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America Is a Dead Man Walking Because American Youth, or Their Minds, Have Been Stolen – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

The anti-American, anti-Western civilization (dead white men), anti-white indoctrination (systemic racism) that is the main function of an American university education is filtering down into the high schools and elementary schools. The United States is perhaps the first country to use education to destroy its own future. 

Graduates of American schools need a decade to recover from the indoctrination. I propose that the legal voting age in the US be legislated at 30 years of age. Perhaps it would be best if the voting age was 40 years of age or even 50. By then at least some people have learned lessons from life. At 18 no lessons have been learned.

America Is a Dead Man Walking because American Youth, or Their Minds, Have Been Stolen

The United States is a screwed-up country.  It this regard, the US has few rivals.

The legal voting age in the US is 18 years of age, which is also the age of female sexual consent and military enlistment.  So at 18 years of age youth can affect the governance of the country, get legally laid, kill and die in combat, but are considered too irresponsible to imbibe alcohol and purchase a pistol from a licensed dealer until three years later at age 21.

An 18 year old can be sent off to war armed to the teeth, but cannot legally purchase a pistol in a gun store.  He or she can influence how we are governed but cannot purchase a drink at a bar or restaurant.

What does an 18-year old know about politics, life, anything?  Except in very rare circumstances, nothing at all.

The anti-American, anti-Western civilization (dead white men), anti-white indoctrination (systemic racism) that is the main function of an American university education is filtering down into the high schools and elementary schools. The United States is perhaps the first country to use education to destroy its own future.  Most certainly, the US is the first country to make multicultural existence impossible.  The Identity Politics of the liberal-progressive-left splits the country into hostile Identity Groups, some of whom have successfully cultivated victim status, which they use to oppress those without it, primarily heterosexual white males.

The anti-American, anti-white liberal-progressive-left has succeeded in brainwashing large swaths of American youth.  In America the best students for the country are no longer the A students.  The best students are the C students who are turned off by the indoctrination and just want to get on with their lives.  

It is the A students who are receptive to the demonization of their country and themselves.  These students have been targeted by the Democrats for massive voter registration.  They have been refocused on overthrowing the “orange-haired racist/misogynist” in the White House.

It is unfortunate that the future of the United States depends on brainwashed, ignorant youth full of self-assertion and confidence that they know best.

But it does.  Therefore, the United States is doomed.

The Russians and Chinese are likely the future rulers, if they can free their minds from the propaganda that the United States is the Hegemonic and Indispensable Nation empowered to rule by the End of History.

Fortunately for the rest of us, both Russia and China have gone through despotic eras that, apparently, the ruling elites themselves are tired of and want no more of.  

Liberation often comes, not from those who speak its langauage, but from those who have suffered its absence.

Graduates of American schools need a decade to recover from the indoctrination.  I propose that the legal voting age in the US be legislated at 30 years of age.  Perhaps it would be best if the voting age was 40 years of age or even 50.  By then at least some people have learned lessons from life.  At 18 no lessons have been learned.  

To allow people judged too irresponsible to order a drink or to purchase a pistol to influence, even determine, the governance of a country is mindless.

Especially in America.

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Going Full Orwell | Kunstler

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

With the election only days away, the subtext of their demeanor was a clear “F… you, you can’t do anything about it” to the American people.

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/going-full-orwell/

James Howard Kunstler

Oscar Wilde observed that “life imitates art,” and there they were: the three grand poohbahs of social media, stone-facing the Senate Homeland Security Committee on their zoom screens like a trio of James Bond villains — Jack “Twitter” Dorsey, complete with sinister nose-ring and necromancer’s beard, Mark “Facebook” Zuckerberg, pasty and blank as a knish, and Sundar “Google” Pichai the Merciless. Only missing were the Persian cats in their laps.

They were on-board to answer how come their monstrous information engines were censoring the news so as to possibly influence a national election, and they offered the confabulated fantasy that their cancellation of the Biden Family influence-peddling story in The New York Post, and disabling the accounts of sundry un-Woketarian journalists, was actually a policy of “transparency.” With the election only days away, the subtext of their demeanor was a clear “Fuck you, you can’t do anything about it” to the American people.

Apparently so, but their insolence may be answered by the antitrust case lately teed up against them by the Department of Justice, especially if said election doesn’t go exactly the way they’ve attempted to engineer it. The rest of the Woke news media followed suit with the trio, of course, in an extraordinary affront to the public interest. The New York Times, CNN, and the rest of the gang completed their metamorphosis from a free press to Orwell’s memory hole, where reality goes to die.

But the Biden family grifting story has a life of its own, and the story is that the Democratic Party’s candidate for president would not survive a month in office before being dragged through some dreadful legal proceeding as a threat to national security, having sold himself to the rulers of several foreign countries, all too neatly documented to ignore.

