• WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Commit a crime against others, pardon crimes against friends, dissolve criminal investigation of self.

    Totally normal first-day agenda for a supposedly democratic country.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Yeah, we know. I am particularly interested in seeing if he will go the extra mile and try the self-pardon, though. If he does that, and the courts uphold it, then we know we’ve officially crossed the line to dictatorship.

    If he doesn’t, it will only be because people tell him the courts won’t back him on that.

    OTOH, there is always the tiny, tiny chance that the self-pardon is a step too far, and convince Republicans to finally impeach his ass.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      There is no way a self pardon will be the line too far. Democrats expect it and the Republican electorate would cheer him on.

      If he crosses a line it will be fucking with other Republican’s money.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      … then we know we’ve officially crossed the line to dictatorship.

      We already know that.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Don’t be so sure. It is well documented that the Founders felt that no person should be their own judge. But, more importantly, letting the President self-pardon gives that person an enormous advantage that the other branches can’t put in check. It subordinates the other branches.

        Congress and the courts will, of course, go along with Trump’s priorities. But will they go along with diminishing their own power? Recall that even with the immunity decision, the courts left to themselves what is covered under that, so still kept some power in all that.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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      1 month ago

      and convince the Republicans to finally impeach his ass.

      Haha, good one.

      let’s hope the dems get the house and a supermajority in the senate in the midterms (they won’t)

      • shiftymccool@programming.dev
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        1 month ago

        Right? Dude sends a crowd of rowdies into the Capitol building to hang the vice president for not lying but, self-pardoning is too far

    • SnausagesinaBlanket@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Plan B or maybe it is plan A is do a money grab, hand over the presidency to Vance, and have Vance do all the pardons, and he walks free.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      I suspect he doesn’t pardon himself day-1. No matter how he leaves office, there will be warning (or he’ll be dead). He’ll pardon himself as late as possible so he can tell people that he hasn’t (yet). There’s zero benefit to doing it early.

      That said, he’s really fucking stupid, so I’m tired of predicting what he’ll do.

    • lurklurk@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Does he need to yet?

      It’s not like he can be impeached and most of the cases will pause by default as he’s a sitting president. If any don’t he’ll have a tame Attorney General to kill them for him. State level charges could have a theoretical shot, but what state will take that fight?

      The window to hold him accountable was 2020-2024 and the people responsible dropped the ball, sometimes with obvious intention, sometimes from naivité or incompetence

      The problem as usual is that the Democrats bring Debate Club weapons to a knife fight

  • SnausagesinaBlanket@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    He did say in a recent interview that he would not pardon himself so we know he will do that on day one for sure. I am going to nickname him Mr. Opposite since I won’t acknowledge him as an actual president.

    • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I really fucking don’t think he’ll pardon any of these guys. That would mean he cares for poor people

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        I’m not sure you understand the full power of the Nationalist Christian movement. It’s not about pardoning the poors. It’s about creating a paramilitary force with fanatical loyally to him, and him alone. He’ll be viewed by them as a savior/messiah even more than he already is by those people specifically. He will be seen as the Chosen One by those people, because he specifically saved them from “unjust imprisonment and political persecution” (for the record, it’s fully justified prosecution, because they fucking rioted and broke into the capital, trying to stop a peaceful fucking transfer of power). This is just a new and horrifyingly fascinating evolution of the große Lüge: continue to reframe an event by pardon people for crimes they actually committed that you’ve consistently told everyone aren’t crimes because you wanted those crimes to succeed.

        • b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          Yep, it’s to let everyone know that you can commit any kind of violence as long as you’re wearing a red hat and the fuhrer will pardon you.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          because they fucking rioted and broke into the capital

          Agreed with everything you said here, except they planned this. Riots tend to be spontaneous. This was plotted and schemed for months.

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    Word to the wise, If you have a public social media profile, and had a hand in identifying J6 videos, wipe your social media presence now, and delete your profiles, and go the Avatar route

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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    1 month ago

    Not that he should, but it’d be a power move if Biden immediately pardoned everyone involved in the attempted assassinations against Trump. Send a message.

    Edit: I want to be super clear that I’m not advocating for this. Once that door is opened, there’s no closing it again, and it’d be basically the worst possible outcome of all of this. It was in jest. Do not actually support this.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      No, the power move would be to do something unspeakably drastic with respect to Trump’s physical safety, then pardon himself afterwards. Challenge Congress to fix the loophole that the Courts established.

    • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      The world feels like: Democrats are the cops, the DNC is the FBI, Trump is Hans Gruber, Bernie Sanders is Al Powell, America is the Christmas party (it even includes a pregnant woman in peril). We’ll say Kamala Harris is Holly Gennero, Joe Biden is Mr. Takagi, protest voters are Ellis, and Gen Z is Argyle. Richard Thornburg has failed us, the power’s been cut, and the hostages are on the roof. But we don’t have a John MacClane. I don’t know what drastic measure needs to be taken. But it would be really great if we could keep the burglars-cum-terrorists from blowing us to smithereens and making off with the loot.

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    It will be interesting to see this play out.

    If he pardons himself, it becomes an instant admission of guilt, which means that he is brazenly certifying that he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

    We also don’t know if it is legal for the executive to pardon themselves. I don’t think it’s ever happened. Ford or Johnson pardoned Nixon, but I think that pardon was given before any trials had started.

    He can’t pardon himself from the state felonies he has already been found guilty of.

    As far as deportations, (and expulsions) Biden’s policy on immigration seems like a carry over from the first trump administration. In the last two years Biden has deported more folks than trumps highest numbers.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This is all a result of the weakness that voters allow for in supporting the lessor of two bad options rather than demanding more from our representatives.

    it’s too late now.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        He won because Democrats refused to engage themselves in introspection, and preferred to gaslight themselves with regards to legitimate criticisms of both the party and the candidate.

        Trump didn’t “win” this election any more than he “won” in 2020. He maintained the same vote share. Democrats lost voter ship, and if you are offering static around trying to address the issues that explain why that is, Trump winning is on you.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          supporting the lessor of two bad options

          Trump is not the lesser of two bad options. That’s all I’m saying. I have no idea what you’re trying to to say otherwise.

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            you are repeating what amounts to the fundamental thesis of the Harris campaign. As a piece of rhetoric, the link “but Trump is worse”, will go down as the singularly most damaging rhetorical approach ever employed.

            • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              Trump is worse. I’m not repeating anyone. If you can’t see that, idk what else to say to you.

                • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  Take some time off. You’re not making any sense and you’re saying ridiculous things.

                  I hope you feel better in a few days.

    • aaa999@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      if we demand more from representatives and succeed you dingdongs accuse them of coopting all of the energy. depart, wrecker

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        she lost because she didn’t feel she needed to have policies popular among her voters, her base.

        The people who lost this election for us were those defending the candidates position on the indefensible, with lines like “But Trump is worse”

    • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s too late for this now, but this video succinctly explains why this line of thinking doesn’t apply under first past the post:

      Https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo

      The correct move was everybody backs Kamala and then busts her balls on progressive issues.