The reputation of which DOJ is Merrick Garland safeguarding? The DOJ of John Mitchell, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, or John Ashcroft? As Attorneys General, these men themselves undercut/violated the rule of law. Garland could have protected and enhanced his DOJ's reputation by vigorously investigating and prosecuting the traitorous actions of the coup-plotters, not just their gullible followers. As Robert has been saying, Garland is the wrong man for the job.
Sorry I think you are underestimating what Garland is doing for a quick legal fix. I think he is moving slowly and deliberately and gathering all the evidence and using the J6th hearings to create with the voting public a groundswell of support as well as letting them obtain and make public the story and scenario of what happened. Think about this. We know the story today about the build up to January 6th and we are beginning to see who was involved at all levels. When he is ready to indict the voting public will say “ it’s about time”
Stephen, I understand that many readers share your views, but there are times when justice delayed is justice denied. This is one of them. Trump has figured that out, which is why he will announce his campaign before the midterms--long before Garland has indicted Trump for anything.
And it is not the DOJ's standard procedure to allow Congress to the DOJ's job of investigating crimes.
I have a 'yes, but'. Marx wrote that things stay underground for long times before sprouting (in other language of course) and nature, observed as Indigenous Science dictates, and also early childhood observer Winnicott studied with mothers, patience is not a Western Science thing. Experiments are 'impatient' according to Indigenous Elders. Perhaps that 'sprout' with become a plant before the due date. Maybe.
There is and overabundance of low hanging fruit ( the fake electors,, Eastman, Giuliani, Powell and a host of others in the dwindling days of tRumps admin.). Indictments and prosecution of these enablers is not only possible now but would send a clear message and put the fear God into team coup. The threat to our democracy is real and those not up to the difficult work of defending it should step aside.
While moving slowly, Garland is in grave danger—-and placing the nation in grave danger—of missing the decisive moment. Democracy itself is under attack in this country right now. While T___p is a buffoon (as well as a poltroon), he is only part of the anti-Democratic movement. However, the best way to quell those who week to overthrow our democracy is to indict T___p now, and to be him to trial as soon as it can be done. A competent prosecutor could return an indictment by August 1st. Certainly before Labor Day. Perhaps a later superseding indictment with more charges will be needed, but the battle would be joined. And that needs to happen.
Democracy was under attack on January 6th and today it’s under attack by Republican state governments and legislators. The current attack can only be eliminated by a vote. Convicting the J6th perpetrators gives us Justice but we need to a majority to change anything and make democracy safer.
I agree with your view Stephen. We already had two impeachments that didn't work. I watched Rachel Maddow last night and found myself questioning why she interpreted these memoranda from Garland the way she did. Honestly, it's like she has agreed to buy into rabble rousing herself along with too many others in the media. "Let's make it sound worse than it is. It'll keep people talking and tuning in for more." Trump can declare more than two years before the election, but that won't really make a legal difference. And, as much as Barr deliberately mismanaged the Mueller Report (something I still hope he can be held accountable for), he made that new rule in February 2020 after Trump's first impeachment acquittal. I think he saw Trump as truly getting out of control and unless Barr asserted himself, everyone who challenged Trump would come under investigation. It did keep Trump from actively opening a Joe and Hunter Biden DOJ case, for example. I did a quick look-up to see how others interpreted it. Here is just one. Rachel got all sorts of attention, but I think she got this one wrong. If we look back at the history of how long it tends to take to de-throne the nasties in courts of law, you can see this isn't going as slowly as it appears. And, I happen to think that Garland will (and has) approved opening cases and grand juries for the attempted overthrow of our government by Trump. That's not exactly a hand's off topic! And, eventually, Congress will codify the right to indict a sitting president if he or she does the things Trump has done. No safety in holding office when you're a treasonous traitor. The reason for continuing the Barr memo is to make sure "retribution" doesn't happen. There has to be clear good cause. In this case, there is. There are still 27 months until the next presidential election and the cases are stacking up and on their ways. That's my opinion.
Garland has the authority to tell the American public whether he is investigation an attempted coup. (It's in the manual.) He has not done so. Instead, he is sending memos to his staff reiterating a Bill Barr rule designed to ensure that the DOJ did not indict Trump. Rachel's interpretation of the memo is correct. The memo is all about protecting the DOJ's reputation first and foremost, and pursuing justice second. That is backward.
I hear you. And I have a tendency to lean toward hopeful. At the same time, I wonder if there isn't a secret handbook or guide to how to finally snag a mafia boss. Keep him guessing. Oh, and the first thing I thought of with the late Mrs. Trump's "fall" down the stairs is one of her children did at the behest of their father. Obviously I don't have a clue if that is true, but perhaps he got wind of her sharing info in the future and wanted to be sure she didn't. Or, even more perverse, it was a way to delay his and her three eldest children from going into court this week. My point is, if Garland makes it clear where they are in these investigations, Trump has more time to get in the way of witnesses and memos and tapes and cell records. Anyway, that's what i'm thinking and I hope I'm right. Firing the two top people at this point could only slow things down further, if indeed they are going too slowly.
