All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Jack Dracula]

Not doing something because 'The Republicans will do the same or worse' hasn't stopped the Republicans from doing worse in a long time. We oughta take the plunge.

That could quickly become a race to the bottom.
I hate to think one of the Democrats' biggest flaws is to be saddled with principals but throwing them away lends justification to the Republicans' actions making them seem necessary if a party is to "win". It also helps justify doing worse to maintain dominance.
Not caring about that is what makes the GOP evil in the first place.

[babyblob]

So I thought my aunt was getting better. For about a week after the election she said there was no proof of voter fraud.

Now for the last week and a half she has been going on about how it is so clear that Biden won because of fraud. Thousands of ballots thrown away, workers at the polls changing votes.

And it gets better. Biden is in the pocket of China. There is proof that he has taken money from the China government to do nothing as they invade the USA. How are they going to invade? Well there is a large portion of the Chinese military training in Canada right now! Thats right in Canada! I laugher at her. She said I would not be laughing when China invaded. Which will happen within the first six months of Biden being president. because he has been paid to look the other way and do nothing. The American people will not fight back because the vaccine has chemicals that will make Americans very open to suggestion and we will be told not to fight back.

I pointed out that Trump was in office and is pushing the vaccine. She said he did not know about it. But he does now and that is why he is fighting to stay in office. To save America. I told her that he is telling people to take it. She said he is also under the control but does not know it. So he is being told to tell people to take the covid vaccine.

I pointed out that Trump can not be at the same time trying to save America from a plot to take it over while at the same time being a victim of mind control to ignore the plot. She told me I did not understand.

And she talks to a lot of people who are saying the same thing.

[Kirby101]

That could quickly become a race to the bottom.
I hate to think one of the Democrats' biggest flaws is to be saddled with principals but throwing them away lends justification to the Republicans' actions making them seem necessary if a party is to "win". It also helps justify doing worse to maintain dominance.
Not caring about that is what makes the GOP evil in the first place.

How is holding a criminal accountable throwing away principles. We are talking about prosecuting Trump because he is guilty, not out of revenge.

[The Cool Thatguy]

How is holding a criminal accountable throwing away principles. We are talking about prosecuting Trump because he is guilty, not out of revenge.

Yeah, at this point, if we get someone worse than Trump the country won't survive. There has to be a line in the sand.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

That could quickly become a race to the bottom.
I hate to think one of the Democrats' biggest flaws is to be saddled with principals but throwing them away lends justification to the Republicans' actions making them seem necessary if a party is to "win". It also helps justify doing worse to maintain dominance.
Not caring about that is what makes the GOP evil in the first place.

What race to the bottom? We’re talking about Democrats taking a Republican president to task for trying to instigate a coup, for spending the last month and a half spewing bullshit about the election having been “stolen” from him, and for refusing to acknowledge Russia having been responsible for the massive hacking incident reported on a few days ago. Nobody should be above the law, not even the president.

[Mister Mets]

What race to the bottom? We’re talking about Democrats taking a Republican president to task for trying to instigate a coup, for spending the last month and a half spewing bullshit about the election having been “stolen” from him, and for refusing to acknowledge Russia having been responsible for the massive hacking incident reported on a few days ago. Nobody should be above the law, not even the president.

There are several questions here, including what laws were actually broken, and whether this would be an efficient use of resources for the new administration. There's a lot of stuff that's bad for a President to do, but not necessarily illegal.

It's probably better politically for Democrats to focus on things that aren't about Trump but that could still expose his shortcomings. There will likely be September 11 Commission investigations into Covid-19 and the SolarWinds hack. The focus should not be the Trump administration, but if wrongdoing is exposed, it can be investigated further.

The New York Times Argument podcast had an interesting discussion with Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics, who suggested that Trump in jail is the best case scenario for Republicans. It gets him out of the way and limits his ability to control the narrative, while also keeping his supporters active.

The best case scenario for Democrats would be investigations and revelations that keep his wrongdoing in the news.

[babyblob]

I dont see how Biden and the dems can after after Trump for his actions after the election. Yes he is being a cry baby and bitching. But how is bitching on Twitter and in the press about the election illegal. He has used the courts. He has not called for an armed revolt or anything. I guess asking the different state leaders or Secretaries of state to throw out results. But how far could they get if they focused on that?

