Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Exclusive: GOP campaigns plot revolt against RNC
Politico | Alex Isenstadt | 10/29/15

Republican presidential campaigns are planning to gather in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening to plot how to alter their party's messy debate process -- and how to remove power from the hands of the Republican National Committee.

... On Thursday, many of the campaigns told POLITICO that the RNC, which has taken a greater role in the 2016 debate process than in previous election cycles, had failed to take their concerns into account. It was time, top aides to at least half a dozen of the candidates agreed, to begin discussing among themselves how the next debates should be structured and not leave it up to the RNC and television networks. ... Read more

*Stephen Cobert | The Biggest Loser Of The CNBC Debate Was Everyone (10/30/15) [7:54]

First They Jailed The Bankers, Now Every Icelander To Get Paid Back In Bank Sale
ZeroHedge | author | 10/30/15

First, Iceland jailed its crooked bankers for their direct involvement in the financial crisis of 2008. Now, every Icelander will receive a payout for the sale of one of its three largest banks, Íslandsbanki. ... Read more

BraveNewFilms | Koch Brothers EXPOSED (2014) [55:54]

Paul Krugman on How the GOP Got Taken Over by Scam Artists
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/30/15

In a take-no-prisoners column Friday, Paul Krugman pretty much levels the Republican presidential field. They are, in a word, grifters, Krugman writes, representatives of a party that has defined respectability down. And the gullible base is only too happy to buy the snake oil they are selling.

Perhaps the most obvious example was Ben Carson's denial Wednesday night that he is involved with the company Mannatech, a purveyor of nutritional supplements that has been forced to pony up $7 million in a deceptive practices lawsuit. Carson simply and brazenly lied, denying his involvement, and the audience applauded him and booed the questioners (Ben Carson had extensive relationship to dietary supplement company despite denial, CNN). ... Read more

Dying Puppy Found Alone In Forest Makes Miracle Transformation
www.thedodo.com | author | 10/28/15

Back in May, Stephanie Smith-Justus got a call from a worried neighbor. He had just seen a dog who was in dire need of help and he didn't know what to do. Smith-Justus, who works for her local city shelter and also runs the no-kill Buchanan County Humane Society in Virginia, grabbed her husband and ran down to the end of her street where the neighbor said he had seen the dog. After scouring the wooded forest area, she was ready to give up. But just then her husband found the dog, lying in a patch of weeds at the end of the road. "He said, 'Stephanie, I don't think he's going to live,'" Smith-Justus told The Dodo. ... Read more

*GOP Debate 10/28/15 (full) (10/28/15) [2:35:43]

Jeb Bush's Comeback Strategy Backfires At GOP Debate
AP & HP | Steve Peoples | 10/29/15

Jeb Bush sought to calm anxious donors with a comeback strategy focused on taking down rival Marco Rubio. But Bush's plan backfired badly on national television in the third GOP presidential debate.

Instead of generating much needed momentum, Bush's attack on his onetime protege raised new questions about his underwhelming candidacy in the primary contest he was once expected to dominate. And Bush's continued struggles highlight a deepening sense of uncertainty settling over a 2016 Republican presidential race that remains crowded and without a clear front-runner. ... Read more

Fact-Checking The CNBC Republican Presidential Debate
HP | FactCheck.org | 10/29/15

Deutsche Bank To Cut 35,000 Jobs, A Quarter Of Its Workforce
AP & HP | author | 10/29/15

The announcement came Thursday as the bank reported a net loss of 6 billion euros.

Deutsche Bank says it is cutting 35,000 jobs through redundancies and the sale of businesses as new CEO John Cryan seeks to make Germany's biggest lender more manageable and profitable.

... The announcement came Thursday as the bank reported a net loss of 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion). Net profit was hit by 5.8 billion euros in noncash charges for the reduced value of its investment bank and Postbank. The bank will not pay a dividend this year and next year to retain capital and strengthen the bank's finances against possible financial turbulence. ... Read more

7 Astounding Charts Show How Badly The Fed (Federal Reserve) Failed The Housing Market
ZeroHedge | author | 10/29/15

For generations, single family housing development was a driver of US economic growth. Today, there is no single family housing industry to speak of. These 7 charts derived from this week's release of new house sales data from the Census Bureau illustrates just how bad things are. New house sales fell versus September 2015 and remain barely above the housing depression lows, a mere fraction of 2005 bubble levels. ... Read more
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5 Things To Watch For In Tonight's GOP Debate
HP| Zach Carter | 10/28/15

The Republican candidates for president will appear on Wednesdayat the University of Colorado Boulder for their third debate of the primary season. This time around, the host network is CNBC, which promises to "focus on the key issues that matter to all voters -- job growth, taxes, technology, retirement and the health of our national economy."

CNBC's debate night kicks off at 6 p.m. EDT, with an undercard debate featuring Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Rick Santorum. The debate featuring the candidates who could actually win the nomination begins two hours later. Your moderators for the evening are CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood. ... Read more

Record Swarm Of California Earthquakes Continues A Series Of Unusual Events That Began In Late September
ZeroHedge | author | 10/28/15

First it was wildfires, then it was unprecedented flooding, and now it is earthquakes. In the past two weeks alone, more than 400 earthquakes have shaken San Ramon -- a small city that sits approximately 45 miles east of San Francisco. Never before have so many earthquakes been recorded in that area in such a short span of time. ... Read more

God and Government: Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism, and Freedom Of Conscience by Barry Lynn

A central player in every major church-state-separation battle for decades, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn understands the complexities of this divisive issue like few others. As a long-time activist, a civil rights lawyer, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he offers a unique perspective and a wealth of experience on church-state controversies. In this lively book, he has compiled his writings from various sources to explore in depth the many ways religious extremists have attempted to erode individual liberties.

The topics range from publicly-promoted prayer to efforts to undermine public education and replace it with taxpayer-subsidized vouchers for religious schools, interfering with end-of-life and reproductive rights, censorship, and belligerence directed against nonbelievers and minorities.

Lynn concludes that the ultimate goal of these extremist forces--consisting mainly of the Protestant Religious Right and the Roman Catholic hierarchy--is the creation of a corporate theocracy, a decidedly undemocratic system of government in which nonconservative Christians, along with humanist, feminists, and the LGBTQ community, are relegated to second-class status in America.

Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph Stiglitz (pdf).

