Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/urban-danger-tempting-fate/

We are coming up on the 3 year anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis. The economy has not improved. The unemployment payments, for most, have run out. People’s safety nets are destroyed. Housing is collapsing again. Inflation is ravaging what is left of our money. Now we are seeing a rash of violence all over the country, Miami, Myrtle Beach, Rochester, Long Beach, Charlotte, Nashville, Chicago, and Boston. All of this while things are still working. What is going to happen when the dollar collapses?

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/levine05302011.html

Seldom has any country been as dependent on another as Israel is on the United States, and never in American history has the United States been as servile towards another country as it is towards this beneficiary of its diplomatic, economic and military largesse. Are geopolitical considerations the decisive factor joining the United States and Israel or is American domestic politics to blame?

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/30-5

The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with equal parts of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/30-3

This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking of the President of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945. While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington – Obama grovelling as usual – the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/30

Exclusive: Record rise, despite recession, means 2C target almost out of reach. Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.

Link: http://www.ozconspiracyhouse.org/frontend/2011/05/31/obama-sends-more-troops-to-iraq-as-deadline-nears/

Remember when Obama promised to bring the troops home? Well, it is all an illusion, as we noted after he was coronated. Now the Army Times is announcing Obama plans to send a few thousand more troops as the supposed deadline looms:

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/05/201152512533562290.html

Around 5,000 refugees have fled across the border in desperate need of humanitarian aid, overwhelming Lebanese villages. Syrians from the border town of Tal Khalakh have, in recent weeks, been fleeing a wave of violence to cross into neighbouring Lebanon. But those seeking refuge now face an uncertain fate.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152922711919441.html

At least six soldiers ambushed in Zinjibar hours after security forces opened fire on protesters in Taiz, killing 20. At least six Yemeni soldiers have been killed and dozens injured in an apparent ambush as they travelled to Zinjibar, a southern city reportedly under the control of al-Qaeda fighters, a security official has said. According to residents, Yemeni warplanes later targeted positions held by the fighters. Earlier on Sunday, residents spoke of up to 300 fighters entering Zinjibar and taking over "everything". The fighters were alleged to be al-Qaeda members.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20810

Educated and perceptive people are generally aware of horrendous Mainstream media (MSM) censorship in the pro-US, pro-Zionist, democratic fascist Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies. But how can we expose the extent and nature of this censorship? Murdochracy describes democracy perverted by Big Money media empires such as that of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Lobbyocracy describes democracy perverted by Big Money corporate or other Lobbies (most notoriously, in relation to man-made climate change, by the fossil fuel corporations).

Link: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/28/fukushima-how-many-chernobyls-is-it/

(San Francisco) – The world’s second big nuclear disaster occurred at Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 in the Ukraine on Apr 26, 1986. Simply tagged as “Chernobyl,” it is what the next big and well known nuke disaster, after the American Three Mile Island, on March 28, 1979 came to be called. “Chernobyl” ejected 30% of one 192-ton, three-month old reactor core. That’s 57.6 radioactive tons thrown into the air by fire and explosions.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/28-0

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Minneapolis Friday to praise the city for its program to reduce youth violence, but was interrupted several times by outbursts from protesters who claim the government has been unfairly targeting anti-war activists in a federal investigation.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05272011.html

Was there ever a nation so marinated in hypocrisy as America? At home and abroad President Barack Obama trumpets Uncle Sam’s virtues and dispenses patronizing homilies to other nations on how to behave themselves and honor freedom and democracy. This last week it’s been Europe’s turn to hear these self-righteous preachments.

Link: http://www.unfilteredhistory.com/blog/uncategorized/the-woman-who-overthrew-king-louis-philippe-1830-1848/

All This and Heaven Too (1940), directed by Anatole Litvak, staring Charles Boyer and Bette Davis, aired this month on Turner Classic Movies. The movie, and Rachel Field’s novel by the same name, is based on the true story of Field’s great-aunt, Henriette Deluzy Desportes, a governess employed by Theobald, Duc de Choiseul-Praslin to care for his children.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/not-enjoying-tsa-grope-down-is-a-suspicious-activity/

The TSA wants you know that should you express any kind of dissatisfaction at having to be prodded, groped or forced through a radiation firing naked body scanner, you will be treated as suspicious. Even if you merely frown or display any other negative facial expression at the prospect of having your private areas frisked by a uniformed government employee, you will be considered irregular. The agency has now deployed dozens of “behavioral indicator officers” at 161 airports across the nation, trained to “SPOT” (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) dissenters.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/201152513183517307.html

Allies say Libyan leader will ultimately be made to step down by sustained NATO operations. Britain and the US have promised no "let-up" in an international military campaign aimed at pressuring Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, to step down. Speaking at a joint press conference in London on Wednesday, Barack Obama, the US president, and David Cameron, the British prime minister, reiterated calls for Gaddafi to go.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/2011520181538261950.html

Israeli leader says Obama's call for future Palestinian state based on 1967 borders would leave country "indefensible". Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu affirmed their countries' "enduring friendship" at the White House. Israel is prepared to make "generous" concessions for peace in the Middle East, but cannot go back to the country's "indefensible" 1967 borders, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said after White House talks with Barack Obama.

