I'm happy to see anybody unburdened by the US legal system, but there's something underwhelming about the most powerful politician in the country only now deigning to use his executive power.
People are cheering and memeing in unsurprising 
fashion and I'm like bruh, he could have done this and more. Years ago. And they're talking about the necessity of voting and how bad trump would be. Like where do you think Brandon was when drafting the anti marijuana bills?
That said, I don't want to come across as unreasonable when good things happen. If a lib approached me and shared this news, what would be an appropriate response?
Link because I got that bird box disease where I want to make people to see the thing.
That's great news for all twelve of them. So when's he going to reschedule it?
That said, I don't want to come across as unreasonable when good things happen. If a lib approached me and shared this news, what would be an appropriate response?
It's a hollow gesture where a scrap would normally be thrown. Was a single person he pardoned even still serving their sentence?
Was a single person he pardoned even still serving their sentence?
No one was freed from prison under last year’s action, but the pardons were meant to help thousands overcome obstacles to renting a home or finding a job. Similarly, no federal prisoners are eligible for release as a result of Friday’s pardon.
But the order expands the grounds on which pardons are issued. In the last round, people were pardoned for simple possession under only one criminal statute. Friday’s pardons also apply to several other criminal statutes, including attempted simple possession.
The pardon also does not apply to those in the U.S. unlawfully at the time of their offense.
Even in a pardon that releases no one and is simply a discharge of crime for background checking purposes, they're STILL needlessly cruel to 'migrants' (thanks for that EO banning the use of 'alien' in official government docs though, good job asshole)
Biden stay doing nothing. I'm sure this has nothing to do with his flagging poll numbers, and can we talk about that? Like, this fuck is going down with the ship by all accounts, and he STILL can't bring himself to do ANYTHING significant and good? Just running guns to Israel in the midst of their ethnic cleansing? This absolute fuckstick refuses to do anything great even when he's already gonna get shotput out a window?
ed, y'all gotta read this lmao
Biden’s proclamation effectively pardons the covered people, but they will need to submit applications to the Justice Department’s pardon attorney office to receive certificates of pardon that can be used for housing and employment purposes.
Do the paperwork for it yourself assholes lmao
Biden on Friday reiterated his call on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.
“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said.
Issues pardon that releases no one, talks about how no one should be in prison like he fuckin released half the prison pop, rescheduled the drugs, and rewrote the laws
Jesus Christ you have to make an account and password to be pardoned for an action that should have never been criminalized in the first place. I hate this country so god damn much
Do the paperwork for it yourself assholes lmao
It's the exact same thing with taxes. If they already know exactly how much I owe at the end of the year, why the fuck do I still have to do shit every year??? They already know my bank account, as evidenced by the COVID checks that they deposited directly into it without me doing a damn thing, so if I owe/am owed money at the end of the year there's nothing stopping them from just doing it without asking me first. If you know everything you already need to know to do a thing that needs to be done, then just do the fucking thing without putting up a bunch of arbitrary fucking bureaucratic hoops to make people jump through. But of course it's yet another thing wealthy people pay professionals to take care of for them, and poor people have to do themselves, and since the state is dedicated to absolutely never allowing poor people's lives to become even an iota easier, it will never happen.
It is so infuriating that the people who work at the IRS want to make it easier, the taxpayer wants to make it easier, objectively it's smart to make taxes easier on the population, but because of capitalism we're stuck doing this ridiculous dance.
Plenty of countries already do this too, so it's not like it's impossible.
I only have to edit my tax returns when I need a specific deduction that they wouldn't know about (like paying a membership fee or doing renovations on my house). Most of the time I just leave it as is and end up overpaying a little (but then get it all back next year). Zero hassle, never had an issue, really, and this is with a bunch of cuts to the tax office in recent decades.
Do the paperwork for it yourself assholes lmao
"Its not Biden's fault he kicked off 12 million people from Medicare! They didn't file the correct procedural paperwork!!!" - PMC class of holocaust technician bureaucrats
“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said.
Basically implying: "Suffering from addiction to another, harder drug like the dirty fentanyl currently flooding the US as a result of induced demand caused by the war on drugs? Go directly to prison, terrorist scum."
The war on drugs and the prison slavery industry it is tied to has been the biggest and most evil stain on American domestic policy since Jim Crow.
Is there precedent for mass pardoning people at a state level?
Governors can. Colorado Governor Polis mass pardoned a bunch of people convicted of marijuana possession in 2020 and then some more in 2021.
Biden is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
"you guys were serving way too long but also i gotta let you rot an additional 3 years so i can time the pardon for maximum political brownie points"
Yeah, that's what i was thinking. Probably extremely low to zero. Pretty much everyone wouod be booked under state laws. Didn't he do this before and it was basically no one actually pardoned?
Yup. Even if no felony pops up on a background check, state charges will still show up lol
You gotta save those crimeless crime pardons for when you're tanking it in the polls.
so when will he legalize marijuana federally in a completely cynical fashion? 1 day before voting?
No sweaty that would upset the rules based order, he's not a dictator
Last time this happened or whatever it was looked into and it amounted to actually not helping out a single person. Literally not one person would leave prison due to that pardon because nobody had been convicted on possession or use alone. There were always other charges. It might assist some people in their classification, though. If you don't know what classification is for prisoners then that's a ranking system in which charges and behaviors while incarceration determine what level of security you are required. So if you have certain charges they might amount up to, let's make up some numbers, 34 points whereas you need to be below 30 points to be considered "low security".
What makes it even stupider is this is just a minor expansion of his previous federal MJ possession pardon. That previous pardon was criticized (by us) for being the least he could do. But it did provide the groundwork for this EVEN LESSER PARDON!!!
Okay i thought i remembered him doing something like this before as a stunt
It's a tough spot to be in. It's a great thing, but it seems like it was weaponized to boost his image for the election. Which is disgusting. Holding on to people's convictions and incarcerations, literally ruining their lives actively, until an opportune moment to free them of that burden just to try and maintain his power.
But it's also really good for those people that it helped.
It's a tough spot to be in
Would it make it easier if you knew that these pardons released exactly 0 people from jail
He pardoned all (federal) marijuana possession last year, I believe.
Yea basically. But this somehow expands on that because (shocker) it didn't go far enough.
It's almost worse than that. His previous federal MJ possession pardon SHOULD have covered this but it didn't. It's the least he can do because his previous pardon was also strategically lacking.
I thought he already did this?? Did I imagine that or did he just announce he was going to months ago?
Yeah I'm pretty sure he already did this back in October of 2022? Even then it was a minuscule amount of people actually pardoned, because most in prison for possession are on state charges.
I'm near the Blue Ridge Parkway, so maybe people picked up there (of which there are many) will get something.
But they'll almost always charge you with half a dozen other things like some sort of moving violation, trespassing, littering, etc.
Yeah I'm also confused. Was it one of those things where they said they were going to do it and then did nothing until now or what's going on?
what would be an appropriate response?
"about time!"
The most charitable thing I can think of right now: Biden's been on the wrong side of this issue for so long, but it's a good start towards fixing his mess. He must do more
More thanksgiving turkeys have received pardons from Biden than actual human beings pardoned by this empty gesture.
One of the effects is that it pardons people who never got arrested, charged, or been to prison lol
This is very clearly a move to try and regain the youth vote. This will pardon like, what, 5 people? Enact some real fucking change and make Marijuana legal, fuckface.
