American politics are so fucked... John Fetterman has hired George Santos on Cameo to create a video trolling Bob Menendez. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/05/1217314425/fetterman-hires-santos-to-roll-menendez-over-ethics
Remember back in 1804, when we thought it absolutely crazy that the sitting Vice President would have a pistol duel with the former Secretary of Treasury? And how the VP killed Hamilton, and we were all, oh no, what has happened in US politics that the VP can get away with murder? And that surely civility would become the norm? lol
I read "Tyranny of the Minority" yesterday, and it's kind of fascinating how the Republicans have painted themselves into this position of minority rule, which...should it ever fragment, almost guarantees some reforms that would wipe out their advantage. Also, a lot of the history of the checks and balances from the perspective of minority rule is fascinating. Election reform to just get us up to the level of like...Greece or fucking Argentina seems to be what's needed. The idea of any of this clutch of cocksuckers solving a fucking thing is sadly but hysterically funny. I hate this reality tv show bullshit we seem to be locked into. Somehow the main hopes for democracy rest on the frail, awkward shoulders of Joe fucking Biden, and the even more awkward shoulder pads of Kamala Harris? When these people have no idea how to represent nor govern, and have zero obligation to actually do so...Fuck. I mean, when you elect Shrek as a Senator, you can expect him to moonlight as a troll, no?
Having SCOTUS rule if Trump has immunity to crimes he committed while in office is an interesting strategy with this bunch. Here's hoping they actually adhere to the constitution.
They won't do it. That means that Biden, and any other Dem president can do whatever they want with immunity.
Biden would never do it, but technically if SCOTUS ruled in Trump's favor, Biden could promptly walk over to the Capitol and execute very Republican in the House, and claim immunity for it. If SCOTUS is anything other than 9-0 against Trump, we're in truly deep shit.
They've got their lifetime appointments already, and given what's happened to Thomas re: being a billionaire's pet Supreme (not a goddamned thing) they have little reason to knock over the cart over some guy who cannot affect them.
Rep-majority House have voted themselves an impeachment inquiry. Just like those libtard Dems did "to" the God Emperor, except without any actual evidence, or credible testimony, or any of that pesky stuff you normally need to even suggest a whiff of culpability. All theater, all farce, they'll use the same majority vote to impeach him outright regardless of anything, simply because they can. And the Dem-majority Senate will shoot it down, and maybe some Reps who still have a conscience will join them.
That's the goal. They want to impeach Biden for obviously bullshit reasons, so that whenever someone brings up Trump's impeachment, they can point at their own precedent that impeachments happen for bullshit political reasons and not real crimes.
I don't blame the dog for eating its own shit, that's what dogs do. But I do blame the owner for leaving all that shit lying around.
I thought I read something that said they can't move forward on the trial until this is answered. All they're looking for is to slow the trial down until after the election.
I think they aren’t really interested in getting to a formal impeachment. They want to air out as much dirty laundry as possible during an election year with the power of subpoenas. Gas light all you guys want but with the low bar of evidence needed for a political case, not a criminal case as was pointed out many-a time in the first two impeachments and Kavenaugh confirmation, they will certainly be able to dish out a lot of ugly evidence that as we’ve seen the administration have to walk back previous statements and assertions on the matter. Perfect election year campaign ads.
If you're referring to the question of presidential immunity at SCOTUS, it's interesting because it was actually the prosecution that brought this to SCOTUS. Jack Smith knows that Trump will try to delay in a million different ways, so he's trying to cut it off at the pass, by going straight to SCOTUS and saying "give me a ruling that all of the 1,000 presidential immunity arguments he's going to file are bullshit, so we don't have to knock them down and let them all go up the appeals chain 1 by 1."
Colorado disqualifies Trump from ballot. Here's hoping other states follow and that the ruling holds on appeal.
I dunno, man. I've been saying that Trump is bad news since the early '90s, but I think barring him from the ballot without being convicted is a bad precedent to set. If this goes through, you can bet that the Republicans will be doing this to every Democrat candidate from here on out.
You can argue that that Section III of the 14th Amendment is a bad idea, but it is pretty cut and dried piece of law in terms of applying it, given that it's there. It doesn't require a criminal conviction, anymore than one needs to be convicted of being under 35 or convicted of not being a citizen to be similarly disqualified from eligibility for the office of President.
I think it's worse that neither Trump nor his rabid supporters will let this go without stirring up a lot before, during and after the election. I wish there were another way to make Trump go away. I don't know Constitutional law or anything about this. But, you think those are the same thing? Can't there be (or won't there be) arguments about whether or not Trump engaged in insurrection or rebellion? There is nuance that attorneys can argue. But, there is no nuance to being 35 years old. You either are or aren't.
He can argue that he did not engage in insurrection, and I'm sure he will, but my point is that it does not require a criminal conviction of the crime of insurrection. The Colorado court found that he engaged in one, and thus is disqualified, whereas SCOTUS may find that he did not, and therefore isn't. The former Confederates who were barred under this section were never convicted of anything; the fact that they took up arms against the Union was considered sufficient to meet the requirements of the text.