News Apr 2025 - News - Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Friday April 11, 2025

The United States has a President that; 1) doesn't mind telling his voters he likes to fondle women in public, 2) has basically been convicted of raping a woman (s), 3) has been convicted by a jury of his own piers of 34 Felonies, 4) has been shown MANY, MANY, MANY times to lie to the public, even in the same sentence, 5) Has just released hundreds of convicted criminal back into the community at large, 6) would rather see the World burn down, than acknowledge the power of science (Climate Change), 7) yada, yada, yada.

Xi's counterpunch: How China will ensure the trade war hurts the U.S.
Axios | Dave Lawler | 04/11/25

Chinese President Xi Jinping has no shortage of pressure points to ensure Americans feel the pain from President Trump's superpower trade war.

The big picture: China on Friday increased its tariffs to an eye-watering 125% in response to Trump's 145% levies. And ever since trade war 1.0, Beijing has also been developing a wider array of tools that it's now putting to use.

Here are seven ways China can punch back as Trump continues to dial up the pressure. ...

Hit consumers in the wallet
Xi doesn't even need to lift a finger to ensure Americans are hurt by the trade war - Trump's own tariffs may take care of that. China's factories produce the vast majority of the toys, cell phones and many other products Americans buy. From fast fashion to gaming consoles, things will get more expensive.
Punish the farmers (and more)
Any American whose livelihood depends on selling into the Chinese market is likely panicking right now - whether the product in question is oil, airplanes or soybeans (three of the top U.S. exports).
Target individual U.S. companies
China added twelve U.S. firms to an export control list this week - restricting what they can ship out of China - and added six defense tech and aviation firms to an "unreliable entity list" that bans them from doing business in China.
Cut off supplies of rare earth minerals
China last week further restricted exports of rare earths - a sector it dominates - in response to Trump's tariffs.
Selling U.S. debt
On the topic of things that would hurt the U.S. but also ricochet back onto China, there's the "nuclear option" of dumping the $761 billion in U.S. bonds held by Beijing.
Devaluing the yuan
Another potential economic lever is a sharp devaluation of China's currency, which would help boost China's exports and further diminish the ability of U.S. firms to compete in the Chinese market.
Freezing out Hollywood
China is a key market for U.S. films, sports leagues, and other entertainment products, and Beijing hasn't been shy about using that leverage to influence what public figures say or what appears on screen.

The world's hot new trade is "sell America"
Axios | Ben Berkowitz | 04/11/25

President Trump's whiplash tariffs may have inadvertently achieved his goal of reordering the global economy by inspiring investors to sell U.S. assets and move their money elsewhere.

Why it matters: For decades, the world has invested in America. Now, a global moment of clarity threatens to redirect trillions of dollars of capital inflows and diminish the U.S. in the international economic order.

The big picture: The U.S. receives nearly $2 trillion each year in foreign capital inflows, according to government data - things like investments in businesses and bank lending, but also foreign investors buying U.S. stocks and bonds. ... Read more

Murphy: Trump Is Dismantling Our Democracy. We Must Come Together And Act Before It's Too Late. | Senator Chris Murphy | 04/11/25 | 19:22

Top U.S. & World Headlines - April 11, 2025 | 04/11/25 | 11:24

Elon Musk Stands to Get Even Richer as Trump Backs $1 Trillion Budget for Pentagon | DN | 04/11/25 | 12:39

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, April 11 (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
Supreme Court Orders U.S. to "Facilitate" Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador
Michigan Lawyer Detained at Detroit Airport, Phone Seized; He Represents Pro-Palestine Protester
Microsoft Worker Fired for Israel Protest: "Cloud & AI Are the Bombs & Bullets of the 21st Century"
"The Teacher": Director Farah Nabulsi and Actor Saleh Bakri on New Film Based in Occupied West Bank

Click to enlarge
BOMBSHELL: Trump insider trading scandal sparks INSTANT scrutiny | btc | 04/11/25 | 9:02

Trump's Latest Executive Order Could Finally Break American Democracy! | Thom Hartmann | 04/11/25 | 8:18

The1a.org

04.11.2025. 11:10

Thursday April 10, 2025

Stocks plunge again as volatility reigns despite Trump tariff pause
Axios | Nathan Bomey | 04/10/25

Stocks plunged Thursday, erasing a big chunk of Wednesday's market rebound as traders digested the remaining threats from President Trump's tariff frenzy.

Why it matters: As escalating trade war with China has taken center stage.

By the numbers: Red ink was everywhere as of about 3 p.m., even though stocks had rebounded well off session lows:

The Dow was down 825 points, or 2%, to 39,787.
The S&P 500 index was off 2.8% to 5,306 after Wednesday posting the third largest single-day percentage increase since 1939.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 3.6% to 16,513.
The small-cap Russell 2000 plummeted 4% to 1,837. ...

Inside the Oval: 3 reasons Trump buckled on tariffs
Axios | Marc Caputo | 04/10/25

President Trump's boosters hailed his decision to pause tariff increases for countries around the world as a strategic masterstroke.

