Trump essentially pardoned the US ruling class criminals

By John Steppling

It’s interesting that what you see with Trump's pardons and they're excessive in a way that I suppose one would associate with Trump in all matters, but essentially he pardoned the ruling class criminals -- all the people involved in fraud and the financial crisis in 2008 and [Michael] Milken and the people who worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

And, you know what's interesting on one level is that these are all guys who were serving time at cushy federal prisons. You know, Club Fed, they're referred to. None of them did a hard time, none of them served time at a federal Supermax. They didn't serve time at hard state prisons like San Quentin. They weren't out at Rikers Island or LA County Jail. They were in very cushy surroundings. It was hardly an ordeal at all.

And, it just speaks to the glaring inequality in American society. It's not unique to Trump in any way, shape, or form. This is the working definition of class hierarchy here. We have people like [Eddie] DeBartolo and Milken who get special treatment because they were billionaires to begin with. [Bernie] Kerik, the creeping former New York Police Commissioner, I mean you would be hard pressed to find a more unwholesome individual than this guy. Why was he pardoned? I mean there's no justification for this other than Trump is releasing his friends, business partners, people he made money with, people he intends to make money with in the future.

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And there we have the explanation in toto, But I think what people should take away from this and I fear they won't but what I think they should take away from it is that here we have the ruling class just showing absolute contempt for judicial norms, due process, fairness, impartiality, all of these things that are supposed to be written into legal statutes that we're all equal before the law, it's nonsense. It's just absolute nonsense.

I read the other day of a black man who was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He just completed his 35 years for stealing a television. He did 35 years in a hard prison, state prison. And yet, Milken served time at a cushy federal joint and then he's pardoned. Why this doesn't make Americans more angry is beyond me, honestly? Because it just shows contempt for all the rhetoric that the government and elected politicians espouse all the time, all this language and flowery paean to fairness and equality and the rising tides of all boats and all this other crap. This is just absolute contempt for all of that.

And then these are people laughing at the people below them and who they treated with contempt, who they inflicted enormous suffering on and who they stole from and cheated and ruined 1000s of lives in total, and yet they walk away, they will have further business opportunities. I'm sure they'll appear on TV talk shows, and nobody will object to it. And that's the American way of life.

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John Steppling is an American author and political commentator. He is based in Norway. He recorded this article for Press TV website. Financier Michael Milken in April 2018 at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif.

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