Robert Abele – Ending Government Rule of the Elites, by the Elites, for the Elites

One of the sad but important consequences for our system of government, in the face of such a process, is that not only do the economic elites now control the system, but more importantly, our elitist-backed politicians have no vision beyond the self-interestedness of catering to the money the elites use to support them. The people are out; the future is irrelevant; …

Leid Stories – 08.24.15

St. Louis Police Killing of Mansur Ball-Bey: We Reveals New Details

Party Pooper?: Biden’s Possible Run Confirms Hillary Clinton’s Vulnerability

Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, was shot dead by police Aug. 19 during a house raid. Two police officers involved in the shooting say he aimed at them with a gun and they fired in self-defense. Witnesses, however, have said the Ball-Bay was not armed. The killing has reignited tensions locally and nationally about police use of force.

The deck’s getting stacked against Hillary Clinton. A campaign scrambling to hold itself together in the face of self-inflicted political wounds, the upsurge in Bernie Sanders’ popularity, a growing unease about her among highly placed fellow Democrats, and the wait-and-see attitudes of major endorsers is now rattled by the possibility that Vice President Joe Biden will run.

Leid Stories says that whether he runs or not, the mere discussion of a Biden candidacy confirms the Democratic Party’s recognition that Clinton is carrying way more baggage than it can carry.

Andrew Levine – Anti-Hillary: Across the Spectrum

For three decades or more, politicians and pundits have been proclaiming the end of the left-right spectrum. The terms left, right and center, they say, are irrelevant or are rapidly becoming so. They are meaningless descriptions of ideas, policies and practices. This has always been an exaggeration at best – concocted to serve the interests of economic and political elites …

KIRA LERNER – Bernie Sanders To Introduce Legislation Abolishing Private Prisons When Congress Reconvenes

Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to abolish private prisons, one piece of his comprehensive racial justice reform package that has won praise from Black Lives Matter activists. “When Congress reconvenes in September, I will be introducing legislation which takes corporations out of profiteering from running jails,” the independent senator said at a campaign …

Dave Johnson – Trump: Don’t Make Corporations Pay Their Taxes

Corporate tax dodgers will love Donald Trump’s new plan to let the corporations who don’t want to pay their taxes off the hook. But is this really the core of the Republican argument against all taxes? Republican economics has been stated a thousand ways by a thousand (always paid) voices. But the basic idea behind all the schemes has been …

Jeff Faux – Breaking News: The Rich Discover Inequality

After forty years of rising income and wealth inequality, some of America’s rich seem worried that maybe things have gone too far. In a recent New York Times Op Ed (August 9), for example, Peter Georgescu, CEO emeritus of the multinational public relations firm, Young and Rubicon, wrote that he is “scared” of a backlash that might lead to social …

The Mark Riley Show – 08.12.15

Today on The Mark Riley Show, Mark discusses these topics:

Marissa Janae Johnson doesn’t give a f@*k if protest at Bernie Sanders rally drives people away. Short response: she should give a f@*k. Yes, intervention at rally helped spark a conversation about progressives, race, and police brutality, yet in my opinion, it was the wrong conversation.

New poll out of New Hampshire has Bernie Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton. Yes, its early, but this is significant. Now if he can just be more inclusive and diverse in terms of his outreach, he could be dangerous.

Arlington, Texas officer is fired in fatal shooting of Christian Taylor. Yes, you can disrupt a rally and spark a conversation, but you can’t stop the police killing of unarmed, mainly young black men. That takes more than conversations or interventions.

Video allegedly shows Tyrone Harris drawing gun before being shot by St. Louis County police. Questions abound in terms of this police shooting, and they start with whether the young man was actually intending to shoot anyone. As to the question of a gun, how come there were 4 “Oath Keepers” running around Ferguson carrying firearms, and none of them, got shot? To wit:

Armed white “Oath Keepers” descend on Ferguson, will definitely calm things down. Nuff said!

Cleveland woman found in jail cell tells prison officers “I don’t want to die in your cell” hours earlier in video. Seems Raikina Jones was prescribed some serious meds, and there are questions about whether authorities at the jail where she was did anything to see she got them. One thing we do know, because it’s on video. She told them.

Reporting on Iran, Jewish paper sees no plot to destroy Israel. The plot to destroy Israel has been the centerpiece of opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. There will be some who dismiss the Forward article as propaganda, but are people so sure?

Cuomo vs. de Blasio: Who wears the Big Boy pants? The Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in the Bronx is the latest situation to expose fissures in the relationship between the NYC Mayor and the NY Governor. This follows disputes over charter schools and Uber. They’ve apparently kissed and made up in the latest flap, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be future fights. The Mayor needs to get his messaging act together, before he jeopardizes his chances of being re-elected in two years.

After two killers fled, New York prisoners say, beatings were next. If these allegations are true, w ill anyone be held to account? Unfortunately, law enforcement and prosecutors don’t always take the word of convicted criminals all that seriously. And that needs to change.

Cops blame end of stop and frisk for fewest gun seizures in eight years. The end of stop and frisk has been blamed for a lot of things. This is just the latest.

Lawrence Lessig to Explore a Run for President as a Democrat

Some people land gyrocopters on the lawn at the Capitol to protest big money in politics. Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard professor and democratic theorist, is thinking of running for president. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Lessig will announce that he will explore a protest bid for the Democratic nomination. If he can raise $1 million in small donations by Labor Day, …

Pam Martens & Russ Martens – New York Times Pushes False Narrative on the Wall Street Crash of 2008

William D. Cohan has joined Paul Krugman and Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times in pushing the patently false narrative that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 had next to nothing to do with the epic Wall Street collapse of 2008 and the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. (See related articles on Krugman and …