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EXPLORING SEX AND PSYCHEDELICS

The connection between sex and psychedelics dates back to the sexual liberation movement throughout the 1960s and 70s. Psychedelics, in particular LSD, were associated with loosened sexual inhibitions and the resolution of past sexual trauma. Inspired by Timothy Leary’s infamous calls to ‘turn up, tune in, drop out’, psychedelics appeared as a tool for pleasure, love and self-expression. 

For sex guru Annie Sprinkle, using psychedelics through the 60s, 70s and 80s had profound positive impacts on her sex life. From opening doors to alternative realities, to increasing connectedness and sexual satisfaction between partners, Annie calls them her ‘greatest sexual educators’. 

She notes that the connection between sex and psychedelics is much deeper than arousal. Through each experience the user gains new information, allowing them to see themselves from a new perspective. This, in turn, can inform the individual’s sexual life.

Even though psychedelics remain illegal across much of the world, anecdotal evidence suggests that using psychedelics to enhance sexual experiences is still just as popular as it once was. However, as sex on drugs has inevitably been labelled a high-risk activity , there is a clear lack of hard-line statistics to back up such an assumption. 

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The USDA’s War on Small Farms

Most students in America are introduced to the writings of Upton Sinclair. While they aren’t shown his incredible cover-up of the Holodomor or his other Soviet apologisms, they are presented with his most famous work: The Jungle. This work tells the tale of Sinclair’s investigation into the wretched working conditions of the meat-packers of its age. Between lost limbs and failed inspections, Sinclair writes about the meat being contaminated and barbarously prepared.

This tale is meant to show the supposed failures of laissez-faire capitalism, with its disregard for workers and health. Readers are supposed to walk away with a firm belief in the need for the regulation of these firms. Hurrah! Here comes the mighty state to provide safety to the masses that would otherwise be made sick by crony corporations. That’s far from the truth.

Murray Rothbard himself documents in The Progressive Era the truth of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulation. Rothbard observed that nearly every inspection passed in any form of legislature or bureaucracy was fueled by protectionism from existing firms. These regulations were not there to provide “safety” to consumers but rather to keep competition out of the marketplace by fiat. Rothbard states that the only meaningful definition of monopoly is an exclusive legal right granted by the state. Perhaps then, the only meaningful definition of so-called monopoly powers is a firm’s ability to push regulation that harms their competition through the state.

Even today, the USDA—and its regulations—threaten to crush small farmers under its heel. A small hobby farm, or even one that simply isn’t a factory farm, can hardly stand up to the regulations.

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LOS ANGELES COMMITS ANOTHER $1 BILLION TO LAPD DESPITE FALLING VIOLENT CRIME

The Los Angeles City Council approved a contract with the Los Angeles Police Department’s union on Wednesday containing salary increases, increased healthcare pay, and bonuses that will cost the city an additional $994 million over the next four years.

The 12-3 vote followed an outpouring of opposition from Angelenos, who argued during public comment that the police have more than enough funding. Many pleaded with councilmembers to instead invest in other city services, like housing and infrastructure. Councilmembers who voted against the proposal voiced agreement with their constituents.

“When we allocate so much of our city money to just one department, we starve all of our other departments of the money, personnel, and resources that they need to serve Angelenos,” said councilmember Eunisses Hernandez at a press conference before the hearing. Hernandez voted no on the proposal, alongside councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman.

“It is unclear exactly how the city will pay for nearly $1 billion in salary increases over the next four years, despite the fact that we already allocated a quarter of our city’s general fund to the LAPD,” Hernandez added.

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How Cartels Infiltrate The Border Patrol

Goat Canyon is a dry valley of crystalline rocks in the east of San Diego county named after the desert bighorns that roam. It was the perfect spot, Border Patrol agent Noe Lopez told his contact, to move dope through. “Honestly, the thing is that there aren’t—there aren’t any cameras,” Lopez said. “Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Lopez went himself to the store and purchased three backpacks for the smugglers to use. On the first night, he collected one at the border fence with a glint of crystal meth inside. He stashed it in his Border Patrol truck, drove to base, switched it to his private car and then handed it to his connect in a parking lot in exchange for three grand in cash.

