Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Today: ‘Last Chance’ For May’s BREXIT Deal?
HP | Jasmin Gray | 03/29/19

March 29 is finally here – the day Britain should have finally left the EU after years of referendum campaigning, drawn out negotiations and late night podium speeches from the prime minister.

But instead of a day of celebration for Brexiteers -- some of whom spent the last two weeks marching from Sunderland to London for what should have been a victory rally in Parliament Square -- an exhausted Theresa May is still desperately trying to flog her Brexit deal. ... Read more

The Day After Mueller
TheIntercept | Jeremy Scahill | 03/27/19

IF WILLIAM BARR is not a complete idiot and liar, the Mueller report is a devastating rejection of the Democrats’ major conspiracy theory on Donald Trump and Russia. This week on Intercepted: Naomi Klein analyzes the epic media failure on Trump-Russia and discusses the agenda for change and resistance that should have been. Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi details how the media failed to do its job on Trump-Russia. Ali Abunimah, of the Electronic Intifada, lays out the scandal in plain sight: Israeli collusion with Trump and the broader U.S. political power structure. The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz tells the bizarre tale of China’s illegal influence over the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush. And Alison Klayman talks about her film “The Brink,” a look at the past year of Steve Bannon’s project to bring his white nationalist agenda global. ... Read more
The Day After Mueller with Jeremy Scahill | TheIntercept | 03/28/18 | 1hr

Trump, the tormentor
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 03/29/19

After 24 hours of brutal coverage of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' defense of scrapping funding for the Special Olympics, President Trump stepped in to claim he was saving a program his own budget had threatened.

Driving the news: "I heard about it this morning," Trump told reporters as he left the White House. "I have overridden my people. We're funding the Special Olympics." It was a bad look for DeVos, but standard operating procedure for Trump. ... Read more
Trump Caves On Special Olympics Funding | TYT | 03/28/19 | 1:40

Mick Mulvaney, Bad Scammert | Samantha Bee | 03/27/19 | 6:36

Air Force Needs Almost $5 Billion To Recover Bases From Hurricane, Flood Damage
NPR | James Doubek | 03/28/19

The U.S. Air Force says it needs $4.9 billion in new funding over the next two and a half years to cover the costs of rebuilding two air bases hit by natural disasters.

About one-third of Offutt Air Force Base, in eastern Nebraska, was underwater earlier this month as flooding hit large swaths of the Midwest. And Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was hit hard by Hurricane Michael in October.

The Air Force is asking for $1.2 billion in supplemental funding for fiscal year 2019 and $3.7 billion for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Congress would need to approve the funding. ... Read more

How to Blow $700 Billion
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 03/20/19

According to a study led by Michigan State University professor Mark Skidmore, some $21 trillion in Pentagon accounting transactions, made over a 17-year period, lack supporting data. This doesn't mean the money is gone -- the Pentagon only received roughly $9.2 trillion in budget money during that time -- but it does mean the system is so choked with bad numbers, we have little idea of what mischief might be taking place at the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon's Bottomless Money Pit
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 03/17/19

When the Defense Department flunked its first-ever fiscal review, one of our government's greatest mysteries was exposed: Where does the DoD's $700 billion annual budget go?

A retired Air Force auditor -- we'll call him Andy -- tells a story about a thing that happened at Ogden Air Force Base, Utah. Sometime in early 2001, something went wrong with a base inventory order. Andy thinks it was a simple data-entry error. "Someone ordered five of something," he says, "and it came out as an order for 999,000." He laughs. "It was probably just something the machine defaulted to. Type in an order for a part the wrong way, and it comes out all frickin' nines in every field." Nobody actually delivered a monster load of parts. But the faulty transaction -- the paper trail for a phantom inventory adjustment never made -- started moving through the Air Force's maze of internal accounting systems anyway. A junior-level logistics officer caught it before it went out of house. Andy remembers the incident because, as a souvenir, he kept the June 28th, 2001, email that circulated about it in the Air Force accounting world, in which the dollar value of the error was discussed. ... Read more

Trump: FBI officials committed treason in Russia probe
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/28/19

President Trump told Fox News' "Hannity" Wednesday FBI officials investigating possible Russia links to his campaign had "committed treason."

What he's saying: "They wanted an insurance policy against me," he told Fox News host Sean Hannity, referring to former FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who upset him previously over anti-Trump campaign texts. "And what we were playing out until just recently was the insurance policy. They wanted to do a subversion. It was treason ... We can never allow these treasonous acts happen to another president." ... Read more

Trump talks Mueller report fallout in 'Hannity' exclusive (Full) | Sean Hannity | FoxNews | 03/27/19 | 44:32

Why Huawei is the United States' 5G boogeyman
Axios | Kim Hart | 03/28/19

Chinese telecom giant Huawei is poised to claim close to half of the 5G market, nudging the technological center of gravity away from western telecom vendors and sounding alarms about China's ability to spy on Americans.

Why it matters: 5G has one global standard that makes networks interoperable regardless of the equipment vendor. The security risk posed by Huawei is debated but if it ends up dominating 5G networks, authority to set standards for future network technologies -- such as 6G, which is already under development -- will shift toward China. ... Read more

Suicide in the United States is the 10 leading cause of death.

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You're 3x more likely to be killed by lightening than to be killed in a terrorist attack. Yet we spend HUGE amounts of money toward it.

16 Years Later, How the Press That Sold the Iraq War Got Away With It
RollingStone | Matt Tiabbi | 03/22/19

Sixteen years ago this week, the United States invaded Iraq. We went in on an unconvincing excuse, articulated by George W. Bush in a speech days before invasion:

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq’s neighbors and against Iraq’s people.”

To the lie about the possession of WMDs, Bush added a few more: that Hussein “trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al-Qaeda.” Moreover, left unchecked, those Saddam-supplied terrorists could “kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country.”

The disaster that followed cost over a hundred-thousand lives just in Iraq and drained north of $2 trillion from the budget. Once we were in and the “most lethal weapons ever devised” were not discovered, it quickly became obvious that large numbers of people at the highest levels of society had either lied, screwed up, or both. ... Read more

Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi

In this characteristically turbocharged new book, celebrated Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi provides an insider's guide to the variety of ways today's mainstream media tells us lies. Part tirade, part confessional, it reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business.

In the Internet age, the press have mastered the art of monetizing anger, paranoia, and distrust. Taibbi, who has spent much of his career covering elections in which this kind of manipulative activity is most egregious, provides a rich taxonomic survey of American political journalism's dirty tricks.

