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"

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.

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.

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."

Fourteen Ukrainian servicemen were killed in a special operation conducted against federalization supporters in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, parliament-appointed Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told a parliament meeting.

A general of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is among those killed, he said. "Our servicemen were in the helicopter that was shot down. They were to replace other servicemen in rotation," Turchynov said.

Militiamen claim 2 helicopters shot down

Earlier, a self-defense forces' representative stated that the people's militia fighters had shot down the second helicopter of the armed forces controlled by Kiev authorities.

The first helicopter was shot down by the militiamen on the south-eastern outskirts of Sloviansk, Donetsk Region, near Chervony Molochar settlement.

"Violent shooting can be heard in this area, and dense black smoke is seen," the militia representative said. In addition, according to latest reports, fight is underway near the Semyonovsk locality.

All of the 80 Ukrainian troops holed up at a Lugansk military base have surrendered to self-defense forces who stormed the military installation hosting the Ukrainian National Guard.

The initial assault lasted for 10-15 minutes with almost unceasing gunfire, witnesses say. A video reportedly filmed near the attacked facility has appeared on YouTube.

There are conflicting reports on casualties and the outcome of the attack, which took place on the territory of an Air Force academy. Earlier, at least one Ukrainian soldier was reported to be seriously injured.

According to RIA Novosti, all of the 80 Ukrainian soldiers holed up at the base surrendered. They were escorted out of the building as the other side applauded.

Nick and Rachel Robinson were excited about the possibilities that Obamacare offered them when they found out they were expecting a third child.

"It's one of those times where you hear the news and there's this immediate sense of joy and excitement like, 'Yay, a new kid. That's awesome!'" Nick Robinson told NPR. But the happy news also came with a new set of worries. "What are we going to do? How are we going to pay for this? This is intense."

When the option of the Affordable Care Act became available, the Robinsons believed it was the answer to what they were looking for. Nick's company didn't offer health benefits and neither did Rachel's position as a wedding photographer.

Up to 7.5 million students could be denied access to for-profit colleges over the next decade if a new rule is passed forcing the disclosure of performance and earnings. Critics argue the measure will have a disproportionate effect on poorer students.

A new proposal entitled the gainful-employment rule would force for-profit colleges in the US to disclose data on student default rates, attendance and completion. The regulation would slash federal student aid to courses where too many students defaulted on their loans or were in debt.

This, in turn, would deprive 7.5 million students access to higher education over the next ten years, says a report by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU).

The legislation would put the onus on for-profit higher education institutions to prove the estimated annual loan payment of an average graduate does not surpass 20 percent of their discretionary income. It would also ask for-profit schools to make sure the default rate for graduates doesn't exceed 30 percent.

APSCU's report describes the gainful employment proposal as "flawed, arbitrary and biased" and argues it would have a disproportionate effect on poorer students in the US. According to the report, the proposal does not take into account the fact that lower income students more often than not have to borrow more money to pay for their education.

APSCU predicts that 21.8 percent of the courses offered in these institutions would not be able to comply with the new rule and as a consequence it would deprive 44.2 percent of students of their places in for-profit schools.

The co-founder of the Rap Genius website has been forced to leave the company after he posted offensive commentary praising the 141-page manifesto of alleged mass murder Elliot Rodger.

Rap Genius is dedicated to annotating and interpreting lyrics and other texts, including, in this case,Rodger's manifesto. On Sunday, Mahbod Moghadam began commenting on the quality of Rodger's prose.

Moghadam noted that the sentence "I can recall the first time I said the name on my lips" was "Beautifully written," and that "It was the only time in my life that I would see a girl my age naked" was "an artful sentence, beautifully written."

He even hypothesized that the alleged mass-murder's sister must have been "smokin hot," because Rodger wrote that he "becomes extremely angry when he hears [his sister] having sex with her boyfriend."

In a controversial move following protests against deadly force by police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the department has promoted a commander previously accused of burning off part of homeless man's ear with a taser.

The announcement came Thursday, with the Associated Press reporting that Albuquerque Police Department Chief Gordon Eden said the promotion of both Timothy Gonterman and Anthony Montano would help the force implement reforms outlined by the Department of Justice.

As RT reported previously, police in the area have come under fire for using excessive force in situations where it was deemed unnecessary. In a report on law enforcement's behavior, the Justice Department reviewed 20 fatal shootings between 2009 and 2013, concluding that most of the fatalities were unnecessary and that "systematic change" was needed moving forward.