Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

8 Must-Watch Environmental Documentaries to Kick Off Your Summer

This story was originally published by Grist and is shared here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.  Another Memorial Day, another Mountainfilm Festival. Since 1979, outdoor enthusiasts and environmental activists alike have flocked to the mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, to watch the drama of the natural world unfold on the big screen. Grist, the media sponsor of this […]

Greenpeace Graded All the Presidential Candidates’ Climate Policies. They Weren’t Impressed.

This story was originally published by Grist and is shared here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.  Julián Castro, President Obama’s former secretary of housing, thinks he can stand out in the crowded presidential field by focusing on climate change. At a recent stop in New Hampshire, the candidate laid out his climate agenda and environmental bonafides. In 2016, […]

Here’s something of a love letter to Linux in general, @purism in specific, and a handful of great programs as well: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/hello-again-linux. Thanks for publishing it, @linuxjournal!

#Linux #Purism #i3 #emacs #suckless #cli

This Year’s “Near-Normal” Hurricane Season Could Still Be Devastating

Today marks the official start of the 2019 hurricane season. While experts predict it will be a “near-normal” season in the Atlantic Ocean, it still could wreak havoc. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center expects as many as 15 named storms and 2 to 4 major hurricanes this season, which runs from […]

New US visa online application now requires you to enter all your social media presences when you apply for a visa:

http://immigrationgirl.com/new-social-media-question-on-ds-160-and-ds-260-visa-applications/

"Stop using chrome, and well, Google in general. Find some awesome replacements!

➡️ Chrome >> Firefox

➡️ Gmail >> @protonmail

➡️ Drive >> @nextclouders

➡️ Docs: @libreoffice w/ @CollaboraOffice

➡️ Search: @DuckDuckGo "

https://9to5google.com/2019/05/29/chrome-ad-blocking-enterprise-manifest-v3/

What Makes Illinois’ Marijuana Legalization Bill So Progressive

On May 31, the Illinois House of Representatives passed what is perhaps the most progressive recreational marijuana usage bill in the United States, by a margin of 66-47. The bill passed in the Senate on Wednesday by a margin of 38-17. Governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the bill immediately, which would make the recreational use of marijuana legal in Illinois as soon as January 2020, and would also make Illinois the first state to pass recreational marijuana legalization through a proposed bill rather than a ballot initiative. This is an important example of state government listening to its constituents: 60% of Illinoisans are in favor of the legalization of recreational marijuana use.

The bill allows adults 21 and older to possess up to 30 grams of cannabis flower, 5 grams of cannabis concentrate and 500 milligrams of THC-infused products. In this regard, the bill is similar to those passed in other states. California, for example, allows for possession of 28.5 grams of cannabis plant material and 8 grams of concentrate. Nevada permits possession of an ounce of flower and 3.54 grams of concentrate. And Massachusetts also allows for possession of an ounce and up to 5 grams of concentrate.

But what sets the Illinois bill apart from other states’ bills is its provision to expunge prior lower-level marijuana possession, manufacturing and “intent to deliver” convictions—and its inclusion of community reinvestment and socially equitable licensing practices. These measures may help right some of the wrongs done to communities of color by the Nixon-era “War on Drugs.”

The original version of the Illinois bill included a provision for automatic expungement of misdemeanor and Class 4 marijuana convictions. Due to Republican concerns of unconstitutionality, however, the bill was amended to include procedural expungement only. As the Chicago Tribune explains it, procedural expungement is a process by which the state police will identify lower-level, non-violent convictions of possession, manufacturing and “intent to deliver” and send them to local state’s attorneys to review. If the state attorney has no objections, the cases get sent up to the state’s Prisoner Review Board, which then makes a recommendation to the governor on whether the individual should be pardoned. The governor may then issue a pardon.

Multiple other states where recreational use is legalized have introduced processes for expungement, which helps open up job and housing opportunities for those whose options would otherwise be limited due to marijuana convictions.

The bill also includes a stipulation to ensure that individuals from marginalized communities will receive dispensary licenses. The bill reads: “During the licensing process, 'social equity applicants' will receive 25 points out of the 200 points. Bonus points will be awarded for several categories, including for Illinois-based applicants and applicants with a labor peace agreement.” The bill states that a social equity applicant is an Illinois resident who has lived “for at least five of the 10 preceding years in a “disproportionately affected neighborhood,” meaning a neighborhood where residents have been affected by high rates of arrests, conviction and incarceration due to “violations of the Cannabis Control Act.”  People whose records are expunged under the act are also considered social equity applicants.

