YOU’D HAVE TO HAVE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: Snooki Was Paid More For Rutgers Speech Than Hillary.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
March 30, 2018
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Let Hillary Speak!
J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Trump Census Citizenship Question Helps Black Americans.
DAVID SHULKIN: Privatizing the V.A. Will Hurt Veterans.
Even more than when Shulkin ran the V.A.?
THIS BUD’S FOR YOU: Blue Moon’s brewer launching marijuana-infused ‘beer.’
“This is really about brewing great beers that beer drinkers love,” said Keith Villa, who developed Blue Moon Belgian Wheat and worked for MillerCoors for 32 years. “You’d just swap out an alcoholic beer for one of our beers.”
Several other companies offer cannabis beer, but they all lack the psychoactive compound, THC. Instead, they’re infused with hemp extract to give them a marijuana taste — and helps them grab headlines. Federal law prohibits brewers from using marijuana in their beers.
Villa’s “beer,” because it lacks alcohol, skirts that federal ban, even though marijuana itself remains federally illegal. The longtime brewer said since retirement he’s become a believer in the plant’s benefits, especially when paired with the technology developed by his partners at Colorado-based Ebbu, which specializes in extracting and analyzing marijuana compounds.
Several other companies already manufacture marijuana-infused drinks or offer marijuana powders to sprinkle on food or in teas, but Ebbu says its technology allows them to provide specific feelings, like euphoria or relaxation. For the past several years the company’s scientists been conducting double-blind tests on volunteers to help fine-tune their formulas.
“We’ve really been able to dial in on those sensations that can deliver a consistent experience for the users,” said Ebbu president Jon Cooper.
I dunno, I already get a consistent experience from beer.
SUZANNE VENKER: When Men Lose, Women Lose Too.
21ST 7TH CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Married to a Child? Here’s a Brochure!
No joke — this is a guide being issued by the Swedish government.
HMM: Fighting FBI corrupt/discrimination.
This is a GoFundMe for and by Robyn Lee Gritz:
I lost everything including my house fighting corruption in the FBI. I was an honest agent that knew the American people were my boss. Current FBI management seems to have forgotten that. I was targeted and pushed out. I continue to fight corruption in the FBI and expose those who are unethical. This account will be for travel and lodging expenses etc for myself and my attorney (which I’m responsible for) when we have to go to court and/or DOJ/FBI for my case. The FBI drags this process out because they know victims can’t afford all of this.
John Cardillo describes Gritz as a “rockstar former FBI counter terror agent whose life and career was destroyed by McCabe because she challenged his inner circle.”
And this is from a recent Fox News story:
Robyn Gritz, who said she served 16 years with the bureau fighting terrorism, told “Fox & Friends” that she celebrated McCabe’s dismissal and that it brought back memories of how he allegedly mistreated her.
Gritz said that she began working with McCabe in 2005 until she ultimately resigned several years later.
She said McCabe retaliated against her for filing a harassment claim against one of her supervisors.
Gritz said that, while working as a “detailee” to the CIA, her boss began “scrutinizing [her] work and asking questions” about her purportedly being “fragile” after her divorce.
“He made some discriminatory comments about why I was traveling and such,” Gritz said of her boss at the time, who was not McCabe.
When she heard that the boss was making similar comments to a black coworker, Gritz said she decided to file a complaint against him.
Gritz said when she filed the suit, McCabe signed off on an internal investigation against her, adding that “he know that I was either filing or going to file the [case].”
“I went through hell for a year and a half,” she said. “Andy made sure I couldn’t get out of the division.”
Gritz said that McCabe additionally made “nasty, false” comments about her in a meeting — “lying,” she said. “which is why he just got fired.”
Her story does seem to fit a pattern at the Bureau.
CHANGE: EPA Prepares to Gut Obama’s Signature Move on Autos.
The Obama-era rules would have required cars and SUVs to hit 55mpg by 2025, but Trump and EPA chief Scott Pruitt, both of whom have voiced public doubts about climate change, think the mark is too high and therefore problematic for manufacturers. The revised standards are still being worked out, but the Los Angeles Times notes that the move sets up a huge fight with California, which has a waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act to set its own standards. Another dozen states, including New York, typically follow California’s lead, which the NYT notes raises the possibility of the US essentially having two auto markets, with some states—say, those on the coasts—abiding by tougher emission rules.
It’s called federalism.
JAYVEE: ISIS Needles France for Having Trèbes Terrorist on Watchlist Before Attack. “This operation comes despite the claim of the Crusaders that the brother… was monitored by her organs [and] despite all the strict security measures,” terror group says of “growing tide.”
