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Updated! Report from the frontlines in SE Ukraine May 30th

Truck overturned in Donetsk
© Unknown
1. Sporadic and heavy at times fighting around Slavyansk and the outlying villages on 29 May with no notable successes for the Nats Army and national guard units. Some losses reported for the national guard units.

2. A half battery of Grad missile launchers, BM-21, is in position within range of Mariupol. As of this morning that unit has not fired. Range of Grad missile is up to 35 kilometers.

3. A half battery of Grad missile launchers is in position within range of Slavyansk.

4. I have no positive verification of a Grad missile attack on Slavyansk. This does not mean an attack did not occur. Something very large and multiple did hit the outskirts of an outlying village but I have no source at the impact spots to verify what the impacts were.

5. Sources report that the Donbas Army action at Donetsk Airport was a trap involving proposed negotiations with certain Ukraine Army units under the auspices of a western organization in Donetsk at that time. Sources report that shortly after the negotiations started the Ukraine Army sent in by air strong reinforcements to their unit in airport as the Ukraine Army units in airport attacked the Donbas Army unit.

Comment: The Saker has written this about "Juan", who is the author of the above:
I have recently come into contact with "Juan" who currently resides near the conflict area in the Ukraine. I don't personally know Juan but I am confident that he/she is a person with a military background and a first-hand knowledge of the Russian military, including elite units. In our email exchanges we soon established that while I was "one of 'them' who was buried under 15 kilometers of concrete, rock and steel" "Juan" was one of the "poor ground pounders had to slog through the mud and slime, rain and snow'. This gave me the idea to ask "Juan" to provide the readers of this blog with an analysis of the conflict in the Ukraine written from the point of view of somebody whose career was on the front lines and not, like me, in air-conditioned rooms with fancy computers and communication gear. I sincerely think that this latter perspective is something this blog sorely needed and I am delighted to be able to share it with you today.

A big thank you to "Juan" for agreeing to share his views with all of us!

The Saker



Handcuffs

Modern-day slavery in America's prison workforce

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© AP Photo/The Daily News, Don BryanSandra Amritt, a cook for the Onslow County Jail, prepares a tray for the days lunch Oct. 22, 2007, in Onslow County, Jacksonville, N.C.
Laurie Hazen has bad taste in men. "They're my downfall," the 41-year-old jokes in her Massachusetts accent. "I have to really stay single." An ex-boyfriend first introduced her to prescription drugs, she says, a habit she maintained through the course of another relationship, with another addict, and through two stints in prison, most recently in 2012 for writing fake prescriptions.

When she arrived at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham, Hazen left behind a job as a records manager for a fiber-optics company. Her $14-an-hour salary had covered food, utilities, and rent on the modest apartment she shared with her boyfriend and her teenage son. She would have been putting some money away, too, if her paycheck hadn't also been covering the couple's drug habit. As it was, like many inmates, she went to prison with no savings and, because her boyfriend was locked up too, had no one on the outside to send her money. Her son went to live with his dad.

Stock Down

UK government advisor's vision of the near-future: 'Tiny elite and a huge sprawling proletariat'

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© Unknown'Tories are inhumane bigots' - Not just Tories, but the entire political and ruling class
High property prices will wipe out the British middle class within the next 30 years, according to a UK government advisor. He says society will be left with a "tiny elite" and a "huge sprawling proletariat."

"The really scary thing is if in the next 30 years house prices rise as much as they have done in the last 30 years, then the average house in Britain will cost £1.2 million (US$2 million)," said David Boyle, a British author and a government advisor who is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation.

According to Boyle, who spoke at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, most representatives from the traditional middle class won't be able to afford a house because wages will fail to keep up with huge price increases.

Comment: 30 more years is a very optimistic prediction for this highly unstable system run by insane parasites. A steady stream of austerity, job losses and privatization is hitting the UK hard, and it seems the "good times" are well and truly over for the common people of the Western empire.


Stormtrooper

Georgia police SWAT team throw flashbang into crib during raid, 50% chance baby will die

baby injured by raid
© WSBTV
"It landed in his playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face"

In a multijurisdictional raid in Habersham County police barged into the home of Wanis Thometheva at 3:00 am.

