From the leading authority on marijuana Kevin A. Sabet—a man who has served as White House advisor on drugs to three different administrations and who NBC News once called “the prodigy of drug politics”—comes the remarkable and shocking exposé about how 21st century pot, today’s new and highly potent form of the drug, is on the rise, spreading rapidly across America by an industry intent on putting rising profits over public health.
Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn’t Want You to Knowexamines the inside story behind the headlines, containing accounts from Sabet’s time in the Obama administration to stunning revelations from whistleblowers speaking out for the first time. What it finds is how the marijuana industry is running rampant without proper oversight, leaving Americans’ health seriously at risk.
Included are interviews with industry insiders who reveal the hidden dangers of a product they had once worshipped.
Also contained in these pages are insights from a major underground-market dealer who admits that legalization is hastening the growth of the illicit drug trade.
And more to the heart of the issue are the tragic stories of those who have suffered and died as a result of marijuana use, and in many cases, as a result of its mischaracterization. Readers will learn how power brokers worked behind the scenes to market marijuana as a miracle plant in order to help it gain widespread acceptance and to set the stage for the lucrative expansion of recreational pot.
The author of this compelling first-person narrative leading the national fight against the legalization of cannabis through his nonprofit, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (aka SAM) is Kevin Sabet. As a policy advisor to everyone from county health commissioners to Pope Francis, and a frequent public speaker on television, radio and through other media outlets, his analysis is consistently relied upon by those who recognize what’s at stake as marijuana lobbyists downplay the risks of massive commercialization.
A book several years in the making, filled with vivid characters and informed by hundreds of interviews and scores of confidential documents, Sabet’s Smokescreen lays bare the unvarnished truth about marijuana in America.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-09-30 06:33:232021-10-07 20:17:45Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
By God’s grace, the American experiment has lasted for 232 years now, since the Constitution went into effect on April 30, 1789. Every political leader that is sworn in agrees to uphold the Constitution.
But now in our day of rampant political correctness, of Marxist revisionism, of “egg shell plaintiffs,” of “safe spaces,” of “hate speech” (which is often just the other guy’s opinion), even the Constitution has recently been labeled as “harmful.” It might offend someone.
Case in point. Recently, Ophelie Jacobson of Campus Reform approached students at the University of Florida to ask them what they think about the Constitution. Their responses, as seen in this video, were mostly negative.
Here were some of their comments on the U.S. Constitution:
“Absolutely terrible. Needs to be redone immediately.”
“I think it needs a lot more reform for the changes that happened since then.”
“I think we just need to update it on like—more equality, equity, stuff like that.”
It’s the product of “all old white men.”
“It should have been made by a group of diverse people.”
“The time period, you know, was rich, old white men; and that’s exactly what that document says and stands for and vouches for.”
No wonder so many of them were willing to sign a petition to abolish the Constitution!
Furthermore, even the keepers of the Constitution in Washington, D.C. have contributed to this negative view. On 9/224/21, The Federalist reported: “Over the summer, the National Archives issued ‘harmful content’ warnings on all its collections of online documents, including Founding-era documents like the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.”
Why would they do this? The Federalist explains that the warnings “allegedly protect against documents that ‘reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes; be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more.’”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) want the National Archives to remove these “harmful negative alerts” from our founding documents.
This is getting ridiculous. If these views prevail, the Marxist attempt in America to “tear it all down” and start over might well succeed. May it never be.
The Constitution has brought unparalleled political freedom and prosperity. Marxism has brought unparalleled misery and death. People don’t clamor to get into the Marxist countries like China or Cuba or Venezuela. But they do risk their lives to get into the United States. That’s not despite the Constitution and what it represents. It’s because of it.
But many forces today, because they love power (and often the perks that come with that power) are willing to undermine the Constitution, so they may gather unto themselves more control. This does not bode well for the future of our republic.
Thomas Sowell warns, “It doesn’t matter what rights you have under the Constitution, if the government can punish you for exercising those rights. And it doesn’t matter what limits the Constitution puts on government officials’ power, if they can exceed those limits without any adverse consequences.”
This point is reminiscent of a warning from the father of our country.
As Dr. Peter Lillback and I noted in our 2006 book, George Washington’s Sacred Fire, “Washington asserted that human depravity could ultimately destroy the Constitution, even with the checks and balances it possessed. In his proposed Address to Congress in April 1789, he described how the Constitution, with all of its wisdom, could ultimately come to naught by the depravity of the people and those who govern them, since the Constitution in the hands of a corrupt people was a mere ‘wall of words’ or a ‘mound of parchment.’” (p. 220).
One of the geniuses of the Constitution is the way its principles were built by men who acknowledged the sinful nature of man. I believe that because it was based on a correct anthropology—one that recognizes our innate selfishness—that the Constitution has been so durable.
James Madison, a key driving force behind the Constitution, learned well from his teacher, Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, the devout Presbyterian who was the president of Princeton, who taught Madison what the Bible says about man’s corrupt nature.
