Who gives a shit? Republicans made a felon president. Nothing fucking matters anymore.
A felon that had to be given immunity by the supreme court he picked himself in order to stay out of prison long enough for the richest man in the world to get him elected.
You can’t make this shit up
Reminds me of
And that’s why you should let me go, Your Honor
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Exactly. Trump is about to pardon dozens/hundreds of treasonous terrorists (Jan 6th).
Honestly, I doubt he will pardon more than a small number people, most of the Jan6ers have nothing that will gain Trump if they are pardoned, and they have shown to be dangerous towards government and authority, these are not people an authoritarian government will want on the streets.
Past actions matter far, far less than future potential gains.
Trump will be back in office, he has won, he doesn’t need the Jan6ers anymore.
I am certain that he will pardon a few, to make it seem like he/the republicans care, but the majority will probably stay locked up.
If I wanted to operate on republican standards of integrity I’d be a republican.
You’re operating on Republican standards of integrity whether you want to or not, because nothing fucking matters anymore. That’s just the hand you’ve been dealt.
we’re only as good as the world lets us be, huh.
Honestly? With the absolute thought crime aspect and the way the plea deal was handled, I don’t blame him one bit. There’s no public interest in locking up Hunter Biden.
There’s no public interest in locking a lot of people up, yet they still do.
Rules should be applied equally, regardless of who you or your parents are.
This rule should be disregarded equally.
Ya but he’s white and wealthy. That shits better than Teflon these days.
Yeah, I don’t see any public interest involved at all when it comes to the issue of presidents using their power to get their relatives off jail time. I don’t think it undermines the sense of justice and equality that all citizens are supposed to have if the “first among equal citizens” can get their crackhead middle ages son off of already lenient legal consequences for actions that others are serving hard time for. Not at all a conspicuous legal hole that undermines the concept of the rule of law, and definitely not open to abuse.
That was part of the problem. The judge bowed to political pressure and rejected a completely normal plea deal to throw the book at the guy instead.
If you ask me the pardon power isn’t used nearly enough.
Judges do that all the time. Hunter Biden was the 50+ year old son of one of the most powerful people in the country. Not some 22 year old street kid from a poor district.
Yeah well they shouldn’t.
They absolutely should.
This isn’t some small point, either. Your view validates mandatory minimum sentencing and other systemically racist structures.
Judges should make judgments. It’s literally the job title. A judge is someone you’re supposed to be able to trust to take into account all the human stuff and make decisions based off it.
You want a judge that makes the judgment call that a plea deal is okay? Fine.
You want a judge that throws away a plea deal they think is too light? Fine.
You want a judge that adds up minimum sentences and could be replaced by a computer? Not fine.
Yeah sure. And how many scandals are we seeing about judges? It’s obviously not fine. This isn’t the 1800’s any more and we need to stop giving someone that much power. If a plea deal is done between the state and a defendant them the judge’s only role should be to make sure the defendant isn’t being taken advantage of. The state hardly needs protection here and the precedent for political interference in the judicial system is really not okay.
Life isn’t a Hollywood movie where the judge is some all knowing good intentioned white guy that always does the right thing. Our founding fathers understood this, that’s why they gave us what protections they could. Now over 200 years later we’ve forgotten it all. We even have debtor’s prison back, specifically with the help of the people you say are supposed to uphold trust in law and order.
At this point I would rather a computer than read one more Pro Publica story about a judge taking kickbacks to send kids to torture camps.
You’re complaining about corruption in elected positions, and want to replace it by giving more power to the DA, or to remove the human aspect and give everything over a computer assigning mandatory minimums that only ever seem to go up.
If you have a problem with corruption, you fight the corruption. You don’t consolidate power into even fewer hands, with no mercy(not that there is much of that in the first place.)
The founding fathers were a bunch of rich white dudes, that almost to a one, fail every moral standard today. Some of them would and were considered assholes in their own time. Acting like they were incredibly thoughtful/wise elder statesmen is the only Hollywood trope either one of us has brought up. Part of the protections they did try and put into place was to spread power out, and make those positions ones that elected. You know, the stuff you want to remove?
