Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia

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High death rates in Republican south. Source.

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Featured photos.

See videos too. For more photos see: Flat list of event graphics and photos. Alphabetical order by city. There are many more images there than are shown below. Click Full site for images below. Mexico City. May 4, 2019. See: Source. [1]. Cape Town, South Africa. May 5, 2018. See source, with more photos. Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 26, 2018. See source. Part of "Green May" (many cities) [2][3][4] in Brazil. See another 2018 photo. See video showing massive crowd (from 1 minute on, especially the time lapse video). Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 6, 2017. See source. Cape Town, South Africa. May 7, 2016. See source. Athens, Greece. May 9, 2015. See source, and more photos. Medellin, Colombia. May 3, 2014. See source. See more photos: 2013 May 4. Also: 2011 May 7. (b, c.) Buenos Aires, Argentina. May 3, 2014. See source. [5]. See also: 2012 May 5 photo. Buenos Aires, Argentina. May 4, 2013. See source. [6]. See street-level crowd shot. Medellin, Colombia. May 5, 2012. See more photos: a, b, c. Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 19, 2012. See another photo. Toronto, Canada. May 2, 2009. Toronto, Canada. May 6, 2006. May 8, 2004 in Madrid, Spain. Million Joint March (La Marcha del Millón de Porros en Madrid, Mayo 2004). See source. [7]. For more info and photos: [8][9][10]. May 4, 2002 in Paris, France in front of the Hotel de Ville. See a source. [11]. To Top. Or Table top. Or News. Or Home. Return to top.

2013 GMM MardiGrass

2013 GMM MardiGrass

2012 Nimbin MardiGrass. Part of Global Marijuana March 2012.

2012 GMM MardiGrass

2012 GMM MardiGrass

2012 GMM MardiGrass

2012 GMM MardiGrass

2011 GMM MardiGrass

2011 GMM MardiGrass

2011 GMM MardiGrass

2010 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2009 GMM MardiGrass

2008 GMM MardiGrass

2008 GMM MardiGrass

Social media, Facebook

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Facebook:

• Nimbin MardiGrass. Group.
• Nimbin MardiGrass. Fan page.

Local links

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Wikipedia: Cannabis by country.
Search for marijuana march videos. And more.
City lists. Global Marijuana March, 420. Crowd photos.

• Australia. Cannabis-related links.
• commons:Category:MardiGrass - free images.
• Global Marijuana March Nimbin Australia. History of GMM.
• nimbinmardigrass.com and past years, sites, posters.
• youtube.com search for Nimbin Mardi Grass
• hempembassy.net - Nimbin HEMP Embassy.
• Youtube: youtube.com/NIMBINTELEVISION
• nimbinwave.com and blog
• AustralianHempParty.com
• nimbingoodtimes.com

City info

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• Google Maps: Nimbin.
• Google images.
• Wikipedia: Nimbin.
• Wikitravel: Nimbin.
• Wikivoyage:
• WeBeHigh.org: Cities by region and nation. By U.S. state. Or search.
• WeBeHigh.org -

Global Marijuana March

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GMM (years signed up). Google site search is no longer working well. It only finds a few yearly city lists containing a city name.
Special:Search works. Add city name, and state/province/nation as needed. This will pull up all years in which the city is listed here on Wikia through 2012. For more years go here. See also: 4/20 event lists. This city participated or signed up one year (or more) for the Global Marijuana March (GMM), or the Million Marijuana March (MMM).

1035 cities have participated from 85 nations or subnational areas since 1999.

Global Marijuana March links.

Latest links for Global Marijuana March. See GMM: basic city lists, detailed city lists, graphics, photos, maps, regions, links, years. Google images: Crowds, flyers: Marcha da Maconha. And: Marche Mondiale du Cannabis. And: Marcha Mundial de la Marihuana. And: Global Marijuana March. Add city name to searches. See the latest GMM graphics, and worldwide GMM city list and map. GMM city lists and maps: ~ 1999. 2000. 1.2.3.4.5. 6.7.8.9. 2010. 11.12.13.14.15. 16.17.18.19.20. 21.22.

City lists. Global Marijuana March, 420. Crowd photos.

Right-click any region for its city list.

2013

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See 2013 Global Marijuana March map.

GMM MardiGrass, May 4-5:

• Nimbin MardiGrass Home Page.

Facebook:

• Nimbin MardiGrass

2012

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See 2012 Global Marijuana March map.

GMM:

• Nimbin MardiGrass 2012.
• Global Marijuana March Nimbin Australia.

2010

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See Global Marijuana March 2010 map.

Nimbin: Max Stone Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement aclrm(at)nimbinaustralia.com ph: 61 266 891842. See links at top.

