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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
June 22, 2013
Published on Jun 20, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the recent visitation to the Keiser Report from a UFO with aliens on board wishing not to speak to Doughball Dave Cameron, but to discuss their concerns about the Giant Debt Ball of China which can be seen from outer space. They take an in depth look at the size, scale and speed of debt in China and at the JP Morgan Debit Card Work Farm for employees at McDonald's in Pennsylvannia. In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics, about George Osborne's ponzi-like Help to Buy scheme being similar to failed government housing schemes in Australia in which Help to Sell is the true objective of the subsidies.
Keiser Report: Size, Scale & Speed of Debt
Published on Jun 20, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the recent visitation to the Keiser Report from a UFO with aliens on board wishing not to speak to Doughball Dave Cameron, but to discuss their concerns about the Giant Debt Ball of China which can be seen from outer space. They take an in depth look at the size, scale and speed of debt in China and at the JP Morgan Debit Card Work Farm for employees at McDonald's in Pennsylvannia. In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics, about George Osborne's ponzi-like Help to Buy scheme being similar to failed government housing schemes in Australia in which Help to Sell is the true objective of the subsidies.
June 22, 2013
Revealed: The Story Behind the "NATO 3" Domestic Terrorism Arrests
Friday, 21 June 2013 00:00
By Matt Stroud and Steve Horn, Truthout | Report
When local and federal police conducted a no-knock, midnight search warrant raid in May 2012 at an apartment in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, it looked at first like a failed mission.
Yes, police seized a group of 11 political activists in Chicago to protest an international summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But most of the arrestees were released without charge, and rumors soon began to swirl.
Police chained protesters to benches for 18 hours, one television station reported. Chicago Police Department (CPD) sources told Truthout the raid would unearth Molotov cocktails - homemade firebombs made of breakable glass bottles and gasoline. But they found beer brewing equipment instead.
"If anybody would like some," one Bridgeport tenant told Truthout, "I would like to offer them a sip of my beer."
Then things turned. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17107-revealed-the-story-behind-the-nato-3-domestic-terrorism-arrests
Revealed: The Story Behind the "NATO 3" Domestic Terrorism Arrests
Revealed: The Story Behind the "NATO 3" Domestic Terrorism Arrests
Friday, 21 June 2013 00:00
By Matt Stroud and Steve Horn, Truthout | Report
Accused of domestic terrorism in the course of the Chicago NATO summit, Brian Church, Brent Betterly and Jared Chase were arguably victims of police entrapment and the use of "Red Squad" tactics the Chicago police were formerly enjoined from employing.
When local and federal police conducted a no-knock, midnight search warrant raid in May 2012 at an apartment in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, it looked at first like a failed mission.
Yes, police seized a group of 11 political activists in Chicago to protest an international summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But most of the arrestees were released without charge, and rumors soon began to swirl.
Police chained protesters to benches for 18 hours, one television station reported. Chicago Police Department (CPD) sources told Truthout the raid would unearth Molotov cocktails - homemade firebombs made of breakable glass bottles and gasoline. But they found beer brewing equipment instead.
"If anybody would like some," one Bridgeport tenant told Truthout, "I would like to offer them a sip of my beer."
Then things turned. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17107-revealed-the-story-behind-the-nato-3-domestic-terrorism-arrests
June 22, 2013
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_other_white_meat_20130621/
The Other White Meat (cartoon)
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_other_white_meat_20130621/
June 21, 2013
from the Working Life blog:
Rise of Another Corporate Mouthpiece to Destroy The Middle Class
Posted on 19 June 2013.
Yet another installment in the decades-long white flag of surrender to the corporate elite took place in a relatively unnoticed vote — what, with the more important, front-page, relentless coverage of the passing of what’s-his-name Gandolfini. The country has a new trade representative…well, that’s not really accurate — Citibank has a new trade representative.
