From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
WELLINGTON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) — Dozens of aftershocks have rattled central New Zealand overnight following Saturday’s 6.6 magnitude quake, as the capital of Wellington got back to business and South Island town of Seddon, where most of the quakes were centered, started its clean up.
There have been 44 quakes over magnitude 4.0 since Friday’s 6.6- magnitude quake, New Zealand government geological website GeoNet said. Continue reading “Aftershocks continue to rattle central New Zealand”
Washington Examiner – by ASHE SCHOW
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., an ardent opponent of the National Security Agency’s bulk private-data collection program, said the latest revelations in the controversy came because “this is what happens when you have secret laws.”
Amash’s comment appeared on his Facebook page and Twitter, condemning the NSA for, as reported by the Washington Post, violating privacy rules thousands of times and “accidentally” targeted Americans, something supporters of the program claim didn’t happen. Continue reading “Justin Amash on latest NSA scandal: ‘This is what happens when you have secret laws’”
With big profits on the line, the drug industry is pulling out campaign-style dirty tricks to keep selling the meds that cooks turn into crank.
THE FIRST TIME she saw her mother passed out on the living room floor, Amanda thought she was dead. There were muddy tracks on the carpet and the room looked like it had been ransacked. Mary wouldn’t wake up. When she finally came to, she insisted nothing was wrong. But as the weeks passed, her 15-year-old daughter’s sense of foreboding grew. Amanda’s parents stopped sleeping and eating. Her once heavy mother turned gaunt and her father, Barry, stopped going to work. She was embarrassed to go into town with him; he was covered in open sores. A musty stink gripped their increasingly chaotic trailer. The driveway filled up with cars as strangers came to the house and partied all night. Continue reading “Merchants of Meth: How Big Pharma Keeps the Cooks in Business”
I ask you to please show this list to as many people as possible – and especially, to please show it to as many Obama supporters as possible. Sunshine really is the best disinfectant. I can’t stop Obama from doing any of these horrible things, but I can tell people about what he is doing. So please share this list with others on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Thank you. The short link for this is http://tinyurl.com/ku9vxug Continue reading “Obama supporters will go hysterical over this well sourced list of 252 examples of his lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc.”
Spiegel Online – by Friederike Heine
Germany is set to become the first country in Europe to introduce a third, “indeterminate” gender designation on birth certificates. The European Union, which is attempting to coordinate anti-discrimination efforts across member states, is lagging behind on the issue.
The option of selecting “blank”, in addition to the standard choices of “male” or female” on birth certificates will become available in Germany from November 1. The legislative change allows parents to opt out of determining their baby’s gender, thereby allowing those born with characteristics of both sexes to choose whether to become male or female in later life. Under the new law, individuals can also opt to remain outside the gender binary altogether. Continue reading “M, F or Blank: ‘Third Gender’ Official in Germany from November”
Via: United States Patent 8,254,902:
As wireless devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, personal media devices and smartphones become ubiquitous, more and more people are carrying these devices in various social and professional settings. The result is that these wireless devices can often annoy, frustrate, and even threaten people in sensitive venues. Continue reading “Apple Patents Kill Switch for Mobile Devices Because: “Covert Police or Government Operations May Require Complete ‘Blackout’ Conditions.””
Washington Examiner – by JOEL GEHRKE
Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, invited a rodeo clown banned from the Missouri State Fair for a performance featuring an Obama mask to take the show to the Lone Star State.
“I’m sure any rodeo in Texas would be proud to have performers,” Stockman said in a statement today. “Disagreeing with speech is one thing. Banning it and ordering citizens into reeducation classes for mocking a liberal leader is another.” Continue reading “Congressman invites rodeo clown to perform Obama act in Texas”
Washington Examiner – by CHARLIE SPIERING
In the wake of ‘Clown-gate’ at the Missouri State Fair, it appears that professional rodeo clowns will think twice before mocking the president.
But in 1994, Douglas A. Campbell, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer chronicled a rodeo clown even featuring George H.W. Bush. Continue reading “In 1994, there was a ‘George Bush’ rodeo clown dummy”
from the either-you-help-us-spy-on-people-or-you’re-a-criminal dept
The saga of Lavabit founder Ladar Levison is getting even more ridiculous, as he explains that the government has threatened him with criminal charges for his decision to shut down the business, rather than agree to some mysterious court order. The feds are apparently arguing that the act of shutting down the business, itself, was a violation of the order: Continue reading “Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service”
Ad found on Yahoo
Yahoo News – by Kami Dimitrova | ABC News Blogs
An Ohio man expected the gun safe he ordered online to be empty, police said.
But instead, he found $425,000-worth of tightly wrapped marijuana bricks inside.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 47 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Shelby County, Ohio, Sheriff John L. Lenhartsaid. “It’s quite effective if you think about it: wrapped airtight to withstand high temperatures. Drug-sniffing dogs probably couldn’t smell it.” Continue reading “Ohio Man Orders Empty Gun Safe, Finds 300 Pounds of Pot Inside”
Defence One – by Aliya Sternstein
He works at one of the three-letter intelligence agencies and oversees construction of a $1.2 billion surveillance data center in Utah that is 15 times the size of MetLife Stadium, home to the New York Giants and Jets. Long Island native Harvey Davis, a top National Security Agency official, needs that commanding presence. His role is to supervise infrastructure construction worldwide for NSA, which is part of the Defense Department. That involves tending to logistics, military installations, as well as power, space and cooling for all NSA data centers. Continue reading “The NSA’s New Spy Facilities are 7 Times Bigger Than the Pentagon”
Even the tiniest mistake during an operation to extract over 1,300 fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan could lead to a series of cascading failures with an apocalyptic outcome, fallout researcher Christina Consolo told RT.
Fukushima operator TEPCO wants to extract 400 tons worth of spent fuel rods stored in a pool at the plant’s damaged Reactor No. 4. The removal would have to be done manually from the top store of the damaged building in the radiation-contaminated environment. Continue reading “Fukushima apocalypse: Years of ‘duct tape fixes’ could result in ‘millions of deaths’”
THE Israeli army has fired into Syria after shells from the neighbouring country hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, a military spokesman says.
“Today, several shells fired from Syria landed in the central Golan heights, adjacent to the Israel-Syria border,” he told AFP on Saturday. Continue reading “Israel retaliates after Syria shells hit”
Wake Up America – by Susan Duclos
A Texas woman in the Cloverleaf area of East Harris County accused a Texas Sheriff’s deputy of raping her while her three youngchildren were in the apartment, according to the first video news report seen below. In the second news report, it is said the cop resigned.
The woman’s name was released because she wanted her story to be known. Her name is Lisa Rodriguez and she claimed that her three daughters were inside the apartment when the deputy showed up to question her about making harassing phone calls, insisted she go upstairs with him, raped her and left. Continue reading “Cop Accused Of Raping Mother In Front Of Her Children, Resigns (Video Reports)”
Xinhua News
Mother Jones – by Jonah Engle
Dan from Squirrel Hill’s Blog
Cryptogon
Tech Dirt -by Mike Masnick
RT News
News.com.au