A friend sent me this article, not so much about the disagreement between President Trump and a Senator, but the underlying discussion that led to it.
Texas Democrats Angered by Trump’s Remark on Destroying Senator’s Career
“Mr. President, on asset forfeiture,†Sheriff Eavenson said, in an exchange that was observed by reporters and filmed, “we’ve got a state senator in Texas that was talking about introducing legislation to require conviction before we can receive that forfeiture money, and I told him that the cartel would build a monument to him in Mexico if he could get that legislation passed.â€
“Can you believe that?†Mr. Trump responded, then added, “Who’s the state senator?â€
Sheriff Eavenson did not reply. “Do you want to give his name?†Mr. Trump said. “We’ll destroy his career.†Laughter then broke out.
Sigh.
Civil Asset Forfeiture is going by the way of the dinosaur. For every 10 police officers/military etc, there are two to three of us who have chosen to diverge from our original goals and dreams to help dilute the system. Trump has no choice but to legalize cannabis with too many young cannabis supporters working as cops, soldiers, fire, Park Rangers, FBI etc. It’s OK to lose a good paying job because one chose to do the right thing. By 2018, over a quarter million (or more) 18-30 year old cannabis supporters will be working for the government, diluting the system as best they can. The Drug War is winding down faster than we expected because one cop/soldier etc at a time is just saying no to enforcing drug laws–even if it costs us our job (and it sucks when you lose that job too).
Because Drug Prohibition is financing criminals and terrorists, while deleting the U.S. Constitution and other human rights, tens of thousands of American cops are boycotting the laws when they are riding solo or with a partner.
This is because some of us still live in a world where the Attorney General or other elected officials can do away with election results, our lawsuits and change the rules at the last minute upon ballot requirement. This is why we need people from California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York etc to make the hard decision of packing up and heading to the Redder Red States and make careers (for a season of course) as cops etc.
Author Chris Hedges would agree with you:
The government and her politicians for ill only think they can permanently reprogram the enforcers’ logic gates. A few they can, but most of us will default to our true settings. If a ‘True’ and/or ‘False’ statement(s) is all that is needed and the reason why lights and computers etc work on the basis of an eternal ‘necessary’, then so do humans. Freedom from tyranny is necessary.
Hedges Part 2:
Thanks for those, Servetus. Hedges isn’t always on my page, but more and more often these days he is. And his warnings should be taken very seriously, he’s a smart cookie…..Kind of like the Christopher Hitchens of the radical left.
Here’s the video of the moment Ceausescu loses the plot (around 2:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BrpbK2j1hg
Hey M. A recent love poem to geography and the atlas went unremarked on by the couch. I thought it was fucking awesome.
I just finished reading a book by geography professor at UCLA, Jared Diamond. “Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
Thanks NorCalNative. But I do confess, I haven’t been the same since Google Earth. Thanks for sharing this author with me. His ‘Collapse’ book looks enticing. I like his premise that we have to act now to solve tomorrow’s problems (which is why he says he’s a cautious optimist). This is also why I don’t recycle plastics: I pretend it’s all biodegradable from natural non-oil products, therefore people look at me like I’m ‘cruel’ to the world and I look at them like they are ‘dumb’, which starts the conversation. Sometimes it’s paper (since I pretend all paper comes from hemp), but I always recycle glass and aluminum. And I always try to throw food out in the yard so nature can have back her minerals and only my allergies don’t like mowing the leaves, though it’s better than putting them in a plastic bag made of oil. Have a good weekend NCN.
All three of his books are great. Guns, Germs and Steel was mos’ def worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it won. It explained why European culture has dominated the world. Hint: It’s not due to some innate superiority in Europeans. Collapse was every bit as enlightening as to the reasons why some societies prosper and others don’t when faced with similar problems. The Third Chimpanzee was also enlightening, discussing how we humans really behave much like our ancestral apes did, though the book is not that much different from The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. I read all three about ten years ago. I urge everyone to read at least GG&S.
Now read the thinker Jared stole from…Sing C. Chew, and his books “World Ecological Degradation” 2001, “The Recurring Dark Ages” 2006, and “Ecological Futures” 2008.
Pay particular attention to “Recurring Dark Ages”, It can be taken all by itself as representative of Chew’s work. Really, Jared Diamond only expanded on some of Chew’s thinking in “Guns” and Collapse.
https://www.amazon.com/Recurring-Dark-Ages-Transformation-Degradation/dp/0759104522
Guns, Germs and Steel 1999 Third Chimpanzee 2006 Collapse 2011(Diamond). Recurring Dark Ages 2013 Ecological Futures 2008 World Ecological Degradation 2001(Chew). Who was first? I suspect that, like many ideas, several people think of them at around the same time. For example, Darwin was forced to hurry publication of his Origin of Species, because others were also writing on the same subject and were nearly ready to publish. As I stated previously, Third Chimpanzee is somewhat of a rewrite of Naked Ape, however with a more modern approach and some more recent discoveries added in. I can’t speak to Diamond’s similarity to Chew because I am not familiar. It is very possible that Diamond was aware of other researchers, or he read some of their work and they read some of his, or they all read the same sources, and thereby their thinking was molded and evolved. I found GG&S a fascinating read, and Collapse was also very worthwhile. I will try to find Chew’s works to compare.
Chew was a researcher and a teacher, and had been lecturing and publishing journal pieces long before compiling his ideas in book form….and these are more meant as textbooks for other teachers to use, so they are far more technical, and also have large appendices with tables of ice core data and fossil pollen distribution. Read one and it’s clear, Diamond was the popular adaptation of Chew’s ideas. I don’t think that’s bad, but credit where it’s due. Legwork and appendices with supporting data wins the day IMHO.
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TRUMP’S DRUG LAW: PUNISHMENT BEFORE THE CRIME
http://tinyurl.com/z2ufx4z
As the Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham tweeted, asset forfeiture has spun so wildly out of control that one year, Americans lost more property to police than they did to burglars.
Trump’s punishment before the crime is a reflection of LA Police Chief Daryl Gates’ policy of arresting and messing with people before they can do anything illegal.
Trump has signed three new executive orders relating to drug enforcement (and thereby police state enhancement). The orders are being issued despite the fact crime rates in the United States are at an historic low. From CNN:
Tsar Trump is right about one thing. He appears concerned the police are going to be caught in the crossfire between Americans and their government. Good for the Tsar, but bad for the cops who now may be called upon to fire on protesters.
Psychologists at McMaster University, located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, have discovered something interesting about people and police uniforms:
LA Police Chief Daryl Gates wore black uniforms, making him look like the Gestapo. If a common police uniform can have the mental effect noted by the Canadian researchers, imagine what SWAT regalia achieves in the mind of the right wing authoritarian or sadomoralist.
