"A good “what about” response might be “That was bad and so is this — two things can be bad,” but some Democrats might demure out of loyalty or embarrassment."
No - "fuck you, you know that's not the same, dipshit" is the correct answer.
Can we stop apologizing for ourselves for ten fucking seconds? We're not getting any "credit" for it, I promise you. For every person who hears "wow, they're so intellectually honest," there are three who hear "wow, even they won't defend themselves." Stop campaigning by virtue signaling to ourselves!
Who is "ourselves" though? There are *factions* within each of the major parties, and some that cut across parties. You can disown the idiot progressive staffers who ran the Biden admin without saying every Democrat is bad.
Reagan's 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." How is our circular firing squad, made up in equal measures of the of self-righteous and the self-flagellating, supposed to compete with that?
Why don't people on the left even TRY to care about politics, instead of repeating a narrow conception of what is "right" over and over again, without taking any sidesteps to actually move toward their goals? Could you imagine how absolutely screwed Republicans would be if they presented themselves that way?
And if they don't "know it's not the same" it's because writers like Jeff keep casually speaking as if it is. Remember: "Wow, even they won't defend themselves."
It's really hard to think of anything more useless for political popularity, or even deleterious to it, than intellectual honesty, but we're OBSESSED with it.
do you have an actual defense of biden's pardon of hunter or do you just think democrats should adopt a general posture of refusal to admit wrongdoing by other democrats
It’s not a denial of wrongdoing, it’s calling the idea of comparing two things that are not comparable stupid, rather than indulge the comparison with analysis.
I suppose if I wanted to expound “a guy took a no-show job exploiting his family name and used the money on hookers and blow. Trump sold pardons to predators and frauds for millions, and has grifted billions with crypto scams and market manipulation. He is in constant violation of the emoluments clause in the constitution and according the founders he should be impeached and removed from office for it.”
I think it’s bad. It’s a matter of rhetorical focus. To say “oh, but of course I must mention MY sins” gets you literally nothing in terms of persuasion - it’s pure self-flattery. I don’t know how many more elections Republicans have to win, while never admitting any faults, for people to realize that.
This is all assuming you care about the party’s health and are engaging with the topic from that angle. If it happens that you don’t like Democrats and don’t want them to win elections then this is not going to be an argument that is aimed at you, at all, so I don’t expect you to be receptive to it.
Probably because that would invite uncomfortable questions about how Biden happened, which implicate a bunch of people who worked for him or defended him. I agree that would be best, though.
That was supposed to be the fucking response when Biden made indefensible pardons before his term ended. It’s amazing how much easier it is to criticize corruption and poor character when you already do the same to your own side. Each side skills be rooting out its own corruption. That they don’t is laziness, stupidity, or graft.
The vast majority of them were people who were old or infirm and crucially, had already been let out of jail during COVID. These got Biden some bad headlines, but we’re talking about people who were already dying at home. I think justice has been done.
Hunter Biden was convicted in a charge that’s already been ruled unconstitutional in 2 federal circuits. A charge that is rarely ever prosecuted anyway. The DOJ wanted to make an example of him and did. What did Joe do here except speed things along since the case would inevitably be dismissed on appeal?
The rest of the pardons, for Fauci, etc, look pretty smart in retrospect given that Trump has been personally directing his lackeys to go after anyone and everyone who pissed him off. All the cases that make it past the grand jury are being dismissed because these people are as incompetent as they are vindictive, but is that a *fair* outcome? Do you want to tell Mark Milley “look, there’s no evidence you did anything wrong, but you’re just gonna have to submit to the terror of the justice system because otherwise we won’t be able to criticize Trump as effectively to certain cynical assholes on internet message boards”? Be my guest.
It should be, Biden has no power anymore, it should be easy to throw him under the bus. Democrats will still clutch defeat from the jaws of victory though.
Congress already has oversight of pardons - it's impeachment. Unfortunately separation of powers only works if Congress's members (and the judiciary) aren't servile cowards.
You undersell the degree to which Democrat reactions to the Biden pardons have killed any hope you might have of getting Trump with this. I used to care about things of this nature but then Biden started granting blanket Pardons to his son for any crime of any sort, and Democrats were happy to shut up and say nothing. Why Biden was gone and done and can do nothing for you, yet I couldnt get so much as a half hearted word out of Nancy, Hakeem, Chuck, any of them.
