Best Of

No denial that it was a corrupt act.
And btw, the felon pled guilty.

Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?

Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367

I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.

It exists because it's in the constitution.

The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.

I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?

The USA was designed as U.K. 2.0

Hence the replacement of the Squirearchy with elected offices (judges, Sheriffs)

The unelected senate was the House of Lords, but appointed by the States.

The President was supposed to be a replaceable Constitutional Monarch. Think George III, but local and elected.

The power of pardon by The King is something from before history.

There are many ironies about the American Revolution; that it was the best event in human history for thirteen colonies to break away but deplorable treason for eleven states to do so a few decades later, that it was backed by the much more despotic French king, ruined himself financially and ended up guillotined partly as a result, that its promise of liberty had a strange lacuna when it came to slaves, that it was a taxpayer's revolt that was weirdly intolerant when its own taxpayers revolted a few years later, that it was founded on treason and tax evasion but condemned many for precisely those offences...

But perhaps the most cherishable is that a rebellion supposedly against despotism has ended up with a much more absolute head of state and government than the country it was rebelling against.

Of course most Americans are congenitally opposed to thinking things through and are mulishly obstinate in their conviction that their country's system of government is the best ever and unable to see themselves as others do so you won't get them acknowledging any of that. But I still find it amusing to reflect on from time to time...

No denial that it was a corrupt act.
And btw, the felon pled guilty.

Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?

Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367

I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.

It exists because it's in the constitution.

The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.

I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?

Probably derives from the royal prerogative of mercy. The idea that sometimes you let people off (particularly those who are bang to rights legally but society deems have been unfairly punished) because it’s the equitable thing to do.

Horribly big news, on topic

The Metropolitan Police is reviewing 9,000 cases in a huge new grooming gangs probe despite Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s previous denials any operated in the capital.

The announcement comes after an Express/MyLondon investigation exposed several potential grooming gang cases in London appeared to have been overlooked.
Khan has repeatedly stated there were “no reports” or “indications” that London was blighted by the type of abuse that affected towns like Rochdale and Rotherham.

But on Friday evening, the Met revealed it has 9,000 cases to reassess.

In a letter from Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to the Mayor, London’s top cop tells Khan he is “responding to questions about child sexual exploitation” adding that “any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, including that characterised as ‘Grooming Gangs’, is particularly insidious. And devastating in its profound impact on the children affected.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2125659/met-police-grooming-gang-cases-reopen

You would have to be an idiot of the highest order to believe that the largest city in the country would be immune to a type of offence that has been so prevalent everywhere else in the country. What is wrong with people?

Well, if you believe the offenders are from a specific small part of Pakistan, then the problem should be isolated to wherever they settled which is up north, not up North London. If on the other hand it turns out others are at it as well, then you will be accused by some of diluting or even wrecking the national inquiry. Especially if the Met review is forecast to last years and cost millions, as in your link:-

Rowley [the Metropolitan Police Commissioner] said there were so many cases that a full review was “going to be many, many, many millions of pounds" and last several years.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2125659/met-police-grooming-gang-cases-reopen

Rachel Reeves is preparing to give more than a million low-paid workers a pay rise in the budget, despite warnings from businesses that she risks “pricing jobs out of existence”.

The Times has been told that the chancellor is likely to confirm a rise in the national living wage of about 4 per cent, from £12.21 to at least £12.70, in an effort to deliver on her pledge to improve living standards.

The government will also commit itself to extending the living wage to people between the ages of 18 and 21 as part of a commitment to “raise the floor” on wages.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/pay-rise-autumn-budget-rachel-reeves-wddm8cnrd

Funny how those who drivel on endlessly about copying Denmark never mention that it doesn't have a minimum wage.

The minimum wage should be scrapped, not raised, as it distorts the labour market by forcing business to pay people more than they're worth, raising unemployment, reducing competitiveness and the incentive to increase productivity amongst those who need it most, increasing compliance costs and inflation. In fact it's hard to think of a more damaging policy (though the looking through the current government's actions gives a pretty long list of them).

But understanding the harm done needs politicians and journalists to think things through for thirty seconds, so we're stuck with it unfortunately.