The Beginning of the End: The Lame Duck Period of Joe Biden’s Presidency

[Tigeraholic1]

The moral high ground party.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2024 by Tigeraholic1

[pfife]

LOL

[CMRivdogs]

Biden needs to go big on pardons in coming days. Become the Oprah of pardons. Everyone on this list gets a get out of jail free card, and then some.

 

[CMRivdogs]

From today’s Bullwerk 

Don’t Stop With Hunter

by Andrew Egger

President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter wasn’t just a display of hypocrisy. It was also the latest in a string of decisions the president has made showing a bizarrely incoherent response to the reelection of Donald Trump.

During the presidential campaign, Biden and Kamala Harris didn’t hold back about the stakes of the election, correctly sounding the alarm over Trump’s malignant authoritarianism-in-waiting. Yet since Trump won, Biden has oscillated between acting as if norms can hold and as if the house may indeed be on fire.

The president has participated in transition activities to ensure a smooth handoff (as he should). And he also gave Trump a backslapping “welcome back” photo op at the White House.

Republicans leered—and some progressives fumed—that this pivot showed Biden hadn’t really believed all that stuff about the dangers Trump presented. Biden’s defenders argued that he was just trying to stick up for the battered norm of the peaceful transfer of power.

But the Hunter pardon suggests the president believes we are now firmly in a new, abnormal political reality.

The dizzying, unprecedented decision to pardon his son not only for the crimes of which he currently stands accused but for any and all federal crimes he may have committed over a decade of his out-of-control life was, as Sonny Bunch notes today, a betrayal of the case he had made to supporters. “The notion that institutions and values are worth defending is something Biden told us to believe,” writes Sonny. “And he dispensed with those stated values the second they proved inconvenient.” But the pardon also betrays a deep worry that Republicans wouldn’t stop coming after Biden’s family until they had extracted their pound of flesh—that we are past the point of saving the institutional legitimacy of our system of justice.

Biden is obviously correct that Team Trump is openly gearing up for vengeance, as Trump’s abortive attempt to install Matt Gaetz at DOJ and his ongoing attempt to replace Christopher Wray with Kash Patel at the FBI show. What remains to be seen is whether Biden’s protective actions against those forthcoming vengeances will extend beyond his own flesh and blood.

A few weeks ago, former Justice Department attorney Paul Rosenzweig wrote for us arguing Biden should issue preemptive pardons to protect those whom Trump had explicitly threatened over their opposition to his candidacy: People like former Rep. Liz Cheney, whom Trump repeatedly called treasonous for her participation in the House January 6thCommittee, or Gen. Mark Milley, whom he suggested should be executed.

“There can be little doubt that Trump has an enemies list,” Rosenzweig wrote, “and the people on it are in danger—most likely legal, though I shudder to think of other possibilities.” Keep in mind that Rosenzweig was writing before Trump’s announcement of Patel, who recently wrote a book explicitly listing dozens of purported deep-state Trump enemies, including everyone from Hillary Clinton and Harris to Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein to former Trump aides who have since spoken out against him, like Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah.

Reading that list, it’s painfully clear that nothing unites the names but perceived enmity to the incoming president. One imagines a loyal lapdog like Patel wouldn’t hesitate to expand that list.

Maybe some of these folks wouldn’t accept preemptive pardons. It’s true that, in some people’s eyes, that could look like an admission of some sort of guilt. It’s certainly true that the right-wing infotainment system would howl that argument to the moon. But Team Trump’s rhetoric of retribution has been so naked and explicit that no reasonable person would find that sound and fury compelling. And it’s a little late for Biden to decide he doesn’t want to make any controversial pardons.

The point isn’t just to ensure that, say, Cheney won’t be convicted of a crime. The point is to shore up the likes of Cheney, Fiona Hill, and Wray—as much as possible—against oppressive, life-destroying investigations on the part of a weaponized federal executive.

Biden can’t protect all of America against Trump. But the people about whom Trump and his lackeys are already openly drooling and braying for revenge—those Biden could preemptively protect. Hunter can’t be the only one who could or should benefit from his use of this power. At least, in this case, the president would be affirming the principles he ran on, not jettisoning them.

[chasfh]

They'll just create new charges post-pardon and haul them in for those.

[ben9753]

Pretty clear to me that Biden is in F it mode. The Dems dumped him, he's still bitter about it and is taking his ball and going home. Leave the Dems to clean up the mess and do damage control. He has no more Fs to give.

