This chart looks remarkably similar to a chart that tracks the growth of the administrative class in higher education. And that’s no accident.

Comcast & Verizon want to end net neutrality so they can control what we see & do online. On July 12, we take the first step to stop them. This is a battle for the Internet's future. Before you do anything else, send a letter to the FCC & Congress now!

If you ever had any doubt that democrats consider your money theirs, Nancy Pelosi just erased that. According to her, if you are “allowed” to keep the money you earn, that’s really stealing from poor people who didn’t earn it. I know this is some dizzying liberal logic, but that’s how they like things. Their hope is to make things so confusing that you can’t tell how bullshit it all is.

America Has Had Enough of BIG PHARMA…

And the Anti-Vaccine Movement Intends to Shut Them down Completely…

Opinion by “Deplorable” Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen

Next year’s rate hikes proposed by the three health insurance companies in Montana that offer individual plans through the Affordable Care Act show just how uncertain they are about the federal law’s future.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana is proposing a 23 percent average rate increase next year for its nearly 32,000 enrollees in the individual market.

Military adviser Nicholai Afanasov was fatally wounded by artillery shells in Hama, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"As a result of a sudden mortar attack by militants the town of Syrian Government troops in Hama province killed Russian military adviser Captain Nikolai Afanasov," the MoD added. Afanasov was stationed in Syria to assist and advise in the training of ground forces.

Cumulus Investment Management, a UK investment firm which has previously come under fire for advising clients to invest in a high-risk Ukrainian property scheme, has officially been dissolved.

Senate Democrats have identified potential new allies in their effort to scuttle the current health-care proposal: Republican governors, particularly those who helped expand Medicaid in their states under the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (Del.), who is leading the effort with the support of fellow Democrats, called “a couple dozen” senators and governors from both parties over the recess, he said in an interview, to say “this is a good time for us to hit the pause button in the Senate, and step back and have some good heart-to-heart conversations” about how to revise the 2010 law.

Carper said the fact that the National Governors Association is holding its summer meeting in Providence, R.I., later this week could give governors a chance to weigh in on the debate.

Lithuania’s Defense Ministry has made a surprise announcement today that the United States has deployed an unspecified number of Patriot missile batteries into Lithuania, nominally for a military drill that is ongoing for the next two weeks.

This marks the first time such advanced US anti-aircraft weapons have been deployed into one of the Baltic states, and the deployment is expected to last beyond the current exercise, with Lithuanian officials saying it proves the US military commitment to them.

Lithuanian officials have the impression the missiles would be there at least through Russia’s own military exercises in the region in September, which are expected to be held near the NATO border regions, and which Lithuanian officials have been hyping as a “threat.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday the Senate will delay the start of its summer recess to finish action on repealing Obamacare and other priority items.

“In order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle, the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of August,” McConnell said in a statement.

The Senate, which usually leaves for a month-long summer recess in August, had been scheduled to go on break at the end of July but has been under pressure to cancel recess to do more work.

The announcement came shortly after a group of senators, mostly freshmen, called for leaders to skip the August recess so the Senate could handle critical business, including health care and tax reform.

Sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry say Moscow may finally expel some 30 American diplomats in retaliation for a similar measure adopted in the previous US administration.

In a report published on Tuesday , the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia quoted officials as saying that if the US does not correct a decision by former President Barack Obama on expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and seizure of Russia’s diplomatic compounds, Russia could retaliate in the foreseeable future.

The United States has circulated a draft resolution that would impose new sanctions on North Korea following its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, two U.N. diplomats said Monday.

The proposed resolution has been circulated to North Korea's closest ally and main trading partner, China, as well as the three other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Russia, Britain and France, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.

The spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said he had "no comment" on the report.

North Korea's successful test launch of an ICBM last week was a milestone in its long-term effort to build a missile with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States. President Donald Trump searched for consensus with Asian allies Saturday on how to counter what he called the "menace" of North Korea

Cryptocurrencies, or cybercurrencies, which were in a massive financial mania until their sudden selloff that started last month, have two actual applications: online gambling and money laundering. Neither is the heart of a major business model. But that’s it.

And these, preposterously, are the fundamentals behind a mania that has driven these currencies up thirtyfold, so that today, in aggregate, the market for them is a staggering $82 billion.

None of the defenders’ other arguments stack up.

Online currencies are hardly a “store of value” when they can fall, say, about 30% in a week.

'The Americans have findings that show our pilots were aware the ship was American,' a newly published document by the State Archives says.