But few are buying the spin. Trump buckled under tremendous, mounting-by-the-minute pressure from CEOs ... friends ... GOP senators ... the markets ... and bond prices. Trump himself admits he blinked when "people were getting a little queasy" about the bond market.

Why it matters: Inside the White House, the episode highlighted the roles of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as they animated Trump's risky game with trade.

Inside the room: Both men were advising Trump in the Oval Office when he decided to post a message on Truth Social announcing the tariff pause for 90 days while the administration negotiated with as many as 75 countries. ...

The move was based on three factors, according to three sources familiar with the meeting:

Bessent and Lutnick told Trump their phones were burning up with countries calling to negotiate. One source described the message from the two as: "We've got all these great countries. They all want to come and talk. How do we do it?"
The president and his advisers also agreed that China's decision to raise tariffs on the U.S. created an opportunity for Trump to pause the tariff hikes on other countries as a token of friendship. It would be an effort to "put a ring around China, and isolate them," an administration official said.
After several days in which Trump steadfastly said the falling stock market didn't bother him, the market's continued slide, emerging problems in the bond market and the falling value of the dollar became impossible to ignore. Friendly world leaders, congressional allies, major donors and CEOs "were practically begging for a pause," another official said.

Trump's tariff whiplash leaves world dazed and confused
Axios | Zachary Basu | 04/10/25

President Trump's epic tariff retreat shows there is no grand strategy for revolutionizing global trade, and that he's governing - as he always has - through gut instinct.

Why it matters: Trump's allies see a genius at work. His critics see a madman steering the economy toward crisis. And Wall Street sees, for the first time in weeks, a president who is receptive to external pain.

The big picture: Trump's stunning 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs - announced just one week after "Liberation Day" - caught virtually the entire world by surprise.

In one fell swoop, Trump shelved his maximalist tariff ambitions, intensified his trade war with China, and unleashed one of the biggest stock market rallies since World War II.

The tariff climbdown was vintage Trump: chaotic in execution, dramatic in tone, and instantly rebranded as a MAGA masterstroke. ... Read more

Top U.S. & World Headlines - April 10, 2025 | 04/10/25 | 11:58

From "Liberation Day" to Chaos: Trump Pauses Most Tariffs While Escalating Trade War with China | DN | 04/10/25 | 22:48

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, March 10 (FULL) | 59:02

Headlines
From "Liberation Day" to Chaos: Trump Pauses Most Tariffs While Escalating Trade War with China
Trump Threatens Joint U.S.-Israeli Attack on Iran If Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program Fail
Columbia Prof. Marianne Hirsch: Mahmoud Khalil Arrest Reminds Me of Growing Up Under Authoritarianism

Do the Billionaires who Stole 2024 Election for Trump Finally Regret It? w/ David Pepper | Thom Hartmann | 04/10/25 | 10:02

The1a.org

04.10.2025. 17:01

Wednesday April 09, 2025

Dimon warns of recession, expects defaults as trade war worsens
Axios | Ben Berkowitz | 04/09/25

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Wednesday said he expects there to be a recession and for defaults to rise as President Trump's tariffs roil global financial markets.

Why it matters: Dimon's blunt forecast puts a headline on the market's broad fears that Trump's trade war has already set in motion a lasting global crisis.

The comments come amid a historic plunge in the bond market, part of what some strategists are calling a "sell America" trade. ... Read more

Trump's unknowable tariffs leave investors hanging
Axios | Felix Salmon | 04/09/25

With his new tariff announcement on Wednesday afternoon, President Trump has cemented his reputation for being unpredictable.

Why it matters: The markets like 10% tariffs more than they like the broad-brush application of a potentially erroneously calculated formula. But investors are still far from happy.

The big picture: The White House and its friends think of this as the art of the deal. (Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday it was Trump's intention all along.)

America's trading partners, and U.S. companies that crave predictability aren't likely to see much art in it. ... Read more

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After reciprocal tariffs exceeding 10 percent on imports from countries all over the world went into effect Wednesday, the U.S. is bracing for retaliation. China was quick to slap an additional 84 percent on U.S. imports, while the EU approved a much smaller tariff package affecting $23 billion of U.S. goods. Additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods now stand at 104 percent, while the EU received a reciprocal tariff of an additional 20 percent.

Top U.S. & World Headlines - April 09, 2025 | 04/09/25 | 12:03

A War on the First Amendment: David Cole on Trump Targeting Students, Law Firms, Schools & More | DN | 04/09/25 | 27:13

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, March 06 (FULL) | 59:02

Headlines
A War on the First Amendment: David Cole on Trump Targeting Students, Law Firms, Schools & Journalists
Elon Musk Stands to Get Even Richer as Trump Backs $1 Trillion Budget for Pentagon

Billionaires Driving America Off a Cliff! Is Economic Crash Coming? | Thom Hartmann | 04/09/25 | 8:03

The1a.org

04.09.2025. 16:18

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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