Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

US intelligence spending has doubled since 9/11, top secret budget reveals
TheGuardian | Ewen MacAskill | 08/29/13

US Spending on intelligence has doubled since 9/11, with the National Security Agency and the CIA taking the biggest share, according to the top secret budget leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Details of the $52.6bn request for 2013 by America's 16 spy agencies were revealed by the Washington Post on Thursday. The NSA has requested $10.45bn from Congress, while the CIA is asking for $14.7bn. The NSA has long been regarded as the most productive of the spy agencies, so the higher spending by the CIA is one of the biggest surprises in the four-volume, 1,452-page budget. ... Read more

Leaked Pakistani report confirms high civilian death toll in CIA drone strikes
BIJ | Chris Woods | 07/22/13

A secret document obtained by the Bureau reveals for the first time the Pakistan government's internal assessment of dozens of drone strikes, and shows scores of civilian casualties.

The United States has consistently claimed only a tiny number of non-combatants have been killed in drone attacks in Pakistan -- despite research by the Bureau and others suggesting that over 400 civilians may have died in the nine-year campaign. ... Read more

Hypnotized by Ayn Rand and Reaganomics, Republicans Have Completely Lost Touch with Economic Reality
AlterNet | Bob Burnett | d08/23/13

On September 9th, when Congress returns from its summer vacation, negotiations will begin on a new Federal budget and a U.S. debt limit increase. As a quid pro quo Republicans will demand restrictions on Obamacare. Once again, this raises the specter of the GOP pushing the government into default. Why don't Republicans understand that's a terrible idea that would crater the economy?

Once upon a time, the GOP stood for responsible economic policy. I grew up in a middle-class family in Southern California, where my father and grandfather ran a small business. They were Republicans, as were most of the people we knew. In those days, the GOP attracted the middle class because it was the Party of common sense: it understood business and the economy.

Over the ensuing years the Republican Party abandoned the middle class and become the party of the wealthy -- the one percent. In the '80s, Republicans fell under the spell of Reaganomics. Conservative economists infused American political discourse with three malignant notions: helping the rich get richer would inevitably help everyone else; markets were inherently self correcting; and, "government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." Reagan's ideology produced deregulation, tax cuts for the rich and powerful, and monopoly capitalism. It resulted in unprecedented income inequality. The American ethos changed from "we're in this together" ("I am my brother's keeper") to "you are on your own." ... Read more

Ocean Acidification Happening at 10X Rate Than Ever Before
AlterNet | Alex Kane| 08/26/13

"Studies have shown that a more acidic environment has a dramatic effect on some calcifying species, including oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep sea corals, and calcareous plankton," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states."When shelled organisms are at risk, the entire food web may also be at risk. Today, more than a billion people worldwide rely on food from the ocean as their primary source of protein. Many jobs and economies in the U.S. and around the world depend on the fish and shellfish in our oceans."   Poertner told The Guardiannewspaper that the ocean is already suffering because of global warming, but that acidification is going to exacerbate problems. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, August 30 [14:31]

Forget the Stampede and Niagara Falls. Instead visit Fort McMurray and behold the fulcrum of 21st century Canada. ... Read more
Sand Tars Oil Extraction [11:39]
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Oil has always been a messy job

*Taxpayer Dollars Paid A Third Of Richest Corporate CEOs
HP | Zach Carter | 08/28/13

More than one-third of the nation's highest-paid CEOs from the past two decades led companies that were subsidized by American taxpayers, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank.

... IPS has been publishing annual reports on executive compensation since 1993, tracking the 25 highest-paid CEOs each year and analyzing trends in payouts. Of the 500 total company listings, 103 were banks that received government bailouts under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, while another 62 were among the nation's most prolific government contractors. ... Read more

*How Highly Paid CEOs Rip Off Their Companies and the Public Via Fraud and Walk Away With Their Pockets Bulging
AlterNet | Sarah Anderson | 08/27/13

After exposing CEO scoundrels for 20 years, it's hard to keep them all straight. The guy who cooked the books to buy a golden shower curtain blends together with the one who used ill-gotten Iraq war windfalls to pay for his wife's racehorses and plastic surgery and the one who cashed in on subprime mortgages and sailed off on a yacht before the bubble burst. But then you stumble into a story that makes you realize you can still get riled up

... Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Report: "performance review" of CEOs who made the annual top 25 highest-paid lists over the past 20 years. Theoretically, these CEOs should be the cream of the crop of American corporate leadership. But instead of stellar performance, we found that nearly 40 percent were bad performers -- even by the most narrow, incontrovertible definitions.   Twenty-two percent led firms that crashed or got bailed out in the 2008 crisis. Another eight percent had to pay massive settlements for fraud. And yet another eight percent wound up getting fired. Even the guys who got the boot didn't suffer too much. The size of their average golden parachute: $48 million. Read more
Report: Executive Excess 2013: Bailed Out, Booted, and Busted Report.pdf

War Games: The Syrian Military Theater Of Operations In Two Charts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/13

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says that US forces are "ready to go" if the administration decides to strike against alleged Syrian chemical weapon use. As Bloomberg notes in the infographic below, US Navy guided missile destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea are within range of Syrian targets.. and the ships have a combined inventory of more than 200 cruise missiles. On the other side, the Syrian Air Defense system is very robust, and as Stratfor notes, with an estimated 54,000 personnel, Syria's air defense network is twice the size of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's air force. ... Read more
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22 Reasons Why Starting a War In The Middle East Is A Really Bad Idea
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/13
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*Undercover at the Tar Sands: What It's Really Like Working for Big Oil
Rolling Stones | author | 08/28/13

In recent months, many climate activists have focused their efforts on Canada's tar sands and the companies set on extracting fossil fuels from them. With the debate raging louder than ever, Rolling Stone is in contact with one of the workers helping to build a pipeline to bring oil from the tar sands to the U.S. Read on for that anonymous correspondent's second dispatch from one of the world's most controversial jobs.

