Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

CNN | Bernie Sanders warns Republicans worried about protests: You haven't 'seen anything yet' (02/23/17) [9:04]

TRUMP STUMPED: 'Nobody Knew' That Health Care Could Be So Hard
HP | Jeffrey Young , Jonathan Cohn | 02/27/17

"Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." That was President Donald Trump speaking at the White House Monday, and if anything can encapsulate the dilemma facing Republicans as they haltingly try to keep their campaign promises to repeal and "replace" the Affordable Care Act -- aka Obamacare -- it's that.

The idea that "nobody" knew health care is complicated is, of course, nonsense ? as literally anyone who's ever visited a doctor or used health insurance could tell you. But the realization seems to have come belatedly to Trump. ... Read more

House Republicans Are Helping Donald Trump Keep His Tax Returns Secret
HP | Alana Horowitz Satlin | 02/28/17

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) on Monday proposed a resolution to invoke an obscure law allowing the Internal Revenue Service to turn over the president's tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee for review. But the House voted 229-185, almost exclusively on party lines, to reject the effort.

Pascrell first raised the idea of using the law again earlier this month, but was shot down by the Ways and Means committee chair, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas.) ... Read more

Trump: 'Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated'
thehill.com | Jessie Hellmann | 02/27/17

President Trump said Monday that "nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated," as Republicans have been slow to unite around a replacement plan for ObamaCare.

"I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject," Trump said after a meeting with conservative governors at the White House.

The GOP governors were in town this weekend for their annual conference and met with Trump to talk about a variety of things, but it's likely the conversation largely focused on healthcare. ... Read more

Pentagon Reporter: I Don't Know Any Military Commander Who Thinks Trump's Plan Is Going to Work
AlterNet | Sara K. Barris/Raw Story | 02/27/17

His military vision is dangerous and outdated, a better fit for the 1950s than 2017

On the heels of President Donald Trump's declaration that the United States must "start winning wars again," CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr revealed military leaders have a different opinion.

"There are a lot of questions about what the president means," Starr told Wolf Blitzer. "He said he was taking this from watching the military during his days back in high school and college in his words when perhaps it was a much more clear time for military victories." ... Read more

**Trump Budget Plan Boosts Pentagon, Trims State Dept, EPA
Reuters & HP| Reuters | 02/26/17

The White House on Monday will send federal departments a budget proposal containing the defense spending increase President Donald Trump promised, financed partly by cuts to the U.S. State Department, Environmental Protection Agency and other non-defense programs, two officials familiar with the proposal said.

... A second official said the State Department's budget could be cut by as much as 30 percent, which would force a major restructuring of the department and elimination of programs. ... Read more

The First 100 Lies: The Trump Team's Flurry Of Falsehoods
HP | Igor Bobic | 02/26/17

NBC's "Today" show | "Words MATTER" George W. Bush SLAMS Donald Trump (02/27/17) [5:47]

Bannon Versus Trump
NYTimes | David Brooks | 02/10/17

It's becoming clear that for the next few years American foreign policy will be shaped by the struggle among Republican regulars, populist ethno-nationalists and the forces of perpetual chaos unleashed by Donald Trump's attention span.

The Republican regulars build their grand strategies upon the post-World War II international order -- the American-led alliances, norms and organizations that bind democracies and preserve global peace. The regulars seek to preserve and extend this order, and see Vladimir Putin as a wolf who tears away at it.

The populist ethno-nationalists in the Trump White House do not believe in this order. Their critique -- which is simultaneously moral, religious, economic, political and racial -- is nicely summarized in the remarks Steve Bannon made to a Vatican conference in 2014:

This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America
Bloomberg | Joshua Green | old, 10/08/15

Bannon is the executive chairman of Breitbart News, the crusading right-wing populist website that's a lineal descendant of the Drudge Report (its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, spent years apprenticing with Matt Drudge) and a haven for people who think Fox News is too polite and restrained. He'd spent the day at CPAC among the conservative faithful, zipping back and forth between his SiriusXM booth and an unlikely pair of guests he was squiring around: Nigel Farage ... Read more

CNN | Glenn Beck attacks Steve Bannon as a dangerous Leninist (02/23/17) [5:55]

Steve Bannon Says Feud With 'Corporatist, Globalist' Media Will Only Get Worse
HP | Igor Bobic | 02/23/17

A few days after President Donald Trump drew rebukes for calling the media the "enemy of the American people," his top strategist Steve Bannon showed no sign that the White House was willing to reconsider its feud with the press.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference alongside White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Thursday, Bannon warned the situation between the administration and the fourth estate will only get worse. ... Read more

RUSH | We're Not That Far From A CIVIL WAR! (02/10/17) [5:08]

Rush Limbaugh's file

All statements involving Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh Urges Listeners Not To "Fall For" Fact-Checks

Stephen Colbert | 'Real News Tonight': A Reliable Source For News Trump Will Like (02/24/17) [3:16]

Stephen Colbert | The Late Show Presents: Presidential Leak-Crets (02/24/17) [4:59]

Keith Olbermann | Donald Trump Must Go (02/23/17) [3:51]

Why the Christian Right Is Rejoicing Under Trump's Presidency
AlterNet | Alex Kotch | 02/23/17

In early 2016, few evangelical leaders were on Team Trump, as they had Ted Cruz and other conservative Christians to choose from in a crowded Republican presidential field. After Donald Trump embarrassed his GOP competition and became the party's nominee, prominent evangelicals began changing their tune. Some, including a number of outspoken anti-LGBT activists, worked with the Trump campaign on a large evangelical advisory board. After Trump won the presidency with 81 percent of the white evangelical vote, most far-right Christian leaders who hadn't endorsed him came around. Many were gleeful, and some even pronounced that God had stepped in and handed Trump the job.