Tthe Roosevelt Institute exposes the link between the rapidly rising fortunes of America's wealthiest citizens and increasing economic insecurity for everyone else. The conclusion is clear: piecemeal policy change will not do. To improve economic performance and create shared prosperity, we must rewrite the rules of our economy.

Markets On Hold Awaiting The Fed's Non-Announcement As Central Banks Ramp Up Currency Wars
ZeroHedge | author | 10/28/15

We would say today's main event is the culmination of the Fed's two-day meeting and the announcement slated for 2 pm this afternoon, however with the 90 economists polled by Bloomberg all expecting no rate hike, today's Fed decision also happens to be the least anticipated in years (which may be just the time for the Fed to prove it is not driven by market considerations and shock everybody, alas that will not happen). And considering how bad the economic data has gone in recent months, not to mention the recent easing, hints of easing, and outright return to currency war by other banks, the Fed is once again trapped and may not be able to hike in December or perhaps ever, now that the USD is again surging not due to its actions but due to what other central banks are doing. ... Read more

Charles Koch's Frankenstein Problem: He Created the Tea Party Monster -- and Now He's Horrified With the Results
AlterNet | Sean Illing | 10/27/15

The Koch network gave rise to the rabid right. But now Charles Koch wails about a 'lack of substance and civility.'

I'm a big fan of irony, which is why I enjoyed this Wall Street Journal profile of Charles Koch so much. In an interview with Patrick O'Connor, Charles -- evidently the more diplomatic half of the two most politically active Koch brothers -- spoke somberly about the tone of the 2016 presidential race and of political discourse more generally. "It's mainly about personalities and 'your mother sucked rotten eggs,'" he lamented to O'Connor.

On the one hand, I understand Charles Koch's frustration. After all, he and his brother are looking to invest $750 million on this election. When a man, his brother, and 450 wealthy donors build a national network of umbrella organizations in order to dictate political outcomes via dark money, they expect to get the results they want. ... Read more

South China Sea: U.S. Sovereignty Challenge Provokes Anger In Beijing
AP & HP | Christopher Bodeen | 10/27/15

A U.S. Navy warship sailed past one of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday, in a challenge to Chinese sovereignty claims that drew an angry protest from Beijing, which said the move damaged U.S.-China relations and regional peace.

China's Foreign Ministry said authorities monitored and warned the USS Lassen as it entered what China claims as a 12-mile (21-kilometer) territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a group of reefs, islets, and atolls where the Philippines has competing claims. ... Read more

Another Doctors Without Borders Hospital Hit By Airstrikes
Reuters & HP | author | 10/27/15

A Yemeni hospital run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was bombed in a Saudi-led air strike, wrecking the facility and wounding several people, the hospital director said on Tuesday.

A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in March to try to restore its government after its toppling by Houthi forces but the civilian death toll has escalated since then, alarming the United Nations and human rights groups.

And now, seven years after the financial crisis first brought CDS to widespread attention, pressure is growing inside and outside what's called the determinations committee to tackle conflicts of interest, according to interviews with three dozen people with direct knowledge of the panel's functioning who asked that their names not be used. Scandals that exposed how bank traders rigged key interest rates and fixed currency values have given ammunition to those who say CDS may also be susceptible to collusion or, worse, outright manipulation. ... Read more

*Inside the Secretive Circle That Rules a $14 Trillion Market
Bloomberg | Nabila Ahmed | 10/26/15

Fifteen of the biggest players in the $14 trillion market for credit insurance are also the referees. Firms such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wrote the rules, are the dominant buyers and sellers and, ultimately, help decide winners and losers.

Has a country such as Argentina paid what it owes? Has a company like Caesars Entertainment Corp. kept up with its bills? When the question comes up, the 15 firms meet on a conference call to decide whether a default has triggered a payout of the bond insurance, called a credit-default swap. Investors use CDS to protect themselves from missed debt payments or profit from them. ... Read more

The GOP's dysfunction all started with Sarah Palin
WashingtonPost | William M. Daley | 10/25/15

When The Post's front page declares: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party," it's time to ask: How did this come to pass?

You can choose from a litany of insurrections, government shutdowns and other self-inflicted wounds. But this year's carnival-like GOP presidential primary makes one event, in retrospect, stand out as a crucial turning point on the road to upheaval: the 2008 embrace of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be a heartbeat from the presidency. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

World Health Organization: Processed Meats Cause Cancer
HP | Kate Bratskeir | 10/26/15

The World Health Organization announced Monday that cured and processed meats like bacon, sausage, hot dogs and ham cause cancer, adding the foods to a top-tier list of carcinogenic substances that includes alcohol, cigarettes, asbestos, and arsenic.

Processed meats can be bundled with these threatening carcinogens because of their link with bowel cancer, according to a report from WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, though their inclusion doesn't mean that bacon causes cancer at the same rate as, say, smoking. ... Read more

Powerful Earthquake Hits Afghanistan, India, Pakistan
Reuters & HP | Krista Mahr | 10/26/15

A major earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast on Monday, killing at least 135 people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan and sending shock waves as far as New Delhi, officials said.

... The earthquake struck almost exactly six months after Nepal suffered its worst quake on record, on April 25. Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, 9,000 people lost their lives and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. ... Read more

Trump: All candidates controlled by money, I'm self-funded (10/26/15) [1:34]

Sarah Palin Marked the Moment the GOP Went Off the Rails
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/26/15

Wondering where the insanity that is today's GOP started? Look no further than nonsense-spewer Sarah Palin. This is the view espoused by WIlliam M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff under President Obama from 2011-2012 in Monday's Washington Post.

The turning point came in 2008, when the party put then Alaska-Governor Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency, despite her utter lack of competency. That is when the party effectively embraced the lack of competence and experience as a virtue. From that flows Ben Carson and Donald Trump as frontrunners for the nomination and a variety of other ills. ... Read more
*HBO | Game Change (2012) [1:57:52]

Even Conservatives Realize Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Committee Hearing Was Ridiculous
HP | Marina Fang | 10/22/15

Republicans and Democrats have long been divided on the purpose of the House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. GOP lawmakers, particularly the committee's chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), have insisted the panel is focused on investigating potential wrongdoing leading up to the attack, while Democrats have alleged that the GOP-led committee is a political stunt targeting Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

But after the former secretary of state's marathon testimony on Thursday, in which she endured 11 hours of questioning, even conservatives admitted the hearing accomplished very little. ... Read more

HP | Should Bush Be Responsible For 9/11, As Hillary Is For Benghazi? () [3:44]

USAToday | Hurricane Patricia is strongest ever measured (10/23/15) [1:08]

*Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Embarrass Hapless Vulture Fund Investors
HP | Zach Carter | 10/23/15

"When you make a risky investment you should not expect to get 100 percent back on your dollar."

