Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

How Steve Bannon Rose To The Top Of Trump's Power Structure
ZeroHedge | author | 01/30/17

On Saturday night, President Trump signed an executive order promoting Chief Strategist Steve Bannon to the "principals committee" of the National Security Council -- while, according to the New York Times, downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities. The move puts Bannon, a former Navy surface warfare officer, admiral's aide, investment banker and media executive, on the same level as Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Trump's 'Two-for-One' Regulation Executive Order
TheAtlantic | Bourree Lam | 01/30/17

On Monday morning, President Donald Trump signed yet another executive order, following the 17 wide-ranging executive actions enacted during his first week in office. This latest order tackles yet another one of Trump's campaign talking points and will require federal agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new regulation they implement.

"If there's a new regulation, they have to knock out two. But it goes far beyond that, we're cutting regulations massively for small business and for large business," Trump said during the signing of the order, while surrounded by small-business leaders. He stressed that the new measure is meant to ease the opening and expansion of small businesses, and said that America's small businesses "have been treated very badly" and that it was "virtually impossible to expand your existing business because of regulations." ... Read more
*TYT | Deregulation Nation: Welcome To Trump's Wild West (01/31/17) [12:13]

South Dakota lawmakers declare state of 'emergency' to force repeal of voter-imposed ethics law
RawStory | David Edwards | 01/23/17

Lawmakers in South Dakota are invoking emergency powers to overturn an anti-corruption law that was passed by a ballot measure during the 2016 election.

The South Dakota Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act makes it illegal for lawmakers to receive more than a total of $100 annually from lobbyists in the form of "any compensation, reward, employment, gift, honorarium, beverage, meal, food, or other thing of value made or given directly or indirectly." ... Read more
*TYT | Meet the Politicians Who Voted FOR Corruption! (01/30/17) [13:25]

Why Trump's Week of Chaos May Suit Steve Bannon's Bigger Plans
AlterNet | Heather Digby Parton / Salon | 01/30/17

The alt-right guru turned Trump adviser is using both the "Muslim ban" and bogus voter-fraud charges to spread disorder.

There was so much going on in President Donald Trump's first week of presidential decrees that it was hard to keep track of it all. The most acute problem, in that it immediately affected people's lives, was the executive order issued on Friday that banned entry to the United States for immigrants, refugees or visitors arriving from a list of certain Muslim-majority countries designated as having terrorist activity. On Saturday when it became clear that the ban was taking effect immediately and people were being denied entry or told at their point of origin that they could not board U.S.-bound planes, all hell broke loose.

Nobody understood the rules. Passengers were being held and interrogated. Chaos ensued at international airports all over the country. Protesters gathered en masse at terminals to show their solidarity. Immigration lawyers arrived to help detainees and their families navigate a system that nobody understood -- because it was arbitrary and constitutionally dubious. The world reacted with disbelief. ... Read more

"It will not get better": Former Bush administration official has a warning about President Trump's administration
Salon | Matthew Rozsa | 02/01/17

Yet another former official for President George W. Bush has gone on the record criticizing President Donald Trump -- this time it's Eliot A. Cohen, who served as a counselor to former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice from 2007 to 2009.

Trump's first week as president has already been marred by a "dark and divisive inaugural speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims," Cohen wrote in The Atlantic. He pointed out that "because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better."

Cohen predicted that Trump's poor character and choice of advisers will "probably end in calamity -- substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have." Cohen continued, "It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better." ... Read more

Ex-Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev: 'World Is Preparing for War'
NBC News | Alexander Smith | 01/27/17

... "More troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are being brought to Europe," the 85-year-old wrote. "NATO and Russian forces and weapons that used to be deployed at a distance are now placed closer to each other, as if to shoot point-blank."

The 1990 Nobel Peace Prize-winner added: "Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defense doctrines more dangerous. Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war." ... Read more or TimeMagazine

The Chaos Candidate Becomes The Chaos President
HP | S.V. Date | 0/30/17

Perhaps most revealing about the 10-day-old Donald Trump presidency: The announcement of White House aide Stephen Bannon's elevation was nowhere near the most controversial thing that has happened thus far. Trump has insisted, despite obvious evidence to the contrary, that as many as 1.5 million people attended his inauguration. He has claimed, with no evidence at all, that as many as 5 million people voted illegally in his election -- every single one of them for his opponent. He issued a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that omitted any mention of Jews.

And at the close of business marking his first week in office Friday, he signed an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., without running it past the departments that would implement it. The ensuing disarray brought swift rebuke from several federal judges, blocking parts of the order at least temporarily. ... Read more

Trevor Noah/Daily Show | Welcome to President Trump's Reality (01/27/17) [8:20]

Trump struggles to shake his erratic campaign habits
Politico | Josh Dawsey | 01/22/17

... "The president has a modus operandi: He hits back, he strikes back, he's very impulsive at times. He likes to be authentic. It's worked for him for decades, his reputation, his brand, his candidacy," Ruddy said. "The problem is he's moved into a different position and that hasn't fully sank in yet. He's not speaking for Donald Trump and his company. He's speaking as the leader of the free world."

Among his more conservative backers, they said Trump still had done plenty of good things. Ruddy said he was heartened by the tone of the speech, which he called "a terrific start and a very high bar." Reed, the New York congressman, said he was pleased with the early executive orders, freezing regulations and beginning the reversal of the Affordable Care Act.

Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-backed group, said he was pleased with the administration's alignment on corporate tax reform and health care -- and he expects them to make drastic changes soon. "There just isn't much daylight between us," he said. ... Read more
TYT | Trump Surrounded By Manipulators (01/28/17) [8:24]

700 years of Western inequality, in one chart
Vox.com | Zack Beauchamp | 01/23/17

We tend to think of rising income inequality as a 21st-century problem. A more equal distribution of wealth is normal, and the growing clout of the 1 percent is an anomaly. ... Read more
TYT | New Data Tracks Inequality Over Centuries (01/29/17) [9:25]

TYT | Drone Pilot Myron Dewey Flies Over #DAPL Drill Pad Near Missouri River (01/29/17) [14:31]

The US 'debt bomb is going to explode,' strategist Peter Schiff says
CNBC | Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | 01/26/17

Low interest rates have helped defuse the United States' debt problems so far, but that won't last for long, strategist Peter Schiff told CNBC.

Schiff, president and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, said on Thursday "the debt bomb is going to explode." ... Read more

Trump Signs Executive Order On Regulation: "For Every New Regulation, Two Regulations Must Be Revoked"
ZeroHedge | author | 01/30/17

President Trump has signed an executive action to revoke two regulations for every one enacted, or as officials told AP, that they are naming the new directive a "one in, two out" plan. Federal agencies will need to revoke two regulations for every new regulation they request, and the White House will review the proposal, according to administration officials. ... Read more

Congress gone wild! While Trump grabs headlines, the House has been hard at work pushing GOP agenda
Salon | Gary Legum | 01/27/17

Congressional Republicans are drafting their own radical agenda for the future of America

Donald Trump is not the only game in Washington when it comes to pushing for dangerous and destructive policies. The House of Representatives of the 115th Congress has been hard at work since its swearing-in three weeks ago. In that time, the chamber has set the stage for a frenzy of revanchist policy prescriptions that, should they pass the Senate and be signed into law by the president, will radically alter the nation's regulatory landscape, hurt women and their health, and ransom off our national parks to mining and other corporate interests.

While the House was writing the rules package that will govern this session of Congress, the chairman of the chamber's natural resources committee slipped in a provision that will make it easier for the government to transfer federal lands to states. This could be the prelude to states then selling off much of this land to whichever industry is looking to strip-mine it: timber companies, oil and gas interests, cattlemen like Cliven Bundy, you name it. ... Read more

ABC News David Muir | Donald Trump Full Interview (01/25/17) [23:15]

CNN | Senator Chuck Schumer Full Explosive Interview With Jake Tapper (01/22/17) [13:47]

CNN | Michael Moore Full Explosive Interview With Jake Tapper (01/22/17) [7:59]

CNN | Jake Tapper Frustrated; "Please Don't Say Things That Are Not True, DON'T DO THAT " (01/22/17) [6:47]

Fox Hannity | Donald Trump (full interview) (01/25/17) [27:29]

Fox10 | President Donald Trump at GOP Retreat in Philadelphia (full) (01/26/17) [29:29]

Another Bogus Obamacare Argument From Donald Trump And Paul Ryan
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 01/26/17

If you've heard a Republican talk about the Affordable Care Act lately, then you've almost certainly heard that the law is imploding, collapsing, in a death spiral or a combination of the three.

