So… SCOTUS decides in Trump’s favor, Biden has him assassinated, Biden wins election.
Trump is arguing that this will be OK, right? Right?
I wish someone would confront Trump about that during an interview. “So, do you have an armed guard, because you’re saying Biden can legally kill you?”
And then far right media would parrot for weeks that Biden actually wants to kill Trump. If they did what they did for a “stolen election” imagine what they would do if they had “reason” to suspect that Trump could be assassinated at Bidens wish
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
That’s their favorite stance. Because then they can claim moral righteousness. If you can’t get an upper hand logically, the next is emotionally.
They would recognize worthy opponents
I’d be pretty surprised if there were a private security option capable of holding off the military, if the president really wanted someone dead and had the legal go-ahead.
I’d be really surprised if Trump could afford them.
Then there’s the military’s ‘knife bomb’…
“While other versions of the Hellfire take out targets in the expected ways — through explosive force or with shrapnel — the R9X crushes or slices a target to death. It is essentially a flying bundle of swords that can kill the occupant of a car without harming people around the vehicle.”
How SOCOM’s secret ‘knife bomb’ became the prime weapon for killing hard-to-reach terrorists
You’ve also forgotten the easiest method - simply bribing (or in this case ordering, as the Secret Service still answers to Biden regardless of the fact that they protect Trump, AFAIK) someone close to him to kill him.
That’s very hard. You have to talk to someone and convince them. Or you can just dispatch a flight and go to dinner knowing it’s done
He’s a broke bitch, owes half a billion in foreign loans alone. On another note, what kind of security force would be willing to suicide for him? His cult45? They have a combined IQ of an air conditioned room, the military would take them out like mowing your grass.
Former presidents get lifetime security detail as a benefit.
I’m aware. I’m not sure what exactly the secret service is going to do about a salvo of hellfire missiles. If the president of the US wants you dead and isn’t legally restrained I certainly wouldn’t trade places with you.
Hey, three hookers and an eight-ball will keep that USSS detail busy. No problemo.
Bizarrely there are, that’s what black water essentially is, a paramilitary group that can hold off a military. If you think it’s insane that we allow private companies own their own military, well it is. They of course not allowed to operate on US soil, but they exist.
Even Russia has laws against this, it’s kind of nut USA allows it. Of course, Russian law is one thing and wagers existence shows how well that law is followed. But even the Russian founders understood having a private military is insane.
*Edit arguably, Putin flaunting the law and creating Wagner is a reason he became a dictator and what the country was trying to prevent when they made the laws.
The fact you called them Blackwater (haven’t gone by that name since 2009) and posit that they’re more capable than the US military is farcical.
Blackwater was so dogged by scandal after scandal they change to ‘Xe’, then ‘Academi’, before being bought out by a real Private Security company - TripleCanopy.
And former SF pipe hitters in the ranks of PMCs or not, it’s the logistics and intelligence capabilities of the US military that enables them to be so lethal, which PMCs significantly lack.
Lol if this were legal, there isn’t an armed guard, or even military on the planet that could save you from a us president with a gbu_28 on deck
This is why they are delaying it until after the election. If Biden wins, they continue to stretch out the trial until Trump dies because of his old age and bad health, then go, “Well the defendant is dead so no reason to rule on this”, leaving it open until they get another chance
If Trump wins, then they rule in Trump’s favour with the trial suddenly going at breakneck speed
No, they’ll decide the bullshit immunity in June. But the delay is correct. By putting off deciding, they’ve delayed the actual trial until after the election. Fucking illegitimate Supreme Court. They didn’t waste time saying Colorado couldn’t leave him off the ballot, even going out of their way to not address the 14th Amendment disqualification.
Well Trump will obviously wait until he’s installed himself as a dictator in perpetuity before making this ok
SCOTUS would just argue it isn’t an official act if Biden does it.
If they decide that Presidents have total immunity, Biden better disappear a bunch of the SCOTUS, as well as a bunch of the insurrectionist Republicans. I don’t want to have an authoritarian in charge, but if I had to choose between Biden or trump, the choice is pretty easy.
After delivering democracy to other countries over past few decades, USA has one last job. And this time, it’s personal.
