Twenty-three years after former Drexel Burnham Lambert executive Michael Milken finished a 22-month minimum-security prison sentence, one fund manager is lobbying President Donald Trump to pardon his past convictions, arguing that Milken’s prosecution was an example of anti-banker hysteria run amok.
Wealth-management executive David Bahnsen told Bloomberg that he sent a plea to Trump asking that he pardon Milken, an innovator who is widely lauded in the financial world for helping to popularize junk bonds among a broader set of investors during the 1980s. Bizarrely, Bahnsen says he’s never met the man. Milken pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges in 1992, and was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, though he only served 22 months.
Bahnsen said a pardon would send an important message to prosecutors trying to burnish their reputations by going after white-collar criminals.
“Bahnsen, a managing director at Morgan Stanley before he started his own wealth-management group in 2015, told Trump in a letter that Milken’s prosecution was a result of “a period of class envy run amok.” Bahnsen, a Republican donor, said in an email he’s never met Milken.
…
Bahnsen, whose Bahnsen Group oversees more than $1 billion, told Trump the pardon would signal a stop to “headline-seeking, human-damaging corporate prosecutions, devoid of due process.” The banker said he sent an earlier version of the request and revised it after Trump pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio last week.”
Milken, 71, is now a philanthropist and namesake of the Milken conference. While he was investigated by the SEC in 2013 for allegedly violating his lifetime ban from the securities industry, the matter was eventually dropped. Milken has not asked that he be pardoned.
Seeing that Milken himself hasn’t asked for a pardon – and the public is still widely resentful of Wall Street executives for evading prosecution after the financial crisis – it’s unlikely that the request will be seriously considered.
Trump proved his mastery of the f**k you pardon by granting clemency to sheriff Joe Arpaio, a man who – apart from being a longtime friend and campaign-trail ally – is popular with a certain segment of Trump’s base. But we doubt he would do it again to appease a much, much smaller crowd of supports, with whom he has a shaky alliance, at best.
(RT) — President Donald Trump has pardoned former Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was awaiting sentencing after being convicted of contempt for targeting illegal immigrants.
I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!
A Friday evening statement from the White House said, “Today, President Donald J. Trump granted a Presidential pardon to Joe Arpaio, former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.”
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The statement lauded Arpaio’s public service, including his military enlistment after the outbreak of the Korean War, and concluded: “Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Arpaio was convicted of misdemeanor criminal contempt, which carries a maximum six-month prison sentence. He was due to be sentenced in October.
Arpaio acknowledged disobeying US District Judge Murray Snow’s order to stop targeting immigrants, but Arpaio said it was not his intention to violate the judge’s order.
“I’m very appreciative of what the president has done,” Arpaio told NBC News. “Right now, I have to thank the president for standing by me and standing by law enforcement. And I’m very humbled.”
The pardon was condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which tweeted: “President Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice, division over unity, hurt over healing.”
With his pardon of Arpaio, President Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice, division over unity, hurt over healing.
There is no constitutional restriction on a president’s power to pardon, save for impeachment cases.
READ MORE:Comey Testifies "No Doubt" Russia Hacked Elections, Admits He NEVER Saw Evidence
Still, so-called “political pardons,” especially high-profile ones, almost never occur without embroiling controversy. Critics of this pardon of Arpaio point out that it did not go through the ordinary Department of Justice process, which is a complicated one, and the department’s pardon office has not yet been appointed a leader under Trump.
Congratulations to @RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims @BarackObama‘s ‘birth certificate’ is fake
Arpaio and Trump are longtime political allies, even before Trump entered politics. They aligned on the “birther” issue, which called into question former President Barack Obama’s legitimacy to hold the office. In July 2012, during Obama’s reelection campaign, Trump tweeted a congratulatory message to Arpaio for his Cold Case Posse investigation into Obama’s birth certificate, which they alleged was fake.
Arpaio spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and championed Trump’s campaign, especially on the issue of illegal immigration enforcement.
Constitutional expert and famed Harvard law Professor, Alan Dershowitz, took on Jeffrey Toobin to discuss the ongoing Trump-Comey saga, saying in no uncertain terms that "this is not obstruction of justice."
He explains, "That is his constitutional power. He has the right to say, "You will not investigate Flynn.’ The best proof of that is he could have simply said to Comey, ‘Stop the investigation, I’ve just pardoned Flynn.’”
