Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Geoenginering Methods
climatecentral.org | author | 11/05/10

In order to slow down climate changes likely caused by the increase in human-generated greenhouse gases, some scientists and policymakers are exploring ways in which to cool the planet. A number of geoengineering strategies, or ways in which the environment might be manipulated to offset global warming, have emerged, though there is not yet an agreed upon definition of which methods should be categorized as geoengineering.

According to the Royal Society's report on geoengineering the climate, released in 2009, there are two main approaches. One involves deflecting a small amount of the sun's light and heat away from the planet to lower global temperatures; this could include the use of reflective aerosols or mirrors high in the atmosphere, or may require the deliberate formation of clouds. A second general method for cooling the planet involves removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, either via sequestration or CO2 capture, or possibly through ocean iron fertilization to promote the growth of CO2-consuming algae. ... Read more
Royal Society's report | Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty.pdf (2009)
Click picture to zoom in

Number of Extremely Hot Days Continues to Rise
climatecentral.org | author | 07/08/15

2014 was the hottest year on record globally, and the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998. As greenhouse gases continue to build and warm the planet, we are seeing an increased number of hot days in the U.S. While the hottest days of the year are usually during meteorological summer, extreme heat can kick in during late spring and last into early fall. The rise in extreme heat during this time of year brings more than just inconvenience and higher cooling bills. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Where's the Heat? Check the Oceans
climatecentral.org | author | 04/23/15

The rate of atmospheric warming has been slower in past 15 years than the previous 30 -- even as we've continued to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is tempting to think that everything we've learned about greenhouse gases since 1857 is wrong, but it is not. We tend to focus on land surface temperatures, because that's where we live. However, it is critical to remember the climate system includes the oceans in addition to the atmosphere. And as it turns out, a tremendous amount of heat energy (that appears to be missing) has been absorbed by the sea. As the graphic above, based on the IPCC Fifth Assessment, illustrates, the amount of heat energy that has gone into the oceans since the warming began is phenomenal. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

How Different Modes of Transportation Stack Up
climatecentral.org | author | 04/25/15

Transportation accounts for 28 percent of Americans' overall greenhouse gas emissions. Since this is the primary cause of global warming, many people might wonder how their travel choices will affect the climate. For many of us, of course, there's not a lot of choice in how we get from here to there since planes, trains and busses don't go everywhere. Still, it's useful to know how different modes of transportation stack up. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

The Reason China's Crash Will Unleash A Global Bond Shockwave
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/15

"The PBoC's actions are equivalent to an unwind of QE, or in other words Quantitative Tightening. The potential for more China outflows is huge [and] the bottom line is that QT has much more to go. It is hard to become very optimistic on global risk appetite until a solution is found to China's evolving QT." ... Read more

We Are All Preppers Now
ZeroHedge | author | 08/28/15

Damian McBride is the former head of communications at the British treasury and former special adviser to Gordon Brown, erstwhile Prime Minister of the U.K. Yesterday he tweeted some surprising advice in response to the plunge in global equities markets. Evidently, McBride interprets the wipe-out of over $3 trillion in total global market cap during the three-day rout as a prelude to a much broader and deeper financial crash that will precipitate civil unrest:

1. Advice on the looming crash, No. 1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work.
2. Crash advice No. 2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.
3. Crash advice No. 3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to.

What's Behind the Stock Market's Rollercoaster Ride?
AlterNet | Amy Goodman | 08/25/15

The real problem is that we're in a nonrecovery in America, and Europe is in an absolute class war of austerity.

In an interview with Democracy Now!. economist Michael Hudson talked about the wild ride on Wall Street Monday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell a record 1,100 points before closing down nearly 600 points. "The real problem is that we're still in the aftermath of when the bubble burst in 2008," he told Amy Goodman, "that all of the growth in the economy has only been in the financial sector, in the monopolies--only for the 1 percent. And it's as if there are two economies, and the 99 percent has not grown. And so, the American economy is still in a debt deflation. So the real problem is, stocks have doubled in price since 2008, and the economy, for most people, certainly who listen to your show, hasn't grown at all. ... Read more

71 Refugees Confirmed Dead After Suffocating In Back Of Truck (in Austria)

Fukushima Alps (recent) [4:41]

geoengineeringwatch.org | Dane Wigington: Engineered Drought Catastrophe, Target California (07/23/14) [31:35]

geoengineeringwatch.org | Dane Wigington: We are All Getting Sick, Food Chain is Dying (02/07/14]

The visualization features 2,153 nuclear detonations that have taken place since 1945 (08/26/15) [14:00]

Stocks Fly After Fed Official Cools September Rate Hike Talk
Reuters & HP | Jamie McGeever | 08/27/15

Stocks rose around the world on Thursday, following the biggest gains on Wall Street in four years, after a U.S. Federal Reserve policymaker said the case for an interest rate increase next month "seems less compelling" than it was a few weeks ago. Increased appetite for risk also lifted crude oil prices further from last week's lows. The price of government bonds and the Japanese yen fell.

In early European trading, the FTSEuroFirst index of leading 300 European shares was up 2.5 percent at 1,415 points. Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40 and Britain's FTSE 100 were all up more then 2 percent. ... Read more

It's Official: China Confirms It Has Begun Liquidating Treasuries, Warns Washington
ZeroHedge | author | 08/27/15

As Bloomberg reports, "China has cut its holdings of U.S. Treasuries this month to raise dollars needed to support the yuan in the wake of a shock devaluation two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the matter. Channels for such transactions include China selling directly, as well as through agents in Belgium and Switzerland, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the information isn't public. China has communicated with U.S. authorities about the sales." ... Read more

What Would Happen If Everyone Joins China In Dumping Treasurys?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/27/15

On Tuesday evening, we quantified the staggering cost of China's near daily open FX operations in support of the yuan. In short, the new currency regime has led the PBoC to dump more US paper in the past two weeks than it had YTD. In conclusion, we asked if anyone else was set to join China in liquidating US Treasurys at a never before seen pace. Here's the answer and what it means for the US economy and monetary policy going forward. ...

5 Medicinal Herbs You Can Grow in Your Backyard
AlterNet | Miles Schneiderman | older, 06/05/15

At its core, most of medicine is still herbology, according to Dr. Jenn Dazey, naturopathic physician at Bastyr University's Department of Botanical Medicine. And growing your own medicinal garden is easier than it might seem. In fact, you might already have one. Many common culinary herbs have a long history as traditional medicines. ... Read more

Reporter, Cameraman Killed In Live Shooting During News Broadcast
HP | Hilary Hanson | 08/26/15

Two journalists with Roanoke, Virginia-based news station WDBJ were killed Wednesday in a shooting that took place during a live broadcast. Reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward died shortly after the incident, WDBJ general manager Jeff Marks told The Roanoke Times. Authorities are searching for the suspect. ... Read more

China's Turbulent Stock Market Slips Once Again
Reuters & HP | author | 08/26/15

The central bank's stimulus hasn't convinced investors.

Aug 26 (Reuters) - China's turbulent stock markets slipped again on Wednesday, as a double-barrelled blast of central bank stimulus failed to convince investors of Beijing's ability to jolt the world's second biggest economy out of its slowdown.

