Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Full Bernie Sanders Speech on Economic Justice, Healthcare, Opposing Trump & Ending the War in Yemen | DN | 11/30/18 | 26:20

Major Trump administration climate report says damage is 'intensifying across the country'
Washington Post | Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney | 11/23/18

In Mueller investigation, Trump is now "Individual 1"
Axios | Mike Allen | 11/30/18

Until this week, public revelations about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation focused on characters who had been around President Trump.

Driving the news: For the first time, the special counsel's narrative has suddenly come alive with pre-presidential actions and entanglements by Trump himself. "Investigators have now publicly cast Trump as a central figure of their probe into whether Trump's campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign," the WashPost reports. ... Read more

2018's midterms were the most unusual in modern history
Axios | Harry Stevens | 11/30/18

Of the 18 midterms since 1950, there have been just five split decisions, where the House shifted towards one party and the Senate towards the other. And 2018's was the most split of them all.

Why it matters: Now that all of the races have been settled -- with the exception of the California 21st district race -- we can see how much of an outlier the 2018 midterms were. The split is also a sign of how Democrats dominated the suburban House districts while Republicans won the rural Senate states. ... Click to zoom in

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Elizabeth Warren Illuminates the Left's Foreign-Policy Divide
TheAtlantic | Peter Beinart | 11/29/18

For decades, every American president and major presidential candidate tried to reconcile the language of universal morality with the language of national interest. From Ronald Reagan to Hillary Clinton, each argued, in his or her own way, that as America grew more powerful than its adversaries, the world became a better place.

Donald Trump does not. "You think our country is so innocent?" he asked Bill O'Reilly soon after taking office. He wasn't being critical. Trump's point was that America doesn't need to be morally superior to be worthy of loyalty and love. America is precious simply because it is ours. In a world of gangsters, America should not strive to be the police. It should be the toughest, shrewdest gangster of them all.

On Thursday at American University, Senator Elizabeth Warren will outline her own foreign-policy vision. Her speech--shared exclusively with The Atlantic--charts a careful course, emphasizing progressive ideals while also celebrating the American order. The 2020 presidential campaign is still in its infancy. But it's already becoming clear that, when it comes to foreign policy, Warren's vision is more conventional; Bernie Sanders's is more radical. And both leave crucial questions unresolved. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren's Theory of Capitalism
TheAtlantic | Franklin Foer | 08/28/18

While so much of the action on the American left in recent months has come in the form of revived enthusiasm for socialism, Senator Elizabeth Warren has positioned herself quite differently. During the past two weeks, she has expounded about the prospects for capitalism in a much-covered speech and in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Instead of championing the system's demise, she presents herself as its savior.

2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD Day before 911 | 09/10/01 | 3:57

**Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For | 2014 | 5:32

Dr. Mark Skidmore, of Michigan State University, as he talks about $21 Trillion Missing from US Federal Budget | 12/02/17 | 33:32

The 2018 NDAA approves $700 billion for the Pentagon. This was done despite the fact that a recent report on the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, found that between the two departments, they have lost over $21 trillion in the last 17 years.

MSU scholars find $21 trillion in unauthorized government spending... | MSUToday | staff | 12/11/17 | article

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like? | Mint | older | 1:09

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Gets Fact-Checked Live On Air By CNN
HP | Lee Moran | 11/28/18

The network split its screen to run a "Facts First" box during Sanders' press briefing.

A "Facts First" box listing key points about the government's new National Climate Assessment flashed up as Sanders defended President Donald Trump's rejection of the report, which was released over the Thanksgiving weekend and predicted that the U.S. faces warming of at least 3 more degrees this century.

CNN's bullet points did not exactly call out Sanders' questionable claims in real time. But they did serve to note the difference between the authority of the report, which involved 300 scientists and 13 federal agencies, and the Trump administration's dismissal of its findings. ... Read more

Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security by Sarah Chayes

The world is blowing up. Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosion of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war, Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption.

Since the late 1990s, corruption has reached such an extent that some governments resemble glorified criminal gangs, bent solely on their own enrichment. These kleptocrats drive indignant populations to extremes?ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion. Chayes plunges readers into some of the most venal environments on earth and examines what emerges: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government (but also redesigning Al-Qaeda), and Nigerians embracing both radical evangelical Christianity and the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. In many such places, rigid moral codes are put forth as an antidote to the collapse of public integrity.

The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Through deep archival research, Chayes reveals that canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument connecting the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Thieves of State presents a powerful new way to understand global extremism. And it makes a compelling case that we must confront corruption, for it is a cause?not a result?of global instability.

Capitalism: A Crime Story by Harry Glasbeek

Our assumptions about the world condition us to see these situations as legally different from one another. But what if we, the critics of corporate capitalism, instead insisted on taking the spirit of law, rather than its letter, seriously? It would then be possible to describe many of the daily practices of capitalists and their corporations as criminal in nature, even if not always criminal by the letter and formality of law.

In Capitalism: A Crime Story, Harry Glasbeek makes the case that if the rules and doctrines of liberal law were applied as they should be according to law's own pronouncements and methodology, corporate capitalism would be much harder to defend

Nightly News Broadcast (Full) - November 27, 2018 | NBC | 11/27/18 | 21:06

The American car is becoming obsolete
Axios | Felix Salmon, Joann Muller | 11/27/18

GM is laying off 14,300 employees. It's shuttering five factories in the U.S. and Canada, and says that two more closings will be announced internationally. By next year, it will no longer make the Buick LaCrosse, the Chevrolet Impala, or the Cadillac CT6 sedan. It's even killing the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid.