Actually judges can and should call foul on plea deals that are poorly worded so as to allow future violations of tax law.
A violation is a violation. A plea deal can’t make a future act not a crime. That’s completely nonsense.
Exactly, which is why the judge objected to plea deal. Are you following now?
There’s no public interest in locking up Hunter Biden.
Nonsense. Theres a massive public interest in a privileged member of the political elite being held to the same legal standards and to the same due process as you and me.
That’s not the same legal standards. Tax charges that the IRS bends over backwards not to use and gun charges that are literally thought crime and also very rarely used.
This was the witch hunt the GOP cries wolf about. The original thing they were looking for was Ukrainian money deals.
For anyone else the IRS would have had a payment plan and the gun charges would have been a plea deal. But we go from politically motivated investigation to politically motivated judge rejecting the plea deal
What about this is the same due process we would have?
So this is his big Grand exit? He could do so much on the way out the door for the country but instead the senile old fuck only cares about his damn kid.
This is one trivial act.
Still got over a month.
Minus the 2+ weeks they take for the holidays.
Donald Trump has a hitlist. Hunter is on that list. I don’t think he deserves the pardon, but he needs it. Republicans will crucify him given the chance. I don’t really want to see Republicans holding his head up on a pike for all to see, as much as they’d love that.
I am pretty sure that Trump would have had that man killed in prison. In my books his dad did the right thing, fuck the optics.
I just made a post commenting that it’s a national security risk to have a former president’s family member incarcerated or under prosecution by the DoJ as Trump is planning to run it. He flat out said he’s planning to use the DoJ to incarcerate political rivals.
It’s like
“Hey, Joe, we have your son. You need to tell me / support me / help me with [undermining institutions of democracy and our allies], or else.”
Looked through to find one of these takes near the top.
That is a ridiculous idea.
A doddering, old, ex-president that is known to be forgetful is somehow going to help Trump, the current sitting president?
One step further: All the things above, but everyone Joe could talk to knows that his son is a political prisoner? Maybe we can add a footnote to this thought, too that questions why someone who got ran out of politics by his own party would care to meddle in the affairs of democratic institutions or those of our allies. (With the understanding that certain actions and certain conversations are violations of the Hatch act, which, under a vindictive DOJ, would see Joe in prison.)
In this absolute farce where he’s emerging from his quiet sundown to try to engage with people about politics, does anyone see Joe as anything but a prisoner himself?
Who would trust any words from him about anything other than Amtrak or ice cream?
You’d have to be a complete fucking moron to think that scenario could play out. That’s the sort of dumb shit that happens on TV, and may be something that Trump tries, but is not something competent humans fall for.Today’s word of the day is: Specious.
“Weiss is a COWARD, a smaller version of Bill Barr, who never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done,” the former president wrote of U.S. Attorney David Weiss. “He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence. Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him. Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime. The collusion and corruption is beyond description. TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE!”
What I’m seeing is proof that Trump (rather, the Republican Party) failed to use the justice department to go after Hunter for tax evasion.
And while I do see that Trump clearly wanted to use the DOJ vindictively, and that he apparently wanted to put Hunter to death over tax evasion, I’m not seeing anything to support your claim that Trump would use the DOJ to manipulate Joe.
So what point are you trying to make here? That if Trump wants to manipulate Joe, leading off by killing Hunter is his go-to? Removing your leverage in the opening play is kind of a shit strategy, if I’m honest.
Are you trying to imply some other claim and hope I’ll validate it in the absence of an actual argument from you?
You’re just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something will stick.Is the above an accurate read of why you shared that article on two separate comments I made? Comments submitted without elaboration or clarifying why you think they support the statements you’ve made.
Look — Trump is a dangerous old fool, and he will do awful things. Possibly, even awful things that are vaguely similar to what you are describing. But your arguments, reasoning, and supporting ‘evidence’ aren’t good. If you’re going to be argumentative, insulting, and present conspiracy theories online, at least do it well.
Appreciate your comment. Nobody can prove something that is a matter of intuition. Can’t prove what anyone might do in the future.
