Tangle - Biden's mass pardons. (MONDAY'S NEWSLETTER)

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

We're covering Biden's announcement of a wave of pardons. Plus, a question about state residency and running for office, and an update on the investigation into the Trump-Russia investigation.You can read today's podcast here, today’s “Under the Radar” story here, and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.Today’s clickables: Quick hits (2:25), Today’s story (3:45), Right’s take (7:52), Left’s take (12:48), Isaac’s take (17:15), Listener question (22;10), Under the Radar (24:26), Numbers (25:17), Have a nice day (25:55)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twas the season of chaos, and all through the house, not one person was stressing. Holla differently this year with DoorDash. Don't want to holla do the most? Holla don't. More festive, less frantic. Get deals for every occasion with DoorDash. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

Hello out there, wherever you are. Happy Friday. Welcome to the weekend. You are listening to the Tangle podcast. This is the voice of your friendly neighborhood producer, Trevor Eichhorn. Just wanted to drop in and preface today's episode, as many of the more observant and diligent among you noticed and wrote into us about. Monday, Indigenous Peoples Day, you had a newsletter, but not a podcast. Thank you for your patience in this, a little scheduling complication around the holiday, but we wanted to give you the content that you're owed. So here we are on the Friday feed, giving you Monday's newsletter. I'll let Isaac take it away. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place where you get views from across the political spectrum. Some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about President Biden's marijuana pardons. He made a pretty big splash on Thursday right before we headed into the weekend. Before we do, though, we have a correction from Friday's midterm primer. This one was annoying, as most corrections are.

But in our Friday edition, I mentioned that Evan McMullin, the former Republican turned independent candidate in Utah, was planning to caucus with the Democrats if he were elected. In fact, McMullin has said he was not planning to caucus with the Democrats if he were elected. In fact, McMullen has said he was not planning to caucus with Democrats or Republicans if he were elected. He was not going to caucus with any party. That's actually a pretty big anchor part of his campaign, something that I knew and I apologize for missing. I think we just lost a word there in that sentence. This is our 69th correction in Tangle's 166-week history, and our first correction since October 6th, which was just last week. I track corrections and place them at the top of the newsletter in an

effort to maximize transparency with our readers. All up, the Uvalde, Texas school district announced the suspension of its entire district police force five months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Number two, a bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula with mainland Russia was damaged and partially collapsed after a blast analysts believe was coordinated by the Ukrainian intelligence service. Three people were reported dead in the explosion. Russia responded by bombing Kiev and other major cities in Ukraine. Number three, state-run TV in Iran was momentarily hacked by protesters who projected images of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amid flames and with crosshairs over his face. Protesters have been clashing with police after the death

of Masa Amini, a woman who died in the custody of morality police for not covering her hair properly. Number four, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles in response to U.S.-Korean drills. It was the seventh such launch in recent days. Number five, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency over the approximately 17,000 asylum seekers who have been bused to the city from border states. Adams hopes the declaration will allow the city to build emergency response and relief centers. response and relief centers. All right, that is it for our quick hits, which brings us to today's main topic, which is Biden's marijuana pardons. On Thursday, in a surprise announcement, President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession. He also

announced a plan to review whether cannabis should continue to be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD. A quick reminder, a pardon is a kind of legal forgiveness issued by a president, but it is not the same as an expungement, which wipes something from a person's record. Pardons can reinstate the rights of individuals such as the right to vote, hold office, or sit on a jury. With the pardons, anyone convicted on a federal charge of simple possession will be cleared of that charge. Currently, possession of marijuana can be punished under federal law with up to one year in prison and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction. About 6,500 people have been convicted of federal charges of simple possession since 1992. That's according to

data cited by the White House. The pardons also affect anyone who was convicted in Washington, D.C., which could be an additional few thousand citizens. Since there are currently no people serving time in federal prisons solely for marijuana possession, the pardons won't free anyone from prison, but they will make it easier for those convicted of federal marijuana crimes to get jobs, housing, and federal benefits, as well as apply to college. Biden's proclamation comes after Republicans and Democrats in Congress who support decriminalizing cannabis failed to come to an agreement on legislation. The pardons will not apply to anyone convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. About half of all states in the U.S. have now legalized cannabis to some degree,

either recreationally, medicinally, or both, and about two-thirds of all Americans support legalization. 19 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, and about 37 have either legalized it for recreational or medicinal use. Meanwhile, two-thirds of all Americans support legalization. Since people convicted on state charges of marijuana possession drastically outnumber those convicted on federal charges, Biden urged governors to follow his lead. Sending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives for conduct that is legal in many states, Biden said on Twitter. That's before you address the clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction. Today, we begin to right these wrongs. While the pardon will immediately impact around 6,500 people, not including those arrested in

