When I first saw The Real News Network video Why Are Hong Kong Protesters Asking Trump for Help?, I thought I was hearing an unbiased report on Hong Kong.

I have since read part of The Gray Zone article Behind a made-for-TV Hong Kong protest narrative, Washington is backing nativism and mob violence.

Now I don’t know what to believe. Reading the comments on The Real News Network video, I see a lot of dissent from that article.

VOX has the article Uber and Lyft just lost another battle in California.

If AB 5 passes the full Senate, it would essentially disrupt a business model championed and cherished by Silicon Valley. Uber, Lyft, and other app-based gig companies rely on hundreds of thousands of independent contractors to give rides, deliver food, and complete other tasks.

Reclassifying them as employees would change everything.

Gig workers would get labor protections and benefits that all employees get, such as unemployment insurance, health care subsidies, paid parental leave, overtime pay, workers’ compensation, paid rest breaks, and a guaranteed $12 minimum hourly wage. And, perhaps more importantly, they would be able to unionize.

It is unfortunate that so many progressives think nothing of using Uber, Lyft, and the other services. They don’t seem to make the connection between the cheap prices and the suppression of wages for the drivers. Walmart and Amazon have the same attraction for people on a budget. I know I should go easy on the customers. I know I have the privilege of not needing to save money this way. This gig economy is the way the oligarchs entice poor victims to take part in crushing the poor.

CNN has the article Bernie Sanders teases plan to eliminate billions in medical debt

The outline explains that the full plan will address the components of the 2005 bankruptcy bill that “made it much more difficult to discharge medical debt” and “trapped families with medical debt in long-term poverty.” It also promises to “make sure that no one’s credit score is negatively impacted by unpaid medical bills.”

CNN may not have any institutional memory about this bill but Google can supply that memory. The new bankruptcy law and you was published October 17, 2005.

What you should know about the law, which will make it tougher for consumers to clear their debts.

WikiPedia has a nice article Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. Here is a mention of Joe Biden’s involvement.

The increase in Republican majorities in the Senate and House after the 2004 elections breathed new life into the bill, which was introduced in its current form by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.^[17] According to George Packer in his book The Unwinding, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Hillary Clinton helped pass this bill.^[18] (Of the three, however, only Biden voted for the final bill. Dodd voted against, and Clinton did not vote.^[19])

The Real News Network has the interview Is it Cynical to Believe the System is Corrupt?

While a new poll shows most US citizens believe the political and economic system is rigged against them, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren also echo this sentiment. Some conservatives are now pushing back. But what says the evidence? Bill Black analyzes the situation

Bill Black mentions the book Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

The New York Post has the article MIT director resigns over university’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

A director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s prestigious Media Lab is resigning — because he’s “ashamed” over the research center’s link to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report.

When I disowned MIT for accepting money from David Koch to build a building named after him, I had in mind the pernicious influence people like this would have over MIT. Here is another perfect example of being too eager to accept money from anybody who is willing to give it. If bribery with child prostitution is part of the picture, it is far worse than I imagined.

Columbia Journalism Review has the Op-Ed: Bernie Sanders on his plan for journalism.

When I am president, my administration will put in place policies that will reform the media industry and better protect independent journalism at both the local and national levels.

Now here is an indication that at least one Presidential candidate has a deep understanding of the crisis in journalism. What other candidate has detailed plans for reversing the harmful trends when he or she is President?

The Real News Network has the video Democracy in Chains: The Radical Right’s Stealth Attack on American Democracy.

In part one, Nancy Maclean reveals Nobel prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan as the architect of the Koch Brothers’ secret campaign to undermine public education, unions, and to reshape America

This is the exact reason that my alma mater, MIT, and I parted company when they built the David Koch funded cancer research center. They never would answer the question of what academic influence the Koch funding would have at MIT. I refused to attend my 50th alumni reunion for fear of having to sit through paeans to David Koch.

Also see my previous post about this book, Democracy In Chains.

Financial Review has the article Central banks have unlimited ammunition – if they chose to use it.

It is time to fundamentally rethink the conventional macroeconomic policy framework in preparation for future economic downturns. Monetary and fiscal policy need to be better aligned and coordinated so that they can be mobilised quickly and effectively when needed, and in the right combination. MMT can play a useful role in that debate. But economists on both sides have to put down their rhetorical pitchforks first.

If you read the whole article, you will see much of my own view. The article reminds us that the restrictions that Congress has put on the Fed are an unhelpful obstruction to the full use of the fiscal policy that would be available to the government if there had been no such restrictions.

It just occurred to me that saying that central banks have unlimited ammunition leaves the wrong impression. Central governments have unlimited ammunition, but the ammunition is not completely in the hands of the central banks. Central banks are a part of the central government, but they don’t have some of the powers that the rest of the government has.

YouTube has the video NYTIMES Pathetic Apology For Russiagate Coverage Failure w/ Aaron Mate’.

Here is all the raking of The Dreaded New York Times over the coals that you need for today. Even if you only have time for part of the 50 minutes, you will get some good laughs.

I doubt that my fiends who revere The Dreaded New York Times will listen to any of this. There is only so much destroying of your childhood idols that a person can take. At least people still have Santa Claus.

Here is a mostly word for word transcript of the video starting at 22 minutes and 24 seconds.

If you even read the Mueller report you see there that Mueller even has a line where Mueller is talking about the period after the election and he says that the Russian government and top Russian elites want to make contact with the Trump administration and Mueller goes “They appeared not to have any pre-existing contacts and struggled to make inroads with the new administration”

I can picture it now. The people around Putin are trying to figure out how to contact the Trump administration, and Putin sits there with a Mona Lisa like smile knowing full well that Trump is actually Putin’s puppet.

Politifact has the story Meme way off in claim that the Rothschild family holds ’80 percent of the world’s wealth’. As discredited as Politfact may be, surely there is an ounce of truth in this article. Well, maybe not surely.

Our ruling

A meme recirculating the internet claims the Rothschild family “holds about 80 percent of the world’s wealth,” and thus has the ability to “feed, clothe and settle every man, woman and child” if they so choose.

The family is certainly wealthy but claiming they control 80 percent of the world’s wealth is a tall order. There is no longer any centralized family wealth, with the closest being an investment banking firm. But the firm’s revenues are far less than what many corporations make.

The rumor is a baseless exaggeration that furthers the spread of anti-Semitic theories.

We rate it Pants on Fire!