The Psychopaths killed another American this month. Dave Johnson over at AlterNet is telling the story of Norman Rousseau and his wife - two people who did everything they were supposed to do. They were responsible homeowners who did business with Wells Fargo and put a 30% down payment on this house in California back in 2000, and they made every payment from then on - never missing even one single month. At that same time, the housing bubble frenzy took off. Banks discovered they could make enormous profits dragging homeowners away from safe fixed-rate mortgages and into exploding adjustable rate mortgages. For the bank, it didn't matter if the interest rate on the new loan would skyrocket and eventually lead to a foreclosure. The bank got their money no matter what, either through missed payment fees, late-payment fees, refinancing fees, and then after foreclosure through government support, tax write-offs, and the underlying value of the property, which they end up with.
Society's Child
© Reuters / Adrees Latif
A U.S. war veteran pulls his medals off his uniform before throwing them towards the site of the NATO Summit in Chicago on May 20, 2012. Nearly 50 veterans threw service medals into the street near the summit site in protest.
A U.S. war veteran pulls his medals off his uniform before throwing them towards the site of the NATO Summit in Chicago on May 20, 2012. Nearly 50 veterans threw service medals into the street near the summit site in protest.
Some of the veterans, many wearing military uniform shirts over black anti-war t-shirts, choked back tears as they explained their actions. Others folded an American flag while a bugle played "Taps," which is typically performed at U.S. military funerals.
"The medals are supposed to be for acts of heroism. I don't feel like a hero. I don't feel like I deserve them," said Zach LaPorte, who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
LaPorte, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Milwaukee, said he enlisted in the Army at 19 because he felt there were few other options. At the time, he could not afford to stay in college.
"I witnessed civilian casualties and civilians being arrested in what I consider an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation," LaPorte said.
He said he was glad the United States had withdrawn its combat troops from Iraq, but said he did not believe the NATO military alliance was going to leave Afghanistan.
New Brunswick, New Jersey - A former Rutgers University student was sentenced on Monday to 30 days in prison for bias crimes after he spied on his roommate's gay encounter in a case that drew national attention to bullying.
Dharun Ravi, 20, had faced a maximum of 10 years behind bars for his conviction for using a webcam to invade the privacy of his roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man in their college dorm room.
Clementi, 18, committed suicide in September 2010, days after learning Ravi watched him through the computer-mounted camera and used social media to encourage others to do so. Ravi was not charged with causing Clementi's death.
Judge Glenn Berman sentenced him to 30 days in prison, followed by three years probation, 300 hours of community service as well as counseling about cyberbullying and alternative lifestyles.
He ordered Ravi to pay $10,000 for a community-based organization that assists victims of bias crimes and to pay $1,900 in penalties.
© Agence France-Presse
Anti-war protesters face police during a rally near the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20, 2012.
Anti-war protesters face police during a rally near the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20, 2012.
A lawyer's group assisting protesters challenged police figures, saying at least 12 protesters were hurt, some with head wounds from police batons, and more than 60 people detained.
The confrontation began after a 2 1/2 mile march from a Chicago park to near the site of the summit, where leaders of the NATO alliance are discussing the war in Afghanistan.
Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy defended police tactics.
"I know that picture (of officers in riot gear pushing and hitting protesters) is going to be what people are going to run away here with," McCarthy told reporters. "But cops are not here to be assaulted."
Most of the officers sustained minor injuries, but one was stabbed in the leg, McCarthy said.
While the melee at the end of the rally received the most attention, the situation had calmed down by dark.
The size of the protests over the last week fell short of expectations. Police estimated about 3,000 people attended on Sunday, although many participants thought the crowd was larger. Organizers did not get the 10,000 people they had hoped for, or the 40,000 the anti-Wall Street Occupy movement boasted it would attract.
On Sunday afternoon, police ordered the protesters to disperse or risk arrest. Most of the demonstrators did, but several hundred ignored the order and police moved in.
© Reuters
Shameful fall from grace: Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Shameful fall from grace: Dominique Strauss-Kahn
It follows a complaint by a Belgian prostitute that she was attacked by the former International Monetary Fund chief in a hotel room in the United States. The alleged crime is said to have taken place in December 2010 close to the White House in Washington DC.
Described by three judges as a possible 'gang rape', it is set to form vital evidence into a prostitute ring working out of the Carlton Hotel in Lille, northern France. Prosecutors in the city today confirmed that they had opened a formal investigation, and that Strauss-Kahn faced charges over the matter.
