Watch: Paralyzed Woman Can Use Mind To Move Arm

Happy Birthdays: Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh

Guardian, Photo of the Day Lahore, Pakistan, The Pearl of The Punjab'

•Fluent: 'Obama warns GOP on debt ceiling fight'

•Senate rejects budgets by Obama, Republicans

Romney is RICH: Wealth Estimated at $230 million

•Cain Endorses Romney

•Newser: Third Party Movement Fizzles

Kucinich To Leave Congress

"I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress. My commitments to peace, to workers' rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office. They are dependent upon my continuing to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to motivate and to inspire our nation as to its deeper potential. This I promise I will do with great energy and heart.

I will complete my service in the U.S. House on January 2, 2013, with the same passion and devotion to duty with which I began it on January 3, 1997. And when I do, I shall think of you and all those who have given me encouragement to continue to be of service, and I will smile, knowing that we shall meet again in our celebration of the potential of citizen activists to change the world.

Zimmerman Was Hurt. Medical Report Says

A medical report compiled by the family physician of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a closed fracture of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation. Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for the Feb. 26 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old high school junior dead. Zimmerman has claimed self defense in what he described as a life and death struggle that Martin initiated by accosting him, punching him in the face, then repeatedly bashing his head into the pavement.

•CLG: Federal Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA --Judge agreed statute failed to 'pass constitutional muster'

A federal judge [Katherine Forrest] granted a preliminary injunction late Wednesday to block provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it accuses of knowingly or unknowingly supporting terrorism. Signed by President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve, the 565-page NDAA contains a short paragraph, in statute 1021, letting the military detain anyone it suspects “substantially supported” al-Qaida [al-CIAduh], the Taliban or “associated forces.” The indefinite detention would supposedly last until “the end of hostilities.”

•Guardian: NYPD stop-and-frisk lawsuit now class action in victory for civil rights groups

•BBC: Robert F Kennedy Jr’s wife dead

Mary Kennedy – the estranged wife of Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of John F Kennedy – is found dead at her home.

Economy

•HP: JP Morgans Losses Rise By A Billion

•Nomi Prins, RSN: Jamie Dimon’s Hubris

•Telegraph: Time for new Bailout? Federal Reserve members ready to step up support for US economy

• Eugene Robinson, The Root: Romney’s Economic Proposals Are Even Worse Than Bush’s

•Afl-Cio Blog: Older Workers Have Longest Unemployment Rates

•ILO: G20 still facing a 21 million jobs shortfall, say ILO and OECD

•Matt Taibbi on Naked Short Selling

“It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.”

•WSJ: Foreclosures Show No Sign of Decline

•Martin Wolf of the Financial Times on The Diminished Capacity of the USA

What will be the role of the US in the 21st century? This is a question I rashly agreed to address last week at the Carnegie Council in New York. In analysing it, I considered a closely related issue that also exercises Americans: is the future role of the US in its own hands? The answer is: yes, but only up to a point. The US can control what it does. But it cannot control what others do.


The historic dominance of the US is the fruit of its exceptional assets. It is a continental power bounded by oceans to the east and west, and unthreatening neighbours to the north and south. It has huge, albeit dwindling, natural resources. It has had the world’s largest economy and the highest output per head since the late 19th century. The market-driven US economy has also been the world’s most innovative since at least the same era.

The US is home to the world’s most influential financial markets, albeit ones that triggered the Great Depression and Great Recession of recent years. It has been the issuer of the world’s main reserve currency since the first world war. It has offered one of the largest import markets, surpassed only by external imports of the EU.

The US possesses the world’s most technologically advanced and potent military. Since the second world war, it has also had more of the world’s leading universities and research institutions than any other country. It has the world’s most potent popular culture. Its political values still grip the world’s imagination, even if it has frequently fallen short in practice. Its democratic system has proved sufficiently legitimate and flexible to cope with the many challenges history has thrown up.

Possessed of all these assets, the US managed to form strong alliances and to win its 20th-century wars, both hot and cold, against Germany, Japan and Russia. It shaped the open world economy, which was born after the second world war then became global after the collapse of the Soviet empire. It has offered the world’s most influential model of modernity. Whether we like it or not, we all live in the world it has made.
How much of this array of assets will the US retain in this century?

The obvious threat is to its position as the world’s largest economy. At market exchange rates, its economy is still roughly twice the size of China’s. Yet, according to the International Monetary Fund, it is only 30 per cent larger, at purchasing power parity. Since China’s gross domestic product per head, at PPP, is still only 20 per cent of US levels, this leaves huge room for it to catch up. China’s growth is likely to slow in coming decades but it should still converge further on US productivity levels. The likelihood is that China will have a bigger economy than the US by the early 2020s….

In principle, the US could also maintain its frontier position in science and commercial innovation. But, as my colleague Edward Luce shows in his thought-provoking new book, the combination of xenophobia with hostility to science, self-inflicted fiscal constraints and weird spending priorities risks robbing the US of its access to the world’s talent and its commitment to world-leading research and innovation.*

Nothing captures the point better than this grim quote: “In 1990, [California] spent twice as much on its universities as its prisons. Now it spends almost twice as much on prisons.” That the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world is not only a social statistic; it is also an economic one. The same is true of the costliness and inefficiency of the US healthcare system, which is the principal reason why long-term fiscal prospects look so grim.

What is needed is serious reform. But this has become impossible, because of the exploding role of money in politics and the rising intransigence of the Republican party. In a system built on divided government, regarding compromise as weakness risks repeated chaos.

The US economy is also no longer bringing the widely shared benefits it once did. In the last full business cycle, between 2002 and 2007, the top 1 per cent captured almost two-thirds of the rise in incomes, while the top 0.1 per cent captured more than a third. Such a zero sum economy breeds disaffection and despair. The crisis has made the anger far worse.

All of this will also affect America’s ability to play its historic role in the world. The looming fiscal squeeze will undermine military spending. More important, the financial crisis and other large mistakes have robbed the US political, economic and social models of the prestige they enjoyed. Europe is in no better shape. But that merely means the west as a whole is less credible and so far less able to serve as leader.

•ICH: U.S. Organizing Syrian Rebels


Syrian rebels have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.

•Nile Bowie: ICH: US Resource War Against China
 Further U.S. Militarization of The African Continent

•BBC: Congo warlord’s ‘days numbered’

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor tells the BBC he believes the net is closing around Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda.

•Glenn Greenwald, Salon: Obama’s New Free Speech Threat

An Executive order seeks to punish U.S. citizens even for “indirectly” obstructing dictatorial rule in Yemen. 


•The Trends Report: Meanwhile, back in Dumbfukistan Economic turmoil and the devastating effect it would have on lives and livelihoods, geopolitical unrest, raging wars and wars in the making were put on the back burner as Barack Obama “made history” as the first President to support gay marriage.

Commandeering the headlines and the breaking news was his history-making declaration: “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” Day after day, hour after hour, the US press reported the story with the level of gravitas associated with sending a man to the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall … and the death of Michael Jackson.

Splashed across the cover of Newsweek, under a glowing rainbow halo, was President Obama and the bold headline, “The First Gay President.” In editorials, on radio talk shows, cable TV, and in all the news that was fit to print, “experts,” “strategists,” pundits and media personalities waxed on, and on, debating why he did it, what it would mean, and how it would impact the November election.

There was Obama making the TV circuit, chatting up gay marriage with the women on “The View.” There he was, the President of the United States of America, the world Superpower, revealing how his decision had been, in part, shaped by his 14 and 11 year old daughters, who went to school with children who had gay parents. Who cared what Obama’s kids thought, or what the cast of politicians, preachers and “celebrities” endlessly interviewed by the media thought? (Click here for a typically stupid celebrity interview)

It was just another inane episode on “The Presidential Reality Show:” the issue of gay marriage had become a major national issue, in fact, it was the issue!

And yet it worked! Each moment spent on gay marriage deflected the nation’s attention from everything that was consequential: US soldiers sacrificing life and limbs in futile ongoing wars while new futile wars were in the making; tens of millions of homes foreclosed, millions jobless and homeless; the nation in debt, consumers in debt and college grads drowning in debt … as the global economy comes under renewed attack. These are the real issues.

•The Root Aja Worthy-Davis: Queen Latifah and the Case for Not Coming Out

•LA Times: John Edwards appears confident as defense rests in his trial

Russ Baker on John Edwards Trial on the site WhoWhatWhy.com

The defense has just rested in the Edwards case. Now, consider this:

Does it seem a little bit odd that John Edwards is facing a potential thirty year jail term? There’s been plenty of focus on the charges against him and on the trial—but precious little on why Edwards was even investigated and prosecuted in the first place. It’s worth pondering which politicians have been made to take a fall and which have not—and why. There may be more here than meets the eye.,,,

Does no one else find the very fact of John Edwards being on trial curious? Does no one else wonder about the criminal basis for the prosecution? About who in politics does and does not end up being destroyed by matters related to sexual behavior?

Let me preface my take on the Edwards trial with one general observation: Not all politicians are created equal. And not all are treated equally. Therein lies an issue deserving a much, much closer look: whether vulnerable Democrats, chiefly of the liberal persuasion, are targeted for destruction. Or at least helped along to their doom by a double standard.

***
But first, the specifics of the Edwards case. He faces a potential $1.5 million fine, but, far more seriously, up to thirty years imprisonment. Thirty years. His crime? Not murder, not torture, not armed robbery, not stealing money from clients. No, his crime was his failure to report campaign contributions. While preparing for his second presidential bid, in 2006, he got caught up in an extramarital affair that produced a child. And, not exactly able to announce that fact or ask his sick wife to sign off, the wealthy Edwards turned to some wealthy backers to take care of the woman and the baby and hide the whole thing from Elizabeth Edwards and presumably everyone else. Two people gave him a total of $900,000.

When someone running for office receives money, or the benefit of money or services, that’s a contribution, and it must both be reported and be subject to restrictions on amount. Unless of course it has nothing to do with the campaign itself. Certainly, candidates receive ordinary income (such as fees for lawyering) that is not subject to those limits. And if someone gives a candidate a gift that is not used for the campaign, it is similarly not subject to campaign finance laws.

So, what’s the ill intent here—and the consequence for the public interest? If this were a bribe by someone seeking to influence Edwards as an office-holder, that would be one thing. If the money were intended to help sway voters to support Edwards, that might be valid cause for pursuing the case aggressively. But nothing about the two donors, both elderly (one has since died), suggests an attempt to gain illegal influence. In reality, both donors –the billionaires Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Fred Baron—apparently liked and believed in Edwards and, when asked, were quick to aid him in a tough spot…Read the rest on whowhatwhy.com

At the Movies

I was Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” opening last night. More cliched and certainly politically reactionary, more insulting then Borat, totally insipid and adolescent, insane like Bruno but even more politically incorrect as it ridicules a Food Co-op in Brooklyn and, yet, although, not for everyone, in part, very funny.

Just as I started upbraid myself for even being there, Cohen as the “Admiral General: of An African State lashes into the hypocrisy of American democracy, that was worth waiting for and was promptly blasted on the right on the late Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website which writes:

“(It) features a political speech that could have been stripped from any Occupy Wall Street protest.

Minus the violence, of course.

“The Dictator” casts Baron Cohen as a Middle Eastern dictator trying to recapture his country following a coup by a trusted associate (Sir Ben Kingsley). During a critical scene late in the film, Baron Cohen’s General Aladeen character unleashes an angry rant against American capitalism and how unfair it is for society.
Like most celebrity OWS supporters, Baron Cohen enjoys all the perks of capitalism while bashing the very system that made him ridiculously rich. (Note: This knee jerk critic doesn’t comment on the accuracy of the rant!)

How rich?

How many 99 percenters trade in a $2.8 million home for an $18 million model?
Here’s a peek at the home Baron Cohen lives it up in thanks to his Hollywood success:
Set behind hedges on close to 4 wooded acres, the gated property includes a main house, a guesthouse, a swimming pool, a detached theater, a wine room, a tennis court with a clubhouse and a caretaker’s cottage. The 1940s house has seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

Baron Cohen may be down with OWS, but he’s clearly embracing life as a one-percenter until those unwashed masses trash capitalism once and for all.”

And that’s the rights approach to culture as it is for politics!

•fluent: ‘Lennon’s Killer Transferred to Another NY Prison’

The Atlantic: On Disturbing Trends in the Music Industry

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Feds To Investigate CRIMINAL practices at Chase; Will Jamie Dimon Be Forced To Resign OR Just Enjoy His Pay Hike? Which Way Greece??

May 16th, 2012 - by: Danny

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New Book Now From Cosimo Books

Occupy News

Cat Report from M15; Global Day of Action Against Austerity

At 4pm today OWSr’s met at Bryant park and had a “criminal” tour of midtown. Stopping by various locations of Corporate criminals and mic checking out the facts of that Corporation.

At 6pm Occupy gathered at Times Sq at the Red Bleachers, althought NYPD had the bleachers barricaded. A couple of hundred would show in total with the usual banners, signs & guitars, handing out fliers.

The festivities began with a very good guitar solo of The Cranberries, Zombie In Your Head, by “Lauren”. NYPD was well behaved. Not 1 arrest or altercation occurred.

At 7pm there was a countdown from 10 to 1 then everyone sat down and read together a short description of the kind of world they want to live in. Then a few stood and mic checked to the crowd their experiences with debt, taxes, senior citizens being evicted. One older man stood up for taxes, attributing taxes to his Social Security benefits.

Tourists and onlookers took pictures and video. OWS then began the march to Bryant Pk encouraging bystanders to “out of the shops, into the streets!”

Slogan: 1, We are the people 2, we are united 3, this occupation is not leaving!”

•Occupy INUNDATES Morgan Stanley Corp Meeting

•WSJ: Morgan Stanley Chairman Questioned By Occupy

•Are Minnesota Cops Drugging Occupy?

•AP: Photographer Acquitted in Occupy Arrest

Obama In The Nooze

•CNN: Obama Now Worth Millions, Banks At JP Morgan Chase

LA Times: Analysis: Gay marriage decision not working in Obama’s favor so far

•NYT: Homeowners Screwed One More Time: Borrowers Of Fraudulent Loans Ripped Off Again

Hundreds of millions of dollars meant to provide a little relief to the nation’s struggling homeowners is being diverted to plug state budget gaps.

In a budget proposed this week, California joined more than a dozen states that want to help close gaping shortfalls using money paid by the nation’s biggest banks and earmarked for foreclosure prevention, investigations of financial fraud and blunting the ill effects of the housing crisis. California was awarded more than $400 million from the banks, and Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using the bulk of that sum to pay the state’s debts.

The money was part of a national settlement valued at $25 billion and negotiated with five big banks over abuses in their mortgage and foreclosure processes.

The settlement, reached in February after a year of talks and intervention by the Obama administration, was the second-largest in history involving the states, trailing the tobacco industry settlement, and represented the first large-scale commitment by banks to provide direct aid to borrowers.

Greek Government Collapses, New Elections Coming

Guardian: Greece faces stark election choice – in or out of the euro

ATHENS — Greek political leaders said Tuesday that they had failed to find consensus to form a government, pushing the rudderless country to new elections amid political instability and volatility in financial markets that could push Greece to abandon the euro. Markets immediately dropped on the news, and the euro’s value declined.

President Karolos Papoulias was expected to make plans for a caretaker government on Wednesday that would lead to new elections in a month. He is being forced to act by the failure of a last-ditch attempt to form a unity government aimed at keeping Greece in the euro zone and forcing it to honor its commitments to the foreign lenders who are keeping the country afloat.

The debate in Europe About Europe

Guardian: Financial markets are hastily making preparations for a Greek exit from the euro after a day of political and economic turmoil ended with Europe’s policy elite admitting for the first time that it may prove impossible to keep the single currency intact.

Stefano Lepri – LLa Stampa, Italy: Greek crisis: The euro exit is a bluff

As speculation rages about a Greek exit from the eurozone, we must grasp that the country cannot survive without the single currency and that Europe cannot afford to let it leave. That’s why everyone should put their cards openly on the table.

The voters’ verdict is already in across several countries and regions: the cure based strictly on austerity within the eurozone has failed. What needs to be done now is to take that reality on board and to start negotiations that promise to be trying and that may lead to awkward compromises.

Greece, though, must be ready for anything. And it must distinguish between the reality and the threats and blackmail that are flying about at the moment.

Return of the drachma

Point one. Greece cannot survive on its own. Without the aid from Europe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it will very soon run out of money to pay its civil servants’ salaries and to import what it needs for survival, starting with food and oil.

Point two. After the restructuring imposed on private creditors, almost half of Greece’s debt is today held by Europe and the International Monetary Fund. If Greece doesn’t pay, therefore, it will be mainly the taxpayers in the eurozone – i.e. all of us, at a thousand euros each, according to a rough estimate – who will be out of pocket.

Point three. The return to the drachma would be advantageous only in the imagination of poorly informed economists, mostly Americans. It now transpires that the George Papandreou government had commissioned a study that showed that even the two sectors that bring Greece its most significant revenues, tourism and shipping, would not be much better off with a devalued currency.

