REPUBLIC REBORN

KGOU: Oil and gas companies spent half a million dollars trying to defeat medical marijuana in Oklahoma Ed: Here’s the list:

• Chesapeake Energy: $25,000
• Cimarex Energy: $75,000
• ConocoPhillips: $50,000
• Continental Resources: $100,000
• Devon Energy: $100,000
• Enable Midstream Partners: $25,000
• Gulfport Energy: $50,000
• Helmerich & Payne: $15,000
• Newfield Exploration: $100,000
• OG&E Energy: $25,000
• Phillips 66: $25,000

High Times: Governor of Illinois passes law to give students access to medical marijuana in school

National Review: Apple becomes first trillion-dollar public company

Volokh: Free speech and computer code–3D printer gun-making files and beyond

Techdirt: Report: TSA’s ground-based ‘VIPR’ teams are expensive, quite possibly useless

DOUG BANDOW: Would you send your son or daughter to die for Montenegro?

PAT BUCHANAN: War with Iran could destroy Trump’s presidency

FEE: How coders, not Drug Warriors, are preventing opioid overdoses and saving lives

The Free Thought Project: 54 years ago, government and the media created and spread fake news to start war with Vietnam

Alternet: Does microdosing psychedelics have any medical benefits?

From Chapter 10 of Hayek’s terminally under-read Constitution of Liberty, and the second place I’ve discovered so far of his use of the formation of crystals to illustrate the emergence of a spontaneous order in society:

“Though people more familiar with the manner in which men order physical objects often find the formation of such spontaneous orders difficult to comprehend, there are, of course, many instances in which we must similarly rely on the spontaneous adjustments of individual elements to produce a physical order. We could never produce a crystal or a complex organic compound if we had to place each individual molecule or atom in the appropriate place in relation to the others. We must rely on the fact that in certain conditions they will arrange themselves in a structure possessing certain characteristics. The use of these spontaneous forces, which in such instances is our only means of achieving the desired result, implies, then, that many features of the process creating the order will be beyond our control; we cannot, in other words, rely on these forces and at the same time make sure that particular atoms will occupy specific places in the resulting structure.

Similarly, we can produce the conditions for the formation of an order in society, but we cannot arrange the manner in which its elements will order themselves under appropriate conditions. In this sense the task of the lawgiver is not to set up a particular order but merely to create conditions in which an orderly arrangement can establish and ever renew itself. As in nature, to induce the establishment of such an order does not require that we be able to predict the behavior of the individual atom—that will depend on the unknown particular circumstances in which it finds itself. All that is required is a limited regularity in its behavior; and the purpose of the human laws we enforce is to secure such limited regularity as will make the formation of an order possible.”

News9: State Board of Health passes new medical marijuana rules

Tulsa World: Latest draft of medical marijuana rules could be ‘nearly impossible’ for businesses to follow, attorney for group says

High Times: Study shows increased cancer survival rates among mice given CBD

The Intercept: Google plans to launch censored search engine in China, leaked documents reveal

28pages: FBI agent told not to help 9/11 victims build case against Saudi Arabia

Reason: FDA may soon allow MDMA prescriptions for PTSD

The Federalist: Let’s debunk the misleading panic over 3D guns

TAC: The little-known black hole in the Pentagon’s budget

JAMES BOVARD: Have you gained or lost weight? Congratulations, the TSA is now tracking you for suspicious activity

Motherboard: Google is still planning a ‘smart city’ in Toronto despite major privacy concerns

Forbes: Privacy revolution: How blockchain is reshaping our economy

From Chapter 6, On Paternal Power, page 32, of John Locke’s 1689 work, Second Treatise of Government: 

“The end of the law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be where there is no law: and is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists. (For who could be free when every other man’s humour might domineer over him?) But a liberty to dispose, and order freely as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be the subject of the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.”

Libertarianism is the clunky neologism used to denote the philosophy given expression in the above passage from Locke’s 329-year old book. I’ve never really been comfortable with the term, it seems so second-rate next to the word originally used to indicate support for the spontaneous forces of society, which is liberalism. Some advocates for liberty even believe the term ‘liberalism’ should be recovered from the supporters of a massive welfare state, something I don’t really see as possible now. Deirdre McCloskey’s idea hits closer to the mark than the others with her phrase of “market-tested innovationism”.  I actually prefer ‘voluntarism’ as a fairly clear and simple term to signify support for a free society. After all, we supporters of liberty advocate for the extension of voluntary interaction into every possible social sphere. We advocate for the removal of all restrictions on any voluntary interaction between consenting adults.   We advocate for the rule of law as Locke envisions it, law that protects us not only from other citizens but also from government interference.

Tulsa World: Recreational marijuana may not reach a ballot until 2020. This is why. Ed: If the volunteers gathered the required number of signatures before the deadline, then there is no legitimate reason we cannot vote for recreational marijuana in November.

National Review: 3D-printed guns: Separating fact from fiction

EFF: Eight AT&T buildings and ten years of litigation: Shining a light on NSA surveillance

Common Dreams: ACLU to demand TSA hand over documents on surveillance of U.S. travelers

Techdirt: Court catches ICE in a lie as it tries to vanish a Mexican journalist and immigration policy critic

Detroit News: Police drones pit safety vs. privacy concerns in Michigan

FPIF: It’s time for NATO to go the way of the Warsaw Pact

Haaretz: The Apartheid Prime Minister

KFOR: Signature goal reached to put recreational marijuana on November ballot, group says Ed: This is such an exciting moment for liberty in this state.

