Tom Dispatch – by Nick Turse

You can find them in dusty, sunbaked badlands, moist tropical forests, and the salty spray of third-world littorals. Standing in judgement, buffeted by the rotor wash of a helicopter or sweltering beneath the relentless desert sun, theyinstruct, yell, and cajole as skinnier men playact under their watchful eyes. In many places, more than their particular brand of camouflage, better boots, and designer gear sets them apart. Their days are scented by stale sweat and gunpowder; their nights are spent in rustic locales or third-world bars.   Continue reading “U.S. Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations”

Thanks to Enemy of the State.

Business Insider – by Miles Udland

Caterpillar has some bad news.

On Thursday, the industrial giant announced plans for it to cut as many as 10,000 jobs as part of a restructuring plan in the face of what it called “a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors — namely in mining and energy.”   Continue reading “CATERPILLAR WARNS: Bad news is ‘converging’ and now we have to make some major changes”

Breitbart – by John Hayward, September 18, 2015

Even the most energetic free-trade enthusiast can find a few things to be queasy about in Bloomberg Businessweek’s announcement of a major joint venture to build a Chinese bullet train connecting Los Angeles with Las Vegas:

A China Railway Group-led consortium and XpressWest Enterprises LLC will form a joint venture to build a high-speed railway linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the first Chinese-made bullet-train project in the U.S. Continue reading “Chinese to Build Bullet Train From LA to Las Vegas”

Thanks to Enemy of the State.

Yahoo News

The FBI has arrested a politically prominent Chinese millionaire, the alleged secret source of foreign money in a campaign finance scandal during the Clinton administration, on charges he lied about why he brought more than $4.5 million in cash into the United States over the last two years.   Continue reading “FBI Arrests Chinese Millionaire Once Tied to Clinton $$ Scandal”

New York Daily News – by Rachelle Blidner

A Florida cop once named “Officer of the Year” was arrested by federal agents for distributing child porn — and uploading the smut on the job, court documents show.

Port St. Lucie Officer Michael Harding was charged Wednesday with sending and receiving child porn after undercover Homeland Security investigators discovered his filth-ridden account on the app Kik messenger, authorities said.   Continue reading “Florida ‘Officer of the Year’ arrested for child porn”

RT

If something looks like a cockroach and behaves like a cockroach – well, don’t be so sure. It could be a Russia-created miniature robot which can spy and find people trapped under debris. Scientists say this is the smallest roach robot ever.

Russian scientists from the Kaliningrad-based Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University have presented a prototype of a 100-percent machine cockroach robot that they have developed for a company whose name hasn’t been disclosed.   Continue reading “New cockroach robot may save lives … and spy”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was poised to vote on legislation that would keep the government open beyond next Wednesday’s deadline, but at a price Democrats are certain to reject: stripping taxpayer money from Planned Parenthood.

The stopgap spending bill, which would keep the government operating through Dec. 11, was expected to fail in Thursday’s vote. On Thursday, the White House issued a statement that President Barack Obama would veto it anyway, saying it “would limit access to health care for women, men, and families across the Nation, and disproportionately impact low-income individuals.”   Continue reading “Democrats poised to filibuster stopgap funding measure”

Mail.com

CHICAGO (AP) — An effort to identify remains of young men killed by John Wayne Gacy in the 1970s has led to a break in the case of a teenager found shot to death in San Francisco 36 years ago, the latest in nearly a dozen cases either advanced or closed by the attempt to match DNA with exhumed Gacy victims.

The Cook County Sheriff’s office announced Wednesday that DNA tests revealed a “genetic association” between the remains of the teen, Andre “Andy” Drath, and his half-sister, Dr. Willa Wertheimer, who submitted her DNA to the office in 2011.   Continue reading “Gacy exhumations help identify another unrelated victim”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five-year-old Sophie Cruz made her way through a security fence and was just feet from Pope Francis’ popemobile during a short parade around the White House when she hesitated.

Clutching a yellow T-shirt and a note about immigration, she was someplace she wasn’t supposed to be. The uniformed security officer and another in a suit coming toward her probably seemed intimidating. It wasn’t until Francis himself motioned to her that she relented and let a security agent carry her to side of the open-air Jeep.   Continue reading “Pope’s security faces Capitol test after parade incident”

The Daily Bell – by Shane Smith

A seven-year old story that occurred in Prince George’s County, Maryland, has stuck in my mind more firmly than any other as an example of the indiscriminate barbarism that can happen at the hands of the police state’s knuckle-draggers.

