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The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government-a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF's staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we're running out of time.

We are not investing in America by these spending cuts, but rather breaking the great Republic into more pieces for sale to the lowest corporate bidder. This is the privatization of America and the turning of citizens into sharecroppers.

As the New York Times has detailed, "Some of the nation's largest corporations have amassed vast profits outside the country and are pressing Congress and the Obama administration for a tax break to bring the money home." Yet, across America, thousands of teachers are being laid off, programs to help feed needy children have been eliminated, and Medicare is under attack. It's time for us to fight back and tell Congress that corporations need to pay their fair share. The first step? Understanding the complex accounting tricks and loopholes giant corporations use to evade taxes. Here's the video that explains it all:

As the Congress does its imitation of dealing with the debt ceiling crisis, why is it newsworthy that the Senate has canceled its holiday break?

We are at a pivotal moment in American history, and many Americans watching the deficit talks in Washington are confused, perplexed, angry and frustrated. This country, which has paid its debts from Day 1, must pay its debts. Anyone who says it is not a big deal for this country to default clearly does not understand what he or she is talking about. This is a nation whose faith and credit has been the gold standard of countries throughout the world. Some people simply say we're not going to pay our debt, that there's nothing to really worry about. Those are people who are wishing our economy harm for political reasons, and those are people whose attitudes will have terrible consequences for virtually every working family in this country in terms of higher interest rates, in terms of significant job loss, in terms of making a very unstable global economy even more unstable. Our right-wing friends in the House of Representatives have given us an option. What they have said is end Medicare as we know it and force elderly people, many of whom don't have the money, to pay substantially more for their health care. So when you're 70 under their plan and you get sick and you don't have a whole lot of income, we don't know what happens to you. They forget to tell us that if their plan was passed you're going to have to pay a heck of a lot more for the prescription drugs you're getting today. They we're going to throw millions of kids off health insurance. If your mom or dad is in a nursing home and that nursing home bill is paid significantly by Medicaid and Medicaid isn't paying anymore, they forgot to tell us what happens to your mom or dad in that nursing home. What happens? And what happens today if you are unemployed and you're not able to get unemployment extension? What happens if you are a middle-class family desperately trying to send their kids to college and you make savage cuts to Pell grants and you can't go to college? What does it mean for the nation if we

It's an often-repeated talking point among Republicans as Washington debates taxes and spending: "We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem." It's recycled, like much of today's Republican thinking, from President Reagan, but Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) stretched the argument to its breaking point on MSNBC this morning when he said that government revenues are currently at "record" highs:

Las Vegas Shooting - A Man In A Pig Mask Opens Fire At Bellagio Hotel Shooter wearing a pig mask open fire and sends people running for their lives at Las Vegas in a popular US tourist hotspot. http://bit.ly/2n2uxMZ

http://bit.ly/2mC8ba6 Leeds Army Barracks On Lockdown As Bomb Squad Rush In The home to the Parachute Regiment at Leeds army barracks is on lockdown as police probe a bomb ...Read More The post Leeds Army Barracks On Lockdown As Bomb Squad Rush I… Leeds Army Barracks On Lockdown As Bomb Squad Rush In The home to the Parachute Regiment at Leeds army barracks is on lockdown as police probe a bomb ...Read More The post Leeds Army Barracks On Lockdown As Bomb Squad Rush Into… http://bit.ly/2mC8ba6

Walking past the bodies of Iraqi soldiers, a member of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team asks quitely, "Why do we do these things to one another?"

At least two Republicans joined Democrats in a key cloture vote moments ago, allowing debate on a jobs package to move forward. After overcoming this hurdle, debate on the bill can begin.

One of the things that never gets mentioned in the endless praise of military tribunals is that their actual record is really bad. And now comes word that Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan immigrant arrested last year for planning a bombing campaign in the US, began spilling the beans over the last month about the plot, his accomplices and more. Zazi is expected to plead guilty as part of a plea deal this afternoon in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.