Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Worse than Sarah Palin! Joe Biden Goes to Town on Trump's Fact-Free Debate Disaster
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 09/30/16

Vice President Joe Biden was horrified by Monday night's presidential debate. "I was watching by myself," he told "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon when asked about the heavily anticipated event, adding, "I've never quite seen anything like that." Given Donald Trump's tendency to lie, there was much emphasis placed on fact-checking, which Biden acknowledged certainly kept the Bloomberg folks busy.

"I can tell you what, I've never seen anybody who knew so few facts," he said. Biden also rehashed his memories of debating Sarah Palin in 2008, which over 70 millon people watched.

"It's not a joke! It's like, whoa!" Biden exclaimed. "We are in real jeopardy." ... Read more

We Just Passed A Grim Carbon Dioxide Threshold, Possibly For Good
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 09/28/16

CO2 levels surpassed 400 ppm in September. Scientists say we won't see a month below that symbolic benchmark "ever again."

Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii announced in 2013 that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a daily average above 400 parts per million for the first time in history. CO2 concentrations "haven't been this high in millions of years," said scientist Erika Podest at the time. "This milestone is a wake-up call."

But the situation has only gotten worse. Worldwide, 400 ppm, which indicates the ratio of carbon dioxide to other gases in the atmosphere, started to be read more consistently and in more locations. Last March, global CO2 levels topped the symbolic benchmark for an entire month -- a first since record-keeping began. Antarctica, the last place on Earth without a 400 ppm reading, finally reached it in May. ... Read more

How a Reclusive Hedge-Fund Boss and His Daughter Are Reshaping the Republican Party
Time |Alex Altman | 09/29/16

Robert and Rebekah Mercer have emerged as powerful players in Donald Trump's campaign, not to mention the fight for the GOP's future. What is it they want?

... Over the course of the 2016 presidential contest, the Mercers have become two of the most pivotal and least understood behind-the-scenes players in American politics. Robert Mercer is a reclusive figure who has never spoken publicly about his political beliefs. Daughter Rebekah, a former Wall Street trader who runs an online gourmet-cookie company with her sisters, is described as the activist investor behind the family's vast political concerns. Together they form a link between Trump's campaign and super PAC, armed with the cash and clout to shape everything from his staff to his data operation to his super PAC strategy. "It's hard to think of anybody like them," says Larry Noble of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. ... Read more

Mothballing the World's Fanciest Oil Rigs Is a Massive Gamble
Bloomberg | David Wethe | 09/19/16

In a far corner of the Caribbean Sea, one of those idyllic spots touched most days by little more than a fisherman chasing blue marlin, billions of dollars worth of the world's finest oil equipment bobs quietly in the water.

They are high-tech, deepwater drillships -- big, hulking things with giant rigs that tower high above the deck. They're packed tight in a cluster, nine of them in all. The engines are off. The 20-ton anchors are down. The crews are gone. For months now, they've been parked here, 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago, waiting for the global oil market to recover.

The ships are owned by a company called Transocean Ltd., the biggest offshore-rig operator in the world. And while the decision to idle a chunk of its fleet would seem logical enough given the collapse in oil drilling activity, Transocean is in truth taking an enormous, and unprecedented, risk. No one, it turns out, had ever shut off these ships before. ... Read more
Off the coast of Trinidad, high-tech drillships are piling up. They were shut down to cut costs. Will they ever come back on? ()09/19/16) [4:07]

How Donald Made a Fortune by Dumping His Debt on Other People
motherJones | Max J. Rosenthal | 09/30/16

In 1995, five years after his business empire nearly collapsed under massive debt, Donald Trump was finally righting the ship. He'd sold off costly assets like his mega-yacht and money-losing airline, gone through two bankruptcies, and gotten debt relief by giving his creditors partial ownership of some of his properties. But the three casinos he still controlled -- the Taj Mahal, the Trump Plaza, and the Trump Castle -- were still deeply in debt.

So Trump figured out a way to erase that debt -- at least for himself. He created Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, a publicly traded company that operated the Trump Plaza. For about six months, it was a success. The company's stock shot up from $14 to $35 a share, putting Trump back on the Forbes list of America's 400 wealthiest people and helping him pay down $88 million of his personal debt, according to the Washington Post's Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher in their book, Trump Revealed. "The IPO of Trump Hotels was what finally fueled Trump's comeback," wrote Fortune this March. ... Read more

Trump angry at allies conceding he lost debate
CNN & HP | Gloria Borger | 09/29/16

Donald Trump is angry that his aides and advisers have conceded to reporters -- largely without attribution -- that the Republican nominee struggled in his first presidential debate.

In a conference call with surrogates Wednesday afternoon, Trump aides made clear the Republican nominee is upset that his allies publicly acknowledged they pushed him to change his preparation and tactics before his next bout with Hillary Clinton. And he wants them to stop it immediately. The message was "not subtle," a source familiar with the call said. ... Read more

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country--a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets -- among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident -- people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream--and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who ...

*TYT | Elizabeth Warren Costs Wells Fargo Executives $60 Million (09/28/16) [16:09]

Stephen Colbert | Elizabeth Warren Rips Wells Fargo's CEO A New One (09/29/16) [6:01]

The Run Begins: Deutsche Bank Hedge Fund Clients Withdraw Excess Cash
ZeroHedge | author | 09/29/16

Deutsche Bank concerns just went to '11' as Bloomberg reports a number of funds that clear derivatives trades with Deutsche Bank AG have withdrawn some excess cash and positions held at the lender, a sign of counterparties' mounting concerns about doing business with Europe's largest investment bank. ... Read more

Wells Fargo To Be Sanctioned By DOJ For Improperly Seizing Soldiers' Cars
ZeroHedge | author | 09/29/16

And the hits just keep on coming. The full court press on Wells Fargo continues, on the heels of California's sanctions, Bloomberg reports the bank is now facing a Justice Department sanction over improperly repossessing cars owned by members of the military, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation. ... Read more

Republican Senators Call Trump's Debate Performance 'Interesting'
HP | Laura Barron-Lopez | 09/27/16

Senate Republicans came up with creative answers or gave up and ran away from reporters on Tuesday when asked about Donald Trump's performance during his first presidential debate against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Out of several Republicans The Huffington Post asked about Trump's Monday night showing, three said it was "interesting" before escaping behind closed doors, one told HuffPost to "go away," three thought their nominee started out strong but couldn't keep up momentum, and another was just pleased "nobody was throwing anything." ... Read more

*Elon Musk to Make Us a Multiplanetary Species
Bloomberg News | Dana Hull | 09/23/16

When Elon Musk takes the stage of the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico on Sept. 27, it won't be to rehash terrestrial concerns like a fatal Tesla autopilot crash or a poorly received merger proposal. Instead, the space and electric-car entrepreneur will be talking about realizing his boyhood dream: going to Mars.

