CREATIVE AIR CONDITIONING FOR YOUR CAR

It's going past 104 here in Bakersfield today. This is for those who might need help when their car's air-conditioner starts acting up ...

- Mark

GEORGE GALLOWAY - WHO CALLED OUT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR STARTING IRAQ WAR ON "A PACK OF LIES" - IS RUNNING FOR MAYOR OF LONDON

Britain's George Galloway, a former member of the House of Commons, is running for mayor of London. Before you yawn and move to another post watch how Galloway handled a U.S. Senate committee hearing in 2005, when he was unjustly accused of profiting from the war in Iraq. It's a real smack down. 

Galloway calls out then Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) on his committee's 'oil-for-food' charges against him, referring to the claims as "The Mother of All Smokescreens." Galloway is calling out Sen. Coleman and his colleagues for going after him in an effort to distract from the fact that the GOP and the Bush administration built their case for war on a "pack of lies."

In an op-ed discussing his run for mayor Galloway promises that "a stream of the very richest ... bankers" will end up "heading for the coast – that’s [the] Cote d’Azure, of course, where most of them have salted away their millions." They'll be leaving because Galloway's chief economic advisor "Max Keiser strikes terror into the hearts of the ‘banksters’ and the cheats whose recklessness, malfeasance and even theft took Britain to the brink of national bankruptcy" in 2008-2009.

If you want to watch the entire Senate hearing with Galloway - and it's worth it - click here (the money quote from this YouTube clip begins at 20:39). 

In all cases, London's race for mayor in 2016 promises to be fun to watch.

- Mark

JOURNALISTS AS 'ENEMY COMBATANTS' ... SO, WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE MILITARY?

The Pentagon has released a 1,1776-page 'law of war' manual that says journalists can be labeled as 'unprivileged belligerents.' This is another way of saying journalists can be named as 'enemy combatants.'

Now compare this with ISIS, which demands that journalists not only "cooperate" in the territories it controls, but that media workers send all reports for pre-approval to its media office. Media workers also have to swear allegiance to ISIS.

So, yeah, in the process of rewriting the rules of war the Pentagon is effectively giving the middle finger to the U.S. Constitution - which clearly states that the freedoms of the 'the press' cannot be abridged. Go ahead, check it out.

Look, if our most basic freedoms are up for interpretation, debate and rewrites by a growing national security state and a military-industrial complex, that seems calibrated to be in a perpetual state of war, we need to ask one simple question: Just what is our military supposed to be protecting?

- Mark

NOTE: The story of former CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson is instructive here. She filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Obama administration's Justice Department, claiming that she was spied on for her reports of the Obama administration's Fast and Furious program. This suggests being targeted by the government can also happen when critical reporting goes beyond the battlefields of war.

FLAG TALK

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- Mark

MID-WEEK READING (June 23, 2015)

U.S. confidence in police at 22-year low (RT).

'F**k U.S. imperialism': Germany's ex-finance minister slams U.S. defense secretary's visit ... calls on Europe to 'oppose U.S. aggression' (RT).

Pope Francis, in sweeping Encyclical, calls for swift action on climate change (NY Times).

Unregulated capitalism is destroying this planet (Truth Out).


LET'S TALK ABOUT GUNS ...
A guide to mass shootings in the America (Mother Jones).

Knee-deep in blood: We are all being held hostage by Wayne LePierre's children (Raw Story).

Guns in America: For every criminal killed in self-defense, 34 innocent people die (Washington Post).

Pope Francis says those in weapons industry can't call themselves Christians (The Guardian).


ALL ABOARD THE HATE TRAIN EXPRESS
NRA board member blames Charleston victim for his own death (Think Progress).

Christian church plans to avoid civil rights laws by pretending receptionists are 'ministers' (Think Progress).

Fox News host blames shootings on 'diverse cultures' living together in America (Raw Story).

Mainstream conservatives sound off on Charleston massacre, citing everything other than White Supremacy (Buzz Flash).


