Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

20 Republican former U.S. attorneys endorse Biden, call Trump "a threat to the rule of law"
Axios | Oriana Gonzalez | 10/27/20

Twenty Republican former U.S. Attorneys on Tuesday endorsed Joe Biden while saying that "President Trump's leadership is a threat to rule of law" in the U.S., the Washington Post reports.

What they're saying: In the letter, the former prosecutors criticize Trump's use of the Department of Justice, saying the president expects the DOJ to "to serve his personal and political interests." "He has politicized the Justice Department, dictating its priorities along political lines and breaking down the barrier that prior administrations had maintained between political and prosecutorial decision-making," the letter says. ... Read more

Trump the Sexist Makes “Mr Rogers” Cry | Championing America | 10/18/20 | 1:05

NBC Nightly News Broadcast (Full) - October 26th, 2020 | NBC Nightly News | 10/26/20 | 21:23

The Fed is starting to question its own policies
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 10/19/20

Several officials at the Fed are beginning to worry about asset bubbles and excessive risk-taking as a result of their extraordinary policy interventions, James Politi writes for the Financial Times, citing interviews with multiple Fed presidents and members of the Board of Governors.

Details: Some are now pushing for "tougher financial regulation" as concerns grow that monetary policy is "encouraging behavior detrimental to economic recovery and creating pressure for additional bailouts." What they're saying: “I don’t know what the best policy solution is, but I know we can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari told the FT. ...

... The big picture: The latest comments from Brainard, Rosengren, Kashkari and others suggest that influential members of the Fed's policy-setting committee may be pushing back against the so-called Fed put — a belief among investors that if stock prices fall enough, the Fed will bail them out by lowering interest rates or by pushing trillions of dollars in liquidity into financial markets through quantitative easing. ... Read more

Fauci on his media restrictions, Trump contracting COVID, masks, voting and more | 60Minutes | 10/18/20 | 13:37

The World Health Organization: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | John Oliver | 10/19/20 | 18:30

IMF sees turmoil as pandemic rages on
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 10/15/20

The world is in desperate need of cooperation and unity to pull out of the coronavirus pandemic and begin what the IMF has termed the "long, difficult ascent" right as its leaders are increasingly focused on nationalism and decoupling.

Driving the news: The IMF raised its 2020 global growth outlook, largely because of improved expectations for China, but cut its longer-term forecast, citing slower growth. Policymakers expressed worries about a number of "setbacks" that could hobble its diminished forecast with potentially significant "scarring" in the long term. ... Read more

US Senate panel concludes hearing on supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett | TheGuardian | 10/15/20 | Live

Election 2020: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | John Oliver | 10/05/20 | 20:29

London Latest To Revive COVID-19 Restrictions As Record Numbers Reported Across Europe: Live Updates
Click on Image to Zoom in
ZeroHedge | staff | 10/15/20

As EU members from Germany to Italy to the Czech Republic see COVID-19 cases surge, the global daily tally notched a new record on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins, which counted 380,426 new cases reported in the 24 hours to Wednesday. That's a new global record, and the first since Sept. 24, when surging cases across Europe, the US, India, Brazil and Russia were driving daily cases higher.

Europe alone reported a daily record yesterday. Since then, the outbreak in India has finally started to cool (well, relatively speaking; India is still counting more than 60k new cases a day), but outbreaks in Western Europe have roared, with Spain becoming the first EU member to top 900k new cases, and France on track to pass that milestone as soon as today. In the UK, Boris Johnson's government announced Thursday morning that he would impose tighter restrictions in London beginning this weekend as the capital city's infection rate nears 100 per 100,000. ... Read more

NASA astronaut takes off on final U.S. voyage on Russian rocket
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 10/14/20

The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins aboard, bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

Why it matters: Per Axios' Miriam Kramer, this is the last contracted flight on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for NASA, marking the transition to using U.S. launch providers like SpaceX instead. ...

Of note: The launch comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the first crew on the ISS, on Nov. 2, 2000. The $100 billion ISS has since been continuously occupied by rotating crews of astronauts from the U.S., Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan. What they're saying: It's "incredible that we've had a space station with continuous human presence for 20 years," said Rubins ahead of her second trip to the ISS Read more

Trump Homeland Security Official: "His Policies Are Racist" | Amanpour and Company | 10/13/20 | 18:24

WATCH LIVE | Amy Coney Barrett questioned at Supreme Court confirmation hearing | WP | 10/14/20 | Live

Canada's last intact ice shelf broke off. It took our research station with it
TheGuardian | Frida Garza | 10/14/20

n August, Adrienne White -- an ice analyst at the Canadian Ice Service who monitors the Canadian Arctic for changes in sea ice -- was reviewing satellite imagery when she spotted something remarkable. The enormous Milne ice shelf, which was the last intact ice shelf in Canada and which White had studied closely before as a PhD student, was dissolving.

