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Cake day: July 8th, 2023

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  • All good points if true. However I will say that to my limited understanding a crime under a specific law having been pardoned, that same law can then not be used to prosecute this crime anymore. Meaning states would have to find a different (preferably state) law under which the same offence is punishable.

    And that is all disregarding other issues like packed courts, republican controlled states, the vagueness of double-jeopardy in this regard, and the general chilling effect a presidential pardon would have on prosecutors to even press charges in the first place.

    The loss of benefits is easily circumvented by promising a golden parachute along with the pardon, so I could still see a lot of fanatics doing the crime “for country and freedom” or whatever they tell themselves.

    Overall this seems like a potentially dangerous erosion of checks and balances that is easily abused when put in the wrong hands. As the dissenting opinions in the ruling openly state.


  • Ok yeah fair enough, that sounds reasonable. But to my knowledge the UMCJ is a federal law, not a state law, so how does that line of argument factor in there? You cited that as an example of checks and balances that would prevent people from following illegal orders, but it being a federal law still means the president could circumvent it with the official order plus pardon combo, at least if my understanding of this new supreme court ruling is correct.


  • IANAL, but there is the presidential power to pardon. So the president could in theory give an illegal order (as long as it is an official act they have immunity) and promise a presidential pardon once the order is fulfilled (therefore extending immunity to the perpetrator). Meaning the president can entirely circumvent the UCMJ.



  • Well given that the Jaffa operate strategically pretty much the same as the Goa’uld their main air defence is what you already showed in your OP: the glider. And beyond that any other Goa’uld ship they can get their hands on.

    But yeah, in the show we see MANPADs, air-to-air missiles, and even an unguided rocket launcher being successfully used against gliders and other small to medium ships. So deploying them Patriot batteries to Dakara would have been a good idea probably. Also those AA railguns (?) that get used at the battle for Atlantis at the end of season 1.

    Ancient drones would of course be king if you could get a production chain for ammunition and a launch platform going, those things just shred any Goa’uld ship (or other ship for that matter) if you have enough. In lieu of that Asgard/Tolan energy weapons should be the most effective air defence, save for the nastier opponents smart enough to adapt shields on the fly like Replicators and whatnot.