You may remember that right after the election, Vice President Elect Mike Pence attended a performance of the show ‘Hamilton’ where he was booed by people in the audience and given a sanctimonious lecture from the stage.
The creator of ‘Hamilton,’ Lin-Manuel Miranda, didn’t deliver the speech to Pence, but he wrote it and no matter what anyone says, it was intended as a dig at Pence.
Flash forward to now. Obama has granted clemency to convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera and Lin-Manuel Miranda couldn’t be happier about it. He’s even going to do a special performance of Hamilton for the man.
Mediaite reports:
Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda Doesn’t Like Mike Pence, But Sure Loves Convicted TerroristsHamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda might not be the biggest fan of vice president-elect Mike Pence, but maybe that’s only because Pence never took part in a bombing campaign against the United States government that murdered five people and maimed countless others.There’s no point in spending too much time rehashing the entire Pence-Hamilton controversy here, so I’ll just highlight two important aspects to keep in my mind. The first is that it was Miranda himself who wrote the speech and asked his friend and co-star to deliver it. The second is that it’s largely irrelevant whether the speech was intended to condemn Pence (they insist it wasn’t, even though, c’mon, it certainly was). The result of their display was to make it perfectly clear to Pence and anyone who shares his views that the price of admission was condescension.Which brings us to Miranda’s stance on another man that others might find… dare I say, deplorable?
As Townhall points out, Rivera is not sorry for his crimes:
Obama Pardons Unrepentant Terrorist Oscar López RiveraWhile this was definitely overshadowed by Chelsea Manning’s pardon yesterday, it’s certainly noteworthy. In addition to Manning, Obama also pardoned Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted of seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms and ammunition to aid in the commission of a felony, and interstate transportation of stolen vehicles.Lopez Rivera is a Puerto Rican nationalist and a member of nationalist group Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (“FALN”), who sought independence for the island territory so that it could become a socialist nation. FALN orchestrated a series of bombings that killed six people. Rivera functioned as a bomb maker for the group and helped to recruit others.Lopez Rivera was sentenced to 51 years in prison in 1981, and an additional 15 years were tacked on to his sentence after he attempted to escape from prison in 1988.
Twitter user Neontaster has created an updated version of the Hamilton poster:
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