u/whacko_jacko

Yes, turn off the electronics and do real things in real life. Do things that have purpose and meaning and engage directly with those around you. No, electronic interaction is not a substitute. Time will return to it's proper pace when you stop lying to yourself about how much time you are letting slip by unappreciated. You don't have to do more or less, as long as you stay present in your life.

Using the assumptions you make with Biden, Pelosi, and Harris being arrested the problem with your scenario is that Patrick Leahy will most likely be president pro tempore as Dems will have the majority.

This is incorrect. The selection of the new Senate Pro-Tempore doesn't occur until the end of the month. Grassley is currently expected to remain in this position through January 20th.

There isn't a mechanism that would allow him to be inaugurated on January 20th.

However, consider the following chain of events:

1. Biden/Harris certification (complete). New chain of succession activated under 25th amendment for inauguration.

2. Mass arrests for treason include Biden, Harris, and Pelosi. The crimes would have to be catastrophic and the evidence would have to be unprecedented for this to ever be accepted by the public.

3. The punishment for treason is straightforward so there's no need to discuss.

4. Inauguration falls to third-in-line of new chain of succession, the Senate Pro-Tempore, currently Republican Chuck Grassley, and he will remain in this position through Jan 20th, making him the 46th President of the United States.

5. The VP position is trickier. If this tumultuous sequence of events happened very close to inauguration day, then the Senate would have no time to choose a new VP-elect and Grassley's administration would begin with a vacancy.

6. At this point there is essentially only one Constitutional path to the presidency for Donald Trump prior to Jan 20th, 2025 (with some possible variations of the main mechanism). Grassley could try to nominate Trump as Vice President, but the confirmation process would be impossible given the current political landscape. If things were to change drastically and suddenly in the next week, Trump could theoretically be the Vice President very soon after inauguration and Grassley could then resign, making Trump the 47th President. A more hilarious possibility: he could serve 2 years as Vice President and Grassley could resign on January 21st, 2023, leaving Donald Trump just under 2 years for his second term in office. By the 22nd amendment, this would leave him eligible to run for a third term in 2024. Alternatively, an interim VP could serve until some time has passed and the public and political landscape have shifted to accept the seriousness of Donald Trump's actions in the final days of his first term. When Grassley eventually resigns, his VP assumes the presidency, nominates Trump as VP, and then quickly resigns after confirmation, making Trump the 48th President of the United States.

It's not that simple. Some stuff is definitely on a need-to-know basis and wouldn't be shared with the President without some specific reason, but there is no one with the legal authority to deny information or withhold documents if they are directly requested. That said, the biggest roadblock to disclosure of anything is the buraucracy itself, either through a genuinely sluggish process, which may include national security reviews and redaction requests, or using that excuse as cover to delay or withhold.

Correct, and just a small addition: although 2/3 is required for conviction, the vote to bar from holding future office is only a simple majority. Although we have never gotten to that point, it is very likely that the second vote would pass any time the first vote does.

So, hypothetically, if an election is actually stolen by fraud, then it's authoritarian to fight back? I understand you don't think this election was fraudulent, but you are describing this in completely general terms as if the validity of the fraud claims are immaterial.

You have failed to understand the situation. I am not talking about a replacement for the Office of the Vice President, I am only talking about the role of the Pro-Tempore to fill in for duties presiding over the Senate and sometimes joint sessions Congress.

In the event that the VP is not present (this would include a vacancy), the Senate Pro-Tempore (currently Chuck Grassley) takes on these kinds of duties (whether they are entirely ceremonial or not is beside the point).

We don't see the mirror, but we know generally where to point. Although lasers seem to be focused into a pretty tight stream of photons, there is considerable spread by the time it gets to the moon. A direct hit is not necessary. By the time the signal bounces back, it has spread even more and the receiver is only capturing isolated photons at a predictable average total energy. The same experiment works on areas without a mirror, but the energy of the received signal is different in a predictable way.

