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News December 2012

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Monday December 31, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Chain Of Fools
HP | Michael McAuliff | 12/30/12

Tense "fiscal cliff" negotiations on Capitol Hill Sunday inched forward slightly as Republican senators agreed to take Social Security cuts off their list of immediate demands.   The cut that GOP leaders had proposed -- picking up on a now-defunct offer from President Barack Obama -- involved basing Social Security cost-of-living adjustments on a chained consumer price index (CPI), which grows more slowly than current measures of inflation and therefore would give seniors less in benefits as time went on. ... Read more

GOP Governors Deny The Poor Health Care In Opposing Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion
HP | Peter S. Goodman | 12/28/12

With no health insurance and not enough money for a doctor, Laura Johnson is long accustomed to treating her ailments with a self-written prescription: home remedies, prayer and denial.

Over decades, she made her living assisting elderly people in nursing homes in jobs that paid just above minimum wage and included no health benefits. So even as her feet swelled to such an extent that she could no longer stuff them into her shoes, and even as nausea, headaches and dizziness plagued her, she reached for the aspirin bottle or made do with a teaspoon of vinegar. She propped her feet up on pillows and hoped for relief.

"Before I got sick," she said, "I hadn't been to the doctor in 20 years."

After she collapsed last year and landed in in a local emergency room, doctors diagnosed her with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and hypothyroid. They ordered her not to work. She arranged a Social Security disability benefit, and she enrolled in Medicaid, the government-furnished insurance program for the poor. She used her Medicaid card to secure needed prescription medications. Her ailments stabilized.

But this year, the state determined that the $819 a month she draws in disability payments exceed the allowable limit. By the federal government's reckoning, her $9,800 annual income made her officially poor. But under the standards set by Louisiana, she was too well off to receive Medicaid.

This is how Johnson, 57, finds herself back amid the roughly 49 million Americans who lack health insurance. This is why she must again reach into her pocket to secure her prescription drugs, a supply that runs about $200 a month. That sum is beyond her, so she has gone more than four months without taking her pills on a regular basis. Once again, her feet are swelling and her chest is filling with fluid. Once again, she is confronted with the realization that a lifetime of labor does not entitle her to see a doctor any more than it enables her to gain crucial medications.
Read more

2012 - 'Year Of Living Dangerously' In Review
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/28/12

Despite the fact that myself and everyone else acting like they know what lays ahead are proven wrong time and time again, we continue to make predictions about the future. It makes us feel like we have some control, when we don't. The world is too complex, too big, too corrupt, too lost in theories and delusions, and too dependent upon too many leaders with too few brains to be able to predict what will happen next. This is the time of year when all the "experts" will be making their 2013 predictions - but few will address where they were wrong in previous predictions. I'm more interested in why I was wrong. It seems I always underestimate the ability of sociopathic central bankers and their willingness to destroy the lives of hundreds of millions to benefit their oligarch masters. I always underestimate the rampant corruption that permeates Washington DC and the executive suites in mega-corporations across the land. And I always overestimate the intelligence, civic mindedness, and ability to understand math of the ignorant masses that pass for citizens in this country. It seems that issuing trillions of new debt to pay off trillions of bad debt, government sanctioned accounting fraud, mainstream media propaganda, government data manipulation and a populace blinded by mass delusion can stave off the inevitable consequences of an unsustainable economic system. Will 2013 be the year it all collapses in a flaming heap of rubble? I don't know. Maybe you should ask an "expert". ... Read more

Unthinkable Cuts Almost a Reality ??????
WSJ | Damian Paletta | 12/30/12

... Illustrating the gravity of the cuts, the Pentagon plans to notify 800,000 civilian employees that they could be forced to take several weeks of unpaid leave in 2013 if a deal isn't struck, and other agencies are likely to follow suit. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
TRNN News
TRNN | James S. Henry: Will Obama Offer Massive Corporate Tax Cuts to Make "Fiscal Cliff" Deal? (12/30/12) [9:05]
Global Warming
Chasing Ice OFFICIAL TRAILER (09/04/12) [2:15]
Shocking Truth of Glacier Collapse (with Jeff Orlowski) (11/27/12) [26:01]
Discovery Channel - Global Warming, What You Need To Know, with Tom Brokaw [1:27:32]
This is an older video, but shows how hard industry is trying to fight against alternate energy
DN | Industry-Backed Attempt to Repeal California's Landmark Emissions Law in Prop 23 (10/14/10) [14:36]
America's Empire
BBC - WikiLeaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower, Part 1 (03/22/12) [59:29], Part 2 [59:35]
A People's History of American Imperialism by Howard Zinn (05/24/12) [8:35]
More News
RT | Iran starts WAR GAMES in Strait of Hormuz showcasing. (12/28/12) [5:07]
World's fastest train unveiled in China (12/05/11) [1:06]
Some Humor
George Bush on Global Warming - Spoof by Will Ferrell [3:42]
More News Articles

Strong quake hits off Japan near Fukushima
Reuters | Antoni Slodkowski | 12/07/12

A strong quake centered off northeastern Japan shook buildings as far away as Tokyo on Friday and triggered a one-meter tsunami in an area devastated by last year's Fukushima disaster, but there were no reports of deaths or serious damage.   The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and thousands of coastal residents were ordered to evacuate to higher ground, but the tsunami warning was lifted two hours after the tremor struck. ... Read more

Strong 7.3 quake hits off Japan near Fukushima [4:39]

The Commercialization of the Family
readersupportednews.org | Ralph Nader | 12/23/12

Family is the foundation of our American society. In many ways, the family unit is one of the last bastions of decency holding out against encroaching corporate commoditization -- the corporations can sell food, medicine, clothing, entertainment, even child and elder care, but they can't provide the love, selflessness and generosity that close family members can provide one another. But if there was a way to commercialize all those generational, biological bonds, you can be sure that profit-hungry companies and clever marketers would discover it. ... Read more

How Can I Get Enough Protein In My Diet? The Protein Myth
pcrm.org | Author | current

Protein is an important nutrient required for the building, maintenance, and repair of tissues in the body. Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, can be synthesized by the body or ingested from food. There are 20 different amino acids in the food we eat, but our body can only make 11 of them. The 9 essential amino acids, which cannot be produced by the body, must be obtained from the diet. A variety of grains, legumes, and vegetables can also provide all of the essential amino acids our bodies require. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries
Interesting History
Forbidden archeology ?Noah's Ark Found hidden conspiracy [44:46]
BBC Noah's Ark - The full video [50:29]
The Ark of the covenant found - now revealed the blood of Christ on the mercy seat [57:27]
Ron Wyatt's Death Bed Confession Confirms He's Telling The Truth About The Ark of The Covenant [29:34]
Jonathan Gray - The Ark of the Covenant [2:07:31]
UFO and D.U.M.B.s and Directed-Energy Weapons (DEW)
BOB DEAN at the Project Camelot Awake and Aware Conference, Los (09/xx/09) [1:29:23]
The Montauk Project: One Man's Story featuring Stewart Swerdlow (05/09/09) [30:00]
The Underground - A Hidden Reality and The True Story of Phil Schneider [1:20:12]
Underground Bases
Directed-Energy Weapons (DEW)
A directed-energy weapon (DEW) emits energy in an aimed direction without the means of a projectile. It transfers energy to a target for a desired effect. Intended effects may be non-lethal or lethal. Some such weapons are real, or are under active research and development. The energy can come in various forms:

  1. Electromagnetic radiation, in lasers or masers
  2. Particles with mass, in particle beam weapons (Technically a form of micro-projectile weapon)
  3. Sound, in sonic weapons
wikipedia.org
Directed Energy Technology [1:37:45]
drjudywood.com - website
wheredidthetowersgo.com - website
More Videos
The Voynich manuscript
The Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century (1404-1438), possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912.   Some pages are missing, but the current version comprises about 240 vellum pages, most with illustrations. Much of the manuscript resembles herbal manuscripts of the 1500s, seeming to present illustrations and information about plants and their possible uses for medical purposes. However, most of the plants do not match known species, and the manuscript's script and language remain unknown and unreadable.
The Book That Can't Be Read [45:37]
Voynich manuscript. All pages scanned [14:47]
Trance-Formation Part 1 [12:57], Part 2 [13:37], Part 3 [10:41], Part 4 [13:40], Part 5 [14:09], Part 6 [14:27], Part 7 [14:25]
BBC - Spy: Into the Unknown (Ep. 1) (10/25/11) [57:59], Part 2 [58:02], Part 3 [57:58], Part 4 [58:00], Part 5 [58:00], Part 6 [58:00], Part 7 [58:00], Part 8 [58:00], Part 9 [58:00], Part 10 [58:00]

Friday December 28, 2012
International News
Domestic News

2013 Is Year Zero for Climate Change
The Nation | Rebecca Solnit | 12/26/12

... Think of 2013 as the Year Zero in the battle over climate change, one in which we are going to have to win big, or lose bigger. This is a terrible thing to say, but not as terrible as the reality that you can see in footage of glaciers vanishing, images of the entire surface of the Greenland Ice Shield melting this summer, maps of Europe's future in which just being in southern Europe when the heat hits will be catastrophic, let alone in more equatorial realms. ... Read more

Newtown: Roots of a Rampage
The Nation | Katherine S. Newman | 12/19/12

... First, these shootings tend to happen in small towns with no history of background violence, rather than in big cities, which suffer almost every other kind of brutal attack except this one. There has been only one example of a rampage school shooting in an urban setting since 1970. All the others have taken place in rural towns miles from places like New York or Chicago, or in suburbs in the Western states.

What is it about these towns where no one locks their doors that generates these deadly outbursts? We argued the very thing most Americans celebrate about small-town life--close-knit neighbors, friendly families, adults engaged in the schools and churches--become sources of stultifying depression for marginal boys. We interviewed kids who were attending the same high school as their grandparents, in communities where very few left town for college, preferring to stay home and attend the local community college or state institution. For most people, this is a sign of social solidarity. For Michael Carneal, the shooter in a 1997 attack at Heath High School (outside Paducah), that solidarity felt like a life sentence of exclusion. ... Read more

For Four Retailers, Do or Die
WSJ | Ann Zimmerman | 12/27/12

While 2013 will be a tough year for retailers due to the tepid economic recovery, a few in particular face a critical 12 months. Their experiences highlight the challenges facing store chains, from increasingly cautious consumers to fierce online competition.   These unlucky retailers are going into the New Year with extra woes: slipping sales, questionable strategies and tight finances--which is why they are the ones to watch, and not in a good way. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, December 28 [10:19]
DN | Dennis Kucinich on Fiscal Cliff: Why Are We Sacrificing American Jobs for Corporate Profits? Part 1 (12/28/12) [15:12], Part 2 [16:30]
I made a snapshot of a DN interview with Dennis Kucinich who basically encapsulated the last 10 years.
*Dennis Kucinich With 2 Parties Failing U.S., We Must Build a Culture of Peace (12/28/12) [2:48]
The Real News Network (TRNN) News
This is a GREAT interview on how the FED helps the BANKS to make money!
*TRNN | Robert Pollin: The Fed breaks ground with unemployment target but pushing more money into banks without requiring more lending won't solve the problem. (12/28/12) [11:04]
TRNN | Reese Erlich: Report from Bahrain. The uprising against monarchy grows more intense, mostly ignored by Western media (12/28/12) [9:11]
TRNN | Bill Black: Fiscal Cliff: Going Nuclear and the Grand Betrayal (12/28/12) [12:13]
Nuclear Russian Roulette - Dan Hirsch (12/22/11) [38:13]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Thursday December 27, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Pentagon Preps Stealth Strike Force to Counter China
Wired Magazine | David Axe | 12/26/12

