Pardon Donald Trump?

Should Donald Trump receive a pardon?  The obvious response is, "For what?"

 

 

 

Thus far, the former president of the United States has not been charged with anything.  Last week's raid/search/square dance may have excited Rachel Maddow but the rest of us feel it's better to wait for facts to emerge before leaping to conclusions.  Thus far, facts haven't emerged.  Just a lot of opinion -- and a lot of that opinion being passed off as fact.

Of the opinions we've read, the only one that's really registered with us is Professor Nicholas Creel's opinion at NEWSWEEK which includes:

Yet, given Trump's penchant for telling his own truth and his past musing of issuing a self-pardon, there is every chance he would accept a pardon when the alternative might well be a long, grueling, expensive, and high stakes criminal trial.

But the pardon is not enough. President Biden must accompany his offer of a pardon with an announcement that he will not seek a second term. President Biden stepping aside after his term ends is already something the vast majority of the public wants, even within the Democratic Party. But doing so would also immediately hollow out any and all accusations that Biden offering Trump a pardon is a calculated political maneuver to benefit himself.

The President should stipulate that while the pardon he's offering Trump is unconditional, he nevertheless hopes that his predecessor will follow suit in ending his pursuit of any political office, instead choosing to make way for new leadership in the country—something majorities in both parties agree is necessary.

This would allow President Biden to truly become the transitional statesman he campaigned as in 2020. It might also make him one of the best presidents of the modern era.

You know what?  If it meant both Donald Trump and Joe Biden wouldn't run in 2024, we'd gladly support a pardon.  Gladly.  Loudly.  Happily.

What we could teach that matters

The school year is starting.  If we were teachers, we'd give an assignment: What, if anything, would you change about the government?

Maybe someone wants a lower drinking age.  Maybe they want a faster speed limit.  Abortion rights, what have you.

They identify the one thing.  

Then they have to research how it could be changed -- such as a law being passed (or an ordinance if the student went local) or a judicial verdict or a constitutional amendment or referendum.  

Then the student could figure out how that could be brought about.  Or even if it couldn't.

In the process, they'd learn something about, well, the process.  They'd be better geared towards knowing what is possible and at least one of doing it (plus they will have learned how to research their own answers).  

If we want a better world, one that includes 'civic duty,' we need to bring students into the process early on.

We can get behind that

A lot of things Senator Rand Paul proposes are things we can't get behind; however, there is one new proposal we can support. Merdie Nzanga (USA TODAY) reports:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Saturday called for the end of the Espionage Act, less than a week after the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.

"The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long pastime to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment," he wrote on Twitter.

On Aug. 8, FBI agents took 11 sets of classified documents, according to the search warrant and a property receipt, both of which were released Friday. Some documents were labeled as "secret" or "top secret." The warrant showed the investigation was examining possible violations of the Espionage Act.

That's a move we can support.  It is useless.  The verdict is commonly (and wrongly) referred to as the you-can't-yell-fire-in-a-crowded-theater ruling.  And it is abused.  Julian Assange, for example, an Australian citizen is being accused of breaking the Espionage Act.  It's time to end that act and all the nonsense that came with it.

Jim's World

Last week, we had a plenty solid edition here at THIRD:

 

• HOUSE OF HAMMER, slum of DISCOVERY
• DISCOVERY trashes itself in the entertainment indu...
• Can we get a fact check on aisle five? (Ava and C.I.)
• P.P. Arnold's SOUL SURVIVOR: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Av...
• 2022 Deaths
• Curiosity celebrates ten years on Mars

 

 Now all of the above, except for the Curiosity one (a NASA press release) were written by Ava and C.I. (or, in the case of 2022 Deaths, updated by them).  

Reader Ed e-mailed wondering when Ava and C.I. can -- and do -- write four pieces for one edition, the rest of us can't get it together enough to do a full edition?

Good question, maybe this edition will show you the answer.  We're publishing.  At least two pieces are rough and more ideas than pieces -- though Dona points out that she's always championed "Short pieces" and she has.

The only thing I regret about last week was that Ava and C.I. published the Armie Hammer piece two days after the other stuff.  My argument was that it should be held until this week.  I even pointed out that with that piece already done, they could finally take a weekend off.

They took a pass.

They were right to do so.  Armie was being crucified even by the so-called respectable press.  As two who had seen the 'documentary,' they were able to weigh in and to note that it wasn't explosive or new or anything with regards to Armie.  

It's an episode of A CURRENT EDITION.  It's not journalism.  It's cheap and it's tacky and it's people who are rehashing what's already been hashed and rehashed and then some.  There are real stories out there, but this is just scandal mongering and it's really past time that this sort of garbage be seen for what it is: Gossip and, in this case, stale gossip.  Not truth.  Not reporting.  Just a bunch of rumors -- rumors that the LAPD investigated and found wanting.

 

 

 

 

 

Tweet of the week

From Ajamu Baraka:

Zelensky has fired more of his internal security personnel, Ukrainian POWs don't want to be returned to Ukraine because they will be returned to front & abandoned. What a sad & pathetic war created by U.S. opportunism & ineptitude.

7:41 AM · Aug 15, 2022

2022 deaths

Each year, people are born and people die.  Reader Troy Montgomery e-mailed noting that many community sites note passings and thought we could keep a running link page on that.  That's a good idea.  We'll try to include this in future editions this year as sites cover additional deaths.  You'll note a lot of links go to Ruth because she tends to cover passings more than anyone else in the community.  The list may not be complete and the only order for the first twelve is the order of what we remembered while we were doing this -- the order we remembered the deaths in. 

