Jul 15 2014 - News Jul 2014 - News - Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Tuesday July 15, 2014

News Articles

Environmental Crime: The Prosecution Gap
The Crime Report.org | Graham Kates | 07/14/14

... Although the federal government extolled the win against BP Gulf oil spill as the start of a new era of environmental policing, an analysis by The Crime Report of thousands of records compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reveals that enforcement of corporate environmental crime remains extremely rare.

More than 64,000 facilities are currently listed in agency databases as being in violation of federal environmental laws, but in most years, fewer than one-half of one percent of violations trigger criminal investigations, according to EPA records. ... Read more

An Exceptional Decline for the Exceptional Country?
Bill Moyers | Tom Engelhardt | 07/14/14

For America's national security state, this is the age of impunity. Nothing it does -- torture, kidnapping, assassination, illegal surveillance, you name it -- will ever be brought to court. For none of its beyond-the-boundaries acts will anyone be held accountable. The only crimes that can now be committed in official Washington are by those foolish enough to believe that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth. I'm speaking of the various whistleblowers and leakers who have had an urge to let Americans know what deeds and misdeeds their government is committing in their name but without their knowledge. They continue to pay a price in accountability for their acts that should, by comparison, stun us all.

As June ended, the New York Times front-paged an account of an act of corporate impunity that may, however, be unique in the post-9/11 era (though potentially a harbinger of things to come). In 2007, as journalist James Risen tells it, Daniel Carroll, the top manager in Iraq for the rent-a-gun company Blackwater, one of the warrior corporations that accompanied the US military to war in the twenty-first century, threatened Jean Richter, a government investigator sent to Baghdad to look into accounts of corporate wrongdoing. ... Read more

What It's Like On The Ground In Gaza
HP | Sophia Jones | 07/15/14

Headless bodies. Screaming children. Entire neighborhoods fleeing on foot. The unmistakable sounds of Hamas rockets and the booms of Israeli strikes. It's been a bloody week here in Gaza, with the death toll now at more than 190 people, the majority of them civilians. While Palestinians here decry the number of deaths, Israel says it doesn't target civilians and that the deaths are unavoidable if Hamas launches rockets from heavily populated areas. There have been no reported deaths in Israel, largely due to the Iron Dome rocket interceptor, although some Israelis have been injured.

On Tuesday, Israel agreed to ceasefire terms brokered by Egypt, but Hamas rejected the proposal on the grounds that it had not been consulted. There remains little hope here that a lasting ceasefire will take effect. ... Read more

DemocracyNow Daily News

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, July 15 [11:00]
NSA JTRIG Tools-Techniques - Cryptome.pdf

DN | With 192 Dead in Gaza, Is True Ceasefire Possible Under Israeli Occupation, Palestinian Resistance? (07/15/14) [6:18]

DN | After Palestinian Unity Deal, Did Israel Spark Violence to Prevent a New "Peace Offensive"? (07/15/14) [9:21]

DN | Green Scare: Animal Rights Activists Face Terrorism Charges for Freeing Minks From Fur Farm (07/15/14) [3:09]

DN | The Prosecution Gap: Corporate Polluters Rarely Criminally Charged for Violating Environmental Law (07/15/14) [2:52]

A new investigation by The Crime Report published Monday documents how corporations almost never face criminal investigations for violating environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. A survey of environmental violations tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency shows just one-half of one percent of them trigger criminal prosecution. Joining us to describe his investigation, The Crime Report's Graham Kates describes how one company, Alpha Natural Resources, faced only civil fines after it racked up more than 6,000 violations between 2007 and 2013. Kates say prosecutions are hampered by limited government resources in pursuing corporate polluters. The EPA has just 200 agents nationwide, and the Environmental Crime section of Department of Justice has just 38 prosecutors.

TRNN News

*TRNN | Bill Black: Who Is the Unsung Hero of the $7 Billion Citigroup Settlement? (07/15/14) [6:53]

WORONCZUK: And, Bill, can you put this $7 billion, this settlement, in context? How does this compare to the profit that Citibank made off of the mortgage-backed security, as well as to the damage they did to the U.S. economy?

BLACK: Well, Citicorp doesn't necessarily make profit out of all of this. As I've tried to explain many times, many of these fraud mechanisms involved looting the corporation, which is, again, another reason why the prosecution should center on the individuals, not on Citicorp. After all, this fine is not going to be paid by the officers who are made wealthy by the fraud; it's going to be payed by the shareholders. And the shareholders frequently already lost money because of the looting.

But if you ask me what was the damage done by these kinds of frauds, the best estimate of economists right now is that we lost $21 trillion--a trillion is a thousand billion--$21 trillion in lost productivity as a result of the Great Recession that is a direct result of this epidemic of these kinds of fraud. And we lost 10 million American jobs. Now, that's just the American story. In Europe, both of those numbers are significantly larger.

*TRNN | Hedges and Lessig on Money and Politics, Part 1 (07/15/14) [18:38]

TYT News

TYT | Strong Words From The Latest Sane Person Run Out Of The Republican Party (07/15/14) [3:32]

Humor

Hottest Year On Record? (07/15/14) [2:21]

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 Dark Ages (10/17/13) [1:30:44]

The Crusades: Crescent & The Cross (09/06/13) [3:00:27]

Napoleon's Secrets Revealed (07/11/14) [50:30]

Napoleon Bonaparte, born 15 August 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica, died on 5 May 1821 on the island of Saint Helena, was First Consul, then Emperor of the French. He was a conqueror of Europe. A general of the French Revolution of 24 years, he accumulated spectacular victories in Italy during the campaign in Egypt, then took power by coup d'Ã©tat in November 1799.

He headed the French from the end of 1799 and was the first consul from November 1799 to May 1804 and then Emperor of the French under the name Napoleon I from May 1804 to April 1814. He reorganized and reformed the state and society. He was also President of the Italian Republic from 1802 to 1805, then king of Italy, from March 1805 to April 1814, as well as the mediator of the Swiss Confederation from 1803 to 1813 and protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1813. He conquered and ruled most of continental Europe and placed several members of his family on the thrones of several European kingdoms.

Napoleon tried to put an end to the series of wars undertaken by European monarchies against France beginning in 1792. He led the men of the Great Army. Despite many initial victories with various coalitions assembled and financed by Great Britain (now the United Kingdom in 1801), the imperial era ended in 1815 with the defeat of Waterloo.

Napolean played a major role in the history of Europe having been a great general and later in life a monarch. No doubt his existence had played a great role in the evolution of France and it's capital Paris. Many monuments in Paris showcase his accomplishments and highlight his life and history.

HC | World War I: The Necessary War (06/07/14) [58:35]

HC | World War II From Space (06/07/14) [1:28:31]

07.16.2014. 07:46

NPR

PBS

Special Interest Important stuff

GOOD Shorts Videos

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

I'm still working on this

GOOD Short Videos

Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

I'm still working on this

Newer Documentaries

Documentaries You've Never Seen

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

Documentaries (small | pop-up)
Documentaries (big | full screen)

Good YouTube Documentaries

Note: To view a video, click on its name/title

Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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,.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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".

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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)

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

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.

Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device

Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Sponsors

Donation