Heading into a 2020 election season that promises to be a Great Giza Pyramid Complex of invective and digital ugliness, Hate Inc. will be an invaluable antidote to the hidden poisons dished up by those we rely on to tell us what is happening in the world.

Trump's all-or-nothing ACA gamble
Axios | Sam Baker | 03/27/19

The Trump administration's new legal argument against the Affordable Care Act is a political risk. It may also be a liability in court.

How it works: The legal issue here is "severability"-- if the ACA's individual mandate is unconstitutional, can it be struck down in isolation? Or is it too intertwined with other parts of the law? ... Read more

GOP ready to weaponize Green New Deal for 2020
Axios | Alexi McCammond | 03/27/19

A Senate aide tells Axios that President Trump said he wants to run on the Green New Deal in 2020.

What he's saying: While speaking at Tuesday's Senate Republican lunch, Trump said, "You guys have done a great job on the Green New Deal. But don't kill it too badly, because I want to run on this" in 2020. ... Read more

Wealth Inequality in America | 6:25

Stock buybacks shattered records in 2018
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 03/26/19

Over the past few years the fire beneath Apple's red-hot stock price has largely been stock buybacks. The company has dwarfed other companies in terms of the number and amount of buybacks last year and for the past decade.

Driving the news: S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Monday that companies bought back $806.4 billion worth of their own shares, including $223 billion in just the fourth quarter in 2018. It was short of the $1 trillion Goldman Sachs predicted in August, but still an all-time record.

Of that record total, Apple bought back $10.1 billion worth of its own stock in Q4 and $74.2 billion for the year, more than a third of the entire S&P 500 total. The closest company to that total was Oracle, which spent $29.3 billion. No. 2 company on the buybacks list is Microsoft ... Read more
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Now Trump Wants Judges To Throw Out The Entire Affordable Care Act
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 03/26/19

The Trump administration on Monday adopted a more extreme position on a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act: Instead of asking the federal courts to throw out just one part of the law, as it had done previously, now the administration wants the courts to throw out the entire thing.

Protections for people with pre-existing conditions, tax credits for lower- and middle-class insurance buyers, expanded state Medicaid programs for the poor ? all of these things would be gone, and millions of people would lose health insurance if the administration gets its way.

And the effects would not stop there. The health care law includes all kinds of other, lesser-known provisions, touching everything from the way Medicare pays hospitals to the calorie counts on food menus. ... Read more

Taibbi: As the Mueller Probe Ends, New Russiagate Myths Begin
RollingStone | Matt Taibb | 03/26/19

On Sunday, Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress, summarizing the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The most telling section, quoted directly from Mueller's report, read:

"[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

That one sentence should end a roughly 33-month national ordeal (the first Russiagate stories date back to July 2016) in which the public was encouraged, both by officials and the press, to believe Donald Trump was a compromised foreign agent. ... Read more

Pentagon Says All of Google's Work on Drones is Exempt from the Freedom of Information Act
TheIntercept | Sam Biddle | 03/25/19

IN SEPTEMBER 2017, Aileen Black wrote an email to her colleagues at Google. Black, who led sales to the U.S. government, worried that details of the company's work to help the military guide lethal drones would become public through the Freedom of Information Act. "We will call tomorrow to reinforce the need to keep Google under the radar," Black wrote.

According to a Pentagon memo signed last year, however, no one at Google needed worry: All 5,000 pages of documents about Google's work on the drone effort, known as Project Maven, are barred from public disclosure, because they constitute "critical infrastructure security information." ... Read more

Who keeps buying California's scarce water? Saudi Arabia
TheGuardian | Lauren Markham | 03/26/19

Saudi-based Almarai owns 15,000 acres of an irrigated valley -- but what business does a foreign food production company have drawing resources from a US desert?

Four hours east of Los Angeles, in a drought-stricken area of a drought-afflicted state, is a small town called Blythe where alfalfa is king. More than half of the town's 94,000 acres are bushy blue-green fields growing the crop.

Massive industrial storehouses line the southern end of town, packed with thousands upon thousands of stacks of alfalfa bales ready to be fed to dairy cows -- but not cows in California's Central Valley or Montana's rangelands. Instead, the alfalfa will be fed to cows in Saudi Arabia. ... Read more

AG Barr: Mueller Report Doesn't Find Trump Conspired With Russia, Doesn't 'Exonerate' Him On Obstruction
HP | Ryan J. Reilly | 03/24/19

... Although Mueller's report "does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," the special counsel wrote in his confidential report, according to Barr's summary.

Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign or its associates conspired with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor, "despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign," Barr wrote in his letter.

In addition to investigating Russian election interference, Mueller also looked into whether Trump -- who fired former FBI Director James Comey after he refused to pledge loyalty to the president and later reportedly tried to fire Mueller -- obstructed justice by working to interfere with the special counsel's probe. The special counsel ultimately declined to "make a traditional prosecutorial judgment" as to whether the president committed obstruction of justice. ... Read more

Corruption anxiety
Axios | Felix Salmon | 03/25/19

Dayo Olopade, a Nigerian-American journalist and technologist living in London, used the term "corruption anxiety" to describe "the knowledge that society can be and has been manipulated to favor the powerful, at your expense" in a speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday.

Why it matters: It's the sentiment that drove the Arab Spring, but it's not confined to developing countries. The Tea Party, Occupy, the Brexiteers, the Yellow Vests, even Donald "stop this corrupt machine" Trump -- all of them feed from a well of broad-based corruption anxiety. As Olopade puts it: "Corruption anxiety unifies the populist left and the populist right."

The big picture: Corruption scandals are magnified by each other. Theranos and Goldman Sachs and Martin Shkreli and Purdue Pharma and the Fyre Festival and the Catholic Church and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and parking placard abuse and police violence and all the various Trump administration scandals aren't bad apples: They're part of a pattern, one that the American public is hyperaware of. These headlines foment mistrust in the fairness of the entire system. ... Read more

magazine | author | date

While half of Republicans are Fox News viewers and live in this FoxHole, the Republicans who do not watch Fox News (19% of Americans) and Fox News viewers who are not Republicans (15%) -- call them the "Media Middle" -- are an entirely different

audience, not to mention the remaining 47% of Americans who are neither regular Fox News viewers nor Republicans. ... Read more

Fox News Has TERRIFYING Impact On Americans | TYT | 03/23/19 | 7:34

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Stepping Inside the FoxHole -- The Media Echo-Chamber of Fox News

NOAA warns of "unprecedented flood season" across U.S.
Axios | Rashaan Ayesh | 03/22/19

The U.S. is likely to see "historic, widespread flooding" through May, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's spring outlook.

