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Monday December 16, 2013
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'Inequality is bad for everyone': Robert Reich fights against economic imbalance
PBS Newshour | author | 10/11/13

Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to Robert Reich about "Inequality for All," a documentary about the former labor secretary's personal crusade to explain to Americans why everyone should care about the nation's growing economic disparity and divisiveness. ... Read more
'Inequality is bad for everyone': Robert Reich fights against economic imbalance (10/11/13) [6:40]

There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That's nearly one quarter (22.6%) of all of our children. More alarming is that the percentage of poor children has climbed by 4.5 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. And poor means poor. For a family of three with one child under 18, the poverty line is $18,400.

Meanwhile, the stock market is booming. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are making tens of billions of dollars again, while the luxury housing and goods markets are skyrocketing.

Most amazing of all is the fact that 95 percent of the so-called "recovery" has gone to the top 1 percent who have seen their incomes rise by 34%. For the 99 percent there's been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has climbed by only 0.4 percent.
The United States Defence Department has over $8.5 Trillion completely unaccounted for since 1995!

U.S. Drone Strike Kills Nearly a Dozen Civilians Traveling to Wedding in Yemen
AlterNet | Alyssa Figueroa | 12/13/13

On Thursday, a U.S. drone strike hit a convoy traveling to a wedding in Yemen, killing about a dozen civilians. The New York Times reports 11 deaths, while other reports state 17. A recent AFP report states that two of the victims were on the Yemeni government's list of wanted Al Qaeda suspects, while most of the others have been confirmed as civilians.

This reiterates the sentiment heard in villages throughout Yemen. Mohamed al-Qawli, the brother of an innocent drone victim in Yemen, told Reuters: "These (drone) strikes create more terrorism. In our area there was never anyone linked to al Qaeda. After the strike, everyone in the area started listening to al Qaeda types, exchanging videos on mobile phones." ... Read more

Bill Moyers: 'We Are This Close to Losing Our Democracy to the Mercenary Class'
AlterNet | Bill Moyers | 12/12/13

I met Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1987 when I was creating a series for public television called In Search of the Constitution, celebrating the bicentennial of our founding document. By then, he had served on the court longer than any of his colleagues and had written close to 500 majority opinions, many of them addressing fundamental questions of equality, voting rights, school segregation, and -- in New York Times v. Sullivan in particular -- the defense of a free press.

Those decisions brought a storm of protest from across the country. He claimed that he never took personally the resentment and anger directed at him. He did, however, subsequently reveal that his own mother told him she had always liked his opinions when he was on the New Jersey court, but wondered now that he was on the Supreme Court, "Why can't you do it the same way?" His answer: "We have to discharge our responsibility to enforce the rights in favor of minorities, whatever the majority reaction may be." ... Read more

Peter O'Toole Dies At 81

Uruguay's President Rips Into U.N. Official Over Marijuana Law: 'Stop Lying'
HP | Roque Planas |12/13/13

José "Pepe" Mujica shot back on Friday at the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, for saying that his administration refused to meet with the agency's officials before legalizing marijuana this week.

Mujica batted down the criticism, insisting that his administration is open to discussing the law and accusing the INCB President Raymond Yans of applying a double standard by criticizing Uruguay, even as U.S. states pass laws to legalize recreational marijuana consumption. ... Read more

NSA Official: Snowden Has 'The Keys To The Kingdom'
HP | Ashley Alman | 12/16/13

However, the sentiment is not unanimous among high-ranking NSA officials. Rick Ledgett, the NSA official leading the task force to assess the damage done by Snowden's leaks, disagrees with Alexander.

"My personal view is, yes, it's worth having a conversation about," Ledgett told CBS. "I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part."

