Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Brexit Leader Boris Johnson Rules Out Bid To Be Next British Prime Minister
WorldPost & HP | Reuters | 06/30/26

Former London mayor Boris Johnson abruptly pulled out of the race to become Britain's next prime minister on Thursday, in a shock move that upturned a political order shaken by last week's vote to leave the European Union.

Johnson, whose support for the campaign to leave the EU was widely considered one of the decisive factors in the campaign, had been bookmakers' runaway favorite to succeed David Cameron, who quit last week after failing to persuade British voters to stay in the bloc. Johnson's unexpected departure from the race, announced just minutes before the party unveiled the list of candidates, shows the speed with which the political landscape is being reshaped. ... Read more

Istanbul Bombers Were Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz Nationals, Turkish Official Says
WorldPost & HP | Reuters | 06/30/26

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 42 people in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul airport this week were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a Turkish government official said on Thursday. The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey this year.

... Wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq have fostered a home-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, including two others this year targeting foreign tourists in the heart of Istanbul. ... Read more

World's Most Systemically Dangerous Bank Crashes Back To Record Lows
ZeroHedge | author | 06/30/16

Despite all the exuberance over the Brexit bounce in US (and UK) equities, never minds bonds, FX, and credit being far less enthusiastic, Deutsche Bank is plunging once again this morning. Having failed The Fed's stress test for the second year running and been diagnosed by The IMF as the world's most systemically dangerous financial entity, the giant Germanbank is getting slammed down almost 4% today, back near record lows as its 'Lehman-esque' path to devastation continues. ... Read more

Soros: Brexit Has "Unleashed" A Financial Crisis Similar to 2008
ZeroHedge | author | 06/30/16

Britain's decision to leave the European Union has "unleashed" a crisis in financial markets similar to the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, George Soros told the European Parliament in Brussels. "This has been unfolding in slow motion, but Brexit will accelerate it. It is likely to reinforce the deflationary trends that were already prevalent" Soros said. ... Read more

"Deutsche Bank Poses The Greatest Risk To The Global Financial System": IMF
ZeroHedge | author | 06/30/16

Over three years ago we wrote "At $72.8 Trillion, Presenting The Bank With The Biggest Derivative Exposure In The World" in which we introduced a bank few until then had imagined was the riskiest in the world. As we explained then "the bank with the single largest derivative exposure is not located in the US at all, but in the heart of Europe, and its name, as some may have guessed by now, is Deutsche Bank. The amount in question? €55,605,039,000,000. Which, converted into USD at the current EURUSD exchange rate amounts to $72,842,601,090,000.... Or roughly $2 trillion more than JPMorgan's." ... Read more
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'Unprecedented': Scientists Declare Global Climate Emergency After Jet Stream Crosses Equator
AlterNet | David Edwards / Raw Story | 06/30/16

Climate scientists this week expressed alarm after "unprecedented" data showed the Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream crossing the Equator. ... Read more

*Bernie Sanders: Democrats Need to Wake Up
NYTimes | Bernie Sanders | 06/28/16

Surprise, surprise. Workers in Britain, many of whom have seen a decline in their standard of living while the very rich in their country have become much richer, have turned their backs on the European Union and a globalized economy that is failing them and their children.

And it's not just the British who are suffering. That increasingly globalized economy, established and maintained by the world's economic elite, is failing people everywhere. Incredibly, the wealthiest 62 people on this planet own as much wealth as the bottom half of the world's population -- around 3.6 billion people. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the whole of the bottom 99 percent. The very, very rich enjoy unimaginable luxury while billions of people endure abject poverty, unemployment, and inadequate health care, education, housing and drinking water. ...

... In the last 15 years, nearly 60,000 factories in this country have closed, and more than 4.8 million well-paid manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Much of this is related to disastrous trade agreements that encourage corporations to move to low-wage countries.

Despite major increases in productivity, the median male worker in America today is making $726 dollars less than he did in 1973, while the median female worker is making $1,154 less than she did in 2007, after adjusting for inflation. ... Read more

Pivot? Trump Doesn't Need No Stinkin' Pivot
HP | S.V. Date | 06/28/16

Donald Trump on Tuesday evening declared his fondness for torture, likened a new trade deal to the "rape of our country," and joked with a man wanting a job by offering him one if he agreed to a 10 percent pay cut. ... Read more

Anti-'Brexit' protest hits London (06/28/16) [1:37:29]

'Elites' Called To Arms: "It's Time To Rise Up Against The Ignorant Masses"
ZeroHedge | author | 06/29/16

It appears the powers that be just are not going to take it anymore. Having mistakenly allowed the people of Britain to exercise their free will, Foreign Policy's James Traub exclaims, "It's time for the elites to rise up against the ignorant masses." ... Read more
or
foreignpolicy.com/

There Is Now A Staggering $11.7 Trillion In Negative Yielding Debt
ZeroHedge | author | 06/29/16

It was not even a month ago when we last looked at the total amount of negative yielding debt around the globe, and were shocked to find that according to Fitch, for the first time in history (obviously), there was over $10 trillion in negative yielding debt. Fast forward 4 weeks later, and the grand total is now $1.3 trillion higher, or $11.7 trillion. ... Read more

*Global markets lose record $3tn since Brexit vote
Financial Times (FT) | Nicole Bullock | 06/28/16

Global stock markets have lost a record $3tn in the past two trading days after a sharp sell-off in equities around the world in response to the UK referendum vote to leave the EU.

Observers said the falls on the first day after the vote on Friday were tied mainly to the short-term unwinding of trading positions related to expectations of a Remain vote ahead of the shock result. The further selling on Monday was more about long-term revaluing of assets in anticipation of the potential fallout from the decision. "The bottom line is that very few investors were positioned for the vote we got," said Nicholas Colas, chief markets strategist at Convergex.

On a percentage basis, the S&P Global Broad Market index, known as the BMI, has fallen almost 6.9 per cent, the worst two-day decline since the aftermath of the financial crisis in November of 2008 and 12th worst on record, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. ... Read more

RT | Leaked document: Germany and France to replace Brussels in charge of EU? (06/27/16) [2:29]

*EU Officials To Unveil 'Ultimatum' Blueprint As Final Solution For European Super-State
ZeroHedge | author | 06/28/16

It appears The Brits may have dodged more than a bullet in their decision to leave The EU. The foreign ministers of France and Germany are reportedly due to reveal a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states in what is being described as an "ultimatum." As The Express reports, the shockingly predictable final solution to Europe's Brexit-driven existential crisis is an apparently long-held plan to morph the continent's countries into one giant superstate. The radical proposals mean EU countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system or central bank, with all those powers being transferred to Brussels. According to the Daily Express, the nine-page report has "outraged" some EU leaders. The plans for 'a closer European Union' have been branded an attempt to create a 'European superstate', as The Daily Mail reports, ... Read more

Failed: What the "Experts" Got Wrong about the Global Economy by Mark Weisbrot

Why has the Eurozone ended up with an unemployment rate more than twice that of the United States more than six years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Why did the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries suffer a prolonged economic slowdown in the last two decades of the 20th century? What was the role of the International Monetary Fund in these economic failures? Why was Latin America able to achieve substantial poverty reduction in the 21st century after more than two decades without any progress?