That excitement has grown since the election as Trump prepared for and took office, nominating several ultra-conservative Christians for key posts and promptly following through on several of his campaign promises tailored to evangelical voters. Trump had already picked far-right evangelical Mike Pence for vice president. Then he nominated Betsy DeVos, who was raised in a Calvinist community in Michigan, for secretary of education and Seventh-Day Adventist Ben Carson for Housing and Urban Development secretary, and Human Services Sec. Tom Price, EPA head Scott Pruitt, Energy nominee Rick Perry, Agriculture nominee Sonny Perdue and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ... Read more

NBC | GOP Senator Tom Cotton Confronted At Town Hall About President Trump's Election (02/23/17 [4:20]

White House Bars CNN, NYT, Others From Media Briefing
ZeroHedge | author | 02/24/17

CNN's political reporter Sara Murray has confirmed that CNN has been blocked from attending a White House press briefing this morning. Other reports note that The New York Times, LA Times, and Politico were also blocked. ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX were allowed in but AP and Time have boycotted the event. ... Read more

*Bernie Sanders Takes Down Drug Companies and Washington Lobbyists' Latest Racket
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 02/22/17

The Vermont senator blames an insulin price hike on the collusion of Big Pharma.

The price of insulin is going up, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) refuses to take it lying down. On Wednesday, the Vermont senator weighed in on a new class-action lawsuit taking aim at drug manufacturers.

"In the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry, major companies, have been fined some $35 billion for collusion, for fraud and for other illegal behavior," Sanders explained in an interview with "CBS This Morning." ... Read more

*Fears Grow That Climate Conflicts Could Lead to War
Bloomberg | Jonathan Tirone | 02/19/17

Among the 21st-century threats posed by climate change -- rising seas, melting permafrost and superstorms -- European leaders are warning of a last-century risk they know all too well: War.

Focusing too narrowly on the environmental consequences of global warming underestimates the military threats, top European and United Nations officials said at a global security conference in Munich this weekend. Their warnings follow the conclusions of defense and intelligence agencies that climate change could trigger resource and border conflicts. ... Read more

Stephen Colbert | Joe Scarborough: There Are Some Lines Trump Can't Cross, Part 1 (02/22/17) [5:38]

Keith Olbermann | The Intel Community and the Slow Death of Trump's Presidency (#37) (02/22/17) [7:46]

The Making Of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy Of American Empire by Leo Panitch (2013)

The all-encompassing embrace of world capitalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century was generally attributed to the superiority of competitive markets. Globalization had appeared to be the natural outcome of this unstoppable process. But today, with global markets roiling and increasingly reliant on state intervention to stay afloat, it has become clear that markets and states aren't straightforwardly opposing forces.

In this groundbreaking work, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state. The Making of Global Capitalism identifies the centrality of the social conflicts that occur within states rather than between them. These emerging fault lines hold out the possibility of new political movements that might transcend global markets.

Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest
Politico | Kenneth P. Vogel | 02/23/17

A purported cyber hack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump's presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort's daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to "bulletproof" evidence related to Manafort's financial arrangement with Ukraine's former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub ... Read more

Global Warming & Climate Change
NYTimes | author | Current

What Climate Change Effects Are We Already Seeing
EPA | author | Current

Climate change: How do we know?
NASA.gov | author | Current

The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here
RollingStone.com | Eric Holthaus | older 2015

The worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen -- and much faster than climate scientists expected

Historians may look to 2015 as the year when shit really started hitting the fan. Some snapshots: In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people. In Washington state's Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory. London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated. In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains. Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide. Read more

CNN | CNN: Goldstein v McEnany (02/21/17) [6:07]

MSNBC Chris Hayes | Mitch McConnell and Republicans Experience Eruptions at Town Halls (02/21/17) [4:58]

'Everything's on the Table': Kellyanne Conway Floats Mass Recess Appointments of Trump Nominees
AlterNet | Tana Ganeva / Raw Story | 02/21/17

She called the remaining Obama-era staff "sleeper cells."

On Tuesday, counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway -- who's recently had some trouble getting booked on cable news -- appeared on conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt's radio show. First, Hewitt asked Conway why the President has not fired Obama-appointed US Attorneys and praised Donald Trump's controversial decision to dismiss acting Attorney General Sally Yates.

"Hey, I just want him to do, there are sleeper cells of Obama appointees throughout this government who are in political jobs. They're not civil servants, and I want them, I really want them gone yesterday," Hewitt said. ... Read more

Trump Administration Tells World Leaders to Just Ignore What the President Says: Report
AlterNet | Erin Corbett / Raw Story | 02/20/27

"The dirty little secret of the 'Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said' approach to foreign policy is that it's not a sustainable foreign policy at all."

One month into President Donald Trump's administration, the divide in his team's approach to national security and foreign policy issues couldn't be more clear. The Rachel Maddow blog laid out the ways in which the Trump team has adopted a "Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said" approach to both matters. ... Read more
Or
'Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said' foreign policy

Mar-a-Lago: Trump's Winter White House takes over Palm Beach
CNN | Dan Merica | 02/20/17

President Donald Trump, a newcomer to the White House, is still developing his relationship with the people of Washington. But that's far from the case with the people of Palm Beach -- now the location of his so-called Winter White House -- the long spit of land off Florida's East Coast that the real estate mogul has been frequenting for decades.

Since he purchased the Mar-a-Lago property in 1985 for $5 million, Trump's relationship with the tony city and its residents has ebbed and flowed. He's sued the city, fought with the town leadership and turned local issues into nattional controversies. Traffic caused by Trump's motorcade is the most recent sore spot for the people of Palm Beach and the surrounding area. ... Read more

Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar (2017)

The rise over the last two decades of a powerful new class of billionaire financiers marks a singular shift in the American economic and political landscape. Their vast reserves of concentrated wealth have allowed a small group of big winners to write their own rules of capitalism and public policy. How did we get here? Through meticulous reporting and powerful storytelling, New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar shows how Steve Cohen became one of the richest and most influential figures in finance--and what happened when the Justice Department put him in its crosshairs.

Cohen and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn't lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than wrong--and for this they have gained not only extreme personal wealth but formidable influence throughout society. Hedge funds now manage nearly $3 trillion in assets, and competition between them is so fierce that traders will do whatever they can to get an edge.