The U.S. military has begun a staged, five-year process that will see each of its three main stealth warplane types deployed to bases near China. When the deployments are complete in 2017, Air Force F-22s and B-2s and Marine Corps F-35s could all be within striking range of America's biggest economic rival at the same time. With Beijing now testing its own radar-evading jet fighters -- two different models, to be exact -- the clock is counting down to a stealth warplane showdown over the Western Pacific. ... Read more

Bayou Frack-Out: The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You've Never Heard Of
http://truth-out.org | Mike Ludwig | 12/06/12

... On a summer night in early August, the earth below the Bayou Corne, located near a small residential community in Assumption, simply opened up and gave way. Several acres of swamp forest were swallowed up and replaced with a gaping sinkhole that filled itself with water, underground brines, oil and natural gas from deep below the surface. Since then, the massive sinkhole at Bayou Corne has grown to 8 acres in size. ... Read more

Senate Passes NDAA Indefinite Detention Bill
http://readersupportednews.org | Matt Sledge | 12/26/12

The Senate passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act that was stripped of a prohibition of the indefinite military detention of US citizens on American soil by an 81-14 vote on Friday, but only after a furious dissent on the chamber's floor by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who called it an "abomination."   The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 will now head to the White House, which had earlier pledged to veto the NDAA because it prevents the president from closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. It is unclear whether the president will follow through on the threat. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, December 27 [12:34]
NY Daily News Honors Juan González for 25 Yrs as "Beacon to Whistleblowers & Wronged People" (12/27/12) [3:40]
DN | Secret Docs Reveal FBI "Counterterrorism" Monitoring of Occupy From Its Earliest Days, Part 1 (12/27/12) [6:21], Part 2 [8:44]
DN | Political Activist Jeremy Hammond Faces Life Term For WikiLeaks and Hacked Stratfor Emails (12/27/12) [15:34]
Collateral Murder - Wikileaks - Iraq - original video [14:58]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Congress Delays Aid Bill As Sandy Victims Suffer (12/27/12) [8:10]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Inside Story: Will the US ever change its gun laws? (12/18/12) [25:19]

Wednesday December 26, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Texas Man Takes Last Stand Against Keystone XL Pipeline
NPR - All Things Considered | Elizabeth Shogren | 12/25/12

An east Texas landowner was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he took to his trees and built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.   "It popped into my head a long time ago, actually," says 45-year-old David Daniel. "If I had to climb my butt on top of a tree and sit there, I would. It started with that." ... Read more

The Guidestones in Elbert County, Ga.
http://nutshellnewz.com | Author | 11/22/12

In a field in Georgia, stands a monument owned by Elbert county. Erected March 22, 1980 it was dedicated by someone/s using the pseudonym: R. C. Christian. This monument is made up of six granite slabs weighing 237, 746 pounds, (107, 840 kg) in all and is 19', 3? (5.87 m) tall. There is one column in the center with four columns surrounding it and a capstone, all made of granite. ... Read more

The Structural Endgame Of The Fiscal Cliff
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/26/12

To understand this endgame, we need to start with the financial and political basics of wealth and power in the U.S.
1. Wealth and thus political power are highly concentrated. The dynamics of rising wealth disparity and the increasing concentration of wealth are debatable; the disparity is not. Roughly 70% of all financial wealth is held by the top 5%; within this top layer of ownership, the top ½ of 1% hold an outsized share. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, December 26 [13:08]
DN | Idle No More: Indigenous-Led Protests Sweep Canada for Native Sovereignty and Environmental Justice (12/26/12) [11:41]
DN | CODEPINK Disrupts NRA's Wayne LaPierre as He Calls for Guns in U.S. Schools (12/26/12) [4:41]
*DN | As U.S. Debates Gun Post-Newtown, Obama Urged to Break With NRA & Back Global Arms Treaty, Part 1 (12/26/12) [3:50], DN | Part 2 [25:45]
NPR News
NPR News | Texas Man Takes Last Stand Against Keystone XL Pipeline (12/26/12)
TRNN News
TRNN | Black: Too Big to Prosecute and It's Obama's Fiscal Cliff (12/23/12) [8:57]
TRNN | Wal-Mart Targeted Over Corruption and Labor Practices (12/24/12) [8:03]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - 2012: A financial retrospective (12/22/12) [25:47]
*John Pilger - Obama and Empire (07/31/09) [32:28]
More News Articles

All We Want for Christmas Is...Guns
MotherJones | Maddie Oatman | 12/23/12

... Gun enthusiasts like to say that possessing a firearm is a way for civilians to step in and prevent tragic shootings. But when Mother Jones' Mark Follman analyzed data about mass shootings during the last 30 years, he couldn't find a single instance of an armed civilian saving the day. In fact, when civilians attempted to intervene, they were often wounded or killed. ... Read more

Click to zoom

Other Videos and Documentaries
Coast to Coast AM Show
  1. The Life of Jesus (12/24/12) [1:06:12]
  2. Apollo 14 & Alien Visitation & Conciousness (Uri Geller & Ed Mitchell) (12/24/12) [1:15:44]
  3. Transhumanism : Hidden History and Agenda (12/24/12) [1:18:23]
  4. Sacred Mysteries : Life After Death, Ancient Texts & the Vril (12/24/12) [1:18:58]
  5. Steve Quayle : The Global Elite's Plans Revealed (12/23/12) [1:11:38]
  6. Extraterrestrials, Planet X, & Prophecy (12/23/12) [1:17:34]
  7. The Suppressed Evidence of Giants & Ceremonial Structures (12/23/12) [1:15:11]
  8. Covert Alien Activity on Earth (12/23/12) [1:15:43]
  9. Artificial 'Man Made' Structures on Mars (12/22/12) [1:19:17]
  10. Possible Earth Doomsday Scenario's (12/22/12) [1:07:48]
  11. God, Reincarnation & Ancient Codes (12/22/12) [1:28:47]
  12. J F Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy Update (12/22/12) [33:52]
  13. A War is Coming that will Kill 2.3 Billion Human Beings (12/22/12) [1:18:21]
  14. The Alien Human Hybird Program (12/21/12) [1:26:16]
  15. Holograms , Electronic Harassment & Warfare (12/21/12) [1:26:16]
  16. The Gun Ownership Debate (12/21/12) [1:05:53]
  17. Ghosts in the Ancient World (12/21/12) [1:17:06]
  18. Fatima Secrets ; The Definitive Revelation of Our Time (12/20/12) [1:17:53]
  19. The Nazi Eugenics Program Never Stopped (12/20/12) [1:24:59]
  20. 6,000 Amphibian Species could be Extinct by 2100 (12/20/12) [1:13:03]
  21. Pole Shifts & Electromagnetic Effects (12/20/12) [1:48:54]
  22. Bible Prophecy & Underground Bases (12/19/12) [1:23:00]
  23. Ancient Egyptian Mysteries (12/19/12) [1:17:10]
  24. Electric Cataclysms : Thunderbolts of the Gods (12/19/12) [1:17:10]
  25. Super Secret Black Budget Underground & Undersea Bases [1:19:16]

  26. Book of Enoch: REAL STORY of Fallen Angels, Devils & Man (NEPHILIM, ANCIENT ALIENS, NOAHS FLOOD) (08/18/12) [1:26:04]
  27. The Book Of Enoch (04/11/11) [3:28:45]

Monday December 24, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Tony Kushner on Abraham Lincoln and Modern Politics
Bill Moyers | Author | 12/21/12

One reason so many people are disillusioned by the state of things in America is that our political system hasn't produced consistently good results in a long time. We've forgotten that democracy is supposed to be about addressing our problems through a political system that encourages bargaining, compromise, and progress. Except for taking us to war, showering largesse on the privileged and powerful, and courting donors instead of representing voters, Washington politics promotes gridlock, paralysis, and stalemate.

But Bill Moyers finds hope in the movie Lincoln. Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, who wrote the film's screenplay, joins Bill to talk about finding the man inside the monument, and what Abraham Lincoln -- 147 years after his death -- can still teach us all about politics, compromise, and the survival of American democracy. ... Read more

NRA Press Conference: Wayne LaPierre Calls For Armed Police Officers At Every School
HP | Philip Elliott/AP | 12/21/12

The nation's largest gun-rights lobby is calling for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."   The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead.

The group's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference that "the next Adam Lanza," the man responsible for last week's mayhem, is planning an attack on another school.   "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said. ... Read more

On The Morality Of The FED
"Finally, we must question the morality of Fed programs that trick people (as if they were Pavlov's dogs) into behaviors that are adverse to their own long-term best interest. What kind of government entity cajoles savers to spend, when years of under-saving and over-spending have left the consumer in terrible shape? What kind of entity tricks its citizens into paying higher and higher prices to buy stocks? What kind of entity drives the return on retiree's savings to zero for seven years (2008-2015 and counting) in order to rescue poorly managed banks? Not the kind that should play this large a role in the economy." [ZeroHedge]

Boehner's Failure and the GOP's Disgrace
HP | Robert Reich | 12/21/12

Remarkably, John Boehner couldn't get enough House Republicans to vote in favor of his proposal to keep the Bush tax cuts in place on the first million dollars of everyone's income and apply the old Clinton rates only to dollars over and above a million.   What? Even Grover Norquist blessed Boehner's proposal, saying it wasn't really a tax increase. Even Paul Ryan supported it.

What does Boehner's failure tell us about the modern Republican party? ... Read more

How 10,000 Contracts Crashed The Market: A Visual Deconstruction Of Last Night's E-Mini Flash Crash
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/21/12

On December 20, 2012, there was an Event in the eMini futures at 20:18:40 ET. The data exhibits many hallmarks of a HFT (High Frequency Trader) market maker absorbing sell orders up to their limit, and then turning around and dumping those contracts as fast as possible. Exactly what happened in the Flash Crash on May 6, 2010. Only in this case, the original seller appears to be much more aggressive than Waddell & Reed's algorithm. The drop came in 2 seconds, and halted trading for 10 seconds. The flash crash halted eMini trading for just 5 seconds. A mere 10,000 contracts (or $700mm notional) was enough to do all that damage. ... Read more

Flash Crash: Money and Speed: Inside The Black Box. [48:12]
Understanding High Frequency Trading [3:39]


Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers | Tony Kushner: on Abraham Lincoln and Modern Politics. Lincoln Screenwriter Tony Kushner talks about what we can learn from the life and decisions of America's 16th president. (12/21/12) [44:43]
Lincoln (History Channel) [2:16:17]
Bill Moyers | Sandy Hook : Remember the Victims, Reject the Violence (12/20/12) [7:42]
Lawrence O'Donnell: NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre A 'Desperate, Cornered Rat,' 'Lobbyist For Mass Murderers' (12/22/12) [18:32]
U.S. Shooting Deaths In The Last Week, Since Sandy Hook, Tops 100
  1. 3 Shot And Killed In Mich...
  2. 18-Year-Old Shot Multiple Times, Dies...
  3. Man Kills Wife, Teen, Himself...
  4. Man Shoots, Kills Own Son...
  5. Cops Shoot Teen Dead...
  6. Man Gunned Down In Parking Lot...
  7. 5 Dead In Spate Of Shootings...
  8. 2 Murdered In Philly...
  9. 2 Kansas Cops Shot Dead...
  10. Shooter Killed...
  11. 4 Die In Apparent Murder-Suicide...
  12. Ga. Cop Dies From Gunshot...
  13. Argument Leads Teen To Shoot Friend...
  14. Man Shot To Death...
  15. Teen Dies After Being Tied Up, Shot...
  16. Man Shot Dead In Street...
  17. Drug Deal Leads To Shooting Death...
  18. Mother Of 2 Killed In Road Rage Shooting...
  19. Man Shoots, Kills Intruder...
  20. 1 Killed In Coney Island...
  21. Man Dies From Gunshot Wounds...
  22. Cops Investigate Gun Death...
  23. Shooting Victim's Body Found On Bike Trail...
  24. Man Charged With Shooting Own Brother Dead...
  25. Man Dies After Being Shot In Chest...
  26. Body Of Shooting Victim Found In Pickup...
  27. Teen Arrested For Robbery Shooting Death...
  28. Man Carrying 2-Year-Old Son Shot Dead...
  29. Man Fatally Shot Near Home...
  30. Parolee Dies In Shooting...
  31. 1 Killed In Buffalo Shooting...
  32. Man Shot Dead In Apartment Complex...
  33. Street Gun Battle Kills Grandma Bystander...
  34. Man, Woman Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide...
  35. Woman Shot Dead By Intruder...
  36. 14-Year-Old Arrested Over Fatal Gun Attack...
  37. Man Found Shot Dead In Parking Lot...
  38. Woman Shot In Face By Ex-Boyfriend...
  39. 1 Woman, 3 Men Shot Dead...
  40. 2 Die In Attempted Robbery...
  41. Army Reservist Shot To Death In Alley...
  42. Man Shot To Death In Bodega...
  43. 2 Shot Dead In Burned House...
  44. Man Shot During Break-In...
  45. Man Fatally Shot...
  46. 20-Year-Old Gunned Down...
  47. Man Shoots Self During Police Pursuit...
  48. 1 Killed In Baltimore Shooting...
  49. Cops ID Shooting Victim...
  50. 60-Year-Old Man Shot Dead...
  51. Shot Man's Body Found In Vacant House....
  52. Woman Shot And Killed Outside Her Home...
  53. Shooting Victim Was 'Trying To Turn Life Around'...
  54. Slain Shooting Victim Found In Street....
  55. Driving Altercation Leads To Shooting, 1 Dies...
  56. 3-Year-Old Dies In Accidental Shooting...
  57. Man Turns Self In After Allegedly Shooting Wife...
  58. Man Shot Dead Outside Home...
  59. 3 Slain In Separate New Orleans Shootings...
  60. Cops Investigate Shooting Death...
  61. Man Shot Dead In Ohio...
  62. Teen Shot To Death...
  63. Man Dies After Being Shot Multiple Times...
  64. Man Charged Over Son's Shooting Death...
  65. Cops Find 2 Men Shot Dead...
  66. 1 Dies In Shooting...
  67. Man Charged Over Gun Killing...
  68. 1 Shot Dead In Confrontation...
  69. Man Charged With Murder Over Shooting...
  70. Motel-Owner Shot And Killed...
  71. Husband Shoots Estranged Wife Dead...
  72. Suspect Arrested Over Deputy's Shooting Death...
  73. Police Probe Fatal Shooting...
  74. Cops Kill 2 Suspects In 3 Shooting Deaths...
  75. Man Killed Fighting Back Against Robber...
  76. Man Killed In Home Invasion....
  77. Nightclub Shooting Kills 1...
  78. Child Brain Dead After Drive By Shooting...
  79. Man Charged Over Shooting Of Ex-Wife...
  80. Body Found In Vacant House...
  81. Teen Fatally Shot...
More Video News
More Lessons From the Fukushima Daiichi Accident: Containment Failures and the Loss of the Ultimate Heat Sink
American Drug War: The Last White Hope: Pre Release Cut (02/22/09) [1:01:49]
LauraFlanders | Eugene Jarecki: "The House I Live In". Our Drug War isn't Working. (12/10/12) [15:16]
DN | "The House I Live In": New Film Exposes Economic, Moral Failure of U.S. War on Drugs. Part 1 (01/31/12) [10:27], Part 2 [17:45]
FULL MOVIE: 2012 - The End of World [2:31:24]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday December 21, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Daily Gun Slaughter in U.S. Obscured by Newtown Rampage [Comment - Very Sobering Article]
Bloomberg | William Selway | 12/21/12

... Sherman may have been the first person killed by gunfire in the U.S. that Friday, hours before the second-deadliest shooting in the nation's history unfolded 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away in Newtown, Connecticut. That massacre left 28 dead, including the gunman, his mother and 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

By day's end, at least 12 other people were shot dead around the nation, according to police and news accounts. Their deaths were little noticed beyond circles of family or friends. ... Read more

Bulletproof backpack sales spike after Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.
nydailynews.com | Rheana Murray | 12/20/12

Sales of bulletproof backpacks for schoolchildren are through the roof days after a masked gunman's rampage left 20 kids dead at a Connecticut elementary school. ... Read more
Thebulletproofbackpack Website
Video [9:36]

Financial Ties Bind NRA, Gun Industry
NPR.org | Peter Overby | 12/20/12

... The NRA and the gun industry are reeling after last week's massacre. The primary weapon used -- an AR-15-style rifle -- is one of the most popular guns in America.   The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association of the firearms industry, says those who have AR-15s are among the most passionate gun owners. ... Read more

Boehner Drops 'Plan B' as Budget Effort Turns to Disarray
Bloomberg | Richard Rubin | 12/21/12

House Speaker John Boehner scrapped a plan to allow higher tax rates on annual income above $1 million, yielding to anti-tax resistance within his own party and throwing already-stalled budget talks deeper into turmoil.   He will hold a news conference today at 10 a.m. Washington time, his office said in a statement. ... Read more

5 Reasons Our Changing Climate Is More Dangerous Than You Think
AlterNet | Tara Lohan | 12/17/12

This week the sane among us will scoff at those hoarding candles and food for another apocalypse that fails to materialize. We'll laugh at the accounts of people readying their bunkers and at store shelves being wiped clean. We know that the world will not come to a cataclysmic end on December 21.

Here's what we're not so good at understanding: We are part of a slowly enfolding tragedy in which the end of the world as we know it may be getting closer and closer. It won't happen on any particular day that we can pinpoint and there won't be a giant explosion or a big flood that will wipe everything away. There will be many floods and fires over many years. One species, one crop dying off after another. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, December 21 [12:57]
*DN | Reporter Matthieu Aikins on New Report: "The Doctor, the CIA, and the Blood of Bin Laden" (12/21/12) [21:42]
DN | "End of the World": Apocalypse or Shopocalypse? Reverend Billy on Consumerism and Climate Change (12/21/12) [3:41]
Gun Control, or the Lack Of
Bulletproof Vest -- How Its Made [6:42]
Financial Ties Bind NRA, Gun Industry (12/20/12) [4:45]
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association of the firearms industry, says those who have AR-15s are among the most passionate gun owners.   Just recently, the foundation put out a video touting the AR-15 as "probably one of the most customizable rifles there is today."
Accessorizing Your AR-15 - NSSF Shooting Sportscast (12/13/12) [10:51]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 12/21/12 [hr]
International News - Friday 12/21/12 [hr]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick: Untold History: The Rise and Fall of a Progressive Vice-President of the USA. Discusses the '44 Democratic Convention coup that dumped VP Henry A. Wallace, the man who as President would have opposed the cold war. (12/21/12) [13:08]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: US Blocks UN Condemnation of Israeli Settlements (12/21/12) [11:40]
TRNN | Amr Adly: Backed by US, Muslim Brotherhood Tries to Reproduce Mubarak Regime (12/21/12) [10:01]
NPR News
NPR News
More News Articles

Preppers Are Getting Ready for the Barackalypse
MotherJones | Tim Murphy | Jan/Feb 2013

... Stevens' book, Making the Best of Basics, may be the closest thing the survival industry has to a bible (aside from the actual Bible). It has sold more than 800,000 copies since hitting the shelves at Kmart during the gas crisis in 1974. Stevens is not actually a doctor, and, come to think of it, he'd rather you not call him a "prepper," which he considers a slur meant to impugn self-reliant folks like himself as paranoid loons. ... Read more

Barackalypse Now! Video [2:36]
Other Videos and Documentaries
  1. The Man Who Predicted 9/11. The program is centered on the director of security of Morgan Stanley, Rick Rescorla, who predicted an attack on the World Trade Center and led hundreds out of the South Tower before dying in its collapse. (01/30/12) [44:54]
  2. Lincoln [2:16:17]
  3. *THE PRESIDENTS is an unprecedented eight-part survey of the personal lives and legacies of the remarkable men who have presided over the Oval Office. From George Washington to George W. Bush, THE PRESIDENTS gathers together vivid snapshots of all 43 Commanders in Chief who have guided America throughout its history--their powerful personalities, weaknesses, and major achievements or historical insignificance.
  4. The Presidents- Carter to George W. Bush 1977- 2008 [44:50]
  5. The Presidents Truman to Ford 1945-1977 [45:22]
  6. The Presidents- Cleveland to Taft 1885-1913 [44:51]
  7. The Presidents- John Q Adams to Polk 1825-1849 [44:51]
  8. The Presidents- Andrew Johnson to Arthur 1865-1885 [44:51]
  9. The Presidents- Taylor to Lincoln 1849-1865 [44:51]
  10. The Presidents- Washington to Monroe 1789-1825 [44:50]

  11. Nazi America: A Secret History [1:27:55]

  12. The Great Depression- New Deal/New York [57:52]
  13. The Great Depression- The Road To Rock Bottom [59:51]
  14. Surviving The Dust Bowl [50:39]

Thursday December 20, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Stories From Washington's Revolving Door
Bill Moyers | John Light | 12/14/12

The revolving doors in Washington spin especially quickly after elections: 79 new members of Congress will take their seats in January, and each one is selecting their staff. Meanwhile, 97 lawmakers have retired, resigned or lost their bids for reelection, and they -- and their staff -- are looking for work. Politicians are barred, by law, from lobbying their former colleagues within one or two years of leaving the Hill -- but the law doesn't prevent them from making introductions and opening doors for lobbyists in their new jobs. ... Read more

Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 12/05/12

When the legislation that became known as "Obamacare" was first drafted, the key legislator was the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, whose committee took the lead in drafting the legislation. As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that legislation was Elizabeth Folwer, his chief health policy counsel; indeed, as Marcy Wheeler discovered, it was Fowler who actually drafted it. As Politico put it at the time: "If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer." ... Read more

Sales Of Armored Backpacks Reportedly Soar: News outlets are picking up on a Mother Jones report that a manufacturer of lightweight body armor for children and backpacks lined with material designed to protect against bullets says sales "have gone through the roof" since the Newtown shootings.

