Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Trump's Mexico tariffs could decimate the auto industry
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/31/19

Already having laid off the highest number of employees in nearly a decade and attempting to recover from a year in which declining global car sales likely reduced world GDP by 0.2%, the auto industry is facing a direct hit from President Trump's threatened tariffs on all goods from Mexico.

Why it matters: Mexico recently became the No. 1 trading partner with the U.S., and a significant percentage of that trade is completed by auto companies. Much of the "trade" is American auto companies exchanging parts, goods and services within entities they own, Deutsche Bank Securities chief economist Torsten Slok pointed out in a note to clients Thursday night. ... Read more

Donald Trump defends tariffs on Mexico as stock markets reel
TheGuardian | Lauren Gambino | 05/31/18

Donald Trump has defended his decision to impose new tariffs on Mexico as stock markets worldwide were rattled by fears of an escalation in trade tensions.

"Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades," Trump tweeted. "Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!"

On Thursday Trump announced that he was placing a 5% tariff on "every single good coming into the United States from Mexico" starting on 10 June, to pressure the country to do more to curb immigration into the US.

The tariffs will rise by 5% each month until it reaches 25% in October if the number of people crossing the border doesn't "come down substantially", the White House acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said. ... Read more

North Korea Reportedly Executes Officials For Failed Trump-Kim Summit
HP | Nick Visser | 05/31/19

North Korea has reportedly executed the country's special envoy to the United States over February's failed summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday.

Kim Hyok Chol, the chief negotiator who led the working-level negotiations with the U.S., was executed in March alongside several other officials in punishment for the outcome of the event, the newspaper reported. Trump and Kim met in Hanoi, Vietnam, for their second official summit to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear program, but the talks abruptly collapsed after the pair failed to come to a deal. ... Read more

A historic tornado onslaught in central U.S.
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 05/31/19

The U.S. has been hammered by an onslaught of severe weather, as a persistent weather pattern set up a clash of seasons across the central U.S.

The state of play: Epic flooding has also been affecting the Upper Midwest, Plains, central U.S. and Mississippi River Valley this spring, with many locations seeing their highest water levels on record. ... Read more

Trump Falsely Claims Mueller Statement Exonerates Him
HP | Marina Fang | 05/30/19

"If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that," special counsel Robert Mueller said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump on Thursday railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's statement the day before by mischaracterizing Mueller's conclusions and falsely suggesting that the investigation exonerated him ? despite Mueller's insistence that it did not.

Mueller had explained on Wednesday that he could not, in fact, bring charges because of Department of Justice legal guidance that states that a president cannot be charged with a crime.

"If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that," Mueller said Wednesday. "A president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional... Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider." ... Read more
Robert Mueller's first statement about Russia probe | CNN | 05/29/19 | 11:16

Trump's Golfing Bill Will Shock You (>$100,000,000.00 million) | TYT | 05/27/19 | 3:09

Brexit and the Rise of the British Trumps
TheIntercept | staff | 05/30/19

THIS WEEK'S EU PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS sent political shockwaves across Europe, with far-right nationalist parties racking up major victories in France, Italy, and even the U.K. Established parties in Britain took a pounding as voters flocked to Nigel Farage's newly-founded Brexit Party. Only days earlier, Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in the wake of repeated failures to secure a deal on Brexit. So where does all this leave the U.K.'s effort to withdraw from the European Union? And what can the U.S. -- which in the midst of its own anti-immigrant populist moment -- learn from the turmoil across the Atlantic? Guardian columnist Owen Jones joins Mehdi Hasan to talk about the rise of British Trumpism. ... Read more
Deconstructed Podcast: Brexit and the Rise of the British Trumps | TheIntercept | 05/30/18 | 1hr

Historic flooding swamps Oklahoma, Arkansas as storms prove relentless
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 05/29/19

A tense situation is unfolding in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where officials are hoping that 70-year-old levees will withstand an unprecedented, prolonged test to keep back the swollen Arkansas River, which has risen to an all-time record high after weeks of heavy rain.

Why it matters: The flooding that has gripped the nation's heartland will eventually affect the price of food, as farmers cope with fields that have turned into lakes at a time of year when staple crops such as corn and wheat should be planted already. In addition, the damage from the floods, which started in the Upper Midwest earlier this year and now stretch all the way down the Mississippi River, likely exceeds $1 billion in individual states alone, with a far higher aggregate cost. ... Read more

US-China trade: what are rare-earth metals, and what's the dispute?
theguardian.com | Kalyeena Makortoff | date

The metals are used to produce a raft of goods, including mobile phones and cameras

They include elements like gadolinium, lanthanum, cerium and promethium, and are vital in the production of cancer treatment drugs, smartphones and renewable energy technologies.

Where do they come from?
Rare earths are not actually very rare. They can be found across the Earth's crust. However, they are often in low concentrations and are difficult and expensive to mine.

