Joseph Daher and Jennifer Loewenstein argue: Inter-Imperial Feuds and the Lost Revolution in Syria, Part 1 (10/02/15) [10:51]
TYT | 13 Dead In Oregon College Shooting (10/01/15) [12:45]
TYT | The True Price Of Prescription Drugs (10/01/15) [4:01]
TYT | Trump: I Would Send the Syrian Refugees Back (10/01/15) [7:59]
RT | CrossTalk: Mideast Alliances (10/02/15) [24:46]
RoF | Pharma Price Gouging Out of Control (10/01/15) [11:32]
RoF | Ring of Fire (E184) - Syria, The Pope And Planned Parenthood (full) (10/01/15) [29:00]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
NPR (National Public Radio) - www.npr.org/
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) - www.pbs.org/
MSNBC - Maddow/Hayes - www.msnbc.com/
MSNBC | Rep. Chris Van Hollen calls on Speaker Boehner to bring 'commonsense measures' on guns up for a vote (10/01/15) [3:35]
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.

10.02.2015. 10:58

Thursday October 01, 2015
News Articles

Secret Service Wanted To Leak 'Embarrassing' Info On Congressman
HP | Ryan J. Reilly | 09/30/15

Dozens of Secret Service personnel inappropriately accessed private information on a member of Congress who was conducting oversight of the agency, in a pattern the Department of Homeland Security's watchdog called "deeply disturbing."

The DHS Inspector General on Wednesday released the results of an investigation into who leaked information about how Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who conducts oversight of the Secret Service, had been rejected for a position in the agency years ago. The report found that 45 different Secret Service employees in a variety of different locations accessed the record, but only four of them may have had a legitimate reason to do so. ... Read more
RachellMaddow | Planned Parenthood president stands up to House GOP grilling (09/29/15) [9:37]

We're Surrounded by Way More Chemicals Than We Thought, and These Doctors Say We're Screwed
MotherJones Magazine | Gabrielle Canon | 10/01/15

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), a group representing OB-GYNs from 125 countries, released a report detailing the detrimental health effects caused by even small exposure to common chemicals like the ones found in pesticides, plastics, and air pollution. The health problems are even greater for babies exposed in the womb, who face increased risks of cancer, reduced cognitive function, and even miscarriage or stillbirth.

The organization cited concerns about the sharp increase over the past four decades in chemical manufacturing, which continues to grow by more than 3 percent every year. Some 30,000 pounds of chemicals were manufactured or imported for every person in the United States in 2012 alone--a whopping 9.5 trillion pounds in total. Annually, the FIGO authors write, chemical manufacturing leads to 7 million deaths and billions in health care costs. ... Read more

Hepatitis C drugs cost more than $1,000 a pill in the U.S. Curiously, the same pills cost as little as $10 a pill in emerging countries. A National Institutes of Health analysis that stated that drug prices "simply reflect what the market will bear."

The 9 Most Expensive Medicines in the World -- Courtesy of Big Pharma
AlterNet | Larry Schwartz | 09/29/15

Hedge funder Martin Shkreli reminded everyone of the sky-high -- and seemingly arbitrary -- costs of prescription medicines in this country when he bought and immediately increased the price of an established drug used to fight a parasitic infection. The price hike was eye-popping, from $13.50 a pill to $750 per pill, prompting Dr. Judith Aberg of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to ask, "What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?" Shkreli's answer was similar to what Big Pharma trots out all the time -- the extra money will help them to make better drugs.

The business of developing and selling prescription drugs is not just big. It's huge. Sales for prescription meds in the world are expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2018. That equates to 1.3% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To put it another way, Big Pharma's sales are bigger than the annual GDP of all but 15 countries on the planet. In the United States alone, seven out of 10 Americans are taking prescription medications. Almost 4 billion prescriptions were written in the U.S. last year. And for the unluckiest of us, those prescriptions cost dearly. Six-figure dearly. ... Read more

