Meanwhile, Trump’s a free man, goose stepping around in his fucking lift shoes, with 91 Federal charges against him. This country is so backwards.
Don't forget he pardoned supreme liar and felon Roger Stone who went on to plotting assassinations.
and biden is out running for president too after promising to legalize and police reform and firing staffers for using cannabis
people seem to still support him too
US elections are fucking insane
like watching clones dressed in different skins begging for votes with whatever empty promises they think and know the populace will eat up
Empty political promises are one thing and par for the course. Literally getting away with high treason on several documented accounts and still being able to run for president is another.
I don't even think that article adequately conveys how thoroughly racist the roots of it is. They don't even quote the awful things Anslinger said to justify cannabis prohibition.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”
“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”
“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”
And then there's this from Nixon staffer John Ehrlichman:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
“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,” Ehrlichman said. “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.”
Nobody has ever been able to explain to me how cannabis use is incompatible with Christianity in any way.
But then again, I don't expect Christians to be consistent or logical about anything.
Remember that part of the Bible where Jesus was like "forget all the old laws, and just focus on the point, being cool to one another" and then gave a speech about the importance of monogamy? Or when he held the last supper, demonstrating a way to worship without needing a fancy temple, and then said "this is my blood, I'm using a simple cup, but you should always use a gold chalice for this part". Or how he explained you need a relic of a saint (usually a bit of bone) in every altar or the magic won't work?
Do you remember the part where Jesus claimed he was the one and only child of a deity? Because when I read it, he called himself "the son of man" and called everyone his brothers and sisters
Jesus was born in July. The Roman sun god had a son, who was sacrificed for the sake of humanity. Want to guess when his birthday was?
There's a reason why it makes no sense. It's not the religion you think it is
To put it short, he was a guy who led federal officers on a chase through the desert. They didn't know who he was, but he was stealing from travelers passing through. It wasn't far from some US government facilities, and this being not long after 9/11, they're super worried he's a terrorist.
Spoiler: he was a Canadian who started growing weed to help his wife's medical issues. He apparently made some primo bud and started selling it. Naturally, he got caught and was thrown in jail. When he got out, he moved out to the desert and tried to survive on his own.
Jail changed him. He became more paranoid and detached from his family, friends, and society. He wasn't the least bit dangerous until they threw him in prison.
Breaking Bud
I'm all for legalized marijuana, but going into another country and breaking their laws is never a good idea. There are places in the world that would be a death sentence.
The guy was clearly mentally unstable after he left prison. He never would have done that in the first place otherwise. And he effectively did get a death sentence for it.
Eventually, the couple left Anarchist Mountain and returned to Prince Edward Island, where Rob Johnston had been born and raised. After the birth of her fourth child, Tommi was diagnosed with leukemia and access to medical care became vital. Johnston began cultivating marijuana, discovered he had a knack for it and turned it into a cash crop.
In 1997, when the crop was discovered by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Johnston was sentenced to two consecutive four-year prison terms. It was then that the couple was legally married, in what Tommi described as an ultimately futile effort on her part to convince him that she would not abandon him.
Edit: HTML linking
There's one very good reason, according to authoritarians: slave labor. 'Murica.
I don’t understand how 40 years of prison for a non-violent crime isn’t considered to be both “cruel” and “unusual”. It is objectively cruel. I certainly hope that it is also unusual. I certainly hope that there aren’t many more like him, imprisoned for decades for what amounts to personal-use levels of pot. 5.5 lbs of pot when you include the stem and roots isn’t that much and certainly sounds like a personal supply to me.
These people are kept in jail to be used in labor. It’s not about being cruel. It’s about making money in the cheapest way possible. Since Alabama is a hellhole with no workforce they turn to modern day slavery.
Oh it's both. It's definitely both, the cruelty and the slave labor, which is cruel in and of itself as well.
Yeah, when you read the article you see that the parole board has stopped issuing paroles almost entirely in the last couple of years. This is 100% about manufacturing cheap labor and keeping the oligarchy running smoothly.
It is the most cruel people in the world that hide behind a law book and the pretense of being fair and worse even: past cases.
But since you first have to study for a decade, then kiss ass for a decade or two before even beginning to qualify for 'JUDGE' it is not more as normal you will have lost ALL BONDS WITH REGULAR SOCIETY.
If you think 15$+tax+tip is fine for a glass of wine with lunch on a daily basis; you are NOTTTTTTT qualified to speak for the benefit of society : in contrary!
Yeah I think you're mistaking what a Judges role is. It is merely to uphold the law. The problem in the US is that the role is so politicised that the idea they are legal experts rather than representatives of parties is being lost. They should be representative of society to an extent but ultimately the main qualification is legal experience.
The issue is the law itself and that comes back to the elected politicians in Alabama. It's a problem of one party rule, and first past the post electoral system plus gerrymandering which means a stagnant political system dominated by one segment of society. The US increasingly looks like a it's just a large collection of failed democracies.
You don't specifically need representative judges. You need electoral reform so you have an actual representative democracy, and everything else comes from that.