Madison said, “All men having power ought to be distrusted.” Therefore, the founders separated power, explicitly, so that we would have liberty rather than tyranny.
I agree with William Gladstone, the distinguished 19th century Prime Minister of England, who declared, “The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”
Why this constant attempt to tear down those things which are right in our world? The Constitution of the United States is one of them. We have our work cut out for us to convince many fellow Americans of that truth.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jerry Newcombe, D. Min.http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Newcombe, D. Min.2021-09-30 06:09:222021-10-07 20:17:45The Constitution Under Fire
Here’s a dismaying prospect: Paying 6, 8, or 10 cents in new taxes for every mile you drive. It may sound small, but at an 8 cent rate, that would be $1,144 in new annual taxes for the average American, who drives about 14,300 miles a year. Yikes!
Some on social media are claiming that this punitive tax scheme has been slipped into President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending legislation—which, after all, is nearly 3,000 pages and is chock full of unrelated waste and partisan pet projects. But are they right to be concerned about a mileage tax soon becoming reality?
Biden's new bill calls for a "Mileage Tax," taxing drivers at 10 cents a mile for the privilege of driving.
The infrastructure legislation does not include a mileage tax or another form of driving tax. What it does include is a pilot program to study and test the idea. The legislation authorizes $125 million in taxpayer funding for this test initiative. (A lot of taxpayer money for an experiment, no?)
“People would volunteer to be part of the test,” fact-checkers at local New York news outlet WGRZ-TV report. “The test would require volunteers to record their miles, pay the fees, and then be reimbursed by the government. This pilot program would go through the year 2026 and at that point, if Congress and the president like it, they would have to pass another bill making it into law. This infrastructure bill simply creates the program.”
Some people are claiming Biden's infrastructure bill contains a per-mile driving tax.
That's not quite right. It includes a pilot test program that will test out and study the idea, which could then be implemented in future legislation.https://t.co/IhtA6CJgEd
We can certainly question the wisdom of this endeavor. But rest assured that if the infrastructure legislation ultimately passes—a likely if not certain outcome—you won’t get a new per-mile bill from the IRS. However, this move does represent a shift toward mainstreaming and advancing the idea of a per-mile driving tax.
Such a tax would be highly regressive, meaning that it would disproportionately burden low-income Americans. So, too, the costs would fall harder on rural Americans who drive more than their city-dwelling counterparts. That said, proponents argue it simply funds highway infrastructure by taxing those who use it. They also note that it could replace the gas tax, which currently attempts to do the same yet fails to capture usage by electric vehicles.
Still, the prospect of sizable new taxes levied on working-class Americans solely for the privilege of being allowed to drive your own car isn’t an attractive one. Luckily, we aren’t actually facing this as an immediate reality, even if it is slowly being advanced into the mainstream.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-09-30 06:00:202021-10-07 20:17:46Does Biden’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Include a Mileage Tax?
Breitbart News reports that the disgraced, far-left smear organization known as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reinvented its social justice Teaching for Tolerance education program and rebranded it Learning for Justice (LFJ), with an online magazine touting one of its goals: “to dismantle white supremacy.”
“Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,” the magazine states at its website.
The Learning for Justice “community” boasts “more than 500,000 educators who read our magazine, screen our films, visit our website, listen to our podcasts, attend our trainings and webinars, use our frameworks or participate in our social media community.”
Stories in the Fall 2021 issue of Learning for Justice include “Envisioning School Safety Without Police,” “We Can Create Change Together,” and “Teaching Honest History: A New LFJ Resource for Teaching the Civil Rights Movement.”
Sample LFJ lesson plans include “Diversity in the classroom,” for grades K-2; “Chicanas and Chicanos: Viva la Raza!” for grades K-2; “Social Justice and Activism for Students,” for grades 6-8, 9-12; “Integration of Identity and Social Inclusion,” for grades 6-8; “Exploring Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Through Artwork,” for grades 9-12; and “Systemic Biases & You,” for grades 9-12.
The SPLC explains its name change to Learning for Justice by saying, “The fact is tolerance is not justice. It isn’t a sufficient description of the work we do or of the world we want.”
The world the SPLC hate group wants is the same one the Marxist left wants: one in which young, impressionable students are molded not into educated, critically thinking, productive citizens, but into social justice activists indoctrinated in such divisive, socially and personally destructive ideologies as socialism, Critical Race Theory, and “anti-racism.” It is a postmodern world in which America, the freest and most prosperous society in human history, is “fundamentally transformed” into a totalitarian state run by globalist elites who are shielded from the consequences of their own policies, as the socialist elites always are.
In 2020, SPLC partnered with the Loudon County, Virginia public school system to develop the new history curriculum which deliberately paints America in a highly negative light, focusing heavily on slavery and social injustice. “Sugarcoating or ignoring slavery until later grades makes students more upset by or even resistant to true stories about American history,” the curriculum reads. “Long before we teach algebra, we teach its component parts. We should structure history instruction the same way.”