On its surface, Fort McMurray, Alberta, looks like any other small Canadian city, with rows of new houses, condo developments and a Wal-Mart. Recycling bins line the streets, and residents schlep cloth bags to the store because the community banned plastic bags. But there's one big difference between Fort Mac and other towns: This is ground zero for Canada's controversial tar sands operations. Like tens of thousands of others, I saw green in the tar-like bitumen-drenched sand, and I came here to cash in. (I'm writing anonymously to protect my colleagues, my friends and myself.) ... Read more
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Global Warming's Terrifying New Math
Rolling Stones | Bill Mckibben | 07/19/13 older, but good

... Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation -- in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record." The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet's history. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, August 29 [12:37]

*DN | Syria Debate: Does U.S. Have the Evidence & Authority to Hit Assad for Alleged Chemical Attack? (08/29/13) [13:40]

*The Alberta Tarpits Abomination [6:31]

*Peak oil, energy, growth & the future (02/11/12) [34:53]

Executive Excess 2013: Bailed Out, Booted, and Busted (08/17/13) [2:19]

*6 Facts About the Rich
AlterNet | Paul Buchheit | 08/25/13

First of all, who are they? Mostly the 1%. But the top 2-5% have also done quite well, increasing their inflation-adjusted wealth by 75 percent from 1983 to 2009 while average wealth went down for 80 percent of American households. The rest of the top 20% have been prosperous, realizing a 32 percent gain in inflation-adjusted wealth since 1983

*Colin Powell Worried U.S. Got Steamrolled Into Iraq War, Calls Out Dick Cheney
HP | Danny Shea | 08/26/13

In a new documentary airing Monday on the National Geographic Channel, former Secretary of State Colin Powell opens up about the U.S. invasion of Iraq and claims that he warned President Bush that the U.S. was being steamrolled into war. In the clip from National Geographic's "America vs. Iraq," by Paul Mitchell which was previewed Monday on HuffPost Live, Powell is also heard calling out former Vice President Dick Cheney. ... Read more
Executive Producer Paul Mitchell Talks about new documentary, 'America Vs. Iraq.' (08/26/13) [3:12]

NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests
WSJ | author | date

NSA officers on several occasions have channeled their agency's enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said.   The practice isn't frequent -- one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade -- but it's common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT. ... Read more

Loose Lips on Syria
WSJ | author | 08/27/13

U.S. leaks tell Assad he can relax. The bombing will be brief and limited.

An American military attack on Syria could begin as early as Thursday and will involve three days of missile strikes, according to "senior U.S. officials" talking to NBC News. The Washington Post has the bombing at "no more than two days," though long-range bombers could "possibly" join the missiles. "Factors weighing into the timing of any action include a desire to get it done before the president leaves for Russia next week," reports CNN, citing a "senior administration official." ... Read more

Rachel Maddow Calls For Congress To Debate Syria Before Attack
HP | author | 08/28/13

Rachel Maddow called on Tuesday for Congress to debate and vote on a potential American attack on Syria before President Obama takes any action.

... She read from an interview with former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix which appeared on The Huffington Post. Blix, who oversaw the UN's aborted inspection of Iraq's (ultimately non-existent) weapons program in 2003, said he saw echoes of those days now. ... Read more
Rachel Maddow | Rachel Maddow Calls For Congress To Debate Syria Before Attack (08/26/13) [22:03]

*U.S. Bank Legal Bills Exceed $100 Billion
Bloomberg | Donal Griffin |08/28/13

The six biggest U.S. banks, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp., have piled up $103 billion in legal costs since the financial crisis, more than all dividends paid to shareholders in the past five years.   That's the amount allotted to lawyers and litigation, as well as for settling claims about shoddy mortgages and foreclosures, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The sum tops the banks' combined profit last year.

... "They've crossed the point of no return when it comes to the effects that these expenses are going to have on earnings," said Jeffrey Sica, who helps oversee more than $1 billion as head of Sica Wealth Management LLC in Morristown, New Jersey, and doesn't recommend bank stocks. "This is going to keep on hurting them, and people will start paying more attention." ... Read more

*Book Excerpt: The Evolution of "This Town"
Bill Moyers | Mark Leibovich | 08/23/13

A hundred pages into his study of Washington's elite "Club," Mark Leibovich pauses to "proffer a brief tutorial on the recent history of the Washington entourage." This excerpt recounts the evolution of the entourage -- back some four decades, to the days when "Big Money" first rolled into town

The biggest shift in Washington over the last forty or so years has been the arrival of Big Money and politics as an industry. The old Washington was certainly saturated with politics, but it was smaller and more disjointed. There were small and self-contained political consultancies that worked on campaigns or raised money for elected officials or contracted a service (i.e., direct mail). ... Read more

France 'Ready To Punish' Syria Over Gas Attack
HP | author | 08/27/13

French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that his country is prepared to take action against those responsible for gassing people in Syria.

"France is ready to punish those who took the heinous decision to gas innocents" in Syria last week, Hollande said at a conference with France's ambassadors. He did not elaborate. ... Read more

*On The Global QE Exit Crisis
ZeroHwdge | author | 08/27/13

The global economy could be in the early stages of another crisis. Once again, the US Federal Reserve is in the eye of the storm.   As the Fed attempts to exit from so-called quantitative easing (QE) -- its unprecedented policy of massive purchases of long-term assets -- many high-flying emerging economies suddenly find themselves in a vise. Currency and stock markets in India and Indonesia are plunging, with collateral damage evident in Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey.

The Fed insists that it is blameless -- the same absurd position that it took in the aftermath of the Great Crisis of 2008-2009, when it maintained that its excessive monetary accommodation had nothing to do with the property and credit bubbles that nearly pushed the world into the abyss. It remains steeped in denial: Were it not for the interest-rate suppression that QE has imposed on developed countries since 2009, the search for yield would not have flooded emerging economies with short-term "hot" money. ... Read more

*Flashback On May 15, 2008 Keith Olbermann Blasted George Bush For WMD Lies (05/15/08) [12:08]

Nuclear Operator Raises Alarm on Fukushima Crisis
NYTimes | Hiroko Tabuchi | 08/23/13

The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear power plant sounded the alarm on the gravity of the deepening crisis of containment at the coastal site on Friday, saying that there are more than 200,000 tons of radioactive water in makeshift tanks vulnerable to leaks, with no reliable way to check on them or anywhere to transfer the water.

The latest disclosures add to a long list of recent accidents, leaks and breakdowns that have underscored grave vulnerabilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site more than two years after a powerful earthquake and tsunami set off meltdowns at three reactors. ... Read more

Alternative to a Military Response to 9/11
costsofwar.org/ | author | date

Comparisons have been made between states that have used military responses to terror tactics (for example, France in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s) and states that have taken alternative policing and political approaches (for example, Italy in the 1970s in response to the Red Brigades).

A Rand report made systematic examination and comparison of 268 groups using terror tactics in the period from 1968 to 2006. It showed that several approaches have been much more effective than military responses at eliminating future attacks. They include criminal justice responses and attempts to address the well-being concerns of both combatants and the broader populace that might support them. ... Read more
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Corporate Power and Profiteering
costsofwar.org | author | date

Large defense contractors have played a central role in fighting the post-9/11 wars, as well as in arming and supplying coalition forces and the new Iraqi and Afghan governments. Their involvement raises major economic and security concerns among critics.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with an increase in the Pentagon's budget, have led to an increase in total military contracts to nearly $400 billion, their highest levels since World War II. Private contracting has grown to such a level that, by 2011, there were more private contract employees involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than uniformed military personnel. Pentagon contracts awarded in the 2000s have been concentrated in the hands of just five contractors- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics. These five companies account for over one-third of all Pentagon contracts. ... Read more
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Halliburton's Iraq gravy train
Salon | Farhad Manjoo | 02/27/04 old, but good

Bunting, who has recently been telling his story to congressional Democrats, says that Halliburton, which has been awarded billions of dollars of contracts for work in Iraq, routinely purchased the most expensive equipment and services on the government's tab. Bunting claims that Halliburton managers frowned on any attempts to save the military any money. They had no incentive to do so: taxpayers would pick up the cost. In fact, they had an incentive to bill high: the more they spent, the more money their company would make.