Judges are "supposed to be" impartial, not representative. That's one of our many problems. They shouldn't be conservative or liberal, they should be judges, but people don't seem to be capable of impartiality, especially ones with any degree of power. Just like men who claim to want to lead really wish to rule. Those who would judge really just want to decide.
The MAKING of the law favors the establishment. I say use the guillotine first, then new laws. Slave master still a slave master now, only the slaves believe they're free
I'm stating it's the WRONG ROLE
law should NOT be upheld in the same way for poor and rich. For uneducated and the wise.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THE SAME
favoring the poor and weak.
HOWEVER IT FAVORS THE EXACT OPOSITE.
It shouldn't favor anybody.
If anything, it goes to show why legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas and why people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again. That way, at least, it's fair, for every man is provided for by either victory, ingenuity, or death.
Okay, I'm genuinely curious, can you elaborate on what you're advocating? What time in human history do you think we should return to? Tribalism?
I don't think there has ever been a period of time where there wasn't some form of social organization. Humans are naturally social and tend to create social groups with rules and enforcement mechanisms. Even if we were to start with a blank slate where there were no governments, companies, tribes, or social groups, humans would quickly recreate them because we have evolved to make use of social structures. We are stronger as a group than individually and groups only survive by having rules and methods of enforcement.
You're not genuinely curious or here in good faith, you're derisive, vindictive and guilty of every moral failing you're about to accuse me of having for not thinking the way you do.
So you do not get the luxury of a debate with me.
Now I said that legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas, and that sadly is not going to change no matter who does what. It's just the reality of the situation.
So move on from this conversation like you would have told me to had I wasted your time arguing with you about it.
If I came across as derisive, I didn't mean to. I was genuinely trying to ask what you meant.
I don't know how it is possible for me to be vindictive when I don't know you. I don't want revenge against you. You've done nothing to me.
I wasn't going to accuse you of any kind of moral failing and am not sure why you took my response as a personal attack on your moral character.
You stated that "legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas" and that "people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again". That sounds like you are advocating a return to something that existed in the past where people could act autonomously, without regard for the legal system.
I am responding that I don't think that people have ever had the "ultimate authority to handle business on their own" and am wondering if you can give an explanation of what you are suggesting. I'm arguing that, when presented with anarchy, humans will always tend to create social structures and legal systems.
You didn't. Simply questioning what somebody thinks the answer is when they make such big assertions should be expected. They should not be commenting if they don't want to engage in good faith.
Thanks. I almost said the same thing in my reply but decided to wait to see what they said in their response first. It seems they're just not going to respond.
Their comment history looks pretty combative and rude anyway. I think they just like to attack but can't defend himself.
Alabama actually has medical cannabis now, maybe soon?
Alabama has plenty of problems outside of being able to smoke weed or not
For example choosing to imprison older people to what is effectively a life sentence for a non violent charge
Sorry, that was my point I tried to make. If they legalize to recreational, expunging convictions is a much bigger likelihood and maybe he will see freedom soon.
That's a massive leap. Even if they legalized recreational, and that's a BIG if, that doesn't mean they will expunge existing convictions.
Indeed, which is why I chose my words carefully on the previous response.
All good! Miscomms happen nbd to talk it out for me ☺️
Can they do Trump next?
They probably do have ‘Ass Laws’ on the books there
Code of Alabama Sec. 13A-6-64 - Sodomy in the Second Degree.
Includes consenting adults having oral and anal sex. But Alabama says they do not and will not prosecute people for it. Still on the books, though.
Lawyers fucking suck. They always have to play fucking games with unspoken language. Their full sentence is:
“do not and will not prosecute people for it…until the Comstock Act comes back into effect or the 14th Amendment no longer provides privacy protections.”
Lawyers would weasel us out of any and all rights just because it gives them more billable hours and more casework.
Overzealous legislators who make the laws and mandatory minimums suck first and foremost, then prosecutors and sentencing judges who do not use judicial discretion fairly and empathetically. Lots of lawyers are good people and it's worth noting that civil rights are protected almost exclusively by lawyers.
Lawyers have no obligation to act with empathy. There is no obligation to act fairly - because they can always twist the definition of what “is” is. I can find a thousand examples of unfair judicial actions that legally wouldn’t be considered unfair.
Hell, Anthony Scalia said “mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.” How can that not be the definition of unfair - our SCoTUS ruled that it’s totally legal and fair to execute a factually innocent person.
Civil rights need protection primarily because of the lawyers trying to infringe on them.
They pinky swear they won't enforce it! Why would you not trust them?
The prison sentences will increase until there is more trust!
The people of Alabama voted in an election (2014, I think) whether to keep or not the unenforceable law that forbids interracial marriage. More than 40% voted to keep it. Fuck them.
Life sentence for growing some pot. Meanwhile the Jan 6th insurrectionists are getting maybe 2 years, or if you're a card carrying proud boy terrorist you might be looking at up to 20 years.
