aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 1hThey didn't succeed, but they did, as the post I replied to denied, "muster the balls". 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 2hHe was prosecuted in multiple cases by the US federal government, including the election obstruction case, which covered Jan 6th en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...en.wikipedia.orgFederal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case) - Wikipedia 110
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 2hAnd removal through impeachment requires 67 votes in the Senate. Even if he is removed by some miracle, the rhetoric will just switch to "What have Dems got other than 'Orange man bad'"? 110
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 3hCongress has no obligation to prosecute, because Congress has no power to prosecute. Congress can investigate and it can make recommendation to the Department of Justice. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 5hSo, I guess this is no big deal then? Nah, this is a different category all together. 040
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 5hDemocrats are backing some transphobic candidates and some DSA candidates, because they won primaries and have a shot at winning the general. Neither of those is a sign that leadership embraces either view or is about to swing the whole party that way. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 5hThere's much more ability for leadership to choose candidates or keep them in line. There's no primary equivalent. Dems are a big tent party and that's always going to include some things many of us don't like. From every direction. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 5hThere's no breaching the dam here. There's never been a time when every single Dem was in lockstep on the right side of trans rights. A good part of the difference between here and the UK is that party politics there is much more top down. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 6hThe voters who don't seem to care if their elected officials abide by the Constitution. 040
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 21hExcept that this is someone tied to a suicidal terrorist movement. That was a deterrent to ambitious family members. This a recruitment propaganda tool for Islamist terrorist groups. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Tax exempt or deferred accounts exist for retirements savings 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026So, voters will take the House away from them after two years. That's what we've got to avoid. 051
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026What "necessary action" would that be? Do you understand that conviction and removal requires 67 votes? 2/3rds of the Senate. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Because they're weak and womanly, which we know because they don't publicly execute people 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026It doesn't really. It's flawed, but it's not relying on personal acts of moral courage. It relies on powerful people wanting power, which is a reasonable assumption. Congresscritters should try to keep the President from taking their power, because then they don't have it anymore. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026The guardrails are us. The voters. When the voters accept the crooks as long as they're their crooks, that's when it breaks down. The politicians who control the official guardrails will only act if they think the voters will punish then for not acting. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026It's a reality of how our system of government works that you have to work with the other party, especially when you're in the minority, or when the government is divided as it likely will be next year. Or even with an incredibly narrow majority, like Biden had his first 2 years. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Jeffries has been incredibly successful as minority leader. Keeping his caucus together and even pulling a few Republicans to pass bills with an unprecedented number of discharge petitions. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026A good part of it back in the day was that keeping people locked up for long periods was expensive in societies that were far more marginal than we are now. So you'd get things like floggings, brandings and other physical punishments, along with execution. 150
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026We're in the era of AI girlfriends. I think anthropomorphizing them has now reached the level of being dangerously confusing. No one was trying to argue that your car or even Siri/Alexa were conscious. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Kind of. I do think she's been radicalized and that the books were anti-fascist, but they were very shallowly anti-fascist. Which is basically fine for a kid's series. But the signs of lots of unexamined prejudices are all there in the text. 030
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Correct, it was about SCOTUS. That's my bad. But the other poster brought up AIPAC as part of blaming Dem leadership for not doing something they cannot do. 210
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026I live alone, so arranging for the ride home is the part that tempts me to do it awake. 120
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026And sadly, the same basic arguments apply to any kind of extrajudicial punishment for rape. The history of lynching for rape is not something we should want to recreate. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026But when it's a poor minority man being accused? Or the attempts to paint all queer people as inherently predatory? 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026There's also all the inequities in the justice system. The main problem with rape cases is getting convictions. That doesn't get easier if the death penalty is involved. The same arguments about it not really being rape for reasons will be used when it's privileged frat boys with good prospects. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026We were talking about impeaching Trump. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026But that was the standard leftist line for most of Trump's first term. Either pushover or collaborator. Just like it is for Jeffries now. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026I'm not sure. In this case, I think there is a potential cost to treating AI more like humans. It blurs the line and makes it easier to attribute human nature to them in other ways. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Preemptively blaming them for that is just dumb. Or in bad faith. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Now we've pivoted, but to go back to the original: The reason Jeffries and Schumer aren't going to remove Trump through impeachment isn't because they're owned by AIPAC, it's because conviction needs 67 votes in the Senate and they're not going to get enough GOP votes to reach that. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026They don't know the RNC exists. They think the DNC is the equivalent of the GOP. 0252
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026You do understand that "rule" is the Constitution, right? You're saying it's on Dems to change the Constitution to remove Trump. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Just to be clear, you're blaming Democratic leadership for not eliminating the 2/3rd "rule" to convict in the Senate? 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026It doesn't have to go away completely, but it could at least die back down to the pre-Covid level. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026It's very good. There's a couple more in the series I think. I need to track down more of her work. 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Can't wait to use this knowledge in the the van next time I move. 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Sure, but I'm thinking more of designing a political system to avoid fascism in the long term even if the voting public supports it. "Constitutional safeguards" rather than getting the public to wake up and do the right thing. 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026WTF? This was a deliberate well funded campaign by the right, tied to the alt-right and Trump's first win (and linked to Rowling and rise of TERFism in the UK), not something Democrats did. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Funny, because I remember so many complaints about Dems running on nothing but "Orange Man Bad". 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026They didn't rule on the finding itself, but they didn't have to. I hope we would agree that such a finding could be appealed? That a single state court shouldn't be able to disqualify a President or other federal officials without any review other than a 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress. 100
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026There still has to be a mechanism. By "judicial finding", you're referring to the Colorado case? This would apply only to Trump himself, not to other Congresscritters. The SC ruled that under 14:3 state courts can't declare a candidate ineligible unless an Act of Congress delegates that power. 200
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Nah, they get a carefully cultivated Blue Sky feed. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/202618 USCode §2383, Rebellion or Insurrection The problem is getting the conviction. 000
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026That is the fundamental problem. How do you protect democracy from the voters? 010
aquartermain.bsky.social @aquartermain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026But the opposition party is in the minority. And you can't run a democracy if a minority can oust the other party at will. They did try during Biden's term, but the GOP protected Trump from an impeachment conviction and the Supreme Court protected him from criminal conviction 110
