Infinite

China Is Reaping Biggest Benefits Of IRAQ Oil Boom

by

– China Is Reaping Biggest Benefits of Iraq Oil Boom (New York Times, June 2, 2013):

BAGHDAD — Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer.

China already buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for an even bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq’s largest oil fields.

“The Chinese are the biggest beneficiary of this post-Saddam oil boom in Iraq,” said Denise Natali, a Middle East expert at the National Defense University in Washington. “They need energy, and they want to get into the market.”

Read moreChina Is Reaping Biggest Benefits Of IRAQ Oil Boom

Why Environmentalists Are Celebrating Rising CO2 Levels

by

– Al Gore backlash: Why environmentalists are celebrating rising CO2 levels (Natural News, June 2, 2013):

Thank goodness carbon dioxide levels are finally rising ever so slightly in our atmosphere, bringing much-needed carbon dioxide to the plants and forests of the world which have been starving for CO2. The lack of CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the most devastating limiting factors for plant growth and reforestation of the planet, and at just 400ppm — that’s just 400 micrograms per kilogram — carbon dioxide is so low that Earth’s plant life can barely breathe.

Editor’s note: I have added substantially to this story since it was first published in order to attempt to educate what appear to be a mass of brainwashed, mathematically illiterate commenters on Facebook who demonstrate a wholesale inability to process information with anything resembling rationality on this subject.

Let me clarify three things before we even get into the story:

Read moreWhy Environmentalists Are Celebrating Rising CO2 Levels

Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘There Is a Now A Menace Which Is Called Twitter’

by

– Turkey’s Prime Minister: “There is a Now a Menace Which is Called Twitter” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 3, 2013):

You know a government is losing it when its leaders express public frustration with a social media website called Twitter.  I highlighted how the Saudi government recently had a panic attack about it, saying users would go to hell. Now, in the midst of a widespread uprising that began when Turks protesting the razing of a park in Istanbul near Taksim Square to build a mall and mosque were attacked by police, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is showing his true colors.  It is quite obvious that the government’s reason for wanting to tear down the park is to eliminate the most obvious staging ground for future protests in the center of Istanbul.  Oh the irony.

From Business Week:

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s prime minister on Sunday rejected claims that he is a “dictator,” dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe, even as thousands returned to the landmark Istanbul square that has become the site of the fiercest anti-government outburst in years.

Over the past three days, protesters around the country have unleashed pent-up resentment against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who after 10 years in office many Turks see as an uncompromising figure with undue influence in every part of life.

A huge, exuberant protest in Taksim Square subsided overnight, but an estimated 10,000 people again streamed into the area on Sunday, many waving flags, chanting “victory, victory, victory” and calling on Erdogan’s government to resign.

With Turkish media otherwise giving scant reports about the protests, many turned to social media outlets for information on the unrest.

“There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”

Read moreTurkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘There Is a Now A Menace Which Is Called Twitter’

Total Insanity In Britain: Secret Court Jails Father For Birthday Message To Son

by

– Insanity in Britain: Secret Court Jails Father for Birthday Message to Son (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 2, 2013):

The following story is another example of a situation that you might expect to read about in a novel of dystopian fiction, rather than a real life situation happening on the island that brought the world the Magna Carta.

Garry Johnson simply sent his son Sam a happy birthday message on his 21st via Facebook and for this crime was sentenced to jail by Britain’s secret family court system. The most amazing part of this story is that after the divorce from his wife, both of their children choose to live with Garry rather than their mother.  Seemingly out of spite, his ex-wife started to make accusations against Garry, all of which were investigated and shown to be untrue.  Not that this mattered, as Garry was still punished with a gag order that forbid him to ever mention his children publicly for the rest of his life.  I think it’s safe to say secret courts should never, ever be permitted.

From the Daily Mail:

A father has been jailed at a secret court hearing for sending a Facebook message to his grown-up son on his 21st birthday.

Garry Johnson, 46, breached a draconian gagging order which stops him publicly naming his son, Sam, whom he has brought up and who still lives with him.

The order silencing Mr Johnson – which follows an acrimonious divorce eight years ago – means he cannot mention either of his boys, 21-year-old Sam and Adam, 18, in public, even by congratulating them in a local newspaper announcement when they get engaged, married or have children in the future.

The extraordinary gag is set to last until the end of his life, although his boys are now adults. Last night they condemned their father’s jailing as ‘cruel and ludicrous’.

