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points by wang_li 3 days ago | 0 comments
In this day and age, 100% of all presidential acts need to be documented publicly. It's no longer enough to wave a piece of paper around and say "see, it has his signature." Random cabinet secretaries and white house staffers running papers through the autopen should be a capital crime and the only sentence should be hanging.
[–] dylan604 3 days ago
Is this really something that has been happening, or just some nonsense that has been thrown out to see what sticks? Yes, using the autopen should be limited to the mass signing of trivial correspondence like annual christmas cards or form letter responses to anything received from the citizens that used a stamp. Has there been any one seriously concerned about legislation or executive order type of documents being signed this way?
[–] wang_li 3 days ago
It's hard to know. People have opinions that it might be happening, which is why I call for presidential action to be public, and not in the form of final signed papers. I want to be able to see the president making the decisions and taking the actions that affect everyone in the country.
[–] vel0city 3 days ago
He supposedly signed individual pardons for 1,600 people in one day.

That would give me quite a cramp and I'm not 80.

[–] dylan604 3 days ago
I wasn't aware of this supposedly. I had assumed that the EO signed covered it in a single signature. Not sure which is worse here, my assumption or your supposedly.
[–] vel0city 3 days ago
Looking more into this, it looks like you're correct. It was a single action which resulted in that ~1,600 pardons, not 1,600 individual documents. My bad.