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on the federal government Thursday to curb the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico by cracking down on vulture fund investors.

"Wall Street should not be believing that they can get blood from a stone," Sanders said. "When people are suffering and hurting, you cannot continue to squeeze them." ... Read more
HP | Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Embarrass Hapless Vulture Fund Investors (10/23/15) [4:10]

Here are 50 despicable things George W. Bush did before and after 9/11
RawStory | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/20/15

Let's look at 50 reasons, some large and some small, why W. inspired so much anger:

RoF | These Are The Worst Things George W. Bush Ever Did (10/22/15) [2:03]

House Conservatives Support Paul Ryan For Speaker, But Won't Formally Endorse Him
HP | Mollie Reilly | 10/21/15

According to Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), approximately 70 percent of the group of hardline conservatives agreed to back Ryan for the leadership position instead of Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who had intended to run for the post. However, the caucus stopped short of endorsing Ryan, and Labrador said it would be up to Ryan to decide if the signal of support was enough. (The caucus needed to reach 80 percent support to grant an endorsement.)

Ryan, after nearly two weeks of indecision, finally agreed to run for House speaker on Tuesday -- on the condition that he receive support from all factions of the party, including the Freedom Caucus. Since he has received that support, Ryan appears to be a lock for the speakership. ... Read more

*Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

In this, the first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil--the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States--Steve Coll reveals the true extent of its power. Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation's recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe--featuring kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin--and the narrative is driven by larger-than-life characters, including corporate legend Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond, ExxonMobil's chief executive until 2005. A penetrating, news-breaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

SocialJustice | Steve Coll on the "Private Empire" of ExxonMobil (06/18/12) [1:01:57]

US Leading Economic Indicators Tumbles Most In 30 Months
ZeroHedge | author | 10/22/15

Missing expectations for the 3rd month in a row, US Lesading Economic Indicators (LEI) dropped 0.2% MoM. There has not been a bigger monthly drop since March 2013. Ironmically, initial jobless claims (which we have recently explained is now useless) was the largest positive contributor (after the yield curve steepness) but stock prices, average workweek, and building permits weighed heaviest. ... Read more
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Americans' Outlook For The US Economy Plunges Near 2013 'Government Shutdown' Lows
ZeroHedge | author | 10/22/15

Since February, Americans have become less and less confident about the economic future of the country. As Bloomberg reports, National Economy Expectations tumbled to 42.0 - just above Sept 2014 lows and almost as weak as during the 2013 government shutdown. 2015's weakening streak is the worst consistent drop since 2011 (which unleashed moar QE) as Americans' spending attitudes tumble the most since May. ... Read more
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Plutocrats and Their Pets
HP | Richard North Patterson | 10/20/15

Wikipedia defines plutocracy as a society "controlled by the small minority of its wealthiest members." In 2010, the Supreme Court set out to help us join the list. The case, of course, is Citizens United. After an unseemly series of maneuvers by Chief Justice Roberts expanded the case far beyond the issues presented, a five to four majority of Republican appointees held that unlimited expenditures to elect political candidates are "speech " protected from regulation by the First Amendment. Stating bluntly in dissent that "the Court changed the case so it could change the law," Justice Stevens warned: "A democracy cannot function effectively when [voters] believe laws are being bought and sold."

The post-Citizens United conduits for such barter, Super PACs, funnel millions from the ultra-wealthy to support their human vessels -- a counterweight, one supposes, to the parlous effects of letting ordinary people vote. The ads spawned by this money now flood our airwaves: a prominent Democratic consultant estimates that his party's nominee must raise at least $1.5 billion to compete with the tidal wave unleashed by the Supreme Court. This spiraling financial arms race drives candidates away from voters in order to grovel before demanding would-be patrons in big-dollar "money primaries." And there is much groveling to be done. The 2012 campaign produced over $1 billion in soft money. 2016 will see a drastic increase: already a mere 156 families have put $176 million on the electoral table. ... Read more

The Banking Industry's Transparent Attempt to Weaken the CFPB
HP | Sen. Elizabeth Warren | 10/20/15

You'll never guess who's going around Washington, trolling the halls of Congress, talking about the importance of protecting the long-term health of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The banking industry.

That's right: After years of trying to kill, then delay, and then defang the agency, the banking industry and their Republican friends in Congress have launched a new effort to attract Democratic support for their latest attack by claiming that they just want to help the agency and the consumers it protects. Surely Democrats will not be taken in by yet another attempt to weaken the CFPB.

The latest industry-sponsored bill would fundamentally change the structure of the CFPB by replacing the agency's single, independent director with a commission of political appointees. ... Read more

*7 Ways Canada's Change Of Government Might Affect The World
HP | Ryan Maloney | 10/19/15

On Monday night, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada captured a majority in the 338 seat-Parliament, ending nearly a decade of Conservative governance.

Born in the spotlight, Trudeau is the eldest child of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who led the nation almost continually for more than 15 total years between 1968 and 1984 with a flashy but polarizing style. ...

HBO | John Oliver - Canadian Election (HBO) (10/19/15) [15:20]

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.

How U.S. Created Mayhem in the Rest of the Middle East
AlterNet | Rebecca Gordon | 10/20/15

This year's Nobel Peace Prize went to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy... in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011." The Quartet is a group of four organizations -- two national labor unions, a business group, and a lawyers' association -- whose work helped prevent Tunisia from sliding into civil war in the years following that "revolution."

Seeing the peace prize go to an organization that actually seems to have kept the peace is cheering news in a month that witnessed the military of one former Nobel laureate destroying a hospital run by another winner. Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) certainly earned its 1999 Peace Prize by providing medical services to people in more than 80 countries, often working in some of the most dangerous places on earth. On the other hand, as far as anyone can tell, a weary Nobel committee gave Barack Obama his prize in 2009 mostly for not being George W. Bush. ... Read more

China Tried To Hack American Companies Since Agreeing To Cyber Pact, Security Firm Says
Reuters & HP | Joseph Menn | 10/19/15

CrowdStrike said it notified the White House of its findings but declined to identify the targeted companies.

