From the Trenches World Report

Activist Post – by Eric Blair

Big retailers, including Amazon, have been lobbying long and hard for it, and now the Internet sales tax is back after being quietly reintroduced in the US Senate last week. 

The Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act would force customers to pay sales taxes for online purchases from out-of-state online merchants, and it forces online retailers to collect and remit separately sales taxes to all US territories. Continue reading “Internet Sales Tax Quietly Moving Through Congress”

Stars and Stripes – by Jon Harper

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will provide housing space for up to an additional 5,000 unaccompanied Central American children who have illegally come across the border, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Wednesday.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel signed the authorization last week at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Hagel’s order also extends the housing assistance mission to Jan. 31, 2015. In May, the Pentagon committed to providing space to up to 3,600 children for 120 days. There are 2,500 children being housed at Fort Sill, Okla., Naval Base Ventura County, Calif., and Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, according to Warren.   Continue reading “DOD to provide space for 5,000 more migrant children until next year”

Fox News – by Edmund DeMarche

A top U.S. Navy official said he is “receptive” to idea of letting his Chinese crewmen tour a U.S. aircraft carrier based in Japan, but experts warn such access could be a risky intelligence giveaway.

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations, told The Wall Street Journal that his Chinese counterpart mentioned the idea of a U.S. carrier crew touring its lone Liaoning carrier and a Chinese crew touring the USS George Washington.   Continue reading “U.S. Navy admiral says he’s open to idea of giving Chinese Navy tour of carrier”

Washington Free Beacon – by Elizabeth Harrington

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to grant a waiver to provide favorable status in wireless auctions to an Obama donor is “as unlawful as it is absurd,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday.

On a 3-2 party-line vote, Democratic commissioners at the FCC granted Grain Management, LLC., status as a “designated entity” (DE) on Tuesday, allowing the company to receive discounts designed for small businesses when bidding for wireless licenses. David Grain, a major bundler for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, owns the firm.   Continue reading “Commissioner: FCC Waiver to Obama Donor ‘as Unlawful as It Is Absurd’”

Breitbart

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors in Central California have obtained an arrest warrant for a tuberculosis patient who they say is contagious and has refused treatment.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said Thursday that police are looking for 25-year-old Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a transient who comes from a part of Mexico known for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.     Continue reading “Arrest Warrant Issued for Possible Illegal Alien with Drug-Resistant Strain of Tuberculosis”

The Next Big Future

 Milchberg and his lab report using an “air waveguide” to enhance light signals collected from distant sources. These air waveguides could have many applications, including long-range laser communications, detecting pollution in the atmosphere, making high-resolution topographic maps and laser weapons.   Continue reading “Lasers make fiber optic tubes out of thin air and can be used for communication, sensing and weapon applications”

The Mac Security Blog – by Graham Cluley

A data forensics expert and jailbreaker has discovered what he claims to be a undocumented “backdoor” in the iOS operating system used on iPhones and iPads that could be exploited by the NSA and other law enforcement agencies.

Jonathan Zdziarski (also known as “NerveGas”) presented his findings this month at the annual Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference in New York.   Continue reading “Hacker Claims to Have Discovered Undocumented iOS “Backdoor”; Apple Denies NSA Collusion”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

When we reported on the government’s decisiosn to withhold irrigation water to California for the first time in 54 years, we warned there would be consequences: farmers are hit hardest as “they’re all on pins and needles trying to figure out how they’re going to get through this.” Fields will go unplanted (supply lower mean food prices higher), or farmers will pay top dollar for water that’s on the market (and those costs can only be passed on via higher food prices). Sure enough, as Bloomberg reports, farmers in California’s Central Valley, the world’s most productive agricultural region, are paying as much as 10 times more for water than they did before the state’s record drought cut supply.   Continue reading “Food Inflation Watch: California Farmers’ Water Costs Surge 700% After Government Cuts Supply”

RT, July 21, 2014

The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“A Ukraine Air Force military jet was detected gaining height, it’s distance from the Malaysian Boeing was 3 to 5km,” said the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the HQ of Russia’s military forces, Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartopolov speaking at a media conference in Moscow on Monday.   Continue reading “Ukrainian Su-25 fighter detected in close approach to MH17 before crash – Moscow”

Western Journalism – by F. Peter Brown

You’ll be shocked when you found out what things are more popular than Congress.  Get ready…some of these are downright gross:   Continue reading “You Won’t Believe The 14 Awful Things That Are STILL More Popular Than Congress”

LA Times – by Joseph Serna

President Obama may rake in the money from fawning donors during his two-day fundraising sweep through Los Angeles this week, but he’s not winning any fans among commuters who, as they do, take to social media to vent.

“Obama is visiting Los Angeles today which means I won’t be home till around 7:30pm due to traffic delays. #SMH” tweeted Twitter user West Coastin’.   Continue reading “L.A. gets snarky about Obama traffic delays: #ThanksObama”

The Big Picture, April 25, 2011

Before the founding of the Zionist movement, there were about 1,000,000 Jews throughout the Middle East, living among Arabs in relative peace for many centuries. In 1890, there were 500,000 Arabs living in Palestine, 80% of which were Muslim, 8% Jews. Yet, Zionist leaders claimed they were coming to settle “a people without land [mostly European Jews] on a land without people [Palestine].”

By 1947, Jews owned about 6% of the land in Palestine. Yet, the United Nations – perhaps in light of the aftermath of the genocide of Jews in Europe – voted to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs, giving Jews 54% of the land.   Continue reading “History of Palestine, Part I : The Truth about Zionism”