Thursday, August 24, 2017

Time to Shutdown

"Trump’s shutdown threat raises stakes for lawmakers in looming funding battle" by Mike DeBonis and Elise Viebeck Washington Post  August 23, 2017

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are holding their ground in opposition to President Trump’s proposed border wall after Trump threatened to ‘‘close down the government’’ if lawmakers do not provide money for the project when they return from August recess.

Well, that's a first. Maybe there is some hope for them after all.

On Wednesday, Senate minority leader Charles Schumer of New York and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California repeated their objections to funding a wall, and argued Trump would be responsible if the government shuts down over the impasse.

‘‘If the president pursues this path, against the wishes of both Republicans and Democrats, as well as the majority of the American people, he will be heading towards a government shutdown which nobody will like and which won’t accomplish anything,’’ Schumer said in a statement.

Trump’s threat Tuesday night during a campaign-style rally in Phoenix instantly raised the stakes for the showdown over government spending that awaits lawmakers. Federal spending authority expires in a little more than a month, requiring Congress to act to keep the government fully operating past Sept. 30.

Many Republicans are hoping to include border wall funding in any deal to keep the government open, and key conservative lawmakers have rallied to Trump’s side. But Democrats on Wednesday showed no sign of backing down.

You know, he cuts Bannon loose, does an about face on Afghanistan, and now they are with him again.

‘‘Last night, President Trump yet again threatened to cause chaos in the lives of millions of Americans if he doesn’t get his way,’’ Pelosi said in a statement. ‘‘Make no mistake: The President said he will purposefully hurt American communities to force American taxpayers to fund an immoral, ineffective and expensive border wall.’’

Man, I am tired of the false politics.

Trump, escalating a conflict that has been brewing for months, told supporters Tuesday night: ‘‘Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall. Let me be very clear to Democrats in Congress who oppose a border wall and stand in the way of border security: You are putting all of America’s safety at risk.’’

We got the narrative, WaPo, even if it isn't true. Trump escalates, got it.

Neither Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky nor Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has weighed in on Trump’s remarks, but some prominent conservative lawmakers are urging Republicans to support the president. 

I was told he no longer speaks to Mitch.

Rasmussen Reports, a Republican firm, conducted a poll of likely US voters late last month and found that a solid majority of Americans oppose building a border wall, with 37 percent supporting Trump’s proposal versus 56 percent against. That is largely unchanged from a poll conducted in February by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center that found Americans opposed the wall 62 percent to 35 percent. 

I don't know if I believe those numbers, but be that as it may.

House Republicans voted last month to provide $1.6 billion in seed funding for the border wall as part of a larger spending package. That bill is expected to be taken up in the Senate, where Democrats can filibuster any measure that funds the wall or includes other GOP provisions that they have termed ‘‘poison pills.’’

A 2017 spending bill passed into law earlier this year did not include border wall funding after Democrats refused to accept it. That impasse increased pressure on Republicans to deliver wall funding in a future spending battle.

Democrats uniformally slammed Trump’s remarks, with several calling the president’s speech ‘‘unhinged’’ on Twitter.

Rank-and-file Democrats and several caucuses representing them took to Twitter Tuesday to double down on that position.....

They need to take a powder.

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Bargaining with people's lives like that!

Related
:

"In a unanimous vote Wednesday, Boston’s City Council called on the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status, a program that authorizes employment and establishes protection from deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who cannot safely return to their home countries because of environmental disasters, or ongoing armed conflicts, or other epidemics....."

It's for the Haitians, and I'm for it. That's my bias and exception. I'm not sending them back to that hell hole

"Trump’s science envoy quits with scathing letter with an embedded message: ‘I-M-P-E-A-C-H’" by Amy B. Wang The Washington Post  August 23, 2017

Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy expert appointed last year as a science envoy to the State Department, resigned Wednesday, citing President Donald Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the final straw that led to his departure.

In a resignation letter posted to Twitter, Kammen wrote that Trump’s remarks about the racial violence in Virginia had attacked ‘‘core values of the United States’’ and that it would have ‘‘domestic and international ramifications.’’

Kammen, who was appointed during Barack Obama’s presidency, said it would be unconscionable for him to continue serving the administration after those remarks; however, his most biting message may have come in the form of a hidden acrostic; the first letter of each paragraph spelled out ‘‘I-M-P-E-A-C-H.’’