To back up his assertions, Dershowitz reminded viewers of when Bush I pardoned Casper Weinberger the night before trial. After doing so, no one cried "obstruction" because it was within the rights of the President of the United States to do so.
“That’s what President Bush did,” Dershowitz said, citing the case of Caspar Weinberger. “You cannot have obstruction of justice when the president exercises his constitutional authority to pardon, his constitutional authority to fire the director of the FBI, or his constitutional authority to tell the director of the FBI who to prosecute and who not to prosecute.”
He made the point that impeachment and obstruction are two entirely different things, which reduced Jeffrey Toobin to look like an 11th grade history student learning the constitution for the first time. The President can be impeached for all manners of things, but not for firing Comey and/or asking him to stop investigating Flynn -- because it is his right to do so.
“You can impeach him if you don’t like what he did,” he said. “But you cannot say it’s a crime. It’s simply not a crime for the president to exercise his constitutional authority to pardon or to direct the FBI.”
He concludes, "If you and I were expert witnesses in an impeachment trial of President Trump, and we were asked the question, "has President Trump committed an obstruction of justice by pardoning Flynn or by firing Comey, or by telling Comey not to investigate Flynn?", my answer, as an expert on the constitution would be "absolutely not, he didn"t commit an obstruction of justice [...] it simply isn"t a crime for the President to exercise his constitutional authority.""
As a final parting gift to the American people on his last day in office, earlier today President Obama commuted the sentences of another 330 federal prisoners, shattering his previous single-day record and bringing his total to 1,715, more than the previous 13 presidents combined. In addition, the President has pardoned 212 federal prisoners bringing his total acts of clemency to 1,927.
Of course, just as with previous announcements the President quickly took to twitter to celebrate the "accomplishment."
This latest move concludes Obama"s mission to aggressively use his clemency power to release 100"s of violent criminals serving time due to what he has described as "outdated and overly harsh drug sentencing laws." But, while the President often claims publicly that his commutations are only for "low-level" and "non-violent" criminals, 568 of the 1,715 commutations were offered to people serving life sentences...which typically aren"t given to "low-level" criminals caught with a couple ounces of drugs on them.
Here is how Obama"s acts of clemency stack up against other Presidents...can anyone spot the outlier?
Today, the President granted commutation to 330 individuals. The President has now granted commutation to a total of 1,715 individuals, including 568 people who had been sentenced to life in prison. The vast majority of these men and women are serving unduly long sentences for drug crimes. With today’s action, the President has granted more commutations than any president in this nation’s history and has surpassed the number of commutations granted by the past 13 presidents combined. The President set out to reinvigorate clemency, and he has done just that.
In 2014, the President directed officials at the Department of Justice to undertake an ambitious effort: encourage federal inmates serving sentences imposed under outdated laws to apply for clemency. With assistance from the Clemency Project 2014 and volunteer attorneys throughout the country, federal inmates applied for clemency in staggering numbers. The Deputy Attorney General and the Pardon Attorney – and their respective offices – worked vigorously to review these applications. Less than three years later, the President has now granted commutation to more than 1,700 individuals, the overwhelming majority of whom were serving sentences under outdated and overly harsh drug sentencing laws. Many of these individuals were assisted by Clemency Project 2014, and many will be assisted by the Stanford Justice Advocacy Project in their reentry efforts. The President’s vision could not have been realized without this support.
To the President’s 1,715 commutation recipients and 212 pardon recipients – you have been granted a second chance because the President sees the potential in you. After reviewing each of your stories, the President concluded that you have taken substantial steps to remedy your past mistakes and that you are deserving of a second chance. You and your stories have been essential to the President’s successful exercise of his clemency authority. Stories of rehabilitation and growth, of families reunited, and lives turned around – these are the stories that demonstrate why our nation is a nation of second chances. As the President has written to you, your example will influence whether someone in similar circumstances will get his or her own second chance in the future. Make the President proud with how you use your second chance.
Generally a full list of the drug dealers that will be released back on to the streets in the near future can be viewed on the Department of Justice website. That said, Obama seems to be releasing criminals faster than the DOJ can update their site, so you"ll have to check back later for the official list.
And Just like that Democrats pick up 1,927 lifetime votes...perhaps even more depending on how many times these folks vote in each election cycle.
