Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Is There a Revolution Coming? Americans Finally Realize Global Capitalism Is a Murderous Sham
AlterNet | Chris Hedges | 10/30/13

Popular revulsion for the ruling elite is nearly universal. Are we going to see an uprising?

"Did you ever ask yourself how it happens that government and capitalism continue to exist in spite of all the evil and trouble they are causing in the world?"

Berkman was right. As long as most citizens believe in the ideas that justify global capitalism, the private and state institutions that serve our corporate masters are unassailable. When these ideas are shattered, the institutions that buttress the ruling class deflate and collapse. The battle of ideas is percolating below the surface. It is a battle the corporate state is steadily losing. An increasing number of Americans are getting it. They know that we have been stripped of political power. They recognize that we have been shorn of our most basic and cherished civil liberties, and live under the gaze of the most intrusive security and surveillance apparatus in human history. ... Read more

Report: NSA Is Intercepting Traffic From Yahoo, Google Data Centers
Wired Magazine | Kim Zetter | 10/30/13

Not satisfied with the bulk data it collects through court orders from internet giants Google and Yahoo, the National Security Agency reportedly vacuumed up traffic from communication links between the companies' data centers, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The taps of the data links allow the spy agency to collect data on millions of users, including Americans, without cooperation from the two companies and without oversight from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the Washington Post, which broke the story. An NSA slide obtained by the Post even shows where the NSA has presumably exploited a weakness in Google's encryption to siphon the data.

The NSA project, codenamed MUSCULAR, is operated jointly with the UK spy agency GCHQ. Both agencies copy entire data flows that pass through fiber-optic cables linking one Google data center to another. It does the same with Yahoo, at times sucking down so much information that analysts complained about the quantity. ... Read more

The Lies That Will Kill America
AlterNet | Bill Moyers | 10/25/13

Ideology and self-interest trump the facts or even caring about the facts, whether it's banking, Obamacare or global warming.

Here in Manhattan the other day, you couldn't miss it -- the big bold headline across the front page of the tabloid New York Post, screaming one of those sick, slick lies that are a trademark of Rupert Murdoch's right-wing media empire. There was Uncle Sam, brandishing a revolver and wearing a burglar's mask. "UNCLE SCAM," the headline shouted. "US robs bank of $13 billion."

Say what? Pure whitewash, and Murdoch's minions know it. That $13 billion dollars is the settlement JPMorgan Chase, the country's biggest bank, is negotiating with the government to settle its own rip-off of American homeowners and investors -- those shady practices that five years ago helped trigger the financial meltdown, including manipulating mortgages and sending millions of Americans into bankruptcy or foreclosure. ... Read more

The 5 Best Green Smoothie Videos on YouTube

Nobody Should Shed a Tear for JP Morgan Chase
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi |10/25/13

The general consensus from most observers in the finance sector is that this superficially high-dollar settlement -- worth about half a year's profits for Chase -- is an unconscionable Marxist appropriation. It's been called a "robbery" and a "shakedown," in which red Obama and his evil henchman Eric Holder confiscated cash from a successful bank, as The Wall Street Journal wrote, "for no other reason than because they can and because they want to appease their left-wing populist allies."

So let's not forget that -- that even this $13 billion settlement, which is actually a $9 billion settlement (see below), came very close to never happening. But now it is happening, and the business press is going nuts about how unfair it all is.   In fact, this deal is actually quite a gift to Chase. It sounds like a lot of money, but there are myriad deceptions behind the sensational headline. ... Read more

The Fed's Choice: A Balance Sheet That Is $4.5 Trillion Or $5 Trillion... Or Much More
ZeroHedge | author | 10/31/13

Now that an October taper is out of the question, bored investors, in a world in which fundamentals no longer matter, are looking forward to the next possible FOMC meetings and potential taper announcement dates, with three specific dates sticking out: December/January, which are really one cluster, and June, as possible announcement dates. ... Read more

Dick Cheney is a One-man Zombie Apocalypse
AlterNet | The Guardian | 10/31/13

The former VP has returned from the shadows -- weirdly, to court the Tea Party for daughter Liz's Senate run. Happy Halloween!

... He is a survivor, it's true -- but to turn to Cheney for advice about longevity is like interviewing the lone recovered castaway for tips on sea travel: you can ask him for his recipes but don't look too closely at the bones on the bottom of the boat. Put it another way: Cheney is approximately 1,000 years old and made up of spare parts; he thinks the GOP needs new blood. Be careful, guys, Cheney usually means that literally. ... Read more