Obama Administration

Just when we thought the absurdity that marks every single day of Obama's reign could not possibly be surpassed, we learned that 4 hours (3 hours and 47 minutes to be precise) after the US president vowed to sign a new law banning bulk data collection by the NSA (named, for purely grotesque reasons, the "USA Freedom Act"), the Obama administration asked the secret Fisa surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months.

Follow the Law??  US????

• Greece Said to Submit Revised Budget Plan in Bid for Funding (BBG)
• Protesters seek firing of Texas officer who threw girl to ground (Reuters)
• HSBC to cut 50,000 jobs in quest for higher dividends (Reuters)
• U.S. base shipped live anthrax to 19 states plus D.C.: Pentagon (Reuters)
• Obama Administration Opens Door for More Student-Debt Forgiveness (WSJ)
• China Said to Weigh Margin Finance Rule Change Amid Stock Boom (BBG)
• Doctor who trained U.S. troops suspended for macabre techniques (Reuters)
• Exxon to Face Regulators’ Questions Over Quakes (WSJ)

in a follow up piece to his stunning original investigative report, Nafeez Ahmed reveals that according to leading American and British intelligence experts, the previously declassified Pentagon report confirms that the West accelerated support to extremist rebels in Syria, despite knowing full well the strategy would pave the way for the emergence of the ‘Islamic State’ (ISIS). The experts who have spoken out include renowned government whistleblowers such as the Pentagon’s Daniel Ellsberg, the NSA’s Thomas Drake, and the FBI’s Coleen Rowley, among others. Their remarks demonstrate the fraudulent nature of claims by two other former officials, the CIA’s Michael Morell and the NSA’s John Schindler, both of whom attempt to absolve the Obama administration of responsibility for the policy failures exposed by the DIA documents.

Overnight it was none other than the White House itself which finally admitted that the entire brilliant idea of collapsing the Russian economy by way of sanctions across the western world, ended up hurting European nations (i.e., US partners) who had no choice but to "sacrifice their own economies."

Amid escalating violence in Ukraine,"the Obama administration officials are considering new deterrence strategies to rein in Russian meddling in Europe, in what some say would amount to an updated version of Cold War-era containment," WSJ reports.

The next several weeks are likely to be relatively eventful in Washington...

Yesterday, in what he has since dubbed "a tongue-in-cheek and ironic letter" to "stingy" US consumers, Fed mouthpiece Jon Hilsenrath asked, why even though "the sun shined in April... you didn’t spend much money." It appears that in the 24 hours that followed, America's "stingy" middle class decided to write back to Hilsenrath. This is what it said...

"During the roughly two years of Arab Spring protests that confronted authoritarian governments with popular uprisings, Clinton’s State Department approved $66 million worth of so-called Category 14 exports -- defined as "toxicological agents, including chemical agents, biological agents and associated equipment" -- to nine Middle Eastern governments that either donated to the Clinton Foundation or whose affiliated groups paid Bill Clinton speaking fees," IBTimes reports.

There's Always Been Some Corruption in the U.S. ... But Never Like THIS

• Obama signs bill reforming surveillance program (Reuters)
• Tsipras to meet Juncker in Brussels for talks on agreement (AFP)
• Spot the irony: OECD cuts global growth forecast, says recovery taking hold (Reuters)
• The Secret Money Behind Vladimir Putin's War Machine (BBG)
• Companies' Borrowing Spree Darkens Stock Market Future (BBG)
• How OPEC Hurt Big Oil (WSJ)
• What's OPEC Going to Do With Iran's Million Barrels a Day? (BBG)
• Draghi’s Europe Looks Healthiest for Years Despite Greece (BBG)
• Bund yields inch higher, euro holds ahead of ECB (Reuters)

• Greece, creditors exchanging documents to reach deal - Commission (Reuters)
• Greece’s Creditors Reach Consensus on Proposal to Athensa (WSJ)
• Greece calls on lenders to accept 'realistic' plan sent on Monday (Reuters)
• Hundreds missing, many elderly tourists, after ship capsizes on China's Yangtze (Reuters)
• Oil up ahead of OPEC meeting as dollar slips (Reuters)
• U.S. Met Secretly With Yemen Rebels (WSJ)
• Euro zone back to inflation as May prices beat forecast (Reuters)
• Patients Get Extreme to Obtain Hepatitis Drug That's 1% the Cost Outside U.S. (BBG)

The first step in any 12-step imperial-overstretch recovery program would involve accepting the fact that American power is limited and global rule an impossible fantasy. Accepted as well would have to be this obvious reality: like it or not, the U.S. shares the planet with a coterie of other major powers -- none as strong as we are, but none so weak as to be intimidated by the threat of U.S. military intervention. Having absorbed a more realistic assessment of American power, Washington would then have to focus on how exactly to cohabit with such powers -- Russia, China, and Iran among them -- and manage its differences with them without igniting yet more disastrous regional firestorms.  But for any of this to happen, American policymakers would first have to abandon the pretense that the United States remains the sole global superpower -- and that may be too bitter a pill for the present American psyche (and for the political aspirations of certain Republican candidates) to swallow. From such denialism, it’s already clear, will only come further ill-conceived military adventures abroad and, sooner or later, under far grimmer circumstances, an American reckoning with reality.

It took 31 years, but it appears that the origins of 1984 are finally upon us. It’s happening all across the West at an alarming pace, and people are willing to allow it. That’s the funny thing about freedom. True freedom means that you are free to be an idiot. Unfortunately most people in the West are caged birds. It might be a nice cage with plenty of Starbucks and Bed, Bath, and Beyond megastores. But it’s a cage... filled with clueless birds chirping away about how free they are.