The big picture: Welcome to the modern car industry, which is full of bad news. All the top-selling sedans in America -- the Toyota Camry, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Altima, and Nissan Sentra -- are Japanese. ... Read more

Trump On Climate Change Report: 'I Don't Believe It'
HP | Antonia Blumberg | 11/26/18

The White House released the 1,700-page report the day after Thanksgiving, which many critics have said was an apparent attempt to bury the alarming findings. The report, which was produced by scientists from 13 federal agencies, concluded the United States would warm at least 3 more degrees by 2100 unless the use of fossil fuels was dramatically curtailed. It also connected climate change to other environmental issues, like record-breaking wildfires and storms, and warned of negative effects on the economy and American livelihoods.

... The U.S. has warmed roughly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century, and 2017 was the country's second-hottest year in history. Last year, the U.S. spent a record $306 billion on climate-related disasters. ... Read more

The Trump Administration Released a Damning Climate Report. Now Its Agencies Won't Comment.
MotherJones | Rebecca Leber | 11/26/18

"Earth's climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities," warns the very first sentence of the fourth National Climate Assessment, a 1,656-page report that gives us the most comprehensive portrait yet of how climate change is reshaping the US, from more damaging wildfire seasons to shrinking coastal lines.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates out of the Department of Commerce, organized a press call on Friday afternoon with reporters, but other than that, the other agencies involved have not issued any kind of comment. The Environmental Protection Agency, the agency most closely tasked with addressing climate change, has not acknowledged its findings on its social media or in news releases. When contacted by Mother Jones, the EPA redirected questions to the White House. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who has remained faithful to the Trump administration's particular brand of deregulation and climate denial, may finally address the issue at an event on Wednesday hosted by the Washington Post. ... Read more

One Of The Best Video About The Economic Collapse 2018 Stock Market CRASH! | 10/04/18 | 10:03

How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet
New Yorker | Bill McKibben | 11/26/18

With wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels, large tracts of the earth are at risk of becoming uninhabitable. But the fossil-fuel industry continues its assault on the facts.

Thirty years ago, this magazine published "The End of Nature," a long article about what we then called the greenhouse effect. I was in my twenties when I wrote it, and out on an intellectual limb: climate science was still young. But the data were persuasive, and freighted with sadness. We were spewing so much carbon into the atmosphere that nature was no longer a force beyond our influence--and humanity, with its capacity for industry and heedlessness, had come to affect every cubic metre of the planet's air, every inch of its surface, every drop of its water. Scientists underlined this notion a decade later when they began referring to our era as the Anthropocene, the world made by man.

I was frightened by my reporting, but, at the time, it seemed likely that we'd try as a society to prevent the worst from happening. In 1988, George H. W. Bush, running for President, promised that he would fight "the greenhouse effect with the White House effect." He did not, nor did his successors, nor did their peers in seats of power around the world, and so in the intervening decades what was a theoretical threat has become a fierce daily reality. As this essay goes to press, California is ablaze. A big fire near Los Angeles forced the evacuation of Malibu, and an even larger fire, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, has become the most destructive in California's history. After a summer of unprecedented high temperatures and a fall "rainy season" with less than half the usual precipitation, the northern firestorm turned a city called Paradise into an inferno within an hour, razing more than ten thousand buildings and killing at least sixty-three people; more than six hundred others are missing. ... Read more

Bill Gates' new crusade: Sounding the climate-change alarm
Axios | Amy Harder | 11/26/18e

I know him as an advocate for climate change and clean energy. Gates has long worked on these issues, but here's what's new for the tech visionary: he's increasingly worried not enough people understand the dimensions of the problem and that it's going to prevent progress. This escalation was on display in a 40-minute interview with "Axios on HBO." ...

Gates and his team devised a pie chart -- which he brought up repeatedly throughout the interview -- showing the causes of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Wind and solar are used for electricity, which makes up a quarter of the world's emissions.

Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News | NYTimes |11/19/18| 15:37

Casting Team Trump | Axios |11/04/18| 2:12

Trump Thanks Saudi Arabia For Low Gas Prices After Jamal Khashoggi's Killing
HP | Paige Lavender | 11/21/18

President Donald Trump on Wednesday thanked Saudi Arabia for the declining price of oil, one day after he said the United States would back the country even if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82," Trump said in a tweet. "Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower!" ... Read more

This Thanksgiving, I'm Grateful for Donald Trump, America's Most Honest President
TheIntercept | Jon Schwarz | 11/21/18

THERE'S NO QUESTION that Donald Trump is the most flagrantly, compulsively, and voluminously dishonest president in American history -- which is saying something, given the competition. He's probably told 27 more lies during the time it took you to read this one sentence.

But as preposterous as it sounds, there's a case to be made that he's simultaneously America's most honest president. Every now and then, in the midst of his unending eruption of prevarication, Trump will blurt out the truth about the United States in a way that no normal politician ever has.

Most recently, when asked whether he would consider sanctioning Saudi Arabia for its Mafia-like murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump was hesitant. Why? "Because they are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted that order. Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it. We got it. ... Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon ... I don't wanna lose an order like that." ... Read more

Behind the scenes: Trump vs. Mueller
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 11/21/18

President Trump delivered to Robert Mueller handwritten answers about pre-election dimensions of the Russia probe but did not answer questions about his behavior as president, including allegations of obstruction of justice -- and will resist doing so in the future -- his lawyer Rudy Giuliani tells Axios.

