Article 14

As the Fed is committed to saving the banks "too big to fail," it is likely that the banks know of the Fed's announcements in advance. With inside information, the banks know precisely when to short the stock, bond, and bullion markets. The banks make billions from the inside information.

I interview business researcher Clive Boddy, discussing the effects of corporate psychopaths.

WikiLeaks may publish further revelations promised by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Julian Assange hinted during a conference call with journalists. He reiterated that his legal team is helping Snowden in his quest for asylum in Iceland. "We don't speak about investigations or upcoming publications," Assange repeated several times, but hinted that "significant material will be published in coming weeks."

Nick discusses the emerging peer to peer economy, it's disruptive effects on existing systems and economics, and how top down forces are resisting these bottom up aspects of progress.

By Shirley Wilcher
The Fisher Conundrum: Class vs. Race in Higher Education Admissions
This opinion editorial argues that class or socioeconomic status should not replace race as a factor in higher education admissions. Race-based affirmative action is still necessary in 2013.

House GOP pushes the "Smarter Solutions Act", a cynical bill that simply differs the profits lenders are expecting from the doubling of student loan interest rates starting in July.

Mohammad Naji Allaw says, "Over 90 of 166 Guantanamo prisoners are from Yemen. Most of them, 56 to be exact, have already been cleared by the US government for release but the US government still won't send them back."

How long did it take those early American revolutionaries to defeat the British and draft the philosophical ideals that are the framework of our nation? Ideals that guarantee our protection from intrusive governmental practices that would threaten our liberty, security, and civil rights?

Their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers are simply pawns in the US game of politics where one party is always trying to "out hawk" the other, where concern about winning the next election far eclipses any respect for the rights of the prisoners. Most Americans have become so consumed by fear after 9/11 that they think that holding these prisoners in Guantanamo indefinitely somehow makes them safer.

We raise our voices in opposition to John McCain's attempts to steer our beleaguered nation once more into a needless and unwinnable war. We have one last request for our aged and belligerent hero: Please, John, retire. Take your liberal pension. Go home, sit on the veranda of one of your multi-million dollar mansions, and SHUT THE HELL UP!

More GOP Mythmaking on the Border
GOP House Speaker John Boehner recently called border security "laughable." Boehner was not being funny. That sentiment could have a major blowback effect in the House on the deal that the four GOP Senators crafted to take the issue of border security off the contentious table and move the immigration bill to final passage.

"Mayoral hopeful [Anthony Weiner] apologized Thursday after an elderly woman he met while campaigning described his openly gay opponent Christine Quinn as a "dyke."

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2,000-mile (3,200-km) boundary between the United States and Mexico would have enough border patrol agents to station one guard every 1,000 feet, under a compromise measure being considered by the U.S. Senate as part of an effort to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill."

Insurers Inflating Books, New York Regulator Says - by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH NYTimes.com
"New York State regulators are calling for a nationwide moratorium on transactions that life insurers are using to alter their books by billions of dollars, saying that the deals put policyholders at risk and could lead to another taxpayer bailout. nsurers' use of the secretive transactions has become widespread, nearly doubling over the last five years. The deals now affect life insurance policies worth trillions of dollars, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by SNL Financial, a research and data firm.These complex private deals allow the companies to describe themselves as richer and stronger than they otherwise could in their communications with regulators, stockholders, the ratings agencies and customers, who often rely on ratings to buy insurance."

Russia Right to Dismiss Obama Nuke Fakery
Moreover, this vague commitment to reduce tactical weapons is flatly contradicted by fact. Only last month, the Obama administration announced that it was embarking on a $10 billion upgrade of its tactical nuclear arsenal in Europe over the next 10 years. Part of this revamp is the fitting of gravity-dropped B61 bombs in Europe with new precision-guided tail systems that will increase the overall strike capacity of the American nuclear arsenal.

An obituary in The New York Times has sounded a discordant note amid the rest of the encomiums. And now Hastings' widow, Elise Jordan, is firing back at Times brass. Jordan did not take kindly to the Times' remembrance, and in an email to Times' editor Jill Abramson, asked the paper correct its report before printing it in the morning paper. Abramson sent the note to Bill McDonald, obituaries editor, who rejected the request.

The private company responsible for vetting Edward Snowden for a security clearance is under criminal investigation for systemic failure to adequately conduct background checks. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced at a Senate hearing Thursday that USIS, a government contractor headquartered in Falls Church, Va., conducted a background check for Snowden in 2011. The 29-year-old systems administrator's clearance gave him access to classified documents he later leaked to the media, revealing secret surveillance by the National Security Agency.

This article from Global Research provides a compelling argument that before the events of 9/11/01, the real powers behind the U.S. government already planned to effect regime change in five oil rich or strategic middle eastern and North African countries for the purpose of controlling crude oil and other resources in that area.

With fracking operations using between 1 and 9 million gallons of water daily, and there being an estimated 500,000 such wells in the United States how long can we expect clean water for growing crops and drinking? One must be reminded that life can exist without oil and gas, but will die without water. Are today's profits for a few worth death for millions in the future? Unfortunately, some think it is.

Université Laval researchers have developed a highly effective method for converting CO2 into methanol, which can be used as a low-emissions fuel for vehicles. The team led by Professor Frédéric-Georges Fontaine presents the details of this discovery in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have found an effective solution for collecting sunlight for artificial photosynthesis. By combining self-assembling DNA molecules with simple dye molecules, the researchers have created a system that resembles nature's own antenna system.

Almost half of the mobile apps running on Apple's iOS operating system access the unique identifier of the devices where they're downloaded, computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found. In addition, more than 13 percent access the devices' location and more than 6 percent the address book. The researchers developed a new app that detects what data the other apps running on an iOS device are trying to access.

You won't see this battery in your cell phone -- instead, its low cost and common materials would make it ideal to store huge amounts of energy at once, such as solar energy at a power plant.

The House of Representatives on Thursday overcame last-minute lobbying from the Drug Enforcement Administration to pass a farm bill amendment that would legalize the growing of hemp for research purposes. The 225-200 vote came after a flurry of opposition from the DEA, which argued that it would be too difficult for the agency to differentiate legal hemp from illegal marijuana, both varieties of the cannabis plant. The House amendment, proposed by Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), is far more modest than a Senate effort by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to fully legalize growing hemp for industrial purposes. McConnell had hoped to have his measure inserted into the underlying farm bill or approved on a simple voice vote, but neither path proved open.