After their parents’ divorce, the two boys chose to live with their father, following a series of rows with their mother over her new boyfriend.

But within a year of the divorce, Mr Johnson’s ex-wife made allegations to Essex social workers that he was neglecting the children and not feeding them properly at his smart family home.

An investigation by social workers cleared him of any wrongdoing and said the boys were fine.

Read moreTotal Insanity In Britain: Secret Court Jails Father For Birthday Message To Son

Turkey: Taksim Square Drenched In Blood As 900 Protesters Are Arrested (Extremely Graphic Content)

by

– Turkey’s Taksim Square Drenched in Blood as 900 Protesters Are Arrested (Extremely Graphic Content) (The Daily Sheeple, June 1, 2013)

Turkey is entering its third day of violent protests as police have withdrawn from Taksim Square and allowed the mass protests to continue.

Over 900 people have been arrested across Turkey for what the authorities called a security measure.

The first photo below was taken from a CNN IReport that CNN themselves have not vetted.

Blood in streets near Taksim Turkey

A shocking video report from RT shows violent clashes between police and protesters:

An RT article covered various aspects of the protests including how they started and what they stand for:

Police in Istanbul have withdrawn from Taksim Square, allowing the mass protest to continue unabated, Turkish media report. Istanbul and Ankara are entering the third day of violent protests, with tear gas and water cannon deployed and over 900 arrested.

Read moreTurkey: Taksim Square Drenched In Blood As 900 Protesters Are Arrested (Extremely Graphic Content)

Turkish Stocks Collapse Most In 10 Years, BIST-100 Drops 10.47%, Biggest Drop Since March 2003, Bond Yields Surge Most On Record

by

– Turkish Stocks Collapse Most In 10 Years, Bond Yields Surge Most On Record (ZeroHedge, June 3, 2013):

UPDATE: BIST-100 Closes -10.47% – Biggest drop since March 2003

Until mid-last week, the Turkish equity market was up 90% from the start of 2012 and up 19.5% in 2013. Of course, why not. Global easy money and a nation in the middle of economic and geopolitical hotspots – buy it with both hands and feet. However, it appears reality is starting to sink in. Last week’s (and ongoing) social unrest is beginning to take the shine off the hot-money flows. The broad Turkish stock market is now down 17% from its highs last week (very reminiscent of Japan) having given up in 3 days the gains from the first five months of the year. Turkish bond yields also spiked (moar hot-money outflows from ‘reaching for yield’) by their most on record (71bps) to 6.78%.

Turkish Stocks…

Turkish Bonds…

Charts: Bloomberg

Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

by

From the article:

“Since Mr. Krugman tells us all this spending and debt issuance/guarantees are not only good and necessary but in the long run, painless, why are we bothering with personal income taxes?

The US government will collect approximately $2.0bn this year in Personal Income and Payroll taxes.  But why?  Why are we even bothering with this when today’s leading economists and politicians are telling us that debts/deficits don’t matter and running up astronomical debts is a long-term painless process?  It’s practically patriotic.  So why shouldn’t we just add our tax burden to the list of items the Fed should be monetizing?  Seriously.  Why not relieve the burden on every tax paying citizen in the United States (about 53% of us according to Mitt Romney)?  You want an economic recovery?  Reduce my taxes to zero and see how fast I go out and start spending some of that extra income.”

– Thought Experiment: Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes? (ZeroHedge, June 3, 2013):

Submitted by Lucas Jackson

Thought Experiment: Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

“Stupidity combined with arrogance and a huge ego will get you a long way.”
– Chris Lowe

I will admit right up front, I am not a fan of the views of Paul Krugman.  If Paul Krugman was to be given his way – and by and large he is being given his way – my children and grandchildren will be burdened in the future with paying back untold amounts of public debt just so his life and the lives of countless other Boomers can remain comfortable and embarrassment free today.

This is the essence of his grand plan for a US recovery – MOAR and MOAR debt.

Wow.  Genius.  Why I didn’t I think of that?  Just keep borrowing and printing, borrowing and printing.  Got it.  Now that I understand it, do I get a PhD?

Who’s going to pay the money back?  How will it effect future generations?  How will it effect the markets?  What will this do to civil society?

Read moreWhy Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

U.S. Manufacturing ‘Unexpectedly’ Shrank In May At The Fastest Pace In 4 Years

by

– Surprise Factory Downturn Holds Back U.S. Growth: Economy (Bloomberg, June 3, 2013):

Manufacturing (NAPMPMI) in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank in May at the fastest pace in four years, showing slowdowns in business and government spending are holding back the world’s largest economy.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 49, the lowest reading since June 2009, from the prior month’s 50.7, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report showed today. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 51.

