Apr 12 2018 - News Apr 2018 - News - Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Thursday April 12, 2018

'We have brought swallows into Milan', says father of the vertical forest
ClimateChangeNews.com | staff | 04/10/18

It has been said that they can be seen as "a house for trees inhabited by people". The exterior facades feature a total of 21,000 plants, including 800 full size trees.

Megalopolises grow at impressive speed. To give you an example, Beijing, with its suburbs, has now reached 103 million inhabitants. Cities occupy only 2% of our planet's land mass but account for 75% of the production of carbon dioxide pollution, the main cause of climate change. ... Read more

Twilight of the Reaganites
The New Republic | Alex Shephard | 04/12/18

Paul Ryan's departure marks the end of an era -- and the further Trumpification of the Republican Party.

Speaker Paul Ryan, who on Wednesday announced he would be retiring at the end of his term, was characteristically modest when asked to assess his legacy at a press conference. Emphasizing that he only "reluctantly" became speaker of the House in 2015--without mentioning that he did so to head off a Republican civil war--Ryan said, "I think we've achieved a heck of a lot. ... I like to think I've done my part, my little part in history to set us on a better course."

But Ryan played more than a bit part on the political stage. He shepherded a $1.5 trillion tax bill through Congress, permanently enshrining an upward redistribution of wealth into the tax code. He extended the Reagan Revolution into the 21st century, putting a sunny sheen on policy goals that would make the lives of the least fortunate significantly more difficult. And he did it all by code-switching to the language of wonkery, convincing Beltway reporters that the same old Republican attempts to roll back the policies of the New Deal and the Great Society were grounded in empirical necessities, in charts and graphs and actuarial analysis. ... Read more

Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? by Robert Kuttner

In the past few decades, the wages of most workers have stagnated, even as productivity increased. Social supports have been cut, while corporations have achieved record profits. Downward mobility has produced political backlash.

What is going on? Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? argues that neither trade nor immigration nor technological change is responsible for the harm to workers' prospects. According to Robert Kuttner, global capitalism is to blame. By limiting workers' rights, liberating bankers, allowing corporations to evade taxation, and preventing nations from assuring economic security, raw capitalism strikes at the very foundation of a healthy democracy.

The resurgence of predatory capitalism was not inevitable. After the Great Depression, the U.S. government harnessed capitalism to democracy. Under Roosevelt's New Deal, labor unions were legalized, and capital regulated. Well into the 1950s and '60s, the Western world combined a thriving economy with a secure and growing middle class.

Beginning in the 1970s, as deregulated capitalism regained the upper hand, elites began to dominate politics once again; policy reversals followed. The inequality and instability that ensued would eventually, in 2016, cause disillusioned voters to support far-right faux populism. Is today's poisonous alliance of reckless finance and ultranationalism inevitable? Or can we find the political will to make capitalism serve democracy, and not the other way around? Charting a plan for bold action based on political precedent, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? is essential reading for anyone eager to reverse the decline of democracy in the West.

China Viewed From Above
The Atlantic | Alan Taylor | 04/12/18

Simply a collection of some amazing recent aerial images showing the vast diversity of landscapes across China, from cities to mountains, deserts to sea shores, and much more. ... Read more
Great Pictures

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, April 12 [10:58]

"Facebook Doesn't Sell Your Data. It Sells You": Zeynep Tufekci on How Company's Profit Really Works | DN | 04/11/18 | 16:50

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, April 12 (FULL) | 59:02

Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.

Headlines
Will Senate Dems Block Confirmation of Climate-Denying, Torture-Backing State Dept Pick Mike Pompeo?
Political Scientist Corey Robin: Paul Ryan Is Retiring After Failing to Fulfill Right-Wing Agenda
Corey Robin: Striking Teachers Are "Real Resistance" to "Incoherent" Republicans and "Gutted" Dems

Trump Casually Threatens Russia With Missiles On Twitter | TYT | 04/11/18 | 11:42

The Real Reason Paul Ryan Is Retiring | TYT | 04/11/18 | 17:17

The1a.org

Are We Hardwired To Hate? | 1a.org | 04/12/18 | 1hr

Liberal commentator Sally Kohn says she learned how to disagree respectfully during her many appearances on the conservative cable network Fox News. But even she admits, kindness can be complicated these days.

Now, she's focused on confronting the human capacity for hate, and how we use it to beat down others. Kohn's new book is called "The Opposite of Hate." In it, she explores the need to be nice, how to talk to trolls and what it takes to find common ground with political polar opposites.

1A Spaces Out With The Crew Of The International Space Station | 1a.org | 04/12/18 | 1hr

The first components of the International Space Station went into space 20 years ago. Two years later, the first crew arrived. The station has been occupied ever since, hosting nearly 60 expeditions of astronauts from around the world (but not from China).

The ISS is a partnership of nations, but that partnership could start to include a number of businesses soon. Earthbound billionaires are developing their own space programs and the White House is reportedly considering privatizing the station.

Robert Kuttner -> How Globalized Capitalism Drives Worldwide Fear And Discontentment | NPR Fresh Air | 04/11/18 | 1hr

Author Robert Kuttner says the decline of social contracts in Western democracies has led to the rise of right-wing populism. His new book is Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? A lot of people throughout the West are angry that the good life is being stolen from them, writes my guest Robert Kuttner. He says, quote, "they're not quite sure whom to be angry at - immigrants, corporations, the government, politically correct liberals, the rich, the poor. The anger is unfocused but is increasingly articulated by a neo-fascist right," unquote.

President Donald Trump Generates Crisis And Chaos: Fmr. CIA director | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 04/12/18 | 14:18

Joe: Paul Ryan Abandons Ship As Ship Hits An Iceberg | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 04/12/18 | 16:58

President Doanld Trump Warns Russia About Shooting Down US Missiles | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 04/11/18 | 15:23

Russia Jamming US Military Drones In Syria: Report | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 04/11/18 | 9:56

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The President's WrestleMania Foreign Policy | Stephen Colbert | 04/12/18 | 8:00

Paul Ryan Is Taking His Tax Cuts And Going Home | Stephen Colbert | 04/12/18 | 5:05

Zuck Explains Facebook To Congress | Stephen Colbert | 04/12/18 | 3:20

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

So Much News, So Little Time - Trump Aims Tweets at Syria & Paul Ryan Is Retiring | Trevor Noah | 04/11/18 | 8:16

04.12.2018. 10:48

NPR

PBS

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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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Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

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