Musk's keynote address, entitled "Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species," will tackle the technical challenges and "potential architectures for colonizing the Red Planet," according to organizers. Translation: huge rockets, big spacecraft. No one has been anticipating the event more eagerly than Musk, who founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., his rocket-launch company, 14 years ago with the express goal of putting humans on other planets to live and work. ... Read more
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk: Colonizing Mars Simulation (current) [7:49]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveils plans to 'colonize Mars' (09/27/16) [1:26:01]

*Obama Humiliated: Senate Overrides President's Veto Of "Sept 11" Bill In Crushing 97-1 Vote
ZeroHedge | author | 09/28/16

Moments ago, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to override President Obama's veto of a bill letting the victims of the 9/11 attacks sue Saudi Arabia, striking a blow to the president on foreign policy weeks before he leaves office. The vote marks the first time the Senate has mustered enough votes to overrule Obama's veto pen. ... Read more

"Russian Roulette" - Credit Suisse CEO Admits "EU Banks Not Really Investable"
ZeroHedge | author | 09/28/16

European banks are in a "very fragile situation" and are "not really investable as a sector" according to Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam. Speaking at a conference in London this morning, The FT reports, the CEO of Europe's 'other Deutsche Bank' said "only a fool would try to make a five-year prediction in a world that is so random," wishing John Cryan (DB CEO) well, "I hope that they come out of their current predicament." ... Read more

*DR | Who Pays Federal Income Taxes And Who Does Not (09/28/16) [1hr]

*PBS News | Presidential Debate 9/26/16 Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton (full) (09/26/16) [1:33:21]

TYT | Presidential Debate | Who Won? (09/26/16) [12:41]

TYT | Why This Election Is SO Important. Wes Clark Jr. Vs. Jimmy Dore Debate (09/26/16) [13:01]

Trump Is Only Kind Of A Global Warming Truther, Campaign Manager Says
HP | Akbar Shahid Ahmed | 09/27/16

She offered fresh denials and explanations about the Republican nominee's science-denying tweets.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump believes climate change is a natural phenomenon, his campaign manager told CNN Tuesday morning. That's a fresh story ? and a fresh lie. During the presidential debate Monday night, Trump himself lied by denying that he had previously called global warming a man-made hoax. ... Read more

Biographer Reveals There's Zero Evidence That Trump Is a Billionaire--He 'Just Makes It Up'
AlterNet | David Ferguson / Raw Story | 09/26/16

David Cay Johnston said that if Trump wasn't a presidential candidate, but just someone sitting next to you on a bar stool, "you'd quickly conclude, 'That's nuts.'"

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and The Making of Donald Trump author David Cay Johnston said in a new video that there is no evidence whatsoever that Donald Trump is actually the billionaire he claims to be.

In 2015, Johnston said, Trump variously claimed his net worth to be $8.7 billion, $10 billion, $11 billion and higher, "even though there was nothing going on in the economy that would suggest that kind of gyrations of net worth." ... Read more
There's Zero Evidence That Trump Is a Billionaire -- He 'Just Makes It Up' (09/27/16) [2:10]

Hillary vs Donald: So Who Won?
ZeroHedge | author | 09/27/16
Read more

What It Will Take for Hillary to Win the Debate
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 09/25/16

... Despite the hype, the stakes are enormous. Unless Clinton finds a way to connect with voters, especially the nearly one in three millennials now flocking to libertarian Gary Johnson, she may end losing in November because she's hovering in polls in the low 40s. If she tries to present herself in ways not yet seen by most Americans, she will likely fuel critics who say she cannot be trusted. Clinton can only be herself: prepared, concerned, wonkly, formidable, and maybe a bit wry.

Trump, in contrast, benefits from the biggest double-standard in recent American history. The public has grown used to his boasts, smears, over-promises, outright lies, and flailing antics. While the public expects Clinton to know everything about every topic and not be offputting, Trump will be let off the hook for an array of sloppy behaviors. Worse, if he doesn't loose his cool, his composure will likely be described by the GOP and pundits as a new sobriety, seriousness and debate victory. ... Read more

Here's Everything Donald Trump Has Promised to Do on His First Day as President
MotherJones | Tim Murphy | 09/23/16

Hillary the movie () [1:22:05]

Citizen Koch (trailer) (2014) [2:25]

Playing by different rules: The media lets Trump "get out of jail free" but won't let Clinton "pass go"
Salon | Bob Cesca | 09/19/16

The press slams Clinton based on pre-2016 political standards, while Trump is judged on a much lower bar

The only explanation for the lopsided coverage of the election by the political press so far is that, for some mysterious reason-defying logic, there's a "false equivalence" at work. It's become an almost throw-away phrase, bearing little weight these days. The political press certainly doesn't take it too seriously, that's for sure. We're just gaming the refs, they say. Someone's always bitching about the media, they say. Whatever helps them sleep at night, I suppose.

Nevertheless, according to what we're observing online and via cable news, Hillary Clinton's negatives appear eons more grievous than Donald Trump's missteps, even though they're not -- and this disparity unfairly elevates Trump and his poll numbers. This is how elections are tilted toward despots and undisciplined strongmen. They're legitimized and humanized despite their long menu of unprecedented gaffes, lies and treachery. ... Read more
TYT | Harvard Study: Media Ignores Policy Substance, Facts (09/24/16) [10:33]

It Takes a Village In the middle of one of Detroit's most blighted and abandoned neighborhoods, Shamayim 'SHU' Harris and her team of engineers, futurists, artists, urban farmers and their nationwide allies are reimagining public and private space. This is an invitation to step into the village (current) [4:49]

26 Incredible Facts About The Economy That Every American Should Know Before The Trump-Clinton Debate
ZeroHedge | author | 09/26/16

Are you ready for the most anticipated presidential debate in decades? There will likely be quite a few questions about the economy, and without a doubt this is an area where Trump and Clinton have some very sharp differences. The mainstream media would have us believe that the U.S. economy is in pretty good shape, and if that was true that would seem to favor Clinton. But is it actually true? ... Read more

Will Deutsche Bank's Collapse Be Worse Than Lehman Brothers?
ZeroHedge | author | 09/26/16

DB is the proverbial "canary in the coalmine" for Europe. Perched atop one of the largest derivatives books in Europe, DB has ties to most major financial institutions in the region. ... Read more

BofA Fined $12.5 Million For Creating At Least 15 Mini "Flash Crashes"
ZeroHedge | author | 09/26/16

The SEC announced that BofA/Merrill Lynch agreed to pay a $12.5 million penalty for "maintaining ineffective trading controls" that failed to prevent erroneous orders from being sent to the markets and causing at least 15 mini-flash crashes between 2012 and 2014. ... Read more

The Infuriating Reason Wells Fargo Got Away With Its Massive Scam For So Long
HP | Emily Peck | 09/22/16

How did Wells Fargo get away with ripping off its banking customers for so long? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the City of Los Angeles recently fined Wells Fargo $185 million for five years of misbehavior, but now congressional Republicans are asking why this didn't happen faster.

Their bewilderment, however, is in itself rather bewildering, if not downright disingenuous. Not only has the GOP consistently opposed the very existence of the CFPB, but Republicans have more recently registered strong opposition to specific new rules proposed by the agency that would have helped bring Wells Fargo's misconduct into the open sooner. Read more

Trump Tax Plan Turns the Donald into Trickle-Down King
ZeroHedge | author | 09/23/16

If George Bush Senior thought Reaganomics was "voodoo economics," he'd think the Trump tax plan was its kachina doll, and if GB Minor had been smoking weed while popping magic mushrooms when he made his eponymous tax cuts, the Bush Tax Cuts might have come out looking like the Wall-Street tax Fantasia that Trump's peeps have brewed up -- a plan that will make Donald Trump and the guests in his gold-plated penthouse much wealthier if enacted but will barely nudge the middle class. ... Read more

Your Air Conditioner and Refrigerator Are Killing the Climate: What Are the Alternatives?
AlterNet | Reynard Loki | 09/22/16

Global temperatures are on pace to make 2016 another record-breaking year. It is feeding into a classic deadly environmental cycle: The hotter it gets, the more people want to buy air conditioners. And the more we use A/C, the more we emit greenhouse gases that, in turn, increase global warming.