The new curriculum also highlights “activism and action civics” opportunities for young students in kindergarten through second grade. “Students should study examples of role models from the past and present, and ask themselves, ‘how can I make a difference?’” the guidelines explain. “These conversations [about slavery] should lead into discussions about current injustices — particularly those that continue to disenfranchise and oppress the descendants of enslaved people — and possibilities for activism and reform.”
The political tenor of the new lessons was confirmed by a longtime Loudon County elementary teacher who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her job if her real views about the new curriculum were made known. “I teach lower grades in elementary school.… [Never before] did I have to teach about slavery,” the teacher said. “Our standards were always [to] teach about famous Americans, George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., people like that. But, it was all very general and the bigger picture, we highlighted their accomplishments.” She noted that the slavery is usually taught beginning in the fourth grade when students have greater maturity to understand it in its historical context.
“What they’re really trying to do is divide people as early as they can, starting now with kindergarteners,” the teacher added. “They’re really going to be inciting hate. They’re pointing out that there’s ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’, and that’s crazy. We never taught about that in school…. We learn about how to get along with one another and be kind and respect others. But now, with this new curriculum that they’re adding, it’s going to do the total opposite.”
Max Eden, an education policy expert at the libertarian-minded Manhattan Institute, concurred that the curriculum was not suitable for young children. “Students aren’t prepared when they’re five years old to develop a nuanced sense of history and political processes, and pros and cons of different side effects, and unintended consequences,” Eden said. “What the real goal of this is, by introducing [slavery] this young, is to try to get the left-wing, Nikole Hannah-Jones [creator of the 1619 Project], meta-political narrative into kids’ heads as soon as possible, which is basically trying to compel them to believe that because slavery happened, therefore, America is evil and you must follow the leftist idea of … how we need to overturn power in society.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Discover The Networkshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDiscover The Networks2021-09-30 05:48:562021-10-07 20:17:46Hate Group SPLC Releases ‘Learning for Justice’ Magazine
According to FBI reports (WSJ). From another story:
The data shows the murder rate rising to large heights in the summer of 2020 and then remaining above normal the rest of the year. The jump is the biggest since this data started being collected like this in the 1960s (Washington Examiner).
Murders Rose Nearly 30% in the U.S. in 2020, FBI Reports
The number of homicides in the U.S. rose nearly 30% in 2020 from the prior year to 21,570, the largest single-year increase ever recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The rate of 6.5 homicides per 100,000 residents is the highest since 1997 but still below historic highs of the early 1990s.
The violent crime rate rose 5.2% last year compared with the previous year while the property crime rate dipped 8.1%, according to data released Monday by the FBI.
Cities are working to address the increase in killings, with some reversing cuts to police departments made in 2020 in response to the defund-the-police movement.
Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who studies trends in homicides, said last year’s murder increase was startling given the years of declines that preceded it.
“The rise in homicides coincided with the pandemic last summer, and also the outbreak of widespread protests against police violence after George Floyd was murdered… neither of which was anticipated,” Mr. Rosenfeld said.
Data from major cities indicates the increase in killings has slowed so far this year, but homicide rates are still above pre-pandemic levels, he said.
The causes of the homicide rise over the past year have been debated by political leaders and researchers and are being studied. Some politicians and law-enforcement officials have said that a police pullback has been a factor in places like Portland, Ore., which has seen a large increase in homicides.
Some researchers blame frayed relations between law enforcement and Black communities after high-profile police killings, such as that of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Others point to the stress from the Covid-19 pandemic and the temporary shutdown of the court system………..
Quick note: Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. We will not waver. We will not tire. We will not falter, and we will not fail. Freedom will prevail.
Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America’s survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.
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http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2021-09-30 05:31:172021-10-07 20:17:46Murders Increased Nearly 30 Percent in U.S. in 2020
Mail-in ballots are now permanent and every registered voter in California will now be sent a mail-in ballot.
California will never have a legit election again.
With his overwhelming victory in the recall election, California governor Gavin Newsom and his backers have consolidated their hold on the state for the foreseeable future. https://t.co/eB2fTvV9wk via @joelkotkin
Every registered voter in California will now be sent a mail-in ballot.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 37, making California the eighth state in the country to adopt this kind of legislation.
The bill, which was authored by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), “requires county elections officials to mail a ballot to every active registered voter for all elections, whether they request it or not. Voters can still choose to vote at physical polling locations, if they prefer. The new law will also permanently extend the time mail ballots have to arrive at elections offices from three days to seven days after an election, a practice adopted in 2020,” per The Sacramento Bee.
Newsom, who recently survived a recall election, said in a statement, “As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options and bolstering elections integrity and transparency.”
“Last year we took unprecedented steps to ensure all voters had the opportunity to cast a ballot during the pandemic and today we are making those measures permanent after record-breaking participation in the 2020 presidential election,” he said.
