The Obama/Clinton aggressive stance Putin is a dangerous mistake, and Trump is right to pull back from it.

However, he's doing it the wrong way. Detente with Russia is not the same thing as giving Putin admiration and support.

To pressure allies to pay more for the costs of their defence is not the same thing as saying you won't defend them if attacked.

Although marijuana is legal in Colorado, people are in danger of being fired for using marijuana even on vacation.

Companies should not be allowed to test employees for marijuana. I would reject a job over that on principle even though I don't use it.

Puerto Rico gave hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to multinational GMO companies, while closing public schools due to debts.

The motive for these subsidies, I suppose, was to get the companies to operate there rather than elsewhere. That is the usual claimed motive. In the small, it seems rational: one locality gets more business. However, when this is practiced everywhere, the gain is to the companies at the expense of the public. Each time a business can play one locality against another, the business gains and both localities lose.

States, and territories such as Puerto Rico, should not be allowed to subsidize businesses (or give them special tax deals) to try to draw their operations away from other localities.

I've suggested that the states should unionize to present a united front against these exploitative businesses. There union could be called the United States of America.

Puerto Rico has become a tool for tax dodging by "American" multinationals such as Microsoft.

Puerto Rico has closed 150 schools under pressure from vulture capitalists. Outsode one school, the community has set up a protest camp to demand reopening.

Terrorism, Trident, and Torture — a Valedictory Dispatch.