Remember when in January 2014, Q1 GDP was expected to rise 2.6%? Well, here comes the final Q1 GDP revision and it's a doozy: at -2.9%, far below the -1.8% expected and well below the -1.0% second revision, it is an absolute disaster, and is the worst print since Q1 2009. And while a bad GDP print was largely expected, the driver wasn't: personal consumption expenditures somehow crashed from 3.1% to just 1.0%, far below the 2.4% expected, meaning that all hope of a consumer recovery is dead. Finally, as a reminder, US GDP has never fallen more than 1.5% except during or just before an NBER-defined recession since quarterly GDP records began in 1947. Good luck department of truth propaganda machine, because even assuming 3% growth every other quarter in 2014 means 2014 GDP will be 1.5% at best!

Tyler Durden: Bad News Is "Bad" News - Stocks Drop, Bonds/Gold Pop
NYT: Economy in First Quarter Was Worse Than Everybody Thought
Business Insider: Futures Sink After Ugly Economic Reports

A US courthouse ruled on Tuesday that adding names to airline no-fly lists without the accused party’s knowledge is illegal. ● The district court judge found that airline no-fly lists adversely affect passengers’ freedom to fly, without them having any way to appeal the decision. The ruling was handed down as part of a petition filed by 13 Muslims who were not allowed aboard a flight for no apparent reason.

LA Times: Federal judge declares government no-fly list rules unconstitutional
Wall Street Journal: Federal Judge Rules No-Fly List Violates Constitutional Rights
Tom DeWeese: No Fly Lists, Illegal Aliens and the Ravages of Political Correctness [October 18, 2004]

Almost three years have passed since the United States government extrajudicially murdered American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen. Al-Awlaki, although described by the government as a “terrorist” mastermind, had never been charged with any crime. ● The Obama adminstration refused to disclose the legal reasoning behind the killing. But thanks to Freedom Information Act lawsuits by The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a redacted version of the Department of Justice memo which outlines the Obama administration’s rationale for killing American citizens abroad without trial is now public. Authored by David Barron — former chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who has since been appointed by Obama to a federal judgeship — the 41-page document seeks to legitimize so-called targeted killings, a practice Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, vigorously condemned Israel for using against Palestinians during the second intifada. This makes it all the more ironic that the Obama administration’s kill memo cites an Israeli Supreme Court decision to justify al-Awlaki’s summary execution.

Barry Grey ■ The Obama drone murder memo || Obama’s secret decision to place Awlaki on his “kill list” was leaked to the press in April of 2010. The memo by the then-head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, David Barron, claiming that the Constitution and US laws gave the president the power to kill a US citizen, without charge or trial, was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder in July of 2010. Awlaki’s father filed a suit in federal court to remove his son from the kill list, but the case was thrown out in December of 2010. Thus the murder of Awlaki was organized over a protracted period of time. It was a cold-blooded extra-judicial killing by the state.

The upper chamber of Russian parliament revoked the resolution authorizing the use of military force in Ukraine on Wednesday upon the request of President Vladimir Putin. ■ The respective letter from President Putin asking to cancel the resolution reached the Federation Council on Tuesday evening, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said, adding this was done “with the goal of normalizing and settling the situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions,” ahead of trilateral negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Earlier the same day, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed hope that the "positive signals that the president of the Russian Federation is sending" would be recognize by the international community and Kiev, paving the way for a genuine nationwide dialogue and a "mutually respectful search for solutions" to the crisis in Ukraine.

Chris Marsden ■ Monday’s air strikes by Israel on a regional military headquarters and eight other targets inside Syria were mounted on the pretext of the death of a teenager in a cross-border attack. [...] Israel’s real motive is an attempt to re-ignite conflicts in the Middle East that it hopes will undermine Iran and strengthen its own hand in dealings with Washington. The offensive in the Occupied Territories is being carried out following a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas announced in April. This was meant to bring an end to the conflict that first erupted in 2007 that divided the Fatah-controlled West Bank from the Gaza strip, led by Hamas. Israel’s response to the agreement was bitterly hostile, and it suspended ongoing peace negotiations with the PA. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declared supportively, “It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.”

"Let me control the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs" - Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels turned words into a weapon of mass destruction. Dangerous lies spread by the Nazi regime lead to brutal murders and cruelty that continue to shake minds. Join RT to examine some myths of the Goebbels propaganda that shaped the contours of the human catastrophe of WWII.

"There is no programme of mass surveillance and there is no surveillance state," Home Secretary Theresa May has said. Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Defence and Security Lecture at Mansion House, in the City of London, Mrs May dismissed recent criticism of the activities of the security services. Privacy campaigners have accused surveillance agency GCHQ of using "unlawful hacking" to spy on citizens. But Mrs May said this was "nonsense".

Sonja Bach and Christoph Dreier ■ Just weeks after celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 elections, which saw the Solidarity movement defeat the ruling Stalinist Communist Party, the Polish government faces a serious crisis. Its impetus was the publication of several recordings between high-ranking government representatives, throwing a spotlight on the economic and political situation in Poland. On Monday, the Polish magazine Wprost published excerpts from a private conversation between foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski and the former Polish finance minister Jan Vincent Rostowski (both members of Civic Platform, PO). In the recording, Poland’s most senior diplomat speaks disparagingly about the alliance with the United States in the most vulgar language. “You know,” said Sikorski, “the Polish-American alliance is not worth anything. It is even harmful because it creates a false feeling of security. Total bullshit. We argue with the Germans, with Russia, and we believe everything is great, just because we have given the Americans a blow job. Boneheads. Utter boneheads. The problem in Poland is that we have too little pride and too few feelings of self worth. So niggerly.” [...] The sharp conflicts within Poland’s ruling elite, which have broken out with the bugging affair, are developing against the background of a deep crisis. The putsch in Ukraine, which relied on fascists and was supported by the Polish government, has led to a civil war in the neighbouring country and has significantly destabilized the situation in Poland.

There are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today, more than at any other time in history. In case you missed it, earlier this month Real Clear World ran a profile of what slave labor looks like in Pakistan today. There are 1.8 million “debt laborers” in the country, and 2.2 million slaves over all (only India and China have more). The debt laborers are kept under the thumb of landlords who sell them back and forth and cook up ways of keeping them in bondage.

Walk Free: It is estimated that 29.8 million people are forced to live in slavery around the world today

The world’s oceans need saving from pollution and overfishing, and an independent panel warned on Tuesday that urgent action was needed within five years. ● The Global Ocean Commission said cutting down on single-use plastics products, restricting fishing on the high seas, and establishing binding regulations for offshore oil and gas exploration are key parts of the rescue plan. In all, the former heads of state and business leaders offered eight proposals for ocean health in their report, “From Decline to Recovery – A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean.”