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Whales in the Sky with Dimon Okay it's a cheesy reference to a famous Beatles song. We're busted! Just wait and it will all come clear! Now MITT HEADROOM (in CLE OH! of all places) is now saying he saved the auto industry! See NewsNet5 Mitt Romney taking credit for auto industry comeback during NewsChannel5 interview creates buzz.... "It was the UAW and the president that delayed the idea of bankruptcy. I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy, and finally when that was done and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. So I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back," Romney said. .... Romney’s piece in the NYT, titled “Let Detoit Go Bankrupt ,” said the bailout would lead to the failure of America’s auto industry. Here is an except from that publication:
“IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed." Nice flip-flop Kaptain Kolob! What Hubris! NPR unravels the story more in Romney Shifts Gears On Auto Industry Bailout.
At nakedCapitalism.com we find a guest post from Bill Black: New York Times Reporters Need to Read Krugman’s Columns To know the Washington Consensus as a regular citizen is to hate the Consensus. The Washington Consensus, as the name implies, was an “inside the beltway” series of neo-liberal policies embraced by the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.S. government. It called for a minimal State and an all-powerful private sector. .... The Consensus led to weak growth, high unemployment, and repeated privatization scandals. It enraged ordinary citizens in much of Latin America, which is why there has been a landslide of national leaders elected because of their promises to oppose the Consensus and their open disdain for Washington’s neo-colonial diktats. There is nothing unusual about the Latin American reaction to the Consensus. What is startling is that at the same time that Latin America was rising up to reject the Consensus the dominant neo-liberal politicians and economists in Europe were passionately worshiping its failed dogma with the zeal of the convert. They created the Berlin Consensus, and it rested on austerity today, austerity tomorrow, austerity always. .... German-imposed austerity, the Berlin Consensus, is even more draconian than the Washington Consensus in Latin America. Germany and the ECB are open that they are not simply demanding austerity and massive privatization – they are also demanding dramatic reductions in working class wages throughout the EU. The German’s and the ECB are not demanding any sacrifices from European elites. They explicitly target the working class and government workers’ wages and oppose any increased taxation of the wealthy. The Berlin Consensus is a road map to ever greater inequality. The reaction among Europe’s citizens has been overwhelmingly negative. Every nation that has agreed to austerity has suffered economically and every ruling party that agreed to austerity in return for EU aid has fallen. Austerity is the leading cause of disintegrating EU unity. The nice thing about democracy is that the people are often less wedded to failed economic dogma than are the academic devotees of the cult of austerity. The New York Times has a very good economist, a Nobel laureate, working for it as a regular columnist. His name is Paul Krugman and among his areas of primary study is how to recover from a severe recession. Regular readers of the paper will know that recovery is the most common subject Krugman’s columns discuss. Sunday’s elections in France, Greece, Germany, and the UK have spawned a spate of articles in the New York Times that have focused on finance and recovery from the Great Recession in Europe. The reporters’ collective take on the elections demonstrates that they are in the grip of dogmas that are so powerful that they have come to believe in anti-facts and to rely on “economic” theories that are rarely believed by economists and have been continuously falsified by reality. It is now apparent that the paper’s journalists that cover the EU do not read or do not understand Krugman.......... The dogmatic austerity devotees who consistently get it wrong are treated as undisputed authority while the New York Time’s own expert who has consistently gotten it right, and has a Nobel Prize in economics, is ignored. (Krugman was formerly more of a deficit hawk. He now takes into account how different sovereign monetary systems, e.g., the U.S. and Japan, are from currencies like the euro and is more of a dove. UMKC economics consists of deficit “owls.”) A related New York Times story about investor reactions to Hollande’s victory buys into austerity and the assault on working class wages even more wholeheartedly. It cites no contrary views by economists. It does not even mention austerity throwing the euro zone back into recession and periphery into depression. It embraces TINA and the Road to Bangladesh strategy. It sees no irony in this, warning that unless France makes deep cuts to working class wages: “‘France runs the risk of becoming more of a periphery country than remaining in core,” Mr. Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute said.” So the only way for France to avoid becoming like the periphery is to force cuts in working class wages to levels where France can outcompete China – and Germany and Bangladesh. And what does Kirkegaard think the Spanish will be forced to do under this strategy? They’ll have to make deeper cuts than the French. And what will the French do in response to the Spanish working class wage cuts? And what will Vietnam and Bangladesh do if the EU nations cut their working class wages to levels that allow them to “win” the race to the bottom? Won’t they be forced to react by further cuts in their working class wages? Who is going to buy Germany’s VWs under this strategy? To sum it up: in order to avoid becoming a part of Europe’s periphery France’s working class must become part of the third world.
OWS GOES TO COURT John Knefel at AlterNet Is the NYPD Out of Control? New Lawsuit Takes on Bloomberg's 'Private Army' .... Fifteen plaintiffs, including five elected officials, members of the press, an Iraq war veteran, and Occupy Wall Street activists are suing the city in federal court, alleging gross misconduct ranging from false arrest and imprisonment to possible conspiracy between the police department and JPMorgan Chase to chill citizen's rights to peaceably assemble. The suit is known as Rodriguez v. Winski and calls for, among other measures, the creation of an independent federal position to oversee the NYPD. The department is out of control, the suit alleges, and is incapable of holding itself accountable. I'm also a plaintiff in the case and can testify from first-hand experience that the NYPD is out of control. This is obviously not news to the hundreds of thousands of young men of color who are stopped and frisked by the cops every year, and it's always important to stress that the kind of suppression a political movement like Occupy faces is both quantitatively and categorically different than the oppression marginalized communities face. So the stories laid out below come with the caveat of “police brutality in New York isn't new, but it's crazy and maybe we can get this under control.” ..... One part of the story that hasn't been reported, until now, centers on plaintiff Justin Sullivan, who was arrested while filming arrests at a “mic check” action in Grand Central Station. Upon being taken into custody his still camera and video camera were confiscated, which is standard procedure. Sullivan was released from the precinct with several court summonses, but without his camera. It's worth quoting the complaint in full (emphasis mine):

• 107. When Plaintiff Justin Sullivan went back to the MTA Police Precinct located at Grand Central Station to ask for his missing video camera, he was re-arrested and held for approximately 24 more hours.
• 108. Additional charges were issued against Plaintiff Justin Sullivan at that time.
• 109. Plaintiff Justin Sullivan's still camera was not returned.
• 110. Plaintiff Justin Sullivan's video camera was not returned.
• 111. Plaintiff Justin Sullivan's data chips were not returned.
• 112. A witness reported that she observed an officer who fits the physical description of Officer Lakeram (who specifically requested JS's cameras – JK) instructing another officer to break the camera.

