Hemp regulation and marijuana legalization updates for 420 Day

Happy 420 Day! I'm returning to the theme of marijuana legalization today with a reversal of the trend. PBS NewsHour explains How a small law change could have a huge impact on the U.S. hemp industry.

Tucked into the legislation that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history was a provision to change the definition of hemp. It was a small tweak involving minute measurements, but one that could have a huge impact on the booming market for hemp products. Jeffrey Brown reports from Kentucky.

That's a bummer, both for the users and the farmers. I'm going to offer some rare faint praise for Rand Paul, which is that I generally don't agree with his principles, but at least he has some, and this time I actually approve of how he's applying them. May he and others succeed in loosening the regulations on hemp.

Not all developments on legalization are bad. Two states are considering legalizing marijuana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I begin with CBS 58 in Milwaukee reporting State Democrats announce new marijuana legalization proposal.

Supporters of legal marijuana in Wisconsin have announced a new effort at the state Capitol.

The racial disparity in enforcement is enough to make me support this bill, although I agree that making medical marijuana legal would be a good first step that might actually pass. Some of the commenters mentioned that the bar and tavern owners opposed legalization. Considering that Wisconsin is the drunkest state in the union and seems proud of it, I'm not surprised.

I close with WJACTV asking When will PA legalize recreational marijuana?

PENNSYLVANIA (WJAC) — Is this the year that Pennsylvania lawmakers legalize the recreational use of marijuana?

Governor Shapiro continues to push for it, but it is still not certain if the legislature will approve it.

State Representative Scott Conklin recently spoke about the fact that all but one of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have already legalized marijuana. So, will it happen here?

Others in the legislature are not supportive of the idea, for various reasons, including one of the most heard about --- marijuana's possible link to harder drugs.

Raising revenue is one of the most cited reasons by Governor Shapiro and other backers to legalize.

Envisioned as a new cash crop in Pennsylvania, farmers paying a fee, growers’ licenses, tax on sales, all bringing in money, with the Department of Agriculture providing oversight.

I think Pennsylvania is a better bet than Wisconsin, but it's not a sure thing.

That's a wrap for today's sort-of holiday. Stay tuned for a Tuneful Tuesday post featuring the Marsh Family tomorrow, followed by the next episode of my series on the News & Doc Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary on Wayback Wednesday, which falls on Earth Day.

Debt ceiling bill approved by Senate, sent to President Biden for signature

Yesterday's news was House votes to approve debt ceiling deal, on to the Senate. Today, as MSNBC reported on "The 11th Hour," the news is Senate passes debt limit bill.

After debating a series of amendments, the Senate passed the debt ceiling deal struck by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The bill now heads to Biden’s desk for a signature as Monday’s debt deadline approaches.

As the preview image shows, the bill passed 66 to 36, with one Senator absent. It now goes to President Joe Biden to sign, which he will do this weekend after addressing the country at 7 P.M. EDT tonight. As I wrote yesterday, crisis averted!

With that out of the way, follow over the jump as I look for the devil in the details, one of the punchlines in the Satan Sandwich cartoon that served as the period on yesterday's post.

Colbert, Meyers, Noah, and Kimmel take closer looks at the first day of Trump's second impeachment trial

I closed Seth Meyers and FiveThirtyEight take closer looks at Trump's second impeachment trial by telling my readers "I'll have more about impeachment...with more comedy" today. I begin with Stephen Colbert's monologue Cowardly GOP Senators Look Away As Devastating Footage Shows Exactly Who Incited The Capitol Riot.

Republican Senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott couldn't bring themselves to watch as House prosecutors opened their impeachment case with a video demonstrating in no uncertain terms that the former president bears responsibility for the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building.

While the description called out the Republican Senators who very studiously paid no attention to the House's impeachment managers, the heart of the video focused on the impeachment managers and their counterparts, former President Donald Trump's defense lawyers. The former pointed out that impeachment trials of former officials took place while the Founding Fathers were still alive; if it was constitutional then, it's constitutional now. The latter provided a lot of unintentional comedy by either bumbling their way through their arguments (Bruce Castor) or making stupid and insulting arguments (David Schoen).

While the description of Seth Meyers Impeachment Managers Make Powerful Case Against Trump to Open Trial: A Closer Look focused on the prosecutors more than the jury or defense, Seth himself concentrated more on Trump and his supporters.

Seth takes a closer look at former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, where House impeachment managers laid out powerful evidence of his guilt while most Republican senators had no interest in holding him accountable.

