[Mini-podcast] GOP and Pot: What Happened to States' Rights?!

From 'My LPeeps! Libertarian Mini-podcast'

Sean Spicer warned that the Feds are coming after recreational marijuana and the DOJ threatened the Moapa Paiute Nation over the 2017 High Times Cannabis Cup, even though the Moapa Paiutes are a sovereign nation AND marijuana is legal in Nevada... Republicans, WHAT happened to states' rights?!

So far:

1. Mexico is NOT paying for the wall, but maybe will someday through... tariffs?
2. The GOP's ObamaCare Lite still has an individual mandate
3. The meaning of states' rights has suddenly changed to what's convenient for Jeff Sessions

With Republican policies like these, who needs Democrats?!

Listen on Soundcloud

Five Libertarian Ideas #6 - Ron Paul coin, Rand Paul on Snowden, Mark Levin on Nullification, etc.

Prohibition and crime levels

Between 2000 and 2005, drug crimes in Mexico went UP while violent crime overall went DOWN. Then in 2006, the nightmare began and the narcos became insurgents. We see how on-the-books prohibition "caused" drug crime to "rise" while other crime went down. We then see how government-enforced prohibition turned a regional gang war into a nationwide civil war. –1/04

Ron Paul coins vs. the Fed

So there's a gold Ron Paul coin. Let's just say it actually becomes a hot commodity, demand goes up, and the supply goes down. How long before the Fed stockpiles those gold coins and then lends against them on the fractional reserve? Oh, the sweet irony... –1/05

Rand Paul on Edward Snowden

RAND PAUL is NOT saying that Snowden oughta be in jail for whistleblowing on the NSA, but rather for providing US secrets to OTHER GOVERNMENTS. Whistleblowing on your own government is libertarian. Selling out and working for other governments is not libertarian, it's just a DIFFERENT shade of statism. So chill out, Haters-o'-Rand. –1/06

Mark Levin [WRONG] on Nullification

My friend, 10^th Amendment Center’s Nick Hankoff, challenged Mark Levin's idea of NULLIFICATION (and was subsequently berated for it). It seems like Levin's idea of nullification is limited to seceding from the Union and protecting slavery, rather than its actual purpose: to be a constitutional republic's safeguard for the minority against tyranny of the majority. –1/08

The Iraq War Interpreters

Some of the brave unsung heroes of the Iraq War are the Iraqi interpreters who risked life and limb believing that what they were doing was for the good of their country. In 2003 they were trying to liberate their country from a dictator. From 2004 onwards, they were helping pacify an insurgency of religious fanatics and plain psychopaths.

Many or most of them are in the US and can never go home for fear of their lives. Many believe that the war ultimately wasn't worth it. Nonetheless, they are a proud people with an aversion to being ruled, be it by dictators, religious zealots, or foreigners. We should reach out to these new-generation Americans, as they're more libertarian than even they realize. –1/22

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Edward Snowden GIF graphic by Laura Poitras/Praxis Films and used via CC BY 3.0 license. Iraqi interpreter image by Pete Rimar and in the public domain.  Both images were obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

Should California Secede from the Union?

Should California WHAT?  Are you insane?  Has anyone actually thought this crackpot idea through?

What they THINK Cali independence will look like

I fully understand the sentiments of many of the even-tempered conservatives, anarcho-capitalist libertarians, and even neoconservative Republicans (the kind who hate Obama more than Satan and are reconciled with God through his supposed Other Son, Ronald Reagan) who support this naïve utopian idea.

It also seems as if many of the people asking me to sign that petition firmly believe Ron Paul could have won as a write-in candidate, that Gary Johnson stole his thunder, and that using Instagram will significantly boost the integrity of their photography portfolio.  Now they believe that a petition will help bring about a peaceful 10^th Amendment-style revolution to restore state sovereignty and individual liberty.

I wish they would all quit this obnoxious exercise.  Then again, I could wish in one hand and drool in the other and we’ll see which one fills up faster.

In case no one’s figured it out yet, I’m completely against California seceding from the Union, even if I’m for secession in other countries.

First of all, I stick around in politics because I want to build bridges within the country, not fracture it.  I have just as much love for the Blue Ridge Mountains as I do for the sunrise over Boston Harbor and the sunset over the Mojave Desert.  Okay, well, maybe not so much the Mojave Desert….

But in all seriousness, Mass media and the hyper-polarization of politics has greatly divided Americans and splitting up the country will only further the division without actually doing anything about the polarized attitudes inside of every newly seceded state.  Elimination of the Democrat and Republican Parties doesn’t eliminate the masses who strongly identify with “the left” or “the right,” no matter how correct Murray Rothbard was in his Left, Right essay.

Second of all, I believe we owe it to the memory of our country’s Civil War veterans—both North and South—to remain united and find better ways to solve our national problems than cutting and running, and especially through fighting.  [Can we just elect Rand Paul already???]  If I may quote Confederate veteran Sam Watkins:

“Our cause was lost from the beginning.  Our greatest victories—Chickamauga and Franklin—were our greatest defeats.  Our people were divided upon the question of Union and secession…  The private soldier fought and starved and died for naught.”

In other words, it ultimately wasn’t worth it.  By the way, if anyone’s offended that I’m quoting Confederate veterans, they might as well stop reading here and now.  This is my rant and if they don’t like it, I will now make it my personal mission to offend them even more deeply.

Just because it’s possible for someone to respect the white, black, Hispanic, and Native American Confederate veterans doesn’t mean that person has the Birth of a Nation movie poster on their bedroom wall.  Sheesh!  [By the way, any politically correct bozo who thinks I’m full of it can Google search “HK Edgerton” and have their mind blown.]

You’re welcome.

What Cali independence will actually look like

Thirdly—and this is the one no one’s expecting—any libertarians who think this will be the new state for anarchist experimentation, or “conservative” Republicans convinced that secession will save us from the tyranny of Obama and help restore the Norman Rockwell painting of what California used to be many decades ago, are sorely mistaken.

[Let me point out that the former spend entirely too much time making maps of where the FEMA concentration camps are located while the latter believe that Rick Santorum was popular enough to have defeated Obama in the General Election.]

Take one moment to think about the political reality of California… THIS STATE IS A BASTION OF LEFTISM!  Seriously, a California Republic will become the People’s Socialist Republic of California in, like, 7 freaking minutes.  Sure, recreational marijuana users won’t have to worry about the DEA, but there will also be:

• ·         Individual mandates that make ObomneyCare look like a fiscally responsible mere suggestion… (God forbid we should allow market-based solutions!)
• ·         Taxes and the state budget deficit flying to the moon faster than Red Bull’s impressive space program
• ·         More police to hassle everyone
• ·         More regulations and state control on private industry here than in the Third Reich.

Yes indeed, people will need that weed to get as high as possible just to cope with the depressing realities of life in the new Workers’ Paradise.

If we want to boost states’ sovereignty, nullification and noncompliance with federal law are a much better method than secession.

Now that I’ve angered libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, and Marxists alike, my work here is done… for now.  I’m off to procrastinate on Facebook for the 900^th time today.

Toodles!

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"Writing the Declaration of Independence" painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.  "Lenin on Board the Cruiser Aurora" painting by Sandor Legrady, made into a postage stamp by the government of the People's Republic of Hungary.  Both images were obtained from Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.

Even if the second one wasn't public domain, I still wouldn't pay any royalties to Marxists because it would go against their ideology.  People over profits, right??  Booyah!