Israel apologized and paid compensation to the victims’ families. Israeli and American commissions of inquiry found that the attack was a mistake. But naturally, as often happens in such events, to this day there are some who believe Israel attacked the ship with malicious intent.

A conspiracy? Healthy suspicion? Call it what you will. A new book published in May in the United States (its authors include several survivors of the attack) promises that “the truth is being told as never before and the real story revealed.” The 302 pages of “Remember the Liberty!: Almost Sunk by Treason on the High Seas” include quite a number of documents, testimonies, arguments and information that were gathered in the subsequent 50 years.

The British High Court today handed down a pair of judgement on the lawsuit by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), which was seeking to stop continued British arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The open judgement was that the sales can continue without restrictions.

The lawsuit was based on UK and EU law both forbidding arms exports when there is a “clear risk” the arms would be used to break international humanitarian law, and the widespread war crimes the Saudis are committing in the course of the Yemen War.

The judge in the ruling claimed the UK government necessarily has better information on the Saudi war crimes than CAAT would, though specifics are only in a secret “closed judgement” offered for “national security reasons.”

US officials familiar with the situation say that the Trump Administration is likely to announce a dramatic “ramping up” of US involvement in Libya, appointing a new US ambassador, and setting up a permanent US military presence in the nation.

While the military operation appears primarily aimed at supporting the “unity government” in Tripoli, officials suggest it might also see some US troops deployed to war-torn Benghazi, currently under the control of a rival faction, with an eye toward eventually uniting the country under unity government rule.

The US officials say that the administration is happy with their increased involvement in Somalia, and is looking to replicate that sudden escalation in Libya, trying to carve out a permanent US presence in the country, and ensure that whoever ends up in power becomes a US client.

Bruno Maçães, who was Portugal’s EU minister between July 2013 and November 2015 told the Express.co.uk that Italians were increasingly drawing the link between the country’s economic woes and its EU membership.

Mr Maçães said: ‘The big problem is that Italy has not grown since the start of the euro, its been basically stagnant for 16 or 17 years.

“This is not sustainable, and of course more and more people are making the connection and asking, publicly, whether the euro is to blame for Italian stagnation.

The Italian state has stepped in with funding to save yet another failing bank, meaning taxpayers now stand responsible for over 22 billion euros ($25.4 billion) of bailout money recently extended to the sector.

Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan announced late Tuesday that the government had received approval from the European Commission to pump 5.4 billion euros into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) in exchange for the lender undertaking a major restructuring overhaul.

Hours after Iraqi officials declared the demise of ISIS, the White House highlighted how Mr Obama was unable to make the same developments against the terror network as the incumbent White House.

Insisting their efforts have led to the “failure and collapse” of the terror network, the White House said: “Today, Iraqi Security Forces, supported by the United States and the Global Coalition, liberated the city of Mosul from its long nightmare under the rule of ISIS.

“We congratulate Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi Security Forces, and all Iraqis for their victory over terrorists who are the enemies of all civilised people.

We are thoroughly inured to poverty, pain, agony, and harsh life, so no matter what Israel does to us short of physical extermination, we will remain a thorn in its side until Israel’s comes to terms with our humanity and human rights, including the right to absolute equality. After all, Ismael was not a child of a lesser God.

It was the end of the big year with three zeroes. The first X-Men movie had broken box office records. You couldn’t set foot in a supermarket without listening to Brittney Spears caterwauling, “Oops, I Did It Again.” And Republicans and Democrats had total control of both chambers of legislatures in the same amount of states. That was the way it was back in the distant days of the year 2000.

In 2016, Republicans control both legislative chambers in 32 states. That’s up from 16 in 2000.

What happened to the big donkey? Among other things, the Democrats decided to sell their base and their soul to a very bad billionaire and they got a very bad deal for both.

Reuters reported: Israel’s foreign ministry has issued a statement denouncing U.S. billionaire George Soros, a move that appeared designed to align Israel more closely with Hungary ahead of a visit to Budapest next week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

George Soros told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend he is responsible for establishing a foundation in Ukraine that ultimately contributed to the overthrow of the country’s elected leader and the installation of a junta handpicked by the State Department.

“First on Ukraine, one of the things that many people recognized about you was that you during the revolutions of 1989 funded a lot of dissident activities, civil society groups in eastern Europe and Poland, the Czech Republic. Are you doing similar things in Ukraine?” Zakaria asked Soros.