After watching share prices tumble around 25 percent in a little more than a week, the People's Bank of China re-entered the fray late on Tuesday, cutting interest rates and further loosening bank lending restrictions. ... Read more

What If The "Crash" Is As Rigged As Everything Else?
ZeroHedge | author | 08/26/15

Why would "somebody" engineer a mini-crash and send volatility to "the world is ending" levels? There are a couple of possibilities.

1. The Shock Doctrine. Naomi Klein's landmark study of how manufactured crises are used to justify further consolidation of power, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, provides a blueprint for how financial crises set the stage for policies that extend the power of central and private banks and various state-private sector players.
2. A "crash" engineered to set up a buying opportunity for insiders. When easy gains get scarce, what better way to skim a quick 10% than engineer a "crash," scoop up shares dumped by panicked punters and momo-following HFT bots spooked by "the world is ending" VIX spike, and then reverse the "crash" with another round of happy talk?
3. Settling conflicts within the Deep State. I have covered the Deep State for years, in a variety of contexts--for example: ...

Kangaroo horde during bike ride (08/26/15) [1:25]

Chinese Stocks Tumble Again, But Other Markets Stabilize
AP & HP | author | 08/24/15

The decline comes despite a multibillion-dollar government effort to stop a slide in prices.

Chinese stocks fell Tuesday for a fourth day, hitting an eight-month low amid signs Beijing was no longer buying shares to stem a price slide, and Japanese stocks also dropped. But other Asian and European markets bounced back from a day of heavy losses. U.S. stock futures were also up after Monday's global sell-off and a tumultuous day on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones closed down 3.6 percent. Analysts said it was unclear whether the rebounds in some markets were indications that worst was over or a reprieve in a longer-term bear market.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 7.6 percent to 2,964.97 points, adding to Monday's 8.5 percent loss and taking the benchmark to its lowest level since Dec. 15. Some 2,000 stocks out of about 2,800 on China's two mainland exchanges fell by the 10 percent daily limit, according to Hexun, a financial news website. ... Read more

July Was The Hottest Month Ever; Cable News Barely Noticed
HP | Sam Stein | 08/24/15

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015 was the earth's warmest month on record, dating back to 1880.

This wasn't some one-off study. It was supplemented by similar findings from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Japanese Meteorological Agency; and, of course, it came on top of other studies underlining the perilous state of global warming. ...

1. MSNBC: Discussed the report five times, not counting the two repeats of Rachel Maddow's show early on Friday morning.
2. CNN: Discussed the report five times, not counting repeat airings.
3. Fox News: Did not discuss the report.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015

The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country
MotherJones | Samantha Michaels | 08/23/15

Nearly one-third of the world's mass shootings have occurred in the United States, a new study finds. Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, has released the first quantitative analysis of public mass shootings around the world between 1966 through 2012. Unsurprisingly, the United States came out on top--essentially in a league of its own.

Over those five decades, the United States had 90 public mass shootings, defined as shootings that killed four or more victims. Of the 170 other countries examined in the study, only four even made it to double-digits: The Philippines had 18 public mass shootings, followed by Russia with 15, Yemen with 11, and France with 10. ... Read more

US Equity Futures Soar 4% After PBOC Rate Cut; Chinese Futures Jump After Overnight Market Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The PBOC cut itself was not surprising, considering the PBOC now has to juggle and micromanage every aspect of the economy, from its sliding currency, to the bursting stock bubble, to record capital outflow, to soaring real interest rates, to the slowing economy. In fact, bulls around the globe will welcome the latest central bank bailout. Which also happens to be the worst aspect of today's intervention, because one can once again toss all the talk that China would finally stop intervening in asset pricing, with today's decision merely perpetuating the market's reliance on central banks. As a reference, this was the second time China cut both RRR and interest rates in 2 months: the last time it did so was during the depths of the financial crisis. ... Read more

With Stocks In Free Fall, China Ditches Plunge Protection For Desperation Rate Cuts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The dual policy rate cut is a desperate attempt to 1) free up liquidity, and 2) shore up confidence in the stock market. We suspect the effects may be short lived on both accounts because after all, aggressive easing only fuels further depreciation necessitating further liquidity-sapping FX interventions in a vicious loop, and loose monetary policy likely won't be much comfort to China's 90 million retail investors who now, more than ever before, are virtually guaranteed to sell any rip they can get in a desperate attempt to claw back their life savings which they naively poured into stocks back in April and May. ... Read more

Why Did China Just Cut Rates, Again: Here Are Goldman's Three Reasons
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

Goldman's 3 key reasons for China's "surprise" rate cut: 1) Activity growth weakened meaningfully after a brief rebound in 2Q; 2) Outflows re-emerged and drained liquidity; 3) Equity market has been falling very rapidly. The conclusion: "These cuts are positive moves which are much needed to support the economy and market. But they are unlikely to be sufficient by themselves." ... Read more

What Is Really Going On: Market Liquidity Worse Than During The Flash Crash; 4500 Crash Events; Constant Halts And Unhalts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

Curious why few if any traders can actually execute any trades, whether buys or sells? The reason is that despite the relative calmness of the index prints, what is going on beneath the surface is an unprecedented wave of constant halt and unhalts as all stop levels were taken out, many in circuit breaker territory, making it virtually impossible for any matching enginge to, well, match buyers and sellers.

The resulting halts made it impossible for regular traders to step in, requiring central banks to buy via the CME's Central Bank Incentive Program, to restore some market stability. And just to add to the pain, there is absolutely no liquidity in either stocks. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Bloodbath: Emerging Market Assets Collapse As China Selloff Triggers Panic
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

That's right, Bloomberg's commodity index cratered to its lowest level since 1999 or, said differently, the lowest level of the 21st century. That headline flashed just minutes after we highlighted Barclay's take on the "long, slow, and painful" end of the commodities supercycle which is weighing heavily on emerging markets in the wake of China's move to devalue the yuan. Here's how we described the setup on Sunday evening: ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Is This Black Monday Crash The BIG ONE? It Doesn't Matter
ZeroHedge | author | 08/24/15

After losing 11% last week, Shanghai this morning was down almost -9% at one point, after lunch went back up to -6.5%, and ended its day at -8.49%. A Black Monday for sure, but is this the BIG ONE? It really doesn't matter one bit. Unless perhaps you persist in calling your self an investor, in which case we pity you, but not for losing your shirt. Because God knows we've said enough times now that there are no functioning markets anymore, and therefore no-one who can rightfully lay claim to the title 'investor'. ... Read more

Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury
Vanity Fair | Michael Joseph Gross | (older 2010)

Even as Sarah Palin's public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor's road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits -- a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family -- and the sadness she has left in her wake. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

VICE News | Cult Leader Thinks He's Jesus (05/16/12) [25:47]

Bloomberg | Jon Stewart: How the Fake Newsman Won Over America (06/03/14) [25:01]

Noam Chomsky, 'The Iranian Threat' - Who Is the Gravest Danger to World Peace? -or-
Noam Chomsky, Rogue States and Nuclear Dangers
TomDispatch.com | Noam Chomsky | 08/20/15

The first prime-time Republican primary debate of 2015 was an eye-opener of sorts when it came to the Middle East. After forcefully advocating for the termination of the pending nuclear deal with Iran, for example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker unleashed an almost indecipherable torrent of words. "This is not just bad with Iran," he insisted, "this is bad with ISIS. It is tied together, and, once and for all, we need a leader who's gonna stand up and do something about it." That prescription, as vague as it was incoherent, was par for the course.

