US Uncut has the story Bill Gates: Only Socialism Can Save the Climate, ‘The Private Sector is Inept’.

Gates even tacked to the left and uttered words that few other billionaire investors would dare to say: government R&D is far more effective and efficient than anything the private sector could do.

Who should no better than the guy who practically single-handedly held back the progress of the world-wide computer industry so that his rigged-market capitalism could make him a rich SOB?

China also produces more electricity from wind power sources than every nuclear power plant in the U.S. put together. China’s wind output powered 110 million homes in 2014, as its wind farms generated 16 percent more power than in 2013, and 77 gigawatts of additional wind power are currently under construction. China’s energy grid is currently powered by 100 gigawatts of green energy, and aims to double green energy output to 200 gigawatts by 2020.

Bill Gates wants the U.S. to be an additional green energy leader, and expresses hope that there may still be enough time for the U.S. to take green energy investment seriously, and that the public sector can be instrumental in preventing a 2-degree increase in global temperatures.

“I don’t think it’s hopeless, because it’s about American innovation, American jobs, American leadership, and there are examples where this has gone very, very well,” Gates said.

If any Republican candidate gets elected as the next President of the USA, then I think you can kiss the position of the US as a world leader, good-bye. Maybe it is our civic duty to do this world that favor. Even the wife of the guy that said “the age of big government is over” may be harmful to this country.

Mother Jones has the article Elizabeth Warren Rips the Obama Administration on Puerto Rico: After Obama finally rolled out a plan, Sen. Warren calls on the government to do more for the US colony.

“I think Treasury needs to step up and show more leadership here,” she said. “During the financial crisis, when the banks were in trouble, Treasury did a lot more than just bail them out. Treasury stretched the limits of its authority to make sure that the banks stay afloat. It helped broker deals between banks, it applied pressure to get parties to accept deals they may not have liked very much. It has done that in multiple other crises as well, and now the people of Puerto Rico are calling.”

Maybe Hillary Clinton can use some influence with her daughter and son-in-law to use their hedge fund influence to get the vulture funds to back off. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders can continue in his efforts to restructure the Rigged-Market Capitalism in this country to be more like a Fair-Market Capitalism with a skosh more Democratic Socialism.

Alternet has the article The Brazen Ways the Charter School Industry Rips You Off: Charter schools have squandered or stolen millions of taxpayer dollars.

The yearlong investigation makes clear that many federal and state education officials have bought into the school privatization movement’s rhetoric that an intentional lack of public oversight, reporting and accountability enables school operators to efficiently and creatively bring education innovation to underserved communities. The report points out that state after state has adopted legislation transferring the oversight of charters—which are still public schools—from locally elected school boards to remote and newly created state “authorizer” offices. Even though this template was created and promoted by right-wing advocacy groups with deep anti-union sentiments, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, it has been embraced by blue and red states, as well as top federal education officials under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
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“What has evolved as a result of the more than $3.7 billion… the feds have spent fueling charters—plus other sums from states—is a classic example of ‘industry capture’ of the agencies charged with oversight by the industry they are tasked with overseeing,” CMD explains. “With such capture comes agency devotion to protecting funding, insulated by a lack of transparency about funding oversight and distorted through agency relationships with charter industry cheerleaders… That flexibility has allowed an epidemic of fraud, waste and mismanagement that would not be tolerated in public schools. Charters are policed—if they are policed at all—mainly by charter proponents.”

Doing away with oversight is a classical ploy of con artists to allow then to get away with their crimes. Of course they always claim that oversight will hamper the effectiveness of their programs. What they really mean is that oversight will hamper their efforts to con you.

The CMD report shatters the myth that the private sector always knows best how to do what is difficult and challenging for government. Its recommendations are timid when considering that its report shows public school privatizers can be as abuse-prone as the privatized prison industry or military contractors serving in war zones overseas. CMD is not calling for a pause or moratorium on continued charter school growth, simply for every level of government involved to track where the money is going and to publicly disclose it.

“This investigation reveals huge and continuing gaps in information provided to the public about federal and state tax dollars received by charters and how American taxpayer money is being spent,” the report concludes, adding that to respond “to these severe gaps” federal and state officials “should publish” annually detailed financial information about every school receiving government subsidies, as well as report any school that “never opens or closes voluntarily, or for any reason.”

Here is another example of moving activities from the Democratic Socialism sector of our social system to the Rigged-market Capitalism Sector. See my previous post New Terminology for Socio-Economic-Political Systems for a definition of these terms.

The New York Times has the article A Dangerous Cycle in Food Production.

Enormous fields devoted to just one crop leave bees with a diet that lacks variety, and is available only during the short window when that plant is in bloom. Efficient modern practices mean the patches of weeds and wildflowers that once provided feeding grounds for bees in and around farms are no longer available.