Bunting worked as a buyer for Halliburton's "Logcap" contract with the U.S. Army, a $3.7 billion deal under which Halliburton provides the military with logistics support -- it builds bases, runs mess halls, does the laundry, supplies water and performs dozens of other tasks necessary to keep the Army running. The contract is a "cost-plus" contract, meaning that the military reimburses Halliburton for all of its expenses, and then gives it an extra percentage as a profit. Experts have long criticized cost-plus contracts as being economically inefficient; companies that work under cost-plus deals have no reason to reduce their expenses, meaning that the government may end up paying more than it should for services. ... Read more

Right-Wing Wannabe Obama Impeachers Are Living in Dreamland
AlterNet | Joan Walsh | 08/23/13

Tom Coburn, Ted Cruz and other crackpots can't stand up to their base and face reality. Can this party ever change?

Will the American Right Kill Us All?
AlterNet | Robert Parry | 08/21/13

That is because the scientific consensus continues to solidify that human activity is causing global temperatures to increase dangerously, possibly causing a catastrophic rise of three feet in sea levels by the end of the century. Yet, right-wing obstructionism, which deems federal environmental activism unconstitutional, has hobbled any effort to enact a timely response to the emergency.

... From the Tea Party to the "libertarians," oil money from fossil-fuel energy tycoons, such as Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries. has fueled "populist" propaganda challenging the case for global warming, first by funding "scientists" who quibble with the research or who assert that the warming will be modest and manageable. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, August 26 [12:17]

Chris Hayes | Matt Taibbi: How can the nation deal withthe scary cost of college? (08/23/13) [13:27]

America's New Landlords
Aljazeera | Kristyn Martin | 08/23/13

It's a new phenomenon sweeping across the nation: big institutional investors buying up foreclosed homes by the hundreds -- even thousands -- in distressed communities.

"Looking back a year and a half ago, not one institution owned more than 1,000 single family rental homes," says David Bragg, Managing Director at Green Street Advisors. "However, today the top six players combined own 80,000 single family rental homes."

"Hedgefunds across the country are realizing that our market is going from what they refer to as an owner nation, to a renter nation…so the rental market is huge," says Sheree Villar, a local realtor with ERA Atlantic Realty in Gwinnett County, Georgia. She buys homes for two large institutional investors every month at the foreclosure auction from the steps of the Gwinnett County courthouse. "What they're doing is buying these homes in blocks to turn around, put on the rental market, and resell when the market really is strong." ... Read more

The Surprising Reason Americans Are Far Less Healthy Than Others in Developed Nations
AlterNet | Sam Pizzigati | 08/20/13

Back in 1990, shouts a new study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the United States ranked a lowly 20th on life expectancy among 34 major industrial nations. The United States now ranks 27th -- despite spending much more on health care than any other nation.

Media reports on this new study blamed all the usual suspects for America's disappointing health: poor personal health habits, inadequate access to health care, and just plain poverty.   If Americans exercised more and ate and smoked less, this conventional wisdom holds, the United States would surely start moving up in the global health rankings.

But many epidemiologists -- scientists who study health outcomes -- have their doubts. ... Read more

Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]

*Obama DOJ Asks Court to Grant Immunity to George W. Bush For Iraq War
GlobalResearch | Inder Comar | 08/22/13

In court papers filed today (PDF), the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law.

Plaintiff Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the planning and waging of the war constituted a "crime of aggression" against Iraq, a legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II. ... Read more

Study: Iraq War Cost U.S. More Than $2 Trillion
Study: Iraq War Cost U.S. More Than $2 Trillion (03/14/13) [3:00]

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Cost of War website

*5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 08/16/13

Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has invaded America's television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowden's leaks and the continuing terrorist threat to America.

But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald pointed out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent war footing against Islamist militants. And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans.

70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private contractors, as author Tim Shorrock reported. The private intelligence contractors have profited to the tune of at least $6 billion a year. In 2010, the Washington Post revealed that there are 1,931 private firms across the country dedicated to fighting terrorism. ... Read more

Raped and Impregnated at 14, Girl Must Now Share Parental Rights with Her Attacker
AlterNet | Iulia Filip | 08/21/13

BOSTON (CN) - A rape victim sued Massachusetts to stop it from subjecting her to "a court-ordered 16-year unwanted relationship with her attacker" by giving him paternity rights over the child born from the rape.

"The plaintiff, a rape victim in a state criminal matter, became pregnant in 2009 at age 14 as a result of the crime and gave birth to her attacker's child," the lawsuit states.   "The defendant in the state criminal proceeding, age 20 at the time of the impregnation, was convicted of rape in 2011 and was sentenced to 16 years probation. ... Read more

Naked Breastfeeding Yoga Mom Says That Photo Was Not Staged

NSA Can Reach 75 Percent Of U.S. Internet Traffic
HP | Ashley Alman | 08/20/13

The National Security Agency has developed surveillance programs that reach more Internet communications of Americans than have publicly been disclosed, according to current and formal officials cited in a Wall Street Journal article posted online Tuesday night.

The NSA has developed a surveillance network that can reach about 75 percent of all Internet traffic in the U.S., officials told the Journal. While the spy agency's filtering programs were designed to mine communications either originating from or ending abroad, the system is likely to gather purely domestic communications as well, the Journal reported. ... Read more

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Escalates To Worst Level In 2 Years
Reuters & HP | Kiyoshi Takenaka | 08/21/13

Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level in two years on Wednesday, with its nuclear watchdog saying it feared more tanks were leaking contaminated water and China expressing its shock over the disaster.   Japan's nuclear regulator also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, to cope "in some respects".

... Upgrading the warning to level 3 will mark the first time Japan has issued a warning on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) since three reactor meltdowns at the plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.   A maximum INES level 7 was declared at the battered plant after explosions led to a loss of power and cooling two years ago, confirming Fukushima as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier. ... Read more

While Hedge Funds Underperformed The S&P By 80% In 2013, They Piled Into These Three Stocks
ZeroHedge | author | 08/21/13

Well, with Chief Market Risk Manager Bernanke at the helm making sure there is no risk, ever again, only lunatics will short right? Well, yes: until Ben pulls the rug from underneath everyone. Then the last will be first.   And the first will be last.