But the planet may get some help soon, if world leaders can come to an agreement on how to handle the greenhouse gas emissions of coolants found in air conditioners and refrigerators. The agreement they're currently working on is actually an attempt to close a loophole in a landmark, three-decade-old treaty that was originally meant to help the environment. ... Read more

"It May Be Over For The BOJ" - Wall Street Throws Up On Kuroda's "Disastrous" New Policy
ZeroHedge | author | 09/23/16

Two days day after the BOJ unveiled its "QQE with Yield Curve Control" (but no fries), the sellside has had time to digest the central bank's latest proposal and the assessment, unlike that of Dan Loeb, is anything but glowing. In fact, it's downright "deplorable."

We start with Goldman, which as we reported two days ago, admitted not only that what the BOJ is launching is tantamount to a "stealth taper", but more disturbingly, has no idea just how the central bank will effectively control the yield curve: Read more

*DR | Friday News - Domestic (09/23/16) [1hr]

N.C. Governor Declares State Of Emergency Amid Violent Protests
HP & Reuters | Greg Lacour | 09/21/16

Residents of Charlotte, North Carolina, woke up to a state of emergency and the National Guard and State Highway Patrol deployed to their city on Thursday after a second night of unrest sparked by the fatal police shooting of a black man.

According to police, Keith Scott, 43, was shot and killed by officers on Tuesday after he refused to drop a handgun. His family and a witness to the shooting said Scott was holding a book, not a firearm.

A peaceful rally in response to the shooting turned violent on Wednesday as protesters threw rocks and bottles at police in riot gear, smashed windows and doors and looted stores in downtown Charlotte. Officers fired rubber bullets, tear gas, flash-bang grenades and used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. ... Read more

Donald Trump's Tax Cuts Would Cause Deficit To Explode, Report Says
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 09/22/16

REPORT: Trump's Agenda Would Add $5.3 Trillion To Federal Debt

Donald Trump's policies would make the federal deficit much bigger. Hillary Clinton's wouldn't. That's the most important takeaway of a new report, one that maybe should get a little attention this campaign season.

The report comes from Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank that, as the name suggests, focuses heavily on whether the government has enough resources to meet its financial obligations.

Earlier this year, the committee published a thorough review of the Clinton and Trump agendas ? with a particular focus on how each would affect the deficit (the difference between what the government spends and takes in) and the debt (the total amount of money that the government owes). ... Read more

*Trump Voters Reveal Their Wildest Clinton Conspiracy Theories to 'The Daily Show'
AlterNet | Sophia Tesfaye / Salon | 09/21/16

Jordan Klepper of "The Daily Show" has done yeoman's work surveying Donald Trump supporters this election season, and his latest dispatch may provide the most hilarious (or depressing) insight into the base of the modern-day Republican Party yet.

Klepper attended a rally for the Republican presidential nominee to ask some of his most ardent supporters about their crazy conspiracy theories surrounding Hillary Clinton's health. ... Read more
Trump Voters Reveal Their Wildest Clinton Conspiracy Theories to 'The Daily Show' (09/22/16) [5:07]

*In Dramatic Twist, Wells Fargo Said To Retaliate, Fire Whistleblowers Who Exposed Bank's Illegal Practices
ZeroHedge | author | 09/22/16

While the recent congressional hearing targeting John Stumpf, in which Elizabeth Warren suggested he should resign and be criminally charged, was nothing more than a "kangaroo court" meant to refocus public anger on banks, with good reason, the reason why we concluded that nothing would actually change is that ultimately there was no evidence the bank's executive management was aware of the bank's illegal, fraudulent tactics involving the creation of some 2 million fake customer accounts to "sandbag" retail banking fees. That assumption, however, may need revision now that CNN reports that it has heard from former Wells Fargo workers - some of whom were named - around the country, who tried to put a stop to the bank's illegal tactics only to be met with harsh, prompt and severe retaliation by the bank.

"Almost half a dozen workers who spoke with us say they paid dearly for trying to do the right thing: they were fired" ... Read more

Just Plain Pathetic
ZeroHedge | author | 09/22/16

We are speaking, of course, of the Fed's decision to punt yet again, and for a reason that is not mysterious at all. To wit, our financial rulers are petrified of a stock market hissy fit, and will go to any length of dissimulation and double-talk to avoid triggering a crash of the very bubbles their policies have inflated. ... Read more

*Aljazeera | Inside Story - Rise of the 'superbugs': Is resistance futile? (09/22/16) [24:50]

Hanjin shipping company goes under (09/22/16) [1:58]

U2's Bono Says Trump 'Potentially the Worst Idea that Ever Happened to America'
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 09/21/16

U2 lead singer Bono appeared on "CBS This Morning" to discuss a bunch of topics with co-host Charlie Rose, and inevitably, Donald Trump came up. Bono, who's never shied away from sharing his thoughts on politics suggested that the GOP contender for president, if elected, could devastate the country.

"America is like the best idea the world ever came up with," the vocalist said. "But Donald Trump is potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America. Potentially. Could destroy it." ... Read more

*On "The Daily Show" Trevor Noah Harnesses the Power of Skittles Metaphors Against Trump (09/21/16) [8:01]

*Jimmy Kimmel Live | Lie Witness News - Trump's Tax Returns Edition (09/21/16) [3:32]

The Economists Who Didn't See the Big Crash of 2008 Coming Still Don't Understand What Happened or How to Fix It
AlterNet | Dean Baker / Truthout | 09/20/16

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the huge Wall Street investment bank. This bankruptcy sent financial markets into a panic with the remaining investment banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, set to soon topple. The largest commercial banks, like Citigroup and Bank of America, were not far behind on the death watch.

The cascade of collapses was halted when the Fed and Treasury went into full-scale bailout mode. They lent trillions of dollars to failing banks at below market interest rates. They also promised the markets that there would be "no more Lehmans" to use former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's term.

This promise was incredibly valuable in a time of crisis. It meant that investors could lend freely to Goldman and Citigroup without fear that their loans would not be repaid -- they had the Treasury and the Fed standing behind them.

The public has every right to be furious about this set of events eight years ago, as well what has happened subsequently. First, everything about the crisis caught the country's leading economists by surprise. Somehow, the country's leading economists both could not see an $8 trillion housing bubble, nor could they understand how its collapse would seriously damage the economy. This bubble was clearly driving the economy prior to the crash, it is difficult to envision what these economists thought would replace the demand lost when the bubble burst. ... Read more

Trump's Giant Conflict of Interest Just Got Bigger
MotherJones | Russ Choma | 09/21/16

The US government is cracking down on Trump's largest financial backer. What will he do if elected president?

Donald Trump came under fire last week for his financial ties to overseas investors, including controversial financiers and corporations, whose interests might not align with US foreign policy. But if elected president, Trump would face a tremendous conflict of interest regarding the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes Deutsche Bank, which is now in the crosshairs of US regulators.

The US government has charged that the German banking giant misled investors into buying bad mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, and it is demanding that Deutsche Bank pay $14 billion to settle legal claims. The bank is reported to have planned for a settlement of $2 billion to $3 billion, and negotiations between it and the Department of Justice are likely to be contentious and last for months--possibly well into the next administration. Should Trump take the White House, what Deutsche Bank ends up paying for its alleged misdeeds might depend on how tough Trump's Justice Department will be with the bank to which he owes so much money. ... Read more

Stop Whining About 'False Balance'
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 09/16/16

Everyone wants to blame reporters for the rise of Donald Trump. How about the media consumer?

News media outlets are increasingly coming under fire for the sin of "false balance" or "false equivalency." The New York Times, one of the outlets most often accused of this offense, recently defined the term:

"The practice of journalists who, in their zeal to be fair, present each side of a debate as equally credible, even when the factual evidence is stacked heavily on one side."

