World News Desk 5-18-2013
From Jenna Orkin:
Headlines
Treasury to Free Up $260 Billion to Avoid Default
Couple that with: Hollande Asks ECB to Engage in Japanese Style Currency Debasement - JO
More Foreclosures and Suicides than During the Great Depression
“The proposals would allow drillers to skirt disclosures about the chemical composition of fracking fluid by claiming them as trade secrets. “The revised proposed rule makes it clear that an operator should not disclose any information … that it believes to be exempt from disclosure under the Trade Secrets Act,” the proposal states. Instead, well operators would file an affidavit claiming trade secret protection for the chemical after drilling—at which point, the deed is already done.
The BLM also eliminated proposed disclosure requirements for so-called flowback fluids, which surface after drilling and must be disposed of in containment ponds or tanks.
Environmentalists aren’t happy. “After reviewing the draft rules, we believe the administration is putting the American public’s health and well-being at risk, while continuing to give polluters a free ride,” Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said in a statement. “The last thing we should be doing is opening up still more public land to drilling and fracking.” The Wilderness Society said the BLM should require flowback fluids to be stored in sturdier storage tanks rather than in lined ponds, which are eventually transferred to waste-water treatment facilities.”
Grapefruit-Sized Hail Smashed Down On Texas In Deadly Storm
It's Time To Discuss The Secret CIA Operation At The Heart Of The Benghazi Scandal
“CNN's Jake Tapper argued this week that we should give more scrutiny to the CIA's presence in the Libyan port city.
Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said the same, according to CNN: "There are questions that must be asked of the CIA and this must be done in a public way."
Among the questions are whether CIA missteps contributed to the security failure in Benghazi and, more importantly, whether the Agency's Benghazi operation had anything to do with reported heavy weapons shipments from the local port to Syrian rebels.”
Battleground in Eastern Mediterranean is heating up fast
Economy
Emir's Greek Isle Purchase Inspires Hope
Couple islands here, a few kidneys there and we'll be good as new, if a little smaller. – JO
Report Faults Cyprus on Money Laundering
These 14 U.S. Companies Refused To Sign Bangladesh Safety Accord
Top Fed Official: Inequality May Impede Economic Growth
Food Stamps Help Stimulate The Economy
Reduce hunger too! – JO
Soros Cut Gold Holdings Before Crash
Latvia Joins Greece In Deflation As EU Inflation Slumps
The Ugly Truth Behind Spain's First Trade Surplus In Over 40 Years
10 Perspectives Into The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker
“The middle class American worker is in danger of becoming an endangered species. The politicians are not telling you the truth, and the mainstream media is certainly not telling you the truth, but the reality is that there is nothing but bad news on the horizon for workers in the United States. In the old days, when the big corporations that dominate our society did well, that also meant good things for American workers since those corporations would need more of us to work for them. But in the emerging one world economic system that our economy is being merged into, those corporations have other choices now.
For instance, the big corporations can now choose to limit the number of "expensive" American workers that they employ by shipping millions of jobs to the other side of the world. And from their perspective, it makes perfect sense. They can make much bigger profits by hiring people on the other side of the planet to work for them for less than a dollar an hour. If they can get good production out of those people, then why should they hire Americans for ten to twenty times as much, plus have to give those Americans health insurance and other benefits?
Another major factor in the slow, agonizing death of the American worker is technology. We live during a period when technology is advancing at a pace that is almost unimaginable at the same time that it is steadily becoming cheaper and cheaper. That means that it is going to become easier and easier for companies to replace workers with robots and computers. As I have written about previously, it is being projected that our economy will lose millions of jobs to technology in the coming years. Yes, some of us will still be needed to help build the robots and the computers, but not all of us will. And of course the overall general weakness of the economy is not helping matters either.
The American people inherited the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and we have wrecked it. Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in the period of steady economic decline that we are experiencing now.”
85% of Americans are wasting their time and money on college
Energy/Resources
Tornado ravages Habitat community
“More than half of homes in North Texas community built by non-profit, most of which were damaged by the level 4 tornado.”
Arctic strategy Time bomb? - US National Strategy for the Arctic Region prioritises corporate 'economic opportunities' at the expense of everyone else
“One week ago, the Obama administration launched its National Strategy for the Arctic Region, outlining the government's strategic priorities over the next 10 years. The release of the strategy came about a week after the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President at the White House Complex hosted a briefing with international Arctic scientists.
Despite giving lip service to the values of environmental conservation, the new document focuses on how the US can manage the exploitation of the region's vast untapped oil, gas and mineral resources in cooperation with other Arctic powers.
At the heart of the White House's new Arctic strategy is an elementary but devastating contradiction between what President Obama, in the document's preamble, describes as seeking "to make the most of the emerging economic opportunities in the region" due to the rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and recognising "the need to protect and conserve this unique, valuable, and changing environment."
Despite repeated references to "preservation" and "conservation", the strategy fails to outline any specific steps that would be explored to mitigate or prevent the disappearance of the Arctic sea ice due to intensifying global warming. Instead, the document from the outset aims to:
"... position the United States to respond effectively to challenges and emerging opportunities arising from significant increases in Arctic activity due to the diminishment of sea ice and the emergence of a new Arctic environment."
