william.scherk

A lot of good points to hang a discussion off in Michael's posts above. Thanks for engaging with the material. I have a few two many pots on the stove to give it my best response today, but here is a palate cleanser in the meantime ... it's cued up to avoid the wind-up. Is this good? It this awful? Is it so awful it's good? The music specialist members of OL might find this an opportunity to weigh in. Tony Ortega's site has highlighted some AWFUL-Good songs. The one featuring a cast of thousands is remarkable. Someone not Tony added some unpleasant facts to this rendering of one of their worst songs ever:

My screenshot was of an 'as if' order page. I don't know if the Landrace Sativa would live up to its price. I don't even know what AAA BC bud actually is. But anyway, a connoisseur could tell us. Ask an Albertan, I guess. The facts as I collect them here are that the medical marijuana laws and City of Vancouver 'no-harm no foul' laissez-faire** allowed big ass technically-sound (and thus profitable) suppliers to get in the game early in BC. The regulatory scheme is BC Liberal++NDP, in that weird conservative economic-social-libertarian hybrid we get here once an issue has been wrestled to the ground. The wresting of potential profits from the gangs by the medical pot industry is kind of fun, but the permitting was done with as much transparency as could be mustered. The regime in BC was 'pay attention' to all the pioneer US states, make sure the banking industry was on board so the illegal taint could be removed from pot profits, fit supplies to demand, devolve the 'placement' to individual districts and municipalities. -- Quebec got all tight-assed about their regime, allowing only Government Liquor Pot stores. And Ontario is behind by contrast since they didn't get their shit together on all their distribution and sales and permitting regime. Their online sales regime, however, turned on at the same time as BC's so all the Mackenzie Brothers can get loaded by mail. Get a load of this video -- this is how THC Biomed gets their little guys girls to homes. These folks were prepared. This is how your four legal plants come in the mail from the vineyards potfields in Kelowna. It will be interesting to peek over garden fences in Chilliwack over the next year, to see if people take advantage of this. I'd say all the Lower Mainland is a healthy market, even out here. Maybe especially out here, as the soil layer in these parts is forty feet, alluvial soils from the glacial valley south of the plain. -- the first shop that opened for straightforward sales here was on First Nations reserve land last year. They operated for a month or two until the RCMP raided them and a later 'medical' outlet also on reserve land. The first straight-sales one re-opened, did not get raided, closed itself and advertizes it's just waiting till the $10,000.00 fee cheque clears and the permitting/zoning/inspection/safety plan is all tickity-boo. This is William Scherk, your Pot Correspondent, reporting from Vedder Crossing. ______________________ ** Vancouver has a persistent hard drug problem and a pocket of despair and poverty-industry grifters called the Downtown Eastside. It is picturesque with thoroughly fucked-up people kind of concentrated in one place. Of later years it has been slightly encroached upon and witnessed insertions of hipster culture, Vancouver-style, which is neither here nor there. The city had a conservative Mayor who during his two terms engineered a buy-in from the city police to adopt a more medical model. Busts of junkie-users ceased. The move to 'reduce harm' attracted the idealists and poverty-industry grifters and entrepreneurs. The city also took two steps back and more or less got the city police to dictate the 'regulatory regime' on marijuana. The tide of police opinion across Canada was to almost never charge and try a person for simple possession. It retreated to a Don't Bring Your Horse Into The Beer Parlour kind of law on the books. So, there sprouted the independent contractor approach via 'medical marijuana.' The federal Conservatives had finally unrolled its revised medical marijuana law, having learned from their mistakes (such as a deep underground marijuana plantation monopoly attempt I kid you not), which left enforcement in the hands of local .... police. Who in Vancouver didn't give a shit about medical marijuana as long as you had the 'card' ... since they already didn't give a shit about your bag, basically, a social corner was turned. So sprouted the forest of 'dispensaries' and the 'vape' lounges and 'marijuana museum' and 'seed culture' businesses. The standout here is the New Amsterdam Cafe, a compromise 'tolerated' business that broke all the laws. There between the hours of nine to five you could only vape. After five, you buy an item, you get blasted on whatever you brought in, you go on your way. Every pothead on earth has dreamed of this place. I have no idea what the new law means for those other businesses. Basically, all the weird dispenseries will close/re-open. Since you can get it in the mail at rock-bottom 'compassion' prices, what's the point? We move on to the survival of the fittest. I took a look at the New Amsterdam's site. They sell everything but pot and pot products. And they obviously think they well continue to do roaring business. They opened their 'safe' space in 2000. Behind each window is a lounge or 'safe-space' ... or commercial hemp hosiery and etcetera outlet.

