Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Monday 06.11.2012
Italy's bank reportedly takes a 'Roman Holiday' leaving depositors holding the bag
TheExtinctionProtocol.wordpress.com –Google (translated)
June 11, 2012 – ITALY - BNI depositors are unable to make withdrawals / payments, payments of utility bills, mortgage payments, taxes says Peter Giordano, Adiconsum: "Grave of the Bank of Italy's attitude that takes action without considering the impact on depositors, and especially on single-income families and pensioners." Adiconsum Bank of Italy asks for an urgent meeting and the lifting of the moratorium. The Bank of Italy authorized the suspension of payments by Bank Network Investments SpA (BNI) without communicating anything to the depositors.
Regulators close 4 banks in 4 states;
makes 28 US bank failures so far this year
AP - Newser.com
Federal regulators have seized 4 banks, one each in Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina and Oklahoma, bringing to 28 the number of U.S. banks that have failed so far this year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it closed Farmers and Traders State Bank in Shabbona, Ill.; Waccamaw Bank in Whiteville, N.C.; Carolina Federal Savings Bank in Charleston, S.C.; and, First Capital Bank in Kingfisher, Okla.
Regulators estimate that the four bank failures will cost the insurance fund $80.8 million.
$125bn Spanish bank bailout sets gold up
for $2,000 and silver $60 this autumn
By: Peter Cooper - GoldSeek.com
Eurozone finance ministers panicked this weekend and agreed to a preemptive announcement of a $125 billion bailout for the Spanish banks, bringing the grand total for bank bailouts to $600 billion when Ireland, Portugal and Greece are added.
Money printing on this scale has only ever been good for precious metal prices by historical precedent. The bank bailouts are an example of money creation at the source with banks able to lend more against this new capital injection and sterilising bad debts.
Trading Gold by Timing the Fed
By Vin Maru - GoldSeek.com
Gold's recent sell-off seems to be a continuing pattern of major price movements and directional changes after a significant policy event or any announcement by the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was in front of congress again this week and provided no material news or change in policy, but he did leave the door open to more easing if needed. This was enough to cause the sell-off in gold.
No Capitulation = No Bottom
BY CHRIS PUPLAVA - FinancialSense.com
Wash, rinse, repeat—that has been the script since 2010. Fading monetary and fiscal stimulus leads to a slowdown as economies can't support themselves and then in come central banks to the rescue and off we go! We are currently in the period in which the third round of global monetary stimulus that began in 2011 is all but over and global markets and economies are weakening as a result.
According to Bridgewater Associates, the third round of monetary stimulus amounted to 2.8% of global GDP and at the end of May the remaining portion was down to 0.4% of global GDP. Unless policy makers step up for a fourth round of global monetary stimulus the path of least resistance appears down. In both 2010 and 2011 we saw major market capitulation in which investors threw in the towel and sent markets reeling. This causes central banks to spring into action and off markets go. Because we have not seen major capitulation and panic in the markets we may not see central bank action just yet, which leaves the markets in a precarious position. If we are to follow the 2010-2011 script we are likely to see lower prices ahead with less bearish participation (fewer stocks falling) which finally causes central banks to act followed by a strong market recovery. Until we see capitulation in the markets I would stay defensive and let the dust settle a bit.
Panic Has Not Gripped the Markets to Signify a Bottom.
Keiser Report: Cuckoo Trading (E299)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss 'wash trades,' debt crises and the speculation on JP Morgan's growing debt problem in London. In the second half of the show Max talks to Pierre Jovanovic of Jovanovic.com about JP Morgan 'firing' the Vatican, whether or not Jamie Dimon will last the year and what the future holds for French bonds.
Strong-Dollar Fallacy
By: Adam Hamilton - GoldSeek.com
After a shocking upset in Greece's parliamentary elections, the US dollar surged dramatically. Soaring 5.4% in May alone, the world's reserve currency won legions of fans among traders. "King Dollar" was universally lauded, with everyone jumping on the strong-dollar bandwagon. But this dazzling strength was merely a short-term phenomenon. Zoom out a little, and today's "strong dollar" is a fallacy.
Perspective is everything in the markets. Attaining it is challenging and takes a lot of effort, but the fruits are well worth the toil. We humans naturally tend to extrapolate the present and very recent past out into infinity, expecting short-term situations to continue indefinitely. So when prices surge rapidly like the US dollar has, traders get greedy and assume the move will persist for a long time to come.
