Joe Arpaio

[KeithE]

Before you get too comfortable about the pardon, please read:



Joe had many other charges against him than just racial profiling and ignoring a court order, including

Unconstitutional jail conditions (rotten food)
Improper clearance of Maricopa County Sheriff's Office cases
Failure to investigate 400 reported sex crimes
Many Feuds with judges and County Supervisors
11 Cases of Abuse of Power
Election law violation
Misuse of funds ($100M ove 5 years)
A Staged Assassination Plot in 1999
and more.

Read details in link above.

[Haruo]

But hey, he hates illegal immigrants and (what's even more important) likes and admires Trump, so hey, he can't be a criminal.

[William Thornton]

For perspective, we might revisit some of the Clinton pardons.

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

Okay, shoot. Here is a . Are there any particular examples you wanted us to ponder?

I find the case from the first Lincoln presidency particularly bemusing, because the pardonee was immediately deported to the Confederacy (he had been convicted of criminal opposition to the war effort), which sounds to me a bit like if a US citizen were pardoned by Trump for felonious Muslim-loving and immediately deported to the Iraq-Syria border. In any case, Vallandigham immediately ran off (from the Confederacy) to Canada, whence he ran in absentia for office in Ohio, unsuccessfully.

[Dave Roberts]

Well, by pardoning Arpaio, , Trump acknowledged his guilt. You only pardon those who have been convicted of a crime, so Trump declared by the pardon that Joe is a criminal.

[Haruo]

[William Thornton]

[Haruo]

Marc Rich apparently made no impact on my memory banks, I had to go look through the list I posted to find him and then read to get an idea of the case. I agree that he was an undeserving recipient of the pardon (aren't we all?), but I'm not sure how to compare his crimes, which mostly seem to be high-finance tax evasion type offenses, with Arpaio's, which directly killed "little people" from what I've read, though what he was pardoned for were misdemeanors mainly related to disobeying court orders. Looks like comparing hot Thai peppers to large watermelons to me.

It's sadly amusing that Clinton repented of the pardon, but only because of the damage it had done his reputation. Not sure Trump will come around to even that level of repentance, we'll see.

[William Thornton]

Chelsea Manning?

[Dave Roberts]

I'm intrigued by something. Conservatives seem bent on avoiding discussing the issues of most anything. Instead of discussing whether Trump was right, the effort is always, "Look at what Obama, Clinton, or Carter did." We all know that others have made mistakes, but the constant effort to deflect is getting tiresome.

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

I know it's a gross oversimplification, but it still amazes me to think that so many people who were worried about loss of jobs would support a presidential candidate whose most famous words to date were (over and over again) "You're fired!"