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Democrat Wish List

Z Buck McFate

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Mitt Romney (still Republican) wants reform to remove honor system from pardons. The Hill: Romney: Founders didn't intend pardons to be used for 'cronies'

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday called for reforming the use of the president’s pardon power after former President Trump granted clemency to 143 individuals as his final act of office, including Stephen Bannon, his former strategist, who was charged with defrauding donors.

"I can't imagine the founders in providing for pardon power for a president anticipated that presidents would use it to reward political friends, and as a result I would hope that we could develop a tradition of more narrowly providing pardons," Romney said.

Romney said there should be a tradition of “not providing them to people who are cronies or political individuals.”

Romney said he “would love to see a constitutional remedy” even though he acknowledged “it’s unlikely that something like that can get passed just given the difficult process of passing a constitutional amendment.”

Senators say the president’s pardon power is broad because of Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

Trump late on Tuesday also pardoned Elliott Broidy, one of his top fundraisers in 2016, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws, as well as former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2013 for racketeering, money laundering and charges connected to a land swap deal.

He also pardoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), who served an eight-year prison sentence for receiving bribes.

Phillip Halpern, the former assistant U.S. district attorney who prosecuted Cunningham, told The San Diego Union-Tribune that he was “appalled” by the decision.
 

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
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Yeah, the pardon system to me always looked kinda fishy. Even before last administration.
It would be batter that president can simply propose revision of certain cases. However the courts need to be the ones to have a final say in calling the shoots.
 

Z Buck McFate

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I think this administration needs to set up some kind of qualifying tests to run for Congress - people should have to demonstrate sufficient familiarity with the Constitution, and possibly a psychological test to prove they understand what's real.

That batshit blond woman who Giuliani used as a witness - Melissa Carone - has announced she's running for a House seat in Michigan. The past four years is empowering the shittiest, craziest people around.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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It took me a while to hunt this down, but in response to [MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION]'s first^ post and "pie in the sky" goals:

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NYT: The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You

In addition: Republicans, Not Biden, Are About to Raise Your Taxes

The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It’s not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

President Trump and his congressional allies hoodwinked us. The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped tax increases every two years that begin in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but people at the top of the economic hierarchy. All taxpayer income groups with incomes of $75,000 and under — that’s about 65 percent of taxpayers — will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019.

Some people would argue that those tax cuts are fine, because those people got rich by working harder and being smarter than everyone else. What would be your response to that?
 

Z Buck McFate

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Some people would argue that those tax cuts are fine, because those people got rich by working harder and being smarter than everyone else. What would be your response to that?

It'll take me a while to track down the numbers (my Google Fu sucks, but I'd been meaning to for this thread anyway), but just like the difference in taxes - the difference between what bottom level employees make vs. CEOs is absolutely insane compared to what it was in the 50s - with CEOs currently making exponentially more than they did before. My generic answer is that there's no way someone makes over a million dollars a year without taking advantage of someone else's labor. Anyone in the top 1% (or ballpark*) or even 10% who thinks it's exclusively their own hard work pulling in the wealth is drastically underestimating their reliance on the infrastructure of other's labor that society is providing for them.

Forming a strong, elaborate explanation of that is not my strong suit. With any luck, someone else here will. Or I'll eventually find a good explanation elsewhere to copy/paste here.

Dan Price is a useful Twitter source, because he posts a lot of these kinds of statistics.

*Including "ballpark" caveat because someone in this forum posted - unironically, somehow believing the author was making a good point - an op ed about how a lot of the actual names in the top 1% change almost daily since wealth fluctuates, and as such the "top 1%" doesn't actually exist. Or something retarded like that.
 

cascadeco

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Some people would argue that those tax cuts are fine, because those people got rich by working harder and being smarter than everyone else. What would be your response to that?

My response would be to look at them with a little smile and say nothing other than maybe 'Yeah....', then not value or pay attention to their 'insights' going forward. :wink:
 

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
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Those old ideas about "the league of democracies" are probably a good idea at this point. Since this is probably needed more than ever.
 

Z Buck McFate

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I don't know much about minimum wage laws. Do they apply equally to behemoth chains as small independent businesses? I understand the arguments I hear about it drowning out the smaller guys, I wonder why some stipulation hasn't been added about it only applying to bigger business, and - since I'd be hard pressed to assume this doesn't occur to others who spend far more of their time focusing on this - I wonder if there actually is something like this already in place. I would think there'd be some way to install a loophole for small businesses, like absolving businesses with a 5/1 or less top/bottom ratio. The average difference for bigger companies is nearly 300/1.

Is there some reason why a pay difference ratio within a company can't dictate whether they pay the higher minimum wage?

From last year, Vox: CEOs made 287 times more money last year than their workers did
 

The Cat

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Gee, I'd sure like the rest of that stimulus...:dry:
 

Kephalos

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Abolish all federal courts below the supreme court, then constitute new courts with fresh appointments.
 
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