On this day in 1974, President Gerald Ford gave former president Richard M. Nixon “a full, free, and absolute pardon…for all offenses against the United States which he…has committed or may have committed or taken part in” during his time in the presidency.
When do we end that pardoning nonsense? Powerful people should not be allowed to simply pardon criminals. How about we start with that ridiculous turkey pardoning ritual at Thanksgiving. What is that all about? Pardon me, but I am not a fan of pardons. Especially when tRump handed them out like Monopoly get out of jail game cards.
And rest in peace Queen Elizabeth II. Your service to country was exemplary.
Sorry our former president treated you so disrespectfully on his visit. Trump is a classless, mannerless dolt jealous of anyone, especially a woman, with a royal title, admiration, dignity, and more money and power than him.
Seems to me that Bill Barr ought to have his face dipped in cow dung. Done a lot of damage historically and wriggling like a fish hoping to get away with it these days
I have never understood how Ford's "full, free, and absolute pardon…for all offenses against the United States which he…has committed or may have committed or taken part in” was even considered legal. How do you pardon in advance of indictment? Ironically, since Nixon's primary crime was said to be "the coverup", the sabotage of the normal authority of rule of law reanimated an ongoing "coverup" since, while the President's conduct had been extensively investigated by a congressional hearing, a criminal investigation is different both in intent and scope. My concern here was not that Nixon paid so little for abuse of publicly entrusted power, but that a firm boundary proscribing presidential abuse of power was not firmly set. Yes, you lose your job if shown to have seriously abused entrusted authority, but if laws are broken, that is not where it ends. We investigate, in part, as we would a plane crash, to see how me might prevent it from happening again.
Nixon was enough emboldened to claim the his only regret was not having destroyed the taped evidence against him, a message his party apparently took to heart. From Ford on, Republicans have warped the law to defeat the intent and function of the law. Certainly Trump pardons, executed and promised, show that cynical misuse of presidential power, sans checks and balances, provides criminal activity with a loophole wide enough to sail an oil tanker through.
Is the pendulum of justice finally swinging in the right direction after so many impediments, all contrived by Republicans through the decades? The pendulum may be creaking and groaning but to me it seems decidedly headed left.
And speaking of justice, I don't recall any time in my long life when so many engaged citizens were riveted by a federal court case as they are by Trump's theft of top secret documents. This is clear on social media. In my small physical space, it is too. At another impromptu gathering of evening walkers at the corner outside our house, several of us dissected the DOJ's latest filing. Non lawyers all, we had opinions galore of how Judge Cannon might rule. Will she save face after so much ridicule and grant the DOJ's motion? Will she continue to try to please Trump and, if so, what is her real motivation?
Democracy is under grave threat, but its heart is still beating loud and clear.
Thanks Dr. Richardson. A shout to Letitia James you have been investigating and investigating TFG and his family for years. Isn’t it time for an indictment? Oh, we are near an election? We are always near an election and TFG is not running at all right now. Does Justice go on furlough between Labor Day and Thanksgiving?
It’s well past time to change the practice of letting presidents off the hook. If evidence demonstrates a crime has been committed by a former president then indict him. AG Garland needs to indict drumpf now, special master (DoJ is challenging it, I’ve heard) be damned; ditto any plans that drumpf might have to run in 2024. He needs to be judged by the voters. We’re capable of making up our own minds.
A history of skewed justice has emboldened the crooked politicians to the utmost degree. How much more before the system crumbles? If chump would run and win in 2024, all his crooked cronies would be off the hook, and run amok like nothing we have ever seen before in this country. Be very afraid..
As a more light-hearted distraction from the daily list of anxiety-producing news events, begin your day with this link to a 2-min video from Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project (LP) to TFG. Yesterday LP placed one of their best ads ever directly on the Faux "News" channel knowing that Chump watches every day and to get into his head. The ad was addressed to his base whom they call Suckers for falling for his grift and sending him millions in donations to line his pockets. The result was predictable with the infuriated treasonist immediately posting he is suing Fox and LP for allowing the ad.
The video is Rick Wilson's response on behalf of the Lincoln Project. It will make your day. The original ad video is farther down the thread
I loved the cover of the National Lampoon magazine in November 1974 issue depicting what it thought of Ford after he pardoned Nixon. It also had a radio show in those days where they depicted Nixon and Rebozo playing a game of Monopoly. (Rebozo: Mr President, you just rolled three doubles in a row. You're going to jail! Nixon: What did you say, Bebe? I won't be hamstrung by petty legal obstructions!)
I laughed at the satire then but Ford's pardon, and Reagan's subsequent criminality, were certainly major inflection points in the continuing Republican effort to destroy our democracy.
