Congressional Committee Moves To Block Marijuana Rescheduling

A GOP-controlled House committee has unveiled a new spending bill that contains provisions to block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana. The legislation would also maintain a separate longstanding rider protecting state medical cannabis programs from federal interference—though with new language authorizing enhanced penalties for sales near schools and parks.

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee released the text of the spending measure covering Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS). For the second time now, the base legislation contains language hostile to marijuana rescheduling efforts that remain ongoing.

Specifically, the bill would block the Justice Department from using its funds to reschedule or deschedule marijuana. Under the Biden administration, DOJ recommended moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), but that process has been delayed for months amid challenges from witnesses in the administrative hearings.

Here’s the text of the provision: 

SEC. 607. None of the funds appropriated or other wise made available by this Act may be used to reschedule marijuana (as such term is defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)) or to remove marijuana from the schedules established under section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812).”

The language cleared committee as part of the last CJR spending bill, but it was not ultimately enacted into law. The new measure is scheduled for subcommittee action on Tuesday.

GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed in 2023, but that proposal did not receive a hearing or vote.

Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently notified an agency judge that the marijuana rescheduling process remains stalled under the Trump administration.

It’s been over six months since DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney temporarily paused hearings on a proposal to move cannabis to Schedule III. And in a joint report to the judge submitted earlier this month, DEA attorneys and rescheduling proponents said they’re still at an impasse.

To the relief of advocates, the latest CJS bill does continue to preserve a longstanding rider to prevent DOJ from using its funds to interfere in the implementation of state medical marijuana programs that has been part of federal law since 2014.

However, it stipulates that the Justice Department can still enforce a section of U.S. code that calls for increased penalties for distributing cannabis within 1,000 feet of an elementary school, vocational school, college, playground or public housing unit. That language was first included in the last version of the appropriations legislation.

Keep reading

The Hypocrisy Of Most Anti-Trump Crusaders Shouldn’t Be Lost On Us — But There Is A Path Forward

It’s no secret that Donald Trump is a wretched human being both inside and outside of the political arena. He is a narcissistic man-child who bullies anyone in his way, with a history of con artistry, an adjudicated rapist with various accusations of sexual assault, and a several decades long connection to an international sex trafficking, pedophile ring, and blackmail operation via the Jeffery Epstein Network which his administration only recently covered up.

Lifelong constitutional scholars such as the impeccable attorney John W Whitehead, the founder of The Rutherford Institute, confirm that Donald Trump is violating the constitution and the scope of presidential power and ethics at every possible turn. Weaponizing federal law enforcement like a despotic strong man with zero concern for civil liberties, further empowering the American police state and expanding the prison industrial complex. All the while bolstering illegal mass surveillance while marching the nation down the road to technocracy.

Still, the fact is and always has been that Trump is merely the naked face of an empire that otherwise keeps itself hidden under a mask. Most so-called leftists would have you believe that Trump’s particular brand of authoritarianism is some exception to the norm, an atypical monstrosity that deviates from the status quo. In reality Trumpianism is just the manifestation of the status quo brought to the forefront for all to see. 

It is the exacerbation of what always has been. Trump is crude and brash with his despotism whereas previous figures like Barack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton and so on were always relatively prudent and well spoken with theirs. The kind of despotism of decades past came with an eloquence that brought with it a kind of acquiescence.

Keep reading

The Rise Of The Prison State: Trump’s Push For Megaprisons Could Lock Us All Up

“You think we’re arresting people now? You wait till we get the funding to do what we got to do.”—Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar

America is rapidly becoming a nation of prisons.

Having figured out how to parlay presidential authority in foreign affairs in order to sidestep the Constitution, President Trump is using his immigration enforcement powers to lock up—and lock down—the nation.

After all, a police state requires a prison state. And no one is cheering louder than the private prison corporations making money hand over fist from Trump’s expansion of federal detention.

Under the guise of national security and public safety, the Trump administration is engineering the largest federal expansion of incarceration and detention powers in U.S. history.

At the center of this campaign is Alligator Alcatraz, a federal detention facility built in the Florida Everglades and hailed by the White House as a model for the future of federal incarceration. But this is more than a new prison—it is the architectural symbol of a carceral state being quietly constructed in plain sight.

With over $170 billion allocated through Trump’s megabill, we are witnessing the creation of a vast, permanent enforcement infrastructure aimed at turning the American police state into a prison state.

The scope of this expansion is staggering.

The bill allocates $45 billion just to expand immigrant detention—a move that will make ICE the best-funded federal law enforcement agency in American history, with more money than the FBI, the DEA, and the Bureau of Prisons combined.

Yet be warned: what begins with ICE rarely ends with ICE.

Keep reading

Guess Which Crazy Place Just Criminalized WALKING THE DOG

The ruling elites of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not known worldwide for their friendly, sunny dispositions; in fact, they have a long and ever-growing list of pet hates, including America, Israel, women (at least if their heads are uncovered and they’re out in public), and man’s other best friend, dogs. The ruling Iranian mullahs have now extended a ban that was already in effect in over twenty Iranian cities to the entire country: it is now against the law to walk the dog. That means, of course, that while private ownership of dogs as pets is ostensibly permitted in Iran, it has for all intents and purposes been outlawed.

