From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli police have widened a probe into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already under investigation in a graft case that has shaken the country’s politics, media reports said.
Police are now looking into two other matters related to Netanyahu, Channel 10 television reported on Monday night. Continue reading “Police probe of Israel’s Netanyahu widens: report”
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed three high-level presidential directives on Monday, but they weren’t executive orders.
Instead, they were styled as presidential memoranda, an increasingly common but lesser known expression of presidential power that came to replace many executive orders under President Obama. Continue reading “Trump signed presidential memoranda, not executive orders: Here’s the difference”
The Atlantic – by JENNIE ROTHENBERG GRITZ, November, 2011
On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones and more than 900 members of his People’s Temple committed mass suicide in the jungle of Guyana. Since that time, the event has occupied a grotesque but fringy place in American history. Jones’s followers are imagined as wide-eyed innocents, swallowing his outrageous teachings along with his cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Teri Buford O’Shea remembers things quite differently.
Continue reading “Drinking the Kool-Aid: A Survivor Remembers Jim Jones”
The Daily Beast – by Dean Obeidallah, February 18, 2014
The question isn’t: Will conservatives push to enact laws based on the Bible? We are way beyond that. The real questions are: 1. How many more of these laws do they want to impose? And, 2. What will our nation look like if their crusade is successful to bring America’s laws into agreement with “God’s law”?
To some on the right, America is a “Christian nation”—like Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation—meaning that our nation’s laws should be based on their religious text. These forces aren’t moved by Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter in which he spoke of the need to create, “a wall of separation between church and state.” Nor will they be swayed by citing Ronald Reagan’s words, “Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”
Continue reading “Flashback: The Conservative Crusade For Christian Sharia Law”
An Ohio father and son accused of imprisoning and raping a teenager in their basement will serve as their own attorneys – with a Bible in hand.
Timothy Ciboro and his son Esten Ciboro, 28, asked a judge Friday whether they would be permitted to bring their Bible with them when the trial begins Monday, the Toledo Blade reports. Continue reading “Ohio father and son accused of imprisoning, raping teen in basement bringing Bible to their trial”
It had been a long time since I had visited my alma mater, the U.S. Air Force Academy, so I decided to bite the bullet and travel to my 30th reunion last October. I must admit, I did so with trepidation. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. Although I received a fantastic education and met some lifelong friends, it’s a nice place to visit, if you know what I mean. Continue reading “The United States Air Force Academy Doesn’t Train Warriors Anymore.”
Gamblers around the world are betting Donald Trump’s term in office will be cut short, ending in impeachment or his resignation, with the new president entering the White House amid controversy over conflicts of interest and investigations into his teams ties to Russia.
Popular online gambling site Paddy Power is giving 7/4 odds on Trump not completing his first term, and 4/1 on Trump being impeached within six months. These are favorable odds that are drawing large amounts of money from gamblers willing to risk a little for what could be a decent payout. Continue reading “Gamblers Are Making Big Bets Against Donald Trump”
Donald Trump is preparing to sign executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to take the opening steps to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama’s policies.
Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8 to succeed Democrat Obama, arrived in Washington on a military plane with his family a day before he will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. Continue reading “Executive actions ready to go as Trump prepares to take office”
Jewish community centers around the country were again targeted with bomb threats Wednesday morning, a week after a spate of similar threats against many centers.
Centers in Miami, Newton, Massachusetts, Scotch Plains, New Jersey, California’s Bay Area, and Portland, Maine, were targeted. Two centers in Connecticut, one at the JCC of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge and another at The Mandell JCC West Hartford, also reported receiving bomb threats. Continue reading “New Bomb Threats Against Jewish Community Centers Across US Raise Alarms”
HEAVY explosions and damaging gunfire are no longer the answer to modern warfare, with the armed forces developing a new weapon capable of crippling an entire enemy city.
The US Army is currently working on a non-explosive electromagnetic pulse artillery shell, which would be capable of rendering a wide range of electronics, critical infrastructure, and computer-based systems as useless. Continue reading “America’s scary new secret weapon could cripple an entire enemy city without any physical damage”
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s upgraded ballistic missile shield became operational on Wednesday, in a “Star Wars”-like extension of its capabilities to outer space where incoming missiles can be safely destroyed.
The Defence Ministry said the U.S.-funded Arrow 3 system, jointly developed by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and U.S. firm Boeing Co. , was handed over the Israeli Air Force. Continue reading “Israel deploys ‘Star Wars’ missile killer system”
By William Ralph Emerson
What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng? Continue reading “A Nation’s Strength”
The U.S. intelligence community recently reaffirmed its conclusion that senior officials in Russia were behind hacks during the 2016 presidential campaign into the Democratic National Committee and emails belonging to associates of Hillary Clinton.
But what exactly is the “intelligence community?” It’s not just an amorphous term for all U.S. intelligence officials. It’s a veritable alphabet soup of 17 agencies and offices. The group includes agencies strictly focused on intelligence as well as the intelligence arms of other government agencies and of the military. Its total budget in 2015 was $66.8 billion.
Continue reading “A look at the 17 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community”