There has to be some Argie or Chilean generals still around who can drop them out of helicopters. Sheeit - Kissinger has to know how.
What a horrible concept in a Constitutional democracy. Democrats have to follow the rule of law, Republicans do not. Cause it'll make the country more divided...or something. He'll lose favor with Red Hats only if he's locked up or croaks. I hope hamberdlers & taco bowls are doing their thing. But we could have 10 or more years with this POS on the scene. Lock him up, even if it's for a few years. Make him unable to run again. And if he survives prison, when he finally keels over on the 18th green taking a 10 foot gimme, toss his ass to hungry alligators.
Mehdi Hasan had a good video wishing him happy 100 year old birthday and point to all the dead people from Argentina to East Timor that will never get hear happy birthday.
If Trump and his lawyers sincerely believe that every piece of information that Trump squirreled away at Mar-a-Lago is automatically declassified, it seems like they could prove this belief by making that information public. Put your money where your mouth is, guys. Post a copy of one of those declassified documents on the internet, see what happens.
Right-- but St Helena, not Elba... "Louisa she weeps for her husband departed. She dreams when she sleeps And awakes broken hearted. For the young King of Rome and the Prince of Gehenna They have caused him to die On the isle of St. Helena" (Traditional, collected by Frank Warner from Yankee John Galusha)
I disagree with this in two ways. 1 - Nixon rigged an election. Trump tried, but appears to have not only done that, but coordinated with foreign governments to illegally provide information. Trump is far, far worse. 2 - The argument for pardoning Nixon was to move beyond and restore normalcy. But it was done before trials could be completed (started?) so we don't know what effect it would have on the country. We have information from multiple places indicating what Trump did, and how corrupt he was, and we already have two "charges" in which Trump was legally proven wrong in court: the election fraud post November 2020, and the E Jean Carroll case. [edit] Granted, the later is personal, but it was a legal process allowed to happen. It is not something which should be stopped. One one hand, this is a pretty wild accusation. All we know is that a President will not be charged while in office, a decree by memo. But other than that, we have no history with this. And even the memo is policy and has a lot of very smart people disagreeing with it. On the other hand, if Trump is found guilty of criminal charges and jailed, it will show that, truly, nobody is above the law. I see very little that would indicate continued violence. So far there has been a one-off. Or maybe a prelude and one-off. There was the Whitmer attempted kidnapping thwarted, and then there was J/6. But there have been over 1000 pleas/convictions for Jan 6, some of them like Rhodes getting into sedition (and the Proud Boys are looking at this, too). There are an additional 1000+ in the pipeline. And rallies that have had a similar threatening appeal have not had people show up. Those ordinary people who though they were immune FAFO. Now, don't get me wrong, he is still a danger, but will be less so if he goes to jail. In part because he won't have daily/hourly access to social media. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. If he is muted (not silenced, he won't be silenced), which he will be by being in jail, we will be able to move on better as a country. The question surrounding Nixon was that the Rule of Law was not allowed to progress. It was a failure to pardon him, and subsequently allowed Iran-Contra, the WMD fiasco, and the outing of Plame. Clinton had his own issues (not really that comparable as they were personal, not political), but he went though the process and the country came out fine. We need to allow the process with Trump to be completed to conclusion and not put up any barriers along the way because of what *might* happen.
Ford's legacy is tripping over shit and giving green lights to continued Nixon-style Republican fvckery. Getting a career grifter like Donnie in the Oval Office just took it to Olympian levels.
If Nixon had been convicted, would so many of his inner circle gone on to be key figures for Reagan and Bush I (and even Bush II.). Probably not. If Nixon had been convicted, would William Casey have done a deal with the Iranians to keep the hostages until after the election? Probably not.
If I understand the UK judicial "branch" correctly, it is truly independent of the political system. As in, it is the Judiciary that is responsible for appointing judges and promoting them up the chain of appeals. That's significantly different than the US where the politicians and, in some cases, voters are responsible for appointing members of the Judiciary and promoting them up the chain of appeals. Giving voters and politicians a say in who gets to be a judge means that it is very easy for politics to get inserted into the legal system and, once that happens, it means it can be perverted very quickly.
What politically destroyed this country was pardoning Nixon. There is no way a Democratic president would do it. As for republicans…trump knows the only way for him to stay out of a federal penitentiary is to win. He will spend the next two years trying to destroy other republican candidates. I am doubtful any one of them would deal with that shit…unless it’s Ted Cruz. And unlike Nixon…he’s got NY and GA to deal with. He’d never be pardoned in NY. And good old tough in crime Georgia…by their own constitution…only allow pardons from a pardon board and only AFTER the convicted serves their sentence.
Too be fair.. It isn't the grassroots that is too far gone. It is the elites that drive the conservative media bubble that is too far gone. If you remove the constant string of lies that are fed to conservatives about the state of the country and whatever the latest culture war of the day, then the grassroots would start to heal itself relatively quickly.
The hell of Trumpism is still not over. But I'd like to know how much election lies & lawsuits, rebuilding of the Capitol, security for and after 1/6 and govt. resources wasted fighting all the bogus lawsuits etc. has cost the taxpayers vs. ya know, a normal president or candidate who accepts defeat. Has to be hundreds of millions by now.
What are you proposing for the anti-abortion (terrorists), specifically, and the White Heterosexual Christian Supremacists, generally?
You're never going to get rid of them, but the reason why they are so large in the US is because the conservative elites are amplifying their messages via their media empires.. If the media empires were held accountable for the harm they are doing, their message would shrink back into the shadows.. It would also be much easier for the legal system to hold them accountable for their illegal activities if they couldn't appear on the media empires decrying how they are being targeted for their religion, using that to build up a rather large war chest to fight any charges, and to apply public pressure upon the prosecutors to not prosecute them for their crimes.
Yes - its the system i am familiar with. It has it's disadvantages e.g it is typically more socially conservative than the average citizen, but also tends to be politically liberal. Also it tends to lag social developments more than elected politicians do. So on brexit, the judges didn't suddenly become radicalised lunatics
While I agree with this, there is a pretty big issue with the 1st here. Particularly regarding political speech.
Well... The Fairness Doctrine was in place for 40 years and it survived multiple 1st amendment challenges. Granted, the issue here is that the Supreme Court's rulings were largely based on the limited nature of the public air waves (TV and Radio). The question would be, could the same be applied to Cable TV and, more importantly, the Internet. Cable TV is still somewhat limited as cable companies only offer so many channels, but, then, thousands of channels isn't so limited you can't have opposing opinions on different channels. The internet... Yes.. That's going to be rough, no limit there, so.... Another alternative would be to allow the government to sue for defamation. Treat it the same as a corporation, so when you have politicians and media sources outright lying about the local election department and officials, allow the government to sue those people and acknowledge the damage they are doing by lying.