When asked how he would respond to reports that Iranian Qods Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani had recently traveled to Russia in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, GOP billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump responded, "I would be so different from what you have right now. Like, the polar opposite." He then meandered into a screed about trading Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for "five of the big, great killers leaders" of Afghanistan's Taliban, but never offered the slightest hint that he had a clue who General Soleimani was or what he would actually do that would be "so different." ... Read more

Russell Napier Lays Out The Trigger For The Next Emerging Market Crisis
ZeroHedge | author | 08/21/15

"I have learnt from history that it is very hard working out what the trigger is. In 2008, it was the collapse of Lehman Brothers that triggered a credit crunch. Now it could be a major event in Turkey or a default of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras or some event in Malaysia. But if I have to pick one I would say it is Turkey introducing capital controls. Such controls will mean that Turkey will not pay back principals amounting to 400 Bio. $ and the interests on it." ... Read more

The Drought Isn't Just a California Problem
MotherJones | Julia Lurie | 08/21/15

California's been getting a lot of attention for the drought, but it's not alone in its lack of rain: This year is on track to be the driest on record for several western states. As the map below--a recent iteration from the US Drought Monitor--shows, virtually all of Washington, Oregon, and Nevada are covered in swaths of "severe," "extreme," or "exceptional" drought. ... Read more

*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

A Look Inside Banksy's 'Dismaland,' The Bleakest Amusement Park Ever
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/21/15

On Thursday, images and video captured inside "Dismaland," Banksy's new art exhibition/dystopian amusement park, began making the rounds on social media. They offer a glimpse into a world that's predictably dark, bizarre and full of satire. ... Read more

Sarah Palin: Trump's policies sound like they came after drinking a six-pack -- and that's why I like him
RawStory.com | Travis Gettys | 08/19/15

The former half-term governor of Alaska and failed vice presidential candidate appeared Tuesday evening on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News program, where she praised Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship -- as spelled out by the 14th Amendment,

"He's talking big picture, of course, plus specifics, thankfully -- more specifics than any other candidate, by the way," Palin said. ... Read more

Donald Trump Gives Rousing Speech in Hampton, NH (8-14-15) [54:15]

*MamaGrizzRadio | Trump praising Palin (08/19/15) [1:01]

*FoxNews | Palin's take: The Trump phenomenon (08/19/15) [7:32]

*What Sarah Palin Is All About () [3:35]

Did Republicans just give away the 2016 election by raising birthright citizenship?
Washington Post | Paul Waldman | 08/18/15

It may not seem like it, but this week has seen the most significant development yet in the immigration debate's role in the 2016 election. I'd go even farther -- it's possible that the entire presidential election just got decided. Is that an overstatement? Maybe. But hear me out.

For months, people like me have been pointing to the fundamental challenge Republican presidential candidates face on immigration: they need to talk tough to appeal to their base in the primaries, but doing so risks alienating the Hispanic voters they'll need in the general election. This was always going to be a difficult line to walk, but a bunch of their candidates just leaped off to one side. After Donald Trump released his immigration plan, which includes an end to birthright citizenship -- stating that if you were born in the United States but your parents were undocumented, you don't get to be a citizen. ... Read more

The Shadowy World Of 'Dark Web'
HP | Damon Beres | 08/19/15

Enter the shadowy corner of the web where the Ashley Madison hackers released their data trove.

ISIS uses it. The Ashley Madison hackers used it. But chances are, you're not so familiar with the so-called "dark web," a hidden network of websites that requires special tools to access. The appeal of such a network is obvious: Users can remain anonymous if they play their cards right, which means they can exchange sensitive information and make illicit business deals without fear of retaliation from law enforcement. ... Read more

Turkey On The Brink As Calls For Martial Law, Civil War Send Lira Plunging Again
ZeroHedge | author | 08/20/15

Turkey is rapidly descending into chaos on all fronts. With the lira in free fall and the politically-motivated violence escalating, one prominent lawmaker is calling for martial law ahead of new elections which could plunge the country further into civil war. ... Read more

Jon Stewart on Bernie Sanders's biggest vulnerability: 'Consistent principles' (older, 05/01/15) [4:34]

To Fight ISIS, Obama Risks Empowering Iran's Favorite Terror Group
HP | Akbar Shahid Ahmed | 08/19/15

More than $1 billion in U.S. military equipment quietly began flowing to the Lebanese military over the last year. Saudi Arabia is paying for much of it: powerful missiles, advanced aircraft. But Washington is also making its contribution. Lebanon, a country one-third the size of Maryland that is nestled between Syria and Israel, has today become the fifth-largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

The flood of money indicates how worried the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other power players have become about the extremist threat that Islamic State militants and the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria pose to Lebanon.

The Obama administration is betting the Lebanese military can keep the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and al-Qaeda from wreaking further havoc. Both groups have developed cells in Lebanon that they are likely to activate in response to battleground shifts in Syria, Lebanese officials say. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Twin Typhoons Intensify In The Pacific, Threaten East Asia; Atsani is now a super typhoon. Goni may soon follow suit
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 08/19/15

Stunning images and video show the twin typhoons, Goni and Atsani, as they spin over the Pacific Ocean this week. The two typhoons are said to be intensifying as they move closer to Taiwan and Japan, respectively. According to Weather.com, Atsani has become a super typhoon. Goni may soon follow suit.

If that happens, it'll be the first time since 1997 that two super typhoons have formed in the Pacific, the Washington Post reports. Read more

First Near-Fully Formed Brain Grown In Lab, Ohio State Scientists Say
HP | Kim Bellware | 08/18/15

Scientists at Ohio State University say they've grown the first near-complete human brain in a lab. The brain organoid, if licensed for commercial lab use, could help speed research for neurological diseases and disorders, like Alzheimer's and autism, Rene Anand, an Ohio State professor who worked on the project, said in a statement Tuesday, "The power of this brain model bodes very well for human health because it gives us better and more relevant options to test and develop therapeutics other than rodents," Anand said.