Across-the-board federal budget cuts and overseas markets that are struggling to rebound will probably continue to curb manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy. At the same time, demand for automobiles, gains in residential construction and lean inventories may spark a pickup in orders and production in the second half of the year.

Read moreU.S. Manufacturing ‘Unexpectedly’ Shrank In May At The Fastest Pace In 4 Years

Bilderberg 2013: Full List Of Attendees

by

– The Full List Of 2013’s Bilderberg Attendees (ZeroHedge, June 3, 2013):

The only thing more ominous for the world than a Hindenburg Omen sighting is a Bilderberg Group meeting. The concentration of politicians and business leaders has meant the organisation, founded at the Bilderberg Hotel near Arnhem in 1954, has faced accusations of secrecy. Meetings take place behind closed doors, with a ban on journalists. We suspect the agenda (how the US and Europe can promote growth, the way ‘big data’ is changing ‘almost everything’, the challenges facing the continent of Africa, and the threat of cyber warfare) has been somewhat re-arranged as market volatility picks up and the status quo begins to quake once again.  The annual gathering of the royalty, statesmen, and business leaders, conspiratorially believed to run the world (snubbing their Illuminati peers and Freemason fellows), will take place this week at the Grove Hotel in London, England.

The Telegraph provides the full list of attendees below – for those autogrpah seekers – including Britain’s George Osborne, US’ Henry Kissinger, Peter Sutherland (the chairman of Goldman Sachs), the Fed’s Kevin Warsh, Jeff Bezos?, Peter Thiel, Italy’s Mario Monti, and Spain’s de Guindos.

Bilderberg delegates in full

  • Chairman: Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO, AXA Group
  • Paul M. Achleitner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG
  • Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Board, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd
  • Marcus Agius, Former Chairman, Barclays plc
  • Helen Alexander, Chairman, UBM plc

    Read moreBilderberg 2013: Full List Of Attendees

‘Markets Under The Spell Of Monetary Easing’ Bank Of International Settlements Finds … Same As ‘Then’

by

– “Markets Under The Spell Of Monetary Easing” Bank Of International Settlements Finds… Same As “Then” (ZeroHedge, June 2, 2013):

Then….

Ben Bernanke 7/1/2005, CNBC interview:

INTERVIEWER: Tell me, what is the worst-case scenario? We have so many economists coming on our air saying ‘Oh, this is a bubble, and it’s going to burst, and this is going to be a real issue for the economy.’ Some say it could even cause a recession at some point. What is the worst-case scenario if in fact we were to see prices come down substantially across the country?

BERNANKE: Well, I guess I don’t buy your premise. It’s a pretty unlikely possibility. We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.

Read more‘Markets Under The Spell Of Monetary Easing’ Bank Of International Settlements Finds … Same As ‘Then’

Former Pro-GMO Scientist Exposes The Real Dangers Of Genetically Engineered Food

by

– Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out on the Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food (Mercola, May 28, 2013):

Who better to speak the truth about the risks posed by genetically modified (GM) foods than Thierry Vrain, a former research scientist for Agriculture Canada? It was Vrain’s job to address public groups and reassure them that GM crops and food were safe, a task he did with considerable knowledge and passion.

But Vrain, who once touted GM crops as a technological advancement indicative of sound science and progress, has since started to acknowledge the steady flow of research coming from prestigious labs and published in high-impact journals – research showing that there is significant reason for concern about GM crops – and he has now changed his position.

Former Pro-GMO Scientist Cites GM Food Safety Concerns

Vrain cites the concerning fact that it is studies done by Monsanto and other biotech companies that claim GM crops have no impact on the environment and are safe to eat. But federal departments in charge of food safety in the US and Canada have not conducted tests to affirm this alleged “safety.”

Vrain writes:1

“There are no long-term feeding studies performed in these countries [US and Canada] to demonstrate the claims that engineered corn and soya are safe. All we have are scientific studies out of Europe and Russia, showing that rats fed engineered food die prematurely.

These studies show that proteins produced by engineered plants are different than what they should be. Inserting a gene in a genome using this technology can and does result in damaged proteins. The scientific literature is full of studies showing that engineered corn and soya contain toxic or allergenic proteins.