Here, for example, was House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a Wednesday evening interview with Greta Van Susteren on MSNBC: "Obamacare is collapsing under its own weight.... It's already going away. Obamacare is leaving."

President Donald Trump made similar remarks at a Republican Party retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday, when he boasted that acting quickly to repeal the law would do the Democrats a favor because the program was bound to fall apart on its own. ... Read more

Donald Trump, You Are Being Set Up By These Suckas In Washington
HP | Russell Simmons | 01/26/17

I am convinced you are the Trojan horse. The extremists in the Republican Party and religious right have been praying for a long time to put a candidate in the position to turn back the tide of our forward push for justice and equality, which is in effect the American dream. The pendulum of consciousness always swings towards compassion and justice. There are moments that it swings back but once given a taste of freedom the people will thirst for it and will not let anyone take that away. African-Americans will never again be slaves, women will never again lose their right to vote or go quietly back into the coat hanger days, the LGBTQ community will not go back into the closet, the right to worship as we see fit will not be taken from one -- you will have to strip it from everyone.

No American president has ever entered the Oval Office with an agenda so set on trying to undo the civil, social and political gains for equality that have been so long fought. And now we are bracing to have all of our victories overturned. Those lowest common denominator radicals of the Republican party have you locked in a role to do their bidding. ... Read more

Democrats' risky new Trump strategy: Pry him away from his own party and win back his voters
Salon | Matthew Sheffield | 01/27/17

Aware of the fact that Donald Trump's Electoral College victory was made possible by at least a modest number of Democratic-leaning voters crossing party lines, congressional Democrats appear to be pursuing an intriguing strategy: They're trying to force the president to choose between the people who elected him and the political party he nominally leads.

Trump is the highest-ranking Republican in Washington. But the new president's lack of interest in the details of policymaking mean that he's outsourcing a lot of it to the congressional GOP. That's dangerous for Trump's public approval ratings because conservative elites generally favor economic policies that are likely to be unpopular with the blue-collar workers who got him elected. ... Read more

Donald Trump, Republicans plan enormous tax cuts, even though it's going to balloon the deficit
Salon | Matthew Rozsa | 01/25/17

... "A number of Trump advisers in recent weeks have privately questioned whether tax reform needs to be 'revenue neutral,'" Politico reported on Wednesday, citing people involved in the early discussions. What the Trump administration has not yet done, Politico noted, is figure out how to avoid ballooning the deficit while following through on its campaign promises to increase military spending, construct a border wall, and finance infrastructure development. This dilemma, along with the fact that it will be difficult for Republicans to bring Democrats on board for a tax cut plan that increases the deficit (the one from Trump's campaign would cost $10 trillion over a decade), could prove very difficult for the Trump team to overcome. ... Read more

Trump administration purges all information about climate change from the EPA website
Salon |Matthew Rozsa | 01/25/17

President Donald Trump has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate the climate change page from its official website.

Two EPA employees told Reuters on Wednesday that, one day prior, EPA officials told them that the Trump White House wanted the agency's communications team to delete the page describing climate change by as early as Wednesday. This will include detailed data on emissions and links to scientific research on the climatology behind man-made global warming. Some employees are working furiously to save as much of the website's information as possible. ... "If the website goes dark, years of work we have done on climate change will disappear," one staffer told Reuters. ... Read more
EPA | Climate Change Basics (04/03/15) [2:47]

https://www.epa.gov/ | EPA website

Border Residents Wish Money For Trump's Wall Would Pay For Something Useful Instead
HP | Roque Planas | 01/25/17

María Cordero passes a border fence twice to get to her home in La Posada, one mile north of the Rio Grande, which divides Mexico from the United States. Customs and Border Protection erected the steel beam barrier that cuts through her neighborhood nine years ago, slashing through private property and an ecological reserve.

The Texas resident didn't like it then, and she's not happy that President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday mandating the construction of "a physical wall on the Southern border." "The wall is completely illogical," Cordero, a Mexican-born community organizer for the ACLU, told The Huffington Post. "We need those billions of dollars for schools and clinics." ... Read more

Trump Attacks 'Groveling' Author Of Study Showing No Voter Fraud
HP | Marina Fang | 01/25/17

President Donald Trump, furthering his lie Wednesday that he lost the election's popular vote because millions cast ballots illegally, attacked the author of a study that failed to support fraud claims as "groveling."

Trump and his administration frequently cite a 2012 Pew study in support of his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. But the author, David Becker, has said that Trump's team misconstrued his paper and that researchers found no cases of voter fraud. ... Read more

CNN | 'How Do You Square Those Two?': Spicer Grilled on Trump Lawyers Claiming No Evidence of Voter Fraud (01/25/17) [5:24]

The Entire Senior Management Team At The State Department Just Resigned
ZeroHedge | author | 01/26/17

"It's the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that's incredibly difficult to replicate," said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. ... Read more

A $90 Billion Debt Wave Shows Cracks in U.S. Property Boom
Bloomberg | Sarah Mulholland | 01/24/17

A $90 billion wave of maturing commercial mortgages, leftover debt from the 2007 lending boom, is laying bare the weak links in the U.S. real estate market.

It's getting harder for landlords who rely on borrowed cash to find new loans to pay off the old ones, leading to forecasts for higher delinquencies. Lenders have gotten choosier about which buildings they'll fund, ... Read more

Alex Jones' InfoWars Offered White House Credentials
ZeroHedge | author | 01/26/17

"Here's the deal, I know I get White House credentials, we've already been offered them, we're going to get them, but I've just got to spend the money to send somebody there. I want to make sure it's even worth it. I don't want to just sit there up there like 'm in the media, look our people are there.'" Read more

Though Promised for Domestic Use, Dakota Access Pipeline May Fuel Oil Exports
TheIntercept | Lee Fang | older, but good 09/01/16

Access Pipeline, which will connect fracked crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to markets across the country -- claim the controversial project will enhance energy independence. But at least a portion of the oil may well end up as exports to foreign markets, either as crude or as a refined product.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, has built public support and pressured regulators to approve the project by asserting that the oil will enhance energy independence, because it will be used exclusively by U.S. consumers. ... Read more
TYT | Crooked Donald Authorizes Controversial Pipelines (01/24/17) [8:34]

South Dakota lawmakers declare state of 'emergency' to force repeal of voter-imposed ethics law
RawStory | David Edwards | 01/23/17

Lawmakers in South Dakota are invoking emergency powers to overturn an anti-corruption law that was passed by a ballot measure during the 2016 election.

The South Dakota Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act makes it illegal for lawmakers to receive more than a total of $100 annually from lobbyists in the form of "any compensation, reward, employment, gift, honorarium, beverage, meal, food, or other thing of value made or given directly or indirectly." ... Read more
TYT | Corrupt Politicians Scramble To Protect Their Bribes (01/24/17) [10:52]

12 million pages of declassified CIA files are now available online for everyone to view
news.com.au | author | 01/20/17

The CIA posted a vast cache of close to 12 million pages of declassified documents online, which include information on UFO sightings, Nazi War Crimes, Project Stargate and other once-secret files.

CREST: 25-Year Program Archive - CIA website

RawStory EdSchultz | Ed is joined by Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to discuss Donald Trump withdrawing the U.S. out of the TPP. Ed also gives commentary on White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's first press briefing. ()01/23/17) [14:58]

Six maps that show the anatomy of America's vast infrastructure
WashingtonPost | Tim Meko | older, 12/01/16

President-elect Donald Trump's plan to invest about $550 billion in new infrastructure projects across the country was a central theme in his campaign. "We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it," Trump said. Details are still murky, but it appears that the plan will rely on tax credits to spur private investment.