The crime of The Times, according to some of its readers, has been its coverage of the Clinton email and Clinton Foundation stories. As one Times reader put it, "There's too much at stake in this election for the media to stoke the belief that Hillary's mistakes (which she has definitely made) are even close to par with Trump's." ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren Slams Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf: "You Should Resign, You Should Be Criminally Investigated"
ZeroHedge | author | 09/20/16

As was widely expected, the main event during today's John Stumpf hearing before the Senate Banking Committee was the moments when anti-bank crusader, Elizabeth Warren would get to the mic. She did not hold back, and immediately launched into a full-blown attack on the one topic Americans find most disturbing: the utter lack of accountability, despite Stumpf's repeaeted protestations to the contrary.

"Since this massive year's long scam came to light you have said 'I am accountable', but what have you done to hold yourself accountable? Have you resigned? Have you returned one nickel of the money you earned while this scandal was going on?" After Stumpf failed to respond, Warren replied in his stead: "I will take that as a no."

When Stumpf confirmed that he has not fired a single senior executives, Warren slammed what he called "gutless leadership." ... Read more

C-SPAN | Sen. Warren to Wells Fargo CEO: "You should resign." (09/20/16) [8:56]

Fox News | Senate to grill Wells Fargo CEO over accounts scandal (09/19/16) [3:48]

Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe by Charles Glass

Since the upsurge of the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed in excess of 200,000 lives, with an estimated 8 million Syrians, more than a third of the country's population, forced to flee their homes. Militant Sunni groups, such as ISIS, have taken control of large swathes of the nation. The impact of this catastrophe is now being felt on the streets of Europe and the United States.

Veteran Middle East expert Charles Glass combines reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict. He also gives a powerful argument for why the West has failed to get to grips with the consequences of the crisis.

These Are The Faces Of European Regions Facing Depopulation Today
HP | Gaia Mellone | 09/20/16

A demographic crisis is unfolding across Europe, with birth rates plummeting at alarming rates. For a photo project titled "Negative Zero," English-Swedish artist and journalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind grabbed her camera and embarked on a road trip to photograph some of the communities hardest hit by the disaster. Driving from London to the country of Georgia, Taylor-Lind visited a number of cities with declining populations in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, and the Caucasus. Read more

Former 'Star Wars' Star Moved to Psychiatric FacilityFormer 'Star Wars' Star Moved to Psychiatric Facility
magazine | author | date

Jake Lloyd, who played Anakin Skywalker in 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,' has been moved from a jail cell to a psychiatric facility. Jake's been behind bars since June for taking cops on a chase that exceeded speeds of 100 mph. The actor's mom, Lisa, tells us authorities reached the conclusion he needed help more than punishment, because he suffers from schizophrenia ... thus the move. Read more

Matthew Perry says past substance abuse has caused him to forget 'three years' of 'Friends'
AOL | Alex Ungerman | 09/20/16

During a recent interview on BBC Radio 2 in Britain, the 46-year-old actor found himself unable to recall his least favorite episode of Friends due to his admitted substance abuse at the time. "I think the answer is I don't remember three years of it," he candidly admitted. "So none of those... somewhere between season three and six."

"You can't have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it be solved in 28 days," adding, "Getting sober is a really hard thing to do." Read more

'The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey': Everything We Learned From Part Two
RollingStone | Rachel Brodsky | 090/20/16

In conclusion of docuseries, CBS team suggests that Burke Ramsey is the killer -- but stop short of formally accusing him

CBS | The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey - Preview (08/17/16) [3:09]

Sanitizing the 21st Century's Worst War Crime
AlterNet | Rev. William Alberts / CounterPunch | 09/16/16

... "What are 'shock and awe'? " Those are the feelings the Iraqi people experienced when then President George W. Bush gave the order for 21,000-pound "mother of all bombs" and hundreds of cruise missiles to rain down on Baghdad and other cities. A Pentagon official, with knowledge of the first strike plan was quoted as saying, "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad. . . . The sheer size of this has never been seen before, never been contemplated before." The pre-emptive battle plan was to launch "airstrikes so devastating they would leave Saddam's soldiers unable or unwilling to fight." ("Iraq Faces Massive U.S. Missile Barrage," by Sue Chan, CBS News, Jan. 24, 2003)

"What are 'shock and awe'?" Ask the families and friends of the estimated one million Iraqi civilians killed in a war that UN Secretary General Kobe Annan said was "illegal." Ask over one million widows in Iraq what "shock and awe" means to them. Ask some of the five million orphaned Iraqi children. Ask any of the over four million dislocated Iraqi people, fleeing for their lives when the bombs fell because "there was not a safe place in Baghdad." Their plight made worse by the American aggression triggering severe sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni citizens. Who, as reported, had lived in relative peace in Iraq, where, under Saddam Hussein, women enjoyed equal rights, and the country's education system flourished until the US-controlled UN economic sanctions had their deteriorating effect. (See "Was life for Iraqi Women Better Under Saddam?" By Rania Khalek, muftah.org, March 19, 2913) ... Read more

A Trump Presidency Would Likley Be Even Worse Than You Think: 11 Ways He Would Destroy the America We Know
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 09/18/16

... Keith Olbermann's recent video reels off hundreds of Trump's vicious attacks, lies, boasts, ego and dark fantasies. "The Republican Party has actually nominated for president an irresponsible, unrealistic, naive, petulant, childish, vindictive, prejudiced, bigoted, racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, fascistic, authoritarian, insensitive, erratic, disturbed, irrational, inhuman individual named Donald John Trump," he sums up. "This is madness!" ...

Newsweek Bombshell: Trump's 'Pay To Play' Presidency
HP/Newsweek | Kurt Eichenwald | 09/14/16

How the trump organization's foreign business ties could upend u.s. national security

If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his family permanently sever all connections to the Trump Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump instead choose to be the most conflicted president in American history, one whose business interests will constantly jeopardize the security of the United States?

Throughout this campaign, the Trump Organization, which pumps potentially hundreds of millions of dollars into the Trump family's bank accounts each year, has been largely ignored. As a private enterprise, its businesses, partners and investors are hidden from public view, even though they are the very people who could be enriched by -- or will further enrich -- Trump and his family if he wins the presidency. ... Read more

Hillary Clinton On Donald Trump's Latest Birther Remarks: 'This Is Who He Is'
HP | Elise Foley | 09/15/16

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton criticized her Republican opponent Donald Trump on Thursday for declining ? again ? to say President Barack Obama was born in the United States.

Trump made the comments to The Washington Post in an article that came out just 20 minutes before Obama, the first black president, took the stage at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala, so Obama may not have seen them. Read more

Elizabeth Warren Just Trolled Wells Fargo's CEO So Hard
HP | Zach Carter | 09/16/16

John Stumpf is the chairman of the Wells Fargo board of directors. This prestigious body is tasked with holding company executives accountable for misdeeds, and the chairmanship is its premier position. So it makes sense that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would ask Stumpf what punishments the board is considering levying against company executives in the wake of a major scandal.

Late last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau levied a $185 million penalty against Wells Fargo for creating literally millions of fake accounts for its own customers ? replete with bogus fees ? in an effort to meet aggressive internal sales targets. On Friday, Warren sent a letter to Stumpf asking if the board is considering clawing back pay to top executives as a result of the mess. ... Read more

Pentagon's $1.1 Trillion Flying Money Pit, Is (Sort of) Ready for Duty
AlterNet | Angelo Young / Salon | 09/15/16

The lemon has liftoff! After 20 years, the most expensive weapon in history is being put into service.