The big picture: It is possible that Mueller will subpoena Trump regarding his activities as president. But Rudy said he has reason to suspect he won't: "I think that he would not win a legal battle if he did that, and I think it would consume months." If Mueller does, the president's view is clear: He will refuse to cooperate. ... Read more

Asian countries invest more in industrial robots than Europe, U.S.
Axios | Kaveh Waddell | 11/21/18

A common way to measure the use of robots around the world shows that wealthy countries -- like Korea, Singapore, Germany and the U.S. -- are way ahead of the curve, while China flounders behind unlikely characters like Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Why it matters: Taking wages into account changes the landscape dramatically. When comparing countries' actual robot adoption to the quantity one would expect based on their wage levels, Asian countries far outstrip Europe and the U.S. ... Read more

PhRMA spread money far and wide in Trump's first year
Axios | Bob Herman, Caitlin Owens | 11/20/18

PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry's main lobbying group, considerably bolstered its political and financial position during President Trump's first year in office, new federal tax filings show.

The bottom line: PhRMA directed tens of millions of dollars toward conservative think tanks, political groups of all stripes and patient advocates with the hope of convincing the public that the industry isn't "getting away with murder," as Trump put it, and that others are to blame for the country's drug pricing maze. ... Read more

It's Time for America to Reckon with the Staggering Death Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars
TheIntercept | Murtaza Hussain | 11/19/18

HOW MANY PEOPLE have been killed in the post-9/11 war on terror? The question is a contentious one, as there has been no formal accounting for the deadly cost of the initial U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the secondary conflicts that continue to wreak havoc across the Middle East and the opaque, covert war still expanding across Asia and Africa.

But even as the U.S. government evades responsibility for the human cost of its overseas endeavors, some researchers are determined to keep count.

Brown University's Costs of War Project this month released a new estimate of the total death toll from the U.S. wars in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The numbers, while conservatively estimated, are staggering. Brown's researchers estimate that at least 480,000 people have been directly killed by violence over the course of these conflicts, more than 244,000 of them civilians. In addition to those killed by direct acts violence, the number of indirect deaths -- those resulting from disease, displacement, and the loss of critical infrastructure -- is believed to be several times higher, running into the millions. ... Read more

The Eerie Parallels Between Trump and the Watergate 'Road Map'
TheAtlantic | Natasha Bertrand | 11/19/18

Lawmakers thought Nixon's gathering of inside information about the Watergate probe from DOJ was an impeachable offense.

Nearly 45 years ago, the House Judiciary Committee concluded that President Richard Nixon's contact with high-level Justice Department officials overseeing the Watergate investigation, detailed in a 62-page "road map" of evidence collected by prosecutors in 1972--73, amounted to an impeachable misuse of executive power.

A half century later, the FBI's former top lawyer, Jim Baker--a close friend and associate of fired FBI Director James Comey--is laying out parallels, albeit subtly, to President Donald Trump's interactions with the law-enforcement officials who have been investigating him and his campaign team since July 2016.

In a piece for Lawfare published on Monday, Baker and co-author Sarah Grant, a student at Harvard Law School, used the newly unsealed Watergate road map to show how one president's attempts to control an investigation targeting him and his associates were quickly exposed and, ultimately, used against him. As the road map laid out, Nixon interacted regularly with the man supervising the Watergate investigation -- Henry Petersen, then the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Criminal Division -- and pumped him for information. ... Read more

The $6 trillion price tag for the "War on Terror"
Axios | Haley Britzky | 11/14/18

The U.S. will have spent almost $6 trillion on the war on terror by the end of fiscal year 2019, according to an annual report out Wednesday from Brown University's Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs.

Between the lines: This differs from the Pentagon's calculation of $1.5 trillion because it includes more than Defense Department appropriations, such as costs of veteran care, interest on debt from the wars and war-related spending from the State Department. ... Read more

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like? | Mint | older | 1:09

President Trump on Fox News Sunday (full Interview) | Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace | 11/18/18 | 47:18

Retired Adm. McRaven responds to Trump's Fox News interview | CNN | 11/18/18 | 10:49

Authoritarianism | John Oliver | 11/18/18 | 18:28

Sackler family members face mass litigation and criminal investigations over opioids crisis
TheGuardian | Joanna Walters | 11/19/18

embers of the multibillionaire philanthropic Sackler family that owns the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin are facing mass litigation and likely criminal investigation over the opioids crisis still ravaging America.

Some of the Sacklers wholly own Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, the company that created and sells the legal narcotic OxyContin, a drug at the center of the opioid epidemic that now kills almost 200 people a day across the US.

Suffolk county in Long Island, New York, recently sued several family members personally over the overdose deaths and painkiller addiction blighting local communities. Now lawyers warn that action will be a catalyst for hundreds of other US cities, counties and states to follow suit. ...

... "This is essentially a crime family ... drug dealers in nice suits and dresses," said Paul Hanly, a New York city lawyer who represents Suffolk county and is also a lead attorney in a huge civil action playing out in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, involving opioid manufacturers and distributors. ... Read more

Death Toll Rises To 63 In Northern California Camp Fire, 631 Now Unaccounted For
HP | Nick Visser | 11/15/18

The death toll in Northern California's Camp fire rose once again on Thursday to 63 as rescue workers continue to search through the devastation left by the state's deadliest blaze in history, authorities said.

A further 631 people remained unaccounted for, a vast increase from just a day prior when officials said 130 people were missing. The fire has scorched some 141,000 acres and is 40 percent contained. ... Read more

White House ordered to return Jim Acosta's press pass
Axios | staff | 11/16/18

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order Friday forcing the White House to reinstate CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press credentials.