YES, THESE PEOPLE ARE MORONS
Louie Gohmert tells the Supreme Court: Jesus' law more important than constitutional law (Raw Story).

GOP senator John Thune shows America that he's a moron with this one dumb tweet (Raw Story).

Spain has first case of diphtheria in 28 years thanks to anti-vaxxers (IFL Science).


CORPORATE MOOCHES
'Fix the debt' corporations take at least $953 million in taxpayer subsidies (AFL-CIO).

Report finds that Walmart is hiding billions to avoid paying U.S. taxes (Politics USA).


HOW THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD HELPS US ALL
Evaporation-powered engine propels mini cars (IFL Science).

Stone tools indicate when humans started to specialize ... Oh, about 40,000 thousand years ago (IFL Science).

This robot is going to 3D-print a steel bridge (IFL Science).

Explaining the cornerstone of Game Theory: John Nash's Equilibrium (NY Times).

MISCELLANEOUS
The Fed's giant Ponzi scheme (Nation of Change).

Industry lobbies hard to snuff out Obamacare tax on medical devices, with even Democrats joining Republicans in effort (Center for Public Integrity).

The destruction of defendants' rights (The New Yorker).

The Bush family goes for number three, with the help of their banker friends (Truth Out).

- Mark

GUN FACTS, PLUS A LITTLE HUMOR ...

Interesting ... For every criminal killed in self-defense, 34 innocent people are also killed.

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The following from comedian Jim Jefferies, on gun control in the United States (or the lack thereof), is spot on ... and funny.

Kudos to DG for the link to Jefferies.

- Mark 

THE STOCK MARKET vs. SOCIAL SECURITY ... JEB BUSH CAUSES US TO REVISIT THE ISSUE

Most knowledgeable and sentient Americans know that Social Security has been running surpluses, and that the federal government actually owes the the program trillions. 

Then we have Jeb Bush, who apparently didn't get the memo. 

Jeb Bush recently said that we need to raise the retirement age on Social Security in order to "lower the deficit" ... 







What Jeb is actually doing is engaging in the con game of the century. He wants people to believe that Social Security is in trouble so that he can help out his Wall Street friends (again).

Specifically, Jeb wants to start the conversation that Social Security is in trouble so that you and I start thinking that it needs to be "saved" by shoveling the programs resources into the "private sector." Put another way, he and his GOP friends want to take the trillions in Social Security funds and payments and then send them to Wall Street. 

While this option sounds sexy and exciting for many, all it does is create a perpetual source of cash for our bailout dependent Wall Street friends to play with.

What Jeb Bush and his Republican friends want you to ignore - or never learn - is how Social Security actually stacks up against private retirement accounts. Consider this: If you and your spouse contribute $598,000 into social security over a 40 year period and retire at 65 you can expect to collect $556,000 (i.e. if the man lives to 82 and if the women lives to 85). 

Conversely, if a married couple contributes enough into their private retirement account and build a $500,000 retirement nest egg things don't turn out quite so well. They are more than likely to end up with about $350,000 after deducting for "private" administrative and management fees.

For details you can check out my three part series on The Stock Market vs. Social Security here:

Part I: Which pays more ... Stock Market or Social Security? 
Part II: Worst case scenarios ... Stock Market vs. Social Security.
Part III: Social Security Privatization ... Bailout in Perpetuity.

So, thank you Jeb for encouraging me to bring out my Stock Market vs. Social Security series again. 

- Mark

HOW TO EXPLAIN CLIMATE CHANGE TO NON-BELIEVERS

- Mark

FRIDAY HUMOR

If you get this without thinking twice you're probably pretty sharp ...

If you're still not sure, click here. 

- Mark 

MID-WEEK READING (June 18, 2015)

Napoleon Bonaparte reading. The Battle of Waterloo began 200 years ago today.

The Battle of Waterloo, as it happened on June 18, 2015 (The Telegraph).

Because I watched Star Trek in the 1960s, this is pretty cool ... Chinese Tycoon explains why he built his 'Star Trek' headquarters (CNBC).

Monarch butterflies keep disappearing. Here's why (Washington Post).

