Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Twitter Man vs. Rocket Man
Politico | Susan B. Glasser | 09/18/17

What the heck is happening with North Korea? I asked two people who actually know, and they are as scared of Trump as of Kim Jong Un.

Back in July, President Donald Trump was already escalating his rhetoric against North Korea as it became clear the rogue state was on the brink of a major breakthrough in its nuclear program, development of a ballistic missile capable of striking the continental United States. Still, he insisted, “I don’t draw red lines,” and wouldn’t be sucked into doing so.

But that was before North Korea conducted its largest nuclear weapon test ever and sent missiles flying directly over Japan. And before Trump threatened “fire and fury” and declared a North Korean bomb capable of reaching the United States “unacceptable.” And before Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, his national security adviser, warned on Friday that, all talk to the contrary, “there is a military option.”

All of which means that, whether he calls it one or not, Trump now has a red line – a move that a number of U.S. national security hands I’ve spoken with recently consider to be a serious and even “self-inflicted” escalation of what has become a genuine crisis with North Korea. ... Read more

Wall Street’s Trillion-Dollar Monopoly Has Repo Traders on Edge
Bloomberg | Liz McCormick | 09/17/17

Come mid-2018, just one entity -- the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. -- will be responsible for ensuring almost two trillion dollars of securities financed by so-called repurchase agreements are cleared and settled each and every day. With its lone longtime rival, JPMorgan Chase & Co., exiting the business, BNY Mellon began the process of moving over clients this summer.

... It’s hard to overstate how important the repo market is to modern American finance. The short-term loans, which dealers usually get by putting up U.S. government debt as collateral, serve a crucial role in day-to-day trading on Wall Street. Not only do repos support liquidity in the $14.1 trillion Treasury market, but the financing they provide also helps grease the wheels of trading in assets as varied as stocks, corporate bonds and currencies. ... Read more

Trump Leaves CNN Panel Dumbfounded with a Tweet that Shows Him Hitting Hillary Clinton with a Golfball
AlterNet | David Edwards / Raw Story | 09/17/17

Pundits on CNN were caught speechless on Sunday after President Donald Trump retweeted a video of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golfball.

“The president of the United States retweeted that this morning,” CNN host John King noted. “Why?” “He’s a disrupter,” New York Times reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis explained. “He has these impulses, he enjoys engaging on social media. You hear him talking about that, that is so important to his identity. People want to hear from him.” ... Read more
John King: Trump tweet of him hitting Hillary with golfball is 'insane' | RawStory | 09/17/17 | 5:02

The Storm after the Storm
60Minutes | author | 09/03/16

FEMA administrator Brock Long has warned the recovery will be a "slow and frustrating process." Assessing the property loss and repairing or replacing homes and businesses will take years. And it will cost tens of billions of dollars in insurance settlements. The victims are relying on it.

But, as we first reported some two and a half years after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the East Coast, Sandy's victims were hit by another disaster -- we called it "the storm after the storm."

Many people said they were cheated out of their insurance claims. Thousands of claims remained unresolved for years, and there was evidence that many homeowners were victims of apparent wide-scale fraud -- where original damage reports were later changed to make it look like the damage wasn't as bad. ... Read more

As Hurricane Harvey survivors face a difficult future, 60 Minutes looks back at Hurricane Sandy and why so many families didn't get the help they deserve | 60Minutes | 09/03/17 | 13:23

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, September 18 [13:38]

The brilliant, infuriating, boring, hypnotic Ken Burns documentary The Vietnam War
Vox | Todd VanDerWerff | 09/08/17

... The Vietnam War, the filmmaker’s latest, which he co-directed with Lynn Novick, reflects the present in ways that can be uncomfortable. It’s about an unpopular president — actually, two unpopular presidents — who stews about unfair treatment from the press and protesters. It’s about a country that seems on the brink of fracturing over very different ideals of what that country should be. And it’s about the rise of a movement that believes “law and order” is more important than any other fundamental right. ... Read more
Episode 01 | Déjà Vu (1858-1961) - After a century of French occupation, Vietnam emerges independent but divided. | PBS | 09/18/17 | 1:25:46 |

New York Times Uncovers Russia's 21st Century Propaganda Machine | MSNBC Morning Joe | 09/18/17 | 7:58