A huge chunk larger than Manhattan, roughly 43% of the shelf, broke off in one piece. And as it collapsed into the ocean, it took with it much of the equipment her former colleagues had left there.

"It is lucky that we were not on the ice shelf when this happened," one colleague, Derek Mueller, wrote in a blog post following the discovery. "Our camp area and instruments were all destroyed in this event." ... Read more

WATCH LIVE | Amy Coney Barrett questioned at Supreme Court confirmation hearing (day 2) |10/13/20 | Live

Dr. Fauci reacts to Trump ad: It's clear I'm not a political person | CNN | 10/12/20 | 7:14

Tapper lays out politicized moves Trump Cabinet is making ahead of election | JakeTapper | CNN | 10/11/20 | 5:25

How Amy Coney Barrett would change the way the Supreme Court works
Axios | Sam Baker | 10/13/20

Why it matters: Barrett would transform the court's internal politics, handicapping Chief Justice John Roberts and establishing a new center of gravity on the right. Her presence would force a whole new set of strategic calculations among the justices-- and those calculations will shape the law of the land for a generation.

The big picture: When you hear that Barrett would usher in a more conservative court, that doesn't necessarily mean she'll be writing deeply conservative rulings on abortion or health care or any other hot-button issue. In fact, that's unlikely to happen for a long time. ... Read more

Lindsey Graham on Trump | WP | 10/02/18 | 1:58

Frontline - The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden (full) | 09/23/20 | 1:54:51

Inside the Lincoln Project's campaign against President Trump | 60Minutes | 10/11/20 | 13:36

Meet The Press Broadcast, guest Bill Gates, Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Ted Cruz | 10/11/20 | 47:17

What to expect at this week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings
Axios | Alayna Treene | 10/12/20

Democrats are heading into this week's confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett with one overarching goal: protect Joe Biden's election.

Why it matters: They have little chance of stopping Barrett's confirmation unless more Republican senators test positive for the coronavirus or there's a truly unexpected disclosure, which sources from both parties say is unlikely.

Democrats are instead hoping to use the hearings as an opportunity to mobilize voters on key issues, like health care and voting rights. But they also recognize they risk energizing Republicans if they go too far in their attacks, and they're hoping to minimize self-damage when pressing her on topics about abortion and her deeply conservative religious views. ... Read more

WATCH LIVE | Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearing | WP | 10/12/20 | Live

Bernie Sanders: Our Healthcare System Is 'Dysfunctional, Cruel and Wasteful' | MSNBC | 10/10/20 | 10:26

'He just thinks about himself': America's reckless, ill president
TheGuardian | Ed Pilkington | 10/12/20

Of all the cornucopia of tone-deaf and offensive remarks made by the president of the United States in almost four years in office, one proposition he made to the American people last week must surely rank among the top 10.

"Don't be afraid of Covid," he said in a tweet. "Don't let it dominate your life."

Donald Trump posted those words at 2.37pm on 5 October from the luxury of his four-room suite in Walter Reed medical center. He was surrounded by a team of a dozen world-class doctors infusing him with a unique cocktail of experimental drugs for Covid-19 that would have cost an ordinary American hundreds of thousands of dollars to procure.

About an hour earlier, data scientists at Johns Hopkins University released their latest figures for the pandemic. They showed that at least 7.5 million Americans had contracted the disease, and that 209,881 had died -- a death rate towering over most developed countries and 2,000 times that of humble Vietnam.

At that same moment, more than half of US states were reporting upticks in infection rates that are almost certain to spike further as winter sets in. Meanwhile, the New England Journal of Medicine was preparing to publish a brutal editorial that would hold the Trump administration directly responsible for tens of thousands of needless Covid-19 deaths, concluding that "anyone else who recklessly squandered lives in this way would be suffering legal consequences". ... Read more

How the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor unravelled
TheGuardian | Adam Gabbatt | 10/09/20

An FBI affidavit exposes the disturbing details of a rightwing group's months-long effort targeting Gretchen Whitmer

Fox, from Michigan, is now facing a potential life sentence, along with five other men, for an elaborate plan to kidnap the state's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and put her on trial for "treason", according to the FBI.

The chilling plot, revealed in an FBI affidavit released on Thursday, was a months-long effort that also saw members of a rightwing militia consider forgoing the kidnapping and instead executing Whitmer on her doorstep.

