and not delay it as he did.

Garland is part guilty of USA's current situation, and that cannot be forgotten, cannot be forgiven, the damage is too much. Had he done his job as he was supposed to, trump would NOT be president today, and the thugs that cater to all his whims would have be warned, and maybe some of them would be gone by now.

Sorry but, I don't subscribe to that message.

Yes, Bondi is worst, we knew that, but that is not exculpatory to Garland, at all, many here fought for Garland thinking he would do the right thing, many believed in him, he fooled a lot of people, that is a disgrace.

that they were ahead of DOJ on the investigations when the DOJ had more resources. Things took off visibly, with great speed as soon as Jack Smith was appointed. Garland prioritized a bottom up rather than a top down approach to Jan.6. He was cautious where Jack Smith was not, where I believe Doug Jones would not have been.

Of course Republicans were the main people slowing things down.
Yes, Garland gets credit for appointing Jack Smith.

I did not become frustrated in hindsight. I was frustrated in real time but kept hoping Garland was doing brilliant stuff behind the scenes that I would learn about eventually. Let's not call people hater's for their honest critique of the job he did. I just don't think he was the best guy for the job when democracy was at stake.. With a normal SCOTUS it wouldn't have mattered. But this is the cast we were dealing with.

But in hindsight it's easier to still NOT give an "honest critique" based on stubborn denial of the facts of his work; because even in hindsight-blindsight to it's still easier to blame only Garland for our situation today than to blame the courts or Republicans.
Plenty of other DU'ers have done their best to explain the facts to folks and if they don't want to admit their ignorance, that's on them. So yes, I'm in the "let's call people haters" camp.

There were many pieces to this. Obviously the Republicans are the villains here, and SCOTUS.
Garland was not a villain. He just didn't do a good enough job.

Happy to second guess Biden, which I have done since the day Garland was appointed:
Doug Jones was on Biden's short list, maybe his second choice. Maybe his first choice, but he would have been more controversial than Garland. i think (just my guess) that Biden, like Obama, was holding out a peace branch to Republicans who had claimed to respect Garland. In Obama's case, he hoped to get a vote on a Supreme Court justice. Biden was trying to work across the aisle as he had much of his career.
But times had changed and we needed the guy who bankrupted the Klan. Republicans would have been apoplectic, but its not as if they gave either president credit for their effort at compromise.

There's more to running the biggest law firm on the planet than the successful bankrupter of the Klan.
Neither Biden nor his AG had a single thing to do with the speed of these federal cases against Trump.
On another show (I saw on MSNBC but can't find on YouTube) both Andrew Weissman and Lisa Rubin said that, given the current federal judicial structure and "due process" pace, no AG or Special Counsel could have won either of the two Special Counsel cases and gotten a fast sentencing schedule before the Nov election of 2024.

which was too late.

As I said, with a normal SCOTUS the Garland cautious approach may have still succeeded.

insurrection himself upon first takng office instead of foot draggng for tow years to appoint Jack Smith as special counsel. If so, trump could've been tried and convicted of the attempted coup he exhorted all magats around the nation to come to DC and attend. "It'll be wild'' trump himself said.

We all saw it on TV. We all saw trump watch it on TV for three and a half hours hoping it would succeed, even while many in his admn and family were urging him to stop the attack on the Capitol Building.

So stop the bullshit. It was derelection of his duty and the his oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the nation...OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

Stop the bullshit in defendng Merrick the Meek who let trump run out the clock without being charged for his attempted coup...and now here we are with a felon, sex predator and insurrectionist as president...AGAIN.

We can deal with those other guys too. Walk and chew gum.

Where would trump be right now? In prison? Do you REALLY believe that, after all the illegal unethical bullshit he and his cult have gotten away with over the decades?

Show the timeline for the grand jury selection, the indictment, the trial jury selection, the trial, the conviction, the sentencing and the incarceration. Include every defense delay tactic and add a few dozen more.

But what if the grand jury had decided NOT to indict him?

Just pretending he would have gone to trial before the election, what if he had been acquitted?

You and others are just so sure of what would have happened, but what if it didn't happen the way you imagine it? There are literally dozens of scenarios that wouldn't have involved Merrick Garland, who some people apparently have bestowed magical ultimate power.

This shouldn't have been so complicated. We have tapes and videos.

Garland's slothfulness has led us into full fascism, no getting around it. Others may try to excuse his dismal failure. I won't!

He alone led us into full fascism by being 'slothful'?

And, why is Mitch McConnell being let off the hook here, too? Had he not squashed either impeachment in the Senate, this would all be moot. And, chances are, that demented motherfucker would be in prison by now.

Rec

Above the law, above prosecution for ‘official acts’ like insurrection.

As you know, expanding the court requires a bill passed by Congress.

