Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 14 December 2014


 Daily Headlines
The problem with cops killing goes deep. We have prosecutors who, by protecting cops who kill, betray the public's trust. But we are also facing a deeply pathological cop culture that makes bad cops more dangerous and provides the opposite of support for good cops to stand up and speak out when they say bad cops who should not be police officers.

We know who the torturer-in-chief was, and we know his vice-torturer has said George Bush was as fully informed as he, Dick Cheney, was. Along with everything else we know about these men who still defend their criminality, why isn't that enough for probable cause and a criminal indictment? There's much more to be said about this defining moment in our history.
It's rare on TV when you see two former senior U.S. officials clashing angrily over something as significant as torture. Usually decorum prevails. But ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern wasn't going to let the ex-House intelligence oversight chief get away with a bland defense of torture, as McGovern recounts.

The most disturbing aspect of the Senate Intelligence Report about enhanced interrogation is the lack of reaction to its findings.
The St. Louis Police were offended that some of the Rams showed solidarity with Ferguson protesters. I'm offended, too, but I'm offended at the history of racism in this country and police violence that is a symptom of institutionalized racism.
The horrendous atrocities described in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture should be seen in an historical context, the context of the US colonial wars. These wars are not just any sort of wars; they are designed to enslave people; they are designed to break human spirits with fear and mold them into submission. They are colonial wars of conquest.
Professor L. Randall Wray's summary of the plan Bernie Sanders has set out, along with his comments. Wray goes beyond Sanders already bold plan with an even bolder plan to get Americans jobs, repair infrastructure, provide free education and healthcare, boost unions, create a livable wage for all, promote fair trade not free trade, and finally prosecute fraudulent bankers to the full extent of the law while breaking up the big banks permanently.
By Michael Collins
Ukraine Under Water to IMF
It's all happening as predicted. Ukraine is in a hopeless financial condition, short $15 billion owed to the IMF. It will get worse, so bad that the EU and U.S. will have to ask Russia to bail them out.
By Thomas Farrell
Jung's Successful Vision Quest (REVIEW ESSAY)
A successful vision quest enables a person to find a sense of meaning and direction in life. In the present review essay, I argue that C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist, in effect experienced a successful vision quest as a result of his self-experimentation in his mid-life crisis. But I do not recommend that others follow his example in his self-experimentation.
a brief look back at my experience at the People's climate march in NYC Sept 21, 2014.

Two in 3 Democrats say they think Obama will cooperate a fair amount with Republicans. But fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans say they expect that their leaders will cooperate with Obama. In fact, a big majority of Republicans don't want their leaders to do so. They want them to fight with Obama, even at a cost of getting less done. That foreshadows more chaos and less productivity ahead, leaving Americans to draw the conclusions that the Pew survey highlights, which is that dysfunction (and with it deepening pessimism about the system) is the new normal in American politics.
Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff shares his story of opening the brown box that was given to every guest at Steve Job's memorial service. Watch the video to find out what was inside and how it's lasting message should impact us all, including entrepreneurs...
Good news for Catholic pet owners (and slightly less good news for Catholic meat-eaters, potentially): According to Pope Francis, animals can go to heaven after all.
How are we to celebrate Christmas in this year of extreme income gaps, torture, racism and militarized police?
When Cheney was vice president, his chief M.O. was to spread false information and savage his critics, while avoiding any sustained inquisition. He often did that through intermediaries. But when he needed to take things into his own hands, "Meet the Press" was "best" because, while there might be a tough prepared question or two, then-host Tim Russert could be counted on to follow up obsequiously or not at all, without in any way knocking the veep off his talking points. Cheney is now on a major PR push, leading the critique of the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report, which was released Tuesday.
Ukraine's dictatorship in action

On Meet The Press, former vice president Dick Cheney claimed that he did not need a presidential pardon because he did not commit a crime, but he also threw George W. Bush under the bus by providing evidence that the former president committed war crimes.
Senator Mark Udall has become a fierce critic of the nation's spy and anti-terror apparatus, from the mass collection of telecommunications data to the expansion of drone strikes under the Obama administration. He said he was exploring ways to continue in that role after leaving Congress -- to keep public attention fixed on intelligence operations he sees as in conflict with the nation's character.
The agreement reached by delegates from 196 countries establishes a framework for a climate change accord to be signed by world leaders in Paris next year. While United Nations officials had been scheduled to release the plan on Friday at noon, longstanding divisions between rich and poor countries kept them wrangling through Friday and Saturday nights to early Sunday.
For the past 10 years, Uruguayans have been conducting a left-leaning experiment in economic and social democracy, turning themselves into a Latin American version of Switzerland in the process. Under the leadership of the left-leaning Broad Front party, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that Uruguay has enjoyed annual economic growth of 5.6 percent since 2004, compared to 1.2 percent annual growth over the last five years in Switzerland. The Swiss have decriminalized marijuana and gay marriage. Uruguay has legalized both. Prostitution is legal in both countries, and each provides universal health care. According to the Happy Planet Index, Uruguay has the same low per capita environmental footprint as Switzerland, with a similarly widespread sense of well-being among its people in spite of significantly lower per capita GDP.
Why is Russia buying so much gold? With the US dollar forced upward and gold downward, it makes total business sense to sell gas for inflated dollars and then buy cheap depressed gold; that's what the Chinese call a "win-win." And of course on both counts, the West loses.
Scalia's claim that nothing he knows of in the Constitution would ban torture is so outrageous this fat ignoramous should be driven from his seat on the High Court, writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff
The language permitting banks to use federally insured deposits to gamble in the swaps and derivative markets, was literally drafted by the banks. According to an analysis by the New York Times, 70 of the 85 lines in that section of the bill come directly from Citibank, which spearheaded the lobbying by Wall Street on this issue.
The curriculum being taught to North Carolina students is filled with the Koch brothers' libertarian beliefs and ideologies, and a whole lot of misinformation on US history. A great deal of the curriculum focuses on the libertarian love affair with "limited government."
By David Swanson
We're Not Exceptional, We're Isolated
A core of the U.S. argument for the inevitability of war and injustice is a mysterious substance called "human nature."
By earl ofari hutchinson
The Ezell Ford Autopsy Report Casts another Glare on the Autopsy Debate
The slaying of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Ezell Ford have one other thing in common other than they were unarmed black males slain by police officers and their killings ignited a national furor. Their autopsies have been the subject of intense scrutiny, debate, controversy and disbelief. Prosecutors and family attorneys heatedly dueled over the two Brown autopsies, one official, and one independent that proved

