Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Oregon Officials Ask Federal Court To Reverse Ruling That Blocked Marijuana Industry Labor Law Approved By Voters

Oregon officials are asking a federal appeals court to reverse a judge’s ruling that struck down a voter-approved law to require licensed marijuana businesses to enter into labor peace agreements with workers and mandate that employers remain neutral in discussions around unionization.

In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week, attorneys for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D), Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) and Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s (OLCC) Dennis Doherty and Craig Prins urged a review of the “constitutional challenge” to the state law.

The officials previously provided notice that they’d be contesting the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon decision back in June.

After two marijuana businesses—Bubble’s Hash and Ascend Dispensary—initially filed a lawsuit in the district court challenging the implementation of Measure 119, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs, finding that the law unconstitutionally restricts free speech and violates the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Under the currently paused law, a marijuana businesses that was unable to provide proof of a labor peace agreement could have been subject a denial or revocation of their license.

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California Marijuana Tax Cut Officially Takes Effect, With Planned Increase Delayed Through At Least 2028

Three months into a major marijuana tax hike in California, a new law putting a pause on the increase has officially taken effect.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the tax relief legislation from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D) late last month. Now, as of Wednesday, consumers will not be paying the increased excise tax—at least until October 2028.

“We’re rolling back this cannabis tax hike so the legal market can continue to grow, consumers can access safe products, and our local communities see the benefits,” Newsom said at the time of the bill signing.

Haney said that “California’s cannabis economy can bring enormous benefits to our state, but only if our legal industry is given a fair chance to compete against the untaxed and unregulated illegal market.”

“AB 564 helps level the playing field,” he said. “It protects California jobs, keeps small businesses open, and ensures that our legal cannabis market can grow and thrive the way voters intended.”

State officials announced in June that the cannabis excise tax rate would increase from 15 percent to 19 percent on July 1, prompting concern from industry stakeholders and consumer advocates.

Newsom previously supported including a tax freeze in a budget trailer bill, but that didn’t come to fruition. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) also backed the delay, but Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D) reportedly blocked it from the budget legislation.

Before being amended in committee, the newly enacted legislation’s pause of the cannabis tax increase would have been in effect until June 30, 2030. After that, on a biennial basis, regulators would adjust the tax rate “by a percentage that will generate an amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax imposed prior to its discontinuation, as specified, not to exceed 19 percent,” according to a summary.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, however, moved to shorten the period that the reduction will be in effect, to October 2028.

The new law will make it so the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), working with the Department of Finance, will be required to “adjust the cannabis excise tax rate upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products” based on the “additional percentage of the gross receipts of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer that the department estimates will generate an amount of revenue equivalent to the amount that would have been collected in the previous fiscal year,” the text says.

The department will need to “estimate the amount of revenue that would have been collected in the previous fiscal year pursuant to the weight-based cultivation tax” and “estimate this amount by projecting the revenue from weight-based cultivation taxes that would have been collected in the previous calendar year based on information available to the department.”

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Portland city council member tells Antifa agitators to use burner phones, hide identities to escape prosecution during militant protests

Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo, a socialist, is facing backlash after posting a video online that appears to provide instructions for protesters on how to avoid identification while committing crimes during protests.

In the video, Morillo advises individuals to evade detection by purchasing burner phones with cash and using encrypted messaging services to coordinate activities. She also instructs individuals to fully cover their faces to escape facial recognition technology, a tactic she suggests could help avoid law enforcement scrutiny. This is a tactic commonly used by Antifa, a US domestic terrorist organization with prominence in the Pacific Northwest.

This comes after President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to deploy to the city to quash the unlawful 24-hour anti-ICE Antifa occupation outside the ICE facility in South Portland, which has been ongoing since June 7.

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12,000-year-old Rock Art Found in Desert Thought Uninhabitable

About 12,000 years ago, high up on a cliff in the desert of northern Arabia, an artist (or perhaps artists) was hard at work. Standing on a narrow ledge and with primitive tools, they engraved into the rock an image of a life-sized camel. This wasn’t the first artwork of its kind: in fact, there was already an entire row of fresh camel engravings on the  128 foot high (39 meter) cliff face, below which a shallow lake sparkled in the sunshine.