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have tried to penetrate at least seven U.S. companies in the three weeks since Washington and Beijing agreed not to spy on each other for commercial reasons, according to a prominent U.S. security firm. ... Read more

Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn

Assassination by drone is a subject of deep and enduring fascination. Yet few understand how and why this has become our principal way of waging war. Kill Chain uncovers the real and extraordinary story; its origins in long-buried secret programs, the breakthroughs that made drone operations possible, the ways in which the technology works and, despite official claims, does not work. Taking the reader inside the well-guarded world of national security, the book reveals the powerful interests - military, CIA and corporate - that have led the drive to kill individuals by remote control. Most importantly of all, the book describes what has really happened when the theories underpinning the strategy -- and the multi-billion dollar contracts they spawn -- have been put to the test. Drawing on sources deep in the military and intelligence establishments, Andrew Cockburn's Kill Chain unveils the true effects, as demonstrated by bloody experience, of assassination warfare, a revelation that readers will find surprising as well as shocking.

Paul Krugman Stands Up for Sanders, Dismantles Right-Wing Lies About Denmark's Economic Success Story
AlterNet | Janet Allon | 10/19/15

It's refreshing that presidential candidates are discussing what we might learn from other countries.

Krugman takes on the hoary right-wing myth that Denmark, the country touted by the Sanders campaign as getting a lot of things right, is somehow a dangerous example of runaway socialism in Monday's column.

He began by mentioning that that fact that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton even discussed what we might learn from Denmark in last week's debate. "Such an exchange would have been inconceivable among Republicans, who don't seem able to talk about European welfare states without adding the word 'collapsing,' he said. ... Read more

HBO | John Oliver - Canadian Election (HBO) (10/19/15) [15:20]

HBO | John Oliver - Real Quotes (10/19/15) [4:22]

Untangling the Overlapping Conflicts in the Syrian War
NYTimes | Sergio PeÇanha | 10/18/15

What started as a popular uprising against the Syrian government four years ago has become a proto-world war with nearly a dozen countries embroiled in two overlapping conflicts.

Rebel groups supported by the United States are focused on toppling the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, not rooting out the Islamic State. ... Read more

People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis this year
WashingtonPost | Christopher Ingraham | 10/14/15

This week a 2-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. This type of thing happens from time to time: A little kid finds a gun, fires it, and hurts or kills himself or someone else. These cases rarely bubble up to the national level except when someone, like a parent, ends up dead.

But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I've found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself. ... Read more

Russia, Iran Begin "Promised" Assault On Syria's Largest City In Final Bid To Restore Assad
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/16/15

Iranian forces backed by Russian air power have officially begun the assault on Syria's largest city. A victory at Aleppo would effectively restore the Assad government just weeks after Moscow began bombing runs from Latakia. As Reuters notes, "the assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria's main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by Islamic State." ... Read more

Why the US Is Eternally Caught Off Guard in the Middle East
AlterNet & TomDispatch | Tom Engelhardt | 10/15/15

1,500. That figure stunned me. I found it in the 12th paragraph of a front-page New York Times story about “senior commanders” at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) playing fast and loose with intelligence reports to give their air war against ISIS an unjustified sheen of success: “CENTCOM’s mammoth intelligence operation, with some 1,500 civilian, military, and contract analysts, is housed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, in a bay front building that has the look of a sterile government facility posing as a Spanish hacienda.”

Think about that. CENTCOM, one of six U.S. military commands that divide the planet up like a pie, has at least 1,500 intelligence analysts (military, civilian, and private contractors) all to itself. Let me repeat that: 1,500 of them. CENTCOM is essentially the country’s war command, responsible for most of the Greater Middle East, that expanse of now-chaotic territory filled with strife-torn and failing states that runs from Pakistan’s border to Egypt. That’s no small task and about it there is much to be known. Still, that figure should act like a flash of lightning, illuminating for a second an otherwise dark and stormy landscape.

And mind you, that’s just the analysts, not the full CENTCOM intelligence roster for which we have no figure at all. In other words, even if that 1,500 represents a full count of the command’s intelligence analysts, not just the ones at its Tampa headquarters but in the field at places like its enormous operation at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, CENTCOM still has almost half as many of them as military personnel on the ground in Iraq (3,500 at latest count). Now, try to imagine what those 1,500 analysts are doing, even for a command deep in a “quagmire” in Syria and Iraq, as President Obama recently dubbed it (though he was admittedly speaking about the Russians), as well as what looks like a failing war, 14 years later, in Afghanistan, and another in Yemen led by the Saudis but backed by Washington. Even given all of that, what in the world could they possibly be “analyzing”? Who at CENTCOM, in the Defense Intelligence Agency, or elsewhere has the time to attend to the reports and data flows that must be generated by 1,500 analysts? ... Read more

Some Presidential Campaigns Are Running Out of Cash, New Filings Show
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 10/16/15

When the presidential candidates reported their third-quarter fundraising totals this week, the number to watch wasn't the size of their hauls but their overall burn rate—how quickly they were spending the cash they raised. The quarterly filings revealed some campaigns that were living within their means and building war chests for the long slog to come, and others that will be lucky to sputter into the early primaries.

On the Democratic side, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton raised an extraordinary amount of money—$26.2 million and $29.1 million, respectively—and they each ended the third quarter of 2015 with more money in the bank than they started with. That's something that many of their Republican rivals candidates can't say. ... Read more

The Drone Papers
theintercept.com | Jeremy Scahill | 10/15/15

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars. ... Read more

The Drone Papers - The Assassination Complex
theintercept.com | Jeremy Scahill | 10/15/15

From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — worthy of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death. ... Read more

Afghan Taliban’s Reach Is Widest Since 2001, U.N. Says
NYTimes | Ron Nordland | 10/11/15

The Taliban insurgency has spread through more of Afghanistan than at any point since 2001, according to data compiled by the United Nations as well as interviews with numerous local officials in areas under threat.

The data, compiled in early September -- even before the latest surge in violence in northern Afghanistan -- showed that United Nations security officials had already rated the threat level in about half of the country’s administrative districts as either “high” or “extreme,” more than at any time since the American invasion ousted the Taliban in 2001. ... Read more
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Second GOP Congressman Admits Benghazi Committee Is All About Hillary Clinton
HP | Marina Fang | 10/14/15

A second congressman admitted on Wednesday that the Republican House committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, is solely "designed to go after" Hillary Clinton.

“This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton,” Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) said on a morning radio show in upstate New York.

