Ratlinks: Pardon Me
Touching the third rail of the holiday season
CAN I SEE YOUR ID
In high school, alcohol was the vice of choice amongst my teenage friends. However, liquor laws state you must be at least 21 in order to purchase or consume alcohol. Making booze challenging to come by.
Being an enterprising young man I found a loophole.
Local laws stated that a minor could serve alcohol while consumption remained illegal.
Off to bartending school, I went.
Our teacher Jim, was in his mid-40s and a master of his craft after years as a seasoned barman. No matter the situation Jim came off witty or charming. A skill honed after spending almost every night for the last 20 years working in a bar. Jim had seen some things and impressed on us that our jobs were more than just server and actually a bizarre multi-hyphenate: mixologist, psychologist, physician, judge, referee, and often a friendly ear or a shoulder to cry on.
Jim’s teaching style through the use of pneumonics made him an excellent teacher. Any drink that needed to be learned came with a little story to help you remember its ingredients. Say a patron bellies up and orders a French Connection, you quickly remember that the movie The French Connection was “Bad Ass” and to mix brandy and amaretto.
The parting lesson, he swore, was as or more important than remembering how to make cocktails.
If you end up working in a bar, never willingly discuss religion or politics.
Well, here we are.
IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR
The holiday season is finally upon us.
Due to COVID-19, physical interaction is limited, but that doesn't mean you still won’t face the eternal holiday season awkward moment.
Who hasn’t been there?
You run into an old friend and can’t remember how to greet them, struggling to remember how they celebrate. Not wanting to seem boorish you debate in your head do you greet them with Happy Honda-Days or Merry Toyota-Thon.
Tread lightly, you don’t want to make this a December to Remember for the wrong reasons.
2020 is finally coming to a close and no one should blame you if you don’t give a ___ about Christmas stuff. You don’t need to do it, right?
Yeah, but -
YOU COME TO ME, ON THE DAY OF MY DAUGHTERS ZOOM WEDDING
Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family, can never be a real man.
— Vito Corleone, The Godfather
As you get older and spend more time with your family you end up with quite a few unanswered questions. Like, you know that one weird uncle you aren’t supposed to talk about, is he really keeping your cousin and her talents hostage?
Turns out it’s called conservatorship, where a judge appoints a responsible person or organization (called the “conservator”) to care for another adult (called the “conservatee”) who cannot care for himself or herself or manage his or her own finances.”
And your cousin is fine, she swears.
RAIN MAKES CORN AND CORN MAKES WHISKEY
At any real-life or virtual family get-together, there will likely be a relative who does not share your world view. He may press that the election is not over and the ongoing legal cases are really a test of federal authority in the United States.
Rather than debate about why anti-government strain continues to exert great control over American politics, instead offer up a glass of bourbon and talk about how whiskey almost split the nation once before. As described in Wright Thompson’s excellent new book Pappyland: A story of family, fine bourbon, and the things that last.
In the early 1790’s most of America’s whiskey was distilled by farmers in Western Pennsylvania who went to war in protest of a tax enacted by the federal government.
What happened next would send ripples into the American fiture that we're still dealing with today: it began with a man who'd become the subject of a huge Broadway musical and ended with Jefferson's Republican Party replacing Washington's Federalist Party.
The American Revolution earned the country its freedom but cost incredible amounts of money, most of it paid for by state financed debt. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wanted the federal government to assume that debt and impose a sizable whiskey tax to help pay for it. He saw it as a sin tax, ignoring the economic realities of rural life that led to whiskey's distillation in the first place.
It wasn't the first time a city dweller didn't understand life in a world different from his or her own.
Hamilton favored concrete and tall buildings and Wall Street, where he's buried, while Jefferson favored Main Street and the dirt of the rural America in which he's buried. Violence and discord over Hamilton versus Jefferson remain the greatest threats to the health of our experiment in democracy.
At the time of the Whiskey Rebellion, the Ohio River Valley produced the vast majority of America's whiskey, nearly all of it rye. Today, Kentucky produces the bulk of America's whiskey, nearly all of it bourbon.
This switch seems random and complicated and yet it is actually quite simple. The farmers and distillers ran from the tax man and the long arm of the feds, looking for a piece of land where they might make their stand.
Hamilton's tax law passed in 1791.
Kentucky became a state in 1792.
Thompson, W. (2020). Pappyland: A story of family, fine bourbon, and the things that last. New York: Penguin Press.
THAT’S THE WRONG FORK FOR THE POLITICAL DISCOURSE
We are very close to the end of the Trump Presidency. During the last days of a lame-duck session, the President often takes executive actions that would be unpalatable at any other time during their presidency, like granting controversial pardons.
BEG YOUR PARDON?
The Constitution's Article II lays out the powers of the presidency giving the executive the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”
According to former President Barack H. Obama
"The power to grant pardons and clemency is one of the most profound authorities granted to the President of the United States. It embodies the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a second chance after having made a mistake in their lives that led to a conviction under our laws."
AMERICA IS A NATION OF SECOND CHANCES
Presidential pardons have a very long history. Starting with George Washington who pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 16 people. Among them, Philip Vigol and John Mitchel, convicted of treason for their roles in the Whiskey Rebellion.
Presidential pardons are now more likely used for famous people, family or friends and can end up being quite controversial.
In 1868, President Andrew Johnson fully pardoned every soldier who fought for the Confederate Army.
President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon.
President Jimmy Carter pardoned Peter Yarrow, a member of the musical group "Peter, Paul, and Mary"
President Ronald Reagan pardoned George Steinbrenner, the former owner of the New York Yankees for making illegal financial contributions to Nixon's reelection campaign two years earlier.
President George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, the former secretary of Defense, and five others, absolving them from any further punishment for their illegal dealings in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal.
Readers of Ratlink’s October Surprise will remember the Iran-Contra Scandal, delaying the release of US hostages held in Iran in order to help Reagan defeat Carter and how George H.W Bush was self-described as “one of the few people that knew fully the details.”
President Clinton pardoned his half brother Roger
President Obama pardoned Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning
President Donald Trump has already commuted the sentences of at least 16 prisoners and pardoned 28 other people in his nearly four years in office. Including Scooter Libby, Michael Milken, Susan B Anthony, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Dinesh D'Souza.
The question now is who else could Trump pardon as the “sheer number of people in the president’s circle to have gotten in trouble with the law has also made the question of pardons especially fraught.”
A majority of Trump aides and associates have been convicted including Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., (ALREADY PARDONED) and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
After pardoning General Flynn, bettors are now favoring pardons for Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s one-time chief strategist and whose arrest was detailed in the August edition of Ratlinks: I’M ON A FRIEND’S BOAT
However, Trump’s refusal to concede is muddying the pardon waters.
While the election appeared to be decided a few days after election night when the AP called Pennsylvania for Biden.
Trump refused to concede and continues to tweet “fake-election-news” that Venezuelan communists manipulated American voting machines to switch millions of votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
Did you know that a fringe group of people believe this?
Some are even willing to bet real money that Trump will remain president after January 20th.
If you are able to find someone willing to bet you SIZE that Trump will remain in office. Take their money and use it to help front line works by donating PPE or helping the less fortunate.
You don’t need a Hallmark movie to know
The real meaning of the holidays is to help others while being grateful for what you have.
“When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just waiting for their turn to speak”.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
