Joint Resolution: “President Joe Biden is taking his first major steps toward decriminalizing marijuana, fulfilling a campaign pledge to erase prior federal possession convictions and beginning the process of loosening federal classification of the drug.” Biden has been disappointing on this issue and, of course, states need to follow suit to really put a flame to these idiotic laws. Meanwhile, the drug war continues to add to its body count. Mexico mayor assassinated in town hall massacre.

+ Walker Hound: Herschel Walker could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and impregnate somebody, wait a few weeks, and then personally abort the baby, and he wouldn’t lose voters. The Atlantic Herschel Walker Is Demonstrating the New Law of Politics. He might be demonstrating it, but he sure as hell doesn’t understand it. (In addition to everything else, Walker was the only Herschel not in temple yesterday.) Speaking of new laws of politics, according to WaPo, a majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — deny the 2020 election results.

+ Thai Tragedy: “A former police officer facing a drug charge burst into a day care center Thursday in Thailand, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers and then shooting more people as he fled. At least 36 people were slain in the deadliest rampage in the nation’s history.”

+ Do svidaniya! “Tens of thousands of people—possibly more—have left Russia since the draft began, crossing the border in the west, south, and east of the country, by plane, train, bus, private car, bicycle, and scooter, and also on foot. They are staying in hotels and hostels, in hastily rented rooms, on the couches of friends and acquaintances.” The New Yorker: Putin’s Draft Order Has Inspired a Russian Exodus. Meanwhile, “Putin’s surreal message to the war-torn areas amid cascading Russian military setbacks on the battlefield created a stark split-screen between the image of control that the Kremlin is trying to project and the reality on the front lines, where Russia has been losing ground for weeks.” WaPo Putin cites success in annexed regions even as his exhausted troops retreat. (It looked like my SF Giants season ended in disappointment yesterday, but luckily, I just annexed the Dodgers.)

+ Fist, Pump: “The move by OPEC on Wednesday to reduce oil production sharply undercuts President Biden’s effort to avoid an increase in gas prices ahead of the midterm elections, while setting back his push to constrain the oil revenue Russia is using to pay for its war in Ukraine.” NYT: OPEC Move Shows the Limits of Biden’s Fist-Bump Diplomacy With the Saudis.

+ Annie’s Hall: Ernaux was born in 1940 in France. Her first book, Cleaned Out, in 1974, was an autobiographical novel about obtaining an abortion when it was still illegal in France. She wrote the book in secret. “My husband had made fun of me after my first manuscript. I pretended to work on a Ph.D. thesis to have time alone.'” No one is making fun of her now. French writer Annie Ernaux wins the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature.