Showing posts with label drug war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drug war. Show all posts

July 6, 2020


America's long-term debt crisis is now a short-term problem

fromReason: Even in a healthy economy, rising debt and deficits posed challenges. The current crisis has magnified those problems.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Rand Paul's exchange with Fauci was exactly what America needed

fromTheHill: One thing is for certain. We either believe in liberty in times of crisis, or we don’t believe in liberty at all.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle              The Government is Not Us

Redskins to undergo 'thorough review' of nickname

fromESPN: Washington Tyrants would be a fitting replacement.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

We must end the war on drugs

fromTheReview: "What drug prohibition did do is exactly what alcohol prohibition did a hundred years ago: increase conflict between police and citizens."
The War On Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

1 million dead people received federal bailout checks

fromTheDailyBell: The total amount of money which was sent to dead people came to about $1.4 billion, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
The Government is Not Us

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom”

fromTheActivistPost: The following published is a letter penned by a young Benjamin Franklin. No truer words were ever spoken.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

May 20, 2020


Why American life went on as normal during the killer pandemic of 1969

fromNYPost: “That generation approached viruses with calm, rationality and intelligence,” he said. “We left disease mitigation to medical professionals, individuals and families, rather than politics, politicians and government.”
The Government is Not Us

Will SCOTUS revoke its license for police abuse?

fromCreators: This week the Justices are considering 13 petitions involving the pernicious doctrine of qualified immunity.
Police State America

YouTube censors epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski for opposing lockdown

fromNYPost: Wittkowski believes the coronavirus should be allowed to achieve “herd immunity,” and that short of a vaccine the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population. 
Indoctrination and Censorship

The Breonna Taylor shooting shows how reckless drug war tactics lead to senseless deaths

fromReason: At this point, police can hardly be surprised when they are mistaken for armed criminals.
Police State America

Bill Barr, champion of justice

fromCreators: A lot of people hate Trump. And he does little to try to change their minds. But law enforcement shouldn't be a popularity contest, with prosecutors hounding individuals who haven't broken the law.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

10 ways a roadside police stop can go wrong

fromReason: What could happen—and what to do about it—if you get pulled over by the cops 
Police State America

February 5, 2020


The state owns you: The problem with "national service"

fromMises: Rather than attempt to persuade people that they ought to join the military or sign up for community service, the first instinct of draft supporters is to use coercion.
The Government is Not Us

America's self-inflicted wound: The war on drugs has been a 100 year war on our neighbors

fromMilwaukeeIndependent: For more than a century, the U.S. has worked to build a harsh global drug prohibition regime – grounded in draconian laws, enforced by pervasive policing, and punished with mass incarceration.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

New Jersey is now the 16th state to require convictions for civil forfeiture

fromForbes: But sadly, policing for profit continues to trample rights in the other 34 states.
Police State America

Lindsey Graham wants to use mistrust of big Tech to destroy your right to online privacy

fromFreedomBunker: Online platforms would have to "earn" speech protections by compromising encryption—
all in the name of fighting child porn.
The Government is Not Us

A new backlash to gun control begins in Virginia

fromNewYorker: Activists at a gun-rights rally in Richmond last week called Virginia, a state with a pro-gun tradition now on the brink of passing restrictions, “the canary in the coal mine.”
2nd Amendment Assaults

Mark Levin interviews Walter E Williams

fromFoxNews: From Life, Liberty and Levin, Mark probes the mind of Dr. Williams regarding capitalism and the future of liberty.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle          Economic Policy: Statism Vs The Free Market

January 15, 2020


Atlanta police make monumental move, disband entire drug unit to focus on actual crime

fromFreeThoughtProject: “Violent crime and gang activity must be the Department’s primary focus and where we will have a greater impact on the crimes affecting those most often victimized in our communities.”
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle                   The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

John Stossel: Occupational licensing hurts the little guy

fromReason: People who want to work should be allowed to work.
Regulation Nation

Elderly, wheelchair-bound woman alleges TSA agents groped her body in full view of other travelers

fromFreeThoughtProject: TSA employees reportedly ordered a 95-year-old leukemia patient in a wheelchair to remove her adult diaper so that agents could search her.
Police State America          Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Entitlements Cannot Be Rights

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A brilliant explanation of rights and entitlements and the inherent difference in the two.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle 

Walter E Williams: Unappreciated crime costs

fromCreators: Criminal activity imposes huge costs on black residents in low-income neighborhoods of cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia and many others.
The Government is Not Us

Nullify government tyranny: In 2020, harness the power of your discontent

fromDailyBell: Twenty years into the 21st century, and what do we have to show for it? Government corruption, tyranny and abuse have propelled us at warp speed towards a full-blown police state.
Police State America                      The Government is Not Us