Will the Euro survive?
By Puru Saxena - 321Gold.com
BIG PICTURE – Europe's debt problems are driving the world's financial markets and investors are trying to figure out whether the single currency will survive. Furthermore, the mainstream media is currently awash with scary forecasts about the impending collapse of the Euro and many pundits are now predicting a Greek or Spanish default.
Although nobody possesses a crystal ball and anything is possible, we are of the view that the establishment will not let the Euro fail. Quite the contrary, we believe that ultimately the 'solution' to this crisis will be further fiscal and economic integration within Europe. In the interim, it is conceivable that the European Central Bank (ECB) may extend its Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) and it may recapitalise Europe's banking system. Last but not least, it is probable that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may intervene and assist the debt plagued nations.
Europe's democracies must not
subcontract their destiny to the Bundebank Europe has lit the fuse on an economic and financial bomb. The rescue package for Spain cannot plausibly be contained to €100bn once it begins, given the subordination of private creditors and collapse of global confidence in the governing structure of monetary union.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Italy must guarantee 22pc of the bail-out funds, even though it cannot raise money itself at a sustainable rate. You could hardly design a surer way to pull Italy into the fire.
Citigroup warned over the weekend that Italy's economy will shrink by 2.5pc this year and another 2pc next year as the fiscal squeeze starts in earnest, with grim implications for debt dynamics. Public debt will jump from 121pc of GDP to 137pc by 2014.
In Spain's bailout request, Greece's crisis played key role
By Michael Birnbaum - WashingtonPost.com
ATHENS — Spain was forced to seek a bailout this weekend, becoming by far the largest country to need help during Europe's 2 1 / 2-year-long economic crisis. But it was tiny Greece that pushed Spain over the brink.
Greek voters head to the polls Sunday with a stark choice between leaders who accept the harsh terms of the bailouts that have kept their country afloat and those who reject them, potentially at the cost of Greece's future in the euro zone. Fears that a Greek rejection would send markets into panic about the currency union's future pushed Spain to seek the aidahead of Greece's election.
Euro zone agrees to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros
By Jan Strupczewski and Julien Toyer
(Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Saturday to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to shore up its teetering banks and Madrid said it would specify precisely how much it needs once independent audits report in just over a week.
After a 2 1/2-hour conference call of the 17 finance ministers, which several sources described as heated, the Eurogroup and Madrid said the amount of the bailout would be sufficiently large to banish any doubts.
EU's Spain bank rescue may bring only brief respite
By Paul Taylor
(Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers rushed Spain into an EU-funded rescue for its debt-stricken banks to pre-empt the threat of a bank run if Greece's debt crisis flares again but any respite for Madrid and the euro may be short-lived.
After weeks of insisting that Spain needed no assistance to recapitalize lenders crippled by bad debts from a burst real estate bubble, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was pushed into requesting an aid package for fear of worse disaster to come, European officials involved in the negotiations said.
The Spanish Bank Bailout:
A Complete Walk Thru From Deutsche Bank
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Over the past 24 hours, Zero Hedge covered the various key provisions, and open questions, of the Spanish bank bailout. There is, however, much more when one digs into the details. Below, courtesy of Deutsche Bank's Gilles Moec is a far more nuanced analysis of what just happened, as well as a model looking at the future of the pro forma Spanish debt load with the now-priming ESM debt, which may very well hit 100% quite soon as we predicted earlier. Furthermore, since the following comprehensive walk-thru appeared in the DB literature on Friday, before the formal announcement, it is quite clear that none other than Deutsche Bank, whose "walk-thru" has been adhered to by the Spanish government and Europe to the dot, was instrumental in defining a "rescue" of Spain's banks, which had it contaged, would have impacted the biggest banking edifice in Europe by orders of magnitude: Deutsche Bank itself.
Spain relieved, angry over humiliating bank rescue
By Alan Clendenning and Harold Heckle, AP - WashingtonTimes.com
MADRID (AP) — Spain's grinding economic misery will get worse this year, despite the country's request for a European financial lifeline of up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday.
A day after the country conceded it needed outside help following months of denying it would seek assistance, Mr. Rajoy said more Spaniards will lose their jobs in a country where one out of every four already is unemployed.