… I refute the claims of the biotechnology companies that their engineered crops yield more, that they require less pesticide applications, that they have no impact on the environment and of course that they are safe to eat.”

Read moreFormer Pro-GMO Scientist Exposes The Real Dangers Of Genetically Engineered Food

Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian

by

Reported this before …

– BREAKING NEWS: Rate Shock: Obamacare To Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64-146% In California

… but some readers might have missed it.

– Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian (Zerohedge, June 2, 2013):

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. But, as Forbes reports, the data that the executive director of California’s ‘exchange’ released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent. The exuberance that Peter Lee exclaimed over the ‘savings’ is a misleading comparison. He was comparing apples – the plans that Californians buy today for themselves in a robust individual market-and oranges – the highly regulated plans that small employers purchase for their workers as a group. If you’re a 25 year old male non-smoker, buying insurance for yourself, the cheapest plan on Obamacare’s exchanges is the catastrophic plan, which costs an average of $184 a month; but in 2013, on eHealthInsurance.com, Forbes explains, the median cost of the five cheapest plans was only $92. In other words, for the typical 25-year-old male non-smoking Californian, Obamacare will drive premiums up by between 100 and 123 percent. The desperate spin of the PR disaster is incredible as talk of a ‘rate shock’ is now very prescient, “these extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians.”

…

It’s A ‘0.6%’ World: Who Owns What Of The $223 Trillion In Global Wealth

by

Full article here:

– It’s A “0.6%” World: Who Owns What Of The $223 Trillion In Global Wealth (ZeroHedge, June 2, 2013):

Back in 2010 we started an annual series looking at the (re)distribution in the wealth of nations and social classes. What we found then (and what the media keeps rediscovering year after year to its great surprise) is that as a result of global central bank policy, the rich got richer, and the poor kept on getting poorer, even though as we predicted the global political powers would, at least superficially, seek to enforce policies that aimed to reverse this wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich (a doomed policy as the world’s legislative powers are largely in the lobby pocket of the world’s wealthiest who needless to say are less then willing to enact laws that reduce their wealth and leverage). Now that the topic of wealth distribution (or rather concentration) is once again in vogue, below we present the latest such update looking at a global portrait of household wealth. The bottom line: 29 million, or 0.6% of those with any actual assets under their name, own $87.4 trillion, or 39.3% of all global assets.

Here are the key highlights via Credit Suisse:

…

The ‘GOOD NEWS’: Italy Labor Union Predicts Return To Pre-Crisis Employment By 2076 – Now The BAD NEWS: ‘The Level Of Real Wages Will NEVER Recover’

by

You can’t make this stuff up!

– Italy Labor Union Predicts Return To Pre-Crisis Employment By 2076 (ZeroHedge, May 2013):

By now it is conventional wisdom that the Italian economy is foundering alongside all other peripheral European nations as a result of a failed artificial currency leading to an inability for external rebalancing, a flawed monetary system leading to a collapse in credit demand, and the lack of any structural reform (and sorry, but when your budget deficit is soaring alongside your debt it’s anything but “austerity’s fault”). However, there is hope. According to Italy’s trade union CGIL, good news may be just around the corner as Italy looks set to recover its pre-crisis unemployment level… In 2076, or a brief 63 years from now. “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

From Quotidiano:

It will take 63 years to recover employment levels of 2007. Only in 2076 will Italy return to the 25,026,400 units of labor standards in 2007 from 23,531,949 in 2014. This is stated in the office economic study of CGIL, which takes as its starting point the current context.

Some other metrics may not need to wait three generations until they “recover”, among which GDP, which should return to pre-crisis levels in 2026, investment – by 2024, and productivity should be back in a brisk three years.

So much for the good news.

Now the bad news: “the level of real wages will never recover.”

We are not sure if this was the base case, or the optimistic one. In either case, at least Italy has the Euro, and all that No Plan B “political capital” backing it.