Technically Biden would have to shoot the man himself, anyone he could order to do it either cannot legally and would basically just be eating the legal bullet for him even though he’s not in danger of it, or they have a legal duty to refuse the order.
It legitimately would not surprise me in 2024, if Biden just straight up shot trump during a debate.
We’d all be line “what!” Then go back to paying bills
It legitimately would not surprise me in 2024, if Biden just straight up shot trump during a debate.
“Man, I asked you to shut up!”
Approved.
So you’re saying we can have some kind of tournament for the presidency?
…maybe if we reduce it to a figurehead head of state role
The Democratic Party is the exact kind of stupid to have it ruled that a President can assassinate political rivals, refuse to use the power, lose the election, and then act surprised when they all get executed.
The problem is the SCOTUS said “maybe, see what the lower courts say” which is the only winning move for fascists on the question of presidential immunity. We all know what they really want to say is “Trump is immune, Biden is not” and kicking the can down the road until after the election accomplishes that, if Trump wins.
Yes. They’ll know what the “Constitutional Originalism” says about this one sometime in November.
If Biden wins no immunity, if Trump wins… Yes immunity
This is exactly what will happen. If there is a ruling that the president can do whatever the fuck, this democracy is done. You’d hope to see Biden go down with the ship shooting from the bow. Unfortunately he wouldn’t. Dems will be trying to handshake across the aisle until they are executed the afternoon of Jan. 20th.
“I’d never murder. I value democracy. I will do what I can to help the people and preserve the government. Oh wait sorry, murder is politically convenient? It’d be stupid not to!”
God I wish they would just be more blunt:
“So according to you, Biden can kill you? If you say yes then hitmen will be on their way”
I’m sure I’ll backfire but god damn it’s annoying when they try to be civil against bad faith actors.
That’s how fascists play the game, they act ridiculous because the other guy cares too much about decorum and being polite to question the absurdity, so they just go along with it.
Exactly. Us lefties gotta take note but so it better lol
It’s up to us to be better than them. It’s never been easy, it will be frustrating, but it’s the only way to keep some decency in society.
This has value sometimes. But there are also times where the Democrats take this to an extreme where it borders self-flagellation, rather than a coherent civic value. For example, Republicans in Texas are capable of organizing a parallel military that will challenge the Federal government, and even though the Federal government had the legal right to dismantle it, liberals are far too concerned with appearances to do anything about it. When does this attitude of “decorum above all” end? Before or after fascists begin public lynchings? It’s not an attitude that is applied the same in all directions, either. Why are democrats far more eager to cast doubt into the legitimacy of anti-war protestors than in fighting against fascists challenging the State monopoly of violence?
Yeah, I’m not saying we need to self-flagellate.
It’s just more so I have seen a lot more people on the left getting far too aggressive lately. The amount of people that seem to want violence as an answer is staggering. We should be working towards civilized solutions, and only resort to violence when we must. I believe that we still have options for handling a lot of the issues in our country peacefully, even if those options are dwindling.
- Letting society come to an end so that we can “keep some decency” in it is ridiculous.
- It is possible to be “better than them” and not let them line us all up for the gallows.
- You are not “better than them”. You literally are them. They are us. Stop being an arrogant dick head. You don’t get to be exempt because you are somehow superior.
Does Trump realize that if he “wins” that particular argument, that would empower Biden to have Trump killed without consequence? Or the supreme court justices he rammed into the court? Or his voters?
Oh wait… republicans are utterly incapable of forseeing potential consequences of what they want nm.
Does Trump realize that if he “wins” that particular argument, that would empower Biden to have Trump killed without consequence?
As of today, Trump has been held in contempt of court 10 times, with the judge explicitly stating “The last thing I want to do is put you in jail”.
This is a guy who has been so utterly swaddled from consequences that I genuinely do not believe he feels threatened by the prospect of extra-judicial assassination by a political rival. Liberals are Woke and Soy. They don’t have the cajones to pull the trigger. And I’ve seen little to suggest he’s wrong in this belief. The police are far more willing to crack the heads of Columbia liberal arts students than MAGA Chuds. And the courts have been incredibly lenient towards J6ers, particularly those with the money and influence to plead favorable terms in court.
Meanwhile, Epic MAGA Dudes run rampant through JSOC, the FBI, and the Secret Service. If anything, this is a threat against Biden. Combined with the claim that he’s the legitimate president and was robbed of his second term, this line of reasoning is intended to carve a legal path for a coup from friends in the military and police.
Part of the reason that courts are so lenient with him is to avoid that, once he is judged, that there is any space for anyone to claim a mistrial or that he was mis treated. It’s unfortunate z but that’s the way the justice system works, and trump abuses that to the max.
That is why the judge explicitly says “I don’t want to jail you” just so that it’s said that he can, but won’t. Yet. Now that trump has been ordered to pay, it’s only a few thousand dollars, but again, that’s the law. Judges can’t just change that on their own whims.
So next up, if Trump blabs again, which he will, he will go to jail. I read something about the secret service already trying to figure out how to protect trump in jail, because that’s their responsibility, wherever the idiot is, so let’s just say that the next step may blvery we’ll be quite funny.
Having said that: I am happy they are taking their time and are being very careful, last thing you want is an exonorated trump because of some procedural error or because trump indeed was not tried fairly.
Part of the reason that courts are so lenient with him is to avoid that, once he is judged, that there is any space for anyone to claim a mistrial or that he was mis treated.
And why are these bureaucrats obsessed with a perception of fairness for Donald Trump when they were so cavalier with the treatment of a guy like Steven Donziger or Aaron Swartz or Brandon Mayfield or Leonard Peltier?
The argument advanced by liberals is that Donald Trump presents an extraordinary threat to democracy and civil liberties in the US if elected. So… surely he’s got himself booked on a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay, right? Or, at the very least, he’ll be receiving the same treatment as Chelsea Manning or Reality Winner, right?
So next up, if Trump blabs again, which he will, he will go to jail.
I will put up $1000 to your $100 that Trump will not spend a single full day in jail if he is once again dinged for being in contempt of court.
Having said that: I am happy they are taking their time and are being very careful
They’re running out the clock until election day, so they can throw out the case.
I will arbitrate this bet at a paltry 5% fee, please submit your bets via interac money transfer to banekillgrind@gmail.com
Points for the hustler mindset.
Because they only care about the radicals who can actually hurt them by seizing power from within their system. Unfortunately that’s basically all fascism is actually good at.
And why are these bureaucrats obsessed with a perception of fairness for Donald Trump when they were so cavalier with the treatment of a guy like Steven Donziger or Aaron Swartz or Brandon Mayfield or Leonard Peltier?
Because those other people don’t have the MAGA cult behind them. We dot every I and cross every T with Trump, give him the beenfit of every doubt and be as transparent as possible so to avoid the appearance of it being a political attack via the courts as much as possible. To limit the protests (which will of course likely fall into the “fiery but mostly peaceful” category in terms of damage done and lives lost, but will definitely be reported on in a less forgiving way except on FOX, OAN and RT).
They’re running out the clock until election day, so they can throw out the case.
Of course they are - the best and likely only good defense Trump has is getting elected.
We dot every I and cross every T with Trump, give him the beenfit of every doubt and be as transparent as possible so to avoid the appearance of it being a political attack
And it still hasn’t worked. No more than the Ken Star “Independent Investigation” washed Republicans’ hands clean of the Clinton Impeachment.
Of course they are - the best and likely only good defense Trump has is getting elected.
So then why is the court facilitating his defense in this matter?
And it still hasn’t worked. No more than the Ken Star “Independent Investigation” washed Republicans’ hands clean of the Clinton Impeachment.
The point isn’t to wash their hands of it, but to limit the scope of the inevitable protests. If the case is fucking airtight, and Trump has been fully allowed to engage in every possible defensive argument he and his lawyers can think of, and a jury that definitely isn’t just a bunch of Democrats who already hate Trump unanimously agree that the evidence proves he did it and all of this is thoroughly transparent and public then the resulting pool protests will draw from will just be the really fervent members of his cult. The more it has the appearances of just being a political attack, the larger the scale of the protests will be, and the bigger the protests are the more destructive and larger scale any violence from them is likely to be.
