3 years ago, I started my show My Fellow Americans. My first guest was a guy named @LousanderFeen, a radio host who, along with another host named Paul Gordon, radicalized me by asking me the following 3-part question:
1. If we can't trust people with freedom over their own lives, how can we trust people to have power over the lives of others?
2. If we can trust people to have power over the lives of others, why can't we trust people to have freedom over their own lives?
3. If only some people can be trusted with that power, why do we trust the people we don't trust with freedom to choose who we do trust with power?
It was my inability to answer those questions that led me on the path to becoming the radical libertarian I am today.
If you like the things I say, you'll want to tune in tonight at 8 Eastern on @Muddied_Waters to talk live with me and Lou.
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CONTEXT: The "infrastructure" Buy Cronies Back Better corporate welfare bill has a provision in it that makes almost everyone involved in cryptocurrency a "broker" subject to federal surveillance/regulation. It would destroy the US crypto industry and move it to other countries.
This provision was written by Senators Warner, Portman and Sinema.
Senators Toomey, Wyden and Lummis tried to salvage crypto in the US, with an amendment that would exclude miners, network validators, developers and other service providers from being listed as brokers.
Then Warner-Portman-Sinema introduced their own watered-down amendment that only would exclude proof-of-work miners and private key sellers.
This will be terrible for the crypto industry in America, and fantastic for big financial institutions. I'm sure that fact shocks you.
"But without the FDA, who will protect us from dangerous, unproven drugs?"
That's very often the opposite of what the FDA does.
Take for example Biogen's new drug Aduhelm.
Aduhelm was just approved by the FDA for treatment of Alzheimer's, despite the fact that it failed its clinical trials, and 40% of the people who used it suffered brain swelling.
The FDA's own review of the data showed no evidence of benefit.
Because of this, the FDA voted 10 to 1 not to approve the Aduhelm.
Clinical trials were restarted after some additional data analysis, from Biogen, showed that a higher dose of the drug reduced brain plaques in some patients over a longer period of time.
You've probably already heard of the absolute travesty that happened in Florida a few weeks ago.
The collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside has left at least 95 dead, many more temporarily homeless, and the rest of us horrified and wondering how this happened.
As it turns out, the government knew this was going to happen for decades.
Champlain Towers South was built in 1981, and engineers examining the wreckage are noting that it has much less structural steel at critical points in the structural base than required to get approval.
What's worse, since at least the 1990s, everyone involved knew it was sinking. 30 yrs ago, the building manager noted seeing “a lot of saltwater come in through the bottom of the foundation, so much water, all the time, that the pumps never could keep up with it.”
Ending the Cuba embargo is nowhere near as crucial, or easy, as revoking the Clinton-era Proclamation 6867, which bans private US boats from entering Cuban waters.
Many Americans want to provide food, medicine & support to Cubans, but risk federal prosecution when they return.
The Cuban people are facing severe shortages of every single thing they need, and are being increasingly brutalized by the Castro regime (yes I know Diaz-Canel is president, Raul still runs the show).
They need help. Many Americans are ready to provide that help. Let them.
The justification for Proclamation 6867 was that Americans entering Cuban waters risked harm by Castro, and that it risked inflaming tensions between the US and Cuban governments.
Americans are well aware of the risks. US-Cuban government relations are well past inflamed.
Last year, Mississippi voted by 74% to legalize medical marijuana.
Finally, people suffering from epilepsy, glaucoma, chronic pain and other ailments could get the safe and effective treatment they need legally.
In May, the MS Supreme Court decided to strike it down.
Why?
In MS, ballot initiatives must get a min # of signatures in all 5 congressional districts. MS dropped to 4 in 2000.
So rather than change it to "all districts", they decided the legislature only wanted voters to have initiatives if MS had exactly 5 districts, no more or less.
Not only have they robbed Mississippi of medicine, they've robbed them of the ability to directly vote on legislative changes they want.
Today at 6pm, I'll be speaking at a protest organized by @wearethe74 and @LPMississippi at the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando.
Government: We banned testing for COVID for the first several weeks of the outbreak.
Us: That's terrible.
Government: Then we forced nursing homes to accept COVID patients, so it spread to the people most likely to die from it.
Us: That sounds like murder.
Government: This lead COVID to seemingly come out of nowhere, and the fatality rate to be way higher than expected.
Us: Why the hel-
Government: In the midst of that panic, we locked you down, causing immeasurable social and financial devastation.
Us: You're monsters.
Government: Then we ran up trillions in debt, gave most of it to big corporations and government agencies, and stuck you with the bill for it. It was the biggest transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest in human history.