Washington, D.C., about 400,000 people are currently incarcerated on drug charges in the U.S. Approximately 67,000 of them are federal prisoners. In 2019, around 1.5 million people were arrested for drug charges, and about 545,000 of them were marijuana offenses. About 500,000 of those were for simple possession. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, estimates that over 14 million people have cannabis-related criminal records at the state or local level. Biden's announcement is another indication of the marked change in his position on the drug. As a senator, Biden helped pass a string of laws that led to mass incarceration, including the 1994 crime bill.

The right is divided on the move, with some warning it will worsen crime and others saying it will have a modest effect at best. Some argue that with crime soaring, Biden is sending the wrong signal on drug use. Others say Biden is reminding Republicans he can still flex his power even if he loses Congress. In the Wall Street Journal, William Bennett and Seth Leibson argued that the pardons will drive crime higher. If President Biden had really wanted to do something about the problems facing our cities and states, rising crime, addiction, and overdose deaths, he might have done something to prevent illegal drug use, they said. Instead, he chose to minimize the dangers of drug use by granting pardons for criminals convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. In doing so, Mr. Biden has sent the country the wrong signal at the wrong time. At best, the claim that the federal government is

upending lives for simple pot possession is a straw man. At worst, it's dishonest. White House officials claim the policy will affect 6,500 people with marijuana possession convictions reaching back to 1992. But even they had to admit on Friday that no one is currently serving time in federal prison solely for the crime of simple marijuana possession. The Biden administration is wrong if it thinks the federal government has been overreacting to illegal marijuana use. In fact, it is underreacting. Illegal drug use is a catalyst for crime, which has been rising even as states around the country have liberalized their marijuana use. In fact, it is underreacting. Illegal drug use is a catalyst for crime, which has been rising even as states around the country have liberalized their marijuana laws. The president should use his bully pulpit to prevent illegal drug use, not excuse it, they said.

Marijuana isn't the benign, non-addictive cure-all it is often held out to be. As the journal's Alicia Finley put it in a June column, a study last year found that young people with such mood disorders as depressions, who were also addicted to pot, were three-point times more likely to commit self-harm and die of homicide, often after initiating violence, than those who weren't. That's bad news. In Reason magazine, Jacob Solem called them long overdue,

but said they will have a modest impact. His blanket pardon for low-level marijuana offenders while long overdue but said they will have a modest impact. His blanket pardon for low-level marijuana offenders while long overdue will affect a small percentage of people with federal drug records, Sullum wrote. Without new legislation, marijuana use will remain a crime under federal law, as will growing and selling marijuana. And while rescheduling marijuana will make medical research easier, it will not make cannabis legally available to patients unless and until the Food and Drug Administration approves specific products as safe and effective. Biden's concern about the ancillary penalties associated with marijuana convictions and the racially disproportionate impact of the war on weed is welcome.

So is his willingness to use his plenary clemency powers to address those problems. But nearly all low-level marijuana cases are prosecuted under state law, and his pardons will have no impact on those, Solemn said. Biden urged governors to pardon simple state marijuana possession offenses, which would have a much broader effect but depends on their discretion. The moral logic of Biden's distinction between simple possession and other marijuana offenses is hard to follow. He says using marijuana should not be treated as a crime. If so, how can helping people use marijuana justify sending anyone to prison? And why should people convicted of assisting cannabis consumption be saddled with felony records for the rest of their lives? In the New York Sun, Dean Kariannis said the move was a reminder Biden will remain

a force in Washington even if Democrats lose Congress. Simple possession covers individuals caught with small amounts of drug for personal use, Karyanis wrote. Some of those convicted may have pled down to the charge, and the pardon is a blunt tool to free them all, but that is deep in the weeds of the issue, weeds where Republicans are now forced to fight. For all the talk of Mr. Biden's lame-duck status if a red wave delivers the House and Senate in November, the presidency will remain a co-equal branch invested with powers such as the pardon that ensure he'll remain a force to be reckoned with in Washington. Young voters who support recreational marijuana will be energized by the move, as they were by Mr. Biden's student loan