Also, remember a lot of people think the big banks are nothing but hedge funds! Read more
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*Rising Seas Could Cause $1 Trillion Damage A Year By 2050
ZeroHedge | author | 08/21/13

A new study carried out by the economists at the World Bank has examined the risks that coastal cities around the world face due to global warming's effect on extreme weather events, and rising sea levels.

The study claimed that the potential losses caused by flooding was at around $6 billion a year in 2005, but predicts that as not enough is being done to cut emissions and halt global warming, by 2050 the cost could exceed $1 trillion a year. Over 40% of those costs will likely occur in just four global cities; New Orleans, Miami, and New York in the US, and then Guangzhou in China. ... Read more

*5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 08/16/13

Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has invaded America's television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowden's leaks and the continuing terrorist threat to America.

But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald pointed out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent war footing against Islamist militants. And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans.

70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private contractors, as author Tim Shorrock reported. The private intelligence contractors have profited to the tune of at least $6 billion a year. In 2010, the Washington Post revealed that there are 1,931 private firms across the country dedicated to fighting terrorism. ... Read more

The People vs. the Profiteers
Vanity Fair | David Rose | 11/2007 older but good

Over the past 16 years, Grayson has litigated dozens of cases of contractor fraud. In many of these, he has found the Justice Department to be an ally in exposing wrongdoing. But in cases that involve the Iraq war, the D.O.J. has taken extraordinary steps to stand in his way. Behind its machinations, he believes, is a scandal of epic proportions--one that may come to haunt the legacy of the Bush administration long after it is gone.

... His obvious adversaries are the contracting corporations themselves -- especially Halliburton, the giant oil-services conglomerate where Vice President Dick Cheney spent the latter half of the 1990s as C.E.O., and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, now known simply as KBR. But he says his efforts to take on those organizations have earned him another enemy: the United States Department of Justice. ... Read more

*Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 08/15/13

Tuition costs at public and private colleges were, are and have been rising faster than just about anything in American society -- health care, energy, even housing. Between 1950 and 1970, sending a kid to a public university cost about four percent of an American family's annual income. Forty years later, in 2010, it accounted for 11 percent. Moody's released statistics showing tuition and fees rising 300 percent versus the Consumer Price Index between 1990 and 2011. ... Read more

Philippines capital Manila hit by heavy flooding
TheGuardian | author | 08/19/13

Residents of Manila, capital of the Philippines, wade through waist-high water after a monsoon storm hits the city. Many civilians have been evacuated from their homes and some are taking refuge in makeshift shelters set up in schools. Read more

David Miranda: 'They said I would be put in jail if I didn't co-operate'
TheGuardian | Jonathan Watts | 08/19/13

Partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald gives his first interview on nine-hour interrogation at Heathrow airport

In his first interview since returning to his home in Rio de Janeiro early on Monday, Miranda said the authorities in the UK had pandered to the US in trying to intimidate him and force him to reveal the passwords to his computer and mobile phone.   "They were threatening me all the time and saying I would be put in jail if I didn't co-operate," said Miranda. "They treated me like I was a criminal or someone about to attack the UK … It was exhausting and frustrating, but I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong." ... Read more

Guardian Editor: U.K. 'Security Experts' Entered Offices And Destroyed Hard Drives
HP | Adam Goldberg | 08/19/13

... During one meeting, Rusbridger explained to an official that if the British government were to take legal steps in order to roadblock the paper's reporting, the work could simply be done outside of the country. That's when things took a disturbing turn:

The man was unmoved. And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred -- with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. "We can call off the black helicopters," joked one as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro. ... Read more

The CIA wants to spy on you through your TV: Agency director says it will 'transform' surveillance

When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.   Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home - the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.   The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.

Everything from remote controls to clock radios can now be controlled via apps - and chip company ARM recently unveiled low-powered, cheaper chips which will be used in everything from fridges and ovens to doorbells.   The resultant chorus of 'connected' gadgets will be able to be read like a book - and even remote-controlled, according to CIA CIA Director David Petraeus, according to a recent report by Wired's 'Danger Room' blog. ... Read more

NSA Broke Privacy Rules Thousands of Times, Contrary to Official Claims
Wired Magazine | Kim Zetter | 08/16/13

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has called for more hearings to examine the government's surveillance tactics following new revelations that the National Security Agency has violated privacy rules thousands of times in its surveillance of U.S. citizens and foreigners.

... The audit, from May 2012, tallied 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months. The documents also reveal efforts by NSA staffers to withhold information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is supposed to provide oversight of NSA surveillance, and to whitewash reports submitted to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by removing details about NSA activity, including removing mention of unintended surveillance of Americans. ... Read more

The PowerPoint rant that got a colonel fired
ArmyTimes | author | 09/02/10

...I have been assigned as a staff officer to a headquarters in Afghanistan for about two months. During that time, I have not done anything productive. Fortunately, little of substance is really done here, but that is a task we do well.

We are part of the operational arm of the International Security Assistance Force commanded by Army Gen. David Petraeus. It is composed of military representatives from all the NATO countries, several of which I cannot pronounce. ... Read more
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Atlantic Basin Primed for an Above-Normal Hurricane Season
Climate.gov | author | 08/14/13

Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin*... who's next? Probably plenty more, according to NOAA's updated Atlantic hurricane season outlook. With five named storms already in the books this summer, the 2013 hurricane season is shaping up to be above normal, and there is a possibility that it could be very active during the peak of the season from mid-August through October. An additional 9-15 named storms are likely, of which 6-9 are predicted to become hurricanes, with 3-5 reaching major hurricane status.

Among the climate factors behind the heightened activity? Heat. These maps show the tropical cyclone heat potential of the tropical Atlantic Ocean ramping up between May 24 (bottom) and August 4 (top). This "hurricane heat potential" depends not just on the surface temperature, but on the depth of the warm water. ... Read more
NOAA | State of the Climate in 2012 website
State of the Climate in 2012 Report.pdf

8 Reasons Charles Koch is the Scariest Man in America
AlterNet | Paul Buchheit | 08?18/13

Scary because he claims "We don't have the power to coerce anybody" while providing massive funding to organizations that attack public education, social programs, worker salaries, business regulations, and the environment.

Scary because he refers to himself with words like 'integrity' and 'principles' while saying "I want my fair share - and that's all of it."

Scary because he declares, "I want my legacy to be...a better way of life for...all Americans." Here is some of the legacy of Charles Koch: ... Read more

DAY OF RAGE or Egypt Protests: Islamists Call For 'Friday Of Anger'
HP | Aya Batrawy | 08/16/13

Heavy gunfire rang out in the heart of Cairo as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters took to the streets Friday across Egypt in defiance of a military-imposed state of emergency following the country's bloodshed earlier this week. At least 17 people were killed in the fighting, including police officers.