Cohen was one of the industry's greatest success stories. He mastered poker in high school, went off to Wharton, and in 1992 launched SAC Capital, which he built into a $15 billion empire, almost entirely on the basis of his wizardlike stock trading. He cultivated an air of mystery, reclusiveness, and extreme excess, building a 35,000 square foot mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, and amassing one of the largest private art collections in the world. On Wall Street, Cohen was revered as a genius.

That image was shattered when SAC became the target of a sprawling, seven-year government investigation. Labeled by prosecutors as a "magnet for market cheaters" whose culture encouraged the relentless hunt for "edge"--and even "black edge," or inside information--SAC was ultimately indicted in connection with a vast insider trading scheme, even as Cohen himself was never charged.

Black Edge offers a revelatory look at the gray zone in which so much of Wall Street functions, and a window into the transformation of the U.S. economy. It's a riveting, true-life legal thriller that takes readers inside the government's pursuit of Cohen and his employees, and raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of modern Wall Street.

Here's What People Really Thought About That Trump Press Conference
HP | Ariel Edwards-Levy | 02/20/17

Nothing Seemed To Stop Milo Yiannopoulos -- Until This
HP | Chris D'Angelo | 02/20/17

Racism, bigotry and sexism weren't enough to silence the far-right troll.

A platform of hatred. A plethora of racist, misogynistic and transphobic remarks. But through it all, many stood by far-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, often defending his right to free speech.

Over the weekend, however, the Breitbart editor finally crossed what may have seemed a non-existent line, sending the American Conservative Union, publishing house Simon & Schuster and others who once supported him running. The breaking point: defending pedophilia. ... Read more

Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy by Sheldon Whitehouse (Author), Melanie Wachtell Stinnett (2017)

In Captured, U.S. Senator and former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse offers an eye-opening take on what corporate influence looks like today from the Senate Floor, adding a first-hand perspective to Jane Mayer's Dark Money.

Americans know something is wrong in their government. Senator Whitehouse combines history, legal scholarship, and personal experiences to provide the first hands-on, comprehensive explanation of what's gone wrong, exposing multiple avenues through which our government has been infiltrated and disabled by corporate powers. Captured reveals an original oversight by the Founders, and shows how and why corporate power has exploited that vulnerability: to strike fear in elected representatives who don't "get right" by threatening million-dollar "dark money" election attacks (a threat more effective and less expensive than the actual attack); to stack the judiciary--even the Supreme Court--in "business-friendly" ways; to "capture" the administrative agencies meant to regulate corporate behavior; to undermine the civil jury, the Constitution's last bastion for ordinary citizens; and to create a corporate "alternate reality" on public health and safety issues like climate change.

Captured shows that in this centuries-long struggle between corporate power and individual liberty, we can and must take our American government back into our own hands.

**CNN | Manafort, Flynn communicated regularly with Russians (02/14/17) [1:43]

Who is Paul Manafort?
CNN | Laura Smith-Spark | 02/15/17

So who is Manafort and why is he under scrutiny? He was originally brought in to save Trump from a defeat at the Republican convention, should Trump have failed to win enough delegates to clinch a first-ballot nomination.

But his role grew to serve as Trump's connection to the GOP establishment, telling Republican elders that their presidential nominee would run a traditional campaign that would not imperil down-ballot candidates. ... Read more

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash ($12.7 million) for Donald Trump's Campaign Chief
NYTimes | author | older 08/14/16

KIEV, Ukraine -- On a leafy side street off Independence Square in Kiev is an office used for years by Donald J. Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, when he consulted for Ukraine's ruling political party. His furniture and personal items were still there as recently as May.

And Mr. Manafort's presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort's main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. ... Read more

*NBC Meet The Press | Bernie Sanders Full Interview: President Trump Is A 'Pathological Liar'. (02/12/17) [6:44]

*Tulsi Gabbard Versus "Regime Change" Wars
ZeroHedge | author | 02/20/17

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is a rare member of Congress willing to take heat for challenging U.S. "regime change" projects, in part, because as an Iraq War vet she saw the damage these schemes do, as retired Col. Ann Wright explains to ConsortiumNews.com.

I support Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, going to Syria and meeting with President Bashar al-Assad because the congresswoman is a brave person willing to take criticism for challenging U.S. policies that she believes are wrong.

It is important that we have representatives in our government who will go to countries where the United States is either killing citizens directly by U.S. intervention or indirectly by support of militia groups or by sanctions.

We need representatives to sift through what the U.S. government says and what the media reports to find out for themselves the truth, the shades of truth and the untruths. ... Read more

NBC Meet the Press | Reince Priebus: Michael Flynn 'Wasn't Straight Or Honest' (02/19/17) [6:14]

Trump Says There's Been No Russia Contact -- Of Course, Much Of What He Says Is Untrue
HP | S.V. Date | 02/19/17

The Republican leader of the United States Senate was asked last week if he believed the Republican president's denial that his campaign colluded with the foreign power that was trying to help him win.

Mitch McConnell's answer: "I have no idea."

His office later said that McConnell misunderstood the question ? that he thought he was being asked if he personally knew whether Trump's campaign had colluded with Russia. Regardless, McConnell's four words represent the new president's problem in a nutshell. Having made falsehoods a staple of his public discourse, Donald Trump now faces enormous hurdles in getting even his erstwhile allies to put their names behind his credibility.

Trump has made untrue statements about the size of his inauguration crowd, the "standing ovation" he received at CIA headquarters, the "millions" of "illegal" votes cast in the November election, the murder rate, the news coverage given to terror attacks, and, just Saturday at his Florida "campaign" rally, about the amount of vetting refugees trying to enter the country must undergo and about a nonexistent terror incident in Sweden. That's just a partial list, and he's only been in office a month.... Read more

Anatomy Of The Deep State: An Open Conspiracy (02/11/16) [23:03]

The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government by Mike Lofgren (2016)

Every Four years, tempers are tested and marriages fray as Americans head to the polls to cast their votes. But does anyone really care what we think? Has our vaunted political system become one big, expensive, painfully scriped reality TV show? In this cringe-inducing expose of the sins and excesses of Beltwayland, a longtime Republican party insider argues that we have become an oligarchy in form if not in name. Hooked on war, genuflecting to big donors, in thrall to discredited economic theories and utterly bereft of a moral compass, America's governing classes are selling their souls to entrenched interest while our bridges collapse, wages, stagnate, and our water is increasingly undrinkable.

