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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   15603 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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This dropped a few hours ago:

Jan. 6 Committee Refers Former President Trump for Criminal Prosecution https://archive.vn/TDlGb#selection-289.14-297.189

The committee accused the former president of inciting insurrection and other federal crimes as it referred him to the Justice Department, which does not have to act on its recommendations.

Jan 6 committee refers Donald Trump for criminal prosecution on four counts – as it happened

The four counts of the Trump referrals are for “influencing or impeding an official proceeding of the US government”, “conspiring to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government”, and “assisting or engaging in insurrection against the United States”.

So, suppose the Biden Justice Department prosecutes. And the case is tried in DC, where the chances of getting a jury of 12 Democratic partisans is "better than average". And so they convict him on all counts. I'd say chances of a real insurrection before 2024 rise to over 10% in that case, and prospect of convincing any Trump supporter that the government (present or future) is legitimate drops to very close to zero. I don't think the republic can survive it without violence, whether immediate or in a somewhat longer term. Even a 2024 Desantis win wouldn't calm things down, unless Desantis took clear retribution (and then you have to worry about the OTHER half of the country).

Criminal prosecution of Trump on obviously political charges is entirely insane.

Yes, this. It boggles the mind that people ranting about the threat to ‘our democracy’ due to partisanship will do… things like this. Really convinces me that their definition of democracy is just that they win.

I've always felt that the most important part of the phrase "our democracy" must not be "democracy" but rather "ours". If you read it properly as "[The Left's] democracy" there's no hypocrisy at all in what they're saying.

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