And why are these bureaucrats obsessed with a perception of fairness for Donald Trump
Because they want to make sure that their judgements stick. Trump has a lot of political power, and enough money to get a legal team that can find every single undotted i and uncrossed t, and use that to appeal anything. (Or, he would, if he would actually pay his attorneys, instead of stiffing them on legal bills. So what he actually has is incompetent hacks.) So a smart judge makes sure that they’re not doing anything that could be a reversible error.
Because they want to make sure that their judgements stick.
These repeated failures by the judge to enforce the rules within the court will not fortify the result of the decision on appeal.
The thing is, if they hit Trump with a contempt of court order, and then jail him, that can be used to claim that the judge was biased against him, unless that kind of punishment is typical for violating gag orders repeatedly. So you want to avoid that, since that makes it easier to claim that the judges instructions and handling of the case was also biased.
That is why they are trying to push the decision until after the election. If Trump wins, the president has full immunity to do whatever he wants. If Biden wins they’ll likely say the president can be held accountable for their actions as president.
This is correct. Constitutional Originalism somehow means that what the Constitution has always said depends on who is elected in 2024.
Nah, they get that. They also get that most Democrats aren’t outright evil or of the “god made me do it” type, as they are.
Repubs are incapable of seeing consequences, but in this particular case they know that Biden won’t do it and they are correct.
Do you really think Joe Biden would order Trump killed
Lol…Dems would meet the bullet halfway… And anyone who wasn’t willing to make that compromise would be a radical progressive
I dream of a murder-suicide at a debate.
Suicide vest.
Joe’s last wotds: “For all of you that said Biden blows, ain’t seen nothing yet.”
KABOOM
Has anyone suggested contracting it to Boeing?
No but it does force republicans to contort themselves into a pretzel to defend that decision given their rhetoric about democrats.
More likely theyll just point to it as a reason to never cede power because they’re unrepentant ghouls.
I don’t know why you are characterizing this as a republican blunder. It makes perfect sense.
The Republicans know the Democrats’ obsession with civility means a dem would never invoke this prospective right to assassinate a political rival.
“But the Republicans are being illogical! This is a double standard! There is no intellectual honesty in such an argument!”
Stop trying to appeal to logic and honesty when it comes to Republicans. This liberal thinking is what got Trump elected the first time.
Accept that morals, ethics, and logic mean nothing to fascists before it is too late.
I swear, the patriot front could be doing door-to-door curb stomps once trump gets elected, and liberals would still be smugly pointing out that “violence is no way to solve political issues, chud. Check and mate ;)”, right before they get curb stomped.
But when you tell “leftists” to get armed and get trained they call you an NRA shill. I guess all the armed MAGAts foaming at the mouth to get rid of trans kids and drag queens isn’t much to worry about when mommy’s basement is so warm and cozy.
Get fucking armed, leftists. Read the poem, socialists were first against the wall in Germany.
The claim is also in perpetuity of the title, not just while holding office.
If this passes, Obama needs to walk right up to Trump, and slap him like a bitch.
Would love to hear the followup question, “If the president decides a supreme court justice is a corrupt person…”
That was entirely my point I made a couple weeks ago. If they move ahead on that decision, then Biden would be within his rights to have the consenting judges hung and replace them, hanging any members of congress or senators that tried to block the appointments. Then he could ask that court to reconsider the decision, and he would have been immune for these actions that occurred during the hiatus of accountability.
Seems like a fairly straightforward solution.
There is no stopping the justices from putting big caveats around their ruling.
It could be “in this very specific case with this very specific person at this very specific time we agree that the president is immune from prosecution. Any other acts by this or any other president are not included in this ruling.”
What would be wild is if the “legal” justification they landed on was that the president specifically is immune but not the people under him. So you’d just have to hand Biden or Trump a handgun and watch them march up to someone and kill them because no police or military has the authority to stop the president
Obviously I don’t want to live in that world but at least then we’re living in a crazy movie dystopia which might at least be more fun to watch
Let’s let Joe have it. He’s old, he deserves it. How many fatalities can he even get before the long night takes him? 3? 4?
Come on, Joe, invite Tucker and Alex Jones to dinner.