You agree, at a minimum, with me that there are clear conflicts of interest.
That fact alone is a national security risk.
People often lose their security clearance if they go into debt or get arrested. It’s not because of the risk they are bad with money or even that they’ve committed a crime. It’s because they are in a position where they are vulnerable to being exploited.
And it’s a sliding scale. The more someone knows, or the more control someone might wield, there is increasingly less tolerance in the national security world for possible avenues of exploitation.
Ex presidents are loose ends on the nation’s closest secrets, right? Also, potentially very powerful, even after their terms end, right?
Trump absolutely has a history of demanding loyalty and trading favors. “Hey, Joe, as you know, we have your son, Hunter, and we’re holding him over there, and we have some of the boys watching him, and we were wondering if you wouldn’t come out and publically say US weapons are prolonging the war in Europe, and that we need to leave well enough alone…”
We have literally heard that rhetoric from Trump with our own ears.
Are you the same person that was trying to both sides this? You can’t compare turning over the former president’s criminal kid to a bunch of alt right trumpists and Russian loyalists with turning over the ex president’s criminal kid to lib dems, Merrick Garland and Jim Comey types. They bag this dude’s shit when he travels. You think they were going to let him let Trump keep his kid?
Edit: : we will see after The noise dies down and insiders start spilling the beans about what happened in the room. My confidence level that the national security conflict of interest was a principal consideration is very high.
It seems like you’ve been focusing a lot on opportunity in your statements, but you also have to consider motive.
After Biden’s term is up, the Republican Party is being handed full control of the U.S. government. They have the presidency, the house, and the senate. They simply do not need Biden.
Regarding Ukraine, Trump can just not send any more aid, and (illegally) stop any in-progress aid while calling it an official presidential act.
I think Trump is really weak. The instances of him taking advantage of other people relate to money, sex, power, and his ego. (In a topical sense - I don’t think he’s smart enough to get ego fulfillment from things like achieving policy goals.) He doesn’t engage in a hard push for matters of statecraft or policy goals. He leaves that to the sycophants around him. Surely they could conceive of such an idea, but even if they did try to put something like that in motion, do you think he would grant anyone in his circle enough power to carry out such a plan? And if they could carry out such a plan, I just don’t see Trump’s ego accepting help from ‘the competition’, let alone other nations viewing a Democratic-led Trump envoy with anything but suspicion. Other countries have intelligence services. They’ll be able to figure out why someone pulls a policy 180, and they’ll do whatever is best for their country.
And to your point about Trump demanding loyalty - absolutely. But from his sycophants. He doesn’t need any particular democrat to be a sycophant. I think, honestly, he’s a lazy slob who is so used to money and power carrying water for him that he just finds the next person. He doesn’t have the grit to be malevolent unless it’s for money, sex, power, or his ego.
And, for the record, I am not the ‘both sides’ person. I have no idea what that line of thought is about. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t make that argument because I don’t think Trump loves his male children enough to care what happens to them. I believe he’d only care if something affected his public image.
Which, no fuck you Biden for pardoning your son. He committed multiple crimes, including gun laws and convicted in a fair trial.
Fuck you for proving that there is a two tier Justice system.
Fuck you for undermining gun control.
Fuck you for giving yet another example that Democrats are no better than Republicans.
For real. I don’t think Joe’s wrong to say Hunter was singled out, but Hunter still did those things.
Yeah, I also agree but as you can see, people still treat this crap as a team sport instead of treating everyone equally under the law.
I mean hell, how are we supposed to say fuck the trump family for all their shady, illegal behavior with taxes and prosecute them when Democrats are pardoning a tax evader and making excuses when he did do those things regardless of political bullshit.
What Joe isn’t saying is that he’s not going to hand his son over to Trump to be used for ransom and influence over Biden as a former president and that this has fuckalll to do with the merits of the case or interests of criminal justice.
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^ THIS
It’s really sad to me that the Portland community is moderated by a center right liberal.
Portland in general needs a large dose of common sense if we want to have a livable city.