forgiveness, which, because of its dubious legal standing, he's been forced to shrink, but only after scoring that PR coup. So, Republicans are again left scrambling for a response. They can object on the grounds of law and order, trying to turn the Democratic mantra that nobody is above the law against them and they'll be right. Citing Mr. Biden's concerns as recently as the 2020 Democratic primaries that marijuana is a gateway drug, at a time when over 100,000 Americans are dying every year from fentanyl overdoses alone, would land a blow. But after 50 years of Cheech and Chong, pot is no longer seen as the evil weed of reefer madness, he said. Mr. Biden can count on the press and a Democratic base sympathetic to marijuana use heralding his move as the latter. Republican objections will just harsh their mellow. They'll

be the narcs bucking a compassionate commander-in-chief. Thursday's pardon are a reminder that even if Republicans take Congress, the president will still have the tools to smoke them. All right, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is supportive of the move, though some say it doesn't go far enough. Some argue that it's a good first step toward legalizing cannabis completely and clearing the records of other offenders. Others say it won't do enough to reverse the racial disparity in the criminalization of cannabis and drug crimes in general. The Washington Post editorial board said they hope the move boosts the effort to decriminalize marijuana.

It is not hard to detect the political calculation behind the decision likely to appeal to and motivate the young voters who could be key to Democrats winning. Yet it was also the right thing to do. Simple marijuana possession does not pose a serious threat to public safety, and users should not be hauled into the criminal justice system, the board said. In addition to his pardons of thousands of people with federal misdemeanor convictions for simple possession, not sale or distribution of marijuana, Mr. Biden offered a review of whether marijuana should continue to be classified as a Schedule I substance,

the same category as heroin and LSD. Opinion polls show that majorities of Americans favor releasing people in prison solely on marijuana-related charges and legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, the board said. States have taken notice. 19 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use, and 38 have legalized it for medical use. Five states, including Maryland, have legalization measures on their November ballots. Marijuana use is a public health challenge that the criminal justice system cannot solve and should not be asked to. We hope Mr. Biden's move advances the shift away from criminalization. In MSNBC, Nayara Huck said the move doesn't undo racist drug arrest

disparities. In one year, only 92 people were sentenced in federal prison for marijuana possession. The vast majority of drug-related federal prosecutions are for sale or trafficking, which has yet to be addressed, Huck said. Most people arrested for pot aren't taken in by federal agents, so policing and economic disparities remain highly localized issues. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, local police make more arrests for marijuana than for all other violent crimes combined. At the county level, in this era of booming marijuana businesses, black people are still nearly 50 times more likely to be arrested than white people for marijuana-related crime. Here is the buzzkill about Biden's limited federal action and review period.

It promises a future where marijuana use is normalized and regulated, where weed is a commodity bought and sold like any other, Huck wrote, but there is no suggestion of leveling the playing field by providing restitution for time spent in prison or helping minority communities grow legitimate cannabis businesses. Democrats in the Senate unveiled their wholesale marijuana reform approach in July, but the bill is on a long list behind other progressive priorities, such as voting rights and abortion protections. Presidential pardons don't correct the racial inequity of drug enforcement policy

or the emerging imbalance where 81% of legal marijuana business owners are white. In Rolling Stone, Miles Clee noted that conservatives are hardly phoning in their dissatisfaction with the announcement. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

Perhaps because the nation overwhelmingly believes that cannabis should be legal, and the issue doesn't stoke the culture war like matters of race, gender, and sexuality, the right-wing outrage machine had a mostly quiet reaction to these executive orders, Cleese said. Indeed, over the past year or so, several high-profile Republicans have actively pushed similar efforts. In May of 2021, Rep. Dave Joyce and Rep. Don Young of Ohio and Alaska proposed to take cannabis off the federal list of controlled substances. And last November, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a bill to decriminalize and regulate pot. The extreme conservatives, who did take a stab at condemning Dank Brandon, could barely muster a reason to be angry, Klee said. Senator Tom Cotton and Newsweek's right-wing

opinion editor Josh Hammer both took the line that many of the pardons were going to violent criminals who had pled down for much more serious charges. Neither was able to cite such a case. No, it looks like the GOP's heart isn't in this fight, and the best a few mouthpieces can do is cycle through the motions. It makes sense. The party's legislators have already seen the writing on the wall, and their constituents desire for an end to the prohibition of cannabis. Few would find any benefit to standing in the way, and that group of hardliners is rapidly dwindling. Alright, that is it for the left and the right's take, which brings us to my take. All right, that is it for the left and the right's take, which brings us to my take. Okay, so it's so weird doing this on a podcast.

