6 ms·

Interesting donation considering the families die hard allegiance to the Alt-Right/Trump. Seems to conflict with the current WH's stance on drugs.

darpa_escapee 9y ago
Wouldn't be surprised if someone they know has PTSD. There's an overwhelming trend with those types to make exceptions for their own while vilifying everyone else. See also: my teen's abortion is the only acceptable abortion, my gay daughter is one of the good ones, my drug addict son isn't a criminal like the rest of them, etc
- flunhat 9y ago
  Case in point: Dick Cheney changing his position on gay marriage because his daughter is a lesbian.
  - NeonVice 9y ago
    His position never changed. Source?
    - krrrh 9y ago
      Despite popular opinion on other forums, it is faster to search the web than to post a falsehood in order to provoke someone else to do it for you. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dick+Cheney+support+gay+marriage&ia=web# https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dick+Cheney+support+gay+marriage&i...
      - lbotos 9y ago
        I swore there was an XKCD that was directly related here, but I can only find the "wrong on the internet" one: https://www.xkcd.com/386/ https://www.xkcd.com/386/
        krrrh 9y ago
        Cunningham’s law goes back to USENET, and was clever in a pre-Lycos internet. There is actually a reference to that xkcd comic in this article. https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
      - maxerickson 9y ago
        Did he previously do much to oppose it? His statements going back to at least 2000 make his position less politically convenient than, uh, quite a few other politicians: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/10/us/2000-campaign-republican-running-mate-cheney-s-marriage-remarks-irk.html http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/10/us/2000-campaign-republica... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-politicians-changed-positions-gay-marriage/story?id=18740293 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-politicians-chan... Doesn't do much to offset the rest of his record.
        krrrh 9y ago
        Gary Johnson made hay in 2016 about the fact that it took Hillary Clinton longer to change her position than Dick Cheney. I feel pretty confident that he wasn’t always in favor of it when he was in Congress or working in the Ford Administration (after all, even the Human Rights Campaign was opposed to campaigning for marriage equality in the nineties [1]). But I take your point, and I don’t understand why it is so surprising that politicians could hold a la carte views on social issues, something which I feel used to be much more common and allowable in our culture (see also Barry Goldwater’s support for gays openly serving in the military in the late 80s, a policy that wouldn’t be implemented until 2011, which to the original point he credited to a gay grandson). [1] http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/16/jo-beckers-troubling-travesty-of-gay-history/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/16/jo-beckers-troubli...
hendler 9y ago
Speculating, but the motives are likely profit. Sessions is anti drugs because there is money to be made in private prisons, where as other parts of the administration is friendly with pharmaceutical industries in order make profit. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/13/alex-azar-hhs-secretary-trump-244837 https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/13/alex-azar-hhs-secr... I'm not judging correctness of this as policy, but rather the motivation.
- adventured 9y ago
  There's roughly 6x to 10x more money to be made in government prisons than in private prisons. Sessions is a big government fan, as are most politicians in DC. That government prison complex money goes into the pockets of lobbyists, millions of voters and contributors (including powerful unions), that are employed in/by the government system. Currently ~85%-90% of all prisoners are held in government prisons and jails. There are at least a million people employed in government law enforcement, whose jobs are solely supported by the government's drug war and the government prison complex. Sessions, like Trump, is a very big supporter of law enforcement employees. Sessions is doing it to support those million plus government employees who have been overwhelmingly supportive of the Trump Administration and the pro drug war side. Those million unnecessary government employees represent a hundred billion dollars per year in pockets getting lined between pay and benefits over time. The scale of that puts the private prison complex to shame.
  - wjn0 9y ago
    Agree completely. People are very quick to ascribe the problems associated with the prison industrial complex to the privatization of prisons, but that's only a part of it. Sessions has an ideology (digression: based on his history, I wouldn't be surprised if it was rooted in racism [1]). But politicians, even the most ideological, have been shown to be very easy to sway: be it for money, or power, or something else. In his case, there is absolutely no incentive (financial, political support, or otherwise) to change: his party's base either partially agrees with him, or benefits from the policy stance, exactly like you said. And that is why we get borderline absurd quotes like "good people don't smoke marijuana" (2016) [2]. [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-attorney-general-pick-jeff-sessions-nominee-senate-confirmation-hearing-too-racist-a7518726.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trum... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-good-people-dont-smoke-marijuana https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trump...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
civilian 9y ago
Oh shit, do you mean that just maybe, maybe, that a more nuanced view of politics is more likely to be correct? Conservatives aren't a monolith, they come in many flavors. And comeon, this is great news! Just be happy and hope that we can persuade Sessions to rethink some things.
splintercell 9y ago
They are a pharma company and MDMA is a drug (and not a plant like Weed), why is their plan to support research for MDMA a big deal?
protomyth 9y ago
Rebekah Mercer is a Republican, but what source says she is Alt-Right? Plenty of normal Republicans have discussed MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.
- pulisse 9y ago
  C'mon. She's the patron of Breitbart News, called the "platform of the alt-right" by its editor. The head of Newsmax called her "first lady of the alt-right".[1] [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/05/rebekah-mercer-the-billionaire-backer-of-bannon-and-trump-chooses-sides/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/0...
  - protomyth 9y ago
    She's mad at the party leadership and was a Mitt Romney supporter. I want to know what she has personally said that makes her alt-right. A lot of non-Alt-Right people worked at Breitbart, heck Ben Shapiro worked there.
    - StriverGuy 9y ago
      This is the definition of Alt-Right. Alternative Right Wing.
      - protomyth 9y ago
        No. I'm not alt-right but pretty unhappy with the current leadership of the GOP. Alt-Right is defined by folks like Vox Day and the continued lumping of everyone in with them is not helping.
josh_carterPDX 9y ago
It was the first thing I thought of as well. I feel like there are ulterior motives behind the grant award. Will be watching closely.

