She mixed Christianity and politics. Trump and his supporters don’t support that.
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I wasn’t thrilled with Biden pardoning several people but glad he pardoned Leonard Peltier.
All the federal government staff working on DEI initiatives have been put on administrative leave.
In related news, the first ever female head of a branch of the US military - Admiral Linda Lee Fagan who has headed the US Coast Guard since 2022 - was fired by Trump for reasons.
Presidential pardon power - like so much else in government as we are finding out from the Trump stress test - was given assuming that the person elected by the American people would not be a complete cunt.
There have been minor abuses by presidents here and there, but Trump pardoned those who helped him cheat in the 2016 election and pardoned thousands who tried to overturn the 2020 election by force. Some of these things are not like the others.
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He didn’t pardon Peltier, he commuted his sentence so that he spends his last days in house arrest. He’s 80. He did murder two peace officers, so commutation was probably proper.
I don’t mind Biden pardoning his family, it saves grief that wouldn’t occur if anyone but Trump was president.
Lost in the mess of pardons by Trump was that Trump effectively pardoned himself.
ETA: apparently Trump did not pardon himself. I’m usually more careful than that.
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Biden commuted the sentences of all-but three of the federal death row inmates to life without parole. They all did horrific things, but they’ll never get out (unless Trump pardons them). The three he left facing the death penalty are a Boston marathon bomber, the Church of Life shooter and the Charleston church shooter.
One of the very first things Trump did was remove the moratorium on federal executions. Those execution boners aren’t going to erect themselves, after all. Biden left him with only three, who even the most ardent death penalty abolitionists can’t argue don’t have it coming.
My old boss used to have me pick up the check whenever we were entertaining clients because that way he could approve my expenses instead of him having to get one of the c-suite to approve his.
Trump uses the pardon power in the same way.
I knew that someone would correct me.
Checks and balances.
Leonard Peltier has long maintained his innocence. Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner who was not granted a fair trial. Notable figures, such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, also said he was wrongly imprisoned.
As well as the prosecutor who had him convicted.
I do. I am from the “don’t sink to his level” school. Other good friends of mine, like you, support pardoning Hunter.
I support pardoning Hunter because he plead guilty and made full restitution for his crimes. The only reason his case wasn’t over was because Trump wanted it for political gain.
In a way, this is what the presidential pardon is intended to do: allow the president to correct the inappropriate use of prosecutorial power. It just feels wrong when it’s the president’s family (and because the need for it is so craven and ugly), while the needs of others facing far worse fates for far less serious crimes go unremarked.
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Where have I heard that before?
Just depends on whose ox is being gored, as many have said before I.
Of course. The whole point of (what I understand to be) the rationale behind pardon power is that the law and fairness sometimes can be so far apart that common sense has to step in. Like pornography, you know a pardon-worthy candidate when you see it. This is why it only works when welded by moral people.
Speaking of pardons…
Trump has granted a full and unconditional pardon to dark web drug kingpin, founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht was serving life +40 years for narcotics trafficking, illegal gun sales, fake I.D sales, and internet hacking services, which resulted in at least six deaths. Oh, Trump also called the U.S. Justice department officials who prosecuted Ulbricht “scum”.
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As do I, my great friend. As do I.
Quite the headline.
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Trump “truthed” about the Russia-Ukraine war, so that’s that fixed then
He also “truthed” about how nasty Rev. Mariann Budde is following her telling him about the teachings of Jesus. So if you were wondering how the Christian Right would react to Jesus if he came back today: they’d hold him down while the nails are driven as Pontius Trump pardons criminals.
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