New federal database will track Americans' credit ratings, other financial information

As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives -- including their Social Security numbers -- in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of previously stated policy.

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Still Think The Fed Isn't Fueling Inflation?

There is a great divergence between the conventional financial media and the public who goes to the supermarket: the financial media swallows whole the official artifice that inflation is near-zero while J.Q. Public sees his/her grocery costs, health insurance, etc. rising by leaps and bounds.

Many observers finger the Federal Reserve as the villain in the inflation story: it's all well and good to conjure up a few trillion dollars to pass out to your banker buddies, but there are always costs, recognized or not, to every action, and the Fed's credit creation and numerous quantitative easing operations have greatly expanded money supply.

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U.S. consumer spending dips; inflation creeps up

(Reuters)

U.S. consumer spending fell for the first time in a year in April after two months of solid gains, but the decline is likely temporary given a strengthening jobs market.

The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending dipped 0.1 percent, which was the first decline since April 2013. But the drop followed an upwardly revised 1.0 percent jump in March that was the largest gain since August 2009.

"The disappointing spending report should be viewed in the context of a stronger handoff into the second quarter," said Gennadiy Goldberg, an economist at TD Securities in New York. "We look for ongoing labor market progress to encourage further growth in consumer spending."

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Toddler critically burned when police stun grenade lands in crib

A Georgia family says a SWAT team raided their home in the middle of the night and seriously injured a 19-month-old boy with a stun grenade.

Alecia Phonesavanh said her child is in a medically induced coma in the burn unit of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Phonesavanh said she was at her sister-in-law’s home in Habersham County, Georgia, early Wednesday when police raided the house.

"It's my baby. He's only a baby. He didn't deserve any of this," Phonesavanh said.

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US Should Support ICC Jurisdiction in Palestine

THE HILL

Secretary of State John Kerry called the collapse of the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “reality-check time” for the peace process. That reassessment should include the self-defeating U.S. policy of opposing steps toward justice and accountability in the name of negotiations.  

U.S. officials claim that the International Criminal Court (ICC) poses a danger to peace talks and are pressuring Palestinians to forego asking the ICC to take jurisdiction over serious crimes by all parties committed in or from Palestinian territory. But those who support negotiations should realize that the greater danger to peace is impunity for serious crimes.

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General: Benghazi 'Botched Arms Deal' To Muslim Brotherhood And Al Qaeda

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John Kerry Should 'Man Up' And Admit He's Wrong About Snowden

TECH DIRT

In two separate TV interviews, Secretary of State John Kerry made some ridiculous arguments about how Ed Snowden should "man up" and come back to the US. This was in response to Snowden's claims that the only reason he's in Russia is the US State Department pulling his passport -- an argument that no one in the US government has ever denied. Given the chance to respond to this, Kerry effectively changed the subject, saying that Snowden can and should come home to face charges. Here was his statement on NBC's Today show:

QUESTION: Well, Mr. Secretary, what about it? Does he have a point? He’s basically saying but for the U.S. State Department revoking his passport, he wouldn’t be in Russia at all.

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Self-Betrayal Rots the American Psyche

Psychologically, [the American people] have the status of defeated and demoralized prisoners of war. They have cut a deal with the System: they won't contradict the Cryptocracy's lies in return for the Cryptocracy allowing them to "get on with their lives," pursue a career, marry a trophy wife, raise and educate two children, root for the stadium sports team of their choice, acquire a boat, an RV and a second home.

In the course of this quid pro quo, they pretend they are concerned about the state of the nation and their children's future, but their souls are rotting in the face of the lie they are living. Americans are being marched in the direction the Cryptocracy has been taking us since it immolated the King of Camelot near the 33rd degree line in 1963.

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Directive outlines Obama’s policy to use the military against citizens

The troubling aspect of the directive outlines presidential authority for the use of military arms and forces, including unarmed drones, in operations against domestic unrest.

“This appears to be the latest step in the administration’s decision to use force within the United States against its citizens,” said a defense official opposed to the directive.

Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.”

“Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority,” the directive states.

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Report: 1,700 vets not on Phoenix VA wait list, at risk of being 'lost or forgotten'

At least 1,700 military veterans waiting to see a doctor were never scheduled for an appointment and never placed on a wait list at the Veterans Affairs health care system in Phoenix, raising the question of just how many may have been "forgotten or lost" in the system, according to a preliminary report made public Wednesday.

Describing a "systemic" practice of manipulating appointments and wait lists at the Phoenix Health Care System, the VA's Office of Inspector General called for a nationwide review to determine whether veterans at other locations were falling through the cracks.

It also appears to indicate the scope of the inquiry is rapidly widening, with 42 VA health care operations across the country now under investigation for possible abuse of scheduling practices, according to the report.

