I Beg Your Pardon Open Thread

The funniest thing about Biden pardoning Hunter is the pretend-shock among the Left and Never Trumpers…those who aren’t immediately getting on board with the pardon (which is most of them) are all “well, I never! Who could have thought that Joe Biden would lie to us???”. Just another reminder that Trump’s most important act to date was taking out the trash on the Right.

It is a ten year pardon – going back to just before Hunter was placed on the board of Bursima. Which means that he’s now skating on everything he did during that time and Joe is betting that Trump’s DOJ won’t indict him on his part of it (Hunter can’t refuse to testify now – his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination doesn’t apply…he can’t be prosecuted for these things). This is probably a good bet – and might have already been discussed between Biden and Trump. Biden isn’t going to live much longer anyway…and even if indicted, his lawyers could very easily get a declaration that he’s not competent to stand trial. What was extra funny is that given the wording of it, there was a several hour period where Hunter could have robbed a bank yesterday and there would have been nothing anyone could do about it…Biden pardoned Hunter for everything done to December 1st.

There was, of course, zero chance that Hunter wasn’t going to skate…there was no way Biden was going to die while his only living son was locked up. This is over and above the Biden Crime Family aspect of it…it just wasn’t going to happen. All those firm statements that he wouldn’t were just lies…and everyone knew they were lies when stated. But what is odd is that usually these are done right out the door…in the last week in office, some times on the last day. Makes me (and others) wonder about the health status of Joe right now? Someone was in a hurry to get this done.

Trump posted on Truth right after tying this to the J6 defendants and so the expectation is that they walk sometime in the afternoon of January 20th. There is still some debate about how widespread the pardons should be – some arguing that only non-violent people should be pardoned. Nope: in my view, its gotta be everyone. And then compensation for them. We must “insult to injury” here. We have to let the Democrats now that it is over – their whole lawfare scheme is done and now the real law is about to be turned on them.

Open Thread

In the 6 hours after the verdict was read, the Trump Campaign – via the Team Red donor ap – was taking in money at $1,600 per second. In the 24 hours after verdict, nearly $54 million was taken in. We’ll see what the final numbers are but it wouldn’t surprise me if in the immediate aftermath (say, a week?) it is around $100 million. Thanks, Democrats, you completely erased the Democrats fundraising edge for 2024. Oh, and Miriam Adelson, widow of the late, great casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, is donating about $100 million for pro-Trump PACs. Then there there are the rumors – we’ll have to see money numbers over the next couple months – that some of Biden’s major money bags are switching to Trump. But more important than that is the Team Red money – massive numbers of first time, small donors ponying up. This is people doing something. With money. That matters

Bottom line, Team Trump and the GOP will have all the cash they need.

Oh, don’t want to forget that Team Trump is building a nationwide system to monitor the vote and object early and often to any irregularities. And I guarantee you with this much time – and, now, this much money – they’ll be able to venue shop a bit to make sure they get to judges who aren’t mere Democrat hacks. Team Pudding Brain will not be able to ballot box stuff like they did in 2020. Oh, sure, in deep Blue States like California they still can…but, who cares? It is in the purple States that they won’t be able to…certainly not to the degree they’d need to for a repeat of broken water pipes at 3 am.

There were a few polls right after verdict which claimed that Biden got a boost and/or Trump lost GOP support. These polls seem like drivel to me. I guess they could be real, but most of them claimed that the re-interviewed people interviewed previously…which means it isn’t random and not at all hard to pick your target to get the result you want. In this, whatever you see in polling: give it ten days. That’ll tell us if there’s any trend away from Trump. One thing certain: Trump’s conviction won’t make Biden more popular. Won’t make us forget what we’re paying for groceries. Won’t make us forget the border and rising crime. Won’t make us forget Biden’s attempt to mollify anti-Semites over Gaza. On and on like that – Biden and his people are still who they are. And they are monumentally unpopular. Whatever negatives Trump picked up via conviction will fade away…you can’t re-convict him (and the other trials are winding towards dismissal or being pushed into 2025…showing that only in Manhattan could you get an overall system anti-Trump enough to get a trial going…to be sure, they could get it in San Francisco or LA, but Trump doesn’t have offices in those places). If the judge tries to hit Trump with jail time as a first-time offender for Class E felonies, that will just make people mad. It fades. Biden is who he is.

How will the appeals go? Badly for Bragg. Basically every element of the trial was questionable. From bringing the charges to begin with (never in all of American history has anything like this been charged against anyone. Ever), to the obviously biased judge, tainted jury pool, unfair trial procedure, inadmissible evidence…on and on. How long it takes for this to get tossed is the only question. There is absolutely no doubt that at some appellate level, this conviction gets vacated.

Some are arguing Trump should apply to the Supreme Court. While rarely done – and even more rarely accepted by the Court – it does happen when there is a case of very large and immediate impact. One we’ll all remember was the 2000 Election case. It was still winding its way through the State and federal appellate process but it was determined by the Court that all legal challenges needed to be resolved lest the people of Florida lose their equal protection under the law – that is, if this wasn’t resolved by a date certain, Florida’s vote wouldn’t count. So, too, with the Trump case – it can be argued that having this hang over Trump’s head unresolved unfairly impacts Trump’s equal protection under the law. Trump’s claim is that the trial is false. Biden’s claim is that the trial is true. But it is unfair for Trump to labor under the trial if it was false, and so someone better step in and decide if it is good or bad. And Roberts might accept it.

Here’s the crucial aspect of this – and risk to our entire Republic – if we get into the habit of placing former President’s on trial our whole system of government hangs in the balance. If Trump is defeated as a result of a trial – especially one as bogus as this, and over a trivial issue (class E felony, guys: it is the sort of thing you charge a guy with when he paints graffiti on a wall) – then it would cause a catastrophic collapse in trust in the system…and lead to retaliatory lawfare from the other side. It is best we put this to bed. I know our Liberals won’t agree – but Caesar crossed the Rubicon because his political opponents proposed to jail him after his term as governor of Gaul expired. It was start a Civil War or be jailed on bogus, political charges. If we start jailing ex-Presidents then very quickly we will no longer have ex-Presidents.

Meanwhile, Biden’s people are refusing to release the audio of Biden’s special counsel interview. Their current claim? That if released someone will make a deep-fake of it so that Biden sounds like a senile twit. This means, of course, that Biden sounds like a senile twit on tape. They really don’t want that tape out – they can barely hold Biden together for 20-30 minute public events…a long interview and I guarantee the guy was completely lost.

Hunter Biden goes on trial – after Joe and company paid a visit to Beau’s widow…who is a witness in the case. Allegedly to mark Beau’s passing…but actually to make sure she knows that you never go against the Family. Ever. I figure it’ll still wind up with a sweetheart plea deal.