Les Nouvelles Internationales: L'Autre Monde 9 juillet 2012 : Dépression économique mondiale en vue

L'Autre Monde 9 juillet 2012 : Dépression économique mondiale en vue

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L'Autre Monde 9 juillet 2012
120 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM

Nombre d'émission: 215

Diffusion en direct : Lundi à 15:00h

Animateur(trice) : François Marginean

Réalisateur(trice) : François Marginean

Archives d'émission

Au programme cette semaine:

Actualité mondiale, la Syrie et le Moyen-Orient, l'économie et Fukushima.

C'est en rendez-vous le lundi dès 15h pour l'émission la plus écoutée de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'Université du Québec à Montréal !

***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:

Netanyahu Worked Inside Nuclear Smuggling Ring

Counterespionage debriefing reveals how Israel targeted U.S.
On June 27, 2012, the FBI partially declassified and released seven additional pages [.pdf] from a 1985–2002 investigation into how a network of front companies connected to the Israeli Ministry of Defense illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the U.S.*
The newly released FBI files detail how Richard Kelly Smyth — who was convicted of running a U.S. front company — met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel during the smuggling operation. At that time, Netanyahu worked at the Israeli node of the smuggling network, Heli Trading Company. Netanyahu, who currently serves as Israel’s prime minister, recently issued a gag order that the smuggling network’s unindicted ringleader refrain from discussing “Project Pinto.”

Big pharma is cut out by India's plan to bring medicine to masses

India is planning a multibillion-dollar push to bring free medicines to the hundreds of millions of its citizens who, despite the country's economic revival, still languish without access to the very basics of health care.
The $5bn initiative, which is slated to be rolled out by the end of this year, will offer 348 essential drugs to patients across the country. In a blow to the West's big pharmaceutical firms, the planned scheme will largely cut out branded drugs, opting instead for cheaper generic alternatives.

Feds Look to Fight Leaks With ‘Fog of Disinformation’

Pentagon-funded researchers have come up with a new plan for busting leakers: Spot them by how they search, and then entice the secret-spillers with decoy documents that will give them away.
Computer scientists call it it “Fog Computing” — a play on today’s cloud computing craze. And in a recent paper for Darpa, the Pentagon’s premiere research arm, researchers say they’ve built “a prototype for automatically generating and distributing believable misinformation … and then tracking access and attempted misuse of it. We call this ‘disinformation technology.’”
Two small problems: Some of the researchers’ techniques are barely distinguishable from spammers’ tricks. And they could wind up undermining trust among the nation’s secret-keepers, rather than restoring it.

McChrystal: Time to bring back the draft

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again.
"I think we ought to have a draft. I think if a nation goes to war, it shouldn't be solely be represented by a professional force, because it gets to be unrepresentative of the population," McChrystal said at a late-night event June 29 at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. "I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game."
When you have the administration trotting out a guy like General Mc Chrystal doing this trial balloon about reinstituting the draft, you can bet your last plugged Turkish piaster that the US government is planning something huge and horrific militarily in the not too distant future.

Downed Turkish Plane and Dead Pilots Found With Aid of Titanic Explorer

Turkey says the reconnaissance aircraft was conducting a peaceful mission to test the nation’s radar system when it was shot down in international airspace after having briefly strayed into Syrian territory in the Mediterranean border region shared by Turkey’s Hatay Province and Syria’s Latakia Province. Syria says the plane was shot in Syrian airspace by gunners who had mistaken the Turkish plane for an Israeli one.
Turkey, a NATO member, has rejected that explanation as absurd, citing intercepted communications that showed the Syrians knew exactly what they were shooting at. Turkey has won NATO’s full support in the dispute, deployed antiaircraft batteries along the Syrian border and warned Syrian aircraft to stay away.
I hate being right all the time. They are using Ballard's fame to change the story of the shoot down.

New York Times: What Do You Get From A Drug War Costing $25 Billion Annually? Cocaine 74 Percent Cheaper Than It Was 30 Years Ago

hey are thinking about the wrong numbers. If there is one number that embodies the seemingly intractable challenge imposed by the illegal drug trade on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, it is $177.26. That is the retail price, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, of one gram of pure cocaine from your typical local pusher. That is 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
Which means there is more of it.

Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists

America was rudely awakened to a new kind of danger on September 11, 2001: Terrorism. The attacks that day left 2,996 people dead, including the passengers on the four commercial airliners that were used as weapons. Many feel it was the most tragic day in U.S. history.
Four commercial jets crashed that day. But what if six jumbo jets crashed every day in the United States, claiming the lives of 783,936 people every year? That would certainly qualify as a massive tragedy, wouldn't it?
Well, forget "what if." The tragedy is happening right now. Over 750,000 people actually do die in the United States every year, although not from plane crashes. They die from something far more common and rarely perceived by the public as dangerous: modern medicine.
According to the groundbreaking 2003 medical report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, 783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes. That's the equivalent of six jumbo jet crashes a day for an entire year. But where is the media attention for this tragedy? Where is the government support for stopping these medical mistakes before they happen?

Polonium found in Arafat’s toothpaste

An unusually high dose of polonium has been found in the toothpaste that belonged to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Sky News reports.
"Oooooh, you are ALL anti-semites!!!!" -- Nodding Yahoo

WHAT SECRETS LIE BURIED WITH ARAFAT?

As PA prepares to exhume body, Israel calls Arafat poisoning claim ‘baseless’
"Ooooh, you are such anti-Semites. And those sailors on the USS Liberty; they are anti-Semites too! And those people who want to keep poor Jonathan Pollard in prison for exposing US nuclear war secrets to the USSR through Israel, they are anti-semites too!" -- Nodding Yahoo

What Happens If Record Heat And Crippling Drought Cause Widespread Crop Failures Throughout The U.S?

It is too early to panic, but if there is not a major change in the weather very soon we could be looking at widespread crop failures throughout the United States this summer.
Record heat and crippling drought are absolutely devastating crops from coast to coast. Unfortunately, this unprecedented heat wave just continues to keep going and record high temperatures continue to scorch much of the central United States.
In fact, more than 2,000 record high temperatures have been matched or broken in the past week alone. Not only that, but the lack of rainfall nationally has caused drought conditions from coast to coast. If temperatures continue to stay this high and we don't start seeing more rain, farmers and ranchers all over the nation are going to be absolutely devastated. So what happens if we do see widespread crop failures throughout the United States? That is a question that is frightening to think about.

The Three Stage Foreign Plan To Destabilise Syria: Bashar al-Assad

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has claimed that unnamed foreign governments are behind a three stage plan to destabilise the country and bring down his government.

Speaking to Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, al-Assad claimed that the first stage had been to pay demonstrators to take part in protests.

Protestors were initially paid $10, rising to $50 as it became clear to those funding the protests that creating another 'Tahrir Square' uprising was not going to be easy.

Assad claimed that:

They wanted to take people into streets like it was in Egypt or Tunisia. But they couldn't do it.

Having failed to trigger a popular uprising, the second stage of the plan was the creation of 'liberated' areas within the country. The attempt to militarise some territories, said al-Assad, was:

Like the Benghazi model in Libya. But our army didn't allow that.

In Libya's Benghazi, British SAS were on the ground advising and training rebels from the start of the supposedly spontaneous rebel uprising.

French, Quatari and Jordanian special forces also later aided the Libyan rebels, supported by NATO's massive and illegal air bombardment and resulting in Gaddafi's murder and his country's assimilation into the West's new world order.

The Syrian army's decisive crackdown on militarised rebel strongholds such as Homs has led to stage three in the foreign meddlers' plan - a campaign of brutal destabilisation involving, said al-Assad:

Assassinations, bombing of state institutions, massacres targeting civilians and kidnappings.