Sharon was reading this article when she said to me, “See, this is why I don’t want you to mow our field of wild flowers and weeds.”

I said, “OK, I get it. I guess we will only use our lawn tractor to plow the snow and to vacuum up the leaves in fall.” I am just waiting for the article that explains how bad the ecology is of clearing leaves and blowing snow. I may have to break out those cross-country skis and buy some snow shoes yet.

YouTube has the video Bernie Sanders Full Speech at Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

I was afraid that when I got up today to read the news, I would find that the corporate media, in their parallel universe, would have heard a different speech. I was pleased to read The Washington Post article After a strong stretch for Clinton, Sanders turns more aggressive.

Aware of the new landscape, Sanders (I-Vt.) is drawing new and more aggressive contrasts with Clinton.

This is exactly what I noticed. He hasn’t changed his policy stances. If you have listened to as many of his speeches as I have, you won’t hear any new policy ideas in the current speech. However, you will hear a slightly different tone in how he articulates some of them.

This one quote is an example of the difference.

If you still don’t get it, I will paraphrase. “Hillary Clinton had to agonize long and hard to figure out which side of this issue she was going to be on. On such a simple issue, do you want a President who doesn’t know almost immediately what the correct stance is? Does she have any principles you can depend on? Sure she says all the right things now, but what will she do once she is in office? Do you want to risk it?”

Nation of Change has the article WikiLeaks Releases CIA Director’s Hacked Emails. This is just too good to pass up recording this on this blog.

Unbeknownst to the hacker, Brennan had forwarded government documents, including an application form with Brennan’s personal information, geopolitical strategies for Iran, and positions concerning the legalities of torture, from his government work email address to his personal AOL account. Other emails contained the personal information and Social Security numbers of over a dozen top U.S. intelligence officials as well as Brennan’s own personal info, including his home address, date of birth, phone numbers, etc.
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In a memo titled “The Conundrum of Iran,” Brennan wrote, “The World Wars of the 20th Century and their aftermath made Iran a pawn of global politics, as illustrated by the CIA-engineered overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953, which allowed the pro-U.S. Shah to return to power and rule with an iron hand for the next 25 years.”
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So many top U.S. intelligence officials are unable to maintain basic security over sensitive data with the most recent hacked private email account of CIA Director John Brennan. Are these hackers confirming that the wrong people have been leading this country for far too long?

Read the details of how the hacker social engineered his way into the accounts. You should think carefully about your own accounts after reading the details.

Here is an email I received from the Bernie Sanders campaign.

The Atlantic has the article History Class and the Fictions About Race in America. Ths subtitle to the article is:

High-school textbooks too often gloss over the American government’s oppression of racial minorities.

To sum it all up there is this quote.

“At its best, history embodies the triumph of evidence over ideology,” Loewen wrote. “Textbooks do not embody history at its best … White history may be appropriate for a white nation. It is inappropriate for a great nation. The United States is not a white nation. It has never been a white nation. It is time for us to give up our white history in favor of a more accurate history, based more closely on the historical record… Surely a great nation can afford that.”

I have blogged about Loewen and his book a number of times.

How many of the current political disagreements do you think are caused by the faulty teaching of history? There are facts that many people are absolutely sure of that are just not so.

From my Quotes page we have the following:

Mark Twain

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

The Root has the article Why Most Black Voters Still Aren’t Feeling Bernie Sanders.

Still, there’s something in the way he’s doing it that’s not clicking with most African-American voters. This isn’t an argument against Sanders. It’s genuine fascination with his dilemma, because no candidate can win the Democratic nomination without the black vote. Despite memorable debate lines and cover for an email-embattled Clinton, Sanders didn’t really budge all that much with black voters. Here are three main reasons that’s the case … and why it probably stays that way:

Even on the Tavis Smiley interview, Bernie Sanders immediately went to the economic issues as the reason why black voters should support him. For once in his life, maybe he could start out with BLM and Sandra Bland before he gets to economic issues and high rates of incarceration.

The anger issue comes up in thie article in a slightly different way.

2. Bernie should watch more black pastors on Sunday. While it’s still anecdotal, the core of Sanders’ black-voter problem could be this: He’s too depressing. Comedian Larry David couldn’t resist the temptation in last week’s SNL skit to call out Sanders’ aggressive “the sky is falling” ethos.

For sure, African-American voters generally love the public figures who claim to “keep it real” and cast rebellious shade at the “system.” But candidates who successfully woo black constituencies are those who can illustrate hope.

Sure, the black interruptions at the Sanders events have displayed a lot of anger. That’s only the side of the discussion that we have seen. There are other facets to the discussion.