The brain, engineered from adult human skin cells and grown in a dish for 15 weeks, is about the size of a pencil eraser, according to the university. It has the maturity of a 5-week-old fetal brain, and contains 99 percent of the genes in a fully developed human fetal brain. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 19 [9:28]

*DN | David Cay Johnston: 21 Questions for Trump on Kickbacks, Busting Unions, the Mob & Corporate Welfare (08/19/15) [11:09]

TYT | What TV Preachers Really Do With Your Money (08/18/15) [8:40]

John Oliver
*HBO | John Oliver: Televangelists (08/16/15) [20:05]

TYT | Jeb Bush Totally Isn't Panicking... yet (08/18/15) [5:33]

TYT | Bill O'Reilly Is Still On Team Trump (08/18/15) [3:59]

RT | Keiser Report: US cops vs Poor Suckers (E798) (08/18/15) [25:42]

RT ThomHartmann | Why Build A Nuclear Power Plant Near A Volcano? (08/18/15) [7:09]

*RT ThomHartmann | Neocons Led Us To A Bloody & Costly Iraq War - Is Iran Next? (08/18/15) [10:55]

The Next Leg Of The Commodity Carnage: Attention Shifts To Traders - Glencore Crashes, Noble Default Risk Soars
ZeroHedge | author | 08/19/15

Commodity trading giant Glencore may have top-ticked the commodity supercycle with its 2011 IPO, but it's been downhill ever since (66% downhill to be precise if measured by the tumble in the stock price), culminating this morning when the Baar, Switzerland-based mining and commodity giant reported a first half net loss of $676 million, compared with net profit of $1.72 billion a year ago.

Revenue tumbled 25% to $85.7 billion after the company admitted China's economic slowdown had caught the company "by surprise" and that no one in the mining industry "can read China" at the moment. The result: GLEN stock had plunged by 9% as of the last check, wiping out $3 billion in market value, and down a whopping 44% in the past three months, substantially underperforming its peers Rio Tinto (which Glencore once tried to acquire) and BHP Billiton. ... Read more

Trump Is the Republicans' Nightmare and They Won't Wake Up From It
NYMag | Jonathan Chait | date

When Donald Trump initially rocketed to the top of national Republican polls, it was fashionable to compare him to Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich -- a flamboyant media personality, briefly capturing the spotlight, but doomed to immolate. But Trump is not running a race like those other candidates, nor is he mimicking their results. Instead, he is following the pattern more like a candidate from an earlier cycle: Pat Buchanan. ... Read more

23 Nations Around The World Where Stock Market Crashes Are Already Happening
ZeroHedge | author | 08/18/15

You can stop waiting for a global financial crisis to happen. The truth is that one is happening right now. All over the world, stock markets are already crashing. Most of these stock market crashes are occurring in nations that are known as "emerging markets". In recent years, developing countries in Asia, South America and Africa loaded up on lots of cheap loans that were denominated in U.S. dollars. But now that the U.S. dollar has been surging, those borrowers are finding that it takes much more of their own local currencies to service those loans. At the same time, prices are crashing for many of the commodities that those countries export. The exact same kind of double whammy caused the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s. ...

1. Malaysia
2. Brazil
3. Egypt
4. China
5. Indonesia
6. South Korea
7. Turkey
8. Chile
9. Colombia
10. Peru
11. Bulgaria
12. Greece
13. Poland
14. Serbia
15. Slovenia
16. Ukraine
17. Ghana
18. Kenya
19. Morocco
20. Nigeria
21. Singapore
22. Taiwan
23. Thailand

China Stocks Crash, More Than Half Of Market Halted Limit Down; PBOC Loss Of Control Spooks Global Assets
ZeroHedge | author | 08/18/15

Just hours after the PBOC announced a modestly "revalued" fixing in the CNY, which curiously led to weaker trading in the onshore Yuan for most of the day before a forceful last minute intervention by the central bank pushed it back down to 6.39 it was the local stock market spinning plate - which had been relatively stable during the entire FX devaluation process - that China lost control over, and after 7 days of margin debt increases the Shanghai Composite plunged by 6.2% in late trade, tumbling 245 points to 3748, just 240 points above its recent trough on July 8, a closing level some 27% off its June peak. ... Read more

How Dick Cheney Kicked off an Era of Cancer Clusters and Eco-Disasters from Fracking
AlterNet | Wenonah Hauter | 08/18/15

This past Saturday, marked a notable 10th anniversary. But it was certainly nothing to celebrate. Ten years ago, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The giant energy bill included massive giveaways for the fossil fuel, nuclear and ethanol industries and provided only token incentives for renewables and improved energy efficiency. But the most infamous piece of the law was what is now commonly known as the "Halliburton Loophole," an egregious regulatory exemption that ushered in the disastrous era of widespread oil and gas fracking that currently grips our nation. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Blasts Trump During Iowa speech: 'I Apologize. We Left the Helicopter at Home'
AlterNet | Bethania Palma Markus / Raw Story | 08/16/15

Progressive presidential candidate Bernie Sanders illustrated the stark difference between his populist agenda and his rivals' when he chided Donald Trump's display of excess at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.

The billionaire real estate and media mogul had descended on the fair in a flashy black helicopter with the word "Trump" emblazoned on the sides and was giving children rides in it, The Hill reports.

Sanders seemed to find it ridiculous. "Oh there's Donald Trump, what can we do," Sanders said mid-sentence. "I apologize, we left the helicopter at home. It's in the garage, forgot to bring it." ... Read more

John Oliver Exposes Televangelism, Then Forms His Own Tax-Exempt Church
HP | author | 08/17/15

John Oliver delivered the sermon of a lifetime on Sunday night, turning his "Last Week Tonight" studio into his church and the audience into his congregants. And he did it legally: Oliver created Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, "a tax-exempt organization that you certainly can't say is not a church."

He was of course trying to make a point -- revealing his new faith right after exposing the massive fraud of televangelists who preach what's known as the Prosperity Gospel. As Oliver explained, these televangelists exploit their often impoverished followers by convincing them that donating to the church is a "seed" that will grow into wealth they will be able to harvest later on. ... Read more

Why Everyone Is So Nervous About What China Does Next, In One Chart
ZeroHedge | author | 08/17/15

Translation: once begun, the currency war, which for the time being is being fought with conventional means, has no choice but to become nuclear.

Here, in one chart, is the reason why anyone following China's devaluation is very nervous. And if they aren't yet, they should be. Because if China is indeed intent on catching up with the rest of the EM complex - whose FX is trading about 30% lower - then the resulting devaluation will lead to nothing short of a global FX neutron bomb. ... Read more

13 Things Donald Trump Was Right About
MotherJones | Tim Murphy | 08/13/15

Donald Trump spent most of the weekend saying awful things about Megyn Kelly, after the Fox News host had the temerity to question him at last Thursday's debate about his history of saying awful things about other women. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise: Hurling insults at people who cross him is basically the entire point of Donald Trump.

But when he's not saying bad things about Kelly, Hillary Clinton, Rosie O'Donnell, women more generally, black people, Mexicans, President Barack Obama, various members of the press, John McCain, or Mohawks, Trump also makes a lot of good points. ...

