Jeff Tiedrich proposes in his blog that President Biden should operate a “pardon factory” to protect everyone who has been threatened by Trump or Kash Patel.
One of the features of democracy is an assumption that parties will contend for power, accept their win or loss graciously, then prepare for next time. There will always be the next election to try again.
The threats by Trump and his toadies to prosecute his critics disrupts the comity on which a democratic system depends.
Trump thinks of his critics as “enemies,” not critics. He has made clear repeatedly that he will use his power as President to prosecute, imprison, and crush his enemies.
He said recently that the members of the January 6 Commission “should be in jail.” Why? Is it normal or acceptable that a mob summoned by the President descends on the U.S. Capitol as they meet to certify the election, smash through the windows and doors, beat up police officers, and rampage through the building? What was criminal? The summoning of the mob? The actions of the mob? Or the investigation of the events of the day?
Biden, writes Tiedrich, should issue pre-emptive pardons to all those whose lives and freedom might be endangered by Trump, Kash Patel, or Pam Bondi.
The next four years will be a trial for our democracy. Will the norms and institutions survive the reign of this bitter, vindictive old man?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is another way that a dictator like Trump may get revenge.
Now that the US Supreme Court has made presdients immune from their actions, Trump could order CIA assassinations on his enemies even if they are pardoned.
If the assassins are cuaght, Trump pardons the killers and sends them out again to hit another target. The assassines have to make sure the hits take place on federal land so it is a federal crime and not a state crime.
The convicted rapist, fraud and felon doesn’t even need the CIA. After he pardons all the violent traitors that attacked our Capoital on January 6, 2021, dictator Trump might use them again to get his revenge.
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Lloyd: It’s post-election now, and pre-oath-taking in the biggest open-faced fraud ever perpetrated on the American People; but I wonder what it will take for “common” MAGA voters to “get it”” . . . you know, the Fox/Friends/Murdoch Clown Crowd . . . to EVER realize that they have been and are being royally sxxxxed.
IN lieu of shxxting . . . say . . . Stephen Miller or Steve Bannon, . . . or some Billionaire or other, for example, maybe someone could just go sit <(add the obligatory “h” between “s” and “i”) in the middle of their dining room table, or at their front door . . . just to get their attention? And don’t forget the rest of the hoarder CEO’s. (I wonder how much money “Liberty” Insurance pays for advertising off the backs of their “customers”?)
But really, folks, if they thought they were involved in a revolution when they suckered well-meaning people to break into the U.S. Capitol, my guess is they haven’t seen anything yet. CBK
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People will realize! Team Blue needs to stop trying to save people from themselves and let natural consequences ensue because of their belief that a con man is the next savior of Democracy. It will be hard for ALL of us and especially hard for those who are trump believers. More than 1/2 of the country elected a destroyer/grifter and we must let them have their way (somewhat and with guardrails) in order to see the light. Team blue has a job to do and if they play their cards right, they may be able to have a seat at the table in 2 years…..and again in 4 years.
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LisaM: That’s pretty much what I was saying. There’s a sliver of hope (still) in the natural but yet buried interior guard rails that we all were born with. At some point, more and more people walked away from Jim Jones, but it took murder for others, and some not even then, . . . rather than admit fault in themselves or in Jones. But one at a time, . . . one’s interior sense of reasonability will come forward–it’s all we can hope for because Trump is up-ticking his consolidation of power at every moment.
Someone (and more) on the GOP side needs to risk giving up their Congressional job to keep it from becoming the source of their moral and spiritual demise. Some have understood it and were politically “disapeared,”
For the life of me, however, I don’t know who could even sleep with that weight on them . . . and cannot see the problem of choosing here. Proof positive that power and money are poison to way too many of us — perhaps it’s the real Achilles heel of the democratic ideal.
But a caution . . . I think it has nothing to do with “team blue” or red. If it’s a team at all, it’s between those who love democracy and those who either don’t understand what’s at stake (complements of Fox, et al) and a colonial kind of fascism. I’ve been waiting for it to become fascism without the colonial flair–meaning not yet as murderous full-fledged fascism. CBK
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Actually, it was just under “half the country” that “elected a destroyer/grifter,” not “more than 1/2.” tRump got 49.9% and Harris got 48.4%. See: https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2024/?office=P
It’s a small distinction but it mattered enough to infuriate tRump because he didn’t get the mandate that he claimed (and, according to reports, resulted in him throwing ketchup on the wall).
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Easy to say if you are NOT in one of the groups likely to be targeted for retaliation by Trump, a man who seems to be subject to no restraints on how he may choose to punish someone. He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue (or encourage his followers to do so and then pardon them.)