Damn the Torpedoes
By: Peter Schiff - GoldSeek.com
Last week in an interview on CBS Network News, Economist Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's, unwittingly revealed a central error of the global economic establishment. Zandi has made a career out of finding the middle ground between republican and democrat economic talking points. As a result of this skill, he has been rewarded with large quantities of airtime from media outlets that want to appear non-partisan, despite the fact that his supposedly neutral analysis often leaves listeners frustrated.
Central Banks Dither Today, Panic Tomorrow
BY JOHN RUBINO - FinancialSense.com
If central bankers weren't the main architects of the coming depression, it might be tempting to pity them. The world is falling apart and everyone expects them to save the day with lower rates and/or exotic new stimulus programs. But at the same time everyone assumes this debt monetization will destabilize the financial system, bringing about the end of the world as we know it.
The bankers can't win, in other words, because whatever they do or don't do will be seen as causing a global meltdown of one kind or another. And the poor bastards know it.
Here They Come:
Ireland Demands Renegotiation
Of Its Bailout Terms To Match Spain
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Well that didn't take long. The ink on the #Spailout is not dry yet (well technically there is no ink, because none of the actual details of the Spanish banking system rescue are even remotely known, and likely won't be because when it comes to answering where the money comes from there simply is no answer) and we already have an answer to one of our questions. Recall that mere hours ago we asked: "We also wonder how will Ireland feel knowing that it has to suffer under backbreaking austerity in exchange for Troika generosity, while Spain gets away scott free." We now know. From the AFP: "Ireland wants to renegotiate its rescue plan to benefit from the same treatment as Spain, which looks set to win a bailout for its banks without any broader economic reforms in return, European sources said on Saturday." And with Ireland on the renegotiation train, next comes Greece. Only with Greece the wheels for a bailout overhaul are already in motion and are called a "vote of Syriza on June 17." And remember how everyone was threatening the Greeks with the 10th circle of hell if they dare to renegotiate the memorandum? Well, Spain just showed that a condition-free bailout is an option. Which means Syriza will get all the votes it needs and then some with promises of a consequence free bailout renegotiation. In other words Syriza's Tsipras should send a bottle of the finest champagne to de Guindos - he just won him the election.
How Europe Will Burn Obama Niall Ferguson on How Europe Could Cost Obama the Election Spain has accepted a big bank bailout, but the Eurostorm isn't ending anytime soon—and it may come to American shores just in time for the election.
By Niall Ferguson - TheDailyBeast.com
Could Europe cost Barack Obama the presidency? At first sight, that seems like a crazy question. Isn't November's election supposed to be decided in key swing states like Florida and Ohio, not foreign countries like Greece and Spain? And don't left-leaning Europeans love Obama and loathe Republicans?
Sure. But the possibility is now very real that a double-dip recession in Europe could kill off hopes of a sustained recovery in the United States. As the president showed in his anxious press conference last Friday, he well understands the danger emanating from across the pond. Slower growth and higher unemployment can only hurt his chances in an already very tight race with Mitt Romney.
A Dysfunctional Nation
By: John Mauldin - GoldSeek.com
....Michael Lewis has documented quite tellingly in Boomerang the dysfunctional country that is Greece – how citizens avoid taxes, how over 600 categories of workers can retire at the age of 50 with full pensions, and how fraud and corruption are endemic. Other stories have surfaced about how few doctors report more than 10,000 euros of income and how few professionals pay their property taxes.
Recently, when the current Greek government committed to actually collect some taxes in order to get more loans, a bureaucrat decided that a great way to collect property taxes would be to include them in people's electricity bills, a move that caused an uproar. Lawsuits followed, as the national power company tried to cut off electricity for nonpayment. In a country where it can take a decade for a legal matter to get on a court docket, a court rather quickly took up the case and ruled it illegal for the power company to cut off service for non-payment. This ruling led to a massive financial loss by the power company as people simply stopped paying their electric bills.
[Note: Greece elections are next Sunday, and will probably determine if they leave the Euro...]
On-Air Attack:
Greek Neo-Nazi slaps female leftists during TV debate
Athens' prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a far-right member of parliament, following his attack on two female leftist deputies during a live TV debate. Ilias Kasidiaris threw a glass of water in the face of an MP after she brought up his alleged involvement in a mugging case 5 years ago. The television debate came ahead of country's parliamentary election in 10 days' time.
Will the Euro Survive?
BY PURU SAXENA - FinancialSense.com
Big Picture – Europe's debt problems are driving the world's financial markets and investors are trying to figure out whether the single currency will survive. Furthermore, the mainstream media is currently awash with scary forecasts about the impending collapse of the Euro and many pundits are now predicting a Greek or Spanish default.