By a vote of 93-4, the Senate confirmed Michael Froman as the US trade representative. All you need to know about Froman is this:
So, first, the overwhelming vote shows that no one stops to think for a moment whether having an alum of Citibank — and the mentality he would bring — representing the country’s trade interests makes sense. Because they don’t care — not in the Administration, nor apparently in the Senate. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/2013/06/19/rise-of-another-corporate-mouthpiece-to-destroy-the-middle-class/#sthash.7XQ8hWq2.dpuf
Rise of Another Corporate Mouthpiece to Destroy The Middle Class
from the Working Life blog:
Rise of Another Corporate Mouthpiece to Destroy The Middle Class
Posted on 19 June 2013.
Yet another installment in the decades-long white flag of surrender to the corporate elite took place in a relatively unnoticed vote — what, with the more important, front-page, relentless coverage of the passing of what’s-his-name Gandolfini. The country has a new trade representative…well, that’s not really accurate — Citibank has a new trade representative.
By a vote of 93-4, the Senate confirmed Michael Froman as the US trade representative. All you need to know about Froman is this:
Mr. Froman worked as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s chief of staff during the Clinton administration,
He was a managing partner at Citigroup and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations before joining the Obama administration.
So, first, the overwhelming vote shows that no one stops to think for a moment whether having an alum of Citibank — and the mentality he would bring — representing the country’s trade interests makes sense. Because they don’t care — not in the Administration, nor apparently in the Senate. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/2013/06/19/rise-of-another-corporate-mouthpiece-to-destroy-the-middle-class/#sthash.7XQ8hWq2.dpuf
June 21, 2013
from the Montreal Gazette:
MONTREAL — A new poll shows the federal Liberals continue to pound the Conservatives, with Canadians saying for the first time leader Justin Trudeau would make a better prime minister then Stephen Harper.
According to a new Léger Marketing poll, 27 per cent of Canadians now think Trudeau would be a better prime minister than Harper, who has a score of 23 per cent.
New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair is seen as the best prime minister by 14 per cent.
It’s the first time Léger has reached such a polling conclusion since Trudeau took over the party April 14, said Léger vice-president Christian Bourque. ....................(more)
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Canadians+jump+Trudeau+bandwagon+poll+shows/8556218/story.html#ixzz2Wrsdyfzj
Canadians jump on Trudeau bandwagon, poll shows
from the Montreal Gazette:
MONTREAL — A new poll shows the federal Liberals continue to pound the Conservatives, with Canadians saying for the first time leader Justin Trudeau would make a better prime minister then Stephen Harper.
According to a new Léger Marketing poll, 27 per cent of Canadians now think Trudeau would be a better prime minister than Harper, who has a score of 23 per cent.
New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair is seen as the best prime minister by 14 per cent.
It’s the first time Léger has reached such a polling conclusion since Trudeau took over the party April 14, said Léger vice-president Christian Bourque. ....................(more)
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Canadians+jump+Trudeau+bandwagon+poll+shows/8556218/story.html#ixzz2Wrsdyfzj
June 21, 2013
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's War on Teachers and Children
Thursday, 20 June 2013 14:37
By David Bacon, Truthout | Report
On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers. The layoffs will hit hardest at those teachers working in African-American and Latino communities. These are the communities that were targeted in the system's recent decision to close 49 schools - the largest single school closure in US history.
Many view the layoffs and closures as payback by Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a bitter but successful nine-day strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) last September. But it is also a blow not just to the public school system but to the city's schoolchildren themselves.
The district is implementing massive budget cuts rather than look for the funding schools and children need. The union has proposed "redirecting tax increment financing (TIF) surpluses back to public schools, ending tax loopholes or raising a new tax levy for pensions that would stabilize the CPS budget."
Instead, at Kennedy High School, for instance, a reduction from $15 to $13 million will cause the elimination of four of its five counselors, the school librarian, a clerk and special education personnel. Blair Elementary, which focuses on special education, is getting a 75 percent budget cut and will lose seven special ed teachers, one general education instructor, and up to eight paraprofessionals. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17091-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuels-war-on-teachers-and-children
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's War on Teachers and Children
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's War on Teachers and Children
Thursday, 20 June 2013 14:37
By David Bacon, Truthout | Report
On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers. The layoffs will hit hardest at those teachers working in African-American and Latino communities. These are the communities that were targeted in the system's recent decision to close 49 schools - the largest single school closure in US history.
