This is when America jumped the shark.

@GazDownright I think that happened in 2016, and it's kept happening ever since.

@TimothyJohnson5c16 I respectfully disagree. What happened before and during the 2016 administration was a perverse outlier. Biden's move yesterday potentially turns this into a new norm in American politics. In a future History of the Decline and Fall of American Democracy, this might be a watershed moment.

Short-term-wise, it also creates a convenient precedent for Trump to pardon whichever felon he'd like.

@GazDownright Clinton pardoned his brother. Watershed was Nixon's pardon. It needs an amendment to fix.

@MartinRandall Thanks. My American political history is lacking, as you have revealed. In a way this is somewhat reassuring; means that things doesn't necessarily have to spiral out of control from here.

I agree on the amendment. Royal pardons are plain medieval, and pretty much a guarantee for inequality before the law.

@GazDownright ironically the royal pardon power in the UK is working much better.

He is a sinner. He will sin again.

@TommyGoldman He won't be president again, though. Oh, right, you mean Hunter Biden? He's small potatoes; the pardon itself is a much larger sin, in my opinion.

@GazDownright Tommy posted before the pardon.

@MartinRandall Good observation, cheers. I think my comment could have been made ahead of time, too, though. That's why I bet on NO; I couldn't believe he would be this destructive and hypocritical.

Biden said he “should never have picked” Attorney General Merrick Garland during a conversation over his son’s legal troubles. This is a guy thinking about pardoning his son. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/politics/bob-woodward-book-war-joe-biden-putin-netanyahu-trump/index.html

‘That son of a bitch’: New Woodward book reveals candid behind-the-scenes conversations of Biden, Trump, Harris and Putin | CNN Politics

In his new book, legendary journalist Bob Woodward offers a remarkable look behind the scenes at President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments and interactions with the world leaders who have shaped his presidency, from Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin.

@Predictor

How does this resolve for a commutation?

https://www.atg.wa.gov/reprieves-pardons-commutations#:~:text=A%20commutation%20is%20generally%20defined,termination%20of%20the%20criminal%20penalty.

If he doesn’t, what was even the point of this entire lifelong journey? Take something for all that you’ve given.

lol he’s not Trump

@cadca Can you repeat that?

@GazDownright Well he still technically in a physical sense is not in fact Trump. But god daym that was a plot twist!