Point four. The real unknown is what collateral damage – apart from the failure to pay its debt – a possible bankruptcy of Greece would cause other countries in the eurozone. First of all, the spread with German treasury bonds could only go up. Certainly, the consequences would not have the same weight for everyone, falling harder on small countries, starting with Portugal, then Spain and Italy, and lighter on Germany.

JP Morgan Chase Conundrum

•** BBC: JPMorgan’s Dimon wins pay backing **
The head of JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank, is backed by shareholders days after it revealed a $2bn (£1.2bn) trading blunder.
< >

•Daily Beast: Quit Now, Jamie Dimon!

J.P. Morgan board members backed CEO Jamie Dimon Tuesday even as the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the events that led to a $2 billion loss at the investment bank. The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky says Dimon has admitted his negligence, but he should quit now if he wants anyone to believe Wall Street has changed its ways.

*WP:Justice Deparment Opens Criminal Investigation

LBN: Warning Signs ignored

NY Times reported Risk managers and senior investment bankers reportedly expressed concern over the risky bets being made at JPMorgan Chase in the years leading up to the company’s $2 billion trading loss.

I ask the NY Times: So, WHY were these practices by this high profile bank NEVER COVERED over all those years?

Insiders say bosses, including CEO Jamie Dimon, were more concerned with gigantic losses coming from bad mortgages and new regulations threatening the profitability of traditional banking, and this led to a culture of weaker risk management. There was a lopsided situation, between really risky positions and relatively weaker risk managers, one former trader told The New York Times. Meanwhile, reports indicate that the bank may be reclaiming bonuses from employees involved in the snafu, including former chief investment officer Ina Drew, who resigned on Monday as a result of the loss.

Institute for Public Accuracy: Comments On The JP Morgan Debacle

•Stephany Griffith Jones is Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University. With José Antonio Ocampo, and Joseph E. Stiglitz she co-edited “Time for a Visible Hand: Lessons from the 2008 World Financial Crisis.” She says:

“Two billion dollar losses in JPMorgan give us further confirmation of the need to regulate the financial system much more, particularly increasing transparency of derivatives, forcing all derivatives on exchanges, and tightening the Volcker rule. Dilution of regulation by financial interests must be resisted strongly. More radical questions need to be asked: whether such complex financial activity, where risks are impossible to measure, and with no positive effect on the real economy, should be allowed at all?”

•William K Black is now an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.”

His view on CNN: “Financial institutions such as JPMorgan love to buy derivatives because they are opaque, create fictional income that leads to real bonuses and when (not if) they suffer losses so large that they would cause the bank to fail, they will be bailed out. The Dodd-Frank Act’s Volcker Rule was designed to solve the problem.

“However, JPMorgan led the effort to gut the Volcker Rule and the provision that requires transparency. JPMorgan is the world’s largest proprietary purchaser of financial derivatives — precisely what the Volcker Rule sought to end. The bank claims that it does not engage in proprietary trading and that it purchases derivatives solely to hedge. That claim is an example of what Stephen Colbert meant when he invented the term: ‘truthiness.’

“A hedge is an investment that offsets losses in another investment. JPMorgan’s supposed hedges aren’t hedges under accounting rules because they haven’t been shown to perform as hedges. JPMorgan bought tens of billions of dollars of derivatives that increased its losses rather than reduced them. It calls these anti-hedges ‘hedges’ — in other words, it practiced ‘hedginess.’” http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/14/opinion/black-jpmorgan-banks/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

•Gerald Epstein, a founding co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

He just wrote the piece: “Standing Up to Jamie Dimon: Is it Safe?” which states: “How do we stand up to Jamie Dimon and the other tax payer subsidized bankers that use the privileged position of tax payer underwritten banks to engage in risky activity that harms the real economy and generates massive salaries and bonuses for the bankers (Ina Drew is reportedly in line to make $14 million this year).

“First, we must unmask the Republican and Democratic politicians that have actively served to eviscerate the Dodd-Frank rules on proprietary trading, derivatives and swaps regulations and other parts of the Dodd-Frank regulations, in the name of job creation and liquidity enhancement. The regulators at the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and others must be badgered to write and enforce rules that implement strict enforcement of the Dodd-Frank rules against proprietary trading, controls over derivatives…

“But such provisions will not be enough because banks will eventually find ways around them and continue to act like the world is one big casino and ponzi palace. There is increasing recognition by economists and public officials that the too big to fail banks need to be cut down to size. Senator Sherrod Brown has introduced the SAFE banking act” http://triplecrisis.com/standing-up-to-jamie-dimon-is-it-safe
negotiations that promise to be trying and that may lead to awkward compromises.

•Congressional Candidate Norman Solonom Reminds US

“Both Republican and Democratic leaders are to blame. The head of JPMorgan Chase — whose pay package last year was $23 million — is Jamie Dimon, a Democrat with close ties to party leaders. He is a major foe of Wall Street reform.

In 1999, it was a Democratic White House working with a Republican Congress that pushed to end the successful Glass-Steagall Act, which for 65 years had set up a firewall separating commercial banks from speculative Wall Street investment banks. Heralded as a shining example of “bipartisanship” at the time, it facilitated mergers that created too-big-to-fail banking institutions and ultimately led to the 2008 crash, from which we are still trying to recover. Was that type of bipartisanship worth the layoffs, foreclosures and budget deficits now hobbling our economy? Of course not.

•Atlantic: When Powerful Women in Business Are Punished

New Storms In Washington Coming

• Fluent: ‘Higher taxes on wealthy unite Democrats’

•Here We Go Again: GOP Promises New Disruptive Guerilla War Style Debt Ceiling Battle

•Reuters: Obama issues veto threat against House defense bill

• Defense Sense: Options for National Defense Savings in Fiscal Year 2013

A team of defense analysts from the Project on Defense Alternatives and the Cato Institute have just posted a report that points the way to reducing the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense budget by $17 billion to $18 billion. The report’s 18 recommendations will likely figure in Congressional efforts to amend the National Defense Authorization Act, beginning this week.

– Full report (10 pages, with charts & tables):
– Summary of recommendations

• Fluent: ‘Senate renews Export-Import Bank’

•†he Hill: Sen. McCain huddles with Dems on campaign finance reform

Sen. John McCain is talking with Democrats about a joint effort to require outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on this year’s elections to disclose their donors.

McCain (R-Ariz.), once Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, has kept a low profile on the issue in recent years.

•David Lindorff: White House & Dems Back Banks over Protests: Newly Discovered Homeland
Security Files Show Feds Central to Occupy Crackdown

A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) on behalf of
filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild makes it increasingly
evident that there was and is a nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt
and crush the Occupy Movement.

The new documents, which PCJF National Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
insists “are likely only a subset of responsive materials,” in the
possession of federal law enforcement agencies, only “scratch the surface of
a mass intelligence network including Fusion Centers, saturated with
‘anti-terrorism’ funding, that mobilizes thousands of local and federal
officers and agents to investigate and monitor the social justice movement.”

Nonetheless, blacked-out and limited though they are, she says they offer
clues to the extent of the government’s concern about and focus on the wave
of occupations that spread across the country beginning with last
September’s Occupy Wall Street action in New York City.

The latest documents reveal “intense involvement” by the DHS’s so-called
National Operations Center (NOC). In its own literature, the DHS describes
the NOC as “the primary national-level hub for domestic situational
awareness, common operational picture, information fusion, information
sharing, communications, and coordination pertaining to the prevention of
terrorist attacks and domestic incident management.”

The DHS says that the NOC is “the primary conduit for the White House
Situation Room” and that it also “facilitates information sharing and
operational coordination with other federal, state, local, tribal,
non-governmental operation centers and the private sector.”

• Fluent: ‘DSK Files Suit Against Hotel Maid Who Accused Him of Sexual Assault

•BBC: ** Mladic to face genocide charges **

Bosnian Serb former General Ratko Mladic goes on trial in The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.

ICH Global Views

Bill Quigley: Five Reasons Drone Assassinations Are Illegal

These killings would be criminal acts if they occurred inside the US. Does it make legal sense that these killings would be legal outside the US?

Peter Phillips, Desperate Times Demand Revolutionary Measures

Do we understand that habeas corpus is no longer a legal protection in the US or that the US president can torture and kill American citizens, let along anyone in the world?

CJR on Where The Money Goes: TV Scandal Is Part of The Money In Politics Scandal

“We’re sympathetic to the argument that part of the windfall that local TV outlets gather during the campaign season ought to be returned, to some degree, to the public in the form of stronger political reporting. But airtime is a limited commodity and ad purchases are unevenly distributed—or stopped on a dime. At the Swing States Project, Erika Fry explains just who will reap the vast harvest of political advertising dollars in 2012

Undernews: Link Between Charter Schools and ALEC

National Association of Charter School Authorizers Outed as ALEC Funder

NACSA is the most visible and well-heeled of the corporate charter front groups posing as a professional organization dedicated to quality and oversight of charter schools. What they were, and are, is the corporate cadillac of lobbying and pressure charter privateers laser-focused on removing any barrier at the national, state, or local level to expanding school privatization via charter school.

