I don't think I'm going very far out on a limb to make this prediction, but I just wanted to get it on the record before it happened. It seems like some low-lying prophetic fruit that I just felt like picking this morning. (Oh, and I also predict that he will also issue blanket pardons to himself and his family.)
As long as I'm writing, an administrative note: I am now moderating all comments on this blog. For seventeen years I have not done this because I believed in free speech, and I still do. But my recent posts have attracted conspiracy cockroaches. I would just ban the worst offenders, but unfortunately the Blogger platform doesn't allow that, so I'll have to filter everything manually. I deeply regret having to take this step, but I will no longer allow my blog to be an outlet for repeated blatant lies that are a clear and present danger to the country that has been my home for most of my life.
So here's the new rule: I will no longer publish anonymous or pseudonymous defenses of right-wing propaganda. If you want to defend these positions here, you're going to have to do it under your real identity, as I have been doing for the last 17 years. If you really have the courage of your convictions then show your face. If not, then go crawl back into the holes from whence you came like the cowards that you are.
[UPDATE] One pseudonymous coward has taken to the comment box to whine about censorship. Tough. One man's censorship is another man's exercise of editorial control. I have actually had an editorial policy since the beginning, but it hasn't really been necessary to enforce it much until now. If you send a letter to the editor of the New York Times they are under no obligation to publish it, and neither am I. You are perfectly free to write your own blog if you want to be heard. But this blog belongs to me, and if you're not willing to show your face or demonstrate that you have a basic grip on reality you are not welcome here. Begone, pseudonymous trolls.
Hi, I just wanted to apologize. My comment on your last post was irrelevant and unhelpful. I'm not a right wing or anything. Just a dumb person who blurted out words without thinking carefully. Again, I apologize for having bothered you with all this. I spent all day today regretting what I wrote. I'm sorry.
ReplyDelete@Sabu:
ReplyDeleteRest easy, I wasn't referring to you.
It's not a given that he will pardon them. After all, they let him down. And they're so low class.
ReplyDeleteTrue, which is why my prediction is not quite as lame as predicting that, say, the sun will rise in the east. But I'm pretty sure he'll do it. My guess is that he'll cite Carter's pardoning of the Viet Nam draft dodgers as a precedent to make it seem like a somewhat defensible action.
ReplyDeleteLooks like he didn't come through. His lawyers (his real ones, not Giuliani) explained to him that pardoning the rioters would increase his own legal exposure, and that trumps all other considerations.
ReplyDeleteYep. I'm very happy to have gotten this one wrong.
ReplyDelete