The bill also details where the revenue from the new market will be going. Most notably, a full 25% will be transferred to a fund for community reinvestment.

The bill’s progressive measures, aimed at supporting communities of color, couldn’t come soon enough. The War on Drugs began under Richard Nixon in an attempt to curb the use of harmful, addictive drugs and to socially weaken both black people and anti-Vietnam War protestors. John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, famously summed it up (reported by Dan Baum):

The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. … By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them. … Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

As a result of sentiments like this, marijuana got lumped in with drugs such as heroin under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which made prescription or distribution of such drugs illegal. The Act’s negative effects on communities of color are palpable. According to the ACLU, black people are “3.73 times as likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.” And according to DrugPolicy.org, of the nearly 600,000 people arrested for possession-only charges in 2017 in the United States, almost half (46.9%) were black or Latinx people, even though black and Latinx people make up only 31.5% of the U.S. population, according to the July 2018 census. This shows a disproportionate number of black and Latinx people being arrested for marijuana possession, despite the fact that white and black people use marijuana at similar rates.

The next step is holding state officials accountable to the promises contained in the bill, to ensure that racial bias does not creep into the expungement process. The potential effects of the bill have not been comprehensively studied, but the sale of recreational marijuana will undoubtedly open up a source of revenue for a state struggling with plagued by a deficit, and expungement will open up job opportunities for those with prior conviction records.

The Illinois bill is not perfect. Automatic expungement would have been far more progressive.  But it’s still a step in the right direction toward righting the negative effects that the war on drugs has wrought on communities of color.

It's a trilogy in five parts! (Happy belated #towelday )

https://puri.sm/posts/the-new-librem-one-services/

https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-the-new-librem-mail/

https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-the-new-librem-chat/

https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-the-librem-tunnel/

https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-librem-social/

Climate change is already affecting global food production -- unequally

Researchers found that climate change is affecting different areas of global food production differently.

‘Robots’ Are Not 'Coming for Your Job'—Management Is https://prismo.xyz/posts/21a483dd-801b-4dd7-ae89-065189ebe7d6

Native plant species may be at greater risk from climate change than non-natives

Warming temperatures affect native and non-native flowering plants differently, which could change the look of local landscapes over time, according to new research.

"Apple says, 'What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.' [But] our privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers guzzled our data — in a single week."

If you haven't read @geoffreyfowler's latest @Washingtonpost column, make time for it: https://t.co/eLcxXpfbF4 tweeted by @mozilla

Elizabeth Warren Unveils Plan to End DOJ Policy Prohibiting Indictment of Sitting Presidents

If elected president, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that she would reverse a longstanding Justice Department policy that prohibits sitting presidents from being indicted—a policy many believe is the legal rationale that prevented President Donald Trump from being charged with obstruction of justice in the special counsel’s Russia investigation. The Massachusetts senator, one of the […]

Quote of the Day: The Mueller Report Says Bad Things About Trump? Fox News Never Mentioned That.

From Cathy Garnaat, a Republican who attended a town hall meeting held by Rep. Justin Amash, who says the Mueller report contains enough evidence of wrongdoing to support the impeachment of President Trump: I was surprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump. I hadn’t heard that […]

How habitat loss can destabilize ecosystems

An international study has revealed new evidence to help understand the consequences of habitat loss on natural communities.

After Training Dozens of Democratic Campaigns on Email Security, This Programmer Thinks They Ought to Be Hacked

From late 2017 through 2018, Maciej Ceglowski—a tech entrepreneur and computer programmer—crisscrossed the country to educate Democrats on email security. Last fall, in an op-ed published by the Washington Post ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Ceglowski referred to his effort to train the campaign staffers as “quixotic,” and relayed information security horror stories that […]

The Homophobic Hysteria of the Lavender Scare

Despite a thriving queer community in Washington, the 1950s State Department fired gay and lesbian workers en masse.

Great Moments in Pride History

Let's take a journey through history to celebrate some queer civil rights accomplishments!