From the Trenches World Report

The Organic Prepper

We can all rest a little easier now.  Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Gestapo Security has said that fears over extreme government surveillance are overblown. There is no Orwellian state, no extreme surveillance, and we can all go back to watching Dancing with the Stars now.

“I think people have gotten the idea that there’s an Orwellian state out there that somehow we’re operating in. That’s far from the case… There are lots of protections built into the system…No one should believe that we are simply going willy-nilly and using any kind of data that we can gather…   Continue reading “Orwellian State? Don’t worry – Big Sis says the DHS is not “going willy-nilly and using any kind of data that we can gather””

Common Dreams – by Ben Quinn, The Guardian

An interactive database allowing users to search more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore tax havens including the British Virgin Islands has gone online.

The data, part of a cache of 2.5m leaked files that has already led to a series of exposes of the offshore financial sector by the Guardian and other global media organisations, has been launched by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).   Continue reading “Revealed: Secret Offshore Tax Evaders”

Common Dreams – by Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian

In my first substantive discussion with Edward Snowden, which took place via encrypted online chat, he told me he had only one fear. It was that the disclosures he was making, momentous though they were, would fail to trigger a worldwide debate because the public had already been taught to accept that they have no right to privacy in the digital age.

Snowden, at least in that regard, can rest easy. The fallout from the Guardian’s first week of revelations is intense and growing.   Continue reading “Edward Snowden’s Worst Fear Has Not Been Realized – Thankfully”

Herald and News – by SAMANTHA TIPLER

Klamath County Circuit Court Judge Cameron Wogan denied legal requests to temporarily stop enforcement of adjudication and water shutoffs at a hearing Friday.

Ranchers in the Klamath Basin asked for a temporary restraining order before hearings on a stay of enforcement in coming weeks. The requests to stay, or stop, enforcement are being made against junior water right shutoffs after calls for water were made earlier this week.   Continue reading “Stay denied – Klamath Basin Water shutoffs to continue”

Washington Times – by Emily Miller

Six months ago, the nation was horrified that a deranged man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 young children and six educators. The man, Adam Lanza, happened to use a Bushmaster brand AR-15-style, semi-automatic rifle in the Newtown, Conn., massacre. Almost instantly, gun-control politicians and activists blamed the weapon, instead of the man.   Continue reading “MILLER: Bushmaster CEO breaks silence on Newtown school shooting”

The Organic Prepper

With only a week remaining before we take off on our next adventure, I’ve been thinking about the lessons I learned here in the northern forests of Ontario.  The biggest lesson I learned is that practical skills have to be practiced. When I moved here, I thought I was well-prepared and self sufficient. Spending a year here taught me how little I actually knew.   Continue reading “Lessons from a Northern Cabin”

Wired – by Steven Levy

Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he wouldn’t even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna figured that they’d take a shot. That evening, two men showed up at his cozy farmhouse. They bore a peculiar red device, a sphere slightly bigger than a volleyball perched on a short collar, and attached it to his roof. Then they left.   Continue reading “How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands”

RT News

Detroit said it will stop making payment on $2.5 billion of the city’s massive $18.5 billion debt and has asked creditors to accept 10 cents in the dollar of what the city owes them in a bid to avoid the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history.

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said the city would stop making payments on its unsecured debt in a bid to “conserve cash” for vital services like police and firefighters. He further said pension benefits both present and future along with healthcare would face cuts, while control over the city’s water and sewage would be turned over to an independent body.   Continue reading “Detroit rock bottom: City announces $2.5bn debt default”

Optimum Online News

Parking is such a precious commodity in Boston that one woman was willing to pay $560,000 for two off-street spaces near her home.

Lisa Blumenthal won the spots in the city’s Back Bay neighborhood during an on-site auction Thursday held in a steady rain by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS had seized the spots from a man who owed back taxes.   Continue reading “Boston woman pays $560,000 for 2 parking spots”

Herald Online – by Bloomberg Philanthropies

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee announced today that they will co-host the second annual Bloomberg Technology Summit. The summit will bring together tech and business leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the nation’s top digital cities and examine what other cities across the country can do to grow their tech sectors and enjoy the economic benefits that come with it.   Continue reading “New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee to Co-Host Second Annual Bloomberg Technology Summit”

Activist Post – by Heather Callaghan

Vernon Hershberger’s recent verdict was mostly victorious on the three counts held against him for distributing fresh food to members without licensing. A jury found him guilty on the last count for breaking a holding order which held the maximum punishment. For the last three years, he’s had a threat of 2 years prison and $10,000 in fines looming over until that fateful fifth night of trial.   Continue reading “Vernon Hershberger Sentence and Fines Are Decided”

Activist Post

The Obama Doctrine of preemptive “humanitarian” war is once again moving into high gear, this time in Syria.

Without providing any concrete evidence, U.S. officials have concluded that Syria has used chemical weapons against rebels. Apparently, this is now the standard (or ‘Red Line’) for which the U.S. goes to war.

The U.S. government wouldn’t dare lie to the world about such things again, would they? Well, they got away with it in Iraq, and they destroyed Libya without any valid reason provided.   Continue reading “7 Reasons War with Syria is a Really Bad Idea”

SHTF Plan – by Max Slavo

One day in the near future Americans will finally realize that their money is being devalued at a rapid pace. For the time being the price increases are somewhat muted by official announcements of inflation being under control at around 2% and purported economic recovery on the horizon. The Federal Reserve and the US government are doing everything in their power to maintain a perception of stability.   Continue reading “Gold Buying Panic In China: 10,000 People Wait In Line For Their Chance to Own Precious Metals”

AlterNet – by Rebecca Leber

Twenty-six members of Congress will live off of a food stamp budget this week to draw attention to House Republicans cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program’s eligibility requirements already leave out  50 million food insecure households, but another 2 million Americans would lose access to food stamps in the proposed changes for the Farm Bill.

The SNAP challenge means that Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and 25 participating members must try to live off of under $4.50 per day for food and drink.   Continue reading “26 Members of Congress to Live Off Food Stamp Budget to Protest Cuts”

Public Intelligence

Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Urban Shield 2013

•Urban Shield is a continuous, 48-hour Full Scale Multi-Disciplinary Homeland Security/Disaster Preparedness Exercise hosted by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, with the support of the Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), and more than 150 local, state, federal, international and private sector partners.   Continue reading “San Francisco Bay Area Urban Shield 2013 Overview Presentation”

Time – by Karl Vick

Live Leak

Chemical weapons experts voiced skepticism Friday about U.S. claims that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used the nerve agent sarin against rebels on at least four occasions this spring, saying that while the use of such a weapons is always possible, they’ve yet to see the telltale signs of a sarin gas attack, despite months of scrutiny.   Continue reading “Chemical Weapons Experts Doubt US Claims that Syria Used Sarin”