Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

*Anatomy of the Deep State
Bill Moyers | Mike Lofgren | 02/21/14

There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.

Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an "establishment." All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State's protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude. ... Read more or read article at HuffintonPost
Bill Moyers | Mike Lofgren on the Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight (02/22/14) [26:48]

*Danielle Brian on Legalized Corruption
Bill Moyers | author | 02/21/14

Forget about the Machiavellian drama that plays out in the hit series The House of Cards, if you really want to be educated (or frightened) about what goes on in the nation's capital, just let everything you read in Mike Lofgren's essay sink in.

The ideological gridlock that grips Congress might make you angry. But as Lofgren points in his professorial manner, what should really get your blood pumping are the strings being pulled by the real decision makers: the executives on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and in the military-intelligence industrial complex surrounding the Beltway. ... Read more
Bill Moyers | Sheila Krumholz and Danielle Brian on How Money Rules Washington (02/21/14) [26:46]

*Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?
Click picture to zoom infographic
Nation Magazine | Lee Fang | 02/20/14

DN | The Shadow Lobbying Complex: How Corporations Are Hiding Vast Influence, Peddling Efforts (02/25/14) [8:50]

Virginia Republican Says A Pregnant Woman Is Just A 'Host,' Though 'Some Refer To Them As Mothers'
HP | Laura Bassett | 02/24/14

A pregnant woman is just a "host" that should not have the right to end her pregnancy, Virginia State Sen. Steve Martin (R) wrote in a Facebook rant defending his anti-abortion views.

Martin, the former chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee, wrote a lengthy post about his opinions on women's bodies on his Facebook wall last week in response to a critical Valentine's Day card he received from reproductive rights advocates. ... Read more

Some Embarrassing Details From the Pentagon's Latest Stealth Fighter Report
The F-35 is a Bad Deal | author | 02/03/14