From the Trenches World Report

Mail.com

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An avalanche swept down a climbing route on Mount Everest early Friday, killing at least 12 Nepalese guides and leaving four missing in the deadliest disaster on the world’s highest peak. Several more were injured.

The Sherpa guides had gone to fix ropes for other climbers when the avalanche struck an area known as the “popcorn field” for its bulging chunks of ice at about 6:30 a.m., Nepal Tourism Ministry official Krishna Lamsal said from the base camp, where he was monitoring rescue efforts.   Continue reading “Avalanche sweeps down Everest, killing at least 12”

Mail.com

MOKPO, South Korea (AP) — The investigation into South Korea’s ferry disaster focused on the sharp turn it took just before it began listing and on the possibility that a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives, officials said Friday, as rescuers struggled to find some 270 people still missing and feared dead.

Police said a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanging Friday from a pine tree on Jindo, an island near the sunken ship where survivors have been housed. He was the leader of a group of 323 students traveling on the ship on a school excursion, and said in a suicide note that he felt guilty for being alive while more than 200 of his students were missing.   Continue reading “Doomed ferry’s sharp turn, slow evacuation probed”

Press TV – by Paul Craig Roberts

Most privatizations, such as those that have occurred in France and UK during the neoliberal era, and in Greece today and Ukraine tomorrow, are lootings of public assets by politically-connected private interests.   Continue reading “Privatization: Looting the public purse”

National Review Online – by John Fund

Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle’s grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy’s ranch.

They shouldn’t have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. It’s not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.   Continue reading “The United States of SWAT?”

Nutritional Anarchy

We can all breathe a sigh of relief about that whole GMO thing. Wegmans, vendor of aisle after aisle of artificial food-like substances, has debunked the terrifying myth we were so worried about.  Silly us – this warm, comforting letter from Senior Vice President Mary Ellen Burris puts it all into perspective.   Continue reading “Today’s GMO Propaganda Message Brought to You by Your Friendly Neighborhood Wegmans”

RT News

Nine individuals who regularly posted comments on the white supremacist forum Stormfront were found guilty of murdering almost 100 people over the past half-decade, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Coming less than a week after Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, allegedly killed three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas last weekend, SPLC released a report that calls Stormfront a “magnet and breeding ground for the deadly and the deranged.”   Continue reading “White supremacist website ‘breeding ground for deranged’ – SPLC report”

Noisy Room – by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

For those of you out there that thought there was any truth to Obama opposing Putin in Russia, you might want to rethink that and fast. He’s proving just how flexible he really is these days. There is a fight within the Administration, with one side supporting surveillance flights from Russia over American soil and the other opposing it. One guess which side Obama is on.  Continue reading “Spying The Open Skies Of America”

The Daily Caller – by Giuseppe Macri

The United States Postal Service is looking to get in on the big-data-for-profit game played by tech giants like Facebook and Google, and begin mining and selling private data gathered from personal mail sent from and received by Americans everywhere.

USPS chief marketing and sales officer Nagisa Manabe recently told the forward-looking PostalVision 2020 conference that the post office is “actively looking for ways to build new business lines around what not long ago might have been considered science fiction,” eCommerce Bytes reports.   Continue reading “The USPS wants to mine and sell data gathered from your mail”

Hercules and the Umpire – by RGK

I told Scott H. Greenfield at Simple Justice that I would answer the question posed in the title. And so I shall.

The following is not intended as an excuse. Indeed, it may be viewed as an indictment. With the foregoing keenly in mind, and in no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on why I have tended to believe cops most of the time.   Continue reading “Why does Judge Kopf believe cops most of the time?”

The Onion [Satire]

WASHINGTON—Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord.

Multiple intelligence agencies confirmed that the militant Islamist organization and its numerous affiliates intend to carry out a massive, coordinated plan to stand aside and watch America’s increasingly rapid decline, with terrorist operatives across the globe reportedly mobilizing to take it easy, relax, and savor the spectacle as it unfolds.   Continue reading “FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States”

Fox 25 – by Jay Dillon

An Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Deputy is recovering after accidentally shooting himself in the foot during a call Tuesday morning.

The sheriff’s office say the deputy was hurt in the 3500 block of Hicks, near Spencer, around 9:30 AM Tuesday. The office says he was responding to an animal control call about a loose dog.   Continue reading “Oklahoma County deputy shoots self in foot instead of dog”

American Vision – by Gary DeMar

In 2012, Dr. Karen L. King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, discovered a papyrus that seemed to imply that Jesus was married. Here’s how the discovery was reported:

A small fragment of faded papyrus contains a suggestion that Jesus may have been married.   Continue reading “The “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” Papyrus Being Used as Liberal Propaganda”

Christian Mercenary – by T.L. Davis

A government unloosed from its authorizing document, in open revolt against the principles laid out and defined therein, with the will, intent and ability to execute citizens for trivial offenses, basically parking tickets (oops, forgot to feed the meter on the cattle) is, by definition, a domestic terrorist. The politicians and agents involved in such criminal activity as theft of property (water rights in U.S. v Hage  a similar, but much more egregious case than the issue with Cliven Bundy) involving the BLM, determined by the judge to be involved in a criminal conspiracy is the definition of domestic terrorists.  

Continue reading “Let’s Call It Patriotism”

RT News

A fake Twitter feed made to look like it belonged to Peoria’s mayor prompted a police raid. The account was flagged up by police for tweeting about sex, drugs and the exploits of ex-Toronto mayor Rob Ford who admitted to smoking crack last year.

What started off as an internet prank led to a raid and several people being questioned in Peoria, Illinois. Police launched a probe in the town in connection with a phony Twitter account that was created under the name of the mayor, Jim Ardis.   Continue reading “Fake Twitter account of US mayor sparks police raid”

AmmoLand

ANOKA, Minn. – -(Ammoland.com)- The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) American Hunter magazine has awarded CCI Quiet-22 with the Golden Bullseye Award for 2014 Ammunition of the Year.

The honor highlights the exceptional advantages CCI ammunition offers.

For the past 12 years, the NRA Golden Bullseye Awards have recognized the finest products in the shooting sports. After months of testing and evaluation, a seven-person committee, consisting of editors, graphic designers and veteran NRA Publications staff, presents awards to innovative products and companies that exceed the evaluators’ expectations.   Continue reading “American Hunter Bestows CCI Quiet-22 with NRA Golden Bullseye Award for Ammunition of the Year”