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Wednesday July 31, 2013
News Articles

BP CEO: Gulf Oil Spill Settlement Benefits Lawyers More Than Victims
HP | author | 07/30/13

BP CEO Bob Dudley says the "biggest beneficiaries" of an agreement related to the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill disaster aren't the victims, but their lawyers.

In an interview with CNBC Tuesday, Dudley said the U.S. class-action system has become an "industry" ripe with financial incentives that make plaintiffs' lawyers eager to bring claims. "This is not right, it's not good for American business," Dudley said. "It happens all the time in the US with this class action plaintiff system, which is an industry and a business model." ... Read more

*Who Will Stand Up to Wall Street?
Bill Moyers | Leo Gerard | 07/24/13

Wall Street held itself a big fat profit party last week. The nation's six largest banks reported $23 billion in profits. That's for one quarter -- three months. Pop the champagne. Buy another Lamborghini.

Well, if you're a Wall Street banker, that is. Not if you're a college student looking for a loan. Because bankers and Congress don't intend to give you a break today. ... Read more

*Bombshell: Plutocrats Brazenly Collude to Hurt State Economies and Screw Working People
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 07/29/13

These days, many Americans walk around feeling like no matter how hard they work, how much they manage to save or how carefully they plan for the future, the game is rigged against them. They suspect that behind closed doors, CEOs and Wall Street honchos are eagerly scheming to rip them off.

Their worst fears of corruption and collusion just came true in Illinois, where corporate titans were caught red-handed in the act of Rigging the Game.   Let's step inside a recent gathering of the corporate-backed Union League Club of Chicago, where former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, who now leads a band of plutocrats known as the "Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago," recently launched into an hour-long diatribe on the evils of state pensions.

Fahner, a top GOP fundraiser, can't abide the notion that teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public workers in the state of Illinois can still expect a decent retirement. Not a luxurious retirement, mind you -- the average pension is $32,000 a year, and most state employees will not receive Social Security. But even a modest retirement for hard-working people is too much for today's fatcats. ... Read more

How the Execs Who Brought Down Bear Stearns Bounced Back
MotherJones | Alison Fitzgerald | 07/31/13

Five years after their firm crashed and kicked off the financial crisis, these subprime mortgage managers hold top jobs at the most powerful banks on Wall Street.

Bear Stearns, once the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, had been a fixture on Wall Street since 1923 and had survived the crash of 1929 without laying off any employees.

But in 2008, its customers and creditors didn't much care about its storied history. They were worried that the billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities on its books weren't worth what the company claimed. En masse, they stopped doing business with Bear.

Within a few days, on Monday, March 17, Bear was gone -- subsumed into JPMorgan Chase & Co. with the help of the Federal Reserve for a price that was approximately the value of its shiny new Madison Avenue office tower alone. ... Read more

The Mystery of Bee Colony Collapse
Mother Jones | Tom Philpott | 07/31/13

What's tipping honeybee populations into huge annual die-offs? For years, a growing body of evidence has pointed to a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids, widely used on corn, soy, and other US crops, as a possible cause of what has become known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). ...

... But according to a new peer-reviewed paper, neonicotinoids aren't the only pesticides that might be undermining bee health. The study, published in PLOS One and co-authored by a team including US Department of Agriculture bee scientist Jeff Pettis and University of Maryland entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, found that a pair of widely used fungicides are showing up prominently in bee pollen--and appear to be making bees significantly more likely to succumb to a fungal pathogen, called Nosema ceranae, that has been closely linked to CCD. The finding is notable, the authors state, because fungicides have so far been "typically seen as fairly safe for honey bees." ... Read more



NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, July 31 [13:54]
DN | "Bradley Manning Has Become a Martyr" - WikiLeaks' Julian Assange on Guilty Verdict (07/31/13) [8:37], Part 2 [18:56]
DN | Facing Rest of Life Behind Bars, Will Bradley Manning's Sentencing Weigh Lack of Harm to U.S.? (07/31/13) [15:46]
The Act of Killing
The Act of Killing (07/31/13) [5:14]
*The Act Of Killing 2013 (full movie) [2:39:42]
TRNN News
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Bill Moyers | and Rep. John Lewis revisit the 1963 March on Washington. How did it transform America? (06/26/13) [56:54]
*Inspiring Speech By War Veteran [5:23]
Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us.
- Mike Prysner
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Debate Over What Constitutes A Living Wage (07/31/13) [1hr]
Hundreds of fast food workers in cities around the country are walking off the job to push for higher pay: Debate over what constitutes a living wage.
Comedy News
Jon Stewart | Oliver weighed in on Halliburton's role in covering up the BP oil spill -- as well as the company's immunity from punishment. (07/30/13) [4:46]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.31.2013. 11:42

Tuesday July 30, 2013
News Articles

Bradley Manning Verdict Coming On Tuesday: Military Judge
HP | David Dishneau | 07/29/13

A military judge says she expects to announce a verdict Tuesday in the court-martial of an Army private charged with aiding the enemy for giving U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks.

Col. Denise Lind gave the heads-up notice Monday, her third day of deliberations in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade. Manning faces a possible life sentence if convicted of the charge. ... Read more

Financial Stocks Are On Their Way To Being The Biggest Sector In The S&P 500 Again
HP | Mark Gongloff | 07/29/13

Here's yet another thing banks are taking over: the stock market.   Financial stocks are the second-biggest sector in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and are well on the way to overtaking technology as the biggest industry in the broad stock index, Bloomberg reports. Finance's share of the stock market has nearly doubled from a low of about 8.6 percent in March 2009, just after the financial crisis, to 16.8 percent as of Friday. Tech makes up 17.6 percent of the index.

This is great news for the financial sector, which includes banks and insurance companies. But it is not necessarily great news for the rest of humanity. The financialization of everything in the past 30 years has fostered income inequality and financial crises. ... Read more

Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.
Bloomberg | Ketaki Gokhale | 07/28/13

Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He's a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs with such measures as buying cheaper scrubs and spurning air-conditioning, he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade. The same procedure costs $106,385 at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ... Read more

Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government'
HP | Zach Carter | 06/18/13

Progressive Democrats in Congress are ramping up pressure on the Obama administration to release the text of Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secretive free trade agreement with 10 other nations, amid intensifying controversy over the administration's transparency record and its treatment of classified information.

The only publicly available information on the terms of the deal has come from leaks, some of which have alarmed public health experts, environmentalist groups and consumer advocates. According to a document leaked in the summer of 2012, the deal would allow corporations to directly challenge government laws and regulations in international courts. ... Read more

Fukushima 2013: "Remaining Radioactive Mass", "Dangerous Leaking Radioactive Water", All Four Reactors are "Getting Worse"
Global Research | William Boardman | 07/11/13

The first thing to know about the danger from the radioactive mass remaining on site in the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima is that nobody knows how much radioactive material there is, nobody knows how much uranium and plutonium it contains, and nobody knows how to make it safe -- so no one knows how great the continuing danger is. ... Read more

"Worrisome" spike in deadly birth defects around leaking U.S. nuclear site -- Officials claim "it could be a complete coincidence" -- No news reports mention it's by the most contaminated area in Western Hemisphere #Hanford
Enenews.com | Gillian Mohney | 07/18/13

A report released Tuesday by the Washington State Department of Health said that, since 2010, the neighboring counties of Yakima, Benton and Franklin have an unusually high number pregnancies affected by the [neural tube] birth defect anencephaly, which results in a newborns' brains being severely underdeveloped.

In the U.S., there are approximately one or two expected cases of anencephaly for every 10,000 annual births [...] the health department found that there was an abnormally high number of cases reported from January 2010 to January 2013 with approximately eight cases of anencephaly for every 10,000 births. [...] ... Read more



NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, July 30 [14:46]
DN | New Mideast Talks Hang on Old Question: Will U.S. Drop Support for Israeli Annexation of West Bank? (07/30/13) [24:42]
DN | As EU Envoy Meets With Morsi, Bloody Crackdown on Anti-Coup Protesters Deepens Egyptian Crisis (07/30/13) [9:51]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Israel is an Example of an Economy Hijacked by Military-security Interests (07/28/13) [7:00]
Weiner Heated Exchange with Voter Who Doesn't Vote for Him (07/30/13) [2:08]
Alan Grayson - NSA Spying
*Glenn Greenwald Explains What Capability LOW LEVEL NSA Analyst Have To Spy On YOU! (07/28/13) [4:29]
Glenn Greenwald: Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden (07/18/13) [21:19]
Lauren Steiner | A Conversation with Congressman Alan Grayson (07/28/13) [27:35]
LA activist Lauren Steiner interviews Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the influence of money in politics, the NSA spying scandal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and how he manages to get support from members of the GOP for his amendments. Slate Magazine recently dubbed Grayson "the most effective member of the House."
Alan Grayson: On NSA Surveillance: American As Apple Spy (06/14/13) [24:56]
Alan Grayson - Trade Agreements
Alan Grayson: No more trade deal sellouts! (05/15/13) [10:21]
Alan Grayson: TransPacific Partnership (07/01/13) [4:35]
*TAFTA & TPP...Corporate Power Tools of the 1% (07/12/13) [5:15]
Fukushima
More steam rising from Fukushima reactor (07/24/13) [1:28]
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster Video What Happened at Fukushima (07/24/13) [49:29]
Withdraw from Afghanistan
Logistical headache as US exits Afghanistan (06/18/13) [49:23]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm *Controversy Over The Scope And Oversight Of Domestic Surveillance (07/30/13) [1hr]
A recent House bill to block the NSA from collecting millions of phone records was narrowly defeated. Diane and her guests discuss growing concerns over the scope and oversight of domestic surveillance programs.
New OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell (07/30/13) [1hr]
The Office of Management and Budget was established in 1921 to assist the president in preparing a budget for Congress. OMB's new director is Sylvia Mathews Burwell. Born and raised in a small West Virginia town, Burwell is just the second woman to hold the high-level cabinet position. She faces an uphill battle with House Republicans: they've drafted several bills slashing discretionary programs and are demanding that sequester cuts continue.
Comedy News
John Oliver Marvels At Anthony Weiner's Refusal To Drop Out Of The Mayoral Race (07/30/13) [5:16]


*Inspiring Speech By War Veteran [5:23]


I find the graph below an eye openner. We have 3x the likelihood to die of a lightening strike then terrorism, yet we spend way over a trillion dollars between the military and Homeland Security.
*Major Causes of Death - Click to zoom


07.30.2013. 13:37

Monday July 29, 2013
News Articles

There Are Good Alternatives to US Capitalism, But No Way to Get There
AlterNet | Jerry Mander | 07/24/13

U.S.-style laissez-faire capitalists (also crony capitalism), who now dominate the politics and economy in this country, continue to argue that all solutions must be determined by the "free market." But the free market does not focus on the needs of democracy, or the implications of rampant inequity, or the catastrophic problems of the natural world. The free market is interested in one thing: expanding wealth. That is its only agenda. Nothing else matters, at least until the system collapses.

So, the change will be up to us. And yet the puzzle persists: How do we get from here to there? How do we bridge the chasm from corporate, oligarchic, global dominance of governments, economies, media, and, not least important, military, all driven by the ideologies of consumerism, growth, and "progress," toward some new set of values and structures?

Read more

Siberia Heat: Did The Arctic Region Break A Heat Record?
HP | author | 07/26/13

According to English-language outlet The Siberian Times, temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius, or 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, were recorded in the Siberian city of Norilsk on July 21. The average temperature in July in the region is 13.6 C, or 56.48 F.

Weather historian Christopher C. Burt explains on the website Weather Underground that the entire Russian Arctic region has seen warm weather as of late. Burt adds that Norilsk has seen its warmest nights in recent days -- some 20.2 C, or 68.26 F -- and that wildfires have erupted in the region. ... Read more

North Pole Melting Leaves Small Lake At The Top Of The World
HP | author | 07/25/13

The time-lapse video below comes from a webcam set up by the North Pole Environmental Observatory that has monitored the state of Arctic sea ice since the spring of 2000. Surprisingly, the pole has been melting since at least 2002, according to photos on the project's website.

July is usually the warmest month in the area, but temperatures were 1 to 3 degrees Celsius above average this year. The shallow lake you see at the pole is made of meltwater sitting on top of a layer of ice, according to the observatory.

Arctic sea ice has become a noticeable victim of climate change. The area of ice cover expands and contracts every year with the change in seasons, but last summer's minimum extent was the lowest on record and this year's maximum winter coverage was the sixth-lowest since satellite observations began in the 1970s. ... Read more

- Click to zoom
North Pole Environmental Observatory (website)
Actual webcams

6 Ways Rabid Republicans Are Declaring War On America
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 07/26/13

The GOP, the party led by angry white men and libertarian corporatists, is ratcheting up its political warfare against everyday Americans with unmatched brazenness.

In Congress, Republicans in both chambers have launched sweeping attacks on long-held centrist priorities and have renewed threats to block Obamacare. These attacks are seen in House bills slashing spending in almost every federal program except for the military and domestic policing for the federal fiscal year starting October 1. Anti-poverty, education, human services, environmental protection, energy, labor, Wall St. oversight--all face cuts averaging 20 percent, although some areas face cuts by a third or more. ... Read more

2014 budget process: Worst is yet to come
Politico | author | date

The 2014 budget and appropriations process has been described as a "slow-motion train wreck," but this is far too generous. For a collision to occur, locomotives must actually meet.

Having failed to avert automatic, across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration for 2013, Congress forced federal departments and agencies, states and grantees to do more with less, resulting in lost jobs, furloughs, diminished access to vital programs like Head Start and Meals on Wheels, and a failure to make investments we know are critical to the future. ... Read more

Glenn Greenwald: NSA Analysts Have Access To 'Powerful and Invasive' Search Tools
HP | Sabrina Siddiqui | 07/28/13

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who broke the news of the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs, said Sunday he will soon disclose new information about the access low-level contractors have to Americans' phone and email communications.

"The NSA has trillions of telephone calls and emails in their databases that they've collected over the last several years," Greenwald said on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "What these programs are, are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things ... It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future." ... Read more



NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 29 [16:31]
*DN | Holder Tells Russia Snowden Won't Face Torture or Death, But Does U.S. Record Undermine Its Pledge? (07/29/13) [9:11]
Doesn't anyone else see how ludicrous this is. We are telling Russia "please return Edward Snowden, we promise we won't kill him". This is someone that 46% of Americans think is a hero! When will we stop listening to the people in power who are constantly trying to cover their asses. The same people who are making millions/billions on the National Security State.
DN | Bradley Manning Awaits Verdict After Trial Ends With Prosecution "Smears" & Harsh Gov't Secrecy (07/29/13) [18:02], Part 2 [13:02]
Collateral Murder - Iraq [39:29]
When you view the above video, you have to realize the helicopter is a mile away lobbing in 50 caliber shells at unsuspecting people... possibly civilians. How would we feel if Mexico was targeting some of our border towns, shooting at anything they suspected were drug smugglers? (Note: you can skip around using the progressbar).
Banking News
*Banking Subcommittee Hearing on Financial Holding Companies (07/23/13) [6:55]
long version [20:36]
Senator Elizabeth Warren's Q&A at the July 23, 2013 Senate Banking Subcommittee Hearing on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, titled "Examining Financial Holding Companies: Should Banks Control Power Plants, Warehouses, and Oil Refineries?" The witnesses included: Ms. Saule Omarova, Associate Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law; Mr. Joshua Rosner, Managing Director, Graham Fisher & Company; Mr. Timothy Weiner, Global Risk Manager, Commodities/Metals, MillerCoors LLC; and Mr. Randall D. Guynn, Head of Financial Institutions Group, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
Elizabeth Warren Brings News Anchors To Knees (07/22/13) [8:28]
Elizabeth Warren: Banks "Tricks and Traps" (02/11/10 older but good) [8:41]
Listen to Elizabeth Warren doscuss banks and credit card trapping. She is clear headed with a point... slim down the bureaucracy, trim down the regulations, so they are understandable, clear and protect the people.
What the drone saw - Dones in America
*What the drone saw (07/25/13) [1:55]
FBI uses drones in the US, senators told [2:31]
*PBS Nova | 2013 Manhunt Boston Bombers (06/21/13) [56:23]
PBS Digital Studios | Online Privacy: How Did We Get Here? [8:08]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Latest On Increasing Violence In Egypt (07/29/13) [1hr]
John Hunter: "World Peace And Other 4th-Grade Achievements" (07/29/13) [1hr]
*TED | John Hunter: Teaching with the World Peace Game (04/26/11) [20:28]
World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements Extended Trailer [8:31]
Who are they working for?
Chomsky explains who U.S. leaders work for and what they have done. [3:01]
The Truth about the Wall Street Bailout: How "Free Market Capitalism" Really Works. Nader and Chomsky Explain the Game, a Nanny State to Take Care of the Rich [4:04]
Nixon Tapes - Click to zoom
*Nixon Tape
Nixon comments, "But it's not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time . . . It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine with that San Francisco crowd. I can't shake hands with anybody from San Francisco."
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
Elizabeth Warren: A Matter of Trust: Connecting Consumer Protections and Financial Reform (2010) [1:04:58]
BookTV | Jeremy Scahill on the Blackwater Security Scandal (2007) [56:23]
Air Force Bugbot Nano Drone Technology (04/11/13) [4:27]
BBC Videos
BBC | The Magical Forest (2012) [58:56]
BBC Bible | The Book of Revelation - New Evidence Revealed [48:59]
BBC | Ancient Egyptian Glass From Outer Space [48:59]
Skull and Bones
Skull & Bones: Secret Society Documentary () [42:56]
Skull and Bones: The Secret Order at Yale () [58:10]
Antony Sutton - The Order of Skull and Bones () [31:58]
ASkull and Bones Headquarters Broken Into at Yale University () [10:59]
Bohemian Grove
The Annals of Bohemian Grove "Yearbook" () [4:13]
1981 News report about Bohemian grove () [5:09]
Nixon Tapes - Click to zoom
Nixon Tapes
Nixon comments, "But it's not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time . . . It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine with that San Francisco crowd. I can't shake hands with anybody from San Francisco."
Bohemian Grove (information)
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Bohemian Grove () [4:16]
Secret Societies
Charlotte Iserbyt: Societies Secrets () [59:23]
Project Camelot
Project Camelot: A Rothschild Speaks Out () [1:08:48]
This interview was conducted at the Super Soldier Summit in May 2013. Erin Green Hicks aka Erin Rothschild tells her story from the perspective of time travel and her experience growing up as a Rothschild being tortured and put through illuminati mind control and satanic rituals.
UFO Disclosure (compilations) (10/09/11) [10:48]
Ancient Astronauts
Ajanta Caves - 2,000 year old unexplained sophisticated technology [8:26]
Vimana - Ancient aircraft [2:26]
Tank Restoration
Tank Overhaul - Episode 2 - The Panthert [50:09]
Tank Overhaul - Episode 3 - M4 Sherman [50:09]
World War 2 Tanks!: Into Battle [46:32]

07.29.2013. 11:39

Friday July 26, 2013
News Articles

Arctic Methane Release Due To Climate Change Could Cost Global Economy $60 Trillion, Study Reports
Reuters | Nina Chestney | 07/24/13

A release of methane in the Arctic could speed the melting of sea ice and climate change with a cost to the global economy of up to $60 trillion over coming decades, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Erasmus University in the Netherlands used economic modelling to calculate the consequences of a release of a 50-gigatonne reservoir of methane from thawing permafrost under the East Siberian Sea.   They examined a scenario in which there is a release of methane over a decade as global temperatures rise at their current pace.   They also looked at lower and slower releases, yet all produced "steep" economic costs stemming from physical changes to the Arctic. ... Read more

Janet Yellen For Federal Reserve Chairman? Dems Reportedly Send Letter Urging Obama To Pick Her
HP | Ashley Alman | 07/25/13

A group of Democratic senators have reportedly signed a letter encouraging President Barack Obama to appoint Federal Reserve Board of Governors Vice Chairman Janet Yellen as the next chairman.   According to the Wall Street Journal, the endorsement letter does not mention Larry Summers, who has also been floated as a possibility. One Democratic senator who signed the letter voiced his apprehension to the paper.

