Re: [acb-chat] Types of Pardons was RE: sheriff Joe

and all lovers of Law and Order, everywhere.
Lovers, at least if you can write the laws and disregard them when you please.
This "pardon" of former sheriff Joe Arpaio should be taken seriously.
First, if you want the president to watch your back, you might want to
take out huge ads praising him and calling him "God Like".
Secondly, An important lesson is taught us by president Donald Trump.
The biggest bully on the block gets to make the rules, and to break
them when it pleases him.
And thirdly, and most important, the laws which we working class
citizens are expected to obey faithfully, are laws developed by what I
have called the American Oligarchy. What other names would you
prefer? These laws began when a bunch of White Men who were Land
Owners or very Wealthy, over the age of 21, gathered together and
decided that they did not like playing nice with King George any
longer. The Laws they drew up assured that if they won their freedom
from England, they would be protected, legally. These new laws did
not originally include Women, Slaves, Indians, Indentured Servants,
Drifters, People with no personal holdings, or Children under 21 years
of age. In other words, these new laws, called the Constitution, did
not include most of the Colonists.
These People, the Working Class who took up muskets and fought the war
for the Land Owners, had no voice in making up the rules. But they
did get to live by them, to obey them, and to suffer the consequences
if they violated them. Donald Trump is merely setting about, "Making
America Great Again!" He is doing this by deciding which laws to
obey, and which ones get in the way of "Making America Great Again".
I hasten to say that many of the laws we live under are good and fair
laws, including our Constitution and especially the Bill of
Rights...those wonderful amendments that do open the doors which allow
most of us some participation in the nation's affairs. But it is
limited, for example, our involvement in World Affairs. The Working
Class does not get to decide international Policies, since such
complex matters are assumed to be far beyond the abilities of us
simple minded folk. And we don't get to decide who should be pardoned
for breaking the Law, and who must serve out their time, or who should
be hunted down and jailed for breaking the same laws as those who are
among the privileged who are forgiven.
But all of that aside. Have any of you attempted to go to court and
present your case before a jury of your peers, or before a Judge?
Our attempt to resolve the matter of our neighbor's beaver pond
expanding into our horse pasture, cost us $6,000 before we ever went
before a Judge or a Jury of our Peers. We weighed the possibilities.
The laws here in Washington State are so vague, in regards to Beaver
dams, that we could as easily lose as win. If we lost, not only
would the Beavers happily continue blocking the creek and flooding our
land, but we would need to take out a loan to pay court costs, our
attorney and Heaven knows what else. My point is that we citizens do
have the right under the Law to present our case...if we can afford to
do so. But for a large portion of our People, looking to the Law for
help is only theoretical, not a reality.
As for why Ford lost his bid for the presidency? I think it was he
who lost, not his pardoning of Nixon. Jimmy Carter came on the
national scene with a fresh, almost boyish appearance. I remember TV
ads where Carter would appear, nodding and smiling, saying, "I'm Jimmy
Carter, and I'm running for president". Gerald Ford came on looking
like a stump next to a flowering cherry tree.

Carl Jarvis


On 8/29/17, Bob Hachey via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> There is sure something unusual about Sheriff Joe's pardon. Most partodns
> are done after the law has taken its course and sentence handed down. The
> only other pardon that was done this way that I'm familiar with was that of
> former President Nixon. Ford probably lost the election of 1976 because of
> that pardon. But, given that we neded to move on past the Watergate crisis,
> it was probably the right thing to do. Seems to me that this pardon lacks
> that same redeeming quality.
> Bob Hachey
>
> _______________________________________________
> acb-chat mailing list
> acb-chat@acblists.org
> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>