Free Republic

While there have been no new military attacks on Syria since Sunday morning, something more peculiar happened in the past few hours, when according to Akamai and various other Internet traffic trackers, Syria has literally gone "dark", or, as Umbrella Security Labs describes it, as if "Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet." Some more from Umbrella's blog: At around 18:45 UTC OpenDNS resolvers saw a significant drop in traffic from Syria. On closer inspection it seems Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet. The graph below shows DNS traffic from and to Syria. Although Twitter remains relatively silent, the...

[Actual title: Russia, China Urge Respect Of Syrian Sovereignty As UN Finds Only Syrian Rebels Used Chemical Weapon] Following this weekend's explosive escalation in Syria, the big unknown was how Russia and China would respond: the two countries have long been known to be opposed to the US-Israel axis' involvement and intervention in Syria, although they have so far kept their involvement to a minimum. Today we get the answer: "Russia said on Monday it was concerned the chances of foreign military intervention in Syria were growing following reports of Israeli air strikes around Damascus which were a source of...

The uncomfortable effects of government actions are being felt everywhere. Obamacare concerns are, anecdotally, delaying hiring, causing firms to change benefits for the people, and increasing taxes on the great majority. On the other hand, in the context of the "sequester", which is merely a slowdown in the breakneck rate of government spending, anyone who has traveled by plane in the last month knows the full court press efforts under way to ensure the American public knows just how 'devastating' the sequester cuts are - with delays rising exponentially with every dollar removed from the FAA budget. But there is...

[video of Fox's interview with Rep.Issa where he states that Secretary Clinton lied to Congress about Benghazi.] Now explain the problem I am about to lay out: Lying to Congress is a crime. Anyone suborning perjury to Congress has committed a federal crime. Where are the demands for indictments and, since we know Holder will not prosecute, where are the articles of impeachment against everyone involved up and down the line? Oh yeah Issa, it's great that you bring this sort of thing forward but without a big bite to go with it you're whining -- and lying about your...

Over the course of the last month, while Americans were distracted with the threat of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and the devastation wrought by the Boston bombings, President Obama was quietly working behind the scenes to craft laws and regulations that will further erode the Second Amendment. Congress, and thus We the People, may have unequivocally rejected federal legislation in March which aimed to outlaw most semi-automatic rifles, restrict magazine capacity, and force national registration, but that didn’t stop the President from ceding regulatory control over firearms importation to the United Nations just two weeks later. What the...

U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have identified the launch zone on North Korea’s east coast... The North Koreans recently began fueling two road-mobile Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles located along the east coast between the cities of Wonsan and Hamhung,.. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in addition to the 2,500-mile-range Musudans the North Koreans could conduct test firings of several 620-mile-range Nodong missiles and shorter-range Scuds simultaneously as a way to thwart U.S. missile defenses. Unlike earlier launches, the North Koreans are not expected to provide advance warning of the timing for the launches, such as announcing a...

(Following is a brief summary of the article's contents) Raleigh, North Carolina - Two North Carolina legislators introduced a state resolution asserting the State of North Carolina can make its own laws regarding the establishment of religion. [See the article for further details.]

Yes, it is every bit as bad as it sounds, and worse. Word is that the initial plan was for a 40% (!!!!) levy confiscation of Cypriot bank accounts. They settled for a MERE 6.75% and 9.9% dual-layered compromise. Yeah, you all need to do what I have been doing for the last several months and live within spitting distance of being overdrawn in your bank accounts. In other words, keep the BARE MINIMUM in the bank and feed your account just enough to cover the bills. As soon as money comes in, get it the heck out of there....

There's only way to look at this folks. WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder's stunning admission that it was difficult to prosecute large banks because of the potential economic impact may be a turning point of the drive to break them up. It's not stunning at all. It is, however, an admission of what we have known for years. Now the pants of "Nobody committed any crimes" have in fact been artfully dropped to the floor and what's in our face is the ugly anatomical truth that crimes were committed and intentionally ignored. That is something that Congress and the...

This one's rich: “The combination of a massively expanded central bank balance sheet and an unsustainable public debt trajectory is a mix that has the potential to substantially reduce the flexibility of monetary policy,” the economists write. “This mix could induce a bias toward slower exit or easier policy, and be seen as the first step toward fiscal dominance. It could thereby be the cause of longer-term inflation expectations and raise the risk of inflation overall.” There is no flexibility and it is the direct and proximate consequence of Congress and The Adminstration ignoring the fundamental realities of arithmetic --...