Wamiz, a French-language site devoted to news of our four-legged friends, reported on Tuesday that anyone walking a dog “on the streets of Iran now risks more than just a fine – and it’s all down to deeply religious reasons.” Walking a dog has been illegal for years in Tehran and many other cities, and now there is nowhere in the entire Islamic Republic that you can take your dog for a walk and not risk running afoul of the nation’s feared morality police. 

The ban is designed, according to Iranian authorities, to maintain public order, ensure security and protect public health.” Wamiz, however, notes that “critics suspect a cultural-political message behind the crackdown.” This because for many Islamic hardliners in Iran, having a dog as a pet is not just unclean, but also shows that the dog owner has succumbed to the Satanic lure of the Western lifestyle. There are few things one can do to arouse more suspicion among Iranian authorities.

Owning a dog is such a bad thing to do in the Islamic Republic of Iran that the Ayatollah Khamenei himself has emphasized that keeping dogs for reasons other than herding, hunting, and guard dogs is to be considered reprehensible.” He explained that walking dogs damages Islamic culture as well as hygiene and the peace of others.”

Why would walking a dog damage Islamic culture? Quite simply, because Islam hates dogs. This goes for Shi’ite Islam, the dominant religion of Islam, as well as Sunni Islam, to which the overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide adhere. Shi’ite collections of Muhammad’s words and deeds attribute quotes to him including “It is detestable for a Muslim to allow a dog to live in his house” (Al-Kafi H 12735, ch. 12, h 1); “Whoever keeps a dog, every day one qirat (a certain unit of measurement) is reduced from the (good) deeds of his owner” (Al-Kafi H 12736, ch. 12, h 2); and “There is nothing good in dogs except hunting dogs or that which guards cattle.” (Al-Kafi 12738, Ch. 12, h 4)

And so, Wamiz says, while “officially, keeping dogs isn’t banned in Iran, but anyone who has a four-legged friend lives an increasingly dangerous life.” The Iranian authorities are notorious, and feared and hated, worldwide for killing a woman they had arrested, Mahsa Amini, for not wearing her headscarf properly. In light of that and so many other incidents like it, it is no small matter for ordinary citizens even to consider flouting the rules of the regime. And those rules appear to be forever multiplying: “Authorities have repeatedly issued bans in recent years that prohibit taking dogs in cars or to parks or public spaces.”

Keep reading

Explained: The UK’s Potentially Terrifying Criminal Justice “Reforms”

Plans to reform the UK’s criminal justice system – including the scrapping of jury trials for some offences and reduced sentences for those who plead guilty – are all part of larger “reforms” that would empower tyrannical authoritarianism.

Former senior judge and current Investigatory Powers Commissioner Brian Leveson made the news this week with the publication of his report recommending, among other things, “jury-free” trials, in order to “prevent the collapse of the criminal justice system”.

Note the language, by the way. “Jury-free, not “jury-less“, as if juries are a food additive we should avoid, rather than a right guaranteed in British law for over 800 years.

This is not new. “Replacing”, “updating” or otherwise “reforming” Jury trials has been on the worldwide agenda for years now.

Within weeks of “Covid” starting, Scotland moved to suspend jury trials entirely (a move so unpopular they reversed it within 24 hours). At the same time, noted lawyers wrote opinion pieces for the Guardian headlined:

“Coronavirus has stopped trials by jury, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing”

Also in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins wrote that Covid had presented an “opportunity” to get rid of the old-fashioned jury trial system. He repeated the idea in another column a couple of months ago.

Less than a year later, Scotland wanted to waive jury trials again, this time in rape cases, to “protect the victim”. They scrapped that plan, too.

Not long after that, in the US, the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict caused the predictable pundits to rant and rave about the “broken” jury system.

In January 2023, the French government announced it would be scrapping jury trials for rape cases and all crimes with a maximum sentence of 15-20 years, citing a need to clear the backlog and make the court system more efficient.

Academic papers are even discussing the possibility of replacing jurors with ChatGPT-like artificial intelligences. A possibility to horrendous to contemplate.

Keep reading

UK police arrest scores of supporters of newly banned Palestinian protest group

British police arrested scores of supporters on Saturday of a pro-Palestinian protest group that was banned this month under anti-terrorism legislation.

Police said they had arrested at least 41 people in London and 16 others in Manchester for showing support for the group Palestine Action. Campaign group Defend our Juries said 86 people had been arrested across the UK, with other protests held in Wales and Northern Ireland.

British lawmakers proscribed the group under anti-terrorism legislation earlier this month after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.

“Officers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organisation. One person has been arrested for common assault,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on social media about the demonstration.

After a similar protest in London last week, police arrested 29 people.

Before Saturday’s arrests in London, close to 50 protesters had gathered with placards saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” near a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British parliament.