Some guy beat someone so bad they need 24hr supervision, and he got 7 years. Cops get of with paid vacation for shooting or running over: dogs, unarmed adults and children, flash bang babies, drunk driving, beating their SO, planting drugs on innocent people. Did I miss anything?
War on drugs, no, it's a war on personal freedoms.
There are actual recordings from the Nixon Whitehouse where they decided that since they could no longer legally discriminate against people based on race, they'd have to find another way and drugs was it.
It's not even just a war on personal freedoms. It's a war on anyone the people running the system don't like. The US has been at war with its own citizens longer than I've been alive.
Well since before it was a country. Remember tar and feathering as a form of political discourse?
A war specifically on Black and Hispanic personal freedoms, at least historically that's how it began.
The weird outlier is a recent charge of a guy who assaulted 6 cops and got 5 years. A glitch in the system.
i guess we should take justice into our own hands instead of waiting for someone else to do the right thing.
Brb, sharpening the blade of my guillotine.
Problem is, that’s what the Jan 6th people thought they were doing.
just don't be stupid like they were
The Jan 6 people made the one critical mistake that a revolutionary must never make: they failed to win. Every other mistake they made was recoverable, but that one damned them.
not sure if your comment was meant with sarcasm, but you're 100% correct. you have to set every other concern aside and understand that you do whatever it takes to win. whatever. it. takes. if you weren't prepared to do that, you should have never tried in the first place.
the J6 people were idiots. they thought that there was some magical lever that, if pulled, would grant them their wishes - kinda like some moron sovereign citizen that thinks magic words will get them out of jail or consequences.
it just doesn't work like that. you can't just capture the capitol and think that wins the game. it's much deeper. the real revolutionaries will fight thousands of unseen battles in clandestine ways using different tools than torches and pitchforks.
Try to overthrow the government- 18 months. Grow plants- life sentence.
America (for the time being), fuck yeah!
Leading the insurrection? Priceless.
Only 18 months?
..Tempting.
This stuff just makes my blood boil. Those 3 assholes on the parole board are complete sociopaths. There's absolutely no justice here.
It's actually a requirement I think.
In WA during lockdown, they requested compassionate release of someone who was paralyzed on half his body and confined to a chair. The DOC decided that he was a threat to society and needed to be kept in the COVID greenhouse.
That law provides several different levels of trafficking, and Hotchkiss was convicted under the lowest level – having between 2.2 lbs and 100lbs. That weight includes all parts of the plant, root and stem and all.
40 years, jesus fucking CHRIST.
I'm 6400km tall if you include the earth under my feet
I'm billions of light years tall if you include the space above my head.
Damn you should play in the NBA
I don't know if he has the mass to play, he sounds like a lightweight.
And extremely heavy.....
Damn they'll never let me on the rollercoaster now...
Who, actually, believes society is better off for caging this man??
no one. but a great many people like that it happened
The rich for more slave labor?
yeah and general schadenfreude, racism, hippy-bashing and general reefer madness buffonery.
Many--there are people whose lives REALLY suck and they can't imagine them being better so they want to make others' lives worse. This is how a significant portion of the population votes.
An old pot grower's adage goes something like: if the sentencing minimum is for between 1-99 plants, you might as well grow 99.
People like Bud serve as the real life example for this kind of saying sadly.
This is stupid, why is the lowest charge range so big. 2.2 lb to 100 lb that is a huge range and you're telling me there is ranges higher than that? He already has life in prison the hell do they do with the higher ranges
And dirt they made sure to water.
usa fucking sucksssss
especially the south
shitty country to live in
The United States is a fascist hellhole.
Alabama has an incredible climate for growing outdoor Cannabis, too...
It should literally be everywhere there.
a friend in highschool used to collect all the seeds and scatter them around town. de-seeding was part of the low-grade weed ritual. seeds would explode and blow-up your joints or bowls
Johnny Ganjaseed
Dude should try to overthrow the government and attack some police officers, he'll be back home in 2 to 5 years
Remember come election time who is responsible for this. Just like actions, elections have consequences.
The age of consent in Alabama is 16.
Let's not act like we were expecting much from alabama.
It's 16 in Minnesota and 17 in New York, but 18 in North Dakota. Let's not act like a higher age of consent is directly tied to progressive policies.
North Dakota used to be quite progressive historically, just going the other way fast in the last few decades.
I'm going to have to press (x) to doubt. They have voted republican in every election since 1964. The only time the Republican candidate has gotten less than 50% of the vote during those years was when Ross Perot was splitting the Republican vote.
Maybe if you're going back past when the parties switched ideologies.
Fargo can be progressive, I know many of the bars there have historically been pretty LGBTQ friendly, but the rest of NoDak hasn't as been progressive.
We have a state bank, mill, highly subsidized education system, legacy fund, one of the most progressive prison systems, etc. The state is still full of coops and unions Alot of this is left over from the NPL days. You need to go back further. We also had democrats in the house and senate for decades. You are looking way too superficially. Things are completely different now.
All that was over 60 years ago. Double your original Few Decades comment. North Dakota has been conservative for quite some time now.