They derailed a lot of things the Biden administration wanted to do, including voting rights legislation, which was and is still sorely needed. Texas would be a purple state if not outright blue if that law had passed.

not encouragning his people to vote guilty when he had the chance.
Did he really think the criminal justice system would take care of Trump, and McConnell didn't want the blame?
It's not as if they liked each other.

Dammit! This government stuff is getting confusing.

...somebody scratch her eyes out? for lying?

https://russblib.blogspot.com

blame to go around. So many could have done so much from both sides. Yet here we are. Then there is the American media. I curse them all .

They are spineless, and just looking out for themselves.

and basically pushing dump into office in 2024.

We do rely on them for news and they need to do better.

Blame it on the rain...

done better by bending the knee. Their allegiance is not to us, but to their corporations.

Democrats in 2021 had confidence that the political center would emerge and rule of law would hold. Their response to GOP claims that J6 was "touristy" was tepid. Law was the responsibility of DOJ. Politics was the bastion of politicians.

Worse than Watergate? Yes. Congress is gone, courts are neutered by SCOTUS, Epstein is the only emerging boundary.

I need re-read Ludlum's "The Apocalypse Watch".

and the movie.

and Bondi is presently the felon's AG covering up and being loyal to him at all costs.

Way worse than Watergate.

the best AG any Democratic President could have hoped for. I bet that President Biden thanks his lucky stars every night that he chose Merrick, especially because of the Hur report.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH HAHAHHAHAHAHFHRJSJCJKEKDKXM LMAOA AHAHHAHA

who held up all prosecutions of the orange shit with their insane immunity ruling.

Jack Smith was doing a good job with his prosecutions. Garland tried to placate the GOP by taking a very measured and proper approach and clearly that did not pay off.

I'd laugh, but it's too freaking sad.

Doesn't sound legal or proper to me.

Rec

But the saving grace is there is already so much out there that any lies could put them in a bramble patch about 10 miles wide and 20 feet high.

Their other big problem with a lie to cover him is that there is a ton of court admitted evidence from her trial that’s been released and is online. I’ve spent hours and hours looking at it. I mean, think about it: she committed the crimes with him. She was right in there as a threesome, having sex with these kids. That’s why she’s in the slammer for 20 years.

In essence, it’s a duplicate trial.

this is the mafia looking at Watergate and saying, "no don't just hold my beer, here are the keys to my Caddy and my lake house".

For the many years of Epstein/Maxwell/Chump ... it was the crimes... all the crimes ... that by coincidence just happened to involve a President.

I can bet you Nixon told them to do that.

But we will never know because of the mysterious disappearance of 16 minutes of tape

Truly, these current thugs surpassed Watergate in the first term, perhaps even prior to the first term. I also hate the use of the term "unprecedented " because almost everything these crooks do has been unprecedented from the beginning of both his terms. It's been used so much, it's lost any impact, any meaning that describes the extreme lawlessness we are experiencing under this regime. We need more descriptive words...maybe egregious or radically criminal, or unspeakably evil, etc.

...more urgency as was warranted by what we had just seen in Turnip 1.0 and J6 then there would never have been an AG Bondi in the first place to do things worse than Watergate.

Yes, she is awful. What they are doing is awful. McConnell is also to blame as are all Republicans that didn't back impeachment and disqualification. That is all true. But when our side had the moment to act we were timid.

It never should have gotten this far.

it should be a reminder to make sure it doesn't happen again, that a weak person, or a corrupt person will not take the AG post because the consequences are dire.

Someone said above that had Garland done his job there would not be any Bondi either, he/she is right, and everyone needs to think about that because there would be no "president trump" either.

Garland had dozens and dozens of opportunities to enforce the rule of law and he very timidly declined. We would not be in this mess today had he. Bondi would probably be in jail as well.

sycophant, corrupt, and being bad at her job.

Garland could have been good at his job, he simply chose not to do it when it might impact or anger his friends at various right wing organizations.

She won’t mess around

AOC got her degree from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in international relations and economics.
AOC is neither a lawyer, nor has any judicial experience. So no, she can't do the job.

to search numerous properties of President Biden looking for classified documents.

It took Garland 11 months to search Mar-a-Lago for classified documents.

Pepper them

If Garland had did his job she would have nowhere near the power she has now.

...rec'd!

... doesn;t change the fact that Garland's foot-dragging cost us so very much.

it's not a fact that Garland was guilty of "foot-dragging." What cost us is Republicans, federal judges' who allowed "due process" delays over the Constitution's "speedy trial" clause, and especially, the MAGA SCOTUS' delays.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20508887

I don’t think so.


Something about western complicity.


That is all.

🙄

and complicity comes from all sides and not just in the US or the West.
Right now focus on this pedo posse of perpetual projection. He lied, she lied and the Speaker lied.