My reaction to Senator James Lankford's assertion that the Senators' votes were "locked down" is to note that the vote on January 26 to proceed was 55-45, while the vote yesterday was 56-44. The prosecutors made progress while the defense lost ground.

Speaking of the defense losing ground, Trevor Noah targeted them in Trump Rolls Out Trash Lawyers for His 2nd Impeachment Trial.

As Trump’s second impeachment trial begins, Democrats show a video of Trump’s speech on January 6 interspersed with scenes of violence from his supporters, and his defense team struggles to make its case.

First, Castor sounds even worse when he's not interrupted. Second, Trevor is right about why the trial should take place; we need to see the evidence and the refusal of the Senate to convict despite it.

I conclude with Jimmy Kimmel's Trump Circus Back in Washington for Impeachment Trial #2.

The circus is back in Washington for the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, Republicans are too afraid to do the right thing, the two lawyers defending Trump formed a disaster duo and Trump was said to be deeply unhappy, officials in Palm Beach are discussing whether or not he is allowed to live at Mar-a-lago, Trump sycophants always use his middle initial when saying his name, plans are in place to safely re-open Broadway, and while Jimmy is more than happy to wait his turn but with that being said – he gives a list of people he should get the vaccine before, and he chats with a “vaccine hunter” (Andy Daly).

I never tire of writing that Kimmel's videos have the most complete descriptions. I'd write more, but today's proceedings are on, so I'm going to watch that now. See you tomorrow with more comedic observations of the trial!

Washington Post on whistleblowing and WHAS11 on Rand Paul testing positive for coronavirus update the top post from the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Happy Throwback Thursday!  For today's look back at the most popular posts from the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, I begin with the program note I used to conclude Vox and FiveThirtyEight explain social distancing.

I might take a break from the pandemic tomorrow, as I plan on posting a retrospective of the blogging year just ended, which I mentioned in the conclusion of The Washington Post and Full Frontal explain FOIA for Freedom of Information Day.

One of the episodes is "Whistleblowing 101," which I plan on using to update Rand Paul calling for publication of whistleblower's name illustrates how America fails its whistleblowers, the most read entry posted during the current blogging year.  Watch for that on January 26, the first Throwback Thursday of the tenth year of this blog — that is, if I'm not critically ill or dead from coronavirus by then.  I hope not.

So far, I'm fine.  I still plan on using the video I mentioned, but it turns out that Paul has tested positive for the virus.  That's definitely a pandemic angle, so I might use it, too.  Stay tuned.

Yes, the most read entry posted during the ninth year of this blog according to the default counter was Rand Paul calling for publication of whistleblower's name illustrates how America fails its whistleblowers, which earned ~1,990 default views and 2,023 raw views between being posted on January 31, 2020 and March 20, 2020.*  I'll explain how the entry got its views over the jump, but first I am updating both the topic of whistleblowing and the subject of Senator Paul.  I begin with The Washington Post's video Whistleblowing 101 | How to be a journalist.

Daniel Ellsberg risked his career and his safety to expose the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The Washington Post’s Libby Casey explains what it means to be a whistleblower, what legal protections are and are not available, and what someone risks by speaking up.

I've written about both examples of whistleblowers on this blog.  The conflict over publishing the Pentagon Papers was the central conflict in "The Post," which won Best Drama or Comedy about Politics or Government of 2017 (Best Political Scripted Movie for short).  The "60 Minutes" segment, "The Whistleblower," won Outstanding Investigative report in a Newsmagazine at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.  Not only were these important moments in whistleblowing and journalism, they made for award-winning media.

That's the update for whistleblowing.  For the update on Senator Rand Paul, I am sharing WHAS11 of Kentucky's report Sen. Rand Paul defends lack of quarantine.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is defending himself after coming under criticism for not quarantining himself after he was tested for the coronavirus.

Michele Travis had the following to say in a comment to the video on YouTube: "Bad thing, is he knew, he might have the Coronavirus, but he still interacted, with other members of congress and the house.  He should have put himself in Isolation, instead of interacting with others" (sic).  I agree.  He should have been a good example by practicing social distancing.  Instead, he was a bad example, not only on this issue, but others related to the pandemic.

Follow over the jump for the story on how this entry and others about impeachment earned their page views.

Rand Paul calling for publication of whistleblower's name illustrates how America fails its whistleblowers

CNN reported yesterday John Roberts publicly rejects Rand Paul's whistleblower question in Senate impeachment trial.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday publicly refused to read a question from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky during the Senate impeachment trial that named the alleged Ukraine whistleblower.

