From the Trenches World Report

NPR – by Scott Neuman

The Federal Reserve has decided to reduce by $10 billion its monthly bond-buying program beginning in January.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee says in a statement:

“In light of the cumulative progress toward maximum employment and the improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions, the Committee decided to modestly reduce the pace of its asset purchases. Beginning in January, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $35 billion per month rather than $40 billion per month, and will add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $40 billion per month rather than $45 billion per month.”   Continue reading “Fed Says It Will Begin Tapering Off Its Stimulus In January”

Jim Stone Freelance

Washington’s Blog did an absolutely brilliant write up about how the NSA has dealt their own nation an economic death blow with their mass surveillance. Here is a comment on the article:

“Did the idiots at the NSA have no clue that they would kill the US economy if they vacuumed up every electronic transaction on earth? And then allowed it to be used for political and economic purposes?   Continue reading “How the NSA destroyed the economy”

The Organic Prepper

Going to the mailbox near Christmas is lots of fun. You often find it stuffed with cards, gifts, and photos from faraway loved ones. But one family in Newtown, Massachusetts got an unpleasant surprise in their mailbox last week when they became the shocked recipients of the meanest Christmas letter ever.   Continue reading “Bah Humbug to Baby Jesus: Anti-Christian Neighbor Sends the Meanest Christmas Letter Ever”

Activist Post – by Brandon Turbeville

The “Internet of Things” just wouldn’t be “Internet” enough if Google was not involved in a major way. Fortunately for those who have designed the gadget spy system, however, Google is attempting to become heavily involved in the implementation of yet another piece of the technological control grid.

According to the The Information and The Verge, Google is now testing thermostats connected to the Internet that would allow users to view the amount of energy being consumed in their homes as well as be able to make adjustments to that level of consumption. At least that is the justification used to sell the technology to the public. The real reasons behind both Google’s foray into the relatively new field and those of other tech firms, governments, and “sustainability”-related organizations are somewhat less interested in consumer satisfaction, environmental health, and lower energy bills.   Continue reading “Google Seeks Internet Surveillance of the Smart Grid”

Natural News – by Ethan A. Huff

As the American economy continues to limp along in near-stagnancy, the few states that have repealed their nonsensical prohibition of cannabis are experiencing major economic boons. A new report released by the marijuana advocacy group Arcview Market Research reveals that the legal marijuana market in the U.S. is now the fastest growing industry in the country, topping even the rapid growth rate of the smart phone market.   Continue reading “Thanks to sweeping legalization measures, marijuana is fastest growing industry in US”

RT News

Researchers at the University of Missouri and the United States Geological Survey say that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be causing serious hormonal disorders in humans.

A new report published in the latest edition of the journal Endocrinology examines a dozen chemicals used regularly in fracking — an increasingly commonplace practice of releasing natural gas from within the Earth by blasting a cocktail containing millions of gallons of water and other components deep underground.   Continue reading “Fracking chemicals disrupt human hormone functions, study claims”

CNN

Washington (CNN) – Chinese hackers tapped into the Federal Election Commission’s website during the federal government shutdown in October, a report released Tuesday by an investigative news organization says.

The report from the Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations, indicates that hackers crashed the FEC’s computer systems, which compiles federal election campaign finance information like contributions to parties and candidates, and how those billions of dollars are spent in each election by candidates, political parties, and independent groups such as political action committees.   Continue reading “Report: Chinese hackers attacked crucial government election website”

NPR – by KRISHNADEV CALAMUR

At issue is the arrest last week of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York.

She is accused of using false documents to get a work visa for her Manhattan housekeeper.Indian media reports say she was arrested and handcuffed last Thursday as she dropped off her daughter at school. The reports say she was kept in a cell with “drug addicts” before posting $250,000 bail. The U.S. Marshals Office confirms a report that Khobragade, 39, was strip-searched, according to Reuters.   Continue reading “India-U.S. Row Over Diplomat’s Arrest In New York Escalates”

Little Green Footballs – by Charles Johnson

The NSA is a topic of discussion on social media tonight because of 60 Minutes, but here’s something I bet you didn’t know about the incredibly intrusive techniques Facebook uses to monitor everything you do on their site (and beyond): Facebook Self-Censorship: What Happens to the Posts You Don’t Publish?

We spend a lot of time thinking about what to post on Facebook. Should you argue that political point your high school friend made? Do your friends really want to see yet another photo of your cat (or baby)? Most of us have, at one time or another, started writing something and then, probably wisely, changed our minds.   Continue reading “Facebook Is Keeping Track of the Things You DON’T Post”

Fox News – by Judson Berger

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used, leaving soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option than to keep burning waste in open-air pits, according to an internal probe.

The report from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John F. Sopko was released Monday. It found the failure to complete the trash incinerators left soldiers exposed to potential health hazards from the burn pits, and taxpayers, once again, with nothing to show for a multimillion-dollar investment.   Continue reading “‘Complete waste’: Army Corps flushed $5.4M on ‘unusable’ trash incinerators, probe finds”

Washington’s Blog

32-year NSA Veteran Who Created Mass Surveillance System Says Government Use of Data Gathered Through Spying “Is a Totalitarian Process”

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information.  A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees.   Continue reading “Former Top NSA Official: “We Are Now In A Police State””

MassPrivateI

The spate of campuswide lockdowns has drawn attention to the practice, which security officials say they increasingly rely on.

“I don’t think there’s any greater level of danger, but our response to it is much different than it used to be,” Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox said.   Continue reading “Bomb hoaxes on campuses expose America’s police state and the exploitation of terrorism”

Patrick Henry Unbound – by Hatrick ‘Hattie’ Penry

Part 1

Plume-Gate: the world’s largest, provable cover-up and conspiracy

“For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”   Continue reading “Something Wicked This Way Comes: The story of Plume-Gate, the world’s largest, provable cover-up”

Dallas Observer -by Eric Nicholson

Police in Parker County had been watching Michael Fred Wehrenberg’s home for a month when, late in the summer of 2010, they received a tip from a confidential informant that Wehrenberg and several others were “fixing to” cook meth. Hours later, after midnight, officers walked through the front door, rounded up the people inside, and kept them in handcuffs in the front yard for an hour and a half.

The only potential problem, at least from a constitutional standpoint, was that the cops didn’t have a search warrant. They got one later, before they seized the boxes of pseudoephedrine, stripped lithium batteries, and other meth-making materials, while the alleged meth cooks waited around in handcuffs, but by then they’d already waltzed through the home uninvited. They neglected to mention this on their warrant application, identifying a confidential informant as their only source of information.   Continue reading “In Texas, Search Warrants Can Now Be Based on a “Prediction of a Future Crime””

New York Times – by NEIL GOUGH

HONG KONG — China’s biggest Bitcoin exchange was forced to stop accepting deposits in the Chinese currency on Wednesday, sending the price of the virtual money tumbling in one of its biggest markets globally.

The exchange, BTC China, made the announcement in a post on its verified account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like messaging service.   Continue reading “Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move”

WND – by Bob Unruh

A proposal by a state senator in Ohio, Cafri Cafaro, a Democrat, would require every homeschooling parent in Ohio to be investigated – and approved of – by various social services agencies before they would be allowed to teach their own children.

And officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association say it is the “worst-ever homeschool law proposed.”   Continue reading “Democrat: Investigate Every Homeschool Parent”