Workers and Wage Slaves, Banks and Wall Street, Mortgages and Foreclosures; Debt Default, Obamacare, GOP, Corruption; NSA Spying and Surveillance, Police State

Workers and Wage Slaves

• California Legislature approves raising minimum wage to $10—"The bill would boost the state's minimum wage of $8 an hour to $10 by 2016. Gov. Jerry Brown said he would sign it."
• Report Suggests Nearly Half of U.S. Jobs Are Vulnerable to Computerization—"Oxford researchers say that 45 percent of America's occupations will be automated within the next 20 years."
• Workplace morale heads down: 70% of Americans negative about their jobs, Gallup study shows—"'Bosses from hell' are giving U.S. workers the Monday blues. Gallup's 2013 State of the American Workplace report had grim findings, including that 70% of those surveyed either hate work or are completely disengaged, and perks don't help."
• SEC moves toward mandate on CEO-worker pay gap—"Public companies would have to show the difference in pay between their CEOs and ordinary employees under a proposal advanced by federal regulators."
• The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989

Banks and Wall Street

• Poll: Americans say Washington, Wall Street haven't done enough to thwart financial crises
• Elizabeth Warren: Scaling back 'too big'—"The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act would reduce the risk of another crash."
• Druckenmiller: Fed robbing poor to pay rich
• Larry Summers pulls out of US Federal Reserve race
• JPMorgan Chase Is Said to Admit Fault in Settlement of Trade Loss—"Global authorities are preparing to levy more than $700 million in fines against JPMorgan Chase over the bank's huge trading loss in London last year." NYT
• Awkward: CNBC host speechless after Barney Frank asks about high salaries for 'poor' bankers
• Trading bots create extreme events faster than humans can react—"Our algorithms now show collective behavior that we do not control."

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• Homeowners vs. Big Bad Banks—"Those defrauded by Bank of America aren't allowed to file a collective complaint, thanks to a 2011 Supreme Court ruling."
• NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on lenders: 'Never take your eyes off of them'
• Orange Co. man sentenced for $100M mortgage fraud

Debt Default

• Obama targets GOP divisions on budget—"I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos when it doesn't get everything it wants."
• Gridlock Might Destroy the US Economy, But It's Still Good for Business
• If we get a debt ceiling crisis, it's because Republican voters want one

Obamacare

• Fox News' Krauthammer: Cruz leading Republican 'suicide caucus' by opposing Obamacare
• The Tea Party Really, Really, Really Wants to Sabotage Obamacare
• Senate Republicans, Chamber of Commerce Call On House GOP To Abandon Shutdown Threat
• O'Reilly Blasts GOP Effort To Defund Obamacare As 'Fanaticism'—One rep had the audacity to claim by passing the bill they were "following the tradition of two American civil rights icons."
• Lone House GOPer Explains 'No' Vote On Defunding Obamacare
• Cruz-ing On Empty: Ted Exposed By Shutdown Debacle—Start making the popcorn.
• Did Chuck Todd Really Say Media Not Responsible to Correct Obamacare 'Falsehoods?'

GOP

• GOP madness on display—"They want deeper cuts, all from domestic programs like education and clean water. They want more, not less money for the military. They oppose any increase in taxes, even objecting to closing down the tax dodges that reward companies for stashing money and reporting profits abroad. They want to repeal Obamacare without replacing it. They even are moving a bill to cut billions out of food stamps, a program that protects families in trouble from going hungry. And they are so divided among themselves that they have rejected their own leadership's proposals to keep government open."
• White House vows to veto Republican bill to cut food stamps—GOP Rep's bible-quote: 'If Anyone Is Not Willing To Work, Let Him Not Eat'. Republican Jesus would be proud.
• Safety Net for Crops Means $14 Billion Tab for Taxpayers
• Rep. Gingrey: 'I'm stuck here making $172,000'—"During the meeting, Republicans discussed a proposal to exempt lawmakers and their staff from a new law requiring them to participate in federal health-care exchanges."
• Kansas GOP group says party 'hijacked' by extremists—Ain't just in Kansas anymore.
• Colorado House Republicans Unanimously Support Flood Relief, Unanimously Opposed Sandy Aid
• John Boehner's Congress is a train wreck—"He's the guy in charge of the worst-performing part of one of the worst-performing Congresses in history."

Corruption

• What is the cause of Detroit's Power Outage?—"City of Detroit Chief Compliance Officer, Gary Brown smiled as he talked to Wiley about the 'intentional outages' on camera: We did start calling our customers prior to taking them down and asking them to turn off air conditioners, but they weren't responding as fast as we would like them to so we had to send them a strong message by turning the power off."
• Political donations from vets scammer downplayed—"The Ohio attorney general's multi-state case against a man accused of fraud after collecting as much as $100 million in the name of Navy veterans doesn't address the man's donations to a who's who of mostly Republican politicians, including the attorney general himself."
• DeLay thanks God after aquittal for money laundering

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• Justice Dept. watchdog never probed judges' NSA concerns—"In response to a FOIA request from USA TODAY, the Justice Department said its ethics office never looked into complaints from two federal judges that they had been misled about NSA surveillance." The watchdogs need watching, apparently.
• NSA chiefs defend agency's conduct in letter to families of employees—"General Keith Alexander and deputy director John Inglis sign letter 'in light of unauthorised disclosure of classified information."
• Belgacom Attack: Britain's GCHQ Hacked Belgian Telecoms Firm—"A cyber attack on Belgacom raised considerable attention last week. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden and seen by SPIEGEL indicate that Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency was responsible for the attack."
• ACLU: The Government is Spying on You: ACLU Releases New Evidence of Overly Broad Surveillance of Everyday Activities
• Cracked.com: 4 Reasons to Stop Freaking Out About the NSA

Police State

• Licensed to Kill: The Growing Phenomenon of Police Shooting Unarmed Citizens
• FBI calls half of populace with 9/11 doubts potential terrorists—"The FBI is instructing local police departments and "communities against terrorism" to consider anyone who harbors 'conspiracy theories' about 9/11 to be a potential terrorist, in a circular released to local police departments."
• California college bars student from handing out copies of Constitution