Newsom tried to enact universal mail-in voting via executive orders during the pandemic. The Sutter County Superior Court ruled he acted beyond the powers granted to him under the California Emergency Services Act and overruled the order as unconstitutional. A permanent injunction was issued in order to prevent Newsom from repeating his actions.
“It’s no secret that Democrats have and will continue to try to manipulate election regulations for their political advantage,” California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement. “Republicans will hold them accountable through our election integrity operations — including litigation, where appropriate — and by recruiting and supporting candidates who will provide solutions to California’s numerous challenges.”
She added, “The California Republican Party is committed to ensuring elections are safe, fair and secure, giving voters the confidence they need to cast a ballot.”
Critics of the vote-by-mail ballots cite concerns of voter fraud, security, and election integrity. Mail-in ballots could be tampered with or illegally filled out and submitted, impacting the results of an election.
Nevada, Vermont, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii have all adopted the practice permanently
“Like Utah, California had already begun allowing mail-in voting on a county-by-county basis pre-pandemic but expanded it to all voters in 2020. The practice was extended statewide temporarily through 2021, including the recent gubernatorial recall election,” per the Times of San Diego.
The Secretary of State’s office reported that over 87% of votes in the 2020 General Election were cast through mail-in ballots. Data shows that 2020 had the highest general election turnout rate in California since 1952, with 70% of eligible voters participating in the election.
Quick note: Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. We will not waver. We will not tire. We will not falter, and we will not fail. Freedom will prevail.
Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America’s survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.
As we have documented here many times, just the opposite is true. Victimhood is so much of a currency that Muslims not infrequently fake hate crimes so as to be able to claim victim status. In American culture today, Muslims, non-white people, women, and gays are focused upon, coddled, celebrated, and again and again cast as victims when it is those who aren’t in these groups who are really marginalized.
by Ryan Mills, National Review, September 27, 2021 (thanks to Darcy):
It’s still two months until Thanksgiving, and already one school district in Washington is serving up pie to its staff. Not pumpkin pie. Not apple or cherry. Rather, teachers at Tumwater High School recently were force-fed a big slice of “privilege pie.”
According to one employee, teachers in the district were required to attend diversity training where they were asked to examine their privilege. As part of the training, the teachers were instructed to color in a “privilege pie” – a pie chart with several so-called privileges, including being white, cisgender male, Christian, heterosexual, and U.S. born.
“The more we colored in, the more privileged we were,” the teacher, whose name was not released, told Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit that fights classroom indoctrination and activist-driven agendas in U.S. schools.
“I was so upset because we have so much to do and I would really prefer to use that time to design effective instruction or communicate with families,” the teacher said, according to a quote released by Parents Defending Education. “Instead, I’m sitting there for two hours learning about how I am privileged because of my skin color and about micro-aggressions.”…
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-09-30 05:08:232021-10-07 20:17:47WASHINGTON STATE: High School Claims Being White Male Christian Heterosexual Brings One Extra ‘Privilege’
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) is ostensibly a Catholic. When she was sworn in as governor in August, the Leftist Catholic America Magazinenoted that she thanked her “big Irish Catholic” family, but her real religion was suggested in the next sentence of the America Mag report: “Her immediate family sat in the front row, wearing masks and spaced slightly apart.” Of course they did. For the secular, pro-abortion Left, the political agenda of the day is much more than just an array of policy imperatives and goals: it’s a holy faith, to be believed fervently and spread among the unenlightened masses. Hochul provided the latest example of this Sunday in a speech at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, where she preached her new gospel of faith and redemption coming at the point of a needle: the unvaccinated, she said, “aren’t listening to God and what God wants.”
Hochul spoke to the congregation as if she were a true believer, but given the likelihood that Hochul doesn’t actually share the faith of those who attend the Christian Cultural Center, her speech is less of an evangelical display than it is a nauseatingly condescending masterpiece of pandering. “God,” Hochul proclaimed, “let you survive this pandemic because he wants you to do great things someday. He let you live through this when so many other people did not and that is also your responsibility. But how do we keep more people alive?”
How indeed? Every religion is in one way or another a story of loss and gain, of sin and redemption, and the prophet Hochul’s new religion is no exception: she offered the Christian Cultural Center a parody of Christianity in which the coronavirus is the original sin, the vaccine is the means of redemption, and the vaccinated are the grateful saved community. “I prayed a lot to God during this time,” she claimed, “and you know what – God did answer our prayers. He made the smartest men and women, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers – he made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God. Thank you. And I wear my ‘vaccinated’ necklace all the time to say I’m vaccinated. All of you, yes, I know you’re vaccinated, you’re the smart ones, but you know there’s people out there who aren’t listening to God and what God wants. You know who they are.”
