Link: http://www.truthout.com/congressional-republicans-hack-away-medicaid/1311878004

Republican assaults on social service programs have finally yielded some significant advances, with the Obama administration offering to push the eligibility age for Medicare up from age 65 to 67. Also, as part of a bargain to raise the debt ceiling, the administration has offered to dial down cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits.

Link: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/07/31/heading-toward-economic-ruin-1

Bad policies assure bad results. Destructive ones assure calamities. Well before Obama took office, bipartisan initiatives plotted a course for disaster. Bush accelerated it. Obama much more, so today America hangs on the precipice of what a previous article called the banana republicanization of America - a kleptocracy run by corrupt politicians and corporate crooks, scamming the public with austerity, debt peonage, and banker occupation, heading them toward mass impoverishment, misery and neo-serfdom.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/31-1

When a massive tire corporation rolled into Nigeria’s Iguobazuwa Forest Reserve a few years ago, just one thing stood in the path of the CEOs’ plans to set up a rubber plantation: the communities that lived there. With cruel precision, the communities that got in the way were uprooted and displaced, their farmland devastated. As documented by Friends of the Earth International, the bulldozers of the French conglomerate Michelin sowed the ground for “increased hunger, malnutrition, poverty and forced migration, as food became harder to find or produce.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/31

A certain, macabre phrase came to personify the Vietnam War: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” The colonel who uttered it was doubtless oblivious to both the psychotic irony and the larger surreal symbolism that the phrase represented. Savage destruction was perfectly consonant with ideologically-intended salvation, just so long as both were issued by the same sanctimonious American official. Indeed, in some perverse medieval rendering of modern imperial justice, salvation could only be achieved through destruction.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/31

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in 10 cities to protest against the high cost of living and to demand ''social justice, not charity''. Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the high cost of living and demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu undertake sweeping economic reforms. Police and media estimated that between 80,000 and 120,000 people demonstrated on Saturday. ''I came because I cannot make ends meet, and taxes end up in the pockets of the rich,'' one protester, who runs a nursery school, said.

Link: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ground_zeros_OUrlQ6Ap5qJQx3TnQxQBgJ

Cancer-stricken Ground Zero worker Edgar Galvis has finally received a compensation check -- for zero dollars. The 51-year-old Queens man, who suffered sinus problems and then throat cancer after months of removing toxic debris from the World Financial Center, was relieved to get a check in the mail for his court settlement with Merrill Lynch, whose offices he had cleaned. But he was stunned when he saw the amount: $0.00.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-visits-the-grocery-store-organic-food-pushing-out-the-poison/

Alex takes to a local grocery store to point out the good and the bad.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/07/2011731183514437405.html

Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell property for the first time in more than 50 years. In Cuba, the most common way to buy a new home is to barter your old one for it, as selling property is illegal. But due to a change in the law, Cubans for the first time in more than 50 years will be allowed to purchase property.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011731183142996341.html

At least 142 people reportedly killed in violence throughout the country, a day ahead of the start of Ramadan. Syrian forces have killed nearly 142 people, including at least 100 when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city of Hama to crush dissent on the eve of Ramadan, activists have said.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/vision/151850/8_reasons_young_americans_don%27t_fight_back%3A_how_the_us_crushed_youth_resistance/

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance. Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Link: http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2154-if-the-republic-had-not-died-a-long-time-ago-this-would-indeed-be-the-death-of-the-republic-reprise.html

Looking at the "deal" being formed to solve the "debt ceiling crisis," I thought it was appropriate to break out the old headline I used a few years ago. The current reference, of course, is to the extraordinary "special committee" or "Super Congress" which the deal intends to establish. This is an unaccountable politburo which will be able to circumvent all normal democratic (and republican) principles and issue budget-slashing, tax-cutting legislation that cannot be debated or amended, but simply approved or rejected by the rest of the now-powerless representatives and senators.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/30

If you were a spectator in a sky box seat looking directly down on the Washington debt debate, you’d be seeing a contest both narrow and off to one edge of the field -- like watching a football game being played entirely between the 10-yard line and the goal line. The big items that added trillions to the debt are not even on the field of debate. Because the two teams are not contesting them. Wars: When Obama expanded the Afghan war and asked for the largest military budget in world history, the GOP largely applauded. It was bipartisan.

• Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Obama extended them in December.
• Bank Bailouts: Bipartisan.
• Declining Tax Revenue:
• Fighting wars in six countries.
• $649b Pentagon defense budget.
• 720 military bases around the world.
• Billions in forign aid - 20 billion to Israel alone.
• Billions on corporate welfare.
• No taxes on the trillions stolen from the people by the oil companies.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/econ-j30.shtml

The US economy stalled in the first half of the year, according to figures released by the commerce department Friday. The economy grew just 0.32 percent, or 1.3 percent on an annualized rate, in the second quarter, far lower than the annual figure of 1.8 percent that economists had predicted, according to statistics released Friday by the Commerce Department.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/07/201172923171858450.html

The move continues a standoff over the debt limit but could set the table for talks this weekend on compromise plan. The Democrat-led US Senate has voted to set aside a House-passed Republican bill to avert a potential ruinous debt default, setting the stage for weekend talks on forging a compromise plan. Legislators voted 59-41 against Republican House Speaker John Boehner's measure to raise the $14.3 trillion US debt ceiling in two stages to enable Washington to pay its bills past a Tuesday deadline.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/organization-news-and-highlights/debt-ceiling-civil-liberties-issue

Even if the debt ceiling is raised, hard decisions will be made about which federal programs will continue and which ones won’t. The civil liberties consequences of those choices are not entirely predictable, but some are.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/culture/151746/americans_work_too_much_and_have_too_little_time_for_play%3A_here%27s_how_to_slow_down_%27the_great_speed-up%27/

We're being asked to do more in less time, and with less help. Here's a simple plan to begin to take back our lives. Feeling overwhelmed? If you're like many Americans, the answer is probably a beleaguered yes. People across the country report that they are working harder than ever, checking their email on weekends and vacations, putting in more hours at the office, and juggling multitasks just to keep up. While the frenzied pace seems to have hit information workers particularly hard, employees throughout the economy (warehouse workers, hotel housekeepers, teachers) say they are being asked to do more, in less time, with fewer co-workers to help them.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/151837/%24230%2C000_for_a_guard_dog%3A_why_the_wealthy_are_afraid_of_violence_from_below/

As inequality in the US grows, the ultra-rich are pouring their spare cash not just into private jets, but into private security. Think there's a connection? “Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.” That was what an unidentified billionaire told Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal a while back. Rich people are scared of global unrest, Frank reported, citing a survey by Insite Security and IBOPE Zogby International of people with liquid assets of $1 million or more (translation: folks who have or can get their hands on $1 million in cash fairly easily) that says 94 percent of the wealthy are concerned about “global unrest” around the world.

Link: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/07/29/fbi-directors-term-extension-ensures-neo-cointelpro-operations-will-prevail/

Just days ago, the Obama Administration and Congress effectively made legitimate all the operations of the FBI since FBI Director Robert Mueller took over the agency one week before the September 11th terror attacks. The extension of Mueller’s term makes it possible for Congress to move forward without addressing the abuses, misconduct and violations of the law that have taken place during Mueller’s efforts to transform the agency from a law enforcement agency to a massive domestic spying agency. Extending Mueller’s term signals any future FBI director with power and credibility in Washington may be able to skirt term limits.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/under-fire-from-afar-harrowing-exhibition-reveals-damage-done-by-drones-in-pakistan-2327832.html

If you want to understand the impact of the "war on terror" on America's ally, Pakistan, look no further than Noor Behram's photographs which show, he says, collateral damage as a result of US drone strikes in the tribal area. Behram, who is from Waziristan, has spent the past four years interviewing survivors of drone attacks, shooting video footage and close-up stills of the damage. The photographs – part of a new London exhibition – are gruesome.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2020310/Petra-Ecclestone-new-owner-85m-Spelling-mansion-insists-shes-just-hard-working-girl.html

At just 22 years old, she's a billionairess. Ms Ecclestone already owns a Georgian pile in Chelsea that is valued at $90million. Candyland pushes her real estate portfolio to over $175million.

• In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty"
• Every year 15 million children die of hunger

http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article21018

“Mossad is a master at false-flag terrorist attacks designed to alter perceptions and punish opponents of Israeli policy. The fingerprints of Israeli intelligence are all over the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the 3/22 train bombings in Madrid, the 7/7 transit bombings in London, and, now, the 7/22 attacks in Norway… While the Israeli-influenced corporate media has droned on and on about the dangers of Islamist terrorism, it is now obvious that the major threat to public safety comes from the State of Israel,

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad07292011.html

The most dazzling fact is not this decline. It is what is to come. The National Urban League Policy Institute's latest study finds that unemployment for Blacks with four-year college degrees has tripled since 1992, and overall unemployment is near 1982 levels, namely 20%. Such numbers have not been seen since the Depression. Langston Hughes wrote that the 1930s

Link: http://www.silviacattori.net/article1775.html

According to German expert Jürgen Cain Külbel, the Israeli Mossad is involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “Once the billionaire PM Rafik Hariri moves inside Beirut, everybody takes note of it. His limousine is equipped with a device able to foil any assassination attempt via booby-trapped car. Mobile phones are disrupted in the area near the convoy, .. Whenever he leaves his house, his guards carry out car patrols in the streets for camouflage.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/29-2

I ran into my friend Jeff Madrick a few weeks ago. Like a rabbit out of a hat, or so it seemed, he whipped from his coat a copy of his new book, Age of Greed. He gave the book to me and I'm grateful. It's a compelling and worthy read. Jeff's an able journalist; an excellent and cogent storyteller in a field that often defies the straightforward plot or easy explanation -- economics.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/29-3

