Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

A Flood of Late Spending on Midterm Elections, From Murky Sources
NYTimes| Nicholas Confessore | 11/02/14

A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election on Tuesday. Some of the groups are "super PACs" that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races. ... Read more

Bill Gross Warns "Global Economy & Financial Markets Are Insecurely Grounded"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

"Perhaps sooner rather than later, investors must recognize that modern day inflation, while a necessary condition for survival, is not a sufficient condition for increasing wealth at a rate necessary to satisfy future liabilities associated with education, health care, and a satisfactory retirement. The real economy needs money printing, yes, but money spending more so, and that must come from the fiscal side -- from the dreaded government side -- where deficits are anathema and balanced budgets are increasingly in vogue. Until then, deflation remains a growing possibility -- not the kind that creates prosperity but the kind that's the trouble for prosperity." ... Read more

Russia Conducts Full "Nuclear Triad" Drill, Launches Topol-M ICBM
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

1) ICBM - As reported earlier by the Barents Observer, the silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports. The Ministry, conveniently, adds that the Topol-M missile has an "extremely high accuracy of target destruction."

2) Strategic Bombers - This took place after a close encounter on Friday, when Norwegian F-16s were scrambled from Bodø airbase for the second time this week as a group of four Tu-95 strategic bombers were approaching from the northeast, Norway's TV2 reports. The bombers, flying out over the Barents Sea from Russia's Kola Peninsula, were accompanied by four Il-78 tankers.

3) Borey-class submarine - This was the first operational test launch of Bulava in line with the program of combat training. All previous launches were part of development testing of the new weapon. It is also the first time a Borey-class submarine had a full set of missiles on board when the launch was conducted. The Borey-class submarines carries 16 missiles that each may hold as many as 10 nuclear warheads. "Yury Dolgoruky" got her full set of Bulava missiles in June this year. ... Read more

James Risen Challenges the Greed, Power, and Endless War of the National Security State
AlterNet | Norman Solomon | 10/14/14

No single review or interview can do justice to "Pay Any Price" -- the new book by James Risen that is the antithesis of what routinely passes for journalism about the "war on terror." Instead of evasive tunnel vision, the book offers big-picture acuity: focusing on realities that are pervasive and vastly destructive.

Published this week, "Pay Any Price" throws down an urgent gauntlet. We should pick it up. After 13 years of militarized zealotry and fear-mongering in the name of fighting terrorism, the book -- subtitled "Greed, Power, and Endless War" -- zeros in on immense horrors being perpetrated in the name of national security.