He just did Trump a favor. The treasonous bastard just removed himself from his post.

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You know, Bernie would have won.

Also see: UN panel condemns Trump’s response to Charlottesville violence

The sharks are out for blood and Trump is like a deer in the headlights.

"Trump makes new appeal for unity after searing Phoenix speech" August 23, 2017

RENO, Nev. — A day after a searing speech tearing into the media and members of his own political party, President Trump returned to calls for unity and love as he spoke to veterans Wednesday at an American Legion conference.

‘‘We are here to hold you up as an example of strength, courage, and resolve that our country will need to overcome the many challenges that we face,’’ Trump told veterans, speaking in measured tones and adhering to his prepared remarks. He said all Americans must learn the same work ethic, patriotism and devotion as veterans.

That's when the bells started ringing for me regarding the fascist militarism.

The messaging zig-zag appears to reflect the president’s real-time internal debate between calls for moderation and his inclination to let loose. Trump had opened his Tuesday rally in Phoenix much the same way — but quickly erupted in anger, blaming the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to violence at a Charlottesville, Va., protest organized by white supremacists.

At the Phoenix rally, he read from his three responses to the racially charged violence, becoming more animated with each one. He withdrew from his suit pocket the written statement he’d read the day a woman was killed by a man who’d plowed a car through counter-protesters, but he skipped over the trouble-causing part that he’d freelanced at the time: his observation that ‘‘many sides’’ were to blame.

The bells go off again as I realize the ma$$ media is again excusing leftist antifa thuggery

It's all one-sided, folks, and will be again when they flip the narrative.

As for the state AG, she is tough, but not on the Teamsters.

That, as well as his reiteration days later that ‘‘both sides’’ were to blame for the violence that led to the death of Heather Heyer and two state troopers, led Democrats and many Republicans to denounce Trump for not unmistakably calling out white supremacists and other hate groups.

The president awoke Wednesday still thinking about the rally, as evidenced by his Twitter account.

By the time he arrived at the American Legion conference, Trump seemed more congenial. He even thanked Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican with whom he has openly and repeatedly feuded. He discussed his early efforts to restructure and improve the Veterans Administration.

Later in the speech, Trump said Americans aren’t defined by the color of their skin, the size of their paycheck or their political party.

‘‘Our hearts beat for America. Our souls fill with pride every time we hear the national anthem,’’ Trump said. ‘‘This is the spirit we need to overcome our challenges.’’

I do because it symbolizes this nation giving England the boot forever, which brings up a question what to do with certain historic buildings, but beyond that he really seems to be pointing to some sort of late-summer, early-fall false flag. That is what makes my skin crawl!

Related
We have a military to defend our values, not tear them down 

Some U.S. and NATO general squawking Nazis, Nazis, Nazis (he needs to see something called Operation Paperclip). Need to check your own ranks and those of the Ukrainian collaborators, general!

Time to salute the ladies:

"Army suspends drill sergeants at Fort Benning amid allegation of sexual assault" by Dan Lamothe The Washington Post  August 23, 2017

The US Army has sidelined numerous drill sergeants at its training center at Fort Benning, Ga., amid allegations of sexual assault against at least one trainee, the service announced Wednesday.

You know whom is to blame, right?

The cases are under investigation by Army Criminal Investigation Command and the service’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, Army officials said. The investigation began after a female trainee accused a drill sergeant of sexual assault, then expanded after that allegation revealed indications of additional allegations of sexual misconduct involving trainees and drill sergeants, the Army said in a statement. It declined to say how many drill sergeants are now under investigation.

‘‘We take these allegations very seriously, and we will ensure a full and thorough investigation of the facts,’’ the statement said. ‘‘Our initial actions are to ensure the safety and welfare of all of our soldiers. The drill sergeants have been suspended from drill sergeant duties and will have no contact with trainees during the course of the investigation.’’ Army officials declined to release additional information.

The case marks the latest black mark against drill sergeants or drill instructors in the US military, where trainees have little power as they transition into service life.

Most recently, the Marine Corps has faced allegations of hazing and abuse at the service’s boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

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"Girl Scouts accuse Boy Scouts of recruiting girls to increase membership" by Rachel Chason The Washington Post  August 23, 2017

Long plagued by declining membership, the Boy Scouts are considering a campaign to recruit in a previously untapped market: girls.

