From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
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A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide on Sunday in the parking lot of theNorthport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, where he had been a patient, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside Building 92, the nursing home at the medical center. Continue reading “Veteran Kills Himself in Parking Lot of V.A. Hospital on Long Island”
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Tax Revolution Institute – by Chloe Anagnos
It’s no secret that dealing with the Internal Revenue Service is complicated. But trying to deal with the IRS while also attempting to make sense of the US tax code is just downright daunting.
Now containing 74,000 pages, the federal tax code has almost tripled in the last 30 years. At the current rate it is growing, it will surpass 100,000 pages by 2050. Continue reading “How the US Tax Code Kills Entrepreneurship”
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Washington Post – by Amber Philips
The dramatic 400 percent rise in the cost of EpiPens is the next big flash point in the national debate over skyrocketing prescription drug prices.
It turns out that the woman at the center of this controversy has powerful political connections. My colleague Catherine Ho reports that the head of Mylan, the drug company accused of hiking the price of the pen that treats severe allergic reactions, is also the daughter of Joe Manchin, a Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia and the state’s former governor. Continue reading “How a senator’s daughter became CEO of the company at the center of the EpiPen controversy”
Iranian naval vessels veered close to American warships this week in a series of incidents that American officials described as harassing maneuvers risking dangerous escalation, defense officials said Thursday.
The first incident occurred Tuesday, when Iranian ships made provocative maneuvers around a U.S. destroyer in the Strait of Hormuz, officials said. The following day, Iranian vessels came within several hundred meters of other American ships in the Persian Gulf, with one Iranian ship prompting the coastal patrol ship USS Squall to fire warning shots. Continue reading “Navy patrol ship fires warning shots amid series of confrontations with Iranian vessels”
New York Post – by Daniel Harper
The pharmaceutical company under fire for increasing the cost of its life-saving EpiPen has been criticized by Hillary Clinton — despite the fact that the manufacturer donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Records available on the website of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation reveal Mylan, the company that manufactures the EpiPen, has donated up to $250,000. Continue reading “Company that price gouged EpiPen is Clinton Foundation donor”
Barry Bahrami went from incredulous to angry last month when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a batch of firearms control laws known collectively as “Gunmageddon.”
Then, the San Diego-based CEO became determined to fight back against the laws, which take aim at so-called assault weapons, enforce ammunition background checks, mostly take effect Jan. 1 and outlaw the possession of high-capacity magazines and ban the “bullet buttons” that already require a tool to release the magazine, instead advocating that the rifle is partially disassembled, and that any rifle with a detachable magazine will be defined as an assault weapon. Continue reading “Second Amendment backers arm up with ink and paper to battle California’s ‘Gunmageddon’”
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Senator’s daughter who raised price of EpiPen got $19 million salary, perks in 2015
Chicago Tribune This isn’t the first time Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch has been under fire. Continue reading “Allergic reaction target”
The federal government is trying to take as much as 140 square miles of deeded land in Texas from ranchers who’ve owned and have paid taxes on the property for generations. This is occurring in north Texas, along Red River on the Texas-Oklahoma border. What made the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) make this claim is unclear (as this is being fought in court, the BLM isn’t answering questions), but the ramifications make last year’s occupation of BLM buildings in Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge seem like a Boy Scout jamboree. Continue reading “The Federal Government Is Trying To Grab 140 Square Miles Of Private Land In Texas”
An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 on the Richter Scale hit Myanmar on Wednesday afternoon with tremors felt across east India. Reports of strong tremors have been felt across West Bengal and Assam. There are not reports of casualties yet.
According to National Centre for Seismology, a unit of Ministry of Earth Sciences, the epicenter of the quake was in Myanmar and it occurred at 4:04 PM at a depth of 58 kms. People panicked and fled out of buildings in Kolkata, Patna and Guwahati. Metro services have been temporarily suspended in Kolkata after earthquake tremors were felt in the region. Continue reading “Powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake hits Myanmar; tremors in Bengal, Assam”
New York Post – by David Harsanyi
The Democratic Party often warns us that mixing big money and politics will corrupt democracy. They must have nominated Hillary Clinton to prove it.
The Clinton Foundation was ostensibly set up to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Though it’s done some fine work, its most fruitful program has been leveraging Clinton’s position in the State Department to enrich her family, friends and cronies. Continue reading “New revelations show a nation for sale under Hillary Clinton”
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck central Italy early Wednesday, with reports of fatalities and significant damage surfacing quickly in its aftermath.
