Stonehenge Was Ancient Graveyard, Researchers Say (VIDEO)

Please. Must I do everything? Look at the layout. Stonehenge was a barbecue ringed with urinals. Come on.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dow Jones Hits 'Record High' Thanks To Strong Performances From Smoke, Mirrors Sectors

Excellent piece.



I'd add that we have reentered the Boom/Bust cycle that characterized the US Economy prior to the implementation of Financial Sector restraints during the FDR Administration. Those restraints finally biting the dust with the passing of the Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act, which eliminated Glass Steagall, and the Commodities Modernization Act of 2000 that deregulated derivatives and hedge funds, empowering the greatest engine of global financial fraud in human history.



Further, I would be curious if profits being reported by companies, in absence of real economic activity, are actually due to investment of capital in the Wall Street fraud factory, and not representative of the core health of their business. Since the fall of Arthur Andersen due to the ENRON collapse did nothing to change the culture of fraud in Corporate Accounting, my guess is that multiple sets of books would make getting to the bottom of that mystery nearly impossible, so we will just have to sort this out in the postmortem of the next crash.



Finally, I am curious if the encrypted "Insurance" file WikiLeaks distributed a couple of years ago, does, in fact, contain the smoking gun that Banks and Hedge Funds were counterfeiting principal for investment by the means of unregulated Alchemy of derivative/CDS Contract creation.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Paul Krugman: Markets Telling Us Washington's 'Prejudices' Are Wrong

I think what the Markets are telling us is that since the final restraints on the Financial Sector, implemented during the Great Depression, were removed at the end of the Clinton years, with the Republican's Gramm Leach Bliley Act and Commodities Modernization Act of 2000, the United States has re-entered a Boom/Bust Cycle. So my question isn't how high will the Unrestrained Markets will go, but how bad will the next Crash be, how deep with the economic trough be the next crash causes, and does the United States have any tools left in its arsenal to meaningfully intervene when the next financial crisis arises?



I view our economy at this point as a toddler who slipped the grasp of their parent, sneaked under a guard rail, and is now happily giggling with toddler pride as it dances gleefully on the edge of a Grand Canyon cliff.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

It's Official: Too Big to Fail Banks Are Too Big to Jail

If the Banks themselves are "Too Big to Jail", that's not to say that Corporate Officers and Members of the Boards of Directors of these entities who oversaw their organizations malevolent acts are "Too Big to Jail" ... Iceland proved that. And maybe by tempering reward with risk on the part of the leaders of these organizations we can modify the behavior of the organizations as a whole. Since the Right seems to be hot on defunding the IRS, then IRS Audits of the principles running the TBTF Banks leading up to the 2008 crash should be the first order of Business. Remember, Al Capone was taken down by an auditor.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John Brennan Confirmation Battle Stirs Drone Strike Controversy

A Nation can't claim to be a beacon of Liberty and Freedom to the world and then indiscriminately murder civilians with drone strikes.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Jim Himes, Former Goldman Sachs Executive, Introduces Bill To Deregulate Derivatives

Derivatives are the way the financial sector counterfeits wealth. There are now over two quadrillion dollars in derivatives percolating through the global economy and that amount is growing daily through the same wealth generating process that check kiters use ... the playing of trade float that prevents the actual value of investment paper from catching up with the fraud value of investment paper in circulation. Any regulations that slows down the system is like a teller putting a hold on a check in a check kiter's con ... it would cause the con to crash. That is why we see this type of legislation introduced by a Wall Street Congressman.



The massive amount of derivative fraud is also why the stock market is breaking records in the middle of a global Depression. All the excuses of why Wall Street is doing well compared to Main Street falls flat when you exclude massive institutional fraud from the equation.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rand Paul Filibusters John Brennan Nomination

So this Filibuster will lead to the repeal of the Patriot Act, right? No? Then it's just Performance Art.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Hugo Chavez Is No Hero

In other words ... you aren't too fond of Hugo Chavez.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Jeb Bush Book: Undocumented Immigrants Should Be Ineligible For Citizenship

Yet another Pale Face speaking with forked tongue. So much for Jeb's stature with Hispanics.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gene Sperling: Obama Raised Entitlement Reform In Budget Talks

It's not the President who will suffer if he tampers with the Earned Benefits programs of the American People ... it will be the Democratic Party, long after President Obama leaves office.



Progressives will remember any betrayal by Democrats of Americans Earned Benefits, and will remind the voting public of this betrayal every election cycle going forward, even if it helps the Republicans ... believe it.



Democrats, Tampering with the Earned Benefits Programs of the American People is Kryptonite ... put your hands in your pocket on this issue, and back away slowly.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Eric Holder: Voting Rights Act Can't Be Called Unnecessary Yet

What we need is an Omnibus Voting Rights Amendment to the US Constitution that covers all of the various issues we are repetitively encountering as a Nation.



