Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Federal workers spill on life in Trump's Washington
Politico | Andrew Restuccia | 03/30/18

From marital strife to high anxiety, civil servants reveal how the Trump administration has changed agency life.

One Health and Human Services employee swore off online dating after potential suitors repeatedly got upset that he worked for the Trump administration. An Education Department fellow eagerly returned to teaching after listening to Betsy DeVos bash public schools. And one Environmental Protection Agency official said staffers are distraught at having to personally dismantle regulations they spent years crafting.

This is Donald Trump's government 14 months into his presidency. Interviews with nearly three dozen current and recently departed workers across the ideological spectrum and across the federal bureaucracy -- from the State Department to the Interior Department -- show that Trump's presidency has fundamentally altered the lives of government workers in ways big and small. ... Read more

NEW: Intercepted W/ Jeremy Scahill: The Laundering of American Empire | | 02/19/18 | 1:17:17

John Kelly not present for Trump's decision to fire McMaster: report
TheHill | Julia Manchester | 03/29/18

White House chief of staff John Kelly was not present when President Trump decided to fire former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, according to Bloomberg News. Trump reportedly made his final decision to oust McMaster when he was alone with McMaster's replacement, former ambassador and Fox News analyst John Bolton.

Bloomberg also reports that Kelly is rarely on the line for Trump's calls with foreign leaders, a change from his previous habit, and was not on the call when Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and congratulated him on his election win. ... Read more
Trump Chief Of Staff John Kelly Being Phased Out? | TYT | 03/29/18 | 6:42

Trump ousts Shulkin at VA, taps White House physician
TheHill | Jordan Fabian | 03/28/18

President Trump said Wednesday he is removing Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin and tapping White House physician Adm. Ronny Jackson as his replacement, ending weeks of uncertainty at the embattled agency.

Trump announced the decision on Twitter, a move that caps off a stunning fall for Shulkin, who had once been among Trump's favorite Cabinet secretaries. ... Read more
Why Is Trump Firing The VA Secretary? | TYT | 03/29/18 | 11:13

Privatization: Biggest Scam, Web of Lies, Cabal of Thieves

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wrigh

"The Looming Tower" traces the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the late '90s and how a rivalry between the FBI and CIA during the time period may have inadvertently set the path for the attacks of 9/11. The series follows members of the I-49 Squad in New York and Alec Station in Washington, D.C. -- the counterterrorism divisions of the FBI and CIA, respectively -- as they travel around the world, fighting for ownership of information while seemingly working toward a common goal of preventing an imminent attack on American soil. The drama is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Lawrence Wright.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning, Lawrence Wright, 'Looming Tower' Adapted To TV Series for HuLu | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 03/30/18 | 7:20

The Looming Tower, A Hulu Original (trailer) | 01/11/18 | 2:00

A Mueller report may never see the light of day
WashingtonPost | Nelson W. Cunningham | 03/14.18

How much of the special counsel's "confidential" report on prosecution or declination decisions, or consultations an impeachment recommendation, might come to light? The regulations provide that the attorney general may release the special counsel's report if he finds it would "be in the public interest." But nothing requires him to do so. Moreover, any release must "comply with applicable legal restrictions," which pose substantial barriers.

The only disclosure the attorney general is required to make, to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees, is if he concludes that "a proposed action by a Special Counsel was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued."

As for Mueller, the regulations forbid him from publicly discussing his findings except as "governed by the generally applicable Departmental guidelines concerning public comment with respect to any criminal investigation" -- which generally forbid public comment on closed investigations. ... Read more

JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, : Banking Bill "Doesn't Really Have Anything To Do With Us"
The Intercept | David Dayen | 03/28/18

... After the revisions, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that there was a 50 percent chance that JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup would be able to take advantage of the custodial bank provision. That number is likely an underestimate considering that Donald Trump's industry-friendly regulators would be the ones making the determination.

If JPMorgan Chase could convince regulators that it was eligible for Section 402 capital relief, then it would be able to lower its capital requirement by $21.4 billion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has calculated in an internal report. While that's around 0.8 percent of JPMorgan's $2.6 trillion in assets, it would be a 13.4 percent reduction in the bank's capital requirement. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., offered an amendment to strike all of Section 402 from the bill, but it never got a vote on the Senate floor.

So when Dimon said that S.2155 "doesn't really have anything to do with us," he was potentially off by $21.4 billion. And that's not the only provision in the bill that JPMorgan Chase could take advantage of. ... Read more

Ethics experts say Jared Kushner's 'very, very bad judgment' got him into hot water once again
BusinessInsider | Allan Smith | 03/28/18

Experts also ridiculed the idea that the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, would be able to effectively investigate whether the loans were improper, and they suggested the ordeal could even come under the microscope of Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia investigation.

"The notion that the counsel to the president has his staff investigating the son-in-law of the president is implausible to the point of being silly," Walter Shaub, the head of the Office of Government Ethics under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, told Business Insider. "There's no way OGE's acting director is naive enough to believe they're seriously looking into the matter." ... Read more
White House Not Investigating Kushner's Staggering Corruption | TYT | 03/28/18 | 11:54

Democrats Call Out Trump's Consumer Watchdog for Letting Payday Lenders Off the Hook
MotherJones | Hannah Levintova | 03/28/18

Ever since President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the financial watchdog--dreamed up by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and created in the wake of the financial crisis--has taken a loosened approach to regulating payday lenders. In recent months, the CFPB has announced plans to reconsider an Obama-era rule that sought to curb predatory practices by these lenders, and quietly closed investigations and scrapped lawsuits aimed at payday lenders around the country. ... Read more

Kim Jong Un Met With Xi Jinping, China Confirms
HP | Nick Visser | 03/27/18

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in secret with China's Xi Jinping this week in Kim's first trip abroad since assuming power, Chinese state news reported Wednesday.

The news confirms widespread rumors that Kim had unexpectedly traveled to China via an armored train on Monday in his first foreign trip as leader of the North. The 21-car behemoth chugged into Beijing's central train station, where a military honor guard and a large motorcade of diplomatic vehicles reportedly met it. But senior officials in the U.S., South Korea and China declined to comment on exactly who was thought to be in the carriages. ... Read more

Intercepted Podcast: Donald Trump's 'Stache Infection
TheIntercept | author | 03/28/18

DONALD TRUMP IS shaking up his administration yet again. And the recent shuffles and new blood is an ominous sign that things can actually get worse. Much worse. This week on Intercepted: Famed women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, who has a case against Trump that may result in her deposing the president, analyzes his legal battles ahead. The former national security briefer to George H.W. Bush, Ray McGovern, talks about John Bolton, Russia, and the CIA's twitter account engaging in domestic propaganda by campaigning for Gina Haspel. McGovern, who spent 27 years at the CIA, also explains why the elder Bush called Bolton and his crew the "crazies." Jared Kushner has a new bromance with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, but MBS has apparently been running around bragging that he has Kushner "in his pocket." The Intercept's Ryan Grim and Alex Emmons talk about Kushner, the Presidential Daily Brief, and MBS's royal putsch that made him next in line for the Saudi throne. And punk musician Alice Bags of The Bags talks about the early punk scene in Los Angeles, feminism, and her career, and we hear music from her new album, "Blueprint." ... Read more
Intercept | Jeromy Scahill Intercepted Podcast: Donald Trump's 'Stache Infection | TheIntercept | 03/28/18 | 1hr

The Many Red Flags of Trump's Partners in India -- 'Trump, Inc.' Podcast
ProPublica | Eric Umansky | 03/28/18

President Donald Trump does not like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. "It's a horrible law," Trump has said. The FCPA makes it a crime for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials, or to partner with others who are clearly doing so.

