From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
WikiLeaks has released the fifth batch of emails from the private account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, containing 673 messages.
This is the first time the whistleblower website has published two batches of the Podesta emails in the same day, following the release of 1,193 messages earlier on Wednesday. Continue reading “Wikileaks releases batch 5 of Podesta emails”
Yahoo News – by Meghan Keneally
Two Republican senators who turned against Donald Trump after the release of a damning 2005 video appear to have reversed their positions.
The first to do was Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who had called for Trump to step aside and cede the GOP nomination to his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence. She now says she will vote for Trump. Continue reading “Republican Senators Who Urged Donald Trump to Step Aside Support Him Again”
The Guardian – by Julia Carie Wong
A tent on a sidewalk is the only place thousands of San Franciscans have to call home. But if a few of the city’s tech billionaires and millionaires have their way, even that shelter could be taken away.
Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz, tech angel investor Ron Conway, and hedge-fund investor William Oberndorf have donated $49,999 apiece to a divisive ballot measure intended to clear San Francisco’s streets of homeless encampments, according to campaign filings. Continue reading “Wealthy San Francisco tech investors bankroll bid to ban homeless camps”
When, after 20 years, the U.S. government finally updated its numbers of the estimated number of people who entered the country legally and overstayed their visas, the information was sobering.
The Homeland Security Department said 527,127 people who were supposed to leave the country in the 2015 fiscal year overstayed, more than the population of Atlanta. And that was only those who entered by plane or ship, not by land. Continue reading “Overlooked fact in the immigration debate: The 500K visa overstays per year”
The Washington Post – by Christopher Ingraham
The Drug Enforcement Administration is reversing a widely criticized decision that would have banned the use of kratom, a plant that researchers say could help mitigate the effects of the opioid epidemic.
Citing the public outcry and a need to obtain more research, the DEA is withdrawing its notice of intent to ban the drug, according to a preliminary document that will be posted to the Federal Register Thursday. Continue reading “The DEA is withdrawing a proposal to ban another plant after the Internet got really mad”
Initial findings showed the small plane crash that killed a Jordanian national and injured another man in Connecticut was “an intentional act,” The National Transportation Safety Board announced in a statement Wednesday, adding that the FBI would the lead in the investigation with the NTSB assisting.
The unnamed man who survived the crash Tuesday afternoon also told investigators the wreck was not an accident, East Hartford Mayor Marcia Leclerc told The Associated Press. That man was in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital, but was able to speak to detectives, officials said. Continue reading “Investigation shows deadly small plane crash in Connecticut was intentional, NTSB finds”
A Los Angeles Police Department detective who was investigating rape allegations against NBA star Derrick Rose died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said Wednesday.
Officers found LAPD Det. Nadine Hernandez, 44, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the chest Tuesday afternoon in a Whittier home, according to the Whittier Police Department. She was transported to a local hospital where she later died. Continue reading “Death of LAPD detective investigating Derrick Rose rape allegations called likely suicide”
Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish
Months of disquieting and needless escalation between the United States and Russia over Syria and the Asia-Pacific theater quickened feverishly to near outright hostility over the past 48 hours, and — considering semantics from both ends suggestive of antebellum blame-casting — it’s past time to pay attention.
Indeed, though a few analysts still dismissively liken the tensions to so much blustery rhetoric, a growing number contend obstinate U.S. posturing about Russian aggression hasn’t been taken so lightly by President Vladimir Putin and his rapidly amassing allies. Continue reading “Time to Pay Attention — In the Last 48 Hours, Humanity Just Moved to the Brink of World War”
Colin Kaepernick has been abstaining from standing for the national anthem. Self-styled patriots have been losing their minds over it. That is because they are true believers in a cult. The cult is the State.
All states are cults: religions. And like all religions, states have sacraments, including holy rituals. The national anthem is one of the holy ritual sacraments of the cult of the American State. Those fully initiated and indoctrinated in that cult have been programmed to go into attack mode when divergent cult members (heretics) fail to observe such sacraments, like the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance to the holy pole cloth. Such peer pressure is how cults maintain their numbers. Continue reading “Thinking About Voting? Read This First”
Homicides in gun-controlled Chicago so far this year are approaching 600 following another weekend of firearm-related death and mayhem.
The Chicago Tribune reports that “at least 35” people were shot and wounded and another five were shot and killed between 6 pm Friday, October 7, and the morning of October 10. “Four people were shot within six blocks of each other over one hour Sunday night.” Continue reading “2016 Homicides Approaching 600 in Gun-Controlled Chicago”
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Tax Revolution Institute – by Fergus Hodgson
A small Central American nation has achieved such a clear victory for taxpayer rights, it should make the Internal Revenue Service blush.
Costa Rica not only prohibits the taking of assets in tax audits, the Constitutional Court has struck down the collection of penalties and adjustments in the absence of a trial and conviction in the Administrative Tax Court. As reported in El Financiero, the ruling came on August 31 and nullified Article 144 of the national Tax Code. Continue reading “Costa Rica Strikes Down Asset Seizures, Puts IRS to Shame”
Natural Society – by Julie Fidler
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued new warnings recently aimed at both men and women for avoiding transmission of the Zika virus. [1]
On September 30 the CDC said, among other things, that pregnant women should consider postponing travel to 11 Southeast Asian countries where Zika is spreading, and shored up its warnings for men who are considering having children. Continue reading “CDC Issues 2 Major Zika Advisories For Men And Women”
The UK government is not prepared for the imminent arrival of robots, which will “fundamentally” change lives, take over jobs and raise serious ethical issues, MPs have warned.
Artificial intelligence (AI) such as driverless cars and supercomputers that can help doctors with medical diagnoses will soon be the norm, the Science Technology Committee says, but the government’s role in preparing for the change is“lacking.” Continue reading “Robots are coming… and will ‘fundamentally’ change human life, MPs warn”
The attack on a UN humanitarian aid convoy near the Syrian city of Aleppo last month, which Washington has blamed on Russia, was actually carried out by one of the terrorist groups present in the area, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
“It was one of the terrorist groups. And we know that, say, the Americans know it too, but prefer to take a different position, to falsely accuse Russia. This is not helping,” Putin said at an economic forum in Moscow. Continue reading “Putin: We know who destroyed aid convoy in Aleppo, Syria”