So we are just done with this. If Hunters pardon gets to stand up and not a single Democrat will lift a finger to help reverse or condemn it then I, as a voter, citizen and long time Republican give up. IF these are the new rules then so be it. There shall be one rule for all and Presidents can do whatever they want with the Pardon including sell them on Etsy for all I care.
Feel free to explain here why its (D)ifferent in the Biden case then here, but I will just laugh and get out my Bingo card of Team Blue Orange Man Bad talking points and see if I can get a full black out out of whatever 500 words youd think to write back. Hunter Biden and Henry whats his name sound like they both belong in jail. You can have both of them or neither of them it seems.
I think we can still adhere to the standard of “Neither party ought to do this; this is bad.” You’re right that it doesn’t give the Dems much moral standing to do it, but if one were to repent and say “The Hunter pardon was bad; I repent of not saying anything then,” then maybe we could get somewhere. But true repentance is hard.
I don’t think the answer is to give up and just let each side do it. It’s still bad, and we should still hold elected officials accountable for it.
The Democrats' blind embrace and loyalty to Biden is the most harmful political decision since the Iraq War. Made them look incompetent and unprincipled in a way that would allow for Trump to create a "both sides" discussion where there shouldn't be one.
CZ paid a $4.3 billion fine. His crime was “not preventing money laundering” on his crypto platform. Which, if you understand crypto is very hard if not impossible to do. Of course, he expected Cuellar to flip Republican. It seems stupid of Cuellar to not do that. Cuellar was punished by the Democrats with selective enforcement/lawfare when Cuellar complained about the flood of illegal immigration. As far J6 pardons, they deserved to be pardoned and are you saying he took a bribe to do that? From whom? It sounds like you have a mutated form of TDS.
He said that T at the very least pardons his supporters, not that they all paid him off - of course the J6 rioters didn’t. But why exactly did they deserve to be pardoned? Breaking into government buildings and attacking police officers isn’t a crime?The only TDS is that of his supporters who somehow are unable to see that T is deranged - and a grifter to boot.
If someone tells me "many of the J6 people are being unfairly prosecuted, and here's a list of people that I think have either already paid their debts, or whose crimes were so low level that they need to be freed and moved on" I'll give them a listen. Maybe I disagree but they've clearly applied thought and work to the issue.
If someone says "blanket pardon for all" then nah.
Ed, many of the J6 defendants were in prison for up to years in deplorable conditions described as similar to Abu Ghraib. Most not being given a trial, some not even a hearing. There were no police killed that day, only protesters. While perhaps fairly prosecuted, not prosecuted fairly, and deserving of relief. BTW, how about equal justice? Compare their treatment to that of BLM protesters and many others.
I didn't say anything about cops. I get you're excited to talk about no cops dying, you responded to one comment 4 times in 20 minutes to go on about it.
> Compare their treatment to that of BLM protesters and many others
There have been many prosecutions of BLM rioters. They don't make the news as much, but there are dozens of people in jail right now from them.
Also, the BLM rioters did a lot of their rioting at night, instead of broad daylight while live-streaming their actions.
There's no "fairness" that when a group of people make their crimes extremely public and easy to prosecute that we have to go find another bunch of people somewhere and prosecute them.
Here's an article whining about the unfair prosecutions of the BLM "protestors" and how the media paints the didn't-do-nothing-wrong people as monsters. It sounds really really familiar, like I read something with the opposite polarity very recently. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-lives-matter-protesters-felony-charges
A cop died of a stroke the next day, his death ruled from “natural causes”. The news originally reported he was hit in the head by a protester and was killed on Jan6 but that was a lie/disinformation The other cops that “died in connection with J6” were ruled to have died of suicide. The only people that dies on Jan 6 were protesters, the most notable of which was Ashley Babbitt. Babbitt was not attacking or even threatening a police officer. Nonetheless a cowardly police officer shot her in the neck. Said police officer never went to trial. Anyone on this Substack recall a protester being shot by an enforcement officer since Kent State where Vietnam War protesters were gunned down?
Ashley Babbitt was part of a mob that appeared to be hunting for Congresspeople and refused repeated commands to stop moving towards a barricade defended by multiple armed people.
She died of the same thing Michael Brown did--terminal stupidity. I have no sympathy.
> “not preventing money laundering” on his crypto platform. Which, if you understand crypto is very hard if not impossible to do
Believe it or not, you can't just set up a business that makes regulatory compliance impossible and then say you don't have to comply with the law because it's too hard.
