Guilly's Guide to the First Hundred Days: Day 4.

Pardon my pardons.

Greetings Beloved: Welcome to day 4 of Guilly’s Guide to the first 100 days of the Trump White House.

First I want to acknowledge as Black trans person I needed a day. Just one day to recover from the official U.S policy that my American experience does not exist. 

That my career of service, writings, culture, and friends are no longer a part of the American dream. This I will mark as another mistake by the Trump administration. To make the most radical people in the movement, trans folks like me, the enemy day one. 

Lots of people have reached out to see if I'm O.K. 

I am not. Nor should you be. I am full of a rage that I doubt will ever lessen. 

Let's move on to the most recent reason to be rage filled this week shall we? 

Today we talk about what I see as the most immediate significant threat to your community. By executive order almost 1600 former seditious traitors, now turned “beautiful patriots,” are out on the streets. I think Mika on Morning Joe made a great couple points this morning (proving even a broken clock raised by a war criminal in the white house is right twice a day.)

First she made clear the 47th President is not only expressing prerogatives, but flexing two pieces of political and executive muscle.  First: pardons are his right. They are well within Presidential authority, and are given at the end of a term for just this reason. They piss people off. 

Second: she made another great point ( see above) -a much more politically minded and battle ready than last term Trump team knows he ran on releasing these folks, and made the promise at every stop. He followed through with his promises. No-one should be surprised.

While former President Biden, promised he wouldn’t give blanket pardons to his family, which he of course did. This was the reply from every GOP staffer, until they heard he let them all out. 

I will say there was a sense of uneasiness on the Capital afterwards with several GOP lawmakers openly shocked to be caught off guard by reporters with the news that POTUS let them all go. 

It says a lot about what this GOP led Congress will stand up to before it is “too late.” Not much thus far. 

It is also absolutely stunning to me that militia, white supremacist, and a “men’s club” attacked the U.S capital in an attempt to thwart the election certification,  even if temporarily, and the Democratic party did such a bad job explaining to the American public the danger we face that here we are. 1600 people, several dozen of which I have run across, who directed violence at me, comrades, friends, loved ones and peers who will go back to their homes and encourage political violence. Why wouldn’t you? 

What I find really strange is the President's explanation for the actions on Jan 6th 2021. They were upset by the election results. They felt it was rigged and after using up legal means they were no longer giving “the consent of the governed” to the government. But here is the thing: even if that was true, even if there was widespread voter fraud, violent revolution is not the immediate means of redress. It is a prescribed form of resistance in particular against armies that would impose unjust laws that Americans were not given the chance to shape. Taxation without representation. 

The National Guard did not stand over ballot boxes. Nor did 96% of the vote go to Biden like some tinpot dictator. We had a close, contested, partisan, and county by county race in 2020. Out of the 27-30% who still bother to vote, more Dems came out that time. 

That's all that happened.

The Trump campaign did better this time.

That's all that has happened. 

Every attempted GOP, Trump, or outside MAGA political activist organization found nothing. Zip. Nothing substantive. There is as of now no proof whatsoever of voter fraud. 

The truth is the Trump Campaign, his supporters, and the folks who did a lil light sedition on Jan 6th, 2021 where afforded, used, and some would argue abused, almost every available means to dispute the election this republic has ever given a President. 

William Jennings took 2 days in 1896. Al Gore took 36 days to concede the election, going perhaps the farthest to dispute election results in the now infamous SCOTUS decision Bush V Gore. You are forgiven if you don't know or remember the significance of “hanging chads,” but it led to the first court appointed POTUS. The count was ordered to stop. 

The argument at the time was that it would be too damaging to the character, reputation, and future of the country to keep the fight up. That conceding, within a few days was a norm, and those norms kept this republic alive. The GOP screams about how unamerican the Gore team was seems almost comical now.  

We let youtube crazies check paper for bamboo. Like y’all. We listened to the  then President ask a sitting official to “find votes.” 

The current president of the United States, our 47th, has never conceded the election. Nor is he the first to pardon racist seditious traitors to the American promise. But even Andrew “Manifest Fucking Destiny” Jackson, who let confederates apply for amnesty, but made them take an oath. 

I, _____, do solemnly swear or affirm, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder. And that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves, so help me God.

Which means: President Andrew Jackson held former slave owners to a higher standard of conduct and admitted guilt to be returned to the fold of their republic than President Trump will hold the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Q-Anon hordes too. 

Even more wild to think about as a history nerd? Jackson had exceptions to the granting of general amnesty. 18 to be exact. So former military, or people who caused 20k of damage approximately $751,440.00 today, and anyone in the judiciary. 

This is why this is a unique threat. Trump has released these folks without even an oath of allegiance to the United States. Their allegiance is to a country that hasn’t existed in a long time, and now the Don has released his foot soldiers. 

Finally if you are one of those foot soldiers before you start to come after me, not easy prey, I would in the spirit of good form, sportsqueership, and all being fair in love and war, remind y’all you may have some internal cleanup to do first. 

I read a lot of the public court docs. I am just gonna say it, some of your brothers in arms definitely told. Snitched. Cooperated with law enforcement. Went full Vilachi. 

And some were under a lot of suspicion: https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusive-proud-boys-leader-was-prolific-informer-for-law-enforcement-idUSKBN29W1O4/

Good luck with all that. At least 5 of yall work for the government. That's just statiscally. It’s what the FBI and DOJ  do to any dissenter to this country, and I doubt you were spared COINTELPRO. Ask the Klan. Y’all embarrass the more powerful and quiet racist I think. 

See y’all tomorrow. 

lenny duncan