Ah, the coffee at the foot of the stairs question... but that line goes back to a mafia technique of offing someone near and dear to you to warn you of consequences, and requires there be some nefarious player apart from those about to testify; perhaps some Russian or at closest someone sent by Trump. Anyway to set the departed first Mrs. Trump aside, if Garland were working behind the scenes I believe something would have leaked. There just is no air-tight (sound tight?) group action of any size possible in today's era of technology, delegation, necessary paperwork and information requests, money for titillating information and so forth. Then he issues an open invitation to declare candidacy, and I cannot see any trap (for Trump at least) in that... I totally do agree that Trump received his business training working with the mob and it shows in his tactics, techniques and language.
Why did DOJ have to get transcripts and such from the January 6 committee, apparently from some witnesses DOJ hadn't known about or interviewed? I'd have thought DOJ would be leading an investigation, not needing guidance from the House committee.
Me too. People are focused on locking up Trump but the real value will be changes to the electoral vote counting process and making it impossible to do what Trump thought he could do. If the outcome is he can’t run again and voters are disgusted with Trump and his enablers and vote their disgust and the D’s win the Senate and the House it’s a major win.
I've always found it remarkable how Republicans always find the right person to do their dirty work, Democrats, not so much.
I put this on Biden and the Democratic leadership who are still plowing political hay fields like we were living in the 1900s. It has been flippin obvious what the Republicans have been up to for the last 30 years and Democrats still can't figure out an effective counterpunch to stop them.
Bidens plunging numbers may have a lot to do with not getting BBB done but I think the better explanation is the Democrats feeble prosecution of Trump's and the Republican Party's extraordinary and unprecedented attack on democracy in favor of establishing some semblance of a plutocracy or kleptocracy. Republicans may not have the majority of the electorate but they have a virtual blank check in money. Never forget - follow the money because the power in Washington is increasingly held by the insanely wealthy robber barons.
One last point, Trump has had his sights on politics because he realized that it is the fastest, easiest and most lucrative grift for a committed grifter. Think of all the ways and how much time politicians dedicate to fundraising. Huckster P.T. Barnum might be most politician's inspiration. "No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public." I doubt there's a politician in this country that doesn't grasp that concept. That doesn't mean every politician goes into politics to grift. No politician is perfect, but I'll take a Congress full of "Bernie Sanders-type" politicians any day. I'll close with another P.T. Barnum quote - "The common man, no matter how sharp and tough, actually enjoys having the wool pulled over his eyes, and makes it easier for the puller."
I agree! Consider the lack of societal/legal/political consequences for Comey and Mueller. Comey virtually elected Trump by ignoring his proven connections to Russia and headlining Hillary Clinton's "missing" emails. Mueller wrote a scholarly report of hard-to-decipher legalese and then naively trusted Barr to summarize it accurately; Barr virtually exonerated Trump. Biden and the Dems seem to be living in an imagined genteel, courtesy always, political world. Biden's fist-bump with MBS is an appalling example.
I agree 100% with so much of this but disagree 100% with some of it. I agree on Comey and his presentation of himself as an injured near-hero after he began to make his bucks touring the country acting as if he had no culpability for putting Trump in office was a complete lie. I disagree on Mueller in that I ordered and read his report and it was actually quite readable if you read it instead of excerpts provided by others. It sounded to me like it was carefully phrased to make it clear at the very end that he had stopped short of stating (nay, of Finding) things that could prevent others from finding them after Trump was no longer a sitting president, and he was leaving a trail of crumbs... with bright red icing. I was and am frustrated that no one has followed up on it since and actually that Mueller himself has not stepped forward to finish or push the idea of finishing the job. Barr straight up lied when he said it exonerated Trump. "Biden and the Dems seem to be living in an imagined genteel, courtesy always, political world" - absolutely 100% true, well put, bravo! As to the fist bump - I feel it is misinterpreted. Despite the unfortunate "bro" feel in our culture for a fist bump, it is actually the pandemic necessitated less germ-y alternative to the more formal shake. I suspect Something was required as a physical acknowledgement of greeting. I'm just glad they didn't butt bump...
Agree about the grift. Only in the current trump environment can people like Boebert and Greene advance to the level they have enjoying the enormous financial perks that come with their elected positions.
Yes, real reputation is a product of actions, not a product of verbal fabrication and the avoidance of action. His judicial watch dog is being wagged by the tail of reputation so hard it's in danger of looking like it's shaking with fear.
Sorry reputation is not driving Garland but developing an air tight case that is winnable is. Let’s me honest none of us including Robert has any idea where the DOJ is on all of this and our not knowing is typical in these cases. If you are going to indict Trump and gang you better make sure there is no loopholes or ways he can escape like he has in the past. That takes time and research.
