Quote :

"Ngl, it's been chuckle-inducing to hear MAGA-hats moaning about how the pardon undermines the rule of law. As if that were something they were even remotely worried about"

It's decidedly not funny that they don't see the obvious logical contradictions.

12/3/2024 8:20:02 AM

My only real objection here is that he was so vocal and emphatic about saying "I won't pardon him" before. Just say some meaningless crap, "We're going to let the justice system run its course," which sort of implies you won't pardon but leaves the door open.

Yes, Hunter Biden is guilty of all of this. He's now been convicted, thoroughly discredited, and his influence all stripped away. Him serving jail time does very little to serve the public interest; all prosecutions from this point forward (and realistically, all recent prosecutions of him) have only served partisan political purposes. So I say, fine, pardon him. Better yet, pardon everyone else Trump has suggested he'll go after. Vindman, Fauci, whoever.

12/3/2024 8:21:59 AM

I only heard him I believe twice mention it, and one of those times I believe he simply said "no"...didn't seem too vocal or emphatic to me.

[Edited on December 3, 2024 at 9:07 AM. Reason : Don't stop believing]

12/3/2024 9:05:05 AM

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1863388592753504509

I honestly don't see any way to excuse it. The reason we have Trump is because of the declining trust in institutions over the last many decades. this pardon will only further erode trust.

12/3/2024 10:24:06 AM

It ain't right, and it gives ample cover for most of the dumb norm-breaking crap Trump already had planned.

My question is why do this now rather than in the literal final days like most Presidents do?

12/3/2024 10:58:20 AM

Everything about the last month hasn't sat well but I don't even know how to feel. After spending years criticizing Trump's behavior at transition, it would be hypocritical to be combative, but it seems like there must be some middle ground between combative and having a buddy buddy handshake meeting. Especially after spending months calling him a threat to democracy. For the pardons it's similar, I barely care and I'm kinda eager for Dems to stop worrying about norms, but I was looking for lame duck actions that would help the country rather than help him personally.

I don't know, this is more of a rant than an opinion post, as I said I don't even know what I want here, just seems like folks are laying down.


[Edited on December 3, 2024 at 11:24 AM. Reason : A]

12/3/2024 11:22:49 AM

Quote :

"The reason we have Trump is because of the declining trust in institutions over the last many decades. "

I've been puzzled why so many Millenials/Xennials trust institutions at all. We lived through the Iraq war, opiate epidemic, bailouts, and destruction of communities because of globalism. How do you have any trust left? If you actually don't trust institutions I apologize. This does not feel like it should be something only Trump voters imagine.

Nate Silver has managed to make the worst political calls this election season, including that Florida would be a tight race.

[Edited on December 3, 2024 at 12:15 PM. Reason : a]

12/3/2024 12:13:13 PM

Quote :

"How do you have any trust left?"

because I try not to engage in black and white thinking and remember that the world is complicated and nuanced. i'm not saying I blindly trust institutions. like most americans (as reflected in the aforementioned polls), I'm not happy with a lot of what i've seen from the expert class, et al in my lifetime. but the world also HAS improved in many many ways. we tend to focus on the negatives. and what's the alternative, anyways? get on my knees and suck trump off? or bernie? i'm content to see this era as an inevitable if not necessary creative destruction in our politics, but i'd much rather have seen Gore win and see where that timeline would have taken us

[Edited on December 3, 2024 at 12:35 PM. Reason : do not give up hope for a rational society]

12/3/2024 12:33:36 PM

^^Nate Silver is not an institution.

12/3/2024 12:50:41 PM

^ 538 is!

Quote :

"what's the alternative, anyways? get on my knees and suck trump off? or bernie? i'm content to see this era as an inevitable if not necessary creative destruction in our politics"

Creative destruction has a nice ring to it. The status quo elite needs to let the new elite cook. The Fourth Republic has outlived it's usefulness.

