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The Russian military recently dispatched a guided-missile warship to Cuba as part of what U.S. officials say are growing military, intelligence and economic ties between Moscow and Havana. [snip] “The cruiser Moskva and the large seagoing tanker Ivan Bubnov set off for Havana..." [snip] After Havana, the warship will visit Caracas, Venezuela; Managua, Nicaragua; and Praia Port in the Cape Verde Islands off eastern Africa. The visit to Cuba is part of what the U.S. officials said is a push by Moscow to boost relations with Cuba in the military, energy and transportation sectors. The effort was kicked off in...

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years. The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises...

This gets really tiring....(Robert Reich vomits forth) "In other words, much in modern America depends on where you draw boundaries, and who's inside and who's outside. Who is included in the social contract? If "Detroit" is defined as the larger metropolitan area that includes its suburbs, "Detroit" has enough money to provide all its residents with adequate if not good public services, without falling into bankruptcy. Politically, it would come down to a question of whether the more affluent areas of this "Detroit" were willing to subsidize the poor inner-city through their tax dollars, and help it rebound. That's an...

Listen up folks, after you read the bankruptcy filing for Detroit. 1. Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its citizens. 2. Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its creditors. 3. The failure of the City to meet its obligations to its citizens is the primary cause of its inability to meet its obligations to its creditors. 4. The only feasible path to ensuring the City will be able to meet obligations in the future is to have a successful restructuring via the bankruptcy process that recognizes the fundamental importance of ensuring the...

A very interesting thing happened in the Zimmerman fiasco. The state, in its closing rebuttal arguments, appealed to the hearts of the jury, not to the evidence. Florida is an odd state when it comes to criminal law. In most states the prosecution gets its closing argument, then the defense. In most states the defense goes last, which is in line with the premise that one is innocent until proved guilty, and the defense gets one last stab an introducing reasonable doubt. But in Florida the prosecution gets a rebuttal -- they get the last word before the jury retires...

There are a lot of hard-headed people out in the investment and banking world. Most of them are hard-headed because they have never known anything else. A few are a bit smarter -- they know that their business model is cooked if the underlying assumptions change and they're being intentionally dishonest in trying to grab the last few nickels in front of the steamroller, and to hell with you (their customer.) Then there are those who have it figured out and are attempting to find a way to adapt to what is going to happen. More than 30 years ago...

1. Yes, I saw that Corzine was "charged" by the CFTC. This is essentially meaningless. First, it is a purely civil action. These oligarch psychopaths LAUGH at the whole "civil action" paradigm. Second, the $100 million fine that the CFTC is going after comes NOT from Corzine, but from whatever is left of the MF Global Holdings estate, IF there is anything left at all. Not one red cent would come from Corzine, who was worth at least $600 million at the time of the collapse in the fall of 2011. Third, even if Corzine gets the dreaded "registration ban"...

Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful. On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet...

Greece and, for that matter, the rest of Europe are showing cracks again this morning. The Dollar is screaming higher (how's that "dollar collapse" thesis working out?) Gold is around $1,200; up fractionally on the day, but in general not in good shape -- and making a mockery of the "Gold to $5,000" callers. Interest rates are again going up, while The Fed is trying to claim that they really didn't say that they were going to taper. But that's a lie, because they have to stop the QE. This isn't about wanting to exit, it's about being forced to...

Marco Rubio has repeatedly claimed he "wants more" from the Amnesty Bill now moving through Congress. Yes, folks, it's an amnesty bill. Let's cut the crap and call it what it is, because only through calling something what it is can we debate it. "Legalization" of those who are here illegally today is amnesty. I don't care whether it leads to citizenship now or later, the fact of the matter is that it rewards criminal activity by allowing those who stole from Americans and their resources to keep what they stole and remain here in America. There is no restitution....

This auction is a charity auction for hand-made guinea pig scale-mail. (You've read that correctly) Is your pet guinea pig tired of wandering around the house unarmored and vulnerable? Do they get picked on by other guinea pigs? Has your guinea pig ever wanted to go with you to a Renaissance Fair but had nothing to wear? Fear not! A solution is here! Used “The chain mail is hand made and is in great condition. The helmet was purchased and is also in great condition. Neither are "new"... [snip]

The world's oldest known human tumor has been found in the rib bone of a Neanderthal who lived more than 120,000 years ago. The bone was evacuated from a site in Krapina, Croatia more than 100 years ago and has been found to have contracted the fibrous dysplasia tumor, a cancer which is common among modern-day humans. This discovery by David Frayer from the University of Kansas predates previous evidence of the tumor by more than 100,000 years. Before this discovery, the earliest bone tumor was seen in an Egyptian mummy around 2,000 years ago. David Frayer, professor of anthropology...

The catalyst for the next great war will likely occur somewhere in the middle east. The Americans know this. As do the Russians and the Chinese. And as with the last two ‘great wars,’ the groundwork is being laid well ahead of time. A large American military force disembarked Tuesday, June 4, at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba – ready for deployment on the kingdom’s Syrian border, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources report. The force made its way north along the Aqaba-Jerash-Ajilon mountain road bisecting Jordan from south to north, under heavy Jordanian military escort. Our sources disclose that this...

This essay is a call to citizens to put real work, ingenuity, and community above false promises and disgraced authority. Empowerment, in this essay, is not about pumping up self-esteem but rather equipping citizens to take control of the global economy. When political and economic leaders fail to act effectively, we will have to be the ones to succeed. Capitalism stands and falls upon care, not the superficial “I-feel-your-pain” type, but the deep, committed “I-give-a-damn” type. What does it mean to give a damn? “I give a damn” means: I get broadly and deeply involved, I refuse to ignore what...

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz is reported to be clinically dead as the monarch is not recently seen in the public. A Saudi journalist working for London-Based Asharq Alawsat says the Saudi monarch has been clinically dead since Wednesday. He also quoted medical sources in Saudi Arabia as saying that the king’s vital organs, including his heart, kidneys and lungs, have stopped functioning. [snip]

As you prepare to grill out your steaks and fly your flags, take time from the swilling of beer to consider the following. Our government is completely out of control. Benghazi, Fast-n-Furious, IRS Abuse, 100,000 perjured affidavits, phony securities marketed under false pretense, Congressional force used to commit accounting fraud, money lanudering and more. There is no longer a rule of law; the Golden Rule has been turned into "Do unto others, run like hell and, if caught, bribe Congress or threaten economic collapse." While that contains a slight amount of hyperbole, the operative word there is "slight." There is...

BOERNE, Texas (AP) — A South Texas police officer has been put on administrative leave after being charged with shooting an arrow into a neighbor’s cat. Police in Boerne say Officer Lance Deleon was not on duty when the cat named Bobby was wounded. Police Chief Jim Kohler says the cat was shot using a crossbow. [snip]

Yesterday afternoon, following the rout in the US stock market, we made a spurious preview (TWITTER) of the true main event: SO SELL OFF IN JGBS TONIGHT? We had no idea how right we would be because the second Japan opened, its bond futures market was halted on a circuit breaker as the 10 Year bond plunged to their lowest level since early 2012, hitting 1% and leading to massive Mark to Market losses for Japanese banks, as we also warned would happen. That was just the beginning, and suddenly the realization crept in that the plunging yen at this...

My nephew and his squeeze are talking marriage. They've been childhood sweethearts since 6th grade - they're now both 21. He wants a 'prenup', a prenuptial agreement, and she's never heard of such a thing. Should they have one? Some background: they are each others best friend and confidant. When he left his grandfather's house after high school graduation to be more independent and encountered roughened circumstances, she supported him while she worked at WalMart, and together they became partners in a business that failed. Nephew moved back home while she went to school. But that's not all - her...

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...