Trump's America

[yovargas]

Damnit.

[Griffon64]

I just saw the news on Facebook. While I didn't always agree with him, I respected him, which is more than I can say for vast swathes of the Republican Party nowadays.

With news like this I never have anything but clumsy words: I'm so, so sorry to hear about it.

[Inanna]

What Griff said. And Yov.

[Frelga]

Yes, very sad news. His daughter posted a beautiful tribute, and many prominent people expressed their best wishes, including Obama and Hilary Clinton.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I wish John McCain the best. I can't help wondering about his rather bizarre questioning of Comey and is subsequent even more explanation that he was tired after being up late watching a baseball game. I hope that he makes a full recovery, though the diagnosis is very serious.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the previously unreported side meeting that Trump had with Putin at the G20 meeting with no one present other than Putin's translator. Though Trump says the meeting was only 15 minutes long, the person who first reported that the meeting happened said it was more like an hour long. I can't emphasize enough how unusual this is, and how potentially dangerous.

[yovargas]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned...

I think people are getting numb to the constant Russia stuff. It's all very exhausting.

[Primula Baggins]

Yes, that unwitnessed, unrecorded meeting—during which Putin might have threatened Trump with blackmail, and Trump promised anything in return, or simply babbled state secrets because that's how he rolls—that's horrifying.

I'm sorry about Sen. McCain's situation. Based on what I've read about glioblastoma multiforme, his prognosis is grim. If they do chemo and radiation, it's almost certainly palliative, only to increase his comfort and extend his life a little. But they might not.

[Sunsilver]

It's the same cancer that caused Ted Kennedy's death, though he was younger, and they extended his life a bit with surgery and chemo. NOT a good diagnosis at all, especially for an 80 year old man.

[River]

Sad news about McCain and my sympathies to him and his family. The blood clot was spooky enough but that's a nasty diagnosis. I'm not sure how connected it is to his very visible lapse during the Comey hearing, though perhaps that and other unknown symptoms triggered the scan that found the clot.

As for the Trump-Putin thing...I have no idea what to think of that or anything else around the entire affair.

[Frelga]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned...

I think people are getting numb to the constant Russia stuff. It's all very exhausting.

I also don't think it adds anything to what we already know.

[yovargas]

Bye bye, Spicey, we will surely miss you.

[Primula Baggins]

Honestly, I'm going to miss Melissa McCarthy's Spicey impression on Saturday Night Live a lot more.

[Frelga]

Someone tweeted about Scaramucci, "But does he know he'll have to talk about someone else?"

[River]

So at this point, Trump and the Russia affair isn't even politics anymore. Or politics in the sense we usually think about it. It's more like rule of law vs. something else. And it is/was rule of law that makes/made America what it is/was.

[Jude]

Maybe one of the lawyers here can answer the question that Trump has been asking - if it possible for a president to pardon himself?

[Dave_LF]

I'd like to think by the time there's an actual, formal conviction to pardon, he or she wouldn't be president anymore. I'd LIKE to think that.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There doesn't need to be an actual formal conviction to pardon. In an 1866 case call Ex Parte Garland the SCOTUS held that "The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power is not subject to legislative control." That case has never been overturned. So Trump could pardon his son or son-in-law, or Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort, or any of the crew, before they are convicted of a crime, or even before they are ever charged with a crime. Could he pardon himself? I don't think that question has ever been answered, but basically he isn't really indictable for any action that he takes as president, so he would not need to pardon himself, except to keep himself from being impeached, and that is the one action that is not subject to his pardon power. He would not be able to protect Pence from impeachment either, if Pence's actions in colluding with Russia (which I am quite sure he took) ever come out.

[Frelga]

One point being made is that if Trump pardons his associates to protect them from prosecution, they then cannot plead the Fifth when called as witnesses against someone else. Does that sound right, V?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes

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[Alatar]

Did Trump seriously just ban 12000 transgender soldiers? Is that even legal?