• donuts@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Just because he wasn’t charged with treason doesn’t mean he didn’t commit treason by advocating an armed insurrection against our democracy. (See: the US post-Civil War Reconstruction Era for further examples.)

      And if you want to why he wasn’t charged for that, it’s because of Republican Special Counsel Ken Starr’s disastrous opinion that sitting presidents are above the law and can’t be prosecuted, and must instead be impeached–which, if you remember, Trump was, not once but twice. Of course now Trump is arguing that he’s still above the law and deserves “total immunity”, which only further shows that he is, in fact, a wanna-be dictator.

      Saying “Trump wasn’t charged with a crime so therefore he did nothing wrong” and “Trump can’t be charged with a crime because current and former US Presidents must have total immunity from prosecution” is very clearly circular logic.

      • rug_burn@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Well, you should probably elect better representation if you feel he committed treason by telling people to peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard, and that super treasonous decree telling everyone to go home. Considering not even AOC or Ilhan Omar brought up charges of treason, gonna go ahead and guess that there’s literally zero evidence, let alone reason to even try, but you seem to know more than they do. Also, for a dictator, he did a pretty piss poor job of remaining in power. Also pretty sure Ken Starr never stated sitting presidents are above the law, we do still have the impeachment process, which you also brought up. Yes, he was impeached (brought up on charges) by a liberal house, but was subsequently acquitted (found not guilty) by a conservative senate.

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Oh, he didn’t need to be charged; it’s been ruled that he fomented an insurrection in the Courts, and that’s treason. Now that gets kicked up to SCOTUS for review, but here’s where you’re in trouble: if any higher Court including the SCOTUS wants to overturn that ruling, they’re going to have to show their work as to why, and they can’t, because it’s simple fact as shown by the video evidence of the day and sworn testimony by everyone who didn’t hide behind the Fifth Amendment.

      Now. I don’t expect you to accept any of that, but it’s dangerous to go alone, so take this block. It won’t help you, but much like everyone you’ve ever cared for I’ll be happy never thinking about you again. Okay okay, that was excessive; I didn’t really mean it. I’m sorry.

      • rug_burn@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Pinpoint exactly how he tried to remain in power. The peaceful transition of power occurred on 1/20/21 as scheduled, nary a violent incident to be found. Your zeal to see a man you disagree with destroyed, being fed by pure idiots as well as some who have far more nefarious intentions, is undeniable. Reams of documents and thousands of hours of video evidence still haven’t surfaced. Yet they keep feeding you lie after lie. If such evidence existed, it would be plastered all over the news, and I would stand beside you to throw him in prison.

        On a different topic, but one that’s more in line with the meme posted that started all this, do you agree that Biden should be impeached and put in prison for what remains of his life for the documents he was in no way legally allowed to take possession of after his time as vice president, nor were they secured in any way, shape or form? Or do you agree with AG Garland that he’s unfit to stand trial?

        • voracitude@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Huh. I can’t seem to block you from this instance; I don’t know if that’s a lemmy.world problem or a sh.itjust.works problem. Ah well, since we’re still here: https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/12/23SA300.pdf

          • A large group of people forcibly entered the Capitol, overwhelming law enforcement officers on site.
          • The mob was armed with a wide array of weapons, including metal bars from police barricades and officers’ batons and riot shields.
          • The mob violently assaulted police officers throughout the day, using actual and threatened force.
          • The mob coordinated and demonstrated unity of purpose, marching through the Capitol, chanting threats against members of Congress and Vice President Pence.
          • Upon breaching the Capitol, the mob pursued its intended target—the certification of the presidential election—reaching the House and Senate chambers within minutes.
          • The mob’s unified purpose was to hinder or prevent Congress from counting the electoral votes and certifying the 2020 presidential election, effectively halting the electoral certification process.

          The transfer of power happened in spite of Trump, not because he didn’t make the attempt. Rebut the Court, not me. But this would require you to read, which I know you won’t do, and argue in good faith, which you aren’t and won’t.

          As to your second topic: Of course, as long as you’ll agree that whatever sentence Biden gets Trump also gets but to greater scale, to reflect the difference in both the number and sensitivity of the documents retained. See, that’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans: we’re willing to hold our leaders to account and we expect them to be subject to the same laws the rest of us are.

          • rug_burn@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Sure a bunch of fuckwits did some dumb shit, and quite a few did some really bad shit. For all of them, I fully support throwing the book at them. However, there is zero proof that Trump is culpable in it.

