Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to Parkland school shooting
Axion | Erin Doherty | 10/20/21

Nikolas Cruz on Wednesday pleaded guilty on all counts for carrying out the 2018 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead, including 14 students and three staff members.

Driving the news: Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty at a hearing on Wednesday to 17 murder counts and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for carrying out the deadly shooting.

The case now turns to a penalty phase, where a 12-person jury will determine Cruz's sentencing, AP reports. ... Read more

The REAL reason the US supply chain is backed up | CNN | 10/17/21 | 6:35

California governor declares drought emergency for entire state
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 10/20/21

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) extended a drought emergency declaration to cover the entire state on Tuesday.

Why it matters: "California is experiencing its worst drought since the late 1800s, as measured by both lack of precipitation and high temperatures," per a statement from the governor's office. This past August was the driest and hottest one on record, "and the water year that ended last month was the second driest on record," the statement added.

Nearly 88% of California and much of the American West are experiencing an "extreme" or "exceptional" drought, per the U.S. Drought Monitor.

"By the end of September, statewide reservoir storage had hit 60% of average, with Lake Oroville setting a new record low," notes the nonprofit CalMatters. ... Read more

U.S. leadership approval rebounds from Trump low
Axios | staff | 10/19/21

A Gallup report published Tuesday found approval of United States leadership in 46 countries and territories hit 49% — up from 30% at the end of Donald Trump's presidency, and matching former President Obama's first year (2009).

Why it matters: Biden's efforts to reengage with the international community following the Trump administration appear to be improving the global approval ratings for U.S. leadership, though this poll does not take into account the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August.

Ratings improved the most among European allies, including Portugal (52 percentage points), the Netherlands (45 points), Norway (42 points) and Sweden (41 points). ... Read more

QAnon Conspiracies Are Tearing Through Evangelical America | Vice | 10/19/21 | 14:14

China - Surveillance state or way of the future? | DW | 10/17/21 | 42:26

Jordan Klepper vs. Iowans Who Think Trump Won | The Daily Show | 10/18/21 | 6:20

Definition of success at UN Climate Summit is in flux
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 10/15/21

The UN Climate Summit in Glasgow is less than 20 days away, and diplomats have entered a crucial period when expectations are raised or lowered to guard against any blowback that might come from a particular outcome.

Driving the news: Officials in the U.S. and abroad are sending clear signals that the odds that COP26 will meet some of its most important goals are diminishing, for a variety of reasons both macro and micro in scale.

The latest: U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry raised eyebrows in an AP interview published Thursday when he said there will be "gaps" between the emissions pledges secured at COP26 and the cuts needed to meet the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious temperature target.

This target would limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels by 2100 — a threshold for avoiding some of the greatest harms. ... Read more

A congressional committee has set a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against Steve Bannon after he defied the panel’s subpoena.
HP | AP | 10/15/21

A congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has moved aggressively against close Trump adviser Steve Bannon, swiftly scheduling a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against the former White House aide after he defied a subpoena.

The chairman of the special committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel will vote Tuesday to recommend charges against Bannon, an adviser to Donald Trump for years who was in touch with the president ahead of the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries. And late Friday, President Joe Biden said he thinks his Justice Department should prosecute. ... Read more

The climate disaster is here
magazine | author | date

The enormous, unprecedented pain and turmoil caused by the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.

These temperature thresholds will again be the focus of upcoming UN climate talks at the COP26 summit in Scotland as countries variously dawdle or scramble to avert climate catastrophe. But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, puts it.

The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second. ... Read more

Senate to vote on Manchin-backed voting rights proposal
Axios | Alayna Treene | 10/14/21

The Senate will vote next week on a new voting rights bill backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced in a letter to colleagues on Thursday.