Trump has argued that the law puts U.S. firms at a disadvantage. "It's things like this that cause us to not be able to lead the world," Trump said on CNBC in 2012. "For this country to prosecute because something took place in India is outrageous." ... Read more
The Many Red Flags of Trump's Partners in India -- 'Trump, Inc.' Podcast | ProPublica | 03/28/18 | 1hr

The Business of War: SOFEX | VICE | 07/05/12 | 20:09

The Only Good Thing About John Bolton in the White House is That He's Not a General
TheIntercept | Peter Maass | 03/25/18

AMERICA ALREADY LOVES its generals too much but National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Chief of Staff John Kelly nonetheless deserve a special round of thanks for conclusively demonstrating why it's foolish to trust generals when they swap their uniforms for suits and ties.

While Kelly is hanging onto his job for now, McMaster has gotten the boot from President Trump, in favor of John Bolton, who is a genuinely terrifying individual, one of the fiercest war hawks of our times. Whether it's Iran, North Korea or Iraq, the military option is pretty much the only one for which Bolton has enthusiasm. His ascension to the White House should deepen our anxieties. ... Read more

Stormy Daniels describes her alleged affair with Donald Trump | 60Minutes | 03/25/18 | 24:00

Here's John Bolton Promising Regime Change in Iran by the End of 2018
TheIntercept | Robert Mackey | 03/23/18

AMONG THOSE MOST alarmed by President Donald Trump's selection of John Bolton as his new national security adviser on Thursday were supporters of the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear program in exchange for a partial lifting of economic sanctions.

Rob Malley, who coordinated Middle East policy in the Obama administration, observed that Bolton's appointment, along with the nomination of Iran deal critic Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, seemed to signal that the agreement would most likely be "dead and buried" within months. Trita Parsi, leader of the National Iranian American Council wrote on Twitter: "People, let this be very clear: The appointment of Bolton is essentially a declaration of war with Iran. With Pompeo and Bolton, Trump is assembling a WAR CABINET." ... Read more

Chinese Corporation Alibaba Joins Group Ghostwriting American Laws
TheIntercept | Lee Fang, Nick Surgey | 03/20/18

CHINESE E-COMMERCE GIANT Alibaba has joined the American Legislative Exchange Council, a private group set up for corporations and other interest groups to ghostwrite legislation sponsored by legislators in state capitols around the country.

Bill Anaya, head of government affairs for Alibaba operations in the Americas, spoke at ALEC's States & Nation Policy Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, in December 2017, according to notes taken at the meeting that were obtained by The Intercept and Documented. The gathering brought together over 1,000 state and local lawmakers and lobbyists. ... Read more

ALEC - The American Legislative Exchange Council - Explained in 5 Minutes | 5:01

Aerial Views of Mexico's Dystopian Housing Developments
Wired | Michael Hardy | 03/20/18

IN THE EARLY 2000s, the Mexican government launched an ambitious effort to build affordable housing for millions of the country's most impoverished citizens. The government ultimately spent more than $100 billion on hundreds of sprawling housing developments, but the program was plagued by corruption, poor planning, and shabby construction methods. Even today, many of the developments lack running water or sewer systems.

"This is a disturbing reality that can't be seen from the ground level," Taboada says, referencing the developments' cramped, overly monotonous construction. "I discovered these low-income houses that were being built by the thousands in the suburbs of the main industrial cities of Mexico, and I began to document them." Taboada's works will be exhibited in July as part of a group show at the Hamburg Triennial of Photography. ... Read more

**Scarier Than a Neoconserative
New Republic | Jeet Heer | 03/23/18

John Bolton, the new national security advisor, is a radical nationalist -- and has the skills to make Trump's foreign policy fantasies a reality.

America's foreign policy is even more unstable now that President Donald Trump has fired national security advisor H. R. McMaster and replaced him with John Bolton. "There are few people more likely than Mr. Bolton is to lead the country into war," The New York Times' editorial board wrote. "His selection is a decision that is as alarming as any Mr. Trump has made so far." Slate columnist Fred Kaplan was more blunt. "It's time to push the panic button," he argued. "John Bolton's appointment as national security adviser--a post that requires no Senate confirmation--puts the United States on a path to war. And it's fair to say President Donald Trump wants us on that path." One European official told Reuters, "Any moderating factor in White House foreign policy is being lost. We hoped the 'adults in the room' would win over Trump, but now the adults are leaving." ...

... Since the Vietnam War, the GOP has had three major foreign policy wings: prudential realists, neoconservatives, and radical nationalists. The prudential realists (best exemplified by George H.W. Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft) believe in using American power within a system of international institutions to promote a narrow agenda of maintaining global hegemony. Neoconservatives, best exemplified by figures like Paul Wolfowitz, believe that American global hegemony is best maintained by democracy promotion, which sometimes includes the flouting of international norms (as with the invasion of Iraq in 2003). Radical nationalists, such as Barry Goldwater and, in more recent years, Jesse Helms and Dick Cheney, share the neoconservative disdain for international institutions but have no real interest in democracy promotion. Rather, they advocate a raw assertion of American power for the sake of maintaining global hegemony. ... Read more

'It's Very Difficult to Overestimate the Potential Danger John Bolton Could Put Us In'
Politico | Susan B. Glasser | 03/26/18

Talking national security with Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton's top foreign policy adviser.

John Bolton has advocated for war with Iran and North Korea. He loathes the United Nations, disdains international law and still thinks the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was the right idea. He's a China skeptic and a Russia hawk who, as one former colleague from the Bush administration put it to me the other day, never met a military option he didn't like.

And he's confrontational in person too. Bolton, President Trump's choice to replace the national security adviser he unceremoniously dumped on Thursday, is already criticizing the staff he stands to inherit, publicly vowing to bulldoze any bureaucratic "munchkins" who stand in his or the president's way. Bolton is, in short, a most unusual figure in American foreign policy: personally belligerent and professionally bellicose, and soon to be the closest adviser to an inexperienced president on how to handle all the world's many challenges. ... Read more
'It's Very Difficult to Overestimate the Potential Danger John Bolton Could Put Us In' | Politico | 03/26/18 | 1hr

The Last Hours of Humanity | Thom Hartmann | 04/01/14 | 12:18

John Bolton Chairs an Actual "Fake News" Publisher, Infamous For Spreading Anti-Muslim Hate
TheIntercept | Lee Fang | 03/23/18

JOHN BOLTON, PRESIDENT Donald Trump's pick to be his new national security adviser, has a long association with a group infamous for its role in publishing fake news and spreading hate about Muslims.

Bolton wears many hats. He serves as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, as a contributor to Fox News, and controls a Super PAC that used money from the billionaire Mercer family to help elect congressional Republicans.

