“What he is doing is lawless, it’s unprecedented, it breaks every rule in our constitutional democracy, and the law will find a way to catch up with him. He can pardon his Mar-a-Lago friends, and pardon his campaign contributors, and this or that. But one way or another, our system is robust enough between the press and the courts to bring him and his ilk to justice.”
–Former solicitor general Neil Katyal, Feb. 18, 2020.
Louisiana Voice 
Per Comey: “oh Lordy, I sure hope so!
We certainly have to hope he is right, but I wonder (daily) when it might happen. His cult is not losing strength and sings that old refrain, “It’s all good.”
Exactly what is the President doing that is “lawless”. So he pardoned some influential folks ( Obama pardoned twice as many with over 270 in just one month ), or perhaps he just sent a shiver up your spine with a 10 point approval rating jump since the faux impeachment? Face it, the only two Dems that have a shot at the top spot on the ticket are Sanders (socialist/communist) and Bloomberg, who even the Dems hate for stop and frisk and redlining. Will one of those two beat the President in November? Not a chance….
C’mon man…admit it! You are in love with your investment returns under the Trump administration ( mine are up 40%! ), as well as record low unemployment and a robust, consumer confident economy. Just re-elect the man already…..
Outlaw, you are right that the economy is good. But it was already improving long before Obama left office and Trump was lucky enough to inherit that and improving employment statistics. But here’s the thing: Are you willing to look the other way when he abuses autistic children with his tweets, insults women, Gold Star parents, a physically handicapped reporter; when he trashes our military leaders and intelligence community while embracing tyrants; when he negates non-nuclear proliferation treaties that were working and incites more Mideast unrest; when he threatens to pull out of NATO, the one thing that deterred Russia from aggression against our allies; that he has used his office to enrich himself (see rent paid by the Secret Service at his resorts), his appointing woefully unqualified people to sensitive positions; to his catering to white supremacists; his denial of climate change (of course, you may agree with him on that); his paying women to keep quiet about his adultery; his rollback of environmental protections and Wall Street regulations; his constant orders and nearly instant reversals in policy decisions? I could go on and on with this list but the point is if you are willing to overlook all these things simply because “the economy is good,” then you are a very shallow person, just like the rest of the kool-aid drinkers.
What are you going to say when that “good economy” craters? You do know that the economy has peaks and valleys and has since the birth of this nation, don’t you? In other words, the “great economy”, like recessions, is always temporary. Remember the crash of 2008? There WILL be other recessions, but what Trump is and has done in the other areas I mentioned are permanent stains on this country.
Gee, I wonder how many people the “lawless” Trump has pardoned compared to , let’s say Clinton or Mr Obama ? I am sure Trump has pardoned or commuted so many more.because he is lawless and this is unprecedented. Who did this guy work for anyway ?
Zoe, as I pointed out yesterday, Obama issued more commutations than the 13 previous presidents combined. I acknowledged that fact. The reason for that was because of the overly-harsh penalties imposed on non-violent drug offenders as a result of the misguided belief that we could solve this country’s drug problems with stiffer penalties. So, we filled up the prisons to bursting and suddenly everyone wanted prison reform. Reduce the prison populations, our leaders (Congress) said. Meanwhile, the drug problems continued unabated, proving that the harsher penalties weren’t working. So, yes, Obama commuted sentences and pardoned drug offenders. Trump pardoned people like Milken, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Navy Seal who was properly court martialed by the military (which is supposed to be protected from interference), a governor who tried to sell a senate seat, a corrupt police commissioner (and a couple of drug offenders)—in other words, Zoe, for the most part, people in whom we invested a trust to protect the public interest and who promptly violated that public trust. Meanwhile, you get bent out of shape because Obama commuted the sentence of some drug abuser who, for the most part, harmed only himself. (and yes, if he was selling to kids, he deserved hard time. I think we can both agree on that. But most of these were in jail for possession.)