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/silver-guru-conference-call/

Here is a great conference call with David Morgan, SGTBull07, James Anderson of GoldSilver.com, Bill Murphy of GATA, Robert Quartermain, Ron Kirby, and Eric Sprott.

Link: http://theintelhub.com/2011/05/20/government-orders-you-tube-to-censor-protest-videos/

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/rights/151021/turning_the_camera%3A_why_are_cops_allowed_to_film_citizens%2C_but_citizens_not_allowed_to_film_police_brutality/

What's good for the police apparently isn't good for the people -- or so the law enforcement community would have us believe when it comes to surveillance. That's a concise summary of a new trend noted by National Public Radio last week -- the trend whereby law enforcement officials have been trying to prevent civilians from using cellphone cameras in public places as a means of deterring police brutality.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150995/the_great_switch_by_the_super_rich%3A_how_wealthy_americans_started_paying_so_little_in_taxes/

This great switch by the super rich – from paying the government taxes to lending the government money – has gone almost unnoticed. But it’s critical for understanding the budget predicament we’re now in. And for getting out of it. Over that four decades, tax rates on the very rich have plummeted. Between the end of World War II and 1980, the top tax bracket remained over 70 percent — and even after deductions and credits was well over 50 percent. Now it’s 36 percent. As recently as the late 1980s, the capital gains rate was 35 percent. Now it’s 15 percent.

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/the-world-is-cornering-the-elite/

A recent article by Costata put forth the theory that silver is a losing bet, because the Elite won’t let it threaten their interests. Costata starts with, all works of fiction require “a willing suspension of disbelief”. I find this as an interesting starting point, but not for the reason he sets forth. You see we are living in the great fiction of the American Dream.

• It is a place where generations can get something for nothing.
• It is a world where we can print unlimited money/debt from a privately, foreign owned central banks.
• It is a dream of a consumer led society and not of a manufacturing society.
• It is a hallucination of trillion dollar war machines securing the world’s natural resources for the Elite and their corporations.
• It is a land where people think that the digits on their screen are real wealth and that fractional reserve banking is safe.
• It is an illusion that the more debt we create, the richer we are.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/18/jeremy_scahill_on_blackwater_founder_erik

The United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. The troops could be deployed if foreign guest workers stage revolts in labor camps, or if the UAE regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world. Prince has one rule about the new force: no Muslims. We speak to investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and Samer Muscati of Human Rights Watch.

Link: http://ironboltbruce.com/2011/05/17/kleptocracy-and-you/

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." –Goethe

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/the-treasury-is-coming-the-treasury-is-coming/

It did not take long, but the Treasury has started the thieving. Since we have not raised the debt ceiling yet, the Treasury has started to dip into pensions. They will buy a couple of days by not meeting its investment into government retirement funds. This is just tipping the toe in the water of the trillions that we will see before this is all over.

Link: http://beyourownleader.blogspot.com/2011/05/big-business-pushing-for-single-unified.html

It was surprising that bilateral relations with the U.S. did not play a more prominent role during the recent Canadian election considering that both countries are pursuing a trade and security agreement. In fact, the issue did not really surface until the dying days of the campaign. After winning a much coveted majority government, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are moving ahead quickly with perimeter security and regulatory harmonization negotiations. NAFTA and the defunct Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) both addressed issues such as regulatory cooperation. The push for a single unified North American business-friendly regulatory regime continues on different fronts.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/2011516133057216224.html

Dominique Strauss-Kahn remanded to custody by US judge over allegations he attempted to rape hotel maid. The allegations have seriously jeopardised Strauss-Kahn's political future in France. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been remanded to custody after a New York city judge denied him bail over charges that he attempted to rape a 32-year-old hotel maid. Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn, who appeared in the court on Monday, said he would plead not guilty to the accusations. The IMF chief, a man accustomed to luxury hotel suites and first-class plane travel, will make his home for now at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney05122011.html

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) is pushing a bill through congress that will repeal due process and give the President nearly-unlimited powers to wage war wherever and whenever he chooses without congressional approval.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/12-8

The killing of Osama bin Laden, “a testament to the greatness of our country” according to President Obama, should not be allowed to obscure a central reality of our post-9/11 world. Our conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya remain instances of undeclared war, a fact that contributes to their remoteness from our American world. They are remote geographically, but also remote from our day-to-day interests and, unless you are in the military or have a loved one who serves, remote from our collective consciousness (not to speak of our consciences).

