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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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Now that Trump has ignored the order of a judge to unfreeze the funds he is withholding comes the first constitutional crisis. This is where checks and balances should kick in. If he brazenly defies the courts then Congress can take action against him by impeachment and removal. Hopefully.

  • -24

The Democrats in Congress don't have the votes to impeach him though, so that indeed creates the crisis.

The Republicans in Congress may have the votes to ratify the freeze though. That resolves the issue.

Alternatively there could just be escalating contempt of court proceedings against underlings and disregard for the judiciary.

As a thought experiment, what do you guys think it would take for Republicans in congress to impeach and convict Trump?

Like, suppose all those Reddit comments are right, and Elon really is looting billions of dollars from the treasury for his personal benefit. If Trump turns a blind eye, or even worse, pardons Elon, surely that would be enough right?

I am 100% certain Trump would be impeached and removed if he was caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

Besides that, I'm less sure.

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters be impeached and removed from office, OK? It's, like, incredible."

Is it really that far from precedent, though? Clinton's ATF and FBI burned a bunch of women and children to death in Waco. Obama ordered drone strikes on American citizens abroad. Cheney actually shot a man while in office. Two of those successfully ran for re-election afterwards.

And when the man Cheney shot got out of the hospital, he told the press conference, "My family and I are deeply sorry for everything Vice President Cheney and his family have had to deal with."

On the one hand, it was an accident, and it's possible that the victim contributed to it by moving too far ahead of the line of hunters too soon, and legitimately felt guilty about that.

On the other hand, it was Cheney, who you can absolutely imagine walking up to the guy he just shot and stating "If you survive this, the first thing you're going to do is apologize for getting in the way of my shot."