January 22

Overcast with a granular snow falling. It is warmer than yesterday. I am not and haven't been for a very long time a fan of winter. I got a couple of rounds on the second doily before my fingers gave me problems. At a certain point it is best to put things away and do something else. 

We cut the morning news off early. The news and/or commentary are worry at the Trump pardons like starving dogs gnawing at a bone. And most of it is simply a rehash of what has been said before. The Democrats are highly critical while the Republicans are in a "...yeah, but Biden." Both seem to be focused on "getting past January 6." As I listened I remembered other times when we were told to "move on," "get over it," forget the past. Americans seem to have a fetish for looking to the future and never really remembering how we got to the point, the now, between the past and future. The problem with that is the past is always in the present and will influence the future. Think back to the days when President Gerald Ford gave President Richard Nixon a pardon for anything connected with Watergate. The arguments were the same: 1) the nation needed "to heal," 2) we needed "to move on", 3) our political system was in a fragile state with Nixon's first vice-president resigning and convicted of crimes and Nixon himself facing a certain impeachment and conviction in the Senate. Note an interesting parallel here--Nixon was not actually convicted when the pardon was issued and it was, in essence, a "preemptory" pardon. That was a first. And Nixon never really acknowledged any guilt and a few years later in an interview claimed "when the President does it, it isn't a crime." Now we see Trump issuing pardons to convicted rioters/seditionists who beat cops (so much for "back the blue" and law and order) and denying any wrong doing and threatening those who put them in prison. Interestingly Biden followed Ford in issuing preemptive pardons to protective people who might be targets of malicious prosecution by a notably vindictive President.