Hochul’s story is resonant of conversion stories down through the ages: I once was lost but now I’m found, I was wandering in sin and desolation but now – hallelujah! – I have seen the light and gotten the vaccine! Hochul continued her Christian parody by making her claim to be none other than the Lord himself, sending out His followers with the good news of salvation: “I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-09-30 04:59:332021-10-07 20:17:47Hochul’s New Religion: God Gave Us the Vaccines, and He Wants Us to Be Vaccinated
“Reconstituted”? Neither was ever destroyed. This statement indicates that Milley severely underestimates the jihad threat, and will almost certainly be as incompetent in dealing with it at home as he was in Afghanistan.
(CNSNews.com) – “It is clear, it is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday….
Milley made the remarks in his opening statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee:
And we must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization, and they still have not broken ties with Al Qaeda. I have no illusions who we are dealing with….
A reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility. And those conditions, to include activity in ungoverned spaces, could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months.
That mission will be much harder now, but not impossible, and we will continue to protect the American people.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-09-30 04:50:032021-10-07 20:17:47Milley: ‘Reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the U.S. is a very real possibility’
Kaiser Permanente Northern California researchers studied 100,005 pregnancy records of 95,412 women before and during the COVID pandemic. They found that prenatal marijuana use increased 25 percent (from 6.75 percent to 8.14 percent) during the pandemic.
JAMA. Published online September 27, 2021. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.16328
Cannabis use among pregnant women is common and has increased in recent years in the US, from an estimated 3.4% in 2002 to 7.0% in 2017.1 Pregnant women report using cannabis to relieve stress and anxiety,2 and prenatal cannabis use may have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic as pregnant women faced general and pregnancy-specific COVID-related stressors (eg, social isolation, financial and psychosocial distress, increased burden of childcare, changes in prenatal care, and concerns about heightened risks of COVID-19).3,4
Considered an essential business in California, cannabis retailers remained open during the pandemic with record sales in 2020.5 We used data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), a large integrated health care delivery system with universal screening for prenatal cannabis use to test the hypothesis that rates of prenatal cannabis use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[ … ]
Results
Of 100 005 pregnancies (95 412 women), 26% were Asian or Pacific Islander; 7%, Black; 28%, Hispanic; 34%, non-Hispanic White; and 5%, other, unknown, or multiracial. The patients were a mean age of 31 years (median, 31 years). There were negligible differences in age or race and ethnicity in the 2 periods. During the pandemic, patients completed toxicology testing slightly earlier in their pregnancies (before pandemic mean, 8.51 weeks’ gestation; during pandemic mean, 8.04 weeks’ gestation).
Before the pandemic, the standardized rate of prenatal cannabis use was 6.75% of pregnancies (95% CI, 6.55%-6.95%); that rate increased to 8.14% of pregnancies (95% CI, 7.85%-8.43%) during the pandemic (Figure). In the ITS analysis, we found that prenatal cannabis use increased by 25% (95% CI, 12%-40%; Table) during the pandemic over prenatal cannabis use during the 15 months before the pandemic. The ITS analysis confirmed that these rates before and during the pandemic were stable, with no statistically significant month-to-month trends (Table).
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00National Families in Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNational Families in Action2021-09-29 14:29:132021-10-07 20:17:48CALIFORNIA: Prenatal Marijuana Use By Pregnant Women Up 25% During COVID
Unions representing the approximately 7,800 teachers who will lose their jobs have been largely silent about mass firings due to New York City’s vaccine mandate.
New York City teachers must get vaccinated by Friday in order to keep working, The New York Times (NYT) reported. While several New York City unions have criticized the rushed implementation of the mandate and expressed concern over the looming issue of understaffed schools, unions have been largely silent on the issue of firing unvaccinated teachers.
NEW from @NYCMayor on @InsideCityHall: NYC has the right to move fwd with our school vaccine mandate. @NYCSchools employees have until end of day Friday so that by Monday, October 4, 100% of the educators + staff in our buildings will be vaccinated.
The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators in New York City criticized the city for going forward with the mandate before addressing the impending staffing shortage, calling it “dangerous and irresponsible” to allow schools to operate so understaffed.
The president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) similarly called for the city to delay the mandate’s implementation, stating that schools “are not ready for the implementation of the vaccine mandate.”
When asked how the union would support unvaccinated workers, a spokesperson for UFT directed the Daily Caller to its vaccine mandate and exemptions page, which explains that teachers without a vaccine or a valid exemption may choose between termination and unpaid leave.
“Permanent medical exemptions … will only be considered where the individual has a documented allergic reaction such that the member cannot receive any of the three authorized COVID-19 vaccines,” the page states.
The American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and AFL-CIO did not respond to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city has thousands of substitute teachers on standby, the Wall Street Journal reported. Only about one-third of its chapter leaders believe their schools can open without disruption, according to UFT.
The New York City Mayor’s Office announced Monday that 90% of the city’s approximately 78,000 teachers were vaccinated. Teachers who have not received their first shot by midnight Friday will be removed from payroll Monday morning, according to NYT.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Tuesday barring state agencies from providing assistance to President Joe Biden’s administration in transporting illegal migrants.
