Not sure what to think of that. I’m sure Republicans far and wide will get outraged, but then, so what? 
Before November, I thought he shouldn’t pardon Hunter, just to show how Democrats differ from Republicans, and especially Trump. When Trump won, I immediately changed my mind. I think he had to pardon him. The Trump Justice Department would have gone after Hunter hard, and done everything they could to lock him up for years. Biden had nothing to lose here. Sure, the usual suspects will eviscerate him for it. So what?
They already were. They tried to railroad him for no other reason than that it would make his father suffer.
Sure, he was guilty of stuff, but not the stuff they were accusing him of, and they are furious that they could’t get that to stick. The other stuff he was (rightly) convicted for was at best a consolation prize.
There was literally no possible way to assuage or appease them: if Biden sr defended his son, they would attack him for abusing office. If he let the process continue (as he did, and in most reasonable people’s eyes, correctly), he was abandoning his son and cutting him adrift to minimise the damage. If he pardoned him, he was doing a nepotism. If he didn’t, he was showing contempt for family.
Once they fixated on the “Biden Crime Family” line, there was no possible action which could shift it.
If Harris had won, I have no doubt that Joe would have let it stand.
But as it is, I don’t think he can sensibly rely on normal processes any more. Trump is already setting up to fill all the high positions with people who will 1) work to replace their various areas with people like themselves, and 2) set to work on a program of vengeance, unrestrained by norms, procedures, laws or the constitution.
If Harris had won, then Hunter would be in prison, he would do his time, and it would be done. But now, giving him a pardon and a head start is probably all Joe can do to keep him safe. And that is mainly by giving him a head start, because Trump’s coterie can be relied upon to invent more charges so they can run a kangaroo court to punish Hunter further, partially because they want to hurt him and through him his father, and partially because they’ve built a mythology which makes Hunter a demon: they’ve built him up to be such a monster that their own followers will demand he be strung up. (Yes, literally.) The high moral ground is cold comfort when someone like Trump has power and is going to use it on you because he can.
I also have no doubt that Biden and Harris, amongst others, are looking to their own safety right now.
I’m sure they’ll be nice and safe while the rest of us fucking burn…
I sincerely hope that people like Jack Smith, and yes, even Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger find a way to protect themselves. They went out on a limb publicly and professionally to do the right thing and would literally be hanged for it. I check a lot of boxes for who they’re coming for in general, as do many of my loved ones, but we didn’t actually take the criminals on and try to make them face consequences.
I sincerely hope that Trump has a fatal stroke while taking the oath of office.
Giving Vance a full term? Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
We’re cooked no matter what 
Who? Oh…that guy.
Yep.
More and more and I’m gonna keep sayin’ it - homo sapiens is an evolutionary mistake.
OH well, world’s s’posed to end in the 2030s anyhoo, idn’t it?
and i think joe pardoning his son was also a big “FUCK YOU” to the Trump Mob.
There’s a small chance Trump’s death would get his coterie of criminals fighting each other to see who comes out on top… but Vance would probably wind up the next figurehead the kakistocrats rally around. And Vance can run for a second term, unlike Trump (though it’s possible he’ll try to ignore the two-term limit anyway.)
I still wouldn’t exactly mourn if/when poor health catches up with Trump; I just figure the smarter members of their syndicate have contingency plans mapped out already.
I like Steve Shives; and what a whiplash from doing Star Trek videos, to almost all political commentary, although he has been doing a few Star Trek videos.
An increasing number of articles like this - urging Biden to make sweeping changes / issue orders at the end of his administration…
…keeps this running through my mind:
In the past year, the Biden administration has extended contracts for private sector jails before Trump’s plan for mass deportations
Biden Is Pardoning Nearly 1,500 Americans, a Record for One Day
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/biden-pardons-commutes-1500.html
News just broke-- no list yet, and I’d guess it doesn’t include Leonard Peltier.
Just coming to post that…
Probably not. 
Still, it’s very good news for the families of those incarcerated… I’d also love to see him do a mass commutation of the entire federal death row.