Republicans say they formed the House Select Committee on Benghazi to investigate the attack. Democrats have complained that the committee, which has cost taxpayers about $4.5 million during its 17 months of existence, was primarily a political stunt. ... Read more

Empire Fed Misses Again As New Orders Collapse To 5 Year Lows
ZeroHedge | author | 10/15/15

After collapsing in August and unable to get up in September, October's Empire Fed bounced very modestly from -14.67 to -11.36 (but missed expectations for the 7th month of the last 8). This is the first time since 2009 that Empire Fed has printed below -10 3 months in a row putting The US firmly in recession territory, the underlying components were ugly with New orders crashing at the fastest pace since Nov 2010. Employees tumbled (as did inventories, although the plunge slowed) with prices received plumbing new cycle lows. In other words, total disaster... time to hike rates. ... Read more

Democratic Debate CNN 2015 VIDEO Democratic Debate CNN 2016 (full) (10/13/15) [1:52:58]

9 Issues Democrats Just Debated That Have Been Almost Completely Ignored By Republicans
HP | Nick Wing | 10/14/15

With just five candidates at Tuesday's Democratic primary debate, the stage almost looked empty compared with the Republican debates. The most recent round of GOP contests featured a total of 15 candidates sparring in two separate events, including an 11-person primetime showdown.

While the first two GOP debates touched on topics that included cutting taxes, restricting abortion access, illegal immigration, vaccine skepticism and Secret Service aliases -- all issues, with the exception of the last, that debate moderators likely thought were at least somewhat important to GOP primary voters -- the Democratic candidates discussed topics that highlighted key differences between the parties. ...

MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Bernie Sanders Sits Down With Rachel Maddow (older, 09/18/15) [19:51]

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.

The Biggest Threat To Glencore's Survival: The Unwind Of China's Copper "Carry Trade"
ZeroHedge | author | 10/14/15

If we, and Bloomberg, are correct, and if the CFD unwind has only just started impacting the true supply/demand dynamics, and thus price, of copper, then we are only 30% of the way through the unwind of China's copper "carry trade" and thus the 'over-capacity' concerns are massively under-appreciated. ... Read more

Sheldon Adelson warms to Marco Rubio
Politico & HP | Alex Isenstadt | 10/12/15

Sheldon Adelson, one of the Republican Party's most sought-after contributors, is leaning increasingly toward supporting Marco Rubio -- and the Florida senator is racing to win the backing of other uncommitted megadonors who have the potential to direct tens of millions of dollars his way and alter the contours of the Republican primary fight.

Last week, during a campaign swing through Las Vegas, Rubio held a meeting in Adelson's offices at the Venetian Las Vegas, one of a number of five-star luxury casinos the billionaire mogul owns around the world. Adelson, seated at the head of his conference table, heaped praise on Rubio's performance while he discussed the dynamics of the 2016 race. Those briefed on the meeting described it as short but said it had an air of importance, with the two joined by Rubio's campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, and a pair of senior Adelson advisers, Rob Goldstein and Patrick Dumont. ... Read more

Hillary donors worry: 'All the energy is with Bernie'
Politico | Kenneth P. Vogel | 10/13/15

Sanders prepares major fundraising push around debate.

Hillary Clinton's major donors want her to show more "fire" in Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate to halt Bernie Sander's grass-roots momentum and populist fundraising appeal.

But the Vermont senator's campaign sees the debate as a major opportunity to cash in, campaign sources tell POLITICO, and, if recent precedent holds, it could yield a multimillion-dollar surge from activists giving $10 or $20 each. With both candidates set to release fundraising totals later this week, small donors have provided the overwhelming majority of the $41 million raised by Sanders through the end of last month. ... Read more

MH17 Felled By Russian-Made Missile, Crash Report Finds

So, if they can put this much effort into reconstructing a crashed aircraft, why can't they tell us what happened to World Trade Center 7, a 47 story skyscraper that fell at free fall speed (6.5 sec) on 9/11??

Six Ways Paul Ryan Will Rev Up The Right-Wing War on America If He Becomes House Speaker
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/12/15

In his 2012 book, the former VP nominee describes an agenda with no taste for compromise.

It is a good bet that the right-wing lunatics who are taking over the asylum known as the House of Representatives will install one of their own as the next Speaker -- quite possibly Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, the Ways and Means Committee Chair and 2012 GOP vice-presidential nominee -- even though he's saying he doesn't want the top job.

After House GOP failed to elect a speaker last week, Ryan is still the first choice of many Republicans. But don't believe for a second that he represents a pragmatic or slightly centrist wing of the House Republican spectrum--just because more draconian ideologues in so-called Freedom Caucus are also running. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Is Exceeding Obama's Historic 2008 Run in Crowds, Donors and Polling
magazine | author | date

In three key areas, Sanders is actually ahead of the insurgent campaign Barack Obama ran in 2007 and 2008.

When Bernie Sanders announced he would be running for president late in the Spring of 2015, many observers didn't take it seriously -- making analogies to failed perennial candidates like Ron Paul, who had a fervent base but did not make traction in the election.

Record-Breaking Crowds
Over the summer, it became clear that Sanders was drawing some of the largest crowds in Democratic primary history -- with tens of thousands pouring out into cities to see the senator. ... Read more

Disaster Capitalism by Antony Loewenstein

Award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein travels across the US, Britain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and Australia to witness the reality of Disaster Capitalism--the hidden world of privatized detention centers and militarized private security, formed to protect corporations as they profit from war zones. He visits Britain's immigration detention centers, tours the prison system in the United States, and digs into the underbelly of the companies making a fortune from them. Loewenstein reveals the dark history of how large multinational corporations have become more powerful than governments, supported by media and political elites.

Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond by Mark Ames

Going Postal examines the phenomenon of rage murder that took America by storm in the early 1980's and has since grown yearly in body counts and symbolic value. By looking at massacres in schools and offices as post-industrial rebellions, Mark Ames is able to juxtapose the historical place of rage in America with the social climate after Reaganomics began to effect worker's paychecks. But why high schools? Why post offices? Mark Ames examines the most fascinating and unexpected cases, crafting a convincing argument for workplace massacres as modern day slave rebellions. Like slave rebellions, rage massacres are doomed, gory, sometimes inadvertently comic, and grossly misunderstood. Going Postal seeks to contextualize this violence in a world where working isn't--and doesn't pay--what it used to. Part social critique and part true crime page-turner, Going Postal answers the questions asked by commentators on the nightly news and films such as Bowling for Columbine.