For now, with the news media covering for him, Mr. Biden has managed to duck the story without refuting the authenticity of the evidence, namely, troves of genuine emails and texts between the principals of the various companies set up (in Delaware!) by his son, Hunter Biden, naming the former vice-president as an informed accomplice in schemes to sell his “services” to all comers. And he came pretty cheap, too, considering that the tens of millions proffered was mere walking-around-money to the CCP-connected Chinese billionaires, and others, who sought the deals. They even sent Hunter a hundred-large just “to buy a car.” (Did he get a Chevy Spark and blow the change up his nose, as was his wont, I wonder?)

The now infamous “Laptop from Hell” left behind brainlessly by Hunter in a Delaware repair shop apparently contains a parallel trove of photos and videos self-chronicling the scion’s sordid private life — sex, drugs, etc. — suggesting that he has set himself up as the perfect target for blackmailing operations. And goodness knows what Chinese intel on its own initiative recorded him doing in the hotels there (with amenities supplied) on his many visits to their land. Said laptop was also, it turns out, in the possession of the FBI as far back as the impeachment preliminaries in Adam Schiff’s House Intel Committee, fall of 2019. Since it was full of material counter-evidence about the issue at hand — the president’s phone call to Ukraine’s President Zelensky vis-a-vis the Biden family’s shady doings in that country — the question arises of how deep was the FBI’s complicity in the impeachment ruse?

Could FBI Director Christopher Wray not have known of the laptop’s existence when it came into the agency? I doubt it. Could Mr. Wray have concealed the information from Attorney General Barr? Yes, quite possibly. In the meantime, Mr. Barr has not said a word about the entire Biden pay-for-play / laptop extravaganza. I imagine he’s chewing the office furniture at Main Justice in a fury over it with the election pending, and his duty to avoid influencing the outcome. Mr. Trump has felt a little freer to share the wicked business with the public in his campaign appearances, setting the table for a banquet of consequences when the election is over.

If it can be gotten over, since the Democrats have made no secret of their elaborate plan to confound the results with post November 3 ballot harvesting and Lawfare shenanigans in the swing states — to be accompanied by riots staged by their Antifa and BLM shock troops. I think the idea is to provoke Mr. Trump to call out US troops to quell the riots, thereby opening him up to accusations of being a tyrant. I suspect the Dems will overplay their hand on that trick, since a sizable portion of the public that has not collectively lost its mind is good and goddam sick of riots, arson, destruction of property, and the looting capers that go with them. Mr. Trump has overcome every adversity thrown in his path for four years, and I believe he will get through this final tribulation, beep-beep. And then the games can begin in earnest.

Mr. Biden apparently changed his mind about “putting a lid” on the last week of his campaign and strayed out of his basement in what looks like a desperate effort to dispel the odium hanging over him. He might as well just paint a big “L” on his forehead. Thursday evening, he was onstage in Tampa, angry and fulminating to his usual sparse audience, when the skies opened. The audience peeled away in the pouring rain and so did Joe Biden after only nineteen minutes of bitter vituperation, the perfect picture of loserdom… Captain Queeg meets Willie Loman… without the charm.

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Guess What Biden’s Virus Adviser Wants To Do – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

Gee, Dr. Emanuel, it looks like locking people in their houses only delays the inevitable — as everyone at the time tried to tell you.

Meanwhile, let’s check in with Sweden, which never locked down and where almost nobody wears masks.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/10/thomas-woods/guess-what-bidens-virus-adviser-wants-to-do/

By Tom Woods

From the Tom Woods Letter:

Remember that creep Dr. Zeke Emanuel?

I’ll refresh your memory:

“We cannot return to normal until there’s a vaccine. Conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner in a restaurant, none of that will resume until we find a vaccine, a treatment, or a cure….

“We need to prepare ourselves for this to last 18 months or so and for the toll that it will take. We need to develop a long-term solution based on those facts. It has to account for what we are losing while this fight goes on, things like schooling and income and contact with our friends and extended family.”

He wanted you to go for 18 months without “schooling and income and contact with [your] friends and extended family.”

Dr. Emanuel is advising Joe Biden on the virus.

If you’re curious about what he would advise Joe to do, here’s what he said back when he thought Italy had “crushed the curve” (with thanks to Alex Berenson):

“One of the important things for all your readers to look at is Italy.

“Italy did a nationwide lockdown…. We’ve never gotten as low as Italy is today…. We needed that kind of process nationwide, and we did not have that.

“So that’s one thing: a nationwide lockdown that lasts 8 weeks until we have a number of new cases in the 2 to 3 per 100,000 level.”

He said this in September.

Italy just reported 217 deaths from the virus yesterday, which is the equivalent of 1200 deaths in the U.S.

Gee, Dr. Emanuel, it looks like locking people in their houses only delays the inevitable — as everyone at the time tried to tell you.

Meanwhile, let’s check in with Sweden, which never locked down and where almost nobody wears masks.

Here’s Sweden versus Illinois, which is going into another lockdown:

Here’s Sweden against several other European countries:

And here’s Sweden against still other countries:

Well, how about that!

So lockdowns don’t even work — except to suck the joy out of life; decimate people’s savings; ruin their livelihoods; delay necessary health procedures; disrupt supply chains, thereby threatening famine; cause 2 million excess deaths from TB, HIV, and malaria; and lead to depression and despair.