True. But the guy did not directly harm anyone and paid a $4 billion+ fine. The pardon was likely part of a settlement agreement not a quid pro bribe to Trump to pardon him. (as the article suggests).
I think you've said why Democrats won't go hard after this (maybe one or two individuals might); the power of the pardon is something they, too, want to exercise. If they slam Trump over "you pardoned Guy Who Did You Favour and Drug Guy and Crypto Guy", they leave themselves wide open to accusations of hypocrisy when they're in power and want to pardon Favour Guy, Drug Guy and Crypto Guy themselves.
"It's different when *we* do it" wears out as an excuse after the first five hundred times. Hunter's pardon is egregious, but Joe also signed (or at least the autopen did) blanket pardons for family members for "anything you might have done, might be doing, or might be going to do" which is really abusing the power.
Though by this stage, any faith I had in politicians (of any country or government) being honourable has long burned to ash.
"It relates to an actual thing Congress can do — investigate the president — which is close to the only thing a Democratic House would be able to do."
Yeah. The only problem there is that the majority of people would react to that with "Oh no, they're trying to impeach him *again*? How many times does that make? Who cares, it'll go the same way as all the other charges they've tried to pin on him, what's new and good on streaming for me to watch?" A few years back, on another social media site I follow, there was a guy *constantly* confidently foretelling about each new political charge that "this time, for sure, Trump is going to jail". The one that finally led to him flaming out was a statement that "by this time next week, Trump will be in prison, there's no escaping this time". Needless to say, he got the life mocked out of him by everyone when the time came and went and Trump was nowhere near a jail, to the point he cursed us all and flounced off.
I'm expecting, if it ever happens, a Democrat-inspired investigation into Trump's alleged abuse of the presidential pardon to go the same way.
The thing about Biden's blanket pardons for family members not named Hunter is that they can be viewed, rightfully or not, as a shield against lawfare. Given everything we know about Trump, I'd want to provide my family a shield against bullshit charges, too.
He should've let Hunter go to jail, though. He earned that time the honest way, no excuse for letting him off the hook
"Wasn't a piece of shit dad who let his son go to prison for crimes nobody goes to prison for, because of political persecution" is not something I will ever blame Joe Biden for.
If the rest of us can't make that argument for him, well, fuck us. I'm not sure how a party can expect to win when its supporters don't support it.
I really think Joe Biden loves Hunter an absolutely insane amount, even by "parent loving their child" standards, not least because he is the last remnant of his "original" family with his late wife and Beau. (BTW, Hunter sustained a significant TBI in the accident that killed Biden's wife and it's almost certainly what made him how he is, in contrast with his all-American brother.)
Eh, I think people do go to jail for prostitution, drugs, and guns, though? Hunter is not in danger of being charged for being Joe Biden's son, it's all the genuine crap he got up to (and hadn't the brains to not splash all over the Internet).
The lawfare thing is one of those "six of one, half a dozen of the other" questions. Bit late to get all precious about "oh no, retaliatory bullshit charges?" when they were pulling at the leash to try and find something to convict Trump/his family on.
Don't get me wrong, I think they're all grubby, but that's the whole point: they're *all* grubby.
> Eh, I think people do go to jail for prostitution, drugs, and guns, though
He was convinced of lying about using drugs on a background check form. As Miles mentioned, this crime is nearly never pursued, and when it is, it’s an add on charge for when you commit a crime with a gun.
He was effectively charged with “being Joe Biden’s son”.
Yeah, the blanket pardons weren't just to family, but to government officials whose lives could be ruined by Trump's DOD going on fishing expeditions based on Twitter conspiracy theories.
Hunter was never going to jail. The statute he was convinced of has already been overturned in 2 federal circuit courts. He was going to have the sentence dropped on appeal, but at great expense.
How could the Democrats possibly make Trump pay? They could impeach him (again, but that will just make it clear how powerless they actually are), or they could try to jail him after he leaves office (unlikely to work, pardons are clearly an exercise in Presidential power, it's explicitly listed in the constitution). Trump doesn't (seemingly) give two shits about the Republican Party or anyone else who isn't him, so if the consequences don't fall on him, what does it matter?