Yeah, cause there is anyone left wing on the city council and like we haven’t had a succession of center right Democrats that used to be republicans as mayors.
The city is the way it is under leadership that aligns with your politics.
The city we have is the city we get if you get everything you want politically. It’s literally your mess.
Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges. He also was set to be sentenced on Dec. 16 in a separate criminal case in which he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges in September.
Trump’s absolutely screwed up Justice department would have had nothing to do with the sentencing.
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Oh for fucks sake, you think that Epstein was killed by the Trump admin? Get out of here with that conspiracy theory BS.
And no a prosecutor can’t just say “oh it’s to light” and a judge just grants it. There had to be legal basis behind it like sentencing below the minimum mandated sentence and even the most shitty judges aren’t looking to undermine the other judges and the system unlike what is happening here.
But whatever, you can all be go sports team with this and downvote away but you’re just proving what regular Americans think, even if it’s not, that both sides are the same with this.
This wasn’t because of the merits of the case or the interests of justice. This was a national security move. A Russian agent is taking over the DOJ. We’re not going to give him the former president’s son.
Lol.
“It insults the intelligence of the American people to compare misdemeanor tax charges to a scheme to steal Top Secret documents and obstruct justice when the government asked for them back,” he tweeted, comparing the charges against Hunter Biden to the recent federal indictment against former President Donald Trump. “If anything, Hunter Biden was treated harshly — those crimes are rarely charged.”
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Hunter Biden was convicted Tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
Lying on an ATF Form 4473 is almost never prosecuted because much of the language is wishy-washy. Ever filled one out?
The odds of being charged for lying on the form are virtually nonexistent. In the 2019 fiscal year, when Hunter Biden purchased his gun, federal prosecutors received 478 referrals for lying on Form 4473 — and filed just 298 cases. The numbers were roughly similar for fiscal 2020. At issue is when Biden answered “no” on the question that asks about unlawful drug use and addiction when purchasing a gun.
https://www.ncja.org/crimeandjusticenews/few-prosecutions-for-lying-on-atf-gun-purchase-form
How’s that moral high horse ride for ya? Winning any elections? No?
and convicted in a fair trial.
To be fair, that’s kinda just what pardons are for.
I almost want to give Hunter a break because he never would have even been charged if his dad wasn’t President. Then I remember how he misused his father’s status for personal gain. I figure that takes the first issue off the table.
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Just in case any future presidents need a precedent for this kinda stuff.
If you think trump regarded precedent at all, i have a bridge to sell you.
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Maybe Biden should make Hunter ambassador to France for the rest of the year
My hope of hopes is that this triggers a challenge and redefinition (and limitation) of presidential pardon powers.
Buuuutt… I am not confident things would go in any way toward that direction. Probably the opposite. I can imagine it being redefined to some legally egregious bullshit, as is the custom of these times.
Trump is gonna wind up with a stamp that reads “Presidential Pardon” and uses it with the abandon of a 3-year-old with a sticker book. He’s going to have a line of donors, stamping foreheads like it’s his own Ash Wednesday.Braindead take of the day.
Trump plans to wield the DOJ as a weapon.
You want to give custody of the former president’s son to Trump’s DOJ?
It’ll be another perfect phone call.
“Hey, Joe, we have your son…”
This has fuck all to do with the merits of the case or the interests of justice. This is a national security move.
It would be a reckless dereliction of loyalty to the country for Biden not to issue this pardon, given what it very likely to come.
I have so many thoughts.
Well, first - I posted this yesterday, so it can’t possibly be the brain dead take of the day.
And second, my comment is a sardonic statement that discusses the need for reform of how the U.S. does presidential pardons. It pivots to imply the Supreme Court will do the exact wrong thing if someone sued about this, and implies Trump will imitate the Catholic Church, re: forgiving sins. It makes no mention of the DOJ, nor my thoughts of how Trump plans to use it, or even whether I think this pardon is valid.
So, if you’re going to incorrectly insult me, could you at least stay on topic?But, but isn’t Hunter an example of Trump weaponizing the DOJ?