That's an astounding set of allegations. After being arrested for filming somebody being arrested (who was actually speaking out against a previous arrest), Sullivan was released, re-arrested, and issued further charges. Beyond all that, his camera – which contained evidence regarding the previous arrests – was allegedly destroyed and his data cards were either destroyed, lost, or are still being held somewhere. ..... In early October, JP Morgan issued a press release touting its $4.6 million donation to the New York Police Foundation, the largest in the NYPF's history. The contribution began in September 2010, well before the emergence of Occupy, so the money wasn't related to the protesters initially, although the relationship between the financial firm and the police remains unclear. The NYPF is closely associated with the NYPD; the homepage on its website features a photo of NYPD Commissioner Kelly. We don't know what effect that donation had on police policies and behavior. But we do know that Occupy activists were barred from exercising their rights due to the content of their speech, and more needs to be revealed about the collusion between the police and financial elites. The complaints go on and on...... Lisa Du at BusinessInsider.com points us to a Former Wall Streeter Explains Why She Joined Occupy Wall Street Alexis Goldstein worked for seven years on Wall Street before she got out. In that period, Wall Street made her a "cynical, bitter, depressed, and exhausted “knowledge worker” who felt that everyone was out to screw me over," she wrote in a piece for n+1 magazine. When Goldstein quit Wall Street in 2010, it well before Occupy Wall Street began. But since the movement caught fire last fall, Goldstein has wholeheartedly thrown herself into the cause and gained quite a bit of publicity for it. She's now a part of Occupy the SEC—a working group in OWS that focuses on financial regulation—and also recently offered her commentary to the Frontline documentary on the financial crisis. Goldstein, who spent her 7 years on Wall Street in technology developing trading models and as a business analyst, finally shares the story of her personal experience on Wall Street in the n+1 article, and the cycle of greed and envy that the culture of the financial firms nurtured, resulting ultimately in tired and paranoid employees that had completely antagonized their employers. Click over to read her whole story! Excellent! Next our own jen points us to an episode of Up With Chris Hayes May 6: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman responds to allegations that the Mortgage Fraud Task Force he heads – which investigates the mortgage and banking industries that wrecked the economy – is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Sez jen "We're doomed. (Alexis Goldstein of Occupy the SEC is on the panel. Love that woman!) I find it interesting that Schneiderman, when responding to questions from Alexis will not look her in the eyes, or even look at her face. 8-) He is sitting right next to her, so maybe that's part of it." Nice catch! Also jen snagged our TWEETS OF THE WEEK

Nouriel Roubini@Nouriel Result of Greek elections much more serious than the French one as the former leads to chaos while Hollande will turn out to be a moderate -- Newyorkist@Newyorkist American cities begin deploying new laws directed at preventing #ows related protests . @WCNC in Charlotte: http://bit.ly/JIpR3E

WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS? In a very disturbing piece Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman at Wired's Danger Room describe how U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of “Hiroshima” to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.” The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. It’s only now, however, that the details of the class have come to light. Danger Room received hundreds of pages of course material and reference documents from a source familiar with the contents of the class. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently ordered the entire U.S. military to scour its training material to make sure it doesn’t contain similarly hateful material, a process that is still ongoing. But the officer who delivered the lectures, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, still maintains his position at the Norfolk, Virginia college, pending an investigation. The commanders, lieutenant colonels, captains and colonels who sat in Dooley’s classroom, listening to the inflammatory material week after week, have now moved into higher-level assignments throughout the U.S. military. For the better part of the last decade, a small cabal of self-anointed counterterrorism experts has been working its way through the U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement communities, trying to convince whoever it could that America’s real terrorist enemy wasn’t al-Qaida — but the Islamic faith itself. In his course, Dooley brought in these anti-Muslim demagogues as guest lecturers. And he took their argument to its final, ugly conclusion...... Read all three pages! Allison Kilkenney reports for The Nation Thousands Turn Out to Protest Bank of America Shareholders' Meeting with updates from the Day of Action and photos! NOW IN CHARLOTTE! The American Legislative Exchange Council! ALEC comes to Charlotte to craft model legislation The American Legislative Exchange Council will be in Charlotte on Friday for its spring task force meeting, where “model legislation” is considered for promotion in states across the country. ALEC brings together corporate interest and state legislators to craft free-market, conservative bills behind closed doors. .... Eight other task forces are meeting in Charlotte. Common Cause has obtained and posted agendas for the meetings online. Common Dreams has the Common Cause press release ALEC Legislators, Companies Convene in Charlotte, N.C. ACTION: On Common Cause's front page ALEC is at it again, and we're watching With hundreds of state legislators and corporate executives and lobbyists convening in Charlotte N.C. for meetings hosted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Common Cause announced today that it has asked attorneys general in 29 states to investigate the group's tax status and lobbying activities. “ALEC, the ‘charity’ that’s not a charity and the lobby that claims it doesn’t lobby, is at it again,” said Common Cause president and CEO Bob Edgar. “The ‘task forces’ it is convening in Charlotte this weekend are about to be spoon-fed another helping of legislation written by corporate executives and lobbyists and designed to advance private interests at public expense.” Common Cause earlier submitted more than 4,000 pages of ALEC records, including emails, "issue alerts," position papers and legislative tracking data to the IRS in support of a "tax whistleblower" complaint charging ALEC with violating the terms of its tax-exempt status. Read about our letters to state attorneys general HERE and "Tell your AG: Investigate ALEC"! Find your state HERE . MoJo's Samantha Oltman explains how N.C.'s Amendment 1 Doesn't Just Screw Over Gay People Thanks to the law's vague wording, critics argue it would likely strip away many of the legal rights associated with domestic partnerships or legal unions. This is because Amendment 1 says "Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State." While it's being called a gay marriage ban, the amendment is more than that—it's an all-out refusal to recognize any kind of partnership or union that isn't marriage. So gay North Carolinians, who couldn't get married anyway, are screwed, and so are straight, unmarried North Carolina couples. The ACLU of North Carolina released a list explaining how bad things could get for unmarried North Carolina couples if Amendment 1 passes. Here are some rights that could be at risk: [scary list here] .... As the New York Times reports: Just 36 percent of voters answered correctly that it bans both same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships. An additional 26 percent thought it banned same-sex marriage alone. Meanwhile, 10 percent of voters thought a "yes" vote on the amendment would legalize rather than ban same-sex marriage, and 27 percent weren't sure what it did. From The Hickory Record the primary drew an estimated "... statewide turnout percentage of 34.38. More than 2 million voters went to the polls Tuesday. The totals were 1,303,994 in favor of the amendment, and 832,283 against. By comparison, 880,128 voters participated in the May 4, 2010, primary. That was an off-year election. The 2008 primary drew 2,125,215 voters." This means the amendment passed with just over 20% of eligible voters voting for it! Talk about the Tyranny of the Minority! ACLU of North Carolina Executive Director Jennifer Rudinger said in her statement "The diverse and wide-ranging opposition to this discriminatory amendment has created an unprecedented and still-growing coalition of groups and individuals committed to LGBT equality in North Carolina. This fight is not over. We are confident that the new partnerships, resources, and energy that came together to oppose Amendment One will continue working to expand freedom for all people in our state and confront attacks on civil liberties wherever they occur. Last night’s numbers might not reveal it, but the wind is at our backs. As public opinion continues to shift in favor of fairness and equality, it is no longer a question of if, but when, we will provide ALL our citizens with full and equal protection under the law. That day can’t come soon enough, but as we work together to bend the arc of history, we know that despite the temporary setback of Amendment One, we will get there … together." The Winston-Salem Journal notes Legal challenges to marriage amendment possible, but experts expect little immediate success so stay tuned! Remind us again how is it that the DNC chose North Carolina for their convention? GOP WAR ON WOMEN - Dalina Castellanos at the Los Angeles Times reports New Arizona law bars public funds from Planned Parenthood via McClatchy Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill barring any public money - city, county or state - from going to Planned Parenthood, a decision that she says closes loopholes for funding abortions. The bill, known as the Whole Woman's Health Funding Priority Act, tightens existing state regulations "to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions, whether directly or indirectly," Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement Friday after she signed it into law. Arizona's Republican-led Legislature passed other reproductive health care bills during a 116-day session that ended Thursday, including a measure Brewer signed last month banning most abortions after 20 weeks. Arizona already bans providing tax dollars for abortion unless the mother's life is at stake, and Planned Parenthood argues that the new law essentially stifles health care for women on Medicaid. "The problem is the state does not actually contract with Planned Parenthood or any health care providers," Bryan Howard, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said Saturday. About 4,000 women on Medicaid - 10 percent of Planned Parenthood Arizona's patients - will be affected by the law, Howard said. Then AP's Pauline Arrellago notes Women ponder how they became a campaign issue via Yahoo News .... The upshot: Whether seen as real or manufactured, something about the so-called "war" is resonating among American women who could well make the difference on Election Day. Many are acting out and speaking up. Many are, in fact, girding for battle, in one way or another. As Ramey put it: "They've woken a sleeping giant." ..... Karen Teegarden saw the congressional hearing from which Fluke was excluded, and saw the all-male witness table. And within days this 56-year-old wife, mother and marketing specialist from Birmingham, Mich., had launched UniteWomen.org. Its mission statement: "Help defend women's rights and pursuit of equality." Using social media and the Internet, Teegarden's group organized protests in cities all across the country on April 28. All told, hundreds marched in places like Phoenix, where coat hangers were on display featuring a plea: "Keep Abortion Safe & Legal." And Austin, where a Democratic state representative took to the microphone to quote a famous phrase: "Heed our warning. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned." And Ohio, where women at the state Capitol hoisted signs that read: "'Sluts' Over Nuts" and "My Vagina. My Choice." The rallies came a day after Republican Speaker John Boehner took to the floor of the U.S. House to lambast Democrats for politicizing issues that he said should transcend partisan politics. He brought up the "so-called war on women," calling it something "entirely created by my colleagues across the aisle for political gain." "Give me a break," Boehner roared as his fellow Republicans cheered. Said Teegarden, a supporter of President Barack Obama: "If you don't want to call it a war, that's fine. We are fighting something. It's not just us having 'emotions.' We are fighting very specific legislation." It's worth considering the landscape in which all of this is happening. ..... Much more! Loren Berlin reports at HuffPoAOL JPMorgan Chase Whistleblower: 'Essentially Suicide' To Stand Up To Bank When Linda Almonte alerted her boss at JPMorgan Chase about potential fraud in a major deal she was helping to close, she expected him to applaud her great catch. Instead, he fired her. "We went down fast," said Almonte, 41, about her family. She had been making $100,000 a year as a division vice president at Chase, enough to support her stay-at-home husband, their four kids, ages 12 to 22, and rent a three-bedroom house in San Antonio, Texas. Her move at Chase amounted to "essentially suicide," Almonte told The Huffington Post. No bank in town would hire her after word spread that she had stood up to the banking giant, she said. After more than a year of fruitless job hunting, Almonte and her family left town, landing at a hotel near Disney World, paying $300 a week for a two-bedroom with a kitchenette. ..... Almonte had been working at Chase for only a few months when she was asked to pitch in on a deal to sell 23,000 credit card accounts from customers behind on their payments. Debt collection agencies buy the accounts for pennies and keep any money they can collect from the customers, as reported in a series by American Banker. All the accounts had "judgments" on them, meaning that Chase had already taken these cases to court, sued the customers involved for failing to make payments and won the lawsuits. Before the sale took place, Almonte was asked to check the amount owed and the court's ruling in each case. After reviewing more than a third of the files, Almonte's team reported back to her that nearly 60 percent contained some sort of major error, including discrepancies about the amount or whether the court had indeed ruled for the bank. Concerned, Almonte went up the chain of command, flagging the errors and encouraging management to halt the sale. Instead, the bank fired Almonte and completed the deal in December 2009. Chase declined to comment for this story, as did the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is currently investigating the bank. Almonte filed a whistleblower claim with the SEC in November 2010. The amount she could potentially be paid if she wins her claim is unknown, since it depends on whether the agency considers her information crucial to successfully bringing a case against Chase, and the size of any potential associated fines and settlement fees. .... Thank you Jamie and JPMC! What a nice guy! CHASE DECLINED TO COMMENT. Surprised? Matt Taibbi at his RS Taibblog exclaims Jamie's Cryin: Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase Lose $2 Billion ... Here’s the summation from the New York Times: ....The trading in that hedge roiled markets a month ago, when rumors started circulating of a JPMorgan trader in London whose bets were so big that he was nicknamed "the London Whale" and "Voldemort," after the Harry Potter villain. I’m still not entirely clear on what the trades by Bruno Iksil, the so-called "London Whale," were exactly. According to the excellent Felix Salmon at Reuters, Iksil had taken a massive long position on corporate CDS, and when word of this leaked out, the market turned on him and beat his brains out. From Salmon’s piece: Whenever a trader has a large and known position, the market is almost certain to move violently against that trader — and that seems to be exactly what happened here. On the conference call, when asked what he should have been watching more closely, Dimon said “trading losses — and newspapers”. It wasn’t a joke. Once your positions become public knowledge, the market will smell blood. If you’re wondering why you should care if some idiot trader (who apparently has been making $100 million a year at Chase, a company that has been the recipient of at least $390 billion in emergency Fed loans) loses $2 billion for Jamie Dimon, here’s why: because J.P. Morgan Chase is a federally-insured depository institution that has been and will continue to be the recipient of massive amounts of public assistance. If the bank fails, someone will reach into your pocket to pay for the cleanup. So when they gamble like drunken sailors, it’s everyone’s problem. Activity like this is exactly what the Volcker rule, which effectively banned risky proprietary trading by federally insured institutions, was designed to prevent. ..... Either way, the incident underscored the basic problem. If J.P. Morgan Chase wants to act like a crazed cowboy hedge fund and make wild exacta bets on the derivatives market, they should be welcome to do so. But they shouldn’t get to do it with cheap cash from the Fed’s discount window, and they shouldn’t get to do it with money from the federally-insured bank accounts of teachers, firemen and other such real people. The Big Headline Friday at MaxKeiser.com reads It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This. Sucide Banker Jamie ‘we don’t make directional bets’ Dimon ‘Self-Inflicts’ a WHOPPER!! LATimes.com: Financial giant JPMorgan Chase’s stock sinks 6% after its stunning revelation of ‘egregious mistakes’ in a trading portfolio that lost $2 billion. “These were egregious mistakes,” said Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who is considered one of the world’s savviest bankers. “We have egg on our face, and we deserve any criticism we get.” From ZeroHedge JPM Crashing After It Convenes Emergency Call To Advise Of “Significant Mark-To-Market” Losses In Bruno Iksil/CIO Group

