It might have been the hand of God, but I don't think the hand was making a very polite gesture
Place In the Sun: What If Italy Joined the Central Powers? (1.0)
- Thread starter Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth
- Start date
Shit he back, shouldn't Wilson be half paralyzed and rotting away in his bed by now. Can't the dude just stay and kick the bucket for everyone's sake.
And that's Wilson, a guy who at this point in time did kinda make a right mess of the country when he was leaving. Remember this bit?
If I was him, I'd really not make my successors inclined to haul me back in chains. Or worse, put a stop on any bank orders.
I was wondering when the Tsarists were going to start waving their colors. In avenging the cold-blooded murder of his well-meaning wife, Mikhailovich has just masterminded the cold-blooded murder of his well-meaning cousin.
Were the circumstances not surrounding the prolongation of an already terrible war, there would be a delightful level of symmetry between these sets of underhanded dealings.
With how much the looming (or already underway) famine in Russia has been foreshadowed, I shudder to consider the potential of Martov/Lenin opening a third front in the war and making it even worse than the OTL one.
They will if the Feds drag him off in chains. How dare he usurp foreign policy authority without at least consulting first with the elected administration?
Yeah, the Republicans (and several Democrats) are going to be calling for impeachment. Using the federal budget to pay for a private bank to pay for a foreign war has EMBEZZLEMENT written all over it in big red letters.
Is Wilson even impeachable when he isn't an incumbent President anymore? If no, then I'd say just federal criminal charges...not sure about treason, but illegal usurpation of authority (if that's even a thing) should be on the table.
That said, considering his ill health, even if he gets convicted, I suspect the courts might commute any punishment to enforced house arrest for the rest of his - thankfully short - natural life.
this is pretty much exactly the kind of scenario in which the Logan Act would actually be used.
Without moving into current politics and getting The Bear involved, #45 got impeached while on his way out - it's possible.
Not sure how legal the collusion part was, but using taxpayer money to pay for it probably falls under High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
"When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal. Also, if you're using this defence, you're totally screwed, because I was a crook!"
- Richard Nixon
F*ck*ng hell...what is it with Wilson and taking liberties with the people's money? First that $500 million he gave away to JP Morgan (thankfully the Supreme Court told JP Morgan to give it back or else), and now this. Congress needs to pass laws to keep a closer eye on the public purse strings.
Maybe, but I can see some people in Germany assuming Willy was just tossed under the bus
Well, Wilson thinks he knows best. Always has, so of course he gets to spend people's money.
That's a completely different situation though because the Impeachment process had started and was underway when Trump left Washington and Biden entered office. This is two years after Wilson left office and he is going to Russia as a private American citizen, not as the President or a representative of the U.S government. If a President commits a high crime after office, they are charged as a citizen just the same as you and me, impeachment is to remove a politician from office and charge them with a crime that they committed during office. At the same time, if let's say a President committed murder before taking office and it's found out while they are in the White House, they can't be impeached for that since it was not an action they took as President.
As much as I utterly loathe Woodrow Wilson as the American Devil, he is not performing this scheme with American taxpayer's dollars. There is no way he'd have access to those kinds of funds when he is one of the most despised men in America and Washington has a Republican trifecta in all corners of government, not to mention his own party despises him. The dialogue made it explicitly clear that Wilson is using his own funds to buy surplus arms from the military and give them to Russia for free.
On paper, this is a private transaction between the American citizen known as Woodrow Wilson and the state known as the Provisional Republic of Russia. Wilson is paying out of his own pocket and any other money that he uses is most likely going to be from sympathetic Americans who he cons or convinces to lend their funds to the cause. However, while the Constitution and laws of the United States do not forbid private transactions to occur between United States citizens and corporations with foreign governments or foreign citizens, they do limit and regulate what type of goods can be sold, with the most contentious and highly regulated being firearms and military-grade weapons. Boeing can't sell fighter jets to any nation within the world without approval from the President and state department or else they would be conducting a breach of national security and possible treason. The U.S government could be willing to overlook something small such as selling a single or small collection of civilian firearms to foreign citizens, but selling millions of dollars of military-grade weaponry to a nation in the midst of a Civil War is something that will get the feds on your ass and earn you a life sentence.
The United States during this time period was relatively relaxed with individuals and corporations selling arms to foreign governments, but these were mostly tolerated in peacetime and nations that were considered to be non-hostile to American interests. For example, thousands of Colt revolvers were sold to the Ottoman Empire in the 1870's, but this is fine because they are selling weapons to a nation the United States is at peace with and none of the Ottoman's enemies are ties to the US as allies. Weapons manufacturers were freely allowed to sell to the Entente during WWI, but they could not sell to the Central Powers not only because of the blockade by the British but because it was viewed as supporting a hostile foreign power by the Wilson administration. If Wilson had been supplying guns to peacetime Russian Republic that had established diplomatic relations with America, then that would be fine and at worst would just get him criticized in the press. However, this is him selling weapons to a rebel government Not recognized by the United States government in the midst of a civil war when the United States is currently engaged in ongoing disputes with Tsarist Russia, who is viewed by the United States of America as the sovereign and lawful government of the lands of Russia. In short this is a criminal act, but it's not something that Wilson can be impeached for because he's doing this as a private citizen and he's not using tax dollars.
What Woodrow Wilson is doing is a clear violation of the Logan Act. The Logan Act is a law that states that any American citizen found to be conducting negotiations with a foreign government in dispute with the United States is to be charged with a felony for disrupting the powers and position of the United States government. The act is rarely used and has only been successfully indicted twice, the first time for the Act's titular Democratic-Republican who was conducting independent negotiations with France during the Quasi-War, and the second time when a businessman was conducting rail negotiations with Mexico while the Gadsen Purchase was buying discussed, neither of them were ever convicted of a felony. The reason the Logan Act is hardly ever enforced is due to the Act's vague wording, the limitation of evidence needed for an indictment and conviction, and the fact that few if anybody ever attempts anything this ballsy on the level of what Wilson is doing. This should be a clear cut case for Wilson to be tried and convicted as a felon, but unless the judicial system was feeling really bloodthirsty, then he'll probably die before any conviction takes place and he's sent to jail. Still it would be a really powerful action and a potential death blow to the Democrats, charging a president who just left office for interfering in foreign affairs and meddling in a civil war.
Vince
Monthly Donor
so that mean that Wilson could go to jail
Seeing as Wilson sounded like he has one foot in the grave already, he probably doesn't give a damn what laws he might possibly be breaking. He'll be dead long before a court trial concludes.
You're writing far faster than I'm reading, but see the bold italic point in Chapter 19.
I assume it's not major but you need a number there I presume.
Germans are better off just getting Ukraine and the Caucuses countries to break away and get into their sphere
What a childish fantasy!don't mind me i'm just having a bit of fun.
(Its a reference, if you dont know it)
Monitor
Donor
In the title of The Book, it should be: „Das Erwachen des Bären“ (Das capitalized). Also, Adler Ritter is not capitalized.
Otherwise, good work!
EDIT: The subtitle also should be changed: „Ein spannender Roman (aus) einer/der alternativen Welt“
An alt-Man in the High Castle where Italy joins the Entente?don't mind me i'm just having a bit of fun.
SNIP