TMR: Feds Extend Drug War Through Tax Code 280E, Gary Johnson “Would Like To” Run For President In 2016, EFF Releases Secure Messaging Scorecard
I don’t care if you didn’t vote. I don’t care if you voted. You won’t find much election coverage in today’s edition of The Morning Roar.Feds Extend Drug War Through Tax Code 280EIf your read fellow Lions of Liberty contributor Marc Clair’s article, Should Libertarians Vote, then you’re familiar with his assertion that voting can be useful if it has a positive effect on the individual liberty of many (I’m paraphrasing so read the article if you haven’t.) In Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. it can be argued that voters had an opportunity to positively affect the individual liberty of many by approving to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana.In Washington, D.C. and Oregon the ballot initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana passed. The ballot initiative was approved in Alaska to legalize marijuana.It’s great that fewer people will be prosecuted for the victimless crime of selling or smoking marijuana, but new pot shops that open in these states may pay more money than they expect to the federal government due to 1980 tax code 280E.From the pages of USA Today:
Under this tax code the federal government stands to make more money from the sale of marijuana than those legally selling it. And that could be enough to shut down many shops."It's almost like they want us to fail," said Mitch Woolhiser, while walking through his store called Northern Lights Cannabis Co. in Edgewater, Colo. "Everything I do is aimed at keeping us in business because if I don't, then (the feds) win. And I'm not going to let them win."Woolhiser believes the federal government is actively seeking to undermine his business.Woolhiser first opened shop in 2010, selling medical marijuana. He started selling recreational pot when it became legal in Colorado at the start of this year. Last year, his business didn't earn a profit. Had he been selling anything but cannabis, he would not have owed federal income tax, as he ended up with a loss.Instead, he ended up paying close to $20,000 to the IRS because of a 1980's tax code called 280E.
It was a good first step to legalize marijuana, but taxation of the plant is not the ideal or moral outcome. The path that marijuana has taken to legalization has been the path of least resistance. This means that not everyone who voted to legalize weed did so for moral reasons. Most likely a fair amount of people probably voted to legalize marijuana to grow tax revenue.While the end of marijuana prohibition is a good thing for individual liberty, there is still much work to do to educate the masses to the debilitating effects of taxation on the sale of marijuana. Taxes on anything are going to distort the price by forcing sellers to raise the price to make a profit while paying taxes. This obviously occurs in any industry that is taxed. But with a good like marijuana, that has already proven to be easily grown and distributed on the black market, it will quickly drive more and more sales to the black market and a new form of the War on Drugs will be born. Prosecution for tax evasion.Welcome to the new drug war.Gary Johnson “Would Like To” Run For President In 2016While Gary Johnson may not be the ideal libertarian, it is good news that he’s at least interested in throwing his hat in the ring for the Libertarian Party’s nomination for President in 2016. Hopefully, since he last represented the Libertarian Party in 2012, he has aligned himself more with libertarian ideals.NewsMax reports:
"People are clamoring to hear good ideas as opposed to the lesser of two evils . . . Either the Democrats are going to win or the Republicans are going to win, but the losers are all of us out here as citizens that really do want meaningful change, and none of it's happening. There's no dialogue regarding meaningful change."Of Sen. Rand Paul, a noted libertarian and potential 2016 GOP contender for president, Johnson said:"On half the issues he's right, but on the whole social issue thing . . . Look, libertarians are flaming liberals when it comes to social issues, when it comes to civil liberties. A woman's right to choose, drug reform, immigration, marriage equality. He's not there."
I might catch hell for this, but in my opinion Gary Johnson is much more libertarian than the GOP’s favorite libertarian leaning future Presidential candidate Rand Paul.I’ll wait to judge Gary Johnson until he develops his platform, but at least he is adept to the fact that the populace is hungry for fresh ideas and have grown tired of the stale lesser of two evils platform offered by the duopoly.EFF Releases Secure Messaging ScorecardThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its Secure Messaging Scorecard. The scorecard evaluates messaging technologies on a range of security best practices. The scorecard includes chat clients, text messaging apps, email applications, and technologies for voice and video calls.EFF used seven factors to measure each messaging technology. The factors were, encryption in transit, encryption so the provider can’t read, verification of contacts’ identities, secured past communications, code openness to independent review, proper documentation of security design, and auditing of code.EFF’s scorecard can be found here. The messaging technologies that scored 100% were, ChatSecure + Orbot, CryptoCat, Signal/RedPhone, Silent Phone, Silent Text, Text Secure.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