Although in 1920 the age of consent was 18 in both North Dakota and Minnesota, or we could go back to 1880 when the age of consent was 10 (so wrong) in both North Dakota and Minnesota. /jk
All? Some of that originated 60 years ago but is still going. The prison systems are newer, education subsidies are newer, the house and senate seats are newer, the legacy fund is newer...
So those are more states I wouldn't expect much from either but it doesn't lessen the "ew" I feel for Alabama.
They also just barely avoided voting for a fucking pedophile who would go cruising for little girls at the mall to the extent that they had to ban him. That state is backwards as all fuck.
That's a pretty common age of consent, or are you arguing that we should lock up like 40% of all teenagers?
Arguing?
Nah, I'm putting blame for backwards decisions on backwards states. Not here to argue with you ;]
Didn't return your grocery cart? Straight to jail.
“Stray to Yale.”
Okay, I actually do agree with this one.
Thats what you get when you dare to do gardening
What could the parole board's justification for denial possibly be? I don't see any risk from this guy, unless there's something more nefarious than 2.2 lbm of pot going on.
The cruelty is the point, as they say.
Guarantee that they looked nowhere beyond the actual text of the law and didn't consider anything else. This is only "it's illegal because we say it is and we will punish you for not conforming".
Pretty messed up. Let this poor guy go.
On the bright side, does free healthcare and free room and board?
Free healthcare in that the prison doctor or nurse will refuse to diagnose him with anything until he's on his death bed and then give him comfort release so they don't have to take care of him?
I've heard prison healthcare is just as shitty as the food.
Don't they get charged that? As in it gets deducted from their slave wages.
prison employees would be laid off if only criminals are in prison.
Remember these headlines any time someone makes excuses for the lack of action by the Federal Government, even when we give Democrats Congress and the presidency.
I hope you don’t consider the 50-50 split Senate to be one of the times we “gave Democrats Congress and the presidency”. Do you think they were going to find 10 Republicans and overcome the filibuster for that legislation?
The last time the Democrats had control that gave them a realistic chance of doing something like this, marijuana legalization didn’t even have majority support in the US. Even among Democrats it was pretty divided.
The time before that, Bill Clinton was president and was under fire for admitting he had ever tried marijuana in his life, and had to claim he “didn’t inhale”.
And those were all the times in my life that the Democrats had any sort of majority in Congress and a Dem president.
You make it sound like there have been these chances over and over. But there isn’t even one single time you can look back at and say “right here, you had all the opportunity in the world and we asked you to do it, and you didn’t do it”.
You're right.
I shouldn't expect better.
That's really all you have to say? Your statement that I responded to strongly suggested at least one, if not multiple, clear opportunities to make major changes to marijuana law that Democrats didn't take. Are you not interested in the fact that that is not true?
Your reaction is like if someone pointed out factually wrong statements made by an antivaxxer and the antivaxxer responded with "I guess I shouldn't try to protect my body". No, that part is perfectly fine, it's that you should just use actual facts or you could end up deciding on a course of action that is diametrically opposed to the outcome you want!
I expect better -- from you!
I'm going to wager the federal government couldn't do anything for state charges
Totally.
Just like the Federal Government did nothing about alcohol prohibition.
You see, this is kind of the reverse. The federal govt could blackmail states into legalization but it's going to be hard to make states adjust their own prior convictions. Apples and oranges.
LOL
I miss the days when Democrats had balls. FDR had a literal plot on his life and still didn't bitch out on using his office to make real, substantial change.
These days people look at things have have been done and still somehow convince themselves better things aren't possible. That should be the Democrats' slogan in the race this year.
While I largely agree with you, I'm not sure a civil war for a 20,000 state level prisoners makes immediate sense
Yeah, I'm sure Joe Manchin is really pro-cannabis.
Growing plants Alabama?
Straight to jail!
Drive too fast? Straight to jail
Drive too slow? Also jail.
?
?
What does your question even imply?
Hotchkiss — who goes by his middle name, Bud —
Poor dude never even had a chance. 😔
2.2 -100lbs is a massive range especially when the weight every part of the plant. That's a difference of growing enough for a month to smoke and supplying the neighborhood. Two massively different goals.
Biden, pardon this dude
No can do with state charges
Ah fuck, my bad. I don’t know much about clemency. So that’s why Trump is freaked out about Georgia
He literally does not have the legal power to do that.
Biden has pardoned a lot of federal marijuana charges, but a core part of the Constitution is that the federal government's authority to interfere in state justice systems is very limited.
Not a federal crime or prison. Either the governor would have to pardon him, or he would have to get his appeal all the way to SCOTUS and get his conviction overturned. Neither of which seem very likely, unfortunately.
It's Alabama.... so sadly predictable
Kill his kidnappers
Didn't Biden pardon marijuana convictions? Or am I just high?
Federal, not state convictions.
He probably did something while in prison
He never should have been there in the first place.
Meanwhile, Trump’s a free man, goose stepping around in his fucking lift shoes, with 91 Federal charges against him. This country is so backwards.