November 11, 2019


Why raw butter producers are suing the FDA

fromReason: Raw butter advocates are understandably salty about a prohibition on interstate commerce.
Regulation Nation

Another drug-war massacre

fromFFF: Drug warriors are scratching their heads over what to do about the latest drug-war massacre in Mexico. They are considering three options -- but only one can succeed.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Elizabeth Warren wants to raise taxes by $26 trillion

fromReason: What she and Bernie Sanders are proposing is nothing short of a wholesale transformation of the size and scope of government.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Snowden autobiography makes a plea for the Fourth Amendment, the right to privacy, and encryption

fromReason: America's most famous whistleblower calls for restricting the power of government.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - A New Rebellion for Freedom

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Rand explains the governing philosophy of modern day society and advocates the path toward freedom.

October 31, 2019


The futility of the drug war

fromFFF:  When someone brings into existence or supports a government program that produces drug cartels that kill people, he is morally responsible for the natural and predictable consequences of that program.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Canadian court won't force beauticians to wax the customer's balls

fromStrategicCulture:  A major setback for champions of gender dysphoria who demand that males who identify as women can force beauticians to give them a bikini wax.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Democratic wealth tax proposals demonstrate economic ignorance

fromReason:  Bashing the rich may be good politics, but it’s terrible economics.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

California’s electric vehicle dream is turning into a nightmare

fromOilPrice.com:  California might be blazing a trail with getting a large number of electric vehicles on the road, but the only trail California is currently blazing is the wildfire/PG&E fiasco that could plunge millions into blackouts.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson, Piers Morgan - Hating Trump More Than Loving America

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A major setback for champions of gender dysphoria.Media narrative: Trump is bad. Trump killed al-Baghdadi. Killing al-Baghdadi was bad. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Police blew up an innocent man’s house in search of an armed shoplifter. Too bad, court rules.

fromMSN:  When they were finished, it looked as though the Greenwood Village, Colo., police had blasted rockets through the house.

September 10, 2019


Why cats pay a lower price for CAT scans in Canada

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: In Canada, with socialized medicine, pets get an immediate MRI; human beings can wait months. The reason: pets are paying customers; humans are not.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Student Debt Crisis

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, the inconvenient truth about student loan debt. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Trump Admin is considering using Amazon Echo to determine if citizens should own a gun

fromDailyCaller: Being considered: a proposal that would use Google, Amazon and Apple to collect data on users who exhibit characteristics of mental illness that could lead to violent behavior.
2nd Amendment Assaults             Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A man spent 82 says in jail on meth charges. The "meth' was actually honey.

fromReason: Government incompetence made an innocent man spend months in jail and lose both of his jobs.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Race and Economics

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: In excerpts from Tony Brown’s Journal (1984), Dr. Sowell shares timeless insights from his research on the economics of race and culture. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Democrats propose mandatory free speech buyback for dangerous ideas

fromBabylonBee: What the Babylon Bee says today, the Democratic Party will say tomorrow.
Indoctrination and Censorship

July 1, 2019


Political winds have shifted in favor of marijuana legalization

fromTheHill: At the federal level, members of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time overwhelmingly voted in favor of legislation halting federal interference in state-specific marijuana laws.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Homelessness and the problem of public space

fromMises: The debate is between leftwing activists and nearly everyone else: namely, that public spaces ought to be opened up for use by anyone wishing to live on it.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Drug warriors peddle fears about cocaine -- again

fromReason: Cocaine offers better value than the market in prohibitionist fears.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

⭐️ VIDEO: In Their Own Words - The Democratic Party's Vision for America

fromConsortiumNews: From the Democratic Party Presidential Candidates Debate (June 26-27, 2019), candidates put forward their vision to transform America into a socialist utopia.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption           Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Kamala Harris is a cop who wants to be president

fromReason: The California senator and former prosecutor has a long record of pushing illiberal policies. 

CIA seeking more impunity

fromConsortiumNews: The agency is trying to get a pass on crimes even before they’re committed and it represents a threat to press freedom.

June 21, 2019


Decentralize the drug war — on the way to abolishing it

fromTheDailyBell: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Bernie Sanders - How America would Feel the Bern

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Bernie Sanders' vision for America, in his own words.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

"He will get subpoenaed": Congressman assures 'triggered' Joe Scarborough that Mueller will testify

fromZeroHedge: "It's going to happen. He will get subpoenaed."
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Enemy of the state: The war on Julian Assange

fromMedium: Assange is to be made an example of to journalists not only in the US but in other nations as well. If he winds up extradited and found guilty, this will be a hammerblow to reporters who constantly are working on exposed truths and secrets and pertains not only to the US but to other governments as well.
Indoctrination and Censorship              The Government is Not Us

