- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
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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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.
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.
No matter how clear your law is, if SCOTUS doesn’t like it, they can just declare it unconstitutional after the first yahoo with standing sues the government.
well he cant reform the supreme court. Doing that would not be affected by this immunity descision. Its still a crime to follow unlawful orders from an immune president.
He could use the military to strong arm either congress or the Supreme Court to make them rule/legislate as he wants. He could just pardon anyone he has following his unlawful orders as well.
Is this .ml now?
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.
Getting to the point where someone might need to invade and liberate the United States.
Come on, guys! We’ve got oil and everything!
July 4th would be a great day to apologize to the king and beg him to take us back.
The Finns. They seem cool. Come on Finland invade us!
I dunno, my non-drinking finnish acquaintance and former gaming buddy (Stupid RL getting in the way all the time) regularly rants about the idiocy of his countrymen during hockey season. :P
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 mean, having an unelected group with lifetime appointments with ultimate power was kind of destined to fuck us at some point.
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.
Fuck the Biden campaign, that should be their whole platform now. But instead they use it to threaten us.
Edit: still, im voting for him…
That edit is the whole problem democrats don’t have any consequences for being shitty. If this election is so important than fucking do something popular Jesus Christ.
Edit: still, im voting for him…
That edit is the whole problem democrats don’t have any consequences for being shitty.
yeah! Let’s just not vote at all and hand trump and the federalist society the election!
If this election is so important than fucking do something popular Jesus Christ.
Biden has done a FUCK TON of stuff for the average american, especially in the face of the do-nothing MAGA congress. You’re mad because Biden isn’t immediately whipping his dick out to fuck over the supreme court with the insane amount of power they just handed him? Grow the fuck up, jesus christ. The LAST thing we need are knee-jerk emotional reactions instead of calculated tactics.
I don’t immediately disagree with this. Reactionary decisions breed instability and progress requires a foundation. Though with the Nation’s already flawed fundaments being actively bulldozed I am compelled to ask: what calculated tactics may we reasonably trust are in play?
Biden has played politics well enough. I’ll grant that. Especially while navigating the obscenely successful obstructionist Republican strategies which strangle the Legislature. The fact he’s accomplished anything of note in this climate could reasonably be spun as impressive.
Is the bar for America’s “left-wing” set so low, and the expectation they’ll cow to corporate interest so common (and rightly so), that this spin, these accomplishments, are honestly lauded as the laurels on which the Biden administration may ride to a second term? Forgiving student debt. Ensuring fairer access to home loans. Expanding healthcare coverage for veterans. All good things! No doubt. Is it fair to expect the American people to think this is enough? While higher education, homes, and healthcare become increasingly accessible?
Addressing symptoms in this way placates the agitated while maintaining the status quo and setting precedent to, ostensibly, address root cause at a later time. It assumes that the wheel of progress turns slowly. That progress will win out if it is patient and persistent and noble.
The past twelve years have proven this is not so.
The religious right-wing has worked diligently over the last ~70 years to create the current theocratic zeitgeist on which the MAGA parasite is parading to victory. It is not a sudden and surprising uncoordinated incidental movement preying on the Bible belt’s misguided moral anxieties. Haphazardly funneling the reactionary rhetoric of today into a Four Years Hate to seize power and further the ideology of Paul Weyrich. No. It is a dedicated effort. A calculated tactic. Others are replicating it and fascism is on the rise world 'round.
Successful opposition to the oligarchy-backed, well organized, long-planned, and now popular out and proud American fascist hate campaign will not be found in treating symptoms or placating concerned citizens or maintaining the status quo. What, then, is the Progressive answer? What tactic is the Biden Administration, or the Democratic Party, or anyone anywhere deploying that we should “grow the fuck up” and wait to see the impact of? Why should I, or any concerned citizen, trust that this is so?
“Wow this is incredibly inspiring, I will relentlessly attack anyone who questions this” — liberals
Mathematically, non-voters just voted for whoever wins. So, if you are anti-trump (or all the other evil he stands for) and he wins, but you didn’t vote…you voted for him.
Thank you
It’s like climate change action. Too little, too late. Or really not much at all. Thanks, you fucking primary DNC voters.
Too little, too late
The SC literally just granted this power. What was he supposed to do, force them not to release the ruling? He could not have packed the court in any way to cancel out this 6-3 majority in time
Thanks, you fucking primary DNC voters.
how would that change the ruling?? It is not a simple thing at all to reform the highest court, especially amidst these last few insane years. Biden or another D, it is not something that can just be done. You’re acting like Biden had the chance to just sit down in a chair but chose not to.
You should be thanking the unelected supreme court fascists.
Kicking the can like a dork
Oh, FFS.
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.
WTF is wrong with Biden passing on so many easy gimme issues? JFC.
Just like the debate, so many missed opportunities to fucking end Trump. He his not of the right mind, America is in danger.
Remember when they served him a softball on abortion and somehow he managed to change the subject to an immigrant killing a white woman. Fucking insane
Yeah. All he had to do was ask him who won the last election and watch him melt down. That was it. Instead he told us how he “defeated Medicare.” We’re screwed.
