From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
New York Times – by NEIL GOUGH
HONG KONG — China’s biggest Bitcoin exchange was forced to stop accepting deposits in the Chinese currency on Wednesday, sending the price of the virtual money tumbling in one of its biggest markets globally.
The exchange, BTC China, made the announcement in a post on its verified account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like messaging service. Continue reading “Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move”
The State Department announced Tuesday it is suspending normal operations at the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan, and it issued a new travel warning for Americans in that region in the face of “ongoing political and social unrest.”
Americans in South Sudan are advised to “depart immediately,” the U.S. Embassy tweeted from the capital, Juba, where gunfire and mortar use have been reported. Continue reading “US to evacuate South Sudan embassy, issues travel warning”
Yahoo Sports – by Stephen Collinson
Washington (AFP) – President Barack Obama Tuesday named two openly gay sports stars to his delegation to the Winter Olympics, sending a pointed message of diversity to Russia amid a furor over its law targeting homosexuals.
Obama chose tennis legend Billie Jean King and women’s ice hockey silver medalist Caitlin Cahow for the US delegation to the Sochi Olympics which begin on February 7. Continue reading “Obama sends signal to Russia with gay stars in Olympic delegation”
…Then they’ll just fluff around, speaking so highly of the program, it’s like they’re off in unicorn land, oblivious to reality, like they did at a recent presentation at Portland State University. Continue reading “If Oregon Obamacare Panel Can’t Talk Bad About Program…”
Daniel Drezner has a fairly incredible short blog post over at Foreign Policy magazine about his experience visiting the NSA as the organization is seeking to ramp up its PR campaign about how it’s not actually evil. We’ve already covered the 60 Minutes debacle, but in many ways this piece is just as enlightening, as he notes just how incredibly tone deaf NSA officials appear to be — unable to understand why people are upset about what they’re doing. Continue reading “Tone Deaf NSA Officials Tell Reporter It’s Time To Reform The First Amendment”
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh wrote an extensive investigative piece last week featured in the London Review of Books, which details the Obama administration’s “cherry-picking” of intelligence related to the August 21 Damascus chemical attack. “Whose sarin?” was originally intended for the Washington Post, but neither the Post nor Hersh’s usual New Yorker Magazine published it – presumably because its allegations and conclusions are too explosive and embarrassing for those already heavily invested in the accepted narrative of D.C. official sources. Read the following bombshell revelation from the first paragraph: Continue reading “Confirmed in mainstream sources: Syrian rebels possess and have used Chemical Weapons”
On Friday, Colorado’s Arapahoe High School was put on lockdown while a student armed with a shotgun took over the school in an attempt to confront a teacher who he believed had wronged him. The student, identified as 18-year-old Karl Pierson, took his own life before he could be taken into custody.
In a profile on the shooter in the Denver Post which focused on his “strong political beliefs,” several of Pierson’s classmates offered their impressions of the shooter. One of the shooter’s classmates described him as a “very opinionated socialist.” Shortly after that post was published, however, that description was edited out. The current copy simply describes him as “very opinionated.” Continue reading “Denver Post Stealth Edits Out ‘Socialist’ from Profile of Arapahoe School Shooter”
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A woman has been found dead in the rubble of this morning’s Gate City explosion. She suffered crushing injuries and burns, and rescuers were unable to get a pulse from her at the scene.
Just moments before, a man was pulled out alive in critical condition. He was taken to UAB Hospital. Birmingham Fire Chief Ivor Brooks said rescue teams sprang into action after hearing the man calling to them from under the rubble. Continue reading “Explosion at Birmingham apartment complex kills one, sends 8 to hospital”
The Examiner – by SUSAN FERRECHIO
The federal government this year made significant cuts to important services and programs while at the same time wasting $30 billion on frivolous expenditures like the “pillownauts” study NASA conducted to learn the effects of lying in bed all day, a new watchdog report shows.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on Tuesday released his fourth annual “Wastebook,” a catalog of questionable government spending that is, at best, pretty wacky (funding for “Popular Romance Project” — $1 million) and, at its worst, infuriating (continuing pay for Army Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter — $52,000). Continue reading “From the wacky to the infuriating, Sen. Tom Coburn’s annual Wastebook catalogs government waste in lean times”
On Tuesday morning, the Folha de S. Paulonewspaper in Brazil posted the following “open letter to the people of Brazil” from Edward Snowden.
In the letter, Snowden says he’s been impressed by the Brazilian government’s criticism of the massive National Security Agency. Continue reading “Edward Snowden’s Open Letter To The People Of Brazil”
DULUTH, Ga. (CBS Atlanta) – A high school senior won’t graduate on time after being suspended for one year for hugging a teacher in November.
Last week, a Duluth High School hearing officer found that Sam McNair violated the Gwinnett County Public Schools’ rules on sexual harassment.
“Something so innocent can be perceived as something totally opposite,” McNair told WGCL. Continue reading “Student Suspended For A Year After Hugging Teacher”
A wildfire burning near the Central California coastline had destroyed 15 homes and had grown to more than 500 acres in size late Monday.
The so-called Pfeiffer Fire was sparked at around midnight Monday in the Los Padres National Forest and had grown as large as 550 acres by sunrise. No injuries were reported, but the fire spread quickly across the landscape near the Big Sur region, which is in the midst of one of the driest years in its history. Wildfires are rare occurrences so late in the year. Continue reading “Big Sur wildfire destroys 15 homes, displaces dozens”
A couple of weeks ago we a had a virtual currency heist, now we’ve got Chinese biotech espionage in the middle of Iowa. Man, this world gets a little more cyberpunk with every passing day. I wonder if Google Glass comes in a mirrorshade edition? Continue reading “Chinese Spy Busted Stealing Iowa Corn Seeds”
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. Continue reading “A Different Christmas Poem”
The Independent Institute – by Mary Theroux
Despite Dianne Feinstein’s claims to the contrary, there’s no actual evidence that the U.S. surveillance apparatus has foiled any actual, independent plots of terrorism. There is, in fact, far more actual evidence that the surveillance state has missed numerous signals of plots: from 9/11 to the Boston bombings.
In its latest attempt at P.R. smoke-and-mirrors, the FBI ensnared a Wichita, KS airport employee, Terry Lee Loewen, in an FBI-created conspiracy and “sting” operation. The FBI stalked Loewen for six months following their seeing allegedly positive online comments he made about jihad. Continue reading “FBI Successfully Foils Another FBI Plot”
A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States is likely to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to run afoul of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. He also said the Justice Department had failed to demonstrate that collecting the so-called metadata had helped to head off terrorist attacks. Continue reading “Judge: NSA phone program likely unconstitutional”
New York Daily News – by Joe Kemp
Harvard University issued an evacuation notice after possible explosives were found on campus Monday.
Authorities with Cambridge Police Department and school officers descended on four sites at the Ivy League school that included it’s science center and freshman dorms.
“Alert: Unconfirmed reports of explosives at four sites on campus,” the school said in a Twitter message. Continue reading “Evacuations underway at Harvard University after reports of explosives on campus”
ABC News – by JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press
The United Nations said Monday it needs almost $13 billion to meet some of the world’s biggest humanitarian needs in 2014, and almost half of that amount would go to Syria and its surrounding region.
The request is meant to reach 52 million people in 17 countries, and is the largest amount that the U.N. and its partner agencies have ever asked at the start of the year to meet global humanitarian needs, officials said. Continue reading “UN: $12.9 Billion Aid Needs in 2014, Half to Syria”
A clash between knife-wielding assailants and police officers in China’s restive Xinjiang region left 16 people dead, including two police, state media said Monday.
The region’s official news portal, Tianshan Net, said “several thugs” threw explosives Sunday night at the officers, who were pursuing unidentified suspects, and attacked them with knives. Continue reading “16 Die in Clash in Restive Western China”
The Hill – by Rebecca Shabad
LaughingAtLiberals
Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick
Levant Report
Mediaite – by Noah Rothman 
AL.com – by Madison Underwood
BuzzFeed – by Cate Sevilla
CBS Atlanta
Fox News
Disinfo – by Matt Staggs
Politico – by JOSH GERSTEIN
ABC News