Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Trump's War on Terror Has Quickly Become as Barbaric and Savage as He Promised
TheIntercept | Glenn Greewald | 03/26/17

FROM THE START of his presidency, Donald Trump's "war on terror" has entailed the seemingly indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people in the name of killing terrorists. In other words, Trump has escalated the 16-year-old core premise of America's foreign policy -- that it has the right to bomb any country in the world where people it regards as terrorists are found -- and in doing so, has fulfilled the warped campaign pledges he repeatedly expressed.

*Media Largely Fine With Trump's Civilian Bloodbath | TYT | 03/30/17 | 12:57

FBI releases never-before-seen photos from 9/11 Pentagon attack
The Pentagon debris
Politico | author | 03/31/17

The FBI on Thursday released to the public about two dozen never-before-seen photos from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks -- in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania -- killed nearly 3,000 people, including 184 at the Pentagon, where a hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the building. The "9/11 Attacks and Investigation Images" were posted to "The Vault," the FBI's Freedom of Information Act Library. ... Read more

Ivanka Trump, Shifting Plans, Will Become a Federal Employee
NYTimes | Maggie Haberman | 03/29/17

Ms. Trump, 35, will be an assistant to the president; Mr. Kushner, 36, has the title of senior adviser.

Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of President Trump, is becoming an official government employee, joining her husband, Jared Kushner, in serving as an unpaid adviser to her father in the White House.

The announcement on Wednesday amounts to the formal recognition of the value Mr. Trump places on the judgment and loyalty of both his daughter and his son-in-law. While relying on family members for advice is hardly unusual for a president, giving them a formal role has few precedents. Read more
Trump Makes Ivanka Official | TYT | 03/29/17 | 5:07

Trump says coming up with a bipartisan health-care bill will be 'so easy.'
WashingtonPost | Peter W. Stevenson | 03/29/17

After President Trump and congressional Republicans admitted defeat in their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the American Health Care Act, Trump publicly put the blame on Democrats. That, despite the fact that Republicans had enough votes to pass a bill without any Democrats onboard -- if they could only come together as a party.

So when it became clear the GOP didn't even have enough votes to pass the bill without Democratic support, they abandoned it. Trump said he'd move on to tax revision, promising to let the Affordable Care Act "explode." ... Read more
Trump Is Sure Healthcare Reform Will Be Easy | TYT | 03/29/17 | 7:44

More Trump U lawsuits are coming -- if Judge Gonzalo Curiel lets fraud cases move forward
RawStory | Brad Reed | 03/29/17

When Trump University agreed to fork over $25 million to settle a fraud lawsuit last December, President Donald Trump probably though he'd put the matter to bed permanently.

... Specifically, Politico notes that Curiel will determine whether the $25 million settlement "is fair to thousands of people who paid anywhere from about $1,500 for a three-day seminar up to about $35,000 for the 'gold elite' mentorship." ... Read more
Trump University Coming Back To Haunt Donald | TYT | 03/29/17 | 6:15

Could Donald Trump Pass a Sanity Test? | Keith Olbermann | 03/29/17 | 6:37

Bernie Sanders Tears Into Donald Trump's 'Disaster' Of A Climate Change Order
HP | Lee Moran | 03/29/17

"It is beyond belief that we have the leader of the most powerful country on earth not believing in science."

"President [Donald] Trump's anti-environmental executive orders are a disaster," Sanders says in the clip posted to Twitter on Tuesday. "They are a threat to the future of this country, and to the future of the world."

"It is beyond belief that we have the leader of the most powerful country on earth, not believing in science," he continues in the video, which intersperses clips of him talking alongside captioned facts that disprove Trump's claims. ... Read more

Golden Boy Tarnished: Trump Keeps Giving Jared Kushner More Jobs -- but Is He Any Good at Any of Them?
magazine | author | date

Does he wash the cars, too? Kushner apparently does everything in the Trump administration -- when he's not skiing.

As it turns out Trump's actually a yuuuge believer in taking vacations. He has been to his Florida resort seven times already ($3,000,000.00 at taxpayer expense) and last weekend the White House tried to pretend the president was having meetings at his Virginia golf club. It was later revealed that he was hitting the links again.

So it's not surprising that Trump was quick to forgive his favorite daughter and son-in-law for their little getaway. Not only did he forgive Jared; on Monday he put him in charge of a bold new initiative to run the country like a business with what the Washington Post described as a "SWAT team of strategic consultants" that "will be staffed by former business executives." If the first couple of months of the Trump administration are any indication of what that might look like, we're in for a bumpy ride. As Salon's Simon Maloy observed: ... Read more

The Unauthorized Biography of David Rockefeller | Corbett Report | 03/27/17 | 59:13

Dark Secrets of the Rockefeller Family | HC | | 34:43

The Ugly Numbers of Trauma, Exile and Death Caused by U.S. Wars and Interventions in the Past 75 Years
AlterNet | John Dower / TomDispatch | 03/28/17

The casualty list is staggering.

On February 17, 1941, almost 10 months before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Life magazine carried a lengthy essay by its publisher, Henry Luce, entitled "The American Century." The son of Presbyterian missionaries, born in China in 1898 and raised there until the age of 15, Luce essentially transposed the certainty of religious dogma into the certainty of a nationalistic mission couched in the name of internationalism. ... Read more

The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II by John W. Dower (April 2017)

World War II marked the apogee of industrialized "total war." Great powers savaged one another. Hostilities engulfed the globe. Mobilization extended to virtually every sector of every nation. Air war, including the terror bombing of civilians, emerged as a central strategy of the victorious Anglo-American powers. The devastation was catastrophic almost everywhere, with the notable exception of the United States, which exited the strife unscathed and unmatched in power and influence. The death toll of fighting forces plus civilians worldwide was staggering.

The Violent "American Century" addresses the U.S.-led transformations in war conduct and strategizing that followed 1945--beginning with brutal localized hostilities, proxy wars, and the nuclear terror of the Cold War, and ending with the asymmetrical conflicts of the present day. The military playbook now meshes brute force with a focus on non-state terrorism, counterinsurgency, clandestine operations, a vast web of overseas American military bases, and--most touted of all--a revolutionary new era of computerized "precision" warfare. By contrast to World War II, postwar death and destruction has been comparatively small. By any other measure, it has been appalling -- and shows no sign of abating.

The winner of numerous national prizes for his historical writings, including the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, Dower draws heavily on hard data and internal U.S. planning and pronouncements in this concise analysis of war and terror in our time. In doing so, he places U.S. policy and practice firmly within the broader context of global mayhem, havoc, and slaughter since World War II--always with bottom-line attentiveness to the human costs of this legacy of unceasing violence.

Bernie Sanders Introducing 'Medicare For All' Bill | TYT | 03/27/17 | 12:23

Trump takes biggest swing yet at Obama climate legacy
Politico | Alex Guillen | 03/27/17

President Donald Trump will direct the federal government on Tuesday to begin dismantling his predecessor's most significant climate change policies, with a sweeping directive telling agencies to stop trying to reduce the carbon pollution of electric utilities, oil and gas drillers and coal miners.

