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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that American presidents have “absolute immunity” from prosecution for any “official acts” they take while in office. For President Joe Biden, this should be great news. Suddenly a host of previously unthinkable options have opened up to him: He could dispatch Seal Team 6 to Mar-A-Lago with orders to neutralize the “primary threat to freedom and democracy” in the United States. He could issue an edict that all digital or physical evidence of his debate performance last week be destroyed. Or he could just use this chilling partisan decision, the latest 6-3 ruling in a term that was characterized by a staggering number of them, as an opportunity to finally embrace the movement to reform the Supreme Court.
But Biden is not planning to do any of that. Shortly after the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Trump v. The United States, the Biden campaign held a press call with surrogates, including Harry Dunn, a Capitol police officer who was on duty the day Trump supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6; Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas); and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks.
Their message was simple: It’s terrifying to contemplate what Donald Trump might do with these powers if he’s reelected.
“We have to do everything in our power to stop him,” Fulks said.
Everything, that is, except take material action to rein in the increasingly lawless and openly right-wing Supreme Court.
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Let’s be clear about what this is,
this is the executive branch refusing to put checks on a clearly corrupt and dysfunctional judicial branch. The stability of our 3 branch system depends on the branches being willing and able to check each other. If one branch yields to another, the system fails.
I agree. This is within the president’s role to fix.
Biden, you are head of the executive branch. Your job is to ensure the law is followed. Do your job and start making them do theirs. It doesn’t have to be bloody but applying some pressure would be a great start.
I mean, having an unelected group with lifetime appointments with ultimate power was kind of destined to fuck us at some point.
Kicking the can like a dork
At this point, what benefit is there of doing nothing and “following the rules”?
If Biden wins, then what? It doesn’t fix any of the BS the supreme Court has created it just buys a couple more years until Trump tries again or the next Rep maga agent comes along. Looking at the state of the Republican party, this would be almost any of them at this point then the US is in the exact same position.
They can’t hold off the Republicans forever.
Of course if he does reset the court, jails or executes Trump then that plays directly into the hands of the crazies too “SEE! We told you he’s trying to take over democracy!!”
They’re literally saying that now.
We’re afraid of the threat that they’ll keep doing what they’re doing right now. Why? They’re already doing it. We’re idiots for letting it affect our decisions.
Reforming the Supreme Court was basically Pete’s thing during the primaries. He was talking about it years before Roe, Chevron, and absolute immunity. He suggested adding 6 more judges, 5 of which would be rotating appointments by the other 10. It’s a shame Biden won’t do anything about this - especially when there are other leaders in the party who would.
lol like buttigieg would do ANY of that, do you remember how hard and fast he flipflopped on universal healthcare?
I agree that we have no idea if he’d actually go through with reforming the court if given the opportunity - I’m just pointing out that Democrats have openly called for reforming the court, on the presidential debate stage, as recently as 2019. It shouldn’t be viewed as a non-starter - especially when these ideas were coming from the so-called moderate wing of the party.
On the M4A topic, it’s crazy to me how its supporters have managed to ally themselves with the private healthcare lobby in opposing a competitive public option. If Medicare is more efficient than profit-driven insurance, as we all suspect, then forcing private insurance to compete with it puts us on a direct path to a single-payer system. Pete is a democratic capitalist - it shouldn’t be a surprise that his version of M4A uses the system in place to get us there. If Bernie amended his bill to include a 15-year transition plan I doubt anyone would accuse him of flip-flopping.
Didn’t appreciate where his overall platform ended up, but his court plan was awesome. It’s very much at the point where it needs serious reform beyond just judicial ethics and balancing the numbers.
Loss of advantage will certainly feel like a sting to conservatives, but it’s a plan that has some fundamental appeal to fairness. Of course since then the court has gone 6-3, so instituting a 5-5 split would require actually getting rid of a sitting justice.
They are an existential threat to our freedom and democracy! We have to do everything in our power to stop them! Except, you know, doing anything. That would be inconceivable.
Cause they’re cowards and losers. Trump is going to win easily if they aren’t willing to put up a fight.
For all of you urging Biden to abuse these ridiculous new powers… Are you nuts? Part of Biden’s appeal is that he’s the sane one, not the demented orange baboon. If he starts behaving just like that festering asshole, he’s going to lose a lot of that appeal. A lot of people will go, “Well, if my choice is between a shit sandwich and a shit salad, I’m not eating at this restaurant,” and stay home on election day.
My bad I forgot to igore Biden being complicit in literal Genocide and abusing his powers for that.
What was Adolf Hitler known for again? Just ignore the Genocide part.
Gods, you are an insufferable twat. You are not wrong per se, just also a massive twat.
Waiting for you to do your usual ‘blah blah…genocide!…blah bla’ routine…
Blah blah I want to ignore Genocide because I don’t care about 16.000 brown children getting their heads blown of and israel running over handcuffed elderly people with tanks.