Drawing on sinsights gleaned over three decades on Capitol Hill, much of it on the Budget Committee, Lofgren paints a gripping portrait of the dismal swamp on the Potomac and the revolution it will take to reclaim our government and set us back on course.

*Peter Dale Scott - Deep State: Secret Government CIA FEMA & The Doomsday Network (01/25/15) [2:04:17]

*The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy by Peter Dale Scott (2015)

This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden "deep state" that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America's increasing militarization, restrictions on constitutional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to shared sources of funding. Behind all of these commonalities is what Scott calls the deep state: a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law. With the increasing importance of Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to oil markets, American defense companies, and Wall Street itself, this essential book shows that there is now a supranational deep state, sometimes demonstrably opposed to official American policies and public interest.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "We're Not In Iraq To Seize Anybody's Oil"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/20/17

In the latest distancing by Trump administration advisors from recent statements by the President, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit on Monday to discuss the war effort against ISIS, and said that the US military is not in Iraq "to seize anybody's oil." ... Read more

Trump Attacks 'Out Of Control' Media In Chaotic Press Conference
HP (and everyone else) | Christina Wilkie | 02/16/17

President Donald Trump launched a barrage of attacks on the press and leakers in an unsteady, unwieldy 77-minute press conference in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.

With his administration in crisis, Trump also defended the chaotic first month of his presidency, claiming that he had "inherited a mess" from President Barack Obama and that his administration "is running like a fine-tuned machine."

"I'm making this presentation directly to the American people with the media present ... because many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect they deserve," Trump said.... Read more

TheGuardian | Donald Trump's press conference (full) (02/17/17) [1:26:54]

C-SPAN | CLIPS: Donald Trump Press Conference (02/16/17) [15:10]

*TYT | Trump's Press Conference MELTDOWN (02/16/17) [11:32]

President Trump implodes in unhinged 77-minute press conference
Salon | Taylor Link | 02/16/17

The president held a press conference to introduce the new labor secretary pick but mostly used his time to attack the press ... Read more

TYT | Is Trump Lying About Roger Stone And Russia? (02/16/17) [7:16]

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone: I had no contact with Russian officials
Today | Kyung Kim | 02/16/17

Former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone rejected claims he had any involvement with Russian intelligence officials during or after the 2016 presidential campaign and said he welcomed a "fair, unbiased investigation" to clear his name. "Categorically, positively not," he said when asked Thursday on TODAY whether he had any regular dealings with Russians officials.

... Read more

Dow Dragged Lower By UnitedHealth After Government Sues Largest US Health Insurer
ZeroHedge | author | 02/17/17

The Dow Jones "Industrial" Average is suffering one of its worst intraday declines in weeks as a result of a 3.6% drop in UnitedHealth shares, which are sinking on news that the DOJ joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the insurer filed by a former executive claiming the country's largest health insurer overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars. ... Read more

What Is the 'Deep State' -- And Why Is It After Trump?
AlterNet | Jefferson Morley | 02/16/17

The firing of Gen. Michael Flynn has popularized the concept of the "Deep State" across the political spectrum.

Breitbart's Joel Pollak attacks the disloyal "Deep State #Resistance" to President Trump, while conservative pundit Bill Kristol defends it.

"Obviously [I] strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics," Kristol tweeted Tuesday. "But if it comes to it, [I] prefer the deep state to the Trump state." ... Read more

Aljazeera | Inside Story -> What happens to global support for two-state solution? (02/16/10) [25:30]

Donald Trump declares war on his intelligence agencies over 'illegal' and 'un-American' leaks
telegraph.co.uk | David Lawler | 02/16/17

President Donald Trump has declared war on his own intelligence agencies over "un-American" and scandalous leaks, that his aides had been in "constant communication" with Russian intelligence officials during the presidential campaign.

... Hours after Michael Flynn, Mr Trump's national security adviser, resigned after misleading the White House over conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US, reports emerged that key campaign aides had also been communicating with Russian officials. ... Read more

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

Samantha Bee | Paul Ryan: Portrait in Courage (02/15/17) [7:11]

The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann | The Enormous Cost of Trump's War on Immigrants (#34) (02/15/17) [7:02]

Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Donald Solves the Israel-Palestine Conflict (02/16/17) [3:51]

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert | So Much Russian Influence, So Little Time... (02/16/17) [9:18]

Vox | Kellyanne Conway's interview tricks, explained (02/13/17) [6:31]

Meet The Man Behind The Market's Relentless Ramp
ZeroHedge | author | 02/16/17

In an ironic twist of fate, it appears the catalyst for many of the biggest and most incomprehensible market ramps of the last few years is a fund called "Catalyst." With around $4 billion under management (before the latest collapse), the levered options fund is run by Edward Walczak who "uses options to create a better risk/return profile." ... Read more

J Is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception by Michael Hudson (02/21/17)

J IS FOR JUNK ECONOMICS is an A-to-Z guide that explains how the world economy really works - and who the winners and losers are. The book includes more than 400 concise and acerbic entries, several essays, and a full topic index. Expanding on KILLING THE HOST: HOW FINANCIAL PARASITES AND DEBT DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Prof. Hudson's new book covers contemporary terms that are misleading or poorly understood as well as many important concepts that have been abandoned - many on purpose - from the long history of political economy.

Two key concepts are RENT THEORY and DEBT, which explain how Unearned Income and the Financial Sector impoverish governments and populations the world over as power and riches flow upward into the hands of the few. Several additional essays provide background for key points and explore today's uncertain political and economic environment.

To understand what's really going on, it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel; the major issues that guide healthy economies were known to the Ancients and were expanded upon by the classical economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, E. Peshine Smith, Simon Patten, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, and others of many political stripes whose aim was to leave the brutal legacy of feudalism behind. Their ideas and principles are brought back into the spotlight here. It is hoped that this book will deconstruct today's "value-free," watered-down and deceptive economics that favor the wealthy, allowing the next generation to create a successful economy with proper checks and balances that will benefit everyone. This is a book you will want to refer to again and again.

The Race To The Bottom: Why A Worldwide Worker Surplus And Uncontrolled Free Trade Are Sinking American Living Standards by Alan Tonelson

A leading economic journalist explains why Washington's responses to globalization have created a global worker surplus that undermines both American workers and those in developing nations.

Trump Ties to Infrastructure Advisers Roth and LeFrak Run Deep
Bloomberg | Satah Mulholland | 02/15/17

Donald Trump didn't look very far when searching for infrastructure advisers. He turned to two Manhattan real estate developers he has known for decades, Richard LeFrak and Steven Roth.

LeFrak, a billionaire whose New York roots mirror Trump's own, and Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, one of the city's largest landlords, will spearhead a committee dedicated to one of the new administration's signature campaign pledges. Trump's relationships with the two men, who will lead a council of builders and engineers to monitor spending, crisscross New York in a web of personal and professional ties. ... Read more

Goldman Warns of China Economy Risks During Year of the Rooster
Bloomberg | Enda Curran | 02/14/17

China's economy may have slipped down the global worry list, but significant risks remain, including an abrupt end to a massive credit boom or an overly aggressive policy response if inflation should speed up, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

While a hard landing isn't the New York-based bank's base case for 2017 -- it expects only a modest slowdown -- economists warn that a push to rein in cheap loans will weigh on key sectors such as housing. Officials are trying to keep a lid on frothy house prices without harming the wider economy, where growth remains heavily reliant on government spending. ... Read more

RT | Toxic uranium admission: Pentagon confirms to RT use of depleted uranium in Syria (02/14/17) [2:46]

Fox News | Retired Marine's message about travel ban goes viral (02/10/17) [6:00]

Fox News | Retired Marine's message about travel ban goes viral (02/10/17) [6:00]

Biggest EU Banks Embark on the Mother of All Debt Binges
wolfstreet.com | Don Quijones | 02/14/17

Spain's three biggest banks, Banco Santander, BBVA and Caixa Bank, have got off to a flying start this year having issued €8.6 billion in new debt, seven times the amount they sold during the same period of last year. The last time they rolled out so much debt so quickly was in 2007, the year that Spain's spectacular real estate bubble reached its climactic peak. ...

... This newfangled class of bail-in-able debt was cooked up last year by French-based financial engineers in order to help France's four global systemically important banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Groupe BPCE and Société Générale) out of a serious quandary: how to satisfy pending European and global regulations demanding much larger capital and debt buffers without having to pay investors costly returns on the billions of euros of funds they lend them to do so. ... Read more

Ocean Pollution: 'Extraordinary' Levels Of Contamination Found At Deepest Parts Of Ocean Inside Fish, Shrimp
ibtimes.com | Juliana Rose Pignataro | 02/13/17

Manmade pollution has made its way to the furthest reaches of the planet, according to scientists. Researchers found 'extraordinary' amounts of the banned chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, more than 36,000 feet down in the ocean.

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom studied shrimp-like creatures called amphipods residing in the depths of the Mariana Trench, almost seven miles down, during two expeditions in 2014. The team found concentrations of PCBs 50 times greater than those found in animals living in surface waters, according to a study published Monday in Nature, Ecology and Evolution. ... Read more

China Just Created A Record $540 Billion In Debt In One Month
ZeroHedge | author | 02/14/17

One week ago, Deutsche Bank analysts warned that the global economic boom is about to end for one reason that has nothing to do with Trump, and everything to do with China's relentless debt injections. As DB's Oliver Harvey said, "attention has focused on President Trump, but developments on the other side of the world may prove more important. At the beginning of 2016, China embarked on its latest fiscal stimulus funded from local government land sales and a booming property market. The Chinese business cycle troughed shortly thereafter and has accelerated rapidly since." ... Read more

Donald Trump's white nationalist "genius bar": Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Michael "Decius" Anton and beyond
Salon | Chauncey Devega | 02/14/17

Donald Trump's administration is built around a brain trust of white nationalists. To deny that fact is to ignore a crucial element of this national crisis: America's "greatest generation" defeated Nazism during World War II, and 70 or so years later one of the country's two leading political parties has injected a more polite version of that poison into its veins and rode to power in Washington on a wave of bigotry and racism.

Among the men who have President Trump's ear, we find White House strategist Steve Bannon, senior adviser Stephen Miller, deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka and newly installed Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ... Read more

DEFINITION of 'Robo-Signer' An employee of a mortgage servicing company that signs foreclosure documents without reviewing them. Rather than actually reviewing the individual details of each case, robo-signers assume the paperwork to be correct and sign it automatically, like robots.

WSJ | This week, mortgage-servicing giant GMAC Mortgage Co. halted | Robbie Whelan | 09/22/10 (article)

*60Minutes | The next housing shock, Bank Fraud Robo Signing for Forclosure (06/13/11) [14:06]

Income share for the bottom 50% of Americans is 'collapsing,' new Piketty research finds
Click to zoom in marketwatch.com | Steve Goldstein | 02/07/17

A new research paper from economists including Thomas Piketty finds that the bottom 50%'s share of income in the United States is "collapsing."

In the U.S., between 1978 and 2015, the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 12% from 20%. Total real income for that group fell 1% during that time period. ... Read more

*Jim Rickards Explains the Global Elite's 'Ice-9' Plan to Freeze The Entire Financial System (02/07/17) [40:52]

The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis by James Rickards (2016)

A drumbeat is sounding among the global elites. The signs of a worldwide financial meltdown are unmistakable. This time, the elites have an audacious plan to protect themselves from the fallout: hoarding cash now and locking down the global financial system when a crisis hits.

