From the Trenches World Report

The Frederick News-Post

Walter B. Jones Jr., a North Carolina congressman who so enthusiastically supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq that he argued for the french fries and French toast served in House cafeterias to be called “freedom fries” and “freedom toast” — a jab at France for its opposition to the war — but who later underwent a dramatic change of heart and emerged as a prominent Republican critic of the war, died Sunday, on his 76th birthday.

His office confirmed the death in a statement. It had announced on Jan. 26 that the 13-term lawmaker had entered hospice care, his health having declined after a fall in which he broke his hip. Jones had been granted a leave of absence in late 2018 for an unspecified illness.   Continue reading “Walter Jones, ‘freedom fries’ congressman who became Iraq War critic, dies at 76”

NRA-ILA

Following California’s lead, Hawaiian lawmakers are seeking to use money gleaned from Aloha State taxpayers to fund their anti-gun propaganda efforts. HB 1541 would establish the Hawaii Gun Violence Prevention Center, a public and privately funded “interdisciplinary” effort to analyze “gun-related violence and its prevention.”

Research into violence perpetrated with firearms isn’t in itself a bad thing. However, the explanatory portion of the Hawaii legislation gives away the game. The bill laments that, “In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment, with a provision which prevents the use of federal money for gun violence research and prevention,” adding “As a result of this effective ban on gun violence research, funding for gun violence prevention research has declined dramatically.”   Continue reading “Aloha to Tax dollars: Hawaii Lawmakers Propose Public-funded Anti-gun Firearm Factoid Factory”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Just when frustrated residents of New Jersey, one of the most heavily taxed states in the US, thought Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy had already brought the state into the ninth circle of taxation hell with new taxes to save the state’s ailing pension system, middle class voters in one of the least affordable states in the country have now been given one more thing to complain about: A tax on the rain.   Continue reading “NJ Voters Furious As Governor Murphy Prepares To Sign ‘Rain Tax’ Into Law”

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

As politicians and anti-gun rights activists continuously chant, “we don’t want to take your guns,” behind the scenes — in only the year — politicians have been working overtime to limit your right to bear arms. These laws are all a reaction to the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida and, like most politicians always do, they are not letting this tragedy go to waste.

Since the tragic shooting in Florida last February, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has recorded a whopping 55 new gun control measures in 26 states—in just the first six months of the year.   Continue reading “Unprecedented Gun Confiscation Hits US as Thousands Of Guns Seized from Innocent Citizens”

Middle East Monitor

Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman does not rule out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will retire from politics if he is indicted over corruption charges before the general election in April.

“Although it’s fair to say that the decision is taken to bring charges against Benjamin Netanyahu before the election, his chances of forming a government will be zero,” Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth quoted Lieberman as saying.   Continue reading “Lieberman: Israel PM to ‘retire’ if indicted over graft”

Town Hall – by Beth Baumann

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said he refused to enforce Washington State’s latest gun control law, I-1639. According to the Sheriff’s office, a person called into Crime Stoppers to report a threat made on Facebook.

“Sheriff Knezovich is going to get a bullet in his skull,” the post allegedly read. The caller also said he’d shoot anyone who disagrees with I-1639.   Continue reading “Here’s Why Sheriffs In Washington State Are Now Receiving Death Threats”

RT

A landmark legal battle is set to unfold between a mother-of-two who says she was arrested for identifying a transgender woman as male, and the alleged victim who has repeatedly reported Twitter users to police for harassment.

38-year-old Kate Scottow from Hertfordshire says that her life has been turned upside down since police arrived at her house on December 1 last year to arrest her, bring her to a station, take her DNA and fingerprints, before opening an investigation that still hasn’t been resolved.   Continue reading “UK woman says she was held by police for 7 hours after ‘misgendering’ trans activist on Twitter”

The Telegraph – by Sarah Knapton

Smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri are to be used by the NHS to analyse patient conversations and spot if they suicidal, it has emerged.

