by Ellen Brown

In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorganChase admitted that it, along with every other large US bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of all mortgages nationally remain underwater (meaning the balance owed exceeds the current value of the home), sapping homeowners’ budgets, the housing market and the economy. Since the banks, the courts and the federal government have failed to give adequate relief to homeowners, some cities are taking matters into their own hands.

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by Stephen Lendman

Geopolitical conditions today are incendiary. Obama's war on Syria rages. No end in sight looms.

Washington manipulated peace talks to fail. Odds favor full scale US intervention. Doing so risks regional war.

In late February, Israel bombed Hezbollah targets. It did so along Lebanon's border with Syria.

Hezbollah vowed to respond "at the appropriate time." It justifiably denounced "blatant" Israeli "aggression."

Washington and Israel partner in regional adventurism. Do Obama and Netanyahu want war on Lebanon? Are they planning regional conflict?

Will Iran be targeted? Will US-orchestrated Venezuelan violence continue? Will other nations be targeted for regime change?

The damn fool in the White House risks global war. Ukraine is a major flashpoint. Conditions today are the most dangerous since the 1962 missiles of October crisis.

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by Stephen Lendman

When inmates run the asylum, anything is possible. Chaos is likely.

Obama's Ukrainian allies include a rogue's gallery of societal misfits. They're militant fascists. They're thugs. They're criminals.

They're illegitimate putschists. They're hate-mongering anti-Semites. Combined they represent mob rule.

They make mafia bosses look saintly by comparison. They threaten world peace. They vowed to fight.

Illegitimate prime minister/Washington favorite Arseny Yatseniuk said "(m)ilitary intervention would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia."

Illegitimate president Olexander Turchynov ordered Ukrainian military forces mobilized. Reserve forces were activated.

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by Stephen Lendman

Amnesty International's (AI) new report is blunt. It's titled "Trigger-Happy: Israel's Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank." It begins saying:

"Out of nowhere many soldiers jumped out and ambushed Samir. They shot him first in the leg, yet he managed to run away towards the village."

"But how far can an injured child run? Twenty, maybe 30, metres? They could have easily arrested him, especially when he was injured, but instead they shot him in the back with live ammunition."

"To me, this is premeditated murder." Killing 16-year old Samir was no isolated incident. Israel's entire history is blood-drenched.

It includes multiple crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. It's been ongoing since 1948. It shows no signs of ending. Israeli viciousness knows no limits.

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Michael Collins

Why are we not surprised? The United States neconservative initiated action in the Ukraine is backfiring. The head of the Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Denis Berezovsky, just announced that the navy is now in the service of the Crimean Autonomous Republic.

“I, Berezovsky Denis, swear allegiance to the Crimean people and pledge to protect it, as required by the [army] regulations. I swear to take orders of Crimea and Sevastopol's Supreme Commander,” Berezovsky said as seen in video footage. All Navy troops dislocated in Sevastopol are ordered to disregard any commands coming from Ukraine's new self-proclaimed authorities," the PM also declared. "Do not take any orders of using arms till my personal instructions." RT (Russia Today), Mar 2, 2014

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by Stephen Lendman

The damn fool in the White House risks a potentially serious East/West confrontation.

He bears full responsibility for toppling Ukraine's democratically elected government. He's criminally in league with fascist coup plotters.

He outrageously warned Russia, saying: "We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine."

"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."

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by Stephen Lendman

Ongoing events are scary. Everyone should be worried. Reports reveal heightened tensions. Conditions resemble nations preparing for war.

On March 1, Voice of Russia (VOR) said Ukraine's border guard ships are on "battle alarm" at sea. "(E)xtreme measures (are being taken) to avert the seizure of a territory in Sevastopol."

Valentina Matviyenko is Russia's highest ranking female politician. She chairs its upper parliamentary Federation Council.

Under ongoing "circumstances," she said, "we might send a limited contingent of troops to ensure security of the Black Sea Fleet and Russian national residing in Crimea."

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by Stephen Lendman

Obama heads the most recklessly dangerous regime in world history. It's ruthless. It's lawless. It's out-of-control. It's reincarnated Nazism writ large.

War on humanity is the new normal. Crazed hegemonic ambitions drive policy. A potential devastating East/West confrontation looms. Will Ukraine be the flashpoint igniting it?

US-supported neo-Nazis usurped power. Anyone opposing them risks arrest, physical harm or death.

Democracy is a dead letter. Fascists rule solely by diktats. Elections when held will be farcical.

Ukrainians haven't yet awakened to nightmarish conditions they face. How they'll react remains to be seen. Civil war may erupt.

Most eastern and southern Ukrainians favor close ties to Russia. They reject neo-Nazi coup d'etat Kiev governance. It has no legitimacy.

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by Stephen Lendman

Lawless imperial rampaging turns it upside down. America is the main world belligerent. War on humanity is longstanding policy.

So is replacing all sovereign independent governments with pro-US vassal ones. Obama's war on Syria rages. Conditions in Ukraine remain incendiary.

Obama wants regime change in Venezuela. He stoked weeks of violence pursuing it. He's waging war on freedom at home.

Imagine championing democratic freedoms while going all-out to destroy them. Obama wants them extinguished globally.

Today is the most perilous time in world history. Daily events should scare everyone. At stake is humanity's survival.

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by Stephen Lendman

Israeli racism already is institutionalized. On February 24, it got meaner. Fascist Knesset members approved legislation distinguishing between Muslim and Christian Arab citizens.

At issue is separate and less equal than before. It's divide and conquer policy. Critics slammed the law. They did so justifiably.

It institutes what at first glance seems minor. It changes the number of public advisory council members appointed under the 1988 Equal Employment Opportunities Law.

Five members increase to 10. Currently Christians, Muslims, Druze and Circassian representatives are included.

New legislation gives Muslim and Christian Arab citizens separate representation. New ones are added for ultra-Orthodox Jews, reserve duty soldiers, women, immigrants (virtually all Jews) and the elderly.

PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said:

"This law aims to create a new reality among our people based on religion and not national identity."

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