Twenty years since the Pentagon began taking bids from defense contractors, the F-35 fighter jet -- the most expensive weapon ever made -- is finally ready to see active duty over the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Marine Corps expects to deploy 16 of the stealthy high-tech warplanes early next year at Iwakuni Air Station in Japan. From there, U.S. pilots will begin testing the jets in regular noncombat operations from the Navy's USS Wasp amphibious assault vessel in what one commanding general has described as the "school of hard knocks." ... Read more

Harvard Crushes The "Obama Recovery" Farce With 9 Simple Charts
ZeroHedge | author | 09/16/16

A couple of months back we posted 9 charts that, at least in our minds, debunked the myth of the "Obama Recovery" despite suggestions from the administration that any such efforts were just a futile attempt at "peddling fiction"

In a recent study entitled "Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided" (study can be viewed in its entirety at the end of this post), Harvard University points out that, despite claims of an "Obama Recovery," in fact, the U.S. economy has continued to deteriorate in the aftermath of the "great recession." Among other things, Harvard attributes the economic deterioration to a "lack of economic strategy, especially at the federal level" and a "political system was once the envy of many nations" but has now "become our greatest liability." ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided.pdf

Deutsche Bonds "Dropping Like A Stone" As 'Most Dangerous Bank In The World' Plummets
ZeroHedge | author | 09/16/16

"They are dropping like a stone," warns one European credit strategist as signals from the bottom of Deutsche Bank's capital structure signal a "huge increase in the potential for a coupon skip." With DB stock tumbling towards record lows again (EUR 11 handle), Bloomberg reports, the bank's 1.75 billion euros ($2 billion) of 6% additional Tier 1 bonds, the first notes to take losses in a crisis, are crashing... as the world's most systemically dangerous bank faces existential problems once again. ... Read more

Oliver Stone Dives into the "Horrible Experience" of Making Snowden
VanityFair | Yohana Desta | 08/30/16

If you want to make a movie about one of the most famous whistle-blowers of all time, just know it's not going to be easy. Just ask Oliver Stone, director of Snowden--the upcoming biopic about N.S.A. whistle-blower Edward Snowden, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Assembling the production was a gargantuan task from start to finish, meticulously covered in a new report from The New York Times.

The director jumped through innumerable hoops to get the movie made; it included an extra layer of difficulty because he wanted the actual Snowden to appear in the film. Stone managed this particular feat by meeting with Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's lawyer in Russia--who had also, curiously, written a novel based on his client's life, titled Time of the Octopus. Stone bought the rights to the book for a reported $1 million in exchange for regular access to the whistle-blower. ... Read more
Snowden by Oliver Stone (trailer) (04/27/16) [2:38]

Senator Dick Durbin Skewers GOP's Irrational Fear Of Refugees
HP | Michael McAuliff | 09/14/16

"For the record, 800,000 refugees have been accepted in the United States since 9/11," Durbin said. "Not one has been engaged in domestic terrorism. All right?"

The senator appeared to be overlooking a handful of cases that could be tied to terrorism, but his larger point still stands: The number of refugees linked to terror activities in the United States is minuscule, according to an extensive analysis by the Cato Institute that found 20 examples of refugees linked to terrorism out of more than 3.2 million refugees admitted since 1975.

Durbin said Republicans would be much better off focusing on the nation's massive flow of visitors who receive no background checks.

"We have 20 million visa waiver visitors to the United States each year," he said. "If you want to talk about security and foreigners in this country, for goodness sakes, if we did a fingerprint, biometric investigation or evidence accumulation before they got on board the plane, [it's] not too much to ask, and it would make us safer." ... Read more

The Average American Consumes a Shocking Amount of Raw Materials
AlterNet | Mary Hoff / Ensia | 09/14/16

How much raw material does it take to support you? If you're an average African, about 3 metric tons (3.3 tons) -- the equivalent of an elephant's worth of biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and nonmetallic minerals -- per year. But if you're an average North American, make that a whopping eight elephants. ...

... The report reveals some startling patterns in the use of materials around the world. Total materials use tripled between 1970 and 2010, from 22 billion metric tons (24 billion tons) to more than 70 billion metric tons (77 billion tons). Even more unsettling, per capita materials use grew from 7 metric tons (7.7 tons) to 10 (11) in 2010. And overall material efficiency -- the amount of raw material needed per unit of GDP -- has actually decreased worldwide since 2000. ... Read more

Apple Says Initial Quantities Of iPhone 7 Plus Sold Out Globally
HP & Reuters | author | 09/15/16

... Supplies of the larger size of Apple's new phone have been exhausted in all shades, and the smaller iPhone 7 has also sold out in the new jet black color, the company said.

Customers who enter Apple Stores Friday, when the gadgets hit shelves, will not be able to purchase the sold-out phones on site, but they can continue to place orders for their desired models online, Apple said. ... Read more

Newsweek Bombshell: Trump's 'Pay To Play' Presidency
HP/Newsweek | Kurt Eichenwald | 09/14/16

How the trump organization's foreign business ties could upend u.s. national security

If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his family permanently sever all connections to the Trump Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump instead choose to be the most conflicted president in American history, one whose business interests will constantly jeopardize the security of the United States?

Throughout this campaign, the Trump Organization, which pumps potentially hundreds of millions of dollars into the Trump family's bank accounts each year, has been largely ignored. As a private enterprise, its businesses, partners and investors are hidden from public view, even though they are the very people who could be enriched by -- or will further enrich -- Trump and his family if he wins the presidency. ... Read more

*Monsanto May Soon Cease to Exist
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 09/13/16

In what would be the year's biggest deal so far, German pharma giant Bayer is poised to buy Monsanto.

On Tuesday, marriage negotiations between seed/pesticide giant Monsanto and its suitor, German behemoth Bayer, got hotter than a corn field at high noon in late summer. Bayer sweetened its offer to $56.5 billion Tuesday afternoon, just as Monsanto's Board of Directors was scheduled to meet to consider the offer, according to Bloomberg News. The companies could agree to terms as early as Wednesday--but the merger could "still fall apart," the news service reported, adding that "if successful, it would lead to the biggest deal this year and the largest ever by a German company."

In its current incarnation, Bayer is mainly a pharmaceutical company, with interests in prescription drugs, over-the-counter staples like aspirin, and animal medicines. But it also has a large division devoted to selling seeds and pesticides--and it has been itching for months to expand those business lines by taking over Monsanto. ... Read more

TYT | Who Will Win The 2016 Election? (09/14/16) [8:51]

TYT | Kellyann Conway To CNN: Are You Calling Trump A Liar? (09/14/16) [3:33]

White Privilege Has Enormous Implications for Policy -- But Whites Don't Think It Exists
AlterNet | Natalia Khosla/Salon | 09/13/16

Barack Obama's presidency has been defined by a new understanding by Americans that the country has yet to truly confront racism. His nomination was greeted with optimism which quickly turned sour, with 69 percent of Americans saying race relations are generally bad, levels equal to those following the Rodney King acquittal. Police violence and structural inequities have led to the Black Lives Matter movement, while on the right, racism propelled Trump to the GOP nomination. It's clear that solving America's many problems, from rampant levels of inequality to unemployment to lagging education systems to rising health care costs, will require us to understand how racism and privilege plays out in our society.

Whites Don't Believe They Have Privilege ... Read more

Paul Singer Warns It Is A "Very Dangerous Time" For Stocks, Prefers Gold
ZeroHedge | author | 09/13/16

Having previously warned that "the ultimate breakdown from this environment is likely to be surprising, sudden, intense, and large," Elliott Management's Paul Singer slammed the "amazing arrogance" of policy-makers who have "created a tremendous increase in hidden risk, risk that investors don't exactly know." As CNBC notes, Singer issued cautionary words for the path ahead, "it's a very dangerous time in the global economy and global financial markets," adding that gold was "under-represented" in investors' portfolios. ... Read more

Samantha Bee | If shooting yourself in the foot qualifies you to be president, then we have the most qualified candidates in years. (09/12/16) [5:25]

Turkey Formally Asks U.S. To Arrest Cleric Gulen Over Coup Plot, Turkish Media Reports
HP & Reuters | author | 09/13/16

Turkey has made a formal request to the United States for the arrest of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen on charges of orchestrating an attempted military coup on July 15, Turkish broadcaster NTV said on Tuesday.