The maps you are about to see show the massive scope of America's infrastructure using data from OpenStreetMap and various government sources. They provide a glimpse into where that half-trillion dollars may be invested. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Donald Trump Will Not Release Tax Returns, White House Adviser Says
NBC News | Alexandra Jaffe | 01/22/17

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, said Sunday that the president would not be releasing his tax returns, reversing months of repeated campaign-trail promises to do so after an audit is completed.

Conway's comments came in response to a Whitehouse.gov petition with more than 200,000 signatures calling on Trump to release his tax returns. Any petition on the site that receives 100,000 signatures in 30 days receives a response from the White House; this petition reached twice that in two days. "The White House response is that he's not going to release his tax returns," Conway said in an interview on ABC's "This Week." ... Read more

White House | The Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States (01/21/17) [5:02:08]

The White House website

Fox10 | Sean Spicer SLAMS Media For Being Very Negative Towards President Donald Trump (01/23/17) [7:50]

Fox10 | Donald Trump CIA Headquarters Statement (01/21/17) [15:50]

TYT | BREAKING: Pres. Trump Signs Executive Order On Dakota Accesst (01/24/17) [18:57]

Mike Maloney | The Perfect Economic Storm Is Here (12/01/15) [45:30]

Alex Jones Responds To Trump Inauguration Speech (01/21/17) [35:55]

Sunday Show Hosts Hit Back On Trump Administration's Lies
HP | Amanda Terkel | 01/22/17

*NBC Meet The Press | Kellyanne Conway: Press Secretary Sean Spicer Gave 'Alternative Facts' (01/22/17) [3:53]

Women's March on Washington: Historic Protest Three Times Larger Than Trump's Inaugural Crowd
DemocracyNow | author | 01/23/17

In one of the largest days of protest in U.S. history, millions took to the streets Saturday one day after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The largest protest was the Women's March on Washington, where more than 500,000 packed the streets. According to crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, the crowd was roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump's inauguration a day earlier. Women-led marches took place in over 600 locations spread across seven continents--including Antarctica. In addition to Washington, massive protests took place in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles; Madison, Wisconsin; New York; Oakland; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul; San Francisco and Seattle. According to one count, as many as 4.6 million people took part in the global day of action. ... Read more

Despite boasts, Trump's administration riddled with staffing holes
Politico | Matthew Nussbaum | 01/19/17

Mike Pence, usually one for modesty, stepped to the podium Thursday morning for a transition victory lap, crowing that 27 Senate-confirmable positions had been named, 536 beachhead team members were set to land at federal agencies ("bright and early -- on Monday morning"), and that incoming President Donald Trump's transition team had accomplished it all with time and money to spare.

"We're wrapping up this transition on schedule and under budget," Pence said, echoing one of Trump's favorite lines to describe his real estate projects. But the sunny picture Pence painted is an incomplete and misleading one. ... Read more

Visualizing The Global War On Cash
ZeroHedge | author | 01/23/17

There is a global push by lawmakers to eliminate the use of physical cash around the world. This movement is often referred to as "The War on Cash", and there are three major players involved: ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Nomi Prins-Financial Crash possible in Last Quarter of 2017 (01/17/17) [27:45]

TYT | The Young Turks - Live Inauguration Coverage!! (01/20/17) [LIVE]

Donald Trump's Journey From 'Con Man' To President
HP | S.V. Date | 01/19/17

Trump asks key Obama counterterrorism officials to stay on
politico.com | Gregory Hellman | 01/19/17

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team Thursday announced that a handful of top Obama administration counterterrorism officials will remain in their posts after the inauguration. The decision comes amid rising concerns that personnel gaps in key national security agencies could leave the incoming administration ill-prepared to deal with a crisis.

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said among those staying on after Friday will be Nick Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center; Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL; Tom Shannon, undersecretary of state for political affairs; and Adam Szubin, the Treasury Department's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. ... Read more
TYT | Trump's Transition Process: Total Mess (01/19/17) [10:19]

Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto by Bill Ayers

In an era defined by mass incarceration, endless war, economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction, and a political system offering more of the same, radical social transformation has never been more urgent--or seemed more remote.

A manifesto for movement-makers in extraordinary times, Demand the Impossible! urges us to imagine a world beyond what this rotten system would have us believe is possible.

In critiquing the world around us, insurgent educator and activist Bill Ayers uncovers cracks in that system, raising the horizons for radical change, and envisioning strategies for building the movement we need to make a world worth living in.

Notorious Mercenary Erik Prince Is Advising Trump From The Shadows
TheIntercept | Jeremy Scahill | 01/17/17

ERIK PRINCE, AMERICA'S most notorious mercenary, is lurking in the shadows of the incoming Trump administration. A former senior U.S. official who has advised the Trump transition told The Intercept that Prince has been advising the team on matters related to intelligence and defense, including weighing in on candidates for the Defense and State departments. The official asked not to be identified because of a transition policy prohibiting discussion of confidential deliberations. ... Read more

For CEOs, globalization's thrill fades
USAToday| Kim Hjelmgaard | 01/17/17

Globalization took another knock Monday with the publication of a report that showed corporate titans around the world have become more skeptical about the benefits of integrating people, companies and governments.

... Forty-four percent of business leaders firmly believe globalization has done virtually nothing, for example, to help close the gap between the rich and poor. ...

... The report, based on interviews with nearly 1,400 CEOs from 79 countries, revealed that just 13% of corporate leaders feel globalization has "to a large extent" helped solve the problem of income inequality. ... Read more

'Learning Curve' as Rick Perry Pursues a Job He Initially Misunderstood
NYTimes | Coral Davenport | 01/18/17

When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state.

In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing -- that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States' nuclear arsenal. ... Read more

US Government Caught Massively Fabricating Student Loan Default Data
ZeroHedge & WSJ | author | 01/19/17

Ever since 2012 we have warned that one of the biggest threats arising from the US student loan bubble - which is no longer disputed by anyone except perhaps members of the outgoing administration - is not that it is soaring at an unprecedented pace, that's obvious for anyone with the latest loan total number over $1.4 trillion, rising at a pace of nearly $100 billion per year, but that the government - either on purpose or due to honest miscalculation - was not correctly accounting for the true extent of delinquencies and defaults. Today, we finally got confirmation that, as speculated, the US government was indeed fabricating student loan default data, making it appear far lower than it was in reality.

... According to an analysis of the revised data, at more than 1,000 colleges and trade schools, or about a quarter of the total, at least half the students had defaulted or failed to pay down at least $1 on their debt within seven years. This is a stunning number and suggests that the student loan crisis is far greater than anyone had anticipated previously. ... Read more or at WSJ

Davos Elites Call For a Ban on Physical Cash... in the US.
ZeroHedge | author | 01/19/17

... Again... the War on Cash is not slowing down. India effectively removed 86% of the physical cash in circulation and no one was forced to resign.

Put simply, India signaled to the global elites that you can implement a near complete ban on physical cash, and there are no real consequences as far as political aspirations.

We believe that the Elites will be pushing for this policy to hit the US. If you think this is impossible consider that Stiglitz openly called for the US to ban cash in the article above. ... Read more

Overheard At Davos: "So Many People Feel That This Is One Of The Most Dangerous Times"
ZeroHedge | author | 01/19/17

One of the speakers at Devos: "There's never been a better time to be alive, and yet we feel so glum," Mr. Goldin said. "So many people feel anxious. So many people feel that this is one of the most dangerous times."

He denounced the frightened retreat from globalization manifest in Mr. Trump's threats of a trade war with China, and in Britain's abandonment of Europe, commonly known as Brexit.>/p>

"You can't stop managing an entangled environment by disconnecting," he said. "This is the fundamental mistake of Brexit, of Trump, and of so many others. We are not simply connected. We are entangled. Our lives, our destinies are intertwined. What happens in China, what happens in Indonesia, what happens in India, what happens across Europe, and what happens in North America, across Africa and Latin America will affect all of us in dramatic new ways. The idea that somehow we can forge our future in an insular way, even for the biggest countries like the U.S., is a fantasy." ... Read more

The Race To The Bottom: Why A Worldwide Worker Surplus And Uncontrolled Free Trade Are Sinking American Living Standards by Alan Tonelson

A leading economic journalist explains why Washington's responses to globalization have created a global worker surplus that undermines both American workers and those in developing nations

Brave New Films Video: Protect Public Education by Stopping Betsy DeVos From Becoming Next U.S. Secretary of Education
AlterNet | Robert Greenwald / Brave New Films | 01/17/17

Trump's nomination of Betsy DeVos for education secretary is a threat to public education. DeVos has spent millions funding the privatization of education in Michigan. The result? A failing school system where almost 80 percent of schools are run by private, for-profit companies.