A new report published today into the technological future of the health service has called for trusts to embrace robots and artificial intelligence and said that London was already planning to embed AI into its mental health services to pick up those in danger of self harm.   Continue reading “Alexa-like bots will listen out for suicidal patients under NHS technology revolution”

Middle East Monitor

The ex-Saudi Intelligence Chief Turki Al-Faisal this weekend revealed that secret relations between Israel and a number of Gulf states date back as far as 25 years.

According to Qatari newspaper Al-Arab, Al-Faisal was interviewed by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, who claims to have conducted interviews with 20 prominent Gulf officials with knowledge of secret relations with Israel. However, many of these people refused to speak to the camera, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.   Continue reading “Ex-Saudi intelligence chief reveals secret Israel-Saudi relations”

Houston Chronicle

First of three parts

Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders.

She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.   Continue reading “20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms”

PEW Trusts

Lawmakers in 27 states passed 67 new laws aimed at restricting gun access this year.

This latest analysis by the Giffords Law Center, a gun control organization founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who survived a shooting in 2011, shows the unparalleled success the gun control movement has had this year, in the wake of continued mass shootings.   Continue reading “States Passed 67 New Gun Control Laws in 2018”

Oil and Gas Journal – by Nick Snow

US Bureau of Land Management state offices generated more than $1.1 billion of revenue from onshore oil and gas lease sales during 2018, a record amount nearly triple the previous record of $408 million for the comparable period in 2008, Acting Interior Sec. David Bernhardt announced on Feb. 6.

Bonus bids from the 28 oil and gas lease sales during calendar 2018 came to a preliminary $1,151,109,064 for 1,412 parcels, covering almost 1.5 million acres, he said in Hobbs, NM.  Continue reading “BLM reports record-breaking onshore oil, gas lease revenue in 2018”

The Organic Prepper

While we would love to be able to trust the liquid flowing from our faucets, anyone who pays even half-hearted attention to the news knows that we can no longer expect safety in our drinking water unless we confirm it ourselves.

The EPA and Michigan’s Gov. Snyder really added to the list of reasons that I have trust issues. Water is one of the most important survival topics around – it’s so important to me that I wrote an entire book about it.   Continue reading “How to Test Your Drinking Water (And Why You Should Do It)”

NBC News

Freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress last fall — is accused of sending a string of “anti-Semitic” tweets regarding the Israeli lobby in the U.S.

Omar, a proponent of the BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — movement aimed at putting economic and political pressure on Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, first tweeted Sunday night that money was driving U.S. politicians to defend Israel.   Continue reading “Freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar accused of sending ‘anti-Semitic’ tweets”

Breitbart – by John Binder

The United States could suspend all legal immigration to the country for the next 40 years and maintain a workforce where there are still more than two U.S. workers for every one retiree, a new study finds.

The latest study by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota reveals that despite claims by the big business lobby, Wall St., and corporate executives that mass legal immigration is necessary to maintain a sizeable workforce, current legal immigration trends have little to no impact on the working-age population.  Continue reading “Study: Ending All Legal Immigration for 40 Years Maintains U.S. Workforce”

The Great Recession

As happened with the first housing market crash that began in 2007 but didn’t become widely recognized until mid-2008, the present housing crisis began exploding one story at a time last summer, and this blog was perhaps the first to state that summer’s change was the turning point from decades of ascent into a collapse in housing sales and prices. I said the same thing back in 2007, and people didn’t believe me then either.   Continue reading “Housing Market Crash 2.0: The Jury is in for 2018-2019”

Chicago Tribune – by Jeremy Gorner

Facing allegations that officers under him were baby-sitting his special-needs son, the Chicago police commander gave a novel explanation: He was conducting a secret study.

Grand Central District Cmdr. Anthony Escamilla acknowledged he had on-duty officers pick up his teenage son, who has autism, but insisted he worked as a volunteer in the community policing office.   Continue reading “Accused of having his officers baby-sit his son, Chicago police commander said it was really a secret study”