Wavy Gravy had figured it out when he donned a clown’s uniform and discovered the cops didn’t beat him up at political demonstrations anymore. Previously, he had been gassed while injured and lying on a stretcher.
The new revelations by Canadian researchers are a public service remedy. The means to cutting back on drug enforcement based police violence will require mandating that DEA, SWAT, and drug agents wear clown suits. A clown outfit for Trump might work wonders to improve his job performance.
He is also DAREyl SWAT Gates, LAPDog Perversions creating the true Assassins of Youth: DARE †FRCn PDFA.
“All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it.”
Just Say No…
Tweet Tweet…
“Through clever and constant application of propaganda,
people can be made to see paradise as hell,
and also the other way around,
to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”
From Benito Mussolini,
Same crap of blaming the harm done by prohibition on the substance prohibited. Anything from racism to prohibition works. This is the rhetoric Nixon used to outlaw Cannabis in all forms to remove his political enemies. Hippies were stigmatized out of the conversation. Drugs don’t kill, hiding safe procedures kills. Outlawing needle exchange and forcing users to buy from the inconsistent, adulterated black market is what kills. The lies from police and politicians to the public kill.
Steve Bannon blames the financial crash and everything else that’s wrong with America on, you guessed it, the hippies.
“… the counterculture of the 1960s. Bell bottoms. Drum solos. Dope. That’s the thing to blame for the financial crisis and the bailouts. Not the deregulation of derivatives in 2000. It was those kids having fun at Woodstock in 1969.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/10/steve-bannon-spirit-revolt-democrats-gave-up
The Trump crew of Duck DieNasty GOPerversions executing policy with chew tobaccie stains patched up with duct tape. If any of them could read or had cognitive ability to comprehend. They wouldn’t have to lie so much. W came up with similar bullshit. Too many of them damn “values” were being changed. No More War, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Voting rights, housing rights, Free Clinics, Farmers Markets, Organic Food, Hemp, Ganja, Clean air and water. Stop dumping tons of Agent Orange on millions of people kinda things.
Cha Cha Cha Changes in beliefs and values from the top of American society. From segregation to unequal pay, dress codes and fake food washed down with carbonated obesity. Crude Oil Gas guzzlers and censored media. Black and white TV with the manly men hunting fishing drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Watching baseball, chevrolet hot dogs and apple pie cooked by the women who had the kids and could still be legally raped by her husband or admitted to an asylum for seeking divorce or having an abortion regardless to the risk of the person. The good ole days and same ole greed causes poverty.
Poverty? Dubya Says Blame the Hippies!
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/413
His book, The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass (Encounter Books, 1999) argues that the radical transformation of American culture that took place in the 1960s brought the underclass into being. Changes in beliefs and values at the top of American society produced catastrophic changes in behavior at the bottom. President-elect George W. Bush told the Wall Street Journal that it was the most important book he’d ever read after the Bible, and Bush strategist Karl Rove calls The Dream and the Nightmare a roadmap to the president-elects “compassionate conservatism.” Hilton Kramer called the book “an indispensable guide to the outstanding question of the day,” columnist Mona Charen deemed it “the book of the decade,” and the Wall Street Journal remarked that “many writers have addressed this topic [of the underclass] but few have done so with more wisdom or more passion.
☛ Magnet’s The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice called on Friday for the legalization of marijuana and even cocaine to undo the growing power of drug gangs behind a wave of violence that has shaken Latin America’s largest country.
Justice Roberto Barroso, a Yale graduate and constitutional law professor, said 50 years of war against drugs had failed miserably, clogging jails with small-time dealers and fueling a violent gang battle for control of the lucrative trade.
>>
Regulating the production, sale and consumption of marijuana – as in Brazil’s smaller neighbor Uruguay – could be first step in curbing crime in one of the world’s most dangerous countries, Barroso said.
“If that works we can easily move to legalize cocaine,” said Barroso, who as a lawyer pushed to legalize stem cell research and gay rights. “If you want to break the power of traffickers you need to consider legalizing cocaine.”
http://www.todayonline.com/world/brazil-supreme-court-judge-calls-drugs-legalization-beat-gangs
If Trump decides that fascism is the appropriate response to his imaginary crime wave, it will be a short, ineffective administration. I am taking a wait and see approach. If middle class America is less free and prosperous 2 years from now, we need to insist that even the Republican congress obstruct Trump or risk job loss. In four years the next candidate will win on a promise to undo all things Trump and to stomp out his legacy.
Marijuana Today:
Trump press secretary calls crackdown ‘unlikely’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/3964791b-ca00-3ac8-a122-99caf5136922/ss_marijuana-today%3A-trump-press.html
President Trump issued three largely symbolic executive orders on crime. … They say: ‘crackdown on cartels’, ‘cop killers’, and ‘reduce high crime’. None said the word ‘marijuana’, though they mentioned drugs and drug trafficking. … Sean Spicer reportedly said, “I think that’s unlikely†when asked “can we expect the Trump Administration to enforce federal law in states where marijuana is legal?†list a page of refs why its unlikely.
starting with
Meet, The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act.
https://www.mpp.org/news/press/republican-congressman-introduces-bill-resolve-conflict-state-federal-marijuana-laws-allow-states-determine-policies/
Like all things Trump, best taken with a grain of salt.
While the DEA’s obsession with but a few chemicals produces human hell holes throughout the world, we remain human chemical factories, pumping out a variety of chemicals including those that become airborne. Hundreds and hundreds of chemicals. A new video from the American Chemical Society clears up many of the controversies and snake oil surrounding pheromones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzOtKwRCOn0&feature=youtu.be
I get a 404 message on your link.
.
.
Sorry, my bad.
http://www.aspentimes.com/news/sheriff-to-talk-marijuana-at-two-conferences/
Sheriff to talk marijuana at two conferences
http://www.aspentimes.com/news/sheriff-to-talk-marijuana-at-two-conferences/
Starting at 35:20, Edward Snowden cites the drug war as a tool for the illegitimate sharing of intelligence information directed at repressing citizens:
Dateline: Feb. 9, 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWG-oDNfRYE
A Psychopath, Banksters and a Mad Dog General,
I think we’ve hit the brick wall at the back of the theater…
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.â€
~ Frank Zappa
U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a “gift” to President Donald Trump — who has called the NSA leaker a “spy” and a “traitor” who deserves to be executed.
☛ Russia Considers Returning Snowden to U.S.
to ‘Curry Favor’ With Trump: Official
☛ The 10 Biggest Revelations From Edward Snowden’s Leaks
1. Secret court orders allow NSA to sweep up Americans’ phone records
2. PRISM
3. Britain’s version of the NSA taps fiber optic cables around the world
4. NSA spies on foreign countries and world leaders
5. XKeyscore, the program that sees everything
6. NSA efforts to crack encryption and undermine Internet security
7. NSA elite hacking team techniques revealed
8. NSA cracks Google and Yahoo data center links
9. NSA collects text messages
10. NSA intercepts all phone calls in two countries
☛ Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance
and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks and Its Supporters
The efforts – detailed in documents provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – included a broad campaign of international pressure aimed not only at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but at what the U.S. government calls “the human network that supports WikiLeaks.†The documents also contain internal discussions about targeting the file-sharing site Pirate Bay and hacktivist collectives such as Anonymous.
☛ The First Orange President,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr2lZwLFa7s
Obama Left Dictator’s Toolkit,
Thanks for that Servetus. I’m beginning to see Snowden as the new Nelson Mandela. Sadly though, I think he’s also going to have to do his time like Mandela.
Trump’s drug war machine is doubling down and rattling onward in a piece by Phillip Smith at Alternet:
Trump’s anti-immigration stance is based in part on drug-interdiction and prevention with the help of a Mexican border wall. Here is what researchers at the University at Buffalo have to say about immigration and crime:
Correction on Phillip Smith Alternet link:
http://www.drugwarrant.com/2017/02/showing-true-colors-on-asset-forfeiture/comment-page-1/
Correction again: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/trump-goes-full-nixon-law-and-order-executive-order-vows-ruthless-war-drugs-crime
“Since the Great Recession, more Mexicans have left the United States than migrated there. Constructing a barrier along the southern border may discourage more from going.” … https://tinyurl.com/jblhcep
“Donald Trump’s executive order to build a wall between Mexico and the United States overlooks how the fences, walls, and border-control measures that already exist between the two countries have come to act as a barrier—or a “cage of goldâ€â€”that discourages migrants from leaving the United States, rather than preventing their entrance in the first place.”
Trump’s hostility toward science and research extends beyond the normal antagonisms shown toward the social sciences to include the physical sciences, i.e., environmental studies. While Trump & Co. say they support the use of medical marijuana (“100%â€), any scientists who contradict the administration’s policies, for example, those involving mandatory sentencing, or the success of drug enforcement, or enforcement’s negative impacts on society, or the many failures of drug treatment centers, will likely find themselves persecuted with the help of the FBI should they become activists:
After months of public pressure, and a legal request by the nonprofit medical cannabis advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, the DEA has removed factually inaccurate information about marijuana from their website.
“The DEA’s removal of these popular myths about cannabis from their website could mean the end of the Washington gridlock†said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access. “This is a victory for medical cannabis patients across the nation, who rely on cannabis to treat serious illnesses. The federal government now admits that cannabis is not a gateway drug, and doesn’t cause long-term brain damage, or psychosis. While the fight to end stigma around cannabis is far from over, this is a big first step.â€
https://thejointblog.com/dea-removes-marijuana-misinformation-website/
A team at Simon Fraser University has worked out that cannabis addled driving increases your risk of having an accident by a whopping 18%.
They are also kind enough to point out that driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.05 (the acceptable limit in many places) increases your risk of having accident by a mere 500%-600%.
http://drugpolicy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CDPC_Cannabis-and-Driving_Evidence-Review-Full_Jan31-2017_FINAL.pdf
Off subjest: It looks pretty bad for the Trump regime with Flynn resigning after being caught making deals for oil rights in Russian territories for Exxon using US trade sanctions as poker chips to get er done.
The new Secretary of State,,a CEO at Exxon(alleged former)should be next and if they can get any evidence of trumpty dump involvement he will go also.
Happy days may return and Session’s is going to be busy as hell if treason trials are ordered. (unlikely)
A cocaine-addiction-resistant mouse created in a Canadian lab confirms longstanding suspicions about human addictions:
☛ Trump Vows “Ruthless” War On Drugs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNDZnjMV8vY
Lt. Commander Diane Goldstein (Ret.), Law Enforcement Action Partnership (L.E.A.P.) Donald Trump has promised to be “tough on crime” by waging a “ruthless” war on drugs. Are Trump and Jeff Sessions gearing up to come for you and your pot?
☛ Marijuana Today: AG Sessions leaning toward cannabis status quo
A Sacramento, CA. sheriff talked weed with the new AG Jeff Sessions: “Jones says his conversation with Sessions didn’t lead him to believe much would change. ‘Regarding the prioritization of federal resources to combat marijuana, he didn’t see the federal government getting involved in marijuana use or low-level state, what are traditionally state and local crimes, but, I don’t think he ruled out the possibility of the federal government getting involved in larger-scale operations.’ The sheriff says those operations would include trafficking by drug cartels.” (h/t CalNORML Ellen Komp)
☛ “Trump Just Picked a Mass Torturer Who Cheerleads for the Drug War to Head DHSâ€
‘“Kelly is a big-time drug war zealot,†Michael Collins, deputy director of Drug Policy Alliance’s office of national affairs, said in a press statement. “As head of Southern Command he demonstrated that he is a true believer in the drug war, and it’s incredibly worrying that he could now head up Homeland Security.â€â€™
☛ California Hires Eric Holder as Legal Bulwark Against Donald Trump
The Next Big Brain Cancer Drug Could Come from MJ
http://fortune.com/2017/02/07/gw-pharmaceuticals-marijuana-brain-cancer/
GW Pharmaceuticals (gwph) is already well on its way to winning the first-ever U.S. approval for a cannabis-derived therapy.
GWPH – GW Pharmaceuticals
PLC- ADR (NASDAQ) 2017
Feb
14 Tues 131.13 +1.71 (1.32%)
13 Mon 129.60 +1.37 (1.07%)
7 Tues 123.93 +3.17 (2.63%)
Jan
27 Fri 115.76 -0.98 (0.84%)
Marijuana Linked to Decreased Alcohol, Opioid Use
http://cannabisnews.com/news/29/thread29036.shtml
Milton Friedman: Prohibition and Drugs
http://hempworld.com/HempPharm/articles/miltonfriedman.html
Looking at GWP’s product pipeline they use GWP2002 and GWP2003 as the cannabinoids to be used for glioma.
I think this is CBD and THC, or THC and CBD. Is this correct? It would be interesting to know if they’re referring to their current THC/CBD-based medicine Sativex.
My gut tells me rescheduling is going to happen soon, perhaps before President Pence takes a new oath of orifice.