2009

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See GMM 2009, and GlobalMarijuanaMarch.org archive, 2.

Nimbin: Max Stone of the Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement aclrm(at)nimbinaustralia.com ph: 61 266 891842. See links at top.

• Link: http://www.nimbinmardigrass.com/2009
• Report: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Entheogens/message/4804
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCZxcBc4TbI

• See: Video help and search links.

Nimbin MardiGrass. May 1-3. 2009 Global Marijuana March. Youtube link.

2008

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See 2008 GMM, and GlobalMarijuanaMarch.org archive, 2.

Nimbin: Max Stone of the Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement aclrm(at)nimbinaustralia.com ph: 61 266 891842. See links at top.

• Link: http://www.nimbinmardigrass.com/2008

• Report (from old GMM site):

As you can imagine, having the H*E*M*P Bar and its live web cam shut down and a sign on it's door saying "Gone to Mardi Grass" meant I was in a bit of a sticky situation from an 'organizational' point of view. Fortunate for me, the previous decades worth of 4 20's had left such an impression in the minds of all the hardcore repeat MardiGrassers, that I almost didn't need to mention it, but, mention it I did. At 20 minutes past the hour ,every hour, on the main festival sound system I talked up the event. MardiGrass Saturday was a very POLICE intensive atmosphere, road blocks around the town, riot squad in bullet proof sunglasses every where you looked. I urged everyone if they was going to smoke one joint all day, let it be at 420 today when they could light that joint in global unity with the millions of other people all around earth who will also be lighting up at 420. And I always make a point of asking that when you do light up at 420, let it not be an act of defiance, let it be an act of peace, a sharing, a celebration and a thing you do every day at 420 until the law is changed.................... Peace for Pot ------------ Pot for Peace

Best part is that outside the H*E*M*P Bar wasn't the only venue for the 420 Demonstration, H*E*M*P President Michael Balderstone did a HUGE 420 Demo in Peace Park, Captain Reefer did another in Allsop Park, the Stage down in the Markets did a 420 and pretty much everyone everywhere was part of the Demonstration and if I had to add one last thought it would be that 4.20 PM on Saturday was about the only time that the main street of Nimbin had that traditional smoky mardigrass look to it, no arrests were recorded by the police at 4.20 or in the 30 minutes after. Over 15,000 people attended this years www.NimbinMardiGrass.com and everyone of them

till 2009

2007

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See Global Marijuana March 2007 map.

• Many arrests at Nimbin Mardi Grass. May 7, 2007. The Age.

More info, links, years

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Nimbin tale: Site of the annual "First weekend in May" Nimbin MardiGrass, Nimbin is unique. Once a sacred initiation site for the Bundjalung tribe, it was originally "settled" by white Europeans in the very late 19th Century. Basically that means we clear-felled as much of the forest as we possibly could, fenced it off from the local Kooris and proceeded to wipe out any of them that objected to being uprooted, brain-washed and totally cut off from their traditional lands and way of life... It's a familiar story.

Within a couple of decades the white guys had pretty much run out of trees and so they started looking around for a NEW way to turn a buck. Sticking a whole bunch of heavy-footed European cows on the recently cleared slopes seemed like a good idea at the time, and so within ANOTHER few decades the once pristine forests surrounding this area had been transformed into an expanse of denuded, eroding cow pastures. Meanwhile the arse was busily dropping out of the international market for Australian meat and dairy produce. Ho-hum...

By 1973, Nimbin was almost a ghost town. Luckily for the local real estate agents, a bunch of long haired student radicals from the Australian Union of Students arrived seeking a site for a national student counter culture life style event called the Aquarius Festival. They had taken a left turn at Mullumbimby, chose Nimbin promising the village residents that Aquarius would "recycle the town".

Cut to 1993 - the same deserted dairy town has been transformed. The building and shop fronts are a garish yet somehow compelling collage of full blown psychedelia and traditional Bundjalung art. There's more cafes, craft shops and backpackers than you can wave a traveler's cheque at and the stinky sweet smell of ganja is positively enveloping the street. This definitely AINT Byron Bay.

Down the centre of the main drag of this tiny, tripped out tourist town, there's a huge throng of people, laughing, drumming, chanting, DANCING towards the local cop shop.

Dozens of them are helping to carry a huge smoking joint with "Let It Grow!" painted in 4 foot high letters on the side. Others are holding banners and placards calling for change - an end to drug prohibition, the legalisation of cannabis, an end to the drug war.

