Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/western-banks-colombian-cocaine-trade?newsfeed=true

The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich "consuming" countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn "producing" nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems.

Link: http://enenews.com/oregons-top-newspaper-the-worlds-food-chain-could-be-compromised-japans-radiation-seems-inescapable

The finding reported last week that bluefin tuna caught off southern California carried low levels of nuclear radiation from Japan was another signal the world’s food chain could be compromised.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/econ-j02.shtml

The disastrous jobs report released Friday by the US Labor Department is further evidence of a deepening global crisis that threatens to unravel into a full-blown financial collapse. The American economy added only 69,000 jobs in May, far below expectations about half the amount needed to keep up with population growth. The official unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.2 percent.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/02-0

Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has announced that the US will be shifting the majority of its naval fleet to the Pacific by 2020, in a "steady, deliberate" effort to increase US presence in the area 'vital to America's future'.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/americans-eat-35-lbs-high-fructose-corn-syrup-average/#ixzz1wfyg3zLE

Americans Eat 35 Lbs of Stupidity Linked High Fructose Corn Syrup on AverageThe average American eats 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, a hazardous ingredient that recent research has linked to a significant decrease in brain function related to both memory and learning. The researchers even go on to say that the ubiquitous substance can make you ‘stupid’.

Link: http://survivingcapitalism.blogspot.com/2012/06/unraveling-welfare-safety-net-europe.html

Yields on 10-year Treasuries plunged to a record-low 1.56 percent on Thursday morning as panicky investors stormed out of European financial assets into German and U.S. government bonds. Deteriorating credit conditions, a flurry of ratings downgrades, and bank runs in Spain and Greece have triggered a flight-to-safety which has pushed the benchmark 10-year below its previous all-time low of 1.67 percent.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/02

It’s now commonly estimated that more than 50 nations have drones, are making plans to develop them, or are at least planning to buy them from those who do produce them. In other words, the future global skies are going to be a busy -- and increasingly dangerous -- place. They will be filled not just with robotic surveillance aircraft, but also with non-U.S. remotely piloted armed assassins which, thanks to the path Washington has blazed, need pay no attention to anyone’s national sovereignty in a search for their version of bad guys to destroy. Iranians, Israelis, Russians, Chinese, Indians, British -- you name it and if they don’t already have something robotic aloft, they undoubtedly will soon enough.

Link: http://www.zengardner.com/does-death-exist/

Many of us fear death. We believe in death because we have been told we will die. We associate ourselves with the body, and we know that bodies die. But a new scientific theory suggests that death is not the terminal event we think. Although individual bodies are destined to self-destruct, the “I” feeling is just a fountain of energy operating in the brain. But this energy doesn’t just go away at death.

Link: http://enenews.com/came-point-asked-government-kill-better-be-dead-alive-days-video

Teruo Yasukawa, Organic Farmer: I came to the point where I asked the government to kill me. It’s better to be dead than alive these days.