If folks want to be among those who flog Merrick Garland over Trump and then defend such floggings,
-- while not seeing over time the hundreds of billions in business and black market corruption that the Garland DOJ clawed back through its civil/criminal, and domestic/international prosecutions, or
-- while not seeing that the due process delays the Jack Smith team endured from the appellate and especially SCOTUS judiciary, or
-- while refusing to see that 90% of the FL documents case is exactly what Garland himself handed over to Smith upon his appointment 3 days after Trump announced he'd run again for prez,
then I stand by my criticisms of anti-Garland DU'ers.

History will see Garland in a much fairer perspective than his detractors here.

Once folks do see what the current weaponized DOJ does to ignore the kleptocracy of the WH, and when it sees the unjust peace we suffer under Trump …
If they still refuse to long for the factual scope and magnitude of justice the Garland DOJ gave this country, -- especially given the factual hindsight provided by many who know how much Garland actually did -- they will continue to be wrong.

He can be as mousy as he wants now with no criticism.

negate garland's failure and chicken shittyness.

and I thought what fresh hell is this? So glad I was wrong about that, at least. But seriously, the way I look at it we don't have an AG. She has the power, but none of the independence and that is very dangerous.

People should be aware that people trying to distract are often not our friends. I do understand why some good people resent that things did not unfold differently. But here we are, Now, and should stick with that reality.

If Garland would pipe in, perhaps in about two months from now, that he has the original Epstein client list with actual Epstein handwritten comments on the margins.

It may be a hard fight until more and more dominoes fall, if things are anywhere close to what they could be.

To be clear, I am not condoning shop lifting. Just in case that needs saying.

Because Garland did not do us much good.

Bondi is worse, granted, a demonic presence, but Garland...well he's a limp noodle, pretty much.

Move on. Pam Braun is pure evil.

absolutely right that Garland is now completely irrelevant to the situation at hand. Does he deserve much of the blame for this state of affairs? Absolutely he does, as does the court system for allowing Trump to even run after committing a fucking insurrection, in blatant violation of the law. But while history can and should condemn him for his actions (or rather, inaction), there is no longer any sense in constantly revisiting that subject when we're being faced with such immediate and dire circumstances every single fucking day. Thanks to Palantir, we are about to turn into a full-on surveillance state while at the same time criminalizing the poor. Fact-based health and science have now been all but eradicated. The list goes on and on and on.

My sole concern every day now is whether or not this country can endure for so much as another year, because it's going to take far too long to recover from all this, and I know I personally would much rather contribute to a society that actually still gives a flying shit about its people and their quality of life rather than trying to kill off as many as possible to pinch pennies. Tarring and feathering Garland--however much he deserves it (and he certainly does deserve it)--isn't going to change that.

THEY BOTH SUCK

Regarding Garland:

We wouldn’t have Bondi or Trump if Garland would have done his job.

I think Garland might have made a good Supreme Court Justice. He exhibited a calm methodical approach to reach decisions. And for most AG's that still would be a good way to process the job in addition to respecting the Nation's laws, DOJ longstanding policies and going out of his way to be nonpartisan.

In simple terms, he brought a dull knife to a gunfight. He absolutely strategized the right way by working from the bottom up with sights on taking down bigger fish with evidence of conspiracies.

Unfortunately, he was slow to recognize a need for a more expedient and dramatic strategy. I'm guessing he was expecting more cooperation from the former President. For example, asking for files back that nobody in their right mind would feel entitled to keep as their right. And then when that individual didn't cooperate, act expeditiously to rectify that situation without regard to their former position.

In other words we needed a bull dog with attitude, like Jack Smith. A day late and a dollar short.

The current Felon in the Whitehouse had 2 main strategies. 1) run out the clock, delay,delay,delay. 2) win back the Whitehouse. He won on both of those strategies.

Garland is the guy we can focus our blame on but frankly there is a lot of blame to go around. Our legislative body has failed us with inept laws that are purposely ambiguous or without teeth in regards to punishment or clarity which is open to the courts interpretation allowing a con man to manipulate our laws and courts to his advantage. That's our fault not his. He's learned to work our system. It doesn't make him any less of a scumbag but our side for the most part wants to fight using rules and he uses dirty fighting lawyers that are willing to get disbarred for him.

Bottom line, wrong AG for this job and time. Nothing to do but move on and pick better people for the time period to make the laws and enforce them. Let's go 2026.

But of course it should not be considered as shocking, though of course it is indeed, shocking nonetheless. The details may not have been predicted, but it was all very, very much predictable way, way before now, early on during Garlands tenure. He was in a position to cut off the legs of that psychopathic monsters champagne and fascist agenda but dragged his heels and slow walked the fight over the cliff into the abyss, cuzz why.?
I effing don't know. Was garland being threatened? Maybe, but we are not likly to ever know why he wasn't inclined to protect our democracy using the tools at his disposal

But we have become so brainwashed, so inured of anything criminal these people do, that only the worst sex scandals can get thru our animal brains.

Damn it! I'm tickled pink to see this happen to him now. I hope it buries him in 6 feet of earth. BUT what does it say about this country that we DIDN'T get this way they started an insurrection and coup on our government? SMDH