Many view the layoffs and closures as payback by Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a bitter but successful nine-day strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) last September. But it is also a blow not just to the public school system but to the city's schoolchildren themselves.
The district is implementing massive budget cuts rather than look for the funding schools and children need. The union has proposed "redirecting tax increment financing (TIF) surpluses back to public schools, ending tax loopholes or raising a new tax levy for pensions that would stabilize the CPS budget."
Instead, at Kennedy High School, for instance, a reduction from $15 to $13 million will cause the elimination of four of its five counselors, the school librarian, a clerk and special education personnel. Blair Elementary, which focuses on special education, is getting a 75 percent budget cut and will lose seven special ed teachers, one general education instructor, and up to eight paraprofessionals. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17091-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuels-war-on-teachers-and-children
June 21, 2013
Indefinite Surveillance: Say Hello to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014
Tuesday, 18 June 2013 19:42
By Stephen Benavides, Truthout | News Analysis
Passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) set the groundwork for surveillance, collection, and analysis of intelligence gathered from foreign powers and agents of foreign powers, up to and including any individual residing within the U.S., who were suspected of involvement in potential terrorist activity. On October 26, 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into law. Two provisions, Sec. 206, permitting government to obtain secret court orders allowing roving wiretaps without requiring identification of the person, organization, or facility to be surveyed, and Sec. 215 authorizing government to access and obtain “any tangible thing” relevant to a terrorist investigation, transformed foreign intelligence into domestic intelligence.
NDAA 2014 builds on the powers granted by both the Patriot Act and FISA by allowing unrestricted analysis and research of captured records pertaining to any organization or individual “now or once hostile to the United States”. Under the Patriot Act, the ability to obtain “any tangible thing” eliminated any expectation of privacy. Under NDAA 2014 Sec. 1061(g)(1), an overly vague definition of captured records enhances government power and guarantees indefinite surveillance.
On May 22, 2013 the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, one of several Armed Services Committees, met to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. The main subject of the hearing was Sec. 1061, otherwise known as Enhancement of Capacity of the United States Government to Analyze Captured Records. This enhancement provision of NDAA 2014 would effectively create a new intelligence agency, one with the authority to analyze information gained under the Patriot Act, FISA, and known spying programs such as PRISM.
Sec. 1061(a) authorizes the Secretary of Defense to "establish a center to be known as the 'Conflict Records Research Center'" (Center). The main purpose of the center, according to the bill text, is to create a "digital research database," one with the capability to "translate" and facilitate research on "records captured from countries, organizations and individuals, now or once hostile to the United States." The authorization also says the Center will conduct research and analysis to "increase the understanding of factors related to international relations, counterterrorism and conventional and unconventional warfare, and ultimately, enhance national security." .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17070-indefinite-surveillance-say-hello-to-the-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2014
Indefinite Surveillance: Say Hello to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014
Indefinite Surveillance: Say Hello to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014
Tuesday, 18 June 2013 19:42
By Stephen Benavides, Truthout | News Analysis
Passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) set the groundwork for surveillance, collection, and analysis of intelligence gathered from foreign powers and agents of foreign powers, up to and including any individual residing within the U.S., who were suspected of involvement in potential terrorist activity. On October 26, 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into law. Two provisions, Sec. 206, permitting government to obtain secret court orders allowing roving wiretaps without requiring identification of the person, organization, or facility to be surveyed, and Sec. 215 authorizing government to access and obtain “any tangible thing” relevant to a terrorist investigation, transformed foreign intelligence into domestic intelligence.
NDAA 2014 builds on the powers granted by both the Patriot Act and FISA by allowing unrestricted analysis and research of captured records pertaining to any organization or individual “now or once hostile to the United States”. Under the Patriot Act, the ability to obtain “any tangible thing” eliminated any expectation of privacy. Under NDAA 2014 Sec. 1061(g)(1), an overly vague definition of captured records enhances government power and guarantees indefinite surveillance.
