Gangrene Thursday- Greece Passes Austerity Vote, Fails as the People Vote No to Austerity and Riot; Chaos Erupts in Greece; UK Protests Begin, May Turn Ugly; Fed to Extend Currency Swaps to ECB, Fails; IMF Warns U.S. on Debt Ceiling, Fails; QE2 Ends, QE2.5 Begins; SPR Release, Fails; California Votes to Tax Internet Sales; Initial Claims Show Unemployment Uglier Than Before; Fire in Sight at Los Alamos; Radiation Showing Up in U.S. Food; Arnie Gundersen Interview Wows; Much More

Updates
Update 1: In case you were wondering, "98.6% of time, air contamination around Fukushima plant is not measured — TEPCO says it lacks qualified personnel to 'change the filters'." The other 1.4% of the time, the air is being bottled and shipped to France as healthy radiation.

Main Article 
As nearly everyone in the financial world expected, despite all the theatrics and drama, Greece passed the vote for status quo bankster bailout austerity by a margin of 4 votes. What exactly does this "austerity" mean for the people? In short, there will be sharp tax increases, coupled along with cuts to benefits, pensions and many gov't job cuts.

Has Greece been living outside of its means for a long time? Certainly, and it has afforded them a very comfortable lifestyle that makes many other developed nations retirees look like indentured servants. However, the problem is that once the people are promised these luxuries with the full expectation that they will continue forever, they cannot be simply removed and expect the people to make drastic changes. Thus, the people of Greece are outraged. Some have been driven to the point of suicide as suicide rates have increased 40% since this financial crisis began. Other are taking to the streets, causing scenes of pure chaos.

Now, the people of England are starting to realize that they will also be enslaved by the banksters if they  remain "benign." These protest could turn ugly in an instant so keep an eye on the UK.

The chain of events is occurring exactly as we expected - the vote passes, but the people riot and protest, shutting the entire nation down. In turn, "the vote" will have accomplished nothing as their overly optimistic "growth targets" will never be met as the economy sinks deeper and deeper. Greece is well beyond the point of no return. The same can be said of Portugal and Ireland. Spain however, just teeters on the point of no return but seems to be tipping ever closer to other side, whereby nothing can prevent the collapse of Spain's economy. Contagion is not a fad.

In a clear signal of how dire the situation is in Europe, the Fed is now extending the currency swap lines with the ECB indefinitely for an undisclosed time period. This "special measure" was to be used for a very short time and was set to expire August 1st of this year. Now, it's clear that the situation has spiraled out of control and the U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for the PIIGS.

You know the global economy is a giant scam when one insolvent nation is bailing out another insolvent nation. Now, the IMF is warning the U.S. faces a shock if the debt ceiling is not raised. Paging Dr. Deficit. Paging Dr. Deficit. Please ready the inkjets in printing room 5.

Which reminds us - the window dressing lipstick on the pig QE2 is ending today. Really. And QE2 Lite and QE3 will begin shortly via other methods. Watch for them in 3... 2... 1...

And like that, stage one of QE Lite is already here in the form of SPR release which, as we reported and expected, did absolutely nothing to quell the scorching price of oil. A quick glance at oil without rose colored glasses shows oil is up to $95.80. In other words, this political window dressing move did nothing lasting and will have the complete opposite effect.

Speaking of doing something that is not lasting, Quantitative Easing, which as we just said "ends" today (only to start up in another name), increased the Fed's balance sheet to $2.4 Trillion, making the Fed the largest holder of toilet paper U.S. bonds.

In the U.S., the insolvent states are looking for every cent they can find. In California, they are passing a bill that will tax all internet sales. Expect to see this in a state near you.

Which brings us to Wall Street.

It is always amusing to see how Wall Street spins horrific economic news no matter what. Take for example today's Initial Claims data which clearly shows unemployment is accelerating and that there is no such thing as a jobless recovery. A quick glance at the 4 most visited financial websites shows this headline was quickly buried in a mountain of other smoke screen non-sequitur "news." Did we mention that the previous week's unemployment data was "revised" - revised worse than before, as is now the practice.

However, there is a very real reason for all of this. Rule number one in order for a "Wall Street reporter" to be successful and survive the jungle is to make certain the consensus of the article is always positive, even if right below the surface exists a closet full of junk. "Quick! Hide the Initial Claims data! Cover it up with big stories on the always bullish Chicago PMI data! And make it snappy."

Think of it this way. In order for a giant casino to be profitable, the operators of the casino must make the gamblers feel that they have a chance. If they felt the game was overly rigged and not in their favor, they would never return. Thus, Wall Street must keep this facade of "tomorrow will be better" or else this scam game is over faster than a Goldman Sachs High Frequency Algorithm can front run an order. That is why no matter how horrific the real economic data is, "tomorrow will always be better." The HFT algos promise.

In other radioactive news, the fires ravaging Los Alamos are now in sight of the nuclear facility. But don't worry - officials claim everything is under control. Pay no attention the the Fire Chief's comments. Or the radiation showing up in food in the U.S. Remember - that is the "healthy" radiation.

In all seriousness, anyone concerned with the ongoing global crisis called Fukushima should set aside one hour to listen to this full interview with Arnie Gundersen. If the majority of people in North America knew what was really going on, the scenes in Greece would look like playtime. Wealth without health, is what?