But one role that has received relatively little scrutiny is his work as chair of the Gatestone Institute, a nonprofit that focuses largely on publishing original commentary and news related to the threat Islam poses to Western society. He has served in that role since 2013. ... Read more

BREAKING: H.R. McMaster Resigns, Trump Names Successor | TYT | 03/22/18 | 12:33

Noam Chomsky on the Populist Groundswell, US Elections and the Future of Humanity
Truth-out | Lynn Parramore, Institute for New Economic Thinking | 03/23/18

Lynn Parramore: You've been looking at politics and international relations for quite a long time. Over the decades, what are the continuities in these areas that stand out in your view?

Noam Chomsky: Well the continuities are the message of the Athenians to Melos: "the powerful do what they wish and the weak suffer what they must" [from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.] It's often disguised in humanitarian terms. The modalities and the context change. The situations change but the message stays the same.

Lynn Parramore: What do you see as the most significant changes?

Noam Chomsky: ... Iraq was the first time in the history of imperialism that there were massive protests before the war was even officially launched. It's claimed by people that it failed, but I don't think so. I mean, they never began to do the kinds of things that they could have done. There were no B-52 raids on heavily populated areas or chemical warfare of the kind they did in Indochina. By and large the constraints come from inside, and they understood that. By the time you got to the first Bush administration, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they came out with a national defense policy and strategic policy. ... Read more

Political Corruption and the Art of the Deal
NewRepublic | Anjali Kamat | 03/21/18

Investigations into Donald Trump's foreign entanglements may have largely begun with Russia, but the president and his family have a special relationship with India, too. Since Donald Trump and his children first began talks with developers in India, around 2007, the Trump Organization has entered into more deals there than in any other foreign country. Five of them are still active--four luxury residential projects and one commercial tower--and are valued at an estimated $1.5 billion.

Donald Trump Jr. has made at least ten trips to India over the past decade, calling the country "the biggest push for our organization." His most recent visit was a headline-grabbing jaunt in February. In the days leading up to his four-day, four-city tour, all of the leading English-language newspapers in New Delhi carried full front-page ads featuring an image of Donald Jr., asking, "TRUMP HAS ARRIVED. HAVE YOU?" and, "TRUMP IS HERE. ARE YOU INVITED?" Anyone who, by midweek, had put down a deposit of about $39,000 on an apartment in the newest Trump Tower India project, located just outside New Delhi, would be invited to a Friday night dinner with him. Before Donald Jr.'s private jet had even landed in the Indian capital, sales reached $15 million, according to a local business TV station. ... Read more

The power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a mysterious new data company
Business Insider | Shona Ghosh | 03/21/18

Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer, daughters of hedge fund tycoon Robert Mercer, have just joined the board of a mysterious new company set up by executives at scandal-hit political research firm Cambridge Analytica.

According to public filings at Britain's Companies House, Emerdata was incorporated in August 2017 and the Mercers were appointed to its board on March 16 this year. Cambridge Analytica's now-suspended chief executive, Alexander Nix, is also listed as a director, as is Julian Wheatland, chairman of Cambridge Analytica parent firm SCL Group. ... Read more
Trump's Hatchet Men Come Up with a New Trick | TYT | 03/21/18 | 7:45

Mark Zuckerberg: "I'm really sorry that this happened" | CNN | 03/21/18 | 14:55

Massive spending deal clinched despite Trump's misgivings
Politico | Heather Caygle | 03/21/18

Congressional leaders on Wednesday night formally unveiled a mammoth spending bill that would deliver the largest funding boost to federal agencies in years -- but with a tight 48-hour margin to pass it.

President Donald Trump, for now, appears grudgingly willing to support the measure, which is likely the last major piece of legislation he will sign before the midterm elections.

Congress must approve the roughly 2,232-page bill by midnight Friday to avert a third shutdown in as many months.

The so-called omnibus bill abandons many of the most controversial provisions lawmakers were trying to include in the must-pass bill -- which had painfully stalled the bill's release for days.

The bill will, however, fix a snafu in the GOP's tax law -- the so-called grain glitch -- that farm state lawmakers were seeking. It also includes a narrow gun safety measure and a compromise on a New York infrastructure project that had become a lightning-rod issue with the president.

But the deal wasn't without its detractors -- including Donald Trump himself. The president was unhappy that GOP leaders didn't win more money for his border wall with Mexico or any new detention beds for undocumented immigrants and new deportation agents, according to three sources familiar with the White House's thinking. ... Read more

Saudi Crown Prince Boasted That Jared Kushner Was "In His Pocket"
TheIntercept | Alex Emmons | 03/21/18

UNTIL HE WAS stripped of his top-secret security clearance in February, presidential adviser Jared Kushner was known around the White House as one of the most voracious readers of the President's Daily Brief, a highly classified rundown of the latest intelligence intended only for the president and his closest advisers. ...

... In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. "The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy," the Washington Post's David Ignatius reported at the time. ...

What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney's spokesperson, denies having done so. ... Read more

Donald Trump Jr. Pushed 'Blatantly Illegal' Project In India, Former Official Says -- 'Trump, Inc.' Podcast
ProPublica | Eric Umansky | 03/21/18

A Trump project in Mumbai had its permits revoked after investigators found "significant irregularities." Then Trump Jr. travelled to India to get the decision overruled. ... Read more
Open for Business | CNN | 03/21/18 | 14:55

Snow Storm Prompts Authorities To Close Schools, Ground Thousands Of Flights On East Coast
Reuters & HP | author | 03/21/18

It's the fourth major storm to strike the region in the past three weeks.

March 21 (Reuters) - Millions of commuters along the U.S. East Coast will face another round of heavy snow, ice and wind gusts on Wednesday when the fourth major snowstorm this month strikes the region, closing schools, grounding flights and halting buses and trains.

The nor'easter storm is on track to dump up to a foot of snow and bring gusts of up to 50 miles per hour to major cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston on Wednesday and into Thursday, the National Weather Service said. "Significant amounts of snow, sleet and ice will make travel very hazardous or impossible," the service said in an advisory for New Jersey. ... Read more

The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World by Bart D. Ehrman

rom the New York Times bestselling authority on early Christianity, the story of how Christianity grew from a religion of twenty or so peasants in rural Galilee to the dominant religion in the West in less than four hundred years.

Christianity didn't have to become the dominant religion in the West. It easily could have remained a sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. In The Triumph of Christianity, Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries. The Triumph of Christianity combines deep knowledge and meticulous research in an eye-opening, immensely readable narrative that upends the way we think about the single most important cultural transformation our world has ever seen--one that revolutionized art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law.

Author Bart Ehrman Traces Christianity's Path From 'Forbidden Religion' To A 'Triumph' | NPR Fresh Air | 03/21/18 | 1hr

Intercepted Podcast: Legacy of Blood -- The 55-Year U.S. Wu Against Iraqis
TheIntercept | author | date

THIS WEEK MARKS the 15th anniversary of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. But what is almost never discussed is the fact that the U.S. has been waging war against the Iraqi people over the past six decades. This week on Intercepted: Jeremy digs deep into the U.S. legacy in Iraq, beginning with the CIA-backed overthrow of a popular leader who nationalized Iraq's oil and overthrew the British-backed monarchy. It is a history that spans 11 U.S. presidents, both Democratic and Republican. U.S. policy has always been about the interests of Western capitalism and the flags of American victories have long been planted on the corpses of Iraqi civilians. ... Read more
Intercepted Podcast: Legacy of Blood -- The 55-Year U.S. Wu Against Iraqis with Jeremy Scahill | 03/21/18 | 1hr

How America's Brutal 15-Year War in Iraq Changed Its Environment Forever
MotherJones | Alexander C. Kaufman | 03/21/18

Azzam Alwash, the man credited with restoring the Iraqi marshlands believed to be the biblical garden of Eden, is ready to say something controversial: He welcomed the war.