Out of nowehere, JPM announced 40 minutes ago that it would hold an unscheduled 5pm call to coincide with the release of its 10-Q. Rumors were swirling as to why. The reason is as follows:
• JPMORGAN SAYS CIO UNIT HAS SIGNIFICANT MARK-TO-MARKET LOSSES – “Fortress balance sheet” at least until Bruno Iskil gets done with it.
  
• JPMORGAN SAYS LOSSES ARE IN SYNTHETIC CREDIT PORTFOLIO – but, but, net is NEVER, EVER Gross.
  
• JPM WOULD NEED $971M ADDED COLLATERAL IF RATINGS CUT ONE-NOTCH
  
• JPM WOULD NEED $1.7B ADDED COLLATERAL IF RATINGS CUT 2 NOTCHES – how about three notches?
  
• JPMORGAN: MAY HOLD SOME SYNTHETIC CREDIT POSITIONS LONG TERM – “Level 3 CDS FTW”
“As of March 31, 2012, the value of CIO’s total AFS securities portfolio exceeded its cost by approximately $8 billion” As a reminder, the CIO unit is where Bruno Iksil was making $200 billion-sized bets. Basically JPM has suffered massive losses at its CIO group most likely due to its IG/HY positions held by Iksil.

More Zerohedge! VIDEO! 20 Second Summary Of What Just Happened What summarizes the clip below best:

1. Hubris
2. Greed
3. Stupidity
4. Moral Hazard
5. All of the above?

Here is the punchline: [VIDEO] The full shocking call and Q&A can be accessed here. Even More Zerohedge!

• Is JPM Staring At Another $3 Billion Loss?
  
• And Now For Something Special: "The J.P.Morgan Guide To Credit Derivatives" By Blythe Masters
  
• Guest Post: Does Jamie Dimon Even Know What Heging Risk Is?
  
• Long and the Short of JPMorgan Submitted by rcwhalen ....2) The irony here is that the media and investors alike have attributed magical, super human powers to Jamie Dimon and his colleagues. But JPM is like everyone else, just a partial monopoly. The interesting thing though is to see them screw up in structured products. Again, given the risks the bank takes, not at all surprised to see this type of event. Just shows how volatile and unpredictable is the investment side of the house. 3) The other point is that these losses by JPM are entirely a function of the way that exotic derivatives for which there is no cash basis (like oil or gold) create risk that would not otherwise exist. The losses by JPM are, indeed, self inflicted as Dimon said, and entirely speculative. ..... Press reports recently have claimed that JPM was shifting the trading book run by "the Whale" in London to a net long position. If so, then JPM obviously wouldn't be hedging the portfolio anymore, and would actually be increasing the overall risk of the group. Not only would this put them at risk for a big loss, but if the Whale's activity wasn't a hedge anymore, and rather "trading" risk -- then it's not clear that this activity would be permitted under Volcker. Press reports on JPM and the Whale badly underestimate the impact of the Volcker rule on the trading operations of the large banks. But Jaimie Dimon seems to have handed his head to Chairman Vocker and the advocates of regulation with this error.

As Taibbi puts it "It’s a simple concept: you either get to be a bank, or you get to be a casino. But you can’t be both. If we don’t have rules to enforce that concept, we ought to get some." WAIT! THERE'S MORE! MAX HEADLINE FRIDAY MAY 11 2012 Jamie Dimon is a threat to the Fed and global banking system. SOURCE: Coming losses to be reported are 18 (not 2) billion. It’s clear now that JPM’s stock will go the way of Enron and Lehman as we predicted more than a year ago. BY MAXKEISER

• JP Morgan Debacle Reveals Fatal Flaw In Federal Reserve Thinking
  
• J.P. Morgan Malinvests Free Federal Reserve Money: Market Crash, Bailout & Printing Incoming
  
• JPMorgan’s $2B Loss: ‘Stupid’ Bet, Big Fallout

MOVE YOUR MONEY! Our LAST WORD goes to NASA Scientist JAMES HANSEN in his NYT OpEd Game Over for the Climate GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.” If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate. Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk. That is the long-term outlook. But near-term, things will be bad enough. Over the next several decades, the Western United States and the semi-arid region from North Dakota to Texas will develop semi-permanent drought, with rain, when it does come, occurring in extreme events with heavy flooding. Economic losses would be incalculable. More and more of the Midwest would be a dust bowl. California’s Central Valley could no longer be irrigated. Food prices would rise to unprecedented levels. If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. This is why we need to reduce emissions dramatically. President Obama has the power not only to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground. ...... We need to start reducing emissions significantly, not create new ways to increase them. We should impose a gradually rising carbon fee, collected from fossil fuel companies, then distribute 100 percent of the collections to all Americans on a per-capita basis every month. The government would not get a penny. This market-based approach would stimulate innovation, jobs and economic growth, avoid enlarging government or having it pick winners or losers. Most Americans, except the heaviest energy users, would get more back than they paid in increased prices. Not only that, the reduction in oil use resulting from the carbon price would be nearly six times as great as the oil supply from the proposed pipeline from Canada, rendering the pipeline superfluous, according to economic models driven by a slowly rising carbon price. But instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world’s governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year. This encourages a frantic stampede to extract every fossil fuel through mountaintop removal, longwall mining, hydraulic fracturing, tar sands and tar shale extraction, and deep ocean and Arctic drilling. ..... The science of the situation is clear — it’s time for the politics to follow. This is a plan that can unify conservatives and liberals, environmentalists and business. Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can’t wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations. Don't bet on the Beltway Bubalas covering much of this if at all. We strongly recommend saving all your bricks for head financial terrorist JAMIE DIMON on Meet the David and watch him hit softballs from Gregory all morning long! Notes MAX below, "My analysis has concluded that liability from a rising silver price vs. loss of collateral value of the stock renders JPM’s balance sheet null and void when JPM’s stock price drops below the price of Silver. We’ve only seen this a couple of times since I made this call two years ago, BUT NEVER ON A SUSTAINED BASIS of more than a day or so. When the price of Silver popped over JPM’s stock price, the London desk quickly fabricated a few billion fresh naked silver shorts to tamp silver’s price down. ... NOTE TO HEDGE FUNDS: Sell JPM’s stock naked to Hell." Haha! Make note JPM was at $36.66 at the close Friday. Check that number on Monday to see if anybody bought Dimon's load of Whale Crap haha! Following DIMON is REINCE PRIEBUS and CARL LEVIN who will take turns defending and demonizing ole' Jamie! Of course the rest of the shows will be filled with freaks like TONY PERKINS and GARY BAUER on State of the Candy plus TED OLSEN, RALPH REED and BAY BUCHANAN on Face the Bob. RALPH REED gets another bite at the apple on This Snufagopolis with Mrs. James Carville MARY MATALIN. What a bunch of freak shows this Sunday! We've got much more sanity at our regulars so bag all that and crank up the media streaming machine! Bob Kincaid is back from his trip to Boston and the BofA Shareholders Meeting in Charlotte NC with an EXCELLENT FIRST HAND ACCOUNT! Bob was IN the shareholders meeting and got a chance to speak! Listen to the first hour then catch Hour 3 with caller Chris on Fukushima! Excellent discussion! Catch ROBERT "I'll be short" REICH on DN! while Ring of Fire has ARI BERMAN, JOSH HOLLAND and LES LEOPOLD and AntiWar Radio has PHILLIP GERALDI plus MARCY WHEELER from emptywheel.firedoglake.com. SAM has EYAL PRESS and CLIFF SCHECTER on Majority Report too so lots to watch/read/listen to keep you busy all day! And HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all you mothers! Our suggestion: DON'T DO SQUAT other than hold court and have everyone answer your beck and call! YOU DESERVE IT! You hear that guys? If Mom sez "Clean under the fridge" or "Do the laundry" JUST DO IT! No grousing allowed! Have a great Sunday and a great week! BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©
Monday, May 7, 2012

• Yanis Varoufakis, University of Athens in Greece. @ Democracy NOW! "A Political Implosion": Anti-Austerity Parties Win Historic French and Greek Elections
  