NACSA also gets millions from cash-starved states, who hand over part of their federal grant money to fund NACSA, where big chunks of the cash have been funneled to ALEC to buy legislation and access.

This is the perfect example of federal dollars going to states, where it is then handed over to ALEC to buy public officials so that ALEC’s patrons can lay waste to the public fund. Of course, we should add that the federal dollars at the front end of this chain are targeted by those same plutocratic patrons who are the back end of that same chain.

Great investigative work by a non-corporate media outlet, Republic Report, outed NACSA on Saturday. Yesterday, they announced their subscription to ALEC will expire next month

HP: Gas Prices In U.S. Are Among Lowest In World, Report Finds

More Earths Needed, writes one reader

We Need More Earths

2.5 BILLION Chinese and Indians want to consume as much as just a few hundred million Westerners. Get your telescopes out and search the night time sky for 2 or 3 EXTRA Earths, I’ve been looking for them for over 20 yrs.now since Lester Brown said we’d need a few earths worth of resources to supply just the Chinese, as of now I haven’t seen any and I’m still on the look out.

Carlos Fuentes, Presente

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Author Carlos Fuentes, who played a dominant role in Latin America’s novel-writing boom by delving into the failed ideals of the Mexican revolution, died Tuesday in a Mexico City hospital. He was 83.
Enlarge This Image

Mexican media reported Fuentes died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital, where he was being treated for heart problems. The loss was immediately mourned worldwide via Twitter and across Mexican airwaves.

A message on President Felipe Calderon’s Twitter account said “I deeply lament the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes, a universal Mexican writer.”

Fuentes himself tweeted only one day, March 19, 2011, his last saying: “There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.”

•Guardian: Gabriel García Márquez falls victim to Twitter death hoax

•LA Times Shutting Down Its Magazine
‘
Shelly Palmer: Cyber War Now Pervasive

“In the past year, one in seven large organisations detected hackers within their systems.” This is the highest level recorded, said the recently released PwC 2012 Information Security Breaches Survey. It was completed in conjunction with Infosecurity Europe and supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The survey goes on to say; “This year’s results show that security breaches remain at historically high levels, costing UK plc billions of pounds every year.”

The additional summary stats are compelling as well:

The average large organisation faces a significant outsider attack every week – small businesses one a month.
20% of organisations spend less than 1% of their IT budget on information security.
Customer impersonation up threefold since 2008 – financial services affected most

This survey is Euro-centric, but the stats are similar all over the free world. Between good old-fashioned hackers, Anonymous and other self-described “hacktivist” groups, the world is becoming a much more dangerous place.

••••Your comments welcome along with your suggestions and donations. Write: dissectpr@meddiachannel.org

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M15: Today is a Global Day of Action Against Austerity, More On Morgan Mess, Future of Eurozone

May 15th, 2012 - by: Danny

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New Book Now From Cosimo Books

Today is M15: Protests Worldwide Against Austerity. Activists in New York meet at Bryant Part at 4, Plant to March on Times Square at 6 for A Sit-in. Earlier protests at JP Morgan Chase: The theme is ‘are you a bank or a casino?’

•The Debate: What Should Occupy Do?

Max Berger, AlterNet: Occupy Isn’t About Electing Democrats–It’s About Exposing a Broken System

•Democracy Now: Noam Chomsky on Occupy

•Reuters: NATO protesters arrested in Chicago before summit

•New Occupy Album Out. New Song By Dick Gregory Protege
Anniversary in London: 4,000 days and counting – the London Parliament Square peace Campaign continues!

Paul O’Hanlon writes from Scotland: “The long term 24/7 peace campaign in London’s Parliament Square today reaches day 4,000 – nearly 11 years. Since its inception on June 2nd 2001 by the late Brian Haw it has been a thorn in the side of the establishment. Sadly Brian passed away in June 2011 but the campaign has continued with Australian Barbara Tucker at the helm.”

Here are 20 photos taken through the years along with a report.

The Morgan Implosion

•Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone/RSN: Jamie’s Crying

Bloomberg: JPMorgan’s Trades Probed by U.S. National Bank Agency After Loss

The Office of Comptroller of the Currency said yesterday that it is examining JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s activities and evaluating their transactions following a $2 billion loss that shook up bank leadership.
“The OCC is examining the bank’s activities and is in continuous dialogue with bank personnel and other regulatory colleagues as we evaluate details related to the specific transactions as well as the surrounding risk management processes that resulted in this unexpected loss,” Bryan Hubbard, an OCC spokesman, said in an e-mail.

DXM: Question Oh Morgan’s Bad Bet

Is there a derivatives product for buying into stupidity having gone
over the top?

Besides the JP Morgan Chase shareholders seeing a $5 billion profit
that could have been $7 billion, was there any actual
“civilian” (investor) money lost in the $2 billion blunder? And how
could someone who knew the $2 billion blunder couldn’t be anything
other than a $2 billion bust have profited by hedging a derivatives-
like bet against the $2 billion package? Within such a scenario, who
wins, who loses, how much?

•Paul Krugman: Greece and The Future of the Eurozone

All eyes were on France going into the weekend of May 6th, but it turns out the Greek elections have much bigger potential implications for the future of the eurozone (EZ). Last Sunday marked a seismic shift in Greek politics, in which the two main political parties—New Democracy (ND) and Pasok—together failed to win an absolute majority for the first time since the collapse of the military dictatorship in the 1970′s. The path forward for Greece is unclear, but even the best possible scenario doesn’t look good.

Leading up to the May 6th general election in Greece, opinion polls indicated that ND and Pasok had lost support to fringe parties on the right and particularly on the left of the political spectrum. Many analysts argued that voters were expressing anger with the two main parties by saying they would support opposition movements in opinion polls, but that when it came to voting day they would cast a ballot for the same two main parties as usual.

This wasn’t the case. New Democracy came in first place with only 18.9% of the vote, followed by Syriza (16.8%) and Pasok (13.2%). A record 34.9% of voters abstained, a particularly high figure for a country in which voting is technically compulsory (though according to 2001 legislation there are no sanctions for failing to vote).

•Reuters: Eurozone Ministers Dismiss Fears oF Greece’s Departure

EconoMonito, Roubini: Get Ready For the Spanish Bailout

No one can pretend to know whether Spain is illiquid or insolvent without gauging the size of the black hole that is the country’s banking sector. The Spanish government is finally starting to do this: Bankia and other banks are reportedly set to receive a capital injection from Madrid. With the Spanish economy contracting sharply and with unemployment soaring, it was inevitable that the government had to bail out the banks. But this only deals with one piece of the puzzle. Without growth, the Spanish sovereign will need a bailout as well.
Morgan Debacle Shows Flaw in Federal Reserve Thinking

•Marvin Kitman, Who’s in Charge At My Bank

•Truthdig: Chris Hedges Colonized Nby Corporations

•Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the countrys economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.

Since the end of 2008, the islands banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.

Report Details How Today’s Deregulatory Efforts for Derivatives Mirror Push of Late 1990s

Note: Amid the news coverage of JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion loss in derivatives bets, Public Citizen is publishing this report to expound on the historical lessons of derivatives deregulation and the urgency to implement the rules called for in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new Public Citizen report details how deregulating the financial derivatives market contributed to the financial crash and warns lawmakers – who are considering deregulating the derivatives market again – about the consequences of doing so

The report, “Forgotten Lessons of Deregulation: Rolling Back Dodd-Frank’s Derivatives Rules Would Repeat a Mistake that Led to the Financial Crisis,” explains how America’s top financial policymakers deregulated the financial derivatives market in the 1990s and provides a detailed account of how deregulation led to the ensuing housing bubble, financial crisis and Great Recession.

It comes as members of Congress have introduced nine bills that would weaken the derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010

All seven bills moving in the U.S. House of Representatives have been approved by committees, and three have passed the full House. Two bills that would exempt overseas transactions from Dodd-Frank’s derivatives provisions may be voted on as soon as Thursday in the House agriculture committee. Other bills would exempt trades by supposedly “small” players, reduce transparency requirements and strike down a provision to ban derivatives trading by federally insured banks. At least three other bills would impose impediments for agencies to promulgate rules concerning financial services in general. The bills are listed in the report’s appendix.

