Today is Friday, December 6, 2024. One story that is receiving some buzz is the possibility that President Joe Biden might be considering giving potential preemptive pardons or legal aid for people who might be targeted for prosecution by president-elect Donald Dump after he takes power, multiple sources have told CNN. This story appears in an online CNN article entitled “Biden White House considering preemptive pardons for Trump’s perceived enemies,” by Marshall Cohen, MJ Lee, Paula Reid, and Katelyn Polantz.

Biden’s senior aides inside the White House have been deliberating for weeks about the possibility of issuing preemptive pardons, according to the sources familiar with the discussions. The move, which would cover people who haven’t even been formally accused of any crimes, would be an extraordinary step and shows the grave concerns many Democrats have that Dump will prosecute a range of figures that he considers to be his adversaries. That would include half of the population of this country, in my opinion.

Some of those figures would include former Republican Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, asa well as special counsel Jack Smith. Other names that come to mind are former Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois who served alongside Cheney on the House select committee investigating Dump’s role in inciting the riot against the U.S. Capitol and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi whose husband was infamously attacked some years back by a MAGAt.

It’s been reported that aides inside the White House are intensely worried about the possibility that the incoming Dump administration will prosecute anyone deemed as having antagonized the would-be fascist.

One source said to CNN, “You have got (an incoming) president that has basically said he’s going to go after all these people. Why not do it?”

Some liberal-leaning and criminal justice reform groups are pushing Biden to focus his final clemency efforts less on family members, political allies, or Dump’s potential targets – and instead to help incarcerated Americans whom thy believe deserve relief.

One group, FWD.us, is airing ads in the Washington, D.C., market, pressing Biden to “give people a second chance,” by granting clemency to Americans with “outdated” prison sentences that they argue would be shorter under today’s laws and policies.

They’ve pointed to Obama’s record-setting commutations as a model. He reduced the punishments of more than 1,300 convicts, including 500 people serving life sentences.

Zoe Towns, executive director of FWD.us, said in an email, “The thousands of people serving disproportionately long and racially disparate sentences in federal prison have been waiting for relief long before the politics of this particular moment. It is our hope that whatever comes next includes a robust clemency effort focused on them.”

Whatever the president decides before he leaves office should be viewed quite critically anyway by the repugnicans who will now be in power after the Democrats lose theirs. Biden must examine his own conscience if he thinks that this program of vengeance by the incoming president is not just bullshit and he should act accordingly. The country does not need to be wrapped up in these unnecessary and costly prosecutions just to satisfy the whims of this revenge-thirsty egomaniac. Again, we wouldn’t be at this sorry juncture if so many voters didn’t vote for Dump in the last election.

Today was quite calm considering how busy Elliot and I were yesterday. I decided that I would drive the new car to Jax Inn Diner, on Northern Boulevard. Elliot preferred to stay home; he was tired after spending the whole day in Manhattan yesterday.

I’m happy to report that everything went well. Not that I totally overcame my fear of driving the new Forester. I did take the car on the highway this time and drove much longer than the 10 minutes that characterized my first drive right after bringing the vehicle home last Saturday. I still had to maneuver around several double-parked cars which is so infuriating. I didn’t have to parallel park this time since I was able to just park the car in the diner’s parking lot. I was able to use my GPS system and listen to the radio at the same time. Glorious! I intend then to drive a little more every day after this, with or without Elliot as a passenger. Who said then “You have to confront your fears or something to that effect?” Actually looking at Google, I found this quote: “Never take counsel of your fears,” which is attributed to former President Andrew Jackson.

It’s another weekend in cold New York. Have a good one, everyone.

And so it went!