Beer Belly Putsch AFTERMATH Thread

Great thread.

SPOG = Seattle Police Officers Guild

This country is fucked. If millions of people can look at video evidence of an armed right-wing insurrection and come out saying, "Yup, those were actually Antifa," then there's no hope reasoning with them. They're not going to rest until they get what they want.

The presidential power to pardon is, when exercised responsibly, a good thing. There are undoubtedly times when injustices come to light only years later, or when circumstances show that someone has truly reformed and a punishment that was appropirate at the time is now too harsh. But like any power, it can be abused.

As things stand now, a president could at least arguably do the following:

I hereby pardon every member of my Administration for any offenses they have committed or may commit against the United States.

I hereby pardon anyone who owns any "Ridin' with Biden" merchandise for any offenses they have committed or may commit against the United States.

I hereby pardon anyone who is accused of committing voter fraud to help me get into office for any offenses they have committed or may commit against the United States.

I hereby pardon anyone who made a contribution to my campaign for any crimes they have committed or may commit against the United States.

I hereby pardon me.

I would approve of a onsstitutional amendment limiting the pardon power.

1. Make it clear that pre-emptive pardons before a conviction are invalid.
2. Make it clear that broad pardons of people fitting in a given category are invalid.
3. Make it clear that self-pardoning is invalid.
4. Make it clear that pardoning members of one's own administration for criminality done at the behest of or for the benefit of one's administration is invalid.

I would also consider giving either Congress by super-majority or SCOTUS the ability to check the pardon power for abuse. Or making it so lame-duck presidents can only have their pardons go into effect if approved by the president-elect to avoid the 11th hour stinkiest of pardons. Haven't necessarily looked at enough angles on these things, though.

As for the transition period, there needs to be some time to get ready to make the switchover. Does it need in the modern era to be more than two months? Probably not. But no matter how short it is, a truly bad actor can take advantage of it. For all their thoughtfulness about some things, I don't think the Framers really contemplated the notion of an unchecked bad actor and how much damage he could do.

The electoral college has passed its best-by-date.

I don’t know if adding new written rules’ gonna do anything. The current mess is caused by the clown-in-chief’s complete disregard for all rules and norms, especially the unwritten ones which turns to be very important for upholding our democratic institutions.

Hey, you! Where ya been? Welcome back!

No word on whether he was specifically involved in the Capitol attack, but a Secret Service agent is under investigation over social media posts:

Much as I hated to see the Capitol ransacked, I'm wondering if TPTB allowed it to happen so these idiots would identify themselves - making it easier to round them all up.

there were only a few thousand (8K is the last estimate I heard). There are lots more where they came from.

Thanks for asking garamet! Good to see you and most of the WF are still around and kickin! I've been mostly busy going from pre-adulthood (20s) to actual adulthood (30s..).. I finished my PhD thesis (in aerospace engineering), got employed at a place that pays very well and the work is very interesting (doesn't feel like job yet), and still enjoying the bachelor life too much to start a family yet hahaha.

(not current mayor, was when Twitter first became a thing)

Turtle snaps.

I really do like the company for which I work ...

Perhaps the fact that Trump supporters have turned on him may have finally opened his eyes to what a bunch of complete fucking loonies they are...

LOL I don't believe this for a second

Mitch is incapable of doing anything that would weaken the Republican Party, that man is the definition of party over country

And now that he's been reelected, what does he have to lose?

I actually muttered wtf when I saw the faux koopa happy with impeachment o.0

Hullo, what’s this?

On Eve of House Vote, McConnell Is Said to Be Pleased About Effort to Impeach Trump
Senator Mitch McConnell is said to believe that the impeachment effort will make it easier to purge President Trump from the party. And Representative Kevin McCarthy has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the Capitol siege.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/12/us/impeachment-trump-25th-amendment

McConnell was scheduled to spend the day with Trump. Guess he either didn't like what he saw, or something big evidence wise came down the pike.

they arm wrestled, Mitch won best two out of three.

Fox is also covering Mitch open to impeachment.

The Trumpers are losing their shit in the comments section.

Looks like we may need a new civil war thread - the civil war in the GOP.

Trump Gets Note from Podiatrist Exempting Him from Impeachment

Mitch has concluded that Trump is about to be so poisonous that the short-term risk of pissing off his cult is outweighed by the long-term gains of rehabilitating the party's image.

And I'm guessing he chose carefully which associates to discuss this with, in order to make sure it leaked.