From the Other 98%
This is corruption. Not subtle. Not debatable. Corruption. And if it were any other president, it would be a defining scandal. The Wall Street Journal just reported that Donald Trump’s pardon operation has effectively become a cash-for-clemency system.
People tied to Trump are charging around $1 million just to advocate for a pardon, with totals climbing far higher if the pardon actually comes through. No neutral DOJ review. No meaningful safeguards. Just money, access, and favors.
That’s not mercy.
That’s selling justice.
A presidential pardon exists for one reason: to correct injustice when the system fails. It is supposed to be careful, rare, and grounded in fairness. What’s happening now flips that idea on its head.
If you’re rich, connected, or politically useful, your conviction can disappear. If you’re not, the system comes down on you at full force.
And that’s where the moral rot really shows.
Because while pardons are quietly being shopped to wealthy insiders, the same administration is running one of the most aggressive deportation campaigns in modern U.S. history. ICE is conducting mass community arrests.
People with no criminal records are being taken from their homes and workplaces. Families are being torn apart to meet raw numerical targets.
Justice for sale at the top. Punishment without mercy at the bottom.
House Judiciary Democrats estimate that Trump’s pardon spree has already wiped out over $1.3 billion in fines and restitution owed to victims — money that was supposed to go to people harmed by crime, not vanish because someone knew the right fixer.
That’s not abstract corruption. That’s real harm, transferred upward.
This is the oligarch playbook in plain sight.The rich buy forgiveness.The vulnerable get the boot.
If a Democratic president were caught running a pardon marketplace it would dominate the news for months. There would be hearings. There would be investigations. There would be resignations.
But with Trump, the outrage barely registers. Corruption has been normalized. Abuse of power has been priced in.
And that normalization is the real danger.
A system cannot call itself just when freedom depends on wealth and cruelty is reserved for those without it. Equal justice under law means nothing if mercy is auctioned off and punishment is automated.
And the fact that this barely makes the front page should terrify all of us.
Recent
TOTTM 2026
by murphstahoe What the fuck is up with ... by Reacher
Total Members: 142