Central planning is poisonous to innovation

fromCreators: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.
Regulation Nation

We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

fromNYDailyNews: A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.
Police State America                                 The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

June 10, 2019


U.S. government’s moves against Julian Assange are a blueprint for making journalists into felons

fromTheStar: Empowering prosecutors to decide who does or doesn’t deserve press protections would restrict “freedom of the press” to a small, cloistered priesthood of privileged citizens designated by the government as “journalists.” The First Amendment was written to avoid precisely that danger.  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Homelessness - California's Ugly Growth Industry

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: California has an epidemic of homelessness that is hard to believe. A look at what is going on in Golden State’s richest cities. Karen Hix, Tucker Carlson.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

Hacking dirty government secrets is not a crime

fromCounterpunch: "Corporate media’s instant reversal on Assange—from rapist scum to First Amendment hero—elevates self-serving hypocrisy to high art. But that’s OK. Whatever gets Assange closer to freedom is welcome."  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones

fromNBCNews: “The world should know that what they’re doing out here is crazy,” said a man who refused to share his passcode with police.  
Police State America

You’re under arrest: How the police state muzzles our right to speak truth to power

fromRutherfordInstitute: "What the architects of the police state want are submissive, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority and don’t speak out against government misconduct."  
Police State America

Oakland, California decriminalizes magic mushrooms and peyote

fromUSAToday: The city council’s vote directed law enforcement to cease investigating and prosecuting individuals for using or possessing drugs sourced from plants, cacti and – most commonly – mushrooms.  

May 27, 2019


The state can't keep drugs out of prisons. How was it ever going to keep them out of America?

fromReason: This is the nature of government. It can't stop the flow of illicit substances in a sealed and militarized building that's under its total control.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Trump’s justice department uses Julian Assange as stalking horse to make journalism a crime

fromDailyBeast:   The administration argues Assange isn't a journalist, in the hope his unpopularity will make people forget why we can’t have the government deciding who counts as a journalist.
Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: MS-13 - Preferred Gang of the Democratic Party

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   In order to defend Democratic Party policies that attract illegal immigrants and allow them to operate, Nancy Pelosi and others are willing to protect the deadliest, most savage street gang in America. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

WATCH: Cops open door to home, don’t ID themselves, kill innocent unarmed teen and a dog

fromFreeThoughtProject:   An innocent unarmed teen was playing video games on a couch when a police officer opens the door, without announcing himself and kills him.
Police State America

3D-printed guns are back, and this time they are unstoppable

fromWired:   A decentralized network of gun-printing advocates is mobilising online, they're anonymously sharing blueprints, advice and building a community. There's no easy way they can be halted.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Trump strikes back

fromKunsler: "The bad faith of his antagonists exceeds even Mr. Trump’s defects and vices." Their plot failed. "And, yes, it was a plot, even a coup. And they fucked it up magnificently, leaving a paper trail as wide as Interstate-95."

May 11, 2019


Mexico wants to legalize all drugs and negotiate with the U.S. to do the same

fromNewsweek:   “Prohibition policies have caused more harm to people and communities than the drugs they were intended to eliminate, and they haven’t come anywhere close to eliminating the supply or the demand.” 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Gun crackdowns have already led to too many federal abuses

fromTheHill:  Gun control advocates have called for prohibiting possession of AR-15 rifles — a ban that could create five million new felons overnight.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Trump plans to redefine poverty, cutting Americans from welfare

fromZeroHedge:  “Because of this, changes to the poverty thresholds, including how they are updated for inflation over time, may affect eligibility for programs that use the poverty guidelines.” 
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

On free trade, even Karl Marx is smarter than Donald Trump

fromReason:  Marx “was a champion of free trade, and no friend of tariff barriers.” 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

California's rent control advocates are about to get what they want, good and hard

fromReason:  Everywhere rent control is tried, the same things happen. Landlords exit the market. Developers stop building apartments. Supply drops significantly. 
Regulation Nation

Want to make money? Work for the government

fromCNSNews:  The median earnings of state and local government workers were higher than the median earnings in any of the four categories of private-industry and self-employed workers. Federal workers were even higher.

May 9, 2019


No, Mr. President, tariffs do not cause prosperity

fromAIER:  Taxing your own people and hobbling their trading relationships does not create more wealth. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Denver voters approve measure to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms

fromForbes:  Voters in Denver, Colorado made their city the first in the U.S. to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms by approving a ballot measure on the issue on Tuesday.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Discrimination and disparities II

fromZeroHedge:  Different social classes raise their children differently. Studies have shown that children whose parents are professional heard more words per hour than children whose families are on welfare.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Major Mueller report omissions suggest incompetence or a coverup

fromZeroHedge:  Robert Mueller's report contains at least two major omissions which suggest either incompetence, or purposeful concealing of major crimes committed against the Trump campaign and the American people.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Vilifying gun owners doesn't lead to a better society

fromReason:  Progressives push their luck with their totalitarian insistence that everybody is with them or against them on guns and so much else.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Man arrested, facing a year in prison for telling police they are ‘pissing on the Constitution’

fromFreeThoughtProject:  After police refused to respond to his calls for assistance, a Texas man gave police a peaceful piece of his mind, but it landed him in jail. So much for free speech.

