Women, Cannabis Ride the Blue/Green Tsunami

The Blue Tsunami that was the November 3 election carried many women to victory.  

Democrats are putting out these stats: 

• For the first time in history, over 100 Democratic women will serve in the US House.  

• At least 16 Democratic women will serve in the Senate

• A record of 2,600 Democratic women running for seats in state legislatures helped flip 12 majorities and break 11 supermajorities. 

• At least 14 Democratic women will serve as governors, a record high. 

• Four states elected their first woman governor: Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, and Tennessee. (I'm particularly glad that Dr. Amy Acton beat out Rama-swarmy, following his horrible campaign featuring her mother who condoned Acton's sexual abuse by her husband.)

• Gina Hinojosa (pictured here as a child with former Texas Governor Ann Richards) will be the first Latina to serve as governor of Texas. 

• Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first Black woman to serve as governor. (As mayor of Atlanta, Lance Bottoms removed drug-testing requirements for city employees, citing equity concerns. )

• Deb Haaland will be the first Native American woman to serve as a governor, and Peggy Flanagan will be the first Native American woman to serve in the senate. 

The day after the election the Golden State Valkyries WNBA team celebrated their first championship win with a parade in San Francisco (at which the sign at right was seen). The Valkyries/Atlanta Dream's unprecedented Game 7 in the championship series drew an estimated 3.3 million viewers, a record number. At Game 2 of the series at "Balhalla in SF, Tokin' Woman Alanis Morissette belted out the National Anthem, wearing a shirt that said, "Tout le monde regarde le sport feminine,"  which translates to "All the world (everyone) watches women's sports." 

Meanwhile, the post-election news today is that Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, the first woman to hold that position, will be replaced by the hideous Stephen Miller. 

Other former Trump staffers Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Lori Chazez-DeRemer, and Kimberly Guilfoyle have all been replaced by men, at least for interim positions. 

The Green Wave

Cannabis was high on the wave, too. 

Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly rejected ballot Question 8, which sought to repeal key elements of the state’s voter-approved adult-use marijuana legalization law, including home cultivation. With over 80 percent of the vote counted, the measure trails by an estimated 3 to 1 margin. The Massachusetts Senate followed up by passing a measure to let military veterans get medical marijuana without a doctor's prescription. 

By a nearly 2 to 1 margin, Idaho voters rejected ballot proposal HJR 4, which sought to amend the state constitution so that the public would no longer have any say in determining Idaho’s marijuana policies. This is a Republican state that saw no campaign against the measure. 

A measure in Houston to make marijuana-related misdemeanors among the police department’s lowest enforcement priorities had received the approval of more than 70% of voters as of Tuesday evening, according to a report from Houston Public Media. In addition to Republican Governor Gregg Abbott, Texans also voted out Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who said, "I am not going to legalize marijuana in Texas. And if people want to vote me out of office, so be it." Voters chose Democrat Vicki Goodwin instead, ending a 27-year Republican hold on the office. Newly elected Texas Senator James Talarico, who defeated Trump-backed Ken Paxton, has already announced he plans to work with the Trump administration on federal legalization. 

New Democratic legislative majorities in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could make the two states the next to legalize recreational weed, Marijuana Moment reported. The battle in PA will be not to have it regulated at state-run stores, like liquor. 

Talarico Rightly Says the Bible Has a Male and a Female God

Wenceslas Hollar - Chaos (Etching, 1600s)

Texas Senatorial Candidate James Talarico, a former Presbyterian seminary student, has said (in comments he now says were meant to be provocative), "The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit. God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary."

Of course, the "right" wing has gone apeshit over these comments, as it tries to make transgenderism the issue in this election, instead of the economy, the War in Iraq, and the general apocalyptic times we're witnessing with the destruction of our planet and its takeover by AI. 

Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show interviewed MAGA folks attending a Trump rally in Texas, asking them if God was a man, and if so, was he packing? Kid Rock (wearing a hat depicting Willie Nelson smoking a joint) and Ted Cruz commented on Talarico's comments on Overtime with Bill Maher, with Maher opining that not everyone thinks God is "the man in the sky with the beard." 

But Talarico wasn't off the mark. 

Genesis 1:1 states (as translated): "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In Hebrew, it reads, "Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz." Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is a plural noun meaning God.

Moving on to Genesis 1:2, we have the translation: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Or, in Hebrew, "Veha'aretz hayata tohu va'vohu, ve'choshech al penei tehom; ve'ruach Elohim merachefet al penei hammayim."

Ruach (וְרוּחַ, pronounced Roo'-ach) is a feminine noun meaning spirit, wind, or breath. As with is the feminine word "shekhinah" in rabbinic literature, it indicates the presence of God. While "spirit" is feminine in Hebrew, it is neuter in Greek (πνεῦμα, pneûma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus). Thus was the goddess neutralized, then masculated. 

