Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/25/justice-alito-bizarrely-worries-that-if-we-prosecute-presidents-who-try-to-end-democracy-we-will-end-our-democracy-video.html
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<Quinn Cummings in The Goodbye Girl.gif>*
“What a shitheel!”
*I looked for one; doesn’t seem to exist, yet
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Jibbers Crabst, just say it again, but slowly, Alito.
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It’s not a huge surprise to see Alito pondering whether the institutions he actually holds dear can survive in the absence of impunity for people who matter(narrator voice: “They cannot”); but it’s gutsy of him to pretend that those are either identical to ours or to ‘democracy’ in any reasonable sense.
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What an absolute tool. Wish these dinguses could be kicked out of the Court.
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Oh for the lawyer to point out to Alito that if a president is granted immunity for any action that Alito, for the good of the republic, should be the first (ok second) target Biden gives to seal-team-six.
(“and whatever did become of seal-team-five?” “'s’obvi … seal-team-six got’em”)
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It’s…consistently interesting…how often the people frothing about the brutal abuses of liberal hate fail to think through obvious plausible things that aren’t happening; but absolutely would if the villains were half so villainous as depicted.
It would be interesting to know how much is straight dishonesty, how much is lack of imagination, and how much is abundance of privilege that makes the slightest whiff of threat to their prerogatives indistinguishable from Stalinist death camps because their perspective is so drastically foreshortened.
You see it a lot with conspiracy nuts as well: They did 9/11; but remote controlled plane dummies crisis actors something something because apparently They are too squeamish to just toss a couple hundred passenger into the grinder. Mass shooting false flags; but by means of exceptionally elaborate deception rather than the simple and reliable “create the impression that a bunch of people were shot by shooting a bunch of people” technique. Children are disappearing into the adrenochrome mills by the thousands; but apparently nobody thought to sneak a few pictures onto Alito’s computer to be discovered.
You’d think that people so obsessed with threat would treat threat modeling as a valued art; or perhaps being fucking terrible at threat modeling that makes them so obsessed with threat. Very puzzling.
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I’d expect someone with Alito’s academic pedigree to be familiar with Popper’s Paradox.
[I’m being facetious. Of course he’s familiar with it, but his habitual bad faith has him pretending he isn’t.]
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“Now, if an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election, knows that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the president is going to be able to go off into a peaceful retirement, but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?”
No, because that hypothetical incumbent could defend themselves in court. You know, taking advantage of one of the three branches of government described in the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Alito’s scenario is Not a Bug, feature working (close to) as designed.
Unless Mr. Alito thinks that the federal judiciary is not behaving in accordance to the principles of law and justice, in which case Congress (probably advised by the Supreme Court) can make laws to change its behavior.
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I don’t think it’s that the fail to think it through, it’s that they actively want a fascist state where they get to dictate who gets to be free citizens who doesn’t. There’s a Satre quote to that effect on antisemites. They know the contradiction, they don’t give a shit. They want to destroy democracy that demands norms, because they hate the norms, because it stops them from hurting those they don’t like.
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the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent
This is either projection (what ■■■■■ will do to Biden) or Alito believes ■■■■■ is being politically persecuted by Biden. In his opinion, the law has no room for a legitimate prosecution of ■■■■■. No doubt he will grant unlimited immunity. Let’s hope enough of the other justices push back.
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This one (in parallel to @anon61221983’s point). To Alito and his ilk, disagreement with them is exactly the same as genocide and curtailing their abuse of those less privileged than them is just as bad as slavery. It’s the bizarro world perspective created when equality is viewed as oppression.
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Meanwhile, Clarence Thomas, whose wife literally tried to overthrow the government, believes every president has also attempted to overthrow the government.
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It’s a “sleight-of-hand” line of reasoning.
Trump isn’t seeking immunity from losing an election, but immunity from committing a crime.
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I think in one of the other threads that (I think it was @KathyPartdeux) noted that it was a specific reference to a coup in another country, which what that has to do with the peaceful transfer of power here, I don’t know? It seems like (however we might feel about this sort of imperial action) that’s what some form of immunity for the president was meant to protect? Actions carried out in the line of duty as president of the US vs overthrowing the democratic order here. I think that most of us here would certainly argue that the president should be held accountable for crimes committed against other countries, but the DOJ would probably argue that this falls under “official duties” compared to Jan. 6th.
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It wasn’t me. But I agree that if you commit crimes in another country- US Laws don’t apply.
And good luck trying to extradite and ex-president. They couldn’t even extradite an ex Sec of State.
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@danimagoo maybe? If only there were some way I could go and look, sadly, there is not! 
Yes! It was indeed her! Sorry all!
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