Many are openly smoking pot as they drum, sing and humba their way towards the suddenly vacant-looking police station. One dude is on stilts, wearing a huge cardboard helicopter he's made in mockery of the annual pot raids that Nimbin has suffered for more than a decade. Paradoxically, not one person looks angry.

What the f*ck is happening here?

Why, it's the first annual "Let It Grow!" MardiGrass Fiesta and drug law reform rally.

A thousand local "alternatives" (the politically correct way to say "hippies") finally spitting the dummy, coming out of the closet and in true 60s in-your-face street theatre style pointing out to the jaded apathetic mainstream that the drug wars just aren't working.

That night on the national news the Australian general public was faced with the bizarre spectacle of a bunch of aging hippies, their off-spring and an ever-growing army of young and old recruits joyously breaking the cannabis laws en masse and demanding a change to the drug laws. Not only has the war on drugs left a deep and unpleasant impression on our idyllic, lotus-munching existence (the hippies seemed to be saying) but these days it's seriously f*cking with YOUR way of life as well.

Ever since the '73 Aquarius Festival, Nimbin has had a strong tradition of civil disobedience of the drug laws. The cops tried to bust someone for pot in the middle of the festival, but were quickly (and peacefully) overpowered by the crowd and the "criminal" disappeared into the seething hairy melee. This was nothing new at the time.

The same kind of spontaneous rebellion had happened at the Sunbury rock festival the year before, and was of course a regular ingredient in the Vietnam protest movement of the sixties and early seventies.

By the late 80s however, people's willingness to take these kind of measures had markedly diminished... even in a place as supposedly pot-soaked as Nimbin. The U.S.-driven "War On Drugs" was in full swing. In the cities, the psychedelic, sacramental dealing circles of the sixties had long ago been replaced by more commercial, well-oiled interests. Smack was available everywhere in Australia. Hope was extremely unfashionable.

Those in Nimbin still clinging to their hippy ideals were pretty much trying to keep their heads down... at least as far as drugs were concerned. Regular invasive police helicopter raids were just a fact of life. The general wisdom seemed to be that showing an interest in drug law reform was as suicidal as walking into a police station smoking a joint.

Despite this generalised paranoia, a few brave souls were consistently stirring the pot.

Beginning in 1988, a series of public demonstrations, press releases and politically motivated events kept emanating from Nimbin, all of them hammering the same basic point ... the drug laws are a miserable, socially destructive failure.

At first, these words of wisdom only seemed to be coming from one person, Bob Hopkins, a Nimbinite who conducted a vigorous and extremely effective one-man campaign against the drug laws.

Gradually other folk began to get involved. Michael Balderstone (the owner of the local "hippy" museum) and David Heilpern (a lawyer and activist who later became a magistrate) were among the early ones.

By 1993, a small but dedicated bunch of folk had coalesced around the name "The Nimbin HEMP Embassy". Their press releases and activities had consistently kept the issue of drug law reform in the spotlight of the local media and more and more people were coming out in support of what they had to say. The time seemed right for a larger display of local public feelings. Hey presto, the first annual Let It Grow! MardiGrass and Drug Law Reform Rally was born.

The first MardiGrass attracted a crowd of about 1000 people and much publicity. The day went off without a hitch. It was a huge success.But controversy raised its ugly head when the Plantems 13 year old daughters photo holding a marijuana plant appeared in national newspaper 'The Sydney Morning Herald' and later, adult magazine 'The Underworld' including an interveiw with her, raising questions about child safety. Never the less, by the next year, many more local people were openly supportive of the event. That year, the MardiGrass rally was preceded by a conference and seminar which attracted politicians, academics and health professionals from all over Australia. In a tradition that has continued to this day, the crowd doubled over the previous year's numbers... 2000 people paraded through Nimbin calling for an end to the madness, prejudice and social chaos that masquerades as drug prohibition.

In 1995 the first MardiGrass Cannabis Grower's Cup was held.

The year 1996 saw the beginnings of many events that have since become intrinsic to the Mardi Grass. The HEMP Olympix had its inaugural year, as did the Kombi Konvoy and the Hemp Traders Trade Fair. The now-legendary HEMP Olympix comprised pothead contests around joint rolling, bong throwing and, for the more physically-minded, a Growers Ironperson competition. For this contestants pitted themselves against the odds in outlandish tests of strength such as crawling through lantana tunnels dragging large bags of fertiliser.

The Kombi Konvoy opened the 96 Mardi Grass and has done ever since. A procession of variously decorated Kombi vans winds its way from nearby Lismore, arriving at dusk in the crowded lantern-lit streets of Nimbin. Led by the Olympix torch-bearer, the Kombis eventually park in a circle and the crowd forms for the opening ceremony.