I find it extremely sad and inexplicable that people who claim to be Democrats can argue that BBB would be bad for America. Isn't what makes all of us better, healthier, better educated etc. good for us all?
Rob, thank you as always, for clearly stating your support of the trans community. It breaks my heart to see this vulnerable and valuable group of people vilified and targeted with so much hate.. my non-binary kids, who married last year, are now on their way to Philadelphia where one will work as a Special Ed teacher and the other, my very own, will prepare for physician assistant school while working as a Gender-Affirming Patient Care Coordinator with PP. I'm so proud of them, but also, so worried. I also think of the youngest child of my niece, who is intersex, and also the namesake of my father. They are about two years old, and are loved and cared for at home, but live in TN. What will the future look like for this precious child... ? Thank you for being a devoted ally.
You are welcome, Denise, and thank you for being a supportive mother and good role model for young people trying to find their way in the world. I wish them the best.
I write this morning mostly to provide some context that recounts the origins of Biden’s legislative agenda, all of which has advanced through the Democratically-controlled House, but remains stalled in the Senate.
In late Spring 2020, after Joe Biden had become the Party’s presumptive Presidential nominee, he and Bernie Sanders created 6 policy task forces which, according to Sanders, “had some of the most knowledgeable people in the country coming together” to deal with education, climate change, healthcare, the economy, criminal justice, and immigration reform. Sanders had concluded, that if the compromises they had achieved were implemented, life would improve for “tens and tens of millions” of working people.
Because Senate Republicans refused to allow regular order ( bringing bills to the floor for debate and a vote), Democrats had to cram the President’s entire social and climate legislative agenda into one bill that only could be passed through the procedural maneuver we know as budget reconciliation. Despite certain pieces disallowed by the Senate Parliamentarian into the plan, the legislation (BBB), nonetheless, would have helped to remedy much of the country’s grotesque inequalities of wealth and income, not to mention environmental injustice.
When the reconciliation package, this past January, failed to pass by 2 votes (Manchin & Sinema), Democrats, rightly, understood that, nationwide, the country needed an Educator-in-Chief to educate people about what they’re losing every time the President’s legislative agenda is stalled. Still, despite our disappointment and frustration over leadership’s failure to deliver, I would note, because in late Spring 2020 there had been serious discussions with serious people engaged in an honest effort to arrive at a compromise Sanders had said, if implemented, would have made Biden “the most progressive President since FDR,” the work must continue.
Garland’s appointment as AG was the consolation prize for not getting onto the Supreme Court. I’m almost glad he didn’t as he might have likewise been a disappointment there. Thanks for saying he’s got to go. I haven’t seen any groups calling for that but I’m ready to sign on when they do.
It's a mystery to me what Garland thinks his "impartial" foot-dragging on investigating and prosecuting the former president is going to accomplish. What good is a DOJ that lets a rampant criminal sociopathic former president break laws right and left and get away with almost turning our country into a dictatorship? The former president's party and followers have no respect for Garland's impartial DOJ. And why bother trying to resurrect the reputation of the DOJ, if your plan for resurrecting it allows the very party that recently trashed it, to sweep in and run it again because their party's former criminal behavior was never punished? I know Merrick Garland is an intelligent man and a good lawyer, he cares about America, he loves the DOJ and I find it hard to believe he would be afraid to go after the former president. But I just don't understand his behavior. At this point in time, the idea he is focused on restoring impartiality in the DOJ to the point that he's letting a criminal president off the hook just makes no sense.
Agree: And why bother trying to resurrect the reputation of the DOJ, if your plan for resurrecting it allows the very party that recently trashed it, to sweep in and run it again because their party's former criminal behavior was never punished?
FWIW, I think my view may be in the minority among my readers. But Garland's memo released yesterday on Rachel Maddow was the end for me. Garland clearly values the reputation of the DOJ above the pursuit of justice. Prosecuting a former president for sedition is hard--and always will be. No amount of handwringing and temporizing by Garland will change that. The American people deserve better.
Though I suspect A.G. Garland has concluded that there is sufficient factual predication to indict the entire 1/6 command structure up to and including Trump, the A.G. might be less certain as to whether the arguments invariably will lead to conclusions that can be nailed to the post with confirming evidence. Still, I would submit that the only thing worse than indicting and failing to convict is not to indict. In my view, not indicting sends the message that free and fair elections don’t matter, nor do our founding principals that everyone is accountable and no one is above the law. I need someone from Main Justice to explain how we possibly can defend against a fatal weakening of our civic institutions if their key mechanisms are not upheld.
Every prosecution carries with it the risk of loss. Prosecuting Trump will do so as well. Not all of his crimes are clearly convictable before a jury, but some of them are: Georgia and Ukraine (both on tape) and the fake electors. Follow up with January 6th later.
