Affect tax revenues and the war on drugs gets real

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2021/07/nearly-7-tons-of-marijuana-seized-from.html

Just a week after Monterey County drug agents confiscated 3.5 tons of illegal pot plants, the same agents hauled in another 3-tons of illegal plants Wednesday. Law enforcement officers say they uncovered two unlicensed grow operations off Jolon road near Fort Hunter Liggett.

More than two-tons were confiscated on a property and another ton was found in a pot grow hidden in a mountainside. Investigators say that pot grow was being operated by a drug cartel. “Yeah we do believe it was a cartel grow, just by their very nature are more dangerous to officers often times there are firearms present on these grows, and then law enforcement is essentially sitting targets so it is incredibly dangerous for law enforcement to respond to these grows,” said Greg Peterson, a prosecutor with the Monterey County district attorney’s office.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/China-imposes-counter-sanctions-on-ex-US-commerce-secretary-Ross-others

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Friday that it has imposed counter-sanctions on U.S. individuals including former U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in response to U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials with Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong.

The sanctions are the first imposed by China under its new anti-foreign sanction law, passed in June, and come days before U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is due to visit China amid deeply strained ties.

China also imposed unspecified "reciprocal counter-sanctions" on the current or former heads of a range of organisations, including the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch, and on the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/07/23/valerie_jarrett_on_covid-19_vaccine_im_all_for_mandating_it.html

VALERIE JARRETT: We are trying to work with the Biden administration to reach those hard to reach people and introduce them to influencers and it doesn't necessarily have to be an elected official. It could be a local pastor, a block club leader, a coach. Whoever can best influence certain family members can encourage people to take the vaccine. I'm all for mandating it. I know in this country it is tough to mandate things, but I think what we can do is say… look, if you want them to make their own decision fine, but we're not going to let you come to major sporting events or schools – and you see universities are requiring vaccines for students to come back on campus.

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/16/aoc-nancy-pelosi-needs-to-go-but-theres-nobody-to-replace-her-yet/

“The structural shifts of power in the House, both in process and rule, to concentrate power in party leadership of both parties, frankly, but in Democratic Party leadership to such a degree that an individual member has far less power than they did 30, 40, 50 years ago.”