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macinjosh | on: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
Trump promised to do this at the Libertarian Party convention. This case is very important to the libertarian crowd. He is a martyr for many of their ideals. After Trump was so well received at the convention the LP, recently taken over by the right faction of the party, put forth a candidate specifically chosen to not get votes so that members would vote for Trump. Trump seems to be a man of his word.
bb88 | parent | next
Voters wanted a better economy first, not pardons for drug traffickers and violent offenders.

This could have waited until after the midterms.

Klonoar | root | parent | next
> This could have waited until after the midterms.

On the contrary, he can just bury it in the first 48 hours. This will fade into the background soon enough but that group is kept happy.

macinjosh | root | parent | next
It was one signature? Doesn't seem like a big time sink. Many of these early actions were prepared prior to inauguration.
bb88 | root | parent
In war, you point your biggest gun at the enemy. You don't shoot yourself in the foot.
mattpope | root | parent | next
It seems like the voters that were being referred to value restoring rights. How can something immediately achievable be balanced with "the economy", a thing so broad and deeply systemic?
bb88 | root | parent
The people in Pennsylvania who elected him, didn't want this.
mattpope | root | parent | next
It isn't clear from your original statement that those voters aren't from Pennsylvania. I interpret your statement as discounting the weight of their vote on actions they care about. There are many perspectives, and the values of those who did vote in that direction are being addressed in some way.
bb88 | root | parent
A lot of republicans want a "shining city upon the hill". Drug free, sin free, tough penalties on crime.

A lot of republicans want a working economy. High paying jobs, low taxes.

A lot of republicans believe in a free market economy. Freedom to innovate, freedom to hire and fire.

And then we have this.

floydnoel | root | parent | next
> sin free

wow, not even god could eliminate sin but apparently the republicans can?

how do you envision that being enforced? death penalty for any sin? You've never made a sin yourself? If so how could you live in sin-free city? sounds sick and dystopian.

anyway, the point i wanted to make was that when you vote for somebody, you are the one giving that person the authority to take actions on your behalf. if you voted for T, you shouldn't complain about anything he does, because he can only do so because of your vote. learn to be wary of politicians, they treat you right during the dates (election) but after the wedding the true person comes out.

mattpope | root | parent
We're talking about Libertarians and not Republicans, atleast that is what the parent comment was referring to. I don't know what Republicans what or believe vs what they say. The action to pardon directly addresses the Libertarian ideals.
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toyg | root | parent | next
The people in Pennsylvania knew they were voting for an out-of-control, unpredictable, felonious septuagenarian with fascist tendencies. Complaining now that he is all of those things before he is someone who may or may not do other good things, is just silly. Either they knew, or they've been had.
duxup | root | parent | next
>This could have waited until after the midterms.

He promised to pardon the rioters during the election and it didn't hurt him. I think he decided it wouldn't hurt him (and Trump cares bout that first) and if he thought about the midterms ... maybe won't hurt then either.

Congress isn't directly involved in any of this anyway.

bb88 | root | parent
Congress is involved. They have to prove they can govern. It's hard to be the party of "law and order" if you need only to kiss the ring for your release.
duxup | root | parent | next
GOP house could hardly operate last round and … they won more seats.
bb88 | root | parent
I think this is funny.

People hate congress. Yet each person can vote to only change one congressman at a time.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

October of 2001 they were up to 80% approval. Left to their own devices by Aug 2002 they were below 50%.

There's an argument to be made that congress doesn't really represent the people at large. Some people go on to make the argument that through gerrymandering politicians choose who's elected, and not the people.

duxup | root | parent
2 parties and 2 choices certainly is a recipe for sending the wrong message.

I'd like to see some ranked choice voting.

toyg | root | parent
The GOP doesn't exist anymore, it's simply Trump Party. They live or die on his performance, and kiss his ring to exist.
Bluescreenbuddy | root | parent | next
The leopards will be feasting the next 4 years.
foogazi | root | parent
Eh, lowering the price of eggs is not as easy so
orblivion | parent | next
The LP candidate was nominated due to some fluke/shenanigans/dealings between candidates. Based on the right-leaning demographics you would not expect him to win. It just happened to work out perfectly to get the people who would never vote for him anyway to vote for Trump. (Meanwhile the chairwoman encouraged Biden supporters to vote for the LP candidate).

Also, Trump actually got a mixed reception at the convention at best.

insane_dreamer | parent | next
> Trump seems to be a man of his word.

when there's political gain, sure

blindriver | root | parent
You may not like Trump but I remember he fulfilled or attempted to fulfill a lot of his campaign promises back in 2016 as well. Biden, the career politician, talked a lot about many things before election and then forgot about them after he was elected. For example, universal health care. Obama promised to enshrine a woman's right to abortion as law, and then when he had the House and Senate after he was elected, he said "it's not a priority for me." Then we lost Roe V Wade.
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Dalewyn | parent | next
>Trump seems to be a man of his word.

One of the big reasons I voted for him. He actually keeps the promises he made as far reality will allow.

What's really stupid is that keeping promises made isn't the norm for politicians, of all kinds.

jdjdjfhfkeksnc | parent
This is 100% true. I am posting from an anon account (obviously), but I was heavily involved in this. I worked with members of the party to push part of their strategy - mainly the coalition with trump and an effort to get vivek and elon involved. We spoke about this in 2023. I didn't care about Ross, had my own motivations, but I wrote some of their playback with AI and it worked. I didn't know about certain things (like the losing candidate for example). I wrote strategy that seems to have made its way all the way to Trump's team.
batch12 | root | parent | next
Without proof this is just a bedtime story.
ttyprintk | root | parent | next
So, when Trump said that some of the same FBI agents involved in busting DPR also worked on Trump’s cases, how precise was that?