What they're saying: "The extensive flooding we've seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream. This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season, with more than 200 million people at risk for flooding in their communities," writes Ed Clark, the director of NOAA's National Water Center. ... Read more

Under Trump, America increasingly loses its global lead
Axios | Nicholas Johnston | 03/22/19

The United States is no longer driving the conversation on some of the biggest issues facing the world, both short- and long-term. Instead, foreign nations are making the decisions.

Why it matters: America is losing its position as the global arbiter for international norms -- from airline safety to online privacy to the response to climate change. It's a trend that predates President Trump, but it's accelerating now -- and it makes Americans beholden to the decisions of foreigners.

Global trust in U.S. leadership is near record lows, according to Gallup; 31% percent of people worldwide surveyed last year said they approve of U.S. leadership, lower than Germany and China. ... Read more

Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump by Vicky Ward

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the self-styled Prince and Princess of America. Their swift, gilded rise to extraordinary power in Donald Trump's White House is unprecedented and dangerous. In Kushner, Inc., investigative journalist Vicky Ward digs beneath the myth the couple has created, depicting themselves as the voices of reason in an otherwise crazy presidency, and reveals that Jared and Ivanka are not just the President's chief enablers: they, like him, appear disdainful of rules, of laws, and of ethics. They are entitled inheritors of the worst kind; their combination of ignorance, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for power has caused havoc all over the world, and may threaten the democracy of the United States.

Ward follows their trajectory from New Jersey and New York City to the White House, where the couple's many forays into policy-making and national security have mocked long-standing U.S. policy and protocol. They have pursued an agenda that could increase their wealth while their actions have mostly gone unchecked. In Kushner, Inc., Ward holds Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump accountable: she unveils the couple's self-serving transactional motivations and how those have propelled them into the highest levels of the US government where no one, the President included, has been able to stop them.

Trump provokes global anger by recognising Israel's claim to Golan Heights
TheGuardian | Oliver Holmes | 03/22/19

Syria has vowed to retake the Golan Heights as Donald Trump's call for the US to recognise the occupied territory as part of Israel elicited strong responses from Russia, Turkey and Iran.

The president ended half a century of US foreign policy and broke from post-second world war international consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war with a tweet on Thursday that said it was time "to fully recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights". ... Read more

Kushner Used Private Email To Conduct Official Business, House Committee Says
NPR | Tim Mak | 03/21/19

Jared Kushner's attorney told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that Kushner uses private messaging applications and personal email to communicate about official White House matters, the committee wrote in a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone on Thursday.

The oversight panel said that Kushner, the president's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, had been using WhatsApp as part of his official duties -- an apparent violation of a law governing White House records. ... Read more

The Cold War Ides of March
TheNation | Stephen F. Cohen | 03/20/19

Heedless of the consequences, or perhaps welcoming them, America's Cold Warriors and their media platforms have recently escalated their rhetoric against Russia, especially in March. Anyone who has lived through or studied the preceding 40-year Cold War will recognize the ominous echoes of its most dangerous periods, when actual war was on the horizon or a policy option. Here are only a few random but representative examples:

In a March 8 - Washington Post opinion article, two American professors, neither with any apparent substantive knowledge of Russia or Cold War history, warned that the Kremlin is trying "to undermine our trust in the institutions that sustain a strong nation and a strong democracy. The media, science, academia and the electoral process are all regular targets." Decades ago, J. Edgar Hoover, the policeman of that Cold War, said the same, indeed made it an operational doctrine. ... Read more

Radical White Terrorism
TheIntercept | Jeromy Scahill | 03/20/19

THE THREAT OF violent "white power" terrorism is real. This week on Intercepted: In the aftermath of the massacre of 50 children and adults at two mosques in New Zealand, two Muslim journalists discuss Islamophobia, the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim bigotry, and the motive of the shooter. Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik talks about the "ghoulish routine" in the media and among politicians that increasingly emerges in the aftermath of massacres of Muslims by white supremacists. The Intercept's Murtaza Hussain explains why, as a nonwhite Western Muslim, he felt compelled to analyze the "manifesto" of the shooter. He argues that the shooter's "writings reflect a worldview that is not just confined to the dark corners of the internet but is openly expressed in media and politics." University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew, author of "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America," discusses the history of white power movements and why she draws a distinction between white power and white supremacy. She also rejects the label "lone wolf" for the perpetrators of these massacres and argues that they are united in their heinous cause. ... Read more
Intercepted Podcast: Radical White Terrorism | TheIntercept | 03/20/19 | 1hr

Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Trump, Islamophobia, and His Presidential Bid
TheIntercep | author | 03/21/19

WHEN MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG launched his presidential exploratory committee in January, the general reaction was: Who? The mayorship of South Bend, Indiana, with a population of 100,000, is not a traditional launchpad to the nation's highest office, and most saw little reason to credit his longshot bid. But recently Buttigieg has turned heads with a slate of radical political reform proposals, including expanding the Supreme Court and eliminating the Electoral College, that may help differentiate him from the crowd. He also earned plaudits for a statement addressed to the South Bend Muslim community issued in the wake of the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings which contrasted sharply with President Trump's equivocations on the subject of Islamophobia and white nationalism. "Mayor Pete" joins Mehdi Hasan on this week's Deconstructed to talk about his path to the White House. Intercept's D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim follows with thoughts on an increasingly crowded Democratic field. ... Read more
Deconstructed Podcast: Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Trump, Islamophobia, and His Presidential Bid | TheIntercept | 03/21/19 | 1hr

Donald Trump Freaks Out Again Over George Conway, 'Husband From Hell'
HP | Lee Moran | 03/20/19

President Donald Trump appears determined to have the last word in his ongoing Twitter beef with George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

But Conway, a lawyer who contends the president is mentally unstable and incompetent, doesn't seem prepared to let the feud die anytime soon.

Trump on Wednesday morning launched a blistering attack on Conway for a second straight day. He called him "a stone cold LOSER" and a "husband from hell" who was "VERY jealous" of his wife's success: ... Read more

Judge halts drilling plan, says Interior must consider climate change
Axios | Rashaan Ayesh | 03/20/19

A federal judge has temporarily blocked oil and gas drilling on 300,000 acres of federal land in Wyoming, ruling that the Interior Department "did not sufficiently consider climate change" in its assessments of whether to lease federal land for individual projects, the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: This is the first time the Trump administration is being held accountable by the courts for the impact of its energy policies. The key question now is whether this is a one-off or the beginning of a trend by the court system to serve as a check on Trump's fossil-fuel agenda -- something Democrats were unable to do for the first two years of his presidency. ... Read more

President Donald Trump Lashes Out At Media, John McCain And Others | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 03/20/19 | 2:34

The movement: How Steve Bannon is spreading populist Trump-style politics across Europe
.independent.co.uk | author | date

After being forced out as White House chief strategist, former Breitbart News chief determined to ignite his brand of nationalism in the rest of the world

Sitting in a top-floor suite of his five-star hotel looking out on an ancient church dome, the self-proclaimed populist hit his talking points: The global elite is brutalising the little guy, European nations need to take back decision-making from an overbearing European Union government, and he and his new Brussels-based group, The Movement, are ready to provide polling, data analysis and messaging to help nationalist parties across Europe. Then came an unwelcome question. "Do you actually believe in anti-fascism values?" the interviewer asked.

... Read more
What Has Steve Bannon Been Up To? | TYT | 03/19/19 | 13:36

Act of God: Trump's History With Deutsche Bank
NYTimes | David Enrich | 03/18/19

As President Trump delivered his inaugural address in 2017, a slight woman with feathered gray hair sat listening, bundled in a hooded white parka in a fenced-off V.I.P. section. Her name was Rosemary T. Vrablic. She was a managing director at Deutsche Bank and one of the reasons Mr. Trump had just taken the oath of office. It was a moment of celebration -- and a moment of worry for Ms. Vrablic's employer.

Mr. Trump and Deutsche Bank were deeply entwined, their symbiotic bond born of necessity and ambition on both sides: a real estate mogul made toxic by polarizing rhetoric and a pattern of defaults, and a bank with intractable financial problems and a history of misconduct. ... Read more
How Trump Swindled Billions Out Of Deutsche Bank | TYT | 03/20/19 | 17:55

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Getting Rid Of The Electoral College
HP | Sanjana Karanth | 03/19/19

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday that she fully supports abolishing the Electoral College and moving toward a national popular vote, the first time the 2020 presidential candidate has publicly taken the stance.

"My view is that every vote matters," the Massachusetts Democrat said to roaring applause at her CNN presidential town hall at Jackson State University in Mississippi. "And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting, and that means get rid of the Electoral College." ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren CNN town hall
CNN | Veronica Rocha | 03/19/19

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, speaking directly to voters at tonight's town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, answered questions on a range of issues, ranging from US troops in Syria to her own family's financial struggles.

... Read more

CNN Town Hall with Sen. Elizabeth Warren [9pm] 3/18/2019 | CNN | 03/18/19 | 47:34

Watch the US stall on climate change for 12 years | VOX | 10/10/18 | 12:05

Senator Bernie Sanders hosts a town hall on inequality in America | TheGuardian | 03/19/18 | 1:57:34

New Zealand's Largest Auction Site Ditches Semiautomatics After Mosque Shootings
HP | Mary Papenfuss | 03/18/19

'Trade Me' dropped the weapons after a public outcry as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern plans to announce gun reform within days.

New Zealand's largest online auction site is suspending sales of semiautomatic weapons after the deadly attack on two Christchurch mosques last week that killed 50 people. Following an outcry from the mass shooting, the site TradeMe said it would also cease listing parts for the guns on Monday.

"We have listened to public sentiment following Friday's terrorist attack in Christchurch and decided to remove all semi-automatic firearms sales and parts associated with those weapons," CEO Jon Macdonald said in a statement. The sales will be stopped while "we wait for more clarity from the government," he said.... Read more

Robert Reich: What's the Real American Story? | Robert Reich | 03/04/19 | 16:04

Public Shaming: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | 03/17/19 | 26:44

Fierce DACA Opponents Meet DREAMer Family Face to Face | Jimmy Kimmel | 01/31/19 | 8:31

Mainstream Media's Lies Exposed | TYT | 03/16/19 | 37:49

Trump and Republicans are isolated on climate change
Axion | Amy Harder | 03/18/19

President Trump and congressional Republicans are increasingly outliers in an otherwise emerging consensus across America that climate change is a problem and that the government should pass new laws to address it.

The big picture: The shift has been underway for the last couple of years, driven by investor pressure, growing public concern and mounting scientific urgency. In the last several months, the fervor around the Green New Deal is accelerating this shift and accentuating Republicans' isolation and their internal divisions -- as a handful of Republicans break ranks and acknowledge the problem is real.

Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump by Vicky Ward

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the self-styled Prince and Princess of America. Their swift, gilded rise to extraordinary power in Donald Trump's White House is unprecedented and dangerous. In Kushner, Inc., investigative journalist Vicky Ward digs beneath the myth the couple has created, depicting themselves as the voices of reason in an otherwise crazy presidency, and reveals that Jared and Ivanka are not just the President's chief enablers: they, like him, appear disdainful of rules, of laws, and of ethics. They are entitled inheritors of the worst kind; their combination of ignorance, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for power has caused havoc all over the world, and may threaten the democracy of the United States.

Ward follows their trajectory from New Jersey and New York City to the White House, where the couple's many forays into policy-making and national security have mocked long-standing U.S. policy and protocol. They have pursued an agenda that could increase their wealth while their actions have mostly gone unchecked. In Kushner, Inc., Ward holds Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump accountable: she unveils the couple's self-serving transactional motivations and how those have propelled them into the highest levels of the US government where no one, the President included, has been able to stop them.

Young People Feel Betrayed by Adults Over the Climate Crisis. Today, They're Going on Strike.
TheIntercept | Sharon Lerner | 03/15/19

Fernands has been struggling with that sense of helplessness since she first became keyed into the accelerating timetable of climate change in seventh grade. "It seemed like the end of the world," she said. "But the apocalyptic message wasn't being broadcast. Nobody was taking correct action to put us on a path away from climate catastrophe." Because her parents and teachers didn't seem to share her urgency, Fernands decided that she herself would have to sound the alarm over climate.

