Government Corruption

Anatomy of the Deep State

March 5, 2014
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Many years ago Bill Moyers made a documentary on the Secret Government in the US, a scathing critique of the Executive Branch of that carries out secretive operations contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. In the video interview below, Moyers presents an updated version of this same phenomenon, called “the Deep State.” It’s a fascinating interview with government insider Mike Lofrgren, who has also written this related article for the Bill Moyers program. Here is the original Bill Moyers documentary on the Secret Government:

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Propaganda (documentary)

July 6, 2013
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The film “Propaganda” purports to be a film smuggled out of North Korea. The narrator claims that she was approached, while on holiday in South Korea, by two alleged North Korean defectors, who presented her with a DVD originating from North Korea, asking her to translate it and upload it to the internet. The film features a surprisingly accurate analysis of contemporary western media and society. It features quotes from many well-respected intellectuals and manages to connect the dots in a very clear fashion. It does not falsify information or statistics or take any text, audio, or video material out of…

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Another hero

June 10, 2013
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A recently created Wikipedia entry on Edward Snowden read as follows: Edward Joseph Snowden (born 1984) is an American technical contractor, a former CIA employee, and a traitor. Snowden released classified material on ­top-secret United States National Security Agency (NSA) programs including the PRISM surveillance program to The Guardian and The Washington Post in June 2013. PRISM is a top-secret government surveillance program, in operation since 2007, that enables the NSA to access the servers of nine major Internet companies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo! and Facebook, to collect data on the emails, documents, audio and video chats, photographs, and connection logs of not only Americans but also billions of people around the world…

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Wealth inequality in America

April 24, 2013
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The following short video recently went viral and received more than 5.5 million views on YouTube. Using accurate and easy to comprehend graphs, it showcases the full scope of U.S. income inequality. The video is mostly based on a paper written and published by Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely, titled “Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time.” It also references other data provided by a number of mainstream and progressive websites such as CNN, Motherjones and ThinkProgress. The video is receiving interesting responses from conservative and neo-liberals, who either challenge the accuracy of the video or attempt…

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More on economic inequality and the Occupy Movement

May 18, 2012
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Among mainstream or major media organizations Al Jazeera deserves credit for its attention to the issue of economic inequality. One recent opinion piece by Noam Chomsky (Plutonomy and the precariat: On the history of the US economy in decline) provides a concise overview of the causes of the growing economic inequality in the US and the disastrous consequences it is bringing about. (For more on how inequality is at the root most social evils, see this powerful lecture by Richard Wilkinson). Additionally, Chomsky’s article helps to explain just why the Occupy Movement  is so important, really one of the most…

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Video: The Story of Broke

February 16, 2012
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Annie Leonard has done it again. The Story of Broke is a nice follow-up video to her massive hit the Story of Stuff. It focuses on the economic choices that sustain the dinosaur economy and the political choices people have to create a sustainable future. She has a real talent for taking a complex issue, boiling it down to its essentials, and presenting it in a lively and entertaining fashion. You can watch the Story of Broke either on her website or here.  

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How profitable is lobbying?

January 15, 2012
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With a number like 25.8 lobbyists per member of Congress (totaling 11,140 in Washington alone), lobbying has become a serious business. The  idea is to get regulations gutted or a tax loopholes and exceptions created to spare corporations of inconvenient profit losses. But getting those laws changed can be fairly expensive. And if so, how much money does a corporation get back from investing in a good lobbyist? Fortunately there is a study conducted by Raquel Alexander, Susan Scholz and Stephen Mazza entitled “Measuring Rates of Return for Lobbying Expenditures: An Empirical Analysis under the American Jobs Creation Act” that provides some hard fact answers…

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Mitt Romney and lobbyists

January 14, 2012
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When criticized about the truthfulness of his statements of “not having lobbyists run his campaign” Mitt Romney reacted angrily and attacked the “unprofessional acting” of journalist Glen Johnson. Romney tried to defend his statements by turning to semantics as the actual fact that there is a large number of lobbyists involved and connected to his campaign is not in question. However, since they are not paid Romney feels justified to state they are not running the campaign. Moreover Romney’s facial expression, intonation, and body language seems to change from the friendly family business owner with game show host charm to a threatening…

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U.S. Congress and insider trading

December 8, 2011
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Apparently there is a loophole in U.S. legislation that excludes Congress members from laws against insider-trading. According to an article published by the Business Insider many Congress members are guilty of abusing this loophole, including John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Jim Moran, and especially Spencer Bachus. Some quotes: According to a new book called Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, as relayed by Dave Weigel at Slate, Rep. Bachus made more than 40 trades in his personal account in the summer and fall of 2008, in the early months of the financial crisis. The fact that Bachus personally traded on private…

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