Thus begins a weekend of song, dance, speeches, workshops, poems, pot art exhibitions, hemp trade and fashion shows, drug law and drug health information exchanges, seed swaps, magick, myth and joyous, stoned civil disobedience and political demonstration.

Finally on the last day, a lucky few settle down for the Cannabis Cup.

Based (very loosely) on the Amsterdam event of the same name, the Nimbin Cannabis Cup is a nice mellow wrap-up to the heightened chaos of the previous few days. A rather broad selection of the best local buds is tasted, toked and tested by a smattering of card-carrying "expert" judges, eventually choosing a winner. If you don't make it as a judge however it doesn't really matter. Just like in Amsterdam, there's so much good pot everywhere that anyone that does make it to judge status is usually too stoned to tell anyway.

The MardiGrass has grown stronger and larger every year and the Nimbin HEMP Embassy has continued to stay at the forefront of drug law reform activism worldwide. Several large scale smoke-ins and demonstrations have been held outside police stations and courthouses, political candidates have been run (and polled quite highly), a television ad campaign was run requesting people to dial-in to a safe number and report any cases of police harassment or corruption. All this plus maintaining a high-profile drug education outlet in Nimbin's main drag.

One of the more interesting actions was the helicopter blockade in January 1997. Finally sick of the annual hippy-bashing helicopter raids that the police had been mounting every year, the HEMP crew and friends decided to do something about it. With a little ingenuity, they found out where the chopper squad was staying and where they'd parked the chopper for the night. Early the next morning, the cops awoke and opened their motel room door only to be greeted by the rather unnerving sight of one or two hippies chained underneath their wagons, a whole bunch of hippies waving and laughing at 'em from across the car park and a veritable swathe of camera-toting press all clicking and whirring and taking notes right next to those god damned hippies.

Needless to say the hippies had a very articulate and convincing press release ready about the waste of public money inherent in sending a bunch of gung-ho cops on double-pay in a very expensive helicopter to circle and swoop above the local communes and come back with a pathetic payload of what could only be described as personal stash.

Meanwhile on the other side of Lismore another couple of Hempsters were slowing things down by chaining themselves to the chopper. The press loved this story, and the cops?

Well, the cops just shook their heads, got in their little, blue wagon and went away. To this day, the helicopter squad has not returned to Nimbin.

All of these events lend colour and strength to the MardiGrass.

Last year's was a huge success and this year promises even more. As time goes on and the crowd grows, it's interesting to watch the demographic changing. These days, the old-school hippies are well and truly out-numbered by the whole array of society's archetypes. Many of these are just as counter or sub cultural as the hippies (punks, ferals etc). The vast number of them however are just plain, ordinary suburban working people. Many of them are there with their kids. Not all of them smoke pot, but they all know someone who does and they all agree that it's time for the drug laws to change.

It's ironic but somehow typical that the drug law reform movement should find it's most vocal and public face in a place like Nimbin. The MardiGrass gives voice to frustrations and problems that are vexing the whole of mainstream society, but most people aren't quite brave enough to express this to their neighbours. In the anonymity of a "freak-fest" like MardiGrass, many people are quite prepared to stand up and be counted. This is vitally important as a first step, but it's only when there's a MardiGrass happening in every town and when every pot smoker puts their hand up that the laws will change. It's too easy for the mainstream to ignore protest when it just happens in Nimbin.

So come this year to MardiGrass, but remember that it's a drug law reform rally and not just a pot party. We're there to make some points not just to get out of it, and remember to take some of the magick, idealism and commitment home with you when you go, there's enough to spare. Neil Pike 2004 http://www.nimbinmardigrass.com

More info, links, years

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The forever drug war

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US Taliban Republicans. Their cannabis war.

Republican gerrymandering and filibustering will allow the cannabis war to go on forever. At least in US Republican states. The US Congress could legalize or deschedule adult-use cannabis at the federal level if the Republican filibuster was gone. So do not vote for US Senate candidates of either party that support the filibuster. [76].

See Wikipedia: Gerrymandering.

Nixon's racist drug war

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Republican President Richard Nixon (in office January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974) initiated the militant racist tone of the forever drug war.

The Republican Party has used its Drug War as a 50+ year distraction. All to serve the rich. See: Republican President Nixon's drug war against blacks and hippies. See Wikipedia: War on drugs. See Race, ethnicity, and drug war. See Wikipedia: Southern Strategy - Keeping poor whites and blacks fighting against each other, instead of the real enemy: rich Republican tax evaders. See Wikipedia: Nixon's Enemies List, of journalists, actors, union leaders, etc. who expose it all. A GOP playbook that has never ended, and played out yet again by billionaire Trump until he was dumped in 2020.

