From the Trenches World Report

Yahoo News – by JIM KUHNHENN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama defiantly dared congressional Republicans on Tuesday to try to block his efforts to act on his own and bypass a divided Congress that has thwarted his policy initiatives.

“So sue me,” he taunted on a sweltering day, as he pushed lawmakers to pay for road and bridge repairs. “I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something.”

Obama struck an aggressive tone in the face of a lawsuit threat from House Speaker John Boehner and in the wake of two defeats before the Supreme Court, including a unanimous decision from the court that he overreached when he appointed members of the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was in recess.   Continue reading “Obama vows to act alone, taunts RepublicansJIM KUHNHENN”

Huffington Post – by Mandy Valez

If you want to name your baby girl Harriet, don’t live in Iceland.

The country recently denied 10-year-old Harriet Cardew’s passport renewal request because her name doesn’t comply with Icelandic baby naming laws. Her name doesn’t appear on the approved list of 1,853 female and 1,712 boy names, The Guardian reports.   Continue reading “10-Year-Old Icelandic Girl Denied A Passport Because Her Name Is ‘Harriet’”

Yahoo News – by Garance Burke

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Throughout California’s desperately dry interior, those with water to spare are cashing in.

As a third dry summer forces farmers to fallow fields and lay off workers, three water districts in the state’s agricultural heartland are making millions of dollars by auctioning off their private, underground caches.   Continue reading “In dry California, water fetching record prices”

CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts General Hospital plans to begin questioning all patients about their use of alcohol and illegal drugs starting this fall, even if they are at MGH for a totally unrelated issue.

Dr. Sarah Wakeman, director of substance abuse disorders at Mass. General, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens the purpose is to make substance abuse treatment part of mainstream medical care.   Continue reading “Massachusetts General Hospital To Quiz All Patients About Use Of Alcohol And Illegal Drugs”

Video Rebel’s Blog

Paul Craig Roberts in an interview with King World News said the US economy is nowhere near the $17 trillion GDP the administration is claiming. He said the government has been lying about inflation and unemployment since 1980. In particular he criticized Michael Boskin who headed the Congressional Advisory Commission on the Consumer Price Index better known as the Boskin Commission in 1995. Boskin had been a Republican appointee but was an acceptable Chairman to Clinton supporters. He supported NAFTA which has since its passage sent more than 12 million jobs overseas. He serves on the Board of Directors of Exxon and Vodafone which might explain why he was so trusted by Washington to do what they wanted.   Continue reading “Reflecting On Paul Craig Roberts: What If The US GDP Was Only $12 Trillion?”

Liberty’s Torch – by Francis W. Porretto

Just a few days ago, Radley Balko wrote as follows:

The American Civil Liberties Union has released the results of its year-long study of police militarization. The study looked at 800 deployments of SWAT teams among 20 local, state and federal police agencies in 2011-2012. Among the notable findings:

• 62 percent of the SWAT raids surveyed were to conduct searches for drugs.
• Just under 80 percent were to serve a search warrant, meaning eight in 10 SWAT raids were not initiated to apprehend a school shooter, hostage taker, or escaped felon (the common justification for these tactics), but to investigate someone still only suspected of committing a crime.

Continue reading “Guilding The Polity”

Canada Free Press – by Judi McLeod

Has anyone noticed how it is the same “outraged” activists working on “Water Justice” who are taking the threatened water cutoff service for Detroit customers 60 days overdue in payment or more than $150 behind in their water bill payments to the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) to the ubiquitous United Nations, are the same UN activists who have been in charge of water ‘equality’ for years?

In 2008, the UN’s “senior advisor on water”  was a Canadian hardline leftist activist by the name of Maude Barlow, the one and the same co-founder of the Blue Planet project, now—at least ostensibly—fighting DWSD on the water cutoff threats to residents of Detroit.   Continue reading “It’s time for the thirsting masses to toss leftwing activism from the world water supply”

Raw Story

Iraq’s Kurds will hold an independence referendum within months, their leader Massud Barzani said on Tuesday, as the region reels under a brutal offensive by Sunni jihadists who have declared an Islamic caliphate.

