AP: Land mines will be hidden killer in Yemen decades after war Ed: As I peruse the latest editorials and news clippings covering the latest concerning the Saudi slaughter of one of the poorest nations in the world, I am continually amazed at the amount of sheer propaganda aimed at whitewashing the murder of an entire nation by means of U.S.-made weapons by the Saudi ruling class. The facts are ghoulish: 85,000 children dead from blockade-induced starvation. Although our minds can’t pin faces, lives, pain, and death to large numbers, it is murder nonetheless. Despite this, the Wall Street Journal assures us that the Saudi monsters truly desire peace. It is unbelievable garbage, that, in a just world, would be ridiculed and shamed into oblivion, yet it persists. War, massacres, genocide, persist today, despite the professed intentions and values of our very own government. Rather than a bright Solstice, Yemeni families are preparing for their own deaths this Christmas, deaths that are not inevitable, but the clear consequence of decisions made by the Political Class, buoyed and buffeted by the indifference of the voting masses.

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CATO: U.S. withdrawal from Syria puts a check on mission creep

Mises: In praise of Christmas tree salesmen

Reason: Prison food is a national tragedy

Motherboard: The U.S. just legalized hemp, a key source of CBD

The Conversation: How Big Data created a big problem in science

The American Conservative: Washington melts down over Trump’s Syria withdrawal

Reason: Report: Imprisoning people who can’t afford bail costs taxpayers $15 billion per year

FEE: Senator Elizabeth Warren introduces legislation to create a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer

The Intercept: Before criminal justice reformer is even sworn in, St. Louis prosecutors have joined the police union

Reuters: German magazine Der Spiegel says journalist fabricated stories for years

Techdirt: ICE seizes over 1 million websites with no due process; apparently unaware that copyright and trademark are different

The Free Thought Project: School cops indicted after leaked video showing them savagely beating 14-year old kid

APP: Gun control allowed the Holocaust to happen

Orlando Sentinel: Cops and schools had no duty to shield students in Parkland shooting, says judge who tossed lawsuit

FEE: Audit finds government spent $14 million in taxpayer funds to hire 2 border patrol agents

Sun Herald: US airstrikes kill 62 “terrorists” in Somalia over the weekend Ed: This is how terrorism is generated

LA Times: The war in Afghanistan isn’t a ‘stalemate’. The U.S. has lost.

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Reason: Syracuse cops force doctor to probe man’s rectum for drugs, then bill the man for it.

Truthdig: Number of journalists murdered in retaliation nearly doubled in 2018

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Washington Examiner: Rand Paul considers law banning lobbyists working for foreign governments

Reason: How the ‘dead suspect loophole’ lets Texas police hide records of jail deaths and shootings

Forbes: Neither Saudi Arabia nor the Fed can “pump up markets”

Ars Technica: Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone

Sooner Politics: Muskogee public schools appear to break state law in arrest of student

LA Times: On the Texas-Mexico border, everyone’s a suspect

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Reason: Did the Florida Supreme Court just give cops more leeway to kill with impunity? Ed: If cops can use ‘stand your ground’ against civilians, then civilians should have the right to use it against power-crazed cops.

Techdirt: The intelligence community’s official whistleblower channel is going to start hunting down leakers

FEE: Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith: Markets could restore prosperity to Venezuela almost immediately

Ars Technica: Central Londoners to be subjected to facial recognition test this week

SingularityHub: How DeepMind’s AlphaZero mastered complex games with no human input

PETER VAN BUREN: You don’t have to love Julian Assange to fear his prosecution

FEE: Harvard study shows the dangers of early school enrollment

Reason: Lawsuit alleges California cops stole weed and cash during traffic stops

The Intercept: U.S. military says it has a “light footprint” in Africa. These documents show a vast network of bases.

Reuters: Saudi Arabia inks deal for Lockheed’s missile defense system

Mises: The many ways governments create monopolies

High Times: Medicinal psilocybin initiative is one step closer to Oregon’s 2020 ballot

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Activist Post: Meet IARPA: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

Reason: GM will shut down factory built on land seized in controversial 1981 Poletown taking

SingularityHub: Digital authoritarianism is rising. Here’s what that means.