Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/22-1

Over the past few days, The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey’s system of halfway houses — privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The series is a model of investigative reporting, which everyone should read. But it should also be seen in context. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized and degraded.

Link: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/government-secrecy/

The government’s vast secrecy bureaucracy does two things with great frequency. The first, of course, is keeping secrets. The second is devising elaborate reasons why you can’t know what those secrets are.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/06/20-6

Financial filings show that both presidential campaigns are spending obscene amounts of money, with outside PACs for Romney likely outspending Obama to the tune of $100 million a month, with a total that could reach $1 billion. That's a billion dollars to elect, as his latest stop in Michigan once again illustrated, a mindless, soulless, sputtering sycophant. There is just no there, there. Costa Rica calls, again.

Link: http://www.dailypaul.com/241273/massive-corporatist-state-sanctioned-theft-for-billionaires-uncle-sams-real-estate-fire-sale

“The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors – vulture funds.”

Link: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/06/ron-paul-there%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cno-way%E2%80%9D-i%E2%80%99m-endorsing-romney

“Well, it looks like he has the delegates, yes,” Paul told Blitzer. “But he doesn’t have the control of the hearts and the minds of the people. And right now a lot of people — a lot of delegates who are pledged to vote for Romney are actually very strong supporters of ours and will be strongly supporting us when we want to put things into the platform that say, hey, we don’t need another war. Yes, we do need to audit the Federal Reserve. Yes, we ought to really cut spending.”

Link: http://www.redress.cc/americas/ldavidson20120619

Lawrence Davidson argues that the corrupting influence of the Zionist lobbies in the USA has mean that American officials abroad routinely betray US citizens where Israel is involved.

Link: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/06/18/501157/experts-stumped-romney-military-spending/?mobile=nc

Mitt Romney’s pledge to massively increase military spending — close to a $2 trillion increase over the next ten years and boosting the Pentagon’s base budget to 4 percent of GDP — combined with his promises to cuts taxes and reduce the national debt is leaving many national security and defense experts scratching their heads, particularly because the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has not said how he’d pay for it.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article22000

The unprecedented results of the Greek elections in May 2012 that gave SYRIZA the possibility of forming a government led by Alexis Tsipras bring to light once more the debate around the position of revolutionaries regarding the political forces to the “left of the left”. This is even more important taking into account that SYRIZA is softening its discourse.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/dimo-j16.shtml

In a magnificent ceremony lasting two-and-a-quarter hours, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon sat on a throne constructed with “all the pomp of Oriental greatness,” while the various senators passed one by one, bending their knees, placing their hands within his, taking an oath of fealty, and rendering to him “the homage which had been previously agreed on.” *

Link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/senators-grovel-embarrass-themselves-at-dimon-hearing-20120615

I was unable to watch J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s Senate testimony live the other day, so I had to get up yesterday morning and check it out on the Banking Committee’s web site. I had an inkling, from the generally slavish news reports about the hearing that started to come out Wednesday night, that it would be a hard thing to watch.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/econ-j15.shtml

US President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney gave speeches on their economic programs in Ohio Thursday, proposing nothing to alleviate the mass joblessness and poverty created by the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/06/romneys-foreign-policy-advisers-exposed.html

Several months ago, when some still questioned the destiny of Mitt Romney as the Republican Presidential Nominee, the Romney campaigned demonstrated its own lack of doubt on the issue by announcing a stable of foreign policy advisers and various working groups specific to issues and regions. The list of Romney’s foreign policy team consisted of 22 advisers as well as 13 working groups.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/14/246182/russia-will-respond-to-war-on-syria/

A renowned US historian says Russia will respond to a war on Syria as anti-Syrian propaganda by Israeli, NATO and US officials suggesting a possible military intervention in the Arab country is escalating, Press TV reports. In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley pointed to comments made by the US Department of State’s spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, and the NATO chief, Andres Fogh Rasmussen, who compared Syria to Bosnia, with “the obvious implication that NATO may do a unilateral, outside of the UN Security Council, bombing attack.”