The process can also damage the environment, with ecosystems put at risk by pit mining, the release of metal byproducts from refineries, and water contamination from particles being dumped during waste disposal. ... Read more

Trump's 2020 plan to target black, Hispanic and suburban female voters
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 05/29/19

Trump campaign officials have been discussing a digital campaign to boost President Trump's 2020 support among three key demographic groups: African Americans, Hispanics and suburban women, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios.

Why it matters: These are the groups the president must make inroads with the most. Trump won in 2016 with less support from black and Hispanic voters than any president in at least 40 years, per Reuters. And in 2018, suburban women revolted against Republicans in the midterms, a shift that was widely seen as a direct rebuke of Trump. ... Read more

Siege: Trump Under Fire by Michael Wolff

With Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, he has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side. A stunningly fresh narrative that begins just as Trump's second year as president is getting underway and ends with the delivery of the Mueller report, Siege reveals an administration that is perpetually beleaguered by investigations and a president who is increasingly volatile, erratic, and ...

Bannon described Trump Organization as 'criminal enterprise', Michael Wolff book claims
theguardian.com | Edward Helmore | 05/29/19

Former White House adviser says financial investigations will take down president in sequel to Fire and Fury

The former White House adviser Steve Bannon has described the Trump Organization as a criminal entity and predicted that investigations into the president's finances will lead to his political downfall, when he is revealed to be "not the billionaire he said he was, just another scumbag".

The startling remarks are contained in Siege: Trump Under Fire, the author Michael Wolff's forthcoming account of the second year of the Trump administration. The book, published on 4 June, is a sequel to Fire and Fury: Trump in the White House, which was a bestseller in 2018. The Guardian obtained a copy.

In a key passage, Bannon is reported as saying he believes investigations of Donald Trump's financial history will provide proof of the underlying criminality of his eponymous company. ... Read more

Why rare earth minerals matter in the U.S.-China trade war
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/28/19

Rare earth minerals and elements are necessary components of tech and defense tools, including smartphones, LED lights, wind turbines and nuclear rods. And their critical role in modern manufacturing has turned them into the latest lightning rod in the trade war between China and the U.S.

Driving the news: After President Trump blacklisted Chinese tech company Huawei and threatened to target other Chinese tech firms by disallowing American companies to do business with them, China signaled it could target rare earth minerals. ... Read more

The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right by David Renton

The eighteen months between June 2016 and the end of 2017 saw the victory of Leave in Britain’s EU referendum, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and unprecedented support for Marine Le Pen of the Front National in her campaign for the same office in France. Nearly a decade after the great financial crash, it is these figures and the alarmingly confident and radical version of right-wing politics they represent that have gained the initiative over a moribund center and a still weak left.

But what exactly does this new reality represent? While some argue that we are hurtling towards fascism in a replay of the 1930s, and others insist there is little substantial change from “politics as usual,” Renton takes a different and more nuanced view. In country after country, under the clouds of economic austerity and post-9/11 Islamophobia, we have seen a convergence between traditional conservatives, the authoritarian far-right, and previously marginal fascists. The result is a new, still emergent, and deeply troubling form of right-wing radicalism, at once more moderate than classical fascism in its political strategy, yet indulgent of the racism of its most extreme components.

Finding Rick Perry: The Missing Secretary Of Energy | Stephen Colbert | 05/24/19 | 7:47

The Check In: Rick Perry and the Department of Energy | Seth Meyers | older | 8:29

How Bernie Sanders Accidentally Built a GRoundbreaking Organizing Movement
TheIntercept | Ryan Grim | 05/28/19

MCDONALD’S WORKERS, PUSHING for higher wages and an end to workplace abuses, picketed Thursday outside franchises across the country. In an unusual twist, they were joined by volunteers from the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.

It was the campaign’s second bout of activist intervention in as many weeks, as campaign supporters had previously joined a picket line with University of California workers locked in negotiations with their bosses.

It’s common for a politician to make a brief appearance on a picket line to show solidarity with a cause, but it’s practically unheard for a campaign to divert its own volunteers away from the mission of electing its candidate. This act of activism flows directly from the bottom-up approach taken by the 2020 Sanders campaign, which is not just in stark contrast to every other presidential campaign: It’s also a sharp reversal from the approach taken by the leadership of the 2016 Sanders campaign. ... Read more

President Donald Trump Losses Mount As Cracks Form In Dam Of Secrecy | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 05/22/19 | 22:18

Town Hall with Pete Buttigieg | Part 1 | FoxNews | 05/19/19 | 19:05

Full Bernie Sanders: 'We're Going To Try To Transform The United States Of America' | Meet The Press | 05/19/19 | 14:14

Nancy Pelosi: Trump is "engaged in a cover-up"
Axios | Orion Rummler | 05/22/19

While leaving a closed-door meeting to discuss the issue of impeachment Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that House Democrats "believe the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up."