The story is this: A package deemed suspicious by law enforcement was delivered to the address of the Berwyn Heights mayor, Cheye Calvo. SWAT waited in black SUVs for Calvo to return from walking his dogs, around 7pm. Once Calvo arrived home with his dogs, the SWAT team did just what you would expect them to do: broke down the door with a battering ram while screaming, and immediately gunned down Calvo’s two dogs, Payton and Chase. They pointed guns at everyone, threatened death multiple times and trashed his house. The family was held for four hours until the cops realized they had just raided the mayor’s house.   Continue reading “Canine Lives Matter”

ABC News – by MEGHAN KENEALLY

Pope Francis isn’t above sharing the spotlight with others.

The pontiff structured much of his historic speech to Congress by highlighting the work and lives of four Americans.

Two are universally known — President Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — while two others may prompt a flurry of Google searches. Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and known socialist, and Thomas Merton, a U.S. Catholic writer.   Continue reading “Read Pope Francis’ Historic Speech to Congress”

MassPrivateI

DHS/Coast Guard want to track EVERY boat to improve “navigational safety”.

“The Coast Guard’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS) enhances maritime domain awareness with a focus on improving security, navigational safety, search and rescue, and environmental protection services.”  

“The NAIS program exceeds the stated purpose of marine safety and constitutes an ongoing risk to the privacy and civil liberties of mariners across the United States.”   Continue reading “DHS is creating a nationwide boat tracking system”

AP – by MATTHEW BROWN and MATT VOLZ

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Before the applause faded from the U.S. government’s announcement that there would be no endangered species protections for the greater sage grouse, the criticism began over wide-reaching federal conservation plans meant to protect the bird’s habitat across 11 Western states.

The land-use plans were released Tuesday after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said additional federal protections weren’t needed for the ground-dwelling bird that’s seen its habitat shrink due to oil and gas drilling, grazing and other human activity.   Continue reading “With no protections for Western bird, focus is on land-use”

Thanks to Enemy of the State.

Newsmax

Hillary Clinton — believing leaks by President Barack Obama staff’s triggered the federal probe of her private email account — ripped into the commander in chief, telling him, during a tense meeting, “What I want for you to do is call off your f–king dogs, Barack!”    Continue reading “Hillary Screams at Obama: ‘Call Off Your F-ing Dogs’”

Huffington Post – by Ryan J. Reilly, Amber Ferguson

WASHINGTON — “What if I don’t have the money?” the man asked the judge. He was in court because he hadn’t completed the 32 hours of community service he’d agreed to serve as part of a plea deal for a minor offense, and he couldn’t afford to pay his $320 fine.

The defendant was hoping for a deferred sentence — for a bit more time to get the funds together or to complete his community service. No such luck.

“You go to jail,” the judge replied. Continue reading “New Hampshire Judges Send Poor People To Jail”

EAG News – by Victor Skinner

LANCASTER, Calif. – The Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency is using biometric iris scanners on special needs buses to prevent tragedies like the recent death of an autistic student who was abandoned on his school bus.

Hun Joon “Paul” Lee, a 19-year-old autistic student, was left on a contracted school bus in a district parking lot for hours Sept. 11, when he was found unresponsive laying in the aisle. A substitute driver picked him up at 8:30 a.m. and his parents believe he never got off the bus. Lee’s mother realized something was wrong when his bus didn’t arrive after school, NBC Los Angeles reports.   Continue reading “School district implements iris scanners on buses after student’s death”

NBC News – by Phil Helsel

A Tucson scrap yard cutter was killed when he cut into a military bomb that exploded, authorities said.

The employee who was killed was not identified. A Tucson police officer was flagged down at around 12:45 p.m. local time (3:45 p.m. ET) and told of an explosion at Tucson Iron and Metal, Tucson police said.   Continue reading “Man Killed While Cutting Into Military Ordnance at Tuscon Scrap Yard”

Fox News

JERUSALEM –  Israel has set up a joint mechanism with the Russian military to coordinate their operations in Syria and avoid any accidental confrontations, a senior Israel military official said Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of military regulations, said that teams headed by each of the militaries’ deputy chiefs will hold their first meeting in two weeks and will discuss coordination of aerial, naval and electromagnetic operations around Syria.   Continue reading “Israeli military says it is coordinating operations with Russia in Syria”