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763 points tartoran | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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mikeyouse ◴[] No.45682307[source]
> Tim Rieser, former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating information gathering, told the BBC the gateway's removal meant the State Department was "clearly ignoring the law".

We're in a really bad place... with a servile congress, it turns out there aren't really any laws constraining the executive branch. When everything relies on "independent IGs" for law enforcement inside executive branch departments, and the President can fire them all without consequence or oversight, then it turns out there is no law.

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wffurr ◴[] No.45682445[source]
The answer is impeachment, but when Congress is stuffed with boot licking toadies, then there is no recourse.
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alluro2 ◴[] No.45683177[source]
I don't really understand why people still talk about impeachment.

It has been very clearly shown to be a futile formality that only makes the ones doing it look even more powerless and worthy of mockery in the eyes of the other side and their supporters.

In a bygone era, impeachment would rely on concepts of shame, responsibility and public duty - it would be unimaginable that person that was impeached does not step down from the position and likely from political foreground fully - from the moral and social weight of that consequence.

We've seen last 2 times how thoroughly that weight no longer exists in modern society/politics.

Without criminal responsibility, there is no responsibility left at all.

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1. vlovich123 ◴[] No.45683337[source]
Impeachment is the first step before conviction and removal. That’s why it’s talked about.