Go after him for the massive **** he did and there is overwhelming proof of. Not some grey area.

[Kirby101]

I dont see how Biden and the dems can after after Trump for his actions after the election. Yes he is being a cry baby and bitching. But how is bitching on Twitter and in the press about the election illegal. He has used the courts. He has not called for an armed revolt or anything. I guess asking the different state leaders or Secretaries of state to throw out results. But how far could they get if they focused on that?

Go after him for the massive **** he did and there is overwhelming proof of. Not some grey area.

Agreed, he did enough **** before the election and before he took office to put him away.

[AnakinFlair]

The problem is that it open the door for Republicans to do the same thing. And we all know how they'll likely make up false charges to investigate and prosecute out of office Democrat presidents in revenge for Trump. I mean they'll likely do it anyways given their belief Biden stole the election, but prosecuting Trump will speed things up. The Democrats beating them to it might be a good thing, but it'll likely guarantee the GOP will try and do the same thing for Biden using false trumped up charges.

Then LET THEM. Let them try and charge a future Democratic President, who did nothing wrong, with some bullshit made up crime, and bring it to court. Let the former President beat the charges, have the Judge excoriate the prosecutors, and then have the Democrats run on that 'till the end of time.

[Mister Mets]

Then LET THEM. Let them try and charge a future Democratic President, who did nothing wrong, with some bullshit made up crime, and bring it to court. Let the former President beat the charges, have the Judge excoriate the prosecutors, and then have the Democrats run on that 'till the end of time.

But what if the situation is more ambiguous? Presidents and people in their administration are going to make mistakes, or run into legal grey areas.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Personally i think they should go after the trump administration for the way they handled the pandemic. We had states biding against each other, and the feds, for PPE because the trump admin didn't help the states...or only helped states with governors that grovel to him. Not to mention all the misinformation coming out from the POTUS and his covid team.

[Tami]

‘I’m Haunted by What I Did’ as a Lawyer in the Trump Justice Department

I was an attorney at the Justice Department when Donald Trump was elected president. I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, which is where presidents turn for permission slips that say their executive orders and other contemplated actions are lawful. I joined the department during the Obama administration, as a career attorney whose work was supposed to be independent of politics.

I never harbored delusions about a Trump presidency. Mr. Trump readily volunteered that his agenda was to disassemble our democracy, but I made a choice to stay at the Justice Department — home to some of the country’s finest lawyers — for as long as I could bear it. I believed that I could better serve our country by pushing back from within than by keeping my hands clean. But I have come to reconsider that decision.

My job was to tailor the administration’s executive actions to make them lawful — in narrowing them, I could also make them less destructive. I remained committed to trying to uphold my oath even as the president refused to uphold his.

But there was a trade-off: We attorneys diminished the immediate harmful impacts of President Trump’s executive orders — but we also made them more palatable to the courts.

This burst into public view early in the Trump administration in the litigation over the executive order banning travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, which my office approved. The first Muslim ban was rushed out the door. It was sweeping and sloppy; the courts quickly put a halt to it. The successive discriminatory bans benefited from more time and attention from the department’s lawyers, who narrowed them but also made them more technocratic and therefore harder for the courts to block.

[Gray Lensman]

Agreed, he did enough **** before the election and before he took office to put him away.

The NY AG office might prevent Biden from having to take that plunge.

[Malvolio]

Ford lost because he pardon Nixon. America thought it was not the right thing to do. Obama was also wrong because it showed the Republicans they can get away with murder.
How about setting a new precedent that nobody is above the Law?

Oh, of course we should. But if Biden doesn't, the usual suspects on CNN and other cable news networks will give the precedents of Ford and Obama as the reason why.

[numberthirty]

The NY AG office might prevent Biden from having to take that plunge.

Yeah...

When you have that and Lightfoot sitting on footage of the cops raiding the wrong house/Madigan seemingly taking kickbacks from ComEd in Illinois?

I get the desire, but still think that dealing with Dems' own issues is a better use of time in the long run.

Probably the most likely to yield actual results versus blowing through tax money on trying to actually make some of the obvious issues with Trump stick.