Link: http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/06/30/can-the-world-survive-washingtons-hubris/

When President Reagan nominated me as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, he told me that we had to restore the US economy, to rescue it from stagflation, in order to bring the full weight of a powerful economy to bear on the Soviet leadership, in order to convince them to negotiate the end of the cold war. Reagan said that there was no reason to live any longer under the threat of nuclear war.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/30-4

“The problem goes beyond parties and politicians. It’s the system . . . . All our politicians are in the pocket of elites who own, lobby, litigate, bully and bribe their way into every element of our lives. Even single cell organisms unite and fight for survival when their species is threatened.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/30-5

The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a final ruling today against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. This popular pro-consumer policy, which informs shoppers where meat and other foods were raised or grown, enjoys the support of 93% of Americans, according to a 2010 Consumers Union poll. Now Congress must gut or change the law to avoid the application of punitive trade sanctions.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/30-3

Since August 2011, 89,000 children in Pennsylvania have lost their Medicaid coverage, including many with life-threatening illnesses who were mistakenly deemed ineligible. The state currently hasn’t a clue whether many of these children have any healthcare coverage at all.

Link: http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/thomas-jeff6.1.1.html

"How can an otherwise sane individual become so enamored of a fantasy, an imposture, that even after it’s exposed in the bright light of day, he still clings to it – indeed, clings to it all the harder? No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie."

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/156042/corporate_profits_at_all-time_high%3B_wages_at_all-time_low%3A_can_we_call_it_class_war_yet/

The middle class is being hollowed out; increasingly, there are the super-super-rich, and there are the rest of us.

Link: http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/06/29/a-journey-into-moral-depravity-us-congressman-dennis-kucinich-on-covert-wars/

When 26 members of the US Congress wrote to President Obama recently urging him to get a grip on his use of drones as ‘faceless ambassadors that cause civilian deaths,’ one man in particular was responsible. Congressman for Ohio Dennis Kucinich has been a career politician for more than 40 years – but he’s no Washington insider. Described at times by friend and foe alike as ‘the most liberal man in America,’ Kuchinich maintains a principled stand against US militarism.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/supr-j29.shtml

In a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision released on Thursday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined with the nominally liberal wing of the high court to uphold key provisions of the Obama administration-backed health care legislation. The decision maintains the pro-corporate provisions of the bill, including the “individual mandate” to purchase insurance from private insurers. At the same time, the court undermined the key constitutional arguments used to support corporate regulations. It also ruled that the federal government cannot withdraw existing Medicaid funding from states that decide not to participate in an expansion of eligibility for the program.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/mann-j29.shtml

During a hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland Monday, a military judge ordered Army prosecutors to address accusations that they have withheld evidence from the defense team of accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Link: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.459:

A BILL To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States before the end of 2012, and for other purposes.

Link: http://presstv.com/detail/2012/06/29/248601/time-for-regime-change--the-usa/

All in all, it’s time for all sensible people and all sensible countries (there’s quite a lot of them) to consciously question any assertion by the USA that this or that regime is at fault and needs to be overthrown. Instead all sensible people and countries should start to say that the world is fed up with war-mongering as well as angry at the Wall Street machinations which are destroying the world economy." With breath-taking arrogance, the USA is opposing the presence of Iran at the discussions about Syria in Geneva.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/syria-on-the-brink-of-civil-war-4694/

An Egyptian army that is recalcitrant in the face of democratic realities and a fractured and increasingly violent tribal chaos in Libya; but the strategic hangover from the Arab Spring is just getting started. Next up: a Syrian civil war, says Zachary Fillingham of Geopoliticalmonitor.com.

Link: http://refreshingnews99.blogspot.in/2012/06/half-of-german-teenagers-unable-to.html

About half of young Germans are unsure whether the Nazi state was a dictatorship – and even more are not sure whether the socialist East German regime was one, a new study shows. The widespread ignorance is described in a study called, “Late Victory of the Dictatorships?” conducted by researchers at Berlin’s Free University.

Link: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/878-americans-are-being-prepared-for-full-spectrum-tyranny

Totalitarian governments, like persistent forms of cancer, have latched onto the long history of man, falling and then reemerging from the deep recesses of our cultural biology to wreak havoc upon one unlucky generation to the next.

Link: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/12138-focus-the-american-people-are-angry

he American people are angry. They are angry that they are being forced to live through the worst recession in our lifetimes -- with sky-high unemployment, with millions of people losing their homes and their life savings. They are angry that they will not have a decent retirement, that they can't afford to send their children to college, that they can't afford health insurance and that, in some cases, they can't even buy the food they need to adequately feed their families.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/victims-complacency-trafficking-and-abuse-migrant-workers-us

Ramesh, a college graduate from India, borrowed $5,000 from a loan shark to pay a recruiting agent for the opportunity to work in Kuwait as a storekeeper at a wage of $800/month. His aims were simple: to provide a better life for himself and his family. Instead, Ramesh was trafficked to a U.S. military base in Iraq where he was compelled to work as a janitor for $150/month. This paltry sum meant that Ramesh was unable to meet his loan repayments. In a cruel attempt to intimidate him into making his payments, the loan shark sexually assaulted Ramesh’s sister and seized the family home.

Link: http://www.thelonestarwatchdog.com/2012/06/28/12-reasons-why-the-revolution-might-start-with-obamacare/

Has any of the Supreme Court Justices read the Constitution lately? I can say five of the justices will have to be held accountable for how they ruled. There is no reason why Obama care should be ruled Constitutional. Many Americans read the Constitution and know with no doubt what is said in simple terms. The Constitution was meant to be understood by the common person. It is not complicated to understand. It does not take a Harvard Law Degree to understand with clarity what the Constitution says about Obamacare. Only lawyers can screw it up with their own twisted thinking and word manipulation to stretch the meaning beyond the intent.

Link: http://www.rt.com/news/pakistan-consider-us-enemy-940/

Approximately 3 in 4 Pakistanis now consider the US an enemy according to a new Pew research poll released on June 27th. The polls show increasing hostility towards the US and new lows in the already strained relationship between the two countries.

Link: http://www.hangthebankers.com/worlds-first-gm-babies-born/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=worlds-first-gm-babies-born

The world’s first genetically modified humans have been created, it was revealed last night. The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics. So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three ‘parents’.

Link: http://www.redress.cc/americas/ahart20120628

According to reports in Israeli newspapers, the US and Israel are going to hold their largest ever joint military exercise in October, shortly before American voters decide whether to give Barack Obama a second term in the White House or replace him with Mitt Romney. The exercise, involving thousands of soldiers and the most advanced anti-missile defence systems, will simulate simultaneous attacks from Iran and Syria.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/syri-j27.shtml

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared Tuesday that the country was in a state of war as intense fighting erupted in the capital Damascus between the government and opposition forces that are backed by the US. There were also reports of British special operations forces entering the country from neighboring Turkey.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/pers-j27.shtml

A column published Monday in the New York Times by Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, constitutes an extraordinary indictment of the Obama administration for engaging in assassinations and other criminal violations of international law and the US Constitution. Titling his column “A Cruel and Unusual Record,” Carter writes: “Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended.”

Link: http://enenews.com/gundersen-ive-heard-numbers-high-2-million-die-cancer-because-fukushima-video

Included in this presentation and PowerPoint is a discussion of how nuclear power plants work, how to cool a reactor during an accident, the effect of hot particles when inhaled, and concerns involving the long-term storage of nuclear waste. This presentation took place at the Nuclear Power Conference held at the University of Vermont July 23, 2011.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/markets/mayor-stockton-appears-headed-for-bankruptcy-as-mediation-deadline-passes/2012/06/26/gJQAqAoT5V_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

STOCKTON, Calif. — In opting to become the nation’s largest city to seek federal bankruptcy protection, this river port of 290,000 took a rare financial step of last resort after struggling with the economic downturn, soaring pension costs and contractual obligations.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/can-blood-tests-detect-cancer-vitamin-d-tests/#ixzz1yxSJj5Ta

Can Blood Tests Detect Cancer? Vitamin D Tests can Long Before Tumor DevelopmentCan blood tests detect cancer? Dr. Cedric Garland of the University of California- San Diego has been working on the relationship between Vitamin D deficiency and cancer for years. What he has found, but what’s remained quiet among mainstream medicine, could revolutionize cancer detection, prevention and treatment.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/25/247950/us-banks-wage-war-against-working-class/

“The reality of the situation is that there is an all-out war on working people being waged by the huge banks and corporations,” Ralph Schoenman said in an interview with Press TV. “We've just seen a scandal in Washington focused around the fact that J P Morgan Chase has been pursuing precisely the policies of speculative paper shuffling through derivatives involving endless billions of dollars, which are acknowledged, in fact dwarfing what was being done in 2008 at the time of the last great crash,” he added.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/u-s-dangerously-short-sighted-on-yemen-experts-warn/

As President Barack Obama’s administration becomes further enmeshed in what many are calling an undeclared war in Yemen, observers here are urging the government to broaden its policy approach to the country beyond counterterrorism.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/156032/how_monsanto_is_sabotaging_efforts_to_label_genetically_modified_food/

Lobbyists from the biotech industry are ardently opposing GMO labeling. As the 2012 Farm Bill continues to take shape in the halls of the United States Congress, the immense influence of corporate interests is on display. On June 21 the United States Senate voted overwhelmingly against the Sanders Amendment that would have allowed states to pass legislation that required food and beverage products to label whether or not they contain genetically engineered ingredients.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights-womens-rights-criminal-law-reform/why-do-we-keep-building-needless-prisons

Why are the Feds spending $250 million in taxpayer dollars to build an unnecessary and counter-productive prison for women in rural Aliceville, Alabama?

