From the Trenches World Report

KTLA 5 News

A federal judge delivered a blow Thursday to a decade-long effort by prosecutors to strip the Mongols motorcycle gang of its trademarked logo, ruling it would be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana, California, essentially reversed a first-of-its-kind jury verdict that would have given the government control of the logo of a Mongol warrior astride a chopper-style motorcycle.   Continue reading “Judge Won’t Make Mongols Motorcycle Gang Surrender Trademark Logo After Racketeering Conviction”

Free Thought Project

(FEE) — Harvard’s Gernot Wagner wants to save the world from global warming. His method? Develop a new type of plane that will fly more than 4,000 missions a year dumping particulates into the stratosphere.

Wagner and his colleague Wake Smith call the proposed plane “SAI Lofter (SAIL).” Anonymous individuals at “Airbus, Atlas Air, Boeing, Bombardier, GE Engines, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Near Space Corporation, Northrup Grumman, Rolls Royce Engines, Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Company, and Virgin Orbit” provided input.   Continue reading “Harvard Scientists to Fight Global Warming by Spraying Particles into Atmosphere—4,000 Times a Year”

Medium  – by Nafeez Ahmed

A senior European Commission economist has warned that a Third World War is an extremely “high probability” in coming years due to the disintegration of global capitalism.

In a working paper published last month, Professor Gerhard Hanappi argued that since the 2008 financial crash, the global economy has moved away from “integrated” capitalism into a “disintegrating” shift marked by the same sorts of trends which preceded previous world wars.   Continue reading “The “disintegration” of global capitalism could unleash world war 3, warns top EU economist”

VPR

The parents of a 23-year-old man who committed suicide last December are asking lawmakers to create a waiting period for gun purchases in Vermont.

It’s been less than three months since Alyssa Black’s youngest child took his own life, and she’s still piecing together the events that led to her son’s death.   Continue reading “Right To Self-Defense Versus Suicide Prevention: Lawmakers Consider Waiting Period For Gun Sales”

The Organic Prepper – by Dagny Taggart

For the second day in a row, gun-grabbers in the US House of Representatives have passed an extreme gun control bill.

Yesterday we reported that the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which would require background checks for all firearm sales, including private transactions and purchases made online and at gun shows. Currently, only federally licensed firearms dealers, importers, and manufacturers are required to conduct background checks on customers under federal law.   Continue reading “The House Just Passed A SECOND Extreme Gun Control Bill”

The Oregonian – by Andrew Theen

Oregonians should not be required to prove they are U.S. citizens or legal residents to drive a car.

That’s the premise behind a bill filed in Salem this week by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers. If passed opens the door for non-citizens to obtain legal Oregon driver’s licenses, learner’s permits or general identification cards. It wouldn’t apply to commercial driver’s licenses.   Continue reading “Oregon lawmakers introduce bill to eliminate ‘proof of legal presence’ requirement to get driver’s license”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

The Houston Police Department has a huge problem. A recent no-knock drug raid ended with two “suspects” killed and four officers wounded. The PD says no-knock entrances are safer for officers, not that you’d draw that conclusion from this raid.

The problem the PD has is its drug warriors are dirty. The raid was predicated on a tip from a confidential informant who doesn’t appear to exist. The warrant contained sworn statements about a heroin purchase that never happened and a large quantity of heroin packaged for sale that was not among the things seized from the dead couple’s residence. The heroin central to the raid appears to have been taken from the console of an officer’s squad car and run to the lab for some very unnecessary testing.   Continue reading “FBI, DA’s Office Open Investigation Of Fatal Houston PD Drug Raid”

Big League Politics – by Jose Nino

Gun controllers are re-branding.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the U.S.’s oldest gun control lobby, has changed its name to Brady as part of its rebranding efforts.

The gun control advocacy group announced this new rebranding strategy at an event celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Brady bill, which laid the first step to creating a federal gun registry.   Continue reading “Gun Control Group Gets a New Disguise”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

It’s no secret that California residents, particularly people residing in the most expensive parts of the state (SoCal, the Bay Area) are fleeing in droves, displaced by expensive rents, sky-high home prices, unbearable traffic congestion and – oh yeah – increasingly deadly wildfires. As a result, California expat communities have sprung up in Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Nevada, sun-belt states where residents can enjoy many of the benefits of California living (namely, the agreeable climate and booming economy) without the downsides.   Continue reading “The California Dream Is In Nevada: Golden State Expats Flock To Las Vegas Suburb”

Activist Post – by Aaron Kesel

Smart assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo could soon be implemented with a “moral AI” to decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law.

Scientists at the University of Bergen, Norway proposed the incredibly Orwellian idea of inserting morals into A.I. code at the ACM conference in Hawaii on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society, Dailymail reported.   Continue reading “Scientists Want Orwellian A.I. Sentient Smart Assistants To Snitch On Owners And Discuss Contacting Police”

Mint Press News – by Whitney Webb

WASHINGTON — The massive purchases of ammo and weapons by non-military federal agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA), that first began under the Obama administration has continued unabated under the Trump administration, while receiving less media coverage.  Continue reading “Non-Military Federal Agencies Under Trump Expand Already Enormous Arsenals”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Three months after Israeli police recommended that the country’s attorney general pursue charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his alleged involvement in “Bezeq Walla Affair”, it appears an indictment is finally being handed down on Thursday, much to the longtime leader’s chagrin.   Continue reading “Israeli Attorney General Indicts Netanyahu On Charges Of Bribery, Fraud & Breach Of Trust”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed legislation Wednesday to abolish his state’s concealed carry permit requirement.

Oklahoma joins Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Vermont as the 15th state to declare the Second Amendment as an individual’s carry permit.  Continue reading “Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Eliminating Concealed Permit Requirement”

Overdrive – by Max Heine

A recent report on the nation’s worst freight bottlenecks shows not just how much time is wasted at certain urban tarpits, but also how quickly the clogging is progressing. The American Transportation Research Institute study found that in the 10 worst bottlenecks, truck speeds had dropped by an average of nearly 9 percent — in only one year.

So it’s no surprise that talk of a big infrastructure plan is back in the news. The American Trucking Associations’ Transport Topics reported Jan. 3 that Trump and congressional leaders had a consensus to produce an infrastructure bill this year. Trump later included the idea in his State of the Union address, a year after pitching a flawed matching funds proposal that hit a dead-end.   Continue reading “No time left for you: Bottlenecks and detention”

The Jerusalem Post – by Amy Spiro

Sitting before Congress for hours on Wednesday, Michael Cohen accused US President Donald Trump of lying, cheating, and a range of allegedly criminal behavior.

But some people who watched Trump’s former lawyer testify in Congress had their minds focused elsewhere: on a thin, red string bracelet around his left wrist.   Continue reading “Michael Cohen’s Red String Bracelet Draws Attention”