The pardon power of the President of the United States is the most narrowly tailored plenary power in the history of plenary powers. Its limits are inherent in the meaning of the word 'pardon.' No such thing as a 'preemptive pardon.' Don't cite Nixon/Ford. Facts are not same.

Nixon had a pending 'Articles of Impeachment' that would have turned into criminal indictments had he left office without a pardon for them. In that sense, they were not preemptive, as matters of impeachment hadn't yet been introduced in the House formally & were still ripe.
Donald's impeachment happened. No pending charges or any articles of impeachment with offenses that would turn into criminal indictments once he leaves office. So he can't pardon himself, not b/c self-pardon's moral & ethical heresy, but b/c he has nothing to pardon himself over.
About the pardons he has granted to people who were convicted of crimes related to the Mueller report: this pardon does NOT preclude a future DOJ from picking up the Mueller Report & prosecuting on other violations of federal criminal law that weren't previously prosecuted.
Depending on statutes of limitations of specific violated statutes, a future DOJ can & most likely will go after the same pardoned people for a whole different set of criminal offenses outlined in the Mueller Report. This includes un-indicted coconspirator AKA Individual One.
This pardon also doesn't protect or shield any pardoned party from being called as witness to federal criminal trials related to the Mueller report but unrelated to the matters for which they were prosecuted & convicted. They can plead the 5th but that's another Pandora's box.
Also, these pardons only apply to federal criminal laws that were violated. POTUS's pardon power has no power over states & state laws. States can & most likely will bring lawsuits - both criminal & civil - against Donald & his agents & they have no constitutional shields there.
Lastly, pardoning the Blackwater operatives: These operatives are part of his base cohort. These pardons operate to solidify his militant base, to show he will do anything for them. And in return, it's a tacit demand that they do anything for Donald. That's seditious at best.
And plays right into violating #18USC2384 by mobilizing a seditious conspiracy plot to to undo our elections & get in the way of @JoeBiden taking office as our 46th POTUS.

After Jan. 6th, it'll be treason (if it isn't already).

🚨BEWARE! 🚨

https://t.co/EUHhbW472o
Pardon power explained. https://t.co/uBzlakIpkl

More from Government

Which metric is a better predictor of the severity of the fall surge in US states?

1) Margin of Democrat victory in Nov 2020 election
or
2) % infected through Sep 1, 2020

Can you guess which plot is which?


The left plot is based on the % infected through Sep 1, 2020. You can see that there is very little correlation with the % infected since Sep 1.

However, there is a *strong* correlation when using the margin of Biden's victory (right).

Infections % from
https://t.co/WcXlfxv3Ah.


This is the strongest single variable I've seen in being able to explain the severity of this most recent wave in each state.

Not past infections / existing immunity, population density, racial makeup, latitude / weather / humidity, etc.

But political lean.

One can argue that states that lean Democrat are more likely to implement restrictions/mandates.

This is valid, so we test this by using the Government Stringency Index made by @UniofOxford.

We also see a correlation, but it's weaker (R^2=0.36 vs 0.50).

https://t.co/BxBBKwW6ta


To avoid look-ahead bias/confounding variables, here is the same analysis but using 2016 margin of victory as the predictor. Similar results.

This basically says that 2016 election results is a better predictor of the severity of the fall wave than intervention levels in 2020!

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed