[ExI] Meta question

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark



 

​>… why did we get a trumpian candidate this year? I don't think it was genes I think it was just a unusual confluence of circumstances… John K Clark ​

 

 

John you missed one which is probably far more significant than any of these other factors.  Read on please.

 

Back in early summer of 2015, Clinton already had the nomination completely sewed up.  No one outside his immediate family had ever heard of Bernie Sanders; there was no credible opposition within the party and the likely Republican was the unpopular Jeb Bush.  You can check the archives on the left wing sites and find people suggesting the best approach for lifelong Democrats would be to register as Republicans and vote in the primaries for the most easily-beaten Republican candidate or the candidate most likely to discredit, divide and destroy the Republican party.  This is a technique which would make Saul Alinsky proud.  The strategy succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, accomplishing all these goals, creating record numbers of new “Republican” registrations, particularly in those states with closed primaries.  

 

However… their own candidate who they already had decided had such a solid lock on the nomination did the same to her own party as her crimes came to light.  Oooops, that wasn’t in the script.  

 

The email will not stop leaking, not now, not in November, not in December or January.  The wrecking ball does not stop bashing away, long after the November election, for the prosecution then goes over to the senate, at which time there is no executive branch cover.

 

Of course, all this will weaken the executive branch and Federal level government in general but there may be a dark lining to that silver cloud.  There might be unforeseen negative consequences.  

 

Americans may get to find out the answers to a bunch of interesting and scary legal questions, such as… 

 

What are the limits of presidential pardons?  

 

What happens if crimes are uncovered after the election but were committed before?  

 

Does election count as a voter-level pardon of sorts?  

 

If so, what about the crimes the voters didn’t know about until after the election?  

 

If the voters were not given access to the evidence, is the defacto pardon valid or was it to start with?  

 

What if there is an impeachment trial and it splits down party lines as it did last time we had an impeachment trial, but there is plenty of evidence to convict?  

 

Are all congress members who vote with the questionably-acquitted official guilty of aiding and abetting?  

 

If the senate anticipates a party-line vote and also anticipates losing their current majority, can the current senate vote to impeach an elected official who has not yet been sworn into office?  

 

And if that happens, does Tim Caine become the 45 president?  

 

If the election is close and it is clear enough that the withholding from the voters of the evidence the FBI currently possesses is widely viewed to have tipped the election, does Tim Caine or does the narrowly defeated Trump get to be president?  

 

Does the constitution offer guidance in any of these questions?  

 

If not, cannot the Federal legislature proceed without ruling on any of it by the Supreme Court?  

 

And if they do, does the court then get the option to reverse the result handed down by the legislature?

 

Or does the law change and the legislative result stand by ex post facto?

 

Or is the legislature tasked with passing its own laws to limit its own power?  (Oy, ponder that one please.)  

 

If so, is not this a most unique constitutional crisis in American history, where all three branches of government get to play?  

 

Is it now perfectly clear why the framers of the constitution would not have unanimously disapproved of the Executive branch controlling the nukes?  

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

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