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, ben9753 said:

Pretty clear to me that Biden is in F it mode. The Dems dumped him, he's still bitter about it and is taking his ball and going home. Leave the Dems to clean up the mess and do damage control. He has no more Fs to give.

exactly

[chasfh]

We've all been seeing the hair-on-fire responses by Democrats, fearing that the pardon will undercut faith in the U.S. justice system and give Trump the excuse he's been looking for to criticize and remake the Justice Department.

But didn't Ttump and the red hats already have zero faith in the U.S. justice system anyway? And wasn't he already going to tear down the justice system and use it as his personal judge, jury, and execution force against political, media, and Hollywood enemies?

So, Democrats, tell me: how does this pardon make that possibility worse? Exactly what's going to happen now under Ttump directly because of this pardon that wouldn't have happened anyway?

[gehringer_2]

6 minutes ago, chasfh said:

We've all been seeing the hair-on-fire responses by Democrats, fearing that the pardon will undercut faith in the U.S. justice system and give Trump the excuse he's been looking for to criticize and remake the Justice Department.

 

Gee, wouldn't it be terrible if the GOP actually faced the fact that Trump was *their* problem?

Yeah, no - what am I thinking?.......

[chasfh]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Gee, wouldn't it be terrible if the GOP actually faced the fact that Trump was *their* problem?

Yeah, no - what am I thinking?.......

No, in all seriousness, Trump made sweeping use of his own pardon power to help out his own friends and family, including Ivanka's father-in-law Charles Kushner, who he also just named ambassador to France. He also openly campaigned on pardoning people convicted for Jan. 6, which completely discredits the idea the pardon of Hunter give Trump whatever political cover he needs to issue controversial and even odious pardons himself.

This fear of some Democrats is based on maintaining unilateral disarmament in which Trump fights dirty and wins while Dems respond as though they are trying to protect some precious notion of the norms of rules of engagement. That ship has not only sailed, it's in Augusta, Australia by now. Isn't it time for the scales to fall from their eyes and see the world for what it is now, not what they hope it is based on decades ago?

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

...

This fear of some Democrats is based on maintaining unilateral disarmament in which Trump fights dirty and wins while Dems respond as though they are trying to protect some precious notion of the norms of rules of engagement. That ship has not only sailed, it's in Augusta, Australia by now. Isn't it time for the scales to fall from their eyes and see the world for what it is now, not what they hope it is based on decades ago?

 

I've always understood from game theory that the best strategy is to absorb the first violation of the rules, but then then take it pedal to the metal if your opponent won't come back to the game properly. After the second insult to the system there is no place for decorum - you have to fight with every tool to win, you put the system back together as it should be after you've won. WWII being the salient example of how this actually played out in the real world. The problem is the good guys too often don't trust even themselves to put it back right so they think they can't risk it. The other problem is sometimes they are right.

Edited December 3, 2024 by gehringer_2

[oblong]

The reaction to the pardon by critics is appropriate in normal times.  But  the cat's out of the bag.  We surpassed normal times 8 years ago. The political world had a demarcation line, pre trump and post trump.   In the post trump world and with his election once again we've decided rules don't matter anymore. The old standards where a career or admin is ruined is gone. 

[Tigeraholic1]

We have an alpha back at the helm.
Where is Biden? 
 

 

Edited December 8, 2024 by Tigeraholic1

[Tigeraholic1]

👏

 

[Tigeraholic1]

Insanity….

 

[gehringer_2]

27 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Insanity….

 

old men ending up like children in the end. I can't wait to see what things will look like four years from now.....

[Tigeraholic1]

9 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

old men ending up like children in the end. I can't wait to see what things will look like four years from now.....

When it does we can look back at these times and admire Pandora’s box.

[Tigeraholic1]

Why not? Seems like a great guy after all….

 

[pfife]

"Informant " admits he made up a lie about burisma bribes.   LOL.

Obviously a pardon was necessary.  

[chasfh]

loo daily wire

[Tigeraholic1]

[chasfh]

Are those columnists for Daily Wire? Good-looking bunch. Although this particular group shot has their heads buried in the wrong hole.

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by chasfh

[oblong]

Those are MAGA folks assuming the position for what they want DJT, or their favorite youth pastor,  to do to them.  They just can't get enough of it.  The herpes is strong with them.

 

[CMRivdogs]

Trump's Prime Minister (who paid him $250 Million) wants to kill you.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-transition-recommends-scrapping-car-crash-reporting-requirement-opposed-by-2024-12-13/

Quote

• Trump transition team recommends repealing requirement that companies report automated vehicle crash data
• Elon Musk's Tesla opposes the requirement, arguing it has unfairly targeted his company
• Unclear if Donald Trump administration will adopt the recommendation to quash reporting requirement

 

[Tigeraholic1]