"The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted," Roberts said after receiving the question card.

Paul had expressed frustration with Republican leadership during the trial Wednesday night after it was made clear Roberts would not read his question that named the alleged Ukraine whistleblower, sources with knowledge of the situation said.
...
There have been several other whistleblower questions, some that even included identifying information, which Roberts has read. It's the alleged name itself that is his red line, sources said.

That wasn't all.  Charles Pierce of Esquire then reported what happened next.

Amazingly, Paul left the chamber and almost immediately called a press gaggle to take issue with what Roberts had done. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Paul immediately left the Senate floor and headed to a hastily-arranged press conference in a packed studio one floor above the chamber, where he read his question out loud himself and disparaged Roberts’ “incorrect finding.”

In other words, Paul outed someone he thinks was the whistleblower to the press and public after Roberts specifically refused to do so in the Senate chamber. This takes big clanging brass ones.

All this reminds me of another Vox video from last year that foreshadowed what came to pass during the impeachment trial, How America fails its whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers who work with classified information have a few options. All of them are bad.
...
“Whistleblowing” is when someone exposes a secret in their organization. And in the US, it’s often hailed as a heroic act. But within the government, whistleblowing is often perilous—especially when it involves classified information.

If a whistleblower goes to the media with classified information, that’s illegal. And since the Obama administration, it’s become common for the government to prosecute people who do it by charging them under a law from 1917 that was originally intended to prosecute spies for helping foreign governments. If a whistleblower files a complaint through internal channels instead, the complaint has to go through the head of the intelligence community before it can see the light of day—and after that, there are few protections against disclosing the whistleblower’s identity, and only weak recourses against retaliation.

In August 2019, a CIA officer filed a complaint about an alleged quid pro quo between President Trump and the President of Ukraine. The complaint made it to Congress, and kicked off impeachment proceedings. But the existing laws don’t guarantee that this whistleblower will be protected, either.

Just as Ezra Klein's predictions about impeachment being the ultimate loyalty test are coming to pass, so are the concerns expressed in this video.  As Pierce of Esquire wrote in the article I quoted above:

The whistleblower, whoever he or she is, is now in more danger than was the case when he first came forward anonymously. A good portion of the United States Senate apparently doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. The peril becomes even greater when you factor in the Republicans in the House, and the reckless gnomes of the conservative media.

I second this emotion.

Four candidates bid farewell after Iowa

I wrote that "I'll have more about Frothy and three other candidates quitting later" in The smart money and endorsements are more for Rubio than ever.  I'm outsourcing serious commentary on this news to PBS's Washington Week, which posted Four candidates exit 2016 race, Fiorina fights to be on debate stage, Gilmore gets 4 votes in Iowa to its YouTube account as a web extra.

After disappointing finishes in the Iowa caucuses, four presidential candidates left the 2016 race including Republicans Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul and Democrat Martin O'Malley. Reid Wilson and Doyle McManus discuss why these candidates struggled to gain traction. Plus, Carly Fiorina is being left off the next Republican debate stage, despite being one of only nine remaining Republican candidates. And another Republican, Jim Gilmore, picked up only 12 votes in the Iowa caucuses.

Follow over the jump for my good-byes to each of the candidates no longer contesting their parties' nominations.

Darth Trump strikes back as The Farce awakens

I'm not done with Darth Trump.  Here are three cartoons that feature him as evil Star Wars characters.

First, here he is as one of a rogue's gallery of Republican candidates as Star Wars characters.


Seeing this lineup is enough to make one drink.*

Next, Chris Christie isn't the only candidate who reminds cartoonists of Jabba The Hutt.


Just remember what Princess Leia did to her captor.  I'm sure the GOP would like to make life imitate art.

Finally, The Penguin Donald returns as the Dark Lord of the Sith.


Yes, The Farce is strong with this one.

*That reminds me that there is a Democratic Debate tonight.  Here are the drinks and drinking game rules for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley.  Happy debate watching, especially in the middle of a data breach scandal.

Ben Carson sings "One Wittle Wee Wee"

The scrutiny of Ben Carson that included my razzing him in Doctor Carson and his Amazing Technicolor Labcoat looks likes it's taking its toll, as Politico reported Wednesday Ben Carson tumbles in national poll.  That survey had him tied for third place with Ted Cruz behind Donald Trump in first and Marco Rubio in second.*  Looks like the next Examiner.com article on Carson's polls won't show him leading Clinton and Sanders in Michigan.