1. The invasion of Iraq: In 2003, he told the Dallas Morning-News that the Iraq War had been a "disaster" that "should not have been entered into." "To lose all of those thousands and thousands of people, on our side and their side, I mean, you have Iraqi kids, not only our soldiers, walking around with no legs, no arms, no faces," he said. "All for no reason. It is a disgrace."
2. Katy Perry shouldn't have married Russell Brand:
3. Campaign finance: Although Trump bragged (falsely) about having cut checks to most of the Republican candidates with whom he shared the stage last week, he also made some smart points about the corrupting influence of campaign contributions. "I will tell you that our system is broken," he said during the debate. "I give to many people. I give to everybody, when they call I give, and you know what? When I need something from them, two years, three years later, I call, they are there for me."
4. Material excess: "While I can't honestly say I need an eighty-foot living room, I get a kick out of having one," he wrote in his most famous book, The Art of the Deal. Both of these statements sound pretty true.
5. Harvard: No one likes Harvard.
6. The merits of his cologne, which is actually called "Success": and features notes of juniper, iced red currant, frozen ginger, vetiver, and tonka bean.
7. Dick Cheney: "He's very, very angry and nasty," Trump said in a 2011 review of Cheney's book. "I didn't like Cheney when he was a vice president. I don't like him now. And I don't like people that rat out everybody like he's doing in the book. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller, but isn't it a shame? Here's a guy that did a rotten job as vice president. Nobody liked him. Tremendous divisiveness. And he's gonna be making a lot of money on the book. I won't be reading it."
8. Himself: "I'm a whiner," he told CNN on Tuesday.
9. The Drug War: In 1990, well before the political tides had shifted in favor of pot legalization, Trump was declaring the federal government's mass-incarceration campaign a waste. "We're losing badly the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars."
10. RedState's Erick Erickson, who disinvited Trump from the conservative site's confab last weekend due to his remarks about Megyn Kelly:
11. "Fuckface von Clownstick" is not an original insult:
12. National health care: "We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing," he wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve.
13. Tom Brady:

Federal Experts: Current El Niño Could Be Historically Strong
HP | Nick Visser | 08/13/15

Federal meteorologists say the current El Niño is already the second strongest on record for this time of year and could be one of the most potent weather changers of the past 65 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded unusual warmth in the Pacific Ocean in the last three months. El Niño is a heating of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter.

"This definitely has the potential of being the Godzilla El Niño," Bill Patzert, a climatologist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the Los Angeles Times. "Everything now is going to the right way for El Niño. If this lives up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides and mayhem." ... Read more

Three Clear Signs the US is Back In Recession
ZeroHedge | author | 08/14/15

There's Never Been a Presidential Candidate Like Donald Trump in American History
AlterNet | Ben Jacobs / The Guardian | 08/10/15

A fabulously wealthy reality television host with a belligerent social media presence is something entirely new.

The real estate mogul's bombastic entrance into American politics has become a cultural phenomenon. His populist, nativist rhetoric has struck a chord with many voters and his wealth allows the billionaire to show a striking disregard for the norms of party politics. The result was that Trump's appearance in the first presidential debate led to sky-high ratings with a viewership higher than the World Series or the NBA Finals. ... Read more

10 Places AIPAC Would Never Show Members of Congress on Their Upcoming Propaganda Trip
AlterNet | Max Blumenthal | 08/12/15

58 members of Congress will be in Israel in the coming days on a tour sponsored by the America Israel Education Foundation, an arm of the pro-Israel lobbying organization, AIPAC. Though AIPAC claims the trip is an annual ritual with no connection to the increasingly rancorous debate over the Iran nuclear deal, the trip offers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a key opportunity for face-to-face fear mongering with some of the lawmakers who control the deal's fate.

After the Republican delegation visits Israel, 22 Democrats -- including several who represent key swing votes on the deal -- will be shepherded through the AIPAC tour by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, an Israel lobby favorite. The freshmen legislators will visit all the requisite destinations, from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, which has featured exhibits accusing Palestinians of a central role in the Jewish genocide in Europe, to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who likes to present influential visitors with a special ring he purchased in a local pawn shop that supposedly legitimizes Israeli control over Jerusalem. ...

1. Dimona
2. "The Arab room"
3. Ofer Military Prison
4. Teddy Stadium
5. Zion Square
6. Kiryat Arba and Hebron
7. Al Araqib
8. Holot
9. Deir Yassin
10. Aerial Footage of Al Shejaiya in Gaza
    

Humans Have Used Up A Year's Worth Of The Earth's Resources In 8 Months
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 08/12/15

Less than eight months into 2015, humans have already consumed a year's worth of the Earth's resources.

This means that for the rest of 2015, we will be "living on resources borrowed from future generations," the World Wildlife Fund said. It's like overdrawing a bank account. The earth is going into ecological debt earlier each year, The Guardian notes. This year's Earth Overshoot Day is six days ahead of last year's, and months earlier than in 2000, when it arrived in October.

Global Footprint Network and other experts say addressing the growing problem of overpopulation is a cornerstone of reducing ecological debt. John R. Wilmoth, director of the United Nations Population Division, announced Monday that the world population of 7.3 billion people is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and up to 13.3 billion by 2100. He said there's only a 23 percent chance that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the century.

The U.S. is the world's ninth-biggest resource hog, using 310 percent of its capacity for resources, Global Footprint Network data shows. Top offenders are the United Arab Emirates (750 percent), Singapore (590 percent) and Belgium (460 percent.) ... Read more

Earth Overshoot Day 2015 is on Aug. 13th (08/10/15) [4:30]

Today, Humanity Has Spent Our Planet's Budget for the Entire Year
HP | Marco Lambertini | 08/13/15

When a country plummets into a massive financial deficit, it attracts worldwide attention. Yet countries today are largely ignoring another form of overspending: their ecological deficits. This is putting economies and citizens alike at even more risk.

The consequences of a fiscal deficit can strike much more quickly than those of an ecological deficit. But the results of an ecological deficit -- including fisheries collapse, biodiversity loss and climate change, as well as economic instability -- are potentially much longer lasting and more difficult to reverse if not tackled early. This is because addressing resource constraints requires reshaping our use of resources like forests and energy, with profound effects on our infrastructure and lifestyles. ... Read more

Poll: Sanders surges ahead of Clinton in NH
TheHill.com | Kevin Cirilli | 08/12/15

A stunning new poll has Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) beating presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Sanders has eclipsed Clinton by a 44 to 37 percent margin, according to a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll that was first reported by the Boston newspaper Tuesday evening.

Today's poll is the first to show Sanders, whose liberal policies are popular with the Democratic base, ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire ... Read more

SEC to force companies to reveal CEO-to-worker pay ratio
america.aljazeera.com | Ned Resnikoff | 08/05/15

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted Wednesday to force most publicly traded companies to reveal their ratio of CEO compensation to median worker pay.

