I’ve always thought it odd that the policies most harmful to those ostensibly designed to aid are the ones that are most easily cloaked in “progressive” language. The minimum wage is just such a policy: wrapped in the humanitarian language, naively supported by idealists with an honest desire to help the poor, yet when put into action, producing results that are the polar opposite of its stated goals. The minimum wage harms the people living at the margins: the mentally deficient, those with little or no job experience, teenagers and young adults, those with a criminal history, et cetera. In short, every single at-risk individual is harmed by an artificial floor placed on wages. Anyone with an understanding of economics sees this phenomenon clearly: placing a price floor on wages increases the demand for the job, perversely giving employers more power to discriminate as to whom they hire. People who aren’t living at the margin begin to apply for the job, and they’re the ones who get hired.

The minimum wage creates a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass.

The preceding restatement was inspired by Target’s predictable experience with the “Fight For $15” minimum wage push. Workers may have received a nominal raise, but their hours were cut, they lost desperately-needed benefits, and now many are forced to work two or three jobs. It’s a barbaric policy disguised in the language of progressivism.

The blinding courage of Julian Assange is difficult to take stock of, as there is so little of it existing in the world at present. His intransigence in the face of the most powerful governments to have ever pillaged and murdered is awe-inspiring in a way that few other contemporaries are. Broadcasting the crimes of a soulless Political Class that has grown too comfortable in its own murderous, parasitic filth, he has stood athwart of the forces that have pushed endless war, propaganda, total surveillance, and soaked up an ocean of newly printed money. This class of criminals who exist off the backs of every single individual who goes to work at a real job every day, this agglomeration of parasites was wounded by the actions of Assange, and so they effectively marked him for death, but have sought to draw out his death as an example for other would-be truth-tellers.

It truly is a so-motion execution, as was apparent at his court hearing, where Assange struggled to recall his name and age to the judge, who refused his request for a delay to his extradition hearing. His uniquely barbaric treatment apparently features psychological torture, the attempt to irreparably break his mind, so that if he does eventually breathe the free air again, he will never again be the same person. People like Assange are the reason the First Amendment exists, they are the reason we’ve enshrined free speech as an absolute right, because historically it has been the habit of governments to jail or kill their most effective critics.

Despite the West’s best efforts, Assange’s jailing and torture is making a martyr out of him. A martyr for free speech and transparency in the face of rampant censorship and secrecy.

I find it endlessly amusing that when a politician is caught in a lie, it’s usually a whopper. Warren’s fabricated Native American heritage was used by her to secure a spot on the Harvard faculty, and her most recent lie, that she was fired from a teaching position in the 70’s because she was pregnant, should disqualify her as a viable candidate. She’s a wholly unscrupulous opportunist, she has proven that she will say or do anything, even going so far as to pretend to not be white, in order to advance her career or gain power. We must prepare for another four years of Trump. Warren will get steamrolled by him, and she will never recover the humiliation of having lost to him.

Can the Democratic party really find no one better to promote in order to beat Trump? Of course, they have the perfect candidate in the person of Tulsi Gabbard. But they won’t promote her, because she has integrity, and a clear message. Hillary’s demential smear of Tulsi proves Tulsi’s credentials. I’m sure Tulsi would feel that she was doing something wrong if she received praise from such an avatar of evil as Hillary.

The corruption, double-dealing, and unbelievable short-sightedness will, barring a Tulsi nomination, bring down the Democratic Party in flames in 2020, and what a pathetic display it will be.

Preeminent defender of vaccine orthodoxy, Dr. Peter Hotez, recently had the temerity to respond to a Children’s Health Defense tweet, prompting an avalanche of critical comments. The tweet in question:

Not only is the dismissal of vaccine critics as “miscreants” bound to back-fire, so will the blanket denial of any and all vaccine injury. The long thread of comments almost universally condemned Hotez for his cowardly refusal to debate and his exaltation of “Science”, ironically using the term as a crucifix to ward off the mounting criticism of vaccine safety and efficacy.

Why is it so hard for these people to admit that vaccines not only have caused a massive amount of injury and death, but that they aren’t the saviors of civilization that they are touted as? I understand that Hotez’ life’s work is in vaccine technology and innovation, but he comes across as a bad faith actor, incredibly deceitful in discussions concerning vaccine safety. More and more people are calling BS on this kind of blind promotion of vaccine orthodoxy, one that doesn’t allow any criticism at all.

From excellent his essay, “The Criminality of the State”:

“So it strikes me that instead of sweating blood over the iniquity of foreign states, my fellow citizens would do a great deal better by themselves to make sure that the American State is not strong enough to carry out the like iniquities here. The stronger the American State is allowed to grow, the higher its record of criminality will grow, according to its opportunities and temptations. If, then, instead of devoting energy, time, and money to warding off wholly imaginary and fanciful dangers from criminals thousands of miles away, our people turn their patriotic fervor loose on the only source from which danger can proceed, they will be doing their full duty by their country.”

168 different types of baby food from every major brand were tested.

G.W.B.’s art display of his paintings of veterans/victims of his murderous, unnecessary regime-change war he began sounds like a puzzle for Freud or Hannibal Lecter to solve. Adding another layer is the fact that Boeing has sponsored the exhibit.

Isn’t this the type of behavior that serial killers indulge in? Code Pink has it right: “Why are we celebrating the guy who took these people to war?”

Oklahoma’s Green Wave has produced a miracle.

At the University of Houston.

Amazingly, he tweeted:

“Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change. Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight. They have no idea what a bad decision they have made. Why are they not asking for a Declaration of War?”

That is an astounding statement from anyone in power, much less a sitting President. The troop withdrawal from Syria amounts to just 1,000 troops, but the language Trump uses to defend the decision is important. There is no pretty way to end a war, or the case of the United States, a series of occupations where US soldiers are performing police duties on the other side of the planet. The only way to withdraw is to mirror the way the war began, as Ron Paul said: “Just come home. We just went in, and we can just come home.”