"There's a lot of concern among a lot of Democrats about an appointment of Larry Summers to that long-term position as Fed chairman," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). "He was one of the architects of getting rid of Glass-Steagall, of getting rid of other regulations." ... Read more

*Roberts's Picks Reshaping Secret Surveillance Court
NYTimes | Charlie Savage | 07/25/13

The recent leaks about government spying programs have focused attention on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and its role in deciding how intrusive the government can be in the name of national security. Less mentioned has been the person who has been quietly reshaping the secret court: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

In making assignments to the court, Chief Justice Roberts, more than his predecessors, has chosen judges with conservative and executive branch backgrounds that critics say make the court more likely to defer to government arguments that domestic spying programs are necessary.

Ten of the court's 11 judges -- all assigned by Chief Justice Roberts -- were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents; six once worked for the federal government. Since the chief justice began making assignments in 2005, 86 percent of his choices have been Republican appointees, and 50 percent have been former executive branch officials. ... Read more

Detroit By The Numbers

  1. $18 billion Detroit's estimated debt obligations.

  2. $11.9 billion City's unsecured obligations to lenders and retirees.
  3. $6.4 billion City's obligations backed by enterprise revenues (Revenue Bonds).

  4. 38 cents Of every tax dollar that the city collects goes to service legacy debt and other obligations rather than providing services for the city's residents and businesses.
  5. $115.5 million Detroit's negative cash flows in fiscal year 2012.
  6. 8% Interest accrued on Detroit's deferred payment of pension fund contributions.
  7. Over 100,000 Estimated number of Detroit creditors.
  8. 22% Reduction in city employees since fiscal year 2010.
  9. 1.85 million Detroit's population in 1952, its highest point.
  10. 62% Decline in Detroit's population from 1950 to 2012.
  11. 150,000 Number of manufacturing jobs Detroit lost between 1947 and 1963 as smaller auto makers disappeared and Big Three auto makers move operations to suburbs and out of state.
  12. 47% Detroit's share of US auto sales in 2008.
  13. 80% Of Detroit's manufacturing was lost between 1972 and 2007.
  14. 78% Of Detroit's retail establishments were lost between 1972 and 2007.
  15. 735,104 Number of jobs in Detroit for residents and non residents in 1970.
  16. 346,545 Number of jobs in Detroit for residents and non residents in 2012.
  17. 9.4% Jobless rate in Detroit as of June 2013.
  18. 30% Decline in Detroit's municipal income tax receipts since 2002.
  19. 36% Of Detroit's population lives below the poverty level.
  20. 54% Of Detroiters own a home.
  21. 16% Of Michigan's population lives below poverty level.
  22. 28% Decline in Detroit's receipts from utility user's tax over the last decade.
  23. $1.6 billion Decline in city's assessed property values over the last five years.
  24. $134.9 million Property tax revenues for city's 2013 fiscal year.
  25. 139 square miles Detroit's city footprint.
  26. 40% Of city's street lights do not work.
  27. 78,000 Number of abandoned structures in Detroit, representing 20% of the city's housing stock.
  28. 210 City parks were closed during fiscal year 2009, reducing its total by 66%.
    1. Source: Alexander Rozens, Bloomberg Brief
NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July 26 [15:50]
*DN | Juror B29 Says Zimmerman "Got Away With Murder," Renewing Scrutiny of Prosecution & Florida Laws (07/26/13) [22:06], Part 2 [6:17]
DN | Egypt Tensions Escalate as Morsi Detained and Supporters of Army, Brotherhood Hold Rival Protests (07/26/13) [12:36]
Globalization
*John Pilger: The New Rulers of the World (older, but I like John Pilger) [53:56]
PBS Nova
*PBS Nova | Nova Russian meteor strike 2013 [52:07]
What Scientists Are Seeing Over Antarctica (12/01/12) [8:34]
NSA News
*PBS Nova | The Spy Factory [56:02]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday(07/26/13) [1hr]
International News - Friday(07/26/13) [1hr]
Why WTC Towers Fell (one version)
PBS Nova | "9/11 Why the Towers Fell" [54:14]



MSNBCChris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Eric Holder to go after Texas on voting rights (07/25/13) [10:29]
Chris Hayes | Juror says Zimmerman got away with murder (07/25/13) [6:22]
Chris Hayes | Boehner's Steve King problems (07/25/13) [7:04]
Chris Hayes | Anthony Weiner: sex scandals and second chances (07/25/13) [7:04], Part 2 [6:51]
Comedy News
The Colbert Report | Stephen Henderson: Detroit's Bankruptcy (07/25/13) [7:55]
Carlos Danger
John Oliver Destroys Anthony Weiner: Withering 'Daily Show' Takedown Explains Why Weinergate 2.0 Matters (07/25/13) [4:26], Part 2 [6:01]
The Peanut Pool [1:03]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.26.2013. 12:54

Thursday July 25, 2013
News Articles

The B-Team Tries to Save Capitalism. Is it worth saving?
Truth-out | Dennis Trainor Jr | 07/23/13

A group of hyper-capitalists, including Sir Richard Branson and Arian Huffington recently launched the "B-Team." As Huffington describes it, the global business leaders come together to form the B-Team in order to "introduce a Plan B that will prioritize people and planet alongside profit and to move beyond our obsession with quarterly earnings and short-term growth." ... Read more

Dust Bowl Blues
Nation | Sasha Abramsky | 07/17/13

A severe drought in the Southwest is devastating crops and farm communities—and sending a warning about climate change.

In a typical year, the winds ease up in mid-spring, and the dust tamps down. In the past three years, however, as the rains have failed and the land has dried up, the winds have continued into the searingly hot summers. As they blow, the soil disintegrates, and what little moisture there is in the earth evaporates. The soil quality is now so poor that on the few occasions when it does rain, the next day’s wind simply blows the newly moistened topsoil away. Across the area you can see rows of cotton, black and dead in the orange earth—entire fields burned by the static electricity generated by the sandstorms. ... Read more

Conservatives and Libertarians should Support the Return of Glass Steagall
TRNN | William Black | 07/22/13

Glass-Steagall prevented a classic conflict of interest that we know frequently arises in the real world. Commercial banks are subsidized through federal deposit insurance. Most economists support providing deposit insurance to commercial banks for relatively smaller depositors. I am not aware of any economists who support federal “deposit” insurance for the customers of investment banks or the creditors of non-financial businesses. ... Read more

Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph "Dick" Durbin is the senior United States Senator from Illinois

Observation by Dick Durban:

Guantanamo Bay Budget
2012 $448 million
2013 $454 million

$454 million/166 prisoners = 2.7 million/yr/prisoner
The Financial Industry
The global financial crisis of 2008, at a cost of more than $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression. The financial crisis became a human crisis. The World Bank estimated that 53 million people worldwide were thrown into poverty and that between 200,000 and 400,000 babies died annually as a result. Millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa have suffered severe malnutrition and long-term brain damage as fallout from the financial disaster.

Suicide rates rise and fall with the state of the economy. Unemployment and foreclosure are the largest triggers in increased suicide risk. About 35,000 Americans die every year from suicides, up about 28 percent since 1999. Suicide rates in Europe, where the recession has been even more severe, are even higher. Ervin Lupoe from Wilmington, California, shot his five children and wife to death before turning the gun on himself. Lupoe was deep in debt, behind on his mortgage and had been fired from his hospital job. Anxiety, fear, crime, domestic abuse, murder and suicide all increased worldwide because of the financial crisis.

It was an "avoidable" disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry. It was the private market, not government programs, that made, packaged and sold most of these wretched loans without regard to their quality. The packaging, combined with credit default swaps and other esoteric derivatives, spread the contagion throughout the world. That's why what initially seemed to be a large but containable US mortgage problem touched off a worldwide financial crisis.

The speculative binge was abetted by a giant "shadow banking system" in which the banks relied heavily on short-term debt, snake oil mortgage hucksters and credit rating agencies that essentially prostituted themselves for cash from the investment banks. Regulators "lacked the political will" to scrutinize and hold accountable the institutions they were supposed to oversee. The financial industry spent $2.7 billion on lobbying from 1999 to 2008, while individuals and committees affiliated with it made more than $1 billion of campaign contributions.

The banking industry is completely unchastened. It is now pressing a full-frontal assault on repealing Dodd-Frank - a small, inadequate attempt to prevent it from destroying our economy again.

I found these Interesting and Inspiring
Boy Girl Meets Girl Boy: Transgender Couple Fall In Love [2:15]
Arin and Katie : Transgender teenagers are in love after they BOTH had gender reassignment surgery [5:26]
The Tallest Man Meets The Smallest Man [1:18]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, July 25 [17:13]
*DN | Yemeni Reporter Who Exposed U.S. Drone Strike Freed From Prison After Jailing at Obama's Request (07/25/13) [3:46], Part 2 [23:35]
*DN | Richard Wolff: Detroit a "Spectacular Failure" of System that Redistributes Pay From Bottom to Top (07/25/13) [12:54]
Banking/Financial System
The B-Team Tries to Save Capitalism. Is it worth saving? (07/18/13) [5:04]
"Too Big To Fail" Banks - Click to zoom
TRNN News
TRNN | Chris Hedges: Answers Questions from Viewers, Part 7 (07/25/13) [14:29]
*TRNN | Frank Hammer: Detroit Red Wings Get New $400 Million Taxpayer-Financed Stadium While the City Goes BankruptDetroit Red Wings Get New $400 Million Taxpayer-Financed Stadium While the City Goes Bankrupts (07/25/13) [8:28]
*TRNN | Bill Black: Banks Rewarded and Blacklisted Appraisers to Artificially Inflate Real Estate Prices (07/15/13) [10:18]
TYT News
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Future Of The Mortgage Market (07/25/13) [1hr]
Albert Bartlett, professor emeritus of Physics at Univ of Colorado-Boulder, talks about how to view unfettered growth [1:13:54]
Give the above video a chance. Watch the first 10 minutes and see if it doesn't spark an interest. Professor Bartlett has an easy way of explaining exponential (hockey stick) growth that most of us don't understand.
Comedy News
Carlos Danger
John Oliver Destroys Anthony Weiner: Withering 'Daily Show' Takedown Explains Why Weinergate 2.0 Matters (07/25/13) [4:26], Part 2 [6:01]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.25.2013. 13:38

Wednesday July 24, 2013
News Articles

*Chase, Once Considered 'The Good Bank,' Is About to Pay Another Massive Settlement
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 07/18/13

During the financial crisis, while Dr. Evil-ish Wall Street villains like Goldman and Lehman Brothers were getting all the bad press, pundits continually referred to J.P. Morgan Chase as the "good bank."

... Well, there's some more news about the "good bank" -- Chase is about to pay yet another ginormous settlement for cheating and stealing from the public. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will fine Chase "close to $1 billion" for manipulating energy prices in Enron-esque fashion in Michigan and California. The story is interesting in itself -- and we'll write more about it later -- but for now, it's just the fact of yet another massive settlement for this bank that's so interesting. ... Read more

In the three-year period between 2009-2012, Chase paid out over $16 billion in litigation costs. Noted financial analyst Josh Rosner of Graham Fisher slammed Chase in a report earlier this year, pointing out that these settlements and legal costs represented a staggering 12% of Chase's net revenue during this time. There couldn't possibly be a clearer demonstration of the modern banking model, in which companies break rules/laws as a matter of course, and simply pay fines as a cost -- a significant cost -- of doing business.

Chase Made Errors in Nine Percent of Credit-Card Collection Lawsuits, Internal Survey Finds
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 07/11/13

A piece in the Wall Street Journal dug up yet another damning fact about Jamie Dimon's J.P. Morgan Chase. This time, reporters got hold of an internal bank survey of its credit-card collections suits. It turns out that Chase's own survey found that huge numbers of lawsuits filed by the bank contained errors. ... Read more

Wall Street in Crisis: A Perfect Storm Looming
secwhistlebloweradvocate.com | Jordan Thomas | 07/16/13

Labaton Sucharow's U.S. Financial Services Industry survey results were released today. The survey confidentially polled financial professionals on corporate ethics, wrongdoing in the workplace and the role of financial regulators in policing the marketplace. The results suggest that the financial services industry faces a serious and growing ethical crisis. ... Read more

Choosing the FED Chairman! - Click to zoom
Wall Street in Crisis: A Perfect Storm Looming (Survey.pdf)

Death by Corporation, Part I: Mankind
TruthOut | Dr Brian Moench | 06/26/13

In fact, today, corporations come much closer to embodying Mary Shelley's Frankenstein than Jesus Christ. Ironically, created by and managed by humans, corporations have become almost robotic monsters, perpetrating, even feeding off human misery, threatening every aspect of human life - the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat - and even the future of mankind itself. What have these corporate Frankenstein monsters done for us lately? ... Read more

Death by Corporation, Part II: Companies as Cancer Cells
TruthOut | Dr Brian Moench | 07/23/13

The financial industry, chemical industry, drug companies, nuclear industrial complex and dirty energy empire work "like tumor cells for the relentless destruction of the environment that they themselves depend upon for their very lives. And the rest of us stand by and watch it happen." ... Read more

The GOP's Plan B to Kill Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Watchdog
MotherJones | Erika Eichelberger | 07/24/13

Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) declared victory when the Senate confirmed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the consumer watchdog agency that Warren conceived and helped launch. For years, Republicans had been fighting tooth and nail to kill the infant agency, which is charged with protecting Americans from abusive practices by banks, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing companies, and debt collectors. Originally, the GOP planned to cripple the agency by blocking it from ever getting a director. That didn't happen, so now Republicans have to turn to Plan B. Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
DemocractNow Wendesday 24, 2013 [50:56]
DN | "Kill Anything That Moves": New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam (12/15/13 older) [18:40]
John Pilger | Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror () [52:01]
John Pilger | The War You Don't See [1:36:34]
Glenn Greenwald: "Dianne Feinstein is Outright Lying" about NSA Surveillance Abuses (06/24/13) [2:18]
Why do we allow our representatives to lie to us? Why aren't they afraid of going to jail??
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In / Alan Grayson
Raging Liberal Alan Grayson FORCED To Work With Republicans To Try And Save The Constitution (07/22/13) [6:13]
Senator Elizabeth Warren's Corner
Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders are a few honest legislators on Capital Hill.
Elizabeth Warren | Banking Subcommittee Hearing on Financial Holding Companies (07/23/13) [6:55]
Senator Elizabeth Warren's Q&A at the July 23, 2013 Senate Banking Subcommittee Hearing on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, titled "Examining Financial Holding Companies: Should Banks Control Power Plants, Warehouses, and Oil Refineries?" The witnesses included: Ms. Saule Omarova, Associate Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law; Mr. Joshua Rosner, Managing Director, Graham Fisher & Company; Mr. Timothy Weiner, Global Risk Manager, Commodities/Metals, MillerCoors LLC; and Mr. Randall D. Guynn, Head of Financial Institutions Group, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
Elizabeth Warren | Banking Subcommittee Hearing on Financial Holding Companies (longer version) (07/23/13) [20:36]
The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (website)
Elizabeth Warren | Sen Elizabeth Warren Questions Ben Bernanke in His Last Appearance Before Senate Banking Committee (07/18/13) [7:16]
COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS met in EXECUTIVE SESSION to consider the nominations of The Honorable Melvin L. Watt, of North Carolina, to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Dr. Jason Furman, of New York, to be a Member and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; Ms. Kara M. Stein, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Dr. Michael S. Piwowar, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission; The Honorable Richard T. Metsger, of Oregon, to be a Member of the National Credit Union Administration Board; and The Honorable Mary Jo White, of New York, to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission for a term expiring June 5, 2019. Following the EXECUTIVE SESSION, the Committee met in OPEN SESSION to conduct a hearing on "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress." The witness will be: The Honorable Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Clip includes comments and questions to Bernanke, from Committee Member Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
TRNN News
TRNN | Chris Hedges: As a Socialist, I Have No Voice in the Mainstream, Part 6 (07/24/13) [14:04]
Facebook
What you need to know about Facebook [13:24]
What facebook knows about you [1:58]
Assange: Facebook, Google, Yahoo spying tools for US intelligence [12:55]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Freelance Economy (07/24/13) [1hr]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
John Pilger | Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror () [52:01]
John Pilger | The War You Don't See [1:36:34]
The War That You Don't See - John Pilger's Interview With Julian Assange (12/29/10)
DN | "Kill Anything That Moves": New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam (12/15/13 older) [18:40]
Two of the leading figures nominated to head President Obama's second-term foreign policy establishment have their political roots in the Vietnam War. If confirmed, Chuck Hagel will become the first Vietnam War veteran to head the Pentagon, while John Kerry will helm the State Department after becoming one of the most prominent veterans to oppose the Vietnam War upon his return from duty. Although Vietnam is far behind them, Kerry and Hagel will now have to contend with the longest running war in U.S. history: Afghanistan. We're joined by Nick Turse, managing editor of TomDispatch.com and author of the new book, "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam." The title is taken from an order given to the U.S. forces who slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese civilians in the notorious My Lai massacre of 1968. Drawing on interviews in Vietnam and a trove of previously unknown U.S. government documents -- including internal military investigations of alleged war crimes in Vietnam -- Turse argues that U.S. atrocities in Vietnam were not just isolated incidents, but "the inevitable outcome of deliberate policies, dictated at the highest levels of the military."

