DL Open Thread: Friday, September 1, 2023

Biden Administration Moves To Reclassify/Declassify Pot:

If a recommendation by the nation’s top health agency to reclassify marijuana is adopted, the drug could gain wider acceptance as a medical treatment, pot businesses could see their bottom line boosted and a path toward national legalization could be charted, experts said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services this week recommended that marijuana be removed from the category reserved for the riskiest drugs, such as heroin and LSD, and moved to one for certain prescription drugs. The decision to reclassify marijuana ultimately resides with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which could take months to complete its evaluation.

The nonprofit Veterans Cannabis Project has long pushed for veterans to get broader access to marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and chronic pain. Its founder said the HHS recommendation to loosen restrictions offers hope that the federal government will signal that marijuana has medical value.

The week’s HHS recommendation became public nearly a year after President Biden, in a presidential first, asked the health agency to evaluate whether marijuana should be reclassified. If the DEA follows the health agency’s recommendation, marijuana would be placed in the same category as anabolic steroids, ketamine and testosterone — which can be obtained with a prescription.

With an increasing roster of states legalizing marijuana, experts said political momentum is growing in favor of a change in the federal government’s treatment of marijuana.

Hippies and veterans–an unbeatable combo.

Oh, Noes! Is He Gay??!! a 57-year-old bachelor??:

Republican presidential candidates have started to notice that Sen. Tim Scott‘s non-combative style is resonating — and they’re zeroing in on him for more scrutiny.

Why it matters: Scott has largely stayed above the fray as many of his Republican rivals spar around him, but his recent momentum in polls is bringing him into the crossfire and will test his “happy warrior” strategy.

Driving the news: A memo from the super PAC associated with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s campaign wrote that the “only four candidates who can win the nomination” are Haley, Trump, DeSantis and Scott, per Politico.

Top GOP donors and their allies privately are pushing Sen. Tim Scott‘s team for more detail about his bachelor status before deciding how much to support him in the presidential campaign, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

The Revolution Will Be Televised. The Trump trial. In Georgia. Unless he gets it moved to Federal court:

All court proceedings related to former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia will be live-streamed and available for broadcast, a judge ruled on Thursday.

Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the mammoth case against Trump and 18 co-defendants, said the use of recording equipment would not “disrupt the administration of justice.” All hearings and trials will be broadcast on the court’s YouTube channel, and members of the media will be allowed to use their computers and phones inside the courtroom as long as they do not record the trial. The press pool will be allowed to film for any television, radio or photography needs.

Texas Goes Full-Bore Authoritarian. Laws that take effect today:

Hundreds of laws will come into effect as the product of the legislative session that Texas holds every two years. Among them are a number of highly controversial targeted bills that will have a seismic impact on some of the most vulnerable Texan communities.

They include measures attacking the rights and healthcare of transgender Texans, undermining the autonomy of progressive cities such as Houston, extending the state’s prohibition of abortion, pushing back on efforts to combat rising heat amid the climate crisis, and more.

New laws out on Friday amount to the most aggressive attempt yet by the Republican-controlled legislature to erode the power of Texas’s progressive and Democratic-led big cities. That includes Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso and other urban areas.

The most far-reaching provision is HB 2127 – dubbed by opponents in the Lone Star state the “Death Star law”. It wrenches away from cities and counties whole areas of policy making, from labor relations to agriculture and the environment, effectively transferring control from progressive urban areas to the hard-right caucus in the state legislature.

George Santos: From Brazilian Drag Queen To Anti-LGBTQ Legislator:

NITERÓI, Brazil — The sight of the newcomer took Gino Fonseca by surprise. As one of the city’s most prominent drag queens, Fonseca thought he knew most everyone who worked the nightclubs and LGBTQ events. But when he ascended a Pride parade float dressed in his drag persona, Katya Furacão, he saw a dazzling young drag performer he’d never before encountered.

Fonseca watched Kitara Ravache, who wore a red bejeweled dress, with wonder. The newcomer had appeared from nowhere but was already at the top of the local gay scene, dancing alongside the most established drag queens in this Rio de Janeiro suburb:

George Santos as Kitara Ravache during a gay parade in Niterói, Brazil, in August 2007. (Teresa Vilhena)

In the United States, as an openly gay member of a party now targeting the type of show he once performed, Santos has backed hard-line policies that many in the LGBTQ community find discriminatory. He has supported a Florida law that bars educators from discussing sexual orientation in early elementary education. He has co-sponsored a bill that separates the sexes based on “immutable biological differences.” He has criticized same-sex parents, calling them the “flavor of the decade.”

But in his mother’s native Niterói, Santos actively participated in the budding gay rights movement, according to photos and people who knew him, and performed in drag more often than he has acknowledged. He attended the city’s first Pride parades, handed out pamphlets at events, befriended some of the city’s leading activists, and climbed nightclub stages to dance and lip sync in his drag persona, Kitara Ravache, promising to one day compete himself in Miss Brasil Gay.

What do you want to talk about?