After White House national security adviser Michael Waltz’s idiotic misadventure of texting top secret war plans to reporters, I don’t ever, ever want to hear another word about Hilary Clinton’s email server. Not a whisper.

A Case for Turning Tulsa Into the Next Big Tech Hub | WIRED

Requirements OK will never meet:

• Better politics. Techies are largely for individual rights. The Midwest largely isn’t.
• Better worker protections. Great tech jobs aren’t usually in right to work states.
• Employees own their ideas. In CA, for example, you can launch your own startup while still working for someone else. In the places in the Midwest I’ve lived, your employer generally owns things you create while working for them.

If you don’t build those, they won’t come.

California now requires credit card companies to assign a merchant category code to gun stores. Stripe has a list with 294 already used codes including Electric Razor Stores (5997); Glassware, Crystal Stores (5950); Massage Parlors (7297); and Shoe Repair/Hat Cleaning (7251).

Gun advocacy extremists make it sound like credit card companies are trying to do something new and unique to punish gun stores. In reality the law creates 1 more category alongside the few hundred others.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home raided by FBI agents - CBS San Francisco:

In an emailed statement to CBS News Bay Area, the FBI said, “The FBI is conducting court authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane. We are unable to provide additional information at this time.”

Election officials just announced that Thao’s recall election petitions met the criteria to be put to ballot. This hasn’t been a pleasant week for her.

Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s sons react to guilty verdict in hush money trial - ABC News: abcnews.go.com/US/donald…

“The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole,” Trump Jr. said in a statement to ABC News.

We’ve got our problems, but I like America. “If you hate it here so much, leave.” Isn’t that what I always hear from that contingent?

(Trump Sr. can’t, of course.)

North Korean trash balloons are dumping ‘filth’ on South Korea | CNN:

North Korea has adopted a new strategy to contend with its southern neighbor: sending floating bags of trash containing “filth” across the border, carried by massive balloons.

Kim Jong-Number-One read “Infinite Jest” and wanted in on that action.

Justice Department takes 'major step' toward rescheduling marijuana:

The Justice Department took a significant step toward rescheduling marijuana Thursday, formalizing its process to reclassify the drug as lower-risk and remove it from a category in which it has been treated as more dangerous than fentanyl and meth.

[...]

“Look folks, no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana. Period,” Biden said in Thursday’s video, his third time speaking extensively on the topic since his directive two years ago.

At last. Let’s put an end to this nonsense.

On the subject of Drug Scheduling:

Schedule IV

Schedule IV drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a low potential for abuse and low risk of dependence. Some examples of Schedule IV drugs are: Xanax, Soma, Darvon, Darvocet, Valium, Ativan, Talwin, Ambien, Tramadol

So the devil’s lettuce is currently Schedule I with "a high potential for abuse”, but Xanax and Valium are not. Got it. That tells you what you need to know about the DEA’s evaluation processes.

Tennessee’s new “chemtrail bill” is inherently ludicrous. It’s also as poorly written as cold be expected. From the bill itself:

The intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight is prohibited.

Strictly speaking, the big government types in Tennessee are banning residents from setting up lawn sprinklers for their kids to play in on a hot day.

On the plus side, it will be explicitly illegal to “roll coal” with the intent of covering another person in a cloud of smoke.

US President Joe Biden pardoned all Federal convictions for the use and simple possession of cannabis. I don’t use cannabis. If it were to go away tomorrow, my life wouldn’t change one bit.

I am thrilled with this blanket pardon.

Modify the statement, like:

I am pardoning additional individuals who may continue to experience the unnecessary collateral consequences of a conviction for simple possession of beer, attempted simple possession of beer, or use of beer.

and it sounds utterly obvious, and ludicrous that it ever would have been an issue in the first place. I enjoy a good stout or porter, and I can walk into almost any grocery store, flash my ID, hand over my money, and walk out with a bottle of drugs that’s caused far more societal harm than cannabis ever did. That I can drink a beer in public and no one bats an eye, while my neighbors could smoke a joint in their own house and go to jail for it, is insanity.

Good on you, Mr. President, for making life better for a whole lot of Americans.