OMG that's hilarious. We haven't declared war since WWII. But how many presidents have done just that? Good luck with that argument.
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“I don’t care what that old paper says” -Trump
2/3 of Congress is owned by AIPAC so it wouldn't make a difference anyway.
Ok, so he breaks the law, AGAIN… that’ll be how many times? And how many consequences? And how will he be punished? Who will punish him? Remember, this is an insurrectionist that the administration from 17-21 did not go after because it would have been “taken as political”. So, again, who cares what the law says, because he doesn’t.
Trump has already been impeached twice. What else could they do except attempt to remove him from power, and with what army?
Uh, my point exactly. Mother fucker thinks he’s untouchable because he is. The GOP have kneecapped our democracy to the point that if you are in power, you can do whatever the fuck you want.
Didnt the supreme court decide that a president can do whatever if its an "official act"?
I think that at this point people should settle on the fact that the only consequences Trump will ever face is in a history book 30 years after WW3/Civil War 2.
Well except in the Reconstruction States because there will be a number of lies that will endure forever, similar to the Lost Cause and Stabbed in the Back myths.
I mean, the Constitution of the United States is also very clear the fucker wasn't eligible to BE President again, but we all seem to have just shimmied right past that as well.
Do you mean because of the insurrection? I think there's something in that part about Congress needing to do something too, so Congress dropped the ball on that.
The DoJ was a big help too
Congress has been shirking their responsibility to declare wars since the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. They gave Presidents the power to carry out military actions abroad without a formal declaration. By passing the responsibility on to the president, Congress gets to avoid the blame for unpopular wars.
Even the Vietnam "War" which lasted 10 years, was never declared by Congress.
You know, that technically, when he violated his oath of office the first time, he resigned from his position. Once you violate your oath of office you no longer hold that office. You can do whatever you want to him, worse case scenario you have to wait for a pardon
Yeah but these laws are only meaningful if they’re enforced
I asked Merrick Garland if Trump had done anything wrong and he just shrugged and said "There's no way for us to know for sure so we didn't want to take any chances by pressing charges."
Four years later, I feel like he made the right call. Imagine if the Biden DOJ had actually tried to press charges on Trump. Just imagine... I think we can all agree that their prudence and restraint really helped the US dodge a bullet.
I've never looked at it from that perspective. Now that I've tried, my nose and ears are bleeding, so that's gotta be a good thing, right?
Meaningful laws for thee, laughable pretense for me
I wish the law worked that way, but there is no technicality that violating an oath of office triggers a resignation. Resignation is resignation.
If anything, the interpretation of "official acts" by the Supreme Court explicitly shields him. He cannot be held legally responsible for any decision carried out as president, which is terrifying.
Bernie should be aware of the war powers act. It's one of the worse pieces of legislation ever, but it makes the whole declare war thing largely meaningless.
The act gives a president the ability to perform military actions provided Congress is notified within 48 hours of the action happening. Then the president gets a free 60 days to do whatever without additional approval. Then there's a further 30 days where forces should be withdrawing if there is no further congressional approval. However, that timeline doesn't really matter, as the Supreme Court ruled under Clinton that of troops are gone by the time the case gets to them then it doesn't really matter that the law was violated.
He should also be aware of this legislation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_of_2001
... since he voted for it.
It allows military actions against any country that harbours al Qaeda... and Iran does harbour al Qaeda along with any terrorist group that aligns with their "death to Israel / America" dogma.
I also like the American Servicemembers Protection Act, which is a 2002 federal law that basically says, "if you try to charge any U.S. soldier or official for a war crime in the International Criminal Court, we will invade the Netherlands."
Can we not pretend like this hasn’t happened numerous times in the past. The US hasn’t been in a war since WW2 and yet somehow we keep ending up killing people in other countries.
"It's illegal"
Someone remind him that the supreme court has judged that the usa president can do any crime willy nilly
Remember Vietnam?
The president has the power to deploy the military even without a declaration
Yeah unfortunately that is not actually the way the law is written Bernie. Wish it was.
Short version, the president gets to deploy the military where ever he wishes (outside the US, posse comitatus etc). That includes invading a sovereign nation or raining missiles down on one.