  1. Myozyme | Cost: $100,000 to $300,000 per year | Myozyme is a medication used to treat a rare but debilitating disease called Pompe. Pompe attacks the skeletal muscles and the heart of the patient.
  2. Acthar | Cost: $300,000 per year | Acthar is a medication used to treat seizures in infants under the age of two.
  3. Folotyn | Cost: $320,000 a year | Manufactured by Allos Therapeutics, Folotyn is used to fight a rare and aggressive cancer, T-cell lymphoma.
  4. Cinryze | Cost: $350,000 a year | Cinryze is used to treat angioedema, a hereditary disease affecting as few as 1 in 50,000 people in the U.S. Angioedema causes swelling of the hands, throat and abdomen.
  5. Naglazyme | Cost: $365,000 a year | Naglazyme is used to treat a children's disease known as Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, which affects connective tissue. Sufferers of the syndrome have improperly developed muscles, joints and tissues, often resulting in dwarfism. Children with the disease also suffer from heart disease and sometimes neurological damage, eye damage, deafness and brain damage.
  6. Elaprase | Cost: $375,000 a year | At a price that exceeds most houses, Elaprase treats Hunter syndrome, a rare condition affecting approximately 500 people in the U.S. An inherited disease, it inhibits physical growth and brain development.
  7. Vimizim | Cost: $380,000 a year | Vimizim is an enzyme replace treatment used to treat Morquio A syndrome, a disease affecting only about 800 people in the U.S. The syndrome prevents the sufferer's body from breaking down long-chain sugar molecules, resulting in abnormal heart and skeletal development, dwarfism and other serious defects.
  8. Soliris | Cost: $440,000 a year | Soliris wins the prize as the most expensive drug in the United States. Unlike many of the drugs on this list, at least Soliris can claim to be a very effective drug, treating paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a disorder affecting about 8,000 Americans. The disease destroys red blood cells, making the patient susceptible to infection, anemia and blood clots.
  9. Glybera | Cost: $1.21 million a year | And the title of "Most Expensive Drug in the Entire World" goes to Glybera, a drug so far not approved in the U.S. but recently approved in the European Union. Glybera is a gene therapy used to treat a condition called familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency, a disease affecting only about one in 1 million people. In the EU, fewer than 200 people are affected by it. The deficiency causes extremely painful swelling of the pancreas.
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 01 [9:48]
DN | "The Jury Never Heard It": Richard Glossip to Be Executed In Oklahoma Today Despite New Evidence (09/30/15) [20:53]
Stephen Colbert - The Late Show
SC | Elizabeth Warren Is Fighting To Fix The Government (09/24/15) [2:03]
SC | Ellen Page Talks "Freeheld" And LGBT Progress (09/30/15) [6:34]
Ellen Page stopped by to talk about her latest film "Freeheld," and give some insight into how hearts and minds have changed regarding the LGBT community.
Diane Rehm Show
DR | The Debate Over Drug Pricing (10/01/15) [1hr]
Reaganomics
MSNBC RachelMaddow | How Reaganomics Destroyed The Middle Class...And Maybe America (12/04/10) [8:26]
Click to see additional charts
TRNN | Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, says: Abbas UN Speech: "Bombshell" or Wet Firecracker? (09/30/15) [9:55]
TRNN | Journalist Andrea Ixchiu and Alex Main of the Center for Economic and Policy Research: Latin American Leaders Demand UN Reforms (10/01/15) [22:37]
TYT | Republican Admits Benghazi "Scandal" Manufactured To Hurt Hillary Clinton (10/01/15) [6:03]
TYT | Congressman: I've Never Used Planned Parenthood And I'm Just Fine! (10/01/15) [5:49]
RT | Keiser Report: Market Wasteland (E817) (10/01/15) [25:45]
RT | CrossTalk: Putin's United Nations (09/30/15) [24:02]
RoF | Elizabeth Warren Slams Trickle Down Myth (09/30/15) [2:10]
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
ThomHartmann | Politics Panel: Trump Has a Great Tax Plan for the 1% (10/01/15) [4:36]

10.01.2015. 12:41



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Documentaries (small | pop-up)
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Good YouTube Documentaries

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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

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

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

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

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

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

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

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

Wall Street and Banksters

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

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

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

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

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

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Nukes
Nukes

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

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

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

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

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

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

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

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

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

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

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

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911
911

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

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

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

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

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

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

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

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

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

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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. 
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