a bully is as a bully does…the steamroller goes rolling along…the unhinged steamroller…I’m so embarrassed for our country…once again…I just can’t believe what happened there…on national TV…that was the first debate?…oh my God!…it should be called the first travesty…the first bullying…the first embarrassment…it was so painful to watch…the worst is trump’s call to “stand back and stand by” to his white supremacist followers…we are in for a horrible time…not that we don’t know that already…trump wasn’t called on any of his lies…Chris Wallace lost control, but actually he never had it…the whole thing was disgusting…after it was all over, I switched to FOX trump TV to see what they had to say…another travesty… Matt Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes was speaking to Hannity…she said trump successfully defended his Supreme Court pick…jr. was on also…the media is against his father…boo hoo…and Hannity goes along with him…I guess anyone can spin anything to fit your purposes…still and all it was such an embarrassment…I shutter to think the world was watching that tantrum…so sad for our country…I wish I hadn’t watched, it was so painful…Pam told me earlier that she would not watch…I’m glad I didn’t press her to watch…she later told me she tried watching 3 different times and couldn’t do it…she texted – “I tried to watch but couldn’t. Making me sick then sad.”…that’s it in a nutshell… Michael Steele ( former Republican Party Chairman ) said “it was an abomination!…we’ve seen it all, there’s nothing more…all we have to do now is vote!”…Barbara Boxer ( former Senator from CA ) “this was the abusive boyfriend ranting and raving”…David Plouffe ( former Obama Campaign Manger ) “what we saw tonight, shows us that we have to vote”… but in the end, 202,000 of our loved ones are dead because of trump…that’s the bottom line…trump lies, people die…he is an incredible danger to our Democracy…flush the TURD November Third…
it was raining off and on all day…perfect for this first debate…it was dreary…
on a lighter note…Jim Belushi on Sunday Morning…cannabis farmer who’s product almost went up in smoke in the fires raging in Oregon…he invited the many firefighters for a steak dinner…”This is part two of a two-part series developed by Brad Turner, Editor, Cannabis Investing Forum and written by Philip Rebentisch, Gotta Story Media.: “
The first article was about actor-comedian-musician Jim Belushi and covered Jim’s stellar entertainment career. He performed in the world-famous comedy troupe Second City, wrote for and joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, had his own eight-season TV series According to Jim, acted in wildly successful feature films, and fronted the chart-topping blues band, The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd. He’s worked hard and earned his celebrity status, yet many people don’t know he owns a successful cannabis business in Oregon named Belushi’s Farm. To that end, Jim is speaking (and performing) at the Cannabis Investing Forum that’s part of the inaugural ExpoCannaBiz Business Conference, May 9-11, in Cartagena, Colombia.
An Artisanal Cannabis Farmer“I believe so deeply in the spirit and medicine cannabis offers in healing our families, communities, and world, that I decided to let the Spirit of the Land and the Water Spirit of the Rogue River irrigate and grow this powerful cannabis medicine.” ⎼ Jim Belushi
Jim first came to the Rogue River Valley in Southern Oregon 12 years ago while on vacation visiting longtime friends at their ranch. He quickly fell in love with the area and purchased a 13-acre homestead in Eagle Point. He added 80 acres when a close, spiritual friend and fellow farmer Becca passed away. She wanted Jim to purchase her land, and in a fitting accolade, he named the road leading to the expanded property after her.Like any good movie, his purchase has a good plot twist as Jim didn’t set out to become a cannabis farmer. But when Oregon legalized adult-use cannabis that same year, Jim changed his mind, putting him on a course to help others. He began with a relatively small grow and expanded into a fully licensed, 22,000 square foot operation. Today, he sells his artisanal, signature cannabis directly to Oregon’s finest dispensaries under the brand name of Belushi’s Private Vault. Strains include Jim’s personal favorite, Cherry Pie (AKA the marriage counselor), Blue Dragon, and Black Diamond OG. He’s also currently growing a small amount of “Captain Jack’s” prized strain, Gulzar Afghanica. Back in the early days of SNL, the show’s actors and writers called Captain Jack’s cannabis “the smell of SNL.” Not surprisingly, Captain Jack was frequently seen backstage and at after parties following the live show.
According to the Farm’s website, “The premium sun-grown genetics are cultivated, hand harvested and cured by a core seven-person team. We sun-grow all natural and rigorously tested cannabis. Everyone on this farm has a beautiful way about them because of their intimate work with this plant. It has changed me as a man.” Providing medicinal cannabis is a spiritual calling to help Veterans suffering from PTSD, as well as ordinary people and their families dealing with trauma. For Jim, it’s also deeply personal.
