Context: Trump's lawyers are in front of the Supreme Court arguing that presidents cannot be prosecuted for any crimes they commit while in office.

Who knows how the Calvinball refs will decide this one, but if they go Trump's way, Biden has literally no excuse not to assassinate his political rivals.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
    hexbear
    70
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I finally heard ONE fucknut on cable tv mention that Obama had American citizens murdered by drone strike and didn't face legal consequences

    seems like a precedent to me, if the dems were serious they would just shoot down trump's plane next time he's in it and claim it was mechanical failure

    • PKMKII [none/use name]
      hexbear
      48
      2 months ago

      They had it on good evidence that Hamas was hiding in the basement of Mar-a-Lago

    • edge [he/him]
      hexbear
      30
      2 months ago

      Killing him might lead to a backlash worse than him getting elected again.

      I think I'm only exaggerating a little bit in saying it might cause a civil war.

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        hexbear
        44
        2 months ago

        If they believe he will become a dictator (the trick here is I don't think they do) then there would need to be some kind of resistance and civil war in response, right? So kill the future dictator and deal with the possible civil war while you're officially in charge of the nation.

        this is all just sophistry, the ones in power don't think he'll be a dictator they just think that's what the rubes need to hear

      • @Sons_of_Ferrix
        hexbear
        13
        2 months ago

        Oh now Jan 6th on a slightly bigger scale? How will we survive the hordes of guys dressed as Vikings and car dealership owners tasing themselves in the balls??? How can a modern military with automatic weapons and drones handle such a elite fighting force!?!?

        • Pentacat [he/him]
          hexbear
          4
          2 months ago

          Don’t forget all the meth induced heart attacks.

      • BigHaas [he/him]
        hexbear
        10
        2 months ago

        What would that even look like, rural areas attacking urban? The military would remain loyal to the Dems

        • barrbaric [he/him]
          hexbear
          14
          2 months ago

          A huge spike in stochastic terrorism including reprisal assassinations of local dems, random mass shootings, and lynchings.

          • @Sons_of_Ferrix
            hexbear
            9
            2 months ago

            They already tried something like this once and it was such a pathetic joke that a neurotic podcaster and a ballerina made a mediocre board game out of it.

        • edge [he/him]
          hexbear
          5
          2 months ago

          The military would remain loyal to the Dems

          lmao half the military are Trump loving chuds.

            • edge [he/him]
              hexbear
              2
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              Even 37% of active duty soldiers isn’t nothing. They’d be at a disadvantage, but it’s still possible they’d try. Also the guns per capita among civilian Trump supporters would be a factor. And police especially. They’re basically small militaries at this point anyway.

              But I guess the biggest factor to whether a civil war would happen is the reaction of the state governments. Good chance Abbott would be pretty pissed and kind of feel threatened. And probably other Southern state governments.

              We’re talking about assassination of a major political rival who is the lead figure of the Republican Party and has a rabid support base, they wouldn’t take that lying down.

              Edit: those numbers are also from 2020. In general Biden is down and Trump is up from then, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was true in the military. Plus a good chunk of neutral troops would probably have loyalty to their state.

              • @Sons_of_Ferrix
                hexbear
                1
                2 months ago

                Also the guns per capita among civilian Trump supporters would be a factor.

                Jan 6 made me way less concerned about that.

                Red State govs going rogue and the police with them is more of a legit concern.

          • @DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
            hexbear
            8
            2 months ago

            It's the leadership that matters, not the rank and file soldiers. The leadership will side with whomever signs their paychecks.

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      hexbear
      28
      2 months ago

      Biden should claim his team likes playing with live grenades and suggest maybe one of them went off by accident.

    • glans [it/its]
      hexbear
      26
      2 months ago

      Did anyone try to charge Obama?

      Just because he could have been charged but wasn't, doesn't make it precedent. Its only precedent if it proceeds to court and there is a finding.

      • barrbaric [he/him]
        hexbear
        20
        2 months ago

        Look even if it's illegal, Trump is going to destroy our democracy so I'm going to have to ask Joe Brandon to take one for the team and risk going to jail for assassinating him with a drone.

      • CTHlurker [he/him]
        hexbear
        11
        2 months ago

        https://www.aclu.org/cases/al-aulaqi-v-panetta-constitutional-challenge-killing-three-us-citizens

        The Awlaki family sued Leon Panetta for his involvement in the killing of both Anwar (the father suspected of being an Al-qaeda leader in Yemen) and Abdulrahman (the 17-year old American citizen and son of Anwar)

        The judge more or less found that there is nothing in American constituional law that prevents the president from declaring people to be terorrist and then killing them, even if they're American citizens, minors, or located in a country that isn't at war with the US