Former Weather Underground terrorist group leader Bill Ayers on Tuesday said he was on an airplane “dancing in the aisles” over news that President Obama commuted the sentence of FALN activist Oscar López Rivera, whose group was linked to over 100 bombs placed in U.S. cities in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ironically, Ayers, a former associate of Obama’s, was on his way from Havana, where he wrote that he was celebrating the 75th birthday of his wife, fellow Weather Underground member Bernadine Dohrn.
Like the FALN, Ayers’ Weather Underground was also linked to bombings in U.S. cities, including those targeting the U.S. Capitol building, the Pentagon, and numerous New York police stations.
Still in the air, dancing in the aisles: Just in from sister Jan Susler:
We are thrilled to announce that today President Obama made the wise and just decision to grant unconditional executive clemency to Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, who served 35 years in U.S. prison.
One day earlier, he had tweeted that he was on his way to Havana and would return “in time to rise up in Washington” – seemingly a reference to the protests slated for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday.
Oscar Lopez freed!
Chelsea Manning out!!!
Great news!
Joy an Justice!
Free Leonard!
Pardon Ethel!
Keep rolling!
Obama commuted the sentence of Rivera, the longest-serving FALN member who was convicted of numerous crimes, including seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to commit robbery and transport explosives with intent to destroy government property, and later a conspiracy to escape from prison.
The New York Times reported thusly on Rivera’s FALN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation:
The F.A.L.N., which waged a violent campaign for the independence of Puerto Rico, was considered by the authorities to be among the most elusive and resilient terrorist groups to operate in the United States. Among its notable attacks was a bombing at Fraunces Tavern in New York in 1975 that killed four people.
The group was known for its tight-knit membership, fanatical zeal and hit-and-run tactics, as exemplified by the bombings of four government buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve in 1982 that seriously wounded three police officers.
Mr. Lopez Rivera was not specifically charged in the Fraunces Tavern bombing but more broadly with, among other things, the interstate transportation of firearms with the intent to commit violent crimes, and transportation of explosives with intent to kill and injure people and to destroy government buildings and property.
From 1999 to 2002, Obama served alongside Ayers as a paid director of the Chicago nonprofit the Woods Fund.
Obama also worked closely with Ayers in 1995 at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge education group, according to the CAC’s archived records.
Washington, D.C. – In a stunning move, President Barack Obama announced the commutation of the prison sentence of whistleblower and former Army private Chelsea Manning. With the announcement, Manning will now be released on May 17, 2017 — rather than in 2045 as originally sentenced.
VICTORY: Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence from 35 years to 7. Release date now May 17. Background: https://t.co/HndsbVbRer
Sentenced under US Army Court Martial to 35 years’ imprisonment in August 2013, Manning was tried in military court for leaking thousands of documents that came to be known as the Iraq War Logs and the Afghan War Diary to the transparency organization WikiLeaks.
“Chelsea Manning exposed serious abuses, and as a result her own human rights have been violated by the U.S. government for years,”said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “President Obama was right to commute her sentence, but it is long overdue. It is unconscionable that she languished in prison for years while those allegedly implicated by the information she revealed still haven’t been brought to justice.”
In many ways, Manning’s 35-year sentence was due to the fact that they couldn’t get Edward Snowden, thus were attempting to make an example out of Manning.
Julian Assange recently announced that he would be willing to hand himself over to U.S. custody to face charges if President Obama were to grant Manning a pardon – it remains to be seen if he is planning on making good on his statement.
If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK
Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, had requested the military provide her sexual reassignment surgery to address her gender dysphoria, identifying as a woman. Manning had attempted suicide while in custody and is widely regarded as a hero for her revelations of war crimes by the U.S. in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
READ MORE:Police Retaliation? Man Who Filmed Cops Killing Eric Garner Arrested on Gun Charge
The White House announced Tuesday that Manning was one of 273 people “given a second chance,” by President Obama. While Obama has pardoned 212 individuals and granted 1,385 commutations, Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas ironically pointed out that none of the people exposed violating the human rights of others in the videos leaked by Manning have ever faced justice.
“Instead of punishing the messenger, the U.S. government can send a strong signal to the world that it is serious about investigating the human rights violations exposed by the leaks and bringing all those suspected of criminal responsible to justice in fair trials,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
While this is clearly a step in the right direction, the fact that truth tellers and whistleblowers are routinely treated as criminals speaks to the immorality of our current systemic paradigm.