And while we’re on the subject of drug problems, let’s not forget it was the OSS that allowed the Corsicans to smuggle heroin into the country (The French Connection) and the OSS’s successor, the CIA, that allowed heroin to be flown into military bases in this country from the Golden Triangle by Air America during the Vietnam War. And let us not forget the Iran-Contra debacle, whereby the CIA was actively involved in allowing tons of cocaine to be flown into this country so that we could provide support to the Contras. Conspiracy theories? Hardly. History. So, who really is to blame for this country’s so-called drug epidemic? So Obama pardoned those who got caught up in that epidemic—after we realized our jails were popping at the seams? Who you gonna blame for that?
As Meryl Streep would say in the movie of the same name, “it’s complicated.”
But it’s not complicated when Trump starts issuing pardons that are fewer in number but much more significant in their implications to people like Milken, Blagojevich, Arpaio, Ed Gallagher and Bernard Kerik.
I blame the people who use drugs, not the fact that drugs were made available by CIA or not. I agree that allowing this activity by our “intelligence” community is dreadful, and SHOULD be punished, but this does not excuse the poor judgement of drug users. I have little sympathy for people who abuse their own bodies and become a drain of society, especially in a country that offers opportunity for a better life.
To compare the people pardoned is a little simplistic IMO; ALL of them are criminals. These people Obama pardoned were not just caught using drugs you do know ??? I note Trump commuted, not pardoned, unlike Obama who pardoned and gave these people the right to vote.
Yes, Zoe, that’s typical. You blame drug users out of hand without any consideration of their circumstances. You don’t know what their backgrounds were and many drug users came straight from a little skirmish known as Vietnam where GIs resorted to drug use because they didn’t know if they’d be alive the next day or not. People forced to live in squalid conditions (and don’t say no one is forced to do so because that’s a damned lie and you know it whether you’d admit it or not), abused children, people with no hope because they’re trapped in poverty and happen to have the wrong skin color, bullied kids looking for an escape. You have no idea what other people are going through, so don’t judge lest you be judged (I think I read that somewhere, like maybe in the Bible). It’s easy for you to go to your job each day and go home at night to watch TV, eat a hot meal and sleep in a comfortable bed but you have no concept of the ordeals of the less fortunate. This country does offer a better life for some but many find the door closed to them. I’ve seen people desperate for a chance to improve their lives but when they are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs because of a minimum wage of $7.25 and no medical benefits, it’s kinda hard to crack that door.
Here’s my challenge: You try to exist on $7.25 an hour, especially if you have children to feed, clothe, educate and care for. Then, and only then, come back and judge others.
I guess this is how all the non-Nazis felt when Hitler was in power….. Quite a few people got the heck out of Germany; however, quite a few stayed and gassed their undesirable neighbors who had done nothing wrong.
I brought my 3 college age nieces to see “Cabaret” and the “Sound of Music“ right when Trump was coming to power so they could get a gist of the things yet to come….
Are you serious ? How can you make ANY comparison whatsoever between rise of Nazi Party and this country ? You must have zero education or knowledge of the Weimar Republic era, post-war Germany, or what the Nazi’s actually did. How dare you !
I think the entire world is familiar with the horrific actions taken by the Nazi’s. And I believe that we are too steeped in Democracy to end up that way. But I will not say never. The steps Hitler took to rise to his position of power (copying Mussolini who had been in power in Italy for eleven years before him) are worth noting as there are parallels to many of the steps Trump is taking today. What many of us are saying is beware! This man is dangerous. He has authoritarian aspirations and knows that his zealot followers will support him blindly. He will continue to rip our Democracy apart for as long as he can to achieve his goal of being the supreme dictator. And anyone who doesn’t see this is the one who needs to brush up on their knowledge and educate themselves on past history. Trump is a demagogue. Start with that!
The whole group of you are acting just like that group of DemocRAT on TV last night. I guess you-all think the same.
You mean like all the Trump supporters think the same? If I were you I wouldn’t accuse someone of something I was guilty of. Every single Trump supporter I talk to throws up the same argument without exception. If that’s not “thinking the same,” I don’t what is.
Sorry, but I can’t buy into your simplistic defense of Comrade Trump.
I don’t ask you to buy it Pessup. Just what I see.