“Rolling back Dodd-Frank’s derivatives reforms would invite a new crisis even before we are done picking up the pieces from the disaster that prompted the reforms in the first place,” said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate with Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. s

Kemal Dervis* – Project Syndicate, Rebalancing the Eurozone

WASHINGTON, DC – The eurozone crisis unfolded primarily as a sovereign-debt crisis mostly on its southern periphery, with interest rates on sovereign bonds at times reaching 6-7% for Italy and Spain, and even higher for other countries. And, because eurozone banks hold a substantial part of their assets in the form of eurozone sovereign bonds, the sovereign-debt crisis became a potential banking crisis, worsened by banks’ other losses, owing, for example, to the collapse of housing prices in Spain. So a key challenge in resolving the eurozone crisis is to reduce the southern countries’ debt burdens.

The change in a country’s debt burden reflects the size of its primary budget balance (the balance minus interest payments) as a share of GDP, as well as the difference between its borrowing costs and its GDP growth rate. When the difference between borrowing costs and growth becomes too large, the primary budget surpluses required to stop debt from increasing become impossible to achieve. Indeed, growth in southern Europe is expected to be close to zero or negative for the next two years, and is not expected to exceed 2-3% even in the longer term.

While not always evident from the headlines, an underlying cause of the eurozone crisis – and now an obstacle for growth in the south – has been the divergence in production costs that developed between the peripheral countries,notably the “south” (specifically, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal) and the “north” (for simplicity, Germany) during the first decade after the introduction of the euro. Unit labor costs in the four southern countries increased by 36%, 28%, 30%, and 25%, respectively, from 2000 to 2010, compared to less than 5% in Germany, resulting in an end-2010 cumulative divergence above 30% in Greece and more than 20% in Portugal, Italy, and Spain.

•BBC: Italian banks have credit ratings cut by Moody’s

•The Hill: Ron Paul won’t campaign in any more states

Ron Paul won’t campaign in any more primaries, his campaign announced Monday afternoon.
A letter sent from Paul to supporters promised to continue the battle for delegates at state party conventions in order to try to influence the party’s platform, but said the campaign will no longer try to win delegates in new states.

•Boston Globe: New Controversy In Senate Race

Is Elizabeth Warren a Native American? …. it was revealed that Warren had listed herself as a minority in a major legal directory.

The fallout and her unsteady response to it subjected the rookie Democratic Senate candidate to tough questions, an unflattering national glare, and a recognition from others that she had hit her first real stumble. The Washington Post’s political blog, The Fix, gave Warren the dubious honor “Worst Week in Washington.’’

“I have yet to run into anyone in politics who believes that this was handled well at all,’’ said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor at The Cook Political Report who tracks Senate races around the country. “The explanations have left enormous room for doubt and speculation.’’

Democrats and some outside strategists continue to believe the issue, first reported in the Boston Herald, will die down soon, though others caution the controversy could become part of Warren’s identity, damaging her reputation among socially conservative swing voters.

The story also poses potential dangers to Senator Scott Brown, whose questioning of her Harvard qualifications risks undermining his campaign message that he is above personal attacks.

But most of the political critique has been directed at Warren.

Warren has been forced to respond to the story incrementally, as new details have emerged, including a genealogist’s finding that documents suggested she might have been 1/32 Cherokee but would not qualify for tribal membership.

She had her most awkward public response on Wednesday, when she said she had checked a box listing herself as Native American for the legal directory for nearly a decade in hopes that she would “meet others like me,’’ and mentioned that she heard her aunt admiring the “high cheekbones’’ of her grandfather.

“Brown is having a field day, and she is not responding effectively,’’ said Thomas J. Whalen, an associate professor of social science, and a political historian at Boston University. “She is just flailing around.

LBN: HUSBAND OF 9/11 VICTIM GOES TO GITMO TO SPARE PLOTTERS FROM DEATH SENTENCE

The husband of a woman killed on 9/11 went to Guantanamo Bay on a shocking secret mission to try to save the lives of the al-Qaeda monsters who planned the murder. Blake Allison one of 10 relatives of victims to win a lottery for tickets to the arraignment of confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his evil accomplices had told people he was making the trip because I wanted to see the faces of the people accused of murdering my wife. But while there, the 62-year-old wine-company executive held a clandestine meeting with the terrorists lawyers, in which he offered to testify against putting their clients to death. He is vocal critic of capital punishment.

Media

•Steve Horn, Portside: Russia Today and the New Cultural Cold War

•Daily Show: Victory Lapse - Politicizing Osama bin Laden’s & Saddam Hussein’s Deaths

Flipboard: Turkish reporter describes Syrian detention

Reuters: Murdoch Editor To Be Prosecuted

EJC: Iranian government bans foreign email use including Gmail and Hotmail

The Iranian government has banned a number of industries in the country from using foreign email services such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, according to reports. The AFP reported that a paper in region, Asr Ertebatat, broke the news that the telecommunications minister has ordered banks, insurance firms and telephone operators to stop using foreign email services and only use domains that end .ir, the domain of Iran. The order also applies to the Iranian government, with departments now only able to use email addresses that end .ir or .gov.ir and all universities must use .ac.ir or .ir systems. The move is the latest development in the ongoing censorship of the internet by officials in the country. In 2010 Iran blocked access to Gmail for its citizens and rolled out its own national email service, claiming that it would boost local internet firms and build trust between the government and the people. The nation also made the headlines last month when it was rumoured it was going to cut internet access completely, although the telecoms ministry dismissed the suggestion calling it “completely baseless”. (V3.co.uk)

•The Atlantic: The Selfish Social Media Bubble

•Shelly Palmer: Talk about long distance. Virgin Atlantic has announced that it will start letting their customers make calls with their own cellphones.

•Fluent on Tales of The TSA:: Henry Kissinger Patted Down At Airport

•The Atlantic on Technology: Towards a Better Vibrator

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Meet Spain’s Indignados, Walls Street Psychopaths, Morgan Mess, Greece Does Not Reach Deal, Could Leave Eurozone

May 14th, 2012 - by: Danny

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New Book Now From Cosimo Books

•Yesterday's New York Times reported that the number of people stopped and frisked this year by the NYPD is at a record level. That happen to have been the topic we discussed in-depth Friday on: NewsDissector Radio Hour On PRN.Fm. The NY Times profiled one of our guests, officer Polanco who was suspended after speaking up against the numbers obsession in the Department, and for criticizing its policies. See Michael Powell’s May 7th report: “No Room for Dissent in a Police Department Consumed by the Numbers.”

•READ: My recent commentaries: The Axis of Media Indifference and, on AlJazeera: “Hey, Hey LBJ, Why Are You Back Today?

Spain On The March Against Austerity

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards marched against austerity policies. This action was inspired and organized by the Indigados (The indignant activist movement) which, in turn was an inspiration for Occupy Wall Street. Last June, I visited their occupation in Madrid. I reported on it for AlJzeeera. The essay is in my new book Blogothon. (Cosimo Books)

IN SPAIN’S TAHRIR SQUARE: A REVOLUTION STRUGGLES TO BE BORN (2011)

MADRID, Spain, June 15 2011: Spain is justly proud of the paella, a distinctive dish that mixes diverse vegetables or seafood into a tasty fusion of delectability.

They have now created a political version in the form of Tahrir Square type encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol where a diverse mix of activists—old, young, male-female, disabled, immigrant, activists from Western Sahara, have created a beachhead for what many say is the closest this country has come to a popular and distinctive revolutionary movement since the 1930’s.

Its been a month now since Real Democracy, a grass roots “platform,” as it called, began a march that initially only attracted a relative handful of activists but by the time it reached the shopping district at Puerta del Sol, it had swelled to over 25,000, surprising its organizers, participants and politicians from the two major parties.

Only this march turned into a movement when many of its supporters decided to stay in the Square, no doubt inspired by events in Egypt, In Cairo, the vast multitudes agreed on one demand—Mubarak Must Go—even its causes were later traced to a collapsing economy and mass joblessness among the young. Their story was driven by social media and echoed in live TV broadcasts. Protests were underway elsewhere in Spain,

The movement became known as “#spanishrevolution” after the Twitter hashtag used to spread news, pictures and footage of the revolt, began with the internet call for a May 15 protest to demand “Real Democracy Now!” The marchers were dubbed “indignados” (The Indignant.)

Activist Pablo Quiziel articulated the feeling, “Amidst local and regional election campaigns, with the banners of the different political parties plastered across the country’s streets, people are saying `enough!’ Disillusioned youth, unemployed, pensioners, students,

Immigrants and other disenfranchised groups have emulated their brothers in the Arab world and are now demanding a voice – demanding an opportunity to live with dignity.”

In Spain, the activists said they were expressing “indignation” with their country’s economy and the parasitic nature of its two main political parties—the Socialists (PSOE) and the Center Right People’s Party (PP)—which carried on business as usual in a predictable dance of mutual bashing and few new ideas while markets melted down,

They also denounced corruption demanding fair housing, jobs, and a more responsive government.