Don't forget he pardoned supreme liar and felon Roger Stone who went on to plotting assassinations.
and biden is out running for president too after promising to legalize and police reform and firing staffers for using cannabis
people seem to still support him too
US elections are fucking insane
like watching clones dressed in different skins begging for votes with whatever empty promises they think and know the populace will eat up
Empty political promises are one thing and par for the course. Literally getting away with high treason on several documented accounts and still being able to run for president is another.
It's a flower that makes people happy and hungry. God fucking damn it. There is no fucking reason to destroy people's lives over this.
Two reason: Conservatism and Christianity.
Don't forget racism.
https://origins.osu.edu/article/illegalization-marijuana-brief-history?language_content_entity=en
I don't even think that article adequately conveys how thoroughly racist the roots of it is. They don't even quote the awful things Anslinger said to justify cannabis prohibition.
https://fee.org/articles/the-racist-roots-of-marijuana-prohibition/
And then there's this from Nixon staffer John Ehrlichman:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
Nobody has ever been able to explain to me how cannabis use is incompatible with Christianity in any way.
But then again, I don't expect Christians to be consistent or logical about anything.
Remember that part of the Bible where Jesus was like "forget all the old laws, and just focus on the point, being cool to one another" and then gave a speech about the importance of monogamy? Or when he held the last supper, demonstrating a way to worship without needing a fancy temple, and then said "this is my blood, I'm using a simple cup, but you should always use a gold chalice for this part". Or how he explained you need a relic of a saint (usually a bit of bone) in every altar or the magic won't work?
Do you remember the part where Jesus claimed he was the one and only child of a deity? Because when I read it, he called himself "the son of man" and called everyone his brothers and sisters
Jesus was born in July. The Roman sun god had a son, who was sacrificed for the sake of humanity. Want to guess when his birthday was?
There's a reason why it makes no sense. It's not the religion you think it is
Reminds me of the Ballarat Bandit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-gBErW4aoY
To put it short, he was a guy who led federal officers on a chase through the desert. They didn't know who he was, but he was stealing from travelers passing through. It wasn't far from some US government facilities, and this being not long after 9/11, they're super worried he's a terrorist.
Spoiler: he was a Canadian who started growing weed to help his wife's medical issues. He apparently made some primo bud and started selling it. Naturally, he got caught and was thrown in jail. When he got out, he moved out to the desert and tried to survive on his own.
Jail changed him. He became more paranoid and detached from his family, friends, and society. He wasn't the least bit dangerous until they threw him in prison.
Breaking Bud
I'm all for legalized marijuana, but going into another country and breaking their laws is never a good idea. There are places in the world that would be a death sentence.
The guy was clearly mentally unstable after he left prison. He never would have done that in the first place otherwise. And he effectively did get a death sentence for it.
According to the article titled 'Ballarat Bandit' lost to family for years, August 4, 2006 for Pahrump Valley Times, Johnston was living in Canada when they were arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana.
Edit: HTML linking
There's one very good reason, according to authoritarians: slave labor. 'Murica.
I don’t understand how 40 years of prison for a non-violent crime isn’t considered to be both “cruel” and “unusual”. It is objectively cruel. I certainly hope that it is also unusual. I certainly hope that there aren’t many more like him, imprisoned for decades for what amounts to personal-use levels of pot. 5.5 lbs of pot when you include the stem and roots isn’t that much and certainly sounds like a personal supply to me.
These people are kept in jail to be used in labor. It’s not about being cruel. It’s about making money in the cheapest way possible. Since Alabama is a hellhole with no workforce they turn to modern day slavery.
Oh it's both. It's definitely both, the cruelty and the slave labor, which is cruel in and of itself as well.
Yeah, when you read the article you see that the parole board has stopped issuing paroles almost entirely in the last couple of years. This is 100% about manufacturing cheap labor and keeping the oligarchy running smoothly.
It is the most cruel people in the world that hide behind a law book and the pretense of being fair and worse even: past cases.
But since you first have to study for a decade, then kiss ass for a decade or two before even beginning to qualify for 'JUDGE' it is not more as normal you will have lost ALL BONDS WITH REGULAR SOCIETY.
If you think 15$+tax+tip is fine for a glass of wine with lunch on a daily basis; you are NOTTTTTTT qualified to speak for the benefit of society : in contrary!
Yeah I think you're mistaking what a Judges role is. It is merely to uphold the law. The problem in the US is that the role is so politicised that the idea they are legal experts rather than representatives of parties is being lost. They should be representative of society to an extent but ultimately the main qualification is legal experience.
The issue is the law itself and that comes back to the elected politicians in Alabama. It's a problem of one party rule, and first past the post electoral system plus gerrymandering which means a stagnant political system dominated by one segment of society. The US increasingly looks like a it's just a large collection of failed democracies.
You don't specifically need representative judges. You need electoral reform so you have an actual representative democracy, and everything else comes from that.
Judges are "supposed to be" impartial, not representative. That's one of our many problems. They shouldn't be conservative or liberal, they should be judges, but people don't seem to be capable of impartiality, especially ones with any degree of power. Just like men who claim to want to lead really wish to rule. Those who would judge really just want to decide.
