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Saturday, May 31, 2025

With more evidence that marijuana is harmful, why do Democrats push it so hard?

 


Someone I grew up with is a pothead, and all his friends are potheads, so I’ve seen firsthand how destructive it is. I’ve seen how it destroys ambition, discipline, intelligence, and moral fiber. It’s a vile drug, and a new study reveals that, no matter how you ingest it (eating versus smoking), it also destroys the body. That being the case, we must ask why Democrats are so determined to see it legalized across America.

You don’t need to take my anecdotal claims to know just how bad marijuana is for the people who use it. There are endless studies making the same point:

There’s also still debate about whether marijuana is a gateway drug to harder drugs, just as the “squares” in the 1960s warned. When I look at my friend and my friend’s friends, I’d say that the anecdotal evidence would say that this one is a “yes.”

And just in case that list of horribles wasn’t long enough, there’s now evidence that those who thought they could avoid marijuana’s cardiovascular effects by using edibles instead of inhaling are out of luck. The risk is still there, no matter how you take in your pot:

Though many Americans believe daily marijuana use is safer than tobacco, a new study suggests it could increase your risk for some serious cardiovascular issues.

Worse yet, gummies, teas and tinctures appear to offer no advantage over lighting up when it comes to one critical factor for your heart health.

The study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco involved 55 outwardly healthy Bay Area residents who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC edibles. 

None of the participants used nicotine, and all of them consumed cannabis at least three times a week for a year or more. Smokers averaged 10 years of chronic use; edible users, five.

Researchers found blood vessel function in regular cannabis users was about half that of nonusers — putting them on par with tobacco smokers. 

I would argue that marijuana is much worse than tobacco. While tobacco damages your body, marijuana damages your mind and spirit. And that, I think, is why Democrats are relentlessly pushing to have it legalized.

Karl Marx famously said that “religion is the opium of the people,” by which he meant that it operated to keep the abused masses pacified. With religion dying in the West, there’s a new opiate, which is actually...an opiate. When you get a culture hooked on pot, you achieve all sorts of leftist goals.

People, especially young men who should be on the front line of creativity, motivation, and ambition, become passive when hooked on the stuff. They no longer want to marry, have children, defend their country, achieve in their jobs, or anything else.

Pot and video games, along with free food and basic medical care, will keep them passive as you wipe out borders, mutilate their children, and destroy their economy. Add in pot’s deleterious effects on fertility, which placates the maddened climatistas who view humans as Mother Earth’s parasites, and you’ve got a winner.

Currently, 24 states have “legalized” marijuana (which is still illegal under federal law), while multiple other states have “decriminalized” it. My home state is still technically holding the line, but you wouldn’t know it judging by its open use, especially (and very tragically) among the local black community. Moreover, as you may recall, in December 2023, the unidentified President AutoPen pardoned thousands of people who had federal convictions for marijuana use and possession.

Trump’s federal government should tell the various states that, to the extent marijuana is illegal at the federal level, the supremacy clause overrides local laws. (This is the same principle that says that cities and states cannot have “sanctuary” laws that override America’s immigration laws.) There’s no reason the American people should allow various leftist jurisdictions to destroy generations of Americans.

More than that, though, we need to reeducate young people. Pot is not harmless. It makes them stupid, lazy, sterile, and very, very sick. And we should have them ask themselves the same question I asked: If the powers that be know all of this, why are they so desperate to get young people hooked on the stuff?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/05/with_more_evidence_that_marijuana_is_harmful_why_do_democrats_push_it_so_hard.html

After toxic East Palestine derailment, warnings of ‘cancer cluster’

 The Biden administration admitted possible cancer-causing toxins were spread in East Palestine, Ohio, following the Norfolk Southern train derailment in 2023, explosive new emails show, despite the White House insisting residents were safe.

“The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,” FEMA recovery leader James McPherson wrote in a March 29, 2024, email to other public health officials — a little more than a year after the crash.

