October 12, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth Warren on Barack Obama: “They protected Wall Street......."

Source: Salon

That’s the question that lies at the heart of whether our democracy will survive. The system is rigged. And now that I’ve been in Washington and seen it up close and personal, I just see new ways in which that happens. But we have to stop and back up, and you have to kind of get the right diagnosis of the problem, to see how it is that—it goes well beyond campaign contributions. That’s a huge part of it. But it’s more than that. It’s the armies of lobbyists and lawyers who are always at the table, who are always there to make sure that in every decision that gets made, their clients’ tender fannies are well protected. And when that happens — not just once, not just twice, but thousands of times a week — the system just gradually tilts further and further. There is no one at the table…I shouldn’t say there’s no one. I don’t want to overstate. You don’t have to go into hyperbole. But there are very few people at the decision-making table to argue for minimum-wage workers. Very few people.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/12/exclusive_elizabeth_warren_on_barack_obama_they_protected_wall_street_not_families_who_were_losing_their_homes_not_people_who_lost_their_jobs_and_it_happened_over_and_over_and_over/

September 26, 2014

The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes

Source: Bloomberg

That may very well change today, for today -- Friday, Sept. 26 --- the radio program "This American Life" will air a jaw-dropping story about Wall Street regulation, and the public will have no trouble at all understanding it.

The reporter, Jake Bernstein, has obtained 46 hours of tape recordings, made secretly by a Federal Reserve employee, of conversations within the Fed, and between the Fed and Goldman Sachs. The Ray Rice video for the financial sector has arrived.

.....

It's an extraordinary document. There is not space here to do it justice, but the gist is this: The Fed failed to regulate the banks because it did not encourage its employees to ask questions, to speak their minds or to point out problems.

Just the opposite: The Fed encourages its employees to keep their heads down, to obey their managers and to appease the banks. That is, bank regulators failed to do their jobs properly not because they lacked the tools but because they were discouraged from using them.

Read more: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-26/the-secret-goldman-sachs-tapes

---

No surprises here

August 4, 2014

Exclusive: Powerhouse GOP group snared in money scheme Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/201

the document detailed an investigation into alleged misconduct by multiple RSLC officials during the crucial 2010 election cycle: It charged that national RSLC leaders conspired improperly with the leader of the Alabama Republican Party to use the RSLC as a pass-through for controversial Indian tribe donations, essentially laundering “toxic” money from the gaming industry by routing it out of state and then back into Alabama.
“If these events are made public, the resulting media frenzy will be a political disaster for Alabama Republicans, a disaster with which RSLC will forever be associated,” the report concluded of the alleged plot in Alabama.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/republican-state-leadership-committee-memo-109680.html#ixzz39S5KUVcW

July 21, 2014

Unbelievable speech on video by a congressman who has seen the redacted 28 pages from 9/11 report.

This is an absolute must see.

April 23, 2014

World's first Internet bill of rights signed into law (Brazil)

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/marco-civil-internet-bill-of-rights-brazil-rousseff/

March 30, 2014

Fidel, Chavez moment after failed 2002 coup captured

It's still hard to accept that Chavez is dead, at least for me

avana (AFP) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez shared their amazement and joy upon the triumphal return to power of the late Venezuelan leader after a brief coup in 2002, an exchange vividly captured in a transcript released Friday.

"You have to make a movie about it," a delighted Castro told Chavez in a lengthy telephone conversation shortly after the Venezuelan president was welcomed back to presidential palace in Caracas by cheering masses.

"What impressive images, the faces of the people, the happiness -- something never seen before, Chavez! It's something to make paintings about," he said.

Cuba published a transcript of the conversation in an eight-page pamphlet, offering a rare and dramatic glimpse of the two friends at a key moment in their history as the closest of allies.

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/pmfjN9onBUIioFPZ2Z2prA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTc2NjtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz03Njg-/

March 4, 2014

FYI, Chevron opinion issued today. 100% victory for Chevron

[T]he Court finds that Donziger began his involvement in this controversy with a desire to improve conditions in the area in which his Ecuadorian clients live. To be sure, he sought also to do well for himself while doing good for others, but there was nothing wrong with that. In the end, however, he and the Ecuadorian lawyers he led corrupted the Lago Agrio case. They submitted fraudulent evidence. They coerced one judge, first to use a court-appointed, supposedly impartial, “global expert” to make an overall damages assessment and, then, to appoint to that important role a man whom Donziger hand-picked and paid to “totally play ball” with the LAPs. They then paid a Colorado consulting firm secretly to write all or most of the global expert’s report, falsely presented the report as the work of the court-appointed and supposedly impartial expert, and told half-truths or worse to U.S. courts in attempts to prevent exposure of that and other wrongdoing. Ultimately, the LAP team wrote the Lago Agrio court’s Judgment themselves and promised $500,000 to the Ecuadorian judge to rule in their favor and sign their judgment. If ever there were a case warranting equitable relief with respect to a judgment procured by fraud, this is it.

http://sdnyblog.com/in-trial-win-for-chevron-judge-kaplan-tells-donzinger-it-is-time-to-face-the-facts/

March 4, 2014

Aj Jazeera reporter Chris Arsenault is doing an "AMA" on reddit right now

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zj2li/hey_reddit_im_chris_arsenault_a_journalist_for_al/

February 27, 2014

Venezuela: CIA and the Florida Mafia incite violence in the interest of US imperialism

http://www.dailycensored.com/venezuela-cia-and-the-florida-mafia-incite-violence-in-the-interest-of-us-imperialism/?utm_source=projectcensored&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=projectcensored

FMMundo has reported that the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) published a telephone conversation between two representatives of a far-right organization in Miami that was discussing plans for the ‘physical elimination’ of Leopoldo López. The fascist anti-Castro Cubans along with the CIA wanted to murder Lopez and then blame the death on Maduro’s government to create a political crisis and lead the country to civil war (http://www.fmmundo.com/web/el-telegrafo-opositor-venezolano-conocia-de-un-complot-en-su-contra/).

Reports note that “external conspirators” sent several terrorist groups to Venezuela and that they also had accomplices in Lopez’s inner circle. Add to this that agents of the (CIA) in Caracas were aware of the intentions of the ‘external’ terrorists but took no steps to ensure Lopez’s safety.

Moscow based reporter, Nil Nikandrov pointed out that the charismatic leader of the opposition “was sentenced to murder in cold blood by U.S. interests.” “The conspirators evidently hoped that his murder who recreate Lopez in death as a ‘martyr’ and trigger the ongoing process of destabilization in the country with the eventual overthrow of the Maduro government. The murder, he noted, would have also helped solidify and strengthen of the position of opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the ‘son of a bitch’ whom the US imperialists and Venezuelan oligarchs really prefer and support.

The President of the Venezuelan National Assembly Diosdado Cabello, personally contacted the family of Lopez and warned him directly of the threat hanging over his head by the Miami mafia in tandem with the CIA. This is why he turned himself in.