Open Thread 07-16-15

Good morning 99percenters!
Morning news dump and music by Martha and the Vandellas.

Prime Minister Tsipras’ Bailout Reform Package: An Act of Treason against the Greek People

After having launched a Referendum to refute and refuse the debt bailout agreement put together by the Troika, Prime Minister Tsipras together with his newly instated Finance Minister, comes up four days latter with an austerity package broadly similar to the one which was turned down by the Greek government in June.

This about-turn had been carefully engineered. The Greek people were misled and deceived. The Referendum was an outright ”ritual of democracy”.

Tsipras had made a deal with the creditors. He was in favor of accepting the demands of the creditors all along.

Tsipras led the “NO” campaign while having already decided that in the wake of the Referendum, he would say YES to the creditors and cave in to their demands. This is tantamount to an Act of Treason.

Beat the dog before the lion: Varoufakis accuses Schauble of sacrificing Greece

Freshly out of the Greek Finance Minister’s chair, Yanis Varoufakis has declared that his German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble wants to punish Greece – sacrificing it to reform the monetary union.

In his article forDie Zeit, Varoufakis said that the goal of the German finance minister is to "discipline member states who opposed his very special plan to reform the eurozone by sharpening the social crisis in a controlled way.” Grexit proposed by Schäuble is therefore only a tool.

One of the final aims of Schäuble is, according to Varoufakis, to supervise budget policy of the eurozone member states with a special structure which will be able to impose a veto on national budgets.

The Greek ex-finance minister wrote that Schäuble and other hardliners had told him at his first meeting of eurozone finance ministers that "elections change nothing."

Entering the Age of Nuclear Terror

Seventy years ago, on July 16, 1945, an assortment of scientists, including refugees who had fled European fascism, succeeded in exploding the first experimental atomic bomb in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The site of the detonation of this plutonium bomb was to become blasphemously known as the Trinity Site after Trinity, the code name for the experiment. Trinity was the final stage of the U.S. Army’s top secret Manhattan Project to develop atomic bombs with the intent to use them against military targets in Nazi Germany. That is, until Germany surrendered before any of the bombs were ready to launch.

Then mission creep entered the picture and a scramble for other targets ensued. Despite the certainty that Japan was trying to find a way to surrender with honor, the U.S. military started looking for Japanese targets. The Trinity test bomb was essentially identical to the one that would destroy Nagasaki a few weeks later on Aug. 9.

Motivating factors for not just mothballing the massively expensive project included 1) the huge secret costs that would be difficult to explain to Congress if the bomb hadn’t been used, 2) the momentum that had been built up was impossible to stop, 3) the unquenchable desire to achieve retribution against Japan for its ambush at Pearl Harbor (killing 2,500 soldiers), and 4) the need to demonstrate to the Soviet Union that the United States had “the bomb” and to warn Stalin to stay away from the spoils of the already defeated Japan.

Obama Administration Finds New Way to Let Criminal Banks Avoid Consequences

Three top Democrats are accusing the Department of Housing and Urban Development of quietly removing a key clause in its requirements for taxpayer-guaranteed mortgage insurance in order to spare two banks recently convicted of federal crimes from being frozen out of the lucrative market.

HUD’s action is the latest in a series of steps by federal agencies to eliminate real-world consequences for serial financial felons, even as the Obama administration has touted its efforts to hold banks accountable.

In this sense, the guilty plea has become as meaningless to banks as their other ways of resolving criminal charges: out-of-court settlements, or deferred prosecution agreements. “Too Big to Fail” has morphed into “Too Big to Jail” — and then again, into “Bank Lives Matter.”

Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Maxine Waters fired off a letter to HUD on Tuesday, saying they believe that the timing of the change was designed to clear the way for two banks recently convicted of federal crimes — JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup — to continue to make Federal Housing Administration-insured loans. Last year, JPMorgan Chase wrote $1.67 billion in FHA loans, and Citi wrote $342 million, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.

With Zero Accountability, Big Oil Wringing Profit from Developing Countries
The $1.55 trillion in 'lost' oil revenues represents five times the existing funding gap for 42 of the world's poorest countries in both education and health, says Oxfam America

Thanks to "foot dragging by the Securities and Exchange Commission" combined with "aggressive lobbying and legal challenges by oil industry laggards," a U.S. law meant to increase transparency around fossil fuel operations in developing countries has been stalled for nearly five years, charges a new report from Oxfam America.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act sought to help citizens "follow the money" by including the groundbreaking provision known as the Cardin-Lugar provision, or Section 1504, that would require all oil, gas, and mining companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose payments made to governments around the world for each project.

Such payments include taxes, royalties, fees, production entitlements, bonuses, dividends, and payments for infrastructure improvements.

As Oxfam's report, Show Us the Money! (pdf), points out, "more than 663 million people in developing countries live in absolute poverty. And they have a right to know: how much do their governments receive for each project and where does the money go?"

Mass Extinction: It's the End of the World as We Know It
The idea of possible human extinction is now beginning to occasionally find its way into mainstream consciousness.

Guy McPherson is a professor emeritus of evolutionary biology, natural resources and ecology at the University of Arizona, and has been a climate change expert for 30 years. He has also become a controversial figure, due to the fact that he does not shy away from talking about the possibility of near-term human extinction.

While McPherson's perspective might sound like the stuff of science fiction, there is historical precedent for his predictions. Fifty-five million years ago, a 5-degree Celsius rise in average global temperatures seems to have occurred in just 13 years, according to a study published in the October 2013 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A report in the August 2013 issue of Science revealed that in the near term, earth's climate will change 10 times faster than during any other moment in the last 65 million years.

McPherson fears that we are well along in the process of causing our own extinction.