darpa_escapee 9y ago

Wouldn't be surprised if someone they know has PTSD. There's an overwhelming trend with those types to make exceptions for their own while vilifying everyone else. See also: my teen's abortion is the only acceptable abortion, my gay daughter is one of the good ones, my drug addict son isn't a criminal like the rest of them, etc

flunhat 9y ago
Case in point: Dick Cheney changing his position on gay marriage because his daughter is a lesbian.
- NeonVice 9y ago
  His position never changed. Source?
  - krrrh 9y ago
    Despite popular opinion on other forums, it is faster to search the web than to post a falsehood in order to provoke someone else to do it for you. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dick+Cheney+support+gay+marriage&ia=web# https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dick+Cheney+support+gay+marriage&i...
    - lbotos 9y ago
      I swore there was an XKCD that was directly related here, but I can only find the "wrong on the internet" one: https://www.xkcd.com/386/ https://www.xkcd.com/386/
      - krrrh 9y ago
        Cunningham’s law goes back to USENET, and was clever in a pre-Lycos internet. There is actually a reference to that xkcd comic in this article. https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
    - maxerickson 9y ago
      Did he previously do much to oppose it? His statements going back to at least 2000 make his position less politically convenient than, uh, quite a few other politicians: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/10/us/2000-campaign-republican-running-mate-cheney-s-marriage-remarks-irk.html http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/10/us/2000-campaign-republica... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-politicians-changed-positions-gay-marriage/story?id=18740293 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-politicians-chan... Doesn't do much to offset the rest of his record.
      - krrrh 9y ago
        Gary Johnson made hay in 2016 about the fact that it took Hillary Clinton longer to change her position than Dick Cheney. I feel pretty confident that he wasn’t always in favor of it when he was in Congress or working in the Ford Administration (after all, even the Human Rights Campaign was opposed to campaigning for marriage equality in the nineties [1]). But I take your point, and I don’t understand why it is so surprising that politicians could hold a la carte views on social issues, something which I feel used to be much more common and allowable in our culture (see also Barry Goldwater’s support for gays openly serving in the military in the late 80s, a policy that wouldn’t be implemented until 2011, which to the original point he credited to a gay grandson). [1] http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/16/jo-beckers-troubling-travesty-of-gay-history/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/16/jo-beckers-troubli...