This quote from Nixon aide John Ehrlichman (in 1994) is from an April 2016 Dan Baum article in Harper's Magazine: Legalize It All. How to win the war on drugs. Quote: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
See: CNN info. See article: Nixon's drug war against blacks and hippies.

US Republican states

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See Wikipedia: List of state parties of the Republican Party (United States).

See article: US Republican states. It's not just cannabis prohibition. And: Cannabis war. Part of Republican war on poor. And: US Taliban Republicans. Their cannabis war. And: NRA drug war. US National Rifle Association. And: Happy alternatives to US Republican-led poverty, mass incarceration, food insecurity, debt, ill health, intense concentration of wealth, endless wars. And: USA. The state of the nation.

Mostly in U.S. Republican states.

Percent of adults with overdue debt in collections. By county. See map.

See Wikipedia: Firearm death rates in the United States by state. And CNN: States with weaker gun laws have higher rates of firearm related homicides and suicides, study finds.

Wikipedia: List of U.S. states and territories by intentional homicide rate. See map.

Wikipedia: List of U.S. states and territories by incarceration and correctional supervision rate. Map is for sentenced state prisoners only. No Federal or local jail inmates. See map.

Republican minimum wages

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Why do US Republican leaders hate Americans? Why won't they raise the US federal minimum wage above $7.25? 62% in US support a $15 federal minimum wage. Stop voting in Republicans if you don't want the low minimum wages found in Republican states.

7 Oct 2021: Reallocation effects of the minimum wage. "In January 2015, Germany introduced a uniform minimum wage of €8.50 [$10 an hour today]. ... boosted wages of low-wage workers, did not lower employment, and induced a reallocation toward more productive establishments." 11 Jan 2022: Minimum wage in Germany to be raised once again in 2022.

Wikipedia: List of US states by minimum wage. See map. See Commons map.

US minimum wage peaked in 1968 in inflation-adjusted dollars. $13.16 in 2022 dollars. [77]. See chart.

Cannabis is safer.

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USA. The state of the nation.

Vote out most US Republicans and their cannabis war.

16 Dec 2019: Majority Of Americans Support Marijuana Legalization, Two More New Polls Show. "Voters who supported President Trump in the 2016 election expressed greater opposition to the policy than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents as a whole."

2 May 2019: Time to Admit It: Trump Opposed Cannabis Legalization. He opposed 3 bills for veterans’ access to medical cannabis.

23 Feb 2019: Trump Continued to Flip-Flop on Medical Marijuana.

See: Reagan's war on cannabis. And: Holy War on Drugs, Conservative-led global incarceration.

Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example."

Share link: Obama.

• Obama correctly said that cannabis is safer than alcohol. See: Cannabis is safer. He also said marijuana should be treated more as a public health issue than a criminal one. And: Obama signals support for legalizing medical marijuana. [78]. See video.
• USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, etc). 87,798 per year, 2006 to 2010. [79][80][81][82][83].

See longer article: Cannabis is safer.

• Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.

• Obama on marijuana legalization. [84]. "My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this". The Washington Post. Jan. 22, 2015.

Above quote is from Sanjay Gupta interview of Obama on April 15, 2015. Interview aired on CNN on April 19, 2015. [85][86][87].

• Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [88]. December 2015.

Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.

• Holder's Legacy: Steering Away From the Drug War and Mass Incarceration. [89]. Attorney General Eric Holder (2009-2015) under President Obama. 25 Sep 2014.

Register and vote for cannabis.

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Today's far-right Republicans

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US Republican states. It's not just cannabis prohibition. See also: Happy alternatives to US Republican-led poverty, mass incarceration, food insecurity, debt, ill health, intense concentration of wealth, endless wars.

News: Americans want universal healthcare and progressive taxation.

11 Aug 2021: Billionaires worldwide gained $5.5 trillion during pandemic. [90]. Hunger. [91]. Wealth inequality at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. Republican tax cuts for the rich. Record low inflation-adjusted US federal minimum wage. [92].

USA. The state of the nation.

Source and comments.

$70 billion to end pandemic

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• 11 Aug 2021: Article. "The world’s 2,690 global billionaires saw their combined wealth rise from $8 trillion on March 20, 2020 to $13.5 trillion as of July 31, 2021, ... The cost of vaccinating the world’s adult population was calculated as follows: two doses at $7 per dose for 5 billion people, for a total of $70 billion."
• 12 Aug 2021: One-off emergency tax on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls could fund Covid-19 jabs for all and cash grant to all unemployed workers.

