Home · News · News Dec 2017 · Dec 04 2017
Monday December 04, 2017

Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues
scientificamerican.com | author | report

Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said

About a third of the world's soil has already been degraded, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day.

The causes of soil destruction include chemical-heavy farming techniques, deforestation which increases erosion, and global warming. The earth under our feet is too often ignored by policymakers, experts said. ... Read more

Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Era of Trump by Joseph E. Stiglitz

In this crucial expansion and update of his landmark bestseller, renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz addresses globalization's new discontents in the United States and Europe. Immediately upon publication, Globalization and Its Discontents became a touchstone in the globalization debate by demonstrating how the International Monetary Fund, other major institutions like the World Bank, and global trade agreements have often harmed the developing nations they are supposedly helping. Yet globalization today continues to be mismanaged, and now the harms -- exemplified by the rampant inequality to which it has contributed -- have come home to roost in the United States and the rest of the developed world as well, reflected in growing political unrest.

With a new introduction, major new chapters on the new discontents, the rise of Donald Trump, and the new protectionist movement, as well as a new afterword on the course of globalization since the book first appeared, Stiglitz's powerful and prescient messages remain essential reading.

Billy Bush: I Believe The Women Accusing Donald Trump Of Sexual Misconduct
HP | Rebecca Shapiro | 12/04/17

"I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar..."

Billy Bush penned a sobering op-ed published in the New York Times Sunday night, in which the former "Access Hollywood" host said he believed the women accusing President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.

He also slammed the president for engaging in "revisionist history" after reports indicated that Trump has been questioning the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape in recent months. The tape, which features Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, derailed Bush's career but had no bearing on Trump being elected president. ... Read more

Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright

Robert Wright famously explained in The Moral Animal how evolution shaped the human brain. The mind is designed to often delude us, he argued, about ourselves and about the world. And it is designed to make happiness hard to sustain.

But if we know our minds are rigged for anxiety, depression, anger, and greed, what do we do? Wright locates the answer in Buddhism, which figured out thousands of years ago what scientists are only discovering now. Buddhism holds that human suffering is a result of not seeing the world clearly -- and proposes that seeing the world more clearly, through meditation, will make us better, happier people.

In Why Buddhism is True, Wright leads readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true -- which is to say, a way out of our delusion -- but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species.

Trump responds to Flynn's guilty plea
Politico | Louis Nelson | 12/04/17

... Trump, who spoke briefly with the White House press pool before boarding Marine One to begin a day trip to Utah, suggested Flynn has been treated unfairly compared with 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Well, I feel badly for Gen. Flynn. I feel very badly. He's led a very strong life and I feel very badly. I will say this, Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI. Nothing happened to her. Flynn lied, and they destroyed his life. I think it's a shame," Trump said. "Hillary Clinton on the Fourth of July weekend went to the FBI, not under oath. It was the most incredible thing anyone's ever seen. She lied many times, nothing happened to her. Flynn lied and it's like they ruined his live. It's very unfair." ... Read more

After a dizzying weekend, the White House is rattled: What next?
Salon | Heather Digby Parton | 12/04/17

President Trump had quite a week. He lied about his "Access Hollywood" tape, attacked CNN International -- prompting authoritarians all over the globe to follow suit -- made a racist slur in front of Native American war heroes and tweeted out far-right conspiracy websites and anti-Muslim videos, prompting a major diplomatic crisis with America's closest ally. It didn't get any better over the weekend.

The Daily Beast reported that Trump had been worried for a while that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had "turned on him" and that the president was "personally hurt" by the news Flynn was potentially cooperating with the special counsel. When it turned out on Friday that Flynn had agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI in exchange for telling the prosecutors everything he knows, Trump pretty much lost it. From the tenor of his tweeting over the weekend, hurt has given way to panic. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, December 04 [12:06]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, December 04 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Rep. Keith Ellison: GOP Tax Bill Would Reorder Society & Create "Hereditary Aristocracy" for Rich
  3. Rep. Keith Ellison Says Franken & Conyers Should "Examine Their Conscience" over Sexual Harassment
  4. Rep. Ellison Condemns Apparent Election Tampering in Honduras & Calls for Halting U.S. Military Aid
  5. Honduras: Protesters Defy Military Crackdown and Flood the Streets to Protest Alleged Vote-Rigging
Is Trump Plan to Replace Rex Tillerson a Push for More U.S. Aggression Toward Iran, North Korea? | DN | 12/01/17 | 8:21
New Investigation Finds U.S. Special Forces Massacred Somali Civilians & Orchestrated a Cover-Up | DN | 12/01/17 | 14:24
Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump Tax Plan to Worsen Inequality, Expand Loopholes | DN | 12/01/17 | 12:26
Anti-Globalization in the Era of Trump: Joseph Stiglitz on Shared Prosperity Without Protectionism | DN | 12/01/17 | 8:50
Empire Files: Death & Biostitutes - The US Opioid Crisis | TRNN | 12/04/17 | 21:56
Robert Wright -> Mindfulness, Buddhism, and Overcoming Delusions | TRNN | 12/04/17 | 18:04
Capitalism Is Actually Socialism For The Rich | TYT | 12/03/17 | 8:03
Republican: Women Belong In The Home, Not In Politics | TYT | 12/03/17 | 6:38
The1a.org
A State Department In Disarray? | 1a.org | 12/04/17 | 1hr
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says rumors that the White House plans to replace him soon are "laughable." But questions about Tillerson's tense relationship with President Trump have also raised concerns about a potential shake-up at the U.S. Department of State at a delicate time.

We get a read on the strength of the State Department under the Trump administration and consider how well-equipped the department is to handle today's global conflicts -- most importantly, the escalating crisis with North Korea.


Emails Show Michael Flynn Was In Close Touch With Senior Advisers | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/04/17 | 9:48
Does President Donald Trump's Tweet Prove Obstruction Of Justice? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/04/17 | 6:44
Senator Richard Blumenthal Calls For Legislation To Protect Special Counsel | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/04/17 | 12:52
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Is It Okay To Say The 'D' Word About Trump Yet? | Stephen Colbert | 12/02/17 | 3:15
Trump Said There's Nothing Like 'First Rate P****' | Stephen Colbert | 12/02/17 | 3:16
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
From the Tax Plan to Libya, Everything Goes Back to Trump | Trevor Noah | 11/30/17 | 6:16
Note: I add this just to expose you to what the Alt Right is listening to. Sometimes pretty scary.
Alex Jones -> Flynn Trump News, Roger Stone, James O'Keefe (FULL) | Alex Jones | 12/01/17 | 2:47:54
Roger Stone: Goes Deeper! | Infowars | 12/01/17 | 52:48

12.04.2017. 11:44



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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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