The decision brought an end to five years of debate and revision, which began when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in July 2010. Dodd-Frank created the disclosure requirement but left the SEC to determine exactly how the rule would be implemented. ... Read more
aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014
CEO Pay by State

How Roger Ailes Picked Trump, and Fox News' Audience, Over Megyn Kelly
NYMag.com | Gabriel Sherman | date

In the fallout since the first GOP debate, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has found himself caught between Donald Trump, who has the full backing of Fox's misogynist audience, and Megyn Kelly, the star anchor whom Ailes has nurtured and sees as the key to reaching younger viewers. For a few days, Ailes didn't know how to handle Trump's full-throated attack on Kelly, who accused Trump of sexism during the debate. Eventually, as I reported yesterday, he made the same choice he always does: follow the ratings, and mend fences with Trump. But that process has meant that Fox has had to mute its defense of Kelly, who is now watching uneasily as the Fox audience turns on her: According to one high-level source, Kelly has told Fox producers that she's been getting death threats from Trump supporters. ... Read more

The Worst of the Worst of the Worst: New Century and its Economics Shills
TRNN | William Black | 08/08/15

... The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published a list of the "worst of the worst" -- the ten worst lenders in the ten worst markets for nonprime mortgage foreclosures. The absolute worst lender on that list is New Century. That makes it the worst of the worst of the worst. It also makes LST the worst of the worst of the worst economists writing about the fraud epidemics that drove the financial crisis. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, August 12 [9:11]

*DN | Artist Mariam Ghani, Daughter of Afghan President, Takes on U.S. Abuse from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib (08/12/15) [20:03]

*TRNN & Laura Flanders | An Economy for the 99%: Josh Lerner and Connie Razza (08/11/15) [25:53]

*TYT | Bernie Sanders Proposes New Holiday For Voting (08/11/15) [10:19]

TYT | Ferguson Cops Chummy With Armed White Militia (08/11/15) [10:22]

RT CrossTalk | 9/11: Whodunit? (old, but interesting) [25:33]

RoF | Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV (08/11/15) [28:59]

Looking For The Safest, Healthiest Pet Food? Good Luck With That.
HP | Zach Carter | 08/12/15

... The pet industry is booming. Americans spent over $58 billion on their pets last year, according to the American Pet Products Association, including more than $22 billion on food alone. The market for pet food is up over 75 percent since 2000, with almost all of that growth in the high-end "premium" sector, according to data from Euromonitor International. ...

... The market for premium pet food is dominated by a handful of large companies. Mars Petcare is the world's biggest pet food company with over $17 billion a year in annual sales, according to Petfood Industry data. It's also the parent company for a host of high-end brands most consumers don't associate with its flagship Pedigree label. Hippie-yuppie favorites, including California Naturals, Evo, Nutro, Eukenuba and Innova, are all heads of the Mars hydra. ... Read more

The Sad Truth About the State of the Financial System Today
ZeroHedge | author | 08/10/15

For six years, the world has operated under a complete delusion that Central Banks somehow fixed the 2008 Crisis. All of the arguments claiming this defied common sense. A 5th grader would tell you that you cannot solve a debt problem by issuing more debt. If the below chart was a problem BEFORE 2008... there is no way that things are better now. After all, we've just added another $10 trillion in debt to the US system.

1. The REAL problem for the financial system is the bond bubble. In 2008 when the crisis hit it was $80 trillion. It has since grown to over $100 trillion.
2. The derivatives market that uses this bond bubble as collateral is over $555 trillion in size.
3. Many of the large multinational corporations, sovereign governments, and even municipalities have used derivatives to fake earnings and hide debt. NO ONE knows to what degree this has been the case, but given that 20% of corporate CFOs have admitted to faking earnings in the past, it's likely a significant amount.
4. Corporations today are more leveraged than they were in 2007. As Stanley Druckenmiller noted recently, in 2007 corporate bonds were $3.5 trillion... today they are $7 trillion: an amount equal to nearly 50% of US GDP.
5. The Central Banks are now all leveraged at levels greater than or equal to where Lehman Brothers was when it imploded. The Fed is leveraged at 78 to 1. The ECB is leveraged at over 26 to 1. Lehman Brothers was leveraged at 30 to 1.
6. The Central Banks have no idea how to exit their strategies. Fed minutes released from 2009 show Janet Yellen was worried about how to exit when the Fed's balance sheet was $1.3 trillion (back in 2009). Today it's over $4.5 trillion.

A Stunned Wall Street Reacts To China's Currency Devaluation
magazine | author | date

There is much stunned confusion among Wall Street's "best and brightest" following China's historic Yuan devaluation overnight which was predicted by exactly zero of said best and brightest, just like nobody expected the SNB to give up its own peg to the EUR in January.

The problem as the WSJ puts it, is that a devaluation for China is both good, and very bad. Good because it will help the struggling export sector, which has stalled amid weak global demand. Exports in July, for example, sank more than 8% and they were down nearly 1% for the first seven months of the year.

At the same time, it was essential for the People's Bank of China not to alarm domestic and foreign investors to avoid triggering a wave of capital outflows. Investors tend to dump a weakening currency and move their assets into other currencies. Thus, the PBOC said the move was a one-time reform effort to bring the yuan more in line with the markets.

That, of course, is a lie: the Fed's first QE was a "one-time" abnormal monetary intervention which has since become the de facto standard of every single central bank. ... Read more

After Marathon Talks, Greece And International Lenders Clinch Multi-Billion Euro Bailout Deal
Reuters & HP | author | 08/11/15

Greece and its international lenders reached a multi-billion euro bailout agreement on Tuesday after talking through the night, officials said, potentially saving the country from financial ruin.

The agreement, reached after a 23-hour session of talks, must still be adopted by Greece's parliament and euro zone countries. The single currency bloc's finance ministers are due to meet on Friday, giving time to finalize the deal before a major debt repayment next week. ... Read more

Robert Reich: Has America Finally Figured Out a Way to Rein in the Shocking Sums We Pays CEOs?
AlterNet | Robert Reich | 08/10/15

The Securities and Exchange Commission just ruled that large publicly held corporations must disclose the ratios of the pay of their top CEOs to the pay of their median workers... About time.

... Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Unveils Sweeping Policy Platform To Combat Racial Inequality
HP | Marina Fang | 08/10/15

Sanders addressed the issue in front of more than 20,000 supporters in Portland, drawing his largest crowd yet.

A day after being interrupted by Black Lives Matters protesters at a campaign event in Seattle, Washington, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a detailed platform on combating racial inequality.

Sanders' campaign posted the platform on his website on Sunday, and he addressed the issue of racial justice that evening in front of more than 20,000 supporters in Portland, drawing his largest crowd yet along the campaign trail. Nearly 12,000 people attended Saturday's event in Seattle. ... Read more

Who Does Our Economy Serve?
TruthOut | Thom Hartmann | older, 07/28/15

During a speech at New York University Friday, Hillary Clinton took aim at "quarterly capitalism," her name for corporate the United States' endless - and senseless - pursuit of profits. ...

... As Edward Luce pointed out in a recent piece for The Financial Times, "The level of US investment is at its lowest since 1947. Last year, according to Goldman Sachs, S&P 500 companies spent more than $500bn on share buybacks. This year it is expected to hit $600bn.... For every dollar the top US public companies spend on investment, they are returning eight or nine dollars to shareholders."

Stock buybacks don't grow the economy as a whole; they just make giant rich corporations - and their CEOS - even richer. ... Read more

Welcome Back to Smoke-Filled, Back-Room Politics
TruthOut | Thom Hartmann | 08/06/15

... Nobody wants to admit it, but our political process is rapidly going back to the days when cigar-smoking insiders handpicked the nominees, except this time it's not corrupt political bosses choosing who they want to run for president, it's billionaires like the Koch Brothers.