This should be excruciatingly obvious by now, and yet we have a shocking number of people who think this is what needs to be done.

More of what failed the first time!

The Best of Tom Woods Tom Woods [send him mail; visit his website] is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 books and host of the Tom Woods Show, which libertarians listen to every weekday. Get a free copy of Your Facebook Friends Are Wrong About the Lockdown: A Non-Hysteric’s Guide to COVID-19.

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This Is a Marxist Revolution – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors confesses that she and her colleagues are committed Marxists

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/10/vasko-kohlmayer/this-is-a-marxist-revolution/

In our recent posts we have tried to show that the upheaval that is presently convulsing this country is in reality a neo-Marxist revolution in progress.

Despite the many obvious signs, most people in this country are still oblivious to this. Not only do they not recognize that this is an attempted revolution, the idea that it could be a Marxist one seems completely implausible. Most Americans think of Marxism as some bugaboo that is periodically brought up by wild-eyed alarmists who see a Bolshevik underneath every protest banner. They believe that this ideology has long been discredited and that no one in their right mind would take it up as a viable way of looking at the world.

In this they are only half correct. Even though it is true that history has shown Marxism to be dead wrong, Marxism is far from being dead as a worldview. Quite to the contrary, it is very much alive. It shapes – directly or indirectly – the worldview of many in the American intelligentsia, many of whom hold important posts at universities, in the media and in government.

To be sure, most of these individuals do not openly present themselves as traditional Marxists. Many of them, in fact, even concede that classical Marxism is flawed, having failed to deliver on its promises and predictions. This attitude gives these ideological mutants an air of seeming reasonableness and objectivity. But they will not let go of Marx’s basic assumptions. Having retained Marx’s core “insights,” they either modify his theories on the edges or develop them in new directions. As a result, in the last eighty years we have witnessed a proliferation of philosophies and theoretical systems derived from Marx’s teachings. Here is a partial list:

  • Critical Race Theory
  • The Frankfurt School
  • Liberation Theology
  • Critical Theory
  • Black Theology
  • Maoism
  • The Praxis School
  • De-Leonism
  • Autonomism
  • Austro-Marxism
  • The Budapest School
  • Western Marxism
  • Neo-Marxism
  • Structural Marxism
  • Neue Marx-Lektüre
  • Cultural Marxism
  • Islamo-Leftism
  • Trotskyism
  • Left Communism
  • Eurocommunism
  • Freudo-Marxism
  • Analytical Marxism
  • Libertarian Marxism
  • Marxist Feminism
  • Marxist Theology
  • Marxist Humanism
  • Post-Marxism

Even though the theoretical system above deal with many different aspects of the life of the individual and society, they grew from the same poisoned Marxist root. Yet despite their ignoble origin, most of these schools of thought are considered acceptable if not outright respectable.

Many contemporary leftwing schools of thought are offshoots of the teachings of Karl Marx

You may have not heard of most of them, but they have been massively influential in the world of ideas. These ideas have in turn influenced the way we conduct our everyday affairs. Critical race theory is one such example. This Marxist-spawned system has become the de facto worldview in many university departments, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Astonishingly, critical race theory had been routinely taught to employees of the federal government under the guise of sensitivity training. It was only last month that President Trump, by executive order, put an end to this blatant form of Marxist indoctrination.

If you do not know what critical race theory is or where it comes from, you may find the following description illuminating:

“Critical race theory is a modern approach to social change, developed from the broader critical theory, which developed out of Marxism. Critical race theory approaches issues such as justice, racism, and inequality, with a specific intent of reforming or reshaping society. In practice, this is applied almost exclusively to the United States.”

The text then goes on to list some of the key assumptions behind this Marxist-inspired creed:

  • American government, law, culture, and society are inherently and inescapably racist.
  • Everyone, even those without racist views, perpetuates racism by supporting those structures.
  • The personal perception of the oppressed—their “narrative”—outweighs the actions or intents of others.
  • Oppressed groups will never overcome disadvantages until the racist structures are replaced.
  • Oppressor race or class groups never change out of altruism; they only change for self-benefit.
  • Application of laws and fundamental rights should be different based on the race or class group of the individual(s) involved.

Needless to say, the cumulative effect of all the various Marxist schools has been enormous. Slowly pressing their principles into the fabric of American life, they have gradually corroded traditional American values to the point that we are now confused about our identity. What, indeed, does America stand for? The decades-long infusion of Marxism into America’s bloodstream has reached a critical level and now we are on the verge of a Marxist coup d’état. Find this hard to believe? Let us conduct a quick reality check.

In the last four months we have witnessed widespread “protests” and riots which shook America to the core. Serious rioting took place in hundreds of localities across the United States, causing damage and destruction unprecedented in this country’s history. In a number of places chaos and lawlessness prevailed for days. Straining our system on multiple levels, these dramatic events have brought the US to the brink of breakdown. So much so that it increasingly feels as if we are slouching toward civil war.