“As you all are aware, the first 48 hours of the fire created a really toxic plume,” he said in the chain of communications, which were first reported by News Nation.

“The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,” Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery leader James McPherson wrote in a March 29, 2024, email.Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

Just two months earlier, President Biden had excoriated “multimillion-dollar railroad companies transporting toxic chemicals” for the fiasco — but praised his administration’s “herculean efforts” to resolve the “vast majority” of East Palestine’s problems.

The crash spewed harmful chemicals into the air and resulted in 115,000 gallons’ worth of carcinogenic vinyl chloride undergoing an open burn — displacing residents and leading to reports of strange illnesses as well as the death of livestock in the weeks following the Feb. 3, 2023, disaster.

Michael Regan, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, showed up on Feb. 22 with TV cameras in tow to capture himself drinking from the local water supply, and months later claimed unequivocally that people in East Palestine were “not in danger.”

President Biden excoriated “multimillion-dollar railroad companies transporting toxic chemicals” for the fiasco — but praised his administration’s “herculean efforts.”AP

“Since the disaster, EPA has collected more than 100 million air monitoring data points and more than 25 thousand samples in and around the community,” Regan said in an Oct. 17, 2023, statement.

“This data collection continues, and ongoing science-based reviews show that residents of East Palestine are not in danger from contaminated drinking water, soil, or air from the derailment.”

But a watchdog group that has been investigating the toxic fallout from the train derailment said the Biden administration’s approach was “flawed” from the start — and has now released emails obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests to prove it.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan showed up on Feb. 22 with TV cameras in tow to capture himself drinking from the local water supply.C-SPAN

“They didn’t always test for the right chemicals; they didn’t test in the right locations; they didn’t have the right detection limits,” Government Accountability Project investigator Lesley Pacey told The Post, saying the Biden admin wasn’t “worrying about public health” but, rather “public reassurances.”

“They delayed testing for dioxin, and then when they did the testing for dioxin — and also did the testing in people’s homes for other chemicals — they used Norfolk Southern contractors, and those contractors used equipment that wasn’t correct,” said Pacey, who’s been investigating the incident.

“They completely botched this event from the very beginning.”

So-called “ASPECT” planes that monitor air quality weren’t deployed due to apparent bad weather until four days after the derailment, she added, when they should have been flown within eight hours of the incident.

The federal response also lacked robust monitoring of the water supply and ignored agency policies in order to burn the harmful chemicals, according to Pacey, leaving East Palestine natives “acutely very, very ill.”Bloomberg via Getty Images

The federal response also lacked robust monitoring of the water supply and ignored agency policies in order to burn the harmful chemicals, according to Pacey, allowing East Palestine natives to get “very, very ill.”

The new emails — including batches from FEMA, the EPA, the White House, the National Security Council and the Justice Department, which later settled with Norfolk Southern for $310 million to redress harms to the Ohio community — also show that one year after the chaos admin officials were still discussing the need to develop a “tripwire to identify cancer clusters.”

Biden, who was diagnosed earlier this month with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has already spread to his bones, often claimed that his late son Beau died from a brain cancer possibly caused by exposure to toxic fumes while serving in Iraq.

He also claimed in a 2022 speech that he had cancer due to growing up near oil refineries in Claymont, Delaware, though the White House maintained he was referencing “non-melanoma skin cancers” that had previously been removed.

https://nypost.com/2025/05/31/us-news/biden-admin-admitted-chances-of-cancer-affecting-ohio-residents-after-train-crash-was-not-zero/

Zai Lab, Novocure Results From Phase 3 Trial of Tumor Treating Fields for Pancreatic Cancer

 

  • TTFields therapy concomitant with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel is the first treatment to show a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma in a Phase 3 trial

  • The OS benefit observed with TTFields therapy is supported by significantly improved quality of life and extended pain-free survival, a key outcome for patients with pancreatic cancer

  • Results from PANOVA-3 accepted as a late-breaking abstract for oral presentation at ASCO and simultaneous publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology

'Britain plans at least six new weapons factories in defence review'

 Britain will build at least six new factories producing weapons and explosives as part of a major review of its defence capabilities, the government said on Saturday.