Only congress has the power to declare a war, but the Potus gets to defacto kick off the war and then dare congress not to back him.
After it was either 60 or 90 days, I forget, congress gets to "review" the decision, the problem is they have no power other than financial if they wish to stop the war. So the only thing they can do is turn off the finances to the military, and wait for the money to run out - which is generally up to a year. They have no way of forcing the president to desist other than impeachment or cutting off the funds.
They can pass a motion, or even legislation, which the Prez can then veto, pointless. If they can muster the 2/3rds of congress they can remove him via impeachment.
Edit, spelling correction and to note that I can pull out the full details if needed - was discussed heavily on reddit a while ago
This is how we ended up with the Iran-Contra Scandal. The Reagan administration wanted to fight the growing communist forces in Nicaragua, but Congress forbid them, and denied them funding.
They decided to find the money by selling highly inflated arms to our bitterest enemy at the time, IRAN, only a few short years after they had held our Embassy officials hostage for over a year.
They took the profits of those illegal arms sales, and used it to finance their illegal war on Central America.
So these traitors don't even take no for an answer when Congress shuts off the money tap.
What congress can do is refuse to pay for the war/police action. They still need to write the checks. Wars don't last long with out money.
Actually, the constitution IS ambiguous in how it defines war. If it weren't so ambiguous, presidents wouldn't be able to take advantage of the War Powers Act so easily - as they have done for decades.
The US hasn't declared war since WWII despite both red and blue presidents dropping untold bombs since then. The hubbub about Trump unilaterally carrying out "military action" is less about scary orange man, and more about an executive branch that has been concentrating power for decades under red and blue presidents alike. This, like many other things, is something that leftists have been sounding alarm bells about for ages.
Stop elevating the Constitution. It is an extremely weak, vague, and antiquated document that was written almost exclusively by 20 something, white, enslaving, landowing white males. I know of no other constitution that explicitly enshrines the right to enslave people. The US constitution is an embarrassment, and its no surprise its getting torn to shreds once the first unabashedly fascist shows up.
Are the generals going to refuse his orders? Is the legislative going to impeach him? Is anyone in American government going to do the job their very roles exist to do within the framework of power? What happens if he does? What's been happening as he violates the constitution, daily? When he violates the rights protected, seemingly, by nothing but a sheet of fucking parchment?
Whose going to stop him when he tries?
The constitution means nothing. Trump wipes his ass with it and there’s no consequences
If they haven’t noticed. Trump does whatever the fuck he wants. If he ignores the ruling of courts, do they think he will read a post on X and be like “oh shit, you’re right.” No, posts on X are fucking useless. He will ignore congress like he does everything else. His ego is severely damaged after the little parade and leaders not worshipping him at G7. He is realizing his place in the food chain and looking for a win to boost his ego.
That's not a war ! That's a 3 days military special operation !
-Russian Trump alter ego
This is literally the argument behind our indefinite occupation of South Korea. We've been doing a limited policing action for over 70 years. And every two years, the Congress gets a chance to vote on the NDAA that authorizes us to continue deploying troops over there. Every two years, Congress gives it a big old rubber stamp.
Same with the Philippines. Same with Thailand. Same with Cuba. Same with Iraq. Same with... well... easier to just show the picture.
Come on it is not a war, but a special military operation....
A "Police Action."
Went thru the same shit with Bush 20 years ago.
Indeed. Congress had 20 years to put up some guard rails, but didn't.
Diaper Don gonna order brown people to get bombed so he 'looks like a tough man".
Fuck that guy and everyone who voted for him. Or chose not to vote. Fuck you even more.
There are 0 rules that explicitly state they apply to the rich (enough)
I mean I'm not sure what to say to anyone that still thinks the Constitution is something the United States actually adheres to.
It's null and void the minute it gets violated at the highest levels of government with no repercussions and we've already crossed that line multiple times.
The Constitution is not valid anymore. The first step is to accept that fact. We're not going to get anywhere endlessly debating a document that isn't taken seriously by the ones capable of enforcing its mandates.