On May 22, 2013 the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, one of several Armed Services Committees, met to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. The main subject of the hearing was Sec. 1061, otherwise known as Enhancement of Capacity of the United States Government to Analyze Captured Records. This enhancement provision of NDAA 2014 would effectively create a new intelligence agency, one with the authority to analyze information gained under the Patriot Act, FISA, and known spying programs such as PRISM.
Sec. 1061(a) authorizes the Secretary of Defense to "establish a center to be known as the 'Conflict Records Research Center'" (Center). The main purpose of the center, according to the bill text, is to create a "digital research database," one with the capability to "translate" and facilitate research on "records captured from countries, organizations and individuals, now or once hostile to the United States." The authorization also says the Center will conduct research and analysis to "increase the understanding of factors related to international relations, counterterrorism and conventional and unconventional warfare, and ultimately, enhance national security." .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17070-indefinite-surveillance-say-hello-to-the-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2014
June 21, 2013
When There’s a Fee to Get Your Pay
from In These Times:
When There’s a Fee to Get Your Pay
By Sarah Jaffe
In the years since the financial crisis struck in 2008, it’s often been pointed out that gains for bankers have gone hand in hand with losses for workers. But few cases provide a better example of just how direct that relationship can be than that of Natalie Gunshannon, who says her employer put her in a situation that forced her to pay fees to one of the big banks just to access her wages.
Gunshannon, of Dallas Township, Penn., filed a class action lawsuit this week against a McDonald’s franchise where she worked, claiming that she and other workers were paid not through check or direct deposit, but through a pre-paid JPMorgan Chase debit card. Along with her card, her lawsuit alleges, she received a list of fees she’d incur when she used it: $1.50 for ATM withdrawals; $5 for over-the-counter cash withdrawals; $1 per balance inquiry; 75 cents for online bill pay and $15 if she lost the card or had it stolen from her.
“I need to receive all the money I earn,” Gunshannon, who was being paid around $7.44 an hour, told a local newspaper. “I can’t afford to lose even a few dollars per paycheck. I just think people should be paid fairly and not have to pay fees to get their wages.”
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Mike Cefalo of Cefalo & Associates and provided to In These Times by the firm, alleges that the cards violate the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Act, which provides that “Wages shall be paid in lawful money of the United States or check.” The suit further alleges that the fees reduce the actual wages workers receive—in some cases bringing them below minimum wage, which in Pennsylvania remains at the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15178/mcdonalds_franchise_sued_over_payroll_debit_cards/
June 21, 2013
from truthdig:
Up to Their Eyeballs
Posted on Jun 20, 2013
By Bill Boyarsky
One of the most disturbing aspects of the National Security Agency surveillance scandal is the way government has reportedly worked with private companies such as Yahoo, Facebook and Google. Those companies have disputed allowing the government direct access to their servers, as was originally reported by The Washington Post and The Guardian. The technology firms, Google foremost among them, have even pressed the government to be more transparent. However it was with their help that the NSA has devised a system to sort the massive amounts of data swept up by its snooping.
The system, called Hadoop, was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal and in depth last week by Salon. It is a way of storing, processing, classifying and analyzing billions of phone numbers, emails, texts, addresses, motor vehicle registrations, births, deaths, purchases and all of the other data we generate in our daily lives, speeding the information into the computers of such enterprises as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, as well as into the NSA database. The question to be answered is just what is being done with the data.
“Hadoop’s importance to how we live our lives today is hard to overstate,” Andrew Leonard wrote in Salon on Friday. “By making it economically feasible to extract meaning from the massive streams of data that increasingly define our online existence, Hadoop effectively enabled the surveillance state. And not just in the narrowest, Big Brother, government-is-watching-everyone-all-the-time sense of that term. Hadoop is equally critical to private sector corporate surveillance. Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon, Netflix—just about every big player that gathers the trillions of data ‘events’ generated by our everyday online actions employs Hadoop as a part of their arsenal of Big Data-crunching tools. Hadoop is everywhere—as one programmer told me, ‘it’s taken over the world.’ ”
I was introduced to Big Data during the last presidential campaign by Sasha Issenberg’s articles in Slate and in his book “The Victory Lab.” Issenberg wrote how a new generation of political campaigners was analyzing all this information to target voters, direct specific messages at them and make sure they got to the polls on Election Day. The process helped President Obama win re-election. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/up_to_their_eyeballs_20130620/
Up to Their Eyeballs
from truthdig:
Up to Their Eyeballs
Posted on Jun 20, 2013
By Bill Boyarsky
One of the most disturbing aspects of the National Security Agency surveillance scandal is the way government has reportedly worked with private companies such as Yahoo, Facebook and Google. Those companies have disputed allowing the government direct access to their servers, as was originally reported by The Washington Post and The Guardian. The technology firms, Google foremost among them, have even pressed the government to be more transparent. However it was with their help that the NSA has devised a system to sort the massive amounts of data swept up by its snooping.