Ankara, Turkey Bombings Kill 86, Injure More Than 186
AP & HP | Suzan Fraser | 10/10/15

Two bomb explosions targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday killed 86 people and injured 186, Turkey's health minister said.

The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's main train station as people were gathering for the rally, organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union and other civic society groups. The rally aimed to call for an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. ... Read more

You Think the NSA Is Bad? Meet Former CIA Director Allen Dulles.
MotherJones | Aaron Wiener | 10/10/15

Mother Jones chatted with Talbot about the reporting that went into his 704-page doorstop, the controversy he invited with his discussion of Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theories, and the parallels he sees in today's government intelligence overreach. ... Read more

"What follows," David Talbot boasts in the prologue to his new book The Devil's Chessboard, "is an espionage adventure that is far more action-packed and momentous than any spy tale with which readers are familiar." Talbot, the founder of Salon.com and author of the Kennedy clan study Brothers, doesn't deal in subtlety in his biography of Allen Dulles, the CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the younger brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the architect of a secretive national security apparatus that functioned as essentially an autonomous branch of government. Talbot offers a portrait of a black-and-white Cold War-era world full of spy games and nuclear brinkmanship, in which everyone is either a good guy or a bad guy. Dulles--who deceived American elected leaders and overthrew foreign ones, who backed ex-Nazis and thwarted left-leaning democrats--falls firmly in the latter camp.

The REAL Reason Saudi Arabia Hates Iran
ZeroHedge | author | 10/08/15

Everyone knows that the Saudi Arabia -- the center of Sunni Islam -- hates Iran because it is the center for the rival Shia Muslim sect.

In other words, the Saudi government hates Iran because it is a republic, while Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are monarchies. The Saudis want to crush Iran so that it cannot set an example showing that Muslims can live in a republic without a monarchy. ... Read more

The CIA in Iran
NYTimes | James Risen | date

The Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of its covert operation to overthrow Iran's government in 1953 offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a series of mishaps that derailed its original plans.

Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist. ... Read more

Kickstart our hearts: Our moral depravity in Syria rises to callous new levels
Salon | Ben Norton | 10/09/15

We have money to bomb Syria, but not to help Syrian refugees. Our government's answer to that is just embarrassing

The U.S. launched a campaign this week on Kickstarter -- a crowdfunding website on which people around the world can donate to fund proposed projects — to help provide aid to Syrian refugees. All proceeds will go to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the leading international body on refugees. ... Read more

Here’s How Much We’re Spending on the War Against ISIS
MotherJones | Edwin Rios | older, 06/14/15

More than 6,200 targets damaged or destroyed in the course of nine months, according to the DOD. Roughly two-thirds of that spending, or a little more than $1.8 billion, came from the Air Force, with air operations costing $5 million per day. ... Read more

Wholesale Inventories Rise And Sales Tumble Sending Ratio To "Recession Imminent" Cycle Highs
ZeroHedge | author | 10/09/15

Wholesale Inventories rose 0.1% MoM (more than expected and the most in 7 months) and Sales dropped 1.0% MoM (notably less than expected and weakest in 7 months) sending the inventory-to-sales ratio to 1.31x - new cycle highs - and flashing the brightest recession warning yet. With inventories up 4.2% YoY and Sales down 4.5% YoY, the stunning reality is the absolute dollar spread between inventories and sales has never been bigger. ... Read more

Bank Of England Tells British Banks To Reveal Their Full Exposure To Glencore And Other Commodity Traders
ZeroHedge | author | 10/09/15

Overnight we got confirmation that Glencore has indeed become a systemic risk from a regulatory standpoint after the FT reported that the Bank of England has asked British financial institutions to reveal their full exposure to commodity traders and falling prices of raw materials amid concerns over the impact of the oil and metals slump. Or, in other words, their exposure to Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Gunvor and Mecuria. ... Read more

[PHOTO ESSAY] These Photos Will Make You Want to Quit Your Job and Ride a Mustang From Mexico to Canada
MotherJones | Bryan Schatz | 09/25/15

On a midsummer afternoon in 2013, in the wilds of southern Utah, Ben Masters jumped off his horse, tied it to a tree, and watched his three friends ride off into the mountains in the wrong direction. It had been a tough day. They'd already been forced to turn back after trying to scale the Wasatch Plateau, snow-choked at 10,500 feet above sea level; the horses struggled and postholed through thick snowdrifts, and the group could go no farther. ... Read more
Unbranded, the film (trailer) (09/27/15) [2:01]

Bernie's Gun Control Critics Are Wrong -- His Stance Has Been Consistent for Decades
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 10/07/15

Sanders supports the rights of rural hunters, while opposing militarized weapons.

"The Vermont social democrate isn't terrible on guns: Though the NRA endorsed him in his first race for Congress, he has a D-minus rating from the group," wrote Joan Walsh, national political correspondent, citing his positives first. "He supported the 2013 background-check bill, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, and closing the gun-show sales loophole." ...

... "I [Bernie Sanders] went before the sportsmen of Vermont and said that I have concerns about certain types of assault weapons that have nothing to do with hunting. I believe in hunting. I will not support any legislation that limits the rights of Vermonters or any other hunters to practice what they have enjoyed for decades. I do have concerns about certain types of assault weapons." ... Read more

Children Who Live Near Fukushima Have Alarming Cancer Rates
AP & HP | author | date

The government claims the heightened rates are due to more screening efforts.

... Most of the 370,000 children in Fukushima prefecture (state) have been given ultrasound checkups since the March 2011 meltdowns at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The most recent statistics, released in August, show that thyroid cancer is suspected or confirmed in 137 of those children, a number that rose by 25 from a year earlier. Elsewhere, the disease occurs in only about one or two of every million children per year by some estimates. ... Read more

The Race for House Speaker Has Republicans "Audibly Crying"
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 10/08/15

The GOP just entered full meltdown mode.

The House GOP now has a full-blown leadership crisis on its hands. As Republican lawmakers gathered on Thursday to elect a new speaker, John Boehner's presumptive heir for the top spot, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), unexpectedly bowed out of the race, telling his colleagues he was "not the guy." Boehner--who reportedly joked recently, "I had this terrible nightmare last night that I was trying to get out and I couldn't get out"--was forced to postpone the vote for his successor. Lawmakers who were present for the closed-door meeting reported a scene of "chaos" that included "audible crying." ... Read more

This Comment pertains to Max Keiser Report in the right column: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy tanks. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.