Turkey blames members of Gulen’s religious movement for the failed putsch two months ago, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighters jets, bombing parliament and seizing bridges in a bid to take over power. ... Read more

120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric - The Man Accused of Inspiring Turkey's Coup
TheAtlantic | Scott Beauchamp | older, 08/12/14

120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric - The FBI is investigating a group of educators who are followers of a mysterious Islamic movement. But the problems seem less related to faith than to the oversight of charter schools.

It reads like something out of a John Le Carre novel: The charismatic Sunni imam Fethullah Gülen, leader of a politically powerful Turkish religious movement likened by The Guardian to an “Islamic Opus Dei,” occasionally webcasts sermons from self-imposed exile in the Poconos while his organization quickly grows to head the largest chain of charter schools in America. It might sound quite foreboding -- and it should, but not for the reasons you might think. ... Read more

? The Man Accused of Inspiring Turkey’s Coup Is Behind the Largest Charter-School Chain in America
TheNation | George Joseph | 07/19/16

Until last Friday, most Americans had probably never heard of Fethullah Gülen—the controversial Sunni cleric now accused of fomenting a coup attempt in Turkey. But the aged cleric, currently exiled in the Poconos, Pennsylvania, has far greater influence on US society than most realize.

Since 2002, Gülen-affiliated foundations have quietly built up the largest charter-school network in America, with over 130 schools in 26 different states nationwide. This rapid buildup is troubling, however, since financial records suggest the cleric’s charter-school network has routinely funneled public-education dollars to its own members, often with unclear benefit to students. ... Read more

Clinton Leaves 9/11 Ceremony Early After Feeling 'Overheated'
HP | author | 09/11/16

Her doctor later said the nominee had pneumonia and became overheated at the event.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton abruptly left a memorial event in New York City on Sunday morning. The Clinton campaign later said that she felt overheated and went to recuperate at her daughter's apartment.

"Secretary Clinton attended the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and thirty minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen," a statement from the campaign read. "During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better." ... Read more

Arrival (2016) (trailer) [2:26]

The Oceans Can't Protect Us Anymore -- Here's Why
NationalGeographics | Christine Dell'Amore | 09/05/16

The oceans, which have borne the brunt of most of global warming, have finally hit their limit as dying corals and plummeting fish stocks signal that the seas are at a dangerous tipping point, according to the broadest ever look at the issue. And people are already experiencing direct consequences, such as more extreme weather events, including hurricanes, says the report, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ... Read more

Tent Cities Full Of Homeless People Are Booming In Cities All Over America As Poverty Spikes
ZeroHedge | author | 09/12/16

Tonight, countless numbers of homeless people will try to make it through another chilly night in large tent cities that have been established in the heart of major cities such as Seattle, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis. Homelessness has gotten so bad in California that the L.A. City Council has formally asked Governor Jerry Brown to officially declare a state of emergency. And in Portland the city has extended their "homeless emergency" for yet another year, and city officials are really struggling with how to deal with the booming tent cities that have sprung up... Read more

Trump Slams Fed's "False Stock Market", Says Yellen Should Be "Ashamed"
ZeroHedge | author | 09/12/16

Even The New York Times admits that Trump is right... but suggests the politically-correct (and economically most effective) policy has been not to admit it publically...

*DR | Concerns About Presidential Candidates' Health (09/12/16) [1hr]

Trump's shot at top brass rankles military circles
Politico | Bryan Bender | 09/08/16

Donald Trump's broadside against the top military brass is drawing warnings of a crisis in civilian-military relations should he become commander in chief and begin bypassing generals and admirals now serving under President Barack Obama.

"It would be unprecedented," said Mackubin Thomas Owens, a retired Marine colonel and former instructor at the Naval War College. "This would be making the military into a partisan prize. The idea you are going to come in and fire all the generals and admirals would be nearly impossible for a variety of reasons, but would also be stupid." ... Read more

TYT | Media Turns On Matt Lauer After Trump Interview (09/08/16) [6:17]

Former intelligence officers alarmed by Trump's briefing readout
Politico | Sarah Wheaton | 09/08/16

Donald Trump's decision to offer up a politicized readout of his confidential national security briefings has set off alarm bells in the intelligence community, with some high-profile former officials warning the Republican nominee crossed a "red line."

During the NBC's Commander-in-Chief forum on Wednesday night, Trump said "there was one thing that shocked me" from the briefings he received, going on to say that he could tell that government officials were unhappy with President Barack Obama for not following expert advice. ... Read more

Clinton And Trump Are The Byproduct Of Crony Capitalism Run Amok
HP | Senior writer, BillMoyers.com | 09/09/16

Greasing The Outstretched Palms Of The Candidates

The recipe could not be simpler. Mix cynicism with greed, quickly stir and voila! American politics and government served up on a platter to the highest bidder.

Call it low cuisine. And it doesn't get any lower than what we've seen during this wretched campaign season -- a presidential contest that, as one friend in Washington recently said, pits "the unethical versus the unhinged." ... Read more

Public Citizen (citizen.org/tradewatch) website

13 Academics Who Have Become Shills for Corporate Giants in the Food, Agrochemical and Fossil Fuel Industries
AlterNet | Lorraine Chow | 09/08/16

Mounting evidence reveals that corporations are buying science and support from university professors.

There's nothing new or unusual about corporate and academic collaboration. IBM, for instance, has partnered with universities around the country since the 1940s to support computer science education. This relationship is mutually beneficial both for the tech giant and the institutions sponsored. IBM's grant dollars provide welcome funding for research and equipment for students, all while fostering a new class of computer scientists and engineers.

University-business partnerships, however, require a careful balance. Take the tobacco industry. According to a 2012 study by Harvard professor Allan Brandt, cigarette makers all but invented the concept of industry-academic conflicts of interest. ... Read more

NBC Commander-In-Chief Forum: Donald Trump VS Hillary Clinton (full) (09/07/16) [53:21]

TYT | NBC Presidential Forum: The Young Turks Summary (09/07/16) [6:17]

TYT | NBC Presidential Forum: The Young Turks Biggest Winner (09/07/16) [13:12]

Fact-checking the NBC 'commander-in-chief' forum
politifact.com | Linda Qui | 09/07/16

Clinton defended her handling of highly sensitive information as secretary of state, claiming that none of the emails sent and received on her private server had a header marking them as classified. She acknowledged her use of the server as well as her support for invading Iraq were "mistakes."

"Now, my opponent was for the war in Iraq. He says he wasn't. You can go back and look at the record. He supported it," Clinton added. "I have taken responsibility for my decision. He refuses to take responsibility for his support. That is a judgment issue." ... Read more

Matt Lauer Failed The Moderator Test
HP | Michael Calderone | 09/07/16

Wednesday night's "Commander-in-Chief Forum" on NBC should have gone down as the first time the two 2016 presidential candidate shared a stage. But it will be remembered largely for the shortcomings of the man who was tasked with moderating.

Matt Lauer, the "Today" show host, flunked in primetime. And his failure was even more remarkable because he had the very information he needed to succeed.

During the first half of an hourlong event, Hillary Clinton pointed out to Lauer that Republican nominee Donald Trump had expressed support for the Iraq War prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion, even though he's falsely claimed throughout his entire candidacy to have been staunchly opposed to it. Read more

The Shell Game Behind a $43 Billion Market
Bloomberg | Carolina Wilson | 09/08/16

It's the hot new address for an old Wall Street machine: 1209 North Orange Street. There, in Wilmington, Delaware, several giants of American finance have established powerful outposts. Inside 1209 North Orange are little more than drop boxes. But the likes of Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have all gone there lately for the same reason: to work around guidelines involving byzantine investments known as structured notes.