The charter schools in Michigan, influenced by DeVos's agenda, perform lower than national averages, have been criticized for misuse of taxpayer funding, and frequently shut down doors without warning or community input. Adding to the alarm is the fact that DeVos has never held a professional position in education in her life, but plans to lead the Department of Education, where she would be in charge of overseeing and providing equal access to quality education for all Americans. ... Read more
Brave New Films | Protect Public Education - Stop Betsy DeVos! (01/14/17) [8:15]

Aljazeera | Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's prison sentence (01/17/17) [2:54]

Meet Donald Trump's emissary to the superrich: Anthony Scaramucci tells the Davos elite his boss is on their side
Salon | Heather Digby Parton | 01/18/17

A long time ago in an alternate universe far, far away, I wrote a Salon column about how the Republican Party was in trouble because rich gadflies had decided to get personally involved in electoral strategy and that could only spell their doom. These were foolish wealthy donors for the most part, people who believed the size of their bank accounts meant they were renaissance geniuses who can do anything.

... His name is Anthony "the Mooch" Scaramucci, and he could be a character out of an Elmore Leonard novel. In fact, in my 2014 article I wrote, "the man's hijinks make Donald Trump look like a prince by comparison." (I didn't know the extent of Trump's high jinks at the time.) Scaramucci has a big mouth and a big wallet and he has been ostentatiously rubbing elbows with the political elite for quite some time. ... Read more

*FOUR HORSEMEN is an independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works. [1:38:54]

Matt Taibbi's New Book: 'Insane Clown President'
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 01/17/17

Insane Clown President, my new book about the 2016 presidential campaign, comes out today, January 17th. I talked about the book with longtime friends Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! this morning; you can watch that above.

Covering the presidential election for Rolling Stone is one of the unique jobs in the world, a peculiar responsibility passed from generation to generation -- like being the Dread Pirate Roberts. Throughout my time at the magazine, I've never not been conscious of the tradition. ... Read more

Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus by Matt Taibbi (2017)

The 2016 presidential contest as told by Matt Taibbi, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion, is in fact the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society.

Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement.

Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight.

*Banks Are Getting Battered
ZeroHedge | author | 01/17/17

US financials stocks are down 3% from Friday's exuberant post-earnings opening highs. That is the biggest drawdown since the election with BofA, JPMorgan, and Goldman leading the downturn (down almost 5% from Friday's opening highs)... Read more

Trump Takes On The Deep State
ZeroHedge | author | 01/17/17

Democratic Lawmakers To Boycott Donald Trump's Inauguration
HP | Jennifer Bendery | 01/12/17

"I will not be celebrating or honoring an incoming president who rode racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry to the White House."

Dozens of Democratic members of Congress are planning to boycott President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, saying they can't bring themselves to welcome a man to the White House who ran such a divisive and prejudiced campaign ? and insulted their colleague, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). ... Read more

Busted: Trump HHS pick introduced legislation benefiting medical company 2 weeks after buying their stock
rawstory.com | Elizabeth Preza | 01/16/17

Rep. Tom Price, Donald Trump's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary bought thousands of dollars worth of shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation to delay an industry regulation that would directly hurt the manufacturer, CNN reports.

Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of stock in Zimmer Biomet, an Indiana based firm that produces orthopedics products, in March 2016. According to CNN, the following week, Price introduced the HIP Act, a bill designed to delay a new regulation that would harm Zimmer Biomet's bottom line. ... Read more
TYT | Stunningly Corrupt Tom Price Perfect For Trump Administration (01/16/17) [6:42]

Mad As Hell - Why the electorate is so pissed off
peakprosperity.com | Chris Martenson | 01/13/17

Making a killing under Obamacare: The ACA gets blamed for rising premiums, while insurance companies are reaping massive profits

While Americans continue to be hammered by rising health care costs, and while congressional lawmakers (with their taxpayer-subsidized health care) do nothing to lower the cost of pharmaceuticals and medical care, one group is reaping a windfall in profit: health insurance companies and their investors.

On Thursday, Aetna reported $734 million in profit on $15.8 billion in revenue for the three months that ended Sept. 30. The nation's third-largest health insurer by revenue handily beat Wall Street estimates for the quarter.

Aetna's earnings report came a week after UnitedHealth reported a 12 percent jump in revenue to $46.3 billion for the three months that ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period the previous year. The company collected $36.1 billion in insurance premiums, a sum 11 percent higher than for the year-ago quarter, while profits increased 29 percent to $1.98 billion

A Salon analysis of regulatory filings found that the top five health insurers -- UnitedHealth, Anthem, Aetna, Humana and Cigna -- have doled out nearly $30 billion in stock buybacks and dividends from 2013 to 2015.

Similar strong results were noted for Humana in their last earnings release. So how can it be that all these companies are both reporting the need for massively higher premiums while also booking higher and higher profits?

Well, when you live in a country that routinely subjects its citizens to racketeering, this is exactly the sort of disconnect you have to live with. They say one thing; but you see with your own eyes, or experience with your own wallet, something completely different. ...

... If the elites don't manage to figure out how to contain their greed, then an angry electorate is just the beginning of their troubles. Anybody seeking to understand the political landscape really just needs to spend a little time on the eroding prosperity of the bottom 99% over the past 20 years. ... Read more

Trump Wants To Cut Russia Sanctions In Return For Nuclear Arms Deal
Reuters & HP | Guy Faulconbridge | 01/15/17

LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he told The Times of London.

Trump, in an interview with the newspaper published online on Sunday, was deeply critical of previous U.S. foreign policy, describing the invasion of Iraq as possibly the gravest error in the history of the United States and akin to "throwing rocks into a beehive."

But ahead of his inauguration on Friday as the 45th U.S. president, Trump raised the prospect of the first major step towards nuclear arms control since President Barack Obama struck a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia in 2010. ... Read more

Trump Makes America Goldman's Again! #MAGA
The Intercept | Jon Schwarz | 12/09/16

IT'S NOW TIME for us, as a nation, to come together and congratulate the winner of the 2016 presidential election: Goldman Sachs.

Many Donald Trump voters likely believed his victory would be a loss for Goldman. At the Republican convention, a man who seemed to take Trump's twitter attacks on Goldman seriously screamed "Goldman Sachs!" at Ted Cruz's banker wife as she fled the convention floor. Trump's own final campaign video declared that he would do battle against the "global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations" -- as personified on screen by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. ... Read more

A Russian Journalist writes "A message to my doomed colleagues in the American media"
skepchick.org | Alexey Kovalev | 01/12/17

Congratulations, US media! You've just covered your first press conference of an authoritarian leader with a massive ego and a deep disdain for your trade and everything you hold dear. We in Russia have been doing it for 12 years now--with a short hiatus when our leader wasn't technically our leader -- so quite a few things during Donald Trump's press conference rang my bells. Not just mine, in fact? -- ?read this excellent round-up in The Moscow Times. ... Read more or Original article here

*TYT | Bernie Sanders Tells Trump To Keep His Promises (01/12/17) [5:44]

*Financial Crash Analysis: $22.6 Billion in Homeowner Relief; $7.8 Trillion to Four Wall Street Banks
Click to zoom in WallstreetOnParade.com/ | Pam Martens | 01/11/17

As Goldman Sachs guys prepare to take the reins of power in Washington under the Trump administration, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided a tragic reminder on Monday regarding the power of the U.S. citizen versus their Wall Street overlords. The GAO released a study showing that as of October 31, 2016, the government "had disbursed $22.6 billion (60 percent) of the $37.51 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds" that were directed at helping distressed homeowners as a result of the 2008 Wall Street financial crash and the resulting housing bust.

