Extra, Extra
Joint Venture “President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general on Thursday signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a major policy shift long sought by advocates who said cannabis should never have been treated like heroin by the federal government.” (I inhaled at some point in the eighties and I didn’t exhale until about 2019, so I’m hardly opposed to more reasonable marijuana classifications. But I’d be willing to bet this has more to do with blazing a trail for a new cash grab than anything else.) It is amazing how much has changed when it comes to our legal relationship with weed. Jimmy Kimmel and Scott Lonker just released a set of short docs on Hulu: 4×20 Quick Hits. Watch the Harold & Kumar one for the nostalgia and the one about the bong industry to get a reminder of just how different the latest attorney general announcement is from the paraphernalia arrests of yore.
+ Drunk on Power: “The F.B.I. began investigating a New York Times reporter last month after she wrote about the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, using bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend with government security and transportation, according to a person briefed on the matter.”
+ Afford Focus: “Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.” Senate Adopts G.O.P. Budget, Defeating Democrats’ Affordability Proposals.
+ RSVP Brains: Margaret Sullivan on this weekend’s White House correspondents’ dinner. Why are White House journalists partying with Trump? (Spoiler alert: There’s no good answer.)
+ It’s the Corruption, Stupid: Eric Trump Brags About $24 Million Pentagon Deal His Company Landed. (The amount alone indicates corruption. The Pentagon spends more than $24 million on a set of pens.)
+ Separate Lives: “It captures a harrowing moment: a family separated by the state.” World Press Photo announces Photo of the Year 2026.
+ Everything Means Less Than Zero: “President Trump has claimed that he has secured discounts of 400 to 1,500 percent on prescription drugs. A price discount cannot be more than 100 percent because that would lower the price to zero.” (In fairness, plenty of his businesses have achieved these numbers.) NYT: RFK Jr. Defends Trump’s Mathematically Impossible Drug Discount Claims. “Eventually, Mr. Trump began to insert some uncertainty into his claims, saying that the discount depended ‘on how you want to calculate it.’ ‘You could say it’s an 80 percent reduction,’ Mr. Trump said in January. ‘Or you could say it’s a 1,000 percent reduction. You could say whatever you want.'” (Words and images have lost all meaning. Why shouldn’t numbers be down for the count?)