12/3/2024 2:11:29 PM

^ thats not comforting when musk is saying Hitler was right, and there’s tons of literal white supremacists in his orbit as well

Letting them cook seems like a terrible idea

Democracy is better even if it’s slower sometimes

[Edited on December 3, 2024 at 4:45 PM. Reason : C]

12/3/2024 4:44:45 PM

Quote :

"^ thats not comforting when musk is saying Hitler was right, and there’s tons of literal white supremacists in his orbit as well "

Project 2025 outlaws silly propaganda about white supremacists. Report to the lithium mines.

12/3/2024 5:05:06 PM

Hang on, I'll be right there, just gotta delete this tweet mocking egg prices real quick.

12/3/2024 6:09:35 PM

https://www.yahoo.com/news/damning-report-reveals-biden-aides-200226068.html

Sad

12/20/2024 1:33:43 PM

Trump defacto pres right now, never seen such a lame duck

12/20/2024 1:41:16 PM

^^Wow! What a bombshell filled with information we already know or can easily assume. Luckily, we learned our lesson and elected someone even older!

12/21/2024 6:38:45 AM

Older, wiser and definitely more cognitive.

12/23/2024 10:42:14 AM

https://nypost.com/2024/12/27/opinion/michael-goodwin-all-of-team-joe-aided-in-the-big-lie-now-the-world-knows-the-truth-of-the-biden-crime-family/

more evidence came out incriminating the Biden crime family, the National Archives was holding photos of the meetings until after the election. wow

12/30/2024 6:36:37 AM

Quote :

"Yet the release of the pictures does more than just prove the president a liar."

If there's one thing we know voters absolutely won't stand for, it's a President who lies to them!

12/30/2024 7:00:26 AM

Sitting here making myself angry remembering Biden saying in 2020 he was running to “pass the torch”. And getting hopeful democrats finally realizing they need to build a pipeline of younger leaders, expecting him to publicly start grooming Kamala as his successor… and this never happened, even to the bitter end.

12/31/2024 2:34:38 PM

Supposedly that was the plan until dems did well in off year 2022 elections

[Edited on December 31, 2024 at 3:17 PM. Reason : Then he got stupidly arrogant ]

12/31/2024 3:17:11 PM

I thought running again was like a troll or something. He sure wasn't ready for 4 more years.

12/31/2024 7:43:48 PM

Not sure he was even ready for the first 4 years

1/1/2025 2:24:15 PM

Perhaps not. But he did have one important attribute that attracted me.

1/1/2025 7:05:46 PM

NTTAWWT

1/1/2025 10:20:10 PM

^^trump voters are probably reading the flow of this convo and thinking we are talking about Donald Trump in a good way

1/3/2025 12:22:44 AM

Quote :

"trump voters are probably reading"

Schyeah, it might happen. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.



[Edited on January 3, 2025 at 12:41 AM. Reason : ]

1/3/2025 12:33:47 AM

I meant the ones on tww. They read this too

1/3/2025 12:37:12 AM

14 more days

[Edited on January 6, 2025 at 10:10 AM. Reason : ]

1/6/2025 10:09:41 AM

He said oligarchy

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lft42ckfpk2k

I don’t know why democrats don’t use this language on the regular. Should have been saying this the past year
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lft4djg43s2k



[Edited on January 15, 2025 at 9:23 PM. Reason : V ]

1/15/2025 9:17:06 PM

I 100% was cool with pardoning his son, and frankly hope he protects people like Fauci etc. Thats kinda where I as the opposition would kind of draw the line in regards to Trumps most immediate impacts, for lack of a better word

[Edited on January 18, 2025 at 5:13 AM. Reason : Impacts being that word]

1/18/2025 5:12:05 AM

28th amendment lolololololol

1/18/2025 8:49:05 AM

who on earth decided that was a good idea, let alone going to work. now watch trump start "declaring" amendments to the constitution. idiots, i swear.

