The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur & Ana Kasparian: 'Will President Obama Legalize Marijuana If He Wins Reelection?'

Source:The Young Turks- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) speaking at an international drug conference.

"Will President Obama end/minimize the war on drugs and legalize marijuana if he wins reelection? MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell thinks the president would in fact legalize or decriminalize cannabis if he wins another term. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks disagree." 

From The Young Turks

Newsflash for Cenk Uygur: Barack Hussein Obama is not just a politician, but a career politician, whose running for reelection as President of the United States, where he's looking at best a 5 point election either way, with 3-5 swing states determining who'll be President of the United States in 2013. 

My point is (and yes, there is a point) the Obama Campaign probably figured out last year, that the only way they get reelected, especially with the economy and recovery being so slow, with still so many Americans still unemployed and now living in poverty, that they have to win the Independent voters overwhelmingly. Because the Republican nominee is going to run a hard-right campaign and doing to nothing that could weaken the turnout of the Far-Right in the Republican Party. And then President Obama can say: "You might not like me, but the other side, especially with a Republican Congress, should scare the hell out of you. You have to reelect me."

While President Obama is supposedly running to the middle (like a mouse running from a cat) at the same time, The White House is going to try to appease partisan, especially left-wing Democrats (like The Young Turks) to vote for them. And talk about things like universal pre K, getting Medicare back on the table as a public option in health care reform, raising taxes on the wealthy, criminal justice reform, etc. And who knows, if Democrats retain the Senate, even with a Republican House, maybe rethinking our drug laws as well.

The Ring of Fire: Mike Papantonio: 'Why Young Voters Are Leaving GOP'

Source:The Ring of Fire- Ben Adler writes for The Nation Magazine.

"Republicans have done an amazing job in the last few months of alienating essentially every voter that isn't a wealthy, older, white male. Their voter ID laws have affectively alienated minorities, their regressive policies towards women have pushed female voters away from them, and their lack of concern over education and student loans has left young voters looking elsewhere for politicians to vote for. So, at the end of the day, do Republicans have any shot at winning over the hearts and minds of young voters? Mike Papantonio attempts to answer that question with Ben Adler, a contributing writer for the Nation magazine." 

From The Ring of Fire

Young American voters (let's say people 18-34) get stereotyped and this has been going on at least since the 1960s when the Baby Boomer started coming of age, as left-wingers, people who love big government socialism, who think the Federal Government should be doing a lot more for them and the country as a whole, who claim that they don't mind paying higher taxes to get more government in their lives. And yet, there's no such thing as a monolithic voting bloq in America. 

Young voters regardless of their political ideology and party, vote for and follow the politicians who speak to them and talk about the issues that they care about and say they're going to address the issues that this group faces, if they get elected. The Ron Paul movement which has a lot voters who are under 30 in his movement, is a pretty good example of that. 

When Americans are very young, they tend to be the least ideological, simply because they have the least amount or real-world experience as everyone else. They're just starting to figure out what they believe. 

The Young Turks: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur: 'Guard Killed In Riot At Private Prison In Mississippi'

Source:The Young Turks- welcome to Mississippi.

"A Mississippi jail is on lockdown today after a Sunday night riot left one prison guard dead and as many as 20 inmates and guards injured. According to sheriff's reports, the violence began as a gang feud and soon engulfed the privately operated facility, which holds 2,500 non-citizens incarcerated for reentering the United States after deportation and for other charges. But the fragments of information that have emerged from inmates and advocates suggest that the violence had more to do with a pattern of abuse and neglect that has emerged at privately run, for-profit prisons. The Adams County sheriff's office and the Corrections Corporation of America, the behemoth prison company that operates the facility for the federal Bureau of Prisons, have tightly controlled news of the riot...".* Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks." 

From The Young Turks

Anyone whose familiar with this blog, knows that I'm against private prisons. I'm in favor privatization and private options for a helluva lot of things in America, except when it comes to our national security, foreign policy, law enforcement, and criminal justice. 

Corrections is obviously one of the key functions of government. I'm not anti-corporate or anti-for-profit, except when it comes government's key functions in our free society to keep it free for as many people as possible, who play by the rules and contribute to the country. 

For-profit corporations are in the business to make as much money as humanly possible for their executives and stockholders. Not to keep the country safe and take care and supervise our prison inmates.

Thom Hartmann: 'Joe Biden & Pot Legalization'

Source:Thom Hartmann- talking about marijuana legalization.

