Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In a surprising foreign policy pivot, President Trump told Bloomberg during an Oval Office interview that he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “if the circumstances were right.”

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,” Trump said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “If it’s under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that.” It was not immediately clear what circumstances Trump considers “right.”   Continue reading “Trump Says “Would Be Honored” To Meet With Kim Jong-Un, Willing To Raise Gasoline Tax”

Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish

North Korea, feeling pressure of encroaching American and allied vessels, has now threatened to make a ghost ship of a U.S. nuclear submarine — but the warning might not be hyperbolic rhetoric.

“The moment the USS Michigan tries to budge even a little, it will be doomed to face the miserable fate of becoming an underwater ghost without being able to come to the surface,” railed propagandic North Korean outlet, Uriminzokkiri, quoted by the Independent.   Continue reading “North Korea Threatened to Sink US Nuclear Submarine”

Yahoo News

Seoul (AFP) – North Korea warned Monday that it will carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership, in the latest rhetoric to fuel jitters in the region.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test — and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.   Continue reading “N. Korea warns of nuclear test ‘at any time’”

The Intercept – by Ava Kofman 

WHEN CIVIL LIBERTIES advocates discuss the dangers of new policing technologies, they often point to sci-fi films like “RoboCop” and “Minority Report” as cautionary tales. In “RoboCop,” a massive corporation purchases Detroit’s entire police department. After one of its officers gets fatally shot on duty, the company sees an opportunity to save on labor costs by reanimating the officer’s body with sleek weapons, predictive analytics, facial recognition, and the ability to record and transmit live video.   Continue reading “Taser Will Use Police Body Camera Videos “To Anticipate Criminal Activity””

ABC News

A woman is dead and seven people are injured after a gunman opened fire at a birthday pool party at a San Diego apartment complex Sunday, police said.

The alleged gunman, identified as Peter Selis, 49, was shot and killed by police, San Diego police said.

Numerous calls were made to 911 around 6 p.m. local time to report the shooting at the pool area of the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex, police said.   Continue reading “Woman killed, 7 injured in shooting at San Diego apartment complex”

WFAA – by Bradley Blackburn

BALCH SPRINGS — Community members are asking questions about why an officer fired into a car, killing a 15-year-old boy.

According to Balch Springs police, officers responded to a report of intoxicated teenagers on a residential street in the 12300 block of Baron Drive at 11 p.m. Saturday. Neighbors said a large house party was underway at the time.    Continue reading “15-year-old killed in officer-involved shooting in Balch Springs”

Bloomberg – by Jennifer A Dlouhy

President Donald Trump moved to expand offshore oil drilling and to reconsider rules that safeguard the activity — including mandates designed to prevent a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Trump on Friday ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to revise a five-year schedule for auctioning offshore drilling rights with the aim of potentially including territory left out by former President Barack Obama. Trump’s executive order also seeks to reverse a potentially more enduring decision by Obama to indefinitely withdraw most U.S. Arctic waters and some Atlantic Ocean areas from leasing.    Continue reading “Trump Signs Order To Expand Offshore Drilling”

McClatchy – by Scott Christianson, Gregg Gordon

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service is demanding a whopping $7 billion or more in back taxes from the world’s most profitable hedge fund, whose boss’s wealth and cyber savvy helped Donald Trump pole-vault into the White House.

Suddenly, the government’s seven-year pursuit of Renaissance Technologies LLC is blanketed in political intrigue, now that the hedge fund’s reclusive, anti-establishment co-chief executive, Robert Mercer, has morphed into a political force who might be owed a big presidential favor.
Continue reading “Billionaire Robert Mercer did Trump a huge favor. Will he get a payback?”

Mish Talk – by Mike “Mish” Shedlock

The Fed likes to brag about the “We saved the world” recovery.

However, the unfortunate truth of the matter is a record Half of American Families Live Paycheck to Paycheck.

Does it Matter? Let’s investigate.  Continue reading “Economic Reality: Bottom 50% of Americans No Longer Matter”

Washington’s Blog

The NSA announced Friday that they would stop the controversial program which sweeps up all emails and text messages which an American exchanges with someone overseas that makes reference to a real target of NSA surveillance.

By way of background, if Russia’s Putin was an NSA target, and an American received an email from a Russian saying “I hate Putin”, then that American could be surveilled by the NSA.  Continue reading “No, the NSA Has NOT Stopped Spying On Americans’ Emails”

MSM News

A man and woman were arrested in Sunday in connection with a motel shooting that police believe was part of a cross-city rampage throughout the Los Angeles suburbs — killing one person and wounding at least three others.

The shooting spree, spanning multiple cities, began when an armed Hispanic man and a Hispanic female accomplice forced their way into a woman’s green SUV in Pico Rivera on Saturday afternoon, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said.   Continue reading “Couple Arrested After Deadly Shooting Rampage in LA”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In a post-World War II precedent-setting move (under the country’s expanded military doctrine), the Japanese Navy has reportedly deployed a helicopter carrier (and authorized it to use weapons, if necessary), to escort and protect a US supply vessel.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada ordered the Izumo Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier to protect a US Navy supply ship, which is heading towards the Pacific to resupply the American armada sent by Donald Trump to keep North Korean nuclear ambitions at bay, sources told Kyodo news.   Continue reading “Japan Deploys Warship To Support US ‘Armada’, Authorizes “Necessary Use Of Weapons” For First Time Since World War II”

Yahoo News – by Liz Goodwin

WASHINGTON–Congress has reached an agreement to fund the federal government until September in a bipartisan deal that rejected President Donald Trump’s demand for a border wall and non-defense domestic spending cuts, according to a senior congressional aide.

The spending bill will allocate $1.5 billion for additional technology and infrastructure on the border, but explicitly includes language saying those funds cannot go to the construction of a wall. Lawmakers also rejected the president’s demand for $18 billion in non-defense spending cuts, increasing funds for the National Institutes for Health (NIH) by $2 billion.   Continue reading “Congress reaches spending deal, lowering odds of government shutdown”

The Hill – by Max Greenwood

The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) on Saturday pushed back against President Trump’s claims that news outlets covering his administration critically are reporting “fake news.”

“We are not fake news, we are not failing news organizations and we are not the enemy of the American people,” WHCA president and Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason said at the organization’s annual dinner.   Continue reading “White House Correspondents’ Association chief: ‘We are not fake news’”