            If you really want to block me but can’t, I’ll go ahead and stop engaging you. I fully respect your wishes and I’m truly sorry if whatever I said somehow caused you grief. I wish the best for you and hope that someday you’ll look back on this conversation objectively, and not through a lens polarized by political beliefs.

            • voracitude@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Read the ruling I linked and all the cited case law in it. Here’s some relevant portions:

              The question thus becomes whether the evidence before the district court sufficiently established that the events of January 6 constituted a concerted and public use of force or threat of force by a group of people to hinder or prevent the U.S. government from taking the actions necessary to accomplish the peaceful transfer of power in this country. We have little difficulty concluding that substantial evidence in the record supported each of these elements and that, as the district court found, the events of January 6 constituted an insurrection.

              It is undisputed that a large group of people forcibly entered the Capitol and that this action was so formidable that the law enforcement officers onsite could not control it. Moreover, contrary to President Trump’s assertion that no evidence in the record showed that the mob was armed with deadly weapons or that it attacked law enforcement officers in a manner consistent with a violent insurrection, the district court found—and millions of people saw on live television, recordings of which were introduced into evidence in this case—that the mob was armed with a wide array of weapons. The court also found that many in the mob stole objects from the Capitol’s premises or from law enforcement officers to use as weapons, including metal bars from the police barricades and officers’ batons and riot shields and that throughout the day, the mob repeatedly and violently assaulted police officers who were trying to defend the Capitol. The fact that actual and threatened force was used that day cannot reasonably be denied.

              Substantial evidence in the record further established that this use of force was concerted and public. As the district court found, with ample record support, “The mob was coordinated and demonstrated a unity of purpose . . . . They marched through the [Capitol] building chanting in a manner that made clear they were seeking to inflict violence against members of Congress and Vice President Pence.” And upon breaching the Capitol, the mob immediately pursued its intended target—the certification of the presidential election—and reached the House and Senate chambers within minutes of entering the building.

              Finally, substantial evidence in the record showed that the mob’s unified purpose was to hinder or prevent Congress from counting the electoral votes as required by the Twelfth Amendment and from certifying the 2020 presidential election; that is, to preclude Congress from taking the actions necessary to accomplish a peaceful transfer of power. As noted above, soon after breaching the Capitol, the mob reached the House and Senate chambers, where the certification process was ongoing. Id. This breach caused both the House and the Senate to adjourn, halting the electoral certification process. In addition, much of the mob’s ire—which included threats of physical violence—was directed at Vice President Pence, who, in his role as President of the Senate, was constitutionally tasked with carrying out the electoral count.

              If you want the links and citations, they’re in the PDF; the text is largely unedited, I just removed paragraph markers and numbering. But you’re not sorry, and you don’t respect anyone. You’ll deny and deflect and trot out any meaningless tripe in response to actual evidence, because you don’t want to live in this reality. That’s why I don’t want to engage with you anymore. The best you’ve got is a “nuh-uh 🤡”. Good luck with that, and good day.

              • rug_burn@sh.itjust.works
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                10 months ago

                I’ve read the “relevant portions”, however, in them I still fail to see how Trump himself is implicated. It would be the same if I were to imply that the BLM riots in Minneapolis during 2020 were instigated by Maxine Waters. I’m not, as each individual chooses to riot, and implying that Waters, even with her rhetoric, is not the one at fault for the riot in Minneapolis, just as Trump is not responsible for the riot in DC. You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust a ruling handed down by a court that’s sympathetic to Trump’s opposition.

                I’m more than happy to engage in a civil discussion about this, and any other issues, but from all sides, there’s no “there” there when it comes to Trump as a traitor or insurrectionist. Simply a man who was upset about losing an election and the refusal of states to investigate into abnormalities, real OR imagined by the Trump campaign. If he truly was a dictator, he would have refused to leave on 1/20. He didn’t. The peaceful transfer of power occurred like it has throughout our history. The lack of charges of treason and/or insurrection by now, especially with the different factions within both the democrat AND republican parties makes that quite clear - there’s no evidence of such.

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          10 months ago

          Pinpoint exactly how he tried to remain in power.

          He tried to get a mob to murder his own vice president.

          We were there. It was not too long ago. We remember.

          The fact that he’s crap at seizing power doesn’t mean he should get away with it. In fact, guess what usually happens to failed golpistas.