This upheaval has been instigated by Black Lives Matter. It is this outfit that has sponsored, encouraged and organized those who have by violence driven America to the edge.

It is known that Black Lives Matter has been founded and is being run by committed Marxists. In a June article on redstate.com, the journalist Brandon Morse writes about BLM founders:

“By their own admission, their purpose isn’t to heal this country, it’s to rip it apart and remake it into a more Marxist kind of society… A 2015 video has resurfaced proving that the entire intent of the Black Lives Matter movement is Marxism. As you can see during the interview with the Real News Network, BLM founder Patrisse Cullors admits she and her cohorts are ‘trained Marxists.’”

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors confesses that she and her colleagues are committed Marxists

BLM leaders are, in fact, quite open about their beliefs and objectives. In this video BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors openly admits that she and her colleagues are “trained Marxists.” This is what she says:

“We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia [Alicia Garza, a co-founder of BLM] in particular, we’re trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super versed on ideological theories.”

These Marxists direct and guide the actions of BLM. It is they along with their allied groups such as Antifa – which is another Marxist outfit – who have brought this country to the precipice.

Marxism is thus not some discarded ideology harbored by a few harmless, pointy-headed professors in ivory towers. Marxism is a living creed, forming the motive behind the thinking and actions of those responsible for the present upheaval in the United States. Rather than being irrelevant, Marxism is a powerful and destructive force that threatens to rip America apart.

The chaos has been deliberately induced, because, in order to take over, Marxists need lawlessness and disorder. When the society is destabilized and its population sufficiently confused and demoralized, the revolutionaries make their move to seize control. This can happen sooner than most people would imagine, perhaps as early as next week. If Trump should win on the 3rd of November, the hard left will not accept the result and a Marxist coup may well be attempted.

The Best of Vasko Kohlmayer Vasko Kohlmayer [send him mail] is a naturalized citizen.

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Want to Make Drugs Less Lethal? Legalize Them. | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

The paper shows that the prohibition of drugs causes illegal drugs to be produced that are more potent and dangerous than if they were produced legally and commercially. It was a simple application of the Alchian–Allen effect,

The purpose of this article is to explore what happens when an illegal good is legalized, especially in terms of potency and safety.

https://mises.org/wire/want-make-drugs-less-lethal-legalize-them?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=136746a46f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-136746a46f-228343965

Mark Thornton

Marijuana, i.e., cannabis, is now legal in eleven states for recreational use, thirty-three states for medical purposes, and another sixteen states have decriminalized it (usually fines for possession of small amounts). The upcoming election will see several legalization ballot measures, including recreational use legalization in Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey and medical use in Mississippi. South Dakota will have both medical and recreational legalization measures on the ballot and Oregon will have ballot measures that would decriminalize all drugs and another that would legalize psilocybin, i.e., “magic mushrooms,” for purposes of helping people with certain mental health issues.

In the mid-1980s, at the pinnacle of the war on drugs, I wrote a paper for one of my graduate classes on the potency of illegal drugs. The paper shows that the prohibition of drugs causes illegal drugs to be produced that are more potent and dangerous than if they were produced legally and commercially. It was a simple application of the Alchian–Allen effect, where a lump-sum cost like a tax or transport cost (in this case risk) is added to two different grades of the same product, such as high-potency and low-potency cannabis, decreasing the relative price of the higher-grade product. Some people refer to this as simply “getting a bigger bang for your buck.”

It did, however, get a good deal of attention. Richard Cowan later dubbed the effect “The Iron Law of Prohibition” in National Review in order to explain the new phenomenon of crack cocaine.1 Judge Jim Gray called it the “cardinal rule of prohibition,” in his 2001 book and noted that it is a most compelling argument for the legalization of drugs.2

This “law” certainly did seem to explain the illegal drug market that had consisted of a large low-potency cannabis market and small markets for cocaine and heroin prior to President Nixon’s declaration of a “war on drugs” in 1972. By the turn of the century, the market had evolved into high-potency cannabis, crack cocaine, crystal meth, high-potency heroin, and superpotent chemical narcotics such as fentanyl.

However, policy began to change around the turn of the century. Several US states and countries began to decriminalize cannabis, adopting medical cannabis rules, and eventually some states started to outright legalize it in opposition to federal and international authority. In 2000, Portugal decriminalized all illegal drugs.

Theory

The purpose of this article is to explore what happens when an illegal good is legalized, especially in terms of potency and safety. I have heard several anecdotes that legalized cannabis is now more potent than ever, but theory would argue otherwise, ceteris paribus.

The expected outcomes from legalizing a formerly criminalized good are straightforward. Obviously, costs, i.e., risk, will fall, and with competition price will decrease as well. This will increase the quantity demanded and sold.

The market will expand in several likely ways. First, current consumers of the illegal good can increase their quantity demanded. Second, new consumers will enter the market, likely those who were afraid of being caught and punished in the illegal market and others who now see it as safe and effective for their purposes. Third, consumption will increase if new uses are found or rediscovered for the product. All this increased consumption of a drug may seem troubling, but the opposite is the case.