Over the past year, Fernands, now a sophomore in high school, has connected with other young people around the country and the world who grasp how dire the climate crisis is. And today they'll be taking to the streets in at least 105 countries. In the U.S., youth will strike in more than 100 cities, taking time off from school to demand radical legislative action to combat climate change and a transition to a 100 percent renewable economy. ... Read more

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.

Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can--except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; how they lavishly reward "thought leaders" who redefine "change" in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. We hear the limousine confessions of a celebrated foundation boss; witness an American president hem and haw about his plutocratic benefactors; and attend a cruise-ship conference where entrepreneurs celebrate their own self-interested magnanimity.

Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? He also points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world. A call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike.

A chaotic Brexit is part of Trump's grand plan for Europe
TheGuardian | Natalie Nougayrède | 03/14/19

The president and his outriders want Europe weak and divided. Brexit will deliver some of that

If Brexit is halted, both the UK and the rest of Europe will reap the benefit -- and Donald Trump, for one, will suffer a defeat. The sect of Brexit has passionate adherents far beyond Britain's hardline leavers. It includes vocal and influential preachers in the Trumpian world of Washington -- and the reality of Trump is having a deep impact on Europe, with the Brexit mess a key part of it all.

The Brexit saga isn't just about a negotiation gone awry, nor about the impasse a country finds itself in having fallen prey to a movement based on lies and deception. The wider question is about what kind of world we want to live in. To fully see this, it helps to keep Trump's US in mind, not just the intricacies of British parliamentary arithmetic or Michel Barnier's latest statement. Because Trump's US is intimately intertwined with the Brexiter vision of Britain. ... Read more

49 killed in terrorist attack on New Zealand mosques
Axios| Dave Lawler | 03/15/19

New Zealand police said Friday a man in his late 20s had been charged with murder after 49 people were killed and 48 others injured in shooting attacks at 2 mosques in the city of Christchurch.

It's the worst terrorist attack in the region. Many Kiwis are reeling from the news that such a tragedy could unfold in their backyard, a quiet country of fewer than 5 million people.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said people with such extremist views have "absolutely no place in New Zealand." ... Read more

Sandy Hook Families Can Now Sue The Remington Gun Manufacturer | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 03/15/19 | 8:04

Tucker Carlson on Rupert Murdoch in 2010 Radio Segment: "I'm 100 Percent His Bitch"
TheIntercept | Aída Chávez | 03/12/19

TUCKER CARLSON, who recently branded himself as a leading anti-elitist, had previously labeled himself as an "out-of-the-closet elitist," and separately said that he is "100 percent [Rupert Murdoch's] bitch." The two quips are part of a trove of newly unearthed recordings from 2008 to 2011 that haven't previously been reported.

The Fox News host made the comments on the shock-jock radio program "The Bubba the Love Sponge Show," where he appeared regularly from 2006 to 2011. They are starkly different from Carlson's recent attempts to brand himself as an anti-elite, anti-capitalist commentator on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," one of the most-watched shows on cable news.

In January, Carlson, who frequently traffics in white nationalist rhetoric, delivered a 15-minute monologue in which he railed against America's ruling class. Carlson slammed both parties, saying that Americans "are ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation" to the people they rule, and that Republican leaders would have to be fools to worship market capitalism. "Under our current system, an American who works for a salary pays about twice the tax rate of someone who's living off inherited money and doesn't work at all," he said. "We tax capital at half of what we tax labor. It's a sweet deal if you work in finance, as many of our rich people do." ... Read more

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Is Tucker Carlson a White Supremacist? | Samantha Bee | 03/13/19 | 6:52

The Great Ilhan Omar Debate | Samantha Bee | 03/13/19 | 7:58

Too much computer
Axios | Felix Salmon | 03/14/19

Somewhere in the human-computer nexus, two brand-new Boeing aircraft have crashed shortly after takeoff, with the loss of 346 lives. One conclusion: We can't assume that adding more technology to our lives will make us safer.

We saw something similar when a driverless car killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona.

Why it matters: The way that Boeing and the FAA approach the latest crisis should provide a blueprint not only for the aviation industry, but also for autonomous vehicles and many other technologies taking over human decision-making -- even the algorithm determining what you watch next on YouTube. ... Read more

Why An ER Visit Can Cost So Much -- Even For Those With Health Insurance | Terry Gross | NPR Fresh Air | 03/13/19 | 1hr

Inside the Decades-Long Republican Campaign to Suppress the Vote
TheNation | Timothy Smith | 03/11/19

Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook, a new film from American Issues Initiative, reveals for the first time and in frightening detail the dark, partisan genius behind the decades-long strategy to disenfranchise nonwhite voters.

The dangerous toll this strategy is taking on the sacred principle of "one person/one vote" is not lost on Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who says, "I fear that young people will not have the kind of democracy that I experienced." ... Read more
Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook, a new film from American Issues Initiative | | 9:47

Bomb cyclone breaks records, brings blizzard conditions to the Plains
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 03/13/19

A rapidly intensifying storm the National Weather Service says is "of historic proportions" has explosively intensified into a raging blizzard across the Plains, bringing hurricane-force wind gusts and white-out conditions to multiple states from Colorado to the Dakotas.

Why it matters: This storm's strength and rate of intensification is unusual for the Plains states, with low pressure records likely to be challenged or broken in multiple locations. (In general, the lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm.) The minimal central pressure may hit the low 970s or upper 960s millibars Wednesday when it peaks in eastern Colorado or western Kansas, threatening March and all-time state records. So far, the minimum pressure of 971 millibars recorded in Colorado would be a new state record if it is confirmed.

The storm is bringing air and road travel to a screeching halt from Dallas to North Dakota, with blizzard conditions and winds gusting upwards of 70 miles per hour forecast for a vast stretch of real estate. ... Read more

A Powerful 'Bomb Cyclone' Could Impact 70 Million Americans: Here's Everything To Know | TIME | 03/13/19 | 1:00

*Lawrence Lessig Explains the Unique Evil of Mitch McConnell | JRE Clips | 12/13/18 | 6:18

*Lawrence Lessig: Does the Electoral College Disenfranchize Voters? | JRE Clips | 12/13/18 | 10:49

The Mueller Papers: Compiled by Strong Arm Press with an Introduction by Ryan Grim

It was the firing heard round the world. With one impulsive move, on the advice of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Donald Trump fired James Comey on May 9, 2017. It would change the course of the Trump presidency and, with it, alter the course of world history in ways both large and small. It was that firing that led to the creation of the position of Special Counsel, filled by former FBI director Robert Mueller.