The NRA's big spending edge -- in 1 chart
Washington Post | Chris Cillizza | 12/18/12

... The chart below, which was put together by City Limits, a "New York City-based non-profit that strengthens community engagement on civic, economic, and social justice issues", paints the disparity between the NRA's spending and that of groups advocating for more gun control in stark relief. ... Read more

Click to zoom

The Second Great Betrayal: Obama and Cameron Decide that Banks are above the Law
TRNN | William Black | 12/17/12

HSBC was one of the largest originators of fraudulent mortgage loans through its acquisition of Household Finance.   Three recent books by "insiders" have confirmed earlier articles revealing the decisive role that Treasury Secretary Geithner has played in opposing criminal prosecutions of the elite banksters and banks whose frauds drove the financial crisis and the Great Recession. ... Read more

Simon Johnson: Banks Just Plain Lying To Fight Reform At This Point
HP & NYTimes | Simon Johnson | 12/20/12

In a desperate attempt to prevent implementation of the Volcker Rule, representatives of megabanks are resorting to some last-minute scare tactics. Specifically, they assert that the Volcker Rule, which is designed to reduce the risks that such banks can take, violates the international trade obligations of the United States and would offend other member nations of the Group of 20. This is false and should be brushed aside by the relevant authorities. ... Read more (HP) or Read more (NYTimes)



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, December 20 [13:40]
DN | "We Have to Do Something": Rep. Carolyn McCarthy on Growing Gun Control Push After Newtown (12/19/12) [27:22]
DN | Domestic Abuse Survivor Goldie Taylor on Giving Up Her Gun, Unseen Plague of US Violence. Part 1 (12/20/12) [9:59], Part 2 [9:02]
DN | The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Bribe Its Way Through Expansion in Mexico (12/20/12) [13:48]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Fiscal Cliffs and Fiscal Realities: Why the fiscal cliff is merely a phantom menace -- and what we should be talking about instead. (12/14/12) [23:19]
*Bill Moyers | Bill Moyers Essay: Washington's Revolving Door - Bill takes you through the revolving door between Washington leaders and lobbyists to see how you lose and they win.(12/14/12) [6:10]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Identifying And Treating Severe Mental Illness (12/20/12) [1hr]
TRNN News
TRNN | Turkey - Angry Rhetoric but Real Cooperation With Israel; Relations with Iran Deteriorate (12/20/12) [9:41]
Zero Dark Thirty Official Final Trailer (2012) - Kathryn Bigelow Bin Laden Movie (12/13/12) [2:31]

John McCain criticises Zero Dark Thirty's depiction of torture
The Guardian | Xan Brooks | 12/20/12

The former presidential candidate John McCain is one of three US senators who have criticised the depiction of torture in Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's fact-based drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The film suggests that waterboarding and coercive interrogation tactics were instrumental in gathering information ahead of the successful raid on Bin Laden's compound in May 2011. ... Read more

Blizzard Warnings In Upper Midwest; Possible Tornado In Alabama
Click to zoom

Other Videos and Documentaries
  1. Fail Safe (2000) World Nuclear Holocaust [1:24:23]
  2. Thirteen Days | The film is set during the two-week Cuban missile crisis in October of 1962, and it centers on how President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and others handled the explosive situation [1:24:23]
  3. The Missiles Of October, Part 1 [1:17:05], Part 2 [1:18:39]
  4. Jimmy Carter, Part 1 [1:23:05], Part 2 [1:16:54]
  5. Reagan, Part 1 [1:52:41], Part 2 [2:22:33]
  6. Ike, Part 1 [1:11:32], Part 2 [1:08:13]
  7. Truman, 1995 HBO Films [2:10:53]
  8. Woodrow Wilson, Part 1 [1:20:28], Part 2 [2:10:53]
  9. The Bunker Full Movie (2001) [1:27:51]
  10. Nazis At The Center of the Earth Official Trailer (2012) Jake Busey Asylum Movie (04/19/12) [1:20]
  11. The Mars Underground [1:13:52]
  12. The Yamato [46:26]
  13. The Battleships - Terror from Above [52:59]
  14. The Saboteurs of Telemark (BBC 1973) [48:58]

Wednesday December 19, 2012
International News

Almost Everything You've Heard About the North Korean Space Launch Is Wrong
Wired Magazine | Brian Weeden | 12/18/12

Was This a Ballistic Missile Test or a Satellite Launch?
Some of the same technologies are needed for long-range missiles and for space launches -- most notably rocket motors, high strength-to-weight fuselages, and guidance software. But they're not the same thing. All evidence points to a satellite launch, despite headlines. .... Read more

Indians call for 'no mercy' in rape case
Aljazeera | Author | 12/19/12

Students, politicians, and activists across India came out into the streets demanding no mercy to be shown to the culprits of the Delhi bus gang rape case - as three of the four accused confessed to the crime in a local court. ... Read more

Domestic News

NRA Responds To Sandy Hook Massacre
HP | Christina Wilkie | 12/18/12

The National Rifle Association on Tuesday said it was prepared to offer "meaningful contributions" to ensure that events such as the massacre of 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., "never happen again." ... Read more

Michigan Concealed Carry Bill Allowing Guns In Schools Vetoed By Governor Rick Snyder
HP | Author | 12/18/12

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder rejected a bill Tuesday that would have allowed people who receive special training to carry concealed firearms into formerly gun-free zones like churches and school buildings.   Michigan's legislature passed the concealed carry measure, Senate Bill 59, last Thursday. ... Read more

American Gun Deaths to Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 2015
Bloomberg | Chris Christoff | 12/18/12

Guns and cars have long been among the leading causes of non-medical deaths in the U.S. By 2015, firearm fatalities will likely exceed traffic fatalities for the first time, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.   While motor vehicle deaths dropped 22 percent from 2005 to 2010, gun fatalities are rising again after a low point in 2000. ... Read more

Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, December 19 [9:35]
*DN | New Town to Newtown: How '96 Massacre Spurred Gun Laws in Australia--No Mass Shootings Since (12/18/12) [23:54]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Untold History: Early US Imperialism, Hitler, Roosevelt, The Spanish Civil War. (12/19/12) [15:45]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Debate Over Ways To Improve School Safety (12/19/12) [1hr]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost : Big banks, big criminals? (12/17/12) [25:26]
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost : The vultures swooping on vulnerable nations (11/03/12) [25:26]
Aljazeera | Fault Lines : The battle for the Sinai (12/18/12) [24:21]
Aljazeera | Fault Lines : For Sale: The American Dream (09/04/12) [24:41]
Aljazeera | People & Power - Afghanistan: An Army Prepares (12/13/12) [24:57]
Aljazeera | People & Power - King Cobra and the Dragon (11/07/12) [25:05]
Aljazeera | 101 East: Jaws: Danger or hype? (12/13/12) [25:01]
Bit of Humor
Grover Strangelove [1:24]

Tuesday December 18, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Remembering the Victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
Time Magazine | Samantha Grossman | 12/16/12

The hideous massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary claimed the lives of 20 young students and six adults. The victims were siblings and grandchildren, educators and mentors. As America mourns their deaths, more information is coming out about those lost in the tragedy. ... Read more
Click to zoom

Gunman's Mother Kept Trials of Home Life Hidden
Time Magazine | Author | 12/16/12

Two or three nights a week, Lanza -- the mother of the gunman in Connecticut's horrific school massacre -- came in for carryout salads, but stayed for Chardonnay and good humor. ... Read more

The Worst Mass Shootings of the Past 50 Years
Time Magazine | Author | 07/20/12

A gunman at a Connecticut elementary school has reportedly killed more than two dozen people, including children, on Friday. It is among the world's worst mass shootings. Here is a look at some others: ... Read more

Amy Goodman on 'Up': 'Gun control is the answer right now'
rawstory.com | David Ferguson | 12/15/12

Saturday morning on "Up with Chris Hayes," host Chris Hayes welcomed a panel including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!; Howard Wolfson of the New York City mayor's office; Dave Cullen, author of Columbine and radio host Esther Armah. They discussed the role played by mental illness in attacks like the mass shooting Friday in Newtown, Connecticut and what society might endeavor to do differently to avoid these types of horrific attacks in the future. ... Read more

Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 12/13/12

... Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank. ... Read more

Mayan Apocalypse: Everything You Wanted To Know But Were REALLY Afraid To Ask
Mother Jones | Asawin Suebsaeng | 12/17/12

Lately, you've probably heard rumors that the world will end on December 21, 2012. You've probably brushed them aside as piffle on par with theories about Barack Obama being a lizard overlord. Yet, polling data shows that 12 percent of Americans believe the end is indeed upon us, while 14 percent of people worldwide think Earth will be a goner in their lifetime. ... Read more

How Walmart Helped Make Newtown Shooter's AR-15 the Most Popular Assault Weapon in America
The Nation | George Zornick | 12/17/12

When Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, December 14, inexplicably bent on ending as many lives as possible, he was carrying a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle and several high-capacity magazines. ... .... Although it is not yet clear where the Bushmaster AR-15 used by Lanza (and registered to his mother) was purchased, the model is familiar to many Walmart shoppers. It's on sale at about 1,700 Walmart stores nationwide, ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, December 18 [12:15]
DN | As Newtown's First Victims Are Buried, Washington Shows Signs of Life in Taking on Gun Lobby (12/18/12) [7:47], Part 2 [23:54]
*DN | "Americans Kill People": Michael Moore on Newtown, Mass Shootings & US Culture of Violence (12/18/12) [5:30]
*DN | As NRA Hides From Public After Newtown, ALEC Ties Show Extensive Lobbying Behind US Gun Laws (12/18/12) [8:49]
Amy Goodman on 'Up': 'Gun control is the answer right now' (12/15/12) [9:30]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Americans And Gun Control (12/18/12) [1hr]
Fact of the Day
Walmart is now the biggest seller of firearms and ammunition in America.
Click to zoom

Click to zoom

*Mother Jones' Mass Shooting Research (12/15/12) [1:17]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - Big banks, big criminals? HSBC has been fined $1.92bn - the largest fine in banking history. (12/16/12) [25:26]
Current | If US went carbon neutral tomorrow, China's output would still make up for this in 3.5 years [3:27]
2012- L.A. escape scene (12/14/12) [5:14]
More News

The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Get Its Way in Mexico
NYTimes | David Barstow | 12/17/12

SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico -- Wal-Mart longed to build in Elda Pineda's alfalfa field. It was an ideal location, just off this town's bustling main entrance and barely a mile from its ancient pyramids, which draw tourists from around the world. With its usual precision, Wal-Mart calculated it would attract 250 customers an hour if only it could put a store in Mrs. Pineda's field. ... Read more, Go to Video


Monday December 17, 2012
International News
Domestic News

War on Science: Evolution, Climate Change, and the Curious House Committee on Science
Truth-Out | Ken Morris | 12/15/12

"What do many Republicans in the House of Representatives have in common with the 17th century Spanish Inquisition? Both have waged a war on science." ... Read more

Quote of the Day
House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. On the origin of our species, member Paul Broun of Georgia said at Liberty Baptist Church, in September of 2012, "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell."

Newtown School Vigil: 'These Parents Lost Their Hearts Today'
HP | Michael McLaughlin | 12/15/12

On a bitingly cold Friday night 11 days before Christmas, hundreds of people spilled out of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, hours after the staggering murder of 20 children and six adults at an area elementary school.

... For some, the shooting challenged their long-held views of this New England town about 60 miles northeast of New York City. "As a community we have so much strength," said Dena Daum, a dental hygienist with a middle school daughter and high school son. "Now they're going to compare us to Columbine." ... Read more

A Timeline Of Mass Shootings In The US Since Columbine
thinkprogress.org | Aviva Shen | 12/14/12

On Friday morning, 27 people were reportedly shot and killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT. According to sources, 18 of these casualties were children. This is the second mass shooting in the US this week, after a gunman opened fire in an Oregon shopping mall on Tuesday, killing 2. ABC News reports that there have been 31 school shootings in the US since Columbine in 1999, when 13 people were killed.