We’ve seen this story before – in 1930s Germany – when many Germans were content to let Hitler accumulate more power because the “natural consequences” were likely to fall on someone other than themself or their loved ones. German Jews probably didn’t buy into that privileged argument.
There is a very real danger for folks like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi and anyone else Trump decides to make an example of.
The reason that tech and news organizations have already bent the knee is in hopes that they won’t be targeted for the retribution that Trump definitely has planned for the people who have not shown proper fealty to him.
Scary times. Especially when folks in this country seem to be as willing to sacrifice the lives of the people who Trump doesn’t like the way folks in 1930s Germany were willing to sacrifice the lives of Jewish families.
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“More than 1/2 of the country elected a destroyer/grifter. . . “
Um, no only about a third of the electorate voted for the cult leader.
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Hi Duane: Good point: “. . . only about a third of the electorate voted for the cult leader.”
She probably was thinking that over half of those who voted, voted for Trump, as I did when I read her note. But I think it’s an essential point you make here. We should shout it to the hilltops. CBK
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And no, he did not receive half of the votes, he received less than half of the votes cast.
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Nearly 90 MILLION people in the age-eligible electorate did NOT vote this time!
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-15/how-many-people-didnt-vote-in-the-2024-election
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TEAM BLUE LOST!!!!….and they lost BIG. They lost all 7 swing states and almost every voter demographic. They lost the Senate and the House as well. I don’t give a flying fig about the #s and %s and that is NOT the point anyway. People voted and chose who they wanted to “lead” the Nation and TEAM BLUE LOST. Change is hard and some bad things will likely happen (I DO NOT think current politicians will be jailed by the new Nazis!….SMH!), but Team Blue has a chance to gain a seat at the table in 2 years…….what is Team Blue willing to do to change the trajectory of the party’s policies so that they are more palatable to average Americans? Clearly, a lot of people are VERY unhappy with Team Blue!
Scream into the void folks!….just stop screaming at people speaking truth. A lot of soul searching is needed in a very short amount of time. The “people” spoke (whether they voted or not)….who is really LISTENING to the message?
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Yes, he should.
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“Tend your own garden,” Voltaire tells us at the end of Candide.
We are in for a difficult time, far worse than most can imagine (though most readers here, knowledgeable about history, can). The end of the Pax Americana, and unholy hell within our nation.
But I think of Germany today and the horror it had to go through to expose (and mostly eradicate) the worst of its antebellum tendencies. So, I plan to paint and compose and write about indigenous religion and grow peppers and go to the gym, and wait.
“But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.” So writes Melville in my candidate (along with Grapes of Wrath and Ducks, Newburyport) for the greatest American novel, Moby Dick.
I wish this, this holiday season, for my friends here on the blog of the wondrous Diane Ravitch. A separate peace. Have happy holidays despite the deluge.
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Great to hear you are well. When Candide tells Pangloss we should “cultivate our garden,” Voltaire is telling us to go back to basics. Best to you.
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So good to hear from you, Bob. In these precincts, you are much loved and admired.
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In two years, we choose a new Congress. Rein him in.
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Bob: Glad to “hear” your voice again here. CBK
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Love to you and yours, CBK!!!
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Bob: You remember Dinah Shore throwing out a big kiss to the audience? That’s to you.
And while I am at it, “See the USA . . . in your Chevrolet!” CBK
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haaaaa!!!
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haaaaa!!! And a great big kiss back at you, CBK! Merry Christmas!!!!
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Bob,
I agree that we should tend our garden but I hope we will all get involved in pushing back against what is to come and do something constructive while also working on ourselves. I’ve thought of many ways I can do so. We can’t just sit back and do nothing. We must find ways to be involved even if we think it’s only a small way. Everything counts. I love Moby DIck. Jungian Analyst Jason Smith has been doing a nice podcast around Moby Dick. His podcast is called Digital Jung. 🙂
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Thanks, Mamie!!
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I’m not a “I told you so” person. But the idea cannot help but hang around in the air of conversations with the political idiots who made this happen. CBK
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P.S. (I decided to tweet Biden instead.) (delete delete delete)
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Mass, preemptive presidential pardons for unspecified conduct will probably become the norm.
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I’m not sure that mass pre-emptive pardons will become the norm. This is an unusual situation. Trump has threatened court martial, trials, jail for his critics. That’s never happened before. I doubt it will happen again. Biden hasn’t threatened to put anyone in jail.
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Trump surely will do it if Biden does it. No one would be shocked if he did it even if Biden didn’t do it beyond Hunter. So that will be two in a row. One more for a trend.
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Trump pardoned Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and other MAGAts. Now, Rudy G? My Pillow Guy?
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All the best to you, too, Bob.
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I miss your beautiful writing, John. Love to you and yours.
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