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News, news, everywhere news…
• Income inequality is implicitly tied to political power; that’s why it’s such a signature issue in American life.
• Tax expenditures, the hidden subsidies in the federal budget ferried in through the tax code, now total over $1 trillion a year. Incidentally, Senate Democrats proposed more today with a small business tax expenditure.
• The Trayvon Martin case and the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law associated with it can be tied back to ALEC, the corporate front group that basically writes all conservative legislation in the states.
• Elizabeth Kolbert dares to speak the unspoken, mention that the gas tax should probably go up.
• No homeowner cares about the OCC foreclosure reviews because none of them believe it will lead to anything of consequence. And then OCC will tout this as proof that the banks did nothing wrong.
• Richard Cordray claims that the CFPB has “active investigations” going on at the major banks. I’d like to know about that!
• The US and Turkey have discussed sending non-lethal aid, like communications equipment, to the Syrian rebel forces.
• The bank bailouts, continued. And ongoing. For example, their victory over the Volcker rule, enabling risky proprietary bets and privatized profits (with socialized risk).
• On the other hand, we may see a breakup of Ally Bank very soon.
• The catnip of the day came from this hot mic quote where Obama told outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he would have “more flexibility” on missile defense after the election. In order for this to be sinister, you have to extrapolate it to something other than missile defense.
• An African leader actually concedes defeat in an election, a real rarity on the continent and a sign of mature leadership. The President termed it an example of good governance.
• Businesses, at least recognize how devastating postal service cuts will ripple through the economy. It’s time to go back to my idea for a public option for simple banking.
• So now we’re going to look into irrelevant moments of Trayvon Martin’s life to smear him after his death? What does this have to do with him being shot while unarmed and holding a packet of Skittles and an iced tea? Next thing you know friends of George Zimmerman will start saying that he lost his life too… oh wait.
• David Cameron is not only destroying his country economically, he’s also a classic corrupt politician to boot.
• Yet another housing metric goes down on a month-over-month basis. “Up year-over-year” doesn’t nullify that.
• Pretty serious charges that Republican member of the NLRB Terrence Flynn leaked information about their work to allies, including Romney labor advisor Peter Schaumber. The AFL-CIO wants both Flynn and Schaumber to step down.
• Ryan Lizza posts the memo that led Barack Obama, originally an individual mandate opponent, to change his mind. Romneycare is mentioned prominently.
• Laura Richardson is a terrible boss and an embarrassment of a member of Congress who will hopefully be gone by the end of the year.
• Newspaper reporters in Wisconsin are being pilloried for signing the petitions to recall Scott Walker.
• The Tea Party Movement must really be dead, they held a rally over the weekend against Obamacare, and the athiest rally got more attention.
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn just got his way out of the rape charges in New York, and now he’s looking at prostitution ring charges in France.
• Digby on Mad Men, feminism and the return of the war on women.
• A really sickening story in California, with an Iraqi Muslim beaten to death in a hate crime.
• Seriously, Herman Cain? Not for catapulting the rabbit, but for using that “this is your brain on drugs, any questions” model, 20 years too late?
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About FDL News Desk
Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
“At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives . . .
“The truth is that male religious leaders have had — and still have — an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.”
LINK.
US rebuffs call to wrap up its drone war
“The Obama administration considers the CIA-led drone campaign in the tribal areas of Pakistan as a vital tool to dismantle the ability of al Qaeda and its affiliates to target US interests.
. . .
“US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein believes that the drone campaign is needed due to an absent aggressive effort by Pakistan to root out terrorists and radical militants.” [with which the Pakistani foreign ministry disagreed]
LINK.
Big Oil in the news.
1) Brazil is not messin’ around:
Chevron & Transocean Back in the Dock Over Oil Spills
“Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports while they await the outcome of criminal charges brought against them for a spill that took place off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last November. The company has also been sued for $11 billion in damages by a Brazilian federal prosecutor.”
LINK.
2) And do you remember the disaster at Dobo? Well, it looks like Shell might, someday, be made to pay for it:
Shell Sued in U.K. Over ’Massive’ 2008 Nigerian Oil Spills LINK.
Julian Assange is running for the Senate in Australia.
One myth down. So many more to go.
Higher state taxes on the rich won’t drive them out: study LINK.
Oh, my.
White House offers to curtail drones
“In a bid to save the CIA’s drone campaign against al-Qaida in Pakistan, US officials offered key concessions to Pakistan’s spy chief that included advance notice and limits on the types of targets. But the offers were flatly rejected, leaving US-Pakistani relations strained as President Barack Obama prepares to meet Tuesday with Pakistan’s prime minister.”
LINK.
Have you noticed that O’s tone of voice has gotten shrill & hectoring, just like Hillary’s? Neither can understand why the rest of the world doesn’t just, ya know, like, DO what the U.S. tells them to do.
I’m not a bit surprised. His chief of staff called us “retarded,” and his press spokesman said we needed to be drug-tested. Both men reported to him.
Other nations are beginning to realize that the U.S. is fraught with contradictions, hypocrisy and duplicity unable of reform itself, if they even wanted to.
It’s my understanding a Senatorial slot there would qualify Assange for a diplomatic passport. Excellent idea!I
Maybe he’s figured out that being President is just a pain in the ass.
That’s been my impression all along. He hid out for 3 years, had a sour look on the rare occasions when he appeared in public, and only perked up when he went back into campaign mode. That adoring crowd thing.
Gosh, to paraphrase W, it’s HARD work doing what your masters tell you to do.
I’m watching that carefully. It’s not the other ‘nations,’ where the U.S. is despised on the ‘street,’ but the other nations’ leaders, who have to decide how much to cave into the U.S. (and what have they been personally promised, not that the U.S. would honor any of those promises anyhow, but one must ask) in light of how much they U.S. is hated by their populations.
I was thinking, if Trayvon legally could own a gun, and if he was being chased by a hostile person, then the state wouldn’t have any case if Trayvon shot Zimmerman in defence.
This is why that ‘stand your ground’ just needs to be repealed. If it isn’t, and if Zimmerman doesn’t get punished in any real way, than everyone should buy guns in Florida. Basically, that’s jow I interpret the law. How could anyone risk being armless, where a misunderstanding will get you killed? Kill or be killed, there is no other rationality in the face of misunderstandings in Florida.
And here’s the latest from Latin America, despite BIden’s and Napolitano’s counsel:
Guatemala’s president urges debate on drug legalisation
“[President Perez Molina] has argued that the price Central America pays in human lives for the war on drugs is too high.”
LINK.
Along those lines, I would think that Zimmerman would face self-imposed incarceration in his own home. Showing his face on the street could present those who fear his (Zimmerman’s) shoot first, ask questions later mindset with real fear for their lives, ergo, shoot first!
Righto. That’s one to watch too. I don’t know anything about Guatemala but imagine that Molina’s been offered plenty by U.S. PIC and gun mfgrs, etc., but the unpopularity of the drug wars puts some constraint on how much he can personally sell out.
Of course, there is always a U.S. coup to deal with those who try to thwart U.S. will.