Uglier and uglier… And this hasn’t even got to the EOs yet…
I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea for Joe Biden to do an interview with the New York Times about the autopen scandal, but it happened, and boy, was it a mistake. While defending his controversial use of an autopen machine for mass clemency decisions, Biden boldly claimed he “made every decision” on his own.
We cannot understate the scale of Biden’s clemency actions. In what the White House trumpeted as “the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president,” Biden granted pardons and commutations to more than 1,500 individuals during his final weeks in office. This wasn’t some routine administrative task; this was an unprecedented exercise of presidential power.
But here’s where Biden’s characterization falls apart completely. Buried in the very same report is evidence that completely undermines his claim — evidence that should alarm every American who values transparency and accountability in government. The Times report explicitly states that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people.”
Instead, the report reveals that he merely “signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.”
Full article, HERE from PJ Media.
Soooooo, the ‘staff’ made the decisions and authorized the autopen… Did I read that right? If so, other than the ‘wet ink’ pardon of Hunter, are ANY of the pardons legal?
If so, what did they do for the EOs???
The mind doth boggle…
One is reminded of this scene from “Blazing Saddle.”
“Hedley Lamarr: If you will just sign this, Governor. Right here.
Governor Lepetomane: Yes, yes. What the hell is it?
Hedley Lamarr: Well, under the provisions of this bill, we would snatch two hundred thousand acres of Indian land, which we have deemed unsuitable for their use at this time. They’re such children…”
Heh. Also Governor Lepetomane: “Work-work-work-work-work. Hello boys, get a good night’s rest? Missed you”.
The election was stolen. Every Biden “signature” since he took the oath of office is null and void.
We don’t need more evidence. What we need is the collective will to do something about it.
Now we have another stain on the Oval Office carpet. Reiterating a few bits of history, we have:
Harding holding a cup of tea
Tricky Dick and a room at the Watergate
Cowboy Ron and that little mix up called Iran-Contra
Old Slick Willie getting a Lewinsky in the Oval Office
The Biden autopen scandal makes most of these look like high-school drama queens writing up the local bird cage liner. My first reaction was something on the order of you got to be f—–g kidding me! while at the same time, I know they aren’t. They’re serious as a heart attack.
If a sitting President, even a demented President, can do this and get away with it, just what the hell can’t a President do?
NRW/RHT- Snort…Governor Lepetomane…sigh
Mad Jack- Good question!
“What can’t a President do?”
Behaviors should not be expected to strictly conform to mathematical models, such as linearity, transistiveness, etc.
More specifically, a lot of discussion of the executive power in recent years is giving rote or partisanly slanted takes on theoretical analysis, where the theory could jog through possibilities for which no fixed formula can be available.
The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, with the explicit intent of covering the cases of civil war. The civil war language in the description of the executive power did not appear from thin air in 1861.
The fundamental fly in the ointment of such legal analysis, is that a) formal legal system theories are dependent on peace consensus holding and the formal legal system being persuasive b) The reality of law in a given American county has always been about the shooters living in the county c) there is a fundamental split in the theory that Americans feel, that was ignored following the ACW, and is unresolveable.
The basic theory difference is democracy (local force of arms now) versus republic (I will cooperate even on points where I lose based on a strict literal reading). Everyone wants the strict reading, when the strict reading is in their favor. The test is how much costs people accept when the strict reading is not in their favor.
This theoretical split runs right through the heart of every American, and outside forces lack the power to configure it in arbitrary ways into the future.
If the executive powers are greater for the sake of resolving a civil war, then maybe the legislature and judiciary cannot just imagine obstacles into the path of the executive during such times. So the greater practical limit is the President losing the civil war, by way of pissing off enough people that they flip to the other side.
So probably a President can not get the Navy to bomb Pensacola into rubble. And perhaps there is enough mutual love or enlightened self interest that ordering the Air Force to do a conventional or nuclear bombing would fail. But, that runs through a set of minds where we might be able to verify a failure now, but we cannot currently test the minds that may be in those places ten, twenty, or thirty years into the future. No fixed formula answer for that question, except maybe “No. Bob, you are also full of shit.”
Anyway, case studies. Lincoln pissed off a lot of people, and many are still angry, but he did not actually lose that civil war. And it would actually probably be more of a mess going forward if we, say, permitted the judiciary to overturn the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment based on whatever irregularities there were. JFK was probably frauded in, but that was maybe not a huge problem for people, because the whites trusted him to not be a murderous lunatic. (Now, he probably was really buddy buddy with the Segregationists, but that was a pretty sunk cost at that point, lots of Democrats in congress had probably been fraudulently elected with the assistance of terrorism by 1960.) Trump, well, he just got reelected, so while he has pissed off some people, he has clearly not pissed off everyone.
This stuff around the Biden regime is not stuff people care about with enough energy for it to have escalated to civil war, and we have probably successfully avoided that possibility. This stuff with case law is just a points game within the formal legal system.
The points game is a problem, and would be sure to indicate problems (until fixed), since January 12, 2021, when many law school heads proudly documented a pre-existing state of either incompetence or misconduct.
It is a problem because we have small c communists mixed in with the small r republicans, and small d democrats. Fundamentally, a lot of the degreed lunatics have been trained to be so invested in theories about prehistoric word magic conspiracies that they discount how they would be perceived by those not so invested. Formal legal system is meaningful inside of peace consensus, and the responsibility of formal legal system professionals is to persuade us that the legal system is valid inside the peace consensus.
If they are foolish enough that they are sufficiently counter-productive in persuading, the public has a right to remove them from certain positions.
I guess it’s down to what H said: “At this point, what does it matter?” Lots of noise and pontificating, maybe a sacrificial lamb or two, but all in all? nothing will be done about it. Just like all the other “investigations” and scandals that are already known about, let alone those that aren’t known.
Bah, humbug!
When you’re young, it’s cynicism. When you’re old, it’s experience.
You’re so awesome! I don’t believe I have read a single thing like that before. So great to find someone with some original thoughts on this topic. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This website is something that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!
Bob- If only… sigh
Tom- Agreed! And it’s an ‘experience’ I DON’T want to repeat!
My opinion
Heh
is that his lack of cognitive clarity over the last ten years should have been obvious to anyone that gave the effort to actually look at him, which many of us were doing and pointing out, and therefore his handlers were the decision makers, which means nothing he signed is valid. Nothing. His time in the Office can only be described as a fraudulent debacle.
By the way, might want to delete the comment from blog at 2127, clicking on the “name” gives a warning from t mobile 5g internet. “This domain may contain malware, viruses, phishing hacks, or other forms of malicious content. By visiting it, you risk unauthorized access to your personal information. Even well-known websites are sometimes unknowingly infected.”