There will be no broadcast of The Word From the Trenches today, I will not make it back from my dentist appointment in time.
I will be back up tomorrow.
At least 43 people were shot, seven fatally, in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend even as severe storms kept people indoors and 1,200 extra officers patrolled the streets.
The toll was slightly higher than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, when 39 people were shot, seven of them fatally, according to shooting data kept by the Tribune. In 2017, 45 people were shot, seven of them killed. And in 2016, 71 people shot, six of them fatally, in one of the most violent Memorial Day weekends in recent years. Continue reading “At least 43 people shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. ‘Unacceptable state of affairs,’ new mayor says”
A US governor has blamed Palestinians for Israel’s ongoing occupation of their land, just weeks before the United States plans to unveil the economic portion of its “deal of the century” peace plan.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a longtime supporter of Israel and a member of Donald Trump’s Republican Party, made his comments during a trade delegation visit to Israel this week. Continue reading “US governor blames Palestinians for ongoing Israeli occupation”
Palestinian school textbooks are once again under public scrutiny, this time after a report published by Israel’s Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) claimed that material was “more radical than previously published”. The EU has since confirmed that it will be funding an assessment to be carried out “by an independent and internationally recognised research institute.” Continue reading “The EU should be calling out Israeli colonialism for its violence and incitement”
The Israeli military wants the International Criminal Court to butt out of its affairs, its top military prosecutor has declared in response to efforts to hold it to account for its use of live fire against Palestinian protesters.
“Israel is a law-abiding country, with an independent and strong judicial system, and there is no reason for its actions to be scrutinized by the ICC,” Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, Israel’s military advocate, declared at an international conference on warfare laws in Herzliya. “The position of Israel is that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction to discuss the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Continue reading “Top IDF lawyer tells The Hague to back off, says Israel can probe own alleged war crimes”
Venezuela’s crippling economic spiral is having a negative impact on an unlikely group in society: criminals, who are struggling to afford bullets, and unable to find things to steal as the country’s wealth declines rapidly.
The Associated Press (AP) spoke with two gangsters in Petare, a notorious slum in the outskirts of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, who said they now struggle to make a living off muggings, a previously lucrative source of income. Continue reading “Venezuela’s economic crisis is now so bad that criminals can’t afford to buy bullets”
Houston Chronicle – by James Osborne
WASHINGTON – With growing volumes of natural gas from Texas and the rest of the United States sold abroad, developers are rushing to build new pipelines connecting oil and gas fields with border crossings and shipping ports.
But a growing number of landowners and environmentalists are fighting those projects at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in federal courts, challenging the notion that pipeline projects carrying gas destined for export are entitled to the same privileges granted infrastructure projects serving American customers. Continue reading “Export pipelines new front in eminent domain fights”
Reading a Wikipedia entry about Wikipedia itself seems strange. But where else on the web would an average internet user go for digestible, encyclopedia-style content?
With its entries almost always topping Google search results, Wikipedia receives around 33 billion page views per month, according to studies carried out by thinktank Pew Research in 2016. In line with statistics from the website itself, it also changes at a rate of 1.8 edits per second and the number of new articles per day averages 578. Continue reading ““Wikipedia is a broken system,” says co-founder Larry Sanger”
Democrats say immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, commonly called “Dreamers,” and were caught driving drunk long ago should be shown the same consideration as members of Congress with a similar record.
The House will consider sweeping legislation next month to create a path to permanent residency for the “Dreamers,” and part of the bill details how and when a driving under the influence (DUI) conviction would disqualify them from that process. Continue reading “Should ‘Dreamers’ with DUIs get the same break as a member of Congress?”
International Man – by Jeff Thomas
Left-wing activists have recently been increasingly active in seeking to limit opposing political viewpoints, in order to create a more ubiquitous “groupthink.” One effort in accomplishing this has been to propose the creation of a “Human Rights Committee” in order to monitor the economic transactions of “white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists.”
This should not be surprising, as, throughout the former Free World, collectivists are, increasingly, coming out of the closet and seeking to eliminate any and all opposition to their cause. Continue reading “Eliminating Free Speech The Smart Way”
Milwaukee Business Journal – by David Schuyler
Harley-Davidson Inc. has confirmed that its factory in Kansas City, Missouri, had its last day of production on Friday.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer confirmed to KMIZ-TV in Columbia, Missouri, that it has closed the plant as of May 24. The factory’s closure, which was announced in January 2018, resulted in the loss of about 800 jobs.
Continue reading “Harley-Davidson ends production at Kansas City plant”
New mapping technology that is expected to transform training and simulation exercises for America’s warfighters was unveiled at the IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC) 2019 conference on May 15 in Stockholm, Sweden, reported National Defense Magazine. Continue reading “Army’s ‘Google Earth On Steroids’ Can Look Inside Buildings”
The Telegraph – by Justin Huggler
A German government watchdog has called on people across the country to wear Jewish skullcaps this weekend in an act of solidarity against anti-Semitism.
The appeal follows a U-turn on an official warning to Jewish men not to wear skullcaps in public for their own safety. Continue reading “Call for Germans to wear skullcaps in solidarity with Jews amid U-turn on safety warning”
I prefer an in depth look at the participants which is why I have been doing annotated Bilderberg participants lists for several years. This year has lots of AI experts. As usual lots of military experts and bankers plus media and politicians. But lots of experts in populist revolts and movements. Based on their invitations to attend, they seem to want to co-opt gender studies, Gays, Greens and the Trump administration. Continue reading “Bilderberg 2019 Annotated Members List”
Over the weekend, the French Senate approved a bill paving the way forward for restoring Notre Dame cathedral, which nearly burned to the ground back in April in a construction fire. There’s one caveat, however: the cathedral must be returned to its “last known visual state.”
In other words, despite French president Emmanuel Macron’s desire to see parts of the cathedral rebuilt with an eye to more “contemporary architecture,” the French government wants to see Notre Dame returned to its former glory, according to The Local. Continue reading “French Senate Defies Macron, Says Notre Dame Should Be Rebuilt Exactly How It Was”