hendler 9y ago

Speculating, but the motives are likely profit. Sessions is anti drugs because there is money to be made in private prisons, where as other parts of the administration is friendly with pharmaceutical industries in order make profit. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/13/alex-azar-hhs-secretary-trump-244837 https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/13/alex-azar-hhs-secr... I'm not judging correctness of this as policy, but rather the motivation.

adventured 9y ago
There's roughly 6x to 10x more money to be made in government prisons than in private prisons. Sessions is a big government fan, as are most politicians in DC. That government prison complex money goes into the pockets of lobbyists, millions of voters and contributors (including powerful unions), that are employed in/by the government system. Currently ~85%-90% of all prisoners are held in government prisons and jails. There are at least a million people employed in government law enforcement, whose jobs are solely supported by the government's drug war and the government prison complex. Sessions, like Trump, is a very big supporter of law enforcement employees. Sessions is doing it to support those million plus government employees who have been overwhelmingly supportive of the Trump Administration and the pro drug war side. Those million unnecessary government employees represent a hundred billion dollars per year in pockets getting lined between pay and benefits over time. The scale of that puts the private prison complex to shame.
- wjn0 9y ago
  Agree completely. People are very quick to ascribe the problems associated with the prison industrial complex to the privatization of prisons, but that's only a part of it. Sessions has an ideology (digression: based on his history, I wouldn't be surprised if it was rooted in racism [1]). But politicians, even the most ideological, have been shown to be very easy to sway: be it for money, or power, or something else. In his case, there is absolutely no incentive (financial, political support, or otherwise) to change: his party's base either partially agrees with him, or benefits from the policy stance, exactly like you said. And that is why we get borderline absurd quotes like "good people don't smoke marijuana" (2016) [2]. [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-attorney-general-pick-jeff-sessions-nominee-senate-confirmation-hearing-too-racist-a7518726.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trum... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-good-people-dont-smoke-marijuana https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/18/trump...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

civilian 9y ago

Oh shit, do you mean that just maybe, maybe, that a more nuanced view of politics is more likely to be correct? Conservatives aren't a monolith, they come in many flavors. And comeon, this is great news! Just be happy and hope that we can persuade Sessions to rethink some things.

splintercell 9y ago

They are a pharma company and MDMA is a drug (and not a plant like Weed), why is their plan to support research for MDMA a big deal?

protomyth 9y ago

Rebekah Mercer is a Republican, but what source says she is Alt-Right? Plenty of normal Republicans have discussed MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.

pulisse 9y ago
C'mon. She's the patron of Breitbart News, called the "platform of the alt-right" by its editor. The head of Newsmax called her "first lady of the alt-right".[1] [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/05/rebekah-mercer-the-billionaire-backer-of-bannon-and-trump-chooses-sides/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/0...
- protomyth 9y ago
  She's mad at the party leadership and was a Mitt Romney supporter. I want to know what she has personally said that makes her alt-right. A lot of non-Alt-Right people worked at Breitbart, heck Ben Shapiro worked there.
  - StriverGuy 9y ago
    This is the definition of Alt-Right. Alternative Right Wing.
    - protomyth 9y ago
      No. I'm not alt-right but pretty unhappy with the current leadership of the GOP. Alt-Right is defined by folks like Vox Day and the continued lumping of everyone in with them is not helping.

josh_carterPDX 9y ago

It was the first thing I thought of as well. I feel like there are ulterior motives behind the grant award. Will be watching closely.