If counterintelligence services don’t want to get needled, maybe they should do a better job.
WE DON’T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL: Seventh-Grade Assignment: Write Letters to Lawmakers Begging for Gun Control.
“I looked at it, and I told my son, ‘No, you’re not doing that assignment,’” Lee said. “Then I emailed his teacher the next day and told him that my son would not be writing that.”
Blue Lives reports that the teacher agreed to exempt Lee’s son from the assignment without penalty. According to Lee, there were other parents in the class who had issues with the homework, but they didn’t find out about it until after their children had already turned it in.
It’s not clear whether the teacher intended to actually mail the letters — but the truth is, it doesn’t really matter. Either way, this homework was straight-up propaganda, and it has absolutely no place in our schools. It was obviously the right decision for the teacher to have excused Lee’s son from the work, but propaganda should never have been given as a homework assignment in the first place.
I’m going to ask my sixth-grader — and budding target shooter — what he’d do in this situation.
“NOBODY WANTS TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY”: Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Suggests Repealing the Second Amendment.
The chairwoman’s comments put Louisiana’s incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in a precarious situation. Edwards, one of the deep South’s lone Democrats in statewide office, was elected in 2015 in part because he emphasized his pro-Second Amendment views. Since taking office, Edwards has walked a tightrope on the topic, expressing limited support for banning bump stocks and strengthening background checks.
If Edwards hopes to be reelected next year, he will need to continue distinguishing himself as someone who is in some ways antithetical to the national Democratic Party, especially on the issue of gun control, in a state that President Donald Trump carried by over 20 points in the 2016 presidential election.
The governor’s office did not return requests for comment.
On Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican Party slammed Peterson on social media for expressing “radical” views on gun policy that are out of the political mainstream. The party urged voters to contact Peterson and let her know that they do not agree with her sentiments.
It’s telling that the Louisiana Democratic Party has yet to make such a call on Peterson.
WHO CHECKS THE FACT-CHECKERS? Facebook Quietly Begins Fact-Checking Political Photos and Videos.
WELL, GOOD: Saudi Prince Calls for Stepped-Up Pressure on Iran. “An opponent of the nuclear deal with Tehran, Crown Prince Mohammed cautions that the alternative to pressure is military conflict.”
Saudi Arabia has been a fierce critic of the deal the Obama administration and other world powers made in 2015 to lift some crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.
Under Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with Iran and pressured countries in the Middle East and Africa to curtail their relationships with Tehran, accusing it of meddling in Arab affairs.
“We have to succeed so as to avoid military conflict,” said Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler. “If we don’t succeed in what we are trying to do, we will likely have war with Iran in 10-15 years.”
Iran has emerged as a more potent force in the Middle East following the nuclear deal and the dismantling of Islamic State, building its influence in Syria and Iraq, and allegedly supplying Yemeni rebels with weaponry used against Saudi Arabia in a three-year war.
Gee, whatever happened to those “snapback provisions” John Kerry promised in case Iran got frisky after the deal was signed?
STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: Russia Employs New ‘Hybrid War’ Methods Against Georgia.
MISS LIBERTY REVIEWS BITTER HARVEST, a love story set during Stalin’s forced famine of Ukraine.
The film is remarkable for its accurate portrayal of the blunt truth – no major narrative film of which I am aware has ever told this story (there have, however, been several documentaries). Ukrainian farmers did indeed resist Soviet collectivization, often heroically, but they were a largely unarmed population facing armed troops, with predictable results.
The DVD is available for rent at Netflix or purchase on Amazon, but there doesn’t seem to be a Blu-Ray release yet.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: New Texts from Strzok & Page, Shulkin Down and Much, Much More.
Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz today.
SINGLE-SLAYER MEDICINE: Doctors in violent Venezuela work under threat of death if patients die.
BUT OF COURSE: Facebook — even as it apologizes for scandal — funds campaign to block a California data-privacy measure.
The social media giant’s donation matched others from Google, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon—a million-dollar sign that the issue of how companies collect and share personal information is likely to grow into an expensive fight as election season unfolds in California.
The businesses are fighting an initiative proposed by San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart, who’s already spent $1.7 million on a measure that would allow Californians to prohibit companies from selling or sharing their personal data. His campaign is gathering signatures with the goal of landing the California Consumer Privacy Act on the November ballot.
“What we are proposing is some very basic rights: Let people find out what information companies are collecting, and let them have the ability to say, ‘Don’t sell my information,’” said Mactaggart, who was inspired to draft the initiative after chatting at a party with a Google engineer who told him that people would freak out if they knew how much companies track, compile and sell their personal information.
At the very least, give Facebook and Google users a cut of the action.