"It was a very positive meeting, a respectful sharing of ideas. And I think a very impressive presentation by our chairs. We do believe it is important to follow the facts, that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States. And we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up. A cover-up. And that was the nature of the meeting." ... Read more

Watch: Interview With Brazil's Ex-President Lula From Prison, Discussing Global Threats, Neoliberalism, Bolsonaro, and More
TheIntercept | Glenn Greenwald | 05/22/19

AMONG THE PLANET'S significant political figures, no one is quite like Lula. Born into extreme poverty, illiterate until the age of 10, forced to quit school at the age of 12 to work as a shoe shiner, losing a finger at his factory job at 19, and then becoming a labor activist, union leader, and founder of a political party devoted to a defense of laborers (the Workers' Party, or PT), Lula has always been, in all respects, the exact opposite of the rich, dynastic, oligarch-loyal, aristocratic prototype that has traditionally wielded power in Brazil.

That's precisely what makes Lula's rise to power, and his incomparable success once he obtained it, so extraordinary. And that's what, to this very day, makes him so worth listening to regarding the world's most complex and pressing political questions: As the ascension of right-wing nationalism and populism at times seems unstoppable, Lula is one of the world's very few political figures of the last several decades able to figure out how to win national elections in a large country based on left-wing populism in the best sense of that term. ... Read more

*Trump Says the Military Industrial Complex is Pressuring him Into a War With Iran with Col. Larry Wilkenson | TRNN | 05/21/19 | 17:11

Trump-Bolton Aggression Against Iran Contained by Russia, Japan, China, and EU with Vijay Prashad | TRNN | 05/19/19 | 20:16

*Trump's 2020 Military Budget Is $500 Billion More Than He Claims | TRNN | 05/19/19 | 10:39

Nadler threatens McGahn with contempt if he doesn't testify in Congress
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 05/21/19

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler sent a letter to Don McGahn Monday warning he'd use "all enforcement mechanisms" to compel him to testify, after the former White House counsel informed him he'd defy a congressional subpoena.

Details: Nadler later told CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" if McGahn didn't testify in Congress as scheduled Tuesday, "the first thing we're going to have to do is hold McGahn in contempt." ... Read more

McGahn's lawyer tells House panel he will defy congressional subpoena
Axios | author | 05/21/19

A lawyer for former White House counsel Don McGahn sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) Monday saying he won't testify before the House committee.

Details: The letter was sent after the Trump administration said it told McGahn to defy a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee and not testify at a scheduled hearing on Tuesday. ... Read more

DC judge upholds House subpoena for Trump's financial records
Axios | Gigi Sukin | 05/21/19

A federal judge in Washington D.C. declined to block a House subpoena to President Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, for his financial records on Monday.

Scoop: Trump's big-bang 2020 campaign launch
Axios | Mike Allen | 05/20/19

President Trump plans to formally launch his re-election campaign next month, likely with a burst of swing-state rallies, Republican sources tell me.

Why it matters: Trump's personal campaign approach is aimed at sowing further division in the huge Democratic field, and trying to dominate the news so the national discussion hovers on his turf.

In conversations, Trump makes it clear that he thinks of the official kickoff as June 16 -- four years to the day since he rode down the gold escalator in Trump Tower to announce his improbable 2016 run.... Read more

*Trump's 2020 Military Budget Is $500 Billion More Than He Claims | TRNN | 05/19/19 | 10:39

Hashem and Allen, Lobbying for War
TomDispatch.com | Mashal Hashem and James Allen | 05/16/19

As William Hartung and Mandy Smithberger reported at TomDispatch recently, the national security budget has reached $1.25 trillion annually without evidently peaking, while the U.S. military fights wars without end across a significant swath of the planet (and yet another war or two loom on the horizon). One thing seems clear, as today's authors report: there are some remarkably deep pockets in Washington pouring money into ensuring that your tax dollars will never stop flowing into that budget and into the wars and the weaponry that keep it ever on the rise. Someday, it may be seen for the scam it largely is, as basic American infrastructure declines without investment of just about any sort. (Too bad Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and crew don't build roads, dams, and public schools and that the Saudis aren't at war with American infrastructure. Then some real money might go into them all!)

Anyway, maybe the greatest scam in Washington -- and that says a lot in the age of Donald Trump -- sports a distinctly anodyne name: "lobbying." Whether you're a major weapons maker or a war-making Middle Eastern ally of the U.S., it goes without saying that you have to hire one or more lobbying firms to make sure that your needs, desires, and views on what matters are front and center in political Washington. Too bad the rest of us can't hire lobbying groups to make our own cases for what should matter most, which, when it comes to yours truly and so many other Americans, certainly isn't the royals of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates or Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and the rest of the "industrial" part of the military-industrial complex. Unfortunately, as Mashal Hashem and James Allen report in their first TomDispatch post, at least two lobbying outfits have given the term "double-dipping" new meaning in Washington when it comes to American backing for and the sale of American weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their seemingly never-ending war in Yemen, one of the genuine horrors of our age. ... Read more

Trump Flips Over NYT Deutsche Bank Bombshell
HP | AP | 05/20/19

The president attacked The New York Times and "Fake Media" in a flurry of defensive tweets on Monday morning.

The Times and others have reported the bank was the "only mainstream financial institution consistently willing to do business" with Trump due to his repeated defaults.

Two House committees have subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and several other financial institutions as part of their investigations into Trump's finances. Trump, his family and the Trump Organization have filed a lawsuit to try to stop them from complying. ... Read more

Earth just had its second-hottest April on record
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 05/16/19

The globe just experienced its second-warmest April since reliable instrument data began in 1880, according to NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Why it matters: The unusually warm April follows a top 3 hottest March, and indicates that the Earth is headed for yet another top 3 warmest year on record. This follows recent news that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere edged past 415 parts per million for the first time in human history, likely becoming the highest level on record in at least 3 million years. ... Read more

Arctic Temperatures Shatter Records | TYT | 05/15/19 | 6:42

Can Congress Steer The U.S. Away From War With Iran?
HP | Nick Robins-Early | 05/16/19

A lack of congressional oversight is leaving the Trump administration on a collision course with Tehran.

The Trump administration's sudden march toward an armed conflict with Iran has a number of top Democrats and even some Republicans attempting to rein in the president's hawkish senior officials before potentially tens of thousands of U.S. troops are once again engaged in a bloody conflict in the Middle East.

Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have renewed a push for a 2018 bill that would prohibit the U.S. from using funds for a war against Iran without first getting congressional approval. On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined the bill as a co-sponsor. ... Read more

Will John Bolton Finally Get His War with Iran?
TheIntercept | author | date

U.S. OFFICIALS THIS WEEK accused Iran of orchestrating "sabotage" attacks on Saudi tankers near the Persian Gulf, escalating an already tense situation between the two countries. President Trump ramped up his own rhetoric, telling reporters that "it's going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens ... they're not going to be happy." With the notoriously hawkish national security adviser John Bolton whispering in Trump's ear, are these signs that the administration is putting the U.S. on a path to war? On this week's Deconstructed, Mehdi Hasan discusses the prospects for another illegal and bloody regime change war in the Middle East with National Iranian American Council president Trita Parsi, and with Rob Malley, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group. ... Read more

2019 campaign: Trump vs. the world
Axios | Mike Allen | 05/15/19

President Trump is running a 2019 campaign against the world, picking fights on four continents and putting his pugilistic "America First" to a grand international test.

Why it matters: Trump has been buoyed for two years by a strong economy and relative global stability. Now, he may confront a hot war or a self-inflicted economic shock as he heads into the heat of his re-election campaign.

'Hatred doesn't build overnight': behind the powerful Auschwitz exhibition
TheGuardian | Julianne McShane | 05/15/17

At the newly opened, largest-ever Auschwitz exhibition in North America, an extensive collection of objects and photograph paint a devastating picture

Ruth Grunberger was 16 years old when she stepped off a cattle car at Auschwitz in the dead of night in May 1944. She disembarked with nearly 100 other Jewish people, including her parents and her seven siblings, who had made the three-day, 250-mile trip from their hometown of Munkács -- in then Czechoslovakia, where they had spent weeks imprisoned in the basement of a brick factory -- to the concentration and extermination camp, located in the suburbs of the city of Oswiecim, in the southern part of German-occupied Poland.

At the entrance to Auschwitz, Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was one of the physicians who -- with "a flick of the cane clasped in a gloved hand", according to his biographer Gerald Posner -- granted life or death to the estimated 1.3 million people who arrived from across Europe. Mengele directed Grunberger's five siblings and her mother, Emma, to the left, where the gas chambers waited for the estimated 900,000 people who would die inside. He sent Grunberger, her 18-year-old sister, Manci, and their 16-year-old cousin, Edith, to the right, towards a future where forced labor was the only certainty. Mengele also sent Grunberger's 20-year-old brother, Asher, and her father, David, to work, but Grunberger never saw them again.

Officers from the Schutzstaffel -- the Nazi paramilitary organization also known as the SS -- ordered the women who Mengele spared to strip naked so they could shave and shear their head and body hair. Grunberger watched the tufts of her brown braids fall to the ground, the last remnants of her girlhood settling on the floor to be swept away. "I didn't think we were human anymore," she said. ... Read more

U.S. Pulls Nonessential Staff From Iraq Amid Rising Tensions With Iran
HP | AP/John Gambrell | 05/15/19

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.

Recent days have seen allegations of sabotage targeting oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a drone attack by Yemen's Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, and the dispatch of U.S. warships and bombers to the region.

At the root of this appears to be President Donald Trump's decision a year ago to pull the U.S. from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, embarking on a maximalist sanctions campaign against Tehran. In response, Iran's supreme leader issued a veiled threat Tuesday, saying it wouldn't be difficult for the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels. ... Read more

Trump's long trade war
Axios |Jonathan Swan | 05/14/19

Senior administration officials tell Axios that a trade deal with China isn't close and that the U.S. could be in for a long trade war.

The state of play: A senior administration official said the differences between the two sides are so profound that, based on his read of the situation, he can't see the fight getting resolved before the end of the year.

