Yes, you're ignored, and I read your comment anyway.

No, in saying "use drugs," I was not "implying cannabis." I said "use drugs" because I meant "use drugs." Rather than trying to interpret or 'read into' what I'm saying, it might help if you responded to my post, and not what you post in your mind on my behalf.

And I will take you up on your 'challenge:' below is a list of ten "highly intelligent" people who have used cocaine (note: at no point did I say "encourages the use of cocaine." I said "use drugs" without becoming addicted, and being able to function), so that you can provide me with 10,000 more** whose lives and families have been destroyed by it. (**And note here, we're talking about individuals whose lives were destroyed by the use of cocaine itself, and not by the pointless drug laws that imprison people for having a mental or emotional condition that provokes "self-medication" as a form of treatment. Nor are we talking about the illegal status of cocaine which, itself, gives rise to violent cartels that function in the shadow of its legal status.)

So, while certainly many of the following list of "highly intelligent" (non-cognitively deficient) and successful "celebrities" may no longer be using cocaine, all of the following have used cocaine and are/were not addicted and function(ed) just fine:

Sigmund Freud
Thomas Edison
Oprah Winfrey
Stephen King
Tim Allen
Hunter S. Thompson
Angelina Jolie
Robert Louis Stevenson
Steven Tyler
Robert Downey, Jr.

There are others (like William Burroughs, Eric Clapton, Grover Cleveland, David Crosby, Arthur Conan Doyle, Isadora Duncan, Ulysses S Grant, Abbie Hoffman, Elton John, King George V, Larry Kudlow, Sir Paul McCartney, & Barack Obama), but I thought I'd stop at 10.

And if you post the 10,000 names of those whose lives and families were destroyed by cocaine (and not by the pointless drug laws or its illegal status) by the end of the week, I'll take your point.

This is what I'm always telling you fools who think you know about how governments work without having the ability or civility to do so effectively enough.

HAH! "Smart Lliberal's political heroes are college professors and wise-as comedians."

That's the bulk of a liberal's awareness of politics and governments....Ya buncha, fucking annoying idiots!!

By the way, did you people know that all the wars that have been waged since the fall of Rome were actually caused by assholes wanting more money and power for themselves?? Today, these people are known as the so-called illuminated Zionist cabals and international banking cartels.

"Wars don't kill people, wars that assholes construct and orchestrate kill people."

The US is possibly the only place that has a worse situation for internet and wireless providers than Canada. And we hate our RoBellUs Cartel.

The monthly updates on YT, the ones you introduced me to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXfBm0IPd0

I completely forgot about the podcast, so cheers for the reminder. Is there any "proper" download link for the podcasts? I've been picking the dropbox url from TruthDig's source code by hand, there's got to be an easier way...

As for Taibbi:
The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet

It's about how the too-big-to-fail/jail banks became a cartell in the physical commodities market. The story itself was reported on before, primarily the aluminium shenanigans of Goldman Sachs.

If these folks can afford guns, then the good, hard-working people in Oakland can most certainly afford guns.

In fact, this small Mexican town really understood the meaning of the "consent of the governed." They disarmed the police!

One thing I think gets missed by most people is that people aren't saints. But nor are they devils. If empowered, they won't let a minority of criminals take over their community. Even when this drug cartel tried to take over this Mexican town, the residents eventually said "Enough" and took matters (and arms) into their own hands. (And of course, the police tried to stop them.)

In addition, few people grasp how the belief/faith in the need for a police force in order to "protect" us from our neighbors, implicitly engenders a tacit distrust among those with whom we share community -- all in the name of some faceless, unnamed "third party" called The State.

I don't know about you, but between the police and my friends, I will invariably trust my friends more than any cop. Every. Single. Time.

Yep Wild Wild West: Oakland, CA. Except that, until now, only cops and criminals were armed. In a real Wild Wild West scenario, law abiding and decent people are also armed. And that makes a huge difference. Like in that town in Mexico where the population organized into a citizen's army and drove out the cartels/gangs, in addition to keeping the cops at bay. Just another instance where I think private police agencies (like the Old West 'Pinkertons' and bounty hunters) would do what needed to be done where public "cops" don't really want to (or simply can't).

After the end of the "war on [some] drugs" and the welfare state, gangsters will have to do something -- maybe get jobs -- other than 'side-show' and standing around all night, shooting (expensive) bullets into the air.