Although nobody possesses a crystal ball and anything is possible, we are of the view that the establishment will not let the Euro fail. Quite the contrary, we believe that ultimately the 'solution' to this crisis will be further fiscal and economic integration within Europe. In the interim, it is conceivable that the European Central Bank (ECB) may extend its Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) and it may recapitalise Europe's banking system. Last but not least, it is probable that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may intervene and assist the debt plagued nations.
Euro Zone Exit: What Would Happen Next?
By: Catherine Boyle - CNBC.com
The idea of a Greek or Spanish exit from the euro zone, once viewed as an extreme worst-case scenario given credence only by the most bearish, is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream.
While most policymakers, analysts and economists still shudder at the thought of a Greek exit – or Grexit as it has been called – more and more are running through scenarios for this situation. Greece's elections on June 17 are too close to call, and the election of ananti-bailout party could hasten its departure from the single currency.
The immediate concern for the markets is how the euro would be affected in currency markets, and how that would affect the core countries left in the currency
$7 Million a Minute
BY BRUCE KRASTING - FinancialSense.com
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) intervened in support of its 1.2000 currency peg against the Euro to the tune of CHF 60 billion ($66B) in the month of May. The vast majority of this intervention occurred during European trading hours. That means that the SNB bought, on average, the equivalent of $7mm worth of Euros every minute during the month. That's a staggering number to me.
I was aware that there was ongoing intervention. I thought it would end up being a big number. At one point late in the month I was advised that a big American bank dropped Euro 7B on the SNB in a single ticket (think Cetacea). But I'm blown out by the 28% increase in reserves in a single month..
How Bank of America Execs Hid Losses—In Their Own Words
by Cora Currier - ProPublica.com
When Bank of America announced it was buying Merrill Lynch in September 2008, bank execs told their shareholders that the merger might hurt earnings a touch. It didn't turn out that way. Losses at Merrill piled upover the next two months, before the deal even closed. Yet the execs kept painting a prettier picture to shareholders — even though it turns out they knew better.
As the New York Times detailed this morning, a brief in a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan recounts sworn testimony and internal emails in which execs admitted to giving bad information to shareholders and that they had worried about the legal ramifications of doing so.
Time to Panic:
Today's China Looks Scarily Like 2006 America
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
The latest development out of China was a classic case of good news/bad news. On Thursday their central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBoC), unexpectedly cut interest rates for the first time since 2008. The good news is that the PBoC is reacting aggressively to their slowdown. The bad news is that their slowdown warrants such an aggressive reaction by the PBoC.
Actually, it might warrant far more. Or it might not. China is so opaque, it's almost impossible to say. You might be wondering how a country that announced 8.1 percent GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 might be in such trouble. The answer: Those numbers are reported year-over-year, not quarter-over-quarter. In other words, even if we can trust them -- which is far from certain -- high growth figures don't necessarily mean that China has high growth right now.
The U.S. Economy By The Numbers:
70 Facts That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To See
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Why is the economy going to collapse? Have you ever been asked that question? If so, what did you say? Sometimes it is difficult to communicate dozens of complicated economic and financial concepts in a package that the average person on the street can easily digest. It can be very frustrating to know that something is true but not be able to explain it clearly to someone else. Hopefully many of you out there will find the list below useful. It is a list of 70 numbers that show why we are headed for a national economic nightmare. So why does the title of the article single out Barack Obama? Well, it is because right now he is the biggest cheerleader for the economy. He is attempting to convince all of us that everything is just fine and that the economy is heading in a positive direction. Well, the truth is that everything is not fine and things are about to get a whole lot worse. Certainly others should share in the blame as well. Congress has been steering the economy in the wrong direction for decades, the "too big to fail" banks have turned Wall Street into a pyramid of risk, leverage and debt, and the Federal Reserve has more power over the financial system than anyone else does. Our economy has been in decline for quite a while now, and soon we are going to smash directly into an economic brick wall. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in denial about this. A lot of people out there doubt that an economic collapse is coming. Well, if you know someone that believes that the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine", just show them the list below.
The Treasury and the Fed are Robbing Savers
Casey Research's Chief Technology Investment Strategist, Alex Daley sits down with James Rickards, Senior Managing Director at Tangent Capital Partners and author of "Currency Wars", at the latest Casey Research Conference, "Recovery Reality Check" in Weston, Florida.
