Year: 2016

Liberty Links 7/21/16

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23 links today. Enjoy. What I Saw Last Friday in Hebron (One of the most uplifting articles I’ve read all year, Haaretz) Writing as Resistance (Extremely touching, extremely important read, Chris Hedges, TruthDig) Apple and Facebook Helped Bust the World’s Biggest Torrent Site (Why is “Homeland Security” focusing on copyright violations? Engadget) Lobbyists Bolting Trump … Read more

How to Actually Make America Great Again

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Earlier this week, I published a lengthy thought piece titled, America is Being Divided and Conquered Into Oblivion. I ended it with the following paragraphs:

All that said, I don’t want to end this post on a negative note. I think the real thing that’s missing from the equation is too many good, talented people are doing nothing. I’m not trying to be judgmental here. I personally had the ability and resources to quit my job and do what I do. I didn’t have a family at the time and didn’t have to provide for anyone else. That’s not the point. You don’t have to do what I did to make a difference and influence people. You don’t have to quit your job and fight the status quo with every breath you take. Life doesn’t need to be seen as an all or nothing endeavor in everything you do. Nevertheless, I think it’s important to consider the following (as an aside, I try to ask myself these questions all the time).

Think about your everyday life. What are you doing to push forward the decentralization of power and unite people? How are you being potentially divisive in life, and how can you bring people together as opposed to tearing others down? If you were brought up privileged and financially well off, you arguably have a greater responsibility to society. What are you doing to give back? Is it sufficient? Is what you do for a living accretive or extractive to society? What are you doing to make the world a better place than you found it? If nothing, why not?

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Unarmed Behavioral Therapist Shot by Florida Police Despite Laying on Back with Hands in the Air

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I’m speechless. Absolutely speechless.

You need to watch the video below.

For related articles, see:

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The Real Reason Pharma Companies Hate Medical Marijuana (It Works)

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Former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994. She presided over trials for 17 years. And Sunday, she stood before a crowd at The Aspen Ideas Festival to denounce most punishments that she imposed.

Among 500 sanctions that she handed down, “80 percent I believe were unfair and disproportionate,” she said. “I left the bench in 2011 to join the Harvard faculty to write about those stories––to write about how it came to pass that I was obliged to sentence people to terms that, frankly, made no sense under any philosophy.”

She went on to savage the War on Drugs at greater length. “This is a war that I saw destroy lives,” she said. “It eliminated a generation of African American men, covered our racism in ostensibly neutral guidelines and mandatory minimums… and created an intergenerational problem––although I wasn’t on the bench long enough to see this, we know that the sons and daughters of the people we sentenced are in trouble, and are in trouble with the criminal justice system.”

– From the post: Federal Judge of 17 Years Repents – Compares Damage Done by “War on Drugs” to Destruction of World War II

Whenever an irrational and inhumane law remains on the books far longer than any thinking person would consider appropriate, there’s usually one reason behind it: money.

Unsurprisingly, the continued federal prohibition on marijuana and its absurd classification as a Schedule 1 drug is no exception. Thankfully, a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs shows us exactly why pharmaceutical companies are one of the leading voices against medical marijuana. It has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with corporate greed.

So is it a war on drugs, or a war on cheap medicine. Decide for yourself.

The Washington Post reports:

There’s a body of research showing that painkiller abuse and overdose are lower in states with medical marijuana laws. These studies have generally assumed that when medical marijuana is available, pain patients are increasingly choosing pot over powerful and deadly prescription narcotics. But that’s always been just an assumption.

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GOP Includes Reinstatement of Glass-Steagall Into Party Platform

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I remain unconvinced that Donald Trump will be as hard on Wall Street as many of his supporters think he’ll be if elected President, but some of the following from the Washington Post certainly represents a breath of fresh air.

CLEVELAND — Donald Trump is adding fuel to Wall Street anxiety about his candidacy, jabbing directly at big banks this week with new language in the official Republican party platform that calls for the restoration of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, a move that would force the break-up of large financial institutions.

The embrace of the controversial law, long championed on the left, is deepening the estrangement of the financial services sector from the presumptive Republican nominee, according to industry leaders and lobbyists, who are now struggling to assess what role and influence they would have in a Trump administration.

Absolutely none would be the right amount.

Tony Fratto, a former Treasury and White House official in the George W. Bush administration, called the embrace of Glass-Steagall “really dumb.” He suggested it could push pragmatically-oriented bankers toward Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.

“Push” bankers to Clinton. Are you kidding me? If they were pushed any closer together they’d be fused at the hip

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America is Being Divided and Conquered Into Oblivion

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Or take the right to vote. In principle, it is a great privilege. In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty. Therefore, if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum, break up modern society’s merely functional collectives into self-governing, voluntarily co-operating groups, capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Government.

-Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World Revisited (1958) 

The single event that changed my life more than any other was TARP, aka the banker bailout. The unfairness, extreme greed and selfishness with which the status quo bailed out financial criminals while leaving the public high and dry changed me forever. When it comes to shaping American history, it is equal in importance to the attacks of 9/11.

