Pardon the Interruption: a Note on the Biden Pardon and Something of Personal Significance

Pardon the Damned Pardon, it Pisses me Off

Let me begin with Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter Biden. First, what bothers me most is that Biden lied, first because for nearly a year, beginning with the indictments, the trial and the sentencing he insisted that he wouldn’t do it. But, then then when did the pardon he did so by blaming the prosecution and the system system. While this is partly true, it would have been better to that he couldn’t handle watching his son and family go through any more suffering after all of their other losses. That would have been honest and even believable, but blaming the prosecution makes it sound like a political excuse, and despite the fact that Hunter’s crimes either wouldn’t merit prosecution, and that he plead to them only to have a Trump appointed judge deny the plea. The tax evasion based charges money he got from people in Ukraine, pales to the uninvestigated billions that Jared Kusher got from the Saudis while his father in law was President.

But that doesn’t matter, while I get the father to son love and loyalty, it was the first time a President pardoned his son, which is a horrible precedent, even in normal times. The pardon enables Trump and his minions to beat their chests and excuse all of Trump’s pardons, and future illegal acts by saying Joe did it too. Of course Hunter’s crimes were minor league compared to Jared’s dad, Michael Flynn and others, including all the insurrectionists he will pardon on day one, but it was a strategic mistake.

Until this, the precedent set by Obama to run a tight ethical ship, and not to give such pardons stood, even this year when Democratics refused to defend Senator Bob Melendez, and no pardon was given. Now the era when the Democrats could easily claim to be the party of ethics, law and order, and morality in governance is over. It ended with this pardon. Joe has destroyed whatever legacy he had left, crushed his party’s reputation, and opened the door to the corporate media excusing all of Trump’s past and future in the process, and the gullible public saying “both sides do it.” It was inexcusable.

A Watershed in my Life

Today marked a watershed in my life. I began seminary in 1988 after leaving the active duty Army to become a Chaplain. I remained in the National Guard while in seminary, and became a Chaplain in 1992. I stayed in the Guard and the Army Reserve while completing a Clinical Pastoral Residency before my first full-time hospital position.

But, despite serving as an Army and Navy Chaplain until my retirement in December 2020, I always saw me as a historian and history teacher, with visions of academia, but I’m a bit too old and even when I get my Doctor of Strategic Leadership sometime in 2026, it won’t be a history Ph.D. But I have a bachelor’s degree in history and a Master of Arts in Military History, and I did have my first book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion and the Politics of Race in the Civil War Era and Beyond, which began as a short introductory chapter to my Gettysburg trilogy tome that I began while on the faculty of the Joint Forces Staff College between 2013 and 2017. Despite, its publication in 2022, and the praise of first rate Civil War historians, it wasn’t until today that that I realized that as a retired Chaolain and semi-retired Priest, that I am a historian and teacher who really passes along knowledge and makes an impact in students lives.

I received this note in a copy of Clausewitz’s On War which a student gave me. He is a 10th grader first generation Chines American in his first year at our school. He has already been published in two historical journals and his dad told me that he began reading history when he was three years old. He is brilliant and going to go far. He can discuss deep historical issues and military strategy as intelligently as most college and graduate students I have known. He wrote this on the cover page, of course I have had my own copy for years since beginning the Marine Command and Staff College in 2003 and it is quite marked up and worse for the wear, so I appreciated it, but not as much as his note which is below.

So, enough for tonight. Have a good night and better tomorrow. Thank you for reading. Please subscribe if you can.