“…a violent outgrowth of chronic political dysfunction and economic underdevelopment affecting large parts of the Islamic world, exacerbated by deep-seated  sectarian divisions and the pernicious legacy of European colonialism and further complicated by the presence of Israel, all together finding expression in antipathy toward the West and especially the United States.”  LA Times

A complex problem, highly inconvenient for those who believe the only solution is to bomb them until the sand glows.

Yikes.  The Border Patrol got their own drones a decade ago, and have since lent out their unmanned spy planes to other agencies 700 times.  Homeland Security is getting its own fleet too.  Congress loves the idea, and even holds something called a “drone fair” on Capitol Hill.  The BATF has $600,000 worth of drones, and they have the gall to say they don’t use them.  And then there was the admission last week by the Pentagon that they flew spy missions over the US.  But don’t worry. You’ve got nothing to hide, right?

Breitbart, not a site I’d normally link to, but.  Constant water-drinking during debates, repeating sentences, and yes, consuming a pill in public, all point to something off-kilter about Rubio.  Not that he had the pill addiction of a JFK, though, or his own personal Dr. Feelgood, as Kennedy did.

Yeah, probably.

It’s amazing listening to the interventionist fantasies of the Presidential candidates, as if the US has a way to pay for it all.  We ran dry long ago, the culprit being a gullible voting populace that bought into these fantasies.  It’s cathartic, to believe that, through the alchemy of politics, we really can have something for nothing.  Well, the tab has come due, and the world is tired of dollars.

There is also a macabre humor in the way that many middle-aged Trump supporters, who previously voted in the authoritarians who wrecked the country, think they’re a part of some type of “revolution” that going to Make America Great Again.

“Without principles we drift”-Hayek, from Individualism: True and False.

From Market Watch.  This story has a creepy, Big Pharma aspect to it, but still interesting.  Epidiolex, the drug, is designed to treat Dravet Syndrome, and is pending FDA approval.  All well and good, but why not just completely legalize marijuana and let people grow it and treat themselves?  That wouldn’t be a patentable solution, while something with the name “Epidiolex” probably is.  Which means companies like GW Pharmaceuticals are setting themselves up to be against marijuana legalization as a matter of policy.

After over a decade of fighting tech-free Third World insurgents to a stalemate, one has to wonder: how would the US do against a real army with real wartime technology?  Forbes.

From The Onion.  Probably a WaPo headline a few weeks from now.

Aside from expanding the gov’t by 50% and costing $13.5 trillion in the first decade, the burden of Bernie Sanders’ plan to raise taxes to fund hand-outs would fall primarily on the very people he professes he wants to help, according to Reason‘s J.D. Tuccille:

“…researchers find that people who are more likely to succeed economically are also more likely to dodge taxes. And targeting them specifically increases the likelihood that they’ll hide their money from the authorities. No matter what he intends, Sanders’ proposed tax hike looks destined to fall most heavily on those who can least afford to pay the tab for his promised goodies.

Just by hiking taxes at all, Sanders and others who favor an expansive state face an uphill battle. “In almost all studies it has been found out, that the tax and social security contribution burdens are one of the main causes for the existence of the shadow economy,” writes Friedrich Schneider, a professor at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and expert on tax evasion and off-books economics. By “shadow economy,” he refers to work and business conducted out of reach of tax collectors and regulators.”

Trevor Timm at the Guardian.  Libya, the Saudi assault on Yemen’s civilians, Presidential war powers, nukes, and drones.  If they’re okay with all of these, and want more, they’re going to be lousy, which means more of the same we’ve had for decades.