And so it is that in this lucrative -- and sometimes controversial -- corner of Wall Street, banks and regulators have together embraced something of a charade. ... Read more

"It's Bordering Chaos": $14 Billion In Cargo Stranded At Sea, Crews "Go Crazy" On Hanjin Ghost Ships
ZeroHedge | author | 09/08/16

The fallout from last week's historic bankruptcy of one of the world's biggest shipping lines, Hanjin Shipping, has found little resolution with as much as $14 billion worth of cargo stranded at sea: conditions are "bordering chaos," said the CEO of SeaIntelligence Consulting in Copenhagen, while the Hanjing shipping labor union added that "our ships can become ghost ships." ... Read more

Thanks To Fracking, Earthquake Hazards In Parts Of Oklahoma Now Comparable To California
Forbes | James Conca | 09/07/16

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook Oklahoma on Saturday, tied for the strongest quake ever recorded in the state. Odds are it was triggered by fracking operations, specifically the subsurface injection of fracking wastewater.

There is a direct connection between fracking and earthquakes in the central and eastern United States (Figure 1). But the earthquakes are not a result of fracking itself. They mostly result from the injection of fracking wastewater at depths well-below the fracking horizon. The larger the volumes of wastewater injected into the subsurface, the larger the earthquakes can be.

The United States Geological Survey just produced a seismic hazard forecast for 2016 for the central and eastern United States that includes both induced and natural earthquakes. While almost all of the fracking-induced or triggered earthquakes are small -- less than magnitude 3, which can’t be felt by most people -- enough are above 3 that the USGS predicted a 5% to 17% chance of significant damage to homes and structures in just the year 2016 for areas of north-central Oklahoma and southern Kansas where fracking occurs.... Read more

TYT | Obama Moves To Solve Ugly Vietnam War Legacy (09/06/16) [5:15]

NOAA Removes Most Humpback Whales From Endangered Species List
HP | Carla Herreria | 09/07/16

Humpback whales have made an epic return after being hunted to the brink of extinction in several areas.

Most of world’s humpback populations have finally been removed from the endangered species list, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday.

NOAA Fisheries said of the 14 different population segments, nine have returned to healthy numbers. These include whales that breed in Hawaiian waters and whose population numbers have expanded to some 11,000 individuals, the agency said. ... Read more

Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security by Todd Miller

"In his scathing and deeply reported examination of the U.S. Border Patrol, Todd Miller argues that the agency has gone rogue since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, trampling on the dignity and rights of the undocumented with military-style tactics. . . . Miller's book arrives at a moment when it appears that part of the Homeland Security apparatus is backpedaling by promising to tone down its tactics, maybe prodded by investigative journalism, maybe by the revelations of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. . . . Border Patrol is quite possibly the right book at the right time . . . "--Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

“At the start of his unsettling and important new book, Border Patrol Nation, Miller observes that these days 'it is common to see the Border Patrol in places--such as Erie, Pennsylvania; Rochester, New York; or Forks, Washington--where only fifteen years ago it would have seemed far-fetched, if not unfathomable.'”--Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor

"Miller’s approach in Border Patrol Nation is to offer a glimpse into the secretive operations of the Border Patrol, reporting with a journalist’s objectivity and nose for a good story. Miller’s book is full of facts, and it’s clear he’s outraged, but he gives voices to people on every side of the issue. . . . Miller’s book is a fascinating read.. . . and bring the work of Susan Orlean to mind."--Amanda Eyre Ward Kirkus Reviews

"Todd Miller's invaluable and gripping book, Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security is the story of how this country’s borders are being transformed into up-armored, heavily militarized zones run by a border-industrial complex. It's an achievement and an eye opener."--Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch

"What Jeremy Scahill was to Blackwater, Todd Miller is to the U.S. Border Patrol!"--Tom Miller, author, On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier

"Todd Miller has entered a secret world, and he has gone deep. . . . Powerful."--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway: A True Story

"Journalist Miller tells an alarming story of U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security's ever-widening reach into the lives of American citizens and legal immigrants as well as the undocumented. In addition to readers interested in immigration issues, those concerned about the NSA’s privacy violations will likely be even more shocked by the actions of Homeland Security."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Armed authorities watch from a military-grade surveillance tower as lines of people stream toward the security checkpoint, tickets in hand, anxious and excited to get through the gate. Few seem to notice or care that the US Border Patrol is monitoring the Super Bowl, as they have for years, one of the many ways that forces created to police the borders are now being used, in an increasingly militarized fashion, to survey and monitor the whole of American society.

In fast-paced prose, Todd Miller sounds an alarm as he chronicles the changing landscape. Traveling the country—and beyond—to speak with the people most involved with and impacted by the Border Patrol, he combines these first-hand encounters with careful research to expose a vast and booming industry for high-end technology, weapons, surveillance, and prisons. While politicians and corporations reap substantial profits, the experiences of millions of men, women, and children point to staggering humanitarian consequences. Border Patrol Nation shows us in stark relief how the entire country has become a militarized border zone, with consequences that affect us all.

Assange: New Clinton Revelations Coming As Soon As Next Week, Says Clinton Knew Meaning Of "C"
ZeroHedge | author |09/07/16

In an interview on Fox News show Hannity, Wikileaks' Julian Assange finally gave a more definitive timeline to long awaited further "significant" information they will be releasing on Hillary Clinton before the November election. The information will be released in "batches," and Assange says he is "confident" that the first batch will be released reasonably soon, perhaps as early as next week. ... Read more

Art Of The Steal - Trump Living Large On Donors' Dime
HP | S.V. Date | 09/06/16

The GOP nominee's campaign is spending lavishly on Trump businesses instead of cheaper alternatives.

On the night of this spring's Florida primary, the pastor giving the invocation at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago victory party prayed: "Lord, give Mr. Trump the power to rise above the GOP establishment." Turns out the prayer worked. Not only did Trump win the Republican presidential nomination, but two months later, on May 18, Trump signed a deal with the Republican National Committee giving him access to a top-notch fundraising operation after not having had one at all through the primaries. .. Read more

The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy by Michael E. Mann

The award winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize--winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have fought at the frontlines of climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of millions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars.

Through satire, The Madhouse Effect portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that man-made activity has changed our climate. Toles's cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two commonsense crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books -- and may even convert a few of the faithful to the right side of science.

Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System by Ian Angus

Science tells us that a new and dangerous stage in planetary evolution has begun--the Anthropocene, a time of rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising oceans, and mass species extinctions. Humanity faces not just more pollution or warmer weather, but a crisis of the Earth System. If business as usual continues, this century will be marked by rapid deterioration of our physical, social, and economic environment. Large parts of Earth will become uninhabitable, and civilization itself will be threatened. Facing the Anthropocene shows what has caused this planetary emergency, and what we must do to meet the challenge.

Bridging the gap between Earth System science and ecological Marxism, Ian Angus examines not only the latest scientific findings about the physical causes and consequences of the Anthropocene transition, but also the social and economic trends that underlie the crisis. Cogent and compellingly written, Facing the Anthropocene offers a unique synthesis of natural and social science that illustrates how capitalism's inexorable drive for growth, powered by the rapid burning of fossil fuels that took millions of years to form, has driven our world to the brink of disaster. Survival in the Anthropocene, Angus argues, requires radical social change, replacing fossil capitalism with a new, ecosocialist civilization.

