Red states and Republicans shitting their pants at the idea of inmates and criminals convicted of minor marijuana related crimes could be let free into their communities, after relying on them as a strawman whattaboutist argument in their gaslighting tactics.

Dumb question, but will those charges being dropped allow some people to vote again? I know down there certain convictions mean you can't.

Yeah. A felony (in Canada, known as an indictable offence) does bar you in some some states from being able to vote. But this is on a state-to-state basis.

In California a person can vote with a felony conviction, but not while they're currently serving time. Here in Texas a person can vote with a felony conviction when their sentence (including parole/probation) is complete. In Kentucky, so sad too bad. No voting for you. In Maine, everybody can vote (even if you're in Shawshank at the time).

Its a spectrum across the country with voting permissions with felony convictions being allowed, not allowed, or allowed in certain conditions. On parole/probation, off parole/probation, depends on the state.

The real problem is not just the marijuana conviction but the recidivism that occurs as a result of a felony. Felonies bar people from student loans, and a lot of types of employment. It can be a kind of enforced poverty and it predominantly affects young black men who have traditionally faced a number of other barriers to employment so this just compounds the problem.

A middle-class or lower high school kid gets caught with a few joints on his way to a party at 17, gets convicted of a felony, and gets out to find that the world that is accessible to so many is entirely inaccessible to him. What does he do in order to support himself? Turn to crime in many cases. This isn't a judgement on an entire racial socio-economic class... this is the reality.

The fact is that those convictions led to more crime because of the options taken away for what many believe is a harmless indulgence. Without gainful employment, and in a society that openly discriminates against ex-convicts, crime is a very real option for folks.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6580444/
https://bjs.ojp.gov/drugs-and-crime-...-use-and-crime

I'm paraphrasing a lot of research on the topic, but those recidivism rates also seem to vary from state-to-state.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/11/2...violent-felons



This is a good step. I'm not saying its not. I'm just saying that its come decades too late and a lot of lives have been hurt by the policies they're overturning.

^Not only that but having a felony not only affects your ability to access grants.

Convicted felons are not allowed to apply for federal or state grants, live in public housing, or receive federal cash assistance, SSI (Social security insurance, our version of EI) or food stamps, among other benefits.

I find this portion the most pernicious of all. Voting is one thing, but to remove your ability from gainful employment and any social assistance is literally insane. You pretty much encourage a person down the path of criminality and recidivism.

It's almost by design.

To my mind by removing their ability to vote is effectively saying they aren't considered a person anymore. After that I guess the rest just follows.

Of course the original point by the right wingers was to make it harder on those they consider undesirable (like hippies and minorities) so it's not overly surprising that they don't want certain groups considered to count as actual people.

I'm ok with convicted felons not being allowed to vote while serving their sentence.

Someone who commits a serious crime broke their social contract to society in some way, so it's reasonable to me that some societal rights be suspended while they are repaying that debt to society.

I mean, murder victims can't vote in elections...

Need proof conservatives are stupid. Walker in a debate claims to be a cop and pulls out a fake badge.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Heartland...0%2Fframe.html

Looks like Biden is going after journalists working on stories involving classified info

Emmy winning ABC news producer who worked on a story regarding green beret deaths in 2017, and was about to publish a book, suddenly quits, goes missing, and the fbi raids his home. His coworker had also quit and refuses to comment.

The publisher of his book also edited his books intro and then removed it entirely from their release schedule

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2205994.html

Sounds like a movie

^ wait ... I thought things like this only happens in Russia or Iran.

There is a documentary about this whole debacle.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15909364/

Classic case of shitty military brass sending guys into a shitty situation and attempting to cover their fuckup.

Brittney Griner prisoner exchange/trade ... for some arms dealer. Seemed like Biden got fleeced like Benning ...not a very fair trade.

Lol Griner should consider herself the luckiest person on earth right about now.

Lol imagine it was just some random dude. No fuckin chance that would happen.

crazy how Biden actually gave up the lord of war for her.. WTF was he thinking.

He didn't need to think, hardcore left base and current social politics demanded it.

The white guy who was supposed to be packaged in got left to continue rotting.

Black lesbian WNBA player, you couldn't hand pick a better candidate for the woke left to cry over

Interesting how UAE was involved in the trade (facilitating Griney)

I wonder if the UAE is really interesting in facilitating the merchant of death because, you know, he facilitates arms deals with the Taliban and probably al-Qaeda.

The US would look incredibly stupid if Russia & the UAE just pulled a brilliant one over the inept eyes of the leadership of a superpower. Such clear optics, Stevie Wonder would be in awe...

Biden had classified files laying around in an old office

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64218179

No matter how it's spun by either side, this isn't going to go away soon

Republicans will definitely use it to point out how Trump is getting mistreated for the same thing

Alzheimer ...

Can we please have someone younger as the next candidate ... both Rep and Democrats. Oh sorry ... that's ageism, the new fangle trendy word.

Literally the next part of the article says this:
Let's think critically here. I mean Yes, someone on Biden's team (or himself) fucked up, but the similarities end there.

Classified documents held locked at a private office a mile from the White House when he was VP, voluntarily turned over and cooperating with investigation.

Classified Top Secret documents held freely at a home in Florida, repeatedly lying about them, and while under suspicion for influence by foreign entities.

But yes this is a bad look.

Yep there's a whole slew of why's, ifs, buts, how comes, n howevers, in the article (spin by both sides)

Not a good look, but totally entertaining :lol

What powers over classified documents do Vice Presidents have vs Presidents?

That Biden thinktank also seems to have funding from China. Does this mean they had access to those documents?

The files weren't locked away they were just in a storage closet, also supposedly they pertain to Ukraine, back when Biden Jr and the "big guy" was getting kickbacks from Ukraine

Also, a second cache of classified files was found elsewhere

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64244007

No details yet ab this second batch

It's bad optics, if Trump had said shit you're right I have docs in my basement here you go... it would have been a nothing story.

It turned into a shit storm because he refused to give them back, tried to hide them and was known to show some of them off to people who visited.

Anyone with half a brain can understand the difference... unfortunately the media (if you can call Sean Hannity media at this point in time) is a bunch of screaming babies.