From the Trenches World Report

Legal Insurrection – by Mandy Nagy

A gay waitress who claimed she had been stiffed on a tip because of her lifestyle is no longer employed by the NJ restaurant at which she’d worked, according to a statement posted on Saturday.

Dayna Morales, a former Marine and waitress at the Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, NJ, claimed last month that customers left a note on their receipt disagreeing with her lifestyle in lieu of a tip.  The story went viral when bloggers and media outlets picked up on it after a message from Morales and a photo of the receipt were posted on a Facebook page.   Continue reading “NJ restaurant parts ways with gay waitress who claimed she was stiffed on tip”

MassPrivateI

Virginia State Police unveiled a new crime-fighting tool. It’s an app for cell phones that sends photos and texts directly to police.

Reaction to the new strategy appears to be mixed.

Virginia State Police are offering an opportunity for every motorist and every pedestrian in the Commonwealth to be “eyes and ears” for suspicious or criminal activity. A new app, available for most smartphones, encourages citizens to either directly text a message to state police, or snap a picture and send it (with a message) to police.   Continue reading “A nation of spies: Police are criminalizing photography”

MassPrivateI

The Five Eyes alliance of States – comprised of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Canada’s Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – is the continuation of an intelligence partnership formed in the aftermath of the Second World War. Today, the Five Eyes has infiltrated every aspect of modern global communications systems.   Continue reading “The Five Eyes intelligence agencies are the most powerful they’ve ever been”

The Guardian – by James Ball

To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency’s impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.

That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.   Continue reading “Revealed: spy agencies’ covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games”

World Public Union – by Moritz Nestor

Fortunately, the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NEK, President: Otfried Höffe) critically commented on the use of the ADHD drug Ritalin in its opinion of 22 November 2011 titled Human enhancement by means of pharmacological agents: The consumption of pharmacological agents altered the child’s behavior without any contribution on his or her part.

That amounted to interference in the child’s freedom and personal rights, because pharmacological agents induced behavioral changes but failed to educate the child on how to achieve these behavioral changes independently. The child was thus deprived of an essential learning experience to act autonomously and emphatically which “considerably curtails children’s freedom and impairs their personality development”, the NEK criticized.   Continue reading “Inventor of ADHD’s Deathbed Confession: “ADHD is a Fictitious Disease””

Conservative Intelligence Briefing – by David Freddoso

Obamacare fallout: The Obama Administration is projecting renewed confidence about its signature achievement — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — because the federal website with which some insurance customers must interface is now less buggy than before. But this is not real confidence — it is the best possible face, pasted over deep fears that have long beset every knowledgeable fan of the law.   Continue reading “The Briefing, Issue XXIX”

WND

WASHINGTON – If you thought Obamacare could not get any more unattractive to an increasingly skeptical American public, think again.

A new report by the Financial Times reveals major hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centers, are excluded from insurance plans being offered over Obamacare’s troubled online exchanges.   Continue reading “Obamacare: You Can’t Choose Hospital, Either”

Mail.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — While the rest of North Korea’s top brass leaped to their feet before Kim Jong Un, clapping wildly in a requisite show of respect at high-level meetings, his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, often seemed nonchalant, at times even bored. Once considered the force behind the young leader, he displayed a bold insouciance that seemed calculated to show he was beyond reach.

So by purging his own uncle, Kim has delivered a more chilling message: No one is beyond reach, not even family. Jang’s fall from grace, accompanied by allegations from corruption to womanizing and capped by his dramatic arrest at a party meeting Sunday, has no doubt spooked Pyongyang’s elite. It also suggests Kim is still trying to consolidate the power he inherited from his father two years ago.   Continue reading “Purge sends chilling message to NKorea’s elite”

Ludwig von Mises Institute – by David Gordon

Lew Rockwell offers us in Fascism vs. Capitalism a provocative and insightful diagnosis of the political and economic ills of our time. The situation that we face, he says, is dire; but, fortunately, he does not leave us without remedy. To the contrary, the wisdom of Mises, Rothbard, and their colleagues in the Austrian School offers the means to rescue us, and the inspiring leadership of Ron Paul shows us the way to put their ideas into practice.

As the book’s title suggests, Rockwell finds “fascism” to be the key concept needed to analyze the modern American era. He is quick to deflect an objection:   Continue reading “Fascism Is a Current Political and Economic System”

The Ugly Truth

Blacklisted News – by Andrew Gavin Marshall

In the first part of this exposé, I examined the origins and recent history of the Group of Thirty as a highly influential institution in the arena of global financial governance, bringing together top central bankers, financiers, policymakers and academics in the world of economic and monetary affairs.

More than three decades since it was founded in 1978, the Group of Thirty has maintained its reputation as a prominent institution in the financial world, continuing to produce influential reports and advocate for policies which are largely accepted and implemented across the globe.   Continue reading “The Group of Thirty and Its Methods of Financial Governance”

Huffington Post – by Zach Carter

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.

The memos, which come from a government involved in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, detail continued disputes in the talks over the deal. The documents reveal broad disagreement over a host of key positions, and general skepticism that an agreement can be reached by year-end. The Obama administration has urged countries to reach a deal by New Year’s Day, though there is no technical deadline.   Continue reading “Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal”

Freedom Outpost – by Ed Wood

A third term for President Obama? Impossible you say. Unconstitutional you say. True. The 22nd Amendment says, “No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.” In 1947 FDR had just been elected to an unprecedented fourth term. After twelve years in office, political cronyism was so deeply ingrained in public law and philosophy that Congress called a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of proposing the 22nd Amendment; subsequently ratified by three-fourths of the states and enacted into law.   Continue reading “Is Obama Planning a Third Term as President & Is Congress Able to Stop Him?”