In other words, far from being designed to prevent catastrophe, the success of the new strategy is premised precisely on the disappearance of the Arctic summer sea ice…
… So the new US Arctic strategy is not just short-sighted, ill-conceived and self-interested. If it proceeds as planned, it will condemn all of humanity to unimaginable disaster, just to sustain the near-term profits of a few giant energy corporations.”
-
Nafeez Ahmed on page 1 of the Guardian! – JO
Get ‘em Dr. Ahmed! We’re with you 100%.
A MUST-READ and SHARE article, especially for those who think Obama still has any credibility left. – Wes
180,000 children work as unpaid carers for relatives
Benefit cuts risk rise in child poverty, doctors warn
Angela Merkel Is No KGB 'Sleeper Agent'
“Ever wondered what Angela Merkel had in mind with her decision to phase out nuclear energy? Dependency on Russian energy, if you believe some prominent conspiracy theorists. They'd like you to believe the German chancellor is some kind of KGB "sleeper agent" installed by Moscow at the end of the Cold War.”
Is It Possible To Clone Humans?
An Epic Tale Of Drug-Company Fraud
“The epic inside story of long-term criminal fraud at Ranbaxy, the Indian drug company that makes generic Lipitor for millions of Americans.”
What is killing the giant ‘Ocean Sunfish’ off the coast of Chile?
The Deep Sea Dive for 100 Billion Barrels of Oil (video)
James Hansen Says Greenland Melt May Cool North Atlantic
“Greenland ice melting at an expanding pace may begin cooling the North Atlantic and increasing the severity of storms by 2075, said James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who raised concerns about global warming in the 1980s.
“If we stay on this path where the rate of mass loss from Greenland doubles every 10 years, we would get to a situation by about 2075 or 2080 where the mass loss is so fast that it causes the whole North Atlantic to be colder,” Hansen said in London.
The findings are from computer models using current rates of ice melt and will be detailed in a paper that Hansen plans to finish writing in the summer, he said yesterday in an interview.
Inflows of cold, fresh water from Greenland would slow deep currents that carry cold water south, cooling the North Atlantic as tropical waters get warmer, Hansen said. That would increase a “temperature gradient” that’s conducive to stronger storms.
“It could happen sooner” than 2075, Hansen said. “If you look at how fast the mass loss is increasing, it looks like the doubling time is between five and 10 years,” he said.”
-
This is why you're better off calling it "climate change" rather than "global warming." It's less likely to spark a protest. - JO
Military/Intelligence
Russia reveals CIA Moscow chief
“The Federal Security Service in Russia has revealed the identity of the CIA's station chief in Moscow in a breach of protocol.
The revelation, made by an FSB spokesman who accused the US agency of crossing a "red line" in its attempt to recruit turncoats among Russian spy agencies, will up the ante in the unfolding spy scandal that emerged earlier this week when Russia detained and expelled an alleged CIA agent working undercover as third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor, have taken pains to say they believe the scandal will blow over quickly.
Publicly revealing the CIA station chief proves that some inside the Russian government believe otherwise and is likely to prompt an angry response from Washington.
Speaking to Russia's Interfax news agency, the FSB spokesman said his agency had complained to the CIA station chief as far back as October 2011 "that if they [the Americans] continue their provocative recruitment efforts regarding employees of the Russian secret services, the FSB will take 'mirror' actions against CIA agents". In that statement, the spokesman included the station chief's name.”
Satellite Images Show The Utter Precision Of Israel's Airstrike On Damascus International Airport
Terrorist Entered Witness Protection, Then Fled the U.S.
CIA chief makes surprise Israel trip
“The CIA chief has made an unexpected visit to Israel to meet senior political and military figures to discuss the deteriorating security situation in neighbouring Syria.
John Brennan, who took up his post two months ago, met the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, military chief of staff, Benny Gantz, and Mossad chief, Tamir Pardo, according to reports in Israel media.
The unannounced meetings followed two Israeli air strikes on weapons stores near Damascus a fortnight ago. Israel has repeatedly warned it will take action to prevent advanced or chemical weapons being transferred to the Syrian regime's Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, or falling into the hands of jihadist groups fighting alongside the Syrian opposition.
According to a report in the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, the visit stemmed from "the American fear of escalation in the region against the backdrop of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah's threats to act against Israel in the Golan Heights and the American sense that Israel is disappointed by the ineffectuality of the Obama administration with regard to the ongoing deterioration in Syria.
"It is assessed that Brennan was sent to Israel to co-ordinate a joint policy between the two countries and prevent Israel from taking action on its own in Syria."”
-
Brennan is there to put Bibi back in his box. Good luck with that. - Wes
First he hits back, then he hangs up: Farage ruffled after crowd turns on him
Civil Unrest/Politics
Campaigners in China challenge authorities over environmental impact of planned petrochemical plant
EU Study Finds Widespread Homophobia in Europe
“Harassed at work and the doctor's office, bullied and assaulted in public: The gay, bisexual and transgender community is still widely discriminated against in Europe. In an new EU survey, the most comprehensive to date, more than 90,000 participants report on the extent of their harassment.”
