General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama is still in power for more than a month, right?
So why isn't he voraciously defending the nation from this attack on the Executive Branch from the Russians?
He should be locking people up and threatening others while launching a counter offensive against the Russian hackers and backers.
Defend the Democracy dammit!
Don't sit back and allow someone who is antithetical to everything that Obama stood for to steal the Office.
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)However, the President does not have any power to "lock people up." He simply doesn't. What he is doing is not being broadcast or being said in news conferences. That would be foolish of him to do.
You can expect, however, to hear from him pretty soon about all of this.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Crepuscular
(1,057 posts)What power does the President have that would allow him to prevent his successor from taking office?
Kotya
(235 posts)I suppose he could stand in front of the White House front door with his arms stretched out refusing to hand over the keys but this would look kinda childish and silly.
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)The powers of the President are defined in the Constitution. Negating a presidential election is one of his powers. Not in any way. I really recommend that you reread that document if you have not done so recently.
Presidents are specifically limited in their powers to protect this country from being run by a tyrant. That could easily be frustrated by a President who also had a Congress that would go along with him and a Supreme Court that would rule that actions were constitutional. That was the risk of the 2016 election.
Many people, including myself, warned about that possibility, but we went unheard, it appears. Too many people did not vote or chose to vote for some third party candidate who had no chance of winning. We can debate the legitimacy of elections in several states, but if enough people had turned out to vote for Clinton in those states, we would have nothing to debate.
President Obama will do what he is able to do, but he cannot go beyond the authority the President has in the USA. He will not do that, either. What will he do? I have no idea, but I'm sure we're going to learn about it.
Read the Constitution. Discover what powers the President has and what powers he does not have.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)We're not powerless victims, or are we?
libtodeath
(2,888 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)We all have to figure out ways we can deal with this within our capabilities.
There are many ideas for things you can do on DU. If you have any other ideas that are actually feasible, please share them. But, what the President can and can't do is pretty clear in the Constitution and in the laws. He won't take any unconstitutional actions, I'm sure.
What have you done so far to try to turn this around, and what are you planning to do?
I see that you use the anarchist symbol as your avatar. We have a government, not an anarchy. Anarchy is not a viable system for a nation the size of the United States. In fact, it's not a viable system for groups of any size, really. So, I suppose you will not do anything that involves actually working within the system. Oh, well.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)There might be retaliation against the Russians and he may lament the hacking, but he's going to defend the legitimacy of the Trump presidency as he has been doing.
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)I don't think any of us do. This is a very, very difficult situation we find ourselves in. There's no simple answer at all. There is no magic way to undo a presidential election. The Electoral College is about the only safeguard that exists. Whether it will act on this is unknown at this point. There is, however, no other real legal resource that can be used in the remaining time to block Trump from taking office. The Electoral College could refuse to give him the 270 votes required. That's the best strategy for activism, as far as I can tell. Minnesota's electors will vote for Hillary, and I know nobody outside of Minnesota who is an elector.
Convincing electors to refuse to vote for Trump will have to be done by people in the states they represent. They will pay no attention to people outside of their own states, I'm certain. Contacting your state's electors, as well as your state's congressional members and Senators, along with Republican Party leaders is probably the best bet. If you live in a state where Trump won, then I suggest you start working hard on your own state's electors and on those who might influence them. That will be the most effective thing you can do.
Trump could be shamed into refusing to be inaugurated, I suppose. He could be arrested for some terrible crime, but I'm not sure there is a definite crime that he could be charged with, and that recourse will end after he is inaugurated. He could be impeached after taking office, but that seems very unlikely, given the Republican majority in the House. I know of no other legal way to prevent him from taking office on January 20.
Crepuscular
(1,057 posts)He is having a report compiled.
chimpymustgo
(12,774 posts)Crepuscular
(1,057 posts)I don't think he will take things that far, that could provoke and international incident.....
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)RoccoR2
(90 posts)Late summer he met with leadership of both parties on the Russian hacking of email with intelligence reports at hand
He decided to not go over the heads of the GOP and make an official announcement
After the election according to the NYT Obama said election results accurately reflect the will of the American people.
This past Friday in the Washington Post Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress
This tells you what?
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)The people are doing it at Standing Rock.
Now it's time to take a stand in DC.
STAND IN SOLIDARITY
WITH AMERICA
maveric
(16,446 posts)The Bill Hicks theory.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)President Barack Obama has ordered a full review into hacking aimed at influencing US elections going back to 2008, the White House said Friday.
"The President has directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process. It is to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders," White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters Friday. "This is consistent with the work that we did over the summer to engage Congress on the threats that we were seeing."
White House spokesman Eric Schultz added later that the review would encompass malicious cyber activity related to US elections going back to 2008.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/obama-orders-review-into-russian-hacking-of-2016-election/