US Budget in Black and White
BY DANIELLE PARK - FinancialSense.com
Over the past 20+ years I have counseled hundreds and hundreds of individuals, families and businesses on the full gambit of financial decisions from budgets and planning, divorce, bankruptcy, litigation and all forms of negotiation and financial settlement.
One thing constant throughout is that no one likes to make do with less than they are accustomed to. So long as people are able to fund themselves through access to capital or more credit, most will not change behavior even when it is clearly leading them to financial suicide. Once cash flow cannot be expanded or continued however, once payments from others and credit lines are cut, most people figure out the changes needed to survive.
Trade deficit narrows as global demand slows
By Doug Palmer
(Reuters) - The trade deficit narrowed in April as slower growth in Europe and China bit into exports and the soft economy clipped import demand, a government report showed on Friday.
The trade gap shrank 4.9 percent to $50.1 billion, with exports falling 0.8 percent from last month's record level to $182.9 billion, the Commerce Department said.
Imports dropped 1.7 percent to $233.0 billion.
Student Loans Are the Government's Largest Asset
BY DOUG SHORT - FinancialSense.com
....The rapid growth in student debt has been a frequent topic in the financial press. One stunning chart that caught my attention illustrated the rapid growth in federal loans to students since the onset of the great recession. Here is a chart based on data from the Flow of Funds Table L.105, which shows the Federal Government's assets and liabilities.
As I point out on the chart, the two callouts are for Q4 2007, the quarter in which the Great Recession began (December 2007) the most recent quarter on record, Q1 2012. The loan balance has risen and astonishing 332% over that timeframe, most of which dates from after the recession.
Workers still feeling the pain in paychecks Lagging wages delay recovery
By Patrice Hill-The Washington Times
Presidential candidates like to say it's all about jobs, but for the nearly 92 percent of the American workforce with jobs, it's about the wages.
U.S. corporations are brimming with cash and reporting record levels of profits, but many workers haven't received solid raises in years. Some have had to take on the workloads of laid-off colleagues, but have not received additional pay. The jobs that are open often provide smaller paychecks than the ones Americans lost during the 2007-09 recession.
South Carolina's Pension Push Into High-Octane Investments
By: Julie Creswell, The New York Times - CNBC.com
Many mornings, the yellow Lamborghini would swing into view, sweep past tree-softened streets with a low, smooth rumble and throttle down outside an office near the State House downtown.
Behind the wheel was a financier named Robert L. Borden. Around Columbia, a city decidedly more Ford than Lamborghini, his exotic supercar gave him the air of a Wall Street hotshot. In truth, Mr. Borden was a civil servant — a very highly paid one. Until recently, he was the investment chief of South Carolina's giant public pension system.
Can You Answer 25 Difficult Questions
That The Mainstream Media
Does Not Seem To Have Answers To?
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
The mainstream news just seems to get sillier and shallower with each passing day. Our world is becoming incredibly unstable, corruption is everywhere, we are on the verge of another massive economic crisis, government debt is absolutely exploding, war could erupt in the Middle East at any time and signs of deep social decay are everywhere and yet the mainstream media seems absolutely obsessed with reporting on celebrities and scandals. It would be nice if the mainstream media would do a lot more true investigative reporting and would actually try to answer some of the difficult questions that we are being faced with. Unfortunately, most of what passes for "news" these days is essentially just "infotainment". That is one of the reasons why we have seen such a surge in the popularity of alternative news outlets in recent years. People are searching for the truth, and they know that they are not getting much of it from the mainstream media these days.
CHOMSKY 1997: THE NEW PARTY IS A "SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC VERSION OF STATE CAPITALISM"
by JOHN SEXTON - Breitbart.com
An interview with Noam Chomsky from 1997 has the far-left professor describing his involvement with the New Party at about the time that Barack Obama Obama joined and sought an endorsement from the group. Contrary to claims made by founder Joel Rogers (some of which have been shown to be false), Chomsky says the New Party is not just the left wing of the Democratic Party, but a socialist alternative.
Media Matters has written a post about Kurtz's discovery of some 1996 New Party meeting minutes. MMFA uses Ben Smith's 2008 report to claim the New Party was just the left wing of the Democratic Party:
Rogers described the party's platform including national health insurance and wage insurance, quality education, and environmentalism. Those are positions that basically placed the New Party, ideologically, well within the left half of the Democratic Party. The aim, in fact, was to be the "conscience of the Democratic Party," Rogers said, though they also endorsed the occasional Republican.
