No Trump pardon forthcoming
QAnon shaman gets 41 months in prison.
The sentence matches one [Judge Royce] Lamberth imposed on a former mixed martial artist filmed punching a police officer during violence, who was sentenced last week to 41 months in prison. The two are the stiffest sentences handed down in any of the roughly 675 riot prosecutions.
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While in detention, Chansley was diagnosed by prison officials with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. When he entered his guilty plea, Chansley said he was disappointed Trump had not pardoned him.
Trump doesn’t do things for other people.
Trump isn’t going to pardon anyone not in his inner circle, unless he thinks they can do something for him. And of course, now, Trump cannot pardon him. Oh, he could say it, and sign it, but the prison authorities will recognize it’s not Trump that needs to do the pardoning.
Biden pardoning the rioters would send a really, really bad message.
The thing about Chansley and 99% of those arrested to date – they’re just mooks. Not to say they’re good people or misguided. I don’t think that at all. They’re just unimportant fodder for the battle. Most will get a slap on the wrist and a few who stood out because they hit a police officer, wore a costume, or were stupid enough to post photos of themselves stealing from Pelosi’s desk, will receive punishment that is significant. For people like this I actually think sentences of 3-3.5 years is too long. On the other hand, the people who actually planned and organised the demonstration, who strategised using the chaos as part of a coup attempt, what will happen to them? At worst some bad publicity they will ultimately deflect and which will only make them heroes in MAGA land. yet those are the people who deserve consequences far more severe than the useful idiots.
The worst part of this is watching the Dems sleep walk to annihilation. If they were really worried about what is happening they would go all in. Use contempt of Congress to compel appearance and testimony before the investigation commission. Pass meaningful legislation to ensure free fair and transparent elections. Pursue those that plotted a coup to the ends of the earth, scorching the ground behind them and salting it. Instead… nothing.
Rob, I imagine the Dems are listening to the pundits too much. I have noticed that most of the talking heads just use the same talking points all the time: we must try to understand the suffering of the Trumpistas and what made them vote for Trump. We need to realize these are all great people, nice people, and Trump misled them (he didn’t; he said what they wanted to hear, and they ate it up, but his shouting wasn’t misleading them. If it was, it was misleading them into thinking he was even worse than he is, and I don’t think he was doing that). The pundits live so far within the political system they cannot even see real life anymore. And the Dems listen to them because they know them and trust them, even though the most they have ever done with this part of the country is a quick fly-through, stopping to talk to a few people in an airport cafe.
Which pundits are we talking about? Different ones than the “Virginia proves all these people are racists so let’s double down on stupidity that loses us elections”?
No need to understand them, they’re dumb tribal idiots much like everyone else seems to be these days, but you do need some of them if you want to win elections.
Actually, I mean the sort that keep saying people want moderates, centrists, people who aren’t going to make radical changes, people who will play it safe. Some people do want that, of course, and the movement toward Biden could suggest that’s right. Or that enough people believe it that they voted for the person they thought other people were most likely to vote for. But what they keep saying is to stop doing things for women or minorities (not in those words, of course) and focus on the white male voter. They use much more PC phrases and words, but when you look at it, that’s what it amounts to. The reality is, the Dems can’t win if they lose the women and the minorities, because they’re not going to pull off enough of the white men that are committed to assholery to make up for them. What they need to do is give the people who believe in something better a reason to vote for them. This last election, people had a reason, but it wasn’t the Dems who gave it to them, it was Trump. So many people did not want Trump that they turned out for Biden.
The Democrats have an enormous tent. It has broadened as the Republican tent has narrowed. They are trying to fit gun owners in with people who want gun control; pro-choicers in with pro-lifers who want social programs; women with trans women; women with misogynists; women with people who believe sex work should be considered just another job; racial minorities with people who harbor barely hidden racial animosities; people who want transit with people who want more cars with fewer emissions; global warming with coal miners.
There is no way to make this work that I can see, other than by jettisoning half their base. Which means they wouldn’t be able to win. They are in a difficult situation, and people are just giving them grief about how insipid they are, how little they do, how unliked they are, how ineffective they are. People never look behind at the reasons.
I’ve been saying for a long time that America in its current state cannot be governed in a reasonable manner, in a democracy or a democratic republic. We are too splintered, too fractured. I’ve seen them for a long time, possibly because I am blue while living in a red state; now everyone is seeing the fractures. They need to start realizing these fractures were not created by Trump; he merely exploited what was already there and fanned a fire that was already burning.
So what stupidity loses elections? That’s what the pundits keep saying…stupidity is losing elections. No, what is losing elections for the Dems is that they cannot possibly please all the people in their tent, so they try to strike a middle ground to avoid pissing them off, and end up pissing them off. And no one wants to say it, because the assumption is that diversity is always good in every setting. Well, as an ecologist, I can tell you that is only partly true. A less diverse system with a lot of healthy native species may be much better than a diverse system full of weeds.
How do we solve the problem? I imagine we don’t.
Rob @2 Exactly. Lets punish the ignorant pissants who did the bidding of the rat bastards who are really responsible. The rat bastards get zero consequences while the pissants take the fall. The prosecution, as I have said before, is pathetic. Donnie Dipshit still considers running in 2024. In a just world he’d be hiding in his posh basement, in fear for his life, not out playing golf and running his stupid yap about how he was cheated.
I really disagree that a 3.5 year sentence is too harsh. They stormed the Capitol, caused the death of officers, put members of Congress in fear of their lives. What would have happened if they had gotten into the chambers?
Saying it’s more important to go after Trump and Hawley and Greene diminishes the actions of these lunatics. They are every bit as dangerous as the people behind them.
Trump shouting on Twitter to overthrow the election is just noise if no-one takes him up on it. These people did.
I really worry that this mental shit is spreading deeper in Australia. We just had demonstrations where people were carrying nooses calling for the hanging of our Premier. Horrifying.
Shut down Murdoch, that will help immensely. In the meantime, jail for every last man Jack of ‘em.