Hey NCN,
I’d have to look it up but I remember they were importing various strains and stashing them in Kansas. I think they are testing CBD and THC and now a Combo for cancer, but their bucks are also on the applicator and extraction method. It seems if it says cannabinoids CBs 02/03 it would mean THC. CBD would be Cannabidiols. thats Epidiolex for seizures. Haven”t heard much from Sativex THC. First I’ve heard of GPD2002,03 or 04 I think TEVA has a similar product/ All cannabis pharms got a bump, but nothing like GW. Who are not friends of legalizing by any means or do they want any association. I don’t follow them or what they do or say. They buy my pot. It seems positive research raises value, reefer madness raises value. New initiatives passed lowers a bit or hovers. I think the entire Stock Market is a Casino.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd 34.90 +0.90 (2.65%)
My prediction is the Goobers and Raygunettes will weasel busts whack a mole style and headline white powder imports to lump in Mexicans and Terrorists. To increase the bogeyman factor. Anything but reality that prohibition is the causal connection to harm from white powders or Ganja. Then when Fat Pharma has the bulk of patients there will be no need for growers or dispensaries. When enough are removed it seems logical that bottom line dwellers on Wall St as fat pharms are, will shelve it and go back to their drugs.
Cannabis is too damn versatile, same with Hemp. It doesn’t bring the side effect profits or ER trips for od’s or Hospital profits. Kills all these other drug markets the same as fossil fools, cotton and steel are threatened by Hemp or Booze by Ganja. Then GW will sell out and be shelved. If they censor the net who ya gonna call?
The new anti-education secretary, Betsy DeVos, and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., retain a financial interest in a biofeedback company called Neurocore, for which Ms. DeVos is now a former board member. Neurocore describes itself as “ a Michigan company that operates drug-free “brain performance centers†that claim to have worked with 10,000 children and adults to overcome problems with attention deficit disorder, autism, sleeplessness and stress.†Neurocore has not published its results or rates of success in any medical or scientific journal. A typical customer pays $2000 for a treatment.
DeVos has devoted her life to ending public education as we know it. She recommends substituting charter and religious schools in their place. According to one of her admirers, charter school proponent William J. Bennett, writing for Breitbart:
Fascism invariably attacks and destroys quality education. It regards highly educated people as a likely threat to the totalitarian state. Science education comes under attack for that reason, and would be rendered defenseless in a charter or religious school system. Trump’s selection of DeVos shows he supports her agenda. There exists an historical precedent:
Servetus, thanks for being a great teacher. You’re an asset I’d hate to forfeit.
Great Teacher’s rock!
“Parallel to the training of the body a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and simulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth…Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea.”
Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf”, Vol. 1, Chapter 10
“A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth
that is what I am after…
I will have no intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin for my young men.”
Adolf Hitler,
quoted by John Gunther “The Nation”
The assassins of youth…DARE the FRCn PDFA
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/505
“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . we need believing people.”
Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933,
from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi Vatican Concordant of 1933
Public education, at least as we know it, should be ended.
The Department of Education was the 1979 creation of the Carter administration. Our world ranking in education after 1980 went south and never recovered. The DoE has spent roughly 1 trillion dollars since inception. Not exactly a good ROI. (And no better than that other trillion-dollar government boondoggle, drug prohibition.)
My mother was a school teacher her entire life. But she was happy to retire. And while she lamented the erosion of parental interest as a cause of worsening results, it was the teachers union and their meddling she held most responsible. And she was a vocal opponent of tenure, having witnessed far too many sub-standard teachers protected by it.
The DoE, if not abolished, should be nothing more than an auditing agency (with its number of employees significantly reduced). Allow more local control of education policy, end tenure and the government’s meddling, mostly at the behest of the teachers union.
Because of my mother, I grew up around teachers. And they occupy a warm spot in my heart. Many shared my mother’s concern, and it was disheartening to witness their frustrations watching education policy become more and more politicized. So if DeVos can return teaching to the teachers and, more important, increase our dismal ranking in the world, I say let her try. I doubt it can get much worse.
The US world ranking in education has never been good, certainly not when compared to a European public education. Also, if public schools were the problem, I should be the first to condemn public schools, as the public schools I attended were the worst in the country, IMHO. But I don’t do that.
I was never a professional educator, yet as such I don’t condemn public schools for the problems I encountered as a student. That’s due to where I live today. Our local public schools are considered the best in the world. People move here from across the country so their kids can be educated in the local public schools. The schools actually attract visiting celebrities and international interest because the teachers and the administration and the school board do it better, they make it work, teachers’ unions included. As the realtor says, it’s location, location, location.
However, in Boondoggleville, USA, people are too cheap to send their bad teachers to the “rubber roomâ€, a location where incompetent or mentally ill teachers are forced to wait out their tenure by not teaching. New York does it, but Boondoggleville says they can’t afford it. That’s because the schoolboard has hired an incompetent school administrator. Breaking the administrator’s contract to fire him or her requires paying the incompetent $500,000 to quit—a common scam, it seems. Then the school board, elected members, recoup the loss by lowering the pay of new, incoming teachers. The true problem is that schoolboards and administrators in this country are often comprised of idiots.
Jimmy Carter founded the Education Dept. to address badly managed school systems. Public schools as a concept came under attack in the U.S. after Carter intervened against Christian schools by denying them tax-exempt status if they remained segregated. Carter refused to disregard separation of church and state. Bob Jones University was busted for banning interracial dating. Prayer and Bible reading in public schools were already banned prior to Carter in 1963. Opposition to segregation ignited the effort to turn back the clock using public schools as the scapegoat for bad school experiences, while promoting voutures, charter and religious schools. Former Drug Czar Bill Bennett, inventor of the “superpredator†meme, former anti-education secretary under Reagan, and longtime supporter of charter schools, appears to be the Queen-maker behind Betsy DeVos. Given the confluence of people and events, nothing good can come from Sec. DeVos and her scaled-down Department of Education.
The library was the “rubber room” where the rare incompetent teachers were sent when I taught in a Michigan school district 15 years ago. The activities of Betsy Devos and her voucher schemes for religious schools were a frequent conversational topic in the staff room. Senior management were generally in favor of introducing religious practices by the back door (out of hours prayer groups and lunches provided by church organizations, while the teaching body were overwhelmingly opposed).
‘Last Week Tonight’ Host John Oliver Blasts Donald Trump As ‘Pathological Liar’ https://t.co/yRkM6OXRSR
Here is the video: https://t.co/iN6SV1XWEH
With Trump saying violent crime is highest its been in 47 years to trying to rekindle the drug war bloodbath (Report Finds Major Flaws in Proposals to Further Militarize Mexico’s Drug War) https://t.co/spyppYWjy1 , his word and reasoning should be questioned and inspected in each and ever case related to drug war and legalization. I think that should include all his choices since inauguration that have direct bearing on it.