The MAKING of the law favors the establishment. I say use the guillotine first, then new laws. Slave master still a slave master now, only the slaves believe they're free
I'm stating it's the WRONG ROLE law should NOT be upheld in the same way for poor and rich. For uneducated and the wise.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THE SAME favoring the poor and weak.
HOWEVER IT FAVORS THE EXACT OPOSITE.
It shouldn't favor anybody.
If anything, it goes to show why legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas and why people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again. That way, at least, it's fair, for every man is provided for by either victory, ingenuity, or death.
Okay, I'm genuinely curious, can you elaborate on what you're advocating? What time in human history do you think we should return to? Tribalism?
I don't think there has ever been a period of time where there wasn't some form of social organization. Humans are naturally social and tend to create social groups with rules and enforcement mechanisms. Even if we were to start with a blank slate where there were no governments, companies, tribes, or social groups, humans would quickly recreate them because we have evolved to make use of social structures. We are stronger as a group than individually and groups only survive by having rules and methods of enforcement.
You're not genuinely curious or here in good faith, you're derisive, vindictive and guilty of every moral failing you're about to accuse me of having for not thinking the way you do.
So you do not get the luxury of a debate with me.
Now I said that legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas, and that sadly is not going to change no matter who does what. It's just the reality of the situation.
So move on from this conversation like you would have told me to had I wasted your time arguing with you about it.
If I came across as derisive, I didn't mean to. I was genuinely trying to ask what you meant.
I don't know how it is possible for me to be vindictive when I don't know you. I don't want revenge against you. You've done nothing to me.
I wasn't going to accuse you of any kind of moral failing and am not sure why you took my response as a personal attack on your moral character.
You stated that "legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas" and that "people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again". That sounds like you are advocating a return to something that existed in the past where people could act autonomously, without regard for the legal system.
I am responding that I don't think that people have ever had the "ultimate authority to handle business on their own" and am wondering if you can give an explanation of what you are suggesting. I'm arguing that, when presented with anarchy, humans will always tend to create social structures and legal systems.
You didn't. Simply questioning what somebody thinks the answer is when they make such big assertions should be expected. They should not be commenting if they don't want to engage in good faith.
Thanks. I almost said the same thing in my reply but decided to wait to see what they said in their response first. It seems they're just not going to respond.
Their comment history looks pretty combative and rude anyway. I think they just like to attack but can't defend himself.
That will teach m!
Fuck Alabama and its bullshit ass laws
Alabama actually has medical cannabis now, maybe soon?
Alabama has plenty of problems outside of being able to smoke weed or not
For example choosing to imprison older people to what is effectively a life sentence for a non violent charge
Sorry, that was my point I tried to make. If they legalize to recreational, expunging convictions is a much bigger likelihood and maybe he will see freedom soon.
That's a massive leap. Even if they legalized recreational, and that's a BIG if, that doesn't mean they will expunge existing convictions.
Indeed, which is why I chose my words carefully on the previous response.
All good! Miscomms happen nbd to talk it out for me ☺️
Can they do Trump next?
They probably do have ‘Ass Laws’ on the books there
Code of Alabama Sec. 13A-6-64 - Sodomy in the Second Degree.
Includes consenting adults having oral and anal sex. But Alabama says they do not and will not prosecute people for it. Still on the books, though.
Lawyers fucking suck. They always have to play fucking games with unspoken language. Their full sentence is:
“do not and will not prosecute people for it…until the Comstock Act comes back into effect or the 14th Amendment no longer provides privacy protections.”
Lawyers would weasel us out of any and all rights just because it gives them more billable hours and more casework.
Overzealous legislators who make the laws and mandatory minimums suck first and foremost, then prosecutors and sentencing judges who do not use judicial discretion fairly and empathetically. Lots of lawyers are good people and it's worth noting that civil rights are protected almost exclusively by lawyers.
Lawyers have no obligation to act with empathy. There is no obligation to act fairly - because they can always twist the definition of what “is” is. I can find a thousand examples of unfair judicial actions that legally wouldn’t be considered unfair.
Hell, Anthony Scalia said “mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.” How can that not be the definition of unfair - our SCoTUS ruled that it’s totally legal and fair to execute a factually innocent person.
Civil rights need protection primarily because of the lawyers trying to infringe on them.
They pinky swear they won't enforce it! Why would you not trust them?
The prison sentences will increase until there is more trust!
The people of Alabama voted in an election (2014, I think) whether to keep or not the unenforceable law that forbids interracial marriage. More than 40% voted to keep it. Fuck them.
Life sentence for growing some pot. Meanwhile the Jan 6th insurrectionists are getting maybe 2 years, or if you're a card carrying proud boy terrorist you might be looking at up to 20 years.
Some guy beat someone so bad they need 24hr supervision, and he got 7 years. Cops get of with paid vacation for shooting or running over: dogs, unarmed adults and children, flash bang babies, drunk driving, beating their SO, planting drugs on innocent people. Did I miss anything?
