Three Democrats and one Republican in the US Senate have introduced legislation to get control over the NSA. Congressional hearings begin today on a proposal the senators promise will not be "cosmetic" reform, but offer real protections to the US. Brazil? Not so much.
The Republican leadership in Congress has threatened to bring the national political process to a halt in an "I'll hold my breath until I am blue" move over funding the Afordable Care Act. Just around the corner is the "debate" over raising the national debt ceiling. Threatening a government shutdown, some Republican leaders seem prepared to run us over an economic cliff to score points. Is this what we need from Congress?
Finally, with close to a hundred billion dollars a month being poured into banks and corporate profits as big as they have ever been, it seems impossible to imagine a different economic future. The way we are headed we may have almost no control over our food, jobs, money supply or much of anything else. Even projects we may like, such as solar power projects, can turn into a nightmare because they are so big. Is it actually possible to have an economy "too big to fail", or are we headed for more economic hard times?
The US Naval Yard shooter has been identified as a civilian contractor from Texas named Aaron Alexis. At least 12 have been killed according to reports.
Did the Detroit emergency manager intentionally cause a partial power outage in Detroit to facilitate privatizing the cities power grid? Several people were injured and many more trapped in elevators when electrical power was purposely cut to certain sectors of the city. Bill Nowling of Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's office and City of Detroit-Chief Compliance Officer, Gary Brown both admitted that the power outages were intentional but tried to blame it on potential problems with the entire grid ad Brown said if they did not shut off the power DTE would have. However, DTE offcials say that Brown is lying and they supply the power but don’t choose where the power goes.
Lawrence Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, has withdrawn his name from consideration to become the next Federal Reserve Chair. Many progressives, including Elizabeth Warren were vocal critics of Summers attempts to deregulate the financial sector when he was Treasury secretary under President Clinton.
In local news, last week South Carolina electrical cooperatives are backing the first large-scale solar farm which will be built in the countryside near Walterboro.
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While it is premature to point fingers at who is responsible for an alleged chemical attack in Syria, NATO allies, including France, Britain and Turkey and pushing for more US involvement in the two year old civil war. However, President Obama stated that he does not expect to have boots on the ground in the war torn country. The President said, "Sometimes what we've seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping into stuff that does not turn out well, gets us mired in very difficult situations, can result in us being drawn into very expensive, difficult, costly interventions that actually breed more resentment in the region. The United States continues to be the one country that people expect can do more than just simply protect their borders. But that does not mean that we have to get involved with everything immediately,".
City Council members in Columbia, South Carolina recently voted to criminalize the homeless. According to the city’s “Emergency Homeless Response” report, Columbia has become a “magnet for homeless people,” and that businesses and the area’s safety are suffering as a result, council members agreed on Aug. 14 to give people on the streets the option to either relocate, or get arrested.
The State is reporting that South Carolina’s electric cooperatives have stopped a solar energy forum that was supposed to let people explain how the state can improve rules governing sun power which are described as being the most unfriendly in the nation to customers.
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