Poison DUst: Health Consequences of Depleted Uranium Home and Abroad | | 2011 | 1:24::03

Inequality in America: A National Town Hall | Bernie Sanders | 03/19/18 | 1:42:24

Bernie's Inequality in America National Town Hall (summary) | TYT | 03/19/18 | 11:50

*Wealth Inequality in America [6:25]

Explosion At San Antonio FedEx Facility May Be Linked To Austin Bombings, FBI Says
HP | Willa Frej | 03/20/18

A package exploded at a FedEx sorting facility in Schertz, Texas, early Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' confirmed. FedEx told HuffPost that one person was being treated for minor injuries.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation told The Associated Press and CBS News that it believes the detonation at the facility outside San Antonio is likely connected to the string of bombings that have rocked Austin in the past month. "We suspect it is related to our investigation," FBI San Antonio spokeswoman Michelle Lee told CNN. ... Read more

Trump's election consultants, Cambridge Analytica, Execs Bragged Of Using Fake News, Sex To Sway Elections
HP | Nina Golgowski | 03/19/18

Disturbing undercover interviews with executives from U.K.-based political research firm Cambridge Analytica have revealed admissions of bribery, entrapment and the use of sex workers to sway political elections around the world, according to an investigative series airing Monday.

The results of a monthslong investigation by Britain's Channel 4 News revealed Cambridge Analytica's inner workings as told by Alexander Nix, the company's chief executive, and Mark Turnbull, the managing director of CA Political Global, to a reporter posing as a client. ... Read more and Here

Click to zoom in

Cambridge Analytica (CA) is a privately held company that combines data mining and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process. It was created in 2013 as an offshoot of its British parent company SCL Group to participate in American politics. In 2014, CA was involved in 44 US political races. The company is partly owned by the family of Robert Mercer, an American hedge-fund manager who supports many politically conservative causes. The firm maintains offices in London, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

In 2015, it became known as the data analysis company working initially for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. In 2016, after Cruz's campaign had faltered, CA worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and on the Leave.EU-campaign for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. CA's role and effect on those campaigns has been controversial and is the subject of ongoing criminal investigations in both countries.
Cambridge Analytica, Wikipedia

Jared Kushner, RIP: A Political Obituary for the President's Son-in-Law
Truth-out | Nomi Prins, TomDispatch | 03/19/18

Among the casualties are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; my former boss at Goldman Sachs, economic policy chief Gary Cohn; National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; FBI Director James Comey; White House Press Secretary and Communications Director Sean Spicer; four other communications directors including Hope Hicks who, having been Ivanka Trump's confidante, was elevated to the status of the president's "real daughter" before her own White House exit; chief strategist Steve Bannon; Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; a bunch of other instant relics of Trumpian political history, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually, a 200-year-old magnolia uprooted from the White House grounds thanks to the first lady.)

Responding to Hope Hicks' departure and, perhaps subliminally, the rumored future exile of son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president typically half-lamented and half-quipped, "So many people have been leaving the White House. It's invigorating, since you want turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Who's going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?" ... Read more

Flawed Assessments Caused $2 Billion Shift in Property Taxes, Study Finds
ProPublica | Jason Grotto | 03/15/17

Under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, assessment system shaved $1 billion from Chicago's most expensive homes, while owners of lower-valued homes picked up the tab.

Because the county's assessment system is skewed in favor of high-priced homes, the errors amount to a staggering transfer of wealth that benefited Chicago's most affluent homeowners at the expense of people who own lower-priced homes. ... Read more

Fifteen Years in Iraq: There Was No Place Safe There, or Here
Truth-out | Robert F. Sommer | 03/19/18

September 24, 2003.

"Are you someplace safe?"
"I'm in Iraq, Mom. There is no place safe."

Even through the static, the echo, the satellite transmission into space and back again, from Mesopotamia all the way to Kansas, we could hear him rolling his eyes. He was 20 years old, barely not a teenager.

He was supposed to go to Afghanistan. His company in the 10th Mountain Division had been training for Afghanistan for almost a year. My wife Heather and I still naively clung to the notion, in the early months of 2003, that Afghanistan might be safer. Or at least, maybe there was still a good reason for going there. ... Read more

*Mike Pence | John Oliver | 03/18/18 | 20:26

*How Israel Rules The World Of Cyber Security | VICE on HBO | 03/14/18 | 14:17

U.S. intelligence agencies accuse Russia of hacking the 2016 presidential election, a Ben Ferguson travels to Tel Aviv to find out how Israel is on its way to becoming the world's top cyber superpower.

Permafrost Thaw Looks Alien What You Need to Know | Climate State | 03/16/18 | 11:23

*Global Warming Is Increasing Russia's Profits, And Pollution | VICE on HBO | 03/08/18 | 12:09

Billion-dollar polar engineering 'needed to slow melting glaciers'
TheGuardian | Robin McKie | 03/17/2018

Underwater sea walls and artificial islands among projects urgently required to avoid devastation of global flooding, say scientists

Scientists have outlined plans to build a series of mammoth engineering projects in Greenland and Antarctica to help slow down the disintegration of the planet's main glaciers. The controversial proposals include underwater walls, artificial islands and huge pumping stations that would channel cold water into the bases of glaciers to stop them from melting and sliding into the sea.

The researchers say the work -- costing tens of billions of dollars a time -- is urgently needed to prevent polar glaciers melting and raising sea levels. That would lead to major inundations of low-lying, densely populated areas, such as parts of Bangladesh, Japan and the Netherlands. ... Read more

Robots Are Now 'Creating New Robots,' Tech Reporter Says
NPR | Fresh Air | 03/15/17

the evolution of artificial intelligence over just the past five years due to more high-powered computers, new kinds of programs and an increasing pool of data to learn from. This has led to new developments such as driverless cars, machines that can carry on a conversation and robots that can interpret medical scans. Today, we're going to talk about this rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence and how these new high-tech developments may change our lives for better or for worse. ... Read more
The evolution of artificial intelligence has exploded over the past five years, leading to computers that can drive and talk. New York Times' Cade Metz explains how machines are learning on their own. | 03/15/18 | 1hr

Stormy Daniels Was Physically Threatened, Lawyer Says
HP | Marina Fang | 03/16/18

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleges President Donald Trump's personal attorney paid her to keep silent about an affair with Trump, has been physically threatened, her lawyer said Friday. Lawyer Michael Avenatti was asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, faced threats of "physical harm." He responded, "Yes."

Avenatti, who has been on a publicity campaign for Daniels in recent weeks, repeatedly told "Morning Joe" viewers to watch Daniels' forthcoming interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," which The Washington Post reported would air on March 25. ... Read more

Larry Kudlow, Trump's new top economic adviser, explained
Vox | Dylan Matthews | 03/15/18

President Donald Trump's love for, and obsessive viewing of, cable news is well-documented, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that his new pick as chief economic adviser is a veteran talking head: Larry Kudlow, a longtime CNBC fixture, economic commentator, and weekend radio host, will replace Gary Cohn as director of the National Economic Council (NEC).