Mask mandates work

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29 Aug 2021: CDC: An Unvaccinated Teacher Took Off Their Mask to Read Aloud. Half the Class Got COVID.
28 Aug 2021: Do face masks work? Here are 49 scientific studies that explain why they do.

GOP taxes screw middle class

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USA. The state of the nation.

Trump signed tax law that gave 83% of benefits to the top 1%.

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Republican filibuster equals

The evil history of the US Senate filibuster, or why the US no longer has simple majority rule. [93]. See Wikipedia: Filibuster.

US voter suppression

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20 Oct 2021: Senate Republicans use filibuster to again block sweeping voting rights bill.

• See Wikipedia: Disenfranchisement. And Wikipedia: Voter suppression.

Republicans have disenfranchised black, brown, and poor white people via "The New Jim Crow"; the drug war and mass incarceration. See: Holy War on Drugs, Conservative-led global incarceration.

Quote. [14].

Black votes matter.

High US taxes on poor

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The forever war on the poor. Republican filibuster says to Americans: "Heads we win, tails you lose." Democracy? What democracy?

When Democrats have the majority, the Republican minority uses the filibuster to block higher taxes on the rich, and to block lower taxes on the middle class and poor. When Republicans have the majority they use budget reconciliation to use their simple majority to lower taxes on the rich, and increase user fees, sales taxes, and other regressive taxation to increase taxes on the poor and middle class.

This is the whole purpose of the US Republican Party. To serve the rich. Period.

Minimum wage workers crushed while serving the Republican low-tax-paying rich:

And on US middle class

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Chart below. 2017 Republican tax and individual mandate repeal bill. Yellow is for an average increase in cost for people in those groups. Higher costs hitting more people each year. Up to incomes of $75,000.

Chart source.

Republican tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, Congressional Budget Office finds.	"By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries".
2 polls: Only 29% of Americans approve of Republican tax plan. 2.

Low US minimum wage

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17 June 2019: US federal minimum wage has 35% less buying power than in 1969. 10 years since last increase. A record. CNN. [94].

The filibuster and presidential veto should be short delays before 50% +1 votes. Stop Republican wars on cannabis, voting rights, abortion rights, universal healthcare, and living wages: Source. & US minimum wage. Minimum wage by country.

2 Jul 2019: There’s More Evidence That Raising the Minimum Wage Won’t Cost Jobs.

High wealth inequality

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Median wealth is exactly in the middle. 50% of adults have more, and 50% have less. Wealth is all assets (money, stocks, property, etc.) minus all debts. See Wikipedia: List of countries by wealth per adult - From the 2021 publication: The average median wealth per adult for Canada ($125,688) is much higher than that of the former great nation, the USA ($79,274). It's due to Republican trickle-down voodoo economics: Giving tax cuts to the rich instead of to the middle class and poor who actually need them. Low federal minimum wage. Plus predatory mortgage loans and foreclosure. And predatory unforgivable student loans. Google News search: student debt.

Chart below. USA. 1989-2018. Top 1% Up $21 Trillion. Bottom 50% Down $900 Billion.

Republicans wasted $$-trillions on health insurance companies, and ground wars ($5.6 trillion) based on Bush/CIA WMD lies. Instead of paying higher wages, and higher minimum wages. As Canada does.

• 5 Oct 2017: Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America (Updated).

US middle-class wealth has collapsed. [95]. See chart below.

Middle class wealth collapsing. [96]. And: Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world. See Wikipedia: Wealth in the United States.

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Median wealth per adult. Credit Suisse. 2021 report. Country links are to Wikipedia articles. Click red column headers to sort. Link.

	Country	Median wealth per adult. US dollars
1	Luxembourg	259,899
2	Australia	238,072
3	Iceland	231,462
4	Belgium	230,548
5	Hong Kong	173,768
6	New Zealand	171,624
7	Denmark	165,622
8	Switzerland	146,733
9	Netherlands	136,105
10	France	133,559
11	United Kingdom	131,522
12	Canada	125,688
13	Japan	122,980
14	Italy	118,885
15	Norway	117,798
16	Spain	105,831
17	Ireland	99,028
18	Taiwan	93,044
19	Austria	91,833
20	Sweden	89,846
21	South Korea	89,671
22	Singapore	86,717
23	Malta	84,390
24	Qatar	83,680
25	Israel	80,315
26	United States	79,274

Low quality of life

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See: Happy alternatives to US Republican-led poverty, mass incarceration, food insecurity, debt, ill health, intense concentration of wealth, endless wars.

Germany has a much lower murder rate than the USA. Also, Germany has better health indicators, and its healthcare cost per person is half US cost (all costs, public and private).

Source and comments.

High household debt

Return to top. See Wikipedia: Household debt.