[PHOTO ESSAY] 21 Photos That Capture the Heartbreak of Europe's Refugee Crisis
MotherJones Magazine | David Maurice Smith | 09/25/15

"These people are at risk," says photographer David Maurice Smith. "We have to humanize them."

Photojournalist David Maurice Smith has been on the front lines of the refugee crisis for a year and a half, bearing witness to a great migration of war-weary people seeking safer grounds. He covered the Syrian exodus while in Jordan, where more than 600,000 Syrian refugees are now living. While in Indonesia, he reported on asylum seekers from 14 different countries--including Iraq, Yemen, Burma, Afghanistan, and Pakistan--who were trapped while trying to reach Australia by boat, many of them fleeing war, persecution, or both.

"A lot of those people are there because of the same conflicts that are forcing others to Europe," Smith says. To see that situation firsthand, Smith recently traveled to, among other places, the Hungarian-Serbian border, where he was awed by the immensity of the crisis. "This is of a huge scale--hundreds of thousands." ... Read more

The Derivatives Market: Bets, Bookies, and Fraud by Jeff Nielson
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

Derivatives are bets. This is not a metaphor, or analogy, or generalization. Derivatives are bets. Period. That's all they ever were. That's all they ever can be. This can be easily illustrated by simply examining and defining some of the more well-known "derivatives", meaning those derivatives with whom everyone is familiar with their labels.

Let's start with the two largest and most-important forms of this gambling (and fraud): "interest rate swaps" and "credit default swaps". What is an interest rate swap? This is a bet between a banker (i.e. the people who control interest rates) and a Chump, on which direction an interest rate will move. ... Read more or Here

Ask Courageous Ben Bernanke Anything, Courtesy Of The WSJ
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

As the WSJ has kindly offered, anyone who wishes to, can ask Ben Bernanke questions about his "courage" to print $3 trillion and make the rich richer. Just make sure to tag your tweet with #FedWSJPro. ... Read more

A "Heroic" Ben Bernanke Blames Congress For Poor Economic Recovery
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

"That's why I often said that monetary policy was not a panacea -- we needed Congress to do its part. After the crisis calmed, that help was not forthcoming. When the recovery predictably failed to lift all boats, the Fed often, I believe unfairly, took the criticism." ... Read more

Putin Has Just Put An End to the Wolfowitz Doctrine
ZeroHedge | author | 10/07/15

4-Star General Wesley Clark noted:

In 1991, powerful neocon and Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz was the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy -- the number 3 position at the Pentagon. And I had gone to see him when I was a 1-Star General commanding the National Training Center.

And I said, "Mr. Secretary, you must be pretty happy with the performance of the troops in Desert Storm."

And he said: "Yeah, but not really, because the truth is we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn't ... But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region -- in the Middle East -- and the Soviets won't stop us. And we've got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet client regimes -- Syria, Iran, Iraq -- before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." Read more
Wesley Clark - America's Foreign Policy "Coup" (11/05/07) [8:14]

This Comment pertains to Thom Hartmann in the right column: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.

Warren for Vice President? Biden Reportedly Floated Spot in Private Meeting
AlterNet | Zaid Jilani | 10/06/15

Vice President Joe Biden is still actively considering running for president, and a series of reports have claimed he will make up his mind this month.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit from the report is that Biden apparently hinted at a joint ticket with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a meeting with her earlier this year. This would speak to Biden's understanding of what is likely undermining Clinton's campaign -- an inability to demonstrate that she is serious about tackling inequality and the power of the super rich. Read more

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Disaster
HP | Ian Fletcher | date

So a deal between the signatory nations has finally been reached for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is firmly on Obama's plate. Given his status as a liberal president, the public's ever-growing disapproval of free-trade agreements, and the fact that he criticized such agreements when George W. Bush made them, he really should have known better. This is not what people voted for him to get. After the failed promises of NAFTA, a job-destroying trade deficit that has grown despite a long series of free-trade agreements, and ever-more-aggressive foreign mercantilism, it was obvious that America needed a new trade strategy. And if the purely trade aspects weren't bad enough, the TPP is also a profoundly anti-democratic agreement which signs away our right to govern our own economy. ... Read more

Global Poverty Will Hit New Low This Year, World Bank Says
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 10/04/15

The Washington-based institution's latest projections expect the number of people who survive on $1.90 a day to drop from 12.8 percent of the human population in 2012 to 9.6 percent this year. That means 702 million people still struggle to survive.

But that's a stunning decline from the numbers reported over the last 25 years. According to the World Bank, 37.1 percent of the world's population lived in extreme poverty in 1990. In 2015, that number is estimated to drop to 9.6 percent. ...

Glencore Stock Is Re-Crashing
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/06/15

After 5 days of CEO-confidence-inspired BTFD-ing (a la Bear Stearns), following the 30% collapse at the start of last week, Glencore's stock price is tumbling 7.7% in the early European trading. Following a deep plunge off the open yesterday (which was rallied back to the highs) and extreme volume atthe close, Tuesday's early weakness has pushed the stock to the biggest loss since last Monday's carnage... Read more

Honeybees Are Facing a Global Threat, and If They Go, So Do We
AlterNet | Reynard Loki | 10/06/15

Environmentalists and agribusiness are waging a pitched battle over the use of pesticides.

What is the most important animal to humans? In prehistoric times, the dog helped transform early hunter-gatherers into apex predators. Later, human civilization was built on the backs of horses. But starting around 11,500 years ago, when humans began making permanent settlements and invented agriculture, bees emerged as the most critical animal to human survival. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

This Comment pertains to the Diane Rehm Show below: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.

DR | Ben Bernanke: "The Courage to Act" (10/06/15) [1hr]

Hillary Clinton Goes Big On Gun Policy, Creates Contrast With Bernie Sanders
HP | Sam Stein | 10/05/15

Hillary Clinton will call Monday for substantial new limits on the availability and distribution of firearms, stepping aggressively into the debate over gun control in the wake of last week's mass shooting at a community college in Oregon.