Like Cohn, Kudlow worked for decades in the financial sector, rising to become chief economist at Bear Stearns before pivoting to punditry in the 1990s. But unlike Cohn, Kudlow is an extremely doctrinaire supply-sider, almost to the point of parody. It is only a very slight exaggeration to say that Kudlow thinks every major social problem can be solved by cutting tax rates on corporations and the rich. ... Read more
Trump Hires Dumbest Economist Of All Time | TYT | 03/15/18 | 8:41

Beauty Beyond Skin Deep | NPR Science Friday | 4:54

Finland Tops World Happiness Report 2018 As U.S. Ranking Falls
HP | Laura Paddison | 03/15/18

Finland inched out last year's winner Norway to take the top spot. The tiny country of 5.5 million people tucked into a northern corner of Europe has long received accolades for its quality of life. The World Economic Forum judged it one of the best countries in the world for gender equality, and it made the top 10 of the world's most environmentally friendly countries in Yale and Columbia universities' Environmental Performance Index. Finland also has an estimated 2 million saunas and the densest forests in the world.

"The most important building blocks for a happy society are democracy, equality, good education and high quality child care, as well as taking care of each other," Finnish Ambassador Päivi Luostarinen told HuffPost. "These values are very important for Finns. I also think our relationship with nature, and national character, play parts in our happiness." ... Read more

Trump White House Staffers Reportedly Have A 'Dead Pool' On Who Will Be Next To Go
HP | Ed Mazza | 03/15/18

The reports come amid turmoil at the White House, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson fired just weeks after White House communications director Hope Hicks resigned.

Trump has also reportedly asked Chief of Staff John Kelly ? himself rumored to be on the chopping block ? to fire White House advisers Ivanka Trump (the president's daughter) and Jared Kushner (his son-in-law). Numerous lower-levels staffers have also left or were forced out, while reports say there may be more Cabinet-level changes to come. ... Read more
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Sanders cheers students protesting gun violence: 'We are very proud'
TheHill | Avery Anapol | 03/14/18

Speaking through a megaphone outside the Capitol, Sanders commended the students for "leading the nation in the right direction" and opposing the National Rifle Association (NRA).

"We are very proud of what you are doing," the former presidential candidate said. "You, the young people of this country, are leading the nation." ... Read more
Bernie Sanders Joins Student Walkout For Gun Control | TYT | 03/14/18 | 8:18

Rex & Mike & Conor & Teens | Samantha Bee | 03/14/18 | 5:23

Lamb Upsets Saccone In HUGE Anti-Trump Swing | TYT | 03/14/18 | 11:34

Jimmy Kimmel's Shocking Discovery About Trump Merchandise | Jimmy Kimmel | 03/14/18 | 5:20

Trump's Visit To Wall Prototypes Shows The Hubris And Absurdity Of The Idea
HP | Matt Ferner | 03/14/18

And it was all going so well. In the hours before Trump's arrival just before noon, the handful of pro-wall, pro-Trump rallies around Otay Mesa, the southern San Diego community that backs right up to the U.S.-Mexico border, brought together hundreds of supporters of the president and his proposed expansion of the border wall. The crowd chanted familiar Trump rally refrains ?"Build that wall!" "Lock her up!" ? while flying "Make America great again" flags. ...

... As the crowd was shaking off the insult, a man in a passing car waved a Mexican flag, which fell off his pole and into the street. Suddenly a group of Trump supporters found their courage. They raced to the flag and snatched it up. "Burn it!" they chanted. They settled for shredding it. ...

.... The cost estimates for Trump's "real wall" vary wildly. In January, Trump said he wants $25 billion for border security efforts, including for his wall. He's said at various points that he believes the wall can be built for $8 billion to as much as $12 billion. Senate Democrats have said it would it would be far costlier, closer to $70 billion. Independent analysts have pegged the cost at anywhere between $15 billion and $40 billion. Trump has long promised that Mexico will pay for the wall, whatever the cost, while Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has rejected those claims. ... Read more

Podcast: The Lyin', The Rich, and The Warmongers
The Intercept | author | 03/14/18

A Mercenary, a torturer, and a conspiracy theorist walk into the White House. In the Trump administration, that's called "Tuesday." This week on Intercepted: Exxon Mobil is out at the State Department. A radical Christian ideologue is in. And a veteran CIA officer who tortured detainees and set up the CIA black sites after 9/11 is slated to take the helm at Langley. And all of this happened in one fell swoop on Tuesday morning. The Intercept's Matthew Cole and Jeremy analyze the major re-shuffle in Trumpland and what it means for the future of the planet. ... Read more
The Intercept with Jeromy Scahill
Podcast: The Lyin', The Rich, and The Warmongers | TheIntercept | 03/14/18 | 1hr

'Russian Roulette' Authors Seek To Connect The Dots Between Trump And Putin
NPR Fresh Air | author | 03/13/18

Isikoff was the first reporter to reveal that there was a U.S. intelligence investigation into Russian ties to a figure in the Trump campaign -- Carter Page. Corn was the first to reveal the existence of the infamous Russia dossier, the unverified collection of reports alleging connections between the Trump campaign and Russia compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Now, in their new book, Russian Roulette, the two men attempt to put all the pieces of the story together. Read more
'Russian Roulette' Authors Seek To Connect The Dots Between Trump And Putin | NPR Fresh Air | 03/13/18 | 1hr

Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff and David Corn

RUSSIAN ROULETTE is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election.

The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no "third-rate burglary." It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia.

Trump unscripted and unleashed in Pennsylvania stump speech | CNN | 03/10/18 | 1:12:18

Trump Ousts Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson
HP | Eline Gordts and Marina Fang | 03/13/18

Trump Ousts Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson

Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state after just 14 months on the job. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that he is replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, minutes after The Washington Post first reported that he had ousted Tillerson. Tillerson's departure comes amid reports of his disappointment with the turbulent atmosphere in President Donald Trump's White House, as well as mounting criticism of his performance as the country's leading diplomat and his drastic reduction of civil servant positions at the State Department. Read more

GOP Rep. Tom Rooney Breaks Ranks On Russia Report: 'We've Lost All Credibility'
HP | Ed Mazza | 03/12/18

A GOP member of the House Intelligence Committee is breaking ranks with his fellow Republicans over a contentious report released Monday on Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the campaign of Donald Trump. Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) told CNN that "there is evidence" the Russians worked to help Trump. ... Read more

Betsy DeVos Says She's 'Misunderstood,' Then Struggles To Explain Her Own Policies
HP | Ed Mazza | 03/13/18

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had one of the most contentious confirmation hearings of the Trump administration, with two Republicans voting against her nomination. On Sunday night, she told Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" that she's "more misunderstood than anything."

However, in the very same interview, the billionaire advocate for school choice, which allows taxpayer funds for public education to be channeled to other schools, including private religious-based institutions, struggled to provide data backing up her signature issue. ... Read more
Betsy DeVos Interview Is TOTAL DISASTER | TYT | 03/12/18 | 16:30

Betsy DeVos Struggles In Interview On Education | The View | 03/12/18 | 5:38

Elizabeth Warren Says Democratic Votes For Wall Street This Week Are A "Stab In The Heart"
TheIntercept | Kate Aronoff | 03/09/18

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN told a gathering of progressive lawmakers Friday that seeing her colleagues vote to advance a Wall Street deregulation bill this week was a "stab in the heart."

