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OLIMPIX UPDATE: Opening ceremonies included an ode to Public Heath Care! Imagine that! British celebrate their health care system in London Olympics Opening Ceremony ..... after a moment marking the two world wars, the ceremony included a segment celebrating the National Health Service (NHS). The British, along with almost every other industrialized country in the world, have a universal health care system, in which care is provided for all, regardless of income. ... The scene may have been a curious sight for many Americans. If the United States hosts another Olympic games it likely will not include a celebration of private insurance, like Aetna, or any public aspects of our system, like Medicare. ...... Obamacare is expected to slow down the increasing rate of health care costs over time, but it will never provide care for all like the British system, and it will not lower costs down to the British level. So years from now, we will not see an “Obamacare” celebration in an American Olympic Games. Hopefully, it does not take another world war for the United States to adopt a system similar to the NHS. Read all of that and watch the slideshow: British Celebrate Their Universal Health Care System in Olympic Opening Ceremony at examiner.com! And from Tyler Durden at zerohedge we learn about Austerity At The Olympics: Each "Gold" Medal Contains 1.34% Gold As every Olympic athlete knows, size matters. The London 2012 medals are the largest ever in terms of both weight and diameter - almost double the medals from Beijing. However, just as equally well-known is that quality beats quantity and that is where the current global austerity, coin-clipping, devaluation-fest begins. The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and... 1.34 percent gold, with IOC rules specifying that it must contain 550 grams of high-quality silver and a whopping 6 grams of gold. The resulting medallion is worth about $500. For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3, you might be able to trade one for a bag of chips in Olympic park if you skip the fish.
Ben Protess of the NYT's Deal Book explains Geithner Faces Senate on Rate-Rigging Scandal The NYT just CANNOT put LIBOR in their headline, can they? A 'scandal'? Monica was a 'scandal'. LIBOR is the BIGGEST SWINDLE The World has ever seen! Not a mere 'scandal'! So....... In testimony before a Senate panel, the second Congressional hearing this week to focus on Mr. Geithner, he promoted the government’s efforts to punish banks that tried to manipulate a benchmark interest rate during the financial crisis. He also deflected questions about his response to the wrongdoing, which occurred in 2008 when he ran the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which focused on reforming the rate-setting process rather than halting the illegal actions. Authorities around the world are investigating whether more than a dozen big banks manipulated the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a measure of how much banks charge to lend to one another. The benchmark rate underpins trillions of dollars in mortgages and other loans. “We cannot lose sight of the fact that the Libor issue, at its core, is about fraud,” Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said at the hearing on Thursday. “I want you to commit to me and the American people that the administration will make sure that those involved in Libor fraud will be held accountable and prosecuted.” “Absolutely,” Mr. Geithner replied. “I’m very confident that the Department of Justice and the relevant enforcement agencies will meet that objective.” .... For his part, Mr. Geithner acknowledged that Libor was the most recent scandal in a string of Wall Street blowups. The problems, he said, have delivered an enduring black eye to the financial industry. “We’ve seen a devastating loss of trust in the integrity of the financial system.” Yep Timmeh! DEVASTATING LOSS! Like every pension fund and home loan IN THE WORLD being SCREWED by DILIBERATE INTEREST FIXING that is a "devastating loss" for the 99%! Trust? Not so much for the 0.01% eh Timmeh? Just "trust", right? Remember our funny money sez "In God We Trust" too. Ugh. We go to zerohedge for Barofsky On Geithner: "We Should See People In Handcuffs" There is no point in recapping the ongoing vendetta between former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky and former head of the NY Fed, and current Treasury secretary and resident TurboTax expert Tim Geithner. One need but follow the former on Twitter for a quick and concise sampling of the sentiments harbored vis-a-vis the latter. However, in the following interview Barfosky does touch on some points which in the context of the recent Liborgate, should be brought front and center, especially since the increasingly apathetic US audience seems to not care about one bit (as opposed to their distant cousins across the Atlantic for whom Lieborgate has become a daily distraction). Namely, what Barofsky says is that Geithner and other regulators who allowed Lieborgate to proceed should not only lose their job but we should "see [Geithner] in handcuffs." Sadly that will never happen as it would actually be a deterrent to future crime among the highest echelons of America: something which is just not allowed to happen in a system whose very survival is increasingly reliant on rampant criminality. See the whole interview at zerohedge! While there see williambanzai7's TiM GeiTHNeR: TiMe To FLuSH... For more details Bill Black writes at New Economics Perspectives Reinventing Crony Capitalism: the Context of Geithner’s Obscene Rant against Barofsky Neil Barofsky, the former Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) (SIGTARP), was one of the officials that made one proud of America. Naturally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner detested him. Barofsky discusses Geithner’s antipathy for him in a newly published book: “Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.” The juicy parts that have been discussed in the media involve Geithner’s epic “f” word rant against Barofsky in fall 2009 in response to Barofsky’s recommendations for greater transparency about TARP. .... My column, however, expands on the article’s last paragraph: “[T]he more-damning allegations of the book [are] that Geithner’s Treasury Department repeatedly tried to undermine Barofsky’s authority, ignoring his warnings about the risk of fraud in TARP programs and generally carrying water for the banking industry.” ..... What enraged Geithner is that the statutory protections provided to ensure the inspector generals’ independence allowed Barofsky to speak truth to power by documenting why he thought that Geithner’s policies were contrary to the program’s mission. That is the real reason that the anti-regulatory reinventors have such a passionate hate for inspector generals. They cannot be “remove[d]” when they provide “resistance” to the anti-regulatory dogma or document that elite frauds are not a trivial problem that provides no basis for vigorous regulation. They can make public embarrassing information that falsifies the anti-regulatory dogma. The IGs can serve as safe havens for those that believe that the government’s mission is to serve the nation’s interests rather than the industry’s interests. This was the heart of Barofsky’s message as shown in his book title – “Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.” Barofsky’s charge was that Geithner was serving the interests of the often fraudulent banking industry that caused the crisis rather than the interests of the public (“Main Street”). Geithner is a firm believer in the modern version of “what’s good for GM is good for America” – “what’s good for Wall Street is good for America.” What drove Geithner’s verbal assault on Barofsky was the frustration of recognizing that he lacked the power to fire or silence him because of the IG’s statutory protections. Geithner’s only recourse was to seek to intimidate Barofsky. Sadly for Geithner, Barofsky was made of sterner stuff. Geithner’s other problem is that while the Keating Five were intimidating, Speaker Wright was intimidating, and Congressman Dingell, back in the day, was intimidating – Geithner in full rage is a comical hissy fit that would not intimidate even the weakest IG. Barofsky’s greatest challenge was to avoid breaking out in hysterical laughter at the absurdity of Geithner’s attempt to intimidate him. ..... I do not detail Geithner’s actions against Barofsky in this article. I write to situate Geithner’s rage against Barofsky in the broader context of how the “reinventing government” movement helped destroy effective financial regulation and was particularly blind to the essential role that regulators must play to restrain the epidemics of fraud that drive our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. Long read but well worth your time!