Executive Order 21-223 makes it unlawful for Florida’s executive agencies to “provide support or resources to, or in any way assist, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or any other federal department or agency” in their attempt to move illegal migrants apprehended at the Southern Border across the nation.
By signing the Biden Border Crisis Executive Order, I am working to hold this administration and the federal government accountable for refusing to enforce the immigration laws of this country. pic.twitter.com/J338gm595Y
“This executive order makes it clear that Florida resources will not be used to prop up the failed open border agenda enacted by this administration,” DeSantis said. He also noted that nearly 250,000 illegal migrants have been released in the U.S. in less than a year of Biden’s presidency, according to a press release.
Additionally, the governor announced a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its “catch and release” policy.
He also appointed former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Larry Keefe as the state’s Public Safety Czar on Monday. Keefe is responsible for protecting Floridian taxpayers from “reckless immigration policies,” according to the press release.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar executive order in late July, which outlawed non-government entities from providing transportation to migrants.
The Biden administration sued Texas over Abbott’s order and a federal judge issued a temporary halt on the governor’s ban in early August.
“I started a joke, Which started the whole world crying, But I didn’t see, That the joke was on me, oh no.” Lyrics from The Bee Gees song “I Started a Joke“
Everyone is now laughing at the Biden administration. Biden and his handlers (he has handlers because he is incompetent) are the laughing stock of the whole world.
What is even sadder is that his policies and political positions are now harming working class Americans. Consumer confidence has now reached a 22 year low. It has not been this low since the DotCom implosion under Bill Clinton.
From Biden’s broken national security policies, to his disaster in Afghanistan, to the ongoing border crisis (the border patrol estimated that illegal aliens will top a million for the month of September), to a dangerous immigration policy, to the Democrat controlled Congress’ bills that raise taxes, increase spending and turn one group against another have many Americans of all races crying.
Biden is now openly anti-American in everything that he, and his administration, does. Americans are today paying over $1.00 more per gallon of gasoline at the pump. Oil prices reached $80 per barrel, double the price under Trump prior to the virus from China. And Biden is just getting started on implementing draconian energy policies to “save the planet” from climate change. Go figure!
Biden’s Mandates
Today the Biden administration’s operative word is “mandate.”
Mandates are not leadership. Mandates are unconstitutional. Mandates are not the law.
Congress passes laws, not Biden.
It seems that political satire is becoming political reality under Biden. But who’s laughing now?
Are those who voted for Biden, legally and illegally, happy now with what is going on?
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, sponsored by The ANTIFA by Jack Posobiec, for Tuesday shows that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-eight percent (58%) disapprove. The latest figures include 21% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 49% who Strongly Disapprove.
This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -28. (see trends)
Demented Democrats
It appears that Joe is putting the DEM in DEMENTIA.
Each and every day the Democrats push legislation that is doing more and more harm to the working class and building a rift between those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” — Jack Handey
We the people have walked a mile and Biden is bent on leaving all of us shoeless. Biden’s motto is obey or pay.
I wish I could laugh at what Biden and the Democrats are doing but like the Bee Gees sang, “Oh, if I’d only seen, oh yeah, That the joke was on me, oh no, That the joke was on me.”
Is the joke on them or is it on the U.S.? Well we have 3 more years of Joking Joe Biden.
Biden is just another in a long line of tax and spend big government socialists. From FDR to Carter to Clinton to Obama. Socialists one and all. They’re all birds of a feather who flock together to tax the rich and every single working American to death.
Gird your loins. Pray! Our only hope is to retake one or both houses of Congress.
I started a joke
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn’t see
That the joke was on me, oh no
I started to cry
Which started the whole world laughing
Oh, if I’d only seen
That the joke was on me
I looked at the skies
Running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed
Hurting my head from things that I’d said
‘Til I finally died
Which started the whole world living
Oh, if I’d only seen
That the joke was on me
I looked at the skies
Running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed
Hurting my head from things that I’d said
‘Til I finally died
Which started the whole world living
Oh, if I’d only seen, oh yeah
That the joke was on me, oh no
That the joke was on me
Oh, no, no, no
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-09-29 07:50:192021-10-07 20:17:49The Democrats elected a joke and now the world is laughing. But the joke is now on them.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled” – Plutarch
Today I give you Chris Wrights thoughts on the stupidity of leftist beliefs. When it is written like this I cannot help but shake my head and try work out how Americans came to this place in our history. How do we get where this even begins to make sense? I have to be honest I worked with a Deputy Sheriff once who was as left as they come. He was spiritually and morally bereft of any common sense and was a sworn socialist. We had at times pretty spirited arguments which at times could be acrimonious but somehow we were able to work civilly together when needed and somehow I knew he would have my back.
When I read what I am publishing here, I just remember him. His sheer hatred of President Trump, anything conservative and the GOP was at times irrationally displayed in his verbiage and language which could make a sailor blush!! ( Not me though! ) I believe he probably would see nothing wrong with what is written below.
