October 3, 2013

Keiser Report: JP Morgan's Financial Herpes

Published on Oct 3, 2013

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the Lilliputian view on fraud and theft and how this applies to the chief banking knaves at JPMorgan. In the second half, Max interviews Marc Armstrong of PublicBanking.org about turning depositors into shareholders as a fraud recipe shared amongst the Too-Big-To-Fail banks. With public banking, interest is returned to the economy from whence it came.

October 3, 2013

Henry A. Giroux | Hardened Cultures and the War on Youth

This interview was conducted at the McMaster Centre for Scholarship in the Public Interest's 2013 "War on Youth" Summer Institute, Summer 2013.

October 3, 2013

Jim Hightower: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Corporate Coup in Disguise

JIM HIGHTOWER ON BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT


What if our national leaders told us that communities across America had to eliminate such local programs as Buy Local, Buy American, Buy Green, etc. to allow foreign corporations to have the right to make the sale on any products purchased with our tax dollars? This nullification of our people's right to direct expenditures is just one of the horror stories in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

This is a super-sized NAFTA, the 1994 trade scam rammed through Congress by the entire corporate establishment. NAFTA promised the "glories of globalization": prosperity across our land. Unfortunately, corporations got the gold. We got the shaft — thousands of factories closed, millions of middle-class jobs went south, and the economies of hundreds of towns and cities were shattered.

Twenty years later, the gang that gave us NAFTA is back with the TPP, a "trade deal" that mostly does not deal with trade. Of the 29 chapters in this document, only five cover traditional trade matters! The other chapters amount to a devilish "partnership" for corporate protectionism:

—Food safety. Any of our government's food safety regulations (on pesticide levels, bacterial contamination, fecal exposure, toxic additives, etc.) and food labeling laws (organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, GMO-free, etc.) that are stricter than "international standards" could be ruled as "illegal trade barriers." Our government would then have to revise our consumer protections to comply with weaker standards. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18231-jim-hightower-the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-a-corporate-coup-in-disguise

October 3, 2013

Amy Goodman: Herman Wallace, Free At Last

from truthdig:


Herman Wallace, Free At Last

Posted on Oct 2, 2013
By Amy Goodman


After close to 42 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace is free. Wallace is dying of liver cancer, with days if not hours to live at the time of this writing. In a stunning legal ruling, Judge Brian A. Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ordered Wallace’s release by overturning his 1974 murder conviction. As he lies dying, Herman Wallace knows that after a lifetime of enduring the torture of solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit, he is now a free man.

Herman Wallace is one of the “Angola 3,” along with Robert King, who was released from prison in 2001, and Albert Woodfox, who remains imprisoned in solitary confinement, despite having his sentence overturned on three separate occasions. These three men, all African-American, were locked up in what was considered America’s bloodiest prison, maximum-security Louisiana State Penitentiary, known simply as “Angola.” The sprawling prison is on the grounds of a former slave plantation, with 5,000 prisoners. It’s named for the African country of many of its earlier enslaved occupants. Prisoners toil in the prison’s fields, overseen by armed guards on horseback.

Wallace first went to prison for robbery. He, Woodfox and King formed one of the first prison chapters of the Black Panther Party, organizing inmates to oppose the systemic violence and sexual slavery that pervaded the institution.

Wallace and Woodfox were then convicted of the 1972 murder of a young prison guard, Brent Miller. No physical evidence linked the men to the crime. A bloody fingerprint at the murder scene, which matched neither Wallace’s nor Woodfox’s fingerprints, was ignored by authorities. Wallace and Woodfox believe they were targeted by officials because of their organizing work. After their conviction in 1974, they were put in solitary confinement along with Robert King, who was being punished for another crime, also one that he did not commit. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/herman_wallace_free_at_last_20131002

October 3, 2013

AL Wild Card spoiler......

Cleveland still can't beat a team with a winning record. One and done.

October 2, 2013

Chicago: CTA Works to Stem Crash-Related Blue Line Delays

IL: CTA Works to Stem Crash-Related Blue Line Delays

JON HILKEVITCH
SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CREATED: OCTOBER 2, 2013


CTA officials were at the scene of this week's Blue Line collision Tuesday night, working to remove one or both of the trains that for two days prompted complaints about crowded platforms and, in some cases, more-than-doubled commuting times.

The crash involved an out-of-service, apparently driverless train that mysteriously traveled about a half-mile from the Forest Park rail yard and, continuing on the wrong tracks, slammed head-on into a train stopped at the Harlem station with about 40 passengers onboard. More than 30 them suffered bumps and bruises, according to hospitals.

Blue Line trains have since been operating on a single track between Oak Park and Forest Park, bypassing the Harlem station.