SURVEILLANCE UPDATE: It didn't take long for Über-Capitalist Bill Gates and Microsoft to turn SKYPE into yet another illegal government spying tool. Or so it seems. We go to TechDirt's Mike Masnick "from the let's-dig-in dept" Clearing The Air On Skype: Most Of What You Read Was Not Accurate, But There Are Still Reasons To Worry .... But what's actually happening, since so much of this seems to be conjecture and speculation? Well, as the attention and questions grew, Skype itself weighed in to "clarify". It noted that it has been installing more in-house "supernodes" (in the more distant past, various Skype users would act as supernodes) to improve quality for the directory -- but that Skype to Skype calls (again, not calls that touch the public telephone network) were still encrypted person-to-person calls:
- The move to in-house hosting of "supernodes" does not provide for monitoring or recording of calls. "Supernodes" help Skype clients to locate each other so that Skype calls can be made. Simply put, supernodes act as a distributed directory of Skype users. Skype to Skype calls do not flow through our data centres and the "supernodes" are not involved in passing media (audio or video) between Skype clients. ..... [....] Skype software autonomously applies encryption to Skype to Skype calls between computers, smartphones and other mobile devices with the capacity to carry a full version of Skype software as it always has done. This has not changed.
- Ok, so Skype has access to users' communications encryption keys (or can enable others to impersonate as Skype users). What does this mean for the confidentiality of Skype calls? Skype may in fact be telling the truth when it tells journalists that it does not provide CALEA-style wiretap capabilities to governments. It may not need to. If governments can intercept and record the encrypted communications of users (via assistance provided by Internet Service Providers), and have the encryption keys used by both ends of the conversation -- or can impersonate Skype users and perform man in the middle attacks on their conversations, then they can decrypt the voice communications without any further assistance from Skype.
WAR ON WOMEN UPDATE: Did you know the host city for next month's GOPher convention is considered by many to be the Strip Club Captol of the Country? Well wouldn't ya know Strip Clubs in Tampa Are Ready to Cash In on G.O.P. Convention writes Lizette Alvarez for the NYT. .... As Tampa gears up for the Republican National Convention, the biggest party it has ever held, the city and its businesses are primping and polishing for the August arrival of tens of thousands of visitors. Like it or not — mostly not, for city officials — Tampa’s well-known strip clubs have joined the welcome wagon. Club owners here say they have schmoozed with their counterparts in former host cities, like Denver, and have been told that revenue pours in during conventions, sometimes quadrupling earnings from a Super Bowl week. As for party affiliation, this is one place where the country’s caustic partisan differences fall away, owners say. Angelina Spencer, the executive director of the Association of Club Executives, which serves as a trade association for strip clubs, said an informal survey of convention business in New York and Denver had determined that Republicans dropped more money at clubs, by far. “Hands down, it was Republicans,” she said. “The average was $150 for Republicans and $50 for Democrats.” Yep those "family values" GOPhers just love to "trickle down" their cash to strippers! But what do Van Gelicals like Michele "One M" Bachman have to say about GOPher male delegates visiting said titty bars? Who knows? Please read ProjectSocialArt.com's Strip Clubs: Setting the Stage for Gender Inequality, Sexual Violence, and Exploitation Due to the sensitive and controversial nature of this subject, we at Project Social Art would like to assure the reader that we are NOT moralizing about a woman’s choice to strip, exotic dance, topless waitress, etc. Our goal is to expose the existence of strip clubs as breeding grounds for gender inequality, sexual violence against women, and the exploitation of women and to provide our readers with a background for understanding our second live-art piece/social experiment in the “Sex in Stock” series. Strip clubs are places where women are objectified in the most obvious and common of ways and where a woman’s body can be bought for a dance or (sometimes) even more. Gender inequality? Sexual violence against women? Exploitation of women? Sounds like part of the GOPher platform! Or organized religion!