Cannabis Could Have Saved Jim’s Brother
John Belushi rocketed to stardom along with the other original cast members of Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s. John’s tragic death in 1982 by an overdose of cocaine and heroin ( known as a speedball ) tore Jim’s family apart. Jim adamantly believes that John’s early, tragic death could have been prevented. Most people are unaware that John was an all-star high school football player, and Jim witnessed his brother having a seizure. Jim thinks his brother suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) caused by too many blows to the head as a middle linebacker. In addition to the party scene so prevalent in the entertainment industry, John may have been using illegal drugs as a way to self-medicate. Jim has stated numerous times that had John used cannabis as a medicine and not just to party, John would be alive today. Jim readily acknowledges that back then, people simply weren’t aware of its medicinal potential. This is one reason why Jim considers himself as a cannabis advocate.
While Jim is a genuine Hollywood star, he is also a genuine, ordinary guy whose heart is in the right place. He’s heavily involved in the local community with projects in and around Jackson County, Oregon. He’s restored the covered stage on his property where the Ashland Elks Lodge still holds their annual picnic. The stage is one of the main reasons that attracted him to the farm, and he uses it to perform at parties and during harvests. In the nearby city of Medford, Jim’s helping to restore the historic Holly Theater. In Eagle Point itself, Jim’s involved with rebuilding the Butte Creek Mill which was destroyed in a 2016 electrical fire. The mission is to not only preserve the mill’s heritage but also improve the environment.”
what can I say?, nice work if you can get it!…from his segment on Sunday Morning last Sunday…”This year has been, yet again, historically grim when it comes to wildfires burning in the western U.S. In Oregon alone, at least 10 people lost their lives, tens of thousands were evacuated, and over a million acres burned.
Of the many people affected, there was one you might not have expected: actor Jim Belushi. “The devastation, it’s just changed the community,” he told correspondent Luke Burbank as they surveyed the damage. “It’s just a graveyard here.”
Belushi lives along the Rogue River in Eagle Point, Oregon. “The fires were way up there by that hill. And so we used this hose to hose the house down, hose the grass, and hose the field down and keep a little water break.”
It’s a place he first visited some ten years ago on a family vacation: “One day I went into the river, skinny-dipping. And it was like a baptism. That was the start.”
So, he bought an old Elk’s Lodge picnic grounds, built a house, built a sweat lodge (“Oh yeah. I am, like, a little shaman, you know?”), and eventually bought the neighboring farm, which is when things got a little trippy.
That’s right: Belushi started a cannabis farm, all of which is being documented on a new reality show, “Growing Belushi,” on Discovery Go.
“I am SO obsessed,” Belushi said. “It’s like talking to you right now, my eyes are watching for squirrels and gophers. These pests eat the plants. Aphids, Rusick mites. You are doing battle with Mother Nature.”
Belushi is involved every step of the way, from the greenhouse (“The air has to constantly be circulating”), to the drying room, to the finished product. And he dotes on the ladybugs that eat aphids. “I love them! I personify them. I give them names. I play music for them. And I believe if you love them, they will move on to the world and love others, and help them.”
If you’re wondering where this Hollywood actor got his work ethic, it was from washing dishes at his father’s restaurant in Chicago. The Belushis lived in Wheaton, Illinois, where they were some of the only Albanian immigrants. “I wouldn’t let my friends come in the house,” he recalled, “because you’d open up the door and you can smell liver and onions cooking and I’m like, ‘Uhhh, you know, just wait outside. I’ll be right out.'”
Jimmy, as he was known then, grew up in the very large shadow of his older brother, John Belushi” “John looked like Dustin Hoffman in ‘The Graduate’ in a senior picture, you know? Honor Society, prom king. He had it all going for him. He left no room for me. So, I was the star criminal, the star troublemaker. I was on probation from the ages of 13 to 18.”
Jim was inspired to try acting after watching his brother perform at Second City and “Saturday Night Live. ” As Jim Belushi was working his way up the comedy ladder, John Belushi had become arguably one of the biggest stars in the world.
Then, in March of 1982, John died in Los Angeles. He was just 33. “Part of it was not just losing the sibling, part of it was losing a sibling to drug overdose,” said Jim. “It just breaks the family up. It’s like throwing a hand grenade in the family.”
Burbank said, “Danny Aykroyd, I think, famously said that if your brother had been a pothead, he might still be alive?”
“Well, that made me think for a long time, and that actually set me on this journey,” Jim said.
In the nearly four decades since John Belushi’s passing, it’s actually been Jim Belushi who’s become a huge star. But hanging out on the farm with him, you can’t help but think that it might be this role, of cannabis farmer, that’s the one he was born to play – and one that let him help put the past in the past.
He told Burbank, “The beautiful, thing about farming is that you’re in the ground. under the sun. And it’s just, it roots you. It literally grounds you.”
To Belushi, these cannabis plants have become almost like family – family that came within three miles of burning to the ground. So, when he got an opportunity last week to thank the first responders who helped fight those fires to a free steak lunch, he jumped at the chance, in the most Belushi way possible – by literally jumping on a table.
He told those assembled, “I wanna thank all you men and women for not only putting yourself on the line, but being on the line to save and help this community. And we’re going to continue and help rebuild, so thank you so much! You like the meat?
Art Salazar 