→ Americans want a ceasefire
Is there anything more 2024 than a video of Joe Biden tucking into an ice cream while discussing a ceasefire in the Middle East? After telling reporters that he hoped a deal would be in place by Monday, a new poll has found that a growing majority of Americans would also be in favour.
67% support a permanent ceasefire, including 56% of Republicans pic.twitter.com/oWT1RuH6Wk
— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) February 27, 2024
New research from Data for Progress found that 67% of voters support a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. Interestingly, both a majority of Democrats (77%) and Republicans (56%) support a deal, marking a big shift in public opinion since the 7th October. Just don’t call it an isolationist streak: a majority of voters still wanted to provide US military aid to both Israel and Ukraine.
→ Snoop Dogg and Trump finally make amends
Snoop Dogg has made another big announcement. And no, he’s not giving up smoke. This week, the rapper declared that he has “nothing but love and respect” for former President Donald Trump. This comes after a years-long feud which saw Snoop shooting a clown portraying Donald Trump in a 2017 music video and telling Rolling Stone in 2016 that he’d “never seen a motherfucker like him.”
Mr Dogg is the latest in a long line of rappers to have come out in support for the presumptive GOP nominee. Over the last few years, Trump’s braggadocious style has attracted the attention of several big Hip-Hop names, including Ice Cube, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Kanye West and Lil Pump. Could these nods of approval help Trump with the black vote in November? He’s projected to win a larger proportion of black voters in November than any Republican in 50 years.
→ Yes, weed is actually bad for you
On the subject of Snoop Dogg, it turns out that one of his favourite pastimes isn’t so great for you. According to a new report in the Journal of the American Heart Association, daily marijuana use is tied to a 25% higher risk of heart attack and 42% higher risk of stroke, while weekly use carries a 3% and 5% increase, respectively.
The study found that the trend applied even to marijuana users who didn’t use tobacco products, though it didn’t delve into other overlapping lifestyle factors, such as eating takeout dinners in bed every night.
Marijuana use is growing across the US alongside decriminalisation and legalisation. Even as evidence mounts about its attendant dangers, public concern is declining. The belief among adults that weekly cannabis use posed a great risk fell nearly in half from 2002 to 2019, according to the study. Kids, Nancy Reagan was right: just say no.
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SubscribeThe irony. All the froth and fussing about unproven vaccine side effects, yet this damning study is nothing more than a footnote.
This is an excellent point. I’m a big fan of consistency myself. I don’t smoke pot myself because it seems like its just as bad as smoking and drinking at the same time and I don’t smoke and rarely drink. Still, I respect the rights of others to destroy their own bodies and minds if they want to. I don’t take the COVID vaccines because I personally weigh the small risk of unknown side effects as more serious than the infinitesimal change in the risk of death by COVID that the vaccine represents, but I respect the rights of others to weigh such risks themselves and make their own choices. The world would be a better place if we simply had greater respect for our fellow man.
The hole the Democrats have dug for themselves keeps getting deeper. It’s hard to reconcile being the party of Wall Street, Davos, bluebood universities, and wealthy suburbs with being the party of inner city minorities. The Democrats got away with it for a while because the Republicans were also run by and for the same group of elites, but with a different group of grassroots voters to hoodwink in different ways. Since 2008, the Republican elites have lost over and over again. Even before Trump, they were losing to the likes of Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and the tea party movement. Democrats did a comparatively better job of circling the wagons and defeating their own reformist factions going all the way back to the John Kerry/Jon Edwards primary contest in 2004. Obama beat Hillary because he was a brilliant speaker who convinced people he was a reformer and a change angent, but he wasn’t. I still consider the man to be either an outright liar or a sellout too softhearted or weak willed to actually confront elite interests on behalf of the people who elected him. As a result, the Democrats cannot escape the narrative that there is one establishment party in the USA and one reform party. Anyone can read the polls showing a decades long trend of growing distrust in government, media, universities, corporations, and basically anywhere else institutional power is concentrated and then exercised. The polls were there five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago, and even twenty ago for anybody paying attention to read.
Why, then, is anybody shocked that rappers and those who reflect the values and interests of inner city minorities, who have more reason than most to be dissatisfied with the status quo are suddenly making peace with the likes of Donald Trump. They see which way the wind is blowing. The people want change. One party is offering that, and one party isn’t. When faced with such a fundamental question as “are you satisfied with America as it is or not?”, even deeply held policy views can be held secondary to the basic question, because if enough people want change, they’ll unite against obstacles to change and sort out the details after. If the election were held today, it would be close and neither I nor anybody else could predict the winner, but it isn’t held today, and the establishment party is vulnerable to anything bad that might happen between now and then, while the anti-establishment party isn’t. We’re basically one international crisis or economic recession away from a decisive Trump victory that will mark a decisive end to the globalist era, and anyone with half a brain (despite the weed, Snoop Dogg is no fool), is properly preparing for the possibility.
Marijuana has a tar content 5x that of tobacco. It is mildly hallucinatory, and its long-term use impacts on the human psyche in unknown ways.