From the Trenches World Report

TorrentFreak – by Ernesto

The US Supreme Court has ruled that creators can’t sue someone for copyright infringement before they’ve obtained a copyright registration certificate. In a unanimous decision, Justice Ginsburg clarifies that applying for a copyright registration is not sufficient. Major copyright holders are not happy with the decision, but for some others it may offer hope.

In pretty much every part in the world, creators can claim copyright on their work without having to register anything.   Continue reading “Rightsholders Can’t Sue Without a Copyright Certificate, Supreme Court Rules”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a rural Nebraska county’s appeal of a $28 million court judgment aimed at compensating six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 slaying.

The justices turned away Gage County’s last-ditch effort to avoid the hefty judgment, after a federal appeals court in St. Louis found the award was justified because of egregious law enforcement conduct. In August, the county raised its local property tax levy as high as state law allows to pay off the debt — a move that could become a major drag on the local economy.   Continue reading “Justices: Nebraska county owes $28M for wrongful convictions”

Lyme Disease

With countless New Yorkers suffering the devastating effects of Lyme and tick-borne diseases (TBDs), Senator Sue Serino today called on Albany’s leaders to make the issue a priority and include funding for research, education and prevention initiatives in this year’s State Budget.

“Knowing how truly life changing these diseases can be, and how rapidly they’re spreading across the state, the fact that this year’s Budget Proposal fails to include any significant funding to prevent their spread and protect New Yorkers is unfathomable,” said Senator Sue Serino.   Continue reading “Serino: NY state budget has “no real funding” to combat Lyme disease”

CBS Chicago – by Lauren Victory

CHICAGO (CBS) — What if you could make money, or type something, just by thinking about it? It sounds like science fiction, but it might be close to reality.

In as little as five years, super smart people could be walking down the street; men and women who’ve paid to increase their intelligence.

Northwestern University neuroscientist and business professor Dr. Moran Cerf made that prediction, because he’s working on a smart chip for the brain.   Continue reading “Northwestern Neuroscientist Researching Brain Chips To Make People Superintelligent”

New York Post

WANAQUE, N.J. — Some students at a New Jersey high school are upset that they won’t be able to make a grand entrance by taking limousines and luxury cars to their prom.

Lakeland Regional High School administrators sent a letter to parents this week stating that prom attendees must take school-provided and chaperoned coach buses to and from the venue in June.   Continue reading “New Jersey high school bans limos and luxury cars from prom”

Washington Examiner – by Alana Goodman

Two political action committees founded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide funneled over $1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

The cash transfers from the PACs — overseen by Saikat Chakrabarti, the freshman socialist Democrat’s chief of staff — run counter to her pledges to increase transparency and reduce the influence of “dark money” in politics.   Continue reading “AOC’s chief of staff ran $1M slush fund by diverting campaign cash to his own companies”

Gizmodo – by Dell Cameron

In January, when news first broke that Facebook had been paying teens in gift cards to let it install what is, by definition, essentially spyware on their phones, it seemed like just another Tuesday. Had it been virtually any other company, the outrage would have been tenfold.

After all, paying 13-year-olds to gain access to their mobile app usage and browser traffic is, on its face, an unconscionably creepy way for a business to gather intelligence about its competitors. But this shameless undertaking is now precisely the kind of dissolute conduct we’ve come to expect from the occupants 1 Hacker Way.   Continue reading “Surprise! Facebook Low-Balled The Percentage Of Teens It Paid To Install Spyware”

Global Research – by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

There are ongoing military threats against Venezuela. Is a US sponsored war contemplated for March 2019?

Various scenarios are envisaged by Washington. Sofar there is no firm evidence regarding the nature or timeline of a US sponsored military operation directed against Venezuela.   Continue reading “The Pentagon’s “Ides of March”: Best Month to Go to War”

The Guardian

Facebook has targeted politicians around the world – including the former UK chancellor, George Osborne – promising investments and incentives while seeking to pressure them into lobbying on Facebook’s behalf against data privacy legislation, an explosive new leak of internal Facebook documents has revealed.   Continue reading “Revealed: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws”

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp will receive the first payment toward the installation a $15 billion missile defense system in Saudi Arabia as part of a $110 billion arms package the Trump administration said it negotiated with the Kingdom in 2017, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Pentagon awarded Lockheed a $946 million payment for the foreign military sale.  Continue reading “Lockheed gets $1 billion down payment for Saudi THAAD missile system”

On February 10th, my brother and I had to take our mom to the emergency room at Morristown Medical Center. She was quite ill, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. She was admitted that night. She had CT scans, x-rays, and blood work done. She was diagnosed with Diverticulitis and a urinary tract infection. She was there receiving antibiotics via IV for two weeks.

They then sent her to a rehab place for physical therapy, but after just one night there, her hemoglobin levels dropped to 6.1 (normal levels are around 12). She had more x-rays and CT scans done.   Continue reading “Trencher Alert”

EcoWatch – by Earthjustice

An examination of monitoring data available for the first time concludes that 91 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants with monitoring data are contaminating groundwater with unsafe levels of toxic pollutants.

The study by the Environmental Integrity Project, with assistance from Earthjustice, used industry data that became available to the public for the first time in 2018 because of requirements in federal coal ash regulations issued in 2015.   Continue reading “Top 10 Most Contaminated Groundwater Sites Revealed in First Major Coal Ash Pollution Study”

Truthdig – by Chris Hedges

The most dangerous foreign policy decision of the Trump administration—and I know this is saying a lot—is its decision to share sensitive nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia and authorize U.S. companies to build nuclear reactors in that country. I spent seven years in the Middle East. I covered the despotic, repressive kingdom as the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. And I, along with most Arabists in the United States, have little doubt that giving a nuclear capability to Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the ruthless and amoral Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would see it embark on a nuclear weapons program and eventually share weaponized technology with Saudi allies and proxies that include an array of radical jihadists and mortal enemies of America. A nuclearized Saudi Arabia is a grave existential threat to the Middle East and ultimately the United States.   Continue reading “Giving the Bomb to Saudi Arabia’s Dr. Strangelove”

There will be no broadcast of The Word From the Trenches today.

I am feeling quite poorly.

Jerusalem Post

The government will do everything it can to expedite the demolition of the homes of the terrorists responsible for the ramming attack on IDF soldiers early Monday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with the prime minister of Samoa.

“This morning the IDF soldiers acted swiftly and killed the terrorists who threatened to run them over,” Netanyahu said. “We send wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded officer and will do everything to speed up the demolition of these murderers’ homes, as we will do for the murderer of Ori Ansbacher.”   Continue reading “Netanyahu orders home demolitions of ramming-attack terrorists”

Strategic Culture – by Wayne Madsen

The city of Miami, Florida may have started out as a retirement mecca for winter-worn pensioners from northern climes. However, after the beginning of the Cold War and US military and Central Intelligence Agency intervention in Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Guyana, the Bahamas, and other Western Hemisphere nations, Miami became a refuge for exiled wealthy businessmen escaping populist revolutions and elections in South and Central America and spies. The retirement and vacation capital of the United States quickly became the “Tropical Casablanca.”   Continue reading “Military Intervention and Mercenaries, Inc. (MIAMI)”