And so it begins.

More than 40 Democrat lawmakers have signed a letter written by Squad member Ayana Pressley (D-MA), calling on the next administration to end the federal death penalty. Joe Biden, who once championed the federal death penalty, has recently pledged to end it.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN (of course), Pressley refers to the death as “callous disregard for human life.”

“The current administration has weaponized capital punishment with callous disregard for human life. In the middle of our current public health crisis, the Department of Justice resumed federal executions and executed more people in six months than the total number executed over the previous six decades.”

“Callous disregard for human life.” Does the murder of innocent people — some of them, horrifically — qualify as “callous disregard for human life” in the eyes of Pressley and other Democrats who are rushing to sign Pressley’s letter to Biden? Do monsters who murder innocents in monstrous ways “callously disregard human life”?

Pressley urged Biden to immediately whip out his pen (apparently, phone calls won’t be necessary) — à la Barack “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone” Obama — and do away with the federal death penalty ASAP.

“With a stroke of your pen, you can stop all federal executions, prohibit United States Attorneys from seeking the death penalty, dismantle death row at FCC Terre Haute, and call for the resentencing of people who are currently sentenced to death. Each of these elements are critical to help prevent greater harm and further loss of life.”

“Further loss of life” of murderers who committed aggravated murder to a degree so horrendous that they received the federal death penalty? Priorities — Democrat style.

On Planet Pressley, which currently has more than 400 inhabitants, the abolition of the federal death penalty for aggravated murder constitutes “a commonsense step that [Biden] can and must take to save lives.”

“Ending the barbaric and inhumane practice of government-sanctioned murder is a commonsense step that you can and must take to save lives […] Research also reveals that capital punishment does not deter crime. Hence, there is no just reason to continue the death penalty.”

One of the arguments used by opponents of capital punishment is the notion that it doesn’t deter crime. Fine — for the sake of argument. However, what a sentence of capital punishment does do is punish people who commit horrific crimes; in two perfectly acceptable ways. In my opinion, that is.

First, the condemned must proverbially “rot” in prison — sometimes for decades — and think about the day that sentence might finally be carried out. They must go to bed every night knowing it, and wake up every morning knowing it.

Second, the execution itself — if and when it occurs.

Too “barbaric,” as Pressley believes? An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth? So be it. Call me barbaric but I’m in. Although a lethal injection is hardly commensurate with horrific murder; but we live in a largely moral society in which we don’t exact eye-for-an-eye revenge — in that manner, at least. Again, I’m good.

News of Pressley’s letter comes just days after Brendon Bernard was executed. This Twitter user summed it up, perfectly.

“#BrandonBernard deserved what he got and deserves to burn in hell for eternity. Just like those people he burned alive.”

As does the graphic in the tweet.

Abolish the death penalty

Brandon Bernard 1980—2020

HOW LIBERALS SEE YOU

After you’re executed for trapping two people in a car and burning them to death

According to court documents, the victims were shot in the head before their car was set on fire, but how many times in the past have we seen this type of misplaced condemnation from the Left? “Hearts” poured out for “reformed” murderers but not for the murdered.

#BrandonBernard deserved what he got and deserves to burn in hell for eternity. Just like those people he burned alive. pic.twitter.com/SvPG6WU8xu

— BasedMetalhead (@BasedMetalhead_) December 12, 2020

Bernard’s execution took place by lethal injection on Dec. 10. Here’s how the left-“leaning” Associated Press reported it.

The Trump administration Thursday carried out its ninth federal execution of the year in what has been a first series of executions during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years, putting to death a Texas street-gang member in the slayings of a religious couple from Iowa more than two decades ago.

Four more federal executions, including one Friday, are planned in the weeks before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. One was carried out in late November.

The case of Brandon Bernard, who received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at a U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, was a rare execution of a person who was in his teens when his crime was committed.

And the crime for which Bernard was executed?

Brandon Bernard was executed for his role in the 1999 kidnapping, robbery, and murder of an Iowa couple.

Todd and Stacie Bagley were killed in Killeen, Texas, when five young men forced the Bagleys into the trunk of their car at gunpoint after approaching Todd Bagley to ask for a ride to their uncle’s house.

Eventually, the men drove to a remote area on the Fort Hood military base where Christopher Vialva, who was executed in September, shot both of the victims in the head while Bernard set the vehicle on fire, according to court documents.

According to AP, Bernard said Stacie’s final words were “Jesus, take care of us” and “Jesus loves you.” Yet, according to his attorney?

“Tonight, those of us who love Brandon Bernard — and we are many — are full of righteous anger and deep sadness at the actions of the federal government in taking his life,” said Robert C. Owen, Bernard’s attorney.

“Brandon’s life mattered. (And there it is. And the lives of Todd and Stacie Bagley? Did thier lives matter, too?) To us, his legal team; to his two beautiful and talented daughters; to his mother, brother, and sister; and to the countless people around the country who came to know him and his story in recent weeks.”

As we’ve seen countless times in the past in similar situations, several high-profile figures — in this case including reality TV star Kim Kardashian West — had appealed to President Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence to life in prison.

🕊🕊🕊
🕊🕊🕊

I’m so messed up right now.
They killed Brandon.
He was such a reformed person. So hopeful and positive until the end. More importantly he is sorry, so sorry for the hurt and pain he has caused others.

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 11, 2020

And of course AP went for the heartstrings, as well.

With witnesses looking on from behind a glass barrier separating them from a pale-green death chamber, the 40-year-old Bernard was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. Eastern time.

He directed his last words to the family of the couple he played a role in killing, speaking with striking calm for someone who knew he was about to die.

“I’m sorry,” he said, lifting his head and looking at witness-room windows. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”

The usual suspects reacted to Bernard’s execution in their usual-suspect ways.

Our government killed Brandon Bernard tonight.

Brandon mattered. The death penalty only perpetuates a cycle of trauma. We have to end it once and for all.

— ACLU (@ACLU) December 11, 2020

Yes. We must abolish the death penalty— period.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 11, 2020

And so it begins.

With the inauguration — surrealistically so — of a guy, who reads the instructions on his teleprompter while giving phony-sounding speeches, more than a month away, this story is among the first of many we will see as clear evidence that a Democrat sits in the White House. It is also a clear example of why the January 5 Senate runoff elections in Georgia are so critically important.

Joe Biden might be able to whip out his pen and in this case and others, but if Nancy Pelosi’s Democrat-controlled House is joined by a Chucky Schumer-controlled Senate, we’re screwed — and “we” is the country.