Robert, When you write, “Follow up with January 6th later,” I believe it incumbent unequivocally to state that if Main Justice hasn’t started holding everybody at the top accountable, at least to the point of being subject to full-blown criminal investigation, then, in my view, we’re really giving up on this democracy.
Knowing some rally attendees were armed and encouraging them to go to the Capitol and “fight” for their country? You don’t consider that to be fomenting insurrection? Letting the violence continue for 2-3 hours before calling off his goons? Not prosecutable? Isn’t there a large enough constellation of factors as brought out brilliantly by the J6 committee?
Yes! Merrick Garland should be fired ASAP. He is beyond disappointing and a total embarrassment for all the reasons you and others have made abundantly clear.
Re: Merrick Garland: The Catholic bishops who shielded pedophile priests from consequences for their actions thought they were protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church. That hasn't worked out so well for the reputation of the Catholic Church.
Maybe it's time we start referring to Joe Manchin as "Lucy." He's yanked the football out of so many negotiations with Democrats that I'm surprised they even bother trying to reason with him anymore.
I would like to contribute a plethora of sound and logical arguments in support of women’s reproductive healthcare, respect for the rights of our LGBTQ population, young children, those burdened with crushing student debt, addressing the existential threats of climate change, and expanding economic equality and opportunity. I have a long list of points in support of all of those. However, when I stop to consider the most important and impactful to statements to open that discussion I always return to the simple fact that kindness is better than cruelty or indifference. Whenever one is asked about their position on any issue, I feel the simplest way to decide what they should support is to examine their values and choose the path of kindness. It works for every issue. Those who choose cruelty or indifference are simply on the wrong side of every issue. Those who choose kindness are on the right side. It really needs no more complexity than choosing kindness every time on every issue. If one is torn between which political party, candidate, or none to support, choose kindness. It works everytime. Think about it.
Bruce, I deeply appreciated your comment and simply would add, that while we know more or less what cruelty is, it’s indifference to suffering and our acceptance of it that is most disconcerting. If, for example, one subscribes to the idea that the opposite of morality is not immorality, but indifference, then, in my view, it’s time to pull the alarm and say, if we ignore suffering, we become accomplices.
I concur that indifference is what enables cruelty. Those who can stand idly by evil and cruelty are as responsible as those who bring darkness to the world.
Thank you for speaking out to tell the President to exercise his power and take control of the Justice Department before it is too late. This isn't political: this is taking responsibility for our democracy.
Is the Federalist Society today's Kraken? Have their sponsored appointees to the Supreme Court and many lower Courts tilted the table in favor of authoritarianism? The GOP has shifted right in concert. Deliberately: follow the money. I hope Liz Cheney wins robustly in Wyoming. She may be hard right, but she doesn't feel corrupted like so many others.
"Fire Merrick Garland now. His slow (or non-existent) response to a constitutional crisis is a grave dereliction of duty."
That's the best reflection yet through the "lens of hope," Mr. Hubbell. Bad faith and dishonorable behavior seem to be the order of the day for the denizens of the Swamp, executed with a sinister vengeance by Manchin, Sinema, Ted Cruz, Clarence Thomas, the entire GOP of Donald Trump, and even Merrick Garland, bad actors all cynically assisted by the nation's major media companies whose mission appears to be focused on misleading the American people and reinforcing corporate control. Hey, nothing new here; the crony capitalist values of disingenuousness and grift replaced equality, the rule of law and consent of governed as the guiding principles of American politics decades ago. Now Biden has an Abraham Lincoln moment, an opportunity to fire Garland and begin the process of bringing the ethos of representative governance back into alignment with the vision of democracy as established by the founders.
Biden should have appointed Sally Yates as Attorney General in the first place, not Merrick Garland. It's not too late. There's plenty of time for indictments after this fall's election and before September 2024, for a Justice Department that is organized to pursue justice.
It is indeed time to fire Garland and his chief deputy!!! Hopefully it is not too late But will this happen. People seem to forget what they are supposed to be doing which is protecting the people, the constitution and Democracy. This must be done now!!! How do we do it? Saundra
Thank you Robert for your outstanding and thoughtful remarks.I am enjoying reading them from Calpe, Spain, Costa Blanco, a seaside town in the south of Spain. Guess what? The temperatures are actually fine-- we expect great heat. Today I biked for two hours, 7:30- 9:30 in the shade and up and down mountains and was very comfortable. The temps were in the low 80s with very little humidity!
So come to Southern Spain for a respite from the heat!
The reputation of which DOJ is Merrick Garland safeguarding? The DOJ of John Mitchell, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, or John Ashcroft? As Attorneys General, these men themselves undercut/violated the rule of law. Garland could have protected and enhanced his DOJ's reputation by vigorously investigating and prosecuting the traitorous actions of the coup-plotters, not just their gullible followers. As Robert has been saying, Garland is the wrong man for the job.