... Protesters and residents of the neighborhoods they marched by exchanged gunfire and birdshot as tanks blocked key roads and key junctures. The Brotherhood urged its supporters in Cairo to head to Ramses Square, near the capital's train station in the heart of the capital. ... Read more
TYT | Muslim Brotherhood Protester Killed By Police In Egypt (08/14/13) [7:33]

Bradley Manning says sorry for leaks that 'hurt the United States'
TheGuardian | Paul Lewis | 08/14/13

Manning, 25, speaks at sentencing phase of his trial and says 'I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people'

... However on Wednesday, after three days in which his legal team called witnesses they hoped would lead to a lower sentence, Manning took to the stand for an unsworn statement -- meaning he could speak to the judge but not be cross-examined.   Looking nervous, he turned to Colonel Denise Lind, who is presiding over his court martial, and said: "First, your honour, I want to start off with an apology. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I am sorry that I hurt the United States." ... Read more
TYT | Bradley Manning's Heartbreaking Apology (08/14/13) [5:49]

NSA often breaks privacy rules
Washington Post | Barton Gellman | 08/16/13

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents. ... Read more, and here.
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Death Toll Tops 500
HP | Hamza Hendawi | 08/15/13

Egyptian authorities on Thursday significantly raised the death toll from clashes the previous day between police and supporters of the ousted Islamist president, saying more than 500 people died and laying bare the extent of the violence that swept much of the country and prompted the government to declare a nationwide state of emergency and a nighttime curfew. ... Read more

Foreigners Sell More US Securities Than After Lehman Bankruptcy
ZeroHedge | author | 08/15/13

While Americans were blissfully BTFD in June, and enjoying the media propaganda that "all is well" and the beard has their back (he does, but not in the conventionally accepted way) foreigners were selling. Did we say selling? Pardon, we meant dumping with a vengeance, throwing out the boatload with the bathwater, with both hands and feet and getting to da choppa.

As the just released TIC data report indicates, in June foreigners, both private and official, were hitting every bid they could find. Literally. For the first month ever, every single security class was sold off: Corporate stocks: sold - $26.8 billion; Corporate Bonds - sold $5.0 billion; Agencies: - sold $5.2 billion, and, perhaps the culprit of it all, Treasuries, saw the biggest dump ever, as foreigners sold an epic $40.8 billion! Adding across the various asset classes, the consolidated foreign sale in June 2013 was worse than Lehman and the month after it. ... Read more
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9 Actual Quotes About Climate Change From The People Who Represent You In Washington
BuzzFeed | author | 08/13/13

Even though 97% of scientists and NASA agree on the science of climate change, some members of Congress still deny that it is happening. Here's a nice sampling of quotes from actual members of Congress.

As Head Of NSA Review Group Obama Appoints Same Person Who "Apologized" For Lying To Congress
ZeroHedge | author | 08/12/13

It is almost as if the Obama administration is intent on making every possible PR (and of course governance, but it's really the Fed that is in charge of the US so that part is irrelevant) mistake, and then some more.   Recall that on Friday, to much fanfare, the president took credit for the revelations presented by Edward Snowden (because, you see, he would have publicly addressed all the top secret NSA issues regardless, ignoring for a minute that without Snowden all speculation about pervasive NSA domestic surveillance would still be dismissed as simply more conspiracy theory), and announced that he would conduct a review of the policies and espionage procedures in place at the NSA.

Also recall that in a Senate hearing this March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Senator Ron Wyden that the NSA did not collect phone records of millions of Americans. This was just three months before the revelations of an NSA leaker made it clear that Clapper was not telling the truth. ... Read more
TYT | Obama NSA Conference Breakdown (08/12/13) [9:31]

*We Are Legion: Anonymous' Presence In The U.S. Military
ZeroHedge | author | 08/12/13

Are we going to see more leaks?   Yes. A lot [of Anonymous members] are mid- to high-rank NCOs. They are well-respected, have connections, and overly large security clearances. A lot of people who are part of the [Anonymous] culture are just dying at this point for something to come across their table that isn't already out there. It is so easy to leak information that if you want to, you can do it. ... Read more

*Anonymous' Secret Presence In The U.S. Army
BuzzFeed | author | 08/09/13

An active-duty Army captain and member of Anonymous describes how the organization operates, his own involvement in the Arab Spring, how the crackdown on Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden has affected soldiers, and how more leaks are on the way. He has agreed to speak with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity. ... Read more

How Anonymous Picks Targets, Launches Attacks, and Takes Powerful Organizations Down
Wired Magazine | Quinn Norton | 07/03/12 older

No one but Hector Xavier Monsegur can know why or when he became Sabu, joining the strange and chaotic Internet collective known as Anonymous. But we know the moment he gave Sabu up. On June 7, 2011, federal agents came to his apartment on New York's Lower East Side and threatened the 28-year-old with an array of charges that could add up to 124 years in prison. So Hector Monsegur, who as Sabu had become a mentor and icon to fellow members of Anonymous, surrendered his online identity to a new, equally faceless and secretive master: the FBI.

For the next eight months, Sabu continued to rage across the Internet as a core member of AntiSec, a blackhat hacking group within Anonymous. He helped to deface government and corporate websites and even helped bring down the private intelligence firm Stratfor--all, apparently, with the FBI's blessing as it quietly gathered logs on Monsegur's fellow "anons." Law enforcement officials later told Fox News that Monsegur was working out of the FBI offices "almost daily" in the weeks after he pleaded guilty in August and then from his own home thereafter, with an agent watching his activity 24 hours a day. ... Read more

North Carolina enacts voter ID law, setting stage for fight
Bostom Globe | author | 08/13/13

Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed into law Monday one of the nation's most wide-ranging voter-identification laws, just a few weeks after the Supreme Court opened the door for such changes by striking down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act.

The move by the Republican is expected to touch off a major court battle over voting rights, and the Justice Department is weighing a challenge to the new law.   The measure requires voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls and shortens the early-voting period from 17 days to 10. It also ends preregistration for 16- and 17-year-old voters who will be 18 on Election Day and eliminates same-day registration. ... Read more
TYT | Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed Strict Voter ID Bill Signed Into Law (08/13/13) [6:32]

'Citizen Koch' Rescued By Small Donors As Documentary Outraises Funds Pulled By PBS
HP | Nick Wing | 08/09/13

"Citizen Koch," a highly regarded documentary about the billionaire Koch brothers and the growing influence of money in politics after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, suffered a major setback earlier this year when PBS pulled the film and the $150,000 in funding that had been promised. Scrambling to find a way to distribute their film, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin turned to Kickstarter in a highly successful move that recently surpassed the funds they had previously expected to receive from public television. Read more

For Freshmen in the House, Seats of Plenty
NYTimes | Eric Lipton | 08/10/13

WASHINGTON -- Representative Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky with little experience in the intricacies of Wall Street, was among the lucky House freshmen to secure a seat on the powerful Financial Services Committee.