Highly-paid young women working for the ring are said to have flown to the USA to take part in 'sex parties' with Strauss-Kahn and other men at the W Hotel in Washington.
© Unknown
Multi-million dollar mansions and $100,000 Porsches are flying off local shelves in the Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Menlo Park areas of California. And the charge of luxury living is being led by a group of young entrepreneurs and techies as well as investors and venture capitalists that have scored famously from Facebook's Nasdaq debut.
Facebook (FB: 38.23, +0.23, +0.61%) began trading on the stock exchange Friday morning in a $104 billion IPO that marked the second-biggest in history behind Visa (V: 112.64, -2.37, -2.06%) and ahead of General Motors (GM: 21.18, -0.43, -1.99%). When CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell, he and few close colleagues became instant billionaires, while thousands of lower-level employees became millionaires.
Here's what happens when corporations begin to control education.
"When I approached professors to discuss research projects addressing organic agriculture in farmer's markets, the first one told me that 'no one cares about people selling food in parking lots on the other side of the train tracks,'" said a PhD student at a large land-grant university who did not wish to be identified. "My academic adviser told me my best bet was to write a grant for Monsanto or the Department of Homeland Security to fund my research on why farmer's markets were stocked with 'black market vegetables' that 'are a bioterrorism threat waiting to happen.' It was communicated to me on more than one occasion throughout my education that I should just study something Monsanto would fund rather than ideas to which I was deeply committed. I ended up studying what I wanted, but received no financial support, and paid for my education out of pocket."
Unfortunately, she's not alone. Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules.
A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities, of which there are more than 100. "You hear again and again Congress and regulators clamoring for science-based rules, policies, regulations," says Food and Water Watch researcher Tim Schwab, explaining why he began investigating corporate influence in agricultural research. "So if the rules and regulations and policies are based on science that is industry-biased, then the fallout goes beyond academic articles. It really trickles down to farmer livelihoods and consumer choice."
© Shutterstock/mostafa fawzy
Unfortunately, she's not alone. Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules.
A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities, of which there are more than 100. "You hear again and again Congress and regulators clamoring for science-based rules, policies, regulations," says Food and Water Watch researcher Tim Schwab, explaining why he began investigating corporate influence in agricultural research. "So if the rules and regulations and policies are based on science that is industry-biased, then the fallout goes beyond academic articles. It really trickles down to farmer livelihoods and consumer choice."
© Unknown
This is a far cry from the original public mission of land-grant universities when they were launched in 1862 - to generate agricultural research that benefitted farmer livelihoods as well as consumers. Then, the research was almost entirely funded by state and federal governments. But the report explains how in the 1980s, federal policies began encouraging schools to partner with the private sector, whose funding of Ag research eventually surpassed USDA funding. Now, the relationship between industry and Ag programs at land-grant universities is incredibly interwoven. From the report:
Land-grant universities today depend on industry to underwrite research grants, endow faculty chairs, sponsor departments and finance the construction of new buildings.
Just this week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that everyone's favorite biotech behemoth, Monsanto, has allotted $250,000 to an agricultural communications chair position at the University of Illinois, which will run a new degree program between the College of Media and College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The goal is "to help graduates better convey the challenges and technologies of modern farming," no doubt a move to endorse large-scale agriculture and genetically engineered food - on exactly what Monsanto profits are based.
© Miranda Leitsinger/msnbc
Nan Wigmore, 75, brought a walker and a sign to Chicago to protest at the NATO summit.
Nan Wigmore, 75, brought a walker and a sign to Chicago to protest at the NATO summit.
The 75-year-old from Portland, Ore., says she couldn't imagine being anywhere else despite the discomfort of her journey.
"My feelings are too deep to keep me in my old comfortable place, so I had to learn some new things and that means to move out of my comfort zone," Wigmore said as she sipped a hot chocolate late Friday after a few hundred protesters met at a downtown Chicago plaza in the lead-up to the two-day summit that begins Sunday.
The biggest bear of all, Dr. Doom (Marc Faber), discusses the future of the euro and whether a global catastrophe is on the way
Comment: If you haven't yet, buy these books, read them, pass them around. It's not too late but time's a-wastin'...
Without Conscience
Snakes in Suits
Sociopath Next Door
Puzzling People
Political Ponerology