Failed analyzes these questions, explaining why these important economic developments of recent years have been widely misunderstood and in some cases almost completely ignored. First, in the Eurozone, Mark Weisbrot argues that the European authorities' political agenda, which included shrinking the welfare state, reducing health care, pension, and other social spending, and reducing the bargaining power of labor played a very important role in prolonging the Eurozone's financial crisis and pushing it into years of recession and mass unemployment. This conclusion is based not only on public statements of European officials, but also on thousands of pages of documentation from consultations between the IMF and European governments after 2008.

The second central theme of Failed is that there are always practical alternatives to prolonged economic failure. Drawing on the history of other financial crises, recessions, and recoveries, Weisbrot argues that regardless of initial conditions, there have been and remain economically feasible choices for governments of the Eurozone to greatly reduce unemployment-including the hardest hit, crisis-ridden country of Greece.

The long-term economic failure of developing countries, its social consequences, as well as the subsequent recovery in the first decade of the 21st century, constitute the third part of the book's narrative, one that has previously gotten too little attention. We see why the International Monetary Fund has lost influence in middle income countries. Failed also examines the economic causes and consequences of Latin America's "second independence" and rebound in the twenty-first century, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

See Thom Hartmann's interview with Mark Weisbrot - Brexit... What The "Experts" Got Wrong (in the right column)

"People Need To Know The Real Hillary Clinton And How Dangerous She Is"
ZeroHEdge | author | 06/28/16

Following the release of former secret service officer Gary Byrne's book, Clinton campaign officials have tried to play down his accusations with ad hominum attacks at Byrne as opposed to denying any of his allegations. However, as his book gains traction, RealClearPolitics reports that during his appearance of FOX News' Hannity show, Byrne talked Hillary Clinton's temperament, her "terrified staff," Bill Clinton carrying on affairs, drug use in the White House and more with host Sean Hannity. Byrne said Clinton was feared by her staff and was notorious for her yelling. Byrne told Hannity that she has "blown up" at him and other Secret Service agents... Read more
"People Need To Know The Real Hillary Clinton And How Dangerous She Is" (06/27/16) [10:34]

British EU Vote Unnerves World Leaders And Markets
WorldPost | Reuters | 06/26/16

Britain plunged deeper into political crisis on Sunday after its vote to leave the European Union last Thursday, leaving world officials and financial markets confused about how to handle the political and economic fallout.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to stay on in a caretaker role until the UK Conservative Party elects a new leader in about three months, after he resigned on Friday.

But he has refused to invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which allows for two years of exit negotiations, leaving little clarity about how or when Britain will begin negotiations with the EU on a new relationship. ... Read more

John Oliver | Brexit Aftermath (Now What!) (06/27/16) [8:03]

REPORT: C.I.A. Arms For Syrian Rebels Stolen, Supplied Black Market
NYTimes | Mark Mazzetti | 06/26/16

Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials.

Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F.B.I. officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the investigation. ... Read more

Donald Trump Would Push Debt To Highest Level In U.S. History, Report Says
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 06/26/16

Donald Trump's policy agenda would quickly push the national debt to its highest level in history, according to a new report.

The analysis, which the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published Sunday evening, represents one of the first serious efforts to assess how electing Trump or his chief rival for the presidency, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, might affect federal finances over time. ... Read more
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Promises and Price Tags: A Fiscal Guide to the 2016 Election website
Promises and Price Tags.pdf

West Virginia Recovering After Worst Flooding In More Than A Century
HP | Reuters | 06/27/16

West Virginia's three most devastated counties and possibly others will receive federal assistance after the state's worst flooding in more than a century killed at least 24 people, officials said on Saturday.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster for West Virginia and ordered federal aid to affected individuals in Kanawha, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties that could include grants for temporary housing, repairs and other programs. ... Read more
CBSN | West Virginia gets aid after deadly flood (06/26/16) [5:27]

Hardly anybody wants to speak at Trump's convention
Politico | Alex Isenstadt | 06/27/16

POLITICO reached out to more than 50 prominent Republicans. Few said they plan to attend the convention in Cleveland, let alone speak.

A slot at the Republican National Convention used to be a career-maker -- a chance to make your name on the big stage and to catch the eye of the Republican donors and activists who make or break campaigns. In the year of Trump: Not so much.

With the convention less than a month away, POLITICO contacted more than 50 prominent governors, senators and House members to gauge their interest in speaking. Only a few said they were open to it, and everyone else said they weren't planning on it, didn't want to, or weren't going to Cleveland at all -- or simply didn't respond. ... Read more

BREXIT CARNAGE: Sterling, Stocks In Free Fall As UK Votes To Exit European Union
HP | Reuters | 06/24/16

The British pound had collapsed no less than 15 U.S. cents, easily the biggest fall in living memory.

UK financial markets braced for one of their most volatile days ever on Friday, with sterling hitting a 31-year low in its biggest fall in history after Britons voted to leave the EU and David Cameron said he would resign as prime minister.