As The New York Times pointed out over the weekend, "fewer than four hundred families are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign, a concentration of political donors that is unprecedented in the modern era." ... Read more

The $12 Trillion Fat Finger: How A "Glitch" Nearly Crashed The Global Financial System - A True Story
ZeroHedge | author | 08/08/15

... in under a minute, the hateful script had taken offline the entire system in much the same manner as chucking a spanner into a running engine might stop a car. The databases, as always, were flushing their precious data onto many different disks as this happened, so massive, irreversible data corruption occurred. That was it, the biggest computer system in the bank, maybe even the world, was down. And it wasn't coming back up again quickly. At the time this failure occurred there was more than $12 TRILLION of trades at various stages of the settlement process in the system. This represented around 20% of ALL trades on the global stock market. ... Read more

"Orwellian" FBI Says Citizens Should Have No Secrets That The Government Can't Access
ZeroHedge | author | 08/08/15

The police and surveillance state predicted in the forward-looking 1940s classic "1984" by George Orwell, has slowly, but steadily, come to fruition. However, like a frog sitting idly in a pan of steadily-warming water, too many Americans still seem unaware that the slow boil of big government is killing their constitutional liberties. The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data -- information the government has no automatic right to obtain. ... Read more

*The Bomb Didin't Beat Japan... Stalin Did
FP | Ward Wilson | old, 05/30/13

Trump Trips In GOP Debate, But Trumpism Wins: Planet Politics
HP | Howard Fineman | 08/07/15

He came off as arrogant, thin-skinned and mean -- but his blustery pronouncements are taking over the GOP.

Whatever eventually happens to Donald Trump's candidacy -- and he stumbled personally as a candidate here Thursday night -- this much should be clear to America and the world after the first Republican debate: Trumpism is taking over a political party that will have a good chance to win the presidency in next year's election. Which means that if the GOP takes the White House in 2016, it will do so with a leader who has acknowledged, if not fully accepted, Trump's clout and at least these aspects of Trumpism:

1. Construction of a wall (or something) to effectively militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.
2. A bellicose military stand toward Iran, China and Russia.
3. A virulent contempt for the federal government, for all government, and for traditional politics as it's been practiced.
4. An immediate repudiation of the now-pending nuclear arms-control deal with Iran.
5. The abolition of President Barack Obama's health care law, to be replaced with a private enterprise system of some kind.
6. A confrontational, name-calling, finger-in-the-chest approach to politics, media and anyone who accidentally gets in your way.

*2016 First Republican Presidential Debate- Top 10 Candidates (full) (08/06/15) [1:46:46]

*TRNN | Untold History: The Bomb Sends a Message to the World (Part 6/7) [18:20]

*The Untold History Of The US by Oliver Stone

WAR PARTY
HP | Ryan Grim | 08/05/15

President Barack Obama has been getting pushback from opponents of the Iran nuclear deal for arguing that opposition to it is tantamount to support for war. Not true, they say. The opponents just want "a better deal."

"Today, President Obama once again presented a false choice between military action and his deeply flawed agreement with Iran," Cotton said, a few months after admitting that his aim had been to blow up the deal. "It will give Iran billions of dollars to finance a terrorist war on Israel and America that it has been waging for over 30 years. And it raises the prospect that in 10 to 15 years, Iran will be able to wage war with a nuclear weapon. Americans deserve a better deal that will deprive Iran of nuclear-weapons capability."

In a briefing with a handful of reporters in the White House on Wednesday, Obama said that he's not trying to be provocative, but that there simply is no way to coax Russia, China, France, Great Britain, Germany and Iran to return to negotiations to ramp up sanctions -- certainly not if the U.S. Congress rejects the deal on the table. The only option left after diplomacy, then, is military action. ... Read more

Why The U.S. Isn't Prosecuting White Collar Criminals
ThinkProgress | Alan Pyke | 08/04/15

The decline in American vigor against crooks who keep their hands clean comes as Britain prepares to send a financier to prison for his role in a megabank conspiracy to rig interest rates in their favor. Tom Hayes, 35, was sentenced Monday to 14 years behind bars by a British jury. ...

Upon his release, the conviction will ensure Hayes cannot attain the kind of high-powered finance job that might afford him the chance to re-offend. The stiff sentence should also dissuade others in his industry from being cavalier about the law.

Such deterrence is a key tenet of any law enforcement effort. In the United States, a wave of potentially criminal financial activity before, during, and after the 2008 Wall Street crisis has failed to produce any kind of proportional prosecutorial response. The U.S. government is on track to prosecute 36.8 percent fewer white collar crimes this fiscal year than it did in 1995 according to the TRAC data. ... Read more

Unlike Donald Trump's Campaign, His Take On The Federal Reserve Is Sort Of Serious
HP | Daniel Marans | 08/05/15

But there is at least one issue about which Trump has offered more details than most actual presidential candidates: Federal Reserve monetary policy.

"I liked Paul Volcker a lot," Trump told hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann during the segment, which can be viewed below. "I thought he was a terrific guy in so many different ways, and he had a good pulse and ... he was doing what had to be done." Volcker, who ran the Fed from 1979 to 1987, increased interest rates dramatically to combat high inflation. He is credited with reducing inflation from 13.3 percent in 1979 to 3.2 percent in 1983 -- but in so doing, he induced a recession. ... Read more

Israel ex-security chiefs urge Netanyahu to accept Iran deal
YahooNews | author | 08/03/15

Jerusalem (AFP) - Many Israeli ex-generals and former security chiefs have signed a petition urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, which he strongly opposes.

It urges the government to pursue a policy that would "restore trust and reinforce security and diplomatic cooperation with the American administration". ... Read more

Here's Who Will Be In The First GOP Presidential Debate
HP | Igor Bobic | 08/04/15

Fox has said it will average the most recent five polls from "major, nationally recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques" to create a top 10 field of candidates who will participate in the coveted 9 p.m. primetime debate. Depending on which polls Fox takes into account, it's possible that the final list could include ties, resulting in more than 10 candidates onstage. Contenders who don't make the main stage will be given an opportunity to debate each other at an earlier, 5 p.m. slot. ... Read more

11 Things You'll Probably Hear During The First GOP Debate That Are Totally False
ThinkProgress | Kira Lerner | 08/04/15

While Thursday will mark the first of nine official debates, the candidates have had no shortage of opportunities to make their positions heard, from dozens of conservative conferences to TV appearances and interviews. While they may surprise America with some never-before-heard attacks, new misinformed arguments or gross generalizations, it's not hard to predict most of their likely talking points based on what they've said during their campaigns so far. A not-insignificant number of them have already been debunked, but that won't stop them from being repeated. ... Read more

Trump May Be Soaring In The Polls, But The Bookies Aren't So Sure
ZeroHedge | author | 08/40/15

At 1000-to-1, Kim Kardashian is an outsider in the race to be the next US President but perhaps most notable in the odds that bookies are willing to offer is the 7th place that Donald Trump ranks (at 18-to-1 or just a 5% probability of winning), below GOP rivals such as Jeb Bush (23% probabiity) and Marco Rubio (11% probability). Trump even ranks below Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden according to where the money is being bet! Of course, Hillary remains the odds-on favorite at 10/11 (or 52% probability). ... Read more

