One would think that a person who became president of the United States would have at least a bare boned idea of what was involved in performing that job. Unfortunately, the present occupant of that office has not got a clue. Really. How could it be?
Perhaps because he is a guy who doesn’t read. Perhaps it is because he was just a business man who didn’t bother himself with knowing anything beyond what it took to make a buck. Perhaps the only type law he ever got near had noting to do with the Constitution other than (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4) which authorizes Congress to enact “uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.”
Why he has no clue after being in office for almost a year and five months is shown by this tweet he just wrote: “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, . . .”
He doesn’t understand he is elected to the office. He has been inaugurated. According to the Oxford Dictionary that is defined as: “Admit (someone) formally to office.”
He acts as if he has been coronated which is defined by the same source as: “The ceremony of crowning a sovereign or a sovereign’s consort.” Sovereignty is defined as: “Supreme power or authority.”
The word sovereign is often used to describe God’s power. A leading article noted: “Sovereignty can be defined as having supreme authority, control, and power over all that has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future in all times across all history. Christians define it as the ruler of the universe, God, having the right, the authority, and the power to govern all that happens and what has, is, or will happen being in accordance to His divine will.”
I suppose it is not only Trump himself who believes he has been coronated. Liberty University has produced a movie “The Trump Prophecy” which suggests God Himself had a hand in putting Trump in office. Billy Graham’s son Franklin has said “For these states to go the way they did, in my opinion, I think it was the hand of God, . . . ”
Unfortunately for Trump and those who believe God put him in office he is not there as a sovereign with supreme power. He was inaugurated not coronated. He was put in the position according to the terms of the Constitution. He does not have the power to pardon himself.
One definition of a pardon is that it “fully restores an individual’s civil rights forfeited upon conviction of a crime and restores the person’s innocence as though he or she had never committed a crime.” Although that appears correct it appears one does not have to be convicted to be pardoned. “In 1866, the Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Garland that the pardon power”extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.””
“Article II § 4 of the Constitution provides as follows:
“The President, . . . shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
If Trump had the power to pardon himself, that is make it appear that he never committed a crime, he would then have the power to prevent his impeachment. There would be no basis upon which the House of Representative could proceed.
Trump could set up a table in the Oval Office where people could come in with bags full of cash. Here comes one now. Let’s listen: “Here, Mr. President,I’d like to drill for oil in the Tea Dome Oil Fields in Natrona County, Wyoming.”
Trump: “OK, give him the lease. Now remember, Ivanka get 15% of all profits”
After a few months of selling U.S. assets Trump is indicted. The House sets up impeachment proceeding. Trump pardons himself. There is no basis for impeachment. He opens up for business the next day putting out for bid the Grand Canyon .
The idea of that happening is absurd. You don’t need to be a lawyer to know that. The thought that a president believes he can do this makes him ineligible to sit in that office. He should be impeached. A president who thinks he has the powers of a king is an alien concept in a democracy.
Anyone know how to spell rancid? I think it begins with an AHHHHHHHH.
Wa-llahi! Looks like curtains for Glorious Leader. He’s daring Mueller to come to the WH, and, arrest him. Criminal indictment, ahead. Trump’s shooting the moon. If he misses a trick, he’ll be frog marched down Pennsylvania Ave to face impeachment. He must have done something that even resigning won’t buy him out of. The bunker is his only option.
* the day … before…. Steven DiSarro’s disappearance and alleged murder in the family kitchen of the Salemmes by father and son . Previously Flemmi claimed a roundabout version of events, saying he heard ” Frank ” wanted to talk and so Flemmi arranged to stay at his ex-wife’s house in the adjoining town to facilitate this vital communication. A family fete at the Venezia the day before is not in Flemmi’s account of Reality .
Happy Mother’s Day, Stevie !!
Lying bastard .
Boozang for the Defense, your Honor, just went Perry Mason with a Mother’s Day Venezia restaurant pic of Salemme clan and Uncle Stevie dining together that day, May 9, of Steven DiSarro’s disappearance. This directly contradicts Flemmi’s timeline !
This is silly. The House and Senate have political powers aside from the DOJ’s mandate. Trump is rattling the cage door of your self inflicted childishness.
The Pussymarcher obsession with impeachment, which hatched the moment Trump was clearly the winner, is deeply divisive to the point of being seditious. It is malicious. Politically is is likely counterproductive for its practitioners. The people will respond negatively to its puerile tantrums.
Our President, yes, he is your President, ran a campaign based on an understanding of the electoral system. Were the system different he would have run a different system. And won.
It is not Trump’s fault that the “smartest woman in the world” was too dumb to comprehend the Constitution.
It is not Trump’s fault that the MSM and chatteratti are so dumb that they keep falling for Trump’s diversionary click baiting that keeps them off balance.
Trump is a lot more intelligent than his hissy-fit opponents. He is not the cause of their low IQs. Nature is. He is not the cause of their emotional immaturity. Their parents are. He is not the cause of their educational deficiencies. They themselves are.
Attention! Pussymarchers, everywhere: You lost. Get over it. Grow up. Prepare to get your sorry asses whipped again in 2020. By the way, you are doing an excellent job of doing just that.
Chatterrati ?
That should be in the lexicon .
If original, it is a defining literary note on our humble blog !
Merriam-Webster has the first known use of “chatterati” in 1990:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chatterati
By Tadzio, right ?
My last known use of : rhetorical
The 2nd definition is: doooosh-bags.
You, always wit da big words !
Or, as Matt would say … The word is spelled … douche.
For the Latinists in our midst, or their mist ( sic ) as the case may or may not be !
Chatterrati ….I second that emotion . . . . it evokes Dvorak’s New World Symphony
The argument is silly. The pardon power does not extend to cases of impeachment. In our history only two trials for impeachment of a president have taken place in the Senate. Both failed. No Senator from the President’s party has ever voted to convict. With Trump having almost 90% support in his own party a vote by a Republican for conviction would be political suicide. The never Trumpers should stop deluding themselves on the impeachment issue. Maybe a decade hence a real violation against President Pence could arise. 2. Will the North Korean summit succeed? The economy is booming. Lowest Black unemployment in history. 3.8% overall rate. Lowest in 40 years. Growth at 3% almost double what Obama gave us.. More job openings than job seekers. A businessman, not a career politician, gave us this progress. Tax cuts, deregulation. energy independence and better trade deals produce these great results. Total household assets exceed 100 trillion dollars. Happy days are here again.
” Will the North Korean summit succeed?”
What of ours will Trump pignorate to make it (seem) so?
Excellent summation of the Trump Presidency’s real life successes . . .you know maybe America needed a hard cold businessman . . .to cut the guts out of the FED bureaucracy which has run amock since WWII
You, know, mock the man for his crassness . . .but not for his decision making which seems sound and solid
I, too, do not want to alienate Canada, for God’s sake . . .no need for Trump’s insults . . .he’s just not adept at verbally slicing someone to bits like Bill Bulger or Bill Buckley in a classy way . . .he’s not skillfully articulate enough to slay “with feint praise”
He is too blunt and too crass, at times, but America is working again . . .and getting better . . . and I remember the Rolling Stones, “You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic your looking for.” I’m looking for a crazy young woman of reproductive age who’s looking for screwball . . .
Anyway, Thanks, Matt . . .good analysis . . .The Prez is not above the law, and may be impeached for “high crimes” and some say high “misdemeanors”
And thanks for evoking the fabulous TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL outa Warren Harding (wasn’t it?) administration and outa WYOMING . . .what a great State! I did on of my first college Term Papers on the teapot dome scandal . .
There is a divinity that doth hedge a king .
Shakespeare