Obama Administration

"I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good... The NSA routinely lies in response to Congressional inquiries about scope of surveillance in America. The NSA is intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them.... What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy."

- Edward Snowden, 29, PRISM Whistleblower

Obama Asks Military to Draw Up Plans for Offensive Overseas Cyber-Strikes

Obama Indistinguishable from Bush ... Or Stasi East Germans

As of this moment, Obama is making the case that the US government is not eavesdropping on phone calls. Specifically, he said "nobody is listening to your phone calls - they are just looking at phone numbers and duration of calls" and concluded that the NSA was only engaged in "modest encroachments." It was unclear if that clarification was meant to put to rest fears that Big Brother has made personal privacy a thing of the past. He further went on to add that the telephone surveillance program is fully vetted by Congress and supervised by the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). In other words: Obama is making the case that the NSA's Big Brother supervision is perfectly legal and not only that, there are checks and balances and neither the telephonic snooping nor the internet supervision is anything to be concerned about.  There is one problem: Obama is lying.

• Reports on surveillance of Americans fuel debate over privacy, security (Reuters)
• Apple to Yahoo Deny Providing Direct Access to Spy Agency (Bloomberg)
• Misfired 2010 email alerted IRS officials in Washington of targeting (Reuters)
• Spy vs Spy: Cyber disputes loom large as Obama meets China's Xi (Reuters)
• When NSA Calls, Companies Answer (WSJ)
• How the Robots Lost: High-Frequency Trading's Rise and Fall (BBG)
• Japan's Pension Fund to Buy More Stocks  (WSJ)
• ‘Frankenstein’ CDOs twitch back to life (FT)
• China’s ‘great power’ call to the US could stir friction (FT)
• Toyota Tries on Corolla Look That’s Just Different Enough (BBG)

Yes, Government Spooks May Be Listening

Blink and you have likely missed Obama's latest Watergate moment, this time following the disclosure that the White House has instructed the NSA to collect millions of daily phone records from Verizon (and likely all other carriers). What is surprising to us is that this is even news. We reported on just this in March of 2012 with “We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013" and then again in April 2012 "NSA Whistleblower Speaks Live: "The Government Is Lying To You" using an NSA whistleblower as a source. Still, no matter the distribution platform, it is a welcome development for the majority of the population to know that the same Stazi tactics so loathed for decades in the fringes of the "evil empire" are now a daily occurrence under the "most transparent administration in history." This is especially true in the aftermath of the recent media scandals involving the soon to be former Attorney General.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking [2013].” --George Orwell, 1984

How Another Housing Bubble Was Blown … And Why

• National Security Advisor Tom Donilon resigning, to be replaced by Susan Rice - Obama announcement to follow
• Japan's Abe targets income gains in growth strategy (Reuters), Abe unveils ‘third arrow’ reforms (FT) - generates market laughter and stock crash
• Amazon set to sell $800m in ads (FT) - personal tracking cookie data is valuable
• 60 percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track (BBG)  and yet have rarely been more optimistic
• Jefferson County, Creditors Reach Deal to End Bankruptcy (BBG)
• Turks clash with police despite deputy PM's apology (Reuters)
• Rural US shrinks as young flee for the cities (FT)
• Australia holds steady on rate but may ease later (MW)
• The Wonk With the Ear of Chinese President Xi Jinping (WSJ)
• Syrian army captures strategic border town of Qusair (Reuters)

Technology, technology, and more technology—this is what has driven the American oil and gas boom starting in the Bakken and now being played out in the Gulf of Mexico revival, and new advances are coming online constantly. It’s enough to rival the Saudis, if the Kingdom allows it to happen. Along with this boom come both promise and fear and a fast-paced regulatory environment that still needs to find the proper balance. In an exclusive interview with Oilprice.com, Chris Faulkner, CEO of Breitling Energy Companies - a key player in Bakken with a penchant for leading the new technology charge—discusses: How Bakken has turned the US into an economic powerhouse; What the next milestone is for Three Forks; What Wall Street thinks of the key Bakken companies; Where the next Bakken could be; What to expect from the next Gulf of Mexico lease auction; What the intriguing new 4D seismic possibilities will unleash; What the linchpin new technology is for explorers; How the US can compete with Saudi Arabia; Why fossil fuel subsidies aren’t subsidies; How natural gas is the bridge to US energy independence; Why fossil fuels shouldn’t foot the bill for renewable energy; Why Keystone XL is important; Why the US WILL become a net natural gas exporter

Ronald Reagan would be turning in his grave, wouldn’t he? In what became known as the most anti-communist speech of all time given by Reagan in 1987 on the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), the former President of the United States of America said that the Soviet Union was the ‘evil empire’.

• Record unemployment, low inflation underline Europe's pain (Reuters)
• The ponzi gets bigger and bigger: Spanish banks up sovereign bond holdings by more than 10% (FT)
• California Lawmakers Turn Down Moratorium on Fracking (BBG)
• China’s Growing Ranks of Elderly Beset by Depression, Study Says (BBG)
• Tokyo Prepares for a Once-in-200-Year Flood to Top Sandy (BBG)
• Morgan Stanley Cutting Correlation Unit Added $50 Billion (BBG)
• IMF warns over yen weakness (FT)
• Rising radioactive spills leave Fukushima fishermen floundering (Reuters)
• India records slowest growth in a decade (FT)

• Japan’s Stocks Correction Raises Stakes for Abe’s Growth Plan (BBG)
• China Failure to Grow With $1 Trillion Is Warning to Li (BBG)
• Blankfein Leads Bank CEO Pay With $26 Million Deemed Overpaid (BBG)
• IMF says ‘no evidence yet’ of Abenomics hurting other economies (FT)
• Europe Seeks CFTC Delay in Imposing Swaps Rules on Banks (BBG)
• Fed's Rosengren: 'Modest' QE3 cut may make sense in a few months (Reuters)
• Who’s who of Obama lobbyists pushes Keystone pipeline (FT)
• China to Study Joining U.S.-Led Trade Accord After Japan Added (BBG)

The Neo-Cons and the Neo-Libs have the same objective, total centralization and the dissolution of U.S. sovereignty.  Both parties are merely continuing the perpetual game of good-cop vs. bad-cop, switching roles every decade or so to keep the public confused and dependent on the system rather than enforcing their own solutions.  Barack Obama is nothing more than a fulcrum point - a useful piece of leverage meant to push Americans from one fake initiative to the next, or to divide us completely.  Our fight is not with Obama, it is with ALL globalists who obstruct our liberty, regardless of what party they are affiliated with.  If we allow the debate, and the battle, to be framed around the superficial Obama presidency, then we have allowed ourselves to be co-opted, and any revolutionary action we take afterwards will end exactly like the fabricated Bolshevik rebellion; it won’t mean a damn thing.