Now, half a year into his first term, he has emerged as a telling example of why the panel is sometimes called "the cash committee" -- a place, critics say, where there are big incentives for freshmen to do special favors for the industry. ... Read more
*TYT | How Freshmen Congressmen Are Bought (08/12/13) [9:21]

Michael Hayden, Bob Schieffer and the media's reverence of national security officials
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 08/12/13

In 2006, the New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for having revealed that the NSA was eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. The reason that was a scandal was because it was illegal under a 30-year-old law that made it a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison for each offense, to eavesdrop on Americans without those warrants. Although both the Bush and Obama DOJs ultimately prevented final adjudication by raising claims of secrecy and standing, and the "Look Forward, Not Backward (for powerful elites)" Obama DOJ refused to prosecute the responsible officials, all three federal judges to rule on the substance found that domestic spying to be unconstitutional and in violation of the statute.

The person who secretly implemented that illegal domestic spying program was retired Gen. Michael Hayden, then Bush's NSA director. That's the very same Michael Hayden who is now frequently presented by US television outlets as the authority and expert on the current NSA controversy - all without ever mentioning the central role he played in overseeing that illegal warrantless eavesdropping program. ... Read more
*TYT | NSA Spying - Hayden Smears Snowden (08/12/13) [9:33]

Obama's NSA Conference Could Be Subtitled 'The Guardian Gets Results'
HP | Jack Mirkinson | 08/10/13

President Obama's press conference on Friday was full of headline-making news about new proposals to reform the American surveillance system. But another headline could also be appropriate: "Journalism gets results."

The press conference came after weeks of steady reports about the scale and scope of the National Security Agency's surveillance capabilities, all stemming from a mountain of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The vast majority of the reports appeared in the Guardian. ... Read more
*TYT | Obama NSA Conference Breakdown (08/12/13) [9:31]

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, August 13 [12:42]

*DN | Owner of Snowden's Email Service on Why He Closed Lavabit Rather Than Comply With Gov't (08/13/13) [15:37]

Waves of Trash in Indonesia
HP | Gabriela Aoun | 08/12/13

money for nothing: iraqi mps get us $23 million -- for retiring
niqash.org/ | Mustafa Habib | 07/08/13

Baghdad activists are planning a major demonstration at the end of August protesting the huge sums Iraqi MPs get, even if they serve less than four years in parliament. Over 300 MPs get around US$72,000 a year in a country where the average wage was around US$6,000 in 2012.

According to a document obtained from Parliament, each of the 325 MPs in Iraq gets a salary after he leaves office, of at least US$72,000 a year. And that's even if the MP doesn't complete a full term in office. Adding all of the salaries together equals around US$23 million a year in MPs' salaries. Iraqi MPs get these payments as long as they live and the number getting these pensions obviously rises with each new batch of parliamentarians. ... Read more

Forget Apology: Eric Holder Owes The American People A Resignation
ZeroHedge | author | 08/12/13

Bloomberg's Jon Weil, who has compiled the following stunning array of lies regarding the DOJ's enforcement activity disclosed by none other than its head, Eric Holder, is far too kind when he says that the "fast and furious" Holder owes the American people an apology. What we really owes is at least a resignation (and frankly much more, but it is too early on Monday to become too politically incorrect). And considering that the DOJ in its now former employee Lanny Brauer's words refused to prosecute those banks which were deemed "too big to prosecute", the lying here has now became a meta phenomenon, as the DOJ is effectively caught lying about lying. How many more meta levels of higher up fraud "inception" can Holder take this, before the American people finally demand his head, metaphorically-speaking of course? ... Read more

Michigan Safety Net for Boomers Frays on Bankrupt Detroit
Bloomberg | author | 08/12/13

There's a made-in-Michigan quality to Art Reyes, a third-generation autoworker with a pension, retiree health benefits and income that enabled him to send three of his four children to college.   He's a product of the old Michigan, which gave birth to organized labor, worker protections and wages that propelled the middle class. That Michigan is almost gone. Now overseeing the nation's largest municipal bankruptcy in Detroit, the state is at the forefront again, this time playing host to the unraveling of the homemade fabric that cloaked and comforted working families for generations. Read more

Former NSA Chief Aggressively Attacks The Entire Hacking Community
ZeroHedge | author | 08/08/13

There's an interesting trend happening in America today. A trend characterized by old, authoritarian, formerly "highly respected" figures in society becoming so confused and concerned that the zeitgeist of the nation is moving away from them, that they are overcome by dementia and publicly lash out like spoiled children in increasingly irrational manner.

Former CIA and NSA head Michael Hayden. Amongst other things, here is what he said about Snowden supporters: Nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twenty-somethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years. Read more
Former NSA chief warns of cyber-terror attacks if Snowden apprehended (08/06/13 Guardian)

Your Government Spies on You and Lies About It: Now What?
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 08/08/13

Now that Americans know the federal government domestically spies and lies about it--thanks to a litany of "misstatements" by top officials that have been debunked following disclosures by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden--very big questions emerge about what kind of country we are going to be.

Americans keep hearing more news reports about the national security state's growing reach. Reuters just broke the story of more police efforts to use data collected in the NSA's domestic digital dragnet for FBI drug investigations. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that other federal agencies are clamoring for the NSA's data and are engaged in turf battles over it. ... Read more

An Exposed ALEC Faces Mass Protests and Calls for Scrutiny
Bill Moyers | John Nichols | 08/09/13

... ALEC has been decried by labor, environmental and clean government groups in state capitols across the country. National political figures, such as Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, are launching inquiries into how the group promotes its legislative agenda. And this week, as ALEC gathers its corporate and legislative "members" in the city of its founding to celebrate four decades of service to special interests and ambitious politicians, demonstrations against the group have drawn thousands of union members, civil rights activists and social justice campaigners into the streets of Chicago.

An organization that once held its annual meetings virtually unnoticed is now met with mass protests so large that streets around its hotel were closed Thursday as activists staged "die-ins" recalling ALEC's role in the passage of so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws and headlines screamed: "ALEC convention protests: Labor vs. lobbyists." ... Read more

93% of the Public Wants GMO Labeling--Monsanto and the Big Agribusiness Giants Plan to Spend Millions in Propaganda to Change Our Minds
AlterNet | Katherine Paul | 08/01/13

Monsanto and Big Food are taking the battle for consumers' hearts and minds to the next level. And it's no coincidence that they're pulling out the big guns just as the Washington State I-522 campaign to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products is gaining steam. ... Read more

5 Foods You May Not Know Are Genetically Modified
AlterNet | Maggie Caldwell | 08/07/13

Broad U.S. terror alert mystifies experts; 'It's crazy pants,' one says
McClatchy | Hannah Allam | 08/06/13

But how, then, does it make sense for the State Department to close embassies as far afield as Mauritius or Madagascar, where there's been no visible jihadist activity? And why is it that countries that weathered numerous terrorist attacks -- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, for example -- were excluded or allowed to reopen quickly? ...