Link: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/america-is-rapidly-bleeding-wealth-and-jobs-28-statistics-about-the-gutting-of-the-u-s-economy-that-will-blow-your-mind

Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America's national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month. Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs. This is a distress call. Is anyone listening? Thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas. Over the past decade over 6 trillion dollars have been transferred into the hands of foreigners. Our national government is so broke that they constantly have to go and beg those foreigners to lend us back some of that money in order to finance our exploding debt. The number of good jobs continues to decline and there are millions upon millions of my countrymen that are unemployed. Can anybody help us? Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/interactive/2011/05/201151210054635587.html

In pictures: Residents, fishermen and scientists believe that living on the coast is hazardous to their health. Many locals argue that living in close proximity to - and eating seafood from - the Gulf is risky and disagree with federal agencies' claims that the Gulf is now safe. In response to their oil disaster last summer that released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic Corexit dispersants (which have been banned in 19 countries) to sink the oil.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/11-10

Tens of thousands of Mexicans made history on May 8 in a march through the nation’s capital, protesting the war on drugs. Behind a black banner reading “We are fed up. Stop the War. Peace With Justice and Dignity,” they demanded an immediate halt to the drug war, reforms to Mexico’s political and justice systems and a change in US regional security policy.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150908/exxon_pays_a_lower_effective_tax_rate_than_the_average_american/

Exxon Mobil's accounting methods mask its low effective tax rate: it claims taxes that are paid by others, such as drivers at the pump and employee payroll taxes.

Link: http://goldsilver.com/news/the-global-dollar-dump-is-already-in-progress-pt-2/

This is part 2 of our “Global Dollar Dump” article series. In part we noted how China has already begun moving away from the US as a major trading partner. This move has set in motion a series of events that will result in the US Dollar losing its status as reserve currency of the world. Indeed, we are now seeing various other nations preparing for the end of the US Dollar as reserve currency. Consider that Saudi Arabia becoming so fed up with the US that it is sending trade representatives to China and Russia to strengthen trade ties.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28071.htm

Following up on the murder of Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration today announced the formation of a joint Military/Domestic Police Force (MDPF) to carry out a War on Humanity. Recognizing that the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the War on Poverty, the War on Crime, and the War on Illegal Immigration were all dismal failures, the Obama brain trust decided that by consolidating all of these campaigns into one simple war, encompassing all of humanity, the corporations that profited and built their empires upon these rationalizations could justify endless oppression, imprisonment, deportation, torture and accumulation of the wealth of the entire nation under one rubric.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28063.htm

"We Got Him!" American War Criminal Barack Obama has been killed by Pakistani security forces in the UK, Prime Minister Hasan Abdullah of Pakistan has said. Obama was shot dead at a compound near Camberley, in a ground operation based on Pakistani intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August. Mr Abdullah said Pakistan forces took possession of the body after "a firefight". Obama is believed to have ordered almost 200 attacks in North and South Waziristan between 2009 and 2011 in which almost 2000 people were killed, when he served as Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces. Obama is also believed to have ordered the continued bombardment of Afghanistan during the same period in which thousands of others were killed. Announcing the success of the operation, Mr Abdulla said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat the CIA".

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28066.htm

In a column three months ago (“Egypt: Let the Looting Begin,” Feb. 4), I suggested that was really going on in Egypt was somewhat different from the official narrative. In quite a few of the “people power” revolutions in recent years — no matter how sincere the people on the streets — it turned out that there were attempts to orchestrate things by people behind the scenes, for whom “people power” was the very last thing on the agenda. In that column I reported that Frank Wisner — a veteran spook, described by Vijay Prashad at Counterpunch as a “bagman of empire,” was Obama’s man on the ground. Wisner, a former Director at AIG and Enron with longstanding family ties to the OSS and CIA, had previously been involved in drafting the Bush administration’s postwar blueprint for Iraq.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney05102011.html

Sometime in mid-May, the United States will hit the debt ceiling ($14.3 trillion) which is the legal limit that the country can borrow without congressional approval. If the ceiling isn't raised, the US will default on its debt and the government will begin to shut down. But that appears to be less likely now than it was a week ago because Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has implemented a plan that will pay off bondholders and keep the government operating until early August. Geithner's accounting maneuvers are designed to give the Obama administration and congress a little more time to hammer out the details on a final budget deal. But that's not going to be easy, because Democrats and Republicans are still far apart on the issue of spending cuts, and neither party is willing to give ground. And that's why Wall Street is so worried, because if a settlement isn't reached soon, the uncertainty is liable to roil markets and send stocks plunging.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/10-10

More and more, we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price-gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy. For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, we are told it is impossible to tax their windfall profits or stop the billions they get in government subsidies and tax loopholes.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/10-6

Almost 44 million fewer Americans would be eligible for Medicaid in 2021 if House Republicans' budget blueprint becomes law under the most dire scenario projected by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. A new report tallies the deep cuts that states would make if the program was replaced with block grants and the number of people projected to become eligible for Medicaid under the healthcare reform law, which Republicans want to repeal. The worst scenario would leave 32.1 million people eligible for Medicaid, versus 75.9 million under current law.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2011/05/20115108383288743.html

Software giant Microsoft plans to acquire Skype, the online video conferencing service for $8.5bn, both companies have announced. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, said on Tuesday.