Anthropocene or Capitalocene?: Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism by Elmar Altvater

The Earth has reached a tipping point. Runaway climate change, the sixth great extinction of planetary life, the acidification of the oceans -- all point toward an era of unprecedented turbulence in humanity's relationship within the web of life. But just what is that relationship, and how do we make sense of this extraordinary transition? Anthropocene or Capitalocene? offers answers to these questions from a dynamic group of leading critical scholars who challenge the conventional practice of dividing historical change and contemporary reality into "Nature" and "Society," demonstrating the possibilities offered by a more nuanced and connective view of human environment-making, joined at every step with and within the biosphere. In distinct registers, the authors frame their discussions within a politics of hope that signal the possibilities for transcending capitalism, broadly understood as a "world-ecology" that joins nature, capital, and power as a historically evolving whole.

EpiPen Price Hike Can Only Happen in a Hijacked Democracy
AlterNet | Michael Winship | 09/06/16

Cash and carry has become nothing more than standard operating procedure in politics and government, and it's wrecking the republic. The whole system is rotten to the core, corrupted by big business and special interests.

Or daughter, as we learned these past few days when the news introduced us to Heather Bresch, CEO of a drug company called Mylan and daughter of Democratic US Sen. Joe Manchin III, who's also the former governor of West Virginia. ... Read more

FX Trading By Hedge Funds And Prop Traders Tumbles 30% Over Past Three Years
ZeroHedge | author | 09/06/16

What was most striking in the latest Triennial BIS survey, was the shrinkage in FX trading by hedge funds and proprietary trading firms which fell by more than 30% over the past three years. The shrinkage in the share of FX trading by these investors is likely the result of regulatory pressures and FX rigging investigations which caused significant retrenchment by FX prop desks. ... Read more

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto And Donald Trump Are Now In A Twitter Fight
HP | Elise Foley | 09/01/16

So did you guys discuss who's paying for the wall or not?

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took to Twitter Thursday afternoon to once again insist that his country won't pay for a border wall, no matter how many times GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump promises it will. "I repeat what I told him in person: Mr. Trump, Mexico will never pay for the wall," he wrote in Spanish. ... Read more

BB | Watch Donald Trump's Immigration Policy Speech in Phoenix (08/31/16) [1:14:04]

TYT | Racist Right Rallies Around Trump (09/01/16) [5:57]

Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection by Medea Benjamin (09/13/16)

The diminutive co-founder of Code Pink has become famous for fearlessly tackling head-on subjects the left and right studiously avoid. Sometimes, she does so in person--as at President Obama's speech at the National Defense College, or in Egypt, where she was assaulted by police. Here, she's researching the sinister nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

In seven succinct chapters followed by a meditation on prospects for change, Benjamin--cited by the L.A. Times as "one of the high profile members of the peace movement"--shines a light on one of the weirder, and most important, elements of our foreign policy. What is the origin of this strange alliance between two countries that have very little in common? Why does it persist, and what are its consequences? Why, over a period of decades and across various presidential administrations, has the United States consistently supported a regime shown time and again to be one of the most powerful forces working against American interests? Saudi Arabia is perhaps the single most important source of funds for terrorists worldwide, promoting an extreme interpretation of Islam along with anti-Western sentiment, while brutally repressing non-violent dissidents at home.

Mylan Didn't Lower EpiPen Prices After All; They Just Appeared To
AlterNet | Gaius Publius | 09/01/16

Just another Big Pharma scam

These days have seen a number of stories about the Mylan EpiPen scandal, the essence of which is captured in the graphic at the top (note, though, that the graphic understates the EpiPen price; it's now around $640). Heather Bresch, Mylan's CEO, decided to increase corporate profit by increasing the price of a mature product, EpiPen, a device that delivers life-saving epinephrine to people who suffer life-threatening anaphylactic shock from allergic exposure to, for example, bee stings and peanuts. In the view of most observers, she did it simply because she could.

There's no economic reason for the price increases, any of them. Epinephrine (basically adrenalin) is not proprietary. As Dr. Lee Rogers notes in the first link below, "As a hormone, it's a product of nature and cannot be patented." And the delivery mechanism (the "pen") has been around since 1977. All of the R&D is done, and the medicine is cheap. All told, each EpiPen contains just one dollar worth of medicine. (And it seems the original EpiPen was at least partly developed with taxpayer money.) ... Read more

Donald Trump Just Cranked Up The Volume On Immigration
HP | Elise Foley | 09/01/16

Anyone hoping for a kinder, gentler GOP nominee can forget it. He's getting worse.

The Republican presidential nominee firmly shot down speculation on Wednesday that he may be open to legal status for undocumented immigrants, vowing that "no one will be immune or exempt from enforcement."

"Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation," Trump said during what he billed as a major policy speech in Phoenix. "That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don't have a country." ... Read more

Immigration in the United States: New Economic, Social, Political Landscapes with Legislative Reform on the Horizon
Faye Hipsman Migration Policy Institute | older 2013

... In the 1970s and 1980s, refugee and humanitarian emergencies led to annual admissions of more than 200,000 during some years. During the last decade and half, and especially since 9/11, both the size of the refugee program and annual asylum grants have decreased (see Figure 3). FY 2011 saw 56,384 refugee arrivals, down from 73,293 in FY 2010. Burma (16,972) Iraq (9,388) Bhutan (14,999), Somalia (3,161), and Cuba (2,920) were the top five refugee-sending countries of FY 2011. That year, 24,988 individuals were granted asylum (defensive and affirmative), a slight uptick from FY 2010 after about ten years of steady decline. There is no cap on asylum approvals.

Noncitizens who enter the United States for tourism, work, or study reasons are admitted with a temporary nonimmigrant status. There are over 70 categories of visas for nonimmigrants, including tourists, business visitors, foreign students, H-1B workers, religious workers, intracompany transferees, diplomats, and representatives of international organizations. Nonimmigrant visas typically have strict terms and conditions, and allow for periods of stay ranging from a few weeks or months to six or more years. A small number of nonimmigrant visas allow for eventual permanent residency.

In 2011, 7.5 million nonimmigrant visas were granted. Temporary tourism and business visitors represent the vast majority of nonimmigrant visa holders. Nonimmigrant visas issued to foreign students have increased significantly during the last decade. The 447,410 student visas issued in 2011 is more than 50 percent greater than the number issued in 2001. Much of this growth has been driven by the exponential rise in students from China, who now represent 35 percent of all foreign students. South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and India also send students to the United States in high numbers. ... Read more

Trump's Revolting All-Out Attack on Immigrants Bears the Fingerprints of New Adviser Roger Ailes
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan | 08/31/16

In a speech designed to smear undocumented immigrants, Trump looked to the GOP's winning 1988 strategy.

... In the late summer of 2016, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump was down in the polls, compared with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. So the Trump campaign came up with what its operatives hope will be a winning theme: tying the former secretary of state to crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. In a speech delivered to an Arizona rally of mostly white cheering Trump supporters, the GOP standard bearer repeatedly referred to American citizens who had lost their lives at the hands of undocumented criminals, and then brought to the stage the loved ones of some who had been killed. After each of the family members -- mostly mothers -- of the deceased testified for Trump, he kissed her and brought the next one to the podium. ... Read more

Hillary Clinton Disliked By A Record Number Of Americans, Survey Finds
HP | Matt Ferner | 08/31/16

While bombastic Republican nominee Donald Trump remains the most unpopular major-party presidential nominee in modern U.S. history, Hillary Clinton is not faring much better ? a new poll found that she is currently the most disliked she has ever been in 25 years of public life.

Just 41 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic presidential nominee, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday. It also found that 56 percent have an unfavorable view of her, a record high for the poll. ... Read more