... "It's crazy pants -- you can quote me," said Will McCants, a former State Department adviser on counterterrorism who this month joins the Brookings Saban Center as the director of its project on U.S. relations with the Islamic world.   "We just showed our hand, so now they're obviously going to change their position on when and where" to attack, said Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst who was part of the team that hunted Osama bin Laden for years. ... Read more

Fed Belongs to Everybody as Public Says It's Our Money in Crisis. RIGHT!
Bloomberg | Caroline Salas Gage | 6:45

The unprecedented frenzy surrounding Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's potential successor shows that Americans won't let the central bank go back to its opaque and secretive ways.

The central bank's decision to adopt unconventional policies has "heightened consequences of what the Fed does and who leads it," Binder said. Such action "has so much impact on the economy and people's lives."

Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama's former top economic adviser, have been the focus of an intensifying public contest for Bernanke's job. House and Senate Democrats have penned letters to the White House voicing support for Yellen, 66, and Obama defended Summers, 58, to his party's lawmakers on July 31 against a barrage of criticism. ... Read more
Fed Belongs to Everybody as Public Says It's Our Money in Crisis (08/08/13) [6:45]

New Bank Investigations: Real Action, or More of the Same?
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi |08/08/13

A lot of interesting things happening on the white-collar enforcement front. Evil hedge fund SAC Capital and its villainous ruler Stevie Cohen were run through the gauntlet, Goldman Sachs patsy Fabulous Fab took a beating in civil court (I love the detail that emerged, that Goldman executives now call him "the poor kid"), and now, apparently, a pair of high-profile investigations have been launched against Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase for subprime mortgage fraud. The latter investigations seem to be designed to answer criticisms that nobody is going after the real doers of evil systemic crimes. ... Read more

Tsunami of Public Outrage Builds in Colorado as Fracking Invades Cities
AlterNet | Phillip Doe | 07/17/13

Many people used to think serving on city council wasn't worth a bucket of warm piss, as Roosevelt's first vice president, John Garner, famously described his job.   Sewers, gutters, zoning, budgets, and taxation used to be the principal domain of city councils, with a little larceny thrown in now and then as reward -- maybe a new driveway or remodeled bathroom from a favor-seeking contractor. ... Read more

Fukushima Radioactive Water May Overflow Into Sea
HP | Mari Yamaguchi | 08/06/13

The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said Tuesday it is struggling to stop contaminated underground water from leaking into the sea.   Tokyo Electric Power Co. said some of the water is seeping over or around an underground barrier it created by injecting chemicals into the soil that solidified into a wall.

The latest problem involves underground water which has built up over the last month since the company began creating the chemical walls to stop leaks after it detected radiation spikes in water samples in May. ... Read more
More scary pictures of Fukushima

Abe Sanctions Government Funding To "Freeze" Fukushima With Giant Ice Wall
ZeroHedge | author | 08/07/13

Now that TEPCO has been shown to be inept, Abe and his government have sanctioned the funding of a 1.4km wall of ice to surround the building that holds Reactors 1 to 4. ... Read more

Watching Fox News makes people distrust science
Salon | Lindsay Abrams | 08/06/13

Now that science has more or less agreed that human-caused climate change is happening, some are devoting their efforts to figuring out how it's possible that people can remain skeptics. Plenty has been written about the corrupting influence of conservative media, but a new study from researchers at the University of Arizona, George Mason, American University and Yale looks more closely at exactly how such programs manage to fuel their audiences' denial.

Predictably, they found that the more exposed Americans are to conservative media, the less certain they become that climate change is happening. The problem, they discovered, isn't just that programs like Fox News are sowing the seeds of doubt about climate change, it's that they're decreasing people's trust in the scientists who say it's happening. That's 97 percent of them, for the record. ... Read more

Sydney Leathers, Weiner Sexting Partner, Makes Porn Video Because Of Course
HP | author | 08/05/13

Here is a good example of a politician creating jobs for his constituent! (includes Video) Read more

Sun's Magnetic Field To Flip In Complete Reversal That Will Have 'Ripple Effects'
HP | Sara Gates | 08/06/13

Get ready, Earth. The sun's magnetic field is about to do a 180 when the celestial body's electromagnetism flips and changes polarity.   According to NASA-supported observations, the complete reversal is expected to take place in the coming months.

"It looks like we're no more than three to four months away from a complete field reversal," Todd Hoeksema, a solar physicist and director of Stanford University's Wilcox Solar Observatory, said in a statement released by the agency. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 07 [13:25]

*"Experts Say It's NOW Clear TEPCO Can NOT Handle The Clean Up Of Fukushima & Govt Must Take Over (08/06/13) [5:54]

Drone Strikes 2004-2013 - Click to zoom

*TYT | Terror Threat Shows NSA Spying on U.S. Citizens is Pointless (08/07/13) [6:23]

NASA | ScienceCasts: The Sun's Magnetic Field is About to Flip (08/05/13) [4:04]

Uncollected Greek Taxes Rise To Record €60 Billion, One Third Of Greek GDP
ZeroHedge | author | 08/05/13

While Europe, and especially Germany has been understandably "displeased" with having to provide billions in bailout upon bailout funding to Greece every year starting in 2010, all the more so following recent news that Greece has already spent some 75% of its bank bailout cash with no discernible improvement in its economy to show for it, Europes' taxpayers will unlikely be any more pleased to learn that as of the end of June, a whopping €60 billion in past due taxes (an all time record) was owed by Greek businesses and individuals to the state. This is an amount that is 20% greater than the entire external cash handed over by the Troika to keep Greek banks afloat, and represents nearly 30% of imploding Greek GDP. ... Read more

*40% Of US Workers Now Earn Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
ZeroHedge | author | 08/05/13

Are American workers paid enough? That is a topic that is endlessly debated all across this great land of ours. Unfortunately, what pretty much everyone can agree on is that American workers are not making as much as they used to after you account for inflation. Back in 1968, the minimum wage in the United States was $1.60 an hour. That sounds very small, but after you account for inflation a very different picture emerges. Using the inflation calculator that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides, $1.60 in 1968 is equivalent to $10.74 today.

And of course the official government inflation numbers have been heavily manipulated to make inflation look much lower than it actually is, so the number for today should actually be substantially higher than $10.74, but for purposes of this article we will use $10.74. If you were to work a full-time job at $10.74 an hour for a full year (with two weeks off for vacation), you would make about $21,480 for the year. ... Read more

Larry Summers' Enron Connection Is Yet Another Reason Not To Make Him Fed Chairman
HP | Mark Gongloff | 08/05/13

Here's something else to add to the long list of reasons Larry Summers would make a terrible Federal Reserve chairman: He reportedly told California to suck it up when it complained that Enron was manipulating its power market.