As someone who grew up privileged, I never really questioned the criminality of the status quo system. Like so many others who are beneficiaries of the way things are, there’s not much incentive to look behind the curtain. Nevertheless, the banker bailouts shook me to my core and opened my mind in ways that no other event could. At the time, I was happily earning a very large income at a young age while doing absolutely nothing to benefit society. As such, I couldn’t contemplate why government officials were putting so much money and energy into bailing out people like me, while ignoring everyone else. It felt irrational, unethical and dirty. I wrote about all this for over a year while still working in the financial sector, before concluding that it was time to part ways in early 2010. Even back then, I was incessantly warning that tremendous anger from the banker bailouts would ultimately bubble to the surface and create the sort of backdrop in which authoritarians, demagogues and fascists thrive.

The following years have felt like a tremendous rollercoaster ride. My emotions have vacillated significantly from pessimism to optimism, and now reside in a bizarre state in which the two inhabit an uncomfortable coexistence. I’ve previously defined the monumental struggle of our time as: Liberty and Decentralization vs. Authoritarianism and Centralization. For example, I noted in the post, The Comcast/Time Warner Merger and the War Between Centralization and Decentralization:

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Liberty Links 07/18/16

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17 links today. Enjoy. How Finance Costs Too Much and Fails to Deliver (Must read, Naked Capitalism) Obama Has Failed Victims of Racism and Police Brutality (Excellent, by Cornel West) U.S. Seen on Wrong Track by Nearly Three-Quarters of Voters (Wall Street Journal) Turkey Government Seemed to Have List of Arrests Prepared (Reuters) View on Turkey: … Read more

Bernie Sanders Inspired Florida Congressional Candidate Raises More Money in Last 3 Months Than DNC Chair

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Regular readers will be familiar with Tim Canova, but in case you aren’t caught up, here’s a refresher from January’s post, The DNC is “Feeling the Bern” – Debbie Wasserman Schultz Faces Serious Primary Challenge:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has not had a great last couple of months. The Florida Congress member and embattled Democratic National Committee Chair has been repeatedly criticized for leading the committee both ineffectively and with a heavy hand, and for an alleged bias toward Hillary Clinton that has made the party’s presidential debates few and far between—one reason why the Republican candidates have dominated the political discussion. The progressive wing of the party base is volubly getting fed up with her.

Now, if the increased calls for her to step down from her post as party head weren’t enough, Wasserman Schultz is also facing the prospect of a tough primary challenge from the left. Liberal economist and longtime Wall Street–reform advocate Tim Canova announced last week that he will challenge Wasserman Schultz in the August 30 primary in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. Touting a platform that closely mirrors Bernie Sanders’s, Canova hopes that the energy Sanders has roused nationally could work to his advantage in the South Florida district. Given Wasserman Schultz’s prominence, the primary could turn into a referendum pitting the progressive wing of the Democratic Party against its establishment wing, in much the way the (successful) primary challenge by another economist, Dave Brat, against then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was a test of strength between the Republicans’ factions.

Over the years, says Canova, Wasserman Schultz has become less accountable to her district and more responsive to Wall Street. “She’s become such a corporate Democrat; she takes so much corporate money,” Canova says. “The way she talks the talk isn’t the way she walks the walk. That kind of unaccountable power needs to be challenged.”

Fast forward six months, and Tim Canova’s got some impressive momentum on the fundraising front.

The Hill reports:

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Police Rushed to Rescue Bono and Other Celebrities During Nice Attacks

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When it comes to terror attacks, we now know that #CelebrityLivesMatter. A lot.

Specifically, some Nice residents expressed concern that U2 frontman Bono and other celebrities dining a half mile away from the scene of the recent terror attack received special treatment. According to the Telegraph:

But on Thursday, Bono, fellow musician Elton John, and the chef Alain Ducasse were among a number of celebrities caught up in the Bastille Day massacre in Nice.

The lead singer of U2, 56, and Ducasse, 59, were dining on the terrace of La Petite Maison restaurant near the seafront when the mass murderer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a lorry into crowds who had just watched a fireworks display, killing 84 – including 10 children.

Bono and Ducasse were rescued by armed counter-terrorism police along with other prominent French figures including the former mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who was also at the restaurant. 

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The 28-Pages Are Way Worse Than I Thought

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Shortly after the release of the infamous 28-pages earlier today, the White House issued a statement dismissing allegations of Saudi involvement in the attacks of 9/11. I believe such assurances are intended to prevent people from reading it in the first place, because if you actually read them, your mouth will be wide open the entire time in disbelief.

There are only two conclusions any thinking person can come to after reading the 28-pages.

1. Elements within the Saudi government ran the operations behind the 9/11 attack.

2. The U.S. government covered it up.

But don’t take my word for it. You should read it yourself.

Just to give you a little taste, here’s what was found on the first page alone (click on the images for the entire document).

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