1/18/2025 10:30:50 AM

I'm not super keyed into the day to day, but as a general feeling, the Democrats seem to lack fervor. Like there's this certain camaraderie that's been replaced with yuppie-ness

They talk a big talk but they're not strong, they don't seem to have that X factor that you think of when you see old footage of senators and what not in the 80s and stuff just doing stuff

And this is despite having such huge issues to rally on.

I don't know enough on their own internal dynamics to say this for sure, but maybe they went too far (not in the sense that it's wrong, but just too much) in the women/race/we're everyone category to the point where they lost their own 'brotherhood' and so they settled on the "we're morally superior" front, which even if you are, isn't so appealing
I think a lot of understated stuff in politics or sociology or whatever is just the feeling, not what's being said

I don't want to get too much into what the details could be, the experts would know, and also because it doesn't matter. some people could surmise that more diversity weakened the party or something, but that's also just a natural reality going forward, and you have to take an initial hit with something before you can mature and use it to your advantage

take this non-opinion with a grain of salt

1/18/2025 12:47:41 PM

The end.

1/19/2025 11:31:57 PM

Wrong. We can still monitor the credibility of an ex-President as the Trump version demonstrates.

1/20/2025 8:54:10 AM

Terrible decision to pardon J6 committee, Fauci, and Milley. It just plays into Trump's hand, and he was never going to go after those people. Cheeto wants all those issues behind him, or at least to be on a state where he can control the narrative without pushback. Biden just gave him the latter.

Now Trump can whine and moan about how bad all that stuff was, rile up his base for support over it, but never have to actually do anything about it. He doesn't have to risk prosecutions that would expose exactly what he, himself, did. Thanks for playing into a demagogue's hands, once again, Democrats

1/20/2025 9:24:40 AM

And now he can and will just preemptively pardon his own criminal buddies on the way out the door.

As he might well have done anyway.

1/20/2025 10:22:20 AM

Of course all I hear anyone saying now, regarding Fauci, is "why would you pardon someone who hasn't committed any crimes, hmmm? HHHHMMM???"

1/20/2025 11:18:15 AM

^ isn't it all based on what is/is not gain of function based on his testimony?

https://oversight.house.gov/release/rep-comer-dr-paul-send-letter-to-director-of-the-nih-requesting-information-on-the-removal-of-gain-of-function-from-the-nih-website/

1/20/2025 11:37:28 AM

https://x.com/matthewstoller/status/1881385374167253010

Quote :

"Breaking: With just minutes left in his presidency, Biden issues "a full and unconditional pardon" of his family, most notably his brother James B. Biden. "

1/20/2025 12:00:23 PM

But Trump loves Fauci. After all, he awarded him a Presidential Commendation.

https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-awards-presidential-commendations-operation-warp-speed-team/

1/20/2025 12:24:56 PM

I'm very thankful Biden pardoned Liz Cheney, Fauci, and others. Just had this exchange with my neighbor



I guess we've never discussed Fauci specifically, I knew he was a Trumper but didn't realize he hated fauci like that. Text right below pic he says something to the effect of "this demonic reign is finally over". It is like what the fuck?

It still boggles my mind so many people think this way...boggles my mind somehow dems lost people so much that this is like an "acceptable" mindset

1/20/2025 7:26:05 PM

Texas

1/20/2025 7:29:36 PM

^^ it's almost like the Dems really suck, too. Not like anyone around here has been pointing out specific problems or anything

1/20/2025 9:27:52 PM

God will punish Fauci approximately, so I wouldn't stand near Fauci in the foreseeable future

1/20/2025 10:31:23 PM

LOL! Phill seems like a smooth brain. Steer clear. Do not engage.

1/20/2025 10:54:37 PM

Majority of faucis acts were under trump

1/21/2025 12:33:31 AM

His net worth went up 5 million because of covid. ReAd ThE eMaIlS!

1/21/2025 1:11:11 AM

what a terrible last few weeks. his decline post presidency will be heartbreaking now that hes "useless." probably pulling the plug on him today.

no more meds, teleprompters, etc.

1/21/2025 7:58:42 AM