The news sent shockwaves through the country, as the US faces one the most divisive and viciously fought elections in its history in less that four weeks. The vote has already been marred by accusations of voter suppression, civil unrest linked to police brutality and sometimes violent incidents by heavily armed rightwingers. ... Read more

Coronavirus protections could be delaying a bankruptcy crisis
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 10/09/20

The number of business bankruptcies and insolvencies in most countries has declined this year through the coronavirus pandemic as the world is seeing far fewer bankruptcies than it did in 2019. Yes, but: That is largely thanks to assistance from central banks and government measures restricting things like foreclosures.

Why it matters: When the smoke clears the world is likely to be looking at a sizable increase in the number of zombie companies -- firms that owe more on debt than they generate in profits but are kept alive by relentless borrowing. "Zombie firms are smaller, less productive, more leveraged and invest less in physical and intangible capital," the Bank for International Settlements concluded in a report last month. ... Read more

VP debate brings back normal politics
Axios | Mike Allen | 10/08/20

Sen. Kamala Harris flashed back to last week's raucous presidential debate, arguing that Trump's "stand back and stand by" answer to a question about white supremacists "is part of a pattern."

She brought up Trump's response to "Neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches shouting racial epithets" in Charlottesville in 2017. "This is who we have as the president of the United States, and America, you deserve better," the California senator said. "Joe Biden will be a president who brings our country together and recognizes the beauty in our diversity."

Vice President Pence responded by sketching a very different worldview. ... Read more

Vice Presidential Debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris |C-Span | 10/07/20 | starts 14:30 - 1:46:08

It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump by Stuart Stevens

"In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses to the reader that the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies... This reckoning inspired Stevens to publish this blistering, tell-all history... Although this book will be a hard read for any committed conservatives, they would do well to ponder it."

From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal exposé of how his party became what it is today

Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass.

This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values," and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room.

It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.

Trump's seniors moment
Axios | Jim VandeHei | 10/07/20

Something wild and unexpected unfolded in the second half of President Trump's term, and now is accelerating: Elderly Americans, who helped elect him, have swung sharply against him.

Why it matters: National and state polls show a total Trump collapse among Americans 65 and older. If this chasm remains, it could help bring the whole Republican power structure down with Trump.

In what has been a 50-50ish nation, it's stunning to see polling gaps this wide: In a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Sunday, Joe Biden led Trump by 27 points among seniors (62% to 35%). In a CNN/SSRS poll out yesterday, similar story -- 21 points (60% to 39%). ... Read more

Can central banks keep holding off the Covid economic crisis?
TheGuardiane | Mohamed El-Erian | 10/07/20

Donald Trump said talks on a stimulus package are off -- and the problems will only get worse

Having long been buttressed by ample liquidity, financial markets are entering the final quarter of 2020 amid an increasingly tentative global economic recovery, unusual political uncertainties and lagging fiscal and structural policy responses. And these headwinds come on top of the Covid-19 crisis, which has left most countries struggling to strike a balance between protecting public health, achieving a return to a semi-normal level of economic activity and limiting infringements on individual liberties.

In this context, the hope is that today's generous liquidity conditions, enabled and supported by central banks, will continue to provide a bridge to a better 2021, not only reversing the economic and social damage but also delivering further gains to investors. But will this bridging operation, already deployed for several years to compensate for other headwinds, be sufficient to overcome what is an increasingly complex pandemic cocktail? ... Read more

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by Mary Trump

Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents' large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald's place in the family spotlight and Ivana's penchant for regifting to her grandmother's frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump's favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer's.

Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump's lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider's perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world's most powerful and dysfunctional families.

With Trump's return, risks rise in the West Wing
Axios | Alayna Treene | 10/06/20

White House aides have advised President Trump to avoid the Oval Office while he's still infected. But they're making arrangements for him to work out of the Diplomatic Reception Room, and use it as a backdrop for future televised remarks, two White House officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The preparations show that far from bunkering down in the residence until he's well, Trump is considering remaining active while he recovers from COVID. Any Trump movement in the West Wing would create a series of risks for his staff. ... Read more

Gun suicide is overwhelming US rural districts in west and south, report says
TheGuardian | Alexandra Villarreal | 10/06/20

Almost 23,000 people die annually by gun suicide in the United States, tragedies that are overwhelming some rural congressional districts clustered in the nation's west and south, according to new research from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.

A dearth of mental health resources, shifting economic realities and widespread gun ownership factor in the devastating and disproportionate local death tolls around the country. ... Read more

NYC Schools Close As COVID-19 Makes "Dangerous Comeback" Across US: Live Updates
ZeroHedge | staffr | 10/06/20

In addition to the public schools in NYC's hot spots, Horace Mann, a private school in the Bronx, has suspended in-person classes for its middle and upper grades for two weeks after the school was alerted to a mini outbreak among its teaching staff.

