Cannabis Culture: Grant Smith: Meet The New Drug Czar, Not The Same as The Old Drug Czar

Source:The New Democrat

I guess at least in my perfect world and perhaps in the perfect world of now at least a one half of all Americans we would have not just marijuana legalization at the federal level, but harder narcotics that are currently illegal like heroin and cocaine would be decriminalized. Not legalized which is different, but someone busted for cocaine possession let's say would not be facing prison time. Unless they were arrested for attempting to sell their drugs. But upon conviction they would be looking at a fine and community service based on how much in illegal narcotics they were caught with.

Now that is my policy for dealing with illegal narcotics, as well as sending drug addicts to drug rehab instead of jail or prison at their expense. But that is not the policy of the Obama Administration. Even they are probably closer to my policy than any administration at least since the Carter Administration in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Under Attorney General Eric Holder they have loosened marijuana enforcement at least in President Obama’s second term when he didn’t have to worry about reelection. They are more open to drug rehab than jail and prison. Which is good for everyone including taxpayers who get stuck with the living costs of people in jail in prison who don’t represent a threat to society.

I saw a Congressional hearing last year in the U.S. House about marijuana legalization and the broader War on Drugs. And it was a good hearing that the Republican Chairman that I believe Representative John Mica who does seem to be more open to a softer stance on the so-called War on Drugs, but not in favor of marijuana legalization at least yet. Michael Botticelli who was then I believe the White House’s Deputy Director of Drug Policy was one of their witness’s. And several members of the committee, I think all Democrats including Representative Steve Cohen asked Mr. Botticelli does he believe marijuana is as dangerous as cocaine or heroin. Short answer is that Botticelli didn’t answer the question and just spoke to the current law.

Look I’m not a fan of Director Botticelli at least from what I’ve heard about him and how he talks about marijuana especially. But he has run drug rehab clinics in the past and seems to be more on the side of rehab instead of incarceration when it comes to users and addicts. I hope he at least publicly supports the Obama Administration in their decision not to enforce the federal anti-marijuana law in states and territories and even cities like Washington that has legalized marijuana that the Republican Congress and President Obama won’t block. And if he stays on this path with both rehab and the Obama Administration policy on marijuana enforcement, I think he could be a good appointment.

Brookings Institution: William Galston: The American People to its Leaders

Source:The New Democrat

I think its pretty clear about what we’ve learned in the last thirteen-years or so in our Middle East adventures. That if you try to defend and govern a country that won’t do that for themselves, then they’ll expect you to stay indefinitely especially if you’re also putting up the bills. And the answer to that is don’t fight other people’s wars for them. This is what we learned about Vietnam. That we shouldn’t try to fight for people who won’t fight for themselves. That if you’re going to get involved in foreign wars you need to have partners of the ground people who live in the country and region that will do their part to defeat the enemy.

Of course America has a role in defeating ISIS in Syria, Iraq and everywhere else. But so does Iraq, so does Kurdistan, so does the Syrian rebels, the Arab League, Turkey, the European Union and especially NATO. And Jordan which is already doing their part and so does Saudi Arabia the biggest and most powerful military in the region. Well the Saudis or Turkey and either one of them could combat ISIS by themselves especially with a NATO no fly zone protecting them. That you must have partners that will work with you on the ground to take out ISIS as you assist them in the air and with other resources.

President Obama doesn’t want to put American ground troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq and neither does the country. That is not going to happen, but what we can do with our NATO allies is give the ground troops from the Middle East the cover to go in take ISIS out as we’re taking out the air-cover and blowing them away. So they can’t get additional resources that they need to keep the fight going and bring in additional personal. And while we are there we could also take out the Assad Regime in Syria as well. But that might be a different debate, but America can play its part to defeat Islamism in the Middle East and other places. But our allies have to play their parts as well.

Jnuss Bau: The Hollywood Blacklist: 1947-1960

Source:The New Democrat

The late 1940s and all the way up to at least the mid-1950s or so was one of the most fascist illiberal and anti-liberal democratic periods of our time. I think elements of today’s Tea Party and the Ann Coulter’s of the world would’ve loved to be alive back then. Because it was a time when an American could be perceived as being a bad person simply because of who they may have associated with in the past. Especially if you were on the Far-Left in America and at the very least had socialistic and communistic leanings as far as what people like that would want to accomplish for America. A more collectivist and equal society.

