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Time to bet that Trump will take the controversial step of pardoning himself? – politicalbetting.com
Time to bet that Trump will take the controversial step of pardoning himself? – politicalbetting.com
The above is the top of the entry on the US Department of Justice website of the dozens of people who have been pardoned by Trump during his presidency. No doubt this list will be added to in the days that remain before Biden is inaugurated on January 20th.
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No other major democracy allows such political interference in the justice system, and even more so when there is a ten-week gap between the election and a defeated incumbent losing the powers of his office.
Not a partisan point either. Clinton and Obama were just as bad as Trump and Bush, at pardoning politically connected people as they left office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/09/trump-cabinet-resignations-death-star/
*However*, the French President very rarely pardons individuals. Instead you usually see "incoming President xxx grants clemency to all prisoners with fewer than three months remaining on sentences, who have already served at least six months". Or somesuch.
The only controversial Obama pardon (technically clemency, as he/she did not get the conviction struck down) I can think of was Chelsea Manning, who was released after serving seven years of a 30 year sentence.
That being said... I think, the fact that Trump is pardoning people who committed crimes *for* him, is unique. And not in a good way.
I also wonder if he might do something really silly on the way out, such as pardon anyone convicted of any crime other than homicide currently in federal prison.
These things rely heavily on network effects, so make the switch and tell everyone you know that you’re doing it.
Change your WhatsApp intro message to something like “Not using this any more, use Signal because it’s not Facebook” then DELETE WA from your phone.
F1: there's an astoundingly unappealing special on Ladbrokes for Russell to win a first driver's title by the end of 2023. The price is 1.91.
Much more appealing is the idea of reading my splendid 2021 season preamble (as Mr. eek noticed yesterday, I did forget to mention that McLaren is shifting to Mercedes engines this season, which I expect to be a net gain for them):
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2021/01/2021-f1-season-preamble.html
Yes 10
No 1.1
I do not suppose the Vice President has a Betfair account.
The temptation to look at the charges in the Impeachment today and grant a pardon covering them will be high. I think that this is more likely than not.
I was just popping in to say that Whitty is fantastic on PL football. “People need to look at their own lives not at others” or words to that effect.
Yes it's Australian but it says you can't pardon impeachment and the papers have to be received by the person you are pardon ING.
So I suspect Biden will need to have anti pardon paperwork ready to go the second he is sworn in.
Suck it up snowflakes. You participated in a failed coup. You are still breathing! So that's a bonus.
It's not uncommon for people to accidentally contravene the law by jaywalking, or, purely by happenstance, storm through a police cordon to invade a national legislative building.
Whoever could have foreseen that such an innocent action would in some way be considered contrary to the law?
If an impeachment process is attempted he still has time to do it. If there is a sudden article 25 he may not but that does not seem to be on the cards unless Trump tries to escalate again, which he probably cant do without access to twatter.
With people being arrested for daft things and others openly ignoring the rules this kind of stupid confusion from the government really isn't helpful.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/
Their rolling seven-day number of cases continues to rise.
EDIT: and deaths - I guess the impact of the vaccine might show up their first as cases may continue to rise among younger people.
Will Donald Trump officially cease to be the President of the United States of America before the end of his first term in office has been completed?
# old people in hospital, then deaths
Think they've published the most up-to-date stats for the former. Honestly? Looks flat to me.
given the strategy, cases falling will be one of the last things to happen.
Not tempted to bet, but I thought I'd make a robust and falsifiable prediction.
Whitty
It is, and always has been, a lawyer's debating point.
In many ways of far more interest is the question about whether a President can issue (general) pardons to others, for events specified or unspecified without charge or conviction, that have occurred in the past. Ford/Nixon set a 'predecent' that he can - but it is not something (I believe) that has ever actually tested in court. Nixon was never charged, and no attempt was ever been made to charge him which might have caused the legal question to be explored.
The guy screaming in protest that the police are "treating me like a black guy" as they sit on him is priceless.
I can't see him doing it. If we have millions of people who have been literally brainwashed into believing in vast Liberal conspiracies to steal the election and end their way of life, surely the man at the heart of it is also brainwashed?
Trump, surrounded by his idiot family and idiot advisers is surely absolutely convinced not just of his innocence but that any accusations are Fake News. It doesn't matter that he personally has been involved in working with Russia to win the 2016 election, allegations of foreign collusion are clearly fake news lies.
I think he will double down. We should be more worried about what he can do in his final week than about will he quit or try to absolve himself.
https://twitter.com/TerryBoutonHist/status/1348365375449268226
Yesterday's thread header debacle weighs against that view, and I see we're back to not even proofreading with today's effort. Poor.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if in the next year or so we see the collapse of Trump's businesses. No one is going to want to be associated with them and without major events they are loss making. He will also not be able to pump Federal funds into them in the way he has whilst in office. The PGA decision is ominous for him.
The relevant parts of the rules are:
Will Donald Trump officially cease to be the President of the United States of America before the end of his first term in office has been completed?
This includes, but is not limited to, if Donald Trump leaves office due to death (excluding assassination), incapacity, illness, impeachment or resignation (or anything comparable). All bets will be voided if Donald Trump ceases to be President of the United States of America due to an assassination or an assassination attempt.
**Note** For clarity Donald Trump will be deemed to officially cease being President when he is replaced on a permanent basis. Any situation where he steps down on an interim/temporary basis will not count(Updated 05/10/2020 @ 17:00 GMT)
One stand out is that higher security at a march for Science headlined by Bill Nye the Science Guy.
https://twitter.com/TerryBoutonHist/status/1348365395091222528
I have to say, it is a shame that Turnberry now appears to be off the Open rota. It's a fabulous course; much better than St Andrews, which they go to every 5/6 years.
The issue is that a large chunk of US voters are still on board the MAGA train. And a number of high elected officials, not just Trump himself.
That is the problem.
Hopefully you're right - someone should want to buy Turnberry as it's got a fabulous hotel with it.
https://twitter.com/riskdesigner/status/1348539050370723844
and Parler's verified citizen approach means a lot of the posts are directly attributable to identifiable people.
So it is quite conceivable that he will pardon himself - even though this won't stop impeachment. In fact, it makes it more likely for impeachment to succeed.
There is also case law that suggesting that a self pardon would be ruled invalid, if challenged. And it would be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state
See under "Owner license required?" for each state.
It's nuts that impeachment wasn't rushed through over the weekend and Trump already removed from office. Impunity is incredibly dangerous.
As someone was saying it's not really clear whether it was a honeypot that turned into a grift or a grift that turned into a honeypot...