Barzani said the time was right for a vote as Iraq was already effectively partitioned following the lightning gains by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).   Continue reading “Kurds to vote on independence from Iraq in months, leader says”

Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

Do you wish that you had a better job?  If so, you are not alone.  In fact, there are millions upon millions of Americans that get up every day and go to a job that they wish that they could afford to quit.  Unfortunately, most Americans end up just desperately holding on to the jobs that they have because just about any job is valuable in this economic environment.  Over the past decade, the long-term trends that are destroying jobs in America have accelerated.  We have seen countless numbers of jobs shipped overseas, we have seen countless numbers of jobs replaced by technology, we have seen countless numbers of jobs taken by immigrants and we have seen countless numbers of jobs lost to the overall decline of the once great U.S. economy.  Unfortunately, even though we can all see this happening, our “leaders” have failed to come up with any solutions.  Continue reading “17 Facts That Prove That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Down The Drain”

Nasdaq

In its continued push to make the yuan a global currency, China’s central bank said Sunday it plans to designate clearing banks for its currency in Paris and Luxembourg, as the two financial centers battle with London to become the leading European offshore yuan-trading city.

The People’s Bank of China announced the move in two separate statements Sunday. It didn’t say when it would designate the clearing banks.   Continue reading “China to Set Yuan Clearing Banks in Luxembourg, Paris”

The Clarion Ledger – by Geoff Pender and Emily Le Coz

Mark Mayfield’s family plans to sue or bring charges against the city of Madison, its police department or “anyone responsible” after Mayfield’s apparent suicide Friday.

Mayfield’s relatives, already angered over his arrest in May in the U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran photo scandal, say Madison police were trespassing when they showed up at his home in Ridgeland after he apparently shot himself. They say Mayfield’s arrest was politically motivated by supporters of Cochran and drove him to suicide.   Continue reading “Mayfield family plans lawsuit, charges against Madison”

The Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

A lot of people that I talk to these days want to know “when things are going to start happening”.  Well, there are certainly some perilous times on the horizon, but all you have to do is open up your eyes and look to see the global economic crisis unfolding.  As you will see below, even central bankers are issuing frightening warnings about “dangerous new asset bubbles” and even the World Bank is declaring that “now is the time to prepare” for the next crisis.  Most Americans tend to only care about what is happening in the United States, but the truth is that serious economic trouble is erupting in South America, all across Europe and in Asian powerhouses such as China and Japan.  And the endless conflicts in the Middle East could erupt into a major regional war at just about any time.  We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and people need to understand that the period of relative stability that we are enjoying right now is extremely vulnerable and will not last long.  The following are 18 signs that the global economic crisis is accelerating as we enter the last half of 2014…   Continue reading “18 Signs That The Global Economic Crisis Is Accelerating As We Enter The Last Half Of 2014”

AmmoLand – by Chuck Norris

Dallas, TX – -(Ammoland.com)- It’s the very symbol of patriotism — Old Glory, as William Driver, a 19th-century American sea captain, nicknamed it.

But even as we close in on Independence Day, more and more people across the country are calling the American flag a threat and inappropriate home garnishing.

A week ago, the landlord of a Texas man called the American flag “a threat to the Muslim community” and ordered him to remove it from his home, according to KHOU-TV.   Continue reading “The American Flag: ‘A Threat’?”

RT News

The latest drilling techniques for obtaining gas, which drill horizontally as opposed to the more traditional vertical drilling, shows a higher rate of leaking methane, according to a study that could spell problems for fracking across the nation.

After poring over data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection involving more than 41,000 wells, it was determined that more than 6 percent of the active gas wells drilled in the Marcellus region of Pennsylvania “show compromised cement and/or casing integrity,” according to an academic paper published on Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.    Continue reading “Fracking industry fumes as researchers reveal high levels of leaking methane”