We should expect the observed quantity produced and consumed in the market to expand dramatically. However, we would not necessarily expect this to take place in a dramatic or dangerous way. It might appear to be somewhat chaotic from an historical vantage point as “mom and pop” operations in production and distribution are replaced by commercial growers and chain stores, and eventually by large-scale, vertically organized global operations. This happens in most cases of new consumer products over a period of many years.

But what about product potency? Would it be the case that growers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers would continue to chase even more potent products? Or would there be a tendency for less potent products as other aspects or characteristics of the good are enhanced? Theory would suggest that potency would decrease, or at least not continue to increase as during prohibition.

A related and just as important question would be the variability of potency. Would it be the case that the potency of cannabis would be vastly different from one purchase to the next? Common sense and knowledge would suggest that product potency would become standardized and similar from purchase to purchase. Many companies have been working on more standardized cannabis products.

Indeed, we would expect the product potency spectrum to be standardized in line with consumer preference. Producers would want to take advantage of name brand recognition in order to promote their long-run profitability and to protect the value of their sunk cost investments. Therefore, we should expect name brands and potency labeling of products where possible. This standardization feature of legal markets is extremely important to the cases of more dangerous drugs, such as heroin, where the variability of potency contributes to most overdose deaths.

What Has Happened?

I have written about these issues in the past,3 but now we have evidence of what has happened with legalized cannabis. Let me caution: data does not a theory make. That caution is particularly necessary when discussing markets transitioning from illegal drugs to legal drugs in a haphazard, state-by-state fashion. Likewise, it is very difficult to discern why a consumer is buying a product and all the ramifications of that consumption. Finally, government regulations and propaganda at the federal level are injecting confusion, misinformation, and uncertainty about the cannabis legalization movement.4

With that said, we do know that the consumption of illegal cannabis has increased dramatically in states that have legalized medical and recreational consumption. The shift is not complete, because regulations, restrictions, and high taxes have helped keep the illegal market alive. No doubt consumption is higher among traditional consumers, but the extent of the increase is difficult to discern. The advent of new product choices such as gummies, cookies, and vape pens will also cause both substitution and an increase in the overall quantity demanded of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

Another major source of product substitution is from the consumption of alcohol and tobacco to consumption of cannabis. For example, after the State of Washington legalized cannabis, the quantity of alcohol and tobacco demanded declined by double-digit amounts. Other studies have found much higher percentages in select populations.5 Not surprisingly, alcohol and tobacco interest groups are donors to campaigns that attempt to prevent the legalization of cannabis. Other contributors to those political campaigns include the for-profit prison industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and gambling interests.

The list of medical applications for cannabis is long and growing. Cannabis is thought to aid with pain, anxiety, sleep, and appetite, so it can help people with underlying health conditions treat those conditions or people who are being treated for things such as AIDS or cancer. It is also being studied as an aid or treatment for epilepsy, certain types of seizures and tumors, and has long been known as a treatment for glaucoma.

People are also using it in place of, or in addition to, psychoactive drugs for conditions such as anxiety and addiction to narcotics and alcohol and in lieu of pain medications such as oxycodone and Vicodin. Generally, this represents the substitution of low-cost cannabis, with its minimal negative effects, for expensive drugs with significant side effects and/or lack of effectiveness.

With the recent legalization of hemp, a cannabis-like plant, there has been a massive increase in the availability and use of CBD, a nonpsychoactive component in cannabis. In oil form, it is applied or consumed for medical conditions such as pain, anxiety, and inflammation, and the plant’s dried flowers are smoked recreationally. This industry has quickly expanded across the country, siphoning off demand for legal and illegal cannabis.

One little thing we do know from the government itself is that the potency of illegal cannabis has increased from less than 4 percent in 1993 to over 17 percent in 2017.6 There are also some very high-potency legal cannabis products in the marketplace for recreational use, where smaller doses are consumed, and also for specific medical applications.

During Prohibition (1920–33) alcohol was produced in an extremely potent form. It was also of very poor quality in that it often smelled bad, tasted bad, and could make you sick to your stomach. Bartenders in speakeasies had to experiment with things like fruit juices and dairy products to make it palatable for their customers. After Prohibition was repealed, alcohol was again produced as beer, wine, and whiskey that you could drink straight or on the rocks. Average potency fell dramatically, and quality increased significantly too.

With that in mind, we should expect conditions in the legal cannabis market to continue to evolve in order to better serve the consumer. That would mean increased product information and quality, as well as new products and applications to serve consumers. It might also mean a decrease in average THC potency, especially when you consider the increased consumption of CBD oil and hemp flower products. In the words of FDR, “The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself.”

