From the Trenches World Report

RT News

Residents of Washington, DC who are found to be in possession of a small amount of marijuana will no longer be charged with a crime after the city council voted Tuesday to reduce the penalty to a small fine.

The members voted 10-1 to drop possession of an ounce or less of cannabis to a civil fine of $25. The council did preserve a law making it illegal to smoke in public, although the maximum penalty for that infraction has been reduced from up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine to up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. That penalty is the same one facing residents who are stopped in public with an open can of alcohol.   Continue reading “Marijuana on its way to being decriminalized in Washington DC”

RT News

About one in five US soldiers have been found to have a common mental illness such as depression or panic disorder upon enlisting in the Army, according to a new study.

A second study showed that over eight percent of soldiers had contemplated suicide and 1.1 percent had attempted suicide, researchers found via confidential surveys and interviews with 5,428 soldiers at Army bases across the US.   Continue reading “​’How did these guys get in the Army?’ New study delves into mental illness”

Guerrilla America – by SAMUEL CULPER III

For the benefit of quasi-academic exercise, let’s assume that the absolute worst happens in Connecticut (CT): a federal invasion.  (Although the likelihood is low right now, it could be a plausible scenario in another state for the government of tomorrow.)  If I was tasked to analyze and wargame that scenario, my initial key assumptions would be:   Continue reading “Invasion Models”

McClatchy DC – by JONATHAN S. LANDAY, ALI WATKINS AND MARISA TAYLOR

WASHINGTON — The CIA Inspector General’s Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of malfeasance at the spy agency in connection with a yet-to-be released Senate Intelligence Committee report into the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program, McClatchy has learned.   Continue reading “Probe sought of CIA conduct in Senate study of secret detention program”

Papers, Please!

At first blush, a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU on behalf of a sociology professor at Indiana University wrongly detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection seems to be about whether CBP is exceeding the limitations on its police powers, and detaining US citizens for purposes unrelated to customs and borders.

That’s bad, but unsurprising in light of the history of abuse of limited administrative search powers as a pretext for unrelated police purposes by CBP and other DHS components, notably the TSA.   Continue reading “DHS uses email intercepts to question US citizen about her sex life”

Public Intelligence

Department of Defense Instruction 3025.22

• 10 pages
• July 26, 2013

 

Continue reading “DoD Instruction: The Use of the National Guard for Defense Support of Civil Authorities”

Computer World – by Robert L. Mitchell

Privacy is under attack from all quarters, but even today, there are things you can do to protect your personal data. Here are some tips.

Who says privacy is dead? While it’s true that marketers, the government, data aggregators and others are gathering and analyzing more data than ever about every individual, you can still exert some control over what’s out there, who’s tracking you and what they do with that information.   Continue reading “The paranoid’s survival guide, part 1: How to protect your personal data”

Washington’s Blog

New Ooga Booga No Longer Effective … So Government Switches Back to Tried-And-True Old-Timey Ooga-Booga

Preface: I’m not siding with Putin on the Ukrainian dispute. I don’t like Communism.  I was born in the U.S. and have lived here all of my life.  I hate Stalin with a passion – a man who killed countless protesters, and sent numerous others away to insane asylums – and have railed against the “useful idiots” who naively supported the Soviets. I also think that Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat.  I’m just pointing out that the U.S. Government is completely overreacting and fear-mongering. This is taking place on the other side of the world, and doesn’t effect America’s national security (although we may have heavily invested in the outcome).   Continue reading “The Americans’ Fear of Islamic Terrorists Has Worn Off, So the Government Pulls Out the EVIL RUSSIAN Card Again”

Truth Dig – by William Pfaff

What did Washington expect to gain from a successful coup d’état in Ukraine? It gained little enough from the “Orange Revolution” in 2005, that first put Viktor Yuschenko and Yulia Tymoshenko into power in independent Ukraine. Their power produced rivalry, as well as a return of corruption to national government (the Orange Revolution, so-called, was itself inspired by popular protests against corruption in the preceding government of Viktor Yanukovych, causing his ouster). Yanukovych, of course, returned to power in 2010 (with 48 percent of the vote), after which Yulia Tymoshenko was conveniently charged and imprisoned on corruption charges.    Continue reading “What Happens Now in Ukraine?”