“where we're going to be in 10 years .. and it's not going to be good,"

"I want to leave an image for you," he said, as he held an egg in the air.  "You see this?  This is your brain.  There it is, folks.  This is your brain on drugs."    -Rep. Rep. Anthony DeLuca 

                  -Democratic Rep. Anthony DeLuca of Chicago Heights 

6-1-19  Illinois is poised to become the 11th state in the U.S. to legalize marijuana for recreational use, after lawmakers voted to legalize the drug on Friday afternoon.

  The Illinois House passed HB 1438, 66-47.  Opponents of the bill worry that legalizing marijuana would send the state in the wrong direction.  "No matter how you package this, whether it's revenue, or it's criminal justice reform, or it's just saying that people are smoking it anyway, so just give up, I can pretty much guarantee you where we're going to be in 10 years .. and it's not going to be good," Democratic Rep. Anthony DeLuca of Chicago Heights told Bloomberg.   https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-poised-to-legalize-recreational-marijuana and

https://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/in-historic-moment-for-illinois-marijuana-legalization-bill-heads-to/article_8e3e1491-917b-55fa-a17f-0aa5ea0ec24d.html

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6-8-18     What might the world have looked like had the U.S. never granted PNTR to China?   One possibility is that China would have pursued an economic strategy built around fostering indigenous entrepreneurship and bettering the lives of its own workers, as it did in the 1980s.  Instead, Beijing chose to transfer wealth from ordinary Chinese citizens to its politically powerful export sector, a path made possible by PNTR.  China might very well have become just as rich by embracing a more balanced and humane approach to development.  Doing so, however, would have required that its central government surrender a measure of control to its citizens.  Rather than foster liberalism and openness in China, I suspect PNTR did exactly the opposite—creating the conditions for China’s central government to exert tighter control over the Chinese populace.

  The United States, meanwhile, would have entered the age of globalization under markedly different terms:  instead of offshoring much of its industrial base to an often-hostile authoritarian power, perhaps it would have deepened its economic ties to democratizing states in Latin America, Asia and the wider world. …

  A bipartisan coalition promised Americans that granting China PNTR would help ensure our prosperity and that China would soon be transformed from foe to friend, and we were foolish enough to believe them.  The question is what we should do now.  For starters, I propose admitting that we made a grave mistake.  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/normalizing-trade-relations-with-china-was-a-mistake/562403/

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5-31-19  President Donald Trump became the first Republican president to acknowledge the LGBT celebration of Pride Month….During the presidential campaign, Trump presented himself as something of an LGBT ally.  “Believe me, I am better for the gay community, I am better for women than [Clinton] will ever be on her best day,” he said in Raleigh, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016.   https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/trump-pride-month-tweet-anti-lgbt-record

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11-7-18  “Mr. Trump’s campaign paid for and obtained the legal right to use Neil Young’s recording of ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ at today’s event,” a spokesperson said. “Mr. Trump is a huge fan of Neil Young and his music and will continue to be regardless of Neil’s political views.” https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/the-history-of-musicians-rejecting-donald-trump.html

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2-14-19  The implication of this “more restrictions, more deaths” explanation is that the United States should scale back restrictions on opioid prescribing, perhaps to the point of legalization.  https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/overdosing-regulation-how-government-caused-opioid-epidemic

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(spared the Judas kiss)   5-31-19  When Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani, showed up at a Mecca meeting he was the only leader not to get a customary kiss from King Salman.   https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/31/middleeast/saudi-arabia-iran-summit-mecca-intl/index.html

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 sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and worship of money--the downward spiral of death