This more than ever is a time when truth must be disseminated.
The ingnorant and misguided choices about drugs based on a sense of prejudice and faulty logic instead of science, facts, and truth will negate all our reform progress. It will foster repressive enforcement regimes that are totally wrong and uncalled for.
We are stuck listening for the Trump lies and following behind him with a “broom of truth”. I think John Oliver has the right idea under the circumstances.
Its no wonder Trump is so sensitive about “leaks” to the press. He can really make a Nixonian mess of things rather quickly if he is left uninspected and unchecked.
They’ve been getting away with fascism since Nixon started the Ganjawar. Many groups have felt the lopsided tax dodging and outsourcing of jobs. Millions have lost jobs on urine tests that have no bearing on impairment. Prison slave labor for growing medicine the mainstream never noticed. Many civil rights and due process protections were not deemed suitable for stoners. Mandatory minimum sentencing. Gag rules prohibiting a medicinal defense based on the CSA with no Science backing it up. Oh well they said.
Now forfeitures before trial or even finding evidence they are taking peoples homes and then making them sue to get it back. Or bank accounts or children of advocates taken to trailer trash foster care because talking about legalizing pot is against the holy babel of the drug worriers BS. Refusing people organ transplants if they have a medical card. Profiling and if you are of color it is a 4 to 1 ratio you will sit in a cage and get harsher penalties. For the same non victim crime. So bear with me if I don’t get all giddy over lying politicians and slimy weasels circumventing the BoR. Now that its hitting the middle class. there are none left too speak out.
We the people have failed in our jobs as citizens to hold them accountable. Especially those we’ve entrusted to fight for the Constitution and our rights. Politicians or reformers can’t barter away rights to win initiatives when the CSA is a bogus piece of crap legislation pushing 50 years of ignorance maintaining it. Enough! Its obvious citizens united has auctioned off politicians to “eccentric” if not deranged billionaires telling the shit kickers what they want to hear. At the same time telling the majority of Americans to be afraid and causing stress and trauma to millions of citizens… at least those without safe access.
That is not my idea of a Commander, let alone one in Chief, period. Trump is the self proclaimed “King of Debt” and the money party is enthusiastically helping him weed out the remainder of “America”. Its like he is trying to Incorporate the country as CEO with his hand picked BoD. No wonder he can’t understand why the Senate is vetting. Is it not clear by now that Trump is exactly what 15 or so GOPers debating him said?
The bad news is Pence is a religious wingnut just as power addicted and controlling as Falswell and Robertson or Junior Graham. If Pence goes down with Donnie for covering up evidence about Flynn and the Ruskies. It would leave Ayn’s protege Paul Ryan in the big seat. PotUS Eddie Munster? Then Orrin, you’re shitting me, Hatch? Looks like a tie between Exxon and Goldmen Sachs for 4th. If that doesn’t bankrupt us Mad Dog is 5th. Then the rednecks will rise faster than their Viagra with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III CiC. Hard to believe Trump the Puppet may be the least threat to civilization,
I’m ready for Ganjastan!
“Pence is a religious wingnut just as power addicted and controlling as Falswell and Robertson or Junior Graham…”
Chris Hedges speaks about dominionism:
That’s a good reason for Trump’s Wall.
Just build it in between Church and State.
Dr. Mark Ware of McGill University is hosting a meeting at the 2017 Annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston titled Assessing the Impact of Medical Marijuana: The Grass Could Be Greener:
From Lauren McCauley at Common Dreams,
Stepping Away from Microscopes, Thousands Protest War on Science: Boston rally coincides with annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference and is a precursor to the March for Science in Washington, D.C.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/19/stepping-away-microscopes-thousands-protest-war-science
Just want to remind every “liberal” here that asset forfeiture was invented by the communists. Take away the property of hard working “kulaks”. Nixon loved the commies and shook hands with Maoist scum. Red states. Doubleplusungood. Now go fuck yourself.
The first forfeiture laws were against Native Americans.
Another Trump supporter trolling us here. Piss off.
And I believe that we both know that it’s possibly one and the same person.
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Stereotyping is just plain intellectual sloth.
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The juggernaut maintains escape velocity. From Houston TX:
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Apparently the cartels are taking the POTUS at his word concerning the border wall boondoggle. Marijuana catapult found at U.S.-Mexico border, patrol says
Are they still working on a people catapult? I suppose that broken bones and fractured skulls would seriously compromise revenue potential from our Country’s potential unregistered guests. It would probably make more sense to let the first several hundred use an under border tunnel for free after they dig it. Now please, I admit I’m not an expert in the unauthorized cross border transport of humans for the provision of less expensive labor but I’m smart enough to know that any method which doesn’t include land mines is going to be defeated in short order. Of course the death traps will just take a little longer to defeat. As everyone knows, the early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.
👍.
Bubble soccer balls would be the ideal form of protection for being catapulted over a wall IMO.
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Can someone direct me to the ONDCP’s web site? It appears to be almost entirely missing at the old web address. The only thing there is “Office of National Drug Control Policy” and a directory to other administration websites. I suppose they might have decided to delete any inaccurate or dishonest content without realizing that only the agency’s name would pass muster.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp
According to my local rag (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat) a NYT article by Sharon LaFraniere and Alan Rappeport, the ONDCP is on a “hit list” of programs that the President could eliminate to trim domestic spending.
Who needs a drug czar when you’ve got martial law and cruise missiles in your sand box?
I almost feel sorry for Czar Botticelli…. he crawls his way into the top job at ONDCP only to have a homophobe steal the election over his head. How long he’ll remain there under Trump remains to be seen.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/30/1605617/-Trump-s-packing-his-cabinet-with-A-homophobes
☛ In Indiana, Using Religion as a Cover for Bigotry
☛ God Is Working On Behalf Of Trump
Pat Robertson: February 16, 2017
☛ People Who Oppose Trump Are Revolting Against God
Pat Robertson: February 15, 2017
☛ God Intervened To Save The U.S. Constitution
By Electing Donald Trump
Alex McFarland: ‘November 22, 2016
…was undoubtedly a miraculous work of divine intervention.