Sorry I think you are underestimating what Garland is doing for a quick legal fix. I think he is moving slowly and deliberately and gathering all the evidence and using the J6th hearings to create with the voting public a groundswell of support as well as letting them obtain and make public the story and scenario of what happened. Think about this. We know the story today about the build up to January 6th and we are beginning to see who was involved at all levels. When he is ready to indict the voting public will say “ it’s about time”
Stephen, I understand that many readers share your views, but there are times when justice delayed is justice denied. This is one of them. Trump has figured that out, which is why he will announce his campaign before the midterms--long before Garland has indicted Trump for anything.
And it is not the DOJ's standard procedure to allow Congress to the DOJ's job of investigating crimes.
I have a 'yes, but'. Marx wrote that things stay underground for long times before sprouting (in other language of course) and nature, observed as Indigenous Science dictates, and also early childhood observer Winnicott studied with mothers, patience is not a Western Science thing. Experiments are 'impatient' according to Indigenous Elders. Perhaps that 'sprout' with become a plant before the due date. Maybe.
There is and overabundance of low hanging fruit ( the fake electors,, Eastman, Giuliani, Powell and a host of others in the dwindling days of tRumps admin.). Indictments and prosecution of these enablers is not only possible now but would send a clear message and put the fear God into team coup. The threat to our democracy is real and those not up to the difficult work of defending it should step aside.
Agree! Indict on Georgia and extorting Ukraine (both on tape) then come back to January 6th.
While moving slowly, Garland is in grave danger—-and placing the nation in grave danger—of missing the decisive moment. Democracy itself is under attack in this country right now. While T___p is a buffoon (as well as a poltroon), he is only part of the anti-Democratic movement. However, the best way to quell those who week to overthrow our democracy is to indict T___p now, and to be him to trial as soon as it can be done. A competent prosecutor could return an indictment by August 1st. Certainly before Labor Day. Perhaps a later superseding indictment with more charges will be needed, but the battle would be joined. And that needs to happen.
Democracy was under attack on January 6th and today it’s under attack by Republican state governments and legislators. The current attack can only be eliminated by a vote. Convicting the J6th perpetrators gives us Justice but we need to a majority to change anything and make democracy safer.
I agree with your view Stephen. We already had two impeachments that didn't work. I watched Rachel Maddow last night and found myself questioning why she interpreted these memoranda from Garland the way she did. Honestly, it's like she has agreed to buy into rabble rousing herself along with too many others in the media. "Let's make it sound worse than it is. It'll keep people talking and tuning in for more." Trump can declare more than two years before the election, but that won't really make a legal difference. And, as much as Barr deliberately mismanaged the Mueller Report (something I still hope he can be held accountable for), he made that new rule in February 2020 after Trump's first impeachment acquittal. I think he saw Trump as truly getting out of control and unless Barr asserted himself, everyone who challenged Trump would come under investigation. It did keep Trump from actively opening a Joe and Hunter Biden DOJ case, for example. I did a quick look-up to see how others interpreted it. Here is just one. Rachel got all sorts of attention, but I think she got this one wrong. If we look back at the history of how long it tends to take to de-throne the nasties in courts of law, you can see this isn't going as slowly as it appears. And, I happen to think that Garland will (and has) approved opening cases and grand juries for the attempted overthrow of our government by Trump. That's not exactly a hand's off topic! And, eventually, Congress will codify the right to indict a sitting president if he or she does the things Trump has done. No safety in holding office when you're a treasonous traitor. The reason for continuing the Barr memo is to make sure "retribution" doesn't happen. There has to be clear good cause. In this case, there is. There are still 27 months until the next presidential election and the cases are stacking up and on their ways. That's my opinion.
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/19/secret-garland-memo-to-doj-originated-with-bill-barr_partner/
Garland has the authority to tell the American public whether he is investigation an attempted coup. (It's in the manual.) He has not done so. Instead, he is sending memos to his staff reiterating a Bill Barr rule designed to ensure that the DOJ did not indict Trump. Rachel's interpretation of the memo is correct. The memo is all about protecting the DOJ's reputation first and foremost, and pursuing justice second. That is backward.
I hear you. And I have a tendency to lean toward hopeful. At the same time, I wonder if there isn't a secret handbook or guide to how to finally snag a mafia boss. Keep him guessing. Oh, and the first thing I thought of with the late Mrs. Trump's "fall" down the stairs is one of her children did at the behest of their father. Obviously I don't have a clue if that is true, but perhaps he got wind of her sharing info in the future and wanted to be sure she didn't. Or, even more perverse, it was a way to delay his and her three eldest children from going into court this week. My point is, if Garland makes it clear where they are in these investigations, Trump has more time to get in the way of witnesses and memos and tapes and cell records. Anyway, that's what i'm thinking and I hope I'm right. Firing the two top people at this point could only slow things down further, if indeed they are going too slowly.
