Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "The Lincoln Project" channel.

@flyoverstateresident2890 they'd hate his leadership in not being in a war? You understand nothing about the military, child. Not a goddamned thing. I certainly do, 28+ years Army, now retired after two wars. So, feel free to kiss my ass in Macy's window during the New Year's Day parade.
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Future, hell it's already been happening. Largely because ever so many good Christians know far better than the God that wrote their bible. Like Lucifer knew better. Enjoy the heat.
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OK, Trump for POTUS then, the Constitution is null and void forever. Since you hate having a Constitution, summary execution instead of arrest. Corruption of blood on misdemeanor as well. Article III, section 3 Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. So, you're either saying, despite no evidence possible to support it, that Trump has taken up arms and made war against the government or that Congress has secretly declared war and Trump has given aid and comfort to the enemy and should be immediately imprisoned for it without trial. Either way, that you hate having a Constitution. So, what's the difference who is now god-emperor of the Empire of the United States?
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@thaisstone5192 I see that elementary reading was never taught to you. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. So, in your version of the world, levying war requires Congress to declare war, so the war of 1812 wasn't a war, since Congress couldn't meet when Washington D.C. was burning. That means Benedict Arnold was never a traitor or something similarly insane. Levying war means taking up arms. Trump wouldn't take up arms, he's too great a coward to do that. A case might be made for sedition and even for advocating for the overthrow of the US government, both serious felonies. Treason, nope, Congress didn't declare war, so he couldn't have an enemy to give aid and comfort to. He sure as hell wouldn't risk himself by taking up arms. So, treason is impossible. And even sedition is dicey, as one would have to show that mens rea existed and that he fully and overtly ordered violence be employed for the purpose of unseating our government. Not by preponderance of evidence, but beyond a reasonable doubt. Laughably, sedition has been proved against leaders of Proud Boys, those convicted already now serving their sentences and Oath Keepers trials are ongoing. Still no direct Trump ties to any such orders. But, there is ample evidence to support his advocacy for the overthrow of the government via an attack on said government, specifically Congress and blocking of its Constitutional powers and the penalties are equal with sedition. Shall we instead stay with having a Constitution then?
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He didn't take up arms against his nation and we've not had Congress declare war, so we lack an enemy for him to give aid and comfort to, those are the only things that are treason per the Constitution. Even a charge of sedition would be dicey, he's kept that barely at arm's length from him. He has championed the overthrow of our government multiple times in multiple ways, which is as severe as sedition, with an equal sentence.
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@lisanunlist9510 no can do, don't think Montana would appreciate a ballot from a Pennsylvanian. Besides, my ballot's already been mailed and accepted, per our county elections office e-mail. Gotta love automation! Lets you know every step of the way the status of your ballot, with minimal human intervention, allowing workers to do their jobs and the voter to be informed. We're lucky though, we still have a lot of bipartisanship here, working together to keep things working.
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And once she's done with him, he gets to be the courtroom sex toy for the other prosecutors... Because, espionage and sedition are decidedly far afield of the scope of official duties for a POTUS.
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@annakingry9157 here are some interesting words, show me the levying of war. Article III, Section 3, Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. Come on, show me where anyone picked up guns and shot at US government officers in an effort to overthrow the US government. Show me the two eyewitnesses that will testify in open court. Hell, show me a naughty cub scout with a slingshot. There can be no aid and comfort to the enemy, as Congress has declared no war since WWII, so we're fresh out of enemies. Without the levying of war, there is no treason, so stop being like MAGAts and stick here in the real and factual world or stay the fuck off of our side. Because, we do believe in law and order, the rule of law and the foundation of that law is our Constitution. Such bullshit of claiming treason for whatever you don't like undermines any moral and factual authority one might've previously had and parallels the MAGAt religion. Besides, I can make one bastard from hell of a case for sedition just on 1/6 alone, subsequent actions only adding additional counts. Besides, we all know that they're far too cowardly to pick up a gun. The streak of yellow down all MAGA backs can be seen from space.
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Wow, so everyone gets one day a year to have a long married life? Was married for over 41 years, every day was accountability day for me. ;)
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Annoyingly, I was basically breaking even, compensation wise. I guess Trump wants all quarantines ignored. But, oddly, has his official perpetual quarantine surrounding his bunker and bunkers offal office. A 26 day old infant died of COVID-19, perhaps Sierra should pay his respects in person! And to prove his claims, lack both nostrils. Oops, I forgot, he's The Bunker Boy. Especially with germs that he once said he didn't believe in and shortly after, admitted to a phobia of. Afraid of what one just claimed didn't exist? Thats the honest of a street where, but less honorable. One of the two doesn't kiss and tell.
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There is one thing I'm certain of, Vance is indeed human. Hell, he's passed the benchmark quite handily for Natural Idiocy. Dan Quayle decided to take on the fictitious Murphy Brown. JD Vance has decided to take on birth control car seats that seems to have somehow robbed, yes, absolutely robbed us of 100000 births! Nothing whatsoever artificial about that idiocy, it's 100% homegrown human natural idiocy.