Why it matters: The Freedom To Vote Act is the latest attempt by Democrats to counter Republican-led measures at the state level to restrict voting access. Democrats still face the same roadblock to enacting it: the filibuster. ... Read more

Carbon emissions spiking despite clean energy surge
Axios | Ben Geman | 01/13/21

This year is bringing the second-largest global carbon emissions jump on record as fossil fuel use rebounds after 2020's pandemic-fueled downturn, a new International Energy Agency report finds.

Why it matters: It shows how, despite surging renewables, the global energy system remains far from an emissions-slashing pathway that achieves Paris agreement goals for limiting global warming.

The IEA calls the World Energy Outlook — a data-rich, nearly 400-page look at policy, tech, investment, and supply trends and scenarios — a "handbook" for COP26, the key UN climate summit that begins Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland. ... Read more

World Energy Outlook 2021

House approves bill to temporarily avoid risk of ‘catastrophic’ debt default – live
TheGuardian | Lauren Gambino | 10/13/21

article

Democrats, who narrowly control the House, maintained party discipline to pass the hard-fought, $480bn debt limit increase. The vote was along party lines, with every yes from Democrats and every no from Republicans.

Joe Biden is expected to sign the measure into law this week, before 18 October, when the treasury department has estimated it would no longer be able to pay the nation’s debts without congressional action. ... Read more

Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Axios | staff | 10/08/21

Dissident journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov were awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression," which the Nobel Committee described as "a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

Ressa, who co-founded the Philippine news site Rappler in 2012, has been prosecuted for her reporting on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his government's deadly anti-drug campaign.

Muratov is the founder of Novaya Gazeta, described by the committee as "the most independent newspaper in Russia today." ... Read more

Florida's Per Capita Covid Death Rate Is 50x Australia's | MSNBC | 10/01/21 | 9:09

Senate Republicans sow disinformation after $480bn US debt ceiling deal
TheGuardian | Hugo Lowell | 10/08/21

Republicans claim cap must be lifted to pay for Biden's economic agenda -- a sign of party's approach to once non-partisan issues

Top Republicans in the Senate are advancing a campaign of disinformation over the debt ceiling as they seek to distort the reasons for needing to raise the nation's borrowing cap, after they dropped their blockade on averting a US debt default in a bipartisan manner.

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to allow the debt ceiling to be raised by $480bn through early December, which the treasury department estimates will be enough to allow the government to temporarily avert an unprecedented default on $28tn of debt obligations. ... Read more

Senate panel releases most detailed report yet on Trump's DOJ pressure campaign
Axios | Zachary Basu | 10/07/21

An interim Senate report reveals new details about former President Trump's efforts to exploit the Justice Department to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including how top DOJ officials threatened to resign en masse over Trump's push to install a loyalist as acting attorney general.

Why it matters: The 394-page report from the Senate Judiciary Committee marks the most extensive public investigation to date about Trump's pressure campaign in the wake of the 2020 election, drawing on interviews with three top former DOJ officials and hundreds of pages of emails, calendars and other documents. ... Read more

The Taliban’s New US-Made Weapons | VICE | 10/06/21 | 11:24

Tensions with China worst in 40 years, says Taiwan - BBC News | BBC | 10/06/21 | 9:08

Could JAPAN save TAIWAN from CHINA? - VisualPolitik EN | VisualPolitik EN | 10/04/21 | 15:17

Trashing the planet and hiding the money isn’t a perversion of capitalism. It is capitalism
TheGuardian | George Monbiot | 10/06/21

Exploiting people, exploiting land, and keeping its ugly side secret. Its historical effects are all too recognisable in the Pandora papers now

Whenever there's a leak of documents from the remote islands and obscure jurisdictions where rich people hide their money, such as this week's release of the Pandora papers, we ask ourselves how such things could happen. How did we end up with a global system that enables great wealth to be transferred offshore, untaxed and hidden from public view? Politicians condemn it as "the unacceptable face of capitalism". But it’s not. It is the face of capitalism.