Keep reading

France waging ‘crusade’ against free speech and tech progress – Telegram boss

France has embarked on a “crusade” against free speech and progress itself, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Friday after Paris launched a probe against the social media platform X. The French authorities should talk to tech companies instead of prosecuting them, the entrepreneur believes.

The actions of the “French bureaucrats” will only “scare off investment and damage the country’s economic growth for decades,” the Russian-born billionaire wrote on X.

The French authorities announced a probe against the Elon Musk-owned platform on Friday for allegedly manipulating algorithms “for purposes of foreign interference.” The investigation was prompted by two complaints, one filed by a French lawmaker and the other by a government cybersecurity official, both of whom accused X of threatening French democracy. Musk has not commented on the development.

Keep reading

British Dad Arrested While Trying to Save Daughter from Rape Gangs Says Police Faked Records to Smear Him

A British father alleged in an interview on Friday that local Rotherdam police created fake arrest reports to derail an investigation into authorities repeatedly arresting him for attempting to rescue his daughter from a child rape den.

The now-infamous case of a Rotherham father arrested for trying to protect his daughter from child rapists took a new turn this week as the father, identified only as “Jack” in the interview, claimed that the force falsified records of his arrests, using inaccurate information and accusing him of being intoxicated during his rescue attempts.

British broadcaster GB News reports that years after the 2005 rapes of the daughter and arrests of the father, when the so-called grooming gang scandal became public knowledge, the unnamed man filed an official complaint about how his family had been treated. South Yorkshire Police are said to have denied his claim and attempted to discredit the story by issuing a custody sheet showing that the arrests actually took place in a different part of the town, and because the man was drunk.

The father insists that the document features key errors, including the man’s address being given as a home he did not move into until five years later. The father told GB News he believes police produced the document to cover up what they had done to his family. The broadcaster also reported it has viewed documentary evidence proving he had no connection to that address in 2005.

Keep reading

Environmental Regulations Are Literally Baking Europeans to Death

Much of the U.S. has been suffering a sweltering heat wave for the past two weeks. Though uncomfortable, particularly in areas with nearly 100 percent humidity like Washington, D.C., most Americans experience heat waves as a sweaty annoyance. Our European counterparts are not so fortunate, thanks to excessive regulations driving up the price of energy and outright banning certain air conditioning units.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put 130 million Americans “under extreme heat warnings or heat advisories [last] Thursday…with 282 locations breaking daily heat records,” according to The Guardian. CNN reported that at least one death in the St. Louis area was ascribed to the heat wave, but mass casualties have not been suffered stateside. Meanwhile, in Europe, eight people have died across the continent as of Wednesday: four in Spain (two were killed in a wildfire that is believed to be driven by hot, dry conditions), two in France, and two more in Italy, per Al Jazeera

The situation was even worse during the summer of 2023. The U.K. Health Security Agency estimated that 2,295 deaths were associated with excessive heat. The U.S., meanwhile, recorded nearly the same number of heat-related deaths (2,325), despite having a population (335 million) nearly five times greater than the U.K. population (​​68 million) at the time.

The United Nations estimates that the European continent accounted for approximately 175,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, calculates that about 1,300 deaths per year in the U.S. are due to extreme heat. (This translates to four heat-related deaths per million annually in the U.S. and 235 heat-related deaths per million annually across Europe.)

There are myriad reasons why there are so many more heat-related deaths in Europe than there are in the United States. But the most significant explanation might just be the simplest: air conditioning.

David S. Jones, a physician and historian at Harvard University, told CNN in 2023 that the disparity is explained by some combination of the U.S. underreporting its numbers and heat being more lethal in Europe due to the lack of air conditioning. The American-European disparity along this latter dimension could hardly be greater: nearly 90 percent of U.S. households have air conditioning, whereas less than 10 percent of European homes do. The productivity gap between the U.S. and Europe helps explain this disparity.

Keep reading

NORTHERN DYSTOPIA: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Warns Citizens To Be Vigilant, for ‘People With Traditional Values Can Be Extremists’

Woke Canada keeps descending into pure madness, led by the Globalist Liberal party. Justin Trudeau is out, Mark Carney is in, but the dystopian developments continue unabated.

For the canucks in power, it is progressive to defend mass migration, abortion and euthanasia, transgender dysphoria, ‘net zero’ and the church of climate change… the list is endless.

But, of course, the majority of normal people in Canada need to be kept in check by their Liberal overlords, so common, ordinary behavior needs to be vilified.

So now, warnings by Canadian Police arise that ‘people with traditional values could be extremists’.

If you like “traditional values,” such as mothers raising their children instead of daycare workers, this RCMP spokeswoman says you might be an extremist. pic.twitter.com/TpDBPAYmec

— Billboard Chris (@BillboardChris) July 9, 2025

The Telegraph reported:

“Staff Sgt Camille Habel, the spokeswoman for Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), urged people to be vigilant following the arrest of four people in Quebec, who were allegedly involved in ‘ideologically motivated violent extremism’.”

Keep reading