This is not what America is supposed to be about. We are supposed to be that liberal democracy liberal society free society that the rest of the world wants to mimic. Where everyone has the right to be themselves and believe in what they believe whatever that they may be and be able to associate with whoever they choose to just as long as we aren’t hurting any innocent people with what we are doing. But if you were around back in the late 1940s and 1950s and you were an adult and you were somewhat Far-Left politically and you worked in Hollywood, that is not the type of country that you saw. You saw a country where you could be viewed as guilty and immoral simply because of people you associated with and your political beliefs.

Were there Socialists and Communists in Hollywood back then, I’m sure there were and probably still today. At least when it comes to Democratic Socialists especially if you look at a lot of Hollywood’s political films. But just because someone’s political views are out of the American mainstream and puts them on the Far-Left or Far-Right in America doesn’t automatically make them bad people. And it shouldn’t cost them jobs either. Which is what happened to the Hollywood Ten back then members of the movie industry who lost jobs and whose reputations suffered simply because of their political views. Or their perceived political views, or people that they associate with, or had associated with in the past.

Foreign Affairs: Alan J. Kuperman: 'How Barack Obama Failed Libya'

Source:The New Democrat

I supported a limited intervention of Libya that would have a coalition between America and Europe especially NATO that would establish a no fly zone over Libya as the Libyan rebels did the groundwork in Libya to knockout the Gaddafi Regime there. I was in favor of this by February 2011 and even criticized the Obama Administration for not acting soon enough. President Obama finally makes the decision to intervene in Libya and be part of the NATO coalition that would hit Gaddafi forces in the air as the Libyan rebels did the groundwork. This was one of the most successful, cost-effective and quick military operations that America has ever been part of that ended in the early summer of 2011.

This was not Iraq 2011 where we would go in and invade the country with a hundred-thousand ground troops, knockout the government and establish our own state there to occupy the country. Why the Iraqi people would figure out what kind of country they wanted to have. The operation in Libya was about knocking out a murderous dictator who was simply only interested in staying in power in Libya. And this is something I believe we could’ve done in Syria by now. Knocked out the Assad Regime in coalition with NATO and not have to debate and consider if we arm the Syrian rebels or not. But that is a different debate.

Libya is not a failed state now because America and Europe decided not to occupy it. Libya is a failed stated because they didn’t have the leadership to unify the country around a new government that could bring this large country the size of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Algeria physically, but with only six-million people, together and plot the course for the new Libya. What they instead got was another semi-authoritarian government that wasn’t prepared to govern and defend the country. And now you have new rebels and terrorists including ISIS that Egypt of all countries has decided to intervene against and take out.

Bolinha Franca: The Notorious Landlady (1962) Starring Jack Lemmon & Kim Novak

Source:The New Democrat

Kim Novak similar to Diana Dors in The Unholy Wife is the perfect women to play a murder suspect because she’s so cute and sweet. It is hard to believe she’s capable or hurting anyone let alone killing someone. Only in The Notorious Landlady the Kim Novak character is innocent and what happened to her husband no one actually knows. The Diana Dors character in The Unholy Wife is guilty of murdering at least two people. Jack Lemmon plays an American diplomat in London who has just arrived there needing a place to live while he’s in Britain. Kim Novak is also an American, but now living in England who owns an apartment house. It is basically a large house with a flat upstairs.

Bill Gridley played by Jack Lemmon finds the house and asks if he can rent the apartment there that is vacant. Not knowing that the women who owns the house is a murder suspect. She is very protective of her and her home and very specific about who she wants living there. And try’s to scare off Bill with a phony English accent that Kim does very well in the movie, but us unsuccessful and eventually gives in. Once they figure out that are both are American, they hit it off. Bill’s boss at the U.S. Embassy in London finds out where Bill is living and who owns the house and bring in Scotland Yard. Because they believe she murdered her husband.