Those paltry billions stand in stark contrast to the $7.8 trillion in near-zero interest loans that the Federal Reserve secretly funneled to just four Wall Street banks from 2007 to 2010. The Fed funneled $2.5 trillion to Citigroup; $2 trillion to Morgan Stanley; $1.9 trillion to Merrill Lynch; and $1.3 trillion to Bank of America. The total amount that the Fed secretly loaned to both U.S. and foreign banks came to $16.1 trillion. ... Read more

Trump Tells Congress to Repeal and Replace Health Care Law 'Very Quickly'
NYTimes | Maggie Haberman | 01/10/17

President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass.

"We have to get to business," Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. "Obamacare has been a catastrophic event." ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Supporters Launch Glass-Steagall Drive
WallstreetOnParade.com/ | Pam Martens | 01/06/17

Northwest Ohio supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders in his run for President have launched a nationwide push to enlist other organizations to send it letters and take to social media to endorse a demand that President-elect Donald Trump fulfill a campaign pledge. Trump made the pledge on October 26 of this year in a speech he delivered in Charlotte, North Carolina, promising to enact a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act to reform Wall Street. Such legislation has been sitting dormant in both the House and Senate for years. If enacted, it would separate the deposit-taking, taxpayer-insured commercial banks from the globe-trotting, high-risk trading casinos known as investment banks on Wall Street. ... Read more

Trump Moves Closer To Gutting Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Watchdog
HP | Ben Walsh | 01/12/17

NEW YORK ? Big business and congressional Republicans salivate at the idea of gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Now, President-elect Donald Trump is moving toward what they've long wanted: a weak agency that sides with financial predators over consumers.

... A source close to the transition team told HuffPost that Neugebauer has yet to be offered the job, but that no other candidates are being looked at yet. HuffPost previously reported that Neugebauer's name was being floated as agency chief if Trump decides to fire the current director, Richard Cordray. ... Read more

14 Fake News Stories Created or Publicized by Donald Trump
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 01/12/17

Trump has put thousands of fake news stories out there, some enormous and others so small you wonder why he bothers. Here are 14 fake news stories from the recent and distant past that Trump has created or promoted.

A Well-Kept Open Secret: Washington Is Behind India's Brutal Experiment of Abolishing Most Cash
washingtonsblog.com | Norbert Haering | 01/11/17

In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington's role has been disguised only very superficially.

... On November 8, Indian prime minster Narendra Modi announced that the two largest denominations of banknotes could not be used for payments any more with almost immediate effect. Owners could only recoup their value by putting them into a bank account before the short grace period expired at year end, which many people and businesses did not manage to do, due to long lines in front of banks. The amount of cash that banks were allowed to pay out to individual customers was severely restricted. Almost half of Indians have no bank account and many do not even have a bank nearby. The economy is largely cash based. Thus, a severe shortage of cash ensued. Those who suffered the most were the poorest and most vulnerable. They had additional difficulty earning their meager living in the informal sector or paying for essential goods and services like food, medicine or hospitals. Chaos and fraud reigned well into December. ... Read more and/or original here

The Biggest Commodity Story Of The Year?
Oilprice.com | James Burgess | 01/11/17

Lithium saw its price triple in 2016, and cobalt--another massively important element in the lithium-ion battery--rose almost 50 percent in the same year, and is poised to become the next critical metal as the world sits on the edge of an energy revolution driven by mainstream electric vehicles, battery gigafactories and power walls. ... Read more

TYT | Bernie Sanders Schools Trump-Backing Business Owner (01/11/17) [4:56]

ACA (Obama Care) Repeal Would Lavish Medicare Tax Cuts on 400 Highest-Income Households
Center on Budget and Policies | Brandon Debot | 01/12/17

Republicans' planned bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is expected to be similar to the repeal bill that President Obama vetoed in January 2016, would provide an immediate windfall tax cut to the highest-income Americans while raising taxes significantly on about 7 million low- and moderate-income families.

First, the top 400 highest-income taxpayers -- whose annual incomes average more than $300 million apiece -- each would receive an average annual tax cut of about $7 million, we estimate from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data. This group's tax cut would total about $2.8 billion a year.

Second, ACA repeal would significantly raise taxes on about 7 million low- and moderate-income families due to the loss of their premium tax credits -- worth an average of $4,800 in 2017 -- that help them buy health coverage through the health insurance marketplaces and afford to go to the doctor when needed ... Read more
*TYT | Trump On Obamacare Repeal (01/11/17) [8:46]

Trump Blasts Publication Of Unverified Russia Claims As 'Fake News'
HP | Michael Calderone | 01/11/17

Trump thanked news organizations that didn't publish the allegations, which were raised in a dossier commissioned by his opponents and which haven't been corroborated. But he took aim at BuzzFeed, called it a "failing pile of garbage," and refused to call on reporter Jim Acosta from CNN, which he labeled "fake news."

... On Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported that top intelligence officials briefed Trump last week about a dossier containing unsubstantiated claims that Russia has "compromising personal and financial information" about him. An hour later, BuzzFeed published the 35-page document, which had been circulating among news organizations for months but had not previously been published because the claims remain unverified. ... Read more
*TYT | Trump Pissed At Buzzfeed 'Golden Shower' Leaks (01/11/17) [13:28]
*TYT | Should BuzzFeed Have Published Golden Shower Trump Story? (01/11/17) [15:16]

Donald Trump's lawyer says he is 'completely isolating' himself from his business without being required to
independent.co.uk | Rachael Revesz | 01/12/17

Donald Trump has outlined how he will aim to avoid any conflicts of interest when he steps into the White House. His lawyer, Sheri Dillon of Morgan Lewis, told reporters that he will resign from the Trump Organisation and hand over management to his sons, Don Jr and Eric.

His daughter, Ivanka Trump, will also resign from the family company and move with her husband, Jared Kushner, and her children to Washington DC. ... Read more
TYT | Trump Refuses To Give Up Business Ties (01/11/17) [11:24]

Just One GOP Senator Voted To Block Legislation Cutting Social Security, Medicare And Medicaid
HP | Daniel Marans | 01/11/17

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote for a defeated amendment on Tuesday that would have prevented the Senate from adopting legislation cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. The amendment, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced as an attachment to a budget resolution laying out rules for repealing Obamacare, failed to clear a 60-vote threshold needed for adoption.

Had it passed, Sanders' amendment would have created a technical hurdle, or "point of order," blocking legislation that reduces the benefits that the three programs provide. Also on Tuesday, Sanders released a list outlining 13 times President-elect Donald Trump "promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." ... Read more

Bernie Sanders Gives a Fiery Speech Against Republican Efforts to Dismantle Healthcare (01/04/17) [20:12]

Here's How To Understand The Bombshell New Report On Trump And Russia
HP | Nick Baumann | 01/10/17

Top intelligence officials have briefed President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump on claims that Russian spies have "compromising personal and financial information about Trump," CNN reported Tuesday evening.

The allegations were contained in memos written by a former British spy hired to conduct opposition research on Trump. The claims in the documents -- which BuzzFeed News published in full on Tuesday night -- came from Russian sources, the ex-spy told reporters for multiple outlets. But these claims have been reported before, they aren't independently verified, and even the man who originally broke the story has warned readers to treat them cautiously. Read more

Senate Questions Trump Secretary of State Pick Rex Tillerson at Confirmation Hearing
Bloomberg Politics & HP | author | 01/11/17

Heading into his confirmation hearing Wednesday, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson faces questions about his business links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and will be pressed to answer for -- or disavow -- President-elect Donald Trump's own call for warmer relations with the Russian leader. ... Read more
Senate Questions Trump Secretary of State Pick Rex Tillerson at Confirmation Hearing (01/11/17) [xx:xx]

Stephen Colbert | Donald Trump Live Tweets Obama's Farewell Speech (01/11/17) [54:27]

NBC | President Barack Obama's Farewell Address (full) [1:13:35]

Trevor Noah | "It's the most powerful press in the world going up against the most powerful question-dodger of all time." (01/10/17) [6:24]

Is Europe Gearing Up For World War III? Biggest Shipment Of US Armaments Since End Of Cold War Arrives In Germany Ahead Of NATO Exercises
ibtimes.com | Marcy Kreiter | 01/08/17

U.S. troops began offloading some 2,800 pieces of equipment, including 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, Sunday in the German port city of Bremerhaven ahead of planned NATO exercises at the end of January in Eastern Europe, just days after U.S. intelligence officials unveiled a report on Russian attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Some military equipment arrived in the German port city of Bremerhaven Friday in the biggest shipment of U.S. military equipment to Europe since the end of the Cold War. The equipment next goes to training sites in Poland for NATO exercises. ... Read more

Pentagon Vows More European Wargames to 'Deter Russia'
antiwar.com | Jason Ditz | 01/08/17

Despite the incoming president-elect making a normalization of diplomatic ties with Russia a top priority, the Pentagon continues to move forward with bigger and more complicated wargames, vowing to continue coming up with ever more such operations to "deter Russian aggression."

