Cops, Pot, Law, Confusion!

https://www.thestate.com/news/article233175191.html

Marijuana returned to Oklahoma dispensary after traffic stop

Guthrie, Oklahoma, 2019 Jul 26 (AP)

Oklahoma prosecutors have dropped all charges against two people arrested for marijuana possession during a June traffic stop who contended they were delivering the cannabis for a dispensary…

The criminal case dismissals underscore the uncertainty around Oklahoma’s new medical marijuana law that voters approved in 2018.

“Part of me wants to tell my guys, ‘Hey, if they got dope, just let them go,'” said Sheriff Damon Devereaux. “It is frustrating but we’re always willing to learn something new. It’s not our intent to violate anybody’s rights.” …

Where Will That Short Link Go?

When you see a tinyurl, bitly, or other “short link,” you can’t tell where it’s going to take you. Well, you can with youtu.be, or a few others, but not the general URL-shorteners. Putting “preview.” in front of a tiny URL gives you some idea where it goes. For all cases, though, there’s

Unshorten.It!

Gives the destination URL, and will try to find the destination page title and description, gives safety warnings if any, and displays a thumbnail of the page.

Thanks to Ol’ Remus at the Woodpile Report

Sample short link: bit.ly/mw-got-no-bacon-song, screen capture of unshorten.it output shown below. I notice it gives the mindfulwebworks.com front page rather than the specific page. Pretty close.

unshorten-got-no-bacon

Trump’s ‘Accidental’ Win on the Citizenship Question

July 20, 2019

Trump’s ‘Accidental’ Win on the Citizenship Question
By Jon N. Hall at American Thinker

Whether by accident or by design, President Trump has alighted upon the exact right solution for ascertaining the truest enumeration of American citizens. Not only that, but his workaround solution should have been done regardless of the recent opinion by the Supreme Court.…

If There is Hope, It Lies in the Deplorables

It’s frequently said, 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not a guidebook. Here is a parsing of how the techniques of 1984 are in play today.

…“Do you believe in God?” O’Brian asks Winston. “No.” says Winston. He only believes that there is something, some human spirit. But of course he does not believe in God. Could he even believe in God when all of the teachings of God have been eliminated, when all of the language that might have been used to describe even the concept has been systematically wiped out?

Even the words that are still in use have had their meanings changed. There is no concept of “free,” it is explained in the appendix, that does not mean “free from” as in “the dog is free from lice.” There is no concept of freedom to. Ingsoc, Orwell writes, has nothing to do with what he knew as the concept of English Socialism.

Just think of the disturbing parallels in language today! 50 years ago the term “Liberal” meant someone who believed in freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of the press. Remember that old saying, “I disagree with you but I will fight to the death for your ability to say it”? The groups that have co-opted the term liberal today often do not uphold any of these principles in practice. The modern left wing silences people and attacks them in the street for “crimethink.” Not so long ago, Fascists and Nazis were those who used this technique but by a simple trick of language, the places have reversed, old fashioned liberals are fascists and fascists are liberals. It’s simple, words mean what The Party wants them to mean. We police ourselves in search of crimethink and schools become training grounds for this lack of history and mutilated language. How can one believe in the principles of liberty when one does not even have the language to express it in one’s own head.…

Read the whole thoughtful article at Indigenous Earthling

U.S. Navy Suckers Iran into Shooting Down Surplus Drone: Scores Big Intelligence Coup

From Free Range International
h/t Richard McEnroe on A♠

Intentionally or not, in the current contest of wills with Iran, the United States is now in a dominant geo -political and military position. Intentionally or not, the United States now has the most accurate, comprehensive, intelligence on Iran’s order of battle that any adversary has ever harvested from its opponent in history. We may not have arrived at this point due to a clever plan but we are here just the same, so let me describe where “here” is.

Iran was caught seeding mines into the strait of Hormuz in, what many believe, was an attempt to stage a heroic rescue of international sailors who were victims of the instability caused by the reckless actions of the President of the United States. That plan did not survive contact when the freighters did not sink and the USS Bainbridge arrived on scene to stop the Iranians from pushing one the disabled freighters into Iranian waters.

Days later the Iranians shot down a U.S. Global Hawk drone. This was no ordinary Global Hawk, it was a RQ-4N BAMS-D (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator) flown into the area of operations just days prior. It had been the proof of concept demonstrator for the new navy RQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drone, but that program was finished and the demonstrators headed to the bone yard. At the last minute that changed and one was sent to the UAE. Why? It did not bring any new capabilities, it wasn’t needed, there are no units set up to crew the beast, what good could it have done?

I’m not sure, but here is a theory. That platform was sent to be sacrificed in an effort to fine tune our intelligence of Iranian anti air order of battle. The drone was headed for demobilization anyway; what is the downside to using it for a baited ambush?…

Read the rest at Free Range International

Alas, I lost the source to h/t for this – some commenter on A♠ I think.