As for "socialist"?
"'Socialist' means is you try to whatever extent to move the means of production under public ownership," Rogers said. "The New Party was never about that."
New York Times journalist defends national security leaks
By Morgan Little - LATimes.com
Two stories published by the New York Times, which exposed the extent of U.S. involvement in cyber attacks against Iranand the White House's secret 'Kill List,' have sparked scrutiny over the last week amid allegations that administration officials had leaked classified information for political gain.
The debate continued Sunday as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reiterated calls for a special prosecutor to take charge of leak investigations and as a reporter who wrote one of the stories said he doubted that any politically motivated leaks were involved.
U.S. cities struggle with blighted bank-owned homes
By Tim Reid
(Reuters) - The smell of rotting food and decay inside 10956 South Wilmington Avenue, Los Angeles, was overwhelming.
A burst pipe in the kitchen ceiling leaked water onto a floor littered with half empty cans, razor blades, odd shoes, stained clothing and an upturned, mold-ridden sofa. Windows were smashed and boarded up.
The vacant home was foreclosed on in August 2011 by Bank of America, which has done nothing to repair it.
Hundreds evacuated as Colo., NM fires grow
By KRISTEN WYATT - APF - Guardian.co.uk
LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) — Firefighters on Sunday were fighting wildfires in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico that have forced hundreds of people from their homes.
The Colorado fire, burning in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, grew to 22 square miles within about a day of being reported and has destroyed or damaged 18 structures. A fire near the mountain community of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico began Friday and was listed at 40 square miles Sunday due to better mapping. It has destroyed at least 20 structures.
Mild geomagnetic storm alert for glancing CME blasts
TheExtinctionProtocol.wordpress.com
June 10, 2012 – SPACE – M-FLARES: New sunspot AR1504 is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the extreme UV flash from one of them, an M2-class flare on June 10th at 0645 UT: NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms during the next 48 hours as a pair of CMEs pass by Earth, possibly delivering glancing blows to our magnetic field. –Space Weather
Five 'Stand Your Ground' Cases You Should Know About
by Suevon Lee - ProPublica.com
The Stand Your Ground law is most widely associated with the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed he was acting in self-defense.
But as a recent Tampa Bay Times investigation indicates, the Martin incident is far from the only example of the law's reach in Florida. The paper identified nearly 200 instancessince 2005 where the state's Stand Your Ground law has played a factor in prosecutors' decisions, jury acquittals or a judge's call to throw out the charges. (Not all the cases involved killings. Some involved assaults where the person didn't die.)
Military Suicide Rate Surges To Nearly One Per Day This Year
By ROBERT BURNS - HuffingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year – the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war.
The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan – about 50 percent more – according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.
The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than foreseen a decade ago. The military also is struggling with increased sexual assaults, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other misbehavior.
Debt Deflation, Corporate Efficiency and Stock Prices
By David Knox Barker - GoldSeek.com
It all started out great in 1949. The global economy had finished deleveraging from the great depression. The austerity of the long wave cycle winter season had burned off the results of earlier decades of debt buildup, overproduction, and economic excess. Bad debt had failed and been written off. The global long wave cycle of boom and bust had ended. On a 20-year compounded annual rate of return inflation adjusted stock prices bottomed in 1949. A broad global economic spring season had begun in earnest.
William Hague compares Syria to Bosnia in 1990s The situation in Syria resembles Bosnia in the 1990s, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday as he warned time was running out to stop the killings in the country.
Telegraph.co.uk
Mr Hague said it was now up to Russia to use its leverage with President Bashar al-Assad's regime to bring an end to the brutal violence in Syria.
He told Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News the continued political and trade isolation of Syria was the second best option. What was needed was a united way forward, he said.
Asked whether the Government had ruled out military intervention, Mr Hague said: "I think we don't know how things are going to develop. Syria is, as I said in the last couple of weeks, on the edge of a collapse or of a sectarian civil war so I don't think we can rule anything out.
OH NO YOU DIDN'T:
MOSSAD AGENTS CLAIM OBAMA LYING ABOUT STUXNET
by JOEL B. POLLAK - Breitbart.com
Israeli officials who were placed at risk by the Obama administration's leaks about the Stuxnet virus are disputing American claims that the cyber-weapon was jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel. Rather, they say, Israeli intelligence first started developing cyberspace warfare against Iran, only convincing the U.S.--with some difficulty--to join in. The Israelis allege that President Barack Obama claimed credit for Stuxnet to boost his re-election campaign.