"Thom Hartmann says legalizing pot would help President Obama win a second term and Vice President Joe Biden is just the man to get the ball rolling.

If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!" 

From Thom Hartmann

I know Thom Hartmann already knows this. So I'm not even going to try to insult his intelligence on this. (Perhaps on future topics, stay tuned) But for the handful or less of people who may read this and perhaps just waking up from a political coma or have been vacationing in Afghanistan the last 5 years or so, both Joe Biden and Barack Obama are career politicians, who are up for reelection this year. They're not going to take any public positions, especially in the spring and summer this year, that can hurt their reelection campaign. 

If President Obama thought that coming out in favor of marijuana legalization this year, which is overwhelmingly popular with Classical Liberals (meaning the real Liberals) and Conservative Libertarians, he would've already done that by now. Because privately, he has to be smart enough, especially with the legal background that he has, to know that the War On Drugs is a colossal failure. But publicly, he doesn't want to do anything that could cost him a majority of Independent voters who may think that legalizing, even with taxation and regulation of marijuana, could be a horrible idea. 

The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur: 'What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs?'

Source:The Young Turks- welcome to Portugal.

"The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country's spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country's already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: "Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country."

Source:The Young Turks

What the State of New Jersey is looking at is a different approach to fighting the War on Drugs by decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana that people may possess. In other words, they are caught in possession of fifteen grams or less of marijuana, they would pay a fine for possessing that amount of marijuana. It's a step in the right direction but only a step because it means that people in New Jersey could still be arrested for using or selling marijuana. A narcotic that has similar affects as alcohol, perhaps with less consequences though.

What needs to be done in the War on Drugs, is we stop fighting it. Get the criminals out of the picture in narcotics industry. Whether it's legal or not, it's still an industry. And then  pursue the criminals in the narcotics industry, people who prey on drug addicts, to get every dime they can out of them. Treat drug addicts like the patients that they are and get them in drug rehab at their expense. Because this is their problem. And it's not other people's problems, until they hurt people with it. And not just decriminalize marijuana but legalize it, with regulation and taxation like alcohol.

We now have two-million people in prison in America, a country thats supposed to be a liberal democracy. And I'm all for locking up criminals people who represent a threat to society. Drug addicts aren't criminals in the sense that they routinely hurt innocent people. If thats the only felony or felonies they've ever committed. They are patients with essentially a mental condition, who can't control and satisfy their urges for narcotics. And roughly 30% of all American inmates are in prison for a drug related offense and a lot of times, that has to do with possession or usage.

So what we need to do with this war, which is probably the 2nd dumbest war we've ever fought as a country, behind the 2nd Iraq War, is stop fighting it. Treat drug criminals like criminals, people who prey on drug addicts to get every dime out of them they can. Treat drug addicts like patients and get them the help they ned, so they can move on and live productive lives.

What we also should be doing besides legalizing with regulation and taxation of marijuana, treat it like alcohol and I've been reluctant to take this position before, is to decriminalize other narcotics. Except for marijuana which would be legalized.

Instead of arresting people for simple possession of let's say heroin (to use as an example) instead have them pay a fine, based on the amount of heroin they possess and of course take away their heroin. If they are caught using let's say heroin, cocaine (to use as examples), get them in drug rehab at their expense, instead of jail or prison. Until they are ready to return to society. And perhaps in a halfway house as well, again at their expense.

We've spent over a trillion dollars again fighting a war we've never should've started in the first place. And have a paid a heavy price for it, with all the drug addicts we now have locked up. As well as the drug addicts we now have on the street, because they've never gotten the help they should've in the first place.

And we've paid a heavy price for this so-called bogus (to be kind) War on Drugs, because it really isn't a war. You can't go to war with an idea or product. Only with people and groups of people. But enough with the bad English in describing narcotics policy in America and other countries. And the only people who have benefited from it, are the drug dealers themselves.

So we need a new approach in how we deal with narcotics. Take a realistic approach that is around personal freedom short of hurting innocent people and personal responsibility. Not there on heroin and other stronger narcotics, but locking people up for simply possessing those drugs and being addicted to them, hasn't worked. Of course go after the producers of heroin and cocaine, but their victims should be treated as such. Get them the help that they need and hold then responsible for the costs of getting over their addiction. With a safety net for people who simply can't afford their rehab. 