The rate of people killed by guns in the US is 19.5 times higher than similar high-income countries in the world. In the last 30 years since 1982, America has mourned at least 61 mass murders. Below is a timeline of mass shootings in the US since the Columbine High massacre: ... Read more

School Shooter Adam Lanza Used Military-Style Bushmaster Rifle
HP | John Rudolf | 12/16/12

Any move to clamp down on consumer sales of military-style weapons could fall heavily on Bushmaster and its corporate parent, Freedom Group, a private company owned by a New York-based hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management. According to its 2011 annual report, Freedom Group is the nation's largest manufacturer of military-style semiautomatics, which it calls "modern sporting rifles."   Freedom Group also owns Remington and DPMS Firearms, two other leading manufacturers of military-style semiautomatics. ... Read more

Interesting News

Not Milk?
onegreenplanet.org | Jessica Verma | 05/05/11

... So, fine, maybe you don't need dairy, but it can't be bad for you, can it? Unfortunately for those of us who love our cheese and ice cream, the evidence suggests that it probably can. Dairy consumption has been linked to cancer, diabetes, autism and schizophrenia, and many autoimmune disorders including Multiple Sclerosis. ... Read more

Milk substitutes
Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, December 17 [12:28]
DN | "We Can't Tolerate This Anymore": Obama Vows Action After Worst U.S. Grade School Massacre [12:28]
DN | Debate: Will Newtown Shooting Spur Tougher U.S. Gun Control? (12/17/12) [18:28]
Sandy Hook School Shooting
*Connecticut Shooting: Teacher Kaitlin Roig Protected Her Students (12/14/12) [5:00], Continued
*CNN | Piers Morgan: 'How Many More Kids Have To Die' Before New Gun Control Laws (12/15/12) [3:53]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Mass Shootings And Their Effect On The American Psyche (12/17/12) [1hr]
Financial Planning In Uncertain Times (12/17/12) [1hr]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Peter Kuznick; The Making of "Untold History of the United States". In this segment he tells the story about how he teamed up with Oliver Stone to challenge a primary thesis of the cold war. (12/17/12) [10:24]
*TRNN | Mary Bottari: Michigan Anti-Union Law Drafted by ALEC. At the last minute, Michigan governor uses right-wing group's draft of legislation that gives workers the "right" to work without collective bargaining. (12/14/12) [9:19]
website - prwatch.org, website - alecexposed.org
TRNN | Steve Horn: Manufacturing Corporate Friendly State Legislation. ALEC is only one of several right wing organizations that write model big business friendly laws for state legislatures across the country.(10/29/12) [13:46]
Inspirational Videos
Paraguay Landfill Harmonic - The Recycled Orchestra [3:27]

Friday December 14, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation's Underground Water Supply
ProPublica | Abrahm Lustgarten | 12/11/12

Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation's drinking water. ... Read more

The Senate Report on CIA Interrogations You May Never See
ProPublica | Cora Currier | 12/07/12

A Senate committee is close to putting the final stamp on a massive report on the CIA's detention, interrogation and rendition of terror suspects. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Select Committee on Intelligence, called the roughly 6,000-page report "the most definitive review of this CIA program to be conducted."   But it's unclear how much, if any, of the review you might get to read. ... Read more

A sick world: We live longer, with more pain and illness
Reuters | Kate Kelland | 12/13/12

The world has made huge progress fighting killer infectious diseases, but as a result we now lead longer and sicker lives, with health problems that cause us years of pain, disability and mental distress.   This "devastating irony", as researchers describe it, is the main conclusion of a five-year study that forms the most comprehensive assessment of global health in the history of medicine, according to the journal publishing the research. ...

  1. While malnutrition has dropped down the rankings as a cause of death and illness, the effects of excessive eating are taking its place. Smoking and alcohol use have also overtaken child hunger to become the second and third leading health risks, behind high blood pressure.
  2. Over three million deaths globally were attributable in 2010 to excess body weight, more than three times as many as malnutrition.
  3. The research found that of 52.8 million deaths globally in 2010, chronic diseases took the highest tolls. About 12.9 million deaths were due to stroke and heart disease - conditions exacerbated by eating and drinking too much, smoking and taking too little exercise - and eight million were from cancer.
  4. HIV/AIDS killed 1.5 million people in 2010, and tuberculosis, another infectious disease, killed 1.2 million.
  5. While child mortality has decreased, there has also been a startling 44 percent increase in the number of deaths among adults aged 15 to 49 between 1970 and 2010.
Read more

Could You Survive on $2 a Day?
MotherJones | Gabriel Thompson | 12/13/12

Two years ago, Harvard professor Kathryn Edin was in Baltimore interviewing public housing residents about how they got by. As a sociologist who had spent a quarter century studying poverty, she was no stranger to the trappings of life on the edge: families doubling or tripling up in apartments, relying on handouts from friends and relatives, selling blood plasma for cash. But as her fieldwork progressed, Edin began to notice a disturbing pattern. "Nobody was working and nobody was getting welfare," she says. Her research subjects were always pretty strapped, but "this was different. These people had nothing coming in." ... Read more

Grade The Recessiovery (Recession Recovery)
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/13/12

Here, for your comparative studies analytical viewing pleasure, is the current recession recovery in context. Across activity indicators, consumer behavior, labor market developments, and housing & construction, there is a little here for everyone. From vehicle sales to disposable income and from durable goods to industrial production, it seems grading this economy's performance is a matter of 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'. Read more
Note: Go to article to see all the graphs



Another School Shooting!!
*18 Children Dead (27 People Total) At Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting In Newton, Connecticut (12/14/12) [6:09]
Newtown Connecticut Sandy Hook Elementary School Mass Shooting Makes 27 Dead Including 18 Children (12/14/12) [4:15]
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting. Newton,Ct. Video 27 Dead, 18 Children (12/14/12) [3:15]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, December 14 [14:58]
*DN | Dean Baker: The Biggest Myth in Obama-GOP Spending Showdown is the "Fiscal Cliff" Itself (12/14/12) [13:18]
DN | Ex-Chair Michael Copps on FCC's Unrelenting, Anti-Diversity Push for Media Consolidation (12/14/12) [14:24]
DN | As Admin Preps "Enduring Presence" in Afghanistan, Peace Activists Build Ties to War Victims (12/14/12) [14:59]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Rob Johnson: Fiscal Cliff "Crisis" Manufactured to Prey on the Weak, Real crisis is the cost of health care which has nothing to do with Medicare or Medicaid (12/13/12) [11:21]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 12/14/12
International News - Friday 12/14/12
TYT News
TYT | 'Hunger Games' Competition Show Coming to TV (12/13/12) [5:21]
TYT | The "Lie of the Year" Is... (12/12/12) [6:30]
TYT | Republicans Furious Over Bo Obama Holiday Card (12/10/12) [3:41]
More News - Human Interest Stories

America's World War II Prison Camps
lewrockwell.com | Gary North | date

Most Americans have never heard of the prisoner of war camps in the United States during World War II. Hans Sennholz, a Luftwaffe pilot and later a Misesian economist, worked on a prisoner-run farm in Arkansas after he had been shot down by British anti-aircraft fire in North Africa. They sent him from Britain through Canada to the West Coast and then to Arkansas.

Most estimates that I have seen place the number of prisoners of war in the U.S. in the range of 50,000 to 70,000, but one reputable and detailed Website says it was 425,000. ... Read more

Amazing tale of a desperate WWII pilot's encounter with a German flying ace
nypost.com | Maureen Callahan | 12/09/12

On Dec. 20, 1943, a young American bomber pilot named Charlie Brown found himself somewhere over Germany, struggling to keep his plane aloft with just one of its four engines still working. They were returning from their first mission as a unit, the successful bombing of a German munitions factory. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Thursday December 13, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Labor's plan to fight back
Politico | Alexander Burns | 12/12/12

Labor unions, stung by an unexpected setback in Michigan, where Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a right-to-work law Tuesday limiting their ability to collect dues, are eyeing a large-scale counteroffensive against the conservative state leaders who have slashed away at union power since the 2010 midterm elections. ... Read more

Groups vow to push 'right to work' in other states
Washington Post | Felicia Sonmez | 12/12/12

LANSING, Mich. -- The conservative groups that supported Michigan's new "right to work" law -- winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor -- vowed Wednesday to replicate that success elsewhere. ... Read more

7 Shocking Ways the Military Wastes Our Money
AlterNet | Laura Gottesdiener | 12/11/12

The David Petraeus scandal has shined a light on the luxurious, subsidized lifestyle of the U.S. military's top generals. But so far, what the media has uncovered only scratches the surface of the abuses. Here are eight absurd ways the military wastes our money--and none of them have anything to do with national defense. ... Read more

Why Republicans Can't Propose Spending Cuts
NYMagazine | Jonathan Chait | 12/12/12

"Where are the president's spending cuts?" asks John Boehner. With Republicans coming to grips with their inability to stop taxes on the rich from rising, the center of the debate has turned to the expenditure side. In the short run, the two parties have run into an absurd standoff, where Republicans demand that President Obama produce an offer of higher spending cuts, and Obama replies that Republicans should say what spending cuts they want, and Republicans insist that Obama should try to guess what kind of spending cuts they would like. ... Read more

Too Big to Jail: Big Banks Can Finance Terrorists and Walk Away Scot-Free
HP | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 12/12/12

The New York Times reports this week that megabank HSBC has escaped criminal prosecution for money laundering that probably funded terrorists and narcotics traffickers. Why? Because regulators and prosecutors were petrified that an indictment would undermine the entire financial system. The Times quotes anonymous government sources who confessed fears about bringing formal charges because doing so would be a "death sentence" for the bank. So they let it off the hook. ... Read more

Greenland and Antarctica 'have lost four trillion tonnes of ice' in 20 years
The Guardian | Damian Carrington | 11/29/12

• Landmark study by global team of scientists published
• Finds melting polar ice has led to 11mm rise in sea level
• Greenland losing ice five times faster than early 1990s
Read more

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DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, December 13 [16:31]
DN | Matt Taibbi: After Laundering $800 Million in Drug Money, How Did HSBC Execs Avoid Jail? Part 1 (12/13/12) [12:05], Part 2 [5:54]
DemocracyNow.org - The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We're joined by Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Matt Taibbi, author of "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History." "You can do real time in jail in America for all kinds of ridiculous offenses," Taibbi says. "Here we have a bank that laundered $800 million dollars of drug money and they can't find a way to put anybody in jail for that? That sends an incredible message, not just to the financial sector, but to everybody. It's an obvious, clear double standard where one set of people gets to break the rules as much as they want and another set of people can't break any rules at all without going to jail."
DN | After Rebuff by Clinton, Actor Peter Coyote Hopes to Sway Obama on Leonard Peltier Clemency (12/13/12) [16:16]
Director Oliver Stone
DN | Oliver Stone on the Untold U.S. History from Atomic Age, Vietnam to Obama's Drone War. Part 1 [15:28], Part 2 [7:40]
Heaven & Earth 1993 movie Oliver Stone (1993) [2:15:41]
Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed (12/12/12) [3:49]
3D Printing
Mcor Iris True Color 3D Printer [1:22]
Zcorp 3D Printer 650 [4:16]

Staples Announces In-Store 3-D Printing Service
Wired Magazine | Mike Senese | 11/29/12

Pretty soon you'll be able to print your 3-D projects at the local Staples.   A new service called "Staples Easy 3D" will allow customers to upload their designs to Staples' website, then pick up the printed objects at their local office supply megastore, or have them shipped to their home or business -- not unlike the photo- and document-printing service the company already offers. ... Read more


Wednesday December 12, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Fighting High Gas Prices
Bernie Sanders | 12/11/12

At a time when workers are struggling to make ends meet because of the recession, Bernie has put a spotlight on Big Oil's record profits and called for tighter regulations on Wall Street speculators who artificially drive up oil and gas prices. On Monday, he focused on gas prices in Vermont, where the average pump price was 26 cents a gallon above the national average. The price spread is even worse in Burlington and throughout northwestern Vermont. "Gasoline distributors have a right to make a profit, but they should not be ripping people off in these tough economic times," Bernie said. Read more

Fox News chief's failed attempt to enlist Petraeus as presidential candidate
Washington Post | Bob Woodward | 12/03/12

Roger Ailes, the longtime Republican media guru, founder of Fox News and its current chairman, had some advice last year for then-Gen. David H. Petraeus.

So in spring 2011, Ailes asked a Fox News analyst headed to Afghanistan to pass on his thoughts to Petraeus, who was then the commander of U.S. and coalition forces there. Petraeus, Ailes advised, should turn down an expected offer from President Obama to become CIA director and accept nothing less than the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military post. If Obama did not offer the Joint Chiefs post, Petraeus should resign from the military and run for president, Ailes suggested. ... Read more

*TYT | Fox News to Petraeus: Can We Run Your Campaign for President? (12/05/12) [10:27]
How Michigan's Right-To-Work Law Came to Be
As police held back thousands of protesters near the state capital building, Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, became the 24th state to enact so-called "right-to-work" legislation. Earlier today, Governor Rick Snyder signed two bills preventing public and private sector unions from requiring workers to pay union fees.