The source for the new claim is Yossi Melman, a journalist for Israel's left-wingHa'aretz daily (via Israel Matzav):
The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran's nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard of. Even friendly nations are hesitant to share their technological and intelligence resources against a common enemy...
A Radioactive Nightmare As fallout from Fukushima heads our way,
the government turns a blind eye
By Michael Collins - VCReporter.com
Millions of Southern Californians and tourists seek the region's famous beaches to cool off in the sea breeze and frolic in the surf. Those iconic breezes, however, may be delivering something hotter than the white sands along the Pacific.
Buckyballs.
According to a recent U.C. Davis study, uranium-filled nanospheres are created from the millions of tons of fresh and salt water used to try to cool down the three molten cores of the stricken reactors. The tiny and tough buckyballs are shaped like British Association Football soccer balls.
Nuclear Cover-Up?
Extreme Radiation Levels Prompt EPA Censorship,
DHS Hazmat Team
By Anthony Gucciardi - Infowars.com
In a developing story that is raising concerns over a potential nuclear cover-up by the EPA, alarming amounts of radiation were reported near the border of Indiana and Michigan and later censored by the EPA online geiger tool. The readings, which were captured in a screenshot, measured as high as 7.139 counts per minute (CPM). This is particularly startling, as the normal radiation levels are generally between 5 and 6 CPM. Sources say that a Department of Homeland Security hazmat team has now been dispatched after 'years' of inactivity.
A number of community reports have came in on the subject in fact, with readers of community boards and concerned citizens offering up some interesting and intriguing information regarding the potential radiation cover-up. Discussion over the information first began to surface on internet boards like Reddit and user-submitted news source Digital Journal. In the Reddit submission, which ultimately reached thousands of comments — many from those in the area who had contacted radiation monitoring stations and other affiliated individuals — and brought some further information to light.
With Scientists Predicting the World's End (Again),
the UN Rattles Its Cup
By Patrick Michaels - Forbes.com
Notice all the horrendous news about our environment? That's a sure sign that the UN is about to throw another mega-gabfest where global leaders will shake their heads and shake down the U.S. for monies that Congress will wisely refuse to fork over.
Two weekends from now, the UN is holding its "Rio+20 Earth Summit", the largest meeting in the history of an organization that pretty much does nothing but stage meetings. The 1992 Rio Summit produced the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was the basis for the completely failed Kyoto Protocol on global warming. It also spawned Agenda 21, a document which outlined in great detail its plans to punish and pillage producer nations and transmit their wealth to the world's great kleptocracies.
Was UFO a Russian ballistic missile? Russian Defense Ministry says it successfully test-fired intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday; earlier, unidentified flying object reported in Israel, Lebanon, other states in region
By Abigail Looshi, Lee Feller, Ariel Danieli, Polina Garaev and Yaron Druckman - YNetNews.com
The glowing light reported in Israel's skies around 8:45 pm Thursday apparently resulted from of a failed intercontinental ballistic missile test by the Russian military, according to estimates.
Hundreds of Israelis nationwide flooded police hotlines Thursday evening with reports of an unidentified flying object in the nation's skies.
Air Force Set to Be Deployed Inside U.S.
to Collect Data and Search Citizens
By Alex Thomas - TheIntelHub.com
The United States Air Force, through the use of unmanned aerial drones, is set to be deployed inside the United States to collect data, investigate places of interest, and share data with local police agencies.
An unclassified Air Force Memo from late April documents the fact that the military is operating drone aircraft domestically and that, through a complete end run around the Constitution, can essentially share it with local law enforcement even if it has no relation to terrorism.
While many articles have already been published detailing the fact that the military is or will be sharing information they collect with local law enforcement, a more startling fact has been largely ignored by the corporate controlled media. (until now)
Beware the spy in the sky:
After those Street View snoopers,
Google and Apple use planes that can film you
sunbathing in your back garden Software giants will use military-grade cameras
to take powerful satellite images
By VANESSA ALLEN - dailymail.co.uk
Spy planes able to photograph sunbathers in their back gardens are being deployed by Google and Apple.
The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide.
But campaigners say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer.
Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London.
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