From the Trenches World Report

New York Times – by JAMES RISEN and LAURA POITRAS

The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents.

The spy agency’s reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the N.S.A. documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show. The agency’s ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not previously been disclosed.   Continue reading “N.S.A. Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images”

Before It’s News – by Diogenes

An old, blind Marine Gunnery Sergeant wanders into a lesbian biker bar by mistake… He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, ‘Hey, you wanna hear an Obama joke?’ The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, Marine…, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things:   Continue reading “A Blind Marine Walks into a Lesbian Bar”

AmmoLand

Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- UPDATE:  VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday morning.

GOA thanks those of you who contacted your legislators over the past couple of weeks in response to our earlier email alert.

In the end, over 20 Representatives and Senators called for the ouster of Shinseki — who, in addition to the recent scandals, has overseen an agency that has disarmed more than 175,000 military veterans.   Continue reading “Bloomberg Sycophants Spring an Ambush Friday with Anti-Gun Amendment in House”

Yahoo News

BEDFORD, Massachusetts (AP) — All seven people aboard a private plane that crashed in a Massachusetts air field and erupted into a fireball have been killed, authorities said.

“There were no survivors,” said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Hanscom Field in Bedford, where the Gulfstream IV crashed as it was leaving about 9:40 p.m. for Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey.   Continue reading “Officials: 7 aboard NJ-bound plane die in crash”

Collective Evolution – by Jeff Roberts

Children as young as nine are to be prescribed drugs which delay the onset of puberty as the first step towards a sex change operation, according to reports. The issue is intricately complicated and, naturally, has created a war between proponents and opponents of the process being offered to distressed youth.

Gender Dysphoria

To begin, we all have a gender identity, that is, the gender in which we ‘feel’ ourselves to be. In some cases, this gender that we feel more comfortable identifying ourselves with may be different than our biologically assigned gender. In this case, a person experiences gender dysphoria, a problem which affects an estimated 0.5% of the population.   Continue reading “Children As Young As Nine To Be Offered Sex Change Hormones Before Puberty”

Newser

Medicare can no longer automatically deny coverage requests for sex reassignment surgeries, a federal board ruled today in a groundbreaking decision that recognizes the procedures are medically necessary for people who don’t identify with their biological sex. Ruling in favor of 74-year-old transgender Army veteran Denee Mallon of Albuquerque, whose request to have Medicare pay for her genital reconstruction was denied two years ago, the agency’s Departmental Appeals Board said there was no justification for a three-decade-old HHS rule excluding such surgeries from procedures covered by the national health program for the elderly and disabled.   Continue reading “Medicare Ruling Big Win for Transgender Rights”

CNS News – by Craig Bannister

On the eve of next week’s expected announcement regarding President Obama’s proposed national energy tax, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) says the administration has set out to kill coal energy and its 800,000 jobs, as well as that of the Keystone pipeline.

“The Administration has set out to kill coal and its 800,000 jobs. If it succeeds in death by regulation, we’ll all be paying a lot more money for electricity – if we can get it. Our pocketbook will be lighter, but our country will be darker,” Sen. Enzi said.   Continue reading “Senator: ‘Death by Regulation’ Means ‘We’ll All Be Paying a Lot More for Electricity’”

GoldBroker.com – by Philippe Herlin

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) just published a statistical study on the amount of derivatives worldwide at the end of 2013, and they reach the astronomical amount of $710 Trillions ($710,000,000,000,000). For comparison purposes, the United States GDP in 2013 amounts to $16 Trillion, or 44 times less. And this mass of derivatives beats by 20% the preceding record, dating just before the 2008 crisis… We hear a lot about bubbles these days, in the stock market, the bond market or in the commodities market, but this one is without a doubt the greatest one.   Continue reading “Amount of Derivatives in the World: 710 Trillions of dollars”

RINF – by Bill Van Auken

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation mandating sanctions against Venezuela as officials there presented evidence of US involvement in a plot to bring down the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

The bill, passed in a voice vote by the House with only 14 members in opposition, demands that the Obama administration draw up a list of Venezuelan officials allegedly responsible for repression during violent protests that have been organized across the South American country since last February. They would be sanctioned with the freezing of any assets in the US and the denial or revocation of visas.   Continue reading “US moves towards sanctions as Venezuela charges coup plot”

Huffington Post – by Michael McLaughlin

A Mexican-born U.S. citizen living in rural Pennsylvania for two decades was arrested and accused of smuggling $60 million of cocaine into the U.S. over the last 20 years.

Salvador Lemus lived openly in Chester County as the owner of a landscaping company, but authorities contend it was a ruse to cover his illicit ties to the notorious La Familia cartel in Mexico, according to CBS Philly.   Continue reading “Drug Kingpin Busted After Living Openly In Rural Pennsylvania For Decades”

Voice of Detroit – by Diane Bukowski

DETROIT —  The State of Michigan’s fascist iron glove is pounding on Detroiters, using mass water shut-offs without notice, and mass concentration camp imprisonment at the Mound Road state facility. There, hundreds are locked into filthy holding rooms without sanitation, proper food, water and medical care, guarded by Michigan Department of Corrections personnel.

That is the horrendous story Charity Hicks told VOD, after her arrest during mass water shut-offs in her east-side neighborhood near Osborn High School. On May 23, members of the People’s Water Board, Moratorium NOW! and others protested the shut-offs outside the Detroit Water Board building as part of a series of weekly “Freedom Fridays.”   Continue reading “Mass Water Shut-Offs, Mass Incarceration At Mound Road Prison For Protesters”