  • 1. Richard Cowan, “How the Narcs Created Crack: A War against Ourselves,” National Review, Dec. 5, 1986, 26–34. 
  • 2. James P. Gray, Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).
  • 3. Mark Thornton, “The Potency of Illegal Drugs.” Journal of Drug Issues 28, no. 3 (1998): 725-40. Academic Search Premier. This article was based on my original paper in graduate school. It was submitted to the Journal of Political Economy and received two revise and resubmits but was never accepted. It was a chapter in my book The Economics of Prohibition, which was published by the University of Utah State Press in 1991.
  • 4. Mark Thornton, “Drug Warriors Claim Colorado Going to Pot,” Mises Daily, Sept. 9, 2014, https://mises.org/library/drug-warriors-claim-colorado-going-pot.
  • 5. Amanda Reiman, “Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol and Other Drugs,” Harm Reduction Journal 6 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-6-35.
  • 6. Suman Chandra, Mohamed M. Radwan, Chandrani G. Majumdar, James C. Church, Tom P. Freeman, and Mahmoud A. ElSohly, “New Trends in Cannabis Potency in USA and Europe during the Last Decade (2008–2017). European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 269 (February 2019): 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-019-00983-5.

Author:

Contact Mark Thornton

Mark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and the book review editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He has authored seven books and is a frequent guest on national radio shows.

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No, the American Republic Was Not Founded on Slavery | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 31, 2020

Thomas Sowell in his highly recommended text Black Rednecks and White Liberals described the intense political environment the founding fathers endured in their quest to outlaw slavery:

William G. Clarence Smith in his intriguing publication Islam and the Abolition of Slavery details the venom leveled at emancipation in Islamic territories: “Asked to give up his slaves in 1861, the sultan of Magindanao replied ‘that he would rather give up his wife and children than his slaves, for lacking the latter he would cease to be a sultan.’”

https://mises.org/wire/no-american-republic-was-not-founded-slavery?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=78690a2aec-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_10_02_06_25_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-78690a2aec-228343965

Lipton Matthews

Journalistic propaganda is a powerful instrument of indoctrination. Without evidence, foul ideas can easily penetrate mainstream discourse. For instance, recently it has become fashionable to posit that slavery is America’s original sin. To sensible people, this is a risible claim, because there is nothing particularly American about slavery. But revisiting the history of slavery in non-Western societies in Asia and Africa would do little to change the minds of America’s critics. A more appropriate strategy would be to contrast the opinions of the Founding Fathers on slavery with those of leaders in other countries. Only after undertaking this task will we be able to judge America.

In a larger historical context, asserting that some of the American founders owned slaves does not make them appear remarkable, because for most of history slavery was a normal institution. Therefore, in retrospect, they are to be seen as the products of a peculiar time. What matters is not that they possessed slaves, but their revolutionary views on slavery during an era when it was universally embraced and their attempts at dismantling the system. 

Thomas Jefferson in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence was exceptionally caustic in his critique of George III for imposing the slave trade on the colonies:

He [George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

Of profound importance in this statement is that Jefferson capitalized the word men. To historian M. Andrew Holowchak this indicates that “philosophically and unequivocally Jefferson considered Blacks as men, not chattel.” However, such a remonstration of slavery was deleted by the Continental Congress to achieve a compromise with Southern states. Like now, tradeoffs formed a crucial aspect of the political process. Those seeking to berate the Founding Fathers lack a proper understanding of history and politics. Thomas Sowell in his highly recommended text Black Rednecks and White Liberals described the intense political environment the founding fathers endured in their quest to outlaw slavery:

Many who have dismissed the anti-slavery words of the founders of the American republic as just rhetoric have not bothered to check the facts of history. Washington, Jefferson, and others did not just talk. They acted. Even when they acted within the political and legal constraints of their times, they acted repeatedly[,] sometimes winning and sometimes losing….When Jefferson drafted a state constitution for Virginia in 1776, his draft included a clause prohibiting any more importation of slaves and, in 1783, Jefferson included in a new draft of a Virginia constitution a proposal for the gradual emancipation of slaves. He was defeated in both these efforts. On the national scene, Jefferson returned to the battle once again in 1784, declaring slavery illegal in all western territories of the country. The bill lost by one vote, that of a legislator too sick to come and vote. Afterwards, Jefferson said that the fate of millions unborn was hanging on the tongue of one man and heaven was silent in that awful moment.

Contemporary observers fail to acknowledge that the hostile political climate at the time limited what the Founding Fathers could achieve. Moreover, they had to contemplate the most feasible route to abolition. Emancipating slaves, if all legislators agreed, was easy, yet one had to confront the political difficulties one encounters in abolition without a clear plan. In a letter to Robert Morris, George Washington displays his penchant for the destruction of slavery provided that it was guided by a sound plan: “I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting.”

But not everyone was a pragmatist. Due to their personal convictions, some patriots were incensed by slavery, and they took personal steps to emancipate slaves. Men like Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman fall into this category. Whereas the will of George Washington stipulated the emancipation of enslaved laborers, Benjamin Franklin liberated his slaves during his lifetime. So far, we have discussed the views of the Founding Fathers on slavery. Now let us contrast them with those of leaders of different societies to determine which positions were more enlightened.

William G. Clarence Smith in his intriguing publication Islam and the Abolition of Slavery details the venom leveled at emancipation in Islamic territories: “Asked to give up his slaves in 1861, the sultan of Magindanao replied ‘that he would rather give up his wife and children than his slaves, for lacking the latter he would cease to be a sultan.’” He continues: “The Sultan of Sulu wrote to the American authorities in 1902, insisting that slaves were held ‘according to Moro law, custom and the Mohammedan religion,’ in that order. Moreover, ‘slaves are part of our property. To have this property taken away from us would mean a great loss to us.’”

Similarly, historian Robin Law reminds us of the militant reaction of the Dahomean elite when the British began pressuring the government to disband the slave trade: “King Glele told British missionary Peter Bernasko in 1860 that ‘war, bloodshed (i.e. human sacrifice) and slave selling had been left to him by his father, he could not avoid them.” Law also notes that the assault on the slave trade “implied the demilitarization of the Dahomian state and this in turn implied an attack on human sacrifice, which in Dahomey was bound up with the culture of militarism.”

The examples provided suggest that slavery underpinned the cultural fabric of several non-Western societies. Furthermore, it is evident that following the abolition of slavery in America its leaders placed pressure on other countries to terminate the practice. So, in a strange sense, we may say that American imperialism helped to topple slavery. Likewise, based on our survey an objective analysis of historical positions on slavery should illustrate that America’s founding fathers were not only more progressive, but exhibited a moral disposition absent in most places. Therefore, in contrast to the utterances of critics, what is distinct about America is not slavery, but rather its strident antislavery ideology despite slavery’s universal acceptance. Author:

Contact Lipton Matthews

Lipton Matthews is a researcher, business analyst, and contributor to mises.org, The Federalist, and the Jamaica Gleaner. He may be contacted at lo_matthews@yahoo.com or on Twitter (@matthewslipton).

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Talking About Stoicism 94 On Blaming

Posted by M. C. on October 30, 2020

You can’t change people.

Starting at 6:00 will help.

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UK Police Force Says it Will Break Up Christmas Gatherings to Enforce COVID Rules — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch

Posted by M. C. on October 30, 2020

Originally posted on The Blogging Hounds: “Police will have to intervene.” Published 11 hours ago on 28 October, 2020 Paul Joseph Watson A police force in the UK has vowed to break up Christmas family gatherings that violate coronavirus ‘social distancing’ restrictions. The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said the force wouldn’t hesitate to intervene…

UK Police Force Says it Will Break Up Christmas Gatherings to Enforce COVID Rules — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch

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Jim Bovard’s Guide to Surviving Election Day | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on October 30, 2020

What’s the point of voting if “government under the law” is not a choice on Election Day?

Having a vote does nothing to prevent a person from being molested by the TSA, spied on by the NSA, or harassed by the IRS.

Politicians are increasingly dividing Americans into two classes—those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/jim-bovards-guide-to-surviving-election-day/

by Jim Bovard

Election Day can be the longest day of the year. Especially if the presidential race remains undecided late into the evening, neither Xanax nor vodka may be enough to kill the pain. In lieu of other sedatives, following are some cheerful lines which might blunt the impact of the prattling on CNN or MSNBC, though there is no known antidote to PBS’s piety.

Voting

  • The most dangerous political illusion is that votes limit politicians’ power.
  • Nowadays, we have elections in lieu of freedom.
  • The defects in any system of choosing rulers outweigh the risks of letting people run their own lives.
  • People are entitled to far more information when testing baldness cures than when casting votes that could lead to war.
  • What’s the point of voting if “government under the law” is not a choice on Election Day?
  • Having a vote does nothing to prevent a person from being molested by the TSA, spied on by the NSA, or harassed by the IRS.
  • Politicians are increasingly dividing Americans into two classes—those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.
  • Voting for lesser evils makes Washington no less odious.
  • Politicians have mandated warning labels for almost everything except voting booths.
  • On Election Day, Americans are more likely to be deluded by their own government than by foreigners.
  • Politicians talk as if voting magically protects the rights of everyone within a fifty-mile radius of the polling booth.
  • Political consent is defined these days as rape was defined a generation or two ago: people consent to anything which they do not forcibly resist.

Democracy

  • Modern democracy pretends that people can control what they do not understand.
  • We have a drive-by democracy where politicians wave to voters every few years and otherwise do as they please.
  • The more power politicians capture, the more illusory democracy becomes.
  • A democratic government that respects no limits on its own power is a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy the rights it was created to protect.
  • The surest effect of exalting democracy is to make it easier for politicians to drag everyone else down.
  • The Washington Post’s motto is “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” But democracy also dies from too many Iron Fists.
  • The phrases which consecrate democracy seep into Americans’ minds like buried hazardous waste.
  • Rather than a democracy, we increasingly have an elective dictatorship. Voters merely designate who will violate the laws and the Constitution.
  • Democracy unleashes the State in the name of the people.
  • The more that democracy is presumed to be inevitable, the more likely it will self-destruct.
  • America is now an Attention Deficit Democracy where citizens’ ignorance and apathy entitle politicians to do as they damn well please.
  • Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
  • Americans now embrace the same myths about democracy that downtrodden European peasants formerly swallowed about monarchy.
  • Instead of revealing the “will of the people,” election results are often only a one-day snapshot of transient mass delusions.
  • Nothing happens after Election Day to make politicians less venal.