Dude...You gotta read Philip José Farmer's (Riverworld Series), 'Image of the Beast (1968)'

Vaginas......with snakes that have human heads on the end with piranha teeth comin-all-outta vampire-alien bitch's snatches...(who head major business cartels 'n shit)
Twisted sci-fi erotica squared, creep-ya-tha-FUCK-out-kinna vaginnies with teeth kinna shit!! Oh, and the little vagina-snakes with man-heads are like some tiny-alien-demons they lured then trapped-off they pusssies' n shit....YOW!

That Philip José Farmer was one fuuucked-up cat!

Brilliant story-teller.

Do enlighten me: How do you think "dominant corporation(s) or collusion thereof [will] strongarm retailers?" That simply won't happen. Rather, there will be fewer barriers to entry for other widget manufacturers to enter the market, either independently or working for competing "dominant" corporations when they discover that it's more profitable to not be "paid off" but to compete in the market instead.

A dominant corporation cannot buy every possible competitor. That's absurd. And there will always multiple "dominant" corporations, and not just one, or one and a number of "start-ups." Where there is Coke, there will be Pepsi. Where there is Apple, there will be Samsung. In a free market, monopolies and cartels cannot exist except in the very short term and at an eventual loss (unless they have the primary monopoly of the government to back them up).

If there are patents, there's no free market. A free market, by definition, must exclude all patent, trademark, copyright, and other such IP law. So, you may have picked the worst example.

Free markets without patents is not a problem at all. Not for the market and not for consumers. Companies may just be more careful about spies. They certainly wouldn't be incentivized (like they are now) to spend $millions just to hold patents on products that are never produced, only to corner the market and "strongarm" competitors (like they do now).

Companies like Bed, Bath & Beyond have been trying to price upstarts out of the market for years, decades even! And they're still not able to get rid of competitors! Same can be said about Walmart. Many stores other than Walmart sell TVs, even at higher prices, and remain competitive. Other stores sell linens besides BB&B. So, you have a distorted view of how markets actually work. No one corporation can monopolize the sale of any goods or services. That's just incorrect (unless the government helps them to do so). It just doesn't happen.

There's no such thing as a "natural monopoly." Name one. In Texas, for example, there are competing utility providers, and people can choose which energy service to use. This is in contrast to CA, where most of us are forced to "choose" PG&E over zero other alternatives.

"Restriction of information/prevention of rational, informed consumers"

I'm sorry, but anyone who has been involved in business knows this is complete horseshit. If you have a better product/service (the only way to outdo the competition), you will let the customers/market know right away.

And there's no scale at which markets collapse. The same forces of the market apply to big, small, and medium businesses. There is no arbitrary size for which these forces do not apply. And keep in mind that without government granted privileges, corporations would be much smaller than they are now, because competition would make it easier for competitors to participate, thereby forcing a re-allocation of resources to accommodate the market's demands.

So, yes you most certainly "overstated" your case. All markets can be free, regardless of size. Whether it's a small farmer's market or Whole Foods. The same market forces apply. They all have to court voluntary customers through service, price, quality, etc. Again, anyone who has had to work with marketing will know this.

BTW, things like "price dumping" are circumvented all the time. Does Rolls Royce care that Hyundai sells cheaper cars? Does Mercedes care that a Prius is less expensive?

Target makes money because Walmart is cheaper, not in spite of it!
And everything Walmart sells, you'll find many other stores selling it, even though Walmart might sell it cheaper.
The local natural food store in my neighborhood sells, more or less, the same things as Whole Foods. None of your objections pose any real problems in the real world.

I don't see Walmart buying every other TV seller, or even trying to do this. Microsoft tried but, so what? They failed, because they could not buy every single competitor in the software world, could they?

Even in Somalia, to use @enoch's example, in the telecommunications industry (to pick one that saw growth), no one even remotely managed to do any of the things you say could happen. In 20 years, no corporation did any of these things. Why not?

Because they couldn't.

And did "dominant" corporations take over all small retailers and sellers? No way, not even close! They couldn't. Only regulations can really kill all small retailers (and they do it all the time). Your outrage is gravely misplaced. Do the countless bazaars and sellers of Turkey, India, or Thailand get taken over by "dominant" corporations?

Hint: No.