The product of Mueller's year and a half of investigation may or may not be made public, but, in a critical way, it already is. As Chad Day and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press have written, "Mueller has spoken loudly, if indirectly, in court - indictment by indictment, guilty plea by guilty plea. In doing so, he tracked an elaborate Russian operation that injected chaos into a U.S. presidential election and tried to help Trump win the White House. He followed a GOP campaign that embraced the Kremlin's help and championed stolen material to hurt a political foe. And ultimately, he revealed layers of lies, deception, self-enrichment and hubris that followed.

Woven through thousands of court papers, the special counsel has made his public report. This is what it says."The filings have an almost novelistic quality. "Mueller's legal filings, which include indictments and sentencing memorandums, have created an almost novelistic narrative, featuring rich portraits of the political and personal motivations of a large cast of characters," observed Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker's legal affairs correspondent.

Schoolhouse Wreck: The Betsy DeVos Story by Jason Linkins

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has done little to draw attention to herself, but has nevertheless managed to become the most reviled member of Donald Trump's cabinet. DeVos, the sister of mercenary magnate Erik Prince, is a thicket of contradictions: as a person, she is roundly described as unassuming and kind to those around her. Born into extraordinary wealth, and married into an Amway fortune, she has devoted much of her life to a project that has left public schools wrecked in her wake. It is her life's passion, yet she is broadly unfamiliar with even the most elementary aspects of education policy. How that inexplicable combination -- voracious ideological fervor blended with extreme ignorance -- will shape the future of schooling in the United States is just one of the intrigues probed by this timely and incisive exposé.

*Tucker Tapes 2 | HP | 03/13/19 | 1.34

It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America by David Cay Johnston

The Trump administration is remaking the government. It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America tells us exactly how it is making America worse again.

Bestselling author and longtime Trump observer David Cay Johnston shines a light on the political termites who have infested our government under the Trump Administration, destroying it from within and compromising our jobs, safety, finances, and more.

No journalist knows Donald Trump better than David Cay Johnston, who has been following him since 1988. It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America goes inside the administration to show how the federal agencies that touch the lives of all Americans are being undermined. Here is just some of what you will learn:

The Wall. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told President Trump that Mexico will never pay for the border wall. So, Trump is proposing putting a tariff on Mexican imports. But a tariff will simply raise the price of Mexican goods in the US, meaning American consumers will end up paying for the wall--if it ever gets built.

Climate Change. Welcome to the new EPA, run by Scott Pruitt, a lawyer who has spent much of his career trying to destroy the agency he now heads. Secrecy reigns at the new EPA because Pruitt meets with industry executives to find out which clean air and clean water provisions they most want to roll back, and keeps staffers in the dark to make sure these pro-pollution plans don't leak prematurely.

Stocking the Swamp. Contrary to his promise to "drain the swamp" in Washington, DC, Trump has filled his cabinet with millionaires and billionaires, from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs and hedge fund veteran who made much of his fortune foreclosing on homeowners to billionaire heiress Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has already put the interests of bankers ahead of debt-burdened students and their families.

The Kleptocracy. Under Donald Trump conflict of interest is passé. When Trump isn't in Washington, he stays at one of his properties, where the taxpayers pick up the tab for staffers, Secret Service, and so on, all at full price. And back in Washington, everyone now knows that the Trump International Hotel is the only place to stay if you want to do business with the administration. Meanwhile sons Donald Jr. and Eric run an eyes-wide-open blind trust of Trump holdings to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest--but not the reality.

The overlooked, bleak future of work for women
Axios | Kaveh Waddell | 03/12/19

The most visible faces in the predicted coming wave of job displacement belong to the likes of factory workers and truck drivers -- primarily men threatened by robots and AI.

The big picture: But the wave will crash harder over women, who do the majority of highly automatable jobs. Policymakers thus far appear blind to this gender dynamic, experts say, and risk putting in place training programs and safety nets that mainly rescue men.

What's going on: Automation is expected to devastate jobs that involve routine tasks, such as back-office clerical jobs like accounting, and service jobs in retail and fast food. Women do the majority of this repetitive work, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ... Read more

The U.S. industries dependent on immigrants
Axios | Stef W. Kight | 03/12/19

Industries in the U.S. that provide food, shelter, clothing and health care often rely on the labor of immigrants -- those on work visas, brought here as kids or in the country illegally, according to new data given exclusively to Axios from New American Economy (NAE), a group that supports immigration.

Why it matters: House Democrats are resuming the fight over immigration issues with the reintroduction of the Dream Act, to give legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S., illegally as children. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

*The Real Tucker Carlson Exposed In Bubba The Love Sponge Interview | TYT | 03/11/19 | 11:51

Trump tells RNC donors: "The Democrats hate Jewish people"
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 03/11/19

To prevent leaks from Trump's Friday night Mar-a-Lago speech to RNC donors, security guards made attendees put their cellphones in magnetized pouches that they carried around like purses until they left the club.

So leakers had to rely on their memories. Trump entered to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American," then launched into one of his trademark stream-of-consciousness speeches, according to three people who were there. They said the crowd roared with laughter throughout.

1. Referring to the recent anti-Semitism controversies with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, Trump told the donors: "The Democrats hate Jewish people."... Read more

Trumping Democracy: Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and your data (Trailer) | 2017 | 3:04

Who Are The Kochs & Why Did They Want To Help Trump Steal The Election? (Trailer) | | 5:06

BBC Reporter Corrects US Media on Venezuela W/Greg Palast | Jimmy Dore | TYT | 28:14

What You're Not Being Told About Venezuela Crisis. w/Abby Martin | Jimmy Dore | TYT | 25:07

U.S. Peace Delegation to Iran Welcomed by Foreign Minister, Met by FBI Agents on Return | TRNN | 03/10/18 | 21:20

Defense Tech Startup Founded by Trump's Most Prominent Silicon Valley Supporters Wins Secretive Military AI Contract
TheIntercept | Lee Fang | 03/09/19

The previously unreported Project Maven contract could be a boon for Anduril's bottom line. Founded in 2017, the company has said it seeks to remake the defense contracting industry by incorporating the latest innovations of Silicon Valley into warfighting technology.