Michael Moore Is About to Surprise America with Major New Documentary on the American Empire
AlterNet | Zaid Jilani | 08/04/15

Moore will premiere his new film 'Where To Invade Next' at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

"The issue of the United States at infinite war is something that has concerned me for quite some time, and provides the necessary satire for this film," he said. ["There's] this constant need it seems to always have an enemy -- where's the next enemy so we can keep this whole military industrial complex alive, and keep the companies that make a lot of money from this in business. I've always been a little bothered by that, so that's where the comedy comes from." ... Read more

Politicians from Both Sides of the Aisle: Corruption Has Destroyed America
ZeroHedge & WashongtonBlog | 08/04/15

There's always been some corruption in the United States ... but it's never been this bad before. ... Read more
Quotes (toggle)

Greek Bank Stocks Crash Again Amid Fresh Signs Of Economic Disintegration
ZeroHedge | author | 08/04/15

After trading limit-down on Monday when Greek stocks opened for trading for the first time since PM Alexis Tsipras called a referendum, shares of Greek banks once again flirted with the daily 30% loss limit on Tuesday as there were simply no bids for a set of institutions that everyone knows is insolvent. Meanwhile, Kathimerini reports that "the state's losses from indirect taxes alone in the first couple of weeks of capital controls and the shuttering of banks [amounted to] more than half a billion euros." ... Read more

Jon Stewart's Farewell To Fox News: 'Adios, Motherf**kers!'
HP | Ed Mazza | 08/04/15

Jon Stewart has three more nights left in the "Daily Show" chair, but on Monday he delivered what may be his parting shot at longtime nemesis, Fox News. The network's talking heads have called him a "tool" of President Barack Obama, referred to the pair as having a "bromance" and described the comedian as an administration "propagandist."

Instead, Stewart played clip after clip of Fox News hosts over the years gleefully pointing out his many disputes with the administration. ... Read more

World's Glaciers Melting At Fastest Rate Since Record-Keeping Began
HP | Nick Visser | 08/03/15

The world's glaciers have melted to the lowest levels since record-keeping began more than 120 years ago, according to a study conducted by the World Glacier Monitoring Service that was released on Monday.

The research, published in the Journal of Glaciology, provides new evidence that climate change has spurred the rapid decline of thousands of the world's ice shelves over the past century. The first decade of the 21st century saw the fastest loss of ice since scientists began tracking it in 1894 -- and perhaps in recorded history, WGMS reported ... Read more

Raging California Wildfires Drive 13,000 From Their Homes
AP & HP | Terence Chea | 08/04/15

Firefighters were working aggressively to regain control after a raging Northern California fire jumped a highway that had served as a containment line for the massive blaze -- one of 20 wildfires burning in California. Cooler weather had helped crews build a buffer Monday between the wildfire and some of the thousands of homes it threatened as it tore through drought-withered brush in Lake County that hadn't burned in years.

But Monday afternoon erratic wind blew hot embers north of Highway 20 ignited several fires across the highway north of the city of Clearlake. ... Read more

Why America's Inequality Problem Is About a Lot More Than Money
AlterNet | David Cay Johnston | 08/03/15

Inequality is about much more than the growing chasm of income and wealth between those at the very top and everyone else in America. It's also about education, environmental hazards, health and health care, incarceration, law enforcement, wage theft and policies that interfere with family life over multiple generations.

In its full dimensions, inequality shapes, distorts and destroys lives in ways that get little attention from politicians and major news organizations. How many of us know that every day 47 American babies die, who would live if only our nation had the much better infant mortality rates of Sweden? "Poverty is not natural," Nelson Mandela once said. "It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings." ... Read more

HBO | John Oliver: Washington DC Statehood (08/02/15) [17:02]

2016 GOP presidential debate schedule
WashingtonPost | author | current

The I.R.S. Gives Up on 'Dark Money'
NYTimes | author | 07/25/15

The federal government has all but surrendered to the powerful, rich donors whose anonymous contributions threaten to undermine the 2016 elections. The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, signaled as much on Thursday when he told a House committee that there would be no change in the tax code in 2016 to end its growing abuse by political operatives using nonprofit “social welfare" institutions to disguise the identities of affluent campaign contributors. ... Read more

Mideast Hit With 165F Heat, 'Highest Ever Recorded'
newsmax.com | author | 08/01/15

Scorching heat has put temperatures as high as 165 degrees in the Middle East, as a "heat dome" passes its way through the region.

"That was one of the most incredible temperature observations I have ever seen -- and it is one of the most extreme readings ever in the world," AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Saglia told The Telegraph of the 165-degree heat-index reading in the western Iran city of Bandar Mahshahr. ... Read more

Wildfires Rage On Across California
AP & HP | author | 08/02/15

Wildfires blazing in several Western states Sunday chewed up forests and threatened homes but were most numerous in Northern California where dozens are raging and setting off evacuations. Wildfires are also burning in Washington and Oregon.

The biggest California wildfire -- raging in the Lower Lake area north of San Francisco -- spread overnight to cover even more drought-stricken ground, expanding more than 30 square miles in four or five hours, said California's Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott. ... Read more

Conspiracy Anyone? The NSA's 9/11 Cover-Up
AlterNet | Bill Blunden | 07/26/15

General Hayden told a lie, and it's a whopper.

“All tricksters, other than magicians, depend to a great extent upon the fact that they are not known to be, or even suspected of being, tricksters. Therein lies their great advantage." -- John Mulholland

Spies likewise wield illusion on the world stage in the service of secrecy. So it is with the events behind the attacks of 9/11 where those who question the official story are derided as conspiracy theorists. Thanks to the investigative digging of reporter James Bamford, with the assistance of NSA whistleblowers like Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe, the 9/11 crowd can now point to a conspiracy fact: an incredible cover-up that goes all the way to the top of the American intelligence community.

In a recent piece published by Foreign Policy Bamford examines a phone call to a clandestine operations center run by Osama bin Laden in Yemen during March of 2000. The phone call was dialed by one of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar, from his apartment in San Diego. In fact, there were a number of such phone calls made by 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego. Why didn't our security services immediately launch investigations? ... Read more

Jimmy Carter Rages At What The U.S. Has Become: "Just An Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery"
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over." ... Read more

Greek Stocks, Economy Collapse, Suffer Worst Declines In History
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

The Athens Stock Exchange reopened on Monday after a five-week hiatus. Stocks fell nearly 23% out of the gate with the country's insolvent banks trading limit-down. Meanwhile, Markit confirmed that the Greek economy has for all intents and purposes collapsed, with Greece's manufacturing PMI printing at 30.2. New orders plunged to just 17.9, betraying a contraction of unprecedented depth. ... Read more

LIBOR Scapegoat Found Guilty, Sentenced To 14 Years
ZeroHedge | author | 08/03/15

Judge Sentences Hayes To 14 Years in Jail for LIBOR Crime. Former UBS Group AG and Citigroup Inc. trader Tom Hayes, the first person to stand trial for manipulating Libor, was found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to rig the benchmark rate. Read more