This announcement's oddly personal for me. For obvious reasons, I don't talk about this very much in my professional career in a professional setting, but on days like today, it feels kind of worth revisiting. I dealt pot in college. I started smoking in my late teens, and when I was a sophomore in college and I was just becoming self-sufficient, a smoking buddy of mine offered to supply me with large quantities of weed I could sell to my friends. At the time, it felt like a pretty obvious arrangement. I was already buying pot regularly, and now I could sell it to people I knew, simultaneously becoming the cool guy who always had weed, while also making way more money more easily than I could make working a landscaping job or my student newspaper job. Of course,

the idiocy of it all wasn't obvious to me then, but I snapped to attention after an acquaintance of mine got busted during one of those routine cops crash college party night and I immediately swore off selling ever again after spending about a year in the game on a college campus. It took a couple more years and a stint of sobriety and a yeshiva right after college for me to realize I was actually happier and healthier and more productive when I wasn't smoking weed all the time. Still, though, I made a decision to sell pot, not because I needed to or would really benefit from it, but because I was greedy and too confident in my own street smarts to know better. I had a very high risk threshold and I was lucky that in the year or so that I was selling weed in college, I never got pulled over in my car or had my backpack searched. I was also lucky that the time my apartment's roof got painted and the maintenance guys found the weed plant I was growing up there,

they simply stole it rather than reporting me to my landlord or calling the cops. Pennsylvania's justice system would not have been kind to me. Many millions of other Americans over the last 60 years have not been as fortunate. Fundamentally, people should not be in jail, prohibited from voting, or be limited in their job and housing searches because of marijuana possession charges. But 6,500 people live with those restrictions, and I'm glad Biden is pardoning them. The reason the opposition from the right is so muted, as Klee put it, is that most Americans probably are glad too. There is growing recognition that hundreds of thousands of people are in jail

or have had their lives ruined over marijuana charges that most of us don't really care about. Obviously, because of my own personal story, I feel similarly, even about the people who distributed cannabis. This gets into trickier territory. The details of those cases are obviously very important. But at a time when you can walk into stores in 19 states and buy pot like it's candy while also buying up cannabis stock through your broker, the idea that people are in jail for

this is an injustice. Biden's federal pardon won't address that or help folks in prison with records on state charges. But as president, it's one of the few things he can do to nudge states to continue to relax their laws and give those arrested or incarcerated on marijuana charges the chance for the redemption they deserve. I also think it's smart politically. It isn't just something that will be supported by independent voters and Democrats, but also by a lot of the Trump-right Republicans and Libertarians whose position on this is much different from the more traditional establishment Republican view. To be clear, though, my position on decriminalization is separate from my position on legalization. I wrote a 4,000-word subscribers only post on this in November of 2021. The upshot of that piece is that my position on legalization

has changed dramatically over the last five or six years, almost entirely because of the research on the new, far more potent strains of cannabis that are now popular among people who use it. Simply put, this is not your mom and dad's weed anymore. It's orders of magnitude more potent, and the effects on the brain and body are similarly much different. The studies on regular pot use today associate it strongly with psychological and physical health concerns, and it's also clear that marijuana legalization at the state level leads to more problematic use among adults and teenagers. We should take those concerns seriously and continue to slow roll widespread recreational legalization as we learn more about the long-term effects. We should also be thinking seriously about how to limit the potency of cannabis products. Of course, even potent marijuana today should not

be treated like heroin. This is just to say that while I absolutely support decriminalizing cannabis, and I feel incredibly lucky that I never got into trouble when I was involved in marijuana crimes, and I also support expunging the records of those convicted of marijuana offenses, my feelings about legalization are far more complicated and uncertain. All right, that is it for my take. That brings us to your questions answered. This one is from Emily in Ohio. Emily said, I live in Ohio and I'm doing my research on our Senate candidates before the midterms. Something that stands out to me is the fact that J.D. Vance has primarily Emily said, If this person is supposed to be representing me and my state, shouldn't they have lived there for longer than during the time of the election? What are your thoughts?

