America

Yes, it's another glaring case of "revolving door" cronyism between Wall Street and the SEC: on Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had hired Brett Redfearn, a JPMorgan banker, to head the agency's Division of Trading and Markets, arguably the most important group within the SEC, one which oversees U.S. stock markets and brokerages. Redfearn, who is currently head of market structure at JPM, would fill a slot that has been vacant since January when the previous head of Trading & Markets, Stephen Luparello left the SEC...

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The rot within manifested by the pharmaceutical industry almost defies description.

The theme this week is The Rot Within.

America's Pharmaceutical industry takes pride of place in this week's theme of The Rot Within, as the industry has raised fraud, exploitation and collusion to systemic perfection.

A Massachusetts man named David Wright has been convicted of plotting to kill conservative blogger Pamela Geller after she organized a draw the Prophet Muhammad contest in Texas in 2015.

Earlier this morning we learned that the Senate Judiciary Committee has finally decided they're going to take a look into a shady deal that handed Russia 20% of America's uranium reserves, was approved by the Obama administration during an ongoing FBI investigation into charges of bribery, extortion and money laundering by the Russian buyer and netted the Clintons millions of dollars in donations and 'speaking fees."  Per The Hill:

Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Among the many self-flattering epithets it gives itself, the US has always claimed to be the “leader of the free world”. It’s a rather patronizing notion that America views itself as a selfless protector and benefactor of its European allies and others. This fairytale depiction of the world is coming to a rude awakening as American power buffets against the reality of a multi-polar world.