From the Trenches World Report

Continue reading “How things look off the coast of Syria”

RT News

Following in the footsteps of other tech giants, Yahoo has published its first ever transparency report revealing how often governments request data about its users. According to the information, the majority of requests came from the US.

The report presents information on global government data requests that Yahoo received between January 1 and June 30 of this year. The move comes in the wake of the NSA leak scandal, following which technology titans in the Silicon Valley fell under criticism for helping governments spy on their citizens.   Continue reading “Yahoo publishes first transparency report, US tops snooping list”

RT News

Mounting pressure for a Western strike on Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and hostile to Damascus build up off the embattled country’s coastline.

The potential of a US strike against Syria in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb gained steam on Wednesday, when a resolution backing the use of force against President Bashar Assad’s government cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote.   Continue reading “Troubled waters: Naval forces line Syrian shores”

RT News

As leaders of countries making up half of the world’s population firmly opposed military action against Syria without a UN mandate, the US kept pushing for a strike, claiming that many countries represented at the G20 summit were “comfortable” with it.

Although discussion of the Syrian conflict was never officially on the G20 agenda, world leaders used their statements and speeches to outline their stance on a possible US-led military strike against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.    Continue reading “G20 Syria divide: World’s largest nations speak out against US-led strike”

Huffington Post – by Radley Balko

I’ve previously written about the cognitive bias problem in state crime labs. This is the bias that can creep into the work of crime lab analysts when they report to, say, a state police agency, or the state attorney general. If they’re considered part of the state’s “team” — if performance reviews and job assessments are done by police or prosecutors — even the most honest and conscientious of analysts are at risk of cognitive bias. Hence, the countless and continuing crime lab scandals we’ve seen over the last couple decades. And this of course doesn’t even touch on the more blatant examples of outright corruption.   Continue reading “New Study Finds That State Crime Labs Are Paid Per Conviction”

Washington Post – by Matt Zapotosky

In the eyes of federal prosecutors in Virginia, Chad Dixon is a brazen criminal whose misdeeds threatened border security, state secrets and young children across America. They say he taught convicted sex offenders and aspiring federal law enforcement officers how to cheat their court- or job-imposed lie detector tests — even when he knew that they planned to use his advice for nefarious purposes.   Continue reading “Indiana man accused of teaching people to beat lie detector tests faces prison time”

The Onion – SATIRE

WASHINGTON—As President Obama continues to push for a plan of limited military intervention in Syria, a new poll of Americans has found that though the nation remains wary over the prospect of becoming involved in another Middle Eastern war, the vast majority of U.S. citizens strongly approve of sending Congress to Syria.

The New York Times/CBS News poll showed that though just 1 in 4 Americans believe that the United States has a responsibility to intervene in the Syrian conflict, more than 90 percent of the public is convinced that putting all 535 representatives of the United States Congress on the ground in Syria—including Senate pro tempore Patrick Leahy, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and, in fact, all current members of the House and Senate—is the best course of action at this time.   Continue reading “Poll: Majority Of Americans Approve Of Sending Congress To Syria”

Jerry Robinson’s Follow the Money

Recently, President Obama has been patting himself on the back for his diplomatic effort to obtain Congressional support for his latest bad idea. Namely, bombing another country in the Middle East. Apparently, the current bombing campaign in Afghanistan (yes, we are still dropping bombs into the deserts of Afghanistan) and the drone wars we are currently waging in Pakistan and Yemen are not enough for this President.    Continue reading “How Can the Bankrupt U.S. Government Finance Yet Another Military Adventure?”

This proposal to attack Syria is unthinkable, as none of those planning it thought it was possible that it could fail so miserably…but it has.  The propaganda campaign to sell another war failed completely as each false assertion was immediately picked apart on the internet and proven absolutely false upon its release.  In fact, the so called mainstream media had to switch their support to condemnation so fast they have been tripping over their own words.  Some even changed their position it seemed, in mid sentence.

Whatever became of that fraudulent opinion poll put out by ABC News and Washington Post?  What was that?  36% of American people support a strike on Syria?  I guess they missed that one by a little bit more than the 3% margin for error.  Just another blatant, bold face lie.   Continue reading “US Attack on Syria – “Unthinkable””

Huffington Post – by Hunter Stuart

If this isn’t the definition of the “1 Percent,” we don’t know what is.

A Manhattan financier recently purchased a strip of land 12 inches wide in New York’s affluent tony Hamptons region for$120,000, according to multiple sources. And he reportedly did it just to keep his neighbor from walking on his property to get to the beach.   Continue reading “Hamptons Foot-Wide Strip Of Land Sells For $120,000”

City Watch – by Lisa Cerda, August 23, 2013

CERDAFIED – Following the bread crumb trail of FEMA orders, retired State Senator Sheldon R. Songstad of South Dakota State issued an “Emergency Fema Region 3 Alert!!!,” on August 13^th.

Region three is comprised of; Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Songstad’s research turned up some very interesting facts. Each item on its own could go unnoticed, but the collective facts may be worthy of your attention and scrutiny. The U.S. government appears to be preparing for a major event. It appears that this event is being staged for approximately Oct. 1^st. Let’s look at the numbers and dates.    Continue reading “Mysterious FEMA Region lll Alert Has Folks on Edge”

The New Yorker – by ANDY BOROWITZ

ST. PETERSBURG (The Borowitz Report)—Hopes for a positive G20 summit crumbled today as President Obama blurted to Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a joint press appearance, “Everyone here thinks you’re a jackass.”

The press corps appeared stunned by the uncharacteristic outburst from Mr. Obama, who then unleashed a ten-minute tirade at the stone-faced Russian President.   Continue reading “Satire: G20 Ends Abruptly As Obama Calls Putin A Jackass”

MLive – by Gary Ridley

VIENNA TWP, MI – A father walked into Edgerton Elementary in Vienna Township on Wednesday to pick up his daughter with a loaded gun strapped at his waist.

It was perfectly legal – albeit unnerving for school officials who asked Kenneth Herman, 31, to wait outside.

Herman said he has open-carried his firearm previously at the school without incident and will continue to do so.   Continue reading “Clio father legally takes loaded gun into elementary school”