They jumped the shark during the 2016 DNC primary elections.

Yes, you're actually totally right about that. Somewhere around 0.02% is a commonly accepted estimate of the true mortality rate for the relatively young and healthy.

Wow. Quite a reaction. Remember that official numbers don't and can't include undiagnosed cases. Many reputable organizations have estimated the true mortality rate to be somewhere in the vicinity of 0.3-0.5%, including the vulnerable, and more like 0.1-0.2% restricting to the young and relatively healthy.

You don't "convert to OCR". It's not a file type, it's a technology to scan hard copy into a machine readable digital format.

Actually, I just replied to the wrong person. It can get a bit confusing when you have to wait 15 minutes between responses. Such a great feature, it totally doesn't promote echo chambers.

No, I understand the documents were typed, but how were they submitted to the courts? If the answer is they printed and submitted hard copies, then OCR would be used to create a digital copy. I understand that directly converting file types wouldn't cause errors like this.

Are we sure these aren't just OCR errors? It would make a certain amount of sense if the original filings were required to be hardcopy. I know people are joking about converting to PDF, but OCR can actually produce some bizarre issues.

You know that "guilty plea" is a legal term which doesn't really have much to do with the actual truth of the matter, right? Innocent people do get convicted sometimes, so it's not always worth the risk to fight to the end at trial where the penalties can be much more severe. Likewise, sometimes people are technically guilty of the letter of the law but not by the spirit of the law, and an aggressive prosecutor can usually find those technicalities if they want to destroy someone.

Well if he really believed he had it in the bag legally speaking, then he wouldn't care about optics anyway because nobody is casting new votes until midterms. It would either be now or in four years.

Your downvotes are almost certainly from TMoR trolls.

(Was at -2 when I wrote this)

Not baking a cake was only for certain people. Not baking a cake was denying somebody a product that another customer could easily buy.

Total nonsense. The whole case boiled down to freedom of expression, and of course the bakery owners eventually won their appeal, as they rightfully should have. They didn't deny the couple service at all. They were welcome to purchase any of their standard wedding cake designs. That wasn't good enough. The couple demanded that the bakery create a custom same-sex wedding cake. That isn't a product or service that the bakery offered, so they were asked to try a different bakery. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Discrimination laws cannot and should not be used to compel speech or artistic expression from anyone else. The law only applies to standard products and services. It's not about ensuring equal access to every whim and desire. I can't compel an artist to paint anything. I can't compel a musician or an author to write anything. Autonomy of expression is fundamental and deserves to be protected.

Read carefully: Not later than

Equivalently, "at the latest", as in, sooner is also possible.

I think this is pretty different from the impeachment situation. Regardless of your beliefs about the merits of the arguments on either side, the formal mechanisms of power behaved pretty much exactly like everyone expected.

Full disclosure, I prefer Trump over Biden by a wide margin, but I really hope it doesn't come down to the Supreme Court making that decision. If Trump does end up with the final certified win, then I really hope that it happens through more mundane mechanisms at the state level. For example, there was a pretty large swing due to a software glitch in Wisconsin just yesterday that cut Biden's lead in half. I've seen explanations that hinge on isolated human error but of course the Trump side is hoping there will turn out to be other examples of this same kind of error in many more counties in other states which use the same voting software. This kind of flip would sting on the left for sure, but I think it would be far easier to accept than any situation where the courts get involved, particularly the Supreme Court.

https://thebl.com/politics/wisconsin-19032-votes-that-had-been-recorded-for-biden-would-be-returned-to-trump.html

No endorsement of the source, I just grabbed something off a search. Feel free to clarify if I have misunderstood the situation.

The Constitution is very clear that the House sets the rules on impeachment, end of story. They could definitely change the rules to allow impeachment of a former president. They could even expunge Trump's impeachment from last year if they can agree on a procedure for it.

I think if it came down to it, Secret Service would come in and over-rule anyone standing between them and this hypothetical incarcerated President-elect.