If Trump were to pardon himself, would that be an admission of guilt?

From the Washington Post, an article from last year by Eugene Volokh:

1. In 1915, the Supreme Court indeed said, of pardons, that “acceptance” carries “a confession of” guilt. Burdick v. United States (1915). Other courts have echoed that since.

2. On the other hand, a pardon has historically been seen as serving several different functions, one of which is protecting people who were convicted even though they were legally innocent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/08/26/is-accepting-a-pardon-an-admission-of-guilt/?utm_term=.431509768c90

He goes on to quote at length from Justice Story, writing in 1833, citing many instances (some very complicated) where accepting a pardon should not be seen as admission of guilt. It seems to me that none of these exceptions would apply to Trump's situation.

Have Trump's legal eagles talked to him about the implications of a self-pardon? I would imagine they have, but I guess the real question is whether Trump would take their advice seriously--and whether acknowledging guilt would have any effect at all on his staying in power (assuming Dems don't take over both houses).

Question submitted by cyclonefence

"Passing" II

My (white) friend Cecilia grew up with the understanding that her (white) mother had been adopted as a baby by a black family back in the 1930s. When she told me this story only a few years ago, I thought about Cecilia's (white) son who had the ability to grow fabulous dreadlocks, the envy of my son and all the other boys in their class. I asked Cecilia if she didn't think it strange that a white parent would want to place her child with a black family back then when being brought up in a black family would be so much more difficult than if the child had been placed in a white family. It hadn't occurred to her, and I wasn't going to press the point.

I met Cecilia's mother several times, a lovely light-skinned woman with straight dark hair and brown eyes. Her adoptive family never came up in our conversations, but I would love to have known what she believed.

So much depends on phenotypes, yet the "one drop" rule seems to carry the day.

"Passing" I

Anita Florence Hemmings graduated from Vassar in 1897. But though she was an excellent student, she came very close to not getting her degree at all. That was because just days before graduation, Anita’s roommate uncovered her deepest secret.

In a school that would never have considered admitting a black student, Anita Hemmings had for four years covered up the fact that she was of African American ancestry.

In other words, Anita Hemmings was a black woman who was passing for white, and it almost got her kicked out of Vassar on the very eve of her graduation.
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Anita-Florence-Hemmings-Passing-For-White-At-Vassar

Anita Hemmings was apparently the granddaughter of slaves in Virginia. She lived with her parents in Roxboro MA and with the encouragement of a wealthy white woman (who also paid for her education) applied to Vassar. She easily passed the entrance exam and was an excellent student throughout her four years there. During her senior year, she was visited by her brother (who as a student at MIT--this was a brilliant family), whose skin was darker than her own. Her roommate told her father that to her horror she thought she had been living with a black woman. The father investigated and easily found out that Anita's family was indeed black. This fact was revealed to the president of the college just days before Anita was to graduate, and she was threatened with having her diploma withheld. A sympathetic teacher and the president ruled that since there was no rule against black women attending Vassar (I guess it was so unthinkable a rule wasn't deemed necessary), Anita would graduate with her class.

She went on to work in the Boston Public Library as a foreign materials cataloger (she knew seven languages, including ancient Greek) and married a physician.

Their daughter applied to Vassar and was admitted. Incredibly, Anita's roommate from her college days reported to the president of Vassar that there was a black woman in the class. The president refused to expel her, but the young woman was given a single dormitory room, so no fine white lady would have to share a bedroom with a "negress."

One of the best presents a kid can give an aging parent

is a safety light. A couple of years ago, our son got us a motion-activated outdoor light and installed it in the hall outside our bedroom, so that it lit the hall to the bathroom and down the stairs whenever we stepped out of our bedroom.

Another good present I received from my kid was a subscription to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. He paid $20/month for me to be able to take over *any* electronic device which they would fix at no labor cost, whether it was bought there or not. I've used it several times to help me when I've done dumb stuff like locking myself out of my iPad by misspelling my own name. I think he bought it in self-defense so I'd quit calling him for help.

Do the terms shiksa and sheygetz upset nonjews as much as wypipo does some

non-people of color? Isn't it the same thing? A term, a little sneery, about member os the majority culture by members of a minority culture? Is shiksa a divisive word?