The Real News: David Daugherty: 'In Chicago, Nurses Rally For Robin Hood Tax'

Source:The Real News- covering a pro-Robin Hood Tax really in Chicago.

"National Nurses United calls for international campaign for financial transaction tax"

Source:The Real News

This week so-called Progressives (organized labor, and other socialist organizations, really) will be rallying in Chicago in favor of new tax hikes. Actually, rallying for tax hikes and no not in Sweden, but in America. Only Socialists pay taxes with smiles on their faces and consider Tax Day to be a holiday worth celebrating. As well as protesting against NATO and the G8, the group of developed nations in the World. Not rallying for tax hikes, because they are concern about the Federal debt and deficit, now 16T$ and 1.8T$ respectfully. But to pass a tax hike, to do the things that Socialists (to be real) are always stereotyped as and for good reason, as tax and spenders.

Socialists believe government can spend people's money better than the people who make the money. You probably won't see the President or any other Democratic leader at these rallies and for good reason, they don't want to be linked with them. The so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus (another way of saying Democratic Socialists of America) and others who believe in this fiscal policy, may be there, but they agree with this strategy and can afford to be seen supporting it, because they represent for the most part, only people who tend to agree with them. They represent House districts, (not states) and they don't have to campaign in Florida or Illinois, just a section of those states.

These rallies will be calling for a global financial tax on corporations, that do business on Wall Street. Handing over American independence to make these decisions for ourselves and giving this power to the United Nations or World Bank, or some international organization. 

I understand the need for Socialists  to organize and get out there and lay out exactly what they believe. And I respect them for that. They are Big Government Democratic Socialists and are proud of it, who believe in democratic socialism. But they also represent a lot of the negative stereotypes of the Democratic Party, that cost the Democratic Party 5-6 Presidential Elections from 1968-88. That Bill Clinton worked so hard to erase and to tell Americans that we are a center-left progressive party. But they are not a socialist party, looking to tax people so much, that there isn't much left for Americans to do on their own.

Had these so-called progressive organizations gotten together to call for a new tax on Corporate America, so that they and the wealthy pay their fair share in deficit reduction, then they would have a broader base to speak to. And people who don't think exactly like them would get behind that and they could broaden their base. But when you call for tax hikes, for more tax and spending , you just feed into the stereotypes of tax and spend Socialists.

The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur: 'GOP-Dem Scare Tactics On Medicare- Con Job'

Source:The Young Turks- Newt Gingrich on Fox News.

"MSNBC host Cenk Uygur on Republicans claiming that Democrats are using scare tactics regarding the Paul Ryan Medicare plan."

Source:The Young Tuks

Anytime there is ever talk about reforming any Federal social insurance program, especially entitlements like Medicare, the New-Left in an outside of the Democratic Party (Cenk Uygur is both in and outside of the Democratic Party sometimes on the same day), they freak out about it. And call it Democratic or Republican attempts to gut the poor and elderly, as well as minorities, to soak the rich. Unless talk of reform is about expanding some current social insurance program and raising taxes to fund that expansion. 

Anytime anyone on the Far-Left, again both in and outside of the Democratic Party, goes off on talk about reforming a program like Medicare, don't take that with a grain of salt, but year supply of potato chips worth of salt. 

The left-wing in America (to be nice) simply can't admit that there are real issues with government social programs and that sometimes they actually need to be reformed. That sometimes government, especially politicians over promise and there becomes need to open up those programs to reforms in order to preserve them so they'll be there for people who really need them. 

Having said all of this, the right-wing in America is obviously not innocent when it comes to scaring the hell out of people when it comes to the Democratic Party and programs like Medicare and Social Security. Just go back 2-3 years ago with the rising populist Tea Party movement in the Republican Party and their opposition the what became the Affordable Care Act. (Politely known as ObamaCare) So that's where I agree with the Cenk Uygur's of the world about the modern Republican Party.

The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur- 'Medical Marijuana: President Obama Vs 74% Of Americans'

Source:The Young Turks- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) at The White House.

"Via Reason Magazine: "A poll conducted earlier this month by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project finds that 76 percent of Americans want President Barack Obama to end his crackdown on medical marijuana in states where medicinal use of the plant is legal...". Why is Obama siding with a fraction of the country? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down." 

From The Young Turks

I have a newsflash for Cenk Uygur, even though I think he's already aware of this. But Barack Obama is a politician, a professional politician and when professional politicians are up for reelection and they know they're in for a tough race, that's what their focus is on. 