In 1514, Pope Leo X, recovering from syphilis, and in the company of ‘seven intimates’ (Annales Ecclesiastici, Cardinal Baronius), raised a chalice of celebratory wine into the air and toasted:
After the public uproar in which the rabble urinated against the walls of the Vatican, Cardinal Baronius confessed: ‘The Pontiff has been accused of atheism, for he denied God, and called Christ, in front of Cardinals Pietro Bembo, Jovius and Iacopo Sadoleto, and other intimates, ‘a fable’ … it must be corrected’ (Annales Ecclesiastici, Folio viii and xi, Antwerp, 1597, Cardinal Baronius).
http://www.vatileaks.com/vati-leaks/a-pope-stuns-his-cardinals
“Some targets, like the Office of National Drug Control Policy, are notable in their opposition to some of the president’s own talking points”
Full article: commondreams 2.18.17
National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Americorps are among targets meant to showcase ‘waste’ of taxpayer funds
☛ Popular Domestic Programs Face Ax
Under First Trump Budget nytimes.com 2.17.17
Trump has spoken volubly about the nation’s drug problems, yet the White House budget office hit list includes the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, which dispenses grants to reduce drug use and drug trafficking.
☛ DEA Removes Marijuana Misinformation from Website
After Months of Public, Legal Pressure 2.13.17 * Zuccaro
Americans for Safe Access Says Not Good Enough, Still in Violation of IQA WASHINGTON DC — After months of public pressure, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed factually inaccurate information from its website. The change comes after Americans for Safe Access,
☛ DEA Under Fire for Wasting Money and Being Incompetent
☛ Politicians Use False Stats To Keep Marijuana Illegal
I think Trump’s target with the ONDCP is the amount of tax dollars going out to foreign governments,,I am sure that when the ONDCP explains to him that without our buying support for the war on cannabis it is over for worldwide prohibition of the hemp plant and the STC will fall apart at the UN.
We bullied,traded and bought the STC into existence and cutting off the payments to keep it in place spells disaster for the drug war.
Revealing more true colors, will Trump’s drug prohibition be based on Duterte’s? From John Feffer at Foreign Policy in Focus :
Blames alternative views the same.
Phillippine Strongman Puts Activists in His (Deadly) Sights
http://hightimes.com/news/phillippine-strongman-puts-activists-in-his-deadly-sights/
Philippines: Duterte Claims Trump Approves of Bloody Drug War
http://hightimes.com/news/philippines-duterte-claims-trump-approves-of-bloody-drug-war/
Obama, Duterte (Trump of the Philippines) death squads
affirm alliance… 4000 killings
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2068
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are no other countries on the planet which produce anywhere close to the high quality hysterical rhetoric and political propaganda regurgitated by the sycophants of prohibition in the United States. We are #1!
Need more Vets. for PTSD study.
http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/51420-veteran-volunteers/#entry573719
I’ve been getting Vets info on Ganja Rx for PTSD a long time, and will continue. Although it is more highlighted for use by returning Vets who have seen combat. PTSD is not a Military illness exclusively. Trauma is trauma and I’d like to see these studies open up for civilians. Cops, ER’s and Fire people and no doubt even prisoners too. Car wrecks, assaults and bad relationships. Especially when its between a country and its elected officials seemingly declaring war on its citizens who choose Ganja as a safer alternative.
4 PTSD & Depression
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1632
According to Cecelia J. Hillard, Director of Neuroscience at the Medical College of Wisconsin, PTSD is a function of “empty” CB1 receptors. References: (Neumeister 2013), (Hill et al. 2013), (Hill, Bierer, Makotkine, Golier, Calea, McEwan, Hillard, Yahuta 2013).
Empty, or unoccupied CB1 receptors because the body is not producing the endocannabinoids anandamide or 2-AG. Who gets PTSD, and who suffers from PTSD depends on the healthy function and production of anandamide and 2-AG, i.e., “on-demand, and as needed.”
“…that the endocannabinoid ligands that ought to be sitting in the receptor are not there, giving us the idea that perhaps there is a hypo-endocannabinergic system.” “I think that our vulnerability to develop PTSD, depression, or anxiety as a result of a trauma is dependent on where we are right now at this moment– do we have a good, robust endocannabinoid system.” (C.J. Hillard) from her course at TMCI.global titled “Endocannabinoids in the Circulation and Psychopathology.
So, when you say that PTSD is not a military illness exclusively, you could not be more correct. And, you’re also right that we should be looking at and treating all exposures and trauma, not just military related.
BTW, Mike from Michigan is linking to Dr. Sue Sissley’s study on PTSD.
Given the current trumpery of Trumpist politics, keeping one’s passport up-to-date has once again become a priority. Advantages exist. For those so inclined to become expats, Germany is hiring:
Also: Six things to know about weed in Germany
The Dutch Parliament is about to vote on allowing legal cannabis cultivation for the Coffee Shops. This time around, there appears to be a fair chance that the bill will pass.
Watch this space!
http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nederland/politiek/kamer-stemt-gaan-we-gereguleerde-wietteelt-toestaan
Thanks for the news, update, and final score.
Dutch Treat is one of my favorite Indica strains.
Voting now!
Here’s a live stream:
https://www.tweedekamer.nl/vergaderingen/livedebat/plenaire-zaal
It passed!
For: 77
Against: 72
I believe it now goes, this evening, to the Senate.
“Directly after a bill has been passed by the House of Representatives it is sent to the Senate. Here the bill is submitted to a parliamentary committee. The committee decides whether the bill can be immediately put on the agenda of the full chamber or whether there should first be preparatory study of the bill. If a bill is immediately put on the agenda of the full chamber, it will be passed as a formality without a debate.”
–Wikipedia
A small but deadly sea snail threatens Big Pharma’s opiate industry by providing a more effective remedy for chemically targeting chronic pain:
The research was funded by National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Kineta, Inc.
I think I know where this may lead to.
Ha ha!
Good one.
Isn’t that the perfect drug war joke on about three different levels? (Nice one Malcolm).
Lest we forget that Trump isn’t the only hypocrite in town:
“The Obama administration made a point of prioritizing those with criminal histories for deportation.”
“Criminal history,” not conviction/record. Obama has a criminal history every bit as well documented as any of his deportees. The ex-choom gang member should be saying there but for the grace of god go I.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dhs-deport-any-undocumented-person_us_58ac668ae4b02a1e7dac1561?2xg70vhau1wy9l766r&
In November 2015, Staff Sgt. Jeff MacQueen was tasked with looking into any drug-related calls responded to by Cumming and Morton between 2013 and 2015.
On June 3, 2016, after he received the backpack full of marijuana, Cumming drove to his home where officers from a surveillance unit observed him dumping everything into the garbage outside his home, according to MacQueen. Cumming returned to work, finished his shift and then returned home where he then took the drugs out of the garbage.
Cumming smelled like alcohol when arrested
During his arrest several hours later, Cumming smelled like alcohol and was slurring his words and said he was “f**ked” and that his “life was over,” according to MacQueen.