It needs to address voter disenfranchisement. Criteria for voting simply being an American Citizen 18 or older at time of the election. That's it. Even ex-cons should have their right to vote re-established after they serve their sentence.



Centralized maintenance, by the Justice Department, of current voter registration lists.



Installing, uniform voter experience for Americans across the nation, if it only takes a voter in California, one of the most populous States, 15 or 20 minutes to vote, it should not take seven hours in Florida or Ohio.



Federal Government Control of all electronic voting machine software, preferably by the Secret Service, with stiff penalties for any individual or corporate entity implicated in tampering with the voting process.



Elimination of the Electoral College in deciding the President.



Federal Election Days are National Holidays to increase participation.



Gerrymandering of Congressioanl Districts determined by non-partisan commissions.



The time has come to correct our basic problems of voting at a level that puts tampering with our democracy out of reach of Legislators, The Supreme Court, and President. Only a Constitutional Amendment can do that.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John Roberts Voting Rights Act Comments Wrong, Massachusetts Official William Galvin Says

Ideological Zealots, like Chief Justice Roberts, fabricate the facts they need to further their agenda ... that's how we arrived at the Citizen's United ruling debacle.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mitch McConnell Fires Back At Attacks On Wife

Mitch McConnell needs to do this. He needs to make engaging on his wife taboo in the election because there is a huge liability for him if people start digging. Attacking anyone's race or ethnicity is dirty pool ... although the Republicans have turned it into sport in terms of President Obama ... but the fact Elaine Chao was in the George W Bush's Cabinet at the time he was not only undermining American workers by fast tracking their jobs to Communist China, but was relying heavily on Communist China to underwrite Bush's wars by buying US Debt, makes the relationship the Chao family had with the leadership of Communist China through James Chao, Elaine's father absolutely relevant.



So, let's be clear, attacking Elaine over her Chinese heritage is bad ... but focusing on how George W Bush leveraged Elaine Chao ... with a direct line to Bejing's leaders, including Jiang Zemin ... while he was blowing up the US Debt and selling it to Communist China, and working with the US Chamber of Commerce to relocate American jobs there ... is definitely fair game.



NOW, will any of the simpering members of the Washington Press Corp following up on the Elaine Chao/Bejing connection, or, as expected, will they fan the flames of diversion that Mitch McConnell is hoping for? We can guess.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mitch McConnell Berates Kentucky Progress For Attacking Wife Elaine Chao

I do think Elaine Chao's family relationship with Taiwanese and Communist Chinese leaders, including Jiang Zemin, are fair game and not racist to discuss in the least. I think McConnell knows he has risk in this area if his political opponents wish to exploit it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tipping Points: Can Humanity Break The Planet?

The planet is far too resilient to be "broken" by Man. Man can, however, alter the planet's ability to support Man by poisoning the environment. The planet likely isn't concerned if there is life upon it or not, so should we cause a snowball effect of environmental collapse I'm confident earth, itself, would be indifferent to our plight.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Scott Walker Compared To Jeffrey Dahmer By Wisconsin Democratic Aide Graeme Zielinski

At least Jeffery Dahmer was personable.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sequestration 2013: With Cuts In Place, Obama And GOP Brace For Next Fight

When you consider that the Fed had no problem coming up with 26 trillion dollars for Wall Street Bankers and Corporations when Republican Fiscal Policies crashed the global economy in 2008 ... we do know we live in the era of selective bailouts, and these draconian cuts are an ideological choice to keep America's Elitist inbreeds happy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Jan Brewer On Immigrant Detainee Release Nationwide: 'It Could Be Payback' To Arizona

It's the Republican's Sequester, Governor Brewer, deal with it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sequester Deadline All But Blown, Obama Hopes For Big Deal

I wonder if Red State Republicans whose constituents rely heavily on Defense dollars are going to come to regret humiliating Chuck Hagel during his Secretary of Defense confirmation hearing, considering he is the one who will decide where the axe falls in terms of Defense cuts?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Student Debt Nearly Tripled In 8 Years, New York Federal Reserve Reports

If the United States was wise it would pay for Americans to take their education as far as it would lead them, for that translates as enumerable benefits for the nation as a whole.



The United Negro College Fund had the motto "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", and with the current cost of colleges that sentiment could easily be applied to all the children of America now, but for the most well off.



A Progressive and Wise America would recognize that it is impossible to know where the next breakthrough to propel the nation forward will come from ... a child born with a silver spoon in their mouth, a child born into poverty, or any child in between. Monetizing education undermines the United States competitiveness, and saddling emerging graduates with decades of debt as punishment for the desire to learn is the most self defeating policy a supposedly advanced nation can engage in.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost