it can’t happen here

Disturbing Trend of Police Wanting Drones for Routine Infractions

"After lulling the public into believing that using drones in the U.S. would be confined to border patrol or for counter-terrorism in the event of an imminent threat, we are beginning to see police calling for far wider implementation of drone surveillance. I’d like to remind readers that up until 2010 it was a conspiracy theory to suggest that drones would be used in the U.S. at all. Until, of course, it came out that there had been a domestic drone program in the works for years. Subsequently, it became understood that the 'border' actually extends 100 miles inland through an area that the ACLU dubbed the 'Constitution-free Zone.'"

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Millennials Get It Wrong about Socialism

"I’m left to conclude that they have no appreciation for how socialism actually works in the real world. The economic track record of socialism is as dismal as its human rights record. But we need not direct Millennials to history books to see it. They need only look at what has happened to former socialist countries during their own lifetimes, as these countries have moved away from socialism and towards capitalism."

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Congress Needs to Put a Stop to Asset Forfeiture

"Revenues generated through forfeiture may be spent with virtually no oversight. Funds distributed to local or state agencies via the equitable sharing program are similarly beyond the reach of state or local lawmakers. Perhaps this lack of accountability explains how funds supposedly reserved for 'law enforcement purposes' wind up getting spent on margarita machines, training trips to Hawaii, and chrome accents for Harley Davidson motorcycles."

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The Pentagon, CIA, and NSA Are in Charge

"Surrounding himself with generals and giving the national-security establishment carte blanche to do anything it wants to protect 'national security,' Trump, for all practical purposes, has been absorbed by the national-security establishment, even permitting the CIA to continue keeping its long-secret, 50-year-old JFK-assassination records secret from the American people. It is safe to say that for the balance of Trump’s term in office, his actions in foreign affairs will be no different than anything that Hillary Clinton, who undoubtedly would have been a loyal servant of the national-security establishment, would have done with respect to foreign affairs. What gives? Why the dramatic shift in Trump?"

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In Baltimore, Residents Support Martial Law

"Neighborhoods are rotting away as the local economy crumbles giving way to a surge in homicides. Baltimore is on track for the worse year ever with a homicide rate the highest in the United States. Baltimore is home to about 615,000 people, but the city has more homicides than New York or Los Angeles, both of which have far larger populations. Earlier this year, Mayor Catherine Pugh called in the Federal Government in hopes to restore order. She was even quoted, 'violence in the city is out of control'…"

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Federal judge says St. Louis police targeted protesters for retaliation

"Police made mass arrests that swept up journalists, onlookers and even a black undercover officer, who was reportedly beaten. This also seems like one of those 'How would we view this if it happened in another country?' moments. A judge just found the police guilty of using chemical agents on protesters because those protesters were criticizing the police."

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‘We the People’: The New Permanent Underclass in America

"It’s not just the government’s endless wars that are bleeding us dry. We’re also being forced to shell out money for surveillance systems to track our movements, money to further militarize our already militarized police, money to allow the government to raid our homes and bank accounts, money to fund schools where our kids learn nothing about freedom and everything about how to comply, and on and on. Are you getting the picture yet? The government isn’t taking our money to make our lives better."

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