The Detroit News reports that after requests from Grover Norquist and others, Snyder switched sides on the issue. United Auto Workers President Robert King said in an interview, that the Koch brothers and Amway owner Dick DeVos "bullied and bought their way to get this legislation in Michigan."

In an editorial headlined "Drinking the Kochs' Kool Aid," the Detroit Free Press was unable to account for the governor's change of heart, but offered some theories on the motivations of State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville. He may have been under pressure, the newspaper said, from the anti-union Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both financially supported by the Koch brothers. ALEC's model right-to-work bill "mirrors the Michigan law word for word." Read more

Drinking the Kochs' Kool-Aid
Detroit Free Press | Author | 12/11/12

A narrative gaining currency among Rick Snyder's defenders explains his flip-flop on right-to-work legislation as a reluctant response to labor unions who put Proposal 2 on the November ballot over the governor's objections, then refused to bargain with good faith with him afterward.   But the truth? Snyder hasn't gotten much respect from the groups backing right-to-work, either.

Americans For Prosperity, founded by billionaire tea party titans David and Charles Koch, is heralding Michigan's imminent passage of right-to-work legislation laws in Michigan as "the shot heard around the world" in the fight to weaken unions. ... Read more

Gov. Rick Snyder press conference after signing right-to-work legislation (12/12/12) [17:09]

The Lansing-Beijing connection
Washington Post | Harold Meyerson | 12/11/12

China has a problem: rising inequality. The gap between profits and wages is soaring. Although elements of the government have sought to boost workers' incomes, they have been thwarted by major companies and banks "that don't want to give more profit to the country and let the government distribute it," Qi Jingmei, a research fellow for a government think tank, told the Wall Street Journal.   Of course, if China permitted the establishment of unions, wages would rise. But for fundamentally political reasons -- independent unions would undermine the Communist Party's authority -- unions are out of the question.

Meanwhile, the United States also has a problem of a rising gap between profits and wages. The stagnation of wages has become an accepted fact across the political spectrum; conservative columnists such as Michael Gerson and David Brooks have acknowledged that workers' incomes seem to be stuck.

Why, then, are such laws being enacted? The gap between U.S. capital income and labor income hasn't been this great since before the New Deal; why widen it still more? The answer, in Lansing no less than in Beijing, is political. The Republicans who took control of the Michigan statehouse in 2010 understand that Democrats' foot soldiers come disproportionately from labor. GOP efforts to reduce labor's clout help Republicans politically far more than they help any Michigan-based businesses or local governments. (The legislation, which Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed into law Tuesday evening, establishes right-to-work requirements for the public sector, too.) ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, December 12 [17:08]
*DN | Despite Protest of Michigan's Anti-Union Law, Deep Pockets of GOP Backers Prevail, Part 1 (12/12/12) [7:31], Part 2 [13:14]
DN | Beyond Benghazi: Partisan Rift over Susan Rice Ignores Record on War, Africa and Keystone XL (12/12/12) [12:22]
ALEC
Bill Moyers | United States of ALEC: Revealing the hidden world of ALEC -- corporations and state legislators colluding to write laws and remake America, one statehouse at a time. (11/30/12) [52:54]
PBS Frontline
*PBS Frontline | Fast Times at West Philly HS. A group of inner-city high school students beat the odds and build the next great super-hybrid car? (12/20/12) [36:15]
Simon Hauger is still helping kids invent things.
The engineer-turned-teacher started a new program last year for high school students centered around project-based learning. It's a similar approach to his experiment with the students from West Philly High, with the goal to become a full-fledged high school by next year.

The Sustainability Workshop is a pilot program linked to the Philadelphia school district, based on the idea that kids learn best when they're interested in what's being taught.
*PBS Frontline | Poor Kids: Explores the economic crisis as it's rarely seen - through the eyes of children (11/20/12) [53:41]
    Some Interesting Facts on Kids in Poverty

  1. The federal poverty guideline for a family of four is $23,050, up from $20,650 before the start of the recession. Today's poverty guidelines compare with a median household income in the U.S. of $50,054.
  2. More than 16 million children, or roughly one in five, were living in poverty in 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's official poverty measure (pdf).
  3. Despite the safety net's record of lifting children out of poverty, the amount of federal spending on children in 2011 dropped from $450 billion to $445 billion, according to an analysis from The Urban Institute.
  4. The nation's poorest kids primarily live in households headed by a single female. Nearly half of all children with a single mother -- 47.6 percent -- live in poverty.
  5. Black children are more likely to live in poverty than children of any other race. The poverty rate among black children is 38.2 percent, more than twice as high as the rate among whites. The poverty rate for Hispanic children is 32.3 percent.
  6. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have poverty rates higher than the national average of 15 percent, with the majority of the nation's poor situated in the south. With a rate of 22.6 percent, Mississippi had the highest proportion of residents below the poverty line.
  7. The longer a child lives in poverty, the tougher it can be for them to climb out later in life. According to an analysis by Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, 45 percent of people who spent at least half of their childhood in poverty were poor at age 35. Among those who spent less than half of their childhood in poverty, just 8 percent were poor at age 35.
  8. Only three other countries in the developed world have a higher child poverty rate than the U.S., according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Mexico leads all nations with a rate of 25.79, followed by Chile (23.95), Turkey (23.46), and the U.S. (21.63).
*PBS Frontline | Funeral Director: Lynch & Sons - "We are the first ones to respond, the last ones to leave ... there from the beginning of the death process to the end." (12/11/12) [55:34]
TYT News
*TYT | Oliver Stone - Full Interview On The Young Turks (12/10/12) [43:55]
TYT | Blackwater Renamed 'Academi,' Still No 'Integrity' (12/08/12) [2:55]
TYT | Polls: America is Getting More Progressive (12/05/12) [3:25]
*TYT | Fox News to Petraeus: Can We Run Your Campaign for President? (12/05/12) [10:27]
TYT | Heritage Foundation - A History of Pandering to the Rich (12/08/12) [5:19]
More News

Wal-Mart's strategy of deniability for workers' safety
Washington Post | Harold Meyerson | 11/27/12

Bangladesh is half a world away from Bentonville, the Arkansas city where Wal-Mart is headquartered. This week, Wal-Mart surely wishes it were farther away than that.   Over the weekend, a horrific fire swept through a Bangladesh clothing factory, killing more than 100 workers, many of whose bodies were burnt so badly that they could not be identified. In its gruesome particulars -- locked doors, no emergency exits, workers leaping to their deaths -- the blaze seems a ghastly centennial reenactment of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, when 146 workers similarly jumped to their deaths or were incinerated after they found the exit doors were locked. ... Read more


Tuesday December 11, 2012
International News

Debilitating drought devastates Brazil
Aljazeera | Gabriel Elizondo | 12/09/12

The driest conditions in 50 years are wiping out the region's cattle with the threat of 'ghost towns' as ranchers flee.

Djalma Sedrim worked his entire life to build up his cattle ranch and livelihood, only to see the worst drought in a half century dry it all up in a matter of months.   The 75-year-old rancher had about 1,000 cattle and a plot of land where he and his wife grew corn. But then the weather changed everything. ... Read more

Western India in worse drought in decades
Aljazeera | Author | 10/27/12

Thousands of villages are suffering their worst drought for 40 years after monsoon rains fail. [video] Read more

Domestic News

Drought in the US Midwest (in Pictures)
Aljazeera | Author | older

The drought is the worst for over half a century.   Forecasters are hoping that the slow development of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean will bring a change in the weather across the US for 2013. See pictures. Read more

Dr. Oz Flip-Flops on Supporting Organics as High-Profile Attacks Intensify
AlterNet | Katherine Paul | 12/05/12

"So you're being told organic food is no more nutritious than conventional and it's not worth your extra money. Well I'm here to say that it is worth the investment. Why do I say that? Pesticides." - - Dr. Oz, Oct. 19, 2012 ...

... Suddenly, the pesticides Dr. Oz was so concerned about a couple of months ago, the ones he warned viewers were "one of the greatest threats to your kids' health," no longer matter. What's more, if you're spending extra money to avoid them, you're a food snob -- instead of a responsible, health-conscious parent. ...

... ronically, it was this same study that Dr. Oz bashed on his October 19 television show for ignoring the obvious: Conventional food is loaded with toxic pesticides, which makes it not only less healthful, but downright dangerous. Especially for children. ....

... At a time when the health of Americans is rapidly deteriorating -- skyrocketing obesity, childhood diabetes, ever-increasing cases of asthma, allergies, autism, and cancer -- there appears to be a concerted and insidious effort to smear organics, to convince consumers that there's no connection between their poor health and the low-grade chemical food on their plates. Food routinely grown in nutrient-deficient soil, sprayed with toxic pesticides, pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, and genetically modified in Monsanto's laboratories. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders in line to be veterans panel chairman
Politico | Stephanie Gaskell | 12/11/12

Veterans will have a strong ally in Congress when Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders takes the helm of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, December 11 [12:38]
*DN | Michigan GOP Push Through Anti-Union, Elite-Backed "Right to Work" Law amid Protests (12/11/12) [14:40]
DN | "Protest Here is Vigorous": 18-Minute Video Report on Unrest, Polarization Before Egypt's Referendum (12/11/12) [18:45]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Frank Hammer: Class War in Michigan, GOP Governor and State legislature pass law weakening union rights (12/11/12) [14:58]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Bernie Sanders: on Why Big Media Shouldn't Get Bigger (12/07/12) [21:50]
*Bill Moyers | Former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards, a founding father of modern conservative politics, explains how the conservative movement abandoned its principles. (12/07/12) [28:15]
*Bill Moyers | Capitol Crimes: Moyers on America, explores the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in detail, revealing a dark side of American politics -- a web of relationships, secret deals, and political manipulation. (09/29/06) [1:57:01]
60 Minutes
*60 Minutes | Hospitals: The cost of admission: Steve Kroft investigates allegations from doctors that the hospital chain they worked for pressured them to admit patients regardless of their medical needs. (12/02/12) [15:43]
60 Minutes | Mike Wallace reported on hospital emergency rooms, and how you shouldn't always assume you're in good hands. [14:14]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The People Who Make Our Clothes And The Conditions They Face. (12/11/12) [1hr]

Monday December 10, 2012
International News

Europe hails "great" Monti as Italy crisis hits markets
Reuters | James Mackenzie | 12/10/12

European partners heaped praise on outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Monday, and called for the next government to stick to his reform agenda after his surprise decision to resign rattled financial markets.   Monti's weekend announcement that he would step down early - made after former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's PDL party withdrew its support for his technocrat government - pushed up Italy's borrowing costs and prompted a stock market sell-off. ... Read more

Domestic News

GMO Riders Could Be Back in "Fiscal Cliff" Funding Package
Alliance for Natural Health | Author | 12/04/12

... Even though no bill has yet been introduced, if Congress and President Obama reach agreement, the bill will be rushed through. Unfortunately, we have received word from sources on Capitol Hill that the GMO bills that previously were attached to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill and the Farm Bill could be part of this package. And because it's a must-pass funding package, any GMO rider that is included will likely become law. ... Read more

5 Enemies of a Decent Middle Class Existence in the US
AlterNet | Paul Buchheit | 12/09/12

Conservatives and the wealthy have taught too many Americans to hate their own govt, and not the parasite industries destroying the middle class.

Countering with facts and statistics doesn't seem to work. Instead, listening to their rants can be educational for a progressive, because the anti-government sentiment highlights the masterful job done by conservatives and the wealthy over the years, as they have basically convinced much of America to argue against themselves on matters of politics and the economy. ... Read more

Note: While McDonald's enjoyed profits of 130 percent over the past four years, and Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC) made 45 percent, and while the Walton family made $20 billion in one year , the median hourly wage for food service workers and Walmart employees is about $9 an hour. Many workers are stuck at the $7.25 minimum wage, which according to the National Employment Law Project is worth 30 percent less than in 1968.

Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/10/12

And we thought last month's delayed foodstamp data was bad. The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. ... Read more
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Battleground Poll: Hike taxes on rich
Politico | James Hohmann | 12/10/12

An American appetite for tax hikes gives President Barack Obama leverage in fiscal cliff negotiations.   A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll finds that 60 percent of respondents support raising taxes on households that earn more than $250,000 a year and 64 percent want to raise taxes on large corporations. ... Read more
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DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, December 10 [12:41]
DN | Does the E.U. Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Critics Condemn Role in Brutal Greek Austerity (12/10/12) [12:24]
DN | "Radical Idea" Reversed: Author Says Nobel Committee Betrays Founder's Anti-Military Intent. (12/10/12) [12:08]
Typhoon-hit Philippines appeals for help (12/10/12) [2:03]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Mortgage Interest Deduction And The U.S. Housing Market. The mortgage interest deduction is a key factor in many household budgets and the overall housing market. Who would be hurt and who would be helped if Congress changes the rules. (12/10/12) [1hr]
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: Austerity Italian Style, Youth unemployment in Italy reaches 40% as European big banks insist on more austerity (12/10/12) [10:00]
TRNN | Vijay Prashad: Minimal Western Aid for Syrian Refugees (12/10/12) [11:59]
More News

Why a Democratic Tea Party Is the Best Hope for Fixing Corrupt Government
Atlantic | Author | 12/06/12

At a talk at UCLA last month, I said that America's growing anti-corruption movement needs to think big, not puny. That we need a fundamental change in the way America funds its campaigns, and that it will take a cross-partisan grassroots movement of outsiders to get the insiders in D.C. to embrace that change. ... Read more

U.S. Spies See Superhumans, Instant Cities by 2030
WiredMagazine | Noah Shachtman | 12/10/12

3-D printed organs. Brain chips providing superhuman abilities. Megacities, built from scratch. The U.S. intelligence community is taking a look at the world of 2030. And it is very, very sci-fi. ... Read more

Chicago Snowless Record Could Be Broken After 18 Years
HP | Author | 12/09/12

... WGN-TV meteorologist Steve Kahn explained the record is on the table now due to the drought that has hit the area this year. The Tribune said 2011's winter's snowfall measured only 19.8 inches -- a little more than half of the 36.7 inches marked as the average at O'Hare. ... Read more


Friday December 07, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Eliot Spitzer: Tax the Traders! It Would Solve Economic Crisis and Stop Reckless Activity
AlterNet | Eliot Spitzer | 12/04/12

Both the White House and House Republicans, publicly at least, are digging in their heels deeper and deeper in the so-called negotiations over what we call, alternately, the fiscal cliff, the fiscal slope, the austerity bomb, or the cable-talk-show topic of last resort.

... Ralph Nader in the Washington Post this weekend: a tax on financial transactions. It will give us gobs of revenue. It will fall on a sector that has generated enormous and unwarranted profits for a very few, who at the same time have benefited from huge bailouts and regulatory help and largely escaped any responsibility for their central role in creating the financial cataclysm that we are still struggling with. ... Read more

Ivy League Cracks Down as Students Spiral Out of Control
Bloomberg | Chris Staiti | 12/07/12

Harvard and Cornell universities have joined Yale University and Dartmouth College in cracking down on out-of-control behavior as drinking, hazing and sexual harassment endanger students and tarnish Ivy League reputations.

Harvard faculty voted last month to require registration of parties and ban drinking games, and Cornell ordered fraternities to have live-in advisers. This fall, Dartmouth began security checks at Greek houses and Princeton University banned freshmen from joining them ... Read more

"It's the Wild F*ing West Out There"
climatedesk.org | Author | 11/19/12

... North Dakota: Ritter a Williston native, he remembers snowmobiling on the hills nearby, which used to be grassy meadows in the summertime. Now the landscape is stripped to the bone as far as the eye can see. The boom "needs to slow down a little bit," he says. "But then again, it can't." Read more
"It's the Wild F*ing West Out There" [4:52]

China and Europe are Kincking Our Butt
Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, December 07 [10:23]
DN | "If Not Now, Then When?": Filipino Negotiator Pleas For Climate Deal After... (12/07/12) [9:42]
DN | Pollution Profits: Top Venezuelan Negotiator on Economic Motives Behind... (12/07/12) [8:28]
DN | "Your Governments Have Failed You": Syrian-American Student Calls For Cl (12/07/12) [4:10]
DN | "The Most Obdurate Bully in the Room": U.S. Widely Criticized For Role At Climate Talks (12/07/12) [7:46]
DN | Qatar Human Rights Official Defends Life Sentence For Poet Who Praised Arab Spring Uprisings (12/07/12) [12:49]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 12/07/12
International News - Friday 12/07/12
Real Economists on in Important Issues, Econ4.org
*How out-of-control finance led to the housing crisis (12/07/12) [8:47]
*The Bottom Line: Jobs (11/07/12) []
TRNN News
*TRNN | Janet Redman: Finance Rules at Doha UN Climate Summit (12/06/12) [10:53]
Drought wipes out Brazil cattle ranches (12/07/12) [2:32]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart | Chris Christie, Jon Stewart Interview: New Jersey Governor & 'Daily Show' Host Spar Over Republican Philosophy. Part 1 (12/07/12) [6:03], Part 2 [9:50], Part 3 [7:23]

Thursday December 06, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Hurricane Sandy Victims Say Mortgage Companies Dismiss Pleas For Loan Help
HP | Ben Hallman | 12/05/12

... But words of support, say some people who live in storm-ravaged neighborhoods, haven't translated into what they most need: a temporary break from paying their monthly mortgage bill while they make emergency repairs, negotiate with insurance companies and apply for federal aid. ... Read more

Police Have the Scary Capability to Track Wherever You're Driving
AlterNet | David Rosen | 11/30/12

A building at 55 Broadway, in lower Manhattan, is home to the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center, the locus of the New York Police Department's massive, intelligence-gathering activities. According to a 2011 estimate, the facility integrates not only some 1,000 NYPD cameras located in lower Manhattan and some 700 cameras in midtown, but an additional 2,000 private surveillance cameras owned by Wall Street firms. These cameras are principally focused on capturing license plate data. The center cost an estimated $150 million to set up.

... Both back the department's Domain Awareness System (DAS), which can track individuals or incidents (e.g., a suspicious package) through live video feeds from some 3,000 CCTV cameras, 2,600 radiation substances detectors, check license plate numbers, pull up crime reports and cross-check all information agains t criminal and terrorist databases. ... Read more
Click to zoom

Feinstein amendment doubles down on NDAA's assault on constitutional rights
TheGuardian | Naomi Wolf | 12/05/12

As I reported here, last spring a group of journalists and activists including Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky and Tangerine Bolen, led by counsel Bruce Afran and others, sued President Obama to halt the implementation of Section 1021 in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would have allowed for the indefinite detention of Americans without charge or trial. ... Read more

Thai Chickpea Almond Curry
by Dreena Burton
While this bakes, you will be enchanted with the aromatic mingling of nutty coconut sauce infused with lime, ginger, and curry. It is a deeply flavorful dish that is also almost effortless in preparation. Everything comes together lickety-split and you have an exotic bean entrée to serve over rice. Read more


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, December 6 [10:23]
DN | "We are Running Out of Time": Obama Urged to Match Rhetoric to Action on Climate Deal (12/06/12) [26:07]
DN | With Future Imperiled, Youth Activists Demand Urgent Action at U.N. Climate Summit in Doha (12/06/12) [6:17]
TRNN News
TRNN | Larry Wilkerson: Senate Pushes Obama Towards War and Susan Rice a Bad Choice (12/06/12) [9:55]
TRNN | Shir Hever: The attack on Gaza was a show piece for "Iron Dome" technology which Israel wants to sell around the world (12/05/12) [17:11]
INFOgraphics
Corruption Index Infographics, Website
Click to zoom
Comedy
The Colbert Report: 12/3/12 [1:12]
Stephen Colbert | Colbert Fears Republicans Are Losing White Voters (12/04/12) [6:01]
Jon Stewart | Have Republicans Hit 'Rock Bottom' With Failed United Nations Disability Treaty? (12/06/12) [3:47]
Jon Stewart | Fiscal Cliff Negotiations As Not 'Even Remotely Reasonable' (12/05/12) [7:52]
Jon Stewart | Rips Fox News' Annual 'War On Christmas' Coverage Once Again (12/04/12 [7:19]

Wednesday December 05, 2012
International News

Typhoon Bopha: Death Toll Tops 200 In Philippines; Scores Missing In Worst-Hit Areas
HP | Bullit Marquez | 12/05/12

Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed more than 280 people in the southern Philippines. ... Read more

Domestic News
Study: Wealthy Nations' Fossil Fuel Subsidies 5 Times Greater Than Climate Aid to Countries in Need.

A new report by Oil Change International has found wealthy nations are spending five times more money on fossil fuel subsidies than climate aid. In 2011, rich nations spent $58 billion on subsidies and just $11 billion for climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. According to the study, the United States spent $13 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2011 and just $2.5 billion in climate aid. We're joined by David Turnbull, campaigns director of Oil Change International.
From Fossil Fuels to Global Warming Denial, Koch Brothers May Be Biggest Force Behind U.S. Inaction

The billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch are known for funneling vast donations into Republican campaigns in the United States. But what impact are the Koch brothers having on global warming? As the United States is accused of blocking progress at the U.N. climate talks in Doha, a new report says the Koch brothers may be the biggest force behind the climate stalemate. The Kochs run oil refineries and control thousands of miles of pipeline, giving them a massive personal stake in the fossil fuel industry. Researchers say they have also funneled tens of millions into climate denial science, lobbying and other efforts to derail policy that could lessen the impact of global warming. We're joined by Victor Menotti, executive director of the International Forum on Globalization.

Michigan Energy Forum on impact of 'fracking,' and more
Ann ArborMagazine | Staff | current

Dec. 6: Michigan Energy Forum: Cheaper Natural Gas & Fracking and their economic & environmental impacts. 5-7 p.m. SPARK Central. 330 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor. Natural gas has dropped in price drastically in the last several years thanks to new drilling technologies such as "fracking," prompting manufacturers to explore gas powered co-generation. Burning less coal could reduce polution and GHG emissions, but fracking raises some concerns about ground water and safety. We will discuss the impact of fracking on natural gas prices and its impact on our fuel source mix and the economic opportunities, environmental impacts, regulations, and concerns being raised by this technology. Free. Read more

Pentagon reportedly planning to double size of its worldwide spy network
guardian.co.uk | Dominic Rushe | 12/02/12

The US military plans to send hundreds more spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan that will more than double the size of its espionage network, it was reported Sunday.   The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon's military intelligence unit, is aiming to recruit 1,600 intelligence "collectors" -- up from the several hundred overseas agents it has employed in recent years, sources told The Washington Post. ... Read more

Corporate profits are highest-ever share of GDP, while wages are lowest-ever
dailykos.com | Laura ClawsonFollow | 12/03/12

Corporations are doing well. Workers, not so much. That could be the opening of just about any discussion of the American economy at least over the past couple years since corporations recovered from the great recession while workers didn't. But that's because there are always new specifics coming out to illustrate the point. Like this: after-tax corporate profits were a record share of the gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2012" . Wages were the smallest share of GDP they've ever been. ... Read more
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Citi Firing 11,000
ZeroHedge | Author | 12/05/12