The accident created "a ripple effect on the entire Blue Line this morning," CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said earlier in the day Tuesday. "We are making changes to mitigate that until we can get back to normal service." ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11184885/cta-works-to-stem-crash-related-blue-line-delays

October 2, 2013

Final Major League Baseball Regular Season attendance for 2013

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance


1 LA Dodgers 81 3,743,527 46,216 82.5 81 35,348 79.3 162 40,782 81.1
2 St. Louis 81 3,369,769 41,602 94.6 80 32,374 75.9 161 37,016 85.4
3 San Francisco 80 3,326,796 41,584 99.2 81 34,977 76.6 161 38,260 87.3
4 NY Yankees 81 3,279,589 40,488 80.5 80 33,632 78.8 161 37,082 79.7
5 Texas 82 3,178,273 38,759 78.8 81 28,121 66.5 163 33,473 73.2
6 Detroit 81 3,083,397 38,066 92.3 81 28,024 67.2 162 33,045 79.7
7 LA Angels 81 3,019,505 37,277 82.1 81 27,588 64.2 162 32,432 73.4
8 Philadelphia 81 3,012,403 37,190 85.2 81 30,463 70.1 162 33,826 77.7
9 Boston 81 2,833,333 34,979 94.4 81 33,045 74.8 162 34,012 83.7
10 Colorado 81 2,793,828 34,491 68.3 81 32,669 72.5 162 33,580 70.3
11 Washington 81 2,652,422 32,745 78.9 81 30,597 70.2 162 31,671 74.4
12 Chicago Cubs 81 2,642,682 32,625 79.3 81 32,159 74.6 162 32,392 76.9
13 Atlanta 81 2,548,679 31,465 63.3 81 30,845 72.2 162 31,155 67.4
14 Toronto 81 2,536,562 31,315 63.6 81 28,039 66.0 162 29,677 64.7
15 Cincinnati 81 2,534,369 31,288 73.9 80 32,890 75.9 161 32,084 74.9
16 Milwaukee 81 2,531,105 31,248 74.6 81 31,094 71.8 162 31,171 73.1
17 Minnesota 81 2,477,644 30,588 77.4 81 27,022 64.4 162 28,805 70.7
18 Baltimore 81 2,357,561 29,105 64.1 81 28,627 67.4 162 28,866 65.7
19 Pittsburgh 80 2,256,862 28,210 73.5 81 33,488 76.2 161 30,865 75.0
20 San Diego 81 2,166,691 26,749 62.7 81 32,212 71.5 162 29,480 67.2
21 NY Mets 80 2,135,657 26,695 63.9 81 30,628 69.9 161 28,674 67.0
22 Arizona 81 2,134,795 26,355 54.2 81 33,054 73.8 162 29,705 63.6
23 Oakland 81 1,809,302 22,337 63.7 81 29,308 67.1 162 25,822 65.6
24 Chicago White Sox 80 1,768,413 22,105 54.4 81 27,333 65.0 161 24,735 59.9
25 Seattle 81 1,761,546 21,747 45.4 81 28,445 67.5 162 25,096 55.8
26 Kansas City 81 1,750,754 21,614 57.0 81 27,433 64.7 162 24,523 61.1
27 Houston 81 1,651,883 20,393 49.8 81 27,574 64.0 162 23,983 57.1
28 Cleveland 80 1,572,926 19,661 45.3 80 28,234 67.8 160 23,947 56.3
29 Miami 81 1,586,322 19,584 52.3 80 30,091 68.9 161 24,805 61.2
30 Tampa Bay 81 1,510,300 18,645 54.7 82 30,154 67.6 163 24,435 62.1

October 2, 2013

Shutdown Spectacle: 'America Is Already Politically Bankrupt'

from Der Spiegel:



As the United States government shutdown enters its second day, Washington is the target of both ridicule and concern overseas. German commentators describe the situation as a "specifically American problem" with far-reaching consequences.

The illustration on the cover of German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday morning fairly well encapsulates the way the US federal government shutdown is being perceived across the Atlantic. The Statue of Liberty stands bound in chains, her torch hand hanging listlessly by her side. Across it reads the headline: "The Blocked World Power."

Many Germans have found it hard to understand American lawmakers' inability to resolve their budget disagreements in time to prevent a shutdown of all nonessential government services, which went into effect at midnight on Monday night. "What Washington currently offers up is a spectacle, but one in which the spectators feel more like crying," writes the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"Because Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, Congress and president could not agree on a stop-gap budget, hundreds of thousands of federal employees were sent on involuntary leave and many agencies were forced to shut down," continues the editorial. "The main actors in this dispute, which brings together many factors, both ideological and political, took a huge risk and, unhindered, proceeded to validate everyone who ever accused the political establishment in Washington of being rotten to the core -- by driving the world power into a budgetary state of emergency. The public is left wondering how things could have been allowed to get to this point and why there is so much poison in the system."

......(snip)......

The 'Kamikaze Party'

The overwhelming consensus among the German press is that the Republicans are the most to blame for the gridlock. In a Tuesday commentary, SPIEGEL ONLINE's Gregor Peter Schmitz dubbed them the "kamikaze party." He attributed the gridlock to America's mercenary political culture -- where directly elected lawmakers run for re-election every two years and campaigns are privately financed -- as well as to the lack of party infrastructure compared to Germany's parliamentary model with its publicly funded campaigns. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-press-review-on-us-government-shutdown-a-925768.html

October 2, 2013

Video sneak peek of the Washington Metro's Silver Line

October 2, 2013

Digby: GOP: Crazy Like Foxes

Published on Wednesday, October 2, 2013 by Campaign for America's Future Blog
GOP: Crazy Like Foxes

by Digby


I think one of the major misunderstandings (willful, in many cases) of this budget mess is that it’s about Republicans just running around willy-nilly screaming “nonononono” like toddlers having a temper tantrum. I know it looks that way, but that’s not what’s happening. This is a strategy. And it’s one they’ve even written down.

Jonathan Chait wrote about this in a widely read piece Monday in which he explains what they’ve been up to:

In January, demoralized House Republicans retreated to Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot out their legislative strategy for President Obama’s second term. Conservatives were angry that their leaders had been unable to stop the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on high incomes, and sought assurances from their leaders that no further compromises would be forthcoming. The agreement that followed, which Republicans called “The Williamsburg Accord,” received obsessive coverage in the conservative media but scant attention in the mainstream press. (The phrase “Williamsburg Accord” has appeared once in the Washington Post and not at all in the New York Times.) But the decision House Republicans made in January has set the party on the course it has followed since.

If you want to grasp why Republicans are careening toward a potential federal government shutdown, and possibly toward provoking a sovereign debt crisis after that, you need to understand that this is the inevitable product of a conscious party strategy. Just as Republicans responded to their 2008 defeat by moving farther right, they responded to the 2012 defeat by moving right yet again. Since they had begun from a position of total opposition to the entire Obama agenda, the newer rightward lurch took the form of trying to wrest concessions from Obama by provoking a series of crises.

And certain institutional players got in on the act and put the heat on MOC’s big time.

........(snip)........

What they were talking about was Paul Ryan’s budget. And guess what? They got it:

The Democrat-controlled Senate passed a continuing resolution, or CR—a temporary funding measure meant to keep the government operating—that would set the relevant funding levels at an annualized total of $986 billion. That’s about $70 billion less than what the Senate endorsed as part of its comprehensive budget plan back in April. But that actually understates the extent of the compromise.

When President Barack Obama first took office in 2009, his budget proposed $1.203 trillion in discretionary spending for FY 2014. The Senate CR is about $216 billion, or nearly 18 percent, lower than that. Actual enacted funding levels for FY 2010, when the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, totaled $1.185 trillion in 2014 dollars. The Senate CR is about $200 billion below that, a cut of nearly 17 percent.

After the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party took control of the House of Representatives and offered a budget plan that proposed dramatic spending reductions. That plan, authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), envisioned FY 2014 funding levels at $1.095 trillion. Note that the funding in the current Senate-passed CR is about 10 percent less than the levels in the original Ryan budget.

Finally, in August 2011, after a prolonged standoff over the debt limit, President Obama and Congress agreed to cut even more spending than the original Ryan budget demanded. The original spending caps in the 2011 debt limit deal limited funding to $1.066 trillion in FY 2014. The Senate CR accepts a cut of an additional $80 billion, or nearly 8 percent, from that compromise level.

Progressives have repeatedly made significant concessions in order to protect the economy from a series of manufactured crises. Today’s manufactured crisis is no different. The Senate-passed legislation to keep the government open sets funding levels that are even lower than previous compromises. If the Tea Party shuts the government down anyway, it will not be because progressives were inflexible. Just ask House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)—the compromise incorporated in the Senate CR was originally his idea.

........(snip)........

And yet this fact is all too real: they’ve got the Ryan budget already. And they’ve already moved on to the debt ceiling, which all the Fox freaks were going on about last night. Krauthammer suggested they could get Obamacare defunded if they are willing to hold out. They all believe the consequences of a default are phony concerns made up to force them to back down and they are having none of it. That threat to back primary challenges in those gerrymandered districts against those who deviate from this dangerous delusion is quite real (or these members of congress believe it is, anyway.) So, they are going to play this all the way out. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/02