No, it is fucking not. It is an example of the Republican Party weaponizing the media and grabbing any lever they can get their hands on, be it congressional investigations or friendly DA’s, to create a primetime cable TV media circus in much the same fashion they weaponized the media against Hillary before Trump had political aspirations, and even against her husband in the 90’s. If it was merely the DOJ being weaponized, Hunter Biden’s dick pics wouldn’t have been shown to congress. The DOJ is secondary. If the DOJ was primary, we’d never hear about the trial, and it wouldn’t go on for years in full view of the press.
So, no. But it’s close enough that if you didn’t lead with an insult, I’d just shrug it off.And what would Trump need with Biden so much that keeping his son as a political prisoner would come in handy?
Joe is out of politics. I’m pretty sure most people forgot he was president until yesterday. Yeah, yeah, currently at the wheel, but after he gets on that Amtrak in January, he’s out. I honestly don’t know how he could be of any help or support to the republicans. Maybe they could put him on stage as a set piece somewhere, but then he’s just a sad old man that reminds everyone that the Republican Party will throw your kid in jail, but we already fucking knew that because of the migrant kids in dog kennels.And third - while I don’t disagree that the DOJ will be used punitively, you don’t seem like the kind of person I’d publicly agree with.
You lead with an insult because you can’t interact with humans normally. Following, what’s the point of the insult? Is there merit to it? Do you prove that whatever you think you read was “the braindead [sic] take” of yesterday? It looks like you switch topics and talk about something I didn’t discuss.
Which really seems more like you just have thoughts you want to share and cannot find an appropriate way to bring them up.Fuck, dude. If you’re going to try to fight the good fight, could you do better in how you go about it?
Finally.
You’ll note I’ve not expressed thoughts about Hunter. Honestly, I don’t have clear thoughts on the matter. I think we should uphold rule of law. But I also think that’s bullshit given how inequitably the law is applied. I think that Hunter is a victim. Lots of parts of his story seem very much like other forces were involved than only his own bad choices. And I wouldn’t want Hunter in prison for a crime that rarely sees prison.
My ‘best’ thought about Hunter right now is that I think Joe should have waited until sentencing to see if the punishment was in line with other convictions of this type. If it was, then let the skewed and politicized rule of law prevail, and if it’s not, then step in.Irrespective of this news story, but perhaps because of it, we may see a legal review of presidential pardon powers., and I welcome that.
Which is what the entirety of my first comment was about. Pardon powers are yet another area of the U.S. government that mostly runs on the honor system, and that is clearly not adequate anymore, lest we see a scenario as heinous as the joke scenario I outlined.No one has any fucking nuance anymore, and must always “win” everything at any cost, up to and including completely disregarding morals and legal conventions, and that’s why every law, every email, and every online comment has to be a damned novel, full of definitions, trapping edge cases, and strict prognostications, because someone, somewhere, has got to be ‘that guy’ and ruin the fun.
“Weiss is a COWARD, a smaller version of Bill Barr, who never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done,” the former president wrote of U.S. Attorney David Weiss. “He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence. Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him. Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime. The collusion and corruption is beyond description. TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE!”
As liberals brush it off as if there isn’t a 2 tiered justice system in the US.
This isn’t about justice this is about national security, about who has custody of the former president’s son.
This is to avoid a kidnapping and ransom.
Liberal here, there is definitely a 2 tiered justice system in the US what are you even talking about
Our disagreement is over the idea that somehow the billionaire with an army of lawyers, who appointed half the judges his cases are in front of, and has been given every conceivable affordance and courtesy, is anywhere other than the top of the privileged tier.
Democrats aren’t exactly being a role model right now, but a lot of them are probably covering the asses of their own since Republicans are so blind by fascistic rage that they’re going to put a lot of innocent heads on pikes.
This thread reads like a satire of how Democrats are happy to sink lower and lower while using the GOP as an excuse.
Yeah. I’m willing to say when I see my far-preferred party doing something I consider unethical, but I also recognize their game theory and why the current circumstances would lead them to make myopic decisions in the interest of short-term survival and at the cost of long-term reputation and public perception.