CHURCH UPDATE! From USA Today Philadelphia monsignor gets 3-6 years in abuse coverup A Roman Catholic monsignor who became the first U.S. church official to be branded a felon for covering up sex abuse claims against priests was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison. Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, handled priest assignments and child sexual assault complaints from 1992 to 2004. Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said Lynn enabled "monsters in clerical garb … to destroy the souls of children, to whom you turned a hard heart." She added: "You knew full well what was right, Monsignor Lynn, but you chose wrong." A jury convicted Lynn last month of felony child endangerment for his oversight of now-defrocked priest Edward Avery, who is serving up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting an altar boy in church. In a related matter Chick-fil-A spokesperson dies from heart attack Struck down by his Maker? Eh? The longtime public relations head for the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain died Friday morning, WRBL-TV reports. ..... Perry’s death comes in the midst of the company being widely criticized following Cathy’s admission that he runs the company “on biblical principles” and has donated millions of dollars to anti-LGBT organizations. From the HuffPoAOL piece cited noted LGBT Hater & ChickFilA prez Dan Cathy then reiterated his stance during an appearance on "The Ken Coleman Show," Good as You blogger Jeremy Hooper reported. "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about," Cathy said in that interview, which can be heard here. Needless to say, Cathy's remarks quickly sparked the ire of a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocates and bloggers. "Regardless of where you stand, the placement of LGBT people within our societal picture and within our body of laws is the conversation at hand," wrote Hooper. "That is not the same thing as 'support for the traditional family,' no matter how aggressively the self-appointed values movement attempts to (mis)name reality!" Added David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement: "Apparently, in the Cathy family’s mind, gay people don’t have families, no one divorces, and everyone must be Christian." We say EAT MORE KALE! HA!
'Voter Fraud' FRAUD UPDATE: From Daniel Denvir at Philly's City Paper A whopping 43 percent of Philly voters may not have voter ID, according to new data The number of Pennsylvanians who might not have the photo identification necessary to vote this November has more than doubled: at least 1,636,168 registered voters, or 20 percent of Pennsylvania voters, may not have valid PennDOT-issued ID, according to new data obtained by City Paper. In Philadelphia, an enormous 437,237 people, or 43 percent of city voters, may not possess the valid PennDOT ID necessary to vote under the state's controversial new law. “Those are the numbers we sent,” says Nick Winkler, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, when asked to confirm the data. “If you want to add them together, I think it's misleading.” The new data, received and processed by the AFL-CIO, for the first time includes voters who had PennDOT licenses that have (as of Monday) been expired since Nov. 6, 2011 or an earlier date. If those people do not renew their licenses, the licenses will be expired by at least one year on election day and thus invalid under the new law. And because the AFL-CIO's voter file (which shows the already-publicized large number of voters with no PennDOT record) is seven months old, it could actually represent an undercount since it does not address whether those who have registered as voters since January have valid ID. Pennsylvania's voter ID law is facing increasing scrutiny. Today, Commonwealth Court hearings begin on a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups, including the Pennsylvania ACLU, which allege that the law violates the state constitution's guarantee of the right to vote. And on Monday, the U.S. Attorney General announced that it was investigating whether the law violated the federal Voting Rights Act. In particular, the Department of Justice wants to know upon what basis Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's administration declared that just 1 percent of residents lacked valid identification during the legislative debate over the law. ..... Whatever the exact number that could lack IDs is, it appears to be many, many times larger than original state estimates. “The reality is that thousands more Philadelphians will be impacted by the voter ID law than was originally maintained by the State Department,” says Ellen Kaplan of the good government group Committee of Seventy, which is working to help people get valid ID. “Even taking the lowest possible number, it's a huge hurdle to overcome.” Pennsylvania's contentious law has become the centerpiece of a heated national fight over voter suppression ahead of November's presidential election. And the naked partisanship of Pennsylvania Republicans has contributed to the state law's national notoriety. Late last month, House Majority leader Mike Turzai boasted (video) that the law is “gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.” And two weeks ago, I broke the news that the Corbett administration had awarded a $250,000 voter ID PR contract to the Bravo Group, a firm run by Mitt Romney fundraiser and longtime state GOP leader Chris Bravacos. On Friday, Talking Points Memo described how six people working on that contract all have GOP ties..... In a related matter Brad Friedman of BradBlog reports Game Over: PA Admits There is No Known 'Voter Fraud' That Would Have Been Prevented by State GOP's New Polling Place Photo ID Restrictions Last night we offered some very encouraging news about an apparent federal challenge, in the works by the U.S. Dept of Justice, against the state of Pennsylvania's disenfranchising, GOP-enacted, polling place Photo ID restriction law. Today's news is even more encouraging! The Commonwealth of PA and the plaintiffs in the state challenge to the law have filed a remarkable one-page, 6-point stipulation [PDF] in advance of the trial in that case which is set to begin tomorrow. The stipulation agrees, in plain language, that there has never been a known case of in-person voter fraud --- the only type of voter fraud that can even possibly be deterred by such restrictions --- in the history of the Keystone State, or even in other states, for that matter... [...] ... In other words, these laws are not meant to curb "voter fraud", they are meant to curb voting --- specifically, by people who don't have the type of state-issued Photo ID required under these new laws. In the case of PA, that amounts to some 750,000 legally eligible voters, by the state's own numbers --- more voters than Obama won the state by in 2008. The voters most effected by these laws, as study after study have shown for years, are far and away more Democratic-leaning than Republican.That's the entire story on these purposely disenfranchising voter suppression laws. Period. Always has been, always will be. .... We have, for some time, been calling on the DoJ to bring Section 2 challenges in states where the GOP has imposed disenfranchising polling place Photo ID restrictions, but where the jurisdictions are not those required to receive preclearance for such new laws under Section 5 of the VRA. Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Kansas are just a few such states where Section 2 federal challenges ought to be brought immediately to ensure that all eligible voters who wish to vote are able to do so this November. So, for the moment, we see the DoJ's actions taken to date in PA to be a positive, if long overdue, sign that they are finally taking this stuff seriously in practice, not just in words. We'll be happier still when they take similar action in some of the other states which are not so key to an Obama re-election victory this November. In the meantime, it has been left to local civil rights groups to bring challenges in such states. Tomorrow, the ACLU's challenge to PA's Photo ID restriction, arguing that it violates the state constitution --- as The BRAD BLOG detailed last May --- gets under way. Our colleague, Ari Berman at The Nation, offers a preview of that case today: Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Goes to Court ..... Good on Brad and Ari for following this important development of the GOPhar CANARD of "Voter Fraud"! If you go back to the comments by PA House Majority Leader Mike Turzai as pointed out by Daniel Denvir the full quote to the PA Republican State Committee meeting last month is, "Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done." None of the Brick TeeVee Crew can recall such an out-and-out admission of "election rigging via partisan legislation" ever! Let's hope the ACLU and other voting rights groups plus the DoJ's Section 2 challenges win and make Turzai and his ilk eat some crow!