And wouldn’t anyone in the line of succession to the presidency just be able to kill all those in front of them to take the
throneseat of president, thus becoming immune from the act of killing their predessesors?Biden/Trump/Whoever is president could simply officially order one of his top officers to push a button that drops a hellfire missile on their political opponent and then pardon them. The President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and also has the executive privilege of pardon available to them at their discretion for any reason or no reason at all. I’m 100% sure the president will find somebody in the chain of command with morals flexible enough to obey such an order.
And since you can’t go after the man himself because a corrupt SCOTUS is apparently poised to rule that they have immunity for “official acts” which is a nebulously defined term that can apply to literally any heinous act that they want, the country has essentially created a king by proxy.
Been time to kick those justices out and put some fresh ones in
Execute the ones that vote yes.
Too effective of a strategy for a Dem to pursue.
Totes legal, I guess 🤷
No need to kick them out.
They were being traitors to the country. Just “remove” them.
You mean banish them to another realm?
Man at did point we really are gonna find out some art teacher shamed Trump’s interest in painting.
“You used far too much orange!”, the teacher said. And the rest is history…
Its not an art teacher, it’s his dad who hated him and loved Fred until Fred fucked up in business (being compassionate) at which point his dad basically disowned his brother and took Donald as his heir. His brother later drank himself to death because of the way his dad treated him and is the reason Donald doesn’t drink.
This is real, we’re dealing with a wannabe dictator with daddy issues and he has millions of followers.
Correct. They all want a strong daddy figure, it makes sense its just very dumb.
There is also that parallel fascination with stimulants.
If the president can order a drone strike from across the world, why can’t it be against his political opponents at home.
Oh yeah… The US has sanctioned extrajudicial assassination under Mr. “Yes We Can” Barak Obama. We’re far on the wrong side of that slope.
There was the choice of drone operations being completed on a local level, or to push the authority to authorise them up the chain.
Obama took personal responsibility for this new tool instead of letting the military use it in whatever way.
“Personal responsibility” is a hell of a way to describe giving yourself the power to kill indiscriminately with no oversight or consequences.
Yeah the status quo was some rando jarhead or spook makes that decision, so Obama changed it so his office makes the decision.
That’s not an improvement.
A single point of oversight, divorced from the operation is not better than multiple, who have the incentive to use this tool, despite the constant civilian casualties, because the alternative is the risk of casualties from the boots on the ground they command directly…?
Not an improvement? Do you have any criteria for good/bad here?
Those are some crazy leaps of reasoning. The president isn’t inherently “divorced” from anything and boots on the ground are not always the sole alternative as there’s also the option of doing neither.
I guess I’m just curious if you think the executives of other countries should also have the power to kill indiscriminately with no consequences or oversight. Would you be applying the same line of reasoning if we were talking about, say, Putin?
Assassination is when members of a militant organization we’re in armed conflict with are killed, I guess.
Any “military aged male” killed by a drone strike is counted as an “enemy combatant,” even when there’s not a shred of evidence.
Yeah, you should read a little more about this.
I have. Numerous times. Is this the “US citizens must be taken for a trial even when waging war against the US” or “Collateral damage is assassination” argument?
The USA should stopp mass murdering village elders, farmers and so on, because they had been at the same location as someone else. The USA killed ten thousands without a single proof of them being guilty of anything. The USA also killed the families (including small children) of many of these innocent people.
Ah, the second option. So it has nothing to do with assassination at all, and that word is just being used for shock value. Great. Good talk.
Optics.
Okay, but - hypothetically - lets assume we have a large base of supporters who take indescribable glee in watching police crack the skulls of college students and pink-hatted feminists. Lets assume we have governors and mayors who surround themselves with paramilitary groups, while threatening to lock up anyone who voices dissent. And all these politicians win in landslide elections in their home states, because the shrinking pool of eligible voters is comprised more and more of these fanatics.
What then?
We become Bestest Korea
That might be true, but the gays are turning the frogs gay! Enough is enough! Maga 2024 /s
So he’s saying Biden is legally within his rights to assassinate Trump?
remember kids, both sides are the same.
Nice flair
/s
We get the president from “Escape from L A”
He also might be The Thing. That’s just what I’m hearing, lots of people are saying it.
The most dangerous game
The hunting of Man happens with Trump’s homeless policy.