 

 

1) Sally Kellerman -- see Ruth's "Sally Kellerman"

 

 2) Ronnie Spector -- see Betty's "Ronnie Specter," Ruth's "Ronnie Spector" and C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot"

2) Naomi Judd -- see Kat's "Grace Slick, Naomi Judd," "One more time honoring Naomi Judd" and "Naomi Judd"

 

3) Sidney Poitier -- see Betty's "A great actor passed -- not a great person, not a great lover, not a great activist"

4) Ray Liotta -- see Ruth's "Ray Liotta"

 5) Peter Bogdanovich -- see Stan's "Peter Bogdonavich"

6) Andy Fletcher -- see Kat's "Andy Fletcher"

 

7)  Bo Hopkins -- see Ruth's "Bo Hopkins"

 

8) William Hurt -- see Ann's "Not sure if I believe Marlee Matlin now"

 

9) Meat Loaf -- see Kat's "Meat Loaf"

 

10) Howard Hessman -- see Ruth's "Howard Hessman"

 

11) Rosa Lee Hawkins -- see Ruth's "Rosa Lee Hawkins"

 

12) Dwayne Hickman -- see Ruth's "Dwayne Hickman"

 

13) William Hart -- see Ruth's "William Hart of The Deflonics has passed away" 

14) Mark Shields -- see Ruth's "Mark Shields"

 

15) Nichelle Nichols -- see Ruth's "Nichelle Nichols" 

16)  Bob Rafelson -- see Ruth's "Bob Rafelson has passed away"

 

17) Olivia Newton John -- see Kat's "Olivia Newton-John," "Have You Never Been Mellow and a buried treasure," "More on Olivia" and "Olivia Newton-John,"  Marcia's "ONJ" and "Olivia Newton-John"

 

18)  Lamont Dozier -- see Ruth's "Lamont Dozier grabbed our hearts through our ears"

 

19) Anne Heche -- see Marcia's "Yes, you belabored the issue long enough (and Anne Heche will be missed)," Rebecca's "anne heche and robin griggs - 2 another world cast members pass away ," and C.I.'s "Walking and Talking (12/12) Movie CLIP - I Love Yo."

 

 

 

This edition's playlist

 

 1) Harry Styles' HARRY'S HOUSE.

 

2)  Diana Ross' THANK YOU.

 

3) Ashford & Simpson's STREET OPERA.

 

4) George Ezra's GOLD RUSH KID.

 

5) Chrissie Hynde's STOCKHOLM.   

 

6) Adele's 30. 

 

7) Chase Rice's THE ALBUM.

 

8) Rod Stewart's THE TEARS OF HERCULES.

 

9)  Janet Jackson's UNBREAKABLE. 

 

10) Bob Dylan's ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.

 

 

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

 

"Now it's climate that destroys Iraq" and "Iraq sees the effects of climate change early and ..." -- most requested highlights by readers of this site -- climate change's impact on Iraq.

 

"Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Monkeypox continues to spread and Joe's on vacation," "A really bad landlord and monkeypox," "Whitney Webb talks about Jeffrey Epstein," "Grand Dragon Lisa Kudrow," "EPSTEIN CONNECTION? Mar-a-Lago Raid Green Lit By J...," "Liar Joe," "Did the CIA Orchestrate the Kennedy Assassination? JFK Conspiracy Theories Forum (2013)," "A great cost-cutting measure for the U.S. government," "Oh, Chris Murphy, you are just so sad," "Lamont Dozier grabbed our hearts through our ears," "Barbara Eden and Lucille Ball," "Rick Springfield remembers Olivia Newton-John," "Have You Never Been Mellow and a buried treasure," "More on Olivia," "Olivia Newton-John," "Weekend thought," "Lisa Kudrow needs to apologize," "No way to breathe easy, no time to be young," "Stop hitting the snooze government," "Seaweed -- now a threatened species,"  "Turley on the show trial, Ava and C.I. on the smear job posing as a documentary," "Now?,"  "I can't believe who I'm agreeing with!," "Lindsay Graham," "Tulsi pretends to be brave again in her desperate search for press attention," "Idiot of the weekend . . .," "Lisa Kudrow exposes herself as a racist," "Ellen is a hateful person," "ONJ," "Olivia Newton-John," "we take our global idiots and put them on the world stage" and "More racial pronouncements from Lisa Kudrow" and "From kooky FRIEND to full on racist" and "Lisa Kudrow now wants to weigh in on Native Americans" and "THIS JUST IN! LISA KUDROW HAS MORE TO SHARE!" -- news coverage in the community.

 "Brown Rice Jambalaya in the Kitchen," "Cornbread Casserole in the Kitchen" and "Low Carb Chocolate Cheesecake in the Kitchen" -- Trina serves up recipes.

 

"shaun cassidy or david cassidy?,"  "MARVEL and DC,"  "More racism from Warner Brothers," "diane keaton," "henry cavill, 'motherhood: fort salem'," "'dynasty' and 'animal kingdom'," "MACK AND RITA," "The trash that is WARNER BROS DISCOVERY," "Chris Pratt is getting on my nerves,"  "Will Packer is trash that should be apologizing himself," "Weekend box office" and "Crazy ass Debra Messing" -- TV and movie coverage in the community.

 

"Chase Rice, Pink," "Chase," "Eve Ottenberg, Chase Rice" and "Chase Rice's "Key West & Colorado""-- music coverage in the community.