Lois LernerMail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a possible firing, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency’s tea party scandal retired Monday, ending one chapter in a ruckus that has engulfed the tax-collection agency since spring.

Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.   Continue reading “IRS official at heart of tea party scandal retires”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of immigrants crossing the border illegally into the U.S. appears to be on the rise again after dropping during the recession.

The total number of immigrants living in this country unlawfully edged up from 11.3 million in 2009 to 11.7 million last year, with those from countries other than Mexico at an apparent all-time high, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project.   Continue reading “New signs of rising illegal immigration into US”

Common Dreams – by Bill Quigley

While Colorado and Washington have de-criminalized recreational use of marijuana and twenty states allow use for medical purposes, a Louisiana man was sentenced to twenty years in prison in New Orleans criminal court for possessing 15 grams, .529 of an ounce, of marijuana.

Corey Ladd, 27, had prior drug convictions and was sentenced September 4, 2013 as a “multiple offender to 20 years hard labor at the Department of Corrections.”    Continue reading “Reefer Madness Continues: Half Ounce of Pot Gets Louisiana Man Twenty Years in Prison”

Are you ready for total grid failureThe Organic Prepper

If you haven’t been in a bubble cut off from all forms of media lately, it would be impossible to have missed all of the warnings being issued about the impending loss of our electrical grid.

This isn’t just coming from so-called “gloom and doom” sites or from alternative media.  Major mainstream media sources such as ABC News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CBS News have all issued the alerts. Unfortunately, the hordes seem to be brushing these warnings off as something that cannot happen, because the reality is too unpleasant to even contemplate.  Many seem to think that they are far better to stick their heads in the sand and be assured it can never happen than to prepare ahead of time.   Continue reading “You’ve Been Warned: Why You Need to Be Ready for Total Grid Failure”

ABC News – by RICARDO CHAVEZ Associated Press

A gunman burst into a home east of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez where people were celebrating a baseball victory and killed 10 people, authorities said Monday.

The killings occurred Sunday night in Loma Blanca, a town in the Juarez Valley. The dead included a 7-year-old girl, her mother, three teenage boys and five adult men, said Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office.   Continue reading “10 Killed in Massacre Near Mexican Border City”

Max Velocity Tactical

What is my point?

It is this: ‘IT’ will never happen when you expect it to happen. Expect ‘dislocation of expectations’. Expect surprise. Be aware of the danger of denial. You may be taking a dump over a cat hole out in the woods with your pants down around your ankles, when ‘Contact!’ is shouted. Snap it off and get going!

I realize that I have run a couple of ‘reality call’ posts recently  (‘Reality Check: All the Gear No Idea‘ & ‘SHTF Combat Casualty – Considerations & Realities‘) and to a certain extent they can be a little depressing. This post is also about getting a grip with reality, but if you keep reading, I aim to end it on a lighter note, with a little bit of morale.   Continue reading “There will be no theme music”

Mail.com

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — They face parole hearings soon, but ex-Tyco executives Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz have already left a minimum-security prison in Harlem for steady clerical jobs and overnights in apartments following their headline-grabbing $134 million corporate fraud convictions.

Former CEO Kozlowski and ex-chief financial officer Swartz are among 304 inmates in the state’s work-release program, according to prison officials. After a period where they spent nights or weekends back at Lincoln Correctional Facility, they have only had to report in weekly since July.   Continue reading “Ex-Tyco execs out of prison, face parole hearings”

Mail.com

BERLIN (AP) — The fingerprint-based security system used to unlock Apple’s latest iPhone can be bypassed using a household printer and some wood glue, a German hacking group has claimed.

A spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club said the group managed to fool the biometric sensor in the iPhone 5S over the weekend by creating an artificial copy of a genuine fingerprint. “It was surprisingly easy,” Dirk Engling told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday, a day after the group announced the exploit on its website.   Continue reading “German group claims iPhone fingerprint hack”

Screen shot 2012-09-18 at 12.51.34 PMCongressman Keith Ellison

“A lot of people in Washington like to talk about reducing the debt and deficits. Well if you really care about reducing the deficit, how about asking Wall Street speculators to pay their fair share? This bill will add a tax of a fraction of a percent on transactions made by the same Wall Street firms and stock traders who crashed our economy in 2008. This tax alone will generate up to $300 billion a year in revenue, stabilizing the deficit and allowing us to invest in the things that matter—education, roads and bridges, and health care for our seniors and veterans.”- Rep. Keith Ellison   Continue reading “The Inclusive Prosperity Act”

Right Wing Watch – by Brian Tashman

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, now with the Family Research Council, said that the House GOP’s massive food stamp cuts that could remove around 4 million people from the program next year was an act of Christian compassion.