• Steve Coll @ Democracy NOW! ExxonMobil’s Dirty Secrets, from Indonesia to Nigeria to Washington: Steve Coll on “Private Empire”
  

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

• Robert Reich @ Democracy NOW! Former Labor Sec. Robert Reich on Clinton’s Errors of Crippling Welfare to Repealing Glass-Steagall AND "We Need to Make a Ruckus": Robert Reich Hails Occupy for Exposing Concentration of Wealth and Power
  

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

• William Robinson @ Democracy NOW! North Carolina Voters Approve Constitutional Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions
  
• Rachel LaForest & Rebecca Tarbotton @ Democracy NOW! From Coal to Foreclosures, Bank of America Faces Protest at Shareholders’ Meeting in Charlotte
  
• Matthew Rothschild, editor and publisher of The Progressive @ Democracy NOW! Wisconsin Democrats Select Recall Challenger to Take On Gov. Scott Walker’s "Ideological Civil War"
  

Thursday, May 10, 2012

• Playwright Tony Kushner @ Democracy NOW! Playwright Tony Kushner Hails Obama’s Support for Same-Sex Marriage: "I Felt the Earth Move" AND Maurice Sendak (1928-2012): Tony Kushner on the Life and Legacy of Legendary Children’s Author PLUS Tony Kushner on the Overlooked "Radicalism" and Lessons of Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency
  

Friday, May 11, 2012

• Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona @ Democracy NOW! The U.S. v. Joe Arpaio: Justice Department Sues Arizona Sheriff for Racial Profiling of Latinos
  
• James Anaya, U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples @ Democracy NOW! UN Probe: U.S. Should Return Stolen Sacred Land, Including Mt. Rushmore, to Native Americans
  
• Dalee Sambo Dorough, an Inuit from Alaska @ Democracy NOW! Sexual Violence and Natural Resource Pillaging Top Hardships Facing Alaskan Natives
  
• Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia @ Democracy NOW! Stop the Drug War: Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia Condemns U.S. Role in Widening Drug Violence
  

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Chatting With Chomsky Noam Chomsky has not just been watching the Occupy movement. A veteran of the civil rights, anti-war, and anti-intervention movements of the 1960s through the 1980s, he’s given lectures at Occupy Boston and talked with occupiers across the US. A new publication from the Occupied Media Pamphlet Series brings together several of those lectures, a speech on “occupying foreign policy” and a brief tribute to his friend and co-agitator Howard Zinn. From his speeches, and in this conversation, it’s clear that the emeritus MIT professor and author is as impressed by the spontaneous, cooperative communities some Occupy encampments created, as he is by the movement’s political impact. We are a nation whose leaders are pursuing policies that amount to “suicide” Chomsky says. But there are glimmers of possibility – in worker co-operatives, and other spaces where people get a taste of a different way of living. We talked in his office, for Free Speech TV on April 24.
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» MLB Sunday TBS Braves @ Cardinals 2:15 pm et
»»» MLB Sunday Night ESPN Angels @ Rangers 8 pm et
»»» NBA PLAYOFFS First Round fnalon ABC's double-header Clippers @ Grizzlies Game 7 at 1 pm et then Pacers @ Heat Game 1 3:30 pm et. Check your local listings for more games all week on TNT and NBA TV!
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.

October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress

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.

VotersForJustice.org OUR GOAL: TO EMPOWER voters with facts and perspectives necessary to decipher the spin, obtain the truth, and support candidates that best represent their interests and values.
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org A Push for Privacy in the Wake of the Carrier IQ Controversy Remember Carrier IQ, the company that makes the secret spying software that’s installed on more than 140 million phones? You know, the software that can record our most sensitive personal data? ... Thanks in part to the 22,000 people who joined Free Press’ call for a congressional investigation, some of those questions are closer to being answered and mobile users are closer to being protected. The protection comes in the form of a bill from Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. Markey released a draft of a bill called the "Mobile Device Privacy Act" that would require phone companies to disclose to users just what is being done with all of their data. If the bill passes, an opt-out provision would go into effect a year later and would require companies to allow users to opt out of data-collection schemes like the one developed by Carrier IQ........
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org
MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network
UPDATE! Michael Ratner on ANTIWAR RADIO Michael Ratner May 2, 2012: Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses his article “Bradley Manning: a show trial of state secrecy;” Manning’s quasi-public trial (which is open to observation, yet vital evidence and court documents are withheld from the media and public); why the NY Times is just as guilty of “aiding the enemy” as Manning and WikiLeaks; how President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made a fair trial impossible; and how you can support Bradley Manning in his time of need.
DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATIONHelp save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org
CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.

B R I C K T E E V E E

_{image ©2006 arkysue}
THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©
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The essential guide for watching government propaganda
IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 1,968 US Military Dead as of May 12, 2012
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

• This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos
  • Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'
  • Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
  • Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
  • ROUNDTABLE: Republican strategist Mary Matalin, former New York governor and host of Current TV's "Viewpoint" Eliot Spitzer, Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and chairman Ralph Reed, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, and Politico senior political reporter Maggie Haberman.
  