The Girl Scouts aren’t having it.

A feud between the two largest scouting organizations broke into the open Tuesday when the president of Girl Scouts of the USA called the Boy Scouts’ ‘‘covert campaign’’ to recruit girls ‘‘reckless’’ and ‘‘unsettling’’ in a letter obtained by BuzzFeed News. A Girl Scouts spokesman confirmed the letter in an e-mail to The Washington Post.

‘‘We were disappointed in the lack of transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents,’’ Girl Scouts President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan wrote in her letter to Boy Scouts of America President Randall Stephenson. ‘‘Furthermore, it is inherently dishonest to claim to be a single gender organization while simultaneously endeavoring upon a co-ed model.’’ 

That was my reaction when I read the headline. 

If you are going to merge them, just call it Scouts.

She said the Boy Scouts’ ‘‘well documented’’ declining membership — the organization’s numbers have dwindled by a third since 2000, to just more than 2 million as of 2016 — is behind its push to include girls.

The Boy Scouts said in a statement to The Washington Post that they are considering including girls in their ranks not to boost their numbers but in response to requests from families who want their daughters to be a part of the same organization as their sons.

‘‘The Boy Scouts of America believes in the benefit of single-gender programs,’’ said the statement from the Boy Scouts’ director of national communications, Effie Delimarkos. ‘‘But in evaluating the possibility of serving the whole family, we’ve been having conversations with our members and volunteers to see how to make Scouting accessible for families.’’

No final decision on whether to include girls has been made, she said.

The Girl Scouts spokesman, explaining the letter, said the organization ‘‘believes in maintaining an open and honest dialogue with other organizations in the youth serving space. . . . To that end we sent a professional letter’’ to the Boy Scouts, and look forward to ‘‘working out those issues with them in a mutually satisfactory manner.’’

Girl Scouts’ membership has also taken a hit in recent years, falling from its peak of more than 3.8 million in 2003 to 2.8 million in 2014.

Maybe they should recruit boys. 

Were I a young whippersnapper and not an old fart I would join!

Some women outside the Girl Scouts have actively lobbied the Boy Scouts to include girls in its ranks.

Hmmmmmmm.

In February, after the 107-year-old Boy Scouts announced it would admit transgender children in its scouting programs, the National Organization for Women called on the group to ‘‘honor its decree to help all children by permitting girls to gain full membership.’’

You can see where this is leading. 

That solves everything, right?

‘‘Women can now hold all combat roles in the military, and women have broken many glass ceilings at the top levels of government, business, academia and entertainment,’’ said NOW President Terry O’Neill. ‘‘It’s long past due that girls have equal opportunities in Scouting.’’

There she is, Miss America!

I wish equality would not be equated with killing and looting like a man, but then I also wish women would appreciate that wonderful and special quality that only they have (until the test tube generation anyway).

One New York teen leading the push for the Boy Scouts to include girls as official members is Sydney Ireland, who has been an unofficial member of her brother’s troop in Manhattan for several years but is unable to earn a merit badge to begin the process of becoming an Eagle Scout because she is a girl. With her father, Ireland has become a leader in the national push to allow girls to join the Boy Scout ranks, appearing in a video with more than 3 million views and launching a Change.org petition with more than 8,400 supporters.

‘‘I know I could rise through the ranks and become an Eagle Scout alongside the best of the boys — all I need is the opportunity,’’ Ireland wrote on Change.org.

But the ‘‘single-gender expertise’’ of Girl Scouts’ leaders has inherent value, the organization’s president argued in her letter.

‘‘Girl Scouts believes in meeting the needs of America’s youth through single gender programming by creating a safe place for girls to thrive and learn,’’ Hopinkah Hannan wrote. ‘‘Over the last century, GSUSA has adapted to the changing environment, always prioritizing the health, safety and well-being of girls. For BSA to explore a program for girls without such priorities is reckless.’’

The Boy Scouts organization — which was launched into the national spotlight during President Trump’s controversial speech at its jamboree celebration — should focus its efforts on recruiting all boys, including black and Latino youth, instead of girls, Hopinkah Hannan said.

That was a fluke.

