Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday, 30 August 2014


Daily Headlines
This article explores what I think has become just about a mental illness-- the desire for "more" and the corollary "bigger." This is a disorder that has been stoked and encouraged by the media, even by political leaders. But is it really what we want, and is it at all healthy or normal?

Teachers are lazy, greedy, and overpaid. At least that's what many on the Tea party wing believe. Here's why they're wrong (again)
By Eric Zuesse
More than 50,000 U.S.-backed Troops Are Fighting in Ukraine's Civil War. Why?
Clearly, Obama has been the aggressor; Putin is playing defense in Ukraine, just as JFK did in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the USSR was trying to station nuclear missiles in our backyard.
35% of American Adults Have Debt 'In Collections' - Slashdot
According to a new study by the Urban Institute, 35% of U.S. adults with a credit history (91% of the adult population of the U.S.) have debt "in collections" -- a status generally not acquired until payments are at least 180 days past due. Debt problems seem to be worse in the South, with states hovering in the 40%+ range, while the Northeast has it better, at less than 30%.
Dozens of major GOP donors, Wall Street Republicans, and corporate lobbyists have told Politico that if Jeb Bush decides against running and Chris Christie doesn't recover politically, they'll support Hillary Clinton. "The darkest secret in the big money world of the Republican coastal elite is that the most palatable alternative to a nominee such as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas or Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky would be Clinton," concludes Politico.

Libertarians want to abolish Social Security, screw over working-class Americans, and take all the money that would go towards Social Security and invest it in Wall Street, so that their wallets can get even bigger. There's over $2.5 trillion sitting in the Social Security Trust Fund right now. They don't want to have any responsibility for society. Screw society!
Few consider Washington Times, founded by the Unification Church to fight Communism, a valid news source. Still the paper's "news" this week that Chicago carriers were stopping crime is right out of the Onion
here is no Russian invasion any more than there were WMD, mobile weapons labs, aluminum tubes, Sarin gas, etc. It's all BS concocted by a servile media pursuing the agenda of a warmongering political establishment that wants to escalate the conflagration in east Ukraine at all cost. Even if it leads to a Third World War.
Six Libertarian Ideas That Prove They're Insane
Few movements in the United States today harbor stranger political ideas than the self-proclaimed libertarians. The Rand Paul school of libertarianism is at least as far outside the mainstream on the right as, say, a rather doctrinaire old-school form of Marxism/Leninism is on the left. The difference is this: The mainstream media isn't telling us that we're in the middle of a "Marxist/Leninist moment." Leninist politicians aren't being touted as serious presidential contenders. And all the media chatter we're hearing about a "Libertarian moment" ignores the very harsh, extreme and sometimes downright ugly ideas that are being disseminated under that banner.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign manager resigned Friday amid fallout from a scandal in Iowa involving a presidential campaign he worked for in 2012. Jesse Benton said he didn't want to become a distraction as McConnell tries to win a tough re-election campaign in Kentucky. Benton's resignation, effective Saturday, comes barely two months before Kentucky voters choose between McConnell, a five-term incumbent and the top-ranking Senate Republican, and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
By Suzana Megles
Who Wears Fur Today?
Cleveland Armory, who was truly a defender and champion for animal welfare and concern for suffering animals, would often end his talks with - Why can't we be kind? Much kinder than would be my question - Why are we so cruel?

Plastic bags create a direct threat to wildlife, like the Pacific leatherback sea turtles, that mistake the bags for food. A study of more than 370 leatherback sea turtle autopsies found that one in three had plastic in their stomach, most often a plastic bag.
From the "Victim" of a Pedophile
Personalized blogs with a built-in readership. Whether you write original work or cross-post your previously published work, let us bring the readers to you. [Interesting and thought provoking article on pedophilia, more factual and less emotional than most I've seen. In important topic, particularly when you start to realize the extremely extensive nature of this behavior.]
With salt water as its fuel, which it converts to electricity, it has a top speed of over 200 mph and has now been approved for public road use in Europe.

Humans Have Created A New Top Predator That Is Taking Over The Northeast
U.S. military operations in Iraq, including airstrikes and surveillance flights, have cost about $560 million since mid-June, the Pentagon said Friday. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the average daily cost has been $7.5 million. He said it began at a much lower rate in June and escalated after the airstrikes in northern Iraq began this month.
"The journal American Psychologist has published a special issue on peace psychology. A broad range of articles point out how the science of psychology plays a vital role in the promotion of peace.
a longgggg in depth conversation with Daniel Shaw, author of Traumatic Narcissism; Relational Systems of Subjugation.
On Thursday, the federal government approved Governor Corbett's plan to expand Medicaid in the Keystone State, making it the 27th state in the nation to adopt the controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act. Corbett had initially opposed expanding Medicaid at all, but earlier this year he bowed to mounting political pressure by offering a plan that would expand Medicaid with a number of Republican-friendly conditions, such as a work requirement and the authority to charge premiums for recipients living below the poverty line. Those did not make it into the final deal.