May 1, 2019


America’s drug war is ruining the world

fromTheNation:  It is verifiable. 
A half-century of Washington’s harsh drug prohibition policies has brought misery to millions across the globe.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Andrew Klavin - Making Sense of a World Gone Mad

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From a speech delivered at Hillsdale College, commentator Andrew Klavin shares his insights on the modern war of ideas.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Can the damage done by the CDC's opioid guidelines be reversed?

fromReason:  It is no public service when the law enforcement establishment makes mandatory medical policy.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Kamala Harris: We need to raise taxes on the middle class and force workers into unions

fromTownhall:  Democrats like Harris would not only roll back middle class benefits by raising their taxes, they're gunning to undo the policy progress that has led to robust employment and GDP growth.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’ data rose in 2018

fromTechCrunch:  You wouldn't know it now, but there was a time when the Fourth Amendment had teeth.
The Government is Not Us           Police State America        Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Activists say Biden's hardline drugs policies didn't apply to his children's cocaine and marijuana use

fromTownhall:  During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden helped craft some of the strictest anti-drug laws of the 1980s and 1990s. However, his own children were able to avoid the brunt of these laws.

Feb 27, 2019


Trump supports for new bill giving nationwide right to carry concealed weapons

fromLATimes:  Police state advocates are not pleased.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Google’s LISTENING: Nest security system has a secret embedded microphone

fromOrganicPepper:  “The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part," says Google. After all, NSA knew all along.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Venezuelans regret gun ban, 'a declaration of war against an unarmed population'

fromFoxNews:  As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of resentment against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Please don't help the Alabama authorities catch this escaped drug dealer

fromReason:  Dyron Rashad Primus is serving 15 years for synthetic marijuana charges.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Tesla driver killed in high-speed Florida crash and fire

fromNewser:  Government-subsidized death traps. Apparently rescuers could not get to the trapped driver because there was no door handle on the outside of the door.
Economic Policy: Government Versus The Free Market      Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The AI morality push which might make climate change compliance compulsory

fromWaatsUpWithThat:  If AI researchers get their way, in the near future we may no longer have the option of straying even slightly outside the politically correct mandates of our national leaders.

Feb 25, 2019


The case for legalizing blackmail

fromMises:  Don't confuse blackmail with extortion. Extortion is about applying pressure under threat of bodily harm. Blackmail is about applying pressure under threat of simply revealing the truth.

Phony Houston drug warrant prompts FBI investigation and review of 1,400 cases

fromReason:  Lying to justify a search that killed two people could be a capital crime.

NYC fast-food workers stunned some are being fired after $15 minimum wage hike

fromFEE:  Serving as ground zero for the $15 minimum wage battle, New York City saw its fast-food workers also serve as the subjects in an experiment that completely ignored the laws of economics.

The top four reasons California Is unsustainable

fromForbes:   California is moving ever farther left and wants the nation to pay for it. Economically, it is on a high-speed rail to unsustainability.

VIDEO: Away with Pretenses - Unabashed Media Bias

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From Tucker Carlson Tonight, commentary from Lara Logan and Brit Hume on how the pretense of objectivity no longer exists in modern journalism.

To reduce money in politics, slash the size of government

fromReason:  Reformers always have a new scheme to take “the money out of politics," but it usually just makes the government larger and campaign spending increase.

Feb 22, 2019


How socialism broke Venezuela

fromCommentaryMagazine:  The tragic journey from Perez to Chavez to Maduro.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

FBI plotting to keep DNA of ENTIRE population on file to create ‘nation of suspects’

fromDailyStar:  President Donald Trump has signed the Rapid DNA Act into law which means the police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime.
The Government is Not Us            Government is Watching Every Move You 

Our disastrous obsession with equality

fromMises:  “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” — Milton Friedman
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Victor Davis Hanson: Changing reality with words

fromTownhall:  Beware of euphemisms. Radical changes in vocabulary are usually admissions that reality is unwelcome or indefensible.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study: Crackdown on prescriptions drove up Hep. C infections

fromFreeBeacon:  Government regulations succeeded only in transforming Oxycontin users into heroin addicts.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange      Regulation Nation

Arizona trying to become first in U.S. to require citizen DNA

fromActivistPost:  The ruling class finds it in their interest to know more about their human livestock.