But they had moved beyond electoral politics creating a liberated village with tents and makeshift structures. They had no leaders and didn’t want any. They practiced a form of consensus backed small d democratic decision-making. It reminded me of what I read of utopian communities in which “the people” run the show. Soon, the spirit of what they are doing and asking for resonated in more than 160 cities and towns.

I got there a month after what is known as the May 15th movement was started, and almost by accident. On my way to South Africa, I flew the Spanish carrier Iberia only discover I would have a 12 hour layover. Since I was going through Madrid, my revolutionary tourism gene mandated me to hop on the marvelous Madrid Metro, and three changes later surface face to face with the revolution even if the weather seemed well over 90 degrees.

Yes, there was plenty of sol on hand. Some of the activists like Liam who hails from Ireland were slathered with suntan lotion because of the afternoon rays. “We are all fried,” he told me.

Although many in the media have already written this movement’s obituary, it seems to keep chugging along, almost amoeba-like, decentralizing, going deeper by organizing popular Assemblies in neighborhoods throughout the city. They have several committees working on a program for what they will fight for. Many are common sense ideas.

While Sol still functions as their public base they already deemphasized its importance by spreading out, almost block by block.

On the day I was there, a small contingent left the Soul to stop an eviction and they were successful after confronting a landlord and the local bank. They exercise an enormous amount of moral authority as they talk about issues in personal ways, free of political rhetoric and bombast. They politicize by example, not by throwing slogans around, acting in a post partisan manner.

This approach seems to make sense to many who see their society in crisis with politicians blaming each other. In contrast, The May 15th movement encourages citizens to voice their grievances and act on their own behalf.

They tend to think like anarchists and talk in terms of self-management as a principle of political economy.

They are very clear about not wanting to replace one conventional hierarchal party with another. They are nervous about grooming or projecting leaders even as one activist told me that rule by consensus can be excruciatingly slow and subject to obstructionist tactic by a few who can hold the majority hostage.

“We have had people praise us for standing up, “ Liam told me, “ We tell them not to put their faith in us either but to get involved in the process of change. We can’t do it for them~”

The movement all over the local press that seems ready to pronounce it a failure even as it documents the free fall of the local economy. There is now a newspaper called Diagonal reporting on their every activity while activists use social media and post blogs on local websites.

A local newspaper sampled public opinion. They found many voters estranged from their party and disillusioned and many, across the spectrum, sympathetic to the idealism and energy behind their actions. The very presence seems to be politicizing people if just by discussing the alternative to tradition that they represent

Many were open to the new movement’s style and interactive discourse, Bernarda told them “ democracy is really bad here. There are two parties but no one really likes either one.

Says Juan, “I think it’s very interesting that people from different social classes and different groups are joining together.”

Cesar agrees, “Everyone’s hoping this will not be disappear because it is the spark of change.”

Adds Juan, “I am really proud of all of us.”

My language skills limited my access to Spanish speakers but I did talk with David Marty, a lawyer by training, a teacher by necessity and a writer by choice. He sees the movement spreading all across Europe.

“We need a new approach, he says, singing the praises of May 15th bottom up, participatory approach.

What I found significant is that he was not a man of the left. Both his father and grandfather were policemen. His dad won his spurs as a member of the French CRS unity fighting protesters during May June 1968 when Paris was a battleground, Now, his son writes for Z Magazine and contributes ideas for what changes the movement should ask for.

Like many in M15, he is a staunch critic of neo-liberalism, policies that both major parties embrace

As we sat in the Square as its distinctive clock tower, struck six, I Iistened to more speculation laced with hope. No one can predict this movement’s future with any certainty, but its active core seems to agree that it has already done more than they ever imagined.

Writes Quziel, “Spain is finally re-embracing its radical past, its popular movements, its anarcho-syndicalist traditions and its republican dreams. Crushed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco seventy years ago, it seemed that Spanish popular culture would never recover from the void left by a rightwing dictatorship, which exterminated anyone with a dissenting voice; but the 15th of May 2011, is the reminder to those in
power that Spanish direct democracy is still alive and has finally awaken.”

That is the hope at least, that I saw in the Plaza of the Sun.

The JP Morgan Chase Scandal

•News Republic: JPMorgan chief admits bank’s ‘credibility’ at stake

•WSJ: Pressure Builds on Dimon

•FT: JPMorgan probe into London role in loss

JPMorgan Chase is investigating whether London-based traders hid the extent of losses on credit derivatives positions, according to people familiar with an internal probe following last week’s revelation of $2bn losses.

The investigation comes as Jamie Dimon, chief executive, took to US television to say he was “dead wrong” to have dismissed questions over the risk-taking of his chief investment office.

The futures of the trading unit – a subset of the CIO that incurred the losses – and people who work there are under question, with departures possible in the next 24 hours, people familiar with the matter said.
Among the questions being asked internally is whether it was right to base the unit in London, at a distance from the bank’s New York headquarters.

•SEC serves Morgan with Wells Notice, Warning of Investigation

•NYT: Blame The Underlings

The $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase will claim its first casualty among top officials at the bank as early as Monday, with chief executive Jamie Dimon set to accept the resignation of the executive who oversaw the trade, Ina R. Drew. Ms. Drew, a 55-year-old banker who has worked at the company for three decades and serves as chief investment officer, had repeatedly offered to resign since the scale of the loss became apparent in late April, but Mr. Dimon had held off until now on accepting it, several JPMorgan Chase executives said.

Two traders who worked for Ms. Drew also planned to resign, JPMorgan Chase officials said. Her exit would mark a stunning fall from grace for one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, as well as a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Dimon.

BBC: JP Morgan Chief Admits Failures

•HP: Joseph Palermo: JP Morgan’s Loss Could Be America’s Gain

Crisis in Europa

Atlantic: Greece Could Sink Obama Campaign

•FT: Fear grows of Greece leaving euro

Eurozone central bankers have talked publicly for the first time of managing a possible Greek exit from Europe’s monetary union as stalemate in Athens talks on a coalition government raises the prospect

*Comment on Bloomberg Views: PETER BOONE and SIMON JOHNSON: Can the euro be saved? Not likely. As austerity measures fail, the European Central Bank will come under pressure to take actions that create inflation, which will weaken the euro. European leaders should prepare for an “orderly dismantling of the euro before the damage spreads and further undermines European unity.”

•AlJazeera: Q&A: What happens if Greece leaves the euro? – Opinion

BBC: ** Germany united by nudity, divided by attitude
BBC: Merkel Suffers Election Blow

•Guardian: Israel warned of volatile situation as Palestinian hunger strikers near death

Fluent: ‘Hamid Karzai Announces New Phase of Transition, Peace Process Suffers Another Blow’

*Fluent: ‘30 Al-Qaida Militants Killed in Fighting in Yemen’

*Reuters: Senator Says Kill Qaeda Bombmaker

William Deresiewica: Capitalists and Other Psychopaths

THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are,
what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad. Well, consider
the following. A recent study
ths> found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are “clinical
psychopaths,” exhibiting a lack of interest in and empathy for others and an
“unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.” (The
proportion at large is 1 percent.) Another study
concluded
that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law.

The only thing that puzzles me about these claims is that anyone would find
them surprising. Wall Street is capitalism in its purest form, and
capitalism is predicated on bad behavior. This should hardly be news. The
English writer Bernard Mandeville asserted nearly as much three centuries
ago in a satirical-poem-cum-philosophical-treatise called “The Fable of the
Bees.”

“Private Vices, Publick Benefits” read the book’s subtitle. A Machiavelli of
the economic realm – a man who showed us as we are, not as we like to think
we are – Mandeville argued that commercial society creates prosperity by
harnessing our natural impulses: fraud, luxury and pride. By “pride”
Mandeville meant vanity; by “luxury” he meant the desire for sensuous
indulgence. These create demand, as every ad man knows. On the supply side,
as we’d say, was fraud: “All Trades and Places knew some Cheat, / No Calling
was without Deceit.”

• Us Resumes Military Aid to Bahrain

WASHINGTON — The United States said May 11 it is partially resuming sales of military supplies to key Gulf Arab ally Bahrain but maintaining a freeze on certain wire-guided missiles and vehicles.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said “the items that we are releasing are not used for crowd control,” urging Bahrain to tackle “serious unresolved human rights issues” amid a crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

Tear gas and stun grenades were excluded from the sales, according to U.S. officials. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity that a frigate and harbor security boats as well as upgraded F-16 engines would be transferred to Bahrain.