The big picture: Judge Kelly said it is likely that Acosta's first and fifth amendment rights were violated when the White House suspended his press pass, saying he believes CNN and Acosta are likely to prevail in the case. ... Read more

Defense strategy report warns of grave erosion in US military superiority
TheHill | Ellen Mitchell | 11/14/18

U.S. military superiority "has eroded to a dangerous degree," with "grave and lasting" consequences if Washington doesn't act quickly to reverse the damage and adequately fund the Pentagon, according to new report ordered by Congress.

Released Wednesday by the independent National Defense Strategy Commission, the report warns that America has reached a "crisis of national security," due to a combination of political, financial and international issues and might struggle to win if faced with numerous conflicts at the same time.

"The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict," the report states. "It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia. The United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously."

The report's authors also write that it would be "unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home" while also fighting the U.S. military overseas. ... Read more

REPORT: America In "Crisis Of National Security" | TYT | 11/15/18 | 14:51

The $6 trillion price tag for the "War on Terror"
Axios | Haley Britzky | 11/14/18

The U.S. will have spent almost $6 trillion on the war on terror by the end of fiscal year 2019, according to an annual report out Wednesday from Brown University's Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs.

Between the lines: This differs from the Pentagon's calculation of $1.5 trillion because it includes more than Defense Department appropriations, such as costs of veteran care, interest on debt from the wars and war-related spending from the State Department. ... Read more

Stack of 100 dollar bills that equals 1 trillion dollars would be 62 miles high. This is how the Elites, i.e. Military, Industrial Congressional complex extracts money from our economy. And they say it is too expensive to investigate sustainable energy to prevent Global Climate Change. Our kids are going to pay the price.

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Actsby Chris McGreal

The opioid epidemic has been described as "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But calling it a mistake is a generous rewriting of the history of greed, corruption, and indifference that pushed the US into consuming more than 80 percent of the world's opioid painkillers.

Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it.

The starting point for McGreal's deeply reported investigation is the miners promised that opioid painkillers would restore their wrecked bodies, but who became targets of "drug dealers in white coats."

A few heroic physicians warned of impending disaster. But American Overdose exposes the powerful forces they were up against, including the pharmaceutical industry's coopting of the Food and Drug Administration and Congress in the drive to push painkillers--resulting in the resurgence of heroin cartels in the American heartland. McGreal tells the story, in terms both broad and intimate, of people hit by a catastrophe they never saw coming. Years in the making, its ruinous consequences will stretch years into the future.

What Trump gets wrong about wildfires, by a fire scientist
TheGuardian | Matthew Hurteau | 11/13/18

The president blamed 'poor forest management' for the state's crisis. But much of the area burning isn't forest

You cannot possibly understand what it means to live with the risk of wildfire until you have to do so. I'm a fire scientist and have spent most of my adult life in the flammable south-west. At the start of the fire season, you pack up the things in your house you cannot replace and stage them so they are ready to be thrown into the car. You make a plan for your family and your pets. You identify escape routes and put together a bag with clothing and you spend the summer alert to smoke, radio reports and evacuation notices.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump is one of those who does not understand wildfire. In a tweet, Trump blamed "poor forest management" in California for the devastating conflagrations currently burning in the state, and he threatened to withhold federal aid as if in punishment for this negligence.

... Trump probably has in mind how a century of putting out wildfires in the American west has caused forests to grow dense with trees, making large, hot fires more common than they once were. This is not the predominant cause, however, of the fires currently making the news. To comprehend what is currently taking place in California, you have to comprehend how it has historically burned -- and the vast changes now occurring across the landscape. ... Read more

Donald Trump and the Counterrevolutionary War
TheIntercept | author | date

DONALD TRUMP IS waging a political counterinsurgency. This week on Intercepted: Columbia University professor Bernard Harcourt lays out the multidecade history of paramilitarized politics in the U.S., how the tactics of the war on terror have come back to American soil, and why no one talks about drone strikes anymore. Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore talks about his recent visit from the FBI in connection to the pipe bomb packages and who he thinks should run against Trump in 2020. Journalist and lawyer Josie Duffy Rice analyzes the battle over vote counts in Florida and Georgia, the Republican campaign to suppress black voters, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and why she isn't protesting the firing of Jeff Sessions. Jeremy Scahill explains why Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer need to go away. ... Read more

Donald Trump and the Counterrevolutionary War

DC Neo-Nazi Who Called Pittsburgh Murders A 'Dry Run' Arrested; Has Deep Ties To 'Alt Right'
HP | Jessica Schulberg | 11/14/18

Jeffrey Clark, the 30-year-old man federal agents arrested here Friday after he called the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting a "dry run" and his relatives worried he might try to launch a race war, wasn't shy about being a neo-Nazi.

In April 2017, when someone asked Clark at a White House rally organized by "alt-right" coiner Richard Spencer whether he considered himself a fascist, he said no ? he considered himself a Nazi. Antifa activists photographed him at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. He has posed for pictures in front of Nazi symbols and holding Nazi memorabilia.

On Gab, the favored social network of racists and anti-Semites, Clark had the username @PureWhitEvil and called himself "DC Bowl Gang," a reference to Dylann Roof, the bowl-cut racist who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 ... Read more

CAMP FIRE: Deadliest in California History. The Camp Fire Is Also The State's Most Destructive Fire Ever
HP | Dominique Mosbergen | 11/13/18

The wildfire raging in Northern California is now the deadliest in state history. At least 42 people are dead and 228 people still missing in the Camp fire, which left the town of Paradise and surrounding areas in ashes, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters on Monday night.

The fire, Honea said, is the deadliest single fire on wildlands in California's history. That grim title had previously been held by the Griffith Park fire of 1933, which left 29 dead.

