For more than a month Israel sought to wriggle off a hook that should have snared it from the start. Two children, 17 and 16, were shot dead during Nakba Day protests near Ramallah, in which youths threw stones ineffectually at well-protected and distant Israeli military position.

Hundreds of Palestinian children have lost their lives over the years at the end of a sharpshooter's sights, but the deaths of Nadim Nuwara and Mohammed Abu Al Thahir in Beitunia were not easily forgotten. Israel was quickly cornered by an accumulation of physical and visual evidence.

Israel's usual denials - the deaths were faked, video footage was doctored, Israeli soldiers were not responsible, the youths provoked the soldiers, no live ammunition was used - have been discredited one by one. Slowly Israel conceded responsibility, if only by falling into a grudging silence.

A CCTV camera mounted on the outer wall of a carpentry shop provided the most damning evidence: it captured the moments when the two unarmed boys were each hit with a live round, in one case as the youth can be seen walking away from the protest area.

But rather than come to terms with the world as it now is, Israel wants to preserve the way it once was. It believes that through force of will it can keep the tide of accountability at bay in the occupied territories.

Introduction

There are two major beneficiaries of the two major wars launched by the US government: one domestic and one foreign. The three major domestic arms manufacturers, Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOG) and Raytheon (RTN) have delivered record-shattering returns to their investors, CEOs and investment banks during the past decade and a half. The Israeli regime is the overwhelming foreign beneficiary of the war, expanding its territory through its dispossession of Palestinians and positioning itself as the regional hegemon. Israel benefited from the US invasion which destroyed Iraq, a major ally of the Palestinians; the invasion provided cover for massive Israel's settler expansion in the Occupied Palestinian territories. In the course of its invasion and occupation Washington systematically destroyed Iraq's armed forces and civil infrastructure, shredding its complex modern society and state. By doing so, the US occupation removed one of Israel's major regional rivals.

In terms of cost to the United States, hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had served in the war zones have sustained severe physical and mental injuries, while thousands have died directly or indirectly through an epidemic of soldier suicides. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has cost the United States trillions of dollars and counting. Despite the immense costs to the American people, the military-industrial complex and the pro-Israel power configuration continue to keep the US government on a wartime economy - undermining the domestic social safety net and standard of living of many millions.

"Gold and silver have turned!" I bet you have heard that one before. In fact, I said this almost 12 months ago at the end of last June. Back then we had another 2 day waterfall event which became common events throughout 2013. As it turns out, that event was the (a) "retest" of $1,180 in gold and $18 in silver. I believe that last June really was the bottom in price. We have chopped since then and had a good little rally to start this year off only to be pressured down again...but I believe that things have now changed.

So why did the metals soar on Thursday? Was it because Janet Yellen and the Fed were "dovish" as is commonly thought? Maybe, but haven't they been dovish since 2008? Didn't we have QE's 1, 2 twist and then QE3? Hasn't the Fed, the BOE, BOJ and ECB all flooded the markets with cheap and nearly free currency? Yes they have, but all we have for their efforts is more debt, inflated markets and stagnant economies where it costs the average person more each day to live and survive. Six years after the fact they are still using the word "recovery" when during a normal business cycle we would have had another recession, a second recovery and already be in a 2nd growth phase.

Macroeconomist Gordon Long says,

"We're not really running a capitalist system. We are running a credit system. Instead of using savings, we are using credit. Credit, the way we are doing it now, is really a form of counterfeiting. If you look at the $72 trillion shadow banking system that we have operating right now, that is generating this credit . . . it collapsed in 2008 . . . and now it's on a hairy edge. It's not mortgages and housing this time. It's student loans through Sallie Mae. These students don't have any hope of paying this back. We are talking north of $1.1 to $1.2 trillion. It's car loans this time because of subprime. That's the way to look at car loans, they are sub-prime. . . . And you got these highly leveraged real estate investment trusts also operating through the shadow banking system. These problems are blatantly evident, and I don't think the powers that be have any control over them."

On the next financial crisis, Mr. Long contends,

"I think 2008 was an early warning signal of the magnitude of the problem. We didn't fix it. We did extend and pretend. Dodd-Frank did not solve the underlying issues. The global swaps market went from $600 trillion to $700 trillion last year, alone. We've watched the shadow banking system push through $72 trillion. So, we didn't stop it. We just, in fact, inflamed it even worse, and we got into even riskier kinds of assets. Is it imminent? No, I think we are talking 2015. I think we have a little bit of a deflation scare before we get into the hyperinflation. Don't underestimate the central bankers and the politicians' ability to kick the can down the road. They still got some more bullets here."

"I think we have to understand first how we got here. We have been arming ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) in Syria. ISIS, an al Qaeda offshoot, has been collaborating with the Syrian rebels whom the Obama administration has been arming in their efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." - Senator Rand Paul, Interview CNN 

Today's head-scratcher: How could a two-mile long column of jihadi-filled white Toyota Land rovers barrel across the Syrian border into Iraq - sending plumes of dust up into the atmosphere - without US spy satellites detecting their whereabouts when those same satellites can read a damn license plate from outer space? And why has the media failed to inquire about this massive Intelligence failure?

The U.S. government's no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, ruling on a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oregon by 13 Muslim Americans who were branded with the no-fly status, ordered the government to come up with new procedures that allow people on the no-fly list to challenge that designation.

"The court concludes international travel is not a mere convenience or luxury in this modern world. Indeed, for many international travel is a necessary aspect of liberties sacred to members of a free society," Brown wrote in her 65-page ruling.

"Accordingly, on this record the court concludes plaintiffs inclusion on the no-fly list constitutes a significant deprivation of their liberty interests in international travel," Brown said.

The US Commerce Department has given the go-ahead to several companies to export crude oil, a big policy change essentially ending a ban in place for the last four decades. At question is whether the end of the ban will mean higher prices at the pump.

Ultra-light oil, often referred to as 'condensate' by the energy industry, will be cleared to be exported abroad, according to a private ruling by the federal government impacting Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Enterprise Product Partners LP, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Currently, the export of crude oil is restricted by the US government, though the ban has not applied to refined versions such as gasoline and diesel. The restrictions were put into place during the 1970s as a direct result of the 1973 oil embargo imposed by a number of Arab nations. At the time, global oil prices were spiking upwards, and many Americans were struggling to simply fill their car's gas tank.

Exceptions to the crude ban - known officially as the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act - have been made over the years, including for crude oil produced in Alaska's Cook Inlet, oil that travels through the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, certain fields in California, and oil shipped to Canada for domestic consumption. Still, even after all of those exceptions, the amount of crude being exported by the US amounted to a modest 67,000 barrels per day in 2011, reported the Washington Post.

The parliament of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in southeastern Ukraine has passed a constitutional act on a confederation with the neighboring Lugansk People's Republic (LPR).

"The DPR Supreme Soviet passed a constitutional act on the unification of the DPR and LPR on a confederative basis into the Union of People's Republics," the DPR said on its official website on Twitter.

A list of DPR deputies to the parliament of the Union of the People's Republics has been approved.

The DPR and LPR proclaimed independence from Kiev after the May 11 referendums on their self-determination.

On May 24, the two republics signed a treaty on the creation of the Union of the People's Republics under the name of Novorossiya.

Earlier, South Ossetia officially recognized the Lugansk People's Republic's sovereignty.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday predicted there would be an attack on the United States within the next decade that is "far deadlier" than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"I doubt it," Cheney told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, when asked if he thinks the U.S. would "get through this decade" without another "massive attack on the homeland."

"I think there will be another attack. And the next time, I think it's going to be far deadlier than the last one. Imagine what would happen if somebody could smuggle a nuclear device, put it in a shipping container, and drive it down the beltway outside Washington, D.C."

Hewitt then asked Cheney if another attack would lead to "military rule" and the reconstitution of the U.S. government. Cheney detailed the "continuity of government" program, which he said was set up during the Cold War so that a "government in waiting" could be in place if necessary.

British Medical Association (BMA) doctors have voted to demand a permanent ban on selling cigarettes to those born after the millennium - i.e. kids who are currently 14 or under. The group's ambitious plan is to make British society tobacco free by 2035.

The motion was passed at a meeting on Tuesday.

"It is not expected that this policy will instantly prevent all people from smoking, but [rather it will] de-normalise cigarette smoking," said London research assistant in academic public health, Dr Tim Crocker-Buqué at the meeting. "The level of harm caused by smoking is unconscionable."

The decision was made at the British Medical Association's annual representatives' meeting on Tuesday. The doctors' voting in favor means that the doctors' union will push for the British government to introduce the ban.