Home · News · News Dec 2017 · Dec 19 2017
Tuesday December 19, 2017

The real reason Trump allies are attacking Mueller
Politico | Darren Samuelsohn | 12/19/17

Sowing public doubt about the special counsel's Russia investigation can give the president cover for pardons, even if the investigation is allowed to proceed.

In the last week, investigators on Mueller's team have been publicly accused of being biased against Trump and of violating criminal procedure to get documents related to his transition. The purpose of the onslaught, according to people close to the White House, isn't to encourage the president to oust the special counsel, a move that could precipitate a crisis in the Justice Department and potentially a move to impeach Trump.

Rather, these people said, the goal is to sow public doubt about Mueller and his prosecutors in advance of upcoming criminal trials -- and to give the president political cover if he wants to start issuing pardons to any current or former aides swept up in the Russia scandal. ... Read more

60% of Americans support net neutrality, yet the FCC is hell-bent on dismantling the free and open internet. 84% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans support the DREAM Act, but Republicans are refusing to pass the DREAM Act. Over 90% of Democrats and about 80% of Republicans want to maintain or increase funding for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, but Bernie's amendment to the Republican tax bill to ensure no cuts to these programs was voted down.

Demoralized I.R.S. Faces Monumental Task With New Bill
NYT | Patricia Cohen | 12/19/17

The agency, upbraided for years by the Republicans, must now interpret the new bill. It has been struggling with a budget cut of nearly $1 billion since 2010, and a 23-percent reduction in personnel. ... Read more

Trump, upset about Gorsuch's criticism of his attacks on judges, talked of rescinding nomination
WashingtonPost | Ashley Parker | 12/19/17

President Trump has boasted that appointing Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court ranks high among his signature achievements. But he vented angrily to advisers earlier this year when Gorsuch called Trump's repeated attacks on the federal judiciary "disheartening" and "demoralizing," according to people with knowledge of the discussions. ... Read more

How much of a threat are Russia and China to the US?l | Aljazeera: Inside Story | 12/19/17 | 25:10

Author Brian Klaas: Is Trump an "aspiring despot" or a "bumbling showman"? Yes!
Salon | Chauncey Devega | 12/19/17

Author of "The Despot's Apprentice" on the "long-term corrosion of democracy" that won't end when Trump is gone

The presidency of Donald Trump has forced the American people to confront questions most of us had never before considered possible. What happens when a president has no respect for the Constitution and the country's democratic institutions and traditions? When a president and his allies consider themselves above the law, what is to be done? If a president creates his own version of reality by behaving like a political cult leader, what forms of resistance are effective -- or even possible? Is the president of the United States a fascist and demagogue who may be under the influence of the country's enemies?

Too many Americans believed their country to be exceptional and unique. This blinded them to the threat to democracy embodied by Donald Trump -- as well as other members of the extreme right-wing -- until it was too late to stop him from stealing control. Moreover, the rise of Trump's authoritarian movement (dishonestly operating under the mask of "populism") has both empowered and revealed the tens of millions of Americans who have authoritarian or fascist leanings. The threat to American democracy is deep; it will take a long time to purge this civic sickness and political disease from the body politic.

In an effort to understand the true dimensions of Trump's rise to power as a direct threat to American democracy, I recently spoke with Brian Klaas. He is a fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. In addition to writing columns and essays that have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, Foreign Affairs and numerous other publications, Klaas is the author of several books. His latest, published in November, is "The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, December 19 [11:02]
"CorkerKickback?": Sen. Supports Tax Bill After Last-Minute Provision Would Personally Enrich Him | DN | 12/18/17 | 10:12
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, December 19 (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. Puerto Rico Orders Recount of Hurricane Maria Death Toll After Investigation Suggests 1,000+ Died
  3. U.N. Special Rapporteur Says Tax Bill Will Make the U.S. "World Champion of Extreme Inequality"
  4. CDC Bars Words Like "Transgender" & "Science-Based" as "Ideology Is Being Elevated Above Evidence"
Corker's Tax Vote: Coincidence or Kickback? | TRNN | 12/19/17 | 7:28
The REAL Reason This CORRUPT Senator Flip-Flopped On Trump's Tax Cut Bill | TYT | 12/18/17 | 12:24
What's #CorkerKickback About? | TYT | 12/18/17 | 10:10
WEAK, COWARDLY, PATHETIC Democrats Surrender To GOP | TYT | 12/18/17 | 17:58
The1a.org
President's National Security Strategy Touts Protection, Prosperity, Peace And Power | 1a.org | 12/19/17 | 1hr
America First? Or America alone? President Trump's newly outlined national security agenda could greatly alter the nation's international relationships. It's a not quite a new Cold War, but it sure sounds like one.

The president's new national security strategy takes a hard line against China and Russia. And it calls out a consensus that promotes U.S. engagement with its fiercest rivals.
Inside America's Chemical Arms Race | 1a.org | 12/19/17 | 1hr
The story of the Manhattan Project is often told as a modern miracle: Facing difficult odds in World War II, the United States gathers its top minds and produces a weapon that can end the war, but only at the cost of thousands of lives and a permanently changed world order. The scientific success and efficiency is matched only by the conflicted morality behind the achievement. But the Manhattan Project wasn't the first time the U.S. did something like this.

In World War I, the U.S. raced to catch up with Germany in the development of chemical weapons. And much of the development and testing of these weapons was done in the nation's capital.


GOP Rep. Kevin Brady: Most In US Not Thinking Of Carried Interest | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/19/17 | 15:17
Meet Three Of President Donald Trump's Judicial Picks Who Have Withdrawn | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 12/19/17 | 7:48
Blitzer presses Trump adviser: Has he read security document? | CNN | 12/18/17 | 14:21
Trump challenges China, Russia during national security speech | FoxNews | 12/18/17 | 6:10
Pentagon Confirms They've Been Investigating UFOs, Releases Video | All In | MSNBC | 12/19/17 | 2:32
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The (Failed) Effort To Make Trump A 'Standard President' | Stephen Colbert | 12/16/17 | 5:19
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
The Politics of Branding, Meeting Obama & Trump's First Year | Trevor Noah | 12/18/17 | 6:09
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump's FBI Speech, the GOP Tax Plan and Bob Corker | Seth Meyers | 12/18/17 | 11:53

12.19.2017. 13:33



Special Interest Important stuff
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Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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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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