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5idCDYo0Sg4r7FMY9ueBfajLynaiQ?docId=CNG.57c3c5b01b5794db35e63f156f63c566.271

BERLIN — Circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm, a German court ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision that the Jewish community said trampled on parents' religious rights. The regional court in Cologne, western Germany, ruled that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents", a judgement that is expected to set a legal precedent.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/jimmy-carter-accuses-u-widespread-abuse-human-rights-154057442--abc-news-politics.html

A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists. Jimmy Carter, America's 39 th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

Link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/uk-swiss-boxes-idUKLNE85O02220120625

Investors trying to protect their wealth from global economic uncertainty have been stashing bank notes, gold bars and other valuables in Swiss banks, fuelling demand for safe deposit boxes.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/56c7e518-bc8f-11e1-a111-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1yzlI3mBW

US inequality is at its highest point for nearly a century. Those at the top – no matter how you slice it – are enjoying a larger share of the national pie; the number below the poverty level is growing. The gap between those with the median income and those at the top is growing, too. The US used to think of itself as a middle-class country – but this is no longer true.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/25-0

The contents are surreal and shocking, and prima facia evidence for how corporations have become the master puppeteers of our government. The leaked document reveals that the trade agreement would give unprecedented political authority and legal protection to foreign corporations. Specifically, TPP would (1) severely limit regulation of foreign corporations operating within U.S. boundaries, giving them greater rights than domestic firms, (2) extend incentives for U.S. firms to move investments and jobs to lower-wage countries, (3) establish an alternative legal system that gives foreign corporations and investors new rights to circumvent U.S. courts and laws, allowing them to sue the U.S. government before foreign tribunals and demand compensation for lost revenue due to US laws they claim undermine their TPP privileges or their investment “expectations.”

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/turk-j25.shtml

The United States has sharply escalated its campaign against Syria over the weekend, in response to Syria’s shooting down of at Turkish fighter Friday. After speaking to Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Sunday: “The United States condemns this brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms. It is yet another reflection of Syrian authorities’ callous disregard for international norms, human life and peace and security.”

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/pers-j25.shtml

With the new fiscal year commencing next Sunday for most of the 50 US state governments, the balance sheet of the 2012 fiscal year shows that European-style austerity measures, on the scale of those imposed in Spain, Ireland and approaching those in Greece, are being carried out in one state after another.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/24-2

Bradley Manning's lawyer charges that the US government is deliberately attempting to prevent Bradley Manning from receiving a fair trial, according to The Guardian on Sunday. Bradley Manning's lawyers say the prosecution team is keeping important documents from them.

Link: http://now.msn.com/now/0623-cows-dying-cyanide-GMO.aspx

Hippies and whole food advocates may be experiencing a moment of vindication because experts are blaming a mass cattle death on genetically modified grass. The herd began bellowing, convulsing and dropping dead en masse about three weeks ago at a ranch in Texas, and a preliminary report said the genetically modified form of Bermuda grass called Tifton 85 had suddenly begun producing cyanide gas that poisoned the cattle. Hippies?

Link: http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/international/us-bank-wells-fargo-to-move-jobs-to-india-soon_54347.html

Mumbai: Even though the US is in the election mode and is under the anti-outsourcing Obama administration, the fourth largest lender there by assets, Wells Fargo has decided to move an unspecified number of jobs to India, as part of its plan to trim cost.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/155918/exclusive_interview%3A_joseph_stiglitz_sees_terrifying_future_for_america_if_we_don%27t_reverse_inequality/

What will life look like down the road if we don't reverse economic inequality? We must see through the myths of capitalism and build a mass movement if we are to save ourselves. Doing a precise comparison is difficult because we don't have data sets that go back that far. But we do have data sets that go back more than 30 years and what is clear is that the share of the top 1 percent has almost tripled since 1980. So, this kind of inequality at the top has unambiguously gotten much, much, much worse. We also have data on the extent to which there's been a hollowing out of the middle class.