The Senate needs 2/3rds of those present. It is not 2/3rds of the membership. They have to appear if they want to protect him.
6,731 karma · joined September 8, 2014
The Senate has sole power over impeachment trials. The trial and conviction vote have no quorum requirement. Republicans will have to show up and vote to acquit, explicitly, to protect Trump.
The law is clear, upon conviction the president is removed from power. The only power any person has is the power people voluntarily give to him. He can also throw poop if so inclined, he's plenty full of it.
But if not one thing is yielded to him, if without any violence he is simply not obeyed, he becomes naked and undone and nothing, just as when the root receives no nourishment, the branch withers and dies. - Étienne de La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude: Why People Enslave Themselves to Authority
https://bsky.app/profile/judgeluttig.bsky.social/post/3lmsxj...
What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. The prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentrat...
It would require a simple majority vote. That's all.
The power of the purse can be taken back by Congress. It can reorganize the committees and resume investigations and oversight where there has been none.
Trump hasn't asked Bukele to release Garcia, therefore hasn't facilitated Garcia's release per a SCOTUS and district court order.
Trump tells Bukele he intends to send U.S. citizens.
https://bsky.app/profile/titonka.bsky.social/post/3lmrwi4hwv...
People need to clearly understand: The U.S is paying a dictator to operate concentration camps outside the U.S. and is asserting in public and at court that courts can do nothing about it.
Ignoring this and hoping it goes away is how it is getting worse. And it will get much worse still.
https://bsky.app/profile/jacobtlevy.bsky.social/post/3lmryxf...
There is no sin except stupidity. - Oscar Wilde
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S. Thompson
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. - Dietrich Bonhöffer
Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him? - Obi Wan Kenobi
These guys are untrustworthy liars. I assume there are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of carve outs for the tariffs, based on bribing the POTUS or approved affiliates. - Me, 10 days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43561464
There will be reprisals lasting a generation. These stupid fucks will insist calling them stupid is unfair. I expect some of them will become violent. We've seen it before. The long live the Confederacy, and Lost Cause Myth assholes are really no different. They come out of the woodwork when we coddle stupidity, the constant bigotry of low expectations.
If non-citizen have been human trafficked without due process, what additional protection against it is provided to citizens? Where is that stated?
John Adams said the Constitution is intended for a moral (or virtuous) people. It's just a piece of paper. People have to support and defend it in order for the republic, an empire of laws, to persist.
We may be out of virtue, and maybe we don't deserve Constitutional order.
Enough people voted for an untrustworthy liar and a psychopath to be president. And the consequences will continue until he's removed from office.
There is no bottom for him. And probably no bottom for this Congress. In any case, this presidency is going to be very expensive for everyone.
The government has consistently failed to provide any evidence of its assertions in this case. And fired one of its lawyers in this case, and his manager, for telling the court the truth.
I expect the DOJ intends to disobey the lower court until the end. And will eventually claim Garcia has died in order to render the case moot.
If the government can't be compelled to produce Garcia on U.S. soil while alive, why trust whatever evidence it provides that he has died?
The government admits to an aggregiously derelict mistake in this case, itself ignoring the order of a lower court. And now claim they can't or won't ask the autocracy they're paying to run prisons abroad for basic information on the whereabouts of a prisoner the government transferred there.
Also various reports:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/04/10/supreme-court-rules-...
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/10/supreme-court-trump...
"Alright, I think people knew of the tariff pause and traded it beforehand ... "
That led them to think it's all just a game for gamesmanship to figure him out. May the best gamer win!
But now they're wondering if he's nuts.
Neither Jan 6, nor ordering the national security apparatus to investigate how to annex Greenland were insane enough for them. But whoo boy double digit tariffs threatening people's reputations and wealth? That's crazy!
Now that there's a 90 day pause, they'll all say, see he's not insane after all! He really does get it! We don't look like complete idiots! Genius!