It also means that jokes about the candidate, other than ones about his leaving the nomination contest, are approaching their sell by dates.  Since my wife found a good one, I'd better share it before it goes bad.  So in the spirit of Donald Trump dance remix, I present One Wittle Wee-Wee In America (Ben Carson).

One of the greatest Presidential Campaign songs of all time. Dr Ben Carson (Neurosurgeon) and his contribution "One Wittle Wee-Wee". For 'murica.

If you like this, please check out "Bad Lip Reading" on YouTube. This is a snippet from their original video, with some extra patriotism thrown in for my own entertainment.

Here's the full video, in which Doctor Pyramid gets the last song: "FIRST REPUBLICAN DEBATE HIGHLIGHTS: 2015" — A Bad Lip Reading of The Republican Debate.


If only these candidates were this funny in real life.

*The smart money is still on Rubio to beat Trump.

Trump's supporters display their poor writing skills

I'm not through with The Penguin Donald this week.  I stumbled across this item from The Moderate Voice found via Crooks and Liars that demonstrates how one can tell a lot about candidates through their supporters.

Why are we not surprised that Carly Fiorina’s fans have the best grammar, spelling and punctuation among the Republican presidential candidates and Donald Trump’s have the worst?

That’s based on an analysis from Grammarly, an automated proofreading company, which evaluated the supporters of the GOP candidates. Fiorina’s fans had 6.3 errors per hundred words in their Facebook comments, while Trump’s backers had 12.6 errors per 100 words. Only comments of 15 words or more were analyzed, and Grammarly ignored common slang words and stylistic variations (for instance, the use of serial commas, using numerals instead of spelling out numbers, using contractions). In total, roughly 9,000 words were evaluated for each candidate.

In ascending order of misteaks . . . er, mistakes per 100 words, Ben Carson’s supporters were second with 6.6, Lindsay Graham and George Pataki with 7.2 each, Ted Cruz 7.7, John Kasich 7.7, Jeb Bush 7.9, Mike Huckabee 8.0, Bobby Jindal 8.2, Chris Christie 8.3, Rand Paul 8.4, Marco Rubio 8.8, Scott Walker 10.6, Ric Santorum 11.5, and Rick Perry second-to-last with 12.5.

Follow over the jump for a graphic from USA Today showing these findings.

Drinks for the candidates in tonight's debate

I concluded Proof of drinking game concept on Kasich with "Two candidates down, eight to go.  Stay tuned."  I took care of drinks for Kasich and Trump, now it's time for the rest of the candidates.  Follow over the jump for the rest of the drinking game at You Might Notice A Trend along with drinks for the remaining eight candidates.

Examiner.com article on Trump combing in second in Michigan

Walker leads Trump by a hair in Michigan

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has a mere one percent lead with fifteen percent over real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican field in Michigan according to a poll released Tuesday, June 30, by Public Policy Polling.  Trump is in a three-way tie at fourteen percent with physician and Detroit native Ben Carson and former Florida Governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush.  The rest of the Republican field has support in the single digits with Florida Senator Marco Rubio coming in closest at nine percent.

Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling, said in a statement "Donald Trump's in the top tier of the Republican field for a second consecutive week in our polling.  Time will tell how long the Trump Bump lasts, but it's at least two weeks at this point."

The same survey found former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead over the Democratic field at fifty-seven percent.  Bernie Sanders came in second, far behind Clinton at twenty-five percent.  The remaining Democratic contenders fell even farther behind with support in the single digits.

The poll also found that Clinton would defeat any of the Republican candidates in Michigan by margins of three to ten percent.  Kentucky Senator Rand Paul came in closest at three percent, while Trump and Texas Senator Raphael "Ted" Cruz would both lose to Clinton by ten percent.

Not only has Trump combed in second in New Hampshire poll once, he did it three more times, once again in New Hampshire, once nationally, and now here in Michigan.  Trump as Penguin for President is kicking butt, even if Univision has fired him.  Not only am I getting mileage out of him here at Crazy Eddie's Motie News (the second and third most read entries last month were about The Donald), I'm making some money covering him at Examiner.com.  I'll make even more if my readers support my reporting by clicking on the link in the headline.

Stay tuned for a celebration of Canada Day and this month's Nablopomo theme.  Hint, it's recycled.

On American political parties held captive by their interest groups and ideologies

In the comments to Dark Age America: The End of the Old Order, Purple Tortoise asked the following.