While many churches and Christians organizations denounced the move, Blackwell told the Christian Post that there was “nothing more Christian” than kicking low-income families off food stamps. He referred to food aid as part of the “plantation of big government” and said that churches and charitable organization will replace such government assistance.   Continue reading “FRC: ‘Nothing More Christian’ Than Massive Food Stamp Cut”

The Jewish Daily Forward

The top security official for Jewish organizations was named to a consulting body to the Department of Homeland Security.

Paul Goldenberg, the director of the Secure Community Network, was appointed to a three-year term on the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The Jewish Federations of North America, a sponsor of the SCN, announced Goldenberg’s appointment on Monday, which was made by Janet Napolitano before she resigned earlier this month as secretary of Homeland Security.  Continue reading “Jewish ‘Expert’ Named to Homeland Security Panel”

Image from flickr.com user@uneditedmediaRT News

Hundreds of protesters gathered in a North Dakota town on Sunday to speak out against plans by an American Nazi group to buy up property and take over the local government in an effort to build a bastion against diversity.

About 300 protesters, including some 200 Native Americans from nearby reservations, gathered outside the Leith City Hall where Jeff Schoep, leader of the National Socialist Movement presented his plans for turning the tiny North Dakota town  – population 24 – into a segregated place where whites can live among themselves.    Continue reading “‘Go home!’ Hundreds protest neo-Nazi plan for ‘whites only’ town in North Dakota”

The drive to raise $2000 for the Live 365 for Liberty Tree Radio has been a success.  This labor has been accomplished via the unselfish contribution of free individual US nationals and indeed freedom loving listeners in other countries around the world.  The success in our endeavor is no doubt causing aggravation and worry among our enemies as they see our power through unity, increasing exponentially day by day.

Liberty Tree Radio is becoming very powerful as is From the Trenches World Report, and we have accomplished this status as free individuals advocating for our Bill of Rights.  No one has joined any collective and is not bound by any collective ideology, as our absolute assertion is individual freedom and liberty, possessed and maintained through the assertion of individual will.  Continue reading “A Salute to the Individuals Fighting in the Trenches”

Recently, I have been shopping for a new computer and have been looking for any computer that does not have Windows 8, as I am an American and I FREELY CHOOSE to NOT want that operating system on my computer. I am fully aware of all of the bugs in the new operating system, including the fact that Microsoft has a default setting in their system that allows the NSA to go in, view and copy any information on your computer to be used against you WITHOUT your explicit authorization and going against any or all privacy laws.

Microsoft’s basically uses the pathetic excuse, “Well, we already had the default setting checked in order to prevent us from giving any information to the government before and no one knew about it in our earlier operating systems, so we are just going to leave that default unchecked and the user can have the option to check it if they want.”   Continue reading “Microsoft Forcing People To Accept Windows 8 and NSA’s Prism Technology”

Kerry Says UN Must Act Next Week on Syria Weapons

Boolmberg – by Nicole Gaouette

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid the groundwork for President Barack Obama’s speech at the United Nations tomorrow by meeting with Arab officials to discuss Syria, Egypt, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Kerry is in New York this week to join diplomats and world leaders who are taking up issues from development and disease to global conflict at the annual opening of the UN General Assembly. The bulk of his time and attention may be focused on tensions between the U.S. and Russia over terms for Syria’s handover of its chemical weapons.   Continue reading “Kerry Sets Stage for Obama Visit to UN With Mideast Meetings”

Activist Post

In an effort to restore the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, 11th Ward Councilman Anton Konev of the Albany, NY Common Council, has introduced Resolution 80.92.13, the strongest resolution in the nation, designed to protect Albany’s citizens from any application of sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), or the Law of War in the City of Albany.   Continue reading “Albany, NY Introduces Strongest Resolution in America Against NDAA”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks in Moscow, on 16 September, 2013.BBC News

Russia can send its military personnel to help in the proposed operation to eliminate Syria’s chemical arms, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says.

Mr Lavrov told Russian TV that military observers could help Syria destroy its stockpiles under a US-Russian deal.   Continue reading “Russian offers troops to help remove Syria chemical arms”

34 Ways to Use Duct Tape for Survival Backdoor SurvivalBackdoor Suvival – by Gary Levy

I have always claimed – and not altogether jokingly – that you could build a house with Elmer’s glue and Duct Tape.  Both items are readily available, relatively inexpensive and easy to tote around.  I will set aside the Elmer’s for another time, though.  Today, I thought it would be fun to look as some of the practical uses of duct tape around the house, camping and of course, in a survival situation.   Continue reading “34 Ways to Use Duct Tape for Survival”