On a personal side note I have always been amazed at the number of libtard deputy sheriffs I worked with. I am unable to fathom how you can take an oath to defend and protect the constitution of the United States of America while working politically with those whose sole aim is the destruction of the above mentioned United States of America and its constitution! They are the ones who will obey unconstitutional orders and unlawful orders. They are the ones who will come for your guns. They are the ones who will not be on the right side of history.
Anyway. Enjoy the blog today and as always feel free to share! Thanks Chris!
PS:– I also put a few pictures of the typical leftist fools here, here and here.
Hi all,
I believe the longer minority students sit in their seats, the whiter they get.
I believe the more men give birth, the more manly they become.
I believe there’s a racist behind every bush and we need an inquisition to root them all out. People should be hauled before Congress and asked, “Are you now or have you ever been a racist?”
I believe heterosexuality is a tragedy, a real tragedy, and somebody should have told my parents that.
I believe 8-year-olds should be able to choose their gender and get drugs from rich psychiatrists without their parents knowing. If parents object, I believe judges should terminate their parental rights. Who needs parents and families anyway? What a stupid old idea. Everybody knows it takes a village to raise a child and change their gender.
I believe we only have 12 years left before the planet turns into a cinder and we all burn up from climate change. Oh wait, two years are gone already, so we only have 10 years left. Better start using those old gift cards now. Time is running out.
I believe we should all have as small a carbon footprint as we possibly can, except when we’re rioting and looting and burning cities to the ground. Then the bigger the footprint, the better.
I believe healthcare is a basic human right unless, of course, you’re not vaccinated for COVID, then you shouldn’t get any healthcare at all, even if you’re bleeding out right in front of me. That’s what I believe.
I believe we shouldn’t have borders because we shouldn’t have countries or nation-states in the first place. I say we save the whole planet and let everybody in, all 7 billion of them. We’re all global citizens now. How do I know? Because my local school board told me so. None of them are parents, but they’re experts – they know what’s best for everybody, especially children, that’s what I believe.
I believe there are no facts and there is no truth. Even if that last statement can’t possibly be true if there is no truth. … I’m getting confused. No matter. I believe if somebody jumps off a 30-storey building and goes splat on the sidewalk below, they didn’t really go splat, it was just a matter of perception. That may sound like post-modern gibberish to some, but it’s still rock-n-roll to me.
I believe there is no bias in the media, even if they themselves have told me four dozen times they are biased. I believe everything should be evidence-based, except when I don’t like the evidence, or I need to lie to make my point. Especially when I need to lie to make my point. That happens a lot. But that’s OK, because we’re good people and you’re not.
I believe Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ has got to go! We need to stop dating our years from the birth of Christ. You think it’s the year 2021? No way! It’s 104 USSR, 104 years since the birth of the first communist state. Let’s get our priorities straight here, OK? While we’re on this subject, why are we still using Monday through Sunday for the days of the week? Those names were invented by dead white Europeans because of their stupid religion. I believe all religion is stupid, especially yours. We should toss those names out because all old ideas are stupid. We need living, breathing ideas. We need to make 57-day weeks, and give the days new names to honor each one of the 57 genders. I believe corporations will give me millions of dollars to promote this idea and, given what they’re funding lately, who’s to say I’m wrong?
I believe everything you say is wrong. And because you’re wrong, you have no right to say it. So shut up and listen to me. I’m not finished!
I believe I belong to a small group of people who have secret knowledge that will bring about heaven on earth. Only we know how to do this because we’re special. Everyone else is deplorable. It’s our secret and we’re not gonna tell you, because you wouldn’t understand it. We know how you should live your life better than you do. We know how to spend your money better than you do. It’s not your money anyway, it’s ours, because YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT, we did. If you can’t see that, you’re stupid, and we’ll just force you to do what we say. You hear me? We’ll FORCE you. So, get used to it, you stupid ninnies, because we’re taking over soon, whether you like it or not. We’re taking over absolutely everything. We’re creating a paradise for you, right in your front yard, and we will use any means to get there, even if we have to steal elections to do it. It’s for your own good, after all. Why can’t you see that? It’s as plain as the nose on your face.
Hmm… I hear sirens in the distance. Wait, somebody’s knocking on my door. They’re wearing white coats. See you next time. What am I saying? Time? What is this ‘time’? I’m getting confused again. Up is down and down is up. Do you think they’ll give me a padded cell this time?
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Save America Foundationhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngSave America Foundation2021-09-29 07:06:072021-10-07 20:17:49The Idiocy Of Leftist Beliefs!
Why did U.S. incomes suddenly explode in 2018 after decades of tepid growth? The answer is not difficult to find.
For years, a school of economists has complained that US wages have been virtually stagnant for decades.
“Jobs are coming back, but pay isn’t. The median wage is still below where it was before the Great Recession,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said in 2015. “Last month, average pay actually fell.”
In fact, it’s not hard to find data showing that wages have barely increased since the 1970s, a figure many have used to stoke classy envy.