French collaborators punished with head shaving, 1944 (Rare Historical Photos).


TPP / REGIONAL TRADE PACT TALK
Capitalism and the TPP: A kinder, gentler totalitarianism (Truth Out).

You can't read the TPP, and you can't find out who in Congress has either (The Intercept).

Why does Obama want this trade deal so badly (The New Yorker)?

Why Mexico is winning the auto jobs war ... a post-NAFTA (and pre-TPP?) analysis (Detroit Free Press).


TENSIONS RISE
Elizabeth Warren's rejoinder to Jamie Dimon glistens with truth amid DC blather (Buzz Flash).

Pope Francis blasts climate deniers in leaked draft of Encyclical (Eco Watch).

In A.I.G. case, surprise ruling could end all bailouts (NY Times / DealB%k).

As tensions with U.S. grow, Beijing will stop building artificial islands in South China Sea (NY Times).

REALLY GOOD READS
Kerry Kennedy: Robert F. Kennedy and Cesar Chavez - A friendship for the ages (Monterey Herald). 

Why "politically motivated" science is good science (Tom Dispatch).


CHUCKLE FOR THE DAY
Guy who lives near airport painted "Welcome to Cleveland" on his roof, he lives in Milwaukee (GQ).

Oops, my bad ... Islamic suicide bomber trainer accidentally blows up his entire class (The PCMD Gazette).


THE FUTURE OF WORK ... AND SOCIETY
Augmented Reality: The new face of manufacturing (Ozy).

Robots and Utopia: Silicon Valley's quirkiest CEO (Ozy).

Billionaire CEO says changes in technology will create massive underclass and growing inequality that could spark "envy and hatred" of the wealthy (CNBC).

Seriously? "Rent a Crowd" company admits politicians are using their services (Liberty Chat).

For profit hospitals mark up prices by 1,000 percent because there's nothing to stop them (Center for Public Integrity).

IDIOTS AND FOOLS
Marco Rubio voted for bill forcing rape victims to publish their sexual history (DC Pols).

Pat Robertson to a Mother: "God killed your son because he was going to be the next Hitler" (DC Pols).

Colorado man shoots himself in the foot to see what it feels like (Crooks & Liars).

Jeb Bush: George W. Bush is a top foreign policy advisor (CNN Politics).

Distracted GOP lawmaker 'multitasking' on Facebook accidentally votes to support California budget (Yahoo).


THE CLOWN CAR GETS BIGGER (Oh, it's just Trump)

Donald Trump's presidential candidacy is great entertainment, but it's terrible for politics (Washington Post).

Donald Trump's unspectacular, unending, utterly baffling often-wrong campaign launch (Washington Post).


NATIONAL SECURITY STUFF
CIA torture appears to have broken spy agency rule on human experimentation (The Guardian).

Possible destruction of evidence by the Pentagon in NSA leak investigation (McClatchy DC).


MISCELLANEOUS
The ugly truth behind the Fed's Quantitative Easing (Shah Gilani / Money Morning).

How math is making our highways crumble ... kind of (Ozy).

Mass incarceration: As legislative season ends, where are the broad reforms (Truth Out)?

Famous last words: U.S. Presidents (About Health).

Iowa open-carry gun nut shoots mall worker who filed sexual harassment complaints against him ... and, yeah, he shot her in the back (Raw Story).

- Mark

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO BEGAN 200 YEARS AGO

200 years ago today (June 18, 1815) the Battle of Waterloo, and the demise of Napoleon, began ...

For those unfamiliar with Waterloo know that it's much more than an ABBA song.

In spite of what people saw at the time, Napoleon Bonaparte brought much of the spirit that built democracy in Europe. He would end up changing structures in Europe with his "radical" ideas, though he would not live to see what would happen. When he was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815 it was a good thing. Crowning himself emperor, in the European monarchical tradition, did not help his cause.

While many don't see the connection, Napoleon's defeat would help set the stage for World War I (which began 99 years after Waterloo). This, in turn, would set the stage for World War II, which provides us with the geo-strategic fumes of our lives today.

