Category Archives: Op-Eds

Op-Eds

Hillary Clinton, Servergate, and the Steve Martin Defense

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English: Hillary Clinton takes oath-of-office ...
English: Hillary Clinton takes oath-of-office as United States Secretary of State. Bill Clinton also pictured. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Two simple words in the English language” should be a sufficient defense against charges of tax evasion or armed robbery, says Steve Martin in a routine captured on his 1979 standup album Comedy is Not Pretty! The two words? “I forgot.”

Some jokes are funny because they reveal uncomfortable truths. Other jokes, like the “I forgot” routine, tickle our funny bones because they’re absurd. Nobody could possibly get away with armed robbery by informing the judge “I forgot armed robbery was illegal” in the real world, right?

If Hillary Clinton worked in comedy instead of in politics, she’d probably be in court right now defending a suit for stealing Martin’s gag. But she’s no comedienne. She apparently put up the Steve Martin defense with a straight face when questioned by the FBI, as revealed in newly released documents.

The subject: Why, as US Secretary of state, she ignored the briefings she received on handling and safeguarding of classified information, choosing to illegally use a private server for transmission and storage of that information instead of following the rules.

The FBI reports:

“Clinton stated … she did not recall receiving any guidance from State regarding e-mail policies outlined in the State FAM [Foreign Affairs Manual].”

“When asked, Clinton recalled being briefed on [Special Access Programs] information but could not recall any specific briefing on how to handle SAP information.”

“Clinton could not recall any briefing or training by State related to the retention of federal records or handling of classified information.”

Why couldn’t she remember these things?

“[I]n December of 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot …. Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received.”

The “I forgot” defense is admittedly a new and novel explanation for Clinton’s actions. But I’m not sure it’s a very good one, given her specific personal situation. The possibilities break down to two:

One possibility is that Clinton is a lying felon who, either intentionally or with reckless negligence, compromised classified information which was entrusted to her care, and who knew she could successfully play the “I forgot card” to forestall prosecution because she is Hillary Clinton.

The other possibility is that Clinton suffers from a traumatic brain injury which negatively affects her ability to remember important things. Things like, say, “when meeting with the Russian ambassador, don’t let him play with the briefcase that contains the nuclear strike codes.”

Do either of these possibilities — and remember, they could BOTH be true! — strike you as a strong advertisement for Hillary Clinton’s credibility and qualifications as a candidate for president of the United States?

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

Op-Eds

Marijuana Legalization: Give Peace a Chance

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English: Medical Marijuana surrounding a vapor...
English: Medical Marijuana surrounding a vaporizer for healthy intake of the medicine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On November 8, voters in eight states will decide whether or not to legalize, to one degree or another, the possession, use and sale of marijuana.

If all of the measures pass, more than 86 million Americans will enjoy increased legal access to the plant: For medical use in Arkansas, Florida and Missouri, for recreational use in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada.

Earlier this month, the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced it wouldn’t reconsider marijuana’s ridiculous Schedule 1 status (“no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”) — but the states seem to be leaving the federal government behind.  Medical marijuana is already legal in 25 states (and the District of Columbia), recreational use in four.

Soon, DEA may be running as fast as it can to get to the head of the parade, making a big show of ratifying what the country is doing without its permission and looking for new missions to replace its anti-cannabis campaigns.

It’s about time.

For at least 5,000 years, probably much longer, humans used marijuana without a great deal of fanfare. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were marijuana farmers. Queen Victoria, the living symbol of moral rectitude in an era obsessed with same, drank marijuana tea for her menstrual cramps.

That 5,000 years of uncontroversial and beneficial use have given way to nearly a century of war — characterized as a war on drugs in general, and often as a war on marijuana in particular, but in truth a war on people.

Initially, it was a war on people of color and people who spoke Spanish, and on industries without as many friends in government as William Randolph Hearst (whose paper mills were threatened by the advent of cheap paper made from hemp), but like so many wars it spun out of control, expanding far beyond the wildest expectations of those who declared it.

Tens of billions of dollars are spent, hundreds of thousands of Americans arrested, every year in prosecuting this war. Careers — and fortunes — depend on its continuation, and if the lives of people of all colors, classes and languages must be sacrificed in that cause, so be it.

But the end may be in sight, thanks to thousands of activists who have struggled for decades to bring the option of peace and freedom to your polling place. If you live in one of the states voting on marijuana this November, cast your ballot wisely.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

Op-Eds

Farm Follies: The Cheese Stands Alone (With Its Hand Out)

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Horse-drawn, two-furrow plough.
Horse-drawn, two-furrow plough. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On August 23, the US Department of Agriculture announced its plan to purchase 11 million pounds of cheese, at a cost of $20 million. The cheese will be “provided to families in need through USDA nutrition assistance programs,” but the real purpose of the purchase is to reduce excess cheese inventories, “assisting the stalled marketplace for dairy producers whose revenues have dropped 35 percent over the past two years.”

Economics 101: When so many people produce so much of the same thing that the supply of that thing exceeds the demand for it, prices fall. When prices fall far enough that not all the producers can turn a profit, some of them go off to do other things. Prices then rise as the market moves back toward “equilibrium” between supply and demand.

Farming 101: When so many people produce so much of the same thing that the supply of that thing exceeds the demand for it, prices fall. When prices fall far enough that not all the producers can turn a profit, the producers claim that farming is extra super special and that it’s the government’s job to make it profitable so that no one who wants to farm must instead go build houses, drive trucks or mop floors to make ends meet.

That’s why each and every American pays more than $300 to farmers each and every year before actually getting any edible farm goods — and then pays artificially high prices for those goods. The Agricultural Act of 2014 provides for $956 billion in government subsidies for farmers over 10 years, including “price supports” and other jiggery-pokery to keep prices above their natural market level.

I come from a farming family. My grandfather started out as a “share cropper,” eventually farming several hundred acres of his own. I spent my formative years living on a subsistence farm and working on others’ commercial farms. My father retired from a dairy operated by a farmers’ cooperative. If anyone should appreciate the extra super specialness of farmers, it’s me.

But I don’t.

In 1940, a single farmer fed 19 people (and my mother went to town on a horse-drawn wagon — yes, really; her family didn’t get a truck until after World War 2). Today, a single farmer feeds  eight times as many people (and probably drives a nice shiny pickup truck), even though the US population is only two and half times what it was back then.

Modern technology and methods mean fewer farmers can feed far more mouths. That’s a good thing that frees up labor to provide other desirable goods and services, not a “problem” to be offset by having government tinker with the market and attempt to guarantee someone’s “right” to make a living as a farmer at everyone else’s involuntary expense.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY