Hey all! I’m back with some more comics! We never really stopped, but if you want to get caught up this is the next comic below click thru at the Webcomic Factory for the rest. It was interesting doing Antiwar Comics during the Trump era, since he seemed to be trying pretty hard NOT to give us material! Sadly, Biden’s giving us plenty. It’s great to be back!
After a fiery year of cultural outrage against the state of policing in America, President Joe Biden’s administration has announced that they have heard the pleas of the people. They will not stand by while a nefarious force maliciously targets the African American community. America needs to ban menthol cigarettes.
Beyond the glaringly obvious problem of increasing the amount of dangerous police interactions, prohibition itself has a century long record of documented failure. Alcohol prohibition was short lived, the war on drugs has long been lost, and firearm involved violence is heaviest in areas with the strictest gun control. Many civil rights activists have pointed out how drug and weapons laws negatively affect people in minority and low income neighborhoods. One unfortunate consequence is the proliferation of black markets coupled with a general lack of opportunity that increases the amount of organized crime/gang activity and acquisitive crime in these areas. This leads to victimless crime enforcement turning into crime enforcement of those with victims.
The FDA briefing on the subject was spurred by a court deadline to address a 2013 citizen’s petition and has backing by some civil rights groups who claim that flavored tobacco creates a health disparity among racial groups, mirrored in a comment by acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock. She believes that the ban “will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products.”
Critics of the ban are quick to point out the hypocrisy and short sightedness of the policy. Progressives claim that systemic racism plagues the justice system and argue “my body my choice” in conversations surrounding issues ranging from drug use, prostitution, and abortion. The ban outright ignores the presupposed right to choose. Even worse, it is criminally targeting the exact population its defenders claim to be helping.
Historically, many seemingly well intentioned government programs and legislation provide the opposite of the desired results. Increased taxes on tobacco in New York, implemented as a discouragement for the purchase and use of the products, created the environment that found Eric Garner choked to death for his alleged unlicensed sales of loose cigarettes. This new ban, proposed in the name of keeping Americans safer and healthier, will have the same tragic and distorted outcome.
Zach Kincaid is a songwriter and blue collar worker from Northern California.
Despite Afghan withdrawal pledge, US may find new ways to extend the war – Aaron Matè
Thought and Conduct – Beto Renteria
Biden’s Plan to Withdraw from Afghanistan and US Escalation with Russia – The Liam McCollum Show
TheAnarchast – Patrick Smith
Thanks to Everyone’s Orphan for the list.
Enough Already & Uighurs – Why Libertarian
Osama Bin Laden’s Strategy to Take Down the US – Bob Murphy
Conflicts of Interest #100 – Scott Horton Dismantles the War Party Narrative
Ideological Underpinnings of the War on Terrorism – Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
“With few exceptions, the tribe of academic scientists and hospital doctors which now controls our government has literally never heard such arguments [the unplanned order of thee market process]. Their worldview is a top-down one: they assume things happen because somebody ordains that things happen. Spontaneous order is a foreign concept to them. This is surprising, given that it is the essence of evolution, but when it comes to society they are in thrall to intelligent-design theories. They are political creationists.”
–Matt Ridley, “Britain Is in Danger of Repeating Its Post-War Mistakes”
Washington Post – The propaganda arm for the Defense industry quietly let’s us know who is behind the opposition to Biden’s Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Of course she is a professor at Harvard.
“Last week, the Washington Post ran an op-ed opposing President Joe Biden’s commitment to withdraw U.S. military forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, by Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan, “professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the North American chair of the Trilateral Commission,” according to the Post. That bio, as originally published on Friday, omitted a crucial, and highly lucrative, position held by O’Sullivan: board member at Raytheon Corp, one of the top five arms makers in the world.
Raytheon, which has a $145 million contract to train Afghan Air Force pilots, is a major supplier of weapons to the U.S. military. In other words, weapons of war is Raytheon’s business and the end of America’s longest war almost certainly poses a threat to the company’s bottom-line.
O’Sullivan and the Post failed to note her role in the weapons business for which she was paid $940,000 in cash and stock between 2017 and 2019.”
WaPo quietly acknowledges op-ed author’s defense industry ties
I’m doing two events this Saturday: WRMEA and IRmep‘s End Support for Apartheid Israel Conference at 1:00 PM Eastern and a speech to the Washington LP later that afternoon in Seattle with Peter R. Quinones, Matt Kibbe, Angela McArdle and others.
Glenn Greenwald on the role the media played in propagating CIA disinformation to stop Trump from removing troops in Afghanistan.
More here