If you can identify the structural or conceptual similarities with what's happening today you're probably smarter than you think.

- Mark

THE MESS IN GREECE, THROUGH THE YEARS

I usually present these stories with commentary, or in op-ed form. With this issue it's better that this story unfolds without a protracted narrative. Sure, Greece needs to cut back, but the storyline in real time helps to show that financialization on a global level - wealth extraction over wealth creation - dominates the show now. 

Greece is just the canary in the mine ... 

THE MESS IN GREECE
2010: In 2001-02 Goldman Sachs helps Greece mask her true debt with complex 'swap' deals - earning Goldman $300 million in fees - which allows Greece to borrow 1 billion Euros that don't show up as official debt (Der Spiegel).

2010: After arranging shady swap deals Goldman Sachs bought insurance and pursued other trades that protected it from a Greek loan default tied to swaps it arranged (Business Insider).

2010: The Big Picture ... Wall Street helps mask debt fueling Europe's crisis (NY Times).

May 2011: Greece 'cheated' to join Euro, former European Central Bank economist Issing says (Bloomberg). 

June 2011: The pensions aren't driving the bailouts and restructuring ... Vulture funds to profit from a second Greek bailout (The Telegraph).

Oct. 2011: Banks agree to take 50 percent loss on Greek debt (paid by taxpayers) in an effort to resolve Euro crisis centered around Greece (NY Times).

Dec. 2011: Federal Reserve makes hundreds of billions in "swap deals" available to European banks (through the ECB), while trying to avoid the appearance of bailing out the banks (Bloomberg / Mark Martinez).

Feb. 2012: How 'magic' made Greek debt disappear before it joined the Euro (BBC).

Dec. 2012: Alexis Tsipras, then leader of the Greek opposition, called Greece a "debt colony" forced to follow "criminal" policies, suggests post-WWII German debt restructuring option (Al Jazeera).

June 2015: Tsipras attacks Greece's creditors as pressure grows on debts (NY Times).

June 2015: 'It's going to be bad, whatever happens': Greece on edge as Eurozone exist looms (The Guardian).

Commentary: A default doesn't mean Greece being kicked out of the Eurozone. Here's why (The Guardian).

Stay tuned.

- Mark 

EVOLUTION ... WHERE DO YOU STAND (KNEEL)?

According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of all Americans believe that humans have existed pretty much in our current form since the beginning of time (which would be about 6,000 years ago). 

So, yeah, for about one-third of Americans it's like this ...

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- Mark

BAKERSFIELD ... WE'RE #1, FOR THE WRONG REASON (again)

According to the National Journal Bakersfield is #1 again ... when it comes to large cities in the U.S. with the lowest percentage of Latinos with a bachelors degree.

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Towns with worst Latino achievement in bachelors degrees

• 5%	Bakersfield, CA Total population 839,631 Percent of population that is Latino 49% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 5%

• 6%	Visalia, CA Total population 442,179 Percent of population that is Latino 61% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 6%

• 7%	Salinas, CA Total population 415,057 Percent of population that is Latino 55% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 7%

• 7%	Stockton, CA Total population 685,306 Percent of population that is Latino 39% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 7%

• 7%	Modesto, CA Total population 514,453 Percent of population that is Latino 42% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 7%

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As a point of comparison, the cities with the highest percentage of Latinos with Bachelors degrees include Miami and Washington, DC. 

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Towns with best Latino achievement in bachelors degrees

• 26%	Miami, FL Total population 5,564,635 Percent of population that is Latino 42% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 26%

• 23%	Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV Total population 5,582,170 Percent of population that is Latino 14% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 23%

• 20%	Orlando, FL Total population 2,134,411 Percent of population that is Latino 25% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 20%

• 20%	Boston, MA-NH Total population 4,552,402 Percent of population that is Latino 9% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 20%

• 18%	San Francisco, CA Total population 4,335,391 Percent of population that is Latino 22% Percent of Latino population that has bachelors degree 18%

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The study cited by the National Journal evaluated educational attainment among Latinos in the top 150 metropolitan areas that are also home to at least 200,000 Latinos (37 in total).  You can read the National Journal's synopsis of the report, which includes high school graduates, here.

- Mark

WHITE RIOTS vs. BLACK PROTESTS ... WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

With a new NBA champion ready to be crowned the inevitable city riot is around the corner. How will it be characterized? Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films asks the question by juxtaposing "White Riots vs. Black Protests."

Is Greenwald presenting a false equivalency, or is there something here?  You be the judge ...

Salon has an interesting take on the issue here, as does News.Mic here.

 - Mark

THE CONTINUED EROSION OF PAX AMERICANA ... WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA, IN ONE PARAGRAPH

Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA official and author of numerous books on the Muslim world, explains what's wrong with America's imperial dreams in one paragraph. 

The decline of US power abroad cannot be separated from many domestic failings: deadlocked governance, bloated military budgets and their huge opportunity costs, the rise of the military-industrial-security state and its massive cash infusions into Congress; an impoverished political spectrum that begins on the moderate right of center (Obama) and caroms on over into various degrees of crazy right. There is virtually no left of center—indeed the very word “left” borders on the obscene in the American political lexicon. And we have the intellectual isolation and distortion inherent in America’s vision of the rest of the world. A “mainstream” corporate-dominated media that shields the population from distasteful global realities. The belief that America itself represents “reality.” The security-state mentality that promotes paranoia and fear. The belief that the American imperium is ageless, on an eternal mission without bounds, fundamentally benign, and a universal good.

Throw in the fact that most Americans don't recognize any of these issues - choosing instead to believe that throwing our military weight around the world will make us strong again - and we can begin to understand our primary problem. 

Simply put, most Americans are clueless and scared. So they've constructed a make believe world they believe can be controlled militarily by the United States. The military becomes at once our savior and the world's monster.

Ignorance coupled with arrogance has always been the first step toward history's graveyard.

- Mark

THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP IS NOT ABOUT FREE TRADE ... IT'S ABOUT EMPOWERING CORPORATIONS OVER PEOPLE AND STATES

The dirtiest deal you've never heard of ... the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

You can find out how much corporations have paid U.S. senators to fast-track the TPP bill by clicking here.

- Mark

THE PERSONALITIES BEHIND THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP DEBACLE

President Obama seems bent on undermining many of his progressive accomplishments, and even his legacy, by pushing hard for the corporate gift basket known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Robert Reich explains the personal and political connections behind the push for the TPP, and it's centered around former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and lesser known U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman ...

Why has President Obama been willing to spend so much political capital on the Trans Pacific Partnership? I have a guess. It begins with Michael Froman, the United States Trade Representative who’s been in charge of this debacle. Froman went to Harvard Law School with Obama, but that’s not the only important connection. In the Clinton Administration, Froman was chief of staff to Bob Rubin when Rubin was Secretary of the Treasury. Rubin, you may recall, had convinced Clinton to pass NAFTA, kill the Glass-Steagall Act, and not regulate financial derivatives. Immediately after the Clinton Administration, Froman accompanied Rubin to Citigroup, where Rubin ran the bank’s executive committee while Froman became President and Chief Executive Officer of CitiInsurance and head of Emerging Markets Strategy. Froman remained at Citigroup until Obama tapped him to be U.S. Trade Representative. (Froman did well at the bank, receiving more than $7.4 million from January 2008 to 2009 alone.) Not incidentally, Froman was the person who first introduced Obama to Rubin. 

When it comes to understanding influence in Washington, following the people is almost as important as following the money. (Sometimes they're the same thing.)

Long story short? President Obama has been given a pass for standing by while Tim Geithner pushed for and then winked and nodded at the trillion dollar bailouts for our nation's largest financial institutions. Things will be much different if the Republican supported TPP gets pushed through Congress and gets to his desk for his signature. 

And he'll have no one to blame for a tarnished legacy but himself, and the friends who helped him believe that secretive corporate trade agreements actually work for middle class Americans.

