From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Defense One – by Patrick Tucker
Virtually every country on Earth will be able to build or acquire drones capable of firing missiles within the next ten years. Armed aerial drones will be used for targeted killings, terrorism and the government suppression of civil unrest. What’s worse, say experts, it’s too late for the United States to do anything about it. Continue reading “Every Country Will Have Armed Drones Within Ten Years”
AlterNet – by Martha Rosenberg
There is good news and bad news when it comes to the nation’s decade-long opioid/heroin addiction epidemic. The good news is the government has cracked down on pill mills, strengthened warnings on pill labels and approved an injectable form of naloxone which reverses heroin overdoses and will reduce deaths in the hands of caregivers and police.
The bad news is on the same day the FDA announced plans to tighten restrictions on hydrocodone combination products like Vicodin, it approved the long-acting drug Zohydro made from hydrocodone bitartrate which has five to 10 times the abuse potential of the infamous OxyContin. The FDA did so over the objections of many medical and public health groups and its own advisory committee. And even as public health professionals are outraged by the FDA’s tin ear and refusal to learn from the opioid addiction epidemic, a pill that combines oxycodone with morphine is also inching its waytoward approval. Continue reading “Who Is Behind the Pain Killer Epidemic? Big Pharma, Of Course”
Villagers in west Sri Lanka have said they have been surprised and delighted by an unusual rainfall of small fish.
The edible fish fell during a storm and are believed to have been lifted out of a river during a strong wind.
Villagers in the district of Chilaw said they heard something heavy falling and found scores of fish with a total weight of 50kg (110lbs). Continue reading “Fish rain down on Sri Lanka village”
Anyone who looks carefully behind the veil of words cannot find democracy in America. For years I have been writing that the US government is no longer accountable to law or to the people (see, for example, my book, How America Was Lost). The Constitution has been set aside, and the executive branch is degenerating into Caesarism.
Government is used to impose agendas that result from the symbiotic relationship between the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony and the economic interests of powerful private interest groups, such as Wall Street, the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and extractive industries (energy, mining, and timber). Dollar imperialism, threats, bribes, and wars are means by which US hegemony is extended. These agendas are pursued without the knowledge or approval of the American people and in spite of their opposition.
During a May 6th speech at a National Council for Behavioral Health conference, while making the case that gun laws are far too lenient and need to be “reined in,” Hillary Clinton asserted, “We’re way out of balance” on guns.
According to the National Journal, “Clinton said she supports Second Amendment rights, [but] she added that there needs to be a proper trade-off between safety and freedom.” Continue reading “Hillary Clinton: Gun Law are too Lenient, Must be ‘Reined In’”
An idea the government has been kicking around since 2011 is finally making its debut. Calling this move ill-timed would be the most gracious way of putting it.
A few years back, the White House had a brilliant idea: Why not create a single, secure online ID that Americans could use to verify their identity across multiple websites, starting with local government services. The New York Times described it at the time as a “driver’s license for the internet.”
Sound convenient? It is. Sound scary? It is. Continue reading “US Government Begins Rollout Of Its ‘Driver’s License For The Internet’”
If a New Hampshire man thinks cops lie, he’s free to say so on his license plate, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday.
In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court agreed with the arguments of David Montenegro, who wanted the vanity plate reading “COPSLIE” to protest what he calls government corruption. Continue reading “Court rules state violated free speech in ‘COPSLIE’ license plate case”
A new US military project looking to combine a ground vehicle and a helicopter has been generating online buzz. The new technology, which so far has surpassed initial expectations, could well be performing rescue and supply missions in the future.
Advanced Tactics, an El Segundo, California-based aerospace engineering company that specializes in the “development of next-generation military and civil vehicle technologies,” released a new video Tuesday of the “Black Knight.” Part transport vehicle and part helicopter, the Black Knight is categorized as a so-called “transforming vehicle” that hopes to function on the ground and in the air. Continue reading “DARPA’s flying Humvee project takes flight”
Celebrity-stacked Beverly Hills has become the first municipality in California to ban the practice of hydraulic fracking, or fracking, along with acidization and other extreme well stimulation techniques.