07.24.2013. 11:46

Tuesday July 23, 2013
News Articles

*NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say
Wired Magazine | David Kravets | 07/19/13

NSA - largest employer in Maryland

The Obama administration for the first time responded to a Spygate lawsuit, telling a federal judge the wholesale vacuuming up of all phone-call metadata in the United States is in the "public interest," does not breach the constitutional rights of Americans and cannot be challenged in a court of law.

... The New York federal district court lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, demands a federal judge immediately halt the spy program the civil rights group labeled as "one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government." ... Read more

Google, CIA Invest in 'Future' of Web Monitoring
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 07/28-30/10 older

The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time -- and says it uses that information to predict the future.   The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents -- both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine "goes beyond search" by "looking at the 'invisible links' between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events."

... U.S. spy agencies, through In-Q-Tel, have invested in a number of firms to help them better find that information. Visible Technologies crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. Attensity applies the rules of grammar to the so-called "unstructured text" of the web to make it more easily digestible by government databases. Keyhole (now Google Earth) is a staple of the targeting cells in military-intelligence units. ... Read more

"Should Goldman And JPMorgan Control Power Plants, Warehouses And Oil Refiners?"
ZeroHedge | author | 07/23/13

No really, that is the actual name of the hearing that the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold today in order to "clarify" why banks like Goldman are currently the owners of the largest aluminum warehouse in the US, or why Goldman, JPM and BlackRock are set to control 80% of all copper stores.

As a reminder, as we previewed yesterday, it was the Fed which in 2005 granted said banks permission to do just that. That the Senate should even have to debate such an issue shows not only who is really in control, but how many light years behind the curve US Congress is when even grasping how pervasive and insidious the New Normal cartelization by industry monopolists - because a handful of banks controlling the entire commodity logistics chain is nothing short of an monopoly - has become. It also shows that no amount of regulation can possibly prevent the banks creeping take over of all the key "just in time" supply choke points until such time as everything unwinds, yet remains in the control of the banks. Read more

Selecting a New FED Chairman
Hopefully an HONEST person will be chosen next!

Selecting The Next Federal Reserve Chair: When And How
ZeroHedge | author | 07/23/13

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's term expires January 31, 2014. While his continuation as Fed chair cannot be ruled out, he has given no public indications that he plans to seek another term and most market participants - as well as many members of Congress in last week's Humphrey-Hawkins hearings - seem to believe he will retire from public service early next year. ... Read more

Choosing the FED Chairman! - Click to zoom

Ron Paul On "Bernanke's Farewell Tour"
ZeroHedge | author | 07/23/13

Last week Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered what may well be his last Congressional testimony before leaving the Federal Reserve in 2014. Unfortunately, his farewell performance was full of contradictory comments about the state of the economy and the effects of Fed policies on the market. One thing Bernanke inadvertently made clear was that the needs of Wall Street trump Main street, the economy, and sound money.

Quantitative easing (QE) and effectively zero interest rates have created paper prosperity, but now the Fed must continuously assure Wall Street that the QE spigot will not be turned off. Otherwise even the illusion of recovery will disappear. So Bernanke made every effort to emphasize that the economy was not doing well enough to end QE, while lauding the success of Fed policies in improving the economy. ... Read more

Boehner Signals Clash With White House on U.S. Debt Limit
Bloomberg | Roxana Tiron | 07/23/13

House Speaker John Boehner signaled a clash with the White House and the Democratic-led Senate over raising the U.S. borrowing authority later this year.   "We're not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters in Washington today.

"We will not negotiate over Congress's responsibility to pay the bills that Congress ran up," White House press secretary Jay Carney said today when asked about Boehner's remarks. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, July 23 [14:59]
*DN | Detroit Goes Bankrupt: Will Unelected Manager Pit City's Needs Against Rights of Pensioners? (07/23/13) [18:05]
Facing an estimated $18 billion in debt, Detroit has become the largest U.S. municipality to file for bankruptcy. It is a grim milestone in the decline of what was once the country's fourth largest city. Known as the Motor City and the birthplace of the middle class, Detroit's auto industry and manufacturing sector have collapsed. A steady decline in population has decimated its tax base, leaving the city with massive cuts to basic services and one of the nation's highest rates of violent crime. The Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing has set off what could be a prolonged legal battle with thousands of current and former city employees entitled to pensions and medical benefits. Detroit's unelected Emergency Manager has said that cutting pensions will be vital to restoring basic services that have shrunk with the decline of city revenues over the years. We're joined by Mark Binelli, author of "Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis."
*DN | Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund "Recorded Future" Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts (07/30/10 older) [8:45]
Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called "Recorded Future" that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google's so-called "Wi-Spy" scandal, that refers to revelations that Google's Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private Wi-Fi networks over the last three years.
*DN | First Leaked Pakistani Report on U.S. Drone War Undermines Claims of Low Civilian Toll (07/23/13) [18:36]
A leaked Pakistani government report has bolstered claims that civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes are far higher than the Obama administration has been willing to admit. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has released figures from the Pakistani government's own research into casualties from drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas. The Pakistani report investigates 75 CIA drone strikes and five operations by NATO between 2006 and 2009. It finds that the attacks left at least 746 people dead, including at least 147 civilians, 94 of them children -- a conservative count given the omission of key data. The high number of civilian casualties directly contradicts statements made by senior Obama administration officials and top lawmakers. We go London to speak with Chris Woods, a reporter with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's drones investigation team, which won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for journalism last month.

Drone Strikes 2004-2013 - Click to zoom

TRNN News
TRNN | Frank Hammer: Is Detroit's Bankruptcy Really a Feeding Frenzy for Privatization? (07/20/13) [9:21]
Koch Brothers
Thom Hartmann | Papantonio: The Ugly, Disgusting Truth About The Koch Brothers (07/22/13) [9:15]
*Citizen Koch (trailer) [3:02]
*Greedy Lying Bastards (trailer) (10/22/12) [2:23]
*Robert Greenwald | "Koch Brothers Exposed" (08/23/12) [1:00:03]
*The Billionaires Tea Party (08/23/12) [1:00:03]
Truthout | PBS Killed Wisconsin Uprising Documentary "Citizen Koch" To Appease Koch Brothers (article) (05/21/13)
Policymic | Citizen Koch: PBS Kills Koch Brothers-Critical Documentary For Fear Of Offending Them (article) (05/20/13)
Koch Brothers - Click to zoom

Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Managing The Nation's Electricity Needs (07/23/13) [1hr]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again.
The Billionaires Tea Party (08/23/12) [1:00:03]
The Billionaires Tea Party - The Tea Party movement has taken American politics by storm. But is this truly a populist uprising or one of the greatest feats of propaganda ever seen?

Seeking to find out, Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham embeds himself in the Tea Party uprising. From men sporting tri-corner hats in Louisville Kentucky (the movement takes name from a key event in the American revolution) to 100,000 placard waving patriots in Washington D.C. 'taking our country back' from Obama's 'communist' regime. But who are generals of this army?

Enter brothers Charles and David Koch. Oilmen, billionaires 20 times over and on a mission to create a privatized America. For three decades they've unwritten a propaganda war, funding fake grassroots groups (branded 'astroturf' by opponents) to dupe citizens into protesting on behalf of some of Americas most powerful people and corporations. As Taki infiltrates one such group, Americans For Prosperity, he captures David Koch beaming as operatives report running Tea Party events all over the country.

Weaving together commentary from propaganda experts and political insiders with unprecedented footage, The Billionaires' Tea Party follows astroturf groups Americans For Prosperity and Freedomworks coopting the movement from day one. As the Koch's extreme vision of free market capitalism is woven into that cherished American spirit of individual freedom, the patriotic Tea Partiers are guided to oppose key elements of the Obama agenda. Witness hysterical scenes as a proposed Health Care bill is reframed as Soviet style 'socialised medicine'. Follow industry-funded spin doctors and scientists dismissing Obama's climate bill a liberal conspiracy to control peoples lives and destroy the economy. See the cosy relationship between Koch operatives and Fox News. Come undercover as Tea Partiers are indoctrinated into equating their own interests with those of corporate America. Finally, see the stunning culmination at the 2010 elections as fully 1/3 of those elected are Tea Party endorsed candidates out to make Koch's dream a reality.

With America now facing a new era of budget-slashing union-busting politics, The Billionaires' Tea Party is both a journey through a unique moment in American history and chilling portent of the corporate takeover of democracy.

DP/30 @ Sundance: Citizen Koch, documentarians Carl Deal & Tia Lessin (07/19/13) [32:10]
TRNN | Koch Brothers and the Road to "Citizens United" (10/28/12) [10:27]
Greedy Lying Bastards (trailer) (10/22/12) [2:23]
Wildfires in the West. "Brown-Outs" in the East. Farmers losing crops to the worst drought since the Dust Bowl. Climate change is no longer a prediction for the future, but a startling reality of today. The U.S. Pentagon believes it to be a matter of national and international security. Yet, as the evidence of our changing climate mounts and the scientific consensus proves a human causation, there continues to be no political action to thwart the warming of our planet.

"Greedy Lying Bastards" investigates the reason behind stalled efforts to tackle climate change despite consensus in the scientific community that it is not only a reality but also a growing problem that is placing us on the brink of disaster. The film details the people and organizations casting doubt on climate science and claims that greenhouse gases are not affected by human behavior. Filmmaker and political activist Craig Rosebraugh documents the impact of an industry that has continually put profits before people, waged a campaign of lies designed to thwart measures to combat climate change, used its clout to minimize infringing regulations and undermined the political process in the U.S. and abroad.

Millions are spent each year by oil and related interests to fund the think tanks, groups, scientists and politicians waging what the film deems a campaign of deceit regarding the science of climate change and its dire impact on the planet. Between 1998 and 2012, "Greedy Lying Bastards" reports ExxonMobil spent over $25 million to dispel claims of global warming. The Koch brothers, who run the conglomerate Koch Industries, also provide significant funding. From 1997 through 2012, they spent over $60 million.

A far different story about climate change is told by the residents of Kivalina, a small Alaskan island above the Arctic Circle. Over the last fifty years, winter temperatures have risen nearly seven degrees and the ice that once protected the land is not forming properly leading to increasing erosion. As one tribal administrator notes: "The debate is over, we are dealing with the realities of climate change."

"Greedy Lying Bastards" also presents a shocking analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Citizens United. According to the film, not only did this 2010 ruling pave the way for unlimited corporate contributions to political campaigns, but additionally it highlighted the blatant corruption of the country's highest Court and its cozy relationship with top corporate interests.

Filmed in the US, Tuvalu, Peru, England, Uganda, Kenya, Belgium, Denmark and Germany, "Greedy Lying Bastards" includes interviews with scientists, industry experts, international political delegates, and people impacted by the changing climate as well as deniers. Among them: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon; Rep. Henry Waxman (CA); former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman; top U.S. climate scientists Dr. Pieter Tans (NOAA), Dr. Mark Serreze (NOAA), Dr. Kevin Trenberth (NCAR), former President of Copenhagen Climate Summit COP15 Connie Hedegaard, UN Environmental Program Executive Director Achim Steiner, and leading climate science skeptics Myron Ebell, Christopher Monckton, and Jay Lehr.

Greedy Lying Bastards website
Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth (08/23/12) [1:00:03]
TYT | Tommy Chong & Dylan Ratigan Working Hard To Make A Better World For You And Me (03/28/13) [32:30]

07.23.2013. 14:23

Monday July 22, 2013
News Articles

I Hereby Resign in Protest Effective Immediately
CommonDreams | Brandon Toy | 07/16/13

I hereby resign in protest effective immediately.   I have served the post-911 Military Industrial complex for 10 years, first as a soldier in Baghdad, and now as a defense contractor for General Dynamics.

At the time of my enlistment, I believed in the cause. I was ignorant, naïve, and misled. The narrative, professed by the state, and echoed by the mainstream press, has proven false and criminal. We have become what I thought we were fighting against.

Recent revelations by fearless journalists of war crimes including counterinsurgency "dirty" wars, drone terrorism, the suspension of due process, torture, mass surveillance, and widespread regulatory capture have shed light on the true nature of the current US Government. I encourage you to read more about these topics at the links I have provided below. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren Schools CNBC Anchors On The History Of Financial Regulation
CNBC | author | 07/18/13

Elizabeth Warren has a message for any television personalities questioning the merits of increased financial regulation: You're wrong.   During a media tour last week to bring attention to a bill the Senator proposed with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others aimed at preventing banks from making risky bets with Americans' savings, CNBC personality Brian Sullivan asked her to back his assertion that no law can prevent major bank busts.

"No that is just wrong," Warren said in response. ... Read more

Inside America's Dirty Wars
The Nation | Jeremy Scahill | 04/24/13 older

Read more

Goldman Sachs Took $5 Billion From Consumers By Moving Metal Around
Gawker | Max Rivlin-Nadler | 07/17/13

According to a New York Times investigation, Goldman Sachs has been intentionally raising the global cost of aluminum in a brazen manipulation of the commodities market that screws consumers worldwide.

Over the past three years, Goldman has raised the price of aluminium by buying a huge warehouse and intentionally slowing down service so they could charge higher storing fees. These fees, handed down to consumers, have netted Goldman Sachs over $5 billion. And there's nothing illegal about it.   When Goldman Sachs bought Metro International, a massive storage company responsible for holding metals like aluminum in its Michigan facilities, its ability send out metals to other companies began to slow down. This change in service distorted the market and drove up the price of aluminum worldwide as the price of the extra storage fees was handed down to the consumer. And who benefited greatly from the rise in the price of aluminum? Goldman Sachs, which is trading heavily in aluminum. ... Read more

FEMA Report: Climate Change Could Increase Areas at Risk of Flood by 45 Percent
MotherJones | Kate Sheppard | 06/13/13

Rising seas and increasingly severe weather are expected to increase the areas of the United States at risk of floods by up to 45 percent by 2100, according to a first-of-its-kind report released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Wednesday. These changes could double the number of flood-prone properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and drastically increase the costs of floods, the report finds. ... Read more

The IMPACTof CLIMATE CHANGE and Population Growth on the National Flood Insurance Program.pdf
Sea Level Rise - Click to zoom
Here's what 25 feet of sea-level rise would do to the U.S. west coast
San Francisco's AT&T Park
L.A.'s Venice Beach
The San Diego Convention Center
Investigative Reporters - Click to zoom

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 22 [15:56]
DN | As Protests Continue Over Verdict, Obama Says "Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago" (07/22/13) [7:30], Part 2 [25:19]
DN | Censoring Howard Zinn: Former Indiana Gov. Tried to Remove "A People's History" From State Schools (07/22/13) [8:29]
National Debt
National Debt Rise - Click to zoom
TRNN News
TRNN | Chris Hedges: The Liberal Elite has Betrayed the People They Claim to Defend (07/22/13) [18:26]
TRNN | Emira Woods: Under the "war on terror" framework, the US and AFRICOM are beefing up pro-US militaries across Africa (06/30/13) [8:19]
TYT News
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Future Of Detroit (07/22/13) [1hr]
The Detroit skyline is seen from Grand River on Thursday, July 18, 2013, in Detroit. On Thursday the city became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy when State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr asked a federal judge for municipal bankruptcy protection.
Aljazeera News
*Ajazeera | William Black discusses Detroit bankruptcy (07/19/13) [5:40]
Other Videos
Why You Need to Fail - by Derek Sivers [14:55]
Recording The Police is Dangerous, but Necessary! (07/02/13) [7:48]
Hobbit Desolation of Smaug Stills - Click to zoom

And here I thought it was all Dick Cheney's idea:
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
This is What Happens When Two Bamboo Trains Meet on the Bamboo Railway [5:07]
Resources
  1. Abnormal Returns
  2. Angry Bear
  3. ataxingmatter
  4. Automatic Earth
  5. Beat The Press
  6. Bill Mitchell -- billy blog
  7. Brad DeLong
  8. Calculated Risk
  9. Cassandra Does Tokyo
  10. Clusterstock
  11. Credit Slips
  12. Credit Writedowns
  13. Econbrowser
  14. Economic Policy Institute
  15. Economist's View
  16. Ed Harrison
  17. Eschaton
  18. Eurointelligence
  19. Eyes on Trade
  20. Felix Salmon
  21. Financial Armageddon
  22. FT Alphaville
  23. Glenn Greenwald
  24. Global Economic Analysis
  1. Global Economy Matters
  2. Guardian Unlimited
  3. Jesse's Café Américain
  4. John Quiggin
  5. Lambert Strether
  6. Macro Business
  7. Marginal Revolution
  8. mathbabe
  9. Michael Hudson
  10. Michael Pettis
  11. Mish's Global Economic Analysis
  12. New Deal 2.0
  13. New Economic Perspectives
  14. Paul Krugman
  15. RGE Monitor (Nouriel Roubini)
  16. Steve Waldman
  17. Testosterone Pit (Wolf Richter)
  18. The Baseline Scenario
  19. The Big Picture
  20. The Center of the Universe
  21. The Economic Populist
  22. The Prudent Investor
  23. VoxEU
  24. Wall Street Journal -- MarketBeat

07.22.2013. 15:02

Friday July 19, 2013
News Articles

Detroit's Bankruptcy: 40% of Street Lights Don't Work, 66% of Ambulances Out of Service
WSJ | author | 07/19/13

Detroit's bankruptcy petition paints a bleak picture for the Motor City: more than 100,000 creditors, more than $18 billion in accrued obligations and a homicide rate that is at its highest level in nearly 40 years. ... Read more

Detroit's Creditors and Unions Prepare for Bankruptcy Fight
NYTimes | Monica Davey | 07/19/13

DETROIT -- A day after Detroit became the largest American city ever to seek bankruptcy protection in court, the size of the battle this city now faces was growing clear, as creditors vehemently objected to the way Detroit is asking to repay them pennies on the dollar and as representatives of city workers, who face benefits cuts, said the city had failed to truly negotiate before heading to court.

"The fiscal realities confronting Detroit have been ignored for too long," Gov. Rick Snyder said on Thursday as he authorized Detroit's bankruptcy filing after a recommendation from Kevyn D. Orr, the emergency financial manager Mr. Snyder, a Republican, had appointed to resolve the city's dire financial situation. "I'm making this tough decision so the people of Detroit will have the basic services they deserve and so we can start to put Detroit on a solid financial footing that will allow it to grow and prosper in the future." ... Read more

Financial Industry

Glass--Steagall Act
Wikipedia | author | current

Robert Kuttner, Joseph Stiglitz, Elizabeth Warren, Robert Weissman, Richard D. Wolff and others have tied Glass-Steagall repeal to the 2007s financial crash.

The Glass--Steagall Act is a term often applied to the entire Banking Act of 1933, after its Congressional sponsors, Senator Carter Glass (D) of Virginia, and Representative Henry B. Steagall (D) of Alabama. The term Glass--Steagall Act, however, is most often used to refer to four provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms. This article deals with that limited meaning of the Glass--Steagall Act. A separate article describes the entire Banking Act of 1933.

Starting in the early 1960s federal banking regulators interpreted provisions of the Glass--Steagall Act to permit commercial banks and especially commercial bank affiliates to engage in an expanding list and volume of securities activities By the time the affiliation restrictions in the Glass--Steagall Act were repealed through the Gramm--Leach--Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), many commentators argued Glass--Steagall was already "dead". ...
Read more on Glass_steagall
Read more on Gramm--Leach--Bliley Act

*Bill to Repeal Glass Steagall 1999 - Click to zoom

25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis
Time Magazine | author | date

The good intentions, bad managers and greed behind the meltdown ... Read more

<<= Real Criminals


*Big Banks, Flooded in Profits, Fear Flurry of New Safeguards
NYTimes | Peter Eavis | 07/19/13

The nation's six largest banks reported $23 billion in profits in the second quarter, but they could end up victims of their own success.   In recent weeks, the Treasury Department, senior regulators and members of Congress have stepped up efforts intended to make the largest banks safer. The banks have warned that more regulation could undermine their ability to compete and curtail the amount of money they have to lend, but the strong earnings that came out over the last week could undercut their argument.

Gee, I wonder why the "Too Big To Fail" banks are making such profits. How about getting money from the FED below 1% and issuing Credit Cards with interest rates of 30%. How about the Carry Trade where the big banks put the money in other countries banks that give an interest rate of 7-9% and banking the difference?
Read more

*Bernanke "The Only Game in Town": REALLY?
ZeroHedge | author | 07/19/13

Last year, Senator Schumer (Democrat, N.Y.) famously told Fed chairman Ben Bernanke "You are the only game in town." Really, Senator? What about the real economy? Bernanke and the Fed's machinations are indeed the only game in town for the parasitic financiers, but unnoticed by the Senator, America's real economy is innovating away from the dead hand of the Fed and its toxic spew of free money to the predatory class.

There's actually three games in town: the financier game the Fed is playing that will end in collapse, the Federal government's borrow-and-blow trillions of dollars game that will also end badly, and the real economy, where millions of people don't give a rat's rear-end about Bernanke's latest attempt to placate the financial Monster Id he has created. ... Read more

The Next FED Bubble - Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July 19 [13:40]
*DN | "The Act of Killing": New Film Shows U.S.-Backed Indonesian Death Squad Leaders Reenacting Massacres (07/19/13) [11:51]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Chris Hedges: if the American Left bears responsibility for the weakness of the mass movement; Hedges says the gravest mistake of the left is not articulating a viable vision of socialism (07/19/13) [18:52]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Does Rolling Stone cover give Boston suspect rock star treatment? (07/18/13) [5:11]
*Chris Hayes | Obama campaignng to sell "The Affordable Care Act" (07/18/13) [6:38], Part 2 [6:33]
MSNBC Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow | Former CIA Italian Station Chief detained in Panama (07/18/13) [4:54]
*Rachel Maddow | Gun lobby's power in Florida an obstacle to "Stand Your Ground" reform. Also ALEC (07/18/13) [17:11]
Rachel Maddow | Texas Gov. Perry signs anti-abortion law, probably means clinic closures (07/18/13) [10:55]
Financial Industry
Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 explained by Max Keiser & William Black & Webster Tarpley [1:54]
Who repealed the Glass-Steagall Act? [11:00]
*Fox News | Senator Elizabeth Warren Co-Sponsors Bill to Reinstate Glass Steagall - Fox Business News (07/14/13) [7:40]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Ag-Gag Laws Silence Whistleblowers (07/10/13) [5:52]

Ag-Gag Laws Silence Whistleblowers
BillMoyers | author | 07/10/13

Muckrakers and activists have been working to expose the brutality of industrialized meat production since Upton Sinclair's writing of The Jungle in 1906. But an ALEC model bill known as "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" would make it a crime to film at animal facilities -- such as factory farms or slaughterhouses -- with the intent to "defame the facility or its owner." So-called "ag-gag" laws that appear inspired by the ALEC model have been passed in several states. This report, produced by Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, Inc. looks at the effect of these laws on both our food supply and our freedom of speech. ... Read more

*Bill Moyers | Distracted from Democracy (07/12/13) [56:54]
Marty Kaplan discusses media distractions that keep us from focusing on inequality, and Gary May puts American voting rights in historical context.

Across the world -- Greece, Spain, Brazil, Egypt -- citizens are turning angrily to their governments to demand economic fair play and equality. But here in America, with few exceptions, the streets and airwaves remain relatively silent. In a country as rich and powerful as America, why is there so little outcry about the ever-increasing, deliberate divide between the very wealthy and everyone else?
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Friday News Roundup - Domestic (07/19/13) [1hr]
The Senate makes a deal on filibusters. Attorney General Eric Holder attacks stand-your-ground laws. And a Rolling Stone cover of the Boston bombing suspect sparks outrage. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Friday News Roundup - International (07/19/13) [1hr]
A standoff continues between the U.S. and Russia over the asylum request by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The Arab League backs a new U.S.-led Mideast peace effort. And tainted school lunches kill at least 23 children in India. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
PBS Frontline
PBS Frontline | The Real CSI: How reliable is the science behind forensics? [53:41]
CBS 60Minutes
*60 Minutes | Angel of Death: Nearly all of the hospitals ex-nurse Charles Cullen worked at were suspicious of the serial killer. So why did his career last 16 years? (07/14/13) [14:20], Part 2 [12:32]
60 Minutes | Angel of Death, The race to save the tortoise (full episode) (07/14/13) [4:42]
Comedy
Stephen Colbert Grills Eliot Spitzer, Declares 'This Ain't Charlie Rose, Motherf**ker' (07/19/13) [16:32]

Topless Magazine Covers: The Hand Bra Awards
HP | Lauren Duca | 07/19/13

In the past few weeks alone, Shailene Woodley went topless for Interview magazine, Rita Ora went topless for GQ, Agnieszka Radwanska went topless for ESPN magazine, Elle MacPherson went topless for Bazaar, Alyssa Milano went topless for Maxim, and they all had to use their extremities for coverage, but who wore their own hands best?   For the first (and only) time ever, we bring you: The Hand Bra Awards. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
The Glass Steagall Act President Roosevelt signed into law was repealed. See who swept aside the banking firewall protections on the 12th of November 1999.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, is an act of the 106th United States Congress (1999-2001), signed into law by President Clinton which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, opening up the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and/or an insurance company.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms and insurance companies to consolidate.


07.19.2013. 10:16

Thursday July 18, 2013
News Articles

The Drone That Killed My Grandson
NYTimes | Nasser al-Awlaki | 07/17/13

I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman -- a United States citizen -- had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died. The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.

I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead. ... Read more

*Jahar's World
RollingStone |Janet Reitman | 07/17/13

He was a charming kid with a bright future. But no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become.

Comment from the Editors - Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families. The cover story we are publishing this week falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone's long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day. The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens. ... Read more

Climate Change: Public Opinion Rebounds From All-Time Lows
Policymic | Laura Merli | 3 months ago

The Pew Research Center has shown that Americans' knowledge that the world is getting warmer because of human activities is rebounding, after an embarrassing low from 2009-2011.

One of the biggest reasons for this dip in knowledge was a disinformation campaign from oil and gas lobbyists. From 2009-2011, the industry spent a reported $471,456,040 on lobbying. They bought politicians to be their mouthpieces, in addition to forming fake "scientific" think tanks such as the Heartland Institute. ... Read more

NBC: 'Scientists … Said Climate Change Plays A Factor In What's Become A Deadly And Historic Fire Season'

July 18 News: Senator Reid Said Climate Change Is Why 'The West Is Burning'

NASA: Globally, June Was Second Warmest On Record
Climate Progress | Joe Romm | 07/18/13

The NBC Nightly News on Wednesday had a good story on the wildfires ravaging the West and the role of climate change:

Drier weather, longer droughts and hotter temperatures that created the situation where we lost the firefighters in arizona. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, July 18 [12:07]
*DN | Glenn Greenwald: Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden (07/18/13) [21:19]
*DN | "I Live to Sing": Black Opera Students Excel at Formerly White School in Post-Apartheid South Africa (07/18/13) [11:40]
*Sen. Warren on CNBC's "Squawk Box" (07/12/13) [5:32]
Global Climate Change (Global Warming)
*NBC | NightlyNews: California wildfire burns out of control (07/17/13) [12:07]
Climate Progress (website)
*Conclusion from TheHeatIsOnline.org [14:57]
TheHeatIsOnline.org (website)
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Politics, Policy And The National Labor Relations Board (07/18/13) [1hr]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Hedges: We Must Grasp Reality to Build Effective Resistance (07/18/13) [10:16]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | How right wing media reacted to Zimmerman verdict (07/17/13) [13:55]
*Chris Hayes | What Liz Cheney's decisions means for fault lines within GOP (07/17/13) [8:33]
Chris Hayes | Eliot Spitzer talks about the Senate's confirmation of the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (07/17/13) [6:10]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
ClimateDepot.com (website)
Climate List 1con't (ignore renumbering)Climate List 2
  1. Accuweather Global Warming
  2. American Thinker
  3. AMSU Global Daily Temps
  4. Andrew Bolt
  5. Anthony Watts Surface Station
  6. Art Horn
  7. Australian Climate Madness
  8. Bob Carter
  9. Business & Media Institute
  10. Carbon Folly
  11. CFACT
  12. Christopher Booker
  13. Climate Audit
  14. Climate Change Dispatch
  15. Climate Common Sense
  16. Climate Cycle Changes
  17. Climate Debate Daily
  18. Climate Depot
  19. Climate Realists
  20. Climate Research News
  21. Climate Resistance
  22. Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr.
  23. Climate Skeptic
  24. CO2 Science
  25. CO2web
  26. Dr. Roy Spencer
  27. Drudge Report
  28. EcoWorld.com
  29. Energy Tribune
  30. Fred S. Singer's SEPP
  31. Gary Sharp
  32. Global Warming Hoax
  33. Global Warming Science
  34. Global Warming Skeptics
  35. Gore Lied
  36. Green Hell Blog
  37. Greenie Watch
  38. Hall of Record
  39. Heliogenic Blog
  40. I Love My Carbon Dioxide
  41. Ice Age Now
  42. IceCap.us
  43. International Climate Science Coalition
  1. James Spann's Blog
  2. Jennifer Marohasy
  3. Joanna Nova
  4. John Coleman's Corner
  5. John Daly
  6. John McLean
  7. Junk Science
  8. Marshall Institute
  9. Martinez Report
  10. Metsul's Meteorologia
  11. Michael Crichton
  12. Milo Yiannopoulos
  13. Newsbusters.org
  14. OilPrice.com
  15. Omniclimate
  16. Peden's Middlebury Community Network
  17. Planet Gore
  18. Powerlineblog
  19. Prometheus
  20. Real-Science.com
  21. Rossputin.com
  22. Science and Public Policy Institute
  23. Science Bits
  24. Talking About the Weather
  25. The Chilling Effect
  26. The Climate Bet
  27. The Heartland Institute
  28. The Inhofe EPW Press Blog
  29. The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition
  30. The Reference Frame - Lubos Motl
  31. The Resilient Earth
  32. The Weather Wiz
  33. The Week That Was by Fred Singer
  34. Tom Nelson
  35. Tom Skilling's Blog
  36. Tropical Cyclone's- Ryan Maue COAPS
  37. Warmal Globing
  38. Warwick Hughes
  39. Watts Up with That?
  40. Web Commentary
  41. William M. Briggs, Statistician
  42. World Climate Report
  1. Al Gore
  2. Atmoz
  3. BBC Environment Blog
  4. CEJ Journal
  5. Christian Science Monitor
  6. Climatedenial.org
  7. ClimateProgress
  8. Deltoid
  9. Dr. R K Pachauri Blog
  10. EcoRazzi.com
  11. Forecast Earth
  12. George Monbiot
  13. globalchange
  14. Greenpeace
  15. Grist.org
  16. Is it Getting Warmer?
  17. Mark Lynas
  18. Mooney's Discover Blog
  19. Nature Blog
  20. Only in it for the gold
  21. Real Climate
  22. Revkin's Dot Earth
  23. Sci. Journalism Tracker
  24. Scripps Insitute of Oceanography
  25. Sen. Boxer's EPW Page
  26. Stephen Schneider
  27. The Heat is Online
  28. Yale Climate Media Forum

07.18.2013. 11:27

Wednesday July 17, 2013
News Articles

Are You Printing Money?" A. "Not Literally
ZeroHedge | author | 07/17/13

The following brief exchange between a congressman and Ben Bernanke pretty much wins today's Humphrey Hawkins farce.

QuestionAnswer
Q: Are You Printing Money?Bernanke: Not Literally
And a FTW follow up from the Chairman:Bernanke: If the Fed were to tighten policy, the economy "would tank"

*World Trade Center developer, Larry Silverstein, seeks billions in 9/11 damages from airlines. RIGHT
USNews | M. Alex Johnson | 07/02/13

A federal judge in New York heard initial arguments Monday in a trial in which the developer of the World Trade Center argues that he should get billions of dollars from the airlines whose jets plowed into the Twin Towers almost 12 years ago.

New York developer Larry Silverstein's company, World Trade Center Properties, which is still paying on a 99-year lease on the destroyed towers, has already collected more than $4 billion in insurance from the destruction of the iconic site on Sept. 11, 2001. Now he's seeking billions more from United and American airlines, Boeing Co. and several other aviation and security companies. ... Read more

*Larry Silverstein - Click to zoom

Larry Silverstein - Owner of WTC
Wikipedia | author | date

In 1980, Silverstein won a bid from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to construct 7 World Trade Center, to the north of the World Trade Center site. Silverstein was interested in acquiring the entire World Trade Center complex, and put in a bid when the Port Authority put it up for lease in 2000. Silverstein put up $14 million of his own money to win the bid when a deal between the initial winner and the Port Authority fell through, and he signed the lease on July 24, 2001.

The terms of the lease gave Silverstein, as leaseholder, the right and the obligation to rebuild the structures if destroyed. Silverstein has said on interviews that he usually spent his mornings in breakfast meetings at Windows on the World on top of the World Trade Center North Tower, and with new tenants in the building. However, the morning of September 11, 2001, his wife insisted that he attend a medical appointment with his dermatologist.

Soon after the September 11 attacks, Silverstein declared his intent to rebuild, though ran into multi-year disputes with his insurers over whether the attacks constituted one or two occurrences. Initially Larry Silverstein sought $7.1 billion dollars. A settlement was reached in 2007, with insurers agreeing to pay out $4.55 billion, which was not as much as Silverstein sought.

Silverstein stated in a September 2002 PBS documentary, America Rebuilds, "I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse." ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, July 17 [12:16]
DN | California Prisoners Challenge Solitary, Jail Conditions With Largest Hunger Strike in State History (07/17/13) [22:40]
DN | Michelle Alexander: "Zimmerman Mindset" Endangers Young Black Lives With Poverty, Prison & Murder (07/17/13) [16:52]
*What happened to WTC building 7? [9:01]
Comment: No Steel Skyscraper has ever collapsed straight down at free fall speeds from fires... except on 9/11. Look at the following videos at fires that engulfed the buildings and burnt for hours and still the buildings remained standing.
President Bush said "I don't think anyone could ever imagine anyone flying a couple of airplanes into the side of buildings"
Remember the X-Files and these three characters. Well, there was a spin-off from the X-Files called the Lone Gunmen and this episode aired 1/2 year before 9/11. As President Bush said "I don't think anyone could ever imagine anyone flying a couple of airplanes into the side of buildings"... yeah right!

*Lone Gunmen March 4, 2001 PILOT EPISODE [44:31]
PBS | America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero [1:26:27], PBS | American Rebuilds (website)
Education - Click to zoom
TRNN News
*TRNN | Hedges: Journalism Should Be About Truth, Not Career (07/17/13) [19:20]
TYT News
*TYT | Dick Cheney: You Have No Right To Know About who's Spying on You (06/18/13) [4:12]
RT News
Bush & Cheney Knew About 9/11 Months Before It Happened Says Whistleblower Charged Under Patriot Act (07/01/13) [9:52]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.17.2013. 14:40

Tuesday July 16, 2013
News Articles

Top Banking Analyst: Subsidies to Giant Banks Exceed $780 Billion Dollars Per YEAR
Washington Blog | author | 03/13/13 older

Trillions In Subsidies to the Giant Banks Are Continuing to This Day. Bloomberg's recent estimate that the big banks are subsidized to the tune of $83 billion dollars per year created tremendous controversy. But -- as shown below -- the real number is many times larger.

Whalen notes today that the big American banks get a subsidy in excess of $780 billion dollars per year. $360 billion in Federal Reserve subsidies, by creating an artificial "spread" in interest rates (Bloomberg, Business Insider, Huffington Post, and many other publications have documented that the government is subsidizing big banks with artificial and guaranteed "spreads", where the banks borrow cheaper than any consumer can, and then lend the money back to the government at much higher interest rates.) Read more

"I Feel Sorry for George" 7 Shocking Moments From Zimmerman Juror B37's First Interview
AlterNet | author | 07/16/13

Shocking insight into how the group of six women reached its decision to acquit the defendant of all charges in the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

On Monday night, one of the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial offered shocking insight into how the group of six women reached its decision to acquit the defendant of all charges in the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Juror B-37 -- who initially planned to write a book about the trial -- revealed that the jurors considered Florida's Stand Your Ground law in reaching their verdict, appeared to strongly sympathize with the defendant, and felt that race played no factor in the incident. Below are Juror B-37's most surprising revelations: ...

