Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN
TheGuardian | Jonathan Watts | 08/30/19

Biodiversity chief calls for countries to unite to halt rapid degradation of nature

The fires in the Amazon are "extraordinarily concerning" for the planet's natural life support systems, the head of the UN's top biodiversity body has said in a call for countries, companies and consumers to build a new relationship with nature.

Cristiana Pasca Palmer, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the destruction of the world's biggest rainforest was a grim reminder that a fresh approach was needed to stabilise the climate and prevent ecosystems from declining to a point of no return, with dire consequences for humanity.

"The Amazon fires make the point that we face a very serious crisis," she told the Guardian. "But it is not just the Amazon. We're also concerned with what's happening in other forests and ecosystems, and with the broader and rapid degradation of nature. The risk is we are moving towards the tipping points that scientists talk about that could produce cascading collapses of natural systems." ... Read more

Tariff Man: Behind Trump Economic Advisor Peter Navarro's Long Quest to Ratchet Up the Trade War With China
Fortune | Bob Sellers | 08/27/19

As President Trump and China escalate their trade war, there is a tariff champion in the White House that strongly supports this kind of approach. It's not Larry Kudlow, who described himself on his Kudlow.com website as an "Influential supply-side economist, and unapologetic supporter or capitalism and the free markets." (His website was taken down when he joined the administration.) Instead, it is Peter Navarro, the Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, whose raison d'être in recent years appears to be holding China accountable for its economic sins, and prepare the U.S. strategically for the threat the communist country poses economically and militarily.

But while the Harvard educated economist has the president's ear, he is not universally admired, says Phillip Braun, Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "He has ideas that have no basis in reality. Such as trade wars are good. Or that tariffs are good. But they have severe consequences for the U.S., and we've seen this in the past when the U.S. has imposed tariffs."

Nonetheless, Navarro has been able to convince the president to take on China with trade tariffs. There are now plans to expand them to more products beginning September 1st, which compelled China last week to announce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods and U.S. crude oil imports, which in turn prompted Mr. Trump to announce additional tariffs on more goods at higher levels as he "ordered" American companies to bring their operations back home. Most economic forecasters -- including the Congressional Budget Office -- have lowered their GDP forecasts in the coming months and years. And JP Morgan says the average American family will face $1,000 of additional costs per year. ... Read more

GOP Senators Worried About Economy Under President Donald Trump | The Last Word | MSNBC | 08/29/19 | 5:24

The Pentagon's New Missile Drive Is Bringing Armageddon Closer
TheNation | Michael Klare | 08/30/19

Washington is withdrawing from the INF treaty not because of Russian violations but because the Pentagon wants to deploy a dangerous new class of its own nukes.

On August 2, in a brazen attack on the arms control architecture forged by US and Soviet leaders during the Cold War era, the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a 1987 accord that bans the possession of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,420 miles). Just two weeks later, on August 18, the Defense Department test-fired a cruise missile that would have violated the treaty, were the United States still in compliance. That test, involving a ground-based version of the sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missile, was intended less as a technology assessment than as a political statement--to demonstrate the Pentagon's determination to rapidly field an array of treaty-non-compliant weapons and put China and Russia on the defensive. Unless halted by Congress, this drive will almost certainly spark a dangerous new arms race and dramatically narrow the "firebreak" between conventional and nuclear war. ... Read more

Trump Aide And Oval Office 'Gatekeeper' Fired For 'Leaking'
ZeroHedge | staff | 08/30/19

Madeleine Westerhout, the now-former special assistant to the president and director of Oval Office operations, had worked for the president since the transition. But she shared details about Trump, his family and his time in the White House during an off-the-record chat with reporters.

Once her actions had been discovered, the administration decided that "immediate termination" was the only worthwhile punishment for leaking. She would not be returning to work on Friday. ... Read more