Elephants and Jackasses...

What’s scarier?

 

A thought came to me earlier that, if it comes to be, would be pretty crazy. What if Biden comes out and pardons some of the Capital rioters to really back up his "I'm going to unify this fucking mess we've become and I'm putting my money where my mouth is."

The very far left wouldn't be happy, but it would be very interesting to see the response from the right. "I hate his policies, but now I can watch children grow up" is a powerful story. The super crazies will never change (on the left or the right), but an act so grounded in "let's come together" would be tough to ignore, no?

Maybe I have more faith that we're not so far gone that something like that wouldn't end up spurring some change, but I think that would be kind of awesome.

 

50 years of post-Nixon is enough. Fuck repeating that mistake.

 

Worse yet, leaving them free to forge another generational "lost cause" narrative, but with Trump flags.

 

Yeah, the consequences of those pardons have just been reverberating for the last few decades in exactly the way the Nixon pardon has.

 

I could see him maybe pardoning those who entered the grounds but did not go in the building, or those who helped save that police officer who was getting attacked. But doing any pardons with that would open up a can of worms, where every defendant would argue they should be found NG or get a lesser sentence because they weren't all that different than those who got pardons or some shit.

Or he could just pardon the one black rioter and be done with it

 

At the same time, the current us-vs-them rhetoric is keeping things divided.

Trust me, I get it, and I've certainly had my "fuck THEIR feelings now!" moment. But that's not how we crawl out of this hole in the long run. Someone has to frame what the future looks like where Americans work together, and I don't see anything sinking in that isn't somewhat grounded in, dare I say, forgiveness for people getting roped into demented right wing mindsets.

Pardon some of these halfwits, which is more than Trump would ever consider doing, and you'll start to get people to come to the table.

Otherwise, I feel like we're going to trade "own the libs" for "own the right" and fuck up the first year of what really needs to be an effective presidency with a party majority in Congress.

 

He's almost certain to try. My friend bet heavily on him pardoning himself back in November. If he hedged and took profit right now he'd have made a few hundred bucks on the bet already.

 

I certainly have plenty of "fuck 'em" emotions, but beyond that, once the rational mind takes over, it's still pretty clear that it would be a mistake to just let it slide. The Nixon pardon was a huge mistake, as was the premature end of Reconstruction. I think the only evidence we need on that front is that one of the folks at the Capitol was literally carrying a confederate flag. These wounds won't heal unless the damage is fixed before the surgeon decides to close up and start suturing.

 

Yup, I think we all need our pound of flesh for what happened on the 6th (and to a larger extent, Trump's presidency). But I think there's a way to get that and show grace to others in a way that's not only satisfying to one side and perpetuating this shit tornado we're stuck in.

 

I mean yeah, Biden doesn't have to create a traveling road show where we travel to each state to publicly hang one rioter every week for a year. As much fun as that would be. But the regular consequences of "you commit a federal crime, the DOJ fucks you in the ass," seem appropriate.

 

Every time I think to myself "trump isn't stupid enough to do that," he usually does that exact thing I'm thinking of. So yeah, he's probably going to pardon himself. Or at least his fuck trophies.

 

wait what the fuuuuuuuu......

French computer programmer sent over $500k in bitcoin to alt-right groups involved in the Capitol riots, then suicides himself

 

His last wish in life was to give his money to a sneering little teenaged Slobodan Milosevic clone?

I really hope they can prove he trespassed into the Capitol. I’d love to hear news of him getting his screams muffled in a slit-open bag of rice as the homeboys run a train on him.

 

My understanding is the FBI is charging and holding these folks with relatively minor crimes, while compiling the evidence to charge them with more serious crimes....after the inauguration.

Is this the strategy to avoid a possible Trump pardon? Like, sure pardon them for farting in an elevator, but when we charge them with treason on Thursday, good fucking luck?

Also, Crown...you really need to just woo-sah a little bit on the gaynal. It's disconcerting, bro.

 

Let’s hope so. The rioters ARE writing letters demanding pardons before Wednesday, stating Trump is the reason they’re in jail.

 

I want, like...a pardon? From my, like.... President? Because I’m, like, facing..... prison time?

Just remember one quote from your President: “I don’t like people who get caught”.