Government bond yields pointed to a new record low and UK and European stocks opened 8 percent lower, reflecting widespread alarm in the financial community over the uncertainty and volatility likely to be unleashed by the Brexit vote. ... Read more

BBC News | Brexit: David Cameron resigns as UK votes to leave (06/24/16) [6:27]

RT | 'EU is failing, EU is dying': Nigel Farage speech following Brexit vote (06/24/16) [4:02]

Greenspan: "This Is The Worst Period I Recall; There's Nothing Like It"
ZeroHedge | author | 06/24/16

"This is the worst period, I recall since I've been in public service. There's nothing like it, including the crisis -- remember October 19th, 1987, when the Dow went down by a record amount 23 percent? That I thought was the bottom of all potential problems. This has a corrosive effect that will not go away. I'd love to find something positive to say." ... Read more

"Worse Than Lehman" - European Bank Bloodbath Sparks Dollar Funding Crisis
ZeroHedge | author | 06/24/16

For European banks, today is worse than Lehman with a 13%-plus collapse in the broad index. The major banks - like Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank - have crashed over 15% to record lows as "Lehman moments" loom. This crisis prompted massive demand for USDollars, sending basis swaps (and other funding vehicles) spiking which it appears is why The Fed said it was ready to provide liquidity. ... Read more

Historic Volume Surge Forces Deutsche, Morgan Stanley To Shut Down Dark Pools
ZeroHedge | author | 06/24/16

Following a historic surge in volume after the Brexit referendum, which sent bid/ask spreads soaring and led to a disorderly market at the European open, Deutsche Bank AG temporarily shut off outside market makers in its dark pool, SuperX. The bank told outside market makers that they would be prohibited from trading in SuperX on Friday, until the bank notified them it was ready to resume. Morgan Stanley's dark pool was likewise turn "off" this morning as ATS operators scrambled to make sense of the broken market. ... Read more

Emails: State Dept. scrambled on trouble on Clinton's server
AP | Michael Biesecker | 06/22/16

State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem that affected emails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's home email server, causing them to temporarily disable security features on the government's own systems, according to emails released Wednesday.

The emails were released under court order Wednesday to the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has sued the State Department over access to public records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013. ... Read more
TYT | Security Disabled On Hillary's Email Servers (06/23/16) [7:56]

Supreme Court Deadlocks On Immigration, Leaving Obama's Deportation Relief Plan In Limbo
HP | Cristian Farias | 06/23/16

The Supreme Court couldn't reach a majority for or against President Barack Obama's plan to defer deportation for millions Thursday, effectively leaving his executive actions on hold and undocumented immigrants in limbo. In a one-sentence ruling, the justices simply said, "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court." But they didn't indicate how they voted -- a sign that the court was sharply at odds along ideological lines.

The split decision means a lower court ruling that effectively blocked the program will stand, and no national precedent will be set as to whether the president acted within the law when he announced it in November 2014. ... Read more

Organic Farming Could Feed The World, If Only We Would Let It
HP | Joseph Erbentraut | 06/22/16

... Research published in the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture in 2012 found that the world's farmers already produce enough food to feed 10 billion people. The Economist reported similar findings in a 2011 report.

Despite that tremendous productivity, an estimated 795 million people on earth -- about one in nine people -- do not have enough food to lead healthy, active lives, according to the U.N.'s World Food Programme. The reason for that gap, according to World Hunger: 10 Myths author and Small Planet Institute director Frances Moore Lappe, is that hunger has less to do with supply and more to do with poverty and a lack of equal access to land, water and other necessary resources. ... Read more

The Investing Legends Are Preparing For a Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 06/21/16

... Globally over $10 trillion in bonds are trading with negative yields. This, in of itself, is the makings of a tremendous crisis. With negative yields, bondholders are forced to pay the issuer for the right to lend money.

However, the far bigger issue is the $500+ trillion in interest rate based derivatives. The big banks use sovereign bonds, such as German Bunds, as collateral to backstop the derivatives markets.

With the number of bonds with negative yields growing daily, the derivatives markets are forced to price in yields at levels never before seen by humanity. ... Read more

This Is Not Your Grandma's First Brexit
HP | Charlotte Alfred | 06/22/16

The U.K. is starkly divided over Thursday's referendum on the country's membership in the European Union. Polls show that proponents of leaving and remaining in the EU have been locked in a neck-and-neck race for months.

These divides don't fall neatly along party lines, however. The greatest divisions are socioeconomic, regional -- and above all, generational. ... Read more
TYT | Brexit Vote Takes Place In UK (06/22/16) [12:51]

Trump Just Gave His Sharpest Anti-Clinton Speech Yet
MotherJones | Max J. Rosenthal | 06/22/16

Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Hillary Clinton during a lengthy speech in New York on Wednesday, calling the presumptive Democratic nominee a "world-class liar" and potentially "the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."

Trump claimed Clinton had "perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft," accusing her of taking money from banks, special interests, and "financial backers in Communist China" in return for influence. He slammed her for ignoring "radical Islam" and allowing American diplomats to be killed in Benghazi in 2012. "She lacks the temperament, the judgment, and the competence to lead," he said. ... Read more
Donald Trump Anti Hillary Clinton Speech (full) (06/22/16) [40:22]

The Insane Southwest Heat Wave Is Just the Beginning
MotherJones | Lydia O'Connor | 06/21/16

Deadly, record-breaking heat and wildfires sweeping across the Southwestern US are a clear sign of manmade climate change at work, scientists say.

Triple-digit temperatures began scorching Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico early this week. Some of the most intense heat was recorded throughout Arizona, where four hikers died in separate heat-related incidents.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service announced temperature records for that calendar day in Yuma at 120 degrees, Phoenix at 118, Tucson at 115 and Flagstaff at 93, NOAA spokeswoman Maureen O'Leary told The Huffington Post. Tucson's heat tied for the third hottest day every recorded in the city. ... Read more

Trump's puny war chest rattles GOP
Politico | Daniel Strauss | 06/21/16

Donald Trump's newly released fundraising figures proved so anemic that Republican operatives are still shaking their heads and rubbing their eyes to make sure they read the numbers correctly.

The presumptive Republican nominee -- who frequently boasts about his vast personal fortune -- reported a paltry $1.3 million cash on hand Monday evening, a total not even in the same ballpark as Hillary Clinton's $42.5 million. ... Read more

*Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank

It is a widespread belief among liberals that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if only those awful Republicans are beaten into submission, the country will be on the right course.

But this is to fundamentally misunderstand the modern Democratic Party. Drawing on years of research and first-hand reporting, Frank points out that the Democrats have done little to advance traditional liberal goals: expanding opportunity, fighting for social justice, and ensuring that workers get a fair deal. Indeed, they have scarcely dented the free-market consensus at all. This is not for lack of opportunity: Democrats have occupied the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-four years, and yet the decline of the middle class has only accelerated. Wall Street gets its bailouts, wages keep falling, and the free-trade deals keep coming.

With his trademark sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank's Listen, Liberal lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party's philosophy and how it has changed over the years. A form of corporate and cultural elitism has largely eclipsed the party's old working-class commitment, he finds. For certain favored groups, this has meant prosperity. But for the nation as a whole, it is a one-way ticket into the abyss of inequality. In this critical election year, Frank recalls the Democrats to their historic goals-the only way to reverse the ever-deepening rift between the rich and the poor in America.

Stephen Colbert | Trump's Campaign Has No Money, Wall Street Has No Love for Elizabeth Warren (06/22/16) [5:34]

Brexit Polls Offer Little Insight Into UK Voter Preferences
HP | Natalie Jackson | 06/21/16

The United Kingdom votes in a referendum Thursday on whether it will leave the European Union, or "Brexit." The decision could have major global economic and political ramifications.

... The HuffPost Pollster model estimates that if the election was held today about 46 percent of Britons would vote to leave the EU, and 45 percent would vote to remain. The probability that leave is in the lead is about 78 percent, but it wouldn't be surprising for the June 23 vote to go either way. .... Read more

ECB Balance Sheet Hits Record High (With Stocks At 18-Month Lows)
ZeroHedge | author | 06/22/16

Given the utter failure to create any 'real' economic gains via the expansion of the ECB balance sheet, the plunge in stock prices (and thus crushing the trickle-down wealth-creation mandate) leaves Draghi in the same boat as Yellen - utterly impotent. ... Read more
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*TYT | No Recovery For The Middle Class (06/11/16) [5:41]

The Clintons: how Putin grabbed a fifth of all US uranium
jonrappoport | Jon Rappoport | 01/26/16

The bare bones of the story: a Canadian company called Uranium One controls a great deal of uranium production in the US. It was sold to Russia (meaning Putin and his minions). So Putin now controls 20% of US uranium production. ... Read more
Or
Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal | NYTimes | Jo Becker | 04/23/15

Wall Street donors seek to block Warren VP pick
politico.com | Ben White | 06/20/16

Big Wall Street donors have a message for Hillary Clinton: Keep Elizabeth Warren off the ticket or risk losing millions of dollars in contributions.

In a dozen interviews, major Democratic donors in the financial services industry said they saw little chance that Clinton would pick the liberal firebrand as her vice presidential nominee. These donors despise Warren's attacks on the financial industry. But they also think her selection would be damaging to the economy. And they warned that if Clinton surprises them and taps Warren, big donations from the industry could vanish. ... Read more
TYT | Wall Street Threatens Clinton Over Warren (06/20/16) [11:10]

Janet Yellen's $200-Trillion Debt Problem
ZeroHEdge | author | 06/21/16

More than $10 trillion of government bonds now trade at negative yields. And another $10 trillion or so worth of U.S. stocks trade well above their long-term average valuations. And there's more than $200 trillion of debt in the world -- with about $60 trillion added since the global financial crisis. All of this sits on the Fed's financial applecart. Does Janet Yellen dare upset it? Nah. It will have to upset itself. ... Read more

New York Daily News Slams Senate Gun Vote With Bloodied Capitol Building
HP | Chris D'Angelo | 06/21/16

As the New York Daily News sees it, U.S. senators faced a clear choice Monday between common-sense, in the form of modest gun control measures, and more slaughter.

Seemingly unfazed by the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history just eight days earlier, the Senate chose the latter, voting down proposals aimed at keeping weapons out of the hands of suspected terrorists and tightening background checks. ... Read more

Record 65.3 Million People Were Displaced Last Year
HP & World News | Reuters | 06/20/16

One in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee.

A record 65.3 million people were uprooted worldwide last year, many of them fleeing wars only to face walls, tougher laws and xenophobia as they reach borders, the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday. The figure, which jumped from 59.5 million in 2014 and by 50 percent in five years, means that 1 in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee, asylum-seeker or internally displaced in a home country. ... Read more

All The Folks Who Would Need To Come Together To Stop Trump At The Convention
HP | Howard Fineman | 06/20/16

As more and more Republican elites come to the realization that they're stuck with Donald Trump -- a rabid Teddy Ruxpin doll with Skrewdriver's debut album wedged inside it -- as their nominee, the dream of blocking his ascension continues to flit about fitfully in their collective subconscious. But the hour of doom draws ever closer, and staging a contested convention at this late date is going to be a difficult stunt to pull off.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal. And this week, The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe reported that the desire to supplant Trump at the convention is now shared by a growing number of convention delegates themselves. As O'Keefe reports, "Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer's party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP nominee." ... Read more

People's Summit: Progressive Gathering Fertilizing Momentum of Bernie's Revolution
commondreams.org | Andrea Germanos | 06/20/16

Harnessing the broad desire for "transformative change," thousands are expected to gather this weekend in Chicago for a three-day event centered around many of the progressive issues that Bernie Sanders put at the forefront of his presidential campaign.

Backed by organizations including 350.org, Physicians for a National Health Program, National Nurses Union (NNU), Hedge Clippers, and the People for Bernie, the People's Summit says in its call for the event that it aims "to bring together activists committed to a different kind of agenda: a People's Agenda that can enhance and expand issue campaigns and hold all elected officials accountable to popular demands for justice, equality, and freedom." ... Read more
TRNN | RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United speaking at The People's Summit: explains how the Sanders movement does not exist in isolation (06/20/16) [1:40:49]

"The Next Few Days Will Be Dominated By Fear" - Why One Trader Isn't Buying Today's Massive Stock Surge
ZeroHedge | author | 06/20/16

"The referendum is the single biggest risk-event in 2016. No major money manager can afford the consequences of being wrong if they significantly increase their risk exposure this week. The bravest and most nimble can perhaps punt on sentiment moves. But that is only day-traders and the most opportunistic of hedge funds, and they are a minority of money flows.... The relief rally will soon fade and, globally, most risky assets will trade weaker by Thursday." ... Read more

Endless War, Endless Greed: The Pentagon Is Lining Its Pockets with Taxpayer Dollars
AlterNet | Andrew Cockburn / TomDispatch | 06/16/16

A military plan focused not on peace but profitable production contracts for our weapons-making cartels.

... After 15 years of grinding war with no obvious end in sight, U.S. military operations certainly deserve such obloquy. But the pundit outrage may be misplaced. Focusing on Washington rather than on distant war zones, it becomes clear that the military establishment does indeed have a strategy, a highly successful one, which is to protect and enhance its own prosperity. ... Read more

This Man’s Transformation Into Disney Princesses Has To Be Seen To Be Believed
HP | JamesMichael Nichols | 06/20/16

A 21-year-old Instagram artist is making waves across the Internet for his very convincing and thoroughly executed Disney Princess cosplay.

