Home · News · News Dec 2018 · Dec 19 2018
Wednesday December 19, 2018
WeatherChange | Tipping Points - Disappearing ice and Methanein the Arctic
Peter Wadhams - IPCC Underestimates & Political Cowards | UPFSI | 12/11/18 | 21:43
https://www.scientistswarning.org/ website

Homelessness Rises For Second Year In A Row In U.S. After Years Of Decline
HuffPost | Sarah Ruiz-Grossman | 12/18/18

More than half a million people nationwide were homeless on a given night this year, according to a government report.

About 553,000 people nationwide were homeless? on a single night in January 2018, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That is a 0.3 percent increase from HUD's finding last year for its annual report on homelessness, which looks at nationwide trends using local data from a given day in January.

Of those who were homeless, about two-thirds stayed in shelters or transitional housing, while about one-third were considered "unsheltered," meaning they were sleeping on the street, in abandoned buildings, or other places "not suitable for human habitation."

The U.S. is facing an ongoing affordable housing crisis, as housing costs have risen far faster than incomes over the past few decades. Advocates for the homeless say that governments at the federal, state and local levels have not done enough to make more affordable housing available. ... Read more

The Fed gets the Trump treatment
Axios | Courtenay Brown | 12/19/18

There's never been a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision quite like this, with the central bank facing public criticism from the president and a whipsawing stock market.

Why it matters: Market watchers agree that one of the greatest threats to the smoking economy is a misjudgment by the Fed on how to manage the record-breaking economic expansion. Trump's response to any rate hike is likely to be angry, losing the Fed's precious credibility among the president's supporters. ... Read more

Oil crashes through the floor
Axios | Ben Geman | 12/19/18

The commentary atop the IEA's monthly oil market report a week ago was headlined "A floor under prices?" and said Brent crude "seems to" have found one around $60-per-barrel. That question mark, in retrospect, is doing lots of work.

Where it stands: Prices plummeted by several dollars per barrel in trading Tuesday, the latest sign of volatility that's carrying the day despite the OPEC+ efforts to stabilize the market. ... Read more

I'm A Trauma Surgeon. Thoughts And Prayers Won't Save My Patients From Guns | Once you've treated victims of a school shooting, you can't stomach "thoughts and prayers" anymore. | Sterling Haring | 12/19/18 | article
It's a Wonderful Trump
It's a Wonderful Trump Cold Open | SNL | 12/15/18 | 8:55

Sears bankruptcy court OKs $25 million in bonuses for top execs
CBS News | Kate Gibson | 12/17/18

The company behind the Sears and Kmart chains on Friday obtained a U.S. bankruptcy court's permission to pay as much as $25.3 million in bonuses to top executives and other high-ranking employees at Sears, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

  1. Sears, once dominant retailer, declares bankruptcy
  2. Billionaire who led Sears into bankruptcy offers to buy it
Former CEO Eddie Lampert is still chairman of Sears, and his hedge fund, ESL Investments, recently offered to acquire what's left of the company, which is currently headed toward liquidation. The once dominant retailer has been shuttering stores and laying off employees, with roughly 500 stores still in operation. ... Read more
Why Sears Bankruptcy Should Outrage You | TYT | 12/18/18 | 9:59
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, December 19 [11:53]
Glenn Greenwald: Congress Is Trying to Make It a Federal Crime to Participate in Boycott of Israel | DN | 12/18/18 | 9:44
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, 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. Justice for Jakelin: Lawmakers Demand Answers in Death of 7-Year-Old Girl in Border Patrol Custody
  3. Mental Health Experts & Rights Groups Call for Unceasing Media Coverage of Detained Migrant Children
  4. Cambodians Who Fled War, U.S. Bombs and Genocide Now Face ICE Raids and Deportations Under Trump
Economic Update with Richard Wolff | TRNN | 12/17/18 | 29:35
This week: Updates on massive international study of profit-driven food production; the huge costs of contemporary loneliness; the police raid of Deutsche Bank; falling house prices; Belgium follows France in mass street demonstrations; and how the U.S. economy is hurt by the poor incomes of Millennials; An interview with Kali Akuno, the co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, the Mississippi development project focused on worker co-ops.
Trump Releases Ridiculous New Ad And Michael Flynn Called Out By Judge (full show) | TYT | 12/19/18 | 39:39
The1a.org
Who Is Caring For The Health And Safety Of Coal Miners? | 1a.org | 12/19/18 | 1hr
A multi-year investigation published by Frontline and NPR reached devastating conclusions about the outbreak of advanced black lung disease affecting Appalachia.

The report found that federal government regulators failed to respond to warning signs ahead of the outbreak. Regulators were "were urged to take specific and direct action to stop it." But they didn't.

It's an "epidemic" and "clearly one of the worst industrial medicine disasters that's ever been described," said Scott Laney, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

"We're counting thousands of cases," he said. "Thousands and thousands and thousands of black lung cases. Thousands of cases of the most severe form of black lung. And we're not done counting yet." ...
Judge Shocks Court With Harsh Rebuke Of Michael Flynn; Sentencing Delayed | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 12/19/18 | 18:47
Joe: We Saw What Judicial Independence Means | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/19/18 | 14:24
Donald Trump Foundation Dissolves As Michael Flynn Gets Smackdown In Court | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 12/19/18 | 4:04
Michael Flynn Played Himself In Court | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 12/19/18 | 21:49
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Last Word Flynn Wanted To Hear: 'Treason' | Stephen Colbert | 12/18/18 | 6:15
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump Criticizes Tech Companies, Trump's 2020 Campaign Hotline | Seth Meyers | 12/19/18 | 3:28
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Thanks Donald Trump | Jimmy Kimmel | 12/19/18 | 2:13

12.19.2018. 11:45



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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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