•Mashable:The iPhone 5 Might Look Like This

•Photos of the Day: Stunning Landscape Photos Dramatically Heightened with Digital Art (21 Pictures)

•Famous News Photo: LIFE cover on “Red China” 1959

•China Daily: Alien species a growing menace: experts

Increasing trade blamed as pests destroy crops

Alien species of plants and animals will become an increasing menace over the next decade due to the rapid development of the world economy and a lack of awareness of proper prevention measures, experts have warned.

* Fluent: ‘The GOP values of…Burning Man?’

EJC: Bolivian President Evo Morales approves bill giving journalists life insurance

Although Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the press of distorting information on the same day the country celebrated Journalists’ Day, on Thursday, May 10, the president said that freedom of the press in the country is “guaranteed” and approved a bill giving journalists life insurance, reported the news agency EFE, the newspaper La Razon, and the radio station FM Bolivia. According to the newspaper Opinion, the life insurance will be paid for through one percent of the advertising revenue from private news outlets, and the resources will be accessible to press employees that can prove their accreditation to local federations of press workers. Bolivian press workers had requested the bill’s approval back in March, after the killing of two journalists on February 25 in the city of El Alto. That killing of sibling journalists led to the creation of a decree that guarantees transportation for journalists working at night. In 2011, 46 attacks against journalists were recorded. Morales said the attacks were simply reactions against lies.(Knight Center)

•••Thank your for reading the News Dissector blog. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org. Please read more media news on Mediachannel1.org

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Mothers Day Is A Day For Peace, Hey Hey LBJ, Why Are You Back Today? Spain On The March

May 13th, 2012 - by: Danny

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Happy Mother’s Day: Remembering My Mom, Ruth Lisa Schechter, American Poet. Read her work here.

My New Book Out Now From Cosimo Books

The Barely Known History of Mother’s Day Here’s Another Take from A Nation of Change.

Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:

And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

The Rise & Fall of Howe’s Mother’s Day

At one point Howe even proposed converting July 4th into Mother’s Day, in order to dedicate the nation’s anniversary to peace. Eventually, however, June 2nd was designated for the celebration. In 1873 women’s groups in 18 North American cities observed this new Mother’s holiday. Howe initially funded many of these celebrations, but most of them died out once she stopped footing the bill. The city of Boston, however, would continue celebrating Howe’s holiday for 10 more years.

Dissector Essay on AlJazeera: Hey, Hey LBJ, Why Did You Come Back Today?

When faced with the possibility of a reactionary conservative White House, radicals may vote for a ‘less bad’ liberal.

New York, NY – Back in 1964, I was a student activist, a sympathizer of Students for a Democratic Society, and a full time civil rights movement organizer. We were “movement people”, just as Occupy Wall Street is today, suspicious of, and hostile to, the Democratic Party – which was then dominated by pro-segregationist Dixiecrats from the south and the new president from Texas, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Some of us were still mourning for JFK, but we knew in our heart of hearts that even he operated more on political calculation than conscience and compassion. He had deepened our involvement in Vietnam, although there is evidence that he was looking for a way out.

We all suspected his killing in Dallas was more than it appeared to be, and that a cover-up was assassinating the truth of what happened, just as he had been assassinated. I later directed a film, Beyond JFK, based on Oliver Stone’s movie, laying out all the conspiracy theories.

President Lyndon Johnson is back in the spotlight, thanks to the publication of the fourth volume of Robert Caro’s masterful and massive biography covering LBJ’s Passage of Power. There’s no detail left unexamined.

Caro is more partial to studying the power of political personalities than to examining the structures of power in our society that C Wright Mills wrote about in The Power Elite or that William Donhoff examines in his Who Rules America, now in its eighth printing.

Read The Rest on AlJazeera.com

NYT: Tea Party Targets Senate

Other Views
•Firedog Lake: The Protests in Chicago: Will Go On

•AlJazeera: Face It—The US economy is Socialist

•†he Atlantic: Only Amateurs Can Preserve Democracy

•NYT: Student Loans Weighing Down A Generation

•AP: JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon’s Reputation Shredded

•The Atlantic: JP Morgan Outlook Downgraded By Fitch

•Vanity Fair on Goldman Sachs: Blood On The Water

•Forbes: How Employer-Sponsored Insurance Drives Up Health Costs≈

Yes Men Press Release: DALLAS PARTY ENDS BADLY FOR U.S. TRADE REPS AND FEDERAL AGENTS


Dozens of rogue “delegates” disrupt Trans-Pacific Partnership gala with “award,” “mic check,” mass toilet paper replacement, projection

Two dozen rogue “delegates” disrupted the corporate-sponsored welcome gala for the high-stakes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations yesterday with a fake award ceremony and “mic check.” Other activists, meanwhile, replaced hundreds of rolls of toilet paper (TP) throughout the conference venue with more informative versions, and projected a message on the venue’s facade.

The first action began when a smartly-dressed man approached the podium immediately after the gala’s keynote speech by Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative and former mayor of Dallas. The man (local puppeteer David Goodwin) introduced himself as “Git Haversall,” president of the “Texas Corporate Power Partnership,” and announced he was giving Kirk and other U.S. trade negotiators the “2012 Corporate Power Tool Award,” which “Haversall’s” partner held aloft.

The crowd of negotiators and corporate representatives applauded, and “Haversall” continued: “I’d like to personally thank the negotiators for their relentless efforts. The TPP agreement is shaping up to be a fantastic way for us to maximize profits, regardless of what the public of this nation—or any other nation—thinks is right.”

At that point, the host of the reception took the microphone back and announced that the evening’s formal programming had concluded. But Mr. Haversall confidently re-took the microphone and warmly invited Kirk to accept the award.

Other News:

•Iranian president: No need to take up arms against Israel

Note: Many of the analysts I’ve read say that the so-called Iranian threats Against the existence of the State of Israel were a mistranslation and fabrication, fodder for orchestrated propaganda.

•Raw Story: Cuba’s Raul Castro backs gay rights says daughter

•Daily Beast: Dalai Lama: Agents Tried to Poison Me

Media Shows Contempt For Working Class

•John Russo, Center for Working-Class StudiesMedia Hostile to Workers: Talking with the Press about the Working Class

Over the last three months, I have done interviews with and provided assistance to dozens of national and international reporters about various working-class issues, including the American Dream, manufacturing, education, the recession, displaced workers, local and international trade, and, of course, white working-class voting patterns.

A few weeks ago, George Packer, staff reporter for The New Yorker, was a visiting scholar at the Center for Working-Class Studies, doing research on book project, and he spoke as part of our annual lecture series. So, obviously, I have been thinking a lot about journalists and reporting on the working class.

Packer titled his lecture, Do Journalist Care About the Working Class? His response was basically, “No!” He argued that the American public is more concerned about celebrity and success stories that often reinforce the American Dream. While job loss affects people of all classes these days, readers seem more interested in stories about hedge fund managers losing half their fortune than in profiles of manufacturing or service workers losing their jobs. In part, these attitudes reflect the confusion most Americans have about class. When asked the open-ended question, “what class do you belong to,” most Americans say they are middle class. But if given four options — lower, working, middle, and upper class — about 45% choose working class, and about the same percentage identify themselves as middle class.

Packer also points out that hard-nosed, urban, ethnic, and street-smart reporters like Jimmy Breslin, Mike Royko, or Mike Barnacle, many of whom had working-class roots, have been replaced by metro journalists, most with college degrees, who identify themselves as professionals and spend most of their time with people like themselves. Packer quotes Pulitizer Prize winning columnist, Connie Schultz, who has noted that, especially in big cities, reporters have increasingly become privileged by their professional education, social connections, and access to internships and have become a “self-perpetuating” class. As a result, journalists don’t have contacts among the working class or much sense of working-class life and culture. Add to this unsympathetic editors who are more interested in selling upscale readership to advertisers, and journalists these days have natural hesitancy to pursue working-class stories.

Put differently, as I heard as a panelist at a Society of Professional Journalists Conference say, there is a high degree of self-censorship among journalists themselves.

In the end, Packer suggested that the recession and the centrality of white working-class voting in electoral politics have made the working class more interesting to some newspapers. I can attest to that, but if my recent interviews are any indication, reporters are generally confused about who is working class, and they don’t understand the political and economic views of the working class.

Most journalists covering electoral politics define the working class as those without a college education. That definition is widely used, not only by reporters but also by some scholars and political analysts, in part because it’s easy to measure. I caution reporters that if they use this definition, then the working class seems to be shrinking as more people attend college. While some commentators have suggested that this shift makes the working class less important politically, I argue that this is simply a statistical shift. These days, many working-class people have at least some college education, and the working class continues to matter in American politics. In part because of that, I try to help journalists understand why class is not just a matter of education. It also has to do with occupation, income, wealth, and – among the hardest aspects to measure – culture.