US household debt at all time high. Chart below is from the PDF.
Total household debt. From 1st quarter 2003 through recent times.

Total Household Debt by Type:

Click to enlarge. Timeline is by quarters.

High US medical debt

Return to top. See: Canadian single-payer universal healthcare versus US healthcare.

This doesn't happen in Canada, due to single-payer universal healthcare.

17 Jan 2019: US. 34 Devastating Stories About How People Are Still Crushed By Medical Debt. By Venessa Wong. BuzzFeed News.

High student loan debt

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• Student Loan Debt by State. Map, table, and article.
• 15 July 2021: Student Loan Debt Statistics: 2021. U.S. student loan debt totals $1.6 trillion as of March 31, 2021.

Public elementary and secondary school in the USA costs an average of $14,891 a year per student in taxes. The money spent between the ages of 16 to 18 could be set aside for 2 years of full-board-and-tuition college. Look at Scotland: Adult at age 16. Scotland. What can I do at my age? And: Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991. And: Wikipedia: Education in Scotland: "In 2014, research by the Office for National Statistics found that Scotland was the most highly educated country in Europe". See: Wikipedia: Age of majority (by country). Wikipedia: Voting age.

Punitive bankruptcy law

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• No Fresh Start: Will States Let Debt Collectors Push Families Into Poverty In The Wake of a Pandemic? US map with state-by-state grades on the fairness of bankruptcy laws. "NCLC surveys the exemption laws of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Sadly, not one jurisdiction’s laws meet basic standards so that debtors can continue to work productively to support themselves and their families."
• Model Family Financial Protection Act. Including fairer bankruptcy and debt laws.
• Debt in America: An Interactive Map. 29% of all adults. 24% of whites. 39% of people of color. See the map there, and below. See the astonishing percentages of adults with debt in collection. By county. Especially in the South. The South has been greatly impoverished by low Republican minimum wages, lack of expanded Medicaid, unfair bankruptcy laws, massive evictions (past and upcoming).

Stagnant US wages

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USA. Since 2001, labor’s share of national income has suffered a sustained decline. 11 Sep 2018.

See above chart source. [97]. And source article.

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Chart below: Top 10% of earners receive 50% of all income. When capital gains are included.

Above graph source. And: Source 2.

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10 Jul 2018: National (US) Pay Trends. "Since 2006, wages have risen 12.9 percent overall in the US. But when you factor in inflation, real wages' have actually fallen 9.3 percent. In other words, the income for a typical worker today buys them less than it did in 2006."

2 Jul 2018: An Update for 2018: More Evidence That Half of Americans Are In or Near Poverty. Paul Buchheit. Common Dreams.

For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades. 7 Aug 2018. By Drew DeSilver. Pew Research Center. Chart below is from the article. Bottom of chart says: "Data for wages of production and non-supervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls."
Top line in timeline below is hourly wages adjusted for inflation. It is flat: Bottom of chart below says: "Data for wages of production and non-supervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls."

Racist law enforcement

Return to top. See: Race, ethnicity, and drug war.

The KKK owns law enforcement today in the Republican state of Florida.
27 July 2021: Inside a KKK murder plot: Grab him up, take him to the river. "Even though three current and former Florida prison guards were exposed as klansmen, the state’s Department of Corrections says it found no reason to investigate whether other white supremacists were employed in its prisons."

Poorly rated healthcare

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• 6 Aug 2021: Stunning new report ranks US dead last in health care among richest countries—despite spending the most. "The U.S. also had the highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy at age 60 compared with other countries. ... The poor performance is nothing new, as the U.S. has landed in last place in all seven studies the Commonwealth Fund has released since 2004."

Canadian single-payer healthcare versus US healthcare. Canada's far lower murder rate is from having far fewer handguns per household than in the US. 2. And: Portugal is another country with universal healthcare. It only had around 30 to 55 drug overdose deaths per year the last few years. All drugs have been decriminalized there since 2001. Link: Chart. 2. Country Healthcare cost per person. US dollars PPP. 2019 Life expectancy. 2019 Murder rate per 100,000. 2020 Canada $5,418 82.4 years 2.0 USA $11,072 78.9 years 6.5 Country Under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. 2019 Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births. 2017 Canada 4.9 10 USA 6.5 19

No universal healthcare

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Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security all came from Democrats. You pay the taxes while healthier. Republicans prefer you die. 50% in U.S. Fear Bankruptcy Due to Major Health Event. [98]

Google search: 26,000 Americans die each year from not having health insurance.

Source and comments.

Source and comments.

Single payer costs less

• See Wikipedia: List of countries by total health expenditure per capita.