CLIMATE UPDATE: From Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog Greenland experiences melting over 97% of its area in mid-July Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, was analyzing radar data from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Oceansat-2 satellite last week when he noticed that 97% of Greenland appeared to have undergone surface melting on July 12--an event completely unprecedented in 30 years of satellite measurements. In a July 24 press release from NASA, Nghiem said, "This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?" Multiple satellite data sets confirmed the remarkable event, though. Melt maps derived from three different satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted, as a strong ridge of high pressure set up over Greenland. By July 12, the melting had expanded to cover 97% of Greenland. As I blogged about last week, temperatures at at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, 10,551 feet (3216 meters) above sea level, and 415 miles (670 km) north of the Arctic Circle, had risen above the freezing mark four times in the 12-year span 2000 - 2011. But in mid-July 2012, temperatures eclipsed the freezing mark on five days, including four days in a row from July 11 - 14. Interestingly, ice core records show that in 1889, a similar pronounced melt event occurred at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and such events occur naturally about every 150 years. "But if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome," said Lora Koenig, a NASA/Goddard glaciologist and a member of the research team analyzing the satellite data. Such an event could occur as early as this weekend: the latest wunderground forecast for the Greenland Summit calls for above-freezing temperatures to return again by Saturday through Tuesday, with a high of 36°F (2°C) on Tuesday. This would come close to the record warm temperature at Summit of 3.6°C set just two weeks ago. Exceptionally warm temperatures in Greenland this July have been made more likely by the fact that Arctic sea ice area has been at record low levels so far this month. Furthermore, the Greenland Ice Sheet has become darker this July than at any point since satellite measurements began (Figure 2), allowing Greenland to absorb more solar energy and heat up. ...... According to a university press release by Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, “While the size is not as spectacular as it was in 2010, the fact that it follows so closely to the 2010 event brings the glacier’s terminus to a location where it has not been for at least 150 years. Northwest Greenland and northeast Canada are warming more than five times faster than the rest of the world, but the observed warming is not proof that the diminishing ice shelf is caused by this, because air temperatures have little effect on this glacier; ocean temperatures do, and our ocean temperature time series are only five to eight years long — too short to establish a robust warming signal.” Read on and see the maps and charts! Then BBC's Environment correspondent Richard Black explains how in the Antarctic: Grand Canyon-sized rift 'speeding ice melt' A rift in the Antarctic rock as deep as the Grand Canyon is increasing ice melt from the continent, researchers say. A UK team found the Ferrigno rift using ice-penetrating radar, and showed it to be about 1.5km (1 mile) deep. Antarctica is home to a geological rift system where new crust is being formed, meaning the eastern and western halves of the continent are slowly separating. The team writes in Nature journal that the canyon is bringing more warm sea water to the ice sheet, hastening melt. The Ferrigno rift lies close to the Pine Island Glacier where Nasa scientists found a giant crack last year; but the newly discovered feature is not thought to be influencing the "Pig", as it is known. The rift lies beneath the Ferrigno Ice Stream on a stretch of coast so remote that it has only been visited once previously.The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) project revisited the area two years ago in the person of Aberdeen University glaciologist Robert Bingham. The plan was to make ground observations that could link to the satellite data showing unexpectedly pronounced ice loss from the area. The team towed ice-penetrating radar kit behind a snowmobile, traversing a total of about 2,500km (1,500 miles). "What we found is that lying beneath the ice there is a large valley, parts of which are approximately a mile deeper than the surrounding landscape," said Dr Bingham. "If you stripped away all of the ice here today, you'd see a feature every bit as dramatic as the huge rift valleys you see in Africa and in size as significant as the [US] Grand Canyon. "This is at odds with the flat ice surface that we were driving across - without these measurements we would never have known it was there." The Ferrigno rift extends into a seabed trough, called Belgica. The scientists suggest that during Ice Ages, when sea levels were much lower than at present, the rift would have channelled a major ice stream through the trough. Now, they suggest, the roles are reversed, with the walls of the Belgica trough channelling relatively warm sea water back to the ice edge. Penetrating between the Antarctic bedrock and the ice that lies on it and lubricating the join, the water allows ice to flow faster into the sea. "We know that the ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is governed by delivery of warm water, and that the warm water is coming along channels that were previously scoured by glaciers," said Prof David Vaughan of BAS. "So the geology and the present rate of ice loss are intricately linked, and they feed back - if you have fast-flowing ice, that delivers ice to the edge where it can be impacted by warm water, and warm water makes the ice flow faster," he told BBC News. .... Ice loss from West Antarctica is believed to contribute about 10% to global sea level rise. But how the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets respond to warmer temperatures is the biggest unknown by far in trying to predict how fast the waters will rise over the coming century and beyond. A total melt of either sheet would raise sea levels globally by several metres..... Next Bill McGibbon writes in Rolling Stone Global Warming's Terrifying New Math Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven't convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe. Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record." The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet's history. Not that our leaders seemed to notice. Last month the world's nations, meeting in Rio for the 20th-anniversary reprise of a massive 1992 environmental summit, accomplished nothing. ...... When we think about global warming at all, the arguments tend to be ideological, theological and economic. But to grasp the seriousness of our predicament, you just need to do a little math. For the past year, an easy and powerful bit of arithmetical analysis first published by financial analysts in the U.K. has been making the rounds of environmental conferences and journals, but it hasn't yet broken through to the larger public. This analysis upends most of the conventional political thinking about climate change. And it allows us to understand our precarious – our almost-but-not-quite-finally hopeless – position with three simple numbers. Go to RS to read this very important article NOW! The economic impacts of ignoring climate change is beginning to come to the fore. The Common Dreams staff reports