The truth is, there have always been problems with the claim that real wages (adjusted for inflation) have been stagnant for years. As economist Don Boudreaux has pointed out (see below), Reich and others overlook several important factors—including how inflation is calculated, compensation outside of wages such as healthcare, and the distinction between individuals and statistics.
Nevertheless, if one does choose to use Bureau of Labor Statistics data to measure family incomes over the last two decades, the picture is indeed a bit bleaker—at least it was.
Government statistics, which use the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation, show that from 2002 through 2015 median weekly earnings didn’t budge at all, but surged between 2018 and 2020.
The cart below shows BLS data on median weekly earnings between 1999-2020 for full-time workers (adjusted for inflation).
I’m not the first person to notice this stunning wage growth. Writing in Bloomberg, economist Karl W. Smith describes the growth in income using a slightly different metric, real median household income.
“In 2016, real median household income was $62,898, just $257 above its level in 1999,” writes Smith. “Over the next three years it grew almost $6,000, to $68,703.”
Indeed, median household incomes increased from $64,300 to $68,700 in 2018 alone—an increase of $4,400. To put it another way, US incomes increased more in 2018 than the previous 20 years combined. (Household incomes were $61,100 in 1998 and $64,300 at the end of 2017.)
Real median household income by year:
1999: $62,600 2016: $62,898 2019: $68,700
American workers finally got a raise (and a nice one) after a decade and a half of flat wages.
The question, of course, is why did US incomes suddenly explode after decades of tepid growth? The answer is not difficult to find.
The year 2017 saw massive deregulation and passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Estimates placed the deregulation savings at $2 trillion. But what was likely even a bigger factor was the cut businesses saw in corporate taxes.
Prior to 2017, the US had the highest corporate tax in the developed world (if not the whole world). With a top bracket of 35 percent, its corporate tax rate was higher than Communist China and socialist Venezuela.
This was a terrible policy on a number of levels. For starters, the revenue-maximizing rate of a corporate tax is 15-25 percent, which means anything above that isn’t even generating more revenue, it’s simply punitive and economically harmful. (Evidence bears this out. The United Kingdom, for example, reduced its corporate tax rate and saw revenues grow.)
Second, high corporate taxes actually hurt workers more than “Big Business.” Tax experts point out that roughly 70 percent of what businesses earn in profits gets paid to workers in the form of wages and other benefits. So it’s no surprise to see that studies show that workers bear between 50 and 100 percent of the brunt of corporate income taxes.
But the reverse is also true: cutting corporate taxes leaves companies more capital to grow and invest.
“Lower corporate taxes increase rewards for improving techniques, technology, and increasing capital investments, which increase worker productivity and earnings,” writes economist Gary Galles. “They expand rewards for risk-taking and entrepreneurship in service of consumers. They reduce the substantial distortions caused by the tax. And those changes benefit others, such as workers and consumers.”
So in 2017, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, companies saw their tax rate fall from 35 percent to 21 percent. Just that fast, businesses suddenly had more capital to spend to grow their business, improve productivity, and hire more workers—and few things attract workers more than higher wages.
Media scoffed at the possibility that corporate tax cuts would actually result in wage increases for US workers. But the data speaks for itself: Families saw incomes increase faster than at any time in generations.
Moreover, though median wages surged, showing the benefits were broad-based, every segment benefited from these wage gains.
“The lowest quintile increased their pay more than the upper quintile,” Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist recently pointed out in a conversation with FEE’s Brad Polumbo.
To be sure, reducing the corporate tax rate wasn’t the sole factor for the surge in wages, but it was likely by far the biggest.
The surge in family incomes no doubt helped soften the impact of the economic destruction the world suffered in 2020 during the recession precipitated by economic lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Whether the wage gains continue may depend to some extent on the permanency of the corporate tax cut. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who appears poised to become the next US president, has signaled he’d restore the corporate tax to its 35 percent rate or raise it to 28 percent.
“Biden would make our business tax higher than China’s,” Norquist quipped. (He’s not wrong. China’s corporate tax rate stands at 25 percent.)
This appears unlikely to happen, however. Even if Biden’s claim was more than campaign rhetoric, it appears unlikely that he’ll have enough votes in the Senate to roll back the tax cuts.
Even more promising for US workers, Biden appears inclined to roll back Trump’s tariffs, which are basically taxes on Americans and imposed costs on businesses.
“When you put a tariff on steel, you make American cars not competitive anymore. You make everything made with steel less competitive,” Norquist observed. “We did a lot of damage to the American economy that way.”
If a Biden administration rolls back Trump’s tariffs while leaving the corporate tax rate in place, the US economy could build on the gains made prior to the arrival of the lockdowns.
That would be a winning formula for US workers, businesses, and the US economy.
Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-09-29 06:54:272021-10-07 20:17:50U.S. Household Incomes Increased More in 2018 Than in the Previous 20 Years—Combined