Richard Schaefer has spent the past five years perfecting his creative craft, using the classic Disney Princess cannon as inspiration for his makeup transformations. From Snow White to Pocahontas, these new takes on many of our classic childhood heroines are something that have to been seen to be believed. ... Read more

Tens of Thousands of Child Refugees Are Missing in Europe, and Many More Are Suffering a Plight Beyond Imagination
AlterNet | Vijay Prashad | 06/16/16

Last week, seven children--all refugees--wrote a joint letter to the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom. "We are the children you see on the dangerous boats to Europe," they wrote, "torn from our families by war. We're the children you see living through hell in 'The Jungle' in Calais. We will never forget those horrific months." These children arrived in the UK and are now with their families. They want the other children across Europe to have the same outcome. "Some people have a negative view of refugees," they write, "but we just want a second chance of living a happy life with our families and away from war." A letter like this to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton might be a good idea. It would let them know that the unaccompanied children who cross the Rio Grande are children -- eager for a better life, not a threat to the United States of America. ... Read more

Wildfires In Western U.S. Prompt Evacuations Ahead Of Record Heatwave
HP & Reuters | author | 06/16/16

Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown told a news conference his deputies had asked occupants of 400 homes and businesses to evacuate structures in areas threatened by flames from the California fire. Campers, and horses on ranches have also been forced out, officials said.

The blaze, which ignited on Wednesday in a wilderness area northwest of Santa Barbara, has consumed chaparral and tall grass in the Los Padres National Forest, blackening some 1,200 acres (490 hectares), according to the InciWeb fire information center. ... Read more

US Equity Markets Plunge As 'FANG' Stocks Give Up 2016 Gains
ZeroHedge | author | 06/17/16

FANG stocks, led by Google, have tumbled by the most in two months today and given up any gains in 2016. This is weighing on the broad hope-strewn stock market as it erases all the post-Jo-Cox-death gains from yesterday. ... Read more
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Deutsche Bank's Shocking ECB Rant: Warns Of Social Unrest And Another Great Depression
ZeroHedge | author | 06/17/16

Over the past century central banks have become the guardians of our economic and financial security. The Bundesbank and Federal Reserve are respected for achieving monetary stability, often in the face of political opposition. But central bankers can also lose the plot, usually by following the economic dogma of the day. When they do, their mistakes can be catastrophic.

Today the behaviour of the European Central Bank suggests that it too has gone awry. After seven years of ever-looser monetary policy there is increasing evidence that following the current dogma, broad-based quantitative easing and negative interest rates, risks the long-term stability of the eurozone. ... Read more

Most Women Are Crystal Clear About Trump: He Is Their Worst Nightmare
AlterNet | Ann Jones / Tom Dispatch | 06/15/16

Last fall, when presidential wannabe Donald Trump famously boasted on CNN that he would "be the best thing that ever happened to women," some may have fallen for it. Millions of women, however, reacted with laughter, irritation, disgust, and no little nausea. For while the media generate a daily fog of Trumpisms, speculating upon the meaning and implications of the man's every incoherent utterance, a great many women, schooled by experience, can see right through the petty tyrant and his nasty bag of tricks. ... Read more

Stephen Colbert | This Diagram Explains Trump's Response To Orlando (06/15/16) [7:31]

Stephen Colbert | Bill O'Reilly Discuss The Political Response To Orlando (06/15/16) [9:02]

John Oliver | John Oliver: Retirement Plans (06/12/16) [21:29]

The Leaked List Of Hillary Clinton's Mega Donors
ZeroHedge | author | 06/16/16

While the media's focus following the leaked DNC documents by lone (and hardly a group of Russian operatives hacker "Guccifer2" has been understandably on the Democrats' documents in which they reveal they strategy how target Trump and his republican peers, what we found more interesting was the list of the candidate's mega donors, those who have provided $100,000 and above ... Read more
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Earth's Heat Extends an Unprecedented Streak of Records
Bloomberg | Tom Randall | 06/16/16/span>

It's no longer a question of whether 2016 will be the hottest on record, but by how much. The El Niño warming pattern in the Pacific Ocean is over, but unprecedented heat remains across the planet. Last month was the hottest May in 137 years of record keeping, according to new reports from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In an age of rising temperatures, monthly heat records have become all too common: May was the 13th consecutive month to set a new record, according to NOAA data released on Wednesday.

The extremes of recent months are such that we're not even halfway into 2016 and there's already a greater than 99 percent likelihood that this year will be the hottest on record, according to Gavin Schmidt, who directs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. NASA and NOAA maintain independent records of the Earth's temperatures, but they both agree that last month was a scorcher. ... Read more

Powerful Images Show Fathers Caring For Their Children On The Refugee Trail
WorldPost (HP) | Willa Frej | 06/14/16

Some of the dads who deserve particular recognition this Father's Day are those who day in and day out risk their own lives to protect their children and seek out a safer future for them. War and instability in countries like Syria and Iraq have prompted millions of people to pull together a few belongings and flee with their children in tow.

Refugees face incredible hardships when they leave their homes -- smugglers who charge thousands of dollars for a spot in a dinghy boat headed to Europe; refugee camps where people live outdoors in squalor; and increasingly slim chances at being granted asylum in a safe country, to name a few . ... Read more

Hack Brief: Russia's Breach of the DNC Is About More Than Trump's Dirt
Wired.com | Andy Greenberg | 06/14/16

... On Tuesday, security firm Crowdstrike revealed that not one but two groups of hackers believed to be based in Russia had done just that. The intruders, according to Crowdstrike and the DNC officials who spoke to the Washington Post, fully accessed the campaign organization's emails and chats, and stole opposition research on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. ... Read more

9/11: A Conspiracy Theory () [4:56]

CNN | Exclusive Osama Bin Laden - First Ever TV Interview (1997) [9:51]

10 Disturbing 9/11 Facts() [1:00]

Leading To War () [1:12:16]

GOP Lawmaker To Give Away Two AR-15 Assault Rifles As Door Prize At Fundraiser
HP | Laura Bassett | 06/13/16

One day after the worst mass shooting in American history, Tennessee State Rep. Andy Holt (R) said he plans to give away two AR-15 assault rifles -- the same kind of weapon used in the massacre -- as a "door prize" at an upcoming political fundraiser.

Holt, a self-described conservative Christian, had announced last week that he would give away one AR-15 at "Hogfest," a barbeque fundraiser on his farm that has a petting zoo and hay rides. But when reporters asked him after the Orlando, Florida, shooting on Sunday whether he still planned to give away the assault weapon, he told reporters that he now wants to give away two instead of one. ... Read more

Donald Trump's Exploitation of Orlando
NewYorker | David Remnick | 06/12/16

the rhetoric of Donald Trump, mendacity and cynicism compete for equal time. It is hard to say which prevailed today as the Republican Party standard-bearer, a man who pretends to the most powerful political office in the land, tweeted this at his followers: "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism."

This came in the wake of the most horrific mass shooting in the history of the United States -- a slaughter of fifty men and women in an L.G.B.T. night club called Pulse, in Orlando, early Sunday morning. Trump allowed that he didn't want "congrats" so much as he wanted "toughness & vigilance." Just as profoundly, he announced, "We must be smart!"

Trump also told his followers -- and hence the world -- that President Obama should "immediately resign in disgrace" for failing to "mention the words radical Islam" in his remarks on the shooting. And, he suggested, Hillary Clinton might want to get out of the Presidential race for making the same sin of omission in her statement. ... Read more

9/11, Pentagon, and Missile Defense: $130 Billion on Pentagon's Missile Defense Fails to Stop Four Airliners on 9/11
wanttoknow.info | Open letter

How is it possible that the Pentagon's highly touted missile detections systems could not locate Flight 77 in the 42 minutes it was known to be lost before it crashed into the heart of the defense system of the U.S.? The missile detection systems did not depend on FAA radar and were programmed to pick up any unaccounted for objects and raise alarms immediately, as mentioned on the CBO website. ...

... Why is it that the 9/11 Commission budget was far less than the budget allotted to the Challenger space shuttle disaster or even the Monica Lewinsky affair? The 9/11 commission was originally allotted only $3 million. Eventually, after much begging and haggling, the commission was given $15 million. Yet a CNN article lists the cost of the Lewinsky investigation at $30 million. A Los Angeles Times article states the cost of the Columbia space shuttle disaster investigation was $175 million.

How could 9/11 -- the greatest disaster in American history -- be given such a small budget for investigation? Why didn't the Pentagon aggressively investigate the greatest failure ever in U.S. defenses? And why did both the president (see CNN article) and vice-president (see Newsweek article) initially oppose any investigation at all? ... Read more

Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel | CBS News | Pete Brush | 05/15/2002

The Battle Back Home | "Cheney implied, and you risk being accused of interfering with the mission." | Newsweek | Howard Fineman | 02/03/2002

Deadliest Mass Shooting In U.S. History Leaves More Than 50 Dead At Gay Orlando Nightclub
HP | Sebastian Murdock | 06/12/16

ORLANDO, Fla. -- In what police are calling the worst shooting in American history, a lone gunman killed 50 people and injured at least 53 others after opening fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

... Mateen purchased two guns -- a handgun and a "long gun" -- approximately a week before the shooting, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Despite being questioned by the FBI in 2013 for suspected terrorist ties, then again in 2014, Mateen was still able to obtain the guns legally. ... Read more

Americans Are Pissed -- This Chart Might Explain Why
nerdwallet.com | Liz Weston | 05/10/16

People are angry. Voters demanding change have helped make Donald Trump the presumptive Republican nominee for president and fueled Bernie Sanders' ferocious challenge to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

But what are they angry about? Ask and you'll hear about Washington gridlock, Wall Street greed, trade, stagnant pay, immigration. To me one huge factor is obvious when you look at the chart below. It shows how much wealth has been lost -- at least among those who weren't rich to begin with. ... Read more
TYT | No Recovery For The Middle Class (06/11/16) [5:41] Click picture to zoom in

The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans
TheAtlantic.com | Neal Gabler | 05/2016

Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to "monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers." Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to one question was astonishing. The Fed asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency. The answer: 47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all.

Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47 percent. I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors. I know what it is like to be down to my last $5--literally--while I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them. I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didn't know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil. ... Read more

TYT | Bernie Sanders Releases Statement After Obama Meeting (06/09/16) [7:00]

European Banks Are Crashing
ZeroHedge | author | 06/10/16

From Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse and from Barclays to Banco Popolare, the European banking system is getting battered this week with today's plunge the biggest in 4 months... ... Read more

Koch's team to meet Trump's camp, but industrialist remains skeptical
USAToday | Fredreka Schouten | 06/08/16

Top officials within Charles Koch's powerful policy network plan to meet with aides to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the industrialist told USA TODAY on Wednesday. The meeting comes at the request of the Trump team, Koch said. No date has been set for the gathering, which has not been publicly disclosed before. ... Read more

Brave New Films | Koch Brothers EXPOSED: 2014 () [55:54]

The FBI Leaks Begin: Emails At Center Of Hillary Criminal Probe Revealed
ZeroHedge | author | 06/10/16

The ongoing criminal probe surrounding Hillary's email server has been marked by opacity and lack of virtually any disclosure, not to mention a major turf war between the FBI and the DOJ, which is why many were surprised when overnight the WSJ revealed that at the center of the probe over Hillary's handling of classified information are a series of emails between American diplomats in Islamabad and their superiors in Washington about whether to oppose specific drone strikes in Pakistan. ... Read more

Aljazeera | How powerful is the Bilderberg group? (06/09/16) [25:10]

#1 Reason To Vote Brexit: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, & The IMF Seek Remain
ZeroHedge | author | 06/10/16

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, The IMF, David Cameron, George Osborne, Hillary Clinton, Mark Carney -- it's a list of names that many on the left would surely like rather see condemned than side with in a democratic debate. Yet the build-up to the forthcoming referendum on Britain's EU membership sees them doing exactly that.

Goldman Sachs warn us that homebuilders and banks would be the worst affected if we chose to leave the EU. It's hard to think of two sets of industries that have failed the British people more in recent years. ... Read more

Latest BREXIT Debate UKIP Nigel Farage (05/19/16) [1:18:41]

The Hunting Ground (trailer) (current) [2:12]

Harry Reid Wants Elizabeth Warren To Be Vice President
HP | Zach Carter | 06/08/16

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) believes Elizabeth Warren should be the running mate of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to four Senate sources familiar with Reid's thinking.

Reid had initially been skeptical of the chatter around Warren, publicly warning that Democrats couldn't afford to lose the seat the Massachusetts senator currently occupies. But The Boston Globe reported last week that he tasked attorney Marc Elias with studying how manageable the loss would be. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren Focus Group (current) [3:39]

CNBC | Senator Elizabeth Warren - Reinstating Glass-Steagall (older, 07/12/13) [5:30]

TYT | Elizabeth Warren Endorses Hillary Clinton (06/08/16) [5:27]

Neocons and Liberal Interventionists -- Like Hillary -- Are Converging on Foreign Policy
HP | Alastair Crooke | 06/08/16

Fighting the so-called Islamic State, as the narrative is told in the West and the Sunni Gulf states, is becoming seen as "nakedly sectarian," as the Washington-based Syria commentator Hassan Hassan wrote in the Financial Times last week. The fighting in Fallujah and the prospective battle for Raqa'a, he wrote, "offer ISIS an opportunity to present itself as a custodian of the Sunni, especially in Iraq, where it has established itself as the only Sunni militant group able to stand up to militias supporting the Shia-dominated government." ...