'Time Running Out' to Avert Global Food Crisis: Experts The record drought gripping half the US will help push food prices up by 3 per cent to 4 per cent next year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. "In 2013 as a result of this drought we are looking at above-normal food price inflation. ... Consumers are certainly going to feel it," USDA economist Richard Volpe said on Wednesday. The drought has sent corn, soybean and other commodity prices soaring in recent weeks as fields dry out and crops wither across much of the country's midsection. Meteorologists are predicting that conditions behind the drought will continue, putting crops at risk and raising food prices as well as the specter of a food crisis, according to Al Jazeera. "This drought was a surprise for everybody," Volpe said. "The USDA was forecasting a record year for the corn crop until this drought materialized. Now we're not going to get that." But food policy experts contend that despite unexpected high temperatures and poor rainfall this year, food crises are predictable events and have as much to do with man-made climate change and US agricultural policy as they do with isolated droughts. "The drought isn't merely bad because the crops are parched. Climate change has nudged the temperature more than a degree higher than the previous record-breaking US drought in the 1950s," says author, economist and food policy expert Raj Patel. "We don't yet know what the final reckoning will be for food prices," Patel said. "The price is driven by a demand for animal feed, high-fructose corn syrup, and an incredibly stupid US biofuels policy that mandates the transformation of food into ethanol. With the US producing over half of world corn exports, and with the price of those exports set by domestic uses of corn, the US drought will have a profound impact on [global food ]prices." Lester R. Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute, writing for The Guardian, noted that world stocks of grain will fall further near the end of this year, worsening an already precarious global food situation. "The world is in serious trouble on the food front. But there is little evidence that political leaders have yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening," he said. "Time is running out. The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – replete with soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and ultimately political instability– than most people realize." Go to Common Dreams for Raj Patel's op-ed from The Guardian/UK US Politicians Must Regulate Finance to Tackle the Drought and Food-Price Crisis US leaders worked hard to tackle the 1930s drought and food crisis. Today they are supine, offering the hungry only prayers. Good item! But could it just be the next wave of Disaster Capitalism? Next we find out a Texas Judge Rules Air is Part of the Public Trust Last week a Texas judge surprised many by ruling that air, like water, is part of the public trust. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of several Texas kids, whose attorneys argue that the state of Texas has a duty to maintain a stable, livable climate on behalf of current and future generations. On the other side of the courtroom: the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which argued that water, but not air, is part of the public trust. Travis County Judge Gisela Triana’s ruling underscores the near-consensus scientific view that greenhouse gases are driving climate change and is a rebuke to Texas political leaders such as Rick Perry, who deny the science. But several legal experts, including an attorney who worked on the case, said the ruling is largely a symbolic victory and that the legal ramifications are unclear. "It's one state case in an orchestrated series of cases across the country," said law professor Mary Wood of the University of Oregon School of Law. Wood said making air part of the public trust theoretically means that the government must protect the atmosphere. And by extension, it must protect the climate that humans depend on, she said. Congress and the Obama administration have largely abdicated responsibility for tackling climate change, shifting the focus to the judiciary, Wood said. "At this pivotal time when the opportunity to protect our climate is fast closing, our only hope now is the judicial branch," Wood said. What’s the next step after the ruling? No one really knows but making air part of the public trust could eventually lead to more stringent protections against air pollution and climate change, said law professor Gabriel Eckstein of Texas Wesleyan School of Law. "The notion behind the public trust is that natural resources are so important to people, to the general public that they should have access to them," Eckstein said. Public trust doctrine dates to 530 A.D., when the Roman Emperor Justinian dedicated the air, water and seashore to public use. In the context of water, the public trust confers the right of access to natural lakes and rivers, Eckstein said. Governments are entrusted to protect the water and supply the best quality water to the public. In the context of air, this could mean protecting the atmosphere from pollution and ensuring that everyone breathes quality air, he said. "It's common sense. It's so common sense, we ignore it," Eckstein said. "We took it for granted with water for hundreds of years until we really began to have serious water pollution." But Triana’s ruling is just one small part of a much bigger legal morass. Texas and the EPA are locked in a number of high-profile lawsuits over new air pollution standards and greenhouse gas regulations. Those federal suits take preeminence over the ruling in Travis County. Triana, in fact, acknowledged that TCEQ’s "refusal to exercise its authority" to regulate greenhouse gases was permitted.
Following up is David MorrisCo-founder, Institute for Local Self-Reliance at HuffPoAOL Texas Judge Rules the Sky Belongs to Us All ..... In 2007 in a law review article, University of Oregon Professor Mary Wood elaborated on the idea of a Nature's Trust. "With every trust there is a core duty of protection," she wrote. "The trustee must defend the trust against injury. Where it has been damaged, the trustee must restore the property in the trust." She noted that the idea itself is not new. In 1892 "when private enterprise threatened the shoreline of Lake Michigan, the Supreme Court said, 'It would not be listened to that the control and management of [Lake Michigan] -- a subject of concern to the whole people of the state -- should... be placed elsewhere than in the state itself.' You can practically hear those same Justices saying today that '[i]t would not be listened to' that government would let our atmosphere be dangerously warmed in the name of individual, private property rights." In 2010 Wood, along with Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children's Trust "had the vision to organize a coordinated international campaign of attorneys, youth, and media around the idea that the climate crisis could be addressed as a whole system," Barnes observes, replacing a situation in which "legal solutions were fragmented, focused on closing down a particular power plant or seeking justice for a particular endangered species, threatened neighborhood or body of water impacted by our fossil fuel abuse." On behalf of the youth of America, Our Children's Trust, Kids Versus Global Warming and others began filing suits around the country, arguing the atmosphere is a public trust. So far cases have been filed in 13 states. The "public trust" doctrine is a legal principle derived from English Common Law. Traditionally it has applied to water resources. The waters of the state are deemed a public resource owned by and available to all citizens equally for the purposes of navigation, fishing, recreation, and other uses. The owner cannot use that resource in a way that interferes with the public's use and interest. The public trustee, usually the state, must act to maintain and enhance the trust's resources for the benefit of future generations. ....... Read on for more details! The "Public Trust" angle is a great idea! We need more great ideas like this!
