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Trump’s motivation had less to do with the quality of mercy than a boundless quantity of shamelessness. In his binary worldview people on death row must face implacable justice but those who pass his loyalty test have a ticket to freedom.
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heards worked as security guards for Blackwater, owned by Erik Prince, a prominent supporter of Trump and brother of his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. All were serving long prison terms for a 2007 massacre of 14 unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
After their trial in 2014, Ronald Machen Jr, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said: “These Blackwater contractors unleashed powerful sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers on innocent men, women, and children. Today they were held accountable for that outrageous attack and its devastating consequences for so many Iraqi families.”
The pardoning of the four led political opponents and legal commentators, even those who thought they had grown immune to Trump outrage, to reach for words like “disgusting” and “grotesque”. With just 29 days left in office his burn-it-all-down brazenness knows no bounds.
He also pardoned Chris Collins, imprisoned for making false statements to the FBI and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and Duncan Hunter, who admitted misusing campaign finance funds. Collins and Hunter were the first two congressmen to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Pardons for George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, both convicted as a result of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, were equally unsurprising. Trump continues to rage against the investigation as a deep state hoax even though it detailed dozens of contacts between his campaign and Moscow.
Adam Schiff, the chair of the House intelligence committee, tweeted on Tuesday night: “Lie to cover up for the president? You get a pardon. Corrupt politician who endorsed Trump? You get a pardon. Murder innocent civilians? You get a pardon. Elect a corrupt man as president? You get a corrupt result.”
So much for “drain the swamp” and “law and order”. Research by Jack Goldsmith, a law professor at Harvard University, found that 88% of the 45 pardons or commutations that Trump had granted before Tuesday helped someone personally associated with him or benefited him politically.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, said earlier this month: “Nothing about Trump’s actions surprise me. He has no concern for the law, for humanity, for decency or for tradition.
“If he thinks it’s to his advantage financially, politically, in terms of his family, he will issue whatever pardons he wants to, including perhaps for himself and likely for family members and other cronies.”
[My emphasis] Lichtman's words encapsulate Trump perfectly. There is no shame no morality, just pure Id.
The idea of "revenge addiction" postulated by Prof. Kimmel in an article for Politico makes for very interesting reading when examining the psyche of Trump. where he compares recent research on such behaviour with substance addiction. The craving for revenge against any perceived wrong or injustice activates the same regions of the brain and produce an increase in the production of dopamine in those regions of the brain associated with reward and habit. He notes that, this triggers cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through intoxication. Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice — a grievance — activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation. To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying.
The rest of his article notes that such behaviour is contagious.https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...diction-444570
For Trump it is clear that if you show him loyalty you [or your employees] can, quite literally, get away with murder.
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heards worked as security guards for Blackwater, owned by Erik Prince, a prominent supporter of Trump and brother of his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. All were serving long prison terms for a 2007 massacre of 14 unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
After their trial in 2014, Ronald Machen Jr, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said: “These Blackwater contractors unleashed powerful sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers on innocent men, women, and children. Today they were held accountable for that outrageous attack and its devastating consequences for so many Iraqi families.”
The pardoning of the four led political opponents and legal commentators, even those who thought they had grown immune to Trump outrage, to reach for words like “disgusting” and “grotesque”. With just 29 days left in office his burn-it-all-down brazenness knows no bounds.
He also pardoned Chris Collins, imprisoned for making false statements to the FBI and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and Duncan Hunter, who admitted misusing campaign finance funds. Collins and Hunter were the first two congressmen to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Pardons for George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, both convicted as a result of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, were equally unsurprising. Trump continues to rage against the investigation as a deep state hoax even though it detailed dozens of contacts between his campaign and Moscow.
Adam Schiff, the chair of the House intelligence committee, tweeted on Tuesday night: “Lie to cover up for the president? You get a pardon. Corrupt politician who endorsed Trump? You get a pardon. Murder innocent civilians? You get a pardon. Elect a corrupt man as president? You get a corrupt result.”
So much for “drain the swamp” and “law and order”. Research by Jack Goldsmith, a law professor at Harvard University, found that 88% of the 45 pardons or commutations that Trump had granted before Tuesday helped someone personally associated with him or benefited him politically.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, said earlier this month: “Nothing about Trump’s actions surprise me. He has no concern for the law, for humanity, for decency or for tradition.
“If he thinks it’s to his advantage financially, politically, in terms of his family, he will issue whatever pardons he wants to, including perhaps for himself and likely for family members and other cronies.”
[My emphasis] Lichtman's words encapsulate Trump perfectly. There is no shame no morality, just pure Id.
The idea of "revenge addiction" postulated by Prof. Kimmel in an article for Politico makes for very interesting reading when examining the psyche of Trump. where he compares recent research on such behaviour with substance addiction. The craving for revenge against any perceived wrong or injustice activates the same regions of the brain and produce an increase in the production of dopamine in those regions of the brain associated with reward and habit. He notes that, this triggers cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through intoxication. Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice — a grievance — activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation. To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying.
The rest of his article notes that such behaviour is contagious.https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...diction-444570
For Trump it is clear that if you show him loyalty you [or your employees] can, quite literally, get away with murder.
However, it is hardly my forum!
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