Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World's Richest
NYTimes | author | 04/22/14

The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction. While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada -- substantially behind in 2000 -- now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans. ... Read more

Koch-Linked Firm Devoted to Grooming "Electable" Candidates Signs Up Arkansas GOP Leader
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 04/24/14

In January, Mother Jones broke the story of one of the newest affiliates of Charles and David Koch's sprawling political machine, a consulting firm named Aegis Strategic created to identify, recruit, and groom free-market-minded candidates for elected office. Aegis bills itself as a one-stop shop for aspiring politicians, able to handle general consulting, fundraising, direct mail, social media, and more. ... Read more

The IPCC and ExxonMobil Have Very Different Thoughts About Our Future
Bill Moyers | author | 04/23/14

Earlier this month, we noted that shareholders were attempting to push ExxonMobil to recognize the importance of climate change and take into account the risks posed by a warming climate and possible regulations to it's future business. But instead, the oil giant released a report saying that neither climate change nor a government response to it will affect the way the company does business -- in part, because, according to Exxon's assessment, it doesn't seem likely that governments will take action to combat climate change during the next quarter century.

Look at Exxon report page 1 where they state, "we are confident that none of our hydrocarbon reserves are now or will become 'stranded.' We believe producing these assets is essential to meeting growing energy demand worldwide, and in preventing consumers -- especially those in the least developed and most vulnerable economies -- from themselves becoming stranded in the global pursuit of higher living standards and greater economic opportunity." On page 2 you see pictures showing how fossil fuels bring improved living standards to the poor around the world. This is their core premise, that demand will increase as they power the world to a brighter future.

The very people Exxon plans to lift out of poverty are in fact at the highest risk of becoming climate refugees. Two very different visions of the future that need to be reconciled. ... Read more

This Is What Winning Looks Like
Vice.com | Ben Anderson | 05/06/13

I didn't plan on spending six years covering the war in Afghanistan. I went there in 2007 to make a film about the vicious fighting between undermanned, underequipped British forces and the Taliban in Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province. But I became obsessed with what I witnessed there--how different it was from the conflict's portrayal in the media and in official government statements.

All I had to do was trek out to one of the many tiny, isolated patrol bases that dot the barren, sunbaked landscape and hang out with British infantry troops to see the chaotic reality of the war firsthand: firefights that lasted entire days, suicide bombers who leaped onto unarmored jeeps from behind market stalls, IEDs buried everywhere, and bombs dropped onto Afghans' homes, sometimes with whole families of innocent civilians inside. ... Read more
VICE | This Is What Winning Looks Like (05/16/13) [1:29:11]