This week, 16 Senate Democrats voted for the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. It's a cleverly misnamed bill that would peel back regulations on 25 of the 32 largest banks in the country, removing a slew of consumer protections while relaxing stress tests and other reporting requirements for a range of financial institutions that were developed in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Speaking about a series of recently lost policy fights -- on gun reform, the tax bill, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and more -- Warren told the annual gathering of progressive elected officials and advocates, "Just this week we lost the first round in the battle of a bad banking bill -- a bill that would take the reins off of Wall Street's most reckless actors and put as greater risk of another financial crisis. When I saw a handful of my Democratic colleagues vote for it, it felt like a stab in the heart. Not for me, but for all the homeowners who were cheated and all the taxpayers who bailed out those banks. That is wrong." ... Read more

"Trump Is Going For a Clean Reset": Fuming In The West Wing, Trump Prepares To Defenestrate Cuck Allies And Go Full Maga
Vsnity Fair | Gabriel Sherman | 03/09/18

The president will meet with potential chief-of-staff candidates at Mar-a-Lago next weekend. McMaster is likely next to go. Then Jivanka.

Even before he decided to launch a trade war and roll the nuclear dice by agreeing in the course of a West Wing afternoon to a risky sit-down with Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump was telling friends he was tired of being reined in. "I'm doing great, but I'm getting all these bad headlines," Trump told a friend recently. A Republican in frequent contact with the White House told me Trump is "frustrated by all these people telling him what to do."

With the departures of Hope Hicks and Gary Cohn, the Trump presidency is entering a new phase--one in which Trump is feeling liberated to act on his impulses. "Trump is in command. He's been in the job more than a year now. He knows how the levers of power work. He doesn't give a fuck," the Republican said. Trump's decision to circumvent the policy process and impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum reflects his emboldened desire to follow his impulses and defy his advisers. "It was like a fuck-you to Kelly," a Trump friend said. "Trump is red-hot about Kelly trying to control him." ... Read more
LEAK: Ballistic Trump About To Fire Whole Staff | TYT | 03/09/18 | 14:44

Betsy Devos Just Tried to Take Away the Ability of States To Crack Down On Abusive Student Debt Collectors
TheIntercept | Zaid Jilani | 03/09/18/span>

For months, it had been rumored that the Trump administration was considering imposing the mandate, which is not an official rule, that would shield student loan servicers like Navient and Nelnet from state regulation. It would instead place the responsibility for regulating these companies on the federal government -- which is what these companies have argued for in court. ...

... The move comes at a time when attorneys general in several states are pursuing servicers for what they claim are abuses against student borrowers. On March 1, a superior court judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey against the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. Healey was suing it for, among other things, overcharging students. ... Read more

Cryptocurrencies | John Oliver | 03/11/18 | 25:20

Third Nor'easter In 10 Days Threatens Storm-Weary Northeast
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 03/12/18

Meteorologists have warned that blizzard conditions could impact parts of New England on Tuesday, with eastern Massachusetts to coastal Maine forecasted to get more than a foot of snow. Those living on the southeastern New England coast have been advised to travel with caution on Tuesday morning. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders: Can't look to this White House for leadership | CNN | 03/07/18 | 7:31

What's There to Talk About With North Korea?
TheAtlantic | Uri Friedman | 03/08/18

Kim Jong Un wants to talk to Trump and pause nuclear and missile tests -- but the line between diplomacy and brinkmanship isn't that simple.

On Thursday evening South Korean National-Security Adviser Chung Eui Yong, fresh off meeting North Korea's reclusive leader in Pyongyang, stood before cameras at the White House and delivered an extraordinary message. Donald Trump had agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un -- and soon, by May -- to "achieve permanent denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula. The man who once threatened North Korea and its "Little Rocket Man" with "fire and fury" and total destruction, who bragged that his "nuclear button" was bigger than Kim's and inflicted unprecedented economic pain on the North to stop its nuclear-weapons program, will do what no sitting American president has done before: meet with the head of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. ... Read more

If You Want A Definition of "Revolving Door" Here It Is.
Trump: Cohn 'may be a globalist, but I still like him'
Politico | Ayanna Alexander | 03/08/18

President Donald Trump said Thursday he suspected departing aide Gary Cohn would be back, saying the National Economic Council director "may be a globalist, but I still like him."

"This is Gary Cohn's last meeting in the Cabinet," Trump said at the beginning of the meeting, which was partly televised. "He's been terrific. He may be a globalist, but I still like him. He is seriously a globalist. There's no question. In his own way, but you know what, he's a nationalist. He loves our country." ... Read more
Trump On Outgoing Gary Cohn: He Is Seriously A Globalist! | TYT | 03/08/18 | 3:28

Busting the Myth of 'Welfare Makes People Lazy'
TheAtlantic | Derek Thompson | 03/08/18

Cash assistance isn't just a moral imperative that raises living standards. It's also a critical investment in the health and future careers of low-income kids.

"Welfare makes people lazy." The notion is buried so deep within mainstream political thought that it can often be stated without evidence. It was explicit during the Great Depression, when Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA (Works Progress Administration) was nicknamed "We Piddle Around" by his detractors. It was implicit in Bill Clinton's pledge to "end welfare as we know it." Even today, it is an intellectual pillar of conservative economic theory, which recommends slashing programs like Medicaid and cash assistance, partly out of a fear that self-reliance atrophies in the face of government assistance.

Many economists have for decades argued that this orthodoxy is simply wrong--that wisely designed anti-poverty programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, actually increase labor participation. And now, across the world, a fleet of studies are converging on the consensus that even radical welfare programs -- including basic-income programs and what are called conditional cash transfers -- don't make people any less productive. ... Read more

Revenge of the tribes: How the American Empire could fall | Amy Chua | BigThink | 02/28/18 | 7:59

Record-breaking number of women run for office
Politico | Heather Caygle | 03/08/18

Women barreled through long-standing barriers on Capitol Hill in 1992, winning elections to the House and Senate in record numbers. And then they were promptly told how to vote by senior male colleagues, ignored in elevators and even turned away at the chamber doors because "staff" weren't allowed on the floor.

More than a quarter-century after the "Year of the Woman," women still make up only one in five elected officials on Capitol Hill. But this election cycle, more women are signing up to run for the highest elected offices than ever before -- so far, at least 575 women have declared their intention to run for the House, the Senate or governor. ... Read more

What We Found in Trump's Drained Swamp: Hundreds of Ex-Lobbyists and D.C. Insiders
ProPublica | Derek Kravitz | 03/07/18

For the first time, political appointee and federal financial disclosure information is publicly searchable.

Today we're making available, for the first time, an authoritative searchable database of 2,475 political appointees, including Trump's Cabinet, staffers in the White House and senior officials within the government, along with their federal lobbying and financial records. Trump Town is the result of a year spent filing hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests; collecting and organizing staffing lists; and compiling, sifting through and publishing thousands of financial disclosure reports. ... Read more

Climate change skeptics run the Trump administration
Politico | Emily Holden | 03/07/18

Agencies including the USDA, CIA, DHS and HUD have leaders who have expressed sentiments at odds with the warnings of the government's own climate researchers.