The Camp fire, which has destroyed more than 7,000 structures, is also the most destructive fire in California's recorded history.

"I've seen a lot of fire, but this is the worst I've ever seen," retired firefighter Dan McCard told CBS News of the devastating blaze. "The winds were so high. It was incredible." ... Read more

Trump Reportedly Plans To Fire DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen In Coming Weeks
HP | Nick Visser | 11/13/18

"The Secretary is honored to lead the men and women" of the Department of Homeland Security, an agency spokesman said after the Washington Post report.

... Trump has moved quickly to shake up his administration following the midterm elections, which ushered back in Democratic control of the U.S. House. He fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week after more than a year of criticism due to the man's decision to recuse himself from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the 2016 presidential election. Others also appear to be on rocky ground, and the Post noted that some officials believe chief of staff John Kelly's future is also in doubt. ... Read more

The secret of why Trump won't release his taxes with Chris Cillizza | CNN | 10/04/18 | 7:25

Alexa, Should We Trust You?
TheAtlantic | Judith Shulevitz | 11/2018

We're all falling for Alexa, unless we're falling for Google Assistant, or Siri, or some other genie in a smart speaker. When I say "smart," I mean the speakers possess artificial intelligence, can conduct basic conversations, and are hooked up to the internet, which allows them to look stuff up and do things for you. And when I say "all," I know some readers will think, Speak for yourself! Friends my age--we're the last of the Baby Boomers--tell me they have no desire to talk to a computer or have a computer talk to them. Cynics of every age suspect their virtual assistants of eavesdropping, and not without reason. Smart speakers are yet another way for companies to keep tabs on our searches and purchases. Their microphones listen even when you're not interacting with them, because they have to be able to hear their "wake word," the command that snaps them to attention and puts them at your service.

The speakers' manufacturers promise that only speech that follows the wake word is archived in the cloud, and Amazon and Google, at least, make deleting those exchanges easy enough. Nonetheless, every so often weird glitches occur, like the time Alexa recorded a family's private conversation without their having said the wake word and emailed the recording to an acquaintance on their contacts list. Amazon explained that Alexa must have been awakened by a word that sounded like Alexa (Texas? A Lexus? Praxis?), then misconstrued elements of the ensuing conversation as a series of commands. The explanation did not make me feel much better. ... Read more

Drain the Swamp | John Oliver | 11/11/18 | 16:36

Ryan Zinke and the environment: a tragedy in three acts
THeGuardian | Joel Clemen | 11/12/18

At first I kept an open mind about Trump's interior secretary. But it soon became clear he put the oil, gas and mining industry above our agency's mission

Back in 2017, the staff at the interior department was not hoping for the best, we were hoping for the competent. A presidential transition can bring dramatic change to the leadership of a federal agency -- particularly the agency that manages the conservation and use of one fifth of America's land area and the seabed of our continental shelf.

Civil servants pledge to continue to serve the American people and the agency mission regardless of whether or not they agree with the political positioning of the president and his cabinet. So we watched the Ryan Zinke confirmation hearings carefully, listening for hints at his management style, his communications style, and his general understanding and respect for public lands and the mission of the agency. These were the qualities that mattered, not his ideology. We were hoping for competence.

What we heard in his hearing was a general respect for the notion of public lands, of science, and of the career staff who make the agency tick. There were some red flags for public land advocates and positive signs for industry, but for civil servants, he seemed competent and respectful enough. As so often happens in politics, however, looks can be deceiving. ... Read more

Most Democrats see Republicans as racist, sexist
Click to zoom in

Axios | Kim Hart | 11/12/18

Many Americans think people in the other party are ignorant, spiteful, evil and generally destroying the country, according to a new Axios poll by SurveyMonkey, aired on HBO on Sunday night. 61% of Democrats see Republicans as "racist/bigoted/sexist." 31% of Republicans say they view Democrats in the same light.

Why it matters: If Americans are this convinced that the other side isn't just wrong, but dumb and evil, they'll never be able to find enough common ground to solve real problems. And they're more likely to elect leaders who can't do it, either. ... Read more

Whose Boat Is This Boat?: Comments That Don't Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane by Donald Trump

Whose Boat Is This Boat? Comments That Don't Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane is a picture book made entirely of quotations from President Donald Trump in the wake of Hurricane Florence. It is the first children's book that demonstrates what not to say after a natural disaster.

On September 19, 2018, Donald Trump paid a visit to New Bern, North Carolina, one of the towns ravaged by Hurricane Florence. It was there he showed deep concern for a boat that washed ashore. "At least you got a nice boat out of the deal," said President Trump to hurricane victims. "Have a good time!" he told them. The only way his comments would be appropriate is in the context of a children's book--and now you can experience them that way, thanks to the staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Whose Boat Is This Boat? is an excellent teaching tool for readers of all ages who enjoy learning about empathy by process of elimination.

Democrats Should Remember Al Gore Won Florida in 2000 -- But Lost the Presidency with a Preemptive Surrender
TheIntercept | Jon Schwarz | 11/12/18

AT MIDNIGHT ON election day last Tuesday, vote tallies showed Republican candidates ahead in key races in Florida, Georgia and Arizona. However, many votes remained to be counted in all three states. The stakes are high: two Senate seats (Florida and Arizona) and two governorships (Florida and Georgia), plus some lower offices. And as the count has proceeded, the Democratic candidate in each case has gained more votes than the Republican, narrowing the margin or -- in the case of the Senate election in Arizona -- taking the lead.

