That indefatigable spirit of resistance and hope is one of the things I like about Melizmatic’s posts and in turn one of the things I like about the character of this place. It’s so hard not to get beaten down by bad news in a system that is always funneling it at people, and I’m a person with a strong “freeze” impulse. Almost everything we see online is kind of designed to alienate people from each other and engender a sense of complacent defeatism and “ressentiment” towards the “other.” It takes a lot just to counter it internally.
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I definitely do not think all hope is lost. I will try to pay more attention to my phrasing and maybe not getting distracted by irrelevant side issues, which I will freely admit I do a lot.
I have been getting a lot depressed with all the anti-trans legislation the last few months, but two things happened last week to give me hope. One, I drove by the fire station in Forked River, NJ, which is in the heart of MAGAland, NJ, and they were flying a Pride Flag. Then, on Sunday, I went to Pride in Asbury Park and saw soooooooo many people. Gay people, bi people, trans people, NB people, allies, everyone. Those two things were a good reminder that the haters are actually in the minority. I also realized that was the first time in about 5 years I’ve been around a lot of other LGBTQ people, and it helped. I’ve spent almost all of the last 5 years around straight, cis people and it felt good to reconnect with my people. Anyway, I will try to pay more attention to what I say and how I say it. I definitely haven’t given up.
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The clue is in the burning of an effigy. We are supposed to be celebrating the foiling of the plot.
(I introduced the ‘supposed to be’ on a precautionary basis. Who knows who celebrates what these days.)
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I cannot give in, I cannot quit.
I cannot give up without putting up one helluva fight.
I’m not saying that I will succeed, or even make a dent, as I know the odds are stacked.
But at the same time, I ain’t no easy win, either.
Then show us that.
You are not in this fight alone.
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Pardons don’t remove conviction records. They are actually admissions of wrongdoing. All they do is remove the punishment for the crime.
That’s a popular misconception. A person can receive a pardon without admitting to anything. Even dead people can be pardoned posthumously.
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Its not a misconception its Supreme Court precedent
"the Supreme Court’s opinion stated that a pardon carries “an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it”
From the same Wikipedia page:
Although the Supreme Court’s opinion stated that a pardon carries “an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it,”[1] this was part of the Court’s dictum for the case.[3] Whether the acceptance of a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt by the recipient is disputed. In Lorance v. Commandant, USDB (2021) the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "there is no confession and Lorance does not otherwise lose his right to petition for habeas corpus relief for his court-martial conviction and sentence.
Kind of beside the point in this case anyway, because Trump certainly isn’t going to accept responsibility for his actions in any event.
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He’ll run. It’s the only strategy he has. Get back in office and pardon himself, and those of sufficient loyalty to warrant it. And if he looks like he will lose, he will try very hard to burn the whole thing down. It’s the only thing he knows how to do.
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If I gotta ‘die,’ it will be ‘with my boots on’. Still, let’s try to keep it from coming to that, yeah?
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The case has been assigned to judge Aileen Canon.
The same Trump appointed judge canon who tried to impede the DOJ Mar aLago investigation in the first place.
She should recuse herself (hah!) or be removed (fingers crossed!) but these days, who knows.
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I don’t think it’s even really about strategy. It’s just his nature and his goddamned ego. He’d rather risk prison (or burn down the country) than admit defeat.
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Dogs are capable expressing shame and regret even when they don’t understand why they’re being reprimanded. Trump is more like a cat; he just assumes he can do no wrong and believes everyone around him exists to serve him.
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Trump is more like a gull…aggressive, eating trash, and with no control over his cloaca. But that still feels unfair to the birds.
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Both species are above being compared to that odious human.
ETA: And I don’t even care that much for dogs!
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I truly feel sorry for the public defender he ends up with.
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Almost.
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Unfortunately I don’t ever see him getting convicted. His popularity is such that seating a jury without at least one MAGAt is statistically improbable.
About 25% of eligible voters got him elected. That means the jury pool is going to have a similar makeup. Voir dire will get rid of the red hat MAGAts in the crowd, but it isn’t going to get rid of all of his supporters. The jurors’s identities are almost certain to be leaked, and they will be subject to intense harassment, intimidation, extortion, and probable violence.
And it only takes one juror to hang the jury.
I don’t see a way around it that still results in a fair trial.