Officials say the towns of Accumoli and Amatrice appear to be the hardest hit by the quake, which struck at 3:36 a.m. local time as most residents slept inside their homes. Continue reading “Dozens Killed, Widespread Damage After Strong Quake in Central Italy”
Donald Trump is reportedly delaying a speech on immigration that was set for later this week amid new questions over his position on the issue.
The GOP presidential nominee is slated to attend a fundraiser in Colorado on Thursday but won’t be making his previously scheduled speech on immigration, a spokeswoman for his campaign in the state told the Denver Post. Continue reading “Trump delays immigration speech”
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Signs and posters appeared in front of Cedars-Sinai, St. John’s, UCLA and Los Angeles Children’s Hospital yesterday and overnight. Continue reading “‘Hillary Hospital’ Signs Welcome Hillary Clinton to LA for Her Hollywood Fundraising Gigs”
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by J. Neil Schulman
Author, Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns & Self Control Not Gun Control
Webmaster, The World Wide Web Gun Defense Clock Continue reading “The Unabridged Second Amendment”
The Seattle Times – by Ken Ritter
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two men are expected to plead guilty in Nevada this week to federal charges stemming from an armed confrontation with U.S. land management agents over grazing rights near cattleman Cliven Bundy’s ranch, according to court records and their attorneys.
The charges stem from a tense gunpoint standoff in April 2014 on an Interstate 15 freeway overpass about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Continue reading “2 Nevada men expected to plead guilty in Bundy standoff”
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In the summer of 1972, state-of-the-art campaign spying consisted of amateur burglars, armed with duct tape and microphones, penetrating the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Today, amateur burglars have been replaced by cyberspies, who penetrated the DNC armed with computers and sophisticated hacking tools.
Where the Watergate burglars came away empty-handed and in handcuffs, the modern- day cyber thieves walked away with tens of thousands of sensitive political documents and are still unidentified. Continue reading “Commentary: Evidence points to another Snowden at the NSA”
Washington Post – by Spencer S. Hsu
The FBI’s year-long investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server uncovered tens of thousands more documents from her time as secretary of state that were not previously disclosed by her attorneys. The State Department is expected to discuss when and how it will release the emails Monday morning in federal court.
The total — confirmed by the Justice Department — was disclosed by a conservative legal group after the State Department said last week that it would hand over the emails. The number to be released is nearly 50 percent more than the 30,000-plus that Clinton’s lawyers deemed work-related and returned to the department in December 2014. Continue reading “FBI uncovered tens of thousands more documents in Clinton email probe”
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt called the Japanese “surprise” attack on the U.S. occupied territory of Hawaii and its naval base Pearl Harbor, “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.” Similar words should be used for President Nixon’s draconian decision 45 years ago this month that removed America from the last vestiges of the gold standard.
On August 15, 1971 in a televised address to the nation outlining a new economic policy entitled, “The Challenge of Peace,” Nixon instructed the Treasury Department “to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators.”* Continue reading ““A Date Which Will Live in Infamy:” President Nixon’s Decision to Abandon the Gold Standard”
LA Times – by Ralph Vartabedian
When a drum containing radioactive waste blew up in an underground nuclear dump in New Mexico two years ago, the Energy Department rushed to quell concerns in the Carlsbad desert community and quickly reported progress on resuming operations.
The early federal statements gave no hint that the blast had caused massive long-term damage to the dump, a facility crucial to the nuclear weapons cleanup program that spans the nation, or that it would jeopardize the Energy Department’s credibility in dealing with the tricky problem of radioactive waste. Continue reading “Nuclear accident in New Mexico ranks among the costliest in U.S. history”
The Burning Platform – by Yojimbo
Let’s face it. It must be oh-so-hard to write law on the fly to take away the civil rights from the citizens of an entire state, as Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has been attempting to do. One reason it is hard to do is that IT IS NOT HER JOB. Last time I checked, it was the job of the Massachusetts Legislature to write legislation.
But she has been trying very hard to craft legislation that strips citizens of the State from owning semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines (the dreaded black scary “assault weapons”). That power must be reserved only for the State and its agents. Continue reading “Attorney General Maura Healey Has Destroyed The Rule Of Law In Massachusetts”