At the same time, I remind reporters that class is not the only identity that might affect how people view political candidates and issues. For example, white working-class men might well view economic and policy issues differently from white working-class women or black working-class men. I also try to help journalists understand that the working-class varies politically by region and state, in part because other issues, like race and types of employment, shape working-class cultures. When we add religious affiliations and social values, things become even more complicated, but that’s the point. I want to encourage reporters to get beyond their assumptions and stereotypes when they write about working-class voters and issues.

Journalists often ask me to explain why the working class supports Republicans, a pattern that seems to go against their own economic interests. It’s true that a majority of white working-class voters has only supported a Democrat in a presidential election once in the last 50 years, voting for Johnson in 1964, so this isn’t a new phenomenon. We can’t even tie it to the so-called “Reagan Democrats” of the 1980s. A number of historians and political scientists have studied this trend, but rather than focus on theories about why the working class votes for Republicans, I point out that the trend is shifting. White working-class support for Republicans has been dropping in the northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the far west, and it will probably drop further — because of Republican policy formulations. For example, Republicans want to cut the deficit by slashing entitlements, but many working-class voters believe that such cuts would have a disproportionate impact on them. While the Republicans put down the Occupy movement, many in the working class, both conservatives and liberals, support its economic and social populism and agree with its claims about injustice, unfairness, and inequality.

Packer is right, both that today’s journalists don’t really understand the working class and that the economy and the election mean that reporters will have to cover the working class anyway. One of the goals of the Center for Working-Class Studies is to help journalists do a better job of telling working-class stories. I think we’ve had some influence, largely because we take the time to do more than answer a few questions. We meet with reporters, help them make contact with other sources, take them around Youngstown, and discuss what they hear from area workers and what the statistics about employment, class identity, and political perspectives really mean.

We all complain about and critique media coverage of class issues. If we want the media to do a better job, more of us need to be willing to talk with journalists. When the phone rings and reporter asks you to comment on how the recession is affecting the working class, or why white working-class people support certain candidates, or how working-class students will be affected by interest rates on college loans, don’t duck. Take the time to not only answer the question but also, when necessary, challenge the reporter’s assumptions and help him or her understand the working class more fully. Think of it as teachable moment.

The Atlantic: The Gray Lady’s Photographic Memory

For More Media Analysis, Visit and Join Mediachannel.

BBC: Study links biodiversity and language loss

Again, Happy Mother’s Day To All Who Celebrate It. Comments welcome to dissector@mediachannel.org

Tax Deductible Donations for The NewsDissector blog welcome. Write: The Global Center, PO Box 677, New York, New York 10035.

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Manifesto, One Poll Puts Romney Ahead, JP Morgan’s $2 Billion Loss And the Need for Reform

May 12th, 2012 - by: Danny

Posted in the Category: Uncategorized

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New Book Now From Cosimo Books

Mother's Day Message From Trayon Martin's Mom

Yesterday: NewsDissector Radio Hour On PRN.Fm
Show Last Week With Gitarmy and Catherine Austin Fits; All Archived Shows

NYT: Commenting on NY Times Coverage of Marriage Equality

ENJOY: From The Occupy Gitarmy: The New May Day Video

Quote of the Day: Dennis Kucinich Gets Spiritual in Dubai

•AP: Same Sex marriage shift gives Obama fundraising boost

Yahoo: Nine Lingering Questions About The Impact

LBN: Romney Leads: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney earning 50% of the vote and President Obama attracting 43% support. Four percent (4%) would vote for a third party candidate, while another three percent (3%) are undecided.

Buzzflash: Twelve Questions for Mitt Romney That Journalists Might Not Ask

Simon Johnson: BaselineScenario.com: JP Morgan Debacle Reveals Fatal Flaw In Federal Reserve Thinking

Experienced Wall Street executives and traders concede, in private, that Bank of America is not well run and that Citigroup has long been a recipe for disaster. But they always insist that attempts to re-regulate Wall Street are misguided because risk-management has become more sophisticated – everyone, in this view, has become more like Jamie Dimon, head of JP Morgan Chase, with his legendary attention to detail and concern about quantifying the downside.

In the light of JP Morgan’s stunning losses on derivatives, announced yesterday but with the full scope of total potential losses still not yet clear (and not yet determined), Jamie Dimon and his company do not look like any kind of appealing role model. But the real losers in this turn of events are the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the New York Fed, whose approach to bank capital is now demonstrated to be deeply flawed.

JP Morgan claimed to have great risk management systems – and these are widely regarded as the best on Wall Street. But what does the “best on Wall Street” mean when bank executives and key employees have an incentive to make and misrepresent big bets – they are compensated based on return on equity, unadjusted for risk? Bank executives get the upside and the downside falls on everyone else – this is what it means to be “too big to fail” in modern America.

The Federal Reserve knows this, of course – it is stuffed full of smart people. Its leadership, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, Dan Tarullo (lead governor for overseeing bank capital rules), and Bill Dudley (president of the New York Fed) are all well aware that bankers want to reduce equity levels and run a more highly leveraged business (i.e., more debt relative to equity). To prevent this from occurring in an egregious manner, the Fed now runs regular “stress tests” to assess how much banks could lose – and therefore how much of a buffer they need in the form of shareholder equity.

In the spring, JP Morgan passed the latest Fed stress tests with flying colors...

•The NY Times reports Saturday that JP Morgan opposed a rule that could have prevented what happened to it.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Morgan was trying to protect itself from volatility in Europe.

• NYT: SEC To Investigate

•Rolling Stone/RSN, Matt Taibbi: How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform]

•Salon, Glenn Greenwald: Wall Street’s Immunity

•Ellen Brown: Indentured Servitude for Seniors: Social Security Garnished for Student Debts

*Naked Capitalism: Michael Hudson On What Americans Can Learn From Europe’s Crisis

ICH Global Views

(Friday’s NY Times finally reports/admits that Jihadis are wreaking terror in Syria)

Tony Cartalucci: Extremists Ravaging Syria Created by US in 2007

US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel funded and have backed regional army of Sunni terrorists since 2007 specifically to overthrow Syria and Iran.

Uri Avnery: King Bibi Rules Supreme

Dirty tricks are the usual trade of politicians, and this one is no dirtier than many others.

•MSNBC: Palestinians resort to hunger strike in protest

Paul Craig Roberts: Does The West Have A Future?

The new tyranny is arising in the West, not in Russia and China. The danger to humanity is in the nuclear button briefcase in the Oval Office and in the brainwashed an

Alan Johnson on Greece’s Nazis

Telegraph: David Cameron and Francois Hollande heading for showdown over French withdrawal from Afghanista

• Fluent: ‘Afghan forces show defiance in dealing with U.S.‘

•American Scholar: Growing Menace In Afghanistan

•BBC: Germany’s Pirate Party riding high

•Reuters: Chavez returns to Venezuela after cancer treatment in Cuba

Other News

•Guardian: Pressure mounts on Brooklyn DA over Orthodox sex abuse cases

Victims’ families urge Charles Hynes to release identities of Orthodox sex abusers and allay community fears

• News Republic: NATO summit poses challenge for Chicago police

• Atlantic: The Swiss Appear Largely Relieved as Bachmann Renounces Her Citizenship

•Pro-Publica: Karl Rove Campaign Financing Documents

•Foreign Policy: In Indonesia, social media checks the military

Alternet/Portside: Guardian Eyewitness From Ukraine–Beautiful:

Happy Mothers Day

Comments to dissecor@mediachannel.org

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The Axis Of Indifference: Excerpt from Blogothon, Chase Bets Away $2 Billion, Unions Back Obama Stance

May 11th, 2012 - by: Danny

Posted in the Category: Uncategorized

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TUNE IN: Today at 1 PM: News Dissector Radio, Progressive Radio Network (PRN.fm)
Subject: Police Reform In New York City.

New Book Now From Cosimo Books

Listen: Radio Interview Yesterday on Blogothon

NEWS OF THE DAY

DAILY KOS: Major Unions Back Obama's Support for Marriage Equality

Comment By Sam Smith (Undernews)

Sam Smith - Obama is the sort of guy who offers to split his Swiss cheese with you and then gives you the holes, while he takes the cheese. A case in point is his newly announced position on gay marriages in which he says he supports them but wants to leave it up to the states to decide whether they are legal.

He cited several problems including this:

"Obama, who opposes or would undermine the 10th Amendment on a host of issues, is declaring himself a states rightist on an issue that is clearly the responsibility of the national government: the protection of individual civil liberties. His position, coming on the heels of the North Carolina referendum to add a ban on gay marriages to the state's constitution is almost a precise replica of the position the post civil war confederates took.