From the Trenches World Report

RT News

As the insurgency in Iraq threatens the stability of the Shiite-led government there, only 18 percent of Americans think the Iraq War was worth the costs, according to a new poll.

The CBS/New York Times poll asked if the costs of the Iraq invasion, including monetary and loss of American lives, were worth it. A record 75 percent of those surveyed said that it wasn’t worth the costs, up from 67 percent in November 2011 (just before the final withdrawal of US troops) and 45 percent in August 2003, five months after the invasion began.   Continue reading “Was Iraq War worth the cost? 75% of Americans say no – poll”

RT News

Unidentified bombers have reportedly launched an air strike on ISIS positions in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim. Iraqi television has claimed they are US planes, but the Pentagon has denied responsibility.

US planes were identified by Iraqi television, but the Saudi Al-Arabiya network claims that the raid was carried out by Syria, citing local tribal chiefs.   Continue reading “Unknown planes bomb ISIS positions in N. Iraq, Pentagon denies it’s US”

Mail.com

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — For Queen Elizabeth II, one throne is enough.

The United Kingdom’s 88-year-old monarch toured the Belfast sets of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” and met many of its stars Tuesday beside the show’s sword-covered seat of power, the Iron Throne.   Continue reading “On set: Queen Elizabeth declines to sit on Iron Throne”

Mail.com

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A debris field at the bottom of Lake Michigan may be the remains of the long-lost Griffin, a vessel commanded by a 17th-century French explorer, said a shipwreck hunter who has sought the wreckage for decades.

Steve Libert told The Associated Press that his crew found the debris this month about 120 feet from the spot where they removed a wooden slab a year ago that was protruding from the lake bottom. Libert believes that timber was the bowsprit of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s ship, although scientists who joined the 2013 expedition say the slab more likely was an abandoned fishing net stake.   Continue reading “Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found”

Mail.com

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — This is what it’s like to live in Denmark, a nation with a narrower wealth gap than almost anywhere else: You’ve been jobless for more than a year. You have no university degree, no advanced skills. You have to pay a mortgage. And your husband is nearing retirement.

You aren’t worried. If you’re 51-year-old Lotte Geleff, who lost her job as an office clerk in January 2013, you know you’ll receive an unemployment benefit of 10,500 kroner ($1,902) a month after taxes for up to two years. You’re part of a national system of free health care and education for everyone, job training, subsidized child care, a generous pension system and fuel subsidies and rent allowances for the elderly.   Continue reading “What wealth gap? Danish welfare narrows disparity”

Mail.com

OKYO (AP) — The new robot guides at a Tokyo museum look so eerily human and speak so smoothly they almost outdo people — almost.

Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, an Osaka University professor, says they will be useful for research on how people interact with robots and on what differentiates the person from the machine.   Continue reading “Woman or machine? New robots look creepily human”

Liberty Fight – by Martin Hill

My wife and I were in Austin last week to visit some friends and family, and took a trip with my wife’s cousin and their family to Canyon Lake. This is between Austin and New Braunfels, and we took a trip down the Guadalupe river. A lot of people go there for a leisurely float down the river in innertubes. It was a nice sunny Saturday and the place was packed. The river ride was (way) too slow for my tastes; when I heard ‘river raft’, I had a distinctly different and more adventurous idea than the snails-pace at which the tube floated. Nevertheless, off we went. There are a lot of websites on Guadalupe River tubing and some pictures here, here, and here.   Continue reading “Texas Sheriffs Form Warrantless Checkpoints in Guadalupe River, Searching Witless Inner Tube Riders”

National Review Online – by Ryan Lovelace

Ronnie Osburn was preparing to talk to National Review Online Thursday about lawlessness in his border community when his home was broken into.

