The President can only pardon federal offenses. If treason is defined by congress instead, Donny Tiny Hands can’t do shit.
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Treason is constitutionally defined, and Russia does not meet the standard of “enemy” in that definition. It’s usually interpreted as limited to nations which the US is actively and openly at war with.
I think it’s pretty clear by now that the GOP legislature will not openly move against Trump. It’d be suicidal for them to do so.
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Please note that the GOP already committed suicide as a small d democratic institution. It’s just taking a long time to die because the organization is funded by the billionaires whose dirty work forms the GOP platform. Current investigations into outside tampering of voter rolls will also reveal the extent of the GOP’s voter disenfranchisement through organized, targeted purges.
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Which is why they’re working hard to permanently immunise themselves from democratic consequences.
They don’t need to rig every vote; they just need to tilt the field sufficiently in enough GOP-controlled states in order to maintain minority rule. Which is a thing that they are very obviously doing.
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It would appear that Don Sr signed off on the bogus statement that Don Jr went to talk to somebody Russian about adoptions, which, if true, is Don Sr committing obstruction of justice, one of the charges from Nixon’s articles of impeachment:
If (big if) Don Sr is impeached, he’s effectively out of the pardoning business, and any previously issued pardon likely will be seen as attempted obstruction of justice. Pence is probably not going to come through this smelling like a rose, either. The press already released the Ryan tape.
Cold comfort thought on this hot summer day: It took better than 2 years from the time everybody knew every damned thing about Watergate, because it had been all over the news, before Nixon stepped down. He resigned after the House had voted to impeach him, and the little impeachment bill on Capitol Hill was on its way to the Senate.
During those two years, the GOP did the exact same thing it’s doing now. And the only reason that the House finally acted was because the midterms had altered the balance of the House.
In spite of all of that, Nixon still had 24% approval rating when he stepped down, per Gallop. Basically one in four still approved. I can recall actual grown-ass adults around me saying things like, at least he was loyal to his own staff, got us out of Vietnam, was better than McGovern, wasn’t a commie sympathizer like those pinko Democrats, etc.
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We already have slam-dunk evidence of obstruction of justice from the Comey sacking. Doesn’t matter while the House is on side with the executive.
Nixon had a Democratic-controlled legislature, and unanimous opposition from the USSC.
Trump has the TeaGOP, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Roberts and Kennedy.
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I haven’t read this editorial by Frank Bruni, but I love the title:
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I would imagine that she had them tortured, executed, and attainted their heirs for good measure. Did you have a particular plot in mind?
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Actually, no. She was not sufficiently powerful.
If he is now being nice to France, does that possibly mean he is feeling less self-assured?
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Aren’t we sort of on the opposite side of the war on Syria?
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She wasn’t? Didn’t she have Mary queen of scots executed (although, if I’m remembering my Tudor history, she wasn’t happy about doing, setting precedent for killing a monarch)?
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The US is nominally backing the Shia rebels, Putin is backing Assad, the Saudis are backing Daesh. Nobody is really at war with anyone; the Russians are assisting Assad with a police action, and the US is providing “advisors” to the Shia.
Meanwhile, Trump and Putin are busy working out a military cooperation agreement. I’d be entirely unsurprised to see either Trump shifting the US to supporting Assad or Putin knocking Assad off and replacing him with a puppet ruler.
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Killing your relatives is OK because it’s your (royal) family the aristocracy is opposed to. But under the English system the armies were raised by the aristocrats - and this system has relics to almost the present day. As a result of this feudal system, if the aristocracy holds firm they can hold off the monarch.
QE1 controlled the Navy - such as it was - and did so via commoners who owed their allegiance to her, like Drake. Even so she had to rely on the aristocracy to produce ships, and these might be diverted, even in a battle, to a bit of rape and pillage.
But she could only execute or imprison an aristocrat with the consent of others. Hence the need to divide and rule.
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And the US supplies the Saudis with aircraft and weapons, some of which are partially manufactured in and exported back to Israel.
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It would be interesting to see who were the terrorists and who were the freedom fighters if those weapons started being used against the US mainland. Weapons for Saudi are a double edged sword, as it were.
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Yes, plus another couple hundred other people for being involved in one or another of the numerous plots to overthrow her. But her emails!
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Interesting article.
Remind me again how/why this person was elected?
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