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MOR20120614&articleId=31428

Back in 1992 the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff held a "Strategy Essay Competition." The winner was a National War College student paper entitled, "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." Authored by Colonel Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. the paper is a well documented, "darkly imagined excursion into the future." The ostensibly fictional work is written from the perspective of an imprisoned senior military officer about to be executed for opposing the military takeover of America, a coup accomplished through "legal" means. The essay makes the point that the coup was "the outgrowth of trends visible as far back as 1992," including "the massive diversion of military forces to civilian uses," particularly law enforcement.

Link: http://zen-haven.dk/why-the-greek-vote-matters-to-america-just-explain-it/

Yes, it’s an election year in America but the world is going to be watching another vote this weekend in Greece. Rarely does an election in a country as small as Greece have global implications — Greece produces less than 2% of Europe’s GDP. But we live in unusual times.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article21993

On June 7, 2012, under the title “Assassin-in-Chief”, an internet website published the following: “…you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief.” “Thanks to a long New York Times piece by Jo Becker and Scott Shane, ‘Secret ’Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will’, we now know that the president has spent startling amounts of time overseeing the "nomination" of terrorist suspects for assassination via the remotely piloted drone programme he inherited from President George W. Bush and which he has expanded exponentially.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/14-12

by Ralph Nader, Mitt Romney’s daily dittohead assertions make one wonder what he got out of the law and business degrees he received from Harvard University. One of his regular blasts blames Barack Obama for the daily reports of bad economic indicators. Unemployment increases – blame Obama. Retail sales decline – blame Obama. Profits not rising – blame Obama. Housing crisis continues– blame Obama.

Link: https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/vote-or-dont-vote-arsenic-or-cyanide/

Well, we must vote in the upcoming presidential election, right? How can we abdicate our right? How can we leave the battlefield to the robots? If we don’t vote, we can’t criticize what happens in the next four years. On the other hand, if we’re standing in a room behind a table that holds two levers, and if we pull lever 1 a bullet is going to come out of the wall and kill us, and if we pull lever 2 a flame is going to shoot out of the wall and burn us down, it becomes a matter of idiosyncratic preference, doesn’t it?

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/pers-j13.shtml

The financial crisis of the past four years has thrown American families back two decades, according to figures provided by the Federal Reserve Board in its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/gree-j13.shtml

The assault launched by the spokesman of Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn against two political rivals on live television must be taken as a warning to working people. Especially in a country with a history of military dictatorship, the emergence of such far-right violence points to the threat of a turn to openly authoritarian forms of rule.

Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/113530.html

I speak of course of the Republicans as well as the Democrats who together form The Party of Government. Baby Bush (a.k.a. "Jeb," brother of "Dub-Yuh," endorser of Willard) whines and cries that there are elements of the Republican Party today who believe they are taxed enough already and oppose further tax increases. He cannot stand the fact that there are people who question the notion that prosperity is created by taking money from hard-working taxpayers and giving it to government bureaucrats to spend.

Link: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/06/12/4040949/obamas-no-socialist-hes-a-fascist.html

It bothers me a little when conservatives call Barack Obama a ”socialist.” He certainly is an enemy of the free market, and wants politicians and bureaucrats to make the fundamental decisions about the economy. But that does not mean that he wants government ownership of the means of production, which has long been a standard definition of socialism.

Link: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/06/12/politicians-free-market-work-expect-reelected-145061/

CNBC hits the nail on the head as Europe debates bailout package that amounts to a gold confiscation scheme for nation’s hit by the Sovereign debt crisis. Between discussions of gold-backed debt issuance in Europe (from Rick Santelli) and why Europe’s problem is not merely a banking crisis but far worse

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/08/245112/russia-china-opposition-intervention-syria/

China and Russia have once again expressed opposition to foreign armed intervention and forcible regime change in Syria. “There will not be a [United Nations] Security Council mandate for outside intervention [in Syria], I guarantee you that," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a visit to Kazakhstan, AFP reported.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/medical-marijuana-tipping-point

Two recent elections, a New York judge’s personal plea, a new state law and a new public opinion poll demonstrate that a seismic national shift has occurred in political attitudes toward medical marijuana. This cascade of developments dramatically illustrates just how far we’ve come since California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, and it indicates that our collective compassion is eroding the once-ironclad political will to deny an effective medicine to our sick fellow citizens.