... At the Interior Department, decisions about Pacific island territories threatened by rising seas are in the hands of an assistant secretary who has criticized "climate alarmists" for "once again predicting the end of the world as we know it." Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's top advisers include a former talk radio host who has dismissed much climate research as "junk science." Trump's nominee to head research and technology at the Department of Transportation claimed three years ago that global warming had "stopped" -- a position at sharp odds with the findings of federal agencies like NASA.

Trump has chosen at least 20 like-minded people to serve as agency leaders and advisers, according to a POLITICO review of his appointees' past statements on climate science. And they are already having an impact in abandoning former President Barack Obama's attempt to help unite the world against the threat of rising sea levels, worsening storms and spreading droughts. ... Read more

Gary Cohn: Mission Accomplished
TheIntercept | Gary Rivlin | 03/07/18

GARY COHN, TRUMP'S top economic adviser, is leaving the White House after just 14 months -- but not before delivering a number of gifts to Wall Street and his old firm, Goldman Sachs. That list starts with a 40 percent cut in corporate income tax that Cohn, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (another former Goldman Sachs exec), championed.

... JPMorgan Chase, which paid more than $11 billion in income tax last year, could save closer to $4 billion a year. Wells Fargo will save roughly $2 billion a year, based on its 2017 earnings. ...

... The same bill that slashed taxes on corporations and the very wealthy allows these firms to bring that cash back to the United States without incurring huge tax bills. Companies bringing that money home won't have to pay the 35 percent tax rate in place when that money was earned, or even the reduced 21 percent rate, but a steeply discounted 15.5 percent -- a huge gift for tech firms such as Cisco, Qualcomm, and Apple. ... Read more

*Elizabeth Warren Blasts Fellow Democrats for Supporting a Massive Bank Deregulation Bill
MotherJones | Hannah Levintova | 03/06/17

"The Senate just voted to increase the chances your money will be used to bail out big banks again."

The US Senate on Tuesday cleared a key procedural hurdle needed to move forward with a major bank deregulation bill that could pass the chamber in the coming days. If it becomes law, the bill would significantly loosen Wall Street regulations that were put in place by the landmark 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation following the financial crisis. ... Read more

*Journalist for the New Yorker, Jane Mayer -> Charts The 'Bizarre Twists And Turns' Of The Trump-Russia Steele Dossier
NPR.org | Fresh Air | 03/06/18

... A GOP financier approached the private intelligence firm Fusion GPS to begin work researching Trump, but then discontinued that support. Later, after it was clear that Trump would be the Republican nominee, a law firm connected to the Clinton campaign began funding the work. Mayer says that Steele never knew precisely for whom he was ultimately working.

In her latest article, Mayer describes how the dossier was compiled and why so little was done about its findings during the campaign -- even after Steele shared his information with the FBI.

She also reports on a short memo written in November 2016 alleging that a Russian source claimed to Steele that Moscow had intervened to block Trump from nominating Mitt Romney as secretary of state because he was perceived as being unfriendly to Russian interests. ... Read more
NPR Fresh Air
*Journalist for the New Yorker, Jane Mayer -> Charts The 'Bizarre Twists And Turns' Of The Trump-Russia Steele Dossier |NPR Fresh Air | 03/06/18 | 12:12

Actor Jane Fonda tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that she heard about Harvey Weinstein's alleged harassment about a year ago but didn't say anything because "I guess it hadn't happened to me ... | CNN | older, 10/12/17 | 5:50

This is how Trump distracts you | CNN | older, 04/14/17 | 4:57

This is why Bill O'Reilly was fired | CNN | older, 04/21/17 | 7:08

This is why Trump loves 'Fox & Friends' | CNN | older, 05/02/17 | 4:26

North Korea Says It's Open To Talking Denuclearization With The U.S.
Reuters & Huffpost | Christine Kim | 03/06/18

SEOUL, March 6 (Reuters) - North Korea is willing to hold talks with the United States on denuclearisation and will suspend nuclear tests while those talks are under way, the South said on Tuesday after a delegation returned from the North where it met leader Kim Jong Un.

North and South Korea, still technically at war but enjoying a sharp easing in tension since the Winter Olympics in the South last month, will also hold their first summit in more than a decade next month at the border village of Panmunjom, the head of the delegation, Chung Eui-yong, told a media briefing. ... Read more

America's Youth Know That We CAN Be Better - The News with Dan Rather | TYT | 03/05/18 | 21:56

Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier
NewYorker | Jane Mayer | 03/06/18

How the ex-spy tried to warn the world about Trump's ties to Russia.

In January, after a long day at his London office, Christopher Steele, the former spy turned private investigator, was stepping off a commuter train in Farnham, where he lives, when one of his two phones rang. He'd been looking forward to dinner at home with his wife, and perhaps a glass of wine. It had been their dream to live in Farnham, a town in Surrey with a beautiful Georgian high street, where they could afford a house big enough to accommodate their four children, on nearly an acre of land. Steele, who is fifty-three, looked much like the other businessmen heading home, except for the fact that he kept his phones in a Faraday bag--a pouch, of military-tested double-grade fabric, designed to block signal detection.

A friend in Washington, D.C., was calling with bad news: two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley, had just referred Steele's name to the Department of Justice, for a possible criminal investigation. They were accusing Steele--the author of a secret dossier that helped trigger the current federal investigation into President Donald Trump's possible ties to Russia--of having lied to the very F.B.I. officers he'd alerted about his findings. The details of the criminal referral were classified, so Steele could not know the nature of the allegations, let alone rebut them, but they had something to do with his having misled the Bureau about contacts that he'd had with the press. For nearly thirty years, Steele had worked as a close ally of the United States, and he couldn't imagine why anyone would believe that he had been deceptive. But lying to an F.B.I. officer is a felony, an offense that can be punished by up to five years in prison. ... Read more

CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Warns Bipartisan Bank Bill Heightens Risk of Financial Crisis
TheIntercept | David Dayen | 03/06/18

The Congressional Budget Office confirmed on Monday that bank lobbyists had successfully altered language of the so-called Citigroup carve-out, potentially allowing mega-banks Citi and JPMorgan Chase to add leverage and put more debt-fueled risk on their balance sheets. CBO gave Citi and JPMorgan a 50 percent chance of convincing regulators to let them take the carve-out, and their lobbyists are still working to increase that probability to 100 percent.

CBO's cost estimate of S.2155, the bipartisan bank deregulation bill that faces its first test vote today, was obtained by the Washington Post on Monday and released publicly Tuesday morning. S.2155 would cost taxpayers $671 million over a 10-year period, CBO estimated, because of the increased possibility of bank failures and financial crisis from using more leverage and other deregulatory changes. "The probability is small under current law and would be slightly greater under the legislation," they concluded. ... Read more

State Department Has Spent None Of The $120 Million Allocated To Fight Russian Interference
HP | Nick Visser | 03/05/18

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has cast doubt on his own agency's ability to combat foreign governments.

The State Department has spent $0 of $120 million allocated by Congress to combat foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Despite the massive budget, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has done little to thwart a sweeping influence campaign by the Russian government, and an office tasked with countering such efforts has no employees that even speak Russian due to an ongoing hiring freeze. ... Read more

NRATV Is Like A 'Deranged Letter From A Serial Killer' | John Oliver| 03/04/18 | 20:00

South Korean Envoys Meet Kim Jong Un In Pyongyang
Reuters & HP | Christine Kim | 03/05/18

A South Korean delegation met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday, a South Korean official said, after arriving in the North on a visit aimed at encouraging North Korea and the United States to talk.