Lying

  • A lie that is accepted by a sufficient number of ignorant voters becomes a political truth.
  • America is increasingly a “Garbage In, Garbage Out” democracy. Politicians dupe citizens and then invoke deluded votes to stretch their power.
  • Promising to “speak truth to power” is the favorite vow in the most deceitful city in America.
  • Truth delayed is truth defused.
  •  A successful politician is often merely someone who bamboozled more voters than the other liar running for office.
  • The biggest election frauds usually occur before the voting booths open.
  • Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer’s patients, telling them anything that will keep them subdued. It doesn’t matter what untruths the people are fed because they will quickly forget.
  • When people blindly trust politicians, the biggest liars win.
  • Secrecy and lying are often two sides of the same political coin.
  • The more powerful government becomes, the more abuses it commits, and the more lies it must tell.

Government et Cetera

  • America is rapidly becoming a two-tier society: those whom the law fails to restrain, and those whom the law fails to protect.
  • Idealism these days is often only positive thinking about growing servitude.
  • It is naïve to expect governments to descend step-by-step into barbarism—as if there is a train schedule to political hell with easy exits along the way.
  • The first duty of today’s citizen is to assume the best of government, while federal agents assume the worst of him.
  • America needs fewer laws, not more prisons.
  • Every recent American commander in chief has expanded and exploited the dictatorial potential of the presidency.
  • Many people reason about political power like sheep who ignore the wolf until they feel its teeth.
  • Political saviors almost always cost more than they deliver.
  • There is no such thing as retroactive self-government.
  • The arrogance of power is the best hope for the survival of freedom.
  • Washingtonians view individual freedom like an ancient superstition they must pretend to respect.
  • Paternalism is a desperate gamble that lying politicians will honestly care for those who fall under their sway.
  • Citizens should distrust politicians who distrust freedom.
  • The Night Watchman State has been replaced by Highway Robber States in which no asset or right is safe from marauding politicians.
  • P.T. Barnum may have been thinking of Washington journalists when he said there’s a sucker born every minute.

About Jim Bovard

Jim Bovard is the author of Public Policy Hooligan (2012), Attention Deficit Democracy (2006), Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), and 7 other books. He is a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors and has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Washington Post, and other publications. His articles have been publicly denounced by the chief of the FBI, the Postmaster General, the Secretary of HUD, and the heads of the DEA, FEMA, and EEOC and numerous federal agencies.

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UPS Suddenly Locates “Lost” Biden Evidence, Returning Docs To Tucker Carlson | Zero Hedge

Posted by M. C. on October 30, 2020

Another three letter agency out to get US.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ups-suddenly-locates-lost-biden-evidence-returning-docs-tucker-carlson

Profile picture for user Tyler Durden

by Tyler Durden Fri, 10/30/2020 – 04:55 TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Delivery giant UPS confirmed Thursday it found a lost trove of documents that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said would provide revelations in the ever-growing scandal involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his overseas business dealings.

UPS Senior Public Relations Manager Matthew O’Connor told Business Insider on Thursday afternoon that the documents are located and are being sent to Carlson.

“After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return,” he said in a statement.

 “UPS will always focus first on our customers, and will never stop working to solve issues and make things right. We work hard to ensure every package is delivered, including essential goods, precious family belongings and critical healthcare.”

It came after Glenn Zaccara, UPS’s corporate media relations director, confirmed Carlson used the company to ship the materials before they were lost.

“The package was reported with missing contents as it moved within our network,” Zaccara said before they were located. “UPS is conducting an urgent investigation.”

During his Wednesday night broadcast, Carlson said that a UPS employee notified them that their package “was open and empty … apparently, it had been opened.”

“The Biden documents never arrived in Los Angeles. Tuesday morning we received word from our shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing,” Carlson also remarked. “The documents had disappeared.”

On Tuesday night, Carlson interviewed former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski, who claimed that the former Democratic vice president could be compromised by the Chinese Communist Party due to Hunter and brother James Biden’s business dealings in the country.

Joe Biden has not responded to Bobulinski’s allegations. Last week during his debate with President Donald Trump, he said he had “not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.”

Biden’s campaign earlier this month said Biden never had a meeting with an executive at a shady Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, while he was the vice president and his son sat on the board of the firm. A report from the New York Post, citing alleged Hunter Biden emails, suggested Hunter Biden had arranged a meeting between him, the executive, and Joe Biden.

It’s now possible that a special counsel will investigate Joe Biden should he win the presidency.

“You know, I am not a big fan of special counsels, but if Joe Biden wins the presidency, I don’t see how you avoid one,” Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said. “Otherwise, this is going to be, you know, tucked away, and we will never know what happened. All this evidence is going to be buried.”

UPS did not provide further details about the apparent mishap.

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