... Wahhab proclaimed those who did not accept his puritan monotheism as apostates and idolaters who should be killed immediately. And now, Shiites, Alawites, Zaidis, Druze, Ismailis -- and Kurds, who are mostly Sunni Muslim -- are defending themselves and their families from the truly fundamentalist zealotry of neo-Wahhabism that murders all whom it deems apostate. To reverse the narrative and cast their efforts to defend themselves as somehow sectarian is bizarre -- especially since the bulk of the Syrian army and Kurds fighting ISIS are themselves Sunni Muslims. ... Read more
CNASReport Extending American Power(.pdf)

TRNN | Hillary Clinton California Primary Night Speech (06/08/16) [17:57]

TRNN | "Struggle Continues" Bernie Sanders California Primary Night Speech in Santa Monica, CA (06/08/16) [15:28

TYT | Is Donald Trump A Clinton Plant? (06/07/16) [7:58]

The Bilderberg 2016 Agenda: Trump, Riots, Migrants, Brexit
ZeroHedge | author | 06/08/15

The Taschenbergpalais hotel in Dresden - the venue of "Bilderberg 2016" which starts tomorrow and continues until June 12 - is filling up with pistol-packing plainclothes security as the last guests are ushered out. The frowning gunslingers head up and down the corridors with their hotel maps, trying door handles and checking the lay of the land while, down in the hotel lobby, corporate goons gather in muttering huddles.

Year after year, a sizeable number of extremely rich and powerful workaholics seem to think it's worth strapping on their Bilderberg lanyard. But why? What's getting the head of Google, two prime ministers, a vice-president of the European commission and the chairman of HSBC together in the same hotel basement for the same three days in June? On its official website, Bilderberg attempts an answer. It describes itself as "a forum for informal discussions" that are "designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America". Dialogue which is designed to foster dialogue. Talk for talk's sake. ... Read more

The Alchemist Who Turned Toxic Assets Into Gold at Citigroup
Bloomberg | Dakin Campbell | 06/07/06

Mark Tsesarsky, who fled the Soviet Union with $90, has made the bank billions by doubling down on the same subprime mortgage bonds that nearly sank the global financial system.

Over the next few years, the bank reaped the rewards, becoming the go-to source for the more than 500 mutual funds, hedge funds, and other institutions still trading CDOs, according to one person familiar with Citigroup's operations ... Read more

The Land Below Zero: Where Negative Interest Rates Are Normal
Blomberg | Matthew Campbell | 06/06/16

In Copenhagen, bicycles take undisputed priority over cars and even pedestrians. A sizzling restaurant scene has made foodie fetishes of moss, live ants, and sea cucumbers. Despite a minimum wage not far below $20 an hour and some of the world's steepest taxes, unemployment is almost the lowest in Europe. Parents happily leave infants unattended in strollers on the sidewalk while they stop in to cafes.

... Scandinavia's third-largest economy (the population is 5 million, and there are about as many bikes) is deep into an unprecedented experiment with negative interest rates, a monetary policy tool once viewed by mainstream economists as approaching apostasy, if not a virtual impossibility. Companies -- though not yet individuals -- are paying lenders for the privilege of keeping funds on deposit; homeowners, in some cases, are actually making money on mortgages. ... Read more

Bloomberg | Trump Urges Surrogates to Rev Up Attacks on Judge (06/06/26) [7:39]

Will Donald Trump Cause An "Economic Crash All Over The World" - Here Is Janet Yellen's Response
ZeroHedge | author | 06/07/16

In the last question from Janet Yellen's Q&A during her speech in Philadelphia, a retiree asked Yellen if Donald Trump becomes president whether "there is a possibility of an economic crash all over the world because of the how the world views Donald Trump" and whether Yellen thinks that is possible. Here is her response. ... Read more

CNN | Paul Ryan: Trump's judge comments are 'textbook... (06/07/16) [0:45]

Here's Paul Ryan Calling Out Donald Trump for Racism But Urging People to Vote for Him Anyway
TheIntercept | Robert Mackey | 06/07/16

House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to withdraw his endorsement of Donald Trump on Tuesday even as he acknowledged that Trump made "racist" and "indefensible" comments about the Mexican heritage of Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge overseeing a suit against the defunct Trump University.

In a remarkable 45 seconds captured on video by CNN, Ryan, who is currently the highest-ranking elected official in the Republican party first called Trump's comments obviously racist and then immediately urged Americans to vote for him anyway. ... Read more

*DR | An Update On The State Of The U.S. Economy (06/07/16) [1hr]

CNN | Sanders campaign: 'Bernie going all the way' (06/03/16) [8:02]

Bernie Sanders Campaign Is Split Over Whether to Fight on Past Tuesday
WSJ | Peter Nicholas | 06/05/16

A split is emerging inside the Bernie Sanders campaign over whether the senator should stand down after Tuesday's election contests and unite behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, or take the fight all the way to the July party convention and try to pry the nomination from her.

One camp might be dubbed the Sandersistas, the loyalists who helped guide Mr. Sanders's political ascent in Vermont and the U.S. Congress and are loath to give up a fight that has far surpassed expectations. Another has ties not only to Mr. Sanders but to the broader interests of a Democratic Party pining to beat back the challenge from Republican Donald Trump and make gains in congressional elections. ... Read more

Chile Producing So Much Solar Energy It's Giving Electricity Away for Free
EcoWatch | Lorraine Chow | 06/04/16

In a new Bloomberg report, Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It's Giving It Away for Free, solar capacity from the country's central grid has increased four fold to 770 megawatts since 2013. Another 1.4 gigawatts will be added this year with many solar power projects under development.