Former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair unloaded on the White House Thursday evening, strongly criticizing the administration’s reliance on U.S.-directed drone strikes and saying officials have failed to implement the lessons of Sept. 11 by backing away from efforts to integrate the intelligence community.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/lockheed-martin-wins-72-million-contract-to-install-body-scanners/

Even as the US economy teeters on the brink of default, the federal government has handed a $72 million dollar contract to defense contractor Lockheed Martin to install radiation-firing body scanners at 300 more airports across the east and central United States, despite the availability of devices that do not rely on radiation to function.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=31127

Israel is paying internet workers to manipulate online content

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=31130

Israel is suing a group of poor Bedouin Palestinians in the Negev desert for over $500,000, the claimed costs of demolishing their village each time they rebuild it. Israeli authorities have destroyed, and the Bedouin have rebuilt, the homes in al-Araqib more than 20 times.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/07/author-u-s-may-be-on-the-verge-of-another-revolution/

On last night’s The Big Picture with progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann, author Neil Howe discussed how he and William Strauss came to accurately predict today’s political crisis in their 1997 book “The Fourth Turning,” and offered speculation as to what might happen next.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/07/lawrence-odonnell-bans-deadbeat-dad-rep-joe-walsh/

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has banned tea party Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) from ever appearing on his show again. Walsh has refused to vote for raising the nation’s debt ceiling, saying he would not place “one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids.” But it turns out that Walsh actually owes more than $100,000 in child support.

Link: http://www.truthout.com/how-shadowy-right-wing-front-groups-engineered-our-national-embrace-debt-reduction-over-job-creation

For the entire year, as a sluggish economy sputters by and states continue to struggle with falling revenue, the conversation in Congress has centered solely on spending reduction. Earlier this year, we witnessed looming government-showdown duels between competing spending reduction plans. Now with the debt ceiling debate, the only two options are a choice between a package of painful cuts and a package of deeply draconian cuts. There has been

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28706.htm

The rich are getting richer. Their effective tax rate, in recent years, has been reduced to the lowest in modern history. Nurses, teachers and firemen actually pay a higher tax rate than some billionaires. It's no wonder the American people are angry.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/29-10

It’s tough getting any news out of Washington these days that doesn’t involve the debt ceiling. Understandably, the political firestorm that has led our country to the brink of financial default has dominated headlines. [While you’re hopefully off enjoying the Great Outdoors this weekend, House Republicans will be pushing legislation that promises to destroy it.]

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/29-13

The plain fact is that corporate profits are the only area of the US economy to recover since 2009. Any other claim is a lie. The so-called economic "recovery" since mid-2009 was chiefly hype, a veneer of good news to disguise and minimise the awful underlying economic realities. The few (large corporations and the rich) who bear much of the responsibility for the crisis made sure that the government they finance used massive amounts of public money to support a recovery for them. The mass of the population was excluded from the government-financed recovery for the few. We now have the summary official statistics to expose this grotesque injustice.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/151826/lakoff%3A_how_to_rescue_the_american_dream_from_the_gop%27s_nightmare_/

The Republicans are redefining "democracy"--but it's time to remember what the real dream of democracy meant. Democracy, in the American tradition, has been defined by a simple morality: We Americans care about our fellow citizens, we act on that care and build trust, and we do our best not just for ourselves, our families, our friends and our neighbors, but for our country, for each other, for people we have never met and never will meet.

Link: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/ge-ceo-jeffrey-immelt-the-head-of-obamas-jobs-council-is-moving-jobs-and-economic-infrastructure-to-china-at-a-blistering-pace

Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama's highly touted "Jobs Council", is moving even more GE infrastructure to China. GE makes more medical-imaging machines than anyone else in the world, and now GE has announced that it "is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing".

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28703.htm

In 1985, there were 13 American billionaires. Today, there are over 1000

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28701.htm

With the world concerned about US financial credibility and the poor outlook for the US economy, now is not the time for the Republicans to grandstand on the public debt. The debt ceiling needed to be quietly raised. Instead, the Republicans started a fire and then threw gasoline on it, creating an inferno that could burn up the US social safety net or the US Treasury’s credit rating and the US dollar’s role as reserve currency or what remains of the separation of powers.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/07/28/are-we-being-had

In my last column I suggested that an unintended outcome of the debt ceiling impasse could be Congress’ loss of the power of the purse. In this column I suggest an intended outcome that the ongoing political theater might be designed to produce. President Obama has said that he will not resort to the various powers open to him to keep the government running should Congress fail to deliver a debt ceiling increase. This is a suspicious statement, as it is not credible that a president would leave troops at war unpaid and without supplies, Social Security checks unsent and stand aside while the US dollar collapses and the credit rating of the US government is destroyed.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/econ-j28.shtml

The typical US household lost 28 percent of its wealth during the economic crisis, with one third of these being totally wiped out, according to a recent analysis of Census Bureau data carried out by the Pew Research Center, “Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics”.