Republicans, led by President Trump, have responded by declaring that counting these votes is somehow fraudulent. The GOP's rhetoric has been particularly preposterous in Florida, where Governor Rick Scott is attempting to switch offices by ousting incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. Scott's Tuesday night margin of 50,000 votes is now down to 15,000, and he's demanded that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate some unspecified malfeasance. Each race now appears likely close enough to trigger a recount (or in the case of the Georgia governor's race, a run-off.) ... Read more

China figures out how to live without U.S. lobster and soybeans
Axios | Steve LeVine | 11/09/18

Three weeks ahead of a meeting between President Trump and China's Xi Jinping, Beijing is notching record exports and figuring out how to manage without American goods.

Why it matters: Despite tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods, Trump has appeared to fail to budge Xi on his determination to do whatever it takes to dominate the technologies of the future. ... Read more

Point and Nuke
ForiegnPolicy | Jeffrey Lewis | 09/12/18

Remembering the era of portable atomic bombs.

When Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office as the 34th president of the United States in 1953, the total U.S. nuclear stockpile was approaching 1,000. When Ike left, eight years later, that number had grown to around 20,000--with further increases programmed in. Those weapons included one of the strangest creations of the Cold War: an atomic bazooka, putting nuclear destruction in the hands of as few as two soldiers.

For the U.S. military planners of the 1950s, nuclear weapons were not merely strategic assets to deter conflict but munitions ready for use in the event of hostilities. Eisenhower looked to nuclear weapons as a cheaper alternative to conventional troops at a time when U.S. forces were dangerously, and expensively, overstretched.

Soon after taking office, for example, the Eisenhower administration decided it would use nuclear weapons in Korea if armistice negotiations broke down. Officials announced in 1954 that the United States might respond to conventional aggression anywhere with massive nuclear retaliation. The Eisenhower administration even attempted, in 1957, to reorganize the U.S. Army to better survive on a nuclear battlefield.... Read more

Wildfires Rage Across Northern California And Thousand Oaks
HP | author | date

A series of wildfires continued their tear through California on Friday, encroaching upon an area still reeling from a mass shooting that struck the community of Thousand Oaks just one day earlier.

A set of brushfires lashed Ventura County, prompting mandatory evacuations across Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The two blazes ranged from 2,000 to 10,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. Authorities shut down part of the 101 Freeway as plumes of smoke cascaded into the air on Thursday. ...

... "We were surrounded by fire, we were driving through fire on each side of the road," said police officer Mark Bass, who lives in the hard-hit town of Paradise and works in neighboring Chico. He evacuated his family and then returned to the fire to help rescue several disabled residents, including a man trying to carry his bedridden wife to safety. "It was just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road in front of us." ... Read more

At Least 12 Killed In Mass Shooting At Borderline Bar & Grill In Thousand Oaks, California
HP | Dominique Mosbergen and Willa Frej | 11/08/18

... Police officers headed to Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, a city located about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, at around 11:20 p.m., Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said, after receiving multiple calls of shots fired. It was "College Country Night" at the bar and the dance floor was full of students from nearby universities.

A sheriff unit arrived three minutes later, followed by two highway patrol officers. Sergeant Helus, a 29-year veteran, and one patrol officer went in through the front door, at which point Helus was struck multiple times with gunfire. The patrol officer rescued Helus out of the line of gunfire, though Helus later died from his injuries. ... Read more

Trump uses CNN's Jim Acosta to act on longtime fantasy against media
Axios | Jonathan Swan, Sara Fischer | 11/08/18

Sources with direct knowledge say that since the earliest days of his presidency, Trump has mused about revoking press credentials for reporters who infuriate him. But press staff have often successfully counseled him against doing so, telling him it would only elevate the reporter involved and would result in damaging stories about him cracking down on press freedom.

Driving the news: Yesterday, Trump went ahead and did it anyway, with Sarah Sanders announcing that the White House had removed the "hard pass" of CNN's Jim Acosta, who had tangled with Trump at his midday press conference ... Read more

The high-profile Trump White House departures
Axios | author | date

The Trump White House had more first-year departures than any other president in at least 40 years -- and the departures haven't stopped. The latest resignation: Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Why it matters: The first term revolving door of Trump's highest Cabinet officials is not normal, although some turnover should be expected now that we're past the midterms. ...

All Of The Bizarre Things Trump Has Done Post-Midterms
HP | Carla Herreria | 11/08/18

In the span of one day, Trump congratulated himself for a "very Big Win" in the midterms (despite Democrats taking control of the House), threatened war with the Democrats, engaged in a war of words with reporters and took actions to take back control of the special counsel's Russia investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign. ...

Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN
TheGuardian | staff | 11/06/18

Ahead of a key international conference to discuss the collapse of ecosystems, Cristiana Pa?ca Palmer said people in all countries need to put pressure on their governments to draw up ambitious global targets by 2020 to protect the insects, birds, plants and mammals that are vital for global food production, clean water and carbon sequestration.

"The loss of biodiversity is a silent killer," she told the Guardian. "It's different from climate change, where people feel the impact in everyday life. With biodiversity, it is not so clear but by the time you feel what is happening, it may be too late." ... Read more

The caravan Trump should fear
Axios | Mike Allen, Jonathan Swan | 11/07/18

With a new Democratic House majority, the Trump White House is bracing for a caravan of subpoenas covering everything from Russia to business deals to soon be headed their way.

What they're saying: House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in her victory speech: "Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans. It's about restoring the Constitution's checks and balances to the Trump administration." ... Read more

Live map: 2018 midterm elections results

The Midterm Results Gave Everybody Just Enough to Keep Fighting
TheIntercept | Ryan Grim | 11/07/18

VOTERS WENT TO the polls on Tuesday with an overwhelming belief that the American economy is in strong shape and that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Those voters surged to the kinds of numbers that the nation's electoral system was ill-equipped to handle, with reports of broken scanners and voting machines. Lines stretched around corners and into parking lots while voters waited for hours.