"Sandy's fault?" or better yet, "Vikram's fault." Or maybe the economy is collapsing despite all the propaganda one is spoonfed. Considering the recent termination of over 50,000 by UBS we think we know the answer. And while C stock may jump on the news, the end result is that New York and the US have both just lost 11,000 less key taxpayers most of whom are almost certainly in the $250,000+ bucket. That said we can't wait for the BLS to take this data as somehow beneficial for the unemployment rate. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, December 5 [11:04]
DN | Amy Goodman Questions Top US Negotiator on Alleged Obstruction of UN Climate Talks in Doha (12/05/12) [6:28]
DN | From Small Island States to Big Polluters, "Everyone is Looking to the US" on Global Warming (12/05/12) [21:55]
*DN | "Get It Done": After Durban Speech, Student Anjali Appadurai Initially Banned by UN in Doha (12/05/12) [11:41]
*DN | From Fossil Fuels to Global Warming Denial, Koch Brothers Influences Behind U.S. Inaction (12/05/12) [6:45]
The Earth is surrounded by an invisible layer of mainly water particles that acts as a protective shield against the infrared radiation from the sun and forms a natural greenhouse effect.   The "manmade" greenhouse effect, on the other hand, is caused by . . .(click here for conference pdf)
Politics of Climate Change
Click to zoom
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Challenge Of Feeding America's Hungry (12/05/12) [1hr]
Aljazeera News
*Aljazeera | Fault Lines : The Battle for the Arctic (11/14/12) [23:28]
*Aljazeera | Inside Story: A slap on the wrist for BP (11/16/12) [25:16]
*Seconds from Disaster: The Deepwater Horizon (S05E05) [44:58]
Aljazeera | Fault Lines : Robot wars (12/26/11) [24:26]
Aljazeera | Witness : Field of Hope. One woman's enterprise helps DR Congo's rape survivors to find healing and an independent income through farming. (08/31/11) [25:06]
RT News
NSA Whistleblower: Everyone in US under digital surveillance, Trillions of Messages Stored.
*RT | NSA Whistleblower: Everyone in US under virtual surveillance, all info stored, no matter the post. (12/02/12) [12:29]
RT | CrossTalk: Peak Water, Will countries fight over water resources in the future? (12/03/12) [22:51]
TRNN News
TRNN | Israel Expands Settlements, Obama Expands Drones (12/04/12) [9:13]
TRNN | Yves Engler: Canada and Israel - The Ugly Canadian (12/03/12) [14:48]
Real Time with Bill Maher
Bill Maher and his roundtable guests Eric Idle, David Axelrod, David Frumm, Michael Moore and Ana Navarro. (11/20/12) [7:30]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Tuesday December 04, 2012
International News
Domestic News

New Sheriff In Town
HP | Ryan Grim | 12/04/12

Nearly two years after Wall Street waged a successful campaign to keep consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren from running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the incoming senator will be tapped to serve on the Banking Committee, according to four sources familiar with the situation. It's a victory for progressives who battled to win her a seat on the panel that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking regulations. ... Read more

Yuck: Our Seafood Is Loaded with Unspeakably Gross Pollutants
AlterNet | Jill Richardson | 11/30/12

When you tuck into a delicious seafood dish, is it possible that the fish you are eating once ate human poop? Surprisingly, that might be the case. A look at the U.S. seafood supply reveals that some of our most popular seafood treats might come to us from unsanitary and disgusting operations in other countries. ... Read more

Internet Hangs in Balance as World Governments Meet in Secret
Wired Magazine | David Kravets | 12/03/12

There's a lot of sky-is-falling doomsday predictions about the World Conference on International Telecommunications, which opens Monday in Dubai with some 190-plus nations discussing the global internet's future.   That's because much of the accompanying proposals from the global community have been kept under lock and key, although some of the positions of nations have been leaked and published online. ... Read more

Comment: I haven't looked at this site extensively, but it looks good and was referenced on Mother Jones.
Website: http://climatedesk.org/

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan Apparently Can't Remember Anything
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/27/12

Thank God for Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. If you're a court junkie, or have the misfortune (as some of us poor reporters do) of being forced professionally to spend a lot of time reading legal documents, the just-released Moynihan deposition in MBIA v. Bank of America, Countrywide, and a Buttload of Other Shameless Mortgage Fraudsters will go down as one of the great Nixonian-stonewalling efforts ever, and one of the more entertaining reads of the year. ... Read more

The 'I Don't Remember' Files, Part II: Hedge Fund Chief Stevie Cohen
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/30/12

Another "fuzzy memory" story that's come down the pipe.   It seems Stevie Cohen, the oft-maligned hedge fund billionaire who has been whispered about for years on the fringes of various market-manipulation cases, is finally about to have the net thrown over him for his involvement in an insider trading mess centered around two medical companies, Elan and Wyeth. ... Read more

Navy Will Have to Wait Before Amassing Its Robo-Copter Fleet
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 12/04/12

The Navy talks about its drone helicopter the way Apple geeks gushed over the first-generation iPhone in 2007. The MQ-8 Fire Scout does it all, from hunting for drugs at sea to spotting insurgents over the battlefields of Afghanistan. But like that early iPhone, the Fire Scout is seriously buggy -- so much so that the Defense Department has conceded it will be forced to seriously delay buying all the robocopters it wants.   The Pentagon won't even be able to evaluate how the Fire Scout has performed at sea and at war until December of next year -- 19 months behind schedule. ... Read more

Cohn Said to Join Lasry at White House Meeting on Deficit
Bloomberg | Stephanie Ruhle | 12/04/12

White House officials met with Wall Street executives to urge them to pressure Congress for a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases, according to two people familiar with the session. ... Read more

Below text goes with the video "The Climate Question: Degrees of Change" to the right ==>
Think of Planet Earth viewed from outer space. In the cosmic vastness, you see a brilliant blue speck - our home.

Zoom in to a remote island community deep in the Arctic, not far from the North Pole, called Qerqetat. It is spectacularly located on the edge of the Greenland ice sheet. Glaciers sweep down into the sea like snowed-up freeways; icebergs with their azure underwater blues stand sentinel in a perfect flat ocean; Arctic terns soar and dip into abundant waters.

Ashore, a dozen ramshackle wooden houses in varying shades of rusts and yellows straddle high ground. Strips of meat hang from wooden frames, drying in the sun. On the beach a hunting party has just returned and Inuit are passing around small squares of thick Narwhal skin, a delicacy called Muktak.

This is a scene that has been played out for thousands of years. And it was a scene that we filmed earlier this year in August 2012.

"Our high tide is higher than we've ever seen it .... The shacks we live in never used to be reached by the waves but now we have to move them further inland."

But it is a scene that, before long, may disappear forever. And from Bangladesh to Amazonia that is a recurring 21st century story; climate change is changing the way people live.


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, December 04 [8:56]
DN | In Doha, Lead US Negotiator Plays Down Expectations of Climate Action in Obama's Second Term (12/04/12) [4:49]
*DN | Fmr Irish President Mary Robinson: Climate Change the Biggest Human Rights Issue of Our Time (12/04/12) [11:18]
*DN | As Typhoon Bopha Wreaks Havoc, Philippine Negotiator Presses Rich Nations on Global Warming (12/04/12) [9:20]
*DN | World Bank Study Warns of Lethal Global Temperature Rise Even if Emissions Pledges Are Met (12/04/12) [19:39]
DN | Wealthy Nations' Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are Five Times Greater Than Climate Aid (12/04/12) [4:35]
Understanding The Fiscal Cliff in 2m 30s [2:34]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Building A Customer-Oriented Health Insurance Exchange (12/04/12) [1hr]
David Haskell: "The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature" (12/04/12) [1hr]
Bill Moyers Interview
*Bill Moyers | Karl Marlantes Discusses What It's Like to Go to War (11/20/12) [57:00]
America has been at war for over a decade, with millions of soldiers having seen death and dying up close in Afghanistan and Iraq. But most Americans -- watching comfortably on their TVs and computers, witness to statistics, speeches, and "expert" rhetoric -- don't get what's really going on there. In this encore broadcast, Bill talks to Karl Marlantes -- a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor -- about what we on the insulated outside need to understand about the minds and hearts of our modern warriors. Marlantes shares with Bill intimate stories about how his battlefield experiences both shaped and nearly destroyed him, even after returning to civilian life.
PBS NOVA
*PBS NOVA | Super Storn Sandy, Are Lethal Storms Becoming More Prevelent Prevalent? (11/21/12) [53:37]
*PBS NOVA | Extreme Ice (12/28/11) [52:51]
TRNN News
TRNN | The US, Mining and Dictators in the Congo, Part 3 (12/12/11) [7:13]
TRNN | US Covers Up Rwanda Supported Mutiny in Congo, Part 4 (06/27/12) [11:21]
TRNN | With US Blessing, Rwanda Backs M23 Rebels in Congo, Part 5 (12/03/12) [13:12]
Aljazeera News
*Aljazeera | The Climate Question: Degrees of Change (11/25/12) [24:26], Part 2 [24:39]
Aljazeera | Inside Story: Kuwait in crisis (12/03/12) [24:50]
Aljazeera | Inside Story - Palestine: The meaning of a status upgrade (11/30/12) [24:16]

Monday December 03, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Financial Firms Have Been Hollowing Out America for Decades -- Now We're on the Verge of a Debtpocalypse
AlterNet | Steve Fraser | 12/02/12

40 years of austerity politics have hollowed out the heartland, as financial wizards of Wall Street gobbled up ever more of the nation's resources. ... Read more

Susan Rice Keystone XL Attacks Put White House In A Bind
HP | Sam Stein | 12/02/12

Susan Rice's | On Wednesday, a publication affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council dug into the ambassador to the United Nations' financial disclosures, and discovered that she and her husband were heavily invested in several oil companies in western Canada including one, Transcanada, that currently has a project under review at the State Department.   As secretary of state, Rice would have to oversee the review of that project, the Keystone XL pipeline, which has dragged on for several controversial and tortured years. Read more

Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known
HP | Peter H. Stone | 12/30/12

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson vowed to spend as much as $100 million to defeat President Barack Obama and help the GOP take control of Congress. According to two GOP fundraisers with close ties to the Las Vegas billionaire, he made good on that promise -- and then some. Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said. ... Read more

5 Ways to Beat the Plutocrats
AlterNet | Sam Pizzigati | 11/26/12

Our contemporary billionaires, most Americans would likely agree, are exploiting our labor and polluting our politics. Can we shrink our super rich down to a much less powerful -- and more democratic -- size? Of course we can. We Americans, after all, have already done that shrinking once before.

Between 1900 and the 1950s, average Americans beat down plutocrats every bit as dominant as ours. A century that began with huge private fortunes and most Americans living in poverty would come to see a mass middle class and suburban developments where grand estates and mansions once stood.   Most of us today, unfortunately, have no inkling that this huge transformation even took place, mainly because that exuberantly middle class America of the mid 20th century has disappeared. Those grand mansions have come back. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
DemocracyNow News (12/03/12) [59:02]
60 Minutes
60 Minutes | The Cost of Admission, Three Generations of Punishment, Around the World in 20 Days (12/02/12) [44:08]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Anti-Tax Crusader Grover Norquist 12/03/12
TRNN News
TRNN | Most New Jobs Don't Require College Education (11/29/12) [7:57]
TRNN | Why the Fiscal Cliff is a Scam, Part 1 (11/30/12) [9:50]
TRNN | A Looming Crisis in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? The "Fiscal Cliff" is a Scam, Part 2 (12/02/12) [8:50]
TRNN | Will Taxing the Rich Deepen the Recession? - The "Fiscal Cliff" is a Scam, Part 3 (12/03/12) [10:34]
TRNN | Netanyahu Forms Alliance with Far Right's Lieberman (12/02/12) [13:16]
Aljazeera
Aljazeera | Inside Story Americas - Is the World Bank turning up the heat? (11/30/12) [25:18]
BBC Documentary Climate Wars Episode 1 [58:59], Episode 2 [59:01], Episode 3 [58:50]
Hot Planet - BBC [59:22]
Discovery Channel - Global Warming, What You Need To Know, with Tom Brokaw [1:27:32]

12.01.2012. 11:47



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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