Ah, the coffee at the foot of the stairs question... but that line goes back to a mafia technique of offing someone near and dear to you to warn you of consequences, and requires there be some nefarious player apart from those about to testify; perhaps some Russian or at closest someone sent by Trump. Anyway to set the departed first Mrs. Trump aside, if Garland were working behind the scenes I believe something would have leaked. There just is no air-tight (sound tight?) group action of any size possible in today's era of technology, delegation, necessary paperwork and information requests, money for titillating information and so forth. Then he issues an open invitation to declare candidacy, and I cannot see any trap (for Trump at least) in that... I totally do agree that Trump received his business training working with the mob and it shows in his tactics, techniques and language.
Why did DOJ have to get transcripts and such from the January 6 committee, apparently from some witnesses DOJ hadn't known about or interviewed? I'd have thought DOJ would be leading an investigation, not needing guidance from the House committee.
I hope you are right. I fear you are wrong.
I hope you are right. But I'll believe it when garland takes action
I hope you are right. I pray you are right. I've vacillated on Garland.
Me too. People are focused on locking up Trump but the real value will be changes to the electoral vote counting process and making it impossible to do what Trump thought he could do. If the outcome is he can’t run again and voters are disgusted with Trump and his enablers and vote their disgust and the D’s win the Senate and the House it’s a major win.
I've always found it remarkable how Republicans always find the right person to do their dirty work, Democrats, not so much.
I put this on Biden and the Democratic leadership who are still plowing political hay fields like we were living in the 1900s. It has been flippin obvious what the Republicans have been up to for the last 30 years and Democrats still can't figure out an effective counterpunch to stop them.
Bidens plunging numbers may have a lot to do with not getting BBB done but I think the better explanation is the Democrats feeble prosecution of Trump's and the Republican Party's extraordinary and unprecedented attack on democracy in favor of establishing some semblance of a plutocracy or kleptocracy. Republicans may not have the majority of the electorate but they have a virtual blank check in money. Never forget - follow the money because the power in Washington is increasingly held by the insanely wealthy robber barons.
One last point, Trump has had his sights on politics because he realized that it is the fastest, easiest and most lucrative grift for a committed grifter. Think of all the ways and how much time politicians dedicate to fundraising. Huckster P.T. Barnum might be most politician's inspiration. "No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public." I doubt there's a politician in this country that doesn't grasp that concept. That doesn't mean every politician goes into politics to grift. No politician is perfect, but I'll take a Congress full of "Bernie Sanders-type" politicians any day. I'll close with another P.T. Barnum quote - "The common man, no matter how sharp and tough, actually enjoys having the wool pulled over his eyes, and makes it easier for the puller."
Good point! "the better explanation is the Democrats feeble prosecution of Trump's"
I agree! Consider the lack of societal/legal/political consequences for Comey and Mueller. Comey virtually elected Trump by ignoring his proven connections to Russia and headlining Hillary Clinton's "missing" emails. Mueller wrote a scholarly report of hard-to-decipher legalese and then naively trusted Barr to summarize it accurately; Barr virtually exonerated Trump. Biden and the Dems seem to be living in an imagined genteel, courtesy always, political world. Biden's fist-bump with MBS is an appalling example.
I agree 100% with so much of this but disagree 100% with some of it. I agree on Comey and his presentation of himself as an injured near-hero after he began to make his bucks touring the country acting as if he had no culpability for putting Trump in office was a complete lie. I disagree on Mueller in that I ordered and read his report and it was actually quite readable if you read it instead of excerpts provided by others. It sounded to me like it was carefully phrased to make it clear at the very end that he had stopped short of stating (nay, of Finding) things that could prevent others from finding them after Trump was no longer a sitting president, and he was leaving a trail of crumbs... with bright red icing. I was and am frustrated that no one has followed up on it since and actually that Mueller himself has not stepped forward to finish or push the idea of finishing the job. Barr straight up lied when he said it exonerated Trump. "Biden and the Dems seem to be living in an imagined genteel, courtesy always, political world" - absolutely 100% true, well put, bravo! As to the fist bump - I feel it is misinterpreted. Despite the unfortunate "bro" feel in our culture for a fist bump, it is actually the pandemic necessitated less germ-y alternative to the more formal shake. I suspect Something was required as a physical acknowledgement of greeting. I'm just glad they didn't butt bump...
Agree about the grift. Only in the current trump environment can people like Boebert and Greene advance to the level they have enjoying the enormous financial perks that come with their elected positions.
Yes, real reputation is a product of actions, not a product of verbal fabrication and the avoidance of action. His judicial watch dog is being wagged by the tail of reputation so hard it's in danger of looking like it's shaking with fear.
Sorry reputation is not driving Garland but developing an air tight case that is winnable is. Let’s me honest none of us including Robert has any idea where the DOJ is on all of this and our not knowing is typical in these cases. If you are going to indict Trump and gang you better make sure there is no loopholes or ways he can escape like he has in the past. That takes time and research.
I would like that to be so. Someday we will know.
I find it extremely sad and inexplicable that people who claim to be Democrats can argue that BBB would be bad for America. Isn't what makes all of us better, healthier, better educated etc. good for us all?
Rob, thank you as always, for clearly stating your support of the trans community. It breaks my heart to see this vulnerable and valuable group of people vilified and targeted with so much hate.. my non-binary kids, who married last year, are now on their way to Philadelphia where one will work as a Special Ed teacher and the other, my very own, will prepare for physician assistant school while working as a Gender-Affirming Patient Care Coordinator with PP. I'm so proud of them, but also, so worried. I also think of the youngest child of my niece, who is intersex, and also the namesake of my father. They are about two years old, and are loved and cared for at home, but live in TN. What will the future look like for this precious child... ? Thank you for being a devoted ally.
You are welcome, Denise, and thank you for being a supportive mother and good role model for young people trying to find their way in the world. I wish them the best.
I write this morning mostly to provide some context that recounts the origins of Biden’s legislative agenda, all of which has advanced through the Democratically-controlled House, but remains stalled in the Senate.
In late Spring 2020, after Joe Biden had become the Party’s presumptive Presidential nominee, he and Bernie Sanders created 6 policy task forces which, according to Sanders, “had some of the most knowledgeable people in the country coming together” to deal with education, climate change, healthcare, the economy, criminal justice, and immigration reform. Sanders had concluded, that if the compromises they had achieved were implemented, life would improve for “tens and tens of millions” of working people.
Because Senate Republicans refused to allow regular order ( bringing bills to the floor for debate and a vote), Democrats had to cram the President’s entire social and climate legislative agenda into one bill that only could be passed through the procedural maneuver we know as budget reconciliation. Despite certain pieces disallowed by the Senate Parliamentarian into the plan, the legislation (BBB), nonetheless, would have helped to remedy much of the country’s grotesque inequalities of wealth and income, not to mention environmental injustice.
When the reconciliation package, this past January, failed to pass by 2 votes (Manchin & Sinema), Democrats, rightly, understood that, nationwide, the country needed an Educator-in-Chief to educate people about what they’re losing every time the President’s legislative agenda is stalled. Still, despite our disappointment and frustration over leadership’s failure to deliver, I would note, because in late Spring 2020 there had been serious discussions with serious people engaged in an honest effort to arrive at a compromise Sanders had said, if implemented, would have made Biden “the most progressive President since FDR,” the work must continue.
Garland’s appointment as AG was the consolation prize for not getting onto the Supreme Court. I’m almost glad he didn’t as he might have likewise been a disappointment there. Thanks for saying he’s got to go. I haven’t seen any groups calling for that but I’m ready to sign on when they do.
It's a mystery to me what Garland thinks his "impartial" foot-dragging on investigating and prosecuting the former president is going to accomplish. What good is a DOJ that lets a rampant criminal sociopathic former president break laws right and left and get away with almost turning our country into a dictatorship? The former president's party and followers have no respect for Garland's impartial DOJ. And why bother trying to resurrect the reputation of the DOJ, if your plan for resurrecting it allows the very party that recently trashed it, to sweep in and run it again because their party's former criminal behavior was never punished? I know Merrick Garland is an intelligent man and a good lawyer, he cares about America, he loves the DOJ and I find it hard to believe he would be afraid to go after the former president. But I just don't understand his behavior. At this point in time, the idea he is focused on restoring impartiality in the DOJ to the point that he's letting a criminal president off the hook just makes no sense.
Agree: And why bother trying to resurrect the reputation of the DOJ, if your plan for resurrecting it allows the very party that recently trashed it, to sweep in and run it again because their party's former criminal behavior was never punished?
FWIW, I think my view may be in the minority among my readers. But Garland's memo released yesterday on Rachel Maddow was the end for me. Garland clearly values the reputation of the DOJ above the pursuit of justice. Prosecuting a former president for sedition is hard--and always will be. No amount of handwringing and temporizing by Garland will change that. The American people deserve better.
Though I suspect A.G. Garland has concluded that there is sufficient factual predication to indict the entire 1/6 command structure up to and including Trump, the A.G. might be less certain as to whether the arguments invariably will lead to conclusions that can be nailed to the post with confirming evidence. Still, I would submit that the only thing worse than indicting and failing to convict is not to indict. In my view, not indicting sends the message that free and fair elections don’t matter, nor do our founding principals that everyone is accountable and no one is above the law. I need someone from Main Justice to explain how we possibly can defend against a fatal weakening of our civic institutions if their key mechanisms are not upheld.