Go to the Advancement Project for more ideas!
And GO NOW TO community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Community Wealth Building in Action: The Cleveland Model Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at community-wealth.org! DO IT! You can do this! WE can DO THIS! Our LAST WORD goes to CHRIS HEDGES The Careerists It was the careerists who made possible the genocides, from the extermination of Native Americans to the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians to the Nazi Holocaust to Stalin’s liquidations. They were the ones who kept the trains running. They filled out the forms and presided over the property confiscations. They rationed the food while children starved. They manufactured the guns. They ran the prisons. They enforced travel bans, confiscated passports, seized bank accounts and carried out segregation. They enforced the law. They did their jobs. Political and military careerists, backed by war profiteers, have led us into useless wars, including World War I, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. And millions followed them. Duty. Honor. Country. Carnivals of death. They sacrifice us all. In the futile battles of Verdun and the Somme in World War I, 1.8 million on both sides were killed, wounded or never found. ..... Here you have the explanation of why our ruling elites do nothing about climate change, refuse to respond rationally to economic meltdown and are incapable of coping with the collapse of globalization and empire. These are circumstances that interfere with the very viability and sustainability of the system. And bureaucrats know only how to serve the system. They know only the managerial skills they ingested at West Point or Harvard Business School. They cannot think on their own. They cannot challenge assumptions or structures. They cannot intellectually or emotionally recognize that the system might implode. And so they do what Napoleon warned was the worst mistake a general could make—paint an imaginary picture of a situation and accept it as real. But we blithely ignore reality along with them. The mania for a happy ending blinds us. We do not want to believe what we see. It is too depressing. So we all retreat into collective self-delusion. ..... These armies of bureaucrats serve a corporate system that will quite literally kill us. They are as cold and disconnected as Mengele. They carry out minute tasks. They are docile. Compliant. They obey. They find their self-worth in the prestige and power of the corporation, in the status of their positions and in their career promotions. They assure themselves of their own goodness through their private acts as husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They sit on school boards. They go to Rotary. They attend church. It is moral schizophrenia. ..... Read Hedges' entire piece at TruthDig.com! New articles every Monday! Yes The Careerists. Chalmers Johnson had another word for them: 'Desk Murderers'. How to deal with these schizophrenics and serial economic psychopaths? We note one solution by sane people Iceland Has Hired An Ex-Cop To Hunt Down The Bankers That Wrecked Its Economy! We need more of THAT! Plenty of Careerists will be on yer Corporoteevee on Sunday morning no doubt! Amid the matchups and skirmishes save yer bricks for DARTH CHENEY on This Matthew Dowd (yeah new guy; we thought KO might get the gig haha!) If you have bricks left after THAT WHITEWASH try Fat Tony Scallia on FAKE NEWS (like you'll watch that trainwreck if only for the rubbernecker factor haha!) So much more below like DIGBY and MATT TAIBBI with Sam Seder, Ring of Fire with ELIZABETH WARREN, Max with ROSEANNE BARR, a new Boiling Frogs at PBC and CRIPE more TONS of REAL NEWS! Can you believe it? Go look! Click anything below and BE INSTANTLY SMARTER! GUARANTEED!
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©
Monday, July 23, 2012
- Aurora Shooting Discussions @ Democracy NOW! including Aurora Shooting Witness Omar Esparza, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Virginia Tech Shooting Survivor Colin Goddard and Bud Welch, the father of an Oklahoma City bombing victim.
- Dave Zirin sports columnist for The Nation magazine @ Democracy NOW! Penn State Students Bear Brunt of NCAA Sanctions for Sandusky Cover-Up as Trustees Emerge Unscathed
- Activist Theresa Smith & Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly @ Democracy NOW! Police Brutality in Anaheim Sparks Outrage After 2 Latinos Shot Dead and Demonstrators Attacked
- Mayo Bartlett, attorney for the family of Kenneth Chamberlain @ Democracy NOW! White Plains Police Officer Who Used Racial Slur Before Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is Suspended
- Dr. Elly Katabira & Melissa Gira Grant @ Democracy NOW! International AIDS Conference Convenes in D.C. After U.S. Lifts Travel Ban on People With HIV
- Meena Seshu & Annah Pickering @ Democracy NOW! Barred by U.S. Restrictions, Sex Workers Hold Alternative AIDS Summit in Kolkata, India
- Rep. Barbara Lee & Dazon Dixon Diallo @ Democracy NOW! Rep. Barbara Lee and Dazon Dixon Diallo on Confronting the Overlooked AIDS Epidemic in Black America
- Paul Barrett, assistant managing editor at Bloomberg Businessweek @ Democracy NOW! Inside Karl Rove’s Secretive Effort to Defeat Obama’s Re-Election With Help of Billionaire Donors AND "Glock" Author Paul Barrett: Aurora Massacre Latest Tragedy to Show Failures of U.S. Gun Laws
- Ex-U.S. Athlete Jules Boykoff @ Democracy NOW! Lockdown in London: Professor, Ex-U.S. Athlete Jules Boykoff on Olympic Censorship & Militarization
- Carlos Garcia, organizer with the "Arrest Arpaio Not the People" campaign @ Democracy NOW! "No Papers, No Fear": As Arpaio Fights Arizona Suit, 4 Undocumented Immigrants Reveal Their Status
- Stephen Lewis @ Democracy NOW! Stephen Lewis: As World Spends Trillions on War and Bank Bailouts, Little Money Left to Fight AIDS
- Timothy Ray Brown @ Democracy NOW! The Berlin Patient: Timothy Ray Brown Speaks Out on Being First Man "Cured" of HIV
- Rev. Canon Byamugisha @ Democracy NOW! Rev. Canon Byamugisha Makes History as 1st African Religious Leader to Reveal HIV-Positive Status
»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders (BTV NOTE: We get this: "This site has been suspended. If you are the owner of this site, please contact customer support." Somebody call Laura!!!)
