REPUBLIC REBORN

First post in months, so there’s much to comment on.  One of the bigger things that has bothered me these past months is the auto-demonization of Russia in regards to hacking, “aggression”, and the like.  Clinton and her fawning media have attempted to divert attention away from the content of the revelations to focus on Russia as the culprit, for obvious reasons.  And while there isn’t proof of Russia’s hand in the hacking, why would it be such a bad thing?  Clinton is charging Russia with interfering in US elections…by exposing Clinton’s interference with US elections.  The hacking was, as Putin himself said, a public service.  What does it say about the level of corruption within the US political class that US citizens need a foreign government to expose that corruption?

The identity of whoever hacked the DNC and the Clinton campaign matters far less than what that hack exposed.

Reason‘s Anthony Fisher lists the top-10 revelations from the Clinton camp emails.  Among these is the hilarious/frightening nugget that State dept. officials ridiculously referred to themselves as the “Shadow Government”, and plotted, unsuccessfully, to control the release of Clinton documents.  Another revealing nugget is that in 2014, Clinton said that she was against marijuana legalization “in all senses of the word”.  Also, Dem officials apparently fretted over a job-killing $15 minimum wage.  Of course, they supported it anyway.  Last on his list is the not-insignificant fact that the White House knew long ago that Hillary was using a private server, and Obama himself used a pseudonym when communicating with Clinton.

The lesson, it seems, is that people reveal their true selves in private, when they believe no one of consequence is watching.  The Political Class takes its mask off, reveals its true intentions, when it believes the public isn’t listening in.  THIS is the reason we need Snowden, Assange, “Guccifer”, and the faceless whistleblowers and hackers who expose that Political Class.

No one should be surprised. The Federalist

Cops need to be reminded of that, occasionally. Reason

The agency’s survival depends on the continued prohibition of the medically beneficial plant. Reason

Beating a 19-year old cancer survivor bloody is a top priority for TSA, apparently. Techdirt

It’s been awhile.

Far longer than I had intended, anyway.  Well, I’m back.  I believe that if one is serious about advancing liberty, it must become his or her day job.  No more moonlighting, dilettantery, or going AWOL for months at a time.  To act like an amateur, a dabbler, is to be an amateur dabbler.  To make serious progress toward a freer society, one must approach it with an eye to seeing it through to the end.  The only avenue we have toward greater liberty is our ability to persuade.  To persuade as many fellow American citizens that liberty is the only solution to our plight.  Liberty is the only path that doesn’t lead to the ruination of this country and the remainder of her freedom.  It’s the only light in the dark that isn’t the headlamp of an oncoming freight train.  Rediscover liberty to resurrect the Republic.

So the task is set.  All laid out and waiting for those who know better to get off their lazy hindquarters and get to work.  “Hand to the plow and don’t look back” and all that.  Liberty won’t crown itself.  I want to sit down one year from now and truly believe that I made some sort of beginning toward that goal, rather the certain knowledge that I frittered the time away with a smattering of published articles that are a mere shadow of where my true passion lies.

So, to the task at hand.

So marijuana probably cures Alzheimer’s.  New study from the California-based Salk Institute suggests that THC removes the brain plaques associated with the memory-loss effects of Alzheimer’s.

Of course Brexit is good for liberty.  That political decentralization is always better than political consolidation is history’s chief lesson to humanity.

Obama’s civilian drone death acknowledgement is nothing more than insulting propaganda.  White House claims only 116 civilian deaths from drone strikes.  Everyone else claims over one thousand.  That’s the difference between a justification for drone policy and a reason to end it entirely.

District attorneys can really work a grand jury. Just ask Houston, Texas. They rule in favor of the cop every single time.

From The Intercept: How the U.S. Military Promotes Its Weapons Arsenal to the Public

A pesticide, not the zika virus, is the probable cause of microcephaly.  Researchers were puzzled by 60,000 zika-infected pregnancies that did not result in microcephaly.  A Big Pharma pesticide added to drinking water supplies to kill mosquito eggs may be to blame.

Cops give Emirati man a stroke as the descend upon him SWAT-style in Ohio. An idiotic hotel employee called the cops, reporting an Arab man pledging allegiance to ISIS while on a phone call.  He was speaking in Arabic.  The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Emiratis not to wear traditional dress, because, well, the propaganda-fueled environment of paranoia over Arabs.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Rationalia” fever dream is basically everything Hayek warned us about the fatal conceit.  Indeed, Hayek spent his entire career, after the publication of Serfdom, warning against the more “rational” social engineers and their totalitarian pipe dreams.

Police kill unarmed man at father’s funeral, in front of his family.  Sleazy move, even if the man had warrants outstanding.  Add to it the toxic ingredient of “escalation” that cops seem to be consistent in applying, where any false move or hesitation on the part of the suspect is grounds for a beating or a bullet, and you have a dead parent/son/daughter, and a cop who will walk.

50 State Dept. “diplomats” have signed onto some memo agitating for all-out war against Syria’s Assad.  So far Obama has withstood the calls for another war with a Third World power, but now John Kerry is lining up behind the pro-war faction.  What in God’s name do they think will be the result of such a war with a Russia-allied power?  What happened after Iraq, Libya?  Assad is fighting ISIS, supposedly a US enemy as well.  But by overthrowing Assad, the US would be handing ISIS another country to call their own.  Why are these people making decisions like this in our name?

Obama is allegedly “owning up” to civilian casualties in his murderous aerial robot war against various Third Worlders.  What it amounts to, though, is a whitewashing, because he is claiming only 100 civilian deaths from his drone strikes!  It’s laughable, and tragic, and who could possibly believe it?  The truth is that 90% of the people killed by Obama’s drone strikes were civilians, as The Intercept has reported.  That number of 100 deaths, claimed by the White House, is probably missing a zero.

Techdirt.  That surveillance/data glutton, the FBI, who also seems to choke on the amount of data it amasses, doesn’t seem to mind that all the biometric info it has on us is even accurate.  It’s probably why it wants that database exempted from privacy laws, to hide incompetence.

Kerry gives Saudi Arabia a pass on the bombing of Yemen’s civilians.  Of course he would.  The US is funding the Saudis and their airstrikes, and, until recently, has been handing over civilian-murdering cluster bombs.  Funny how the most barbaric of weapons are end up in the hands of our Third World allies.

Justin Raimondo thinks Hillary’s hawkishness can be explained by a need to compensate for being female.  Well, hasn’t she made her gender the cynosure of her campaign?

The military is building a database to predict who will be the next Snowden-level whistleblower.  Paranoia reigns supreme inside the complex.  Just imagine the inevitable witch hunts.

Risk of war between Russia and NATO is increasing because NATO is lining Russia’s border with soldiers, tanks, and nukes: Emerging Potential for War in Europe.  Needlessly provoking Russia is reckless in the extreme.

Of course the Obama administration would whitewash the use of drones .  He pioneered the use of war by remote-control.

The Strange Blissfulness of Storms