Your suggestion is actually Democrats should make Republicans pay for supporting Trump for using his pardons, but I'm not sure I've seen a lot of that as opposed to Republicans not coming out against the current Republican President exercising his constitutional authority. And the Republican can come back against any Democrat very legitimately with that ad almost exactly the same tying them to Biden's pardons. (Is Trump's worse? I don't know, it's clearly very bad, but if Biden's actually were done as has been alleged, than that represents unelected officials seizing control of this presidential authority, as well as using pardons to possibly stop anyone from uncovering additional crimes, those crimes being as bad as your imagination allows).
Maybe, these two presidents being so egregious in using this power for bad purposes, will lead to bipartisan support for a constitutional amendment limiting the pardon. I just don't think it's good attack ad material, unless it drops with no time for a response.
I wonder if Trump is trying to best Pa Fergusons record as Texas Governor for selling pardons. "Pa" and his wife "Ma" were so out of control the Texas legislature changed to whole system.
Which, of course, taking a cue from his orange bestie, our current Texas Governor Abbott has ignored. And our Republican dominated legislature just yawns.....
Is political corruption what people are reacting to when they talk about being "tough on crime"? They're talking more about muggers than Trump pardons or Enron or whatever. Attacking Trump's corruption will not help the democrats be considered "tough on crime" as people actually use the term
Look, Jeff: There was nothing wrong with Earth Girls Are Easy.
"A good “what about” response might be “That was bad and so is this — two things can be bad,” but some Democrats might demure out of loyalty or embarrassment."
No - "fuck you, you know that's not the same, dipshit" is the correct answer.
Can we stop apologizing for ourselves for ten fucking seconds? We're not getting any "credit" for it, I promise you. For every person who hears "wow, they're so intellectually honest," there are three who hear "wow, even they won't defend themselves." Stop campaigning by virtue signaling to ourselves!
Who is "ourselves" though? There are *factions* within each of the major parties, and some that cut across parties. You can disown the idiot progressive staffers who ran the Biden admin without saying every Democrat is bad.
And no, they don't "know that's not the same".
Reagan's 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." How is our circular firing squad, made up in equal measures of the of self-righteous and the self-flagellating, supposed to compete with that?
Why don't people on the left even TRY to care about politics, instead of repeating a narrow conception of what is "right" over and over again, without taking any sidesteps to actually move toward their goals? Could you imagine how absolutely screwed Republicans would be if they presented themselves that way?
And if they don't "know it's not the same" it's because writers like Jeff keep casually speaking as if it is. Remember: "Wow, even they won't defend themselves."
It's really hard to think of anything more useless for political popularity, or even deleterious to it, than intellectual honesty, but we're OBSESSED with it.
do you have an actual defense of biden's pardon of hunter or do you just think democrats should adopt a general posture of refusal to admit wrongdoing by other democrats
It’s not a denial of wrongdoing, it’s calling the idea of comparing two things that are not comparable stupid, rather than indulge the comparison with analysis.
I suppose if I wanted to expound “a guy took a no-show job exploiting his family name and used the money on hookers and blow. Trump sold pardons to predators and frauds for millions, and has grifted billions with crypto scams and market manipulation. He is in constant violation of the emoluments clause in the constitution and according the founders he should be impeached and removed from office for it.”
so to clarify do you think it is bad or good for democrats to say that it was bad to pardon hunter biden for tax fraud
I think it’s bad. It’s a matter of rhetorical focus. To say “oh, but of course I must mention MY sins” gets you literally nothing in terms of persuasion - it’s pure self-flattery. I don’t know how many more elections Republicans have to win, while never admitting any faults, for people to realize that.
This is all assuming you care about the party’s health and are engaging with the topic from that angle. If it happens that you don’t like Democrats and don’t want them to win elections then this is not going to be an argument that is aimed at you, at all, so I don’t expect you to be receptive to it.
Why can’t the answer to “what about Hunter?” be to throw Biden under the bus?
I'm happy to throw Biden under the bus.
What was the question again?
Probably because that would invite uncomfortable questions about how Biden happened, which implicate a bunch of people who worked for him or defended him. I agree that would be best, though.
That was supposed to be the fucking response when Biden made indefensible pardons before his term ended. It’s amazing how much easier it is to criticize corruption and poor character when you already do the same to your own side. Each side skills be rooting out its own corruption. That they don’t is laziness, stupidity, or graft.
It’s not hard to defend them at all.
The vast majority of them were people who were old or infirm and crucially, had already been let out of jail during COVID. These got Biden some bad headlines, but we’re talking about people who were already dying at home. I think justice has been done.