Also see: On Pentecost: Why Was the Holy Ghost Ghosted? 

Female Stoner Buddy Movie "The Wrong Girls" Is Alright

CAUTION: SEMI-SPOILERS HERE. SEE IT FIRST. YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID.

The opening shots of "The Wrong Girls" depict an elaborate bong later identified as the "Bongatron" invented by one of the movie's characters, Stanford engineering-school dropout Frankie (Kristen Stewart). Frankie and her bestie Molly (Alia Shawkat) hit the bongatron, followed by a spot-on scene where they communicate by coughing. 

Molly hates her job producing spreadsheets, and loves to cook. She bakes some "accidentally on purpose" super strong pot brownies, with blue cheese added. Meanwhile, Frankie smokes joints while she works (not while driving) as a delivery person for Kwik Things. She's soon mistaken for her doppleganger/double Frances (also played by Stewart), a research scientist working on a mysterious drug the girls lay their hands on and sample. A super trippy sequence follows where Frankie and Molly turn telepathic, able to communicate nonverbally with each other and their cats (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani). 

Turns out the drug, called Blaekspruttesaed, was developed based on giant squids' telepathic communication by the Norwegian scientist Dr. Olsen (Kate McKinnon in yet another brilliant characterization) for her employer (named Koch, like the brothers, and pronounced "cock"). Koch wants to exploit the invention for mind control (much like the MK Ultra program and LSD), and Koch's violent henchmen go after the girls while Olsen and her team try to keep them, and their experimental drug they hope to use for higher purposes, out of the henchmen's hands. 

While being driven away from danger by their reluctant rescuer Not Metal Head Dave (LaKeith Stanfield), Frankie and Molly light a stress-busting joint, which Dave insists they put out. "Dude, this is California," Frankie protests. "I don't care if it's Canada," Dave replies, throwing the joint out the window. Molly is suddenly able to telekinetically move the joint back into her hand, and Dr. Olsen deduces that mixing Blaekspruttesaed with THC produces the extra effect. 

OK, it's a crazy stupid plot, but it's no worse than countless buddy movies, including the stoner ones. And it's pretty clever and funny, with lots of interesting camera work, editing, and situations (like the, "Snacks, cats, weed, go" sequence). Stewart and Shawkat give dead-on performances throughout, while appearing in Trashin' Fashion or T-shirts that look straight from Goodwill. The film opens with Cate Blanchett's voice narrating a deep-sea squid documentary, and Geena Davis appears as Dr. Chapman, the head government research administrator. 

New "East of Eden" Adaptation Tells Cathy's Story

CAUTION: SPOILERS HEREIN

The new "reimagined" Netflix series "East of Eden" from Zoe Kazan tells the extraordinary story from the John Steinbeck novel of Cathy (Florence Pugh), the mother of the James Dean character in the 1955 movie adaptation directed by Zoe's grandfather Elia Kazan. In that film we only know that Cathy has become the madam of a brothel in town. (in an Oscar-winning performance from Jo Van Fleet). Steinbeck reportedly based Cathy on his second wife, who was unfaithful to him, and Dean's character Cal may have been based on Steinbeck's second son, John Steinbeck IV.  

"I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents," begins the chapter were Steinbeck introduces Cathy Ames, adding,"There was a time when a girl like Cathy would have been called possessed by the devil. She would have been exorcised to cast out the evil spirit, and if after many trials that did not work, she would have been burned as a witch for the good of the community." 

Cathy's story is told, beginning at age 10 with her mother finding her partially undressed and lying in a barn with a rope tying her wrists together, and two 14-year-old boys kneeling near her. The boys' defense was that Cathy had orchestrated the event, charging them five cents apiece. 

“She’s haunted by it,” Mrs. Ames told the neighbors. “If she could only talk about it, maybe she would get better. But when I ask her about it—it’s like it came right back to her and she goes into shock again.” She tries to advocate for punishment for the boys, arguing that her daughter couldn't very well have tied her own hands. But Mr. Ames stayed silent, not protecting his daughter. 

The scene has been interpreted as young Cathy being the instigator, but Kazan and Pugh offer the interpretation that Cathy was the victim.  “Her version of safety has been damaged from the moment she was abused," Pugh told Vanity Fair.  "And she told her parents, and her parents didn’t listen. This isn’t someone that understands family life is necessarily a good thing. This child was raped when she was tiny. And her distrust for men, it was ignited then.”

John Steinbeck IV: The Importance of Being Stoned in Vietnam

John Steinbeck IV, the son of the novelist who wrote The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, was drafted into the army in 1965 and served as a war correspondent in Vietnam.  On January 1, 1968, he published an article in The Washingtonian titled, "The Importance of Being Stoned in Vietnam." 