During the raid one of the uniformed men, tasked with caging people for possession of substances the state deems illegal, threw a stun grenade into the crib of a 19 month old baby.

Alecia Phonesavanh, the mother of the 19-month old, was staying at her sister-in-law's home when cops smashed in.

"It's my baby. He's only a baby. He didn't deserve any of this," Phonesavanh said. "It landed in his playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face."

Phonesavanh's son is in the burn unit of a local hospital. The grenade blew a large laceration in his chest and ripped his face wide open.

There were many pictures taken but they were so graphic that the local news station chose not to share them.

According to WSBTV,
Cornelia Police Chief Rick Darby confirmed that the raid took place at the home just before 3 a.m.

Deputies said they bought drugs from the house and came back with a no-knock warrant to arrest a man known to have drugs and weapons.

"Everyone's sleeping. There's a loud bang and a bright light," Phonesavanh said. "The cops threw that grenade in the door without looking first and it landed right in the playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face."

They arrested Wanis Thometheva, 30, during the raid.

Palette

Brazilian graffiti art sends World Cup a clear message: 'Need food, not football'

Child, fork, soccer ball
© AFP Photo / Nelson AlmeidaA graffiti painted by Brazilian street artist Paulo Ito on the entrance of a public schoolhouse in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 23, 2014
With just two weeks remaining until the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, those who believe the global event is too much of a burden for the country's struggling economy have found a new way to channel their protest energy - with graffiti.

Street artists have covered walls in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with pictures which blame football's governing body, FIFA, for exploiting Brazil and the local government for neglecting the needs of the poor.

They share the belief that the US $11 billon which has been spent on the World Cup should have been used to improving transportation, healthcare, and education.

Comment: Eleven billion dollars have been pumped into funding an eight-week tournament fraught with high costs, unnecessary construction, corruption, greed and injustice. As Brazilians protest (against the sport for which they are most famous), the World Cup becomes a sticker face for underlying problems effectively expressed by artists who message human suffering in colorful and graphic terms.


Bizarro Earth

Slaviansk people's mayor: 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers killed so far in battle for Slaviansk

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© RIA Novosti, Evgeny Blyatov

About 1,200 Ukrainian army soldiers have been killed during a special operation in Slaviansk, and eight helicopters and 15 armored vehicles were destroyed, Slaviansk people's mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov said Thursday.

"According to our information, the Ukrainian army has the following losses and damages: 1,200-1,300 people were killed, eight helicopters, 15 armored transport vehicles, and three [artillery] weapons destroyed. They are suffering huge losses. I'm speaking only about Slaviansk," Ponomaryov said in an interview with the Latvian radio station Baltkom.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov confirmed Thursday the downing of a military helicopter had killed 14 Ukrainian servicemen, including a general. Soon after that, the Ukrainian National Guard clarified that 12, not 14 people were killed in the Mi-8 helicopter crash near Slaviansk.

The people's mayor also noted that the self-defense forces of Slaviansk had lost about 200 people.

Arrow Down

The end of the consumer society: retail death rattle grows louder

store closing
The definition of death rattle is a sound often produced by someone who is near death when fluids such as saliva and bronchial secretions accumulate in the throat and upper chest. The person can't swallow and emits a deepening wheezing sound as they gasp for breath. This can go on for two or three days before death relieves them of their misery. The American retail industry is emitting an unmistakable wheezing sound as a long slow painful death approaches.

It was exactly four months ago when I wrote The Retail Death Rattle. Here are a few terse anecdotes from that article:
The absolute collapse in retail visitor counts is the warning siren that this country is about to collide with the reality Americans have run out of time, money, jobs, and illusions. The exponential growth model, built upon a never ending flow of consumer credit and an endless supply of cheap fuel, has reached its limit of growth. The titans of Wall Street and their puppets in Washington D.C. have wrung every drop of faux wealth from the dying middle class. There are nothing left but withering carcasses and bleached bones.