Lethbridge Provincial Court Judge Jerry LeGrandeur is presiding over the judge-alone trial and a Crown from Edmonton is prosecuting the case because of the conflict given Cumming is a police officer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-officer-robert-cumming-marijuana-sting-trial-1.3992479
No Gummy Bear hysteria required, just commonsense labeling practices. Colorado and Washington upgrade the labeling on marijuana edibles:
Trump sides with Big Pharma. From Karoli Kuns at Crooks & Liars :
Ending Prohibitchion is a freedom issue. Not a left/right issue. If it was a leftist issue all the communist regimes who enslaved and murdered their own citizens would have had pot shops on every corner of their miserable countries. Commies hate the idea of shops anyway. Capitalist exploitation in their minds. I really hate this world. Wish I was born again. Not in a religious sense. Fuck religion, including the Marxist-Fascist ones. On a different planet is what I mean. A planet of weed. This one sucks ass.
I there anything you do like? And would you appreciate some help to find a good crowdfunding site to help you fly to one of those cool weed planets that NASA just recently announced?
Ending prohibition is an educational issue. As in, the Big Lie is what we’ve got. It’s such a big lie that even doctors and medical schools are sucking on that glass pipe like a bunch of crack heads.
Of course it’s also about freedom, the freedom of science to hopefully someday defeat the forces of predatory capitalism married to their Jebus authoritarian buddies.
Dude you got commies on the brain. What’s up with that? BTW, there’s already a Planet Weed, it’s called California.
Oh dear….
The Heartlessness of Dying for Prohibition
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/585
☛ California Woman Denied Essential Heart Transplant
Because She Uses MMJ
☛ Meet the Latest Pot-Hater to Join Donald Trump’s Cabinet
Considering Oklahoma voters approved in November reducing all marijuana possession crimes to misdemeanors, Pruitt is likely responsible for waylaying medical marijuana in his home state.
☛ Report: Brain Scan for Kids May Predict Future Drug Use
☛ Shame, Responsibility, Pot and Donald Trump
The Henry Rollins Interview
http://hightimes.com/culture/music/shame-responsibility-pot-and-donald-trump-the-henry-rollins-interview/
☛ F The Poor:
Republican Plan To Drug-Test Recipients of Unemployment Benefits
SJW’s are Pro Drug War proven with Sweden pushing for tougher drug wars and trying to convince other countries to import their Drug laws, mind you the Drug War has killed more people of color in the western world than any policy before it and has resulted in 4 times as many blacks being arrested as whites for the same usage of drugs and have completely destroyed minority communities, exacerbated the fatherlessness crisis, turned women into heroin addicts, increased the rate of illegal prostitution and has destabilized Latin America as a whole and created rape cultures within Mexico, fuels the human trafficking rings which affect women mainly and keeps the Taliban in power which is massively repressive against women. SJW’s don’t seem to call out the fact, Sweden, the Saudi Arabia of Feminism is the strongest supporter of the Drug War in Europe.
Another grand example of SJW’s being closeted Misogynists and racists is their support for Islamic terrorism. SJW’s almost universally support Hamas and the P.A while condemning Israel. Mind you Israel is the only secular democracy in the Middle East that respects the rights of minorities, women and the LGBT yet SJW’s universally reject Israel in favor of Arab Nations which are the most infamous for cruelty against non Arabs, Non Muslims women and the LGBT. SJW’s are racists and sexist by sheer virtue of actions and their support for racist , sexist governments.
Then there is their inherent hatred of Prostitution which is also commonly opposed by the Religious Right in both Islam and Christianity. SJW’s are in full support in banning Prostitution and banning pornopgrahy,even with a good number of them being pro Drug War. Meaning they willinging want to maintain laws that target women and minorities and poor whites as well which is precisely what the War on Prostitution, much like the War on Drugs does , showing they don;t care about women’s sexual freedoms, the rights of Minorities or the well being of the poor.
And then comes their support of the police state and criminal justice system. SJW’s overwhelmingly ingore the Misandry often tied to racism in our criminal justice system that has been deeply rooted in the system for hundereds of years and while they claim to fight that said racist system, they’re support for the Hollaback street harassment video, manspreading and manslamming is proof they don’t care about police brutality, in fact they want to increase police brutality and increase cruelty particularly at Black men knowing very well they’re the most likely targets of a corrupt criminal justice system.
They believe consensus is more important than objectivity SJW’s claim to care about “feelings” , when in reality they only care about their own feelings and not the feelings of others.They’re claims of protecting people’s feelings is a facet that is out to mask their own narcissistic agenda.
They’re also completely tone deaf about racism against whites and apathetic to victims of hate crimes done against whites. You know who practiced this method ? Ideologues, particularly those within Fascism , Theroacries and Communists . Cultural Marxism i a good part of why there is this need to collectivize people rather than to see them as individuals, however unlike genuine Marxism which seeks to unrealistically collectivize all of humanity and make everyone 100% equal, SJW’s and Cultural Marxists only seek to promote equality amongst themselves and anyone who isn’t a SJW would be treated as subhuman,essentially the very definition of Communism. Replacing an old aristocracy with a new one, this time the government is the aristocracy.
Another Paradox about SJW’s is their own science denial when it comes to their political agenda. Ironically SJW’s are creationists by their own denial of Evolutionary Psychology which is as essential to Evolution as Natural Selection. Feminists and SJW’s love to complain about Creationists denying evolution and rightfully mock the inherent double standards of them accepting Micro Evolution but not Marco Evolution, yet if you asked these same people about Sexual Dimorphism and Evolutionary Psychology, they’re quick to reject the science yet still claim to believe in Evolution.
However even more hypocritical than they’re rejection of science is they’re willingness to use Sexual Dimorphism and Evolutionary Psychology whenever it convivence them the most. SJW’s constantly justify their need to White Knight women based on Chiariy which is derived from the ideology that women were weaker than men which to the most part physically is true regarding sexual dimoprhism which means the SJW’s on some level know that Sexual Dimoprhism is a fact but willfully choose to ignore it when it’s inconvenient.
This can be seen with the Ad Hoc rationalizations SJW’s make everytime they support a man getting beaten up by a woman but loses their when a man fights in self defense.
This can be seen when SJW’s demand women get lighter sentences and even advocate to abolish prison for women and even routinely fight against promotion of women in male oriented jobs and promotion of domestic violence shelters for battered women but none for battered men.
If SJW’s truly believed women and men were physical equals, there would be no need for SJW’s to constantly defend women from harm.SJW’s seem to resent Traditionalism and Appeal to Authority and Popularity whenever it doesn’t benefit them yet resort to appeals to Tradition and Popularity when it’s convenient to their ideology .