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The monuments that must be saved:

"Zinke, Trump hear desperate appeals to save national monument areas" by Brady McCombs Associated Press  August 23, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — Conservation and tribal groups are airing TV ads, sending letters to President Trump, and creating parody websites in a last-minute blitz to stop Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke from downsizing or eliminating national monument areas that cover large swaths of land and water from Maine to California.

A tribal coalition unveiled a new webpage Tuesday that explains the cultural importance of lands consider sacred to them. They also posted a letter sent to Trump telling him that part of ‘‘making American great again’’ is honoring tribal history and rights.

I'm actually with them, to a point. There is plenty of room for us all.

‘‘At a time when the United States feels anything but united under the shadow of Charlottesville, Virginia, please hear our voices,’’ wrote Willie Grayeyes, chairman of the coalition. ‘‘These sacred lands have held our song, our stories, and our prayers since time beyond memory, and these lands will continue to hold the promise of our future.’’

The outdoor recreation industry has hammered home its message that peeling back protections on areas where its customers hike, bike, and camp could prevent future generations from enjoying the sites.

In addition, the Wilderness Society has created a parody website featuring Trump and Zinke selling luxury real estate at the sites.

Groups that want to see the areas reduced have been less vociferous, pleading their cases on social media and working behind the scenes to lobby federal officials.

They say past presidents have misused a century-old law to create monuments that are too large and stop energy development, grazing, mining, and other uses.

Stan Summers, a Utah county commissioner who chairs a group that advocates for the multi-use of public lands, said outdoor recreation companies are peddling lies and misconceptions when they say local officials want to bulldoze monument lands.

If it's Confederate it's okay.

Summers said residents treasure the lands that comprise Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, but don’t want to close the areas to new oil drilling and mining that produce good jobs.

‘‘We want to tend this area like a garden instead of a museum,’’ he said.

REI and Patagonia have joined a group of 350 outdoor companies, including The North Face, YETI Coolers, and Orvis, in signing a letter sent last week to Zinke by the Outdoor Industry Association.

‘‘It’s an American right to roam in our public lands,’’ the letter reads. ‘‘As business leaders, we simply ask that your final report remain true to the Teddy Roosevelt values we share with you — to maintain the national treasures presidents of both parties have protected.’’ 

That is very interesting because Teddy Roosevelt was a racist

Guess you will have to remove his statues and his name from plaques as well as give up your bully pulpit.

Patagonia recently ran a TV ad in Montana and Utah with company founder Yvon Chouinard fishing and declaring, ‘‘Our business is built on having wild places’’ and warning that public lands are under the greatest threat ever.

Led by Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, monument supporters plan a rally Thursday at an REI store in Albuquerque.

The Wilderness Society website also features a photo of ancient ruins at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and the words, ‘‘Developer ready.’’ Each monument was given a fictional price tag, such as $932 million for Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico.

In a description of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, the website says: ‘‘This is the chance for someone to claim a little piece of that offbeat New England charm for themselves and leave hikers, birdwatchers, snowshoers, and hunters on the outside, looking in!’’

Proponents of downsizing the monuments say state governments are better suited to make management decisions that would ensure federal lands are used for a mix of uses.

‘‘The only reason there is roads in some of these places is because of the mining and the oil and the gravel pits,’’ Summers said...... 

The smell made me think of coal country.

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Also see:

Florida to execute white man for racially motivated murder

Not only is that a slippery slop, it's in itself racist. 

That means all blacks that kill whites will be executed?

Sort of a kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out while we reign and party on Earth philosophy, 'eh?

This IS headed toward a dark place:

"Mr. Kushner, the Jewish dimension of the Charlottesville events cannot be left out of the picture. You heard the anti-Jewish rants in the Alt Reich, you have a Jewish wife and Jewish children. What will you tell your children?”

The answer to his question is no, he has no shame.

Nor does the Globe show any repentance (someone else saw the Billy Joel concert) as they excuse leftist violence and anarchy

That's not terrorism?

Then there is the Kennedy family.

Police now investigating allegations against Felix G. Arroyo

I was going to advise him to play the race card because it trumps gender every time, but he just got lynched, 'er, fired

Time to showers amidst a cascade of boos.

"ESPN Radio jock Ryen Russillo arrested in Wyoming "ESPN Radio talk-show host Ryen Russillo, who used to appear regularly on Comcast Sportsnet New England shows, was arrested and charged with “criminal entry” in Jackson, Wyo., according to the Teton County Sheriff’s Office. Russillo was arrested for the misdemeanor at approximately 3:45 a.m. Wednesday. The Teton County Sheriff’s Office did not release any additional information....." 