These criminal government officials are not royalty and must be held accountable otherwise our system of laws will further erode compromising our democratic system
Our laws, like our constitutionally guaranteed rights, have long been unevenly applied. :’-(
RIP QE2. Such a model leader and human. She affirmed a truth I’m ever wrestling with, “grief is the cost of love.” My thanks to her and condolences to her loved ones.
The phrase "during his time in the presidency" sticks out to me today for two reasons:
1) Nixon whose greatest crime against the Country was PRIOR to his 1st term. He, somehow, found out about LBJ's secret post-Tet peace overtures to Uncle Ho and blew them up with false promises. In my mind, that makes him responsible for all the Deaths in SE Asia from Spring '68 through the End.
How much worse was the tally because of Nixon reneging on his promise to Uncle Ho?
However, the two main witnesses, LBJ and Sen Ev Dirksen (R-IL) were already deceased by 1974. Although I am sure there would have been sufficient evidence discoverable.
And,
2) tRUmp both before and after. The collusion with Russia during the '16 compaign, which we know was accurate. And, now, After, his limitless grifting and fomenting of continuing Insurrection present and Future. Plus, there is the matter of his Taxes. He owes US Hundreds of $Million$, if not Billion$.
The problem for Trump is that he picked the pockets of little people. And put it directly into his own pockets. Traceable. How gauche. He was the 1%'s useful idjit. What with the tax bill and deregulation. And all he got was 4 years of grifting 'the base' and the government - stealing from the relatively little guys twice.
Leonard Leo, a much more adept arriviste, makes the 1% pay for the services he provides in the dark as sort of a sanctimonious houseboy. Dark money shuffled through dirty shell corps to dubious causes - no one pays taxes, no publicity, and enough leftover for Moneybags (Leo's high school moniker) from the NJ suburbs to afford the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Although not necessarily the social acceptance..
Here on MDI, Leo is making donations trying to whitewash what of his reputation is known but the sense is that he's not exactly in with the old money crowd. Possibly the protests aren't helping him.
An interesting development with a regional paper said to be owned by a Susan Collins' former bagman. (Leo held a big fundraiser for Collins after her vote for Kavanaugh.) Without contacting the protestor who was subject of a story, a reporter repeated and amplified misinformation corrected elsewhere. In the Comments section there is a direct line from the misleading headline to threats of vigilantism - which somehow passed the paper's Comment's section filters/editors.
When do we end that pardoning nonsense? Powerful people should not be allowed to simply pardon criminals. How about we start with that ridiculous turkey pardoning ritual at Thanksgiving. What is that all about? Pardon me, but I am not a fan of pardons. Especially when tRump handed them out like Monopoly get out of jail game cards.
And rest in peace Queen Elizabeth II. Your service to country was exemplary.
Sorry our former president treated you so disrespectfully on his visit. Trump is a classless, mannerless dolt jealous of anyone, especially a woman, with a royal title, admiration, dignity, and more money and power than him.
Seems to me that Bill Barr ought to have his face dipped in cow dung. Done a lot of damage historically and wriggling like a fish hoping to get away with it these days
I have never understood how Ford's "full, free, and absolute pardon…for all offenses against the United States which he…has committed or may have committed or taken part in” was even considered legal. How do you pardon in advance of indictment? Ironically, since Nixon's primary crime was said to be "the coverup", the sabotage of the normal authority of rule of law reanimated an ongoing "coverup" since, while the President's conduct had been extensively investigated by a congressional hearing, a criminal investigation is different both in intent and scope. My concern here was not that Nixon paid so little for abuse of publicly entrusted power, but that a firm boundary proscribing presidential abuse of power was not firmly set. Yes, you lose your job if shown to have seriously abused entrusted authority, but if laws are broken, that is not where it ends. We investigate, in part, as we would a plane crash, to see how me might prevent it from happening again.
Nixon was enough emboldened to claim the his only regret was not having destroyed the taped evidence against him, a message his party apparently took to heart. From Ford on, Republicans have warped the law to defeat the intent and function of the law. Certainly Trump pardons, executed and promised, show that cynical misuse of presidential power, sans checks and balances, provides criminal activity with a loophole wide enough to sail an oil tanker through.
Is the pendulum of justice finally swinging in the right direction after so many impediments, all contrived by Republicans through the decades? The pendulum may be creaking and groaning but to me it seems decidedly headed left.
And speaking of justice, I don't recall any time in my long life when so many engaged citizens were riveted by a federal court case as they are by Trump's theft of top secret documents. This is clear on social media. In my small physical space, it is too. At another impromptu gathering of evening walkers at the corner outside our house, several of us dissected the DOJ's latest filing. Non lawyers all, we had opinions galore of how Judge Cannon might rule. Will she save face after so much ridicule and grant the DOJ's motion? Will she continue to try to please Trump and, if so, what is her real motivation?
Democracy is under grave threat, but its heart is still beating loud and clear.