Bill similar to me can’t believe that this women that he’s now renting a flat from and is in love with is capable of murdering anyone. Even though Scotland Yard and his superiors believe she’s guilty and basically spends the rest of the movie trying to prove that she’s innocent. Even though he has his own suspicions about who is the real killer and is Mrs. Hardwick played by Kim Novak is completely innocent in this case. This is not a great movie or a great comedy, but Kim Novak is great in it and looks great in it. And Jack Lemmon is his usual funny charming self.

Columbia Classic's: Pushover (1954) Starring Fred McMurray & Kim Novak

Source:Columbia Classics- from the intro to Pushover.

Source:The New Democrat

“Money isn’t dirty, just people are”. One of the better lines from Pushover delivered by the great Kim Novak who was great at delivering lines because she had a great voice and came off as so real because she was so real. She acted as if she was the person she was playing and delivered the lines not as an actress, but as if she was the person she was playing. I’ve at best seen bits and pieces of Pushover and saw the whole movie last night in preparation for this blog. And I was very impressed and saw a great crime drama involving real people and how they deal with bad situations.

Pushover starts off as being about a police stake out of a girlfriend of a bank robber that the police are after. Who stole two-hundred-thousand-dollars from a bank. They believe the girlfriend played by Kim Novak might be in on the operation or at the very least knows about it. And that her boyfriend is going to see her and perhaps tell her what he knows and where to meet her and all of that. Fred McMurray plays either a police sergeant or senior detective on this case who is leading the stake out and only has a police lieutenant to report to. He meets the girlfriend on purpose and they hit it off immediately.

Lona played by Kim Novak figures out that Paul Sheridan is a cop and has been investigating her. And he confesses to that and tries to get her to go downtown with him to tell the police what she knows about the bank robbery. She refuses and instead suggests that they get the money and split it and run off together. Paul refuses Lona’s offer strongly at first, but also wants to protect her from her boyfriend and the police in the stake out and tells her about the stake out and how to behave. How to answer the phone and how to talk to people and when to leave her apartment and everything else.

Paul finally gives in, but without a strong push from Lona. And now they are completely working together during this stake out that Paul is supposed to be leading as the senior detective or sergeant on the case. And now they are working together and just trying to buy time and not get caught and figured out while Paul’s men on the case are getting more suspicious of her and want to know what she knows about the case. Paul starts off as a good cop in the movie, but falls in love with the target he’s supposed to be investigating and the case goes bad from there.

Foreign Affairs: Alexander J. Motyl: Why Vladimir Putin's Days Are Numbered

Source:The New Democrat

If you look at how the Russian Federation is set up and what type of country and the government they are supposed to have on paper, it is very sound and looks very similar as the United States. They are officially a Federal Republic with checks and balances in their Federal Government. A strong executive, but independent judiciary and legislative branches. With states that they call republics who are also independent of the Federal Government. With their own governments and independently elected governors of their republics. Sounds like America, doesn’t it.

But that is not how President Vladimir Putin governs Russia and no he’s not as bad as Joe Stalin and a lot of Russian dictators from the Soviet era. Russia is a hell of a lot better off now than they were in the Soviet era as far as being able to move around the country and being able to build lives for themselves and being able to live in some type of freedom. And they do now have an independent media and access to foreign media. But this is not a liberal democracy by any stretch of the imagination and doesn’t even advertise itself as one. And if Vlad Putin is not a dictator officially, he is certainly one in practice with all of the power he’s centralized in his own office.

But it looks like President Putin may have gone too far, because as much economic progress that Russia has made in the last fifteen years or so under his leadership, that has mostly been from their energy industry that is state-owned. Russia is one of the top three energy producers in the world. This is a country that should’ve been an economic superpower sixty-years ago with their natural resources and their educated public. But of course their communist system ruined that for them and the Putin Administration hasn’t done much to develop their other industries and create other industries. That America did a long time ago and that Europe in Japan did sixty-years ago.

And now that oil prices are falling and the with the American/European economic sanctions on Russia because of their unlawful invasion of Ukraine and all of the money that Russia has spent to try to occupy parts of Ukraine which is a large country, the Russian economy is taking a big hit. And people in the Russian Government and around the country know this and have only their President Putin to blame for that. And as a result President Putin’s strong hand on that entire country of one-fifty-million people is getting a lot weaker. And hopefully his days as dictator of Russia are numbered.