[To Admin Moderator: I couldn't fit title in completely - here is the rest: “This May Well Be the Lighting of the Proverbial Fuse… Everywhere.”] While Europe’s fiscal woes seem to be on everyone’s financial radar recently, and rightfully so, there is instability everywhere. This is a global economic crisis and it’s affecting hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Earlier this week Argentine President Cristina Kirchner responded to her country’s sky-rocketing inflation rates by freezing prices on food, a move Forbes magazine says will soon lead to widespread corruption in the business community and government. In Venezuela,...

We got a problem here folks, and it's going to lead to the next crash -- and sooner than you think. First, let's talk about the impact of QE on companies. The common mantra is that it makes it "easier" for firms to borrow money. The problem is that borrowing, in general, is a destructive act as you must pay back said borrowing with interest -- no matter how small. The bigger problem, however, is that long-established businesses have obligations that were all contracted with the expectation of lending other people money and earning a spread on it, such as...

A relative called and told me that the number of references on Facebook concerning Martial Law just went up substantially. The references are to Martial Law training for local LEs by Homeland Security, and the people making the comments are LEOs themselves. They're expressing concern. I saw the article here on FR earlier today concerning a training activity last night over downtown Miami. This is not normal and seems to be part of the Feds efforts to solicit, I believe, a negative response from a specific sector of the general public. There is a lot of political activity going on...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by former MF Global customers to depose the collapsed brokerage's former chief, Jon Corzine. In a written ruling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Judge Martin Glenn said the Commodity Customer Coalition, which had sought permission to question Corzine and other former MF Global insiders, lacked standing because it is not a direct creditor in the case. [use link for rest of article.] The coalition, a grassroots group led by Chicago-based commodities trader James Koutoulas, bills itself as representing the interests of thousands of traders whose accounts at...

As you folks all know I've been pounding the table for years about the fact that if we're serious about addressing what's wrong with our budget we must break the medical monopolies. Indeed, there's an entire sub-category of Tickers dedicated to Health Reform, which I started writing on when the entire Obama mess began and the discussion took off in earnest. But lately I've been asked to look once again at exactly what sort of realistic budget cuts we could make, especially now that the "fiscal cliff" game has been "punted." Let's remember something here folks -- last calendar year's...

As our futures bleed this morning on the hangover from yesterday's rumor dujour on the "fiscal cliff" buried below the fold and therefore invisible to Americanus Stupidus is the news that both Bankia and Valencia, along with a handful of other Spanish banking names, are collapsing. Bankia was formed from a merger of provincial savings banks, drawing in over a quarter of a million small investors with extremely aggressive marketing. Unfortunately it appears that they were also hiding losses and it was recently revealed that the firm had negative equity (that is, its assets are worth less than its deposits.)...

In the duh department we have this: * * * * * * * * * * * The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure. * * * * * * * * * * * Did you get that?...

Now do you understand why I had precious little to say about the "election"? The results of this election were determined in 2008, including the faux-opposition candidate. You people who have spent the last several months breathlessly agonizing over this, analyzing fake polls and deluding yourselves into believing that this was somehow a legitimate operation are just sad. You're like the people in Iraq who supported the opposition candidate to Saddam Hussein for all of those years. Yes, Saddam Hussein held "elections". Regularly. That is what happened here yesterday. We had a Saddam Hussein "election". This can all be summed...

While the media world is abuzz with last night’s Presidential debate, I’d like to cut through the noise and present you with two truly staggering facts that need to be kept in mind as the backdrop for the US Presidential Election Fact #1: EU leaders have stated point blank that they were asked to keep things quiet until after the election. Regardless of your party affiliation, social views or the like, we have to ask ourselves “what was promised in return?” [snip] ...The powers that be are keeping things calm until after the election… at which time there will be...

READ EVERY WORD OF THIS AT LEAST TWICE. Matt Bracken has written a piece over at Western Rifle Shooters that matches exactly how I have envisaged the coming collapse and civil war. His belief that it will all begin with the rejection of EBT Foodstamps cards is, I think, spot-on. Next comes the urban riots. Then comes the rioters spilling into the suburbs. Then comes full-blown chaos when the rioters realize that the cops alone can't contain them. Then come the beatings, rapes and murders. In the open. In broad daylight. At heavily trafficked intersections. Then comes the militia, which...