Kaliko Castille

If you care about an industry that centers communities most impacted by cannabis prohibition and the small entrepreneurs that made the cannabis industry possible, I need you to understand that this is our Empire Strikes Back moment.

There have been millions of dollars put into a PR campaign over the last few years aimed at convincing everyone that SIII is progress and good for small operators.

But what if this stalled out any further momentum at the federal level now that w**d is no longer Schedule 1?

Having taken a decent amount of lobbying meetings in the halls of Congress over the years, I can tell you it was easy to get folks to understand the lunacy of Schedule 1 — I’m not convinced it will be as easy when you are explaining the nuances of 5 schedules and all the drugs in each category.

At some point in the doldrums of desperation, the cannabis industry led by Dutchie/Trulieve and others, lost the plot. It’s the only reason anyone could celebrate a policy shift as “rational” that doesn’t end a single arrest or make a single business legal at the federal level.

I’ve been quiet for a while but looks like we need to start reorganizing the rebels on Endor.

Congresswoman Janelle Bynum's vote for the Laken Riley Act wrote Trump a blank check that ICE is cashing at the expense of her immigrant constituents.



BynumIsABummer.com

Did you know that Congresswoman Janelle Bynum was only Oregon Democrat to vote for the Laken Riley Act — a law that lets ICE detain people on accusation, before any conviction?

Just months after this vote that threw her immigrant constituents under the bus, Frank Miranda, a U.S. citizen from Milwaukie, got thrown in an unmarked van by masked agents and held at Portland’s ICE facility for hours. No charges. No explanation.

Bynum called it “kidnapping.” She called it “racist.”

She was right.

So why did she vote for the law that made it easier?

Sign up for our email list: BynumIsABummer.com

Congresswoman Janelle Bynum's lack of leadership in her first term couldn't have been a better example that she is unable + unwilling to meet this historic moment.

Here are just a handful of issues Bynum Is A Bummer is highlighting.

BynumIsABummer.com

I'm not running against Congresswoman Janelle Bynum in 2026 but voters deserve to know the truth about her record.

Bynum Is A Bummer The votes. The money. The silence. A constituent accountability project for OR-5 Democrats.

Housing is a human right according to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — but you’d never know it by looking at any major city in the U.S.

We’ve sold generations on the idea that owning a home is the only path to stability, while gutting unions, defunding public housing, and letting private equity buy entire zip codes.

This crisis isn’t just the result of “not building enough.” It’s the product of deliberate choices: deregulation, austerity, and a political class — including many Democrats — that treats housing like a commodity instead of a public good.

If you’re an elected official and only clinging to market-based half-measures, you’re not serious about solving this.

We don’t just need more incentives for developers.

We need rent control.

We need social housing.

We need to unrig the system — and put people over profit.

The question isn’t whether we can afford it.

The question is who our leaders are willing to fight for.

Just a constant stream of gaslighting coming from ’s feed.

                                                     

Last summer, my buddy Casey and I paddled out from Willamette Park to catch the fireworks show from as close as you could possibly get.

As bursts of color erupted above us and slowly shimmered down into the river, I found myself wondering—what will the next year bring for our republic? Will it survive long enough to make it to our 250th birthday?

At that point, I had already resigned myself to the likelihood of a second Trump presidency—something I’d been mentally preparing for ever since it became clear there wouldn’t be a competitive Democratic primary.

We all know what’s happened since then.

As a student of history, I feel the weight of this moment in my bones.

We’re witnessing the logical conclusion of the Reagan Revolution—a decades-long project by wealthy elites to dismantle the gains of the New Deal and Great Society. These were the policies that helped build the American middle class and curb the worst excesses of inequality that have defined so much of our past.

But this wasn’t just about winning elections—it was about rewriting our shared story in favor of the wealthy. A story that used to be forged in the crucible of collective struggle, when we came together to defeat fascism (for the first time) and believed in a future that belonged to all of us.

In its place, they’ve sold us a narrative that Dr. King once called “socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor”—a story where it’s every man for himself, and solidarity is treated like a relic of the past.

That mindset has allowed for an economy where the average CEO makes nearly 300 times more than the average worker, and multinational corporations like Tesla pay $0 in federal taxes—all while the social safety net is being cut out from under millions of Americans.

Today, I’m not proud of what our country has become—but I still hold on to hope. Hope that we can rediscover our collective bonds, and once again secure the blessings of liberty for future generations of people who want nothing more than to raise their families in peace and in harmony with their neighbors.

“There’s class war all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war—and we’re winning.”
– Warren Buffett

Today, just one day shy of our 249th birthday as a union, Republicans in the House voted to pass a tax bill so extreme it will literally cost tens of thousands of lives.

It passed by a single vote in a chamber of 435. Earlier this week, the Senate passed it too—with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Let’s be clear:

This isn’t just a tax bill.

It’s a death sentence for poor and working-class Americans.

Over 17 million people—including hundreds of thousands in Oregon—will lose Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan). One estimate says this bill will cause 51,000 unnecessary deaths per year.

All of this… to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

And those cuts? They’ll add another $4 trillion to the national debt—on top of the $8 trillion added during Trump’s first term.

This from the same crowd that claimed DOGE would eliminate “wasteful spending.”

We’re told we can’t afford to house the poor, feed the hungry, or help every kid go to college.

But somehow, Trump and the GOP have found a way to light $20 trillion on fire in just 1.1 terms.

If you’re not angry yet, you’re not paying attention.

This is class war.

We’ve been here before.

From Occupy Wall Street to the Bernie Sanders’ campaigns, we’ve seen what it looks like when working people stand up and demand a government that works for us, not billionaires.

That same spirit is still alive today—in movements and leaders like Zohran Mamdani, who isn’t afraid to say the quiet part out loud:

This is a class war—and we’re organizing to win it.

If we’re serious about restoring power to the people, we need a pro-worker agenda bold enough to meet the moment:

✅ Raise the federal minimum wage to $25/hour
✅ Guarantee Medicare for All
✅ Paid family leave
✅ Universal Basic Income funded by a tax on AI companies
✅ Eliminating student debt and making college tuition free
✅ Lowering tax rate on 1099 work

These are just some of the policies we could pass if we had leaders brave enough to be class warriors for the 99% rather than hand maidens for the rich.

It’s time to connect the dots.

Our problems are not an issue of resources, they are issues of morality.

The game is rigged against working class people because the wealthiest use their power and connections to maintain an inequitable systems while the rest of us have to use GoFundMe to stay alive or stay in our homes.

Last weekend we lit $150 million on fire for an illegal military strike that almost entangled us in a hot war, at the same time that Republicans are proposing to cut seniors, kids and people with disabilities off their health insurance.

It’s unfortunate that Congresswoman Janelle Bynum doesn’t see the connection in being staunchly anti-war (including ending support for Israel until they end their genocide) and being able to invest in the programs she claims to care about.

Being anti-war means being anti-poverty. You can’t fix the endless list of issues at home when we are committed to constantly participating in an international missile measuring contest.

I refuse to let my kids grow up listening to Tupac’s words as anything other than a snapshot in history rather than timeless critique of American society.

This weekend separated those who learned lessons from the Iraq War and those who didn’t.

I think we all know where ended up.

                                   

It took almost a full day for to get her statement cleared but one thing that stands out is she isn’t actually following what’s happening.

Iran isn’t a threat to any American civilian.

The biggest threat in this moment is Democrats like Rep. Bynum blindly following a rogue ally into another hot war in the Middle East.

bit.ly/AIPACxBynum