Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Trump: Boy Scouts thought my speech was "greatest ever made to them." Boy Scouts: No.
Vox.com | Ella Nilsen | 08/02/17

In the latest twist in the Trump/Boy Scout saga, the organization is pushing back after President Trump said the head of the Boy Scouts of America called his recent National Jamboree speech "the greatest speech ever made to them."

Now the Boy Scouts are saying that's not true. "The Chief Scout Executive's message to the Scouting community speaks for itself," a Boy Scout official told Time magazine on Wednesday, referring to a recent apology chief scout executive Michael Surbaugh made after Trump's speech. ... Read more
Trump: Boy Scouts Told Me It Was The Greatest Speech Ever! (They Didn't) | TYT | 08/02/17 | 6:10

A Chilling Theory on Trump's Nonstop Lies
MotherJones | Denise Clifton | 08/03/17

"26 hours, 29 Trumpian False or Misleading Claims."

That was the headline on a piece last week from the Washington Post, whose reporters continued the herculean task of debunking wave after wave of President Donald Trump's lies. (It turned out there was a 30th Trump falsehood in that time frame, regarding the head of the Boy Scouts.) The New York Times keeps a running tally of the president's lies since Inauguration Day, and PolitiFact has scrutinized and rated 69 percent of Trump's statements as mostly false, false, or "pants on fire." ... Read more

The Boston Neighborhood That Made John Kelly
DailyBeast | Mike Barnicle | 08/02/17

... Many have asked and wondered how or why such an exceptional guy like General Kelly would take the task of trying to turn the absurdly incompetent, chaotic Trump presidency into a functioning vehicle. And the answer is simple and obvious: because he loves this country and does not want to have it fail or falter at the gate of a future filled with both promise and peril. His only ambitions are for America.

And on those long days when he might wonder why he took the job he will, no doubt, think of how he was raised on Bigelow Street in Brighton with his father John at the kitchen table and his mother Joan making breakfast and he will think of the son he often visits who is quite close to the White House, just across Memorial Bridge, in Section 60, Grave 9480 at Arlington: 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, United States Marine Corps, who died in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010. He was 29 years old. ... Read more

Trump Has Quietly Accomplished More Than It Appears
TheAtlantic | David A. Graham | 08/02/17

The actual government, the administration of Donald Trump, is coming off the worst week of his presidency, although there haven't been any smooth weeks. Trump's top legislative priority, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, seems dead for the moment. (Tax reform? Forget it.) His administration has set a new standard for chaos and dysfunction, rolling through staffers the way other administrations run through, well, legislative initiatives. Trump's foreign policy remains inchoate and ineffective. Meanwhile, a special counsel investigation looms over the entire administration, threatening both its legitimacy and legal jeopardy for some of its members.

Things are going considerably better for the shadow government. With the Trump administration's chaos sucking up all the attention, it's been able to move forward on a range of its priorities, which tend to be more focused on regulatory matters anyway. It is remaking the justice system, rewriting environmental rules, overhauling public-lands administration, and greenlighting major infrastructure projects. It is appointing figures who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come. ... Read more

John Kelly Follows Orders. That's Exactly What Trump Critics Are Afraid Of.
HP | Jessica Schulberg , Elise Foley | 08/02/17

Even people who have worked with the retired Marine general for years -- people who like and respect him -- say they know little about his politics. What they do know is that Kelly follows orders, and that he's demonstrated a particular zeal for defending and aggressively executing some of President Donald Trump's most extreme policies.

Ultimately, these people say, Kelly's personal beliefs don't matter. In his new job, Kelly may succeed in stabilizing and professionalizing Trump's team. But there's no reason to believe he will change the president's views. ... Read more

If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef
TheAtlantic | James Hamblin | 08/02/17

... Recently Harwatt and a team of scientists from Oregon State University, Bard College, and Loma Linda University calculated just what would happen if every American made one dietary change: substituting beans for beef. They found that if everyone were willing and able to do that--hypothetically--the U.S. could still come close to meeting its 2020 greenhouse-gas emission goals, pledged by President Barack Obama in 2009.

That is, even if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed--and even if people kept eating chicken and pork and eggs and cheese--this one dietary change could achieve somewhere between 46 and 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the target. ... Read more