As the ballots were being counted, it became clear that there would be little clarity by the end of the night. Democrats, on the back of historic turnout -- the product of two years of post-Trump grassroots organizing -- seized control of a House of Representatives that had been meticulously gerrymandered in order to assure that they would never be able to do just that. Democrats also made major gains in state capitals, winning governorships in Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine. ... Read more

The Other Press Secretary
TheAtlantic | Megan Garber | 11/06/18

On the evening of the midterm elections, Sean Hannity dispensed with the polite fiction that he is more than the president's puppet.

On Monday morning, Sean Hannity, the talk-radio host and the star of the Fox News Channel's angriest and most-watched primetime show, defended himself in a tweet. "In spite of reports," Hannity insisted, "I will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally. To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President. I am covering final rally for my show. Something I have done in every election in the past."

The tweet was, it would turn out, a work not just of fiction, but of fan fiction. Hannity, after ending his show on Monday evening--an episode broadcast, this part was accurate, from Donald Trump's rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri--did the precise thing he had promised he wouldn't: Hannity, beckoned by the president, strode onto the presidential stage. The line dividing the news commentator from the newsmaker, one that had for so long been stretched to precarious tautness, finally snapped. "They're very special," the president said, as Hannity and another Fox guest, Jeanine Pirro, crossed over from the screen to the stage. "They've done an incredible job for us. They've been with us from the beginning." ... Read more

'It's depressing as hell': Dem win would spell misery for Trump White House aides
Politico | Andrew Restuccia | d11/06/18

Veterans of past White Houses that faced hostile Congresses call life under the oversight microscope 'excruciating.'

Working for President Donald Trump has never been easy, but his staffers can expect a whole new level of mayhem if Democrats win control of the House on Tuesday. Democratic control of even one chamber of Congress would unleash an onslaught of hearings, subpoenas and document demands as lawmakers investigate everything from the president's personal tax returns to his controversial policies on immigration, health care and the environment.

Beyond the huge consequences for national politics, the arrival of opposition-party oversight can make daily life in the White House unbearable for senior officials and their aides, according to more than a dozen veterans of the Clinton, Obama and George W. Bush administrations interviewed by POLITICO. Their assessments offer a gut-churning preview of what's in store for Trump administration officials should Democrats wield gavels come January. ... Read more

'Trump has hijacked the election': House Republicans in panic mode
Politico | Rachael Bade | 11/05/18

Worries deepen that Trump's charged immigration rhetoric will cost the GOP more seats.

House Speaker Paul Ryan got President Donald Trump on the phone Sunday for one final plea on behalf of anxious Republicans: Please, please talk up the booming economy in the final hours before Election Day. But Trump, unsurprisingly, had another issue on his mind. He boasted to Ryan that his focus on immigration has fired up the base, according to a source familiar with the call.

Two days out from an expected Democratic takeover of the House, Republicans focused on the chamber are profoundly worried that Trump's obsession with all things immigration will exacerbate their losses. Many of these same Republicans welcomed Trump's initial talk about the migrant caravan and border security two weeks ago, hoping it would gin up the GOP base in some at-risk, Republican-held districts. ... Read more

Family Separation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | 11/04/18 | 18:19

On climate change, Trump disavows his own scientists, government | 11/04/18 | 2:02

Trump rattles his saber at the "caravan," while Mnuchin splashes $1.3338 trillion in debt
Salon | Bob Hennelly | date

Trump's treasury just broke the trillion dollar debt mark and we are busy watching him bark at the southern border

In the final days of the midterm campaign President Donald Trump's camo clown car has all eyes on the southern border as 15,000 American troops are assembled to prepare for the onslaught of a ragtag caravan of refugees.He's been visualizing a kind of Gaza-like scenario where American troops will get to fire on rock throwing migrants.

We look where he points no matter what. We can't help it. He's the 'entertainer-in-chief'. His skilled misdirection has the effect of obscuring his disastrous misrule. You have to always ask what are the things he's not attending to, or leaving on automatic pilot, that could come crashing down on his watch or somebody else's later on down the line.

So, we should not be surprised that there was scant attention paid last week when the U.S. Treasury Department disclosed that it was going to issue $425 billion in new debt for this quarter, bringing our grand total for 2018 to an eye popping $1.3 trillion in debt. As the Fiscal Times pointed out, that reflects "a 145 percent increase from the $546 billion issued in 2017." That's the biggest annual issuance of federal public debt since 2010 when Uncle Sam issued $1.586 trillion in debt. ... Read more

Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh billed as "special guests" at Donald Trump's final 2018 rally
Salon | Shira Tarlo | 11/05/18

Monday's rally is another reminder of the symbiotic relationship between Fox News and President Trump's White House

President Donald Trump on Monday will host Fox News primetime host Sean Hannity as a "special guest" at his final rally of the midterm season. Hannity's involvement was announced in a Trump campaign press release distributed Sunday afternoon. Fox News told CNN that Hannity is not sponsoring the rally or campaigning to "Make America Great Again," and instead the network star would be hosting his "Hannity" program from the rally site and would interview Trump.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh will also be there, the Trump campaign announced, noting that the rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is Limbaugh's hometown. ... Read more

Trump's immigration push is Stephen Miller's dream come true
Politico | Nancy Cook | 10/31/18

Even if Republicans suffer losses on Tuesday, the midterm election campaign will have been a bonanza for immigration hard-liners inside the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump's fixation on border security in the closing weeks of the campaign has given a tight-knit group of senior staffers from the White House and several departments the chance to put Trump on the record, yet again, on immigration policies he touted aggressively in 2016 but which had faded amid the mayhem of his early presidency.

Just within the past week, Trump has deployed thousands of troops to the border, floated potential executive action to block a caravan of Central American migrants from entering the country, and proposed the idea of ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. On Wednesday, he told reporters that the administration may send 10,000 to 15,000 additional military personnel to the border. ... Read more

Documents Expose President Donald Trump Border Deployment As Political Stunt | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 11/01/18 | 9:57

Watch out: 3 warning signs U.S. economy could be close to recession
Axios | Courtenay Brown | 11/02/18

Why it matters: There's plenty of good news-- today's jobs report showed unemployment holding at a stunning 49-year low, for instance. But look closer, and visible threats suggest an all-out recession could come as soon as next year. But, between the lines: Key economic indicators are flashing red.

1. Worker productivity is sluggish. The third quarter marked the "32nd straight quarter of yearly growth below 2%, a long and consistent stretch of anemic growth that hasn't happened before in the post-World War II era," the WSJ reports.
2. Manufacturing activity has stalled for the first time in two years, possibly the result of President Trump's multi-front trade war.
3. Business investment is laggardly. Rather than using their $1.2 trillion tax cut on capital spending, companies are on track for the biggest-ever year of stock buybacks, possibly reaching $1 trillion.

Operation Enduring Boredom: What Troops Will Actually Face When Caravan Members Eventually Arrive
MotherJones | Noah Lanard | 11/01/18

President Donald Trump likes to portray the still-distant migrant caravan as an invasion: a dehumanized mob that can only be stopped by military might. At Trump's behest, the Pentagon is now deploying more than 5,000 active-duty soldiers to the border, on top of the 2,100 National Guardsmen who are already there. Trump, who is hellbent on attacking migrants to motivate his base before the midterms, said on Wednesday that he might send up to 15,000 troops to the border, more than the entire US military presence in Afghanistan.

What another 10,000 troops would do is a mystery, even to the commander of US Northern Command, which is responsible for security in North America. "I...saw 14,000 out there," General Terrence O'Shaughnessy said on Tuesday about rumors of a bigger troop deployment. "I'm not--I honestly don't even know where that came from. That is not in line with what we've been planning." Soldiers can't legally enforce immigration laws, so some of the 5,200 troops being deployed now will do things like shoveling manure from the Border Patrol's horses, in addition to providing logistical support. Like many of the Border Patrol agents they are reinforcing, the soldiers are likely to be extremely bored. The one thing they will almost certainly not be is overwhelmed. ... Read more

Corporate America leans GOP in 2018 midterms
Axios |Harry Stevens | 11/01/18

A slim majority of the midterm congressional campaign contributions from America's biggest companies have gone to Republican candidates, an Axios analysis of federal election data shows.

Why it matters: America's wealthy companies are able to influence elections by financially supporting candidates whose positions align with their values -- or who they believe can help their businesses. But even more often, they support both sides, ensuring access to whomever ends up in power. ... Read more

The Quickie: Sarah on the Migrant Caravan | 10/31/18 | 2:45

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg

From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness expose of the dangers of America's Top Secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day.

Here, for the first time, former high-level defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg reveals his shocking firsthand account of America's nuclear program in the 1960s. From the remotest air bases in the Pacific Command, where he discovered that the authority to initiate use of nuclear weapons was widely delegated, to the secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower, which, if executed, would cause the near-extinction of humanity, Ellsberg shows that the legacy of this most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization--and its proposed renewal under the Trump administration--threatens our very survival. No other insider with high-level access has written so candidly of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, and nothing has fundamentally changed since that era.

Framed as a memoir--a chronicle of madness in which Ellsberg acknowledges participating--this gripping exposé reads like a thriller and offers feasible steps we can take to dismantle the existing "doomsday machine" and avoid nuclear catastrophe, returning Ellsberg to his role as whistle-blower. The Doomsday Machine is thus a real-life Dr. Strangelove story and an ultimately hopeful--and powerfully important--book about not just our country, but the future of the world.

*How Trump Weaponized Fake News | TYT | 10/31/18 | 20:13

The Military's Justification for Sending Thousands of Troops to the Border is the Opposite of the Truth
TheIntercept | Ryan Devereaux | 10/31/18

OPERATION FAITHFUL PATRIOT, the Trump administration's military campaign to secure the midterm elections by deploying troops to the southern border, is less than a week old, and it already features some of the same core failings that defined its post-9/11 predecessors. Like the invasion of Iraq, Faithful Patriot is a right-wing political project carried out through military means against a demonized nonwhite population, one that haunts the fevered dreams of many Republican voters. And, as some observers have already noted, Faithful Patriot, like the ongoing war in Afghanistan, does not appear to feature a clear end game.

The similarities don't end there though. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, head of the U.S. military's Northern Command, revealed that Operation Faithful Patriot is running on bad intelligence, which the decorated military commander is apparently comfortable regurgitating to the American public and the four-star general's press shop is seemingly unable to account for.

While the general's line on the caravan -- that it is a more organized operation than others in previous years -- appears to be the line the enforcers of Operation Faithful Patriot have settled on to justify its existence, O'Shaughnessy's press office at NORTHCOM did not provide evidence to support his assertion, despite repeated requests.

It is true that this caravan is different, but according to longtime Latin America experts and reporters on the ground, it is different for reasons that are the exact opposite of the justification coming from the general leading Faithful Patriot. ... Read more