There’s nothing that says Presidential Pardons need to be in writing. Biden just had to direct the right people to offer a pardon to an individual which can then be accepted or declined. That can be verbal, electronically communicated, or in writing, but a signature from the President is just a formality and definitely not required, so the autopen/esign argument is a totally dead argument.
Just more criminal conduct from the felon in chief.
Failure? This is consequence.
Canada, this guy ain’t gonna learn until you burn it down a second time.
About half the seated Democrats right now need to be primaried hard. How did we have a more coordinated opposition party during Trump’s first term? It’s worse this time around and they are showing absolutely no will to fight.
Instead of frittering away the last few months of his presidential term, Biden should have just resigned and allowed Harris to take over his role. She could have pivoted way to the left without having to undermine Biden’s agenda and that would have really sent a clearer message to the democratic base.
Of course Ukraine has the right to defend itself, nobody is saying otherwise.
Article headline: “Ukraine Must Cede Territory in Any Peace Deal, Rubio Says”
Can’t exactly defend yourself when the people trying to broker peace on your behalf are forcing you to capitulate.
I dont know why you need a comparison in the first place.
Evidently, there are a LOT of people who don’t seem to understand just why the deal was so bad to begin with. Not you, of course, but some other comments in these Ukraine threads are either woefully uninformed or intentionally being obtuse about acknowledging facts.
And sorry about it being a series of Amerocentric examples, especially here in World News where it’s probably a bit taboo or tone deaf, but suffice to say it seems like the primary culprit behind much the willful ignorance are Americans with a narrow understanding of foreign affairs. I’m also just sticking to what I know so I don’t embarrass myself with my terrible geography.
You’re looking too far into the details. The value of the territory is irrelevant for this hypothetical scenario. But I’ve been catching a lot of flak in the comments for it, so you know what? I’ll humor you, let’s change the formula.
Let’s say tomorrow, Russia announces that because they feel that they were cheated in 1867, they are refusing to recognize the sale of the Alaska territory to the United States and are reestablishing their control over the land as it’s sole owner. They send an invasion force and they capture the land in a swift blitzkrieg-style assault, the United States is caught completely by surprise.
Now, the United States fights, but we can’t really conduct ground operations without the support of Canada. They are our not just our neighbors, but our staunchest allies in this fight. However, a new Prime Minister is sworn in and they suddenly decide to take a massive shift in foreign policy, and try to broker a “peace deal” between Russia and the USA in which we agree to sign over the rights to future drilling operations to Canada in exchange for a ceasefire from Russia, but Russia gets to keep Alaska since they occupy it now anyway. Refusal means Canada pulls their support, forbids US soldiers from operating in Canadian waters or on Canadian soil, and conducting operations in the occupied Alaskan territory becomes virtually impossible. And, let’s not forget, no security agreements even if we do sign the agreement. So, if Russia decides to attack Hawaii or California next, nobody will be compelled to aid us.
Is that a better comparison? Alaska has massive economic and strategic value, so there’s a good reason for Russia to want it. They’ve been regretting ever selling it to us in the first place.
It’s a hypothetical scenario. I could think of some better examples if you really wanted, but that’s the most salient one I could think of off of the top of my head, because you know if the United States was attacked, we would expect the international community to fall behind our right to defend ourselves from any and all threats to our sovereignty.
I don’t see why things should be any different when considering Ukraine’s position.
I’m sure if you go far enough back in time you could say that anyone in control of any particular swathe of land stole it from somebody else. Past wrongs committed are not a valid casus belli for modern wars of aggression or land grabs.
Regardless, your contrarianism doesn’t change the fact that Mexico surrendered that territory to us after the Mexican-American war. Legally, it belongs to the United States after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which redrew the border based on the path of the Rio Grande.
With Ukraine failing to take back their occupied territory, but striking at Russian soil and taking some for themselves to use as a bargaining chip. I’d say it’s a dead stalemate right now,
Because they’re losing and a part of losing in a war is making concessions to the winner.
I’ve been hearing the line that Ukraine is losing for three years now. Pretty sure if Russia could win this conflict, they would have done so already.
Imagine a hypothetical scenario in which Mexico invades the United States, takes complete control over the state of New Mexico, and right in the middle of the conflict Great Britain says “the war needs to end”, drafts a ceasefire proposal that allows them take control of half of the country’s natural resources, and offers no security guarantees in the event that Mexico decides to attack again. If you refuse, the British will stop sending military aid to help you continue fighting. Oh, and Mexico gets to keep New Mexico.
Who in their right fucking mind thinks that this is a good deal? Any sensible person would rather continue fighting than give up their advantage for some flimsy ceasefire that won’t stand up to an invader hellbent on conquest.
Those people are, sadly, too shortsighted to realize that they can’t have their cake and eat it too. They want domestic manufacturing back, but they turn around and buy cheap Chinese shit from Walmart for a fraction of what it would cost if all manufacturing were here instead. Those two things are pretty much mutually exclusive.
If it came between Trump getting his way or big business getting their way, I’m betting on the big box retailers lobbying to stop Trump from doing anything that might dig into their profits. Rich folk aren’t ideologues, they’re just greedy assholes.
“Describe your favorite island vacation,”
You know that island they exiled Napoleon to? Is it still suitable to leave a certain billionaire there for an indefinite amount of time, or is it a major tourist destination now? Asking for a friend.
Man who doesn’t drive buys fascist car to show solidarity with worlds richest man.
If he were stupid he would not be the richest man in the world
No, stop.
You are conflating wealth with intelligence.
Do you know how easy it is to have money multiply itself in high enough quantities? It’s hard to overstate just how difficult it would be to have the wealth of Elon Musk and somehow not make money. You would have to make several multi-million dollar bad investments per day for decades, and even then, you’re still not likely to run out of cash any time soon. If Elon Musk did absolutely nothing for the rest of his life (and god, we could only hope) the interest and dividends his wealth passively generates for him would be enough for all of his children and grandchildren to live lavishly luxurious lives.
Elon is not a genius. He’s actually a complete fucking moron who got very, very lucky and has excellent timing. If it were not for the success of PayPal in the early dotcom days, we would never have heard from this guy again.
I’d prefer his version of events, honestly. Why do these fuckers ever get a moment of peace? Life should be made as difficult as possible for them, for every facet that we still have control over.
We need to go back.
Nothing. I can see the future and I see what everybody is refusing to believe - Trump will not be gone in 4 years. Congress can’t hold him to account (because half of them are collaborators) and the court’s orders can’t be enforced. Best we’ll get is a stern tut-tut from Democrats while more and more rights will slip away at an alarming pace. Sure, the constitution SAYS you have the right to certain things, but if Trump violates those rights by ordering people below him to carry out unconstitutional acts, who will come save you? Not congress, not the judiciary, not the SCOTUS, not the police, not the military.
We’re fucked. It’s over.