Hunter Biden was convicted in a charge that’s already been ruled unconstitutional in 2 federal circuits. A charge that is rarely ever prosecuted anyway. The DOJ wanted to make an example of him and did. What did Joe do here except speed things along since the case would inevitably be dismissed on appeal?
The rest of the pardons, for Fauci, etc, look pretty smart in retrospect given that Trump has been personally directing his lackeys to go after anyone and everyone who pissed him off. All the cases that make it past the grand jury are being dismissed because these people are as incompetent as they are vindictive, but is that a *fair* outcome? Do you want to tell Mark Milley “look, there’s no evidence you did anything wrong, but you’re just gonna have to submit to the terror of the justice system because otherwise we won’t be able to criticize Trump as effectively to certain cynical assholes on internet message boards”? Be my guest.
It should be, Biden has no power anymore, it should be easy to throw him under the bus. Democrats will still clutch defeat from the jaws of victory though.
"Pardon pipeline." That's the phrase. It's short, punchy, alliterative, and easily digestible.
Congress already has oversight of pardons - it's impeachment. Unfortunately separation of powers only works if Congress's members (and the judiciary) aren't servile cowards.
You undersell the degree to which Democrat reactions to the Biden pardons have killed any hope you might have of getting Trump with this. I used to care about things of this nature but then Biden started granting blanket Pardons to his son for any crime of any sort, and Democrats were happy to shut up and say nothing. Why Biden was gone and done and can do nothing for you, yet I couldnt get so much as a half hearted word out of Nancy, Hakeem, Chuck, any of them.
So we are just done with this. If Hunters pardon gets to stand up and not a single Democrat will lift a finger to help reverse or condemn it then I, as a voter, citizen and long time Republican give up. IF these are the new rules then so be it. There shall be one rule for all and Presidents can do whatever they want with the Pardon including sell them on Etsy for all I care.
Feel free to explain here why its (D)ifferent in the Biden case then here, but I will just laugh and get out my Bingo card of Team Blue Orange Man Bad talking points and see if I can get a full black out out of whatever 500 words youd think to write back. Hunter Biden and Henry whats his name sound like they both belong in jail. You can have both of them or neither of them it seems.
Choose what you want then.
I think we can still adhere to the standard of “Neither party ought to do this; this is bad.” You’re right that it doesn’t give the Dems much moral standing to do it, but if one were to repent and say “The Hunter pardon was bad; I repent of not saying anything then,” then maybe we could get somewhere. But true repentance is hard.
I don’t think the answer is to give up and just let each side do it. It’s still bad, and we should still hold elected officials accountable for it.
As long as Democrats and Biden go first, I'm on board.
Biden was widely criticized for this. Since you are unaware and didn’t bother to check, that makes you a liar.
The Democrats' blind embrace and loyalty to Biden is the most harmful political decision since the Iraq War. Made them look incompetent and unprincipled in a way that would allow for Trump to create a "both sides" discussion where there shouldn't be one.
Okay, I don't know why, but "goddamn 1980s adding machine" had me in helpless giggles for, like, five minutes straight.
CZ paid a $4.3 billion fine. His crime was “not preventing money laundering” on his crypto platform. Which, if you understand crypto is very hard if not impossible to do. Of course, he expected Cuellar to flip Republican. It seems stupid of Cuellar to not do that. Cuellar was punished by the Democrats with selective enforcement/lawfare when Cuellar complained about the flood of illegal immigration. As far J6 pardons, they deserved to be pardoned and are you saying he took a bribe to do that? From whom? It sounds like you have a mutated form of TDS.
He said that T at the very least pardons his supporters, not that they all paid him off - of course the J6 rioters didn’t. But why exactly did they deserve to be pardoned? Breaking into government buildings and attacking police officers isn’t a crime?The only TDS is that of his supporters who somehow are unable to see that T is deranged - and a grifter to boot.
If someone tells me "many of the J6 people are being unfairly prosecuted, and here's a list of people that I think have either already paid their debts, or whose crimes were so low level that they need to be freed and moved on" I'll give them a listen. Maybe I disagree but they've clearly applied thought and work to the issue.
If someone says "blanket pardon for all" then nah.
Ed, many of the J6 defendants were in prison for up to years in deplorable conditions described as similar to Abu Ghraib. Most not being given a trial, some not even a hearing. There were no police killed that day, only protesters. While perhaps fairly prosecuted, not prosecuted fairly, and deserving of relief. BTW, how about equal justice? Compare their treatment to that of BLM protesters and many others.