Trump yesterday held out the possibility of meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 in Japan next month. That statement may have been made in part to calm the stock market, which yesterday had its worst day since January. (Lead Financial Times headline: Global markets reel.") ... Read more

Tucker Carlson Defends Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez And Bernie Sanders | TYT | 05/13/19 | 6:30

The Second Drone Age, How Turkey Defied the U.S. and Became a Killer Drone Power
TheIntercept | Umar Farooq | 05/14/19

FINDING ONESELF IN the crosshairs of a military drone is, for most people, not the most comforting situation. Yet at an air show last fall, tens of thousands of people had a different reaction.

A military drone took off from a runway, and moments later it began transmitting its view to a giant screen on stage. The video from the drone was clear enough to pick out your own face among the crowd. It was exactly what the drone's pilot, seated in a trailer not far from the stage, was seeing. The crowd was in the crosshairs, and you could see the data about the aircraft's pitch, roll, and altitude. In the bottom right corner of the screen, the words "Bore Invalid" indicated the drone was currently unarmed.

It's the kind of video that, in a war zone, can end with a giant plume of smoke and the tattered remains of whatever the drone has just obliterated. Yet for this crowd, it was like catching a glimpse of themselves on the Jumbotron at a football game. When an announcer shouted out, "We see you, wave your hands!" they erupted in excitement. ... Read more
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A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss

In a riveting book with powerful resonance today, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss captures the pervasive fear and paranoia that gripped America during the Red Scare of the 1950s through the chilling yet affirming story of his family's ordeal, from blacklisting to vindication.

Elliott Maraniss, David's father, a WWII veteran who had commanded an all-black company in the Pacific, was spied on by the FBI, named as a communist by an informant, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, fired from his newspaper job, and blacklisted for five years. Yet he never lost faith in America and emerged on the other side with his family and optimism intact.

In a sweeping drama that moves from the Depression and Spanish Civil War to the HUAC hearings and end of the McCarthy era, Maraniss weaves his father's story through the lives of his inquisitors and defenders as they struggle with the vital twentieth-century issues of race, fascism, communism, and first amendment freedoms. A Good American Family powerfully evokes the political dysfunctions of the 1950s while underscoring what it really means to be an American. It is an unsparing yet moving tribute from a brilliant writer to his father and the family he protected in dangerous times

China will raise tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods
Axios | Marisa Fernandez | 05/13/19

China will impose retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods on June 1, per CNBC, causing the U.S. stock market to fall considerably upon market open today.

Why it matters: The increase from 10% to 25% from Beijing means that the trade war between the U.S. and China is real. The tariffs largely fire back at U.S. agricultural products like peanuts, sugar, wheat, chicken and turkey, bringing more pain to a sector which has already suffered hard losses.

China's Global Times also reported that portions of the tariffs are meant to reduce Chinese Boeing orders. Chinese scholars are also reportedly weighing how to dump U.S. Treasury bonds -- and the mechanisms to do so. ... Read more

Green New Deal: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | John Olivert | 05/12/19 | 19:27

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders Team Up on Bank Legislation
TheIntercept | David Dayen | 05/10/19

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ will announce her first major bill today, in partnership with Vermont Sen. and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. It's something Sanders has proposed for many years: a 15 percent interest rate cap on all consumer loans, which would reduce what many Americans pay on their credit cards and effectively eliminate the payday loan industry.

The bill is called the Loan Shark Prevention Act, and it's only two pages long. It includes language that would prevent lenders from adding fees to "evade" the interest rate cap and sets penalties for violators, including a forfeiture of all interest on the illegal loans.

According to Ocasio-Cortez's office, the freshman representative plans to suggest postal banking as a public option for consumer lending, though that is not in the legislation. A postal lending option would in theory minimize the impact on access to credit from the rate cap. Sanders endorsed postal banking during his 2016 presidential campaign. ... Read more

The MMT Debate With Dean Baker & Randall Wray | TRNN | 05/13/19 | 14:22

America's biggest trade war losers
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/10/19

Details: Chinese tariffs also targeted petrochemical-heavy industries like plastics products in the second and third rounds of retaliation as the U.S. chemical industry began the first wave of more than $200 billion in new and planned infrastructure, S&P Global Platts notes.

What they're saying: "The potential of a 25% tariff from tonight would have a major impact on our production, on our investment and pricing," said Alex Camara, CEO of Audio Control in Seattle, on a call Thursday with reporters organized by the National Retail Federation. ... Read more

Rethinking the market in the trade war's next phase
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/10/19

President Trump raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods Friday morning to 25%. The president also is expected to tax nearly all of China's imports as punishment for Beijing's attempt to "renegotiate" a trade deal.