Lt. Gen. Tim Ray, the deputy commander of Eurocom, insisted that the ongoing wargames, which involve the US deploying large numbers of tanks into Germany to practice massing large numbers of tanks in a single place, was vital to "ensure the territorial integrity of our allies and maintain a Europe that is whole, free, prosperous, and at peace." ... Read more

MSNBC Rachel Maddow | Rachel Maddow Interviews Bernie Sanders! (01/04/17) [13:13]

The Most Loathsome Republican: Mitch McConnell Does the GOP's Dirty Work While All Eyes Follow Trump
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 01/09/17/span>

As Senate Republicans make a mockery of Trump cabinet confirmation hearings this week by ramming as many appointees through as quickly as possible to avoid scrutiny, Americans are going to discover there are many shades of darkness in GOP-led Washington.

Trump, needless to say, is not merely the headline grabber-in-chief, as evidenced by his 3:27am tweet Monday smearing Meryl Streep, who had the guts while receiving a Golden Globe lifetime achievement award Sunday to remind viewers that not all U.S. citizens agree with Trump's boundless bullying. Read more

5 Best Moments of Bernie Sanders' Town Hall on CNN
AlterNet | Alexandra Rosenmann | 01/10/17

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a town hall on CNN at 9pm on January 9. Sanders voiced his concerns regarding Trump's cabinet, the Democrats' future and the repeal of Obamacare. Here were 5 of his best moments. (VIDEOS)...

Trump said he had $315 million in debt. He left out $1.5 billion.
ThinkProgress.org | Judd Legum | 01/06/17

A new report reveals the breathtaking scope of Trump's conflicts of interest.

Trump filed documents with the FEC over the summer that revealed he owed at least $315 million to ten entities. This debt, some of which is personally guaranteed by him, was a clear conflict. As president, Trump will be responsible for regulating entities that he also owes money to. Worse, these debts are frequently renegotiated, giving these companies leverage over Trump in the regulatory process.

A report this afternoon from the Wall Street Journal, however, revealed that Trump's disclosure was the tip of the iceberg. The FEC required Trump only to report debt from entities he fully controls. The disclosure left out "more than $1.5 billion lent to partnerships that are 30%-owned by him." That debt has been securitized and is owed to at least 150 financial entities. ... Read more
TYT | Trump's Debts Are An Ethical Timebomb Of Epic Proportions (01/09/17) [8:21]

TYT | Trump Presidency = No Ethics Administration (01/09/17) [8:23]

TYT | Republican Leader: Rules Only Apply When We're Not In Power (01/09/17) [6:12]

Warren: No Confirmation Hearings for Trump Appointees Until They're Vetted for Conflicts of Interest
AlterNet | David Ferguson / Raw Story | 01/08/17

Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw down the gauntlet to the Trump transition team on Saturday when she called for a moratorium on confirmation hearings for his cabinet appointees until they can be thoroughly screened for conflicts of interest.

She was responding to a letter from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) expressing grave concern that confirmation hearings will take place before it has a chance to screen nominees for ethical conflicts. ... Read more

10 Trump Fails and Lies from Just This Week... Tip of the iceberg.
AlterNet | Kali Holloway | 01/07/17

Every post-election week with Donald Trump feels like an eternity. The details change but the story stays the same: Trump whines, lies and pleads for attention, scrambling facts, fiction and conspiracy into a fatiguing, but now familiar blend. Last week followed the same formula, with Trump pretending not to know what he knows and to be an expert in everything he doesn't know, all while waging petty wars using time that could be spent boning up on policy.

Trump Lashes Out At Meryl: 'Her Lover' | Watch: Streep Trashes Trump In Powerful Golden Globes Speech...
HP | Lauren Weber | 01/09/17

Meryl Streep Goes After Donald Trump At The Golden Globes... While receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her lifelong achievements in acting, Meryl Streep went after Trump for his treatment of a disabled reporter and immigrants. Twitter had a field day imagining the president-elect's response. Trump did tweet this morning about her speech and spoke to The New York Times about it. As for the actual awards, "La La Land" took home more Golden Globes than any film, ever. Here's who else won the rest, and what we thought about the red carpet stunners. [Matthew Jacobs, HuffPost] ... Read more

The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government (2016) by Mike Lofgren

The New York Times bestselling author of The Party Is Over delivers a no-holds-barred exposé of who really wields power in Washington

Every Four years, tempers are tested and marriages fray as Americans head to the polls to cast their votes. But does anyone really care what we think? Has our vaunted political system become one big, expensive, painfully scriped reality TV show? In this cringe-inducing expose of the sins and excesses of Beltwayland, a longtime Republican party insider argues that we have become an oligarchy in form if not in name. Hooked on war, genuflecting to big donors, in thrall to discredited economic theories and utterly bereft of a moral compass, America's governing classes are selling their souls to entrenched interest while our bridges collapse, wages, stagnate, and our water is increasingly undrinkable.

Drawing on sinsights gleaned over three decades on Capitol Hill, much of it on the Budget Committee, Lofgren paints a gripping portrait of the dismal swamp on the Potomac and the revolution it will take to reclaim our government and set us back on course.

The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy by Peter Dale Scott

This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden "deep state" that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America's increasing militarization, restrictions on constitional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to shared sources of funding. Behind all of these commonalities is what Scott calls the deep state: a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law. With the importance of Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to oil markets, American defense companies, and Wall Street itself, this essential book shows that there is now a supranational deep state, sometimes demonstrably opposed to both White House policies and the American public interest.

GOP Congress, Trump Already Pushing Koch Industries' Bill to Hobble Regulatory Agencies
desmogblog.com | Steve Horn | 01/05/16

One of the first orders of business for the freshly convened 115th Congress -- now that it's no longer attempting to gut an independent ethics office -- is to pass a bill which could weaken the ability of federal regulatory agencies to do their jobs.

That law, the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act of 2017, has long been a legislative priority for Koch Industries, Koch-funded advocacy groups such as Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Its latest iteration, H.R. 26*, has the backing of Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and 159 co-sponsors (five Democrats and 154 Republicans) and has reached full debate on the House floor.

REINS dictates that a "major rule shall not take effect unless the Congress enacts a joint resolution of approval" and won't become law if Congress does not pass that resolution by "70 session days or legislative days, as applicable." ... Read more

Like father-in-law, like son-in-law: Jared Kushner named senior adviser to Donald Trump after making deals with China-linked company
Salon | Taylor Link | 01/09/17

Ignoring federal nepotism rules, Jared Kushner -- Donald Trump's son-in-law -- has been named a senior adviser to the president in the upcoming administration. Kushner had reportedly met with lawyers to devise a plan to circumvent a law that prohibits public officials from hiring family members, including son-in-laws, to an office over which that official has authority.

Shortly after the election, President-elect Trump hinted that Kushner was being groomed for an important role, saying that his son-in-law was so talented that he could help "do peace in the Middle East." The president-elect reportedly requested that Kushner receive top secret clearance to join him for his daily briefings. ... Read more

Jesse Ventura Trump risks assassination if establishment likes Pence more than him (12/24/16) [28:45]

Global Debt Hits 325% Of World GDP, Rises To Record $217 Trillion
ZeroHedge | author | 01/06/17

While we eagerly await the next installment of the McKinsey study on global releveraging, we noticed that in the latest report from the Institute for International Finance released on Wednesday, total debt as of Q3 2016 once again rose sharply, increasing by $11 trillion in the first 9 months of the year, hitting a new all time high of $217 trillion. As a result, late in 2016, global debt levels are now roughly 325% of the world's gross domestic product.