The system, called Hadoop, was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal and in depth last week by Salon. It is a way of storing, processing, classifying and analyzing billions of phone numbers, emails, texts, addresses, motor vehicle registrations, births, deaths, purchases and all of the other data we generate in our daily lives, speeding the information into the computers of such enterprises as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, as well as into the NSA database. The question to be answered is just what is being done with the data.
“Hadoop’s importance to how we live our lives today is hard to overstate,” Andrew Leonard wrote in Salon on Friday. “By making it economically feasible to extract meaning from the massive streams of data that increasingly define our online existence, Hadoop effectively enabled the surveillance state. And not just in the narrowest, Big Brother, government-is-watching-everyone-all-the-time sense of that term. Hadoop is equally critical to private sector corporate surveillance. Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon, Netflix—just about every big player that gathers the trillions of data ‘events’ generated by our everyday online actions employs Hadoop as a part of their arsenal of Big Data-crunching tools. Hadoop is everywhere—as one programmer told me, ‘it’s taken over the world.’ ”
I was introduced to Big Data during the last presidential campaign by Sasha Issenberg’s articles in Slate and in his book “The Victory Lab.” Issenberg wrote how a new generation of political campaigners was analyzing all this information to target voters, direct specific messages at them and make sure they got to the polls on Election Day. The process helped President Obama win re-election. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/up_to_their_eyeballs_20130620/
June 20, 2013
from truthdig:
Is the Sky Falling?
Posted on Jun 20, 2013
By Richard Reeves
LOS ANGELES—If you walk into a Barnes & Noble store—yes, there are actual bookstores here—you are more or less surrounded by tables and shelves marked “Beach Reading.” But if you’re not going to the beach anytime soon, there are three very good books farther in the back. The titles are enough to make your head hurt:
—“The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America” by George Packer.
—“The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die” by Niall Ferguson.
—“The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be” by Moises Naim.
Heavy stuff. Three heavyweight writers concluding that America is in slow and inevitable decline. Or, at least they explain why someone like Edward Snowden can have more power than the director of the Central Intelligence Agency or the president of Brazil, or why a 12-year-old named James Black Jr. from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn can defeat many of the best chess players in the world. And no, it isn’t just the Internet. Technology is just a tool to these guys, and they see deep and powerful tides changing people and, therefore, changing the world. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_the_sky_falling_20130620/
Is the Sky Falling?
from truthdig:
Is the Sky Falling?
Posted on Jun 20, 2013
By Richard Reeves
LOS ANGELES—If you walk into a Barnes & Noble store—yes, there are actual bookstores here—you are more or less surrounded by tables and shelves marked “Beach Reading.” But if you’re not going to the beach anytime soon, there are three very good books farther in the back. The titles are enough to make your head hurt:
—“The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America” by George Packer.
—“The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die” by Niall Ferguson.
—“The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be” by Moises Naim.
Heavy stuff. Three heavyweight writers concluding that America is in slow and inevitable decline. Or, at least they explain why someone like Edward Snowden can have more power than the director of the Central Intelligence Agency or the president of Brazil, or why a 12-year-old named James Black Jr. from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn can defeat many of the best chess players in the world. And no, it isn’t just the Internet. Technology is just a tool to these guys, and they see deep and powerful tides changing people and, therefore, changing the world. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_the_sky_falling_20130620/
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