this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Correct, Biden just cozying up to Trump when he should be using emergency powers to arrest this madman who under the 14th Amendment isn't even eligible to be President was absolutely sickening to me.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Right so... "let's do the thing the fascist threatens to do because we're right and it's justified" is not the same thing as the fascist saying "we'll do it because we're right and it's justified".

Easy to justify the means when you believe in the ends... but of course every one thinks they are right and that everyone else will come to believe they are right, thusly conveniently avoiding any bad consequences.

Do you have any idea what would have happened if Biden just arrested Trump?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (31 children)

Breaking the rules isn't fascism though. Fascism is fascism.

What do you think is a more ethical choice:

a) uphold the law, knowing it will let fascist come to power and kill thousands

a) break the law and stop him

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Do you have any idea what would have happened if Biden just arrested Trump?

If he would've done it early in his term, I suspect Trump would not have been elected president again. But instead he pushed the idea through some absurdly bureaucratic system that allowed Trump to run the clock out on everything.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, it might be just to arrest him, but America clearly doesn't give a fuck. The fact of the matter is the people picked Trump this election, if nothing else arresting him will only galvanize his followers and legitimatize their own turn to fascism. There's no good outcome in this scenario, we missed that opportunity on election night. It sucks but right now we're the kid playing with fire; obviously we need to learn the hard way. We should've learned from the last trump presidency you say? Yeah, we really, really should've.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not arresting this man the second the Supreme Court gave Joe the opportunity will end with millions dead, we both know that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Not arresting this man the second the Supreme Court gave Joe the opportunity will end with millions dead, we both know that.

I think millions is an exaggeration but it's also pretty irrelevant whether it's a 1000 or 1 million, it's gonna be very very bad. I'm very sympathetic to this argument and in a whishy hopey kinda way would have loved to see it happen...

But: the SC ruling doesn't allow a president to act with impunity. It's way more complicated than that.

It states that a president has "absolute immunity" for actions "within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority" and "presumptive immunity" for all official acts. The complete shitstorm that would follow an arrest of Trump "for reasons" would include significant debate about which one of these it was. I have to think that "because he will do bad things and for reasons" is going to push this to the second classification at best. And at that point a whole lot of lawyers are going to be working overtime to show that "applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no “dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”

(Opinion here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf)

It would end up in the Supreme Court. What do you think would happen then? The SC would rule that Biden did not act appropriately and Trump would be released. I don't have a lot of faith in running out the clock on him running or any other "good" outcome.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

We would get the inevitable civil war even sooner

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It's not inevitable at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

in this reply and the others following it you seem to be completely glossing over the most salient point here, which is that TRUMP SHOULD NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT. Taking extreme measures to prevent him from getting access to unprecedented power is not sacrificing the rule of law for our beliefs, it is defending the rule of law, in which we believe, from a madman who openly despises it!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"TRUMP SHOULD NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT"

I agree. But in fact "should not" is a question of law and despite your assertion that somehow removing him is not sacrificing the rule of law, there is no law that says Trump is ineligible to serve as president. I'd like there to be some rules disqualifying him and a bunch of other people, but alas there isn't.

Go ahead, find the law that says Trump is ineligible and describe how you might defend that in court.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"The disqualification clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents public officials who engage in treason from holding a future public office."

https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment14/annotation15.html#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+disqualification+clause+of+the%2Cholding+a+future+public+office.

Yes I am aware that the Supreme Court let him stay on the ballot when they had the chance to rule on this, but that's a single ruling, not a law, and in point of fact not even Trump's own lawyers argued that he was not a traitor--they persuaded the Court he appointed to invent a technicality that has no basis in the actual amendment, nor any law, nor legal precedent.

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-ruling-election

The silver lining here should be that the same Court also gave Biden the immunity he would need to step in and use the Executive branch to apply any the "checks and balances" needed to restore rule of law when all other branches fail, because that is the way our democracy is designed to work, yet Biden won't do that, and so US citizens can say goodbye to having any form of separation of powers at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

"public officials who engage in treason"

Did Trump engage in treason? Article III of our constitution says:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."

Trump, sadly, was never on trial for treason much less convicted of it. So like it or not (very much not!) Trump was never tried for crimes that would disqualify him from being elected president. Biden upheld the rule of law and adhered to our constitution.

I don't like it but that's the way it is.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Biden doesn't even know wtf is going on. If he does, the last thing he's doing is trying to salvage his legacy. He's got no fight in him.

He truly fucked us. Not saying Harris would've won necessarily, but having only 3 months to run a campaign against someone who's been running for 8 years is tricky. You can see why given the number of people googling if Biden dropped out...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A legacy of "Used powers given to him by the Supreme Court to stop Hitler 2.0" would be better than "Sucked Trump's dicker harder than Elon did."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

For real. Dudes got 15-20 years left on this Earth, at the maximum. Stopping Trump and actually making sure he is charged for his crimes would be quite the footnote in the history books. I can't imagine being that old and passing an opportunity like that up, but then again I am a simple prole.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

He's not Hitler 2.0 yet though. This is Hitler 2.0 RC 1.

The history books won't know what will not have had happened.

What I'm saying is, if a madman is stopped before he goes mad, then wouldn't he then never have been a madman? Was the one stopping him, justified? Can you defend their actions based on their presuppositions, even if the descent into madness is already evident?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Biden cozying up to a candidate the party portrayed as literally Hitler during the campaign will never not be funny to me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

You mean depressing