Scientists in the US have long warned of a looming "Twindemic" as the coronavirus mixes with the common cold and the seasonal flu. And in the Midwest, where falling temperatures are starting to send people indoors, many states are seeing the virus arrive in towns and small communities where it has been almost totally absent. In Nebraska, the seven-day average of cases hit a record Saturday, joining Midwestern and Western states including Wisconsin, Montana and the Dakotas in confronting a virus that had eluded them until recently.

"We're in very bad shape, never having achieved any sense of containment, never gotten below 20,000 new confirmed cases per day," said Eric Topol, director of Scripps Research Translational Institute. "Things can only get worse on this course." ... Read more

Trump Supporter: "How About Civil War, Let's Go For it." | TYT | 10/04/20 | 3:44

A West Wing meltdown
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 10/05/20

White House crises of competence and credibility grew during a botched weekend that left even White House aides dismayed and befuddled.

Many complained bitterly about the leadership of chief of staff Mark Meadows.

After days of internal and external snafus as the virus spread through all levels of the White House, President Trump left his hospital suite just before 5:30 p.m. yesterday, and took an SUV ride outside the Walter Reed gates to wave at the supporters who have lined the road ever since he arrived Friday evening.

Trump wore a mask, but the stunt risked exposing the Secret Service agents in the Suburban. Two senior White House staffers said they thought the P.R. stunt was selfish, and compounded a weekend of horrible decisions. ... Read more

How America Bungled the Plague | NYT | 09/29/20 | 21:02

Ohio Voters Discuss Trump's Response To The COVID Pandemic: 'An Absolute Disaster' | MSNBC | 10/04/20 | 7:26

The president is infected
Axios | Mike Allen | 10/02/20

President Trump, who had talked and acted like he was medically invincible, tweeted just before 1 a.m. that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for coronavirus.

Why it matters: The shocking announcement has personal, political, medical, financial and national security ramifications. Election Day is 32 days away. Markets hate uncertainty, and we now have the biggest X factor in the world.

The "plague" -- as Trump, 74, called it again at Tuesday's debate -- that has disrupted the world for more than seven months has now hit the most prominent patient of all. Stock futures plunged after Trump tweeted the news. Market watchers warned of a potentially deep selloff, with an unknown extent of the spread at the top of the American government. ... Read more

Trump tests positive for coronavirus
Politico | Matthew Choi | 10/02/20

Nine months after Covid-19 hit the United States, the president, who downplayed the virus in its early stages, became the world's highest-profile patient of a disease that has killed more than 1 million people.

President Donald Trump announced early Friday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, upending his presidency and the 2020 race just 32 days before Election Day. The 74-year-old president disclosed his diagnosis in a tweet at 12:54 a.m. on Friday, hours after news broke that top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive.

Trump's physician, Sean Conley, said in a memo that the president and first lady were "both well" and that Trump would continue to carry out his duties as president. Conley did not mention whether Trump was exhibiting any symptoms, but a person familiar with the situation said the president was not showing symptoms yet on Thursday. Still, Vice President Mike Pence may need to step in for some tasks if Trump is confined to the White House grounds, the person said. ... Read more

America's nightmare foretold
Axios | Mike Allen | 10/01/20

President Trump made it clear at the debate that he'll continue to call the results fraudulent -- and contest the outcome in key states -- no matter how wide the margin. That'll be amplified by a massive amount of disinformation, even though the platforms are trying to curtail it.

Why it matters: Back in 2000, we didn't know Bush v. Gore was going to happen. We know this is going to happen. Trump is telegraphing with clarity that even if he gets blown out, he'll claim the election was rigged and votes were stolen. ... Read more

The array of far-right groups "standing by" after Trump's call
Axios | Kyle Daly | 10/01/20

President Trump's refusal to condemn white nationalists during Tuesday night's debate drew a lot of attention -- including from the Proud Boys, the far-right group he asked to "stand back and stand by."

Why it matters: The Proud Boys remain relatively small -- a Portland rally this past weekend billed as the group's largest-ever gathering drew just a few hundred people. But Trump's failure to condemn extremist groups has been welcomed as an endorsement by a wide constellation of people on the fringes.

Driving the news: After Tuesday's debate, the Proud Boys -- described by the Anti-Defamation League as "misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration" -- turned Trump's words into a logo and a T-shirt.

The big picture: The Proud Boys are part of a growing set of relatively new, often heavily armed far-right groups with ideologies and memberships that often overlap. The groups have pledged to violently oppose the left and do much of their organizing online. ... Read more