The 1.5 billion-pound ($2.0 billion) investment will be included in the Strategic Defence Review, a 10-year plan for military equipment and services. The SDR is expected to be published on Monday.

The Ministry of Defence added that it planned to procure up to 7,000 long-range weapons built in Britain. Together, the measures announced on Saturday will create around 1,800 jobs, the MoD said.

"The hard-fought lessons from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them," Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement.

"We are strengthening the UK's industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad."

The extra investment will mean Britain will spend around 6 billion pounds on munitions in the current parliament, the MoD said.

Earlier on Saturday, the MoD said it would spend an extra 1.5 billion pounds to tackle the poor state of housing for the country's armed forces.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-plans-least-six-weapons-213411948.html

Trump Aims For 400 GW Of Nuclear By 2050, 10 Large Reactors Under Construction By 2030

 By Brian Martucci of UtilityDive

Executive Summary:

  • The White House wants to deploy 300 GW of net new nuclear capacity by 2050 and have 10 large reactors under construction in the U.S. by 2030 while expanding domestic nuclear fuel supplies, according to an executive order signed by President Trump.
  • Trump signed three other orders on Friday to accelerate Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews of reactor license applications and reconsider strict NRC radiation limits; expand departments of Energy and Defense roles in nuclear power plant licensing and siting; and speed up deployment of new test reactors.
  • Nuclear power advocates hailed the orders as a boon for the industry, but warned that staff cuts at NRC and DOE could slow progress. A representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists said the proposed reforms would make the public less safe.
Shares of publicly-traded advanced nuclear and reactor fuel companies have soared, suggesting investors see Trump’s orders as more than just words on paper. 

Oklo, the advanced reactor developer previously chaired by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was up more than 20% since Friday afternoon. Oklo’s shares got another boost Tuesday morning as it announced a design and development partnership with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to accelerate deployment of its Aurora powerhouses.

Shares of small modular reactor developer NuScale and uranium suppliers Centrus Energy and Uranium Energy also rose more than 20% in Friday and early Tuesday trading.

Trump’s “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base” executive order called on Wright and other cabinet secretaries to develop a national policy for spent nuclear fuel management. The order singles out recycling and reprocessing activities that could benefit companies like Oklo, which plans to build fuel reprocessing capabilities and is developing reactors that can run on recycled fuel.

Another order, “President Donald J. Trump Deploys Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security,” calls on Wright “to release at least 20 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium into a readily available fuel bank for private sector projects operating nuclear reactors to power AI infrastructure at DOE sites.” 

Congress last year banned Russian uranium imports from 2028, cutting off a key supply of HALEU in particular and adding urgency to ongoing federal efforts to expand domestic supplies. 

“Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base” also calls for the DOE Loan Programs Office to prioritize support for construction of new large reactors and 5 GW of power uprates to existing reactors by 2030. It specifically mentions support for “completing construction of nuclear reactors that was prematurely suspended,” signaling possible LPO support for the completion of the two unfinished AP1000 reactors at Santee Cooper’s VC Summer site in South Carolina.

Recent changes at DOE could undermine that goal, Nuclear Innovation Alliance President and CEO Judi Greenwald said in a statement.

“Recent DOE staffing reductions and proposed budget cuts undermine the Department’s efforts and make it harder to implement these executive orders,” Greenwald said. “We urge the Administration and Congress to adequately resource and staff DOE to meet this moment.”

Greenwald said proposed NRC process changes in another executive order, “President Donald J. Trump Directs Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” while well-intentioned, could also prove counterproductive. 