So honestly, it doesn't bother me that much. I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and I lived in Hamilton until I was five. Then I lived right across the river in Yardley, Pennsylvania from the age of five to 18 before moving to Pittsburgh for college. And then I lived in New York for about a decade. Now, I'm back in Philadelphia. If I wanted, I think I'm perfectly qualified, you know, just from a residency standpoint, to run for office in either New York if I move back tomorrow, or Philadelphia, and maybe even in a few places in New Jersey along the Delaware River. I know those states intimately, and I think I have a very good grasp of their issues and the concerns of their constituents there. I also think having

experience living in multiple places is a strength. To me, that's a good thing. For instance, my personal experience can let me see things like how terrible New York City's parking rules and regulations are compared to Philadelphia's, while it also shows me how bad Philadelphia's public transportation system is compared to New York City's. If I were J.D. Vance, I'd emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of Ohio that I've learned by spending time in other places. I'd frame it as an asset, not a weakness, and I think I'd be right to. On the flip side, of course, carpetbagging has a negative connotation for a reason. We have seen politicians seek political office in places where they have no connection simply because they viewed it as an opportunity to get elected. That, I believe, should be rejected because serving constituents requires

understanding the environment that they live in. Still, I think Vance's Ohio credentials are plenty, and even though Ryan may have spent more time there, I think Vance is well above the minimal threshold of Ohioan to be running for Senate. Alright, that is it for your questions answered. Next up is our under-the-radar section. The investigation into the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe is set to wind down as the second trial begins. In this trial, special counsel John Durham is expected to testify about the role a Washington, D.C.-based analyst named Igor Danchenko played in the spreading of an opposition dossier about Trump. Danchenko has been charged on five counts of making false statements to the FBI about where he got his information. Throughout his three-year inquiry, Mr. Durham's office has attempted to

build the case that allies of Hillary Clinton intentionally provided the FBI with inaccurate and damaging information about Trump and Russia to damage his campaign. The Wall Street Journal has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of people currently incarcerated in state prisons in America is 1,042,000. The number of people currently incarcerated in local jails in America is 547,000. The number of people currently incarcerated in federal prisons and jails in America is 208,000. The estimated number of drug possession arrests police make each year over the last decade is about 1 million. Since 1965, the number of Americans who have been

arrested for marijuana-related offenses is 29 million. Alright, that is it for our numbers section. Last but not least, our have a nice day story. At 86 years old, Toshisuke Kanazawa just became the oldest person to compete in a Japanese bodybuilding competition. Kanazawa took part in the 68th edition of the men's bodybuilding championships in Osaka, breaking his own record for oldest competitor. I'm grateful for just being able to participate, he said. I hope I can reach the hearts of others when they see me take on a challenge, even in old age. He started bodybuilding at the age of 20 and won the Japanese championships for

the first time when he was 24. After the competition, he told reporters he wanted to compete until he was 90. And I'd like to set myself as an example to the other grandpas and grandmas in the world by living healthy until 100, he said. The Mainichi newspaper has the story and there's a link to it in today's episode description. So thank you for listening. Thanks as always for your support. If you feel you have a little extra support to give this weekend and you're not yet a paid subscriber of the Tangle newsletter, do us a favor. Just visit retangle.com slash membership.

Give it a try. See how it feels. You'll get that Friday newsletter. Always a unique and fascinating perspective and a little bit of a different angle than you get on the Monday through Thursday editions. Otherwise, do all the usual stuff. Tell your friends about us. Rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts if you haven't yet. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. We'll see you either Sunday or Monday. We may have an interview to drop for you on Sunday. But in any case, have a wonderful weekend.

Toodaloo. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Sean Brady,

and Bailey Saul. Shout out to our interns, Audrey Moorhead and Watkins Kelly, and our social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who designed our logo. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our website at www.readtangle.com. The faster money and data move, the further your business can go to a seamless digital future for Canadians.

Let's go faster forward together. In life, interact. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.