Sen. Cory Booker puts marijuana legalization at the center of his new racial justice bill
Good for you, Senator Booker! 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/cory-booker-puts-marijuana-legalization-at-the-center-of-his-new-racial-justice-bil/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.fe3652c0e82b
But Booker's bill would go considerably further. It would withhold some criminal justice funding from states that haven't legalized marijuana if they exhibit racially disproportionate arrest or incarceration rates. In effect, this would apply to each state in which marijuana is not currently legal: A 2013 ACLU report found that nationwide, blacks were nearly four times as likely to be arrested on marijuana charges as whites, despite similar rates of use of the drug.
Booker's legislation would effectively encourage states to legalize marijuana to avoid these penalties. Funds withheld from states would be put toward a federal “Community Reinvestment Fund” that would receive a separate $500 million in appropriations annually. The fund would be used to “establish a grant program to reinvest in communities most affected by the war on drugs.” It would cover job-training programs, criminal re-entry assistance, public libraries and community centers, youth programs, and health education. The bill would also create a process for expunging federal marijuana convictions and resentencing people currently serving time for federal marijuana offenses.
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Weird.
the CARERS act- was stalled by Chuck Grassley.
You've got any more ominous-sounding, vaguely worded reprobations that contain hidden gems of advice on how to get through to calcified fucks like Chuck Fucking Grassley, I'm all ears.
As near as I can see, though, the more pressing problem here along with Grassley isn't Kamala Harris, it's the OTHER Senator from California.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-04-05/oldest-us-senators-accused-of-holding-biased-marijuana-hearing
And the underlying issue may have less to do with levels of skin melanin, and more to do with length of telomeres
People do that a lot, here. I'm sure I do it sometimes, too, even.
- You brought up chairing senate committees, and you've also brought up pragmatism. Ergo, getting through to Grassley- and I acknowledged the futility, didn't I- is sort of relevant. Also, he's "Clinging to power" as a Senator from the state that also just gave us pig castration lady. Are we sure the next Senator from Iowa is gonna be any better?
But actually, that was equally, if not more, about getting through to Feinstein. Another person whose career I've followed for a looooooooooooooooooong time. West Side, yo.
- Uh, okay, this thread is praising Booker, although "my" Democrats in the Senate are named Merkley and Wyden. And while I've seen criticism of Booker on some specific issues in the past, I've been generally supportive of the guy. Certainly credit where credit is due. I'm not a kevlar vest, but my effusive praise has been known to bend spoons and keep flowers in full bloom nonetheless.
- Yeah, I have a pet issue. The idea that the government shouldn't be in the business of putting consenting adults in prison for smoking a plant. The idea that peoples' own bodies are their own business. That informs marijuana policy just as it informs my support for end-of-life choice for the terminally ill, as it informs my support for reproductive freedom, etc. No one here should have to apologize for being pro-choice, even "stridently" so, and I sure as fuck am not going to.
--- and, again, not sure who you think you're talking to, or about what, specifically. We got down this road because you talked about the "#NeverKamala crew here" and I pointed out that there isn't really a "Never Kamala Crew" if no one is, actually, saying "Never Kamala". If there was one guy saying "Never Kamala" there might be "that #Neverkamala dude" but I haven't even seen that.
I don't know, I tend to favor logic and precision in language. I probably have some form of Asperger's, although copious amounts of liquor in my wayward youth maybe pruned off some of those brain cells prone to overthinking shit. Maybe. But you know what else I did when I was young? I started supporting the Democratic Party. I never stopped. So I'm not sure where this thing about "you'd do well" is coming from.
- I do? I love the florid language, but the Universe is really fucking big. At this point I'd be satisfied to see SpaceX grow some weed on Mars. Is it a "human rights issue"? Well, broadly speaking, I think the idea that free people should be left the fuck alone by government if they're sitting in their living room smoking a plant and not hurting anyone else, sure. But I'm not tone-deaf enough to think it's on par with, say, the horrible shit done to people in North Korea or Saudi Arabia or what-have-you.
Still, it's a pressing political issue, it's current, and it is gaining traction. It's not so much a question of me wanting the Democrats to attend to it for marijuana's sake- pot will be just fine, I promise- it's more that as a Democrat I want my party to LEAD not just b/c it's the right thing to do morally, it's the politically savvy, strategic thing too. It's foolish to cede this issue to the likes of Gary Goofy Gus Johnson, right?
And Booker- a smart man- knows this. He knows it's time, just as Gavin Newsom does. And he knows this is where the country is going. So time to display some leadership and disregard the beltway conventional wisdom people, who 10 years ago would tell you marijuana would NEVER be legal in any state, ever, get over it. (The same people who 15 years ago told our pols to run, don't walk, away from LGBT marriage equality)
- "you" as in, people in general? Humanity? People on DU? Or me, specifically?
Which brings me back to my original point, I'm not sure you're talking to me so much as to a caricature in your own head. And yet you seem so certain, so this should be an easy question to answer: What have *I* done. Me, the guy sitting on the end of this stream of electrons, that isn't pragmatic?
60% support full legalization. Something like 90% think the Feds should leave individual states alone.
Marijuana is about the only issue that everyone from Rand Paul to Cory Booker can agree on.
It's a winner for us, particularly with the younger voters we need to appeal to.
Now, we all know he lies, but he certainly didn't win (or "win"
the election on the promise of cracking down on weed.
No one voted for Jeff Sessions, and the minute he started making fart noises about coming down on state-legal pot, the libertarian wing of the GOP freaked.
As I said up there, pot's not going anywhere. I want our party to lead on this because it's the right thing to do, AND it's the politically smart thing to do too.
He doesn't even walk up stairs, apparently, and thinks exercise is somehow a health-draining endeavour 
So I have no doubt Booker could outrun the dude.
Seriously, like I said, Cory is on my short list....... but it's way too early for a serious discussion for 2020.
Thank you for the heads up. I'm hoping your next Governor is going to be pro-legalization, as well. Certainly can't be worse than the current one.
Speaking of people who are horribly out of shape.