Sanctions against Iran are provoking war, not peace.

Glenn Greenwald points out that the severe sanctions against Iran are bringing the U.S. to the brink of war. His article embeds a video featuring Iran expert Vali Nasr, who indicates that President Obama has never yet been serious about negotiating with Iran, and will not likely engage in diplomacy in this election year. The heightened tensions are going to make an "accidental" war with Iran likely. In the meantime, our so-called media is increasingly engaging in "stenographic journalism," sounding the drumbeat for war using techniques that are pathetically predictable.

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What Next, Cardinal Fans? Let’s Save America.

OK Cardinals fans. Now that we’ve won our 11th World Series and Tony La Russa has retired, it’s time to look after the future of America. I know we’re concerned about whether losing Albert will sink us in the NL Central Division as well as Matheny as the new manager and all the other player issues. Some issues are just for us as Cardinal Nation. Cardinal Nation has a call to duty for the rest of America which needs to be done first. I mean, we aren’t the best baseball town in America for nothing, eh? We’ve had our tussles with proposed constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage and to keep the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Before the GOP brings up another proposed constitutional ban of flag burning or to punish children born to illegal aliens and foreign visitors, I say it’s time to for Cardinal Nation and the rest of America us take up the fight against the greatest threat to American values which MUST be stopped---we have to pass a US Constitutional amendment to ban foreign teams from winning baseball’s World Series. [More . . . ]

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The extent to which the banks own Congress

To what extent do the banks own Congress? Paul Blumenthal reports at Huffpo:

When Washington puts policy on the auction block, bankers are consistently the highest bidders. The industry's most striking victory has been the watering down of post-financial crisis reforms, to the point that banks are now bigger than ever and the bonuses keep flowing. But Wall Street's campaign spending and lobbying power is so intimidating that banks have repeatedly stuck the public with the tab for their losses and no one in Washington stops them. Why hasn't the government done something about outrageous ATM fees? Or credit card interest rates up to 30 percent? Bankers' clout is such that common-sense pro-consumer legislation is presumptively dead on arrival at Capitol Hill if it threatens banks' revenue streams.

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