What a dumb fucking precedent this sets. Suck Trump’s egodick and he’ll pardon someone for you.
Not only that, but as the article also mentioned is now that Trump discovered that presidency gives him one, completely unchallengeable power, the presidential pardon, he going nuts with it. This guy sums it up well:
“It’s all part of the show,” said veteran Republican consultant Ed Rollins, a former strategist for a pro-Trump super PAC. “It’s not a rational or traditional process but about celebrity or who they know, or who he sees on ‘Fox & Friends.’ He’s sending the message, ‘I can do whatever I want, and I could certainly pardon someone down the line on the Russia probe.’ ”
Even more creating a system where the rich are above laws
I know nothing about the woman's case, but if she is serving a life sentence for non-violent drug offenses, then maybe she does deserve a pardon. Just the same, I have serious issue with the circumstances surrounding this. Given Trump's nature, I fear that his office will be openly lobbied for pardons. Most specifically, I'm afraid of "pay to play" pardon lobbying efforts, wherein Trump literally sells pardons. I'm concerned about him creating a system wherein the rich, famous, and powerful are literally beyond the reach of federal law so long as they are loyal to him.
I bet if he ever goes whole ham with this, he still won’t be impeached because the Republicans will 100% block any attempt to do so considering he’s a free out for any federal crimes they commit too.
This is probably the most overtly corrupt presidency in US history and will require years to recover from and need for serious review of presidential power.
I mean giving a cursory glance at what she did... maybe she should be pardoned. It's been 20 years.
That's definitely where we're going because she's not getting pardoned because of being wrongly imprisoned, she's being pardoned because she knows Kim Kardashian. Nothing more.
What are the chances that this is happening because Kim gave Trump something ala Lewinsky Scandal? Considering his wife had been out for a while, I'd say Kim pulled something to get this to happen. Be it his **** or some master flattery from a pretty lady lol
its amazing, but Kanye was actually the real genius all along
Is your mom watching you post?
Oh, now I'm just waiting for Kanye to reveal himself as the master of the US, Putin being there in the room for whatever reason, confronting him about it, and Kanye just killing him in a very comic book kind of way.
And then the age of Kanye begins.
In furtherance of his more-or-less religious cult he's just bringing back the old-timey tradition of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence
'Yes, you're all going to hell for your crimes. Except for those of you who kiss the papal ring and shower us with gifts and gold - those will find their sins reduced'. He is the 'God Emperor', no?
I'm glad she was pardoned before some madman decided drug dealers should be executed.
Presidents usually pardon people when they're lame duck presidents though. Trump pardoning people in his first term is pretty unusual.
There was the age of man
and then
https://www.loveantiques.com/user_resources/images/content/Kanye%20W%20lower%20res(1).jpg
The age of Kanye
This pardon seems fine.
Individually, yes. As part of a pattern that's being quickly established - it's pretty troubling. I'm not sure I would want this pardon reversed but it sends very troubling signals that Pardons are going to be less an exception and more of a rule - which I doubt was ever their intent.
I don't see this as some part of overarching plan by Trump to subvert democracy. It's some famous person giving him attention so Trump will do something for them.
Joe Arpaio and Dinesh were far more troubling.
And if that becomes a routine occurrence it's a subversion of democracy because the whole system depends, most absolutely, on a fair and even-handed justice system whose verdicts are law and expected - not temporary and passing for those willing to pay tribute. Each pardon is effectively a subversion of the Judiciary Branch - which is fine, the Executive is meant to check the Judiciary and this is one of the ways it can do so - but it becomes a great problem when the Executive becomes overzealous and decides that it gets to decide what is punishable by law and what isn't - rather than pardoning on a case-by-case basis but rather pardoning for a category of crime.
The Legislative is meant to step in and check the Executive in times of such over-reach but our Legislative Branch has thoroughly demonstrated they don't intend to check the President's power in all but the most extreme and dire of situations. There's not even the rumblings of dissatisfaction in the GOP over these Pardons so far, so they're refusing to check the Executive on this front. That leaves the Executive to basically set its own limits on how much it's allowed to simply subvert the Judiciary.
Ours is a system of checks and balances -- it's not intended to be a pyramid scheme where whoever is on top gets to simply decide everything.
I'm not saying she doesn't deserve it. I'm saying she's not being pardoned because "oh, that's a silly arrest, you didn't actually do anything wrong." It's because it's a favor. A celebrity favor.
Celebrities pitching the President on specific people who deserve pardons isn't really out of the ordinary. It's a way that peoples' cases could be heard by the White House, by attaching a high-profile person to it.
It is distinctly different this time around, however, because of Trump's other pardons.
Is this why Kanye suddenly began sucking up to Trump?
Under present circumstances, unfortunately, god-damn everyone should be sucking up to him because he's open for business.
Hell I'm even okay with famous people reaching out to the President to champion a cause as long as it's a good cause. It's not like that was unheard of in previous administrations. Even if the optics of Trump meeting with Kim Kardashian to talk about prison reform is hilarious. On a case by case basis there's nothing to complain about here.
Obama pardoned these sort of things all the time and might have done so at the behest/suggestion of others. When he starts abusing it against people who absolutely do not deserve a pardon or he has a stake in pardoning them then there will be an issue. I don't see any ethical issues with this.
We're already past that bar though, which is why it should already be seen as both an issue and a concerning pattern.
That has already happened several times. While I have no specific issues with this pardon, he's also thus far pardoned several figures who absolutely did not deserve or need a pardon. Specifically: he's pardoning political allies and loyalists who were "treated unfairly" for crimes including corruption, perjury before the court, lying to federal investigators, misuse of funds, obstruction of justice, contempt of court, civil/human rights violations, and conspiracy against the United States).
So the Republican party wants to punish non-violent drug offenders as much as possible to feed their precious for-profit prison industry but our Republican "President" was approached by a famous person to pardon one particular non-violent drug offender and suddenly it's ok because fame. Cool.
What makes this person more deserving than the masses of others just like them imprisoned for the same thing under the bullshit laws of the same party as the one looking to pardon her so suddenly?
Is he learning anything about the impact of such worthless drug policy in the act of pardoning this person or is it just yet another hollow one-off act with no reason like always because he is easily manipulated and does nothing with any real form or method to it?
Trump knows Kardashian has a big audience following her. This is an attempt by him to enamor her on 'his brand' so that she might favor and endorse his business, which he would then directly profit off of.
Armchair psychologist time: Kanye sucks up to Trump because Trump represents a world where you can be a delusional, unstable, narcissistic prick and be praised for it, and that's the ideal world for him.
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