Since 2014, international monetary agencies have been issuing warnings to a small group of finance ministers, banks, and private equity funds: the U.S. government's cowardly choices not to prosecute J.P. Morgan and its ilk, and to bloat the economy with a $4 trillion injection of easy credit, are driving us headlong toward a cliff.

As Rickards shows in this frightening, meticulously researched book, governments around the world have no compunction about conspiring against their citizens. They will have stockpiled hard assets when stock exchanges are closed, ATMs shut down, money market funds frozen, asset managers instructed not to sell securities, negative interest rates imposed, and cash withdrawals denied.

If you want to plan for the risks ahead, you will need Rickards's cutting-edge synthesis of behavioral economics, history, and complexity theory. It's a guidebook to thinking smarter, acting faster, and living with the comfort­ing knowledge that your wealth is secure.

The global elites don't want this book to exist. Their plan to herd us like sheep to the slaughter when a global crisis erupts -- and, of course, to maintain their wealth -- works only if we remain complacent and unaware. Thanks to The Road to Ruin, we don't need to be.
The Road to Ruin: Global Elite's 'Ice-9' Plan to Freeze (Google sample)

Jim Rogers: "We're About To Have The Worst Economic Problems Of A Lifetime, A Lot Of People Will Disappear"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/12/17

"Get prepared," warns billionaire commodity guru Jim Rogers, "because we're going to have the worst economic problems in your lifetime and a lot of people are going to disappear." In this wide-ranging interview with MacroVoices' Erik Townsend, the investing legend discusses everything from whether Russia is being scapegoated ("yes, ask Victoria Nuland"), the war against cash ("governments love it... they want to control everything"), to his views on gold and the demise of freedom. ... Read more
*MacroVoices | Erik Townsend & Patrick Ceresna -> Jim Rogers - Macro Outlook in the Trump Era (02/09/15) [1:08:00]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's job security in jeopardy
CBS | Major Garrett | 02/12/17

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's job security is in jeopardy, CBS News has learned, and White House policy adviser Stephen Miller's studied non-defense of Flynn illustrates a new level of isolation from Trump and his inner circle.

Flynn's deception about conversations with the Russian ambassador about Obama administration sanctions have deeply soured his relationship with Vice President Mike Pence. Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation describe Pence as aggravated by Flynn's decision to deceive Pence -- forcing him to say things on Flynn's behalf on "Face The Nation" and other shows that have proven to be untrue. Pence relied on Flynn's representations and feels burned, the sources said.? ... Read more

TYT | Cenk Uygur's Rousing Speech On Getting Money Out of Politics (02/12/17) [45:13]

*RT | Syria Special: Is Assad winning, Amnesty Intl Allegations & MSM myth-busting (02/11/15) [28:25]

*Yahoo News | Bashar al-Assad Interview (full) (02/09/17) [33:37]

Stolen childhood: Syrian children growing up with war (promo) (02/11/17) [2:24]

*Growing up with War: Children of Syria. The tragedy of kids who have never known peace. (full) (02/13/17) [26:46]

CNN and sticking to your guns: A lamentation by Bill Moyers
Salon | Bill Moyers | 02/10/17

I thought CNN was taking a courageous stand against White House lies. I was mistaken

Well, I certainly got that one wrong. Based on news reports, and after two phone calls to check them out, on Tuesday I wrote a column saluting Jake Tapper and CNN for saying, "No!" to Kellyanne Conway when the White House offered her up as a guest for Tapper's Sunday program. Except for Fox and Breitbart, I said, no news organization had been more useful to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy than CNN, but now it appeared they were fed up with serving as a springboard for the lies tossed around like grenades by Trump's propaganda minions -- most notably Ms. Conway, the president's senior adviser who doubles, I pointed out (with apologies to my late Baptist deacon father for the language) as the administration's official Queen of Bullshit. ... Read more

*MSNBC Morning Joe | Kellyanne Conway 'Doesn't Respect The Lines' (02/10/17) [12:13]

*A winter of blazing discontent continues in the arctic
Salon | Brian Kahn, Climate Central | 02/10/17

The Arctic is in crisis and is the most dramatic example of how carbon pollution is reshaping the planet

Weird. Strange. Extreme. Unprecedented. These are some of the words that describe what's been happening in the Arctic over the past year as surge after surge of warm air have stalled, and at times reversed, sea ice pack growth. And the unfortunate string of superlatives is set to continue this week.

Arctic sea ice is already sitting at a record low for this time of year and a powerful North Atlantic storm is expected to open the flood gates and send more warmth pouring into the region from the lower latitudes. By Thursday, it could reach up to 50°F above normal. In absolute temperature, that's near the freezing point and could further spur a decline in sea ice. ... Read more

Trump's imaginary America is a realm of crime and depravity -- but he can find that stuff closer to home
Salon | Gary Legum | 02/10/17

The president's new orders on crime and law enforcement offer only empty symbolism -- but real people will get hurt/p>

On Thursday, President Trump signed three executive orders related to law enforcement. As with some of his past orders, this latest round seemed partly like a publicity stunt, designed more to make him look busy while having little practical effect in reality. Since he signed them during a ceremony to swear in Jeff Sessions as the nation's new attorney general, one could say they are the equivalent of giving a new employee his marching orders just before showing him to his desk on his first day of work.

On the surface, these orders would not seem to do much. One order directs Sessions to appoint someone to run the generically named Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety. A second directs federal agencies to review ongoing efforts pursuing international drug cartels and criminal syndicates to make sure they are sufficiently effective, and to report back to Trump in a few months on the results. The third order could be called the "Blue Lives Matter" EO, and it mostly tells Sessions to make extra-double-sure that federal and local laws against harming law enforcement personnel are adequate, and to recommend whether penalties for violence against authorities should be made more harsh. ... Read more

Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation at highest level since 2011 meltdown
theguardian.com | author | 02/03/17

Extremely high radiation levels have been recorded inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, almost six years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown.

The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant -- a process that is expected to take about four decades. ... Read more

CNN Debate | Ted Cruz vs Bernie Sanders Debate the Future of Obamacare (02/07/17) [1:59:07]

Leaks Suggest Trump's Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct
Reuters & HP | S.V. Date | 02/07/17

President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one that's good for the economy? Or a weak one? So he made a call ? except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynn's accounts of the incident.