Link: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-trouble-rand-paul

Perhaps that’s Rand’s idea of playing politics? Come to the table, strike a deal, get what you can. Trouble is, it’s tough striking a good deal when the guy on the other side of the table believes that the government should be allowed to claim — without having to produce any evidence whatsoever — that certain people are terrorists, and therefore should be detained indefinitely without any kind of due process. That’s textbook tyranny.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/07-7

It’s worth reexamining this whole thing, because Solyndra is actually exhibit A in how the Republican Party manufactures failure out of whole cloth, and what it costs us when they aren’t confronted by Democrats or held accountable by the media.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/pers-j07.shtml

The rout of the Democratic Party and the unions in Tuesday’s Wisconsin recall election has provoked a predictable response across the official political spectrum, from crude triumphalism on the extreme right to self-justification and hand-wringing among the liberal and pseudo-left apologists for the Obama administration.

Link: http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=727

IN THE MIDST of a deluge of Congressmen pledging their “undying dedication” to the Jewish state of Israel, (the Bill passed with an overwhelming 411-2), only Ron Paul (and Joe Donnelly) stood up against the ongoing Judaic infiltration of legislative polity. Ron Paul boldly pointed out with regard to a “US commitment” to the security of Israel as a “Jewish” State that not even the US Constitution commits to the security of one particular religious group.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/06-9

Forget the old saw, "All politics is local." There is a kettle's worth of tea leaves to read in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's triumph over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. The acrimonious 5 June recall election is a perilous omen for President Barack Obama's re-election bid and a faltering labor movement.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/eyewitnesses-mitt-romney-attended-bilderberg-2012/

Four separate eyewitnesses inside the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly Virginia told London Guardian writer Charlie Skelton that Mitt Romney was in attendance at Bilderberg 2012, suggesting the Republican candidate could be the elite’s pick for the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/krug-j05.shtml

In a essay headlined “The Republican Economy,” liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has weighed in with a full-throated apology for the Obama administration, blaming its right-wing economic policies on the congressional Republicans, and turning a blind eye to the pro-Wall Street stance that Obama adopted from the moment he entered the White House—and even before.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/04-13

Barack Obama, according to Foreign Policy magazine, "has become George W Bush on steroids." Armed with a "kill list," the Nobel peace laureate now hosts "Tuesday terror" meetings at the White House to discuss targets of drone attacks in Pakistan and at least five other countries. The latest of these killed 17 people near the border with Afghanistan today .

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/headline/2012/06/01-8

"The time of the Left has come" As the June 16 elections in Greece near, the final public polls show that the leftist Syriza party continues to build on it's strong showing in the May 6th elections. Syriza maintains a clear lead over second place New Democracy party: 31.5% to 26.5%. (Public Issue poll for the Kathimerini newspaper)

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/155675/meet_the_corporate_front_groups_fighting_to_make_sure_you_can%27t_know_what%27s_in_your_food/

They’re all part of the anti-labeling PR team that will soon unleash a massive advertising and PR campaign in California, designed to scare voters into rejecting the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.

Link: http://my.brainshark.com/The-President-s-8-Billion-Coincidence-356086344

Remember what FDR said, "There are no coincidences in politics..."

Link: http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/the-banking-cartels-think-they-are-going-to-take-our-social-security/15493

In 2008 the mortgage derivative fraud/scam was discovered as the bubble burst. The largest central banks were wiped out, literally by their own hand. Congress surrendered its power over allocations to the Treasury Department and Henry Paulson was named Treasury Secretary. Then the American people were told that they were going to have to replace the wealth that had been stolen through the toxic derivatives because these privately owned central banks were too big to fail, thus the failure was dumped onto the people.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/05/house-passes-hr-4133-binding-us-to.html

Without any mainstream media coverage at all, the House of Representatives passed the United States – Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 (USIESC).

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-gibson/nato-protests_b_1537472.html

Remember when police beat Tea Party activists with batons, raided homes without warrants, unjustly arrested and strip-searched Tea Party protesters, or attacked and intimidated journalists covering Tea Party rallies? Me neither. But then again, the Tea Party took to the streets in favor of higher profits and less regulations for the richest 1 percent, whose ranks they hope to but will never join. The media is more than happy to inflate their crowd estimates, and police are more than happy to let pro-status quo protests take to the streets undisturbed. The Tea Party has since phased out street protests to take over a major political party and make it bend to their every radical whim.