The sports guys this morning said he was arrested naked in the wrong house with his pants around ankles. Drunk?

I couldn't find anything on YouTube.

He should have called an Uber to get home. Just give 'em the address

You can even read something while you ride:

"Gerard Baker, the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, has faced unease and frustration in his newsroom over his stewardship of the newspaper’s coverage of President Trump, which some journalists there say has lacked toughness and verve. Some staff members expressed similar concerns Wednesday after Baker, in a series of blunt late-night e-mails, criticized his staff over their coverage of Trump’s Tuesday rally in Phoenix, describing their reporting as overly opinionated. “Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,” Baker wrote at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday to a group of Journal reporters and editors, in response to a draft of the rally article that was intended for the newspaper’s final edition. He added in a follow-up, “Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?” A copy of Baker’s e-mails was reviewed by The New York Times. Several phrases about Trump that appeared in the draft of the article reviewed by Baker were not included in the final version published on The Journal’s website. The draft, in its lead paragraph, described the Charlottesville, Va., protests as “reshaping” Trump’s presidency. That mention was removed. The draft also described Trump’s Phoenix speech as “an off-script return to campaign form,” in which the president “pivoted away from remarks a day earlier in which he had solemnly called for unity.” That language does not appear in the article’s final version. Contacted about the e-mails Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal spokeswoman wrote in a statement: “The Wall Street Journal has a clear separation between news and opinion. As always, the key priority is to focus reporting on facts and avoid opinion seeping into news coverage.”

That is the key reason I gave up on them.

Why Rosie O’Donnell is in Southie

Picking up tax loot checks I would $uppo$e, and did you see which country star stopped by Patriots practice?

"Stocks retreated Wednesday and gave back some of their gains from a day earlier, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 index had one of its best days of the year. Advertising companies and retailers had some of the steepest drops, on worries about their earnings, while prices for Treasury bonds and gold rose modestly as investors sought safer ground. It was the latest move lower for a stock market that has yo-yoed since setting a record high earlier this month. Markets are looking to Wyoming, where central bankers from around the world are gathering soon. The heads of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank are expected to speak at a symposium, which begins Thursday, and investors are waiting to hear if any change is upcoming in their support for the global economy. Most analysts expect to hear nothing surprising..... "

The Globe's front page is the answer to all the racial disharmony:

"Will legal pot be a chance for minority business owners?" by Joshua Miller Globe Staff  August 23, 2017

DENVER — They were pioneers, the first black owners of a cannabis dispensary in Colorado.

Now, eight years after the commercialization of medical marijuana here, and almost five years after voters legalized recreational use, there are hundreds of pot shops, farms, and manufacturers. But Wanda James and her husband, Scott Durrah, are still among the few black owners of a cannabis business in Colorado.

Sitting in their dispensary across from a new luxury apartment development and a hip restaurant, James estimated there were fewer than 10 black-owned cannabis businesses in the state.

The dearth of black pot entrepreneurs serves as a warning to Massachusetts, where advocates and lawmakers have trumpeted the new industry’s potential to create business opportunities in communities of color that bore the brunt of the decades-long War on Drugs.

Bad news, you are not wanted here.

In Colorado, four successful black pot entrepreneurs cited roadblocks familiar to many black business owners across a range of sectors: difficulty getting capital, hiring good lawyers and accountants, and finding mentors in the industry who look like them.

But the cannabis market comes with its own special challenges, including cultural stigma about marijuana, restrictions on felons owning pot shops, and opposition from black elected officials, clergy, and other community leaders to an industry that is legal under state law but still seen as sinful.

“The black clergy is some of the worst on cannabis. ‘The Devil’s weed’ and ‘God don’t like drugs,’ ” James said, using the tone of a scolding preacher.

James, a one-time restaurateur, political consultant, and fund-raiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, recalls when she and her husband came out “of the cannabis closet” in a 2009 Denver Post article announcing they were getting into the marijuana business.

“Almost every black elected official and business owner took a lot of pride in calling and saying what fools we were, how we just destroyed our reputation . . . how no politician will ever get near us,” she recalled.

The calls continued — but now they seek political donations and cannabis advice, she said, smiling. And the couple’s cultivation operation and dispensary, Simply Pure, is expanding next year, a sign that business is good.

