From the Trenches World Report

Crazifornia

Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California’s high speed rail boondoggle, who would stand out as the last person who would win it if there were no political patronage.

Put another way, who is the most likely person to win it if there is political patronage?   Continue reading “Dirty Business as Usual at California High Speed Rail”

C Net – by Declan McCullagh

Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws.

The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which the military monitored defense contractors’ Internet links. Since then, however, the program has been expanded by President Obama to cover all critical infrastructure sectors including energy, healthcare, and finance starting June 12. Continue reading “U.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance”

IB Times – by GIANLUCA MEZZOFIORE

RT News

An independent water test conducted by a company specializing in oil spill cleanups has found that the March 29 tar sands oil spill caused by ExxonMobil’s ruptured Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas is now contaminating nearby Lake Conway.

The new findings, provided to the media by Opflex Solutions, shows that the bitumen heavy crude oil (or tar sands) has now contaminated the lake, a revelation which directly contradicts ExxonMobil’s most recent cleanup update, which categorically denied that any oil had reached the body of water.   Continue reading “ExxonMobil claims in dispute as spill reaches Arkansas lake”

RT News

Income inequality surged during the first two years of the economic recovery, as the top 7 percent of American households was the only group to experience an increase in their net worth.

“Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself,”William Dean Howells once observed. But this quaint aphorism notwithstanding, the latest report on wealth polarization in the US may be difficult for many Americans to accept.   Continue reading “What recovery? US rich get richer, middleclass treading water”

RT News

A single hoax message sent via Twitter, the social media platform, erased billions of value from US stock markets on Tuesday, drawing attention to an electronic Trojan horse that hackers may manipulate with apparent ease.

A picture may contain a thousand words, but a single fake tweet can blow a hole in financial markets in seconds.   Continue reading “The Tweet that rocked Wall Street: $200 billion lost on fake message”

Independent – by KIM SENGUPTA

A British businessman who sold bogus bomb detectors to countries at war where hundreds of people were dying and injured by explosive devices has been found guilty of fraud at the Old Bailey.

Alaska Dispatch – by Jerzy Shedlock

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers at Fort Wainwright, an Army post in Interior Alaska adjacent to Fairbanks, to remove references to two Bible verses on their weapon scopes.

Michigan-based defense contractor Trijicom supplied the scopes, which referenced two New Testament passages, John 8:12 and Second Corinthians 4:6. The references appeared at the end of the scopes’ serial numbers, Fox News reported.   Continue reading “Army orders removal of Bible references from Fairbanks soldiers’ weapon scopes”

Activist Post – by Bernie Suarez

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon government false flag, a new phrase has gained strength in the global government dictionary; a term used commonly in prisons is now being used in the United States to be imposed on Americans. ‘Lockdown’ is the new catch phrase the government-mainstream media complex has created to catch criminals that are ‘REALLY’ dangerous.   Continue reading “Government-Media Complex Sneaks New Buzz Word on American Public: “LOCKDOWN” – aka Martial Law”

The New American – by William A. Levinson

Catherine the Great once demanded of her favorite commander, Aleksandr V. Suvorov, why he had allowed defeated enemy soldiers to escape. “I wanted to kill or capture every last one,” he admitted, “but pity stayed my hand.”   Continue reading “Gun Bill Defeat is Not Enough”

Libertarian Politics – by James F. Davis

The nail in the coffin of the US War on Drugs is a medical marijuana patent owned by the federal government. At least, it should have been the fatal mistake of a dying concept, but it wasn’t. Instead, the War on Drugs has sloshed onward, buoyed largely by the predation of the government on marijuana users based on the claim that the plant has no medical value. At the very least the feds could change their argument to the reality of the situation, which essentially boils down to the idea that even if marijuana does have medical uses, the government has secured a monopoly on any potential profits.   Continue reading “US Patent 6630507: The Nail in the Drug War Coffin?”

Waking Times – by Dylan Charles

The secret is out: marijuana is medicine. And not to the surprise of the pharmaceutical industry, who is slowly but surely gaining exclusive rights to the medical properties of this age-old plant.

But wait. How can a company, other than Monsanto, patent a plant? That’s not a serious question, but it brings up a serious point. Patents on marijuana have yet to cover genetic modifications of the plant itself, but rather involve the cannabinoids found in marijuana that are responsible for its medical effects.   Continue reading “Who Is Trying To Patent Marijuana?”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

More than six months since the Japanese nationalistic escalation over the disputed island chain (that shall not be named) in the East China Sea sent Sino-Japanese foreign relations to a level not seen since a particular territorial dispute over Manchuria, tensions just hit a fever pitch overnight, when an armada of eight Chinese ships entered what Japan claimed were its territorial waters.   Continue reading “1,000 Japanese Officers To Participate In “Island Recapture” Drill In California”

End the Lie – by Madison Ruppert

Senator Rand Paul’s celebrated filibuster of the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan over the Obama administration’s unclear stance on lethal drone strikes on Americans on U.S. soil (which was cleared up slightly) apparently meant absolutely nothing. He has now contradicted himself entirely and stated that he supports the idea of drones killing Americans without charge or trial.   Continue reading “Rand Paul flip-flops, says drone strikes on U.S. citizens on U.S. soil without charge or trial are okay”