*Poll Shows 83% of Americans Believe So-Called 'War on Drugs' an Abject Failure.*

How CNN fought the bully's secret demand for Barbara Starr's email metadata, which was supported by secret court filings.

The story is somewhat vague about the ultimate result. It appears that CNN ultimately did have to deliver some of this information.

The US government should stop persecuting whistleblowers. The US government should build precedents and laws to prevent persecution if a subsequent administration sets out to persecute whistleblowers.

Due to the deferred US taxes on capital gains, the richest 25 US billionaires paid an effective tax rate of 3.4% on the increase of their known wealth.

More info.

When writing about unknown aerial phenomena (UAPs), it is soooo tempting for writers to presume that at some of them are sightings of actual objects that are actually moving at their apparent high velocities with their apparent rapid accelerations. They look like that, but many are not that.

The term "unidentified aerial phenomena" is better than "unidentified flying objects" because it rejects that presumption — but we need to remember not to let the presumption sneak in later.

I find it implausible that alien visitors with high technology would fail to conceal their presence from us, supposing they were trying to do conceal it.

The UK wants to exempt the big banks from the plan for global businesses to pay tax in the countries where they get the income.

Even if those banks do pay an adequate tax rate — and I won't take a minister's word for that! — it is still important to make them pay tax in each country where they operate.