  1. Martin was responsible for his own death.
  2. Juror felt just as sorry for Zimmerman.
  3. Zimmerman should continue to serve as a neighborhood watchman because he has learned his lesson about going too far.
  4. Verdict hinged on "Stand Your Ground" law, even though Zimmerman did not use it in his defense.
  5. Zimmerman was only guilty of using poor judgment and was "egged" on to follow Martin by the 9/11 operator.
  6. Race played absolutely no factor in Zimmerman's profiling of Martin.
  7. Zimmerman's history of reporting black men to the police and his decision to follow Martin played no role in the verdict.
Read more

What happened to WTC building 7?
*World Trade Center developer, Larry Silverstein, seeks billions in 9/11 damages from airlines. RIGHT

USNews | M. Alex Johnson | 07/02/13

A federal judge in New York heard initial arguments Monday in a trial in which the developer of the World Trade Center argues that he should get billions of dollars from the airlines whose jets plowed into the Twin Towers almost 12 years ago.

New York developer Larry Silverstein's company, World Trade Center Properties, which is still paying on a 99-year lease on the destroyed towers, has already collected more than $4 billion in insurance from the destruction of the iconic site on Sept. 11, 2001. Now he's seeking billions more from United and American airlines, Boeing Co. and several other aviation and security companies. ... Read more

More News
  1. India Joins Brazil to China in Efforts to Tighten Liquidity (BBG)
  2. Seven dead as police and protesters clash in Egypt (Reuters)
  3. U.S. senators fail to cut deal, head for showdown on filibuster (Reuters)
  4. Gasoline Tankers Beating Crude for First Time on Record (BBG)
  5. Smithfield's China bidders plan Hong Kong IPO after deal (Reuters)
  6. Bitcoin ETF plan struggles to find support (FT)
  7. Big Home Builders Gobble Up Rivals Starved for Cash (WSJ)
  8. Putin wants Snowden to go, but asylum not ruled out (Reuters)
  9. Zimmerman's lawyer calls prosecutors 'disgrace' to profession (Reuters)
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, July 16 [10:42]
*DN | Kevin Gosztola: Behind the Scenes of the Bradley Manning Trial Ignored by Corporate Media (07/16/13) [8:28]
DN | NAACP Leads Push for Federal Civil Rights Charges Against Zimmerman After Race Kept Out of Trial (07/16/13) [16:48]
Econ4 on the New Economy [7:12]
Econ4 on the New Economy
Econ4, a group of heterodox economists, has released a short video and a statement on the "new economy" which they define as more sustainable and equitable forms of organizing "productive" activity and the resources that support them.
More News
*Moxnews | George Zimmerman Trial Juror #b37 Does Interview with Anderson Cooper With Her Identity Concealed (07/16/13) [36:49]
*What happened to WTC building 7? [9:01]
RememberBuilding7.org (website)
TRNN News
*TRNN | Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty in America Made Me Question Everything (07/16/13) [17:16]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In
MSNBC
*Corporate Welfare - Click to zoom

07.16.2013. 13:30

Monday July 15, 2013
News Articles

Greenwald: "The US Government Should Be On Its Knees Every Day Praying That Nothing Happens To Snowden"
ZeroHedge | author | 07/13/13

Edward Snowden may be America's persona most non grata in the entire world, but he has an insurance policy against "accidents": a treasure trove of supposedly damaging secrets about the US that will hit the public domain if something were to happen to the 30 year old whistleblower. A trove is so damaging that according to Glenn Greenwald, Snowden "poses more of a threat to the U.S. than anyone in the country's history." Well, maybe a threat to the "government" which now only represents the interests of various corporations and Wall Street, but certainly not to what the US was supposed to be before it was hijacked by special interests, lobbies and the creature from Jekyll Island. ... Read more

Obama's plan to predict future leakers unproven, unlikely to work
McClatchy | Jonathan S. Landay | 07/09/13

The techniques are a key pillar of the Insider Threat Program, an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for "high-risk persons or behaviors" among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges.

In an initiative aimed at rooting out future leakers and other security violators, President Barack Obama has ordered federal employees to report suspicious actions of their colleagues based on behavioral profiling techniques that are not scientifically proven to work, according to experts and government documents. ... Read more

Some people estimate there are over a Quadrillion dollars worth of unregulated Derivatives in the financial industry.
- Click to zoom

"They Throw Kids on the Ground, Put Guns to Their Heads" -- The Horrors Unleashed by Police Militarization
AlterNet | Radley Balko | 07/11/13

SWAT teams burst through doors armed to the teeth, terrifying (and killing) children. How did we get here?

Betty Taylor still remembers the night it all hit her. As a child, Taylor had always been taught that police officers were the good guys. She learned to respect law enforcement, as she puts it, "all the time, all the way." She went on to become a cop because she wanted to help people, and that's what cops did. She wanted to fight sexual assault, particularly predators who take advantage of children. To go into law enforcement -- to become one of the good guys -- seemed like the best way to accomplish that. ... Read more

'Devastating' virus hits hog farms
McClatchy | Karen Dillon | 07/11/13

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Baby pigs are dying by the tens of thousands this summer because of a virus new to North America that has no cure, and some experts think that number will exceed 1 million.

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus is similar to stomach flu in humans, causing severe diarrhea and vomiting. But the death rate for baby pigs younger than 7 days old is 100 percent, and for a piglet up to 3 weeks old, the morbidity rate is 90 percent or greater. It drops off the older the pig is.

"The virus causes horrible disease and death loss in these nursing babies," said Steven Henry, an Abilene, Kan., veterinarian and an expert in swine health. "It is a very dramatic and terrible disease for the producers and the animals, and at this point, there is no prevention, no treatment." ... Read more

NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS surveillance platform [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 15 [13:03]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Bill Blank: Banks Rewarded and Blacklisted Appraisers to Artificially Inflate Real Estate Prices (07/15/13) [10:18]
*TRNN | Lawrence Wilkerson: Never-ending culture of war breeds an ever-growing draconian government, which will pressure more whistleblowers to come forward to stop tyranny (07/15/13) [8:26]
Hidden Face of Globalization [9:49]
*Family Needs vs Poverty
By looking at the following graphs I realized that in most families health care and child care take over half the family income. Just imagine if Minimum Wage was raised to a liveable wage, Health Care was reigned in, and Child Care was provided in a efficient way how low income families could have a more positive life.
Budget: Housing, Food, Transportation, Child care, Health care, Taxes, Insurances, supplies (school, household, personal care).

Observation: It is clear that even in the best of economic times, many parents in low-wage jobs will not earn enough through work to meet basic family needs. A full-time, full-year worker paid $7.25 per hour (the minimum wage) will earn about $15,080 a year before taxes (DOL 2009). This is below the federal poverty line of $15,825 for a single parent with one child -- and far below the income necessary for such a family to attain a secure living standard even in the least expensive family budget area... which stands at $35,132 for that family type in Simpson County, Miss.

Family Needs vs Poverty - Click to zoom
- Click to zoom
You'e 3X more likely to be killed by lightening than to be killed in a Terrorist Attack.
- Click to zoom
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
Illegal and Covert Operations of the CIA
Counter Intelligence I: The Company (04/24/13) [1:18:13]
C.I.A.'s Greatest Secrets (04/16/13) [44:39]
Max Keiser Report
Keiser Report (E469) Facing New Peasant Revolt (07/11/13) [25:46]
Max talks to Professor Yanis Varoufakis about the latest in the Greek bailout saga, the collapsing German export market and what the future holds for Italy.
Keiser Report (E468) Fight on salary men, fight on! (07/09/13) [25:50]
Max talks to Ian Williams of Charteris Treasury about the precious metals bull market and the beginning of the bear market in bonds and what this means for the banks that hold these bonds.
Keiser Report (E467) Art of Debt Juggling (07/06/13) [25:46]
Max talks to Karl Denninger about bonds, QE tapering and Wimpy from Popeye paying for a hamburger next Tuesday. Karl says that as any investor under 50 will only know a world of ever declining interest rates, they will have to adjust their thinking for this new period of ever rising or flat rates.
Keiser Report (E464) Peek-a-boo Accounting (06/29/13) [25:46]
Max talks to Francine McKenna of TheAuditors.com about the Bernie Madoff of munis and the cooked bailout books at Anglo-Irish bank.
Keiser Report (E463) #AngloTapes & Banksters' Trolololing (E463) (06/27/13) [25:46]
New Hull Designs
SKANDI ACERGY. 157 [1:15]
Inghesuiala pe Dunare [1:19]
IUlstein PX105 Bourbon Mistral & Monsoon [1:48]
Ships
Building of a Super Ship
Largest Ship afloat [4:48]
Big Bigger Biggest: aircraft carrier [49:43]
Big Bigger Biggest: ice breaker/superTanker [44:29]
Supertanker Engine Room
Supertanker Engine Room Tour [9:54]
World's largest Diesel Engine (1932) starting [5:04]
Mega Structures
NatGeo | Megastructures Icelandic Super Dam [45:06]
Big Bigger Biggest: Three Gorges Dam [49:40]

07.15.2013. 11:55

Friday July 12, 2013
News Articles

Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 07/11/13

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month. ... Read more

'Underwear bomber' was working for the CIA
The Guardian | Paul Harris | 05/08/12 older

A would-be "underwear bomber" involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.

The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an attacker. ... Read more

Comment: Ever wonder what 42 trillion file cabinets stacked together would look like?

According to a report by NPR, the NSA data center in Utah will be capable of saving 5 Zettabytes (5 billion Terabyte). Assuming that a filing cabinet with 60 files (30,000 pages of paper) uses up 0.4 m², which would correspond to 120 MB of data, the printed out Utah data center would use up 17 million square kilometers.

NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program
Washington Post | updated | 07/10/13

Upstream program This slide shows PRISM as only one part of the NSA's system for electronic eavesdropping. The "Upstream" program collects from the fiber-optic cable networks that carry much of the world's Internet and phone data. The underlying map depicts the undersea cables that connect North America to the rest of the world. ... Read more
- Click to zoom

Trapwire: It's Not the Surveillance, It's the Sleaze
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 08/14/12 older

Ever since WikiLeaks began releasing a series of documents about the surveillance system Trapwire, there's been a panicked outcry over this supposedly all-seeing, revolutionary spy network. In fact, there are any number of companies that say they comb through video feeds or suspicious activity reports in largely the same way that Trapwire claims to do. What's truly extraordinary about Trapwire was how it was marketed by the private intelligence firm Stratfor, whose internal e-mails WikiLeaks exposed.

The documents show Stratfor being less than straight with its clients, using temporary jobs in government to set up Trapwire contracts, and calling it all a "wet dream." In their e-mails, executives at Stratfor may have been hyping up a surveillance technology. But what they really did was provide reconnaissance on the $25 billion world of intelligence-for-hire that's ordinarily hidden from public view. In this case, the sunlight isn't particularly flattering. ... Read more

The Export-Import Bank: Corporate Welfare At Its Worst
Common Dreams | Rep. Bernie Sanders | from the past

This country has a $6 trillion national debt, a growing deficit and is borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund in order to fund government services. We can no longer afford to provide over $125 billion every year in corporate welfare - tax breaks, subsidies and other wasteful spending - that goes to some of the largest, most profitable corporations in America.

One of the most egregious forms of corporate welfare can be found at a little known federal agency called the Export-Import Bank, an institution that has a budget of about $1 billion a year and the capability of putting at risk some $15.5 billion in loan guarantees annually. At a time when the government is under-funding veterans' needs, education, health care, housing and many other vital services, over 80% of the subsidies distributed by the Export-Import Bank goes to Fortune 500 corporations. Among the companies that receive taxpayer support from the Ex-Im are Enron, Boeing, Halliburton, Mobil Oil, IBM, General Electric, AT&T, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, FedEx, General Motors, Raytheon, and United Technologies.

... For example, General Electric has received over $2.5 billion in direct loans and loan guarantees from the Ex-Im Bank. And what was the result? From 1975-1995 GE reduced its workforce from 667,000 to 398,000, a decline of 269,000 jobs. In fact, while taking the Ex-Im Bank subsidies, GE was extremely public about it's "globalization" plans to lay off American workers and move jobs to Third World countries. Jack Welch, the longtime CEO of GE stated, "Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge." ... Read more



NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS surveillance platform [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July 12 [11:16]
*DN | Josh Fox on Gasland Part 2, the Fracking-Earthquake Link & the Natural Gas Industry's Use of Psyops (07/12/13) [15:46]
*Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America from Monsanto to Wal-Mart (04/02/13 older) [13:38]
Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food & Water Watch, joins us to discuss her new book, "Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America." Hauter tackles the corporations behind the meat, vegetables, grains and milk consumed by millions every day -- including some of the most popular organic brands. "Foodopoly" details how a handful of large corporations control the nation's food production in ways that limit how small-farms operate and how ordinary people make choices in grocery stores. And in the wake of the recently passed provision dubbed by critics as "the Monsanto Protection Act," Hauter also discusses the new report by Food & Water Watch, "Monsanto: A Corporate Profile."
The Monsanto Protection Act? Debate On Controversial Measure Over Genetically Modified Crops. (04/02/13 older) [12:54], Part 2 [16:24]
Global Food Security and Sovereignty Threatened by Corporate and Government "Land Grabs" (08/24/10 older) [9:03]
Since the food crisis of 2008, food justice activists have warned that governments in concert with multinational corporations have accelerated a worldwide "land grab" to buy up vast swaths of arable land in poor countries. According to The Economist magazine, between 37 to 49 million acres of farmland were put up for sale in deals involving foreign nationals between 2006 and mid-2009.
TRNN News
Face Recognition
*Secret Facial Recognition Scanners are Everywhere [5:38]
TrapWire | TrapWire Threat Meter (TIM) level
TrapWire is a counter-terrorism technology company that produces a homonymous predictive software system designed to find patterns indicative of terrorism attacks.

The company has been named in recent (August 2012) WikiLeaks releases as the source of software that facilitates intelligence-gathering on U.S. and global citizens, using surveillance technology, incident reports from citizens, and data correlation for local police and law enforcement agencies.

Details about the program emerged as emails from intelligence company Stratfor had been hacked at the end of 2011. According to a report by Russia Today,[2] a network of surveillance cameras was installed "in most major American cities at selected high value targets (HVTs) and has appeared abroad as well." A software program analyzes the images to detect "suspicious" behavior. The program is reported to be a joint effort by Stratfor and Abraxas Corp (VA), but following an ownership change, Abraxas has no involvement in the technology venture.

In one leaked email, Stratfor vice president Fred Burton stated that TrapWire is in place at every high-value target in New York City, Washington, D.C, and Los Angeles, as well as London and Ottawa.
TrapWire (wikipedia)
Stratfor Global Intelligence (website)
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday(07/12/13) [1hr]
International News - Friday(07/12/13) [1hr]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Republicans abandon millions of hungry Americans with stripped down farm bill (07/11/13) [13:00]
Chris Hayes | 19yr old locked up for 5 months for making comments on Facebook (07/11/13) [1:12]
*Chris Hayes | DOJ finds Miami PD routinely uses excessive force (07/11/13) [7:11], Part 2 [3:47]
MSNBC | Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow | NC GOP customized a motocycle bill with abortion restrictions (07/11/13) [4:32]
Fun Interesting Videos
The Time You Have (In JellyBeans) [2:45]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
End of Liberty [1:14:06]
Corporate Welfare... Corporatocracy | Crony capitalism | Kleptocracy ...
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism has more than one meaning. It may refer to political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests. Corporatism is theoretically based upon the interpretation of a community as an organic body. The term corporatism is based on the Latin root word "corpus" (plural -- "corpora") meaning "body".
Corporatocracy
Corporatocracy, not to be confused with Corporatism, is a term used as an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. It is a generally pejorative term often used by critics of the current economic situation in a particular country, especially the United States. The term has been used by liberal and left-leaning critics, but also some economic libertarian critics and other political observers across the political spectrum. Economist Jeffrey Sachs described the United States as a corporatocracy in his book The Price of Civilization. He suggested that it arose from four trends: weak national parties and strong political representation of individual districts, the large U.S. military establishment after World War II, big corporate money financing election campaigns, and globalization tilting the balance away from workers.
Crony capitalism
Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of dirigisme. Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.
Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, (from Greek: - kleptes, "thief" and - kratos, "power, rule", hence "rule by thieves") is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest service. This type of government corruption is often achieved by the embezzlement of state funds.
Hidden welfare state
The hidden welfare state is a term coined by Christopher Howard, professor of government at the College of William and Mary, to refer to tax expenditures with social welfare objectives that are often not included in discussions about the U.S. welfare state. Howard's terminology implies that "visible" social welfare programs are designed to help the neediest, but the "hidden" programs often offer benefits to wealthier individuals and companies.
Plutocracy
Plutocracy (from Greek ploutos, meaning "wealth", and kratos, meaning "power, dominion, rule"), also known as plutonomy or plutarchy, is rule by the wealthy. Its first known use was in 1652. Unlike systems such as democracy or anarchism, plutocracy is not rooted in an established political philosophy and has no formal advocates. The concept of plutocracy may be advocated by the wealthy classes of a society in an indirect or surreptitious fashion, though the term itself is almost always used in a pejorative sense.
Regulatory capture
Regulatory capture occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called "captured agencies".
Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor
Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor is a classical political-economic argument, stating that in the advanced capitalist societies state policies assure that more resources flow to the rich than to the poor, for example in the form of transfer payments. The term corporate welfare is widely used to describe the bestowal of favorable treatment to particular corporations by the government. One of the most commonly raised forms of criticism are statements that the capitalist political economy toward large corporations allows them to "privatize profits and socialize losses." The argument has been raised and cited on many occasions.

07.12.2013. 12:15

Thursday July 11, 2013
News Articles

Meet the Elites Inside the $4 Trillion Global Powerhouse Bank of JP Morgan Chase
AlterNet | Andrew Gavin Marshall | 07/04/13

JP Morgan Chase is one of the most powerful banks in the world, embedded within a transnational network of elite institutions and individuals.

In May, JPMorgan Chase was listed as the largest bank in the world with assets at roughly $4 trillion -- some $1.53 trillion of it in derivatives. This was reported a month after the announcement that the bank had posted a record first-quarter profit of $6.5 billion. ... Read more

Are Corporations Trying to Distract Us with Social Issues While They Take Control of Our Economy?
AlterNet | RJ Eskow | 07/04/13

Politicians are winning liberal hearts and minds on social issues, while at the same time embracing a corporate political agenda based on ever-greater wealth for the few and increasing austerity for the many.

Read more

Chomsky: How Do We Defend Ourselves from the Corporate and Imperial Forces That Threaten Our Existence?
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 07/05/13

Almost all borders have been imposed and maintained by violence, and are quite arbitrary. The Lebanon-Israel border was established a century ago by the Sykes-Picot Agreement, dividing up the former Ottoman Empire in the interests of British and French imperial power, with no concern for the people who happened to live there, or even for the terrain. The border makes no sense, which is why it was so easy to cross unwittingly.

Pashtuns, for example, have never accepted the legitimacy of the Durand Line, drawn by Britain to separate Pakistan from Afghanistan; nor has any Afghan government ever accepted it. It is in the interests of today's imperial powers that Pashtuns crossing the Durand Line are labeled "terrorists" so that their homes may be subjected to murderous attack by U.S. drones and special operations forces.

... The American/Mexican border was established by U.S. aggression during the 19th century. But it was kept fairly open until 1994, when President Bill Clinton initiated Operation Gatekeeper, militarizing it.   Before then, people had regularly crossed it to see relatives and friends. It's likely that Operation Gatekeeper was motivated by another event that year: the imposition of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is a misnomer because of the words "free trade."

Doubtless the Clinton administration understood that Mexican farmers, however efficient they might be, couldn't compete with highly subsidized U.S. agribusiness, and that Mexican businesses couldn't compete with U.S. multinationals, which under NAFTA rules must receive special privileges like "national treatment" in Mexico. Such measures would almost inevitably lead to a flood of immigrants across the border. ... Read more

NSA warrantless surveillance (2001--07)
Wikipedia | author | date

The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy (AKA "Warrantless Wiretapping") concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the "terrorist surveillance program",[1] part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA was authorized by executive order to monitor, without search warrants, the phone calls, Internet activity (Web, e-mail, etc.), text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S. ... Read more

Endgame Systems
Endgame provides offensive and defensive vulnerability research, including a cyber operations platform supporting the detection and mitigation of cyber-threats. Endgame was started by executives from ISS

In October 2010, the company raised 29 million USD from Bessemer Ventures, Columbia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), and TechOperators, for web-based malware detection services such as iPTrust, a "cloud-based botnet and malware detection service that collects and distills security data into a reputation engine".

In February 2011, the company announced partnerships with HP and IBM to use Endgame's IP Reputation Intelligence service within HP's TippingPoint Digital Vaccine service and IBM's managed services offerings. That same month emails sent to HB Gary from Endgame were leaked which revealed that the company sold zero-day vulnerabilities.

In December 2012, Endgame announced the appointment of Nathaniel Fick as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Chris Rouland, who remains on the Endgame Board of Directors. A former Marine and author of bestseller One Bullet Away, Fick was previously CEO of the Center for a New American Security, an independent and nonpartisan national security and defense policy research institution, and remains an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.

In March 2013, Endgame closed a $23 million Series B equity financing with the stated purpose to fund growth in its existing federal customer base as well as expand into the commercial market. The round was led by new investor Paladin Capital Group, a multi-stage private equity firm, and included participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and TechOperators.
Endgame Systems (wikipedia)
Endgame Systems (Bloomberg Businessweek)
NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 11 [18:46]
*DN | Testifying for Bradley Manning's Defense, Ex-Guantánamo Prosecutor Says Leaks Caused No Harm to U.S. (07/11/13) [9:17]
*DN | Jailed Reporter Barrett Brown Faces 105 Years For Reporting on Hacked Private Intelligence Firms (07/11/13) [12:50], Part 2 [8:06]
*Glenn Greenwald: Snowden Encouraged by Global Outrage over NSA Spying, Support for His Plight (07/09/13) [14:20]
Bank(sters) News
comment: If this is what happened in Ireland, think of what probably happened in all the "Too Big To Fail" banks in the United States.
*Irish Bankers secretly recorded planning how to screw over Irish Taxpayers during 2008 bailout (recent) [11:56]
Mr Bowe's comments in the audio recording reveal that Anglo's strategy was to lure the State in, leaving taxpayers with no choice but to continue to provide loans to "support their money". The recording also shows Mr Bowe and Mr Fitzgerald laughing as they say how there is no realistic chance of ever repaying the loans.
The Good Soldier
*The good soldier (2yrs old) [26:16], Part 2 [25:27]
"The Good Soldier" follows the journeys of five combat veterans from different generations of American wars as they sign up, go into battle, and eventually change their minds about what it means to be a good soldier. ...
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Same-Sex Marriage And The States (07/11/13) [1hr]
On the heels of the Supreme Court decision ruling federal benefits cannot be denied to same sex couples, the focus has turned to the states. Supporters of gay marriage are launching campaigns from Hawaii to New Jersey. Through a combination of litigation, lobbying in legislatures and ballot campaigns, gay rights groups believe momentum is on their side. But despite the recent success of the movement, public opinion on the issue is far from settled. Twenty-nine states still have constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, and opponents of gay marriage are pushing for more. Guest host Susan Page and a panel of experts discuss same-sex marriage and the states.
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | Wal-Mart plans to exit DC over "Living Wage" Bill (07/10/13) [6:09], Part 2 [10:00]
Chris Hayes | Quebec disaster highlights risk of US oil production (07/10/13) [7:42]
Chris Hayes | The Koch Brothers try to stop the Tea Party (07/10/13) [6:22]
MSNBC | Rachel Maddow
*Rachel Maddow | Shocking 32,000,000.00 military waste test Americas' patience with Afghanistan (07/10/13) [15:39]
Rachel Maddow | NC GOP sneaks anti-abortion measures into motorcycle bill (07/10/13) [3:05], Part 2 [7:55]
Fat, Bald White guys
Politics: where fat, bald, disagreeable men, unable to be candidates themselves, teach a president how to act on a public stage.
Jimmy Breslin
New section that I will be filling up.

Just for Fun/Comedy
Daily Show | The Daily Show - John Oliver Attacks GOP Over Immigration Reform [7:50]
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera Articles

Spies for hire: Money over privacy?
Aljazeera | author |06/15/13

Nations spend billions spying on their own citizens and people overseas - whether that is hacking, intercepting phone calls or just requests from governments to private companies.   In the US, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other non-military spy agencies will get $48bn next year. The UK is spending around $3.6bn on its spy agencies. And China's spending on "internal security" was $111bn last year.

The data industry in the US alone is worth $300bn a year and it employs some three million people. That is coupled with the online sales industry, which generates $10tn per year.   All of this is managed by the more than 2,000 so-called 'data broker companies'. Acxiom Corp is the biggest - with a profit of $77mn in 2011, coming from the largest commercial consumer database with 500 million active users worldwide. ... Read more

Afghanistan: The price of revenge
Aljazeera | author | 07/02/13

More than a decade ago - without consultation, without any debate - the United States launched the war against Afghanistan. The whole world was by its side, as soldiers rolled into the country in an act of self-defence after the attacks of 9/11. Today, the troops of the coalition are gradually packing up.

After years of violence and bloodshed, the lives of more than 3,000 soldiers have been lost, and the US leaves behind a country on the brink of civil war.   The official rhetoric has not stood up to the stark reality on the ground: Osama bin Laden was found and killed elsewhere - in neighbouring Pakistan; al-Qaeda and the Taliban may have been an ideological combination conveniently cooked up by the hawks in Washington; and the fate of Afghan women was just used as an excuse to sell the war to a Western public. ... Read more

Aljazeera Videos
*Has capitalism failed the world? (07/01/13) [47:30]
Former financial regulator Lord Adair Turner discusses the role of banks, the politics behind austerity, and capitalism.
Ajazeera | Listening Post: Snowden, Greenwald and the media saga (07/07/13) [25:00]
We discuss media treatment of the whistleblower and the journalist who brought his revelations to light.
Edward Snowden: Shooting the messenger? (07/01/13) [25:00]
Mainstream media in the US seems to be more interested in the character of the leaker than in the content of the leak.
*Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - Spies for hire: Money over privacy? (06/15/13) [25:00]
The PRISM controversy in the US has not just highlighted online privacy issues but shown up a massive security industry.
*Aljazeera | Afghanistan: The price of revenge (07/02/13) [45:21], Part 2 [45:56]
After years of violence and bloodshed, the lives of more than 3,000 soldiers have been lost, and the US leaves behind a country on the brink of civil war.   In this film, all parties to the conflict - members of the US secret service, commanders of the US armed forces, Taliban officials, Afghan warlords and tribal leaders, UN negotiators, Pakistani leaders and secret service, and NGO officials - give their view, unravelling the tangled web of a war that had no other motive than America's thirst for revenge.
Who knew what in the hunt for Bin Laden? (07/10/13) [25:00]
The United States stands accused of an "act of war" while Pakistan is accused of "gross incompetence" after a report into the killing of the world's most wanted man is leaked to Al Jazeera's investigative unit. The 336-page report of the Abbottabad Commission, set up by the Pakistani government shortly after the US special forces killed Bin Laden in 2011, is based on interviews with 201 sources including members of his family and various officials.
Who knew what in the hunt for Bin Laden? (article)
Aljazeera | The Stream : The corporate co-opt of the internet (07/10/13) [35:36]
Is the internet moving too far away from a netizen-driven environment to one that is controlled by for-profit companies? We'll discuss whether domination of cyberspace by the corporate interests of Facebook, Microsoft, Google and others is a benefit or threat.
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.11.2013. 12:37

Wednesday July 10, 2013
News Articles
Comment: below is an example of our surveillance system at work. Information on a Facebook page used to jail a 19 year old gamer. What is wrong with this example is the 19 year old is now trapped in the criminal system, not able to prove his innocence. You could be next.

Justin Carter, Teen Jailed For Facebook Comment, Reportedly On Suicide Watch
HP | Ryan Grenoble | 07/05/13

Justin Carter, the Texas teen jailed over a sarcastic Facebook comment, is reportedly on suicide watch.   "He's very depressed, very scared, and ... concerned that he's not going to get out," Carter's father, Jack, said in an interview with CNN Tuesday. "He's pretty much lost all hope."

Carter, 19, was arrested in February of this year following an argument he had on Facebook regarding "League of Legends," an online video game. ... Read more
Teen Jailed Over League of Legends Now on Suicide Watch (07/09/13) [4:15]

Leader Of Fukushima Explosion Response Team Dies From esophageal Cancer

Glenn Greenwald: Top Officials Are Lying to Our Faces About Government Spying
AlterNet | Glenn Greenwald | 07/04/13

Top officials are misleading or outright lying to the public and Congress about US spying. Yet pundits continue to vilify Edward Snowden?

The first NSA story to be reported was our June 6 article which exposed the bulk, indiscriminate collection by the US Government of the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans. Ever since then, it has been undeniably clear that James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, outright lied to the US Senate - specifically to the Intelligence Committee, the body charged with oversight over surveillance programs - when he said "no, sir" in response to this question from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden: "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" ... Read more

Hurricanes And Climate Change: Storms Likely To Get Stronger And More Frequent, Study Shows
HP | author | 07/09/13

Hurricanes are Mother Nature's largest and most destructive storms. Fed by warm ocean waters and moist atmospheric conditions, about 90 such storms -- also known as tropical cyclones -- form worldwide each year. With the population of coastal areas growing daily and sea level on the rise, how these monster storms may change as the climate continues to warm is an increasingly urgent question facing climate scientists, insurance companies, and public officials.

A new study by Kerry Emanuel, a prominent hurricane researcher at MIT, found that contrary to previous findings, tropical cyclones are likely to become both stronger and more frequent in the years to come, especially in the western North Pacific, where storms can devastate the heavily populated coastlines of Asian nations. Emanuel's research showed the same holds true for the North Atlantic ... Read more
- Click to zoom
Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change (website)

Managing The Risks Of Extreme Events And Disasters To Advance Climate Change Adaptation.pdf

Latest Edward Snowden Poll Results: 55% Say Whistleblower; 34% Say Traitor

11 Signs That Italy Is Descending Into A Full-Blown Economic Depression
ZeroHedge | author | 07/10/13

  1. The unemployment rate in Italy has risen to 12.2 percent. That is the highest that it has been in more than 35 years.
  2. The youth unemployment rate in Italy is sitting at 38.5 percent, and in southern Italy it recently hit the 50 percent mark.
  3. An average of 134 retail outlets are shutting down in Italy every single day. Overall, approximately 224,000 retail establishments have closed since 2008.
  4. Italy's economy has now been contracting for seven quarters in a row.
  5. It is being projected that Italy's GDP will shrink by 1.8 percent this year.
  6. Industrial production in Italy has declined for 15 months in a row. It has now fallen to its lowest level in about 25 years.
  7. Overall, factory output in Italy has fallen by about one-fourth since 2008.
  8. In May, automobile sales in Italy were down 8 percent compared to one year earlier.
  9. The number of people that are considered to be "seriously deprived" in Italy has doubled over the past two years.
  10. Italy now has a debt to GDP ratio of 130 percent.
  11. It is being projected that Italy will need a major EU bailout within six months.
Read more



NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
*TED | Confessions of a Cyber Spy Hunter: Eric Winsborrow at TEDxVancouver (01/31/13) [20:49]
Explore a Google data center with Street View [1:46]
DemocracyNow Daily News
PBS Frontline
*PBS Frontline | Two American Families [1:23:41]
Since 1992, Bill Moyers has been following the story of two ordinary, hard-working families in Milwaukee -- one black, one white -- as they battle to keep from sliding into poverty. A remarkable portrait of perseverance, Two American Families raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the U.S. economy and the fate of a declining middle class.
Two American Families website
The State of America's Middle Class in Eight Charts
TRNN News
*Thomas Drake: Obama's Secrecy Makes Bush Look Mild (07/10/13) [13:10]
TYT News
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm *Detroit's Financial Crisis And Its National Implications (07/10/13) [1hr]
Kevyn Orr, Detroit's emergency manager, cancelled a bus tour scheduled for today. He had hoped to give some of the city's creditors a first hand look at just how dire Detroit's situation had become. Most declined. It's one more sign of the many challenges he faces in trying to reach a deal among the city's bondholders, government retirees, and other creditors. Years of mismanagement, a shrinking tax base and groups of willing Wall Street investors have left the city on the brink of financial collapse. Bankruptcy remains an option.
W. Bernard Carlson: "Tesla: Inventor Of The Electric Age" (07/10/13) [1hr]
Nikola Tesla played a powerful role in the electrical revolution that transformed life at the turn of the 20th century. Born to a Serbian family in Croatia, he studied engineering in Austria before immigrating to America in 1884. He arrived penniless in New York, and within a decade, rivaled Thomas Edison as a celebrity scientist. His inventions, patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and wireless communication.
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In
Chris Hayes | America feels the hurt of continued GOP filibusters of Obama nominations (07/09/13) [15:47]
Chris Hayes | Detroit poised to go bankrupt (07/09/13) [5:54]
"Report by the Center for Automotive Research [(CAR)] a Detroit-based consulting firm, in November 5, 2008, warning that three million jobs were at stake in the automotive sector unless the U.S. government acted with dispatch to ensure the continued operation of all of the Big Three automakers."
Chris Hayes | Republicans continue to wage war on women's health rights (07/09/13) [7:49], Page 2 [4:53]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.10.2013. 12:01

Tuesday July 09, 2013
News Articles

Sequestration Pushes Head Start Families To The Precipice
HP | Sam Stein | 07/09/13

... In all, 14 children in Pratt, a town with a population just under 7,000, were dropped from Head Start, the federally funded education program for lower-income families. Reynolds' 4-year-old daughter, Bella, who had learned numbers and words, manners and social skills during her time in the program this past year, was among them -- another casualty of the budget cuts brought about by sequestration. ...

... "What about your jobs?" Reynolds asked. "Well," they replied, "we don't have jobs now either." ...

Sequestration was meant to hurt people just like Reynolds and Bella, Misty and April. The policy's designers made a bet in the summer of 2011 that a deficit-reduction cleaver that decimated defense and harmed the most vulnerable would be abhorrent to Republicans and Democrats alike. They lost the bet. Sequestration went into effect on March 1, 2013, after lawmakers failed to agree on a replacement. ... Read more

1994 vs 2013: Spot The Carbon-Copy Similarities
ZeroHedge | author | 07/09/13

The only thing that is necessary for something to happen, is for everyone to say it can't possibly happen. Such as a carbon copy replica of the 1994 bond crush. Presenting: 1994 vs 2013, or as it is better known "It can't happen... It can't happen...It can't happen... It just happened"

... There are striking parallels between the dramatic recent sell-off in U.S. Treasuries and the Great Bond Crash of 1994. But the summer of volatility now facing financial markets is no doomsday scenario. Instead, it puts the U.S. Federal Reserve in a bind. Higher interest rates will reduce housing affordability, which is especially troublesome since housing is the primary locomotive of U.S. economic growth. That means the Fed, despite Ben Bernanke's recently announced timetable, may be forced to expand or extend quantitative easing if the housing market's response to recent events becomes more acute and starts to negatively affect the job market recovery. ... Read more
- Click to zoom

Shocker: Only 1% of So Called Terrorists Nabbed by the FBI Were Real
AlterNet | Joshua Holland | 07/08/13

In the dozen years since the 9/11 attacks, we've watched as a classified new legal regime for government surveillance has been hashed out, local police forces have become heavily armed military-type units and a whole new layer of bureaucracy has hatched to provide us with an abundance of "homeland security."

Proponents of this build-up argue that it's made us safer. They point to hundreds of foiled plots to make their case. But Trevor Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism, dug into these supposedly dastardly plots and found that they are much less than meets the eye.