Ex Obama Secret Service Dan Bongino Exposes Gun Control Agenda (Video)

by


YouTube Added: 27.05.2013

Description:

During my coverage of the Second Amendment rally in Philadelphia PA last Saturday, I spoke with speaker Dan Bongino on the reality of gun control and how it is really a tool of ‘people control’. http://www.storyleak.com/its-not-abou…

Marc Faber: ‘People With Financial Assets Are All Doomed’

by

– Marc Faber: “People With Financial Assets Are All Doomed” (ZeroHedge, June 1, 2013):

As Barron’s notes in this recent interview, Marc Faber view the world with a skeptical eye, and never hesitates to speak his mind when things don’t look quite right. In other words, he would be the first in a crowd to tell you the emperor has no clothes, and has done so early, often, and aptly in the case of numerous investment bubbles. With even the world’s bankers now concerned at ‘unsustainable bubbles’, it is therefore unsurprising that in the discussion below, Faber explains, among other things, the fallacy of the Fed’s help “the problem is the money doesn’t flow into the system evenly, how with money-printing “the majority loses, and the minority wins,” and how, thanks to the further misallocation of capital, “people with assets are all doomed, because prices are grossly inflated globally for stocks and bonds.” Faber says he buys gold every month, adding that “I want to have some assets that aren’t in the banking system. When the asset bubble bursts, financial assets will be particularly vulnerable.”

Excerpted from Barron’s:

On the error of the Fed’s ways:

Read moreMarc Faber: ‘People With Financial Assets Are All Doomed’

U.S. & Germany: ‘Russian Missiles Put Israel At Risk’

by

Oh, sure!

And how exactly will the Russian ‘S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missile Defense System’ put Israel at risk???


Only if Israel would dare to attack Syria (AGAIN!) will its U.S. sponsored fighter jets be at risk.

You can’t make this BS up!

The message from Russia is loud and clear:

Hands off Syria!

No Libya 2.0 in Syria!

Related info:

– Britain To Arm Syrian Rebels; Russia Retaliates By Shipping 10 MiGs To Assad


US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle

– Russian missiles put Israel at risk: US, Germany (PressTV, June 1, 2013):

US Secretary of State John Kerry and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle say Russia’s delivery of S-300 missiles to Syria will hamper efforts at planned peace talks in Geneva and put Israel at risk.

“It is not helpful to have the S-300 transferred to the region while we are trying to organize this peace [conference] and create peace,” Kerry said at a joint news conference with his German counterpart in Washington on Friday.

“We ask them again not to upset the balance within the region with respect to Israel,” he said. “The weaponry that is being provided Assad whether it is an old contract or not, has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region and it does put Israel at risk.”

Westerwelle also said the Russian missiles would “endanger” the Geneva talks and put Israel’s security at risk.

Read moreU.S. & Germany: ‘Russian Missiles Put Israel At Risk’

Turkey: Police And Protesters Battle For Taksim Square In Istanbul

by

Turkish police fired tear gas at demonstrators before retreating from Taksim Square in Istanbul.

– ?Turkish police and protesters battle for Taksim square (Telegraph, June 1, 2013):

Some protesters hurled objects at officers and police vehicles, prompting police to fire several rounds of tear gas.

In Ankara, a police vehicle hit two demonstrators who were crouched in the middle of the street, barricading themselves behind rubbish bins.

One of the men who was hit was seen being rescued by other demonstrators and loaded into an ambulance while flashing a “V” for victory sign.

The other man was thrown in the air but appeared to not have been seriously injured.

A demonstration that started in Istanbul on Friday as a peaceful sit-in to save an inner-city green space has turned into nationwide anti-government protests in Turkey, revealing the depth of public anger against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Many Turks view him as increasingly authoritarian and dismissive of opposing views.
Protesters who had camped out at Taksim were angry over the planned removal of trees in the square, one of the few bits of green in sprawling Istanbul.

Read moreTurkey: Police And Protesters Battle For Taksim Square In Istanbul

Top 1% Own 39% Of All Global Wealth – Bottom 50% Only Own 1% Of All Global Wealth – 1 Billion People Go To Bed Hungry Every Night

by

– Top 1% Own 39% Of All Global Wealth: Hoarding Soars As We Hurtle Toward Economic Oblivion (Economic Collapse, May 31, 2013):

According to a study that was just released by Boston Consulting Group, the wealthiest one percent now own 39 percent of all the wealth in the world.  Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent only own 1 percent of all the wealth in the world combined. The global financial system has been designed to funnel wealth to the very top, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to expand at a frightening pace.  The global elite continue to hoard wealth and heap together enormous mountains of treasure in these troubled days even though the economic suffering around the planet continues to grow.  So exactly how have the global elite accumulated so much wealth?  Well, one of the primary ways is through the use of debt.  As I have written about previously, there is about 190 trillion dollars of debt in the world but global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars.  Our debt-based global financial system systematically transfers wealth from us and our governments into the hands of the global elite.  And of course the gigantic banks and corporations that the elite control are constantly gobbling up everything of value that they can find: natural resources, profitable small businesses, real estate, politicians, etc.  Money, power, ownership and control are becoming very, very tightly concentrated at the top of the food chain, and that is a very dangerous thing for humanity.  When too much money and power gets into too few hands, it almost always results in tyranny.