Thanks Dr. Richardson. A shout to Letitia James you have been investigating and investigating TFG and his family for years. Isn’t it time for an indictment? Oh, we are near an election? We are always near an election and TFG is not running at all right now. Does Justice go on furlough between Labor Day and Thanksgiving?
It’s well past time to change the practice of letting presidents off the hook. If evidence demonstrates a crime has been committed by a former president then indict him. AG Garland needs to indict drumpf now, special master (DoJ is challenging it, I’ve heard) be damned; ditto any plans that drumpf might have to run in 2024. He needs to be judged by the voters. We’re capable of making up our own minds.
A history of skewed justice has emboldened the crooked politicians to the utmost degree. How much more before the system crumbles? If chump would run and win in 2024, all his crooked cronies would be off the hook, and run amok like nothing we have ever seen before in this country. Be very afraid..
On another subject, Miriam reports: "The grain in Spain grows mainly in Ukraine!" "I think she's got it!"
And, it appears, if you bought the right judge (Aileen "Loose" Cannon for example), you are above the law.
As a more light-hearted distraction from the daily list of anxiety-producing news events, begin your day with this link to a 2-min video from Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project (LP) to TFG. Yesterday LP placed one of their best ads ever directly on the Faux "News" channel knowing that Chump watches every day and to get into his head. The ad was addressed to his base whom they call Suckers for falling for his grift and sending him millions in donations to line his pockets. The result was predictable with the infuriated treasonist immediately posting he is suing Fox and LP for allowing the ad.
The video is Rick Wilson's response on behalf of the Lincoln Project. It will make your day. The original ad video is farther down the thread
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson
I loved the cover of the National Lampoon magazine in November 1974 issue depicting what it thought of Ford after he pardoned Nixon. It also had a radio show in those days where they depicted Nixon and Rebozo playing a game of Monopoly. (Rebozo: Mr President, you just rolled three doubles in a row. You're going to jail! Nixon: What did you say, Bebe? I won't be hamstrung by petty legal obstructions!)
I laughed at the satire then but Ford's pardon, and Reagan's subsequent criminality, were certainly major inflection points in the continuing Republican effort to destroy our democracy.
These criminal government officials are not royalty and must be held accountable otherwise our system of laws will further erode compromising our democratic system
I live in San Diego county and someone wrote to the letters to the editor that Biden should pardon
The last president for the good of the country!A way to
bring the nation together. Not sure where he got that idea. No way I want to see him in orange , behind bars!
Our laws, like our constitutionally guaranteed rights, have long been unevenly applied. :’-(
RIP QE2. Such a model leader and human. She affirmed a truth I’m ever wrestling with, “grief is the cost of love.” My thanks to her and condolences to her loved ones.
The phrase "during his time in the presidency" sticks out to me today for two reasons:
1) Nixon whose greatest crime against the Country was PRIOR to his 1st term. He, somehow, found out about LBJ's secret post-Tet peace overtures to Uncle Ho and blew them up with false promises. In my mind, that makes him responsible for all the Deaths in SE Asia from Spring '68 through the End.
How much worse was the tally because of Nixon reneging on his promise to Uncle Ho?
However, the two main witnesses, LBJ and Sen Ev Dirksen (R-IL) were already deceased by 1974. Although I am sure there would have been sufficient evidence discoverable.
And,
2) tRUmp both before and after. The collusion with Russia during the '16 compaign, which we know was accurate. And, now, After, his limitless grifting and fomenting of continuing Insurrection present and Future. Plus, there is the matter of his Taxes. He owes US Hundreds of $Million$, if not Billion$.
He is a Former President, now. Lock him up!
The problem for Trump is that he picked the pockets of little people. And put it directly into his own pockets. Traceable. How gauche. He was the 1%'s useful idjit. What with the tax bill and deregulation. And all he got was 4 years of grifting 'the base' and the government - stealing from the relatively little guys twice.
Leonard Leo, a much more adept arriviste, makes the 1% pay for the services he provides in the dark as sort of a sanctimonious houseboy. Dark money shuffled through dirty shell corps to dubious causes - no one pays taxes, no publicity, and enough leftover for Moneybags (Leo's high school moniker) from the NJ suburbs to afford the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Although not necessarily the social acceptance..
Here on MDI, Leo is making donations trying to whitewash what of his reputation is known but the sense is that he's not exactly in with the old money crowd. Possibly the protests aren't helping him.
An interesting development with a regional paper said to be owned by a Susan Collins' former bagman. (Leo held a big fundraiser for Collins after her vote for Kavanaugh.) Without contacting the protestor who was subject of a story, a reporter repeated and amplified misinformation corrected elsewhere. In the Comments section there is a direct line from the misleading headline to threats of vigilantism - which somehow passed the paper's Comment's section filters/editors.