Given the widespread obvious discontent, I have been surprised to see that no mainstream politician has really gone for grabbing the populist center and run on reining in the banks, restricting offshoring and immigration, and ceasing involvement in foreign wars. It seems like it would have been a great vote-getter to me. What am I missing?

Tortoise was quite obviously playing with Greer's idea that fascism is a totalitarianism that grows out of a disenfranchised center, a topic I elaborated on in The Archdruid on Fascism, part 2.  Neither Greer nor anyone else answered him directly for five days, so I decided to chime in.

What you're missing is that none of the top four parties in this country will support that combination of positions. Each party will support some or even most of them, but will find at least one of them anathema, so there is no home for that platform among them.

The Republican Party won't consider reining in the banks or ceasing intervention in foreign wars; the closest one got to those positions in the GOP was Ron Paul, who was interested in "Ending the Fed," but I don't know what he thinks about other big banks. I don't recall his son Rand continuing that policy. Both are still anti-interventionist, and both make the mainstream power brokers in their party furious. Note that Ron Paul didn't even get as far as either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich in the 2012 primaries. [His son Rand] is going to have an uphill fight getting through them in 2016 as well.

The Democratic Party won't support strong restrictions on immigration; they're having enough trouble on illegal immigration. Restrictions on immigration would be considered an expression of racism, and the Democrats include racial and ethnic minorities in their coalition, some of whom would be most displeased by an anti-immigrant stance.

The Libertarians would find restrictions on the banks, outsourcing, and immigration against their principles. The party actually advocates for open borders for both money and people.

The Greens might go for restricting immigration except that they don't want to be seen as racist, either. Since being pro-redistribution and anti-racist are both Left positions, it's hard to be anti-immigrant and be seen as Left in the U.S. these days.

The largest party in the U.S. who might be for all those things is the Constitution Party. Any politician in that group who can wrap those ideas in a flag while carrying a cross will get away with them. Pity the party is the personification of amateur hour in politics.

Neither Purple Tortoise nor Greer had anything to say about my comment, but they had the excuse that it was approved on Wednesday morning, and Greer and all of his readers were probably already looking forward to his next essay.

Just the same, consider Purple Tortoise's question and my response an explanation of why, despite Duverger's Law working, people are frustrated by the major parties and may not even be able to find a fit in the minor parties.  Not all possible combinations of positions can be accomodated within them, so those who do have those collections of views have no one to represent them.  Getting rid of the current two major parties won't solve that problem.

Examiner.com article on USA Today poll

Michigan Democrats lead in USA Today poll

A poll published Thursday afternoon by USA Today shows Democrats leading in all contests for statewide partisan offices surveyed.  U.S. Representative Gary Peters led former Secretary of State Republican Terri Lynn Land by 9% for U.S. Senate.  Former U.S. Representative Mark Schauer edged Republican incumbent Rick Snyder by 2%.

Farther down the ballot, the poll conducted by Suffolk University continued to show Democrats with more support than Republicans, all of whom are incumbents.  Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown was well ahead of Republican Brian Calley by 10% for Lieutenant Governor.  Michigan State University professor Mark Totten led Bill Schuette by 7% for Attorney General.  Even Detroit attorney Godfrey Dillard managed a 4% lead over Republican Ruth Johnson.

The poll also looked at the generic Congressional ballot and the 2016 Presidential election.  A plurality said they planned on voting for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate by a margin of nearly 4% this year.  For the Democratic nomination, an overwhelming majority favored Hillary Clinton (60.8%) over Joe Biden (17.45%).  On the Republican side, undecided led at 17.02% with Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee tied for second at 11.17%.

Much more at the link in the headline, including statistics for all candidates, a video about the U.S. Senate contest featuring Terri Lynn Land putting her foot in her mouth over equal pay for women, and summaries of two other polls this week.  One of those polls included a look ahead to the next presidential campaign.

For 2016, poll respondents overwhelmingly favored Clinton over all the potential Republican nominees surveyed.  She would beat Ted Cruz by 14%, both Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee by 12%, Jeb Bush by 11%, and Rand Paul by 10%.

Good news for Democrats, indeed.

Rutgers on Christie's win and NJ minimum wage

I concluded last month's Election news from Rutgers by he'd win as big as he is.

It looks like Christie is going to win in a 20-point blowout, in part because he's defused some key issues, in part because the Democrats in New Jersey have not helped his opponent.  If  so, he is in good shape for his future plans.

It happened.  Follow over the jump for Rutgers University, which has the story both before and after.