The executive order Trump will sign represents his biggest blow yet to former President Barack Obama's climate legacy. But it does not go as far as some conservatives would like to dismantle the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, nor will it begin to separate the U.S. from a landmark international climate accord -- two areas of intense disagreement within the administration. ... Read more

Mar-a-Lago can't release visitor logs -- because it doesn't keep them
Politico | Darren Samuelsohn | 03/28/17

On Friday night, guests streamed into Mar-a-Lago, the president's self-proclaimed "southern White House," for the annual Palm Beach GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. All they had to do to get into the seaside retreat, where the first lady and the president's youngest son were vacationing for spring break, was buy a $300 ticket.

They didn't have to submit to the kinds of rigorous background checks required if they'd been entering the White House in Washington. And there were no weapon screenings or bomb-sniffing dogs checking vehicles of the sort that have long been routine at public restaurants or other places where the president or first lady is present. ... Read more

Remember Monty Python?? | 3:18

Top Republican Warns: "Government Shut Down Is A Real Possibility, And Wall Street Is Unprepared"
ZeroHedge | author | 03/28/17

"We're starting to hear growing concerns that a government shutdown at the end of April may be a real possibility given the rise of the Freedom Caucus.... What’s currently playing out triggers flashbacks of the summer of 2011 when the US was downgraded by S&P as a polarized Congress wasn't able to raise the debt ceiling quickly enough." ... Read more

Which of Trump's Cronies Will Flip on Him First? (#51) | Keith Olbermann | 03/27/17 | 8:59

Trump And Master Salesmanship Lose, Facts And Reality Win
HP | S.V. Date | 03/24/17

Paul Ryan: Comments After Health Care Bill Pulled | CNN Jake Tapper | 03/24/17 | 28:29

**Trump Taps Jared Kushner To Lead Team That Will Run Government 'Like A Company'
HP | Mary Papenfuss | 03/27/17

Fresh from the slopes of Aspen, Jared Kushner will on Monday be named the head of an aggressive new team charged with "fixing" the federal government by using business strategies.

"The government should be run like a great American company," Kushner said on Sunday in an interview with The Washington Post, which first revealed the new initiative. "Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens." ... Read more

Trump administration greenlights Keystone Pipeline
Politico | Ben Lefebvre | 03/24/17

Trump To CEO: Just Bribe Me Next Time | TYT | 03/24/17 | 4:22

On Meet the Press Discussing Russia Investigation's Next Steps | NBC Meet the Press | 03/26/17 | 7:10

After a failed healthcare bill, what's next? | Face the Nation | 03/26/17 | 14:47

Trump Is Done Negotiating On Health Care, Demands Vote On Friday
HP | Sam Stein | 03/23/17

The Trump White House is done negotiating over repealing and replacing Obamacare, senior officials said Thursday night, and Republicans are moving ahead with a vote on their bill Friday, even though they seem to lack enough support for passage and recalcitrant conservatives and moderates continued talking.

Tension boiled over in a meeting between top administration officials ? including top strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus ? and Republican lawmakers hours after House leadership delayed a scheduled vote on their health care legislation Thursday. President Donald Trump, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, is done negotiating, and House Republicans are scheduled to vote Friday. If the vote fails, Mulvaney said, the president was prepared to leave Obamacare in place. ... Read more

Kochs pledge millions to GOPers in 2018 -- if they vote no on health care bill
CNN | Theodore Schleifer | 03/23/17

In a last-minute effort to sink the Republican health care bill, a powerful network of conservative donors said Wednesday it would create a new fund for Republican 2018 reelection races -- but they'll only open it up to GOPers who vote against the bill.

The advocacy groups helmed by Charles and David Koch have unveiled a new pool of money for advertisements, field programs and mailings that would exclude those who vote for the health care bill they oppose on Thursday. The effort, which they described as worth millions of dollars, is an explicit warning to on-the-fence Republicans from one of the most influential players in electoral politics not to cross them. ... Read more
**Koch Brothers Sabotage Trump's Big Plans | TYT | 03/23/17 | 8:36

'I'm president, you're not': Here are the 5 craziest quotes from Trump's bonkers Time interview
RawStory | Brad Reed | 03/23/17

President Donald Trump sat down with Time Magazine for an interview this week in which he doubled down on multiple falsehoods that he has said over the course of the past two years.

During the interview, Trump repeatedly refused to admit that he had ever said anything that was incorrect, and at times he justified spouting falsehoods by simply claiming that he was quoting "very respected" sources in the media. ... Read more
Trump To Critics: "I'm The President, And You're Not" | TYT | 03/23/17 | 8:46

Everything About This Republican Obamacare Repeal Vote Is Nuts
HP | Jeffrey Young , Sam Stein | 03/23/17/span>

Russian Agent, Paul Manafort, Ran Trump's Campaign
AP & TYT | author |03/22/17

**Russian Agent, Paul Manafort, Ran Trump's Campaign | TYT | 03/22/17 | 15:09

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer (2017)

In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system.

Why is America living in an age of profound and widening economic inequality? Why have even modest attempts to address climate change been defeated again and again? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? In a riveting and indelible feat of reporting, Jane Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats -- headed by the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys -- who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Mayer traces a byzantine trail of billions of dollars spent by the network, revealing a staggering conglomeration of think tanks, academic institutions, media groups, courthouses, and government allies that have fallen under their sphere of influence. Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews, as well as extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Mayer provides vivid portraits of the secretive figures behind the new American oligarchy and a searing look at the carefully concealed agendas steering the nation. Dark Money is an essential book for anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

Obamacare repeal in jeopardy as Trump offers 11th-hour concessions
Politico | Kyle Cheney | 03/23/17

The Republican plan to replace Obamacare -- backed vehemently by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan -- continued to bleed support from moderate House members Thursday morning just hours before an expected vote.

An effort to woo conservatives, hatched late Wednesday, appeared to backfire with other factions in the House Republican Conference, and the growing rebellion threatens to derail Trump's guarantee that he will repeal and replace the seven-year-old health care law.

"After careful deliberation, I cannot support the bill and will oppose it," Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) announced after he joined moderates for a two-hour meeting with Ryan and House leaders late Wednesday. "I believe this bill, in its current form, will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for low-to-moderate income and older individuals." ... Read more

The Truth Of Trump's "I Alone Can Fix It" Canard (#50) | Keith Olbermann | 03/22/17 | 8:33

Insurance Executive Blasts GOP Health Care Proposal: 'This Bill Is Terrible'
HP | Jonathan Cohn | date

Most insurance industry executives have been circumspect about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and its proposed replacement, the American Health Care Act. Mario Molina is an exception.

"I think this bill is terrible," Molina, the CEO of Molina Healthcare, told The Huffington Post in a lengthy interview Friday. The company covers more than 4 million people scattered across 13 states ? including California, where it's headquartered, as well as Florida, Michigan, New York and Texas. That makes it the 10th-largest health insurance company in the U.S., according to a 2015 government survey. ... Read more

A President's Credibility
WSJ | author | 03/22/17

If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world? We're not sure, which speaks to the damage that Mr. Trump is doing to his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.

The latest example is Mr. Trump's refusal to back off his Saturday morning tweet of three weeks ago that he had "found out that [Barack] Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory" on Election Day. He has offered no evidence for his claim, and a parade of intelligence officials, senior Republicans and Democrats have since said they have seen no such evidence. ... Read more

Democrats Beware: Sanders 'Movement' Turns to Midterms
ABCNews| Alex Seitz-Wald | 03/20/17

... During his presidential campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders never quite decided whether his "political revolution" could coexist with the Democratic Party or needed to overthrow it. Now, Sanders is one of the most popular political figures in the country and the activists he galvanized have gone on to start new groups, join old ones, or run electoral campaigns.

The path of Sanders' former staffers reflects the split in his movement, and the some are already galvanizing for the 2018 elections -- and setting their sights on their own. .... Read more
Establishment Reacts To Justice Democrats | TYT | 03/21/17 | 19:31

Current vote count: Obamacare repeal would fail
Politico | Kyle Cheney | 03/22/17

President Donald Trump and GOP leaders race to flip holdouts a day before a make-or-break House vote.

President Donald Trump's plan to remake the nation's health care system -- and perhaps the fate of his legislative agenda -- hinges on a 24-hour battle of wills with resistant conservatives that begins Wednesday.

The president, and his allies in House GOP leadership, will bring to bear the full weight of the White House on rank-and-file holdouts as they attempt to secure a handful of votes to pass their plan to replace Obamacare. For members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, the goal is to outlast the pressure campaign. ... Read more

The Only True Surprise? Trump's an Idiot (#49) | TRNN | 03/21/17 | 7:07

We Fact-Checked Lawmakers' Letters to Constituents on Health Care
ProPublica | Charles Ornstein | 03/22/17

When Louisiana resident Andrea Mongler wrote to her senator, Bill Cassidy, in support of the Affordable Care Act, she wasn't surprised to get an email back detailing the law's faults. Cassidy, a Republican who is also a physician, has been a vocal critic.

"Obamacare" he wrote in January, "does not lower costs or improve quality, but rather it raises taxes and allows a presidentially handpicked 'Health Choices Commissioner' to determine what coverage and treatments are available to you." There's one problem with Cassidy's ominous-sounding assertion: It's false. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Town Meeting in VT | TYT | 03/18/17 | 1:03:39

Not Just The US: UK Bans Use Of Laptops On Flights From 6 Mostly Muslim Countries
ZeroHedge | author | 03/21/17

One day after the Trump administration imposed a ban for carry-on electronic devices on planes coming to the US from 10 airports in mostly Muslim countries following unspecified terrorism threats, moments ago the UK issued a similar ban, restricting the use of carry on laptops and tablets for inbound flights for flights originating in the following nations: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and surprisingly, Saudi Arabia. ... Read more

Trump Is HISTORICALLY Unpopular. | TYT | 03/20/17 | 6:46

Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted... by Sheelah Kolhatkar (2017)

The rise over the last two decades of a powerful new class of billionaire financiers marks a singular shift in the American economic and political landscape. Their vast reserves of concentrated wealth have allowed a small group of big winners to write their own rules of capitalism and public policy. How did we get here? Through meticulous reporting and powerful storytelling, New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar shows how Steve Cohen became one of the richest and most influential figures in finance--and what happened when the Justice Department put him in its crosshairs.

Cohen and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn't lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than wrong--and for this they have gained not only extreme personal wealth but formidable influence throughout society. Hedge funds now manage nearly $3 trillion in assets, and competition between them is so fierce that traders will do whatever they can to get an edge.

Cohen was one of the industry's greatest success stories. He mastered poker in high school, went off to Wharton, and in 1992 launched SAC Capital, which he built into a $15 billion empire, almost entirely on the basis of his wizardlike stock trading. He cultivated an air of mystery, reclusiveness, and extreme excess, building a 35,000 square foot mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, and amassing one of the largest private art collections in the world. On Wall Street, Cohen was revered as a genius.

That image was shattered when SAC became the target of a sprawling, seven-year government investigation. Labeled by prosecutors as a "magnet for market cheaters" whose culture encouraged the relentless hunt for "edge"--and even "black edge," or inside information--SAC was ultimately indicted in connection with a vast insider trading scheme, even as Cohen himself was never charged.

Black Edge offers a revelatory look at the gray zone in which so much of Wall Street functions, and a window into the transformation of the U.S. economy. It's a riveting, true-life legal thriller that takes readers inside the government's pursuit of Cohen and his employees, and raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of modern Wall Street.

These Are The Four Political Risks Keeping Goldman Up At Night
ZeroHedge | author | 03/21/17

With political uncertainty near record highs (but equity market uncertainty near record lows), Goldman's Jan Hatzius analyzes the four biggest political risks receiving the most attention from market participants (and stand to create the most chaos if the priced for perfection market is disappointed).

The Most Telling Thing About the FBI's Probe into Trump (#48) | Keith Olbermann | 03/20/17 | 6:52

Trump: Everyone knows Russia allegations are 'fake news'
Politico | Louis Nelson | 03/20/17

Hours before FBI Director James Comey is set to testify before Congress on Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential elections, President Donald Trump renewed his attacks against those who have accused him of having ties to the Russian government.

"James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia," the president wrote on Twitter Monday morning, referring to statements made earlier this month by the former director of national intelligence on NBC's "Meet the Press." "This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!" Read more

2 Months In, Trump May Already Own A First: Most Corrupt POTUS. Ever.
HP | S.V. Date | 03/20/17

Ethics experts cannot think of a predecessor more ready to use the prestige of the office for personal gain.

Imagine a foreign potentate who uses his official position to promote his private businesses. Who makes face time with visiting dignitaries a perk for his paying customers. Whose top aide urges the citizenry to embrace products sold by the sovereign's daughter.

As President Donald Trump enters his third month in office, he has already established at least one record, however dubious: the president most open and willing to use the prestige of the White House to enrich himself and his family. ... Read more

The New Home Batteries | 08/20/16 | 27:59

Revenge of the Electric Car | 07/01/16 | 1:29:52

What A Shock: Comey Says, 'I Have No Information To Support Those Tweets.'
HP | Jason Linkins | 03/20/17

Monday morning on Capitol Hill brought us House Intelligence Committee hearing day, as FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers were brought in to answer questions on the alleged links between Russian officials and the inner circle of President Donald Trump's campaign, as well as some of the more outlandish claims that have recently been made by Trump concerning "wiretaps" that were allegedly dropped on Trump Tower by President Barack Obama.

It was the latest moment in a strange and ongoing saga that has necessitated the involvement of government officials who all probably have much more important things to tend right now. At one point, the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) was just reading Trump's tweets to Comey and Rogers, hoping that they would, perhaps, explain whether or not they were, you know, true. ... Read more

FOX NEWS POLL: Bernie Sanders remains the most popular politician in the US
BusinessInsider | Madeleine Sheehan Perkins | 03/16/17

Fox News' poll was conducted from March 12-14, 2017 via telephone (landlines and cell phones) with 1,008 randomly selected voters from across the country. The poll was done in conjunction with Democratic Anderson Robbins Research and Republican Shaw & Company Research. The full poll results report, including answers to over 50 questions ... Read more

Tom Cotton goes after Paul Ryan's agenda in battle of GOP heavyweights
Politico | Burgess Everett | 03/16/17

First on taxes and now on health care, the Arkansas senator has mercilessly attacked the well-laid plans of the House speaker.

Tom Cotton laid waste to the entire thing with just a few words. "The so-called three-phase plan is nothing but politician's talk," Cotton told Politico in an interview this week. "It's all talk."