An interview with Stuart Varney of Fox Business News:

"I'm not inauthentic. You are inauthentic!"

An in-depth BBC story presaging the unveiling of 'legalized' marijuana in Canada. Not mentioned in the Joshua Cheetham story is that the government is moving to pardon all simple possession convictions. Canada cannabis legalization: ‘We know the world is watching’ Canada Post is in charge (in BC) of delivering products purchased online. Which means never seeing a 'dealer' ever again.

As it turns out, I haven't mentioned Chris before. He is still recovering in some ways from the 20 years he spent with the Church of Scientology, 17 of those years in the Sea Org. I am looking forward to him publishing his "Show Notes," which usually go up at his website in parallel to the video just uploaded. I have twitted Chris to get a move on that. [http://sensiblyspeaking.com/] -- the neuroscientist/psychologist he quotes in the video by the name of Stephanie Ortigue has had some life changes. She 'fell in love' (in a tale recounted at Scientific American) and got married, taking the surname of her spouse, and is now known as Stephanie Cacioppo. She has moved on from Syracuse and landed at the University of Chicago, where she leads the Brain Dynamics Library. The original research cited by Chris Shelton appeared in 2010 and made a few rounds in the Eureka! media. That paper was (according to blurbs) called "The Neuroimaging of Love," featured in a blurb/article at Psych Central, and in a Syracuse University media release back in the day: The Science Behind Falling in Love -- here's a quote from that article: -- this collaboration was apparently published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine(!). It doesn't remain under that title on her 'selected publications' list at UoC, but I will track it down ... [Added, full title, behind a paywall: Neuroimaging of Love: fMRI Meta-Analysis Evidence toward New Perspectives in Sexual Medicine Another pretty good (with caveats) video from Sensibly Speaking, "The Left" ... "The Right" and ... civility!

Live on the campaign trail!

I think I have mentioned Chris Shelton somewhere on OL. He is one of the most active ex-Scientologist "experts," with a fab Youtube channel (of interest to those who like deep dives into Scientology arcana and practical horrors). Here he is with a slightly-on-topic video for this thread. Key word: "Dopamine."

"What is ... 'reading in' ... Here we have one of my favourite "Mueller Whisperers," young Tarl Warwick, who has finally put on a sweater: Young Tarl usually uses the Internet Archive service to contain his links. In this case he cites from a Fox News story ... Mueller ready to deliver core findings on Trump probe after midterms: report And what is the "report"? Well, Bloomberg: Mueller Ready to Deliver Key Findings in His Trump Probe, Sources Say And what do the 'sources say' say? I am fairly certain contextually that Tarl does not watch videos featuring news about Mueller, since he continues to pronounce the name as Myooler.

"I'm not the only one who thinks this ... " Discovered another 'extreme vetting' Youtube channel, this one who takes a skeptical view of HA Goodman's various prognostications ... "PayPal Hal." Hurr hurr.

"Why didn't anyone tell me I hired a crook?" There's wrong and then there's wrong ... In partially-related news, would you believe that Michael Cohen has also spent a lot of time with the prosecutors? So sayeth CNN. So sayeth Salon. So sayeth Vanity Fair. Could be, might be. Earlier in the stream of hoopla: And yet. "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention ... " Michael Cohen re-registers as a Democrat, lawyer says

From Chemtrails to CSICon: An Interview with Mick West. The item in Environmental Research Letters: Full text PDF: Quantifying expert consensus against the existence of a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program

Here's Mick West on the Joe Rogan Experience. Worth a watch for those who wonder if West is a Derp State Shill or not ...

Gentlemen and Ladies, choose your tools ... This one has a high whoopee quotient! Again! GeoEngineered Genocide by Laser Fire ~ DEW Attacks on Shasta County, CA

Wednesday in "'The Left' Ate My Homework" ... From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, bylined to Kyle Potter and Steve Karnowski: In unsealed divorce filings, Rep. Keith Ellison says ex-wife abused him