According to Kurt Eichenwald's 2005 book about the Enron scandal, "Conspiracy of Fools," then-California Gov. Gray Davis (D) reached out in late 2000 to Summers, who was then the Treasury secretary under President Clinton, for help with the state's little problem of power outages and skyrocketing electricity prices. Davis suspected, rightly, that Enron was toying with the state's electricity supply for fun and profit. ... Read more

McDonald's Franchisees Go Rogue With Meetings
Bloomberg | Leslie Patton | 08/06/13

McDonald's Corp. (MCD), already struggling to sell burgers in the U.S., now must contend with a brewing franchisee revolt.   Store operators say the company, looking to improve its bottom line, is increasingly charging them too much to operate their restaurants -- including rent, remodeling and fees for training and software. The rising costs are making franchisees, who operate almost 90 percent of the chain's more than 14,100 U.S. locations, less likely to open new restaurants and refurbish them, potentially constraining sales. ... Read more

The Mystery of Bee Colony Collapse
Mother Jones | Tom Philpott | 07/31/13

What's tipping honeybee populations into huge annual die-offs? For years, a growing body of evidence has pointed to a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids, widely used on corn, soy, and other US crops, as a possible cause of what has become known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).

Rather than kill bees directly like, say, Raid kills cockroaches, these pesticides are suspected of having what scientists call "sub-lethal effects" -- that is, they make bees more vulnerable to other stressors, like poor nutrition and pathogens. ... Read more

DEA Special Operations Division Covers Up Surveillance Used To Investigate Americans
Reuters | John Shiffman | 08/05/13

A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges. ... Read more

FBI Fesses Up: We've Used Domestic Drones 10 Times
Slate | Ryan Gallagher | 07/26/13

Last month, the FBI admitted it had used surveillance drones in domestic airspace but refused to disclose specific details. Now, after pressure from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the bureau has been forced to come clean.

In a recent letter to Paul, published on the senator's website Thursday, the FBI acknowledges that it has used drones domestically in 10 cases in response to a "specific, operational need." The bureau says that, since late 2006, it has used unmanned planes for surveillance to support missions related to kidnappings, search and rescue operations, drug interdictions, and fugitive investigations. On eight occasions the drones were used as part of criminal cases, and two in national security-related operations. ... Read more

An Unknown Diner Will Taste The World's First Lab-Grown Burger
Yahoo | Sam Ro | 07/30/13

The world's first test-tube hamburger, made from lab-grown meat, will be served in London next Monday, August 5.

The 5-ounce burger, created by Mark Post from Maastrict University in the Netherlands, will be fed to an unknown diner whose reaction will be seen in front an invitation-only crowd.

The Process Starts With Stem Cells. 1) First, muscle stem cells are harvested from the cow through a biopsy. 2) From there, it's raised like any other living creature. Scientists feed it a steady diet of sugars, fats, amino acids, and minerals. 3) The one-inch strand of muscle is also exercised. According to the scientist, the muscle is stretched between two anchor points. "Its innate tendency to contract causes it to put on bulk, growing into small chunks of meat," they write. 4) "Three thousand of these small chunks of meat are then fused together to create one normal-sized hamburger. ... Read more

Bureau Investigation Finds Fresh Evidence of CIA Drone Strikes on Rescuers
Common Dreams | Chris Woods | 08/01/13

A field investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Pakistan's tribal areas appears to confirm that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year briefly revived the controversial tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers at the scene of a previous drone strike. The tactic has previously been labelled a possible war crime by two UN investigators.

FED: "We Own A Significant Slice Of Critical Markets. This Is Something Of A Gordian Knot"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/05/13

... Quantitative easing, or QE, by the public and as large-scale asset purchases, or LSAPs, internally at the Fed. As a result of LSAPs conducted over three stages of QE, the Fed’s System Open Market Account now holds $2 trillion of Treasury securities and $1.3 trillion of agency and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Since last fall, when we initiated the third stage of QE, we have regularly been purchasing $45 billion a month of Treasuries and $40 billion a month in MBS, meanwhile reinvesting the proceeds from the paydowns of our mortgage-based investments. The result is that our balance sheet has ballooned to more than $3.5 trillion. That’s $3.5 trillion, or $11,300 for every man, woman and child residing in the United States. ... Read more
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XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 08/01/13

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.   The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight. ... Read more

Climate Change And Violence Linked, Breakthrough Study Finds
HP | Robin Wilkey | 08/02/13

Shifts in climate change are strongly linked to human violence around the world, according to a comprehensive new study released Thursday by the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University.

The research, which was published in Science, examined 60 previous studies from all major regions of the globe. The results suggest that changes such as drought, flood and high temperatures strongly correlate with spikes in conflict. ... Read more

F.B.I. Said to Find It Could Not Have Averted Boston Attack
NYTimes | Michael S. Schmidt | 08/01/13

The F.B.I. has concluded that there was little its agents could have done to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings, according to law enforcement officials, rejecting criticism that it could have better monitored one of the suspects before the attack.

That conclusion is based on several internal reviews that examined how the bureau handled a request from a Russian intelligence agency in 2011 to investigate whether one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had been radicalized during his time in the United States. ... Read more

U.S. Issues Worldwide Travel Alert
HP | Bradley Klapper | 08/02/13/span>

The United States has issued a global travel alert because of an al-Qaida terrorist threat. The State Department says the potential for terrorism is particularly strong in the Middle East and North Africa. It says an attack could occur or come from the Arabian Peninsula

The department says in a statement that al-Qaida and its affiliated organizations "continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond." ... Read more

Bureau Investigation Finds Fresh Evidence Of CIA Drone Strikes On Rescuers
HP | thebureauinvestigates.com | 08/01/13

A field investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Pakistan's tribal areas appears to confirm that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year briefly revived the controversial tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers at the scene of a previous drone strike. The tactic has previously been labelled a possible war crime by two UN investigators. ... Read more, Read more

Drone Strikes 2004-2013 - Click to zoom

Crouded, Cloud-Seeding, Chinese Heat-Wave
ZeroHedge | author | 08/01/13

Record-breaking temperatures have been searing large swaths of China, resulting in dozens of heat-related deaths and prompting authorities to issue a national alert. As CNN reports, people are packing into swimming pools or taking refuge in caves in their attempts to escape the fierce temperatures. Local governments are resorting to cloud-seeding technology to try to bring rain to millions of acres of parched farmland. The worst of the smoldering heat wave has been concentrated in the south and east of the country, with Shanghai experiencing its hottest July in at least 140 years. In Shanghai, the heat was being blamed for mounting numbers of dead fish in ponds and rivers and is likely to continue into the middle of August. ... Read more
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