Great, lengthy article on Erik Prince. (Betsy Devos' brother and Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s Private Wars The Blackwater founder wants to bring back his company’s glory days — and he’s campaigning for Donald Trump’s help to do it. But he’s haunted by past failures and is facing questions about a mercenary fiasco in Libya 3 Excerpts: Before he was a cheerleader for American military adventurism, before he spent years trying to ingratiate himself in President Trump’s circle while pushing the White House to let him privatize the war in Afghanistan, before his decade as a globe-trotting war profiteer with close ties to ethically questionable regimes, and before he became a symbol of the failures of the war in Iraq when employees of his company, Blackwater, killed more than a dozen unarmed civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle, Erik Prince was the only son of a wealthy Michigan family with an array of opportunities in front of him. Prince told Bannon the Trump campaign should focus on developing America’s capabilities in what Prince called the “dark arts,” which included “political and surrogate warfare, covert action, sabotage, information war, propaganda, etc.” Whatever the truth is about Prince and Libya, what’s clear is that Prince’s wealth has enabled a chaotic and uneven business career with a track record of collapsed companies, burnt bridges, and accusations of ethical lapses and callous disregard for the lives of non-Americans. https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...-roger-stone-trump-2020-election-1077089/amp/ Good old article on Blackwater Jury: Ex-Blackwater contractors guilty in ‘outrageous’ Nusoor Square shooting Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN Updated 12:37 PM EDT, Thu October 23, 2014 https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/justice/blackwater-iraq-guilty-verdicts/index.html
We need a constitutional amendment that removes the power of pardons for a president during a lame duck period. A president has to fear consequences for bad pardons to not abuse it so flagrantly.
I agree with you. But, do you think Trump really cares about those people killed in Iraq? Kids or not, I don't think he has an empathetic bone in his body. I really don't. I think he's psychopathic. Everything Trump does seems to about favors, money, his ego and power. Look at all the other associations between Blackwater, Prince, Betsy Betsy DeVos, and the money train leading to Trump. That article link I posted on this thread tells a lot about the connections.
Pardons are HUGE bargaining chips for politicians. They can dangle "get out of jail free cards" for huge campaign donations, big favors and lots of other things involving money, power, corruption, justice, and hush money. Pardons are a Presiden't's gravy train. They are a white collar criminal"s dream ticket to give out. Trump is going to pardon a whole lot of people connected to him, his family, his associates, or his party. He already has. It's so mob like. Pardons by the President are used and abused. They are tools for the white collar criminal enterprise of politics to keep each other out of prison when they get caught. People don't become President without lots of connections to lots of white collar criminals. Lots!!!! I don't believe for a second that ANYONE in politics doesn't. Trump just tops the cake, because he is is probably one of the biggest of them all.
I thought he was going to drain the swamp? What happened to that? Somewhere along the way we all got conned. And the con goes on seemingly without end. Counting the days until he is just a dark and abysmal chapter in our nations history. What a disgrace and what a grifter.
The biggest disgrace would be if he and his family get away with all their dirty deeds. He's taken it to a level that simply can't be ignored. This country has suffered far too much because of him and his party putting money over lives. It's heartbreaking. Texas set a new record high of Covid cases yesterday, and we haven't seen the rise that will come from the holidays. Most of us won't be vaccinated for months. It's scary. Republicans don't mention a word about that. It's life as usual for them.
As far as pardons go, the big question is what happens after he pardons himself. He is too much of an egotistical control freak to turn the reigns over to Pence and let him do it for him. Somehow though he needs to be held accountable. He has caused untold damage both in terms of lives lost and lives destroyed. Not to mention he has emboldened millions of what Hillary Clinton referred to in our society as "deplorables": qanon members, white supremacists, and others. And if or when an effort is made to go after trump for his various crimes against our country, I hope they go after his enablers as well. People such as Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Kevin McCarthy, and other vermin too numerous to list. What we are going through now should never be allowed to happen again. I could understand if the election was close but this election was not even close. What we are going through now is a premeditated con job. There should be consequences for those that are participating in this farce.
Donald Trump always looks out for Donald Trump first. He can and he will pardon himself, if he thinks that there is the slightest chance the tsunami of his crimes will land him in jail. As always, there is what Trump says and what Trump does. Trump will certainly say that the Ds hate him so much that they will lead a scorched-the-earth effort to prosecute him. Witch Hunts, I dare say. What will Trump do? I suspect that Trump will do whatever is necessary so that he is not held accountable. Billionaires are above such things.