Whilst it is certainly possible that al-Assad is exaggerating or lying about foreign involvement in the destabilisation of Syria, a wealth of evidence supports his claims. It has been widely acknowledged that the Syrian Free Army are being armed by the West and several Arab states. The presence of Al Qaeda in Syria has been admitted by both the US and British governments, whilst al-Assad's claims that Islamic terrorists are behind the worst violence have been either ignored or dismissed by the West.

The role of foreign intervention is described in the interview as "significant" by al-Assad, which he said was more harmful than any mistakes that had been made by the Syrian government.

This article first appeared at ResistRadio.com

Brit Dee's ResistRadio.com is an independent media website approaching global news, politics and conspiracy theory from a radical, but critical and rational perspective.

NATO launches war games in Mediterranean amid tension with Syria

NATO’s joint maritime group is flexing its muscle in the eastern Mediterranean Sea by conducting anti-terrorism drills as tensions between NATO member Turkey and its neighbor Syria escalate.
The Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) is determined “to give a clear message to terrorists in the region that NATO is on duty,” German Rear Admiral Thorsten Kahler told the Turkish daily Hurriyet.
“What we have to make sure is to tell the terrorists to be careful; we are here and providing security for NATO member states,” he said.
The admiral said the group will be heading from Istanbul further into the Mediterranean on July 7. The force currently consists of three frigates from Turkey, Germany and France. The ships are armed with 76-mm and 27-mm guns, Mark 46 anti-submarine torpedoes, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles and carry helicopters. They are manned by 545 sailors in total.
This is putting NATO military assets potentially into position for some kind of an assault on Syria.

IDF will ‘destroy’ any Lebanese village that fires rockets if war breaks out again

Israel will launch a brutal war against Lebanon if provoked by Hezbollah, senior Israel Defense Forces officers warned Thursday.
Though the northern border has remained mostly quiet since the end of the Second Lebanon War six years ago, Northern Command officers remain leery of hostilities breaking out again, especially as tensions with Iran remain high and Syria continues to spiral out of control.
Translation: if the Israeli government thinks it can get away with it, it will create a false flag diversion as a "justification" to invade Lebanon again.

Iran discovers 6 billion barrels of new oil reserves

"Invade! Invade NOW! NOW NOW NOW!!!!!" -- Official White Horse Souse

GlaxoSmithKline admits to criminal pharma fraud in 3 billion dollar case

(NaturalNews) British registered company, GlaxoSmithKline, faces $3 billion in penalties after pleading guilty to the biggest health care fraud case in history. GSK admitted that physicians had been bribed to push potentially dangerous drugs in exchange for Madonna tickets, Hawaiian holidays, cash and lucrative speaking tours. They also admitted distributing misleading information regarding the antidepressant Paxil. The report claimed that it was suitable for children, but failed to acknowledge data from studies proving its ineffectiveness in children and adolescents.
The second drug, Avandia was used in Britain to treat diabetes until it was withdrawn due to safety fears, including increased risk of heart attacks. The US government claimed that GSK had attempted to conceal the data surrounding the dangers.
The third drug, Wellbrutin is used in the UK for treating depression, but it was alleged that GSK had recommended physicians used it for ADHD, lost libido and as a slimming aid. None of which were approved uses for the drug.

Sarko and Carla 'fled to Canada hours before raid on Paris home and knew police would come for them'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168702/Nicolas-Sarkozy-Carla-Bruni-fled-hours-raid-Paris-home.html
Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy travelled to Canada seeking refuge with a Canadian billionaire Paul Desmarais
Nicolas Sarkozy knew police would come ‘looking’ for him, close friends of the ex-president have claimed.
As the former French leader and his wife Carla Bruni sought refuge in the home of a Canadian billionaire, it has emerged that the pair fled just hours before his Paris home and office was raided by anti-corruption police.
Although the former president has made no public comment, friends of his were quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying: “I know they’ll come looking for me. Nothing will come of it all.”

The couple pictured after meeting Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, only a few days before they took off to Canada

Mr Sarkozy is currently seeking refuge in the Montreal home of 86-year-old Canadian businessman Paul Desmarais.
That is sure to raise eyebrows in France as well because Sarkozy awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian award, in 2008.
His Paris residence was raided amid allegations that the ex-President accepted thousands of pounds in cash from France’s richest woman.
Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oreal cosmetics heiress, is said to have provided the money in brown envelopes to fund Sarkozy’s political career in return for future tax breaks.
Sarkozy’s immunity from prosecution ended last month after he lost his re-election bid, and on Tuesday detectives launched dawn swoops on three addresses connected with him.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): More Power to Corporations to Attack Nations

Under this regime, foreign investors can skirt domestic courts and laws, and sue governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic law that investors believe will diminish their "expected future profits." Over $675 million has been paid to foreign investors under U.S. trade pacts, while over $12 billion in claims are pending on environmental, safety, and public health policies under U.S. trade deals.
Note that this alleged "free trade agreement" is being negotiated in great secrecy, with absolutely no corporate news comment upon it at all.
Wednesday morning a document was leaked that reveals President Obama’s plans to surrender American sovereignty to international tribunals. This is one of several frightening provisions of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (also known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP) being negotiated in secret by American trade representatives. In the now-public document, as part of its membership in the TPP, the United States would agree to exempt foreign corporations from our laws and regulations, placing the resolution of any disputes as to the applicability of those matters to foreign business in the hands of an international arbitration tribunal overseen by the Secretary General of the United Nations. The leaked information confirms the fears of many who have opposed this trade agreement from the beginning. Several groups from the Left and the Right have decried the shroud of secrecy covering the TPP negotiations and are now vindicated by Wednesday’s revelations. One of these valiant organizations defending the sovereignty of the United States is Americans for Limited Government (ALG). On Thursday, ALG released a statement drawing attention to the leaked TPP agreement, as well as ably pointing out some of the most noxious aspects of it. These new trade agreements will place domestic U.S. firms that do not do business overseas at a competitive disadvantage. Based on these leaked documents, foreign firms under this trade pact could conceivably appeal federal regulatory and court rulings against them to an international tribunal with the apparent authority to overrule our sovereignty. If foreign companies want to do business in America, they should have to follow the same rules as everyone else. No special favors. It is telling that the only apparent way these Pacific nations will enter a free trade agreement with the U.S. is if they are exempt from our onerous environmental and financial regulations that make it cost-ineffective to do business here. Instead of making these foreign firms exempt from these burdensome rules, they should just repeal the regulations and make it cheaper to do business here. This poses an even wider problem, though. Obama is negotiating a trade pact that would constitute a judicial authority higher than even the U.S. Supreme Court that could overrule federal court rulings applying U.S. law to foreign companies. That is unconstitutional. The U.S. cannot be allowed to enter a treaty that would abrogate our Constitution. It is telling that the only apparent way these Pacific nations will enter a free trade agreement with the U.S. is if they are exempt from our onerous environmental and financial regulations that make it cost-ineffective to do business here. Instead of making these foreign firms exempt from these burdensome rules, they should just repeal the regulations and make it cheaper to do business here. This poses an even wider problem, though. Obama is negotiating a trade pact that would constitute a judicial authority higher than even the U.S. Supreme Court that could overrule federal court rulings applying U.S. law to foreign companies. That is unconstitutional. The U.S. cannot be allowed to enter a treaty that would abrogate our Constitution.

BEX alert - WikiLeaks releases 2.4 million Syria emails

WikiLeaks has begun publishing more than 2 million emails from Syrian political figures that it says will shed light on the regime's crackdown on dissent
If any of you still have doubts that Assange is being run by US and Israeli intelligence services ...

Syria destroys five Turkish vehicles

Syrian soldiers destroyed five Turkish cargo trucks in Azez neighborhood of Syria's Aleppo, in the border region between Syria and Turkey on Wednesday, local daily Milliyet reported on Thursday.
The truck drivers managed to escape and reached the Turkish border with the help of Syrian opposition.
"Syrian soldiers fired on our vehicles. Five trucks were burned. The Syrian opposition helped us to cross to Turkey by bringing us to the border," a driver was quoted as saying.

6 Israeli jets violate Lebanese airspace

The Lebanese army issued a report saying that Israeli jets flew over the Shebba Farms, Nabatieh, Marjayoun, Hasbaya and Kfar-Kila on Friday afternoon, The Voice of Russia reported.
They also flew at a low altitude over Hezbollah military bases in the Iqlim el-Tufah region.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army announced that over a dozen Israeli warplanes had violated the country's airspace and flown over the southern villages of Alma Shaab and Rmeish.
And Hillary, still raging at Assad for shooting down a Turkish warplane inside his own country, says nothing about Israel's act of war against Lebanon!

Syria Masses Tanks on Turkey Border as Tensions Soar

On Tuesday, Turkey deployed a number of tanks to their border with Syria, terming the nation a “clear and present threat” to the Turkish government’s security and vowing to shoot any Syrian troops perceived as “too close” to the border.
The tensions haven’t cooled since then, and Syria has now sent some 170 tanks to the Turkish border, just northwest of Aleppo, in an effort to fortify the area against a possible Turkish incursion. Free Syrian Army (FSA) leadership speculated that the tanks were planning to attack rebels in the area, but it doesn’t seem to be about them.
Things here could go from bad to worse in less time than the speed of light takes to travel.
Unfortunately, this is precisely the scenario the US and Israel want to see happen; a massive civil war in Syria, exacerbated by battles between Turkey and Syria which will "force" NATO's hand into the fray.

Al-Qaeda terrorists pour across Iraq-Syria border to fight Assad regime

http://www.examiner.com/article/al-qaeda-terrorists-pour-across-iraq-syria-border-to-fight-assad-regime?CID=examiner_alerts_article
The chief of the United Nations Mission in Syria reported on Thursday that the killing and destruction in Syria is unprecedented in such a civil war. At the same time, according to a former police trainer who served in Iraq, officials he spoke with said that members of al-Qaeda's terrorist groups (al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) have been crossing the border into Syria to carry out terrorist attacks.
The Law Enforcement Examiner source's information was later confirmed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari who said members of the al-Qaeda terrorism network have crossed border into Syria
"Yes indeed, we have solid information and intelligence that members of al-Qaida terrorist network have gone in the other direction to Syria to help and to liaise to carry out terrorist attacks," Zebari told reporters at a news conference in Baghdad.
The foreign minister told reporters that Iraq had warned the Syrian regime that extremist militants were crossing borders into Iraq, but now the terrorists are going back to fight in the Syrian conflict.
"This is a fact that the extremist groups have an important role in the level of violence that is going on in Syria," Zebari added.
Syria's state news agency SANA warned that "armed terrorist groups" had blocked the road between Damascus and Beirut, Lebanon.
The Syrian rebels have also reached the outskirts of Damascus, the nation's capital, and there were sounds of heavy fighting -- explosions and loud gunfire -- in the city's suburbs, according to SANA.
Assad's war declaration on Monday was surprising to the Israelis since the Syrian president always claimed the uprising against him was nothing more than a few scattered militants and terrorists funded by outsiders who wished for the ouster of the Syrian government, especially Assad.
"We live in a real state of war from all angles," Assad told the new cabinet members he appointed in a speech broadcast on SANA state television.
"When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war," he is quoted as saying during the broadcast.
Which sort of confirms that "Al Qaeda" (nudge nudge wink wink) have been working for the US Government all along.

Clinton: Russia & China will 'pay price' for supporting Assad

Moscow and Beijing will be punished for supporting the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton harshly stated at the "Friends of Syria" meeting of over 100 Western and Arab nations in Paris on Friday.

NATO started naval exercises off the coast of Syria

Source: Hurriyet
A key NATO maritime group has begun flexing its muscles in the Mediterranean as it sets off from Istanbul with a mission to combat terrorism in the sea.
The task of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 is “to give a clear message to terrorists in the region that NATO is on duty,” German Rear Adm. Thorsten Kahler told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. Germany recently took over the leadership of the mission from Turkey.
The group will conduct its mission in the eastern Mediterranean at a time of increased tensions in the area following the recent downing of a Turkish jet by Syrian forces and continued energy exploration off Greek Cyprus’ southern coast that has upset Turkey and Turkish Cyprus.
This anti-terrorism mission is “the only Article 5 mission of NATO so far, coming from Sept. 11 of course, and [it has been] making the Mediterranean a safer place and preventing terrorism,” Kahler said.
A not so thinly veiled threat to Russia, perchance, to stay away from Syria if NATO invades Syria on the "RPT justification" (responsibility to protect)?!?

UN envoy admits international efforts to find political solution in Syria 'have failed'

Special UN envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged in an interview published Saturday that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed.
Annan told the French daily Le Monde that more attention needed to be paid to the role of longtime Syrian ally Iran, and that countries supporting military actors in the conflict were making the situation worse. "The evidence shows that we have not succeeded," he said.
What the West and Israel want is for Syria to descend into civil war, ultimately to be resolved by some outside intervention.
But should NATO and the US decide to do this, the big question is, what will Russia and China do to prevent such an action?

US State Department lobbies for terrorist group?

Since May of this year, the Obama administration has been pushing to have a terrorist organization removed from the terrorist watch list. The Mujahadeen- e-Khalq of Iran is allegedly responsible for assassinating US citizens and even worked together with Saddam Hussein. The group has been on the watch list for approximately 15 years, so why is there this push to remove the MEK as terrorists? Jamal Abdi, policy director at The National Iranian American Council, takes a closer look at the possible motives.

US Drone Strike Kills 21 in North Waziristan

At least 21 people were killed today and three others wounded when US drones attacked a house in Datta Khel, North Waziristan Agency today. The strike destroyed the home, with six missiles being fired at it.

Focus on US Troops in Yemen Masks Saudi Spy Ops

The Yemeni military’s offensive in Abyan Province over the past few months has brought considerable attention to the US ground troops deployed to the nation and the constant US drone strikes in the region.
While the US role cannot be underestimated, experts are saying that the focus is distracting from a much large foreign intervention in the country, the Saudi Arabian government’s massive spying operations.
“They can do what the Americans cannot do,” noted one analyst, while diplomats say that Saudi spies with “unlimited funds” have bought loyalty of tribes across inner Yemen and have networks of 30,000 agents nationwide.
The sclerotic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is desperately working to make sure that very little Yemenite unrest gets exported to their country, as there are fractious leadership issues happening in the royal family after the death of the last reigning monarch, coupled with significant unemployment numbers.
Having Saudi oil off the market due to any kind of domestic rebellion at a time when Iranian oil would be off the market, courtesy of an external military strike, would be a worst-case scenario for both the US government and Israel.

U.S. Army Course Authorizes Use of Deadly Force, Internment Camps During U.S. Civil Disturbance

In a damning new 115 page self-learning course from the U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort McClellan originally issued in April 2006, we learn that the military has a detailed and brutal plan in store in times of mass civil unrest in the United States.
This likely comes as no surprise to readers of End the Lie who are familiar with my work on the military’s Internment/Resettlement Operations manual (video is also embedded below), my coverage of the designation of civilian internee in military literature, my coverage of KBR’s so-called “National Quick Response Teams,” and the FEMA “National Responder Support Camps.”

