From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Edward Snowden has withdrawn his request for political asylum from Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, further adding to the uncertainty over the US whistleblower’s future.
A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin said Snowden withdrew the request after Putin’s statement making clear that he would be welcome only if he stopped “his work aimed at bringing harm” to the United States. Continue reading “Edward Snowden withdraws Russian asylum request”
This morning’s Wall Street Journal published its own analysis of premiums under Obamacare, and its conclusions will prompt shock—rate shock—among those who need to buy health insurance under the law’s new exchanges next year: Continue reading “Obamacare Shocker: Premiums Could Double”
Our Crisis
We do indeed live in “interesting times.” But are we interested in the right things? What are the “right” things we should be interested in? After all, it seems that in an ostensibly free country with “liberty and justice for all” bandied about as a foundational credo – the opposite has somehow become the status quo – that is – if YOU or I my dear citzen – dare to become interested in the “wrong” things. Continue reading “Saving America: Turning Lemons into Lemonade”
Something is looming in the shadows that could help erode our basic rights and contaminate our food. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has the potential to become the biggest regional Free Trade Agreement in history, both in economic size and the ability to quietly add more countries in addition to those originally included. As of 2011 its 11 countries accounted for 30 percent of the world’s agricultural exports. Those countries are the US, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam. Recently, Japan has joined the negotiations. Continue reading “Trans-Pacific Partnership and Monsanto”
Huffington Post – by Hunter Spirit
A University of Virginia student says she was put in jail after buying cookie dough, ice cream and a pack of bottled water that state agents mistook for beer, according to multiple reports.
Elizabeth Daly, 20, says she was in her car in the parking lot of a Charlottesville, Va., grocery store in April when she was approached by seven plainclothes agents from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, one of whom she says pulled a gun on her, according to the Charlottesville Daily Progress. Continue reading “Elizabeth Daly, College Student, Says She Spent Night In Jail After Buying Bottled Water”
As reported in a Thursday evening, June 27, BuzzFlash at Truthout update to the chilling San Diego (SD) city attorney prosecution of Jeff Olson, an SD Judge placed an unprecedented gag order on a misdemeanor trial — in particular muzzling Olson. But it also apparently included witnesses, the jury and others.
Judge Howard Shore also chastised the Mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner. Filner apparently in the judge’s eyes had the temerity to call the trial of Olson a waste of time and taxpayer money. According to the San Diego Reader, Filner sent out a memorandum on June 20 that read in part: Continue reading “San Diego Judge Puts Unprecedented Gag Order on Sidewalk Chalk Protestor Trial”
Herald and News – by DEVAN SCHWARTZ
Having nearly completed water irrigation shutoffs on the Sprague River, the watermaster and his team have moved to the Williamson this week.
In the next couple of weeks, shutoffs also are expected on the Wood River — the third of the big three in the upper Klamath Basin. Continue reading “Water Shutoffs Continue in Klamath County, Oregon”
People returning to their destroyed homes in High River are furious after finding that cops had forced their way into their homes and seized their firearms while they were away.
Firearms experts say police do not have the right to enter homes without a warrant and take property, flooding or no flooding. Continue reading “Cops seize guns from High River homes amid flooding”
The NSA is spying on everybody.
That includes a major, major, prime target: Congress.
So imagine this conversation taking place, in a car, on a lonely road outside Washington, late at night. The speakers are Congressman X and a private operative representing a covert unit inside the NSA: Continue reading “Snowden, NSA, blackmail, and the boys in the back room”
Digital Journal – by Ralph Lopez
The Obama administration and the NSA have gone into full spin mode trumpeting its victories in the plots that didn’t happen while conveniently ignoring the one that did.
Not only did the “don’t worry if you’ve done nothing wrong” Big Brother government not stop the Boston Marathon suspects, it knew who they were. It knew where they lived (190 Norfolk Street, Cambridge.) If they didn’t know, they could have asked me, and I’d have looked it up for them in public court records from Tamerlan’s 2009 domestic violence charge. Continue reading “The big question: Why didn’t NSA spying stop the Boston bombing?”
Who What Why – by Dave Lindorff
Would you be shocked to learn that the FBI apparently knew that some organization, perhaps even a law enforcement agency or private security outfit, had contingency plans to assassinate peaceful protestors in a major American city — and did nothing to intervene?
Would you be surprised to learn that this intelligence comes not from a shadowy whistle-blower but from the FBI itself – specifically, from a document obtained from Houston FBI office last December, as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Washington, DC-based Partnership for Civil Justice Fund? Continue reading “FBI Document—“[DELETED]” Plots To Kill Occupy Leaders “If Deemed Necessary””
NBC News – by Pete Williams and Andrew Rafferty
A grand jury has indicted Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on charges of using weapons of mass destruction and killing four people, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tsarnaev, 19, has been accused of setting off bombs near the finish line of the city’s annual race on April 15 with the help of his brother Tamerlan. The blasts killed three people, and investigators believe the brothers killed a university police officer in the days after the attack while attempting to evade capture. Continue reading “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30-count indictment in Boston Marathon bombing”
Center for Investigative Reporting – by Ali Winston
When the city of San Leandro, Calif., purchased a license-plate reader for its police department in 2008, computer security consultant Michael Katz-Lacabe asked the city for a record of every time the scanners had photographed his car.
The results shocked him. Continue reading “License-plate readers let police collect millions of records on drivers”
General Motors Co. (GM) announced on Wednesday that it will spend $691 million to build and expand its factories in Mexico.
GM Mexico President Ernest Hernandez said the move will boost Mexican employment and development. Continue reading “GM to Invest $691 Million in Mexico”
The New York Times – by CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — Four Central Intelligence Agency officers were embedded with the New York Police Department in the decade after Sept. 11, 2001, including one official who helped conduct surveillance operations in the United States, according to a newly disclosed C.I.A. inspector general’s report.
That officer believed there were “no limitations” on his activities, the report said, because he was on an unpaid leave of absence, and thus exempt from the prohibition against domestic spying by members of the C.I.A. Continue reading “C.I.A. Report Finds Concerns With Ties to New York Police”
In a recent study orchestrated by the CDC and carried out by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, it was found that individuals involved in violent crimes who defended themselves using techniques other than carrying a gun were more likely to be injured when compared to those who were carrying a concealed firearm. Continue reading “Woops! Obama Ordered Gun Report Reveals Guns Actually Save Lives”
Guardian – by Miriam Elder
The Foundry – by Chris Jacobs
Nation of Change 
Buzz Flash – by Mark Karlin 
Sun News – by Kris Sims
Jon Rappoport
Breitbart – by Wynton Hall
Story Leak