The Arkansas senator and the House speaker -- both young, ambitious and potential White House material -- are engaged in a surprising confrontation these days. And it could bring down Ryan's signature legislative efforts to undo Obamacare and overhaul the tax code. ... Read more

Trump Just Sold a $15.8 Million Condo to a Consultant Who Peddles Access to Powerful People
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 02/27/17

Last week, Donald Trump's company sealed its first big post-inaugural real estate transaction, selling a $15.8 million penthouse to a Chinese-American business executive who runs a company that touts its ability to exploit connections with powerful people to broker business deals in China.

New York City property records show that Xiao Yan Chen, the founder and managing director of a business consulting firm called Global Alliance Associates, purchased the four-bedroom, six-bathroom condo in Trump's Park Avenue high-rise on February 21. Before taking office, Trump signed documents removing himself from the board of directors of Trump Park Avenue LLC, the entity that sold the unit, but he remains the LLC's owner. ... Read more

Monsanto Isn't Feeding the World--It's Killing Our Children
AlterNet | Katherine Paul | 03/17/17

Read more

Trump Budget Takes Hatchet To EPA And Foreign Aid, Adds Billions To Military
Reuters & HP | Roberta Rampton | 03/16/17

President Donald Trump will ask the U.S. Congress for dramatic cuts to many federal programs as he seeks to bulk up defense spending, start building a wall on the border with Mexico and spend more money deporting illegal immigrants.

In a federal budget proposal with many losers, the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department stand out as targets for the biggest spending reductions. Funding would disappear altogether for 19 independent bodies that count on federal money for public broadcasting, the arts and regional issues from Alaska to Appalachia. ... Read more

*Thank Stephen Miller’s Big Mouth For Trump Travel Ban’s Latest Court Woes
HP | Nick Visser | 03/15/17

Recent comments made by a top aide to the White House contributed, in part, to a federal judge’s Wednesday ruling to place a nationwide hold on parts of President Donald Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban against citizens of six Muslim-majority nations.

Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to the president, was one of Trump’s most vocal mouthpieces following the fraught rollout of the administration’s first travel ban that sparked massive protests at airports around the country. Shortly after federal judges struck down that order, Miller appeared on television to stump a watered-down version, assuring Fox News it would include only “minor technical differences.” ... Read more

Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on this day 100 years ago. | RT | 03/15/17 | 2:31

Europe Before WWI - George, Nicholas, Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins George, Nicholas, Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins [48:23]

Note: this is an older video, but don't get put-off by the soundtrack, the information is good. It is hard to believe that at the beginning of the 20th century one "Royal Family" owned half of the worlds resources.

Meet Shweeb: Where monorail meets bike | RT | 03/15/17 | 1:10

Trump’s budget ripped from Bannon’s nationalistic playbook
Politico | Shane Goldmacher | 03/16/17

The president’s first blueprint would deeply cut State Department funds while boosting defense and law enforcement funding.

The “deconstruction of the administrative state” now comes with line items. President Donald Trump released his blueprint for reshaping the American government on Thursday, a budget plan that slashes deeply into the State Department, redirects funds toward the military, guts environmental and housing programs -- and continues to run a nearly half-trillion-dollar deficit.

... Those numbers are stark, particularly for the State Department. Mulvaney said it would be cut by 28 percent -- “a fairly dramatic reduction,” he said -- but still smaller than the initial 37 percent gutting floated in February. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has pushed for more time to assess where to make such severe cuts. Some domestic programs, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Institute of Peace, the Chemical Safety Board, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports PBS and NPR, are on the chopping block for elimination entirely. Trump is pushing numerous such cuts, long sought by conservative Republicans, in the spending plan, while allocating “more money for things like private and public school choice,” Mulvaney said. ... Read more

*Trump Can’t Even Watch TV Correctly (#47) | Keith Olbermann | 03/15/17 | 7:55

Breitbart News Leads The Charge Against GOP Health Care Bill
HP | Michael Calderone | 03/14/17

The pro-Trump site is directing its fire at House Speaker Paul Ryan, not the president.

... On the recording from a private conference call in October, Ryan is heard telling House Republicans that he couldn't defend then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump at that moment or "in the future." His comments came amid a scandal over the now-president bragging on tape about groping women.

The never-before-heard recording didn't come to light through a liberal or mainstream news site. Rather, the right-wing, nationalist Breitbart News published it Monday night. ... Read more

Parts Of Donald Trump's 2005 Tax Returns Made Public
HP| Nick Visser , Ben Walsh | 03/14/17

Parts of Donald Trump's 2005 federal tax returns were made public on Tuesday night, revealing that the president made $150 million that year and paid $38 million in taxes.

An anonymous source released the first two pages of Trump's 2005 tax returns to Trump biographer and investigative journalist David Cay Johnston. Johnston joined MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on her show late on Tuesday to discuss the returns. ... Read more

**Exclusive Look At President Trump's 2005 Tax Return | MSNBC Rachel Maddow | 03/14/17 | 11:07

This Is What Trump's Deportation Campaign Really Looks Like
MotherJones | Brandon Ellington Patterson | 03/14/17

A woman hospitalized with a brain tumor, a dad dropping his daughter at school, and more.

Since February, dozens of deportation raids have been carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as Donald Trump has kicked his immigration crackdown into high gear. Immigrants--many of whom have lived and worked in the country for decades--have been arrested at home, at work, and at routine check-ins with ICE officials. Some arrests have sparked protests, while others have gone relatively unnoticed.

This is what one such arrest looked like:
There are several places that immigration officials consider sensitive--schools, churches, hospitals, and ceremonies like funerals and weddings--where they typically refrain from conducting enforcement actions. In the case of Sara Beltrán Hernández, ICE agents skirted this informal policy in late February by arresting her in the Texas hospital where she was receiving treatment for a brain tumor. Beltrán Hernández was transferred to a detention facility in Alvardo, Texas, where she had previously been held after spending 16 months while waiting for a judge to rule on her asylum request. Beltrán Hernández claimed she had fled El Salvador in late 2015 to escape domestic abuse and the gang violence that has devastated the country. ... Read more

Thousands of flights cancelled as snowstorm hits northeast US | Aljazeera | 03/14/17 | 2:05

This company will 3D print you a house anywhere you want it
DigitalTrends | Garrett Hulfish | 03/02/17

Giant 3D printers that fabricate homes have always done so in large facilities. Rather than assembling pieces printed elsewhere, engineering company Apis Cor has created the very first 3D-printed house using a mobile printer on-site.

Apis Cor: first residential house has been printed! | Aljazeera | 02/22/17 | 6:46

'People are scared': Paranoia seizes Trump's White House
Politico | Alex Isenstadt | 03/15/17

Staffers are leaving their phones at home, using secret apps and monitoring each other's social media.

A culture of paranoia is consuming the Trump administration, with staffers increasingly preoccupied with perceived enemies -- inside their own government.

In interviews, nearly a dozen White House aides and federal agency staffers described a litany of suspicions: that rival factions in the administration are trying to embarrass them, that civil servants opposed to President Donald Trump are trying to undermine him, and even that a "deep state" of career military and intelligence officials is out to destroy them.

Aides are going to great lengths to protect themselves. They're turning off work-issued smartphones and putting them in drawers when they arrive home from work out of fear that they could be used to eavesdrop. They're staying mum in meetings out of concern that their comments could be leaked to the press by foes. ... Read more

GOP's 'Act Of Mercy' Could Result In 24 Million People Losing Health Care
HP| Amanda Terkel , Sam Stein | 03/13/17

As they seek to replace Obamacare with a conservative alternative, Republicans are discovering that finding the right sales pitch on health care can be an incredibly delicate task. For weeks now, the party has touted its plan as a compassionate salve to the woes of Obamacare ? without acknowledging that there are serious trade-offs in return. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has gone so far as to call the bill an "act of mercy."

Under the Republican plan, repealing the Affordable Care Act could result in 24 million people losing health care coverage over the next decade. Older Americans would have to pay significantly more for insurance. A single 64-year-old who makes $26,500, for example, could face a 700 percent jump in premiums (from $1,700 now to $14,600 under the GOP bill). ... Read more

6 Things Paul Ryan Doesn't Understand About Poverty (But I Didn't, Either)
AlterNet | Karen Weese / Salon | 03/14/17

The rude dentist wasn't a cartoon villain; heck, most of the time he was probably a pretty nice guy. The problem was that he was utterly unable to imagine a life unlike his own, in which dental care wasn't a given -- where if there are five things on the list of essentials and the money runs out after item four, you just can't have number five, no matter how bad the pain. There was nothing in his personal experience to suggest the existence of such a life. He'd never imagined it, and no one had ever made him try. So he felt nothing when he crushed Nicole's hope and pride in two short sentences; indeed, he didn't realize he was doing it at all.

Fortunately, most of us are much more perceptive than that dentist. But there may be gaps in our experience that, despite our best intentions, leave us with blind spots about American families living in poverty. Here are a few things we may have missed: Hi, I'm right here ... Read more

Why Trump's government overhaul won't work
Politico | Kevin Kosar | 03/14/17

The president has the right idea. But he forgot to include the people that can make it happen.

What's not to like? The executive branch is an organizational basket case, and it sorely needs a re-think. For 238 years, citizen legislators and presidents have come to town with dreams of fixing public problems, hatching new agencies and programs to do it, many of which live long beyond the problem they were intended to solve. The slow aggregation of government initiatives has produced a $3.8 trillion per year government with at least 180 agencies. With each passing year, the government becomes more complex and incoherent -- "kludgeocracy", as political scientist Steven Teles termed it.

... But when it comes to the order itself -- well, it's hard to see how it has any chance of solving that problem. It instructs all agencies to examine their operations and draft plans for reorganization within 180 days. Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office of Management and Budget, must then take the agencies' plans and work them into a master plan for government reorganization. ... Read more

"The Powers-That-Be Have Looted Everything" - Greek Farmers Fight Riot Police With Shepherd Crooks
ZeroHedge | author | 03/14/17

Taxes are being hiked to satisfy inspectors who represent the international creditors who Greece's debt. If the government can't pay 7 billion euros by July, then the country will once again face the possibility of default. However, the farmers are determined to change their Leftist government's mind about the tax hikes. One of the protesting farmers who spoke to The Guardian stated that "We want to have them take back everything they have encumbered us with. To us, it seems like the powers that be have looted everything." ... Read more

There Is Nothing Normal About the Snowstorm About to Slam the East Coast
MotherJones | Eric Holthaus | 03/13/17

... If you live on the East Coast, you might have become complacent about epic snowstorms like this one. Twenty inches or so doesn't seem like such a big deal when you've lived through similar storms. But looking at the data, you'll see that 20-inch snowstorms are a relatively new phenomenon in places like New York City.

For the first 100 years that meteorologists kept weather records at Central Park, from 1869 through 1996, they recorded just two snowstorms that dumped 20 inches or more. But since 1996, counting this week's storm, there have been six. (You'll find similar stats for other major East Coast cities.) ... Read more

HHS Secretary Tom Price Says 'Nobody Will Be Worse Off Financially' Under Obamacare Repeal
HP | Amanda Terkel | 03/12/17

President Donald Trump's administration made a bold guarantee Sunday morning, telling Americans that health insurance won't cost more if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

"I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we're going through, understanding that they'll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy," Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on NBC's "Meet the Press." ... Read more

Break Out The Shovels: Northeast Faces Blizzard And Winter Storm Watch
HP | Nina Golgowski | 03/12/17

A blizzard watch has been issued for parts of the Northeast, including New York City and Boston, with up to 18 inches of snow expected in some areas beginning Monday.

The National Weather Service is forecasting the bitter blast to roll up the coast Monday night and into Tuesday for most of the region. Parts of New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts may see snowfall into early Wednesday. ... Read more

Sarah Palin Blasts GOP Health Care Plan As 'Socialism'
magazine | author | date

I have been collecting James Corbett videos so I can create a webpage of just his stuff. In the process I ran across some newer 9/11 vidoes that I found very interesting. So I decided to post them here.

Note: Christopher Bollyn's videos talk a lot about Zionism, but I feel he is talking about the State of Isreal and what "bad actors" are doing in the name of the country and not in the name of the Jewish people. I might be naive, but that is my take.

First start with:
1. Jame's video: 9/11: A Conspiracy Theory | CorbettReport | 09/11/11 | 4:55
Then watch:

2. 9/11 Conspiracy Solved: Names, Connections, & Details Exposed! | 10/31/12 | 43:28
If you have time watch:
3. Beyond the 28 Pages - What A Real 9/11 Investigation Would Reveal | 08/30/16 | 33:02
It is kind of a repeat of the previous video, but with more current stuff.
Next watch:
4. "Solving 9-11 Ends the War" with Christopher Bollyn | NWGrassroots | 05/29/16 | 1:45:42
If you have time watch:
5. Christopher Bollyn "The Dual-Deception of 9/11 and the Fraudulent War on Terror" | OpenMindConferenceDK | 11/04/16 | 1:58:00
Again it is kind of a repeat of the previous video, but from a different perspective.
Next watch:
6. Take the 47 Minute Building 7 Challenge! | 05/16/15 | 47:00
And of course you have to watch:
7. The Lone Gunmen - Pilot Show | 03/04/01 | 44:30

*9/11: A Conspiracy Theory | CorbettReport | 09/11/11 | 4:55

*9/11 Trillions: Follow The Money | CorbettReport | 09/11/15 | 59:34

*9/11 Conspiracy Solved: Names, Connections, & Details Exposed! | 10/31/12 | 43:28

*Beyond the 28 Pages - What A Real 9/11 Investigation Would Reveal | 08/30/16 | 33:02

*"Solving 9-11 Ends the War" with Christopher Bollyn | NWGrassroots | 05/29/16 | 1:45:42

*Christopher Bollyn "The Dual-Deception of 9/11 and the Fraudulent War on Terror" | OpenMindConferenceDK | 11/04/16 | 1:58:00
bollyn website

*Take the 47 Minute Building 7 Challenge! | 05/16/15 | 47:00

*WTC 7 - BBC The Third Tower | BBC | 09/19/11 | 58:56

*The Lone Gunmen - Pilot Show | 03/04/01 | 44:30

Insurance 101 For Paul Ryan: The Healthy Are Supposed To Help Pay For The Sick
HP | Mary Papenfuss | 03/09/17

Everyone pays into the pot and draws on it when they're sick. Younger people, who tend to be healthier than older people, pay for health insurance like everyone else. They'll rely on it when when they need it, probably more when they're older and there are younger, healthier people filing in behind them. It's the same with car insurance. Some people pay for decades and never get into an accident and never collect on their coverage (though the likelihood of anyone never using health insurance is unlikely).