TIMES OF ISRAEL - Jews DO control the media

But the funny part is when any anti-Semite or anti-Israel person starts to spout stuff like, “The Jews control the media!” and “The Jews control Washington!”
Suddenly we’re up in arms. We create huge campaigns to take these people down. We do what we can to put them out of work. We publish articles. We’ve created entire organizations that exist just to tell everyone that the Jews don’t control nothin’. No, we don’t control the media, we don’t have any more sway in DC than anyone else. No, no, no, we swear: We’re just like everybody else!
Does anyone else (who’s not a bigot) see the irony of this?
Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do control the media.

Israeli Army: Next Lebanon war violent, destructive

The Israeli Army said that it is preparing for another possible war with Lebanon, one which it expects to be much more violent than the 2006 conflict, according to an Israeli daily.

These Things too are for the Purpose of Demonstration.

Today is the anniversary of the ICTS associated attack on the London Tube in 2005. They were running security at all the 9/11 airports. They were running security at the London Tube. They were also in place at The Madrid Train Station when that got bombed. Good luck finding links on the internet placing ICTS there. That's been well scrubbed. The sheer weight of associations between Israel and just about every terror act in recent decades is inarguable. If you've got a couple of hours you'll find lots of heartwarming copy here.
The Israeli "security" company ICTS was also handling security at every one of the airports used for the 9-11 false flag, as well as the airport the "Shoe Bomber" was allowed onto an airplane.

Switzerland defies US, EU ban on Iran oil

Switzerland will continue to purchase Iranian oil in defiance of the European Union sanctions on the Islamic Republic that came into effect on July 1.

Économie:

Banks’ Defenses to Potential Trillions in Libor Claims Fail

The big banks have been manipulating the world’s central economic indicator – Libor – for decades, harming homeowners, students, credit card holders, small businesses, cities and many others.
The sums involved were huge. As the Economist notes:
The sums involved might have been huge. Barclays was a leading trader of these sorts of derivatives, and even relatively small moves in the final value of LIBOR could have resulted in daily profits or losses worth millions of dollars. In 2007, for instance, the loss (or gain) that Barclays stood to make from normal moves in interest rates over any given day was £20m ($40m at the time). In settlements with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Britain and America’s Department of Justice, Barclays accepted that its traders had manipulated rates on hundreds of occasions.

sounds like the shit is fixing to hit: Libor Rate-Fixing Scandal Spotlight Now On … Citigroup And JPMorgan

AFP
Libor rate-fixing scandal spotlight now on Citi, JPMorgan

Exclusive: Barclays insider lifts lid on bank's toxic culture - The Independent

A former senior Barclays employee today exposes the “culture of fear” that operated at the bank and claims Bob Diamond would have been aware of his traders' activities.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the banker alleges that senior executives would have known of Libor fiddling in 2008.
The Serious Fraud Office announced yesterday that it had launched a criminal inquiry into interest rate fixing amid increasing clamour for rogue bankers to be prosecuted.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the banker says that senior Barclays bosses would have been told about Libor concerns because staff were drilled to pass anything untoward up to their managers. Failure to do this meant the sack.
"Libor fixing was escalated by several people up to their directors, they would then have escalated it up the line because at Barclays if you don't escalate, and it is found out that you haven't, it is grounds for disciplinary action. You will be dismissed."

Revealed: The culture of fear on the Barclays trading floor 'that led to staff rigging interest rates - Daily Mail

Barclays has spoken out about a 'culture of fear' that existed at the bank - and alleged that it is 'impossible' that bosses did not know about the interest rate rigging taking place on their watch.
The banker claims disgraced ex-chief executive Bob Diamond would have been aware that his traders were involved in Libor fiddling in 2008.
Mr Diamond maintains that he knew nothing about the rate fixing and told MPs this week that he only heard about it last month.
Today's revelations follow demands from furious shareholders that the bank strips its former boss of his entitlement to an £18million bonus, while the Serious Fraud Office yesterday confirmed it is pursuing criminal investigations into the industry-wide conspiracy.

Banking IT ‘Glitch’ Reaches Germany: Deutsche Postal Bank Halts ATM Transactions

The IT ‘glitch’ that has entirely shut down RBS’ NatWest Bank and halted ATM transactions at Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, has now spread to Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Postbank.
Deutsche Postbank Friday reported its own IT glitch that has completely paralyzed its ATM’s nationwide.
While this entire string of 21st Century Bank Holidays has received zero MSM coverage, it is appearing more and more likely that the derivatives domino chain known as insolvency has been triggered.

Deutsche Postbank AG ATMS not working in Germany? Banks in Europe shutting down due to glitches or are they Bank Holidays?

I got word from a financial expert that the Deutsche Post Bank ATMs in Germany are not working this weekend.
Considering that RBS is saying their glitches won't be fixed until July 31st and now Russia's largest bank Sberbank is stopping all credit and debit card transactions. Then there is BNI who are saying they will not reopen until July 31st. Something big is happening with the banks shutting down.
If there are bank holidays happening in Europe, don't think it won't spread to the U.S. banks. They are all in it together and the glitches no doubt will become contagious in the U.S. too.
More info sent to me via email, at link.

Quantitative easing: a sign of deep desperation

"Quantitative easing" has become such a familiar phrase over the past three years that it now seems like a standard part of the Bank of England's equipment – giving the "one club golfer", as Ted Heath once dubbed anyone trying to guide the economy using interest rates alone, one more club.
But before the days of the financial crisis, QE was seen as a drastic emergency measure, which only Japanese policymakers had used on a large scale in recent times, to little avail, as their economy slumped into a "lost decade" of deflation and recession.
Make no mistake: this latest £50bn-worth of electronically created money being pumped into the financial system is a sign of deep desperation, not a simple chip out of the rough.

Gold & Silver Raided as BOE Prints £50 Billion, ECB Slashes Rates

The cartel raided gold and silver just prior to the COMEX open this morning, as once again (last seen with the $50 gold smash 5 minutes prior to the Swiss National Bank devaluation of the CHF) gold and silver have been smashed counter-intuitively immediately prior to new massive easing.
The Bank of England announced £50 billion in new QE this morning, the ECB slashed rates 25 basis points, even the Peoples Bank of China slashed rates, and GOLD AND SILVER GET HAMMERED!

Gold Drops After ECB Cuts Rates to Record Low

The ECB has cut the main refinancing rate to record low of 0.75%. Gold dropped sharply immediately following the announcement, but is currently rising again.

Revenge of a fallen titan: Ousted Barclays boss makes damning claims Bank of England and Labour ministers were involved in rigging interest rates

In a spectacular act of revenge, the fallen financial titan turned on the Bank of England, Whitehall officials and the last Labour government.
His former bank Barclays published documents suggesting the Bank of England leant on him to push down the Libor rate that affects the price of loans and financial products everywhere.
Senior Whitehall figures had expressed concern about the high rates being reported by Barclays and wanted them lowered, according to the memos.
A key email suggested Barclays was alone in reporting high borrowing costs in 2008, while rival banks were underestimating theirs.

The Biggest Financial Scam In World History

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31763

Why Is the Libor Scandal So Important to You?

There have been numerous big banking scandals recently.
But the Libor scandal is the biggest financial scam in world history. See this and this.

British bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) is dead centre of a storm involving the manipulation of inter-bank lending rates, particularly Libor (the London Inter Bank Offered Rate).

What is truly breath-taking is the sheer scale of this fraud.

According to one estimate, around $350 trillion (£223 trillion) of lending and derivatives is priced off Libor. That’s enough to pay for the whole of UK Government spending for around three centuries at current levels. Thus, if misconduct by banks caused Libor to increase by a mere one tenth of one basis point (0.001%), this amounts to $35 billion (£22 billion) a year in extra interest – that’s roughly the UK’s annual budget for transport and close to as much as council tax brought in last year.

One official claims that 20 other banks helped to rig interest rates and that Barclays is poised to 'blow the whistle' on wrongdoing at its co-conspirators. It's also likely that criminal charges could be brought against the ringleaders of this worldwide fraud.