... Trevor Aaronson: I'd say that the majority of the foiled attacks that they cite are really only foiled attacks because the FBI made the attack possible, and most of the people who are caught in these so-called foiled attacks are caught through sting operations that use either an undercover FBI agent or informant posing as some sort of Al-Qaeda operative. ... Read more

DN | Trevor Aaronson discusses his Mother Jones investigation about FBI informants (08/25/12) [6:17]
DN | Terrorists for the FBI How the FBI Uses Informants to Surveil and Entrap Americans (02/26/12) [41:51]
The FBI has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic terrorist attack. But are they busting plots--or leading them? That's the question addressed by a year-long investigation in Mother Jones magazine. It suggests FBI informants are not only busting terrorist plots, they are actually leading them so the FBI can later claim victories in the so-called "war on terror." In collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, reporter Trevor Aaronson examined more than 500 terrorism-related cases and found that nearly half the prosecutions involved the use of informants, many of them incentivized by cash rewards up to $100,000 per assignment. We speak with Aaronson and are also joined by James Wedick, a retired FBI agent who worked for the Bureau for 35 years, and Gadeir Abbas, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
NSA News | Nationial Security State
Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 09 [13:49]
DN | Exclusive: Ecuador's Foreign Minister on Snowden, Assange & Latin American Resistance to U.S. Spying (07/09/13) [17:50]
*DN | Glenn Greenwald: Snowden Encouraged by Global Outrage over NSA Spying, Support for His Plight (07/09/13) [14:20]
*DN | Edward Snowden on Why He Stood Up to the NSA: Mass Spying "Not Something I'm Willing to Live Under" Part 2 (07/09/13) [9:13]
*DN | How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published By the Beacon Press Told by Daniel Ellsberg & Others Part 1 (from above) (07/08/13) [7:20], Part 1b [50:03]
Edward Snowden was praised by the country's best-known whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the Vietnam War. "I think there has not been a more significant or helpful leak or unauthorized disclosure in American history ever than what Edward Snowden shared with The Guardian about the NSA -- and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers," Ellsberg said.
How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published (article)
Firefighters killed in US wildfire (07/02/13) [2:19]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm *Josh Fox: "Gasland Part II" (07/09/13) [1hr]
Filmmaker Josh Fox brought attention to the environmental risks of the method of natural gas extraction known as fracking in his 2010 documentary "Gasland." He's back with a sequel warning of even more profound dangers.
Mary Louise Kelly: "Anonymous Sources" (07/09/13) [1hr]
Mary Louise Kelly spent two decades traveling the world as a reporter for NPR and BBC, covering wars, terrorism and rising nuclear powers. Now, she makes her literary debut with a political spy thriller. It's the story of a young reporter who must match wits with spies, assassins and a terrorist sleeper cell targeting the heart of American power. Diane talks with NPR's former intelligence correspondent about her new novel and the often precarious relationship between reporters and their sources.
TYT News
*TYT | How The FBI Is Destroying Our Privacy (07/06/13) [3:35]
Since early 2011, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been closely following the FBI's work to build out its Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometrics database, which would replace and expand upon the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The new program will include multiple biometric identifiers, such as iris scans, palm prints, face-recognition-ready photos, and voice data, and that information will be shared with other agencies at the local, state, federal and international levels.
*TYT | NSA's Clapper Calls His Lies "Erroneous" (07/07/13) [4:21]
TYT | The Sheriff of Wall Street Returns! (07/09/13) [5:19]
TYT | American Hero Says NSA Whistleblower Has Done Nothing Wrong (07/09/13) [5:49]
TYT | Is Egypt Falling Into a Bloody Civil War? (07/09/13) [6:08]
Some Fun / Comedy
Comment: I've got to get back to adding more Daily Show and Steven Cobert... it seems they have better news coverage than the national news media.
Daily Show | The Daily Show John Oliver Attacks Obama on NSA Scandal (06/11/13) [9:51]
Daily Show | John Oliver Tears Into Media's Superficial Snowden Coverage (06/13/13) [8:42]
Daily Show | John Oliver Slams GOP For Backing NSA, Not Gun Control (06/11/13) [8:49]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.09.2013. 12:09

Monday July 08, 2013
News Articles

Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, not a spy -- but do our leaders care?
TheGuardian | Spencer Ackerman | 07/05/13

According to US legislators and journalists, the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden actively aided America's enemies. They are just missing one essential element for the meme to take flight: evidence.

It's true that information published in the press can be read by anyone, including people who mean America harm. But to conflate that with actively handing information to foreign adversaries is to foreclose on the crucial distinction between a whistleblower and a spy, and makes journalists the handmaidens of enemies of the state.   Yet powerful legislators are eager to make that conflation about Snowden. ... Read more

Clapper: I gave 'erroneous' answer because I forgot about Patriot Act... RIGHT!
TheGuardian | Spencer Ackerman | 07/02/13

The most senior US intelligence official told a Senate oversight panel that he "simply didn't think" of the National Security Agency's efforts to collect the phone records of millions of Americans when he testified in March that it did "not wittingly" snoop on their communications.

Portions of the letter, in which Clapper apologised for giving "clearly erroneous" testimony at a March hearing of the committee, were first reported by the Washington Post on Monday. Clapper had previously said that his answer to the committee was the "least untruthful" one he could publicly provide. ... Read more

Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Inside Story: Walking a diplomatic tightrope in Egypt? (07/08/13) [25:00]
As Washington fails to condemn the military coup, we ask if it can defend democracy in Egypt. Mike Hanna is joined for this Inside Story by PJ Crowley, former US assistant secretary of state; Michael Stephens, a researcher at Royal United Services Institute, and Semih Idiz, a foreign policy expert and columnist for Al Monitoronline newspaper.
*Aljazeera | Inside Story: NSA leaks and US democracy (07/08/13) [25:01]
Americans appear divided on whether the NSA is justified in collecting information on millions of citizens, including phone and internet data. But on Thursday, the country's independence holiday, protesters demanded that the government respect the constitutional guarantee against 'unreasonable searches and seizures'.

Taper Fears Lead To Biggest Monthly Loss In Bank Securities Portfolios Since Lehman
ZeroHedge | author | 07/08/13

Wondering how the blow out in interest rates is impacting commercial banks, which just happen to have substantial duration exposure in the form of various Treasury and MBS securities, not to mention loans, structured products and of course, trillions in IR swap, derivatives and futures? Wonder no more: the Fed's weekly H.8 statement, and specifically the "Net unrealized gains (losses) on available-for-sale securities" of commercial banks in the US gives a glimpse into the pounding that banks are currently experiencing. In short: a bloodbath.

After crashing from $15 billion to just $6 billion, the reported balance of net unrealized gains is barely positive for just the first time since April 2011. And to think this number had topped out at over $43 billion in December 2012. But the worst is that monthly drop in "gains" of $24 billion is the biggest by a wide margin since the Lehman collapse. ... Read more
- Click to zoom

  1. Greece's Economic Future 'Uncertain,' Creditors Say (WSJ)
  2. Secret Court's Redefinition of 'Relevant' Empowered Vast NSA Data-Gathering (WSJ)
  3. Thomson Reuters Halts Early Peeks At Consumer Data (WSJ)
  4. Larry Summers Circles as Fed Opening Looms (WSJ)
  5. S&P to Argue Puffery Defense in First Courtroom Test (BBG)
  6. Geithner joins top table of public speakers with lucrative appearances (FT)
  7. Losing $317 Billion Makes U.S. Debt Safer for Mizuho to HSBC (BBG)
  8. Pilot Error Eyed in San Francisco Plane Crash  (WSJ)
  9. Investment group sues U.S. over Fannie, Freddie bailout terms (Reuters)
  10. Egypt officials 'order closure of Islamist party HQ' (AFP)
  11. Heinz Kerry Transferred to Boston Hospital for Treatment (BBG) - a boating accident?


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, July 08 [14:39]
DN | Egypt: Sharif Abdel Kouddous: Egypt Descends Into "Spiral of Violence and Retribution" After Morsi's Ouster (07/08/13) [13:04], Part 2 [19:39]
*DN | Glenn Greenwald: "Rogue" Actions of U.S. in Snowden Row Yield Latin American Offers of Asylum (07/08/13) [10:21]
The Real News Network - TRNN
TRNN | Mark Weisbrot: U.S. Allies Violate Int. Law Pursuing Snowden (07/08/13) [10:39]
TRNN | Mohamed Elmeshad: Violent Clashes Shake Post-Morsi Egypt (07/08/13) [9:18]
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Surviving the New American Economy (06/28/13) [40:38]
Twenty-two years ago, Bill Moyers started documenting the story of two ordinary families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- families whose breadwinners had lost well-paying factory jobs. Relying on the belief that hard work is the key to a good living and better life, the Stanleys and the Neumanns, like millions of others, went about pursuing the American dream. But as they found other jobs, got re-trained, and worked any time and overtime, they still found themselves on a downward slope, working harder and longer for less pay and fewer benefits, facing devastating challenges and difficult choices.
PBS | Frontline
*PBS Frontline | Two American Families (trailer, coming tomorrow) [0:31]
Since 1992, Bill Moyers has been following the story of two ordinary, hard-working families in Milwaukee -- one black, one white -- as they battle to keep from sliding into poverty. A remarkable portrait of perseverance, Two American Families raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the U.S. economy and the fate of a declining middle class.
Two American Families website
60 Minutes News
60 Minutes | History: Popular author and historian David McCullough guides Morley Safer on an American historical journey, (06/30/13) [13:59], Part 2 [12:19]
Popular author and historian David McCullough guides Morley Safer on an American historical journey, discovering many issues of today are the same as those of long ago.
TED | Louise Leakey: Is The Human Race In Danger Of Becoming Extinct Soon? () [15:33]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Turmoil In Egypt (07/08/13) [1hr]
Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed in Cairo early this morning in clashes with the military. There were conflicting accounts of what started the confrontation, but witnesses said security forces fired on protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood called on Egyptians to stage an "uprising" against "those trying to steal their revolution with tanks." The Egyptian army removed President Morsi from power last week after widespread demonstrations against his rule. All eyes are on the military now and its promise of new elections. A discussion on the future of Egyptian democracy and what role, if any, the U.S. should play.
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.08.2013. 10:40

Friday July 05, 2013
News Articles

Follow ZeroHedge in Real-Time on FinancialJuice
HP | author | 07/04/13

But out of all the rogue traders that have come and often gone forever (only making a pitiful comeback living on their past as the conference giver, the ‘guy that brought down X bank and Y stock-exchange’) there must be a reason why those guys actually do it. Here are some of the reasons: Read more

Bolivia Threatens U.S. Embassy Closing After Snowden Search
Bloomberg | Nathan Gill | 07/05/13

Bolivia threatened to close the U.S. embassy as presidents from across the region met to show solidarity with President Evo Morales after the global manhunt for fugitive Edward Snowden diverted his flight.

“We don’t need them, we’ve got other allies,” Morales, 53, said yesterday at an emergency summit of Latin American leaders in the highland Bolivian city of Cochabamba. “We don’t need the pretext of cooperation and diplomatic relations so that they can come and spy on us.”

Presidents from Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela met with Morales to demand Spain, France, Portugal and Italy apologize and explain why they denied the Bolivian leader’s presidential jet permission to fly through their airspace July 2. Spain’s Foreign Minister said his government was told Snowden was aboard. The incident led the plane to make an emergency landing in Vienna after a fuel gauge stopped working correctly, Morales said. ... Read more

Fedspeak: Complex Monetary Policy Spawns Flights of Metaphors
WSJ | Victoria MCGrane | 07/05/13

At a news conference in mid-June, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke struggled to explain what the Fed is trying to do, attempting this metaphor: "We're going to be shifting the mix of our tools as we try to land the ship in a smooth way onto the aircraft carrier."

He then turned to automobiles, a favorite of central bankers. Trying to distinguish between reducing the Fed's monthly bond-buying and raising short-term interest rates, he said the former is "akin to letting up a bit on the gas pedal as the car picks up speed" while the latter is "beginning to apply the brakes." ... Read more

Tokyo Professor: Situation of Fukushima Reactor No. 2 is 'beyond imagination' -- Worker: Undoubtedly it’s the most serious problem at plant… We are clueless
EneNews | author | 07/03/13

Then, what is the most serious problem?

Worker: That is undoubtedly reactor #2.

Professor of Tokyo University: As I thought! Even among researchers, the situation of reactor #2 is beyond imagination.

Workers: ...But we are clueless about reactor #2. ...

I’ll give you an extreme example. Let’s assume that the situation worsens to the point that it becomes impossible to pour water in order to cool off the reactor. For reactors #1, #3 and #4, a specialized squad prepared to bear the risks of radiation exposure can always enter the building and do the work required.

But in the case of reactor #2, radioactive emissions inside most buildings are extremely high that a prepared squad is likely to perish before it accomplishes its mission. ...
Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: Caught On Tape, Irish Bankers Laugh About Never Repaying Bailout (07/04/13) [8:43]
Aljazeera
Aljazeera | Inside Story : US spying saga: Echoes of the Cold War? (07/03/13) [25:01]
More News Articles

Fukushima Daiichi Worker: Situation at plant "most likely to get worse" -- "Japan likely to face a critical situation again" if Tepco remains in control
EneNews | author | 07/03/13

The Level 7 nuclear disaster has not yet been averted. The actual management of the accident will hardly bring a solution. If TEPCO does not step down from the control of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant soon, Japan is likely going to face a critical situation again. This is the message I wish you to spread. These are the words of the worker interviewed. ...

All the above is a story counted by a worker at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. His message is that the nuclear power plant accident is not over yet, and that it is most likely to get worse. He invites you to be proactive in the efforts carried out for change all over the country and in the society.
Read more

Will Hanford ever be cleaned up?
The Seattle Times | Shannon Dininny | 06/02/13

A stainless-steel tank the size of a basketball court lies buried in the sandy soil of Southeastern Washington, an aging remnant of U.S. efforts to win World War II. The tank holds enough radioactive waste to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. And it is leaking.

For 42 years, tank AY-102 has stored some of the deadliest material at one of the most environmentally contaminated places in the country: the Hanford nuclear reservation. This complex along the Columbia River holds a storied place in American history. It was here that workers produced the plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 -- effectively ending World War II. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.05.2013. 11:13

Thursday July 04, 2013
News Articles

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi Out, Is It A Coup?
HP & AP | author | 07/03/13

CRACKDOWN: Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Arrested... Al Jazeera Offices Stormed... Constitution Suspended... Report: 5 Dead... Morsi Defiant: I'm Still President... Moved To Undisclosed Location... Obama 'Deeply Concerned'... Calls For Democratic Transfer Of Power... And Orders Egypt Aid Reviewed... American Diplomats Called Home... PHOTOS: Egypt Celebrates...

The Egyptian military has announced the removal of Mohammed Morsi as president, presenting a roadmap for reconciliation in the country.   In a televised statement on Wednesday, Egyptian military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that the plan calls for the temporary suspension of the constitution and the institution of a technocrat government. The chief justice of the constitutional court will lead the country in the interim. ... Read more

To Big U.S. Corporations: What About Some Patriotism for America?
HP | Ralph Nader | 07/03/13

Wouldn't it be appropriate for the large corporations that were founded in the United States to show a similar acknowledgement of patriotism?   After all, these corporations rose to their enormous size on the backs of American workers. Their success can be attributed to taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. Not to mention those corporations that rushed to Washington D.C. for huge bailouts from the taxpayers when mismanagement or corruption got them into serious trouble.

Only two of the twenty corporations -- Chevron and Walmart -- responded with an explanation of their company's view of patriotism, but declined to respond directly to the question. Some of the companies that chose not to respond are: Apple, GE, GM, Verizon, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., AT&T, Ford, ExxonMobil, Bank of America and others. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Bill Moyers
*Bill Moyers | Kristi Jacobson and Mariana Chilton on How Hunger Hurts Everyone (06/28/13) [40:38]
Here in the richest country on earth, 50 million of us -- one in six Americans -- go hungry. More than a third of them are children. And yet Congress can’t pass a Farm Bill because our representatives continue to fight over how many billions to slash from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. The debate is filled with tired clichés about freeloaders undeserving of government help, living large at the expense of honest, hardworking taxpayers. But a new documentary, A Place at the Table, paints a truer picture of America’s poor.
PBS Frontline
PBS Frontline | WikiSecrets: The inside story of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history (06/18/13) [53:40]
Who is Bradley Manning, and what does his story tell us about how and why the secret cache of documents may have been leaked? In WikiSecrets, Frontline correspondent Martin Smith gains exclusive access to those closest to Manning -- including his father, close friends and his Army bunkmate -- and uncovers video of Manning taken around the time of the alleged handover of classified information.
TYT News
*TYT | Why is The NSA Spying on U.S. Allies? (07/01/13) [6:43]
*TYT | Julian Assange Slams State Department For Snowden Treatment (07/01/13) [5:18]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In News

NSA News | Nationial Security State
NSA - Trailblazer
Trailblazer was a United States National Security Agency (NSA) program intended to develop a capability to analyze data carried on communications networks like the Internet. It was intended to track entities using communication methods such as cell phones and e-mail. It ran over budget, failed to accomplish critical goals, and was cancelled.

NSA whistleblowers J. Kirk Wiebe, William Binney, Ed Loomis, and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence staffer Diane Roark complained to the Department of Defense's Inspector General (IG) about waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, and the fact that a successful operating prototype existed, ThinThread, but was ignored when the Trailblazer program was launched.
Trailblazer Project - Wikipedia
NSA - Turbulence
Turbulence is a National Security Agency (NSA) Information Technology project started circa 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces rather than one grand plan like its failed predecessor, the Trailblazer Project. It also includes offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer.

According to Siobhan Gorman in a 2007 Baltimore Sun article, "The conclusion in Congress, two former government officials said, was that Turbulence was over budget, not delivering and poorly led, and that there was little or no strategy to pull it all together."
Turbulence (NSA) - Wikipedia
NSA - Stellar Wind
Stellar Wind was the open secret code name for four surveillance programs by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) during the presidency of George W. Bush and revealed by Thomas Tamm to The New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau. The operation was approved by President George W. Bush shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Stellar Wind was succeeded during the presidency of Barack Obama by four major lines of intelligence collection in the territorial United States, together capable of spanning the full range of modern telecommunications.

The program's activities involved data mining of a large database of the communications of American citizens, including e-mail communications, phone conversations, financial transactions, and Internet activity. William Binney, a retired Technical Leader with the NSA, discussed some of the architectural and operational elements of the program at the 2012 Chaos Communication Congress.
Stellar Wind - Wikipedia
NSA - Total Information Awareness (Poindexter)
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to U.S. national security, by achieving Total Information Awareness (TIA).

This would be achieved by creating enormous computer databases to gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal e-mails, social networks, credit card records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources, without any requirement for a search warrant. This information would then be analyzed to look for suspicious activities, connections between individuals, and "threats". Additionally, the program included funding for biometric surveillance technologies that could identify and track individuals using surveillance cameras, and other methods.
Information Awareness Office - Wikipedia
NSA - Whistleblower
A group of former NSA workers -- Kirk Wiebe, William Binney, Ed Loomis, and Thomas A. Drake, along with House Intelligence Committee staffer Diane Roark (an expert on the NSA budget) -- believed the operational prototype system called ThinThread was a better solution than Trailblazer, which was just a concept on paper at the time. They complained to the DoD Inspector General office in 2002 about mismanagement and the waste of taxpayer money at the NSA surrounding the Trailblazer program. In 2007 the FBI raided the homes of these people, an evolution of President Bush's crackdown on whistleblowers and "leaks" after the New York Times disclosed a separate program.
*USAToday | 3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so (06/17/13) [9:11]

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.04.2013. 07:45

Wednesday July 03, 2013
News Articles

Titan - Fastest Computer in the World
hpcwire.com | author | 06/12/13

The Department of Energy machine, the first to combine different types of processing units to maximize performance at such a large scale, ranked as the fastest supercomputer in the world in the November 2012 list published at http://www.top500.org/. Titan, a Cray XK7 supercomputer, is capable of more than 27,000 trillion calculations each second--or 27 petaflops. ... Read more

America's New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden
Truthdig | Robert Scheer | 07/01/13

There is a depressing statistical comparison that should shame all of us who voted twice for Barack Obama's ascent to the White House. Our man, a former constitutional law professor who pledged to reverse the Bush administration's abuses of national security concerns, has charged seven government whistle-blowers, including Edward J. Snowden, with violating the Espionage Act. That's more than double the combined three charged with leaking classified information by all previous presidents, George W. Bush included.