... That's what actuarial figures are all about, so an insurance system can assess the risks of segments of customers to determine what everyone needs to put into the pot so there's enough to pay out when someone needs the money. ... Read more

'They ought to be careful': Trump raises eyebrows with heavy promotion of ExxonMobil announcement
BusinessInsider | Allan Smith | 03/07/17

President Trump raised eyebrows after he posted five congratulatory tweets promoting a Monday announcement from the energy giant ExxonMobil, the company from which his secretary of state came to the administration.

... Initially, the White House posted a press release reiterating the ExxonMobil news. That press release contained a paragraph that appeared to be copied, almost word-for-word, from the Exxon announcement. ... Read more
*TYT | Why Is Trump Doing Free Exxon Commercials?? (03/09/17) [8:12]
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Congress Warns Donald Trump: Stop Deleting Your Tweets
HP | Marina Fang | 03/09/17

When President Donald Trump or a member of his staff deletes a tweet, they may be violating federal law, two top congressmen warned the White House this week.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn on Wednesday expressing concerns about the Trump administration's record keeping habits and its nontransparent use of social media and other forms of electronic communication. ... Read more

Trump may have violated the Constitution to trademark massage parlors and escort services in China
RawStory.com | Travis Gettys | 03/08/17

China has granted preliminary approval to 38 new Trump trademarks that would allow the U.S. president and his family to develop name-branded hotels, golf courses and other hospitality services.

Donald Trump's lawyers applied for the trademarks in April 2016, when the Republican presidential candidate was attacking China at campaign rallies, and their approval raises potential constitutional issues after his inauguration as president, reported the Associated Press. ... Read more
*TYT | Why Is Trump Trademarking Chinese Massage Parlors?? (03/09/17) [6:58]

GOP lawmakers are about to pass two laws that would make it nearly impossible to sue corporations
RawStory.com | Sarah K. Burris | 03/08/17

There are two major laws that Congress is working to pass that would make it more difficult for an American to sue a corporation, The Consumerist reported.

H.R. 985, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act is akin to an Erin Brockovich killer. The first of the two laws, would make it more difficult for American's to file class action lawsuits against a corporation, the Center for American Progress explains. The law would put restrictions on the criteria for people banding together for a class action suit. It also would complicate and delay any payments for an attorney representing the clients. Such an act would make it risky for any lawyer to take on a case to help someone hurt by a corporation. According to CAP, Vice President Mike Pence has been seeking laws like this for years. ... Read more
*TYT | Why Republicans Want To Ban Class Action Lawsuits (03/09/17) [10:43]

*GOP Rushes Forward With Its Health Care Bill
HP | Jonathan Cohn , Jeffrey Young | 03/08/17

They don't know what it will actually do, but that's not stopping them.

House Republicans on Wednesday plowed ahead with their effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, brushing aside new criticism of what their proposed legislation would do ? and ignoring protests over the hurried process they are using to enact it.

Two House committees ? Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means ? spent the day debating complementary portions of the American Health Care Act, the long-awaited bill to repeal and "replace" the 2010 health care law. Ways and Means finally approved the legislation in early Thursday. Energy and Commerce was still debating later Thursday morning. ... Read more

Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 03/08/17

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared on Meet the Press this past weekend to discuss the Trump-Russia scandal. Chuck Todd asked: Were there improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials?

JAMES CLAPPER: We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, "our," that's N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that... Read more

If the Feds Did Wiretap Trump Tower, It's Not Obama Who Should Worry
WiredMagazine | Brian Barrett | 03/04/17

Early Saturday morning, President Trump fired off a series of tweets accusing, without evidence, former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in the month before the election. Trump compared the alleged snooping to "Nixon/Watergate," and intimated legal action.

What makes the broader allegation so extraordinary isn't that it is new. Quite the contrary. Various reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted Justice Department investigators a warrant to probe the Trump campaign's ties with Russia surfaced in November. What makes Trump's Twitter tirade so striking is what prompted it, and what it might imply if it's true. ... Read more

EPA's Environmental Justice Head Resigned After 24 Years. He Wants to Explain Why.
MotherJones | Rebecca Leber | 03/09/17

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office on Environmental Justice submitted his resignation on Tuesday. First reported by InsideClimate News, the resignation of Mustafa Ali comes as the Trump administration considers layoffs and budget cuts at the EPA that, if enacted, would eliminate the environmental justice budget and cut funding to grants for pollution cleanup.

Ali, a founder of the program in 1992 who has worked there since, told Mother Jones he resigned because he was concerned the administration's proposals to roll back its environmental justice work would disproportionately affect vulnerable communities. "That is something that I could not be a part of," Ali says. ... Read more

Voters See More Hatred In The Country Since Trump Was Elected
HP | Grace Sparks | 03/09/17

Most Americans believe that hatred and prejudice has risen in the country since President Donald Trump's election, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday. Sixty-three percent of voters said the level of hatred and prejudice has increased, compared to 32 percent who said it hasn't changed and 2 percent who said it has decreased.

Democrats were the most likely to see a negative impact, with 84 percent saying hostility has increased. Republicans were more divided, with a surprisingly high 42 percent agreeing that hatred has risen and 49 percent saying it hasn't changed. The views of independents were almost identical to those of all registered voters. ... Read more

The Health Care Industry Really Doesn't Like GOP's Obamacare Replacement
HP | Igor Bobic | 03/07/17

Major trade groups representing the health care industry on Tuesday voiced serious concerns, and in some cases outright opposition, to House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) bill to reform the Affordable Care Act, joining a chorus of critics from both the left and the right.

Groups representing hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, patients and older people criticized the Republican proposal. While some major industry players, including insurers and drugmakers, were notably silent, one big Medicaid provider predicted the GOP plan would wreck the insurance marketplace.

The speed with which major health industry groups distanced themselves from the GOP plan stands in sharp contrast to how Obamacare took shape in 2009. Democrats sought input from the health care industry from the beginning, working to build support before their bill was released to the public. ... Read more

Paul Ryan Pushing His TheBetterWay Agenda (2017) [3:56]

FoxNews | Paul Ryan Holds Press Conference On New Healthcare Plan (03/07/17) [12:10]

ReadTheBill.gop

AmericanHealthCareAct.pdf

WikiLeaks Dumps Documents It Claims Detail The CIA's Arsenal Of Hacking Tools
HP | Ryan Grenoble | 03/07/17

WikiLeaks on Tuesday released a trove of 8,700 documents, which it claims originated at the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence, that describe, in detail, the agency's hacking abilities and techniques.

Among the more interesting revelations of the so-called "Vault 7" documents, assuming they're legitimate, is the sheer breadth of devices government hackers could possibly compromise. That includes just about everything powered by Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS, such as smartphones, computers and even Samsung smart TVs, which it allegedly figured out how to turn into hidden recording devices under an effort code-named "weeping angel." ... Read more

Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed | Wikileaks website

FoxNews | CIA declines to comment on WikiLeaks document dump (03/07/17) [1:54]

Timothy Geithner's Right (For Once)
ZeroHedge | author | 03/08/17

Many of us disagree with the bloviated, self-congratulatory notion that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury saved the U.S. economy, capitalism and everything else in 2008-09 up to and including the Central Bank of Mars and the bat guano futures market.

