Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“States’ efforts to create and then tightly regulate legal markets for pot have, ironically, made the black market for weed bigger than it’s ever been.”
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/379796/marijuana-legalization-black-market-drug-war-raids
Why Everyone Suddenly Wants Greenland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRdKRORYoA
“US philanthropy is still much, much, much more about rich guys like David Geffen slapping their names on concert halls than it is about donating to help people dying from malaria, or animals being tortured in factory farms, or preventing deaths from pandemics and out-of-control AI, to name a few EA-associated causes.
Pretending otherwise, though, lets more complacent philanthropists off the hook for refusing to think through the consequences of their actions.”
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/390458/charity-america-effective-altruism-local
Lindsey Graham, along with many Republicans, have turned over all integrity and honesty for Trump. Trump’s power over the Republican Party, and over Republican Senators who used to have strong independent opinions, is amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBhR99pdHps
Republican demonization of federal workers goes back decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqd1h90iQoQ
“The first death has been reported in the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas, according to a press release sent out by the Texas Department of State Health Services Wednesday.
The victim was an unvaccinated child who was hospitalized in Lubbock last week.
The outbreak, starting in late January, has 124 confirmed cases, the majority of which are either children, unvaccinated people, or both. Eighteen people have been hospitalized, the state health department said.”
…
“According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the last measles death in the United States was reported a decade ago in 2015. Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, which the CDC attributes to its vaccination program.
Vaccination rates for the MMR vaccine in Texas have dropped slightly in recent years following the Covid-19 pandemic.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/texas-measles-outbreak-rfk-jr-00002698
“President Donald Trump said Wednesday the United States will end the Biden administration’s concessions aimed at promoting free elections in Venezuela, canceling a license that allowed U.S. oil company Chevron to produce and export oil in the country.”
…
“Chevron’s oil exports out of Venezuela reached 294,000 barrels a day in January, the highest level since it resume shipments from its operations there in early 2023, Reuters reported earlier this month citing data from Venezuela’s state-owned company PdVSA. That crude oil went to refineries in the United States, according to the data.
Venezuela produced just over 1 million barrels a day of oil in January, according to data it reported to OPEC.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/trump-reverses-biden-era-concessions-allowing-venezuela-oil-exports-00206273
“The Department of Veterans Affairs has temporarily suspended billions of dollars in planned contract cuts following concerns that the move would hurt critical veterans’ health services, lawmakers and veterans service organizations said Wednesday.
The pause affects hundreds of VA contracts that Secretary Doug Collins a day earlier described as simply consulting deals, whose cancellation would save $2 billion as the Trump administration works to slash costs across the federal government.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/va-pauses-billions-in-cuts-lauded-by-musk-00206372
“A group with ties to Elon Musk is pouring more than $1 million into Wisconsin’s upcoming Supreme Court race — a sign that even as Musk races to overhaul Washington, his influence extends beyond it.
Musk has directly boosted the Republican-backed candidate in the Wisconsin race on his powerful X platform. And a Republican-aligned group, Building America’s Future, is spending at least $1.5 million in the state, with ads set to start running later this week. Musk has donated to the group in the past, and it has backed some of President Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/18/elon-musk-wisconsin-supreme-court-00204791
“Forest Service Chief Randy Moore will retire effective March 3, according to an email sent to agency staff Wednesday and viewed by POLITICO.
Moore wrote in his staff email that the past several weeks have been “incredibly difficult” due to the Trump administration’s mass layoffs, which have led to 3,400 Forest Service employees — or 10 percent of agency staff — being fired.”
…
“Lawmakers and officials from Western states have warned that President Donald Trump’s cuts to agencies like the Forest Service and funding freezes will threaten critical prevention and mitigation work, leaving the region woefully unprepared for the coming wildfire season.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/forest-service-chief-retire-00206204