Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

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