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US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

bbc.co.uk

131–140 of 194 posts

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#131

> not expected to advance further as long as the Senate remains in Republican hands. > “This legislation does not legalize cannabis across the country. It stops the federal government from interfering with what states have decided to do” In all seriousness, isn’t the Republican platform weaker central government? Why the exception?

No, the Republican platform is for a giant central state but all the resources to be used only for military and police. (Though the policing is only for common people, policing of corporations or rich people is to be defunded and labeled as evil regulation. )

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#132

Really glad this passed, but we can't get COVID19 support and / or get some election reform. There is even have video evidence of illegally adding and counting votes... but oh no! Can't discuss how to improve that process... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKkheU5cy2E Frankly, while I agree with the legislation, but the entire country is angry (one way or another). We should probably try to address the real issues.

COVID19 support just means stealing from taxpayers to line the pockets of the rich. As more information comes out, the scam will be more revealed but unfortunately we do not live in a country of educated voters.

I don't care about COVID relief. If anything passes it will be a scam and no money for the taxpayers who fund it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/01/ppp-sba-d...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

They are literally and blatantly robbing our country at this point, but the political institutions are too dysfunctional to do anything about it.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#133
post #89
post #45

This means very little while the republicans control the senate, I imagine.

The Georgia elections on January 5th decide whether this will remain the case.

That doesn't mean anything when we have "democrats" like Joe Manchin. Democrats seem like they are only good at raising money and scaring us about the evil Republicans, but when they are empowered by voters they do nothing.

Obamacare was passed with 60 votes, no republicans supported it, and that was the best we could do. Republicans have never had that kind of margin in the Senate and look what they are able to accomplish.

At some point you just have to call democrats out for what they are, controlled opposition.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Family values". Because I don't see them racing to help provide mandatory days off or sufficient wages for people with lower incomes to be able to spend time with their families.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what family values means aside from the name. Mostly I think it's a euphemism policies that support straight married couples with kids. It seems to be more about small tax breaks, and making life as difficult as possible for people who are not married and straight. Actually helping people might be construed as socialism.

"Family values" as used by republicans always has the implied but not said "of a white, christian, man, who lives in the 1950s" added to it

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#135
post #78

> not expected to advance further as long as the Senate remains in Republican hands. > “This legislation does not legalize cannabis across the country. It stops the federal government from interfering with what states have decided to do” In all seriousness, isn’t the Republican platform weaker central government? Why the exception?

At this point the whole "small government" thing seems to just be a dog whistle for the Republican base that roughly translates to "if it helps people I don't like we won't fund it."

At this point? Nah, in my view it started with Reagan's "welfare queens" (demonize the recipients of "large government"), which is going on 40 years ago. And that's just because it happened within my lifetime. One can probably go back further, perhaps to Earl Butz from the Nixon administration.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#136

The fact that this won't sail through congress in a week (it'll never even come up for a vote in the senate) really illustrates how out of touch legislators are with voters. If there was a nationwide referendum on legalizing (not just decriminalizing) it would pass in a landslide today. Instead, congress will dither on this issue for probably the next five years at minimum. I realize it's more complicated than giving…

> ...illustrates how out of touch legislators are with voters. If there was a nationwide referendum on legalizing (not just decriminalizing) it would pass in a landslide today. In your own echo chamber, that may be true, but I hope you understand, there's a large number of voters (myself included) who oppose legalization. They may not be as vocal about it online, but their votes count just as much as yours.

It's not just an echo chamber, there's actual data:

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/14/americans-s...

https://news.gallup.com/poll/323582/support-legal-marijuana-...

That's not to say people who oppose the legislation's vote doesn't matter, but it's overturned by the majority that favor it.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#137
post #63

I know hn doesn't like politics, but it amazes me how popular one party's policies are(see polls for single payer healthcare, gov funded college, wealth tax, etc ), but it is still competitive. Republicans are certainly better at "politics". It will be fun to see how they spin this into the vague notion of socialism or somehow this is taking away your freedom.

> somehow this is taking away your freedom IIUC it could indirectly reduce some people’s freedom to live, because marijuana can impair driving but is harder to diagnose as the cause for accidents than alcohol — because tests only show whether it has been taken in the last few weeks, not whether the subject is intoxicated at the moment of the test. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

As mentioned, there are 100 other ways a driver can be "impaired", what's more there are ways to make the roads safer thereby increasing my freedom.

Why don't we just put automated red light cameras and speed cameras everywhere? Won't that maximize my freedom to on safe roads?

Would you support such a measure?

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#138

In a very partisan vote that will not survive the Senate. Apart from virtue signalling, why bother? We are post election, so it doesn't even help us decide how to vote. Trying this after January at least might've made more sense. It's frustrating we see full House votes on pointless partisan efforts when there are issues like infrastructure that both parties could and should agree on and progress in.

Because it's the right thing to do?

And there is no progress to be made from the House when they are not the road block. Reconsider what you are saying.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what family values means aside from the name. Mostly I think it's a euphemism policies that support straight married couples with kids. It seems to be more about small tax breaks, and making life as difficult as possible for people who are not married and straight. Actually helping people might be construed as socialism.

"Family values" as used by republicans always has the implied but not said "of a white, christian, man, who lives in the 1950s" added to it

“Who doesn’t act according to Christ” should also be added to it.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#140

In a very partisan vote that will not survive the Senate. Apart from virtue signalling, why bother? We are post election, so it doesn't even help us decide how to vote. Trying this after January at least might've made more sense. It's frustrating we see full House votes on pointless partisan efforts when there are issues like infrastructure that both parties could and should agree on and progress in.

> pointless partisan efforts It may be partisan in terms of federal politics, but this is absolutely not a partisan issue to a huge majority of Americans.

Or the millions who's lives were destroyed by this bullshit. Tell them that it's just about politics.
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