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • Ted Olson
  • Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass
  • Ralph Reed
  • Evan Wolfson
  • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich
  • ROUNDTABLE: Obama surrogate and Democratic strategist Anita Dunn, Romney surrogate and Republican commentator Bay Buchanan and Melinda Henneberger
  

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • Hank - Legendary retired covert CIA Officer Henry "Hank" Crumpton tells his spy stories to Lara Logan, including his role in the early war in Afghanistan as Deputy Director of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center. Howard Rosenberg is the producer.
  • The Gulen Movement - A worldwide Islamic movement that has inspired scores of public charter schools here in the U.S. is led by a Turkish cleric living in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Lesley Stahl reports on Fethullah Gulen and his message of education. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
  

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!
  • JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon
  • head of the Republican party, Reince Priebus
  • Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
  • co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Andrew Ross Sorkin
  • ROUNDTABLE: Lt. Governor of California Gavin Newsom; Chairman of the American Conservative Union Al Cardenas; Washington Post columnists Kathleen Parker and Jonathan Capehart; and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
  

• 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.
  • number two Democrat in the Senate- Dick Durbin
  • Senator John Cornyn
  • Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
  • Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer
  • Independent Senator Joe Lieberman
  • Republican Congressman Peter King
  

• 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!
  • LIVE SHOW THURSDAY!!!!! Bob The Activist returns to the microphone, fresh from his trip to Boston and the BofA Shareholders Meeting in Charlotte! Bob's FHA is amazing! 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' - May 10, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The deepest well ever dug; Cyber-attacks on the US natgas pipeline industry; Romney makes big promises to Big Oil; RFK Jr. fights Big Coal in Portland; Schizo Fox 'News' now says lower gas prices are a bad thing; PLUS: It's official: the last 12 months were the hottest on record in the US .... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Oil spill in Antarctica; VT poised to be first state to outlaw fracking; CBO: Boosting Oil Production Won’t Protect From Gasoline Price Shocks; Clean-Energy Requirements Targeted by ALEC, Norquist; Innovation: Inertial Seawave Energy Generator; Asian carp electric barrier loses power; Makers of flame retardants manipulate research findings; Anti-Wind Group Colludes on Fake Grassroots 'Subversion' Campaign ... PLUS: Flipping the Switch: First Solar Plant on Public Lands Now Delivering Power... and much, MUCH more! ...
  • BRADCAST! KPFK BradCast: Massive GOP Voter Reg Fraud; Fukushima's 'Ticking Time-Bomb' Sacramento Registrar of Voters Jill Lavine joins Brad to discuss thousands of invalid registrations turned in by GOP firm; Brad Jacobson on his startling Fukushima report...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE: Bombshell Video Captures Walker Admitting 'Divide and Conquer' Strategy to Take Down Unions On Thursday night, video-taped evidence was made public supporting his opponents' contentions that the "Budget Repair" bill was about little more than breaking the unions. In the video, the Governor is seen, just before introducing the legislation in January of last year, speaking with local billionaire Diane Hendricks --- who eventually gave more money to Walker than any politician has ever received from one person in the state. .... The conversation is seen in a new film by documentary filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein whose film, As Goes Janesville, is set to be released later this year on HBO.
  • Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Now up to 9,200+ Election Protection posts! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? 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 May 7, 2012 Gareth Porter Breaks Down the Myths of the Killing of bin Laden; author James Olson on Left-Brain/Right-Brain Differences Gareth Porter returns, as he is making news again with this investigative story from Truthout. Author James Olson explains the differences between left-brain people and right-brain types.
  • PBC Standard Podcast May 10, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Jon Gold, Author and Activist, Fights for the Truth About 9/11 In this Boiling Frogs interview co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds, we talk with author and activist Jon Gold about his personal odyssey on the road to the real story of September 11.
  • PBC Standard Podcast May 11, 2012 Common Cause Reports ALEC to IRS as Corporate Sponsors Flee; Investigator Larry Hancock on New Book on King Assassination Mary Boyle, VP of Common Cause, exposes the conservative legislative lobby group called ALEC, and challenges their tax exempt status; Larry Hancock reveals new angles and players to the plotting that led to Dr. King’s murder in 1968
  

• 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! May 11, 2012
  • Author Les Leopold will join us to talk about how corporate America – NOT President Obama – is driving up the price of gasoline.
  • Brian Katulis from the Center for American Progress joins us for a discussion on Al Qaeda’s numbers since the death of Bin Laden.
  • Author and Nation Magazine contributor Ari Berman will tell us why Mitt Romney is looking to stuff his war cabinet with former Bush officials.
  • Alternet Senior Editor Josh Holland will be here to tell us about the alternate reality inhabited by Republican faithfuls.
  • We’ll hear from Eco Watch dot org contributor Pilar Gerasimo about how fracking companies have made their way into Wisconsin to continue their environmentally destructive practice of hydro-fracking.
  • And Michael Washburn from Nestle Waters North America will be here to discuss his company’s push for a national corporate recycling program.
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: Corporate Pigs and Politicians Listen carefully to the latest Mitt Romney speech, the latest talking points from Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and you will hear them telling you that more corporate freedom to do whatever the Hell they want is good for America – good for capitalism – Why would they still be trying to sell those disastrous ideas? Well, it’s because most Americans still don’t understand why they lost their homes, why they lost their jobs, why they are no longer members of America’s so-called middle class – Most Americans whose lives are in shambles have never stopped to figure out just how badly the Republican corporation machine trampled on them. To some degree that’s their own fault. It’s their fault because they never fought back. Many of them still don’t ask questions.
  • VIDEO! RFK, Jr: How To Save American Democracy Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. gives a speech to a crowd at Mass Torts Made Perfect about how to save our Democracy from Republicans, the Tea Party, and corporate raiders.
  • 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!
  
