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Thursday October 10, 2019

White House Aides Avoid Media Amid Impeachment Storm
HP | AP | 10/10/19

It's a well-worn strategy: Senior officials conveniently manage to be elsewhere when major controversies engulf the White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They've skipped the high-profile Sunday TV shows and avoided driveway chat sessions with reporters. Few who are typically eager to defend the president have appeared at all on television this month.

White House officials close to President Donald Trump are pulling off a disappearing act, remaining largely absent from public view -- in the middle of the storm over impeachment.

"We invited the White House on to answer questions on the show this morning," CNN's Jake Tapper explained to his viewers on Sunday's "State of the Union." ?They did not offer a guest." ...

... Indeed, knowing "when to be out of town" was one of the top nuggets of advice that Kevin Hassett, the president's former top economic adviser, said he'd received from a predecessor and had to offer his successor. ... Read more

Tax Rate for the Rich | DN | 10/09/19 | 0:35
The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay by Emmanuel Saez

Even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have had their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who revolutionized the study of inequality. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America's tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government. Their conclusion? For the first time in more than a century, billionaires now pay lower tax rates than their secretaries.

Blending history and cutting-edge economic analysis, and writing in lively and jargon-free prose, Saez and Zucman dissect the deliberate choices (and sins of indecision) that have brought us to today: the gradual exemption of capital owners; the surge of a new tax avoidance industry, and the spiral of tax competition among nations. With clarity and concision, they explain how America turned away from the most progressive tax system in history to embrace policies that only serve to compound the wealth of a few.

But The Triumph of Injustice is much more than a laser-sharp analysis of one of the great political and intellectual failures of our time. Saez and Zucman propose a visionary, democratic, and practical reinvention of taxes, outlining reforms that can allow tax justice to triumph in today's globalized world and democracy to prevail over concentrated wealth.

The end of stock market corrections
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 10/10/19

Normally the health of business drives a country's asset prices, but that's not what's happening at the moment, according to Deutsche Bank Securities chief economist Torsten Slok.

What's happening: The S&P 500 has risen by around 20% so far this year, despite weakening U.S. economic data and a slowing labor market. Earnings growth, typically the bread and butter of equity market returns, was negative in the second quarter and is expected to be negative in the third and fourth quarters as well.

U.S. GDP growth is expected to be lower in the second half of the year than in the first and lower still in 2020, a negative picture for the country's growth outlook and that of its public companies.

What we're hearing: Slok, a typically even-handed economist, expressed his disbelief at the decoupling of asset prices from fundamentals in a recent note to clients.

    "Perhaps the answer is that equity and credit markets are no longer driven by fundamentals, but instead by Fed and ECB promises of lower rates, more dovish forward guidance, and QEternity."

    "In short, because of unlimited central bank safety nets -- including in the new MMT form of aggressive fiscal policy -- S&P500 may not decline, and credit spreads may not widen next time we enter a recession."
... Read more

Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream by Aaron Glantz

In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America's housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class--among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.

Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump looked forward to a crash: "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy," he said. But our future president wasn't alone. While millions of Americans suffered financial loss, tycoons pounced to heartlessly seize thousands of homes -- their profiteering made even easier because, as prize-winning investigative reporter Aaron Glantz reveals in Homewreckers, they often used taxpayer money -- and the Obama administration's promise to cover their losses.

In Homewreckers, Glantz recounts the transformation of straightforward lending into a morass of slivered and combined mortgage "products" that could be bought and sold, accompanied by a shift in priorities and a loosening of regulations and laws that made it good business to lend money to those who wouldn't be able to repay. Among the men who laughed their way to the bank: Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump pal and confidant Tom Barrack, and billionaire Republican cash cow Steve Schwarzman. Homewreckers also brilliantly weaves together the stories of those most ravaged by the housing crisis. The result is an eye-opening expose of the greed that decimated millions and enriched a gluttonous few.
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Homewreckers
All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator by Barry Levine

Donald Trump's alleged transgressions against women are numerous, and as a new book reveals, they stretch back far further than we've previously realized. In All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator, journalists Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy draw on over 100 interviews, many of them exclusive, to craft a detailed history of Trump's relationships with women, stretching back to his childhood and education as well as his rise through real estate, entertainment, and politics. What emerges from the authors' reporting is a portrait of a serial predator who hides behind wealth and institutional power to frequently harass and abuse women.

While the president has publicly faced allegations from two dozen women, this book reveals another 43 allegations of alleged inappropriate behavior, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact. In this exclusive excerpt from All the President's Women, Levine and El-Faizy investigate an alleged wave of unwanted touching that preceded his proposal to Melania Knauss, including a disturbing instance of groping at Mar-a-Lago. -- Adrienne Westenfeld
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 10 [10:53]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, October 10 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. After Trump Abandoned Kurds, Turkish Invasion Raises Fear of Kurdish Genocide & ISIS Resurgence
  3. Turkey Moves to Crush Rojava, the Kurds' Radical Experiment Based on Democracy, Feminism & Ecology
  4. Justice for Kaysera: Native Teen's Mysterious Death Highlights Epidemic of Murdered Indigenous Women
**As Dems Focus on Impeachment, Trump Heads to "Imperial Governance" | TRNN |10/10/19 | 16:46
The Trump administration is undermining our nation from immigration to the environment, while his tweets and impeachment distract us. Add it all up, says our guest, we can see how he threatens what remains of U.S. democracy.
Trump's Next Giveaway For The Rich | TYT | 10/09/19 | 7:21
Trump Abandons Kurds Because They Didn't Help Us In WW2 | TYT | 10/09/19 | 4:09
Rick Perry TRASHES Trump Over Ukraine Call | TYT | 10/09/19 | 9:13
The1a.org
The Great Legacy Of The Great Recession | 1a.org | 10/10/19 | 1hr
"Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do. Or even better, for you to just leave them the f--k alone."

Reporter Aaron Glantz doesn't want to let that happen. His new book, "Homewreckers," tells the story of people like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who Glantz says made tremendous financial gains from homeowners after the Great Recession.

It also tells the stories of people like Kristin from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She moved home to Broward County after college and was immediately thrust into a fight to save her mother's home from foreclosure. She argued the case in front of a judge at the age of 28.

Kristin left us a message, saying: "It took six years, countless phone calls and emails, public records requests, a trial, a final judgment, down-to-the-wire negotiations and way, way, too many tears in order for me to save my mom's house."

Once she did, she told us she feels "glad to be putting equity into an asset and not into a landlord's pocket." But at the end of the day, she told us she's 31 years old and still living with her parents. If she hadn't had to fight to save her mom's home, maybe that isn't the life she'd be living.
Other Stuff
Trump Asked Rex Tillerson To Help Giuliani Client With DOJ: Bloomberg | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 10/09/19 | 25:25
What Is The Legal Remedy For President Donald Trump's Refusal To Cooperate? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 10/10/19 | 19:58
Chris Hayes: The Sheer Scope Of Trump's Corruption Keeps Unfolding | All In | MSNBC | 10/09/19 | 5:32
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Trump May Be Brought Down By Two Calamitous Phone Calls | Stephen Colbert | 10/09/19 | 5:50

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Trump Stops Sondland's Testimony & Dems Protect the Whistleblower | TrevorNoah | 10/09/19 | 7:20
Jimmy Kimmel Show
As Impeachment Ramps Up, Trump Melts Down | Jimmy Kimmel | 10/08/19 | 8:10

10.10.2019. 18:14



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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
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Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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