Flynn has a long record in counterintelligence but not in macroeconomics. And he told Trump he didn't know, that it wasn't his area of expertise, that, perhaps, Trump should ask an economist instead.

Trump was not thrilled with that response, but that may have been a function of the time of day. Trump had placed the call at 3 a.m., according to one of Flynn's retellings, although neither the White House nor Flynn's office responded to requests for confirmation about that detail. ... Read more

MSNBC Today | ornadoes Rip Across South; Louisiana Governor Declares State Of Emergency (02/08/17) [2:29]

Wall Street's Best Friend Trump Aims to Dismantle Dodd-Frank, Which Protects Millions of Americans from Fraud
AlterNet | David Dayen / The American Prospect | 02/08/17

History teaches us that financial regulations die from a thousand cuts rather than a signifying event. As Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova puts it, "Financial reform is like a big onion. The more layers you peel off, the harder you cry."

For example, by the time the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law removed the Glass-Steagall firewall between commercial and investment banks in 1999, that separation was already effectively wiped out--by administrative waivers granted by regulators. The 1994 Riegle-Neal Act that formally allowed banks to open branches across state lines came after a decade of states altering rules to undermine local control of finance. Deregulation of mortgage rules that led to the housing bubble rolled out over a 20-year period, spanning Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. And even then, it took the George W. Bush administration's laissez-faire supervision to really supercharge predatory lending. ... Read more

Keith Olbermann | The Travesties Done in Your Name and Mine (#30) (02/08/17) [3:43]

Five Charts That Say All Is Not Well in Markets
Bloomberg | Tracy Alloway | 02/06/17/span>

A former TV star as U.S. president doesn't seem to have injected markets with much of a ''fear factor.'' But digging beneath the surface of an eight-year bull run exposes subtle signs that hint at an uneasy optimism.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has sailed past 20,000 and the S&P 500 is nearing its life-time high set in January, indicating that investors have so far shrugged off the uncertainty brought by the new administration. But, here are five charts that suggest all is not well in markets. ... Read more

Harry Dent: Stocks Will Fall 70-90% Within 3 Years
peakprosperity.com | author | 01/30/17

All four of the cycles I track point down now. One after the next has peaked in the last several years. All four point down into early 2020 or so. That's only happened in the early to mid-'70s when we had the worst stock crashes back then, the OPEC embargo, etc -- the worst set of crises since the 1930s.

The next three years are likely to be the worst we see in our lifetimes. It will be more like the early 1930s when stocks hit a debt bubble and financial asset bubbles crashed, which they only do once in a lifetime such as the early 1930s. Stocks will be down 70, 80, 90% -- that's to be as expected in this stage of the cycle after such a bubble. ... Read more
Harry Dent: Stocks Will Fall 70-90% Within 3 Years (01/30/17) [44:31]

WATCH: Jake Tapper Hammers Kellyanne Conway in Heated New Interview
Salon & AlterNet | Taylor Link / Salon | 02/08/17

On Monday, legendary news anchor Dan Rather singled out CNN's Jake Tapper as today's journalistic standard. On Tuesday, Tapper showed off his talent in a 25-minute, wide-ranging showdown with White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway

After Conway fabricated a terror attack -- the so-called Bowling Green massacre -- to justify a constitutionally-questionable travel ban, Tapper confidently held the high ground in the interview. "You cited a massacre that didn't happen. You said the media didn't cover it," Tapper said. ... Read more

MNN NYC | Jake Tapper Confronts Kellyanne Conway for WH Claims on Media Terror Coverage: Facts harmful (02/07/17) [11:44]

Stephan Colbert | John Oliver: Trump's Election Was the Exactly the Trainwreck 'I Thought It Was Going to Be' () [6:32]

Elizabeth Warren Silenced on Senate Floor for Reading Words of Coretta Scott King
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 02/08/17

Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the Senate floor Tuesday night in an unprecedented act of Republican censure. She had been reading a letter from Coretta Scott King criticizing the civil rights record of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Trump's cabinet appointee for attorney general.

"Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge," Warren said, citing the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. ... Read more

Alex Jones' Former Editor Trashes Him as a Trump Sellout and Snake Oil Salesman
Media Matters & AlterNet | Eric Hananoki / Media Matters | 02/08/17

Kurt Nimmo, a longtime former editor for Alex Jones' Infowars.com, has been publicly trashing his ex-boss as a "snake oil salesman" who sold out to support President Donald Trump.

Alex Jones and his Infowars.com are known for pushing conspiracy theories, including claiming the government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the tragedies at Columbine, Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon, among others.

The site's editor, Paul Joseph Watson, apparently has no editorial standards and has repeatedly posted fraudulent information. Jones recently announced that the purported news organization would be attending White House press briefings and that it had hired widely discredited reporter Jerome Corsi as its D.C. correspondent. ... Read more
Truth Seeker | Alex Jones (InfoWars) Talkes: Fake News, George Soros, Megyn Kelly Exposed (02/03/17) [22:19]

Mike Pence Breaks Senate Tie to Confirm Betsy DeVos
AlterNet | Laura Clawson / DailyKos | 02/07/17

For the first time in American history, a vice president had to vote in the Senate to break a tie on a Cabinet nominee, and Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Donald Trump's education secretary. DeVos has no experience as an educator, or even as a public school student or parent of public school students, but she sure does donate a lot of money to Republicans.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski could have stopped DeVos in committee, but instead they voted for her there, waited to ensure she would have enough votes, then took the opportunity to grandstand about how they couldn't vote for her. Democrats were united against DeVos, and senators were flooded with calls opposing her nomination, but in the end, there weren't three Republicans to vote against an unqualified, unpopular nominee. Republicans whose offices were getting so many calls against DeVos that voters couldn't get through or even leave voicemails nonetheless voted for her. ... Read more

Trump defends Putin: 'You think our country's so innocent?'
CNN | Sophie Tatum | 02/06/17

President Donald Trump appeared to equate US actions with the authoritarian regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview released Saturday, saying, "There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?"