War on drugs, no, it's a war on personal freedoms.
There are actual recordings from the Nixon Whitehouse where they decided that since they could no longer legally discriminate against people based on race, they'd have to find another way and drugs was it.
It's not even just a war on personal freedoms. It's a war on anyone the people running the system don't like. The US has been at war with its own citizens longer than I've been alive.
Well since before it was a country. Remember tar and feathering as a form of political discourse?
A war specifically on Black and Hispanic personal freedoms, at least historically that's how it began.
The weird outlier is a recent charge of a guy who assaulted 6 cops and got 5 years. A glitch in the system.
i guess we should take justice into our own hands instead of waiting for someone else to do the right thing.
Brb, sharpening the blade of my guillotine.
Problem is, that’s what the Jan 6th people thought they were doing.
just don't be stupid like they were
The Jan 6 people made the one critical mistake that a revolutionary must never make: they failed to win. Every other mistake they made was recoverable, but that one damned them.
not sure if your comment was meant with sarcasm, but you're 100% correct. you have to set every other concern aside and understand that you do whatever it takes to win. whatever. it. takes. if you weren't prepared to do that, you should have never tried in the first place.
the J6 people were idiots. they thought that there was some magical lever that, if pulled, would grant them their wishes - kinda like some moron sovereign citizen that thinks magic words will get them out of jail or consequences.
it just doesn't work like that. you can't just capture the capitol and think that wins the game. it's much deeper. the real revolutionaries will fight thousands of unseen battles in clandestine ways using different tools than torches and pitchforks.
Found the cop
gfy
Here's the actual law: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter115&edition=prelim
Try to overthrow the government- 18 months. Grow plants- life sentence.
America (for the time being), fuck yeah!
Leading the insurrection? Priceless.
Only 18 months?
..Tempting.
This stuff just makes my blood boil. Those 3 assholes on the parole board are complete sociopaths. There's absolutely no justice here.
It's actually a requirement I think.
In WA during lockdown, they requested compassionate release of someone who was paralyzed on half his body and confined to a chair. The DOC decided that he was a threat to society and needed to be kept in the COVID greenhouse.
40 years, jesus fucking CHRIST.
I'm 6400km tall if you include the earth under my feet
I'm billions of light years tall if you include the space above my head.
Damn you should play in the NBA
I don't know if he has the mass to play, he sounds like a lightweight.
And extremely heavy.....
Damn they'll never let me on the rollercoaster now...
Who, actually, believes society is better off for caging this man??
no one. but a great many people like that it happened
The rich for more slave labor?
yeah and general schadenfreude, racism, hippy-bashing and general reefer madness buffonery.
Many--there are people whose lives REALLY suck and they can't imagine them being better so they want to make others' lives worse. This is how a significant portion of the population votes.
An old pot grower's adage goes something like: if the sentencing minimum is for between 1-99 plants, you might as well grow 99.
People like Bud serve as the real life example for this kind of saying sadly.
This is stupid, why is the lowest charge range so big. 2.2 lb to 100 lb that is a huge range and you're telling me there is ranges higher than that? He already has life in prison the hell do they do with the higher ranges
And dirt they made sure to water.
usa fucking sucksssss especially the south
shitty country to live in
The United States is a fascist hellhole.
Alabama has an incredible climate for growing outdoor Cannabis, too...
It should literally be everywhere there.
a friend in highschool used to collect all the seeds and scatter them around town. de-seeding was part of the low-grade weed ritual. seeds would explode and blow-up your joints or bowls
Johnny Ganjaseed
Dude should try to overthrow the government and attack some police officers, he'll be back home in 2 to 5 years
Remember come election time who is responsible for this. Just like actions, elections have consequences.
The age of consent in Alabama is 16.
Let's not act like we were expecting much from alabama.
It's 16 in Minnesota and 17 in New York, but 18 in North Dakota. Let's not act like a higher age of consent is directly tied to progressive policies.
North Dakota used to be quite progressive historically, just going the other way fast in the last few decades.
I'm going to have to press (x) to doubt. They have voted republican in every election since 1964. The only time the Republican candidate has gotten less than 50% of the vote during those years was when Ross Perot was splitting the Republican vote.
Maybe if you're going back past when the parties switched ideologies.
Fargo can be progressive, I know many of the bars there have historically been pretty LGBTQ friendly, but the rest of NoDak hasn't as been progressive.
We have a state bank, mill, highly subsidized education system, legacy fund, one of the most progressive prison systems, etc. The state is still full of coops and unions Alot of this is left over from the NPL days. You need to go back further. We also had democrats in the house and senate for decades. You are looking way too superficially. Things are completely different now.
All that was over 60 years ago. Double your original Few Decades comment. North Dakota has been conservative for quite some time now.
Although in 1920 the age of consent was 18 in both North Dakota and Minnesota, or we could go back to 1880 when the age of consent was 10 (so wrong) in both North Dakota and Minnesota. /jk
All? Some of that originated 60 years ago but is still going. The prison systems are newer, education subsidies are newer, the house and senate seats are newer, the legacy fund is newer...
