“Gun owners and their sympathizers are as busily at work in the jury box as pot smokers.”
Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2017/12/12/rebellious-jurors-make-the-world-a-bette
“In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker. More than 30 defendants’ supporters in the courtroom broke into applause after Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/22/jury-refuses-to-convict-4-in-nevada-ranch-standoff-retrial.html
“A bill taking a step towards gold and silver as commonly-used legal tender in Texas passed in the state Senate today by an overwhelming 29-2 vote. What the bill essentially does is create a means for transactions to occur in precious metals. It allows people to open an account and deposit their precious metals in the state depository. They could then use the electronic system to make payments to any other business or person who also holds an account. This opening of the market is considered by many insiders to be the most important first step towards bringing sound money to mainstream acceptance.”
“If you’re like me, you learned in school that the slaves of the old American South were freed by Abraham Lincoln, or at least by the central government of the United States. But as I dug through the facts about slavery in the South, I found the same pattern that I’ve seen over and over when I examined historical turns for the better: that the true benefactors were opposed and punished. The people who did the actual work to end slavery were regarded as criminals by every level of the United States government, from Congress and the Supreme Court, down to the local sheriff. The laws of the United States enforced slavery, and powerfully so.”
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/and-the-credit-for-defeating-slavery-in-america-goes-to-criminals
“Author John Hudak calls the implementation of the new Colorado law ‘a resounding success.’ He continues, ‘My research shows that regardless of the merits of the policy itself, Colorado has created a smart regulatory system that balances safety and security with access to legal marijuana.’ The report’s conclusion: ‘Among the many successful pieces of Colorado’s regulatory system are effective seed-to-sale product tracking, a vertically integrated market, and strict limits on purchase quantity’. Despite a largely successful rollout of the policy, however, the report details a few trouble spots, including ‘homegrown’ plants and the different tax rates between retail and medical marijuana.”
“Americans have changed their minds about pot. In less than a generation, public opinion has turned against the drug laws that banned marijuana, a historic shift in attitudes away from prohibition and penalties. In two U.S. states — Washington and Colorado — pot is now legal for recreational use, driving the debate about how it should best be regulated, consumed and taxed as it gains acceptance across the U.S. and in other countries. Voters in Alaska and Oregon will weigh ballot measures this year. Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana and California — the largest state by population — may consider the next wave of pot referendums in 2016.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/marijuana-laws-go-up-in-smoke/
“There has always been a market for marijuana. In many ways, it’s a product that, for decades, has literally sold itself. When the day comes that state and federal laws allow for the licensed production and commercial distribution of cannabis, it is likely that the majority of the cannabis consuming public will choose that legal, above-ground product over a black market, illicit product. And in that respect, there will be an opportunity for licensed entrepreneurs and businesses, and for the investors backing those entrepreneurs and businesses, to get in at the ground floor of what will certainly be a lucrative market that enjoys consistent high levels of public demand.”
“The case arises from the state’s attempt to collect sales taxes from a medical marijuana dispensary. But lawyer Douglas Hiatt said it could throw a wrench in Washington’s plans for collecting taxes on recreational marijuana, too. The author of Washington’s recreational pot law, Alison Holcomb, disagreed. Hiatt is representing the dispensary’s operator, Martin Nickerson, who is simultaneously being prosecuted criminally for marijuana distribution and targeted by the state Department of Revenue for not collecting and remitting taxes on the pot he was allegedly distributing. Nickerson can’t pay the tax without incriminating himself in the criminal case, Hiatt argued.”
“Before alcohol could be prohibited, the temperance society knew it had to address the tax issue. Alcohol tax generated 40% of the government’s budget and that was the ‘Drys’ biggest challenge — replace the alcohol revenue. The 16th amendment created the federal income tax in 1913 and that was the first step to changing the revenue stream for the government. So you can thank the tee totalers for the income tax we have today. Income taxes far surpassed the liquor taxes and so the road became clear to pass a prohibition against alcohol manufacture and sales. In 1919, the 18th Amendment or ‘Prohibition’ was passed.”
http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/12626708.html
“Some time this month, the Department of Interior will decide on whether to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as an threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Listing the grouse would give government the ‘right’ to protect a habitat of 40-million-acres that spreads over five states: Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Kansas. Much of the land is privately owned, and it includes rich pockets of oil and gas as well as active ranch and farm land. The land grab is being engineered in a manner that has become a signature of the Obama administration: quietly, autocratically and by sidestepping established restraints. In this case, the tactic is called ‘sue and settle.'”
http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35152/Wendy-McElroy-A-Vast-Land-Grab-to-Grouse-About/