Last year, Google's involvement with Project Maven stirred a controversy inside the tech giant. The company had signed a contract with the Defense Department to develop artificial intelligence that could interpret video images in order to improve drone targeting. But after the contract's disclosure sparked an internal rebellion among employees, Google allowed its contract to expire. The Google flap and the wider military drive to adopt commercial artificial intelligence technology unleashed a fierce debate among tech companies about their role in society and ethics around advanced computing. ... Read more

Paul Manafort Was Just Sentenced to Four Years in Prison
MotherJones | Dan Friedman | 03/07/19

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, 69, to 47 months in prison on tax and bank fraud charges on Thursday.

The sentence follows Manafort's conviction last August on charges that he failed to pay taxes on at least $16 million he was paid in the early 2010s for consulting and lobbying work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian leader who fled to Moscow after a 2014 uprising, and his allies. Manafort was also convicted of defrauding multiple banks to secure large loans after his consulting income dried up in 2015. ... Read more

U.S. trade deficit grows to 10-year high under Trump
Axios | staff | 03/08/19

The U.S. trade deficit grew to $621 billion in 2018, its highest level since 2008, according to a Commerce Department report released Wednesday that was delayed by the government shutdown.

The big picture: President Trump has made reducing the nation's trade deficit -- especially with China -- a major goal of his administration. However, the report showed a record-breaking $891.3 billion trade gap for the U.S. in goods and services and a trade deficit with China for goods that hit a record $419.2 billion. ... Read more

Is Sanders' Democratic Socialism ... Socialism? | TRNN | 03/08/19 | 21:21

Trump will submit NAFTA replacement to Congress 'very shortly'
Politico | Doug Palmer | 03/08/19

President Donald Trump today said he plans to send the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to Congress very soon, which would start a 90-day clock for lawmakers to approve or reject the plan without any changes.

"Mexico, Canada is done. We'll be submitting to Congress very shortly. And that's a great deal for the United States, so we're very happy about that," Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for an event in Alabama.

The comment came as many Democrats are demanding the Trump administration reopen the agreement to strengthen labor and environmental enforcement provisions and address concerns about pharmaceutical issues. ... Read more

The Making of the Fox News White House
See NPR Fresh Air in the right column
TheNation | Jane Mayer | 03/11/19

... But the photo op dramatized something else about the Administration. After members of the press pool got out of vans and headed over to where the President was about to speak, they noticed that Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, was already on location. Unlike them, he hadn't been confined by the Secret Service, and was mingling with Administration officials, at one point hugging Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security. The pool report noted that Hannity was seen "huddling" with the White House communications director, Bill Shine. After the photo op, Hannity had an exclusive on-air interview with Trump. Politico later reported that it was Hannity's seventh interview with the President, and Fox's forty-second. Since then, Trump has given Fox two more. He has granted only ten to the three other main television networks combined, and none to CNN, which he denounces as "fake news."

Hannity was treated in Texas like a member of the Administration because he virtually is one. The same can be said of Fox's chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Fox has long been a bane of liberals, but in the past two years many people who watch the network closely, including some Fox alumni, say that it has evolved into something that hasn't existed before in the United States. Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor of Presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and the author of "Messengers of the Right," a history of the conservative media's impact on American politics, says of Fox, "It's the closest we've come to having state TV." ... Read more

On March 15, the Climate Kids Are Coming
TheNation | Mark Hertsgaard | 03/04/19

Beware the Ides of March, all you climate wreckers out there. The Climate Kids are coming, in massive and growing numbers, and they are not in the mood to negotiate. They know that you--whether you're a fossil-fuel executive, a politician who takes fossil-fuel money, or a Fox News hack who recycles fossil-fuel lies--have put their future in grave danger, and they are rising up to take it back.

On March 15, tens of thousands of high-school and middle-school students in more than 30 countries plan to skip school to demand that politicians treat the global climate crisis as the emergency it is. Shakespeare made the Ides of March famous with his soothsayer's warning in Julius Caesar, but ancient Romans actually saw it as a day for settling debts. What bigger debt is there than the theft of a livable future? At the March 15 School Strike 4 Climate, young people will call in that debt and, in the United States at least, demand real solutions in the form of the Green New Deal championed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. ... Read more

The climate change lawsuit that could stop the U.S. government from supporting fossil fuels
The "climate kids" suing the government | 60 Minutes | 03/03/19 | 13:43

U.S. trade deficit grows to 10-year high under Trump
Axios | staff | 03/07/19

The U.S. trade deficit grew to $621 billion in 2018, its highest level since 2008, according to a Commerce Department report released Wednesday that was delayed by the government shutdown.

The big picture: President Trump has made reducing the nation's trade deficit -- especially with China -- a major goal of his administration. However, the report showed a record-breaking $891.3 billion trade gap for the U.S. in goods and services and a trade deficit with China for goods that hit a record $419.2 billion. ... Read more

Richard Sackler Handsome Big P*nis Not a Murderer | Samantha Bee | 03/06/19 | 8:22

The Fox News White House | Samantha Bee | 03/06/19 | 5:26

The biggest political scandal in American history
Axios | Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen | 03/07/19

Even without seeing Robert Mueller's report, or knowing what prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have unearthed, or what congressional investigators will find, we already have witnessed the biggest political scandal in American history.

Historians tell Axios that the only two scandals that come close to Trump-Russia are Watergate, which led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, and the Teapot Dome scandal of the early 1920s, in which oil barons bribed a corrupt aide to President Warren Harding for petroleum leases. ... Read more

Where's the Outrage Over Bill Shine?
TheNation | Joan Walsh | older 08/01/18

Donald Trump's war on the media is so unrelenting it can be hard to single out a "worst" development at any given time. It's been just over a month since a man with a grudge against a reporter shot five journalists in Annapolis, and the president refused the mayor's request to fly the White House flag at half-mast (he eventually relented). A week later, Trump proclaimed reporters "bad people" at a rally only 30 miles away from the murders. Just last night, wrathful crowds chanting "fake news" and "CNN sucks" harassed the network's Jim Acosta at Trump's Tampa rally. The video is genuinely scary. For one thing, it showed that the sick and dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory--which holds that Democrats, Hollywood celebrities, and the "deep state" are collaborating in child-sex-trafficking and are trying to assassinate Trump for his role in exposing it--has gotten traction in the Trump base.

Against that backdrop of violence, real and threatened, the administration's latest assault on media rights has been all but forgotten. It's been exactly a week since Trump's new communications director, former Fox News co-president (and Roger Ailes enabler) Bill Shine banned CNN's Kaitlan Collins from a Rose Garden press availability with the president, as punishment for doing her job. ... Read more

What the Investigators are Looking For
HP | Paul Blumenthal | 03/06/19

A full breakdown of the House Judiciary Committee's massive document request.