By Sally McMillan
Borders, Borders
The Middle East is in chaos. It's time to fix the mistakes of the past. It's time to find ME, not Western, solutions. Why not let the UN try to fulfill its role to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war?
Mitch McConnell Runs Away From Reporters After Leak Of Secret Speech To the Kochs
In the leaked audio, McConnell admitted that the Kochs run the Republican Party, and that he will be carrying out their agenda if Republicans win the majority in the Senate. The leak of the secret speech combined with McConnell's promise to shut down the government if Obama doesn't do what he wants has led to McConnell literally running away from the media. In an interview eight days ago, McConnell threatened government shutdowns. The backlash caused by his annoucement of his strategy caused him to change his tune during an interview with CNN, "I'm the guy that's gotten us out of the shutdowns that some of our members have pushed us into in the past. That does not mean that you should send the president a total blank check with no restrictions at all on how the money is spent."
By andre vltchek
India is where?
Is India a genuine democracy? The author argues that it is not, in fact India is a nation like the US, no more than a formal democracy in which a plutocracy controls all the shots and the masses count for little or nothing.

Well, this is embarrassing. Senator Harry Reid is an alum of Southern Utah University, and their Outdoor Engagement Center is named after him. Well, it was. His name was removed from the building after people complained. And how unpopular is the Senate Majority Leader? People were offering sizable cash pledges to the school if they removed his name. Ouch.
Ebola hits Senegal with its first patient. Measures to control it are chaotic and largely ineffective. Riots and resistance are common.
Hm, not sure if the Catholic men on the Supreme Court saw this one coming. But you know, unintended consequences and all.
Sen. Rand Paul on Friday defended his criticism of Hillary Clinton over the 2012 attack against a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Kentucky Republican, rebutting claims that Benghazi criticism is "politically motivated," said Clinton's handling of the attack was a legitimate topic of discussion as she considers a presidential bid. Paul said, "I think had Hillary Clinton worked for Bill Clinton, she'd probably have been fired."
Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel will not be allowed to move ahead with a lawsuit challenging Sen. Thad Cochran's victory in a Republican primary runoff.
By Uri Avnery
The War for Nothing
The war deteriorated into an orgy of killing and destroying, with both sides "dancing on the blood," blessing every bomb and missile, completely oblivious to the suffering caused to the human beings on the other side. And still without any realizable aim.
Within hours after the revelation of McConnell promising a room full of millionaires and billionaires that he would block minimum-wage increases, the extension of unemployment benefits and student-loan debt relief, his Democratic challenger was signaling that the senator would be held to account at home.
By molly cruz
Old Bones
To vote for Hillary Clinton, I'd have to abandon a conviction that has evolved over the decades, as I've been around a while. I don't have high hopes for her as Commander in Chief.

 Latest Articles
AtPeace Makita is a single mother of five, a life long resident of Detroit, and the Creative Director of the Detroit Water Brigade. She wants you to know that the push for the privatization of the water supply in Detroit could be coming to an area near you soon.

Before we go off launching a new Cold War, or worse, a hot one, accusing Russia of aggression in Ukraine, consider the US history of military action in its own 'backyard' in the Caribbean and Central and South America -- and its role in ousting Ukraine's elected government and ask who's the real aggressor here?
With the U.S. tax code now permitting companies to use brazen tax avoidance schemes in true tax havens, the real question is more fundamental than what the proper corporate tax rate should be. Instead, the question is now whether corporations should have to pay any taxes on their profits at all?
The US-EU puppet regime installed in Kiev, Ukraine attacked its own citizens in the eastern Ukraine. They fought back. Now, the Kiev government is in free fall. Troop desertions, anti-draft protests, and a dead economy spell the end of this chapter of the Empire Project.
Few movements in the United States today harbor stranger political ideas than the self-proclaimed libertarians. The Rand Paul school of libertarianism is at least as far outside the mainstream on the right as, say, a rather doctrinaire old-school form of Marxism/Leninism is on the left.

 Best News Links from the Web
Police in Westchester and Secret Service were investigating a report of a "potentially suspicious person and vehicle" near where President Obama visited Friday for a set of fundraising events, authorities say. An official with the Secret Service told NBC News the agency was working with local police to determine the validity of the report. The official did not elaborate on why the person and vehicle were considered suspicious.

Leaving aside for a moment the slaughter of thousands of civilians, the other tiny little thing we might notice, as the people of Detroit are being deprived of water, is that all of this deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure and neighborhoods at Israel's whim is only possible because Israel knows that the United States of America will pay for the destruction and (along with Europe) for the rebuilding
After three years as a special correspondent at NBC News, Chelsea Clinton is parting ways with the peacock. The former first daughter announced Friday she would be leaving her role at the network to "continue focusing on my work at the Clinton Foundation and as Marc [Mezvinsky] and I look forward to welcoming our first child."
U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Estonia and attend a NATO summit in Wales next week to send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his incursion into Ukraine must be reversed and to keep his hands off the Baltic nations. "Russia, don't even think about messing around in Estonia or in any of the Baltic areas in the same way that you have been messing around in Ukraine," Charles Kupchan, the senior White House director for European affairs, said on Friday in laying out Obama's mission. The NATO summit will put Obama in the same room with many European leaders who have joined with him in imposing economic sanctions on Moscow for its move into Ukraine and he has said Washington is considering stiffening those sanctions.
Undersea tunnels and high speed rail will bring people and freight to mostly 8 hours trips or less from Beijing within China. China proves once again that they know the difference between true wealth, and money. They will spend whatever it takes to bring their country up to modern, and better, standards, knowing that these investments pay off in multiples of money spent. The U.S. is already behind and is falling even further behind.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 21:00