Tulsa World: Amid questions on legal enforcement of medical marijuana law, top state lawmaker advises to ‘follow the expressed instruction of the voters’

CBS: Previously-undisclosed TSA surveillance program criticized for tracking American citizens

The Intercept: A new broadband network is pitching surveillance enhancements to cops across the country

TAC: Yemen is the most important and most ignored story in the world

GRACY OLMSTEAD: Congress, not Trump’s trade war, is the root of farmers’ woes

Reason: Gun control groups fail to stop distribution of gun-making computer files Ed: The rise of 3D-printed guns and the intransigent defense of our right to print them by Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson has been a glorious drama in the annals of the fight for liberty. To print a gun, the American citizen flexes not only his Second Amendment, but also First Amendment rights. A gun in code is speech, and speech must remain unrestricted if liberty is to thrive.

CNN: Julian Assange’s fate rests on death penalty assurances, Ecuador’s president says

SHELDON RICHMAN: Depopulating Palestine, dehumanizing the Palestinians

Libertarian Institute: Libertarianism in one easy lesson

From Chapter 9, Coercion and the State, of Hayek’s crucial Constitution of Liberty:

“The recognition of private or several property is thus an essential condition for the prevention of coercion, though by no means the only one. We are rarely in a position to carry out a coherent plan of action unless we are certain of our exclusive control of some material objects; and where we do not control them, it is necessary that we know who does if we are to collaborate with others. The recognition of property is clearly the first step in the delimitation of the private sphere which protects us against coercion; and it has long been recognized that “a people averse to the institution of private property is without the first element of freedom” and that “nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilization. The history of the two cannot be disentangled.” Modern anthropology confirms the fact that “private property appears very definitely on primitive levels” and that “the roots of property as a legal principle which determines the physical relationship between man and his environmental setting, natural or artificial, are the very prerequisite of any ordered action in the cultural sense.” “

The essence of the philosophy of liberty is just as much about what we cannot own as what we can own. I own my paycheck, I do not have a right to own any part of yours.  I own the results of my voluntary transactions with others, I have no right to the results of voluntary transactions of which I had no part. Liberty is the defense of voluntary transactions, and the subsequent defense of the property that has resulted from those voluntary acts.

Jordan Setayesh’s article, The minimum wage doesn’t do what you think it does, over at the Mises Wire, reminded me of how utterly misplaced society’s adoration of the minimum wage truly is. Not only does the minimum wage not help those that actually need help, it does the complete opposite: it ensures that the most vulnerable among us, whether it’s minorities, the disabled, those with a criminal record, etc., are denied an opportunity to find employment. The minimum wage has this effect because it grants a much larger amount of power to employers to discriminate. An opportunity to earn a higher wage creates a larger pool of unemployed labor, which creates a greater ability to discriminate as to who gets hired. A higher wage will attract more applicants who aren’t minority, disabled, or ex-felons.  The employer will then hire those and reject the applicants who most desperately need a job.

That’s the theory in a nutshell, yet the minimum wage is trumpeted to the heavens as the beau ideal of the goals of public policy.

And what always must be remembered is that the real minimum wage is zero. Artificially setting a floor on the price paid to workers condemns those most in need of some type of employment from finding it. The minimum wage creates a permanent underclass of the criminally poor and should be thoroughly discredited as a policy worthy of a free society and tossed into the same stinking heap as the drug war is slowly being consigned to.

Horrific.

“O.R.* was a one-year-old healthy baby girl who was already walking and climbing.  On February 13, 2013, she received vaccinations for Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR), Hepatitis A, Haemophilus Influenzae type B (Hib), Prevnar (pneumonia), and Varicella (chickenpox).  That evening, the mother noticed baby O.R. was irritable and feverish. After a call to the pediatrician, the doctor advised Mom to give her Tylenol and Benadryl. The fever continued for several days and on the evening before the baby’s scheduled pediatrician visit, O.R. began having severe seizures. She was rushed to the emergency room.  Baby O.R. went into cardiac and respiratory arrest and doctors placed her on a ventilator.

The seizures and cardiac arrest left O.R. with a severe brain injury, encephalopathy, cortical vision impairment, truncal hypotonia (low muscle tone), and kidney failure. After months of treatment at the hospital, baby O.R. finally went home, but her disabilities require specialized medical care and supervision around the clock for the rest of her life.”

KOCO: New draft of medical marijuana rules restores smokable products, removes pharmacist requirement

KFOR: Gubernatorial candidates weigh in on medical marijuana debate Ed: The article mentions only Cornett and Stitt, both of whom are against recreational marijuana, but, more importantly, both of whom are the type of people who can’t give a straight answer. There will be another candidate on the ballot, Chris Powell of the Libertarian Party, who will not only give you a non-waffling straight answer, but is currently spending the majority of his free time driving around the state and knocking on doors himself. Could you imagine Cornett doing anything close to that?

Gizmodo: Amazon accidentally makes rock-solid case for not giving its facial recognition tech to the police

Mises: 40 years of pummeling the Postal Service

Techdirt: Court rejects evidence from warrantless search of phone six years after gov’t seized it

Reason: Off-duty Florida cop arrested for kicking pregnant woman so hard she went into labor

Also Reason: Liberty makes us unfree, argues ACLU

Truthdig: Opioid distribution data can’t be made public, judge rules

Antiwar.com: Reporters struggle to get Pentagon to answer questions about war

DANIEL HARSANYI: Sorry if you’re offended, but socialism leads to misery and destitution

Motherboard: 23andMe sold access to your DNA library to Big Pharma

High Times: NYPD watch group says 93% of weed arrests in 2018 were people of color

The Nation: How Israeli tech firms act as global agents of repression

Tricycle: Psychedelics’ Buddhist revival