Read more

Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Environmental Outlook: New Conditions For The Keystone XL Pipeline (07/03/13) [1hr]
MSNBC | Chris Hayes - All In News
*Chris Hayes | PRISM's precursor: Total Information Awareness (07/01/13) [5:47]
Chris Hayes | GOP embraces mythic "missing white voter" thory (07/02/13) [44:28]
*Chris Hayes | Bolivian president's plane re-routed due to suspicious of Snowden on board (07/02/13) [5:47]
*Chris Hayes | Why the Immigration Bill's a goodie bag for defense contractors (07/02/13) [3:54]
Chris Hayes | Egyptian protests coming to a head (07/02/13) [7:03]

Federal Poverty Line Doesn't Adequately Reflect Cost Of Living In America, Analysis Finds
HP | Jillian Berman | 07/03/13

The federal poverty line for a family of four was $23,283 last year, nearly one-quarter of what it takes to live in New York City and slightly more than one-third of what it takes to live in St. Louis, according a family budget calculator from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. In fact, EPI found that in 615 cities across the country it takes a total income at least twice the federal poverty line for any type of family with three children or fewer to afford basic expenses. ... Read more

President Morsi overthrown in Egypt
Aljazeera | author | 07/03/13

The Egyptian army has overthrown President Mohamed Morsi, announcing a roadmap for the country's political future that will be implemented by a national reconciliation committee.   The head of Egypt's armed forces issued a declaration on Wednesday evening suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state.

In a televised broadcast, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General AbdelFattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of Morsi. ... Read more

How One State Senate Just Screwed the Whole Nation
AlterNet | Josh Silver | 06/27/13

What happened in Albany last week is more than just another case of jaw-dropping political dysfunction -- it has major implications for national anti-corruption efforts.

Observing New York state politics is like watching felons run a parole board. Last week, senate leadership killed a bill that would have cleaned up state government and created citizen-funded elections. It was a huge opportunity to stem corruption that has wracked the state. Thirty-two state officials have been in deep trouble over the last few years, including (ironically) four former Senate majority or minority leaders. A 2012 study gave New York a D grade, and ranked it 36th nationally in government integrity. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Wednesday, July 03 [10:13]
*DN | Failure to Stop Doubling of Student Loan Rates Sparks Call to Tackle "Systemic" Debt Crisis (07/03/13) [16:26]
DN | Sharif Abdel Kouddous: As Morsi-Army Showdown Grips Egypt, Protesters Reject Authoritarian Rule, Part 1 (07/03/13) [14:28], Part 2 [14:33]
NSA News | Nationial Security State
*Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative -WP
The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) was established by President George W. Bush in National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD-54/HSPD-23) in January 2008. The initiative outlines U.S. cybersecurity goals and spans multiple agencies including the Department of Homeland Security the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Security Agency.
HeadquartersNebraska Avenue, Washington, D.C.
Employees240,000
Annual budget$60.8 billion (FY 2013)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Wikipedia
HeadquartersOak Ridge, Tenn
Employees4,400
Annual budget$1.65 billion (FY 2013)
Titan Supercomputer - Click to zoom
Titan (supercomputer) - Wikipedia
Titan Supercomputer
$97 Million price tag
18,888 processors
20 thousand trillion calculations per second
Fort Meade, MD
NSA at Fort Meade, MD - Wikipedia
National Security Agency - Wikipedia
Main Headquarters After United States Cyber Command was established at the post in 2009; on April 15, 2011, the Defense Information Systems Agency ribbon-cutting for the move from Arlington, Virginia, was at the agency's Fort Meade complex of 95 acres.

Employees 40,000 analyst
Largest employer in Maryland
Bluffdale, Utah
The NSA's $2 Billion Bluffdale, Utah - Wikipedia
Main storage facilities (one of many)
$2 Billion dollars cost (RIGHT!)
1 million sqft installation
5 exabytes, a million exabytes equal a yottabyte (SOON!)
1.7 million gallons of coolant per day
65-megawatt power - about $40 million a year
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.03.2013. 14:20

Tuesday July 02, 2013
News Articles

*How Inbred Elites Are Tearing America Apart
AlterNet | David Daley | 06/26/13

Twenty years ago, William Greider's "Who Will Tell the People?" documented the betrayal of American democracy by the elites -- by both political parties, by the press, by corporations and labor unions, and by a Washington regulatory complex so perfectly corrupt that it exists to serve only the monied interests.

Chris Hayes' "Twilight of the Elites" (just published in paperback) might be the clearest story of America's collapse since Greider's essential telling. The story, of course, has only gotten worse. In Greider's book, the elites were complicit in profiteering and rigging the system to their own advantage. But in Hayes' story, the elites misled us into war, bungled the occupation, let an American city drown, and tanked the economy. Other elites in academia, athletics and religion didn't have such a great decade, either. ... Read more

Why Have Student Loans At All? Let's Get the Burdens of Debt off College Students' Backs -- And Make Wall St. Pick Up the Tab
AlterNet | Les Leopold | 07/02/13

Anyone with a heartbeat knows that Wall Street took down the economy, killed millions of jobs and hasn't had to pay a penny for the damage it caused. In fact we are paying them for crashing the economy in the form of trillions in bailouts and low interest loans. Well, maybe it's time for Wall Street to contribute, rather than siphoning off our wealth. How about a sales tax on all transfers of stocks, bonds, and derivatives in order to fund tuition-free higher education?

Access to higher education is vital to our economy and to our democracy. Today a college degree or post-high school professional training are the equivalent to what a high school diploma provided and signified a generation ago. For over 150 years, our nation has recognized that tuition-free primary and secondary schools were absolutely vital to the growth and functioning of our commonwealth. ... Read more

The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?
TheNewYorker | Jane Mayer | 05/03/11

On June 13th, a fifty-four-year-old former government employee named Thomas Drake is scheduled to appear in a courtroom in Baltimore, where he will face some of the gravest charges that can be brought against an American citizen. A former senior executive at the National Security Agency, the government's electronic-espionage service, he is accused, in essence, of being an enemy of the state. ... Read more

Climate Change | Global Warming
Chasing Ice (2013) (trailer) [2:53]
*Chasing Ice (2013) (full movie) [1:15:15]
*NatGeo | Extreme Ice (09/30/12) [50:17]


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, July 02 [15:20]
*DN | WikiLeaks Blasts U.S. for Leaving Snowden "Stateless" as NSA Leaker Withdraws Asylum Bid in Russia (07/02/13) [11:57], Part 2 [17:17]
NSA News | Nationial Security State
*Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
NSA - ThinThread
ThinThread at Wikipedia
ThinThread is the name of a project that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) pursued during the 1990s, according to a May 17, 2006 article in The Baltimore Sun. The program involved wiretapping and sophisticated analysis of the resulting data, but according to the article, the program was discontinued three weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks due to the changes in priorities and the consolidation of U.S. intelligence authority. The "change in priority" consisted of the decision made by the director of NSA General Michael V. Hayden to go with a concept called Trailblazer, despite the fact that ThinThread was a working prototype that protected the privacy of U.S. citizens.

ThinThread was dismissed and replaced by the Trailblazer Project, which lacked the privacy protections. A consortium led by Science Applications International Corporation was awarded a $280 million contract to develop Trailblazer in 2002.
NSA - Trailblazer

NSA - Turbulence

NSA - Stellar Wind

NSA - Total Information Awareness (Poindexter)

NSA - Whistleblower
A group of former NSA workers -- Kirk Wiebe, William Binney, Ed Loomis, and Thomas A. Drake, along with House Intelligence Committee staffer Diane Roark (an expert on the NSA budget) -- believed the operational prototype system called ThinThread was a better solution than Trailblazer, which was just a concept on paper at the time. They complained to the DoD Inspector General office in 2002 about mismanagement and the waste of taxpayer money at the NSA surrounding the Trailblazer program. In 2007 the FBI raided the homes of these people, an evolution of President Bush's crackdown on whistleblowers and "leaks" after the New York Times disclosed a separate program.
*USAToday | 3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so (06/17/13) [9:11]

TRNN News
TRNN | Michael Ratner: Recognized by countries all over the world, whistle-blowing is a form of political opinion that is protected by the Refugee Convention (07/01/13) [20:53]
MSNBC Chris Hayes - All In

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.

07.02.2013. 18:06

Monday July 01, 2013
News Articles
Extreme Heat

Phoenix, Las Vegas Bake In Scorching Heat
HP | Chris Carlson | 08/29/13

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. -- Dan Kail was vacationing in Las Vegas when he heard that the temperature at Death Valley could approach 130 degrees this weekend. He didn't hesitate to make a trip to the desert location that is typically the hottest place on the planet.

... The forecast called for Death Valley to reach 128 degrees Saturday as part of a heat wave that has caused large parts of the western U.S. to suffer. Death Valley's record high of 134 degrees, set a century ago, stands as the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. ... Read more

Federal Wildfire Prevention Budget Cuts Protested In Senators' Letter
HP & AP | author | 06/28/13

... The administration is proposing a 31 percent cut in funding for fire prevention programs one year after record blazes burned 9.3 million acres. The federal government routinely spends so much money fighting increasingly-destructive fires that it uses money meant to be spent on clearing potential fuels like dead trees and underbrush in national forests. ... Read more

Firefighters continue to battle flames in Colorado (06/28/13) [0:38]
Comment of the Day: Former CEO: Denying Climate Change Is 'Sort Of Like Denying You've Got Cancer'.

Arizona Wildfire 2013: 19 Firefighters Die While Battling Yarnell Hill Blaze
HP & AP | John Marshall | 07/01/13

YARNELL, Ariz. -- An out-of-control blaze overtook an elite group of firefighters trained to battle the nation's fiercest wildfires, killing 19 members as they tried to protect themselves from the flames under fire-resistant shields.   It was the most firefighters killed battling a wildfire in the U.S. in decades. ... Read more

Extreme Heat | Climate Change
*The Scientific Case for Urgent Action to Limit Climate Change (05/20/13) [59:00]
*Evidence Of The Extreme Climate Change (11/16/12) [7:47]
Egypt | 1000s Protesting

Egypt Military Intervention: General Says Army Will Intervene If Crisis Not Resolved In 48 Hours
HP & Reuters | author | 07/01/13

The head of Egypt's armed forces gave politicians 48 hours on Monday to answer demands made by the Egyptian people or the military would offer its own "road map for the future".

In a statement read on state television, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called mass protests on Sunday, which called for Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to resign, an "unprecedented" expression of the popular will. (Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) ... Read more

Chemical Warfare | GMO | Monsanto
*Jeffry Smith: Genetic Roulette movie [GMO] [57:06]
*CBS5 | Seeds Of Death movie [GMO] (05/24/13) [1:19:38]
The leaders of Big Agriculture--Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta--are determined that world's populations remain ignorant about the serious health and environmental risks of genetically modified crops and industrial agriculture. Deep layers of deception and corruption underlie both the science favoring GMOs and the corporations and governments supporting them.
CBS5 | Toxic Secrets [Agent Orange] (03/19/12) [35:19]
In late 2010, Army veteran Steve House contacted CBS 5 Investigates, saying he wanted to tell the story about something he had done, while stationed at Camp Carroll, South Korea in 1978. House said he and other members of his platoon were ordered to bury hundreds of drums of toxic Agent Orange on the military base under the cover of night.

Now, more than 30-years later, House and the other veterans are suffering from illnesses they attribute to Agent Orange exposure and they worry about how the chemicals they buried may have been affecting the Korean village surrounding the base.
Fred Wilcox: 50 Years Later, Agent Orange Still Killing (audio) [51:38]
A toxic herbicide known as Agent Orange (AO), named after the orange stripe painted across drums containing the defoliant, continues to wreak horrific biological damage on newborns today, not only in the country where it was irresponsibly sprayed, but in countries where individuals, mostly veterans, of what the Vietnamese call the "American War" had sent them to fight.
National Debt
US Debt Clock - Click to zoom

World Debt Clock - Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July [15:40]
DN | Sharif Abdel Kouddous: Millions Protesting Morsi Show Egyptian Revolution Still Going Strong (07/01/13) [20:16]
*DN | Was Deadly Benghazi Killing of Amb. Stevens, "Blowback" for Secret US Assassinations? Part 1 (07/01/13) [13:41], Part 2 [7:26]
A new book on last year's Benghazi attack in Libya concludes the killing of U.S. ambassador Christoper Stevens and three others was in part blowback for a secret assassination operation run in North Africa by the Joint Special Operations Command and John Brennan, President Obama's then counterrorism advisor, now director of the CIA. According to "Benghazi: The Definitive Report," President Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan and JSOC commander Admiral Bill McRaven were running "off the books" unilateral operations in North Africa that were not coordinated through the Pentagon or other governmental agencies, including the CIA. Ambassador Stevens was reportedly never informed about these operations.
*Vice | Jeremy Scahill on "Dirty Wars" and U.S. National Security and JSOC (06/25/13) [59:46]
This week, we speak with Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for "The Nation," whose work covering America's special operations forces (JSOC) and targeted killings in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia is chronicled in the recently released documentary, "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield." As the U.S. continues to expand its use of covert counterterrorism measures worldwide, Scahill argues that far from making Americans safer, U.S. covert counterterrorism measures are in fact undermining national security.
National Security State
Future NSA surveillance
1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]
*NSA Tracking [NSA] [4:48]
*Enemy Of The State, NSA, Compilation shortened to 3.5 minutes [NSA] [3:37]
Enemy Of The State, NSA, Compilation shortened to 9 minutes [NSA] [9:41]
*Enemy Of The State (1998) (full movie) [2:12:12]
Enemy of the State was made in 1998 and stars Gene Hackman, Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Will Smith, Jack Black, Jon Voight, and Jason Lee. This all-star cast stars in a film that performed well in its time, yet seems all the more relevant, intelligent, and interesting today. Edward Snowden didn't say too much that this movie didn't exactly say! It's pretty mind-blowing how intelligent and well-informed script-writers were.
NSA - National Security Agency
National Security Agency website
HeadquartersFort Meade, Maryland, U.S.
Employees40,000
Annual budget$10+ billion (estimate)
DirectorGeneral Keith B. Alexander
ProjectsThinThread, Trailblazer, Turbulence, Prism
National Security Agency - wikipedia
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S. government communications and information systems, which involves information security and cryptanalysis/cryptography.
How NSA Spys On You With Utah Data Center Super Computer [NSA] [9:38]
NSA Global Spy Network, *Echelon* From 2009
Click to zoom

ECHELON - Wikipedia
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It has also been described as the only software system which controls the download and dissemination of the intercept of commercial satellite trunk communications.
Google Books | Echelon: Somebody's Listening by Jack O'Neill
NSA - PRISM
PRISM - Wikipedia
PRISM is a clandestine national security electronic surveillance program operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. PRISM is a government code name for a data collection effort known officially by the SIGAD US-984XN. The program is operated under the supervision of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
*Jeremy Scahill introduces Glenn Greenwald who Speaks Out [54:25]. Start video at 3 minutes
Glenn Greenwald speaks via Skype to the Socialism 2013 conference in Chicago regarding Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's mass surveillance program. Introductions by Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater and the filmmaker behind Dirty Wars, and Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism.
One of the comments under the original video
The problem is that true capitalism cannot exist in a nation where elected representatives are able to hold personal investments and interests, or where corporations are able to influence the democratic process.

There should be a wall? between government and capitalist enterprise in every single way.

No lobbying, no funding, no investments by those making decisions for the nation and the public.

Without such a wall, massive corruption is inevitable.
Surveillance Technology
*Surveillance Technology - Inventing the Future (02/17/13) [1:04:53]
Face Recognition
*Facebook Buys Face.Com (06/19/12) [1:13]
Facial Recognition Is Not Only For Surveillance, Says Face.com (04/05/12) [9:31]
Facial Recognition And A National Database (06/25/13) [3:49]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across
Note: I don't endorse any of the videos in this section.
As I construct My News Pages I constantly run across a lot of NEW videos, and since I find YouTube frustrating trying to re-find videos, I save the links in this section so I can find them again at a later time.
Weather (Climate) Change
Skywatcher: Weather Modification, Cloud Seeding, Chemtrails? [28:28]
The Great Debate: CLIMATE CHANGE - Surviving The Future (02/15/13) [1:31:42], Part 2 [51:43]
GMO
C2CAM | Jeffry Smith: Genetic Roulette [GMO] (audio) [1:19:38]
Agent Orange
Fred Wilcox & Noam Chomsky- Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam (08/01/12) [39:17]
Fred Wilcox's previous book, "Waiting for an Army to Die", looked at the effects of Agent Orange on U.S.s Soldiers who served in Vietnam. In his latest book, "Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam", Mr. Wilcox turned his attention to the impact of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese.
Glenn Greenwald | NSA
MSNBC | Glenn Greenwald Tells MSNBC Host Put Down White House Talking Point Memo (06/10/13) [20:54]
CNN | Glenn Greenwald Schools CNN Host on NSA, Wikileaks, Controlled Media (06/10/13) [9:53]
CNBC | Guardian's Glenn Greenwald Schools NBC's Guthrie On NSA Snooping (06/11/13) [2:13]
Mass Shootings
History of American Mass Shootings: 10 Facts You Need to Know (06/06/13) [5:19]
Other Videos | Slight of Hand
Man Explains How The NSA-Snowden Case Is A Distraction For A Much Bigger War With Iran! (06/26/13) [5:26]
Top Obama official WE will kill the dollar WWIII already underway (06/22/13) [13:26]
Fed Reserve Missing $9 Trillion -"I Know Nothing"! [10:25]
Donald Rumsfeld 2.3 Trillion Dollars Just Gone [1:49]
C2CAM | Pole Shifts : Growing Evidence for Catastrophic Shifts Past and Present (10/16/12) [1:61:58]

07.01.2013. 08:37



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

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GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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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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