Once the Wall Street created fraud collapsed and the waves of delusion subsided, retailers have been revealed to be swimming naked. Their relentless expansion, based on exponential growth, cannibalized itself, new store construction ground to a halt, sales and profits have declined, and the inevitable closing of thousands of stores has begun.

The implications of this long and winding road to ruin are far reaching. Store closings so far have only been a ripple compared to the tsunami coming to right size the industry for a future of declining spending. Over the next five to ten years, tens of thousands of stores will be shuttered. Companies like JC Penney, Sears and Radio Shack will go bankrupt and become historical footnotes. Considering retail employment is lower today than it was in 2002 before the massive retail expansion, the future will see in excess of 1 million retail workers lose their jobs. Bernanke and the Feds have allowed real estate mall owners to roll over non-performing loans and pretend they are generating enough rental income to cover their loan obligations. As more stores go dark, this little game of extend and pretend will come to an end.
Retail store results for the 1st quarter of 2014 have been rolling in over the last week. It seems the hideous government reported retail sales results over the last six months are being confirmed by the dying bricks and mortar mega-chains. In case you missed the corporate mainstream media not reporting the facts and doing their usual positive spin, here are the absolutely dreadful headlines:
  • Wal-Mart Profit Plunges By $220 Million as US Store Traffic Declines by 1.4%
  • Target Profit Plunges by $80 Million, 16% Lower Than 2013, as Store Traffic Declines by 2.3%
  • Sears Loses $358 Million in First Quarter as Comparable Store Sales at Sears Plunge by 7.8% and Sales at Kmart Plunge by 5.1%
  • JC Penney Thrilled With Loss of Only $358 Million For the Quarter
  • Kohl's Operating Income Plunges by 17% as Comparable Sales Decline by 3.4%
  • Costco Profit Declines by $84 Million as Comp Store Sales Only Increase by 2%
  • Staples Profit Plunges by 44% as Sales Collapse and Closing Hundreds of Stores
  • Gap Income Drops 22% as Same Store Sales Fall
  • American Eagle Profits Tumble 86%, Will Close 150 Stores
  • Aeropostale Losses $77 Million as Sales Collapse by 12%
  • Best Buy Sales Decline by $300 Million as Margins Decline and Comparable Store Sales Decline by 1.3%
  • Macy's Profit Flat as Comparable Store Sales decline by 1.4%
  • Dollar General Profit Plummets by 40% as Comp Store Sales Decline by 3.8%
  • Urban Outfitters Earnings Collapse by 20% as Sales Stagnate
  • McDonalds Earnings Fall by $66 Million as US Comp Sales Fall by 1.7%
  • Darden Profit Collapses by 30% as Same Restaurant Sales Plunge by 5.6% and Company Selling Red Lobster
  • TJX Misses Earnings Expectations as Sales & Earnings Flat
  • Dick's Misses Earnings Expectations as Golf Store Sales Plummet
  • Home Depot Misses Earnings Expectations as Customer Traffic Only Rises by 2.2%
  • Lowes Misses Earnings Expectations as Customer Traffic was Flat
Of course, those headlines were never reported. I went to each earnings report and gathered the info that should have been reported by the CNBC bimbos and hacks. Anything you heard surely had a Wall Street spin attached, like the standard BETTER THAN EXPECTED. I love that one. At the start of the quarter the Wall Street shysters post earnings expectations. As the quarter progresses, the company whispers the bad news to Wall Street and the earnings expectations are lowered. Then the company beats the lowered earnings expectation by a penny and the Wall Street scum hail it as a great achievement. The muppets must be sacrificed to sustain the Wall Street bonus pool. Wall Street investment bank geniuses rated JC Penney a buy from $85 per share in 2007 all the way down to $5 a share in 2013. No more needs to be said about Wall Street "analysis"

Bad Guys

Marine drowned in water screening test at Camp Pendleton, despite being excellent swimmer

Joshua Islam
Joshua Islam
A top Marine Corps training commander has been relieved of his duties after a four-month investigation into the death of Josh Islam, an 18-year-old Marine from Weddington.