Why it matters: Having long priced in a happy ending to the trade war, the market will need to reassess U.S. businesses and the state of the U.S. economy. Further, supply chains may need to be rethought and entire businesses may have to be re-evaluated. ... Read more

Manufactured Iranian Threat in the Persian Gulf | TRNN | 05/10/19 | 11:39

Trump's China Tariffs: A Misplaced Strategy for the US Economy | TRNN | 05/10/19 | 10:32

Democratic-Aligned Think Tank Knocks Bernie Sanders for Vote Aimed at a Voiding War with Iran
TheIntercept | Akela Lacy | 05/09/18

A MAINSTREAM, DEMOCRATIC Party-aligned foreign policy think tank is knocking Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for voting against new sanctions on Iran in 2017-- though the think tank itself and many members of its board oppose new Iran sanctions.

Sanders has been an outspoken supporter of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and said at the time that he voted against the measure in order to preserve the deal. Sanctions, he argued, would have jeopardized the landmark agreement. But the sanctions were part of a package that also imposed restrictions on Russia and North Korea, which is why the think tank, Foreign Policy for America, supported the package.

Foreign Policy for America's knock came in a score card that rated politicians on their votes in Congress. The group, also known as FP4A, released its new score card at the end of April, ranking members of Congress from the 115th session on a variety of foreign policy issues. The relatively new advocacy group gives Sanders a positive score in all but two of 13 categories -- one of which was the bill that sanctioned Iran and Russia. ... Read more

Health Care in the US Should Be Affordable and Accessible
TheNation | Beverly Gologorsky | 05/09/19

On this extremely hot summer day, the ear-splitting siren screaming through New York's streets is coming from the ambulance I'm in -- on a gurney on my way to the ER. That only makes the siren, loud as it is, all the more alarming. I fell. The pain, its location, and intensity, suggests I've probably broken my hip.

The kind face of the emergency medical technician hovering above me asks questions softly and I confess that I'm in terrible pain. Other gentle hands are busy taking blood pressure and doing oxygen counts. These EMT workers, employees of the Fire Department, are good at what they do.

My friend, who's come with me to the ER, roots around in my purse for my insurance and then heads for the admissions office. Alone, I close my eyes to shut out the glare of the ceiling lights. I want one thing: relief from the pain. Oblivion would even be more appreciated.

My friend returns to my cubicle and asks, "Is this the only insurance you have?" I panic. Will they not accept me? But they have to! It's the ER! That's the reassurance I offer myself and then I tell her, "Yes, it's all I have." ... Read more

Trump invokes executive privilege over unredacted Mueller report
Politico | Kyle Cheney | 05/08/19

President Donald Trump has invoked executive privilege to block an effort by House Democrats to access special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report and underlying evidence.

The move comes at the urging of the Justice Department, which said Tuesday it intended to ask Trump to make the sweeping claim in response to Democratic plans to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress over his refusal to provide Mueller's materials to Congress.

"Regrettably, you have made this assertion necessary by your insistence upon scheduling a premature contempt vote," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler. ... Read more

Pelosi: Barr should be held in contempt over unredacted Mueller report
Axios | Orion Rummler | 05/08/19

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday at a Washington Post event that she believes Attorney General Bill Barr should be held in contempt of Congress over his refusal to provide the House Judiciary Committee with an unredacted copy of the Mueller report.

The big picture: Pelosi specifically cited Barr's refusal to comply with a House Judiciary subpoena for the unredacted version of the report as the basis for these contempt proceedings, saying it was separate from other issues -- like his refusal to testify before the committee last week as well as allegations that he lied during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which Pelosi later called a crime. ... Read more

One Million Species Face Extinction, UN Report Finds | TRNN | 05/08/19 | 14:11

Pentagon Report on China's Military Expansion: 'Hypocrisy,' Says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson | TRNN | 05/08/19 | 10:30

Avoiding the AI weapons race
Axiose | Kaveh Waddell | 05/08/19

Today's great powers are sliding toward a new arms race, this time on the battleground of lethal computer code, but experts say that rushing to develop autonomous weapons -- which can be erratic and easily stolen -- will make violent conflict more likely and yield no winners.

What's happening: The countries leading in artificial intelligence research (U.S., China, Russia, U.K., France, Israel and South Korea) are all developing weapons that hand-off increasing portions of the killing process to computers.

In a new report coming out tomorrow and reported first by Axios, PAX, a Dutch nonprofit, describes "clear signs of the start of an AI arms race."

1. "Automated turrets" guard South Korea's border, choosing targets autonomously but requiring a human go-ahead before they fire, says PAX, which lobbies companies not to make lethal AI.
2. China sells stealth drones advertised to be capable of autonomous airstrikes.
3. Israel uses autonomous drones to patrol its border with Gaza....

The smoke-filled rooms have burned down
Axios | Shane Savitsky | 05/07/19

Traditional political kingmakers like the parties' national committees and powerful insiders have lost their edge for 2020 as buzzy, insurgent campaigns have the ability to seize control of the narrative -- and bundles of cash.

Why it matters: The smoke-filled room has burned to the ground, and the advantage now lies fully with the electorate to determine what they want. For Democrats, that means making sense of a massive field of more than 20 candidates -- while, for Republicans, that means bending to the originator of this trend: President Trump. ...

1. The closest thing to a kingmaker for the Democratic field is President Obama. If you believe the spin from Joe Biden's team, they didn't seek his endorsement to allow the former veep to stand on his own. And Obama's team wants to stick close to a long-held D.C. custom: former presidents sit above the fray.
2. The Republican establishment has been remade in Trump's own image and the old guard -- the Bushes and Romneys -- that could conceivably mount some sort of challenge are out in the wilderness, neutered.

"Economic Hit Man" John Perkins Reveals the Truth About US Imperialism | TRNN | 05/05/19 | 33:54

The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
New Revelations: Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this expanded edition of Perkins's classic bestseller brings the story of economic hit men (EHMs) up to date and, chillingly, home to the US. Over 40 percent of the book is new, including chapters identifying today's EHMs and a detailed chronology extensively documenting EHM activity since the first edition was published in 2004.

Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else--to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it.

Economic hit men are the shock troops of what Perkins calls the corporatocracy, a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments, and the rich and powerful people tied to them. If the EHMs can't maintain the corrupt status quo through nonviolent coercion, the jackal assassins swoop in. The heart of this book is a completely new section, over 100 pages long, that exposes the fact that all the EHM and jackal tools -- false economics, false promises, threats, bribes, extortion, debt, deception, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power -- are used around the world today exponentially more than during the era Perkins exposed over a decade ago.

The material in this new section ranges from the Seychelles, Honduras, Ecuador, and Libya to Turkey, Western Europe, Vietnam, China, and, in perhaps the most unexpected and sinister development, the United States, where the new EHMs -- bankers, lobbyists, corporate executives, and others--"con governments and the public into submitting to policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer."

The Economic Hitmen (cartoon) | | older | 2:11

John Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Full audiobook) | | older | 9:16:09

John Perkins Confession of an Economic Hitman (Full interview) | | older | 1:08:49

Scoop: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in talks to do Green New Deal doc
Axios | Sara Fischer, Alexi McCammond | 05/07/19

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is in talks with documentary filmmaker Rachel Lears about a new project that would chronicle the freshman Democrat's Green New Deal policy movement, according to two sources familiar with the project.

Between the lines: Lears is same filmmaker behind the new Netflix documentary called "Knock Down the House," which chronicles the campaigns of four women running in the 2018 midterms, including Ocasio-Cortez. ... Read more

The Complete Mercenary
TheIntercept | Matthew Cole | 05/03/19

WHEN ERIK PRINCE arrived at the Four Seasons resort in the Seychelles in January 2017 for his now-famous meetings with a Russian banker and UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed, he was in the middle of an unexpected comeback. The election of Donald Trump had given the disgraced Blackwater founder a new opportunity to prove himself. After years of trying and failing to peddle a sweeping vision of mercenary warfare around the world, Erik Prince was back in the game.

Bin Zayed had convened a group of close family members and advisers at the luxurious Indian Ocean resort for a grand strategy session in anticipation of the new American administration. On the agenda were discussions of new approaches for dealing with the civil wars in Yemen, Syria, and Libya, the threat of the Islamic State, and the United Arab Emirates' longstanding rivalry with Iran. Under bin Zayed's leadership, the UAE had used its oil wealth to become one of the world's largest arms purchasers and the third largest importer of U.S. weapons. A new American president meant new opportunities for the tiny Gulf nation to exert its outsized military and economic influence in the Gulf region and beyond.

Prince was no stranger to the Emiratis. He had known bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the UAE, since 2009, when he sold the sheikh on creating an elite counterterrorism unit. That deal ended badly for Prince, but Trump's election had recalibrated his usefulness. As a prominent Trump supporter and close associate of Steve Bannon, not to mention the brother of incoming cabinet member Betsy DeVos, Prince was invited to the meeting as an unofficial adviser to the incoming administration.... Read more

Trump's renewed threat for China tariffs spooks markets
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/06/19

The plot has thickened and the characters have developed as President Trump announced plans to re-engage 2018's tariff battle with China.

By the numbers: Chinese stocks fell more than 6% at one point, Dow futures dropped more than 500 points and the Chinese yuan weakened significantly after Trump sent 2 tweets yesterday threatening more U.S. tariffs on imported Chinese goods. ... Read more

The U.S. is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to "send a clear and unmistakable message" to Iran, National Security Advisor John Bolton said Sunday night.

"In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force." -- John Bolton statement ... Read more

The economy isn't getting better for most Americans. But there is a fix
TheGuardian | Heather Boushey | 05/01/19

The economy is getting bigger, but not better. Not for most Americans, anyway. In the United States, additional income from productivity and growth has been going mostly to those at the top of the income and wealth ladder. Between 1979 and 2016, the US national income grew by nearly 60%, but after accounting for taxes and transfers, the bottom half of the income distribution experienced incomes rising by 22%, while those in the top 10% had income gains that were almost five times as much -- 100%.

As income inequality widens, it's calcified into some at the top accumulating larger and larger stocks of assets -- money, but also property, stocks, bonds and other kinds of capital. In the United States, the distribution of wealth is even more severely unequal than income. Since 1979, wealth gains at the top have grown even faster than income; those in the top 1% now control about 40% of all wealth in the US economy, and the top 0.1% control more than 20% -- three times as much as the late 1970s.

What's more, this massive wealth gap is almost certainly much larger than the data shows. The UC Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman has extensively researched the use of tax havens by corporations and the ultra-rich to shield their profits and wealth from taxation. He estimates that $8.7tn in wealth, or 11.5% of world gross domestic product, is held in offshore accounts. Of the total value of offshore wealth, he estimates that 80% is owned by the top one-tenth of a percent. ... Read more

Capitalism is failing. People want a job with a decent wage -- why is that so hard?
TheGuardian | Richard Reeves | 04/24/19

Before capitalism, there was work. Before markets, before even money, there was work. Our remotest ancestors, hunting and gathering, almost certainly did not see work as a separate, compartmentalized part of life in the way we do today. But we have always had to work to live. Even in the 21st century, we strive through work for the means to live, hence the campaign for a "living wage".

As a species, we like to define ourselves through our thoughts and wisdom, as Homo sapiens. But we could as easily do so through the way we consciously apply effort towards certain goals, by our work -- as Homo laborans. It nonetheless took two revolutions, one agricultural, one industrial, to turn "work" into its own category.

Industrial capitalism sliced and diced human time into clearly demarcated chunks, of "work" and "leisure". Work was then bundled and packaged into one of the most important inventions of the modern era: a job. From this point on, the workers' fight was for a job that delivered maximum benefits, especially in terms of wages, in return for minimum costs imposed on the worker, especially in terms of time. ... Read more

Bill Barr is Trump's dream attorney general
Axios | staff | 05/02/19

President Trump ranted and raged at what he perceived as insufficient loyalty by his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

The state of play ... Trump now has his man: Attorney General Bill Barr positions himself squarely in the president's corner, and makes no public effort to preserve the traditional remove between the Justice Department and the White House.

We saw this with the torque Barr put on the Mueller report, when he issued a summary that was criticized as being overly generous to Trump -- by none other than special counsel Robert Mueller. ... Read more

**Riveting Testimony at Historic Hearing on Medicare for All with Wendell Potter (Part 2/7) | TRNN | 05/01/19 | 14:07

Pelosi: Barr committed a crime by lying to Congress
Politico | Heather Caygle | 05/02/19

... Pelosi's comment was an apparent reference to Barr's response to Crist last month during an appropriations hearing, in which the attorney general said he was not aware of any concerns that special counsel Robert Mueller's team might have expressed about his four-page summary of Mueller's findings.

Barr's response appeared to contradict the revelation earlier this week that Mueller himself wrote to the attorney general saying he was worried that Barr's summary "threatens to undermine ... public confidence" in his investigation. Mueller also said Barr's memo "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the probe.

Pelosi also told her colleagues during the meeting that she couldn't sleep Wednesday night after watching Barr's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which he challenged Mueller's legal theories and framework and endeared himself to Trump and his GOP allies. ... Read more

The stock market has entered "The Twilight Zone"
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/02/19

Typically, stocks rise because investors are buying them, increasing prices. But that's not what's happening in 2019.

What's new: U.S. equity prices are soaring to record highs, with the S&P 500 up 17% and the Nasdaq up 21% in just 4 months. But not only are investors not buying, they're selling.

The big picture: Stock funds have seen $4 billion of outflows so far in 2019, surpassing the $2.9 billion of outflows for all of 2018 when the S&P fell by 6%. This year's outflows included a drawdown of nearly $11 billion in just the month of March, according to data from Lipper, which tracks $49.1 trillion in assets globally.

What's happening: The strange phenomenon can partially be explained by investors moving away from traditional mutual funds at a historic pace, particularly in U.S. stock funds. ... Read more

Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017 | DN | 05/01/19 | 10:48

Investors aren't convinced Maduro will fall soon
Axios | Dion Rabouin | 05/01/19

Investors are closely watching the clash in Venezuela with a clear and vested interest in President Nicolás Maduro's ouster. They also have become less convinced the opposition can succeed.

Why it matters: Despite calls of support from President Trump and politicians around the globe, investors tell Axios they are starting to lose faith in the opposition's ability to topple Maduro alone, given an apparent increase of support from Russia. ... Read more

Barr says it was up to Mueller to determine obstruction
Axios | staff | 05/01/19

Attorney General Bill Barr is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference in the 2016 election -- a day after it was revealed that Mueller sent him a letter objecting to his March 24 characterization of the report's findings.

The latest: Barr told Sen. Chuck Grassley that if Mueller felt as if he could not make a prosecutorial decision on the question of obstruction of justice, then he "shouldn't have investigated it. That was the time to pull up."

Barr said that he told Mueller in a phone call that he "wasn't interested" in putting out the special counsel's prepared summaries in a "piecemeal" fashion, despite Mueller's requests. ... Read more
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Bill Barr his summary to Congress

Attorney General William Barr Opening Statement (C-SPAN) | CSpan | 05/01/19 | 15:25