Trump made the remark during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart.

"But he's a killer," O'Reilly said to Trump.

"There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?" Trump replied. ... Read more

Click to zoom in Click to zoom in

FULL Infographic (and The Full Text of the Graphic:): The Screening Process for Refugee Entry into the United States

The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World by Douglas Valentine (2017)

Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine's research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA's elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA's relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA's ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA's activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.A common theme is the CIA's ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.

*Guess what this Image is [1:03]

Republicans Happy To Have Trump Distract The Press As They Move Their Agenda
HP | Matt Fuller | 02/07/17

President Donald Trump's first two whirlwind weeks in office have left congressional Republicans gasping over questions of crowd size, "alternative facts," even baseless claims about massive voter fraud ? and that was really just the initial few days. But Trump's antics have also handed members a gift: distraction.

The often-unhinged tweets, aggressive executive orders and erratic behavior have all provided Republicans some cover as they attempt to repeal a health care law that is becoming more popular. "There is some merit to the argument that would suggest that much of the focus is on what President Trump is doing and not as much on what Congress is doing," ... Read more

Mitch McConnell Distances Himself From Donald Trump's Latest Controversial Statements
HP | Ariel Edwards-Levy | 02/05/17

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, distancing himself from President Donald Trump's more equivocal view of the foreign leader.

"Putin is a former KGB agent, he's a thug, he was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election," McConnell said in an interview on CNN's "State Of The Union." "No, I don't think there is any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does." ... Read more

C-Span | Another Heated White House Daily Briefing For Sean Spicer (02/03/17) [29:31]

SNL | Sean Spicer Press Conference (02/05/17) [8:06]

Trump Attacks 'Out Of Control' California In Sanctuary Fight
HP | Mary Papenfuss | 02/06/17

Donald Trump turned up the heat on the most populous state in the union in the sanctuary battle, calling California out of control and soft on immigrants. He vowed to cut funding to California if officials vote to declare it a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants, and warned that California and his administration are on a "collision course."

California "is, as you know, out of control in many ways," Trump told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in an interview aired Sunday before the Super Bowl. ... Read more

CNN | Don Lemon asks can Steve Bannon manipulate the President of the United States Donald Trump? (02/01/17) [10:53]

Wall Street Is Even More Craven Than We Thought
HP | Zach Carter | 02/05/17

... But there was Dimon on Friday, sitting at a table surrounded by other wealthy corporate executives, being praised by President Donald Trump ? a man who publicly supports war crimes and is already flirting with a constitutional crisis as he implements a campaign promise to impose "a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

"There's nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie," Trump said, smiling and pointing his finger at Dimon. Within hours, the president had signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to scour a 2010 Wall Street reform law for regulations that could be nullified. ... Read more

Which Assets Are Most Likely To Survive The "System Reset"?
Click to zoom in ZeroHedge | author | 02/06/17

Longtime correspondent C.A. recently asked a question every American household should be asking: which assets are most likely to survive the "system re-set" that is now inevitable? It's a question of great import because not all assets are equal in terms of survivability in crisis, when the rules change without advance notice. ...

... The charts below describe the key dynamics driving a system re-set. Earned income (wages) as a share of GDP has been falling for decades: this means labor is receiving a diminishing share of economic growth. Since costs and debt continue rising while incomes are declining or stagnating, this asymmetry eventually leads to insolvency.

The "fix" for insolvency has been higher debt and debt-based spending--in essence, borrowing from future income to fund more consumption today. But each unit of new debt is generating less economic activity/growth. This is called diminishing returns: eventually the costs of servicing the additional debt exceed the increasingly trivial gains. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Senate Votes To Kill Dodd Frank Anti-Corruption Rule
HP | Lisa Lambert | 02/03/17

The rule was aimed at curbing corruption at big oil, gas and mining companies

Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus (2017)
by Matt Taibbi

In twenty-five pieces from Rolling Stone--plus two original essays--Matt Taibbi tells the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society.

Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement.

Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight.

The Central Banks Pull Back: Now It's Up to Fiscal Policy to "Save the World"
charleshughsmith.blogspot.jp | 02/02/17

*The Chinese Credit Bubble
dailyreckoning.com | James Rickards | 01/31/17

*First Strike: Military Officials Trash Trump
Reuters & HP | Ayesha Rascoe | 02/02/17

Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations, officials said.

U.S. Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens was killed in the raid on a branch of al Qaeda, also known as AQAP, in al Bayda province, which the Pentagon said also killed 14 militants. However, medics at the scene said about 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed. ...

... U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations. As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists. ... Read more

Stability Is Good for Business. Trump's Whims Threaten It
Bloomberg & HP | Matt Leviner | 02/02/17

"If there's no rule of law for some people, there's no rule of law for anyone,"
Read more or original at Bloomberg

Steve Bannon: 'We're Going to War in the South China Sea ... No Doubt'
AlterNet | Benjamin Haas / The Guardian | 02/02/17

The United States and China will fight a war within the next 5 to 10 years over islands in the South China Sea, and "there's no doubt about that." At the same time, the US will be in another "major" war in the Middle East.

Those are the views -- nine months ago at least -- of one of the most powerful men in Donald Trump's administration, Steve Bannon, the former head of far-right news website Breitbart who is now chief strategist at the White House. ... Read more

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration Of Law Enforcement
TheIntercept | Alice Speri | 01/31/17

White Supremacists and other domestic extremists maintain an active presence in U.S. police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A striking reference to that conclusion, notable for its confidence and the policy prescriptions that accompany it, appears in a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, obtained by The Intercept. The guide, which details the process by which the FBI enters individuals on a terrorism watchlist, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File, notes that "domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers," and explains in some detail how bureau policies have been crafted to take this infiltration into account. ... Read more
TYT | White Supremacists Are Taking Over Police Departments Across America (02/01/17) [12:01]

Keith Olbermann: Donald Trump's Travel Ban Is The 'Greatest Possible Gift To ISIS' (#28) (02/01/17) [7:09]