> described as similar to Abu Ghraib
Many people are saying this!
> There were no police killed that day,
I didn't say anything about cops. I get you're excited to talk about no cops dying, you responded to one comment 4 times in 20 minutes to go on about it.
> Compare their treatment to that of BLM protesters and many others
There have been many prosecutions of BLM rioters. They don't make the news as much, but there are dozens of people in jail right now from them.
Also, the BLM rioters did a lot of their rioting at night, instead of broad daylight while live-streaming their actions.
There's no "fairness" that when a group of people make their crimes extremely public and easy to prosecute that we have to go find another bunch of people somewhere and prosecute them.
Here's an article whining about the unfair prosecutions of the BLM "protestors" and how the media paints the didn't-do-nothing-wrong people as monsters. It sounds really really familiar, like I read something with the opposite polarity very recently. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-lives-matter-protesters-felony-charges
Yes, cops were hurt,
Cops died because of J6.
Any cops who aren't outraged by those J6 pardons are scum and traitors to the rule of law.
And that opinion is universally shared by the law enforcement members of my family.....
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Don’t believe me. Read what The NY Times had to say.
A cop died of a stroke the next day, his death ruled from “natural causes”. The news originally reported he was hit in the head by a protester and was killed on Jan6 but that was a lie/disinformation The other cops that “died in connection with J6” were ruled to have died of suicide. The only people that dies on Jan 6 were protesters, the most notable of which was Ashley Babbitt. Babbitt was not attacking or even threatening a police officer. Nonetheless a cowardly police officer shot her in the neck. Said police officer never went to trial. Anyone on this Substack recall a protester being shot by an enforcement officer since Kent State where Vietnam War protesters were gunned down?
Ashley Babbitt was part of a mob that appeared to be hunting for Congresspeople and refused repeated commands to stop moving towards a barricade defended by multiple armed people.
She died of the same thing Michael Brown did--terminal stupidity. I have no sympathy.
Sorry but according to The NY Times cops did not die because of Jan 6. Trump supporters did though.
> “not preventing money laundering” on his crypto platform. Which, if you understand crypto is very hard if not impossible to do
Believe it or not, you can't just set up a business that makes regulatory compliance impossible and then say you don't have to comply with the law because it's too hard.
True. But the guy did not directly harm anyone and paid a $4 billion+ fine. The pardon was likely part of a settlement agreement not a quid pro bribe to Trump to pardon him. (as the article suggests).
The $4 billion was the fine, but there was also $2 billion got invested into a Trump stable coin.
Let me put this in language people like you understand: You're a retard.
I think you've said why Democrats won't go hard after this (maybe one or two individuals might); the power of the pardon is something they, too, want to exercise. If they slam Trump over "you pardoned Guy Who Did You Favour and Drug Guy and Crypto Guy", they leave themselves wide open to accusations of hypocrisy when they're in power and want to pardon Favour Guy, Drug Guy and Crypto Guy themselves.
"It's different when *we* do it" wears out as an excuse after the first five hundred times. Hunter's pardon is egregious, but Joe also signed (or at least the autopen did) blanket pardons for family members for "anything you might have done, might be doing, or might be going to do" which is really abusing the power.
Though by this stage, any faith I had in politicians (of any country or government) being honourable has long burned to ash.
"It relates to an actual thing Congress can do — investigate the president — which is close to the only thing a Democratic House would be able to do."
Yeah. The only problem there is that the majority of people would react to that with "Oh no, they're trying to impeach him *again*? How many times does that make? Who cares, it'll go the same way as all the other charges they've tried to pin on him, what's new and good on streaming for me to watch?" A few years back, on another social media site I follow, there was a guy *constantly* confidently foretelling about each new political charge that "this time, for sure, Trump is going to jail". The one that finally led to him flaming out was a statement that "by this time next week, Trump will be in prison, there's no escaping this time". Needless to say, he got the life mocked out of him by everyone when the time came and went and Trump was nowhere near a jail, to the point he cursed us all and flounced off.
I'm expecting, if it ever happens, a Democrat-inspired investigation into Trump's alleged abuse of the presidential pardon to go the same way.
The thing about Biden's blanket pardons for family members not named Hunter is that they can be viewed, rightfully or not, as a shield against lawfare. Given everything we know about Trump, I'd want to provide my family a shield against bullshit charges, too.
