Georgia Bill Would Legalize Marijuana; Foundation to Nullify Federal Prohibition

ATLANTA, Ga. (Feb. 2, 2018) – A bill filed in the Georgia Senate would legalize marijuana, setting the foundation to nullify federal cannabis prohibition in effect in the state. Senate Bill 344 (SB344) was introduced by Sen. Curt Thompson (D-Norcross) with five co-sponsors on Jan. 23. The legislation would allow adults 21 or older to…

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Missouri Committee Passes Bill to Ban Warrantless Stingray Spying; Help Hinder Federal Surveillance

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Feb 2, 2018) – Yesterday, a Missouri House committee overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban the use of “stingrays” to track the location of phones and sweep up electronic communications without a warrant in most situations. Passage of the law would not only protect privacy in Missouri, it will also hinder one…

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Tennessee Bills Would Help Encourage Use of Gold and Silver as Money

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 2, 2018) – Bills filed in the Tennessee House and Senate would exempt gold and silver bullion and coins from sales tax, encouraging their use and taking the first step toward breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. Rep. Ron Grant (R-Rossville) introduced House Bill 1915 (HB1915) and Sen. Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) introduced…

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Blowback: How ISIS Was Created by the U.S. Invasion of Iraq

"In Iraq, the U.S. morphed from heroic liberators into brutal occupiers within a matter of weeks. In Fallujah, which would later become an ISIS stronghold, U.S. troops opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters in April 2003, killing and wounding dozens of Iraqis. The shootings, the torture, the general chaos, all helped drive thousands of Iraqis from the minority Sunni community into the arms of radical groups led by brutal gangsters, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq, formed in 2004 to fight U.S. troops and their local allies, was a precursor organization to … ISIS."

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Trump’s North Korea Rhetoric: Carbon Copy of Bush On Iraq 15 Years Ago

"Anyone who was paying attention during George W. Bush’s State of the Union addresses in 2002 and 2003 would have found Trump’s statements frighteningly familiar: Trump used exactly the same justifications for war with North Korea as Bush had for war with Iraq when standing at the same podium."

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Media reports US stealth bombers in Guam preparing for nuclear strike

"Not only will the B-61's new modification make it ideal for destroying dug-in bunkers, the kind in which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might hide during a conflict, but it has an adjustable nuclear yield that could limit harmful radioactive fallout after a nuclear attack."

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Trump Nuke Plan Resets the Doomsday Clock

"The 2018 NPR eschews traditional nuclear disarmament pathways in favor of a more aggressive posture that seeks to make nuclear weapons more accessible to American policymakers when formulating deterrence. The possibility of a tit-for-tat exchange of cyberattacks that escalates into a nuclear conflict would previously have been dismissed out of hand; today, thanks to the 2018 NPR, it has entered the realm of the possible."

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By reversing policy in Syria, the US is fuelling more wars in the Middle East

"It was a bad moment for the US to stir the pot by saying it would stay in Syria and target Assad and Iran. A Kurdish-Turkish war in northern Syria will be a very fierce one. The US obsession with an exaggerated Iranian threat – about which, in any case, it cannot do much – makes it difficult for Washington to mediate and cool down the situation. Trump and his chaotic administration have not yet had to deal with a real Middle East crisis yet and the events of the last week suggest that they will not be able to do so."

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Alabama Committee Passes Bill to Help Encourage Use of Gold and Silver as Money

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Feb. 1, 2018) –  An Alabama Senate committee has passed a bill that would exempt the sale of gold and silver bullion from state sales and use tax, encouraging its use and taking the first step toward breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. Sen. Tim Melson (R-Florence) introduced Senate Bill 156 (SB156) on Jan.…

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American Paths, Chosen and Not (1989-2018)

"If I were to pick a single decision by an American president and his team in this century as our own August 1914, I would choose the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. Of course, in that era of the 'sole superpower,' there were no other great powers (as in the World War I moment) ready to leap into the fray, so the unraveling that followed across a significant part of the planet would prove not to be a world war but a one-power hell on Earth. And it’s continued to unfold over nearly a decade and a half."

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