Thanks to an economic boost from increased mining production, Chile now has 29 solar farms and another 15 in the pipeline. Enel Green Power Chile Ltda. recently commissioned Chile's largest solar PV project connected to the grid. The 160-megawatt facility will be located in the northern part of the country in the municipality of María Elena, about 1,300 kilometers north of Santiago. ... Read more

*HBO | John Oliver: Debt Buyers (06/05/16) [20:50]

US 2016 Budget Click picture to zoom in

UK PM Cameron Goes M.A.D. As Brexit Odds Hit Record High
ZeroHedge | author |06/06/16

Following the two polls overnight pointing to a significant lead for "leave" over "remain" in the Brexit vote, as we noted, cable tumbled and volatility premia spiked as Brexit odds surge to their highest yet. This pushed UK PM David Cameron into full panic mode, explaining that "we're not scaremongering," Cameron then said during an interview that Brexit would put a "bomb under our economy, and the worst thing is, we'd have lit the fuse ourselves." ... Read more

Aljazeera - http://america.aljazeera.com/

Aljazeera | Inside Story - What made Muhammad Ali a legend? (06/04/16) [24:30]

Historic Floods Wash Out Parts Of Texas As Residents Brace For More Rain
magazine | author | date

Torrential rains are continuing to wreak havoc on already flooded parts of southeast Texas as one major river has swelled to levels not seen in more than 100 years.

Flash flood warnings have been issued in most parts of the state -- including Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston -- as a slow-moving storm system continues to soak the area, potentially into the weekend. Read more

Channel 4 News | Noam Chomsky full length interview: Who rules the world now? (05/14/16) [17:13]

Brexit The Movie (05/12/16) [1:11:01]

It's Probably Nothing: JPMorgan Recession Indicators Surge To New Cycle Highs
ZeroHedge | author | 06/03/16

"Our preferred macroeconomic indicator of the probability that a recession begins within 12 months has moved up from 30% on May 5 to 34% last week to 36% today... a new high for the cycle." ... Read more
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Bernie Sanders HUGE Rally in Davis, California, Hutchison Intramural Field (full) (06/01/16) [1:12:02 ]

TYT | Clinton News Network Thinks It's Been Super Fair To Bernie Sanders (06/01/16) [6:43]

2016 California Democratic Presidential Primary
HP | author | Current

If The Media Treated Trump Like Other Candidates, Yesterday Would Have Ended His Campaign
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 06/01/16

On Tuesday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee had the kind of day that, for any other candidate, would be a political nightmare. It started with a press conference in which Trump made misleading statements, attacked reporters for applying relatively routine levels of journalistic scrutiny, and questioned the impartiality of a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University.

The day ended with newly unsealed documents from that same lawsuit that revealed credible, if contested, allegations of shady business practices at the for-profit adult education program. The trove included a Trump University "playbook" that taught salespeople how to coax registration fees, which could run into the tens of thousands of dollars, from those desperate to get rich. One sales manager called the enterprise "a fraudulent scheme" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money." ... Read more

TYT | Donald Trump EXPLODES After Trump University Court Ruling (06/01/16) [7:13]

*DR | Donald Trump's Contentious Relationship With The Media (06/02/16) [1hr]

Stunning Satellite Images Of The Global Tanker Oil Glut
ZeroHedge | author | 06/01/16

One week ago, we showed the latest MarineTraffic update of the unprecedented congestion of crude oil tankers located off the coast of Singapore, together with an extended analysis of what is causing this and what are the implications.

Today, we'll spare readers the ongoing analysis - which hasn't changed - and instead present the following dramatic satellite images just released from Reuters, showing "huge traffic jams of tankers which have formed around the world with some 200 million barrels of oil either waiting to be loaded or delivered as ports struggle to cope with record volumes in perhaps the most visible sign of the global oil glut." ... Read more

The Federal Reserve Has Created An Unprecedented Disaster For Pension Funds
ZeroHedge | author | 06/01/16

If I had to choose one single institution and one single individual most responsible for the weak, putrid and unbelievably corrupt oligarch-controlled U.S. economy, I would choose the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke.

When it comes to the Fed, Congress is mired in hypocrisy. The anti-regulation, de-regulation crowd on Capitol Hill shuts its mouth when it comes to the most powerful regulators of all -- you and the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, Congress goes along with the out-of-control, private government of the Fed--unaccountable to the national legislature. Moreover, your massive monetary injections scarcely led to any jobs on the ground, other than stock and bond processors - Ralph Nader .... Read more

Inside The Trump University 'Playbook'
HP | Christina Wilkie | 05/31/16

A federal judge on Tuesday unsealed nearly 400 pages of documents related to a lawsuit over the for-profit Trump University, revealing the aggressive and predatory practices that Trump U. salespeople were encouraged to use on potential participants of the real estate seminar, which has been accused of being a scam.

The documents detail the internal "playbook" of Trump University, including information about how its salespeople were told to deliberately mislead potential customers, manipulate their emotions and ignore their concerns. Taken together, they represent a damning new window into the company that Trump closed in 2011 amid multiple investigations but has promised to revive. ... Read more

How Many Trillion More Will the Pentagon Spend on Middle East Wars Before They Confront the Disaster They've Created?
AlterNet | Andrew Bacevich / TomDispatch | 05/31/16

We have it on highest authority: the recent killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan marks "an important milestone." So the president of the United States has declared, with that claim duly echoed and implicitly endorsed by media commentary--the New York Times reporting, for example, that Mansour's death leaves the Taliban leadership "shocked" and "shaken."

But a question remains: A milestone toward what exactly? Toward victory? Peace? Reconciliation? At the very least, toward the prospect of the violence abating? Merely posing the question is to imply that U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world serve some larger purpose. ... Read more

How Big Pharma Is Arm-Twisting U.S. Foreign Policy to Keep Cancer Drugs Prohibitively Expensive
AlterNet | Sarah Lazare | 05/30/16

The administration of President Barack Obama has so far refused to publicly respond to new revelations that U.S. officials, at the behest of Big Pharma, may have attempted to obstruct the Colombian government's efforts to lower the price of a life-saving cancer medication. Amid this silence, civil society organizations, along with some lawmakers from the House and Senate, are demanding answers.

At issue is the drug imatinib, which is produced by Novartis under the brand name Glivec and is used to treat certain cancers of the blood, including leukemia. Imatinib is listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organization, yet it can be prohibitively expensive, at an annual cost of $15,161 in Colombia -- nearly double the country's gross national income per capita. ... Read more

Hillary Clinton Won't Say How Much Goldman Sachs CEO Invested With Her Son-in-Law
TheIntercept | Lee Fang | 05/27/16

WHEN HILLARY CLINTON'S son-in-law sought funding for his new hedge fund in 2011, he found financial backing from one of the biggest names on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

The fund, called Eaglevale Partners, was founded by Chelsea Clinton's husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and two of his partners. Blankfein not only personally invested in the fund, but allowed his association with it to be used in the fund's marketing. ... Read more