Prior to that, the Permian mass extinction that occurred 250 million years ago, also known as the "Great Dying," was triggered by a massive lava flow in an area of Siberia that led to an increase in global temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius. That, in turn, caused the melting of frozen methane deposits under the seas. Released into the atmosphere, those gases caused temperatures to skyrocket further. All of this occurred over a period of approximately 80,000 years. The change in climate is thought to be the key to what caused the extinction of most species on the planet. In that extinction episode, it is estimated that 95 percent of all species were wiped out.

Today's current scientific and observable evidence strongly suggests we are in the midst of the same process - only this time it is anthropogenic, and happening exponentially faster than even the Permian mass extinction did.

Martha & the Vandellas - Heatwave

Dancing In The Street - Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run

Martha and The Vandellas - Jimmy Mack

Martha and The Vandellas - Quicksand

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Sorry I haven't been around much the last few days, I've been working long hours and early to bed, gotta' make hay while the making's good.

We're planning a revamp of this site for this fall/winter when I have some spare time. Maybe change things up quite a bit, any suggestions as to what you'd like to see and what direction you'd like the site to take?

I'll try to pop in today but can't guarantee anything, have a good one!

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hecate's picture

As long as you're revamping the site, why don't you configure it to move through space and time?

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is an illuminating look at the people who produced Trinity. Stallion Gate is an interesting fictional treatment.

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It's funny you brought that up, I've worked out the code for folding space/time forward and backward, but have yet to figure out how to return to the present once one has been folded, you know like the Baby Traveler in 2001 A Space Odyssey. Once I've debugged it I'll include a link somewhere on the front page.

It's all a dream
Light passing by on the screen
And there's you and I on the beam
Speeding through the universe
Thinking is the best way to travel

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hecate's picture

you've encountered the same problem as the Time Tunnel guys, who could bounce from hither to yon, but couldn't return to where and when they began. Maybe to do that you need a monolith, like the Star Child used in 2001. Probably there are a couple monoliths on Pluto.

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mimi's picture

I am "closed" for business. Strange things happen. And words fail.

Here just an article to distract you from current news. Normandy Secrets: Forgotten Nazi Arms Caches a Bonanza for Historians

I am told to look into the future and not look back. Haven't decided yet if I can do any of the options. Right now I am closing my eyes.

I like this site and whatever you change I am open for anything. The only thing I miss is somewhere to look up under your own comments list, if and how many answers they got. I don't see that on my comment list. If someone answers me and I didn't catch it when it happened, I like to have an easier way to find out about it later and read the response to be able to respond to the response as well.

One thing I would really find useful, if direct links to the alternative media sites that most often are posted in the EB. Something that makes navigating the source sites more convenient. Something to make it like a hub to use to go to alternate places. What do you think? Too much, too difficult, me just a lazy butt, who wants everything served on a silver platter?

And I want a donation button.

Have all a very good day and feel loved for what you are doing here. I at least love you all for it.
Give rose

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The only thing I miss is somewhere to look up under your own comments list, if and how many answers they got. I don't see that on my comment list. If someone answers me and I didn't catch it when it happened, I like to have an easier way to find out about it later and read the response to be able to respond to the response as well.

That is the Holy Grail that has eluded me since the inception of this site. Drupal is on the verge of a major update from version 7 (what he have now) to version 8. Hopefully v.8 will include this feature and hopefully v.8 will be released by this winter.

And I want a donation button.

That will be included this fall when we will need to renew the server fees.

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smiley7's picture

It is a busy time. Thought you might have gone fishing for a few days, good to see you and understand making hay. Continued thanks for you labour of love here.
Love the Moody Blues.

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lovely to see you again, my friend.

I wish I had time to go fishing. It's started raining here a few minutes ago, again, and looks like it might rain for the rest of the day, so I'm able to pop in for a while.

Peace, my brother.

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link

People who borrowed money for education before the financial crisis are taking longer than forecast to repay their debt, thanks in part to relief programs. That’s creating a risk for holders of securities created by bundling the loans -- which are government guaranteed -- because the bonds may not be retired by maturity.

As a result, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings are considering cutting their rankings on almost $40 billion of securities, possibly dropping top-rated debt to junk status. The potential downgrades threaten to unleash an unusual situation where fundamentally sound bonds with minuscule coupons that reflect their low default risk would need to find new buyers, potentially crushing their prices.

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gulfgal98's picture

a while back, the student loan debt bubble was predicted to burst. This is what happens when something that should have been helpful to students if the loans had been at reasonable rates and subject to renegotiation. But instead they were commoditized and used to create debt servitude for those who took out the loans. The freaking banks own this country and everyone in it. When the bubble bursts, guess who will be bailed out?

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

MarilynW's picture

We are in the accelerated 6th Extinction, the signs are everywhere. It's sad that we have to bring down so many non-humans with us, the animals that did nothing to deserve this fate. Former extinctions took place over eons but we are seeing so much decline in our own lifetimes.

I'm looking for "good news stories" on how we are coping with climate change and maybe slowing down the 6th Extinction. I was going to try a story every week day but I'm changing that to twice a week.

Thank you for the post.

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To thine own self be true.

Thank you very much for bringing your work here for us, we greatly appreciate it.

Yes, the signs are everywhere. I live in a rural area and certainly see them, the lack of insects, the songbirds are diminishing, and fewer and fewer mammals, especially predators. You are right, the warnings have been rung, it's now time for some answers. Thank you.

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File this under Captain Obvious

Retired Army Gen. Mike Flynn, a top intelligence official in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, says in a forthcoming interview on Al Jazeera English that the drone war is creating more terrorists than it is killing. He also asserts that the U.S. invasion of Iraq helped create the Islamic State and that U.S. soldiers involved in torturing detainees need to be held legally accountable for their actions.
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