Yikes.  Hard to tell which government agency to be the most afraid of. Wired

Federal agents hid cameras and microphones in an Oakland courthouse for 10 months, spying on everyone within. East Bay Express

The FDA won’t allow vaping companies to tell their customers the obvious truth that vaping is far safer than cigarettes.  This blatant censorship is just one in a string of new regulations designed to suffocate the industry that could have been the preeminent extinction-level event for combustible tobacco.  It’s a tragedy that will be measured in the lives lost to deadly cigarettes that, absent the regulation, would have been saved through vaping.

There’s a civil war being waged within the U.S. military.  A military needs enemies if it wants a bigger budget, and who better to take that place than the Russians?  Senior military officials want the gold to keep flowing uninterrupted, so they hype a nonexistent threat from Putin.  But how many U.S. troops would be willing to die so that the gravy train can keep rolling?  Some within the military establishment are beginning to call BS on the endless fear-mongering.

Hillary isn’t the only State Dept. official careless with classified communication.  It’s everyone.

A thoughtful essay, accompanied with video, of why it’s probably bad in the long run for cops to lose their cool so easily and slap around teenagers.  Some may watch the video of the cop smacking the kid and feel a catharsis of the “he got what he deserved!” variety, but what is lost is the remnants of goodwill that police have with the young and the poor.  But hey, for some, it just feels too good to watch a mouthy youth get punched.

This suspect might be imprisoned indefinitely for not decrypting hard drives.  This is scary.  The suspect hasn’t even been charged with a crime, but prosecutors just know that there’s child porn on this guy’s hard drives, which he’s refusing to decrypt.  So he’s been locked up for seven months, held in contempt of court for refusing.  So, should government be able to jail someone indefinitely for refusing to decrypt?  Just one battle in the Surveillance State’s war on encryption.

Canada to allow prescription heroin.  Voices of reason were able to cut through the cacophony of the drug warriors’ paranoia long enough to get something positive accomplished.

Three US states are down to only one Obamacare insurer.  Vox’s Sarah Kliff ponders what would happen if that number dropped to zero.

Remember: The cancerous growth of the medical bureaucracy didn’t begin with Obamacare.  It’s roots are far deeper, and far older.

Max Hill offers excellent reasons we should be getting paid in Bitcoin.  Decentralized, anonymous, digital money is a black eye for the Surveillance State, a victory for liberty.

Years of the War on Terror have weakened U.S. ability to fight an actual war

23 Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in the past three months.  We should care about what thug states that we fund do with our money.

Speaking of thug states: Saudi Arabia continues its brutal U.S.-backed/funded war of attrition on Yemen’s civilian population

Neocons have a deep-seated fear of peace with Iran.  Too wedded to the narrative of a threatening Iran.  It’s a lucrative business, the spreading of war propaganda.

The creeping militarization of America, the sheepening of American citizens.  We’ve been taught from birth to always submit to someone wearing a badge or military uniform.  So the police state comes waving a flag, carrying a cross, and most people aren’t able to anything but put up signs saying “we support our police!”.

Mandatory maternity leave for new mothers means less women being hired.  How much thought really goes into bills like this?  Raising the cost of hiring someone will make it more likely that they won’t be hired.  The same logic applies to the minimum wage.

FBI director says that filming cops increases crimes rates.  In reality, it decreases crime committed by cops.  Not surprising coming from someone who demands total secrecy on the part of the Surveillance State, combined with total transparency of the population.

Speaking of the FBI, they apparently planted surveillance microphones all over San Francisco, ostensibly to catch a real estate fraud ring.  They always have a ready-made excuse in case they get caught.

NYPD has been giving out millions of dollars’ worth of bogus parking tickets.  According to analyst who used NYPD’s Open Data.

Declassified documents detail 9/11 commission’s inquiry into Saudi Arabia

Washington coup in Brazil?

Obama’s legacy of perpetual war

Bernie’s healthcare plan would cost $32 trillion

California’s legislature wants to copyright all government publications

Twitter’s Dangerous Stand on Surveillance

The Biggest Mistakes In Tech History

Good lord, well that’s a relief.  The most useless band of wretches ever to infest a US bureaucracy will no longer target fellow TSA workers who expose their crimes.  This is according to the TSA itself, though.  No doubt the practice will continue. The Hill

Dubbed “unstable” by the people who know him, Brian Wood, one of the two officers involved in the November 1st, 2015 death of rancher Jack Yantis, is on the loose, and the police themselves have issued a warning about approaching him.  Wood has had problems with excessive force in the past, which led to a lawsuit over his manhandling of a 78-year old man.  I have a unique policy proposal: refuse to hire cops that have been fired for excessive force, or who have a history of roughing up the elderly.  It Wood had been barred from employment with law enforcement, Yantis might still be alive.  LibertyFight and CopBlock have been thoroughly covering this story.

Blue privilege does have its limits, it seems.  Postal worker Glenn Grays was almost hit by an unmarked car full of plainclothes cops that was driving recklessly through NYC.  He yelled at the car, which apparently angered the sensitive cops in the careening car, and they turned around and arrested him.  “Stop resisting” is heard on the video, a phrase that is not infrequently followed by an unprovoked police beat-down.  They toss him in their unmarked paddy wagon and immediately rear-end another car as they drive away.  Geniuses, these. CBS

Military.  Rev. Christopher John Antal, having become disgusted with the needless death of drone strikes, as well as Obama’s dangerous nuclear weapon policy, has submitted his resignation from the army.  Let’s hope more follow in his footsteps.

The Senate has begun debates over the reauthorization of NSA spying programs. And we all know what the outcome will be, once these “debates” have concluded.

A record 40.8 million people have been displaced by war. 8.6 million in 2015 alone, have of which is due to Middle Eastern conflicts.

The FBI has a massive, secret biometric database it’s been building for the past 8 years, and doesn’t want the surveillance party ruined by privacy laws

What’s more immoral: smoking marijuana, or jailing someone for smoking marijuana? I can’t believe Drug Warriors have the gall to claim the moral high ground.

Historic lawsuit challenges Facebook’s biometric collection bonanza

Overreacting to Putin is a lucrative business for U.S. Army.  They’ve got to justify all that spending on war goodies somehow.

Arakansas cops steal $20k from innocent man because only the guilty run around with $20k in cash.  Ah, the logic of Drug War minions.

Blue privilege quickly goes to the head apparently: Cop calls innocent men “shitheads”, snatches phone once he realizes he’s being recorded.  Classy

There’s nothing progressive about Austin giving Uber the boot.  What’s so horrible about allowing the citizens of Austin to directly vote on the matter with their own money?

Ten Ways Israel is Just Like Saudi Arabia

The laws of chemistry conspire against delicious coffee. Freeze yer beans.