The White House and Obama Campaign (correctly or wrongly) has calculated that in order for then to get reelected, they have to sound like hawks on immigration, the so-called War On Drugs, and to a certain extent as well, on national security and foreign policy, to win enough Independents, to defeat Mitt Romney in November and protect their slim majority in the Senate, and prevent House Democrats from getting wiped out. 

Barack Obama is not the peace and love, hippie Socialist, that so many people on the Far-Left in America (including The Young Turks) thought they were getting when they three all of their support behind then Senator Obama in 2007-08, instead of Dennis Kucinich or the Green Party. He's a politician who likes being President of the United States and wants to get reelected.

Thom Hartmann: 'Arthur Brooks - Free Enterprise'

Source:Thom Hartmann- AEI President Arthur Brooks.

"Thom Hartmann debates Arthur Brooks, President, American Enterprise Institute

Website: www.aei.org, over Brook's defense of free enterprise in his new book, THE ROAD TO FREEDOM.

If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!" 

From Thom Hartmann

Unless you are talking about an economy and economic system where government is completely out of the economy, no regulators, no regulations, no public safety net, no subsidies, no corporate welfare, etc, then you are not talking about a free market and free enterprise.  

Every developed country in the world has a combination of private enterprise, capitalism, that's part of a private market, that has even a national government there to protect consumers and workers from predators in the economy(which is what regulations is supposed to be about) and some type of public safety net for people who fall on hard times. 

I believe what Arthur Brooks is talking about here (and I don't even know the man personally) is an American economy where taxes and regulations on individuals and businesses are low, but they are there to pay for the government that we actually need, to protect us against monopolies, slave labor, perhaps even some environmental regulations. Which is actually very different from saying that there's no government role whatsoever in the economy at all. Which is what Libertarians tend to believe.

Associated Press: 'U.S. Senator Richard Lugar Loses Indiana GOP Primary to Tea Party Foe'

Source:Associated Press- 6th term U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana)

"U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was ousted Tuesday by a tea party-backed challenger in Indiana's Republican primary, abruptly ending his nearly four-decade career as one of Indiana's best-known and popular politicians." 

From the Associated Press

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: Jared Bernstein & Chye-Ching Huang on Tax Rates & Economy

Source:Center On Budget & Policy Priorities- Jared Bernstein & Chye-Ching Huang.

"Jared Bernstein and Chye-Ching Huang discuss the Center's new, comprehensive analysis of recent findings on the economic effects of raising federal income taxes on upper-income taxpayers as part of a balanced effort to reduce budget deficits." 

From CBPP

The Nation: John Nichols: 'How To Build a Movement'

Source:The Nation- Socialist columnist and commentator John Nichols. 

"A real movement is not limited to a small party. A real movement touches everyone. In Wisconsin, a real movement did just that. In this video, John Nichols explains how the state came together—from the young to the old, from the private sector to the public—in a show of diversity that formed the basis for a broader struggle. For more videos visit The Nation." 

From The Nation 

I actually completely agree with everything that John Nichols said here. (Which gets me to thinking that I need to see a shrink) John Nichols is a self-described Democratic Socialist. I'm a self-described John F. Kennedy Classical Liberal. So there's plenty that we disagree with on, at least as it relates to economic and foreign policy, but as not often as perfect games are thrown in Major League Baseball, they are still thrown, at least every other year or so and I can find something that I can agree with John Nichols on, even if happens less often than an MLB perfect game. 

Nichols made the perfect point here when he was talking about what it would take for American labor to become a real political force again, talking about people who aren't part of the American labor movement today and aren't members of labor unions, would have to rally, march and organize for labor unions. And he used the analogy about non-African-Americans marching for civil rights in the 1960s, especially European-Americans, because those European-Americans saw the value of equal rights and justice in America. 

Because of how small American labor as far as their union membership is today, they're going to need non-union members to come out in support of America labor, because labor doesn't have the personal and resources to fight for their own survival, at least with their own current membership. 

Russia Today: The Aloyna Show: 'Labor Union Membership Down'

Source:Russia Today anchor Alyona Minkovski. I guess Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin likes here, because he let's her stay on the air.

Alyona Minkovski: "Labor Union Membership Down"

Source:Russia Today

"RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня))[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international news television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.[72]

In 2012, RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was "waging an information war, and with the entire Western world".[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union as well as Canada announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81][82] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.[83][84] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[85][86] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia." 

From Wikipedia