George Nader, the international businessman of mystery who is now cooperating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller, was indicted in 1985 on obscenity charges involving child pornography.

Nader is a political operative who was seen frequently at the White House during the early days of the administration of President Donald Trump. — Read the rest

Eight of Trump's 17 cabinet secretaries do not release any information about their travel schedules — a standard practice under the Obama and GW Bush administrations; 4 others only release incomplete, "sporadic" information; Treasury only started releasing Munichin's schedule in November and six departments illegally withhold details on who their cabinet secretaries meet with (two released some information after being sued).

The US Department of Education's Inspector General has released a report saying that the DoE has stopped cancelling the debts of students who were defrauded by fake universities.

Multiple White House sources have told reporters that the Trump administration has been negotiating with Erik Prince (founder of the war-crimes plagued mercenary firm Blackwater; brother to pyramid-scheme billionaire/Education Secretary Betsy Devos) and ex-CIA operative John R. Maguire to assemble a private army of deniable, off-the-books spy/mercenaries who could target Trump's "deep state" political enemies in the USA, and kidnap and render similar figures overseas.

Massive income inequality, combined with Republican attacks on the taxation of the wealthiest, has produced a situation in which the state increasingly depends on extracting fines, interest and debt service from people who grow steadily poorer and less able to pay, and thus the state must turn to ever-more-extreme measures to extract the money it needs to survive.

Though Puerto Rican law prohibits ownership and bearing of most long-guns and especially semiautomatic weapons, the streets of the stricken US colony now throng with mercenaries in tactical gear bearing such arms, their faces masked. They wear no insignia or nametags and won't say who they work for, apart from vague statements in broken Spanish: "We work with the government. — Read the rest

A U.S. Federal appeals court today threw out the murder conviction of former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten, who had been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2007 massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.

Slatten and other former staff of military security contractor Blackwater (renamed Xe Services, now Academi, run by Erik Prince, brother of Trump DOE chief Betsy DeVos) were the focus of a high-profile legal case that has stretched on for a full decade. — Read the rest

Someone put together a Google spreadsheet of Trump administration personal finances. It has links to the disclosure forms of nearly 500 people – Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Betsy DeVos, Trump, etc.

Trump owes between $55 million to $75 million to Deutsche Bank, the same bank that was fined $10 billion for its part in a Russian money-laundering scheme. — Read the rest

Gersh Kuntzman's serialized novel "Coup!" is notionally the memoir of a retired CIA operative ("Deep State") who, having discovered he had terminal cancer, decided to help Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment and stage a coup deposing Donald Trump and installing himself as President Handmaid's Tale, with a coterie of morally flexible billionaires who'd been bought off of Trump's cabinet with promises of special favors and steady leadership.

Eric writes, "This is an analysis on the Chuck Jones short 'So Much for So Little' — a documentary cartoon produced and paid for by the American government in 1949 that makes a stark case for public healthcare that everyone chips in a little for, in the interest of the greater good. — Read the rest

Before being put in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, climate-denier Scott Pruitt sued the agency more than a dozen times. This has made him rather unpopular.

Is anyone surprised that Eric Prince, CEO of Blackwater, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and familiar face around the NYC Trump transition office, held a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles with a close advisor to El Sr. Putin just days before the inauguration? — Read the rest

Sham president Donald Trump's sham government on Wednesday rolled back federal protections for transgender students who don't want to be harassed, sexually assaulted, or physically attacked when they go to a public school bathroom that matches their gender identity, instead of the conflicting gender definition others try to force upon them. — Read the rest

Since 1991, the number of full-time librarians working in Philadelphia's cash-strapped, budget-slashed public schools has declined by 94% — only eight remain, while the state continues to trail the nation in literacy scores.

Betsy DeVos is the self-described neo-Calvinist and wife of the heir to the Amway fortune who's devoted her life to fighting against public education through a system of vouchers that allow for public funding of religious schools; in accord with the trumpian maxim of "a fox for every henhouse," she has been selected to serve as Trump's Education Secretary.

The environmental activism group Greenpeace today disclosed that it led an undercover investigation to expose how easy it is for big oil, gas, or coal companies to pay academics at leading U.S. universities to write research that sheds doubt on climate science, and promotes the commercial interests of the fossil fuel industry. — Read the rest

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Above are two incredible artifacts from the Fabienne & François Marchal Collection of Fairground Art to be auctioned off in Paris on September 28-29. From the press release:

Among the historic and/or rare items will be some 80 wooden horses and 160 other carousel animals, dating from 1850-1960, including a Van Guyse Noah's Ark; Spooner centaurs; and rare animals by Mathieu & Bayol.

My 4-year-old son wants to be Devo (specifically, Mark Mothersbaugh) for Halloween, so I visited the official Devo Store to find him a suitable Energy Dome. While there, I noticed this sharp Hot Dog Fresh Cycling Jersey! Unfortunately, spandex doesn't, er, suit me very well. — Read the rest

Enjoy this very low-quality video of Devo playing "Private Secretary" 36 years ago.