With that said, Geithner's conclusion: current policy extremes, politics and astounding debt levels limit policymakers' emergency options in the next crisis ... Read more
Click to zoom in

House Republicans Unveil Bill To Repeal Obamacare
HP | Jonathan Cohn , Jeffrey Young | 03/06/17

It would likely take insurance from millions, but conservatives are already protesting.

House Republican leaders on Monday formally unveiled legislation to repeal most of the Affordable Care Act and "replace" it with a very different health policy scheme ? one in which government would do a lot less to help people get comprehensive health insurance and, most likely, many more people would struggle to find affordable medical care.

The bill represents a starkly different vision for the health care system than embodied by the Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama's 2010 law expanded health coverage to 20 million previously uninsured people and slashed the share of Americans without health insurance to an all-time low. The law targeted financial assistance to lower-income households and featured a slew of consumer protections, starting with an ironclad guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

The plan endorsed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), by contrast, offers less financial assistance to low-income people, likely resulting in millions of Americans losing the health coverage they have today, and provides tax credits to people with higher incomes. The bill scraps key consumer protections. ... Read more

Maybe It's Time To Stop Calling The GOP Obamacare Plan A 'Replacement'
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 03/04/17

This could be the week House leaders finally introduce legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have been trying to wipe off the books ever since it became law in 2010. The new bill supposedly exists already ? tucked away in a sealed room somewhere in the Capitol building, available only to Republicans who sit on the committee tentatively planning to mark up the legislation.

Despite the secrecy, reports in Politico, the Wall Street Journal and other outlets have provided a pretty clear picture of what Republicans have in mind. If those preliminary reports are correct, the proposal would fall well short of the repeated promises from President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders to replace Obamacare with something that provides "great health care" for all Americans. ... Read more

FoxNews | Paul Ryan Dodges Questions About Obama Wiretapping Trump (03/04/17) [17:37]

Inside Trump's fury: The president rages at leaks, setbacks and accusations
WashingtonPost | Philip Rucker, Robert Costa and Ashley Parker | 03/05/17

President Trump spent the weekend at "the winter White House," Mar-a-Lago, the secluded Florida castle where he is king. The sun sparkles off the glistening lawn and warms the russet clay Spanish tiles, and the steaks are cooked just how he likes them (well done). His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner -- celebrated as calming influences on the tempestuous president -- joined him. But they were helpless to contain his fury. Trump was mad -- steaming, raging mad. Read more

Wikileaks Unveils 'Vault 7': "The Largest Ever Publication Of Confidential CIA Documents"; Another Snowden Emerges
ZeroHedge | author | 03/07/17

A total of 8,761 documents have been published as part of 'Year Zero', the first in a series of leaks the whistleblower organization has dubbed 'Vault 7.' WikiLeaks said that 'Year Zero' revealed details of the CIA's "global covert hacking program," including "weaponized exploits" used against company products including "Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones." WikiLeaks tweeted the leak, which it claims came from a network inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.

... Another profound revelation is that the CIA can engage in "false flag" cyberattacks which portray Russia as the assailant. Discussing the CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group, Wikileaks' source notes that it "collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation. ... Read more

Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More
NYTimes | Eric Lipton | 03/05/17

Giants in telecommunications, like Verizon and AT&T, will not have to take "reasonable measures" to ensure that their customers' Social Security numbers, web browsing history and other personal information are not stolen or accidentally released.

Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will not be punished, at least for now, for not collecting extra money from customers to cover potential losses from certain kinds of high-risk trades that helped unleash the 2008 financial crisis.

And Social Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to block individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, nor will hunters be banned from using lead-based bullets, which can accidentally poison wildlife, on 150 million acres of federal lands. .... Read more

Former Intelligence Chief Denies Trump Campaign Was Wiretapped
HP | Daniel Marans | 03/05/17

James Crapper also said he knew of no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Sunday that Donald Trump's presidential campaign was not wiretapped under his watch.

"For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as [director of national intelligence], there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect, at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign. I can't speak for other Title III-authorized entities in the government, or a state or local entity," Clapper told NBC News' Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press." ... Read more

NBC Meet the Press | Full Clapper: 'No Evidence' of Collusion Between Trump and Russia (03/05/17) [7:31]

If Trump Tower Was Wiretapped, Trump Can Declassify That Right Now
TheIntercept | Jon Schwarz | 03/04/17

IF IN FACT Trump Tower was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign, as President Trump claimed in several tweets Saturday morning, he can do much more than say so on twitter: Presidents have the power to declassify anything at any time, so Trump could immediately make public any government records of such surveillance.

... According to a report in the BBC, citing unnamed sources, a joint government task force was formed in spring of 2016 to look into an intelligence report from a foreign government that Russian money was somehow coming into the U.S. presidential race. In June the Department of Justice, part of the task force, asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for a warrant to intercept electronic communications by two Russian banks. ... Read more

Former Trump adviser Carter Page also met with Russian envoy
Politico | Josh Meyers | 03/02/17

When Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak traveled to the GOP convention last summer, he met with then Sen. Jeff Sessions, as well as with two other Trump campaign advisers, including oil industry consultant Carter Page.

Page, at the time an unpaid foreign policy adviser to Trump, engaged in a conversation with the ambassador at the same July 20 luncheon in Cleveland where Sessions, now attorney general, and Kislyak chatted, according to J.D. Gordon, a national security adviser to the Trump campaign who was also present at the lunch. ... Read more

China's Banking System Hits $33 Trillion, Overtaking The Eurozone As World's Largest
ZeroHedge | author | 03/06/17

Chinese bank assets hit $33 trillion at the end of 2016, versus $31 trillion for the eurozone, $16 trillion for the US and $7 trillion for Japan. The value of China's banking system is now more than 310% the size of its GDP, compared to "only" 280% for the eurozone and its banks. China's bank assets are projected to grow by $3.3 trillion in 2017. ... Read more

Bannk of International Settlements (BIS) Admits TARGET2 Is A Stealth Bailout Of Europe's Periphery
ZeroHedge | author | 03/06/17

"In the period leading up to mid-2012, T2 balances grew strongly due to intra-euro area capital flight. At the time, sovereign market strains spiked and redenomination risk came to the fore in parts of the euro area. Private capital fled from Ireland, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain into markets perceived to be safer, such as Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands." ... Read more
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Trump's Already Small Circle Of Trusted Advisers Suffers Another Big Blow
HP | S.V. Date , Sam Stein | 03/02/17

Or so it must seem to President Donald Trump who, just five weeks into his term and two weeks after having to fire his national security adviser, has now watched his closest Cabinet ally neutered in a key role.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that he was recusing himself from any investigations pertaining to the Trump campaign, following the revelation that he spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice last year, despite having testified under oath during his confirmation hearings that he had no contact with any Russians. ... Read more

120 U.S. Generals and Admirals Just Sent Trump a Dire Warning About Diplomacy
AlterNet | JP Sottile / Anti-Media | 03/02/17

America's generals are talking turkey. But we're not talking about the well-known idiom for "speaking frankly" about a subject ... although over 120 retired generals did just send a frank letter in response to a new State Department-slashing budget proposal by President Trump.

In that unusual military missive, a group of "former three- and four-star generals" led by "Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander," pled with lawmakers and yet another general, new National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, to preserve State Department funding.

