Right out of the gate

How government hype helps terrorists. If the goal of terrorism is the effective use of weaponized fear, sec. of Homeland Security John Kelly could be seen as an extension of ISIS by exaggerating the danger.

VA chief: medical marijuana could help vets. Yes, marijuana has been proven to be effective in treating PTSD, and is a far safer alternative to the toxic Pharma pills that vets are currently ingesting at an alarming rate, with tragic side effects.  Magic mushrooms should be considered as well.

We have waged war on drugs for a century.  Who won?  That’s easy: government bureaucracy and black market criminals.

Hackers are crowdfunding cryptocurrency to buy alleged NSA exploits. Surveillance State gets robbed of its secrets.

How this doctor’s letter kicked off America’s heroin crisis.  Pinning the blame on one doctor’s claim that opioids aren’t addictive, 30 years prior, is a bit of a stretch.  It’s been known for millenia that the fruit of the poppy is highly addictive, nothing new in the 80’s.  Those patients that became hooked on Big Pharma’s opioid pills, then had their supply cut off, were funneled via Prohibition to black market heroin dealers.  If opium use were legal they wouldn’t have as their only option a product of unknown potency and purity.  Legalize opium, as strange as that may sound at first.

Ohio sues drug makers, saying they aided opioid epidemic . Ohio should instead look to the policy makers that enforce the tragic environment of drug prohibition.  Pain sufferers have nowhere else to turn other than Big Pharma’s poison pills, or the heroin dealer down the street.  Legalize safer alternatives.  End the drug war.

Time to dethrone the FBI. Jim Bovard makes a compelling case.

The atrocious US-backed war on Yemen continues. The population is starving to death, cholera is running rampant, families are selling their daughters into marriage in exchange for food.  It’s a man-made disaster, and could be put to a stop by Washington if the will were present.

The imprisonment of Ross Ulbricht, two years later. Silk Road founder was handed two life sentences for non-violent crimes, essentially guaranteeing he dies in prison.

The looming danger of unregulated AI

What if we replace all social programs with basic income? Upside is that just doling out a set amount of money would be far cheaper than the current state of the welfare state.

Author: S. Smith