Both North Korea and the United States have expressed a willingness to talk, but U.S. President Donald Trump demands the North first gives up its nuclear weapons program. The North, which has vowed never to give up its nuclear deterrent against what it sees as U.S. hostility, says it will not sit down to talks under preconditions. ... Read more

Revolution Required: The ticking time bombs of the G7 Model by Herve Hannoun

Trust in public policy makers and public institutions is eroding. People sense that something is wrong with the way the political and economic elites in the G7 countries are discharging their responsibilities. This manifesto argues that the finely tuned antenna of people are right: the current trajectory of policies in the G7 countries is leading straight into a systemic crisis. It shows how key policies are irresponsible, whether in the domains of monetary and macro policies, or in the areas of climate change and defence. But these policies are presented as being in the public interest. The mainstream media present news that purport to show that all is well, while independent and critical views receive little coverage. In terms of policy-making, the world has turned up-side down within a few years. Heretical views of five years ago have become mainstream; mainstream analysis of yesterday is seen as not "getting it". The manifesto makes the case for a revolution in thinking if the march of the doomsday clock towards midnight is to be stopped. It advocates the transition from the reckless G7 model to an "economy for the common good". A model today seen as utopia - but that might soon become a categorical imperative.

Daniel Ellsberg Pays Tribute to Katharine Gun, Marking 15 Years Since Her Courageous Leak of NSA Memo | TRNN | 03/05/18 | 9:02

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie
TheAtlantic | Adam Winkler | 03/05/18

How a farcical series of events in the 1880s produced an enduring and controversial legal precedent

Somewhat unintuitively, American corporations today enjoy many of the same rights as American citizens. Both, for instance, are entitled to the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. How exactly did corporations come to be understood as "people" bestowed with the most fundamental constitutional rights? The answer can be found in a bizarre--even farcical--series of lawsuits over 130 years ago involving a lawyer who lied to the Supreme Court, an ethically challenged justice, and one of the most powerful corporations of the day. ... Read more

Absolutely Stunning Hekkert Hideaway Tiny House by Free2Roam Tiny Homes | 01/13/18 | 4:49

James Stavridis: There Are No Winners In Trade Wars | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 03/02/18 | 4:34

Competing Economic Paradigms in China: The Co-Evolution of Economic Events, Economic Theory and Economics Education, 1976--2016 by Steven Mark Cohn $136.45

When the Chinese economic reforms began in 1978, Marxist economics infused all the institutions of economic theory in China, from academic departments and economics journals to government departments and economic think tanks. By the year 2000, neoclassical economics dominated these institutions and organized most economic discussion. This book explains how and why neoclassical economic theory replaced Marxist economic theory as the dominant economics paradigm in China. It rejects the idea that the rise of neoclassical theory was a triumph of reason over ideology, and instead, using a sociology of knowledge approach, links the rise of neoclassical economics to broad ideological currents and to the political-economic projects that key social groups inside and outside China wanted to enable. The book concludes with a discussion of the nature of economic theory and economics education in China today.

Mindblowing Corruption At FBI - NSA Whistleblower Reveals | Jimmy Dore Show | 02/20/18 | 34:57

A Good American with Bill Binney | | | 1:36:14
A Good American with Bill Binney (trailer) | | | 2:08
A Good American with Bill Binney | Netflix | | 1:36:14
A Good American.org website

2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD Day before 911 | 09/10/01 | 3:57

**Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For | 2014 | 5:32

Dr. Mark Skidmore, of Michigan State University, as he talks about $21 Trillion Missing from US Federal Budget | 12/02/17 | 33:32

The 2018 NDAA approves $700 billion for the Pentagon. This was done despite the fact that a recent report on the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, found that between the two departments, they have lost over $21 trillion in the last 17 years.

Jeff Daniels Lists All The Virtues America Has Lost Under Donald Trump
HP | Lee Moran | 03/02/18

eff Daniels is pulling no punches when it comes to President Donald Trump and his administration. On Thursday's broadcast of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the actor listed all of the virtues that he believes America has lost since Trump took office.

"We lost, as a country, we lost respect, decency, civilized behavior, integrity, class, accountability, responsibility," said Daniels, who stars in Hulu's upcoming "The Looming Tower," a dramatization of the events leading up to the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.... Read more
Jeff Daniels Lists All The Virtues America Has Lost Under Donald Trump | Stephen Colbert |03/01/18 | 12:32

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Kushner's Clearance Fiasco
Politico | Kel McClanahan | 03/01/18

The president has the power to share whatever information he wants, and that's why his son-in-law's predicament matters less than you think.

In case you somehow missed it: Kushner's interim Top Secret clearance has been "downgraded" to an interim Secret clearance, and Washington's chattering class is freaking out. But in the final analysis, the practical ramifications of this just aren't that big a deal, because Kushner and the president will be able to find workarounds if they so choose.

Here's what many don't get about the security clearance process: It's a "process" except when it isn't, and whatever "rules" might apply only apply when the president wants them to. The president has the authority to share classified information with whomever he pleases, even if it's the Russian foreign minister. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Wants Congress to End U.S. Support for Yemen War
TheIntercept | Lee Fang | 02/28/18

A BIPARTISAN GROUP of senators unveiled legislation on Wednesday designed to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The resolution -- introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; and Mike Lee, R-Utah -- attempts to use the War Powers Act of 1973, a Vietnam War-era law that limits the president's power to wage war without congressional authorization, to disentangle the U.S. from a campaign that has claimed thousands of civilian lives and led to mass starvation.

The U.S. military currently provides vital support to the Saudi-led incursion into Yemen. Saudi Arabia began its bombing campaign in March 2015, aiming to restore Yemen's former Saudi-backed president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to power. Hadi was deposed in 2014 by a Zaidi Shiite rebel group commonly known as the Houthis. ... Read more

Want to Address the Greatest Foreign Threat to US Democracy? Fix Voting Machines
Truth-out | By John Knefel | date

Democracy, the very essence of the United States, is under attack, we're told at least once a week. Not because Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker refuses to hold special elections -- literally denying all citizens the right to vote -- because he's afraid Republicans will lose. Not because the Pennsylvania GOP is threatening to impeach judges for issuing a fair redistricting map. And not because racist Republican voter ID laws are an extension of the decades-long attack on the Voting Rights Act, including the mass disenfranchisement of formerly incarcerated people.

All of those things are happening, of course, and have a direct and harmful impact on the right to vote and have one's vote counted in the United States, especially if you're likely to vote Democrat.

... That said, there is a significant threat to US democracy from abroad -- and domestically -- that isn't getting the mainstream attention it deserves. This is the unconscionable vulnerability of electronic voting systems throughout the country. ... Read more

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An Industry Group Says the Trump Administration Is Run "Like a Bad Family Owned Small Business" -- And They Love It
propublica.org | Justin Elliott | 03/01/18

A contractors trade association, in an internal presentation, mocks the president while praising him for cutting back on rules meant to protect workers.

Trump, the presentations state, is an "autocratic leader" who regularly "humiliates [his] senior team" and is running the administration "like a bad family owned small business." One presentation quotes the president's statement that infrastructure should be "easy" and follows it with a rhetorical eye-roll: "Really? Read more

Free-Diving Under Ice, There Is 'No Place for Fear' | TheAtlantic | 02/28/18 | 3:47