The new president within six to eight hours of taking the oath of office on Jan. 20 pardoned 1,500 defendants and commuted sentences of another about 24, all found to have committed violent and unlawful acts upon our law enforcement officers, our Capitol, and on our democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. This included a conviction for seditious conspiracy, for physical injury and death, destruction of government property, and for those who have finished their prison time, pleaded guilty to their crimes, or who were presently in prison when pardoned. Of course, one must realize that the new president as head of the 1/6 insurrection in which these 1,500+ participated, is, himself, a convicted and sentenced felon, though for other crimes (financial fraud) unreacted to that Jan. 6 day, and has convicted felons within his inner circle, like the new Ambassador to France he recently appointed, Charles Kushner (his son-in-law, Jarred’s, father). We cannot forget the new president’s sidekick, Steve Bannon, or Peter Navarro (Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing), other convicted and sentenced jailbirds. Regardless, it is now quite apparent that if anyone violates the law at the requestor suggestion of the new president, (s)he will get an automatic get-out-of-jail free card if the crime is committed over the next four years. But what we are now only beginning to see is, in a word, CORRUPTION, thick as thieves, which has destroyed our democracy.
So, for those that voted for the new president in our community and elsewhere who read this site, we who know better want to “thank you” all (said sarcastically if anyone thinks I am scribing this literally) for taking us down the road of what Hitler did to his country in the 1940s, or, in this century, what Putin continues to do to Russia or other autocratic dictators are doing to their respective citizenry.
And I can only think that if the MAGA crowd believes that they voted for the new leader in order to lower egg or gas prices for their kitchen table or for their vehicles, or will provide them with tax breaks over what now may exist when they file their tax returns, or even the mass deportations you expect, well, just wait—you will be surprised I predict, and not in a celebratory way.
Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.