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Snowden's Lawyer: 'Mutually Agreed Solution with US Would Be Most Sensible'

SPIEGEL: Mr. Kaleck, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, described Edward Snowden as a lawbreaker during recent discussions with United States government representatives in Washington. Did that surprise you? 

Kaleck: It did not surprise me, but I do find it shocking. Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, someone who followed his conscience and went public with a scandal that is global in nature: the threat intelligence services represent to all Internet freedom. The issue should be approached with more seriousness. 

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UCSB SHOOTING: More Proof of 'Mystery Man' Shooter Inside BMW with Elliot Rodger!

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'Biggest yet': Greenwald to publish names of Americans whom NSA is spying on

RT

Glenn Greenwald, who helped Edward Snowden leak sensitive documents about the National Security Agency spying on its citizens, says he’s set to publish his most dramatic piece yet, which will reveal those in the USA who were targeted by the NSA.

“One of the big questions when it comes to domestic spying is, ‘Who have been the NSA’s specific targets?’ Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people we’d regard as terrorists? What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted? Those are the kinds of questions that I want to still answer,” Mr. Greenwald told the UK’s Sunday Times.

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Bilderberg: Elite Desperate to Destroy Global Political Awakening

The 2014 Bilderberg meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark is taking place amidst a climate of panic for many of the 120 globalists set to attend the secretive confab, with Russia’s intransigence on the crisis in Ukraine and the anti-EU revolution sweeping Europe posing a serious threat to the unipolar world order Bilderberg spent over 60 years helping to build.

Inside sources confirm to Infowars that the elite conference, which will take place from Thursday onwards at the five star Marriott Hotel, will center around how to derail a global political awakening that threatens to hinder Bilderberg’s long standing agenda to centralize power into a one world political federation, a goal set to be advanced with the passage of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which will undoubtedly be a central topic of discussion at this year’s meeting.

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Greenwald: 'I wanted a debate about journalism'

In an exclusive interview with DW, Edward Snowden ally Glenn Greenwald says one central aim of breaking the NSA story was provoking a discussion about journalists' tacit deference to government power.

DW: You have been attacked in the media by what you have called 'establishment journalists.' The New York Times, for example, has just published a review of your new book. Some have called that review unfair. How do you respond to these attacks by fellow journalists?

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TTIP serves the major corporations

DW: The planned free trade agreement between the US and the EU (TTIP) has been debated for months now. How useful will it be from your point of view?

Christoph Scherrer: It seems to me that it mainly serves the interests of the corporations. Neither consumers' nor workers' organizations were consulted ahead of the negotiations. The catalogue of demands is fundamentally an image of the demands of the major industry associations.

One of the points of contention is the corporations' new right to take legal action. Some fear that parliamentary decisions could be suspended if companies feel unfairly treated by new legislation. How justified is this fear?

The idea that companies can sue states is completely new for any trade agreement between states that have well-developed legal systems.

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Why War Is Inevitable — Paul Craig Roberts

Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July, Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.

Those who lose family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.

The speeches are well-intentioned, but the speeches create a false reality that supports ever more wars. None of America’s wars had anything to do with keeping America free.

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Chris Hedges: Thomas Paine, Our Contemporary

Cornel West, Richard D. Wolff and I, along with moderator Laura Flanders, next Sunday will inaugurate “The Anatomy of Revolution,” a series of panel discussions focusing on modern revolutionary theorists. This first event will be part of a two-day conference in New York City sponsored by the Left Forum, and nine other discussions by West, Wolff and me will follow in other venues later this year.

Sunday’s event will be about Thomas Paine, the author of “Common Sense,” “The Rights of Man” and “The Age of Reason”—the most widely read political essays of the 18th century, works that established the standards by which rebellion is morally and legally permissible. We will ask whether the conditions for revolt set by Paine have been met with the rise of the corporate state. Should Paine’s call for the overthrow of British tyranny inspire our own call for revolution?

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UCSB SHOOTING: Did Elliot Rodger Have a Handler? Witnesses put more than 1 person in the black BMW!!!

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Donald Rumsfeld and the Demolition of WTC 7

by Kevin Ryan

When former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked about World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7), he claimed that he had never heard of it. This was despite the unprecedented destruction of that 47-story building and its relationship to the events of 9/11 that shaped Rumsfeld’s career. Although not hit by a plane, WTC 7 experienced free fall into its own footprint on the afternoon of 9/11—through the path of what should have been the most resistance. The government agency charged with investigating the building’s destruction ultimately admitted that it had been in free fall during a portion of its descent. That fact makes explosive demolition the only logical explanation. Considering how WTC 7 might have been demolished leads to some interesting facts about Rumsfeld and his associates.

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