Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Aides expect Trump to go rogue on Manafort pardon
Politico | Nancy Cook | 08/24/18

The president's comments are being read as a signal that he wants to ignore his lawyers and exonerate his former campaign chairman.

President Donald Trump's lawyers and a cadre of informal White House advisers claim they've convinced him not to pardon Paul Manafort -- but White House officials expect the president to do it anyway.

The president's characterization of his former campaign chairman as a victim and "brave man" is being read by aides as a signal that Trump wants to use his unilateral authority to issue pardons to absolve Manafort, according to eight current and former administration officials and outside advisers. ... Read more

The Lasting Impact Of The 1968 Democratic Convention | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 08/27/18 | 19:54

Trump flips the script on Washington scandal response
Politico | Christopher Cadelago | 08/24/18

The president will visit Ohio on Friday to speak at the state Republican Party dinner. He also is booked to do more than a half-dozen rallies and 16 fundraisers in as many as 15 states over the next six weeks, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Trump's refusal to hide reflects his unshakeable confidence that he's the only one who can get them to turn out in November, allies say -- and the reality that his base won't abandon him, no matter what. He infamously boasted as a candidate in early 2016 that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters" -- and since then has earned his "Teflon Don" reputation as his presidency has bounced from crisis to crisis. ... Read more

Abby Martin On Billionaires Silencing Independent Media | TYT | 08/27/18 | 10:43

Coverup claim against Pope Francis shakes a Church in crisis
Axios | Dave Lawler | 08/28/18

Pope Francis spent much of his visit to Ireland over the weekend seeking forgiveness -- for those guilty of "abuses of power" and "sexual abuses," and for "some members of the hierarchy" who knew of the abuses and did nothing.

Yes, but: The Vatican's former ambassador to Washington claims the pope falls into that second category. ... Read more

Taibbi: Censorship Does Not End Well
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 08/13/18

How America learned to stop worrying and put Mark Zuckerberg in charge of everything

Two weeks ago, we learned about a new campaign against "inauthentic" content, conducted by Facebook in consultation with Congress and the secretive think tank Atlantic Council -- whose board includes an array of ex-CIA and Homeland Security officials -- in the name of cracking down on alleged Russian disinformation efforts.­ As part of the bizarre alliance of Internet news distributors and quasi-government censors, the social network zapped 32 accounts and pages, including an ad for a real "No Unite the Right 2" anti-racist counter-rally in D.C. this past weekend.

"This is a real protest in Washington, D.C. It is not George Soros. It is not Russia. It is just us," said the event's organizers, a coalition of easily located Americans, in a statement. ... Read more

Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 08/02/18

The social network is too big and broken to properly function, and these "fixes" will only create more problems

You may have seen a story this week detailing how Facebook shut down a series of accounts. As noted by Politico, Facebook claimed these accounts "sought to inflame social and political tensions in the United States, and said their activity was similar -- and in some cases connected -- to that of Russian accounts during the 2016 election." ... Read more

How Saudi Arabia Financed Global Terror | Journeyman Pictures | older, 01/05/15 | 23:44