Portugal's drug decrim equals

50 drug overdose deaths yearly

Vs 100,000 yearly US deaths

There were around 106,800 US drug overdose deaths in the year ending November 30, 2021. 293 per day. Only around 30 to 55 per year in Portugal, a country with universal healthcare, and where all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001. See: Youtube: Portugal’s Drug Laws: Decriminalisation in action. May 16, 2018 video from Australia's Special Broadcasting Service. No one has been arrested for simple possession (under the limits) since 2001.

Source.

President Eisenhower. 1953:

His 91% top marginal tax rate

Equaled prosperity for more.

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Eisenhower was not a socialist. He did not support state ownership of industries and businesses.
Eisenhower, an economically progressive Republican President, had a 91% top marginal income tax rate.. He participated in one of the greatest eras of economic prosperity-for-more in the US in the 1950s.
That era had lower overall taxes on the middle class.

There was a higher average effective tax rate on the top 1 percent of US households in the 1950s. It was 42% when totaling federal, state, and local taxes. In 2014 it was 36.4%. See chart below.

Chart below. See: Highest US marginal income tax rates over time.

Above chart source. And: Source 2.

Chart below. Timeline of top US federal marginal tax rate.

Republican President Lincoln

Created first progressive

US federal income tax.

Progressive Capitalism

Is not Socialism, and

It is not state ownership.

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Republican president Abraham Lincoln did not believe in state ownership of industries and businesses. So he was not a "socialist". Socialism was not well known at that time. See Wikipedia: Socialism.

In the United States, the first progressive federal income tax was established by the Revenue Act of 1862. The act was signed into law by Lincoln. It replaced a flat tax. See Wikipedia: Progressive tax.

Lincoln's economically progressive message below. What a contrast to today's far-right Republican leaders. From a message to the U.S. Congress, 3 December 1861:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

More sources: [99]. The full speech. See: Facebook image.

Thomas Paine on the poor

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Thomas Paine statue below in Thetford, England. See: Paine Wikiquotes. Search for "poor" within those quotes. For example:

When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am a friend of its happiness: When these things can be said, then may the country boast of its constitution and its government.

Paine was nothing like today's Republican Party.

Overpopulation = Warming

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Politicians need to incentivize more hempcrete construction [100][101][102], so that carbon dioxide levels go down. But that is not enough to stop global warming.

Overpopulation equals more global warming via less greenspace removing carbon dioxide.

• Side-by-side photos. Our underwater future: What sea level rise will look like around the globe. High tide could flood 800 million people by 2060s.
  
• Wikipedia: List of countries by population (United Nations). Shows population increase rates.
• Wikipedia: List of sovereign states and dependencies by total fertility rate.

Many clueless Republican leaders deny it all. They also block free birth control via universal healthcare. See Wikipedia: Single payer healthcare. It costs less per person and gets better results. See:

• Wikipedia: List of countries by total health expenditure per capita.

As countries prosper in a just and fair way their population stabilizes. See median wealth by country:

• Wikipedia: List of countries by wealth per adult.

Migration has to be limited to within regions of several countries. Countries with low birth control can not dump their overpopulation on to the whole world. There must be multinational aid to fund birth control, not unlimited migration.

See crowded beach below and link:

• Wikipedia: List of countries and dependencies by population density.

Global warming. Roswell tech

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Walter Haut in 1947

Roswell Daily Record.
July 8, 1947

Roswell UFO craft and alien body retrieval was real according to U.S. Army officer Walter Haut. He signed affidavits to that effect in 1993 and 2002. Released in 2007 after his death in 2005. Video made in 2000. Released in May 2021. Much of the technology has been back engineered, and its carbon-free energy could possibly end global warming. Share link: Roswell UFO. Articles about Haut:

17 Aug 2021: “My father saw the bodies”: chasing the truth about Roswell. By James Jennings. Archived here.

14 May 2021: Ex-Army officer ADMITS he saw ‘alien the size of a 10-year-old child’ after famous Roswell UFO crash in incredible video. By Emma Parry. Archived here. This article has a short excerpt of the video.

May 2021: Roswell Officer Speaks From the Grave: Video Released, Confesses that Alien was "the size of a 10 year old". By Anthony Bragalia. Archived here. From article: "This video clip is part of a memoir video / oral history over two hours in length that covers many personal and professional aspects of Haut's life. The video was taken at the Roswell Museum in 2000 with friends Dennis Balthaser and Wendy Connors."

30 June 2007: Roswell officer's amazing deathbed admission raises possibility that aliens DID visit. By Nick Pope. Archived here.

2002 and 1993 affidavits. Archived here. Scroll down for the affidavits.

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