Wy Livingston, whose business ventures include a tea shop and tea company that has a marijuana-infused line, said given the destruction that drugs have caused in black and Hispanic communities, it’s no wonder that church leaders oppose marijuana.

She said whether it’s heroin or cannabis, for many black church leaders, “everything is dope to them.” Church leaders rail against the drug, and “that’s going to keep a certain portion of folks just out of it,” she said.

Dan Pettigrew, who owns a high-end marijuana extracts company, Viola Extracts, says the perception of marijuana is changing among black communities, just as perception is changing among all Americans.

“The truth shall set you free,” he said, sitting with his business partner and co-owner, former NBA player Al Harrington, in their Denver facility, the scent from just-harvested cannabis plants heavy in the air.

As more people see cannabis businesses prosper, the jobs and wealth the drug creates, and the medical help it can bring to people, the stigma will fade, Pettigrew said.

Harrington, a New Jersey native, said he and members of his family have experienced that transformation. Growing up, “Everybody felt like if you smoked marijuana you weren’t going to be [anything] in life.”

A first-round draft pick out of high school, Harrington avoided the drug for decades. When he was traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2010, everyone was talking about the burgeoning medical industry and all the ailments marijuana could ease.

One day, his 80-year-old grandmother, suffering from glaucoma and diabetes, came to Denver to watch a game. She was in excruciating eye pain, so Harrington offered to procure her some marijuana to see if it would be more effective than her prescription medication. She demurred at first — saying the drug had ruined Harrington’s grandfather’s life, and his uncle’s, too — but the next day her pain was so great, she agreed to try some.

“She turned to me and she had tears in her eyes. She’s just like, ‘I’m healed. I haven’t been able to read the words in my Bible in over three years,’ ” he recalled. “She was sitting there reading her Bible.” 

I can't think of a stronger argument for it, and those who argue against are arguing for more pain and suffering for people.

When he financed Pettigrew’s business, they decided to name it Viola, after Harrington’s grandmother.

Stigma is just one hurdle, of course.

Livingston, the tea entrepreneur, is also a former top executive at insurance juggernaut AIG and homebuilding giant Pulte Homes. She said what’s necessary in most industries — knowing people who can show you the ropes and invest in a new business — is exponentially more important in the cannabis space.

After all, it’s a heavily regulated business, where relatively few people know the ins and outs of navigating the law.

And access to capital, a hurdle for any entrepreneur, is more difficult in the cannabis industry because getting a bank loan is extremely tough. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and many banks would rather not take on that risk.

Pettigrew said he had an advantage with Harrington, who had money to invest and connections to top-tier professionals.

“I had access to great attorneys, great accountants,” he said. “That really helped.”

And, he said, James and Durrah, the pioneering dispensary owners, mentored him as he got the business off the ground.

Shaleen Title, a Malden-based attorney who is a founding board member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, argued Massachusetts’ pot law does a better job than any other legalization state at welcoming people of color to the industry, but “when you have a cultural stigma, having the best state policies in the world won’t matter because people won’t take advantage of them,” she said.

When it comes to black-owned cannabis businesses, “we have to do better than Colorado,” said state Senator Linda Dorcena Forry, a Dorchester Democrat who helped push for several of the legal provisions aimed at boosting opportunity for such communities.

Sitting in her shop in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver, James said one way to ensure more minorities have ownership stakes in the pot industry is for parents to encourage their children (21 and older, of course) to get a summer job as a budtender — a marijuana store clerk — instead of working at a restaurant.

“Get your foot in the door. Learn the business,” she advised.

And, she emphasized, the industry is much larger than growing cannabis, making edibles, and having a storefront. There’s cannabis marketing, accounting, and law, along with countless other ancillary industries.

It’s early yet in the expansion of legalized pot, she said, so there’s plenty of time for everyone to jump in.....

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I hate to be a buzz kill but what about the emissions?

"The talk of the island this summer is not the latest celebrity sighting or the balmy water temperatures at South Beach, but corporate governance of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital....."

Didn't even vote on it or anything

That's all I have to say.

"Beginning next month, shoppers will be able to buy Walmart products by speaking to their Google Home devices, and ‘‘this is just the beginning.’’

No, it's the end.

Time to have something to eat and then go to bed.