Due to the vast scale of this illegal activity, Libor lawsuits, fines and damages could be an existential threat to Barclays and other banks. Shareholders should forget about the damage to banks' reputations, which are already in the gutter. Instead, they should worry about the very future of the banks involved.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-banking-scam-ever-141604082.html

Alright, because I didn't understand it at first, the EILIF (Explain It Like I'm Five) explanation:

LIBOR (the London InterBank Offered Rate) is the rate at which banks charge each other to lend to each other. A committee made up of 16 banks (some sources say "up to 18") determines the average rate which the banks (within this committee) have been charging each other, and report that as the LIBOR. These numbers are self-reported and are not necessarily based on real trades. They "throw out" the highest four and lowest four numbers and average the remaining eight to make the LIBOR.

Why do we care about the banks trading? Banks lend to each other "to either make a profit or cover any short-term cash shortfalls on the part of the borrower." The banks who are lending the cash make extra profit. If banks have to raise interest rates for lending funds, it means the lending bank is less confident in the loan. This is meant to reflect "the health of the wider banking sector."

Sidebar: For European redditors, you may be familiar with Euribor. This is the equivalent.

However, this committee has been, evidently, lying about it, in both directions (higher and lower than reality.) Because of the fact that numbers are thrown out, it means that it's possible more than just one or two banks are falsifying their numbers.

Effectively, they've been falsifying their credit scores. They've been doing so to make money. Now, "in many cases", these falsifications were made to push rates down, so consumption would go up. They also did this to mask how much financial stress they were under: if they lowered interest rates, it would make them seem more confident. Again: higher consumption, more profit. However, they pushed them higher on many other occasions. They do this, from the evidence we have, at the request of traders. (Comment with more detail on how they make money off this.)

"Every interest rate in the world is based on LIBOR." Ok, not every single one. But "some mortgages and loans are directly linked to the Libor rate." Most of the remaining loans are at least influenced by it, as it is often used as a benchmark, especially for commercial mortgages and loans.

The former CEO of Barclays said today that banks across the world were fixing interest rates in the run-up to the financial crisis .
Professor of economics and law Bill Black notes:
It is the largest rigging of prices in the history of the world by many orders of magnitude.
Indeed, the scandal effects an $800 trillion dollar market – 10 times the size of the real world economy.
Matt Taibbi explains that this is the “mega scandal of all mega scandals”, because Libor is the “sun at the center of the financial universe”, and manipulating Libor means that “the whole Earth is built on quicksand.”
Homeowners, credit card holders, students, local governments, small businesses, small investors and virtually everyone else in the entire world has been impacted by the manipulation.
Indeed, the scandal is so big that it will further destroy trust in our financial system and drive many people from investing in the capital markets altogether.
Trust in any financial entity is ALREADY at an all-time low for most thinking individuals; the Libor scandal will most likely be the proverbial nail in the coffin, inspiring people to think about how they can conduct their business without going through any financial institutions whatsoever.
A sign of the times is definitely A&E's "Barter Kings", which demonstrates how people are getting what they are looking for with absolutely no cash changing hands at all.

US manufacturing contraction feeds fear of global slowdown

An index of manufacturing activity unexpectedly fell to 49.7 in June from 53.5 in May, the Institute for Supply Management said yesterday. A reading below 50 signals contraction and last month’s figure was lower than the most pessimistic forecast.

Australia and China Strike Another Nail into the US Dollar for Independence Day

In a move that has slipped under the radar of even the alternative financial media, China celebrated Independence Day by handing the US Dollar’s reserve currency status another severe flesh wound.
China moved Wednesday to make Australia the first G20 nation with the ability to directly convert its currency into Chinese yuan, bypassing the US dollar.
The writing is on the wall for the dollar’s reserve currency status.

Former Icelandic bank execs jailed for fraud

The former chairman and the former CEO of the Icelandic Byr Savings Bank have each been sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars after being found guilty of fraud.
Why have their been no arrests for Wall Street's mortgage-backed securities fraud?

Iceland economy grows at fastest pace since crash

Increases in domestic consumption, tourism and exports have seen the Icelandic economy expand in the year’s first quarter at its fastest pace since the 2008 banking crisis. According to statistics released on Friday June 8, annual economic growth for the first three months of 2012 was at 4.5 percent while GDP grew 2.4 percent, the highest rate since the first quarter of 2008. Annual growth for 2011 was also up 2.7 percent, while the fourth quarter was up 1.9 percent on the same period of 2010.

Top Customer: Under Obama, Fed’s Holdings of U.S. Debt Have Jumped 452%

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, the Federal Reserve’s holdings of U.S. government debt have quintupled, according to the Fed’s official monthly balance sheet.
On Jan. 28, 2009, a week after Obama’s nomination, the Fed owned $302 billion in U.S. Treasury securities. On April 25, 2012, the latest date reported, the Fed owned five and a half time that much in U.S. Treasury securities--$1.668 trillion.
That is an increase from January 2009 of $1.366 trillion—or 452 percent.
Under Obama, the Federal Reserve has become the single largest owner of U.S. government debt.
These are very, very scary numbers indeed!!

Is High Frequensy Trading Ruining the Market?

High-frequency trading (HFT) is a market-skewing, artificial form of speculation that places undo pressure on already fragile markets, which, by doing so, increases the risk of another flash crash or something much worse. HFT accounts for over 50% of all trading volumes, further distancing individual investors from the market and eliminating virtually any link between valuation and market price.

Family net worth plummets nearly 40%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The average American family’s net worth dropped almost 40% between 2007 and 2010, according to a triennial study released Monday by the Federal Reserve.

The stunning drop in median net worth — from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 — indicates that the recession wiped away 18 years of savings and investment by families.

The Fed study, called the Survey of Consumer Finances, offers details on savings, income, debt, as well as assets and investments owned by American families.

The results, though more than a year old, highlight the marked deterioration in household finances brought on by the financial crisis and ensuing recession.

No one in their right mind can look at numbers like this and say with a straight face that the US economy is in a "recovery" of any kind!!

CBO issues bleak long-term budget outlook

The Congressional Budget Office is again warning that the government's mounting debt problems threaten to swamp the economy unless policymakers move to arrest out-of-control deficits.

Greek anger as Spain is handed 100bn bailout with NO need for austerity measures... and world markets bounce back

Angry Greeks are demanding better terms on their country's bailout after Spain was handed what they see as a 'no-strings attached' €100billion cash boost.
Far-left party Syriza, which could win the re-run of the Greek elections on Sunday, said the Spanish deal 'showed Europe was abandoning its policy of austerity'.
The agreement, they said, was in stark contrast to the deal hammered out with the Greeks two years ago.

Global bourses take a beating

Global stocks went into a slump as the trading week began after a raft of negative economic news over the weekend.
Markets across Asia, including Singapore, registered hefty falls yesterday as the weak economic data from China and the United States rattled investors.
In Singapore, the benchmark Straits Times Index was not spared, falling below the 2,700 support for the first time in five months after losing 46.81 points, or 1.7 per cent, to 2,698.9.
London markets were closed for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee holiday, but stocks in Frankfurt ended the day down 1.19 per cent. Wall Street, which plunged 275 points last Friday, slid 0.3 per cent in the first few hours of trading on signs of nervousness and futures indexes suggested more weakness to come.
With no end to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe in sight, investors were resigned to fresh turmoil ahead.

Marc Faber: Global Recession 100% Certainty by 2013

Time Bomb? Banks Pressured to Buy Government Debt

US and European regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up their own government's debt—a move that could end up making the debt crisis even worse, a Citigroup analysis says.

Standard & Poor's warns India of a downgrade to junk category

International rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has warned that India risks a sovereign downgrade which would result in the country dropping off the list of countries with an investment-grade rating.
The statement comes less then two months after the agency revised the outlook on India's rating to negative from stable and said that the country has a one-in-three chances of being downgraded in the next two years. India presently enjoys a BBB- which is the lowest investment grade rating.