 Latest Articles
Line Items in Legislation are BRIBES
Line Items are bribes. Require all legislation to have one purpose, so "We the People" will know what our politicians are voting for.
Green Party of Philadelphia Approves of Cancellation of PGW Sale
Green Party's Philadelphia City Committee approves of cancellation of sale of Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW).
This article focuses on strategic views about the Republic of Djibouti.

On December 11,the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The recent drop in the price of oil could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20's new "bail-in" rules are formalized, depositors and pensioners could be on the hook.
The Fourth Plenum and the Chinese Labour Movement
The Chinese Communist Party is making adjustments to promote the rule of law and to suppress corruption. This will assist the Chinese labor movement as well.

 Best News Links from the Web
The banking giant Citigroup announced on Friday that it would move its headquarters from New York to the U.S. Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C., in early 2015. Citi's chairman, Michael E. O'Neill, will not occupy a corner office on the House floor, preferring instead an "open plan" that will allow him to mingle freely with members of Congress.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, responding to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's criticism of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill's provision that allows banks to take more risk with taxpayer money, on Friday evening went after Warren and other Democrats who sided against the bill. "If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down " people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place," Graham said on the Senate floor. "Don't follow her lead. She's the problem."
It's necessary to say, up front, that whatever you might know or think about Norman Mailer, or whatever you might assume about the man, his work, his personality or his sociopolitical views, none of that information (or misinformation) applies here. This is a story that bears no markings of what we presume to be Mailer's prose style or point of view. The Executioner's Song is completely something other. Mailer once said that the book was given to him, whole and complete, from God, and it's difficult to argue with that. The Executioner's Song cannot be improved. Mailer did not write a better book, and I'm not sure anyone of his generation wrote a better book.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be a major thorn in Mitch McConnell's side after it was announced that he has been promoted to the position of ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee. The promotion is big for Sen. Sanders, and it also means that he is going to have a high profile seat from which to launch his 2016 challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Sen. Warren on the Shutdown and Why Government Matters - YouTube
Senator Warren spoke on the Senate floor on 10/3/13 about the Republican shutdown and why government matters. View Sen. Warren's full speech here:http://www... [Still, it is critical to get our priorities straight. This rap by Warren, and many others by her, are stellar. But they are little more than nice parties on the Titanic, as it's headed toward the bottom of the ocean. Nice to hear, yes, nice to believe in, yes, but let's look seriously at where our taxes are going and keep in mind that Warren has made up her mind according to all indications--see link in comment below.]
Infertility is a warning: Poor semen quality linked to hypertension, other health problems -- ScienceDaily
A study of more than 9,000 men with fertility problems has revealed a correlation between the number of different defects in a man's semen and the likelihood that the man has other health problems. The study, conducted by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine, also links poor semen quality to a higher chance of having various specific health conditions, such as hypertension, and more generally to skin and endocrine disorders.
Prenatal exposure to common household chemicals linked with substantial drop in child IQ -- ScienceDaily
Children exposed during pregnancy to elevated levels of two common chemicals found in the home -- di-n-butyl phthalate and di-isobutyl phthalate -- had an IQ score, on average, more than six points lower than children exposed at lower levels, according to researchers. The study is the first to report a link between prenatal exposure to phthalates and IQ in school-age children. While avoiding all phthalates in the United States is for now impossible, the researchers recommend that pregnant women take steps to limit exposure by not microwaving food in plastics, avoiding scented products as much as possible, including air fresheners, and dryer sheets, and not using recyclable plastics labeled as 3, 6, or 7.
Scientists estimate total weight of plastic floating in world's oceans: Nearly 269,000 tons of plastic pollution floatin
Nearly 269,000 tons of plastic pollution may be floating in the world's oceans, according to a new study. Microplastic pollution is found in varying concentrations throughout the oceans, but estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics, both micro and macroplastic, lack sufficient data to support them. To better estimate the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans, scientists from six countries contributed data from 24 expeditions collected over a six-year period from 2007-2013 across all five sub-tropical gyres, coastal Australia, Bay of Bengal, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618--all ravaged the remains of Incan culture. Dobyns was the first social scientist to piece together this awful picture, and he naturally rushed his findings into print. Hardly anyone paid attention. But Dobyns was already working on a second, related question: If all those people died, how many had been living there to begin with? Before Columbus, Dobyns calculated, the Western Hemisphere held ninety to 112 million people. Another way of saying this is that in 1491 more people lived in the Americas than in Europe.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 21:24