Mexico

This is it, warns one water advocate, "it really does (make critical) the fact that we have to start changing." Lake Mead water levels have sunk to their lowest levels on record (below the levels when the dam was built) at 1075 feet. This is a major problem, as USA Today reports, since Las Vegas water authority's current "straws" glean water from 1,050 feet and 1,000 feet - leaving the first straw just 25 feet away from pulling in air. With the drought only set to get worse as the summer begins, the water wars are just beginning as Lower-basin states are still taking more than the river system can sustain.

Today's Lesson: If you ever find yourself with $300 million in illegal gains, don't fly commercial.

Echoing the era of McCarthyism, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

Among countries with relatively high Human Development Index scores, the number of African Americans killed per 100,000 people in the US each year is around 12 times the average for all people in developed countries and is comparable to the homicide rate in Rwanda and Mexico.

• Greek PM sticks to hard line as contagion hits euro zone bonds (Reuters)
• Greek Deadlock Has Leader Hoping for Miracle to Avoid Default (BBG)
• Greek Showdown Puts Merkel's Teflon Legacy at Risk (BBG)
• Greek standoff saps Europe, dollar swings ahead of Fed (Reuters)
• Allianz Increased Holdings of Greek Debt as Its Largest Investor (BBG)
• French Bonds Infected as Greek Crisis Swells Euro-Region Spreads (BBG)
• Statoil to cut 1,500 more jobs as savings drive intensifies (FT)
• UnitedHealth, Anthem Seek to Buy Smaller Rivals (WSJ)
• Five Million Reasons Why China Could Go to War (BBG)

Markets don’t always behave rationally. Oil prices do not always reflect fundamentals like supply and demand. Over time, however, markets come into balance with fundamentals. Right now, oil prices are profoundly out of balance with fundamentals. Look for a correction.

Is something really big about to happen?

“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.” - George Orwell

It’s a shell game intended to keep us focused on and distracted by all of the politically expedient things that are being said - about militarized police, surveillance, and government corruption - while the government continues to frogmarch us down the road toward outright tyranny.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas... apart from the water. As the following interactive chart from ProPublica shows, water usage in the greater Las Vegas region has more than doubled in the last 40 years and with the drought conditions, every reservoir is near record lows. Welcome To Las Vegas (while water supplies last).

Following OPEC’s decision not to cut production at its June 5, 2015 meeting in Vienna, oil prices should likely continue their descent that began in early May (Figure 1). Prices may fall into the $50+ per barrel range since there is no tangible reason for their rise from January’s $46 low.

Why has the dollar jumped in recent weeks?  Global conspriacy and lies?  Are thousands of investors and participants being deluded?  

If you think the corporate-fascist state is overbearing and oppressive now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The fact that civil asset forfeiture continues to exist across the American landscape despite outrage and considerable media attention, is as good an example as any as to how far fallen and uncivilized our so-called “society” has become. It also proves the point demonstrated in a Princeton University study that the U.S. is not a democracy, and the desires of the people have no impact on how the country is governed.

What Wikileaks is doing would be utterly meaningless and unnecessary in any representative democracy. However, in a oligarchic corporatocracy such as the US, it is of critical importance.