From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Israeli arms dealers tried to send spare parts for F-4 Phantom aircraft via Greece to Iran in violation of an arms embargo, according to a secret probe by the US government agency Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) carried out in cooperation with the drugs and weapons unit of Greece’s Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE). Continue reading “Israelis tried to send arms to Iran via Greece, probe finds”
Washington Examiner – by ASHE SCHOW
Regulations for new coal plants would increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent, an Obama administration official told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Julio Friedmann, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the DEPArtment of Energy, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight board that carbon capture and storage technology was still not ready for prime time. Continue reading “Energy official: Electricity prices to soar 80 percent, thanks to EPA coal regulations”
CARACAS — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Sunday he was expelling three U.S. consular officials, accusing them of conspiring with the opposition forces to foment unrest as violent protests ran into a fifth straight night.
“We are determined to defend our country,” said Maduro on state television Sunday night. Continue reading “Venezuela expels 3 U.S. diplomats as violence flares”
Canadian media offers a shocking new development in the intelligence wars. This involves a honeypot security officer working for Canadian immigration. Her assignment was to romance an alleged Iranian spy. Sometime during their year-long romance, one night after having a few drinks too many, she told him an amazing story: that one of the 27 Mossad agents who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabouh escaped from Dubai to Canada: Continue reading “Canada Welcomes Mossad Assassin, Offers Him New Identity”
Washington’s Blog – by Carl Herman
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, Associate Editor for the Wall Street Journal, and Senior Research Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He writes (for years):
“Nothing will be fixed until [leading US] criminals are arrested and put on trial for treason… Americans have lost the rule of law.” Continue reading “‘Nothing will be fixed until [US] Criminals are arrested’: top US official”
A Florida jury found Michael Dunn guilty on four of the five charges in a case in which he was accused of shooting a teenager to death over loud music, but they could not come to a decision on the murder charge and a mistrial was declared on that count.
Dunn, 47, had faced a first degree murder charge for the shooting death of Jordan Davis, 17, in a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot on Nov. 23, 2012. Continue reading “Michael Dunn Trial: Mistrial Declared on Murder Charge in Loud Music Killing Case”
Market Watch – by Paul B. Farrell
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — New “Infinity Machine!” Yes. “Quantum Leap?” Yes. “The Future of Computing?” Well, no IPO yet. No Dell laptops. But wow, Time’s cover story sure is heaping praise on the amazing new quantum physics computer technology:
New quantum computing “promises to solve some of humanity’s most complex problems … backed by Jeff Bezos, NASA and the CIA … each costs $10,000,000 … operates at 459 degrees below zero.” Even the fact that “nobody knows how it actually works” isn’t a problem, says Time’s Lev Grossman. Why? Quantum computing “will change how we cure disease, explore the heavens and do business on Earth.” Continue reading “10 weapons Wall Street uses to manipulate you”
Real Currencies – by Anthony Migchels
Who in his right mind wants more State? More politicians? More bribes for politicians? More fines, more law, more prison? More Bush, more Hillary, more lies, more war?
Time to wake up people! Regulation is what Big Business lobbies for all the time: it’s killing small and medium business, who don’t have the resources to comply. Continue reading “Hate The State! (But The Banks Even More!)”
Real Currencies – by Anthony Migchels
We need credit and that’s why a credit based money supply is so attractive. It catches two birds with one stone. It’s probably its simplicity that makes it so hard to digest. It solves money scarcity, the boom/bust cycle, Usury and decentralizes credit allocation as much as is humanly possible. In short: it meets all requirements of comprehensive monetary reform. Continue reading “More on Mutual Credit”
The New American – by Warren Mass
The IRS will require employers who terminate employees to show that they did so for “bona fide business reasons” in order to be eligible for delaying the ObamaCare health insurance employer mandate.
Under new guidelines announced on February 10, the IRS will delay the mandate until 2016 for medium-sized businesses employing between 50 and 99 people. Businesses with 49 employees or fewer are not required to provide their employees with health insurance coverage under ObamaCare, as the Affordable Care Act is generally called. Continue reading “IRS Demands Businesses Show “Bonafide Reasons” for Layoffs”
New York Times – by ERIK ECKHOLM
A federal judge on Thursday evening declared that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in the strongest legal reversal yet of restrictive marriage amendments that exist throughout the South.
“Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal,” wrote Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk. “Surely this means all of us.” Continue reading “Federal Judge Overturns Virginia’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban”
U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees for Middle East ally Jordan and the renewal of a five-year aid package.
Obama made the announcement while meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah at a summit at a California retreat. Jordan, one of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, is a regional player in diplomatic efforts seeking peace in the turbulent region and is one of two Arab countries, the other being Egypt, that has signed a peace treaty with Israel. Continue reading “Obama pledges $1 billion in loan guarantees for Jordan”
Wyoming officials are taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court in a bid to reverse a sweeping agency ruling that transferred more than 1 million acres of land — including an entire city — to Native American tribes.
Wyoming Attorney General Peter K. Michael filed his state’s appeal Friday morning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The state wants either the EPA to reverse, or the courts to overturn, a December ruling on a request from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. Continue reading “Wyoming officials take EPA to court after ruling gives land to tribes”
A 4.1 magnitude earthquake struck Friday night in west-central South Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The quake was the strongest to hit South Carolina since 2002, local emergency management officials said. Continue reading “4.1 magnitude quake strikes in South Carolina”
Mexico’s recent oil reform will open up the energy industry from a 75-year-old state monopoly to a stream of private companies, and with them, it’s expected, organized crime.
Mexico’s vast shale-based reserves are some of the world’s largest, according to a recent assessment by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the shale is also located in precisely the northeastern regions most heavily influenced by the Zetas organized crime group. The Zetas and rivals like the Gulf Cartel have profited from reselling stolen oil and illegal mining operations for years, pocketing about $1.13 billion from the trade in 2012 and the first nine months of 2013, according to a November report by Pemex director Emilio Lozoya. And more than half of the money came in during the last nine months, indicating gangs’ oil profits are rising. Continue reading “Organized Crime To Profit From Mexican Oil Reform: US Department Of Energy”
ABC News – by DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
President Barack Obama will offer millions of dollars in federal aid for drought-stricken California during a visit with farmers and ranchers Friday and outline plans to seek $1 billion from Congress to help communities manage the effects of climate change.
California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than 100 years. Obama arrived Friday afternoon in Fresno, where he’ll meet with area farmers and announce more than $160 million in federal financial aid, including $100 million in the farm bill he signed into law last week for programs that cover the loss of livestock. Continue reading “Obama Turns Attention to California Drought”
Ekathimerini
USA Today – by Girish Gupta
Richard Silverstein
ABC News – by ALYSSA NEWCOMB
Fox News – by Judson Berger
CNN – by Greg Botelho
IB Times – by Meagan Clark