CNBC Accuses Morgan Stanley of "Painting The Tape"!

Very few things shock me these days in our rigged markets but this one is a stunning revelation that was openly discussed on CNBC this morning. Gary Kamenski of CNBC comments on the strange spike of Facebook stock last week and blames it on James Gorman of Morgan Stanley for “Paining the Tape” which he claims is “perfectly legal”.
So the lead Facebook underwriter was giving an interview on CNBC telling everyone to watch the intraday trading and then Morgan Stanley jacks up the price of Facebook in the last few trading minutes and for some reason this commentator thinks it’s “perfectly legal”!
IT’S NOT LEGAL AT ALL! As a matter of fact…IT’S PERFECTLY ILLEGAL to manipulate the price right before the close or at ANYTIME!!

Is the Table Set for a Mania in Precious Metals?

Jeff Clark
Casey Research
It may feel like I'm out of touch with the precious metals markets to broach the subject of a mania today, but I think the table is being set now for a huge move into gold and silver.
There are, however, very valid reasons to reasonably expect a mania in our sector. For one thing, manias have occurred many times before, but the main issue is that a mania in gold and gold stocks is the likely result of the absolute balloon in government debt, deficit spending, and money printing.
Saying all that profligacy will go away without inflationary consequences seems naïve or foolish. Inflation may not attract investors to gold and silver as much as force them to it...

The Hoarding Continues: China Purchases A Record 100 Tons Of Gold In April From Hong Kong

In the first four months, imports were 239,174 kilograms from 27,114 kilograms a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations. China doesn’t publish such figures." In other words: in the first four months of 2012 Chinese purchases have increased by an unprecedented 782% over 2011.
...but remember folks, gold is toxic, so don't buy any of it for yourself.

Signs China Is Preparing For A Collapse Of The Dollar and International Trade

China is recasting large gold bars into smaller kilogram (2.2 pound) size bars in preparation for a world trade system in which dollars are either near worthless or refused as legal tender outside the United States. This recasting program began before the Chinese representatives agreed at the Bilderberg 2012 meeting to allow America to default on its debt by devaluing the dollar.
China is also preparing for the coming collapse by buying farm land all over the world. Contrast this to the people who own the US government. They had Ben Bernanke loan them 7 trillion dollars at 0.01% interest so people like Blythe Masters at JP Morgan could buy food in the futures market. This allows her to run up the prices people pay at the grocery store without increasing the production of food.

80% Of the Gold the World Owns Doesn’t Exist

Officer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) says that 75%-80% of gold traded in the bullion market doesn't even exist. It's just a stack of paper contracts. When the system finally can no longer sustain the fraud, those who hold paper will lose everything. His advice: If you want to invest in gold (or silver) take possession of the real thing - metal.

The Central Banks Are Buying Gold Like It’s 1965

Message: Buy physical commodities - now. The Empire of Paper is falling.
Andy Hagans: This week’s Barron’s points to recent World Gold Council data showing enormous gold purchases by central banks over the past year. These purchases are most likely not a temporary tactical move, but rather a powerful long term trend that will continue for years, if not decades. But wait: don’t the central banks want us “normies” to buy up more equities, invest and spend with record amounts of fiat currency, and heckle the gold bugs for their hilarious foolishness? It appears to be a case of “Do as I say, not a I do.”

Central banks

increased their gold hoards by 400 metric tons—each equal to almost 2,205 pounds—in the 12 months through March 31, up from 156 tons during the prior year… The council “is now confident that central banks will continue to buy gold and has added official-sector purchases as a new element of gold demand,” writes Austin Kiddle in a report for London-based bullion dealer Sharps Pixley.

This steady flow of gold into the vaults of central bankers is notable for both the size and consistency of its volume. Indeed, this type of official purchasing last occurred in 1965, when the global monetary landscape hardly resembled the current all-fiat experimental system.

So what does this mean for retail gold investors?

…consistent buying of 10% of annual supply can’t but help keep the price elevated… But that’s only one big change. The second: Short-term speculators have fled the market. Open interest of managed futures funds, considered a good proxy for all speculators, has dropped a staggering 28% since the beginning of September…

London Trader - Staggering 515 Tons of Gold Sold in 4 Hours

For immediate delivery of gold, in size, we are seeing delays, but silver is extraordinarily backlogged.
Also, there was an absolutely staggering amount of silver that was purchased by an Eastern buyer three weeks ago near the $27 level. This order was breathtaking in terms of the size. It is currently queued up at two refiners, but has been backlogged for the last three weeks and running. In other words, we are looking at serious backlogs for physical silver.

Astounding Sale of 515 Tons of Gold Sold in 4 Hrs; "Big Reset" Coming?

With many global investors still rattled by the recent price action in gold and silver, today King World News interviewed the “London Trader” to get his take on these markets. The source told KWN that not only was a shocking amount of paper gold sold in just 4 hours yesterday, but it was also confirmed that the mainstream media is not reporting the staggering amount of physical gold that has actually been purchased by China recently. Here is what the source had to say: “China has purchased hundreds of tons of gold in the last couple of months. China is not disclosing what their true reserves are. Russia is delaying disclosure and so is Iran. We saw record gold imports of over 100 tons through Hong Kong to China in April, as reported by the mainstream media, but what has been reported is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Bank Runs, Food Shortages, Riots, Looting, Blood in the Streets. And That's Just Greece: 10 Things to Prepare for NOW

The following are 10 things that we can learn about shortages and preparation from the economic collapse in Greece....

Morgan Stanley Has Lowest Close Since December 2008, Down 40% From Jim Cramer's "Dirt Cheap" Level

Little to be said here: everyone's favorite proxy of all that is broken with Europe, and now the retail investor, Margin Stanley just closed at the lowest price since December 2008. The move lower continues as Zero Hedge warned back in September of 2011. Compare this to Jim Cramer's February 2 pronouncement that Morgan Stanley is a "dirt cheap stock"... at $19.66!? The 40% prolapse in the four months since (120% annualized?) probably make it dirtest cheapest?

Egan Jones Downgrades The UK From AA To AA-

When one is expected to go down for missing a comma in their NRSRO application, one at least should go down swinging. Sure enough, Egan-Jones, the only rating agency with any credibility left, is at it again, this time cutting the big momma itself - the UK - from AA to AA-.

Brussels... We Have A Problem

The following chart from Ray Dalio's Bridgewater probably explains why the words "funding gap" (or "math") will never be uttered by any Eurocrat as that would mean the jig is up. It is also quite self-explanatory: it simply presents visually all that ZH and others have been saying for years.

Spain is in 'total emergency’, the EU in total denial

After a Spanish exit from the euro, there would be nothing left to exit from.

Euro crisis hits DAX index hard

The stock market index DAX, which represents Germany's 30 biggest companies, felt the sting of Europe's economic fears on Monday, when it dropped blow 6,000 points for the first time in five months.

U.S. winds down longer unemployment benefits

Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected.
But Israel gets unlimited funds to murder their neighbors with!

