The Texas Tribune has the Washington Post story U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question.

His official American birth certificate shows he was delivered by a midwife in Brownsville, at the southern tip of Texas. He spent his life wearing American uniforms: three years as a private in the Army, then as a cadet in the Border Patrol and now as a state prison guard.

But when Juan, 40, applied to renew his U.S. passport this year, the government’s response floored him. In a letter, the State Department said it didn’t believe he was an American citizen.

As he would later learn, Juan is one of a growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States but who are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question. The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown on their citizenship.

Don’t get too comfortable because you aren’t Hispanic, or were not born near the border in Texas. This is just an example of what schemes the USA government can dream up if they want to get rid of you.

You think you have rights that the U.S.A. Constitution guarantees you as a citizen? They can just deny that you are a citizen. What foreign country is going to take you as a citizen if you were actually born in the U.S.A.? If you can’t prove that you were born where you were actually born, what chance do you have of proving you were born someplace else?

From Wikipedia First they came ….

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

YouTube has the video Government Shutdown Of TeleSUR & “Empire Files” Explained By Abby Martin.

Abby Martin and Mike Prysner lay out exactly what happened to teleSUR and Empire Files and how YOU can help.

The corporate media are trying to convince you that Google cannot skew search results to fit a political agenda. They claim people who say it can do this do not understand how Google works. The above video explains exactly what Google has done already to left wing viewpoints. Left wing media has the numbers to prove that Google can do this, and has already done this.

Let’s see if I can put this nicely. The corporate media are lying to you.

Dandeliion Salad has the interview Chris Hedges: When The Ruling Ideology No Longer Has Any Credibility Then The Elites Only Have Violence Left In Order To Maintain Control.

“In his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges shows how the effects of America’s decline and decay affects its citizenry. As America sinks further into poverty and despotism, and as corporations and the military-industrial-media complex pirate the remaining assets of a nation that has lost its industry save weapons manufacturing, human beings suffer from gambling addiction, hatred, and violence in the streets. Hedges announces a spiritual call to resist.”

At the end of the interview, Chris Hedges explains why those of us who are fighting the forces of decay keep on fighting. It is what gives life meaning.

The Institute for New Economic Thinking has the article by Lynn Parramore, Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America.

In discussing Duke historian Nancy MacLean’s meticulously researched book, Democracy in Chains, Lynn Parramore says,

She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like privatization. Efforts to “reform” public education and Social Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree. Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, weakening pro-public forces and enhancing the lobbying power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to dismantle democracy and make way for a return to oligarchy. The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

Maybe the economist named in this article, James Buchanan, was under the misapprehension that the oligarchs want to build something. We have seen by the hollowing out of corporations that is being done now, that the oligarchy only wants to increase their wealth while they are alive. They don’t care who gains control of what is left of our economy after they are gone.

The Sham Sharma Show has the video Debunking The Aryan Invasion Myth & Discovering Scientific Achievements of Indians: Raj Vedam.

Raj Vedam is an Electrical Engineer by training, and enjoys a range of intellectual pursuits. He is an amateur astronomer with an interest in the history of astronomy. Raj is a history aficionado and reads voraciously on a range on historical topics, with special interest in ancient prehistory, and the spread of knowledge, arts, culture and philosophies across cultures. He is a founder-member of Indian History Awareness and Research, and takes a keen interest in the narratives of civilizations, and the application of scientific methods in the validation of historical narratives.

I speak to him about the various empirical proofs debunking the Aryan Invasion Myth and also about the intellectual achievements of ancient Indians, and how India can reclaim that scientific and learning temper again.

Just to brag a little, I worked with Raj when we were both in Oregon. Of course, I worked with him on the electrical engineering side of his interests. We commuted to work together for a while, so I had a chance to talk to him quite a bit on his non-work related interests. I learned a lot from him, and I hope I can say he learned a thing or two from me.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has the article What do I mean by Skin in the Game? My Own Version.