The initial push for legislation happened last month and was confirmed by Tuesday’s city council vote, which was unanimous. The law will come into effect June 6, Reuters reported. Continue reading “Fracking banned in Beverly Hills – a first for California”
Forbes – by Ryan Mac and Brian Solomon
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group filedregistration documents on Tuesday to go public in the U.S. in what may be one of the biggest initial public offerings in American history.
While the average U.S. consumer may be unfamiliar with Alibaba and its operations, Tuesday’s F-1 filing gives a clearer look into a business that accounts for 80% off all Chinese e-commerce and will rank among the world’s largest technology firms–among them IBM IBM -0.34% and Oracle ORCL -0.98%–once it goes public. Analysts recently polled by Bloomberg News valued the company at nearly $170 billion, while some expect that valuation to surpass $250 billion, once it starts trading. Continue reading “Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba Files For IPO”
An agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been detained in Pakistan after allegedly attempting to bring a 9 millimeter pistol magazine and 15 bullets on board a plane in Karachi.
Officials told the Washington Post that the agent, whose name was not revealed, was taken into custody Monday afternoon upon trying to board a flight to Islamabad. Continue reading “FBI agent on sensitive job in Pakistan arrested on terrorism charges”
CARTHAGE, Texas (AP) — A former mortician whose killing of a rich widow shook an East Texas town and later inspired a movie is a free man after a judge agreed to reduce his life sentence and release him on bond.
Bernie Tiede’s freedom Tuesday was part of an agreement with the same district attorney who prosecuted him for the death of his 81-year-old longtime companion, Marjorie Nugent, who disappeared in 1996 and was found dead in a freezer in Carthage nine months later. Continue reading “Former mortician set free in Texas slaying case”
KALAMAZOO, MI — A family was terrorized and accosted when a masked paramilitary outfit unexpectedly broke through their back door. Frightened children hid in a closet as the masked invaders spent hours tearing apart all the possessions in the home. The family assumed they were being attacked by robbers, but it turned out to be a SWAT team sent from the local “Department of Public Safety.”
The incident happened on May 1st, and has been the source of continued nightmares for the two children who experienced it, ages 7 and 8. Continue reading “Kids traumatized after SWAT team ransacks wrong home”
Update: moments after we posted this, Putin did his best to bring attention to just this matter:
And naturally, since there will be no delay as Kiev does not even bother to discuss the referendum while Donetsk will push on but certainly aware of Putin’s distance-providing “reservation”, Putin will “sadly” have to accept the referendum results. Continue reading “The Next Big Catalyst: East Ukraine May Be Officially Indepedent In Seven Days”
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The family of a Texas teenager who killed four people in a drunken-driving wreck has agreed to pay more than $2 million to the family of a boy who was paralyzed in the accident, according to court documents detailing the first approved settlement in the case.
The liability insurer of Ethan Couch’s parents agreed to pay more than $1 million in cash and the rest in annuities to a trust established for Sergio E. Molina, who was among 12 people injured in the wreck last year near Fort Worth. Continue reading “‘Affluenza’ teen’s family to pay victim $2M”
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Authorities are looking into whether marijuana or alcohol played a role in the case of a Montana homeowner accused of setting a trap and killing a German exchange student in his garage.
A newly published court document reveals Missoula police received a judge’s permission to test whether homeowner Markus Kaarma was drunk or high when he shot and killed 17-year-old Diren Dede. Officers found a jar of pot in Kaarma’s home the day he shot the teen, a police statement accompanying an April 28 request for a search warrant said. Kaarma also might have had marijuana stolen from his garage in a previous burglary, the document said. Continue reading “Police: Pot might be factor in Montana killing”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Access to the White House complex was halted for about an hour Tuesday after a vehicle followed a motorcade carrying President Barack Obama’s daughters through the gates.
Uniformed agents immediately stopped the vehicle after it trailed in behind the motorcade at about 4:40 p.m. EDT, the Secret Service said. The driver, identified as Mathew Evan Goldstein, 55, was arrested and charged with unlawful entry. No hometown was given. Continue reading “Car follows motorcade in, White House locks down”
BBC
Paul Craig Roberts
Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins
Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing
WMUR
RT News
RT News
RT News
Mail.com
Police State USA
Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden
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