So those are more states I wouldn't expect much from either but it doesn't lessen the "ew" I feel for Alabama.
They also just barely avoided voting for a fucking pedophile who would go cruising for little girls at the mall to the extent that they had to ban him. That state is backwards as all fuck.
That's a pretty common age of consent, or are you arguing that we should lock up like 40% of all teenagers?
Arguing?
Nah, I'm putting blame for backwards decisions on backwards states. Not here to argue with you ;]
art source : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g2Z8Ke
Didn't return your grocery cart? Straight to jail.
“Stray to Yale.”
Okay, I actually do agree with this one.
Thats what you get when you dare to do gardening
What could the parole board's justification for denial possibly be? I don't see any risk from this guy, unless there's something more nefarious than 2.2 lbm of pot going on.
The cruelty is the point, as they say.
Guarantee that they looked nowhere beyond the actual text of the law and didn't consider anything else. This is only "it's illegal because we say it is and we will punish you for not conforming".
Pretty messed up. Let this poor guy go. On the bright side, does free healthcare and free room and board?
Free healthcare in that the prison doctor or nurse will refuse to diagnose him with anything until he's on his death bed and then give him comfort release so they don't have to take care of him?
I've heard prison healthcare is just as shitty as the food.
Don't they get charged that? As in it gets deducted from their slave wages.
prison employees would be laid off if only criminals are in prison.
song about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4L20t8Dvlg
Remember these headlines any time someone makes excuses for the lack of action by the Federal Government, even when we give Democrats Congress and the presidency.
I hope you don’t consider the 50-50 split Senate to be one of the times we “gave Democrats Congress and the presidency”. Do you think they were going to find 10 Republicans and overcome the filibuster for that legislation?
The last time the Democrats had control that gave them a realistic chance of doing something like this, marijuana legalization didn’t even have majority support in the US. Even among Democrats it was pretty divided.
The time before that, Bill Clinton was president and was under fire for admitting he had ever tried marijuana in his life, and had to claim he “didn’t inhale”.
And those were all the times in my life that the Democrats had any sort of majority in Congress and a Dem president.
You make it sound like there have been these chances over and over. But there isn’t even one single time you can look back at and say “right here, you had all the opportunity in the world and we asked you to do it, and you didn’t do it”.
You're right.
I shouldn't expect better.
That's really all you have to say? Your statement that I responded to strongly suggested at least one, if not multiple, clear opportunities to make major changes to marijuana law that Democrats didn't take. Are you not interested in the fact that that is not true?
Your reaction is like if someone pointed out factually wrong statements made by an antivaxxer and the antivaxxer responded with "I guess I shouldn't try to protect my body". No, that part is perfectly fine, it's that you should just use actual facts or you could end up deciding on a course of action that is diametrically opposed to the outcome you want!
I expect better -- from you!
I'm going to wager the federal government couldn't do anything for state charges
Totally.
Just like the Federal Government did nothing about alcohol prohibition.
You see, this is kind of the reverse. The federal govt could blackmail states into legalization but it's going to be hard to make states adjust their own prior convictions. Apples and oranges.
LOL
I miss the days when Democrats had balls. FDR had a literal plot on his life and still didn't bitch out on using his office to make real, substantial change.
These days people look at things have have been done and still somehow convince themselves better things aren't possible. That should be the Democrats' slogan in the race this year.
While I largely agree with you, I'm not sure a civil war for a 20,000 state level prisoners makes immediate sense
Yeah, I'm sure Joe Manchin is really pro-cannabis.
Growing plants Alabama?
Straight to jail!
Drive too fast? Straight to jail
Drive too slow? Also jail.
?
?
What does your question even imply?
Poor dude never even had a chance. 😔
2.2 -100lbs is a massive range especially when the weight every part of the plant. That's a difference of growing enough for a month to smoke and supplying the neighborhood. Two massively different goals.
Biden, pardon this dude
No can do with state charges
Ah fuck, my bad. I don’t know much about clemency. So that’s why Trump is freaked out about Georgia
He literally does not have the legal power to do that.
Biden has pardoned a lot of federal marijuana charges, but a core part of the Constitution is that the federal government's authority to interfere in state justice systems is very limited.
Not a federal crime or prison. Either the governor would have to pardon him, or he would have to get his appeal all the way to SCOTUS and get his conviction overturned. Neither of which seem very likely, unfortunately.
It's Alabama.... so sadly predictable
Kill his kidnappers
Didn't Biden pardon marijuana convictions? Or am I just high?
Federal, not state convictions.
He probably did something while in prison
He never should have been there in the first place.
It is what it is am I right fellas
Don't break the law
I guess you must be trolling. Do you think 40 years for growing Cannabis to be justified?
I mean it more of a don't piss in the wind type of thing. Alabama is like Dubai
Maybe you should take your own advice and fuck off
don't come to my house to get punched in the mouth
sorry to offend you mr. nutsack
why lick a boot when you can suck on it