The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class

Each evening, 150 people in 113 vehicles spend the night in 23 parking lots in Santa Barbara. The lots are part of Safe Parking, a program that offers overnight permits to people living in their vehicles. The nonprofit that runs the program, New Beginnings Counseling Center, requires participants to have a valid driver's license and current registration and insurance. The number of vehicles per lot ranges from one to 15, and lot hours are generally from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Fraternization among those who sleep in the lots is implicitly discouraged – the fainter the program's presence, the less likely it will provoke complaints from neighboring homes and churches and businesses.
Please remember: this is not accidental. This is a deliberate destruction of the middle class, courtesy of the previous administration and the present one.
Here is more evidence of the suicide mission this country is on: General Electric announced it's moving its 115-year-old X-ray business from Waukesha, Wisconsin to Beijing, China. The X-ray business is part of General Electric's GE Healthcare unit, and this move is just part of a broader plan by GE to invest $2 billion in China. This will become the first GE business to be headquartered there. A handful of the unit's top executives will be transferred to China but otherwise, the company says, none of the 150 staffers in the Milwaukee-area facility will lose jobs or be transferred. However, GE plans to hire more than 65 engineers and a support staff at a new facility in China. It's the kind of news that makes you want to reach for something sharp and jab it in your eye. General Electric's Chief Executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is one of President Obama's advisers on… ready? U.S. job creation!

BIS warns global lending contracting at fastest pace since 2008 Lehman crisis

International lending is contracting at the fastest pace since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 as Europe's banks scramble to meet tougher rules.

Record Number Of US Households On Foodstamps

Last month, when the USDA released the latest foodstamps numbers for the month of February, there was some hope that following a third month of declines, we may just have seen the peak of US foodstamp usage and going forward we would only see the number decline. Sadly, the latest numbers refutes this: in March a total of 46,405,204 persons were at or below poverty level and thus eligible for foodstamps, a 79K increase in the month. Yet while many individuals have learned to game the system, and this numbers at the peak may fluctuate, when it comes to the far more comprehensive and difficult to fudge "households on foodstamps" number, there was no confusion: at 22,257,647, the number of US households receiving the "SNAP treatment" rose to an all time high, even as the benefit per household dropped to the second lowest ever. At least all these impoverished believers in hope and change have FaceBook IPO profits to look forward to. Oh wait.

Is The UK About To Engage In A Stealth Default?

If there was ever an article that should spark every British citizen to immediately shift their savings into physical gold this is it. Basically, proposals are on the table to change the way inflation is calculated for bonds that payout based on the rate of change in prices. Unsurprisingly, they are purposely attempting to use an alternative measure of inflation that allows substitution (so when people can no longer buy a steak and must spend the same amount of money on spam this shows up as no inflation)! If this goes through, it is blatant theft. This is why owning TIPS in the U.S. is a total fool’s game. They will mark inflation to whatever level they want at the end of the day. To whatever is most convenient at the moment. You know, just like the banks mark their balance sheets. But don’t take my word for it…

WSJ Takes Gold Bashing to Unseen Heights- Calls Gold ‘TOXIC’

A Synchronized Global SlowdownIn Negative Territory

Growing troubles in the eurozone, a slowdown in China and a jobs report that was weaker than the most-pessimistic forecast, sent stocks plunging on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 275 points on the day while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ followed the DJIA into the red. All the gains of 2012 have now been erased leaving all the major indices in negative territory.
The global selloff was preceded on Thursday by a revision of first quarter GDP which was slashed from 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent. The US economy is neither growing nor adding jobs. The signs of stagnation–which have spread from manufacturing, to consumer confidence, to GDP, and now to jobs– has ended all talk of a “recovery” and dampened Obama’s prospects for re-election in November.

Euro Elite: Using Financial Crisis To Centralize Power

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post
The European elite are predictably planning to exploit the ongoing collapse of the Euro to further centralize power.
With Greece and other countries on the brink, some may have thought the European dream to be crumbling - and even dared hope for greater national sovereignty and the kicking out of corrupt financial institutions and their fraudulent debts.
Unfortunately, such dreams will quickly turn nightmarish if the plans are successful...

Britain could face £4.8bn bailout bill if Greece leaves euro

The cost of downloading: Supreme Court says $675,000 fine remains for sharing 30 songs

Tenenbaum was hit with a $675,000 fine — $22,500 per song — after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) took him to court over copyright infringement in 2009 and won their case. Following that decision, Nancy Gertner of United States District Court in Boston shot down the jury-determined penalty and reduced it by 90 percent, but not without the RIAA appealing and winning once more, reinstating the original fine.
In Massachusetts, the company Power Fasteners knowingly sold inadequate adhesives to the Big Dig project with the result that a concrete block fell from the ceiling of the Boston's Fort Point Channel Tunnel onto a commuter car, killing Milena Del Valle. Power Fasteners was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The fine was $1000. So, according to the court system, a copied music file is worth 22 times the life of a human being.

Portugal drops 4 public holidays in austerity move

Portuguese workers will give up four public holidays beginning in 2013 as part of the government's austerity drive, news reports said Wednesday.
Bend over and spread 'em!

Greece’s banking industry secretly gets €100 billion

Greece's struggling banking industry has been secretly injected with around €100 billion in emergency liquidity from the country’s central bank which was approved by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, according to the FT.
This follow reports of a ‘run’ developing on Greek banks last week, which were emphatically denied by the Greek PM’s office.

Fear of Bank Runs in U.S. Hit All Time Highs

While the global elite are still clinging to the hope that the euro single currency can survive a Greek exit that now looks inevitable, some members of the financial aristocracy have already given up on the entire eurozone altogether.
In an article for the Financial Times entitled, We must break up the failing euro, former Bilderberg attendee Sir Martin Jacomb concedes that all efforts to rescue the euro have been in vain, calling for "all 17 members to decide at once to revert to national currencies."

Petrodollar Warfare: Iran Accepts Renminbi for Crude Oil

Iran is accepting renminbi for some of the crude oil it supplies to China, industry executives in Beijing and Kuwait and Dubai-based bankers said, partly as a consequence of U.S. sanctions aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear program.
Tehran is spending the currency, which is not freely convertible, on goods and services imported from China.
Most of the oil that goes from Iran to China is handled by the Unipec trading arm of Sinopec, China’s second-largest oil company, and through another trading company called Zhuhai Zhenrong, the oil industry executives said.

Consumer Credit Soars As US Government Encourages Student, Car Loan Bubbles

That US consumer credit soared by $21.4 billion in March on expectations of $9.8 billion rise, or the fastest monthly expansion since March 2001 would have been commendable and memorable if one did not dig through the actual components. Which sadly are atrocious: of the entire surge, a modest $5.1 billion was from real credit, or revolving, credit-card type debt. This brought the total revolving debt to $804 billion or to a level first crossed in January 2005. The balance, or $16.2 billion, was non-revolving debt, or the type of debt used to fund GM car purchases by subprime borrowers and push the student loan bubble well into its $1+ trillion record territory. The total non-revolving debt is now $1.739 trillion: an all time record. As for the source of such debt? why the US government of course, in what is the supreme ponzi scheme, whereby the US government allows US consumers to purchase Government Motors products and to keep the Higher Learning status quo in power.
It is simple. Under the Federal Reserve style system of banking, money only enters circulation as the proceeds of a loan at interest. The debt on the old money is paid off by loaning out new money, carrying (and growing) the total debt forward in a classic pyramid scheme. When the people stop or slow borrowing, the pyramid starts to come apart, which is why the US Government is encouraging more debt and in some cases, borrowing on behalf of the American people (without their permission, of course).

It's All Your Money: Taxpayers may be on hook for US Postal Service losses

The U.S. Postal Service is often the butt of jokes, but there's nothing funny about the agency's bottom line.
The USPS is losing up to $25 million dollars a day. Until now, taxpayers have not been on the hook for its mounting losses, but that could be about to change. A bill recently approved by the Senate would appropriate $34 billion in federal money.
Memo to Congress: what part of abso-flipping-lutely NOT are you having difficulty comprehending?!? Do I really need to break this down for you?!?
Let it fail, and privatize it. Most communications are done via email at this point in the 21st century, even in the most rural of rural communities.

Eurozone crisis: Greek left leader renounces bailout deal

The fate of Greece is, on Tuesday night, in the hands of the leader of a far-left party who launched the quest to form a government by declaring the country could no longer commit itself to the terms of an international loan agreement keeping its economy afloat.
The signing of the loan had not been "a salvation but a tragedy", insisted Tsipras, who at 38 is Greece's youngest frontline politician. New Democracy and Pasok, the two parties that signed it – and until Sunday the dominant forces of Greek politics for the past four decades – should, he said, withdraw their support for the accord: "The pro-bailout parties no longer have a majority in parliament to vote in destructive measures for the Greek people. This is a very important victory for our society."
I would like to hope that Tsipras has his Kevlar undies close to hand!!

Debt crisis: live - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9250673/Debt-crisis-as-it-happened-May-8-2012.html
Leader of left-wing Syriza party says Greeks voted against the "barbaric bailout" and austerity pledges are "null and void", while British 10-year borrowing costs drop to historic lows.
• Samaras: ending austerity would mean 'destruction of Greece'
• Fitch CEO: Greek euro exit would be manageable
• European markets slump on Greek and French fears
• EU to hold special meeting on May 23 on growth and jobs
• Germany says no to reworking euro fiscal pact
• Greek far left leader criticises "bailouts of barbarism"

Those Revolting Europeans

The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it's about time.

Global Corporations Undermining Democracy Worldwide

In a world where governments are increasingly subservient to global finance capital, multinationals are gaining ground in the fight against state regulations that aim to protect the environment, public health or social policies.
According to the most recent data released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the number of lawsuits brought against governments by companies evoking clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) was 450 at the end of 2011.
These are only the known cases; most are kept secret.

States of alarm on revenues

While the headline number for joblessness fell to 8.1 percent on Friday for the month of April, there are some crueler numbers behind it.
News last week out of California suggests trouble is brewing. The report worth noting comes from Standard & Poor’s, and was confirmed by Gov. Jerry Brown’s office in Sacramento. S&P warns that weaker-than-expected income-tax receipts in California in April have blown an extra $1 billion hole in that state’s budget shortfall, and the year is only one-third over. And while all the numbers aren’t in for last month (typically the biggest month for tax receipts), California is far from alone in reporting revenue shortfalls due to fewer people paying income taxes. Massachusetts and Connecticut have recently reported disappointing numbers as well.
The problem is that all the state governments actually believe that 8% unemployment claim put out by Washington DC, but as we already documented, the actual unemployment is around 40%, due to the 86 million "invisible" unemployed.

Rigged Stocks: 54 Second Grand Rehearsal For A Market Crash In The Act

High Frequency Computer Trading Algorithms are once again caught in the act, this time pulling the trigger to reverse a massive stock market crash.

Global Stock Markets Crash Over Results Of European Elections

Asian and Australian markets crash nearly 3% while US stock futures are indicating a massive sell-off at Monday’s opening following the results of the elections in France and Greece.

US STOCKS-Futures hit after European elections

U.S. stock index futures fell after Greek voters trounced ruling parties in elections on Sunday, a result that put the country's future in the euro zone at risk, and as Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won the French presidency.
S&P 500 futures were down 12.3 points at 1,350.20 at 7:35 p.m. EDT (2335 GMT), suggesting a fall of about 1 percent when the U.S. stock market opens on Monday.
UPDATE: The Plunge Protection Team are up to their usual market-rigging tricks, making the DOW look good for Obama and crushing the short positions without mercy.

Germany unmoved by anti-austerity votes in Europe

Visling through der graveyard?
Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in Berlin on Monday, rejected the notion that Europe was on the brink of a major policy shift after Socialist Francois Hollande defeated her fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek voters punished ruling parties who slashed spending to secure a foreign bailout.

Attempt to form Greece government fails after shock poll

I think the bankers got plunged into uncertainty!
Greeks enraged by the terms of international bailouts which have cut wages, sent unemployment to one of the highest levels in Europe and caused a spate of suicides, deserted mainstream parties in droves in Sunday's poll, plunging their country into uncertainty.

Cuts deepen crisis of the dole queues

Britain faces "five more years of pain" on unemployment, with the North-South divide widening further than ever as government cuts bite.
That was the bleak prediction of forecasters at the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) in a report on the labour market predicting joblessness in many regions hitting levels not seen since the early 1990s recession under John Major.
The CEBR is braced for rising joblessness across every region until 2016 – except in the South-east, East and London.

The Day After: Europe Rejects Austerity

So the voters have voted—in Britain, in France, in Greece, in Schleswig-Holstein—and the markets are tumbling. In Britain, the Tories took a serious beating from Labour in local elections, though Ken Livingston lost in London to Mayor Boris Johnson; their Liberal Democrat coalition partners were more or less wiped out. France has elected a socialist president for the first time since 1981 (though as I recall that one didn’t turn out so well); Francois Hollande has pledged to challenge European austerity and renegotiate the German-driven fiscal treaty that has effectively outlawed Keynesianism on the continent. Schleswig-Holstein dealt a blow to Angela Merkel’s ruling CDU and elected members of the Pirate Party to its regional assembly. And Greece has voted loudly, if incoherently, against the austerity program imposed by the EU and IMF. Across Europe, it’s no to austerity, and yes to—what?
Jailing the money-junkies.

Fukushima:

Gundersen: We just tested an air filter that has highest radioactivity seen in North America after Fukushima Daiichi — Found in Seattle HEPA purifier used since 3/11 (VIDEO)

Fukushima: Latest probe at Unit 1 indicates nuclear fuel has left containment

If we lived in an actual culture instead of a controlled economic and political experiment being run by sociopathic inbreds, we'd be informed on a larger scale about things like this. Stock up, be ready.

"Tokyo Electric ran a probe into the basement of Unit 1. This is not inside the containment, this is outside the containment. On the top of the water surface they found lethal radiation, 1000 rem an hour.

But then they put the probe down into the water and what’s even worse is the bottom, the sediment on the bottom, was thousand of times hotter than that. And what that indicates is that fuel, nuclear fuel, has left the containment, as particles, and settled out on the bottom outside the containment. So, I think that’s a pretty clear indication that the containment was breached. It just makes decommissioning these plants… it was going too be hard already, but this information makes it worse."

-Arnie Gundersen

Official Coverup ObscuresThe Collapse Of Reactor 4

The demolition of Reactor 4 - yet to be officially announced by TEPCO or the Economy Ministry - has been overlooked by the mass media and even the anti-nuclear movement, which are preoccupied by the ongoing protests in the capital Tokyo against the reopening of the Oi nuclear power plant and a parliamentary vote for a higher consumption tax. On June 26, after a divisive debate among his party members, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his supporters in the ruling Democratics introduced a bill doubling the consumption tax - timed to divert public attention from the deteriorating conditions at Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant. If the videoclip is indeed of a collapsed Reactor 4, then Japan and the rest of the world are in for a long hot summer and much worse ahead.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/fukushimabeforeandafter.jpg

Japan Nuclear Disaster Was Preventable, Panel Says

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis was a preventable disaster resulting from “collusion” among the government, regulators and the plant operator, an expert panel said on Thursday, wrapping up an inquiry into the worst nuclear accident in 25 years.
Damage from the huge March 11, 2011, earthquake, and not just the ensuing tsunami, could not be ruled out as a cause of the accident, the panel added, a finding with serious potential implications as Japan seeks to bring idled reactors on line.

Japanese Parliamentary Investigation Concludes Fukushima Was a Manmade Disaster

A Japanese independent parliamentary investigation has asserted that “the Fukushima nuclear disaster was the result of a mix of ‘man-made’ factors including regulators who failed to provide adequate prevention and a government lacking commitment to protect the public.”
According to the panel’s chairman, Tokyo University professor emeritus Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Fukushima “cannot be regarded as a natural disaster.”
Instead, “It was a profoundly manmade disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human response.”

July 8th, 2012 | 15 comments