The majority of voters did not vote for Donald Trump for president; the majority of voters did not vote for Republican candidates for the Senate; and fewer than 51% of voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The Republican Party now controls the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, no matter how that came to be. I believe it is worth bearing in mind that a majority of U.S. citizens did not support the Republican winners.   read more

At the hundreds of military bases set up in both countries, the U.S. military often resorted to disposing of waste by burning it in open-air pits. Everything from human waste to dead animals to plastics to asbestos and more were thrown into them, doused with jet fuel, and ignited. The result was thick, black plumes of smoke that filled the air with not just foul smells, but extremely unhealthy particles inhaled by soldiers.   read more

John L. Estrada is a native Trinidadian who has been senior manager for Lockheed Martin Training Solutions since 2008. Estrada immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 14 and enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 18 in September 1973, staying 34 years and serving as sergeant major of the Marine Corps, the highest-ranking enlisted Marine, from 2003 to 2007.   read more

from 2003 to 2006, Daughton served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Algiers, Algeria, from 2006 to 2009, where he got involved in a minor kerfuffle over a travel book about author Michael Mewshaw’s 4,000-mile trek across North Africa, including a visit to the U.S. embassy and a chat with Daughton. According to the book, Daughton was unusually—and undiplomatically—frank with Mewshaw, stating for example that Algeria’s “government is sclerotic and self-serving.”   read more

The NSA has operated a project called MUSCULAR that involves infiltrating Google’s and Yahoo’s network cables running between their data centers. The effort has also involved Britain’s intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). A classified document revealed that in one 30-day period from early December 2012 to early January 2013, the NSA processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records—including who sent or received e-mails and when.   read more

Among the prosecutors accused of wrongdoing were six named “prosecutor of the year” by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Committee. Of the cases examined, only two prosecutors were eventually punished. One was disbarred, while the other received a short suspension. As for those tried by these prosecutors, only two had their death sentences thrown out by appellate courts.   read more

McCall has criticized Zazzle for buckling under to the government threats rather than fighting back. Furthermore, Zazzle refused to supply copies of the government letters to McCall’s lawyer, offering only to read them over the phone. Meanwhile, McCall found another online partner, CafePress, to help him sell his shirts and mugs.   read more

The device—known as StarChase—fires a GPS bullet that sticks to the vehicle. From there, law enforcement can more safely track where the person is going without pursuing at top speed. Another advantage of StarChase is that once a police car falls back, a suspect might mistakenly assume his pursuers have given up and slow down as well. This increases the chance of them being caught and decreases risks to other motorists and pedestrians.   read more

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claimed “there was a general and systematic violation of human rights” in Guantánamo, according to Rodrigo Escobar Gil, one of the body’s seven commissioners. As many as 46 detainees were force-fed through nasal tubes.   read more

“I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer grey skies. Drones don’t fly when sky is grey,” Zubair ur Rehman, 13, said, adding that his leg was injured by shrapnel during the strike. At one point in the testimony, the translator broke down in tears while relaying the family’s ordeal.   read more

These experts say approximately 250,000 people took part in the 29% of trials that haven’t been published. Considering only those trials funded by the pharmaceutical industry, the number rose to 32%. Drug makers are sometimes motivated to not publish clinical trial information in order to hide details of side effects or outright failures of new treatments. They also try to avoid disclosing data that might help their competition.   read more

CREW says 84% of senior defense officials who sought an ethics opinion between January 2012 and May 2013 were thinking about joining private industry, particularly defense contractors. At least 13 people listed Lockheed Martin as a possible employer, 13 listed Northrop Grumman, 10 listed Raytheon, eight listed General Dynamics and seven listed Boeing, according to CREW.   read more

A majority of Americans (60%) back the death penalty for convicted murderers. But this level of support is the lowest since November 1972, when 57% were in favor, according to a new Gallup poll. Support for executions peaked in 1994 at 80%. It has dropped since then, particularly with Democrats. Only 47% of Democratic voters now back the death penalty, representing a 28-point decline over the past 19 years.   read more

Boren offers kids $1 for every pound of candy they bring in. He says it’s important to limit a child’s sugar intake because of the damage it can do to their teeth. Too much sugar can cause caries disease that leads to enamel decay, dental research shows.   read more

In heated testimony before the House Intelligence Committee yesterday, NSA chief Keith Alexander claimed that it was European intelligence agencies that did some of the spying in their own countries and supplied the NSA with the data. In one day alone, December 11, 2012, the NSA intercepted 3.5 million calls, according to an NSA graphic entitled “Spain – last 30 days.”   read more

In Pennsylvania in 2012, Republican congressional candidates won 49% of the vote, but gained 72% of the seats. Throwing in Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Virginia, the Republican and Democrats split the combined vote almost evenly. Yet in these five states Republicans won 51 seats to only 21 for Democrats.   read more

Once the U.S. removes its remaining 40,000 troops from Afghanistan, only about 20% of the country will be accessible to U.S. government overseers, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). “It’s difficult even for Afghans to inspect some of these projects,” a U.S. reconstruction specialist told the Post. “If they’re walking around with a camera and a notebook, they’ll draw attention to themselves as someone connected with Western money.”   read more