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.
Editor’s Comment: With U.S. troops lined up on the Russian border, a war of words between Trump and the CIA, and pardons, executive orders and surprises still to come, President Obama is going out with a whimpering bang, trying to do as much damage as possible on the day out the door, or putting obstructions in the way of Trump’s agenda, or creating backdoors to the power and prestige of Washington through foundations and institutions.
Will anything in the next few days prove to be groundbreaking or reality-altering? Could Obama start war with Russia, pardon Hillary or ban guns? There’s no way to be certain, but there’s a wide door in these last few hours and plenty of room for mischief.
Russian Foreign Ministry: “Obama Still Has A Few Days Left To Destroy The World”
by Tyler Durden
There is a reason Vladimir Putin and the Russian top political echelon has been avoiding the media following the onslaught of allegations lobbed at the Kremlin, and Trump: as AP writes, careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Putin and other Russian officials “have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday.” In short, the “Kremlin is counting the days to his inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama’s outgoing administration, no holds barred.”
Trump’s desire to restore relations with Russia has brought wide expectations of improved Moscow-Washington relations, but Trump has not articulated a clear Russia policy. His Cabinet nominees include both a retired general with a hawkish stance on Russia and an oil executive who has done extensive business in Russia. At the same time, Russian officials are blasting the outgoing U.S. administration in distinctly undiplomatic language, dropping all decorum after Obama hit Moscow with more sanctions in his final weeks in office.
Most recently, Moscow has called Obama’s team a “bunch of geopolitical losers” engaged in a last-ditch effort to inflict the maximum possible damage to U.S.-Russia ties to make it more difficult for Trump to mend the rift.
Doing its part to improve relations once Trump is sworn in on Friday at noon, in a clear effort to avoid risking a rapprochement with Trump, Putin showed a remarkable restraint when the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats over accusations of meddling in the U.S. election campaign. Instead of a usual tit-for-tat response, Putin invited U.S. diplomats’ children to a New Year’s party at the Kremlin.
Sparking the latest diplomatic mini scandal in the US, late last week it emerged that Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. were in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on Dec. 29, the day Obama hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, according to a senior U.S. official. That call and others suggest that the incoming administration is already laying the groundwork for a possible thaw with Moscow. Moscow similarly refrained from retaliation when the White House last week added five Russians, including the chief of Russia’s top state investigative agency, to the U.S. sanctions list.
Still, while Putin and his aides hope Trump will open up to Russia, they know any attempt to fix ties will face massive obstacles, including possible strong resistance in the U.S. Congress. “Any future contacts will have to be prepared quite accurately and thoroughly, as they would follow a tense period,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Fyodor Lukyanov, chair of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, a group of Russian foreign policy experts, said Syria is one area where a U.S.-Russian rapport is likely. During the call with Flynn, the Russian ambassador invited U.S. officials to a conference on Syria to be held in Kazakhstan later this month, according to a transition official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. In an interview Friday with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said he might do away with Obama’s sanctions if Russia works with the U.S. on battling terrorists and achieving other goals.
One place where there could be a major breakthrough between the US and Russia is Rysia:
The Kremlin would be eager to embrace a U.S. offer of cooperation on Syria. Obama’s administration had refused to coordinate action against the IS with Russia, saying Moscow was bent on shoring up Syrian President Bashar Assad. The complexity of the conflict in Syria — where opposition groups backed by regional players are pitted against Assad’s troops and often fight each other — makes hopes for quick progress elusive. “Russia and the United States are important players (in Syria) but not the only ones,” Lukyanov said.
He noted that nuclear arms control is another possible area where Moscow and Washington could try to find common ground. While new arms control treaties are unlikely, the two countries may try to find ways to increase global stability, Lukyanov said.
Putin has pushed for the U.S. to recognize Moscow as an equal global heavyweight and to acknowledge that Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbors are in its sphere of “vital interests” — demands rejected by the West. Many in Russia hope that Trump could be more inclined to strike a “grand bargain” with Putin, carving up spheres of influence and helping cement Russia’s role as a global power.
Alexander Lebedev, a multimillionaire Russian owner of Britain’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers, believes that Putin wants a “big deal” that would envisage cooperation in Syria and possible cooperation in other spheres.