Why do these men of war want to make sure Trump doesn't gut diplomacy? Because they think it is "critical to keeping America safe," according to a report by CNN on the much-discussed letter. ... Read more

'Shell Knew': Oil Giant's 1991 Film Warned of Climate Change Danger
AlterNet | Damian Carrington / The Guardian | 03/01/17

The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered.

... Shell's 28-minute film, called Climate of Concern, was made for public viewing, particularly in schools and universities. It warned of extreme weather, floods, famines and climate refugees as fossil fuel burning warmed the world. The serious warning was "endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists in their report to the United Nations at the end of 1990", the film noted. ... Read more
ShellOil | What Shell knew about climate change in 1991 (trailer) (1991) [2:40]

ShellOil | Climate of Concern - Royal Dutch Shell (FULL) (1991) [28:31]

VICE | Shooting the Biggest Guns Money Can Buy | The Big Sandy Shoot (07/12/12) [13:08]

Jim Rogers -> We're About To Have The Worst Economic Problems Of A Lifetime (02/10/17) [1:08:19]

Trump Team's Ties To Russia Face Sharper Scrutiny Amid New House Probe And Explosive Reports
HP | Jessica Schulberg , Sam Stein | 03/01/17

A series of bombshell revelations Wednesday night cast new light on Donald Trump's potential ties to the Russian government during the course of the presidential campaign and seem likely to escalate calls for a special prosecutor to investigate the matter.

The New York Times reported that intelligence officials working for the Obama administration had grown so concerned about the scope of Russia's meddling in the elections and the evidence of ties to Trump's operation that they began to leave a breadcrumb trail of clues for future investigators to follow. Among those data points that had them spooked were a series of meetings that affiliates of the Trump campaign and the Russian government allegedly held in European capitals ? meetings that the Trump White House has consistently denied ever took place.

About an hour later, The Washington Post published its report that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke twice last year with Russia's ambassador to the United States and failed to disclose it to lawmakers during his January confirmation hearing. Sessions had been a top surrogate for the Trump campaign and a senior member of the influential Senate Armed Services Committee. ... Read more

Stockman: "Trump Will Create A Debt Crisis Like Never Before"
ZeroHedge | author | 03/02/17

"Trump is so deep in fiscal la-la-land, he won't even find the wrong envelope... he is saying crazy things."

Stockman added that "...by the time we get to June or July, we are going to see a debt ceiling crisis like never before." "I think what people are missing is this date, March 15th 2017. That's the day that this debt ceiling holiday that Obama and Boehner put together right before the last election in October of 2015. That holiday expires. The debt ceiling will freeze in at $20 trillion. It will then be law. It will be a hard stop. The Treasury will have roughly $200 billion in cash. We are burning cash at a $75 billion a month rate. By summer, they will be out of cash. Then we will be in the mother of all debt ceiling crises. Everything will grind to a halt. I think we will have a government shutdown. There will not be Obama Care repeal and replace. There will be no tax cut. There will be no infrastructure stimulus. There will be just one giant fiscal bloodbath over a debt ceiling that has to be increased and no one wants to vote for." Read more
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Democrats On Donald Trump's Address To Congress: It Was 'Surreal'
HP | Laura Barron-Lopez , Michael McAuliff |03/01/17

"It was a surreal experience," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told The Huffington Post moments after Trump's address. "We have a reality show host in the White House masquerading as the president of the United States of America and half the country is still in complete shock."

For freshman Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a constitutional law professor who won election in November, it was unlike anything he's ever heard. "To me, it actually felt a little bit like The Hunger Games at points. There was something kind of dystopian, science fiction about the experience," he said. "I looked up and I saw [former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich and suddenly I felt that I was transported to a different world." ... Read more

Crony Capitalism at Work? Trump Adviser Carl Icahn Strong-Arms Ethanol Lobby to Save His Company Millions
TheIntercept | David Dayen | 03/02/17

that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has used his position as Donald Trump's deregulatory czar to strong-arm the ethanol lobby into agreeing to a change that will save one of Icahn's companies $200 million a year.

If so, this would be the most obvious example yet of crony capitalism in the Trump era.

Trump named Icahn as deregulatory czar in December, saying he would be "a leader in helping American entrepreneurs shed job-killing regulations that stifle economic growth." But because Icahn was a "special adviser" to the president with no formal White House position, the administration said he did not have to divest from any of his prodigious financial holdings. At the time, observers noted that Icahn would have a perfect opportunity to advise on deregulatory actions that would line his own pockets. Read more

Federal Officials Are Searching Caterpillar's Corporate Headquarters; Stock Plunges
ZeroHedge | author | 03/02/17

Federal officials have executed search warrants at three Caterpillar, Inc. facilities in the Tri-County Area -- including the corporate headquarters -- Thursday morning. Company officials confirmed the presence in a statement without specifying which agency was performing the search or what the search was in regard to. ... Read more

The Illusion Of Progress
ZeroHedge | author | 03/02/17

This is precisely what you'd expect of a self-serving elite that was desperate to cloak the unhappy reality that the relative few are benefiting immensely at the expense of the many. ... Read more
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**Bernie Sanders' BRILLIANT Response To Trump's Speech To Congress (03/01/17) [14:15]

PBSNewsHour | Watch Trump's address to Congress in 7 minutes (02/28/17) [7:00]

Wilbur Ross Comes to D.C. With an Unexamined History of Russian Connections
dcreport.org | James S. Henry | 03/01/17

In the midst of the Trump Administration's many other Russian entanglements,[1] it turns out that Wilbur J. Ross, Jr., the billionaire American investor who is one of Donald Trump's closest advisors on trade and economics, has direct financial ties to several leading oligarchs from Russia and the Former Soviet Union or FSU.

... Central to this inquiry is the question of Ross's role as Vice Chair and a leading investor in the Bank of Cyprus, the largest bank in Cyprus, one of the key offshore havens for illicit Russian finance. Ross has been Vice Chairman of this bank and a major investor in it since 2014. His fellow bank co-chair evidently was appointed by none other than Vladimir Putin. ... Read more

Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe by Antony Loewenstein (2017)

Disaster has become big business. Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein trav­els across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovers how companies cash in on or­ganized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining.

What emerges through Loewenstein's re­porting is a dark history of multinational corpo­rations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world's most valu­able commodity.

Fact-Checking Donald Trump's First Presidential Address to Congress
AlterNet | Alan Yuhas / The Guardian | 02/28/17

Jobs, taxes and business
"Since my election, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Wal Mart, and many others have announced they will invest billions and billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs."

Some of these corporations announced jobs and investment before the election, though Ford credited the president with its decision to create 700 jobs and make a $700m investment in Michigan. General Motors had committed $2.9bn and Walmart announced an expansion before any votes were cast, on the other hand, and several companies, including Chrysler, had previously agreed to create jobs. ... Very long & good article, read more

Trump Wants You to Think All the Immigrants He'll Deport Are Criminals. They're Not.
TheIntercept | Zaid Jilani | 03/01/17

PRESIDENT TRUMP ON TUESDAY night blamed undocumented immigrants for violent, criminal behavior -- also accusing them of hurting the economy, stealing jobs from struggling families, costing the government billions of dollars, and generally creating "an environment of lawless chaos."

The man who began his presidential campaign talking about "rapists" coming over the border cast his crusade to deport and block undocumented immigrants as a moral choice between protecting Americans or leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and death. "What would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?" he asked. ... Read more