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Interestingly, the Christian nationalism in Italy during that period protected Jews from the Nazis. Unlike the modern US version, they remembered that Jesus was a Jew. Had some of the modern variety that I reminded of that fact, they always exclaimed that Jesus was a Christian. No, Jesus didn't worship himself, he worshiped the Almighty and the overwhelming majority of his teachings are part of the old testament. Love your neighbor? Old testament. Help the poor, disabled, elderly, sick? Old testament. Reject financial wealth over devout worship and charity? Old testament. Even raising the dead was originally done first in the old testament, albeit with a lot more prayer and effort by the prophet involved.
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Well, TBH, a potted plant would be ahead of DonOLD in the polls right now. And have trounced him in the debates, given his amphetamine driven non-performance. Hitler was quite crazy toward the end of the war. Know why? He and his staff were heavy methamphetamine users, so the paranoia and delusions got to them. Trump's been taking stimulants like that for years, even have pictures of him sitting at his desk that had a drawer overflowing with packages of the prescription pills.
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@rylian21 no, we'd still have plenty of members of the House and operable, a Speaker, who is first in the line of succession, even if a quorum isn't present, pending selection of a new President by vote in Congress, selection in the House, approval in the Senate. The post may not remain vacant during that interim period. If the Speaker is not able to assume the post, then it goes to President Pro Tempore of the Senate. That's why both houses of Congress terms begin on 3-Jan, while POTUS begins 20-Jan, to ensure no vacancy is present, leaving the nation without a functional branch of government.
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@rylian21 an odd view, given their early rejection of the tea party and conspiracy theory minded dolts. They're old guard GOP, the ones you claim that they gave shelter and comfort to came along with the tea and libertarians hijacking the party away from the old guard. I see tea party types even now recommending violence, but none of the old guard doing so. That's the shit that chased me away from the party after a quarter century. It became Terra Incognita.
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@MA-qe2sn Cheney was as they still are, old guard GOP. It was always their MO. The enemy of my enemy may not necessarily be my friend, but could be a convenient, if guarded ally. After all, the Soviet Union was an ally against the Axis. And one of our best customers at the time as well.
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Only because none of his properties will put up with his shit.
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@cybele_m lately?! You've not been paying attention until lately. Deregistering voters, old hat, decades long practice. Closing polling places so that the poor cannot get to a poll? Relatively recently, but still pre-Trump. Gerrymandering, ancient.
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And the Russian attacks, preferentially attacking civilians is a blatant violation of both the Geneva Convention and Hague Convention guarantees of non-combatant safety. So, Russia is literally engaged in utterly lawless warfare. Which legally leaves their own troops and population unprotected from reprisal killings. As the Waffen SS learned the hard way during the invasion of France.
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That's easy, mention the plan to eliminate FEMA, show the video of Trump throwing paper towels after Maria.
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No, the Lord of the Lies Trump isn't guilty for an entire fucking planet, there's plenty of blame to go around. He does own tens of thousands of US graves though. Not much better, since he was responsible, regardless of his desire. He rejected it because "the numbers make me look bad". Odd, when I was in charge of a debacle, the very first question I asked was, "How did I take a winning team and lead them into this mess, what did I fuck up?!", then responded accordingly, with full input from that winning team, accepting my own fuck-up before all, asking forgiveness and input on how to unfuck the situation. You know, actually leading.
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@steveswoodworking2504 that, after receiving a two inch thick pandemic response binder on response to an influenza pandemic, which outgoing staffers observed was thrown instantly into a nearby trashcan. The difference in response to flu vs COVID, microscopic, mostly name stickers for the organism. The disease process was nearly identical and the effective treatments and mitigations, identical. Numbnuts didn't even try to reinvent the wheel with one with square tires, rather simply ignored it and sabotaged all remediation efforts to deflect attention away from his failures and fuckups.
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Trump won his usual prize, the booby prize.
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@blondhairblackstrat nope, I want to hear "Shake and Bake, mixed air burst and quick, fire for effect". "Repeat". "Repeat". "Repeat". "Affirmative, target was destroyed, we were just making sure it was well done".
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@dcwander7092 no, trumpites keep going on about Pelosi ordering the National Guard about. She's nowhere in the chain of command of the Guard - at all. Worse, the Guard got mixed signals from local begging for help vs the Pentagon, which was holding them back.
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There is no such thing yet as true Artificial Intelligence, all they've made has been Artificial Idiocy. Otherwise, it'd not confabulate answers like an advanced dementia patient, while they gloss over it by calling it an AI hallucination. Saw confabulation in dementia patients when my father was dying of vascular dementia, whole events would get related that never happened because his brain couldn't retrieve the actual story. Current large language models do precisely the same damned thing.
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