Islam drowned Jan. 13 during a water screening test to get into reconnaissance training at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Maj. Adam Burch, commanding officer of Reconnaissance Training Company at School of Infantry-West, was relieved on May 15, Marines spokesman Col. Sean Gibson said Thursday. Brig. Gen. John Simmons removed Burch for a loss of confidence in his ability to lead Marines and for allowing unsafe conditions that contributed to Islam's death.

The drowning has also prompted a sweeping review of all training at the reconnaissance school, including how to assess a Marine's swimming ability. The specific screening event that Islam underwent has been eliminated, Gibson said.

An investigative report obtained by the Observer through a Freedom of Information Act request details errors in judgment by trainers overseeing Islam as he attempted to tread water in his camouflage uniform, without boots, for 30 minutes. The report also found training and screening deficiencies.

Family

America's homeless: The rise of Tent City, USA

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© CNN
Homeless encampments known as "tent cities" are popping up across the country

Formed as an alternative to shelters and street-living, these makeshift communities are often set up off of highways, under bridges and in the woods. Some have "mayors" who determine the rules of the camp and who can and can't join, others are a free-for-all. Some are overflowing with trash, old food, human waste and drug paraphernalia, others are relatively clean and drug-free.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty documented media accounts of tent cities between 2008 and 2013, and estimated that there are more than 100 tent communities in the United States -- and it says the encampments are on the rise.

"[T]here have been increasing reports of homeless encampments emerging in communities across the country, primarily in urban and suburban areas and spanning states as diverse as Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Connecticut," the organization's study states.

Comment: Tent cities and encampments are the last resort for most people. They are certainly not a means of 'self-help'. What a ridiculous inhumane thing to say. CNN is normalizing homelessness and seems to be spinning the tale that "it's not so bad." It is that bad. Homelessness is essentially being criminalized all over the U.S. Cities all over are passing tyrannical laws against feeding the homeless and their homes are being destroyed. One city has even created a hotline to report their presence. The U.S. wastes BILLIONS on endless wars, but no funds to take care of impoverished and downtrodden?
  • Cities all over America are becoming extremely cruel to the homeless
  • Philadelphia Bans Outdoor Feeding of Homeless
  • America Today: Heartbreaking Pictures From New Jersey's Homeless 'Tent City'
  • U.S. city's plan for homeless bizarre, inhumane
  • It is illegal to feed thehomeless in cities all over the United States
  • 70-year-old charity told to stop feeding homeless in Seattle
  • US: Homeless Epidemic Spreading from Cities to Suburbs, and No Longer Invisible
Utah has a pretty good idea to make things better. What about the rest of the States?
  • Utah is ending homelessness by giving people homes
  • Utah is on track to end homelessness by 2015 with this one simple idea



Alarm Clock

'8 knives, bat and crowbar': 16 yo admits to parents' brutal murder for taking away iPod

Vincent Parker
Vincent Parker
A 'smart' and 'sane' North Carolina teen has admitted to stabbing and bludgeoning his parents to death over slight and routine punishments, like depriving him of his iPod.

Eight knives, an aluminum baseball bat and crowbar, all coated in blood: The grisly scene which unfolded at the 1000 block of Bland Street in Norfolk, Virginia last December is more befitting of horror movie fodder, or Tarantino torture fantasy. But the violence was very real, and the murderer, rather than a serial killer or mafia hit man, was a 10th-grade-honor student who had grown tired of what by all definitions was soft parental admonishment.

On Wednesday, 16-year-old Vincent Parker admitted in court to killing his parents, claiming he had grown tired of their seemingly routine punishments.

"I just remember getting mad," he told investigators. "It's all from my dad. All this stuff like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff," local CBS affiliate WTKR cites him as saying.

The revenge he meted out for those slight infractions beggars belief.

Autopsy reports show how, on December 19, Vincent armed himself with eight kitchen knives, an aluminum bat and a crowbar. He then went upstairs to find his mother, Carol Parker. When his mother emerged from the bathroom, Vincent doused her with pepper spray, stabbed her in the eye, and then beat her in the face and head with a baseball bat and a crowbar "until she stopped breathing."