World-News

State and federal regulators closed five banks in Florida, California and Nevada, bringing the nationwide total of failed institutions so far this year to 78, with 13 in Florida, six in California and two in Nevada.

http://tinyurl.com/35fzmn2

 

The Canadian 'good banks' myth

We are, according to the IMF, actually the third worst of the G7 countries, behind the US and Britain, in terms of financial stabilization costs.

http://murraydobbin.ca/2010/05/22/the-canadian-good-banks-myth/



Regulators close Seattle bank, total now 82

U.S. regulators seized Washington First International Bank in Seattle on Friday evening, bringing the total of failures so far this year to 82.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65B04U20100612?type=domesticNews


From Information Clearing House

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bank+failure

A classic 1959 social psychology experiment demonstrates how and why we lie to ourselves. Understanding this experiment sheds a brilliant light on the dark world of our inner motivations.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/10/how-and-why-we-lie-to-ourselves.php


From Information Clearing House

An ominous report by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources warned of the impending disaster resulting from the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico, calling it the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history, the European Union Times reported.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128113&sectionid=3510203


From Information Clearing House

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Fouling the Gulf and much more

Reason
by Steve Chapman

05/27/10

Every crisis is an opportunity for someone. The giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is one for both Democrats and Republicans, who are shaping the same facts to fit very different narratives. Democrats see it as an example of the dangers of petroleum addiction and unchecked capitalism. Republicans think it shows the administration is proving both its excessively cozy relationship with Big Oil and its chronic ineptitude. But they may both miss the larger vein of popular sentiment that this mammoth catastrophe taps. It’s one of a series of horrifying, infuriating, and preventable debacles that has served to spread disillusionment and disgust with important institutions...

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/27/fouling-the-gulf-and-much-more



The buck, and the oil, stops with BP alone

Center for a Stateless Society
by Alex R. Knight III

05/30/10

As the oil flows in the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s ruptured well, so does the BS from Obama’s White House in Washington. Using the privately-created crisis as an excuse for government involvement and political grandstanding, Obama was recently quoted by CNN as saying: ”BP is the responsible party for this disaster,’ he said. ‘But as I said yesterday and as I repeated in the meeting we just left, I ultimately take responsibility for solving this crisis. I’m the president, and the buck stops with me.” Well, the first portion of Obama’s statement is obvious and true enough. But what is he alluding to in what follows? That he just accepted an offer of employment from British Petroleum? Hardly: He’s doing what all government bureaucrats do all the time — arrogating power over areas where they have no legitimate authority, namely, the lives and property of others...

http://c4ss.org/content/2588


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drilling
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=capitalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Steve+Chapman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Alex+R.+Knight

By Amanda Bransford

The U.S. Navy can carry twice as many aircrafts at sea as the rest of the world put together, he said, and the navy's overall power is estimated to exceed that of the next 13 most powerful navies combined. This extreme dominance exists in all branches of the armed forces.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25574.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=defence+spending
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amanda+Bransford

By: Daryl Guppy | CNBC Contributor

The dollar index suggests the greenback will continue to stengthen until the end of June, with a target near $0.89-$0.91, before it collapses to a downside target of $0.81.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25576.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dollar+collapse
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Daryl+Guppy

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/walsh7.1.1.html

My War Memorials
http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor67.html

Memorial Day Alternative
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer155.html

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Celebrating Militarism and the Weapons of War

By Camillo "Mac" Bica

Sadly, Americans need to be reminded that Memorial Day is not about sales at the mall, barbecues, and picnics. Neither is it a time to celebrate militarism, the machinery of war, or entice young people, through highly manipulative and deceptive practices, into enlisting in the military.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25577.htm

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Corporatizing and Militarizing Memorial Day for "Fun" and Profit

Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "Since the beginning of the 20th century, some 650,000 Americans have died fighting this country's many wars. Regardless of political affiliation and ideology, every American ought reverence such selfless sacrifice and understand and share the grief that this tragic loss of life entails. Though those of us who have known war hear the cries of the dying forever in our mind and suffer the pain and loss each day of our lives and need no holiday to remind us, Memorial Day is the occasion our nation sets aside to remember, to grieve and to honor those who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of 'freedom.'"

http://www.truthout.org/corporatizing-and-militarizing-memorial-day-fun-and-profit59925



A Veteran Speaks Out about Being "Un-American" on Memorial Day

Michael Gass, Truthout: "Memorial Day is more than simply a day for honoring our fallen soldiers; it is also about remembering the ideals for which they gave their lives. Right-wing pundits and politicians have tossed out the term 'un-American' for decades, but in case you think they have cornered the market on the term 'un-American,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hoyer recently used it when they wrote about the health care reform protests. They wrote, 'Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.'"