»»» FEATURED SHOW Finance Is Lost. Is Banking Redeemable? An interview with John Fullerton of Capital Institute The British banking scandal reveals—again—just how wrong-headed our assumptions about finance are. Morality and self-interest are hopelessly at odds; add planetary crisis to the picture, and we're "lost," said one former JPMorgan executive I had a chance to interview last month. Are banksters redeemable? The British rate-rigging scandal has been lying in plain sight. City of London bankers, upper crust, chummy, professional types, were supposed to tell the truth about their own bank’s borrowing power and every day, based on those estimates, the London inter-bank borrowing rate or LIBOR was set. Now that regulators have spoken, it’s come to seem absurd that private bankers were expected to play fair, act responsibly and act in anything other their own self-interest—without oversight. But that’s just how the inter-bank lending rate setting worked. That said, is the problem with the bankers or with us? See full transcript at link!
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» NASCAR on ESPN It's the Brickyard 400! Denny Hamlin smoked the field with a 49.244 seconds (182.763 mph) lap around the 2.5 mile oval! Coverage from Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins at NOON et!
»»» MLB Sunday TBS Nationals @ Brewers 2 pm et
»»» MLB Sunday Night ESPN Red Sox @ Yankees 8 pm et
»»» MLB Monday Night ESPNAngels @ Rangers 7 pm et
»»» MLB Wednesday Night ESPN Tigers @ Red Sox 7 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country: - Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.
- Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.
B R I C K T E E V E E
image ©2006 arkysue
THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
The essential guide for watching government propaganda
IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,061 US Military Dead as of July 25, 2012 The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative
- This Week (ABC) hosted by ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd
• Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs squares off with
• Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden
• FORMER Vice President Dick Cheney
• ROUNDTABLE: George Will; Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile; Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief David Chalian, radio host and Brietbart.com contributing editor Dana Loesch, and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus.
- Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
• Penn State president Rodney Erickson
• *BIG SECRET* Mebbe OLIMPIX?
- 60 Minutes (CBS) Summer reruns....
• Hard Times Generation - Scott Pelley brings "60 Minutes" cameras back to central Florida to document another level of homelessness - kids and their parents living in cars. Bob Anderson and Nicole Young are the producers.
• The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh - His paintings are among the most well-known in the world, just like the story of his life and death: Vincent van Gogh was a troubled genius who killed himself. But now the authors of a biography say their exhaustive investigation strongly indicates he may not have taken his own life. Morley Safer reports. David Browning is the producer.
- Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
• Meet the Press will not air on July 29 or August 5 due to NBC’s coverage of the Olympic games. So there.
• Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better."
Okay then.
- State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
• Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and
• Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• ROUNDTABLE: Ken Goldstein, President of Kantar Media/CMAG, Ron Brownstein, CNN’s Senior Political Analyst and Michael Scherer of Time Magazine
• Live coverage of Mitt Romney’s speech in Jerusalem
- HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
• FRONT PORCH FRIDAY!!!!! Bob is BACK!! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW! Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
- YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT
The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
• 'Green News Report' - July 26, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Drought expands in the US, and it's gonna cost ya; Obama Admin expands solar lands --- while Fox 'News' whines about it; US Navy's Great Green Fleet sails to success; Heat records shattered in St. Louis; PLUS: Shocking ice melt across Greenland ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
• IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): David Letterman On Fracking: 'We're Screwed; Rise in Weather Extremes Threatens Infrastructure; 70% of Arctic ice loss is due to climate change; Could Africa hold the answers to America's drought woes?; U.S. cities unprepared for future heat waves; Winning the carbon tax debate; Geo-engineering, storms may speed up ozone loss ... PLUS: The environment is trying to ruin the Olympics again ... and much, MUCH more! ...
• BRADBLOG UPDATE: Guest editorial by D.R. Tucker Why They're Worried About Warren Warrenphobia: The right's antipathy towards Warren has no logical basis. They've never presented any proof that Warren, a former Republican (!), is an "ultra-liberal." She's center-left at best policy-wise, closer to Clinton than Castro. The right is still angry at Warren's famous "social contract" speech, but there's nothing in the speech that should set off any partisan alarms. All she says, in essence, is that capitalism is not perfect. Of course, that's the problem. She believes capitalism is not perfect. To the rational mind, that's basic common sense. To the irrational mind, that's treason.
• BRADCAST UPDATE! 'The BradCast' on KPFK: Targeting the Terrorist-Enabling NRA for Accountability Sadly, they were too busy praying or lying or raising money off the tragedy or something, to show up and defend their deadly positions, so today's show was just me, and a bunch of great callers who, unlike the terrorist-enabling NRA, were not afraid to come on our public airwaves to offer their positions in the public square over our public airwaves. For the record, here are the folks who declined to show up and support their deadly positions on the show today, or who simply didn't respond at all to our invitation to appear. Yes, we really believe in offering opportunities for all legitimate positions to be heard over our public airwaves...
• Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Now up to 9,200+ Election Protection posts! Find out who's counting your votes and how at ElectionIntegrity.org too.
- The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
• Holiday Break and Website Changes
- To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
• PBC Standard Podcast July 25, 2012 Former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin on Her New Book, “The New Feminist Agenda”; Matt Zimmerman of EFF on a Phone Company’s Challenge to National Security Letter
• PBC Standard Podcast July 27, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Journalist Michael Hughes on His Expose of the Karzai Brothers’ Corruption
- Ring of Fire Radio
Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
This week on Ring of Fire July 27, 2012
• Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren will stop by to talk about the anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• Best-selling author Cliff Schecter will be here to discuss the biggest news stories of the week.
• Attorney James Kauffman will tell us about the fraud and corruption being exposed by whistleblowers at Countrywide.
• Investigative journalist Lee Fang will tell us about the sweetheart loan deals that members of Congress received from Countrywide.
• John Nichols from The Nation will join us for a discussion on the Aurora Shooting.
• Mother Jones reporter Nick Baumann will join us to discuss Romney’s outsourcing techniques that he employed at Bain.
• Justin Elliot from PropPublica will talk to us about Bain Capitals’ involvement with El Salvadorian revolutionaries.
• VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473)or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
• VIDEO! Papantonio: Mitt Romney The Olympic Ass Clown Mitt Romney is making gaffe after gaffe on his European tour, and Mike Papantonio tells us why this is dangerous, not just for the GOP, but for the image of the United States.
• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.
• Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!
Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."
- Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!
• July 24, 2012 Digby, Fiscal Cliff Showdown
• July 25, 2012 Wednesday is Hump Day
• July 26, 2012 Matt Taibbi, Octopus, Audit the FED and More Libor
• July 27, 2012 Cliff Schecter, News and Matthew Weiss With Movie Picks
• MORE Podcast Interviews at Majority.fm!
- On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
• NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
• The “Keiser Report” has been begging europe to do this for years by maxkeiser READ European Banks Preparing To Boycott Big Three Rating Agencies (zerohedge.com)
• CNBC’s Admission, yes: Silver market is manipulated (skip to 9:30) by maxkeiser READ CNBC Host States Silver Manipulation is a Fact, NOT a Conspiracy! sliverdoctors.com with VIDEO! Once Barclays pointed the finger at BoE as colluding on Libor manipulation (instead of denying it), the roof got ripped off decades of blatant manipulation in these markets. The dollar and U.S. bonds have been protected with Fed interference and outright manipulation; same thing in the UK. And to bolster the price for sovereign bonds, the price of Gold and Silver has been manipulated down alongside the upside price movements of worthless paper. Ratings at CNBC have been plummeting this year – as the audience is way ahead of their talking heads on these points. When CNBC admits that markets, especially silver, are rigged, the few remaining viewers they have collectively sigh; ‘I heard that on Keiser Report three years ago.’ READ CNBC: Silver and Financial Markets Are Manipulated, But So What? Jesse's Crossroads Cafe
• KEISER REPORT [KR311] Keiser Report: JP Enron We discuss why nobody is freaking about LIBOR in America, while JP Morgan caught doing an Enron on US energy markets and GlaxoSmithKline pays 10% of their ill-gotten gains for bribing doctors and scientists across America. In the second half of the show Max talks to Kevin Sara of the TuNur solar export project of Tunisia about solar exports from the Middle East and toxic derivatives exports from the City of London.
• KEISER REPORT [KR317] Keiser Report: Where Money Goes To Die We discuss the Irish government being so terribly ‘embarrassed’ that they hired two dirty bankers to ‘clean up’ their financial system and they remind David Cameron over in ‘Grim Britain’ of the ‘dreadful backgrounds’ of Bob Diamond, Jamie Dimon and their ilk. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Wolf Richter of the Testosteronepit.com about the wine bubbles and where money goes to die.
• KEISER REPORT [KR318] Keiser Report: Financial Feeding Frenzy with Roseanne Barr We discuss feeding frenzies on Wall Street, drug money laundering in the City and Javier Bardem pays a little visit to the bankers. In the second half of the show, Max talks to comedian, actress, writer and Presidential candidate, Roseanne Barr about the mainstreaming of calls to ‘hang bankers’ and about ridding our democracies of politicians owned by bankers.
• KEISER REPORT [KR319] Keiser Report: Jellyfish Rat-Heart Robot Bankers We discuss the jellyfish robot with a rat heart, aka The Perfect Banker. They also welcome the audience to the world of banking 2012 and introduce the silver dosimeter that signals exposure to toxic financial products and bad economic policies. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Mark O’Byrne of Goldcore.com about silver, gold, manipulation and the crooks put in charge of cleaning up Ireland.
• KEISER REPORT [KR320] Keiser Report: Hang ‘Em High! Here are photos from the ‘horror hospital’ with ‘Auschwitz like conditions’ in Afghanistan.
• ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Michael Hudson We interview Dr. Michael Hudson who is out with a new book, The Bubble and Beyond.
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM371] The Truth About Zynga & Facebook! Download show HERE (mp3)
• Donate to ResonanceFM here!
- ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
Listen at antiwar.com/radio
• Pepe Escobar June 30, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all); looking for ways to bypass the UN on Syria, since China and Russia won’t let an interventionist resolution pass the Security Council; grand plans for NATO expansion in the official “Assured Security, Dynamic Engagement” plan; counterrevolutions in the Middle East and South America, as the US looks to rebuild its portfolio of client states; and how Qatar has become the new superpower in the Middle East, surpassing even Saudi Arabia.
• SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
• Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
- fauxnews
• Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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We're here because you're there. ©
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