Steinbeck wrote that soldiers were supplied dextro-amphetamine by the army in survival kits given to soldiers in the field, and that pharmacists in the port of Hong Kong, an R&R center, sold "all manner of barbiturates, and other prescriptive drugs, to military personnel without a prescription." Writing that soldiers eschewed incapacitating opium, "a drug for old men in this part of Asia," he added: 

After opium, what remains are the fields and jungles of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, which for thousands of years have been the natural home of the ever-popular Cannabis sativa, or marijuana. It has a more powerful brother known as hashish or kif or plain hemp. It is basically the same cannabis plant, but it is richer in resins, and thus in intoxicating tars when smoked or eaten. Unlike opium, which is a body drug rather than a mind drug, you can learn to function normally with marijuana. In the southern areas, the best of this plant comes from Cambodia, and the vast majority of “good stuff” comes across the border via the Ho Chi Minh trail, the same route made famous by the Viet Cong—a fairly romantic migration. 

For the most part, the drug is cheaper and easier to find in Vietnam than a package of Lucky Strikes. It might be interesting to find out if the derivation of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s slogan, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” might not have come from the revered Arab expression, “A puff of kif in the morning makes a man as strong as a hundred camels in the courtyard.” In any case, marijuana is as easy to find in Vietnam as a Vietnamese national, and you needn’t find one to find the other. 

Steinbeck remarked that "practically no civil or military controls" were used to inhibit the smoking of marijuana, not so much as "a matter of kindness" but for practical reasons. "To enforce a prohibition against smoking the plant would be like trying to prohibit the inhalation of smog in Los Angeles." 

Rest in Power Dolly Parton, Who Joined the Pot Party in "9-5"

Parton in "9-5"

Dolly Parton, who died at age 80 yesterday, managed to project an authentic, down-home womanly image wearing outrageous wigs and fake fingernails, while making jokes like, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." 

The fourth of 12 children raised in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, her father Robert Lee was an illiterate tenant farmer and her mother Avie Lee (Owens) sang old Anglo-Celtic ballads and hymns while doing housework. Dolly said she admired a woman in town considered trashy due to the way she dressed, and began emulating her as she began her singing and songwriting career. 

In one of her first hits, "Dumb Blonde" (1967), she sang, "Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb / 'Cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool." She was smart enough to form her own publishing company at age 20, retaining the rights to her own songs. When Elvis Presley's manager demanded The King take half of the publishing profits for recording her song "I Will Always Love You" in 1974, Parton refused (then cried all night). Instead, Whitney Houston made it a monster hit in 1992 and Dolly made $10 million in royalties, investing part of the money in an office complex in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Nashville. 

Tokin' Woman Jane Fonda, who produced the 1980 feminist film "9-5," starring Lily Tomlin and herself, reportedly was looking for a third co-star to broaden the film's appeal when she heard a tape of Dolly singing and decided to make her a movie star. Parton's film debut is a tour-de-force performance in which she sweetly but strongly threatens to turn her lecherous boss Mr. Hart "from a rooster to a hen" with one shot from the gun she carried in her purse. 

In the film, Tomlin's character Violet suggests that her co-workers Judy (Fonda) and Doralee (Parton) smoke a joint together. "Is that one of them marijuana cigarettes?" Doralee asks, offering her home as the setting for their "old-fashioned ladies pot party." Doralee says, "that stuff really don't do much for me" and Judy says she tried it once and "could never figure out what the big deal was." Cut to: the three ladies laughing uproariously (and soon, munching out). 

Sture and Charlotte Johannesson: "Hash Girl" and Galleri Cannabis

Dow Shalt Not Kill! U.S.A - Union of
Stoned Anarchists (Sture Johannesson). 

At the Oakland Museum of CA (OCMA)'s Gallery of California History, I spied an amazing poster featuring an image of LBJ surrounded by corporate logos and phrases and, subtly in the margins, cannabis plants. 

Some research revealed the title of the 1967 poster is "Dow Shalt Not Kill! U.S.A" and it's attributed to the Union of Stoned Anarchists and the Swedish artist Sture Johannesson.   

According to the Oak Tree Review, Johannesson’s psychedelic posters "scandalised the progressive Swedish society of the sixties. His defence of psychotropic substances, used as a critique of State control, provoked censorship in both public and private institutions. For more than twenty years, his poster production served to denounce that the way in which society builds and transmits its patterns of authority is ultimately more hallucinatory than the effects of any drug."

When interviewed by Swedish magazine FIB Aktuellt in 1967, Johannesson "enthusiastically spoke about his use of psychedelics and cannabis. For instance, as he discusses an elaborate marker drawing with the reporters, Johannesson admits he created it under the influence of hashish, LSD and mescaline. 'That’s why it’s so great,' he says of the drawing."

Appropriately enough, the interview took place at “Galleri Cannabis,” an art gallery and studio space in Malmö, Sweden, which Johannesson founded in 1965 with his wife Charlotte Johannesson, also an artist. The gallery "functioned as a meeting point and production house for the self-styled underground."