From the Trenches World Report

AP – The Big Story – by MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

MORVEN, Ga. (AP) — Small-town police departments across the country have been gobbling up tons of equipment discarded by a downsizing military — bicycles, bed sheets, bowling pins, French horns, dog collars, even a colonoscopy machine — regardless of whether the items are needed or will ever be used.

In the tiny farming community of Morven, Ga., the police chief has grabbed three boats, scuba gear, rescue rafts and a couple of dozen life preservers. The town’s deepest body of water: an ankle-deep creek.   Continue reading “Little Restraint in Military Giveaways”

Tech Dirt – by Glyn Moody

Two massive trade agreements currently being negotiated — TPP and TAFTA/TTIP — could potentially affect most people on this planet, either directly or indirectly through the knock-on effects. Like all such agreements, they have been justified on the grounds that everyone wins: trade is boosted, prices drop, profits rise and jobs are created. That’s why it’s been hard to argue against TPP or TAFTA — after all, who doesn’t want all those things?   Continue reading “Trade Agreements With Mexico And South Korea Turned Out To Be Disasters For US: So Why Pursue TPP And TAFTA/TTIP?”

Reuters – by Timothy Gardner

The House of Representatives easily passed a bill on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Iran, showing a strong message to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program days before President-elect Hassan Rouhani is sworn in.

The vote also highlighted a growing divide between Congress and the Obama administration on Iran policy ahead of international talks on the nuclear program in coming months. Iran insists the nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.   Continue reading “U.S. House passes Iran sanctions bill to slash oil exports”

Investment Watchblog

WASHINGTON — American intelligence analysts have concluded that a recent Israeli airstrike on a warehouse in Syria did not succeed in destroying all of the Russian-made antiship cruise missiles that were its target, American officials said on Wednesday, and that further Israeli strikes are likely. 

Israel carried out an attack on July 5 near Latakia to destroy the missiles, which Russia had sold to Syria. While the warehouse was destroyed, American intelligence analysts have now concluded that at least some of the Yakhont missiles had been removed from their launchers and moved from the warehouse before the attack.   Continue reading “Syrian Missiles Were Moved Before Israeli Strike, Officials Say-More Strikes Coming”

National Defense Magazine- by Sarah Sicard

A recent survey showed that most Americans oppose the use of robotic weaponry without humans in the decision loop.

Fifty-five percent of the respondents in a survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst said they were either “strongly opposed” or “somewhat opposed” to nations employing fully autonomous weapons, said a report released June 19.   Continue reading “Poll: Americans Opposed to Autonomous ‘Killer Robots’”

The Oakland Press

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP (AP) — The FBI says it arrested a man who appeared at a Flint-area movie theater wearing body armor, possessing a gun and carrying 34 rounds of ammunition.

Cassidy Delavergne was charged Wednesday with possessing a phony card that identified him as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.   Continue reading “FBI: Man at Grand Blanc Township theater had armor, gun, fake CIA ID”

Cincinnati News – by Jim Hannah

COVINGTON — A 53-year-old Eastern Kentucky man has received a four-year prison term after trying to run though a presidential security barricade in a car loaded with guns during Barack Obama’s visit to the region last September.

Kerry T. Prater was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge David Bunning. Prater, who has a history of mental illness, had pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a person committed to a mental institution. Prater was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in 2001 and 2005 based on danger he posed to himself and others.   Continue reading “Man arrested with guns during Obama visit gets prison”

Tech Crunch – by John Biggs

Further leaks have revealed an NSA project called XKeyscore that, with a few keystrokes, can give a data analyst access to nearly everything a user does on the Internet – from chat sessions to email to browsing habits.

The system requires an email because many behaviors online are completely anonymous and it is only via some sort of identifier — a username and domain — that the system can scour the database of collected Internet traffic and metadata.   Continue reading “NSA Project XKeyscore Collects Nearly Everything You Do On The Internet”

Century Link

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has scheduled a hearing on Sept. 19 for Halliburton Energy Services to plead guilty to destroying evidence after BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

National Organization for Marriage

Dear Marriage Supporter,

Unprecedented, chilling, unconstitutional, and simply wrong.

Those were some of the words used to describe a San Antonio City Council ordinance that would ban from city government anyone who ever uttered a discriminatory word against same-sex marriage. Truth is stranger, and in this case more horrifying, than fiction.   Continue reading “Don’t Mess with Texas (Marriage Law)!”

Survival and Beyond – by Ed Corcoran

It seems lately that the mainstream media has been coming out with all kinds on reports that most of us “conspiracy theorists” (e.g. those of us who have been paying attention) have known for some time.  From Sean Hannity coming out on FOX hollering about the militarization of the police in America, to the following report from CNN correspondent Bruce Schneier declaring what most of  us have already known for ages.  Does this mean that the MSM is finally “coming around” and they’re not really controlled by the corporate power elite?  Or are they just trying to balance things out to make themselves appear more legitimate?   Continue reading “Well, it Must be “Official” Now that CNN Declares: “The Internet is a Surveillance State””

Before It’s News – by Mort Amsel

MSN – by Jason Notte

Is it still considered charity if Goodwill Industries only pays some of its employees 22 cents an hour? In Goodwill’s view, yes: They could be making nothing.

In a payroll decision that’s ideologically complex at best, Goodwill Industries outlets in Pennsylvania used a 75-year-old labor law loophole to pay disabled employees as little as 22, 38 and 41 cents per hour in 2011.    Continue reading “Goodwill pays disabled workers pennies an hour”

Bob Owens

“The plan we’ve been given in the past is ‘Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,’” Superintendent David Hopkins said. But as deadly incidents continued to happen in schools, he explained, the district decided, “That’s not a plan.”

…

Home to an annual peach festival, the town isn’t known for having dangerous schools. But Hopkins said he faced a flood of calls from parents worried about safety after the attack last year at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.   Continue reading ““That’s not a plan.” Arkansas school district trains armed faculty and staff to confront active shooters, refuses the “hide and die” mantra of those cowardly districts that won’t protect students”

Truthstream Media – by Melissa Melton

A new article up at Forbes “Earth’s Future Forbidden Zones?” begins with all manner of coming world doom:

Science fiction is rife with planetary ‘forbidden zones’ — whole regions of a planet that have become virtually uninhabitable due to changes in climate; politics; nuclear, chemical or biological warfare; pollution; technology gone amok; or something even more exotic.   Continue reading “Future Earth: Agenda 21′s ‘Forbidden Zones’”

Public Intelligence

The following is a list of Twitter accounts followed by the official account of the Department of Homeland Security National Operations Center Media Monitoring Capability.  The document was obtained via FOIA request by Carlton Purvis using Muckrock.com.   Continue reading “List of Twitter Accounts Followed by DHS Media Monitoring Capability”