Every prosecution carries with it the risk of loss. Prosecuting Trump will do so as well. Not all of his crimes are clearly convictable before a jury, but some of them are: Georgia and Ukraine (both on tape) and the fake electors. Follow up with January 6th later.
Robert, When you write, “Follow up with January 6th later,” I believe it incumbent unequivocally to state that if Main Justice hasn’t started holding everybody at the top accountable, at least to the point of being subject to full-blown criminal investigation, then, in my view, we’re really giving up on this democracy.
Knowing some rally attendees were armed and encouraging them to go to the Capitol and “fight” for their country? You don’t consider that to be fomenting insurrection? Letting the violence continue for 2-3 hours before calling off his goons? Not prosecutable? Isn’t there a large enough constellation of factors as brought out brilliantly by the J6 committee?
Yes! Merrick Garland should be fired ASAP. He is beyond disappointing and a total embarrassment for all the reasons you and others have made abundantly clear.
Re: Merrick Garland: The Catholic bishops who shielded pedophile priests from consequences for their actions thought they were protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church. That hasn't worked out so well for the reputation of the Catholic Church.
Right. and it denied justice to the victims and ensured that there would be more victims in the future. A good analogy.
Maybe it's time we start referring to Joe Manchin as "Lucy." He's yanked the football out of so many negotiations with Democrats that I'm surprised they even bother trying to reason with him anymore.
I would like to contribute a plethora of sound and logical arguments in support of women’s reproductive healthcare, respect for the rights of our LGBTQ population, young children, those burdened with crushing student debt, addressing the existential threats of climate change, and expanding economic equality and opportunity. I have a long list of points in support of all of those. However, when I stop to consider the most important and impactful to statements to open that discussion I always return to the simple fact that kindness is better than cruelty or indifference. Whenever one is asked about their position on any issue, I feel the simplest way to decide what they should support is to examine their values and choose the path of kindness. It works for every issue. Those who choose cruelty or indifference are simply on the wrong side of every issue. Those who choose kindness are on the right side. It really needs no more complexity than choosing kindness every time on every issue. If one is torn between which political party, candidate, or none to support, choose kindness. It works everytime. Think about it.
Well said: kindness is better than cruelty or indifference.
Bruce, I deeply appreciated your comment and simply would add, that while we know more or less what cruelty is, it’s indifference to suffering and our acceptance of it that is most disconcerting. If, for example, one subscribes to the idea that the opposite of morality is not immorality, but indifference, then, in my view, it’s time to pull the alarm and say, if we ignore suffering, we become accomplices.
I concur that indifference is what enables cruelty. Those who can stand idly by evil and cruelty are as responsible as those who bring darkness to the world.
Thank you for speaking out to tell the President to exercise his power and take control of the Justice Department before it is too late. This isn't political: this is taking responsibility for our democracy.
Is the Federalist Society today's Kraken? Have their sponsored appointees to the Supreme Court and many lower Courts tilted the table in favor of authoritarianism? The GOP has shifted right in concert. Deliberately: follow the money. I hope Liz Cheney wins robustly in Wyoming. She may be hard right, but she doesn't feel corrupted like so many others.
"Fire Merrick Garland now. His slow (or non-existent) response to a constitutional crisis is a grave dereliction of duty."
That's the best reflection yet through the "lens of hope," Mr. Hubbell. Bad faith and dishonorable behavior seem to be the order of the day for the denizens of the Swamp, executed with a sinister vengeance by Manchin, Sinema, Ted Cruz, Clarence Thomas, the entire GOP of Donald Trump, and even Merrick Garland, bad actors all cynically assisted by the nation's major media companies whose mission appears to be focused on misleading the American people and reinforcing corporate control. Hey, nothing new here; the crony capitalist values of disingenuousness and grift replaced equality, the rule of law and consent of governed as the guiding principles of American politics decades ago. Now Biden has an Abraham Lincoln moment, an opportunity to fire Garland and begin the process of bringing the ethos of representative governance back into alignment with the vision of democracy as established by the founders.
Like: "Abraham Lincoln moment"
Biden should have appointed Sally Yates as Attorney General in the first place, not Merrick Garland. It's not too late. There's plenty of time for indictments after this fall's election and before September 2024, for a Justice Department that is organized to pursue justice.
It is indeed time to fire Garland and his chief deputy!!! Hopefully it is not too late But will this happen. People seem to forget what they are supposed to be doing which is protecting the people, the constitution and Democracy. This must be done now!!! How do we do it? Saundra
Thank you Robert for your outstanding and thoughtful remarks.I am enjoying reading them from Calpe, Spain, Costa Blanco, a seaside town in the south of Spain. Guess what? The temperatures are actually fine-- we expect great heat. Today I biked for two hours, 7:30- 9:30 in the shade and up and down mountains and was very comfortable. The temps were in the low 80s with very little humidity!
So come to Southern Spain for a respite from the heat!
Glad to hear you are escaping the heat wave. Stay safe!