Over thousands of years, these engravings weathered the elements. They gradually eroded until they were almost invisible and had been forgotten. That is, until our international team discovered them and more than 170 others while on a field trip to the region, which sits near the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in Saudi Arabia, roughly two years ago.

As we explain in a new study, published today in Nature Communications, the engravings would have marked important desert water sources – and demonstrate the resilience and innovation of people who lived in such a harsh, arid environment.

Our earlier research had shown that between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago Arabia was much wetter than it is today. Grasslands had spread into areas that are now desert, and cattle herders used these pastures for their herds. The rock art they left behind is well known from two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We could see there was also older rock art at these UNESCO sites. It was much larger and more detailed, showing life-sized and naturalistic camels and wild donkeys. But it was not clear how old it was. So in May 2023 we set out to find more of this ancient rock art in the hope of finding clues about its age.

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Woke Seattle Dem’s husband attacked much younger woman after barging into private event screaming anti-Israel slogans, police say

The husband of a Seattle Democratic was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a 22-year-old woman after he and an angry mob barged into a private event chanting anti-Israel slogans, according to police. 

Calvin Priest, the husband of congressional candidate Kshama Sawant, was taken into custody and booked into jail on August 4.

Officers with the Renton Police Department were called to the town hall following reports the 54-year-old shoved a young woman who is employed by his wife’s rival Congressman Adam Smith. 

Smith was hosting an event at Renton Technical College that day when a group of people, including Priest, forced themselves inside the building, the video showed. 

The clip, obtained by KOMO News, appeared to capture Priest, dressed in a blue baseball hat and shirt, leading people into the private event before wrestling the door while Smith’s unidentified staffer tried to keep him out. 

Priest appeared to continue to put up a fight, eventually shoving his way inside, shouting: ‘Adam Smith, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide.’ 

The unhinged moment left the Democrat‘s staffer with several bruises on her arm and she told police she was upset over being physically harmed by the older man, according to the police report reviewed by the outlet. 

‘She was physically pushed. It shook her up emotionally. Someone in your face, screaming at you and then physically shoving you to the side. I mean, public servants shouldn’t have to put up with that,’ Smith said.

The town hall meeting was canceled following the alleged violent assault. 

Priest and two others were arrested for trespassing, per the police report. He was also hit with an assault charge after police interviewed the injured woman. 

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Israel’s Katz Says Civilians in Gaza City Have ‘Last Opportunity to Leave,’ Will Be Treated as ‘Terrorists’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday issued a threat to Palestinian civilians in famine-stricken Gaza City, warning they have their “last opportunity” to leave the besieged city and that they will be treated as “terrorists” if they remain.

Katz said in a post on X that the IDF has almost encircled Gaza City. “This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself, facing the IDF’s ongoing operations at full force,” he wrote.

“Those who remain in Gaza will be considered terrorists and terror supporters,” he added.

Israel’s goals for Gaza City involve cleansing it of its Palestinian population and razing every single building to the ground. The IDF has claimed that more than 780,000 civilians have fled, while other estimates put the number around 400,000. Either way, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain for several reasons, including the fact that many are too sick for another displacement.

Among the civilians remaining are the Christians based at the two churches in Gaza City: the Holy Family Catholic Church and the St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church. The clergy have stated they will not leave since they are assisting hundreds of displaced Palestinians sheltering at their facilities.

Palestinians in Gaza City also have reason to believe they will still be targeted in southern Gaza as the IDF continues to bomb the areas it’s telling them to flee to. On Tuesday, Israel bombed a tent in the al-Mawasi camp in the south, killing seven people, including four women and a child, who had fled Gaza City earlier this month.

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Illegal Alien Superintendent Lied About PhD, Loses License, And Earns District A DOJ Investigation Into DEI

Ian Roberts, the Iowa superintendent who was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement last Friday after fleeing from a traffic stop and ditching his district-issued vehicle (in which a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a hunting knife was recovered) – completely lied about his bona fides. 

He’s also lost his superintendent’s license, while the DOJ launched an investigation hours after ICE detained him. The 54-year-old native of Guyana entered the United States on a student visa in 1999, overstayed, lied on a form claiming he was eligible to work when he was hired in 2023, and now faces deportation. 

