Home · News · News Feb 2019 · Feb 08 2019
Friday February 08, 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Exposes The Dark Side Of Politics In 5 Incredible Minutes
HP | Ed Mazza | 02/08/19

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) exposed some of the biggest flaws and loopholes in campaign finance laws this week ? and she did it in just five minutes.

During a hearing, the freshman lawmaker created a game in which she pretended to be "a really, really bad guy" who wants to abuse the system as much as possible. Then, in a series of questions, she exposed the world of payoffs, dark money, PACs and more. She even revealed how it was perfectly legal for a lawmaker to invest in an industry, then write laws to benefit that industry and increase the value of the investment. ... Read more

AOC Exposes Dark Side of Politics | TicToc by Bloomberg | 02/08/19 | 4:36
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Stands Up to Big Pharma | NowThis | 02/04/19 | 3:10
Australia just had its warmest month, with "unprecedented" extremes | Axios | Andrew Freedman | 02/04/19 | article

House Republicans Warn that Bill Combating Big Money in Politics "Resembles Russian Government Policy"
TheIntercept | Akela Lacy | 02/07/19

REPUBLICANS ON THE House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform denounced a major new initiative by Democrats to clean up elections and expand voter participation as a power grab that will corrupt the political process and infringe on the rights of free speech and association.

In nearly apocalyptic terms on Wednesday, Republican committee members took turns laying out the dire consequences of H.R. 1, decrying the consequences of a federal holiday on Election Day, matching public funds for congressional candidates, increasing transparency in campaign finance, and making it easier to register to vote. More stringent disclosure requirements for political spending would encourage partisan monitoring and even doxxing, Republicans argued, citing the Obama-era scandal where the Internal Revenue Service was accused by conservatives of targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. ...

... The bill, sponsored by Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, is the first serious attempt in decades to revamp the model for public financing of presidential campaigns and establish a national program to publicly finance congressional campaigns. It also expands rights and protections for voters; bans senior federal officials from getting private sector perks after they leave office; prohibits senior federal employees from working on issues in which they have financial interests; and strengthens the call for Trump to divest his business holdings and place them in an independent, blind trust. Trump is the only president who hasn't done so. ... Read more

Richard Wolff: Difference between socialism & communism and what they both missed | Democracy At Work | 02/05/19 | 6:35
Socialism from Past to Future | Democracy At Work | 02/05/19 | 29:55
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 08 [11:02]
Ocasio-Cortez & Markey Unveil Sweeping "Green New Deal" to Radically Shift U.S. Off Fossil Fuels | DN | 02/08/19 | 9:35
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, February 08 (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. Planned Parenthood: SCOTUS Halts Louisiana Abortion Law for Now, But Roe v. Wade Fate Uncertain
  3. Ocasio-Cortez & Markey Unveil Sweeping "Green New Deal" to Radically Shift U.S. Off Fossil Fuels
  4. Dems Accuse Trump Admin of "State-Sponsored Child Abuse" as Separated Migrant Children Scandal Grows
Geo-Political Realignments Over Venezuela | TRNN | 02/08/19 | 18:18
Is the Constitution a Socialist Manifesto | ThomHartmann | 02/07/19 | 9:36
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup -- Domestic | 1a.org | 02/08/19 | 1hr
  1. Last week, a photo surfaced from Gov. Ralph Northam's college yearbook page featuring two people in blackface and a KKK costume. Then, Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax -- next in line for governor if Gov. Northam resigns -- was accused of sexual assault. Then, Attorney General Mark Herring -- second in line after Lt. Governor Fairfax -- announced that he, too, had worn blackface at a college party in 1980. And on Thursday, The Virginian-Pilot revealed that Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-VA, oversaw the 1968 VMI yearbook, which contained a slew of racist photos and slurs, including blackface.
  2. Trump appealed Tuesday night for bipartisanship but refused to yield on the hard-line immigration policies that have infuriated Democrats and forced the recent government shutdown. He renewed his call for a border wall and cast illegal immigration as a threat to Americans' safety and economic security. [...] Wary of publicly highlighting those intraparty divisions, Trump made no mention of an emergency declaration in his remarks. He did offer a lengthy defense of his call for a border wall, declaring: "I will build it." But he delivered no ultimatums about what it would take for him to sign legislation to keep the government open.
  3. President Trump announced he will hold his first rally of 2019 in El Paso, Texas next week. Will Congress reach a border resolution in the last week of approved government spending? Or is another shutdown -- or a national emergency -- imminent?
Friday News Roundup -- International | 1a.org | 02/08/19 | 1hr
  1. 2018 was the fourth-hottest year on record, according to a report released this week by NASA and NOAA. In the short term, scientists expect the world to get hotter. This year, a simmering El Niño cycle threatens to bring more scorching weather. "We do anticipate the next El Niño will bring record or near-record temperatures," said NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt during a conference call with reporters. Already, Australia was baked in its hottest January on record, followed by massive flooding. So another record-setting year will likely lead to more heat waves around the world, along with drought and drying vegetation, contributing to massive wildfires. That in turn will cost jobs, homes, and lives.
  2. During the State of the Union this week (during which climate change did not come up), President Donald Trump announced that there would be a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to be held in Vietnam at the end of February.
  3. Pope Francis visited the United Arab Emirates this week, and during the trip, he acknowledged reports of sexual and physical abuse of nuns by priests. Through an interpreter, Francis said "there are priests and even bishops who have done that. And I believe it still happens because something doesn't stop just because you have become aware of it."
  4. This week, more nations recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guido as president of his country, while President Nicolas Maduro has withheld food and medicine and other humanitarian aid from coming into Venezuela.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Trump Unprepared And 'Didn't Do His Homework' | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 02/05/19 | 6:04
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez On The Democratic Party, Green New Deal, 2020 Candidates | MTP Daily | MSNBC | 02/07/19 | 21:32
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
We're Finally Going To Get Trump's Tax Returns | stephen Colbert | 02/07/19 | 11:13
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump and Phil Robertson Freak Out About "Socialism" | seth Meyers | 02/07/19 | 11:38

02.08.2019. 14:08



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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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