From the Trenches World Report

RT

Brent crude prices hit a 26-month high on the news Turkey has threatened to cut oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan. This gave a boost to the Russian ruble, which remains the world’s strongest currency against the US dollar in the last 12 months.

The North Sea Brent benchmark, which is used to price Russia’s Urals blend, almost reached $60 per barrel before retreating to $58.68 on Tuesday. The gains still represent a more than $3 surge compared to last week. US West Texas Intermediate was trading near $52 per barrel.   Continue reading “Surging oil prices keep Russian ruble world’s strongest currency”

Mail.com

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A century before the fight to end Jim Crow segregation laws, Octavius Valentine Catto was leading a civil rights movement in Philadelphia. The 19th-century educator and activist fought for better education for black students, led efforts to desegregate the city’s street cars and pushed for equal voting rights — all before he was killed at age 32. His contributions to American democracy rival some of the country’s most celebrated patriots, yet his story has remained largely unknown.

“We know more about Rocky — who’s not even a real person — than we know about Octavius, which says a lot,” said Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney, who first learned of Catto’s story as a young city councilman. “There were scores of these people throughout history, and it’s important to understand that there were people other than the Founding Fathers who contributed greatly to this country.”   Continue reading “Philadelphia to honor black activist with City Hall statue”

Mail.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The evidence against an Ohio man accused of killing three down-and-out men lured by fake Craigslist job offers wasn’t strong enough to convict him, according to attorneys fighting the defendant’s death sentence.

No physical evidence links death row inmate Richard Beasley to the killings, his attorneys argued in a court filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. It also doesn’t make sense that someone would go to great lengths to target the poor individuals whom Beasley was charged with killing, the attorneys said.   Continue reading “Convicted Ohio Craigslist killer of 3 questions evidence”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The partisan battle over the country’s health care system will “certainly continue,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. But he stopped short of saying whether the chamber will vote on the latest Republican plan repealing the Obama health care law, which seems virtually certain to be rejected.

The Kentucky Republican made his comment a day after another Republican, moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she would oppose the GOP bill in a showdown this week. She is the fourth Republican to say they’re against the measure — exceeding the two GOP votes party leaders can lose and still push the measure through the Senate.   Continue reading “McConnell: Debate over nation’s health care will continue”

MassPrivateI

Can you recall when your parents bought your first bicycle? Can you recall how thrilled you were when you didn’t need training wheels?

Those were great memories right?

Now imagine a future, where parents are forced to buy a bicycle that uploads all your kids data to a NASA spy satellite that knows exactly where they are are at all times.   Continue reading “Spying bicycles let police know who and where you are”

By Jack Hinson

Rulers absolutely love when citizens pledge to support a flag or a uniform or a badge or a song!

… because it’s much more simple than asking people to pledge their allegiance and support to actual Government policies and Politicians themselves.

If we made people stand at sporting events and pledge their allegiance to the IRS or sing songs about Reagan, Bush, Obama, Hillary or Trump, we surely wouldn’t see calls to fire, deport, jail or beat those who remained seated during continuing indoctrination ceremonies! In fact, almost no one would stand … other than true, die hard Statist!   Continue reading “Words of Wisdom: Flags and Songs do not Represent Freedom and Liberty”

Truthout – by Brian Dolinar

The election of Donald Trump has already has already given an economic boost to those profiting from mass incarceration. The stock prices of the two biggest private prison builders — CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group — doubled after Trump took office.

Companies that charge for expensive phone calls from prisons and jails also won big after Trump’s victory. One of the president’s first appointments placed Ajit Pai at the helm of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who promptly rolled back the agency’s 2015 decision to regulate the prison phone industry. The companies hailed it as a victory.  Continue reading “Profiting Off Mass Incarceration: Detroit Pistons Owner Buys Private Prison Phone Company”

Sputnik

Despite clearly contradicting Swedish law, underage immigrant wives have been repeatedly allowed to stay with their husbands by Sweden’s local municipalities, which defend their decisions by citing humanitarian issues.

An immigrant crisis of unprecedented proportions has brought with it problems which Sweden hadn’t known previously, such as polygamy and underage brides. Recently, two juvenile immigrant girls in Karlskrona were reported to be staying with their husbands. Neither of the girls was separated from their adult men, even though minors are not allowed to tie the knot in Sweden.
Continue reading “Embracing New Cultures: Sweden Condones Child Marriage for Immigrants”

Bloomberg

In post-hurricane San Juan on Monday, commerce picked up ever so slightly. With a little effort, you could get the basics and sometimes more: diapers, medicine, or even a gourmet hamburger smothered in fried onions and Gorgonzola cheese.

But almost impossible to find was a place that accepted credit cards.

“Cash only,” said Abraham Lebron, the store manager standing guard at Supermax, a supermarket in San Juan’s Plaza de las Armas. He was in a well-policed area, but admitted feeling like a sitting duck with so many bills on hand. “The system is down, so we can’t process the cards. It’s tough, but one finds a way to make it work.”
Continue reading “Cash Is in Short Supply in Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico”

Just got this back concerning opening a new account with a credit union, everyone needs to know this is what is going on behind the scenes:

These checks run the information that we must gather on you, and that you provide through a list of government compiled databases. These databases then check to make sure that you are not involved in the funding of terrorism or involved in any criminal activity. This is required on each and every person that opens an account throughout the country. Thank you again for your time and patience.
Continue reading “Opening a new account with a credit union or bank”

CBC News

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pressed the Trudeau government to restart a program supplying the Ukrainian military with satellite imagery to monitor Russian and separatist rebel troop movements, and says it is “extremely important” for Canada to be part of a potential UN peacekeeping mission in the war-torn country.

In an exclusive interview with CBC’s Rosemary Barton, Poroshenko said he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to provide his country with sophisticated imagery of the Ukraine-Russia border from a Canadian satellite.   Continue reading “Ukraine asks Canada for access to satellite images to monitor Russian, rebel troop movements”

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Conservative Republicans in Congress on Monday unveiled their ideas for what should happen to so-called ‘Dreamer’ immigrants when an Obama-era program expires in March, touting tougher restrictions than those proposed by Democrats.

The bill offered by Republican Senators Thom Tillis and James Lankford was in response to President Donald Trump’s move to end former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump gave Congress six months to write replacement legislation.   Continue reading “U.S. Senate conservatives propose tough restrictions on ‘Dreamers’”