From The Guardian:

“The Saudi air force has carried out indiscriminate attacks that have caused the majority of civilian deaths and injuries during the conflict. Airstrikes have targeted civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, farms, schools, water infrastructure, markets and the main port of Hodeida. They complement a Saudi-led naval and air blockade of rebel-controlled areas that has caused shortages of many essential items, including food, fuel and medical supplies.

It was not until four weeks after the start of the outbreak that the first plane carrying medical aid was allowed to land in Sana’a. The government no longer pays public employees working in rebel-controlled areas. About 30,000 health workers have not received a salary for almost a year. Sanitation workers and water engineers in Sana’a have been on strike for months, leaving uncollected rubbish on the streets and municipal drains clogged.

So it is not surprising that rebel-controlled areas are disproportionately affected by the cholera outbreak. About 80% of cases – and deaths – have occurred in governorates controlled by the Houthis. In rebel-controlled areas the attack rate – the number of cases among every 1,000 people – is 17, compared with 10 in government-controlled governorates. The percentage of people with cholera who die is 0.46% in rebel-controlled areas, compared with 0.3% in government-controlled governorates. Thus, a person living in areas under rebel control is 70% more likely to contract cholera and, if they do, 50% more likely to die.

These numbers indicate that the outbreak is not simply an inevitable consequence of civil war. It is rather a direct outcome of the Saudi-led coalition’s strategy of targeting civilians and infrastructure in rebel-controlled areas. Criticism of the US and UK governments’ support for the Saudi-led intervention, this has not led to a policy change. In December 2016, the Obama administration banned the sale of precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia due to concerns about civilian casualties in Yemen, but in May 2017 the Trump administration agreed to sell $500m such weapons as part of a $110bn deal. The following month a bipartisan effort to stop the sale failed by a few votes in the Senate. Last month in the UK, the high court rejected activists’ claims that ministers were acting illegally by continuing to sell fighter jets and precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia when they might be used against civilians in Yemen. In the absence of strong international condemnation of Saudi-led operations, it is hard to foresee a quick end to this public health emergency and the broader humanitarian crisis.”

Video depicts nervous badged warrior on the brink of murdering two compliant, defenseless people in their car.  Also note how he angles his body to obscure his body cam.  Also note the standard “officer safety is paramount” excuse for the cop’s flaky behavior.

Do they really believe their lives are in danger? Or are they looking for an opportunity to kill someone?

The less that a worker is paid, the cheaper the result of his labor will be.  That’s the economic theory in a nutshell, and it’s playing out throughout the US in the form of undocumented immigrants. One in twenty American workers are undocumented, and they contribute $11 billion to the US economy every year.

The same argument for an undocumented workforce also applies to the emerging robotic workforce.  Rather than “stealing” jobs, prices will dramatically be reduced, and will free up human labor for more productive work.

The coming automation of commercial truck-driving is a case in point.

Robots don’t need to be paid, they don’t have families waiting for them at home.  They don’t need sleep, they won’t unionize, they don’t feel pain, or any other emotion.  That may sound like an argument similar to the one that presaged the rise of the Cylons, but it’s true.  A robotic workforce should be welcomed, especially be the most vulnerable in society.

Only in the sense that it’s a gateway to freedom from dependency on other, more dangerous drugs.

“Abas argues that while marijuana is seen by some as a gateway drug to harder stuff, it has actually been helping people get off some of that stuff. Indeed there are people using cannabis to ease out of opioid and alcohol addiction. The journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research just released data from a University of California, Berkeley-Kent State University study that supports that notion. The study found that pain patients are successfully substituting cannabis for their pain medication.”

After two separate incidents emerged depicting officers planting drugs:

“Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis ordered street officers not to “recreate” body cam footage in a Tuesday memo that follows a turbulent two weeks for the agency in which at least two body cam tapes have come to light showing officers staging crime scenes.

“In the event your body worn camera is not activated during the recovery of evidence, under no circumstances shall you attempt to recreate the recovery of evidence after re-activating your body worn camera,” Davis’ memo (PDF) said. “If you must deactivate your body worn camera during an incident, merely explain the reasoning on camera (e.g., to protect the identity of a witness who wishes to remain anonymous, etc.).””