The former secretary of state will outline four specific proposals during a pair of town hall events in New Hampshire, all of which are sure to inspire intense opposition from gun rights advocates. One of the proposals will put her directly at odds with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her top competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination. ... Read more

*A Mosaic Of Facts - Media Weapons Of Mass Delusion
ZeroHEdge | author | 10/02/15

Can you tell truth from lies in mass media? RT's Miguel Francis-Santiago delves deep to try to understand the intricacies of information war. He meets media experts and puts together the Mosaic of Facts, showing how public opinion is manipulated, not just over the Ukrainian Crisis but throughout the world. ... Read more

Mosaic of Facts (full) (new) [53:38]

Mainstream Media Lies to the Masses () [58:04]

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein

In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn't just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It's an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not--and cannot--fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.

Bernie Sanders 'Disappointed' By Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Deal
Reuters & HP | author | 10/05/15

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he was disappointed by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Pacific trade deal reached on Monday, saying the pact would cost U.S. jobs and hurt consumers.

"Wall Street and other big corporations have won again," the U.S. senator from Vermont said in a statement, vowing to "do all that I can to defeat this agreement" in Congress. ...

... "But it would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual action, since obviously everything that went wrong or was illegal was done by some individual, not by an abstract firm," Bernanke was quoted as saying. ... Read more

This Comment pertains to the article below: It is interesting that Ben Bernanke is bring this up now, after all the Statue of Limitations have expired. Maybe he can be more timely the next time the economy crashes. You need to watch the PBS Frontline "The Warning" to really understand how complicit these people really were/are.

PBS Frontline: The Warning, The Financial Collapse - Brooksley Born [56:17]

Brooksley Born was one of the few that spoke up before 2007 to say that we were heading toward a train wreck. Look at the video and see who was on the other side.

Bernanke: More Execs Should Have Faced Prosecution For 2008 Financial Crisis
Reuter & HP | author | date

"Now a financial firm is of course a legal fiction; it's not a person. You can't put a financial firm in jail."

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that more corporate executives should have been prosecuted for their actions leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. ... Read more

Guns Kill An Average Of 36 People Every Day, And The Nation Doesn't Even Blink
HP | Nick Wing | 10/01/15

The nation was once again confronted with the horror of a deadly school shooting on Thursday, this time a massacre at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon. A gunman killed at least 10 people and wounded seven before police fatally shot him. It marked the 45th shooting on a school campus this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group pushing for legislative reforms to reduce gun violence. It was the 142nd shooting at a school since the December 2012 rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. ... Read more

Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi

... Khalidi closely analyzes three historical moments that illuminate how the United States' involvement has, in fact, thwarted progress toward peace between Israel and Palestine. The first moment he investigates is the "Reagan Plan" of 1982, when Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin refused to accept the Reagan administration's proposal to reframe the Camp David Accords more impartially. The second moment covers the period after the Madrid Peace Conference, from 1991 to 1993, during which negotiations between Israel and Palestine were brokered by the United States until the signing of the secretly negotiated Oslo accords. Finally, Khalidi takes on President Barack Obama's retreat from plans to insist on halting the settlements in the West Bank....

This Meme Reveals the Stark Difference Between Bernie and Hillary
U.S. Uncut | James Woods | 08/19/15

The Internet is abuzz with Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton memes. But with no sources for any of the claims listed, we decided to do some research and find out just how different the two Democratic Primary front-runners are and if these assertions were factually correct. ...
Click picture to zoom in

The 80/20 Rule Is Crushing The Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 10/02/15

In business, the 80/20 rule states that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. In an economy that is more than 2/3rds driven by consumption, such an imbalance of the "have" and "have not's" impedes real economic growth.

I have often written about the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. As shown in the chart below, while asset prices were inflated by continued interventions of monetary policy from the Federal Reserve it only benefitted the small portion of the population with assets invested in the market. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

The Dangerous Illusion That Risk Can Be Offloaded Onto Others
ZeroHedge | author | 10/02/15

Central bank intervention/financial repression provides the illusion thay systemic risk has been disappeared, and this pushes all asset classes into correlation. The idea that some assets will escape the implosion is also illusory; what appeared uncorrelated can suddenly correlate overnight, destroying the entire fantasy that risk can be offloaded onto others. ... Read more

Secret Service Wanted To Leak 'Embarrassing' Info On Congressman
HP | Ryan J. Reilly | 09/30/15

Dozens of Secret Service personnel inappropriately accessed private information on a member of Congress who was conducting oversight of the agency, in a pattern the Department of Homeland Security's watchdog called "deeply disturbing."

The DHS Inspector General on Wednesday released the results of an investigation into who leaked information about how Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who conducts oversight of the Secret Service, had been rejected for a position in the agency years ago. The report found that 45 different Secret Service employees in a variety of different locations accessed the record, but only four of them may have had a legitimate reason to do so. ... Read more
RachellMaddow | Planned Parenthood president stands up to House GOP grilling (09/29/15) [9:37]

We're Surrounded by Way More Chemicals Than We Thought, and These Doctors Say We're Screwed
MotherJones Magazine | Gabrielle Canon | 10/01/15

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), a group representing OB-GYNs from 125 countries, released a report detailing the detrimental health effects caused by even small exposure to common chemicals like the ones found in pesticides, plastics, and air pollution. The health problems are even greater for babies exposed in the womb, who face increased risks of cancer, reduced cognitive function, and even miscarriage or stillbirth.

The organization cited concerns about the sharp increase over the past four decades in chemical manufacturing, which continues to grow by more than 3 percent every year. Some 30,000 pounds of chemicals were manufactured or imported for every person in the United States in 2012 alone--a whopping 9.5 trillion pounds in total. Annually, the FIGO authors write, chemical manufacturing leads to 7 million deaths and billions in health care costs. ... Read more

The 9 Most Expensive Medicines in the World -- Courtesy of Big Pharma
AlterNet | Larry Schwartz | 09/29/15

Hedge funder Martin Shkreli reminded everyone of the sky-high -- and seemingly arbitrary -- costs of prescription medicines in this country when he bought and immediately increased the price of an established drug used to fight a parasitic infection. The price hike was eye-popping, from $13.50 a pill to $750 per pill, prompting Dr. Judith Aberg of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to ask, "What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?" Shkreli's answer was similar to what Big Pharma trots out all the time -- the extra money will help them to make better drugs.

The business of developing and selling prescription drugs is not just big. It's huge. Sales for prescription meds in the world are expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2018. That equates to 1.3% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To put it another way, Big Pharma's sales are bigger than the annual GDP of all but 15 countries on the planet. In the United States alone, seven out of 10 Americans are taking prescription medications. Almost 4 billion prescriptions were written in the U.S. last year. And for the unluckiest of us, those prescriptions cost dearly. Six-figure dearly. ... Read more