No one knows exactly what Democrats' investigations of President Donald Trump will turn up. But the distribution of Dems' initial 81 document requests -- sent Monday to an array of individuals, organizations and government agencies -- reveals a lot about congressional investigators' plans.

The document requests by the House Judiciary Committee focus on five lines of investigation: 1) the Trump Tower Moscow deal negotiations, 2) possible conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and other foreign governments to influence the 2016 presidential election, 3) possible crimes to cover up the alleged conspiracy, 4) payment of hush money to the president's extramarital lovers in violation of campaign finance laws and 5) the president's receipt of money in violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause. ... Read more

America's least favorite company is the U.S. government
Axios | David Nather | 03/06/19

For 20 years, Harris Poll has been measuring the reputations of the most high-profile American companies. This year, for the first time, people mentioned the U.S. government as a "company" that they think about -- and they hate it.

Why it matters: The fact that people would bring it up unprompted -- and then give it the lowest score of the 100 companies on the list -- suggests that Americans aren't just unimpressed with their government. They think it's a toxic waste dump.

No partisan divide on this one: Republicans ranked the government #95 out of the 100 companies, Democrats ranked it #98, and independents put it dead last. ... Read more

"Israeli influence on U.S. foreign policy" Col. Lawrence Wilkerson | Israel's Influence: Good or Bad for America? | 06/25/16 | 21:57

A second person may be "cured" of HIV
Vox | Julia Belluz | 03/05/19

n the history of HIV/AIDS, only a single person is believed to have been cured of the virus. Timothy Ray Brown, an American known as the "Berlin patient," had HIV for more than a decade, until two stem cell transplants in 2007 and 2008 cleared it from his body.

Now, according to a paper published Tuesday in Nature, there might finally be a second such patient. ... Read more

The "climate kids" suing the government | 60 Minutes | 03/03/19 | 13:43

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr

We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories?the islands, atolls, and archipelagos?this country has governed and inhabited?

In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.

In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.

Sanders, Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, and other Lawmakers Sign Pledge to End America's "Forever Wars"
TheIntercept | Alex Emmons, Ryan Grim | 03/04/19

EIGHT MEMBERS OF Congress have taken a pledge to work to bring ongoing U.S. global military conflicts to a "responsible and expedient" end, the result of a first-of-its kind lobbying effort by military veterans on Capitol Hill.

The pledge was written and organized by a group called Common Defense, made up of veterans and military families, which advocates for scaling back U.S. military commitments overseas. Common Defense boasts of more than 20,000 veteran members in all 50 states, and it threw its endorsement behind almost 30 candidates in the last midterm election cycle. ... Read more

House Democrats open sweeping corruption probe into Trump's world
Politico | Andrew Desiderio | 03/04/19

The House Judiciary panel is requesting documents from more than 80 people or entities in Trump's orbit, including his adult sons.

A key House committee with the power to impeach President Donald Trump kicked off a sweeping investigation on Monday, demanding documents from the White House and Trump's namesake company, charity, transition team, inauguration and 2016 campaign, as well as several longtime associates and the president's two adult sons.

Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) opened his much-anticipated probe with letters to 81 people, companies and government entities, seeking a wide range of materials that go to the heart of allegations against the president -- including abuses of power, corruption and obstruction of justice. ... Read more

Trump's money man draws unwelcome spotlight
Politico | Darren Samuelsohn | 02/28/19

Allen Weisselberg's longtime loyalty to Trump will be tested by demands that he testify before Congress.

... Last summer, federal prosecutors in Manhattan granted the 71-year-old Weisselberg immunity to testify in their investigation of Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Some media reports breathlessly suggested at the time that Weisselberg might be turning against the president himself.

But Trump and his aides aren't worried. They believe that Weisselberg's testimony was limited to a narrow set of topics involving Cohen. That likely explains why Weisselberg still works as chief financial officer of The Trump Organization, according to multiple people familiar with the company's hierarchy and records obtained by POLITICO, and continues to have an executive office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower. ... Read more

Hate Center Stage: CPAC'S Band of Bigots | At CPAC, Extremists On Stage And Off
HP | Christopher Mathias | 03/04/19

The annual conference served as yet another reminder of how the conservative movement in America is joined at the hip with the white nationalist movement.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- In 2004, far-right activist Michelle Malkin published a racist book called "In Defense of Internment." It argued that the United States was right to forcibly remove 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from their homes during World War II -- 70 percent of whom were American citizens -- and place them in internment camps for years, where they often lived behind barbed-wire fences under the watch of armed guards.

On Friday afternoon, Malkin was a featured speaker at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, speaking from the same stage where Vice President Mike Pence had spoken just a few hours earlier, and where President Donald Trump spoke Saturday.

Malkin -- who, it bears repeating, wrote a book that defended putting an ethnic group in government internment camps -- told the crowd that current immigration levels amount to an "invasion" that "endangers our general welfare and the blessings of liberty." ... Read more

Michelle Malkin speaks at CPAC 2019 (Full) | News WLTX | 03/01/18 | 19:52

President Trump speaks at CPAC 2019 | WP | 03/02/19 | 3:17:48

*The most bizarre moments from Donald Trump's CPAC speech | TheGuardian | 03/03/19 | 2:40

Automation: Last Week Tonight | John Oliver | 03/03/19 | 19:47

The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth by Michael Mandelbaum

In the twenty-five years after 1989, the world enjoyed the deepest peace in history. In The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth, the eminent foreign policy scholar Michael Mandelbaum examines that remarkable quarter century, describing how and why the peace was established and then fell apart. To be sure, wars took place in this era, but less frequently and on a far smaller scale than in previous periods. Mandelbaum argues that the widespread peace ended because three major countries -- Vladimir Putin's Russia in Europe, Xi Jinping's China in East Asia, and the Shia clerics' Iran in the Middle East -- put an end to it with aggressive nationalist policies aimed at overturning the prevailing political arrangements in their respective regions. The three had a common motive: their need to survive in a democratic age with their countries' prospects for economic growth uncertain.

Mandelbaum further argues that the key to the return of peace lies in the advent of genuine democracy, including free elections and the protection of religious, economic, and political liberty. Yet, since recent history has shown that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside, The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth has a dual message: while the world has a formula for peace, there is no way to ensure that all countries will embrace it.