http://www.truthout.org/a-veteran-speaks-out-about-being-un-american-memorial-day59971

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Reflections on Rolling Thunder

AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos

06/01/10

It is all too clear why we can’t seem to protest our way out of this war. And as a result, the war itself may never end. In fact, Gen. Stanley McChrystal recently suggested that ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ in Afghanistan may be just that — ‘enduring’ — for a very, very long time. But what is just as important as what the generals say is what the public says, and after spending time with Rolling Thunder over the Memorial Day weekend, it is clear that the national identity is still so dependent on the military and war and the iconography of sacrifice, that to penetrate it with a message of anything otherwise continues to be nearly impossible...

http://tinyurl.com/27toy2n



The true cost of freedom

Our Future Blog
by Sara Robinson

05/31/10

[I]t wouldn’t be Memorial Day In America without old veterans and moralizing babbits pounding podiums in parks across the land, gravely intoning that ‘freedom isn’t free.’ Really? Is that so? I think a lot of Americans, deep down, would disagree. That hoary old phrase, beloved of my civic teachers, has taken on a very narrow and specific definition over the past couple of decades. … The way the right uses this phrase, it describes just one kind of sacrifice — military sacrifice — as though it’s the only kind that matters. And my objection is that this definition does a grand job of letting the rest of us off the hook. If the soldiers are dying in foreign battlegrounds for our freedom (just as Jesus died on the cross for our sins — the parallels are too tempting) — then for the rest of us, those freedoms are, indeed, free...

http://tinyurl.com/29lhnwg



The prettification of war

LewRockwell.Com
by John V. Walsh

05/31/10

Many say that the media hides the wars now waged by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. But it is worse than that. While hiding the death and destruction and certainly blotting out any graphic images of it, our poor excuse for journalism is awash with feel-good stories about the wars. The war in Korea was televised to a limited extent and contributed to American revulsion at Truman’s war and his welcome replacement by the pacific Republican Eisenhower not yet brought under the influence of the rabid Dulles brothers. The same happened with Viet Nam leading to the abrupt departure of another Democrat, Johnson. But our rulers learned their lesson well...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/walsh7.1.1.html



The glorification of war

CounterPunch
by Dave Lindorff

05/31/10

And I am even sicker of politicians who wrap themselves in the bloody flag and try to rub off some of the stench of death from the bodies of those who have died, mostly in vain for worthless causes, in hopes that taking on some of the odor will cause them to be perceived as admirable patriots themselves...

http://counterpunch.org/lindorff05312010.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Iraq+War+-+Irak+Krieg/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Operation+Enduring+Freedom
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=militarism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=militarizing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=enlisting+military
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+sacrifice
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/walsh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/shaffer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/taylor
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Camillo+Mac+Bica
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Gass
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kelley+B.+Vlahos
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sara+Robinson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+V.+Walsh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dave+Lindorff

http://www.lewrockwell.com/faber/faber67.1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Marc+Faber
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/faber

Verendete Fische, arbeitslose Fischer, hilflose Ingenieure, ein angeschlagener Weltkonzern und ein schwacher US-Präsident, angeblich der mächtigste Mann der Welt. So stellt sich seit über fünf Wochen die vielleicht größte, von Menschen gemachte Umweltkatastrophe der Menschheitsgeschichte dar.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741688888ms209



Das Ende der Besatzung

Die Energiewende vollzieht sich nur langsam. Doch unbemerkt von einer breiten Öffentlichkeit finden sich überraschende neue Netzwerke, die auch politisch sehr bald einflussreich genug werden könnten, um die Macht der großen Energieversorger zu brechen. Kommentar von Jochen Schönmann

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741688890ms209

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Öl, das man nicht sieht, gibt es nicht

Armee hilflos, BP wischt PR-Schaufenster: Öl-Desaster nimmt kein Ende.
http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/2/147735

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Das schwarze Loch...

Scheibchenweise zugeben, was nicht mehr abzustreiten ist, ist eine der ältesten Vorgehensweise der unternehmerischen (und politischen) Schadensbegrenzung: BP beherrscht sie. Die seit vielen Wochen täglich austretende Ölmenge wächst ebenso stetig an, wie die Zahl der Dokumente, die verdeutlichen, dass vor den Gefahren sehr wohl gewarnt wurde. Zum Alltag gehört es inzwischen auch, dass die jeweiligen BP Sprecher gezwungen sind, sich gegen immer mehr kritische Fragen zu wehren, bzw ihnen auszuweichen. Aber nicht nur sie - auch die Regierung und, gerade in den USA, auch jene Umweltorganisationen die sich eng mit Großunternehmen verbunden haben...Unsere kleine Materialsammlung "Schwarzes Loch" vom 03. Juni 2010, mit einigen weiterführenden Links: http://www.labournet.de/internationales/usa/schwarzesloch.html


"Ölpest? Wir haben immer Ölpest!"

Die Industriekatastrophe in den USA erweist sich täglich als weitreichender, denn am Tage zuvor jeweils eingestanden. Zwar wissen die Kommerzmedien noch nicht so recht, wie sie in diesem Fall kund tun sollen, dass die Welt am deutschen Wesen genesen könnte und beschränken sich konsequent auf das, was alle wissen - aber ebenso konsequent wird in der BRD die gesamte Bedeutung der Problematik Ölförderung ohne Erwähnung gelassen. Was nicht überall so ist. Das titelgebende Zitat ist aus dem Artikel "Nigeria's Agony Dwarfs the Gulf Oil Spill. The US and Europe Ignore It" von John Vidal im britischen Oberserver am 30. Mai 2010 veröffentlicht, in dem die permanente Katastrophe im Nigerdelta in Zusammenhang mit der aktuellen am Golf von Mexiko gebracht wird. Die Katastrophe Nigerias beginnt mit den permanenten Explosionen, die regelmässig medial nie erwähnte Todesopfer fordern. Und geht weiter damit, dass die ehrenwerte Firma Shell bei ähnlichen Vorkommnissen das Öl schon mal sechs Monate lang einfach laufen lässt, ganz ohne Fernsehshow - wo einst Wälder waren, sind jetzt ölige Sümpfe, wo einst Fische gefangen wurden, kann jetzt niemand mehr leben. Die jährliche Menge Öl, die sich im Delta und den Weltmeeren verbreitet, ist bis heute immer noch größer, als alles, was bisher am Golf von Mexiko auslief..: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

Siehe dazu unbedingt auch: "Niger Delta: Oil spills in perspective" von Sokari am 30. Mai 2010 bei Black Looks wo über den Widerstand gegen 50 Jahre Ölverschmutzung berichtet wird..: http://www.blacklooks.org/2010/05/niger-delta-oil-spills-in-perspective/


Kein Wasser. Trotzdem Ölpest

Während die Medien seit Ende April 2010 voll sind mit Showberichten über BPs Deepwater Horizon (und das mindestens ebenso verseuchte Nigerdelta kaum irgendwo auftaucht) kümmert sich die Ölindustrie in Kanada weniger ums Wasser - dafür um den Sand, genauer die Teersände in Nordalberta. Die First Nations leisten Widerstand gegen ein Projekt, wie es gigantischer kaum sein könnte - und fataler auch nicht, wird in "Tar Sands of Alberta" von Michael Werbowski am 20. Mai 2010 in worldpress.org berichtet: http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3552.cfm


Aus: LabourNet, 4. Juni 2010



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ölpest
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Royal+Dutch+Shell
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nigeria
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=tar+sands+oil

http://www.ecoearth.info/blog/2010/05/earth_meanders_united_states_o.asp

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Con game in the Gulf
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/855.html

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Top kill fails to stem Gulf Disaster: BP says 'this scares everybody'
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9652/

'Déjà vu all over again' as Gulf Disaster cleanup efforts sicken workers
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9654/

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BP Oil Spill: "Top Kill" Failure Means Well May Gush Until August

Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor: "With the failure of the BP 'top kill' maneuver, the effort to combat the BP oil spill is increasingly becoming an attempt to manage expectations. A month ago, when the spill was barely a week old, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNN that the 'ultimate relief' - drilling a relief well - was still '90 days out.'"

http://www.truthout.org/bp-oil-spill-top-kill-failure-means-well-may-gush-until-august59982



Oil Spill's Scope Threatens Gulf's Endangered Marine Life

Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "As the magnitude of BP's oil spill becomes clearer, scientists fear that the volume of oil, the depth of the leak and the chemical dispersants the company is using will combine to threaten a vast array of undersea life for years."

http://www.truthout.org/oil-spills-scope-threatens-gulfs-endangered-marine-life59986

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Had enough government yet?

Human Events
by Roger Hedgecock

05/28/10

The BP Deepwater Horizon, the most federally regulated offshore oil drilling rig ever, blows out one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico in the worst oil spill disaster ever. In the spirit of using every crisis to advance the liberal agenda, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposes to abolish the single agency in charge of regulating and inspecting offshore rigs, and replacing it with three new federal agencies. In fairness, Salazar had to do something drastic when it was discovered that the agency whose oversight failed to prevent the blowout was peppered with employees who spent their time doing drugs, taking bribes from the oil industry, and surfing the web for porn...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37219


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Tell Obama: No More Offshore Drilling
http://ga3.org/campaign/end_drilling



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Salazar
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drilling
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+industry
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mark+Sappenfield
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Renee+Schoof
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Roger+Hedgecock

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/05/28-18



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pentagon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ACLU
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Military+Commissions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drone