Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Writes Scathing 35-Page Dissent In Birth Control Case
HP | Laura Bassett | 06/30/14

The Supreme Court delivered a blow to universal birth control coverage on Monday, ruling that closely-held corporations can refuse to cover contraception in their health plans for religious reasons. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sharply disagreed with the five conservatives on the court, delivering a scathing, 35-page dissent and defense of mandatory contraception coverage.

"In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs," Ginsburg wrote. She said she feared that with its decision, the court had "ventured into a minefield." ... Read more

The First Iraq War Was Also Sold to the Public Based on a Pack of Lies
Bill Moyers | Joshua Holland | 06/27/14

... Across the ideological spectrum, there's broad agreement that the first Gulf War was "worth fighting." The opposite is true of the 2003 invasion, and a big reason for those divergent views was captured in a 2013 CNN poll that found that "a majority of Americans (54%) say that prior to the start of the war the administration of George W. Bush deliberately misled the U.S. public about whether Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction."

But as the usual suspects come out of the woodwork to urge the US to once again commit troops to Iraq, it's important to recall that the first Gulf War was sold to the public on a pack of lies that were just as egregious as those told by the second Bush administration 12 years later. ... Read more

How DC's Political Intelligence Biz Made Fat Cats Fatter
Bill Moyers | Michael Winship | 06/30/14

Looking over the last few weeks of news, if you would seek a single headline that sums up the Hulk-like grip in which corporate America holds the US Congress, this might be it: "Eric Cantor's Loss a Blow to Wall Street."

So wrote The Wall Street Journal, that Pravda of the One Percent, on the day after House Majority Leader Cantor lost his Virginia GOP primary to tea party upstart David Brat. "Since he was first elected to Congress," the Journal noted, "Mr. Cantor has been Wall Street's go-to guy on issues big and small… he was a top recipient of Wall Street donations and he regularly stood up for the banks, securities firms and insurance companies."

So it's actually somewhat heartening that Cantor's loss was due in part to those very same connections. His opponent David Brat told a campaign rally, "All the investment banks up in New York and DC, whatever, those guys should have gone to jail. Instead of going to jail, where'd they go? They went onto Eric's Rolodex."

Brat made particular reference to the Stock Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act -- the STOCK Act -- passed into law in 2012. That's the legislation, authored by Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter of New York, which requires members of Congress and their staffs to disclose all of their stock transactions -- an effort to make sure they're not trading on insider information gleaned from their governmental wheeling-dealings. (This is the bill that languished on the Hill for years until a 60 Minutes report embarrassed Congress into passing it.)

Unfortunately, before it became law, stripped from the legislation were requirements that family members publicly reveal their stock trades as well as disclosure requirements for companies engaged in gathering political intelligence. And guess who was singlehandedly responsible for gutting the bill of these provisions? Yep, Eric Cantor, with the heavy hands of lobbyists pushing from behind. ... Read more

Noam Chomsky: Our Govt. Is Capable of Creating Total Catastrophe for Humankind
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 07/01/14

The question of how foreign policy is determined is a crucial one in world affairs. In these comments, I can only provide a few hints as to how I think the subject can be productively explored, keeping to the United States for several reasons. First, the U.S. is unmatched in its global significance and impact. Second, it is an unusually open society, possibly uniquely so, which means we know more about it. Finally, it is plainly the most important case for Americans, who are able to influence policy choices in the U.S. -- and indeed for others, insofar as their actions can influence such choices. The general principles, however, extend to the other major powers, and well beyond. ... Read more