What will eventually happen when the global elite have ALL the wealth?

Read moreTop 1% Own 39% Of All Global Wealth – Bottom 50% Only Own 1% Of All Global Wealth – 1 Billion People Go To Bed Hungry Every Night

Secret Court Document Details Unconstitutional Surveillance Of American Citizens, Justice Department Fights To Keep It Hidden

by

– Secret Court Document Finds Spy Techniques Unconstitutional, Justice Department Fights To Keep It Hidden (International Business Times, May 30, 2013):

The Justice Department may soon be forced to reveal a classified document that details unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. The Justice Department has fought to keep the document secret for about a year, but a recent court order demands that they respond to a formal request filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation by next week, June 7, 2013.This document was first revealed last July by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to call attention to an expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 — which then-Sen. Barack Obama voted for . According to Wyden, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled that the government violated the Fourth Amendment. The FISC mostly operates in secret, so the actual court decision remained classified. Wyden was only able to say the FISC decision existed; he was unable to disclose any details about the actual surveillance techniques that were deemed unconstitutional or how many Americans they affected.

Read moreSecret Court Document Details Unconstitutional Surveillance Of American Citizens, Justice Department Fights To Keep It Hidden

Britain To Arm Syrian Rebels; Russia Retaliates By Shipping 10 MiGs To Assad

by

– Britain To Arm Syrian Rebels; Russia Retaliates By Shipping 10 MiGs To Assad (ZeroHedge, May 31, 2013):

Following Russia’s first shipment of S-300 Rockets and the CNN-reported deaths of American and British citizens, it seems the situation in Syria is escalating ‘behind-the-scenes’ with little attention being paid in general. Whether it is the deaths or not, but according to the FT, the ‘war-by-proxy’ is growing in numbers as the UK is poised to ship arms to some rebel factions in Syria as soon as this summer. “The precise timing has not yet been finalized and no decision has yet been taken. But we are likely to be … shipping arms to the rebels by August,” one official noted, adding that “the rebels need ammunition, and a lot of it, just to keep fighting.” The US had secretly undertaken significant lobbying efforts of EU member states to get the EU arms embargo amended and this week Britain and France forced through that deal opening the door for the supply of weapons. Adding to the angst, Russia’s MiG aircraft makers said on Friday that it planned to sign a new agreement to ship at least 10 fighter jets to Syria.

Via The FT,

Britain and France this week forced through an amendment to an EU arms embargo that opened the door for the supply of weapons to opposition forces.

Read moreBritain To Arm Syrian Rebels; Russia Retaliates By Shipping 10 MiGs To Assad

Global Monsanto GMO Wheat Scandal: South Korea Suspends US Wheat Imports

by

– South Korea Is Latest To Suspend US Wheat Imports In Aftermath Of Monsanto Rogue Wheat Discovery (ZeroHedge, May 31, 2013):

The global Monsanto genetically modified wheat scandal is getting worse.

As a reminder, recently news broke out that a rogue genetically modified strain of wheat developed by Monsanto, had been found in an Oregon field late last month. But while modified food has long been a diet staple, this particular breed was the first discovery of an unapproved strain, and what made things worse is the lack of any information how the rogue grain had escape from a field trial a decade ago. As Reuters reports, “even after weeks of investigation, experts are baffled as to how the seed survived for years after Monsanto had ceased all field tests of the product. It was found in a field growing a different type of wheat than Monsanto’s strain, far from areas used for field tests, according to an Oregon State University wheat researcher who tested the strain.”

The USDA was quick to deny any suggestion of public danger:

The USDA said the GM wheat found in Oregon posed no threat to human health, and also said there was no evidence that the grain had entered the commercial supply chain.

But the discovery threatens to stoke consumer outcry over the possible risk of cross-contaminating natural products with genetically altered foods, and may embolden critics who say U.S. regulation of GMO products is lax.

This is compounded by the still fresh memory of the glaring and repeated lies by the Japanese government in regards to the Fukushima explosion, making some wonder just how far the government is willing to go to cover up potential threats if the alternative is widespread panic.

Read moreGlobal Monsanto GMO Wheat Scandal: South Korea Suspends US Wheat Imports