Another major area of possible cooperation is the fight against international financial crime. “$1 trillion a year is stolen by global banks and companies and moved offshore,” Lebedev said, adding that Russia and the U.S. could launch a worldwide crackdown on corrupt business practices.
* * *
Russia may be overly optimistic counting on a rapid thaw in icy relations, however. While the Kremlin counts on Trump to roll the sanctions back, many observers are skeptical. “In the current atmosphere, it’s very difficult to imagine how Trump could start canceling the sanctions,” Lukyanov said.
First and foremost, Trump would have to defuse the constant accusations that Russia “hacked the US election.” U.S. intelligence officials’ accusations that Russian hackers — acting on Putin’s orders — interfered into the vote to help Trump win have put the U.S. president-elect in a difficult position. Trump has grudgingly conceded that Russia was likely responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee, but emphasized there was no evidence that hacking affected the U.S. election results. Earlier today, outgoing CIA chief John Brennan warned Trump to watch what he says, warning the president-elect that “absolving Russia of various actions it has taken in the past number of years is a road that he needs to be very, very careful about moving down.”
The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations and also hotly denied reports that it has collected compromising information about Trump.
On the other hand, aware that an open show of support for Trump would only make it more difficult for him to restore ties, Russian officials have mostly focused on blasting Obama’s administration.
Konstantin Kosachev, the head of foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, described the White House’s decision to expel Russian diplomats as an “agony of not even lame ducks, but political corpses.”
But the best comments to date belongs to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. “If ‘Russian hackers’ hacked anything in America, there were two things: Obama’s brain, and, of course, the report about ‘Russian hackers,"” she wrote on Facebook.
Zakharova charged that “Obama and his illiterate foreign policy team have dealt a crushing blow to America’s prestige and leadership” and described his administration as “a bunch of geopolitical losers, enraged and shortsighted.”
Zakharova concluded that Obama’s administration still has a few days left to “destroy the world.”
“Prison is for rapists, thieves, and murderers. If you lock someone up for smoking a plant that makes them happy, you’re the fucking criminal.” – Joe Rogan
Washington D.C. — The timeless words of Joe Rogan seem to be taking their toll on the consciences of American politicians. To kidnap and lock people in a cage for a personal choice and action that harms no one, is an evil act. Some politicians are figuring this out — or at least pandering to public demand. Either way, the result is the same.
Despite largely continuing the drug war and drastically increasing raids on medical marijuana facilities as compared to his predecessor, Barack Obama has somehow managed to dupe people into thinking he was pro legalized pot. And now, as his reign comes to an end, he seems to be reversing course.
Over the years, Obama has blown a lot of smoke (pun intended) when it came to his views on the war on drugs. He’s played Mr. Nice Guy while his heavily militarized government task forces have laid waste to the rights and property of peaceful people trying to help their fellow man by growing medical marijuana.
Under Obama, police in America, through the federal 1033 program, have acquired MRAP’s, grenade launchers, and even Apache attack choppers; most of which have been used enforcing immoral and unethical drug laws.
However, no one, not even the almighty Barack Obama, can stop an idea whose time has come.
The people have spoken, and politicians who continue to call for the imprisonment of non-violent individuals for their personal choices are being exposed for the vile and obstinate tyrants they are.
Apparently this notion has made it to the ear of his majesty, Barack Obama. In a recent show of humanity, he’s freed several dozen more non-violent drug offenders.
According to Reason Magazine, this latest batch of commutations raises Obama’s total so far to 872, nearly all of them involving nonviolent drug offenders. That is more commutations than were issued by his 11 most recent predecessors combined. According to theWhite House, the 688 commutations since the beginning of 2016 are “the most ever done by a president in a single year”—not surprising, since Obama’s commutations have been strikingly backloaded, with 79 percent coming during his last year in office and 98 percent in the second half of his second term. He shortened just one sentence during his first term.
As the chart shows below, either Obama’s conscience is weighing on him or political pressure is is winning.
According to a report from Reason:
Obama clearly is trying hard to make up for lost time. In a speech on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said there will be “many more [commutations] to come.” Wednesday White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said Obama is committed to “using his clemency authority through the remainder of his time in office.” If he maintains this month’s rate in November, December, and January, his total will be around 1,500. If he picks up the pace, he could still reach the “thousands” predicted in 2014.
