I know exactly where I was when I learned that Gerald Ford had pardoned Richard Nixon.
I was in the bottom of a labyrinthine canyon known as The Maze in Canyonlands National Park. Twenty days or so into a wilderness trip. Politics was the furthest thing from my mind.
The news was delivered by a park service ranger on horseback.
When we first saw him in the distance, it was obvious he was practicing naturism. He was - as my mother would exclaim - as naked as the day he was born. However, by the time he reached our backpacking party, he had donned his park ranger attire. Though he was still casually dressed for a park ranger.
Shorts and flip flops as I recall.
As late teens in the mid 70s, we were devastated to learn that the criminal Nixon responsible for continuing the war in Vietnam despite claiming during his campaign he would end it, despite sending National Guard troops to college campuses like Kent State to quell anti-war protesters and killing several of them, despite being impeached for hiring men to break and enter the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., to burgle the Democratic National Committee and cover it up, would be allowed to dodge the consequences. It was tremendously deflating.
Now we have another crook in the White House, only this time, we knew this guy was a crook from day one. From the day he said during his campaign, “Russia, if you are listening. . .” And, the next thing you know, Wikileaks and Julian Assange unveil a treasure trove of purloined emails from the Democratic National Committee. Echoes of Watergate without the messiness of having to break and enter.
New Yorkers knew this guy was a crook from the ‘80s or ‘90s. But his reputation had been burnished by a reality television show that lasted more than a decade.
Just prior to Christmas, the lamest duck president of lame duck presidents issued controversial pardons for all manner of people.
To be fair, pardons which were once meant to rectify wrongs or appease those who had reason to distrust the motives of the government, have become more political over the past three decades. George Washington pardoned participants of the Whiskey Rebellion. Abraham Lincoln pardoned Confederates. Andrew Johnson pardoned the doctor who patched up John Wilkes Boothe.
Barack Obama pardoned more than a thousand prisoners who were caught up in our nation’s ludicrous War on Drugs.
This president appears to be sprinkling in pardons of legitimate folks who deserve pardons, like Christopher 2X, a Louisville community activist, with criminals who probably are connected to his own crimes or grossly illegal behaviors, like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone (who has an image of Nixon tattooed on his back) and Charles Kushner.
The worst pardons, however, were for the four members of the Blackwater mercenaries who murdered seventeen Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad during the peak of America’s occupation of Iraq. The youngest of the seventeen victims was a nine year-old boy named Ali Kinani. Ali Kinani’s father had brought him to meet Iraq’s liberators during the beginning of the war over oil disguised as a war about terrorism.
In a 2010 doucmentary, Ali’s father was quoted as saying:
The first day the American Army entered Baghdad, I handed out juice and candy in the street to celebrate our liberation from Saddam.
After this “well-regulated militia” hired by the U.S. government to work in Iraq committed this atrocity, our government offered $10,000 dollars to Ali’s parents.
Ten thousand dollars.
The actuaries who decided an Iraqi citizen’s life who was snuffed out by American mercenaries - unprovoked and for no good reason - in my mind, might also need to be tried. But that is another story.
Why would our military-averse bilious soon-to-be-ex-president pardon four war criminals who were not even part of the U.S. military? Who knows? Some believe it has to do with conservative commentators referring to them as the “Biden Four” because our 46th president-to-be expressed an opinion that he thought that an early trail that dismissed the charges did not necessarily mean the men were acquitted. In subsequent trials, President-elect Biden’s point-of-view was upheld.
I think it is purely transactional.
Blackwater, which no longer exists as such, was an enterprise of Erik Prince’s. Erik Prince is Betsy DeVoss’s brother. Erik Prince’s security goons were a part of the anonymous federal agents deployed during the summer’s tense standoffs around the nation over Black Lives Matters protests.
If the 46th best president to ever hold the office truly believes the ‘Deep State’ is out to get him, he might be covering his bases until he takes his last breath. Counting on Erik Prince’s security force to protect him.
Paraphrasing Darth Vader, “Paranoia runs strong in this one.”
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Speaking of Star Wars and Star Wars spin offs, if you haven’t indulged in The Mandalorian on Disney Plus, I highly recommend it. It is the next best content on the Disney channel to Hamilton. At least, for adults and until Mulan arrives.
Also, Merry Christmas Eve AND - more importantly - Happy Birthday to Dr. Fauci! Thank goodness for his stabilizing presence over the past nine months.