I’m just helping delusional Genocrats face reality. Liberals should just be honest and admit they don’t care about brown people instead of pretending that “Biden has a morals because the Genocide doesn’t exist”.
- I constantly refer to killing children in Gaza as a unforgivable crime, hence my “you are not wrong” comment
- You make BS assumptions on what others think or the views they have and it always assumes others are somehow for genocide
- Screeching ‘genocide’ in just about every comment from you is borderline mental
- It seems you have this thing I call ‘pastor’ or ‘preacher’ syndrome. Always telling others what to do and think and assuming you have the pinnacle of opinions
- I was right in predicting you would respond in the same way, you are seemingly in a self serving loop, just like people in a cult would be like
- You are still a bellend
The “Genocide thing” debunks all the propaganda about fake Democrat moral high-grounds. It debunks every stupid pretend argument from Democrats. Which is why they don’t want to hear it.
It proves there is zero excuse left for Biden to not abuse his powers if he truly wants to “save democracy”. He has already abused his powers for Genocide
Yawn
So after the debate i kinda think the election is already doomed. But let’s pretend it’s not. We are looking at four possible out comes. 1. Biden wins by doing nothing, he may or may not attempt to abuse this new power, either way the hostile Supreme Court will have an emergency session and rule against Biden, preventing him from using it. The trap has been laid. 2. Trump wins with Biden doing nothing. Trump uses official action to do everything he swears he would do including military retaliation against his rivals, showing Isreal how to do a real genocide, ect. The trap has sprung. 3. Trump wins because Biden abused these powers and attacked the Supreme Court before they could declare it a non official action. The powers are stripped from the president, we have terrible 4 years, only mitigated by the restriction on presidential powers. The trap misfires. 4. Biden wins even after abusing official actions to attack the hostile Supreme Court, then replacing the justices. We have another 4 Biden years filled with Fox News screeching how he is a dictator. The trap is disarmed.
TFG is a threat to democracy. but we won’t do anything about it. please vote harder.
no system can survive without mechanisms to protect itself. if a person is immunocompromised, a simple illness can destroy their body. if your computer doesn’t have an antivirus, a simple virus can take over the whole system.
if your democracy doesn’t have a way to extinguish fascism before it takes over, don’t expect democracy to survive it by chance.
Joe isn’t going to DO SHIT and we are FUCKED and the alarm bells NEED TO BE RINGING ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY
Ehh he won’t be here to see most of it. Why does he care.
If Trump wins, Biden and his wife will both likely be killed at Trump’s orders. Trump is already calling for Military Tribunals for his political enemies. Show trials where he can have them all sentenced to death.
Biden’s name is on Trumps list, right up near the top.
Exactly, which is why he should say “Fuck it!” abuse his power to the n-th degree to save American democracy and then face the consequences.
If I’m Biden I’d have a bill introduce to reform SCOTUS, Presidential powers, campaign finance, election administration, and more and say, “I expect this on my desk in a weeks time. I fear for the safety of our nation and our elected leaders if these issues go unaddressed.”
Then if a week goes by and no bill is ready to sign, two Representatives and two Senators (two Rs and two Ds) go missing. Another week? Another four go missing. This can easily repeat for 12 weeks before a majority of the Senate goes missing. Then, perhaps, some family members of the remaining legislators go missing. 🤷
Unprecedented times require unprecedented acts.
In what way does that not lead to immediate civil war and half the country seeing that the lies they were told on fox news were true? That doesnt fix anything long term, or short, but it does guarantee no democrat would be elected for the next 100 years. If biden did that, i would no longer support him either.
Seriously, what world do you live in where violence does not beget more violence? Im not saying that something radical doesnt need to be done, but is sure as fuck isnt that.
for one, fuck republicans if they’re going to do that. You think they care if they start the war or not? They don’t give a shit, they’ll do it if they want to, otherwise they won’t fucking do shit.
secondly, how the fuck does this start the next civil war, trump did vastly more in his time in office, and even outside of office, the supreme court has done more than he has in his entire term. I see no relevance to the republicans here, most of these decisions are just fucking stupid. One of them is unconstitutional (the most recent one)
Fox News has actually been selling the lie that this decision doesn’t change anything and impeachment will curtail any abuse of power. The frog will be slowly boiled to death at this rate. We can try to turn down the temperature or we can start pouring lava in the pot to make the frog go, “Oh, fuck that noise!”
Yes, because impeachment worked so well the last two times.
I think that was the point: Fox News is, as usual, pushing lies and propaganda.