- Mark 

THE TRANS-PACIFIC TROJAN HORSE

For a discussion explaining why the TPP is a Trojan Horse here's what I wrote about the TPP back in January of 2014.

- Mark 

FEDERAL RESERVE ... OOPS, OUR BAD, WE MADE THE RICH EVEN RICHER

Via Zero Hedge ... The Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve is admitting that the Federal Reserve has inadvertently made the rich even richer with their continuous money dumps into the market.

The fact that market players, and the Federal Reserve, like to call these money dumps "Quantitative Easing" (QE) doesn't distract from the reality that "QE" is really just market speak for our Bailout in Perpetuity program for Wall Street and the nation's biggest banks.

So let's leave QE aside, and just call it what it really is: A market system so dependent on central planning that it borders on market socialism.

Luckily for us, we'll thank them later (I think).

- Mark

READING FOR THE WEEKEND (June 12, 2015)

Anne Frank was born June 12, 1929. She would have been 86 today. 

Iceland imprisoned its bankers and let the banks go bust: What happened next in 3 easy to read charts is promising (Zero Hedge).

14 reasons why Jamie Dimon "understands the global trading system" ... but no one else does (Zero Hedge).

Elizabeth Warren's response to Dimon's claim that she doesn't understand Wall Street is "perfect" (Think Progress).

Louisiana's in a mess ... they need to raise taxes but can't get their god - Grover Norquist - to relent (TPM).


THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Dems deal Obama huge defeat on trade (Politico).

Democrats rebel to block Obama's trade deals (Huffington Post).

Obama's last minute effort to secure the TPP: "There were a number of us who were insulted by the approach" (Huffington Post).


FROM THE "DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO" DEPARTMENT
George W. Bush charged a homeless shelter $100,000 to speak at its fundraiser (The New Civil Rights Movement).

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, whose career included being a teacher and a U.S. Congressman, makes over $1.7 in payments to conceal child molestation charges (Robert Reich).

Meet 5 GOP chicken hawks who want to send troops abroad - but never served in the military (The Raw Story).

How the ideological arrogance and ignorance of the Bush administration guaranteed Iraq would be left a mess ... "If you are not building a nation, then what the f*%k are you doing?" (Naked Capitalism).


BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS ...
Big Pharma revealed as puppet master behind TPP secrecy (Zero Hedge).

Who really runs your state (Zero Hedge).

Once again, police work is getting safer, not more dangerous ... you are more likely to be murdered living in one of America's largest cities than while working as a police officer (Washington Post).

Surprise, surprise ... Over half of all Americans over 55 have no retirement savings at all (Raw Story).

FROM RIGHT WING CRAZY LAND

California Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield): Drought represents God's wrath over abortion (RH Reality Check / Huffington Post). [And, yes, I live in her district]

Rush Limbaugh is toast in major media markets (Crooks & Liars).

Paul Ryan channels Pelosi: You have to pass ObamaTrade to see what's in ObamaTrade" (Zero Hedge).

And the beat goes on ... Fox priest: The Duggars should remain on TV because they're 'not a bad example' of Christianity (Freak Out Nation).

Idiots: Franklin Graham wants to boycott Wells Fargo: New ad forces lesbian couple 'down our throat' (Raw Story).


THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING
Georgia woman charged with murder for taking abortion pill, could face the death penalty (Slate).

Disney blacklisted displaced American workers after they forced them to train their foreign replacements (Daily Caller).

Republican Nirvana: Congress votes on bill to aid Wall Street banks ... and the Koch brothers (Huffington Post).

Six 'Grannies' detained in Seattle during protests to block Shell oil drilling rig (The Guardian).


MISCELLANEOUS
Debt relief for students who attended worthless 'for-profit' college chain (MSNBC).

Thousands protest brutal police treatment of black teens in McKinney, Texas (Think Progress).

Does Apple, Monsanto, or Exxon "owe" America anything (Movement Rights)?

Cool stuff ... Scientists in Australia show how future events decide what happens in the past (Digital Journal).

- Mark