Alaska's marijuana industry finally pays more than a million dollars in monthly tax revenue.

Courtesy of ADN: 

In January, for the first time since legal sales began, Alaska's commercial cannabis growers paid more than $1 million in state taxes, according to officials. 

Eighty-one marijuana cultivators paid $1,040,512 in taxes during the first month of 2018, said Kelly Mazzei, excise tax supervisor at the Alaska Department of Revenue. 

Alaska marijuana growers pay the state tax of $50 per ounce of cannabis bud, and $15 an ounce for other parts of the plant, like the trimmings of leaves and stems. 

A total of 1,061 pounds of marijuana, and 797 of trim, were sold wholesale in January.

This may only be of interest to those of us living up here in the Last Frontier, but I have been predicting for awhile that the pot industry would start to be a real source of revenue for the state and I am glad to see that is finally happening.

It of course will never replace the oil tax revenue, but it is at least one tax source that will not be undermined by the switch to renewable resources.

Which by the way could be yet another profitable source of tax revenue if lawmakers would pull their lips of the asses of oil barons long enough to notice.

We are way behind in finding revenue sources outside of the oil industry, and it is going to get ugly up here if we do not become more proactive.

Your phrase for the day, the "Trump Slump."

Courtesy of Frommers:  

Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income. 

It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it. 

Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all. 

As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%. 

A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States—and thus lost—would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like. 

Apparently this is what the term MAGA means.

Literally everything this asshole touches turns to shit.

The Huffington Post finally reaches the conclusion that we did last month, that Sarah Palin is now a shitposter whose website is a honeytrap for clicks.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has several websites that regularly feature misinformation labeled as news. 

Her website, www.sarahpalin.com, features a column called “News” filled with largely aggregated stories written with a conservative slant. Those stories often feature misinformation and falsehoods.

HuffPo then goes on to give examples of fake or extremely exaggerated stories such as this:

As you can see by how this is written it is designed to pique your interest, but once you click the link it is invariably completely false or not at all as interesting as the title suggests.

This is clearly click bait and it is Sarah Palin's new, and possibly only remaining, method for bringing in revenue.

With SarahPAC essentially shut down, and her judge show aborted prematurely, Palin does not have any real income stream on which she can rely.

However if she thinks blogging is going to, in any way, replace her SarahPAC donations, well she is about to learn a very hard lesson indeed.

Especially once her few remaining fans read this disclaimer: 

There is a disclaimer on Palin’s website that the articles “DO NOT necessarily reflect the views held by Governor Palin,” but articles from the site are often featured on her Facebook page, which has 4.7 million “likes.” 

Seriously WHO among her tiny handful of supporters is going to want to read articles featured on Sarah Palin's website that she not only does not write, but which may not even reflect her point of view?

Let's face it Sarah Palin's brand is dead.

So dead in fact that even I can hardly be bothered to ridicule her any longer.

Alaska's tax revenues for Marijuana growers in December reaches $145,000. Up from $81,000 in November.

Courtesy of ADN: 

The second full month of marijuana tax revenue has entered the state treasury. 

In December, 13 marijuana cultivators paid $145,800 to the Alaska Department of Revenue's Tax Division, revenue audit supervisor Kelly Mazzei wrote Tuesday. 

Under Alaska law, growers pay the state's tax. Bud is taxed at $50 per ounce, and other parts of the plant, like the stems and leaves, are taxed at $15 per ounce. 

A total of 167 pounds of marijuana bud and 46 pounds of other parts were sold in December, Mazzei wrote.

You may remember that back in November I reported that Alaska had collected $81,100 in tax revenue from the growers.

So this is a significant increase and a real indication that the marijuana industry is likely to inject some serious money into the rapidly emptying Alaska state coffers.

As I have explained before there is no way it will replace the dwindling oil tax revenue, but at least it is something.