Read the article, not the headline, he’s not saying he won’t do it or would veto legislation around it. He says he’ll consider court reform. He’s “dismissing it” as a thing to focus on right now because you need an an unrealistic amount of congressional votes to pack the court. Good luck with that. The supreme court interprets laws, with less votes than you need to expand it, you can write blisteringly clear legislation that leaves no room for interpretation. Supreme court problem solved.
Is this .ml now?
Because of course they did. God forbid a dem take any kind of unseemly action. Instead, we got a 5min press conference about how unacceptable it all is.
The reality is the democrats can’t reform the supreme court, because they don’t control the House of Representatives, and barely control the Senate.
To enact reform of that type they would need solid majorities in both chambers and control of the presidency. That remains very unlikely. Even simple ideas like expanding the court rather than meaningful reform is impossible as no nominees would get through congress.
It makes sense the democrats make their campaign focused on Donald Trump. And as bad as the supreme court is at the moment, the democrats have bigger issues to deal with - a lacklustre campaign with a poor candidate. It’ll be hard enough trying to convince people Biden is a good choice as a candidate, let alone move into complex areas like judicial reform.
The reality is the democrats can’t reform the supreme court, because they don’t control the House of Representatives, and barely control the Senate.
The Supreme Court literally just said Biden can do whatever the fuck he wants as long as it’s an “official” act, including having the conservative Justices assassinated and replaced by people he picks himself, confirmed by the Senate or not.
He could and should “stack” the court right now. Supreme Court nominees only need advice and consent of the Senate, not the House.
And yet somehow even with a Democratic House/Senate you know Trump will get plenty of mileage out of using this ruling to become emperor.
Conservatives, I understand. They’re sick, and toxic, but they fight for what they believe in. Which is why we have to defeat them, and why we have to fight back so hard.
But Liberals, man, I just don’t get it. Like zero goddamn fight in them. No political will. Not in my lifetime anyway. “Hey we’re kinda less shitty than fascists, vote Democrat.”
And I have to, but like, only to keep from sliding into the abyss in my own lifetime. So inspiring. Time to start over.
Because libs self-limit. And that’s because they believe themselves to be “good” people. “Good people don’t do that.” Thinking that you’re good while your foe is evil or ungood is a type of hubris.
Because they actually believe in democracy and believe that it’s the people that should prove they disagree by not electing Republicans but again and again the people prove in high enough numbers that they would rather vote against their best interests.
Also, gerrymandering.
It is a fundamental misunderstanding and mistake to believe that people don’t vote the way you want them too is because they are less intelligent than you.
You are confusing liberals and centrist democrats. Biden and his other centrists are not putting up a fight at all. While liberals like AOC, Sanders and porter have been fighting since day 1. I’m a liberal and every traitor connected to this coup should be hung.
Bernie called Biden his friend, lol.
They worked together in Congress forever. I work with people who suck all the time and I call them buddy.
When Bernie was campaigning against Biden he defended Biden’s candidacy multiple times over his own. That’s a huge problem. And people who support billionaires are not our friends. But Bernie is such a people pleaser.
Bernie wants the right policies and outcomes, but he’s not a fighter and has no backbone.
I want Bernie to wrap his sallow yet expansive hand skin entirely around my throbbing member as I cum to a photo of Michelle Obama’s ankles.
Forgot what we were talking about. Oh yeah, fuck you Bernie is a hard nose fighter. It’s amazing he gets around and yells at people at his age. When he was younger than me he got arrested marching for civil rights. He is embraced by thought leaders in the black community and idolized by Christians even though he’s a Jew against Israel. Fuck you man Bernie is 87 years old and I’m here for it
You are confusing liberals and centrist democrats.
No, he’s not. Liberalism is a center-right ideology. Liberals and centrist Democrats are the same people.
You’re the one using the term incorrectly as some kind of synonym for leftists.
News flash, words are used differently in different countries. You can try to fight semantic battles on archaic or international definitions of “liberal”, but that’s a pointless waste of time and not what it means to most Americans. It’s well past the point that an incorrect usage has become an alternate definition.
You can usually tell how old someone is by whether or not they think, “liberal,” and, “progressive,” are synonyms.
Counterpoint- you can tell how terminally online someone is by thinking liberal doesn’t mean progressive in the US.
I disagree with the labeling but it’s one of the silly infighting things people on the left have to understand. Fifteen years ago I was proud to call myself a liberal. Now I know the “real” definition and I don’t call myself that. But my positions haven’t changed much. I’m really hearing what anarchists have to say these days but I call myself a socialist, the same as I did back then.
Progressive can mean liberal, I mean look at ole Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt. He was both progressive and liberal. Generally social Democrat does not though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Classical_radicalism
Right now, two things are true:
The president ordering the US military to kill US citizens on US soil is legal and cannot be challenged.
One of the presidential candidates is promising to be a dictator on day 1.
This isn’t a drill. We’re 4 months away from knowing if 6 months away is our democracy’s end.