But it's also a political question (this means the Court probably won't get involved, not that the question is normal politics) because the only way to end such an obvious travesty is to impeach, convict, and remove from office.
To whatever degree the Congress can't do that, impugns the Congress who all take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not a leader.
To whatever degree people continue to elect those who support and defend a cult instead of the Constitution? They have given in to passion, and can't be reasoned with. Why argue with irrational people?
People keep asking where is the bottom with this movement? When does Trump go too far for them? There isn't.
We're asking an OK question but we're not asking ourselves. We keep deferring to addicts to tell us when they're ready for rehab.
And that's not going to work.
And voila, democracy sucks, move to monarchy, just like the Vance Thiel Sacks Musk Yarvin fan club want.
We had to get rid of the Congress because it wouldn't take action! We had no choice but to empower a single strong leader who would do what needed to be done!
This is a trap. We're in hybrid warfare. Putin must be chortling Sovietly.
Even if a country makes a deal, like USMCA - his deal - why won't he complain about it again in a month or a year and just reneg on the whole thing? This is the problem with untrustworthy liars.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5236599-thune-trump-tari...
Believe it. With polls like this, no chance of a vote to overrule the president on tariffs. He said he was going to do this. It was central to his campaign. The single most repeated thing he promised were big tariffs.
The Congress legally can revoke delegation of its tariff/tax power. But the political cost is too high. The tariffs will stick no matter what until the 2026 election. There is no chance 2/3rds of the House overrides a presidential veto.
The Government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law. That a majority of this Court now rewards the Government for its behavior with discretionary equitable relief is indefensible. We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this. I respectfully dissent.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/05/doj-...
Article I §8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises
There's no question the founders did not want tax and spend power in the executive branch, that was what kings did, and led to war and tyranny.
Congress wrongly delegated the power ostensibly to enable the president to have trade negotiation leverage, and for emergencies.
This is plainly abuse of power. Congress needs to do its job.
The tariffs are not bringing a dime into the country at all. The tariffs are paid by import distributors, increasing the cost to the merchants, and paid by the consumer. Trump is lying, per usual.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1142935810188...
"Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?" Obi Wan Kenobi
We are getting exactly what he said he was going to do. Elect an abuser, get abused. And the world is going to move on without the U.S.
Trump uses tariffs to consolidate his power. He will reduce them to reward fealty and bribes made to him personally. And as punishment for his enemies. It's the same with his attacks against institutions, law firms, universities, and states governments. Worship him, and get rewarded. Refuse, and be punished. Just like how he runs his business.
Tariffs reduce American spending abroad, leaves less dollars exported abroad, means less excess dollars for foreign governments to spend on U.S. treasury securities funding our budget. Unless interest rates go up. But Trump has said he wants lower rates immediately, and will eventually fire Powell to get there.
This is akin to an American Brexit. Our 401k's will have flat growth for our lifetimes, so I expect they will make the case of privatizing Social Security again. Redirecting payroll taxes will help existing 401k holders, so I assume most will approve or at least hold their nose. What's the alternative?
Meanwhile the U.S. government is threatening allies with annexation, and that they arm themselves with American made arms. It's just not a serious country.
The country elected an untrustworthy liar. Yesterday's millions of peacefully assembled could not be bothered to do so prior to the election when it might have mattered - as a society we are enamored with inconsequential social media protests over elections that matter.
John Adams told us the Constitution only works for a moral people. But we seem out of virtue. He also said republics are empires of laws, not of men. And we're unwinding that paradigm too.
The easy path was the election. All of the other options are significantly more difficult.
Removing Trump from office is a good idea, but sadly it also just promotes the next diarchy: Thiel-Vance.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c
So many screws that we should have human American workers installing screws in iPhones? And this is how we make American workers wealthier?
They think we're stupid or they want us to be stupid. This isn't an economic policy. It's a way to reward fealty and punish disloyalty, to a specific person.