  • May 7 2012 Todd Gitlin, the Promise and Pitfalls of Occupy
  • May 8 2012 Eyal Press, Heeding the Voice of Conscience & Jay! Tomlinson, Best of the Left
  • May 9 2012 Poll Results: Wisconsin, N. Carolina & Indiana
  • May 10 2012 Jerry Ensminger, Poisoning at Camp Lejeune & We’re Not Broke, Tax Dodging Corps.
  • May 11 2012 Cliff Schecter, News Roundup & Lizz Winstead Lizzing Free!
  • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.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
  • Jamie wants more heroin (or he’ll throw a hissy fit and crash the system again). by maxkeiser - The largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), told the Federal Reserve that a limit on their credit exposure is unnecessary and “fundamentally flawed.” READ Largest U.S. Banks Resist Federal Reserve’s Credit Limits bloomberg.com
  • The shooting of Roberto Adinolfi has similarities with 1970s attacks by Italian Red Brigades and this is what Jamie and Lloyd are really afraid of by maxkeiser READ Kneecapping of Italian nuclear power firm boss prompts terrorism fears guardian.co.uk
  • The Death Cross: JPM’s stock price poised to cross below price of silver. by maxkeiser As we’ve been saying for two years. JPM uses it’s own stock to collateralize naked silver short positions (echoes of Lehman and Enron). My analysis has concluded that liability from a rising silver price vs. loss of collateral value of the stock renders JPM’s balance sheet null and void when JPM’s stock price drops below the price of Silver. We’ve only seen this a couple of times since I made this call two years ago, BUT NEVER ON A SUSTAINED BASIS of more than a day or so. When the price of Silver popped over JPM’s stock price, the London desk quickly fabricated a few billion fresh naked silver shorts to tamp silver’s price down. Given this week’s revelations regarding JPM’s reckless balance sheet incineration the ‘crash jp morgan, buy silver’ trade has never been more important as a way to take down this financial terrorist. The SLA has been winning battles all along. Now we are poised to win the war as well. Bye-bye Jamie. NOTE TO HEDGE FUNDS: Sell JPM’s stock naked to Hell. This is the easiest money you’ll make this year. The JPM losses are the whiff of a significant deflationary force in play. JPM losses as a wise PM told me – $2 billion why not $20 billion. Is this bad risk management? This loss happened in the risk mitigation unit and not a risk taking one. There have been dislocations in the credit market these last few months and now we know why. Is it that the derivatives risk is becoming more and more centered with a few banks, and collateral is just not forthcoming because the collateral has been promised many times over? As we move towards central clearing of these contracts will we see legal reconstitution of said contracts to obfuscate the reality that they are worthless. They are being exposed for the sticks of dynamite, under the foundations of the financial system, that they are. READ Ben Davies – 3rd LTRO Coming & Fed to Power Up Swap Lines
  • VIDEO! Cant Pay Wont Pay! Solidarity with the People of Greece – Fourman Films by maxkeiser
  • KEISER REPORT [KR285] Keiser Report: Fracking Hell We discuss the Linda Evangelista of the natural gas market and the fast and furious bubbles popping like Lawrence Welk on frack. In the second half of the show Max talks to award-winning journalist and author, Leah McGrath Goodman, about why the price of gasoline is so high and what next for the oil market.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR286] Keiser Report: I Steal, Therefore I Am We discuss MF Global’s fraud playbook, Jamie Dimon’s give and take, take, take and the fact that nine out of ten tapeworms bear an uncanny resemblance to the JP Morgan CEO. In the second half of the show Max talks to Chris Whalen, senior managing partner of Tangent Capital, about fascism, too big to fail and Jamie Dimon’s problem.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR287] Keiser Report: Central Bank MonarchsWe discuss the alleged meritocracy of old Etonians running the world (into the ground) while the rest of us remain wards of the state – from the President of France to PhDs on foodstamps. In the second half of the show Max talks to John Titus, producer of the new documentary, Bailout.
  • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Charles Hugh Smith! We interview Charles Hugh Smith.
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-359] Truth About Debtflation 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
  • Philip Giraldi May 8, 2012: Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses his article “Iran’s Tactical Strength;” the conclusion of US war simulations studying Iran’s likely retaliation to an Israeli air strike; why the media and government officials from the US and Israel are suddenly less hawkish on Iran; the decade-long scare campaign that Hezbollah sleeper cells are all over the Western Hemisphere; the unlikely story of the CIA capturing explosives-ready underwear in Yemen, which supposedly prevented a terrorist attack; the US government’s contradictory claims that Al Qaeda is decimated, yet also a rapidly expanding threat justifying more foreign interventions; and why the events of 9/11 deserve a complete reexamination.
  • Marcy Wheeler May 11, 2012: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the CIA double-agent at the center of the latest underwear bomb plot; Saudi Arabia’s role in infiltrating AQAP and providing the US with intelligence inside Yemen; why alleged bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri hasn’t been captured or killed yet, despite having his high-profile plots foiled three times already; Congressman Peter King’s investigation of media coverage on the CIA’s double-agent – since honest journalism “may jeopardize the war on terror;” the Yemeni government’s incentive to inflate the threat of Al-Qaeda terrorism; why the Saudi government might be pretending to fight AQAP while surreptitiously pursuing a private agenda that has nothing to do with US security; and how out-of-control US government secrecy makes investigative journalism very difficult.
  • Lee Tien May 11, 2012: Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discusses the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) working its way through Congress; why the government means “surveillance” when they say “information sharing;” how popular outrage derailed SOPA/PIPA and made Congress more careful about introducing bills that make Google angry; fighting against automated license plate readers used by police to scan any car, without probable cause or warrant; the comprehensive legal protections for private companies that monitor and block internet traffic; and why Congress’s implementation of cyber security is the most invasive, inefficient, and expensive method imaginable.
  • Stephen Zunes May 8, 2012: Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses his article “University of California Takes Aim at Human Rights Activists;” UC President Mark Yudof’s likening of pro-Palestinian student activists to swastika-carving vandals; killing the free exchange of ideas in public universities; how excessive and unwarranted accusations of anti-Semitism lends credibility to real bigots; why racists should be defeated by rational argument, not silenced by law; and the established framework for a viable Israel-Palestine 2-state solution using the 1967 borders.
  • Stephen Zunes May 11, 2012: Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses how the Libyan War spilled over to Mali and destabilized West Africa’s most enduring democracy; the Al-Qaeda associated Islamic militants that swarmed into Mali and desecrated a UNESCO World Heritage holy site; the US-trained African military officers who will probably be among the next generation of dictators; the double-standard of international law, where US allies are exempt from UNSC resolutions and enemies must comply or get regime-changed; how legitimate political uprisings are corrupted by foreign aid; and why picking sides in Syria is difficult for proponents of both individual liberty and anti-intervention.
  • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
  

• fauxnews
  • Senate Republican Conference Chair John Thune
  • Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein.
  

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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