Skin in the game –as a filter –is the central pillar for the organic functioning of systems, whether humans or natural. Unless consequential decisions are taken by people who pay for the consequences, the world would vulnerable to total systemic collapse. And if you wonder why there is a current riot against a certain class of self-congratulatory “experts”, skin the game will provide a clear answer: the public has viscerally detected that some “educated” but cosmetic experts have no skin in the game and will never learn from their mistakes, whether individually or, more dangerously, collectively.

From his comments on his home page it is not clear to me if “Skin In The Game” is, or is not the title of a book that he has written.

The book was not submitted to any reviewer. There was no U.S. book tour, no promotion, no advance copies, just a single lecture in NYC. Yet it mysteriously opened at #2 on the NYT bestsellers list.

Maybe this is explained in the article Putting Skin in the Game into the Reviewers of Skin in the Game.

(Skin in the Game was embargoed (meaning no copy was sent to reviewers), as the book explains the agency problem of reviewers. Three UK journos got hold of it and hurriedly wrote revenge reviews, perhaps too hurriedly. This note exposing their errors of reading comprehension made them accountable, and led to no further journalist reviewing the book: only end users and specialists. Note that, something I wasn’t seeking, the book still made the top of the bestseller list in both countries, meaning neither nasty attacks (UK) nor silence (US) seems to affect it).

Naked Capitalism has the article Landmark Kentucky Pension Case Against KKR, Blackstone, and PAAMCO to Move to Trial?

We’ve posted before on Mayberry v. KKR, a potentially trail-blazing case in which beneficiaries of the destitute Kentucky Retirement System are suing three major fund managers, KKR, Blackstone, and PAAMCO, over dedicated hedge funds they created that promised high returns at low risk only to perform worse than cash. As we will discuss shortly, the parties to the litigation had a hearing yesterday over the defendants’ motions to dismiss. The judge is expected to rule in two weeks. Former Kentucky Retirement Systems trustee Chris Tobe attended the hearing and based on that and his knowledge of the case, thought it was likely to proceed.

Imagine if people like Mitt Romney were required to pay back the money they stripped from their victims. Imagine if they were unable to convince the government to bail them out. Well, that would be enough managing for one day, or maybe for one year.

Naked Capitalism has the article Wolf Richter: Here Comes the Second Wave of Big Money in the “Buy-to-Rent” Scheme.

The first wave came during the housing bust when large private-equity firms acquired tens of thousands of single-family homes out of foreclosure for cents on the dollar. The biggest players have since been sold off to the public as REITs, such as Blackstone’s Invitation Homes which owns about 48,000 rental houses.

Blackstone was the trailblazer in financializing rents. It issued the first rent-backed structured securities in November 2013. This has become a common funding mechanism. And shortly before the Invitation Homes IPO, it obtained Fannie Mae guarantees for $1 billion in rental-home mortgage-backed securities.

This second wave is different. PE firms are paying prices at the peak of the market, amid ceaseless complaints that there isn’t enough inventory of homes for sale, for folks who actually want to live in the homes they buy.

I knew the capitalists would figure out some way to “save” the real-estate market.

All those foreclosed homes and evicted people needing homes. There had to be some way for capitalism to put that supply to use to satisfy the demand. Financializing rent payments was the only logical thing to do in the current heyday of rentier capitalists.

AP has the story Big oil asks government to protect it from climate change. Notice that this comes from AP, not The Onion.

Big oil makes the disaster, and then the small taxpayer pays to protect them from their disaster. It worked for Wall Street in 2008/2009, so why wouldn’t big oil think they should get the same kind of rescue?

YouTube has the video Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks at The National Press Club.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave a major policy speech on ending corruption in Washington at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker on August 21, 2018.

You deserve to hear the full speech and Q & A session to get the full context of her remarks. Snippets taken out of context, can sometimes leave the wrong impression.