Even 2,000 commutations would represent just 6.9 percent of the 29,000 or so petitions Obama has received, making him slightly more merciful than Richard Nixon by that measure. That nevertheless would represent a huge improvement from where Obama stood just six months ago.
Any time the state admits it was wrong, and innocent people are freed from their cages of oppression; it’s a win for freedom. If one life is spared the horrid fate of being caged like an animal for possessing or ingesting a plant that grows from the ground, this is good news.
However, there are tens of thousands of non-violent drug offenders locked in steel cages across this country, many of them are in for possession alone. The slow and rusty cogs of the bureaucratic leviathan can’t turn fast enough. For every non-violent drug offender the president frees, five more are thrown in. Why?
Locking up drug users has proven to be quite the profitable venture.
It is much easier to walk out on the street corner and shakedown a teenager who may have an illegal plant in his pocket than it is to examine the evidence in a rape or murder case. The so-called “Private” Prisons know this and have subsequently found their niche in this immoral war on drugs.
The term Private Prison is a farce from the get-go.
A truly Private prison would not be solely funded by taxpayer dollars. These Private prisons are nothing more than a fascist mixture of state and corporate, completely dependent upon the extortion factor of the state, i.e., taxation, as a means of their corporate sustenance.
A truly Private prison would have a negative incentive to boost its population for the simple fact that it is particularly expensive to house inmates. On the contrary, these fascist, or more aptly, corporatist prisons contractually require occupancy rates of 95%-100%.
The requirement for a 95% occupancy rate creates a de facto demand for criminals. Think about that for a second; a need or demand for people to commit crimes is created by this corporatist arrangement. The implications associated with demanding people commit crimes are horrifying.
Creating a completely immoral demand for “criminals” leads to the situation in which we find ourselves today. People, who are otherwise entirely innocent, are labeled as criminals for their personal choices and thrown in cages. We are now witnessing a vicious cycle between law enforcement, who must create and arrest criminals, and the corporatist prison system that constantly demands more prisoners.
The police and prison corporations know that without the war on drugs, this windfall of money, cars, and houses — ceases to exist.
If you want to know who profits from ruining lives and throwing marijuana users in cages, we need only look at who bribes (also known as lobbies) the politicians to keep the war on drugs alive.
Below is a list of the top five industries who need you locked in a cage for possessing a plant in order to ensure their job security.
Police Unions: Coming in as the number one contributor to politicians for their votes to lock you in a cage for a plant are the police themselves. They risk taking massive pay cuts and losing all their expensive militarized toys without the war on drugs.
Private Prison Corporations:No surprise here. The corporatist prison lobby is constantly pushing for stricter laws to keep their stream of tax dollars flowing.
Pharmaceutical Corporations: The hypocrisy of marijuana remaining a Schedule 1 drug, “No Medical Use Whatsoever,” seems criminal when considering that pharmaceutical companies reproduce a chemical version of THC and are able to market and sell it as such. Ever hear of Marinol? Big pharma simply uses the force of the state to legislate out their competition; which happens to be nature.
Prison Guard Unions:The prison guard unions are another group, so scared of losing their jobs, that they would rather see thousands of non-violent and morally innocent people thrown into cages, than look for another job.
What does it say about a society who’s resolute in enacting violence against their fellow human so they can have a job to go to in the morning?
The person who wants to ingest a substance for medical or recreational reasons is not the criminal. However, the person that would kidnap, cage, or kill someone because they have a different lifestyle is a villain on many fronts.
When does this vicious cycle end?
The good news is that the drug war’s days are numbered, especially seeing that it’s reached the White House, and they are taking action, even if it is symbolic. Evidence of this is everywhere. States are defying the federal government and refusing to lock people in cages for marijuana. Colorado and Washington served as a catalyst in a seemingly exponential awakening to the government’s immoral war.
Following suit were Oregon, D.C., and Alaska. Medical marijuana initiatives are becoming a constant part of legislative debates nationwide. We’ve even seen bills that would not only completely legalize marijuana but deregulate it entirely, like corn.
As more and more states refuse to kidnap and cage marijuana users, the drug war will continue to implode. We must be resilient in this fight.
If doing drugs bothers you, don’t do drugs. When you transition from holding an opinion — to using government violence to enforce your personal preference, you become the bad guy. Don’t be the bad guy.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit
