#ohman

Oh thanks Chatgpt for reminding me to keep my feet on the ground, to remember that Perryshmirtz doesn't exist and is just a figment of our imagination, and that thanks to my stuff I wasted more than 5 liters of water just to chat with an AI because I don't have any friends who like Perryshmirtz 🤗

Ohman

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Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Time Magazine has chosen Donald Trump as its Person of the Year. Although Time claims that its “person of the year” is not necessarily a designation of honor, it can be seen in no other light when the owner of Time issued this statement on Twitter:

Congratulations to President Trump on being named TIME Person of the Year 2024. This marks a time of great promise for our nation. We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone. May G-d bless the United States of America.

Reader Katharine H. shared a letter she sent Time Magazine about its choice of Trump as Person of the Year. I have included excerpts below:

Color me unsurprised that yet another formerly respectable publication has bent the knee to try and make us all accept the unacceptable and explain the inexplicable.

Your “Person of the Year” is a liar, a felon, an unapologetic white supremacist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, an adjudicated [sexual abuser], a bully, and a con artist.

Your “Person of the Year” embodies every single character trait I’ve tried to teach my three children NOT to have.

Your “Person of the Year” has broken countless norms of our democracy, including his refusal to accept the results of the free and fair 2020 election, and his incitement of an insurrection at the United States Capitol - the seat of our democracy.

[Y]ou are so fundamentally and inherently wrong to normalize the most abhorrent human imaginable, who has done immeasurable damage to our country, has corrupted its institutions, and is on a path to destroy its fragile and vaunted democracy all in service of his own disgusting and insatiable ego.

Your “Person of the Year” is an insult to millions of Americans like me who care about basic decency, democracy, and the rule of law.

Trump's statements in his Time Magazine interview

In his interview with Time Magazine, Trump admitted that he will not be able to reduce the price of groceries—as he repeatedly promised during the campaign. What a surprise! See HuffPo, Trump Backtracks On Campaign Pledge To Bring Down Grocery Prices

Trump also said he would

allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

begin pardoning January 6 insurrectionists “in the first hours” of his administration.

use the military to deport immigrants

impose tariffs on countries that refuse to accept immigrants deported by the US.

President Biden announces 1,500 clemency grants

On Thursday, President Biden announced the largest grant of clemency in US history. The White House announcement is here: President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans | The White House

Per the White House announcement,

The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. He is also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes. These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo published a thoughtful article on Biden’s mass grant of clemency. See Talking Points Memo, Pardons and Unmerited Grace.

Marshall argues that clemency should be more broadly available and should be the norm rather than the exception, given the harsh reality of prisons and the over-sentencing that frequently occurs because of mandatory minimum sentences and federal sentencing guidelines.

Marshall writes,

In fact, much of what passes for pardons or clemency today aren’t really pardons at all. They’re basically fake clemency. . . . [I]n almost every one of these cases the recipients have already done their time! They took responsibility; did their time; expressed remorse and then went on to live an exemplary life. What they get is an almost entirely symbolic record wiped clean.

I recommend Marshall’s article to anyone concerned that Biden’s mass grant of clemency is unwarranted or unusual.

me uh

Fucking need it.