(RollingStone) – This note comes courtesy of my friend David Sirota out in Colorado. This is a classic example of how the Senate works. If the public understood better how rigged this game is, and how few issues are actually left to an honest vote in the legislature, I’m pretty sure the pitchfork factor would be twice even what it is now.

The short version of this story: Bernie Sanders had put forth a proposal in the Senate to put a 15 percent cap on credit-card interest. Who isn’t in favor of this kind of legislation? The only difference between credit card companies and loan sharks at this point is that you can choose to not patronize a loan shark. As an adult professional in this country one has to have a credit card – it’s impossible to rent a car, buy a hotel room, shop online or do countless other things without one.

But all the credit card companies use the same insane formulae based on FICO scores to charge exorbitant interest rates for anyone who slips up – and they don’t exactly make it easy to not slip up. (I’m doing research on this subject so anyone who has a particularly egregious story about being ripped off by credit card companies, please write in). Almost everyone has horror stories about consumer credit and my guess is that if put to a national referendum, something like the Sanders 15% cap would pass pretty easily. Read the rest of this entry »

(RussiaToday) – This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals of Brown’s Bottom, the worst economic judgment of all time and Bono’s private equity, “the worst investor in America.” Max chats to Brits in Trafalgar Square and also talks to Mark Schapiro, author of the Harper’s article, “Conning the Climate: Inside the Carbon Trading Shell Game”. Read the rest of this entry »

(JPost) – Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran ‘US Determined to Prevent Nuclear Iran’

US Vice President Joe Biden expressed America’s “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’ security” at a press conference in Jerusalem following a meeting with Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu Monday morning. Read More Here

(BBC) – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks US for Afghan ‘double game’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the US of playing a “double game” in Afghanistan after the US used the same term to condemn Iran’s role. Read More Here

(AP) – China warns US against selling F-16s to Taiwan

China on Tuesday warned the United States against any future arms sales to Taiwan, including F-16 fighter jets the island has been pushing for in hopes of upgrading its air defense capabilities. Read More Here

(RiaNov) – Russia seeks to buy 1,000 Italian armored vehicles – report

Russia is in talks with Italy on the purchase of up to 1,000 armored vehicles, an Italian news agency reported on Tuesday. Read More Here

(AlalamNews) – Brazil warns against Iran sanctions

The Brazilian president has raised alarms over imposing further sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, warning any punitive measure could spark a conflict. Read More Here

Video: China is being threatened by the United States says Michel Chossudovsky

United States-China relations are on the rocks recently, China says that they have been seriously disrupted. Essentially, China feels that it is being threatened by the United States and this has been mounting since 1999. The threats are coming in the form of diplomacy, however Michel Chossudovsky says that the United States also has missiles pointed at Chinese cities. Video Link Here

(JTA) – AIPAC calls for swift action to block U.S. companies supporting Iran

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is calling on the U.S. Congress to take several immediate steps in response to a New York Times report revealing that the federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in grants, contracts and other benefits to foreign and multinational U.S. companies conducting business in Iran. Read More Here

(PoliticalTheatrics) – Barak on Iran: We Must Keep Finger On Trigger,4-8 Weeks Left For Diplomacy

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak addressed the Iranian nuclear threat and said, “The State of Israel is the strongest country in the region. However, we must recognize opportunities and not be confused by challenges.” Read More Here

(TimesOnline) – Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire

The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire. Read More Here

(KurtNimmo) – CNN rolled out a slick propaganda presentation this evening. It is called “Cyber Shockwave” and it posits a cyber attack on the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

(ConspiringTimes) – A U.S. Military research team recently built a supercomputer with over 2,000 PlayStation 3 game consoles. The 500 TeraFLOPS Heterogeneous Cluster is almost 100,000 times faster than any high-end processors in existence today.

This is an insanely powerful and fast computer for those of you that are computer illiterate. Read the rest of this entry »

All Economics is based on the false premise that “interest fights inflation” when the truth is that “interest causes inflation.” Almost everyday in every financial story of every newspaper and radio or television program, it is repeated over and over the interest fights inflation. They all agree that interest causes unemployment but all have been conditioned to believe that it is necessary to fight inflation. “Inflation is coming so we’ll have to raise interest rates” is hypnotically chanted like a mantra. Read the rest of this entry »

(PaulCraigRoberts) – There’s no word in the Western press, but Al Jazeera reports that the US and Israel are conducting tests of the high altitude missile defense system that the US has provided to Israel. Read the rest of this entry »

“A new online computer game attempts to capitalize on the current strain of right-wing paranoia and activism, embodied by Glenn Beck’s televised blustering and the Tea Party protests, by allowing players to inhabit a world of the near-future that represents a conservative nightmare,” writes Eric Sorensen for The Huffington Post. Read the rest of this entry »

Registered Nurse working in Nashville, Tennessee, is genuinely concerned that the Swine Flu Vaccine is toxic and may cause many health complications. Read the rest of this entry »

September 5th, 2009 Read the rest of this entry »

Hats off to Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times for ferreting out what it was that sent CIA Director Leon Panetta scurrying over to Congress in late June. Read the rest of this entry »

(if any links do not open, copy paste them into your internet browser’s address window and click enter) Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a slick propaganda tool aimed at the kids — “The Great Flu,” an online game sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the folks who have started testing their pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine on hapless and dim-witted human guinea pigs. Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – A new report by University of California, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez concludes that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression. Read the rest of this entry »

One has to wonder why people never learn from the lessons of history. Why is it that the rulers and enforcers of laws turn a blind eye to the atrociousness and retributions leveled upon them from days past, justified by the brutality of power madness currently sweeping the landscape? Read the rest of this entry »

Signing statements eliminate congress. Not that congress objects. Asking congress to reclaim its power produces nervous giggles. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 22-23, 2001, just under 3 months before 9/11, the U.S. military held a senior-level war game at Andrews Air Force Base called Dark Winter. The scenario of this bio-terrorism drill was designed to simulate a smallpox attack in three states in which one of these states would be Pennsylvania. Read the rest of this entry »

Game theory tells us that a risk neutral gambler would pay $50 dollars for a coin flip that paid $0 for Heads and $100 for Tails. Game theorists would call $50 the value of the bet.

Suppose someone is willing to fund your gambling problem, and lend you $80 at zero interest. Better still, if you lose the bet you don’t have to pay him back. Under that scenario, the same gambler would pay $90 for the bet, giving him an even chance of winning or losing $10. Read the rest of this entry »

Game theory tells us that a risk neutral gambler would pay $50 dollars for a coin flip that paid $0 for Heads and $100 for Tails. Game theorists would call $50 the value of the bet.

Suppose someone is willing to fund your gambling problem, and lend you $80 at zero interest. Better still, if you lose the bet you don’t have to pay him back. Under that scenario, the same gambler would pay $90 for the bet, giving him an even chance of winning or losing $10. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

The wealth of plain, hard facts upon which The Trends Research Institute’s forecasts are based belie the lofty promises made by President Obama’s first address to Congress. Read the rest of this entry »

The wealth of plain, hard facts upon which The Trends Research Institute’s forecasts are based belie the lofty promises made by President Obama’s first address to Congress. Read the rest of this entry »