The second night he grabbed a bag with seven kilo bricks with the markings of cocaine. His source gave him $7,000 but said the smugglers were uneasy about going over the fence. Lopez said there was nothing to worry about. “If I’m saying, ‘cross now,’ that means that I am taking the responsibility for them to cross.”

But Lopez never made it to the third drop. He was arrested and charged with attempted cocaine and meth trafficking. The source, he discovered, was a DEA informant who had him on tape and the drugs were fake. He plead guilty and got seventy months in prison in 2017.

It was no freak case. In 2023, a judge sentenced agent Oberlin Cortez Peña for waving cars of cocaine through a checkpoint north of McAllen, Texas. In 2014, customs agent Lorne “Hammer” Jones got seven years for letting trucks of dope through San Ysidro. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002, incorporating Customs and Border Protection, well over a hundred agents and officers have been convicted of trafficking dope or running undocumented migrants. This usually means working with cartels and their affiliates who control drug and human smuggling over the border.

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Maui Residents Burned To Death In Their Cars Because Of Barricades Blocking Escape

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that residents of Lahaina in Maui were prevented from escaped the horrific wildfire by barricades that were put up after electric polls were downed.

The report contains shocking details revealing that people were turned back by a crew as they attempted to flee, with several being burned alive in their cars or in the middle of the street as a result.

The report notes that some disobeyed the order and drove around the barricades, enabling them to escape and survive:

One family swerved around the barricade and was safe in a nearby town 48 minutes later, another drove their 4-wheel-drive car down a dirt road to escape. One man took an dirt road uphill, climbing above the fire and watching as Lahaina burned. He later picked his way through the flames, smoke and rubble to pull survivors to safety.

But dozens of others found themselves caught in a hellscape, their cars jammed together on a narrow road, surrounded by flames on three sides and the rocky ocean waves on the fourth. Some died in their cars, while others tried to run for safety.” 

One survivor noted that if she had obeyed the order to turn around she and her children would have been cooked alive:

“The gridlock would have left us there when the firestorm came,” said Cuevas-Reyes, 38. “I would have had to tell my children to jump into the ocean as well and be boiled alive by the flames or we would have just died from smoke inhalation and roasted in the car.”

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Shocked!? CDC Says New COVID-19 Variant Could Cause Infections In Vaccinated People

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated Wednesday the new BA.2.86 COVID-19 lineage may cause infection in people who received vaccines or previously had the virus.

The CDC said it is too soon to know whether this might cause more severe illness compared with previous variants. But due to the high number of mutations detected in this lineage, there were concerns about its impact on immunity from vaccines and previous infections, the agency said.

“The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,” the CDC stated in its assessment.

“For example, one analysis of mutations suggests the difference may be as large as or greater than that between BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which circulated nearly a year apart.”

But it said that “virus samples are not yet broadly available for more reliable laboratory testing of antibodies, and it is too soon to know the real-world impacts on immunity.”

The agency added that it detected at least two cases with the BA.2.86 variant in the United States, although few other details were provided. It was also found in Israel, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Denmark, the agency said.

One of the BA.2.86 cases was found in a person detected via the CDC’s traveler surveillance system, while it added that cases being found in several countries is evidence of international transmission.

“Notably, the amount of genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 globally has declined substantially from previous years, meaning more variants may emerge and spread undetected for longer periods of time,” according to the assessment.

“It is also important to note that the current increase in hospitalizations in the United States is not likely driven by the BA.2.86 variant. This assessment may change as additional data become available.”

The CDC noted that most of the U.S. population has COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection, vaccination, or both. It’s likely that the antibodies will provide some protection against the variant, said the CDC.

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How the FDA approved an antipsychotic that failed to show a meaningful benefit but raised the risk of death

In trials, brexpiprazole failed to provide a clinically meaningful benefit and it increased mortality, but the FDA fast tracked its approval and the sponsor predicts $1bn in annual sales. Robert Whitaker investigates the first licensed antipsychotic for treating agitation in elderly patients with dementia

For years, health officials have tried to rein in the prescribing of atypical antipsychotics to elderly patients with dementia. The practice has been entirely “off label” yet widespread. The US Food and Drug Administration reports that around 60% of patients with Alzheimer’s dementia in residential care have received an off-label prescription for an antipsychotic, benzodiazepine, antidepressant, or anti-epileptic drug. After a 2005 FDA warning that cited a 60-70% increased risk of death associated with antipsychotic drug use, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services established the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes, a public-private collaboration that sought to “reduce the use of antipsychotics” and “enhance the use of non-pharmacological approaches.”1