SJW’s rightfully go against Right Wing extremists promotion of censorship and rightfully attacked Bush for his many civil liberties violations yet when it comes to their own ideology, they have no problems violating the civil liberties and even civil rights of others as seen with their willingness to censor and ban anyone who brings facts and evidence to the table.
Daniel… I can’t be bothered to read the whole of your screed but I did notice you quote this much repeated piece of right wing propaganda: “Israel is the only secular democracy in the Middle East that respects the rights of minorities.”
Here’s drug warrior and major Trump donor Sheldon Adelson on democracy in Israel:
‘If Israel Isn’t Democracy, “So What?‒
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/11/09/saban-tells-israel-to-bomb-iranian-sons-of-bitches-adelson-says-if-israel-isnt-democracy-so-what/
Is there a date set for blast-off?
And do you have any proof that trees can’t speak?
Justice Department will again use private prisons
https://tinyurl.com/zo4tqhy
We have Jeff Sessions to thank.
Expect ‘greater enforcement’ of marijuana laws under Trump, Spicer says – https://t.co/zGl3ARy6gf
You beat me to it. No connection between these two announcements of course… not content with screwing us at every opportunity, they’re now insulting our intelligence too. I wonder what our resident troll has to say now about Trump ending prohibition?
If you really wish to summon up our resident troll, and with little effort:
Use an old book as the base for your ritual. On the book you put a dildo and a stolen biscuit. Sprinkle the cookie with the sap of three hallucinogenic frogs. Now lay out some cards with the names of two phoney politicians, written in your own blood. Destroy the dildo with fire and the troll shall appear.
Wookie…. it’s been a grim night here… your sense of humour is a welcome respite, helped along with a little mood alteration of course….. nearly went to Amsterdam this week… haven’t been there since ’76 ….thinking it might be the place for a wondering exile from the Land of the Free ( I grow increasingly worried about my home, the USA, as these fuckers take it over, and Madam May’s Brexitstan is nearly as bad). I think the Dutch model is probably the last best hope for sane drug policy with these lunatics taking over. I don’t think many people realize how bad this is getting, how quickly.
If you do make it across, it would be realy nice to meet you.
I can’t be found on any social media site: malcolm.kyle@gmail.com
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I’ve been waxing nostalgic for the cold war all afternoon. Show of hands here, hasn’t everyone found themselves having warm fuzzy thoughts about the public policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)?
Be that as it may, we’ve been called out by the White House. There’s going to be a show down. (cue ELO)
The White House also acknowledged that Federal law can’t be prosecuted against State authorized medicinal cannabis patients and vendors.
Since Election Day 2012 I’ve seen cannabis law reform as not only inevitable but also imminent. Well this is the acid test of that hypothesis. They’re not off to a good start. The gateway nonsense? Seriously?
14 US Senators and 91 US Representatives hail from States with regulated re-legalization.
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In the alt logic universe of the Trump administration, this reasoning from Spicer makes perfect sense;
Spicer justified this “greater enforcement†by stating: “When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people†to use marijuana.
Right.
Alt Logic fits. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as AG will uphold the safe operation of profiteers ability to collect on caging sick Americans into the for profit private Koch prison industrial complex.
The U.S. Justice Department has reversed an order by the Obama administration to phase out the private prison industry.
☛ Trump Administration To Increase Marijuana Arrests
And Grow Private Prison Industry
Reuters reported that in a memo made public on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Obama policy impaired the government’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal prison system.
Supposedly differentiating between medical and recreational marijuana users, Spicer suggests they may differentiate between the 2 groups even though the federal law does not differentiate.
☛ Legalizing Marijuana Decreases Fatal Opiate Overdoses
According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, more than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. In an effort to relieve that constant pain, the number of opiate prescriptions has nearly doubled over the last decade.
Over the past two decades, deaths from drug overdoses have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. In 2011, 55 percent of drug overdose deaths were related to prescription medications; 75 percent of those deaths involved opiate painkillers. However, researchers found that opiate-related deaths decreased by approximately 33 percent in 13 states in the following six years after medical marijuana was legalized.
☛ Legal Marijuana Linked to Fewer Opioid Prescriptions
☛ Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Prescription Medication Use
In Medicare Part D
Legalization of medical marijuana has been one of the most controversial areas of state policy change over the past twenty years. However, little is known about whether medical marijuana is being used clinically to any significant degree. Using data on all prescriptions filled by Medicare Part D enrollees from 2010 to 2013, we found that the use of prescription drugs for which marijuana could serve as a clinical alternative fell significantly, once a medical marijuana law was implemented. National overall reductions in Medicare program and enrollee spending when states implemented medical marijuana laws were estimated to be $165.2 million per year in 2013. The availability of medical marijuana has a significant effect on prescribing patterns and spending in Medicare Part D.
☛ Opioid Addiction Being Treated With Medical Marijuana
in Massachusetts
We have a statewide epidemic of opioid deaths,†said Dr. Gary Witman of Canna Care Docs, a network of facilities that qualifies patients into medical marijuana programs in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, MStudy: Opioid Use Decreases in States that Legalize Medical Marijuana aine, Connecticut, Delaware and the District of Columbia. “As soon as we can get people off opioids to a nonaddicting substance — and medicinal marijuana is nonaddicting — I think it would dramatically impact the amount of opioid deaths.â€
Leon Trotsky’s analysis of National Socialism (or fascism) illustrates some current trends in Trumpian politics. A short summary of Trotsky’s analysis of fascism is provided by Mark Dickman at Counterpunch:
Recreational marijuana consumers and the shopkeepers who sell it risk being reduced to the status of scapegoats once more if they don’t fight back against state repressions, such as forfeiture, profiling, and other drug-war-justified government tyrannies. Trump & Company must be countered at every level, particularly by focusing on their avid supporters, white Christian nationalists such as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
“the West Coast should start the process of forming an independent nation. Call it the Western States of America. It should include California, Oregon and Washington, and it should be dedicated to the proposition that All people are entitled to equal and expansive rights, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people must long endure. It’s not an issue of securing some constitutional amendment. We should just leave. You don’t ask permission to create a new nation, you just do it. Trump is a fascist, pure and simple, and neither I nor anyone I know wants anything to do with this anti-human collapse of American civilization into an authoritarian, racist, xenophobic, fundamentalist nightmare of irrationality.”
And that’s just the comment thread.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/white-house-sean-spicer-briefing.html
Glen Greenwald on the Democratic National Committee race and how billionaires like Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson have corrupted the party with big money. Wasserface and Hillary should be ashamed of themselves. Keith Ellison is about the last best hope for this sorry-ass party.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/24/key-question-about-dnc-race-why-did-white-house-recruit-perez-to-run-against-ellison/