Only when government meddles, do the big corporations wipe out the little ones, and sometimes each other.

In any case, Coke will not eliminate Pepsi (or Sprite, or Dr. Pepper, or A&W), government or no government.

Well here's something to think about, since the uselessness of answering these questions which seem so important to yourself, these issues which would simply tend to correct themselves should dumb assess who light-upon them who can't seem to figure it out actually DO something with all their frustration.

There are other more pressing fundamental issues to consider when you think about how real "CHANGE" could come overnight if both fanatics dems and repubs could get their heads out of their own assess.

Most of these issues you are so passionate about and continually abuse the meaningless, "one-team-against-the-other" argument for, are simply diversions to keep you inebriated with (by design) while the rapists and abusers of culture, politics and special interests, military and police, and corporate oligarchies fuck you from behind without lube.

For instance: THIS video offering after 30 hours in the queue has garnered 6 votes. It speaks to one of the many fundamental ass-fucks being perpetrated on the American People and one insidious presidential cunt republican and one equally as sinister mountebank currently in office has created the framework for this egregious violation of rights and culture, but nobody seems to give a fuck.

INSTEAD, people that continually paste these kind of trite news-bobble sound bites of worthless information pitting one party against another seem to be absolutely clueless as to the mechanics of the insidious mechanism keeping them in a state of unconscious somnambulatry hypnotic drunkenness while the entire time, not utilizing the power they have to alter the course of the destiny of the planet-Instead that wasted energy is used to jack off at the mouth.

Simple fix for the so-called drug problem as it relates to criminal cartels (like the FBI, LIKE the CIA, like the "cabal who control government."???

Legalized marijuana, heroin, cocaine, while at the same time criminalizing the machine set-in-place to quote/unquote, "fight the war on drugs"..Fight the war on terrorism", etc. There is no goddamn war except the one for your mind,and from reading this horseshit on this particular post, it seems that more than a few people here have had their minds hi-jacked already.

It's up to you to wake-the-fuck-up. Republicans are no better or worse than democrats, because both are complicit in the hijacking of your lives, your livelihoods, and the work and sweat and blood of your lives as you toil incessantly to continue to promulgate their diseased programs of slavery of both your bodies and minds.

Any and all retort to similar diatribes of my own are predictably met with derision and defensiveness, and a SHITLOAD of passive-aggression in the form of convoluted and meaningless banter.

I fucking detest this charade of pitting conservatives against liberals, one "party" against another.

The only party that exists is the one behind closed doors as they laugh at people like yourselves.

Slow zoom-out reveals the logo on the front of each truck-"Sinaloa Cartel"

Splits
Pan-out wide

Transition, Fade outro:
Cocaine. It's a Helluva Drug
A message from the Campaign For Prime Minister Elect Rob Ford

"I'm Rob Ford and I approve of the following message":
Snort Blow Off Strippers Thighs-Rock The Vote

And by "interest" me, you meant boil my blood, right?

Ridiculous. The majority of people will side with the police, but, honestly, did they need to open fire? She was being pulled over for speeding, not running a violent drug cartel. She was definitely in the wrong to drive off, but does that give a group of men the moral right to use force against this family? I don't know. It's hard for me to reconcile that knowing this was started over a traffic ticket. That doesn't make you a criminal. And driving off and stopping and resisting when a man is trying to pull you from a van, to me, doesn't make you a criminal, either.

Those damaging property, breaking glass over children, and so emotionlessly opening fire on a van of human beings are the real criminals, in my eyes. Diatribe over!

Yeah, all that build up meeting with the cartel baddies and all they get is an s&m hooker? I think they got punked.

Innovation for South American drug cartels. Doing God's own work right here.

Not everyone who profited from the collapse were criminal bankers, there were a few independent finance people that saw there was a bubble and placed bets accordingly just by doing good research.

Still, there are quite a few people in the banking industry that should be in jail for what they did in the housing crisis. There's more going on aside from that, NOBODY went to jail when HSBC got caught laundering billions for drug cartels even though they clearly knew what they were doing!!!!!

While I'm hugely opposed to the war on drugs, I suspect I'd probably have turned the weed in too - if the seizure has been on the news then I'm less likely to have some scary cartel dudes coming after me wanting their stuff back.

Well... maybe keep one brick. Y'know, compensation for my time.