In terms of composition, emerging market debt rose substantially, as government bond and syndicated loan issuance in 2016 grew to almost three times its 2015 level. And, as has traditionally been the case, China accounted for the lion's share of the new debt, providing $710 million of the total $855 billion in new issuance during the year, the IIF reported. ... Read more
Click to zoom in

Bank Of England Blog Warns Of Devastating Bond Market Rout, "Worse Than 1994 Massacre"
ZeroHedge | author | 01/06/17

First it was Goldman Sachs, which accurately warned last summer that a sharp spike in interest rates would lead to trillions in bond market losses, as observed over the past two months after the Trump election. Then it was Ray Dalio's turn to warn NY Fed staffers that "it would only take a 100 basis point rise in Treasury bond yields to trigger the worst price decline in bonds since the 1981 bond market crash." Now, it's the turn of the Bank of England, which writes in its blog, Bank Underground, that once the latest bond market bubble bursts, "it leave investors worse off than the 1994 'bond massacre'," when global bonds suffered the biggest annual loss on record.

The blog post author, Paul Schmelzing, a PhD candidate at Harvard University and a visiting scholar at the Bank of England, has little cheer for bond bulls, and writes that "as rates reached their lowest level ever in 2016, investors rather worried about the "biggest bond market bubble in history" coming to a violent end. The sharp sell-off in global bonds following the US election seems to confirm their fears. Looking back over eight centuries of data, I find that the 2016 bull market was indeed one of the largest ever recorded. History suggests this reversal will be driven by inflation fundamentals, and leave investors worse off than the 1994 "bond massacre". Read more

How Bad Will the "Bond Massacre" Get?
wolfstreet.com | Wolf Richter | 01/04/17

Worse "than the 1994 'Bond Massacre,'" with "sustained double-digit losses on bonds, subpar growth in developed markets, and balance sheet risks for banking systems...."

When Will the U.S. Confront Its Role in Fueling Terror Attacks Across the Planet?
AlterNet | Vijay Prashad | 01/04/17

Stories upon stories pile up about what appears to be senseless violence at an Istanbul (Turkey) nightclub or a market in eastern Baghdad (Iraq), on the streets of Tripoli (Libya) or in a mosque in Kabul (Afghanistan). Some in the West turn away from this news, eager to shut it off or to blame it somehow on the failings of Eastern societies. Have they not always been like that? Will they not always kill each other? Others in the West look, but all they feel is great sorrow and then, gratefulness for their own security. It is always the leaden eyes of children in war that move people. Accumulations of such stories are never enough. The voices of the grieving make no sense. It is one thing to feel sympathy for someone in war, but hard, very hard to feel empathy -- their suffering is so alien to the comforts of those in the West, too alien to expect a person to enter the shattered lives of others.

... News comes from the United Nations that 6,878 civilians were killed in Iraq during 2016. These are official numbers. The unofficial numbers are likely much higher. Since the illegal American war on Iraq in 2003, hundreds of thousands if not a million people have been killed before their natural lives ended. It is one of the great criminal acts of contemporary history, and yet no one has been called to account for it (although The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War hopes to make noise in the silence). The immensity of the tragedy of Iraq -- the cause of great destabilization in West Asia and North Africa -- has been utterly forgotten. It is easy to see the Associated Press article on these numbers, to even read about the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq's hard work to establish these figures, and yet to forget that the prime mover here is not Eastern culture or human nature, but a war driven by Washington, DC based entirely on lies. ... Read more

Watch Live: Top Intelligence Officials Testify on Russia Hacking Allegations
Time Magazine | Justin Worland | 01/05/17

Top U.S. intelligence officials will testify in Congress Thursday on cyber threats and allegations that Russia used hacking to sway the U.S. election, as tensions continue to escalate between the intelligence community and President-elect Donald Trump.

The hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee will feature Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Admiral Michael Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency; and Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Read more
Watch Live: Top Intelligence Officials Testify on Russia Hacking Allegations (01/05/17) [live]

Can Trump Fix The Economy In 2017?
globalresearch.ca | Paul Craig Roberts | 01/03/17

So, can Trump fix the economy in 2017?

... There can be no fix unless the ladders of upward mobility that made the US an opportunity society can be put back in place. This will require bringing home the offshored middle class jobs or, assuming that new high value-added jobs could somehow be created, preventing the new jobs from being moved offshore.

There is a way to do this: Base the corporate tax rate on the geographical location where corporations add value to their product. If corporations add value domestically with US labor, the tax rate would be low. If the value is added abroad, the tax rate would be high. The tax rate can be adjusted to offset the benefits of lower costs abroad.

Despite the progaganda about globalism and free trade, the US economy was built on protection, and its strength was the domestic market. US prosperity was never dependent on exports. And as the US dollar is the world reserve currency, the US doesn't need exports in order to pay for its imports. This is why the US can tolerate the trade deficits caused by jobs offshoring. ... Read more

The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West by Paul Craig Roberts

The one percent have pulled off an economic and political revolution. By offshoring manufacturing and professional service jobs, US corporations destroyed the growth of consumer income, the basis of the US economy, leaving the bulk of the population mired in debt. Deregulation was used to concentrate income and wealth in fewer hands and financial firms in corporations "too big to fail," removing financial corporations from market discipline and forcing taxpayers in the US and Europe to cover bankster losses. Environmental destruction has accelerated as economists refuse to count the exhaustion of nature's resources as a cost and as corporations impose the cost of their activities on the environment and on third parties who do not share in the profits. This is the book to read for those who want to understand the mistakes that are bringing the West to its knees.

AIA-Mailer--Reply-Card.pdf

The History of the CIA - Review of Douglas Valentine's Book
globalresearch.ca | Dr. P. Wilkinson | 01/05/17

... The book's principle subject is the Central Intelligence Agency. For the historically challenged it may be useful to recall that the Central Intelligence Agency is an organisation of the US regime created by the National Security Act of 1947. Most history books will tell an average US citizen (or someone schooled with US curricular materials) that the act adopted by the US Congress on 29 July of that year was designed to consolidate the several branches of the military under a Department of Defence, for budgetary reasons, to restrain historic inter-service rivalries, and to create a more modern and efficient armed forces.

What is not said is that in 1945, the US government had demobilised its military and having emerged from the Second World War unscathed was trying to determine how to save its economy from a return to the pre-war depression. The intellectual elite of the US regime has already begun to warn that both domestic stability and US dominance in the world would be jeopardised if the regime did not maintain at least the level of armaments expenditure required during the war that had just ended. However there was no publicly defensible reason for permanent wartime footing. There were no more Native Americans to annihilate; despite the abolition of slavery Negroes were still well under control. The only country even approaching the US in military strength--the USSR--had been so devastated by the war that it would be decades before it could pose a genuine competitive threat. In other words, having pacified the world with atomic weapons and the blood of 30 million Soviet citizens, the US elite had no honest justification for the policy they were about to undertake. ... Read more

The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World by Douglas Valentine (2017)

Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine's research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA's elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA's relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA's ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA's activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.A common theme is the CIA's ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.

The Phoenix Program by Douglas Valentine

This definitive account of the Phoenix program, the US attempt to destroy the Viet Cong through torture and summary execution, remains sobering reading for all those trying to understand the Vietnam War and the moral ambiguities of America's Cold War victory. Though carefully documented, the book is written in an accessible style that makes it ideal for readers at all levels, from undergraduates to professional historians.

House Republicans just voted to gut the independent office overseeing their ethics
Vox | Libby Nelson | 01/02/17

One of the steps Congress will take after new members are sworn in Tuesday: getting rid of the independent office that's supposed to make sure that members of Congress are acting ethically.

House Republicans voted 119-74 Monday evening to all but eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics. Right now, it's an independent office, created after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to trying to bribe members of Congress, that can investigate allegations of corruption and unethical behavior and disclose its findings to the public. ... Read more
TYT | Proof Republicans Don't Give A Sh*t About Ethics (01/03/17) [13:45]

Chris Martenson | Accelerated Crash Course (ACC) 2014 [56:24]

Chris Martenson | Rana Foroohar: How Wall Street Is Strangling The Economy (06/12/16) [37:41]

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business by Rana Foroohar (2016)

Eight years on from the biggest market meltdown since the Great Depression, the key lessons of the crisis of 2008 still remain unlearned--and our financial system is just as vulnerable as ever. Many of us know that our government failed to fix the banking system after the subprime mortgage crisis. But what few of us realize is how the misguided financial practices and philosophies that nearly toppled the global financial system have come to infiltrate ALL American businesses, putting us on a collision course for another cataclysmic meltdown.

Drawing on in-depth reporting and exclusive interviews at the highest rungs of Wall Street and Washington, Time assistant managing editor and economic columnist Rana Foroohar shows how the "financialization of America" - the trend by which finance and its way of thinking have come to reign supreme - is perpetuating Wall Street's reign over Main Street, widening the gap between rich and poor, and threatening the future of the American Dream.

Policy makers get caught up in the details of regulating "Too Big To Fail" banks, but the problems in our market system go much broader and deeper than that. Consider that:

1. Thanks to 40 years of policy changes and bad decisions, only about 15 % of all the money in our market system actually ends up in the real economy -- the rest stays within the closed loop of finance itself.
2. The financial sector takes a quarter of all corporate profits in this country while creating only 4 % of American jobs.
3. The tax code continues to favor debt over equity, making it easier for companies to hoard cash overseas rather than reinvest it on our shores.
4. Our biggest and most profitable corporations are investing more money in stock buybacks than in research and innovation.
5. And, still, the majority of the financial regulations promised after the 2008 meltdown have yet come to pass, thanks to cozy relationship between our lawmakers and the country's wealthiest financiers.

Exploring these forces, which have have led American businesses to favor balancing-sheet engineering over the actual kind and the pursuit of short-term corporate profits over job creation, Foroohar shows how financialization has so gravely harmed our society, and why reversing this trend is of grave importance to us all. Through colorful stories of both "Takers" and "Makers," she'll reveal how we change the system for a better and more sustainable shared economic future.

-- Financial Times - Best Books of 2016: Economics
-- Bloomberg Businessweek- Best Books of the Year

Potential new banking crises are a concern in Europe: Analyst
CNBC | Silvia Amaro | 01/02/17

"In the States, the economy hit the wall, people wrote off all the bad loans, they got on with it and the banks recapitalized and move forward," Howard Goldring, managing director at Delmore Asset Management told CNBC on Monday.

"This process in Europe is taking years because of refusal to face reality and I am just worried that there's going to be more of this over the next year or two, not just in Italy but in other places across Europe."

According to KPMG, the European banking sector has about 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) in non-performing loans, almost three times as much compared to the U.S. ... Read more

Top-Secret Snowden Document Reveals What The NSA Knew About Previous Russian Hacking
TheIntercept | Sam Biddle | 12/29/16

TO DATE, THE only public evidence that the Russian government was responsible for hacks of the DNC and key Democratic figures has been circumstantial and far short of conclusive, courtesy of private research firms with a financial stake in such claims. Multiple federal agencies now claim certainty about the Kremlin connection, but they have yet to make public the basis for their beliefs.

Now, a never-before-published top-secret document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden suggests the NSA has a way of collecting evidence of Russian hacks, because the agency tracked a similar hack before in the case of a prominent Russian journalist, who was also a U.S. citizen. ... Read more

House Republicans To Gut Ethics Watchdog
HP | Matt Fuller | 01/02/17

... Less than 24 hours before the House convenes and votes on its rules for the 115th Congress, Republicans adopted an amendment Monday night, 119 to 74, from Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that would fundamentally change the OCE. The independent ethics board investigates complaints against members and issues reports to the Ethics Committee.

Specifically, the amendment would place the OCE under the "oversight" of the lenient Ethics Committee and rename it the Office of Congressional Complaint Review. The new group would no longer be able to release information to the public, employ anyone "for a position involving communications with the public," or directly contact law enforcement without approval. It would also be prohibited from investigating anonymous complaints. ... Read more

Donald Trump's EPA Pick Urged To Come Clean On Ties To Secretive Koch-Funded Group
HP | Alexander C. Kaufman | 12/28/16

... Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt helped found the nonprofit Rule of Law Defense Fund to collect campaign contributions from companies like oil giant ConocoPhillips and coal mining titan Alpha Natural Resources, The New York Times reported in December 2014. Pruitt now sits on the group's board. ...

... "Before the Senate votes to confirm you to run EPA, it is important that you provide a full disclosure of your relationship with the energy industry so we can determine how that will influence your ability to run the agency," read a letter signed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.). The senators are all members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. ... Read more
TYT | Trump's EPA Pick In Big Oil's Pocket (01/02/17) [5:04]

UPDATE: Three Reasons the REINS Act Must Be Stopped (Again)
foreffectivegov.org | Katie Weatherford | 01/23/15

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act (S. 226 and H.R. 427) on Jan. 21, making this the fourth time the bill has been introduced in the House and Senate. If passed, the REINS Act would require congressional approval of all "major" rules (i.e., rules with an estimated annual economic impact of $100 million or more), potentially endangering the most important safeguards to our health, safety, environment, and economy.

TYT | Republicans Ensuring Government Will Stay Broke (01/02/17) [9:27]

Wall Street Journal Editor Says His Newspaper Won't Call Donald Trump's Lies 'Lies'
HP | Kate Sheppard | 01/01/17

Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker said his newspaper would not refer to false statements from the Trump administration as "lies," because doing so would ascribe a "moral intent" to the statements.

Baker appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday, where he described some of President-elect Donald Trump's falsehoods as "questionable" and "challengeable." But, he said, "I'd be careful about using the word 'lie.' 'Lie' implies much more than just saying something that's false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead." ... Read more
NBC News | Meet the Press | WSJ Editor: How a Less "Reverent" Press Might Cover Trump (01/01/17) [6:01]

*The Crash Course - Chapter 3 - Exponential Growth by Chris Martenson (2014) [6:15]

Capitalism Is Collapsing -- and the Weird Thing Is That Nothing Is Rising to Replace It
AlterNet | Crawford Kilian / The Tyee 12/28/16

Some anonymous wise person once observed that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. But Wolfgang Streeck, a 70-year-old German sociologist and director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, thinks capitalism's end is inevitable and fast approaching. He has no idea what, if anything, will replace it.

This is the premise of his latest book, How Will Capitalism End?, which goes well beyond Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. Piketty thinks capitalism is getting back into the saddle after being ruined in two world wars. Streeck thinks capitalism is its own worst enemy and has effectively cut itself off from all hope of rescue by destroying all its potential rescuers. ... Read more

Hundreds of thousands face starvation and death in Africa in the growing crisis no one is talking about
independent.co.uk | Ian Johnston | 12/24/16

'As we enter 2017, over 37 million people across Africa are without food,' warns International Development Secretary Priti Patel

During the drought that devastated the Horn of Africa in 2010 and 2011, women bound their waists with rope to deaden the pangs of hunger as they gave what little food they had to their children. In stark contrast to such selfless acts, the international community stood back and watched until it was too late for the 260,000 people who starved to death. ... Read more
*TYT | Is The Water War Already Here? (01/01/17) [11:21]

Trump May Have a $300 Million Conflict of Interest With Deutsche Bank
Yahoo Financials & Bloomberg | Keri Geiger | 12/22/16

For years,Donald Trump has used a powerful tool when dealing with bankers: his personal guarantee. Now that guarantee -- employed to extract better terms on hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to theTrump Organization -- is at the center of a delicate loan-restructuring discussion atDeutsche Bank AG, which is under investigation on several fronts by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The bank is trying to restructure some of Trump's roughly $300 million debt as part of an attempt to reduce any conflict of interest between the loan and his presidency, according to a person familiar with the matter. Normally, the removal of a personal pledge might lead to more-stringent terms. But there is little normal about this interaction. Trump's attorney general will inherit an investigation of Deutsche Bank related to stock trades for rich clients in Russia -- where Trump says he plans to improve relations -- and may have to deal with a possible multibillion-dollar penalty to the bank related to mortgage-bond investigations. ... Read more

*TYT | Trump Owes BIG Money To Bank (12/22/16) [6:24]