He should've let Hunter go to jail, though. He earned that time the honest way, no excuse for letting him off the hook
"Wasn't a piece of shit dad who let his son go to prison for crimes nobody goes to prison for, because of political persecution" is not something I will ever blame Joe Biden for.
If the rest of us can't make that argument for him, well, fuck us. I'm not sure how a party can expect to win when its supporters don't support it.
I really think Joe Biden loves Hunter an absolutely insane amount, even by "parent loving their child" standards, not least because he is the last remnant of his "original" family with his late wife and Beau. (BTW, Hunter sustained a significant TBI in the accident that killed Biden's wife and it's almost certainly what made him how he is, in contrast with his all-American brother.)
Eh, I think people do go to jail for prostitution, drugs, and guns, though? Hunter is not in danger of being charged for being Joe Biden's son, it's all the genuine crap he got up to (and hadn't the brains to not splash all over the Internet).
The lawfare thing is one of those "six of one, half a dozen of the other" questions. Bit late to get all precious about "oh no, retaliatory bullshit charges?" when they were pulling at the leash to try and find something to convict Trump/his family on.
Don't get me wrong, I think they're all grubby, but that's the whole point: they're *all* grubby.
> Eh, I think people do go to jail for prostitution, drugs, and guns, though
He was convinced of lying about using drugs on a background check form. As Miles mentioned, this crime is nearly never pursued, and when it is, it’s an add on charge for when you commit a crime with a gun.
He was effectively charged with “being Joe Biden’s son”.
Yeah, the blanket pardons weren't just to family, but to government officials whose lives could be ruined by Trump's DOD going on fishing expeditions based on Twitter conspiracy theories.
Hunter was never going to jail. The statute he was convinced of has already been overturned in 2 federal circuit courts. He was going to have the sentence dropped on appeal, but at great expense.
"A writ of Oh, fuck it.....".
LOL times infinity!
It's going to be a good day!
This one had me laughing. I'd definitely nominate it for inclusion on the Top 25 Jeff Maurer Posts of 2025 list.
How could the Democrats possibly make Trump pay? They could impeach him (again, but that will just make it clear how powerless they actually are), or they could try to jail him after he leaves office (unlikely to work, pardons are clearly an exercise in Presidential power, it's explicitly listed in the constitution). Trump doesn't (seemingly) give two shits about the Republican Party or anyone else who isn't him, so if the consequences don't fall on him, what does it matter?
Your suggestion is actually Democrats should make Republicans pay for supporting Trump for using his pardons, but I'm not sure I've seen a lot of that as opposed to Republicans not coming out against the current Republican President exercising his constitutional authority. And the Republican can come back against any Democrat very legitimately with that ad almost exactly the same tying them to Biden's pardons. (Is Trump's worse? I don't know, it's clearly very bad, but if Biden's actually were done as has been alleged, than that represents unelected officials seizing control of this presidential authority, as well as using pardons to possibly stop anyone from uncovering additional crimes, those crimes being as bad as your imagination allows).
Maybe, these two presidents being so egregious in using this power for bad purposes, will lead to bipartisan support for a constitutional amendment limiting the pardon. I just don't think it's good attack ad material, unless it drops with no time for a response.
Sigh, Democrats just don't know how to advertise.
I wonder if Trump is trying to best Pa Fergusons record as Texas Governor for selling pardons. "Pa" and his wife "Ma" were so out of control the Texas legislature changed to whole system.
Which, of course, taking a cue from his orange bestie, our current Texas Governor Abbott has ignored. And our Republican dominated legislature just yawns.....
I think Trump has almost lost his mind. When he starts pardoning
imaginary movie villains
(#justiceforlexluthor) it will be complete.....
The only true imaginary movie villains are these ones:
https://www.imightbewrong.org/p/five-times-i-sided-with-the-bad-guys
Nice call back!
Is political corruption what people are reacting to when they talk about being "tough on crime"? They're talking more about muggers than Trump pardons or Enron or whatever. Attacking Trump's corruption will not help the democrats be considered "tough on crime" as people actually use the term
In the Hollywood movie version of this story, the ad kicks off a movement and some prescient Dem says “Hey, I’ve got an idea!”
The “We’re gonna stop using the government to make ourselves rich” version of The Contract with America.
All ‘26 candidates sign on.
There’s a landslide victory.
The closing scene is the first House Hearing investigating Pay-For-PardonsGate.
Given the massive harm done to the country by so many cretins that the Biden autopen pardoned, Trump's pardons are twaddle.