“Well, I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia. And the foundation has been functioning ever since and played an important part in events now,” Soros responded.

A top member of South Africa’s ruling social democratic party says that the United States is trying to foment regime change in his country, and that Washington must clarify the “irregular activities” of some of its diplomats there.

“There seems to be irregular activities coming from the US Embassy,” Keith Khoza, a spokesman for the African National Congress Party, said.

The ANC will relay its concerns to Washington through diplomatic channels, he said.

As Senate Republicans continue to deliberate over a repeal and replacement of President Obama’s signature health care law, a wave of organized leftist protests descended upon Capitol Hill Monday. Police report that up to 80 protesters were arrested.

The protests lasted several hours and were organized by groups such as MoveOn.org under the hash tag #killthebill.

Democrats in the California state legislature are asking lobbyists to provide data on the race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of their firms’ employees — while the state refuses to give voter data to President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission.

Just six months after leaving office, former US President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a return to the political stage this week in support of Ralph Northam, the democratic gubernatorial candidate for the state of Virginia.

A large refugee camp located on the Greek island of Lesbos has been set on fire during a protest staged by the migrants and refugees accommodated at the facility, who expressed their discontent with the poor living conditions at the center.

Most Poles would rather leave the European Union (EU) than have Brussels force migrants from third world nations on their country, a poll has shown.

Conducted by pollster IBRiS and published in weekly news magazine Polityka, the survey found that 57 per cent of respondents would be willing to forego EU development funds if it meant Poland retains sovereignty on the issue of accepting migrants from outside Europe.

The seventh-poorest, and fifth most populous nation in the bloc, Poland is the largest beneficiary of its development funds and membership has high support — with 71 per cent of Poles believing that belonging to the EU is a “good thing”, according to a March survey by Eurobarometer.

Earlier today the website DailyKos reported on a smear campaign plot to falsely accuse Julian Assange of pedophilia.

Here is the description of the plot from Mr Assange’s legal team, the investigative report into the front company and associated correspondence. An unknown entity posing as an internet dating agency prepared an elaborate plot to falsely claim that Julian Assange received US$1 million from the Russian government and a second plot to frame him sexually molesting an eight year old girl.

I am not the only musician whose career they try to destroy. Roger Waters is also subject to a vile Zionist smear campaign. The Jewish press reports that a documentary titled Wish You Weren’t Here by Ian Halperin is about to hit the screens in every shtetle around the world.

Former CIA Analyst Fred Fleitz said Monday on Fox News that a "handpicked group of 12 analysts" wrote the US intelligence report which blamed Russia for "hacking the election" and he believes it was "rigged" and "fabricated" by "pro-Obama intelligence officials."

Asked to weigh in on how the New York Times and the Associated Press retracted the false claim "17 intelligence agencies" agreed Russia hacked our election, Fleitz said: "There's certain procedures to write an assessment like this, all intelligence agencies are supposed to weigh in, only three agencies did."

"And we found out from former Director of National Intelligence Clapper a hand-picked group of 12 analysts wrote this -- that's extraordinary," he said. "The CIA, there are hundreds of experts who should have had a hand in this."

A new internal US Army investigation found that the most deadly chemical and biological agents known to man were improperly handled and tracked at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground. Dugway was the focus of international headlines in a 2015 investigation which found that "egregious safety failures" over the period of a decade resulted in the shipping of live anthrax spores to 194 laboratories located in 50 states and nine foreign countries via commercial shipping companies like FedEx. At the time of the 2015 scandal, over two dozen personnel at Dugway were treated for potential anthrax exposure, and an Army review board disciplined ten civilian and military overseers, which included "career-killing" reprimands of the base commander, Brig. Gen. William King.

It started with a few women speaking up, reporting a suggestive text message, an invitation to a hotel room, an unwanted touch under a table.

Soon more women came forward. Allegations of sexual harassment multiplied, sweeping through Silicon Valley like a powerful storm that in a few short weeks has cost multiple high-level tech investors and CEOs their jobs, and shaken the industry to its core.

Hillary Clinton team members “threatened the lives” of NBC investigative reporters in order to shut down an investigation into a State Department pedophile ring cover up scandal, according to a member of the NBC production staff.

The day after an NBC news broadcast broke the news of a pedophile ring cover up within the State Department, “members of the Clinton team” contacted executives at NBC and threatened reporters working on the investigation with “the most serious kind of consequences“.

The infamous NBC investigation was broadcast at a time when the network was a real news organization rather than a branch of the Democratic Party’s PR department, and provided internal State Department memos to back up claims of a massive Hillary Clinton elite pedophile ring cover-up.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies conducted a surprise operation against US-backed militants in the desert east of Damascus. Government forces liberated Dier Nasrani, Rajm Bakar, Jabal Makhoul, Bi’r Makhoul, Jabal Seis, Tal Sad Risha, Al-Qasr, Khirbat umm Atayiq, Banat Baeir, Surat Aliyah, Tulul al-Faddayn, Tal al-Asfar, and nearby points.

The aim of the operation was to clear the militant-held pocket northeast of Suweida and to oppress the units of US-backed militant groups operating in the area since they pose a threat to the countryside of the Syrian capital. According to some sources, US-backed forces have already withdrawn from the area. However, this still has to be confirmed.

As the media continues to freak out about the Trump campaign’s connection to Russia, Hillary Clinton just received terrible news about her persistently problematic email habits.

An anonymous Twitter user just dumped over 28,000 emails from Clinton herself on the social media platform:

For decades suburbia was home to the highest concentration of wealth in America, and perhaps even the entire world. It was the seat of our nation’s thriving middle class and a beacon of economic mobility. The streets were clean and safe, the schools were highly regarded, and there were plenty of middle class jobs to be had.

But something has changed in suburbia. While offshoring and automation have destroyed millions of jobs across the country, the decimation of brick and mortar stores by online retailers has pounded the wealth base of suburbia. So much so, that there are more people living in poverty in suburbia than any other place in America.

As Democrats continue to defend an obviously failed Obamacare system, the effects of soaring rates and collapsing coverage options seem to be taking a toll on the number of people actually buying health insurance these days. According to the "Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index," the percentage of uninsured adults in the U.S. bottomed out at 10.9% in Q4 2016 but has since increased to 11.7% in just the first two quarters of 2017.

No one should be surprised that neocons are unhappy with a ceasefire in Syria.

America working with Russia is a cardinal sin according to the neocon bible. Senator John McCain is very unhappy that Putin is "getting away" with this:

New meta-analysis has emerged from a document published today by an independent researcher known as The Forensicator, which suggests that files eventually published by the Guccifer 2.0 persona were likely initially downloaded by a person with physical access to a computer possibly connected to the internal DNC network. The individual most likely used a USB drive to copy the information. The groundbreaking new analysis irrevocably destroys the Russian hacking narrative, and calls the actions of Crowdstrike and the DNC into question.

The document supplied to Disobedient Media via Adam Carter was authored by an individual known as The Forensicator. The full document referenced here has been published on their blog. Their analysis indicates the data was almost certainly not accessed initially by a remote hacker, much less one in Russia. If true, this analysis obliterates the Russian hacking narrative completely.

In the latest US attempt to mediate and resolve the Qatar crisis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to the Gulf on Monday for talks aimed at ending the standoff between a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia and the wealthy nat gas exporter, which has led to more than a month of economic, financial and naval blockade. The State Department said Tillerson, who forged extensive ties in the Gulf as CEO of ExxonMobil, would hold talks with leaders in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He was flying from Istanbul where he attended an international petroleum conference. R.C. Hammond, a senior adviser to Tillerson, added that the former Exxon CEO would explore ways to end a stalemate following Qatar’s rejection of 13 demands issued as condition for ending sanctions.

Following Qatar's refusal to comply with the ultimatum, which included the closure of Al Jazeera and a Turkish militarybase in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and its backers have threatened further sanctions against the emirate.

In a bizarre diplomatic development, none other than the state of Israel has branded billionaire philanthropist George Soros, one of Hillary Clinton's most generous donors, a "threat", accusing him of "continuously undermining Israel's democratically elected governments" and saying that Soros-funded organizations "defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself".

How did this escalation materialize?

The disgrace of America’s putative intellectual class is nearly complete as it shoves the polity further into dysfunction and toward collapse. These are the people Nassim Taleb refers to as “intellectuals-yet-idiots.” Big questions loom over this dynamic: How did the thinking class of America sink into this slough of thoughtlessness? And why – what is motivating them?

One path to understanding it can be found in this sober essay by Neal Devers, The Overton Bubble, published two years ago on TheFuturePrimaeval.net — a friend turned me on to it the other day (dunno how I missed it). The title is a reference to the phenomenon known as the Overton Window.

The US Nimitz Carrier Strike Group arrived in India for war games with the Japanese and Indian navies known as Malabar 2017, the US Navy announced Monday.