20A048 Free These Three by Jim Davies, 12/1/2020

Three remarkably courageous men have risked their freedom in the last few years, and while they should never have been harassed in the first place, the next few weeks form one of their best hopes of liberty. It's become a tradition that a President issues pardons shortly before Christmas, for a few people he thinks deserve them particularly, and Trump could add these names to his legacy as well as queering the pitch for his kleptocratic successor, should he be unable to stay for a second term. Their liberation would by no means bring about a zero government society, but it would inspire more people to work for one. Biden or Harris would not do this, so it's either now or a 4-year delay.

So, Mr Trump, whether or not you can stop the present crime in progress:

1. Free Ross Ulbricht. That will signal that anyone is free to engage in any voluntary trade with any form of money. It will properly undermine the current monopolization of drugs and currency, and liberate an innocent man from a savage, vengeful sentence. Ross provided a way for buyers of recreational drugs to purchase them on line without leaving a trace for the snoops, and so showed that Bitcoin was a valid (and stable!) currency as well as demolishing the arrogant laws that govern what we may take into our own bodies.

For that impertinence he was placed in a cage for ever. The most heinous crime, see, is not to murder, rape, torture or steal from another human being but to challenge government authority. Up with that, they will not put.

2. Grant immunity to Ed Snowden. Refresh the memory if need be by watching Oliver Stone's docu-movie Snowden; Ed was an insider in the CIA and revealed some of the appalling level of spying being done by the NSA on every one of us. Even those who believe in government ought to be horrified by what he uncovered. He has taken refuge in Russia after the FedGov pulled his passport (so demonstrating how easily any traveler can be controlled) but restoring it, plus a firm guarantee that no prosecution will await him, would enable him to return home.

Simultaneously, you would cut the legs from under the massive spy system the FedGov is operating and earn the gratitude of everyone who makes phone calls or sends emails.

3. Grant immunity to Julian Assange. As leader of Wikileaks he made it his business to expose some of the outrageous conduct of those pretending to serve us in government. Bradley-Chelsea Manning was one of his primary sources and has already been libertated, by Obama; the least you can do is to 'fess up that government ought at the very least to be transparent. That change would be so radical as to enrich your legacy.

After a fatuous, fabricated charge in Sweden, Assange is suffering prolonged mental torture in a London prison, where his show-trial is about to end; should he lose that extradition case he'll be whisked across the Atlantic and given another; after which he may be executed for treason. The fact that US treason is impossible for an Australian is a detail the lawyers are sure to overlook.

Like Snowden, Assange has helped expose some of the repugnant nature of government. It has cost him dearly, but that's a vital achievement, a prerequisite for so much disgust to arise that nobody will work for it. And that's when it will cease to exist.