According to the Des Moines Register, Roberts never obtained a doctoral degree from Maryland university – something which would have been easy to verify during the vetting process. Roberts has “long stated that he received a doctoral degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore. But a university spokesperson told the Des Moines Register on Monday that Roberts did not obtain a degree from the school, despite attending Morgan State from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2007.”

He attempted to obtain a doctorate in urban educational leadership. Despite his failure, Roberts has claimed on multiple occasions to have “completed” the degree at Morgan State, including in a 2009 self-published book. 

A November 2024 article published on the Des Moines Public School website claimed “Roberts excelled academically and… completed education programs at Coppin, St. John’s, Morgan State, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.”

Meanwhile, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked Roberts’ superintendent’s license on Sept. 29. 

What’s more, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the school district hours after Roberts was detained. According to the Washington Examiner, the DOJ wrote to interim superintendent Matthew Smith informing him of the investigation into the district’s alleged DEI programs. 

“Our investigation is based on information that DMPS may be engaged in employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants, and training program participants based on race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VII,” wrote Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. 

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Nebraska Officials Miss Medical Marijuana Licensing Deadline As Regulators Resign

Supporters have questioned for months whether the voter-authorized Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission would meet its October 1 deadline to grant its first licenses.

The answer is no: The commission will miss that deadline by at least one week, in the wake of two resignations sought and received by Gov. Jim Pillen (R) of liquor regulators who jointly served on the medical cannabis board.

The Medical Cannabis Commission confirmed the new timeline Tuesday at a meeting originally meant to approve the first cultivator licenses and move toward the first steps of a medical cannabis supply chain in the state. However, two of the five cannabis commissioners resigned Monday, both of whom served on a three-member team evaluating and scoring cultivator applications received by September 23.

Now, the remaining commissioners will independently review applications by next Tuesday, when commissioners will meet to decide whether to award up to four cultivator licenses.

“We would just ask for your understanding that this is a situation that none of us created in this, where we’re at right here,” Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna said Tuesday. “We would just hope you understand that we’re working through this the best that we can to make sure that we get the licenses issued in a timely manner and evaluated and issued in time.”

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Pfizer Strikes $70 Billion Deal with U.S. to Expand Its mRNA Empire, Lower Drug Prices

Today, Pfizer announced a “landmark agreement” with the Trump Administration. The press release promised lower drug costs and a revival of U.S. manufacturing. President Donald Trump touted that Pfizer would cut Medicaid drug prices for low-income Americans and sell new medicines at a “most-favored-nation” price — but only in exchange for tariff relief.

In reality, it appears to be a multi-billion dollar effort to entrench Pfizer’s failed gene-transfer platforms for decades to come.

The deal secures a $70 billion commitment to U.S. R&D — a down payment on Pfizer’s next wave of gene-based products:

  • Cancer “vaccines”
  • Obesity injections
  • Expanded vaccine portfolio (flu, RSV, bird flu, more)
  • Chronic disease biologics in inflammation & immunology

Pfizer itself spelled it out:

“With this agreement in place, Pfizer can fully focus on delivering the next generation of cures… in areas like oncology, obesity, vaccines, and inflammation and immunology.”

This comes after Pfizer’s COVID-19 gene-based products have already been linked to catastrophic injuries, deaths, and disabilities worldwide. Instead of scrutiny, the company is rewarded with protection and growth.

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Woke college says top AI position is only open to ‘disabled women and gender equity-seeking persons’

A woke Canadian college will not hire men or or able-bodied women for its new federally funded $100,000 paying tenured-track artificial intelligence position.

Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, announced that their AI research chair opening is designated for individuals who self-identify as women with a disability or gender equity-seeking persons with a disability.

The posting does not explain what a gender equity-seeking person is, but it is believed to be someone who promotes fairness in the treatment of individuals based on their gender identity or expression.

The new hire will join the staff as an assistant or associate professor and supervise graduate students.

The posting described the job’s responsibilities:

‘They will propose an innovative and original program of research that seeks to develop artificial intelligence-based interventions for deployment in healthcare, especially,’ the listing then explained the areas of healthcare they would be researching.

Dalhousie explained that they are committed to ‘achieving inclusive excellence through continually championing equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility,’ in the About the Opportunity section. 

They encourage, ‘Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island, persons of Black/African descent, and members of other racialized groups, persons identifying as members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community,’ to apply.

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