Ledgett said some of the most worrying documents in Snowden's possession are those that would provide a "roadmap" for other nations to protect themselves from U.S. surveillance efforts.   To an adversary, Ledgett said, "It is the keys to the kingdom." ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, December 16 [13:00]
*DN | "Makes Absolutely No Sense": David Cay Johnston on Budget Deal That Helps Billionaires, Not the Poor (12/16/13) [13:09]
David Cay Johnston: A bipartisan budget deal to avert another government shutdown comes before the Senate this week. The vast majority of House members from both parties approved the two-year budget agreement last week in a 332-to-94 vote. It is being hailed as a breakthrough compromise for Democrats and Republicans. The bill eases across-the-board spending cuts, replacing them with new airline fees and cuts to federal pensions. In a concession by Democrats, it does not extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million people, which are set to expire this month.
DN | Nikki Giovanni on 1 Year Since Newtown: Where is the Political Leadership on Gun Control? (12/16/13) [8:47]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Arnie Gundersen: In sworn testimony in Monroe, Michigan, the NRC admitted that it has stripped whistleblower (12/16/13) [11:41]
TRNN | David Swanson: Lies and War, Part 1 (12/15/13) [18:40]
*TRNN | David Swanson: What Drives War? Part 2 (12/16/13) [21:40]
*TRNN | Pope Francis Labels Capitalism "New Tyranny" (12/16/13) [12:12]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm What's In The New Budget Deal And The Politics Behind The Negotiations (12/16/13) [1hr]
The Business of Politics
Reuters | Budget deal could undercut Ryan's 2016 hopes (12/09/13) [3:14]
The Business of Secrecy
NatGeo | Inside The NSA - Americas Cyber Secrets (entertainment) (08/02/12) [44:59]
*Aljazeera | Empire: NSA and the One Trillion Dollar scam (04/06/13) [47:45]
NSA Utah Data Center Will Have 5 Zettabytes Of Memory (05/26/13) [9:33]
PBS NOVA | The Spy Factory (trailer) [2:13]
*PBS NOVA | The Spy Factory (full) [52:43]
PBS NOVA | The Spy Factory website
The Business of War
Reuters | Scott Paltro: Billions in Pentagon spending down a black hole (11/18/13) [4:38]
*Vice | The Business of War: SOFEX (08/05/12) [20:10]
SOFEX is where the world's leading generals come to buy everything from handguns to laser-guided missile systems. It stands for "Special Operations Forces Exhibition Conference" and it's essentially a trade-show where just about anyone with enough money can buy the most powerful weapons in the world.
Reuters | Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan: Inside the Pentagon's $1 trillion jet-fueled piñata (12/09/13) [5:33]
NYT | Walter Reed Scandal: The Battle for Recovery - 2013 [12:13]
The Business of Pot
*Vice | Stoned Kids (12/11/13) [15:18]
Vice | The Future of Weed: HIGH COUNTRY (06/04/13) [43:34]
Cannabis Science - How Marijuana Affects Health (01/07/13) [55:11]
Cannabinoid Profiles - THC, THCA, THCV, CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC & Terpenes (02/28/13) [38:06]
What If Cannabinoids in Cannabis Cured Cancer & Other Diseases? (06/20/13) [49:00]
Cancer - The Forbidden Cures () [1:32:47]
*Run From The Cure (2009) [58:02]
Business of Entertainment
Vice | The Real Walter White - "Breaking Bad" (08/17/13) [17:03]
When AMC's Breaking Bad premiered in 2008, one of Alabama's most successful meth cooks was already knee deep in building a massive meth empire. His name? Walter White. In this documentary, Walter tells us the secret behind his product, how he stacked up thousands of dollars per day, and why his partner is now serving two life sentences.
AMC's Breaking Bad in 2 Hours Recap (11/27/13) [1:55:40]
Breaking Bad Final Ending (09/29/13) [14:53]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.
Greg Palast Investigations
Vulture Picnic by Greg Palast () [1:05:31]
Bush Family Fortunes (2003) [55:55]
Note: For the Greg Palast interview, in the second half of the show, please drag the Progressbar to the 12.5 minute mark. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Keiser Report: CIA, NSA & Economic Espionage + Greg Palast (E498) (09/17/13) [26:09]
Keiser Report: Greg Palast on Vulture Capitalism, Argentina & Goldman Sachs (08/03/13) [13:01]
Max talks to journalist, author and filmmaker, Greg Palast of GregPalast.com, about Goldman Sachs and John Paulson and about Obama intervening in the case of vulture capitalist Paul Singer versus Argentina only in order to help out Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan.
The Fukushima Story You Never Knew About: Greg Palast Reports (03/12/12) [15:24]
TYT | Greg Palast on Vultures' Picnic (11/16/11) [18:18]
Fukushima
Good Explaination of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (08/29/13) [12:55]
Note: I'm not associated with the EndTimeWarriors, but I did find the compilation of videos good.
December 14 2013 Breaking News Fukushima worldwide Nuclear Crisis not contained Last Days News (12/14/13) [38:54]
Fukushima "Apocalypse in Progress" Gundersen (11/19/13) [50:57]
Climate Change
"Last Hours" is the first in a series of short films that explore the perils of climate change and the solutions to avert climate disaster. (10/11/13) [12:15]
Other Videos
The illusionist (2006) [1:48:57]
The Invisible (2007) [1:42:23]
Mongol (2007) [2:05:39]

We are Preparing for Massive Civil War, Says DHS Informant (05/06/12) [32:14]

G. Edward Griffin | A World Without Cancer - The Story Of Vitamin B17 () [55:14]

12.16.2013. 10:37



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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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