But a May 2023 FDA approval of the antipsychotic brexpiprazole for agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia may reverse all of this. At a cost of around $1400 (£1102; €1280) a month, the manufacturers Otsuka and Lundbeck, which jointly brought the “first in class” approval to market, are forecasting an additional $1bn in annual sales of Rexulti.2

Serious questions remain, however, about the harm-benefit balance of Otsuka and Lundbeck’s drug. The drug carries a “boxed warning”—the FDA’s most serious type of warning, informing prescribers of increased mortality. And among four efficacy evaluations across the three prelicensure clinical trials, the highest efficacy observed was a 5.3 point improvement over placebo on a 174 point scale. In the two trials that assessed quality of life, no benefit for either the patient or the caregiver was demonstrated.

“The small benefits do not outweigh serious safety concerns,” said Nina Zeldes, health researcher at the consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen, addressing the FDA’s advisory committee at its 14 April meeting before the approval.3 “Like other antipsychotics, this is a drug that can kill patients without providing a meaningful benefit.”4

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Biden Wanted To Partner With Communist Chinese App To Spy On Americans

A Forbes report has revealed that the Biden Administration attempted to forge a contractual agreement with TikTok that would have allowed the government to control features of the Chinese app to spy on Americans.

Forbes managed to get hold of a draft of the contract between TikTok and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that would have essentially allowed multiple US agencies to access the app’s records and operations in exchange for allowing it to continue operating in the U.S.

The report notes that the draft agreement dating from mid 2022 would have given the Department of Justice and Department of Defense direct access to TikTok users’ activities, allowing for searches of TikTok’s US headquarters, files, and servers without providing any notice.

The U.S. government would have basically been using the exact same methods via TikTok that the Communist Party in China uses to monitor its citizens.

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Writer C.J. Hopkins Is Ordered To Jail or Pay a Fine For Using Nazi Imagery on Anti-Authoritarianism Book

In a fresh blow to free speech, American satirist and playwright C.J. Hopkins is facing a legal punishment in Germany that could send him to jail for 60 days or slap him with a 3,600 euro fine. The start of this legal tangle is rooted in Hopkins’ critique of the German health minister and using an almost invisible image of a swastika on a mask in a book, all in an attempt to lampoon the worldwide response to the global pandemic crisis.

Hopkins was charged with disseminating propaganda contents intended to further the objectives of an erstwhile National Socialist organization.

The judge, who had already rejected Hopkins’ free speech argument, delivered the punishment order, given the case’s non-jury misdemeanor status. As reported by Racket, Hopkins will, however, have the opportunity to argue for mitigation, though judgment has already been passed.

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Biden Administration Announces Massive $5 Billion COVID-19 Funding Called “Project NextGen”

This week, InfoWars published insider information that alleges the TSA and US Border Patrol will be moving back to 2020-era COVID-19 mandates and restrictions starting in mid-September through mid-October, to include mask mandates on all flights.  This is in addition to the confirmed mask-mandate reinstatement at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA and Lionsgate Studios in Santa Monica, CA.

That same week, WarRoom’s Natalie Winters uncovered millions of dollars in funding, awarded primarily for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, to ramp up testing and other COVID-19 related.  This was just a week after the NIH appointed Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, a staunch advocate for masks, lockdowns, and vaccine mandates, as the replacement for Dr. Fauci.

To further the suggestion that another lockdown scare is in the forecast, yesterday the US Department of Health and Human Services announced funding of $1.4 billion to “support the development of a new generation of tools and technologies to protect against COVID-19 for years to come” according to a press release:

The awards announced today follow extensive coordination with industry partners and include support for clinical trials that will enable the rapid development of even more effective and longer-lasting coronavirus vaccines, a new monoclonal antibody, and transformative technologies to streamline manufacturing processes.

“Project NextGen is a key part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to keeping people safe from COVID-19 variants,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “These awards are a catalyst for the program – kickstarting efforts to more quickly develop vaccines and continue to ensure availability of effective treatments.”

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