Capitalism was arguably born on a remote island. A few decades after the Portuguese colonised Madeira in 1420, they developed a system that differed in some respects from anything that had gone before. By felling the forests after which they named the island (madeira is Portuguese for wood), they created, in this uninhabited sphere, a blank slate - a terra nullius - in which a new economy could be built. Financed by bankers in Genoa and Flanders, they transported enslaved people from Africa to plant and process sugar. They developed an economy in which land, labour and money lost their previous social meaning and became tradable commodities. ... Read more

Biden says he and China's Xi have agreed to abide by Taiwan "agreement"
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 10/06/21

President Biden told reporters Tuesday evening that he discussed Taiwan with China's President Xi Jinping in their phone call last month.

Why it matters: Beijing's growing aggression toward Taipei is drawing fresh concerns of a war in the region. Asked by a reporter Tuesday for comment on the provocation, Biden said he had "spoken with Xi about Taiwan," per a pool report. "We agree, we will abide by the Taiwan agreement," Biden said.

Between the lines: That's an apparent reference to a longstanding diplomatic understanding that the U.S. recognizes Beijing as the "sole legal government of China," without clarifying the United States' position on Taiwan's sovereignty, Bloomberg notes. ... Read more

European rainfall record set in Italy after 12-hour deluge
Axios | staff | 10/06/21

Northwestern Italy has been hit by record rainfall from a complex of thunderstorms, triggering flooding and mudslides, per AP.

By the numbers: 29.2 inches of rain fell in 12 hours on Monday in Rossiglione, Genoa province, just south of Milan. That's a new, all-time European record, meteorologists noted Tuesday. ... Read more

Yellen warns debt ceiling breach could trigger recession
Axios | Oriana Gonzalez | 10/05/21

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC on Tuesday that the U.S. could face a recession if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by Oct. 18.

Driving the news: President Biden on Monday urged Republicans to "get out of the way" and let "Democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling this week."

Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said they will not support raising the debt ceiling because it will promote more government spending.

Context: Failing to raise the debt ceiling by the deadline could pause paychecks to federal workers, Medicare benefits, military salaries, tax refunds, Social Security checks and more, CNN notes.

What they're saying: "It would be catastrophic to not pay the government’s bills, for us to be in a position where we lacked the resources to pay the government’s bills," Yellen said in an interview on CNBC. "I fully expect it would cause a recession as well," she added. ... Read more

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen | 60 Minutes | 10/03/21 | 13:36

FPFAS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | 10/04/21 | 19:57

In photos: Oil spill threatens Southern California shores
Axios | Yacob Reyes | 10/04/21

Authorities are working to contain one of the largest oil spills in California's recent history that has devastated wildlife and contaminated several popular beaches.

The big picture: The spill was detected Saturday and was estimated to be about 13 square miles in size. Some 126,000 gallons of crude oil has spilled into the waters, per the Coast Guard. The full scope of the environmental impacts remain unknown. ... Read more

What's next: A drone station on every corner
Axios | Joan Muller | 10/01/21

City landscapes could one day be dotted with automated drone landing pads like the one that Matternet — which makes drones and equipment for drone logistics networks — debuted Thursday in Switzerland.

Why it matters: Urban drone operations could radically change on-demand and last-mile deliveries by making it faster, cheaper and more sustainable to transport packages. ... Read more

Far-right militia group membership surged after Capitol attack, hack shows
TheGuardian | Jason Wilson | 10/01/21

Hacked materials from the website of the rightwing militia group the Oath Keepers show that hundreds of people either joined or renewed their membership after many of the group’s members participated in the attack on the Capitol on 6 January.

Then president Donald Trump arrives to speak to the 2020 Council for National Policy meeting in Arlington, Virginia, in August last year. The group was founded in 1981 by activists influential in the Christian right.

They included people who joined under their military ranks, including combat veterans, retired servicepersons, at least one serving national guardsman, several members of the clergy and others involved in security contracting and the firearms industry.

Other materials in the hack show signups to petitions under government or military emails, and private email addresses being provided in response to appeals for assistance from military and service personnel. ... Read more