“NIA has long thought it is important that NRC improve the efficiency of its activities,” she said. “However …[o]ur assessment is that NRC is already making significant progress on reform in compliance with congressional direction including the 2024 ADVANCE Act. It is in everyone’s interest that this progress continue and not be undermined by staffing cuts or upended by conflicting directives.”

Greenwald added that the “effectiveness, efficiency and independence” of the NRC is essential for public confidence in nuclear power and for ongoing efforts to commercialize and export nuclear technology.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, was more blunt in a statement that also criticized the administration’s proposal to involve other federal departments in nuclear reactor siting, licensing and fuel supply.

“The U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority,” Lyman said. “By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety and livelihoods of millions.”

Setting aside potential safety risks, involving the departments of defense and energy could cause needless confusion for nuclear technology developers, said Atomic Canyon CEO Trey Lauderdale.

“New capabilities for the Department of Defense and DOE to license and oversee projects could actually create additional red tape as companies navigate between three new potential oversight bodies instead of one,” Lauderdale said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/trump-aims-400-gw-nuclear-2050-10-large-reactors-under-construction-2030

ICE To Increase Deportations To 3000 Illegals Per Day After Leadership Shake-Up

 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced sweeping leadership changes Thursday as part of an effort to dramatically ramp up arrests of illegal migrants.  New goals for deportations start at 3000 arrests per day at 'bare minimum' according to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and this will grow as the agency receives increased funding.

The change in quota is nearly double the 1800 arrests per day originally mandated by the Trump Administration in January.  If arrests remain static at 3000 per day, the new goal would result in over a million deportations of illegal immigrants per year. 

To put the situation in perspective, there were at least 11 million border encounters recorded under the Biden Administration's open border bonanza.  Add to this approximately 2 million getaways (border jumpers that were not intercepted by Border Patrol).  The vast majority (around 85%) of all encounters were released into the US under asylum policies, meaning it is likely that 10 million or more illegal migrants were able to enter the US unfettered.  

Considering that the Trump Administration reduced those numbers by 95% at the border in only four months, it's clear that the border invasion was highly coordinated and supported by Democrat politicians and leaders.  The migrant crisis was engineered.

Unfortunately the success at the border does not solve the problem of millions of illegals already within the US.  Trump is seeking to make deportation a tangible threat and this requires far more arrests.  With deportation becoming a common occurrence, the effort may inspire most illegals to simply leave the country on their own.  

As part of the shake-up, Kenneth Genalo is out as the head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division – the branch tasked with executing arrests and deportations.  Genalo “decided to retire and will continue to serve the public as a special government employee to ICE,” the agency said in a statement.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Executive Associate Director Robert Hammer has also been reassigned to a “critical leadership position.”

Career ICE officials Marcos Charles and Derek Gordon will replace Genalo and Hammer at ICE and HSI, respectively.   In total, more than half a dozen personnel changes were made at ERO, HSI and other ICE divisions Thursday, according to the agency.

The change in momentum comes with rising public concerns about migrant crime and the possibility that Trump's second term will not be enough time to undo the damage done by Democrats since 2021.  With constant interference from leftist judges, the process of removing illegals from the US is far more difficult that opening the gates and letting them flood in. 

Progressives are doing everything in their power to maintain a mass illegal migrant presence, with all their future election prospects resting on an eventual political action to turn most illegals into voting citizens through mass amnesty.     

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ice-increase-deportations-3000-illegals-day-after-leadership-shake

Trump Recognized South Africa Is Not Our Friend

 

On this episode of The Daily Signal's “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson unpacks the South African president's Oval Office meeting with President Trump.

"This is not the South Africa we used to know. It was running on the fumes of Mandelaism. At the United Nations, it's hostile to the United States. It takes advantage of the free trade agreement to run up a $9 billion surplus," Hanson said. "It gets $500 million in aid and it shows no gratitude. It attacks us."

"I don’t think Donald Trump will visit South Africa. But I guarantee you, Mr. Ramaphosa will want another meeting."


VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, THE DAILY SIGNAL: We've had another so-called "ambush" on the White House. Remember, ambush means "an unexpected attack from a secretive place." This was not an ambush. Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, wanted that meeting with Donald Trump. He requested it.

And when he came in, he was prepared to refute Donald Trump. In fact, if you look at the media before the meeting, they didn't use the word "ambush," they were giddy. They thought, "Wow, he's going to give Trump a bill of goods." What they didn’t expect was that Trump was ready with his own bill of goods.

Here’s the real backstory: Why did Ramaphosa want to meet Trump? Because he had a free trade agreement with the U.S. with no tariffs on South African agriculture, metals, everything. He was running a $9 billion surplus, and in addition to that, he was getting $500 million in foreign aid from the United States.

In addition to that, his ambassador had just been fired or expelled by Marco Rubio. Why? Because he made a video calling Donald Trump a white supremacist and part of a white victimhood movement, just before the visit. Was he embarrassed? No. He received a hero’s welcome when he went back.

And then there's the larger context of South Africa. It usually votes against the United States at the United Nations. It signed on to the International Criminal Court’s move to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal.

We had a video of the leader of the third-largest party in South Africa telling a crowd to "kill the boer, kill the farmer." And in 2022, something called the "South African Equity Court" declared that "kill the boer, kill the farmer" is not hate speech. I don't know what hate speech is in South Africa if "kill a designated minority" doesn’t qualify.

Looking at all of this, Donald Trump got sick of it. He said, "We don’t hate South Africa, but they’re not our friends. This is not Nelson Mandela. It’s not the age of reconciliation. It’s not the South Africa with such promise 30 years ago. This is a racialist state. It’s one of the most violent countries in the world. And it’s anti-Western and anti-American."

So when Mr. Ramaphosa came to set Donald Trump straight, Trump said: "You know what? I don’t think you like us, so I’m not going to give you $500 million in foreign aid."

"You know what? I don’t think you like us because you think I’m a white supremacist, so we’re not going to give you free trade into our markets. We’re going to charge a 30% tariff."

"You know what? Your ambassador and all your people come over here, and you don’t like us. You think the left-wing foundations, media, and universities are running the country. They’re not. So when you come over here and call us racists, maybe you shouldn’t come over here. Have a little peace."

"Maybe all your foreign students, your green card holders, your visitor visas, maybe we should have a little cooling-off period."

So Donald Trump was saying: this is not the South Africa we used to know. It was running on the fumes of Mandelaism. It’s hostile to the United States at the UN. It takes advantage of the free trade to run up a $9 billion surplus, it gets $500 million in aid and shows no gratitude. It attacks us.

And then when we try to say that you have a law appropriating land without compensation, you deny it, but that was the whole purpose of it. No compensation. You could say it’s for the public domain, but everybody knows how that works. Every country that confiscates land does it for the public, but they compensate you -- except South Africa.

You want internet like Ukraine has, or like remote regions of Asia and Africa have, and therefore you want Starlink. You think Elon Musk is a native son, so you invite him in. But then you say: “We’ll give you the priveledge to come into our market," as if Elon Musk needs that, "but we’re going to take a third of your company and your franchise in South Africa, and it has to be partnered with people of a particular color, Black people.” And Elon Musk responds: “I think I’ll pass on that nice invitation.” And then they get angry and now they'll probably try to ban him.

I don’t think Donald Trump will visit South Africa. But I guarantee you, Mr. Ramaphosa will want another meeting, like Mr. Zelensky did. He’ll come in and say: "Please take away the 30% tariff. Please give us the $500 million handout in foreign aid. Please let all the South Africans — not just the 48 white people -- who, by the way, he called cowards for not wanting to play the lottery with their lives, let it all come back in. Please, please, please. And we promise they won’t let people pack stadiums and chant “kill the boer, kill the farmer” and say that’s not hate speech."


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/05/29/victor_davis_hanson_trump_recognized_south_africa_is_not_our_friend.html