581–590 of 1001 posts
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Trump is definitely the most egregious by a very wide margin, but the pardon power has been abused by every President in my lifetime. It's a truly insane feature of our constitution that needs to be changed.
It doesn't really matter who is more egregious, but IMO a country's leader pardoning his own family members is about as banana republic as it gets.
Good news: This shows they absolutely need any and all money they can get. Bad news: They are getting the kickback money.
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This is such a weird redirect. Biden seems to have pardoned a large amount of low level marijuana offenders. So yes, there is a difference between what Trump is doing and what Biden is doing.
You missed what I stated, pardoning someone for a specific crime vs what biden(if he was actually doing it) pardoned his son for all crimes he may have done over a 10 year span. Oh wait, that was actually one of the only pardons he actually signed. edit: He actually pardoned 5 family members for all non-violent offenses from jan 2014 to jan 2025, does 1 billionaire = 5 biden family members?
Also, how on Earth are their "crimes" as egregious as those that Trump has pardoned in his recent term? Seriously, what did they do? How many people did they hurt? You can't just say "corruption" in an ambiguous sense, because then millions of other people would also apply. Also, "I don't know but it's fishy!" doesn't work when we know literally everything in Hunter Biden's life. That was the whole controversy.
The Binance founder directly impacted people in a significant way. The rioters were violent protesters that resulted in loss of life and others fearing for their life. It isn't the pardon itself that is bad, or the number, but the message it sends as to why they would do it. Biden was "if you're in the family of the president, you'll get forgiveness for your poor life decisions". Duh, like it or not, that's always been true, and Biden got roasted for it anyway. He's done, his family is out.
Trump is "if you're rich or you worship me, literal crime is legal".
The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.
I remain amazed at how, again and again, no matter how specific and unique an abuse by the Trump administration is, it is always, invariably, Really Joe Biden's Fault. Like, the frame has been adopted by the MAGA base, but also the cranky left. The media does it too. Here on HN bothsidesism is a shibboleth that denotes "I'm a Serious Commenter and not a Partisan Hack".
But it leads to ridiculous whoppers like this, and ends up in practice excusing what amounts to the most corrupt regime in this country in over a century, if not ever.
No, this is just bad, on its own, absent any discussion about what someone else did. There was no equivalent pardon of a perpetrator of an impactful crime in a previous administration I can think of. I'm genuinely curious what you think you're citing?
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Which congress do you want doing that review? The past several congresses have been unqualified to do any sort of constitutional reviewing in my opinion.
The U.S. is running an outdated installation of democracy. The French approach of just rebooting and reinstalling the entire thing seems like a good idea at this point. Except the populace is already badly split into warring camps.
Do you mean the French Revolution? If you actually read the history on that (even basic stuff beyond the "Reign of Terror") I don't think any person would want to experience that for their country. It had tons of indiscriminate violence and took a decade of chaos before they sorted out into a real government, which then resulted in Napolean's coup
The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.
The way this is going, the President won’t need using any pardon powers, because the judges will all ask the President what the judgement should be in advance. And the prosecutors will ask who to prosecute. Finally only fair justice!
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Truly don’t understand the equivalence here.
no equivalence indeed, it's way worse. Biden's son has never contributed to anything, CZ has and had a net positive impact on the Blockchain industry. And I say this as someone who despise Trump. A broken clock can be right twice a day.
So, a net negative impact on society.
The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.
The power to pardon needs to be removed all together. All it does is show that the President overrides the department of justice. How anyone ever thought this should be a thing, I have no idea.
The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.
The way this is going, the President won’t need using any pardon powers, because the judges will all ask the President what the judgement should be in advance. And the prosecutors will ask who to prosecute. Finally only fair justice!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The U.S. is running an outdated installation of democracy. The French approach of just rebooting and reinstalling the entire thing seems like a good idea at this point. Except the populace is already badly split into warring camps.
> The French approach of just rebooting and reinstalling the entire thing seems like a good idea at this point. Do you mean the French Revolution? If you actually read the history on that (even basic stuff beyond the "Reign of Terror") I don't think any person would want to experience that for their country. It had tons of indiscriminate violence and took a decade of chaos before they sorted out into a real governmen…