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That would actually be going higher.
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It’s very brave of you to explicitly blame the mentally challenged for the problems in society. I’m sure you’re familiar with the historical precedent for that ideology?
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You almost have it.
Let’s say they don’t pardon Hunter.
Fast forward a couple months to another “perfect” Trump phone call.
“Hey, Joe, we have your son. Here’s what you’re going to say / do / tell me…”
Who or what is going to stop them from doing that anyway? It’s not like the rule of law will mean anything with all 3 branches under Republican majority control. The enforced disappearance and extortion that you’re implying isn’t going to be averted by a measly pardon given by what will become the opposition party. Pardoning Hunter is not guaranteed to yield any material exemption for him with the guard changing, but it does represent to the public that Democrats consider those who are close to them to be exempt from the rule of law when the law is applicable. It’s both bad optics and likely futile. Biden pardoned him on the slim chance Hunter can navigate past double jeopardy or whatever new undoing of foundational legal precedent the Republicans decide to unleash out of (generally misplaced) vindictiveness.
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If he or the other ghouls wanted to do anything that benefits working people they would have done it when they could get votes for it.
All the other cases where they sentenced someone with a federal gun charge for lying on the form were plea deals. ABC said they couldn’t find any instances of someone being charged and convicted on that charge alone. You can’t say this wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution when the charge has never been used that way before.
Rules for thee…
Wait, where are the “hur dur both sides is bullshit” people?
They’re here. They’re saying " fuck it, nothing matters anymore".
Its not the first time dems look indistinguishable from republicans (who are fascists) on Joe’s watch, is it.
Biden is a guy who participated in obvious war crimes that 88% of his party didnt support-- as a democrat… And imperiously ignored the key issues of the campaign. Of course he’s going to pardon his shitty d-bag lobbyist son on the way out the door. Biden has lowered the bar for his party, for democracy, and for the entire western world order straight through the floor and deep into bedrock. We’ll need some sort of engineering miracle to ever even raise the bar up to ground level, much less hold it any higher anytime soon.
Most of the country clearly stated that they don’t give a fuck about the law. Why should Biden insist on crucifying his son on some cringe gun ownership violation, while the government gets stacked with criminals? and you’re going to equate this to republicans? with Trump pardoning all his scumbag cronies who committed crimes on his behalf? The criminal elect who tried to steal the 2020 election? Get the fuck out of here
Why should Biden insist on crucifying his son on some cringe gun ownership violation
He’s not “crucifying his son”. His son is guilty of tax and gun crimes he clearly committed. If everyone lied on every government form, we couldnt have a country now could we.
Get the fuck out of here
Try to make me.
Good job ignoring most of my response while pretending you responded to anything of substance. Clown
With criminal Trump, having as he does zero respect for laws and legal norms, taking over the DOJ, and literally saying he is going to incarcerate his political enemies, it would be a national security risk for the former president’s family to be in federal custody or facing serious federal charges.
I agree. Since Biden believes that Trump is a fascist, and he didn’t do this for purely selfish reasons, I expect him to also issue a blanket pardon for all undocumented immigrants as he is granted the power two do under Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution. Otherwise, I’ll have choice but to believe that he is a corruot individual who is actually just saving his son from legal consequences of matters already resolved in court.
“Weiss is a COWARD, a smaller version of Bill Barr, who never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done,” the former president wrote of U.S. Attorney David Weiss. “He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence. Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him. Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime. The collusion and corruption is beyond description. TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE!”
Liberals are partly to blame. Many workers in the South and Midwest lost their jobs, and liberals responded by looking down their noses at the “dumb country bumpkins” in the flyover states, where the so-called “basket of deplorables” live. They should listen to the educated elites. Democrats focus on social justice instead of jobs and the price of bread, leaving them out of touch with the common person.**
looking down their noses at the “dumb country bumpkins” in the flyover states
Lemmy, every single day.
But Biden said he was the justice guy and he would not intervene!
All the excuses to pardon Hunter out of “fear of Trump” could be used to excuse things that actually helped the public