Osburn, a rancher who lives just south of a Border Patrol checkpoint in Brooks County, Texas, says he stepped away for about 45 minutes, and when he returned somebody had trashed his house. The trespassers shattered his gun case, leaving a trail of blood throughout the house, but dropped the guns near the kitchen before scattering out the back door. They had searched through the house, opened drawers, and even left a heap of uncooked bacon in a frying pan on the stove.   Continue reading “Texas Ranchers Under Attack”

ABC News – by Alicia A. Caldwell

The Obama administration has released into the U.S. an untold number of immigrant families caught traveling illegally from Central America in recent months — and although the government knows how many it’s released, it won’t say publicly.

Senior U.S. officials directly familiar with the issue, including at the Homeland Security Department and White House, have so far dodged the answer on at least seven occasions over two weeks, alternately saying that they did not know the figure or didn’t have it immediately at hand. “We will get back to you,” the Homeland Security deputy secretary said Friday.   Continue reading “US Releases Immigrant Families, Won’t Say How Many”

Infowars – by Kurt Nimmo

Judge Beryl Howell, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Obama in 2010, agreed with Denise Gilman, a clinical professor at the of Texas-Austin. Gilman, who is researching the “human rights impact” of border enforcement, sued in federal court to force the Department of Homeland Security to reveal through a FOIA request the names of property owners along the border to determine if fence construction will be disadvantageous to “minority property owners,” Judicial Watch reported last week.   Continue reading “Obama Judge Rules Border Fence Racist”

The Organic Prepper

With all the recent talk in the news about “Doomsday Preppers” and the demonization in the media, you have to be aware that you’re considered a little….different. The fact that you are self-reliant is such an oddity to most that, frankly, they find you to be either nuts, a little bit scary, or both. According to the US government, we are all extremists on the verge of committing depraved acts of terrorism.

Here are the top 30 signs, should you ever be the subject of a nationwide manhunt, that you too will be considered a “Crazy Prepper on the Loose“:   Continue reading “30 Signs That You’re One of Those “Crazy Preppers””

FAIR – by Peter Hart

The turmoil in Iraq has led TV chat shows to trot out an array of hawks, many of whom had been cheerleaders for the 2003 invasion that set up the current crisis. NBC‘s Meet the Press was no exception, bringing on former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (6/15/14) and then more recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (6/22/14), who warned that the wrong moves now could strengthen Iran.

It’s worth remembering that Netanyahu was wrong about Iraq when it mattered. Jim Lobe (LobeLog, 9/29/13) has recalled some of Netanyahu’s 2002 congressional testimony, which included assertions like this:   Continue reading “Netanyahu Can Disinform on Iran Just as Well as Iraq”

Seattle PI – by Lynsi Burton

In what King County Sheriff John Urquhart called a “slap in the face,” a sheriff’s deputy is accused of stealing agency equipment, dealing steroids and pimping out his wife as an escort.

Darrion Holiwell, a 19-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was a SWAT officer and the chief firearms instructor who worked at the Ravensdale Range where the agency’s SWAT team trained, in addition to local FBI agents and King County Jail staff.   Continue reading “King Co. Sheriff’s deputy charged with prostituting wife, theft, dealing steroids”

Breitbart – by Brandon Darby, June 23, 2014

MCALLEN, Texas—A trusted law enforcement source is reporting that shots are currently being fired on the Mexican side of the U.S. border. The shots are intended to harass the increased presence of Texas law enforcement personnel.   Continue reading “Shots fired from Mexico to harass Texas-US law enforcement”

New York Daily News – by Leslie Larson

Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t “well-off” and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn’t care less about money.

“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine’s May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s philanthropic foundation.   Continue reading “Chelsea Clinton: I tried to care about money but couldn’t”

CNN – by Scott Bronstein, Drew Griffin and Nelli Black

(CNN) — Records of dead veterans were changed or physically altered, some even in recent weeks, to hide how many people died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital, a whistle-blower told CNN in stunning revelations that point to a new coverup in the ongoing VA scandal.

“Deceased” notes on files were removed to make statistics look better, so veterans would not be counted as having died while waiting for care, Pauline DeWenter said.   Continue reading “VA deaths covered up to make statistics look better, whistle-blower says”