From the Trenches World Report

The Great Recession

Until you got to this tax and spending deal a year ago, it was one of the most hated bull markets. The markets steadily climbed one wall of worry after another, and the problem was that the economic data did not confirm it.

–Bloomberg

That’s right. The market was not rising for the past ten years due to a healthy underlying economy. On the contrary, the market was rising due to the Federal Reserve pumping out stratospheric amounts of thin-air money, all of which needed somewhere to land.   Continue reading “Fed Med is Dead: How We Went from Fake Recovery to Freefall”

The Jamestown Sun

After 40 years of dairy farming, I sold my herd of cows. The herd had been in my family since 1904; I know all 45 cows by name. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take over our farm – who would? Dairy farming is little more than hard work and possible economic suicide.

A grass-based organic dairy farm bought my cows. I couldn’t watch them go. In June, I milked them for the last time, left the barn and let the truckers load them. A cop-out on my part? Perhaps, but being able to remember them as I last saw them, in my barn, chewing their cuds and waiting for pasture, is all I have left. Continue reading “Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I’m done.”

Station Gossip

Five years ago the U.S. Supreme Court refused to endorse a principle that could have allowed any cop with a dog to search any home. The court ruled that deploying a drug-detecting canine at the doorstep of a suspected marijuana grower’s house in the hope of obtaining probable cause for a warrant (which requires nothing more than a claim that the dog “alerted”) itself constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.  Continue reading “Kansas Supreme Court Says Cops Can Search Your Home Without a Warrant If They Claim It Smells Like Pot”

CBS News

SHAMOKIN, Pa. (CBS) — A northeastern Pennsylvania man gave a porch pirate a gift he will never forget and a surveillance camera got it all. Robert Lynch left boxes filled with kitty litter and feces on his porch in Shamokin and the boxes were stolen.

He got a good look at the thief thanks to recently installed cameras.   Continue reading “Pennsylvania Man Dupes Christmas Package Thieves With Boxes Filled With Cat Poop”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler  Durden

Women fleeing socialist Venezuela have taken to capitalism in order to survive; selling sex, hair and breastmilk as they make the perilous journey into neighboring Colombia in search of a better life.

As Fox News‘ Hollie McKay reports, the Colombian border city of Cucuta is virtual chaos – as “Rail-thin women cradle their tiny babies, and beg along the trash-strewn gutters. Teens hawk everything from cigarettes to sweets and water for small change.”   Continue reading “Venezuelan Women “As Young As 14” Escape Socialism By Selling Sex, Hair And Breastmilk”

Observer – by Sissi Cao

Whether cryptocurrencies are the future of money—or even a legitimate investment asset—is still up for debate. But at least one of the early winners of the Bitcoin boom has already cashed out enough to join the ultra-wealthy league of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Elon Musk to self-label as a billionaire philanthropist.

Last week, Brian Armstrong, the 35-year-old co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase, signed the Giving Pledge, started by Buffett and Gates in 2010, to give away the bulk of his net worth to philanthropic causes.   Continue reading “Newly Minted Billionaire Coinbase CEO Is Already Tired of His Wealth”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

That didn’t take long.

On Christmas Day, Israel launched what Bloomberg described as its first airstrike in Syria since President Trump’s “shocking” announcement that he would withdraw all US troops from Syrian territory (to the disgust of US national security officials and every neo-con anywhere). The strike targeted an ammunition depot in the Damascus countryside believed to belong either to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, or its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah.   Continue reading “Israel Strikes Syria In First Attack After US Announces Pullout”

CBS News

One-hundred-eighty-six more migrants were released in downtown El Paso, Texas by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Christmas Day, reports the CBS affiliate there, KDBC-TV. That came after approximately 400 were released in the southwest Texas city in the two days before Christmas.

Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who represents El Paso, said he’d been told some 500 more would be released there Wednesday.   Continue reading “ICE drops off almost 200 more migrants in El Paso”

Reason – by Jacob Sullem

While serving in the U.S. Navy more than three decades ago, Chad Linton pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, and attempting to evade a police vehicle, a Class C felony, in Island County, Washington. More than four decades ago, when he was 18, Paul Stewart was found guilty of first-degree burglary, a felony, after hopping a fence and stealing tools from an unlocked telephone company truck in Yuma County, Arizona. In both cases, the felony convictions were eventually vacated, and both men’s firearm rights were restored.   Continue reading “California Says Residents With Vacated Out-of-State Convictions May Not Own Guns”

MassPrivateI

A few months ago I called 2018 the “Rise of Spying Transit Police” but after looking through my archives, I noticed a more disturbing pattern emerge. Time and again, month after month, most of the stories I wrote revolved around one thing, watchlists.

In January, I wrote two stories about facial recognition and police camshares that centered around corporate and law enforcement watchlists. From then on things got progressively worse, watchlists blacklists and whitelists are expanding at a frightening pace.   Continue reading “2018: The year public watchlists became commonplace”

The Watchers

A new flank eruption, the first in nearly 11 years, has begun at Mount Etna, Italy on December 24, 2018, forcing authorities to raise the Aviation Color Code to Red.

An intense earthquake swarm started at the volcano at 07:50 UTC, with more than 130 earthquakes in the first three hours. The largest was M4.0 at 12:08 UTC, located on the NE side of the volcano at a depth of 2 km (1.2 miles).   Continue reading “Etna’s first flank eruption in more than 10 years, Aviation Color Code raised to Red, Italy”